"Grocery shopping already?" Dr. Briefs scratched his head at the list. "How are we out of prime rib? I made sure to get some two days ago!"

"I don't know, honey." Panchy's brow furrowed a bit, but then she smiled and clapped her hands, turning to where the prince was sitting on the couch with his daughter. "This would be a good opportunity for Vegeta to get out of the house, wouldn't it?"

He looked over, his usual vaguely-annoyed self. "For something like food shopping?"

"You spend so much time in the gravity chamber I worry that Bulma doesn't have enough time in a day to fix it," Panchy fretted with a puppy-dog frown.

"She has help now. That Saiyan woman." Bulla's babbling made him redirect his attention to her as she grabbed for his jaw. "If she can fix a pod she can fix the gravity room."

"Oh, I suppose you're right," the woman sighed daintily.

As she went back to watering the houseplant, Dr. Briefs adjusted his glasses and pocketed the list. "I'll send someone out later. Good grief, even the wagyu… and my protein bars?!"

Panchy hummed in thought, glancing back at Vegeta for a moment. When he looked over, she smiled, turning to walk with her husband as he made his way to the kitchen.


"Wow, miss Kress! You're really strong!" Trunks and Goten marveled at the woman as she carried the pod out of the lab.

"Comes with practice, kiddo," she grunted, adjusting her grip. "How are we lookin'?"

"Hall's clear!" Trunks answered.

It was on this scene that Vegeta walked in on, waiting in the doorway with his arms folded and a giggling Bulla clinging to his neck.

"Dad!" Trunks's eyes lit up and he ran to the man, pointing to the pod. "Isn't Miss Kress cool?"

"Hmph. I'd have been disappointed if she couldn't lift that thing. Every Saiyan warrior is trained to lift several times their own body weight by the time they leave the planet. Even low-class younglings."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, your highness," she deadpanned, voice dripping with sarcasm. "And for your information, I can carry at least fifty tons. This is nothing."

"Where are you going with that, anyways? You can't be heading out now." The man followed behind, his son almost scrambling to keep up at his side.

"Not leaving, just relocating," she corrected, waiting for the outer door to open so she could exit.

"Why'd you wanna do that?" Goten inquired, big dark eyes blinking up at her curiously. "Are you gonna take a test flight?"

Kress paused, flashing a grin at the boy. "I could, couldn't I? See if it can withstand the force of leaving the planet. As I take it, your atmosphere is rather pressurized compared to other planets'. It was hard enough withstanding entry the first time."

Vegeta's eyebrow raised. "Well, are you going to?"

"I just might." Patting the smooth surface of the pod, the Saiyan finally set it down on the launchpad with the door facing slightly upward. Looking around, she put her hands on her hips and grinned triumphantly. "Alright! Let's do this."

The boys watched in excitement as she pressed a button on a watch hidden underneath her sleeve. The door slowly opened, revealing the plush interior of furs and alien tech. Instead of smelling of oil and sweat as it had when she first landed, it now smelled fresh. Humorously, there was a familiar colorful little tree hanging from the ceiling.

"An air freshener for a car? Really?" The prince deadpanned.

"Don't hate just because you never thought to do that," the woman chuckled.

Vegeta rolled his eyes and groused quietly, "It's not like we had anything of the sort back on Vegetasei."

"It looks so cool!" Goten marveled as he and Trunks moved closer.

"Dad, did yours look like this?" Trunks looked back at the man with sparkles in his eyes.

"No," he answered, inspecting the inside for himself. "Every Saiyan pod looked the same - none of them had all of that hair."

"It's fur, and where I got it from is none of your business." The woman's sharp eyes snapped over to the older man, warning in her tone.

"You're as threatening as Kakarot is taciturn," he retorted.

"Kaka-who?" Her face scrunched up in confusion for a moment before she realized. "Oh. Right. Goku. Forgot that you're still on that."

"I will respect our heritage no matter how silly you may find it. I wouldn't expect a low-class warrior like you to understand."

"Hey, my power level was at least a hundred!" She snapped.

"And mine was five hundred. Your point?"

"I can't believe you made such sweet younglings," Kress huffed. "Trunks, don't turn out like your father, okay?"

"I already promised Mom I wouldn't," the teenager chirped, much to his father's annoyance. Vegeta's eye twitched.

"Good. You listen to her." Then she pointed to baby Bulla. "You don't turn out like your father either, got it?"

She giggled in response. Kress's stern face softened a bit and she folded her arms across her chest. "Dammit, you're too small and soft. You're gonna make me want one."


Bulma was startled out of her concentration on the gravity panel by a mild quake rippling through the grounds. Looking up, she flipped the welding mask up and set her tools down, powering down the soldering iron.

"Oh, hello dear," Panchy greeted her with a banana and a smile as she made her way outside.

"What in the world was that? Another landing?" She questioned, taking the fruit and peeling it before taking a big bite.

"I believe so. I saw Kress's pod fly off a few minutes ago - that must be her touching down."

Bulma's eyes widened and she choked on her bite a little bit. Swallowing, she stumbled, "H- hey, wait, you said Kress's pod-?"

"Whew!" A victorious shout came from the launchpad, and mother and daughter raced (well, Bulma raced, Panchy followed at a leisurely stroll) towards it. Bulma stopped short upon seeing the pod, heat still coming off of it, sitting there with a grinning Saiyan halfway out.

"That felt great!" Kress exclaimed, catching the engineer's eye and waving. "Hey, Bulma! Those upgrades we added work great! I barely had an issue with the escape velocity!"

"We just got it finished! Why did you test it so early?" The blue haired woman questioned, turning to her husband for answers.

He merely shrugged. Bulla clapped her hands again with a laugh.

"I wanna do it again." The dark-haired woman's eyes glittered with mischief. "Hey, who wants a ride with me?"

Almost immediately, the boys began yelling a chorus of "Me, me" and Bulma pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache forming.

"Hello, Vegeta, would you like some fruit?" Panchy held out a peach.

The man paused, pulled off his glove, and carefully took the fruit, before bellowing, "Settle down!"

The boys fell quiet, turning his way in surprise.

"You'll give your mother a headache," Vegeta scolded, eyes narrowing. "One at a time, you'll both get your turn. Take Kakarot's boy first."

"What? But Dad-"

"I want to make sure you'll bring him back," he interrupted Trunks's whine, eyes not straying from Kress's.

Her tail puffed up a bit in indignation, and she scoffed. "Wow. Okay, I see how it is. I get it. Big bad Saiyan comes to Earth because she wants a break from the galactic jerkbags that destroyed our planet and terrorize other planets like it's their only purpose in life, and instead of being, y'know, polite, you accuse her of wanting to kidnap your younglings as if I'm gonna have any use for a child in space. Not only that, but you offer another Saiyan's youngling instead of your own like that's gonna make it better." She sneered at the shorter of them, and the two boys looked between them with worry. "You disgust me, Vegeta. I'm not like you."

Bulma sighed. "Okay, back it up, let's calm down for a minute. Vegeta, low blow. Kress, I'm not worried about you taking my son into space, or Goku's for that matter. All I ask is that you give the pod a rest before you try it again. I don't want to risk a break-up either before or after."

"Fair enough." The woman's glower lessened in intensity. "Just because I'm a Saiyan doesn't mean I constantly want to fight things, let's get one thing crystal clear right now. I might have been bloodthirsty as a child, but my master knocked it into me that fighting doesn't solve everything, and if you can avoid a conflict it's better to take the pacifist route than kill yourself attempting to prove a point. I've never even wanted younglings in the first place; all I want is to have a place to relax and work on machinery. If that's a problem for you, Prince Vegeta," her eyes flashed, "then I'll be sure to get out of your way."

"Dad…?" Trunks chimed in, full of uncertainty. "I really, really wanna go…"

"Me too," Goten added, looking up at the Saiyan woman with puppy eyes.

Vegeta's eye twitched again. Even Bulla had stopped her babbling, looking up at her father with a contemplative gaze.

"It's your call," Kress challenged, raising a brow.

Neither of them moved for several long, silent moments.

Finally, the prince rolled his eyes upward with a sigh. "Do whatever you want. I'm going to go train."

Handing Bulla to her mother, he leapt from the platform, a protective aura surrounding him as he flew off. All eyes followed him as he left, before turning to the pod.

Bulma shook her head. "Nobody is going off in that pod until after lunch. C'mon, I'm sure we have some leftover yakisoba."

"Yes! Yakisoba!" The boys cheered, momentarily forgetting about their want. They raced off towards the kitchen, Trunks tugging at his grandmother's hand to get her to follow.

Bulma's lips pressed into a line as Kress stepped out of the pod fully. "I'm sorry about that. Ever since the incident with Gohan and his… uncle, every time one of your kind steps onto this planet it brings nothing but trouble." With a wince, she added, "Tarble was nice enough, but we ended up having to fight some aliens that followed him here."

"Yeah, nah, I get it. It's all we are. Just a bunch of bloodthirsty thugs." Kicking a rock away from the landing pad, the taller of the two watched as it skipped across the surface before landing in the soft grass.

"You're not," the woman insisted. When she got a flat stare in response, she sighed. "Okay, well, maybe sometimes. But if Vegeta can chill out, your race can't be all that bad. I mean he's tried to kill Goku how many times at this point? Trust me when I say he used to be much, much worse of a person than he is now."

Her tail gently thumped against her hip and she chewed her bottom lip, taking a thin layer of skin away with her teeth. Quietly, she said, "You haven't met the worst of them."

"Huh?" The mother turned quizzically. "What did you say?"

"Nothin'," the Saiyan grunted, closing the pod with her watch. As the door clicked mechanically shut, she did her best to grin. "I'm starving. I ain't gonna get out-eaten by a bunch of younglings!"


"You're turning one tomorrow~" Bulma sang to her daughter, swooping her around in a dance in the living room, much to the girl's delight. Her loud laughter and shrieks of delight made her mother laugh in turn, holding her over her head as she squirmed and squealed.

"Oh! Vegeta!" Panchy greeted the man as he walked in. Despite his beeline for the fridge, she called after him, "Thank you for getting some more wagyu!"

"He went shopping?" Bulma paused in her dance around the room to stare after her husband in surprise.

"It must have been during lunch," the blonde hummed, tapping her chin with a smile.

Vegeta's face burned red as he made his way past the women, water bottle in hand. Even when his wife shot him a wink and a smile he seemingly ignored them.

"Hey, if you see Kress on the way, tell her I need some help in the lab!" She called after him.

Last that he'd seen her, she was blasting off into space with his son in the pod. Goku had stopped by and was getting the brunt of his youngest's gushing about the experience, no doubt. That left him more time to train.

"Hey, 'Geta!" Goku called with a wave and a smile. His son was perched on his shoulder, hands buried in his hair. Despite his growth spurt, it seemed his weight was of little consequence.

"Dad, are you gonna go up in the pod too?" Goten asked, bouncing in his spot eagerly for a moment before he realized where he was and stopped. "It's so fun! You've gotta go!"

"I dunno… last time I was in one of those things, I was a baby." He rubbed his neck. "You gonna try it? For old time's sake?"

"It's a waste of time," the prince deadpanned.

"Aw, c'mon, it must be nostalgic for ya."

"The last time I was in one, I was heading to Namek to wish for immortality. And we both know how that went." Narrowing his eyes, he added, "So no. Not very."

A noise in the sky made them both look up. Kress's pod came into view, a ball of fire quickly extinguishing as she reentered the skies. Vegeta headed for the gravity room and Goku watched with his son as the pod fell to the landing pad. It bounced a bit before coming to a stop, surface still steaming.

After a moment, the door popped open and Trunks emerged, excited and bright. "That was AWESOME!"

"Was that fun?" Goku laughed, helping the boy out. Goten hopped down from his father's shoulders, joining Trunks and delving into a complicated-looking handshake.

Kress stepped out with a heaving sigh. "Somehow it's worse the second time."

"No injuries, right? Nothing broken?"

"Not me or the pod, no." Shaking her head wildly, her hair fell about her shoulders in fluffy strands. "Whew. I wasn't expecting it to get so hot. Maybe I should work more on the thermoregulator today."

With the boys running off who knows where, the two adults walked back to the lab, Kress's pod in hand. He'd offered to carry it, but she insisted - and he was reminded so much of his wife that he shrugged and let her do it.

"How long are you going to stay?" He asked.

Kress hummed in thought, something deeply contemplative - uncomfortable - in her face.

"I know the boys would love it if you did. Gohan seems to like you." His earnest words made her frown deepen. "And my wife said she had a great time shopping with you the other day. You'll be meeting the rest of our friends tomorrow at the party - think about it, okay?"

"I'll think it over," she answered quietly, stiffly.

Goku gave her a gentle smile as she set the pod back down on the stand it had been on before, and her heart clenched tightly in her chest.