Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yamcha didn't pay attention to the Courier who came to his door. He just signed for the package and took it in doors, setting it on the coffee table then made coffee and breakfast. Puar finished tidying the bathroom before joining him and then settled on the couch to relax.

"You got a package?" Puar asked.

"It's labeled for both of us. Maybe that sweater set finally came."

Puar frowned and glowered at the package. "It better not. It's six months late and we got refunded after god knows how many days arguing on the phone."

"Chill Puar. They already said if it shows up we can keep them as a 'good will gesture'." Yamcha said. Puar had gotten a set of stupidly cheesy matching sweaters for Christmas, but the damn things had never arrived.

"They can take their good will and-"

A beeping alerted Yamcha looked over at where it was charging. "Urgh, why does that only happen when I've just sat down."

He got up and answered it, and Puar watched his face go from annoyed, to surprised, to worried.

He put the phone down and came back to the couch, grabbing the package and tore into it. Inside the paper was a box file, and inside the was a box file. Beside it was a cell phone, and a plastic box that contained several memory sticks.

On the front of the Box file was a name, black embossed on the front.

SunRise.

He stared at it for several minutes.

"Tien got one as well. A courier dropped it off this morning." he said, voice flat. Puar settled next to him, and he was grateful for her warm weight beside her. It was calming, especially considering his heart jackhammered in his chest.

"I wasn't expecting them to send us anything." Puar said.

Yamcha reached out and pulled the box file from it. It was surprisingly heavy, and he opened it to find it contained separate files. He laid them out on the table and found some of them had Puar's name on them, and he glanced at her.

"I think I'd have preferred the sweaters." she said. The attempt at humor fell flat as Yamcha piled them and set her's in front of her.

"Okay, I'm gonna call Bulma and let her know these have arrived, then we'll read them. Yeah?"

Puar nodded.

He went off to call Bulma, and she stared at files in front of her with a fear she hadn't felt before.

She picked up the file labeled 'Puar 1.' and opened the first page.

It wasn’t overly complicated. It explained the reserves where Intelligent animals had been gathered for protection. It explained that she would be expected to engage with them and act as liaison between them and the Z Warriors, to better facilitate the solving of problems.

I was written in very fancy words and lawyer speak, but it amounted to the same thing.

She looked up at Yamcha, who hadn't even opened his. He stared at it with trepidation.

“You gotta read it, Yamcha. It’s important.”

“I know Puar. I know I just.” he touched the paper, “This thing holds our futures. Good or bad, this thing changes everything.”

She knew what he meant. She left him be and kept reading, and learned about the liaison job and the responsibilities involved. Out of the corner of her eye she watched him finally pick the file up.

Yamcha opened the first page and was reminded of the meeting he had at work, where they would explain what they would be discussing and everyone's roles for the next quarter. This wasn't very different from that.

But it was weird to see his training and hard work worded like some standard employment contract.

He would work with Krillin and Master Roshi to do basic training and teach the fundamentals of Ki. Together they would help weed out those who weren't suited for the training.

Together they would be expected to spend half their time working with SunRise trainees, and would work around his schedule as a commentator. He didn't know how that would work for Krillin and his job, but at least they'd get some 'payment' to ensure they didn't lose anything at home.

It also went into detail about other responsibilities they would have to take on. They'd be asked to help with investigations. They're expected to help researchers and answer questions and undergo exams to help understand how their Ki had affected them long term.

That....was actually something Yamcha was a little curious about. He hated to admit it, but he had to admit he had questions. They healed faster and could deflect some pretty extreme damage. But he'd also noticed other thing.s More than one person had asked about his skin routine, wanting to know why he was still so young looking. Where other men his age were slowing down, he was still vital and strong. Tien barely had any crows feet or lines, despite the fact he worked in the sun all day and used no protection. Krilling did use sun cream, but he too should be feeling his age by now. But so long as they continued to practice and train, so long as they continued to use their Ki to improve themselve, they seemed to age just that little bit slower than the average human.

Plus there was the fact that there were people in their lives that didn't age like them. He adored Bulma, she was his oldest friend. Built it hurt his heart to see her grow old. ChiChi had Ox blood in her, but even that couldn't protect you from time. Thsaiyans already had weird aging, but would the Ki they used forstall even their alien biology.

Yamcha looked over at Puar. She was a shapeshifter, but when in her normal body she still aged like the rest of her kind. Like many intelligent animals, she had a far longer life than any cat should have.

Could SunRise answer that question? Could they explain the oddities that came with the practice of Ki manipulation?

Or would this end with blood and battle, like so many of their interactions did.

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Vegeta felt sick.

The Saiyan stomach was a solid thing. Nothing but the most dangerous of poisons could make it turn.

But the idea of talking about the PTO made his guts want to flee his body.

Bulma knew a lot about what he had done, but he'd never gone into the details of the day to day running of the PTO. How it worked and maintained its business practices. What the purgers had to do was awful, but what the PTO did was another level of evil.

Vegeta didn't want to. He really, really didn't want to. And yet he had no choice. Because if these bastards ruined their lives on earth, then they'd be forced out into the universe and Bulma would learn very quickly how cruel the universe could be.

Why would they want to know how the PTO worked? All they needed to understand was that they would be dangerous and deadly.

"Hey Handsome. You okay?"

Vegeta jolted. He hadn't noticed Panchy come into the room. She smiled that ever present smile at him. Her compliments no longer made him blush, but he still huffed a little.

"I am fine. Just thinking."

"Pretty deep thoughts if I managed to sneak up on you."

He said nothing as she sat across from him.

She often did this. She wouldn't talk or anything, she'd just sit quietly. It had been weird to begin with, but as time passed he'd begun to enjoy the silent companion ship. The whole earth was loud. It was all so very loud. People and animals and machines and life are all going a million times a minute. When he'd first decided to stay on earth and train he had found it near impossible to handle. Many of his hours spent in the gravity chamber had been to avoid all the damn noise.

Vegeta wasn't used to all the noise. He'd kept to himself on the ships Frieza had. While traveling in space they had only the sounds of their voices and tech. And on the planets. Well, there was sound, until there wasn't. Some planets took mere days to clear. Other weeks. And most of the time it was quiet. Occasionally they would be told to keep as much of the Ecosystem as possible, and that always made things difficult.

He used to tell himself it was difficult because it meant hours of careful tracking to find the population. But now one knew it was because there was too much to see. Homes and cities and farms. Blasting from above was easier. The buildings were faceless things. When you had to be careful, you ended up seeing the lives that had lived there. Then you started thinking too much.

Vegeta looked at Panchy and asked something he had wanted to ask for a long while. "Why did you let me stay here?"

Panchy tilted her head and thought about it.

“You looked confused.” she said.

Vegeta stared at her a moment. “What do you mean?”

“You looked like the rug had been pulled from under you. Like you were barely hanging on. You looked ready to run at the slightest provocation, I was actually surprised at how tolerant you were of me and Boxer.” she giggled,” I was worried I'd have to have a word with you. But you kept your civility.”

Vegeta huffed, “You didn't worry. About my treatment of Bulma?”

“I love my Baby girl Vegeta, but she is an absolute nightmare at times. She needed someone who would stand up to her. Granted I did worry the closer we got to the Androids showing up, but overall you are not the worst house guest we're had.”

“I… I may not be as welcome once I give these bastards their information. I told Bulma a lot of what I did but-”

“Vegeta, we’ve all due respect to your position and power, you cannot blame the Cashier for the CEOs behavior.”

He knew what she meant but it still felt like a massive leap. He purged planets, he didn't price toilet roll.

"You're an incredibly odd woman, Panchy Briefs."

She giggled, "And you are going to be late getting Bulla to her appointment."

He looked up at the clock and his eyes widened. "Crap."

He got up and rushed off to get Bulla ready whilst Panchy stayed sitting, looking at the door before sighing and shaking her head. "That man is going to think himself to death."

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"Are you going to do it?" Turtle asked.

Roshi stared out over the water and thought for a long time, so long that Turtle didn't think he was going to answer.

"No. I couldn't. It would be cowardice. Even if SunRise decided not to come after me, how can I let my friends face this alone?"

Turtle had known Roshi a long time, and knew his words. "You're not saying everything."

Roshi sighed and took off his glasses. “ I feel a great guilt for feeling this Turtle, but these people aren't wrong. There are threats in this universe that the Earth is not ready for. There are creatures and monsters that have powers beyond our knowledge and ability to fight. If we don't start trying to find a way to protect ourselves we could wind up dead.”

“You don't think Beerus would help. He likes earth.”

“Turtle, he cares about the food and Whis has a soft spot for Bulma. I have no damn doubt that if push came to shove he would let this planet die. He may have become fond of a few people but that's not going to stop him doing his job. How many other people do you think he's befriended and then destroyed them?”

Turtle didn't answer.

“We live on a knife edge. And maybe if we do this we can buy ourselves some time. At the very least, Whis’s friendship might buy us a warning before destruction comes.”

Chapter Text

Hercule wasn't happy.

He read and then reread the documents a dozen times and he had come to the conclusion that the RisingSun group were lying jackasses.

“They are holding my reputation over my head as a threat if I don’t destroy my own career!” he said as he sorted through his shirts. “Where does that make sense?”

“Dad, they are giving you a chance to bow out with your reputation intact.” Videl explained. “If they go public, you lose everything. No one is going to care that Gohan is a great scientist and I am a business woman, they will only care about your lies. Do you think Pan will keep her place at school if this comes out? Or that we’ll be allowed to stay in our homes?”

Hercule turned to his daughter, “That home is bought and paid for.”

“And will be surrounded by the press and people the moment the news drops.” Videl sighed heavily. She had known her Dad would be stubborn about this whole thing. “Plus the ownership of the house might be the least of our worries. You could be taken to court by your sponsor's Dad. And without the clout of being the Saviour no lawyer would touch you.”

Hercule fumed. He knew that Videl was right, but he was still so angry. He’d worked hard to build his empire, and he didn’t want to give it up. Not whistle he was in his Prime.

He thought maybe Buu could help, but knew he knew there were likely efforts in place to stop that.

Hercule might not be the strongest on earth, but he’d worked hard to get where he was. When Cell had reared his ugly head, Hercule had truly believed he was defeatable. He hadn’t expected aliens and magic and Ki to be a thing.

The world he’d grown up in had been sheltered. He’d lived in the City his whole life, and everything in the news about the red ribbon army and demon lords had seemed like make believe. Old problems for old people. Once he’d gotten old enough to understand more, he’d seen the Red Ribbon Army as history, and the Demon Lord Piccolo as a crime boss who’d vanished.

He’d trained as a fighter and won countless tournaments before he’d reached the famed Strongest Under The Heavens. It had been the toughest fight of his life, but he’d come out of it victorious. Watching it back on TV he’d been disappointed that there hadn’t been any after effects added to make it look like there’d been energy blasts and ridiculous jumps. But he supposed it was better that way, let the people know hope the fighters really worked.

Then Cell came.

Hercule Satan had seen what had happened, and convinced himself a bunch of fame seekers had set it all up to build their careers, taking advantage of a bad situation. Hercule had been doing the same, but he genuinely believed he stood a chance of destroying that monster. He wanted to help, not take advantage of the deaths of thousands.

When no one took the title of Saviour, he had. And he’d built an empire and a life for his daughter. Where the Son family had hidden from the fame, he had embraced it. Hercule hadn’t even felt guilty until he’d found out the truth. And the boy had that truth that shook his world. Suddenly Hiding from the fame made a whole lot of sense.

He had his fair share of crazy fans. People who practically worshipped him. But Gohan? That boy was a God. The potential had terrified Hercule at first, but after spending time with the boy he had come to learn that he was incredibly gentle.

Gentle, not a fighter, but circumstance had led him into a life full of violence.

Hercule had felt great guilt after that, but had been told to keep playing the hero. Keep the light on himself and off those who had real hero work to do.

Videl knew her Dad wasn’t listening anymore, he was too lost in his own thoughts. It annoyed her, but she didn’t want an argument today. She had enough to deal with.

Like the god sitting in her Kitchen nervously talking about how the heck he was supposed to act as an intermediary between Earth and New Namek when he was already busy trying to be the Guardian. He had severe events that he had to monitor so that dangerous beings didn’t take advantage of them.

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"I mean, we've talked about bringing a delegation to earth for educational purposes, but it was always a hypothetical until Earth became a bigger part of the galaxy. To push for it now would seem off." Dende said, staring into his tea.

Gohan folded his arms over his chest. "That's a problem. The only other species were on friendly terms with the people of Yardrat, and I don't know if they preferred to be left alone or not. The Nemekians seem happy to be a part of the universe and-" Gohan caught a look from Dende then, "They do want to be a part of the universe, right?"

Dende avoided eye contact for a moment. "There have been issues amongst our people since the creation of New Namek. Some of our Brethren wanted us to further our Isolation, to protect ourselves, but others....others do not wish to sit idly By and allow ourselves to be taken advantage of again." Dende closed his eyes. "To be frank this was a problem before Frieza arrived. Our people received visitors from time to time, and the young were beginning to grow curious as to what was out there. We may be an old race, but most of those alive today are young, less that 100 years old."

Gohan was shocked by that. "I didn't think that the Drought happened such a short time ago."

"Guru had a lot of offspring in order to rebuild our race. Two a year for a very long time, it caused a lot of damage to his body. Irt would be like a human woman being constantly pregnant. It's doable, but very bad for their health."

Gohan hadn't known that, but it made sense if he thought about it. They;d still been rebuilding when they'd arrived on Namek. Though there had been several villages, there hadn't been much of a population. All of them were technically brothers, even though genetically they were incredibly versatile.

"Don't answer if this is too personal, but did any other Namekians have offspring?"

Dende laughed, "One or two did, but many chose to wait. And after Frieza...well, many are worried about having children they cannot protect." It was then that Dende slapped the table top, "That's it!"

Gohan jolted, "What, what's it."

"SunRise want you guys to train humans. Well, why not off to have Piccolo train Namekians? They get the training they want to try and protect home and we get them on earth to help build a better relationship."

"That could work, but how are you going to get Piccolo to agree?"

Denede's happy face turned, and he sighed, "That is going to be far more difficult."

Gohan didn't envy Dende trying to convince Piccolo to train a bunch of Namekians, but maybe it would be good for him. Give him a chance to get too know others of his kind. But Piccolo was notoriously anti social.

“I’ll talk with him, but I make no promises.”

“Thank you Gohan. If he won’t then maybe I can convince them to come and study the earth's fauna.”

“Hey, they’d love some of the water life here. Or the marshlands.”

Dende stood up and stretched out his back, “They are very much like some areas of Namek.”

As if on cue, the kitchen door opened and Pan came in, and Piccolo followed. The two had been collecting leaves for Pan’s homework and they were carefully carried in a cloth to keep them safe.

“Got em!” Pan crowed, proud of herself. “Mr Piccolo said We couldn’t grab the spikey ones, cos they were spikey.”

Gohan hid his smile, but Piccolo could sense the amusement coming off of his student.

“Well let's put them in containers so they're safe.” Gohan said and went to the cupboard to find a sealable box whilst Pan climbed onto a chair and Piccolo helped lay out the leaves.

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Videl sat at her office window and breathed deeply. Her Dad had said he was going for a walk and would talk when he came back.

He hadn’t been gone ten minutes when he was storming back up the garden path, facing a storm cloud.

She prepared herself for chaos and waited for him to reach her.

Hercule was not a serious man by nature. Anger was not something that came to him quickly. Much like her husband, his fuse was long. It had to be when you were a celebrity.

He made sure the door was shut, then took off his jacket and sat down. He didn't speak for a long while.

"It's not gonna be as easy as these guys think it is." Hercules said. Do you remember how right after Buu, I started avoiding questions and certain interviewers?"

Videl did. "Yeah. You started putting clauses in your contracts."

"I used to explain away everything. You know that. The world knows that. I got a lot of questions behind the scenes about why I wouldn't take those questions anymore. I even had a few officials asking if I had been approached by anyone who may have threatened me. I had to remind them that who would be dumb enough to threaten the Champion?" Hercule rubbed his face. "I couldn't just turn around and start defending these people. People would start to ask questions. And they'll ask questions if I start pulling back. I've spent years telling the world I was gonna be the hero till someone took the title. But no one wants it Videl. Most challengers are barely able to hit me. The only people who could are so far out of my league they could put me in the grave with a slap. And if we did pass the title on, who's gonna take on the responsibility? hose can we trust to keep the secret without letting everyone know the truth."

"You've thought about this before , haven't you Dad?"

"Too much. There's bad things out there, and so long as they see me in the limelight, they ain’t looking at you.”

Chapter Text

The program had worked fine. It had gathered and organized all of the files on the shared network into simple categories.

The First was anything useful to the space exploration program. The second any and all research into mammalian hibernation. Third was comparative medical research and then there were the emergency pods. He’d thought that there wouldn’t be much to see beyond the space travel ideas, but dear Kami was wrong.

Bulma had always been brimming with ideas. From a young age she had been a marvel to witness. But one thing she had always done was finish the work. Here he saw countless projects that had been nearly complete, but just abandoned. Dr Briefs felt worry well up in him.

He wondered what caused his daughter to pull back from her scientific endeavors. She still developed things, and they were lucrative but her passion for this work seemed to have vanished.

This was something he needed to discuss with her. Have a real sit down conversation and just see if this was something he could help with.

But for right now he had data to process.

He decided to start off easy and read up on the projects closest to completion. Those would be the personal space craft. Small vehicles capable of leaving the atmosphere. They were designed to make travel around the globe faster. Current Capsule plans and flight cars could fly at 600 mph, and no faster due to safety concerns. But these short flight spaceships could go past Mach one and carry up to 5 people around the globe in less than 2 hours.

Take off used the most fuel, but once in orbit the life support used Solar radiation and battery power to keep life support working and small jets would direct the ship towards the correct re entry location. Once back in the earth's atmosphere the plane engine would come back online and the ship would fly like any other Capsule Plane. The designs were solid and the tech simple updates. Some of the smaller pieces of tech could be transferred to their current products to make them more efficient.

This invention alone could fund the next years R and D.

"How's the data organizing going Dad?"

Dr Briefs jumped and turned to see his daughter, "Oh, you gave me a fright. It's going well. There is some real potential in honey here. I think we could have a working prototype of the CC-LO 01 in a few months.``

"Yeah, that one will be the easiest. We can shove that out to the public and hold off an any of the more dangerous projects." Bulma sat at her desk, "I'm going to recall Dr Hedo from our Northern Labs to help here. He has hands -on experience with the storage containers used by Dr Gero. They could allow hibernation for semi-organic life, so we can start there."

"Will that be legal?" Dr Briefs asked, I don't want any Red Ribbon offshoots trying to take us to court.

"As Dr Gero's grandson Hedo has the right to lease and use the tech as he wishes. He's pretty much given away the rights as an act of attrition." Bulma explained, "I should probably talk him out of doing that anymore."

"Oh definitely."

Bulma stretched her arms over her head before giving the screen a stern look. “Time to get to work then.”

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Bulla was clinging to his shoulders as they followed his Grandma around the store. It was quiet, and this little store was a favorite of the family because it was a hole in the wall place where people just ignored you. The other shoppers just needed lunch or milk or cigarettes.

It was a nice place to come if he needed to grab a snack or water. Hell, he dad dropped by every Thursday to grab his mom the cigarettes they pretted she'd quit.

That was kind of unfair, she had quit. But when life got real stressful she'd sneak on on the back balcony. They pretended not to notice. The woman dealt with crazy every other day, he could forgive her a sneaky cig every now and then.

The cashier rang up their purchases and they left, taking the shortcut through the empty park.

“Such a lovely evening.” Panchy said, “We need to take more walks like this. Really enjoy the quiet moments.”

Trunks nodded, then winced as Bulla gripped his hair too tight. The movement had nearly unseated her, so he pulled her down from his shoulders to his arms. Her tail snuck out and wrapped around his arm, squeezing. He smiled, then stopped and hoped his sleeve covered her tail enough.

“You're right grandma.” he looked over at her and saw an odd look in her eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Hmm. Yes. I just…we came very close to disaster this week. And I know we’ve dealt with far worse, but this, this was far more personal.”

Trunks nodded. “I wish there was more we could do.”

“That’s not for you to worry about right now honey. You have school and that superhero thing.” she looked at him and tilted her head. “Is Bulla asleep?”

“Yeah, she missed her nap and refused to go down. She’s getting real fussy about B-E-D Time.”

Panchy laughed, “Yeah, your mother was the same.”

“Was I?”

“Oh, you went down like a dream. Never fussed, now we have a problem getting you to wake up.”

Trunks sniggered, “Hey, i’m not that bad.” He cuddled Bulla, ,”I should get my normal sleep pattern back soon. You heard what Dad said, "My body is just finishing its growth period.”

“I am glad that's over. You made us worried.”

Trunks knew this. The pain and aches had been awful, and he knew that Goten was just starting his growth spurt. The small height gap was likely going to close, and if Goten took after his Dad and brother he would exceed Trunks. It was a little annoying,but his Dad had explained that earth's odd pre-occupations with height and other physical attributes meant nothing in the long run. There were beings twice their size with half their power. Size meant nothing.

He wondered if it was true. Maybe one day he’d get off world and see for himself.

Not that that would happen any time soon.

A small ball of annoyance swelled inside him. He was at the awkward stage of life where he had his own wants and dreams for the future, but he also had a bedtime. He hung on the words of his mother and her friends of teenage adventure, and then burned with envy at the fact that he was stuck in highschool. He could have graduated two years before, But Bulma insisted he enjoy the socialization he had with his classmates. And he did enjoy it.

He loved school, and the fact he got to hang out with people his own age. But it also annoyed the crap out of him. His mothers tales of fun and adventure tanalised him, and yet he couldn’t even go to Goten's overnight without five days' notice. He’d talked about taking a year out to travel, and His mother had told him no, he had College and University to go to.

“Your thinking about the college thing agin aren’t you?” Panchy asked.

Trunks looked up at her, startled. “Er. WHat?”

Panchy stopped wal;king, “Give Bulla here, you can carry this.”

They swapped loads and Panchy settled her granddaughter in her arms. Bulla was getting to carry.

“Your Mom told me that you were trying to shirk your responsibilities.” Panchy said, “I reminded her that at your age she was running from the dinosaurs and trying to seduce bandits.”

Trunks rolled his eyes. “I know. She’s always talking about the glory days.”

“It's not fair that she gotta have those and you don’t.” Panchy shook her head, “When she was young, she used to swear she would never become one of those mothers that shut her kid behind walls. But I think she’d forgotten that. She automated and delegated most of her work to others, to free up her time to be a parent and work on her research and R&D. That’s where she’s happiest and most productive. And we wouldn't have a business if we didn’t have the products.”

“Yeah, I know Mom works hard. I get that it’s my job to take over. I shouldn’t be ungratefu-”

“Trunks, I’m telling you to be more selfish.”

Trunks stared at his Grandmother in surprise. “What?”

She stopped walking and stared at him, her eyes serious. “Trunks Briefs, you are just as smart as your mother. You are as brave and strong as your father. You are the best of both of them,but you are your own person. Your Dad is surprisingly more understanding of this than your Mother is.”

“I can’t just turn around and tell Mom no. She’s not Mrs Son, but she-”

“Can make everyone's lives difficult when she wants to. Believe me I know Trunks. It’s a problem me and Boxer should have corrected years ago. I think it’s going to lead to a few nasty conversations to be honest.” Panchy started walking again, “Goten is still at school because he needs to be. He’s smart, but like Goku his intelligence doesn’t lie in academics. I know you won’t go off and leave him. I’m not saying you're never going to get to enjoy the big wide universe,but I do ask that you figure out what you're going to do when you get there.”

Trunks looked up at the universe in question and pondered what Panchy said. After a long silence that took them out of the park and back into their neighborhood he explained, “It's not that I don’t want to follow Mom’s footsteps, I just want the chance to have a life beyond that. Right now the only future I see is boredom in classrooms and University and an internship and then a boardroom.” he sighed, “I don’t even think Mom wants me in the labs. I love the research aspect as much as she does, but I think she’d rather see me trapped in a stuffy office.”

Panchy didn’t say anything, but knew that soon she would have to sit her family down and have a very serious conversation about the expectations they had of each other.

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ChiChi wasn’t at all happy. She’d been quietly fuming all day. The SunRise package had arrived as well and she refused to read it until Goku came back home.

Goten had woken with back pain, and now lay on the bare floor trying to bare it whilst Goku had gone to collect on an old bathtub from a few towns over. The idea was to fill it with either hot or cold water so Goten could soak his poor, painfulful muscles. The one Gohan had used had been destroyed not by accidental ki blast or ridiculous accident, but rust. A small who had appeared and before they could patch it had quickly become a big hole, and then they couldn’t save the thing.

She looked over at her youngest boy and then rested a hand on her stomach. She’d have to go through this again in 15 years. She’d have to watch as her baby went through awful growing pains as their body flourished into adulthood.

Goten was growing into an adult, and soon he’d be out into the world and and and -

“Mom, quit worrying. This is normal.” Goten said from the floor, “I’m good.”

ChiChi went to him, knelt down beside his head and gently stored his hair, “Worrying is my job honey.”

He gave her a smile and rolled onto his side, letting his head rest on her lap. “Was it this bad with Gohan?”

“Yes. He would curl up on the corner of his Futon and try and distract himself by reciting the genus of different bugs.”

Goten snorted and grimaced, “Kami he is such a nerd.”

ChiChi tapped his head in mock anger, “Don’t be mean to your brother. It's not his fault his Momma made him a nerd.”

“You gonna do the same with the little one or am I gonna have to save them from it?”

“Oh you littl-wait, what?” ChiChi looked down at her son with wide eyes and just stared, “I’m sorry what did you just say?”

Goten suddenly panicked, “Please tell me you already know.” he said, wincing as his muscles protested.

“Know, know-oh Kami yes I do. How do you know!?” ChiChi asked.

“I can sense it.” Goten looked down at her stomach. “I’m not going to lie, I was a little mad about it. But I guess so long as you met the guy after you and Dad were over I can’t be mad.”

ChiChi shook her head rapidly. “No Goten. This is your fathers.”

Goten looked at her for a moment with confusion. “Eh?”

“Oh Kami, this is embarrassing.” she stood up and stepped away for a few moments. “We aren’t together again. But a few months back we had a little too much to drink and well, something happened that shouldn’t have.”

Goten stared at his mother with blank eyes. Then he stood up and took a deep breath. Once calmed, he merely said, “Ew.”