Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A Christmas To Remember ❯ Babysitter?! You Gotta Be Kidding Me! ( Chapter 3 )

"What were you going to tell us before you ran outside, Em?" Chi Chi asked, stirring the soup she was cooking on the stove, but Bulma interrupted; "You'll never guess what happened today?"

"What?" Videl and Chi Chi said together. Trunks and Goten were on the floor in front of the television in the livingroom playing one of Trunk's new video games. The women waited for bulma to answer.

She told them about the little girl they had found along the side of the road and how she could eat almost as much as Goku. Chi Chi shook her head, thinking that Bulma must be exaggerating.

"Where is she now?" Videl asked, "Did you find her parents?"

"Umm...well..." Bulma flushed, looking rather guilty, "I left her at the house. I told her to stay there and that Vegeta would take care of her."

"Does Vegeta know?" Chi Chi smiled and asked, sipping her soup and burning her tongue.

"I kinda...slipped out while he was in the gravity room." Bulma finished quickly, looking away, "Hey! I needed a break! Vegeta was driving me nuts!"

"Well, are you looking for her parents?" Videl asked, a worried expression upon her face, "They could really miss her."

"It's not like she found lost dog, Videl!" Chi Chi snapped, "She can't very well tack posters to every telephone poll saying `Found: One Human Female, Child. Call To Claim. Must Have Proof.' now can she?"

"I'm taking her to police station in the morning," Bulma said, digging through Chi Chi's cupboards, "She looked so tired and was hungry and cold, I told her she was going to stay over at our house tonight..."

"Hey, Em," Chi Chi seemed to recall the other woman was still there. Emily, who was really a little younger than Videl, looked up from where she'd been staring out the window, "Hmm?" She jumped, startled, "Where you talking to me?"

"What did you want to do that was so fun for Christmas?" Chi Chi asked.

"Oh." She said, realizing now, later, that what she thought would be very funny was...well..kinda lame. "Nothing. I just thought it would be kinda funny to get everyone ill-suited gifts from inappropriate people. Just to see the looks on everyone's faces."

"What?" Videl asked, giggling, "Like a `Barbie Head Fashion Doll' and signing it `To Piccoo, From Goku'?"

The girls broke out into a round of giggles, each trying to top the other's idea and Chi Chi screamed because her soup was burning. Emily rested her chin in her hand and turned to stare out the window at the falling snow, sighing. Videl stopped laughing and noticed this. Placing her hand on the girl's arm, she asked; "Em? Is something wrong? You look a little down."

"Oh, it's nothing, really." Emily said, smiling softly at her friend, "Just...this season. This weather. Gets to me sometimes."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know," Emily said, "The realization that another year is ending and I'm getting older and what have I done with my life?"

"You think your old?!" Videl snorted, shoving Emily off the chair, "Your only 25! I saw your i.d. card in your purse! Hey, Chi Chi! We need to help her apply for social security and pick up a tube of bengay at the store for Emily here's poor old achin' bones...!"

"Shut up!" Emily cried, but there was no spleen in her voice, "That's the last time I tell you anything!"

"Hey! What smells like it's burning?" Goku's voice rang through the house and a moment later the handsome saiyan came through the doorway, a goofy grin marring his features, "Chi Chi?"

"My soup burned, hon," She said, smiling through clenched teeth, "I was just about to throw it out and start over..."

"No, forget it, Chi Chi," Videl said, picking up the telephone, "When in doubt, order a pizza!"

"Better make it at least six," Chi Chi said, hearing Goku's stomach rumbling, "Goku will eat at least five pizzas and we can take the other one."

"Everything on it, Videl!" Goku said, grinning madly. He began to list off all the toppings he could think of that went on a pizza, even adding some that did not such as grape jelly and motor oil.

"What?! Goku!" Emily cried, looking over at him from her seat at the table near the window, "You can't eat motor oil!"

"Why not?"

"Because it's not a food!"

"It's not?!" Goku asked, looking believably shocked, "Oh well!"

***

Meanwhile, back at Capsule Corp, Vegeta had just finished with the gravity room. Sweat made the dark hairs at the nape of his neck stick and he itched to take a shower and change. His stomach growled and he wondered what the woman had ordered for dinner. Walking towards the house he felt something. A weak ki signature coming from inside the residence. He knew it was Bulma, he knew her ki was a bit stronger than this one was.

Opening the door, his jaw dropped at what he saw. The human child, the one they'd picked up off the street the other day, Rachel he remembered her name was, was standing on the back of a chair struggling to hook a sparkly round ball onto on the Christmas tree's higher branches. This in itself wasn't what shocked Vegeta. The child had managed to place one random piece of furniture upon another, creating a kind of wobbly, haphazard ladder on which she perched.

Without warning the child began to loose her balance, Vegeta had a mental flash of all the furniture coming tumbling down and the girl injuring herself beyond all repair. Bulma would really have it in for him then! There would be no sex for ages! Acting fast, the proud saiyan prince darted over to her and caught her just as she started to fall.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He asked as he set her on her feet and began to dismantle her "ladder", "You could have broken your neck!"

"I just wanted to help decorate the tree," She pouted, standing with her hands at her sides, "To surprise you and Bulma..."

"Well, you surprised me all right!" Vegeta sneered, looking around, "Where's Bulma?"

"She left." Rachel said, smiling up at him, "She told me to stay here and be good. She said that you would take care of me."

As the implications of what the little girl was saying sunk in, Vegeta cried; "What?! She expects me to babysit?! I have things to do! I have training! I'm royalty for kami's sake! How can she expect to babysit?!"

"Hey!" He felt a slight tugging at his pant leg and looked down, "Are you done? I have to go potty!"

She had begun squirming around in place, clearly in agony.

"So go," He said, "Who's stopping you."

"I need help with my pants!" She cried as if he were the stupidest person she'd ever encountered. Vegeta looked down at her in horror. Bulma had pretty much taken care of Trunks after he'd been born, Vegeta only really involved in the boy's training as he got older.

After helping the child with the zipper and snap of her jeans, Vegeta stood back and asked, almost seriously, "Need help with the toilet paper?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm fine. Thanks."

Leaving the room, Vegeta was about to go down the hall into the extra bathroom and take a shower when he heard Rachel's voice calling for him. Sighing, he went back to the other bathroom to help her fix her pants again.

"Flush it for me." She said, darting behind him as he rolled his eyes and pressed the lever that would release the water into the bowel, "Thank you!"

The kid's scared of a flushing toilet, Vegeta thought, How do I end up in these situations?

"I'm hungry!" She cried, "Vegeta, can you fix me something to eat?"

"Listen, kid," Vegeta snarled, "If you haven't noticed by now, I just got done training and need to get cleaned up. Leave me alone for fifteen minutes, at least!"

"Okay!" Rachel smiled, bounding away down the hall, singing something about teddy bears and jumping rope under her breath. Sighing in graditude, Vegeta headed for the shower.

When he came back downstairs, having spent an extra half-hour in the shower just to avoid the kid, Vegeta found she had pulled all the sofa cushions from the couch and loveseat and had formed them into a kind of makeshift fort of some type. She was arranging a blanket over the top and crawling inside just as he appeared.

"The hell...?" He began, she heard him and poked her head out from two cushions with another overhead forming a roof, "What you doing, Rachel?"

"Playing house," She said, "You wanna play with me?"

"Umm...no." Vegeta said, "I don't play house."

The girl's face screwed up and she let a high-pitched howl that hurt his saiyan ears, "I wanna play house!"

This went on for some time, Vegeta aching to send a ki blast at her and blow her into smithereens. Finally, he yelled; "All right! All right! I'll play with you! Just stop that bawling!"

"Okay!" Rachel cried, sniffling, but happy. Vegeta knelt down on the floor and wished he were anywhere but where he currently was. At least no one was here to witness his humiliation, of that he was thankful. Rachel handed him a bright red bonnet with a flower in it. He thought it must be one of Bulma's. She said; "Now, you be the baby and I'll be the mommy..."

"Since when do babies were bright red bonnets with flowers stuck in them?" Vegeta asked, reluctantly placing the hat on his head. She also handed him a blanket with bears and yellow ducks all over it and an infant's bottle. He guessed she must have found a stash of Trunk's old baby stuff.

"When the hell is that woman getting home?!" He said under his breath as Rachel tried to force the bottle's nipple into his mouth.

***

Restless, Piccolo found he couldn't concentrate on meditation any longer. He decided to fly over to Capsule Corp to see if Vegeta was up to a last minute spar before the sun got too low over the horizon. Just because it was close to some baka human holiday didn't mean it was any excuse to become lax in their fighting skill.