Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Another Time ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

Another Time

By Karete-chan

Chapter 7: Well, not plot maybe but something's going on.

Trunks towel dried his lavender hair as he walked down the stairs. He was letting it grow long again and it was in that annoying stage where it was not quite long enough to be pulled back. He stepped into the deserted rec room where the TV was still blaring. He stepped over and turned it off. It was then he noticed the smell. It smelled like...food and not just any food; it smelled like good food. His heart jumped. ~Grandma decided to make dinner for us before she went!~ He headed to the kitchen to find her.

Pots were bubbling on the stove when he got there. Kat was seated at the kitchen table feeding Chibi Trunks and for once he was making life easy for her by willingly wolfing down everything she put in front of him.

"Where's grandma?"

Kat looked up and gave him a sideways glance. "She's gone out remember?"

"She'd never go out and leave food on!"

A small smile crept onto Kat's lips as she turned back to the Chibi. "Baka. I'm cooking, not Mrs. Briefs."

His jaw dropped. "You?" he pointed. "You're cooking?"

"Yep." She got up and moved to check a pot. Then went onto the oven. "Thought I might as well. That way it'll be a nice surprise for Bulma when she gets over the shock of hearing her son's first word." She pulled packets out of the pantry. "That and maybe Vegeta won't be as pissed off if the food is edible."

"You mean what you cook you can actually eat?"

"Not if you keep making fun of it," she retorted, her back to him. "I'm no ChiChi but I do alright," she added, sounding a little dejected. She poured flour into a bowl.

"So, do you want a hand?"

Her head jerked up and she turned around. "Are you serious?"

"Sure," he said. Bumping her away from the bowl and taking the flour from her hands. "There's no grandma in my time remember? Someone had to learn to cook or Kassan and I would've starved by now." He turned to the bench. Kat glared at his back and crossed her arms. "Uh..."

"It's a pudding," she answered handing him the recipe.

"I knew that."

"Uh huh. Sure you did." She sat down at the table and resumed feeding Chibi Trunks who had been trying to climb out of his high chair to get at the food. Had Kat not tied him to the chair he would have succeeded.

*****

"Will you stop fidgeting!" Kat growled at the squirming baby in front of her. This just caused Chibi Trunks to try harder to crawl away. Marai Trunks walked in just as she tried for the tenth time to shove the shirt over the baby's head.

He smirked. "We'll have child welfare on the doorstep any moment now."

"Let them spend five minutes with him and I'll be given a medal." She grinned as the shirt slid on. "Hah! Victory!"

Trunks shook his head. "Gloating over a baby. That's big of you."

"Shut up. Did you put them where he'll see them?"

"Yeah. He won't be happy you know."

"I know. He can beat me up later."

Trunks frowned. "You have to stop letting him walk all over you," he said bending to pick himself up.

She sighed and stood up. "That's easy for you to say, you can fight back." She walked into the dining room and looked at the table for the twentieth time.

"Will you stop worrying?" Trunks asked impatiently from behind her.

"No. You don't think Vegeta will ruin this do y…?"

"Brats! Where the hell are you?" Vegeta roared from upstairs.

Kat and Trunks winced as the noise assaulted their sensitive ears. "Here we go." She reached to take the Chibi from his arms.

"Please tell me you're not going to use me as a shield," Trunks asked, indicating the Chibi.

She glared at him then sighed. "Just stop him. Bulma will be back any second now and she won't need to walk in on a screaming argument after the meeting she had today." Trunks nodded silently and turned as Vegeta strode into the room.

"What the hell do you…" He stopped and took in the room. The table was laid out with Bulma's second best dinner set, the brats stood beside it looking at him apprehensively. All three were wearing similar garments to the ones that they had replaced his own with. "What is this?" he asked menacingly, holding out a piece of paper. The girl looked strangely at his son for a moment before stepping forward and taking the paper. She read it and was silent for a while. "I found that, brat, on these clothes."

Kat turned to Trunks. " `Wear me'? Where were you? Through the looking glass?"

"What?" he asked. "I thought it was funny."

"Oh yes, hilarious."

Vegeta grabbed her arm. "Tell me what is going on right now brat," he growled.

"Tousan…" Trunks began.

"Oh!" They turned to see Bulma at the other end of the room. Vegeta let his hold go of Kat's arm as Bulma's eyes swept the room. "Guys, what's going on? Why are you all dressed up?"

"Mama!" cried Chibi Trunks, reaching for her. Bulma's mouth fell opened and gaped a couple of times.

"We thought we'd celebrate," Kat said to break the silence. Bulma's mouth was still hanging open.

"What's so good about that?" Vegeta mocked. "So the brat can say a word, who cares?"

Kat smirked. "Hey terror, who's that?" she asked pointing to Vegeta.

"Ge-ta," the baby stated plainly.

Later when they got a chance to talk, Kat and Trunks couldn't agree that they'd seen something flicker in Vegeta's eyes when the Chibi said his name. Either way, the dinner went better than they'd hoped.

*****

Bulma smiled and tiled her face towards the sun. She was outside, next to her pool, taking a well-earned day off and getting a tan to boot. The first day of summer had arrived and was recording the highest temperatures for twenty years. Somewhere off in the forest a bird began singing and Bulma thought that it couldn't get any better than this. The last few days had been the best she'd had in a long time. Ever since that stupid dinner the kids had put on things had been going well. Vegeta for one had definitely been in a better mood, as the last few nights had proved. She grinned wickedly at the thought. She had to get him back for what he did last night, she thought fingering the bite mark on her neck. Of course being alone had its perks too. For one, she could straighten out her thoughts and just have some general quiet time, without Vegeta or some employee wanting something.

Trunks had offered, to her delight, to take the Chibi this morning to go and visit the Son's. Her parents, sensing that their daughter wanted what they called her `down time', also beat a hasty retreat to a luncheon at an old friends house. Vegeta she needn't worry about because he spent most of the day in the Grav Room and her mother had left him prepared food in the fridge. Of course Kat had been the easiest to...well she wouldn't say `get rid of' merely, make scarce. To the young girl's utter joy some of the kids of her biggest clients had invited her to the beach for the day. The girl had been ecstatic and Bulma, despite her apprehension of some of the reputations, had fed off the girl's joy and had dragged her straight down to the nearest shopping strip and bought her several new outfits, even though most of them were completely inappropriate for beach wear.

She had been doing that a lot lately. First it had been from the need for Kat to have suitable things to wear to meetings but then when Bulma had seen the true state of the girl's meager wardrobe she'd insisted on buying more. Kat had protested for a while but had finally given in to Bulma's forcefulness. Bulma smiled as she went back to her magazine. Having Kat around was like having a daughter she'd never had to raise. Not to mention the free babysitting. Of course she didn't get along with Vegeta and that worried her but then Kat was smart enough to keep out of his way. And she got along famously with Trunks. Though not this morning, she thought frowning, remembering the row that had ensued because she'd forgotten to tell him she was going. It wasn't any of his business what she did, he wasn't her babysitter, she'd said. Maybe not, he'd replied, but Gohan was going to be disappointed. Kat had balked a little at this but had muttered that her nephew would understand. Bulma seriously thought that Trunks really hadn't begun the argument for Gohan's sake and was miffed that she was going out with people that hadn't included him. The smile returned as Bulma imagined Vegeta's reaction if she told him that.

A door slamming interrupted her thoughts. A moment later another door slammed and then music began blaring. Evidently, Kat had returned and Bulma guessed, as she got off her comfy deck chair, was not in the best of moods.

By the time Bulma had made the journey up to the young girl's room, the blaring music had even managed to draw Vegeta from his training. He was standing outside Kat's door yelling at the top of his lungs while trying to save his sensitive ears by covering them with his hands. All in all a very undignified position for the great Saiya-jin Prince to be in and Bulma mused, if he had known someone was watching him would have stopped immediately.

She was about to tap him on the shoulder when his disgust of anything to do with the younger Saiya-jin evaporated and he broke the door in. Bulma, quick to follow him in, ignored him as he ripped the stereo off the shelf and proceeded to throw it out the window. Instead her gaze went to the figure on the bed, which had a pillow over their head.

"Kat?" Bulma asked when everything went silent. No answer. "Kat, is everything okay?" Knowing very well that it obviously wasn't.

"Go away," came the muffled reply from under the pillow.

"No." Bulma's open out refusal was a surprise because the girl under the pillow didn't reply and she was never one to be at a loss for words, most of the time she had far too many of them to say. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Okay. I'll put it another way. What did you do?"

"Nothing." But this time the reply was much quieter.

Bulma waited, grateful that Vegeta had chosen to remain silent, she knew that Kat could sense him in the room. After a few moments the girl began talking again.

"I'm too different Bulma-san. I don't fit in anywhere." She sighed. "I never will."

"Come on Kat, you know that's not true. You fit in here don't you?"

Kat abruptly sat up and turned to Bulma, who was surprised at first to see dry eyes before reminding herself that she was speaking with a Saiya-jin. Then she noticed Kat's bloodstained and slightly torn shirt.

"Kami...your shirt. What happened? Are you all right?"

Kat stood shakily, seeming to loose her balance for a minute. "I told you, nothing happened." She pushed past the blue haired woman and using the window that Vegeta had conveniently opened with the stereo, Kat floated out of the room and up towards the roof.

Bewildered about this strange behavior, Bulma turned to question Vegeta. Maybe this was some weird Saiya-jin thing? But Vegeta's stoic mask never changed. He gave a small shrug and walked from the room.

*****

She was still on the roof when Vegeta found her a few hours later. He knew she knew he was there and wouldn't have cared if she didn't. He stood, watching her but she didn't move save for the slight swaying of her ebon hair when the breeze blew.

He could find so many reasons to hate this girl. Not by far the least was that she was related to Kakarott and was his twin of all things. She refused to acknowledge him as her Prince. She relied on others far too much to get by - barging in on what was now his home the greatest of these. And she pissed him off royally with every word that came out of her mouth. It was true that a lot of the time Bulma had this effect on him too but this young third class Saiya-jin had not the beauty of his blue haired onna. Perhaps in a few years and if she ever learned to curb her mouth she would be something to look at but only perhaps. Of course, his son was being far too friendly towards her, something that he knew Bulma approved of but disgusted him. He only hoped that the boy would leave soon and that the harpy would take the girl in.

He came out of his thoughts and looked at her again. So un-Saiya-jin like, this way of looking dejected with the shoulders hunched and head down. Even a third class should have more pride than that. It was no way for a full-blooded Saiya-jin to act. That thought stopped him there. It drew his attention to a fact that had not escaped him but had only just now made him realize exactly why he hated her so much. He blamed her.

She was the only full-blooded female of his kind left and she had waited until all the others were dead and he had found Bulma before she came out of hiding. If she had only made herself known then there could have been hope for their race. He put the death of the Saiya-jins on her slight shoulders. Frieza was the real reason he knew but it was hard to take out your lifetime of anger on the dead. So he took it out on the reminder of what could have been.

"Go away Vegeta."

Her soft yet vehement demand jolted him from his reverie. "Do not presume to order me, brat."

"I wasn't ordering. I was telling," she spat back, as a sharp gust of wind exposed the back of her neck.

Vegeta growled. He had, despite his intense dislike of the girl, come up here to get her off the roof. This was not making it easier.

Bulma was downstairs and had been worrying herself stupid ever since the phone call. Apparently some baka human wanted to charge the girl for assault on their son. Of course, he had known as soon as he entered her room that the blood that had been spilt wasn't hers. Bulma had wheedled, eventually, the reason why she had beaten the unsuspecting boy up. He had, according to a reliable source, tried to `jump her bones' as the overdramatic floozy on the other end of the vid-phone put it. Bulma had deemed this was why the girl was upset.

Vegeta believed the girl (under Saiya-jin law, which was the only one that applied since she wasn't human) had a perfect right to beat up any suitors who were unworthy of her. It was basic Saiya-jin nature. He knew that deep down she would have wanted the boy to fight back - no matter how she denied it. So he had, mostly to calm Bulma down, decided to come up here and give the girl the fight she was looking for. He had been planning to be civil. She was making harder. But then perhaps it would be better if she didn't think he was being sympathetic. Which of course, he wasn't.

Quickly he thought of something that would sting her. "You can't even beat a human sufficiently. You aren't in the position to tell anything."

"Shut up."

"Why? Did he get further than the onna found out?"

"I said shut up!"

"No. I think you let him. Trying to mix your worthless third class blood with a mangy human?" He sneered.

She stood and turned, her black eyes blazing. "Don't you even think about insinuating that! The high and mighty Saiya-jin no Ouji shouldn't bother with the problems of us lower classes. He should go, find a long stick and shove it where the sun don't shine!"

Kat breathing heavily, trying to control the intense hatred she had towards the man at the moment. In two strides he crossed the distance between them and threw a punch at her. She was so wound up that she never noticed that he wasn't using his full strength as she ducked and counter punched at his abdomen. Taking advantage of her position, he slammed her to the roof. She threw him off and pushed off the roof, following him into the air.

Teeth barred she attacked. He just grinned at her as he blocked her punches. This just pissed her off more and caused her to double her attack. Vegeta was mildly surprised that he had to actually increase his ki a bit more to prevent her from hurting him. Still, she had been training and he had beaten her up enough times for her to become a little stronger. He smirked again. She still hadn't noticed he wasn't fighting back. He could hear Bulma yelling at him from the ground. Baka onna, he thought. Doesn't she understand that this is what the girl needs? If she didn't vent this rage now, then the next time some boy tries to `jump her bones' she might kill him. He didn't really care anything for baka human politics but he understood that the brat could cause trouble for Bulma and therefore for him. It would not do anyone any good for her to keep it bottled up inside. He cursed himself for not concentrating as a punch grazed his cheek.

*****

ChiChi lent out her kitchen window as the laughter floated into her. "What are you boys up to now?" They had finished lunch and she had sent them - Trunks, the Chibi, Gohan and her Tousan - outside while she cleaned up.

Gohan grinned back at her. "Look at Chibi Trunks, Kassan. He's trying to fly before he can walk." The lawn outside the Son house was for once, mercifully free of scorch marks. ChiChi smiled as the Chibi stood, shakily raised his hands and tried to jump up to join Marai Trunks who was teasing him by floating just out of his reach.

"Trunks," ChiChi admonished. "That's mean."

"Don't worry I'll make up for it." He reached down to pick himself up and took off for a spin above the trees, the Chibi giggling madly in his arms.

ChiChi sighed. It would almost be perfect if Gokou were here. Her son was happy and could concentrate on his studies, her Tousan had comfortably settled down with them and he was always happy to have visitors when they dropped in. She supposed that she should have Bulma over for dinner; she had been putting it off because she had apprehensions about Vegeta. One was that she didn't really want the man in her house, the other was that he'd decline the invitation so he could train, which was just plain rude. Her thoughts turned to her sister-in-law. ChiChi actually really liked the girl, despite the little that they had spoken. It was jut that she still found it hard to look at the girls smiling face. She looked exactly like Gokou when she was happy. If it weren't for her hair, which hung down her back in smooth spikes and only the one large lock that fell over her eyes, she would be the female version of her husband. Except for that one time.

Kat had gone into the kitchen to get a glass of water. They heard the tap turn on and stay on for a while. Curious, ChiChi went to check on her. The girl had been standing at the sink starring seemingly out the window. The water was just running from the tap, the glasses left standing on the bench. Kat had her hand out as if waiting for someone to hand her a glass.

After a moment Kat had shivered and come out of whatever little trance she had been in. Her head turned to look at her hand. ChiChi watched as the expression on Kat's face went from surprised to angry. It scared ChiChi for a minute; the girl had looked almost like Vegeta. She backed away into the living room and when Kat came out a minute later she gave no indication that she had even noticed that ChiChi had been there.

"Hey Trunks, did you feel that?" ChiChi glanced up as Trunks came into land.

"Oh no. Not again." Trunks rolled his eyes.

ChiChi frowned. "Trunks-kun, what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry ChiChi-san but I have to go. Tousan and Kat are fighting again." He floated up into the sky, the Chibi clutched tightly in his arms. "Thanks for lunch!"

"You're welcome! Be careful!" she called after him.

"Hai!"

"He might need help. I better go with him." Gohan took a step.

"You most certainly will not. Trunks is a grown boy he can take care of himself. You on the other hand have homework."

"Aw kassan…"

"Now Gohan."

*****

There was something wrong with what he was sensing. Kat was fighting all out, like she would have to against Vegeta but his Tousan was holding back most of his energy. He caught sight of them above the large Capsule Corp. dome and slowed his flight. A small smile slowly made it's way onto his face. Well, he thought, there are such things as miracles after all. Or not, he mused as he got in hearing distance. The language coming from both parties wasn't exactly friendly. He landed next to Bulma who was fuming up at the pair.

"Trunks you have to stop them," she pleaded as she plucked the Chibi from his arms.

"Why?" he asked.

"Why…what do you mean, why? They're going to kill each other!"

"No they're not," he answered gazing up at them.

"Huh?"

"Kassan. If Tousan was really fighting her, Kat would be in a tank by now."

Bulma gaped. "You mean he's just sparring with her?"

Trunks nodded. "I don't know why but yes." He shifted suddenly and moved Bulma to the side as Kat came crashing to the ground where they had just been standing. "Or he was," he added, glaring up at Vegeta.

The Saiya-jin Prince glared back before disappearing through an upstairs window. Trunks watched as Bulma knelt beside Kat. "Amazing. He hasn't hurt her at all. She's just unconscious." Bulma shook her head. "As long as I live I will never understand that man."

Trunks smiled slightly. "You always say that."

Bulma turned and regarded the son she never raised; or at least, not this her. He had her blue eyes but they always looked so sad, she wondered if her future self looked the same. She smiled in return. "I can't lift her, could you?"

Trunks knelt and lifted Kat's limp body from the ground. "Tank?"

"No. She'll be fine. He room will do." He nodded and disappeared inside. Bulma stood for a moment in the dark. They hadn't been fighting all out, Trunks had said. She frowned; there was something wrong with that statement. If they hadn't been fighting all out then why had Trunks come back? Unless he'd come back to pull them apart. Which meant that one of them at least had been fighting at full capacity and she was pretty certain it wasn't Vegeta. Kat had been in a foul mood before; had she known what she was truly doing? Is that why Vegeta went easy on her? Why had he only been sparring when before he gave the girl no chance? Bulma shook her head and looked down at her infant son. "As long as I live I will never understand Saiya-jins."

Author's note: A bit slow I know. Establishing background I think it's called.

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