Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Piccolo and Alaura Saga, Episode Four: Children Of The Dawn ❯ Neko's Home/Another Phone Call ( Chapter 6 )

"I can't believe how much they've grown, Mom!" Neko exclaimed in a whisper as she looked down at the sleeping twins in their crib, Scamper curled up next to Eresa for once instead of Asere and Asere had a baby bottle filled with water in her little hands under her chin. "I've only been gone for a few month and it seems like they've grown leaps and bounds since then! I hardly recognize them!"

Alaura laughed, happy to have her firstborn home with her after she'd been away at school. Even for a few months it had seemed so long. Neko hadn't taken off her black suede jacket yet and her tote bag with the name of her school was still slung over one shoulder.

She had cut her hair short in a style much like that of Videl's and Alaura thought the new look tamed her wild ends somewhat and made her dark eyes even more large and beautiful.

"Oh, Mom!" Neko whispered, turning and wrapping her arm about her mother's shoulder, leading her out of the room, "I'm so happy to be home!"

"Where's my daughter?" They heard a strong, masculine voice boom from the front room, "I could sense her ki the moment she arrived. I know I didn't bring her up to be rude and forget to greet her elders at once when she arrives at their home…?!"

A wide smile spead across Neko's face as she let go of Alaura and sprinted across the room with such speed that only one of true saiyan ancestry could have accomplished. "Father!" She cried, (having long ago given up the childlike way of address Piccolo as `Da') She jumped up into his arms and he held her as any proud parent would a child they loved beyond all the joys and pains of the world, "I've so missed you!"

"You stay away at that fancy school for much too long, Little One," Piccolo growled, trying to hide his emotions as he stroked this grown daughter's short locks, her arms tight about his waist as she hugged him in childlike rapture, "What does some building with old bookworms have to teach you that I cannot? What can you really learn that will be useful to you in the real world?"

Neko pulled away and looked up into Piccolo's dark eyes, so deep against his emerald skin, "You are still angry with me for not completing my martial arts training with you after we came back from Jalamir, aren't you?"

Piccolo didn't answer. The look in his eyes was enough.

"Father, you know that I value you and what you have taught me above all else!" Neko cried, "But, I have to be realistic, I'm strong and fast but there will always be someone stronger, faster…"

"Only if you let them be."

"That's just it!" She cried, "I don't care what they do! I want to live my own life, be what I want to be! I want to make it in the real world, as you called it, and I can't do that by being a karate bum all my life!"

"You sound like Chi Chi…"

"Well, maybe you should listen to her for once," She said, "She makes a good deal of sense, you know."

"Stop it, you two!" Alaura practically yelled, she didn't though, she didn't want to wake the twins, "Every time Neko comes home from school you two argue about the same thing! Now, I've had enough of it! This family is going to get along, or else!"

Neko started to laugh at her mother's words but one look into Alaura's blue eyes shut her mouth. She said; "I need to go unpack," Instead and left them to go to the bedroom that she would always be reserved for her no matter how far away or for how long she was gone. Piccolo looked at Alaura after Neko had gone and raised an eyeridge at her. Alaura opened her mouth to speak but Piccolo spoke instead.

"Gohan!" He exclaimed out the blue and Alaura felt her throat and stomach tighten. Piccolo noticed and quickly finished, "No, you don't understand, I feel he is near. Very near…"

Just then, the phone rang and Alaura walked over to pick it up. Before did, the large namekian knew all ready who would be on the other end. "Hello?" She greeted and waited.

"Alaura?" Videl's voice was breathy as usual on the other end, she sounded like she was in a phone booth somewhere, "Can you hear me?"

"Sure, just speak up," Alaura said, "What is it? Where are you?"

"At the airport with Gohan, Master Roshi and Yamcha," She explained, and told her briefly about the visit from Roshi and Yamcha seemingly out of the blue and how they had only stayed for two nights before practically demanding herself and Gohan to come with them to visit Piccolo and his family. "We're at the airport. Can you come pick us up?"

Alaura nodded and then realized that the other woman couldn't see her head-shake and said; "Um, sure…yes."

She felt numb all over save for the two words that kept playing over and over in her head and she had no idea how to stop them…

Gohan's here!

Piccolo turned from the phone and his wife and disappeared from normal sight. In the front of his mind he kept remembering how his former student had betrayed him, but in the back of his mind he thought about how much he'd missed him and also the fact that he wouldn't have the twins, whom he loved as if they had come from his own blood, if it hadn't been for that betrayal.

He wondered, as he appeared next to a flowing waterfall near the center of the forest which surrounded their home, a place he often came for solitude and relaxation, if Gohan's arrival so unexpectedly meant that he had come to the decision that he wanted to claim the girls as his own and take them away with him and Videl….

He shook his head at such a notion! Even if that had been Gohan's plan, he would have to get through his old teacher first. Piccolo wasn't about to relinquish his little daughters to anyone without a fight! But, he was getting ahead of himself. Maybe he had really just come to say he was sorry. To apologize for what he'd done with Alaura....

But, why then would the old turtle master and that upstart braggart Yamcha be with him? Piccolo asked himself, This makes no sense…

I'll just meditate for awhile and get my thoughts straight in my head, He thought, as he folded his legs under himself and settled in a common meditation pose floating in the air, Before I go back and asses the situation further…