Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Piccolo and Alaura Saga, Episode Four: Children Of The Dawn ❯ Father-Daughter Talks... ( Chapter 7 )

Neko watched Piccolo leave and her mother turn from the phone. She'd heard, with her keen saiyan hearing, the voice on the other end of the phone and much of the conversation. She wondered what in the world would bring the old turtle hermit and that weirdo Yamcha to town.

Both of whom had always made her very uncomfortable, what with the old man always leering after her and trying to grope her after she'd started to develop and Yamcha with his horrible pick-up lines that wouldn't work on anyone!

She'd never told anyone how uncomfortable she'd felt during the times as a child when she went to stay at `Uncle Gohan's' and they went to visit Roshi and Yamcha and the gang were there.

She'd been too embarrassed to say anything about Roshi's inappropriate staring and Yamcha's "accidental" fondling to her parents, otherwise both men would not have been long for this world….

However, after Piccolo began training her, she had sent Yamcha flying into a wall once after another one of his roamin' hands routines after she'd turned sixteen. He hadn't really bothered her much after that. Master Roshi still continued his gazing, but since he was so old and revered she didn't feel right about hitting him, which is what she longed to do.

Oh, eck! She thought, hugging herself, Do I actually have to put up with them in my own house on one of my only weeks off?!

Her thoughts moved of their own accord towards Piccolo, the one person in all the world she trusted and loved as her father, even though in all reality, that title should have gone to Gohan, the one she calls her Uncle. She knew something in the phone call they had just received troubled him. She thought she knew what.

She sighed heavily as she heard her mother's car start, having no time to call a cab, which is the way she preferred to travel when out and about, rather than having to drive herself, and pull away. She closed her eyes and began to silently search…

Piccolo's life energy was strong, and very different than those others around him. Humans were much weaker and of a lower scale than the impressive namek and the other creatures, mindless four-legged ones and winged ones as well as insects were too small to actually focus on without a lot of trouble and a possible massive headache.

Once she'd found it and him, she paused to take one last look at the sleeping twins, shrugged and thought that they'd be fine for a few minutes, (Scamper woke and gave her a puzzled look before settling back to sleep), and slipped out the front door. She let her ki fill herself up and concentrated on lifting herself up off of the ground.

She hadn't flown in a long time. She was almost afraid she'd forgotten how. But, as she soon discovered, it was much like riding a bike. She just had to do it. She floated upwards, scanning the trees, looking for….

Ah! She found it! A slight opening between the trees, she could see where the clearing was that she wanted to be and dove downwards towards it.

Piccolo opened one eye and looked up just in time to see his daughter flying headlong towards him. He jumped up and had just decided to wait for her to land in front of him when she screamed something about "No brakes! No brakes! Watch out!" and crash-landed right into him, knocking them both to the ground in a very ungraceful tangle of human and namek limbs.

After untangling himself from her and standing up, brushing off his gi and looking down at her from narrowed eyes, he asked; "Neko, what…?"

"Sorry, Father!" She cried, blushing and wiping dirt off of her pants, "I guess I sorta forgot how to stop once I got going…heh…"

"See what happens when you leave off your training!"

"Please don't start…"

"Well, I'm not the one who's running into thing!"

"Father, please," Neko began, not wanting to start on this same argument….again. "I came to you to find out why you left so suddenly…"

"I always leave suddenly," He said, not looking at her, "Why should that make you inquisitive?"

"Not the way you left, the why," She said, sitting down on a boulder facing the rushing water of the stream and the waterfall, "And I though you and Mom had worked things out…"

"We have," He said, "And I needed to meditate. I like being alone, or have you forgotten that about me in that big fancy school of yours?"

Neko turned to face him, but instead of anger across her face, her dark brows were drawn with worry and sadness, "Don't try to turn this around on me! You were never good at games like that…Something is troubling you, I can feel it. It has something to do with Gohan, right?"

At the sound of the name, Piccolo stiffened and crossed his arms over his chest in his usual I'm-a-powerful-namekian-and-I-don't-have-the-same-cares-and-concerns-as- you stance, his eyes turned to avoid looking into his adopted daughter's.

"I never really thought of how difficult it must have been," She began, speaking softly, a slight breeze wisping the hairs about her forehead, "For you to raise me as your own, knowing all the while that I wasn't honestly yours…"

"Don't ever think that, Neko!" He roared, "I was the one who raised you, I was the one who trained you! Your not his daughter, your mine! Neko, mine!"

"I know, Father," She said, smiling with pride, "And I'd rather have no one else as my father, adopted or otherwise…"

"I'm just…" He said, and then looked away before the words could slip past his lips…but she had caught the words none-the-less in the pregnant steam of conscience that moved between them as father and daughter.

She stood up and walked over to him, embracing him gently, she whispered, "Don't be afraid. I'll never stop being your daughter…the twins either…"

"You mean a great deal to me, Neko," He said as he released her and looked down into her eyes, "And I am proud of who you've grown up into, and, although it kills me to admit it, maybe going away to school was the best thing for you after all."

"I'm glad to hear you finally say so!" She said, "Now, what's the deal with you and Mom? I thought that after that one big fight you guys had that you had worked things out…"

He moved away from her a few steps before replying, "We did work it out. I am staying with her just as long as the twins need me. It's not their fault they were the result of a one-night stand."

"And after they no longer need you?" She asked, fearing the answer. She hated to think of her Mother and Piccolo separated. Such a thought made it hard for her to even think straight!

He didn't answer. Before she could prompt him further, suddenly they heard and felt a very large explosion. Neko screamed and fell backwards at the unexpectedness of the ground shaking and the sound of the nearby explosion. "The girls…!"

"Your mother didn't take them with her…?" He began, then felt their ki, strong for infants, "Damn it! She didn't!"

Neko looked up to see him taking off in the direction of the house. She hoped her little sisters were okay…

But, what was that?! She asked herself as she started to run back down through the slightly hilly forest toward her parents' house in Piccolo's wake.