Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Through A Mirror Darkly ❯ Dinner Time! ( Chapter 13 )

A/N: If the childrens' ages seem a bit…off…I apologize profusely. Other than that, I hope you are enjoying this.

By the time Aubria made it to the kitchen the food was nearly half gone. She looked around at the unfamilair faces, uncertain how to address them. She did not of the customs of this new world and feared offending any one. She simply stood there, her beautifully large blue and gold butterfly wings half-closed against her back and nearly hidden by her long, soft blue-silver hair.

She was dressed in a long, loose-fitting azure gown with pretty little sequins all over it that the woman, Chi Chi had given her. She's said it had been a christmas gift from a friend but that she'd never worn it so it was almost brand new. Aubria had thanked her and then used the dagger she carried in her boot-shealth to cut a large enough hole in the back for her wings to fit through.

She clasped her hands in front of herself and looked waited for instruction. Even as young as she was…six turns of the seasons actually…she had been taught good manners by her mother and struggled to remember what she'd learned. For once she regretted daydreaming during her mother's lessons in decorum.

Thankfully someone must have seen her plight and came to her rescue. "You must be Aubria!" The smaller boy said and stood up, grinning, "Hi! I'm Goten, this is my brother, Gohan…"

Aubria smiled warmly at the boy and his older brother.

"Go on dear," She heard Chi Chi behind her, laying a calming hand on her shoulder, "You're dinner will get cold…"

"Oh, that's all right!" Aubria smiled at her, "I only eat fruits and vegetables anyway. My people can't handle food made from animal flesh." She gave a little shudder at the thought and nodded in releaf when Chi Chi told her that she'd made a huge tossed salad.

Goku had sat down next to Chi Chi at the table. Their sons were on either side of their parents and Aubria, their guest, sat at the end. She didn't mind. She ate her salad in silence and drank the water Chi Chi had given her while half-listening to the conversation floating around her.

"…Videl is due any day now, Dad!" Gohan was saying, "The doctor says she's doing fine."

"Glad to hear it!" Goku said, patting his wife on the shoulder, "Hear that, honey, soon we'll be grandparents!"

Chi Chi smiled and said something along the lines of, "It's about time!"

"Hello!" A voice rang out from the other end of the house, "Anybody home!"

"Bulma!" Chi Chi cried, standing up, "In here! We're just eating…" She stopped as Bulma approached, Toshi behind her holding her infant daughter; Bra.

"Hey! She looks just like…" Goten started, pointing at Toshi.

"Vegeta!" Gohan finished for him, his eyebrow so high they looked lost in his hair, "Like a photo negative of him, at least."

"Well, that and she's a girl," Goten said, shaking his head, "Wow! It's uncanny!"

Toshi shifted Bra on her hip and felt her cheek flush. She didn't know how to handle the situation so she did the only thing that seemed to feel right. She glared at them all until they turned back to their food. She handed Bra to Bulma and stood off to one side. She hated the outfit she was wearing. Bulma had picked it out for her at the mall on their shopping spree today and she absolutely abhored it. It was a hot pink two piece number that showed way to much cleavage up front and way too much leg below.

She was constantly trying to pull the too tight little skirt down over her shapely legs or the neckline up farther. She knew she had to look absolutely silly in it, but Bulma had insisted she wear it and she didn't want to make waves so hadn't quarrelled about it.

"What in the world have you got on, dear?!" Chi Chi asked her, then she looked at Bulma and tsked softly, "Have you no shame, Bulma? Forcing this poor girl to walk around looking like a…"

"Don't even finish that thought!" Bulma said, holding her finger out towards Chi Chi, "I'll have you know, that outfit was extremely expensive!"

"Well, I think she looks great!" Goten said, "Too bad I all ready have a girlfriend…"

"Yeah, She looks hot!" Gohan said, "Too bad I'm married…"

"You boys hush and mind your manners!" Chi Chi scolded them and turned back to Bulma and Toshi, "You can go change into something of mine, dear, if your uncomfortable…"

"No way!" Bulma cried, "I paid good money for that outfit for her to wear and she's gonna wear it or so help me…!"

Toshi stood there, her head going from one voice to the other, as the women yelled back and forth and little Bra began to wail. She felt like she was watching a tennis match with the way her head was whipping back and forth between the two. Finally, her temper would not stay down where she'd been shoving and pushing it and she just exploded on them without warning.

"Enough!" She shouted, her face red and her hands balled into fists at her side, "Stop all this bickering! You two are giving me a splitting migraine! I want to change clothes and Bulma, don't you dare even think of telling me what I can or can't wear…or even do for that matter! All of you! Just shut up and leave me alone!"

With her breasts heaving under the tight-fitting garment, Toshi knew she must have made quite a spectacle of herself. She didn't hear the front door open and close just before the last words of her sudden outburst were out of her mouth and she turned and ran from the room.

Aubria's ears hurt now, she rubbed them with her hands but the stinging sound of the white-haired girl's voice still rang through them. She looked up and saw someone else enter the room. It was a man, but he had hair like the girl, only very dark. She wondered, breifly, if they were related.

"What was that all about?" Vegeta asked Bulma as she handed Bra to him, "Did my little look-a-like give you a hard time, Bulma?"

"As if you have to ask!" Bulma said, glowering, "That girl is gonna be nothing but trouble! Mark my words! Trouble!"

"At least she stood up for herself." Vegeta smirked, "I was almost starting to think never would."

"You…you sound like your proud of her!" Bulma said, between clentched teeth, "You hardly know her!"

"I know enough to realize that she's as much a part of me as the nose on my face," Vegeta said, "Or my fist…or my strength…Of course I'm proud of her, why shoudn't I be?"

"I've tried to be nice to her," Bulma sighed, "But I don't know any more."

"You haven't tried to be nice, Bulma," Vegeta accused, pointing at her, "You just used her as another of your pet projects. `I'll take the girl shopping and give her make-over and afterwards she'll be so enthralled with me that she'll do anything I say…!'"

"I never said that!" Bulma said, her cheeks red, her blue eyes blazing, "I took her shopping out of the kindness of my heart…which is more than can said for you her so-called twin-soul!"

"You took her shopping so that the clothes she had been wearing, which were battle torn and bloody, wouldn't embarrass your family!" Vegeta accused, seeing Bulma grow even more angry with every word that passed between them. Finally, as if she couldn't stand it anymore, Chi Chi brought everything to a sudden, screeching halt.

"SHUTUP!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Poor Aubria's ears were nearly deaf by now and she kept sticking her finger into them and wiggling it, trying to get them to start working again.

Bulma and Vegeta looked at Chi Chi, stunned into silence, even little Bra had quited her wails and was now just hiccuping against her father's chest, one tiny fist shoved into her mouth. "If you want to scream at each other, please do it some place else! As you can see we are trying to have our dinner and we have a guest over tonight and frankly, you are embarrassing me to no end!"

Vegeta's face became hard and his eyes narrowed, he stalked over to Chi Chi and looked down at her; "No woman yells at me like that and gets away with it…!" Before he could do anything, for Chi Chi had glared right back at him, nearly ready to toss her apron aside and fling herself at him in a rage, Goku stood up from the table and stepped between his wife and Vegeta.

"Just calm down!" Goku said, trying to sheild Chi Chi and keep her from doing something stupid…like attacking Vegeta when he was upset and ending up getting killed… "Vegeta, why don't you and I go out and train for awhile. I'm done eating anyway. Gohan, Goten, why don't you two join us, okay?"

"Sure Dad!" The boys said at the same time and followed their father outside.

After a few tense moments, Bulma finally spoke.

"I think we need to go home, Chi Chi." She said, not looking at her friend, but at her husband, "I think we need to go home and talk."

"I'll get Toshi…" Vegeta began but Bulma shook her head, "But…"

"She'll be all right here for now," Chi Chi said, "You two need some time to yourselves. I'll take care of the baby for you too."

Vegeta handed her his daughter, his anger at her gone as quickly as it had come, he thanked her with a nod and turned back to his mate. "I think your right, Bulma. Come on."

Bulma waved to Chi Chi on the way out. "Thank you so much, Chi Chi! I'll call you later!"

Aubria lowered her head and kept shoving lettuce into her mouth. She was thankful that no one really seemed to notice her. Except, just then, Toshi came back into the room, having changed into something more comforable, one of Chi Chi's modest dresses that made it much easier to walk and breath, saw Aubria sitting there and approached her.

"Who are you?" She asked, as Aubria looked up with her mouth full of lettuce, "I don't remember seeing you in the mirror…?"

"Mirror?"