Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Fall of the Mighty ❯ Moodiness and Irritability ( Chapter 18 )

~You Can Call Me Ms. Green~

The boys are back! And Gohan still isn't too thrilled. Remember that party Spice suggested? Well, here it comes. Nothing big, just a family-type get together. You know what those are like. Pretty boring…usually. Poor Vegy. He hates those. Enjoy. Hiya Lady-Indis, you really think that much of me? Thanx, I'm flattered!

Reservoir Dogs Rocks! Just watched it. It ranks on my list right up there under Suicide Kings. I liked Mr. Pink and Mr. Orange best. I hate Mr. Brown. Quenton Tarentino reminds me of this asshole I used to date. Yaaaayyy, he died after thirty seconds of screentime!!!!!!!!!!! Every movie I've ever seen him in, he has died. Isn't that great? Now that's what I call karma.

Thanx Vege-chan. I was beginning to give up hope that anyone on this site liked this fic. I will map out the families.

Trunks has the wife and kids whose names start with N. Two boys and one girl.

Goten has the kids that start with F. One boy and one girl.

Pan has the K twins, both boys.

Gohan has Pan (of course), Tong, and Spice.

I think that's it. Right? Okay.

~I agree with Mr Pink. Ya Gotta Act Like A Professional~

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He smiled at the odd sight. "You know, you can pick her up and move her. She won't wake up."

She eyed him dryly. "You'd think so, wouldn't you?"

He laughed. "I think Nalen was watching some kung fu movie last night."

She nodded appreciatively and grabbed the universal remote beside her. "Cool." She reclined the chair and laid back, content to stay where she was.

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*Moodiness and Irritability*

After about a week of absence Goku and Vegeta showed up at the C.C.

"Hi, Trunks."

The younger man was surprised to see them. "Hi."

"What have you learned?" Vegeta asked right off, with his usual tact.

Trunks smiled. "Well. As of last week, Goku was healthy and pregnant. If you let me run some more tests then I can tell you if he still is. Other than that I can't tell you much until I run some more tests anyway."

Goku cringed and backed off defensively. "No! No more needles! I HATE needles!"

Trunks held up his hands in a calming gesture. "It's okay, Goku. Considering how you reacted last time I have something else for you. Trunks retrieved a bottle and handed the skittish Saiyan some pills. "Here, drink these and go get a snack. Nothing big! Just a little and then come back. I'll be ready for you then."

"Okay." Much relieved, Goku took the pills and headed quickly to the house.

Vegeta eyed his son. "What is this? We're wasting time."

Trunks nodded. "Just until the relaxant kicks in. You don't want a repeat of last time do you? He wasn't expecting it then, now he is and I don't want my lab destroyed."

Vegeta nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I suppose."

"Make sure he doesn't eat too much, will you, father?"

"I am not his nursemaid. Besides, I don't think that will be a problem." Vegeta said sarcastically but left to catch the other Saiyan anyway.

The baby is growing much faster than I thought it would. Father? Do you happen to know how long Saiyajin pregnancies last?"

Vegeta grimaced and considered it. "If my memory serves me then I would say…seven months. Perhaps."

"That quickly? You're not sure? Then…if you are right…by my calculations and how much it has matured, it is probably right around three weeks old. That's almost a month already."

Vegeta shook is head ruefully. 'Figures.'

Trunks continued while he studied the information from the bloodwork he'd done. "Is Goku still not eating very much? That has to change. He has to eat more. A *lot* more. He's got to start taking vitamins and no sparring. I don't know how delicate this sort of system is and we don't want anything to happen to endanger the baby or him."

All this time Goku had been only partially listening from where he was spinning a monitor, frowning, and trying to make sense of the fuzzy picture. Now he interrupted. "No sparring? For six months? How am I gonna get my exercise?"

Trunks took the monitor from him and set it back in its place, slightly irritated. "The same way every pregnant *human* does. I don't even know how ki will effect things so you should hold back with that as well."

Vegeta spoke up again. "The flight here seemed to be more strain to him than usual."

Goku frowned at him. "Not really. Who's side are you on anyway? I feel fine!"

"That settles it, no using ki anymore."

Goku stood up and growled, his tail snapping back and forth in annoyance. "Hey! I've been poked and stabbed and jabbed and you talk about me like I'm not even here! You don't even have the decency to talk *to* me! It's *my* body and *my* kid! I have a say too! And *you*!" He turned on Vegeta. "You should stand up for me not help him gang up on me!" Turning back to Trunks he continued, his voice raising along with his ki and he breached SSJ. "You think you know best but you don't! You don't even know what you're doing, damn it! What is this? I don't see how ki will affect anything! I've had plenty of rough treatment lately and I'm fine!" Vegeta sent a venomous glare his way but Kakarott ignored him.

Trunks blushed brightly and cleared his throat. He tried to calm his uncle down. "Now, Goku, we're all a little stressed about this but we've got to take it easy and go one step at a time."

"A *little* stressed?! I'm *pregnant*!! And what do you mean *we*?! *I'm* the one who's got to deal with it! *I'm* the one who can't keep anything in my stomach! *I'm* the one who feels like shit half the time! *I'm* the one who's getting stressed here!" Kakarott was just about to jump into SSJ3 when his ki suddenly faltered and slowed, flickering strangely. He stopped his tirade and stared at his hands in shock. After straining for a minute more he finally released the energy and slumped looking drained. "No! Damn it! What's wrong with me!?! I never asked for this!"

All at once the anger was gone and the big man turned miserable with tears welling up in his eyes and his tail swinging morosely. Before anyone could respond he ran up, threw his arms around Vegeta, sobbing into his shoulder. The prince and his son stared wide-eyed at each other while Goku continued to cry.

Vegeta looked to his son pleadingly. "No…not this."

Trunks backed away with his hands up. "Sorry, father, but he's all yours. You're just going to have to get used to it over the next six months."

"Kakarott! Stop this!" He tried to push off the other man but Goku only bawled harder. The prince started to grow desperate. "Trunks! Anything…Ice-cream! Now!!"

Goku happily dug into a gallon of Black Forest ice cream while Vegeta and Trunks hovered tensely outside the doorway. Vegeta looked slightly shaken. "That was the first one. I hoped to skip that unpleasantness. Your mother was a nightmare."

Trunks would have laughed if he hadn't seen first hand and been the object of the alarming mood swing. "At least he can't power up completely. I assume that he'll become weaker as the baby draws more and more energy from him. If regular women on Vegetasai had to go through this sort of thing it's no wonder they didn't survive very often. Not even a month and he can't power up to level three."

"Oh, yes, that completely justifies my misery." Vegeta said sarcastically.

The door burst open behind them. "Dad!!" Already partially powered up, Gohan glared at Vegeta. "Where's my dad?! What did you do?!"

Goku looked up from his ice cream and leaned so he could see out the doorway. "Hi, Gohan, come have some ice cream. It's great."

"Dad!" He pushed past the two men to meet his father in the kitchen. "Are you okay?"

Goku smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. Here, have a bite." He held up the spoon for Gohan who shook his head, confused at how calm things were. "Uh, no thanks dad. What happened?"

Goku tried to speak around the spoon. "Whad dtho u been?"

His son frowned. "I felt your ki jump up."

His father turned embarrassed and swallowed. "Oh, that. I just kinda lost my temper. I'm okay now."

'Lost his temper? Dad never loses his temper!' "What was it? Was it Vegeta?"

All three of them, Goku, Vegeta and Trunks, frowned now but Vegeta and Trunks moved quickly away. "What do you mean? Why would I be mad at Vegeta?"

The demi-Saiyan moved close and touched his father's arm comfortingly. "It's okay, dad, you can tell me. Did Vegeta do something to you? Tell me what."

From where Vegeta and Trunks stood on the back porch they could feel Goku's ki rise. The prince chuckled. "The little bastard asked for it."

Trunks shook his head. "I never thought I'd see the day Goku raised his voice to one of his kids."

Goku didn't power up as much as he had before but it was plain to anyone within a hundred feet that he was mad. They could just faintly make out his voice on the other side of the house.

Gohan backed up slowly, shell shocked, while his father yelled. "What is your problem?! What is this obsession you have with blaming Vegeta for everything?! You were okay until…" Goku paused in realization. "*That's* it! It's just because I'm with him isn't it?! That's the whole problem isn't it?! I can't believe you! My own son! Do you have any idea what I've gone through just to get here? I don't need this damn it! I've found someone who cares about me and I'm going to have a baby and all you can do is criticize! All I want is a little understanding and to enjoy my ice cream and this is what I get!!" His father slumped in his chair again, shoved a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth, and sat sniffling with one hand over his eyes.

Gohan was stunned, he didn't know what to do. He inched forward hesitantly. He hadn't meant to upset him. "Dad? Dad, I'm sorry." He reached over and hugged the Saiyan's tense shoulders. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Goku drew a shuddering breath as he struggled for control. His voice broke. "You need to *lay off*!!"

Gohan nodded enthusiastically, desperate to appease his distraught father. "You're right, dad. I'm sorry, I am. It's none of my business, I know. It's all right. Here." He pulled the ice cream closer. "Can't let this go to waste, can we? Look, it's melting. How about some whipped cream? Huh, dad?"

After a suitable amount of time, Vegeta and Trunks carefully approached the hall of horrors. They peeked in to find both Sons sharing not only the gallon of ice cream but a container of coolwhip as well while talking quietly. Gohan noticed their twin smirks and glanced at his now content father. "Hey, dad, I should be getting back to work now. I kind of left in a hurry. You'll come visit us soon, right? Or we could visit you."

"And Vegeta."

"And Vegeta. Of course." Gohan hastily added.

"Sure, Gohan. We'd love to." The father agreed happily. Gohan stood and Trunks walked him out while Vegeta took up the abandoned seat and flashed Gohan a superior and smug stare.

Gohan paused at the front door still dazed. "Was that what I think it was?"

Trunks nodded. "I gave him some sedatives so he would be calm for a few tests but they seem to have thrown him a little off balance along with the hormones in his system. You should be glad you weren't here earlier. I thought he was going to get violent. You remember what Videl was like?" He tried to reassure Gohan. "Well… Look at it this way. Dad didn't take off. If he can handle this for the next six months then there is nothing at all to worry about."

Gohan looked skeptical still. "I guess. I can't…six months? Nevermind." He gave up with a shake of his head. "And I thought mom was bad when she had Goten all by herself." Then he headed off.

"Are you ready to go, Kakarott?" Vegeta was at ease now but he wasn't about to risk his mate's ire again. He dipped the abandoned spoon in helping Goku scoop out the last of the ice cream from the container.

"We're going to my house, right?"

Vegeta frowned. "I suppose we can. It'll be easier to keep you occupied here rather than on my island."

Goku glared at him suspiciously. "What's that supposed to mean?"

The prince almost dropped his spoon. "Uh… Nothing!"

A few days later.

Vegeta found himself sitting on the ground with a five year-old climbing on him and playing with his black spikes, heedless of his longsuffering expression. He did his best to ignore her while he stretched out his muscles, stiff from not training for half the day, until a seven year-old landed on him and clamped a choking hug on his neck. "Hey, uncle, look what I can do!" Suddenly a moderately good sized ki ball appeared before his nose and he reacted instantly.

"Gha!"

Creating an energy shield he knocked it away and it flew off to impact a tree, enveloping it thoroughly. Fleaa stared at the tree, which was quickly converting to ash, and then at her uncle. "Cool! Grandpa wouldn't let me destroy anything yet!"

Vegeta frowned in annoyance. "Next time show me at a distance or it will be *you* instead of some plant. And *you*! Get off me! Go play or something!"

"Okay!" They both yelled at once and ran off together.

Someone chuckled behind him and he felt pressure on his shoulders again. "My turn?" Vegeta looked up into Goku's smiling face with exasperation. "I've already been smothered. I have no wish to be crushed as well."

"*hmph* Maybe I should. You would have to leave off training till you recovered." The prince had been avoiding him ever since a few days ago when he'd managed to really piss off the pregnant man. The fight had escalated shockingly fast and then he disappeared into the gravity chamber for about eighteen hours. When he emerged Goku had completely forgotten about the whole incident but Vegeta made a point of staying away for the most part after that, even though he never went far. Goku used Vegeta as a stabilizer as he sank down to sit beside him. "Everyone is here and it's almost time to eat."

"I take it that means you want me to socialize." Vegeta growled. Kakarott leaned into him, closing his eyes, and Vegeta's frown faded. "Tired already?"

The younger man roused himself and shook his head. "Nah, just a little worn out from playing with the kids." Straitening, he began to stand but started to lose his balance and Vegeta caught his arm, half lifting him up to his feet.

Trunks leaned to Gohan's ear. "Look at that. How can you still have misgivings about them?" Gohan just shook his head and moved off to find his wife.

The whole family was there excluding Vegeta's daughter, still abroad with that martial artist he assumed, and Tong. Even Piccolo made an appearance along with assorted human friends of the families. The noise was appalling. 'At least the brats are amusing themselves with the Namek.' They had not seen the green alien for quite a while and at the moment Piccolo had both little girls scaling him like a seven foot tree while the twins were tugging on his arms for some unknown reason. As Vegeta passed by he faintly heard their pleas for the Namek to show them how he regenerates and the prince nearly burst out laughing. The twins were attempting to rip off one of Piccolo's arms so they could see him grow it back. The Namek looked very irate.

Despite the momentary glee at Piccolo's predicament he was ready for it to end. He'd had enough, food or no food. Enough people had tried to start polite conversation with him to last for the rest of his lifetime. Even Gohan had made a point of being overly polite. He moved off to one of the empty tables and reclined stiffly. He felt distinctly out of place. He did not belong here. This was not his place. He…felt wrong. Something was odd. He looked around unsure what this feeling could be from. Everything was as it should be. Spice sat on a table a ways away also by herself with her cd player by her side and a wine cooler in her hand. That was about all that you could find at one of these family get-togethers since most of the relations didn't drink. She was watching everyone mingle, silently mouthing along with her music. Everything seemed normal. He looked for Kakarott who was talking unconcerned with his granddaughter Pan. 'What is it?' He rescanned the crowd to see Spice had stopped singing and now wore a frown. She looked over at him and then around the party. Just as she stood up there was an explosion in the distance and everyone froze. Without waiting for the others Spice leapt into the air and sped off in the direction followed by the rest of the adult demi-Saiyans. Vegeta paused long enough to threaten Goku not to follow but the other Saiyajin had already taken it upon himself to catch the young ones and keep them from going along. He didn't have enough energy to be much help anyway, he was confident their sons could handle whatever it was.

The excursion turned out to be anti-climactic.

Spice stood chagrined before a red faced Tong. Everyone looked on expectantly and Gohan was about to step forward to find out what happened when Spice took charge. "Alright people! Nothing to see here, break it up! False alarm. Break it up. Go on. It's all been taken care of."

Gohan was incredulous. "What? What was the explosion? What hap…"

Spice interrupted him. "Nothing happened. Don't worry about it. Go on back to the party." No one moved and her eyes narrowed. "All that food is sitting there with *grampa*." That got a reaction. Soon the only ones left were the two siblings, Gohan, and Vegeta.

The father had grown annoyed by now. "Now, what happened here? What's going on?"

Tong hung his head and didn't say a word. Gohan grabbed his arm but the boy still wouldn't look at him. "Is this about…? It is, isn't it? I can't believe this! What are you thinking?!"

Spice caught Tong's other arm and started to pull him away. "Come on, bro."

The boy pulled away from them both. "No! What's the point? I don't care anymore!"

Vegeta finally spoke up. "Enough! What is this? There was an explosion and there is no sign of it beyond the scorched street. Did the boy kill someone?"

Tong looked horrified but his eyes filled with tears. "No! But I might as well have been killed!"

Vegeta's eyebrows rose at the exclamation and Gohan made an angry, frustrated sound. "I can't believe you would do something like *this* over something like *that*! If you'd just listened to me none of this would have happened! What's wrong with you?!" The boy seemed to shrink as his father yelled.

"SHUT UP!" Vegeta turned to the boy. "What happened here?"

Tong gathered himself before hesitantly answering. "I…just got mad. That's all. I kind of blew up."

"About what? Speak, boy."

"I…just…broke up with someone."

"Good!" Gohan broke in.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Vegeta turned back to Tong. "Is that all? Go find another. They are replaceable. Don't be stupid just because you made the wrong choice."

Gohan was fuming by now and jumped in front of Vegeta. "Absolutely not! Is that what you have planned for my father?! I knew you couldn't be trusted!"

The prince's face turned venomous. "Are you a twenty-year-old and am I speaking to you?!! Shut up and get out of my face!!" He shoved Gohan out of the way and moved past to face the boy again.

"He broke my heart."

At this Vegeta turned to Gohan and a new smirk appeared on his lips. It was to Tong he spoke and he couldn't hide his amusement. "Did *he*? Really?" Suddenly he turned completely serious again. "Can you breathe, boy? Can you move? Can you cry? Can you fight? Nothing about you is broken. You haven't earned tears yet. Go with your sister, she'll either make you feel better or a hundred times worse but either way you'll get over it."

Spice grinned and grabbed his arm again to drag him away. "I totally agree."

Gohan found himself alone on the scorched street watching helplessly as three power trails faded in two different directions.

Vegeta landed back at the party by Goku.

"What happened?"

The prince waved his hand in unconcern. "Just your grandson venting some pent up bitterness. Seems the boy just lost a perspective mate that your son also didn't approve of. That boy of yours is beginning to remind me of the "harpy". Can I leave now?"

Goku blinked at the change of subject and looked at him with exasperation. "No!"

Hey! Look! Piccolo made an appearance! Hmmm… Now what can I do with that? Wicked ideas are beginning to float around in my head. Any one else?

I'm sure that didn't make Gohan happy just now. Not only has Vegeta taken off with his dad but now he's taking over parenting of his children. That would really tick me off if I were him. Spice and Tong may not be the best of buddies but she looks after her bro when he needs it. Nice little honor among siblings type of thing.

And, yes, I tend to leave lots of room for things to be read between the lines, so have at it. You can make it a game. See how much you are right about. I still am considering suggestions if anyone has any.