Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wish For The Past ❯ Sparks and Bubbles Fly ( Chapter 31 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: Dis claimer ain't claimin' dis! Er... wait... I meant to say 'This claimer isn't claiming DBZ.' ^_^ I claim the story, though. Lucky me, ne?

Bulma glared at the newcomer, irked by the delay this would cause in getting the answers she wanted. The boy, who looked to be about a year younger than her, was slightly shorter than her with tall, flame-like black hair that defied gravity. For someone so young, she had to admit that his body was pretty toned. No, not toned. Built was the word for it. If it weren't for the scowl on his face, she would have said he had potential to grow up to be a very handsome guy. These thoughts, however, were not on her mind when she opened her mouth to respond to what he had just said. "Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," she snapped, staring down her nose at the rude little boy. "You know, you really shouldn't swear like that in front of kids." She conveniently ignored the fact that she hadn't exactly been watching her language, either. Besides, a little mild cussing was one thing. What this boy had said went a little beyond 'mild'.

"I am the Saiya-jin no Ouji, so I can say whatever the hell I want to, bitch!" Vegeta shot back. Their eyes met and you could almost see sparks flying between them as the tension mounted. "And speaking of bed, did you just crawl out of it? Or is that how you always look? Because that's the only explanation I can think of for why you're so damn ugly!" Actually, the girl wasn't that bad looking, if you discounted the silly blue hair she sported, but he wasn't about to say that!

The girl bared her teeth in a silent snarl and clenched her fists in an effort to control herself. I spent an hour and a half getting ready this morning and he has the gall to suggest I'm ugly?! "Kusottare!! I'll have you know that I'm considered extremely pretty for my age, you jerk!"

"Really?" Vegeta smirked. "Then I'd hate to see what the rest of the females on this planet look like, although it's hard to imagine anyone uglier than you!"

"You're one to talk! What'd you do to yourself to get that hair? Stick a fork in an electrical outlet? That would also explain the brain damage you've obviously suffered."

Vegeta reached up and touched a lock of his hair, a defensive look on his face. "This is the hair style all of the men of the royal bloodline of Vegeta-sei bear," he said disdainfully. "And what about you? What did you do to your hair to get it to be such an unnatural color? Did you dye it like that or," he paused, smiling slyly, "is it really a wig?"

With a shriek of outrage, Bulma's hand slashed through the air towards the prince's face, only to stop in mid swing as the boy lazily reached up and grabbed her wrist. He smirked dangerously as she struggled futilely against his iron grip. "Let me go, you bastard!"

"Why should I?" Vegeta purred, his smirk broadening even further. "You're the one who tried to hit me, after all. On Vegeta-sei, I could have you killed for that. Baka onna." He tightened his grip until Bulma let out a small whimper of pain.

"Vegeta!" Trunks snapped, deciding this had gone far enough. Better put a stop to this before someone got hurt. Namely his mother. "Let Bulma go. Right. Now." He raised his ki threateningly, letting his chibi father know in no uncertain terms that he meant business. He could almost have sworn that the young prince pouted as he let the girl's hand go. Trunks shook it off as only his imagination.

"Fine," the ten year old boy growled. "But I will not be so lenient the next time she dares to raise a hand against the Prince of all Saiyans." Folding his arms against his chest, he leaned back against the wall and gave Bulma a death glare, which was met by an equally heated glare from Bulma as she rubbed her sore wrist.

"Kono yaro," she muttered under her breath. Vegeta only smirked.

Clenching his fists tightly, the lavender haired boy narrowed his eyes. "Vegeta, you are not allowed to kill or maim anyone on this planet unless they actually pose a threat. Got it?" Vegeta's gaze shifted from Bulma to his future son, growling faintly. However, upon seeing the deadly serious expression in in the boy's ice blue eyes, he grimaced and bobbed his head once, more in acknowledgment of the threat than any real submission. Guessing that this was as good as he was going to get, Trunks sighed and turned to Bulma. "Bulma, may I have the hair dye please?"

"Sure, kid," she said, shooting a final glare at Vegeta. "At least someone has some manners!" Reaching into her purse, she pulled out two bottles of hair dye. "Okay, this one is the black dye, and this one is brown. It has to set in the hair for five minutes before it can be rinsed out, but that's as complicated as it gets."

"Arigato, Bulma!" Trunks said, giving his future mother a smile as he took the dye and gave it to Goku. "Goku, do you wanna go give this to your dad?" Goku nodded enthusiastically and dashed off with the dye, eager to do something that would make his father happy. Goten started to follow after the Saiyan boy, but Trunks stopped him, shaking his head. "Let Goku do it, Goten. I need your help here." The younger demi-saiyan glanced at Bulma and Vegeta, then nodded to his best friend. There was no need to specify what Trunks needed help with.

"Okay, Trunks."

"Well, then, back to business," the human girl stated firmly, eyeing the two chibis in front of her. "I believe one of you still owes me an explanation. And," she added, her brain catching up to her now that it wasn't clouded in fury, "what's up with all this talk of Saiyans and a planet Vegeta?"

There's really no way to break this to her gently, Trunks mused silently. Well, here goes... He pulled his tail out from behind him where it had been hidden from Bulma's view, then pointed at Vegeta's tail, which she had formerly mistaken as a furry brown belt. "Saiyans are another race from the planet Vegeta. The biggest difference between a Saiyan and a human is that Saiyans have tails like these."

Bulma's eyes widened as she caught sight of the tails on all three boys in the room. Knowing exactly what was coming, Trunks and Goten covered their sensitive ears. Unfortunately for Vegeta, he did not.

"WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!"

In another part of the house, Krillen, Master Roshi, and Radditz shot up out of bed in alarm as an ear piercing shriek shook the house to its foundation. Recognizing the owner of the voice, Krillen and Master Roshi grumbled in annoyance and sank back down onto their futons. Radditz frowned at them in confusion. "Aren't you going to go find out what that was?"

"Nope," the old Turtle Hermit muttered. "I know who that was, and she's always screaming about one thing or another. Best not get too close to her when she's yelling at someone else. Or when she's yelling period. Unless, of course, you want to permanently damage your hearing."

"Who is it?" a bewildered Radditz asked. He didn't recall meeting any females besides Lunch, and she didn't sound anything like the banshee who had just screeched loud enough to be heard halfway across the world.

"It's just Bulma," Krillen yawned, burying his head under his pillow. "If she's not yelling at you, it's better if you just ignore her."

Radditz shook his head and pulled on his clothes. Whatever was going on in the other part of the house, he wanted to know what it was. The two humans just sighed as they watched him exit the room. It was his life, after all. If he wanted to risk his neck, that was his problem.

Making his way towards the bathroom, Goku clutched the two bottles to his chest and grinned happily, the argument between Bulma and Vegeta already forgotten. He hadn't understood most of what they had been saying, anyway, only that they were mad at each other for some strange reason. Completely forgetting to knock, he opened the door to the bathroom and walked inside the room. The door shut behind him with a soft click.

"Daddy?" he asked tentatively, looking around for the familiar figure of his father. The sound of running water filled the air and Goku's eyes focused in the direction of the source of the noise. Behind a plastic curtain, he could vaguely make out the familiar outline of his father, who seemed to be just standing there. "Daddy?" he asked again, walking towards the curtained off area.

The curtain peeled back to reveal a naked and soaking wet Bardock standing in a stream of water, looking at Goku questioningly. The boy opened his mouth to tell Bardock about the hair dye, but closed it when he saw the water spraying out of a pipe set into the wall. "Wow! Neat! There's a cloud inside that metal thingy! How'd you do that, tousan?"

"You've never seen a shower before?" Bardock chuckled, crouching down so his eyes were level with his son's.

Goku lifted one hand behind his head in a confused gesture. "Of course I have. Showers are when it rains outside, right? I've seen lots of those, but I've never seen it rain inside a house before!"

"Not that kind of shower," the older Saiyan explained, utterly amused by his son's naiveté. "The shower I'm talking about is when someone pushes water through a pipe like this one so you can get clean. It's kind of like being in a rain storm, I guess, except you can have hot or cold water." Looking at his son's smudged nose and arms speculatively, he added, "Would you like to take a shower with me?"

Staring in awe at the rain-making pipe on the wall, Goku could only nod speechlessly. He quickly stripped off the blue gi he was wearing and hopped into the shower with his dad. A laugh bubbled from his lips as he was hit by the steaming water shooting out of the shower head. "You were right! It's a rain storm with hot water! This is neat, daddy!" Slipping on the slick surface of the tile floor, he lurched forward and grabbed onto Bardock's legs for support.

Bardock laughed and ruffled Goku's now-wet hair affectionately with one hand, reaching out with the other hand for the bottle labeled 'shampoo'. During the trip to Earth, Trunks had explained the uses of various cleansers commonly stored in bathrooms. "Hold still, Goku," he said, squeezing some of the bottle's contents into his hand. The boy did as he was told while Bardock started massaging the fluid into the chibi's spiky black hair until it became a foamy mass of bubbles and hair.

"Hey, this is kinda like that bath Bulma made me take when I first met her!" Goku exclaimed in delight. A blob of suds fell from his head and landed on his nose, making the seven year old giggle as he reached up to rub it off. Grinning mischievously, he reached up and wiped the foam onto his father's nose. Bardock grinned back at him and tickled the boy's chin with the tip of his tail. Goku laughed as he tried to fend off the pink and brown appendage. "That reminds me!" He wobbled over to the edge of the shower stall and reached past the curtain, picking up the two bottles he had abandoned on the floor. "Bulma brought hair dye, tousan!" Goku beamed up at the older man, quit pleased with himself as he offered the two bottles to his father. "This one is brown, and this one is black. Me, Trunks, and Goten thought it'd help you feel better, since you looked sad yesterday." The cheerful expression on his face turned to one of concern as he recalled how his father had looked before he had run outside.

Seeing the concern written across his son's face, Bardock's face softened and he felt his heart melting inside him. As he took the two bottles and set them on the floor, he gave his son a warm smile and lifted the boy up to give him a strong hug. "Thank you, my son," he whispered, truly touched by the gesture. An inner resolve formed inside him as he realized that he could never hide his love for his family, even in the presence of strangers. Suppress it a little, maybe, but there was no way in hell he could maintain a cold exterior in the presence of such sunny dispositions as his son and grandson possessed.

"You're welcome, daddy," Goku said, smiling innocently as his father set him back down. "Hey, since you washed my hair, how 'bout I wash yours? I can put that dye in for you, too!"

"Okay, it's a deal," Bardock replied, sitting down so his son could get at his hair. He smiled contentedly as he felt the boy's small fingers in his hair, spreading a cool, soothing liquid onto every strand. Behind him, Goku giggled a bit as he had fun playing with his father's hair even while he was putting the dye in. Even as wet as the stuff was, it was still trying to defy gravity.

"You gotta keep your head out of the water for five minutes, daddy," he stated, remembering what Bulma had said earlier. "So the dye will work." Bardock nodded his understanding and shifted his body to make sure his head was out of the path of the stream of water. Satisfied that he had done all he could with Bardock's hair, Goku picked up the other bottle of dye. "I'm gonna do your tail now, okay?" Not waiting for an answer, he grabbed his dad's tail and started to rub the brown dye in.

Bardock cried out in pain and fell forward, curling up into a ball as waves of pain shot up and down his spine. He tried to tell Goku to let go of his tail, but the only thing that came out was a strangled whimper. Alarmed by the reaction, Goku guiltily released his dad's tail and knelt by his side. His eyes watered as he realized what he'd done. "Daddy? Are you okay? Daddy, I didn't mean to hurt you! I'm sorry! I was just trying to help, really! I'm sorry!"

Regaining a little bit of his strength, the Saiya-jin warrior uncurled from his fetal position and sat up, gingerly holding his sore tail in one hand. He chuckled weakly and reached out to pull Goku into a comforting hug. "Shh... it's okay. You just squeezed too hard, that's all. I'll be fine." He figured he did a pretty good job at hiding the residual pain he was feeling, because his son relaxed in his arms and hugged him back. "But how about I finish putting the dye in my own tail?" he suggested warily. "You can finish cleaning up while I do that, then we can go give the dye to your brother." He repressed a shiver at the thought of having his tail squeezed again. No need to let his son know how much that had really hurt, or that he was afraid that it would happen again if he allowed his son a second chance.

Fortunately for both of them, Goku accepted Bardock's decision without question or complaint. The two finished cleaning up, slowly relaxing in each other's company once again, but not quite to where they had been before the incident. When they were done, Bardock was pleased to note that his hair was once again solid black and that his tail no longer sported any trace of pink. Smiling, he rubbed his son's hair dry, then followed suit with his own while Goku pulled on his clothes.