Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wish For The Past ❯ Explanations ( Chapter 50 )

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

Disclaimer: "Once upon a time there was a girl named Brenda who owned DBZ. She was able to enjoy all the fame, money, and adoration from fans that she ever wanted. And she lived happily ever after. The End." Unfortunately for me, that is nothing but a fairy tale. I really don't own DBZ, and can only dream that I might ever do so. ^_^

After depositing the laundry in the bin by the washing machine, Bardock went back to the bathroom to make sure that everything had been put back in place. Avoiding the puddles on the floor, he walked over to the tub and put the bars of soap in their holders, then capped the bottles of shampoo and set them on their shelf. With a final glance around the room, he nodded to himself and walked back out to the hall and headed towards the den where the children, and his clothes, were.

The cool breeze stirred up by his movement brushed against his bare skin, making him shiver slightly. He guessed that it was early spring here on this world, judging by the growth of the vegetation and the chilly temperature of the air. As used to extreme climates as he was, he would still be glad to get some clothes on. If only there were something besides that tie-dyed shirt!

Laughter from around the corner reached his sensitive ears, informing him that the boys were in the den and apparently enjoying the thrill of examining their new clothing. With his lips tugging into a faint smile, he rounded the corner and took in the scene before him. Trunks was currently wearing a miniature version of Radditz's BURN BABY shirt and some black jeans, Goku standing next to him, giggling at the purple haired boy's outfit. The seven year old was only wearing a pair of tan shorts and was holding an equally bright yellow and green diamond print shirt in one hand. Bardock's eyes shifted to Goten and he did a double take.

There was Goten, turning his head so that he could get a good look at himself, wearing only the rainbow tie-dyed shirt that Bardock had been dreading so much. The shirt was way too large for him, but he didn't seem to care, looking as pleased as if he had discovered a truckload of burgers in his back yard. For some reason, the warrior found the sight utterly amusing and began to chuckle to himself, even as he spotted the lone pair of blue jeans in his size draped over the arm of the couch. He walked over and picked them up, preparing to pull them on, when he suddenly noticed Vegeta.

The boy was standing off to the side, looking at him with eyes that radiated loneliness and betrayal. Almost as if he had been about to decide something, but Bardock's sudden appearance had interrupted him. Even as the older Saiyan took note of this, the young prince's face shifted to a blank, expressionless mask that allowed no trace of emotion to leak through, and, spinning on one heel, he stalked off in the direction of the kitchen.

What was that all about? Bardock puzzled to himself, scratching the back of his head with his free hand while staring at the boy's retreating form. When Vegeta disappeared from view, Bardock shook his head in defeat and gave up that line of thought. With a shrug of his shoulders, he quickly pulled the pale blue jeans on and turned to face Goten.

"Grandpa, look at the great night shirt I found!" Goten squealed excitedly, floating up to eye level with Bardock so that the older man could get a good look at the rainbow colored shirt. "It has all of my favorite colors, and they're so bright!" The little boy's eyes danced with glee as he waited to hear his grandfather's opinion on the new shirt.

Raising a hand to cover an amused smile, Bardock tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to look serious as he appraised his grandson's new clothing. "It's very... colorful," he said truthfully, thinking that it was probably one of the biggest understatements of the century. Ah, well, it looks like Goten likes that shirt. I didn't really want to wear it anyway, and I guess I can just go shirtless until Bulma and Radditz get back.

"Hee hee, I knew you'd like it! I'm gonna wear it tonight!" The eight year old laughed happily and dropped back to the ground so he could continue his search for clothing. Bardock chuckled again, sitting down on the couch after moving a pile of clothes off one of the seats, and leaned back so he could watch the three boys play.

Goku stood in ring, facing a strange old man with a mask on his face and a golden ring floating above his head. The boy was perhaps twelve of thirteen years old and still had his tail. Standing outside the fighting area were Master Roshi, Bulma, Krillen, Yamcha, a floating cat, a small boy that Bardock didn't know, and an old woman sitting on a floating ball.

As he watched the fight progress, a spark of pride stirred in Bardock's heart. Goku had gotten so much stronger! In fact, he was winning against the old man! The masked fighter was on the ground and his son had a look of triumph on his face. And he had his guard down.

In a flash, the old man had grabbed onto Goku's tail, rendering the child helpless, and held him upside down, saying something that Bardock couldn't hear. The others were speaking as well, their words also unheard due to the peculiar properties of the vision. Bardock gnawed his lip with worry as he watched his son dangle helplessly by his tail, knowing that it had to hurt terribly to be pulled like that.

His worst fears came true when, all of a sudden, Goku's tail came off at the base and the little boy dropped to the ground. He danced around in pain for several moments, his face the picture of agony, until he managed to gain control of himself. Then a look of anger crossed his features, a look that Bardock could well understand. Hell, he'd be angry, too, if someone had just pulled off his tail! As it was, he was pretty angry himself at whoever dared to pull off his son's tail!

The old man dropped out of his fighting stance and said something that brought a startled expression of shock to the young Saiyan's face, who pointed at the man and gave an exclamation of surprise. Then the man pulled off his mask, revealing a kindly, gray mustached face that smiled gently.

Goku's eyes widened in stunned shock and recognition, his mouth forming a single word, and then a look of purest joy lit up his face and he dashed forward into the man's arms, shouting the word at what Bardock guessed was the top of his lungs, though it was hard to tell since he couldn't hear anything. Tears formed in the child's eyes as he latched onto the man's face and hugged him fiercely.

A faint smile crossed his own face as he watched the reunion of his son and someone who must have meant a great deal to the boy, though he couldn't even guess who the old man might be. His son was happy, and that was all that mattered.

"Daddy?"

The vision faded away to nothing, and Bardock suddenly became aware of the concerned face of his son hovering in front of him. Goku was practically nose to nose with him, staring intently into his eyes in hopes of seeing them return to normal. When they finally did, the boy smiled with relief. "Daddy, your eyes are back to normal! They went white, and you were shivering, though you might have been cold, but your eyes were white! How'd you do that?" Seeing that his father was fine, relief and curiosity fairly bubbled over inside the seven year old Saiyan.

Bardock blinked in surprise at his son's enthusiastic greeting, and a little bit of confusion. He'd never had anyone describe what he looked like when he was having one of his visions. White eyes? Shrugging to himself, he lifted Goku up and away from his face a little. "It's nothing to worry about," he said casually. "I sometimes have visions of the future, and when I do, I'm no longer aware of what's going on around me." He was feeling pretty good, actually, since the vision hadn't been one prophesying death and destruction, instead allowing him to see a happy moment in his son's life. Again, he hadn't been there, but he supposed there was a good explanation for it.

"Could you tell us what you saw this time, grandpa?" Goten piped up. He and Trunks had been sitting on the couch to either side of Bardock, both a little worried despite the fact that they knew what was going on with Bardock. But since the vision was over, they figured it was now fair game to question the man about it.

A thoughtful look crossed Bardock's face as he thought back on what he'd seen. "Well, I'm not really sure what was going on, but I saw Goku fighting an old man, and winning. The old man seemed to be someone you knew, though I've never seen him before," he added, speaking to his son. "You looked happy to see him."

His eyes widening in awe, Goku could only stare at his father in amazement. "You can see the future?! And you saw me?! COOL!!" Happily settling into Bardock's lap, he looked up with admiration at his father's face. "Did you see anything else? This is sooo neat! My daddy can see the future!"

Amusement danced in the warrior's eyes and he ruffled Goku's hair affectionately. "Yeah, I've seen other stuff. I saw you when you were pinned under that tree, which is how I found you." The amusement faded into a somber tone. "I thought you were dead. You see, the visions haven't ever been wrong before, except once, when Goten traveled through time and rearranged the way things were supposed to happen. Fortunately for both of us, I was only misinterpreting that vision. You hadn't died, yet, even if you looked like it." On impulse, Bardock pulled Goku into a tight embrace, which Goku contentedly returned by wrapping his arms around his father's neck. "I'm so glad I was wrong," Bardock whispered.

The couch on Bardock's left shifted as Goten, feeling in need of a hug as well as wanting to comfort his grandpa, crawled closer to the older Saiyan and tried to his hug waist. Bardock smiled and shifted his arm to include Goten in the hug, then squeezed both boys to his chest, a feeling of peace and contentment washing over his mind and heart.

"We're home!!" Bulma's voice called out from the doorway, ending the moment shared by Bardock and his family. Bardock reluctantly let go of the two boys, waiting for them to crawl off his lap before standing up and turning to face the blue haired girl and his fifteen year old son as they walked into the room. The sight of his son still wearing that BURN BABY shirt and blue jeans, accompanied by bits of mayonnaise and relish in his hair, nearly sent Bardock off into peals of laughter.

Giving his father a scowl, Radditz grumbled and popped the button on a capsule of clothing, tossing it to the ground to let another humongous pile of clothing appear on the floor, not caring that the room was already cluttered with children's clothes. Grabbing a plain blue T-shirt from the pile, he stalked off, not bothering to say anything to Bardock. He was still upset with him for leaving him with Bulma for half the day, and all he wanted now was to get a decent shower - not the kind you get by being dunked in a public fountain - and change out of these ridiculous clothes.

"Yay! More clothes!" Goten cheered as he threw himself at the pile of clothing that Radditz had left behind, not caring that none of it was in his size. Seizing a shirt with swirls of aquamarine and golden yellow dancing all over it, he held it out to Goku. "Goku, you can have a night shirt, too!"

For some reason that Goku couldn't explain, the aquamarine and golden colors appealed to him, and he gleefully pulled off the yellow and green diamond shirt in favor of his new night shirt. "I love it, Goten! Thank you!" he said, looking down at the oversized shirt, then gave his future son a hug before darting back into the heap of clothes to see if there were anymore treasures to be found within it. Trunks, who had been sitting quietly on the couch for the past few minutes, grinned broadly and joined his two friends in the renewed fun.

"So, did you and Radditz enjoy yourselves?" Bardock casually asked Bulma as he spotted one of the sea green shirts he'd bought at the martial arts store lying half hidden beneath a pair of boots. He walked over and picked it up, slipping it on over his head before turning around to face the girl again. That spark of fatherly mischief had come back, and he was eager to hear all about the torture he'd put his son through by leaving him in the hands of the little human female.

"Oh, well, after you left, I took Radditz to a store that custom makes formal clothing and had the tailor make a tuxedo for him," Bulma replied, her eyes dancing with delight as she recalled the incident. "Radditz looked so handsome in that tux! Now I'll have to think of an excuse to get him to wear it again!"

"A... 'tuxedo'?" Bardock asked, the strange word rolling off his tongue oddly.

"It's a... oh, here, I'll just show you. Much easier than trying to describe it." The girl pulled out the capsule that held Radditz's tuxedo and popped out the black and white clothing, holding them up for Bardock to examine. "It's formal clothing, for important parties and balls and things like that."

"It looks uncomfortable and restricting," the warrior said critically, eyeing the clothing with a hint of distaste. Still, the thought of his son having to wear it was amusing enough that he could forgive its other faults.

"Well, it's not as uncomfortable as it looks, or so I'm told, but the point of wearing one of these isn't to be able to fight, but to dance, and it's made just right for that."

"I see." Shrugging the matter off, he returned his attention to Bulma's face and continued his questioning. "What happened after that?"

With a rueful smile on her face, Bulma went into detail about the biker shop incident, then told him about how Radditz had practically emptied the food court of everything edible before they finally headed back. "It's a pity, though. I never even got to take him to a hair salon! I bet he would look really cute with a crew cut, or maybe a bowl cut... No! A buzz! Yes, a buzz would definitely look good on Radditz!"

Bardock didn't know whether to be mortified on behalf of his son at the thought of having his hair cut in any of those crazy Earth styles, or to laugh his head off at the mental pictures his imagination provided. Oh, poor Radditz! Maybe he shouldn't ever abandon Radditz like that again. It would be so humiliating for both of them to see him with a buzz.

Before either of them could say anything else, though, Bardock's stomach pointedly reminded him that he hadn't had any food since breakfast that morning, and it was now getting very close to dinner time. "Er... I don't know about you, but I'm starving!" Bardock said sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck in a very Son-ish manner.

"Me too!" Goten chirped, popping out of the pile of clothing like a rabbit at the mention of food. "I haven't eaten since me and Trunks ate with my chibi mommy!"

That caught Bardock off guard. "What? Your mom? When did you and Trunks eat with your mom?" A sudden suspicion flickered inside Bardock's mind and he gave the two demi-Saiyans a stern look. "And where did you get those senzu beans, anyway? Did you two go off somewhere while we were gone, after I asked you to help watch over Goku?"

Goten and Trunks looked guiltily at their feet, looking for all the world like two children caught with their hands in the cookie jar. "Hai, grandpa," Goten admitted reluctantly. "We thought Goku was gonna die!" Looking back up at his grandfather, his eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "I didn't want him to die, grandpa!"

"And we got a dragonball on the way, too!" Trunks added enthusiastically. "We brought a radar with us and there was a dragonball really close by, so we decided to get it on the way. It's the one-star ball."

"Uh huh! My mommy had it, so we got to meet her and my grandpa Ox King and eat lunch with her too! My mom is the best cook, ever!" Thinking back on what had happened, he turned to Goku and said, "And she told me to remind you that you promised to get married with her."

"Huh?" Goku blinked owlishly, scratching the back of his head in confusion.

"Wait a second!" Bulma yelped, eyes widening in surprise. "Your grandpa is the Ox King?! That would make Chi-Chi your mother! GOKU and CHI-CHI get MARRIED?!"

"Oh, I remember now!" Goku crowed in triumph. "Chi-Chi told me about that! It's a kind of food, right? I promised Chi-Chi I'd get some 'married' with her the next time I saw her." A huge grin plastered itself across his face, and his stomach rumbled at the thought of food.

Both Bulma and Bardock gaped in dumbfoundment at the naive little seven year old. "You don't know what marriage is?" Bulma asked faintly.

"No. Does it taste good?" Goku asked innocently.

"No, you baka!" Bulma rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Marriage is where you spend the rest of your life with someone and have kids together. It is not a kind of food!"

Blinking curiously for a moment as he absorbed this information, Goku tilted his head to one side. "Oooh..." he said, a look of dawning comprehension on his face. "But I promised Chi-Chi I'd get married with her. And a promise is a promise. So, um... when am I supposed to start living with her?" Scratching the back of his head, he was startled to notice that both his father and Bulma had suddenly blanched.

"Goku," Bardock said at last, fighting with laughter at his son's naiveté and failing to keep a straight face. "Marriage isn't something you're supposed to do until you're grown up. Okay?"

"Okay, 'tousan!" the boy happily agreed, the matter already all but forgotten. "Can we go eat now?"

Bardock couldn't help it. His son's innocence and cluelessness, combined with the oh-so-Saiyan-like question, were just too much for him to handle. He threw his head back and laughed, an action that startled Bulma. After all, she'd never seen him completely give in to any light hearted emotions in front of her like this. Grinning broadly, the older Saiyan swept his son off the ground and settled him onto his shoulders. "Yes, let's go eat," he agreed, taking Goten's hand and setting off towards the kitchen, followed by Trunks and Bulma.

Yup, you guessed it! I'm asking for reviews! Again! *grins* *gets bombarded by tomatoes and old boots* Awww... all right, fine! I won't ask for reviews! *goes off to pout in a corner*