A general feeling of `good' was the first thing that melted into
Vegeta's semi-conscious thoughts. For a while he didn't care how or
why he felt so good, just that he felt it, was happy about it and was
content to stay this way.

The second feeling however, caused him a tad more concern, not enough
to rouse him however. Something large and warm was pressed up against
him, and making breathing noises. Giving a mental shrug, he filed the
information away for when he could be bothered to think about it, and
went back to basking in the warm glow of `good'.

His pleasant mood was ruined however, when the warm thing next to him
made a small moaning noise and moved. Eyes snapping open, he sat bolt
upright and looked down to his side where a sleeping Goku had been
pressed against his side.

Gasping for breath, Vegeta stared wide-eyed at the saiya-jin next to
him for a few moments, calming slightly when the younger man didn't
wake up.

He turned his gaze away for a moment, glancing around the room as
memories from the previous night began flooding through his mind. The
broken mattress, piles of clothing on the floor and small cracks in
the walls refreshing his mind.

Lying back down, he turned to look back at the man who had once been
his rival. Goku's hair was messier than normal, extra spikes sticking
up all over the place. His face however, looked it's usual peaceful
self in sleep, not a glimpse of the "come and get me" expression from
the night before could be seen anywhere.

Frowning, he let his mind drift off to the night before to his own
thoughts. Why exactly HAD he gone along with it all? The first and
most obvious fact had to be the way the younger man had looked when
he had turned up on his doorstep. Hardly any skin covered by the
little clothing he had worn, and despite the half effort he made to
pretend he hated the man, there was no denying that he had looked
very attractive. Or, if he decided to be more honest with himself,
sexy. Very sexy.

Following that, curiosity. He had wanted to see what had happened.
When the most naïve man in existence turns up on your doorstep
dressed in little better than a whore's clothes and asking for you
personally, almost anyone would have followed.

Then lastly, his scent. Even back at Capsule Corp, he had been able
to smell a change. The first and most obvious being that the other
man had actually smelt saiya-jin, his scent had changed drastically,
losing some of its usual sweetness. He smelt much spicier when he had
appeared in the new clothes, even more so now after the night before.

Pausing, he leant over a little and took another sniff of Goku;
finally taking in the main change in the younger mans scent.
Submissiveness…

Thinking back, he compared it with what he remembered as the younger
mans scent from before, he had always given off a more dominant
scent. Probably to match his earth saving role, the one thing that
had clashed with Vegeta's own scent and personality. It had been the
way mates had been drawn together so well on Vegeta-sei, the dominant
partner had been attracted to a mate with a submissive scent, and
vice versa.

Inhaling deeply, Vegeta began to decide on a way to wake the sleeping
saiya-jin, when the door burst open and a little old lady made her
way in, equipped with various room cleaning instruments.

Vegeta spoke the first words that came to his, once again, shocked
mind.

"What the hell?!"

The woman paused in mid shuffle and stared at him, dark eyes looking
over him and Goku.

"I don't care what you and your boyfriend here, just don't get in my
way!" she stated in a thick accent, muttering in another language as
she reached for the vacuum. The noise that followed from the old and
dusty machine were enough to wake Goku up, large dark eyes blinking
in confusion for a few seconds before clearing.

Focusing his gaze on Vegeta, the two saiya-jin stared into each
other's eyes for a moment, before Vegeta broke the gaze and made to
stand up.

"Come, Kakarrot, we're leaving."

Nodding, Goku hopped out of bed and pulled on his clothes and
righting his hair a little, following Vegeta outside a few minutes
later. Pausing outside the now deserted club, they stared at each
other again, Goku being the first to break the silence this time.

"I'll see you later, Vegeta."

Smirking slightly, a brief flash of his expression from the night
before was all that was given to Vegeta as the younger man took off
into the air, leaving him alone in the annoyingly sunny street.




Goten pulled on his gi, and ran out of his room to the hall
where his mother greeted him with the usual breakfast, but without
the usual smile gracing her face. Seating himself at the table, the
demi saiya-jin began to inhale his food, intent on being on time for
the bus, until a sense of wrongness settled over him.

Glancing around, he finally realised the missing presence of
his father.

"Mum? Where's daddy?" he asked, promptly emptying a large
glass of milk.

Slamming a dish down on the side, Goten winced as Chichi's
shoulders tensed up.

"I don't know Goten. Your father left last night and never
came back..."

Looking down for a moment, the dark haired woman wondered if
she could have done any real damage to her husband, until her son's
voice broke through her thoughts.

"Mum! The bus is here! Tell daddy I said `hi' when he comes
back! Bye!" Grabbing his bag, Goten ran out the door and onto the
bus, sitting himself down at the front near the driver and staring
out the window at the dull, grey buildings as they zoomed by.

Looking at the crowds of people, he wondered where his father
had gone.

`Daddy never left before unless it was really important. I
wonder if the world's in danger again…'



Goten sighed. He tapped his fingers against the table, humming a
ditty to himself. His lunch stood in front of him, but oddly enough,
he didn't feel particularly hungry.

He might've been the school's hero after handling Byron, but he was
still alone. Oh, sure, there were some `fans' swamping around his
lunch table, but none of them offered any good conversation. He was,
to put it bluntly, bored.

Then somebody else's lunchbox was dropped onto the table next to him.
The young boy looked up, to meet the eyes of a dark-haired girl just
about his age. Her face was friendly, and so was the smile on her
face. She wore a blue shirt with brown shorts. The girl plopped down
next to him.

"Hiya, you're Goten, right? I'm Nicki."

The boy grinned at her. "Yup, that's me. I'm Goten Son!"

"You won't mind if me and my friends eat here, right?" He blinked at
her, and looked around. He hadn't seen any other people around. She
giggled. "They're off somewhere, arguing no doubt. They're always
doing that. But you can't split `em up."

Goten nodded. He'd have to see these people later, then. "Okay,
that's fine then." he said, the Son-smile plastered onto his face. "I
just moved here a couple of days back.. Mom said she wanted to live
closer to the city and all."

"I've lived here all my life. So've Len and Troy. We all met in
kindergarten." She pulled a sandwich out of her lunchbox, and took a
bite out of it, quickly chewing it all to bits. "People always tell
us we're weird, so if you don't wanna be our friend, that's fine
too.."

"No, that's alright. I'm kinda weird too!" His eyes sparkled, and
then fixed firmly on his food. He'd almost forgotten all about that!
Well, now to do something about it.. The boy dug in, sending various
pieces of meat flying. Nicki stared at him, then grinned.

"You have the same eating habits as Len." she informed him, before
getting rid of the rest of her food.

There were footsteps. Then a shadow fell over the table, as two
people approached. Goten looked up again, this time coming face to
face with a girl and a boy, both also his age. The boy was scowling,
whereas the girl had a grin fixed on her face.

The boy's hair was brown, cut close to his head. He had a pair of
glasses set on his nose, and he was wearing an odd combination of red
shoes and a camo jacket. The girl's hair was a dark blonde, and fell
down to below her shoulders. She wore jeans and a t-shirt, and her
eyes sparkled with mischief.

"Making buddies, Nick?" The girl unceremoniously threw her bag and
her lunchbox down, before sitting down herself. "Sorry, me and
loserboy here got into a bit of a fight. He doesn't want to admit
that his dad was really a monkey."

"He's not, wench! We just don't know who he is!" Troy threw back,
before sitting down next to her. "Now will you stop fighting for the
sake of fighting!" The only response he got was a stuck-out tongue.
He crossed his arms, sat back, and scoffed in silence.

Goten raised an eyebrow at them. But Nicki just smiled, placing her
arm on the table and leaning over it, gaining Len and Troy's
attention. "This is what we've been looking for, people. The last
member of our club. Now we're gonna be friends forever, eh?"

"Eh." The two confirmed, in chorus. It took Goten a moment or two to
realize what was expected of him, before he echoed the both of them.

And that's, quite simply, how family started to become a relative
term for Goten Son.





Goten threw his schoolbag down onto the table in front of him.
Immediately, all eyes were set on him. He blinked. And then he was
forced to move quickly as several small children threw pieces of
crumpled up paper at him. Now what was the matter? They'd liked him
just the day before…

He was snapped out of his thoughts by his teacher as she
walked in. She put down her book on the table, adjusting her glasses
and smiling. The teacher was rather pretty; she had long, reddish
brown hair and big green eyes. "Now, class, all open your books to
page five. Let's begin our reading exercises."

"Yes, Ms. Rasker!" the class chorused, safe for the small
group of four back in the corner. Goten hadn't joined in because he
didn't know everything very well, yet. The other three people in his
part of the room were obviously used to ignoring their teacher,
because they all had rather bored expressions on their faces.

"Why did they just throw paper at me?" the black-haired boy
asked Nicki, who was seated next to him. She smiled back at him and
took a couple of moments before replying, softly,

"They're the trend geeks. They don't like us very much.
There's more of them than of us, though." She seemed a tad bit sad
over this fact.

Len, sitting in front of him, twisted her head around in
order to talk to him. She had a pencil in her hand and was tapping it
against the side of her desk impatiently. "They're really really
stupid. All they do is stand in the hallways and talk about what
colours their clothes should be, and how cute braids are and stuff.
Somebody should hit them sometime."

"Silence!" The teacher thwaped her ruler against the large
desk in front of her, with the air of someone who was used to this
kind of behaviour. "You have to listen or you won't learn."

The brown-haired boy next to Len seemed a bit confused by
this. "But can't you also learn by reading books? Or do you have to
read books out loud?" Troy scratched at the back of his head. He had
one arm slung over the brown slab of wood in front of him, while the
other was stretched out over his chair.

Ms. Rasker didn't seem very pleased with him at all. "Just be
silent and listen to me, Troy, and you'll do just fine. Okay?" Her
response was a meek little nod from the boy in question, and a rather
affronted glare from the girl next to him.

"So you're saying that if we listen to you we'll learn
everything we need to know? But then you have to know, like,
everything. And that's not possible, your head would be really big if
you did." The brown-haired girl nodded, obviously pleased with her
display of child-logic. Nicki buried her face in her hands, muttering
something along the lines of `here we go again'.

The teacher's eye began to twitch. "Now listen, you
ungrateful little squirt, I get paid very little to stand in front of
this class and teach you things, but I'll get paid regardless. There
will be no trouble for me if I throw your ass out that door."

"Well, I think that's stupid," the little girl yelled back in
return, "Why don't we get paid, eh? We're the ones s'posed to do all
the work and stuff! It's not fair!" She stood up behind her desk, her
face set into a determined scowl.

"Now you be silent!" The teacher stood up as well, digging
her nails into the side of her desk in the way of someone trying to
contain their anger.

"No I won't!" Len hopped onto the ground from behind her
desk, marching resolutely towards the teacher. Troy saw this all
happen, and, out of some strange, distorted sense of duty, followed
her, trying to mimic her movements but failing. A little boy looked a
tad bit silly trying to place his hands on his hips.

The tall teacher seemed about ready to explode, thwapping her
ruler down against the wood again. "Sit down, and be silent." Len
rolled her eyes, crumpling up some paper in her hand.

"No." And then she threw it into the teacher's face.

"DAMMIT! YOU LITTLE FUCKING BITCH, GET YOUR ASS THE FUCK OUT OF THIS
CLASSROOM! NOW!"

Behind his desk, Goten blinked.


Out in the hallway, Len glanced up at Troy. Troy glanced
back, finding himself back on familiar territory. With pissed-off
teachers arguing with equally pissed best friends, he couldn't cope.
With anger, he could.

"What did I do?!" he asked, his eyes twitching, his hands
finding the girl's shoulders and moving to shake them roughly. "Why
do I always get into trouble around you? Why me?!" Halfway through,
his voice turned into a high-pitched whine, leaving Len to wonder if
someone had stuck a balloon in his throat.

"What," she asked, carefully formulating her answer and
looking up at the taller child, "Does `fuck' mean?"



Nicki smiled at Goten. "I wouldn't worry about it if I were
you.. Those things always happen with those two. Can't stay outta
trouble." She reached out to give Goten one half of her small
headphone-plugs. He shot her a questioning look.

"It's for a radio." she clarified, "Ms. Rasker is too
boring." The little boy gave a quick nod, before taking the plug and
putting it in his ear.

It took him a few moments, but he finally said something. "So
they don't like school, then?"

The girl gave a shrug, and then replied, "Len doesn't like
much of anything, I think. Troy just always follows her.. Dunno why
he does it, he's kinda stupid like that, I guess." She smiled.

He nodded again. "I don't get that. How can you not like so
much stuff?" He tried to focus on the music entering his ear, but it
wasn't really that interesting at all. Kind of boring.

"It's Len. You ask, you get hit on the head." Her voice
sounded like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and he was
stupid for asking. Wisely, the boy decided not to go on with this
line of questioning.

Instead, he turned to other things. "My mom made us go there.
My dad didn't want to.. Have I told you `bout my dad? He's really,
really, really cool.. Always takes me everywhere and stuff. My
brother used to be cool, but now he's really stuffy and stuff." The
radio flicked on to another song.

Nicki moved to answer, but then she recognized the
music. "Oh! This is my favourite song! They don't play it that often,
though.." She grinned, before singing along, softly, perfectly in
tune. "Because when I'm with you there's nothing I wouldn't do, I
just want to be your only one.."
The second time that same verse came along, Goten had already
caught on to the song a bit, and he joined Nicki. "I'm grasping out
at straws thinking back to what I saw. That night on the floor when
we were all alone…"
As the song ended, Nicki stared at Goten for a long time. He
wiggled in his chair a bit. "What is it?" All this looking made him
uncomfortable.
"You sing really good." she finally replied, giggling a bit
when a blush crept up the little boy's cheeks. "Maybe we could make
music one day.. I dun' like singing so much, though.."
He moved his eyes from Nicki to his hands, willing the warmth
to retreat from his face. "You could play an instrument.."
The girl cocked her head to the side. "I dunno. Maybe I
could." She seemed to take this into consideration for a
minute. "Nahh, not now.. I could never get that good at anything.."
"Maybe or maybe not." Goten felt a strange urge to slap
himself over the head for sounding so much like his brother. "Wanna
come visit my home today?"




Goku put his key into the lock and pushed open the door. Stepping
inside, the shouts of his wife were the first thing to greet his ears.

"Goku! Is that you? Where on Earth have you been?!"

Strolling through the hall, he paused and waited as Chichi
appeared from the kitchen, frying pan in hand. Opening her mouth to
continue shouting, she stopped dead when the sight of her scantily
clad husband greeted her eyes.

Goku smirked as Chichi's mouth opened and closed in an
attempt to speak. Strolling forward towards the kitchen, he broke the
silence first.

"Good news, Chichi. I found a job."

Not waiting for a response, he walked into the kitchen to
greet his son, chuckling to himself at the reply.

"WHAT?! Goku! I demand you come back here this instant!"

Ignoring her, Goku stopped behind Goten and covered the demi-
saiya-jin's eyes.

"Guess who, lil guy?"

"Daddy!"

Goten turned around and threw his arms around Goku's neck,
glad to finally have the less stricter parent back. Sniffing, he
pulled back and took a long look at his father, trying to distinguish
the scent covering his body.

Eyes widening, he looked over his elder counterpart in
surprise, staring at the drastic change in clothing. Looking up, he
noticed a new look in Goku's eyes, the Son family naiveté no longer
shining in them.

Goku looked down at this son for a moment, ruffling the dark
spikes on the boy's head before looking over the three children sat
at the table. To Goten's left sat a young girl with dark hair, grey
eyes staring at him in wonder, opposite her a young boy with glasses
sat staring at him, eyes widened to the point of looking ready to pop
out. Next to him, another young girl with long brown hair eyed him
over her food, sitting back in thought for a moment before speaking.

"Cool."

Grinning, Goku gently ruffled Goku's hair again and stalked
out of the kitchen towards the bedroom. Unbuttoning his shirt as
Chichi followed behind him, demanding his attention once again.

"Well? Goku! Are you going to explain why you didn't come
home last night, then show up dressed like a…whore!"

"Shh, Chichi. The kids might hear you." Goku chastised as he stalked
into the bedroom, letting the shirt slide off his shoulders.

Chichi stared, shock silencing her for once as Goku toed his
boots off. Keeping his back turned to her, he eased his shorts off,
wiggling a little to pull the skintight material off.

The black haired woman in the doorway continued to watch as
more and more of her husbands skin was revealed. Frowning, she
focused on his backside, which was now presented to her, the skin
around a very delicate area looked unusually red and sore…

Giving herself a mental shake, she blinked a few times and
regained her lost powers of speech.

"Goku! Cover yourself up, we have guests and you didn't even
bother to close the door!"

The Saiya-jin turned slightly, not moving from his bent over
position as he slid one of the stockings down his leg.

"Well you were following me in, it would have been rude to
close it in your face. I just thought that you would close it after
you, no one stopped you…" Goku replied, staring at Chichi through
half lidded eyes for a moment before going back to undressing.

Lost for words, Chichi glared at her husband's backside,
before storming out the room and slamming the door behind her.