Second Life

Chapter 20

Life Goes On: Parties

Raditz was trying, he really was, but they were making it so difficult.

Bulma’s big baby shower had attracted all of Goku’s friends. There was food and presents; even Vegeta was forced to show up. It was an extravagant event considering that it was only planned a week ago.

But the problem lay in the fact that Kakarot’s friends were all either in the category of idiotic or nosy beyond belief. 

When they got there Chi-Chi had to explain three different times that Parzni was in fact Raditz’s daughter, not Chi-Chi’s, not Chi-Chi and Raditz’s, just Raditz’s. After that there were the questions of where her mother was, and how Raditz met her, which Raditz decided to ignore.

Bardock managed to give him peace for a bit by asking to hear stories about Goku as a child, Krillen the bald one, and Master Roshi the old man, launched into more tales about Kakarot as a child and his training under the old man. They went from there into stories about when they each individually suspected Kakarot might not be of this world.

Piccolo was prompted into telling the story of his first defeat at Goku’s hands, which he did with much glaring and teeth gnashing. Tien also spoke of his defeat by Goku and Yamcha launched into his story as well. It was ridiculous how many of Kakarot’s friends started out as his enemies. Krillen the tried to get Vegeta to tell the story of his defeat, Vegeta said some very threatening things and stormed off, Krillen told the story anyway.

Raditz listened eagerly.

 

Raditz sat with the others, a mountain of food in front of him. Parzni was awake balanced carefully in his lap, by his tail wrapped around her waist for support. She was wide eyed taking everything in with a fascination only babies can manage.

She caught sight of Goten, who was being held by Piccolo of all people. She reached out and attempted to lean forward but was not able to. She looked over at Trunks, whose ability to walk meant he was everywhere. He often gravitated to where Goten was currently but he also seemed to have a knack for finding the people paying the least amount of attention to their plate and helping them empty it.

It had been an exciting day for her. Raditz, however, couldn’t wait to get away from these people. They had taken to Bardock extremely well, his resemblance to Kakarot not doubt helping, and his play on the grieving father was important too. But Raditz had not survived Freeza without knowing when there was hostility directed towards him.

Krillen had a suspicious look in his eye when he looked at Raditz, Piccolo even more so.

His temper probably hadn’t help. He had snapped at anyone who questioned him about Parzni and was even worse if the asked to hold her. He’d even snapped at Bulma’s mother for trying to pinch Parzni’s cheeks. He didn’t care about what they thought of him but, as much as he hated to admit it, they were stronger than him, if it came to a fight he stood no chance.

 “Raditz, I bought some presents for Parzni too,” she said grabbing Raditz by the arm and pulling his attention back to the group. Raditz was handed a large box, and Chi-Chi took Parzni from his lap. He saw no point in refusing so he opened the box and was blinded by pink. He couldn’t even decipher what it was but it was most certainly retina burning pink.

He opened his mouth then shut it biting down a scathing remark. He opened it again this time to simply thank the blue haired wretch of a woman but as he did so he turned and saw Parzni being was now in the lap of Bulma’s mother.

She was bouncing the little girl in her lap but Raditz still felt a wrongness roll through him.

“Oh, she’s absolutely adorable, it’s a shame her mother couldn’t be here to celebrate, you know these sorts of things are usually women only,” Mrs. Breifs was saying to her husband. Raditz gritted his teeth, Parzni was fascinated however, she’d never seen hair that color. Parzni reached up into the woman’s blonde locks and pulled, hard.

“Oh, my. She’s got quite a grip,” said Mrs. Briefs. Raditz had to admire her pain tolerance because it was clear she was in a lot of it. Bardock reached over and untangled the baby’s hands from her hair, though the chubby fist still came away with a nice clump of blonde hair.

Mrs. Brief’s waved it off. Vegeta chose right then to make reappearance. He chucked, enjoying the woman’s misfortune as he snatched more food off the table. Raditz took Parzni quickly from her grandfather, he excused himself from the chaos that now surrounded the party. He found his way inside of the dark Capsule Corp building.

Not wanting to intrude too much into the Brief family home he settled in the first room he found. Unfortunately it was already occupied. Vegeta had his second portion of food and was munching on it slowly. He glared at Raditz but made no other acknowledgement.

Parzni slapped her hands together and giggled. Vegeta glared at her and she offered a toothless grin in response.

“Disgusting,” the prince muttered. “I’d expect more of a warrior’s attitude from Brolly’s child,” said Vegeta as he watched Parzni amuse herself blowing spit bubbles. Raditz froze at the sound of the monster’s name.

“She’s not Brolly’s child, she’s mine,” he snapped at Vegeta. Vegeta grinned, it was a malicious grin.

“She looks like him,” he said, Raditz glared in response. It wasn’t completely untrue. Parzni’s hair was shorter than either of her parents, but it’s shape  resembled Brolly’s, she even had his bangs, and she often made faces that reminded him of Brolly in his untransformed state.

“She doesn’t,” he replied anyway, knowing it was lie. He hated Vegeta, it was a hatred born through years and dark nights of hoping and begging Vegeta to save him, it would have taken only a word; all of his pain at Nappa’s hands could have been spared. Vegeta stood by and did nothing, he hated Vegeta.

But at least it was familiar for that alone he could endure even Vegeta.