Chapter 3: A Friend’s Embrace

  Krillin flipped over the meat patty with his spatula, finding it was thoroughly cooked. Wearing a chef’s hat and white apron, he then placed the item of beef on a waiting sesame bun. He held the plate up to the crowd around him and smiled. They all stood outside Capsule Corporation headquarters, enjoying the crisp midday air. The noon sun above was giving them just the right amount of warmth, neither too hot nor cold. The spring weather was perfect for their party.

  “Who’s up for a burger?” Krillin shouted.

  “I am!” Tien said.

  He walked up to the grill, taking the plate by the hand. The tallest of the martial artists, covered in a black and red gi. Just as Tien Shinhan held it up to his face, inhaling the scent, a pale skin boy with red dots on his cheeks floated up to him. If one looked very closely, one could make out the tiniest hint of the curve of a transparent circle surrounding the floating boy. He shook his head disapprovingly.

  “But Tien!” Chiaotzu said. “You said you were going to watch your weight for our next training session!”

  Just as the boy scolded his friend, Yajirobe walked up to them. He still had a hot dog crammed in his mouth, munching furiously on the combination of bread and meat. He burped after swallowing the food.

  “I’ll take it if you won’t eat it,” Yajirobe said. “Far be it from me to deprive you from your diet.”

  The three-eyed human laughed.

  “Chiaotzu,” Tien said. “This isn’t the time to be thinking of that. We’re celebrating!”

  “Yeah!” Krillin said.

  Now that the burger was out of the way, he plucked a hot dog weenie from the pile stacked on the grill’s left side. With the twin pronged fork he stabbed one of the weenies and laid it on the stove of the barbecue. It sizzled as Krillin removed the fork from it.

  “You two can’t stop being proud of your little girl,” he said. “Isn’t that right, Yamcha?”

  Krillin turned to see Yamcha was still meddling with the baby and her bottle. The new father with long black hair had been having trouble with the five-year old all day. He circled his head back to Krillin, smiling sheepishly. The little girl swaddled in a red blanket kept crying, preventing Yamcha from fitting the bottle end into her mouth.

  “Yeah,” Yamcha said. “It’s hard to believe she’s five already. Where does the time go?”

  Yamcha tried pushing the cap of the bottle between her lips only for Bra to turn away, the long-haired man accidentally jabbing her cheek with it.

  “She can’t quite stay still!” he said. “Can’t say I’ve ever had this trouble with…well, anything before!”

  “Let me try, Yamcha!” Puar said.

  The long-tailed cat floated toward the child. As he levitated above her, the cat transformed into a bird with the painted face of a clown. Puar then wagged his face in front of her.

  “You need to make the baby laugh in order to calm her down!” Puar said.

  The newborn only cried even more, visibly intimidated by the creature. Puar then transformed back into his original, blue cat as the father of the child sighed. He grit his teeth before Bulma rushed toward him from her house. She opened the door, heard the child crying, and practically flew toward her husband.

  “Give me her!” she said.

  Bulma scooped the baby out of Yamcha’s arms, the new father handing her the bottle. It only took a little time for her to get the child settled down and have the baby sipping from the bottle. The infant then began drinking the milk as her eyes lulled to sleep. Krillin gawked at her, dumbfounded by the sight.

  “Man,” he said. “Amazing how you get her to quiet down.”

  “Yeah,” Yamcha said. “You’re a natural Bulma. I’ve been trying for weeks and I can’t seem to calm her down.”

  “Ugh,” Bulma sighed. “Just one day I’d like to not have to care for a screaming child. Yamcha, have you got Bra signed up for daycare yet?”

  “Um…” he said. “I got about half the paperwork filled out. That’s good right?”

  “Half?!” Bulma shouted. “That’s about half more time to distract me from my work! Yamcha, if I’d known you weren’t going to finish it I would have just gotten my dad to!”

  Yamcha looked away from his wife, afraid to meet her gaze.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “S-Sorry,” he said.

  “If I’d known you’d do things halfway I wouldn’t have taken so many weeks off after having Bra,” she said. “I thought I’d be able to relax today…guess I’m stuck with the baby again. And I was so close to finishing this big project of mine. Would have skyrocketed Capsule Corps’s stock prices once I released it to the public. I had only a few days to finish it before…well I wanted to celebrate Bra’s birthday.”

  “No Bulma!” Yamcha said. “I’ll be responsible! You just rest! Or…work on your new gadget! Trust me…I’ll get better at handling the kid!”

  “Uh,” she said. “Krillin, give me a burger.”

  “You got it!” he said.

  You fitted the steamed meat patty onto the waiting hamburger bun. Bulma walked over to grab the plate, biting into it. As she chewed she began complaining again.

  “I never knew taking care of a baby would be harder than literal scientific engineering,” she said before swallowing. “Give me an internal combustion engine and I’m completely in my element. Getting a screaming kid to calm down? Now that’s difficult.”

  “I hope it isn’t like that with me and Krillin!”

  Maron practically tackled him, she tightened around him so quickly. With how much taller she was than him, the short man felt practically smothered. Not that he minded that much of course. She was the first and only woman who ever paid him much mind.

  “Do you think we’ll have a boy or girl when we first have a child?” Maron asked, her blue hair getting in the way of his vision. “I hope it’ll be a girl who I can dress up and put in pink ribbons!”

  He sighed, laughing it off.

  “Honestly I wouldn’t mind a cute little girl,” Krillin said. “I could see us taking her to the beach and building sand castles with her. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

  “Sure would be!” Maron said.

  She unwrapped her arms from around the man and took another bite from her hot dog.

  “Although…” he said. “I wouldn’t mind a boy either. I could teach him martial arts…I don’t know if a little girl would be into that.”

  “Oh, yeah!” Maron said. “That’s what I love about you! You’re not just a sweetie! You’re in such great shape from all your working out!”

  Krillin smiled back at her. She was probably the best thing to happen to him, almost as good as meeting Goku. She was everything he wanted in a woman. Beautiful, bubbly, full of zest for life and willing to cheer anyone up.

  I don’t deserve her…He thought. But I’m glad you’re in my life.

  He then looked up into the sky, glad Goku kept his promise.

  You really came through. Krillin thought. Providing me a faithful woman. I still miss you, though…

  “He’s so cute!” Maron said.

  She was looking up at Chiaotzu as the pale skinned boy floated above him, laughing as she pinched his red cheeks.

  “Just how do you do that?” Maron asked.

  “Oh, it’s an easy trick,” Chiaotzu said. “I just-”

  “Chiaotzu,” Tien said.

  He shot the boy a stern glance, the pale youth looking away sheepishly. They had agreed not to tell Maron about their experiences as warriors, keeping the secret of qi hidden from her. In case danger came up, they didn’t want an innocent girl involved and potentially killed just from knowing them.

  We’ve made a lot of enemies in the past. Krillin thought. In case they come back, we need Maron to remain ignorant of them for as long as possible. And Chiaotzu is suppressing almost all his qi, only using a little but of his speed to move through the air since he’s so short.

  “Um…” Chiaotzu said. “I can jump really high!”

  “Oh!” Maron squealed. “That’s adorable! I hope my future little boy will jump as high as you do!”

  “Children?” Tienshinhan asked. “So…are you two officially tying the knot?”

  “I don’t know…” Maron asked. “Why don’t you ask…?”

  She lifted her ring finger to Tien to reveal the brass wedding band.

  “The one thousand dollars Krillin spent on me?” she replied.

  “Oh, great!” Tienshinhan shouted.

  “How wonderful!” Bulma exclaimed. “Is it engraved?”

  “On the inside,” Maron stated. “It says…Krillin and Maron…forever.”

  “Maron,” Krillin said. “You weren’t supposed to tell everyone until…you know…we set the wedding date.”

  She then turned to her boyfriend and pouted a little.

  “So,” she said. “When are we going to get married?”

  “Oh…” Krillin said. “I guess when I get promoted at the station!”

  Just as he began laughing, Maron shook her head and poured again.

  “Krillin!” Maron said. “When is that going to happen?!”

  “Don’t worry, Maron,” Krillin said. “I just have to make a little more money. It won’t probably won’t be long before I get hired as a corporal and then we can get married! Might take a few months but-”

  “Well I wanna get married sooner!” she said.

  Krillin flinched at what she said, his spatula flying from his hands at her loud words.

  “I don’t wanna be strung along again!” Maron said. “My last boyfriend who did that went on for three years telling me we were going to get married any day and then, poof…we were done.”

  As Krillin sighed at his girlfriend’s words while the rest of the people at the barbecue laughed, picking up the spatula and wiping it off with his apron.

  Looks like I’m getting more chastised than Yamcha is…Krillin thought. And I’m not even tied down yet!

  Just as he was finding it humorous himself, he heard the sound of something flying nearby. Krillin turned to the source of the noise, with everyone else, to find an airship landing nearby. The pilot of the craft landed on an unoccupied space of green outside Capsule Corp’s headquarters.

  Emerging from the pilot was a rather angry looking Chi-Chi. She hopped out of the cockpit and stormed towards them after closing the door. Krillin could feel the good vibe of the celebration die down as she approached.

  “Chi-Chi!” Krillin said, smiling as he tried to keep up his jovial appearance. “Long time no see! Where’s Gohan?”

  “Yeah!” Bulma said. “Did you come to enjoy the party? I hope you got my invitation! Did you get to see the picture of Bra I faxed you? She’s really-!”

  “Where. Is. Gohan?!” the woman shouted.

  There was a collective pause as everyone wondered what Chi-Chi was talking about. It was difficult to describe how Krillin knew what everyone was thinking. Chi-Chi’s forceful mothering was such an omnipresent factor in their life.

  Every time they had Chi-Chi over for anything, she was screaming at them. For what reason? The only thing she ever talked about. Her son.

  “The last time I saw Gohan, he had flown away into the sky, leaving his school dance which I had meticulously planned and dressed him for!” she said. “And I wanted to know if he came here! I want an answer nooooowwwww!”

  Everyone gave a collective sigh. Not a single person didn’t have their attention set on Chi-Chi. There was no question everyone was trying to think of where he might be. Krillin was the only one willing to answer her honestly.

  “Since he’s not here…” he said. “Probably with Piccolo.”

  Chi-Chi looked at him with murderous intent.

  “WWWWHHHHAAAATTTT?!” she screamed.