Clinging to the Past (a DBZ fanfic)

Ch. 16 - Must Find A Solution

A day had passed since the half Saiyan females exited the Room of Spirit and Time. The Son family insisted that Mirai stay with them while they wait for the day of the Cell Games. Of course, Chi-Chi had also insisted on cutting the girl's hair after seeing how uneven it was cut, almost as if a five-year old had cut it. Not to mention that the mother had sent her to shower after putting up with the stench long enough to trim her hair, and even loaned Mirai some of her clothes to wear for the next eight days.

Today, they had chosen to go out for a picnic, Goku having drove them there, which had frankly surprised Mirai. She hadn't known that her father could drive, could this have been a result of her and Trunks' meddling with time?

Either way, Goku's driving abilities were far less important than the other thoughts running through her mind.

"Look at the size o' the fish in this lake!" Goku pointed at the lake nearby the picnic blanket that Chi-Chi had been setting up. His children followed his finger to stare into the lake, each concerned about the upcoming battle that they weren't even preparing for anymore.

Gohan was the first to speak up about his concerns, "Dad... Are you sure we should be relaxing like this?"

"Don't you worry about a thing," Goku looked to his son with a reassuring smile, shifting his gaze between his twins. "We'll probably be fine!"

Mirai sighed, her confidence dropping slightly at the very important word of 'probably'.

"Take it easy! We're fine! Like I told you, there's no point in pushing any further. We've taken our bodies as far as they can go." Goku's attempt at reassurance only had the opposite effect on Mirai, but the young twins did their best to try and stay positive about the situation. Their father had to have a plan after all, right?

"Hey, you four! The picnic's ready!" Chi-Chi called to them, Goku letting out a cheer at the mention of food being ready.

"Come on, forget what's comin' up and have a good time!" Goku patted his young children's backs, his smile never leaving his face. The twins stayed silent as they went to sit at the picnic blanket. Their father moved to follow, but was stopped by Mirai's light tugging of his jacket. Turning his head to look at her, he silently questioned her, wondering what she had wanted to say.

"Can we talk in a bit?" Mirai spoke quietly, as if trying to ask the innocent question without the twins or their mother hearing.

"Yeah, sure. But let's eat first, I'm starving!"

Mirai watched as her father walked to sit at the picnic blanket without a care in the world, trying desperately to think of how he could be so calm.

Deciding to shrug it off for the moment in favor of eating the food Chi-Chi had prepared for them, Mirai sat cross-legged on the picnic blanket, keeping her hands neatly in her lap to wait for the others to grab their food.

After a few moments, Chi-Chi noticed that Mirai simply sat as the others had already began shoveling food into their mouths, eating as Saiyan's normally did. She decided to speak up, "Mirai, is everything alright? You should get something before your father eats it all."

"O-Oh, right," Mirai stammered slightly before reaching to grab a few things from the huge spread of food Chi-Chi had prepared. "Sorry, I'm just used to making sure that Trunks and Bulma eat enough first. You think it's hard enough to do shopping now with Cell's threat, it's even worse in my timeline."

Goku's head perked up at the comment, swallowing the lump of food he had in his mouth before saying, "You need to eat enough, too. Can't do much fighting on an empty stomach!"

"It's fine. Besides, they wouldn't let me starve." Mirai stared at the food she had been piling on her plate as she thought back to her blue haired scientist and her son. Her thoughts particularly drifted to those months after Gohan's death, where she struggled with simple tasks such as eating and taking care of herself more than ever. It was during that time that she had developed this habit, valuing Trunks' and Bulma's life more than her own.