Pizza

A Chibi Tail

By Talon

Goku sighed and looked at the clock. The kids were going to be wanting dinner soon. After a cursory glance in the refrigerator, he gave up and picked up the phone. It was only three days, he thought, then Vegeta would be back. Another week, and Bulma’s parents would return from their vacation. After that, only two weeks until Bulma returned from the company tour.

Vegeta and Piccolo had taken Gohan with them into the forest to do some wilderness training. Goku still didn’t see why he had to wait until every other person at Capsule Corp had left to get a kink in his tail about spending quality time with Gohan, but he had been pleased that the Prince had wanted to do this. And Gohan needed the extra training, thought Goku. The years of his mother browbeating him to be a scholar had not been completely balanced by the new (well, not so new anymore) household arrangements. He was definitely on the right track though. He looked at the phone in his hand, wondering what he had been going to do with it…oh yeah…order dinner.

He glanced over the speed dial list, deciding what he wanted to order when the calendar caught his eye, and held it. A dawning realization smacked him upside the head like a roundhouse from Vegeta. Gohan was due to go into heat in three days…Vegeta and Piccolo were going to beat him into the ground before hand; a really good plan since Gohan had started dating Videl. Strong as she was, Goku didn’t think she was up to handling a demi-Saiyjin in heat. Hn….wonder if Gohan will go to her at all…might just take the high road and go to Piccolo to help him out again…his stomach rumbled, reminding him of his original purpose, and he made a decision. Number two on the speed dial….pizza.

He ordered with the ease of long familiarity, making certain to order a few without pepperoni, as Sage loathed it and wouldn’t eat anything that had touched a pepperoni. Dinner taken care of, he suddenly realized that it was much too quiet in the house. He felt around for the boy’s ki’s and located Trunks and Goten in the playroom. Sage didn’t seem to be in the house, but the three year old could very well be suppressing his ki. He had learned to do it a few weeks ago with some very painful, but hilarious results.

He walked upstairs to the playroom where Goten and Trunks were playing a strategy game head to head over the networked terminals. The game had been made by Bulma but designed in part by Vegeta who had gotten disgusted at the push-the-buttons-as-fast-as-you-can games the boys had spent all their time playing and had asked her to make a game that made them think. The two older boys had all but given up the other games in favor of Battle Lust; at first because all the characters were Saiyjin…later because the other games simply became…boring

Goku looked around the room, the other computer terminals were empty, and while some toys were scattered over the floor, Sage was no where in sight.

“Have you two seen your little brother?”

“He was in here a while ago,” replied Trunks absently. “But he got bored and left.”

Goku’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Did you tell him he couldn’t play with you?”

Goten looked at his father in amazement. “Daddy, is the house still standing? Of course we didn’t tell him that. Trunks told him that he had to wait to play with us because Papa wanted us to be past a certain level when he and Gohan got back. He watched us for awhile, announced that he was bored and left.” Goten shrugged. “We haven’t seen him since.”

“All right. I’m going to go look for him, keep an ear out for the door…dinner should be here soon.” That got both boys attention. “What’d you order?” they choursed in unison.

“Pizza.”

He left the room quickly, nearly deafened by the shouts of elation.

Goku made a rapid but detailed search of the upstairs. He wasn’t in his room, nor in the shared sleeping room (the three youngest boys, and often Gohan usually ended up in a puppy pile by morning, so they had stopped fighting it and created a sleep room with a HUGE low bed in it) nor in Goten and Trunks’ room, not in Gohan’s room or his mother’s room. The room he thought he would find Sage in was also empty…his and Vegeta’s room. Goku frowned. Where could the chibi be? He stretched out through the blood-bond he shared with Sage, trying to pinpoint the boy….he was sad…lonely…he was outside.

Sage was standing in the small branches at the top of a huge maple tree, buffeted back and forth by gusts of wind, his attention fixed on a spot miles and miles away. Goku realized the child didn’t even know he was there.

“Sage,” he said softly, trying not to startle the boy; after all the child couldn’t fly yet.

Sage blinked and turned to his bond-father. “Baka,” he said, using his pet name for Goku. “What are you doing up here?” Goku was hovering close to his son, watching him.

“I’ve been looking for you. It’s almost time for dinner.”

Sage sighed and turned back to fixate on that spot again. Goku followed his gaze and realized that Sage had been searching out his father’s ki.

“You miss your Tou’tan.” It wasn’t a question. The two were extremely close.

“Hai,” came the soft reply.

“He’ll be back in three days Sage, till then, what am I? Chopped liver?”

Sage giggled. “You’re my Baka,” he said happily, letting go of the branch he had been holding and flinging his small, strong arms around Goku’s neck.

“That’s right,” agreed Goku. “Let’s go get washed up for dinner, ne?”

“What did you order?”

“What makes you think I didn’t cook?” teased Goku.

Sage snorted, looking and sounding like a carbon copy of his father. “As if you could cook something that didn’t have chocolate in it.”

Goku set him on the ground and cuffed him gently round the head. “Show your bond-father some respect boy,” he said mock-gruffly.

“So…what did you order?”

“Pizza you monster, go get washed up.”

“YATTA!!!,” screeched Sage and scampered off, tail streaming behind him.

The delivery boy left with a liberal tip; rumor was that drivers fought over who got to deliver to Capsule Corp because of the generosity of the family, and Goku divided up a couple of the pizza’s, piling the rest of the boxes on the countertop. Goten and Trunks had already started eating when Sage climbed into his booster seat and frowned at his plate.

“What’s wrong, chibi?” asked Goku around a mouthful of pizza.

“I don’t want this pizza,” stated the youngster flatly.

Rather than argue with him, long experience had taught the entire family the futility of that gesture, Goku simply asked “What pizza do you want?”

Sage stuck out his lower lip and pointed to the pizza on Trunks’ plate. “I want that pizza.” Trunks ignored his brother and continued chewing.

“But Sage,” pointed out Goku reasonably, or so he thought. “That pizza has pepperoni on it. You don’t like pepperoni.”

Sage scowled harder. “I don’t care,” he said, his voice rising. “I WANT THAT PIZZA!!”

Goku winced, and was about to reply when he saw the two older boys whispering to each other. He waited…a lot of times Trunks and Goten could diffuse a Sage tantrum before one even got properly started.

“Hey Sage,” said Trunks cheerfully. “Me an’ Goten will trade you a piece of our pizza each for two of yours...what do you say?”

Sage considered the offer. “Ok,” he said finally, passing two pieces of his pizza over to the older boys.

Goku sighed with relief. Crisis averted. He reminded himself to make sure Trunks and Goten got something extra for that little….his thoughts were interrupted by a choked giggle. He followed the sound, and saw Goten and Trunks struggling to act as though they weren’t suppressing frantic snickers. He followed their surreptitious gaze and nearly choked himself. There sat Sage, calmly picking each and every slice of pepperoni off of the two slices of pizza his brothers had given him.

Goku had just settled into bed and was looking inattentively through one of his martial arts magazines when the bedroom door opened on a tiny figure.

“Can I get into bed with you?”

“Sure Sage,” replied Goku, turning back the covers beside him and patting the mattress in invitation.

Sage climbed into bed, started to lay down, then stopped. He hopped back out of bed and padded across the room to the closet, Goku wondering what on earth had gotten into him.

When he came out, he climbed into bed, and Goku got a look, and a whiff of what he had been after.

It was one of Vegeta’s training shirts…and it had obviously come from the dirty clothes hamper. The sweet sadness of the gesture brought tears to Goku’s eyes as Sage cuddled up close to him, tail already wrapped around his hand, thumb in his mouth, and his head on part of his Tou’tan’s shirt, other hand fisted tightly in the navy material. The boy breathed in deeply, scenting his father and bond-father.

“That’s better,” he sighed happily, then promptly fell asleep.

Goku brushed spiky bangs from the high forehead of his sleeping son and silently agreed as he turned out the light and settled down amidst the heady scent of his bonded mate that his son had so thoughtfully provided.

The End.