A Different Path to Happiness (GokuxOC)

Tournament Time

"So, mom?" My son asked me from his spot on my shoulders. I felt his weight shift as he moved to get closer to the right side of my face. "What are we going to do with the prize money?"

We were walking towards the stadium where the World Martial Arts Tournament would be taking place in a couple of hours. I had been looking forward to this for a few years now, and now I could feel the excitement bubble within me.

"We're going to asked the Brief's family to build us a spaceship so we can find Prince Tarble and any other saiyans that might have escaped Frieza's grasp. Bulma owes me a favor, so we should have no problem with getting one." I got a hum as a response, and I moved to get a look on my son's face.

His black hair stuck up all over his head in crazy spikes with several of them falling over his forehead. He had very expressive black eyes that were now narrowed in thought, and he had one of his hands fisted in his dark red gi shirt.

"Will...will they like me since I'm...not fully saiyan?" His voice was small as he looked at me with his lower lip between his teeth. He had been leery about meeting others of our kind ever since I brought this idea up.

"Oh, Goten. I'm sure they will. Besides, you barely have any human blood left in you after I adopted you, and as far as most saiyans were concerned, you would be considered a full blooded one." I lifted my hand to ruffle his hair, and my tail snaked out from under my teal gi top to lightly pull on his hidden one.

My lips curled in a little smile as I looked over him. Every time I see his face, I couldn't help but remember when I found Goten for the first time.

Flashback

I had just finished a very intense training regiment, and I was walking through the woods to a lake I knew was nearby to bathe and find some fish for dinner. The teal gi I had on was ripped and burnt in several places.

I was looking forward to just sinking in the water when I caught the sound of something crying. I stopped and looked around in confusion as soon as I realized that it was a baby crying. I remained still as I wondered just what a baby was doing in the woods so far from any town or village when I heard an animalistic snarl.

I launched myself in the direction of the sound until I came to a clearing, and I felt my lips pull back into a snarl of my own. There against a stump in the center of the clearing was a baby that couldn't have been more than two months old wrapped in a blue blanket with a saber tooth tiger about to pounce on him.

I fired a ki blast at the feline as I kicked off the ground to protect the child. The blast knocked the tiger away, and it turned towards me with a snarl on its face. I landed in a crouch in front of the still crying babe with a glare.

However, as soon as it saw me, it seized up in fear. All I did was take a step in its direction before it turned tail to flee into the woods.

I rolled my eyes at the feline's actions wondering if I should chase it down to make it my dinner when another cry grabbed my attention. I rose up as I turned to look at the squirming bundle on the stump. The blanket was completely covering the baby from view, and my heart wrenched at the sight.

"Shh...there, there." I whispered in a soothing voice as I lifted the child. My words seemed to have an effect as the crying slowed a bit. "It's alright now. That pussy cat can't get to you anymore."

It took a moment of shifting to get the baby in the crook of my left arm so I could look over it to see if it needed any treatment. I pulled the blanket down only to have the sight of the baby knock my breath away like a punch to the gut.