Saturday, December 31st to Sunday, January 1st AA (After Alliance) 001

New Year, New Hope

Two figures whispered in the hallway of a spacious mansion in Satan City. One, the older one with lavender hair, tried in vain to shut the younger one up but his little brother would not. Trunks was resorted to looking up-and-down the hallway to make sure that Goten could not overhear their conversation.

"You could ring in the new year right, Trunks," Vegeta Junior said to him. "At twelve midnight you two could kiss and everything."

"Kiss him in front of people?" Trunks asked. "Forget about it. You know kaasan's throwing that formal 'gathering' New Year's Eve."

"Doesn't matter. If anyone has anything smart to say you could just kick their ass."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, now *that's* a great solution to the problem. I can see the headlines now: 'Prince Trunks Beats Up Trusting Citizens of Satan City'. You know that's not the real problem."

"You're afraid to tell him."

"Of course I am!" He shook his head. "He's been my best-friend for more years than I can even remember. But that's it; we were just friends. I think I have some really weird hormonal imbalance."

"You think it just developed when you hit puberty or something?" He shook his head. "Quit trying to come up with reasons and just accept it."

Trunks laughed bitterly. "V.J., you're one to talk about acceptance. You're normal."

"So are you, Niichan." Nothing he could say was going to make him feel better. He knew that. "Look, I'll see you in the morning. We have a lot of stuff to get done."

"Yeah," Trunks muttered, not really listening to him. They parted and went to their seperate rooms.

Trunks got into bed, still thinking about his not-so-secret love for Goten. He thought he was lucky that Goten himself didn't know about it. Secrets didn't last long in the palace simply because most of the residents couldn't keep one to save their life. Pan had to be the worst, though. He remembered asking her not to tell anyone that he was the one that had ran over the mailbox when he was seventeen but the little girl had told Bra who in turn told Bulma when she was asked. If Pan was a terrible secret-keeper, Bra was an even worse liar.

"Will I ever get up enough courage to tell him?" Trunks asked the darkness. He had no idea Goten already knew. "I'm a demi-saiya-jin, prince of the Chikyuu-sei Empire. I should be able to face anything and anyone."

He fell asleep still worrying over Goten's reaction to his confession and had a nightmare because of it.

***

An anguished cry that originated from Trunks' room woke the entire third floor the next day. Goten, who shared a bathroom with the other man, was the first to arrive on the scene. Trunks sat straight up in bed, blue eyes wide and face pale, looking straight through Goten as if he couldn't see him.

"Trunks! Are you okay?" Goten asked worriedly as Trunks' eyes didn't focus. He kneeled next to his bed and waved his hand in front of his face. Nothing resulted from it.

"What happened?" said a voice at the door and Goten looked over to see his sister. "He screamed like someone was trying to kill him."

"I think he had a nightmare," Goten replied. "But he won't snap out of it." He shook Trunks' shoulder, trying to wake him. "I think you should go get Bulma-san."

She nodded silently and left the room. Goten was just about to shake Trunks again when he blinked at gave his friend a questioning look.

"I don't mean to sound rude," he said, "but why are you in here?"

"You're fine now?" Goten asked, trying to be sure before he left. Trunks looked down at his blanket for a moment and spoke so quietly that the other man could barely hear him.

"Yeah, I am. At least I think so anyway." He looked up with his mother appeared in the door and sort of smiled when she chased Goten away.

"Do you want to tell me about it, Trunks?" she asked, speaking to him as if he were a little child. Trunks was not amused and told her as much. "I'm your mother. You'll always be a little boy in my eyes."

"V.J. and I had a talk last night about when was I going to tell Goten about... you know." He took a deep breath and all of the words rushed out in a long string. "InmydreamItoldGotenandhelaughedatmeforit." He took another deep breath and this time closed his eyes. He could still see the look on Goten's face in the dream. Trunks slowed down his words but it took considerable effort. "He told me that I was disgusting and not only was he not going to be my boyfriend he wasn't going to be my best-friend either." He looked at his mother. "That's why I can't tell him, Kaasan. I don't want to lose him as a friend."

"Trunks," Bulma said as she held him close. "Goten won't react that way."

His voice was muffled by his mother's shoulder when he spoke. "You can't tell how someone would react. Look at papa. He was cool about it. I thought he was going to beat the shi-crap out of me for not being 'manly' enough."

"Your papa's an unpredictable person, Trunks," she said with faint amusement. "You can't ever guess at what he's going to do or say next. Just when you think you have him figured out he goes off and surprises you again. Goten isn't anything of the above. He's like Son-kun in that respect. You can always count on them not to change. In your heart you know how he's going to react and you should believe it. You know him better than anyone."

"I guess so." He pulled away and rubbed at his eyes, trying to retain some of his usual 'unbothered by anything' attitude. He failed miserably at it and instead got up from his bed and went over to his window. It faced Bulma's garden and he felt just like the plants: Dead. If Summer could be called Goten's season, Winter could definitely be considered his.

"I'm going downstairs to start breakfast," Bulma said at length. "If you're okay by yourself that is."

Trunks was in a depressing mood, not a suicidal one. He made the decision to go downstairs to the kitchen with her and help her cook. "Is ChiChi awake yet?"

Bulma rolled her eyes. "I know what you're getting at. You guys always want ChiChi to cook! I'm queen, you know. I can do it."

"No, you can't Kaasan. Sorry to be so blunt but you're awful at it. We all want ChiChi to cook because we don't want to be moaning in pain later on."

On the second floor they were passed by four short figures in snow gear. Pan waved at them before thrusting one fist into the air.

"Snowball fight!" she shouted.

"Ah," Trunks smiled. "Nothing like a kid trying to get in the last few days of Christmas vacation."

"We're hoping for snow days too," Bra said as she went by. "But we know it's probably not gonna happen." Their footsteps were loud as they ran down the stairs and out the front door. Both Trunks and Bulma could hear Vegeta grumbling in the main hall.

"No running in the house!" He shouted after them, the front door open. A snowball came out of no where and hit him in the face. He wiped away the cold snow and shouted, "WHO THREW THAT?!" His answer was another but this time it hit him in the chest. There was some giggling but that was all. Trunks and Bulma peeked out the front window only to see Goku and Gohan slap fives.

"I can't believe Mr. Serious Scientist is playing around." Trunks shook his head with a grin.

"He wouldn't be if I hadn't told him that he was fired if he worked today. Even I don't work as much as he does."

Vegeta slammed the door shut, his clothes soaking wet. Grumbling to himself, he removed his shirt and left it in a wet puddle next to the front door. Spying them chuckling by the window he said, "Have I told you lately how much I hate this mudball of a planet?"

"Nope," Bulma grinned.

"Well I do and one day I'm probably going to destroy it."

"Now that would be definitely counterproductive," Trunks muttered as he followed his mother to the kitchen. "Blowing up the very planet you fight to save."

"Don't think I didn't hear that!" Vegeta shouted just as he stepped into a puddle of melted snow. Groaning loudly, he removed his socks as well. "I tell you, I completely and utterly despise this planet."

Preparing a meal for just his family while not easy wasn't very difficult. There were only six of them then. Preparing food for thirteen people was just insane. Luckily Magori didn't eat. The little Namek sat at the table during every meal with a huge bottle of water that he sipped leisurely. He wanted to try Chikyuu-jin food but really didn't know what the outcome would be. Bulma was, of course, performing tests to see if it would be okay. Any one of them would do almost anything to make the little guy happy.

While Bulma and Trunks stirred, fried, and gathered up plates, glasses, and silverware to set the table with they had a discussion about Trunks' dream. He wasn't afraid that Goten was going to show up in the kitchen because he was afraid to cook. The last time he tried -- it had been at his old home -- he almost burned down the house when the mircowave blew up. That was the last time he tried to cook a raw egg that way. In fact it had been the last time he used the microwave period. Trunks laughed in rememberance of the time Goten heard the timer on it ding and he powered up to super saiya-jin out of reflex. He hadn't been the only one who thought it was hilarious.

"What's so funny, Trunks?" Bulma asked as she poured more pancake batter onto the gridle. Trunks made sure to tell her when it was time to flip them over.

"When do you think Goten and the microwave will get along again?" he asked.

"Probably never. He'll be ordering out for the rest of his life."

A rhythmic thumping sound got his attention and Trunks opened the kitchen door to see what it was. The kids, Goku, Mia, and Goten were pouding their hands on the table chanting, "We want food! We want food!" Trunks and his mother started to bring all of the platters out and set them on the table but most wouldn't touch it when they saw who had cooked it. Goku, who'll eat practically anything, was eyeing the eggs as if they were going to jump up and bite him. Trunks sat in his chair next to Goten and helped himself to a portion.

"I cooked them," he explained. That was all the reassurance Goku needed. Before you could say the word 'glutton', almost half the bowl was on his plate.

"What else did *you* cook, Niichan," Bra asked, trying to tell by looking at the food. "I'm guessing the bacon here."

"Yeah," Pan snickered. "Trunks cooked it because it's not burnt."

"Maybe not the pancakes. Some of them are a little dark."

"Oh you guys are *real* funny," Bulma muttered. "About as funny as a hernia."

"Have I told everyone my latest plan to do away with this planet?" Vegeta asked casually. As he began to describe his big plan, his forkfull of pancake was waving in the air with Goku's eyes tracking its every movement. "It would be a simple thing to just let the next evil alien blow the entire thing up. I should try that."

"Are you serious?" Magori asked, his eyes wide. Mia patted his hand and tried to reassure him.

"Don't listen to the crazy man, Magori. Nothing is going to happen to Chikyuu." She waved her hand around the table. No one else was paying Vegeta the least bit of attention.

"I am not crazy!" He threw his right arm out for emphasis and Goku grabbed his hand and took the fork from it.

"Don't ever taunt me with food, Vegeta!" he said as he swallowed. "You know I can't resist it."

Vegeta looked disgustedly at the utensil his general offered him and dropped it onto the table. "Now I need another fork."

"You know where they are," Bulma said, not moving an inch. "Help youself."

When the plates, bowls, and platters were completely devoid of food the kids looked at each other and shouted in unison, "Not cleaning!" That said, all four escaped clearing the table by simply stating they would not. Goten, Trunks, Mia, and V.J. quickly followed suit and that left six adults.

"I'm the king. I don't have to clean up." Vegeta announced as he rose from his chair. He motioned to Goku with his head that he should excuse himself too but it took a little while for the younger saiya-jin to get it.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "I have to go, uh...." Vegeta grabbed his arm and dragged him from the room.

"We're going to spar, bakayaro," Vegeta said mentally.

"Oh yeah! We're going to spar. Have a nice time cleaning!"

"I'm just going to go back to the lab..." Bulma fixed Gohan with a stern stare. "I mean go play with my daughters." He chuckled nervously as he picked up Moura from her high chair and exited the room.

"Why is it that we always get stuck on the clean-up crew?" Videl sighed as she began to stack up the plates. "I think the ones who cooked should clean up."

ChiChi pointed out something. "You don't ever cook."

"It's not like I can't, you know. But why should I have to with so many other people around?"

"To give Bulma and I a break." ChiChi glared at her. "I've never liked you that much, Videl. You are completely wrong for my Gohan." Bulma ignored both of them as she finished up.

"Oh yeah?" Videl asked. "You're a psycho!" Bulma saw ChiChi move from the corner of her eye and ducked on instinct. A glass flew over her head and luckly Videl caught it.

"Hey! You can't throw my dishes around like that!" Bulma said while covering her head. "I know why you two hate each other."

"Why?" said both in unison.

"The two of you are so much alike that you can't stand each other. Both of you are stubborn, tempermental women who hate to be wrong. Why Gohan married someone exactly like his mother will always confuse me." She shooed them both from the room. "I'll finish up here. You two go bother somebody else." Bulma went into the kitchen and left the two of them standing in the dining room

"The nerve of that woman!" ChiChi said, highly offended. "I have work to do anyway." She went through the door, through the main hall, and up the stairs. Videl stood, watching her for a moment, then shaking her head she went to find her husband.

"Am I really like her?" she asked herself. She thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. "No way!"

***

The remainder of the day was spent preparing for the event that night. The caterers were hired, the decorations were being hung, the party favors were sitting in a huge box next to the main entrance and Bulma's masterpiece, a mechanical ball that would drop at the stroke of midnight, sat high above in the ballroom. The kids were arguing with Bulma on whether they could use the ballroom to rollerskate in that night. Bra said that the important adults were going to be bringing less important children who would get bored if they didn't have any entertainment. All the other kids agreed.

"Besides," she said, "I've already added it to the invitations."

"What?" Bulma asked in a stunned voice.

"I really did, Kaasan. Before you sent them to the printer's I wrote it down at the bottom. Didn't you noticed that it cost a little bit more than you thought they would?"

"You're the reason I had to pay so much extra," she said, still not believing it. "Bra! I'm not made out of money you know!"

"Hai, you are! You still own the Capsule Corp. Kaasan. You get money from that."

Bulma opened her mouth to respond to that and only silence came out for a moment. "You know what? You're right. I am richer than anyone else in the world. Still, that doesn't make it okay for you to turn my ballroom into a rollerskating rink! Now where are the other guests supposed to go?"

"We don't need the entire thing, Kaasan. Only part of it. The dancing can still be in there as well as the buffet table. Just block off the upstairs from the guests and everything'll be fine. Come on, Kaasan!" She pleaded. "Pan and I are wearing dresses for you! You know what she says. 'How can I kick bad guy ass in a skirt?' " She did a pretty good imitation of her best-friend that made even Bulma laugh and forget to correct her language.

"Fine, Bra-chan. I'll let you get away with tricking me this one time but if you do it again..."

Bra supplied her own threat. "You'll force me to wear frilly pink party dresses for the rest of the school year?" Her mother smiled slowly at her words and nodded.

"Hai, exactly that."

" 'Kay Kaasan!" She hugged her and skipped off. "I love you!"

"You only say that when you get what you want!" Bulma called back. She felt that one potential disaster was out of the way but another problem soon made itself known.

"NO ONNA YOU CAN'T TAKE THOSE!" Vegeta roared. "GET OUT OF HERE!"

"YOU DON'T OWN THIS ROOM, VEGETA!" ChiChi shouted back. "I DON'T SEE YOUR NAME ON IT ANYWHERE!"

Bulma sighed. "What now? Honestly, sometimes I feel like their mother too." She followed the yelling to their source: Vegeta's study.

"You don't even use these books!" ChiChi said while tapping the cover of one that read, Educational Theory. "You made me Minister of Education, remember? I'm supposed to take interest in our planet's children!"

"You were going to make them go to school all year!" Vegeta said accusingly. "I will not have those children whining to me every day. About that or those stupid school uniforms."

"What is going on in here?" Bulma asked with curiosity as she took one of the chairs that sat across from Vegeta's desk. Among the short saiya-jin's laptop on the desk there were sheets upon sheets of papers that needed to be looked at. If someone had said anything about how much paperwork pops up after you becoming a ruling monarch, she might not have taken the job. Bulma had her own share of paperwork on her desk in the lab. Vegeta may get all the law proposals, trade agreements, and border disputes but she received almost everything else. Jakina went between the two everyday, helping to sort through the papers. The little girl was a big help.

"I came into my office only to find this onna," Vegeta jerked at thumb at the still-glaring ChiChi, "pulling books from my shelves. She should ask permission before taking someone's books, you know."

"I only did this to help stabilize my department of the government. Kami knows you haven't been doing anything to help it. It surprises me that someone hasn't already taken advantage of the non-existent laws on Chikyuu."

"They're still trying to move on from the Kamoku-jin Incident," Bulma told her. "They don't know what's going to happen next. What are we going to tell them? 'Sorry but we haven't killed the evil aliens that attacked the world and killed all of your loved ones?' I don't think so! I refuse to allow these people to sink down to the level of the Kamoku-jin. We will not go to that planet and perform a mass genocide and/or blow the entire thing up. At least not without discovering why they did it in the first place."

"Brilliant speech, Bulma," ChiChi said sarcastically. "But I'm not the one you have to convince here. It's the people who's husbands, wives, children, brothers, and sisters were killed because of them. If you can convince those people that the Kamoku-jin shouldn't be killed without a fair trial then you are, by far, the greatest public speaker who has ever lived."

"She won't be making any speeches anyway," Vegeta said. "I'm the king here."

Bulma looked over at her mate with angry eyes. "We share power, Vegeta, just like we share everything else. How many times do I have to tell you that this is not Vegeta-sei? One person alone can not rule over a planet with billions of people living on it. Vegeta-sei did not have nearly as many living, breathing beings! You screw up one time, *one time*, people will die as a result. I know that, despite what words may come out of your mouth, you don't want anything like that to happen. I know you understand how many people are counting on us to lead them. They trust us with their lives, Vegeta, and we're not going to let them down."

Vegeta did not have a single word to say to that. He and Bulma continued to stare at each other, each determined not to look away first. ChiChi used the time to grab a few more books and escape to her bedroom with nary a remark from the king. The grandfather clock in the outside hall chimed three times and the sound echoed, working against the sudden quietness of their area of the palace. Both Bulma and Vegeta broke eye contact the moment the sound of the third chime ceased to be and Bulma decided to sit down and really talk about the future.

Only eight hours remained until midnight and Bulma was determined to start the new year off right.

***

"Please have your invitations out and ready by the time you reach the door!" Pan shouted to the line in front of the house. The entire thing stretched from the front door to the sidewalk and it was being kept in check by a velvet rope on two sides. Some of the important officials were a little offended at having to wait in line like everyone else but Pan quickly set them straight.

"Would you rather wait or would you rather have a bullet in your brain from an assassin's gun?" That got the point across really quick. Pan reached a person in the line who did not have his invitation out and politely asked to see it.

"I don't have one," he said, sneering at her. "What is a little girl like you gonna do about it anyway?"

She grabbed his arm and twisted it hard behind his back, smiling all the while. "I'm going to escort you from the premises and all of your friends get to see how you were bounced by a little girl." She motioned to a television camera with her free hand. "Say hi to the world, jackass, you're on a billion t.v.s world-wide!"

Majority of the invited guests in line were laughing openly at his predicament, while the remaining few were chuckling discreetly. Those who did not have an invitation, quietly snuck off so that they would not get humiliated by Son Pan.

"After presenting your invitation, please take a complementary party hat and/or noisemaker." Jakina and Magori maintained the area that was right inside the doorway while Bra helped Pan police the line. She smiled every time she handed a party hat to a guest and said, "Hope you have a great time." After the twentieth time she was getting a little sick of it.

"Come on! Switch with me Bra!" she called to her neechan outside of the palace. "I can kick bad guy butt too!"

"Line jumpers and uninvited guests won't even spare you a glance," V.J. smirked as he dropped by to see how everyone was doing. "You're small, you're nine, and you're female."

"We can have fun soon," Magori said as he handed out more noisemakers. "Just think of the food and the music that we picked."

"After all these people get in we can have the time of our lives!" She said this with more than a little sarcasm. "Someone please tell me how many are still out there?"

"Around thirty or forty," V.J. reported as he went to rejoin the party. "Happy greeting."

"I hate this job," Jakina muttered to herself.

***

"My job, as king, is to just stand here, look good, and exchange pleasantries with various guests." Vegeta informed his mate as he saw her heading over. "My job is *not* to dance."

"You danced at the Christmas party and there were more people there."

"Fine," he grumbled as he took her hand. "Stop begging already."

"I'm not begging!" She protested as she allowed him to lead her onto the small space that served as the dance floor. Bra had been wrong about one thing before: There really wasn't enough room for rollerskating and dancing too. As the kids flew around the polished floor (with Bulma cringing at every scuff mark), the adults were crammed into one tiny corner. She was elbowed three times by people and when Vegeta stepped on her foot she was finished with dancing.

"I'm going to get something to drink!" she shouted to Vegeta over the noise of both the music and the people. He nodded and as soon as she released him, a woman came up and asked him for a dance. Smirking in Bulma's direction, he said yes.

"I will not let that man get to me," Bulma muttered over and over again to herself. "I am stronger than that." She poured herself a glass of punch and paused right when the cup was at her lips. Sniffing, she asked herself, "What's in this?" Getting an idea, she turned to search the room for three young men.

"TRUNKS!"

The lavander haired man looked up from his converation with Mia and saw a very angry mother who's face was slowly turning red from the effort it took not to scream at him even more. He smiled innocently at her all the while inching towards the nearest exit.

"She's tomato-colored now," Mia observed. "She might just be pissed enough to hurt you in front of all these people. You hide and I'll try to keep her away." Trunks looked at her and then spared at glance at Goten. "No there's no time! Run! Quick now!"

"If I don't make it through this," Trunks said, "will you tell him I love him?"

She nodded. "Hai, now go!" With one last glance at his secret love, Trunks ran through the door and up the stairs.

"You do know that was overdramatic, right?" V.J. asked as Bulma stalked over to them. "Oh konichi wa, Kaasan. Lovely party, isn't it?"

"Where is that boy?" Bulma asked from between her clenched teeth. "I want to hurt him for spiking the punch."

"What did he put in it?" V.J. asked, clearly interested.

Mia rolled her eyes. "Does it matter?"

"I didn't drink any, Vegeta Briefs Junior. I smelled it first." The young man wisely stayed silent. When Bulma used his full name he knew she meant business. Turning back to ChiChi and Goku's youngest she asked, "Where is he?"

"Someplace beyond your reach," she answered creatively.

"His room then," Bulma said as she went off after her son. "By the way, you two can have that punch. Can't have guests driving home drunk, you know." The two of them rushed over to remove the punch bowl before anyone else could take a drink from it.

Goten wandered over with a confused look on his face. "Why is Bulma so mad?"

"Your boyfriend spiked the punch," Mia smirked. "She's going to off him."

"He's not my-" He cut himself off. "She's going to kill him for that?"

"Naw," V.J. said. "But we get to keep the punch." He rubbed his hands together in undisguised glee.

"Excuse me for not being as excited as you two are," Goten said with a grin. "I can go to a bar for a drink and you two little children can't. Aw, how sad."

"Shut up niichan and help us take this to Trunks. It was his handiwork that got us this after all." Mia carefully balanced the bowl and slowly carried it out of the noisy room, through the great hall, and up two flights of stairs. V.J. and Goten hovered near her just in case it started to tip. She told Goten to open the door to her room and the three of them entered, shutting and locking the door behind them.

"She thinks you went to your room," Mia said to Trunks who had moved away from the door to allow them to enter. "My plan was good, wasn't it?" She set the punch bowl down on a table and paused. "Did anyone bring cups?" After a moment of silence, Goten sighed and volunteered himself to back downstairs for them.

"Why did you bring him up here?!" Trunks asked as soon as the door was closed. The other two exchanged glances and made noises of frustration.

"Trunks, you know I love you but if you don't tell him your secret soon I'm going to have to kill you." Mia said to him. She couldn't threaten him with 'telling Goten herself' since he already knew. "You're a mature, responsible adult-" She looked at him. "Well you're an adult anyway." He glared at her. "My point is this: Goten loves you. He's not one to throw away a friendship over this. That's more of Vegeta-san type of thing."

"Not anymore it isn't," V.J. said, "Papa was fine with the entire thing." The door opened and the conversation was over.

"Who wants to play a game?" Mia asked as she poured herself some punch. "We'll have to hide-out here with poor Trunks until the party is over at least."

"What kind of game? Please don't tell me you're thinking about Monopoly or something!"

"No, Ve-ge-ta," she stressed each syllable of his name with annoyance. "I was talking about 'I Never'. It's a drinking game. I'll start." She smirked and turned to Trunks specifically. "I've never kept a secret from my best-friend." Trunks and Goten both drank and then looked at each other accusingly.

"What are you hiding, Trunks?" Goten asked even though he had a feeling. The other man mumbled something and abruptly changed the subject.

"I'll go next," he said. "I've never had sex." It was the first thing that came in his mind and he wished that he could take it back. Trunks blushed and looked down at Mia's carpet. The only person who drank on this one was V.J. so he didn't feel so bad.

Goten went next. "I've never wet the bed as a kid." There was a pause and then V.J. drank again. The other three burst into laughter but he didn't blush.

"Hey, I had too much to drink that night okay?" V.J. said. "I was three."

"No explanation needed, bedwetter," Mia said with a smile. "Okay... I've never had a wet dream." All three men drank to this one. She shook her head. "I'm not even going to ask."

Trunks, again, blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "I've never accidentally walked in on my parents having sex." He took a drink and so did V.J.

"Since kaasan and tousan hardly ever do it," Mia said, "we were never at risk. Bulma-san and Vegeta-san copulate like bunnies."

"*Frantic* bunnies," Trunks corrected. "I was fifteen when they decided to soundproof their room. Kaasan's a screamer. I remember that Bra-chan actually called the police once and told them that papa was killing kaasan and she was shouting for kami's help."

"Too much information, Trunks," Goten said with a smile. "I think we should play a different game. Has everyone heard of 'The Name Game'?"

"Nope," Mia said. "Do they play it at one of your big boy bars?" He chose to ignore her.

"The name game is easy and it'll get you drunker than 'I Never' will. Someone says the name of someone famous and the next person says the name of some other famous person but their first name has to begin with the first letter of the last name of the previous person. If you can't think of one you have to drink until you do. The order reverses if you say someone with only goes by one name or they have the same letter for both their first and last names. Everyone understand that?"

V.J. blinked. "Iie."

"You will. Michael Jordan."

"Jonathan Taylor Thomas." Mia answered promptly.

Trunks quickly came up with a name. "Tim Allen." Then everything stopped on V.J. who started to drink and continued to do so until almost a minute later.

"Aaliyah."

"Uh... Damn." Trunks drank one entire glass and half of another before he thought of someone. "Angelina Jolie."

"Jewel."

"Will you people stop doing this to me?!" Trunks drank the rest of his cup and said, "Janet Jackson."

"Jim Carey," said Mia. "And now it's back to you, Big Bro."

"Christina Aguilera."

"Adam Sandler. Ha! I was ready this time!" V.J. said this proudly as if he had answered the one-million dollar question.

"Sandra Bullock."

"Barbra Streisand."

"Sarah Michelle Gellar."

The smile faded right off V.J.'s face as he strugged with a 'G' name. He finished two glasses before he came up with, "Gwyneth Paltrow."

"Peter Jennings." Mia was a master at the game.

"Why do I always get the 'J' names?" Trunks asked no one in particular. "Jennifer Lopez."

"Lil' Kim." Goten was also a master at the game.

"Kirk Douglas."

Mia hesitated. "She's faltering!" V.J. said with glee. Then, with a big smirk, she said, "Donald Duck." And reversed it back to him.

"DAMN IT!"

"Sorry, you can't use that as your celebrity," she said with a big smile. V.J., who was by far the most buzzed, drank an entire glass of punch for the heck of it.

"Drew Barrymore," he said at last and hiccuped. The game resumed.

The four of them played until it was after eleven forty-five and by that time, Vegeta Junior was on the verge of passing out. Goten and Mia were just about cold sober and Trunks was only slightly disoriented.

"I commend you for your game, Niichan," Mia said with a big grin as she poked V.J. and watched him stumble. "Dimwitted people can't keep up with it."

Trunks protested weakly. "Hey! That's my niichan you're talking about." A high-pitched giggled caught all of their attention as Vegeta amused himself with a lamp shade. "Nevermind. I don't claim that baka."

"Well, it's almost twelve so I'm going to go downstairs and make silly resolutions that I'm not going to keep. What will it be this year? Get straight As or beat Goten sparring?" The three of them walked down the hallway to the staircase, leaving Vegeta alone with his lampshade.

"I like 'beat Goten sparring'," Trunks said. "Give yourself a good goal this time."

"It's not like it's ever going to happen." Goten was absolutely sure of this.

"Pan-chan kicked your ass when she was four, remember?" Trunks said.

"I was having an off day!"

"Yeah, whatever."

"Where have you guys been?" Bra asked. "We were looking all over for you." She handed them noisemakers.

"Did you hear the story about Trunks and the punch?" Goten asked.

"He spiked it?"

"Hai and we've been upstairs drinking it up."

The huge crowd of guests were speaking in low voices now, some periodically checking their watches. Soon it was thirty seconds before the new year and a disturbance had everyone looking to the main entrance.

"Oh my kami!" Bra gasped. "Is that V.J.?!" It was. The young man was running crazily though the ballroom waving his arms in the air and laughing. "He's..."

"HE'S NAKED!" Jakina covered her eyes. "I did not need to see that."

"Subject Vegeta does not hold his liquor very well," Mia said in her best documentary voice. "The young man is prone to remove all of his protective outer covering and run around insanely to the amusement of his friends, his family, and complete strangers." He ran out just as suddenly as he ran in and someone started the countdown just as Bulma's device began to slowly lower itself.

"Five, four, three-" Everyone joined in. "-two, one. Happy Hew Year!" An explosion of brightly colored confetti burst from the ball and showered everyone with little bits of paper. As the singing began, various resolutions and hopes for the new year were silently being made.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,"

'I hope niichan and Goten-niichan live happily ever after.'

"And never brought to mind?"

'Chikyuu has been though enough over the years. I hope I can protect it until the day I die.'

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,"

'I'm going to be a better scientist and find a way to cure everything.'

"And days of auld lang syne?"

'I would wish that Taisho would stop stalking me but since that's probably impossible to grant I wish that Trunks would get up enough nerve to talk to Goten-niichan.'

"And days of auld lang syne, my dear,"

'I'm going to tell Goten how I feel. No more procrastination.'

"And days of auld lang syne."

'The people of this planet will not have to worry. As their queen I will always rule in their best interests.'

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,"

'Chikyuu's future is not destruction. We all will see to that. I am Vegeta and I am king.'

"And days of auld lang syne?"

~OWARI~

Coming up next in The New Age Empire: Spring Break. Will Vegeta ever get enough peace and quiet to finish his government? Will Trunks stick to his resolution? Will there ever be a space military? Stay tuned for the next side-story and find out.