Happy Father's Day, Daddy

"Your turn," Pan said to her best friend, Bra, handing the two dice over to her.

Bra took the objects into her small palm, only to throw them back on the ground after shaking them in her fist made hand. The first die landed on two while the other landed on six. Bra moved her little dog piece eight spaces, just to end up back at start again.

She sighed, "Is it me, or is Monopoly getting a little boring to you?" Bra asked, leaning back on the couch and stretching her short legs out to relieve her body from sitting in the same position for over an hour.

Five-year-old Pan rolled over on her back from laying on her stomach, looking at Bra upside down, "Yeah, nothing's happening…I mean, I think we both went broke about ten minutes ago. We just keep going around the board."

Bra stared down at the game that her and Pan were once obsessed with, then finally took the obsession too far and played it too many times.

"Well, what do you wanna do now?" Bra asked, averting her eyes to Pan.

Pan shrugged, "I dunno…wanna make a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich?" Knowing this was both their favorite food, it was the first thing that came to her mind.

"Okay, sure!" Bra agreed quickly, "But don't we need—."

"Yeah, I need to get my mom, but she'll make them for us!" Pan exclaimed excitedly, jumping to her feet.

Even before Bra could stand up too, Pan was out of the living room and was heard running up the steps.

"Mommy!" Pan yelled, running all the way down the hall to her parents' bedroom once she was upstairs.

A pause and then: "Pan, what is it honey? I'm a little busy right now…"

Ignoring this comment, Pan walked in the big bedroom and saw Videl sitting against the headboard of the bed, a laptop on her lap. Pan jumped on the bed from the foot, crawling up to her mother where she then sat beside her.

"Watch 'ya doing?" Pan asked, looking at the flat computer screen.

Videl smiled a little, "Oh, just getting caught up on some of my work. What are you doing? Did Bra go home already?"

Pan shook her head, "No, she's still here. We were just wondering if you could make us peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches?" She looked up at Videl with big, puppy-dog eyes.

Seeing this, Videl chuckled and hit a button on her keyboard before clicking the laptop shut and putting it on her nightstand, "Okay, well let's go make you those sandwiches."

"Yea!" Pan screamed, rolling off the bed and running downstairs again.

Videl laughed as she put her feet on the ground and jogged after her daughter.

Pan and Bra were already in the kitchen, getting out the jelly and peanut-butter from the refrigerator and putting it on the counter, followed by the half empty loaf of bread located in one of the many cupboards. The only thing they didn't get was the knife. They didn't know how, what with being a half-Saiyan and a one-eighth-Saiyan; a simple butter knife would hurt them. They guessed that the grown-ups were just taking precautions.

Videl walked in then, quickly getting the butter knife from the silverware drawer and taking out four pieces of bread and untwisting the jars from the ingredients. The two young girls watched in amazement at the small task.

Videl had to hide a smile upon seeing this from the corner of her eyes, "So Pan, did you sign all the cards and wrap all the presents for Daddy?"

Pan nodded enthusiastically, "Yep! Well…I still gotta wrap one more thing, but you gotta help me with it, kay?"

Her mother nodded, "Okay."

From hearing this conversation, Bra looked at them both oddly, "Hey, I didn't know your dad's birthday was tomorrow, Pan."

Pan laughed but never took her eyes away from seeing the jelly get spread over a piece of bread, "It's not, tomorrow's father's day. Did you forget or something?"

Bra wrinkled her nose in confusion, but also watched as her sandwich was made, "Uh-no, but…I thought your dads' birthday was in May…or something," suddenly, Bra felt very stupid.

Taking her eyes away from her mothers' hands for a moment, Pan glanced at Bra, "It is, I just said tomorrow wasn't my dads' birthday, it's father's day."

"You mean your father's day," Bra corrected her, "when it's your birthday, it's your day, so—."

"No!" Pan suddenly lost her patience; "It's not Daddy's birthday!" She looked up at her mom for help.

Videl giggled at how fast her daughter could lose her temper, then looked at Bra, "Bra, haven't you ever heard of father's day? It's a holiday."

Bra blushed a little, but shook her head; "No…my daddy doesn't really like holidays that make him the center of attention," she paused before she continued somewhat shyly, "I think Daddy even forgot when his own birthday was."

Videl laughed at her little joke, "Well, father's day isn't exactly like your father's birthday. It's just a day where you…umm…" she stopped her sentence for a moment as she thought of how to explain it and as she cut each sandwich into two halves for them to be able to eat it better. Videl handed each of them their snack and followed them over to the table. All three of them sat down and Pan and Bra kept making eating sounds, expressing how much they enjoyed their little meal.

Finally, Videl went on, "Let me put it this way: Father's Day is when you really show your dad how much you love him and appreciate all he's done for you. It's nothing big like Christmas, but it makes your dad feel honored."

Bra giggled, showing her already smeared peanut-butter teeth, "Daddy would really love that."

Pan laughed also, but laughed even harder when jelly dropped out of her sandwich and made a plop as it landed on the table.

Videl shook her head a little, "Well…why don't you get something for your dad? I don't know why Bulma never told you about father's day before, but I guess you're better late than never."

Bra looked down at the sandwich she held in her lap, feeling sorrow rush over her, "I would love to do something special for Daddy, but you said it was tomorrow. It's June so Mommy is extra busy and Trunks is away on busyness."

Holding back some laughter from her pronunciation, but also feeling sorry for the six-year-old, Videl gave a sympathetic look, "I'm sorry I can't take you somewhere, but I really got to get caught up in my work."

"You can just make him something," Pan suggested, scooping the fallen jelly up with her index finger and putting it into her mouth, "I do that a lot."

Videl smiled, "Hey, that's a great idea! It's always the special made gifts that make a dad the happiest," she winked at Bra.

Bra's face brightened immediately, taking another quick bite from her sandwich then talking with her mouth full, "Really? Cool! When I go home tonight, I'm gonna get right to work on it!"

After checking her watch, Videl looked back at the girls, "Well, not to rush you, but do you mind if you go home a little early, Bra? I have a lot to do and so does Pan."

Bra took in the last piece of her sandwich, swallowing it joyfully, "I don't mind, it'll give me more time to work on Daddy's present."

After cleaning up Pan and Bra's faces, they all hopped into Videl's convertible, the two young Saiyans buckled-up in the back.

"So what are you gonna make your dad?" Pan asked Bra when the car began moving.

Bra thought about the question for almost a whole minute, "I don't know…oh well, I'll think better when I'm in my room."

Pan nodded, accepting the answer, when Videl cut in and said: "I'm sure whatever you make him, he'll love it."

Bra caught Videl smiling at her in the rearview mirror and she smiled back, mutely agreeing.

Ten minutes later, Videl pulled up in front of Bra's large home. Saying goodbye to Pan and Videl quickly, she ran up her walkway and opened the door. She heard the car drive away then. Videl always did that, waiting to see if she got inside okay before she left. Bra promptly checked around the downstairs to see if her parents were anywhere around and about time her search was through, she found out that her mother was in her lab working, while her father was in the gravity room training.

She raced herself up to her room, closing and locking her door before sitting at the foot of her bed, "Now…what can I make Daddy that he would absolutely like?" Bra asked herself, looking around her room for something to give her an inspiration.

Truth be told she spent over a half an hour just looking around her room and found nothing. She just didn't know what her dad would like that she could make right off the bat. Bra thought of everything she could, and not one appealed to her, nor would it appeal to Vegeta.

Bra thought of popping off two of her baby dolls heads' and switching the bodies, but that idea scared her. She thought of making her famous paper crane, but then remembered that she already gave him about fifty of those things. She thought of giving him a personal CD that she would put certain songs on from each of her own CD's, but then couldn't picture him actually sitting down and snapping his fingers to the beat of the music. Heck, she even thought about going out to find a stray cat or dog and give it to him as a pet. The only joy he would get out of that present was kicking it back out of the house.

Sighing, Bra fell back against her bed, her feet hanging off the edge. She stared at the ceiling for what seemed like an eternity. She just didn't know what her dad would like and enjoy; it wasn't like she got him presents everyday. If she had the money, she would probably go out and buy him some kind of training equipment, but she couldn't very well make her own training utilities.

Sitting up and sighing again, Bra walked over to her desk and got a blank white sheet of paper and stared down at it.

"Maybe I can get some ideas if I write stuff down," she said under her breath and taking out her collection of colored pencils.

Without knowing what she was doing, she began doodling.

**********

The next morning, Bra awoke to the sound of birds chirping outside her window. She gave a little moan as her eyes fluttered open and she lifted her head from the desk. She guessed that she must have fallen asleep while working on her dads' gift and felt panic rise within her.

"Oh, no!" Bra gasped, looking down at what she did, "There is no way Daddy is going to like this!" She felt tears sting her eyes and it took all she could muster not to have even one spill. As she kept looking at it, the more and more she seemed to despise it. All she wanted was to give her dad a decent gift and look at what she came up with!

She suddenly felt very angry with herself, even when remembering that Videl said that no matter what she gave Vegeta, he would love it. Bra looked over at her radio and saw that the time was 9:03 A.M. She knew that her dad was most likely up, but her mom wouldn't be up for more than an hour or so.

Sucking in a deep breath and crossing her fingers and toes, she got up from her sleeping place at her desk and headed towards her door. Bra decided to give him his present now, just to save herself the humiliation from being laughed at by both her parents. She was now glad Trunks was away, she knew that if he saw, he would never let her live it down.

Bra got a disturbing image in her mind of her and Trunks old and having to use canes, yet Trunks was still pointing and laughing at her.

Quickly dismissing the thought from her mind, she opened her door and walked down the stairs, a little faster than being slow. She would lose her courage even before making it downstairs if she went slowly.

Why am I even doing this?! Bra asked herself. She thought of just turning back then and ripping up her "present" and forget she even heard about father's day, but for some strange reason, she still wanted to give it to him.

She reached the first floor and peaked her head into the kitchen and, sure enough, there was Vegeta at the table, eating toast. Bra sucked in a deep breath and hid the card behind her back, walking into the kitchen casually.

"Hi, Daddy," Bra began, walking around the table to stand next to him.

Since he was eating, he gave her a slight nod in response. Bra bit her lip, not quite sure even how to give him her gift. So she did the first thing that came to her six-year-old mind.

"I have something for you," she said before taking the card out from around her back and holding it out in front of her, looking down at the ground and feeling heat radiate off her face.

Vegeta stopped eating abruptly, looking down at his little girl holding a folded up white piece of paper for him. He put down his food and took the paper from her, noticing he had to pull a little to get it off of her.

As soon as the card was out of her fingers, Bra found the thought of running back up to her room a great idea. But she stayed firmly where she was, not sure where to hold her attention any longer.

Flipping the folded paper over, he saw that it was a hand-made card. At the top, in her big, neat printing, she wrote "To the best daddy in the world!" Vegeta also noticed that every word was a different color. Underneath the writing was a picture, not the greatest work of art, but he could tell she drew him and her holding hands.

He opened up the card and on the left side, saw a bunch of different colored hearts. He looked to the right side and saw more of her big, different colored writing: "Happy Father's Day, Daddy!" Then she drew another picture of the two of them, this time hugging. Right below this picture she wrote: "I love you" then "Love, Bra" with lots of x's and o's all in a straight line.

After he got done looking at it, he looked up at Bra and caught her looking at him, but once she saw him looking at her, she looked back down at the floor again.

Vegeta looked back down at the card and felt himself start to smile. He always heard about father's day, whether it be from watching television, or from having to follow Bulma while she shopped. The earthlings had tons upon tons of advertisements for the holiday, but he never knew Bra knew about it. Nor did he think he would ever get something of the day.

"Do you like it?" Bra asked meekly, slightly looking up at him from under her bangs.

Vegeta had to smile all the way from her nervousness and this made Bra have to look at him fully. Never before had she seen her dad give a genuine smile, it was either just a smirk or a frown.

He set the card down on the table and picked Bra up from under her armpits, setting her on his lap and giving her a hug, "I love it."

Bra's eyes widened and she pulled away from him, "Really? I mean…Daddy, you don't have to say that if you don't. I really didn't know what you would like, so I began thinking of ideas and this—."

"Bra," he said sternly, enough to make her be quiet, "I wouldn't lie to you. I said I love it, so I love it." Vegeta paused right there before quickly kissing her on her right cheek.

Bra's face lit up suddenly and she hugged her dad around his neck tightly, happy as ever that he didn't throw her card back in her face. Though, now that she thought about it, she couldn't see him doing that. He never threw anything back at her…unless her was kidding around with her. Like she thought last night, she made him tons of paper cranes, but he never gave it back to her or threw it away, he kept every single one.

"I love you, Daddy," she told him, closing her eyes while her head rested on his shoulder.

Vegeta smiled again as he took another look at the card she made him. His eyes were completely focused on what she wrote, though it was very little; "To the best daddy in the world!"

This card was definitely something to keep and cherish forever. He would always keep it someplace safe, where he could look at it whenever he wanted to and where it wouldn't get disturbed. Also, it wouldn't hurt to have it around when Bra got older and wanted to date a boy that Vegeta wouldn't allow to come anywhere near her.

Of course, he's worry about that later. A lot later. He hugged his daughter just a little tighter.

"I love you, too, Bra."