After the mushy stuff was over Bulma declared the party to be in full swing, and, indeed, it was not long before the caterer showed up, babbling about a bizarre weather phenomenon where the sky had turned black. Bulma handed him a wad of bills almost as big as Marron's to shut him up.

Marron made up with Yamcha over a Shirley Temple (for her) and a gin and tonic (for him), handed the dragon radar back to Bulma, giggled to herself upon seeing Seventeen flirting with one of the caterers, and spent most of the party following Trunks around. During a quiet moment sitting on the steps of Kame House, Goten off entertaining Bra (which mostly consisted of her pulling his hair), Marron asked Trunks how he was doing. He turned to her with a look on his face that made her blush, though she didn't know why.

"We're doing okay," he said eventually, looking back out at the ocean. Marron was relieved to have that look directed elsewhere, but also disappointed. It was intense, and its intensity was both discomfiting and invigorating. He'd seemed to be searching for something right at the bottoms of her eyes, and she had no idea what he'd found or how he felt about it.

"That's good," she said, looking down into her Shirley Temple, feeling strangely shy.

They sat in silence until Goten returned, demanding that Trunks take back his sister. He stood, and he and Goten took Bra elsewhere, leaving Marron on the steps of Kame House, feeling a heavy kind of happiness she wasn't sure the name for. She noticed Seventeen across the beach, watching her, and she gave him a smile and a wave. He walked over, setting himself down in the spot Trunks had just vacated.

"How about this party, huh?" he asked. "If this is the kind of shindig Bulma puts on to celebrate a road trip maybe I should try to hang out with her more often."

"Dad says Bulma treats money like a fish treats water," Marron told him, though she had never quite understood the comparison. It made Seventeen laugh, though, so she must have used it right.

"Hey, bug," he said, and then paused, unsure how to phrase what he wanted to say. He shook his head helplessly and continued. "Why did you give me that money?"

Marron shrugged uncomfortably.

"It felt like you should get something from the dragon. The whole thing was your idea."

"Yeah, but..." Seventeen had no idea how to express the feeling of being condescended to so unwittingly by someone decades his junior. He knew she thought he was poor, but the truth was, even aside from not actually needing food or shelter to survive, he just didn't care about things very much. Experiences were all you could take with you when you died, after all, and he had been hoping to gift Marron with an experience she would never forget. His original plan had been to take her mind off the idea that she was somehow abnormal because her friends and family all happened to be insanely powerful martial artists, and while he certainly seemed to have accomplished that, he'd gotten a lot more in the bargain. The idea that she felt like she owed him something when he'd received so much from her didn't sit well.

"Well, you said you didn't know what to wish for," Marron was saying. "You said you already got what you wanted, but I still don't know what you were talking about."

Seventeen smiled, and tousled her hair.

"I got to hang out with you," he said.

She stared at him in naked disbelief.

"Uncle, that's the sappiest thing I've ever heard you say."

He started to reply, but a shadow fell over both of them, and they looked up to find Vegeta, arms folded, looking out at the ocean pensively.

"I feel I still owe you something, girl," he said in a low voice meant only for Marron. She stood slowly. Seventeen stayed seated, fascinated to see where this went.

"You mean for..." Marron wasn't quite sure what words she wanted to use. "For startling you in your sleep?"

Vegeta gave her an odd look.

"For that, and for causing you to break your hand. That's twice over I have caused you unintentional harm, and I cannot allow that to stand."

Marron thought hard. Vegeta, Bulma's scary husband, Trunks' space murderer father, felt like he owed her. It was almost like having another wish on the dragon. Honestly, she'd thought the was matter over and done with when her mother had given Vegeta a black eye. That reminded her...

"You really want to make it up to me?" Marron asked, looking up at Vegeta with a sly smile on her face. He nodded tersely. "And you'll do anything I say?"

"Within reason," he warned. Marron smiled oh so sweetly.

"Then all you have to do is go over there and shake my mom's hand."

Vegeta grunted in shock, his arms uncrossing and hanging down by his sides. He gave Marron a piercing stare, trying to determine if there was some trickery afoot.

"That's―but I―you can't―"

"You said you wanted to make it up to me," Marron reminded him sweetly. "If you do that, then we're even."

"That is not what I had in mind," Vegeta told her firmly. Marron placed her hands on her hips.

"What, you wanted me to try punching you again? Even if I didn't break my hand this time, it wouldn't change anything."

Girl and Saiyan stared each other down, and to Seventeen's amazement, the Saiyan looked away first.

"Fine. I just have to shake her hand? I don't have to... say anything?"

"Yup. Actually, all you have to do is offer to shake. It's up to her if she takes your hand or not."

Vegeta squared his shoulders and gave Marron one last piercing glance. Seventeen really hoped Marron stopped trying to poke the tiger after this.

Marron followed Vegeta at a distance as he strode across the beach to where her mother stood. He faced her square on and thrust out his hand, the gesture more like a challenge than an invitation. Eighteen stared at it with hostility. Marron nudged her.

"Go on, mom, he wants to shake." Eighteen gave her daughter an incredulous stare. Marron saw that stare, and raised it two puppy dog eyes. "Pleeeease?"

After a long moment, Eighteen sighed exasperatedly and put out her hand, head turned away as though she couldn't stand to shake Vegeta's hand and look him in the eye. They clasped hands for one brief second, their grips both painfully tight, and then they each dropped the others' hand as though it were on fire. Marron beamed.

"There," she said to Vegeta. "Now we're even."

"You are not," her mother informed her, even more incredulous at this. "He―"

"Mom, I said we're even," Marron interrupted, looking her mother in the eye. It had been a strange epiphany, to find out her mother was scared of things. She needed her to understand that this was something she didn't need to be afraid of anymore. Eighteen held her gaze, surprised at the determination in her daughter's eyes. Something had changed during that road trip, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it yet. After a moment, she, too, lost a staring contest with Marron.

"If you say so," she said, looking anywhere but at Vegeta. He was still right in front of her, watching the scene with open amusement. Marron gave both of them big grins and skipped off to rejoin her uncle. Eighteen and Vegeta made brief, awkward eye contact and then moved away to stand next to their respective spouses. They would have been surprised to know they were having similar feelings, surprise tinged with a bittersweet pride.

Krillin took his wife's hand and together they watched Marron grab her uncle's arm and drag him over to the impromptu volleyball court someone had set up. Trunks and Goten were already there, spiking the ball to each other over and over, but when Marron and Seventeen arrived, they joined forces and began to play an actual two-on-two match. Marron was by far the worst player on the court, but though it was clear she was aware of this fact, it also didn't seem to be dampening her fun.

"I think our daughter grew up while we weren't looking," Krillin said, and Eighteen squeezed his hand in agreement.

A/N: I first had the idea to write about Marron when I realized she was literally the only person in the entire main cast of Dragonball that could count as a civilian, and back before Super it seemed like she was going to spend her whole life on that island. Those ideas together seemed so lonely and isolating to me, and before I knew it I had written almost 30,000 words about this normal little girl living on the fringes of a fighting anime.

One of my main goals as a fan fiction writer is always to stay as true to the characters as I possibly can, and this has been extra challenging with Marron because, strictly speaking, she isn't a character at all: her function in the story is simply to be a symbol of Krillin and Eighteen's relationship. Consequently, I put a lot of myself at that age into her, and it's been a delight to see people react so positively to her.

Now that the story is over I would love to hear what you thought of it as a whole. Even if you don't leave feedback, please know that I appreciate every single one of you. Thank you.