“I need you to take Trunks trick-or-treating.”

“No,” he stated, resuming his workout.

“Vegeta, you pay attention to me right now or I will break the fucking gravity room myself!”

“Hn.  I’d like to see you try, little weakling.”

“Don’t push my buttons!  I am not in the mood for your tricks.  I’ve got an emergency at Capsule Corps’ Satan City headquarters and unfortunately someone has fucked up badly enough that I have to intervene personally.  I am not a happy camper, and I don’t need you screwing with me.  I am about ready to punch the self-destruct button on that bloody machine and damn the consequences if you don’t get out of that fucking room right now and talk to me!”

Vegeta blinked in surprise.  The woman rarely used such harsh language.  It was a testament to how stressed out and angry she was with the situation.  Normally, he would goad her further just to see her reaction.  But he knew that he knew that to do so now was to tempt fate.  He had no intention of spending the next few months without a proper training facility, which he knew he would if Bulma destroyed the current room in a fit of pique.

Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, he exited the gravity room to find her waiting just outside the door.

“Well it’s about time!”

He grunted noncommittally.  “Where is this trick-or-treating that you want me to take the brat to?”

“It’s not a where, Vegeta, it is a what.  I’ll tell you about it, while walking,” she said starting down the hallway towards the living quarters.

“Trick-or-treating is a Chikyuu-jin custom where children dress up in costumes and go door to door asking for candy.  The legend is that on October thirty-first all sorts of ghosts, ghouls, and demons are set free and that the only way to escape their attention is to dress up like one of them and join them in their revels.  If you don’t dress up like one of them, you have to be willing to pay tribute to them or suffer the consequences.  That is the origin of trick-or-treating, the kids mimic the demons and witches in their costumes and the adults give out candy to them as a form of tribute.”

Digesting her explanation, Vegeta was even more baffled by the strangeness of Chiykuu’s customs.  This one seemed to make little sense.

“So what do I need to do?”

Bulma gave him an assessing glance, before resuming her brisk walk.  “Good, you’re not going to give me grief tonight.  That’s a first.”

“I could give you grief if you prefer.”