Chi-Chi was in a very good mood.

Reconnecting with Goku seemed to be headed on the right path. She had secured Gohan to babysit his brother for the night on Thursday, so it allowed them their "one awkward night" to hash out important details… while also being able to spend the night.

She stifled a giggle. Spending the night, finally.

When they were still keeping things low key, she would sneak off back to her house after a little indulgence before the boys went to bed. She felt like back when she was a teenager and sneaking into Goku's house and vice versa. Though, she had saved herself until marriage, that didn't mean they both didn't fool around when they were younger.

But now she could sleep over… that felt adult. It was nice to actually stay in bed for the rest of the evening after making love. What a concept!

Meanwhile, her work week was going really well — she had a couple of interesting catering gigs that went swimmingly… literally. One was for a swim meet, which included a bit of eye candy, so Chi-Chi couldn't complain. Another was for another "lady's who lunch" set and apparently that was the demographic Bulma wanted her to hit for the ad campaign.

After Bulma and her team figured out the angle they wanted to go with due to the successful shoot with Goku, they wanted to target rich ladies that wanted to impress. That meant amping up the romance and sex. Instead of the wedding market, they were going for the bombastic engagement setups that was trending these days.

"Lower overhead, higher revenue," Bulma had explained.

Goku had politely refused to sign the photo rights due to security reasons; while many SAIYANs often went to become famous in their post-Navy career and lived a public life, considering his past special operations and his current security position, it wasn't wise to risk exposure.

So, on another Wednesday, Chi-Chi was at the studio once more. Bulma had found a decent looking catalogue model with dark hair to stand in for Goku. Chi-Chi found him pleasant enough, though a bit egotistical and more than a little bit cheesy.

But it was rather awkward trying to get into the playful, sexy poses that she and Goku had done weeks earlier.

"It's happening again," Daiz sighed. "None of these feel natural. He's fine, she's not."

"Again. Not a model," Chi-Chi said with annoyance, but her good mood was hardly affected.

"You're beautiful enough to be one, babe," her Goku stand-in, Raditz, drawled. Chi-Chi felt if her eyes could roll any farther, it would go through her skull.

Bulma tapped her lips. "Something's off… Let's take ten, let me think about this for a minute."

Chi-Chi sighed and reached for her smartphone while everyone dispersed. As she scrolled through her social media accounts, she suddenly got a text.

Little birdie told me you're in Studio A. —Lapis

Chi-Chi blinked. Lapis! She hadn't heard from him in weeks! Probably not since the hiking incident…

What birdie and how'd you know? —Chi-Chi

Look behind you. Chirp chirp! —Lapis

Chi-Chi blinked and did just that. Just a few steps away was Lapis, waving at her with amusement.

"Hey princess, fancy seeing you here!" Lapis said cheerily.

She was pleased to see absolutely no awkwardness emanating from his handsome face. Same old Lapis, from before and after their one-and-a-half dates. She was happy that they could continue as they were, as friends.

"What're you doing here?" Chi-Chi asked warmly.

He turned slowly in front of her. "Like the uniform? The park insisted I should be its spokesperson. Who am I to argue? I'm at Studio B next door taking all your typical brochure shots."

His uniform didn't look far from what he would typically wear, though he was in head-to-toe green. Perhaps the rugged green jacket with the park patches adorned were uniform-like, but the dark olive shirt and cargo pants also looked like something he would wear out normally.

"Oh, wait for it…" Lapis said, and out came a brown, leather fedora with the park's logo emblazoned on it. He had been holding it behind his back. He waved his hand and dramatically placed it top of his head. "Hmmm?"

Chi-Chi couldn't help but giggle at the ridiculous display.

"A far cry from jeans and underwear," Chi-Chi said, referring to a couple of his famous old shoots.

"Yeah, this is the most clothed I've been photographed in a long while. How's your shoot going?" Lapis asked, dipping the tip of his hat.

"Awful. I am so so bad at this," Chi-Chi groaned.

"I can't believe that. With that face?"

"Believe it, Tin Man," Bulma said, materializing from the side. That was Vegeta's nickname for the park ranger, referring to the heartless way he discarded women, and it seemed Bulma was too happy to adopt the monicker too.

Lapis, as usual, was unfazed.

"I need proof that this angel face can't vogue with the best of them."

Bulma whipped out her tablet, which had some of the day's earlier shots on it with Raditz. True, they were essentially exact replicas of the shots with Goku, but there was something off in almost all of them. Raditz looked perfectly fine, seemed quite in-character; but Chi-Chi, while posed as she had in the other photos, looked like she had been copy-pasted and hastily Photoshopped into the same frame.

Lapis gave an exaggerated grimace, but his eyes twinkled with humor. "Okay, maybe they look a little disconnected."

"That is a polite way of saying she looks like she'd rather be anywhere than here," Bulma drawled. "But, look, this is how her shoot with Goku went."

Bulma flicked her hand and the shot with Chi-Chi feeding Goku the strawberry materialized on screen. Chi-Chi felt her cheeks warm at people scrutinizing what she was beginning to feel like was just a private photo of herself with her man.

Lapis gave Chi-Chi a sidelong glance. "Huh. I never stood a chance, did I?"

Chi-Chi's words stuck in her throat. "I, uh—"

"Jokes," Lapis said with a small wink. "Anyway, if she can pull that out with the right atmosphere, then what's wrong today is the environment."

Lapis looked around with a genuine grimace this time. "Dende, these commercial shoots are just so lifeless. There's no music here right now, no real atmosphere or energy." He turned to Bulma. "Did you have Chi-Chi do some drills?"

Bulma blinked.

"Drills?"

He stared at Bulma silently for a beat.

"You're friends with a two former models," Lapis said flatly, with a small eye roll. "Never occurred to you to ask us how to get an amateur to relax?"

"Well, shit, never thought about it that way," Bulma said. "What do you propose?"

"Come on, let's put some music on, this should have been obvious," Lapis went on, looking around. "Someone must have a portable speaker around here! A dock! Something with Bluetooth…?"

Bulma made a finger turning gesture then pointed twice toward Lapis, and snapped, like it was formal sign language to the buzzing assistants that meant: "Listen to this man."

Somehow, someone found an external speaker and Lapis made quick work with connecting his phone to it. He scrolled through his music and put on a Latin dance playlist. Chi-Chi laughed when he started jumping up and down like a boxer before a fight, shaking his arms and craning his neck.

"What in the world are you doing?" Chi-Chi exclaimed.

"Warming up. C'mon, you too," Lapis said with a wide smile. He gestured at everyone around them, who looked at Lapis oddly. "Dende, you're all so uptight. Everyone listen to the music."

Everyone merely gaped at him like he was a completely foreign entity, and Lapis rolled his eyes again, and was totally unashamed of his extroverted display. Abruptly, he turned and somehow had honed in on Chi-Chi's makeup artist Helles, who was watching Lapis move with some amusement.

"I know you know how to dance," Lapis said with such a blatantly heated gaze toward the beautiful lady, as he extended a hand toward her. Helles merely quirked one side of her lips. He didn't wait for further prompting before grasping the woman's hand, and immediately pulled her into a small dance.

Chi-Chi could only stare. Wow. Her makeup artist had been so blasé the entire time she'd interacted with her, but as she moved with Lapis, she could see the woman's countenance melt. She had always looked at Lapis as a harmless friend… though she knew he had that "lady killer" reputation, it was truly a sight to see him channel that energy and see it work.

At this point, Raditz had come over and was looking at the antics around him. Some of the crew had begun to dance, too, either with each other or simply bouncing to the fun music. Bulma, meanwhile, looked a little lost at what seemed to be a spontaneous dance party.

Raditz shrugged and then extended a hand toward Chi-Chi. She laughed and placed her hand into his.

And Chi-Chi found herself salsa-ing in the middle of the afternoon.

"Take some of the strawberries!" Chi-Chi heard the photographer Daiz yell over the music. She did as she was told and she shook a handful of her berries in her hands like they were maracas, laughing all the while.

"This is ridiculous!" Chi-Chi exclaimed, but was having the time of her life.

"Eat some, play around, give some to Raditz," Daiz went on, throwing out one suggestion on top of the other as the crew danced around them, and she and her new photo partner started to toss strawberries at each other playfully, in between all the whirling and dancing.

"This is perfect!" she heard Bulma shout. "Lapis, you're a genius!"

During all the merriment, Lapis and Raditz had switched partners and Chi-Chi was now twirling and moving around with Lapis. She giggled as Lapis took off his park ranger jacket so he was just in his olive t-shirt.

He whirled her around dramatically, and he was suddenly behind her. She found her arms crossed against her chest, as he swayed behind her side by side to the tune. She closed her eyes and moved along to the music, letting the atmosphere wash over her.

She craned her neck to look up at Lapis with amusement, when she saw his eyes shift and drop to look at her mouth. Her eyes widened fractionally, and before she knew it, he'd closed the gap between them.

The kiss was over before it had even begun, and he quickly twirled her out and dropped her hand. She caught a disconcerted look flit over his face, but that was almost instantly replaced with his usual teasing smile and a wink, like nothing had happened.

Chi-Chi could only gape at him, speechless, before Raditz had swept over and reclaimed her as his dance partner, while Lapis continued onward with Helles and off the stage.

She looked around as Raditz danced with her. She wondered if anyone else had noticed. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the impromptu dance party and were all sharing strawberries amongst each other. Even Bulma seemed to be bobbing her head at the music now, as she looked over the photographer's shoulder.

Bulma didn't seem to have noticed anything happen… but the gesture had only lasted a second.

Lapis continued to act as if he hadn't just stolen a kiss. He was now talking animatedly to one of the young female interns, who was hanging onto every word.

Chi-Chi frowned, wondering if she was worried for nothing. Was she just too old-fashioned? Regardless, she made a mental note to talk to him after even if it was overkill, to make it clear that she was not cool with that type of flirting.

"Safe like a pit of vipers" Bulma had said.

Chi-Chi was now beginning to wonder if that was true, after all.

Chi-Chi never managed to catch Lapis after the photo shoot wound down. Eventually, he'd disappeared in the chaos and they all got swept up with the rest of the logistics of the shoot. She tried to catch Bulma to ask her if she was simply overreacting, but Bulma had brushed her off with a quick kiss to the cheek and told her she had to run back to the lab before Chi-Chi got a word in edgewise.

Perhaps she could just text him briefly, so her feelings were in black and white. Clear. She only liked him as a friend and out of respect, to keep any teasing verbal only.

As she contemplated what to type, she received a different text message.

Can't wait to see you. —Goku

She bit her lip and smiled.

Me, too. —Chi-Chi

Tonight? —Goku

Chi-Chi pursed her lips. Was there any good reason to say no? Her children already knew about them. She hadn't seen him since Sunday… Yes, they had their planned date the next day, but she wouldn't really mind seeing him sooner.

Come for dinner. —Chi-Chi

You drive a hard bargain, but okay. :-) —Goku

Chi-Chi smiled as she packed up from the photo shoot, the issue with Lapis flying out of her mind as she looked forward to a nice night with her family.

.

.

.

Meanwhile…

"It's a slow news day. Do you have anything for us?"

"Nada… wait. Does this look like who I think it looks like?"

Music, loud laughter.

"Whose Snapchat is—oh wow, is that Lapis Gero at CC Studios? He's come out of retirement?"

"Let's get Node Models on the line."

.

.

.

A/N: Okay, so... this is where I'm going to diverge from my original work. An AU of my AU. So if you ready my original story on AO3, the version is going to be slightly different. I wanna give Lapis a bit more airtime. ;-) My updates will be slower because I'll be tweaking and writing semi-new material (and new flashbacks that wasn't in the original). Thought it'd be fun to give 2 different sites two slightly different versions...