Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Early Morning of a Life Together ❯ No longer Chichi's baby boy ( Chapter 17 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z, Akira Toriyama does. This fan fiction means no harm to the anime or manga.

Early Morning of Our Lives Together

Author note: Thanks for the continued support of everyone who's reviewed on this!

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Goku suddenly appeared right before Gohan, and then swept out with his fist. Gohan swung hard; slamming against his father's other upright hand. Goku then swept out his leg, knocking Gohan's knees from under him and then flipping over to right himself. Gohan's legs latched around his father's, and he grabbed his father's ankle. Yet Goku then twisted once more and sharply kicked his son in the stomach with a weighted boot.

Both landed, panting and beading with sweat. Gold spikes gleamed around Goku's face, his teal eyes gleaming with the desire to fight. Gohan for the first time was all too eager to take his father up on a battle. “Come and get me Gohan, you want to hit something, right? See if you can land a punch on your old man!”

“Goku you're nuts,” Piccolo shook his head. Yet he figured Goku wasn't far off the mark because of the rage spreading through Gohan like a cancer. Vegeta would have done the same thing if Trunks became extremely angry, and he would stay back to see that nothing or nobody was harmed in the process.

“Rrragh!” Gohan snapped, phasing out, and then swinging a left hook. Goku phased out and appeared behind him. Locking an arm behind Gohan's neck, he touched his fingers to his forehead and homed in on a remote signal. Silence fell like a hammer, becoming the only companion to Piccolo standing there. Singed spots of earth narrowly ringed the ancestral Son cabin.

“I hope you know what you're doing Goku. He's more powerful then you can imagine.”

Control was a way of life for Gohan. Yet it felt delicious to cut loose after what Videl had said. He felt incredible hurt as if she had stabbed him right in the heart, and he only found release in the rapid rush of punches and kicks. As they appeared over a ruined area, Gohan elbowed his father and slipped free of the headlock. Then he punched his father hard, propelling him into the side of a nearby rock face.

“That's more like it Gohan. You're not holding back. Well if it's a fight you want, I'll give you one,” Goku muttered, spitting out blood.

“Masenkoo HA!” Gohan shouted. Goku cupped his hands to generate a Kamehameha, but the suddenly blast barely blocked the other's signature technique. He had anticipated Gohan would use the same wave, but he was resorting to older attacks.

Both beams met, and then either opponent was knocked back with the explosive force. Gohan felt his back slam into the earth, smoke spreading around him as he sank deeply into the ground. His brain rattled in his head and he felt his teeth sink into his tongue. A second's concentration to center himself and he pushed down with the flats of his hands to launch himself free of the Gohan shaped depression. The sides of a bowl shaped crater rose in the immediate area, and he saw his Father soaring towards him.

“Soaring dragon STRIKE” Gohan gritted, charging forwards. Wreathed in gold ki his body rocketed towards his father. They collided, shoulder to shoulder with terrific power, pushing against one another with sweat dripping down into the landscape.

“You haven't used that technique since Cell,” whispered Goku through gritted teeth. “What's got you so worked up? Come on, you can tell me!”

“Damn her,” Gohan gritted, shoving Goku back.

“Who Gohan, who?”

“Videl, that's who! I can't believe… she…” Gohan panted. Suddenly the will to fight drained from him and he hovered catching his breath only five feet from his father.

“Tell me, Gohan. Or do you want to go a few more rounds to burn off that anger?” Goku asked, extending his hand.

“I don't know what I want to do. I never did,” Gohan gritted. “I never knew what I really wanted. How pathetic is that?”

“Gohan… son what are you talking about?” Goku asked, suddenly realizing it was going to be one of those extremely tough conversations.

“You wouldn't get it Dad,” said Gohan angrily. “Forget it. Just leave me alone.”

“Sorry but I can't do that Gohan. I might not understand but I can listen. You know that I will,” Goku answered firmly as he grabbed his son's wrist. “Now let's either fight some more or both power down and you tell your Dad all about it.”

“Fine, whatever,” Gohan murmured. “Someone has to know. And I'd rather not tell mom.”

“Tell mom what?” asked Goku, but he felt Gohan's power relax. He too relaxed his muscles, his hair bleaching of his Super Saiyan 2 energies. He hadn't wanted to work up to Super Saiyan 3; for he feared Gohan would ultimate overpower him. That strange sense of fear was unfamiliar and uncomfortable, yet Goku felt pride. Such an explosion of rage only could mean a sense of extreme betrayal. Gohan hadn't released his inner power since Majin Buu, and it was a welcome sight.

Both of them descended back to the earth, and sat on the rim of the new crater. Gohan wiped sweat off his forehead and hung his head between two hands. Curled up on himself he felt the hot shame of tears forming in his eyes. Yet he struggled to hold them back, instead turning his back to his father. Goku simply rested his hands on Gohan's back, let his son rage, and cry until he was ready to talk.

“I don't understand women,” Gohan answered.

“I never did, even being married to your mother for so long,” Goku chuckled.

“There are a lot of things you don't get Dad. It's little wonder,” Gohan rolled his eyes.

“You're right. I don't get it. And I don't get why Videl has you so angry. I thought you two were in love. Or did you say something that upset her?”

“You're all too familiar with dealing with upset women, Dad. What do I tell someone who says she's interested in marrying me and loves me one minute, and then the next day tells me the exact opposite. Maybe I should talk to Bulma instead. And I can't tell Mom because she'll…”

“She'll think what?” asked a voice that made them both tense. Afraid to look up, they knew from the ki signature who it was, the worst possible person to confront right now with the bad news.

Floating on Nimbus Chichi knelt looking at her son and husband with a question in her eyes. She seemed hardly fazed by the clouds of lingering dust and mounds of newly created rubble surrounding the landscape. Instead, she brought the cloud closer to where her husband and older son sat.

“Oh great,” both of them moaned. Goku and Gohan could guess what she was going to say or do, and steeled themselves for a much larger battle then either wanted to fight now.

“Gohan, what's wrong, honey?” she asked. Bringing the cloud to float next to her son, she leapt lightly off it and then leaned over to rest her hand on his shoulder gently. Under his mother's questioning gaze, Gohan felt shame spread over his body, suddenly wanting to be a million miles away.

“Please mom, not now. It's too embarrassing. I blew it okay,” Gohan gritted, turning from her. Goku helplessly shrugged and shook his head as he hid his face. Noticing the sour mood, Chichi was glad that Goten and Trunks were spending the day with Bulma and Vegeta. Lately she was all too aware of the effect of her moods on people, and although it seemed too little too late, was concerned about softening her blunt tongue.

“I saw all the fighting and then asked Piccolo to tell me what was going on,” Chichi answered.

“I thought you hated Piccolo,” Gohan said angrily, glaring at his mother. She stumbled backwards, wincing from his glare and his waves of frustration. Swallowing her impulse to rage she kept her distance.

“Gohan, what's gotten into you? Where's Videl?” asked Chichi.

“Maybe now isn't a good time?” Goku urged, reaching for his wife's hand.

Instead, Chichi pushed her husband aside and hissed, “Goku, will you please shush, I'm trying to find out what…”

They moved one in front of the other in an ill-remembered dance Gohan loathed from his youth. Now they would start arguing, his mother's voice would rise in pitch and volume before the chasing, and ranting commenced. He hated it when his parents argued, and it was high time he put a stop to it. Standing up he marched away until he was at least ten paces away from where h is mother was shaking her fist at a mollified Goku.

“Just forget it all right. Leave me alone! I can handle this! I don't need you to fix it for me, Mom! I'm 18 years old; I'm not some child who can't think for himself!” Gohan panted, glaring at his mother and father.

“Gohan… don't speak to me like that!” Chichi snapped at him, lunging within inches of his face.

“Mother, I'm not a child,” Gohan answered in a low tone, his eyes narrowing in exasperation. Years of tension and stuffing down his impulses to speak back to her were difficult to suppress. The last time he had made that mistake his ears almost bled from the shrill tongue-lashing she had given him as punishment.

“You're my son, Gohan, and you will tell me what's going on, and tell me in a civilized way, now!” Chichi scolded. Sighing, Gohan squeezed his eyes shut and counted mentally to fifteen before answering.

“Instead of like a wild delinquent SAIYAN, mom? Is that what you were going to say?” Gohan answered, unable and unwilling to keep the bitterness out of his tone.

“How dare you say that to me, young man? You apologize to him this instant!” Chichi shouted back, waggling her finger at him.

“I'm so tired of this song and dance! It's been going on way too long in my opinion,” Gohan exhaled, resting his hands on his hips. “You never listen to a word I say Mother. You never have.”

“Gohan, don't talk to your mother like that!” Goku started.

“Don't even GET me started Father! You're always on HER side, to her face. Why is it only when she's not around you have the courage to hold your own ground?” Gohan interrupted, glaring fiercely at his father. Memories surfaced of how Goku had subverted Chichi's declaration that Gohan couldn't have a dragon for a pet. Although Goku had relented and shown Gohan a special place he could keep the purple dragon, Chichi was less than happy when she discovered it.

“Now just a moment, Son that's not how it is,” Goku began before Chichi again broke through.

“Gohan Son, you had better apologize to your father and your mother before…” the Ox Princess shrilled. Although he winced, Gohan felt extremely weary to hear his mother's constant tirades. Something inside him questioned just why he had to be treated in this manner when he was supposed to be an adult.

“Before WHAT happens Mother? Before you lock me in my room?” Gohan asked, breath heaving in and out.

“If I have to!” Chichi spat back. “You're my son, and I'll do whatever it takes to make you understand…”

“Mom, I'm sorry I disrespected you and Father, but in all fairness I don't feel like you respect me,” Gohan exhaled in one long breath. Still he looked his mother straight in the eye, hands at his sides with ramrod posture.

“I accept your apology, but you have to earn that respect, Gohan,” Chichi answered, temporarily calmed down that her son had at least retained his manners.

“She's right. Let's just calm down and talk this out,” Goku added, holding up his hands in a conciliatory gesture.

Disgusted Gohan snorted and slapped his thighs. He spun away from both his parents, gritting his teeth. “That's JUST the problem here, Father! You never think for yourself! All those years and you just… you just…”

“Gohan, that's ENOUGH!” Chichi screamed, her face beet red. Livid, her eyes gleamed as a red aura of ki crackled around her body.

“Forget it, forget I said anything, and just leave me alone!” Gohan responded, pressing his hands before his face. He spun on his heel, dashing off into the distance. He blasted off, leaving a trail of white ki behind him and a flustered Chichi and Goku blinking in shock at each other.

Tears glistened in Chichi's eyes and she quaked from head to toe with rage and horror. Immediately she wheeled on Goku, yelling, “What did you say to him, Goku? He's NEVER talked back to me, his own MOTHER like this! It's just like I feared, he's becoming a…”

“Chichi, stop it,” Goku sharply protested.

Chichi stopped cold, her mouth dropping open in shock. “What did you just say?”

“I said, Stop it, Chichi. Just LISTEN to me for once!” Goku answered, his voice unwavering. The force in his voice caused her heart to skip a beat. One tiny part of her mind observed she liked it when he was so forceful. Yet now was not the time to think of her libido. He hadn't switched to that horrible Super Saiyan, yet every ounce of strength focused into a firm resolve, his eyes narrowed under a furrowed brow with the exact expression he wore when facing an enemy.

Throwing up her hands she retorted, “How can you say that? You've never yelled at me like that! Goku, have you lost your mind?”

We can't fix it! I can't fix it, and you can't either! He needs to settle this himself! He's grown up, and there's nothing you or I can do about it,” Goku panted, and suddenly blocked her before she could send Nimbus after Gohan. Angrily she raised her fist, but he caught hold of it and then pulled her close to him. Trapped in her husband's arms Chichi struggled but then realized he was holding her in a firm hug, because he was rubbing her back.

“Let me go you big lug, what are you doing! Gohan needs us… he needs his mommy!” Chichi suddenly despaired.

“Let it go, Chichi. Please. We won't always be there to help him. He'll come to us when he needs our help, don't you see? It's time to let go of him,” whispered Goku in her ear.

“But he's my son! My baby boy! I can't let go of him! I don't WANT to let go of him!” Chichi sobbed, burying her face in Goku's shoulder as they hovered there.

“I'm sorry Chichi, but we have no choice. He's grown up. That doesn't mean he doesn't' love us, it just means we can't fix things. And maybe we shouldn't, that's all,” Goku whispered in her ear. “He yelled at you because he loves you and he's just trying to get out of a confused place.”

“What happened? Where did I go wrong?” Chichi continued to wail, feeling her husband's powerful arms reassuringly squeezing her to him.

“Maybe you held on too hard. You can't push him on the head to stop him growing and keep him a child forever Chichi. Don't make him pay for my mistakes,” Goku answered.

“Your mistakes?”

“My mistakes Chichi. I left you to handle the worst of things when I was gone. Don't try and control Gohan's every move because I wasn't there to help,” Goku answered. Barely believing what she heard, Chichi allowed her husband to continue embracing her. She simply cried into his shoulder as he shushed her and whispered in her ear. What matters they once thought settled were now scabs ripped open to again bleed fresh from hurt.

***~****~***

Hours later, two figures rode wearily on Nimbus. Chichi and Goku had opted to take the cloud home, rather than have Goku carry her. Although it would have been romantic, neither felt like speaking or looking one another in the eye from the shame of old hurts resurfacing. When Goku felt Chichi's arms wrap around his neck he tensed. Yet he felt her pressing her cheek into his back, soaking it with her tears.

“Chichi, I'm sure he'll come back,” whispered Goku.

“Please, can I just sit in your lap,” Chichi suddenly asked. Goku glanced back at her, blinking. She stood shakily up, and then he pulled her to sit squarely in the triangle of his legs. She then relaxed, pulling his arms to wrap around her from behind.

“You haven't done THAT forever, Chi,” Goku muttered. “Are you still angry at me and Gohan?”

“I'm angry at myself,” Chichi confessed. “Was I that bad of a mother? Am I just a control freak?”

“Um, do you want me to say the truth, or something you want to hear?” Goku asked, tensing for the answer. Sadly Chichi felt the tension and leaned back to press a kiss to his cheek.

“I am a control freak,” Chichi admitted with a sad sigh. “I can't stop my own son from yelling at me, but if it's what I think it is… then I can't blame him… it's not like I can lock him in his room for the next twenty years.”

“Well he always did fly out the window,” Goku answered.

“Unfortunately. I never COULD keep him in his room to study,” Chichi lamented. “But he still graduated and got a full scholarship.”

“You see, you weren't THAT bad. Besides, he is 18… and he won't be living with us forever, will he? Or will he bring Videl to…”

“It's Videl, it has to be,” answered Chichi. “And it was all going so nicely, I should have KNOWN something would ruin it.”

“You aren't mad at Videl are you?” asked Goku.

“No, just confused,” Chichi answered. “I need to talk to her myself and find out what's gotten into the poor girl. Maybe she's just scared of being a wife?”

“Well I was scared being a husband when I found out that wedding wasn't food,” Goku answered. “Luckily for me that being married meant that I didn't have to WORRY about food because you're cooking's out of this world.”

“True, but then again I did play a nasty trick on you,” Chichi answered.

“It's in the past, and it's not the same as Gohan and Videl. I guess she must be scared of Gohan being a Saiyan and all. I mean you don't really like it,” Goku answered.

“I guess I don't, do I? I just always thought you were human… like me. It terrified me to think you were some… some…”

“Alien monster,” Goku answered sadly. “How do you think I felt, Chichi? I hated thinking I wasn't an earthling!”

“But you are, and so is Gohan. You're not like that horrible Vegeta. I mean being married HAS softened him up, but Bulma has her work cut out dealing with that deadbeat. He never helps with the housework or has a job!”

“Um, Chichi, Bulma's so rich they don't need to work,” said Goku.

“I know, but still,” said Chichi.

“It's just weird, Chichi,” said Goku.

“What?” Chichi asked, turning in his lap slightly to peer at him.

“You were a princess in a castle with lots of money. Now you're living like a homemaker doing things that servants would do. I always thought that was weird. I mean I do eat an awful lot and that did burn through a lot of Pa's money,” Goku scratched his neck. “I just wondered… why?”

“Why what?” Chichi asked, seeing the confusion in her husband's face. It was delightful even if exasperating.

“Why you got into this `perfect wife thing. I mean I always thought it was weird because you didn't worry about what you did till you saw that Wedding Dress… and we got married… I thought it was just something girls did.”

Chichi nodded; pleased he understood how things were. At least how she thought things should be in her perception, “It is that way, Goku. Because that's what girls do. When we realize that something's expected of us, to settled down and take care of a family.”

“But if the palace hadn't burned down, then would we have lived there, and would you have had other people doing work for you, so you wouldn't have to? I mean that's always made me wonder,” Goku continued to scratch his head. “I mean Videl's like you were, and maybe she's not going through that same change of wanting to be a wife. Maybe she's… different?”

“Goku, you're absolutely right,” Chichi suddenly giggled. Worried about his wife's sudden mood change, Goku sweated. Yet when she spun in his lap, straddling him he had no chance to say anything because of Chichi's lips silencing him.

“She's scared Goku. She's scared of getting married and what that means,” Chichi panted, surfacing for breath. Goku blinked, his hair rustled up from his wife's fingers running through it.

“Um what does it mean?” he blinked clueless at her.

“Goku, you big lug it means she just needs someone to show her HOW to be a wife! Like Octagon Woman did for me! And who better than her future mother in law! She's scared because she doesn't know how! It's because she's scared of getting married. That has to be why she told Gohan she wasn't interested! So all I have to do is have a nice chat with her!” Chichi leaped up and down in Goku's lap. He suddenly felt as if he didn't want her to leave anytime soon. Relieved, Goku simply fell into his wife's kiss until they arrived back at the Son home.