Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Relationships ❯ Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Nothing funny here today. Maybe tomorrow.

AN: Don't say it. It's been awhile, I know. Just think of any excuse you would accept and that's the reason this update is so late. This chapter is dedicated to hippiechick (or hippiechick83 depending on what site you're on ^_^) because without her constant reminders about this fic I would have let it fall to the waste side and started on something new. (I know what you're thinking, Mar. I skipped When You Least Expect in the update rotation but I promise it's coming. Really maybe even tomorrow and if not then soon. ^_^) Well enjoy this long awaited update.

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"Geez you two are going to take all the bar-b-que before anyone else gets a chance at it," Yamcha, the self-proclaimed master of the grill, complained as he forked another piece of meat onto Bulma's second plate.

"Would you have preferred if we sent Goku and Vegeta to get their own plates," ChiChi said ideally as she grabbed a third plastic plate.

Yamcha visibly shuddered in his `Kiss the Cook' apron and shook his head. "Then all the food really would be gone."

"Well I think I have enough to sate," Bulma said hefting the two plates up into her hands. "Thanks Yamcha!" She threw a wink over her shoulder as she walked away.

ChiChi did a quick calculation and decided that another plate would keep her from having to come back for about thirty minutes. She held up an empty plate as she looked over the other two making sure that her math was right. She frowned when no weight touched the plate and looked up to find Yamcha still staring after a disappearing Bulma. Clearing her throat, she brought him out of his daze.

"I'm sorry Chi. How much more did you want?" he asked blushing slightly at having been caught.

"Fill it up," she said giving him a narrowed glance before she mentally shrugged. It was obvious to her, if not to anyone else, that the man still had a thing for his old flame and things being what they were she couldn't help but pity him. It was a simple fact that no mere human could compete with a Saiyan, something she knew all too well.

"Thanks Yamcha," she said when the plate was piled to almost overflow. Now that she had all the food she was at a loss as to how to balance them all over to her husband.

"Need some help?"

ChiChi turned and smiled at her youngest child. "Yes, as a matter of fact I do. Help me take these over to your father."

"K," he answered in that ever-cheerful voice of his and took two of the heavily laden plates.

As they made their way across the yard dodging individual picnic areas, ChiChi glanced at the handsome young man next to her. To be completely honest she didn't really know what to make of this teen she liked to call her baby. Goten hadn't turned out like she expected nor had he even been necessarily wanted.

As a matter of fact she had cursed God above everyday of her pregnancy. Here she was once again a widow with now not only one but two children to support on no income and little savings. It was as though heaven was playing some cruel joke on her. As with her first the pregnancy carrying the burden had been hard on her and labor twice as difficult now that she was much older.

It had taken almost a week and a half before she recovered enough to care for herself. Bulma, who had found herself in much the same predicament a little more than a year ago, stayed with her until she was back on her feet. In the whole of Bulma's stay ChiChi had only looked upon her new child a handful of times. It was much too difficult for her to do otherwise. From the day of his birth the child had been the spitting image of his much grieved father and just the sight of the baby made her heart ache to immeasurable proportions. It was for this reason she left the care of the new born completely to Bulma. Of course the time eventually came when the heiress had to return to her own demanding child.

The memory of that first night when she once again found herself alone with her children was crystal clear. The Child, as she referred to him in her mind's eye, had been screaming for hours and Gohan even came in her room complaining about it. After sending her future scholar back to bed, she laid in the darkness trying to ignore his desperate wails but her maternal instincts wouldn't allow her to let her offspring suffer. Hesitant and grudgingly she left the safety of her bed to conquer her worst nightmare.

Upon entering her sons' room she found Gohan's bed empty and could only assume that he was unable to deal with the babe's sobs and had chosen to make his bed elsewhere, most likely the couch. She approached the crib as if at any moment the demons of her past would rise from it. All the while, The Child cried on demanding that someone hear his plea.

When her shadow finally fell over the crib his howls tapered off somewhat as he reached out to her. She held the front of her robe in a death grip as she looked over his soft features and the memories of the love, time, and dedication put into a marriage that had ended so terribly wrong began to flow. She was powerless to stop the bitter tear that rolled down her cheek.

"Oh Goku," she stuttered as she reached out and stroked the youth's cheek. The action brought his weeps to shuddery breaths as he clasped his tiny, yet already strong hand around one of her fingers. "It wasn't supposed to be this way," she spoke to her long since dead husband through the child he would never know. "Why Goku?!" she practically screamed at The Child. "Why didn't you just come back? Why?! W-why?" she finished on a broken sob, the crib her only support.

The Child focused his damp, blank gaze on her throughout the tirade and when she could say no more, his tiny fist squeezed her trembling finger. In that moment she felt a sense of peace and comfort that had only been hers when she found herself in her beloved's arms and through glassy eyes she finally saw what The Child really was. He wasn't a curse sent to taunt her with what she could never get back but was instead a beautiful offering from above meant to remind her of all she had and still had. He was a reason for her to go on.

With renewed clarity, she carefully lifted her child from his bed. Cradling her baby to her breast, she settled herself into the rocking chair near the window and after pushing aside one flap of her robe she nursed her precious gift for the first time.

The guilt from the way she treated her adored child in the first days of his life had never really gone away and was a major factor when it came to why she was more leant on him than on her first born. She had never thought to pressure him academically and had even trained him when-

"Here you go Pop," the child in question voice broke into her thoughts as he sat the plates before his father.

"Thanks Goten!" Goku said as he pulled the plates across the table to himself.

ChiChi walked around the table to sit the one she was carrying in front of him.

"Thanks ChiChi," he said his mouth already full of the half the food from one of Goten's plates.

"You're welcome Goku," she answered then let out a small squeak of surprise as Goku pulled her into his lap and planted a bar-b-que sauce covered peck on her cheek.

"You're the best Chi," he said sincerely as she blushed at the compliment.

Goten, who had taken a seat across from them, took the opportunity to steal a rib off one of his father's plates.

Goku's attention immediately snapped from his wife and back to his plate. "Hey!" he cried.

"Come on Dad. You've got to learn to share," Goten admonished as he finished off the stolen meat.

"Well okay, but only under one condition," Goku said grudgingly.

"What's that?" Goten asked as he stole another piece of meat.

"Sparring match when we get home from the picnic?" Goku purposed.

The meat paused inches from the young warrior's mouth. "Uh, sorry Dad I can't."

"Oh and why is that?" ChiChi asked.

"Well, I uh, what I mean is that I'm going to stay `til the party is over and help Trunks clean-up afterwards," Goten finished in a rush.

ChiChi narrowed her eyes. It was obvious that the boy was up to something and she'd bet her last dollar that it had something to do with Trunks Briefs. Originally she hadn't approved of her son's friendship with the other boy. Trunks was definitely his parents' son in the fact that he was spoiled, arrogant, self-centered, and simply couldn't stay out of trouble. Their friendship was also indirectly to blame for her decision to train her son.

She was finishing up the lunch dishes when she heard the six-year-old enter the house. She smiled at him over her shoulder and watched as he dropped heavily into a chair at the kitchen table an uncommon frown on his face.

"Where's Gohan?" he asked.

"Studying," she answered as she dried her hands on a towel.

"Figures," she heard him mumble.

Frowning her concern she sat the towel down and turned to face him. "I thought you were playing with Trunks."

"He had to go home," Goten responded sadly.

Confusion crossed her brown eyes. "I didn't hear Bulma's plane."

"He flew," Goten shrugged receiving a startled look from his mother. "His Dad taught him. His Dad teaches him a lot of cool stuff. I wish I had a Dad to teach me stuff," he finished on a disheartened sigh and rested his little chin on the table.

ChiChi was too stunned speak. Goten had never shown any sign that he was missing a father figure in his life. She guessed that she had only been deluding herself whenever she thought he wouldn't yearn for the man of which she and Gohan rarely spoke.

"Oh Goten," she murmured as she slipped into a seat next to him and rested a gentle hand on top of his much smaller one.

His dark innocent eyes turned to her and he gave a childish shrug. "I know that my dad was a hero and everything but I still kind of wish that I had someone to teach me stuff like Trunks does."

ChiChi nipped at the inside of her lip. Maybe she should have broached this sooner. "Your right Goten. There should be someone to teach you all the things your father isn't able to. What if I knew someone who could? Would you like that?"

The light returned to the boy's eyes for the first time since he entered the room. "Boy would I! I wanted to ask Gohan but he's always busy with his studies. I asked Trunks to ask his dad to do it but Trunks said he wasn't even sure his dad liked training him so-"

ChiChi quickly waved her hands to stop the demi-Saiyan's ramblings. "I wasn't talking about Gohan and heaven knows I definitely wasn't referring to Vegeta. I meant me, Goten."

His eyes widened at her words and then he frowned. "Ah, Mom, you can't train me! Girls don't know how to fight."

"Of course they do! I'll have you know that I was once the greatest female warrior around," she stated.

"Really?" Goten asked between disbelief and wonder. At her nod his frown surprisingly deepened. "Well, you still can't train me. Whenever we spar you'll take it easy on me because I'm your son."

"I never took it easy on your father so why would I on you?" she asked with a small smile already knowing his reaction.

"You sparred with Dad?" he asked in awe.

"Yep."

"Wow," her son murmured truly impressed. "Will you tell me about it?" he asked.

Smiling she reached over and pulled her baby into her lap. "Well it all started when we both entered the World Martial Arts Tournament. We'd met before but hadn't seen each other for a very long time-"

She spent the next few hours recounting tales from her youth and fielding every question that her enthusiastic child would ask about his father. She would honestly have to say it was the single most enjoyable afternoon she'd had in a long time.

"Well maybe tomorrow then," Goku shrugged as he began eating from his plate again around her. The sound of her husband's voice snapped her mind from the adorable baby her child had once been and brought her back to the scheming teen she knew he was being at the moment.

Before she could further question his evening plans, however, he quickly stood and mumbled some incomprehensible excuse and then was gone.

"That boy is up to something," ChiChi thought out loud.

Goku swallowed the last of his meal and then licked his lips clean. "Probably but I'm sure he'll be fine," he said nonchalantly.

She turned back to him with a raised brow. "Oh and how do you know that?"

He leaned forward and gave her a small peck on the lips before saying, "Well I'm always fine. And like you always say Chi, he's a lot like me."

ChiChi chuckled at the simple logic and leaned in to lengthen the kiss murmuring, "That he is, Goku. That he is."

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I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out. I think ChiChi is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters to write about. Well let me know what you think and if you want to be on the mailing list for this fic just leave your request and e-mail address in your review. Thanks for reading.