Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ I Know Him So Well ❯ Chapter 1

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Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or any of the characters. I also don't own the song
 
I'm doing another song-fic. This time it is based of a song from the musical “Chess” it is actually a duet between two women and their relationship with the same man but I think that this song fits one woman and her relationship with one of the men from Dragon Ball Z perfectly.
 
This is also a stream of consciousness fic. If you don't know what that means here is a quick definition.
 
Stream of Consciousness is a story told entirely from one person's perspective in “real-time.” This means that the story will jump around as the featured character's mind does. It is kind of like a diary entry.
 
Song lyrics are Italicized and within * . . .*
Spoken words (there aren't many) are within “ . . .”
Remembered conversations are within ` . . .'
 
I Know Him So Well
By Lady Lark
~*~
 
A light breeze blew through the open window of the small rustic house. It circled and danced around the immaculate, yet homey, kitchen to the women solemnly chopping vegetables. The breeze caressed her cheeks lifting tendrils of hair up and back from her face.
 
She paused in her task and looked wistfully in the direction of the window.
 
“Goku?”
 
*Nothing is so good it lasts eternally
Perfect situations must go wrong
But this has never yet prevented me
From wanting far too much for far too long*
 
But like every other time, he wasn't there. She sighed and continued dicing carrots for her stew. She had a family to feed, but it didn't keep her from hoping beyond hope that her husband would come back. She was a widow twice over, ironically it was the same man who had left her bereft of his presence. Little did she know what she was getting into, when she had bullied her father into betrothing her to that little boy all those years ago.
 
The woman sighed. She knew from the first moment she saw him, that he had to become her husband. It wasn't just that he was powerful. Although she admitted to herself, that his strength was one of his charms. But also had some indefinable quality about him. He was like `Prince Charming' in all of those fairy tales. He was sweet and innocent and she loved him instantly. But he hadn't come to rescue her. He had come for her father's Dragonball.
 
*Looking back, I could have done it differently
Won a few more moments, who can tell?
But it took time to understand the man
Now at least I know, I know him well*
 
She'd wanted to go with him. Or have him stay with her. Either was preferable to being left alone again. But it didn't work out that way.
 
She looked up from the cutting board and surveyed the kitchen.
 
He got the Dragonball, and he also got a fiancée. Maybe she shouldn't have forced the engagement or the marriage. They were only children. But she knew her mind, and she wanted him so much. He was everything that she had wanted when she was a child and more. He was strong, noble, innocent, considerate . . . well at least that is what she had thought at the time. Things didn't quite work out the way she had intended them. He was strong. Stronger than she could have ever conceived, and she was part demon. He was noble. But a bit too noble and self sacrificing for his and her good. And by Kami, was he innocent! If she hadn't been there on their wedding night she would never have believed that he was a good lover. He never acted passionately outside of the bedroom and rarely in it. But on those rare occasions it was as if an animal or some other beast possessed him.
 
But despite some problems and initial misconceptions, she loved being married to him. He seemed to like being married to her, once she had explained the concept to him.
 
At least he acted like he did.
 
*Wasn't it good, Wasn't it fine
Isn't it madness he can't be mine
But in the end, he needs a little more than before
Security, he needs his fantasy and freedom
I know him so well*
 
He loved their eldest son and was a good father to the boy. But, she acknowledged ruefully, she didn't approve of his methods of bonding. She just wanted her, no, their son to be successful and martial arts wasn't her idea of success.
 
Maybe if she hadn't been so pushy on Gohan being a scholar then he would have wanted to come back to life. Maybe he would have wanted to come back to her.
 
But all of this self-chastisement wasn't doing her any good. She had a dinner to make and two growing boys to raise.
 
She smiled sadly. He really was more like her child than her husband. Maybe that was why she was so protective of him. He couldn't take care of himself. He needed her.
 
Oh but she needed him too.
 
*No one in your life is with you constantly
No one is completely on your side
And though I move my world to be with him
Still the gap between us is too wide*
 
The time they had together was so wonderful. She would snuggle into his arms at night and tell him bedtime stories. He was always the handsome prince who would save the beautiful princess from danger. She remembered one night he had asked her if she was the beautiful princess in her stories. The question had shocked so she asked, `Do you want me to be?' He just smiled at her and said, `I'm hungry, Chi. I'm gonna go get a snack.'
 
He never did answer her.
 
Now thinking about that time, she thought that he couldn't answer that question. She didn't think he could see her as a shrieking, shrinking princess who couldn't get herself out of trouble. No, she supposed, that if she were that captured princess that she would fight her way free and meet Prince Charming on her way out the door.
 
She chuckled to herself at the picture. She'd probably yell at the hapless prince for not being there earlier.
 
Maybe that's why he didn't come back. Maybe he felt that he wasn't needed by her. But she did need him. She needed someone to love her and hold her.
 
That was why she always yelled. He was so independent that she was afraid that he would leave her. So she had bullied him into staying with her. She had tried to convince him not to fight Cell. But did. He said he had to.
 
And now he was gone.
 
*Looking back, I could have played it differently
Learned about the man before I fell
But I was ever so much younger then
Now at least, I know I know him well*
 
If she could, she would have stormed up to Kami's, no, it was Dende's Tower and demand that Goku come back to life. But she wasn't there and the Dragonballs' wishes had been used for other things. And now Goku could never come back, it had been over three years since his death and the Dragonballs couldn't bring back someone who had been dead more than a year.
 
She couldn't join him either. Although she contemplated it briefly after his death. However, he had left her one last gift. One last apology for going off to fight.
 
Their son, Goten.
 
Goten was so like his father. It brought a tear to her eye. Where Gohan was a gifted scholar, Goten was marginal one at best. But he loved with an innocent heart, just like his father did. The boy was only three and already he had friends. Including Bulma's son, Trunks.
 
No, she couldn't join Goku in heaven. Not just yet. She had to raise their family. But sometimes it hurt so much without him. That she didn't think she could go on.
 
She sighed. Those kind of thoughts never did anyone any good.
 
*Wasn't it good (oh so good), Wasn't it fine (so fine)
Isn't it madness he can't be mine
Didn't I know how it would go
If I knew from the start
Why am I falling apart*
 
Unbidden she felt tears spring to her eyes. Dammit. She had thought that she was done with the crying. She had not mourned Goku fully the first time he died. There was no need. Krillin had immediately given her hope of Goku's return. She chuckled through her tears, the poor monk was so afraid of how she would react that he could barely speak.
 
She'd practically had to bash him over the head with one of her frying pans to get a straight answer out of him. Although at the time he had two horrible things to tell her.
 
Funny, looking back, she had been more worried about Gohan than upset over Goku's death.
 
Maybe it was because she understood Goku. Goku, she knew, had a hero complex. And she loved and hated it at the same time. She loved it because it was the Prince Charming in him. And like every girl she loved Prince Charming. But now she knew why the fairy tales all ended at `and they lived happily ever after.' Because you couldn't tell little girls that Prince Charming would never outgrow the Hero bit or that they would leave you and your family because some dragon, or wizard, or alien was threatening the kingdom.
 
Oh he would love you. And you would be happy together.
 
In the time that you had together, as little as that was sometimes.
 
And she had won Prince Charming. Entering the elite league of women who know how fleeting happiness can be.
 
But she knew that she wouldn't give up her moment of happiness or her Prince Charming ever. Even if she had to live her life over.
 
Oh sure she would change some things, who wouldn't? But overall, she would keep everything the same.
 
After all she had her rewards. And she had had Goku.
 
*But in the end, he needs a little more than before
Security, he needs his fantasy and freedom
I know him so well
It took some time to understand the Man
I know him so well*
 
Pushing her thoughts to one side, she finished chopping her vegetables, ignoring the errant breeze tickling at her hair.
 
~*~
 
AN: Another Fic that I started over two years ago. I am not totally happy with it. But after playing with the fic off and On for the past few years I think it is time for me to wash this thing out of my hair. And finish the damn thing off and publish it so I don't have it sitting over me.
 
There will not be any continuations.
 
I feel that my one hour fic “The Study Break” is a better Chi-chi vehicle. And “A Daughter's Love” is a better stream of consciousness fic.
 
No Beta on this. You get it as it is.