Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z, they are the proud creation of a genius named Akira Toriyama.
Summary: Gohan is a saiyan, and saiyan's cannot ignore their instinct to fight.
Time
"Good night sweety!" Gohan heard his mother call from her room, as he settled in for bed.
"Night mom." Gohan smiled sadly as he answered. A pang in his heart as no other voice joined in the chorus of night time pleasantries. The absence still palpable after only a month.
Gohan laid down and tried to clear his mind of guilt. Wishing for nothing more than to be able to enjoy these peaceful nights. At least while they lasted. His lips turned in yet another bitter smile.
Peace was nice. Peace was a break. Peace was welcome. Peace was fleeting.
It was a pessimistic thought, but Gohan knew better than to fool himself at this point. Earth had an odd tendency to attract trouble it's inhabitants generally couldn't handle, leaving it up to the Z warriors to step in. Something his mother, with her tearful smiles and soft nightly well wishes didn't understand. Or didn't want to understand. Not anymore.
Goku's death loomed over all the Z warriors, but none were affected quite so much as the Son family, especially once Chi-Chi discovered she was pregnant. The combined news lit a fire in his mother Gohan hadn't seen since before Mirai Trunk's warning of impending doom 3 years previously. Chi-Chi was determined to drown Gohan in studies, forbidding him from training.
At first, Gohan obeyed with little argument, he was fine with leaving the life of a martial artist behind. As time went on, however, Gohan found himself becoming restless. He tried to hold it in, really he did, but after a few weeks Gohan would find himself becoming irritated at the smallest things. Sometimes even snapping at his mother at the most unexpected times. Vegeta had warned him this would happen. A Saiyan simply couldn't ignore the call to battle.
Gohan tossed and turned as he tried to get comfortable, but he just couldn't. Throwing his covers off, he sat up in frustration. It seemed as if every nerve in his body was on fire, screaming at him to find an opponent. Vegeta's ki signature calling to him like a beacon. A frustrated look out his window made the reason clear.
Ah. The full moon.
Even without his tail, Gohan could still feel a throbbing in his lower back. His heart rate sped up and his pupils dilated. The urge to battle growing with every passing second. A growl ripped through his throat as Gohan clenched his sheets between white knuckled fists. His canines elongated slightly, piercing his lip and causing a small trickle of blood to flow down his chin as Gohan bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut in an effort to calm himself. But when he opened his eyes and saw the moon rays once more, it became too much.
Gohan threw open his window, mindful enough to not cause too much noise and wake his mother, and took off into the night. Before he knew it Gohan was hovering above Capsule Corp., his ki flaring in an effort to gain Vegeta's attention. Gohan's eyes widened and he realized what he was doing with a start once he felt Vegeta's ki flare in response. Gohan turned and fled to the look out, he could sense the prince hot on his tail.
Once Gohan reached his destination he completely bypassed a concerned Piccolo. His body flickered as he searched for his safe haven. Gohan ignored the two ki signatures following close behind, instead focusing on twin white doors. Passing thru and slamming them shut before his pursuers could catch him.
Vegeta couldn't enter, not anymore. The prince had used his time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and could no longer enter. Piccolo could follow, if he wished, but would probably be delayed by Vegeta long enough that it wouldn't matter. All Gohan needed was a minute or two.
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Twelve hours later Gohan finally worked out the aggression in his body, so he reclined on the bed and took a moment to collect himself. What had happened was dangerous. If he and Vegeta had fought in his hyper aggressive state, there was no telling the damage the two of them could of caused the planet. Just the thought of it gave Gohan shivers.
This couldn't happen again.
"It won't." Gohan said. His voice firm with a conviction he'd thought lost these past few weeks.
Gohan's saiyan DNA was a problem, especially during the full moon. Regardless of whether or not he had a tail. A wiggle at his side caused Gohan to groan. That would cause his mother to ask some questions. He shook his head, regrown tails weren't the issue.
With the constant excitement in his life before, Gohan had never had a problem of built up aggression before. He'd spent so much time fighting for his life and sneaking out to train during the reprieves that Gohan hadn't realized the dangers of taking it easy. Now that he knew, he needed a solution. One his mother couldn't get in the way of.
Gohan had no doubt that his mother would continue to forbid him from training, regardless of any dangers. It would take Gohan having a full episode in front of her to convince Chi-Chi of the necessity. That wasn't something Gohan wasn't willing to risk happening. So asking her would work.
Using the Hyperbolic time chamber was an option. With the room giving him six hours of training for every one minute of real time, Gohan could come to the Watch Tower, train, and get home in under five minutes. If he did it at night, while his mother was sleeping, she would never know. It seemed like the perfect plan, except..., Gohan did a bit of mental math, it was a solution that would only work for four and a half years. Maybe less if he did more than six hours of training a day on some days. So, closer to four years.
Gohan would only be technically thirteen,[1] although physically fifteen, when his time in the chamber ran out. That would leave a minimum of five years before he could do anything else. The situation would become really dangerous, really fast. Still, four years was something.
Four years would give Gohan time to negotiate with his mother, perhaps convince her to lift the ban on training. If Gohan played his cards right, and was convincing enough, he might not have to use all of his time in the chamber, leaving some for an emergency. If Gohan couldn't convince her then... then he'd have to defy her. Openly. Gohan couldn't do it now. Not with his fathers death so fresh on both of their minds, but he could in four years. He hoped it didn't come to that, but, knowing his mother, Gohan could only be so optimistic.
Gohan stood and headed for the door, preparing himself for the interrogation waiting for him on the other side.
[1] Gohan was 9 in the manga when he faced off against Cell, he was 11 in the anime, even older in some translations. I decided to go with 9 and his physical age being 10 due to his time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Due to the HTC and his one to two minutes a day plan, he would age a little over 5 years by the time he'd used up his full two days.
(A.N. Just a short little oneshot that came to mind while I was rewatching DBZ. Something that always bothered me about the seven year gap was that Gohan, who is half saiyan, didn't train. At all. I could understand Gohan behaving for some time due to Goku's death, maybe even a year, but not seven. Half saiyan's may not have as strong a drive to fight as full saiyans, but it is still there. This is especially true for Gohan with his hidden powers, and who DBZ set up to be Goku's successor. The seven year gap completely disregarded the set up that finally came to a head during his fight with Cell, something that always felt off about the DBZ timeline post Cell Saga. Gohan, even more than Goku, always felt like the protagonist of DBZ to me. Goku was the hero of DB, but Gohan was the hero to be of DBZ. Everything about his story was that of a passing of the torch, with him finally recieving it when Goku stepped aside and pitted him against Cell. At the end of the Cell Saga DBZ felt complete and maybe that's why I couldn't enjoy the Buu Saga as much as I wanted to. The Buu Saga was good, but the Gohan elements just left a bad taste in my mouth. This wasn't the Gohan I grew to love. It felt like all of his character development was pushed to the side and ignored so Goku could have a reason to come back and be the hero again. So this is my version of what Gohan should of done, rather than him blindly listening to Chi-Chi.)