Funeral Flowers

1/16/19: UPDATE grammar and syntax.

I remember the day you appeared on this earth
With eyes like the ocean, got blood on my shirt
From my camera angle it looked like it hurt
But your mama had a big old smile

In the wee hours of the morning that Cell came, rain fell.

It whispered through the open window of their bedroom. Chi Chi woke first, stirring as the cool breeze of the wet torrent breathed against her bare skin; a stark contrast to the warmth of her husband's body.

She brought her arms to her chest and huddled closer to his body, silently cursing him for having a majority of the sheets tangled around his legs. In the aftermath of their lovemaking the night before their skin was hot and slick, so the open window was a necessity. But, as the darkness of the night faded and the grey light eased it's way to the sky she would take whatever warmth she could get as long as it didn't wake her sleeping husband and thus bring the morning on.

She listened, wide awake from the goosebumps that then plagued her limbs. The torrent came to a stop as sudden as it had started, and the residual trickles of water that dropped from the leaves of the trees and the sides of the windows hammered on.

She didn't dare touch Goku and wake him. She couldn't. The past several days had been bliss as she indulged him in his optimism, but his underlying lines of worry frightened her. He surrendered his last days' worth of opportunity to train for her, during which he'd pace the house in between activities and when she caught him, his expression would switch from a hardened face to a handsome smile for her, and it made her uneasy.

"I'm so lucky to have you, Chi Chi."

She thought of their young son, undoubtedly asleep. She would've given anything to convince Goku to leave him behind, but she couldn't. He was firm in his judgement that bringing Gohan was necessary, and the sad assurance in his eyes told her that deep down he didn't wish that situation on Gohan any more than she did. The two she loved most in that world would leave her to fight a monster with power she couldn't comprehend. It was cruel, because Gohan was far too young for her to be unable to protect him, but it was what it was.

Goku mumbled something inaudible in his sleep and rolled away from her, taking what cover from the cold she had left. She shivered for several moments more, attempting to collect what heat she could from him before bothering with the effort it would take to leave the bed to get a blanket.

No use. Chi Chi sat up and slid to the edge of the bed, looking over her shoulder to see Goku's broad back facing her still. He was apparently undisturbed by her movements.

She didn't understand how he could sleep right now, if at all that last few days. Her bare feet padded softly to the window, and she closed it slowly while modestly wrapping an arm over her front, wincing as the wood with cracked paint creaked under her fingertips. She then walked to the foot of the bed where their comforter had fallen, and grabbed it by an armful against her chest.

She turned to approach her side of the bed again when in the dim light she saw a light blue iris from a single eye cracked open and she froze.

Goku inhaled and rolled to his back, his transformed body bare and unabashed for her to see.

"What's wrong?" His voice was low and full of sleep.

Chi Chi shook her head. "I was trying to not wake you up. I'm freezing." She nodded her chin to the sheet hooked around his knee and his ankle.

His eyes followed her direction. "Aw, man, I'm sorry. Why didn't you wake me like you usually do?"

He did have a point. Goku was a blanket hog and a hard snorer on any given night and she normally had no reservations about giving him a hard shove to wake him enough to meet her demands. She bit her lip, blinking back tears.

The absence of a sharp remark seemed to inform him of the answer. "C'mon, lay back down with me. I'll keep you warm, you don't need that blanket." He patted the spot on bed beside him.

Chi Chi smiled dryly, maintaining her hold on the covers at her chest as she circled around the bed to the spot where his hand rested. "No thank you." She replied sharply, "I tried that and it didn't work."

He flashed her a smile as she lay down beside him with the blanket wrapped around her.

"Ookay," He replied impishly, "But it's going to get warm really fast when I get under these."

He ignored her protests and pulled the comforter she had tucked to her side out so that his body pressed against her- and he was right, it was too warm for her liking, but in the chill of the morning and the loud heartbeat in her ear lulled her to sleep again.

Goku woke her sometime later with his fingers at her jaw, turning her to him for a soul tickling kiss. Albeit slight, the room was filled with light of daybreak.

"Chi Chi," He whispered, "I have to get up now."

Only one of them returned to her.

The tears that she'd fended off from the days previously poured from her, hot and heavy. She was so angry she visibly shook, rattling the wood at her back in it's hinges.

Chi Chi heard Gohan's muffled voice from the kitchen and tensed, relieved only by her father's booming yet solemn reply, "Let's give her a minute, son. She'll be alright. You hungry?" The sounds of plates being passed and water being poured filled her ears.

She wanted to walk to the bed and wrap herself in the sheet from the night before, but she couldn't move her legs to do so. She was furious, darkly wishing that she could resurrect him against his will so that she could kill him herself- and not by some graceful and calculated martial arts moves, he'd probably actually like that.

She'd be cold. She'd make him sick with poison or better, violently slash his throat with a butcher's knife. She'd bury him alive and let him starve to death. That would be justice.

She was grateful Gohan never saw her like this in the days that followed, slumped against the wall by the door or curled into a ball on the bed, staring blankly towards the closed window. She took a page from Goku's book, composing herself in the presence of loved ones, appearing as strong as she could.

They had a funeral in several weeks time on Mt. Pazou. In a world where the finality of death wasn't necessary, Goku's death was final. Autumn had begun to settle on the countryside, whispering in the breeze of it's impending winter chill and making her feet cool when she walked barefoot on the floorboards of her home in the morning.

Bulma approached her afterward, presenting her with a nearly child sized bouquet of carnations and cushion poms. Chi Chi was stiff. She didn't want to accept it, and simply stood there still in her black funeral dress as the grieving widow without her husband's body to bury.

"It's from all of us. I um, thought you'd rather get it in private." Bulma added, shifting her weight in her heels uncomfortably.

Chi Chi said nothing, staring down at the flowers, saying nothing. She wanted to speak, but no words came. Instead she felt a wave of nausea from the odor of the floral arrangement, swallowing several times in an attempt to ease her sudden churning stomach.

"Thanks, Bulma." Gohan cut in, accepting the bouquet while casting a nervous look his mother's way, "We'll take good care of it."

"I know you will, kid. You guys are welcome to come over any time, okay? And if you don't come soon I'm going to drop in at your place, so don't be strangers!"

The blue haired beauty embraced them both and Chi Chi only returned the hug minimally, still focused on not vomiting.

When they arrived home the world smelled just like it did the morning Goku left her forever: damp and earthy. Her feet sank into the grass as she walked.

"What do you want for dinner tonight?"

Gohan shrugged, clutching the bouquet in both hands. "Anything you make is good, mom."

Chi Chi ruffled her son's black hair, relishing it's softness as she brought her nose to his crown and breathed him in.

Later that evening, she passed the flowers in the living room, sitting in a pink vase filled with water. Gohan's doing. Chi Chi lifted one, observing the end of the stem. He'd even taken it upon himself to cut the stems at sharp angles like she'd always done to make the flowers last longer.

She normally called him to dinner from the doorway to the hall where his room was, but today he'd been particularly quiet and contained in his room, and she was curious as to why. She dropped the flower back into the vase and walked the hall to his room, turning the doorknob slowly as his only warning that she was entering.

The room was dark and Gohan stood in front of the window, looking like almost like a little boy again in a t-shirt and his sweatpants rolled up above his ankles.

'He needs new clothes. He's outgrown those.' Chi Chi thought, feeling somewhat guilty that she hadn't noticed until then. With his growth spurt from the hyperbolic time chamber, he'd lost the layer of baby fat around his chin and his jaw. He was tall and awfully muscular for an eleven year old boy. These days he looked at her with wisdom that she'd never seen in any adult before, and he circulated around her with discretion, gently assuming the role of her protector. She wasn't sure if she liked that he'd become so resilient or if she hated it because of the circumstances.

Gohan was bent over his telescope in the dark, mounted on a tripod and aimed at the stars behind the window. Her turned and stood to look at her and she eased the door open.

"Sorry, mom." He looked at her sheepishly, "I was about to come out soon."

Chi Chi shook her head, shamefully thinking to herself how awful it was she'd forgotten about that telescope she'd picked out for her and Goku to both give him as a birthday gift.

"Do you like it?" She leaned on the doorframe and nodded to the telescope.

"Yeah," Gohan replied. "It's a really nice one. You want to see?"

She accepted his offer and let him guide her to the eyepiece, where her vision was filled with the twinkling light of the stars.

"Oh," She breathed, "It's beautiful."

"Yeah. You can't see much from here though. Do you think I can take it Capsule Corp? Dr. Briefs has an observatory."

"I'm sure he'd be okay with that." Chi Chi reasoned, "But I imagine Dr. Briefs has his own telescope there. You should take it up the mountain sometime. No city lights."

"Good idea!" Her son responded enthusiastically.

As they walked to the kitchen together for dinner, her eyes welled with tears again. Gohan was so unlike both her and Goku is so many ways. She was well aware that he could fight with the superhuman strength and skill of his father, and bore the passion and temper of his mother, but he was wiser and more calculated than his parents; he lacked their impulsivity. It seemed that Gohan either go down whichever road he pleased: that of a warrior or a scholar. Or hell, he could do both if that was what he wanted. What she wanted was to pull him as far away from the world of the warrior as she could, where he'd be taken from her the instant another threat came to earth, as his father had been before him over and over again.

When Chi Chi woke several mornings later she dragged her feet to the kitchen again. Dawn had barely settled the sky and Gohan would be awake soon.

She pressed on the knob of the gas oven and turned it to the side, igniting the flame of the burner against the pan.

Then nausea hit her suddenly. She pulled a hand to her mouth and moved to turn away from the stove, but the violent contractions of her stomach betrayed her and she vomited bile in two single bursts through her fingers over the burners.

She turned the stove off abruptly with the opposite hand and ran to the bathroom to finish retching. It was horrible- the nausea persisted after her stomach continued to pump rhythmically, expelling all of it's contents into the toilet until she leaned against the wall, dazed and pale.

She hadn't been this sick in years. Being raised as a physically active fighter herself and married to Goku had always kept her healthy. Now that she thought of it, the last time she'd been so violently ill first thing in the morning was-

Gohan.

A trek into town had yielded only two brands of pregnancy tests, both positive. But she wasn't convinced. She instead made a doctor's appointment when Gohan wasn't home.

The paper lining of the exam table crinkled under her and Chi Chi lay on her back in the cold air of the exam room as blood was drawn from her arm and, several minutes later, cold jelly applied to her belly.

"Yup, there it is." The elderly man pointed at the winking dot on the ultrasound screen. "Several weeks along, I'd say."

His simple confirmation didn't sit well with her. She yanked her heels from the exam stirrups and sat up, wiping the jelly off with her blue floral printed patient gown and she pulled the hem to her knees.

"Several weeks along?"

The doctor slapped his gloved off and washed his hands, back facing her. He turned his head to her stiffly, "Erm, yes. I can get you a picture if you'd like."

She squeezed her thighs together and cried into her hands.

"Alright, then," The doctor muttered awkwardly.

"Get out."

"Well it appears this is a surprise, I'll give you a minute and we can meet back in my off-"

Chi Chi lifted her head from her hands and growled, "I said, get the fuck out."

The news of her pregnancy caught on like wildfire, thanks to Gohan. He fussed over her relentlessly, showing her scholarly articles and books he'd found. He was excited and already overly protective of his new sibling, and her heart broke because he was far too young of a male to know anything about uteruses, cervixes, or lochia.

Several months along, she had a sonogram that determined it was a boy with an extra appendage the doctor couldn't quite identify, and when she turned her head she spotted and empty chair against the wall facing the screen typically seated by the fathers that were alive to watch a child's heartbeat. Chi Chi went home that day in a daze. Another boy.

A boy with a tail.

She went into the bedroom and closed the door. She opened the dresser drawer filled with Goku's clothing and grabbed them in fistfuls, bringing them to her nose to inhale deeply.

With Gohan her sense of smell had been magnified exponentially, and it was the same with this baby. Goku's scent coursed through her for the first time in months, and she sat on the bed and breathed him in.

He rolled over onto the bed in his super saiyan form after and patted her spot. "I'll keep you warm, you don't need that blanket."

He embraced her from behind again as she stood in the bathroom mirror, "You're so beautiful. I missed you today."

The night before he passed away he slid her bathrobe over her shoulders and he kissed her skin as gently as he could before murmuring against her goosebumped flesh, "I'm so lucky to have you, Chi Chi."

She wanted to scream and throw his clothes from her across the room, but she clung to them instead. He'd been so excited when she told him she was pregnant with Gohan all those years ago, when she was still a new bride and admittedly very naive. And when Gohan was born, he awoke quicker and more alert than she ever could, rushing to Gohan's bassinet, feeding him, and rocking him to sleep in the far corner of the room.

That wouldn't be the case now.

Bulma took it upon herself to throw a baby shower.

She showed up one day and shooed Chi Chi out of her own kitchen, which Chi Chi allowed only because she was so tired; she'd forgotten how exhausting it was to have a half-saiyan growing inside of her human body.

His name was Goten. And unlike his brother, he moved constantly, as if playfully demanding that she let him play outside her womb. He did somersaults inside of her incessantly, waking her up in the night with a sharp kick to her ribs.

When she awoke from her nap the day that Bulma came, her home was decorated from the inside out in streamers and balloons. Bulma was always good at parties but she'd outdone herself, all while leaving the dead bouquet from Goku's funeral in it's place on an end table in the living room.

Chi Chi emerged from her bedroom to find Mrs. Briefs standing on a stool while struggling to tape a streamer to the light fixture. It was strangely satisfying for Chi Chi to see given her large and impregnated state- that woman was way to skinny and big breasted to not warrant some form of humiliation whether she was aware of it or not.

There was music and food and alcohol (the latter she eyed wistfully. She wasn't a drinker, but at that point in time she would've loved nothing more than to take the edge off). It was the same crowd as those at the funeral, but now the scene had changed. Gohan and Krillin sparred out front, and Chi Chi sipped her virgin drink as she watched, her mind eased by the look of happiness on her son's face.

When she'd seen enough she waddled inside to the living room with a hand absentminded, where Bulma emerged from the kitchen with a plate of appetizers, passing them to The Ox King, Dr. Briefs and Mrs. Briefs on the sofa. The three offered her a greeting, and 18 sat by herself on a loveseat. Chi Chi nodded to her and the blonde nodded back. Chi Chi liked her.

She wandered to her kitchen, where a dark haired Launch cradled a baby Trunks in her lap as she sat at the counter, and Puar hovered over the child, playfully dancing to make the baby giggle.

Chi Chi smiled politely and set her empty glass upon the counter. She opened the door of the fridge to pull a bottle of water from the shelf, only to set it on the counter as she realized that nature was calling and Goten's continuous bouncing might soon warrant a change of dress.

Chi Chi emerged from the bathroom in the hall to a loud crash from outside that elicited gasps from the guests in the living room.

"Gohan!" She rushed to the living room past the stunned crowd and out the front door in time to hear him laugh, "I'm okay!"

To her horror a tree had fallen in their yard and Gohan and Krillin stood side by side looking sheepish.

"Seriously you guys?! This is a BABY SHOWER!" Bulma joined in, hanging out the door while struggling to balance a tray in one hand while she threw the other in the air for punctuation.

"Sorry."

Chi Chi rolled her eyes. "Just clean up the mess."

Their 'cleaning' job left a gaping hole out front as Gohan pulled the roots of the tree from the broken stump and he and Krillin transported the remains to the forest. She would later convert the hole to a small pond that appeared to fit in with it's surroundings so much so that one wouldn't have suspected it was created by mistake.

After the incident, the outside group retreated to the warmth of the indoors, popping the lids of beer bottles and tremendously increasingly the noise in the house. Mrs Briefs followed behind everyone with a garbage bag, and as Chi Chi opened the gifts it was apparent that Bulma had practically duplicated her own son's nursery.

"They've come a long way with baby stuff. You'd be wishing that you had one of these if you didn't have one!" Her sentence trailed off when Trunks had nearly wriggled out of Roshi's arms and she jumped up to take him to safety.

The evening only got louder, even when people trickled outside again. The repeated urgency of her bladder sent her to and fro the bathroom, passing invasive greetings and questions along the way.

Even resting on the couch rendered no peace. Chi Chi's eyes wondered to Krillin's quiet girlfriend across the room they looked at one another for a moment. She was grateful for the circle of friends Goku had surrounded themselves with; they were a part of her and always would be, but at that moment that the two women locked eyes they reached an understanding of one another's current hell.

"I just have to feel this bouncy baby!" Launch exclaimed, reaching a hand to her large belly with enthusiasm.

"I- oh, actually..."Chi Chi protested. She never cared much for physical contact outside of her family and the day had worn her thin. But that didn't stop the violation of her personal space.

A balloon popped beside her, loud like a gunshot, and she yelped.

"Sorry we stayed so late." Bulma told her at the end of the night, packing the last of the remaining food into the fridge as Chi Chi sat at the counter, forbidden from participating in the clean up. "Had I known this group would party so hard at a baby shower I would've just had it at my place."

Chi Chi waved it off. "I can't thank you enough." She ran a hand over her belly absentmindedly, "I feel like we're finally ready."

Bulma closed the fridge and smiled. "Good." She grabbed the bag of remaining candy from the counter and offered it to Chi Chi before pouring the remaining pieces into her mouth as she tossed the bag in the garbage.

They sat there in silence chewing, the first silence of the day.

It was a surprise to both of them when a door from the hall opened and three male voices were carried in their direction.

Gohan emerged first. "Hi, mom." He circled around the two women with ease, grabbing a water from the fridge.

Chi Chi raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were in bed."

Krillin was next. "Crib's done!"

Bulma's brow furrowed as she picked at her teeth with her finger. "I thought you went to assemble the crib hours ago."

"We did," Yamcha cut in from behind them. Chi Chi looked incredulously from one of them to the next. "Well, we did it wrong the first time and-"

"All three of you?!" Bulma's voice was sharp.

"Yeah, I guess." Krillin shrugged, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

Bulma pushed past them to make her way to the hall."Unbelievable. Seriously you guys?"

"It's good now. I checked." Gohan shrugged.

"I doubt it. How did it take you all that long?" Bulma called.

Krillin sighed. "She has a point. I wouldn't trust us either."

Over time, Chi Chi's anger subsided into sadness. Her body was tired and her mind was hazy. When Gohan was at school she took it upon herself to unpack the gifts into the nursery- folding little clothes and diapers in neat little piles like she'd done right before Gohan was born.

She'd feel a jolt of excitement when she passed by Gohan's nursery, but every time she passed Goten's she shamefully felt dread and sorrow. He'd never know his father; a father that would've adored him the way he did Gohan, who would make him laugh and teach him to fish. And when her defenses were down, he'd steal him away and show him how to fight, only to emerge at the end of the day with dirty hands and scuffed faces.

Goku would tell him to be brave. And she knew that had he been there, he would've pleaded with her to be as well.

She tried. But Goku made an appearance in her dreams every now and then, like a character in the background of a scene and every time she managed to get close he'd disappear, or fade like a ghost through her fingertips.

She dreamt one night that she was following him to a river with no current. He led her to remove their clothes like how they used to do when they first got married, warm skin pressed the warm skin in a dance in the water that would've made her blush as a young girl.

But in the dream he led her to the still water and jumped ahead of her, though when she followed the current resumed and tossed her under it's pull. Her screams were muffled by the river and she choked until she finally did manage to scream, only to be pulled to the surface a flat mattress that was soaked in wetness that poured from her.

'What?'

She gasped for air, scanning the room in the dark, the full moon shining through the window enough for her to see the water-soaked state of her night gown.

Her door burst open. "Mom! What's wrong!"

Goten's birth was difficult. He was big like Gohan was, but held more of his mass in his head and shoulders. In the midst of her stupor she overheard the midwife use the term "plow" to describe his descent down the birth canal, during which his head head bobbed at her opening, thick black hair rubbing against tight, slick, sensitive skin. She didn't scream- as much as she wanted to out of a resurgence of anger toward Goku for his genetics that determined that her body should be ripped apart to accommodate his children.

Incisions around her opening had to be made, and a pink swollen faced Goten was finally born in a bath of his mother's blood. He cried and wriggled as the nurse rubbed him clean with a blanket and narrowly missed his leg when administering his shots.

"So much hair! And a tail? So cute!" The nurse chimed as she passed the babe to his mother's breast.

Chi Chi cried with him when she held him, as the midwife pulled the afterbirth and sutured her fresh wounds.

Goten was fussy and constantly hungry, lulled to sleep only by the mercy of the aide who came to give him his first bath, wrapping him in a towel and holding him under a warm stream of water in the hospital room's sink before her.

Chi Chi leaned forward in the bed and watched his wrinkled face soften, and his fat fists relax their constricted posture outside the blanket as the water trickled through his hair. She slept for a solid hour after that until he woke her up to feed again.

From the moment he was strong enough to scoot and roll, Goten was a constant whirlwind, pulling table lamps down by their cords, window drapes from their mounts, and one day, he stood and pulled the vase full of his father's dead funeral flowers from the table and it collided with the floor, breaking in thousands of little shards on the floor around him, and the dried flowers scattered like a broken fan, bouncing off him as he fell backward, landing upright on his bottom.

The sound sent Chi Chi running from the kitchen. She cursed loudly when she spotted him, crying and sitting in the middle of a sea of glass and old browned petals and stems. He turned and reached for her and she cursed herself for taking her eyes off him when Gohan wasn't home and she couldn't properly watch him as much as he needed while she worked.

"Don't move, Goten!"

The infant screeched louder, grabbing for her with chubby arms extended in the air.

Her feet were bare under her blue bathrobe and her shoes were left neatly by the door, and the way Goten bumped against the floor impatiently and wailed for her she hardly had time to run the opposite direction before Goten would be crawling on shards of glass.

Flying would be a good skill to have right then.

Firmly imploring him to stay put, Chi Chi stepped as carefully as she could, but the shards were tiny and there wasn't much space. How did she not think to put carpet down? She did have a baby before, albeit he was an easier one and she had more help.

She stepped onto the glass with one foot at an angle, so as to reduce her contact with the floor but the increased pressure on her foot pushed the shards even deeper into her skin and she sucked air in through her teeth out of pain. She took another step, foot flat to the floor this time, evenly dispersing the pressure on her foot. The shards cut her regardless.

She was close enough that Goten inched to her out of such urgency and the vigor that she bellowed at him to stay and thus made him scream louder, bringing little fists to his eyes.

She lowered a knee to the ground to scoop him up, thankful for her robe as a barrier for the appendage.

Once her son was secured against her chest with his head tucked under her chin she rose again, feeling warmth trickling from under her feet and a new sticky slipperiness.

A distinct burning smell plagued her senses.

She'd left a pan with oil on a burner.

'Shit.'

She scrambled with the wailing child back to the kitchen, trailing bloody footprints behind her as she went. She flipped the burner off with the hand not securing Goten and flipped on the overhead fan to clear the smoke.

She padded past the living room and to the hall with the sides of her feet, hoping offhandedly that Gohan didn't arrive home anytime soon.

Goten continued to cry from her bed, but she left him there alone so that she could keep an eye on him while she tended to her feet with a warm rinse of the bathwater and a tweezer to pull out the slivers. She soothed him as best she could, calling to him as she pulled piece by fragile piece before bandaging her feet and wrapping Goten to her chest so that she could vacuum and mop the house while keeping track of him. He was slightly large to be carried that way, and when she bent over she could feel his weight pull against her lower spine in a highly uncomfortable manner.

That day was brutal. She splashed cold water on her face, warding back the flushing warmth of impending tears of helplessness.

Contrary to her usual parenting style, she slept with her youngest in her bed that night. Goten loved to cuddle. His smiles and giggles were infectious, and when she held him close he'd tuck his head inward and his arms and legs clutched her with precious fervor. He was ecstatic to be held in his mother's bed, cooing happily until he dosed. Chi Chi lay on her side, curling protectively around him and running her fingertips through his hair the way that Goku had with her sometimes, when she allowed him to. His head was starting to look exactly like Goku's, and she inhaled deeply relishing how delicious he was as her feet throbbed in their bandages.

In the peak of a summer, Gohan took her and his little brother to higher elevation to test the telescope. They walked together in the darkness after dinner when the dishes had been cleaned, dried, and returned to their rightful places.

Gohan to her, craning his head over his little brother's legs draped on his shoulders. "Almost there!"

They'd been talking about making a trip out there since she first saw the telescope set up in his room, but Chi Chi guiltily kept putting it off due to her pregnancy, followed by the labor, and then a busy toddler at home that allowed her little rest. None of those things left her energy to go walking through the wilderness at night.

But Goten was at an age that allowed her a bit of a break, though the last few years had given earned her more definition in the crow's feet and worry lines about her face.

Gohan halted them in a grassy highland. "Oh yeah, this'll be perfect!"

Chi Chi collected Goten from his brother's shoulders as Gohan pulled the tripod out of the bag to assemble. She knew there was a lake nearby because the only sound around was the loud chorus of cicadas.

Her older son bent at the waist and squeezed an eye shut. He stayed like that for a moment, nimble hands twisting the telescope knobs back and forth. He moved quickly at first, and as concentration set in his mouth opened slightly and his movements slowed to a single click her and single slick there.

Chi Chi shifted Goten in her arms, grateful that he'd been so sleepy that he was content with resting on her hip. Had he been wide awake he would've fussed until she let him down to play, and she wasn't too keen on the idea of him running free in the wilderness at night. He was getting too heavy to hold that way, but she was admittedly in denial.

Gohan stepped back. "Take a look."

She did, imitating his posture. The sky was pitch dark with thousands of globes of light winking back at her.

"You know what Gohan told me about daddy today, momma?"

Chi Chi looked over her shoulder, minding the steaming sheet pan she'd been drying with reddened hands. Goten was at the table by himself, spooning cereal into his mouth.

"What?"

Goten opened his mouth again, and a piece of cereal spilled out.

"Ah! Chew your food!"

Goten closed his mouth obediently and hummed as he became preoccupied with the cereal box.

When the sheet pan was dry she stacked it neatly under the counter.

"So what were you going to tell me?" Chi Chi asked him, mildly interested. Goku became a common topic of conversation in their household, mostly because Goten was practically his clone. He was in photographs on the walls and in photo albums as much as he was the common denominator in all of their family's friendships. It must've been strange for her youngest son, to hear so much about a man who wasn't there.

"Oh yeah." Goten giggled. "He said," The little boy pulled both his hands to his mouth in a ridiculous attempt to hide his grin, "That daddy has pusketti for hair!" His words were barely audible as more giggles erupted from him.

"Spaghetti for hair?" Chi Chi's face softened at the realization that she'd walked right into a joke conjured up by her three year old son.

"Then that means you have spaghetti for hair, little boy." Chi Chi walked to him and ruffled his hair, and he laughed even harder.

The sound of his footsteps fell heavy when they walked through the door together again.

After the boys had gone to bed (or at least to their respective rooms), she saw him in her peripheral vision, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. It was the first minute of peace since the beginning of the day.

"Man," He sighed, "It's so good to be home."

It felt odd, feeling his eyes on her again as she scrubbed the counter. She'd long been done cleaning, but the idea of laying down together again was so thrilling and surreal, yet terrifying.

He ignited a passion in her from the very first time she saw him as a young girl. She didn't know what it was until she saw his dark eyes and lopsided grin, and the days that followed she thought of him always, relying on his promise that he'd come back for her.

But Goku was too naive to understand, and his love for her was more of a slow burn, a repeatedly frustrating process through months and years until finally he looked at her the way that he looked at her now.

With love.

Sure, it wasn't the first time he did it, the first time she had goosebumps on her flesh as she pretended not to notice.

She wasn't angry anymore, despite the fact that she understood that there was no way to make him understand what his absence did to her; she was now living every widow's dream. And she understood that while it wasn't fair to her, it wasn't fair to him either. She didn't know what he was when she decided that he was 'the one', but he didn't know what she was either.

"It's nice to have you home." She heard herself speak with uncharacteristic softness.

"Are you tired?"

Chi Chi shrugged, "I've been tired for so long that I'm not even sure what it's like to not to be tired."

"Come to bed with me, then."

Chi Chi froze, halting her efforts with her raw hand on a damp sponge. A familiar heat from years ago rushing to her cheeks at the serious firm tone of his voice. Was he implying-?

"A-Alright. Give me a minute."

"I'll wait."

She supposed she should've angry with him still. Perhaps another woman, less accustomed to her husband's ways would've lost it- demanding he make up for his absence and suffer as she did, or remarried another man and expected him to accept it. But Goku had a way of pulling her close to him even when she didn't want to be, whether it was physically or emotionally, and his time was hers now. The funeral flowers had long since been burned to ash that scattered to the grass and the leaves of the trees, and submerged beneath the depths of the earth when the rains came again. He was home, and all she ever demanded from him was his presence.

The window in their bedroom stayed open, and the night's breeze danced over the scars on the bottom of her feet.

Broken bones heal if you set them right
Get your fine tooth comb from the barbicide
Our love's a protective poison
Cause you are your mother's child
And she'll keep you for a while
One day you'll be grown, then you'll be on your own

Lyrics by Conor Oberst "You are your mother's child"

A/N: I feel like this is essentially a more extended take on my other fic A Day in the Life, but I didn't originally plan on that. This is by far the longest oneshot /chapter I've ever written, and I haven't watched the whole series through since I was a kid so if any finer details are out of place, that's why! (I know that Launch is out because she was forgotten but I threw her in there anyway.) The ChiChi/Goku pairing is one of the most interesting and sweet pairing ever! This probably won't be my last. Thanks for reading!