Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT.


Chapter 1: Mt. Paozu

"Gohan, snack time!"

"Oh, boy! Yum!"

Chi-Chi stepped into the young teen's room and placed a tray of fresh fruit and lemonade beside him on his desk, carefully shifting aside text books and stacks of paper first.

The woman displayed a weary grin.

Her husband had passed away into the heavens nearly a month ago, but as far as she was concerned, her son was the one wearing the halo. Imagine a little more grace enveloping his brawny figure, subtract his father's outlandish hair, and fix him in a formal, white collared shirt with cuffs and a placket front, and he was her perfect, scholarly angel.

Snap!

In an instant, Chi-Chi was warped from her small trance. "What was that?"

"Whoops, I think I broke another one…"

"Another what?"

"Er, well…"

Without elaborating any further, Gohan nervously turned around in his chair. He tossed two halves of a once-whole pencil into a heap with other writing implements that had unfortunately been born to share the same epitaph: death by demi-saiyan.

"Whoa there, are you studying in here or chopping wood and gathering metals to build a luxurious home without me? My gosh! This place is a dump!"

Gohan scratched the nape of his neck and shamefully gazed at the floor.

"Heh-heh, sorry, Mom. Ever since I got back from fighting Cell, I can't seem to control myself. Having been a super saiyan for so long makes me underestimate my normal actions, and I guess I'm putting a little too much power into everything."

Of course. When other boys were dealing with electronics, sports, and puberty, her son was struggling with his alien super powers. Chi-Chi sighed as if in dismay, but her grin shone brighter. Who was she kidding?

Gohan may be her little angel at heart, but more than anything else, the boy would always, primarily be Goku's son. It was impossible to ignore the teen's brute strength, and it was immeasurably more difficult to not acknowledge the black spikes protruding from his head. All she could really do to avoid having Gohan turn into an exact clone of his father was dress him up like a little doll and toss a few books beneath his nose between intergalactic fights.

Plus, as she hated to admit, growing up to be like Goku wasn't that bad. True, she had often beaten the saiyan with a frying pan out of monstrous rage, but she had married him out of love. The thought caused tears to spring into Chi-Chi's eyes. Why did he have to leave?

"M-mom? What's the matter? You're scaring me," said Gohan, who had been staring at her staring at him for the past five minutes. "Are you alright?"

Chi-Chi blinked away her tears.

"I think you've been studying long enough today," said Chi-Chi, perky all of a sudden. "After you finish your snack, why don't you go out and have some fun?"

Gohan almost fainted. Was his mother sick? She didn't look sick. Maybe tired, but his dad had just died, so some fatigue was expected, right? Still, the extreme, prolonged emotions could understandably be becoming problematic to her health. Plus, she was pregnant, so if the tragedy of death wasn't weighing her down enough, that extra bulge in her belly and torrent of hormones would surely send her toppling! Was it time to call for professional help? Any action would probably be better than his current tactic of trembling with mouth agape.

"What's gotten into you?" asked Chi-Chi, interrupting her son's rambling thoughts. "You're always asking to go outside, and the minute I allow it, you stand here as if I've sentenced you to death. I've got a long list of groceries for you to pick up as well. The longer you stand here, the less time you'll have to play."

"R-right," said Gohan. "But Mom…you know that it's barely noon, right?"

Chi-Chi laughed, finally understanding. "Oh, is that it? You think I've gone insane, huh?"

"No, it's just…well…"

"Listen here, young man! Studying is especially important after your unreasonably long hiatus. We have to take advantage of times like these when your father is dead because it seems that there's really no other time when you can work on your education," began Chi-Chi. "But with that said and done, I am a mother. I'm not about to watch my little boy rot away at his desk! And just because I'm getting older doesn't mean I've lost my sense of fun, you got that?"

"Wow! So I can really go out and play today?"

"Yup, just promise me that you'll get the groceries and be home by sunset."

"It's a deal! Thanks, Mom!"

After devouring his morning snack, Gohan snatched the grocery list and blasted out of the front door into the fresh air, laughing excitedly. It had been so long since he'd been out of the house! Soaring amidst the crisp wisps of clouds above in the cerulean skies, the happy-go-lucky Gohan announced, "First stop: Master Roshi's! I can't wait to see how everyone's doing."

"Oh, his laugh is just like his father's," murmured Chi-Ch from below. With a gentle, mindful rub of her belly which hid her great treasure, the mother uttered sadly, "I really wish you were here for all of this, Goku. We miss you."

As the mother expressed these feelings, she felt her father, the Ox-King, emerge from the house and squeeze her shoulder reassuringly. Together, they watched their growing half-saiyan disappear into the world.