The last three days were spent with eyes locked on the ground. He had no passion to get out of bed or to stare at the faces around him and attempt; although everyone knew he was faking, to put on a smiling facade. It all seemed to be a waste of time; he wished he didn't even have to get out of bed.

His tired feet clunked heavily on each of the steps as he made his way down the stairs to the spectators below. He knew that their eyes would be locked on him. He knew that they would be sitting at the table in the midst of creating a fake conversation so he didn't realize that they had been talking about him but he knew… he had overheard everyday so far as he stood at the top of the stairs working up the courage to paste a smile across his features.

He reached the ground floor and flashed the smile around the table before taking his usual seat at the table. This was about the time that everyone would go through their plans about what they were doing for the day that would leave him all by himself to work on cooping with his broken heart. It may not have been the best idea but they all knew that it was what he really wanted.

Bulma laid her utensils down and smiled over at him, "Goku, Bura and I were going to take a walk through the park, look at all the falling leafs and take in the beauty of the season, we were wondering if you wanted to join us, it might do you some good to actually come out and get some fresh air," She said making it more of a statement then a question, he felt that he didn't really have a chance.

Goku picked up the fork and began poking at the tops of the eggs before him and watching the yolk run over the whites, "I guess that could be… fun," He said flashing his famous grin around the table.

"Kakarrotto, you don't have to go," Vegeta said as he took a sip of his coffee, "I haven't really had a good sparring session in a while and it would be good to take out some pent-up frustration."

The smile leaked off Goku's face. So the day could go two ways, he could go to the park with Bulma and Bura and pretend to enjoy the sights of the park or he could stay and be Vegeta's human punching bag. The second seemed to make a lot of sense, it might've actually made him feel better but he knew that it was not the smartest thing he could do.

"I think that going out might do me some good," he said putting down his fork and picking up a piece of toast taking a small bite.

"Guess that you will be training with me again whelp," he said eyeing his son who gave a loud gulp at the thought.

The leafs were quite beautiful as they danced through the wind around the park. It seemed like the park was full of young couples hand in hand' no matter where you looked there was a couple in site. A couple of artists sat around the park drawing or painting the famous fall colours but they brought no relief.

Shortly after arriving at the park, Bura had run off when she had unexpectedly bumped into a cute boy from your math class. It seemed that it was unluckily to have been a coincidence, or so Bulma thought, but they could do nothing to argue with her. Instead they had bought some cotton candy and sat down on a bench overlooking the riverfront.

"So do you feel any better?" Bulma asked as she ripped a piece of the pink cotton candy off the stick and stuck it in her mouth.

"No, not at all." The reply came out a little more quiet then intended.

"You know, I always found that the pink cotton candy tastes so much better then the blue… do you think that they mix it differently?" She said tearing a piece of the blue off to compare it with the pink.

Goku smiled and leaned back on the bench as he spun the stick around in his hand, "I never really gave it much thought… actually I think they both taste the exact same if you ask me."

They stared out over the water just taking in the view of leafs travelling downstream. The raven-haired man found that he could relate well with each other those leafs, moving in the direction that faith had planned for them, not being in control to change their direction, to move towards shore, they just had to keep going with the pull.

"I wish I could relate to you," She said with her eyes locked on the river.

"The pain?" Goku said focusing his eyes on her.

She gave a small chuckle before turning and looking at the muscular man beside her, "No, I've had that, maybe not as bad, but I have been in pain before."

"With Vegeta?"

"Kind of," she said ripping another piece of the pink fluff in front of her and sticking it into her mouth, "I was in pain from all the fear I had bottled up."

"What happened between you two?" Goku asked dropping his eyes to the ground. He had wondered about this so many times, wanted to ask so many times but he figured that if either of them wanted to talk about it they would.

"I really don't understand myself," Bulma said smiling at him quickly and looking into the sky.

"Was it someone else?"

"No… well… yes… kind of," she said biting softly on her bottom lip, "It wasn't that there was someone else, more there was the dream of someone else. I wanted to love."

Goku raised his head and his chocolate eyes met the blue ones of the woman beside him, "You mean that you never loved Vegeta?"

"Not for a second," her smile lit her features.

"Did he love you?"

"No but he loves our children," she turned her head back to the river, "He would never say it, but he really does love them. They make him happy… almost at least."

They had had two children together and never loved each other. He just couldn't make sense of it. Did this mean that Chichi may not have ever loved him, that maybe she had stayed around as long as she had because of their children? That all the times she had told him that he was a constant pain to her, that he always seemed to make her life tougher, was it just a way to tell him that she didn't love him?

"I did love her though," Goku said as he leaned forward to stare at the ground.

"I know you did and I know that you will love again," Her hand rose to rub his back, "Goku, I would never question your love, you have saved the world for us hundreds of times and never once did you want anything. Your love is so pure it should be sacred. You did nothing wrong. You gave her the love that you could but she couldn't appreciate the way that she should have."

"Do you think that she loved me?"

"I know she did at first," Bulma wasn't prepared for this, she didn't want to hurt him anymore but she also knew that she couldn't lie to him, "She must have loved you at first, you two were perfect for each other but time wore her down. She spent a lot of time alone questioning the marriage, questioning her love for you. I think she just fell out of love. Goku, she really didn't deserve you."

He sat there with his head hanging. He wished that he could change it all but how could he? He couldn't have stayed back and let the world be destroyed, let her be destroyed. He protected the world for his family and friends, for her and she fell out of love with him because of that? Who was to say that anyone could love him when he was always running off with no guarantees that he would be coming back? How many times had he promised that he would be back only to be gone for periods of months?

"Goku, you will love again. You will find someone who understands you. You will have the perfect love. You are strong. You are too full of love not to share it," She moved her hand to raise his head and stare into his eyes, "Just flash that award winning smile and you could capture anyone's heart."

The Saiya-Jin warrior couldn't repress the famous smile as it broke across his face. It was nice; it was the first time since she had left him that he was actually smiling. It was the first time since that day that he actually felt like there was hope for him. He had a dream now; well not quite a dream but there was a dream of a dream.