Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or the characters
The sun was shining creating a shiny glow on the water surrounding Kame House. It had been a long time since Krillin had moved into his old master's home, but not fully for training. Since Goku had passed, it just hadn't been the same. Other instances had taken his attention as well, including his girlfriend, Android 18.
That had been quite a long story.
Eventually, Eighteen had come around, accepting all Krillin had done for her. She appeared to him one night, and they had both talked, Krillin nervous as anything. His awkwardness had made the android smile. There was a spark there between them. It had been there since the day she had so boldly kissed the human on the cheek. They had been dating for about a month now.
Days had passed by so quickly when she was around, but when Krillin was outside staring at the water he could only think of the moments where he and his best friend had trained side by side, sparred over the sand, casting stones out into the water. He really missed Goku.
He wondered how Gohan and Chi Chi were doing. For the longest time, he had decided to stay away, but only because he didn't want to impose. He had been the one to tell Chi Chi that Goku had fallen to his brother and son had been kidnapped. She had been so welcoming, he couldn't even tell her then. He was no good under pressure. Plus, it was possible the grieving widow and mother would think he was there to take her son away for some kind of training. Enough time had passed, though, that maybe it would be okay to check in on them.
"Hey, Krillin," a voice greeted.
The former turtle student turned to see Yamcha flying towards him with Puar following closely behind. Krillin smiled. Yamcha looked like he was doing well. That was at least a relief. "Hey, Yamcha."
"How've you been?" his friend replied, but Krillin couldn't keep the smile on for long and sighed. Yamcha's forced cheer had disappeared. "That bad, huh?"
"I miss him," Krillin admitted to the other fighter before gracing him with a week smile. "I haven't even gone to check on Chi Chi or Gohan."
Yamcha nodded. He had been busy with his rising career and this was the first break he had. The baseball player had gone to visit Bulma that day and was thrilled to know that she had been keeping in touch with Chi Chi and Gohan. They were healing, but slowly. "Bulma's been keeping an eye on them," he assured the former monk. "And since I'm off today, maybe we should go for a visit."
This caused Krillin's grin to become genuine. "I was already thinking about it before you showed up."
Yamcha tossed his keys in the air and caught them. "Then what are we waiting for?"
Gohan was outside alone when the two reached the mountain home. The preteen had been so happy to see his friends again. It occurred to him that the last time he had seen either Krillin or Yamcha was when they were on the Lookout and his father had chosen to remain dead.
No, he scolded himself. This was a happy thing, and he was not going to let grief get in the way.
Instead, he ran up to the car, the two humans getting out. "Hey, kid," Yamcha greeted fondly. "How's it going?"
"Fine," Gohan replied quickly, not wanting them to ask more detailed questions. "It's been a while. What have you guys been up to?"
Yamcha and Krillin exchanged knowing looks, but they decided to edge away from interrogating the boy. The former decided to engage in the conversation and started telling Gohan all about how well his baseball career was going and how easy the season was so far. Of course, Gohan warned the former fighter not to get cocky, the three men having a good laugh about that.
When it came to Krillin, her nervously admitted that he had had a run-in with Eighteen. At first, Gohan had been alarmed, but Krillin explained that it was more of a social call and that he and the android were actually dating. The news had surprised both Yamcha and Gohan, but they were happy for their friend. Besides, Eighteen had seemed like too bad a person. She fought them a few times, but most of the time she was looking out for her brother and Android 16 and trying to avoid being absorbed by Cell. After Krillin had made his wish, she had disappeared and she hadn't wreaked havoc on unsuspecting populations. As long as Krillin was happy, Gohan was happy.
The conversation then did shift to Gohan. Despite his clipped answers when they arrived, Gohan told them about the different subjects he was studying and how far ahead he was. He mentioned the day he spent with the guys his age in the mall. Krillin opened the discussion of whether or not Gohan was still training. The half-Saiyan child grimaced and shook his head. He explained to the fighters that training just held too many memories. Both Yamcha and Krillin could understand, for they grew up training with the deceased Saiyan.
Once again, the talk shifted to a slightly happier topic. Gohan decided to tell them about his mother's pregnancy. Neither male could believe that their friend would have another son, and they couldn't even imagine how Chi Chi had to be handling the thought of mothering the two half-Saiyan children. At least Gohan was a good kid. He told them about his surprise for his mother, and, with that, the two men offered to help Gohan paint the room now that they were there.
By the time they were done, all three of them were covered in paint, so Gohan offered to wash their clothes. Part of his offer, though, was so that his mother wouldn't find out about the surprise when she came back from seeing Grandpa Ox. The boy had laid the clothes out to dry and just waited outside talking and telling stories, and it was probably the most laid back Gohan had felt in a long time.
Chi Chi arrived home soon after, surprised to see her husband's friends there, especially with them all being stripped down to their underwear. She could see Gohan smiling and hear him laughing which made her smile. He had been in better spirits lately, and that relieved the mother. For the longest time, she didn't know what would happen with him. Gohan was so independent, but he had been even more withdrawn, and then one day he started opening up just a little bit more and actually looking to her for comfort. All she could think was that maybe he had been lonely. Even though she was used to that loneliness, it was hitting her much harder since Goku had died again and decided to stay dead.
She approached the group with her arms crossed and a sardonic grin on her face. Gohan looked up at her and blinked before smiling. "Hey, mom. How was Grandpa's?"
"Fine," she replied sweetly. "Care to explain why the three of you are sitting outside practically naked?"
Yamcha chuckled and shook his head. "Sorry, Chi Chi," he offered. "We were kind of fooling around and got ourselves dirty. We're just waiting for the clothes to dry."
A light laugh escaped the woman. "Of course," she murmured. "Well, I'm going to get started on dinner. Once the clothes are dry, why don't the two of you join us for dinner?"
"Sounds like a plan," Krillin said, happy to see that the woman looked so well given her condition. She did seem tired, but that was to be expected. "Thank you."
"No, thank you," the mother replied cryptically. Krillin was taken aback by the gratitude. He couldn't help but wonder what Chi Chi was thanking him for.
Later, Chi Chi entered the living room to find Gohan asleep on the couch while watching a movie. He looked so young and innocent and peaceful. She didn't want to wake him, so she covered him with a blanket. Gohan stirred slightly, turning to his side and curling up cuddling the blanket. It was moments like these that made Chi Chi feel lighter, these child-like moments that Gohan sometimes had. It was those moments where she pretended she hadn't missed so much of his life.
Once that thought entered her mind, she knew she'd be reflecting. It wasn't Gohan's fault, all that he went through. She had wanted to keep him away from that life for those very reasons. It wasn't fully that she was against training, but those life or death battles…they had taken too much away from them.
She remembered the boy with the monkey tail she fell in love with all those years ago, and she had known his curse. Goku had gone against an entire army and a demon king, nearly getting himself killed at the twenty-third World Martial Arts Tournament before they were even married. He was strong, but he was also human…uh, Saiyan, actually. Point was he could die, and that was proven when his brother had shown up.
Before Gohan was kidnapped by Piccolo for training, Chi Chi had made Goku promise to let Gohan focus on his studies. She had made a lot of snarky claims putting down the fighters, but she needed to get her point across. The mother wanted her son to have a normal life and childhood, a better one, but that didn't happen.
If anything, Gohan's childhood was crazier and more dangerous than Goku's.
Gohan was a lot like Goku, very strong and kind. He loved nature and liked to go out and wander in the woods from time to time. Where he was similar to Goku, though, his mind was not. He was more fearful when he was a child, and as he got older he knew what the stakes were in everything. Goku was carefree and loved to fight. Gohan loved to train, but having to fight for the sake of the world was no more than a necessity to him.
She couldn't believe her husband had put such a weight on their boy's shoulders at the Cell Games.
As she continued to think of what Gohan must have seen all those years, Chi Chi was becoming more emotionally drained. She decided it was probably best that she get some rest as well before she fell too far down the hole and would remain awake all night. Standing, she moved to stroke Gohan's hair to remove it from his face. Her son sighed dreamily and pressed himself deeper into the couch. Though it lightened her heart, she was still struggling to sleep that night, her mind picturing horrible things that might be affecting her son.
She wished there was more she could do for him.
Chi Chi wasn't the only one struggling to sleep that night. A certain bald human was also tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable, but his mind just wouldn't settle down. Krillin kept thinking about Chi Chi and Gohan, all that they must be dealing with and feeling. He had been with Gohan in every battle they had faced together, and it had been traumatizing for him as an adult. He wondered if Gohan was really doing okay or if he was just excellent at masking how he felt. And Chi Chi, she acted like nothing was wrong, but she had to be feeling pressure being pregnant again. She would be raising two kids alone. Krillin knew Gohan would help make things easier for his mother. He was a good kid like that. This was just all wrong, and Krillin wished that his friend hadn't made the decision that set all of this in motion.
Goku really should have come back.
Well, he was fully awake now, not that he had fallen asleep to begin with. Maybe he just needed to work off some of this extra energy he seemed to have. He quietly descended the stairs so that he wouldn't wake Master Roshi. Maybe the hermit was awake, though, for Krillin could hear the sounds and see the light coming from the T.V.
Imagine his surprise when he found Eighteen sitting there in the living room.
"Why is it that there's never anything good on in the middle of the night?" she droned, clearly irritated as she continued to skip through channels.
Krillin chuckled at that. "Because most people are asleep at this hour."
"Disappointing," Eighteen sighed. "I hardly sleep."
The statement made Krillin frown and sigh. Eighteen had recently confided in him that both her and her brother had been kidnapped as children by Dr. Gero and no one ever came looking for them because they were little delinquents. Raised by the evil doctor who only saw them as subjects, Eighteen had a strong dislike for scientists. Because of the transformation, she hardly needed to eat or sleep, though she did need to keep hydrated. Krillin felt bad for the android, or cyborg technically as Bulma had called her once, especially when she refused to tell Krillin what her real name had been.
"You do, however," she remarked, cutting through his thoughts. "Why are you awake?"
Krillin sighed and shook his head. "Just a lot on my mind," he answered taking a seat beside here. "Do you come here at night often? How do you even get in when we lock the door?"
Eighteen smirked. "That lock has been broken for a while now." The human shook his head, glad that none of their old enemies knew that little fact. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he responded a little too quickly. Eighteen's eyes narrowed. She did not look convinced. Another sigh escaped Krillin as he added, "Just worried about Gohan and Chi Chi. I went to see them today and they seemed fine, but I could tell that something was off. I also learned that Chi Chi is pregnant with hers and Goku's second child."
Eighteen glanced over at Krillin and she could tell that this news was weighing heavily on him. She wouldn't pretend that she understood grief or being pregnant, but she had to empathize with the woman. Funny, considering that she had at one point planned to eliminate Goku along with her brother and Sixteen. Hearing Krillin talk about his and the Saiyan's adventures as children, though, changed her outlook. If her boyfriend missed the Saiyan then it must be worse for his family, she had to imagine.
A thought occurred to her. She had nothing better to do the next day. Maybe she could pay the family a visit. She did know where their house was, after all. Perhaps if she could speak with the woman, as practically a stranger, she'd get more information out of the woman than a friend of Goku's would get, and maybe that would help put Krillin's mind at ease.
The next day, Eighteen did just that, touching down among the trees to conceal herself for a moment. She didn't know how the boy or his mother would react to seeing her. The two were outside eating lunch and talking, though mostly it was Gohan telling his mother what he had been studying and the woman listening intently with a sullen smile on her face. Even the android could tell the woman was struggling. She looked much more exhausted than Krillin had let on. Maybe she had not been sleeping well, either.
After a time of observing the two, Eighteen decided to make her presence known, and Gohan was immediately on the defensive, ready to protect his mother. Gohan wasn't going to take any chances, even if Krillin was dating the woman. She was seeking them out without their friend, and Gohan wasn't fully sure if she could be trusted around his mother or unborn brother or sister.
He was disarmed when Eighteen flashed him a smile and said, "Relax, kid. I come in peace," in a monotone voice. She looked over to the other woman, her expression serious. "Krillin told me about the baby," she explained. "He was worried about you both."
Gohan fell out of his defensive stance, gaping at the woman, and Chi Chi relaxed instantly before smiling. "Why don't I make us some tea?" Chi Chi offered, happy for the company. Eighteen seemed wary, but she nodded and followed Chi Chi into the house. Gohan watched them enter still disbelieving, but he decided that maybe it was best to not question it. Still, he couldn't shake his distrust. The women didn't need that.
He decided that it was time to go for one of his long walks.
The two women were talking about everything going on with the family. Chi Chi confided quite a bit in Eighteen before the night was over finding it very easy to talk to the woman. Her sarcastic humor did quite a bit to raise Chi Chi's spirits. It was kind of nice speaking to someone who hadn't been a long-time friend of her husband. There were many things she couldn't day to them, like how she had been slightly angry at Goku for pitting Gohan against Cell or that, though she loved him, she was a bit bitter that he refused to return to them. She had this feeling that most of them would remind her that it was what Goku wanted or simply say, "Yeah, that's Goku for you." To be honest, those lines were the last thing she wanted to hear.
But Eighteen didn't think like that. She understood Chi Chi's anger. Throughout her life, she had been an angry person as well only just finding peace following Cell's defeat. Where she was thankful that Cell had been dealt with, she could understand the mother wanting to protect her young son from that kind of stress and horror. If she and her brother had had that as children, maybe they wouldn't have ended up with Gero and this whole mess could have been avoided.
Gohan returned soon after from his walk to see the house still intact and could hear his mother and Eighteen talking, though he hardly could tell what they were saying. Still, he was surprised that the two had become friendly in so short a time and realized that this Eighteen was much different from the one Future Trunks had warned them to be wary. Accepting this, Gohan started to feel better about Seventeen and Eighteen being free. Smiling, he told himself that Krillin had made the right decision.