Summary: Goku learns about anatomy and why he's different from humans in another way besides his tail. Bulma freaks out, educates the weird monkey kid that she picked up, and starts asking about what kind of experiments must have been done on him to make him this way.
Goku is not pleased.
Bulma smiled down at the boy that was currently running around the Capsule House She couldn't believe how easy it was to convince him to come along. He'd be a wonderful bodyguard on their journey...
She was left wondering, though, about the boy's parents. What kind of parents let their son run around with a tail? If his grandfather was dead, then why weren't they with him now? She wondered vaguely if he was thinking about them.
Bulma laughed as Goku jumped away from the television. He quickly became enamored with the device, whispering something about a scouter.
"Ugh..." She noticed a foul stench and followed her nose to find the source. "Goku, you stink! You need a bath!"
"... What's a bath?"
Bulma felt her stomach churn. "Kid, I can't believe you're really asking."
"Well, I don't know what that is." Bulma's mind had a small wave of fuzziness pass through it as she watched Goku climb onto the couch.
"I... I guess I'll have to show you."
Bulma shivered as her soapy hands ran through Goku's hair. There was so much dirt and grit in his hair, and he was not bothered by it. He did, however, enjoy Bulma's fingers in his hair. He babbled on like a little kid about how his grandfather would pet his hair and massage his head. As Bulma handed him a sponge for his front, Goku rubbed the sponge on his stomach while Bulma washed his back and-
"What? Did you really attach this fake tail to your butt?!"
Goku looked up at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Bulma felt the furriness of the tail, wrapped her fingers around it, and gripped it tightly. She pulled as hard as she could, and she didn't really get why Goku started crying out in pain. Goku reached out to the edge of the bathtub, gripping it with small fingers. His eyes were clenched in pain, prompting Bulma to let go of the tail.
"Ugh..." Goku turned to her and frowned. "I can wash my own back." The brush that Bulma was using was snatched from her grasp by the now-moving tail, which began to move the sponge brush across Goku's back.
"Like this, Bulma?"
She screamed.
"Bulma, can we eat after my bath?"
"Go find your own food, wild boy! This is too much for me!"
The next morning, Goku was blinking as he began to wake up. The sun was bright and it stung his eyes. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he looked around and was pleased to see that Bulma was there.
'So yesterday really did happen.'
He had been hesitant to go to sleep last night, but his body was used to sleeping before the Moon came out. He didn't want to wake up in the morning and see that he was still alone in his house. No stranger came to save him from his loneliness, no one took him away from his safe place in the mountains; those things sounded like they came from the fairy tales that Grandpa had told him. Bulma had seemed much like a fairy anyway, with her machines that came out of capsules and her houses that came from those very same things. What shocked him so much was that she so openly brought him along and despite the annoyance in her voice, she still took time to explain so many things to him.
That, and the fact that she really was surprised by his tail. He wondered how she'd act when he told her about the Red Moon, which he had spotted while on his hunt the night before.
Goku sat up and walked over to where Bulma slept. He pet her hair. It was a different color, but it felt like spiderweb in his fingers. It was so delicate and beautiful, the color of a waterfall. He let his fingers comb through part of it, and he wished that she would stroke his hair like she did yesterday when she gave him a bath, groom him like Pisuno and Azuki did when he visited them in the trees.
He looked down, then, to between her legs. He already saw that she had no tail, but was she like him? She was completely flat between her legs, it looked like. When he laid his head down between her legs, he had been wondering if it felt like Gohan's crotch. There was no softness at all, which was actually upsetting. He turned around and felt the same spot that he had laid on, wondering of its smoothness.
Then... she was just a girl. He pulled off her underwear delicately, and she really was a girl.
"Or her balls are gone for just a while," he said to the sleepy room, and he felt Bulma shift beneath him, blinking her eyes open. She hummed in confusion.
"What?"
"Your balls are gone."
Bulma shrieked. "What?!" She scrambled off of the bed with her eyes wide and worried. She ran to the bag where she had placed her two Dragon Balls and, to Goku's surprise, was immediately calmed.
"What are you talking about ? They're right here."
Goku shook his head. What kind of person didn't know what was going on with their body?
"No, between your legs. They're gone."
Bulma became an interesting shade of red, almost like the apples on the apple tree by the mountain river. Her mouth had opened and she look like a fish. "How- Why do you think I'd even have those!? I told you, I'm a girl!"
"But I'm a girl too."
Bulma's eyebrows furrowed. "No, you're a boy! I gave you a bath last night! Those are definitely a boy's parts!" She felt down her pyjamas and her eyes grew wide at the feeling - or the lack of feeling, really - of one of her garments not being there.
Goku blinked up at her. He reached for the tie on his dogi and began pull down his pants, much to the dislike of Bulma. He heard her protesting, but he ignored her and pulled down his underwear too. He heard Bulma stop talking and he looked up to see her staring at him.
"Wh... What happened to you, Son-kun?"
Goku shrugged his shoulders. "It happens whenever the Moon turns red." He looked down and started to pull up his clothes again. "I thought... That doesn't happen to you at all?"
"No." Bulma came close to him and bent down a bit, an attempt to catch his eyes. "Do you know why it happens? There weren't any crazy experiments done on you, were there?" She was smiling like it was some kind of joke.
"... I think there were surgeries. It was a long time ago," Goku explained. "I just remember that it hurt a lot."
Arms wrapped around him and he was trapped in the same kind of embrace that his grandfather would wrap him up in when he would get tired or sad. Bulma's fingers came up and threaded through his hair, and he rested his forehead on her shoulder, smelling her. She smelt of the manju buns that Gohan would get for him sometimes when he would travel. She was warm and safe, hands gently grooming Goku in her own human way. Goku felt his chest rumbling more than he heard it, and he turned his head to face Bulma.
Her hair smelt nice. In the same way that he remembered one of his tutors doing so long ago, he pressed a kiss to her cheek.
"Thank you."
Bulma pulled away, looking down at him strangely. Her fingers brushed over her cheek where Goku had kissed her.
"W-Why did you just... kiss me?"
Goku blinked up at her. "Do people not do that?"
"Well, what did it mean?" Bulma huffed. Her hands made their way to her hips, and her cheeks were pink.
"It's how friends stay connected," Goku pouted. He and his tutors, at least one that he remembered, did so when he was an infant. "Grandpa let me kiss his cheeks. Is that bad?"
Bulma sighed and shook her head. "No. It's not, but I haven't known you long enough. Just... Usually, kisses like that are with your family. Other kisses are just with your girlfriend."
"A girl-friend?"
Bulma smiled. "Or boyfriend. I don't care. But that's the person you want to be with forever." Goku saw her cheeks turn pinker and her eyes seemed to be unfocused, like she was looking somewhere beyond Goku's reach, even her own reach. The young woman made her way to the small kitchen and began to brew the dark brown drink that had tasted so horrible when Goku had tried it.
"Forever..."
Bulma hummed and began to talk of things called "dates" and "weddings." Goku listened as she talked about being together with someone that would take care of her, that she would take care of, and they would never feel lonely. It sounded like having a mate more than anything... But his mates were dead. He didn't need anyone else to make him feel the same way that they did.
He hadn't felt lonely with his brother and mate... He felt cared for and praised, and when he was apart from them, when that bond that he had with them finally disappeared... There had been no ceremony to it. The day that he had forgotten who he was, what "Kakarotto" meant, he had forgotten their names, and his heart no longer remembered the bond. He only felt the ache of emptiness.
Why should he try to replace that special feeling?
"I'm going outside t' exercise! Bulma, you should hurry up an' get ready!"
"You should call me 'Bulma-san'!"
Goku stretched and practiced his kata in morning sunlight. He let the sun warm him, a small purring noise still rumbling deep in his chest. Once he felt the small beginning of sweat atop his brow, he ran over to one of the large boulders outside. He clasped to it, letting out a deep breath. Gritting his teeth, Goku began to crush it in his embrace.
The thought of what Bulma had said was in his head. She was looking for a mate, then. Would that mate be like how his mates or his own progenitors were? Would Bulma want that kind of life bond? Was she looking for something temporary, like so many other people that he had known? Many of the other infants in his cartload were of temporary mate bonds, and they were never saddened by their progenitors' separations. If anything, they were encouraged by that, to be strong without another person to depend on.
His knuckles were turning white.
"That's the person you want to be with forever."
He didn't realize that he would take Bulma's words to heart so quickly. He was starting to care about her.
The shattering of the stone left him feeling empty and drained.
"Hmm!" He ran over to another boulder, eager to crush something else. This time, he would feel better!
"Whoa! Hey, let me go!"
Goku jumped back, letting go of the boulder. "What the Hell?!"
Who knew a sea turtle would lead to such strange events happening?
Author Note: 12.26.2015
Since I posted the last chapter, I reread a ton of Dragonball, and I decided that Goku is too precious not to torture to the max. I am sorry. It will happen later, don't worry.