(A/N: At this point I'm done trying to hit deadlines all the time; I've realised that it forces me to write, which in turn makes the quality of the story worsen. If I get a case of writer's block, I postpone the writing for at least a few hours to a day in order to come up with a good storyline. Sorry folks, I've not had much time during the past 2 weeks; I recently got my braces put in and have been doing mock exams on and off. I'd like to say I'll be able to grind out of stuff during Easter, but my finals come up in a week or so after the holidays end, and they go on for a fair few weeks. Anyway, I've also realised that nobody really cares about author's notes, so I'll move swiftly on to the story. Enjoy!)

Chapter 13: Deeply Rooted Instincts

Goku pounded on the ground ferociously with the base of his fists, letting the salty tears of his sorrows fall to the now sodden dirt like a waterfall of newfound emotion. Somehow he'd managed to bottle up his feelings in the halls of his old home, and now he was letting loose a mountain of upset and rage, channelling it into the earth.

Why had this happened? He thought that he'd done a good job at being a family man after Majin Buu, and his sons certainly thought so. Gohan had taken a bit of convincing, as his adolescence had been endured without his father, and that was sure to have an effect on the boy at the time. It really hadn't been his fault either. He had been forced to stay in Otherworld because he'd inadvertently killed North Kai, and it was only due to the intervention of the hierup Kais that he'd even been allowed the one day back; Majin Buu almost being a blessing in the sense that he'd been allowed to come back to life in full. Not in any other way though.

Clutching at the dirt with clenched teeth, Goku looked up to the sky and asked himself silently if he actually deserved it: all this chaos. Had he really been that neglectful? Did Chi Chi have a good point? Were his inherent Saiyan instincts getting in the way of being a good husband/father?

The multiverse saviour stood up, fresh tears shimmering on his cheek, basking in the rays of the sun. Bottling his emotions up again, his sorrowful frown morphed into an expressionless gaze.

'No Saiyan cries like this,' he scolded himself. 'Pathetic. And I call myself the universe's strongest warrior.'

Within a few moments, Goku found himself stood outside the now-familiar location, and he entered with one thought plastered in his mind.

While Bulma wasn't aware of it, and Goku was pretty sure Vegeta's senses hadn't clued him into the fact yet, Goku had taken frequent trips to the Gravity Room at Capsule Corp whenever something had cocked up in his life, or even when Chi Chi refused him in the evenings, so by now he'd visited frequently enough that he knew how to use the contraption about as well as Bulma and Mr Briefs did themselves. Sure, hand Goku a mobile phone and he'd be clueless, but he was able to learn how to operate things well enough that he could figure out how to use the room's controls properly after enough training in there.

'Time for some punishment,' he thought grimly, cranking up the gravity to 750x and putting extra weights on too, while of course staying in base form. He would emerge from this room completely battered, and he wasn't going to allow his body the easy way out; Senzu beans and regeneration chambers were off the table for this undeserving Saiyan, at least in his eyes.

Not really keeping track of the time, the Saiyan prodigy began to train for all it was worth, launching multiple series of attacks in quick succession at the onslaught of mechanical obstacles, smirking darkly all the while. This was going to be one gruelling training session, and for once he was willingly going to let his instincts relish in the brutal moment.

Cabba sighed. Master Vegeta had chosen to avoid the gravity room again today, with the excuse of something along the lines of 'that oaf Kakarot going off the rails', whoever Kakarot was and however that impacted either of them. Personally he thought it had something to do with Cabba's slow progress, the thought of which made the elite look down shamefully.

While Capsule Corporation was indeed impressive, and much more advanced than any business in Sadala's technology industry, it wasn't exactly a funhouse for a Saiyan above about 10. Not only that, but Cabba was itching to explore Earth culture. Vados had previously informed him that a similar copy of the planet had been placed in Universe 6 by a giant golden dragon, somehow, and Cabba saw this planet as a good stepping stone for maybe learning how to establish communications between colonies. After all, a decent chunk of Universe 6 had plummeted into peril at the hands of Frost's machinations; now that the tyrant's grip had slipped it had only become more apparent how his evil schemes had actually caused significant damage.

'Speaking of Frost,' Cabba thought whilst flying through the sky, 'What happened to him after we were brought back? He hasn't shown up on any planet at all since the tournament.'

Deciding that there were more important things to worry about, Cabba set his sights back onto venturing out for the day.

'I wonder if Kale wants to come out with me,' he mused. 'Caulifla's too high maintenance to trust in a place with a bunch of humans, who I think she doesn't like at all. I could also do without the nagging comments.'

Feeling out Kale's ki, he was confused to find both hers and Caulifla's seated in some random location far from Capsule Corp. While the Saiyan elite wasn't enthused by the idea of having to converse with Caulifla, he sucked it up and began his flight to the area, wherever it was, and also opting to take a scenic route, possibly to delay meeting the spiky haired one of the two.

Given that Gohan had spent lots of time training with Piccolo as of late, he'd picked up the ability to, much like the Namekian, his father and Vegeta, sense powerful emotions in ki, like sorrow and anger, or even happiness if the feeling was strong enough. Gohan thought it to be quite the staple when the gang returned from the Tournament of Power, and everyone saw the stark contrast in Bulma and Chi Chi's reactions: the former crying out of concern for her beaten up husband, and the latter pretty much attacking her own, even-more-beaten-up husband that was clearly still reeling from his godly back injury. It had been almost comical, and since then Gohan had tried to keep a keen eye on his parents' relationship; more recently putting the ki ability to use and discovering things he wished he hadn't.

Unfortunately, he'd noticed a pattern that the two tended to follow day in day out. Not only would his father be awake for longer than his wife, the mornings would almost always begin with the former leaving, if not that then Chi Chi would be angry, and presumably shouting, at Goku. There wouldn't be much interaction between the two until the evening where Goku would return from training and actually would appear to be hesitant to go inside, his ki hovering just outside the house. Every day.

The only moment in which there would be some positive interaction would be in the late evening, and Gohan amusedly remarked that it was highly likely to be mealtime. Following that, his father would either sleep in his old room, or would leave the house for the evening entirely. The first time he left, he had stayed in a location that was completely different to the following nights, though that wasn't much of a bother compared to the prospect of the situation itself.

Without fail, the cycle would repeat as each day passed. Until last night.

What exactly had coerced Goku into flipping out the way he did, Gohan didn't know, so he had spent most of the hours gone by since to watch even closer. Gohan was worried, and more for his father than his mother, considering how he had been acting strangely recently. What he did know was that his mother was positively terrified of his explosion of anger, and that this morning Goku had been sad, then furious, then sad, then nothing, while his wife had been terrified again, followed be an extremely short burst of happiness, followed by sadness. What exactly was wrong?

"Hey Videl hon, do you think it would be a good idea to take Pan up to the lookout with me today?" Gohan called out to his wife, who was stood in the kitchen tending to a hovering, giggling Pan.

Turning around, she faced Gohan's smiling face in the hallway of the Son/Satan residence. "I think that's a wonderful idea Gohan. She's missed you since you've started training again. Even if she's only a baby, I can see how much she's attached to you."

Gohan frowned. "Have I really been that distant? Man, I'm sorry Videl, and you too Pan," he cooed at the little girl, who responded by laughing joyfully and latching herself on her father's arm. Laughing along with her, Gohan waved at Videl before exiting the mansion and taking flight towards the lookout.

Blood trailed the floor, and a shadowed figure stood over the bodies with a grimace, the pointed needles sticking out from his wicked tail and pronged wrists. Apparently, these weaklings had served Frieza, and wouldn't let him on the ship, despite his indignance and mentioning of how he was acquainted with the fellow megalomaniac.

Frost stood in waiting for his white multiversal counterpart to emerge. It had been rough for the Arcosian ever since the Tournament of Destroyers, and while the revelation of the Tournament of Power had made most forget about him for a while, the fact of the matter was that he was on his entire universe's hit list.

Speaking of that tournament, it had been that damned monkey who had apparently asked the victor to wish back the erased universes. Son Goku, the one who Frost had realised was hated by Frieza, similar to how he himself despised Vegeta. The two seemed to share the hatred towards the tailed apes, though in recent times tails had sort of died out in his universe.

Interrupting his trail of thought, a wicked laughing sounded from further back down the hallway of Freiza's ship. Frost instantly recognised it as belonging to Frieza, and this was confirmed when the golden, humanoid lizard turned the corner from further back.

"I wonder what changed between now and your speech in which you said you'd never forgive me for colluding with you and then betraying you," gloated a voice that dripped with sarcasm. As Frost had expected, he had shown little to no regard for the countless ended lives in the halls around him.

Frost was quick to respond, having been given plenty of time to think over recent events. "It was merely a matter of universal survival. Now that we are all back, I believe that there is some…..cooperation between us that I would like to rekindle. We share a common hatred for a particular species of inferior weaklings, and I request your assistance in quelling an enemy."

Much to the blue Arcosian's dismay, a condescending grunt was emitted from Frieza, followed up with a sneering remark. "Need I remind you that I don't work with weaklings?"

Oh, so maybe there was a possibility to work with him after all. Frost let out a small chuckle. "So….something more like this?"

With that, he grit his teeth and began to power up, skipping the Saiyan-esque roaring. Not long after, his power exploded, and Frieza was awed to find the second Golden Arcosian right in front of him.

"Go on….."

There, that was it. In a few short hours, Goku had managed to destroy all of the machines in the gravity room, though sustaining some rather hefty damage himself. Bruised and ragged, Goku dragged himself from the gravity chamber, his footsteps leaving behind a trail of blood in their wake. Unfaltering, he trekked back to the Capsule house, given the short distance between the two locations.

This was what he'd asked for, after all. Some tough training that would numb his senses for a while, distract him from his bad mood. While it would take a while for him to heal back to normal without Dende or a senzu bean, Saiyan regeneration was vastly superior to that of humans, and it would take maybe a few hours at best to recover, given that there was no fatal injury; only flesh wounds and large bruisings.

In all honesty, the thing he was most concerned about was not anyone's reaction to his current condition, but more how the girls would react to the idea of getting blood everywhere in the house.

Stepping in through the door, which was oddly less secure than the bathroom one, Goku decided to at least allow himself to wash. He'd probably get the opportunity to reminisce again, and think about how he had ended up in this situation in the span of a few short days.

He'd done a quick ki scan before walking in, and found that only Caulifla was present, though Kale's whereabouts didn't concern him; she was smart enough to keep out of trouble. He also inwardly relaxed a little because Caulifla didn't really care much about attire, so he could probably just waltz in and she'd barely even glance at his bloodied form.

He was wrong.

"Fucking hell, what happened to you? You look like you've been taken on by a Beerus and Champa tag team," Caulifla deadpanned, eyes wide. "I mean seriously, what did you even get up to?"

"Training."

Caulifla frowned, and watched the oddly silent Goku as he placed two mysterious objects into the kitchen; one metal case that probably had something food-based in it, and a weird orange glowing orb. She was ask him about it later, opting to question him on more important things first. "So what happened to training me then? You seemed willing enough earlier, why the sudden change?"

Goku turned around, his onyx eyes burning into that back of hers, giving off an eerie sense of emptiness. Probably his wife's doing, or whatever she was to him now.

"Did Chi Chi rip you a new one just because you aren't bending to her every request? What a pathetic species she belongs to," Caulifla sneered, unknowingly inflicting more pain to Goku by bringing her up.

Eyes hardening, Goku forced out a short sentence: "She's not my problem anymore."

'Oooooh…..' Caulifla thought, all questions answered. So that was why he came back all bloody, he'd probably buried the hatchet with the woman and tried to drown it out by training. Well, at least she thought he did, with there being no other reasonable explanation. At least he hadn't gone insane and gone to fight someone in a kamikaze attack, like any other Saiyan would if he or she lost their mate. Perhaps this lack of a bond between them was a stroke of luck after all.

"Hmph," was all she offered out loud, and the conversation seemed to end there after Goku walked into the bathroom and locked the door.

Not too long afterwards, Caulifla, who had waited patiently for him to come out so she could ask him about that mysterious ball, became slightly concerned by the fact that the Earth-bred Saiyan was still in the shower.

The problem was not all that severe however, though it might have served for some embarrassment on Goku's side, for he had realised that there were no towels in the bathroom remaining. Seriously, for all the safety measures Bulma had taken to secure the bathroom of all places, she had overlooked one of the things that might need to be present in the there for said measures to be effective, at least in keeping the person in the room.

'Well, here goes nothing,' he thought to himself. The long shower had given him the opportunity to get out of his funk, at least for now, forgetting about what had happened earlier that day. He hesitated for a moment, before unlocking the door successfully this time, and emitting a small "Fuck!" when the cold air hit the skin that had grown used to the hot water in the shower. Luckily for him, he had experience with Capsule houses before, though not quite ones as lavish that this one. Nevertheless, he knew that Bulma had mandatory basic clothing stored in each bedroom.

"What's the matter with you now?" came a accusing voice from down the hallway.

'Shit, I forgot about her,' Goku thought. "Nothing, just don't look as I go past," he replied in a monotone voice.

"Why, what the hell could you possibly have done no-" Caulifla started to say, before being cut off by getting an eyeful of Goku's 'physique'. She took a moment to process what she was looking at, and quickly did a 180 and looked away, pressing a hand to her nose that would otherwise have done a Master Roshi, and squeezing her eyes shut. Luckily, it seemed that Goku hadn't noticed the ordeal, as he moved past her normally.

'Sweet Kai, he's hung!' she marvelled, her face flushing a little. That was something to behold with pride if you lived on Sadala; she'd never seen a male so blessed before! Then again, she'd never really been impressed with any of the men that had come to her before anyway.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she got up from her seat in the living room and turned around the peek at the man again. This time though, he was turned around and putting on some beige trousers from one of the cupboards in the spare bedroom that nobody used, and she instead saw his back, and one thing about it got her attention.

Lining his spine from top to bottom was a giant white streak of scar tissue, running down the vertebrate bones, and there were streaks of white that branched off from it, presumably cause by the force of whatever did the initial damage. Whatever injury that caused something that severe must have been massive, and Caulifla did not envy Goku in that moment.

Under her breath, she softly whispered to herself. "What the fuck…...that's insane….."

Unfortunately for her, the owner of the scar heard this, and jumped slightly at her words. "Woah, didn't I say to not look? This counts too Cauli, ya know," he murmured, though in reality he wasn't as bothered now since he had his lower half covered.

"What's so fascinating about my back, anyway?" Goku teased. Caulifla didn't respond straight away, choosing instead to run her index finger down the scar, mesmerised by the magnitude of the damage. This sent a shiver down Goku's spine, making him pause for a moment

Looking over his shoulder, he saw the female Saiyan gazing at a certain spot on the middle of his back, and he racked his brain, trying to figure out what exactly would be there that had caught her attention.

Caulifla was herself taken aback by what she was looking at. "How did you get this one? It looks really nasty," she asked, still staring at it with wide eyes.

Finally Goku picked up on it, and all of a sudden he remembered why Caulifla would be staring so much.

"Oh yeaaaah, now I remember," he began. "It was when I was fighting Jiren in the tournament." Caulifla looked astonished. "How the hell did you win the tournament with that kind of injury? Unless you were the last ones to fight I guess. You never actually said how you won." She looked confused for a moment before anger shone in her eyes

Shaking his head slightly, Goku turned around to look at her. "No, it wasn't Jiren that hit me, my body did that to itself." At her look of horror, Goku continued, "I mastered Ultra Instinct, and I actually beat Jiren. I was seconds away from being the victor, but my body couldn't take the strain of breaking my limits for so long, so my back snapped under the pressure."

To say the look on Caulifla's face was one of shock would be an understatement. Goku wasn't finished though, and she could tell, so she took a seat on the guest bed while he continued his explanation.

"Actually it was Frieza who shot me back on the stage after Jiren gathered the strength to knock me off. We thought I was the last one left, but it turns out there were two others remaining. Frieza was still up, and while we thought someone called Android 17 blew himself up as a self-sacrifice earlier on, he actually survived. They held off Jiren and almost beat him too, but Topp from Jiren's team egged him on and Jiren again nearly beat them."

Goku took a breath to collect his thoughts as he was a bit foggy on some of the details, because he was lying on the ground half-dead for most of that particular battle. Caulifla sat, elbows on her knees and resting her head in her v-shaped hands, looking up at him with a amazed glint in her eyes. The male Saiyan chuckled at how the idea of such power turned her from a brazen warrior into an excitable child almost.

"I don't really know how I managed it to be honest, but I got up and saved them from being crushed by his assault by pushing back his energy with the two of them. Frieza and I eliminated ourselves so we could take Jiren down with us. So I guess you could say 17 won, but because of me and Frieza, but also because I beat Jiren at his full power before...I don't know."

Caulifla pondered for a moment. "Woah, that's…..pretty awesome. I don't get one bit though. Why is everyone saying that you saved all the universes by wishing them back? I thought the person who won got the wish," she asked, confusion clear in her voice.

Looking back down at the Saiyan, Goku frowned. "Well, I guess it was because he asked for what I wanted instead of what he wanted. He knew that I was the one to basically beat Jiren, so I guess he thought I deserved the wish. As for how he knew what I wanted, I'm pretty sure he could tell after I revealed to him beforehand that I never wanted the fate of the multiverse at stake for a fight, as well as how he looked at me when he was asked what wish he wanted. I nodded at him and he made the wish to bring back the universes, not for what he wanted, which I think was something simple like a cruise."

Caulifla looked at Goku as he turned back around to get a top to put on, and was once again exposed to that nasty scar that trailed down his back, which raised another question. "You said you mastered Ultra Instinct or whatever right? Can you show me?" she asked tentatively.

"Aw man, I'd hoped you wouldn't bring it up," Goku responded, scratching the back of his neck in his trademark fashion. "I actually can't do it anymore, and I don't really know why if I'm honest."

Frowning, Caulifla stood up and looked up at the Saiyan, reminded of how much taller he was than her, even though she was at her maximum height that she'd stay at until she grew old. "That sucks, but I suppose that's fine. It just means I have a smaller gap to cross to match you in strength!"

Laughing at her antics, Goku ruffled her hair. "Wishful thinking Cauli, you're still a long way off yet," he teased, in turn eliciting mock outrage from Caulifla. He threw the white shirt and orange and black jacket on, before strolling out of the room, picking up the last senzu bean from the counter in the kitchen and eating it. He didn't feel quite so shit after a bit of socialising, and he wanted to go back in the gravity room.

"Why can't you get that scar healed?" called out Caulifla as she followed him outside. Goku turned around again and cocked his head in thought. "Hmm, I never really thought about it. I was going to go straight to Dende when we got back from the tournament, but….stuff happened and I had a senzu bean instead."

Unconvinced, Caulifla raised her eyebrow. "Stuff? What kind of stuff?"

With a sigh, Goku responded. "Chi Chi got angry at me as soon as we got back, probably something about how my recklessness put the universe in peril, and she smacked me on the back. Even though she's not very strong, well, my back was broken, so I kind of screamed out in pain, so Bulma gave me a senzu bean., even if Chi Chi didn't seem too happy about it."

Caulifla's jaw dropped. "What! She didn't want you to heal up from an injury that bad?! That would have paralysed you!" she yelled, clearly outraged.

Goku expected this sort of reaction, and if he was honest with himself, he sort of agreed. "Well, I always thought being angry was a normal reaction to coming back from something like that, but Bulma cried when she saw Vegeta after we got back. I think she even tackled him with her baby in her arms. Maybe she would have liked me never being able to fight again, or maybe she didn't think that far ahead, but I was pretty sad either way."

'Yikes,' was all Caulifla could come up with as she stared at the man who was now looking down at the floor. 'I know that she was an asshole, but damn…...even I'm not that harsh.'

In an attempt to lift the mood, Goku chuckled emptily. "Not only that, but I knew my chances for 'saving the universe' sex were out of the window!"

"Eww, don't make me think about thinks like that, I don't want to see images of you and her, ugh."

"I'm going to train in the Gravity Room now, you coming?" Goku asked, already walking off to the room in question. Caulifla left no room for hesitation, following immediately. "You remember why I'm here right?" she spoke into thin air.

Half an hour later, both Saiyans had worked into their training routine under 150x gravity and had begun sparring, though not before Goku gave a few pointers.

"Your fighting style is quite cramped because you're a brawler; you don't give yourself enough space to move and it's as though your moves are zoned in to certain areas of the body, kind of like a boxer. My guess is that it's because you've only ever faced people that fight in the same way, and you've gotten stuck into the same style, and this won't work on everyone. When we spar, try to use your senses to predict what move I'm going to do next, and adapt by having your guard up from all approaches. While it's not a good idea to rebuild your entire style, you should probably broaden your movements and keep an open mind."

Caulifla frowned in concentration. "That's a lot to remember in one go, but I'll give it a shot."

Goku took the initiative to begin with, launching himself at Caulifla with an uppercut, which Caulifla parried with her left arm. She launched her own attack with a series of hits aimed for Goku's chest, all of which were deflected, and this locked the two in a volley of jabs and blocks. That was until Goku, who was seeking to force Caulifla to adapt to all sorts of attacks, used Instant Transmission to get behind her and aimed a kick. It worked, and this sent the female Saiyan spiralling out of control, though she halted herself at launched back at him, bursting into Super Saiyan as she did so. Goku hadn't expected this, and raised his arms to block, and was surprised when she bailed and instead ducked and got a right hook in his side.

This didn't faze Goku however, and he surrounded himself in a white aura (though not turning Super Saiyan), while he tried to return fire, again keeping them in a deadlock. Caulifla paid close attention to any openings she found, and used a perfect hole in his guard to hit him lightly on the shoulder to throw him off. She thought she had him right where she wanted him, but it seemed that he had faked her out, as he disappeared from sight.

In a split second, Caulifla had sensed a disturbance in the air behind her, and turned around just in time to block a punch that had been sent her way. Goku smirked and backed off for a second. "Nice job! You seem to be adapting quicker than I thought. Let's kick this up a notch!" he yelled, transforming into a Super Saiyan.

Caulifla struggled to keep up with his new assault, so she shot up to Super Saiyan 2, trading punches and kicks, slowly gaining the upper hand as she worked into her Super Saiyan 2 strength.

This continued for a fair few minutes, possibly even longer; they lost track of time as they both tried to wear each other down in a battle of attrition, a battle that Goku had in his favour. He knew this, and decided to finish off the fight by initiating a beam struggle, jumping into Super Saiyan 2 also.

"KAAAAA...MEEEE," he began. Caulifla, instantly recognising the signature move, began to charge her own. It was about time she tried the move herself, in her opinion. She smirked as she watched his blue orb of light begin to expand.

"KAAAAA...MEEEE"

Goku's eyes widened, but continued nevertheless. "HAAAAA...MEEEE"

"HAAAAA...MEEEE"

"HAAAAAAAA!" They both screamed the word in unison, their roars almost shaking the very ground beneath them.

With power to destroy the Earth, the two beams collided, violently trying to engulf one another with a furious wrath. Sensing that this would not end soon unless one of them picked up the power a bit, Caulifla yelled loudly, tapping into a new power that she had only experienced a couple of times.

Her electrifying, golden hair began to grow longer, it's length increasing and increasing until it settled past her waist, with an explosion of power that tipped the scales in her favour, pushing the meeting point of their beams further away from her.

Too wrapped up in the adrenaline of the fight, Goku picked up only the increase in power instead of the transformation, and his eyes widened as he sensed that their struggle was beginning to take it's toll on the building.

Eyes squinting shut in concentration, Goku calmed himself, before his power level vanished as he ascended to Super Saiyan God and tried a technique that he had seen only a handful of times before.

Caulifla was sure she was going to win their struggle, when all of a sudden the pressure in her hands dissipated and the overwhelming blue light vanished, revealing a panting Goku with his eyes closed.

Goku smiled, exhaling and dropping down to Super Saiyan again. It worked. He had seen Lord Beerus cancel out energy attacks in his first fight as a god, and he had prayed to the gods, which ironically included him at that moment, that his imitation of the move would work.

It had seemed so, and the pressure had faded, so he opened his eyes. He was not ready for what he saw.

There, in front of him, was a Super Saiyan 3 Caulifla, blinking at him in confusion. Two thoughts entered his mind, and he voiced the first, running up to her and marvelling at her long, golden hair.

"Wow! Cauli, you went Super Saiyan 3 ! That's awesome! You're even better than I thought!"

Cocking her head for a moment, Caulifla wondered why it was only now that he caught her up on her transformation, until she realised that he hadn't exactly been properly conscious at the time…

"See? I told you that I was gonna catch up! I'm not a god yet, but this is a big step!"

Goku sighed with a smile on his face. "It sure is." His second thought hadn't truly registered yet, until he looked back at her beaming face, clearly enthused by his appraisal. Taking a good look at the bright gold, flowing hair that accentuated her features, he noticed something.

'She looks…'

He was interrupted when the female Saiyan went to punch him on the shoulder, only for her to trip. She braced for impact and closed her eyes, only to feel and oddly softer landing when she fell. Opening her eyes, he realised that Goku had put himself under her to cushion her fall. He offered an explanation. "If you fell flat on your face at 150x gravity, you'd have broken your nose." he spoke. He gulped, and his pheromone gears started turning, and unbeknownst to him, so did Caulifla's.

Goku let out a shaky breath. "Huh-hey, you uh, kept your eyebrows," he stammered, leaning in closer and brushing a yellow spike of hair out of the way to reveal one of said eyebrows. Caulifla flushed, and looked downwards to see the man's face tinted slightly red, and his eyes clouded over. 'What's he doing?' she asked herself.

Almost stuck in a trance, Caulifla locked eyes with Goku, and the two stared at one another before one of them, they didn't really register who, began to close the distance.

Both Saiyans had gotten to the point where there was no turning back now, even for someone as resistant as Goku; their deprived bodies demanded this.

Slowly, their lips closed in for the kill, before the tension between them snapped and they crushed against each other, and it all spiralled out of control for them after that

(A/N: Yes ok, I'm sorry, I know, I'm an evil bastard for not updating for almost 3 weeks, and then teasing you with this ending. If you're clicking on here by the notification I updated, then you'd see that it's VERY early in the morning for me, and I'm not in the right frame of mind to be writing a lemon at the moment. Maybe tomorrow, maybe in a few days time, I don't know. Just to let you know, the entirety of the next chapter will be a lemon, so either that will make it short and I'll upload quicker, or- actually yeah it'll just be out quicker but shorter. Also, plot development finally, now that the Chi Chi arc is over. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and stay tuned for the next one! *cough* please try not to be mad that I left it on a cliffhanger like that….)