Part III

Chapter 35: The Trials of Love and Life

"Come on, son! I know you can do better than that!" a grinning Son Goku said, after he had once again easily dodged an attack performed by his oldest son.

The two Saiyajins were on a meadow near their house on the Dai Kaiou's planet. It was later in the morning and the sun was steadily rising higher at the sky, already burning mercilessly down on them. The Tenkigods seemed to be in a very good mood today, but those who lived on that planet (or in general on the different planets in the Afterlife) usually learned quickly that this could change very quickly.

As it was, the moods of those gods decided about the weather. Blizzards or thunderstorms were signs for bad tempers, while sunshine and warmth indicated the contrary. For those who were used to the four seasons, like the Earthlings, it took some time getting used to this. One day you could enjoy the sun to its fullest and the next day you couldn't leave the house because of some mighty snowstorm. But after more than one year of living through it, it didn't bother them anymore. It was just another of those things that were different in the Afterlife.

"Sorry, dad," Gohan mumbled, as he wiped some sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. His dark hair was swaying in the light breeze, as he looked at his father with an apologetic expression on his face.

Goku dropped out of the fighting stance and tilted his head to one side. His son was behaving weird, had been doing this for a few days already. He always appeared to be somewhere else with his thoughts, but Goku couldn't fathom why Gohan was like this. "Alright, Gohan, what's bothering you? Out with it!"

Startled, Gohan blushed and began to scratch the back of his head – a typical sign of either nervousness or embarrassment or both. With his eyes lowered, he just said, "Nothing important, really… It's just…" He heaved a deep sigh. "Videl's birthday's coming up in a couple of days and I don't know what to get her. It's harder this year, because of… you know…"

The older Saiyajin only blinked in surprise, before he just began to laugh. He didn't want to hurt Gohan's feelings and he knew that it was important for his son, but at the same time he was relieved that it was just something as mundane as this. However, when he noticed the slouched form of his son and the red spots on his face, he tried to stifle his laughter. "Sorry Gohan," he chuckled. "I just thought it was something serious…"

"This is—"

"Serious, I know," Goku cut him off, flashing him an understanding smile. "For you, I mean." Sitting down, he motioned to Gohan to join him. The young Saiyajin appeared to be a bit confused, but sat down next to his father nonetheless. "I believe it is in my job description to help you with problems like this, but unfortunately I'm absolutely clueless in the field of dating."

Gohan chuckled slightly, as he remembered the tale of how his parents had gotten together. Honestly, how could someone think that marriage was something to eat? Even he wasn't that clueless.

"We first really got to know each other after the wedding and I strongly believe your mother felt remorse afterwards for forcing this on me, though she never told me this."

Gohan looked at his father, stunned. He had never heard this part of the tale before. "How did you know? I mean, that mom felt bad about the marriage?"

"I… just knew. I felt it. It was weird at this time, because I didn't know how I could possibly know this, but after Vegeta came to Earth, everything made sense," Goku told him.

"The bond," his son concluded, with a pensive look on his face. "You two already shared a bond."

Goku smiled at his son, as he said, "And for a long time, already. I think the foundation was already established the first time we met and she almost split my head in two with that infernal blade on the helmet she had worn then."

The older Saiyajin paused a bit and looked at the blue sky and the fluffy white clouds, relishing in the memories of his and ChiChi's time together. It hadn't been easy, especially in the beginning, as he had had no idea what being a husband meant. The first clue had been dropped at the wedding, when he had to kiss her but everything after the ceremony, when they had returned to Gyuu Mao's castle, had been extremely awkward.

Sharing one bed was something Krillin had told him about, but he hadn't understood the other hints his friend had dropped then. So, when he had first stepped into their assigned bedroom and found ChiChi sitting on the bed with a nightgown that had barely covered anything, he had quickly averted his gaze and looked anywhere but at her. He had been blushing furiously the whole time with a mysterious fluttering feeling in his stomach, and stuttering that he would be back, when she was dressed decently.

However, before he had reached the door, ChiChi had grabbed his hand with a hurt look on her face. Goku had hugged her then, because he had known even then that husbands hugged their wives, if they needed to be comforted and this was, what he had wanted to do. The wish to apologize had been great, but Goku had had no idea what he had done wrong and so he had asked her. ChiChi had then only shaken her head and said that he hadn't done anything wrong. There had been a smile on her face, but Goku had still been able to feel the hurt and disappointment.

After having slipped out of his embrace, she had thrown over another, longer nightgown over the tiny piece of clothing and led him to the bed, climbing in first and then patting the space next to her, telling him to join her.

They first night they had spent with each other, they had been barely touching, except for a fleeting goodnight kiss on her cheek. Fortunately things had progressed between them afterwards, especially after they had moved into their house that Goku had built in the 439 Mountain Area. The more they had gotten to know each other the easier the camaraderie between them had gotten. A friendship had begun to grow, but with this friendship this fluttering feeling had also come back, stronger than ever before and Goku had quickly found out that he liked watching her, be it while cooking dinner or at night, when she was asleep.

It had been a spur of the moment action, when one day, a few weeks after the wedding, Goku had felt the urge to do something different than simply watching her prepare their dinner and suddenly, out of their own accord, his legs had begun to move towards her and he had spun her around. The surprised look on ChiChi's hadn't lasted long, because his lips had suddenly met hers in their first real kiss since the wedding. Suffice it to say, the dinner had been burnt.

Goku had liked this interaction very much, as had ChiChi, if the huge grin on her face afterwards had been any indication, so kissing her had become one of his favorite pastime activities, next to fighting and eating. Since he had still been new to this whole thing, ChiChi had taken the lead, when she had started to long for more than kissing her husband. So slowly but surely she had introduced him to the world of sexuality, but even though her body had yearned for it, she hadn't dared to take the last step.

The Saiyajin didn't know, who had been more surprised, when it had finally happened, he or ChiChi. He had just been lying in their bed, waiting for his wife to get ready, when she had come into the room, wearing midnight blue cotton pajamas with her long black her running down her back. She had been humming an unfamiliar tune with a small smile on her lips, as she had crossed the room to sit down at the vanity and taken out the brush for her hair. Goku's eyes had not once left her, mesmerized by the woman he called his wife. The fluttering feeling had returned at full force, but at the same time a warm feeling had spread through his whole body and a wide smile had tugged at his lips. Somehow, something had been different that night, though Goku still couldn't say what had caused the change. He had only known one thing – he was finally where he belonged and he felt whole.

"I love you."

The words had left his mouth, before he had even thought about saying them. ChiChi had frozen, almost losing the grip on the brush and had turned around to face him with wide and disbelieving eyes. She had just been about to open her mouth, probably to say something to contradict him, but Goku had cut her off, when he had crossed the room, pulled her out of the chair and kissed her. Once he had again pulled away from her, he had repeated, firmer and with more conviction,

"I love you, Chi. I may not always be a good husband, but all I can do is try. It's still new and it's terrifying sometimes, but when I look at you and see you smile, I just know that we can make it. I didn't truly realize it until now, but this, what we have, is the best that's ever happened to me. You're the part that's been missing in my life all those years, the part that not even training or fighting could fill. You make me complete, Chi."

It had been in this night, following this declaration during a rare show of insight from Goku, that they had made love for the first time and Goku had marked and claimed her as his mate, as his instincts had told him to do. He hadn't known until years later, what it meant, having only felt that his connection to ChiChi had become much stronger. And nine months later, Son Gohan had been born, much to his parents' delight.

…

"You see," Goku continued at length with a dreamy smile on his face, as he turned again to look at his son, who had a rather thoughtful expression on his face, "despite the rather… unusual circumstances of our marriage, we were still meant to be together. Maybe your mother knew, when she asked me, if I wanted to marry her. Maybe she didn't. I never asked her and it isn't important anymore. I love your mother, even though I've never been the best husband and made many mistakes. Staying here after Cell was just one of them, but probably the biggest."

Suddenly, Goku again began to laugh, a carefree sound that was carried away by the wind. Gohan only looked at him with a raised eyebrow and began to choke, when, almost knocking the wind out of his unsuspecting son, Goku slapped him heartily on the back.

"I didn't help you at all, did I?"

Gohan cracked a small grin, as he shook his head. "Not really, dad."

With a small sigh, Gohan lay down with his arms crossed behind his head as makeshift pillow. Somehow, he had never expected that having a girlfriend would be this difficult. Not that he didn't like having Videl at his side, no, he loved it very much. She was his best friend after all, she understood him when no one else did and she had been the one to pull him out of his shell. She was passionate, witty, intelligent, funny, and sarcastic. Sometimes she was annoying as hell and even scarier as his mother, but still, he didn't want to be without her anymore.

So finding the perfect birthday present for her was all the more important. Gohan wanted to show her how special she was and what exactly she meant to him. Maybe he should have just asked his mother, or even better, Bulma. They had to know what girls liked. But then again, Videl was no ordinary girl. She didn't like pretty clothes, make-up or perfume. She loved fighting, having already gotten in more then one brawl with some of the fighters on this planet, after they had insulted her strength, or rather the lack thereof. Even though she had lost most of those fights, seeing as only the strongest fighters of the whole universe were allowed to visit this planet, she had never lost her pride. Oh no, Videl truly wasn't like other girls.

Still, Gohan was no closer to a solution. Maybe some classic weapons? No, Videl didn't like using them in a fight. A new gi? No, this was something friends would buy her. But he was more than that. He was her boyfriend, so he needed something better, something more personal. Only what?

"Your mother likes flowers," Goku suddenly said. "Flowers and chocolate. Nothing too fancy. For her birthdays I usually pluck some wildflowers and buy some nice chocolate. Nougat. She loves nougat. I don't know, if this helps you, but I believe that Videl's a lot like your mom, so…" Goku trails off, when he saw the look of affection on his son's face. "What are ya thinking of?"

"Videl loves white chocolate bars with Mini Smarties. Unfortunately, this flavor doesn't exist here in the Afterlife." Gohan chuckled, as he said, "You should have heard her, when she found out. Imagine to spend an eternity without your favorite sweets. She's been complaining about it for days afterwards and still holds a grudge against the sweets industries here."

Goku appeared to be lost in thoughts for a short moment after Gohan had told him this, before a huge grin spread over his face. "Then, why don't you get her some?"

Son Gohan only stared at his father with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "Huh?"

„Come on, brat, concentrate!" Vegeta barked at the floating girl in front of him.

Jenny was hovering in the middle of the gravity room, legs crossed in Indian style and eyes closed in what appeared to be strained concentration. Her usually blond hair had turned black, as she had transformed, and her outfit consisted of a black pair of shorts and a white T-shirt.

"You're not trying hard enough!"

"I am!" she hissed, opening one eye to glower at the other Saiyajin. "It just isn't working." Sighing, Jenny also opened her other eye, uncrossed her legs and landed with both feet on the ground. "And I really dunno how to find that balance. I already told ya this about a thousand times!" And, with a small pout on her lips, she added, "Can't we just fight?"

"This look on your face might work with your grandmother, but certainly not with me." Vegeta's face was set in a firm scowl, as he was looking at the girl. The pout vanished immediately, after she had noticed that it really wouldn't work, but instead a look of desperation had taken its place.

Somehow, Vegeta could sympathize with her. They'd been working on this for several weeks already and had made no improvements. None at all. It really was tiring. When Vegeta had first thought about training Jenny to keep the balance between the Human and the Saiyajin to minimize the danger that something like a couple of weeks ago (or something worse) happened again, he hadn't imagined that it would be this difficult. Apparently it was simply impossible to find the perfect balance.

"Why not, Vegeta? Why can't we just train like we always did?"

"Because this is more important," he snapped.

With a scowl on her face, Jenny folded her arms over her chest, unknowingly mimicking Vegeta's stance. "Yeah, I know… But you said yourself that you weren't sure, if this was going to work. So why bother any longer?"

Oh yes, he had said this, but now he wondered, why. Because you wanted her to know the whole truth, his inner voice reminded him, much to his chagrin. He had fought long and hard with himself and then, about one week after her first day at school, had decided that there was no way around it. Even though the girl had behaved at school, she still had deserved to know what had made her act like this. So, one afternoon after training, he had told her.

Her reaction had been as expected. Denial having been the first one, questions about why Gohan, Goten and Trunks didn't have those problems (to which he had just needed to mention Cell to make her understand that her older brother indeed did have those problems) had followed shortly after and then, in the end, resignation. It was truly remarkable that a girl her age understood so much, but her brother hadn't been much different at her age. Once again, he put his entire blame for this on the Saiyajin inside of her.

Not that this was entirely a bad thing, as the Saiyajin had by all means also good sides. She just needed to be able to control it, which brought them back to the reason, why they were doing this in the first place.

"Because we don't know, what will happen, if you lose complete control!" Snarling, Vegeta stepped up to her until only merely inches were separating them and Jenny had to crane her neck to look up at him. "You lose control over the Saiyajin and go on a killing spree, how would you like that? There're no Dragon Balls, so no chances of resurrecting those you killed. People would fear you, just like they feared Buu and Cell and I would be forced to hunt you down and most likely kill you."

"B-but you would stop me, before this happens, right? Before I kill anyone? You will be there to hold me back, right?" Jenny now looked at him with wide dark eyes, as her imagination went into overdrive and presented her with many pictures that weren't pretty at all. A menacing look on her face, as she was going through the streets and relishes in the smell of blood and the sight of destruction all around her. Shaking her head to get rid of those images, she whispered, "You're gonna be there, aren't you?"

Sighing, Vegeta closed his eyes and stepped back. "I can't promise anything," he mumbled, as he turned around and walked to the door of the gravity room. "You better get changed now. You have to leave for school soon."

He didn't look back, as he heard the soft footsteps behind him. "So, after school, we're gonna continue?" Jenny's voice sounded hopeful, so Vegeta nodded.

"After you did your homework. Your grandmother will have my head, if I train with you before. Dende knows, she can become as scary as her daughter." Glancing down, as she passed him to go back to the main building, he saw her smile up at him, though the smile was slightly dimmed. "And maybe we'll also spar."

With this almost-promise in her mind, Jenny hurried to her room to change and get her things for school. Her mood was now already a bit lighter than it had been just minutes ago, but still, those scary images loomed over her like a dark and heavy cloud. This afternoon she would try even harder than before, if it was possible. She wanted to do anything to keep this nightmare from coming true.

But first, she had to tackle another obstacle and live through several hours of boredom (either because she already knew the things her teachers were trying to teach or because the subjects were simply incredibly dull) without acting up or getting any bad attention once. She had quickly learned to distinguish bad attention from good attention. Bad attention was what she had gotten on her first day at school, but good attention was, when she contributed to the lessons with good ideas or correct answers. She had even aced the first pop quiz on math and received a chocolate cookie as reward. However, this was only one more reason for the other kids to not talk to her.

After her first day, when Jenny had – if with some reluctance - tried to talk to them and say that she was sorry for her behavior, she had been ignored by most of them. Others had started to bully her, calling her a freak and a liar and because of the fact that the news of the new girl had traveled quickly, all the other pupils had already heard of her stories and stayed away from her. Usually this wouldn't bother Jenny that much, as she still believed that she didn't need friends, but her grandmother had looked so sad, when Jenny had told her about the other kids that the girl had started to feel bad. She had tried, really, to somehow connect to them, but how could there be a connection, when they ignored her?

"Jenny, hurry, or you're going to be late!"

"Coming, grandma!" A now again blond Jenny called back, as she slung her bag over her shoulders and nearly flew down the stairs. After a quick wave and a 'be good' from Mrs. Briefs, Jenny was gone.

The woman let out a small sigh, as she turned back to the cupboards to find out, what kind of groceries she needed to buy later that day. "She's trying so hard," she said, not once turning around, when she heard the steps behind her.

"This is all she can do," Vegeta answered, as he sat down on his chair.

"But it isn't enough."

"It'll probably never be."

They were talking about two completely different things, but at least they could relate somehow. However, while Mrs. Briefs only feared that Jenny might not find any friends and would be lonely, Vegeta's fears were worse. What he had told the girl was true. If they ever got into the situation that Jenny might be a threat to the world, he mustn't hesitate to stop her, no matter how. And if it meant to kill her, this was, what he had to do.

He could only hope that it would never come to this.

And somehow, Vegeta wished that he had the chance to get some information about this inner conflict from someone who had experience with this, but unfortunately the only person who could help him was dead.

Jenny was sitting in her classroom, second period and desperately waiting for class to end. Heaving a small sigh, she looked at the clock over the black board and noticed, much to her delight, that it was only five minutes until the fifteen minutes break. Her teacher for this class, an old man who had come out of retirement because of the lack of staff, just droned on about some math problems that she had already solved two years ago, thanks to Gohan.

Seconds appeared to be minutes and minutes appeared to be hours, as Jenny repeatedly looked at the clock, but finally, when the bell rang and the other students all stormed into the hall, Jenny lingered behind and left last, putting on her blue denim jacket.

With her second breakfast safely stored inside a capsule, Jenny left the school building and went to her favorite spot in the schoolyard. It was underneath a large and old chestnut tree, which leaves had already turned a brilliant golden and red color, floating to the ground when hit by a stronger wind. The air was slightly chilly, especially since the sky was covered heavy and dark clouds. Not many students were outside, but it didn't bother Jenny anymore as much as it had a few weeks ago, when she had tried to find, if not friends, then acquaintances among the other students.

Still, a small sad smile tugged at her lips, when her eyes wandered over the other students, who were happily playing or talking with their friends. They didn't pay her any heed, which was a welcome change to the name calling that she had already experienced too many times. Stupid Saiyajin, she cursed inwardly and turned her full attention to her second breakfast.

…

While she was heartily devouring the large stack of sandwiches that her grandmother had prepared for her, she didn't notice the person, clad in blue jeans and a black sweater, outside the schoolyard. He was watching her from behind a tree through the high fence that separated the school grounds from the rest of the city, with a deep frown on his face.

When he had followed her from Capsule Corporation to this school, he hadn't expected this sight. Jenny usually was a happy and carefree girl, easily worming her way into the hearts of the people who got to know her. But this, this was different. This was not the easygoing girl he used to know. This was a sad and lonely girl, who had built a high wall around herself.

The most striking change was the look in her large blue eyes. Most of the sparkle that had always been there, was gone, replaced by something a girl her age shouldn't know. It was a look of someone who had to grow up too fast, a look he knew only too well. A large part of her innocence had been stripped from her. All those years he had tried to prevent even this, but it had happened anyway and it saddened him.

Nearly one and a half years. How could not even eighteen months cause such a drastic change? Buu and the consequences of the battle against him couldn't be the reason, at least not entirely. Jenny had seemed fine, when he had last seen her, so what had happened?

But then, with a small smile on his face, he also noticed the other things. Jenny had grown a lot over the past months and some of the chubbiness in her face had disappeared. Her hair was also longer, going down almost to the waist in a thick braid. Seeing her now, he was sure that in just a few years, she would become a beautiful woman. Only one thing hadn't changed at all, he thought with a light chuckle, when he saw her devouring her stack of sandwiches – her appetite still seemed to be the same.

The bell to announce the next period came too soon for his liking and he watched with regret, as Jenny put the last sandwiches back into the capsule, got up from the ground and, after having dusted herself off, returned into the building. He really would have liked to talk to her, but it wouldn't be good for her. Besides, he still had other things to do before he left again.

Running a hand through his unruly black hair, Son Gohan turned on his heels and disappeared in a dark alley, taking off into the sky unnoticed.