A/N: Hi, here's another story I am transferring on over from my AO3! It is complete but I will be adding the remaining four chapters over the next few days. Rated M for the final chapter ;-)

One would never think the happiest man on campus was the one who scrubbed toilets clean, the one who was called when a child vomited, the one who was up before sunrise just to make sure the school was litter-free.

Mr. Goku - the lead custodian at Paozu Elementary School - was never seen without a wide grin on his face. Every single student adored him. They would rush from wherever they stood as soon as they saw him just to hug him tightly. When it came to the older students, he had a unique handshake for each of them. If a kid was having a bad day, Mr. Goku was the one to see.

Not only did the students love him, but the teachers did, too…

For more than one reason.

His attractiveness wasn't fully realized until the day he wore a baseball uniform on Field Day. Ever since then, the teachers were constantly finding different reasons to call him to their classrooms after school.

"The water in the sink won't go down…"

"Isn't it strange that the darn table leg is loose again!?"

"I don't know why we keep running out of paper towels…"

But whenever one of the single teachers asked him out, Mr. Goku politely declined. His answer was always the same:

"I'm here to work only, ma'am."

At some point, all his rejecting made the female teachers suspect he was gay. Once Mr. Pian - the band teacher and attractive in his own right - was turned away as well, they all decided he just wasn't interested in anything other than keeping his beloved school clean.

The messy-haired custodian glanced down at his watch and whistled lowly. It was 4:30 in the afternoon and that meant he needed to start heading down the kindergarten wing if he was going to beat his former record of emptying all the trash cans in school.

He jingled his keys until he found the one that belonged to room 8. He unlocked the door and when he opened it, he was surprised to see the lights were still on. Arching an eyebrow, his head turned in the direction of the desk that belonged to Miss Chi-Chi, one of the new teachers. She had her head down and was snoring loudly. Goku closed the door quietly behind him and tiptoed over to where Sleeping Beauty lay resting. He chuckled to himself when he saw post-it notes stuck on the side of her face. He reached a hand forward and gently poked her until her eyes fluttered open.

"Oh, my!" Chi-Chi shot her head up and turned red all over realizing she had taken a nap. "What time is it!?"

"4:35, Miss Chi-Chi. Those kids work you too hard today?"

There was an imprint on her cheek that was resting on her hands and the custodian tried not to laugh at it. That didn't mean he couldn't smile.

Chi-Chi self-consciously smoothed down her pieces of hair that came loose out of her long ponytail. Although she was one of the rare ones not to fall victim to the custodian's charm - partially because she was new and didn't want to step in anyone's 'territory' - it was difficult to ignore how awfully handsome he was.

"Yeah. They all seem to be acting up lately. I don't know if it's a full moon, spring fever, or just end of the year excitement but I can't get them to listen."

Goku didn't particularly spend too much time talking to the teachers and much preferred telling jokes with the kids, but there was something telling him Chi-Chi needed a friend. He went over to one of the round tables and dragged a plastic chair over to the teacher's desk. The way his large body barely fit in the chair caused Miss Chi-Chi to finally crack a grin of her own.

"Aren't you uncomfortable!?"

"A little bit," Goku chuckled. "I'm fittin' one cheek on here."

Chi-Chi covered her face when she giggled, and the custodian wondered if she did that all the time. "You know I have a rocking chair in the reading corner if that would be more comfortable?"

"Nah," he winked. "Takes me back to my youth. I had kindergarten in this exact room, with a teacher just like you."

Except she wasn't pretty and young.

"Get out of town!" Chi-Chi's eyes widened. "You're a Paozu alumni? Any of your former teachers still here?"

"Oh, yeah. Miss Note and Mrs. Pen were both my teachers."

Chi-Chi felt slightly mortified. Those two were some of the ones she heard in the lounge being thirsty over their former student. She decided to keep that to herself and chuckled nervously to forget it. "How old are you, anyway?"

Goku shrugged and switched what half of him was sitting on the chair. "I'm closer to thirty than twenty. Yourself?"

"Mid-twenties. I took my time in college."

"So is this your first job?"

"Yeah, I was one of the lucky ones to find one right off the bat. I normally don't stop gushing about how much I love being a teacher, but today…" Chi-Chi trailed off and sighed. She wasn't a drinker but sure felt like she needed one.

Goku frowned and glanced up at her calendar. The first week of every May was Teacher Appreciation Week and it didn't sound like she felt appreciated at all. As Miss Chi-Chi stared forlornly at a speck on her rainbow carpet that he would be sure to vacuum up for her shortly, Goku found himself struggling to tell her something that's been on his mind for a long time.

He had seen the kindergarten teacher in action many times when making his usual rounds on campus. Every single one of her students was always smiling. Her voice was never higher than it should be. She was patient, calm, and loving. The custodian knew right away that she was a great teacher, but it was clear the young woman didn't see it herself.

At the risk of giving her the wrong impression of him, Goku cleared his throat instead of placing a hand on her for comfort. When she looked up at him with tired, misty eyes, he inhaled sharply and decided to let her know.

"I appreciate you, Miss Chi-Chi. Your students do, too."

Before he could do anything about it, Chi-Chi flew out of her chair and wrapped her slender arms around his neck. He tried to remain stable by holding her in return but they ended up falling onto the rainbow carpet. As she cried into the collar of his black polo, Goku laughed softly and rubbed her back.

"Hey now, I didn't mean to make ya cry. I wanted to cheer you up."

Chi-Chi sniffed and spoke close to his neck, sending shivers down his spine that he hadn't felt since…

He first saw her.

"Oh, Mr. Goku. You did. You really did. These are happy tears."

The custodian chuckled and helped her rise to her feet. She smoothed down her dark pencil skirt while he adjusted his damp collar. He found himself laughing again when seeing the black circles from her mascara underneath her eyes. He used his thumb to wipe it away but only smeared it more.

"Whoops," he winced. "Do Lysol wipes work for that? That's all I got."

Knowing he was kidding, the teacher rolled her eyes while sniffing with a smile and went to her desk. She pulled her purse out from its hidden location and pulled out makeup-removing wipes. Something about her having those handy made Goku frown again.

"Do you cry a lot, Miss Chi-Chi?"

"Huh?" She noticed he was looking at what was in her hand and smiled sadly. "Not all the time, but when you care so much about these kids, some days can get more emotional than others."

Goku watched as she wiped her face clean and threw her blackened wipe into the wastebasket. Being the sweetheart that she was, she walked it over to where her other trash cans were to save him time when he cleaned her room.

She always did that.

"Well, Mr. Goku. I think it's time I head home."

The custodian reached for her purse before she could grab it and handed it over to her hesitantly. It was the strangest feeling to not want her to go, but knowing she needed the rest and he needed to get his job done. Not caring too much about beating his record anymore, he ignored the time on his watch and decided to do one more nice thing for her today.

"Would you like me to walk you out to your car? The other teachers already left and you know nobody in the office can move fast enough if there's a mugger."

With her purse over her shoulder, Chi-Chi placed her hands on her hips and raised a thin eyebrow at the custodian. Right in front of his eyes, the teacher was transforming from a broken-down damsel to a confident woman.

"If there's any mugger, I won't be the one in trouble. See you tomorrow, Mr. Goku."

The custodian was unable to speak and could only wave. It wasn't until the door closed behind her that he was finally able to mutter something out.

"Bye, Miss Chi-Chi."