Wow, no one's gonna kill me anymore. They're all gonna kill Veggie instead…but then I'll have the mighty King of the Vegetables on my tail. -_-; Oh well.
MG: Not like he could do much to you; after all, you are an authoress. And even if he does manage to hurt you, may the Kais have mercy on his soul because he'll never hear the end of it from me.
Nani? You actually care for me that much?
MG: *turns red* I…uh…well…you're my friend, that's all.
Uh-huh. Oi, let's get on to the reviewer feedback. Good grief, Gohan-san, you look like Trunks when you blush.
MG: *glares*
Sunshine: Thanks! Yeah, I thought about making that little…disagreement more intense, but I changed my mind. Unpredictable, eh? Oh, you just wait. ^__^
MG: You should have let me blast him! Just for the heck of it!
sakura117us: No, sorry, it's not true. AIEEE! *gets pinned to the wall by Gohan*
MG: Not that I really need it…but you're an authoress!
*choking, trying to get MG's hand off her throat* I'm—not—omnipotent! Let go!
MG: *lets go* Gomen nasai, Ani-kun! *rubs the back of his head*
manda: Thanks!
Knight's Shadow: Thanks! Will do!
Goten's Guardian Angel: I agree…but if you think he's bad now, just wait. Mwahaha!
MG: *pleading* Anshin! Hey, you're writing a fic about me? Cool! *hugs her*
And I didn't let Gohan kill Veggie because I need him later in the fic. That, and I kinda felt sorry for him after Buu beat the tar out of him on DBZ the other day…
stayblue: Thankies!
DemonDancing: A little TLC. Uh-huh. I would show him compassion if I though he would show any to me.
MG: NANI?!?!?! You like that arrogant little midget?!
Hey, Gohan?
MG: Yes?
SHUT UP. I happen to like Vegeta…just not as much as I like you or Trunks. That, and I'm watching DBZ right now, and he's getting the living shiznik knocked out of him…yee, that had to hurt.
Nisaa_sd: Your caps lock was stuck.
MG: You know something? I could probably kick Vegeta's butt with my hand tied behind my back.
Don't worry; you'll get him back. ^___^
Android 71: Well, that was smart. Is your foot okay?
MG: -_-; Oi…*hugs her back and gives her a senzu bean*
Chris_Redfield26: *snickers* Thanks! *starts poking MG as well*
MG:* with the bowl on his head and noodles in his hair* Hey— *poke* cut— *poke* that— *poke* out! *poke*
But it's so much FUN! *pokes him again, then hugs Chris* Thanks for the idea!
MG: *glares while being poked from both sides* Well, I feel loved…
shadowpheonix: I have good insight? Wow. Thanks!
Chibi Lauryn: Yeah, Veggie-chan's a meanie head.
MG: *whacks her*
ITAI!!! What was tha—oh, I called him 'Veggie-chan' again, didn't I? *slaps forehead*
Saiya-jin Chick13: Will do!
DarkPower: ^__^ It'll happen, but I can't guarantee Vegeta will shut up.
Frying Pan of DOOM: Everyone wants to see Gohan kick some butt! I can do that…^__^
Darkone 500: Yeah, I don't know what I'm gonna do about Cell yet.
Silver Warrior: Thanks! See, she is out of the bag!
Jasmine (Ani's cat): Meow?
Sailor Vegeta: *grins* Something like that was bound to happen, and I just figured, 'Why not?' Oh, don't hurt Veggie that bad…
Kakkabrat: Funny how we're on the same wavelength. I already had that planned. ^___^
SSH: How ironic is that? You're my 100th reviewer, too! *throws her more candy* And if Henna does anything to it…
MG: Not more candy!!! *rolls eyes*
Dang, that's a lot of reviewers. O__O Well, anyhoo, on to the story!!!
*****
Gohan rounded the corner and ducked to avoid being hit in the face with a wild ki blast. He looked over at the trio, a slight smirk hiding at the corner of his mouth. "Alright, who was that?"
Goku and Chibi pointed at each other, and Piccolo rolled his eyes. Gohan laughed. "It was your younger self," Piccolo said flatly, receiving a glare from Chibi.
"Oh, I just realized something!" Goku said suddenly, rubbing the back of his neck. "What are we supposed to call you two? I mean, you're both Gohan, so we've gotta have some way of distinguishing which one of you we're talking to."
Chibi and Gohan just looked at each other a moment, then Chibi said, "You can just call him Gohan, since he's older."
"And call him Chibi, since that's just what he is," Gohan added. Chibi shot him a playful glare, and Gohan shrugged. "What? You are." He ruffled Chibi's hair, and Chibi took that opportunity to latch on to Gohan's arm. "Hey, now, that's not fair!"
"I never said I play fair. Are you gonna train with us?"
Gohan raised his arm a little, lifting a slightly startled Chibi a few inches off the ground. "Are you gonna let go?" Chibi nodded and loosened his grip, but continued hovering in mid-air. Goku laughed and Piccolo smiled. Gohan just shook his head, his grin broadening. "Just let me get my jacket off, then we can train."
Chibi watched with an expression just shy of pity as Gohan pulled the elastic wristband of his jacket sleeve over his hand with his teeth and caught the jacket by the collar as it slid off his arm. He tossed it onto the small table against the wall and turned back to the trio.
"Much better," he said. "It wasn't this hot back home. Okay now…hey, Chibi? I haven't trained with anyone in a while. Would you mind being my sparring partner until I get used to sparring again?"
"Sure. Just don't go Super, 'cause I can't do that yet."
Gohan smiled, nodded, and proceeded to do a series of warm-up stretches. Chibi followed his lead, then took an offensive stance. "Oh, so you want to start this little game? That's fine with me," Gohan said, assuming his defensive position.
Goku and Piccolo stood against the wall, watching with great amusement. "Don't go too easy on him, Gohan!" Goku said. Gohan smirked.
"Ready?" said Chibi. Gohan nodded once, and his muscles tensed in preparation for his counterpart's assault.
Chibi launched himself at Gohan with a flying kick. Gohan ducked, and Chibi rebounded off the wall and flew back at him in a fury of punches. Gohan easily blocked the boy's attack, backing up slowly as Chibi drove forward. Chibi suddenly raised his hands, overlapping them above his head, and unleashed a rather large but nonlethal blast. Gohan flipped over Chibi's head, and the blast flew off the lookout and disappeared into the clouds.
"Hey, watch it with the ki waves. You might accidentally hurt someone," Gohan said.
"Well, I didn't expect you to dodge it."
"What did you want me to do? Let it hit me in the face?"
"No, I kinda expected you to block."
"If your opponent always did what you assumed they were going to do, fighting would be easy."
Chibi nodded and powered up. A white aura surrounded his small form, and he dove at Gohan again, hugging the ground to avoid Gohan's kick. He righted himself behind Gohan and began pummeling the older man's back with his fists. Gohan spun and knocked Chibi away with the side of his arm. Chibi faceplowed, growled, and sprang up. He threw his fist into Gohan's stomach, catching him off guard, then caught him hard in the left shoulder with a powerful roundhouse kick.
Gohan winced as his hand flew up to his shoulder, and he stumbled back a step.
"Oh man, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—" Chibi said, landing lightly. Gohan shook his head.
"Nah, it's alright."
"Are you okay? I'm really sorry…"
"Yeah. That was good."
Chibi looked at him, confused. "It was?"
"Yeah. You broke my defenses and went for my weak point, whether you meant to or not. That's what you need to do in battle." He rotated his shoulder back, popped his neck, and crouched back into his defense position. "Come on. Let's keep going."
Chibi stared at him a minute, then smiled and said, "Right!" He charged at Gohan, who ducked and caught Chibi by the hair. Chibi yelped, spun, and started throwing punches at Gohan. Gohan simply laughed and tightened his grip on his younger self's thick, long hair as his small fists pounded against Gohan's pectoral muscles and ribcage.
"Let! Me! Go!" Chibi yelled, punctuating each word with another blow. Goku laughed in the background, and Chibi glared at him. "Dad!" he pleaded. Goku folded his arms and shook his head.
"Now, son, you're gonna have to learn to take care of yourself. Although it may not be a bad idea to cut that mop of yours…"
Chibi growled, then fired a small blast as Gohan's stomach. Gohan immediately let go, then looked down at his barely scathed stomach. His shirt hadn't even been torn. He looked up at Chibi, narrowed his eyes, and smiled in an odd, almost creepy sort of way. "Oh, is that how you want to play?" he said. Chibi gulped and took a step back as Gohan started towards him.
"I…uh…wh-what are you doing?" Chibi stuttered, his eyes widening. Gohan's expression was completely placid, and he slowly shook his head.
"Nothing, little brother." With that, he launched himself at Chibi. The pair rolled, and Gohan pinned Chibi to the ground and began tickling him relentlessly. Chibi screamed, then began laughing uncontrollably and beating on Gohan's arm feebly.
Goku started laughing as well, and Piccolo simply rolled his eyes. "I thought we were here to train, not play games," said the Namek. Goku gave him a light punch on the arm.
"Oh, come on, lighten up! Hey, Chibi, you're supposed to fight back!"
Chibi gasped for air. His face was red and there were tears running down his face, he was laughing so hard. "I can't!" he managed to say. "Help!"
Goku grinned. "Help, huh?" he said to himself. Then he pounced on Gohan, giving Chibi room to escape.
"AIEE!" yelled Gohan. "Dad!" However, that was all he was able to say before Goku began tickling him in much the same manner he had been tickling Chibi only moments before.
"Do you give?" said Goku, never letting up.
"Never! Chibi, help!" Gohan choked. Chibi simply shrugged and sat down.
"Nope. You deserve it."
"You little—Piccolo-san!"
"Sorry, kid, I'm staying out of this one. You're going to have to get out of this on your own."
Gohan made a miserably failed attempt at glaring at both of them before cracking up again. Chibi grinned, stood, and walked over to him. "Okay, I'll help," he said, then began tickling Gohan as well.
"Help me, not him! Help me!" Gohan said.
Piccolo let out a snort of laughter, shook his head, and calmly walked off to find Mr. Popo. The Son boys' laughter could be heard echoing throughout the lookout as the tickle war continued.
All three of them were lying on their backs, breathing hard through lopsided grins, staring at the sky. The entire battle had hardly lasted ten minutes, and it had ended with Chibi turning on Goku and Gohan throwing them both off.
"So…" Gohan said suddenly, "Do you think…we made…any progress?" His breathing was slowly returning to its normal pace, but it was still heavy.
Goku sat up. "Not unless you call wearing ourselves out with a pointless bout 'progress'."
"Guess not."
Chibi rolled over and looked at Gohan, and Gohan turned his head to look at Chibi. "What were you laughing about earlier, anyways? You said you'd tell me later."
"Huh? Oh yeah! It was just…an amusing memory, that's all. The first time I took Trunks up here, I forgot to tell him to watch where he was going. He was only about nine, but still…he was paying more attention to the carvings on the tower than what was ahead of him, and he sort of collided head-on with the bottom of Korin's platform."
Chibi clamped his hands over his mouth and snickered. "Was he okay?"
"Yeah, he was fine. He just had a little bit of a concussion. Sometimes I wondered if that kid's skull wasn't thicker than mine."
Goku raised both eyebrows. "His head was harder than yours? Now that's saying something."
Gohan glared at Goku and smirked. "Like you've got any room to talk, Father dearest."
Goku just shrugged.
Gohan stretched and yawned, then folded his arm under his head and closed his eyes. Chibi poked him. "You're not gonna go to sleep, are you?"
"I might."
"How can you sleep at a time like this? It's…it's…hey, Dad? What time is it?"
"I'd say about one or so."
"Yeah! It's one o'clock!"
"So?"
Chibi rolled his eyes. "You can't just fall asleep at one in the afternoon."
Gohan half-opened one eye. "And why not?"
"I dunno. You just can't."
"Well, if you can't think of a good reason, then maybe I will just go to sleep. I'm tired." He closed both eyes and took a deep breath. Chibi cocked his head sideways, then stood up and smiled. He straddled Gohan's midsection and sat down on him. Gohan opened his eyes and glared at Chibi, then looked over at Goku, who had his hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter. "I was a persistent little brat, wasn't I?" he said to himself, then started to push himself up. Chibi's eyes widened as he began to fall backwards, but he reached out and pulled Gohan's arm out from under him. Gohan hit the ground again, cringed, coughed, and rubbed the back of his now-throbbing head, then shot Chibi the most lethal death glare the boy had ever seen.
"Uh…sorry?" Chibi said timidly. Gohan shook his head.
"I don't think so. If you think for one minute that the fact that you're me will stop me from inflicting serious bodily harm on you, you're dead wrong. Now get off."
Chibi obediently stood up and backed away, and Gohan sat up. They both glared at their father as Goku lost control of his laughter.
"Just what is so funny?" they both said, then looked at each other. Their apparent psychic link sent Goku into an even louder fit and he hugged his stomach and fell over. "What?" they repeated, a little louder and a little more annoyed.
"N…nothing…I just hope that if Chibi ever gets a little brother, he doesn't treat him like you treat Chibi, Gohan."
Chibi and Gohan looked at each other again then smirked at Goku. Goku immediately stopped laughing as the duo began to advance towards him. "Oh, Father dearest…" said Chibi menacingly.
"You may want to take advantage of your Super Saiyan speed right about now," added Gohan. Goku gulped, leapt up, and took off around the corner, closely followed by Gohan and Chibi.
They shot past Piccolo, and Goku dove straight down off the edge of the lookout. "See ya, Piccolo-san!" Chibi called over his shoulder as they disappeared over the edge of the lookout as well.
Piccolo blinked in surprise and confusion as the delayed breeze took hold of his cape and whipped it against his back and legs.
Goku glanced back over his shoulder. The duo was gaining on him, and fast. In a quick flurry of gold light, he transformed and dashed off with renewed speed.
"Man, now we'll never catch him!" Chibi said, watching his father shrink in the distance. Gohan smirked.
"Don't worry, we'll get him. Wrap your arms around my neck and hold on tight."
Chibi did as he was told, and grinned as Gohan's hair spiked up. Gohan looked back at Chibi, his aura shining in his green eyes. "Ready?" Chibi nodded, and Gohan smiled and increased his speed tenfold. Chibi laughed with excitement and delight and tightened his grip. The world flew by in a messy smear of undefined color, and Chibi felt himself getting dizzy as it all streaked past. He squeezed his eyes shut and hid his face from the stinging wind.
"Hey, Dad!" Gohan called as he rushed up parallel to Goku and saluted. Goku facefaulted.
"How did you do that? I didn't think you were that fast!"
"You obviously underestimated me, then!" Gohan laughed and picked his speed back up, leaving Goku in the dust. Chibi looked back and stuck his tongue out, then laughed as well.
"Yeah, big brother! We did it!" He extended his arm and pointed towards the horizon. "Come on, we've gotta beat him home!"
"Aye aye, Captain! Hold on!"
Chibi hugged Gohan's neck tightly, and Gohan lifted a little higher into the air and did a barrel roll, then shot straight up, paused a moment, and nose-dived. Chibi squeezed his eyes shut, and Gohan pulled up at the last possible second, almost flying low enough to touch the grass.
The small dot on the horizon that was the Son House rushed up fast, and Gohan screeched to an abrupt halt less than half a foot from the door. Chibi let go and slid down Gohan's back to the ground.
"Man, I haven't had that much fun in a long time!" Gohan said, letting his hair fall back into its normal style. Chibi's grin was spread ear to ear, and he looked up at Gohan. Gohan smiled again and pushed the door open. Chibi ran in and stopped in the middle of the living room.
"Hey Mom! We're back!" he called.
"Good timing! Lunch is ready!" Chichi yelled back.
Chibi and Gohan looked at each other and yelled, "Yes! Food!" Chibi ran around behind the chair into the kitchen, and Gohan leapfrogged the couch. They both plopped down in their chairs at the same moment and held up their bowls, which were promptly filled with rice.
"Itadakimasu![1]" Gohan said, and began to shovel the rice in his mouth with Saiyan speed.
Chibi simply grinned and began eating as well. Both had downed about three bowls before Goku finally walked through the door. He poked his head in the kitchen, grinned, and said, "Hey, food!" He sat down, and Chichi filled his bowl as well before seating herself.
Shi looked around at the trio, smiled softly, and sighed. "Goku, I have enough trouble feeding just the two of you. What am I supposed to do with three Saiyans?"
To everyone's surprise, Gohan stood and sat his bowl down in the sink, then ran the back of his arm across his mouth. "Don't worry, Mom, I probably don't eat as much as they do. There's a much more limited supply of food in my timeline, so I've trained myself to eat in somewhat human proportions."
Chichi nodded, then glanced down at Gohan's left side. His missing limb was much more apparent without his jacket masking it. "Where's your coat?" Chichi asked.
"Huh? Oh, I must've left it up at the lookout. Ah well, I'll get it later." He stifled a huge yawn, then said, "I think I'm going to take a nap. Hey, Chibi, can I use your bed?"
Chibi shrugged and swallowed his mouthful of rice. "It's your bed too, isn't it?"
Gohan got a very Goku-esque look of thought of his face. "Yeah, I guess that's true…thanks, bro!" He yawned again and headed upstairs. Chichi stared after him, and Goku waved his hand in front of her face.
"Chichi? Honey? You in there?" he said with his mouth full. Chichi blinked a couple of times and looked at him.
"Yes. I just…he really is Gohan, isn't he?"
Goku swallowed. "Yeah. Why?"
"No reason. But he looks exactly like you." She smiled and went back to her bowl of rice. Goku simply shrugged and went back for thirds.
*****
[1] It basically translates to, 'I humbly accept'. If you've seen the Japanese version of The History of Trunks, you've heard both Gohan and Trunks say it. It's the line the FUNibakas translated to "Chew Attack!" in the dub.
That chappie was a little more lighthearted than the others, but I figured, 'Hey, everyone's gonna kill me if I don't let up on Gohan.' So I did.
MG: Thank Kami-sama.
Well, that, and I started writing two more really angsty fics (one Mirai Trunks, one Mirai Gohan) that I don't have posted yet…
MG: And she pairs me up with the female Jinzouningen in one of them! *growls, eyes flash green*
Yes, but it's a one-sided relationship for the most part, so don't worry. It's not like you'll actually fall in love with her…of course, I could change my mind…
MG: *massive sweatdrop*
Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out. Oh yeah! I've finally got a scanner, so go to my website and check out my fanart! There's an awful lot of Gohan…I'll have it up sometime over the weekend, so if I don't have it up yet when you check, look back about Monday. Well, ja ne, minna! I must go write chapter 8!