How Much I Care

"I don't understand any of this."

"You don't have to, Gokou."

This time, his wife's voice lacked its mysteriousness and she seemed more in character, however… naked. Sighing, the woman rested her chin on her palm.

"How do I explain this to you? Well, I am a representation of the contrast between the past, the present, and the future. No one knows the future of course, but by analyzing things you can make assumptions. Now, I am Chi-Chi, but when I wake up the chances are that I won't remember any of this. When you wake up, you will but you will not speak of this."

"So you really are ChiChi?" Gokou asked with his eyes wide and curious.

"Of course I am. The way I've come to understand it, the god of sleep or dreams or something has connected our minds briefly."

"Why?"

"Because everyone likes you, Gokou."

"Oh."

ChiChi sort of scoffed and crossed her arms around her naked bust.

"Could you…" Flush.

She asks innocently, "What?"

"Could you put some clothes on?"

ChiChi flushed, balling her fists together, "I'm naked because that's all you can think about!"

"I am not!" Gokou, red-faced waved his hands about. "I don't even know what this is, or why this is happening? What's up with all these rules? How can I even trust that you're Chi-Chi?"

"You don't have to, Gokou. You can always wake up. And it'll be morning and I'll slip back into my own body and have my own dreams. But just remember, I've been waiting for you-I'm waiting for you."

"I want to wake up."

His voice was stern and there was a slight look of pain in her eyes. She nodded, and the vision slowly faded as if ripples in the water.

He was sweating when he woke up. He didn't jump up immediately, but sat there, waiting for whatever just happened to make sense. He looked over at the other side of the bed, but his wife was on her side and he could not see her face. Her voice, her words, that echoed through his head slowly died, and he stretched, another morning had started and he got out of the bed and the day began.

"Hey! Wake up, Lazy."

His son laughed at the joke, rolling over to reveal he was ready and dressed. "Who're you callin' lazy, Dad? Piccolo and I have been waiting for you for hours. He told me to go back to bed before I woke Mom up."

"Even Piccolo's afraid of Chi, huh?" Gokou asked with a laugh. Immediately he felt troubled at the thought. A hand tangled in his hair, he yawned and asked, "Geez… what time is it anyway?"

He stifled a yawn and stretched a bit, and his son raised a brow, tilting his head a bit.

Gohan looked concerned for a moment, "Are you alright, Daddy?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Gohan. But what time is it? How long did I sleep?"

"I'm not really sure. It's afternoon, though."

"What?" Goku's eyes bulged a little, "Why didn't you wake me up?"

Gohan shrugged a little bit, "I just had this weird feeling that I shouldn't, I guess. I mean, how often do you sleep in, Dad? You must have needed it, and I didn't want to wake up Mom."

Gokou considered for a moment, but frowned again. Chichi couldn't very well have just gone back to sleep. It was late. They should've got him up, his thoughts grumbled, but he was patient with and understood his son's concerns. What of Piccolo, though? Did he just not care? Certainly he wouldn't have cared about not waking up Chichi.

The older man shook his head a little bit, "Why didn't Piccolo wake me up?"

"He didn't say. He just told me to go back to bed."

Gokou frowned, "That's odd."

"So, uh, Dad? Can we start training now? Piccolo and I sparred a little bit, but about an hour or so ago that we stopped. He just told me to come back and wait for you. I feel like I've wasted so much time."

"You're telling me."

The two stretched a bit, but were both clothed in minutes. They found their Namekian ally meditating out by the trees not far from their house. He grunted as they approached.

"So you finally woke up, did you, Son? It took you long enough."

He scoffed, and Gokou laughed, scratching his head a bit.

"I guess I was more tired than I thought. Sorry Piccolo."

"Don't apologize to me for being a slacker. When these bastard androids come, you can apologize to them."

Gokou gave a hesitant laugh and shrugged. Quickly, he prepared for battle. "So let's get started, then."

Quick edit.