How Much I Care

Gokou felt as if he were some sort of non-existent form, which alarmed him at first.

"Am I… dead?"

But, one always does get alarmed when they find they can walk through solid things, or in Gokou's case, fall through them. The hole that appeared made him feel like something was yanking at him from the insides and his outsides were forced to comply. Somewhat nauseous, he was even more annoyed that he couldn't lean against a tree.

The sound of a gentle giggle attracted his attention. Surely someone was there and could explain it. By this time, he was somewhat used to people guiding him along during this… ordeal. He kept walking along the forest path; he knew this place from somewhere else. Or so he felt as if he did.

He shrugged off the feeling and followed the voice. Female, he tried to determine her age, but unlike males, females' voices didn't change in tone as drastically.

As he approached a clearing in the path, he certainly knew where he was. Almost a mile and a half away from the cottage, it was a little lake he used to fish in. Huge stones created an arch around most of the lake, good for diving in.

After grunting in annoyance as when he attempted to jump on a boulder, he fell right through, and after trying to climb it, he sank through as well, he strived to get to the voice.

"It's there. It's real. I'm here. I'm real. Why can't I… touch it?"

Annoyed that he hadn't been warned that he would be… a ghost or something along those lines, he hovered in the air and decided to float up to the voice until he could figure out how to make his form complicated enough to literally touch things in this… place.

"Gokou, stop!"

Gokou froze in mid-air. The words weren't threatening or even annoyed, but playful and barely audible by the laughter behind it. What scared him was that he wasn't quite sure the voice was talking to him or not.

Splash!

He would have been soaking wet, and the voice gave a little squeal as apparently she had been soaked.

"Come on in, 'Chi!"

"You mean jump in from this high up?"

"I'll catch ya!"

Her voice went from an unsure nervousness as the male's voice re-assured her, but what was… awkward was that Gokou recognized the voice as his own.

"Is this the past or something?"

"Sure is!"

Bulma beamed at him. He would have fallen over, but there was nothing to fall on to. This time, she had shoulder-length hair so he was considerably sure she was the Bulma from this time.

"Vegeta told me not to help you but I think he enjoyed having two of me around too much. Anyway, I'm not going to stay for long, it's just that you're so silly that I felt bad for you."

Gokou crossed his arms over his chest.

"So when you look behind this boulder what do you think you're going to see?"

Bulma smiled. Gokou thought she was enjoying this a bit too much.

"But… my dress!"

"Take it off then."

"Gokou!"

It was pretty obvious, even when the past Gokou wasn't in sight, that they both shrugged.

"What will I see? Uh… me… and Chichi?"

"And how long ago is this?"

Gokou blinked. How was he supposed to know? Bulma yawned.

"Alright, alright, figure it out yourself. There are two and a half things I want you to keep in mind."

Gokou raised a brow.

"You're not a ghost or anything, but you don't… exist right now yet. Well, you exist but, ugh, anyway, number one is that you have to be careful. I've already seen you falling through objects. All you have to do is concentrate on them really hard. Number two, this is a memory. One of your memories, dug out straight from your mind. Meaning you can't change what does and doesn't happen here. Number two and a half, you can't talk to them or touch them, or at least you ought to not do it."

Gokou stared blankly, annoyed that he had to go through this but, still feeling that slap from earlier, didn't bother ask why he was there. Bulma faded away and he, still feeling uncomfortable about his form sliding through solid objects, he floated above the boulder and faced his past self.

Chi-Chi had just reluctantly removed her dress and was standing in nothing more than her slip, looking rather embarrassed. He looked down at himself. He was stark naked. (Gokou could tell as his clothes were in a messy pile not far away from her neatly folded dress) He crossed his arms over his chest. The only word he could use to explain watching his past self was… odd. He felt sick, like he was watching someone else's life. He was more or less also uncomfortable with seeing Chichi undressed. Not that he didn't like it… he just… she was young… It felt wrong to look at her at that age.

His young form seemed to have no problems, and as she gave a little squeak and dived in, he caught her as he promised.

"Ah, young love."

"I thought you left."

He blinked at Bulma. She shrugged.

"Look how cute you two were."

"This actually happened?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Of course it did. You two used to do things like that all the time. You choose not to remember it. Typical male, selective memory… All you remember are damn fights."

He blinked as she mumbled to herself. He was feeling odd as it was, her sitting there telling him what he did and didn't remember didn't help the situation. Of course Bulma always spoke her mind.

"So now do you know how long ago this was?"

"I don't even remember it happening."

She sighed again.

"This is the day that ChiChi tells you about her being pregnant with Gohan."

Gokou blinked. He was sure he'd remember that but Bulma pointed to the two in the lake. She mouthed the word, "Listen."

"Gokou… uh… how do you feel about children?"

Until Gohan, he hadn't really been exposed to kids as he got older. He shrugged. Chi-Chi was not satisfied. She pressed on.

"Have you ever thought…"

She stopped to giggle. He couldn't tell if she was excited or nervous or both.

"…About being a father?"

"Sure, I gue-"

"Gokou, I'm pregnant."

The past Gokou stared at her in a mixture or confusion at the abruptness and joy. Bulma was dabbing her eyes, giving little sighs telling Gokou she was content. Chi-Chi was nervously looking at him. He was still holding her, and in a moment, he, danced around in the water with her.

"I'm going to be a daddy! I'm going to be a daddy!"

Bulma yawned.

"It obviously didn't stay this happy for long if you force yourself to forget it."

"I didn't force myself to forget anything."

"Okay, rephrased, if you pushed it aside as if it were nothing."

Gokou didn't respond. He'd been a bit more cheerful upon watching himself young, until Bulma reminded him of what a "failure" he was to his family. He sighed. She patted him.

Goku blinked when he looked up to see a much younger version of himself staring at him. "Woah… wild."

Gokou looked at Bulma. "See what I mean?" She nearly hissed, rubbing her head. With a dismissive look, she leaned forwards to the other Goku and with a smile said, "He's here because he's not having enough sex with ChiChi."

"Hey! Don't tell me that!"

The younger Goku stared at him. "What? Why wouldn't I be with ChiChi anymore?"

"It's very complicated, there were these aliens-" Gokou rushed to explain to himself.

"But being married is the best thing ever!" Young Goku smiled. With a mischievous grin he looked back over in the direction of ChiChi.

"Goku! Where are you?" The three looked up to hear a twenty year old ChiChi calling for her new husband.

"Well, have fun with those aliens." The younger version of him said with a wave and a smile.

The two faded away almost immediately, leaving Goku to glare at Bulma.

"Come on, you have a bit more to see."

Once again, a switch popped up out of nowhere. The entire scene had ended and the memory faded. She pulled the switch, and Gokou felt his insides lurch as he gave a yelp in surprise. She waved, grinning. She definitely liked this too much.

-8/10 edit