AN: Wow, whaddya know? I'm actually sitting on the futon in my dorm room right now, typing away. Yup, got moved in. Classes start tomorrow. Here's the chapter. I don't own DBZ.

Chapter Twenty-One—Tail of a Tale

Gohan kicked back and let himself sink into a state of complete, total, utter, one-hundred percent uncompromised laziness. The chair was comfortable, his mother was out of the house running some errands, and Goten was outside on a mission to go bother Mr. Piccolo, so all was quiet. No one was demanding his time or attention.

And besides, Dora the Explorer was on.

"Map!" Gohan yelled at the television screen. A second later, the animated image of a rolled up piece of paper began dancing across the corner of the screen, singing his little song. Then he told them where they needed to go to get to the Bottom of the Ocean. First, they had to go over the Sandcastle. Then they had to across the Boardwalk. Then they would get to the Ocean, where the baby fish lived, by the Big Red Rock. Dora and Boots were carrying the fish home in a bucket.

Gohan had been startled to discover that even with his eighteen year old mind fully intact, his seven year old appearance seemed to be having an affect on his thoughts, perceptions, and ideas. For example, he found himself watching the clock every day, so as not to miss a single episode. As of late, his absolute favorite television shows had been Dora the Explorer and Blue's Clues, with a little bit of Little Bear when he had time.

And best of all, his mother couldn't protest because they were educational shows. So he was free to watch cartoons, and—even better—play along!

The chibi sat quite peacefully in a chair that was far too large for him in his current state. He was the absolute picture of serenity, calm, peacefulness…

"SWIPER, NO SWIPING!!!!!" he jumped up so that he was standing on the chair, and screamed at the screen, where an animated fox was creeping towards Dora and Boots, intent on stealing whatever valuables they happened to have. But luckily, he had said the magic words in time, and the fox's attempts at thievery were thwarted. Gohan had single handedly saved Dora and Boots from being robbed! He sat back down. "Whew. What a relief."

Then his eighteen year old self took over, and he smacked himself in the forehead. "Good grief." And his eighteen year old mind wanted to know why no one ever thought to call the police on that fox. After all, as he had learned from his sociology textbook (which he had read at the tender age of seven the first time around), such acts of deviance had to have a basis either in Swiper's childhood or his atmosphere. Trauma as a young fox could have created a deep seated need for attention, hence his thievish nature. Or, according to the book on Freudian psychoanalysis, the fox's tendency towards criminal acts could have a deep seated base in unconscious sexual desires—

Then the seven year old took over again, and the thought dropped off as the little band consisting of three rainbow colored insects jumped onto the screen, sounded a fanfare, and jumped back off screen, safely out of sight.

Ah, life was good.

A month and a half left until the Dragonballs would reactivate. He still had a few weeks left of this to enjoy. Then it was back to his adult self, and with that would come his normal adult responsibilities. Truthfully, sometimes he wasn't sure why his mother let him off the hook as many times as she had lately. Maybe she felt a little sorry for her older son, who was finally getting a second chance at childhood.

Or maybe she just enjoyed having him safely at home where she could keep an extremely close watch on him to make sure he didn't screw up. That was completely possible as well.

Either way, he was happy.

He snuggled back into his chair and closed his eyes, opting to listen to the television program, rather than really watch it. It was the same, either way. He could still follow what was happening on his beloved cartoon without seeing it. After all, they made certain to announce things.

This was just perfect…so nice and peaceful…quiet…

"GOOOOOOOOOOOHAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!!!" the high pitched yell made the seven year old teenager (?) jump a mile and nearly let out a scream of his own.

So much for peace and quiet, Gohan thought wryly as Goten came bounding cheerfully and noisily into the room. "Hey, squirt…home already?"

"Yup!" the true chibi beamed happily. "I'm home! Whatcha doing?"

"Watching TV."

"Whatcha watching?"

"Dora the Explorer."

"Blue's Clues is better."

"I know that. But Blue's Clues isn't on right now, so I'm watching Dora."

A pause. "Blue's Clues is better."

They had been through this game before, where Goten would say something, Gohan would respond, and then Goten would persist with his original statement, thus creating a continuous cycle of rambling talk. After a few of these such encounters with his little brother's more annoying moods, Gohan simply decided that it would be in his best interest to just not reply at all.

Goten wandered into the kitchen, then came back about five minutes later and once again draped himself over the arm of the chair Gohan was occupying. For a very short moment he was silent.

Then…

"Blue's Clues is better."

"You said that already."

"That's 'cause it's the truth."

"Whatever."

Five minutes later, the whole thing started all over again. By now, Gohan was getting really ticked off. All he wanted to do was watch his freakin' education cartoon shows on freakin' Nick Jr.! What was so freakin' hard about that?

Apparently, for Goten, something was freakin' hard about that. Gohan just didn't know what.

Finally, Gohan's fairly cool temper was starting to heat up. "Goten, do me a favor."

"What?"

"KNOCK IT OFF!!!!!!"

The force of the yell actually sent the younger of the two brothers flying backwards onto the ground. Goten sat up and rubbed at his head before glaring up at Gohan with anger written across the small face. "Well, excuuuuuuse me for living!"

"Son Goten, leave your brother alone!" the Voice of DOOM bellowed from somewhere in the middle of the ceiling.

"How does she do that?!?" Goten wailed.

With a slightly exaggerated eyeroll, Gohan returned his attention to the television, where Dora, Boots and all their friends were doing the 'We Did It!' song and dance number. Ah, back to his regularly scheduled children's television programming. And with Goten fuming on the floor, all was once again peaceful, quiet, and perfect.

Well, as everyone who knows anything about fanfictions knows, when there is perfection, something is seriously wrong. So naturally, something has to happen to upset any and all happiness.

And it did.

Suddenly, up in his chair, Gohan went very quiet.

After a few seconds, Goten leaned back up over the arm of the chair and peered up at his brother.

Gohan was sitting straight up in his chair, back ramrod straight, looking straight forward; his eyes were bugging out of his head for miles. He had a really funny expression on his face (which was only complimented by the frog-like state of his optical organs), and he was all white and stuff. To put it very bluntly, Gohan looked really funny.

"Whatsa matter, big brother?" Goten asked. He still couldn't shake the habit of calling his sibling 'big brother,' even though at the present Gohan only filled one of those statements.

As if it wasn't bad enough already, suddenly, Gohan's body started shaking like a washing machine on spin cycle. Goten felt his own eyes widened—this was kinda cool!

Then, as suddenly as it had happened, Gohan went limp. But only for a second.

Then he jumped a mile and yelped at the top of his lungs, clutching his hands to his backside. "Oh my freakin' Kami, that hurt!"

Goten continued to watch in wide eyed awe. This was really cool!

After running around the room for a few minutes, Gohan finally calmed down, and stood in the center of the room, panting heavily.

"Okay, something's definitely wrong now," Goten said cheerfully; suddenly, Gohan just wanted to punch his brother really, really hard.

But he didn't. Instead, he responded by reaching behind him and pulling what looked like some kind of fuzzy brown rope around himself. He glared at the limp belt or whatever it was in his hand and sighed. "You just had to come back, didn't you? You just had to!"

As if on cue, ChiChi chose that moment to stroll back inside. "What was all that noise I just heard in here?" Her eyes narrowed menacingly. "Were you two making trouble?"

"No, ma'am!" Goten yelped, jumping to the straightest attention position he could.

"Mom, my tail grew back," Gohan informed her, holding the furry extremity out for his mother's inspection. He was suddenly afraid of what her reaction would be.

ChiChi leaned down and stared at her son's tail. Then she stared at her son. Then back at the tail, then back at Gohan. Finally, she stood up straight and sighed. "Gohan, sometimes I think you're turning into your father, and I swear I'll never forgive you for it. So knock it off."

With that, she strolled into the kitchen.

Gohan and Goten stared after her, startled at the lack of outburst. Then they both looked at each other, and Gohan put his thoughts on his mother's reaction into words.

"What the heck was she talking about?"

"Don't argue!" ChiChi's voice snapped from the kitchen.

Both boys jumped. "Yes, ma'am!"

Then Goten tilted his head to one side in thought. "How does she do that?"

Gohan paused. "Wait a minute…that wasn't it…that was really Mom that time." He pressed one hand to his forehead. "Ugh. Too many voices."

AN: Not my best and kind of short, I know, but classes start tomorrow, and I really wanted to get a new chapter up before I dive headfirst into the first semester of my freshmen year of college. Sorry that this was probably kind of disappointing, but I had requests for the tail to come back ^^