Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any other character in the story. Everything belongs to Toei Animation and Akira Toriyama. The only thing I take credit for is the plot and the OCs.

Update: I edited the previous chapters and made some major changes especially in chapter six. If you haven't read them, please do so before reading this chapter.


Chapter 7

"Hey Goku?"

"Sweetie wake up."

"Come on, it's time for breakfast."

"You've got to get up or this delicious food that was put together for you will become cold and unappetizing. I'm sure you don't want that so get up. Plus, a brand-new day is about to start!"

"Hey, get up. Food's ready!"

That familiar sweet voice kept ringing in his head and for a moment, his body kept on tossing and turning around in his comfy bed. He didn't really want to wake up, but at the same time he couldn't ignore the voice. Was he dreaming or was he really hearing her voice? His question was answered as soon as he felt her shaking him gently to wake him up. Opening his eyes, he could make out the blurry image of a hand putting the blanket covers away and touching his bare arm. He waited for a moment to fully regain his vision before trying to recognize the person in front of him.

Goku let out a tired yawn as this woman placed his tray of breakfast on a big wooden table in the center of the room. A few slight creaks from it were heard as everything was put together.

The food's tantalizing smell was making it's way to his nostrils, awakening his Saiyan appetite. Her grip on him was tightening and it was becoming quite strong, so he figured that he might as well get himself ready. He felt her pulling his body into a more comfortable position for him.

Once he was sitting up, his attention momentarily shifted away from the food so he could look into the eyes of his girlfriend. He couldn't believe how quickly things happened between them. It had been days since he left Mount Paozu and the last thing he expected was to fall in love… for the first time.

Suno took a seat next to him on the mattress, placing a hand on his knee and having that adorable smile he loved so much. He just couldn't get over how beautiful she looked. No matter what outfit she wore, this amazing woman still looked stunning. Even in her sleepwear.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

She removed all the plastic wraps covering his meal, revealing an assortment of different dishes. His mouth was already drooling at the sight. Several huge stacks of pancakes stood on one tray along with some bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, toasted bread, waffles, gingerbread cookies and some hot cocoa.

"Yes, I did but you... You brought me breakfast in bed..." Goku stuttered in a tired voice as he was rubbing his pupils. But why did she do this? Didn't he wake up in time to eat with the whole family?

Suno began to pour some cocoa into a mug for her boyfriend, the drink swishing in it as she added a little bit of sugar into it and stirring it before breaking the small silence between them.

"I realized you were still sleeping because you weren't coming down for breakfast. We waited for a while but you were still absent so I decided to bring the food to your room instead, so you can eat here..." She arranged the napkins and other cutlery on the tray with such finesse before she faced him again while trying not to seem nervous.

"My mother agreed to the idea of me bringing your food here. She... knows we stayed up late, but she doesn't know the reason why. I figured it would be more convenient to bring you breakfast in bed."

That was the last thing he was expecting to hear. Suno had gone out of her way to bring breakfast to his room since he overslept? She was so thoughtful and so sweet. She was already doing so much for him but this... this just takes the cake.

He didn't seem to notice her nervousness but if there was one thing he knew, it was how much she adored him. Going out of her way to do things when he would least expect them only made him love her even more. He was certain that she would do something even better than that though he had no idea of what it could be.

"You didn't have to do this for me. I don't think it was necessary at all."

Suno pushed the mug of hot cocoa in front of him before giving him some reassurance. "Come on, it was nothing. You know I would do anything to ensure that you're alright."

Before he knew it, he was pulling his girlfriend closer to him and was soon feeling the warmth of her small body. "Thank you so much for this. I really appreciate it. I still can't believe that you would go this far for me."

Her cheek nuzzled against his in a cute way, and Suno draped an arm around his neck before pointing to the piping hot food she had put on the table. "Well... why don't you get started on your breakfast?"

"I will." He spoke. "But there's something I need to do first."

She had already busied herself with putting some pancakes on a plate for her partner. "What do you plan on doing?"

"I'll just let my actions speak for me."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Goku took hold of her hand, causing her to pause what she was doing. She quickly figured out what her boyfriend wanted, and she couldn't think of anything else which would make her even happier.

The entire bedroom was quiet as it was only the happy couple and the chatting sounds of some residents outside going about their business. He could only sense his girlfriend's mother in the house and while he wasn't sure of what she was doing now, there was no reason to suspect that she would be in any kind of danger.

When he focused his attention back to his girlfriend, he noticed that her smile was becoming more and more brighter.

'It's hard to believe how sad and depressed he was during our reunion in that West City Park. Now he's more cheerful especially since we ended up together...' Those were the very same eyes conveying sadness when he first arrived. Now, that sadness had been replaced with a feeling of hope and happiness.

Goku didn't waste even a second in connecting their lips together. Suno opened her mouth in response, her arms fumbling around until they reached his neck. The couple almost forgot that there was breakfast sitting on the table as they were getting carried away with making out.

He used his strength to lift Suno until she was sitting in a comfortable position on his lap. His fingers were tangled deep into her hair, but as the minutes passed by, she could feel his hands exploring parts of her body just like he had done after their confession.

Goku could feel his lover's body pressed tightly against his as they were caught amid their lovemaking. He deepened the kiss even further, which she didn't mind one bit. One of his hands was now positioned at the back of her head, bringing her closer to him while the other snaked it's way underneath her dress.

'I don't think I'll ever resist her presence.'

That was the only thought he allowed himself to feel how soft and delicate she really was. It made him want to handle her with such care and precision. Their kiss started to slow down... and then it suddenly stopped when a pair of fingers touched a certain spot and gave it a nice squeeze, causing Suno to let out a shocked gasp at the sudden action. She looked down and saw that he touched her-

"G-Goku...?"

A blush formed on his cheeks after realizing the part where his hand touched. It was underneath her outfit and was up her... he didn't want to admit out loud that he liked it, but it was out of place for him to do that. He removed his hand from there, horrified by that action.

"I-I'm so sorry. I didn't know what came over me..."

"It's okay. You didn't mean it."

"But still, it was inappropriate-"

She silenced him with another kiss on the lips. "Hey, it's alright. I was lost in the moment too, you know. Now cheer up!"

'How on earth is she not mad at me for that? But I have to remember that she's not like Chichi. Suno wouldn't be upset with me for one mistake.'

He found himself playing around with her hair and whispering in her ear. "If you say so, my princess."

A blush appeared on her cheeks. "Awww, I like that."

"I'm glad you like it." He said, planting a kiss on her reddened cheek before lingering on the breakfast still sitting on the table. The rumbling of his stomach reminded him of how hungry he was. "I'm going to get started on the breakfast you and your mother put so much effort into preparing. I don't want all of it going to waste."

He was about to grab a fork and get started on his food when he heard the loud rumbling of his girlfriend's stomach. She was embarrassed by it and even tried looking away from him, but he had both of his strong hands cupping her cheeks in mere seconds.

"You haven't eaten yet?"

A slight shake of her head was all she could manage.

"No, I wanted to wait for you first before eating. I guess I must have forgotten to put some food in my stomach while waiting."

She ended that with a chuckle. In a way, she felt like it wasn't right to start eating without her boyfriend. His presence made things a thousand times better.

He couldn't believe she did that as he was expecting her to eat with her family.

"Why did you do that? You could have started without me."

"It's fine. Besides, I'm alright. I can eat something later so just enjoy yourself."

Suno waved her hand dismissively at him as she began to remove herself from his lap, but he held her back, preventing her from making any more movements.

"In that case... why don't you eat with me then?" He offered, not wanting her to go hungry especially because of him.

That was the last thing she was expecting to hear. "No, No, that's not necessary at all. All that food is for you. There's more in the kitchen so I'm fine!"

"I don't think so. I insist that my princess eats with me." He kissed the tip of her nose, earning a small giggle from her. His hand grabbed a spoon that was sitting on the tray and handed it to her.

Suno returned the smile as she took the spoon from his hand. "Alright. I'll eat with my love if that's what he really wants!"

"Of course, it's what I want."

Taking her hand, he gave it a soft kiss before he turned his attention back to her.

"Let's enjoy breakfast together, shall we?" He brought his lips close to her ear as he went on to whisper, "And maybe we can figure out what to do afterwards."

"You're right, we should finish this off quickly."

She couldn't resist wrapping her arms around his neck as she gave him a quick kiss on the lips before removing them again. Goku didn't really want to take his eyes off her, but they had to eat their breakfast before it became cold.

"I'm ready to dig in. What about you?"

"I'm as ready as you are!" Suno grabbed her spoon and was about to put it in her mouth when Goku stopped her.

"Babe? Open your mouth wide."

When she looked in his direction, she saw that her partner had broken off small bits of pancakes onto the fork. Knowing what he wanted to do, she opened her mouth and allowed him to feed her.

Suno waited until she was done chewing the food before smirking at her boyfriend. "I didn't realize you were going to do that and now... it's my turn..."

That was the last thing she was expecting him to do. But she loved it and didn't mind doing this for the rest of their meal.

Suno used her fork to grab two pieces of bacon and held it to his mouth. He chewed down the crunchy bacon and gave her a sly smile.

"Oh, you want to do the same thing too?"

She shrugged her shoulders, trying to hide the satisfaction bubbling up in her chest. "You're the one who started this."

"Fair enough."

He held up a waffle in his hand and waved it in her mouth. Giving her a smile, he held it to her mouth and waited until she was done chewing before he spoke again.

"Did you like it?" Goku asked, feeling satisfied that this was making her happy. He made a mental note to be doing things like this with her more often now that they were a couple.

"Of course, I did."

She looked at what was left on the table and she nearly fainted. They weren't even halfway done, and she was already starting to feel as if she was full. Well, she wasn't really full. Her stomach could use a little more food, but she didn't want to keep eating food meant for her boyfriend, so she pushed the breakfast aside. It was hard to believe that she was able to prepare this much but would never be able to eat the same amount she cooks.

"I'm... I'm kinda full, sweetie..."

Goku scrutinized her as she set the food aside, seeing if she was telling the truth which he immediately knew she wasn't.

"You're a pretty terrible liar. I know you want more food."

"T-That's not true..."

"Yeah, right!"

"But... But..."

He raised a brow at her, expecting an answer.

"I guess you're right..."

With that being said, the couple continued to eat their breakfast with the two of them feeding each other. Goku couldn't help but compliment his girlfriend's hot cocoa and even managed to steal a few kisses from her whenever she looked flustered by them. Within a couple of minutes, they were done eating every single meal on the plate.

"Are you satisfied now?"

Her head laid against his hard chest, arms around his waist. "Yes I am. I won't be able to eat anything else right now, but I've just got to say... thanks."

He was now looking confused. "What for?"

"Once you heard my stomach rumbling, you wanted me to eat with you. You have this no nonsense look whenever I'm trying to hide something, and you manage to exploit the truth from me. I know you weren't doing it to scare me, but because you love me and you can't stand it if something is bothering me. I could have eaten at a much later time but you didn't want that. So..." She stopped fumbling with her fingers, a deep blush starting to form. "Thanks!"

He used a finger to raise her chin so she was directly facing him. He loved those shiny, beautiful eyes of hers.

"There's nothing you should thank me for. I cared about you a lot even before we entered this relationship. And... I've felt so much joy being with you for such a short time. Never forget that."

"Goku..." Suno breathed out. He always managed to bring her to tears every time and she was trying to hold them back but to no avail. "No words can describe how much I love you."

"I know. I'm glad we were able to reconnect again and staying with you here in Jingle Village is the greatest gift I could have ever asked for. When I was sitting alone in West City on that day, I could have never imagined that we would meet again and I'm glad we did. I never realized that I would find true love for the first time in my life."

Memories of what happened the day he fled from Mount Paozu came back to him. He remembered Suno standing in front of him looking for directions somewhere while he was trying to remember where he had seen her before.

He wiped away the droplets of tears now falling down her cheeks. "Please don't cry, babe."

She was sniffling. "I'm... I'm so sorry..."

"Don't be."

"But still... I've been crying too much, haven't I?"

"At least it shows that you care for me. You've shedded a tear once when you learned that I was alive and well after Muscle Tower, right?"

Suno nodded. "Y-Yeah."

"It proves that you have a heart, which is what I love most about you."

"Thank you."

He smiles at her. "No, I should be the one thanking you. For everything you've done for me and all that you have done to make me happy."

She could do nothing but submit herself to him as he gave her a strong kiss which lasted for only a few seconds before he pulled away.

"Are you okay?"

"Yep, I'm alright."

Goku just continued to hold her in his arms like a precious little child, while his girlfriend was enjoying his presence and how he would say sweet and affectionate things in her ear, reminding Suno that it really was worth it waiting for his return.

'How will my parents react when they find out what happened between us? Mom was understanding of my feelings towards Goku and she doesn't reject the idea of me being with him but she wanted me to wait until he divorces Chichi before saying anything to him. From what she says, Dad agrees. B-But what if they oppose this especially since everything happened so soon?'

'I don't know when I'll tell them, but they must know at some point. I can't hide it from them forever... I just hope things will be alright between me and my love afterwards...'

Luckily for her, Goku didn't seem to notice the flash of fear on her face or suspect that anything was wrong. He simply just kissed the top of her hair until he started to wonder what he could do with his girlfriend.

"What do you want to do today?" He asked.

Suno slightly smiled before looking up at the ceiling in thought. "You want me to decide? Hmmm... I'm not sure. I think you should make the decision. Whatever you want us to do, I'm willing to go along with it."

She finished off that sentence with a genuine smile.

"Really? Are you sure?" Goku asked, completely surprised. "I don't mind going along with whatever you want."

"Go ahead and make the decision." She said to him. "I'm very sure that whatever you have in store for us will be exciting."

Goku looked at her incredulously. He remembered all the times Chichi wanted to make every single decision in the household but whenever he compared his future ex-wife to Suno, that controlling woman just didn't compare. It was obvious that she didn't want to force him into doing something against his own will. She wanted him to make the choice, rather than her deciding for the both of them.

This was a nice change for him.

"Alright love, I'll make the decision myself, if that's what you really want."

'Today is our first date so what could I do with her? I could take her to a fancy restaurant, an amusement park or even the movie theater. But I don't have money to pay for any of those services. Suno, Eighter and Hiroshi most likely don't make that much money from the menial tasks they do around the village and whatever is left must be used in providing for themselves and those elderly people. Damn, and I really wanted today to be special for her.'

He was distracted from his thoughts when he felt his girlfriend leaning up so she could give him a kiss, but she couldn't quite do so from her position. He already noticed what she was trying to do so he bent down until their lips made contact once more in a short but passionate kiss.

They smiled at each other for a while after that. Until the village resident suddenly remembered something, turning her head towards the mountain pile of dirty dishes laying there on the table waiting to be cleaned.

Suno sat up, causing Goku to loosen his grip on her. "Hey sweetie, I've got to get all those dishes cleaned up before dinnertime comes around and more plates pile up."

He gave her a frown. "You have to go wash everything by yourself?"

Something about that statement didn't seem right to him. There was something missing from it.

"Yeah." Suno repeated. "The sooner I start, the better. Why do you ask?"

His mind went back to something he told his partner last night. They were on their way back home... Well, he was carrying her in his arms after seeing how tired she was from staying up so late. He had talked with her for a bit about his life in Mount Paozu and the activities he loved doing with his sons. He even joked about her falling asleep on their return home. Once they were back safely, she thanked him for carrying her for their whole journey. Last night was one of the best moments of his life, with both their confessions and all. That was when he remembered the exact words he told her before they both went off to sleep.

'The kindness of my heart and the love I feel for her.'

When Suno told him that she was going to wash the dishes all by herself, something just didn't sit well with him. But now he knew exactly what it was.

"Goku?" She called him out of his trance. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I am." He answered her. "I was just thinking about something. You said you were going to do the dishes right?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" She asked, confusion showing on her face.

"You're not doing it alone." He said firmly.

Suno gave him a look of surprise. "Why?"

"Because..." Goku took her hand in his and held it as he went on to say, "I'm going to be doing it with you."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I can do the dishes by-" Suno began to speak but he interrupted her midway by placing a finger on her lips, silencing her.

"Please, let me help." He pleaded.

"But Goku… it's fine. I can do it on my own."

"I wouldn't be a good boyfriend if I didn't contribute. Just let me help. I can't sit by and watch you do it on your own especially since the breakfast was for me."

It seemed to her as if he wouldn't take no for an answer. "Goku…" She breathed out.

"Why don't we start off by taking those dirty plates to the kitchen first, my princess?" He suggested with a smile.

That was followed up with a kiss on the cheek. "Not a problem, and I love the new nickname."

"I know you do, and I'll be using it more often."

The happy couple stood up from the bed and began to grab the dirty plates from the table, making their way to the exit door. As they were about to step out from the room with the dishes in hand, Goku and Suno gave themselves a reassuring smile. A reassuring smile which indicated that-

No matter what the situation is, they would always have each other's backs.


Gohan sat in his room as he looked at the cellphone and the voice recorder he found in his mother's room yesterday. As soon as he woke up, he went to pick it up from it's secret hiding place. He didn't know what to make of it at all. He didn't even know if it would serve as potential evidence against his mother in court, but he just followed his instincts and took them anyway. He crossed his fingers and hoped that this would expose her secret plans and give them an advantage.

His mind pondered on some of the events that happened yesterday. His mother had arrived home from wherever she came from, and he was shocked for several reasons with one of them being that she was drunk. His mother was drunk. He had no idea what events had occurred while she was away. But there were three questions that were lingering on his mind.

What was Chichi doing? Why was his mother drunk?

And… could she have been with her accomplice last night?

Those questions... he didn't have the answer to them right now. When Chichi arrived on the doorstep last night, she was holding an empty liquor bottle in her hand along with a bag which he was sure contained more alcoholic drinks. He didn't check the bag, so he wasn't really sure. And all her words were in a slur whenever he asked of her whereabouts. She couldn't stand up straight or even move properly, which forced him to help his mother get to her room. Surprisingly enough, she didn't ask about what Goten had been doing since she was gone nor did she even ask about how he was doing... not that the Saiyan hybrid expected her to ask given that she was abusing him not only verbally but physically, forcing him to do things against his own will. He was glad Chichi didn't ask him anything relating to Goten.

All she had done is keep him in his room for long hours, never giving him the opportunity to leave the house, make him study and do homework, inflicting more pain on him if he fails to do what he is asked to do. He had no plans to leave the house yesterday. The only reason why he was even out of the house in the first place was because she had abused his beloved brother, reducing him to nothing more than a pulp with bloody scars and other life-threatening injuries on his skin. He still couldn't believe that he had to take him to Dende before he died. Giving him a senzu bean was also another option, but he didn't have any on him so going to the namekian was his only option.

Gohan lost all respect for Chichi as a person and as a mother. Did she even realize the extent of her own actions!? Did she even realize that she almost killed her own son!? She was becoming a danger to him and wasn't doing anything to benefit him in any way. She raised him for seven years and yet, her behavior back then wasn't as bad as it is now.

He suddenly felt a twinge of pain in his heart. How was his grandfather going to feel when he found out about this? There was no doubt in his mind that the Ox King would be devastated, with the number one reason being that Chichi is his daughter. And to find out that his only daughter was disrespecting Goku and abusing Goten?

As painful as it was to make this decision, Gohan had to act anyway. He had to inform the Ox King of what was happening to Goten. He needed to know if his grandfather was still going to be supporting Chichi or if he would support Goku. After doing some more thinking, he made up his mind. He had to do this, and he had to do it alone.

He decided to go to Fire Mountain where he knew his Grandfather's Kingdom was located.

With those thoughts out of his mind, Gohan looked at the cellphone and the voice recorder that was just lying on his bed. He stared at the two items with a blank expression on his face, not knowing what to make of them. Therefore, he needed Bulma's help for that. Considering that she is a genius, she would be able to figure out what information was on them.

Reaching into his pocket, Gohan took out his cellphone and began to text her. They agreed yesterday that he would bring the potential evidence to Capsule Corp today and then they would look at it and figure out what Chichi was up to. He began to type his first message.

Gohan:

Hey Bulma, how are you? I just wanted to let you know that I'll be bringing the cellphone and the voice recorder today so we can look at it like we planned yesterday. I'm going to see Goten first before I step out of the house. Fortunately, mother didn't find them so I think it's safe for me to bring it over.

After typing the message and sending it, he waited until he got a response from the scientist. His phone made a beeping sound, indicating that she had just seen the message and has given him a response.

Bulma:

Sounds great! I'll be waiting for you. I just hope that there's some kind of evidence against Chichi that we can use against her in court. Hopefully, the cellphone and the voice recorder will provide evidence of her wrongdoings.

Gohan:

I hope so too. We need as much evidence against her so Dad will have a much higher chance of winning custody.

Bulma:

We both know that Goku will get custody. Don't lose faith in your father. He can do this!

Gohan:

I know that... I still believe in Dad a lot and I'll support him through to the end. Anyway, I'm going to see Goten now. It sucks that I can't take him with me since mom will come to his room later and give him more homework.

Bulma:

That's a real bummer. He could have had the opportunity to play with Trunks. Alright, I'll be expecting you along with the potential evidence.

Gohan:

Alright, I'll see you as soon as I can. Take care!

Bulma:

Same to you!

As soon as Gohan was finished texting Bulma, he decided to send a message to Videl and see if she could come. To be honest, he needed his girlfriend's support in this since there was the possibility of this revealing that Chichi is planning something sinister. If she is up to something, what could it possibly be? What could she be planning to do in court that would throw them off track?

Gohan:

Hey V, are you free today?

Videl:

Oh, hey Gohan! I haven't planned to do anything today, so I have some time. Is something up?

Gohan:

Yes. Today I'll be going to Capsule Corp to show a cell-phone and voice recording to Bulma which I found in Chichi's room. I'm hoping that this will uncover evidence that she's secretly planning something.

Videl:

Of course, I can make it. I can take off right now.

Gohan:

Thanks. I really need you there for moral support because I'm scared of what this could uncover. I now fear that mother could be doing something horrible in court which could throw all of us off our guard.

Videl:

Gohan, don't worry. I'll be there. What about Goten? Will you be taking him with you?

Gohan: I'm afraid I can't take him along with me since there's the possibility that mother will come to his room and give him more homework. She'll go ballistic if she finds out that Goten's not in the house.

Videl: But won't she abuse him again like she was doing yesterday?

Gohan: I don't have any other choice. My only hope is that mother doesn't hurt him to the point where he's on the brink of death or she doesn't hurt him at all which would be a miracle.

Videl: That sounds fine. Poor Goten... he doesn't deserve to go through the suffering that his own mother is putting him through. He's afraid that she wanted him dead…

Gohan:

He doesn't deserve any of it. Dad is more than capable of taking care of Goten like a loving parent would. He must win custody otherwise things aren't going to be good for us.

Videl:

That's something the both of us can agree on. I'll let my Dad know that I'll be stepping out to Capsule Corp right now.

Gohan:

Alright, I'll see you soon. Take care.

Videl:

You too!

Gohan finally finished texting, having the utmost confidence that his girlfriend would provide him with moral support should there be a darker and unexpected turn in events. With that part of the job done, he snatched the potential evidence, stepped out of his room and made his way towards Goten's room. He didn't sense his mother's energy anywhere, which is a good sign right now since he didn't know what he would do if he stood before Chichi face to face after what she did to his brother.

As soon as he reached the door, he raised his hand and gently knocked on it. Loud enough to be heard.

"Hey, can I come in?" He asked.

"Sure thing."

The door opened with a slight creak and he found Goten lying on his bed, staring straight up at the ceiling. His arms and legs were sprawled all over the mattress. Gohan didn't need to ask his brother if anything was wrong because he already knew what the problem was.

"Goten?" He closed the bedroom door and took a seat next to his brother on the bed. "Are you alright?"

All he got was a shake of his head. "Not really."

"You had so much confidence yesterday. What happened?" Gohan asked, feeling nothing but concern for him. "Please have faith in father. He has the power to do it."

"I believe in him, but mommy could do so many things to me while you're gone. I don't want to be alone…" His lip quivered. He couldn't say any more.

He began to wince. Leaving Goten here in the house is an extremely painful decision for him but perhaps... he could try and give his brother some hope if he showed him his discovery, even though he wasn't sure if it would reveal anything useful against Chichi.

Gohan pulled out the phone and the voice recorder from his pocket and tossed it on his bed. Goten began to sit up once he saw the items. He gave his older brother a curious look. "What are you doing with those?"

His voice became a whisper since Chichi is in the house and could overhear their conversation. "I found these in mother's room. Remember when I told you yesterday, I found something? This is it. I have no idea what they could contain, but I'm hoping they would provide evidence of her planning something. Something sinister.

Goten's eyes began to light up as he began to recollect his big bro telling him he discovered something. "When exactly did you get these?"

"Yesterday evening." He answered with a low voice while managing to give him a small smile. "After I cleaned up your room, I went into mother's room when she wasn't there because I thought she could be hiding something which would expose her evil plans in court."

"This could be the key of finding out what she's up to?" Goten asked stunned.

"If we can find any evidence on them, then yes. But at the same time, we shouldn't get our hopes up in case there's nothing on it." He said to his brother and put a hand on Goten's shoulder to try and comfort him. "Don't worry, even if there's nothing in there, we won't stop looking. But if there's something in there, we'll need to let Dad in on it as soon as possible. He's going to be the one to present the evidence to the judge in court."

"That's fine."

He felt his big brother pulling him into an assuring hug. "Don't worry. Dad will get custody of you and then we'll move back to Mount Paozu. That's a fact, you heard me? Bulma and everyone else will do their best to help as well."

"Okay." His small arms were around his brother. "I miss Daddy a lot."

"I'm sure he misses you too." Gohan said as he broke away from their hug and smiled at him. "Anyway, I've got to go. Bulma's waiting for me right now at Capsule Corp. She's going to look at these and see if she can uncover anything."

"Okay."

"Also, if mother comes in here, try and stay strong."

"I can't make any promises, but I'll try." Goten said, unsure of what he was saying. He wasn't even sure if he could stand his ground against Chichi. He was weak... or at least that is what he's telling himself. He had learned how to fight, but he couldn't defend himself against the woman who was supposed to be his mother. To him, she was a monster.

He patted his brother's small back and stood up from the bed. "I'll be going now." He said as he took the cellphone and the voice recorder, putting it back in his pocket.

"Mom was drunk when she came back from wherever she was." Gohan explained to his brother while once again trying to sense Chichi's energy nearby. "I don't think she'll be coming here in quite a while."

"Okay."

If his mother was drunk, then that meant that she would be in her room recovering from a heavy hangover. This meant that he wouldn't be seeing her until much later, which was a total relief to him. He wouldn't have to hear that shrill and ugly voice of hers.

Gohan walked to the bedroom door and opened it. As he was about to step out of the room, his final words to his brother were in a whisper, "Please be strong."

Goten nodded his head at his brother as he watched him close the bedroom door. And now, he was all alone. His mother was bound to come in here and he would have no one to save him if she... decided to abuse him again. Gohan just told him to be strong but now, he wasn't even sure if he could be strong for himself. His mother... His mother is going to come in here again. Then she would start hitting him again and leave him all bloody and bruised.

He curled into a ball, bringing his knees to his chest and burying his face. He leaned against his bed in fear of Chichi, who would soon make her appearance. When she shows her face, there was only one thing he was certain of.

He is doomed. There is no means of escape for him.


Mrs Briefs had just done her usual work of watering the plants on one side when she noticed Gohan drop onto the ground after a long flight. She put down her gardening tools to properly greet him and wiped her hands on her outfit as he approached her.

"Hey Gohan!" She greeted the half Saiyan, who smiled at her warmly.

"Good morning, Mrs Briefs!" Gohan greeted in response. "Is Bulma here?"

"Yes, she is." Panchy answered as she placed the watering pot on the soil. "I remember Bulma told me earlier that you were going to come. I believe she's inside along with Videl. Why don't you follow me, and I'll take you to them?"

"Sure thing." He said as he followed the older woman inside the building. As he followed her, he could now sense both of their energies. The two of them were sitting in the living room, awaiting his presence.

"Mom, is there anything you-" Bulma began to ask but then she noticed Gohan's presence behind her mother. "Oh Gohan. You're finally here!"

Videl rose from her seat on the couch and walked over to her boyfriend to greet him. "Thank goodness you're here."

"Hey V, I hope you didn't have to wait long." Gohan said as he wrapped his girlfriend in a hug and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. She enjoyed his touch.

"Well, we didn't have to wait long. Why don't we go and sit down?"

Panchy started walking out, but not before looking back at her daughter. "Sweetie, I'll be outside if you need me. I'm going to see if there are any other plants that need watering."

"Sure thing. I'll call you if I need anything." She said to her mother as the older woman headed out the door.

As soon as the main door was shut, the Saiyan hybrid looked around Capsule Corporation and for just a moment, he was looking confused. He turned to the bluehaired genius.

"Where's Trunks?"

"Early this morning, he escorted my father to an important meeting with another company in regards to a new invention we're both working on together and I have no idea when they're coming back, but I made a promise to Trunks that I will give him some updates if we find anything new."

"That's fine."

Gohan made his way over to the couch and sat next to his girlfriend. He pulled out the cellphone and the voice recorder from his pocket, placed it on the coffee table and watched as both females scrutinized it carefully. Neither of them knew what to make of it.

"I know this looks strange to the both of you but my instincts were telling me to just take it. I have no idea what information could be on them, but mom was hiding them in her room. My instincts just told me to go and search for evidence in her room. I don't even know if there is anything on it so I'm not going to get my hopes up if this turns up nothing."

He really hoped that there was evidence on it which could expose Chichi's evil plans.

Videl placed a hand on Gohan's shoulder, hoping that it would comfort him as they try and find out what was hidden in them. "As Goten told us yesterday, Chichi is planning a fake story and is going to fake her emotions so that everyone will show sympathy for her in court, and she will win full custody and keep Goku away from him at all costs just so she can force her desires onto him."

"Mom disgusts me!" He spat out. "She thinks that Dad is a bad influence on me and Goten so she wants to keep him away from us."

Bulma looked at the half Saiyan in sympathy. "Didn't Goten say that she was going to pay somebody money?"

"Yeah." He said as he remembered what his little brother told them. "By taking money from Grandpa. But how much money is she going to take from him?"

She took the cellphone that Gohan placed on the coffee table. "Hopefully we can find something on this phone. Why don't you two come over so we can look at it together?"

The couple moved over to where the genius was sitting. They watched as she looked around for the phone's power button. "Where is this power button? It has to be somewhere..." She mused as she used her fingers to look around.

"Finally. I found it!" Bulma exclaimed as she pressed the button, switching on the phone. The three of them watched as the screen lit up, showing several different apps on the electronic device.

"That has to be the menu area." Gohan commented as he watched everything pop up. "What do we start searching for?"

"If someone is helping Chichi with her evil scheme, then she would obviously be communicating with this person." Bulma explained as she browsed through the phone. "I think the first thing we would have to look for are the text messages she and this unknown person are exchanging."

"Aha! There's a messaging app on this phone so I think we can start looking in there." Bulma said as she pressed on the icon.

The first thing that appeared were several messages. Some of them seemed to be unimportant but what they were really looking for were any messages that were exchanged by Chichi and her accomplice.

"Woah..." Videl uttered out as she looked through the text messages. "Those are a lot of messages that she took the time to type out."

"Yeah." Bulma answered as she looked through them, her eyes focused on looking for important text messages. "I'm trying to find any information that she shared with her partner in crime."

After a few minutes of searching, she finally came across something interesting. "Guys, I think I finally found something. Look very closely at this." She pointed a finger towards the message she just discovered.

Gohan's pupils widened once he got a look at that particular text message Bulma was pointing at.

Hey Lawyer Nikushimi. How are you doing today?

I hope you're doing well.

My soon to be ex-husband is one shitty guy. I'm being serious when I say this. He is a shitty guy. He never helped me around the house, he never helped me in disciplining the children, he never helped by getting a job to support me and the children. But instead, he chooses to run off and train and on top of that, my sons want to take off after their no-good father when their destiny is to become scholars and go to a fancy university in the future. After that, they'll get a job and bring in money to provide for the family like that good for nothing battle ape wasn't able to do. He's nothing but an ant that I'm going to squash when I see him in court again. There are a few things I have planned on the court day. I must create fake evidence to make it look like he is the bad parent so I can get custody of my youngest son. I must plan a believable story and I have to do everything I can to fake my emotions so my story will be believed by everybody. I must corner him in court. He won't get any visitation rights once I get custody of my youngest son because he's only going to be a bad influence on him. Once I get custody of that brat, I'll make sure that he becomes the scholar that he was destined to be. Same goes to my older son as well. Nobody will ever find out what I'm up to!

They were in a state of shock after seeing the message especially Gohan. Both Bulma and Videl were seething with rage, but the half Saiyan is the one who was pissed off the most. How... How could this happen?

"No way..." Bulma said in shock. "How can this be!?"

"I can't believe what I just saw..." Videl spoke up. She couldn't say anything more due to her shock.

Gohan was clenching his fists in rage. This can't be happening. This can't be the case.

"I'm... I'm finding it hard to believe that this is fucking happening. Chichi is blatantly disrespecting Dad, and she goes ahead to say some bullshit about how Goten and I were destined to be scholars. She wants us to go to a fancy university so that we can become successful and bring in more money for the family because Dad wasn't able to do so. Damn her!" He screamed with rage. "I can't fucking believe her! Moreover, she plans on creating a false story as well as faking her emotions so everybody in court will feel sympathetic for her."

"I can't fucking take this shit right now!" He yelled as he buried his head in his hands. "Why the hell is this happening!?"

Both females looked at him in sympathy. Then Videl wrapped an arm around his shoulder and leaned against him.

"Gohan... I'm so sorry." She whispered as she was rubbing his back gently.

"How can this even cross Chichi's mind?" Bulma asked in disbelief as she also put a hand on his back.

He raised his head to look at the two. "I'm... I'm ready to look at the rest now."

"Are you sure?" Bulma asked as she gave him a sad look. "We can look at the rest later if you want."

"No... I'd rather look at the rest right now and get it over with!" Gohan said, his voice leaving no room for argument.

"Okay." Bulma agreed reluctantly as she scrolled through a few more messages before she finally discovered more. The look on her face fell completely as she read through this one. "These set of messages appear to be an agreement between Chichi and her accomplice."

Gohan and Videl were shocked by the news as they peered over her shoulder to get a good look at the messages.

Nikushimi, I need you to help me with this one. I need you to create as much false evidence as you possibly can while I try and come up with a false story. I need to fake my emotions so everyone will believe me, and I can get custody of Goten. I have to make sure that my story matches the evidence you'll provide for me. I promise I'll pay you back big time for this.

And how do you plan on paying me back? Chichi, you don't even have a job to help support both of your children. I find it impossible that you'll pay me back after I do a large amount of work for you.

Believe me when I say I'll pay you back. Remember when I told you over the phone that my father is the Ox King? He has a huge load of money. If you want money for this, I'll pay you money. Just say how much money you want, and I can get that amount from my father. How much do you want?

Really? Let's see... I want 100 million zeni. Give me that amount and I'll create the false evidence for you.

You want a 100 million zeni!? Are you being serious? That's wayyyyyyy too much money! Is this a sick joke?

I'm being serious. Didn't you just say that your father is the Ox King and that he has a huge load of money? If that's so, then I want 100 million zeni before I start work. It's either you pay me the money, or I'm not going to do any damn work for you, nor will I represent you in court as your lawyer.

Fine. I'll get you the 100 million Zeni. When do you want me to bring you the money?

I want you to bring me the money tomorrow. We'll have a lesser chance of being seen if you bring me the 100 million Zeni during the night, and you should come at 10:00pm. After you give me the money, then I'll create the false evidence for you to use in court and act as a lawyer.

Good. When you're done creating the evidence, I'll start planning the fake story because as I've said before, my story MUST match the evidence provided.

Okay, fine. I'll create the fake evidence for you AFTER you bring me my 100 million Zeni.

I'll bring you the money tomorrow night at 10:00pm. Happy?

I'll be happy once it's done.

Bulma, Videl and Gohan were speechless. All three of them were speechless. They were just at a loss for words to explain what on earth they just saw. There was nothing but anger flashing in their eyes. How could Chichi think of doing this?

"No way..." Bulma stuttered. "Is... Is this what Chichi's planning to do? Make up lies!?"

"I... I can't believe what I'm seeing!" Videl said, her eyes flashing with rage. "I could never have imagined that the woman who I used to think of as my mother figure could resort to such evil tactics!"

Bulma and Videl turned around and noticed that Gohan wasn't saying anything. He was obviously pissed off at the information they just discovered as his head was lowered, covering the emotion in his eyes. He raised his head and turned around to face the two.

"I'm at a loss for words. I really am." He finally said, the expression on his face clearly showing that he is completely livid. "So, the woman who is supposed to be a mother to both me and Goten turns out to be a liar, a conniver, a child abuser and a disrespectful woman!? I can't fucking believe this at all! How dare she!? How could she think of this evil scheme and think that she's a better parent than Dad? That... That bitch!"

"What's going on here?"

The three of them turned to notice the Saiyan Prince standing there, a concerned look on his face having heard the commotion coming from the living room while doing some intensive training in the Gravity Room.

"Vegeta?" Bulma said surprised at seeing her husband standing there. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard the commotion, so I decided to find out what's going on. Why did I hear shouting?" Vegeta asked, noticing that Gohan was obviously distressed.

"Chichi is... Chichi's a total bitch!" Bulma spat out as she handed the phone to her husband for him to look at their discovery. "Just look at all these messages! Look at what she's planning to do! This is not a woman who is a mother to her two sons, this is not a woman who deserves to get full custody of her youngest son, but this is a woman who should go to fucking prison!"

Shocked by his wife's angry outburst, he decides to look at the messages for himself. As he was doing so, Videl was doing what she could even though right now, nothing could really be done to dissipate the half Saiyan's anger.

Bulma had a hand on Gohan's shoulder. She had nothing but sympathy for him, Goku and Goten considering the damage that Chichi is doing to them. That damn woman is planning to keep her childhood friend away from his sons.

The look on Vegeta's face turned into one of confusion, disbelief and finally... he now has an expression of pure rage. Just what the hell was he looking at!?

Gohan noticed the prince's presence and turned to face his girlfriend who was still rubbing his back gently. The Saiyan hybrid was communicating a message to her through his eyes. Finally understanding what he wanted to say, the couple stood from their seat beside Bulma and made their way to another empty couch so Vegeta could sit beside his wife.

Bulma noticed that her partner was now looking super pissed. She opened her mouth to say something to him, but he already beat her to it.

"How... How dare she!" His face was red with rage as he sits beside his bluehaired wife, his eyes looking over Chichi's text messages. "First, she disrespects Kakarot, she abuses her own son and now we find out that she's going to pay someone 100 million Zeni to do her dirty work for her!? What a disgusting human being. That isn't quite right... she's an embarrassment to the human race!"

"I can't fucking believe she's actually going to do this..." Gohan said, clearly distraught by the information. "Since we left Mount Paozu... Chichi changed completely. She just talks shit about Dad and she refuses to allow Goten and I to see him. What's even worse is the fact that she was abusing Goten, leaving him bloody and bruised. I had to take him to Dende before he almost died because of his own mother! This woman is so desperate to get custody of Goten and control his future that she's paying someone... she's paying someone to create false evidence to use in court..."

Vegeta stared at Gohan's distraught form. It was obvious that the Saiyan Prince felt nothing but sympathy. He wasn't quite sure what to say to the half Saiyan to make him feel any better. Their mother has become one of the cruelest people to walk on the face of the earth. Chichi has no regard for her sons feelings since she's about to commit those crimes with no remorse.

The silence was broken when Mrs. Briefs entered the room. Noting that none of the people in the room were in a good mood, the concerned woman went on to ask, "Is everything okay?"

"Mom, can you please give us some privacy? We're looking over something important right now." Bulma asked her mother, forming a tight smile on her lips. Right now, she didn't want to explain to her what was going on because she felt like she would explode in anger. She would tell her mother what was going on, but not right now. Not when they were all seething with rage.

Panchy had a grim expression on her face for the first time. "Okay, I'll give you all some time by yourselves."

She spun around and walked around to another area of the house.

"Gohan..." Videl uttered out her boyfriend's name. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not." He turned to face his girlfriend, his fists clenching. "I just can't take any of this bullshit!"

"Gohan."

The half Saiyan looked at Vegeta who had called his name. He had a serious but sympathetic look on his face for the shit that his mother is putting him and Goten through. "This evidence can be presented in court to expose the harpy's evil scheme. With this, everyone will know that the human trash was indeed plotting a scheme to get custody of him in court. You shouldn't lose hope. Your father has a chance to win this court case."

"Vegeta's right." Bulma said, trying to uplift him.

"I agree as well." Videl chimed in.

He managed a smile. "I know. I won't lose hope."

And so, the three continued to offer words of encouragement to Gohan, who accepted it graciously. No matter what happened, he was going to hold onto hope that his father would win this court case and get custody of Goten. He needed the strength to get through this difficult situation. Both he and Goten had to get through this if they ever wanted to live a happy life again.


Goku and Suno had just finished washing the dirty dishes together and placed them back in their appropriate places in the cupboards and cabinets. They dried their hands on a clean towel before they looked at each other, smiling brightly. Goku couldn't help but take notice of his girlfriend's beauty. She absolutely looked pretty, especially when she smiled at him with so much mirth. Right now, she looked so happy and so full of life that it was surprising him. It brought a smile to his lips seeing his lover so cheerful. To him, his lovely princess looked adorable and Goku knew that he would do anything to make his girlfriend happy. He was glad that he was now together with her and no longer with Chichi, though he still had to sort out their divorce.

"Washing the dishes was a handful but... I'm glad you were here to lend me a helping hand." Suno spoke so softly that it made his heart drop. "So for that... thank you."

Before he could say anything, Suno stood up to her toes and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. He slowly wrapped his arms around her as he responded to the kiss. It was short and soft but there was so much love and passion behind it.

They broke away from the kiss and looked into each other's eyes. Goku gave her a smile as he touched her cheek, finding himself unable to resist doing so.

"No problem. It was only fair that I helped out since you brought the food to my room." He genuinely meant that, and was certainly going to prove to her that he could be a good boyfriend and make some contributions, no matter how small it may be.

She gave him another bear hug. "Thank you again."

When they let go of their embrace, Suno took a quick look around and pointed to an empty couch with two fluffy pillows on either side of it. "Why don't we go take a seat on the comfy sofa over there?"

"Of course." Goku readily agreed. They were the only ones who were in the house since Eighter, Kaiyo and Hiroshi had left the house a while ago and were doing their own stuff around the village which gave the couple some time to themselves.

They were seated comfortably on the piece of furniture and the Saiyan had his strong arms around Suno in an instant which she accepted. She placed her head on his chest, making him give her a loving smile. His hands combed through her soft, red hair.

"What do you have in store for us today?" She asked.

"I still have no idea." He admitted. There were a million things he could do with his girlfriend. It couldn't be that hard to figure something that he could do to make this day special for the both of them even though he had no money.

Suno gave him a soft smile. "It's okay. We still have plenty of time. You don't have to rush through your mind thinking about it. Take your time." One of her hands was gently squeezing his knee as she looked at him with such a gentle and caring expression.

He looked at her incredulously. Another thing he absolutely loved about Suno is that she gave him time to figure things out for himself before coming to a decision. It was what he appreciated since he wasn't always ready to say what was on his mind. Comparing her to Chichi, his future ex-wife... Chichi put too much pressure on him and expected him to do things within the blink of an eye. But as for the adorable woman with him right now... she wasn't like that. He could get used to this.

"Alright. I'll take my time and decide."

"That's fine."

He took a deep breath. "Do you mind if I talk to you about something?"

"Sure thing."

"Well…" He wasn't quite sure how to say this. "I really would have taken you out for lunch or dinner, but I don't have any money on me. And I know that I must support my sons financially if I want to give them a better life. After giving it some thought last night, I was thinking that maybe… maybe I could find a job somewhere in West City with a high paying salary so I can provide for the boys. Food, water, clothing and whatever else they might need!"

Suno looked at him with so much admiration in her eyes before taking his hand. "It doesn't matter if the both of us don't have any money for the date. We can do some sightseeing around different towns and cities or we could even sit somewhere and watch the sunset together. And I love how you're thinking about your boys. Finding a job in the city is a great idea and if you want, I can help you find one after you win the court case. We can start off by looking through the newspapers for some job advertisements and see which one would suit you best. What do you think?"

'It feels so satisfying to have a partner who actually cares about me.'

He pulled her closer to him and gave her a huge grin. "I like that. I can be working hard at my job, spending time with the boys and helping the people of Jingle Village like we just talked about yesterday."

"We can discuss that with my parents after we get back from our date." She said, snuggling closer to him and getting more comfortable. He nodded his head in agreement since they needed to know about it as well.

They continued cuddling together in silence. Then suddenly, his eyes widened as he thought of something and he felt stupid for not thinking about this before. He wanted his girlfriend to experience it as well for their first date as a couple. If both of them did it together, then it would truly be a special moment than if he were to do this all by himself.

"Babe, I just thought of something you and I could do together." He sat up from the sofa, making the red-haired woman resting in his arms to give him a confused look. She would have pouted at him since she was just getting comfortable with him.

"What is it that you just thought of?"

"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you." Goku replied, removing his arm from around her shoulder. "You'll have to come outside and see for yourself."

Suno gave a chuckle. Knowing her lover, he had a surprise in store for her. She knew that no matter what that surprise is, she was going to love it. She wouldn't ask him any further questions.

"Go get dressed." He said, kissing her on the forehead. "I'll do the same."

"Okay." She gave him a smile before she removed herself from his embrace to head to her room and get ready, still unsure of what the surprise he had for her is. Her heart was pounding furiously in her chest.

He started heading to his own bedroom for a quick shower and a change of clothes until something else suddenly occurred to him.

"Wait!" Goku called after his girlfriend, stopping her in her tracks. She turned to look at the Saiyan once she heard him calling her.

He didn't give any response but he began to slowly walk towards her, which began to confuse the red-haired woman. Once he was in front of his girlfriend, he took both of her hands and looked into her eyes.

Suno couldn't help but give him a smile. "Sweetie, what's going on?"

Goku didn't give a response as he used her hand to pull her closer to him and then he pressed his lips to hers in a hot, searing kiss. She didn't waste any time in wrapping her arms around his waist as she began to kiss him back. He firmly kept his one hand at the back of her head and the other hand on her waist as he deepened the kiss. Their bodies were touching as the two of them were kissing each other, not wanting to let go of each other. Goku could feel her tugging onto his shirt as if she didn't want to let him go.

Their kiss lasted for a couple of minutes before they finally pulled away with the both completely out of breath. Despite being out of breath, Goku gave her a smile as he was still holding her hands. "I... I couldn't resist doing that."

"No, it's okay. I didn't mind it."

"I'm glad you did. Anyway, I think you're going to like what I have in store for you so let's take a shower and get dressed, okay?" Goku said to her as he still held onto her hands.

"Okay." She grinned at him. "I can't wait to see the surprise!"

Suno cupped Goku's face into her hands, stood up onto her toes and gave him a parting kiss on the lips before she pulled away, leaving him with a smile on his face.

"I love you." She said, smiling at him.

"I love you too. And... go get ready now, okay?" Goku gave her a heart-filled smile as he was slowly letting go of her hand.

Her eyes were gleaming with excitement. "Alright. Whatever it is that you want to show me must be really good if you're sounding that eager."

"There's nothing to dislike about this surprise."

"I don't doubt that one bit."

The two of them went their separate ways after that to get themselves ready for the day. As soon as Goku appeared in his bedroom, he had a smile on his face. All he knew is that his girlfriend deserved the very best since she waited so many years for him to come back. This was a chance for him to return the same love she had been showing. Nothing could describe how happy he was that he didn't already find someone else before coming back here to Jingle Village. Now he was slowly starting to learn what true love really felt like and how it felt for someone to genuinely love him, and he couldn't wait until the party to introduce this wonderful woman to his friends and his sons. 'I should get in touch with Bulma soon and find out when she plans on throwing the party. Everyone will get along with her, I just know it!'

Goku took a set of clean clothes and stepped into the bathroom with that smile still on his face. As he turned on the shower faucet, he was certain that this surprise would make her the happiest woman alive. Today was a brand-new day with the love of his life.


A heavy traffic jam had finally come to it's end as all vehicles on the road were slowly beginning to move forward. Eighter and Kaiyo were seated in the backseat of a yellow taxicab, both feeling relieved when they saw the traffic light ahead of them turn green. The duo were thankful that they were easily able to find some method of transportation considering how busy most cities were. Both had decided that it was best to leave the house early as they were running low on food items and as such, there were quite a bit they needed to buy. Luck was on their side as they had more than enough money to pay the cab driver and to purchase their food supplies. They didn't earn much every day.

Kaiyo reached into her pocket and pulled out a list of groceries she wrote down earlier before leaving.

Onions

Garlic

Spices

Cooking oil

Butter

Milk

Eggs

Cheese

Fresh fruit

Spaghetti

Lettuce

Beef

Pork

Bacon

Fish

Chicken

Sausage

The list continued on. Aside from food supplies they also needed toiletries, household items and beverages. It was quite a lot, but she remained hopeful that all of it was affordable.

"Are you alright, Kaiyo?"

She looked away from the grocery list when she heard Eighter call out to her.

"I'm fine." She said with a smile. "I'm just looking over what we need to buy."

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can buy everything."

"You're right."

They sat in silence for a few minutes as the taxi was still driving them to the nearest grocery store. Then something occurred to the android. "Do you think Goku and Suno will be okay by themselves?"

"Of course, they will. I don't know what they could be doing at this time of the day, but I know Goku will keep my daughter safe."

"That's true." He agreed.

"Alright, we're finally here."

They looked up and saw the driver parking the car inside an available slot in the parking lot.

Kaiyo opened a bag and took out a good amount of zeni, handing it to the man. "Here." She watched as the driver reached out to grab his money. He counted it, flashed his two passengers a smile before he stepped out of the cab and opened the door for them.

They stepped out of the taxi and waved to the driver as he pulled the taxicab out of the parking lot and sped away. Eighter bent down and took the grocery list from the floor, giving it back to her. "You dropped this."

"Oh, thank you." She took the list from his hands. "I didn't realize I dropped it."

She reached into her bag and took out a pen. "Eighter, here's what we're going to do. Whenever we find any of these items on the list, we're going to cross it out so that we know we've bought it already."

"Sounds good!"

"Here." She hands the pen and the list of groceries to the android.

The duo head to towards the entry door. An employee standing near the door opened it for them. They exchanged smiles before entering the grocery shop. As soon as they were inside, they could see shelves full of fruits, vegetables, meat and other products as well as many people shopping for their own stuff. A cashier was sitting behind a desk and handling the customers in line.

"I doubt that we'll have any difficulty finding what we need." Eighter commented as he took a shopping cart and looked over the list.

"I agree." Kaiyo grabbed a shopping kart as well, seeing that they were also going to be buying other things aside from food. "What do you think we should buy first?"

Eighter looked through the list of items. "Let's see…"

They ascended further into the store in search for what they were going to bring home in the evening. After both found one item, they would grab it from the shelf, put it inside their shopping carts and Eighter would cross it off the list before they would search for another thing.


Goku had just stepped out of the shower, having put on the clothes he picked out earlier. He smiled once more at the thought of taking his girlfriend out on their first date. He was certain that what he was about to show her would make her happy. He wanted to see that smile on her beautiful face when he showed her what he had in store for them both and told himself that he would treat his love like a real gentleman every chance he got. Whether they were on dates or not.

His train of thought was interrupted when he heard a few soft knocks on the door.

"Hey Sweetie?"

"Yeah babe?"

She stuck her head through the door. "Do you mind if I come in?"

His smile widened. "Of course not."

Suno stepped inside the bedroom. Not only did she have that heartwarming smile on her face, but she was looking breathtaking to him. She wore a dark green sweater, purple gloves, baggy pants and snowshoes. She also wore an orange hat on her head along with that same scarf he gave her last night. He took notice of the fact that she wore a necklace with a heart shaped pendant on it. His girlfriend looked beautiful, and he felt like taking her into his arms right then and there.

"Baby, you look amazing." He complimented her with a smile as she made her way towards him. "No... I take that back. You look like an angel!"

"Awwwww, thank you. That's so sweet." To hear her love say that really melted her heart. "I have to say…" She looked him down from head to toe before holding both of his hands. "You're pretty handsome."

Goku began to blush as both of his cheeks were turning pink. "T-Thanks." Today is the first time he had ever heard Suno say he is handsome. Well... he did hear her say he was attractive on the day they reunited in West City, and that was because it was her first time seeing him as an adult. But this time, she was finding him to be handsome because of the way he dressed. Nonetheless, he accepted the compliment.

Suno gently cupped Goku's face in her hands and connected their lips together. She was about to pull away when the Saiyan slowly began to respond, putting as much strength as he could into the kiss. His strong arms were around his girlfriend's waist, and he used that as an opportunity to pull her closer to him until their bodies made contact. He felt like he was in heaven, being alone with her and showing the littlest signs of affection at every chance.

When they ended the kiss, they looked into each other's eyes with a happy smile. Goku slowly touched her cheek as he used a finger to lift her chin. "Are you ready to go, my lovely princess?"

"Of course I am." The village resident took his hand, blushing at her new nickname for a moment before pulling his hand and dragging him to the exit. "Now come on, let's get going!"

"Alright, but slow down or you might ruin my shoes!"

"Oops, sorry…" She let go of his hand and allowed him the chance to regain his footing. "I guess I'm just a little excited."

"No worries, my princess." Seeing the mad blush on her face, he used that as an opportunity to give her a quick kiss on the forehead.

Goku wrapped an arm around her as they stepped out of his bedroom. They walked through the hallways until they reached the front door in the sitting area. He turned the door handle and opened it. With a heartwarming smile, he gestured for his girlfriend to step out. "Ladies first."

Suno smiled at him before stepping outside. Her Saiyan boyfriend followed afterwards and shut the door. He reached out for her hand and intertwined her fingers with his. The two of them began to walk into the snow, being careful not to fall. The Saiyan still had that smile as he pulled his cute partner closer to him and tousled her red hair.

"I was kind of surprised when you said ladies first." She spoke up to break the silence. "I was expecting you to step out first."

He raised her hand and kissed it. "It's just one of the steps I'm taking to treat you right as my girlfriend, that's all."

She knew he was being serious when he said that. He was really going to treat her well as his significant other and was already starting to feel as if she were special to him.

"Thank you. It makes me glad to know that you're trying."

"And now…" He began to look on ahead at everybody going about their daily lives and it always made him happy seeing how peaceful things were in the village. People heading to work, children playing together in the snow and others just minding their own business. "It's almost time for me to show you the surprise. Now come on, follow me!"

She nodded without saying anything but felt happiness deep inside.

The couple were walking through the snow for what seemed like hours. During their seemingly long walk, they talked about many things. Suno told her boyfriend about how she managed to earn quite a lot of money after doing a temporary job in one of the nearby cities. That money was used in expanding their house. While it was still quite small, there were now a few rooms. Two of which included the laundry room and the spare bedroom he was currently occupying. She even managed to buy a small washing machine and dryer which saved her and her mother a lot of time since they always had to go to a laundromat in the early hours of the morning if they wanted to get any clothes washed. Now, it was no longer necessary.

"My parents were so worried about me working late at night that they would send Eighter to come and get me as soon as work was over. By the time I was done for the day, he would be standing outside waiting for me."

She remembered the days where she would receive a call from her mother through a telephone at her place of employment while in the middle of work to let her know that the android would come and pick her up. And then they would walk home together.

"I'm so proud of you." He said as he held both of her shoulders. "You worked so hard every day. Not just for your family, but for all the villagers." He could feel a sense of pride dating someone who was not only kind and compassionate, but hardworking as well.

"It's… It's nothing. You know that."

"I'm going to help out as much as I can, alright?"

Her eyes gleamed in excitement. "I know. I just can't wait until we start working together as a team!"

"Don't worry, I'll talk to your parents about it and figure something out." He knew it wasn't safe for his love to be out there by herself especially in the middle of the night.

She agreed wholeheartedly.

Suno could feel her feet beginning to hurt from the long walk they had. "What is this surprise you have in store for us?" She asked with a smile as she looked at Goku. "We've been walking for quite some time, you know."

"Now's the time to see it." He answered with a smile.

Cupping both of his hands in the air, the Saiyan gave out a loud yell. "NIMBUS!"

A yellow cloud soon appeared before them. She was in a state of surprise at Goku shouting the word 'Nimbus' and then seeing some random yellow cloud appear before them. What was happening right now?

"Wow!" Suno exclaimed in amazement as she pointed a finger to the cloud. "What is that?"

Goku laughed at her expression. "That's the flying Nimbus. It's a form of transportation that-"

The village resident stopped her boyfriend's explanation as she recalled something. She had seen this before. "I know what it is now. Don't you remember the day you left Jingle Village, you called it so you could travel back to West City?"

"Really? The truth is, I don't remember it at all." He said, amazed.

"What happened was that you said that the Flying Nimbus had been destroyed. And at first you mentioned that you wanted to walk all the way to West City. But on the day you left and we met to say goodbye, one of the villagers told you to call the Flying Nimbus. You did and it showed up. You were so happy to see it again that you almost forgot to say goodbye to us." She explained to her boyfriend. The memory was still fresh in her mind even after all these years.

"Wow… it's incredible that I forgot it." He spoke, but with a bit of dejection. "Well then… I'm going to change the surprise."

"Change the surprise?"

He nodded in sudden excitement. "That's it. I will take you for a ride in the Flying Nimbus!"

That was the last thing she was expecting to hear. "Really? But… what if I fall through it?"

"Babe, there is no way for that to happen. Only a person with a pure heart can ride it. If an impure person tries to ride the Nimbus, that's when they'll fall through it."

"You really want me to ride the Nimbus?" She asked, still in shock.

"Of course, I do. I know you can ride it." Goku said encouragingly. "Come on, don't be afraid."

Suno continued to stare at the cloud for a few moments, unsure of whether she should do this or not. The Saiyan was starting to grow concerned about her silence. "Hey."

"Y-Yeah?"

"I promise nothing's going to happen to you." Goku said to his girlfriend, seeing how hesitant she was. "Do you trust me?"

Suno looked at him momentarily before she turned to look at the yellow cloud floating before them. What made her so nervous about riding it? Her boyfriend had just told her that nothing was going to happen to her. She knew that he wouldn't allow anything bad to happen. She trusted him on that one. There was no way something horrific could happen when he was going to be there for her.

She finally turned to face him with a smile. "I trust you."

Goku returned the smile and said, "Here, let me help you. Take my hand." He offered her his hand in order to guide her.

Suno accepted it and she carefully stepped onto the Nimbus cloud. When she did that, she could see that she was sitting on the cloud with no problem at all. She didn't fall through the cloud like Goku said an impure person would. She was comfortably settled on the Nimbus, which meant that...

"See? I knew you could do it. You're sitting on the cloud right now, which means you're a pure hearted person." He said to his girlfriend with a smile. "If that was all you were worried about before, there's nothing to worry about now. You're going to be just fine."

"Thank goodness." She sighed in relief.

"It's time for me to get on the cloud as well." Goku slowly stepped onto the cloud and sat in a cross-legged position behind his girlfriend.

The village resident turned her neck to look at him with a soft smile. "Where are we going to go?"

His silence told her everything she needed to know. "I'm guessing that's a surprise too?"

"You're right about that one. There's a special place I wanna show you!" Goku grinned at her. "We're taking off!"

The Nimbus suddenly took off with such an amazing speed. The air was brushing against them furiously as the cloud was just blazing through the wind. Within a couple of minutes, they were already passing through West City and through many different places. Any town, city or village appeared to be in a blur for the human woman. Suno was so scared that she clutched onto her Saiyan boyfriend for support. She grabbed onto her orange hat, not wanting it to fall. Her red hair was blowing so quickly against the wind and into her eyes, obstructing her view of everything.

"H-Hey Goku!" Suno cried out, completely startled. "This... This is a little too fast for meeee!"

The Nimbus began to slow down, allowing her the chance to relax. "Hehe." Goku chuckled while tightening his grip on his lover. "Sorry about that. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." She replied, a little bit disheveled due to the speed which the Nimbus was flying at. "I didn't know it could go this fast." She repositioned her hat back on her head as she told him this.

"I'm sorry." He apologized as he took note of her disheveled appearance. She was still afraid after what had just happened. Her hair was all messed up because of him. How could he make the cloud go at lightning speed when this was the first time his girlfriend was riding it? He should have taken it slow and easy.

"Don't worry about it, it's okay." Her finger was on the heart shaped pendant in relief. "I was just a little startled, that's all. Give me a warning next time, okay? I don't want you to scare me like that again!"

"Will do. I promise."

She swiveled around and gave him a quick kiss on the lips in return before returning her gaze down below them.

Goku could tell that his girlfriend was really enjoying being in his arms and exploring everything in sight.

Suno looked down at the ground below them and her mouth dropped in astonishment. "Oh my God... I've never seen anything from above before. This is awesome!"

Goku smiled at her before he looked down below. Below them were cities, houses and other buildings of sorts which included stores, restaurants and other large buildings that the couple could see from afar. Everything looks so magnificent. They could see the bright lights and even some of vehicles driving along the roads. It was truly a sight to behold, especially for Suno.

"Wow..." She uttered out as she was observing everything from the Nimbus. "It's really amazing to be able to look at everything from above. I... I have never seen everything like this before!"

"How do you like the surprise so far, babe?"

Suno looked up at him and answered, "It's really awesome. I wasn't expecting to see this cloud again after many years, so thank you for putting all of this together."

Goku kissed her lips softly and looked into her eyes. "No problem."

The couple had been riding on the Nimbus for quite some time. They had both been actively conversing especially when Suno would point out something below them and Goku would just laugh or chuckle at her, embarrassing her in the process. But regardless of how he laughed at her or teased her, she was enjoying herself and she appreciated the fact that her lover would go out of his way to show her the Nimbus Cloud and ride it with her. He had given her something to experience.

"Hey Goku..." Suno couldn't help but wonder. "Aside from me, who else rode the Nimbus with you?"

The question had him shook, having remembered one person he used to ride the cloud with. Regardless, he answered her with a joyous expression at first. "Well, when Gohan was younger, I used to sit with him on the Nimbus. Same for Goten when I permanently returned to earth after defeating Majin Buu…" His expression soon changed to a pained one. "And then I used to take my wife rides on it when we were children and even as adults."

'Dammit, I inadvertently made him bring up his wife again. How could I be so-'

She interrupted her own thoughts, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to remind you of her..."

He couldn't blame her at all for being curious. "Don't worry about it. I completely trust you to tell you about anything involving my soon to be ex-wife. Don't beat yourself up over it."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm completely fine, don't worry about me." He gave a light smile while looking around them for the destination he had in mind.

"Alright, if you say so." She gave a light chuckle.

"The place I wanna show you isn't far from here. You suggested earlier that we could watch the sunset together. I'll show you around this special area for a couple of hours and then we can go ahead and do that. What do you think?" He asked as the cloud was slowing down, indicating that they were almost at their destination.

Suno gave him a bear hug in pure excitement. "That sounds great. I would love to watch the sunset!"

"Awesome, it's settled then."

The Flying Nimbus lowered down to ground level, giving them both the opportunity to get off. Goku jumped off first and held out a hand for his girlfriend to take. She wasted no time in taking it and with a little hesitation, she managed to put one foot on the ground.

"Alright, now put your other foot down. I'll be holding your hand, don't worry." He reassured.

With her boyfriend's guidance, she managed to put her other foot down and thus, getting herself off the cloud.

"Phew!"

"It was nothing scary. I was there, wasn't I?"

"Yeah, you were…"

Suno scrutinized the area they were currently in and was amazed at what she saw. This place was like a wildforest of some sorts with all these tall trees and greenish vegetation. There was some blossoming flowers, fruits and vegetables. Grapes, mangos, bananas, strawberries, apples… she wouldn't mind having some but first she needed a tour of this place and plus there was going to be dinner sitting on the table when they arrived back. Not to mention that she loved those high mountains and wondered for a split second if she would ever be able to climb them.

'Maybe we could make a return here and I can climb those trees and mountains someday. I've always wanted to try new things and thanks to Goku coming back into my life, I might experience them. I should talk with him about coming back here' She thought to herself dreamily as she imagined both herself and her Saiyan boyfriend climbing the highest trees and mountains together.

"This is awesome… How did you find this place?"

"Well…" He scratched the back of his head. "I used to come here sometimes when Chichi would kick me out of the house. It was the perfect place to be whenever I needed a piece of mind. Away from all the home struggles. I'd just temporarily forget everything that was happening involving me and my wife. This place is just like Mount Paozu in a way. Calm and serene…"

She couldn't help but smile at her boyfriend as she took his arm. "Is that so? Why don't you show me around then?"

"Okay, Okay, my princess!" He laughed as his human girlfriend nuzzled her head against his arm. 'Look at her, she's so cute...'

The couple headed off further into the woods while chatting happily. The snapping of twigs was heard as well as animals scampering away. Suno giggled when she saw a monkey approach them and her hand reached out to pet the animal before it ran away. He assured her that there would be more wild animals on the way and began to explain to her about how there were many of them in Mount Paozu and how he would either hunt them down for food or compete with them in races when he was a small child.

All of that amazed the human woman and she knew she was going to enjoy the rest of the day with her love. Taking a tour and watching the sunset together… what could be better than that?


All four people seated in the living room were pissed off, especially Gohan. Mrs Briefs had left to give all of them some privacy before returning to her work, worried about what was going on. They had listened to it so many times that they couldn't think about anything else. They were all furious to the bitter core at what they had just discovered on the tape. It was shocking and infuriating as they listened to the recording on high volume.

"No words can describe how fucking pissed off I am right now!" Gohan spat out with such venom in his voice. "Chichi really is a disgusting human being. She's having her accomplice create fake evidence for her to use in the custody hearing and she's making up her own story to make it look like Dad is a terrible parent so she can get sole custody of Goten and force him to do endless studying so he can become a scholar. And when he's not able to finish his homework on time, she abuses him. That fucking bitch thinks that Dad is a bad influence on the both of us, so she wants to keep us away from him. What a load of crap. This woman is not my mother!"

He clenched his fists in pure rage. At this point, he really wanted the beat the living hell out of the Ox Princess if he saw her. How dare she disrespect their father!?How dare she even think of laying her hands on Goten!?

"Why... Why is this happening right now?" Gohan said with devastation in his voice as they had finally seen all of the evidence. "I can't believe the bullshit information that we just listened to on the tape!"

Videl could do nothing but try to comfort her boyfriend. "I'm so sorry about all this. I myself can't believe that Chichi would do this. She's... She's truly a despicable woman!"

The genius could only look at the half Saiyan in sadness. She felt bad for both him and Goten. Their mother is an evil woman who only wanted her own selfish desires fulfilled and she didn't even care that she was hurting them in the process.

The Saiyan Prince placed a hand on his wife's shoulder. He looked at her momentarily before he turned his attention to the angry half Saiyan.

"Gohan."

He raised his head when he heard Vegeta calling him. He didn't know how much more he could take. He wasn't sure if he could take any more bad news. He just wouldn't be able to take it if they found out anything more about Chichi. He would fucking explode if she was doing anything else aside from what they discovered.

Vegeta addressed him in a serious tone. "Kakarot needs to be informed about this as soon as possible. You should call him and inform him of what is going on with you and Goten. Tell him everything that we just discovered. He must know!"

"This... This is something I can't tell Dad over the phone. Considering how serious this situation is, it would be better to tell him face to face. That way, we can also show him the evidence we have against Chichi." Gohan reasoned. "He's going to be upset when he finds out about all of this."

"He'll be extremely furious." Vegeta agreed with him. "To have to find out that Goten is being abused by that pathetic excuse he has for a mother. I am certain that he would want to track down the harpy and make quick work of her."

Gohan gave a chuckle, imagining his father using the instant transmission technique to sense Chichi and teleport to their 'home' to teach her a hard lesson. "As pleasing as that sounds, Dad can always do that in court using the evidence we have. He can easily render Chichi speechless once he presents the evidence in court. If he finds out about all of this before we have to show up in court, he might try to rescue Goten and it won't be good since that woman could try and use it against him."

"In that case..." Bulma mused in thought. "Why don't you call your father and set up an appropriate time to meet? I can call the others so we can also let them in on what's going on."

Gohan thought about it for a moment. An idea came to his mind. "Actually, I think we should wait until the get together party."

Videl turned to look at her boyfriend in surprise upon hearing this. "You want to wait until the get together to tell your father? Why?"

He gave a heavy sigh. "I know parties are never the best times to tell bad news, but if you think about it... it kinda makes sense in a way. Dad said he's going to be there and everybody else is going to be there as well. We must show him the evidence. Not just him, but all of our friends. Also, Goten said he wants to come to the party as well."

"Wait... wouldn't Chichi object to this? I'm pretty sure that she wouldn't want you or Goten to go to the party." Videl said to her boyfriend with concern. "If she learns that Goku is going to be there, she'll go berserk since she didn't the both of you to see him because of him being a crappy influence."

Gohan gives a dark laugh before clenching his fists. "If Chichi doesn't like it, then that's her own problem. I no longer care about her opinion. She doesn't deserve to be called our mother anymore!"

They all sat together in silence, trying to figure out what they were going to do about all of this newfound evidence. They were in a tight situation, one where they couldn't use any fighting experience to gain an advantage over their enemy.

"How would we find out where she's going with the money?" Videl couldn't help but ask. "Since she's going to deliver the 100 million zeni to her friend at 10:00pm, wouldn't it be helpful to know where she was going with the money?"

"Now that I think about it..." Bulma muses in thought. "It would be helpful to find the location of their meeting. I know exactly how we can find out. We can use another voice recorder. I've created it myself and tested it so I'm sure it'll work just fine. Gohan, you can follow Chichi when she's about to leave the house. When she reaches the residence of her accomplice, that's when you can turn it on, and it can record the entire conversation. You three wait here while I go and get it!"

The three of them watched as she disappeared into her laboratory to retrieve the device.

"Are you absolutely sure that you want to wait until the party to tell Kakarot about everything we've discovered about the harpy?"

"I'm a hundred percent sure about this. As I've said before, it'll be best to show Dad the evidence in person. And besides, Goten is going to see Dad again at the get together party. He doesn't know that, and I can only imagine how happy he'll be when he sees Dad again."

"If you say so."

"That makes sense." Videl agreed. In her mind, she was imagining how father and son would react when they finally meet again. Now, she couldn't wait to see a happy reunion between them.

"I'm baaack!"

Bulma arrived back in a singsong voice holding what they knew was the voice recorder. She held it up in the air before retaking her seat next to her husband and setting it on the center table.

"This is it." She proudly announced, pointing to the small device with a control panel and an on and off button and one that was labeled as 'record.' "If you turn it on and press this record button, it'll record any conversation and if you want to stop recording, you can press this button over here and save the recording." She pointed to a red button. "It's simple, isn't it?"

"It sure is…" A smirk came onto Gohan's face. "It'll be easy to follow Chichi and make sure she doesn't catch me."

"So, it's agreed then. Tomorrow we'll find out where Chichi is going using this voice recorder I've created. Gohan will follow closely behind her, and we can track down where she's going with the 100 million zeni. And maybe even find out the identity of her accomplice!" Bulma announced. She then proceeded to explain the other functions of the recorder, and showed the other buttons on it like the rewind and forwarding buttons, and also explained how to save a recording as well as how to access it later.

"That sounds great." Gohan felt pleased that everything was going well for the most part. "We have a lot of evidence we can use against Chichi in court. The text messages between Chichi and her 'friend' which exposes her evil plans, the voice recording and we have the pictures of Goten from when Chichi abused him. That's a lot of evidence. On top of that, we're going to be finding out where she's going with the money."

Unbeknownst to everyone, more evidence will be discovered.

Videl clasped her hands. "So Goku has a chance at winning this court case. With what we have right now, there's no way that Goten will remain in her custody!"

Bulma looked at the evidence sitting on the coffee table. "We'll still have to be careful of what Chichi could possibly say in court. But Goku will get custody of Goten. That's a fact!"

Vegeta managed to crack a smile at their discovery so far, being very pleased with their progress. "There is hope after all."

"As I was just thinking…" He said, his attention now focused on the bluenette. "I'm going to wait until the get together party to tell Dad about everything that had occurred. I feel like it'll be better this way."

"That's fine. I respect your decision."

"And… there's something else I just remembered."

"What is it?"

"It's Grandpa." Gohan answered with a grim look as he thought of how the Ox King was going to react. "I... I must tell him about what's going on. He must know that Chichi... his own flesh and blood has become one of the cruelest people on this earth. I must explain to him everything that has occurred. He hasn't visited us for quite some time, and I have no idea what he's been up to since."

Bulma felt saddened by this. "Oh no... he's going to be so heartbroken when he hears about all of this. His only daughter has become an evil and cunning woman. I feel terrible for him."

"I... I can't believe he has to hear the truth about Chichi. He'll be upset when he finds out about all of this. She was abusing Goten, leaving him with cuts and bruises all over his body." Videl spoke with genuine sadness, her hand still on her boyfriend's shoulder.

"Damn that harpy!" Vegeta gave an angry growl as he had a fist clenched in his hand. "She has done nothing but damage control."

"It's sad." Bulma commented, wiping a tear from her eye. "But the Ox King has the right to know. Chichi is his daughter and Goten is his grandson."

'It's not safe for my brother to keep living in the house especially after Chichi maltreated him and left him on the brink of death. What if she thinks of abusing him a second time and just overload him with homework? There's no way the two of us can keep living with her. We've got to get out of that house. It's not safe there!'

"As soon as I return from Fire Mountain, Goten and I are going to escape from the house. We'll not be living with our former mother anymore."

That came as an initial shock to them.

"R-Really? Don't you still have to be living with her before the court case comes up?" Videl questioned.

To her surprise, Vegeta answered. "After the first beating the harpy inflicted on him, it wouldn't be safe for them both to keep living there. The worst she can do is try to find them and force them to come back and live with her or-"

"Chichi could leave them be because she already thinks she's won." Bulma continued, giving the half-Saiyan a supportive smile. "If they flee from the house, I'm sure it'll be okay. And they can come stay here at Capsule Corp if they want to."

This made the human girl contemplate. "Well, if they're going to leave the house, I think they should stay with me in Satan City!" She couldn't help the blush forming on her cheeks.

His face was also turning red. "And you're sure that there are no problems with that?"

"O-Of course not. My Dad will be fine with it considering the circumstances you're in. I'll let him know you're temporarily moving in!"

The blushing faces made the scientist laugh loudly in amusement. "I can see that you two lovebirds have some catching up to do."

"BULMA!"

"What?" She shrugged her shoulders. "It's no secret that you two are in a relationship. Gohan, if you want to catch up with Videl, you should move in with her for the time being. And Chichi probably won't even figure out where you are."

The blush disappeared from their cheeks. As much as they hated to admit it, she had a point. They hadn't been able to hang out as much partly because of school and because of her. "This is going to make Goten happy. V, you can expect us to be at your house in the evening. I don't know what time, but we'll be there no matter what!"

He was rewarded with a kiss to the cheek. "I'll be expecting you."

Even Vegeta couldn't help but snicker a little bit at the display.

After a while, the atmosphere was becoming serious once more. Gohan couldn't help but feel as if he were missing something. They had gone over the necessary evidence. The pictures of his brother bloody and bruised, the text messages and the voice recording between Chichi and her accomplice so why did he feel as if he was missing something? Then finally, the answer dawned on him. The name of her partner in crime. It had been in two of those text messages.

"There's… There's something else we're missing!"

Bulma looked at him confused. "What is it? Haven't we gone over everything?"

He didn't answer right away. Instead, he took the cellphone and accessed the text messages, scrolling through them. "Chichi mentioned the name of her friend in a few of her messages." His face lit up when he finally found the name. "I found it. She said the name, Nikushimi. Do one of you know anyone going by that name?"

"Nikushimi?" They repeated.

"Nikushimi… Nikushimi… Nikushimi…" Bulma mused, trying to remember if she knew anyone by that name. "I don't think I have- Wait a minute!" Her expression turned into one of shock and horror. "He couldn't be the one helping Chichi with her evil plan, could he?"

"Do you know this guy?" Videl questioned, not liking what was about to come.

"I think it's Lawyer Nikushimi!" Seeing their confused looks, she gave a short explanation. "He's one of the most famous lawyers in West City. He's won all his cases and is skilled at his job. I first heard about him through the news. But… how did Chichi contact him?"

"If he's very famous, someone must have recommended him to her. Probably a close friend of hers." Gohan suggested.

"It could be."

"Hold on a sec…" Videl had to wonder. "Why would Nikushimi be helping Chichi? A real lawyer should never use criminal tactics to win a case, nor should he ever accept bribe from his clients which in this case is the 100 million zeni. If you ask me, something isn't right…"

Bulma slowly nodded her head. "Exactly. They would use honest means to win their cases. I'm starting to get suspicious of this guy. He's famous and everyone loves him but I'm starting to wonder if he really is a good guy. He's earned the respect of millions of people."

"This Nikushimi guy must have been involved in some criminal activity in the past that nobody knows about." The Saiyan Prince reasoned. "Is he really a lawyer?"

"Since Chichi is meeting up with him tomorrow night at 10:00pm, I'll try and find out something about his identity when I follow her to his place of residence. Maybe he'll say something to her about who he really is."

The scientist beamed. "That's great. And I'll search online and see if I can find anything interesting about him."

"And… I think you should keep the rest of the evidence." He stated, knowing that she kept that she was keeping the pictures of his brother's battered and bruised body in her lab. "I wouldn't want Chichi to stumble across it somewhere while she's doing her chores. When I looked in her room, I made sure not to leave any evidence of me snooping around."

"Don't worry, I'll keep it."

"I think it's about time we all get going. If I hope to see Grandpa, I'll need to leave fast." He said, getting up from the couch with his girlfriend doing the same.

"Of course."

Bulma followed them outside the door. She stood by the door while the young couple were on the pathway. "Remember the plan. You can come back here before ten o clock tomorrow for the voice recorder, head back to the house and follow Chichi out of there."

"I won't forget, and I'll be bringing Goten with me tomorrow night so he'll get to play with Trunks."

"No problem. It's been a while since they've hung out together."

"Anyway..." Bulma glanced at her wristwatch and said, "I'll be helping my mother prepare dinner. If you come across any more evidence, don't hesitate to call or text me."

"I won't." He said to her. "I'll call Dad this evening as well and see how he's doing."

Turning to his girlfriend he sighed. "I wish I could take you with me to see Grandpa, but this is something I have to do on my own."

Videl put a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. "I understand. How would you like me to order some pizza when you come to my house with Goten?"

That put a grin on his face. "I would love that. It's good to know that my little brother will no longer be going hungry now that we won't be living with that woman anymore."

"Don't worry, he'll be eating breakfast, lunch AND dinner. I'll make sure that he's well fed!"

He smiled, happy to know that his girlfriend was going to be looking out for his brother by any means possible. At least they were going to be safe while they were temporarily living in Satan City. Even if Chichi managed to find them somehow, he would protect his little brother from her at all costs. Or would she leave them alone until the court case comes up?

After bidding their farewells to Bulma and Vegeta, the couple flew off into the sky. The scientist watched until the two of them were out of sight. Despite her new suspicions about 'Lawyer Nikushimi', she had the utmost confidence that everything would work out in the end. She couldn't help but feel as if his identity was going to be important somehow. She decided to not dwell on it too much since it was getting late so she headed back inside the Capsule Corp building and shut the door. Already, she could hear her mother in the kitchen chopping vegetables as well as taking out some pots and pans.

"Oh sweetheart, do you mind giving me a little help in the kitchen?" She heard her mother shout from all the way in the kitchen.

"Mom, hold on. I'm coming!" In a flash she was out of the sitting area and into the kitchen to aid her mother in cooking the evening meal.


Kaiyo and Eighter were back in Jingle Village restocking the fridge with food and beverages. The two of them had taken the time to clean out the fridge and were now refilling it. The toiletries were put in their necessary places. While they were back at the grocery store, they had to wait in the line for quite a while and when it was finally their turn, Kaiyo worried once more that all the items they had picked out was unaffordable with the money had. But to their luck, there was nothing to worry about. By the time everything was paid for, some employees had to come and help them carry their stuff outside and one of them was generous enough to call another taxicab for them. The trip back home took quite a while due to a huge traffic jam. When they made it back to the village, they were lucky to have some residents help them carry their stuff inside the house all the while assuring them that they were fine. And so here they were back in the safety of their home.

"That should be all of it!" Eighter said, looking in the fridge where everything had been stacked neatly.

The old woman looked in the plastic bags. "Yeah, it is. Now we should get started on preparing dinner before Goku and Suno get back from wherever they are. They're sure to be hungry by the time they return. Same with Hiroshi." Her attention was turned went back to the refrigerator. "Come help me take some groceries out for supper and we can look inside the cabinets for some utensils."

"No problem."

The two got to work on removing some meat, vegetables and kitchen utensils so they could start cooking. It didn't take long for them to decide what to make for supper especially since there was a certain guest with a voracious appetite.


Laughter filled the air as a happy couple were returning from their long hike, noticing that the sun was about to set. Goku was holding his girlfriend's hand as he showed her around this part of the woods and told her everything he knew. She was amazed at how beautiful this area was and how cute the animals were and couldn't stop commending him for finding this place. As they reached their original spot, the Saiyan lifted Suno and spun her around, smiling as he saw how happy she was.

"H-Hey, put me down!"

"You want me to put you down?" He smirked, resisting the urge to laugh when he saw her face.

"Y-Yes…"

"Not a chance."

She put on a puppy dog face for him. "Come on, pretty please?"

"But you're too cute for me to put down." He spun her around the air once more, causing her to giggle.

"Okay fine, you win." She had her arms around her boyfriend for support. "Hey, I have something to ask you!"

Goku stopped what he was doing to address his girlfriend. "What is it?"

"Do you think we can come back here and climb those trees and mountains someday?" Suno asked.

"Yes, we can. Anything for my lovely princess." He placed a brief kiss on her forehead. "And what else do you need?"

Suno thought about it until she remembered something else. "How about we can pick out some fruits and bring them back home with us? I'm sure Mom and Dad would love to have some!"

"Sure, not a problem. I've had some of these fruits before and they're quite tasty. It's easy to tell which ones are edible and poisonous. We can pick out some before we go back home." He looked on ahead at the blossoming vegetation.

"Awesome!"

"You know…" He mused in thought, noticing that the sun was about to set. "I'll put you back down on one condition."

The village resident smiled sweetly at him. "Let me guess. You want a kiss from me?"

"You got that right." He answered before bringing their lips together for a short kiss. Suno melted into Goku's arms as she kissed him back. It lasted for a few moments before they let go.

"That was easy, wasn't it?" She teased.

Goku put her down as promised and took her hand once more. "It sure was. Now come on babe, let's go and watch the sunset together."

The couple continued to walk as they held hands, searching around for an available spot where they could get a good view of the sun. It didn't take them long to find one and they both made themselves comfortable so they could enjoy the rest of their evening together in blissfulness, cuddling together without a care in the world.


The Ox King just sat in his throne, not really doing much except looking at that family photo of his late wife and newborn daughter. Thinking about what his late wife left behind for Chichi almost made him cry again, but he already made up his mind about giving it to someone else who was more worthy of them. He wished that his loving wife was still alive. Why did she have to leave him to raise their daughter alone? Even with that thought in his head, there was nothing that would lessen his guilt about not raising his daughter better. He wished he had done a better job. Now he felt like he let his wife down and wasn't sure what he could do to fix it.

'One day I'm going to find someone who is worthy of wearing my wife's traditional clothing.'

The sound of his cellphone ringing brought him out of his thoughts about his late wife and daughter. Pulling it out of his pocket, he looked at the caller's ID and when he did that, his mouth dropped in astonishment. He could never have imagined that she would be the one to call him since they hadn't heard from each other in a while. Not since he last visited her and the boys in their new home.

'My daughter is calling me?' The Ox King wondered. 'But what for? Is she calling to check up on me or does she want something from me as usual?'

Regardless of his suspicions, he answered his ringing phone. "Hello?"

"Hey Daddy!"

He could indeed hear Chichi's voice, and it sounded oddly cheerful since he remembered Chichi was usually pissed off. For some strange reason, it was bothering him that his daughter is sounding so cheerful. Why is it the case? Why is his daughter so happy? She would sometimes yell into her speakerphone if he was doubtful about lending her more money.

"Oh, hey darling. How's everything going at home with the boys?" He asked with a fake happy voice. He couldn't allow his daughter to suspect that something was wrong with him.

"Everything's fine Daddy. How are things in the kingdom?" Chichi inquired. "You haven't visited us in quite some time."

"I've been busy with work and stuff." The Ox King lied. He was really finding it difficult to keep his composure since he was faking his emotions. "It must have slipped my mind that we haven't been seeing each other much."

"That's okay. You can come visit whenever you're free." There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Ummmm, there's something I need to ask of you, and I hope you don't mind."

"Sure thing honey. What do you need?" The Ox King asked his daughter in a fearful voice. He was trying as hard to mentally prepare himself for what he was going to hear. "Is it something important?"

As strong as the Ox King thought he was, nothing could have prepared him for what he heard next. He felt like his whole world was shattering into pieces.

"Yes… it's important Daddy. Can I please have 100 million zeni?"

If he was eating or drinking after hearing that, he would have choked. His daughter needed 100 million zeni? Is Chichi for real right now? Why did she need that amount of money? Was the money to buy necessities? His daughter usually never asked for that much even if she was buying stuff for his grandsons.

"Sweetheart, why do you need 100 million zeni? Isn't that a little too much?" The Ox King finally spoke. He was in a state of shock. This is the first time his daughter is asking for a large amount of money. Was there another reason why?

"Daddy, the money is to buy groceries. We're running low on food supplies." Chichi lied, hoping that her father would believe the lie and agree to give her the money. She would be royally screwed if he refused to give it to her because it meant that her lawyer wouldn't do the job he was supposed to do. "You know how it is with Gohan and Goten's huge appetites since they're half Saiyans. I end up using a lot of food items to cook."

He was finding that hard to believe. 100 million zeni was needed to buy food supplies? Something didn't sit well with the Ox King at all. He was now certain that Chichi was up to no good, but he had no way of proving it. What did she really need the money for?

"Isn't... Isn't that a bit too much money to buy groceries?" The Ox King stuttered. "I don't think you need that much money."

"Daddy, it really is for buying groceries. We really are running low on food especially since their appetites exceed that of a normal human. On top of that, they're outgrowing their old clothes so I need to purchase new ones for them!" Chichi pleaded. She could tell that her father didn't sound convinced.

Well, he didn't have any way of proving that his daughter was lying to him. If Chichi said she needed 100 million zeni to buy food supplies... he would give it to her. He didn't know why this was happening. For the entirety of her upbringing, he had been giving her everything he wanted with no questions asked. Now he was doing it again. What the hell is going on?

"Alright, I'll give you the 100 million Zeni." The Ox King finally relented. He felt like he was going to drop his phone at this newfound information. It was too much to handle. "When do you need it?"

"I'll need the money tomorrow." Chichi answered as she was secretly squealing with excitement. Her father has finally agreed to give her the money. Now, her lawyer could finally do his part of the job.

"Okay, I'll lend you the money tomorrow." The Ox King held back a sigh.

"That's great. Thanks a lot Daddy!" She chirped. "I've got to get going. I love you."

"...I love you too." He always used to tell Chichi that he loved her. But for some reason, he didn't say those three words with the same vigor or the energy he would have. He said that with a bit of hesitance. What did it mean?

After bidding his farewell to Chichi, the Ox King hung up the phone. He was once again lost in thought. He couldn't believe this was happening. He couldn't believe that he was going to give his daughter a large sum of money. 100 million zeni? This must be some sick, twisted joke.

The distraught man placed his head in his hands. What is really going on? What did Chichi really need the money for?

Little did the Ox King know, those two questions were about to be answered when he heard the voice of someone he hadn't seen in quite some time.

"Hello Grandpa."

The Ox King raised his head to see his older grandson standing before him. Gohan was here. But what for? And just after he had finished talking to Chichi? Was this a coincidence? He hadn't expected any more visits today especially not from his grandson.

"Gohan!" The Ox King said with surprise in his voice. Regardless, he was happy to see his grandson. "It's been a while since we've seen each other. How are things going with you and Goten?"

"I'm sorry about coming here on such short notice." Gohan said to his grandfather. He tried to give the Ox King a smile, but he couldn't. Instead, a flash of pain crossed the half Saiyan's features. Right then and there, the Ox King knew that whatever he had come here for... he wasn't going to like it. He had to brace himself for whatever he was about to hear from his grandson.

He pointed to the empty chair in front of him. "Before we talk, why don't you take a seat?"

"Thanks." He sat down opposite his grandfather. As soon as he was seated, he took a deep breath. He had come here to tell the Ox King the truth of what has been going on. He has come here to tell his grandfather about what Chichi been up to since they last saw each other.

"How are things going with you?" Gohan asked. The anxiety was taking over him and he felt the sudden need to get the truth out as soon as possible.

"Everything is well. The usual happens." The Ox King answered, studying Gohan's expression very closely. "Is something wrong?"

This is it. He had to reveal the truth to his grandfather.

He picked his words carefully. "Grandpa, the reason why I've come to see you is because... Chichi is up to something."

So, his gut instinct was right the entire time. His only daughter really was up to something. But what was it? What could she be doing which had instilled fear into his oldest grandson?

"What has been going on during the time I haven't seen you and Goten?" He couldn't help but ask. He needed to know this. "Is your mother treating the both of you right?"

Gohan shook his head. Once again, he had the pained look on his face. "I'm afraid not. Her treatments just keep on getting worse and worse. Every day, she keeps Goten locked up in his room studying or doing homework with no breaks. She doesn't allow him to go outside at all. The only times he is allowed to leave his room is if she needs help with house chores. She also denies both of us the right to see Dad. Sometimes I hear my brother crying in his room because we aren't with Dad. Neither of us have seen him ever since we moved out of Mount Paozu. Actually… I have seen Dad recently and it was to discuss the upcoming court case."

The Ox King felt pained upon hearing this. So, this was how his daughter had been treating both of her sons!? She hasn't been allowing them the right to see their own father.

"I... can't believe a word I'm hearing." The Ox King stuttered. "Goten still hasn't had the chance to see his father?"

"I'm afraid that's the case Grandpa."

"What else has your mother done to make things more difficult for the both of you?"

"You're not going to like the next thing I'm about to tell you." He had a pained expression. "She also deprives Goten of food and water if he's not able to complete his homework assignments on time. Not only that, but... recently Chichi was abusing him."

The Ox King needed time to process that before he gave his grandson a response. Had he just heard that correctly? No, this can't be true. This had to be all in his head. When he looked at Gohan, he could see the seriousness in his eyes, so he knew his grandson wasn't lying about this. How... How can this be?

"Please tell me you're joking about this. Please tell me this isn't true. You... You mean to tell me that she is abusing Goten?" The Ox King asked, completely shocked. He refused to believe that his own daughter could hurt her own son. "Why is she doing all of this?"

"This is the complete truth. She hurts him with her words and then when he failed to do what she asks of him, she physically abuses him. He... was bloody and bruised."

He then went on to explain to his grandfather about how the day after his meeting with Goku, he had gone to Goten's room to check up on him only to find him lying on the floor, bloody and bruised. He had snapped some pictures of Goten's unconscious body before taking him to Kami's Lookout to be healed by Earth's guardian. The little boy had explained to everyone there what had happened between him and his 'mother.' The Saiyan hybrid went on to explain how Goten's experience with his mother was while he wasn't in the house.

The Ox King remained speechless, choosing to wait for him to finish speaking before prompting for further information which was going to upset him even more than he already was.

"I snuck into mother's room to find any evidence which may incriminate her in court. I found a cellphone and a voice recorder in her room. Today, I agreed to meet up with Bulma and Videl. Bulma helped uncover what was on both the cellphone and the voice recorder." Gohan looked at the Ox King's face, and it broke his heart because he knew that what he was about to tell him was going to upset him even further.

"On the cellphone, we discovered that Chichi was sending text messages to some unknown person." Gohan explained. He went on to tell his grandfather about how Chichi was insulting Goku as usual and how she went on to say to this unknown person how he and Goten were destined to become scholars. He also mentioned to his grandfather about how his own daughter was planning to hire this person in creating fake evidence so that she would have a false story to match the evidence created.

"She... She said that she was going to pay this unknown person 100 million zeni to create the false evidence against Dad."

"Wait a minute..." Something clicked in the Ox King. His mind went back to the conversation he had with Chichi shortly before Gohan's arrival. His daughter mentioned that she wanted 100 million zeni. And he thought it was strange that she wanted that much money. He couldn't remember her ever spending that much money either.

"D-Did you just say 100 million zeni?" The Ox King asked, completely shocked.

Gohan nodded. "Yes, I did. Is something wrong?"

The Ox King took a deep breath before answering. "Shortly before you arrived, your mother called me. She told me that she needed 100 million zeni to buy groceries since you guys were running low on food supplies. I found it strange because even though I was lending her money to buy food and other basic needs, I was never giving her that much money."

"She was lying to you grandpa. My so-called mother didn't ask you for 100 million zeni because we were running out of food supplies. She hardly even feeds Goten. The real reason why she wanted 100 million Zeni is because she is going to pay her accomplice to create fake evidence which will make Dad look guilty in court and then she would get custody of my little brother. In the text messages, she told her accomplice that she needed to make sure that her story matched the evidence provided. She's going to fake her emotions so that everyone will feel sympathetic for her in order to have an advantage over Dad during the custody hearing for Goten."

Pulling out his cellphone, Gohan began to scroll through for the graphic pictures of his brother and showed them to his shocked grandfather. "These are the pictures of Goten from when 'mother' abused him. He's barely recognizable with these injuries and he was on the brink of death when I found him in his room."

When the Ox King saw the pictures, he let out a horrified gasp. "T-This is Goten!? No... How can Chichi, my own flesh and blood, be so cruel to her own son!? She doesn't allow him to go outside, she denies him the right to see his father, she deprives him of food and water and even worse, she abuses him to the point where he almost died!? This is not my daughter!"

Gohan couldn't stand to see his grandfather like this. He knew that this was how he was going to react. Not wanting to see the Ox King like this, the half Saiyan stood up from his seat and wrapped his grandfather in a hug. The Ox King returned the hug and when they pulled away, they gave each other a sad look.

He sat back down in his seat. "Grandpa, here's the plan. Give Chichi the 100 million zeni when she comes to collect it. Tomorrow evening, we're going to try and find out where she's going with the money and if possible, try and find the identity of this person she's seeking help from."

The Ox King slowly nodded his head. "Okay, I'll give her the money when she comes here. I just can't believe that she would do all of this. What's even worse is finding out that she abused Goten and barely even feeds him. Did she mention the exact time she's meeting up with this guy?"

"He told Chichi to bring him the money at exactly 10:00 tomorrow night. It's sad that she's doing all of this." Gohan agreed, still looking at the Ox King in sadness. "I'm finding it hard to believe that she would do this to him."

"Does your father know about any of this? Have you given him a call?"

"No, he doesn't. This is something I have to say to him in person, not over the phone. I need to show him all the evidence against Chichi. But I can't help but imagine how pissed off he's going to be once he finds out the truth."

"That makes sense." The Ox King agreed.

"Grandpa, after everything I just told you about Chichi… your daughter… your own flesh and blood… do you believe that she's capable of taking care of Goten? Do you believe she should get full custody of him?" Gohan asked while giving him a serious look.

"No, she shouldn't. After hearing about everything that she has done to you and Goten, she doesn't deserve to win sole custody of him. The both of you needed a mother figure in your lives, someone who will always love and support you. Chichi doesn't act like she's a mother at all. From what you've told me, she's a horrible person… a crook. I believe that Goku should get full custody of my grandson because I know that he will love his son and care for him the way a real parent would." The Ox King answered with a hint of anger directed towards his daughter. "I don't know who Chichi is anymore."

"Me neither. I don't see her as my mother."

"Will you be heading straight home?" The Ox King asked, looking at a clock on the ceiling and he noticed it was getting late.

"Yes, I will. But only to pack up my things. Goten and I will no longer be staying at the house. Videl invited us to stay at her home in Satan City until Dad wins the court case. She'll be ordering pizza for us tonight and is more than willing to look out for my brother."

The news made him happy. "Thank goodness. Now I don't have to worry about him going hungry and I know you two will be safe over there." He would have invited them to stay here in his castle, but Chichi could end up finding them since she'll be stopping by the next day. There's no way he was risking the safety of both his grandsons.

He stood up from his chair, ready to leave Fire Mountain. "It's about time I get going so we can get out of that house for good."

The Ox King rose from his throne and stared at his grandson. "Thank you for coming over and telling me all of this." He pulled the half Saiyan into another heart filled embrace.

"No problem at all. You deserved to know what was going on."

They let go of the hug. "Continue to be there for your brother. He needs all the support he can get, considering how Chichi has been mistreating him."

"Don't worry Grandpa. I'll continue to be there for him. He means a lot to me and I'm going to do everything I can to help Dad get custody of him. Goten won't remain in her custody anymore."

"I know you will."

The Ox King followed his grandson out the door. Once the two of them were outside, Gohan had a chance to look up at the sky and knew how late it was getting. He had to go back home and tell his brother that they were going to escape from their 'home' tonight.

"By the way, the unknown person who'll be assisting 'mother' is Nikushimi. Have you heard of him?"

He began to think. "Nikushimi? I don't think I have…" He was cut off as he had a terror-stricken expression. "Y-You don't mean Lawyer Nikushimi, the most famous lawyer in West City? He's going to help my former daughter with her crooked plan?"

"That's him."

"But a real lawyer should never take bribe money from a client and win their cases using honest means."

"See? Even Bulma agreed with that. Why would a real lawyer do any of this stuff? With that being said, we think that he may have been involved in some criminal activity in the past which is unknown to the public. When I follow Chichi tomorrow, I'm going to see if I can find out something about him. Chances are that he may say something to her about who he really is."

"That sounds good." Was the Ox King's reply. "This is just too shocking for me. The most famous lawyer helping my daughter?"

"Yep. This man won all of his cases but I'm starting to wonder if some of his clients actually did what Chichi plans on doing."

The Ox King agreed. "He must have. If he has been involved in any shady activity, what's going to happen?"

"If people find out about it, his reputation will be destroyed. He might be put behind bars." After that response, the Saiyan hybrid looked at his wristwatch. "Anyway, I've got to get going. Goodbye Grandpa. Remember to give Chichi the 100 million zeni. It's time for me and Goten to escape from the house."

"I won't forget about that. Take care!"

He watched as Gohan flew off into the sky and when the Ox King couldn't see him anymore, he went back into his castle, shocked and angry about everything.

After Chichi's mother died, he thought his daughter would be the only family he had left. But now... it seemed like he was wrong. He had been through so much with Chichi since she was a child, but it now seemed as if he had nothing. His own daughter was committing crimes just so she could get custody of Goten and force him to do what she wants. There was something he needed to do once this was over. Even though it was going to be painful doing this, he realized that this is for the best. He could no longer see Chichi as his daughter. He knew he hadn't done a very good job at raising her, but he didn't think she would turn out to be a crook.

Despite everything, he needed to get it together. He may have lost his daughter, but he still had his grandsons and would always look after them.


Gohan was flying back 'home' as fast as he could, desperate to pack the rest of his belongings and move into his girlfriend's house. She was bound to be waiting for them. He smiled at the prospect of seeing Majin Buu again and he remembered Mr. Satan having a dog. He pondered in thought, trying to remember the name of that dog. 'What was that dog's name? I remember Videl telling me a while back, but I forgot...' He shook his head at that, knowing that he would find out again when they arrived in Satan City. Goten was sure to be happy when he finds out that today would be the last time they were ever going to be in that house. As soon as he got back, he had to first make sure that Chichi wasn't in the house or at least not hearing whatever he needed to say to his little brother.

He looked down and saw the house below him. He could sense his brother and 'mother's' energy signals inside the house, but they weren't in the same room together which was a good sign for him. He descended onto the ground and stopped right in front of the door. Not a single second was wasted in opening that door and closing it with as much silence as possible. He was about to head to Goten's room when he picked up on Chichi's voice coming from her bedroom.

"Oh Nikushimi, you don't know how happy I am that you're helping me create false evidence as well as representing me in court as your lawyer. I just called my Dad not too long ago and he agreed to lend me the 100 million zeni that I owe you. I lied in his face and told him that I needed the money to buy food items and clothes for the boys. I can't believe he bought that!"

Gohan could feel himself becoming angry once more as he heard his former mother laughing maniacally. 'Well, Grandpa knows the truth now. You're a despicable human being!'

"Anyway, I'll be stopping by his castle tomorrow to pick up the money and I'll go straight to your mansion. You don't know how much I wish I were living in such an expensive place like yours. I know what to do once I win sole custody of that stupid brat. Make him keep studying, go to a fancy school and get a high paying job. It's that damn easy. Oh, and thanks for letting me take some alcohol bottles back with me. I just stored them inside my fridge. You don't know how much I loved the vodka and the hard liquor. I just didn't think I would get myself drunk. I appreciate you calling a taxi for me and paying the bill because there wasn't much I could do in that condition. The only thing I remember is my older son carrying me to my room before I blacked out."

His anger was rising the more he continued to listen to her nonsense.

"I just gave Goten his daily dose of homework and as usual, he won't eat or drink anything until he's done which won't be anytime soon."

"That sounds right!" Was all he heard from Lawyer Nikushimi.

"I've got to get going. I need to take a relaxing shower and make some dinner for myself. I'll see you tomorrow evening as promised!"

"Alright, I'll be expecting you at exactly 10:00pm tomorrow night."

After that, Gohan could hear Chichi hang up on her phone. He stood in his position as he thought about what he just heard. 'The phone I found in her room yesterday must be a spare one. It must be synced with the one she's currently using which could explain why we were able to view those text messages from Capsule Corp. Chichi sent Nikushimi the messages through the phone she always uses. They must have done the negotiations not too long ago and that spare phone wasn't with her. Any other stuff she has on her main phone would also be on her spare one if both phones are synced together. But what about that voice recorder I found? Why would she record a conversation on it? Maybe she didn't realize that it was on when she was talking to him. Hmmm, I'm not sure about that. But wait a minute… she said she had alcohol in the fridge!"

He could hear Chichi turning on the faucet in her bathroom and knew he had to hurry up before he and Goten lost their chance to escape. In a flash, he appeared in the kitchen and walked straight to the fridge. The half Saiyan opened it and gaped in astonishment. The fridge was stacked to the brim with alcohol bottles. Liquor, beer, whiskey, brandy, wine and vodka. He picked up a bottle and looked at it's label before setting it back in the fridge. Whipping out his phone, he snapped a few clear pictures of the alcohol bottles and their labels before shutting the refrigerator door in surprise. He stood there for a moment, wondering when his 'mother' could have put the bottles in the fridge.

"I must have been right before. That bag I saw her with when she came home drunk, must have contained the alcohol. She most likely stored them after she was sober again. Man, this is so messed up!' He rubbed his forehead when his eyes shot up all of a sudden, having remembered that him and his little brother needed to escape.

With supersonic speed, Gohan ran as fast as he could to Goten's bedroom door and tapped on it quickly, making sure that only his younger bro would hear it. He soon heard an exhausted sigh from him. "Come in."

He entered and shut the door. His brother's face was barely visible due to the pile of papers and books on the desk. "Hey little bro, are you okay?"

Goten looked up from his pile of study materials to see his older brother. He immediately jumped out of his chair and ran into his arms. Tugging onto Gohan's shirt, he began to cry silently. The teenager wasted no time in returning the hug, knowing how much he was missed by him. "Hey little buddy, don't cry. I'm right here."

"I've missed you." He said, his voice muffled.

"I know, I know…" He raised his brother's head and wiped his tears. "You're not going to be doing any more pointless work from Chichi."

That wasn't what the little one was expecting to hear. "What do you mean by that?"

Gohan looked around for any signs of the human woman before facing his brother once more with a huge smile. "Pack your bags. We're getting out of here and we'll be moving into Videl's house."

"Really?"

"Yes, we are. And guess what? She'll be ordering pizza for us when we arrive."

"We're really leaving this place and I'll get to eat normal again. YAY!" Goten jumped off his arms and began running around the room in excitement.

"Shhhh!" He put a finger to his lips. "We don't want to make too much noise and alert Chichi, do we?"

"Oops!" Goten stopped dancing around the room and winced. "Do you think she heard us?"

"I don't think she did. Anyway…" Gohan walked to the exit door. "Start packing your stuff. We'll escape through your window as soon as I'm done packing mine."

"Yessir!" He saluted his brother before grabbing his suitcase and throwing a bunch of clothes inside it. Gohan chuckled before leaving the room.

As soon as his older brother was out of the room, Goten packed all his clothes which included all his shirts, pants, jackets, sweaters, scarves and boxer shorts. From there, he went into his bathroom and packed all his toiletries: His toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet paper, soap, sponge and his towel. When he was done, he zipped up his bag. He looked around and wished that he had some game consoles he could take along with him but unfortunately, he didn't have any thanks to his so-called mother. But now that they were moving out of here this meant he could visit Trunks as much as he wanted to and play some of his video games. He laid on top of his duffel bag and looked up at his ceiling. Everything would soon come to an end.

A few knocks sounded on his door. He froze in place, thinking that it was his former mother who was checking to see if he had completed the work she gave him earlier but when he saw that it was his brother who stuck his head through the door, he sighed in relief.

"Are you ready to get out of here?" Gohan asked as he walked inside the room with his suitcase. "I wish I asked Bulma for some capsules, and we wouldn't have to worry about carrying any of our stuff."

"It's okay. I'm just happy that I no longer have to suffer under Chichi's care."

Before Gohan could even answer, they heard the TV turning on. Followed by that was the switching of different channels.

"She's probably going to watch one of her dumb soap operas." Goten muttered.

"It could be." Gohan walked to his brother's window and opened it. "Come on, it's time for you to experience freedom once more."

Goten took his duffel bag and watched as Gohan easily stepped out with his suitcase, gesturing for him to get out as well. Carrying his bag, he flew out and shut the window as quietly as he could. The two brothers looked around their environment as they realized that this was the last time they were ever going to be here. They didn't really have any good memories here because of how they were maltreated by their mother. But now they had put it to an end. Now they could better focus on what was ahead of them without any distractions.

"I don't think I'm ever gonna miss this place." Goten commented.

"Me neither. Now come on, I'm sure Videl must be waiting for us. You want some pizza, don't you?"

To answer his question, the rumbling of the little boy's stomach was heard. "Y-Yeah, I do."

"Come on!"

The two brothers laughed as they sped off into the air with their belongings, leaving behind the horrid memories and stepping into a new light. As they were flying, Gohan managed to send a text to his girlfriend and let her know that they were gonna come. No words could describe how happy they were about finally managing to escape.

'I just talked to my Dad and he says it's okay for you two to stay with us. So, hurry up and then I can go ahead with ordering pizza like I promised.'

'Thanks V, you're the best!'

That message was enough to put a huge smile on both of their faces.

(SATAN CITY)

Videl smiled as she read her boyfriend's latest text message before setting her phone aside on her desk. "I'm glad they both managed to get away from that horrible woman. I'm sure they'll be hungry by the time they arrive, so I've got to hurry up with this and order pizza for them. But why am I not finding anything about this guy?' A frown crossed her features as she was searching through the web browser on her laptop for any information on this Lawyer Nikushimi guy. Shortly after coming home from Capsule Corp, she quickly got started on her homework and then got on her laptop to do some research about him. She had been at it for a while, and she had found nothing about this man's past or his personal life. Only his career as a lawyer.

'Damn it!' The teenage girl grimaced, running her hands through her hair in frustration. 'I'm not finding one thing about this guy. I've searched through every article I can find and there's nothing about this man's personal life or past. Every single article is talking about his cases or his clients and how he's one of the most skilled lawyers around. What could he be hiding from the public?'

She closed the lid of her laptop and sighed as she leaned back in her chair, a little upset about her research being useless. She stood up before arranging her study materials, having knocked them over in sheer frustration. Well, she would just have to wait until the day Gohan tails Chichi before they could hopefully find out something about this lawyer. It didn't take her long to finish rearranging the items on her desk and pick up some old photos on the floor. As she was looking through the pictures, she smiled fondly at them as they were old pictures of herself in her younger days, practicing martial arts with her father in his dojo to competing in martial arts tournaments and winning every single one of them as evidenced by her holding all those trophies.

She was startled when she heard the loud barking of Bee, her father's dog and the loud sound of the doorbell ringing. She put on her footwear and hurried outside to find out what was going on. She pushed back one of the curtains to find out who the dog was barking at. Through the window, she saw her boyfriend behind the door while Goten was petting Bee who was soon wagging his tail. Their luggage sat there in the grass. Videl left her spot behind the curtain and swung the front door open in pure excitement.

"Hey V!"

"Gohan, you made it!" She cried out, running into his arms and hugging him tightly.

He returned his girlfriend's embrace and they remained like that for a few moments before he pulled her away. Goten stopped playing with Bee to greet his brother's girlfriend.

"Hi Videl!"

She smiled warmly at him. "Hey Goten. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing great." He replied as Bee stood beside him still wagging his tail.

"Come inside, all of you." She said, stepping aside to allow them room to enter her house.

With their suitcases in hand, the Saiyan brothers slowly stepped inside while the dog ran inside and got himself comfortable on the living room sofa. The trip had been a pleasant one and they were easily able to tell that they were in Satan City when they saw numerous statues of Mr. Satan everywhere. There were billboards of him across the city and they even heard some people talking about him nonstop. But they ignored it and just kept on flying to Videl's house.

"Woah…" Goten uttered out as he stared at all the photos on the wall. They were mostly pictures of Mr. Satan standing in tournament arenas being hounded by the paparazzi.

"It feels like it's been forever since we were last here." Gohan commented, looking around at all the fancy looking furniture in the sitting area from the potted plants, couches, the huge television set etc. He wasn't sure if he would ever get used to his girlfriend being rich.

"It sure has." Videl said, holding her boyfriend's hand. "I'm glad that you two are going to stay here for the time being."

"Where's your daddy?" The little boy questioned.

"He's in his dojo with Buu." Videl answered. "Before we go down there, why don't I show the two of you to your rooms?"

"Awesome!"

"Sounds great!"

The Saiyan brothers followed the teenage girl up a long staircase and into the hallways. As they were following Videl to their spare rooms, Gohan couldn't help but make a few compliments on the house which earned a few blushes from his girlfriend. Goten even made a comment about wanting to take a huge dive in the swimming pool outside to which the young couple laughed and told him sometime in the future.

They stopped in front of a door.

"Gohan, this will be your room." Videl announced as she pushed the door wide open. "And Goten, your room is right next to Gohan's so you guys will be like neighbors."

His eyes gleamed with happiness. "That's awesome. So… I can come see you whenever I want, big bro?"

Gohan bent down and ruffled his little brother's hair. "Of course, you can."

All Videl could do was smile. They looked adorable.

"And also… can I talk to Daddy before we go to sleep?" Goten asked, looking up with him with pleading eyes. "Pretty Please? I miss him so much…"

"Of course, you can. I think Dad will be happy to hear your voice again since we moved out of Mount Paozu. I'll call him for you as soon as we're finished eating." He initially planned on talking to his father himself, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to let his brother talk to him. And besides, this could help lessen his Dad's worries about them.

"YAY!" Goten cheered.

"In that case, I'd better hurry up and order the pizza so you can sound energetic." Videl smiled before walking back downstairs, leaving the brothers by themselves.

"Alright little bro, go to your room and start unpacking." Gohan told him, carrying his suitcase into his temporary room and shutting the door.

He didn't waste a single second in speeding to his room, excited about talking to his Dad again after so long.

Gohan opened his suitcase and took out his clothes, folding them neatly and putting them in drawers. He took out his toiletries and with his superhuman speed he had them inside the bathroom within seconds although there were already toilet items in there. 'Hehe, I didn't realize that there were already toilet items in there. Videl must have thought of everything before we got here." He thought to himself as he put a towel over the shower rack.

He used that opportunity to take a good look around his room. It was probably one of the most spacious rooms he had ever stepped foot in. The walls were painted a dark shade of red and his window had one of the nicest views he had ever seen. He couldn't think of any words to describe just how crystal clean his bathroom was. Hell, the bed was way more comfortable than the one in their 'home.' Looking at his right-hand side, he saw that there was an air conditioning with it's remote right next to it. At least he would be sleeping comfortably tonight. He remembered just how hot their old home was. Even with their window open, it wasn't enough to keep him cool at night.

'I shouldn't be thinking about how much I hated that home. I'm here in Satan City with Videl. I should enjoy my time here with her.'

Just then, he heard his brother knocking on his door.

"Big Bro, I'm done unpacking. You wanna come downstairs?"

He jumped out of bed, walked to the door and opened it, revealing his super excited brother.

Goten started pulling onto his arm and pointed to the stairs. "Come on, let's go!"

"Okay, Okay, calm down!"

Gohan could hear his feet screeching on the marble floor as his little brother was practically dragging him to the stairs. "Alright Goten, you can stop now." He said as they reached the stairs.

"Oops, sorry about that."

"No problem. I don't blame you for being excited."

The two brothers walked down the long staircase and they could hear Videl making a phone call and they instantly knew what it was about as their stomachs rumbled loudly. They hadn't eaten anything in a while. This new arrangement made Goten happy since he was now going to be eating normally again. It had taken them a short time to reach the living room where Videl was sitting on the couch with her cellphone in hand while the other was scratching Bee's floppy ears.

"When can we expect the pizza?" She asked. After a few moments, she hung up the phone and grinned when she saw her two guests appear. She waved the pizza menu in their faces. "Don't worry, I've ordered many different flavors and it'll come soon. This is the best pizza delivery service in the city."

Goten's mouth began to drool at the thought. "Awesome…"

Videl walked over to her boyfriend and had her arms around him. "I'm glad you're here. We'll get to spend more time together and…" She looked over at the young boy who still seemed to be daydreaming about eating pizza. "I'll stick to my word and make sure that Goten gets to eat whenever he's hungry."

"Thank you V, for your hospitality." Gohan whispered. Their lips grew closer and closer. "You don't know how unbearable it was living with Chichi. Now that we're here, I feel like we can finally live freely again."

"Don't worry about anything."

Before Gohan could respond, Videl kissed him and let loose as much passion as she could. Gohan held her in his arms as he deepened the kiss and just as they were getting a little carried away, they heard someone interrupt them, causing them to pull away in embarrassment.

"Ewwww, get a room you two." Goten said, imitating their hugging and kissing sounds. Gohan laughed before grabbing a pillow and throwing it at his brother. "Shut up!"

"Hey!"

He was about to throw the pillow back at his brother when Videl stepped in between them and took the pillow from Goten's hands. "Alright, let's not start a pillow fight right now. We should go check up on my Dad and Buu since they don't know that you two are here yet."

The teenage boy smirked at his brother and Goten just stuck his tongue at him.

"Come on, let's go to the dojo."

The two brothers followed Videl out of the sitting area and disappeared into the dojo. Bee jumped off the couch and hurried after them, happy to see his owner again.

(MR. SATAN'S DOJO)

"That was a good workout, wasn't it Majin Buu?"

Hercule Satan stood back sweating profusely as he finished his training for the day. He started off by doing some light stretching before going on to practice his martial arts stances, his techniques, and then finally trying out his punches and kicks on a punching bag which made him break a sweat. His pink friend had been there to provide company for him as he was training by himself. Earlier in the day, he busied himself with training some new students who came over.

"Mmhmm. Buu thinks Mr. Satan should rest now!"

"You're right about that." He said as he took a seat in the only chair in the room and drank a cold bottle of water. "Videl told me earlier that Gohan and Goten will be staying here with us until Goku wins the court case. They'll be much safer here, so I agreed to let them stay here for the time being."

"Buu thinks so too. But what if that mean woman manages to find them here?"

Before he could answer that, the two heard a few soft knocks on the door before it opened slightly. Videl stuck her head through the door and smiled at her father. "I can see that you're done training Dad. They're here now." She pushed the door open, revealing the two Saiyan brothers who waved at him. His dog Bee jumped into his arms in a flash and started licking his face, happy to see his owner again.

"Woah there Bee..." Hercule said as he was prying the Labrador away from his face. "I'm happy to see you too." The dog was wagging his tail happily.

"Hello Mr. Satan." Gohan greeted.

"Oh, hello boys." He returned the greeting, standing up from his chair. "Have you settled down in your rooms?"

"We sure have!" Goten answered cheerfully.

"I just ordered pizza for all of us." Videl said, holding up the food menu she was looking through while she was talking on the phone. "It should be arriving soon."

"That's great." The world champ walked toward the exit door carrying Bee with Majin Buu following him from behind. "By the way Gohan, have you managed to find out anything else with regards to your mother? Did you find any more evidence against her?"

"As a matter of fact…" He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. "Yes, I have. Immediately after I returned from Capsule Corp."

Videl was elated at the news. "Nice!"

"Great work big bro!"

Gohan beamed at his little brother. "See Goten? We have a chance of winning against her!"

He was running around in circles. "I believe you now. Hooray!"

The doorbell then rang at that moment, followed by the brothers rumbling stomachs. They let out an embarrassed chuckle.

"Why don't we talk about my discovery while we're having dinner?" He suggested before looking over at his brother. "And Goten, I'll call Dad for you like I promised."

"Awesome!"


"No way… you found alcohol bottles in the fridge!?"

Videl was in complete shock at the news as she, Mr. Satan and Buu were busy setting some plates on the massive dining table. When the pizza delivery truck arrived at the house with the requested pizzas, they all had to help carry some boxes since she ordered so many different flavors. Paying for all of it wasn't a problem at all since she and their father were wealthy people. Now that their two guests were seated comfortably at the dining table, Videl was so anxious that she pressured her boyfriend for details. Gohan wasted no time in revealing what happened when he arrived home.

He explained how he had come just in time to overhear a conversation between Chichi and Lawyer Nikushimi and how his mother was bragging to her lawyer about lying to her father with regards to the reason why she needed the 100 million zeni, telling him that they were running out of groceries. He then went on to explain to the lawyer guy that she came home drunk and had stacks of alcohol in the fridge and that she had given Goten his daily dose of homework. He also told them his theory about his mother's two phones being synced together. And of course, Gohan didn't forget to tell them about visiting the Ox King and his reaction to all of this.

"I sure did. And I made sure to take photos too." Gohan said as he held his phone in front of the trio who were handing out slices of pizza to them as well as giving them cans of soda they retrieved from their fridge.

Hercule took the phone from Gohan and his mouth dropped in astonishment. "There's whiskey, brandy, beer, wine, liquor and vodka… it's like the fridge is stacked to the brim with alcohol. Did Chichi even think about buying any food!?"

Gohan shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think so. I did hear her say that she was going to prepare dinner for herself. She didn't think about me, and I know she wouldn't have thought about feeding Goten until he finished up a ridiculous amount of homework. At least we're in a safer place now."

"What happens if that mean woman comes back?" Buu questioned.

Goten's body felt stiff at the mention of his mother. The teenage boy patted his back before answering, "I'll protect my brother at all costs. If she manages to find us here and she tries to hurt him, I'll make her regret it."

Having just served herself, Videl took a seat next to her boyfriend. "That's good to hear. I'll be here to back the both of you up."

"Thanks V. I'll also be informing Bulma about my discovery later."

"Sounds good. I-"

She was interrupted by the loud rumbling of Goten's stomach. "Can we eat our pizza now? I'm hungry…"

"Goten, it's rude for you to interrupt someone when they're speaking-" Gohan's stomach growled loudly before he chuckled. "Actually, never mind. Let's just eat our food."

They all shared a big laugh at that before digging into their pizzas. The brothers were stuffing the whole thing into their mouth before rummaging through the boxes for more. As they were eating, Goten wouldn't stop commenting on how tasty the pepperoni and cheese pizza was and Videl promised him that she would order more when she got the opportunity to. Neither she nor Mr. Satan had the heart to tell them to slow down. Hercule fed Bee some dog food and water but that wasn't enough to stop his Labrador dog from jumping on the dining table and gobbling up some slices of pizza.


"Suno? Babe, wake up!"

Hearing her boyfriend's voice was enough to make her eyes flutter open. She looked up at him and noticed him smiling at her.

"H-Hey. Did I really fall asleep?" Suno asked, still feeling drowsy.

Goku watched as she sat up in his arms. "Yeah, you did. You hadn't said anything for a while and then I turned around and saw that you were asleep."

She smiled at that before looking up at the sky. Evening was already rolling in, the sun was slowly setting, and a rush of cool air was felt around the relaxing couple. Suno couldn't tell when exactly she fell asleep. All she remembered was that they spent hours watching the sunset together. When either of them noticed something interesting, they would point it out to the other. From a beautiful flock of birds to a strange animal and many other things. Everything just felt like paradise for them both. Relaxing together in peace and harmony.

"I think we should get going right now."

She pouted at him. "Awww, can't we stay a little longer?"

"Sorry, but the answer is no." Goku said, almost chuckling at her. "We have to get back home before your parents start worrying about us. Plus, didn't you say earlier that you wanted to collect some fruits to take home? We should do that before it gets dark."

"You're right. I almost forgot about that!" She was standing on her feet in a flash and was already cleaning any dirt residue on her clothing.

Goku hopped on his feet and looked around them, knowing exactly where to get the fruits. "Come on, let's pick out some fresh fruits. This way!" He pointed towards a specific direction they came from where they had seen some fruit trees.

"Just a minute."

He saw her adjusting her orange hat and thought to himself once more about how cute she was looking. He shook his head, wanting to think about something else for a change but nothing really came to mind.

"Alright, I'm done!"

Goku smiled before taking her hand and guiding her towards the trees bearing the fruits. As they were plucking some bananas from a tree, they remembered that there was nothing for them to put it in, making Suno worry that they wouldn't be able to take anything back home. But she got reassurance from her boyfriend that everything would be alright. He surprised her by creating a makeshift basket. The usage of his ki made the process go a lot quicker. It amazed Suno and it made her wonder how he could do this in such a short amount of time.

"Woah… that's amazing!" She stared at the huge makeshift basket in awe. "I don't know how you could do this so fast."

"Impressed, huh? I told you there wouldn't be anything to worry about. And if you want, I can teach you how to do this sometime."

"I would like that."

After that, they packed the bananas inside the basket before continuing their journey. Thanks to Goku's knowledge of the area they were currently in, it didn't take them too long to find more fruits that were edible. The basket was full by the time the couple were done. Inside the basket were apples, grapes, pineapples, watermelons, mangos etc.

"Phew… we sure did pick out a lot, didn't we?" Suno commented.

"Yeah, but I'm sure your parents will enjoy them."

Goku was at work picking leaves which would serve as the cover of the basket. After gathering quite a bit, he returned to his girlfriend who took some of them and began helping him with covering the fruits. It didn't take long for them to finish their job and the two stood back, proud of what they were able to accomplish.

"You know, I'm thinking of using some of these fruits to make some tasty desserts."

His ears perked up at the mention of that. "Really? What kind of desserts?" He couldn't help but imagine himself sitting at a table filled to the brim with his girlfriend's delicious pastries. He could feel his mouth beginning to water at the thought of her setting an endless pile of food in front of him.

Suno shrugged her shoulders. "Some apple pies, fruitcakes, banana breads… you know, those sorts of desserts. Why do you ask-" A smug look appeared on her face as she noticed her boyfriend's mouth water. Right then and there, she knew exactly what he was thinking about. Not that it was hard to figure out. "Of course! Your bottomless pit for a stomach!"

"OUCH!" Goku cried out, feeling her poke a finger into his stomach. "What was that for!?"

"Oh, I don't know… maybe it's the fact that you were probably daydreaming about eating desserts, isn't that it?" She questioned, the smirk still plastered on her face.

"I can't help it if I-" The Saiyan was interrupted by the loud rumbling of his stomach. He picked up the fruit basket sitting on the ground. "I think we should really get going now. I'm starving!"

"Okay mister." She giggled at him before getting closer and whispering in his ear. "But I'm not kidding about making desserts. I'll make some just for you. You can eat as much of it as you want."

He brought her closer and kissed her forehead. "I don't doubt that one bit." He cringed at the sound of his stomach rumbling a second time and was desperate to get back home. "But can we please get going? My tummy is screaming at me for some food!"

"Okay, Okay. Just hang in there. Mom and Eighter should have dinner on the table by the time we get back."

"NIMBUS!"

Within the blink of an eye, the yellow cloud appeared in front of them. Goku gestured towards their transportation method. "Ladies first."

Suno smiled at that before climbing onto the flying nimbus, showing no fear like she had done earlier in the day. She was sitting comfortably on the cloud, and it took an even shorter time for him to hop on carrying their basket full of fruits. He held it close to him, not wanting the leaves to drop on their way back home.

All she could do was laugh at her boyfriend as the Nimbus cloud sped off towards the direction of Jingle Village. He mostly complained about how hungry he was and had it not been for her silencing him with a kiss and threatening him for the first time, his constant complaining would have never come to an end. From there, Goku had gone on to talk about how much he had fun with her on their first date and Suno in turn thanked him for bringing her to his special spot. He then explained how he it was just a place he sometimes went to just for a piece of mind.

The Nimbus reached the snow-covered area and there seemed to only be a few people around. The yellow cloud stopped at a random spot to give them the opportunity to step down.

Goku hopped down from the Nimbus cloud first before holding out his hand for Suno to take while using the other one to take the fruit basket. She grabbed his hand and the Saiyan helped her to hop down. The two of them watched as the cloud took off into the skies, leaving the both of them alone. He noticed that his girlfriend was starting to shiver a little bit from the intense cold despite wearing something to protect herself.

"Are you ready to go back to the house now?"

Suno placed her arms around herself while jittering slightly. "Y-Yes, I am."

The couple continued to walk towards the house, being mindful of how rough the snow was. Had it not been for the fact that she was wearing snowshoes, the human woman would have collapsed onto the snow. They had received some friendly waves from a few of the residents as they were on their way back home. The long journey to the house had been a tiring one. At least for Suno since she had been shivering for the entire time.

"Hon, are you alright? You're starting to shiver a little bit."

"I'm fine. I-I got t-this…"

Goku couldn't help but shake his head and raised his energy a bit to help keep her warm. The expression on Suno's face changed once she noticed how her entire body was becoming warmer in just a matter of seconds. She no longer had her arms wrapped around herself. Now she felt comfortable now.

"I'm... I'm a lot warmer now." Suno commented, noticing that she didn't even feel cold anymore.

"That's right. I just raised a little bit of my energy in order to keep you warm. You won't feel cold for the rest of our journey." He assured her with a smile.

"I remember you mentioning that yesterday. But… you didn't have to do that for me, you know? We could have still continued the journey back home."

"No way. I couldn't stand to see you shivering while we were moving along. It wouldn't be right for me to not do anything after seeing you suffer like that." Goku told her as his grip on the fruit basket tightened. "So, I decided to use some of my energy. I'm satisfied that you're comfortable now." It was then that he realized that he could have used his energy to warm himself up when he was approaching Jingle Village with his belongings in hand. Maybe then he wouldn't have needed to borrow his girlfriend's jacket on that day.

Suno didn't know what to say to that. Grabbing Goku's face in her hands, she stood on her tiptoes and quickly connected her lips with his in a soft and tender kiss, shocking him but he immediately returned the kiss by wrapping one arm around her as the other one was holding onto the basket. She just couldn't show her appreciation into words.

"Thank you." She gave her boyfriend an adorable smile. "I appreciate it."

He returned the smile. Suno stood up on her toes and gave him another kiss on the cheek, making him blush before she pulled away.

"Let's go, shall we?"

"Of course, my princess."

The two of them began to walk side by side together with no interruptions. At some point during their walk back home, Suno took the basket and offered to hold it for the rest of the journey. As of right now they both were happy and content that their day went very smoothly. They paused as both found themselves right in front of their home. The first thing they heard was the sound of Suno's parents and Eighter talking inside the living room, though they had no clue as to what they could be talking about.

Once they were in front of the door, Goku knocked on it a few times to grab the attention of the three people inside the house. They could hear footsteps approaching the front door and when it opened, they saw that Eighter was the one who opened it for them. A relieved smile spread across the android's face when he saw the couple standing there as they had finally returned.

"Eighter!" Suno cried out, using her free arm to wrap the android in a hug.

"Suno." Eighter returned his friend's hug, and then he noticed that she was holding something in her other hand. "What's that?"

"Oh…" She held up the basket. "Goku and I picked out some fruits before we came back home."

"That's great." He said, taking the fruit basket from her. "Let me take this into the dining room."

"Thanks."

"Hey Eighter. How was your day?" The Saiyan greeted him as he walked away from the cold weather and inside the small home.

"It was very good." He answered, happy to see his friend was alright. "I suppose you and Suno had fun too?"

Goku grinned, a blush showing on his cheeks. "Y-Yeah, our time together was awesome!"

The couple made it into the living room, and they took notice of Kaiyo and Hiroshi seated on the living room couch, waiting for them to come back. They greeted them with a warm smile.

"Suno honey, you're back home safely!" She felt herself being pulled into her mother's arms. "Your father and I were wondering where you ran off to." Then the woman started checking her daughter out from head to toe just to make sure she wasn't hurt or injured.

"Yeah Mom, I'm sorry if we kept you guys waiting." Suno apologized profusely. "It was unintentional to make you and Dad worry. But…" She gave her boyfriend an affectionate smile, making him smile back. "There's no way I would get hurt if Goku is around to protect me!"

"Oh no, don't worry about it honey." Hiroshi assured his daughter, walking to her and giving her a brief hug. "When we arrived back, we figured that you and Goku had left the house but we just couldn't figure out where you were."

"It's as your father just said." Kaiyo reassured her. "There's nothing to worry about." Turning to face Goku, she realized she had almost forgotten about the Saiyan's presence.

"Oh, silly me! I had almost forgotten you were there Goku." Kaiyo said as she faced him. Just like with Suno, she also wrapped the Saiyan in a hug. He returned the embrace with no hesitation. "How did your day go with Suno?"

Goku could barely stop himself from blushing when Suno's mother asked him that. They pulled away from the hug before he answered, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Oh… umm… err… it went well. Everything was splendid. I took Suno for a ride in the Flying Nimbus and then we stopped somewhere to watch the sunset together. And then we picked out some fruits since we figured that you and Hiroshi would enjoy some..." He noticed the android setting the basket of fruits on the dining table.

Kaiyo looked over and noticed the fruit basket on the table. "That's nice, although Eighter and I did buy some groceries earlier so we could prepare supper."

"You did?" Goku chuckled. "Well, Suno was actually the one who wanted us to pick out some fruits." He was starting to feel a little bad, realizing that food in the house was running out fast because of his humungous appetite. He was beginning to think that this was his fault. What if he was being a burden on them?

"Don't you ever think negative about yourself again, you hear me?" He remembered his girlfriend saying. She was right. He had to stop thinking like that. There was no way he was a burden when they all offered to support him when he was going through a lot.

"It sounds like you two had a lot of fun!" Hiroshi laughed.

"Yeah Dad, we did." Suno said, trying as hard as she could to hide the blush on her face. Talking about how her day went with Goku in front of her parents and Eighter felt embarrassing since her parents didn't yet know that she was now in a relationship with the Saiyan.

"Did you just say the Flying Nimbus? The cloud you took off in after the RRA invasion?" Eighter asked.

"That's right. I thought it would be cool to take Suno for a ride in it. She loved the experience!"

Both parents smiled at that. "That's nice. I guess we should thank you for spending time with her." Hiroshi said.

"Oh, it was nothing."

Kaiyo gestured towards the piles of food on the table. "Anyway, would you two like to have some dinner before you head off to your rooms? We weren't sure when you were coming back so we ate without you, but I saved some food in case you're both hungry."

In response to her question, Goku's stomach started to rumble loudly. Everyone looked at him with wide-eyed stares. It sounded like a volcano erupting but they knew that it was just his stomach. He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment as he faced them all, completely at a loss for words. "I'm not gonna lie, I could eat some food before I head to my room. I gotta admit… I am hungry!"

Suno smirked at her boyfriend, folding her arms at him. "I can attest to that. He was complaining of his hunger during our trip back home, and I had to threaten him or else he would have never shut up!" She refrained from saying that she kissed him, not wanting her parents to know that she was with Goku now.

"Wait, but you also ki- OW!" She stepped on his foot hard and sent him a glare. When he saw her withering look, it made his blood run cold, but he also understood the message she wanted to convey to him through her eyes. "Y-Yeah, sorry about that."

Suno's parents were confused by that slight exchange, and it made them wonder what was up. But they were distracted from their thoughts by the rumbling of their daughter's stomach which was a total shock to everyone. "I... I guess I'm hungry as well…"

"Alright you two, why don't you take a seat?"

The couple made their way towards the living room and took a seat next to each other. Kaiyo took a plate and a big spoon and began to serve them both. Suno was hungry, but the Saiyan was starving so badly that he was ready to eat everything on the table.

Kaiyo placed their food in front of them, indicating that they could now start eating. "Here you go, you two."

The three of them watched as the couple began to eat their food hungrily. Goku took a pair of chopsticks and didn't waste a single second in stuffing his face with the delicious food. It didn't take him long to devour the big bowl of ramen noodles before taking a plate full of fried chicken.

Suno was so startled by the constant noise of empty dishes on the table that she stopped eating for a moment, but in her hand was a pair of chopsticks and a sushi roll. "Slow down, will you? That food's not going anywhere."

It seemed like he didn't hear her as he was still eating the food with no proper manners. "Honey, just let him eat. He's very hungry." Hiroshi told her.

A simple nod was all she could manage before she resumed eating her portion of food.

The couple were soon finished with their dinner. The satisfied Saiyan sat back in his chair and patted his belly. "That... That was a lot of food, and it hit the spot!"

Suno couldn't help but giggle at her partner. "For a moment I thought you were going to choke. You were eating so fast without stopping to catch your breath!"

"I wouldn't have choked!" Goku grinned at her. "I've always had a huge appetite and I've always been able to eat super fast, so don't you worry about me!" Standing up from his chair, the Saiyan proceeded to grab his plates. "We should clean the dishes."

"You're right." Suno agreed, taking some of her plates and helping her boyfriend with clearing his own.

"No."

The two of them turned around towards Kaiyo, Hiroshi and Eighter.

"Mom? What do you mean by that?" Suno asked her mother confusedly.

"The both of you should go and rest." The older woman answered with a smile. "You two have had a long day. I wouldn't want you to tire yourselves out even further."

"But I'm sure you've spent hours getting dinner ready, so it's only fair that we clean everything up." Goku countered as he pointed to the pile of dishes on the dining table.

"Goku's right." Suno said to her mother. "We should clean up everything."

Kaiyo shook her head. "I insist that you two get some rest. Like I said, you guys have had a long day so maybe you should both take a shower and go to sleep."

"You guys should go get some rest." Hiroshi agreed with his wife.

"But Dad...?"

"I'll help clean everything up." Eighter spoke up as his robotic hand was touching the faucet handle. "Suno, Goku why don't the both of you get some rest? I'm sure the both of you want to rest in your rooms."

Goku and Suno wanted to argue. They didn't want to leave Kaiyo and Eighter to do all the work by themselves. Wasn't it right for them both to do the work since they're the ones who ate all that food? Well, the Saiyan ate more food than his girlfriend but still. It was only right for them to do so. All three of them insisted on the couple going to their rooms to get some sleep. Neither of them could think of anything else to counter that. Looking at the three, Goku could see that while they were smiling at them, they also were being serious. They weren't going to take no for an answer.

"Okay." Goku finally relented as he looked at his girlfriend. He could see that her eyes did show a little bit of tiredness. "Suno and I will head to our rooms, take a nice relaxing shower and go to sleep."

Suno slowly nodded her head. "If you guys insist."

As he took one step forward, the Saiyan stopped in his tracks. "Wait… before we go, there's something I need to talk to all of you about."

Hiroshi was already seated on the living room sofa and reading the evening newspaper as usual. He looked up from the section he was reading. "What is it? Is everything okay with you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just…" Although his love was more than okay with this, he wanted to pick his words carefully since this was her parents he was talking to. "I've thought about it, and I decided to help Suno retrieve provisions for the elderly people of the village. Eighter brought it to my attention that she struggles out there by herself finding food and water for them, even getting herself sick or hurt. I deeply care about the lives of all the people living here and I want to ensure that they're safe and happy, but I also want to protect her..." He unconsciously put a hand on her shoulder while keeping his gaze on the elderly couple.

Suno felt moved. By the touch of his hand and by his words. Sure, they had already talked about it before, but the way he was explaining things to her parents warmed her heart.

"I can't imagine what would happen if she's out there on her own and she continuously harms herself. I don't want her to keep getting hurt. I want to be by her side and work with her to provide for the villagers. And I know that you two kept worrying about her when she was gone for long hours. So… what do you say? Do you think it's possible for me to accompany Suno?"

The two parents were happy to hear that, and they could clearly see how much Goku cared about the villagers and their daughter. As joyous as they were right now, there was also another problem.

"Hearing you say all that makes us glad, and I can see how it fills our daughter with so much joy that you care about her." Kaiyo said, the smile on her face growing even brighter. She put a clean and empty plate in the dish rack before addressing him properly. "It's true. She was reckless back then and at one point my husband and I had Eighter go with her, so she didn't get hurt. To answer your question… yes, you can go along with her. I know you're more than capable of keeping her safe."

"Yes!" Suno cried, her arm latched onto her boyfriend's. "Mom, thank you so much. You don't know how much this means to me."

Goku couldn't be any more grateful to hear her words of consent. "Thank you. We can begin work starting tomorrow."

"I don't think so."

Both turned their attention to Hiroshi, obviously confused. "Huh Dad? What do you mean?"

Hiroshi put his newspaper down on the table. "Goku, don't you have to prepare for the court case? Don't get me wrong, I'm not against your idea but I think it'll be for the best if you started looking out for the villagers after you obtain full custody of your son."

Kaiyo realized that her husband had a point. "Coming to think about it, it would be better if you waited until everything involving your wife is over. You need all the time to prepare."

Goku wasn't sure what decision to make. The residents were in desperate need of food and other basic provisions and he wanted nothing more than to help them out as soon as possible, but on the other hand… he did need to be ready to appear in court for the divorce and custody hearing. What was he going to do?

"B-But…"

"Goku…"

He turned to his girlfriend, who was still latched onto his arm. "I think my parents are right on this one. You should be preparing for the court case. We can start finding provisions later when you're with Goten again and you're fully settled in Mount Paozu with him and Gohan."

"Will you guys be alright without me there to help? It must be hard trying to find basic needs for the people."

"Well, we got this big guy over there." Suno pointed to Eighter with a smile.

"She's right." Eighter said. "I can handle most of the work, and make sure the villagers have what they need."

The Saiyan looked around at each person in the room. They all seemed insistent on him waiting until everything was over for him before he steps in to help the village. He finally locked eyes with his girlfriend, and it seemed like she was pleading for him to say yes.

He finally gave in, smiling at them as he did so. "Alright, I won't get involved right now. I'll wait until I'm fully settled in Mount Paozu!"

"Great." Kaiyo said, grabbing a sponge and getting ready to resume the kitchen work.

"That's good." Hiroshi agreed as he picked up his newspaper.

"You don't need to worry about anything." Eighter said.

"Everything will be fine." The sweet voice of his girlfriend was enough to make his smile brighter.

"You guys are right." Goku said to them. "I should prepare for the divorce and custody hearing. In fact, I'm going to call Gohan again and see how things have been progressing back home with him and Goten."

"That's the spirit!" She wanted to give him a kiss but didn't do so since neither her parents nor Eighter knew that she was in a relationship with Goku, so she had no other choice but to stay where she was.

Goku scratched the back of his head. "Well… Suno and I need a nice, relaxing shower before we can sleep."

Suno looked up at the clock on the wall and gasped when she saw the time. "You're right. We should really get going." She gave Eighter and her parents a quick wave. "Bye Mom, Bye Dad, Bye Eighter!"

"Sleep tight, honey."

"Take care, pumpkin."

"If you need anything, you can come find me in my room." The android assured his friend.

That made her smile. "Thanks."

Goku also waved at them, walking away with his partner behind him. "I'll see you all tomorrow!"

After saying their farewells, the couple went to their respective rooms to rest and get ready for a brand-new day. The Saiyan was already in his room, and he opened his dresser drawer where he packed all his clothing. He searched around for a pair of pyjamas before finally entering his bathroom to take a much-needed shower.


Goku turned off the shower faucet and carefully pulled the curtain back, stepping out of the tub and grabbing his towel in the process. He wiped himself off from head to toe, thinking about everything that happened today. He was a little disappointed that he couldn't start finding provisions for the villagers right away, but he understood the point in not doing so immediately. He could only hope that everyone will hold on for now. Every small child… every elderly man or woman… anyone else who was in desperate need of money, food and clothing… he really hoped that they could hold on. He wouldn't deny that Eighter could do so much for the people, but now that he was around everything would get done a lot quicker and the village residents would get what they need within the blink of an eye.

He mentally berated himself for almost accidentally telling his girlfriend's parents that they kissed. There was no doubt that he deserved the painful step on the foot from Suno. He knew exactly why she did that to him. To prevent him from spilling the beans. Her Mom, Dad and Eighter didn't yet know that they were in a relationship, and it would have ended in total embarrassment for them both if it had come out so soon. A sigh escaped from his lips, wondering how he could have come close to screwing things up.

He folded his towel neatly and put it in his usual spot in the bathroom before stepping out, feeling rejuvenated. He looked around for his cellphone until he realized that it was inside the pocket of his now dirty jeans. He pulled it out from the laundry basket and searched in his pocket for the phone. When he finally found it, he walked to his large bed and sat down with the intention of looking through for important text messages from his friends. There were no new messages from them, so Goku decided to browse on the internet for a while.

Goku couldn't help but smile, remembering when Bulma was teaching him how to use this phone. Back then he didn't know a single thing about using these electronic devices. It took a while before he could finally use the phone properly. He never really browsed on the internet before as he didn't find any need to do so but was glad to remember how it was done. He pressed the internet icon and found himself pressing the search tab. He typed in something entirely random and before the Saiyan knew it, he was engrossed in his internet research, chuckling a bit at what he found. And then he found an interesting article. It appeared to be about somebody. The headline was; Lawyer Nikushimi wins another case.

"Hmmm, interesting. He's gotta be famous then." Goku thought. He then found himself reading about this guy and how he was the one of the most skilled lawyers in West City. "He must be really good if he's able to win all of his cases without breaking a sweat."

His research came to an end however, when he saw that someone was calling him and much to his delight… it was his older son who was calling him. Or was it?

Looking at the caller ID once more Goku finally picked up his ringing cellphone and was expecting to hear the voice of his older son. "Hey Gohan, how are you doing? I was planning to call you."

"Daddy?"

"Wait a minute…" He sat frozen in his spot, realizing that the person on the line right now wasn't Gohan but it was his younger son. There was no mistaking it. He recognized his voice all too well. It really was him. After not seeing his son for a while since the separation, he assumed that he wouldn't hear his son's voice again until the custody hearing. But it was happening sooner than he thought, and in this very moment.

"Is that… Is that MY LITTLE BOY!?" He almost screamed in joy, wiping a tear falling down his eye. "Is that really him?"

"Yeah Daddy, it really is me. I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you too son. How have you been doing?"

"I'm doing okay now, Daddy. Now that we're talking on the line."

"Wonderful!" Goku beamed. "So did Gohan give you permission to use his phone?"

"Uh-huh. I asked him if I could talk to you on his phone and he said yes. He dialed your number for me and handed me the phone. I miss you so much. I… I almost thought that I would never hear from you again."

"We're talking right now, little guy. And we WILL see each other again, okay? You don't need to worry about anything. I'm fighting to get full custody of you. You'll be living with me soon enough!"

"Thank you. I can't wait for that day."

"No problem. So how is everything-" He was cut off after hearing faint sounds of barking. Was it just him or did he actually hear a dog barking in the background?

"Do you guys have a pet at home?" Goku inquired. Back at Mount Paozu, they didn't have any pets. Him and his elder son once talked about getting one, but with their training in the way, they wouldn't have had the time to care for it. And he wasn't sure if Chichi would have shown any interest in keeping an animal in the house.

"Umm… no. We're in Satan City with Videl and Mr. Satan."

That surprised him. "Satan City? In their house?"

"Oh… uhhh…" There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Yeah, we are. Gohan and I are in their house right now."

"Really? And what are you doing there?" He asked, feeling that something was amiss.

"Uhhh… Mr. Satan and Videl invited us over for dinner, but we'll be going home soon. That was Mr. Satan's dog you heard barking just now."

"That's great. So… I suppose your mother is there with you right now?"

"Actually… ummm… she's uhhh… she went to buy something in West City to take to our grandpa. I don't know when she'll be back home, but she gave us permission to join Videl and Mr. Satan for dinner at their house."

"And how did you and Gohan persuade her?" Goku questioned, his suspicions growing each second. His son kept pausing and stuttering on the line and it was starting to worry him a little bit.

"Uhhh… by completing all of my homework. She said that she'll let us go to Mr. Satan's house if I finish all the homework assignments she gave me."

"Hold on, your mother is homeschooling you now? Or did she hire a private tutor for you?" He was well aware that Gohan attended Orange Star High School, but he wasn't sure about the choices of schooling for his younger son.

"Ohhh… uhmm… she hired a private tutor for me, and he comes in five times a week. And I have the weekends off. The teacher is pretty strict, but I'd say Mommy is far worse. Even on the weekends, she doesn't give me a break. She's constantly giving me homework based on what I've learned."

"You're eating well, right? Your mother makes sure to feed you everyday doesn't she?"

"Yeah, she does… well, sometimes?"

"Sometimes?" This came as a surprise to him. What did his son mean by that? He found out from Gohan that Chichi was pretty harsh on Goten, and he wanted to find out just how bad it is. "Are there times where your mother doesn't feed you?"

"Yeah, but sometimes… uhhh… Trunks would sneak in through my bedroom window and give me some food. He would stay with me until I was done eating and take the trash away, so Mommy doesn't get suspicious whenever she must clean my room. Gohan is usually in school when this happens."

"I see… and what did you eat today?"

"Videl ordered pizza for us!"

Goku chuckled. "And I suppose you had no problem eating everything?"

"Nope. She ordered so many flavors for us. It was super good. I wish you were there, Daddy."

As much as Goku wanted to continue questioning his son, he didn't want to put him on the spot. Goten had been through so much without him there. He couldn't handle everything by himself. Goten was his son, and he was his father… the last thing he wanted was to upset his son so he decided to change the subject.

"Tell me, what do you want to do when we move back to Mount Paozu?"

"I want us to ride on the Nimbus Cloud again, camp out in the woods and go fishing!"

"Just like the old times, eh?"

"Yup. Can we go to Papaya Island again?"

Goku smiled at that. "Of course we can. I do remember you loved the video game arcade so much that you would be in there for hours. We can eat out at a restaurant, and we can go see a movie together. It'll be just you, me and your brother. How does that sound?"

"THAT SOUNDS AWESOME DADDY, I CAN'T WAIT!"

"Me neither."

They talked for a few more minutes. Mostly about the stuff they were gonna do when they moved back to Mount Paozu. Being careful not to spill the beans to his father, Goten managed to tell him how things were going at Satan City and what Gohan was currently doing right now. During the conversation, the little boy expressed interest in wanting to train again and Goku assured him that when the time was right, they would train together and for as many hours as they wanted.

"I can't believe I get to train with you again!"

"Me neither son. I can't wait. How about I help you master your SSJ form?"

"Really? AWESOME!"

"Alright little guy, it was fun talking to you but I've got to get some rest. Take care, alright?"

"Okay Daddy. Have a good night's sleep!"

"I will. And don't worry, we'll talk again."

Goku ended the phone call, completely lost in thought. His son sounded cheerful as always up until he started asking him those questions. What he was finding strange was Goten telling him that he had a home teacher now. But… Gohan never said anything to him about this. If Chichi hired the tutor after they moved into their new home, why hadn't his older son said anything about it while they were on Kami's Lookout? What was even more shocking than that was finding out that Trunks was providing him with food. Wasn't his wife feeding him enough? Even if she couldn't afford to cook a large quantity of food, their son deserved to be fed a decent sized meal every day. Was there something else going on that he didn't know about?

Before the Saiyan could dwell on it anymore, he heard a few soft knocks on the door which interrupted his train of thought. He didn't need to get up and open the door when he knew exactly who was knocking on it. She was here to see him, as evidenced by her calm energy signal.

"Come on in!" A smile crept on his face as he momentarily forgot what he was thinking about.

Suno stepped in through the door and closed it quietly without making any noise. She was wearing a pink nightgown and flipflops after a relaxing shower and she was looking at her boyfriend with a soft smile, thinking of what to say to him. She fiddled around with her fingers for a little bit as she still didn't know how to start up a conversation right now.

"What's up?" He asked her, watching as she was twiddling her thumbs. He could tell that she was nervous about something.

"I... I took a shower, but I couldn't go to sleep so I thought I might check up on you." Suno replied as she noticed him holding his cellphone in his hand. She then started to feel bad, thinking that she might have come in at the wrong time. "Or are you busy with something? I don't want to disturb you if you're doing something important." The village resident turned her back towards him, preparing to make her way back towards the exit. "I-I should go!"

Before she could make one step towards the exit, Goku already had a stong grip on her arm. Firm, but not too tight. "Hey, come here." He spun her around gently and looked into her eyes. "You can stay. I'm not doing anything right now. I did just get off the phone though." He pulled her into a warm embrace and wrapped his strong arms around her lovingly.

Suno didn't waste any time in returning the hug. As they remained in each other's arms, Goku kissed the top of her head, inhaling the rose scented shampoo in her hair. He raised a hand and ran his fingers through her hair and watched as she nuzzled her head against his chest, making him smile at her. She really did look so adorable, especially when they were like this.

He pulled away from their embrace and looked at her lovingly, holding both of her hands in his. "Let's take a seat. Or rather yet…" He lifted Suno into his arms with a smile.

"G-Goku!" She squealed. "C-Come on!"

"Hmmm, is something wrong?" He asked with a smirk.

She snuggled into his arms. "Not at all… Just take me to your bed."

Goku carried her in his arms like a princess until he reached his bed. He set his girlfriend down and made sure she was comfortable before sitting down opposite from her. Right away, he could tell that something was wrong. She was looking away from him, but it seemed like she was terror stricken.

"Are you okay? Is something bothering you?" He asked as he looked into her eyes. She wasn't saying anything, and he was about to say something else when the answer finally dawned on him.

"It's about what happened after dinner, isn't it?" She answered by nodding her head. He sighed, feeling guilty about his carelessness. "I'm sorry about that. About… almost telling your parents about our relationship. They may not know about us yet, but we have to tell them at some point."

"How do you think they'll react?"

He could tell that she was nervous, and now it was his duty to reassure her. "I'm certain they'll be fine with it. Your mother said she's okay with us being together, right? I'm sure your Dad and Eighter won't complain about us either."

She nodded slowly. "I think we should tell them before the party."

"I agree." He reached out for her hand. "It'll be alright. I promise."

"I know."

Goku leaned in closer and kissed her on the lips, making her smile. "Come here." As Suno was moving closer to him, she felt herself being pulled into his arms. She was rewarded with another kiss.

As they were cuddling together, the Saiyan pulled her away slightly. "Why? What's wrong?" She noticed that he was now looking excited.

"Guess who I was talking to on the phone!"

"Gohan?" She asked with a smile. "You did say that you wanted to call him later. Did you find out anything new from him?"

"Well…" He started to explain. "After taking a shower, I was browsing on my phone for a while and just as I was getting carried away, he called me. Or at least I thought he did."

She raised an eyebrow. "So it wasn't Gohan?"

"Nope. Can you take a guess? There's only one other person who would have been with him!" He said, the excitement in his face starting to show.

It didn't take her long to figure it out. She covered her mouth in shock and happiness. "You talked to Goten? That's great news!"

He was beaming brightly at his girlfriend. "It really is. When I picked up the phone, it was his voice that I heard. Although I wasn't fully convinced of what he was telling me, I'm happy to have spoken to him. And now I feel more confident than ever to win sole custody of him."

"What did he say?"

"Well… he said that him and Gohan were having dinner at Satan City with Videl, Buu and Mr. Satan." He explained.

"Videl Satan? The daughter of Hercule Satan?"

"Yeah, she is. And Gohan's dating her too."

"Really? How amazing."

"It really is." Goku smiled, remembering his first encounter with the teenage girl. "She's pretty awesome and my son seems happy with her. She's been supportive of him since they announced themselves as a couple and even before that. I think she's a perfect fit for him." His son didn't talk too much about Videl, but he knew that she was good-natured.

"That's so sweet…" She gushed. "I suppose they're like us?"

"Yeah, it's just like our relationship." Goku laughed. He stroked her cheek with a fond smile as he closed the gap between them. A beautiful kiss entered the picture once more.

They parted away as both felt happy and content. "If you meet Videl at the party I'm sure you'll like her." He said, imagining how an encounter between the two would go. Something was telling him they would become best friends. "Just like you, she's someone who can be trusted completely. Gohan is happy with her just like I am with you."

"I would love that. I'm sure all your friends will be nice and also welcoming."

He gave her a giant hug albeit squeezing her a bit too tight. "They will be, and I'm sure everyone will like you and make you feel at home." The back of her head laid against his neck as she slowly stared out the window, thinking about the words of her significant other.

Despite her partner's confidence, she wasn't sure if everyone else would feel the same way about her. Especially his sons. How would they react if they learned that their father found another woman when it wasn't time for him to show up in court? Would they take a liking to her, or would they treat her badly? After all, it hadn't been that long since the separation and their Dad was already in a relationship with her. She couldn't help but feel a little scared at the thought, but she didn't want her lover to know that so she kept her mouth shut.

"Speaking of the party… you don't mind if we bring Eighter along?" Suno asked, turning away from the window and returning the hug with as much strength as possible.

"Of course not." Goku said, loosening his tight grip and giving her more room to breathe. "If he doesn't have anything planned, I think he should come along with us. I'll ask Bulma if I can bring the both of you to the party." He placed his hand on her lower back.

"Sounds great. So what else did Goten say?"

"Our talk was amazing. We mostly talked about the things we're gonna do together!" He refrained from mentioning his suspicions and just talked about the activities he wanted to do with his son. Suno listened intently, liking where this was going. "We're going to camp out in the woods, go hunting and fishing, take him to Papaya Island and I'll be training him too. I just know there's many other fun activities we can do together as a family. I do believe there are many things I can teach him too!"

"See Goku? It'll all work out."

"I know, and I'm sure Gohan is taking good care of him right now, so I don't have anything to worry about." He lowered his voice a little bit as he held one of her hands. "And… I want you to come to Mount Paozu and see just how peaceful we are as a family. Whenever I have some free time, I'll come and get you."

"Alright." She was going to miss having him around the village but understood that he had to return to his home very soon. "I'm going to miss you though."

"I know." He said, pressing his lips against her forehead. "Nothing is going to change, you got that? Even if I'm not here with you all the time, I'll have a special place for you in my heart."

"Goku…" The way he said it almost brought her to tears. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her head in the crook of his neck. "I-I… you'll be in my heart. Always."

"I know, babe. I know…" He continued to hold her tightly.

"Hey… you don't mind if I spend the night with you? I-I don't really want to be alone…" She quickly blushed and kept her head buried in his chest. "Oh crap, forget I said that!"

"Come on, do you really think I'd say no?" He asked, causing her to look up at him again. "I would rather have you by my side."

"Really? You want me here?" That question came out of her mouth without her even thinking about it. Sharing the same bed with her boyfriend? How was it going to turn out? The thought of that was making her blush even deeper.

"Of course." He picked up his hand-made blanket and encased it around them. Luckily it was big enough to cover them both. "You wanna stay up with me?"

A small smile came upon her face. "Yeah. Thanks again for letting me spend the night." She continued to snuggle in his arms, just loving how warm he felt.

"No problem and I just thought of something… how would you like to visit the World Martial Arts tournament tomorrow?"

"What…" That caught her off guard. "But don't you have to prepare for the custody hearing? My parents even said that you have to make the preparations for it. I don't mind if we continue dating after the whole thing is over."

"That's true, but I trust that Gohan and my friends will let me know of what's happening when we meet up again. I may not know every single detail of what's going on with them right now, but I trust that everything is alright. I just know it!" He squeezed her hand beneath the cover, his gaze fixated on her. "I think it's okay if we go on another date tomorrow. So, what do you say? I think it'll be cool if you got to see the tournament arena. We can even go sightseeing in Papaya Island!"

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. I was worried before but now that I've had the chance to talk with Goten, it lessened my concerns."

"Okay, let's do that!" To be honest, she was also excited to be going to Papaya Island. She had never seen the tournament arena before but she recalled the times her parents brought her there as a little girl. Playing games, eating ice cream, exploring the tourist attraction sites… those were good times.

"Trust me, it's going to be fun."

"I know."

The couple just turned their attention to the window, just observing how calm and cool everything was outside. It had been such a long day for them and they knew that they would have another long day tomorrow. They were going on their second date. Who knew what this trip to Papaya Island would have in store for them? Regardless of the possibilities, they were both certain that they would have fun as another loving couple. Goku continued to hold his girlfriend in his arms, and they resumed looking out the window and at the stars in the night sky. They observed all of the nicely built snowmen and snow castles, causing them both to reminisce about the time they built snowmen together. During the night, they would occasionally look away from the window and share a few kisses initiated by one or the other.

As Goku continued to stare out the window in blissful silence, he began to realize that it had been silent for far too long. He hadn't heard his girlfriend say anything for a while. "Sweetheart? You okay?" Then he turned to his right, and he noticed that she had already fallen asleep…in his arms. He could feel her rhythmic breathing against his chest.

He removed the blanket from them, knowing what he had to do. He carefully removed his girlfriend's arms from around him. She shifted around for a little bit but didn't wake up. He slowly lifted her and with such gentleness, managed to lay her down on the bed. He laid down next to her, pulled the blanket over them once more and watched her sleep.

Under the covers, she unconsciously put an arm around his torso and nuzzled her head softly against him. His fingers combed through her hair as she was sleeping soundly.

He then thought about having to leave his girlfriend to go back to Mount Paozu. He had already assured her that nothing was going to change between them. They wouldn't be together everyday since he would be spending more time with the boys, but he still had many things planned for them both. There was nothing for her to worry about. He already had the strong resolve to make his relationship with Suno work out once it was time for him to leave after successfully freeing Goten from Chichi's clutches.

Not only that, he couldn't help but feel as if she was still worried about her parents finding out about their relationship. He knew that they cared about their daughter's happiness more than anything else in the world. Once they saw how happy she was with him… he was certain that they would give their blessing for them to continue dating. Not just Kaiyo and Hiroshi, but his friends and sons as well.

'I love you with all my heart. Nothing is going to change that. I'm going to keep loving you just like how you've been loving me.' He thought to himself as he tightened his grip on her, making sure not to accidentally wake her up in the process.

With this beautiful woman sleeping beside him for the first time, Goku knew that he was going to have the best sleep he's ever had in a long time. With everything thought out, he eventually drifted off to sleep with a happy and content smile on his face.

(End of Chapter Seven)

To be continued...


Author's note: If you read this chapter before I updated it, then you've seen the changes I made/the new scenes I wrote. I'm not going to list them all but just the important ones. For one thing, I had Videl invite Gohan and Goten to stay with her in Satan City. I also removed the second beating Chichi gave Goten and I wrote an entirely new scene where Kaiyo and Eighter are buying groceries for the house as well as them returning with the groceries. It was just something I thought about. On top of that, I deleted the part where Gohan comes back and finds his brother badly injured and instead I had him and Goten run away from home. As you've seen in this updated version, they're in Satan City. Looking back, I wasn't feeling proud of how I wrote this chapter before especially with the violence. As much as I dislike Chichi, this second beating didn't really help the chapter.

I feel like these new changes will make the story even better. It didn't really make sense why the boys are still living with their mother even after the damage she inflicted on them. I was originally going to have them stay in Capsule Corp, but eventually decided to have them move in with Videl as I felt that I used the Capsule Corp setting a bit too much. Plus, the runaway will help Gohan and Videl catch up on school and their relationship. And I think that Goten would get along very well with Buu and Mr. Satan.

I also fixed a plot hole in this chapter. When Goku called out the Flying Nimbus, I made it so that Suno didn't know anything about its existence. But in the anime every villager saw it, including Suno herself. So it's fixed. And I've also extended the scenes with Goku and Suno. And even wrote a tiny little scene where they get settled down to watch the sunset.