Smash.
The glass hit the wall and shattered into pieces.
Goku had dodged the flying object with ease, but there was no escaping the wrath of his wife.
He had only been back a few weeks ... and the atmosphere in the house was suffocating.
"What the hell was that for?" Goku shrieked.
"What was that for?! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" His tiny little irate wife bellowed. Goku ducked as a plate was launched at him, the piece of porcelain crockery crashing against the wall behind him.
She snapped. Kami, she snapped! He hadn't said a word to her about his absence since he came back nearly 2 months ago, and she could not take it anymore.
"You left me ... for over a YEAR!" she screamed, grabbing her next weapon to catapult at the Saiyan, "and you just waltz in here like NOTHING HAPPENED!" She threw a serving platter at him next, the item skimming his shoulder and hitting the wall unit behind him.
"What do you mean, I just waltzed in here? I live here" Goku reminded her coolly.
"Oh, you live here?! Well you could'a fooled me, because I can't remember the last time you were HERE!" she yelled, launching a cooking pan his way. Goku stepped to the side briskly, avoiding the metal pan, flinching as it crashed loudly to the floor.
"Will you stop throwing things?" Goku calmly asked her.
"Why didn't you come home?!" she demanded, resting her one palm on the kitchen counter, her fingers tapping the surface impatiently.
"What?" Goku abruptly questioned her.
"You heard me! Why didn't you come home when we wished you to? Why did you refuse?"
"Because I didn't want to at the time" he told her bluntly.
"You didn't want to come home?"
"Well, yeah, I did wanna come home, but I just ... wasn't ready" he tried to explain.
"Wasn't ready? Too busy enjoying your freedom, huh? Enjoying your little space adventure" she spat.
"No, it wasn't like that"
"Too busy enjoying the lack of responsibilities as a father and a husband! Too busy having fun!"
"Honey, you know that's not true" he tried to reason with her, cautiously taking a few steps closer to her.
"Then what was so damn important, that it kept you from your family this whole time?" she demanded to know.
"Nothing" he lied.
"Nothing? NOTHING?! YOU LIAR!" She screeched, grabbing a half full glass of juice from the side and hurling it at her husband. Goku remained in his spot and slapped the glass away from him, the item cracking from his touch and shattering onto the kitchen floor.
"Will you stop?!" he ordered, a frown making an appearance on his face.
"Over a year, Goku! Do you understand how long that is?! Do you understand what you have missed?!"
"Chi-" he tried.
"-You missed Easter, Halloween, bonfire night, Christmas and new year! You missed your son's 6th and 7th birthday!" she ranted, storming across the kitchen towards him, Goku repositioning himself on the other side of the dining table.
"Yeah, I know, but-"
"You missed out on time with YOUR family! Picnics, days at the beach, camping and spending time at my father's kingdom at the festivals! All so you could have fun in space learning some new stupid fighting technique!"
"It wasn't just some stupid technique, it was a valuable skill to learn from beings on a planet I will probably never see again"
"That was more valuable to you than being with your son?! Than being with me?!"
"No, honey, no, that's not what I'm saying-" he assured her, his hands coming up in defense in front of him.
"No? Then what? There was obviously something else keeping you away! So, spit it out!" she ordered, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I ... Well ... " he stuttered.
"You, what?" she spat with venom.
He couldn't answer her.
The truth was, he didn't know how to answer her. So much had happened to him over the last year and a half ... he didn't even know where to begin.
Chichi's blood boiled and her pupils became dilated.
"There's someone else ... isn't there?" she darkly whispered.
"What?" he asked in confusion, cocking his head to the side.
"That's why you stayed away, that's why you have been acting so secretive!"
"What are you talking about?" Goku questioned her again, still unsure to what she was getting at.
"There's another woman, isn't there?!" she snarled.
"Another woman?" he pondered ... his eyes then widening when he realised what she was insinuating, "Are you serious?" he raised his voice, "You think I was with another woman?"
"Oh, it all makes sense now!" she shook her head in disbelief.
"Are you actually serious?" Goku questioned his wife again.
"You know, I didn't think Gohan was the problem, but it did cross my mind that you didn't want to come home to me" she muttered.
"Honey-" Goku tried again, stepping around the table to get closer to her.
"-Master Roshi made a sick joke, telling everyone that you didn't want to come home because of me!"
"What? He said that?" Goku choked on his breath, how could Master Roshi say such a thing?
"And he was right, wasn't he?!"
"No, Chichi, that's not true" he tried to tell her gently, stepping even closer to her, his hands reaching out to take hers but she slapped them away.
"I mean, why would you want to come back to me? You've been across space and probably seen loads of beautiful space women who are stronger than me, who like fighting! Why would you want to come back to this?" she rasped, pointing at herself.
"Chichi-"
"-Why would you want this controlling, nagging old housewife when you can have some beautiful alien woman?!
"Chichi, that's enough" he told her.
"It explains everything! It explains why you won't talk to me! It explains why you don't want to be anywhere near me! You're distant with me all the time, you haven't told me once that I am beautiful, you have made no attempts to kiss me! You have completely cut me off!" she screamed, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
"You haven't exactly been the most welcoming since I came home" he shot back at her.
"Really?! The first thing you said when you walked in here was, 'Hey honey, mmm, something smells good, can we eat? I'm starving!" she mimicked his deeper voice, "No 'sorry I didn't come home'', or 'I missed you'! Oh, and then you decided to spring it on me about the Androids! And Piccolo living with us for the next 3 years so you can train!"
"Androids are going to come and destroy the planet, it was important I told you that straight away". A vein was protruding on her forehead at his point.
"I don't care about some stupid androids! And even so, they aren't coming for 3 years! You don't need to train every single day for the next 3 years!"
"We are training whether you like it or not" Goku put his foot down. Chichi grit her teeth and her hands bawled up into fists at her sides.
"Why even bother coming home? If all you were gonna do was train, why not just stay in space with your new girlfriend?!" she spat.
"I had no idea about the androids until I came home, and will you stop this crap about another woman!"
"Oh, now look who's getting defensive! All because ya been caught out!"
"I haven't been caught out for nothing! Because it's not true!" he fumed, his body inching closer to hers.
"Then tell me the TRUTH!" She raged.
"I already told you, I just needed time to recover and I learned the instant transmission technique" he shouted at her.
"You're a LIAR!" she seethed.
"Stop calling me a LIAR!" he roared back.
"Maybe I should hop on that space ship of yours and go and ask that alien bitch, maybe she will tell me what you've been doing!"
"Stop it" he hissed, his hands now clenching into fists.
"You never wanted me in the first place! You married me to keep a promise!"
"Chichi, I'm warning you"
"You're warning me? What are you going to do? Huh? You gonna hit me? Is that what she likes? Being man handled by you? Because she's strong and I'm not!" Chichi cried out, tears now falling from her eyes, "Why don't you just go back to space! You obviously don't want to be here and you don't want me!" Chichi was about to turn her back to her husband when he grabbed her right arm and yanked her forcefully back around to face her.
Chichi gasped, her shocked tear-riddled eyes peering up to meet his.
"That is enough!" he commanded her, his strong grip tightening on her fragile arm, "How dare you say those things to me! Accusing me of cheating on you when I just saved the entire Universe from Frieza! It was the biggest fight of my life and it took everything out of me, and did things to me that you will NEVER understand!" his eyes narrowed at her.
"I have NEVER said that I didn't wanna be here! But from the moment I walked in here, all you've done is give me the cold shoulder! YOU are the one acting like you don't want ME!" Chichi saw red.
"I have tried talking to you and you won't open up to me! You're hiding yourself from me! I finally have you back, and yet I feel so empty when I should feel so full! I don't feel like you want to be here and I don't feel like you want me!" she cried again.
"I want you, and only you!" he snapped at her, yanking her even closer to him by her arm, "It's always been you! I don't know anything else and I don't wanna know anything else! You are mine! No one else! YOU!"
There was no response, only silence.
Chichi's chest heaved, her heart pounded in her chest, his words ringing in her ears.
Their eyes were locked, their bodies only inches away from each other. This was the closest they had been to each other since Goku returned home, and yet ... they had never felt more further apart.
The love that was normally reflected in their eyes had evaporated, their gaze now holding an unfamiliar icy hostility.
"Let me go" she lowly whispered.
"Let you go?" he questioned her, his voice barely above a whisper, "I just told you that I want you and ... and I'm here! I'm here, Chichi! I'm standing here right in front of you! I don't want to let you go" his voice cracked.
"Please" she breathed, "Let me go".
"And then what? You're gonna walk away and be cold to me and we'll do this all over again in a few days?"
"No!" she spoke calmly, trying to pull herself free of his steel hold on her, "We won't have this conversation again ... because what's the point? You don't wanna talk to me now, so you won't talk to me in a few days. Just go, Goku" she sighed, her shoulders slumping and her eyes turning away from his.
"You want me to go?" he questioned her, anger evident in his voice. His little wife didn't answer him, her eyes just staring at the ground.
"Fine!" he exclaimed, letting go of her arm and turning on his heels, storming towards the front door. Chichi watched with a heavy heart as he opened the door and slammed it shut behind him, with such a force that it knocked their photo frames off the wall.
She slowly slipped into one of the kitchen chairs and let out the breath she was holding in.
And she cried.
This was a prompt from DB Prompts on Twitter "I want you, and only you".
This is actually going to be part of another story that I am currently in the process of writing, which is my take on what happened to Goku on Yardrat and the hardship I believe he went through when he returned to Earth.
To be continued ...