4: Reunion
Gohan managed to consume four bottles of formula rather than the two Chi-Chi had thought he would. She didn't seem to mind though, mentioning that she'd had to ration his food so that it'd last longer. The thought that Gohan wasn't eating as much as he'd needed made his heart hurt. It'd hurt Chi-Chi too judging by the guilty look on her face.
He insisted she take a nap when Gohan was done eating, as she still looked tired. She did, but only after she called her father to let him know where she was and to bring some things, mostly more stuff for Gohan. She also, at his insistence, showed him how to change Gohan's diaper so that Goku could do that if he needed to while she was sleeping.
They returned back upstairs before Krillin and master Roshi woke up. Goku wasn't surprised though, it was only now approaching the time that he usually got up and neither of the other men liked having their sleep interrupted.
Still it wasn't long after Chi-Chi fell asleep that he heard the other two get up and move around. He didn't go down and greet them though. Not when he could watch over his wife and play with his son.
It wasn't until he could feel Bulma, Yamcha and Yamcha's ever present friend Puar approaching that he decided to join the others. As much as he didn't want to leave Chi-Chi alone and vulnerable right now, he also didn't want Bulma to come up when Chi-Chi wasn't awake.
It did mean he had to take the still wide awake Gohan with him, since even if Gohan hadn't yet mastered crawling it didn't feel right to leave him alone with a sleeping Chi-Chi. Gohan thankfully seemed to trust him now, and didn't start crying when he went down the stairs and away from Chi-Chi.
He made it to the bottom just in time for his oldest friend to barge in. "Okay Krillin, what's this I heard about a baby?"
"Good morning Bulma, how are you. We're fine by the way thanks for asking." Goku bit back a chuckle at Krillin's response. The darker part of his thoughts wanted to growl when she didn't ask about Chi-Chi. Though he doubted it'd be happy if she was asking about Chi-Chi.
Yamcha rolled his eyes and greeted Krillin properly and Goku decided to make his presence known.
"Morning Bulma, morning Yamcha. Morning Puar." His hands were too full to wave, but only Krillin seemed to acknowledge he was up anyway. The other three were too busy staring at his son.
The scarred ex bandit was the first to speak. "Holy shit that's a baby." Puar smacked him on the head for some reason. Goku just chuckled.
"Yeah that's what Krillin said the first time too. This is my son, Gohan!" A large thrill when through him when he said that. Just thinking about it was great but saying it out loud? He'd only done it this one time so far, but Goku didn't think he'd ever get tired of introducing Gohan as his son. He didn't hold his child up like Chi-Chi had when she introduced them. Gohan seemed perfectly happy to stay cradled in Goku's arms and he was more than content to let Gohan stay there.
"His name's Gohan?" That's right, Krillin hadn't heard his name before, had he? "And uh, where's Chi-Chi?" He sounded strangely nervous and worried as he asked that for some reason.
"Upstairs taking a nap. She didn't sleep well." Krillin relaxed while Bulma approached. Thankfully he didn't feel she was as much of a threat to Gohan as he felt she was to Chi-Chi. Even if she did like him in a more than friendly way, he knew she'd never try to harm a baby. Goku honestly doubted she'd try to harm Chi-Chi either, but sometimes his instincts seemed to have a mind of their own.
"He's kind of cute," she stuck her finger out to poke him in the tummy, but Gohan wiggled back further into Goku's arms and whined.
Goku pulled him back a little to give him space and cooed in reassurance. "He's a little wary around strangers."
"He warmed up to you quickly enough."
"That's because Goku hardly left them alone ever since Chi-Chi got here." Was Krillin's dry response. Goku had to laugh at that because it was true. It shouldn't be surprising to them that he wanted to stick by his wife's side: what else had they expected him to do now that she was back?
"How do you-" Bulma cut herself off with a grimace. "Sorry I shouldn't ask, it's super rude, but how do you know he's yours?" The other three tensed at the question but Goku could only blink in confusion. Seeing that, Bulma elaborated. "If she was pregnant when she left, Gohan would be around three or four months old by now, but he looks really small, maybe too small?"
There were honestly way too many ways for Goku to answer. The shape of Gohan's jaw, his ears, his tail, the sounds he made, his appetite and many more little ways Goku was still finding. So he said the most important one first. "Chi-Chi's his mom. She wouldn't lie about having a kid."
The four of them winced and he could guess what they were thinking. Even if it was the case, it wouldn't change much. Though in all honesty, as horrible as it was, Goku didn't think he would have warmed up to Gohan as quickly if the baby wasn't his son; mostly because he'd have to reconcile with the fact that, willing or not, Chi-Chi was intimate with another male. But Goku still would have been his father even if it took days rather than seconds to warm up to him. Because his or not, Gohan was still Chi-Chi's son, and he was Chi-Chi's husband, making him Gohan's father.
Even if Chi-Chi wasn't the mother – which she had to be to make milk like that- Goku would still be the father because Chi-Chi would have chosen to be the mother.
Yamcha was the one to speak up this time. "Yeah but are you, you know, the father?"
"Yes," he drawled out, "Chi-Chi said I was, and she wouldn't lie to me." Honestly, Chi-Chi's word should be good enough. Why was Gohan being his son so hard to believe? Then again, they hadn't believed Chi-Chi wouldn't leave him either. So Goku didn't think their doubt meant much.
"But that means you would have to have had…" Krillin began with a red face before trailing off. Goku wasn't sure why then again, most of his attention had shifted to Gohan, so he didn't really spare much thought to what Krillin was being weird about now.
His small son had picked up on the tension that was starting to grow and had begun squirming. So Goku needed to adjust him a little and help him calm down a bit. Bulma suddenly gasped.
"He has a tail!" True enough, Gohan's tail was now more clearly visible to the others, having wrapped around his wrist for security and comfort. "Why didn't you just say that in the first place?" Maybe it was his imagination, but she sounded kind of nervous? He couldn't think of a reason as to why though. Krillin had also started stuttering and spluttering at some point which, again, was weird but it also meant that whatever he said next would probably be loud.
Goku could only grin at that statement though. "Yeah! Isn't it neat? It looks a lot like my old tail."
"So that means you're really a dad now? I wasn't expecting that."
He beamed at Yamcha. "I know! I'm still getting used to it too. But it's amazing so far! Gohan's so cute!"
"You had sex?!" And there was Krillin's outburst. Though Goku was a little confused as to why his past intimacy with his wife was strange to his friend. Nor did he understand why it was so surprising to his friend when Krillin was the one who told him what marriage meant.
"Yes? I'm married." Chi-Chi had said that every married couple did that, as if it was common knowledge. Did Krillin not know that part though? Maybe it wasn't as common as he or Chi-Chi thought? "Did…did you not know that married people do that?"
Krillin started sputtering again. It wasn't an answer but Goku had noticed that sometimes Krillin didn't like to admit when he didn't know something. It probably didn't help that both Bulma and Yamcha sounded like they were muffling their laughter. Which was kind of mean. Their looks of shock were almost as bad, though why they were looking at him rather than Krillin was beyond Goku.
Goku wasn't usually the best at explaining things other than fighting techniques, but for Krillin he'd have to try. "You see Krillin, you were right when you said that married people promise to spend the rest of their lives together. However, when people get married they can have sex with each other and it's usually considered normal. It also means they can have sex whenever they want, where ever they want, as long as no one else is around. Like in the kitc-"
Krillin cut him off with a yelp, "I know they have sex!" His face was so red it looked kind of like a tomato. Which reminded Goku that it was breakfast time. "I just, ugh," he buried his face in his hands, "I just never imagined you having sex."
"I…never thought about you having sex either?" Was that something friends were supposed to think about? The only person he ever thought about having sex was Chi-Chi and even that was only with the idea of him being involved as well and that usually very quickly changed into him actually having sex with Chi-Chi. "Was… was I supposed to be?" Was he a bad friend? Or was that another thing that made him weird. That might explain Bulma's behavior though.
"No!" Yamcha blurted out, "that's not what he meant. It's just that you…uh…"
"What they mean," Bulma started, "is that you didn't seem like the type to enjoy sex."
"Oh." That was still kind of strange to him. But he supposed they weren't wrong in a way. He doubted he'd enjoy sex as much if it wasn't with Chi-Chi. "I guess that makes sense." Sort of, but not really? How could someone tell that sort of thing by looking at people?
A shocked squeak and a fascinated gurgle drew Goku's attention completely away from the odd conversation. Puar had, at some point in their conversation moved to hover over Gohan and was making silly faces at him. Gohan wasn't laughing but he didn't seem scared either. And then he reached up and grabbed their tail.
Goku clicked his tongue without thinking about it in a gentle scolding manner. "Aw, hey, Gohan no." He adjusted his hold on his son a bit in order to free one of his hands. Gently he pried the child's delicate little fingers off of the fuzzy appendage. "Don't grab Puar like that, they're a friend." He clicked again, just to make sure Gohan got the message that that wasn't allowed. He knew he didn't know a lot about manners, but grabbing tails was really rude. And painful.
Thankfully Gohan was more interested in his fingers than he had been with Puar's tail, quickly abandoning it to grab at his fingers. He didn't seem to register the light scolding but Goku was kind of okay with that for now. He wasn't sure he scolded his son right anyway.
"It's alright, he didn't grab me that hard. But I can tell he's going to be really strong."
He laughed at that, "really? That'd be great!"
"Wow, it's hard to believe you've only known about him for a day." At his confused glance Yamcha elaborated. "You've really got this dad thing down."
"Especially the baby talk." Goku had to think for a second about Krillin's comment before realizing he and Gohan must have been making more noises than he'd thought they'd been.
Before anything else could be said though, his stomach reminded him and everyone else that it was breakfast time.