And we're back! I apologize for the long break in updates. I have had a terrible case of writer's block and had zero motivation for writing, in the past month. But, I've gained a bit of that mojo back. Thank you so much for your continued patience and understanding. Enjoy!
"Hey," Goku whispered. "Hey, Piccolo."
Piccolo grimaced, feeling his breath right on his ear. "What," he hissed.
"Do you wanna go out?"
Piccolo opened one eye to look at Goku. "What do you mean?"
"You know – go out. Leave the house. Go somewhere. You haven't left here once, this week."
"What does it matter, to you?"
"Well, we can go do something fun: go visit the city, try all the food, see something funny." He swayed back and forth, as he listed off everything.
He had to be joking. Why would he think he'd be interested in any of that? Even if he were, no one would go within arms distance of him. "No." He closed his eye, hoping to go back to his meditation.
The seat next to the couch caved in, and he sighed. Would he ever learn to take a hint? "Oh, come on! It'll be fun! Pretty please?"
He cringed. Was he really going to beg? As he thought about it, the more appealing it became. Maybe getting some fresh air would do him some good. Maybe this would get him to leave him alone, for a while. "Fine," he said, exasperatedly.
"Woohoo! Let's go!"
Goku and Piccolo left Mt. Paozu, heading out for West City. As usual, Goku was rambling on about unimportant things, which Piccolo just tuned out. Luckily, the trip didn't take long, and they were at their destination in no time.
Goku hopped off of Nimbus, and waved at it, as it flew away. "Well, we're here! What do you wanna do, first?"
"I don't care," Piccolo said.
He lifted his finger up to his chin, thinking about something. "It's been a while since I last came here… Oh yeah! We can go to Dream Land! Man, it's been forever since I last went there."
"What's that?"
"Oh, there are rides, and food, and shows, and a lot of fun stuff to do. Yeah, that's perfect! We should go there!" He started running off in one direction, before stopping. "Wait. Where was it, again?"
Piccolo put his hand on his face. This was going to be a long day.
Goku started asking strangers for directions but none of them proved to be very helpful. They only gave him confusing paths without being specific. Some named the streets and directions too quickly to follow and got mad when asked to repeat themselves. Piccolo was beginning to wonder if you had to be bad at giving directions to live in West City. A half-hour had passed, and they were no closer to getting to their destination.
"Aw man. I thought we'd be there, by now." Goku slumped his shoulders. He looked around, and pointed at a guy. "Maybe that guy knows the way?" The man was tall and skinny, wearing a jacket with a tall collar. He had sunglasses hanging low off of his nose. He was leaning against the wall, with his hands in the pocket of his jacket.
"You're certain about that."
"Yeah. It'll be fine."
"Then you can go talk to him, yourself."
"Okay. Sure." Goku jogged towards the guy, leaving Piccolo standing on the street curb. He asked him for directions. With half-lidded eyes, he nodded, and motioned for him to follow him into an alley, saying that he'd tell him, in there. Goku looked back at Piccolo and smiled, giving him thumbs up, as he followed him inside. Piccolo closed his eyes and sighed, shaking his head.
A minute or so passed, and Piccolo contemplated going in there to check up on him; hopefully, he hadn't gotten into too much trouble. Before he could, Goku came running out, with a smile on his face. "I got the directions! He said we just gotta keep going straight and we'll be there in no time!"
"Are you sure?"
"Oh yeah! He was really nice, too. It was weird – he kept talking about medicine, but once we shook hands, he told me the way."
Piccolo glanced back at the alleyway. Hidden behind a corner, he could see the same man sitting on the ground, wincing and crying while holding a broken hand. Piccolo decided to leave well-enough alone, and didn't ask anymore questions. He wasn't sure Goku could give him a straight answer.
The pair continued down the street and, sure enough, they reached the entrance gate to Dream Land. The actual theme park was high in the sky, covered by a large dome. It reminded Piccolo a bit of the Lookout.
They walked up to the entrance, where a young woman was standing there, smiling with her eyes closed. "Tickets, please," she asked. Goku just walked past her through the turnstiles, not bothering to respond. She opened her eyes, and turned around. "Hey! I asked for your tickets!"
Goku looked back, in confusion. "What?"
The woman at the ticket stand blinked, and her eyes widened. "Are you Son Goku?!"
Goku looked even more confused. "Yeah?"
She clasped her hands together. "Oh, you won the World Martial Arts Tournament! You did so amazing in that last round, I could hardly believe it! You know, you can go right on in! It's on me!"
"Oh. Cool!" Goku kept going in, with Piccolo following behind him. He was a bit confused by that last interaction, but he wasn't sure that Goku fully understood that, either.
As they passed through security, one of the guards stopped Piccolo. "Sir, you're going to have to remove the costume."
Piccolo looked down at his outfit. He huffed out a loud sigh, and walked behind a pillar. He watched a few guests walk through security and singled out the first one that caught his eye. He closed his eyes and changed into an outfit matching his: sneakers, blue jeans, a purple long sleeved shirt with a yellow shirt that read "POSTBOY" on top of it, and a blue and white baseball cap. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and snarled. Human men had the worst taste in fashion.
He walked back out and up to the security guard. "Will this suffice," he spat.
"Yeah. Go right ahead in," said the guard, without even looking up.
Piccolo pushed through the rest of security and met up with Goku, at the exit.
"Hey, nice clothes," he said. "How'd you get changed, so fast?"
"Doesn't matter." He wasn't in the mood to explain his powers to him; he knew he'd start begging him to teach him it, too. His patience was shot, for the day; he just wanted to get into the theme park, already.
Goku and Piccolo took the spiral moving sidewalk all the way up to the park. Lights moved past them and loud music pumped through the speakers. Goku had a wide grin on his face and his eyes sparkled with wonder. Soon, they reached the top of the spiral, the doors opened, and they were right in the middle of Dream Land.
Dozens of attractions surrounded them – roller coasters, a ferris wheel, dark rides, and anything else that could spark a child's imagination. Children ran around the park, as their parents tried desperately to keep up. Elders sat on the benches, tired out from a long day of running to get on rides. Groups of teenagers huddled together on the corners of pathways. Everything was clean and the atmosphere was friendly.
"Hey, let's go on that, first!" Goku grabbed Piccolo by the arm and dragged him to one of the rides.
For the next several hours, it was a marathon of the most popular attractions. Piccolo never had a chance to breathe because as soon as they exited, Goku was ready to go on the next one. He could barely keep up with him. It was one high-adrenaline ride after another. It was probably fortunate that neither of them had eaten much that day because there might have been a huge mess at every ride exit.
Eventually, it just got to be too much.
"Oooh, the Viper looks like fun! Let's go on that now!" Goku was about to pull Piccolo with him, but he was stopped.
"STOP, STOP," Piccolo snapped. Goku stopped, and looked back at him. "I've had enough, for now. Can we please give it a rest?"
"Okay, sure!" Suddenly, Goku's stomach started rumbling loudly. He laughed awkwardly, as he turned red. "I guess all those rides really worked up an appetite! I'll go grab something to eat. Do you want anything?"
Piccolo sat down on the edge of a fountain. "A glass of water would be nice," he muttered.
"Sounds good! I'll be right back."
Goku ran up to one of the food stands, and placed an order. As he went on and on listing everything that he wanted, the employee behind the counter began to balk. Quickly, they pulled out a notepad and tried writing everything down. Piccolo couldn't help but chuckle, and he shook his head. It really was incredible how much he could fit in his gut.
Despite his complaints and fatigue, today was not all that bad. He might dare say it was nice to hang out with Goku, for an afternoon. This was much more productive than just sitting around and meditating all day. He never thought he would say this, but he could actually get used to going out and socializing. Maybe he'd have to suggest another day like this, in the future.
He felt something tugging at his jeans. He looked down – there was a little girl standing there, looking up at him. When he saw her, she smiled. "Hi!"
He looked down at her, awkwardly. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. He wasn't used to interacting with children – not in situations like this. He used to get like this when he had a child master, as well. Something about kids just freaked him out.
"What's your name," she asked.
After great deliberation, he finally answered. "Piccolo."
She jumped. "My name's Lily. You have a funny outfit!" She started giggling.
Piccolo bit down any snarky or nasty comments that comment brought on. He was not going to yell at a child, today.
"Are you sick? You look green." She reached into her tiny little purse, and pulled out a tissue. She offered it to him. "I hope you get better."
He just blinked down at her. Eventually, he took the tissue from her, and patted down his face with it, crumpling it in his hands. "Thank you," he said, quietly.
She smiled even bigger. "You're welcome!"
Then, a woman came up, took the little girl by the hand, and started walking her away. She kept glancing back at him, as she did so. Though they were standing farther away, he could still hear them clearly.
"Sweetheart, what did I tell you about talking to strange men?"
"But mama, he's sick and needed a tissue."
"It doesn't matter. He's still a stranger. Who knows what he could have done to you? Now, I need you to promise me that you won't do it, again. Alright?"
"Okay, mama. Sorry."
The mother was flashing him dirty looks, as she was talking to her daughter. To his surprise, he felt gutted by what she was telling the little girl. He didn't think he would care; he had probably heard worse, before. But this was the first time that he had seen someone hold actual contempt for him because of who he was; not just fear, but actual hatred. All he could do was look down, with his arms crossed.
"I'm back!" Goku took a seat down next to him, with a huge tray of food in his lap; half of what he ordered was already gone. He handed the cup of water to him. "Just like you asked!" Piccolo didn't even notice that he was there, still stuck in thought about what he had heard. "You okay?"
He snapped back quickly, seeing the water cup in front of him. He took it from him. "I'm fine," he muttered, as he took a drink. He knew that this was a bad idea, from the start. This was why he never went in public – something like this was bound to happen.
"Hey," Goku said. "Do you wanna leave? We can go back home, if you want."
Piccolo was surprised that he managed to read his thoughts. Whatever pleasant mood he had been in had withered and died, just a few moments ago. He nodded.
"Okay. We'll get going." Goku took a capsule out of his pocket and quickly put all of the food away. As they made their way to the exit, Piccolo felt as if he was being watched. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw many of the other park guests staring at him, as he walked by. Some were whispering to each other comments that made him feel even lower than he already was.
Piccolo stayed quiet, as the elevator descended back to the ground. The only sounds in the air were the hums and rattling of the machinery that kept it running. Coming out here was definitely a mistake. He didn't even know why he wasted his time. And to think he had actually gotten his hopes up about this.
"Thanks for coming out with me, today," Goku said. "I wouldn't have had as much fun, without you." He only grunted, in response. "I mean it. Maybe we can do it again, sometime."
He looked up. Goku just smiled at him. He had no doubt in his mind that he was being genuine. The knowledge of that raised his spirits just the smallest bit. Piccolo looked down, and the corner of his mouth turned up into a small smirk.
It was sundown, by the time they got back to Mt. Paozu. However, the lights were still on, in the house. Goku laughed, awkwardly. "I hope Chi-Chi doesn't get too mad that we snuck out together, like that."
Piccolo looked at Goku from the corner of his eyes. "You didn't tell her we were going somewhere?"
"I wasn't really thinking about that. Maybe she won't be mad?" Goku entered the house, and Piccolo followed him.
Immediately, Goku was tackled onto the floor. Chi-Chi grabbed him by his shirt "WHERE WERE YOU?! Do you know how worried I was, about you?! Gohan kept looking for you, but you weren't there! You better not have been out training, so help me God!" Piccolo took a step backwards, at her force.
Goku smiled, awkwardly. "Sorry, Chi-Chi. I went out today, with Piccolo, and I forgot to tell you. We went to Dream Land. We weren't training – promise!" Even Goku looked a little scared of her.
Chi-Chi stared at him for several months before letting him go. She pressed her fingers to her forehead. "Alright. Just let me know before you go running off like that, again."
Goku clasped his hands together. "We will, Chi-Chi!"
She shook her head, and looked up. Immediately, her expression changed from one of frustration to one of shock. The corners of her mouth started to turn up. "Piccolo? What are you wearing?"
Piccolo looked down at himself. He had completely forgotten about the outfit he had made, for himself. A small purple tint covered his nose and cheeks.
She started laughing. "I never thought I'd see the day. That's priceless! Wait, hang on! Hang on! I'll be right back!" She ran into the back room, still giggling.
Piccolo crossed his arms, and looked away.
Goku laughed. "Don't listen to her - she's just in shock. I think it kind of suits you, buddy!" He put his hand on his shoulder.
"Shut up," he growled. It only made Goku laugh more.
"Alright, boys: smile!"
Piccolo looked up, and a bright light flashed in his face. When his vision cleared, he saw Chi-Chi holding a camera. A piece of film printed out from the front, and she took it. "Oh, I can't wait to see how this turns out!"
He shook Goku's hand off of his shoulder, and stomped back to his room. He definitely had enough nonsense, for today. He was ready to get some sleep.
