Hero's Welcome

Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Akira Toriyama, I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit fun.


'Vegeta was right,' Goku thought. He'd popped into the Otherworld when King Kai had asked for a quick favor and Pikkon had been there, they got to sparring and he'd been a little bit, just a few hours, well, less than a day late getting home. Explaining what had happened hadn't made the situation better.

"You refused to be wished back seven years ago. You haven't even been back a whole month and you're already going back there! If you could have finished the fight against Boo without coming to life you would have, wouldn't've you Goku?" Chichi shrieked accusingly. "Do you really hate being around us so much?"

Goku felt a small measure of relief when he saw Gohan quietly leading his little brother out of the house.

"Chichi, you know that isn't true," Goku stated.

"Do I?" Chichi asked. "I know you could have been wished back to life within days of the first time you died but you chose to stay dead for a year instead."

"But Chichi, I had to-"

"I know you could have been wished back to Earth after you fought Frieza but you chose to take another whole year to get back on your own."

This time Goku didn't try to offer an explaination. Sure Instant Transmission had proved it's worth time and time again, but there hadn't been a pressing need when he learned it. It had just been something new and interesting for him to master.

"I know you could have been wished back to life after Cell but you WOULDN'T ALLOW IT!"

"I had to do something Chi." Goku protested. "Gohan doesn't like fighting, I didn't realize that until Cell but this last tournament was the first time he's ever trained just for fun-"

"SO YOU DIED!! That makes a hell of a lot of sense Goku! With you dead who was going to fight them if not Gohan?"

"I died so they'd stop coming!" Goku exclaimed. "And it worked didn't it? For seven years no one bad came. But before that Radditz came because he was looking for me. Vegeta and Nappa were following Radditz. Frieza came to the Earth because I beat him on Namek. The Androids and Cell were created to kill me-"

"And what would have happened if you hadn't been here when they came looking for you?" Chichi interrupted. Her voice turned sarcastic, "Oops, sorry to have bothered you, we were looking for Goku. Excuse us we'll just be on our way now. Is that what would have happened hmmm?"

"For seven years nobody bothered you," Goku repeated.

"And we had peace for five years before that awful Radditz came, while you were alive!" Chichi said. "You didn't even ask us what we wanted Goku. You just decided we were better off without you. We should have had this fight seven years ago. You should have given me the chance to tell you I was pregnant and I wanted our baby to have a father. And now you're back and the first thing you do is run off to the Otherworld!" Chichi's voice rose precipitously as she remembered why this had come up.

When she'd heard Goku was coming back for the day of the Tournament she'd resolved not to bring it up; what was done was done and she didn't want to waste what little time they had together as a family on pointless remonstrations. But now Goku was back for real and he didn't seem to want to be back.

"Is it me?" Chichi demanded. "Is being married to me so awful that you'd rather be dead?"

Goku caught Chichi's chin and forced her to meet his eyes. "Now you're just being silly. Chichi, I've been in love with you ever since I learned what being in love was and I always will be in love with you."

Tears slowly filled Chichi's eyes. "Then why don't you want to be with me?"

"It's not that Chichi!" Goku protested.

"Then what is it?"

"I don't know," Goku said after a time. "It's not like I stop loving you when I'm not with you."

"It's just that you don't want to be with me," Chichi accused.

"Chi! I rather be with you and the boys than with anyone else," Goku protested.

"That's a lie."

"Is not. I stayed for five years after we got married and three years after getting back from Namek. I've never stayed with anyone else for more than a year since Grandpa Gohan died.

Chichi stopped. She knew Goku had spent years alone after his Grandfather died until Bulma had stumbled across him during her first Dragonball hung. After that he had tended to stay with various people for a short time to train but mostly he had met up with his friends for tournaments or adventures. The times between he'd spent wandering and training on his own.

'Did that make it better?' Chichi thought to herself. There was no one Goku would rather be with than his family but for all his good natured friendliness Goku spent most of his life alone.

"I can't even blame it on you being Saiyan," Chichi sighed. Ever since learning about what Radditz was Chichi had found it easy to blame everything that didn't work out the way she'd hoped on Saiyans or Saiyan ancestry, but not this time. "Vegeta's rarely more than a hundred yards away from Bulma."

"He said you'd get mad if I wasn't around when you expected me to be," Goku admitted. "Sorry Chi. I didn't think..." Goku trailed off with a shrug.

Chichi easily interpreted the confusion in his eyes. He didn't know why she was so upset, even now. Goku wandered in and out of people's lives like a ship without an anchor. Distance, time and even death meant almost nothing to him.

'There was some comfort in knowing it wasn't personal,' Chichi decided. Sometimes, on bad days, she'd found herself remembering jokes or comments Goku's friends had made about her, about their marriage, and had wondered if they were right. But along with that came the understanding that Goku would never change, it was just the way he was. He loved them, but he was too used to being alone to ever miss them the way they missed him.

Chichi's shoulders slumped. Over the years Goku had become used to, and somewhat immune to Chichi's temper, but he couldn't stand to see her looking so defeated. "I always came back to you-"

"After Cell?" Chichi reminded him.

"I would have been there to meet you when you crossed over, I swear it Chichi," Goku said quietly. His hands settled on her shoulders.

Chichi found herself staring at his hands. They were a little larger, a little more heavily callused, had a few more scars, but they were fundamentally unchanged from those of the boy she'd fallen in love with. He hadn't changed from the boy she fell in love with, the boy she'd married. An ironic smile tugged at Chichi's mouth, the boy she'd hunted across the continent when she realized he'd forgotten about his promise to marry her. She started laughing.

Goku knelt in front of her and stared at her with worried eyes. "Chichi? You okay?" he asked.

"Just so you know Goku," Chichi warned him, still laughing. "If you wander off for too long, I'm not going to wait for you to come home... I'm going to come looking for you."

Goku grinned once he was sure she wasn't hysterical. "With a frying pan no doubt," he remarked as he rubbed his head. "I'll have to make sure it doesn't come to that."

Chichi checked, saw that yes, he was just teasing her but the promise was real and returned his smile. "You better believe it mister."