A/N: Goku time. Once again, love this story. I'll update my other one sooner or later. Thank you for the reviews, TFSrules!

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or anything affiliated with it.

-MalRev

The Ties That Bind

3

Waking up was wonderfully slow for me.

I was used to hovering between sleep and awareness when I lay down but for the first time in ten long years, it felt like I had actually broken the boundary. My toes tingling as I woke from the deepest sleep I could remember enjoying and I nestled closer to my warm bed without bothering to open my eyes and check the time. For all I knew, I could've been sleeping for a solid year and I wouldn't have cared. Warmth trickled through my appendages and I yawned happily, stretching my arms out in front of me.

It was then that I noticed a thick arm draped around my waist, holding me close to what felt like a very big man who was still fast asleep.

My heart sank, weighted down with fear. Who the hell could be in my bed? I came straight home after work… Terrified, I reached for my phone on the bedside table and quickly speed-dialed Erin's number until she answered in a mildly irritated tone. It was almost nine o' clock at night, which meant I had been fast asleep for nearly twelve hours. That was a new record for me but there was no time to celebrate. I had to get the strange guy out of my bed, fast.

"Erin?" I whispered. "Can you do me a huge favor and come over to my apartment?"

"It'll take a few to get there but sure. Something wrong?" There was a pause and she gasped. "Holy shit, have you been sleeping all day?! You know what this means, right? You slept for more than six hours straight. Almost twelve! What the hell did you do to make that happen?"

"Well there's some dude in my bed I don't fucking know, so if you could get over here ASAP before I'm murdered Ted Bundy style I'd really appreciate it."

"Is he hot?"

"Excuse me?"

"If the guy is hot then he won't murder you. My little Nome got laid and managed to sleep like a normal person all in one day! Don't tell Vic, though. He'll be pissed he missed his chance. Though I guess you could rub it in—"

"Erin Elizabeth Elliott, if you don't get your ass over here and I die, I will haunt you for all eternity."

"Ugh, fine. Just don't wake him up."

We hung up and I carefully placed my phone back on the table just as the man stirred, yawning into the back of my neck. My eyes were wide and scared, glancing around fervently for anything I could use as a weapon. Of all the sleeping difficulties I had the one thing I had never done was sleepwalk. I'd come home and fallen asleep within seconds after leaving work so the guy had to be an intruder. Nothing between my legs hurt or anything so I hoped to God we didn't hook up.

The stranger suddenly sat up and I squeezed my eyes shut just before he could see my face. I really wanted to know what he looked like but it was better if he assumed I was asleep. He scratched his head and cracked his neck in a few places, then leaned over me with one arm on either side of my body. My heart thundered in my chest when he lowered his face close to mine, but he just laughed a little and grabbed my phone. He smelled good—kind of like pine trees and smoke. He fumbled around for a few seconds, trying to type out a text I guessed, and I opened my eyes again.

"After all these years having the same dream, you'd think I could at least know your name," he said. "Nome? Kind of odd, but it fits. You can turn and face me whenever you're ready."

I swallowed. He knew I was awake? Dammit.

When I unwillingly turned to see who had broken into my apartment, I nearly passed out again. He was a pretty big guy as I had guessed from his arm. Thick, black hair stuck out from his head like he hadn't brushed it since… well, since never and he had dark grey irises that blended closely with his pupils. I rubbed my eyes to do a double-take and secretly wished I was dreaming because the only way a man like that would be sleeping in my bed was if alcohol was involved. But he finished his text and politely set my phone down to smile at me.

Thankfully he had a plain black t-shirt on or I might have started drooling all over my new comforter set. If I had started sleepwalking I really needed to do it more often. Yet he looked oddly familiar. We must have met somewhere before.

I cleared my throat and sat up, keeping my legs concealed beneath the blankets. "So… how did this happen? And what's your name? You know mine and you were using my phone—you're welcome, by the way—so I think you owe me something, too."

"Oh, I was just telling your friend not to come over. We have a lot to talk about so I don't want her making it any more confusing than it already is. But don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you. If I was, I would've done it by now." He smiled again, showing off white teeth. "My name is Goku. I'm the person you've been dreaming about."

"No, that's not a real person; it's just a figment of my imagination."

"I'm real. Technically I'm from a different reality but I'm still real. I can use this thing called instant transmission that lets me travel anywhere in the universe in the blink of an eye. When I first learned it I was having a hard time focusing to make it work and I somehow crossed into your reality. I don't really get it but my friend Bulma is a scientist and she explained it to me. Anyway, you were there when I did it and we kind of have a mental link now.

"The link kind of pulls you between realities so it makes it really hard to sleep. Trust me, I've been going through the same thing. But I was able to cross over again a few days ago and I got this tugging feeling that led me here. Then I came upstairs, saw you and got awfully tired. So I figured I'd sleep and wait until you woke up to talk to you."

I had let an insane man into my house.

When I tried to grab my phone Goku got there first, quickly snatching it away and pinning my hand to the bed. I struggled desperately to get it with my other hand but he tossed the phone and pinned both of my wrists down so I couldn't call Erin for help. Terrified, I started screaming and demanding he release me, which led to me being held down under his considerable weight. Goku covered my mouth with his hand and frowned.

"I knew it would be hard to believe but come on. Who else would know about your dream? I've been looking for you for a long time so we could fix this and you just want to scream and be rude when I finally do. Now calm down and listen to me. This is the first time you've slept in years and the same goes for me. I think it has to with how close we are—maybe when we're in the same reality it happens. I don't know but I want you to work with me instead of calling your friends."

I scowled and shook my mouth free of his hand. "Your name is Goku? What kind of name is that? If you're really the guy from my dream then what city were you talking about last night?"

"Satan City and Mt. Paozu."

"…Fine, you win that one. I still think you're a crazy hobo off the street who broke into my apartment but if you really believe you're from a different dimension then I can't convince you otherwise. That doesn't mean I have to lay here and listen to you ramble about it for the entire night."

Goku's dark eyes studied me, trying to find a chink in my armor. "Humans are always doing that. Ignoring what's right in front of their noses. I think that's why you always get into so much trouble and I have to save you."

Annoyed, I tore my wrists free of his grasp so he was left hovering over me awkwardly, still staring into my eyes like I might be hiding some secret. I rubbed the feeling back into my hands and Goku sat up so I could hop out of bed to go get some dinner. It was probably better that Erin wasn't coming over. She would be all over him like a cheap suit and Ed didn't need the added stress of knowing his girlfriend was around an incredibly toned Greek god. I peeked over my shoulder at Goku when we entered the kitchen and suddenly felt like a fat frog.

I grabbed a Stouffer's mac & cheese dinner for myself and a second one for my new resident crazy person. Goku sat at the kitchen table with his hands folded neatly while I microwaved our food and eagerly dug in when I set it in front of him. By the time he was finished I had only placed a cup of juice to go with it next to the empty microwave pan. I tossed it out and raised an eyebrow which he only shrugged sheepishly to. For a weight lifter he sure had no qualms about his diet.

"Fast metabolism," he said as if he'd rehearsed the excuse a thousand times.

"Uh huh."

I sat down in front of him with my eyes narrowed and slowly ate my mac & cheese. He seemed moderately sane, besides the freaky name. He looked around the kitchen curiously at my decorations and Peter once again leapt up to elicit more petting, purring happily when Goku obliged. His huge hands could have easily broken my tiny cat's spine.

"So," I said, "what are you gonna do now?"

Goku shrugged. "I was thinking we could kind of go back and forth. We can stay in your time for a week then go to mine for a week and keep doing that. If we're apart neither of us can sleep. My wife won't be very happy about me sleeping with another woman, though." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "No, she'll beat me to a pulp. But it's for my health, right?"

Images of the woman Goku was married to flashed in my mind. She was probably gorgeous and rich, some young thing from the Hills. It upset me a little that the guy haunting me was married and apparently very committed to said wife. Not that I would want to tempt a married man but it would be nice if I didn't have to sleep next to an incredibly attractive guy every night who was totally off-limits. Erin would find the entire situation hysterical. I'd never hear the end of it.

"How do you know we won't be able to sleep from now on?" I asked. "We finally met so now maybe our minds can be at rest."

"It's gonna be like this for a while until my friend Bulma figures out how to fix it. We're connected so when we're part it kinda strains our brains and they can't rest. Chi-Chi was mad when she first found out I kept having the dreams but now that she knows it's a pretty girl… I'm in a lot of trouble, Nome."

The compliment made me blush, but I hid it quickly. "My name is Naomi. My ridiculous friend calls me 'Nome' because she's a jerk. I don't want to be a harlot so maybe you can just come here once in a while and sleep on the floor or something. I know I'd be upset if my husband was with some chick from a different world every night."

"She's used to us being separated by now." Goku leaned back in his chair as he stroked Peter from head to tail. He looked sad. "We can stay here for a while. Everything is okay back in my home realm so I don't mind hanging around in yours. I used to think you were just on a different planet but you're really on an opposite plane of existence. It's kind of interesting. Makes my head hurt, though."

"Why don't you go back there during the day and come here at night?"

"It's getting too difficult when we're that far apart for that long. I only came here and managed to find you because I felt a weird tug. I have a feeling it's gonna get worse than that if I try to leave for very long. But as long as we're in the same realm I guess it won't matter. We just can't be apart for days on end or bad things are gonna start happening."

"This all happened because of something you did, right? Any clue how it could have made us this dependent on one another? I'm not saying I totally believe your story but… I'll listen."

Goku smirked and scratched under Peter's chin. The cat had really taken a liking to him. "It's called instant transmission. I can travel anywhere in the universe if I can focus on someone's life force, more or less. No one here has a strong signal for me to latch on to but I had a chance encounter with you a long time ago and somehow, it was burned into both of us. Bulma thinks it upset the balance of the whole universe and we were tethered together to keep it from fracturing. We're from very different places, Naomi. Your place is kinda sad, though. There's a lot of unrest in the world."

"Huh. Well if you can take me to your 'home' I'll believe you. Until then I'll treat you like every other crazy person on the street. And I work in the morning so you'll be here alone. I hope you don't implode without me here."

"Don't you worry about me, Nome! I might go back to my realm to bring a few people over so I can spar with them. I know you humans are very attached to your jobs so I wouldn't want to pull you away from that, but I like fighting more than you can imagine."

My eyes fell upon his arms when I rose from the table to throw away my empty tray. Yeah, it wasn't hard to believe he liked fighting.

We made our way back to my bedroom and I felt insecure about the mess on the floor all of a sudden, but quickly shut off the light and climbed under the covers. Peter leapt up to curl by my feet and Goku lay down beside me again on his back. I turned away from him and closed my eyes. The balance of my perfect life had been upset by an incredibly toned lunatic. If that wouldn't cause me more nightmares, I didn't know what could.