Chapter 3- Guilt
"Gohannn!" A young, hyperactive boy exclaimed joyously as he threw himself at his older brother's bed with unrestrained delight. Chi-Chi had told him to go get Gohan up: he would be late for school if he didn't hurry. However, this probably wasn't quite the method she had in mind.
Gohan, reflexes as sharp as ever, sat up and caught Goten mid-flight, before he could knock the air out of his sleeping form. He groaned and placed his brother on the floor. It was far too early in the morning for this…
"I'm up, I'm up!"
"Hey, hey, last night I heard you saying something about Dad. Were you talking to him? Why doesn't he ever talk to me?" Goten managed to say in the same breath, all before Gohan could even begin to reply.
"No, he wasn't talking to me; I must have been dreaming again." Gohan began as he reluctantly got up. "Dad's kind of absentminded, so I don't think we'll be getting a 'call' from him anytime soon…"
Gohan faintly felt the mental equivalent of a scoff from Piccolo. 'He isn't absent because of his mind, it's his mind that's absent.' However, Gohan was too distracted by his brother to answer.
Goten just shrugged and smiled. "Mummy says he has as much focus as me. It only exists when it comes to eating and fighting!" He laughed, undoubtedly picturing the look on Chi-Chi's face when she had said so.
Gohan smiled in return, glad Goten wasn't upset by Goku's apparent negligence, and shooed him out of the room so he could get changed into his school uniform in relative peace.
Lately, school had him even more stressed out than usual. The entrance exams to Orange Star High School were coming up in just six weeks, so he was being pressured by both his teachers and his mother more than ever. Even though Orange Star was even further away from his home than his current school, he wanted to be accepted because it provided a better chance of entering university.
He abandoned this train of thought and sped down stairs after remembering that his brother and his breakfast were probably alone together in the same room. Chi-Chi was obviously elsewhere if she wasn't yelling at him about tardiness yet. He burst into the kitchen and dived across the room when he realised Goten had finished his own breakfast and was already eying up the other tray.
When Goten noticed his older brother, he snatched the tray and crawled under the table, giggling madly the whole time. Gohan, well used to the early morning contest that was breakfast time, rolled across the table and landed in a crouching position on the other side, nose to nose with his mischievous little brother.
He smoothly took the tray and began to stand up normally. But his victory was falsely assumed, as Goten hadn't given up just yet. He dived at the back of his brother's knees so that they buckled a little, almost causing the precious food to go everywhere.
"Why you little," Gohan began, placing his breakfast back on the table and rounding on Goten, a challenge glinting in his eyes.
Goten noticed the change and clumsily attempted to back away under the table again, but Gohan was still too quick for him. He grabbed Goten's ankles and pulled him back out into the open. He squirmed and thrashed his legs, attempting to escape from what he knew would be coming next.
But unfortunately for him, he still wasn't strong enough to match up with his big brother, especially since Gohan had been training more often over the past month. He trapped Goten's leg under himself and slowly began to peel the sock of the trapped foot off.
"No, don't!" Goten yelled between childish giggles, still attempting to use his free leg to kick his brother away. But it was futile; Gohan seemed to be bent on vengeance this time. He looked over his shoulder and smirked at his younger sibling before expertly running his fingers over the most ticklish spot his brother's foot had to offer.
Goten shrieked, unable to stifle his laughter anymore. He continued to struggle, but simply grew weaker as his brother continued to elicit laughs from him.
"S-stop!" He gasped, stomach aching dully from his unrestrained show of mirth. Gohan was merciful, as usual, and immediately released his younger brother before returning to his breakfast. He quickly finished it off before Goten could fully catch his breath and attempt another theft. They were late enough without another distraction to slow them down, as their mother soon found fit to remind them.
"Gohan, you should have left fifteen minutes ago! Goten, I told you to get your mathematics book! Hurry up, we don't have all day!" Chi-Chi yelled, setting a mound of dry washing on the couch and placing her hands on her hips as she scolded her unruly sons.
Gohan shot a guilty look over his shoulder and quickly dumped his dishes in the sink before speeding over to the door. He hated to abandon his brother at such a time, but she would only become more riled up the longer he was at home.
"Ok, bye, see you when I get back!" He called, snatching up his bag and blasting out of the doorway. He thought of the high-speed flight as a training exercise and managed to make it to school in half the usual time. It wasn't until he was sitting in class, panting to get his breath back before the teacher came in, that he realised Kintoun could probably fly faster than him any day. He would have to test it on the way home…
As the entrance exam approached, Gohan found his anxiety increased and his mood became more volatile. Only three weeks to go! He felt what he needed was a hard training session with Piccolo, but he simply didn't have the time to fly out, actually train and then come all the way back again. There was no way his mother would let him take a whole day off when he could be studying.
Every day he got up at 7 a.m. and went to bed at 10 p.m. At least ten of those fifteen waking hours were spent sitting in his room, at his desk studying. The rest seemed to only be divided between hygiene and eating. Needless to say, it was driving him mad.
He wasn't just restless whilst awake, but even more so when sleeping. He was plagued by dreams that were either completely ridiculous, or were some kind of horrific reflection of his past experiences. The latter may have only left a few vague memories in the morning, but a sense of unease usually remained with him throughout the rest of the day.
It was just one week from his examination when he had a particularly vivid dream about killing Cell Juniors. Goten was the first to notice his brother's odd behaviour when he was woken by a rapidly increasing power level in the middle of the night. He got up to investigate, but found his brother's radiant Ki was holding the door to his room firmly shut. If it rose much more, there might not be a door at all.
It didn't take long for Chi-Chi to notice what was happening either. Her room was located further down the hall, but she was soon up and pulling Goten away from the door of his brother's room.
Gohan's power level often fluctuated to ridiculous heights in his sleep, (Vegeta and Krillin had stopped turning up expecting a fight years ago) but it was never usually to this extent. Chi-Chi had to drag Goten down stairs in case her eldest son did end up breaking something.
As they entered the kitchen and living room area, Piccolo walked into their house as though he too had lived there all his life, and made his way up to Gohan's room. To be honest, Chi-Chi never thought she would be so relieved to see him. Little did she know, Piccolo had been probing Gohan's subconscious for the past ten minutes already, trying to get him to realise it was a dream and to wake up before he hurt someone.
"Gohan, you're dreaming." He stated bluntly, mostly using his thoughts and feelings to convey the message since he didn't want to break down the door to his room in order to get close enough for him to be able to hear. "You have to wake up before you hurt someone."
It didn't seem to have any immediate effect. Gohan still had various forms of Cell flashing through his mind and, according to his current perception of reality; he needed to increase his power more in order to get rid of them all.
Piccolo sighed and pressed harder with images of a frightened Goten and Chi-Chi he'd encountered downstairs. "Enough, the only reason they're unsafe is because of you, this time. Wake up!"
This seemed to be rather more effective. Gohan did indeed wake up a little more in order to assess the situation. As soon as he was awake enough to realise Piccolo was telling the truth, his power level plunged and he shot out of bed. He opened the door in a manner almost violent enough to rip it from its hinges.
He was sweating and his heart was still racing. He hunched over a little to catch his breath, looking up at Piccolo and using his mind to communicate. Was his family all right?
Piccolo beckoned for him to follow and come see for himself. He immediately complied; too worried to be embarrassed by the fact he was only wearing underwear.
"Mum, Goten!" he called, worry evident in his voice as he shot down the stairs.
"Are you alright dear?" Chi-Chi asked, still holding Goten protectively in her arms.
Gohan bit his lip, feeling guilty because he had put his family in danger. They really were afraid of what he could have done while he was asleep. Piccolo was again concerned by his beginnings of self-destructive thoughts and communicated this through their connection.
Gohan studiously ignored this for the moment and said out loud, "I'm sorry." He started making his way towards the door, as though he were about to leave.
"Gohan…" Chi-Chi murmured, upset by the look of anguish on his face. It wasn't his fault he'd blown up like that. If anything it was hers for putting so much pressure on him, and she acknowledged this with regret.
Oblivious to the mood as ever, Goten giggled and called, "Where are you going Gohan? You're still in your undies!"
Gohan snapped out of his reverie as he suddenly realised that what his brother said was true. He turned back and blushed. He noticed his brother didn't seem to be afraid of him. In fact he was regarding him in the way he normally did.
"I think I just need to get out of the house for a bit before I go completely nuts." He replied sheepishly. His hunched posture still exuded shame and he couldn't quite bring himself to make eye contact with anyone.
"Let's go," Piccolo sighed and used his conjuring powers to give Gohan a gi like his father's. He didn't need to be a mind reader to know Gohan wanted a good sparring session.
"Alright, but you can't give up on your exams now. I expect you to be back and ready to study in two days!" Chi-Chi exclaimed, reverting back to her overbearing self now that the immediate crisis seemed to be over. She wasn't sure how else to deal with it.
Gohan simply smiled, glad that nothing seemed to have changed despite the earlier incident. "Sure Mum, I'll be ready for them." He assured her before making his way outside.
"Thank you, Piccolo." Chi-Chi added quietly as he walked past her. She quickly turned away to put her younger son to bed before Piccolo could respond.
He simply nodded at her retreating back, before following Gohan outside. As soon as they took off for the mutually agreed upon desert training ground, Piccolo felt the full force of Gohan's restless energy and mindset. If he survived after taking this 'examination' of his, then Piccolo would demand he come train with him at least once a fortnight from now on.
Gohan's amusement and agreement brushed Piccolo's psyche as he did a barrel roll through the air for fun. He had a break over the summer, after his entrance exam, of course. Then he would start his senior high school education. It would only get more difficult from there.
Piccolo barely had time to wonder about Gohan's sanity before they reached their destination. Gohan wanted to begin straight away, so they did, with gusto. Piccolo was caught between being frustrated and relieved that Gohan was already far outstripping him, even though he'd hardly been training regularly lately.
Gohan sensed Piccolo's annoyance and began taking the brunt of some of his beams of Ki. This, of course, only made Piccolo more annoyed. He became more aggressive, causing Gohan to retaliate with a searing Ki blast of his own, in order to regain ground.
Many burns and bruises later, they eventually dropped down to the ground and sat next to each other. As they caught their breaths, they watched the sunrise. Once Piccolo and Gohan had both adequately recovered enough to make a fairly lengthy flight, they made their way to the nearest river.
Gohan discreetly peeked over his shoulder to make sure Piccolo wasn't looking at him, before removing what remained of his clothes and getting in the river further down-stream from where they had been drinking just a moment ago. He didn't know why he bothered, since Piccolo probably wouldn't think anything much of nudity.
He crouched down, trying to submerge as much of his body as possible. Sure, summer was coming soon, but first thing in the morning was not the best time for a bath if you weren't a fan of the freezing cold. He shivered as goose bumps rose on his skin, but he would rather be uncomfortably cold than sweaty and stinking to high heaven.
Piccolo communicated his amusement as he too got into the water. With his thick skin, he barely felt the cold that seemed to be bothering Gohan so immensely. Gohan turned in surprise; usually Piccolo refused to join him in 'stupid human activities'.
He found he still couldn't make sense of Piccolo's physiology. The multiple colours of his skin had him under the impression that Piccolo was still wearing clothes. It was… weird.
"You're the weird one." Piccolo said, carefully stepping into the water.
Gohan was unable to cover his feeling of surprise when he noticed that Piccolo had nothing between his legs. He may have blocked his thoughts instinctively, but the sentiment was still written all over his face. Nor could he resist asking…
"Piccolo… How do you excrete?" He questioned, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.
Piccolo snorted in response and folded his arms as he sank into the water. "If I'm in such a desperate situation that I need to eat food in order to get water, it gets rather uncomfortable. I believe you humans have a rectal tract of some kind. It's probably similar to that." He finally responded.
"So you're like a bird? You urinate and defecate at the same time? Well, when you have to defecate, that is..." He wondered aloud, nursing the Ki burn on his cheek with cold water. Piccolo was lucky he could just regenerate and get rid of the pain more quickly.
"Maybe," he responded, not entirely sure what Gohan was talking about anymore. He wished he would stop using scientific terminology and blocking him out at the same time. It was impossible to understand him sometimes.
"Weird…" he mumbled again
"Like I said, you are."
At this pause in their banter, they both attempted to properly re-establish their mind connection again. Once they had succeeded, Gohan followed Piccolo as he thought about some impressions he had picked up from carelessly guarded teenage minds during a session of meditation. Humans didn't seem to bother constantly keeping the barriers to their minds up, since few even thought the psychic planes of reality even existed, let alone actively used them.
Piccolo soon found himself almost shying away from the thoughts of sexual attraction. He could have sworn that's all humans ever thought about: breeding.
Gohan laughed and put his hand behind his head. Male teenagers were probably the worst demographic if he was trying to avoid thoughts like that. But he soon realised the reason Piccolo had done it was to try and understand him better.
"Maybe you'd learn these things better from a book." Gohan conveyed as he washed his armpits. He should have thought to use antiperspirant before coming out here.
Piccolo rolled his eyes at his ex-student's antics and apparently random thought process. "Where do you think I would have learnt to read?" He demanded, scrubbing at his recently regenerated skin with his fingernails, subconsciously checking for any failures in the process.
Gohan frowned. He hadn't thought of that. "I can teach you, if you want?"
Piccolo shook his head sharply. "No, I know enough to get around. That's all I need wasting space in my brain." He returned to what they had been talking about originally. His thoughts wandered to the memories he had gained from Gohan over a month ago, now. It seemed he still didn't understand masturbation.
"Piccolo," Gohan exclaimed, mortified, "stop thinking about that!" His face heated up and he turned to Piccolo, affronted. He was embarrassed that Piccolo could remember his memory so well that he now knew what he looked like naked. There had been no need for his covert nudity after all.
But Piccolo was more confused than ever. Why would he be angry or embarrassed about that? Didn't stop him from thinking about it all the time…
"Yeah, but that's me thinking about me. If you think about me like that it's…" He trailed off again, hindered by his embarrassment.
"And how do you propose I think about myself like that?" Piccolo asked derisively, still not understanding Gohan's problem.
"Well, it's a private thing, ok? At least to me it is. It should only be between me and my, uh, 'mate'." He tried to explain, "Since I don't have one of those yet, it's just for me."
For some reason, he also seemed to be ashamed of the fact he wasn't mated. Personally, Piccolo thought he would take a long time in choosing carefully if he had to mate with someone and raise a child with them for at least two decades. He didn't think he would ever understand human culture at this rate.
Gohan got out of the water, raising his Ki to keep him warm and to get dry faster. Without needing to be so much as thought at, Piccolo conjured him another gi.
"Well, you understand that already, maybe you'll get it one day." Gohan encouraged, jumping up and down on the spot until he dried off properly and he stopped losing body heat to evaporation.
"Not likely. My people aren't exactly nudists either." Piccolo corrected, sceptical as ever.
"Say, how do you conjure stuff like that, some kind of particle rearrangement? Or is it more of a summoning thing? What about causing some kind of inter-dimensional travel?" Gohan questioned, forever curious. Not to mention, easily distracted.
Piccolo didn't restrain his confusion this time, finally admitting that he was just not as well educated. Though, he preferred to think 'not educated in the same way.'
"Gohan, shut up." He said shortly.
Radiant Ki… like radiant heat?
Procrastinating again, I'm such a bad student :P Anyway, please leave me some feedback. I haven't written fiction for a long time, so I would really like to know what you think of this so far.