Chapter 17: Father and Daughter
Hours before Videl had reached her home, Son Goku was sitting in his living room with his daughter in his lap. Dinner had come and gone and Chichi was currently washing dishes while Gohan got caught up on the month's worth of studies he had missed while training for the tournament. It was at his wife's insistence that he spend some quality time with his daughter.
And it was at Chi's insistence that they sit down to watch the hour-long rerun of the first two episodes of My Mini Horsey: MagicalFriendshipZ. Goku, having not watched much if any television when he had been alive and home, didn't quite know what to expect.
"Huh, have to admit that was a lot more violent than I thought it was going to be," Goku said as the credits to the second episode rolled by. In fact, a lot of what he had just watched eerily reminded him of the fights that he and his friends were capable of doing, albeit with far more sparkles, rainbows, and magical friendship. That and apparently all the mini horses were capable to turning into centaurs.
Chi nodded her spiky haired head. "But in the next episode they wind up returning Nightmare Doom to normal after kicking the stuffing out of her. Then she becomes their friend and returns to helping protect Horsequestria.
Goku couldn't help but chuckle, partly at the earnest sense of awe that Chi's voice had, and partly because that was another way that the magical horsey show reminded him of his own life: befriending the bad guy by offering a chance at redemption. The earth born Saiyan couldn't help but wonder if the writers for that show had seen any of the fights against the Saiyans, or if they had seen the fights from the Cell Games and simply drawn inspiration from that?
Still, I guess it doesn't really matter in the end Goku thought as he lowered Chi from his lap to the floor and got up to stretch his legs. I mean it's just a cartoon about colorful ponies, it's not like it's Mister Satan approved.
"So now what do we do?"
Goku glanced down at his daughter's questioning face and shrugged. "Well, we could just sit and talk."
"About what?"
"Well, seeing as how we've never really met before today, how about we each tell the other a secret?"
Chi frowned the thought of this idea, but decided to go ahead with it. Her father had done something she wanted to do; it was only fair that she now did something he wanted to do. The only question was, what secrets did she have left to share? She had already told Marron some of the juicer ones, such as feeling unimpressed and unworthy of the Super Saiyan transformation.
"Um, you can go first if you want to daddy. I need some time to think."
Goku nodded with a seldom-used look of thoughtfulness. "Between you and me, I always felt guilty about being unable to arrive in time to save everyone from the Saiyans."
Chi felt her eyes widen as her father said this. For the first time since she had met him early that day at the World Tournament, her father had an expression other than simple cheerful, uplifting optimism. It was the expression of guilt and perhaps more importantly, regret.
Goku continued, "You see Chi, when everyone saved me after I stupidly tried to take on the Red Ribbon Army by myself all those years ago, I kinda felt a bit…" Chi could see that her father was desperately searching for the word he was looking for.
Having absorbed bits and pieces of random information from her walking encyclopedia of an older brother, she piped up: "Upset? For making everyone risk their lives like that?"
"Sort of. I mean I did feel bad that everyone had to risk their lives to save me, but mostly I just realized right then that I had some real good friends and-" he rapidly shook his head, cutting himself off. "But that's not what I'm tryin' to get at here. The point I'm trying to make is that I guess I felt a bit… jealous? It wasn't exactly jealously but…"
Goku found himself pausing again to gather his thoughts. It was funny, he had fought beings like Freeza and Cell but when it came to something as simple as talking about his personal feelings, he was at a loss of what to do.
"Let me put it this way Chi, I was very independent as a child after Grandpa Gohan died-"
"Who?"
Goku blinked as his expression turned to that of one of pure dumbstruckitude. He had half a mind to comment on the fact that his own daughter didn't even know whom her older brother was named after, but mentally decided to drop it at the last minute. "He was a kind old man who found me when I was a baby, he died when I was only a few years old. It's who your brother is named after."
Chi mentally chewed on that for a moment. "Like how I'm named after mommy?"
Goku nodded. "Exactly!" For a moment, he said nothing, then: "What was I talking about again?"
"You were talkin' about how you were really independent as a kid."
"Right! In fact it wasn't until I was 12 that I even met another person, and she wound up being the first girl I ever ran into-"
Chi was half way to opening her mouth to ask if this girl was her mother, but quickly closed it as her father got more and more into about talking about his past.
"-So as you can imagine I was pretty used to doing things on my own by that point. I was young and thought that I could handle anything the world threw at me, which is why I had no trouble going alone after the 21st tournament." He stopped and chuckled lightly.
"Who knows? Maybe if I had taken Krillin up on his offer to come with me, I might not have gotten as worn out from Tao's bomb, or lost track of the last time I had eaten. But there's no point in worrying about what could have been I guess. After everyone saved me, I felt I owed all of them one to not screw up like I had before. I guess it's why I didn't bother to gather up everyone else to help take on Raditz-"
"Who?" Chi tilted her head to the side with a look of confusion.
"He was your uncle and my older bother. Gave my life to stop him. Very evil and very loud. The point I'm getting at is that I could have tracked down Yamcha, Tien, and Choutzu and used their combined strength to fight Raditz off, but chose to do it with just Piccolo as backup.
"And, looking back, I guess it was more of a pride thing than anything else. I mean even if I had already saved them from King Piccolo and bested his son one on one, still I didn't feel right including everyone in a fight with my brother from space. It's also why I passed on the Kaio Ken; I felt I owed everyone for saving my life and that this was the least I could do to make up for it. And when I arrived only to find out that I had been too late to save most of them, I guess I felt the same way everyone else would have had they been too late to save me from the Red Ribbon Army…"
Goku finally paused as he inhaled a deep breath before letting it all out a moment later.
"And that's it. Sorry about that Chi, didn't mean to ramble on like that," he said as he scratched the back of his spiky hair. "I'm not really used to talking about this sort of stuff and I guess I got a little sidetracked here and there."
"That's okay dad, I was the one who kept asking questions after all," Chi replied in a quiet voice.
She felt she understood what her father was saying, or at least trying to say in his roundabout way. She felt a little more connected with the man who everyone looked up to as a beacon of hope. In his own wordy way, her father was now less an ideal or paragon to her and more of a person. Maybe being his near identical double wasn't so bad after all.
"You still there, Chi?"
Chi blinked, having not realized that her father had asked her a question. Blushing, she said: "I zoned out for a moment, could you say that again?"
"I asked you if you had enough time to think of a good secret to tell."
"Oh! I-I think I do… But I'm not sure you'll like it."
Now it was Goku's turn to tilt his head in confusion. "Why's that?"
"Because… It involves you. Or at least my previous feelings about you."
"Previous?"
Chi could feel the crimson heat return to her cheeks as she spoke. "Before I meet you daddy, people like Marron's daddy and Mommy would always go on and on about how much we look alike and how it was no surprise that I'm as strong as I am because I'm YOUR daughter."
Goku nodded, thinking he at least partly understood where his daughter was coming from. He had met, chatted, and, of course, sparred with his biological father in Hell at one point. He felt that he knew what it was like to have someone you barely know anything about look so much like you and the amount of awkwardness it generated.
Which is why what next came out of Chi's mouth made Goku nearly drop his jaw in surprise.
"And after awhile all the praise and resemblance remarks just got annoying, and later on just plain irritating. And… I started to… really dislike you, or at least the image of you I had made in my brain, although it was easier then cuz I didn't know you at all. I've even gotten into dresses and makeup and tried styling my hair different to get away from being a clone of YOU. I've tried dancing and singing even though I know that I'm better at fightin' than anything else just because it's stuff YOU never did and would make me more unique. I… I guess it could be worse though. I mean I suppose the alternative is everyone thinking I'm just another romantic country bumpkin who runs around in an underage bikini."
Both father and daughter couldn't help but chuckle together at the image it created. Once the laughter ceased it was then Chi's turn to pause as she inhaled a big breath of air, taking the moment to gather the rest of her thoughts. "Now that I've met you for the first time, I feel a little bit better about looking so much like you."
Chi smiled up at her father, and Goku in turned smiled back. Small arms wrapped around a muscular waist as Chi rested her head against her father's chest.
AN: And so we have a nice chapter with some good ole father daughter bonding. While I liked writing this chapter and getting into Goku and Chi relationship (or lack there of as it were) a part of me thinks that it may seem to readers that Chi's gotten over her self image issues rather quickly. To be sure, she's just come to terms with being Goku's daughter, at least a little bit. But Chi is still young and is still going to have to carve out her own identity as a person that isn't just Goku or ChiChi 2.0.
Now, on to the reviews! We got three this week, new high score!
gesto: Seems I wasn't that clear in the chapter itself, basically Gohan isn't used to teaching someone the basics, or teaching period, and if we go by what Videl learned in canon, flying seems to be about it. Krillin, because he's helped with Marron's training, can give Videl better pointers on Ki control as well as help boost her physical strength and the like. As for 18 leaving for a few days, I see yours and amariko's points (and perhaps I would have been better off just making it a few hours as opposed to a few days) but I disagree about 18 NEVER leaving them. One, she's not leaving them for good, not a few months, nor even a week, she is leaving for a MOST a day or two to clear her head and avoid the news and fame she never wanted in canon, but is stuck with here. Two, I would agree that she wouldn't leave Marron, canon Marron that is. Adorable blob Marron. My Marron? Not that type of character, more determined and is a few years older for starters.
Dracoforce7: Not really sure what you mean by making Gohan disappear dude/duddette, but I'm happy you're liking the story.
amariko: Already said my peace on that, blame myself, Ness Frost, or my beta reader Doctor Black for not catching that thing. But I am glad that you're enjoying the story. That being said, going to have to remind both you and gesto that this ISN'T an 18 story. It is (in my mind at least) an ensemble story. Now, wether I'll be able to pull it off well is something that remains to be seen, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.