Chapter 13

Love is Sweet...

Knock! Knock!

He wouldn't answer. He had nothing to say to anyone unless they could save ChiChi from the unknown illness, but who could? Goku clenched his fist tightly desperately trying to ignore the pounding at his door. He didn't want to speak to anyone and he didn't have the least desire to see anyone but ChiChi- but healthy.

He pounded his fist into the chair annoyed by the persistent knocker he hurried to the door. He pulled the door opened wide ready to give whoever it was a peace of mind only to have the anger drain. He stood silently for a moment in his messy stance hair standing on end, shirt tattered, and pants crumbled.

"It's ironic that all this time me and Radditz said one day you'd lose that happy go lucky smile and we'd certainly have a party that day. Funny 'cause now I'd rather see you smiling like every time before" said Turtles as he stepped past Goku into the room. He glanced around the room at all the shambles that was furniture, glass and trays of food scattered around the room.

"What are you doing here?" asked Goku, curiously.

"To save you it seems, what else?" replied Turles placing his hands on his hips. "Radditz would be embarrassed if he knew this is how you took his death."

"Where is grands? Don't you have to look after her" said Goku, annoyed as he closed the door.

"Grands is fine but you aren't" he said disapprovingly.

"I'm well I'm training to go to war" said Goku, nonchalantly.

"Could have fooled me, I thought you were out for a death warrant before you even made it to the battle field. Let me just say I thought that you would have certainly been in prison for your actions and I don't know if I could blame them. However, it seems you have some kind of swing with the princess and her maid. So I'm assuming the whole story wasn't given to me but I do know this isn't something you've ever done. " Turles knew from the moment the blue hair woman came to their Grands farm that Goku had to be troubled. He didn't understand at first what could have happen but he had an inkling of the reason. Goku's demeanor confirmed what he had assumed was true and he hurt for his brother's pain but he wasn't ready to lose another brother.

"Me and Radditz use to make bets on the girl that you would like, but no matter who we try to fix you with you never liked them. I remember that blond hair girl from town she was quite a looker but you didn't even give her a second look. We always wondered who would catch your eye; we never expected it to be the one woman no man of our stature could ever have a chance with. It madness to like her, it's like handing your life into the enemies' hands and saying kill me! I won't lose another brother because you're infatuated with a woman who you'd never have a chance with!"

"It's not infatuation, I love her!" corrected Goku, as he made his way through the mess to the window.

"Don't say it- why her? Why her little brother?" asked Turles as he walked over to him and rested a hand on his shoulder in comfort. "I can't lose both of my brothers, and we are all that is left of our people that we know of."

"I've tried over and over again to stop thinking of her dreaming of her, but I can't. I can't do anything for her but watch her die" whispered Goku. "They say she is going to die."

Turles felt winded at the words of his brother but he knew how it felt to long for someone he fell in love with. Also he knew there was nothing that he could tell his brother to change his mind. He glanced around the room again his eyes catching sight of their father's black book opened, and discarded on the floor. "You opened it?"

"Huh?" Goku looked to Turles and then followed his gaze to the black book. "No it seemed to have opened itself."

"What is inside? What did it say?" he asked.

"I don't know what to make of it. It's father writing about his life about his parents and our people. About someone that protects us, but I don't see much protection in a whole race nearly eliminated," scoffed Goku.

"Did you read it all?" asked Turles, as he walked over and scooped it into his hands.

"No. I don't have time to read all that now" he answered and looked back out the window.

"I see but you have time to destroy an entire room. The woman said she has been making excuses for you to the king. She has been telling him that she needs you to help with the princess in her condition. Have you even visited her once?" Turles glanced over the scribbled words on the brown crumpled pages.

"I can't bring myself to see her like that" he said, mournfully. "It makes me feel helpless."

"That is the greatest part of love- or so Grands said. I watched Auburn leave and move away because of her father. I didn't want to see her off but Grands said I'd regret it. She said if you love her say good-bye it is wonderful to be helpless. In those moments you will know how kind love can be even if for a few minutes. She said those moments will last forever" said Turles inattentively.

Goku remembered Auburn she had come every day to spend time with Turles. She had always sent him letters and brought him tasty meals and even some times brought enough for all of them to have a bite. She was very shy and the opposite of the usually type of girl Turles courted before her but she held his heart. He spoke of her every minute of the day it was as if she had erased all the other girls from his mind.

Her father had received a job in another country and taken it and she was forced to leave. She wrote him for a while after she left but soon the letters stop coming. Turles never spoke about her again a few months after the last letter until now. Goku had always wondered if Turles ever thought of her again. "Did it?"

"Yeah" he answered. "All this broken stuff and even this slump you're in won't change until you do. We aren't kids anymore and if you really love this girl you will go to her and spent every second with her that you can before you can't. You will regret it if you don't."

"How do I say good bye to her?" Said Goku.

"You don't" answered Turles.

For the first time in three days he noticed the mess in the room and remembered the way he spoke to Launch- to everyone. He had changed into someone so ruthless someone that he couldn't recognize even standing in front of a mirror. He was a fool that didn't understand the slightest bit of love.

Turles' embrace woke him from thoughts and he hugged his brother back. "You go and clean up and see her, Launch arranged for someone to come and clean this mess up. You only have a few days left before you pull out to war."

"You'll take care of Grands?" asked Goku, worried.

"Until you return" he answered flashing him a brilliant smile. "Grands misses your airy demeanor so I hope you take it back with you."

"And if I don't make it back?" said Goku.

"That isn't an option" Turles said with a hard pat on Goku's back. "I'll tell Grands she'll see you home soon."

Goku could only smile as he made his way to the bathroom to take a warm bath and to prepare for the princess. When he finally reemerged from the bathroom a few servants had already come in the room cleaning diligently and Turles was gone. Most of all the furniture was gone and the window curtain replaced with another.

Goku nodded to the maids in a friendly gesture of thanks as he left the room. It had been three full days and half that he had locked himself away in the room and the light that pour into the hallways had been nearly blinding. He glanced over at ChiChi's door and after minutes of hesitation finally he knocked on the door and within a few minutes it opened.

An unfamiliar red hair girl stood in the door way. "May I come in?"

"Announce yourself, sir, and state your business" said the woman.

"Goku I-"

"Goku" interjected Launch as she pushed passed the woman. "Come in quickly. I was worried about you…ChiChi was worried about you." She grabbed hold of Goku's arm and pulled him forward and to the empty seat next to the sleeping princess' bed.

"She just fell asleep a little while ago" said Launch. "I'm so sorry, I did this to both of you. I feel like I owe you my life. I can't stop feeling sorry for what I did."

"I forgive you and I'm sorry for the way I treated you" said Goku. "How is she doing?"

"Same in and out but she's holding on" informed Launch. "Well I think we will leave you two alone."

"Launch you can't be serious leave this man alone with the princess" exclaimed the red head.

"Dara, I suggest you bite your tongue before I make you do it!" said Launch irritated as she waited at the door for the enraged hand maiden.

"I thought you'd never come" came the soft familiar voice Goku longed to hear and he looked from the door to ChiChi. She looked up at him through hooded eyes and a smile. "I thought I dreamed you the other day."

"The other day?" asked Goku perplexed, "Wait I thought you were sleeping."

"When you came to see me, do you still think I look pretty?" she asked, teasingly.

"I love you" he exclaimed, fervidly.

Silence became pregnant in the air and Goku begun to worry that ChiChi hadn't felt the same. Had he just imagined she loved him? After all she never said the words to him before he only assumed. Maybe he was the only one that felt that way.

"ku?" said ChiChi.

"Yes."

"Tell me do you think that the man and woman would have been happy and stayed together forever if she would have married him?" asked ChiChi, inquisitively.

"I don't understand" said Goku confounded.

"The woman and the man by the fountain the one you told me about remember?"

Goku was bewildered by the question and slightly disappointed that ChiChi had evaded his proclamation to her. "I don't know…I'm not that good with that kind of stuff you know."

"Sure you are" she said between a fit of coughs. Goku reached to help her but she swatted away his hands in embarrassment. She didn't want him to see her as someone weak and sick, but the woman he did when they first met during the selection: fierce.

It was hard to watch her struggle for breath and to see her in pain, but he knew why he needed to be here. She was strong willed and loving something that he hadn't seen in many other girls he met before. "I'm a farmer and now a fighter but I don't anything about love" he informed, firmly.

"So than you will be the charming man to sweep me off my feet and I'll be the girly princess that falls in love. We will marry and have three kids; two boys and one girl for me. We will grow old and you will be free and get on my last nerve when you steal the kids away from their studies. You will be sweet to me and eat every dish I make and kiss me every day. You will forget our anniversary and my birthday sometimes but I'll forgive you because you'll make it up to me. How will you?" ChiChi pushed herself up on her elbows forcing her eyes to open.

"Ahh I'll take you to spar by the river at the farm" he exclaimed.

"To spar? Goku that s terrible! Why not a picnic?" she question.

"What's wrong with sparing? That is how we met" he said.

"So sweet" she said dreamily. "I knew you were a natural romantic."

Goku didn't have the slightest idea of what she meant but he couldn't help himself from laughing. It had been the first time in weeks that he had laugh and the sound of her echoing laughter was like music in his ear. She had planned out their entire life in a matter of only hours and he drank in every detail stopping her along the way for explanations of things he didn't understand.

"We will have many grandkids" her smile faded at the words as she laid back down on the bed. Everything came rushing back to her as she seen the joy on Goku's face and she felt empty and in despair. She was telling Goku the story of his life because she wouldn't have part in it, her death was certain. Tears welled at the corner of her eyes and sorrow filled the pits of her soul- she was dying. She had no rights to hold Goku back from a life of happiness with someone else.

"What's wrong?" said Goku, as he took her hand in his. Goku could see the aching etched upon ChiChi's pale face. He wanted to comfort her to help her, but how? She looked away from his eyes and he felt empty and distress wallowed in the pits of his stomach at the thought of losing her.

"Maybe that was the way life was to be…they really weren't meant for each. Maybe they would have been miserably" she cried. Goku would fall in love again and marry and they would be happy, and she would be a withering memory of the past.

"Don't say that." ChiChi caught Goku's gaze again trying desperately to fight away the pain, and hoping he'd rescue her from it. How could he? Goku moved to sit on the edge of the bed moving a few strands of hair from her face. "You won't die" he whispered again and again as she cried.

He stayed at her side till she had lulled herself to sleep from the tears. He glanced around the room at all the lavishing furniture and clothing at everything anyone could ever desire in the one room and his heart burned. Everything was immaculate but the one thing he wanted most in the world was fading away.

"I… don't know or even understand who you are. But if you are real and if what my father has written is true. Save her! Save her please" he whispered into the cold night air.

Thanks for all the lovely reviews :) I hope everyone summer has been wonderful!