Whoo got this done by Christmas! Longest chapter in a good while too
Fun Fact: this is the chapter that originally solidified how I was going to do POV chapters all the way back to the Nappa POV. Mostly because I had absolutely no idea how I could ever do the last scene in SIGohan's POV
Qinlongfei: I do have some plans for GT, but including Tarble for a bit of it would be neat. I have to continue my rewatch to determine how though.
And yeah, the people who seem to purposely misinterpret Gohan's character for their special little strong boy TM are really annoying. Honestly the worst part of the fandom. Let the boi be a happy lil nerd.
Many thanks. I had to think of a way for Roshi to think about his actions in a way that was tolerable to write and that would make some sense as to why any woman continues to associate with him lol. I figured putting it as a game would do that well it was a very interesting thing to write. Roshi is really one of those characters that falls to the sideline. It's funny how much he's both better and worse he is in the OG DB. Like, he actually does things and is useful for the plot, but since he's more in the focus, it also highlights his most uncomfortable actions.
That scene has been one of the longest planned things in the fic so I'm super glad it turned out well. I think it even predated The Ultimate as a planned plot point.
thewittywhy: I wish I could mention the lore board more than I do lol. It just doesn't come up often.
Daisuki02: I don't know much about celebrities, and the main thing I could recognise from googling her was that she was the leaf in Twilight, which I, also never watched
JCINNABAR: :)
Pigero
Goh looked overwhelmed. Pigero almost would have said that she'd looked scared. But before he could have thought anyway about it, her face twisted in a way he couldn't quite put a name to.
"Whatever."
And then she was gone.
Chico had tried to rush to follow her out of the still-open door- Goh had long since stopped closing doors when she was in any kind of rush, he assumed it was because if she slammed them they broke- but it was pointless. Goh was probably gone the second she broke the line of sight.
Pigero smothered the immediate feeling of guilt. It was just a reflex. Just a remnant of the years he'd spent thinking she needed him to look out for her. Which he'd only just found out was a lie. The entire time.
"…I don't…get it…" Ena eventually broke the silence. "We know Goh doesn't tell us everything…we've, always known that. That's the entire joke of the board…"
Pigero half expected some comment or retort on that from Rom but he didn't say a word. Rom was never this quiet.
Chico turned on her heels, her anger evident.
"What Was That?!" She demanded. "You're always the one defending her when she doesn't tell us stuff, and now that she actually does you get angry?"
"She's lied about who she was for over a decade. Halfway to a second one."
"Oh yeah. Cause that's soo much worse than everything else she doesn't talk about," her sarcasm was clear even through her tone. "You say it's fine she doesn't tell us right away. You say she's dealing with a lot. You say she'll tell us when she's ready. And now that she finally does you- you- are you trying to justify why she doesn't talk about things? Cause you probably just did a great job at that!"
Pigero narrowed his eyes but controlled his tone. He refused to take his anger out on any of them. Any of his kids.
Even if they were all adults now.
"There is a difference, between not talking about things that happen, and lying about one's entire identity."
"Oh really? You mean like lying about her entire gender for how many years? Because you were perfectly fine with that!"
"That's different." He stated.
"How?!"
"It just is!" It was obviously different. Just because he didn't know how to articulate it at that moment didn't change that.
Of course he was going to help a kid he thought was in a precarious situation.
But she wasn't a kid. She never was.
Part of him still refused to believe that.
Contrasted by the part that already knew it was true. The part that instantly knew that she was not lying. He could always read people easily. Especially people he knew so well.
But he didn't really know Goh as well as he thought, did he?
Part of him still wanted to believe she was lying. It'd be so much easier to forgive a lie of her coming up with some elaborate story to justify a reckless dating partner. It'd been so much easier than this.
But he still knew that wasn't the case.
"I mean," Jinku spoke up, "it is kinda weird that we thought she was a little kid when she was actually the oldest one…but I don't really think it's worth getting that mad about.."
And that brought up another point. She was a grown adult hanging out with kids as if they were peers. For what? She had adult friends. Even if they hadn't known she was an adult, surely they'd still be better company.
He could justify the first few times maybe. If nothing else than to reassure them that she was ok after those early disappearance acts.
But then? She could have drifted away. She could have just, stopped. The kids would have gotten over it.
Was it just some kind of cover? To show she had friends her own supposed age? Or-
He couldn't think of any other ulterior motive. That wasn't the point.
Ena started gathering her things. "Just let me know when you have this sorted." She stated as she walked out the door.
Jinku and Yordon took that as their cue to leave as well, though more awkwardly.
Chico all but stormed off into her room, and Rom just, took down his board to bring back to his own room. And that was, worse. At least Chico was angry. He could deal with anger. He'd never seen Rom that quiet. Not since he was he was barely older than a toddler.
But eventually, it was just Hachi left in the living room with him. Hachi was only ever one year younger than him, so when they were younger he was always the one he would see as his friend rather than his kid.
"I do agree with you," he said. "She lied, and it is a big deal. It's worth being angry about." Hachi glanced over at him through the corner of his eye. "But I think the main issue here is that it was you who did."
"I never thought you should have taken that role. The one of protector. Especially for her, when you were so obviously out of your depth. When you could do so little, yet you still took that role. That was your choice. And she did trust you."
"That's not to say you can't be angry. You can, obviously. Like I said, it is worth being angry about. Just, try to keep in mind the bigger picture soon. At least for them," Hachi tilted his head back to Rom and Chico's rooms. Pigero could never take them in until he could afford to do so comfortably. It had been the first time they ever got separate rooms.
"Chico probably can't really process how she feels about it since she immediately had to jump to defense mode in her mind. And I'm not quite sure what Rom's reaction means. They're adults, it's not your responsibility to care for them. But you still took that role, what you do with that is your decision."
He left him with that. And then Pigero was left alone in the living room. With nothing better to do, he went to bed for the night.
Sleep never quite came to him. He was still angry. He kept replaying every interaction from when she was supposedly a child. How it was all built on a lie.
Especially their first meeting. Looking back he could so clearly tell that it was an adult trying to coerce him into a decision. And even though in the end it was the correct decision to have made that didn't change the fact that he was manipulated to make it.
Manipulated by an adult masquerading as a child.
He used to pride himself on being able to read people. To tell their mannerisms apart and even read lies by their body language. How could he have never noticed before?
He did. In a way. Of course he noticed that Goh didn't act like a normal child. But he'd written it off as a byproduct of her hectic life.
A life that he stressed over more than she ever seemed to. He worried himself sick over her when he was just a teenager! And for what? She was older than he was!
She was always older.
He still didn't want to believe that.
But hindsight is 20/20. And he could now see how she always seemed older than she was.
Almost always.
Because the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like the older she got the more her mannerisms seemed to match her supposed age. Which all the more made him realize the flaw in how she'd been thinking-
But that wasn't his problem anymore!
That was one of the most frustrating parts of this. He kept doing that. Because he lied. His final statement to her was a lie. He was still worried. He worried about where she went, or what she was doing.
Despite himself, he was still worried. Even though he didn't want to be. Even though he felt he had no reason to.
And despite his best efforts, he was still haunted by her expression right before she'd left. Even as he struggled to get any sleep that night.
'Whatever.'
…
Chico was blatantly ignoring him. She made a point of exaggerating it when they crossed paths.
He often saw her staring or typing at her phone. From her reactions and expressions, he assumed it was to no response.
And Rom, well Rom wasn't ignoring him like Chico was. He was just, subdued.
If it was anyone else he'd assume they just weren't in a talkative mood or tired. But from Rom, it just wasn't right. He'd speak but it was just general acknowledgments or statements.
Pigero was always the one to try to fix things when they were upset.
He didn't know how to fix this.
…
Rom
Rom was not having a great time.
The situation sucked. Obviously. He missed Goh and he missed when walking through the apartment didn't feel like a minefield.
But that wasn't all. Not really.
He didn't really, know how to process the fact that Goh was that much older than them.
Was hanging out with them when they were kids just like, babysitting or something? Looking back on it, she did have some tendencies that were like that. He didn't even really know how to describe it. Cautious maybe? She never really outright took care of them, but she did kinda, watch them closely sometimes if they were doing something that might be dangerous or if they were somewhere new.
And the whole flying thing. She was super cautious about that. He kinda thought now that she was trying to push them away from the idea.
It made sense. If the roles were reversed he'd probably do a lot of the same things. It just felt…weird.
Not for the first time he glanced back at the board. He almost felt, embarrassed by it now. Did she think it was silly? Like, she was never super engaged with it in the first place.
Was it just something she tolerated? Or like, saw it as a kiddish thing?
He was almost tempted to take it apart but he, didn't want to. He put a lot of effort into it. So did Chico and Ena. He thought it was fun.
He did think it was fun.
He still did. Maybe. He wasn't sure right now.
Maybe he wouldn't be able to tell until this was all over.
But what if it was never over? What if that was the last time they'd see her? Ena hasn't gotten any response yet. What if, she never did?
It's not like they'd really be able to find her if she didn't want to be found. The best they had was that they knew where she lived. But she could take off before they'd even know if she was there or not.
He didn't think she would do that. Probably. But what if she thought they agreed with Pigero? If that was the case then she might not want to try.
He kinda got why Pigero was upset. But he mostly just wanted this to be over.
He kinda wished this had never come up in the first place. Things were a whole lot easier before.
…
Pigero
He was still upset.
Rather, he still wanted to be upset.
He didn't quite realize how tiring it was to do so.
He also didn't know how to get rid of the nagging guilt from her reaction.
Why should he feel bad for it? She lied. For 15 years. He had every right to be upset.
That feeling never went away though.
He supposed that when you'd spent so long caring for someone, that didn't go away overnight.
He didn't…really want it to either.
He didn't know what he wanted really. What did he want the end result of this to be?
Did he really want to never resolve this? To never see Goh again?
The thought of it just made him feel worse.
Especially with the conclusion he'd come to of how it probably worked.
That shouldn't have mattered. It didn't change the reason he was upset. Technically it barely changed the source of it.
Yet it did. It did affect how he saw it. Even if only barely.
He could see the reason behind her actions. Even if he disagreed. Even if it upset, or angered him. He understood most of her actions.
Of course, she wouldn't tell some fifteen-year-old she ran into once. And even if it was through manipulation, she had been trying to help at the time. And it was the correct decision in the end.
Technically even calling it manipulative is mostly due to the pretense of it coming from a child instead of an adult.
And then, in subsequent visits, she wouldn't tell a teenager that she hadn't known very long.
It was the continued hiding of it that was still getting to him. Even as years past. Even as trust grew.
In a way, he understood that after a certain point, it would just seem too late to tell someone. Or maybe she just deemed it unnecessary. Maybe she just thought of it as another aspect of her life that may or may not be shared on a whim like all the others.
He was fairly certain it wasn't the last one. She seemed pretty hesitant and nervous before sharing. It was something she took seriously. Far more so than most things.
He still wanted to be upset. He still felt like he had the right to.
He just found himself losing the ability to as his mind kept finding justifications for what she did.
And some of the justifications he still didn't agree with. He felt like he had to clarify that with himself. He was still upset by it.
Maybe he just wasn't as angry about it.
He'd kept using the word upset in his head, but maybe it was true anger that was so exhausting. That had caused it to be more complicated than it needed to be.
He didn't like how he'd acted the other night. It had been such a knee-jerk reaction, he wasn't sure where it'd even come from. He'd been angry in the past. But he can't recall ever being so, spiteful, with his words.
He wished he could have redone that entire conversation. He'd be better with it now that he's had time to think. He could portray his feelings, maybe even anger, in a much better way.
But he couldn't take that back.
In his time thinking, he'd come to a few conclusions.
1)He was still upset. And thinking about some aspects of it did still make him angry.
2)he didn't want to be angry about it anymore.
3)and, he did still care about Goh. Even though she'd lied. He couldn't get rid of that many years of care that quickly. Even if he wanted to cut ties entirely he wouldn't be able to do that.
And he, didn't want to do that. He didn't want to close that door forever.
He didn't want that to have been their last conversation.
Even though it somewhat felt wrong that he'd have to fix things. He did think that she should have to put in the effort to do so. But he also knew what Goh was like. And that doing so himself would be the most constructive way to go about this. Not to mention much quicker.
He was still the older one after all.
Even if he wasn't when they'd met.
…
He still hesitated before knocking on the door.
It's not like his presence would be a surprise. He never quite understood how that sensing thing worked, but he did understand it well enough to know she probably already knew he was here.
Hopefully, she would be too.
It was Goku who opened the door.
Goku was, very hard to read. His body language was almost always so relaxed. And his expressions…well the closest word he could use to describe it was innocence, but even that didn't quite fit.
"No, Gohan hasn't been here much in the past few days actually," Goku answered his question.
And that, was a problem. Sure he had some vague ideas as to where else she could be, but nothing where he could actually go to. No set location.
That would leave him no choice but to wait.
Maybe he could just leave Goku- or maybe Chichi a message saying he wanted to talk?
That would put the responsibility to reach out back onto Goh though. Which, he would have preferred in the first place, but she got so avoidant when she was upset, he didn't know how long it would take.
"You know," Goku had been looking at him with his unreadable eyes, "Gohan tends to hang out with Piccolo when she's upset. You could try that."
"O-k…where, would that be?"
"Piccolo mostly hangs around the Lookout these days. That's the place you went to during the Buu thing."
Pigero nodded. He remembered that. He also remembered how impossibly high up it was. There was no way his little Jetcopter could fly that high. He didn't think he could fly that high either.
He supposed he had at least go and see.
Goku directed him to the Sacred Land of Korin and said that you couldn't miss the tower. Which, was true. The tower was easily seen on the horizon long before he got to the land it resides on.
He landed his jetcopter near the tower and could fairly well see why it was called sacred as well. It was a beautifully forested area, clearly untouched by any developments.
That wasn't to say there were no people. There was a small settlement nearby. Homes of simple construction, with next to no technological aid in their living.
He could respect those who chose to live like that, but he found the idea exhausting. And inconvenient. He much preferred being able to purchase what he may need when he needs it.
The irony of that with how they were living before meeting Goh was not lost on him.
"Do you plan on climbing Korin's tower?" Pigero turned his head to see a native man. He looked around his age, maybe older. No, he was definitely older.
"I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to go higher than that."
"I wasn't aware there was someplace higher. Very few can even get that far. Many have tried. The last successful ones to do so was a small group a few decades ago. Before that, it was a friend of mine. Son Goku."
"You don't say…" Pigero was not surprised.
"Oh, I did not introduce myself. How rude. My name is Upa."
"Pigero."
"Do you truly intend on climbing the tower? No offense friend, but you don't look like the type. Your vehicles won't get you even halfway."
"I figured that much. I guess I'm going to try. The tower isn't what I'm most concerned about."
The Capsule Corp woman sure seemed to have ways of getting up there in vehicles. Must be nice to be richer than gold itself.
"I wish you the best of luck then. Be sure to pace yourself properly. It is much higher than it looks."
"I can't see the top of it."
"Yes."
Pigero regretted not developing his flying further. It just wasn't practical in his day-to-day, so he neglected the skill. He could still do so, and that was his main plan here, but he wished he could be more confident in it.
Or maybe he just wished that the teleporting kid would come and let him cheat. That'd be nice too.
But that didn't seem to be happening any time soon so he supposed it'd be better to start sooner rather than later.
In some ways, flying straight up was easier than flying across a distance. He didn't have to worry about maintaining balance at any sort of awkward angles, nor did he have to focus on any direction but up.
He saved energy by not having to maintain balance, but that was quickly made up for in the altitude. He was barely high enough to start feeling any pressure change when it started to get to him. And even though he avoided looking down at any measure, that didn't change the fact that he was very much aware of how high he was. And that if he lost focus-
He did not want to think of that.
There were occasionally ledges wide enough to take a break on, but never comfortably, and certainly never enough to truly recover.
Looking up the tower seemed endless. Looking down, the ground had long since faded to a sea of trees.
It would really suck if he went all this way up and she wasn't even there. He'd probably just give up at that point.
He was genuinely surprised when he finally saw something different. The tower widened to a building and there was finally somewhere stable to land. He didn't even bother checking his surroundings before stopping to finally catch his breath.
"Well well. It's been a while since I've seen a new face around here." Pigero looked up to see a cat with a cane looking at him through squinted eyes.
"Ah, hey," he said in between breaths, "I'm pretty sure, I'm supposed to go higher than this…"
"Only thing that's above here is The Lookout."
Pigero nodded.
"Well, I got good and bad news for you kid." Pigero resisted the urge to correct the statement. Even though he was pretty sure 30 was way too old to be being called a kid.
"Good news is, you're over halfway there," Pigero could have hung his head from that alone. The idea of flying any higher made him want to- well he couldn't give up really, that'd make this whole thing pointless. But he just didn't know if he could get back up at the moment.
"Bad news is, that's the harder half. There's no tower to support yourself, and the air gets thinner the higher you get so you really have to be mindful of that. I used to have a pole to ease the process but I gave that away years ago since no one used it. With the shape you're in, I can't recommend flying it. What do you want up there anyway?"
Pigero leaned his head back. "A friend. I'm trying to see a friend, who at this point better be up there. We got into an argument. I just wanted to talk."
"That's an awful lot of effort just to apologize."
"I'm not-" he cut himself off. He didn't have the energy to argue. He was going to say he wasn't going to apologize either, but second guessed that as well.
He wasn't sorry for being upset. But he did react harshly. And he certainly felt bad for how she reacted.
She also hasn't reacted great, however. At the very least she could have responded to Chico.
"All right, you know what? I'm a nice guy so I'm gonna help you out." Pigero looked up as the cat was walking away.
"You rest up for a bit while I-"The cat had jumped just barely high enough that he was awkwardly reaching into a jar.
"Ah, there we go. Here kid," the cat threw something at him. It was one of those beans Goh sometimes had with her.
"You rest up until you can fly again. Then just hold onto that. Once you get to the point where you feel like you can't fly any higher, then you eat that Senzu bean. If you can't see the lookout when you do just head back down. No point in pushing yourself if you're just going to fall to your death anyway. Just don't be alarmed if you don't feel hungry for the next ten days after eating it."
Pigero squinted at the bean. He had an idea as to what it did. It healed you after eating it. He guessed from what the cat was saying it must give you energy too.
"Why- who are you anyway."
The cat looked honestly disappointed. "Are you joking?"
Pigero slowly shook his head. If Goh's mentioned a talking cat he didn't recall it.
"You're in my home. At the top of what?"
"…Korin's tower.."
"Which is in?"
"…the sacred..land of Korin."
"Implying what?"
"Ok. I get it. Sorry." Sue him for not assuming it all belonged to a cat.
"Yeah yeah. Just hurry and rest up before I take that bean back."
Pigero didn't argue.
He didn't know if this cat was supposed to be strong or something, but he wasn't one to test his luck.
…
Korin was not lying. It did get significantly more difficult the higher he got. And it wasn't just because of the air getting thinner. The winds got stronger and the temperature kept getting colder. He didn't remember it being this cold when he was there.
He did what he was told and still probably pushed it too far. He'd waited until he felt like he was about to fall out of the sky before eating the bean.
It felt strange to bite into just, a bean. The flavor wasn't bad at least. It was almost like a snow pea, just more, grassy, for lack of a better description.
Its effects were truly outstanding. He'd felt like he'd never been flying at all and he was still as fresh as he was at the start.
He didn't like the idea of it messing with his appetite, but at least he wasn't as worried about falling anymore.
That didn't make the last stretch of the flight easy by any means. It was a far closer call than he would have liked. But he made it.
Also, it was in fact, not as cold on the platform as it was in the flight up. He didn't have the slightest clue how that worked.
When he looked up he almost wanted to call the whole thing off and head back anyway.
Piccolo was intimidating enough in the best of circumstances. Being the target of his ire was not in his plans for, anything ever.
The, man, didn't say anything as he glared down at him. He wasn't sure how much was based on assumption or if Goh actually talked about anything. Piccolo sure wasn't saying either way.
Eventually, he seemed satisfied with his show of intimidation since he nodded toward the single building on the platform.
"In there. Keep left. Try not to get lost."
Then he walked away.
Pigero stood there for a moment longer.
"Oh…k then…"
He had to assume Piccolo was not like that under normal circumstances. He simply could not imagine spending any amount of time around- that, and maintaining any sort of mental state.
Even that angry guy Goh hated seemed more tolerable to be around. And he could only imagine what it takes to get Goh to hate someone, considering she liked that one Uncle who kidnapped her.
…that was so much worse knowing she was an adult actually. Why was she ok with that? Being actually kidnapped should be one of the biggest red flags for any adult.
That wasn't the point.
He could address that later.
He followed the instructions as best as he could. He could definitely see why "don't get lost" was one of them. With as many twists as there were, he opted to keeping a hand to the leftmost wall just so he wouldn't get turned around.
Every once in a while there were rooms. Some had doors and some didn't. Eventually he stopped at one of the ones without a door.
Inside the room, there was something that looked like it was in between a bed and a couch.
And there laid Goh. Asleep. Covered in some kind of blanket.
His shoulders fell. Honestly, he was glad he wouldn't have to immediately deal with anything. He was exhausted. He sat against a wall and was perfectly content to waiting while he hopefully recovered.
He considered waiting outside the room, but considering to room didn't have a door he didn't see much difference. And he didn't want to miss when she woke up at least.
…
He couldn't have said how long had passed, but he could tell when Goh woke up. She often drifted in and out of sleep in the mornings, and even at night. But in this case, he could tell by the way she curled in that she was truly awake.
He assumed she knew he was there without turning over. With that sensing thing.
He didn't say anything. He waited until she eventually sat up. She didn't look directly at him while doing so, however.
"Hey," he greeted. She gave a slight hum in response. Pigero suppressed a sigh.
He wasn't surprised that this was how it was going to be but it would have been nice if-
No. No. We're being productive here. It'd do neither of them good to get caught on that.
He got up and sat beside her on the, couch, bed, bench thing.
She seemed to want to be sitting as small as possible as he did. She didn't shrug him off when he placed an arm around her shoulder in a side hug. So that's good at least.
"I, should apologize some. I shouldn't have reacted so harshly." He supposed he could swallow enough of his pride to say that much.
Goh shrugged.
It was hard to talk to her when she was like this. Chico and Rom were so open about how they were feeling. Well, Rom usually was. These past few days proved to be an exception. Ena, Rinku, Yordon, and even Hacchi were pretty easy to communicate with even when upset.
Goh, wasn't. She didn't talk about things. She wasn't open with what she was feeling. And when pushed on it too far she'd shut down rather than talk.
He supposed that was what caused this in the first place.
"You know, Chico's been trying to contact you."
That at least got a response. A hint of concern showed through her expression.
"Oh…sorry…I don't, get reception up here…"
Pigero nodded. That made some sense at least. He couldn't imagine she, or anyone would get reception this high up.
And once again, he wasn't sure how to proceed. He could have sworn he had some idea as to what he wanted to say before, but now he couldn't think of it.
Goh fiddled with her jacket's zipper. Several times she opened her mouth to say something before closing it again.
"Once, when I was in high school, The first time," she surprised him by actually speaking first. "I had a friend. My best friend, since I was ten. She did something and I got mad. It was pretty petty. Even in the moment I knew that she'd just apologize and I'd be upset for a few days and then get over it. But she didn't. She never apologized and didn't reach out when I started eating lunch somewhere else. And I was too stubborn to say anything first.
"I still walked past where we'd meet at the end of school, and I walked the long way down the halls cause I knew it'd cross her path, but nothing ever came of it.
"A few years later she reached out to me. And the friendship quickly picked up where it'd left off. A couple years after that I learned she never even knew what she'd done wrong, or that she even had done anything. It would have been so much easier to just, talk about it. But I never did. I couldn't.
"And, I still couldn't. I saw myself doing the exact same thing again. I knew what I was doing. I related it back to that same incident. Except this time it was my fault. But I still couldn't-
"I'm not- I'm not good with people. I know that. I've always known that. But I don't- I can't-" her palms went from being pressed against her forehead to collapsing into her lap. "I don't know how to fix that."
At no point while she was speaking did she look up. In fact, she seemed to curl herself up even smaller by the end of it.
And Pigero, didn't quite know how to respond.
He knew, of course, that Goh wasn't good at talking about things like that. That was part of what caused this. But somehow he didn't imagine saying "I know" would be very helpful.
And he didn't want to say it was ok either, because it really wasn't. But saying anything negative might push her away again and that wouldn't be very helpful.
"It's, difficult," he decided on. "It's a lot easier to snap or argue. Or avoid confrontation altogether. But that's not productive. You can't always just avoid confrontation like that."
"I know that. I do. That doesn't- I don't know. It's not even just with bad stuff. The same thing almost happened when Seventeen first asked me out. And I already liked him. I don't know what's wrong with me."
Pigero nodded. "Alright. Well. We'll just have to work on that then."
Goh finally looked up at him. "Why? Why are you even here? I thought you-" she trailed off, either not knowing how to finish the statement or not wanting to.
"I am still upset," he clarified. "And, I might be for a while. But I'm not going to let one disagreement ruin things. So, I'm going to try to fix things. But I'll need your help with that."
Goh looked down again. And again her mouth opened and closed in attempts to speak. Eventually, she slouched further and just nodded.
He sighed. It's not all going to be fixed at once.
He pulled her into another side hug, and this time she stayed leaning against his shoulder.
"How'd you get up here anyway? It's way too high for you to fly."
…
"You didn't actually try to fly up did you?"
"I managed it."
"That was pretty dumb. I'm surprised you made it at all."
"Yeah. I don't think I'll be doing it again at least."
The conversation drifted off again.
He wanted to ask. He wanted to ask if there was anything else he needed to know. He didn't want to learn later that there was something else that could restart this again.
But that could wait. Things wouldn't be fixed in a day. And he didn't need to know everything immediately.
He did want to address one other thing though.
"I still disagree with your premise."
"What premise?" Goh's tone soured and he wished he had chosen a different word.
"The one where you claim to be the older one. I don't think that's how it works. You didn't keep aging. You aged to a point and then started over. Or at best stayed stagnant. Aging isn't just a collection of years, not really."
"The brain isn't fully developed until you're about 26," Goh added.
"Right. Which, you never were. So, technically speaking you're not older than he is. Though, I guess you still were when you'd met, which complicates things."
"If you really want to get technical with it, you'd have to question how old Seventeen is mentally too. His physical aging has slowed at least."
"…I really hate the nuances that are forced in your life sometimes."
"Did you know Piccolo was three in the twenty-third world tournament?" Though she still sounded tired, he could still sense a bit of amusement in her tone.
"Alright. Done with this now. No more of that."
Goh almost laughed at that.