So, it's funny. After far to many weeks of not writing I wrote this next chapter in 2 days. I figured this would just give me enough leeway to write up the next chapter…but then I got impatient so here we are smile

Oh also, Important Question: Do you guys think I should include the Tarble special? I can go either way with it. There are a couple character things I could include with it, as well as plenty oportunities to make fun of Vegeta, but it probably won't be super plot important. It would give the option of including him later if I wanted to, and while I don't have any current plans on it, not including the special would close it off entirely. I'm kinda leaning towards including it, but if you guys want me to skip to Beerus I'd be fine with that too.

thewittywhy: Aw thanks lol
And yeah, no, don't worry, Goku was always gonna be the least of worries lol. His first friend is married to someone who wanted to kill him for a very long time.
And I entirely agree more Sayain tails doing things pls

Qinlongfei: …I'm just gonna…save that one for later..
And yeah, Romane is most certainly not her strong suit, let alone with pretty boi.
And that is a true fact, yes

ArguableReader (Guest): Le thanks

I kinda figured that I didn't really need Seventeen to tell Goku and Chichi. I mean, I texted him about it first, and he just said it was my call.

Which, I didn't really think he needed to make the trip all the way over here for what would likely be the least of an issue.

And, it really was. Goku didn't really care at all. And as for Chichi, if anything it made any reservations she still had over the gender thing vanish. She was absolutely delighted over her hypothetical grand babies and how pretty they'd be.

I did not elect to correct her on that matter.

Her gushing was quite embarrassing though if she acted even a fraction of this manner around Seventeen I would probably just die. Spontaneously. Keel over dead. Unrevivable.

Goten was around, but he was mostly focused on his food and asked if that'd make Seventeen his brother in law.

I tried to say that'd only be if we got married and it was way too early for that, but then Chichi moved on to gush about a wedding.

I was very glad I did this on my own. And that it was difficult for Seventeen to get time off work. It would make their interactions quite limited. At least until she calmed down over it.

Yet still, as embarrassing is it was, it still made it feel more real. Like I wasn't gonna wake up one day and it'd just be a dream. Or like one day he'll just change his mind once he realized how boring I actually am.

So, I went to bed that night somewhat reassured. Even though I always knew that this would be the easiest.

…

Eighteen

"YOU WHAT?!"

She grabbed Seventeen's collar. The only thing preventing her from slamming him into a wall was the fact that they were at Roshi's and that'd be rude since the only reason they were there was to pack up the last of their stuff.

"Hey, hey," Seventeen had the nerve to sound calm, "it's not like that. Really."

"Not like that?" She repeated. She could almost laugh. Gohan was a kid. Oh sure she was legally an adult now but that hardly changed the fact that they had met her when she was fucking ten.

She glanced over at Krillin. He hadn't said anything. He was too nice to pick sides. Not that she would make him. Not when it was her idiot brother that caused this.

The fact that Krillin wasn't trying to defend Seventeen said more than enough.

"Well, technically it's the same age difference as you and Krillin," Seventeen had the nerve-

She dragged him closer. "I was already an adult when I met Krillin." She stated, plainly but with clear malice, refusing to give the satisfaction of raising her voice.

Seventeen cringed. "Yeah. Yeah I get that. Look, it's more complicated than that, really."

"How could it possibly be more complicated?" She demanded. Seventeen made that annoying face of his when he had something to say but wouldn't say it.

Amazing. He couldn't even bother coming up with an excuse. What was he possibly thinking-

"I'm older than he is."

Eighteen looked back. She had almost forgotten Gohan was there, she had fallen so quiet. She was t looking at anyone, rather choosing to glare at a wall.

She glanced back at Seventeen again. He looked surprised, but not confused. Whatever she was getting at he was probably aware of.

She tried to come up with an explanation for her words on her own first. The only thing that came to her mind was that time chamber thing, but even that couldn't be right. There was no way Gohan had spent a decade in there- not without it being noted at least. Or at least some aging- even if the Sayain genes tampered with it.

She dismissed the idea. But she couldn't come up with anything else.

"Explain." She stated. She took one, single, step away from Seventeen.

Gohan didn't say anything for several moments. She struggled for words in a way that reminded Eighteen so much of how she sat in this very room, what? A year and a half ago? Maybe longer.

"It's- I'm not-" Gohan cut herself off. She looked, frustrated. At the situation, the explanation, or her inability to speak, Eighteen couldn't quite tell. Maybe all three.

"Hey-" Seventeen tried to interrupt. Eighteen cut him off with a look. He had better hope this explanation was a good one.

Gohan's eyes kept darting around. She struggled to speak in a way that may have looked like she was trying to find an excuse, if it hadn't matched how she explained her wish before.

"I wasn't- always Gohan. Before I was just, a person. I was 20, 21. And I…died…" the last word was quieter than the rest. "But then I- I woke up. And, I was an infant. And I was here. I- I don't know. I don't know." She seemed to curl in on herself by the end. The explanation was short. But it got the point across.

Eighteen considered her explanation. She was claiming to have been, what was the word, reincarnated? Technically there was no way to prove that one way or the other. Though Eighteen didn't really think Gohan would lie like that, at least not in a way that had her making up stories. And her mannerisms did match how she'd come out prior. Or, would that even be the right phrase? Assuming she had been a woman prior she would have just been resetting that aspect of her life to how it originally was.

Of course this explanation posed an entirely new issue.

She glanced over at Krillin.

Krillin didn't even have a reaction at first. He just seemed to be processing what was said.

Then, she could see him putting on a mask. "Oh, well I guess that explains some things, huh?" He laughed. Even now he was trying to reassure her.

His mask cracked when she looked away again, however.

And Eighteen still felt, conflicted. She still felt the residual anger from before. And even though the explanation did help the matter, when she looked at Gohan she still just saw that kid. The one that made fun of Seventeen's socks and then made fun of him again for changing them. But now she was saying she never was a kid.

She wasn't sure what to make of it. She supposed it mostly put Seventeen in the clear though. She would have been older than the two of them. At least she was when they'd first met. She wasn't sure if aging would carry over like Gohan was thinking.

She frowned and did the math. It was same age difference as her and Krillin. Smartass.

That would make Gohan about the same age as Krillin. She couldn't imagine what he must have been thinking.

"Can I ask one thing?" Was the only branch of conversation he started. It was the only time his mask nearly broke.

"Why-" he started, but seemed to not k is how to word the question. Even now. Even now he didn't want to seem rude.

"Why tell me?" Seventeen finished the question for him.

Krillin hesitated, but nodded.

"She didn't. Not really. I more or less figured it out. Entirely due to- unforeseen circumstances." Seventeen stated. Whatever that meant.

The question of how was only met with a shrug. "Not my place to say," he stated. And Gohan did not offer any explanation on top of it.

Eighteen took that as not her place to pry.

And Krillin replaced his mask as though it hadn't happened.

The mask stayed stable enough while she was there.

And then time was running short as Seventeen had to run back to his precious animal reserve. Dumbass couldn't even bother to get a full day off.

Even after they had left Krillin's mask didn't shatter. It just, faded.

"You ok?" She asked.

"Hm?" Krillin's eyes lightened again when he looked up at her. "Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm fine. I think I just need to think over some things. Recontextualize." He over enunciated the final word to make it more humorous.

"Alright." She accepted.

…

"Hey." Seventeen grabbed my hand once we were a good distance away. We slowed to a stop midair.

"You didn't have to do that you know."

I looked away and down. I felt way too tired for how little I actually said.

"I feel like that was always the inevitable outcome."

Seventeen place a hand to my face, prompting me to look back to him.

"What, no 'I told you so'?" He smirked, "you were right you know."

I gave an involuntary chuckle before it faded again. I shrugged. "I guess I just didn't expect her to be thatangry…"

"Oh I did." He stated it so casually. Like he had no doubt that would always be the outcome.

"But- then why? If you knew this what what was gonna happen…"

"Why did you? You've held onto that for twenty years. So why now?"

I frowned. I didn't like thinking about it like that. Twenty years- that was-

That was a long time.

And I didn't really have an answer either. It just, seemed like the quickest way to deal with the situation. A situation that I just wanted to end. I don't think I thought it through at all really.

I did that a lot sometimes. Not think through what I was saying. Or thinking too much about it. Never really much middle ground.

I guess I'm lucky that so many of the DBZ cast were so easy going about things like that.

In the end I just shrugged. It's not like he answered my question either.

"'M tired." I eventually stated. It was true. Even if I didn't really get why.

"Alright." Seventeen placed a hand under my chin to tilt my face upwards and kiss me. It filled me with the same dumb giddiness every time and when it broke I had the same involuntary little smile-

I was getting used to these things I promise.

"C'mon I'll fly you back," he said, tilting his head in the vague direction of Mount Paozu.

"Wouldn't it be more practical if I flew you back to Monster Island? Since I can just teleport home?"

"I think, that that is a very practical solution that I am going to ignore," he stated, floating in the direction of my place anyway.

…

Krillin

Krillin was thinking.

We was thinking over the day as a whole.

He wasn't even sure why the idea of Seventeen and Gohan dating had bothered him as much as it did. Gohan was an adult. She could do what she wanted. And, Mast Roshi was way worse around women around the same age, and it didn't bother him nearly that much. He didn't like it, sure, but it wasn't so-

He didn't know how to describe it.

Maybe it was for the same reason that Eighteen was upset. Maybe it was because he knew Gohan since she was so little.

Except he hadn't. Not really.

Gohan had apparently been an adult the entire time. Technically speaking. However much that Reincarnation thing would count at least.

And Krillin, didn't quite know how he felt about that.

He could completely understand why she never said anything- especially back then. He did! It's not exactly something that would come up in normal conversation, nor is it something she'd tell just anyone. And after a certain amount of time he could totally understand feeling awkward about telling someone too.

And if anything, it did explain a lot of her mannerisms when she was so much younger. It really really did.

And he was the one who told her she didn't have to tell him anything she didn't want to. And he still felt like that! She wasn't obligated to.

So why did he still feel so- so-

His mind kept trying to use the word betrayed but that wasn't right. It wasn't. She was not obligated to tell him- or anyone!

He just kept replaying memories and recontexulizing them as Gohan being too older than he'd thought.

A lot of them fit far too well.

It was still the same person. Gohan had always been the same person. The context was just a bit different from what he thought.

Was her name even Gohan?

No, of course not. She had to have had a name before that. But, she didn't offer any other name to call her. Did she still prefer Gohan? Like Eighteen preferred Eighteen over her former name?

It was funny, actually. A thought that occurred to him.

It would have been a lot easier if she opened with that back when she was making that wish a couple years back. That would have been a lot easier to understand actually. That she had always been a girl.

Why didn't she say something back then? Or earlier? Or-

He shook his head. He couldn't be thinking that. It wasn't fair of him. He was the one who told her she didn't have to tell him anything she didn't want to.

He understood why she hadn't said anything.

He still didn't like it though.

That seemed like a fair conclusion to come to. At least to him.

And- he still cared about Gohan. Of course he did! She was still the same person.

But the more he thought about it, the more a new realization came to him.

It still didn't explain it.

That memory from the hospital.

If anything but made it worse.

He could almost dismiss the statement as just been an odd coincidence of things a little kid could have said.

Being scared of aliens? Sure. Totally. They had just fought aliens and they'd killed multiple people. He wasn't sure why she would have specified grey aliens when Sayains just looked like humans- but maybe she'd seen a movie or something that freaked her out.

Bugs? Totally normal child fear. Nothing out of the ordinary. Specifying green bugs, kids could be over specific sometimes.

Bubblegum was a bit more out there, but kids said weird things sometimes. If he had a zeni for every bit of rambling that didn't really make sense that Marron had he wouldn't even need to work.

It didn't work however, when it was an adult saying it. Even if she were trying to emulate a child.

The first two could still be possible. Aliens very well could have been something she'd been afraid of before- even though she very evidently got over it before hitting Namek- and bugs, she did not like bugs still.

There was no explaining the last one. There was nothing to- even if she was making up something out of pocket to appear to be more childish- it just didn't-

It was too coincidental.

And the more he replayed through his memories, the more he found instances that just, didn't seem to fit. Odd occurrences that could have been written off before but now-

So even now there was more to it.

And he still stood by what he said before. That she wasn't obligated to tell him. He really did.

He still didn't like it though.