V. Different

When Goku finally awoke, he realized that it had to have been somewhere around late afternoon, His still tired eyes scanned the room, he had found blurred feminine figure lounged in an emerald loveseat, with what appeared to be a book. A quick rub of the eyes,confirmed who Goku already knew it was, Chi-Chi. He began to wonder how long had she been sitting there, had she just been sitting there letting him sleep? He had no idea why the idea of being relaxed and unaware around Chi-Chi, made him feel so anxious yet a bit comfortable. That aside, one thing was for certain, the Chi-Chi Goku had known before would have never let him just rest, especially after complaining prior how he had "slept enough,'' before he had fallen asleep for the second time. But, Goku guess that was thing, she wasn't the Chi-Chi from before…

She was so different now. In a good way, but at the same time, she was so damn secretive it made him want to scream. It was why he didn't avoid her and lose all contact with her yet despite how much he convinced himself he needed to. They were still good friends, and as dangerous as he knew this would turn out to be, he didn't want to stop learning about her and getting to know her again. She sounded like she was hiding a lot. She didn't want to talk now, but he couldn't just stay away from her. He realized just how impossible it would be. He didn't know why he even bothered trying.

"There's more tonic by your bedside," Chi-Chi acknowledged him without tearing her eyes away from whatever she was reading.

"Thanks," he finally muttered after drinking yet another cup of tonic. "I really…I was in a real mess, huh?"

Chi-Chi peeked up from her bangs and smiled at him. "You're always in a real mess. Occupational hazard, wouldn't you agree?"

Goku laughed heartily and cleaned up the rest of his bowl. "So can I get out of bed or what? I need to move around."

"No," Chi-Chi demanded. "You're staying in bed for the rest of the afternoon. Don't make me have to kick your ass so you'll have to stay."

"Geez, alright," Goku pout, settling back into his sheets so as to prove his point. "You're no fun Chi."

"Oh shut up." Chi-Chi stuck her tongue out and threw a berry at him. "I could have dumped you on the couch, and instead I gave you my bed. Don't complain."

Goku wanted to bite back and say, "Well then, where did you sleep?" but decided that riling her up probably wasn't the best idea. Instead he popped the berry she threw at him into his mouth and asked, "So was this on the agenda for this week?"

Chi-Chi grumbled into her next mouthful of fruit and looked off to the side, which made Goku chuckle. She sighed and responded.

"Well for one, I wasn't planning to run into you," she admitted with a small smile that Goku realized he greatly enjoyed. "Also, I wasn't planning on sitting by you while you got over practically being I did have plans to ask if you wanted to hang out while you were in the city, but this wasn't really what I meant. Quite the welcoming committee, huh?"

Goku shrugged nonchalantly and eased her worries. "I've had worse welcomes, as you well know by now," he smiled knowingly. "One bad day won't put me off forever."

The heiress clicked her tongue against her teeth in thought and stared intently in Goku's direction. She crossed her arms and regarded him seriously. "Tell you what? I'll make you a deal. You stay in bed and actually rest until I say around 5:00 p.m , and we'll hang out for real. No clubs, no shoddy bars, just us and good food. Okay?"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, why not? I've been meaning to talk to you anyway." She shrugged. "Why, did you have anything planned?"

Goku shook his head. Not really. Yamcha could more than entertain himself for a day. "Sounds great. Where are we going?"

Chi-Chi hummed in thought. "Huh. Good question. I'll keep you in suspense until I figure it out," she winked at him.

Goku rolled his eyes good-naturedly at her and didn't bother to weasel an answer out of her. Secrecy seemed to be a thing for Chi-Chi now and he figured who was he to interrupt. He snuggled further into the sheets, intent on getting a little more sleep, as per her request. Chi-Chi lightly smacked him on the forehead twice and started to leave the room.

"The tea is there for your immense enjoyment and there's still plenty of food if you get hungry later. I'll be in the workout facility. Holler if you need me."

After Chi-Chi deemed Goku suitably recovered, she dragged him down to the shopping district in the middle ring of the city. Goku was never really a fan of the cold despite multiple visits to Jingle Village with Suno, but the excitement around the city seemed to have pacified him for the time being.

There were so many shops, restaurants, and vendors in the middle ring, moreso than he had originally thought. The streets were so congested, Chi-Chi had to grab his hand and lead him through the crowds since she was the only one who could truly see where she was going. Not that he minded much. Goku was too busy craning his neck and trying to take everything in all at once.

"Why have I never been down here?" he asked himself aloud.

Chi-Chi shook her head. "Because you tunnel vision, so outside of training, the dojo and food. You're almost good for nothing," She said the last part as a joke, but there had been a wee bit of truth behind it.

"You really need to let loose once in a while. I mean, have you stepped foot outside once since you've been here?" Goku was about to answer, when Chi-Chi cut him off again.

"Without, some having to suggest it to you," she eyed him, while smirking.

"Quit it, sure I have," he argued. He didn't mention that those occasions were solely for the sake of chaperoning Yamcha, but she didn't need to know that. "Anyway, where are we going?"

"Would you chill?" she scolded over the noisy street. "We'll get there when we get there, okay?"

Goku rolled his eyes and let her drag him along. "This is taking foorrrever."

"You're too old to still be so impatient," she scolded. Sounding just like her old self. She sidestepped one last group of people before stopping in front of a food vendor. "It's not like I you have anything important to attend to.

"But, I'm hungry," Goku muttered to himself. But Chi-Chi heard him, if that frown on her face was anything to show for it.

Chi-Chi shook her head and shoved someone roughly aside. Wincing at the curses that were being thrown their way, Goku heard her respond. "You're always hungry...I'll bet you opened your birthday presents early because you were so goddamn impatient as a little kid, huh?"

Goku rolled his eyes, but didn't respond to the statement, refusing to admit to himself whether or not it was true.

Chi-Chi had pushed them out of the busy avenues and into a confusing catacomb of back alleys that would have caused any normal person to get lost immediately. Still hurrying with his hand in hers, she managed to get them on the other side of the Middle Ring in about ten minutes, where the restaurants were smaller and more discreet as opposed to the almost ostentatious atmosphere the stores behind them exuded.

Nestled on the corner of a short street was a small building with nothing on the outside other than a tiny, black sign indicating that the establishment was open. Passing by, Goku thought that it was nothing more than a very average and quaint looking home. But Chi-Chi knew exactly where she was going judging by the conviction with which she led him straight towards the strange building's front door.

"Um…Chi?"

"What?"

Goku stared skeptically at the building, wondering what in the world could possibly be inside. "Where are we…?"

"Trust me," she assured him and knocked on the front door. "You'll appreciate it."

A moment later, a small space on the corner of the door was opened with the snap of a latch and an empty money pan immediately fell down to the ground by their feet. Goku watched puzzled as Chi-Chi removed her gloves and started digging through her pockets. Her tongue poked out of her lips as she started counting the zeni into the palm of her hand. She placed them in the pan, and slipped it back into the hole just as the latch closed behind it.

Goku watched the entire transaction with curiosity and suddenly had a ludicrous notion of something illegal happening behind those doors with the way the secrecy was being handled. However, Chi-Chi seemed to have this eager look on her face that made him think otherwise. It didn't disguise the fact that he was eternally confused as to what was happening. He had never seen anything like this before.

After a few minutes, no doubt being taken up by the mysterious person on the other side counting their payment, the door swung open and led into a very dimly lit vestibule. Goku Peeked his head in to see if he saw anyone inside, but Chi-Chi pushed him inside and let the door close behind them.

It was an entirely candle lit building. Literally dozens of lanterns and candles were lit around the room casting a lovely orange glow across the room. A small table off to the side of the front room held a metal box—no doubt where money was kept—and a little pile of what looked like menus. A man emerged from out of the shadows that the candles didn't touch and smiled pleasantly at the two of them.

"Welcome, my friends. Just two?"

Chi-Chi nodded and accepted the menu that was handed to her. Goku tentatively grabbed the menu himself and followed the man and Chi-Chi further into the building.

As they walked through, Goku recognized that they were inside of a large, circular room dotted with plush seats and tables where a few couples were already sitting and enjoying simple meals. He couldn't see from where, but a low hum of music was floating through the room to make for a very intimate setting. He needed to take a small moment to simply take in the atmosphere before he hurried ahead to follow Chi-Chi.

They were led to the furthest table in the back of the sat down as the man promised them that he would return in a moment to take their orders and bring them food. Goku was impressed when he noted the two piping hot cups of tea that were already prepared for them in order to hold them until the food arrived.

Something about a place like this suited Chi-Chi perfectly for some reason or another. A quiet, dark place like this was perfect for those moments of serene peace that you often needed at the end of a long week. The ambiance was worth the rather hefty price that they had paid just for the two of them to get in. He could seriously imagine coming back here for another visit.

Goku whistled under his breath. "This is…"

"I know," Chi-Chi answered. "I found this place by luck a while ago. It's really quiet and I always come here to eat when I can. City folk in popular restaurants tend to be a little obnoxious, but that's just my opinion."

Goku had to agree. His discomfort quickly dissipated and was replaced with a calm as he began to revel in the beautiful ambiance that the lounge created. If he didn't know any better, the lighting and the music and the intimate style of dining seemed rather…romantic. He was about to tease Chi-Chi about this being a date, but quickly realized that it wouldn't have been appropriate. Chi-Chi may cherish the quiet and comfort, but she had no idea just how ethereal she looked in the dim lighting and how the shadows accented her face to create for a haunting yet mesmerizing view.

As Chi-Chi started pulling off her gloves she asked casually, "How long are you going to stay in Satan City for? If you're staying for long, I can show you a few more places like this. Really convenient when you want to get away from those noisy old men you talk to all day."

This was definitely an opportunity he was going to have to remember to take advantage of in the future whenever he came into the city again. He would definitely take Chi-Chi up on that offer later. "Until the end of the month," Goku replied, answering her first question. "I think that's about three more weeks. Hopefully, if everything goes well, I can head out earlier."

Chi-Chi hummed into her drink as she took a sip. "The city bugs you that much?"

"Yes and no," Goku answered carefully. "I don't mind the city itself. I actually find it rather exciting if a little noisy and crowded. But it's very overwhelming. Actually, I'm starting to remember what you told me. 'Soaking up too much at once' I believe is what you said."

The girl nodded and smirked. "Yeah, that sounds just about accurate. I wouldn't worry though. The jaded adults of Satan City have been infected for years. It's going to take a lot more than a month of exposure to totally ruin you."

"What do you mean ruin?" Goku asked curiously. "Everyone here seems to be pretty lively."

CHi-Chi tilted her head, debating his response. "It may seem that way, but that's not quite it," she explained. "You see, there's a certain attitude that you develop when you're around so many people that it becomes a personality that you automatically emulate whether you like it or not. It's a sort of a defense mechanism. No one will ever question what's really brewing underneath all that normality."

"And what is brewing underneath?" Goku questioned.

"Tired, burned out, and bored human beings," she replied. "A tad pathetic if you ask me, but I guess loneliness is more potent in company."

Goku frowned. "So better to be alone?"

The girl shrugged and crossed her arms defensively, something that Goku immediately noted. "You don't notice what's wrong with yourself and your life until you start comparing. Makes sense, right?"

Goku chewed on the inside of his cheek and remembered something else from a past conversation. "But you admitted to being 'sick,'" he air-quoted.

"Wrong," She corrected him. "I told you I've recently been cured. That means I don't fall into that stupid little category." Chi-Chi pointed her finger straight at Goku. "You, on the other hand, are in danger of exactly the opposite. Kinda what I wanted to talk to you about."

Goku sat back into his seat. Well, he certainly wasn't expecting that. He had thought that this was just going to be a very calm meal in between friends, but apparently that wasn't going to happen.

He grabbed his tea and took a sip so as to buy time to gather up a suitable response. "What?! What about me? And why now?" he responded confused, after a swallow.

"Well, to be fair we haven't really gotten the chance to sit down and have a complete conversation," she pointed out quickly. "The first night I see you after seven years isn't exactly a suitable set up for a conversation like this. And you were out of your goddamn mind last night. So here we are."

Straight to the point. He supposed he preferred that than to Chi-Chi''s new method of skirting around the issue he had been experiencing lately. Her bluntness was familiar and he knew how to better deal with this.

"Yep, so what are you talking about?"

Chi-Chi sighed and leaned her chin into her hand as the owner came over to their table and asked them what they wanted. "Just two orders of the special are fine."

As the man walked away again and left them in silence, Chi-Chi put her head down on her folded arms and looked straight ahead with a lost look. It might have been the dim lighting combined with the fact that at times her blind eyes didn't really do a great job at revealing her emotions, but Goku started to see traces of what she had just been talking about. Tired, burned out, and bored. It was a scary thing to see in someone who was so full of life when she was a child. Something was telling him that the girl wasn't as "cured" as she said she was.

Then again she claimed that she saw right through him. What she was seeing was beyond him, but she always had this habit of being able to pinpoint the worst parts of him, something no one—not even Suno—could ever properly do. Suddenly, he was feeling very nervous.

Chi-Chi started drumming her nails on the table. "I never thought I'd see you again," she muttered quietly. "I honestly thought I was just going to…stay here…move around a bit…and just live on with the punches that came. I'll be honest, I never really thought about looking for anyone." She smiled bitterly. "But then you come along acting all young and…just how you used to and I thought that maybe I was being stupid and it would all be okay, but it's not. You're still totally different no matter how much I try to convince myself that you're not and it just really sucks."

Different? "Wh…w-what do you mean different?" Chi-Chi, you're not making any sense."

"You know, different? Not the same? Diversion from the norm? Pick your favorite definition, Goku, because I can list them off no problem." All of a sudden, she sounded extremely annoyed.

It took Goku a full ten seconds to respond. "Why do you sound like you're mad at me all of a sudden?" he asked tiredly. "Honestly, what are you getting at?"

"It's not that I'm mad at you," Chi-Chi groaned. "It's just you act like you're so sick and tired of everything."

Goku immediately went on the defensive and started denying. "Explain to me when, in the times we've hung out, I seemed out of it. I'm fine."

Chi-Chi huffed and fell back into her seat, dropping her chin to her chest. Clearly, he was missing something that she was getting at because he was picking up on the signs of a very irritated Chi-Chi. She muttered something to herself as she turned her head away and had her hair blanketing her face so that he couldn't tell what she was saying. Especially in such a dark room, it was almost as if he were alone and there was nothing but an empty presence sitting across from him. It unsettled him to know that she was being so quiet. The old Chi-Chi would have started shouting already.

"You clearly weren't listening to what I just said," she muttered. "Add the fact that you must not see how you act when you're alone, and I've got a valid point."

"Can you please start explaining what you mean?" Goku asked. He was really losing sight of what was being discussed. If this was supposed to be a criticism of him, he still wasn't quite sure what it was, and he was eager to find out so that they could quickly end the strain that had grown seemingly out of nowhere.

Chi-Chi shrugged and started picking at her coat. She looked like she was debating in her head what to say, or at the very least thinking through her next words, another thing that the girl never did. After a few seconds of deliberation, she seemed to have completely given in to the idea and immediately blurted out the last thing Goku would have expected her to say.

"Suno's been emailing me about you."

Goku's eyebrows knitted together and leaned forward over the table as if he didn't hear her correctly the first time. "What?"

"Suno," she enunciated slowly. "Your girlfriend of like four years? The one you live with? You know…that Suno. Not a very common name, monkey boy."

Goku blinked. That didn't make any sense. Chi-Chi never met Suno. Chi-Chi had been long gone before him and Suno even became friends. Goku never really mentioned Chi-Chi to Suno, she may have occasionally come up whenever Him, Bulma, Yamcha, and Krillin all got together. But even then the conversation on her was short lived. So how in the world is Suno communicating with Chi-Chi, and about his and Suno relationship at that.

Now not only was Goku talking to this girl after so long, but now she was claiming that his girlfriend was corresponding with her? Suno knew Chi-Chi was an old friend of theirs, she wouldn't have found Chi-Chi and not told him. Would she?

That meant that Chi-Chi was lying. Was that something that Chi-Chi would do? Probably, but then again she would have no reason to lie, would she? They've only really seen each other for two days, and even though the circumstances in which they have been meeting over the past several hours have been far less than ideal, he didn't think that it justified her making up stories like this. So then that meant that Suno was lying.

"But," he struggled to respond, still trying to calculate how this was even possible. "Suno never told me…"

"Well of course she wouldn't tell you," Chi-Chi replied sardonically. "The emails were about you, like I said."

Goku was quickly getting frustrated at the secrecy that surrounded this girl and it was quickly showing in his posture and in the tone of his voice. "What did they say?" Goku scolded. "You're not telling me anything and I'm not seeing the point of any of this if you're going to keep avoiding the damn issue. And why the hell is she telling you of all people, we haven't talked in years"

A pregnant silence followed, it wasn't like Goku to get so visible irritated, especially with Chi-Chi. But this was different, seven years different.

Because all of a sudden, Goku had realized how well prepared Chi-Chi was for this and he wondered how long she had been planning it. The quiet lounge they were sitting in that prevented him from raising his voice and getting upset, and the meal since she knew how found always took the edge for him. She thought all of this through…

"I don't know, maybe she got curious and asked Bulma about our friendship in the past. All I know is I got a message on my work email one day and the rest is history," Chi-Chi answered, not thinking that the nature of those details were particularly important at the moment.

He accepted that answer for now, because there was a more nagging interest at hand. "You need to explain to me how much you know and what's going on," he explained a little bit more calmly. He felt as if there was more going than just Suno and Chi-Chi speaking.

"Well," she began, "the short version is that she wants me to snap some sense into you. Bulma told her that you listened to me more than anyone else, she's ever seen you around. So Suno figured that I could "command" you out of the funk you're in now."

"What funk?" Goku asked.

She held up her hand. "Let me finish. I didn't know what she was talking about, but since she knew I've been in the city, she told me when you were coming and asked me to keep an eye out for you. It's weird when you think about it," she laughed to herself.

"There have probably been dozens of times over the years where we've walked right by each other…" She waved away the comment and shook her head. "Well, that's not really the point, anyway."

Chi-Chi went on. "So I did some snooping and found you that first night," she answered. Goku noted that she conveniently left out what that snooping entailed, but he knew that getting information out of Chi-Chi was only going to happen if she was willingly giving it. The fact that it was skipped over meant that he wasn't meant to know what it was. Yet, he hoped.

"So you meeting me that night was for the sake of spying for Suno's sake," Goku summarized, "because she's worried about me."

"Well, no," Chi-Chi said. "I mean…it's complicated. It wasn't just spying on you. It's been a while, and I've been…I wanted to see you. I had fun with you. That's why I didn't understand what Suno was saying."

"Which was?" Goku asked impatiently.

"That you're distant," Chi-Chi explained finally. "You're not the same. I mean, haven't you noticed that when you've been with her? She talks about it all the time in her messages."

Chi-Chi started eating her rice and left Goku to stew over what she had asked of him. Had he noticed anything strange? Goku had never really thought to look at how they functioned as a couple. In all of the stress of his responsibilities now, he had simply taken comfort in the fact that Suno had always been there to offer some sort of constancy and simplicity that he had been missing during his work. Their life in North Capitol had been simple. He liked it most of the time.

"I mean…" he responded slowly. "There's something very…linear about it. I mean, there's nothing much to do outside of work. It's very quiet and now my life has calmed down, and Suno's not involved in much other than the classes she attends in the central city. No traveling, no getting involved in anything messy, it's just very…"

Chi-Chi nodded in understanding as she cut him off with a hand. She reached over and tapped the edge of his plate with her nails. "Eat."

Goku blinked, he hadn't realized that his mood had caused him to completely ignore the spread put out in front of him. It tasted heavenly and he figured he should at least take advantage of it while he listened to this news.

"Okay, so where do you want to be?" she continued to ask him.

Goku thought about the question and realized that the answer came to him quickly. "Nowhere and anywhere," he answered honestly. "I didn't have a plan. It's not in my nature to have a plan. I'm a nomad, that's how I was taught and that's who I was meant to be. I never wanted to stay in one place, I've always wanted to live in the moment and see where the winds take me. But…once everything settles ..."

Chi-Chi frowned. "So you're bored and you sound like you really don't like where you are. Does she even know this?"

"I wouldn't tell her that!" Goku immediately responded. "I'm not going to bring her out of her element. She's already sacrificed so much for me…so much that she didn't have to. Let me at least give her something she can latch on to."

"At the expense of you?" Chi-Chi asked him. Goku looked up from his food for a moment and saw the almost fiery quality to her raven eyes. "I understand that you want to make her happy, but you're making it sound like you need to punish yourself because you punished her, both of which are shit ideas that just aren't true."

"It isn't a shit idea. I want to do something for her. She lost for me, let me lose for her."

Chi-Chi growled in her throat, no doubt getting frustrated. "Since when did this become a Let's-Get-Even issue?"

"It isn't about getting even," Goku tried to explain. "I owe her."

"You don't owe her your misery," Chi-Chi said firmly. "No love is worth making yourself suffer so that she can be happy."

"I'm not suffering!" Goku argued adamantly. It wasn't that strong of a negative feeling about his life. Settling down isn't something he doesn't want to do, but Goku felt it was creeping closer than expected. Plus, sure it wasn't his ideal choice of a life, but no one got everything they wanted. It was a matter of looking at the positives. "It's not great," Goku admitted. "But I'm willing to stay there if it makes her happy."

"Yeah, but you realize you can't make her truly happy, if you're unhappy, right?"

Goku didn't answer and used the excuse of having a full mouth so that he wouldn't have to respond. He chewed slowly and waited for Chi-Chi to change the subject.

Chi-Chi sighed and seemed to have realized that Goku didn't seem to agree with her on this point. Besides, he didn't think that something like this deserved such analysis. It honestly wasn't as bad as she made it sound. He could handle it.

Chi-Chi decided to follow Goku's lead and take a bite of her own food. Goku was thankful that she had picked up on his body language and switched to something else. "Well, what about you and Suno? You know, the two of you and your…whatever you have. How's that going?"

The warrior wasn't sure how this turned from him to his relationships with Suno, but he figured that this was at least worth talking about. For Suno to have been writing to Chi-Chi—for how long he didn't know—it must have had something to do with the way they lived or their relationship. Suno always said that she liked living with him, so something must have been strained between them.

Goku wasn't going to lie. He loved Suno, but didn't disagree with the fact that things weren't exactly as ideal as he had hoped they would be. He figured because he cared for her, everything he was giving up would seem worth it. He always assumed everything was alright...

"…fine," Goku responded. "We're fine." There wasn't anything else he could think of that could warrant a problem. He was almost curious to hear if Chi-Chi knew what Suno said concerning all of this.

Chi-Chi sighed deeply and started eating again. "Liar."

He startled and looked up from his meal. Liar?

"What?"

Chi-Chi shrugged. "You're a liar. You just lied. Whatever your relationship is, it obviously isn't 'fine.' Try again."

Goku was about ready to argue with her. There was no way he had lied when he was adamant about his decision. But the fact was that she looked downright unwilling to hear the same response twice.

He wasn't sure if it was possible to fool yourself so strongly that you would be able to lie to yourself so convincingly. But Chi-Chi wouldn't lie about him lying. He knew she was sincere in this fact. So what did it mean when you lied without realizing it?

Thoughts were rushing through his head and he sighed deeply and placed his chopsticks down. He had tentatively looked up at Chi-Chi and saw that she was looking in his direction, eating her food and waiting for him to say something that would answer her question.

Was he kidding himself? Maybe, but then that meant that there was something he was skirting over, or something that he wasn't telling himself. Now that he had been caught in the lie—a lie he hadn't realized he made—he was being forced to think.

Goku lifted his hands and gesticulated as he spoke. "There's…nothing going on. Like I said. Linear. We wake up, we say good morning, she goes to her classes and I go to work, and then we come home, eat, go to bed, and do the same thing all over again. Suno's always too tired to do things whenever I want to, and whenever she's in the mood to go out I always have something to go attend or a pupil to train. It doesn't help that she doesn't want to travel anymore when everything is just so…predictable."

That was the most he could bear to say. Out of all of his expectations, that had been the one that had been the most disappointing: the normality of it all. Surely there should have been a little more to life than just that routine. But he had been afraid that he was thinking too idealistically. It wasn't as if he was an expert about these things. Suno was his litmus test. He had nothing to go on. He assumed this was how relationships were. Now Chi-Chi got him thinking that maybe he had been right about his gut feelings.

"So you're bored," Chi-Chi said shortly. "You're a free-spirited guy that loves going wherever life takes him, now you have to make a decision between being who are and being who you think you should be…"

Goku looked down and thought through it. Yes…yes he supposed that made sense. But the way Chi-Chi described it, made it seem like he hated the very idea of settling down, permanently. And he guessed with the way he just decided that it only fair for anyone, including Chi-Chi, to assume such. But that wasn't quite it, Goku could enjoy that life,would definitely enjoy that life someday, it was just a piece of him questioned if it was going to be worth it. But since it would be with the woman he loved, then he shouldn't know without a shadow of doubt by now?

"So when I saw you sitting at the bar that day, you were all hunched over and just…lost," Chi-Chi continued, oblivious to Goku's internal conflict. "I don't think I've ever seen you like that in my life. Even sitting together in that alley with me when you were all drugged up. The way you carry yourself, the way you speak even. You're different, and I don't like it."

There was nothing he could say to that. He didn't even know how to dignify it with a response that would cushion what Chi-Chi had left hanging in the air between them, so the only thing he could do was keep eating while Chi-Chi decided where she was going to turn the conversation next. All of a sudden, Goku was not in the mood to take in anything anymore. He admitted things he didn't even know he knew, and it bothered him immensely. He wondered whether or not it would begin to explain the things that had been bothering him these past few days.

"When was the last time the two of you did anything?" Chi-Chi asked desperately. "Kissed?"

Goku looked up and answered. "Um…the day I left."

"No, not a kiss on the cheek, Goku," Chi-Chi frowned. "I mean, an actual kiss. You know like the—" Chi-Chi paused for a moment, looking almost panicked, and fixed her sentence. "A real kiss."

Color started to come to his face since he knew exactly how she was going to finish that sentence and was not surprised to see that she was reacting similarly to the way he had. There was simply no comparison for what they had shared yesterday. But in terms of moments he had shared with Suno, they didn't happen often. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, a couple of weeks?"

"Sex?"

Goku choked on his rice. "What?"

"Oh, come on we're not kids anymore," Chi-Chi berated. "How is it? Often? Good? Bad?"

"I mean," Goku blushed. "It's been a while…" he responded nervously. This really wasn't the conversation he wanted to be having.

"Define 'a while.'"

Goku couldn't really give a good estimate. "I don't know…three months maybe."

"Three months?" Chi-Chi rose an eyebrow.

"She's always tired or not in the mood!" he responded quickly. "It's not like I don't try to initiate anything, I do. But when she's in the mood, I'm tired and busy and it just doesn't work. Some days I'm not tired at all and I'm just…not in the mood. I don't want to do it."

Chi-Chi huffed and was visibly trying to come up with something to say. She traded in responding to Goku to speaking out loud to herself. "…you're so jaded it's ridiculous. No wonder she's so worried about you. Then again, from the sound of it, you're not the only one. I saw that viral video of you two, a few years ago, the one where you squeezed the life out of her after winning your match. You two looked so in love. What the hell happened?"

All of this introspection and close-ups on his romantic relationship was suddenly making Goku extremely hyper-aware of himself. He didn't think that there was anything to worry about, but now that he realized it and had someone snap his head into the game and make him really look at what he had been doing with his life, he realized that it was very different from what he thought he would be doing. Now here he was falling into a funk that he hadn't realized he would ever have to deal with. What had gone wrong? What mistakes had he made? Was there anything he could do to fix it?

Suddenly, things started to make sense. Was this why his thoughts were wandering and why he had acted out on his desires? Maybe this was the root of the evil. This was why he was acting out of sorts. All of this stress and all of these sources of downfall were all snowballing and leading Goku into thoughts and ideas that he didn't think he could ever have. It was like a sudden revelation that was coming to him in waves, and slowly but surely, he was starting to see where the girl was coming from.

What was it that Chi-Chi had said? The city's disease? She always spoke about in such a cryptic manner in a way that he had trouble understanding. Suddenly, everything she had told him about it made sense and—even scarier—perfectly applied to him. Chi-Chi had said that she had managed a way out of this funk and didn't appear any different than she did when she was younger. Maybe she wasn't completely fixed—she still seemed hardened by her life here—but she hadn't completely lost it. He had changed, was still changed. Is this what Suno hoped would happen? That Chi-Chi would be the one to help him because she had gone through the same thing?

"Well," Goku asked. "What do I do? You seem to have kicked yourself out of your own issues, so what am I supposed to do?"

"I'm still working on that," Chi-Chi answered carefully, still fruitlessly trying to finish the meal that had been placed on the bottom of the priority list during their outing. "You're quite the conundrum, if nothing else."

"It'll be fine though, right?" Goku asked.

Chi-Chi rolled her eyes and flicked Goku on the forehead. "You idiot, of course it's going to be fine. It's not like you're dying. You just need to…reevaluate."

"Reevaluate?" he questioned.

Chi-Chi nodded. "Yeah. Loosen you up a little bit. I did it the first night, I can do it again."

"No dance halls, and no bars," Goku deadpanned. He didn't need anymore of that for a while.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Didn't even cross my mind. Though I do think I have just the thing to perk you up."

"Really?" Goku responded unenthusiastically. He felt like one of those old villains in the comics Krillin liked to read that had his entire life's worth of failures just piled on top of him. Now he felt completely unmotivated and felt like crawling back into his bed and sleeping the day away and hoping that tomorrow would be better. After all, he did have meetings tomorrow.

Chi-Chi must have felt the shift in his mood because she immediately started snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Hey, snap out of it, Monkey Boy. I've got this. We're going to fix you, it's not exactly hard."

"Isn't it?" Goku asked her.

The girl leaned back into her chair, looking very self satisfied but also showing the rare signs of compassion that Chi-Chi secretly held for the few friends that she had. She smirked at him and made him a solid promise. "Just trust me."

AN: Apologies for the extremely long absence, but here's a lengthy chapter to sorta makeup for it lol) -WritersBlvd