After the Funeral

Chi-Chi is dead, and Goku doesn't know what to do.

Goku, grinning, turned towards the sink.

"Hey Chi—" He faltered. "…Chi." His face fell almost comically, though Bulma did not feel like laughing.

"Oh," he said after a moment. His face crumpled and tears began streaming unabashedly down his face.

"I thought she'd be there," he explained, sounding like a lost child. "I thought she'd always be there." He wiped his nose on the sleeve of his rental suit and sniffed noisily. "D'you think she's happy in heaven? It's kind of boring there. There's no one to fight. All the good fighters go to hell. But I don't want her to go to hell. It's not a very nice place. I hope she's not bored where she is. Do you think they'll let her cook? She always liked cooking…"

Bulma realized partway through this verbal outpouring, which was accompanied by a literal downpour of tears, that Goku did not know how to grieve.

"…and she told me I had to wear the suit and—and—

"Bulma, why am I crying?"

Bulma nearly started crying herself then, but she was not a little girl, or even an impulsive young woman, anymore, so she only patted him on the knee and tried to think of something to say.

To the surprise of them both, Vegeta beat her to it.

"Keh. What a moron."

Bulma had an answering barb on the tip of her tongue, made sharper for the inappropriateness of his, but she noticed in time to swallow it that Vegeta's voice did not hold its customary venom. She watched as Vegeta met Goku's eyes.

"You are crying because your wife is dead," he said almost gently, and he spoke as a man does when he speaks from personal experience. "She was a saint," Vegeta added, "to put up with you."

Goku gave a soggy chuckle.

"Vegeta," he said in mock reproach. "That was almost nice."

"Hrnh. Don't get used to it."

AN: I wrote this a long time ago, before we learned that Goku doesn't kiss his wife. (◔_◔)