Rewrite My Love Song (Love Song - P!nk)

Thank you to everyone who has shared this journey with me, whether you've been here from the beginning or have picked it up along the way, thank you for sticking with it through the end.

Although this ending is truly to all of you, it is dedicated in particular to my best friend, L. Thank you for all that you've done for me, and know that I love you more than any words in the English language strung together could possibly describe. To best friends and roleplay partners everywhere who push someone to be a better writer.

Everything comes to an end, Piccolo thought, watching Chichi say her farewells to Bulma and the rest of the gang. He definitely caught her apologizing for stealing the spotlight. The namekian snorted, shaking his head. It had not been her fault, after all. Ah, wait, his ears picked up on his name.

"I had no idea Piccolo was going to do that," Chichi was not exactly broadcasting her voice, but she sure as hell was not whispering either. The former demon shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Congratulations on getting engaged, by the way."

"Yeah, well, tell him that next time he wants to do something like that to make sure it's not my thunder he's stealing!" Bulma laughed, "but seriously, good for you two. It's about time."

Chichi made her way over to him, and Piccolo held out his arm. She happily slipped her hands around the offered elbow.

"When did you become such a gentleman, huh?

"Who knows?" Piccolo replied dryly, a smirk quirking his lips. For the first time since… Well, the first time in a very long time, he felt as if he belonged. Like his place in the Son - in Chichi's house. He decided to contemplate that feeling later. "Where's Gohan?"

"Getting Goten from the babysitter. I hope he behaved…" Goten was as close to angelic as a baby could be, in Piccolo's experience. It was Trunks that had the tendency to cause trouble. He probably got that from his father… "Oh, there he is! Gohan, what took so long?"

"Trunks was having some separation issues," the boy explained, cradling Goten in his arms. "Hey, since you're here, Piccolo, does this mean that we don't have to have to use the taxi-plane Bulma had sent us earlier?"

"You want me to drive you home in a car? It'll take… two, three hours?" Piccolo glanced at Chichi, who was looking skyward to help her calculate it out. Gohan was faster.

"Two hours and fifteen minutes if there's no traffic and you maintain a steady speed." Piccolo kept his eyes on Chichi, who sighed.

"It would be faster to fly...but I've had just about all the excitement I can take for one night already. Driving is fine, if Piccolo's okay with it." Gohan practically jumped for joy, before settling and cooing to Goten. "He's excited…"

The namekian grunted, and he shrugged. He was completely fine with driving the little family he had managed to join home. It meant that he was guaranteed a little more time with them. "You're sure you don't mind?" Chichi leaned her head against Piccolo's bicep. She sounded sleepy, and it brought a smile to his face.

"Not at all."

Goten's carrier doubled as a car seat. Piccolo took one look at the thing and stepped aside to let Chichi get it all set up in the backseat. It took several minutes, and he suggested at least once that Gohan just held the baby. Chichi did not even respond, other than to wave her hand in dismissal. Finally, the car seat was secured and everyone was buckled in safely. The namekian rolled his eyes; in the time it had taken everyone to get situated, he could have flown the lot of them back to Mount Paozu. Well, that may have been a stretch.

"Do you have that Depeche Mode CD I gave you? Can we listen to that?"

Piccolo carefully poked the button indicating the CD player, letting Gohan's music of choice fill the car. In the rearview mirror, he witnessed Gohan wiggle in excitement before beginning to passionately lip-synch. The namekian rolled his eyes, but a smile quirked his lips. Even Chichi was humming softly. Shaking his head, Piccolo drove off, towards the lonely, beautiful mountain range that was the Son family's home, that had somehow become his home.

Chichi's voice started to sound dozy to her own ears, sleep beginning to cloud her mind as her eyes drooped. She felt her head nod once or twice, each time jerking up with a startled snort. Attractive, the mother thought snidely. Chichi shook her head, rubbing her eyes.

"We're a ways off from the mountain," Piccolo's voice, a low rumble, was pleasant, almost a lullaby. "Give it another hour."

"Mmm," Chichi nodded, turning to look at him. His eyes were on the road, peering carefully around between the headlights. He looked as if he belonged. Oh of course he belongs! Chichi chided herself, however could he not? Especially after everything... "You're doing alright? Not tired, I mean?"

He replied with a grunt, but his lips twitched. "Oh right, you're too strong to really get tired. All that meditation makes you impervious to the need to sleep."

"Not impervious," Piccolo snorted, and she caught him rolling the one eye she could see. He glanced at her, "I have simply trained my body to gain its rest while doing something slightly more...productive."

"H-Hmm," Chichi snorted, eyes soft. Gohan and Goten were snoozing in the back, snoring quietly. "Alright, Tough Guy." Maybe he would be more inclined to sleeping when their - IF their relationship reached that point...

Chichi had no memory of drifting off to sleep. The next thing she knew was Piccolo gently touching her shoulder. Gohan was already toddling towards the door, Goten in his arms.

She allowed Piccolo to help her to her feet, stumbling slightly on the uneven ground. He caught her with ease, pausing a moment as she steadied herself. Chichi thanked him with a squeeze of her hand on his bicep.

By the time the odd couple made it into the house, Gohan had managed to get Goten into a fresh diaper, and was struggling to get the boy into a onesie. Chichi laughed and shook her head.

"I give up," Gohan yawned, abandoning the infant once his mother was near. Chichi caught him by the arm and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you, Baby." Gohan turned back and threw his arms around her, Chichi's lips curling into a tired smile. A moment later, the preteen turned his attention to Piccolo, and Chichi could not hide her joy.

In that moment, even though their future was uncertain, Chichi felt as she had a family again, a whole family. It felt right. She felt...she felt as if something that had been missing in her life was found again.

A very sleepy Gohan had just crawled into bed, and Goten was settling into his crib. Piccolo waited awkwardly on the landing, unsure of proper protocol for a...a date? Was this what this was? He supposed it was a date. There had been dancing and kissing and talking. That was a date, right? The warrior's ears twitched, and he decided to not think more about it. Leaning casually against the wall, Piccolo listened to the sounds of Chichi getting ready for bed. He sincerely hoped that he was not breaching some sort of social code; perhaps Chichi would be better suited than Gohan to explaining some of the more complex but seemingly common niceties of civilized life.

The quiet click and louder creak of an opening door hit his ears, and Piccolo looked up, ears perking and eyes widening ever so slightly. His weight shifted from foot to foot, and he straightened his spine, losing the nonchalant air he had assumed only minutes prior. He blinked as Chichi stepped out into the hall.

Although she had looked absolutely stunning at the start of the evening, like someone one might see on a movie poster, on one of those huge billboards in the city, this was more suited to her. A simple pink nightgown and white shawl wrapped around her shoulders, and hair flowing freely down her back. Yes, he thought, this is Chichi. He found himself smiling.

"What?" she tilted her head, one brow slightly higher than the other in a quizzical expression. Piccolo shrugged, and she paused a friendly distance away, bordering on intimate. "You were looking at me all googly eyed," she said with almost shy smile, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"You look pretty," he grunted, shoulders rising and falling once more in a gesture of nonchalance. Chichi must have seen through it, or been too amused by his oddly-timed attempt at flattery to care about him shrugging. She slipped her arms around his right elbow, resting her forehead against his bicep.

"Life is weird," the petite woman murmured, and he felt her fingers twitch on his arm. "I mean, just a few weeks ago I was saying that it felt weird for the two of us to be going out together on different dates...and now we're here. That's… that's weird. Right?"

Piccolo chuckled, his left hand reaching around to rest on her shoulder.

"If I remember correctly, the word you used was 'odd,'" the namekian replied dryly, smirking. Chichi's laugh was tired and soft, and he nudged her gently. "Go to bed, we have all the time in the world to talk tomorrow." The woman sighed, and he thought that she perhaps pressed her forehead more closely to his arm for less than a heartbeat.

"I...suppose."

It occurred to him that Chichi could be reluctant to let go. How many times had she let her partner out of her arms, only to spend years alone?

"We can do a late breakfast," a promise quietly permeated through his voice. Chichi looked up, and she smiled at him.

"That's called 'brunch,' Sweetie."

"Whatever you want to name the damn thing is fine by me." Piccolo saw her eyes drooping, silly humans and their rather weak bodies. "Come on, off to bed with you." Although it was less than fifteen steps to reach her bed, he could not restrain himself from scooping her up and carrying her. Chichi wrapped her arms around his neck as he started to stand up.

"What, you're not staying?" she asked groggily, a half-asleep smile gracing her lips. The moonlight filtering in from the window cast her face in a blue white light, reflecting in her eyes.

"Not tonight," Piccolo replied, voice soft. "I'll be back in the morning." Chichi pushed herself up off the mattress.

"At least take the couch - you end up there more often than not anyway." She reached up to him, caressing his face. Piccolo's eyes fluttered shut at her gentle touch, and when he opened them, Chichi was smiling, cupping his face in her hands. "Well, it's common courtesy to give a lady a goodnight kiss to show that a date went well, and that you want to have a second." He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah?" Her breath was sweet on his lips. "Well if you insist…" Piccolo pulled Chichi close to his chest and kissed her softly on the mouth, before pushing her gently back down onto the bed. "Now goodnight," he whispered, and pressed his lips to her forehead. Chichi laughed quietly and closed her eyes. He glanced heavenward, gaze blocked by the ceiling, and tucked the sheets around her shoulders.

He was going to kill Gohan. Depending upon how this all played out, anyway.

The End.

No, Goku doesn't have a problem with this perfect amazing relationship, if anyone was wondering. He's been watching from Otherworld when he thinks to do it, and is happy that his family is happy and whole. He's also pleased that Piccolo feels like he belongs somewhere.

Piccolo and Chichi get married and have two namekian babies that you can read about in other stories (located on both FFN and AO3).

Check back for more stories about these two!