Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z.

Summary: "You've fought for us and you've died for us," she says, voice tortured and weak and she hates herself for it. "Please. This time, live for us, Goku." GokuChichi, oneshot

Another tiny little GCC oneshot. I just really love this pairing and I wanted to write a little something else for them. It's very short, but I couldn't get it out of my head and wanted to at least write something else for this pair and fandom. I've written something similar, about Chichi watching Goku leave, so I thought I'd put a twist on it and have her asking him to stay. Anyway! I hope that y'all enjoy this little fic of mine!

Into the Fray

"Stop!"

He is at the door when she shouts at him, hand almost touching the knob, fingers twitching as if eager to get away from this place. Chichi takes the moment of silence that follows as an opportunity to stare at him, at the way his clothing hangs loosely on his form, the way his muscles are tight and tense, the way his shoulders are set in that stubborn determination that is so characteristic of him.

No one would call Chichi someone who has a lack of verbosity. She is able to say what she means, and mean what she says, and yet now...it is somehow different.

She is older, now, and tired. Her joints hurt and her eyes have dimmed and her hair has a few grey strands, streaking through it like wisps of smoke. She is not sixty feet under, not yet, so she still fights. She still has that in her, despite everything. The dark-haired woman has always had always been capable of that, and even if it is a different kind of fighting compared to what she doled out when she was in her teens, she believes it is just as effective.

Or so she hopes. Really, she has never been able to control anything when it comes to him. The biggest accomplishment she had talked him into was marrying her, and that was about it.

Son Goku hesitates, but for a moment, and then turns to face her.

His face is still as lovely as it ever was, the innocent expression usually donned is replaced by one of still seriousness. She always seems to feel her age more acutely when faced with his unchanging features, but she pushes that silly thougth aside and steps forward, almost tentatively, but still with that characteristic fire to her eyes.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to fight," he says, without any sense of shame. "I have to go. There is an enemy. Stronger than I've ever felt. They need me, Chichi."

Chichi inhales a weary sigh, feeling a stinging at the backs of her eyes that she does not want to cop to. "Do they?"

"Yes."

Inside, her mind is roiling, Stay, stay, stay, don't go, not this time, it might be the end of me, Goku... Please stay, please...

Instead, she says, voice steely, "There are others who can do what you do."

A ghost of a smile plays across Goku's childlike features as he senses the falsity of her words. It is not like the normal smiles she is used to - not the innocent ones that plague her when peace is rampant, not like the ones filled with nothing but love for her, for their children, for their place in this world.

However, she has realized long ago that his place in this world involves fighting more and more foes. And, while she does not like it in the slightest, she knows that he must. He's the strongest warrior on Earth - in the universe, really, and even in the afterlife, and these are the things that come with that. He can't just sit at home and be a father and husband while there are menaces out there threatening their very existance.

He can never be just hers.

There's a chaos about him today, one that she is far too used to, one that just might signify him making a huge sacrifice in the name of saving them all, like he has done countless times.

Silence envelops them until she speaks again.

"You've fought for us and you've died for us," she says, voice tortured and weak and she hates herself for it. "Please. This time, live for us, Goku."

The Saiyan looks at her and suddenly his eyes soften in the most minute of ways; however, his body language is tense and taught, like a bowstring ready to fly.

In response, he says nothing, and leaves her feeling as if she has finally, completely lost him.

End.