Platonic

AN: Okay… so before any of you tell me that this will never, ever happen (and never have happened), and that I should just stick to my G/V comfort zone… I really do feel like it would be a good scenario to play around with. So, uhm, I am playing around with it. I’m new to writing this couple, and I don’t know them as well as Gohan and Videl, so if you feel that either of them is way out of their character, please feel free to tell me! I’d really like some feedback on this.

The room seemed to be washed with blue. There was a single beam of light from the window, weak and faded. The bed bathing in the moonlight appeared lopsided.

Seven years ago, she had learned to look at it as a property she solely owned. It was nobody else’s to share. She had taken away the set of pillows that marked another head, and simply placed hers square in the middle. She lied on it, studiously ignoring the absence of heat on her sides and the idea that she would never feel heat there ever again. But it wasn’t like she was unused to being alone. Sometimes, she just wished she wasn’t so. She’d always been a dreamer that way. Of course, she stopped that too.

There was a lump of figure on the left side of the bed. Goku was exhausted after his grand battle with Buu. Once he appeased his stomach, he went straight to bed. Chichi was standing by the door way, coming in just a moment ago, and realized that something felt odd.

The bed was lopsided.

“Chi…” she heard him say softly. “What are you standing there for? Aren’t you tired? Let’s go to bed.” He turned to his side, pulled up the blanket to his chin, and mumbled away about missing a soft mattress.

She was ecstatic that he was back. If she really assessed her feelings, she knew she was brimming with happiness, and if she really thought about it, this might be the best thing that had ever happened to her: being granted a second chance.

And she was happy.

If she focused on that thought, maybe the fear that dominated her now would go away. Maybe the delight she felt inside could actually reach her eyes. Maybe she’d just stop wondering why Goku decided to spare a day from heaven to fight again, but never did so to meet his second child at least once these seven years. Or to see her.

Chichi sighed. This was wrong. Goku was back. She should be giddy, excited, jumping into bed, embracing him as if he would disintegrate the next time she blinked her eyes.

That was the problem. She felt as if he would actually disappear within a moment’s notice, and that’s why she was not giddy, excited, jumping into bed, embracing him.

“Chi,” he moaned, and patted the mattress by his side. “Let’s sleep.”

And if she let him back into her arms, she knew it wouldn’t be the same as before. She was not young anymore. She was not foolish like she had been, when she had enough space in her imagination to envision her life as a carbon copy of the fairy tale books she used to read; when she had been a princess dreaming to be gathered in the arms of a knight in shining armour, or a handsome, nameless, faceless prince who battled through the monsters that raged outside her castle. There were no witches, though she later wondered if she had turned into one upon marrying said man.

The truth was that the years had faded and bruised the magic. She had sprained her imagination, seen and felt far too many horrors to have anything left to speculate inside her mind. She knew things she never knew were possible. The bottom line was that the magic was no longer there. There would be no more dreams, no more pretenses, no more dress-ups, no more fairy god-mothers. She was older, a thirty-something woman, with two kids to raise, and play time was long over.

“I’m coming,” she whispered and walked slowly towards the bed. Almost uncertainly, even. There was a stranger on it, a man she has never laid eyes on in seven years. Although he was unchanged since their last meeting, she felt like she barely knew him. And when had he even known her? Truly known her? How could she go into bed with this unfamiliar man?

Would he question her if she decided not to go to bed after all?

But Chichi’s feet still led her to where he was, and she lifted the blankets to settle herself amongst them. She lay on her side, stiffly, warily, too aware of his breathing and his heat. She looked up at the table beside the bed, and remembered that once upon a time, there had been a photograph of her smiling husband in a frame by the edge. She had taken it down, because there came one night when it hurt too much to catch a glimpse of his face that she was unable to touch, to hold.

Now she felt nothing.

Chichi felt startled when an arm draped itself over her waist and began to untangle the belt that held her robe together.

“Goku!” she gasped. “What in the world are you doing?” she grabbed his hand and pulled herself away. She sat by the edge of the bed, contemplating whether it would be a better idea to sleep on the sofa outside for tonight. For the next several nights until she could feel familiar around him again.

He giggled and hugged her from behind. “Aw, come on, Chichi! I’ve missed you! I haven’t seen you in so long.”

‘And whose fault is that?’ But she kept her mouth shut, and continued to think about the couch. It was a good couch. Really comfortable. She wouldn’t lose a minute of sleep on it, that’s for sure.

“Chi…?”

She turned around to look at him, and for the first time that night, he looked as if he had spotted a clue.

“Are you angry with me?” His eyes were wide with innocence and worry that he might have made her upset so soon after his return.

She shook her head, no. She was not angry. Chichi knew well enough what it was like to feel madness towards her husband, and this was not it. It was not strong enough, not laced with concern, not burning.

“Then what’s wrong? Are you upset?”

Once again, no.

“What do you feel, then?”

Now, that was the right question to ask. Because she actually had the right answer to that one.

She looked at him straight in her eyes, and found it peculiar that she was able to tell him, “Nothing.”

A contented smile appeared on his face.

“Ah, I get it Chichi. You’re just tired, aren’t you? I feel that way sometimes too. Why don’t we just take a rest tonight, and we’ll catch up tomorrow?” He pulled her back down to the bed, so she couldn’t go anywhere.

“I really did miss you, Chichi.”

2024 Commentary: I didn't find an FF.net backup for this, but the format of the document told me I had probably posted this story at some point and just deleted it without a backup. I'm surprised I wrote this 3 years earlier than Semaphore, because this could almost be a direct sequel.