Chapter Text
The fur on Goku's tail is silken. As it winds around her hand and wrist, Chi-Chi strokes it, a conflicted look on her face. They were both surprised to find the long-lost limb back that morning. Chi-Chi keeps touching it as if to confirm its existence, which had led to an unfortunate amount of fur getting into their breakfast.
"Kami said it needed to be removed, but I dunno what the problem is, really," Goku laughs. "And if there is one, well, I'll just get it chopped right off again. Easy."
Chi-Chi runs her fingers through the fur again and again, brow furrowing. Goku knows what she's thinking: her aspirations of the two of them being a "normal" married couple don't bode well with the re-addition of his tail to his body. But then again, she'd fallen for him when they were children, and he had his tail then. He says as much aloud.
"All right," she says finally, then, releasing his tail so she can shake her finger at him: "but you'd better not break anything with this. You're clumsy enough without it."
"It helps me balance. Maybe it'll make me better at catchin' stuff, too. Like—this!"
Chi-Chi screams as Goku slides her into a dip parallel with the floor, arms supporting her upper back while his tail winds around her waist. She clings to his neck and flexes her core in an effort to keep herself at a safe angle.
After she gets over her initial surprise, Chi-Chi huffs out, "I don't think you needed your tail to help you with that."
He nuzzles her neck. "Didn't hurt."
Goku wakes up in the woods with a coppery taste in his mouth. Everything aches. Not the usual, healthy muscle soreness but a deep ache, down to the marrow. He sits up, naked except for the mud splattered on him. Mud and something else. Something familiar after a lifetime of fighting, but no less disturbing.
Blood. He's soaking with it.
Habitually, he checks himself for injuries, only to find none. He swallows. Does it again, dragging his hands over every inch of his skin, trying to find the source of so much red. Nothing.
His attention shifts to his surroundings. He's startled to discover that a huge grove of trees have been smashed to splinters. The earth itself has been crushed with overlapping, massive prints. This isn’t the work of a dinosaur or a large mammalian predator.
Who—what—had done this?
He follows the path of destruction. He finds dead animals among the broken landscape, crushed or ripped apart or worse.
The mess starts to veer towards the home he shares with Chi-Chi. His pulse pounds in his throat and wrists and temples. He starts to run and considers calling Nimbus. To his intense relief the wreckage stops before it reaches their little house.
Chi-Chi doesn’t shout at him for tracking mess into the house and parading around naked. He wishes she would. Things would feel more normal if his wife shouted. Instead, after a hissing inhale through her teeth, she doesn’t say anything. She just covers her mouth with her hands.
He stares at her, listless, then swallows. “Chi-Chi… I need help. Can you..?”
She pushes him back outside and for a horrible second he thinks she'll lock him out. She doesn't. No, instead she hauls buckets and buckets full of water from the well to clean him in their soaking tub. He should help, but he just stands there. It feels wrong to use the tub, reserved for relaxation, for something so utilitarian. He should go to the river, but he's too spacy to move.
Heat isn't necessary. He just needs the filth off. After she gives him another push, he climbs into the icy-cold water. Chi-Chi rinses him over and over and scrubs his skin until all of the filth is gone and he’s pink all over. It doesn’t feel like she got all of it and he scratches at his arms and legs with blunt nails.
"What happened?" She finally demands when she can't contain the explosion anymore. "Goku, tell me what happened!"
She holds his head to her chest even though his hair is all wet and it's messy and Chi-Chi hates messes (which begs the question of why she thought marrying him was a good idea).
Goku isn't sure he would want to tell the truth even if he knew. He shrugs until his shoulders touch his ears and gives her a brittle smile.
"I dunno," he says stupidly.
"How could you not know?"
His tail moves under the water, spasming with uncertainty.
She feeds him a big breakfast and things feel almost normal. Funnily enough, though, he's not as hungry as usual.
It happens again. Month after month.
Goku always wakes up in more or less the same way: unhurt, but covered in blood and muck. Mount Paozu is devastated. The plant and animal life doesn't have enough time to recover.
He tries to anticipate when it happens. Every night he goes to see what the cause of all the destruction is. It only ever happens on the night of the full moon. His grandfather's words from so many years ago echo in his head.
Could it be? Is it the same one who had killed him? His blood turns lava-hot at the thought. Revenge is against his teachings, but, but—
The third month, he fights tooth and nail with Chi-Chi about her staying home while he tries again. Up until now she's acquiesced to his pleas to stay inside, no matter what, until it's light out. But not anymore. She tells him that she hears things, horrible things, inhuman screams and roars. There seem to be more earthquakes than usual. And he's gone all night.
Chi-Chi doesn't want him to go. She almost follows him outside, where the world darkens with sunset. She's already dressed down for bed, where they should both be.
He turns around, tail lashing. "Go to sleep, Chi-Chi."
"Not without you," Chi-Chi snaps, hands braced on either side of the doorway.
"Go to sleep. Please."
"So you can go roll in mud and deer guts again while that monster destroys everything? No, Goku! Come back inside, right now."
Usually that steely tone would have him hastening to obey, but not tonight.
"I'm going. I'm gonna go fight that thing." He's going to kill it, he thinks but doesn't say. "You can't stop me, so quit it!"
Chi-Chi gapes at him. He's never lost his temper with her quite like that and her own yelling doesn't have anywhere near that amount of venom. Goku pants through his mouth until it dawns on him what he's just done.
His tail droops. "Chi-Chi, I—"
Her eyes fill with tears as she snaps, "Fine! Go ahead! I'll just wait until you need me to take care of you again, you brute."
"Chi-Chi—"
She slams the door. Goku frowns deeply.
"I'm sorry," he whispers.
He should go after her. But that burning in his blood, the thirst for revenge, and that hotter, bigger fire, the love of the fight, overpowers his concern. She'll forgive him. She always does.
Goku wakes up in the center of the mess again.
Had it—for it must be an it—hit him so hard he can't remember what happened?
Chi-Chi gives him a sponge bath. He doesn't expect or even want her to help him clean up, but she's waiting with everything ready when he arrives home. She uses soap she made from tallow because the artificial smells from soap in the city bother his sensitive nose. She works methodically, scrubbing her calloused hands over his muscles and through his hair. Then she starts washing his tail. She squeezes past the wet fur to get all the way down to the skin. Goku bites back the urge to snarl. It's sensitive and she's being so rough, though she doesn't seem to realize it.
"Gentler," he says through his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut.
Chi-Chi pauses. She smooths the soap and water through his fur instead of squeezing it and that's much better. Goku sighs.
"I'm sorry for leavin' like I did. Please don't be mad at me." A lump rises in his throat when she doesn't answer right away. "Chi-Chi?"
"I'm not mad, Goku."
"Yes, you are."
She throws her sudsy hands up. "Yes, I am."
"Do you forgive me?"
Chi-Chi grumbles and rolls her eyes. Goku gives her a forlorn, puppyish look. She grumbles some more, pecks his cheek, and he knows all is well.
Goku gets into the soaking tub once all of the filth and soap is washed off. Chi-Chi leans against the side of it, too quiet, stirring her fingers through the water. He watches her for a while. She's very pretty, just like always, but looks so tired. There are shadows smudged beneath her eyes. Had she slept at all that night?
He takes her hand out of the water and kisses her knuckles. She taught him the gesture when they were little kids, the way that some ladies in other countries are greeted. Back then he just shrugged and did it and wondered at the way her face turned bright red. Now he savors the way that the blush melts across her face like butter on a hot pan. He kisses his way up her arm, pulling her closer as he goes, then mouths at the side of her neck. He scrapes his teeth over her fluttering pulse.
"Goku..." She leans over the side of the tub.
With a playful growl, he lifts up his wife and pulls her, fully clothed, into the water with him. She shrieks in protest but doesn't try to squirm away. In fact, after swatting his chest, she cuddles closer, letting him embrace her with not just his arms but his tail, too. They kiss deeply. Her mouth tastes like her favorite black tea.
"I'm gonna get that moon monster. Don't worry." He strokes her damp hair.
She leans into his grasp and sighs through her nose. "I wish you wouldn't. I wish it would just go away."
They cuddle until long after the water gets cold. His tail brushes up and down her lower back.