Author's Notes: First, thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, etc. It has been such a great motivation to continue! I wasn't sure how active the Goku/Chichi pairing fandom was and I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised!
Second, I know the style isn't everyone's cup o' tea. There's no real plot since there's no conflict and no bad guy. Not to mention that I decided that some of the 'scenes' would simply be character introspection rather than action and dialogue. But this has been done on purpose. Think of all of this as one big flashback, like the characters are taking turns looking back on memories. We ALL know that there does end up being a crap load of conflict and struggles in their marriage and in their lives in general. But give them the first 5 years of their marriage to simply get to know one another and fall deep in love!
Third, I'm sorry that my chapters seem to be getting so much shorter! I just figured it's better to publish them as I complete them in sections that make sense. I hope everyone enjoys anyway!
Marriage - Part 3
Words: 3,422
Rating: M
"There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage."
– Martin Luther
Autumn was just around the corner in Mount Paozu. Though the days were warm with summer temperatures, the signs of a new season were beginning to show. The evenings had started cooling down and the flowers had nearly all disappeared. Somehow with fewer bright colors from those petals in the trees around the lake, the water seemed bluer. Chichi enjoyed the sight of it, finding beauty in its pureness. However, once she had stripped off her warm cheongsam, she decided the actual feeling of it was much less beautiful.
The water was so much colder than she first thought it would be. The first foot or so deep of water near the surface was gently warmed up by the sun. She tested it with her feet before she felt properly willing to enter. So she was not prepared at all for the chilling temperature underneath. Keeping her arms pressed tightly to her chest, as if she could hold any lingering warmth to her body, she slowly waded closer to her husband who had entered the water long before. Goku was grinning like a fool again, thoroughly enraptured with their lazy afternoon swim. Or perhaps it was because he finally got her in the water. She wasn't sure which.
"I told you it'd be fun, Chichi!"
"I'm not having fun! I'm freezing!" Stupid husband. Stupid smile. Stupid, stupid cold water. The underwear and camisole she insisted on wearing into the water – after searching high and low for an old bathing suit she could have sworn she packed for the move to her new home – did absolutely nothing to keep her warm. In fact, the white clothing barely even hid her skin at all once soaked through. But it somehow still psychologically convinced her she wasn't swimming completely naked.
"You'll warm up once you've swam around a bit," he soothed, sliding in closer to her. His large hand landed on her back in a comforting gesture, his warm palm feeling hot against her icy skin. In response to the sudden heat, she leaned closer to press her front against his chest.
"Huh – what?"
"Just let me lean against you for a minute or I'm getting out!" The threat may have come out harsher than originally intended, but she meant it. Releasing just a fraction of the tension in her petite shoulders, she sighed as she finally felt his muscled arm curl further around her. "You're somehow a lot warmer than I am."
"All right, all right…" His hand rubbed her back absently for another moment or two as she fought against the urge to shiver. It was already helping just to press against his body heat. Though she wondered what made him so much warmer than she was, as long as he would continue to share it with her, the reason hardly mattered.
She had finally given in to his constant pestering to swim with him, mostly because it was the only request he had made so far in their marriage. Plus, the weather would start getting colder soon and then there'd be no way she'd step out of the house without a heavy jacket, much less strip down to nothing and get in the lake.
And despite all of her protests, spending time with him was her highest priority. So she could handle a little cold water for that.
"I have an idea, Chi! Here-!" Suddenly, the little wife found herself whipped around Goku's large frame, her body pressed against the large expanse of his back. He lifted the thin arm that he had a grip on over his shoulder, indicating for her to hold on. Unconsciously she reached both of her arms up around his neck, holding on tight. Her body was flush against his, her breasts squished against the expanse between his shoulder blades, in manner she was sure was quite lewd. But he was so warm… She bit her lip against chastising him for it; she didn't want to give up the heat.
"Now we can swim together!" Goku smiled over his shoulder briefly before lowering both of their bodies further under the surface of the water up to their shoulders. She couldn't help but let out a squeak at the added chill to her skin. Before she could scold him for doing that without any warning, he reached out his arms and started to swim, leisurely making his way further out into the lake while carrying her on his back.
This somehow felt… special. Her husband and her moving together through the water, in one of his favorite spots. Smiling tenderly, she placed her head against the back of his neck, feeling the heat of his skin and the splash of the chilled water all in one sensation. Chichi decided she could easily live her life this way.
"Do you want to catch some fish together too?"
"What? What do you-!" And suddenly Chichi found herself pulled abruptly under water, still very attached to the man transporting her. When he realized she was not prepared, which in fairness only took him a second or two, they resurfaced together.
Through her coughing and sputtering she yelled at him as loud as she could, "You… you idiot! I could have drowned! I'm getting out!" She released her traitorous husband from the embrace of her arms as she started weakly swimming back to shore. She could feel her hair stuck uncomfortably to the skin of her face and neck, some of it released from the bun she had placed it in for the swim in the hopes that it would stay dry. That just made her angrier!
"Oh, Chi, I'm so sorry," he voiced repentantly as he followed behind her at a safe distance. "You weren't ready. I really am sorry! I just got so excited, that's all. Please don't leave!"
When she finally reached close enough to shore to put her feet on solid ground, she angrily stomped the rest of her way out of the water. Her skin immediately prickling from the air hitting the moisture on her body. Grumbling to herself, she reached up to release the hair on her head as well, figuring she needed to let it dry now. Giving it a shake with her hands, the cold, soaked hair settling down her chest and back with a heavy 'plop' dropped her body temperature down further.
"You can stay and fish by yourself! I'm done! That was just stupid and… and… MEAN!" She spun her body around and pointed at him accusingly, her face pulled taunt in a frown, her eyes tearing up from the brief moment of anxiety under the water.
When she didn't get a response from him as expected, her stern posture deflated and her pointing hand lowered. She saw that her husband may have been looking at her, but he certainly was not paying attention to what she was saying. It was not near as satisfying to yell at him when he wasn't doing his part looking remorseful and embarrassed.
"What are you staring at?!" she demanded, her fists clenched tight. She would have stomped too had her body not been so cold.
"Chi," he answered in a low voice. His eyes slowly rose up her body and she felt it start to warm down to her toes despite her chill in response to the heat in his eyes. "You look… really beautiful right now."
She was blushing before she was even able to process his words and didn't even know why. He normally was not a man easily seduced. In fact, even stripping completely naked wasn't a sexually charged sight for him. He saw it as just being natural. While that did make the occasional bath together less stressful for her without the anxiety or insecurity she used to feel, it also made communicating indirectly to her husband for the purposes of being intimate much harder. So what in the world was he staring at?
Glancing down at herself, her long wet hair hanging around her face and stuck to her skin on her shoulders and chest slightly obscured her vision of her upper body. But it was when she realized that he could see straight through the white camisole and underwear she wore that her face darkened to a deep red.
"G-Goku-sa! Don't get all perverted when I'm mad at you!" Her feet barely touched the ground as she lunged for a towel, pulling it off the neatly folded stack on top of the picnic basket. She struggled to shake it out and wrap it around her body to hide from his perusing eyes.
"I didn't think you'd mind me calling you beautiful…"
"Well, I do! I'm still angry at you and you're ignoring my feelings! W-what are you doing?! Get back in the water! Don't you come over here! D-don't even think about it, Goku-sa! I can SEE you thinking about it! Don't you even-!"
The window was open, letting in just the slightest of breezes. The cool night air whisking the touch of sweat off their bodies as the two moved together. The only sounds throughout the bedroom a blend of the rustling of the bedsheets and the soft pants and moans of the couple.
Goku may not have been allowed to make love to his wife while at the lake that afternoon but he couldn't get the image out of his mind. It was still a new experience for him to suddenly be attracted to his wife, well anyone really, for aesthetic reasons only. But the way her hair was soaked, disheveled over her face and body as it clung to her skin, how her body was no longer restricted and oppressed by the heavy fabrics of her normal attire, and the way the light reflected off the water and into her eyes as she stood there surrounded by pure nature… It was an exhilarating sight. As if she were a very part of the wilderness around her.
And it was something that he would love to see again. If he could ever convince her.
"G-Goku…" she whispered through heavy breaths. His body shuddered in response to feeling it against his neck.
"Are you ok? Am I putting too much of my weight on you?" he asked huskily, having to push his own voice from his chest as he tore his attention away from where they were joined.
"Mmm," she hummed against the column of his throat. He loved that sound. "No, it's good." As if to reassure him, she stretched out her arms further to hold him around his torso, splaying her fingers out against his broad back to touch as much of his skin as she could.
His body responded with a slow, deep push into her heat and Goku couldn't hold back the moan he breathed into her hair. The feeling of her all around him, of being sheathed inside her body, her skin pressed up against his, he figured he'd never grow used to it. It would always remain new, foreign, exhilarating.
"C-can I…?"
"Yes," Chichi answered for him when he failed to complete his question, her hands sliding up his back to take purchase on his thick shoulders as she lifted her knees further apart and toward to her chest to allow his body to press in closer.
One of Goku's hands slid up to the edge of the futon to brace himself, still careful of crushing his small wife under his greater weight. The other hand curled around her head, fingers rubbing into the silky threads of her hair. Then he began a slow, rocking rhythm, feeling his member drag in and out of her slick walls as the temperature between them rose. He took his time to push all the way in, until he was inside to the hilt and their pelvises were flush against each other, before pulling back out. The buildup of her desire, lubricating both of their skin and sliding down their bodies.
It was so hot, despite the breeze from the open window, but he couldn't pull further away from her if he wanted to. As he tried to concentrate on his thrusts, struggling to maintain a steady rhythm, his every nerve ending was alert to the woman beneath him. The hardened nipples rubbing against his chest as she hissed and sighed in pleasure, the way her lashes fluttered as she strained to keep her dark eyes on him, and her tongue when it came out to lick her lips as they opened in a sensual 'oh' shape with every pant.
He could feel himself harden further and a tingly sensation down his backside as the tell-tale sign that, if he didn't focus, it would all be over too soon. So he pulled himself up a little higher, lifted his chest just so, and having to put more attention back on holding his body steady rather than getting lost in the moment. He wanted to please her first. Even having only been married a few months, he learned how important, how amazing, these moments of intimacy were and nothing brought him greater satisfaction than the look on his wife's face as she opened herself up to him. Pure pleasure, trust, love, vulnerability, connection… He might have been a late bloomer but he could see himself becoming addicted to married life. To Chichi.
"Ah, ah! G-goku-sa! There!" she keened, her back arching off the bed as her chest brushed against his once again. Her skin flushed and sensitive as she moaned when her breasts pressed against the hard planes of his chest.
Goku tried to form words in response to her instruction but all he could manage was a noise halfway been a grunt and moan as he took the hand from her hair to reach down and take one of her legs. With his strong forearm lifting her leg from beneath her knee, he raised her leg higher as he plunged inside her wet heat toward the spot she craved. When she whimpered and shook as he drove in deeper, he had to slam his eyes shut against the sight. Feeling her legs tremble, he knew she was close and began to speed up his pace.
His wife was so strong, so capable, he knew that she could handle so much more. But he could never bring himself to go this hard, this fast without her body insisting it, commanding it, first. But she always knew what to do, how to encourage him to let go, to trust her. Chichi would never allow him to get away with hurting her or pushing too far. So he always did eventually give her what she wanted.
"Chi… Chichi…" Goku grunted as he lost his sense of rhythm, driving into her over and over again with force he could no longer focus on. Her response was to moan loudly, her breath exhaling against the oversensitive skin of his neck, as her nails raked down his back.
"D-don't stop-!" Her back arched as her head curled toward him as she clung to his body, her legs shaking around him.
He throbbed inside her, so ready to let go, to give her everything. But he had to wait, he wanted to wait until she-
"Ah, ahh!" Her pants and her moans froze in her throat as body came to a still, pulling taut like bowstring, as she came undone around him. Her walls clenched and rippled around his member and he could only manage a few more shallow thrusts before he lost it too, sparks behind his eyelids as they came together.
It felt like much longer than a few mere minutes when he heard a tired grunt beneath him.
"You're heavy," she complained in a drowsy whine, already half asleep. He smiled as he slid out of her, disconnecting them, and slumped halfway off her body to share her pillow. Whenever she lacked the energy to force them up from the futon to go wash up, he knew that it was because she was too content to do anything but stay. He couldn't hold back his lips from placing a tender kiss on her shoulder. Goku could feel her slender fingers running through his tangled chair a few moments before her arm too lost energy to move and dropped down to the mattress.
There was a tightness in his chest that he was starting to recognize. With her, he was part of something bigger than himself, and it was somehow overwhelming. He lacked the words to express this to her and instead just held her with the utmost gentleness as they both drifted off to sleep.
It was a few weeks later, as Goku was finishing his upper body training that he experienced another new sensation.
Early winter had finally settled around their home, most of the leaves already fallen and the air crisper in the mountains. He had spent the day finding the best two old trees in the forest, two that were not likely to survive the winter as they were dry, choked out by the younger more robust trees around them, and easily cut them down without damage to the surrounding young saplings. He decided this would be a practical way to get his work-out in for the day as he used his body's strength and ki alone to chop them into smaller chunks for their fires to last through the coming winter freeze.
He hadn't finished with the second tree when he heard a cry from his wife inside their home, loud enough to reach him outside.
Goku was pretty sure his body had never moved so fast. That particular sound is one he had never heard before and every cell in his body responded automatically to get to her fast.
Chichi was standing near the kitchen entrance, just outside of their half bathroom, still wrapped in her apron as a pot of something delicious simmered on the stovetop. But she looked shaken, her hand brought up to cover her mouth as it shook with nerves. The other hand held something Goku couldn't see but didn't think twice about. He just needed to know what happened and how to fix it so that he could do something. Holding his breath, he marched with heavy footfalls over to his wife, the worry practically sparking off of him.
Her dark brown eyes finally met his and he could see tears glistening at the corners. An unpleasant chill grasped him tight in his chest. "I-I'm… I thought that I might be b-but… I wasn't sure and… and I just took it…"she mumbled through her hand, her voice wracked with emotion.
"Chichi? What's going on? What's happening?"
"I'm pregnant, Goku-sa," she finally lowered her hand from her face, her mouth revealed in a smile, despite the tears building up in her eyes. "We're going to have a baby."
"Baby?" he repeated, the adrenaline that had been coursing through his veins pulled back as his limps nearly went limp, his fear recoiled into confusion.
She nodded and showed the pregnancy test held in her other hand. "We're going to have a baby," she repeated in wonder.
Every time they talked about this she openly expressed just how much she yearned to have a baby with him. And it wasn't that he didn't think it might be nice. But he didn't have the same craving for it that she did. He had not spent years waiting, building up to this moment, like she did. In fact, the first time it occurred to him that they would probably have children was around their wedding when they had their first discussion about it.
But now standing here in his home that he and his wife created together, smelling the dinner she was making as he had been out working to prepare their home for the coming season, it all came together. They created a small human being that was growing inside of her, even now, that they would one day meet. Someone who was equal parts Goku and Chichi but all together someone entirely unique.
It felt amazing.
So he smiled back at her, feeling the grin pull his cheeks so hard it was difficult to keep his eyes open. "A baby… A baby!" And his wife threw herself into his arms, squeezing him tightly and hiding her face in his shirt, not caring a whit about the sweat and dirt.
"I'm so happy, Goku-sa!"
"Me too, Chichi. I am too."
And he really was.