Chi-Chi hummed quietly to herself, her attention completely divulged in fulfilling the task at hand – preparing lunch for her boys.
The day had started off fairly early; Goten had awaken before everyone, barreling throughout the house with a spark of energy and headed straight for their bedroom, but not without waking up his big brother first. It had been like this for awhile now. Ever since the defeat of the evil and twisted fiend Majin Buu, the family had opted to spend some well-deserved time together. Goku hadn’t been able to go a day without being bombarded by his sons, Goten especially, not that the Saiyan had a problem with it.
Even now, Goku was out with Goten and Gohan on a father-son fishing trip. They had been planning the small bonding trip for awhile now (it had been the reason behind their youngest son’s early morning charade). They had planned to include camping into their cleared schedule, but Chi-Chi disapproved – much to Goten’s dismay – suggesting that they all go as a family instead. Goku agreed, steering their son’s unhappy mood to bristling excitement, Gohan being just as ecstatic about the ordeal as his brother.
And now Chi-Chi was busying herself with fixing a hearty meal for husband and children. A knock from the front door disturbed Chi-Chi from her musings.
“Just a minute!” she called, placing a large try of assorted sandwiches on the kitchen table, her ebony eyes darting to the pot of bubbling soup on the stove. Quickly, she adjusted the fire to a low heat, wiping her sullied hands on her apron before heading to the door. Back already? Chi-Chi thought. But the boys aren’t due back for another half-hour or so.
She opened the door, gracing her presence was a clean, tall man, his height equivalent to that of her eldest son. Dirty blond locks sat in a parted wave and piercing blue eyes scrutinized her carefully. He was dressed in formal attire and in his hand was a small black briefcase.
“May I help you?” Chi-Chi asked.
The man dug in his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. “Is this 439 East District?”
“Listen mister, whatever it is you’re selling, I’m not interested.”
Seemingly panicked by the woman’s sharp tone, the man sent her a reassuring smile. “I assure you Lady Chi-Chi; I’m not here to sell you anything; not at all.”
Chi-Chi bit back a retort, her eyebrows rising at the formality used in her name. “Excuse me, but did you just address me as “Lady” Chi-Chi?”
As the man placed a hand over his heart, his smile grew in size and he bowed. “Oh, but of course. It’s required of me to refer to the Princess of Ox-Kingdom with nothing but the utmost respect.”
“I’m flattered, but I must object,” Chi-Chi responded with an awkward smile. “I’ve long since relinquished my title as princess. I’m married now.”
The man raised his head at her statement, but his smile did not falter. Instead, he simply shook his head in protest. “I apologize for the intrusion, but may I come inside for a more … proper discussion?” he inquired.
For a spare second, Chi-Chi regarded the stranger with a skeptical gaze; however, before she allowed him entry into her home, she asked him, “May I ask your name?”
As if the blond was caught red-handed, he fixed her with a flabbergasted expression. “Where are my manners? My name is Sir Suita,” he replied, reaching for her hand. Immediately, Chi-Chi recoiled, sending him a reassuring smile.
“That’s not necessary, Mr. Suita. But I appreciate the gesture,” she responded, peeling the door open. “Please, enter. You can have a seat at the table; just give me a minute to clear it. In the meantime, can I interest you in a cup of a coffee or tea?”
“Tea is fine, thank you,” he answered as he stepped inside, his piercing azure eyes scrutinizing the house in a calculating gaze. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the princess all but barreled into the kitchen, ridding the table of its contents as she began her work in preparing his drink.
He walked, albeit slowly, to his seat before stating, “What a lovely home.” Small, but lovely nonetheless, he thought, taking a seat at the table, but not without catching a glimpse of the pictures on the stand, particularly the picture of Chi-Chi and her husband’s wedding.
“Thank you,” Chi-Chi responded, her back to the man whose face was contorted into a half-smile, half-frown.
“If you don’t mind my asking Lady Chi-Chi, why is it that a woman such as yourself not living in a castle?”
Chi-Chi paused in her task for a brief second and replied, “As I’ve stated earlier, I’m no longer living the lifestyle of a princess. I am nothing more than a simple housewife.”
Eyes wide and in shock, Suita sputtered, “A housewife? But you’re a princess! Surely, Lady Chi-Chi, you’ve married a suitable husband. Princesses aren’t meant to be housewives.”
“I believe the correct term is “were”,” she countered, placing a cup of steaming tea in front of him, taking a seat from across him. “And Goku is a very suitable husband. I gladly took up the responsibility of caring for my family as a housewife and I did it without the consent of the Kingdom,” she continued angrily. “Now, Sir Suita, what is a man like yourself doing in a place like Mount Paozu?”
Suita resisted the urge to twist his lip. He supposed that he had that one coming; he was learning firsthand that the rumors of the Ox-Kingdom were true – the princess had a fiery temper. He half-wondered if what they said about her fighting skills were true as well.
Clearing his throat, Suita placed his suitcase on the table and opened it, briefly making eye contact with the woman across from him. “As you know, you are of royal blood Milady, and as such you are required to uphold certain … standards in regards to the laws of the Ox-Kingdom.”
Chi-Chi paused in drinking her tea, her grip tightening around the handle in an iron hold. “I beg your pardon? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Hear me out, Milady. I was just as shocked about the ordeal as you are. According to Law B19, a widowed princess is required to have married by her 25th birthday and as it would seem Madam, you haven’t been married for almost twenty years.”
“That can’t be true and unless you have proof to back up your claim, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave,” she retorted bitterly, her brows masked into a frown.
“Oh, but I do have proof,” Suita said a bit arrogantly. Chi-Chi watched with an observant eye and boiling blood as the blond pulled a handful of papers from his briefcase. Smugly, he placed them on the table, two pieces of paper standing away from the rest. “It is from my understanding that your late husband Guru passed a little over fifteen years, correct? And if I’m not mistaken, he also, however the gods allowed it, passed seven years ago as well.”
His sly comment did not go unnoticed and as a result, Chi-Chi slammed her drink on the table, startling the man. “His name is Goku, Son Goku, and you’d be wise to remember that. Now what does any of this have to do with my marriage?”
“Take a look at the two papers on the left and please read them carefully,” he said, sliding them within arm’s length of Chi-Chi.
She did as she was told and snatched them from the table, but not without regarding the man with another hard stare. It was her and Goku’s marriage license as well as his death certificate (both of them). A soft smile tugged on her lips as she glimpsed over the chicken scratch also known as Goku’s handwriting and her neat cursive written at the bottom right hand corner of the page.
So far, she had seen nothing out of the ordinary, but she didn’t say a word as she tucked away her marriage license in place of her husband’s death certificates and with an ever-observant eye, Chi-Chi read over them, her heart clenching.
She remembered these instances all-too-clearly. She hadn’t wanted to file for her husband’s death, but she didn’t have a choice. It was the law of the land and as such, she was required to uphold it. Of course, Chi-Chi had handed that privilege to her father, so she couldn’t help but wonder how in the world this man was able to get his hands on such vital information.
Clearing her throat, Chi-Chi put the papers in a neat stack on the table, one hand coddling the edges protectively. ”I did as you said and I’ve yet to understand the problem. But there is one thing I’d like to know; how did you get your hands on this?”
“I simply asked for a copy,” Suita replied, folding his hands on the table. “The council obliged once they learned the reason behind it; anyway, that it neither here nor there. Are you sure you’ve read your marriage license in its entirety, Lady Chi-Chi?”
“Yes,” Chi-Chi practically spat, her hands itching to snatch the man sitting across from her in a death hold. “I would rather you just tell me what’s so important about this rather than beating around the bush. My family is due back home in the next fifteen minutes, sir.”
Suita nodded his head in affirmation. “According to your marriage license, there is a certain phrase in it that renders your marriage with your husband null and void. You see Milady, the phrase “Till death do we part” is always, shall I say, bypassed, and because death is such a natural thing, no one ever expected this sort of thing to occur.”
“However, it would seem that your husband has been a victim of this particular scenario twice over and as a result, you two are no longer bound to one another. So, to put it as lightly as possible, you two are no longer married. You, Princess of the Ox-Kingdom, Lady Chi-Chi, are a widow, living under the roof out of wedlock with a man, whom I still can’t believe is alive, with two children, one of which is an illegitimate child.”
Chi-Chi stared at the man seated from across her, her pitch black eyes wide with disbelief and shock. She was left at a complete loss for words as she half-listened to Suita prattle on and on about how the situation was a “misfortune” and “a serious problem” and how he’s “sorry that he had to break the news to her”. There wasn’t much that she could say or do for that matter, because what he had said was, in fact, the complete and utter truth.
Goku had died more than fifteen years ago and he had come back within that same year with the help of the Dragon Balls. And more than a few years after his comeback, he had died again, only he hadn’t returned to Earth until seven years later. Chi-Chi had been so caught up in the riff-raff of her husband being in her arms again, of her husband being home with the children, and family, and friends that she had never given it that much thought, nor had she ever given it that much thought, nor had she ever cared to. She loved him and she didn’t give a damn about the law, and if it were left up to her, she would completely abandon any and all rules and regulations in regards to her marriage.
But the truth of the matter was, she couldn’t.
Because she was a princess … Princess of the Ox-Kingdom and as Suita had said, she had certain standards that she had to uphold. She was a widow; there was no getting around that. She had been living with an unmarried man, whom she thought she was married to, for the better part of her life without knowledge of it and Goten was, indeed, a child conceived out of wedlock. The thought made her stomach curl and she found herself unconsciously raising a hand to her mouth.
So caught up in her thoughts was she that she hadn’t felt the swelling of tears in her eyes. She had never been one to outwardly show weakness or express grief as that was the benefit of being married to the strongest man in the universe, but at that moment she didn’t care. She was hurting and there was nothing she could do about it; not her, not her father, and certainly not her husband or shall she say ex-husband.
“Which is why I’ve proposed a solution to this devastating predicament,” Suita finished, catching Chi-Chi’s attention. “I’m truly sorry for your loss Milady, but I’m very willing and able to ask for your hand in marriage as I’m sure that I would be better suited to take care of you and your sons they way a princess and her princes should be. I know that your ex-husband didn’t have a job, nor did she know anything outside of the savagery known as martial arts. Why, he didn’t even have an education. But, I’m here to let you know tha-“
“What the hell did you just say!” Chi-Chi interrupted, standing up from her seat in a flurry of anger, knocking her chair over and shaking the table.
“I said that I could take care of you and your sons Mil-“
Chi-Chi didn’t give him time to answer as she all but stormed over to the now shaking male, her face pulled into a vicious frown. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, lifted him from his seat at the table and tossed him to the floor in a bout of anger.
“First of all, how dare you come into my home and insult my husband! You have some nerve as to think that I would actually stoop so low as to marry someone like you, who probably wouldn’t know two shits about martial arts if it bit you in the ass! Goku may not have had a job or knew anything outside of martial arts, but I didn’t give a damn then and neither do I do now!” she screamed at him, stomping a foot on his hand as he tried to scurry from the floor; he cried out in pain.
“He tried and I won’t fault him for the things he did or does! You don’t know anything about me, my husband, or my children! And how dare you call Goten an “illegitimate” child! Why, I ought to kick your sorry ass for all it’s worth, which says a lot ‘cuz it ain’t worth much!” she continued, her forgotten country accent pouring into her fierce words. She snatched him by his collar again, her face dangerously close to his; he visibly quaked in fear. “Now, you have ‘til the count of two to get the hell out of my house or by Kami, I’ll make you regret ever showin’ your face ‘round here! Now get out!”
Suita didn’t need to be told twice as he dived for his belongings. Before he could reach for the marriage license and death certificates, Chi-Chi turned to look at him, her fists curled and shaking in raw anger. “Your two seconds are up,” she snarled, her onyx eyes flashing. Suita “eeped” and immediately ran for the door. He sent a fearful look Chi-Chi’s way and due to his careless mistake, he hit the closed door. He released a high-pitched scream as Chi-Chi grabbed him by the back of his collar, opened the door and tossed him out of her house with all of the strength of a fighter.
“I better not catch you around here ever again or things won’t be lookin’ too good for you!” she told him with a snarl and before she could get a word out, Chi-Chi roughly slammed the door shut.
She waited until she heard the blond move away from her home before she pressed her back against the door, her breath ragged from anger, frustration, and worst of all, hurt. It wasn’t until she was sitting on the floor, her eyes hooded, that she released a strangled sob.
How could this have happened?
Only the sound of soup boiling over in the background could be heard, Chi-Chi’s soft cries drowning out the silence.
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Story notes: The story is based on a paragraph titled "Marriage" in a story called "Reflections of a Time Well Spent" by Throughrye. This can be found on fanfiction.net.
I don't own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, or Dragon Ball GT.
Chapter end notes: Eventually, I'll get around to posting the rest of it. It's a little annoying that I have to go back and put the italics where the italics should be and the bold where the bold should be. Ugh! Regardless, I hope you enjoyed