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Every year, it’s always the same. No morning kisses. No secret presents hidden for her to find. No special dinner to celebrate. Not even a single “happy anniversary, hun!”
That’s what Chi-chi gets for marrying a fighter. Must’ve broken all his romantic bones that way - if he had one to begin with.
Chi-chi had enough disappointing anniversaries. This time, she’s putting her foot down. Literally. She marches up to where Goku and Goten have been gobbling up their ginormous breakfast and stomps her foot down to get their attention, hard enough to jostle the table. Goten quickly grabs his plate before it topples over. Goku accidentally bites his tongue.
“Ow!” Goku whines, “Chi-chi, what was that for?”
“Goku,” Chi-chi says with a deep breath, “Do you have anything planned for today.” The confusion in Goku’s face grows and Chi-chi’s eye twitches. “Anything special?”
”Uh… no?”
”Wrong answer!” She slams her hands on the table. Goten picks his plate up again and proceeds to hold it for the rest of the conversation instead. “You are taking me out on a date tonight, mister or else! No more training for you and I mean it!”
Goku splutters, horrified, “Wh— you can’t be serious, Chi-chi!”
”Of course, I’m serious! You know how many anniversaries went to waste because you were either dead or training?! Not this time! Not our 25th! So, you better plan something out for tonight or else I’m chaining you to the tractor and kiss your training goodbye!”
“I-I have something planned out, I swear! I, uh, just lost track of time, that’s all!”
“Oh, really!?”
“Yeah! I mean, wasn’t our anniversary last year?”
Goten scoots his chair backwards. Chi-chi rages.
“H-happy anniversary, hun!” Goku says to salvage himself from the wrath, but it’s too late.
“NO DRAGON BALL CAN SAVE YOU NOW, GOKU!”
“You want me to what?!” Bulma asks, still mentally recovering from both Goku’s sudden appearance and his insane request.
”Sorry, Bulma! But you’re the only one I know who could pull it off! I mean, you can do anything, right?!”
”What makes you think I can book you guys a table at the busiest restaurant in West City in a blink of an eye?! You have better luck asking Shenron for that. Now, leave me alone, Goku, and stop loaning me your marital problems.” Bulma says as she swivels her chair to face back her desk, but Goku swivels her back, “Wh— hey!”
”Please, I really need this!” He begs, leaning close enough for Bulma to see the desperation in his eyes, “I’m out of chances and Chi-chi’s gonna kill me if I don’t do this for her.”
“Well, that’s what we have the dragon balls for, right?” Bulma says with an eye roll but wavers when she sees Goku still staring at her. “Ugh, alright, fine. I’ll try to pull some strings but it doesn't guarantee a table. You may have to be there early for it to work.”
Instantly, Goku springs up, “You’re the best, Bulma! I knew I could count on you!”
“Yeah, yeah, but don’t think that puts you off the hook, y’know. You still have to– hey!” Bulma catches Goku’s wrist before it could reach his forehead for an instant transmission. “Your job’s not over yet! Don’t you have anything else planned?”
“What?”
”You know, gifts?”
“Uh… isn't dinner the gift already?” Goku asks, puzzled.
”Wh— that’s it?”
”Well, that’s more than what I did last year!” Goku chuckles then yelps when Bulma throws a wrench at his face.
“What is wrong with you?! You’re going to celebrate twenty-five years of your marriage with just dinner?! Something that I had to help you with, by the way!”
”Wh— what’s wrong with that?! Eating’s a great way to celebrate!”
”You mean for you, Saiyans!” She throws another trinket and Goku doesn’t bother dodging it, knowing Bulma’s half venting on her end. He still flinches at contact with a quiet ‘ow’, “Like you said, you have a lot to make up for, so you need something to show you care. Romance your wife, for Kami’s sake!”
”Okay, okay, I’ll, uh, think of something.”
Goku booked a table at the most romantic and busiest restaurant all the way in West City. It’s a dream come true… if they could even get in.
It’s not until they arrived there did Goku mention the booking situation.
“I was going to tell you about it, but you were busy getting ready!”
“I would’ve gotten ready faster if you told me we’re supposed to be here early?! Now what are we supposed to do?! Wait for hours just to eat dinner?”
Goku only snickers, “Well, if that’s the case, I have a… a thing I gotta take care of real quick.” Goku turns to leave but yelps when he gets yanked by his tie.
“Oh no, you don’t! You don’t get to run off just because you messed up the reservation! What if they call us and see me all by myself?! They’ll move on to the next person and we’ll have to wait for another hour!”
“Oh, c’mon, Chi-chi! I won’t be gone for that long! I’ll, just, uh…”
“Just what?!”
“Just…” Goku only grins “Check on the farm and see how the crops are doing! Hehe…”
Chi-chi squints. Then she perks up.
“Oh, if that’s the case, can you check if Goten’s done his homework? Including the extracurriculars!”
“You got it!” and with that, Goku instant transmissions away.
“A table for two for Son Goku?” The hosts calls out. Chi-chi nearly misses it and waves her hand widely.
“Here! Son Goku!”
The hosts barely spares them a glance, “Sorry, ma’am, it’s a table for two.” Then moves on to the next name before Chi-chi could utter an explanation.
Chi-chi lost count of how many times their names have been called before she lost it. It’s the host’s fault, really, eventually not bothering to call their names anymore. It ticked Chi-chi off and marched over and demanded to be let in. It’s been an hour! She’s wearing heels! It’s her anniversary! It’s her 25th anniversary! It’s the first time her husband has done something romantic for once! It’s not her fault he suddenly upped and vanished and probably went off to train again with the magical deity cat god! Her ramblings started becoming incoherent once the tears started falling.
A security guard tried to calmly pull her away. She suplexes him to the ground without a thought. She huffs and puffs and sees the host’s scrambling to cross their names off the list and realizes it’s too late for an apology.
So, Chi-chi walks away.
Some anniversary.
In truth, she’s been uneasy the whole day ever since she confronted Goku this morning. She built up this day in her mind whilst also preparing for the inevitable disappointment she knew was coming. She knew Goku planned everything at the last minute, so fine. Things will go array. She knew it would, though that doesn’t mean it hurts any less. She just wished at least her husband was there for it, not only to bear the brunt of her frustration, but just be there in general.
Chi-chi’s trying her best not to crumble apart, even though she feels like she’s only held together by tape. Her eyes are glued to the ground when she suddenly bumps into someone. She recognizes the dress shoes in her field of vision and sighs.
“Woah, Chi-chi, are you alright?” Goku asks earnestly, but it’s not enough. Even when he tilts her face to make her face him. His face is always so honest, she could see how worried he really is. A little too late for that.
She shoves him away, “Am I alright? Am I alright?! I don’t know, Goku! I just spent the night watching everyone get seated while I was waiting for you to come back from… from I don’t know what?! Where did you even go?!”
“I was–.”
“You know what, I don’t care! Because it’s my fault anyway! It’s my fault for thinking this might be different! Well, it is different! Instead of getting no anniversaries, I got a horrible one! What did I expect?! You’re just not romantic, Goku! I don’t know why I expect these things from you when you– you’re not the kind of husband who would give his wife flowers and kiss her to make it all better!”
Chi-chi’s vision almost blurs from her tears, but she’s able to see the bouquet of roses Goku has on his side.
“Oh…” is all she could say.
Turns out, Goku is the kind of husband to give his wife flowers. He leans to kiss her on the lips.
Chi-chi bawls.
Goku was in the middle of plucking flowers from the farm before it suddenly hit him that maybe it’s better to make a bouquet out of her favourite roses instead! She liked those rare and exotic ones that were hard to find. It took Goku longer than expected to find and gather them all, but it was worth it. He can’t wait to see the look on Chi-chi’s face when he comes back.
Not what he expected. Well, he expected yelling for being gone for so long, but this yelling was different.Goku could tell the fire behind it was different. Feels more hurt than angry. It looks like she’s about to crumble apart any second until she finally sees the bouquet in his hand.
Then Goku kisses her lips because that’s what Chi-chi wanted, right? Then, Chi-chi starts crying for real and Goku panics.
“Woah, s-sorry, Chi-chi! I thought– I just wanted to cheer you up.” He tries to explain.
“You're not supposed to just kiss your wife while she scolds you!” She sobs.
“I’m not?”
“Of course, not! You can’t expect that to be your ticket out of this!” Then she adds meekly, her cheeks reddening, “And that wasn’t the kind of kiss I was talking about.”
“Oh… so, what kind did you want?”
She groans, “I don’t know, Goku! I don’t want to have to tell you how to do everything! Just like how I told you to take me out tonight or how I told you to put on a suit! Sometimes, I just want to be surprised! And the good kind of surprise, okay!? Don’t just take that to mean you can do whatever you want! I meant romantically!”
“Oh…”
“And like I said, don’t think you’re off the hook just yet when you–.”
Goku leans in for another deeper and longer kiss. He pulls away to see her stunned silent.
“... Goku! Did you hear what I just said?! You can’t just kiss your way out of an argument!”
“But you were surprised, right?” He says with a grin.
Her cheeks redden, “Y-yes, but–.”
He kisses her again.
“Goku…” Chi-chi warns with gritted teeth.
He kisses her again. Chi-chi kisses back, grabbing onto his lapels to deepen it even further. Goku cups her face, wiping her tears away with his thumbs.
“I’m still angry at you.” Chi-chi says between the kisses. “You still ruined my 25th anniversary.”
“I’m sorry. Do you like your flowers, at least?”
“I love them,” she still huffs. “But it’s going to take more than flowers and kisses to fix this, Goku. I mean it.”
“Oh,” Goku nods in understanding. He hesitates, but it pays to be honest, “...fighting always makes me happy.” He says with a sheepish grin.
He expected a verbal punch. He got a literal one instead. His grin grows wider.
It felt damn good to punch her husband. For multiple reasons actually. The obvious one aside, Chi-chi would be lying if she said she doesn’t miss fighting. The adrenaline and the thrill of it all as she and Goku started exchanging hits back and forth. All held back, of course, especially Goku’s. Doesn’t make it any less exciting.
She manages to gain some distance and takes her fighting stance. Her skirt tears open from it, but it doesn’t matter to Chi-chi at the moment. She smirks as she eggs Goku on with a come-hither motion from her hand. Goku perks up with that grin she loves so much and approaches her.
It’s hard to feel young these days, especially as a grandmother stressed out of her mind everyday, but right here right now, Chi-chi felt like her younger self again on her first date with the cute boy she fell in love with at first sight.
She sweeps Goku’s legs and kicks him to the ground, but Goku grabs her in retaliation and they both land on the ground together with Chi-chi on top of Goku. They laugh it off.
“I’m never going to get a fair fight out of you, am I, Goku? Just like at the World Tournament.”
“Sorry, Chi-chi, but if I punched you for real, I wouldn’t have a wife anymore.”
She shakes her head affectionately, “No, you wouldn’t.”
“... I’m sorry.” He says eventually. “You’re right, I’m really not a romantic guy and I know I could do better with the anniversaries and stuff. It’s just… fighting’s what I love the most.”
“I know,” Chi-chi says, dusting some dirt away from his cheek before cupping it. “It’s what I love about you, too. And I can’t say I don’t love it as well.”
“Oh… well, you could always train with me, if you’d like. That can be our dates! And I think you could even catch up to us in no time, too!”
Normally, such an idea would leave Chi-chi appalled, but she knows where he’s coming from, so she just sighs and shakes her head, “That’s sweet, but that’s not my life anymore, Goku. At least, I don’t love it as much as you do.” She tried to hide the resignation in her voice but failed. Goku’s eyebrows knit together like he caught on.
“But I love you more.”
“Goku–.”
“And I’ll do whatever it takes to help you know that.” Goku insists so quickly, it takes Chi-chi aback, “I’ll cut back on my training. I’ll take you to restaurants and put on a fancy outfit for you and make as many bouquets as you want.”
Chi-chi only blinks, her heart fluttering.
“I mean it. I’ll do what it takes. Being the strongest in the universe doesn’t beat making you smile, y'know.”
It takes a while for the words to sink in, but when it does, Chi-chi does smiles. Widely. Those senzu beans must’ve regrew his romantic bone, twice over.
“See what I mean?” Goku says, leaning in to kiss her again.
Turns out her husband is the kind to give her flowers and kiss her to make it all better.