A perfectly natural and not at all awkward camping trip

[meatery]

[Being suddenly alive again after a handful of decades in Hell has it's ups and downs. Upsides! Being alive! Having her physical body! Seeing her youngest son and grandsons. Downsides! Everything is confusing and everything she ever knew or loved is gone. At least she'd been heartily welcomed into the Son family, for the most part, once she'd made her distaste for killing innocent aliens (however strange and confusing they were) clear.

And so it was time to get to know her youngest son! Who was... practically a stranger. Who really liked hanging out in the wilderness for some reason. Gi-ne does not understand camping or why it counts as a bonding experience, but everyone had agreed with Kakarot when he suggested it so she could hardly argue. What Kakarot wanted, Kakarot would get.

At least she was well accustomed to making campfires, from her purging days. Not sure what the point of camping was, Gi-ne focused on building a pile of sticks, figuring she could at least do a good, old-fashioned camp meal for her son while they were out on their own.]

Comments

[meatery]

I'll cook however many you catch so go wild! [Gi-ne flies out of the water completely, following Goku upstream from a few feet above him and scanning the water. Eventually she picks whatever seems like a good spot to hover crosslegged in mid-air and dangle her tail in the water like a fishing line. It'll be more fun to watch Goku chase the fish down and just wait for the others to come to her than swim around herself.]

[garbagedisposal]

[It's too bad he doesn't have his tail so he could join her! But he'll make lemonade out of lemons, and luckily enough he finds a whole school of ginormous fish. Giggling to himself, he takes off, his sights aimed on the biggest one of the bunch.

What Gi-ne might see is her son wrestling with a huge fish, the water from the surface splashing upwards in the air as Goku fights with it, trying to haul it out. It's certainly giving him a good fight, but Goku won't give up! Plus he's scared the rest of the fish toward his mom.]

[meatery]

[See this is why your tail is important!! Gi-ne watches Goku with amusement, occasionally twitching the end of her tail to make it look more appetizing. The school of fish fleeing Goku fly by underneath her but one is stupid enough to be distracted by the tasty looking treat. When it stops near the surface, Gi-ne quickly spins upside down to wrap her arms around it and try to carry it up into the air. Slippery and squirmy, it's difficult to hold onto so Gi-ne carefully throws it at the shore to join her first catch just as it's starting to slip free.]

Two down! [Gonna just float on over to hover above Goku again.] ... Need any help, son?

[garbagedisposal]

[Water is flying everywhere as Goku fights his fish, his head bobbing up and down out of the water.]

No- [gurgle-] pe! I got th- [splash gurgle-] is all under contr- [gurgle]

[Until finally, he takes it by the tail, swinging it out of the water, landing with a heavy thud on the shore. It was a big one too, no wonder he had such a hard time with it.]

There! Man, that one was a fighter, I'll give it that! Whew!

[meatery]

[Gi-ne quickly ducks to avoid being hit with a giant fish.] So you can take on Frieza no problem but a fish gives you trouble?

[garbagedisposal]

Hey, I wanted to give the little guy a fair chance! [He floats up next to his mom, wiping his brow from water dripping into his eyes.]

Think that'll be enough fish for the two of us?

[meatery]

We can always get more if it's not. [Flies over to pick one of the fish up, since they've... stopped squirming.] Come on, I'll teach you how to cook them.

[garbagedisposal]

Sure! [He picks up his own catch, and Gi-ne's other fish too so his mom doesn't have to carry all that, even though he knows she's more than capable. He starts to walk with her back to camp, simling.]

I bet yours will be a lot better than what I could do, I'm not too picky after all.

[meatery]

Oh, I guess you already... know how to feed yourself, huh? [Right. Adult. Camping expert. She'll follow along behind him.]

[garbagedisposal]

Well, sure I do! But I won't say I'm a great cook. Chi-Chi's the cook in the family. I mean, I had to eat somehow. She wasn't always around to feed me.

[meatery]

Bardock said he picked this planet because it had a lot of food... Otherwise I'd have been a lot more worried. [Since even if he couldn't cook, a saiyan can survive off raw food well enough.] ... You never went hungry, right?

[garbagedisposal]

Naw, dad was right when he said this place had a lot of food. I've been here for a while and we still haven't run out yet, not even close. [He hops over a fallen tree trunk as he continues to talk.] I learned to hunt and catch my own food, though I'd be lying if I said that I wouldn't prefer a good homecooked meal.

[meatery]

[Because one saiyan depleting all of a planet's food resources is a serious concern] Well, you'll find that mine are the best, even with just a campfire. [Preen preen] ... Though I'm sure Chi-Chi's cooking is fine.

[garbagedisposal]

[He only smiles back at that, because he's not about to judge either of their cooking skills- he's sure they both cook great.]

Well, I can't wait to try yours. I even snagged a bunch of Chi-Chi's spices so you could use them! But don't tell her, I...sort of forgot to ask her if that was okay!

[meatery]

Why would she mind? [Because she still has to cook, Gi-ne...] I still don't really know what sort of spices earthlings use but I'm sure I can figure them out. [And if not it doesn't matter because let's be real they'd eat tree branches if they were hungry enough.]

[garbagedisposal]

Ah- you'll see. [He knows Gi-ne will witness a Chi-Chi freak out one day. It's inevitable.]

[Coming upon the camp, Goku deposits both fish near where his mother had been working on the beginnings of a campfire. Folding his arms, he surveys their catches, satisfied with it.] Well, I'd say we're ready to go! I'm guessing I should stand back and let the expert handle things, huh?

[meatery]

[But Chi-Chi has been so nice to her mother-in-law! ... To her face. As far as Gi-ne has noticed.]

Why don't you get the fire going? I need to cut them up properly first. [Where did Gi-ne get a knife whatever, she's sat with the fish with one now.] We can talk while I work, if you want.

[garbagedisposal]

Alright. [And he does just that, hauling one of the large pieces of wood and chopping the whole thing up into firewood with his hands, so they can have a big fire.]

You know, it's really nice being able to get out here and relax a bit- I haven't done this in a long time.

[meatery]

Been focused on your training? [Filleting the fish on the ground- she might need to go dive back in the river when she's done or she's going to stink of fish.] ... I don't really get doing this sort of thing for fun, but if you like it that's the important thing. It is peaceful.

[garbagedisposal]

[Setting some of the wood in place, he starts trying to make a fire, the old fashioned way.]

I dunno, it sorta reminds me of when I was a kid and I lived out in the mountains by myself. I always enjoyed it, and I guess this is sort of like that.

[meatery]

[Watches him with amusement. What are you doing, son?]

... It wasn't lonely?

[garbagedisposal]

[He finally gets the fire going, waving some air into it to make the wood burn faster.]

Well, not at first. I was living with Grandpa Gohan for a while, until he passed. You'd be surprised how many animals you can talk to around here. They might not always answer, but they're pretty friendly. [Some of them.]

[meatery]

Well, I suppose it's not any weirder than being friends with aliens... [Gi-ne, no.] So long as you had fun.

[garbagedisposal]

I sure did! [He had a blast as a kid, there's no doubt about that.]

[His next words are more a statement, no offense taken at all. If anything, it's thoughtful as he looks back on his childhood and present time for a moment.] But hey, I wouldn't trade my friends for anything in the world- we've had a lot of good times together. I mean, I know the Saiyans are a warrior race and all, but you guys had friends too, didn't you?

[He can hope?]

[meatery]

Of course we did! [Vegeta is not a typical example of saiyans, Goku, don't worry, he just veered off course in the opposite direction that you did.]

That "lone warrior" crap gets boring fast, people talk big but they don't really act like that. Even when it came to fighting we worked in teams all the time. Just... Not usually with non-saiyans. I'm not sure why, probably because they weren't strong enough to keep up.