Author Notes: I'm sure there's plenty of ways to turn this prompt dirty. Meanwhile, I'm thinking fluffy and cute. Go figure, lol.

Time Period: Pre-Z

Words: 534

Rating: K / G

13. excessive chain

"Now, I have all of these cut out but we don't need to chain them all together, all right?"

"Hm."

"Goku, are you listening?"

"Hm?"

"Honestly, do you ever listen to everything I say before you get to work?"

Goku blinked, turning his eyes away from the paper chain he was making to face his wife. She had her own paper chain in her lap. His was much longer, though. She really did have quite a lot of paper cut here. He was curious how long he could make it…

"Gohan likes these, right?"

Chi-Chi nodded, smiling at the mention of their son. "It's a perfect little decoration for kids his age. No balloons popping in his face this way."

"Hm, right..."

He didn't really understand what was wrong with balloons, though maybe she was worried cause Gohan liked to cry a lot. And a sudden noise of something popping would probably frighten the poor kid. Birthdays for little kids sure was a whole new experience. He didn't even know when his own birthday was. Chi-Chi had just picked one out on a whim and stuck with it ever since they were married. But Gohan definitely had his own birthday and they definitely knew when that was, even if Gohan himself couldn't comprehend the importance of the date yet.

For Goku's birthday, Chi-Chi had done stuff that only husbands and wives did. They couldn't exactly do that for Gohan, so Goku had been curious what kind of stuff you did for kids and he'd wanted to help out with whatever she was planning for their son.

And somehow he'd ended up with his legs crossed on the floor, making an endless chain with construction paper of different colors. He wasn't really focused on a pattern. Just getting as many connected as possible.

After a while, Chi-Chi stood up, leaving her chain on the floor. She was cooking something while Gohan was asleep. Thankfully, the boy had gone down for a nap easily today so they could have all this time to prepare the birthday surprise.

When she came back some time later, Goku was still working on the same chain. It was getting pretty long. He wondered what was too long…

"Goku!" Chi-Chi exclaimed. Ah, so this is too long. "I told you not to be excessive with it!"

With a light shine in his eyes, Goku glanced up and grinned at her. "Shh, Chi-Chi, you'll wake the baby."

Her face flushed but she didn't stop her tirade, even if she lowered her voice. She even got down on her knees and practically pulled herself into his lap so she could whisper harshly in his face. "That's way too long. I told you to make a bunch of small ones, not – what are you doing?"

He laughed, throwing the paper chain around her neck so it hung down between them, wrapping through their arms. "Just playing around. It's almost like a scarf when you do it like this, huh?"

Chi-Chi sighed but then her eyes lightened up and she smiled at him. "You're impossible."

"I know," he said as he kissed her, loving the shine they shared between their gazes. "But you love it."