"Trunks could you get me that brown cable extension?" Once her words had been said Bulma Briefs resumed humming a happy tune, trying to rewire something she had designed a few weeks prior. When she got no answer she called out again, "Trunks? Are you even listening to me?" Of course she was irritated that he was ignoring her, she thought she'd raised her son up right, maybe a trip to the past engorged his ego to that of his father's.

She grunted; brushing her bangs aside with a greasy hand and rolling out from under the bulky machine. "Where is that boy? He said he was going to help me today." She went out from the artificial light from her laboratory and head inside to where her son usually kept himself.

Trunks had the cord in hand and was headed to go to the lab, but stopped when he felt that ki that was all too familiar. He looked over on the horizon, the boy of nineteen felt a surge of indistinguishable energy of someone he knew his whole life.

The young man with lavender hair dropped the cord with an audible clang, and upon hearing the dissonance on the porch Bulma changed directions to see what had made said obnoxious noise.

She kept his ring, she didn't wear it, but she kept it hidden away in her jewelry box in her second to bottom drawer. She knew that he was gone, but still loved him, her Gohan, with all her heart. She didn't know if she or Trunks had cried harder that day, she lost her fiancée and Trunks his only friend.

She'd had dreams that he came back, used his novice yet so sweet words to woo her and comfort her. But every time her eyes open they stung from salty tears, a quiet pain she knew she'd never be able to get over. Who was Trunks hugging? Was it some, not it was too tall and muscular to be a girlfriend of his.

Was he crying? Was she crying? Why was that? This man, whoever he was, was someone she thought she'd never be able to see again.

Her steps had slowed significantly, her flats made not sound that she could hear, but the tall man turned his head, smiled, and beckoned her to come over and join the both of them in the embrace. With that she shook her head in denial; she'd be waking up soon, so why not hug him?

"Oh Gohan, why did you have to leave us?" Bulma's saddened tone didn't help anyone, they were all crying in disbelief and being so incredibly happy nothing else would have been appropriate to show how they truly felt about his arrival.

"I'm sorry, I never meant for any of that to happen," his voice sent shivers down Trunks' and his mother's spine, it had been years since they heard that soothing tone. Bulma thought that this was merely an apparition, still just the desire of her subconscious wanting her to know how much she loved him.

Trunks knew this wasn't, he knew what to look for in nightmares after all those years of being tormented by the Androids. This was real, Gohan was there holding them back, hugging them, and crying just as hard as they were.

"G-Gohan where've you been?" He made out between his heavy pants, his nose getting clogged up but he could've really cared less. His heart was pounding in his chest, he could've easily mistaken this encounter for a dream; it was indeed too good to be true.

"I've been on New Namek," he began but stopped himself, "hey, it's rather cold out, let's get inside and talk about it over some hot chocolate and in blankets." He could've hugged them until he died again, he'd watched them from the other end of the galaxy, but was unable to confront them that he was living, other than in their dreams.

"I don't think I can walk," Bulma's still beating heart felt like it would burst from the sheer joy it was experiencing, Trunks was able to get out of the warm embrace but saw that his mother and Gohan were still holding on tightly to each other.

He had goosebumps, it was that cold in the Capsule Corporation today. Which meant winter was coming, and this was the best thing that could ever happen to him.

"Then let me carry you," Gohan's voice was incredibly quite, Trunks with his Saiyan hearing was barely able to decipher it. She simply nodded, unable to come to grips with the reality of his scent, he smelled different, but she still could tell it was him.

She felt like she was twenty years old again, being swept off her feet like in the romance novels she read as a young girl. She gripped the front of his orange gi, afraid that if she would ever let go he'd vanish and she'd wake up, cold and alone in her bed.

She was still crying, Gohan and Trunks were sniffling to clear their nasal passageways but it wasn't going well. Bulma didn't remember the last time she smiled so wide, her face was beginning to heat up, if she got sick then so be it, at least that's what she told herself.

Trunks got the signal that Gohan sent, and he set her next to his mother on the raggedy sofa that he and Trunks salvaged and repaired. It tore a happy smile on Gohan's face to see that they'd kept it. Gohan walked into the kitchen, having minor difficultly with locating things such as the pot, since everything wasn't broken and things were put away in the proper place now.

It took mere seconds to get things ready, and Gohan managed to find marshmallows and graham crackers. He brought them out, Bulma and Trunks both had a red circle on their arms, "what happened there?" He pointed with his foot since his arms were occupied.

"Oh-uh, nothing!" Trunks replied a little too quick.

Gohan simply chuckled as he set the cups down and handed them each one, saving one for himself of course, "guys, this isn't a dream, I'm alive and I'm here."

Bulma nodded, she knew that now, he was back. But something still didn't add up, "but how? The dragon balls were destroyed when Piccolo died eighteen years ago."

She was so smart, so beautiful too, "I was getting to that, I guess you all want me to skip to the nitty-gritty?" they nodded in approval, "after I… died," the room tensed with the word, they still had some issues with him being dead, "I was brought back to life on New Namek." He took a sip of his hot drink, Trunks and Bulma were on the edge of their seats, listening intently for every detail, watching like it was a scary movie and the tension was building.

"And I trained there for three years, trying to become stronger than the androids and Cell." He glanced at Trunks, "and since you came back stronger than ever I came back too. Great job, you overcame me by doing what I alone could not."

Trunks' heart skipped a beat; it felt like his father had thrown himself in front of Cell out of rage that his son had been injured. He felt so proud of himself, not at all disappointed in Gohan; however Bulma felt very different about this.

"And you didn't think to contact in any way?!" Bulma fumed, she set her cup down on the table before her, and closed her eyes venting her anger inside of her head. Suddenly the room got incredibly dark and somewhat colder.

Gohan resisted the urge to say; 'I missed you too.'

She probably would've kicked him out, or made him sleep in his own room again. Well he figured it would take a while for her to readjust, he saw that she wasn't wearing the ring anymore. It made sense, he was dead of course she moved on, and would hold resentment toward him for leaving and getting himself killed. "It wasn't that, if I could then I would've. But I had to train, I couldn't let interference stop me from getting stronger. I came to you in your dreams though," he muttered the last bit under his breath, shifting and holding his cup tightly with both of his calloused palms absorbing what heat they could.

"I'm sorry Bulma, I thought that-"

"Thought that what? You could leave me and Trunks all alone?!" She snapped, cutting him off, before she could call him anything she knew she'd regret in the morning she stomped off to her room, leaving Trunks and Gohan in an awkward silence.

Bulma's son measured Gohan's energy level, it hadn't improved since he died those few years ago, Trunks gave him a look of uncertainty. He was about to ask something when Gohan questioned; "So you've got a lot stronger huh? You think we should duke it out to see if you can teach e a thing or two?" Gohan grinned, it was good to be back, and he had a really deep tan, since New Namek had three sons. Well it was in the same place as it had been destroyed.

"Oh, are you sure you don't want to get settled first?" They'd moved everything of his into storage where they hid themselves in the basement of Capsule Corp. It wouldn't be hard or time consuming to move it back, but Trunks didn't want to fight, he didn't want Gohan to find out how much stronger his apprentice than himself.

"No, I think we should leave the house until later, I could use a good stretch of my legs." Trunks just now noticed that Gohan had both of his arms back, not the way he remembered at all.

"Gohan, what were the wishes exactly?" Trunks asked taking his mother's cup and pouring it into his then drinking, expecting Gohan to answer, which he did.

"Let's see, the first one was for my body to be brought to Namek, brought back to life, then my body back to its form before my arm was lost. They didn't want me to have the disadvantage of only one arm." Gohan juggled a few of the mallows, and then proceeded to levitate them into his mouth one by one, chewing and grinning with every chew.

The only son of Goku smiled, resting his eyes and drinking the last of his drink, same with Trunks. Now Trunks wanted to fight Gohan, he'd seen the way he was with only one arm against the Androids. Now he had both arms back, and had supposedly been training all the years after his passing. Trunks still had the Time Chamber, training in there, so he suspected they would be on equal levels of strength.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer of a fight, whenever you're ready." Trunks finished his graham cracker, stuffing a marshmallow in his mouth and giving the elder half-saiyan the 'sea-food' face. Gohan laughed, carefree, nearly choking on his own cracker.

Trunks laughed as well, their joyous sound going as high as Bulma's room at the top of the yellow dome. She lay on her bed, not at all angry at Gohan; she knew he would've talked to her if he could. He wasn't really one to hurt someone unless he could help it; he proved that with Trunks when he fought the Androids alone.