Realization

Chapter 1

He woke up feeling the same as every other day. Always hungry, always ready, always feeling fine. There wasn't much of a difference in every day he woke. It almost always ended up the same. He woke up, took a shower, brushed his teeth, said good morning to his family, ate, farmed for a while to make his wife happy, then trained. Sometimes, maybe there would be threat to Earth and would have to fight for the world, maybe even sacrificing himself in the midst of it, but that was pretty rare. Or maybe his friend of a long time would throw a party. That happened pretty frequently, but lately it was slowed down due to a complaint by a new neighbor. But of course, Bulma, the genius friend, payed it off. She was quite rich. One might say the richest person in the world, or some might say that she was close to being the richest in the world, but not quite there yet. Goku didn't care much about this, he just wanted to focus on his training and having fun. Goku carried on with his usual day. He took a shower, brushed his teeth, ate, farmed, and trained.

"Goku! Bulma's having a party! She wants to know if you want to come!" His wife, Chichi, yelled. "Tell her I'll be on my way!" Goku yelled back. "No, come here!  It's a formal party! You need to get changed!" Goku cringed and trudged his feet on his way back in. He never liked the way dressing formally made him feel. It made him feel uncomfortable, as if that wasn't what he was supposed to be wearing, although everyone told him that that's what men should be wearing. Apparently to them, clothing had gender. Goku disagreed, but didn't want to anger anyone, so he never said anything about how he felt. If he was honest with himself, he didn't admit how he felt about much. One thing that still confused Goku to this day, though, was the way that he was referred to. He was fine with his name, but something about the way they would refer to him as a male made him feel wrong. He didn't like that much. He never felt as if he was a guy, but didn't feel like a girl either. Every time he felt like that he would force himself to realize that he was a man and that nothing could change that. He had to wear what he had to wear. However, deep down, it made him sad that he couldn't express himself the way he wanted to. He got dressed and looked in the mirror.

He hated it. He hated the way he looked, he hated the way he felt, he hated how tight it was, he hated every little bit of how he felt right now.

"Chichi~, do I have to wear this?! Please tell me I don't, please, please, please!" he begged.

"Yes, Goku, you have to wear it! I'm not letting you go to that formal party dressed in a Gi. Besides, why do you hate it so bad?! It looks great on you!"

"No, it looks horrible! I hate it! It's itchy and tight and UGLY! It makes me feel weird, it doesn't feel right! I feel wrong even looking at it." He knew what was about to come next as soon as those words left his lips.

"Goku if I find out that you are in the- what is it called?- LGBTQ? Yeah, that's right. If I find out you are into that LGBTQ bullshit I swear to KAMI, I will kick your ass to the moon. Plus, I payed hundreds of dollars on that suit and you're going to act like this? Just get out, you better be home by the time it's over, because we are going to have a chat."

He got out of that house as quickly as possible and immediately went on his way to Capsule Corp.. He honestly didn't even know what the LGBTQ was. He'd have to find out by Bulma later. It sounds like Chichi really didn't like it, but for some reason everyone had different ideas then him here.

He made it to Bulma's house sooner than he thought he would. The party was in the middle being set up. He touched down on the grass in the back part of the building. Obviously, someone saw him and headed on their way to see him. He didn't want to be seen in this. He felt crawling in a whole and curling up into a ball just to get away from people. He sucked up and watched as a blue haired woman ran up to him.

"Heya' Bulma, how's it goin'?" He said.

"Wow~, someone's all dressed up!" She giggled.

"Ew, no. Don't even mention it. I hate it." That's when he noticed that Bulma was wearing her normal clothes. "Wait a minute, why aren't you dressed up?" He looked around to the other side of the building as Bulma started laughing. "WHY IS NO ONE ELSE DRESSED UP NICE?!" He started to panic. "CHICHI TOLD ME TO DRESS FORMAL!!" Bulma was laughing so hard her face was as red as a tomato. "What's so funny?! Why was I told to dress like this?!"

She giggled. "Goku, I think she said that just to make you wear it because you always complain about it- AAAH!" She screeched as Goku was right in front of her in Super Saiyan Blue.

"You are going to find me some new clothes, right?" He said, annoyed to the point of sounding irate.

"U-Um, yes, I'll go get you one of your leftover Gi's, follow me." Bulma replied in a puddle of sweat. Goku did a little "Hmph!" but followed closely behind her.

Goku sat on the bed while he waited for Bulma to find his Gi. Then he remembered his question, and decided to talk about it with Bulma. He was scared she would react the same way, but he decided to do it anyway. "Hey Bulma, I have a question. What is the LGBTQ?"

"The LGBTQ is a group of people who have different gender identities and different sexualities then we do. The "L" stands for "Lesbian" which is a woman of a woman-aligned person who likes women or woman-aligned people. The "G" stands for gay, usually used to talk about men or male-aligned people who like men or male-aligned people, but is also an umbrella term for any of the sexualities. The "B" stands for "Bisexual" which is someone who likes two or more genders. The "T" stands for "Transgender" which is someone who identifies differently then the gender they were assigned as at birth. And the "Q" stands for queer. Most people in the LGBTQ see "Queer" as a slur, because it is. It has been used against them for a long time. Some people, though, reclaimed the word and made it something you can identify as if your sexuality isn't quite clear. It's actually a longer acronym but people still use the shorter versions. Why did this come up?"

That was different. He didn't know people could change their genders, and he thought that everyone just loved who they loved. He thought they sounded like a lovely group of people. "I was complaining about how this suit made me feel and Chichi said that if she ever found out I was into it she would kick my butt into the moon. I didn't know what it was." He replied.

"Oh Goku, that isn't good, that means she is homophobic. I don't think you should continue to be with her, that's toxic. Especially for your children." Bulma replied.

"O-... Oh. I don't know what that is but if it's harmful to Gohan and Goten I don't want that either. To be honest when you told me that, I thought they sounded like a great group of regular people."

"That's because a lot of them are! They really should be considered part of the norm' because we all have a sexuality, but unfortunately people are cruel and forced them to this point. I've met so many lovely people who are in the LGBTQ who were absolutely amazing people! It's sad to see so many people be so cruel towards them."

Goku started sweating a bit. The anxiety that maybe he was part of that group and that people would be hateful about it started to creep in. He always did like guys, and he always did feel different when it came to gender. "Um... that kinda sounds... just- just a little bit like me..." he said.

Bulma smiled. She felt happy to know that he was comfortable telling her that, especially after the experience he had just earlier with Chichi. She sat down next to Goku, turned towards him and said, "let's talk about it. What makes you feel that way?"