The sun's rays gleamed down on the forest in the early morning, the bright light giving the woodlands an almost ethereal glow. A small bird sang joyously as it soared through the sky. Diving, it skimmed along the waving grass, basking in the sun's heat and the brisk, dawn breeze. The bird snapped it's wings out perpendicular to it's small frame to gain height, the song it sang trilling into a climactic crescendo when a little hand came from no where and snatched the poor bird out of flight.
Grinning gleefully, a certain black-haired chibi raced home, a little blue bird clutched in his chubby hands, as the said bird chirped pathetically. Wait until his big brother saw his prize of the day.
"Coming!" the teen called back, but his sleepy voice caused the response to sound more like a loud yawn. What was so important about today? His mom rarely called him out of bed unless it was a family emergency or...no! It couldn't be...
Picking up speed, Gohan practically ran down into the kitchen where he found his mom humming a little tune, back bent over the pan of bacon she was cooking.
"Why, good morning Gohan," Chichi cooed as she started piling the table with numerous plates of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, the furniture groaning under the monstrous weight.
"Mom?" Gohan started warily, "Why did you get me up so early? There isn't anything big happening today, is there?" In his right hand he held his fork poised over his breakfast, the other hand was under the table with crossed fingers. It couldn't have been today, he told himself, he had to be wrong.
"But sweetie, your first day of school starts in an hour. Aren't you excited?" she smiled. To his shock, her happy gaze transformed into a teary look as she wistfully looked out the window at something he couldn't see.
"Just think. My little baby is going to get an education and go to college," Chichi sighed, seemingly unaware that Gohan was still listening, "He'll then meet a lovely woman who will bear his children. Lots and lots of children. I'll then have grandchildren and I'll love them like my own and..."
"Gah! Mom, I'm not even twenty yet and your already planning my life!" Gohan interrupted.
"Is there...something wrong with me shaping your life to the fullest?" the mother asked in a deathly quiet tone. "Would it be better if," she paused dramatically, slowly pulling out a familiar frying pan, "I let you ruin your life so you grew up to be a bum like that perverted Roshi? I can let you do that, you know. However, if you're such a grown man already, I suppose I don't need to cook for you anymore. Would you like that, sweetie?"
The appearance of the frying pan was enough to send shivers down the demi- saiyan's spine, but...no food? The thought was inconceivable to the Son's resident genius. Bowing his head submissively, Gohan schooled his handsome face into his ultimate trump card. The puppy dog face, the key to survival in the harsh world of controlling mothers and deadly cooking utensils.
"But mother," Gohan sighed pathetically as he looked up with luminous, teary eyes, "I love your cooking, you know that. But the one thing I love more than your cooking is you, mom. I can't stand to see you mad at me."
Amazingly, the frying pan disappeared and Chichi Son, fearless wife of Goku, rushed over to give her eldest son a hug, the latter desperately attempting not to gag on his previous statement.
"Oh my baby! I love you too! Now hurry up and finish your food and get dressed, you need to leave in," she paused, looking at the clock above the stove, "about five minutes."
"Ah! Why didn't you tell me sooner," Gohan exclaimed, pushing away from the table to quickly get ready.
Chichi's response was in vain as it fell on deaf ears, her son already having left to get ready in record time.
Throwing on the closest clothes laying around, Gohan jumped out of his bedroom window and looked up to the sky.
"NIMBUS!" he yelled, waiting a couple of seconds before a yellow cloud zoomed up to him like a pet dog.
"Thanks, Nimbus," Gohan said as he leapt onto the cloud, where it whisked him away to the dreaded Orange Star High.Taking the silent trip to relax and gather his thoughts, Gohan closed his eyes when he felt a lump unceremoniously land in his lap. Blinking, Gohan looked down to find large, obsidian orbs similar to his own looking up with an adoration only younger siblings obtained.
"Gohan, I got a surprise for you," Goten giggled with delight at his discovery.
"What are you doing here, Squirt? You need to be at home or mom will freak out," Gohan asked, though he rested his hand on top of his little brother's head affectionately.
"I found a birdy!" the chibi smiled, holding up his hand to reveal a small bird with a pained look in its tiny eyes. It was the kind of the look that said 'Don't give me that look. If you were stuck here instead of me, you'd be feeling mighty woeful yourself.' Gohan shook his head, knowing it was a bad sign when you felt you could interpret a bird's inner thinking process.
"Ah, Squirt. I don't think your friend there is quite happy. How would you feel if you were flying around and some...pudgy boy with a lot of hair grabbed you out of the sky?" Gohan questioned.
"Are you calling me fat?" Goten squeaked, looking up into Gohan's dark eyes with pain.
With widened eyes of his own, Gohan returned Goten's stare and cleared his throat.
"Well, of course you aren't fat. It was more of a rhetorical question. I wasn't exactly implying that it was you who was the pudgy boy," Gohan soothed, lying through his teeth, "You're rather well-muscled for a boy your age." Still, Gohan had to wonder where the infamous feminine remark had sprung from. Spending way too much time with mom, he thought.
"Oh," Goten said, "Gohan, what's rhetorical?"
"Um," the teen stalled, not wanted to explain the question, knowing his brother wouldn't understand anyway, "Oh look, your bird looks a little worse for wear. Why don't you just let it join its friends? How would you like to be hanging out with Trunks when a pudgy...oh never mind. Just let go of the bird, Goten."It had taken some more persuading and calming words, but with the promise of sparring later in the day, Goten finally left his brother in search of better things to do. Things were just starting to look up when he heard the sirens of several police cars. Surveying the city below, he witnessed men in black ski masks hold a gun to a man's head as others similarly dressed carried bags of money to a dark vehicle. Looks like I should do something, Gohan observed as he stealthily hopped of the yellow cloud and flew down to the bank. I shouldn't be seen like this, he thought, but what can I do?
With a spark of inspiration, Gohan powered up to Super Saiyan, his normally gravity defying hair changing into a blonde hue as his dark eyes brightened to a shining turquoise. With a fresh determination, the transformed teen flew through the front door to find several bystanders huddled in a corner at the gunpoint of one of the robbers.
Without a word, Gohan was spurred into action as he quickly rid the men of their firearms and knocked them unconscious. Leaving the moneybags in a pile, he quickly went back outside to deal with the lone robber holding the innocent man hostage.
"You know, you really shouldn't point your gun like that. Someone will inevitably lose an eye, and that would be a shame, don't you think?" the blonde teen remarked cheerfully.
"Who are you?" the robber grunted, pressing his gun farther into the man's temple. Whimpering, the hostage looked as if he just wanted to die right on the spot, or at least expected the man to do the honors for him.
"I'm...I'm the Gold Fighter," Gohan responded, and before anyone could blink, the demi-saiyan phased out, reappearing with his hand tightly clutching the robber's wrist. With a twist, he snapped the appendage with a loud crack, causing the man to drop his gun and let the hostage go. Without further prompting, the hostage ran to the police as Gohan delivered a blow to the back of the robber's neck to knock him out.
Before any of the police could interrogate him, Gohan phased out again to the utter bewilderment of the officers. As the men blinked in confusion, a tall, dark-haired teen whistled nonchalantly as he stepped out of an alley, heading towards OSH.It was close, but Gohan had just slipped into his homeroom when the bell rang. The room was full of chattering teens his age while an old man stood at a podium, reviewing his day's lesson plan. No one had seemed to notice him until he cleared his throat nervously. Finally looking up, the teacher squinted through impossibly thick glasses at the new student. With a sigh, the man walked over to Gohan, who realized his teacher was at least a head shorter than he, if not more.
"Well, so you must be the new student. You're awfully tall for a girl," the teacher mumbled.
"Eh? I'm not a girl," Gohan said worriedly, blushing as he caught the class stopping their conversations to watch the exchange.
"Nice to meet you, dear. I'm Mr. Broder, and what's your name?" the man asked politely.
"Ah, Gohan, sir. Gohan Son." Why would he call me dear, the teen thought.
"Gohan? Sounds like a boy's name. Why would a mother name her daughter that?" the ancient teacher seemed to ask himself. The rest of the class did nothing to hide their amused snickers.
"Sir, that would be because I am a boy."
"So dear, why don't you tell us what you do?" the man wheezed as he picked up a folder with the name Gohan Son printed on the corner.
"Um, I like to read and..."he hesitated, debating whether to mention his other hobby, "...I like to do martial arts."
"Oh!" Mr. Broder cried out, "Our little Gohan is the first one to ever ace the entrance exams. Surprising to see a girl be the first one to do so well."
"I'm not a girl, sir," Gohan moaned.
"Well, sweetie. Why don't you sit next to young Erasa? Erasa, raise your hand please."
Gazing up into the mass of students, Gohan mentally sighed s he saw a perky blonde in a green tube top enthusiastically raise her manicured hand.
"Up here, cutie!" she called down to him, his already flushed face heating even more. With a resigned look in his eyes, the dark eyed teen trudged up the small pathway to the blonde's seat.
"Hey there, Gohan, I'm Erasa, and these are my best friends Videl and Sharpner," the bubbly girl gushed. Leaning past his seat, he looked over to see a buff blonde with a bored look on his face and blue eyed girl with dark hair who seemed indifferent to his arrival. Strangely, the dark- haired girl seemed familiar, but he didn't know from where.
"Yo, nerd boy," Sharpner sneered while the other girl just ignored him.
With an over dramatic sigh, Erasa slumped in her seat and stared ahead at Mr. Broder, who was taking role.
"Don't mind them," she told Gohan, "They're...usually like that."
"It's alright," he mumbled, knowing it would definitely be a long year.
It was already half way through the day when the bell rang, signaling the start to lunch. Gohan, along with the two blondes and Videl, left their math class to go outside to eat. To the excitement of Erasa, they discovered that Gohan had all of the same classes with the three of them.
"Gohan, why don't you eat with us today?" Erasa offered.
"Um, I don't know..." Gohan left his answer hanging.
"Of course you'll eat with us! I knew you would!" and with that she linked her arm into his and pulled him along to their normal table.
His three new friends, or what he somewhat considered friends, sat down quickly and started on their lunches, picking up the conversation.
Not wanting to bring the focus upon himself, Gohan quickly ate one capsule of food and switching to the next one immediately so it would seem he was just taking a long time on his sandwich. Erasa and Sharpner seemed oblivious, but Videl wasn't as clueless as her friends.
Hoping not to distract the two blondes from their chatting, she leaned across the table to talk to Gohan, who seemed to be observing their surroundings the same way as she always did.
"Do you always eat that much, or is it just a day for bingeing?" she asked, as the amount of food he was eating mind-boggling.
"You...noticed?" Gohan replied in what he hoped was a casual tone.
"How could someone not?" she responded, but thought of her blonde companions, "Never mind."
"Let's just say that I always have a large appetite," he told her mysteriously.
"Right then." The two were silent for a moment when she picked up the thread of conversation again.
"Have you heard of the Gold Fighter?" she questioned with a raised eyebrow.
News travels fast, he thought.
"I've heard rumors, why do you ask?"
"It's just kind of funny, you know. You're wearing the exact same thing he wore at the bank robbery today."
"You were there?"
"No, but I've heard from others." She looked pensive. "Probably just me, right?"
Finding no appropriate response, Gohan remained silent and picked up his umpteenth sandwich of the day. I really need to do something about my appearance. Maybe Bulma could help?
A/N: There you go. Hoped you liked. As you can tell, it doesn't quite follow the original story line, and there will be no Buu. I'm writing this for the romance and humor of it all, so I hope you enjoy!
Read and review, you know you want to!