Thank you all SOOOOO much for all of your wonderful and encouraging reviews! It's really encouraging considering that this is my first DBZ story, and I could post more if people ask me to, I guess, if you wanna see more DBZ stories from me! XD
Oh, and sorry for the little wait, I had a momentary case of writer's block, plus I have to work on a chapter for my other story, and I have finals this week AGAIN ugh! And even though I'm supposed to be studying, I'm writing a chapter for you guys…and this is considerably more entertaining than studying for finals :D. Yep, definitely much more fun. I hope this compensates for the little wait!
Thank you all for your encouragement, it really means a lot to me! Now, onto the story!
Disclaimer: Don't own it.
"So, Gohan," Videl began as they sat on the grass, after she'd exhausted herself with hovering in the air. She was able to float quite a few feet off the ground now with relative ease and could move a quite bit side to side, but her endurance needed to be worked on.
"Yeah?" Gohan replied, looking over at Videl as he quizzically raised his eyebrow at her.
The daughter of Hercule Satan absentmindedly began to uproot a few blades of grass from the soil, playing with the greenery before she asked, "What's your favorite color?"
"Huh?" the teenaged boy replied, looking at her as if she'd grown two heads.
"Can you just answer the question?" Videl snapped back, a slight blush forming on her cheeks, but she managed to keep it hidden from Gohan.
"Hm…" Gohan trailed off, looking into the sky as he seriously considered the question. What was his favorite color? It wasn't as if he'd had plenty of time to choose one and contemplate on it.
Then, he saw odd flashes of things go through his mind as he thought of safety, friendship, and hope. The color of his father's boots. The sky. Piccolo's belt. Vegeta's spandex suit. Namek's grass. The bird that Sixteen had gently touched the feathers of. Puar's fur. Mirai Trunks' jacket. Bulma's hair.
Videl's eyes.
It was obvious to Gohan now what his favorite color was.
"Blue," he answered, absentmindedly running a hand through his spiky black locks.
"Why?" Videl asked curiously, trying not to be too obvious about her interest, however.
"Well, when I think of the things I value most—friendship and hope—blue is the first color that comes to my mind. Lots of things that I associate with friendship and hope are blue, I guess," Gohan replied with an absentminded shrug.
"All right," Videl said, continuing to play with the grass. "What about your favorite food?"
"Now, that, I cannot possibly answer, unless 'everything' is considered an answer to you," Gohan said honestly, grinning the famous trademark grin of the Sons as he looked at her.
"No, it is not an answer," Videl chastised him as she rolled her eyes. "Come on, what's your favorite food?"
"I can't choose a favorite!" Gohan told her. "I like all types of food!"
"OK, let me rephrase the question…" The blue-eyed teenager looked into the sky as she thought for a moment, before she nodded to herself. "All right—if you were somehow stranded on an island and could only eat one food for two weeks until you were rescued, what would it be?"
"Hm…man, that's a really hard question!" Gohan said, keeping the fact to himself that he was never able to be stranded—he could simply fly away from the island without any problems at all, and, even if he somehow was trapped on the island for some unfathomable reason, there still had to be some type of animal life on the island, and he was able to hunt. "But if I had to choose…I'd say my mom's special dumplings! The ones she makes for me and my little brother that taste so good!"
Hearing him talking so eagerly about food was something that made Videl grin the slightest bit. However, she was surprised about one thing—even though she'd seen Gohan eat inhumane amounts of food, he was somehow not dangerously obese—in fact, he was just about pure muscle, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Videl as her eyes unconsciously traced the muscular contours of his arms and what was revealed of his bare chest from his gi.
Videl, stop it, she told herself, shaking her head quickly to chase these odd thoughts out of her head quickly.
"Where do you like to go to? Like, if you could go on a really long vacation, where would you go? The jungle, the forest…" Videl trailed off, letting him say what he wanted to.
Gohan's answer was almost immediate. "The lake or the river."
"Why?" Videl asked again. To her, it seemed a bit odd to want to go to a lake or river for vacation.
"Well…my dad used to take me fishing before…well, before he died," Gohan replied quietly, looking at the floor. "I…I remember how peaceful it was, and how he would laugh if we caught a big one, and…" He trailed off, quickly shaking his head as he forced a grin back on his face. "Yeah, that's it," he said, his voice only slightly strained.
Videl knew that there was more than Gohan was letting on. Whenever he mentioned his father, an odd emotion would flash in his eyes—what was it? Videl was unable to name the strange emotion flickering across the usually warm ebony depths of his eyes. Sadness? Maybe self-loathing? Possibly guilt? She couldn't be completely sure of what it was.
She decided to drop it, not wanting to go into it. The pain in his eyes was so raw that she would feel odd and intrusive if she asked him about it. Yes, she was very demanding, but she knew where there were boundaries.
"What about your favorite animals? Or do you even have a favorite animal?" Videl went on with her questions.
"Well, I like all wildlife, I guess," Gohan replied. "But if I have to choose a favorite animal…it'd be a bird." Android Sixteen gently stroking the feathers of that blue bird flashed in his mind, and he quickly shook the memories away before they could cling to his mind and actually reform into a flashback that he did not want to relive. "But some animals that I dislike are lizards, cockroaches, and grasshoppers." It was reasonable. Frieza looked like a lizard, and Gohan had seen him ruthlessly kill Dende and Vegeta, and then remorselessly make Krillin explode into a million pieces. Cell had a resemblance to a grasshopper and a cockroach, and Gohan hated Cell with a passion that was almost unimaginable.
"All right," Videl said, shrugging her shoulders. "What about—"
"Wait," Gohan interrupted her, and Videl snapped her head around to completely face him. "I think it's my turn now to ask the questions."
"What?" Videl demanded, glaring at him suspiciously.
However, he was only grinning. "C'mon, you asked me a bunch of things—now, let me ask you!"
Videl wasn't sure if she was completely comfortable with opening up to Gohan. She rarely talked about her personality and her favorite things with other people because she didn't really want to get too close to others, save the exception of Erasa, of course, and maybe Sharpener. However, it was only fair that Gohan got a shot at asking her, too—after all, he'd answered her questions truthfully and without hesitance.
"OK," Videl replied, nodding towards him. "Shoot."
"Well, let me start out with what you did: What's your favorite color?" he asked.
"Red," Videl answered almost instantly.
"Why?"
Videl sent him a little glare, knowing that he was simply repeating what she had asked him. He only grinned in reply while she peevishly replied, "It's just a really nice color. Fiery, bright…I'm really not completely sure why, I just know that it's always been my favorite color."
"Your favorite food?" Gohan asked.
"In all honesty, I think that I like sour things," she admitted, "like limes, lemons…but not always that extreme. But I prefer sour things, and sweet things like chocolate are a close second."
Gohan grinned a bit more. "All right; now, dream vacation spot?"
"Away from civilization," she grumbled in reply.
He looked at her, confusion written all over his features.
Videl let out a sigh. "Being the daughter of the World Champion isn't all that it's said to be. It's annoying—I rarely have a few real moments to myself because of all the reporters. Sure, Dad may love hearing his own voice and having his face broadcasted all around the world, but I don't really like it all that much. So, if I went away from civilization, then the media would stop hounding me."
Gohan often heard Bulma make complaints similar to the ones Videl was making now—except it was much worse for the blue-haired genius, because she was the smartest and richest woman in the entire world. The press often wouldn't give her a break, and many times Vegeta had caught them on their property—those reporters were never seen on Capsule Corp. property again because he'd scare them shitless, and Bulma would just manage to control her husband before he killed them in his annoyance. However, because the press and the media often followed her, her husband and son were also having slightly hard times; many people wanted to know about Bulma Briefs' mysterious husband, and about the child that she tried to keep as sheltered and away from the media as possible. Trunks probably felt the way that Videl did—being the kid of a super-famous person wasn't all that it was said to be, and not too great.
"Well, where away from civilization would you go?" Gohan asked.
"I think that I'd rather like to go to the beach," Videl said as she looked at the sky as she contemplated on it. "Yeah, the beach."
"Why the beach?"
"Well…you can't tell anyone this, OK?" Videl told him, looking at him seriously with her blue eyes. "I don't even really know why I'm actually sharing all of this with you, so you better keep your mouth shut, or I will make you pay."
"Uh-huh," Gohan answered, in agreement that he wouldn't tell anyone and in slight sarcasm at the end, because he knew that Videl would be completely unable to even make him budge the slightest bit. He wasn't trying to brag, but his natural Saiyan genetics made him hard as a rock and naturally extremely strong.
When Videl was certain that Gohan wouldn't give away her secret, she answered him. "I would like to go to the beach because…it's pretty. It's nice and warm, and the air smells really nice, and the ocean looks really lovely. Especially when the sun's setting—I think that it's the most beautiful time to be at the beach to see the sunset against the ocean, and it's so calming and peaceful. The sand feels nice, and so does the water, and it's nice to hear the ocean waves and the slight cawing of seagulls…" Videl then realized how slightly philosophical she was getting, and felt a light blush beginning to stain her cheeks. She'd be damned if Gohan saw it, though, and she made sure to hide it from him. "If you tell anyone about this, I swear that I will hunt you down and murder you in your sleep."
Gohan barely was able to contain his laugh, and he nodded at her. "All right, so don't tell anyone about this if I want to stay alive. Got it," he said with a slight chuckle as he inwardly shook his head. Right now, Videl was reminding him very much of Bulma and his mother. "What about your favorite animal?"
Videl stopped playing with the grass and was now leaning back against her hands as she looked up in the sky, before tilting her head towards Gohan a bit and giving him a half-grin. "Well, I really like predators," she admitted, "like wolves, lions, tigers…they're just so powerful and awesome."
"Is there a certain type of animal that you don't particularly like?" Gohan questioned.
"Hm…well, I've never really liked mice—or any type of rodent, for that matter," she answered. "I once had a bad run-in with mice…" She shuddered slightly with the memory.
"What happened?" Gohan wondered as he leaned in the slightest bit to show that he was interested.
"Well…uhm…" Videl trailed off with a slight blush as she remembered the certain incident that made her hate almost all rodents. "It's too embarrassing," she quickly said.
"Oh, come on," Gohan said with an internal eye-roll. "You've seen me be embarrassed in school plenty of times! C'mon, please?"
Hearing the almost whiny little-kid voice he used at the end of his sentence made Videl crack the smallest of grins on her face. "OK, fine, I'll tell you…but what is said here stays here, got it?"
"I think we already established this before," Gohan told her.
Videl let out a slight huff of air that blew her black bangs slightly from her face, before she condescended to telling Gohan the humiliating story.
"Well…I used to have a cobra as a pet—I like cobras as well, by the way—when I was about ten or eleven-ish. And…you know how snakes eat mice?" she asked him. When he nodded she continued. "Well, my dad decided to be a damn genius, and he went to the store and bought live mice for the snake to eat—he said that, if she ate living mice, that she would be healthier than if she ate already dead mice.
"Honestly, I didn't care—I thought that he was right, so I listened to him. And then, a little while after he returns from the pet store with the mice, he tells me that he can't find them. I'm just thinking that they somehow ran outside and just left, right? And later that night…"
Videl shuddered slightly as she continued. "I was taking a shower—the mice had been lost that morning. I turn on the water…
"…and then the mice made their reappearance. Apparently, they had all been hiding in one of the cracks in the bathroom walls that was damn huge but was covered with something so no one could see it. And while I begin to take my shower, they all suddenly rush out at me and scurry all over me with their little bodies as they squeaked and their tails and—blech," she shuddered once more from the sheer disgustingness of it all, the repulsiveness of what had occurred.
"It was just gross and scared me half to death. My dad thought someone was somehow trying to attack me. And all hell broke loose after that—I'll spare you the disturbing details. And I've never liked mice or rodents ever again."
She stopped, looking over at Gohan, who stared at her for a few seconds.
Then, the teenaged boy promptly began to crack up as he fell on the grass, laughing as he imagined it all happening inside of his head, holding his abdomen as he laughed heartily.
Videl's eyes suddenly became fiery as they hardened into a glare. "HEY! It's not funny! Don't laugh at my pain!"
This statement only made Gohan crack up harder as tears nearly streamed out of his eyes from his mirth.
For some reason, Videl was having a very hard time keeping a serious and pissed off face on. Maybe it was because Gohan's laugh was so easily infectious that, if you heard him laugh, you wanted to laugh right along with him, even if you didn't know what the hell was so funny that he was laughing at.
"Shut up!" Videl fumed, her face becoming red with both her anger and embarrassment as she quickly forced the feeling of laughing along with him away from her being.
"Can't…stop…" Gohan wheezed, in near hysterics on the grass. "Oh my god, mice infestation…Hercule going ballistic…somehow losing the mice…!" He trailed off in laughter once more, tears of mirth beginning to form in his eyes as he struggled to breathe with how much he was laughing. It had been a pretty long time since he'd had a good laugh like this, and he welcomed it.
Peevishly, Videl suddenly swung a punch at him, and it landed on his shoulder.
"Ow!" she exclaimed in surprise as her eyes widened, and she drew her hand back in surprise. Gohan was still laughing as If she hadn't punched him at all, and when she'd punched him, it had hurt! It was almost as if she'd been trying to somehow punch a marble statue!
She probably just hit him exactly on the bone of his shoulder, that was all, a place not really affected by punches and that hurt the other person. The other alternative was that Gohan Son was actually made out of stone.
She didn't think it was the second option, so she went with her first guess.
Gohan tried to regain control of himself, but he was unable to stop laughing. His laughs did manage to slow down a bit, though, enough for him to actually open his eyes and look at Videl's fuming face. It made him once again enter hysterics while Videl continued to silently give him a death glare that could rival his mother's any day.
"You think it's so damned funny, Gohan Son?" Videl hissed angrily, and, before Gohan could react, she lunged for him in cold blood. He suddenly found her on top of him, her knees on either side of his chest as she made half-hearted punches towards his face, while Gohan's eyes widened and he quickly blocked her blows on instinct, and then continued to laugh. She was just about as close to harming him as a butterfly was to a tiger.
With each punch aimed at his face, Videl suddenly felt more like laughing, actually having, dare she say it, fun with Gohan right now.
"You…stupid…son of…a bitch," she said, each word accented with a punch towards his face, while he began laughing again. She fought hard to keep the smile off her face, and lost the battle as she suddenly broke out into a light grin.
"Shut…the hell…up," she continued to grunt, but the words weren't exactly that powerful since she was laughing right along with him against her own will. Eventually, she stopped trying to punch him and began to truly laugh as well, understanding how Gohan could see her story as funny.
However, she thought that Gohan was the only one who she would laugh with if her terrible, traumatizing event that had occurred with the mice had been told to him. And only Gohan.
Why she thought that, she hadn't the slightest clue.
After they stopped, Gohan was wheezing with the strain of breathing, and Videl suddenly truly realized the position she was in—perched on Gohan's perfectly sculpted chest, her legs on either side of him. A fierce blush threatened to take over her cheeks, but she forced it down, getting off of him with as much dignity as she could muster. Oh, god, if her father had seen that, he would've flipped out, jumping to conclusions that would be absolutely incorrect.
Gohan stood up, still shaking a bit with the aftermath of the laughter, his shoulders shaking as he muffled his laughter, gaining control of it. He quickly dusted off his gi, grinning brightly, running a few fingers absentmindedly through his thick black hair.
"Thanks for the laugh, Videl," Gohan said, grinning.
"So happy that you find my pain amusing," Videl replied, but she couldn't help but smile lightly at him once more, making Gohan grin even more brightly, before Chi-Chi called the two teens over for lunch.
After lunch, Gohan and Videl worked a bit on her flying, before they began to ask each other more questions about the other.
Videl was one for action movies—a little romance was all right, but not too much. Gohan, too, was into action films with plenty of comedy as well. Videl greatly disliked shopping, but, if she had to, she would go with Erasa to the mall; Gohan didn't really have to go to the store that often, because his mother understood how much he hated it in there, and didn't want to torture the poor kid by stuffing him in a crowded mall. While Videl found punching people's faces in fun, Gohan found doing complicated calculus problems very entertaining…and, also, he liked to fight every now and then (he added that last bit because of the odd look that Videl had given him when he told her his first answer. But, hey, he was studying chemistry when he was five, and was already doing advanced trigonometry as well. How could you blame him?). Videl had always longed for a sibling, and Gohan was very glad that he had Goten in his life. Videl really disliked it when people only saw her as the daughter of Hercule Satan, and not her own person, with the media swarming her house on a very frequent basis; Gohan didn't really like when people insulted his family, and when other people were being bullies, hurting others just for their own pleasure. The weirdest thing that happened to Videl, so far, was seeing the Great Saiyaman fly and then realizing that it was the scrawny nerd, Gohan; the weirdest thing that happened to the half-Saiyan so far was…he couldn't exactly choose, because so many weird things had happened in his life, but, if he had to choose, he would say…high school (this comment made Videl laugh a bit). Videl's favorite subject in school was gym; Gohan's was lunch…and, he guessed, calculus (once again, he added that last part when Videl sourly informed him that she didn't count lunch as a subject, and even after he answered her question, she still looked at him oddly). She fought to prove to others that, even though she was female, that she was nothing to simply be pushed aside, that she was a force to be reckoned with, to prove that Mr. Satan's daughter was just as damned strong as he was; and Gohan fought to protect nature, to be his father's living legacy, to protect his family and friends (and, if need be, the planet).
They didn't really get that much flying done that day, but neither of them really cared. Getting to know at least a little bit more about the other person had been worth it for the day.
When the nightmares hit Gohan again, he instantly felt that something was definitely wrong.
Gohan woke up in a cold sweat, his eyes snapping open as they anxiously, quickly, darted around the room. When he realized that he was simply in his bed with his little brother, he breathed a sigh of relief, before clenching the sheets in his fists tightly. His forehead was covered in sweat, as was his bare torso, his eyes closing with relief once he realized that he was safe.
This had never happened before. Never had he had such vivid nightmares so close together—it had only been two days since the terrible nightmares and flashbacks had hit him, and, when he was hit with them, they usually wouldn't attack for at least two weeks. Never had he had such colorful, vivid flashbacks simply two days apart.
And, truth be told, it unnerved Gohan. It even slightly frightened him, because he had no idea what was going on.
That sixth sense that something was wrong was definitely kicking in as he struggled to control his breathing after he had snapped awake from the series of nightmares/flashbacks that had happened, placing his forehead in his palm as he lightly gasped for air, his tongue darting out to moisten his extremely dry lips, before he swallowed to try to somehow ease his parched throat. Then, quietly, as to not arouse his sleeping little brother, he stood up slowly, and walked over to the bathroom to wipe the sweat off of his brow that had accumulated there after the vivid dreams.
As he stood in front of the mirror, Gohan's thoughts ran in anxious circles. Why was this happening? Why were the nightmares so vivid, so real? Why did he have this feeling of uneasiness, as if he should be on his guard at all times? Why?
Gohan shook his head after he splashed cold water on his face, before looking over at the clock that was in the bathroom.
It was 4:13. Amazing. He'd had just about four hours of sleep.
Gohan stifled a groan, knowing that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep again. The nightmares always left him too rattled up to actually fall asleep again.
The nightmares were different than last time, all except for when Goku died. That one was always omnipresent in his nightmares.
This time, he'd dreamed about different instances—when Raditz had first kidnapped him, easily knocking away his father in one punch, mercilessly beating his own brother in front of his nephew; on Namek, when Gohan had to fight the Ginyu Force, along with Vegeta and Krillin, when Recoome broke his neck, the agony blinding him and making him want to scream; when he saw Tien, Chiaotzu, and Yamcha all killed ruthlessly in front of him by Nappa, the helplessness that he felt as he tried to save his friends; fighting Frieza, seeing him nearly kill Krillin, seeing him ruthlessly blow Dende to bits, and then proceeded with beating Vegeta to near death; and, once again, seeing his father sacrifice himself for everyone else, trying to kill Cell, while it had all been in vain…
Gohan, once again, shook his head to clear his head of these thoughts, not wanting to go back there. However, he knew that he couldn't keep this bottled in any more. He was going to take Videl's advice and actually try to tell someone…but who could he go to that would be blunt, to the point, and would be able to relieve him of some frustration and stress while he was at it through a good ol' spar?
The answer came to him instantly as he pulled on his clothes.
A good ten to fifteen minutes later, Gohan was in front of the large domed building of Capsule Corp. He rang the doorbell, and then winced when he realized that he could've simply mentally called Vegeta to tell him about his predicament.
A little while after he rang the doorbell, a very pissed-off Saiyan prince was standing in the doorway, clad in only a pair of sweatpants, revealing his bare, muscular chest and the numerous scars that were forever embedded within his skin, from battles and torture, Gohan knew. His arms were crossed, and he was leaning on the doorframe, his black eyes not in a good mood.
"What the hell do you want, boy?" Vegeta growled in annoyance. "Do you realize what damn time it is?"
"Uh, yeah, I do," Gohan said awkwardly, looking away, absentmindedly tapping his toe in the grass on the front lawn of Capsule Corp. "But, um…well, I kinda wanted to talk to you about something."
The look that Vegeta was giving him stated clearly that the last damn thing that he wanted to do was talk to anyone.
"It's not even four-thirty in the goddamn morning," Vegeta said in irritation, pinching the bridge of his nose. "What the hell could you possibly want to talk about at four-thirty in the morning?"
"Um…well…can we talk about it in the Gravity Room?" Gohan asked sheepishly.
Vegeta was slightly surprised at that, but didn't say anything, leaving the door open as he went back inside. Gohan took it as an invitation to go inside, and he went and closed the door behind him.
Vegeta was in the kitchen. "Give me five minutes, kid," he told him, turning around as he began to go up the stars. "I need to get ready. Meet me in the Gravity Room."
Gohan nodded, and then, as Vegeta disappeared up the stars, he turned around and walked down the many numerous hallways of Capsule Corporation.
He got lost at least twice, but eventually, he found the Gravity Chamber, where Vegeta was waiting for him, with a stack of white towels and a water bottle next to him on the gravity controls.
"I thought I told you to wait here while I got myself ready," Vegeta stated, annoyance glinting in his eyes. He was now wearing his traditional spandex training shorts, and he noticed that at least Gohan was wearing his gi. He hadn't really paid attention beforehand—he couldn't really pay attention to anything as early as four-thirty in the morning. It was too early for any living being to be awake.
"Heheh…I got lost?" Gohan offered sheepishly, making Vegeta roll his eyes.
"Idiot," he muttered under his breath, placing the white towels off to the side of the GR. He then looked over at Gohan, standing near the main console for the chamber, and, once again, had his arms crossed against his chest in his traditional manner.
"I don't think you came here entirely for training, boy," Vegeta bluntly stated. "You haven't been taking your training seriously for quite some time. So spit it out. Why did you come here so damned early in the morning?"
"Well…um…" Gohan looked away, making Vegeta drum the fingers of his right hand on his left bicep in annoyance. When Gohan didn't answer, Vegeta let out an irritated growl.
"Look, I did not want to wake up before four-thirty in the morning, but that infernal wench made me get the doorbell. If you interrupted my sleep for nothing, I swear to Kami and Dende and whatever gods are up there that you will pay dearly—"
"Do you sometimes get nightmares of what happened to you before?" Gohan blurted out suddenly. That statement made Vegeta suddenly turn his head in the teenager's direction.
"Why?" the prince replied, both his voice and obsidian eyes guarded.
"Because…well, I've been getting them much, much more recently," Gohan confessed quietly, crossing his hands behind his back as he absentmindedly kicked the floor of the Gravity Room now, tapping his toe on the metal surface. "About all the stuff that's happened…usually, I only get them once a month, and even that's pretty rare…but I just had two nightmares over the span of three days. And they're so vivid…I don't know what's happening, Vegeta."
Vegeta looked closely at Gohan, before looking away at the boy, turning towards the controls for the GR. When he wasn't dismissed, Gohan guessed that Vegeta was waiting for him to say more.
"It's making me the slightest bit unnerved," the oldest Saiyan hybrid continued. "I haven't had nightmares this vivid in forever, and it's affecting me during training. While I was trying to teach Videl how to fly, I got flashbacks from seeing certain things, and she noticed that I was acting weird—"
"Wait—you're teaching someone how to fly?" Vegeta repeated, finally interrupting Gohan and looking at him oddly. When Gohan nodded, Vegeta didn't even need to ask the question that his facial expression clearly stated.
"She blackmailed me!" Gohan insisted. "She found out that I was Saiyaman, and she said that if I didn't teach her how to fly, that she'd tell everyone that I was Saiyaman!"
"How, exactly, did she find out that you were Saiyaman?" Vegeta asked, raising an eyebrow. "The disguise that the woman gave you seemed decent enough."
"Um…well, she kinda tricked me…I think that she was suspicious of me all along," Gohan replied, slightly sheepish. "And I might've accidentally let it slip when she asked me how I managed to get out of class…"
"Gods, you're an idiot," Vegeta muttered, rolling his eyes. "How did you not see that coming?"
"I wasn't thinking straight, OK?" Gohan shot back defensively. "I know it was stupid and I know that I could've probably avoided all of this if I had really thought through what I was saying, but because of my momentary lapse of judgment, I let it slip! Jeez, will no one let it go? You act as if that's never happened to you before!"
"I've never exactly needed an idiotic superhero identity to 'save' people, boy," Vegeta snapped back with a roll of his eyes. "It's not like I have some hero complex like you and your father. So, no, I've never stupidly given away my secret identity to a woman who couldn't even hope to lay a finger on me."
"Oh, come on, I'm sure that you've told Bulma stuff that you don't want anyone else to know by accident," Gohan said.
"How the hell did we get to this topic anyway?" Vegeta said quickly, changing the subject, but Gohan knew that he was right. He wore an inward victory smirk, but knew that if he said anything else to Vegeta concerning that topic, that he was a dead man. And Gohan rather liked being alive, thank you, so he wouldn't want to piss off a Saiyan prince at four-thirty a.m.
"We're going to train at least for two hours—you owe me for waking me up so damn early," Vegeta grumbled in annoyance. "I should make you stay the whole goddamn day—"
"That wouldn't be a good idea," Gohan said hastily. "My mom would go ballistic, Goten might accidentally break lots of things if I'm not there, and Videl would kick my ass if I didn't come to training today."
At that name again, Vegeta raised a heavy black brow. "Why is this girl of such importance to you?" Vegeta asked. He'd heard her name for quite a bit from the boy, and she seemed to be one of the main things on Gohan's mind. "Isn't she the daughter of that pompous weakling?"
"Oh, you mean Hercule?" Gohan asked, and when Vegeta shrugged with indifference, he nodded. "Yeah, she's Hercule's daughter, but she's not nearly as bad as he is. She's actually pretty decent."
Vegeta looked at Gohan strangely then. "Are you sure that's all you think of her?" the full-blooded Saiyan smirked at Gohan.
"Oh my god, Vegeta!" Gohan groaned. "You, too?"
"No, not really, but I've heard the woman babble about things and mentioning both of your names in the same sentence. I was just wondering to see if whatever rumors she was getting ready to spread to the rest of the group were true," Vegeta smirked back.
Gohan moaned dejectedly—Vegeta would never let this one go, he knew it.
"She hates me, Vegeta," Gohan insisted.
"You are sixteen years old, kid," Vegeta stated bluntly. "I'm surprised that you haven't had a girlfriend yet, much less haven't gotten laid by this age. And, from the way things seem, you're obviously attracted to this girl."
"Oh, god, Vegeta!" The half-Saiyan boy shuddered at the blunt way that Vegeta was stating things. "Can we stop talking about this? How about we train? Yeah, let's train and leave this topic!"
Vegeta smirked once again, but this time, it was one of victory. He had a feeling that the boy would've made him talk much, much more if he hadn't somehow made him uncomfortable enough to literally beg to get beaten.
"Good," Vegeta said in approval, before turning towards the controls. "Let's start out at…one hundred and fifty," he stated. "Shouldn't be that hard for you, and might actually give me a light workout."
"But, Vegeta…" Gohan looked away again, crossing his arms behind him once more. "About the nightmares. Is…is there anything that I can do to somehow stop them?"
When Vegeta stood silent for a little bit, Gohan looked up to see that he was simply staring at the controls.
"There's no guarantee that your mind will stop showing you nightmares—you can't always control it," Vegeta admitted, surprising Gohan. The half-Saiyan teen had thought that the prince simply wouldn't reply and leave it at that. "But the training should help you out quite a bit—the more tired you are, the more heavily you'll sleep, the less chance there is of you having nightmares once again. Exhaust yourself. Most of the time, it works."
Gohan nodded, grateful that Vegeta had actually replied. "Thanks, Vegeta," he said gratefully.
"Hn," was Vegeta's monosyllabic reply, before adjusted the settings of the Gravity Room and finally engaged the gravity.
About three hours later, after numerous ki blasts, bruises, bloody knuckles and lips, tearing clothing, taunts, insults, glares, punches, and kicks, a few loud knocks sounded on the door of the soundproof room. Gohan and Vegeta both stopped simultaneously, both of them in their Super Saiyan forms as they were breathing heavily—however, Gohan's breathing was significantly more labored and heavier than Vegeta's, who quickly regained his breath.
"You've gone soft, boy," Vegeta said disdainfully as he powered down from the legendary golden form. Gohan did, too, panting with his exhaustion, while Vegeta disengaged the gravity. Gohan went over to the door and opened it, and then grinned a bit at who was there, before he continued to pant.
"Hey, Bulma," he greeted.
"Hey, kiddo, I was looking for you!" Bulma smiled, and then her eyes widened as she saw the slightly bloody state that he was in, and the bruises that were littered across his body. When she looked behind Gohan into the Gravity Room and saw Vegeta in a similar state, she sighed and shook her head, muttering something about Saiyans being masochists.
"You were? Why?" Gohan asked.
"Well, your mom just called me—she figured that, if you weren't at the house, that you were here," Bulma replied, while Vegeta quickly tossed Gohan a towel which the half-Saiyan teen easily caught without even really needing to look at Vegeta. Even if he hadn't exactly trained in a while, his naturally fast Saiyan reflexes were still rather sharp, and Vegeta hadn't really used that much strength in his throw.
"Anyways, she called just to make sure that you were all right, and also for me to tell you that Videl's already at your house," Bulma continued.
Gohan's eyes widened almost comically. "Already? What time is it?"
"It's…a quarter to eight," the blue-haired heiress told him, quickly glancing at the clock on the wall in the hallway.
"But she usually doesn't get at the house until eight thirty!" Gohan exclaimed.
"Hurry up and go take a shower—Vegeta'll swing by your house and grab you a not-torn-up gi, and, if mister high-and-mighty doesn't feel like it, then I will ask my much more compliant son, probably waking him up and leaving both of us with a slightly crabby eight-year-old on our hands for the day." Bulma was pointedly looking at Vegeta, while huffed and rolled his eyes, crossing his arms against his chest.
"You go and fetch the boy's clothing, woman," he told her haughtily. "I'm not anyone's servant."
"Are you kidding, Vegeta? Do you know how long it'll take me to get there by hoverjet?" Bulma snapped in reply.
"Then send our brat," Vegeta shot back.
"No! He's still sleeping, you jerk! You completely exhausted him yesterday with your damned training, and I'm not waking him up to deal with a crabby kid all day!"
"Like I said before—you go," Vegeta retorted.
"All right, so I have two options—either I wake up Trunks, or I go. All right," Bulma began, her voice deceptively sweet. "If we go with the first option, then you're the one that's gonna be dealing with our pissed-off son the whole day while I sneak out of the house to get myself a long-overdue manicure. And if we go with the second, then you'll be the one who has to explain to Chi and Videl why Gohan took so long to get back because he didn't have respectable clothing because someone was just too lazy to get off his royal ass and get the clothes. So, what'll it be? There's always the third option that you go and get his clothes…"
"No, woman, I will not stoop so low as to do such a menial task!"
"Oh my god, Vegeta, I swear that you are the most selfish and arrogant little son of a bitch that I've ever had the extreme displeasure of meeting! Just get his goddamned clothes, you jackass!"
"And you're the most insufferable screeching banshee that I've ever come across in the universe! Once again, no, I absolutely refuse to do so!"
Gohan quickly left, knowing that one of the many legendary arguments between the short-tempered couple was about to erupt, and he decided that he didn't want to be in the middle of this certain confrontation. He did what anyone sensible would do—cleared the hell out of there, running upstairs to one of the showers in the extremely large building. Silently thanking Dende that he hadn't gotten lost, he quickly threw off his dirty clothes and went into the shower, cleaning off the perspiration that come onto his skin and the blood from the minor wounds that he had received from Vegeta.
The eldest half-Saiyan felt a rather high power level leaving the main compound of Capsule Corp, and internally laughed. Bulma had obviously won the verbal fight and had managed to force the prince into getting Gohan's clothes. The boy felt the irritation in Vegeta's ki as well as he quickly blasted off to the Son's little mountain home, and couldn't help but smile.
Eventually, when Gohan had completely gotten all of the blood off of his body and has cleaned off all the sweat, he got out of the shower and quickly dried himself with one of the towels hanging in the bathroom. He tied it around his waist and held it for good measure, before opening the bathroom door to see if his clothes had arrived yet.
He got the answer when his vision was suddenly obscured by purple as his clothes were thrown so forcefully into his face that he actually staggered backwards into the bathroom once more.
"Jeez, Vegeta, you didn't have to throw it that hard," Gohan muttered, his voice slightly muffled by his clothing before he took it off of his face, to see an annoyed Saiyan prince standing in front of the doorway, his arms crossed against his chest in his traditional manner while his black eyes glared at his rival's firstborn son.
"You should've been able to catch that, boy," Vegeta snorted disdainfully. "Gods, you've really let this time of peace get to your head." And, without another word, Vegeta walked away from the bathroom, probably to take a shower himself.
"Thanks, Vegeta!" Gohan called after the retreating back of the full-blooded Saiyan.
All he got in reply was Vegeta's middle finger as he continued to stalk away.
Gohan, once again, chuckled to himself. Vegeta's prickliness was something that he was accustomed to, and didn't faze him that much. He then discarded the white towel and quickly put on his clean underwear and gi, finishing it up as he tied the red belt around his waist, tugging it to tighten it. Then, he quickly ran out of the bathroom and flew down the stairs, agilely jumping down the entire flight and landing gracefully on the ground, running out of the door and past Bulma, who'd been eating breakfast in the kitchen.
"See ya soon, Bulma!" Gohan called over to the heiress as he left the house. The delicious smells of the breakfast nearly made him stop, but he remembered that his mother was probably cooking as well, and he fought off the first initial instinct to stay at Capsule Corp. and eat his fill before he arrived home.
"Bye, sweetheart! Visit soon, OK?" Bulma said in reply, standing up and waving goodbye towards the teenager.
"I will!" Gohan replied with a grin, before he opened the door and took flight, back to his humble little home, where his mother, brother, and pupil were waiting for him.
Much to Gohan's surprise, Videl hadn't instantly pestered him with questions the moment that he landed on the grass. She also didn't pester him when he was eating his breakfast, or while he was walking outside so that he could train her.
Her questions began once they were out of hearing range of Chi-Chi.
"Where the hell were you this morning?" Videl asked him, placing her hands on her hips. "I thought that I'd be able to get some extra training in today if I came a bit earlier, and it turns out that you're not here!"
"Heheh, sorry about that, Videl," Gohan said sheepishly, absentmindedly rubbing the back of his head. "I was visiting a friend for a little bit, that's all, it probably won't happen again."
"Who was this friend of yours?" Videl instantly demanded to know, suddenly feeling a surge of jealousy as she glared at him suspiciously.
"He's a family friend—I've known him since I was five," Gohan answered offhandedly, and Videl's jealousy melted away when she heard that it was a he, not a she, that Gohan had visited.
"This won't happen again, right?" she said.
"It shouldn't—and, if it does, I'll let you know, all right?" he offered.
Videl thought about this for a moment, before she nodded in condescension.
Gohan grinned at her. "All right. Now, we should work on getting you higher off the ground now, and work on your moving from side to side. You seemed to handle floating pretty well yesterday with relative ease, so we'll float and practice moving around a bit, all right?"
"OK, I'm ready," Videl said with a determined look in her eyes, waiting for Gohan to teach her.
The day passed, and eventually, Videl had managed to float a good fifteen feet off the ground and move in a slight circle as she hovered. However, it drained her of her energy very much, and had asked Gohan if they could take a break as she nearly collapsed on the ground. Gohan, of course, agreed that she could rest, and she'd flopped down on the grass, looking up at the sky as she caught her breath.
Gohan mimicked her, so that both of them were laying on their backs, staring at the sky. It was a little past two-thirty in the afternoon, and they had been training nonstop ever since he'd come back and after he'd eaten breakfast.
Gohan placed his hands behind his head, interlacing his fingers together as he watched the white clouds pass by him, his eyes at half-mast as he lazily watched them pass by in the sky, one of his knees bent and the other one resting on top of that one, his left ankle touching his right knee. Videl had one arm folded across her middle, the other one thrown out behind her as both of her knees were slightly bent as she, too, looked into the sky, watching the clouds pass by without a care in the world.
"That one looks like a swan," she suddenly said, and Gohan turned to look at her.
"Which one?" he asked.
"That one—see?" Videl told him, lifting up her right hand, which had been resting on her waist, as she pointed to the cloud that was passing by them with her finger, moving it to show him the different parts that she saw as she explained. "It looks like a swan. There's its head, and there's its long neck, and there's its body and wings."
"Hey, I see it," Gohan grinned as he saw the figure in the clouds.
"And over there, I see a tree—there's the trunk and all the leaves coming out from it," she continued, now moving her hand as she pointed to a different cloud.
"Do you often do this?" Gohan asked curiously. "You know, watch clouds and pick out their shapes?"
"Sometimes," Videl answered with a careless shrug, allowing her arm to fall on the grass on her side, her fingers almost touching Gohan. "Erasa and I often do this when we hang out in the summer. Some of the things that she finds are really creative, I have to say. Once, apparently, she found a mascara wand while I saw nothing but a stick."
Gohan laughed a bit at that, turning towards Videl, who was looking at him with a small grin on her face, before she turned her eyes back to the sky.
"What do you see?" she asked him.
"Well…" Gohan turned his gaze back to the blue, blue sky, filled with fluffy white clouds, and tried to make shapes out of them.
"That one, over there…that one looks like a dumpling," he offered, taking one of the hands from behind his head and jabbing it in the direction of the cloud that had just passed. "And that one—that one looks like a wonton. Oh, and that one over there looks like an egg roll! And there's a slice of pizza, over there!"
Videl turned her eyes back to Gohan, amusement glittering in her blue eyes. "Is food all that you can think about?" she asked him teasingly.
As if answering her teasing question, Gohan's stomach decided to join in on the conversation, and suddenly emitted an extremely loud growl. A crimson blush began to make its way onto his pale cheeks as he looked away from her, while Videl laughed at his embarrassment.
"I guess I have my answer," she joked.
"I can't help it, I'm hungry," he defended himself instantly. "I didn't have lunch."
"Well, maybe we should have something to eat—then, you'll be able to actually see other shapes in clouds besides food," Videl told him, shaking her head with slight laughter as she sat herself up while she spoke. Gohan had quickly followed suit, his cheeks still red from his embarrassment. Much to his utter mortification, the moment that the word 'food' left her mouth, his impatient stomach instantly agreed with her as it rumbled loudly once more.
Videl found his embarrassment to be quite hilarious, and couldn't help but laugh as his cheeks flushed an even deeper crimson, contrasting greatly with the pale complexion of his skin. They both the walked to the small house, where Goten was already wolfing down his inhumanely big portions of food, another pile stacked high next to him for Gohan.
The young human woman couldn't truly fathom how much food Gohan ate, and how quickly he ate it—he seemed to be inhaling the food, and, while she only had a decent-sized human portion, he was wolfing down insanely large amounts of food a the speed of light, while Chi-Chi looked at her sons with amusement glittering in her dark brown eyes. Once again, as Videl looked at how much food was being eaten, she found herself in awe at how neither Gohan nor Goten were extremely obese kids, both of them actually seeming to be in the peak of physical condition.
After Gohan finally finished his lunch, he was actually able to focus more on their cloud-gazing game. They both resumed their original positions on the grass, lying the slightest bit closer to each other this time, though, but neither of them was truly conscious of that fact.
"There's a rabbit," Gohan supplied, pointing towards one of the clouds.
"Mm-hm," Videl agreed. "I see it. I think that one looks kinda like a witch's hat, you know, those tall, pointy ones?"
"Yeah—and over there, there's a turtle!" he said, jabbing his finger near the cloud that looked like a pointed witch's hat. When Videl looked at him in slight incomprehension, he showed her the points on the turtle. "Look, there's its head, and that blob that makes up its body is the shell, and the little things that stick out are the flippers, see it?"
"Uh-huh," she replied, nodding as she saw what he was seeing, grinning. "Wow, you actually have a pretty good imagination when food isn't the only thing on your mind."
Gohan let out a slightly aggravated sigh, looking over at her with only the slightest bit of annoyance in his onyx eyes. "You are not gonna let that go, are you?" he asked; but it sounded more like a statement, one of defeat.
Videl couldn't help but laugh as the tone of defeat in his voice. "Nope," she grinned, playfulness dancing within her sapphire eyes.
"I thought as much," Gohan muttered, but couldn't help but grin the slightest bit at the humor that Videl had gotten from his embarrassment. He really liked it when she laughed and smiled—she looked even prettier when she smiled, and her laugh sounded oddly musical. He especially liked it when he knew that he was the one that made her laugh, that he was the cause of her happiness and her mirth.
"Now I see a butterfly," Gohan suddenly said, pointing at another cloud that was passing by them, making Videl bring her eyes up to the sky once again.
"Ah, I see! And next to it, there's an umbrella," she answered.
They continued playing the little cloud-gazing game for a while, each of them pointing out the shapes that they saw in the clouds. Some of the figures that they saw in the clouds were very creative—Gohan apparently was able to discern a frog from an odd blob of a cloud, but, once you looked for it, you were able to see the amphibious shape that Gohan had seen; from a few odd wisps of cloud, Videl managed to see a vague ribbon that was tied into a bow.
After dinner, as night came, they decided to switch their game to making shapes from constellations, since there were no more clouds to use, but there were so many stars in the sky. Videl wasn't really used to seeing all the stars in the sky, having grown up in an extremely populated area, but out here, in the rural areas, the sky was so clear at night, and there were so many stars, tiny diamonds glittering in a sea of velvety blue. Both she and Gohan were able to make many different shapes from the stars—animals, objects, many things. Stargazing was slightly easier for them to come up with shapes than cloud-gazing, and they did not tire of their game anytime soon, each of them wanting to see what the other was able to come up with. They didn't do any more training than the training that they'd done nonstop earlier, and neither of them honestly cared, each of them enjoying the quiet moments as they looked into the beautiful skies for figures.
Suddenly, a little ball of orange energy flew up to Gohan and landed right next to the half-Saiyan teen, laughing as he stood near his older brother. Gohan looked over to Goten, and raised an eyebrow.
"What's so funny, Goten?" Gohan asked his little brother. The young boy knelt down near the teenager, close to his ear.
"Trunks says that Uncle Vegeta's not really happy with you," Goten giggled quietly, leaning down to his big brother's ear so that Videl wouldn't hear. "He just told me that, during the day, Uncle Vegeta kept on saying stuff about how you waked him up before any 'sane being' should be up, and how Auntie Bulma made him get the door. 'Cause you waked him up before four-thirty, he's not happy with you at all."
Gohan cracked a light smirk. "Goten, have you honestly ever seen him happy with anyone?" he joked.
Goten laughed once again. "No, not really," he answered truthfully. "But he's more angry at you than he normally is."
Gohan chuckled, shaking his head. "I figured he would be," he told his younger sibling. "What else did Trunks say?"
The little boy looked up into the sky for a few moments, pondering. "Nothing else, really," he replied, looking back down at Gohan. "Oh, but Mommy wanted me to tell you that she wants to know where you go if that happens again—she was really worried, and I was, too. I missed you," Goten told his brother quietly, and he reached out and wrapped his little arms around his big brother's neck. Gohan sat up, lifting himself off of the ground with his abdominal muscles as he gently returned Goten's hug.
"I promise, I'll tell Mommy and you before I go anywhere else like that, OK?" Gohan vowed solemnly.
"OK," Goten agreed quietly with nod, still gripping the older male's purple gi tightly. "I love you, Gohan."
Gohan smiled at his little brother. "I love you, too, squirt," he replied affectionately, gently kissing Goten's forehead when Goten pulled away from the tight embrace that he had shared with his older brother. Goten smiled at the familiar nickname that Gohan sometimes called him, and giggled when Gohan ruffled the haphazard black spikes that made up his hair, exactly like his father's.
"Goten!" Chi-Chi called from inside of their small house. "Come back inside, it's time to start getting ready for bed!"
"Awh, but Mommy, I'm not tired!" Goten called back, but, nevertheless, he let go of Gohan and began to fly back to his house. When he little brother leapt out of his arms, Gohan reclined once more on the grass, tucking his hands under his head again.
Almost as soon as he was out of sight, the first thing that left Videl's mouth was a question of pure shock. "You're related to the Bulma Briefs?"
At that, Gohan slightly winced. Crap, she heard us, was the first thought that crossed his mind. Apparently, neither of them had been quiet enough with their little conversation. Then, he actually processed the true question that she'd asked.
"No, we're not related to her," he answered. However, this did not seem to satiate Videl.
"Then why'd Goten call her 'Auntie'?" she demanded of him.
"Well…ah…she's kinda a close family friend," Gohan replied, slightly sheepish. "She was like an older sister to my dad, and was kinda like an older sister to me when I was younger, and is like an aunt to me and Goten now. I've known her since I was…four years old."
Videl's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Holy crap," she muttered under her breath, shaking her head. That was definitely a surprise. But, then again, anything dealing with Gohan was certainly odd, so she shouldn't've been that surprised when he dropped that bomb on her. Gohan seemed to be full of surprises.
Then, Videl remembered a little something else that Goten had said. "Hey, why'd you wake up before four-thirty this morning?" she asked curiously. "Even I think that's a bit too early for anyone to be up."
"Oh…I just…wasn't able to sleep, is all," Gohan replied, a half-truth. Not a lie, but not the complete truth, either, as he watched the stars glitter in the dark night sky.
He looked up at Videl, and her face said that she did not believe his words at all. Gohan let out a light sigh at this as he shook his head, before turning his gaze back to the stars once more.
"Come on, Gohan; what happened?" Videl asked him quietly, and, surprised by how gentle her tone of voice was, Gohan turned back at her to stare at her, his slightly surprised obsidian eyes making contact with her lovely sapphire ones that seemed even deeper in the starlight. Shockingly, her blue eyes weren't filled with the demanding that they always had when she asked him a question—they were gentle and compassionate, really wanting to know what was going on to make him somehow feel better.
"Videl, it's…it's nothing," Gohan said, looking back at the stars before he closed his eyes, lightly shaking his head, hoping that she would just drop it.
After a few seconds, the young man felt a feather-light touch on his skin, and his eyes snapped open to see that Videl was gently touching his collarbone, the skin that was exposed of his chest because of his gi, and was propping herself up next to him, supporting herself with her right arm. He was mesmerized by her eyes—they were pools of endless, dark blue in the nighttime, having compassion gently sparkling within their depths. It seemed that her eyes each had a star caught in their immeasurable depths, the depths that, if Gohan felt that he would travel the slightest bit too far, he could possibly drown in. So lovely…
"Please, Gohan," Videl whispered, her voice gentle and soft. "I just…I wanna know what's bugging you. You can tell me, I'll listen."
Gohan continued looking deep into her eyes, as if searching her gaze for any lie. His amazingly dark eyes, the beautiful twin pieces of onyx, were scrutinizing her gaze lightly, trying to catch any sight of falseness in her tone or her gaze. However, she wasn't lying. She wanted to know what was going on with Gohan. Knowing that he hadn't been able to sleep was something that she knew that she shouldn't be concerning herself with, but she couldn't stop herself from caring. She wanted to make sure that Gohan was all right.
God, what had happened to her during the past five days? Before, she never gave a flying shit about Gohan Son; now, she wanted to know what was bothering him. Would wonders never cease?
Gohan sighed lightly once more, looking back up into the sky, knowing that it'd be easier for him to talk to her if he wasn't making direct eye-contact with her.
"I…sometimes, I get nightmares," he confessed quietly to her. "Of…of when my dad died. I saw it happen."
A small gasp escaped from the young woman's mouth, her eyes wide. "Oh my god…I'm sorry, Gohan," she told him truthfully. She didn't know that he'd actually seen his father die right in front of him. Videl couldn't imagine what it would be like to see her own father killed right in front of her. Sure, sometimes, she felt that he was nothing but an overly pompous bag of hot air, but she loved him to death. Seeing him die right in front of her eyes…
It was too terrible for her to really think about.
Hearing Videl whisper those words to him, so gently and so honestly, made Gohan look over at Videl once more, seeing the compassion and pity in her eyes. He looked back at the stars, gently continuing with what he was saying.
"I rarely get the nightmares…but when I do, it's like…like I'm reliving it all over again," he continued, closing his eyes as he remembered. Not only the death of his father had he relived far too many times, but the other things that he'd experienced as well; seeing his friends die at the hands of Nappa, seeing Piccolo die as an attempt to save Gohan; watching as Frieza killed Dende, ruthlessly beat and killed Vegeta, and blew Krillin to bits; feeling the indescribable pain of when Recoome broke his neck back on Namek; watching helplessly as Mirai Trunks was killed by Cell while Vegeta went ballistic over the death of the future son that he had constantly denied; hearing Sixteen's desperate plea before Cell ruthlessly crushed the Android's head right in front of Gohan; seeing the smile on his father's face as he gently told him that he was proud of his son, before using his Instant Transmission to take both him and Cell away from the scene…
"I've…I've always felt the slightest bit guilty about Dad's death," Gohan said softly, seeming to not be speaking to Videl anymore, simply saying his thoughts aloud as his eyes got lost in another time, in all the things that he'd seen. As a little boy, being thrown into the battle hadn't been that bad—it was like one big adventure. But then, realizing how many times you could've died, realizing that so many other people died just because you were too weak to save them…
"He was protecting me. I did something stupid, and he tried to fix my mistake. And he paid with his life," the half-Saiyan teen ground out between clenched teeth as he viciously gripped his hair in his anger and self-loathing, shutting his eyes. "I should've done something…but I was too scared and angry and…"
He felt the sting of tears threaten to leave the corners of his eyes, but he forced himself not to cry like a wimpy little baby in front of Videl. He sharply turned his head away, closing his eyes tightly to prevent the tears from escaping, taking slightly shallow breaths that hissed through his teeth and nose. But, suddenly, the emotions were all coursing through him once more—pain, agony, grief, hopelessness—all of them surging against him like a sudden flood without warning, as if the dam that had been so strong that stopped them from flowing had finally been broken.
"It was all my fault…" Gohan whispered. "All my fault…if it hadn't been for me, then he…he'd still be alive…I killed him…because of my one stupid mistake—!"
He had completely forgotten that Videl was there, listening to his whole tirade of anguish and anger at himself for not being strong enough to protect his father. She was quiet, looking at him with newfound compassion in her gaze, realizing that he really was hurting more than he ever let on. Who knew that Gohan, the almost always cheerful kid in the class, was hiding something like this? Something that he wasn't even fully conscious of that he was showing to her?
Seeing him like this made something odd twist inside of her, and she had no idea why. It was almost as if she was experiencing the emotion as well, simply by seeing Gohan's pain and agony.
And she knew that she had to help him, somehow, even if he didn't want it.
Gohan was still struggling to control his power as it began to slightly fluctuate within him—if he didn't keep it under control, than the others would sense it and think that something was wrong. He abruptly sat up, one hand gripping his black hair tightly and the other one resting on his bent knee as he struggled to regain his breath and valiantly fought back the tears. But it was all his fault. All because of his stupid, goddamned pride, his father was gone.
It was his fault.
All his fault.
It was then that he was suddenly conscious of a pair of thin arms wrapping around his thick, muscled neck, resting on his shoulders. Gohan slowly opened his eyes, which were slightly shiny with the unshed tears that he was struggling to keep in, and was able to see through the slight haze that clouded his vision that Videl was looking back at him gently, before she rested her head in the crook of his neck as she hugged him gently.
Videl honestly had no idea what, exactly, she was doing, but she knew that, sometimes, all a hurting person needed was a hug of reassurance and companionship. And she knew that, as of now, Gohan needed that, and she would be the one to provide the embrace.
For a few moments, all that was heard was the slightly labored breathing of Gohan, before, suddenly, his warm, muscular arms detached themselves from their fetal positions on his body and wrapped around Videl, hugging her gently in return. She kept her mouth shut, not wanting to say anything—she wasn't completely sure of what happened because Gohan's mutterings had been vague, and didn't want to say anything that she'd possibly regret in the future, and she opted for silence while he held her close to him. He was so warm, she noticed as she leaned slightly against his chest. She realized that this was the closest that she'd ever been proximity-wise to Gohan, but she didn't care at this moment. Her dad could bitch at her all she wanted if he ever found out about this, but Gohan needed it right now.
When she felt a single one of his tears hitting her neck, Videl felt an odd burst of sudden sorrow, and she suddenly felt like crying, as well. Just like his laughter, his sorrow was practically infectious. However, the thing that Videl also wanted to cry about was the fact that Gohan had kept this all bottled up, without telling anyone else, keeping it behind an almost-always-happy façade. Knowing that he'd gone through something so terrible when he was just a little boy…it was so unfair. No one should see their father killed right in front of them, and no one should feel guilty about it, either.
They seemed to be locked in a timeless bubble as Gohan's hot tears lightly hit Videl's neck every now and then. She kept herself strong, not complaining whenever he'd clutch her a bit tighter, as if he was a lost child seeking reassurance from a mother. Comfortingly, she ran one of her hands through his thick black hair, continuing to hold him.
Eventually, Gohan's shuddering in her arms had ceased, and he gently pulled away from her, anxiously wiping at his eyes as if to hide that he'd been crying, ashamed.
"I'm sorry about that," Gohan told her honestly, but his voice was slightly scratchy from his previous crying.
"Yes, you should be sorry," Videl told him. "Sorry that you kept that bottled up for so long! You could've told me before, you know…I'm sorry about what you've had to go through," she added, looking down.
Gohan resumed his original position on the grass, lying down slowly, his hands behind his head. He felt surprisingly better after that little unleashing of his emotions as he'd held Videl close to him, drinking in her surprisingly intoxicating scent for a human.
"Thanks for feeling that you could trust me with something like that," Videl continued quietly.
"It's nothing," Gohan replied with an absentminded shrug, and then he turned his head and lightly grinned at her, and Videl suddenly realized how handsome he was when he grinned. The moonlight accented the pale features of his face, which greatly contrasted with the onyx color of his hair and eyes; his black eyes were warm and lightly playful, that same gleam that she always saw in them there once again. That spark had gone away when he was talking about his past, but now it was back once more. "Actually, I should thank you. You were right—it helps to tell someone else."
"Aren't I a genius?" Videl teased, making Gohan laugh a bit as he shook his head.
"Yes, you are," he agreed, chuckling.
Videl smiled at him, lying down as well next to Gohan. The arm that was thrown behind her lightly touched his elbow, but he didn't seem to mind, and they continued to gaze at the stars silently.
Eventually, Videl heard steady breathing next to her, and turned to see that the teenaged boy had fallen asleep, his eyes closed as he breathed in and out deeply. His chest gently rose and fell as he slept, and the slightest of snores was emanating from him as he delved even deeper into the realm of sleep. The snoring didn't even sound exactly like snoring—it sounded more like purring, if possible, making Videl crack another grin at the thought. Just the thought of Gohan actually purring seemed absolutely adorable to her.
Eventually, it was getting rather late—the sky was growing even darker, and she knew that she was in for it when she finally returned home. Seeing Gohan sleep so peacefully, she was loathe to wake him up, but she knew that she had to so that he could go to bed properly.
"Hey, Gohan," she whispered harshly, poking his shoulder.
"Five more minutes, Mom…" Gohan mumbled sleepily in reply.
Videl actually laughed a bit at that. "I'm not your mother, you idiot," she told him, shaking his shoulder now. "Come on; wake up so that you can actually sleep on your comfortable bed."
"Huh…?" he muttered, and his eyes opened slowly, blearily blinking the sleep out of them.
Videl cracked a smirk at him. "Come on, get off of your lazy butt and go back home—I have to go back to my place, too," she told him.
"Oh, OK," Gohan replied, though she could tell that he was still half-asleep as he responded. The truth was, the earlier, vigorous three-hour spar that he had with Vegeta under two-hundred times gravity (Vegeta had changed the setting purposely to see if Gohan could stay in the game, and he did, but just barely) had completely exhausted him before, and now, that exhaustion was catching up with him. He barely registered what was happening now.
"See ya tomorrow, Gohan," Videl told him in farewell, grinning a bit.
"Yeah, see ya, Videl," Gohan returned, and then let out a huge yawn right after he spoke, stretching his arms behind him to stretch his slightly sore muscles from the intense spar with the Saiyan prince. While Videl popped open the capsule that contained her hoverjet, Gohan was walking towards his home, letting out another yawn from his exhaustion, making Videl grin a bit again.
She looked at the time in her hoverjet; it was 9:56. Usually, the latest that she would ever stay out of the house was at 9:30, and she knew that her dad was going to be very suspicious and that she was going to get a lecture when she got home.
However, if she had the choice, she wouldn't change a thing today.
Helping Gohan out had been worth it.
Well, I hope you guys liked! So, how'd everyone like my Vegeta? Did I write him well? This is my first time writing Vegeta, and he's such a complicated guy (but my favorite character EVER, right alongside Bulma and Trunks :D).
Anyways, what'd you think? Anyone OOC? I hope I didn't screw up anything…but I just HAD to put this because of a momentary bust of 'genius' (sarcastic tone there) that my mind just wouldn't stop thinking, so yeah. I really hope that this chapter hasn't disappointed!
Thank you for reading! And please review! Thanks! :D