AN: I just wanted to appologize for this taking so long. I've had a lot of family issues going on at the moment (my brother was in the hospital!) and my term paper is due next week, so I have a lot of things on my plate. I'll update again, don't worry! Also, I love reviews (the longer the better!). And Kiba Wolf...I love you. I just wanted to point out that I don't have MS word, so I did this on Open office, which doesn't correct grammar. After reading it over several times, I realized there were more than 100 comma splices that I'm just too lazy to fix. It's the content that counts!

Just Like Daddy

Youth in Asia, the Clever Lie, and Flying Dogs, Oh my!

Trying to get her attention was useless. There were over twenty men in the school vying for the affection of Videl Satan. How hopeless was he for even trying to talk to her? She was so popular, and he was nothing. The feelings were stronger now that he knew she was into family type men. So she had a thing for that student with a son; maybe he could pretend Goten was his son? No, that wouldn't work, how would he get Goten to call him daddy? The eldest teenager put his head in his hands and sighed. "It's going to be a long night."

"Pow! Aha, I got you!" Trunks sat on his haunches, leaning over the game controller with a smirk on his face. Most undoubtedly the famous smirk of his predecessor. There was no denial in Gohan's mind that this child was related to Bulma or Vegeta. He had the tactical know-how of Bulma, and the energy and combative skill of Vegeta. Video game or not, he had traits of both his parents.

Goten looked upset, staring over at the purple haired demi-saiyan. He had beaten him at Street Fighter again, and it was not looking to be a good day for him. He always won against his older brother! Then again, Gohan cheated by letting Goten win, though he wasn't aware of such a situation. To him, it was just tactical advantage. "No fair, you cheated!"

"Uh-uh! I don't cheat," Trunks announced proudly as he looked at the younger Son, sticking his tongue out at him. "I win, you lose. Get over it. It isn't the end of the world."

"But it could be! What if the game blew up and took out the whole earth? Then you would feel guilty because you didn't let me win my last game!" Goten shouted in his defense.

Gohan, whom had been quiet for most of the argument, finally felt the urge to look at the train-wreck of an argument. "The statistical probability of a game blowing up is unlikely...even worse is the statistical possibility of the game taking out the whole earth. That seems more like something that would happen to Bulma than to you." Gohan answered, defusing the argument with his monotone response.

"You look upset," Trunks added, staring over the eldest Son's shoulder. Gohan peered at him, taking a second to respond. "Let me guess, it's a girl."

"It's a report." Gohan responded, tapping his pencil on the paper as he leaned back on two legs. The chair might have cracked or broke, if he hadn't been hovering slightly. How could he write a report on something he didn't agree with? The stupid teacher said that since he felt so strongly on the topic, he had to write the opposite side of the argument. Creative writing was a droll, but essays were worse.

"On what?" Came Trunks' quiet question, leaning on the desk so he could stare at the two sentences on the paper.

"Euthanasia." The older Son responded casually, feeling he didn't need further explanation.

"What about them?" Trunks asked taking the paper off the desk and staring at it. He knew what most of the words were, but Gohan always wrote beyond him; college level for a high school class. "Why using Euthanasia is a good thing. People have argued on the wrong side for decades that killing them is wrong but..."

Goten's eyes went wide. "You want to kill us? What did Trunks and I do to you?"

Gohan paused, grabbing his paper from Trunks. What HAD he written? Reading the paper carefully, he sighed and stared over at his brother with sympathetic green eyes. "Not youth in Asia." The older brother answered. "E-u-t-h-a-n-a-s-i-a."

"Yeah, isn't that like little kids? We're in Asia...and we're youths..." Goten began to whimper.

"No...he means like killing animals and stuff." Trunks answered for Gohan, sparing him the long and boring details. The medical jargon and stuff lawyers say to calm down angry pet owners. "Like, say your dog got-"

"We don't have a dog."

Trunks face-palmed, then growled slightly at the younger boy's response. "Just pretend you have a dog."

A shrill whistle emitted from Goten before he started snapping his fingers. "Come here Muffy! Come here, Muffy!"

"What are you doing?" Trunks hissed.

"Pretending I have a dog. Muffy is a good dog."

"We would not name our dog Muffy...we'd name him Thor or something masculine. No one names a dog Muffy...except Paris Milton." Gohan interjected monotonously. Seriously, his brother had to be kidding. No one names a dog Muffy.

"Moving right along...pretend that Muff-Thor got really sick and couldn't walk anymore." Trunks continued to explain. "Now what are you doing?"

"He can fly! He doesn't have to walk anywhere if he can fly!" Goten made ridiculous hand motions, as if he were petting a dog in the air.

"Dogs can't fly!" Trunks growled, losing patience with Goten pretty quickly. Where did he get these crazy ideas? Was Chichi feeding him crazy chicken or something?

"In all fairness, you did say pretend." Gohan murmured quietly before he turned back to his assignment. Trunks spoke Goten's language, it was probably best that he let the younger Demister do his dirty work for him. He tuned out most of the conversation between the two boys when something occurred to him. Why didn't he use Goten as his son? If Videl was so keen on getting a boyfriend with a son, what was to keep him from pretending Goten was his? The only flaw he saw was his mother. Hiding her could be a problem. Goten was good at pretending, maybe he could pull it off. "Goten, do you like pretending?" Gohan asked, turning to the two boys in question. Goten nodded his head eagerly, his unruly ebony hair bouncing with each nod as if it were a child with a sugar rush. This could work out in his favor, if he could get Goten to go along with it.

"I don't care what you say," Trunks growled lowly. "That kid cannot pretend. He thinks dogs can fly! Dogs can't fly!"

"...unless they're genetically engineered to do so. Ask your mom about it, I'm sure she has something along the lines of a flying dog."

"My mom does not have a flying dog...and if she did, I'd probably have heard about it by now. She can't hid something that awesome from me. I leek pure awesome. I am not afraid of any-" Strangely, he never did finish his thought.

"TRUNKS VEGETA BRIEFS! YOUR MOTHER IS HERE TO PICK YOU UP!" Chichi shouted up the steps. The three boys flinched, but it was only visible when Trunks did it. Not scared of anything, huh? Well that could be played to his disadvantage. When Bulma's son had left, Gohan swiveled on his desk chair to face his brother. Ah, young nave little Goten, what would he do without him?

"Goten, let me ask you something." Gohan began, folding his hands in a pyramid, much like a diabolical tactician. "How would you feel about a game of house?"

"House? Like what kind of house? Full house, on the house...house salad...mm mm, salad." As the child began to drool, Gohan pondered the choices he had. He could either let Videl go, which wasn't likely, or he could convince his brother to help him out. It seemed more likely that he could get his brother's help before admitting he didn't like Videl.

"Like...house. With a mommy, daddy, and kids. Maybe a flying puppy or two?" Gohan asked, leaning forward slightly, his hands folded in his lap now. "What do you say? If you pretend to be my son, I'll give you all the salad you can eat. And I might consider throwing in the prototype for a flying dog."

Goten's eyes shot to his brother's for a moment. Had he just promised him a dog...a flying dog? This was almost too good to be true. "Are you trying to low-ball me?"

Gohan sat up straight, eying his brother. "Am I what? Where did you learn a term like that?"

"Trunks. He taught me a lot of words, like damn, and hell, and monkey nuts. I don't get that last one though. Back to the question, are you trying to low ball me?" Goten was pretty bright, when he tried that is. The eldest Son was impressed.

"I guess I did underestimate you. What would you want to pretend to be my son?" Gohan asked, feeling the need to clarify his intentions. Of course, his intentions weren't true, nor did he have the foresight to tell his brother that. "I never got to play house as a kid, and I want to see what it's like. Plus, it would get you ready for when dad comes home from overseas."

"Dad's coming home?" He'd never seen his brother so happy, it was like Christmas without all the presents, lights, and weird smelling candles. How could he tell the child no?

"Yes, and you might want to know how to treat him for when he gets here. So what do you say?"

"I say..." Goten looked as if he were in extreme thought. A look he could not pull off well. It was like shoving a finger in a light socket...that analogy didn't fit, but who cares. The visual was funny! "I say no."

After all that time, he said no? Gohan nearly face planted into the ground. No? The kid had the nerve to say NO? "Why?" The older brother whined, hoping his brother would eventually give in.

"Because, I want to know whats in it for me. Do I get to meet the girl playing mommy?" Gohan shook his head no. "Will mommy play mommy?" Another no. "Well whose gonna play mommy?"

"A girl from school." Came the simple reply of the eldest.

"Then I say...sure."

"Hey, brother," Goten murmured from behind Gohan. The younger Son was preparing for bed, and he was well aware that Gohan hadn't done his homework for today. It probably wasn't something to worry about; maybe he just got lazy today. "Who are you talking to?"

"Oh, I was just talking to myself." He knew how absurd that sounded, but if Goten believed him, that's all he needed. Goten lay down on his pillow and looked at his brother's reading lamp again. Maybe he was sick? "You okay, buddy?"

"Just tired, Trunks beat me good." He smiled brightly and watched as Gohan reached up to turn the light off. Tomorrow wouldn't be so bad after all, at least if he kept thinking positively. "What did you do all day?"

"Homework." The terse reply was harsher than he realized, he almost scoffed saying it, but Goten didn't seem to notice. "I probably should have stayed in homeschooling. Mom gave less homework than these people do."

Goten nodded when the phone started ringing. Chichi didn't waste time, maybe it was Bulma for the nightly chat. It was a girl, but not the one she had expected. "Who are you looking for?" Chichi asked.

"Is Gohan there? I just need to ask him something." Videl noticed the harsh way that Chichi spoke; it must have been a wife thing. She would do the same thing if she were married to him and a random girl called. Chichi murmured an inaudible be right back, and then shouted for Gohan to answer the phone. The exchange took a few minutes at most, but Videl knew the woman had hung up when the click was heard. "Gohan?"

He nearly choked when he heard the voice. Why was she calling him? She was interested in that guy! "Hey Videl, what do you need?" Forcing himself to be patient, he awaited her answer. Nothing was more socially unacceptable on the phone than to act like friends when they weren't.

"Did you get the assignment for chapter 9? I missed it because of my...meeting." She could hear pages shuffling on a desk, followed by a thud and something shattering on the ground; uncoordinated as always, but still loveable in a geeky way. Who was in the background?

"I gotta go to bed," whined the young boy. "Momma wants me to go to Bulma's tomorrow."

Videl was positive of one thing; whoever he was married to was friends with one of the most famous inventors in West City, which meant he wasn't as dorky as she previously thought. She sighed when he took another twenty hours to answer her question. Finally his voice came over the line again, whispering softly in answer to her question. "Read pages 187-200." He paused, waiting for her response. "Oh, and answer the questions on 190."

"Alright," Videl scribbled down the answer, and then smiled a bit. It took her a moment to realize he wasn't there, but she didn't care. She wanted to smile. Even if it wasn't his son, she would fall for him. There was no doubt about that. "Thank you, Gohan. Tell your son I said goodnight."

"Oh, he's not my son, he's my brother." Was she always this easily confused? "But I'll tell him you said goodnight."

"Brother? He really told you it was his brother?" Erasa asked curiously, watching Videl fiddle with her books. The ebony haired girl was having a difficult time getting her books from her locker; mostly in part to the fact that there were things other than her books in her locker. Erasa sighed, motioning for Sharpener to come over. "Can you get her books out for her? We need a campfire session here."

"Campfire is for third graders, we call it brainstorming, Erasa. This is high school." Videl did have a point, but Erasa wasn't about to give into the cold ways of her best friend. It was time for lunch, and Erasa was getting fed up with waiting for them. When Sharpener managed to pull Videl's books from the locker, he shoved them at her. "What was that for?"

"Why are you going after him?" Sharpener asked quietly, knowing the answer already. He was fresh meat, someone she didn't know every damn thing about. Plus he had scored perfect on his entrance exams; no one in the history of Orange Star could do that. "If he has a child, leave him alone. We don't need to ruin that. He's been keeping it a secret for a reason."

"How would you know?" Erasa asked dully, wearing at his last nerve. (No puns intended)

"I overheard him in the locker room yesterday. Obviously he's calling this kid his son because he doesn't want us to know about it. We should respect that. The way he talks about him, you would realize he doesn't want this to be public. He talks highly about him, always telling me how Goten, that's his name, is good at baseball, and running. He's such a proud parent, you know? Don't break it for him; this is how he wants it." Sharpener didn't know how to react to Videl's next comment, but to say he tried would be an understatement.

"Why are you protecting him?" Videl asked with a hiss. It was all she said, it was all she needed to say.

"Because frankly, I would do the same thing if I still had custody of my son." Videl had forgotten about Sharpie, but there was no excuse for him to protect Gohan. Sharpie was known around school within the first week, ruining Sharpener's reputation. Gohan was fairly good at keeping secrets.

"What if we're all wrong?" Erasa asked curiously, peering at her friends, watching Gohan from across the hall. His head was hung in shame, people were laughing at him. She didn't understand why, but maybe it would make sense later. "What if it really is his brother? Maybe his dad is on business somewhere. I recall him saying at one time that his dad was far away; he'd been gone for a long time. Maybe his dad left. Think about it, Goten is like…four, right? And Gohan is eighteen…so how could it be his kid? Gohan would have been fourteen—"

"—which isn't impossible." Videl growled, cutting off the blonde. "Erasa, maybe it's not what you think it is. How do you know he isn't just saying it's his brother to make us all feel better about it; like it's actually socially acceptable or something?"

"Because you have to look at it this way," Sharpener muttered beside Videl. "Who would sleep with him and then abandon the child? I've met the woman you think is his wife…she's beyond too old for him. I mean, she's like a billion and he's like…ten. The age difference is dramatic, and he doesn't strike me as a grave robber."

"You don't know what he does when he's not in school. And besides, it's always the quiet ones you have to look out for," Videl answered in a matter-of-fact tone. "Have you seen how he walks around school like he owns the place? He can't just come in here and pretend to be cool – I have to know if it's his kid."

"Why? You want to extort him, but for what reason? Videl, you can't ruin people's lives just to make your own seem better. He's a nice kid, for the most part, don't try and change that." Erasa muttered, turning her back to Videl so she could watch Gohan meander through the halls.

"You're only saying that because you like him," Sharpener announced, glaring at the bubbly blonde. "You like all the new kids; but I agree, I'm on Era's side. What you're doing is wrong, Videl."

"Wrong or not, I really don't need anyone's permission to do what I'm going to do anyway." Videl turned on her heel, walking into the locker room. What nerve they had to tell her that the man she was interested in wasn't who she thought? There's no reason that the kid can't be his. But Erasa and Sharpener were right; the age difference was rather dramatic. Was it possible that it wasn't true? Videl crammed her books into the locker in the gym before changing into her physical education shorts and tee shirt. She would get to the bottom of it; even if it took her another year to do it.

Brushing her long locks into a pony tail, she smiled into the mirror, then turned a few times to check her reflection. Not bad. She smiled again, then grabbed her shoes and ran outside to the baseball field. She was stuck in baseball with Gohan, the only other class they had together other than creative writing. She slithered her way across the field before finally stopping next to where he sat on the bleachers. "So your brother is cute."

"You met him?" Gohan asked, curiously looking up at her. His aqua eyes seemed so much more deeper than she remembered. Maybe they were the kind to change in sunlight. "He's a great kid, but he has a lot to learn about people. Can't trust everyone, you know? The guy next to you could be a murderer and you'd never even know it." Gohan murmured watching the game from he perch on the wooden sanctuary.

"I heard you got a job over at Angela's parent's place. What's that like?" She asked curiously, nudging him slightly in the ribs.

"I haven't started yet, but I hope I do soon. We need the money badly." Gohan didn't specify why, but Videl had a feeling it was because of the fact that he was a single parent. Maybe the mother died! That was a thought that hadn't occurred to her at first. She gasped a bit, then looked at the wooden bleachers in front of her.

"Gohan, do you have any idea what people say about you?"

"Yes. And I don't really mind. If it's true, why would I fight back?" He had a point, if the rumors were true, they weren't really rumors. He couldn't deny what was fact. But why would he be so secretive about his son then?

"So you do have a son?" Videl asked, brushing her bangs back in the wind. The rumors were true, and dispelled just like that? How could he keep it a secret for so long?

"No. I thought you meant the one about me wearing bear boxers. That one is true. I don't have a kid." He looked at Videl, his eyes boring into her soul, almost like he was ripping it out of her. He looked so upset, so distant in that moment, she didn't know what to think. "I'll be honest with you. I trust you. I don't have any idea where these rumors started, but they aren't true."

"Sharpener says you're hiding it because you want to be normal." Videl knew he was talking about the same thing, he had to be!

"Normal is a relative term, when you're an outcast, there is no sense of normal. Just because I have a different lifestyle doesn't mean I'm gay."

Where had that one come from? "They say you're gay? I haven't heard that one yet." Though she knew within the hour, it would be on Lynn Chambers' blog. It always was that way.

"No; I'm not gay. See, this is why I don't try to fight rumors, people always twist my words around to use them against me. It's like the court. They can't legally do it, but they do anyway. You know 'anything you say can, and will, be used against you in a court of law'? That's how I feel, like I'm in the middle of Judge Judy's court room every day. All because people have to make up rumors about the new kid to make themselves more justified in the fact that they're old news."

Videl was shocked at his statement. "That's how you feel?" Her blue eyes gazed out into the field, where he stared at no one in particular. It was the spot she was usually in, she could tell that by the plate that was no longer baring her foot to stop people from stealing bases. She smiled at him and gently hugged him. "Don t worry. Even if the world is falling down around you, you'll always be able to count on me to help you."

He wondered how true that would be; her helping him when the world falls down. If only she knew what he was capable of. The likely hood if her helping him was almost stellar against it. She was so weak on the level he was. She was around the same strength as Krillen, but even that wasn't strong anymore. He could feel his phone vibrating on the bench beside him, so he looked at the number, then flipped it open. "Gohan." He paused, listening to the girl on the other end. The housekeeper for the Briefs' residence. "He's sick? Alright. I'll be right over; tell him that mommy will be home later to take care of him." When he hung up he flagged down the coach. "Coach, my brother is sick. I have to go home and pick him up."

"Still saying he's your brother? Whatever, Son, go get him. And don't come back until you're ready to participate in class!" The coach shouted at his retreating back. Damn kids would be the death of him. "Alright everyone, back to your places; the crisis has been averted, overcome."

"See what I mean? Maybe it is his brother." Erasa said, sitting beside her friend on the wooden benches.

"But he said 'mommy will be home later'...could that mean he's married or has a girlfriend?" Videl asked with a slight frown. She was confused by all of this. How could she ask something so personal? He'd never forgive her.

"Why not go find out yourself? Sharpener found his address, he lives up in Mount Pauz." Erasa murmured with a small smile. Videl would not pass up an opportunity like that.

"You mean it? It's the real address? It's going to be hard to get there by foot, I'll have to use the copter. You know how much I love you right now, Erasa?"

"I know. Trust me, I know. Now go find out if that hunky hottie friend of yours is taken, dammit! Stop asking us questions we don't know the answers to!" the bubbly blonde shouted as Videl began to run from the field. Too bad Erasa didn't tell her the address was wrong. The one they found listed a Son Chichi at the residence, as well as a Son Goku, but no children. Oh well, if she wanted to risk it, let her.