Chapter Four: Enter Lime

Chapter Notes:

The following chapter notes are based on my personal knowledge.

Milo is a chocolate-y drink which, served either hot or cold, is made with chocolate and malt powder that we drink here in Australia (at least I do). If I'm not wrong, it can be equated to Ovaltine in the United States.

Vegemite is a spread that we put on our toast. Some people like it, others don't. It depends on your taste buds, but in general, most people like it and because it's so popular, it became one of Australia's many national icons.

Lastly, thongs is the word that we use to refer to what you may call flip-flops.

A/N: Thank you very much for the reviews. It's very constructive and helps me reflect on my story-telling skills.

I don't plan on addressing the reviews before the start of every chapter unless I feel that I have to, otherwise I'll just take the review into consideration and work on it subtly. I know there are a lot of questions left to be answered, but they will all be explained in good time, so I hope you can hang on as I plod along writing this story on my free time (I promise that I will spend at least 30mins to 1 hour every day to write something and hopefully I don't keep you all waiting for too long).

I just want to point out that the characters' personalities are my interpretation of what I've seen and, just like you, there are times when I get frustrated by the way they act. So, I will try to breathe life into them by making them more human while at the same time keeping their dominant personality (e.g. Gohan being naïve, kind and bad at lying). There will be times when I get so engrossed with writing that I go overboard, so I would like to apologize in advance.

Just a quick reply to two reviews in particular:

SaiyaStyles: "I am pretty sure there were people who weren't sucked up like the army and were blown up, and how did they explain that act, and also the act of going to the other world, or do they not remember that?"

- I'm not as well informed as I should be since I didn't watch everything, but thank you for pointing that out. I haven't actually watched the Cell Games and it would be nice if you could tell me which episode that was then maybe I can write up a logical explanation for this in some chapter eventually as I myself can't explain why people fall for Hercule's lies so easily. It's as if they don't have eyes or their brains aren't working right.

Maximusrexmundi: "I'm behind you 100% with the strength thing. If you compare dragonball feats to anything normal humans in Gohans time can do, there's really no question.
I'm oddly more interested in Erasa here than anything else... maybe because her character is so underutilized. I've only read maybe... 3? fics that were Gohan/Erasa and maybe a few more where she wasn't just a minor catalyst. I don't know if you've said yet what kinda story this will be (Gh/VV, Gh/E, Gh/L?) but I'm always a fan of throwing a curveball :)
Either way, I think that little background bit on her needs polish, but is generally good. I would recommend editing it a tad to fix flow issues.
It is also nice to see a personable Videl. Most of the time, she's characterized as a person who, under your circumstances, would have kept up the pressure even though Gohan was clearly upset. It's cool to see what you've done with her"

- Thanks, it's good that you asked. To answer your question, I've put on the summary that this is going to be a Gohan x Videl fanfic but stay tuned and see what I have in plan, just in case. Do give me ideas for fixing up Erasa's background. I'd be more than happy to comply since I agree that it can be more elaborate too. (:

With that said, thank you all for the reviews and please keep them coming. By looking at your reviews, I discovered two things. One, if I've missed out anything because I was so engrossed in writing that I forgot and two, if I wrote the story well enough to keep you wondering (while I already have some answers planned and waiting to reveal themselves in the subsequent chapters). These are definitely helpful for me in improving myself and with that, please enjoy the chapter.

The rest of Thursday came by without incident thanks to Videl's consideration of Gohan's feelings. There was no P.E. today so Gohan could relax and just sleep in class though some of the teachers wouldn't let him - until he proved to them that he could answer their questions despite not listening in class.

When the last bell chimed, Gohan was invited by Erasa – who dragged Videl along – to visit Sharpner in the hospital.

"Uh, sorry guys. I have a long journey home so…" he tried excusing himself.

"Aw, but don't you want to check on poor Sharpie?" Erasa pressed.

In the end it wasn't hard to convince Gohan to come along because his conscience wouldn't let him rest until he found out if his 'friend' was alright.

"Well, okay," he said hesitantly before adding, "But only for a few minutes, alright? I don't know what my mother will do to me if I come home too late."

"Good Gohan, and besides, if you're ever going to be late, you can just give your mother a call on my phone."

Now Gohan had lived his life reclusively until he joined Orange Star High School. His only interactions would be with the adults like Bulma and the Z-fighters and, since phone signals didn't exactly extend its reach towards the 439 East District area, he would simply fly to Master Roshi's island, Bulma's house and Kami's Lookout if ever he wanted to get in touch with the others.

Due to this, Bulma, his Godmother, made a special arrangement for the phone and TV companies to connect to the Son residence via optic fibres which ran underground because otherwise they would have had to construct signal receivers way out where Gohan lived which was not an option due to high building costs and maintenance issues.

As such, the Son residence only had access to good ol' wired telephones and cabled TV. They didn't even have access to the internet and, because of this; Gohan had never actually seen a smartphone though he had read about them in books before.

"I guess I'll have to work out how to use Erasa's phone later on when I need it," he told himself though luckily, he didn't have to borrow Erasa's phone until another day, which is for another story altogether.

And so, the three teens made their way to Satan General Hospital and, after asking the reception for Sharpner's room number, they made their way past the immaculate and disinfected corridors of the hospital and used to elevator to get to the 11th Floor. As soon as they were outside Sharpner's room though, they greeted by a panicked scream.

"THEY'RE NOT THERE!"

In a dark room, a young, short-haired and muscular teen smiled as he watched the pool game going on between his friends.

The teen's name was Durago, the man that Erasa called her boyfriend.

Pouring himself another cup of alcoholic drink, he smiled wickedly and said, "One more day, boys."

In the room, about four or five other teens chuckled. Their leader had definitely hooked himself a big one this time. With their absolute trust to the new drug from their supplier, they couldn't wait for the weekend to come.

Bursting into the room, thinking that there was a theft, Videl was greeted by the sight of Sharpner sitting upright in his bed with a panicked expression on his face.

"What happened, Sharpner?" she asked him.

"Y-you!" was Sharpner's shocked reply when he saw her face. "You're the reason for all of this!"

In a span of one night, Sharpner's opinion of Videl had completely changed. Instead of being his Goddess and potential girlfriend, he now viewed her as someone to hate and fear at the same time. Sharpner gave Videl a glare that could rival her own which Videl took offense at.

"Well, what are you glaring at, Sharpie?" she said sarcastically. "Are you going to tell us what's not there or what?"

Videl was the kind of woman that snapped and took offense at the simplest of things like when people lied to her or accused her of something. In a sense, this was very similar to Chichi who would get mad at the simplest of things like when Gohan took a break from studying to exercise a bit.

There was a brief silence where Sharpner clenched his jaws shut and hid half of his face under hospital blanket before he admitted the problem when Videl threatened to tell everyone in school about the nickname his mother calls him.

"Well, you see," he began. It was strange to see him so out of character, but his next few words explained to them soon enough the reason why.

"I was in deep sleep and in that sleep, I had a dream," he looked at Videl cautiously before continuing. "So, in that dream, me and Videl were making out – HEY WHOA! CAREFUL WITH THE IV DRIP, VIDEL!"

It took some time for Gohan and Erasa to calm Videl down before Sharpner reassured her by saying, "Sheesh. As I said it was a dream, Videl. Don't worry, I'm not after you anymore. I wouldn't want to marry such a violent woman like you. In any case, let me continue. So I was happily making out with you – in my dream, of course – when I felt a throbbing pain in between my thighs. That was when I woke up and…"

Sharpner hesitated.

"What? Spit it out already," Erasa urged him.

Sharpner gulped. "And then I looked and I saw that they weren't there."

"Oh, I'm sure your teddy bear will turn up somewhere, Sharpner. I lose mine all the time and it always finds its way back," Gohan tried to cheer his new friend up.

"Not a teddy bear, you geek. My balls! I looked between my thighs and all I could see was stitches. I can't even feel my precious gems which confirmed that they were surgically removed at some point. For now, I can't feel the pain, but I'm sure when the anesthesia wears off, I'm in for a world of pain."

"Gohan, sometimes I wonder if you're really smart," said Videl while sympathizing with an agitated Sharpner due to Gohan's naivety.

"You sleep with a teddy bear? That's so cute!" exclaimed Erasa, completely forgetting the situation. The event of Gohan carrying her during lunch was still fresh in her mind and she had to remember to give herself another mental shake.

"Besides, what is Brains even doing here? And you! You're the one that caused this. I'm a eunuch now because of you. Because of you I'm now Sharpnette. Because of you I'll never be able to pop a boner," he lamented before crying out, "Get out! Out, out, out, out, OUT!"

Seeing that Sharpner was very upset, the trio decided to leave the room and give Sharpner some space.

"Wow, I don't regret kicking Sharpner in the balls and sending him to the hospital, but I never thought I'd cause him to lose his nuts," a guilty Videl mumbled.

This time, it was Gohan's turn to cheer Videl up.

Patting her shoulders gently, he reassured her. "Don't worry about it, Videl. I'm sure Sharpner will forgive you sometime sooner or later. Besides, I'm really grateful to you for standing up for me back then."

Videl looked up at him and smiled.

"Thanks, Gohan. Even though you can be stupid sometimes, you really know how to say nice things."

Slightly, and only very slightly, Videl opened up a bit of herself to a man other than her father. The seed that would later on bloom into love for our young and naïve hero had been planted in Videl's heart.

Beside them, Erasa felt a mixture of emotions as she observed the two. She felt glad for her best friend and her new, good friend Gohan, because she could see the blossoming love between the two, yet she also felt another emotion in the depths of her heart: a dark emotion.

Jealousy.

She didn't know why, but she felt jealous at the developing romance between the two. "Could it be possible that I'm falling in love with Gohan?" she asked herself before frowning. "That can't be right. I'm in love with my boyfriend," she counter-argued with herself. "That's right. Maybe because I haven't seen Durago in two weeks that I long for his sweet words and his gentle touch that I'm feeling like this."

With that, she convinced herself, "You'll see, Erasa. Once weekend arrives and you see your baby, you'll feel right as rain."

It was raining the next day and it was the perfect weather for our favourite half-Saiyan to sleep in.

However, a looming figure entered his room and, seconds later, Gohan woke up after being slammed violently on the back of his head with Chichi's infamous frying pan.

"Ow, mum!" he cried, though really he didn't get hurt at all.

Some of you might be asking yourselves why Goku, Gohan and Goten let themselves be treated this way by Chichi despite the fact that they were powerful enough to destroy the Earth if they wanted to. The answer is simple. All three of the Son males greatly respected Chichi.

Goku respects his wife and loves her for who she is. Before becoming a mother, Chichi was the sweetest wife known to man and she took care of Goku's every need and for that, Goku's respect and love for Chichi grew increasingly as he saw how she labored to take care of him and took time to understand and give space to all of his eccentricities. This respect and love grew even more when he saw how much she cared for their son and how she worked so hard to make sure that he got a proper education, even cooking laboriously every day to feed both his and Gohan's humongous appetites. He even agrees with Chichi that Gohan should get a proper education because, although he isn't ashamed of living a peaceful and even close to being borderline poor lifestyle, he deeply regretted not knowing more about the world (heck, he even had trouble counting despite Launch teaching him when he was around 12) and he hoped that his son would at least have an education so that he wouldn't be as clueless as him. Therefore, Goku couldn't find it in his heart to hurt Chichi because he loves and respects her so dearly.

The same goes for Gohan and Goten. Though Chichi disciplined them harshly and even hit them with the frying pan, never did the thought of fighting back come across their minds because they knew how hard their mother works for their well-being and they knew that her love for them was so great that she was constantly worried for them. They knew that every action Chichi took was what she thought was best for them and therefore, they love and respect their mother greatly.

In any case, Gohan was rudely woken up by Chichi with a hit on the head using her frying pan.

"How long are you going to sleep, Gohan? Don't be late for school!" she nagged.

Sighing, Gohan dragged his body out of bed and took care of his personal hygiene before going down to eat breakfast.

Goten and Chichi were already seated at the breakfast table when he got down and Goten was ravenously gulping down his breakfast. Chichi smiled when she saw him and asked him to take a seat.

"Morning, mum! Morning, squirt," he greeted them before sitting down to grab himself some bacon, eggs and toast.

Feeling that something was amiss, Gohan wondered aloud, "Hey, bro, what's up with the coffee?" noticing that instead of the usual milo, Goten had a half-filled mug of coffee.

Chichi chuckled and said, "Goten wanted to try taking a step into becoming an 'adult' so he wanted me to make him coffee instead of milo and guess what his reaction was?" she asked Gohan eagerly.

Halfway through chewing on his toast, Gohan's muffled reply was, "Rhat?"

This got him a stern look from his mother. "Gohan, shame on you," she said crossly. "What did I tell you about your manners?"

Gohan gulped down his food and mumbled apologetically, "Sorry, mum. So, what happened?" he asked, curiously wanting to know which of the different interesting reactions he had in mind how his younger would react to drinking coffee.

Chichi couldn't contain herself and laughed while saying, "He stuck out his tongue and scrunched up his face and said, 'Ew, it tastes yucky! Mummy, this is bad for my health!' Isn't he adorable?" she sighed as she stroked Goten's head.

Gohan laughed heartily and patted Goten's spiky hair. "He is."

Goten scrunched up his eyebrows and pouted saying, "Hey! It's not nice to make fun of others, you bullies."

There was a light hearted atmosphere and idle chatter around the breakfast table for the Son Family until Gohan got up and left for school.

"Gotta boogie. Bye, mum! Love you always. Bye, Goten!"

"Bye, big brother! Come back and play with me soon, okay?"

"Bye, son! Be sure to study hard, alright?"

And with that, Gohan sped off and flew into the rain. "It's lucky that the Great Saiyaman suit's waterproof," Gohan thought. "I gotta remember to visit Bulma later and thank her for making me this amazing costume."

School was a rowdier place than usual because of the students eagerly discussing their weekend plans with their friends.

Gohan arrived with ten minutes to spare for once and he mentally thanked his good friend Dende that there were no crimes that morning. He supposed that due to the rainy weather, the criminals decided to sleep in and he was slightly envious of them that they could enjoy sleeping in in the mornings.

His thanks did not go unnoticed and, somewhere in Kami's Lookout, Dende smiled.

"If he only knew what's in store for him," he said to no one in particular.

"Oh my," Mr. Popo gasped. "But of course. Valentine's day is just around the corner, isn't it?"

Dende went into a fit of giggles which earned him a glare from Piccolo.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Piccolo said. He never really understood why the Earthlings enjoyed the occasion, and has long since given up on trying to find out why.

"Ah, but Piccolo, I'm not doing this. I'm only finding it entertaining knowing that the red threads of fate are intertwining and is running this course."

Piccolo grunted and said nothing more. Deep down though, he was worried for his young pupil. It wasn't that something bad was going to happen. Just that something unpleasant will rock the young half-Saiyan's world.

Back in school, Gohan soon found out the reason why Dende was laughing and why Piccolo was worried.

A series of unpleasant events did occur to him that day. First, he opened his school locker an avalanche of letters cascaded out of his locker and spilled onto the hallway. Not knowing what the letters were about, he gathered them all and stuffed them in his schoolbag before he got more stares than what he was already getting.

As soon as he reached the classroom, he opened one of the letters and read:

:: "Dear Gohan,

Ever since you started school this Monday, I was in love at first sight.

Will you please go out on a Valentine's Date with me?

Girl A" ::

He opened and read another letter and its contents were almost identical to the first one.

:: "Dear Gohan,

I'm in love with your hair! Please go out on a Valentine's Date with me.

No, better still, let's get married!

With love, xoxoxoxo

Girl B" ::

He went through all the letters because his kind hearted nature nagged at him telling him that these girls took their time to write down their feelings for him and it would be unfair if he didn't look through them at least.

When he was about halfway through reading the letters, Videl entered the classroom and sat at Erasa's seat when she noticed Gohan there.

"Morning, Gohan. You're here early today. What a surprise," she said sarcastically.

"Oh. Hi, Videl. Yeah, I couldn't believe myself either, but… here I am," he laughed while scratching the back of his head. "You're early today as well," he observed.

"Yeah, there were no crimes that needed my attention this morning, so I decided I might as well go to school and take shelter from the rain instead of being on stand-by in my jet copter."

It didn't escape Videl's notice that Gohan was early when there were no crimes and in her mind, she was already forming questions to grill him with when Erasa came in dripping water into the immaculate floor tiles.

"Hi, girl. Hi, cutie. You're both here early for once," Erasa observed.

"Hey, Erasa. Yeah, I was just talking to Gohan about that myself."

"Mmm," Gohan grunted to show them that he acknowledged their presence.

Wondering what was occupying her new friend's attention, Erasa poked her head into Gohan's business and exclaimed, "Oh my God! Wow, Gohan. I've never even received that much letters from guys this morning."

"What? What's going on?" a left out Videl wondered.

"Look at the number of love letters he got, Videl," Erasa nudged her best friend. "Looks like you've got competition!"

A mixture of shock and denial crossed Videl's face. "I've told you many times before, Erasa. I do not like Gohan!"

Erasa then entangled her arms with Gohan's and looked smugly at Videl's reaction while Gohan blushed a very bright pink.

"Then it's alright if I have him, right?" she teased.

Videl didn't know why, but she was very annoyed at seeing this sight, so she folded her arms together, looked the other way and said, "Whatever."

Just as Gohan thought the situation was bad, it turned worse when the homeroom teacher entered the class.

"Settle down, class!" Ms. Mademoiselle screeched and, as soon as the class quieted down, she continued. "Now, ve haff a new student again. She did not do as vell as Mr. Son, but she has done better zan all of you otherwise. You can come in now and introduce yourself."

Entering the room, a brown haired girl with green eyes walked up beside Ms. Mademoiselle. Though her hairstyle had changed to a ponytail instead of her usual pigtails, Gohan recognized her instantly both from her facial features as well as her smell. He even recognized her voice when she spoke.

"Oh my Dende it's –"

"Good morning, pleased to meet you. My name is Lime."

End of Chapter Four

To be continued...