Pacific Dragon
~ Lady Eldaelen ~


Previously:

"That was," Videl let out slightly breathless.

"Amazing," Gohan followed up.

"You're doing great, kids," Bulma voiced over the comm. "That's the cleanest baseline we've gotten."

After being so in tune with each other, the comm sounded almost intrusive in their ears, and their shared irritation brought matching laughs to their lips.


- Start -


Videl woke up with a startled cry. Her whole body protested with every breath and she fought the sudden panic that welled up from wondering what she had done to feel so terrible. A knock on her door echoed through the metal walls.

"Videl, honey, it's Chi Chi. May I come in?"

"Sure," she gasped as pain blossomed along her right side.

The door slid open and Chi Chi bustled in carrying a tray from the Mess, full to the brim.

"Come on, now," she urged, turning on a light to get a better look at her, "how do you feel?"

Videl winced as she struggled to sit up. "Like I got blindsided by a semi."

"Here, drink this," the woman said, nodding as if she expected as much, then offered Videl a small teacup. "Best to take it in one go, it's quite bitter."

Videl accepted, though she could barely keep hold of the delicate porcelain. Every joint felt loose and misaligned, muscles stretched past the breaking point. The moment she swallowed the understatedly bitter liquid, though, her body infused with warmth. The worst of the aches dissipated in a couple of heartbeats.

"What was that?" Videl exclaimed, peering into the empty cup.

"Senzu tea, from powdered Senzu bean. We try not to make it too often, since they've been out of season for years now, but Gohan thought you would need some this morning."

Chi Chi lingered until she was reassured enough that Videl could move around on her own and didn't need an emergency trip to the Med Center, then left her with the tray which, aside from the tea, was loaded down with food. Breakfast. Videl didn't feel the slightest bit hungry. In a too fast turn to pull out a clean shirt and pants, she caught a painful jab in her side, high on her ribcage, where the shadows of bruising still remained.

"Sorry," came a voice by the still-open door. "That's my fault."

Gohan stood a step outside the doorframe, not quite letting himself in. "From yesterday, an old injury," he explained further.

"From Vegeta," Videl replied automatically, thinking about the last moments in their drift. Of the crushing kick the prince had landed on Gohan underwater, disabling him enough that he had no choice but to stop trying to go after Goku.

"Yeah. To be fair, I didn't leave him with any better options. I'm just sorry you had to feel all of it, too."

"The tea really helped."

"Good. So, there's nothing on the schedule for you today," Gohan tentatively explained, eyes roaming around the room, studying everything but her. "We both have a follow-up in the Med Center at some point, but it can be a drop-in thing. Feel free to go back to sleep or hang out in here or the lounge or have your friends visit -or go to them…"

"Gohan, I can figure out what a free day means."

"Oh. Right. I'll, uh, just let you be-"

"You can stay if you want." Videl blurted out. "I mean, I'd like it if you stayed."

He hesitantly asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

A brief flicker of relief flashed across Gohan's face, "Alright. Let me just grab a couple things. I'll be right back."

Videl quickly freshened up and curled back on her bunk just as Gohan returned with a stack of books and data pads. He settled in at her desk, carefully pushing aside the food tray to make room for his work.

"Help yourself," Videl offered. "I'm not hungry right now."

"It's the tea. Your appetite will return in a few hours."

But he picked up one of the toast slices and absently ate away at the whole spread. For a while Videl just watched him systematically turning pages and jotting down notes between bites, slightly in awe as she was nearly certain he'd already eaten a full breakfast if he'd stuck to his usual schedule. Every so often her side would twinge and after the third time it happened she realized Gohan would press his free hand over the same spot on his own ribs.

"You can feel that?" she asked when they both did it again.

"What?"

"Your side. You keep rubbing it."

"It's achier than usual, that's all."

"Than usual?"

"I've broken most of the bones in my body multiple times," Gohan said, shifting his attention to her fully. "Something almost always is hurting or healing or both. It's inevitable, really, for what goes on. My dad's genes help out a lot, but even he feels the wear and tear of such extreme fighting."

Phantom pains from hundreds of spars and practices and battles flashed through Videl as she recalled their drift. They both reached for their sides, but Videl's quirked smile at their shared feelings only made Gohan's frown more pronounced.

.


They spent the entire day together. Chi Chi returned later with lunch, and true to Gohan's predictions, Videl ravenously devoured her half of the meal. She swore she could hear Gohan's laughter at her suddenly voracious appetite though all he did was raise an eyebrow. Krillin escorted Erasa up to Videl's room and the girls chatted for a couple hours, Gohan unobtrusive, yet entirely at ease still settled at the desk, and completely oblivious to the knowing smiles Erasa kept shooting between himself and Videl. They both walked Erasa back out to the Camp and after she hugged Videl goodbye, she reached up and wrapped her arms around Gohan's shoulders as well.

"Call me later, Videl, okay? Bye!" Erasa replied before fairly skipping away.

They swung by the Med Center on the way back inside and received a clean post-drift evaluation, then stopped by the Training Hall. The pilot room was empty and not due to be used for several hours so they walked through some stretches and forms, a mix of both their styles. They followed with the Jaeger Kata, slowly building speed until Gohan could tell Videl was struggling to keep up. After another round of stretching, they laid out side by side in the middle of the room.

It was easily the best day Gohan had had in years.

.


"Can I ask you a question?" Videl asked in the quiet stillness of the Training Hall.

"Of course," Gohan answered, glancing over at her.

"I'm not going to slow you down, am I?"

"No. I'll still train with the others as usual, but even so, I haven't kept as heavy a training regiment for a few years now. I don't have the time, not with helping Bulma. I really don't care for it, anyway. Fighting has never been as enjoyable to me as it has to the others, even my brother likes it more."

Gohan pulled at the hem of his shirt. "I wear weighted gear more often than not, just for some passive resistance to keep my speed up."

"Now? That's weighted? How heavy?"

"I'm not sure, exactly. Bulma's dad has been making them for all of us for years. He sends over a bunch of different weights in each batch, and they're always getting a little heavier. Capsule Corp has one of the most innovative textile branches in the world."

He caught her interested expression and tugged the long-sleeved shirt off, letting her pick up one of the sleeves. Her eyes grew wide as she lifted the deceptively heavy fibers barely an inch, but they quickly narrowed as she caught sight of something else. Gohan stiffened as her hand reached out, hesitating just over his left shoulder. He nodded, letting her continue.

She traced her fingers over the webbing of rough scar that covered nearly all of his exposed skin in that area, up over his collarbone, down half his bicep like a sleeve, following around to his back and shoulder blade.

"I almost lost my whole arm that time," Gohan murmured, carefully assessing her reaction.

"How old were you?"

"Ten? Twelve? Old enough to know better."

"How can you joke about that?"

"Videl, I was four at my first fight. I should have known better and If I can't joke about injuries, I wouldn't be able to talk half as much. None of us would."

He slipped his shirt back on, tugging the sleeves down to his wrists.

"You're not embarrassed, are you?"

"No, though at the time I was embarrassed about the whole incident, that I'd let it happen in the first place. Honestly, I forget about it sometimes now."

"Really? It never bothers you?"

"Only in bad weather or if I haven't stretched out enough."

"I didn't mean in that way."

"It's part of me," Gohan said. He shrugged his shoulders and it was only then that Videl noticed the movement was slightly uneven; slivers of memories from the drift revealed how hard he'd worked to keep the injury from slowing him down. "It's part of what I've lived through. I'd have to wish all of that away, too."

.


The Ginyu Force was everything Vegeta had described them as being, and then some. If they hadn't been in the middle of the strongest encounter yet, Gohan might have laughed at the sheer theatricality of the group. He could sense they were more than just bluster, but even with the itch to just get it over with, they stalled for as long as they could.

When the fighting actually started, Krillin and Gohan would have been able to hold their own if it hadn't been for the time and mind freezing trick. After several attempts at taking the short green one out, they'd been stuck, literally. Unfortunately, Guldo had been so focused on his easy prey that he totally missed reinforcements approaching the island. Piccolo zapped the time stopper with his laser eyes about five feet away from impaling Gohan with a piece of driftwood.

Piccolo's arrival melted the last traces of Gohan's battlefield apprehension away. Between the three of them, he, Piccolo, and Krillin took out two other Force members and more than stalled for Vegeta to arrive on scene. The red-headed giant disintegrated from one shot of a Jaeger-scaled Final Flash, but instead of focusing on the last opponent, Vegeta began shutdown of the Renegade.

They kept an uneasy watch on the final intruder, who split his attention between the large machine that had taken out his teammate and studying Gohan with a curious gaze.

Before he could voice whatever questions he had, Bulma sounded the all clear over their comms and Renegade's hatch popped open, unleashing a whirlwind of enraged Saiyan prince as he made a fine entrance to the engagement.

"Where the hell is Ginyu?" Vegeta shouted, landing a solid punch across the cheek of the last alien.

"Huh? I thought that was Ginyu," Krillin whispered to Gohan as they watched Vegeta thoroughly whale on whoever it was with a rage they hadn't seen since Vegeta had first arrived on Earth.

"Ginyu was killed on Namek," Piccolo spoke low, coming up closer behind them.

"Namek?" Gohan questioned, sparing a glance at his mentor. "What's that?"

"It's my home world. These guys invaded there not long ago."

"How do you know tha-"

"What do you mean he's dead?" Vegeta exploded, pausing long enough for his opponent to give him a battered smirk. "That was a pleasure I was hoping to lay claim to."

The not-Ginyu pointed over at Piccolo. "You should talk to your green friend-"

"Don't change the subject, Dodoria. You'll just have to do."

While they appeared evenly matched Gohan knew Vegeta was holding back. A lot. And though he couldn't quite hear the taunts traded back and forth between the two as the fight picked up pace and spread out further away, he could tell the alien's words were affecting Vegeta. Not for the first time, Gohan studied Vegeta's fighting and appreciated the fact that he wasn't on the opposing side of the prince anymore.

Gohan took a few shallow breaths as the wind dispersed the ashy remains of Dodoria-not-Ginyu and Vegeta finished his attack, landing next to him.

"How much of that did you hear?" he demanded from Piccolo.

"All of it," Piccolo said, not elaborating further, though Vegeta's expression grew more and more thunderous. He gestured to Krillin for his scouter and fiddled with the settings to turn the external speaker on.

"Bulma," he asked, "has the Rift activity stopped?"

"No, it hasn't. That's unusual."

"Oh, man," Krillin sighed. "We're nowhere near done, are we?"

"Got it in one, baldy," Vegeta said, wiping blood off his cheek that wasn't entirely all his.

"Where's Dad?" Gohan asked, dread filling him with unease.

"The Dragon had a faulty power cell. It's being swapped."

"Uh, Bulma?" Gohan continued, "I'm feeling another energy, this one's even higher than the other five."

"How can it be stronger?" Krillin exclaimed, glancing at the water.

"Zarbon," Vegeta said quietly.

"Shit, that's not the only thing coming through the Rift." Bulma announced. "We've got a cluster of Cat-1s following. They look to be aiming for shore."

"We're on it," Krillin said. "Come on, Gohan."

.


A pair of wide, concerned eyes -as black as the shock of spiky hair that accompanied them- stared back as consciousness returned. For one extremely disorienting moment, she wondered when a mirror had been placed next to the bed. The unblinking gaze remained as echoes of her last dream and the surreal experience of a second set of memories embedding in her recall disrupted her sense of self before she remembered fully who she was.

Videl.

"You were yelling in your sleep," a hushed voice connected to the eyes whispered. "Like Gohan does sometimes."

Gohan.

There was a rush of activity at the door as Trunks burst into the room, nearly overrun by Gohan right behind. Goten stepped aside to let Gohan sink down on the bed beside Videl. Their hands reached for the other's in one motion.

"Where were you?" she asked her copilot softly.

"Training Hall," he whispered apologetically.

"You didn't sleep well," she stated, wiping a few stray tears from her eyes. "The Ginyu Force and Frieza."

"How did -is that why Trunks said you were in trouble?" Videl nodded and Gohan's fingers tightened around hers. "I… think… we should stop drifting."

VIdel flinched as he spoke, not at his declaration, but because that was exactly what she expected he'd say. She curled into herself, arms clutching tightly around her drawn up legs. Gohan continued, not looking at her, "You shouldn't have to experience my dreams."

"Neither should you," she countered.

"It's too late," Trunks piped up. "I mean, you can't un-drift."

"Stopping now will only make it worse," Goten added. "It gets easier with more drifts."

Gohan appraised the boys, their expressions for once solemn and surprisingly vulnerable.

"You're serious?"

"Of course," Trunks said, perching next to Gohan before Goten wedged himself between his brother and Videl.

"My brother really doesn't want to stop drifting with you," Goten said with absolute certainty. "He just wants to protect you from all his bad stuff."

"It's too late for that," Videl said, thinking of the drifts, the dreams, the aches and pains and triggers she never used to have before they met.

"That's not really helping," Trunks observed sagely as Gohan's expression grew even more stricken.

"This is normal," Goten said firmly. "You can't give up so soon."

"How is this normal?" Videl asked.

"it is. It has to be," Goten insisted, Trunks giving his own consenting grunt of agreement.

"How long has this been going on?" Gohan asked the younger two.

"Since we started," Goten admitted. " it's gotten better, hasn't it Trunks?"

"Yeah," Trunks agreed, flopping backwards on the bed, hair spilling wildly around him, a pastel crown.

"You need a haircut," Gohan murmured.

"I'll cut it when you drift again."

"Tomorrow, then," Gohan said, eyes flicking to Videl for agreement.

"I thought we were on the schedule for later today."

"I think a breather might be better. I really didn't get much sleep last night."

"It is harder to focus when you're tired," Goten opined, "and your boundaries are all fuzzy."

"That's when the dreams get really weird," Trunks added and both boys shuddered involuntarily at some remembered incident.

"You should have told someone," Gohan chided softly.

"What good would it have done?" Trunks retorted. "We'd already established we're too different from the Nameks to compare to."

"And it's not like we can ask Dad for their insight right now," Goten added.

"Yeah, getting Dad to talk about how drifting affects him would mean he'd have to acknowledge having any feelings at all," Trunks said with a smirk.

"So you've been comparing our drifts for similarities to yours," Videl reasoned.

"We haven't noticed anything of concern, if it helps," Goten said with a shrug.

.


Time began blurring together like one long, drawn-out drift. In a complete reversal from before their first Handshake, Videl and Gohan now spent nearly all their waking hours together, save for a few scheduled events Gohan couldn't get out of that Videl had yet been cleared to attend. Meetings took up most of their mornings; afternoons were saved for training. After dinner they'd review the day's activities before parting ways for the rest of the evening. She knew Gohan often spent several more hours training or working in the lab or meditating on the roof, but Videl was usually exhausted by that point, crashing hard as her body demanded rest and recovery. Every few days Videl would wake up feeling like she'd been pummeled to an inch of her life, but Gohan would always show up with Senzu tea for her and breakfast for him and the whole routine would start over again.

She could feel herself getting stronger, she knew her skills were improving, and seeing how impressed Gohan was with her rapid progress was worth just as much as her own satisfaction in her personal growth. His ambivalence for fighting was still something he wrestled deep within himself frequently, that much was evident in the drift. But Videl's joy and passion for the art had kindled a new appreciation in him. Their time together, well, he was having fun.

When she checked her planner that morning, she saw that Gohan had cleared the day's schedule just after midnight, but didn't indicate what for. Videl found his room empty, and she didn't have any idea as to his whereabouts. Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long. Goten wandered out in the hall, blinking the last bits of sleepiness from his eyes. He waved a hello and let himself into his brother's room, emerging with two stacks of books and data pads.

"Goten, do you know where Gohan is?"

"In the hangar, I think," Goten replied, quirking his head to the side in the way they all seem to do when feeling out by ki.

She and Gohan had been attempting ki-reading lessons between all the other things filling their days, but it'd been slow going for Videl to grasp the nuances of the skill. She'd only just managed to track Vegeta, with the prickliest, most unique energy, in the last week. It was harder to find Gohan partially because they'd barely been apart, and he had no reference for how he felt to the others. Videl tried to sense Gohan on her way downstairs, but she was no closer to figuring out where in the giant hangar he was than when she was up in the barracks.

There was activity surrounding all four Jaegers, crews bustling around them, lifts and cranes moving equipment and personnel. The rest of the Base had a maintenance day and they weren't messing around.

"Hey there," Krillin welcomed her, appearing at her side. "He's up this way."

Krillin led her through the maze of catwalks and overpasses until they were level with the emergency hatches of the Hope Four.

"Is this your first time in one?" Krillin asked, pausing at the threshold of the doorframe.

"Yes."

"Well, go easy on the critiques. This one in particular is pretty special to Gohan."

Videl thought of all the moments she'd seen through Gohan's eyes from his first sketches of its structure to his overseeing of its construction, the hours he spent tweaking its controls, learning its nuances. "I know."

The emergency hatches fed directly into the Control Deck. Gohan was sprawled on the floor, head and shoulders levered over the edge of the left control harness installation base.

"Loosen the tension on the whole set," his muted voice filtered from the cramped hole. "Then when you finish those, max the tension on the right control set."

"Yes, sir," an equally muffled voice replied.

"Thanks." He stood up, greeting the newcomers.

"You're still okay to keep an eye on things here?" he asked Krillin.

"Absolutely. You better get going or you'll be late."

"Come on," Gohan said, beckoning Videl back outside. "We have an appointment in the Med Center."

And as quickly as she entered, Videl was whisked away from the Hope Four.

.


Bulma was waiting when they arrived at the Med Center and she and the two Techs that had been assigned to Gohan and Videl were laying out supplies.

"Big day, huh?" Bulma greeted Videl with a bright smile.

"What are we doing, exactly?" Videl asked.

Bulma rolled her eyes and slapped a robe at Gohan's chest, keeping her hand there until he grabbed it. "Really, kiddo? Just like your father."

"Uh… getting fitted for pilot suits?" Gohan replied, retreating to the changing area.

"Sorry for him. Sometimes I think he forgets no one can read his mind." Bulma handed Videl her own robe. "Well, I guess that's not exactly true anymore."

.


Nerve mapping was the first step in customizing a pilot suit and was the most physically demanding. To aid the pilots in better sensing the Jaeger system's limits, points were matched machine to nerve. Drifting completed the connection, merging neural activity to mechanical energy, physical to digital.

Videl's Tech was friendly enough but hardly chatty, moving through the process with clinical precision. Between her own Tech's quick explanations, she could easily overhear Gohan's Tech as he worked the next table over.

"We'll have to reroute a few around your shoulder," Gohan made a noncommittal noise. "And the back, too."

"My scars won't interfere with the neural connections?"

"Not if we find a viable reroute."

"We've remapped both your father and Vegeta over the years," Bulma said softly. "No problem."

"Is everything okay?" Videl asked her own Tech, nodding towards Gohan, as they finished with her front side and she flipped over to expose her back.

"Yes, ma'am. Mr. Son's previous injuries just make him a bit harder to map. You are nearly textbook, though, so we should be done in record time."

Once hers finished up, Videl found herself watching on curiously as the Tech continued the rest of Gohan's mapping. Dozens of thin needles were already inserted at nerve locations along his body, as they had on her a few minutes earlier, though two bare patches remained. The Tech worked at one on his back, meticulously, slower, softer, but on the table Gohan still grimaced and struggled to hold himself completely still.

Videl glanced at Gohan's lower back, where the most prominent scar outside of his shoulder cut a jagged line along his spine. Krillin and Gohan had both needed emergency surgeries out in the field after that particular encounter, as Dende had been busy healing the Jaeger pilots who'd been in even worse shape. Videl had caught a glimpse of that day in the drift, Gohan's detached shock at lying facedown in the Capsule medical tent they'd popped up around him, hearing what they were doing but not feeling any of it despite a lack of any numbing drugs or painkillers; echoes of his resigned fatalism had stayed with her for days.

It took several tries for the Tech to declare a location had a good enough reading and by the time he'd found enough acceptable spots to move on to Gohan's shoulder, a fresh sheen of sweat had popped out along Gohan's forehead.

"So what's after this torture?" Videl asked impulsively. Gohan glanced up at her as best he could.

"Armor fittings," he replied through clenched teeth.

"Then what?"

"Helmet and belt checks."

"And then?"

"Neural column fits and a full test out, assuming the results from this part are finished."

"I have this as top priority for the Science Pool," Bulma assured. "You've proven your drifts are stable, now we should be ready to use you, if need be."

"The sooner we get full suits, the sooner we can start full checks in a Jaeger," Gohan followed up.

"You have an extra one already?"

"Sort of. By tomorrow Hope Four should be completely configured for us. I started working on the Control Deck last night. Our neural net will be uploaded later today," Gohan finished with a hiss as the Tech found a particularly sensitive area on his shoulder.

"Last one, sir."

After all the needles were in, the Tech took a final scan, creating a location marker for each nerve that would correspond to an area of the Jaeger. The needles were removed and Gohan shrugged gingerly back into his robe. Bulma escorted them to another exam room, already occupied by two other Techs and a rolling clothes rack.

Here they were outfitted with undersuits and the weirdest armor Videl had ever seen. It was soft, almost malleable to the touch, but, as Gohan demonstrated with a sharp fist to his side, it hardened on impact with a solid thunk.

"Alien technology," he whispered as the Techs took a few measurements for minor alterations, "from Vegeta, actually. You should ask Bulma about it sometime. I'm pretty sure Bulma hooked up with him so she could study it. He was holding out."

"I'm right here, kiddo," Bulma demurred. "And he fell for me first."

She gave Videl a saucy wink and handed each of them a helmet.

"Speak up if they feel too loose or tight. The biggest threat to pilots is getting knocked unconscious or immobilized when the Jaeger is underwater with some sort of hull breach. Until you learn ki attacks, Videl, you're especially vulnerable. The helmets provide the optics interfacing but more importantly it also gets plugged into the air system onboard."

"Has there been any, um, incidents?" Videl hesitated to ask.

"We've had a couple hull breaches, but in each instance the pilots had all been able to escape. Since the incident with Goku and the Rift, we've really tried to improve underwater functionality." Bulma frowned at her own memories of that time, a distant look in her eye. She pointedly kept her gaze away from Gohan.

Helmet check complete, the Techs helped them strap on a wide belt, low on the hips. "The bio-belts contain the power supply and most of the brains of the neural net interface for the pilot's side. All of your stats are monitored through it and it will receive input from the neural column piece to relay feedback from the Jaeger side," Bulma explained. "It's untested but in theory we can defibrillate a heart through it. Please don't make us try that out."

"That sounds doable."

.


Once free of the Med Center, they lingered at the entry just long enough for it to feel awkward.

"So… um…" Videl started, and Gohan could see her struggle to phrase whatever was on her mind.

The drift laid bare so much that it often negated the need for words, though they'd both agreed early on that making sense of all the shared information usually worked best when they discussed their questions openly. Gohan caught her glance at his shoulder and immediately understood.

"The accident?"

"Yeah. You were young, right? Like when the boys were babies?"

"Goten wasn't even born yet," Gohan clarified. He inclined his head and they both set off at a slow pace towards the lab. "The Base was really new. We hadn't set everything up. Bulma's lab was the first area marked out, but it wasn't even fully enclosed. We were testing focusing crystals to channel and amplify ki through the Jaegers. All that power is generated by the pilots. For that particular round of tests, Dad was in Super. I was helping set up between conditions. We never tested without at least two warriors, didn't want to put Bulma in danger. Anyways, we started the countdown for one round, Dad let off the ki burst, and just as it passed through the test rig, something fell from a hole in the drop ceiling right in front of the back test plate. I noticed it was Trunks about halfway to the ground. There was no way to stop the blast, but I couldn't not do something. I managed to get to Trunks in time but took the blast in the shoulder."

By that time, they had made it to Bulma's lab. The boys were in there and they listened intently to his explanation, though they'd heard it before. Gohan sat on the couch next to Trunks, ruffling his hair and nudging the boy until he smiled. He'd never wanted him to feel any sort of responsibility or guilt over what had happened.

"Our fathers' genetics helped a lot. I probably would have lost the arm -no, I would have lost my arm, no question, if I'd been full human."

Videl rubbed her own shoulder in sympathy and he knew exactly what she was recalling from their drifts. His recovery had been grueling, even by the warriors' intense standards.

"How did you manage for so long?"

"Oh, um… after the first month or so, not long after Goten was born actually, I stayed in Super for nearly a year."

"Really?"

"A whole year?" Goten asked, awe in his eyes.

"Goten, you've heard this all before," Trunks scoffed.

"So? Do you know how many times we've listened to stories about your family? Millions!"

"Whatever."

"Wait," Videl said, scrutinizing him. "You were Super for a year? Blond hair, green eyes, and all?"

Gohan nodded, blushing slightly.

"Yeah. Super. Like this," Goten said, ascending into a fairly close resemblance to what Gohan had looked like at that time. Not to be outdone, Trunks quickly followed suit.

"A whole year…" Videl mused, softer to herself.

"Our dads spent a month in Super at the very beginning, too. We hadn't trained extensively in the form, long term. Bulma is still probably taking money out of their paychecks to cover for all the broken dishes and repair bills they racked up."

"Wow! Do you think Mom would let us do that?" Trunks asked.

"No, there's no need."

"But it'd be so cool."

"There were drawbacks, you know. It wasn't all fun. Besides, we're pretty sure you two went Super as young as you did because of our test."

"Really?"

"Probably."

"Super, whoo!" Goten cheered, taking to the air to fly circles near the ceiling. Trunks rolled his eyes, but jumped up to trail after him.

Videl snapped her fingers, brightening as realization dawned. "That was you! The blond kid on the news all the time!"

"I was on the news?"

"Well, yeah. You were with Bulma a lot, meeting politicians, going to all those defense summits."

"Oh, those?" Gohan asked, cheeks pinking and darkening with every word, "I didn't realize anyone noticed me."

"Everyone was always trying to figure out who Bulma's errand boy was. You had fan clubs. It was a thing for a while, watching the news, hoping to see you again. I'm pretty sure Erasa hung pictures of you on her bedroom walls at some point."

Trunks and Goten giggled and started swooning, flying low circles around Gohan's head.

The lab door slid open and in filed Bulma and Chi Chi, Goku and Vegeta.

"Dad! Dad!" Goten flew over to Goku, latching on his back. "Did you know that Gohan had fan clubs?"

"Um… yes? Yes I did know."

"You told him?" Bulma chided Videl.

"You knew?!" Gohan exclaimed.

"Oh, honey, it was nothing," Chi Chi soothed, patting him on the arm. She shot the younger two a look and they immediately set foot on the ground.

"You were a little preoccupied at the time," Bulma added, firing up some equipment and clearing bench space.

"Not to mention completely clueless," Vegeta muttered.

"It's what we love most about you, kiddo. We didn't want the celebrity to change you."

.


A maintenance day for Bulma meant getting Goku and Vegeta and the boys to help her reorganize the lab. Videl wandered around the space as Bulma pointed out what to move where, poking around various unfinished projects she recognized from the drift. She stopped at Bulma's long desk, layered with more papers and spare parts and half-filled coffee cups long cold and a surprising number of photographs. The largest cluster included one of a strikingly young Bulma and Goku posed on an older model hoverbike, one of her and Vegeta, four of Trunks at various ages, one of all three boys, Gohan included. And behind all of those frames was one lone frame without a picture. Instead it held several pages of stationary filled with Gohan's neat if not hastily scrawled script. Videl couldn't make sense of any of it.

Bulma paused on her trek between workbenches, a pile of circuit boards and wires in her hands. She studied Videl studying her desk, her eyes falling on the framed papers.

"The last, well, first series of equations for Trunks and Goten's drift," Bulma elaborated. "They had different requirements than the Nameks."

She pointed to the first page. "This balanced out pretty accurately their shared neural load. The middle of the second page turned into the conversion of required resources versus expected power levels separate and together. That last page was Gohan's guess at the settings for all the peripheral control inputs. Gohan had been calculating all of this out for months before he turned fifteen. At that point we hadn't even agreed to talk about the two boys drifting, Chi Chi, Goku, Vegeta and I. Goten wasn't even five yet and with Gohan's childhood… well, we were trying to keep both kids out of this whole mess for as long as possible. What came out later was that Gohan had caught them in one of the sims we train the service techs and engineers on so they know how the system works. It's not a true drift, all the controls are mechanical as opposed to neural, but they'd been doing it for weeks, months probably."

.


They stared out across the starlit grounds from their perch on the roof, hands this close to touching, arms warming in their shared body heat.

"So when Erasa was leading fan clubs, were you following the 'Errand Boy,' too?" Gohan asked with a chuckle.

"Not exactly," Videl blushed, grateful for the darkness to hide. "No offense, but you looked fairly nonthreatening back then. Everyone knew some Budoukai finalists were involved with the Jaeger program, but there was still so much that was secret. I was into the Jaegers, always have been. If anything, well, it was the pilots who I had crushes on."

"You had a crush on my dad?" Gohan teased. "And Vegeta?"

"All of the pilots-"

"Piccolo? Kami?"

"That included you, too, though I didn't exactly know it at the time," Videl reminded, gently knocking her shoulder against Gohan's. He wrapped his arm around her.

"It hurts a little that me in Super wasn't as appealing to your childhood self."

"Sharpner was pretty annoying around that time. Must have turned me off of blonds."

Gohan laughed.

"So you didn't have any childhood crushes?" Gohan shook his head. "Not even Bulma?"

"No. Honestly, I didn't expect to live long enough to think about stuff like that."

"That is the most depressing thing I've heard you say," Videl teased.

"And… well," Gohan continued, absently studying the sky, "my parents met indirectly through fighting. Vegeta and Bulma met through fighting. As crazy as my life has been, I kind of need someone who can relate to what I've been through. A little part of me is holding out for that."

Videl stared at him long enough for him to glance her way with an honestly curious, "What?"

But she had already leaned forward to kiss him.

.


- End -


Notes: That was not how I expected this chapter to end. Sorry, not sorry? I had a million things to talk about here, but am drawing a blank now. Will fill in later, maybe?


061216