~Tournament Saga~

Chapter 25 – Secrets come to Moonlight

Gohan quietly watched the sun work its way above the mountains in the distance. It was Saturday, so Videl would soon be at his house to start early morning training. Usually Videl would somehow beat him to breakfast at his own house, but she seemed to be running late, so Gohan found himself watching the clouds float by as he waited for her to show up.

An extra fluffy afro looking cloud brought Gohan's mind to his last encounter with the champ. He had left before he had come to from his punch, so he had no idea what had happened. Videl had told him that she had told her father about taking off school to train for the tournament and he wasn't against it. Gohan figured Videl had left out the part that he would be training her, but since he had just one hit ko'd the champ, Gohan figured that was for the best. He hadn't meant too. It was just a reaction.

For some reason Gray still wasn't talking to Gohan. Something was definitely going on there, but for the life of him, Gohan couldn't figure out what. Maybe Gray just didn't feel like talking? For a pretty depressed guy Gray did seem to like to talk, but he had been extremely quiet lately. Maybe he couldn't talk with Gohan. He himself had trouble trying to talk to Gray when he had been on the inside. Whatever the problem was, Gohan couldn't seem to figure it out.

Squinting his eyes, Gohan was able to make out a small dot in the distance heading his way. He could feel that it was Videl, so he slowly stood up, yawning as his body stretched out. Both him and Videl would be taking off after winter break to train, so there just was what was left of October, November, and finally December. After that it would be just him and Videl training. All by themselves. No one else...

Shaking his head back to reality, Gohan watched as the small dot started to look more and more like Videl's jet-copter. Before both Videl and himself left school, the plan was to try and get her energy level to a high enough point so that she would be ready for what Gohan had in mind. Even Gohan had to admit this teaching thing was kind of fun.

Out of the corner of his eye however, he noticed Goten flying strait at him as fast as the small boy could go. Behind him he could see the nimbus cloud trying its best to keep up, but with little success. The boy came to a skidding halt just infront of Gohan, panting as he tried to catch his breath. The nimbus stopped just behind Goten, it glowing a soft yellow color that made even the cloud look tired.

Finally when Goten caught his breath, he looked up to his big brother and smiled from ear to ear.

"Gohan! Did you see me? Did ya see? I finally beat the nimbus in the race around the world!"

"Ya, I saw ya. Just don't let mom know you flew around the world or she'd be-"

Gohan was cut short when he felt an ominous presence behind him. Goten must have felt it too and had looked to see what it was, because pure terror was etched into his face. Slowly turning around, Gohan saw one of two people he truly was scared of. His mother.

"Did I just hear what I think I heard? Goten flew around the world without telling me! Gohan, Goten, you get over here now!"

Gohan turned to his little brother and nudged him forcefully back to reality. "Goten, RUN!"

Without needing to be told twice, the youngest took off with Gohan following quickly after him. Chi-Chi quickly followed after them, flailing around her frying pan.

Videl's copter finally landed infront of Gohan's house. Videl hopped out moments later, followed by two blonds. Grumbling to herself, Videl capsulized the jet and looked around the house.

"Grr. Where is Gohan? We'd be here already if you two hadn't taken so long."

"Its not my fault! I have to take my time if I want to get my hair just right!" Erasa crossed her arms, cranky at the fact that she had to wake up so early on a weekend.

Sharpner was also rubbing his eyes, mumbling to himself about how bright it was out here. It was true, without the smog of Satan city blocking the sun, the sun was much brighter and the air crisper. It was all to much for a Saturday morning when the blonds usually would be sleeping in.

Videl walked up to the nimbus cloud, which was still sitting quietly in the front yard of the Son house, trying to regain its energy it spent trying to beat Goten in the race. Looking around, she sighed.

"This is weird, why's the nimbus cloud here?"

"The what?" The blonds asked in unison, their tired eyes realizing that there was a golden cloud floating just a few inches above the ground infront of them.

"Its a way to fly around if you can't fly yourself. Its faster than any jet, even mine." Videl poked at the cloud, hoping it would somehow tell her where Gohan would be.

Sharpner however wasn't sold that a cloud could outrace a super sonic jet. "Are you serious? That cloud? You can ride that thing?"

Erasa perked up at the thought of a flying cloud. "Oh my goodness! Videl, did Gohan take you on a ride on that cloud? So romantic!"

"He did nothing like that!" Videl's eye twitched as a soft red hue covered her face.

Sharpner however ignored the girl talk as he walked up to the cloud. It...well...felt like any cloud. His hand pushed against it, and it didn't resist in any way. Deciding to take a chance, Sharpner hopped up onto the cloud. As his body started to go down to land on it however, he passed right through it, belly flopping into the ground.

Both girls broke their conversion to look at Sharpner as he slowly sat up and rubbed his nose. Both blinking in confusion. Videl tried to remember if there was a specific way to get on, but the time she rode it when Gohan had his whole ordeal up north, she had just hopped on.

"That's weird..."

Sharpner stood up, still rubbing his face. "Dumb cloud, you cant even sit on it, let alone have it fly you all over."

"Let me try!" Erasa rushed over to the yellow cloud and without a second thought, hopped on. The cloud shrunk down a little as the tiny amount of weight was added to it before returning to its normal position. "Hey look! It works!"

Sharpner watched in amazement as a human being sat on a cloud right before his own eyes. Against all laws of science, what Videl had said was true. People could ride on this cloud thing!

"And what have you learned?"

The three teens turned to the source of the voice to find who they were looking for. Gohan and Goten walked out from behind their house, both sporting their own rather large bump on their heads. Followed behind them was Chi-Chi with her arms crossed, frying pan still firmly in her grips.

"No more flying around the world without permission..." Both boys answered rather tentatively in unison. Satisfied, the mother returned to the inside of the small house with her youngest following behind. Before he could have fun, the youngest had algebra to do. Gohan rubbed his head as he walked up to meet his friends. He didn't even notice the two blond additions until he finally reached where they were standing around the nimbus.

"Uh, hey guys. What's everyone doing here today?"

Videl smiled, pointing her thumb back at the two behind her. "They wanna learn about energy too. But before that, how come Sharpner couldn't get on the nimbus, but Erasa could?"

"Only people with pure hearts and minds can ride the nimbus...Erasa? Are you ok?" Gohan tilted his head in confusion. The blond had a ghostly look on her face.

As a matter of fact, as soon as the bubbly blond laid eyes on Gohan in his gi uniform, she had felt her heart skip a few beats. She had never seen a boy her age with so defined muscles in his arms and chest. Gohan's gi was nothing like the close he wore to school. She could finally she his muscular arms, his ripped chest, and the upper most part of his defined abs.

Not a second later after Gohan had asked, she slipped right through the nimbus cloud landing onto the cold hard ground. Coming back to reality, she looked around as the cloud regrouped itself and reformed by Gohan's side. Rubbing her back side, she grumbled to herself. "What happened?"

Sharpner for once was quick to put the pieces together and started to laugh. "Isn't it obvious? You had an impure thought after seeing Gohan!"

-DBZ-

Gohan stood a little nervously over his students. Forcing down a red hue that was trying to cover his face at the recent events and continuous staring of Erasa, he tried to come up with what do do with them.

Erasa was still staring at her friend with a new found amazement. The cute little nerdy boy turned out to be the most ripped kid in school. How could someone be cute and hot at the same time? It was something she was determined to figure out. Videl however was glaring at her blond friend. For some reason she didn't like Erasa staring at Gohan like that, though she couldn't figure out why. Sharpner just found the whole situation hilarious. A cheesy grin covered his face as he settled in to watch the fireworks.

Gohan rubbed the back of his head, trying to calm himself down. Looking to his students, he sighed. "Well, Videl's a lot farther than you two, so Goten will try to work on their flying technique, I'll just try to help you guys figure out how to bring out your energy."

Goten floated down sitting indian style mid air. "Me and Videl get to play today? Yay!"

"Did you finish your homework first?" Gohan had all ready got hit today, no need to get hit again.

The flailing happy boy nodded his head. "Ya, I finished it. Its so boring! I miss normal math..."

"Just wait till you move onto calculus. That took a while for me...just go fly with Videl would ya squirt?"

The boy nodded and started to float back up into the sky. Videl slowly followed after him, determined to finally show up the small boy today instead of the other way around.

Erasa and Sharpner watched with slight awe as the rose into the sky. Sharpner was the first to come back to reality. "How old is that kid? He's all ready learning algebra?"

"Ya...our mother's kinda crazy about school." Gohan smiled nervously, chuckling to himself. "I'm not smart by nature. I studied a lot. It was kinda relaxing for me when I was a kid."

Erasa giggled. "He's a cutie and a smarty!"

"You country people sure are weird...studying was relaxing?" It didn't make much sense for a kid's definition of fun to be described as studying. "What was your childhood like?"

Gohan nervously scratched his cheek. "Well, it was different, that's for sure." Hoping to change the topic as quickly as possible, Gohan straightened up and tried to look as professional as possible.

"All right, lets get started on teaching you guys how to use energy!"

-DBZ-

Gohan waved as Sharpner and Erasa slowly flew away in Sharpner's hover car. They had made little to no progress, mostly because they hadn't been training extremely hard in anything before like Videl had been. There were a few moments where they almost got it, but they always seemed to lose it before they could bring it out. It would take a while, but eventually they would get a hold on it.

Videl and Goten had been flying around for most of the day. Goten would be practicing areal tricks that Gohan had shown him or he had seen Trunks do before, and Videl would do her best to copy the small boys movements. She wasn't as fast or as agile as the boy, but she was getting better. That small victory kept her working towards the day where she would be better than the boy, even if that was unreachable.

Landing by Gohan, she smiled tiredly. She was now able to fly at a decent rate for an entire day. Every time she seemed to be able to drag out more and more energy. She could feel that she was getting stronger and stronger as the days went by. But with the blonds gone, she could get in a little more special training with Gohan before the sun set.

"Gohan! Check this out!" Falling down into the position, she started to gather energy in her cupped hands. "Kamehame...ha!"

Thrusting her hands forwards, the blue energy shot over the small lake and crashed into some rocks on the other side. The beam had been a decent size, and Videl could only smile brightly even though her entire being felt like warm jelly.

Gohan smiled happily at his star student. "Good job Videl! You're doing great! At this rate you'll be ready!"

"Ready for what?" Videl raised an eyebrow questioningly. Gohan still wasn't telling her anything about what they were going to be doing on their break from school. Anything was possible with him though, anything from some special laser beam to some super sonic punch. It was mind bottling, and Videl wanted to know...now.

Gohan just smiled like a goofball and shook his head. "Not telling."

"Tell me already!" Ignoring the protests of all her muscles, she shot at Gohan, who quickly started to float away.

"Nope!" With a teethy cheesy smile, Gohan floated up into the sky, crossing his arms to show he wasn't gonna tell.

Videl followed suit and crossed her arms. Her body was to tired to try and fly after him into the reddish sky. The sun was setting, so she was going to have to go soon anyway. "Get down here right now Gohan!"

Gohan just chuckled playfully, knowing that she was to tired to try and come after him. "You're able to pull out a lot more energy compared to when you started Videl, but you still got a ways to go."

"Fine. Well, I'm gonna get going, I can all ready see the moon, so I suppose I should be getting home."

"Hmm?" Gohan turned his head around to see the full white orb faintly starting to become visible even as the sun was setting.

THUMP THUMP

…..

THUMP THUMP

Author's Annotations:

Hey everyone! Its been a while since I've had one of these so I figured I might as well have another here.

Videl and Gohan's relationship has been growing from an inescapable awkwardness to a almost playfulness with each other, though the awkward moments will some come now and then. Hopefully their relationship is growing at a proper speed. I've been working pretty hard on making sure it did, so hopefully it comes across like I want it too.

Sharpner and Erasa will get just a little training from Gohan for reasons that will be explained later into the story. Should be very funny, so look out for that.

Poor Videl through, just when she was about to leave, she unknowingly made a tailed Gohan look at a full moon! Should be exciting for everyone to read how I'll have her survive that little adventure. I'll try to have the next chapter out this Friday some time since I'll have some free time.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing. I've gotten a lot for a first story by a new writer, and that means a lot to me. Thanks again!