"Why the hell are you still on my couch?"

Bra rolled her eyes, not looking at her brother as she continued to flip through channels. "I am not still on your couch," she clarified. "I've gone home several times. I just keep getting told to get lost when I do. I believe we can expect this pattern to continue until Grandma and Grandpa return from their trip."

"Why can't you go somewhere else?" her brother demanded.

Casually continuing to scroll the channels, she quipped, "Where else would I go? You're my brother and you live with all of my friends who are even remotely close to my own age. Face it, pretty boy, you're stuck with me."

Trunks growled. "Why can't you go hang out with Pan or something?"

His sister sneered as she said, "You know we can't stand each other."

"I'm okay with that."

Letting out a snort, Bra asked, "Is there a particular reason you're trying so hard to get rid of me?" When her brother did not immediately give a response, she smirked. "Oh, I get it. You need me to 'get lost' for the same reason Mom and Dad do."

"Bra!"

"Say no more," the fifteen year old said, getting to her feet. "I don't have anywhere to crash for the night, but I can give you a free afternoon and evening. That should be enough time for you, right?"

The conversation he was having with his baby sister was taking a weird turn, but Trunks was not about to lose the opportunity. "How long can you give me?" he asked.

"Let's see here," Bra said, running her fingers through her long blue hair. "Nice long walk, dinner, movie, dessert…five hours work for you?"

"Absolutely," Trunks quickly agreed.

Bra smirked. "Perfect."

The prince turned and began to leave, but his instincts told him that something was off about the agreement he had just struck. "What's the catch?"

"No catch," the teenager calmly responded. "You have fun tonight."

"And you're just going to be gone?" he skeptically asked.

Bra nodded. "I gave you a basic itinerary."

Trunks raised a lavender eyebrow at his sister. "So you're just giving me all this time so you can eat and see a movie all by yourself?"

Coolly, Bra looked at her brother. "Now what kind of date would it be if I went alone?"

"Date?" There was definite anger in his voice as he commanded, "You are not going on a date."

Bra rolled her eyes. "What is the big deal?" she demanded. "You were dating when you were my age."

"Does Dad know you're dating?" Trunks harshly asked.

Bra gave him a cocky smirk, positioning one of her hands on her hip. "You want to call him right now and tell him?" she challenged.

Trunks glared at his sister. That was a definite no. "You are absolutely not going on a date."

"You really don't have an option on that, do you?" she pushed back. "After all, if I'm not out on my date, then I guess the only place for me to be is right here, spending the entire day with my dearest brother and his girlfriend. And I'll be here all night long."

"You're telling me that my choices are letting you start dating behind Dad's back," Trunks balked, "and not getting laid again until that damn trip is over?"

The smirk stayed firm. "You got it." With a dismissive wave, she added, "Don't worry, it's just dinner and a movie. I promise, I will remain the only celibate member of the family this evening. Unlike all the rest of you, I am not going to have sex."

Trunks shuttered. "Please don't make me think about what our parents are doing right now."

"Too late."

"I really hate you sometimes."

"I know." Another toss of her hair was done before she pointed out, "Seriously, you have nothing to worry about. I'm going with this great guy who would never, ever take advantage of anything but my ability to pay for his food."

Trunks frowned. "Who the hell…oh, no. No, no, no, no, no!"

"Trunks…"

"You're going on a date with Goten?" he hollered.

Bra held up her hands defensively. "I told you it was with a stand up guy."

"You scheming little brat!" her brother yelled. "You were planning this date all along! You were just getting me to give you permission!"

Blue eyes and blue eyebrows narrowed. "I don't need your permission," she snidely told him. "This was just my way of telling you that it was happening. But I'll have you know that even if you weren't planning on scoring tonight, I still would be going out with him."

"I'm going to murder him!" Trunks roared.

"Why?" Bra demanded. "I asked him out, and he said yes. Is that really worthy of execution?"

"It is when he's twenty-three and you're fifteen!"

Bra rolled her eyes. "Yes, I am aware that he's got me by eight years. Are you aware of the fact that I've been to dozens of movies with him and eaten probably a thousand meals with him?"

"Not alone!" Trunks shot back.

"Sometimes alone," Bra pointed out. "Never on a date before, but we have technically done food and movies unchaperoned before. And this is my first date, Trunks. Wouldn't you rather have it be with a guy who you trust than some random guy you don't know anything about who might be trying to take advantage of me? You know Goten's not going to get anywhere. Hell, I doubt he's going to let me kiss him because I'm still so young. Really, this is more of a test run than anything else."

Another growl came out of Trunks. "I'm going to kill him."

Bra sighed. "Well, if you must, he and Marron have been back from getting groceries and standing outside the door for ten minutes, listening to us the entire time. You may want to let them in."

"Huh?"

"We can let ourselves in," Goten called through the door, the unmistakable sound of keys ringing.

Trunks glared as his best friend and girlfriend entered. "Is there something you need to tell me?"

Goten smirked. "Don't wait up?" He barely ducked the fist that came flying at his head. "I'm joking, you lunatic!" he laughed. "And may I just say that it was hysterical listening to Bra tell you about this."

"How could you?" Trunks yelled.

Goten shrugged. "What's the problem?" he sincerely asked. "She's right on all counts. We have seen movies and eaten food alone before, and I'm really not letting her get any further than a kiss on the cheek. Yes, I'm interested in your sister, but I'm not going to do anything that's going to make me a felon. It's dinner and a movie. You know, the traditional way for a boy and girl to start getting acquainted, not the way the rest of your family declares that they have a mild interest in someone."

"Could all of you stop referencing my parents' sex life?" Trunks begged.

"Right," Bra sarcastically agreed. "And what was the first thing you and Marron did when you decided you were interested in each other?"

Marron blushed. "It wasn't the first thing," she sheepishly defended.

Beside her, Goten laughed. "No, but it was within the first hour."

It was Bra's turn to stare in shock. "An hour?" She glared at her brother. "I can't get dinner and a movie, but you can start screwing within an hour?"

"We were both adults," Trunks angrily shot back.

"Yeah," Goten chimed in. "Marron had been eighteen for what, a week?"

Trunks groaned. "You're not helping!"

"I'm not trying to help," he pointed out. "I'm trying to date your sister."

"No, no, no," his best friend repeated. "You have a college degree, she's too young to have a drivers license!"

Bra let out a long, dramatic sigh. "I'm not sure where I'm losing you on this. We aren't going to be sitting on each other, shredding each others' clothes as we claw away at flesh and scream out in…"

"BRA!"

"My point is," she calmly went on, "that we're going to see a movie with plenty of people around us, we'll have dinner in a well-lit restaurant, and seriously, we're talking holding hands and maybe a peck on the cheek at the end of the evening." A small compact mirror was pulled out of her pocket, and she quickly inspected her hair. "And remember, if I don't go, we'll both be here."

Trunks bit down on his lower lip as he considered it. Time alone with his girlfriend was something he sorely wanted, but… "And what happens when Dad finds out about this date?"

The mirror closed, and the princess crossed her arms defiantly. "Then we deal with it. But given that this gives you what you want and me what I want, are you really inclined to say no?"

Her brother thought for a moment longer. Goten was his best friend, and he did trust the guy. If they said nothing was going to happen, then nothing was going to happen. And really, it was only one date…

/

Videl quietly put the last dish in the dishwasher. "Thank you for helping," she softly told her husband.

Gohan simply nodded, his face void of any real expression. It had been months since he had been able to offer anyone more than a tense, fake smile or a concerned frown. Distance grew between him and his love ones on a daily basis. When his wife tried to engage him, he usually responded with mute action. His brother rarely visited anymore, and his daughter had begun to ignore him outright. A part of him was aware that something was wrong, that something needed to be fixed, but that part lacked the power to take control.

As he turned to leave the kitchen, he felt a hand tap his forearm. "Wait," Videl softly commanded. "We need to talk."

Gohan's eyes narrowed slightly. It was not the first talk they had been through, and it would not be the last. They all went the same way. Videl would tell him he was working too hard, that it was only a job and that he needed to spend more time with his family. Then when he would tell her about all the lives he had saved through his work, she would tell him he was losing his own. How did she still not understand? How was it that after so many years, it was still not clear to her that it was not just a job, that it was a matter of life and death? The things he had accomplished over the years had not only saved the lives of his direct patients, but had been taught to others to help people all over the world. Missing a family meal once in a while was a small price to pay comparatively.

The two sat down at the kitchen table, their daughter already in her room for the night. Videl closed her eyes and quietly gathered her thoughts. Tenderly she reached out, grasping her husband's hands in her own.

"I am so proud of everything you have accomplished," she began. "Your brilliant mind and amazing skills have saved so many people in so many ways that I can't even keep track of them all." A pause and a deep breath were needed before she could go on. "You are such a great gift to the wold, but Gohan, I need you to take a step back from all of that."

Gohan's hands, stacked on top of one another, tightened. "My work is important," he coldly defended. "You just said so yourself."

"And it is," she emphasized. "I'm not saying that it isn't. Please, Gohan, listen to what I'm asking you to do. Just take a little time off. A week. A couple of days. Just a little time where you aren't doing anything related to your job. Stay home, just for a day or two, and show us that we still mean something to you."

"Of course you mean something to me," he quickly responded. "And I spend a lot of time at home with you."

"You spend some time at home," Videl bitterly countered, "but none of it is spent with us."

Slowly Gohan pulled his hands out from underneath his wife's. "How can you say that?" he challenged. "Didn't we just have dinner together?"

"Is that what that was?" Videl shot back, her nerves more than frayed by her troubled marriage. "I thought Pan and I were merely honored observers to one of your brilliant brainstorming sessions. You didn't look up from that damn journal once, and the few words you did manage to say to us could have been a recording, because your responses haven't changed in weeks."

"I have to keep up," the half-Saiyan quickly answered.

His wife snorted. "Oh please, keep up? Gohan, they have to keep up with you. You are at the forefront of every major development in your field! You are the guy everyone else talks about. No one, no one, on the planet is even close to you!"

"All the more reason to keep up with all the latest ideas and techniques," he sharply defended. "I can refine their ideas. I can make them better. I can catch mistakes in them before it costs someone their life!"

"This is not what your mother wanted!"

The words had left Videl's mouth so fast that she had no way to stop them. It was a thought that she had held for some time, but had always kept to herself. Saying it was, in her mind, a low blow, one that she did not want to deliver to her husband. But the stress had gotten to her. It was finally out, and she could not take it back.

The air suddenly felt colder. "You have no right to say that," her husband darkly stated.

But what was out was out, and Videl knew there was no turning back. "Chi-Chi wanted the best for you and Goten," she pressed on, desperately fighting to maintain composure. "She wanted you to have a full life."

"I have one," came the angry reply.

Videl shook her head. "No, Gohan, you don't. You have a busy life. You do not have a full one. You have your work and your ideas and your skills, but you have completely abandoned everything else in you world." She looked at her hands, despondently adding, "Even Pan and me."

Mad, Gohan got to his feet. "How can you say that?" he demanded. "How can you possibly think that you two aren't the most important things in my life?"

"How can you not know?" his wife shot back. "You don't talk to us, you don't interact with us…face it, Gohan, we're just another thing on your to-do list."

"That's absurd!" he shouted back. "And uncalled for. You know damn well the two of you are my world."

Her anger and sorrow showing clearly, Videl fought on as tears formed in her eyes. "Maybe we were once," she bitterly stated, "but we haven't been close in a long, long time."

Gohan threw his arms up in frustration. "Where the hell is this even coming from?"

The tears began to fly down Videl's cheeks. "This is coming from months of not having you talk to us. This is coming from a hundred conversations with our daughter where she asks why her daddy cares more about how a stranger is doing than about how she is doing. This is coming from a brother who is so afraid of what's happening to you that he barely sleeps anymore. This is coming from a wife who wonders if you would even notice if she left."

Her husband froze. "What are you saying?" he coldly demanded.

"I'm saying," his wife tearfully but forcefully informed him, "that I don't know if I can do this anymore. I just don't have it in my to be this shadow in your life."

"Videl, this is totally unreasonable," Gohan pushed. "I know I've been busy and distracted lately, and I'm sorry, but that's only because I'm getting close to a breakthrough. I promise you, as soon as I get through this, I'll take a break."

But his wife shook her head. "That's what you said last time we had this talk. And the time before that, and the time before that. It never happens, Gohan. As soon as you finish one thing, you're already starting on the next."

His palms felt clammy as he began to realize that she was seriously talking about leaving him. "Please," he asked, "I just need a little more time. I'll make it happen this time. I swear I well. I just need to get this part done."

"How long is a little time?"

Her question was so quiet that Gohan was barely able to hear it. "What?"

"How long?" she asked again. "A week? A month? A year?"

"A couple of weeks," he quickly answered. "I promise, I won't take longer than that."

The tears stopped rolling down her cheeks, and Videl straightened her shoulders. "Okay," she told him, "two weeks."

Gohan sighed, relieved. "Thank you."

"Pan and I will stay with my dad until then."

The sensations of shock and fury shot through the half Saiyan faster than his heart could beat. "What?" he hollered.

Videl stood her ground. "You said it would take you two weeks to make your big breakthrough and then have time for us," she firmly told him. "Fine. We'll give you your space for those two weeks so you can focus entirely on your work, and when you're done, you can come to us and we can talk about our future."

"You can't do this!" he yelled.

"I have to," she responded. "I am not the only person in your life who feels this way. I'm just the first one you noticed. This isn't just about you and me, Gohan. I can't keep telling our daughter that you put her first when I honestly don't believe it anymore. I can't keep making excuses for why you only come home for dinner half the time, and why you can't seem to be interested in us when you do. I can't convince her that everything's okay, because it's not. So I'm taking her with me, and you and I are going to ask ourselves where we go from here.

Furiously, Gohan shook his head. "This is completely unfair," he growled. "You can't spring something like this on me without any warning!"

"I have given you plenty of warning," she fought back. "How many times have we had this talk, Gohan? Because I have long since lost count. You always promise to put family first, but it never happens. And quite frankly, I'm not sure it ever will."

"What is wrong with you?" he shouted. "Why do you want to rip us apart?"

"Want?" she snapped back. "What I want is a husband who can tell the difference between occupying the same space as another person and actually being with them. What I want is to not have to listen to my daughter use phrases like 'Maybe you two would be happy if I had never been born'. This is not what I want, Gohan! And that's the problem. I want to be your wife, but you treat me like your roommate, or worse, your maid. I'm done being just another person to you. So I'm giving you the time you say you need to do your next big thing. Then you need to decide if after that your family is you next commitment, or just another thing slowing you down."

They fought for another two hours, but nothing got better. And by the time the sun had risen the next morning, Pan and Videl were gone.

/