How It Happened

by spottyrecords

How Gohan and Videl developed over the years as a couple and as individuals. This began as an exercise in understanding how Gohan fell for Videl, but is now an exploration of how the relationship of two 17-year-olds could survive personal growth and other elements of young adulthood. I try not to throw rocks at Gohan; he's been through enough already.

16. The One

Something happened when she was traveling on her own, away from him. She met another guy.

In her defense, she wasn't like her boyfriend at all. She knew he had eyes only for her. In fact, she was beginning to suspect he wasn't even attracted to girls. He was attracted to her, sure, but her being a girl was just a coincidence. It was her specifically that he was attracted to, not the fact that she was a girl.

The same wasn't true for her. He wasn't her first crush, or her first date, or her first kiss, or her first boyfriend. He wasn't the first person she'd stuck her tongue into, or pressed herself against, or dreamed of someday marrying. Just because he was her boyfriend didn't mean she magically stopped feeling attracted to someone else—she just never acted on her desire.

But in this foreign place where she had no one with her, where she could pretend to be someone she wasn't, she found it easy to walk up to this incredibly handsome stranger and strike a conversation. Gave him a fake name, a fake identity, a fake reason she was there. He asked her where she was staying for the night, and she told him.

Nothing happened on the first night, but she felt an excitement when their path unexpectedly crossed again, and they had long conversations like she never did in a while. It occurred to her to invite him back to her place. In another world, this could've been fate. In another life, he could've been hers. In another story, this wouldn't have been wrong.

Was it cheating if nothing physical happened? Was it already cheating because an emotional bond had clearly formed? Was it cheating when she wasn't even being herself?

Somewhere on a different side of the world, her boyfriend was oblivious to what she was up to. Would it make any difference that her intention was to find out if she was all in or not, a dilemma he never had to face in his naïve confidence?

Wrecked with guilt, but unable to make up her mind on the spot, she let the strange lips lightly touch hers. She jerked away.

I'm sorry, she said. Nothing will ever happen between us.

He was surprised, thinking he had misread the signals. She let him know he hadn't, and that she hadn't been honest with him.

He nodded, remained graceful, and wished her luck. A nice guy, completely decent. Someday he would make another girl really happy.

As for her, she had already met her happy ending.