Authors : Wild-Melody and Debs-Dragon

Disclaimer : We don't own anything other than the plot, the various but familiar characters aren't ours either, except for the ones mentioned that you have absolutely no idea who they might be…they are ours and we reserve the right to blast you into oblivion if you use them without first asking both of us and both of us agreeing you may use them….If Debs-Dragon don't hunt you down first, be aware I'll find you where ever you may hide, you've been fairly warned. In other words, if you wanna use one or more of our characters, ask, we're nice people, we just might let you use them!

Eternal Journey

Chapter 5

By Isabel (Wild-Melody)…Enjoy!

Videl stared at Gohan, I'd actually wondered how long it would take him to get up the nerve…took him damn long enough! She mused and smiled coyly at him, Hmmm….maybe I should make him sweat since he made me wait so long for this proposal…She glanced nervously up at the clock then back down at the uncomfortable youth seated across the table from her. "Um…Gohan," she paused and smiled inwardly. "Are you sure…well, you're really ready for this? I mean, it is a big step and all. We'll have to get our own place…I'm just not really sure if I'm ready to make this kind of commitment yet."

She saw his eyes open marginally with fear, He's afraid I'm going to say no! She mused. "There's so much to take into consideration here, my dad for one thing. Are you sure you really wanna deal with him? And what about your parents? Are you really sure your mom's gonna be ok with this?"

Gohan's mouth almost dropped with surprise but he caught the reaction in time, "I-I…Videl…what, what a-are you saying?" he finally managed and frantically looked around the small restaurant, as if looking for a way to escape the situation he found himself in. A situation he suddenly realized he really didn't want to be in, one he wasn't certain he could deal with. Sure, he thought ironically, I can deal with a bio-engineered android from the future who nearly destroyed the entire planet, but I can't deal with rejection from one simple…beautiful…breathtaking beautiful woman…I'm hopeless…

Videl smiled then and Gohan felt his breath catch in his throat. "I guess Gohan, what I'm trying to say is even though I love you very much," Gohan squeezed his eyes shut and willed the words to escape from his hearing. He just couldn't deal with the rejection, not from her. "Gohan? Gohan, are you even listening to me?" she queried and brought the young man back to the situation at hand. He looked hopelessly up at her, his eyes clashing with her own. Silently he nodded his head. "Good, but this isn't what I thought your reaction would be to my accepting your proposal."

Had he heard her right? Did she say accept? "Videl?" he questioned, disbelieving what he had heard. He needed her to say it again in order for him to believe what his ears had told him.

"Yes Gohan, I'll marry you!" she said happily and watched a he literally bounded across the table and caught her up in a huge hug, nearly smothering her.

"Oh Videl, you won't regret this! I promise you love that you will never ever regret this!" he exclaimed, his mouth buried in her dark hair.

"You'll regret it if you don't put me down! I can't breath!" she wheezed but smiled up at him.

He immediately put her on her feet and gazed lovingly down at her. "You have made me the happiest man on Earth!" he exclaimed. She smiled once more up at him, stood up on her tiptoes and gently placed a fleeting kiss against his lips. He wrapped his arms around her once more, more loosely this time and kissed the top of her head, inhaling deeply the lilac scent that permeated her hair.

"We should go and tell my dad…" she left off as the thought of telling her father the good news finally took hold. It would be an interesting visit. "Your family should know too, after we tell dad we'll have to stop off at your place…I wonder how your mom will take the news…" her first encounter with Chi Chi played briefly across her mind and smile tugged at her lips once more. "She didn't like me to much in the beginning…"

"She loves you now." Gohan said as matter of factly. "That's all that matters…it's your dad I'm worried about."

"Oh bah!" Videl said and lightly smacked Gohan on his upper arm. Gohan pretended to flinch which only made Videl's smile widen. "Dad's a push-over…" she paused at the 'yeah right' look Gohan threw her way. "Well, he is when it comes to me. All he'll be worried about is my happiness…you just wait and see!"

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"WHAT?!" Hercule yelled, the smoke fairly well rolling from his ears. "YOU'RE WHAT?!" The big man didn't allow his daughter to get a word in edge wise before he was once more yelling at the top of his lungs. "HAVE I EVEN MET THIS GOHAN GUY YET?" his voice lowered a few decimals as he continued talking… "Why does that name seem familiar….Gohan, oh no…not that guy? Videl? You can't be serious!"

"Gohan?" Videl called out, she had decided it would be best if Gohan waited in the Foyer until she broke the news to her father…one could never tell with Hercule which way his mood was going to sway. This day it was not swaying in Gohan's general good direction…Hercule looked like he was ready to kill the young man who had dared ask for his daughter's hand in marriage. "Gohan, would you please come in here?" She called and Gohan peeked his head around the corner.

"Hello Mr. Satan sir." Gohan said politely. He wasn't scared of the behemoth, not at all. He could wipe the floor with the huge man if he'd wanted too, but he knew enough to keep his distance at the moment.

"You're the pansy that wants to marry my daughter? You?" the big man started to laugh and couldn't stop. Finally as the tears of mirth quit rolling down his cheeks he turned his cold eyes back toward the youth. "And exactly what have you to offer my daughter? My only daughter?"

"I love her sir, shouldn't that be enough?" Gohan couldn't very likely tell this crazy man the truth…the truth he really wouldn't want to hear or even recognize.

"Love? Ha! Love don't make the world go 'round boy! I don't know what fairy tale you've stepped out of but you really should go back to it. You haven't got a damn thing to offer my daughter and you sure as hell aren't going to marry her!" Hercule was under the assumption that whatever he said would go, Gohan had other ideas though.

"We'd wanted your blessing sir, but we don't need your permission. Videl and I will be married with or without your consent. The choice is up to you…but we will be married one way or another."

The burly man fumed in outrage, no one had ever dared talk back to him this way! "How dare you!" Hercule shouted and actually tried to lunge at the younger man. Gohan easily side stepped and Hercule went careening into a nearby wall…his head went right through it and as Gohan walked around to the other side he smiled down at his soon to be father in law.

"Sir, the choice is up to you. You can bless our marriage or not, it doesn't really matter. We will get married with or without your consent." Gohan took Videl's hand and led her out of her father's home. "I think that went rather well, don't you?" he said as he and Videl took to the air, their next stop would be Chi Chi's.

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"How was dinner?" Chi Chi asked as soon as she spotted the two. They didn't say anything of the engagement quite yet. Chi Chi knew her eldest son was going to pop the question but she wasn't quite sure if he'd had the courage or not to actually ask Videl yet.

"It was ok," Videl said and walked into the house right past Chi Chi. The older woman's eyes widened a bit and she turned her frantic gaze toward her son.

"Well?" she asked excitedly. "Well, did you ask her? Did you?" she was just like a small child trying to learn a very interesting and very secret secret. "Come on Gohan! Tell me, did you finally ask her?"

Gohan shook his head and met his mother's gaze. He released a sigh and turned his attention back toward the door that Videl had just walked through moments before. "You'll have to ask her mom if I did or didn't." He smiled at the slightly angry look that quickly crossed his mother's features.

"I have to ask her?" Chi Chi squeaked. "Why should I have to ask her?"

"If you want to know, then you had better ask her."

Chi Chi huffed and stormed back into the house. "Videl?" she yelled into the silent house. "Videl, where are you?"

"In here," came a muted reply from the living room. The room was dark, the curtains drawned. No light made it into the shadowed room. Not even the TV was turned on.

"What are you doing in here?" Chi Chi asked as she stepped into the dim room. "And why is it so dark? Don't you want some of the lights turned on so you don't hurt yourself or something?"

"No, I'm fine." came the reply.

"Um, Videl?" Chi Chi began as she stepped further in the room.

"Yes?"

"Um, well…how was dinner…what I mean is…um, did Gohan…did he…did he, well…" the older woman was all tongue tied and wasn't quite sure how to go around asking such a personal question but she needed, no wanted to know the answer so badly she could almost taste it.

"Yes?" Videl asked and pretending not to know where this line of questioning was leading too.

"Did he ask you anything?"

"Yeah, he did." Videl answered evasively.

"He did?! What?" Chi Chi was just starting to think she was going to get somewhere.

"He asked me what I wanted to eat." Videl answered and could barely contain her laughter.

"That's it?" Chi Chi asked, exasperated.

"Oh, no he also asked me," Chi Chi leaned in closer to the younger woman, silently nodding her head in encouragement, "what I wanted to drink."

"What?!" Chi Chi tried to contain her disappointment and failed miserably. "He didn't ask you anything else? Anything really important?"

"Oh, yeah actually he did." she said as if she had forgotten about it the whole time. "He asked me out to dinner next weekend. I accepted of coarse. I absolutely love your son!"

"Oh…that's all? Nothing else? No earth-shattering news?"

"Oh, yeah…thanks I almost forgot. He did ask me to marry him. Can you imagine that?" Videl said and smiled mischievously at her soon to be mother in law.

"And, what did you say?"

Oh…oh man, I do think there is a chapter 6 around here somewhere. Just let me look around and see if I can find it or not…I'm still looking, if you see a link for it then I must've found it. If not I guess you're going to have to wait till Debs-Dragon is kind enough to send it back to me. Enjoy and review please, thanks!!