AN: Hola! Como estan ustedes? Bien? Que bueno! For those of you who no hablan espanol, I'll translate. Hello! How are you? Good? That's good.
After mucho disappointments this year with show choir, we finally nabbed one at yesterday's competition. Our JV got first place in the prep division, and we got first place in prelims. Then we got the last time slot in the finals, which is the very best one you can get. We went back on stage, had the time of our lives, and then sat back to wait for awards. To make a long story short, we got Best Band, Best Choreography, Best Vocals, and the Grand Champion trophy. Not bad, huh?
But enough of that, on with the fic! No tengo DBZ. Pero cuando hace mucho calor, tengo el gato muerte en mis pantalones.
Chapter Ten—Quality Time
With a groan, Son Goku pushed back from the table and sat back in his chair, patting his stomach in contentment. "Ahh…that was good!"
Gohan couldn't help but grin. His father was not only a world class martial artist, but a world class eater as well. No one could ever outeat Goku. He was an appetite on legs. "Well, Dad, I'm done if you are," he pushed away as well.
Nearby, King Kai was watching with a look of extreme disdain. "Nice of you to leave some for me! I'm hungry too, ya know!"
Goku rubbed the back of his head and laughed. "Sorry! Got carried away, I guess."
"You're a walking vaccuum, Goku! I wonder what you'd look like if you ever stopped training and kept eating like that," the short blue kai muttered, waving them away.
Father and son took to the air. Goku was held in a pretty high esteem by those who ran the Otherworld, so he could go almost anywhere he wanted. He'd made a point of showing his son around the land of the dead. It really wasn't that bad of a place if you got to go to the here-above. But Gohan had been granted the "privelege" of seeing where the really bad cases went, to the very deepest depths of the here-below. That was where the worst tortures happened, and seeing it made Gohan very thankful that he was who he was. Going through…that for all of eternity wasn't something a person could look forward to. Just seeing it made his stomach do backflips.
But at the moment, his thoughts were far away from all of that. They were flying through the strange golden clouds that pillowed all around the infamous Snake Way. Half of the time, they were racing, and the rest of the time, they were almost having contests to see who could do the most inventive flying stunt. The latter competition resulted in Goku nearly falling through the clouds a few times.
Finally, they touched down on Snake Way itself to catch their breath.
"So, Gohan, tell me more about this Videl girl," Goku asked innocently.
"Dad…no!" Gohan refused. He realized he was whining, but he was a teenager! Teenagers didn't want to tell everything to their parents! It was the law of teenagedom!
"Okay, fine…be that way…" Goku whined back. Teenagers were so difficult sometimes!
"They're gathering the Dragonballs," Gohan changed the subject abruptly. "They should be able to wish me back soon, I think."
"That's great!" Goku exclaimed. At Gohan's hurt look, he quickly continued. "Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that we got to catch up and spend time like this. But ChiChi and your brother and Videl are probably going insane without you around."
"Yeah, I can imagine," Gohan replied halfheartedly. There was something he'd been thinking about for some time now, pretty much since he had arrived in Otherworld. It was NOT an easy notion to dismiss or work through.
He loved being with his father. He really did. This was probably the longest time they'd ever spent having actual father-son bonding time, save the "quality" time they'd had in the Room of Spirit and Time before the Cell Games. But this was a million times better than that; comparing the two was like comparing pure gold with plain steel.
And Otherworld was so peaceful, compared to his life on Earth. He didn't have to do anything he didn't want to do. There was no school, no chores, no stress, no pressures, no nothing. Just peace, quiet, and quality time with the father he'd lost so long ago. There was training, of course, but even that was fun.
And Gohan didn't want to give that up. Not ever. Therein was his inner conflict.
He wanted to stay here with his father, and just enjoy the peace and quiet and the training, and never have to worry about anything ever again. It was so much simpler.
On the other hand, he knew they were gathering the Dragonballs for the sole purpose of wishing him back to life and bringing him back to Earth. He could say no, of course…but he knew what it was like to have someone he loved say that he didn't want to come back. And that was something he didn't want to put his friends through again. And that was a knife he wouldn't dare put through Goten or Videl.
That was the other aspect of this. He would never see Goten again. He was the only father figure his brother had ever had. If he didn't go back, who was left? Vegeta? Oh, that was a happy thought. He could imagine the things his brother would learn from the Saiyan Prince. "How to Blow Up a Planet in Ten Minutes or Less" was the class title that ran through his mind.
And…he would never see Videl again. Sure, he could see her, but he would never see her. Plus, a broken bond was definitely not something he wanted to put her through. He'd seen how she was suffering now. That was bad enough.
Either way, he lost something.
There just wasn't an easy way out of this.
Dad, why didn't you just come back after the Games? Gohan wondered silently.
"Hey, Gohan, whatcha thinking about?" Goku asked suddenly, completely derailing Gohan's train of thought. "You looked really out of it for a minute."
"Huh? Oh…nothing…" Gohan replied, knowing full well that he was a terrible liar.
Obviously, his father didn't believe him. "Sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure."
"Okay…" Goku finally said, albeit dubiously. "If you say so…"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
There was a general feeling of celebration amidst the Dragonball hunters, as the second one had been already been retrieved, and in record time, a mere two days after the first. And this one had been nearly as easy as the first one to find. It was stuck in the silt on a river's floor, and hadn't taken too terribly long to find and pull free, although there had been a near-accident in the process.
Krillen was playing catch with himself, tossing the two-star Dragonball straight up into the air and catching it in one hand. Piccolo was meditating, and Vegeta was just staring off into space, as though he was mulling over something in his mind.
Not that Videl minded at all. She was perfectly happy to be left alone with her own thoughts.
Retrieving that gem should have been easy. She could hold her breath for quite a long time when she had to. So why on Earth had she nearly drowned?
One minute, she was under the water, following a glimmer of something nearby, something that she would have sworn was orange. Then she felt dizzy, and her arms and legs felt as though they weighed a few tons. And then she was floating…the next thing she really remembered was someone heaving her up onto the bank and forcing the water out of her lungs.
When questioned, she had maintained (and quite convincingly at that) that she had struck her head on something beneath the water's surface and accidentally been knocked out. Vegeta hadn't looked convinced, and Piccolo looked a tiny bit skeptical, but they accepted it, although they wouldn't let her continue with her search, much to her disappointment.
The truth was that she had rather unceremoniously passed out underwater. She didn't know why she was so tired lately. If felt like her whole body just wanted to give up and stop working. But it had all started when Gohan had died.
She'd known he was gone before she'd even woken up. There had been that empty spot in the back of her mind where he'd usually been. That had been the red alarm, and being told point-blank only confirmed what her heart was already telling her.
And now she was on a quest to gather the objects that could bring Gohan back to her, with no guarantee that he would even come back when the wish was made. She hadn't voiced her fear to her fellow searchers, and they had shown no signs of having any doubts. So her worries had remained internal, and she kept her apprehension to herself.
Videl shivered, feeling tired all over again.
She just wanted this whole thing to be over. She wanted life to go back to normal, the way it had been before that thing had shown up and torn a part of her life away.
She wanted Gohan back.
And she wanted the tired feeling to go away.
AN: Ta-da! So Gohan's having kind of the same thoughts as Videl. Hmm…this could get very interesting. Just to let everyone know, from here on out, the narration will probably be skipping around a lot between groups. We've essentially got three groups:
the Dragonball hunters (Videl, Krillen, Piccolo, and Vegeta)
Goku, Gohan, and occasionally King Kai in Otherworld
those who are waiting for the searchers to get back (ChiChi, Bulma, Goten, Trunks, etc.)
Hope you'll check back for the next chapter, cuz I'm gonna go start it as soon as I finish this AN! Thanks a ton, and hasta la pasta!
