Chapter 3: Get-togethers
"Hi, Gohan-kun!" Ami greeted the half-Saiyan boy enthusiastically.
"Hi, Ami-chan," Gohan greeted as he jogged over to her from his last class. He looked back at the school for a moment, and then joined the girl and grinned. "Lead the way," Gohan suggested to Ami, and she indeed did lead the way, smiling broadly at Gohan.
A few minutes later on their way to Ami's house. They were discussing some physics conundrum where Gohan had to be careful not to reveal his extra-dimensional knowledge. Ami liked the discussion, loved the intellectual challenge in fact, but she wanted to be closer to Gohan. Remembering something she saw Usagi do, she let herself drop back a bit when Gohan was making a point. Making sure to keep her attention, thinking deeply over Gohan's words in fact that was her cover for both dropping back and her next move. Suddenly Ami 'tripped', gave a quick squeal of shock, and managed to grab Gohan's arm just in time before she 'fell'. She righted herself and looked up into Gohan's concerned eyes. "Are you alright?" Gohan asked her.
"Yes, I'm fine, thanks to you," she answered holding on to his arm, and deciding to loosen her grip, not wanting to come off as too clingy.
"Good," Gohan said, picking up his pace again, Ami walking along continuing to holding his arm, and marveling at the feeling of the muscles there, "I know it's interesting, but do keep attention on where you're walking ok, Ami?" Ami nodded dutifully. "Don't want you falling onto the ground and hurting yourself," Gohan told her with a smile. "Where were we?"
"The possibility of cold fusion," Ami answered him. "I believe the exact nature of the forces inside atoms."
"Oh, yeah," Gohan answered, smiling, he loved talking to the girl. If there was one subject Gohan was good at, it was physics; traveling through space and dimension, and all the time working with Bulma made that a given. Gohan trailed off on another argument, while Ami interjected comments, her own arguments or the occasional question.
*****
"Well, question three is a piece of cake," Gohan commented from his position on the bed in Ami's room. He was lying on his stomach, crosswise on her bed, book and notebook in front of him, pen in hand.
"Yup," Ami answered him from her bed. She was sitting next to her pillow, leaning her back against the wall. Her legs were hunched up, and she was balancing her book and notebook on her legs just at her knees.
Gohan finished penning down the answer, as did Ami. He looked to the next question and started reading it. He finished halfway, sighed and then looked around at the girl, and asked, "Are you tired of this as well?"
"Uh . . . well . . ." Ami started.
"Let's do something for fun," Gohan suggested as he closed his books and sat up on the bed. "What do you have for fun around here?" Gohan asked, his eyes flicking over a few girl's toys and dismissing them instantly, his eyes settling on the tv in the far corner.
Ami thought it over for a moment, and realized that doing nothing /but/ studying when she had a friend over - a potential /boy/friend!! - she could be stowed on the pile marked 'boring', so she put her books away, and asked, "Sure, did you have something in mind, Gohan-kun?"
Gohan took a sharp intake of breath at what he had come to regard as the cursed 'kun'. He whipped his head around, regarded Ami for just a moment, and then said, "Just call me Gohan, Ami - can I call you Ami?" Ami's spirits soared, she didn't even know him a day, and already he wanted to drop the suffixes. 'Kun' meant 'friend', but also kept a little distance in between people, dropping suffixes meant a very close friend, perhaps even more - this had potential, lots of potential. Ami nodded eagerly, and then she heard Gohan add, "Back home we really never bothered with the suffixes. Every time someone adds 'kun' - or worse 'san' behind my name I feel like I'm some far away high official who is demanding you drop to your knees, or something."
*I feel like Vegeta,* Gohan silently added, as Ami's face fell just a little. She realized to Gohan dropping the suffix didn't have the same connotations as it did to her, but she quickly perked up. It was at least one thing, and it would also show everyone else she and Gohan were close, even though they might not be quite that.
"Do you think something good is on TV?" Gohan asked. It was a little bit bad, he came here and the only fun thing he could come up with was watch tv. The tv was standing on a mobile standard, and the standard had several more planks beneath. One of them had a video recorder on it, while the following seemed to have another black square box but it had a cloth covering it. "What's that?" Gohan asked and pointed at the cloth-covered box.
"Oh, go take off the cloth," Ami said, and Gohan did, revealing a shiny contraption which sported the name 'PlayStation 2'. There was no 'PlayStation' or a second one for that matter in Gohan's dimension, but the name was a good-enough hint. Gohan grinned when he realized what it was - wondering whether it was more advanced than any of the computer game consoles in his home dimension or vice versa - and Ami confirmed it, "It's a video game console, plays DVDs to. My dad bought it for my last birthday. He and mom are divorced . . ." Ami debated for just a moment explaining, and then decided. " . . . I'm not a video game player, see, but I want to be a doctor, I just haven't quite figured out yet what /kind/ of doctor. So when I looked surprised at the gift, dad said that if I decided to become a surgeon, I'd thank him for training my hand-eye coordination, especially since in the near future I might do it remotely via a tv screen, operating a robotic arm on the other side of the planet."
"Cool," Gohan said, his eyes shining and he looked around if he could find the games.
Ami got up with a smile, relieved that she'd be able to have some fun with the guy. She went over to a closet and opened it. As she got out her games she told Gohan, "My dad brings along a new game regularly, and we usually play together. I think he bought it as much for himself as for me. I do love playing against him. Gives us something more to do together." Ami handed the pile of about eight games over to Gohan, and she said, "Choose one."
Gohan shifted through the pile and his eyes landed on a title, 'King of Fighters'. Gohan grinned and pulled them out. "You any good at this one?" Gohan asked with a smile.
Ami smiled, and said, "We'll see."
Gohan got creamed the first few times, as he still had to figure out the controls and what his fighters could do. He was quite intrigued when he saw the fighters firing ki attacks. He wondered if it was based on real life people doing that, or if it was fantasy. He made a mental note to find out. After about fifteen minutes, both he and she were about even playing the game, and they were having lots of fun, before switching to another game and having more fun.
*****
That night the five Sailor Soldiers got together at Rei's grandfather's Shinto shrine. Both cats were there as well. Rei - long black hair - was in her traditional shrine costume, a white, wide top and a long flowing red skirt. Minako, her long golden blonde hair flowed to below her shoulders, sat on a chair. Makoto, and Ami were sitting as well, while Usagi was grinning like a Cheshire cat, looking from Ami to Makoto who were becoming annoyed by Uasagi's behavior.
"We've got three main problems," Artemis, the white cat began speaking. "The first is who is the Knight of the Moonlight, and can he be trusted, or is he playing us?"
The Knight of the Moonlight, a guy in long, flowing white robes, wearing somewhat of a turban as well, had popped up recently. Like another hero, Tuxedo Kamen, who sadly wasn't around anymore due to an unfortunate event of memory loss, he used roses as an offensive attack. White roses, specifically, he threw them just so that the thorns would cut along an enemy's skin, and usually came just in time to save the Soldiers, and more had some wisdom to sprout. Once more, not unlike the afore mentioned Tuxedo Kamen - although he used red roses.
Usagi swooned at the mention of the dashing hero and mumbled, "The Knight of the Moonlight, he couldn't possibly be a bad guy, he's far too handsome."
"How do you know? All we've seen of him is robes and eyes!" Rei bit at the blonde with odangos in irritation. "For all you know he could be hiding his face, because he's ugly."
"No way! Someone that heroic can't be ugly!!" Usagi bit back at the black-haired priestess in training. The group looked strangely at her, and as Usagi thought over what she said, she added, "You know! Even if he's unappealing on the outside, he can't be ugly! Inside is what matters."
The group nodded, giving her that, and Usagi wiped away a little sweat glad she managed at least to talk her way out of that embarrassing statement. "Anyway, we still don't know who he is," Ami continued with the meeting.
"I think it's Mamoru," Usagi stated with some pride.
"How do you know it can't be Gohan?" Ami bit back at the blonde, kind of niffed it had to automatically be Miss Eats a Lot's boyfriend, and she said so, "It just /has/ to be /your/ boyfriend that's the cool new super hero. Gohan and the knight did arrive at around the same time."
"Yeah," Makoto added in. "Besides, Mamoru is Tuxedo Kamen, why would he suddenly change his hero's persona?"
"Gohan's too /short/ to be the knight," Usagi returned snidely, attacking not just Gohan with that statement. "I thought /you/ of all people would notice that. You look down upon the one, and look up to the other!" Usagi looked with satisfaction at her friend's hurt face, which slowly grew darker. "As for why, quite simple, Mamoru lost his memory, he doesn't remember who he was, but his true hero nature couldn't be broken by the spell!" Usagi added triumphantly.
Jupiter suddenly got angry at the petite blonde, her rage slowly growing. Ami too didn't like the implied insult to Gohan, especially since the one making it was even shorter. "Stop it!" Rei called out sharply, and the three of them looked up at her. "We're still in a holy shrine! So you two shut up and keep your hormones in check, and you," Rei pointed at Usagi. "You stop acting like a childish girl - my boyfriend's better than yours. Ugh!" Usagi looked shocked at the accusation at first, some hurt filtering in her eyes, then she quickly grew angry.
"You!" she hissed, falling in the familiar pattern of arguing and fighting with the dark-haired girl.
"/I/ /suggest/," Minako said sharply, bringing everyone's attention to the blonde, "we treat the Knight as an ally, but keep our guard up just in case."
"Debating his identity will get us nowhere," Luna, the dark grey cat, piped up. "I agree with Minako." The group calmed down some, and then the dark cat added, "Our second problem is finding out where those demons from cards come from, why they are here, and why they need energy." The group didn't have any answers, so suitably chastised earlier, none of them spoke. "Ok, then, everyone keep their eyes open for any clues about this," Luna continued, looking around the group of girls from her position. "Which leads us to our final problem, one which I tried to address with Usagi earlier, but she thought other things were more important." Usagi blinked, looking guilty, innocent, and clueless all at the same time. Luna told them, "Remember your headache two nights ago, Rei?"
Reit looked up, thought, and then nodded. Artemis continued where Luna had halted, "At the same time, one of Ami's sensors went off. It registered a strange energy that I haven't seen before. I've been doing some research, and I'm pretty sure it's extra-dimensional."
"What does that mean, extra-di- extra . . . ?" Usagi tried.
"Extra-dimensional," Ami started clarifying calmly, and remembered she and Gohan had a discussion about it among other physics concepts just recently. She dismissed it as a coincidence, and talked onward, "Outside of this dimension, not of this universe. It would mean that the fabric of space and time has been ruptured; could be a wormhole, perhaps a natural one. If the scientific community has detected it, there should be a lot of articles about it soon, and . . ."
"Ahem!" Makoto interrupted, a little irritated. "Thanks for the clarification, but I'm not interested in the dissertation."
The others nodded in agreement, and Ami shut up. "Any other ideas?" Artemis asked around to the group. When no answer came, he added, "Any other information? Announcements? Well, then we should all be on our guard. The amount of problems seem to be mounting; we need to be as vigilant as we can."
*****
The next day Gohan sat down at lunch hour with the rest of them. Somewhat nervous about Makoto, and what they were going to be talking about in the afternoon, hoping she wouldn't start it earlier: namely at lunch. "Hello, Gohan-kun," Naru greeted him first. Umino followed with the same greet, and Ami greeted him as just Gohan, earning her a surprised look from Umino and Naru, and a dark glare from Makoto.
Gohan groaned, and as he sat down on the bench, he said, "Guys, please. Leave the 'kun', will ya? Just Gohan. I hope I can do the same to you."
"Oh, sure, absolutely Gohan," Makoto replied with a grin, and giving Ami a look that said, 'So, there.' As Gohan sat down, Makoto produced a second lunch box, and said, "Gohan, I made you lunch today, I just /love/ to cook."
Ami's gaze narrowed at Makoto and thought, *Why you . . . !? Using that is really low!*
"That really, /really/ wasn't necessary," Gohan said, feeling bad about himself and thinking, */Really/ not, my mother is still very much alive, I don't need all this.* He added, "I have my own lunch as well, you know."
"It was no bother, I was making lunch for myself anyway, and I thought, I might as well," Makoto added, missing Naru's and Umino's incredulous stares. The both of them didn't know Ami and Makoto as well as Usagi, but they did know this really wasn't 'no bother'.
Gohan was in a bind. He could show Makoto that it really wasn't necessary by not eating a bit from the offered lunch, but that could upset her. It certainly wasn't polite, and his mother taught him to always be polite. "Thank you," Gohan said and took the lunch box. He opened it and looked at the delicious food. Some of it was baked, still warm, and the smells made Gohan's mouth water. He gingerly took an article of food and brought it to his mouth, keenly aware of the four pairs of eyes looking expectantly at him. He took a bite and started chewing, slowly, nervously. His eyes widened instantly, and he couldn't keep himself from blurting out a 'mmh.' He chewed faster and swallowed his bit. Then he looked over at Makoto, with wide eyes, and said, "This is delicious." Makoto beamed with pride, Ami's glare deepened, Naru became more nervous, and Umino looked with jealousy at Gohan and the delicious-smelling and looking lunch inside the box.
Gohan hated himself. How could he have said it was delicious? Dig himself deeper in his hole. What if Makoto was going to make him lunch all the time? Him mooching off of Makoto and the others on account of a necessary lie was just wrong. Gohan looked around, as he took another bite from the delicious sandwich, he found Usagi walking toward them, a guy hovering around her, talking to her; with quite some interest, Gohan noted. There was a girl close behind them, one who scowled at the scene. Gohan's gaze locked on the guy, his sense of ki homing in on him. Gohan chewed slower, his gaze drilling into the guy, knowing instantly they were not human. Not a problem of course, he was only part human, he was going to school here, and he was from another dimension, so Gohan couldn't exactly scream bloody murder and beat them to a pulp. The guy was apparently noticing Gohan's gaze, because in the middle of a sentence he suddenly stiffened and then turned around looking at Gohan. Their gazes locked, and then suddenly the guy excused himself and joined the female of his species.
The others had noticed Gohan's strange gaze, and had looked intrigued at it. Finally Umino asked, "What was that about?"
"Uh, nothing, why?" Gohan asked and Usagi's stomach making loud rumbling noises saved him for now.
The blonde sat down and looked over the table, and drooled. "I forgot my lunch," Usagi whimpered weakly. "Mako-chan, would you lend me some?"
Saved! Gohan could get rid of the second lunch without hurting Makoto's feelings. "Here," Gohan said with a smile handing the box over to Usagi. The girl looked at the fantastic smelling lunch, and everyone looked astounded. "Makoto made it for me, but I couldn't possibly have the audacity to eat two lunches while you have nothing."
Usagi's mouth watered at the sight, and then dug in with abandon, mumbling a deep 'thank you'. Gohan gave Makoto a smile that told her he had no other choice. Mokoto perked up, understanding, not angry that Gohan wasn't eating her lunch.
*****
That afternoon Gohan left the school building and arrived at the main entrance where he had agreed to meet Makoto so they could go to her place and 'talk' about 'the loss of their parents'. To say that Gohan was nervous was an understatement. To say that Gohan felt like a prick for making everyone believe he was an orphan just so - even more so now that he was actually going to talk with a 'fellow orphan' about it - was more accurate. But how else could he have explained, he was all alone here in this dimension?
He noticed Usagi, and Ami were with the brunette, and so were two other girls: a raven-haired one, and another blonde. Gohan approached them, and he greeted, "Hi, Makoto. Bunny. Ami."
Rei and Minako - the two new girls - raised their eyebrows, and looked slightly amused at the steamed Usagi, who was clenching and unclenching her fists. "Hi, Gohan," Makoto greeted back, oblivious to Usagi's mounting anger.
"Hi, Gohan," Ami greeted as well, and turned to Rei. "Let me introduce you to two friends of ours. This is Hino Rei."
Rei give a quick wave, and a short greet. Gohan returned the greet. "And this," Makoto took over, gesturing to Minako, "is Aino Minako."
"Hello," the stunning blonde greeted, and Gohan greeted back, giving her and Rei a quick once-over.
"Shall we go then, Gohan?" Makoto asked with a smile.
Gohan gulped, and nodded, and then the two of them walked away from the other girls after a greet.
*****
"Aarghh!" Usagi groaned out, as she and the remaining three Sailor Soldiers walked together toward Rei's temple. "I can't believe it! Why does he keep calling me Bunny? It sounds like I'm a little stupid kid! Not to mention sounds just plain horrible."
Minako and Rei kept their mouths shut, but gave each other a sour look. Ami though, said, "I think it sounds cute."
Usagi abruptly stopped walking and turned around. Looking angrily at Ami, she said, "It's /not/ cute, and /you/ think everything is cute that comes from Gohan!"
"I do not," Ami answered her a little wigged.
"Do too!" Usagi accused angrily.
Minako decided to cut in before this went no where, "Calm down, you don't seem to hate the guy."
Usagi sniffed, and said, "How can I? He's made friends with my friends, and apart from the name that shall not be named again, he's quite decent."
"He's a lot more than decent," Ami said softly, remembering all Gohan's mental feats in class these past few days, and the homework making too.
Usagi groaned, then sniffed, and wailed, "See! It's not fair! Finally some romance, and all I can think about is The Name!" Rei shook her head and quickly walked on, trying to calm her rising anger.
*****
Gohan felt like a sick bastard manipulating a defenseless girl's emotions with lies as he told the completely fabricated story of his father's and mother's death. So he decided to shorten it, by saying, " . . . and I really don't like talking about it much." Makoto, having told her story about the plane crash with their parents on it earlier on, agreed quickly. Of course Gohan's rumbling stomach at smelling the delicious food helped. More so, Makoto having to go to the kitchen to check up on it. Gohan couldn't resist and followed her in.
*The way to a man's heart, is through his stomach,* Makoto thought with a smile at Gohan checking out the food. "I decided on doing something new and unusual today; real Italian spaghetti bolognese." Makoto smiled as she turned to look at Gohan, and asked, "The question is, will you be staying for dinner, or not?"
"Oh, yes," Gohan answered without thinking, practically drooling.
Makoto grinned in triumph as she let the spaghetti fall into a sieve, and the cooking water fell right through into the sink. "Perhaps we could do something else together," Makoto suggested sweetly. "Something to pass the time, have you ever done laser quest? There's this new virtual reality theater, a big fancy name for laser quest if you ask me."
Gohan perked up, if he figured right they had the same thing in his dimension only named a little different. "Yeah, Mako, that'd be great!" Gohan answered, never having played the game. He lived in the rural country back home after all, nowhere near the city where they had it. Makoto perked up, smiling, thinking she was about to go out on a date. "We'll make a whole day of it. Then of all of us we can see who's the best sharp shooter. Have you asked the others already, or should I do it?" Mako's eyes widened, and then she got disappointed but quickly hid it.
"No, I'll ask," Makoto answered him, smiling.
