Gohan and Videl: Our beginning

by Trugeta

[Complete] This is my first G&V story. Gohan is VERY down after the fight with Majin Buu is over. Can Videl help him? And what will that mean for their relationship?

2. Cheering up Gohan

Gohan and Videl: Our Beginning



Chapter 2: Cheering up Gohan

Warning: long chapter ahead!

Last Time

Gohan looked her directly into the eyes.
„Don't you understand? Because of me Kid Buu was able to destroy the Earth! Had I done way of Majin Buu before he transformed into Kid Buu, that would never have happened! I let everyone down! Again!" he said toneless.


Now the continuation...

Videl's eyes widened in realisation.

~ Oh Kami! He thinks he's responsible for all of it! No wonder he wanted to avoid the party! ~
She hid her train of thoughts and looked him directly into his coal black eyes.
"Gohan, believe me, you are not responsible for this!" she said in a voice of utmost certainty.

He looked up at her, sorrow and disbelief dominating in his face.
"How can you say that? If I had killed Majin Buu before he absorbed Gotenks and Piccolo, nothing of this would have happened! Ever!"

Videl shook her head.
"Oh my Gohan! So much feeling of guilt... and so unnecessary! Gohan, I saw everything that happened from above! As did Chi-Chi, Bulma and Dabura, although this guy does not really count. Believe me, no one could have known that Buu would absorb Gotenks and Piccolo. You even warned them not to fuse! You did everything you could!" she said in the breastnote of certainty.

Gohan looked at her with sad eyes.
"Videl, you don't understand. It seems that my incapacity's are a certain pattern in my life." He started.  Gohan sat up. His spine stiffened, his posture became more regal and he continued

"I dunno if I ever told you about my fight with Cell during the Cell Games."

Videl looked puzzled.

"YOUR fight? No... you didn't. YOU fought Cell during the Cell Games? Wait a sec... you were the little boy who was with the other Golden fighters?" Gohan nodded and Videl continued.

"I remember the ZTV reporter thought you were the delivery boy!" she giggled at this special memory, but stopped immediately at the look she received from Gohan.

She hurried to continue

"Well, that was until you displayed your power. I couldn't believe it that a boy of my age could possess so much power! I always wanted to get to know you! Which I did, actually... well, yeah, I saw you fight Cell until the transmission stopped and the TV went on the freeze. After the TV broadcast was back on my Dad claimed that HE was the one who beat Cell. Actually I NEVER believed that he was the one. I had seen Cell fight, he was way too strong. So tell me what happened back then. I always wanted to know!" she exclaimed eagerly.

Gohan fought hard with himself. But in the end he came to the decision that he could not refuse her this (or for that matter any other) wish.

He took a deep breath.
"Okay, I will tell you. But believe me, it is not gonna be pretty."

Videl nodded at hearing this and took his right hand into hers.
"I can imagine. But I am there for you. So tell me, what happened when the TV broadcast stopped?"

Gohan looked at her.
"I s'pose you remember that Cell spawned seven miniature versions of himself?" Gohan started and Videl nodded. He continued
"Well, what you dunno is that he created them to get to me."

Videl looked at him in horror.
"Yeah, Dad had told him after he had quit his fight against Cell that I would be the one to fight him and that I had incredible potential hidden inside of me with which I'd beat him. During our fight Cell tried everything to force me to unleash this potential. When all his attempts were unsuccessful, he intended to hurt the ones I care for. So he spawned these miniature devils who started to beat my Dad and the others senseless. You wouldn't believe it! It was horrible! I SAW my Dad and the others getting beaten to a pulp, but I couldn't bring myself to kill Cell. Not until Cell did one more horrible thing..." Gohan trailed off.

Videl grabbed his other hand impulsively.
"What did he do?" she asked, curiosity incarnate.

Gohan took one more deep breath as he recalled not that beautiful memories.

"You remember that tall red-haired guy?" he started. Videl nodded and Gohan continued "Well, he was an android and called #16. He was one of the most caring creatures I had the honour to meet. He loved nature and the Earth more than anything else. During his prior fight with Cell his body had been destroyed by Cell." Videl gasped at hearing this and Gohan continued. "Yeah, but his head remained intact. Somehow #16 had sensed my potential and uncovered why I was unwilling to use it. So he asked your father to be brought to the battlefield by him."

Videl chuckled at hearing this.
"It must have been a hilarious sight. My Dad running over the battlefield, carrying a head under his arms."

Gohan managed a little smile.
"Yeah, the others who witnessed this told me it was quite a funny sight. And I must say that your Dad, although he took credit for my deeds, proved himself to be brave." Gohan became earnest again. "Well, back to the topic... your Dad threw #16s head right before our (Cells and my) feet. It was quite a shock to see his head roll before my feet, I can tell you. But I will never forget #16s words. He said: 'Gohan, let it go. It is not a sin to fight for the right cause. There a those who words alone will not reach. Cell is such a being. I know how you feel, Gohan. You are gentle. You do not like to hurt. I know because I too have learned these feelings. But it is because you cherish life that you must protect it.' And then Cell did the most horrible thing imaginable: he crushed #16s head under his feet. His last words were: 'Protect the life I love.' As Cell crushed #16s head something in me snapped. I could not stand it any more. To make a long story short: I went ballistic. It was the power surge coming from me that jammed up the TV-broadcast. I'd let my anger flow freely and had tapped deep into my powers. Cell tried to find out just how strong I was and sent his 'juniors' on me. Again, to make a long story short, I made short work of them. I had no restrains any more to kill those beings. As #16 had said: 'There are those who words alone will not reach.' These creatures plus Cell fell into this category. So I walked the talk.

Cell was really pissed that I had destroyed his 'precious' juniors, but he recovered. The others did as I had ordered and cleared out of the area after Mirai Trunks had given each a senzu bean. Heh, I had snatched the bag full of these from Cell before I destroyed his juniors. Gave him quite a surprise... Well, after I had destroyed the juniors I fought Cell himself. 'Mr. I-am-perfect-and-unbeatable.' Well, I showed him that he was not as unbeatable as he thought he was. After some testing and warm-up I allowed him to hit me with his hardest punch. To his utmost surprise it did not affect me. And he did not take the echo that well..."

Videl looked at him and asked
"Not that well? Come on Gohan, tell me!"

"Okay, okay. After he had punched me I punched him into his stomach before he could react. I punched very hard and had a roundhouse kick on him, and he was affected rather badly. He stumbled back and coughed up blood, and he actually fell on his bum. I will never forget his words: 'Why am I so damaged? He only had two punches on me!'. Well, actually these two punches were too much for him. To make a long story short, I beat the crap out of him in the subsequent fight. During this I had another punch on him which caused him to spit out #18."

Videl gave him a puzzled look.
"#18? What had she to do with this?" she asked.

Gohan scratched the back of his head.
"Oh yeah. How would you know? Well, Cell needed to absorb #17 and #18 in order to gain his perfect form. Obviously one of Dr. Gero's twisted ideas." She gave him another puzzled look. "Dr. Gero is or better was the mad scientist who modified #17 and #18 and turned them into androids. He also created Cell as the ultimate bio-mechanical android. The form you saw him in during the Cell Games was his perfect form. He had obtained it after he had succeeded in absorbing #17 and #18. But that's another story. The punch I had on him caused him to spit out #18 and he lost his perfect form. But I had made a mistake during my fight with him. I wanted to make him pay instead of finishing the job quickly. I wanted to HURT him. My Dad tried to warn me, but I did not listen. I got too cocky. And that nearly destroyed Earth. And lead to something as bad." he said, in a voice of nearly self-hate.

Videl looked at him questioningly.
"How could that have nearly destroyed Earth?" she asked him.

"Well, after he had lost his perfect form, he decided to blow himself up and destroy Earth in the process."

Videl looked at him shocked, and Gohan continued to explain

"It turned out Dr. Gero had equipped him with a self-destruct device. And I am not talking about some sticks of dynamite. We are talking about a bona-fide-doomsday-device here. It WOULD have destroyed the whole planet. And I had absolutely no idea what to do. But Dad knew. He grabbed Cell, said his good-byes and teleported himself and Cell away. Later on I learned that he had teleported Cell and himself to King Kais, where Cell exploded. Well, King Kai and Dad died, but not so Cell. His core had survived the explosion intact. And as long as this core remained intact, he could regenerate as he had Piccolos cells in him. And as Cell had also Saiyan cells in him, he came back much stronger than before." Gohan said.

"How come?" Videl asked. He had never told her that.

"You must know that the strength of a Saiyan, if brought to brink of death, will increase tremendously. Up to 30 times and more."

Videl looked at him, shocked by this piece of information.

"Up to 30 times and more? But... that's incredible! What happened then?"

Gohan continued.

"To our utmost horror we found out that Cell was still very much alive. More then alive! He had become as strong as me! And he killed Mirai Trunks with his first shot. Mirai had no chance to defend himself at all. As a result, Vegeta went all out and attacked Cell head on. It had not effect whatsoever, and Cell prepared himself to finish Vegeta off. I had been unable to save Mirai, but I swore that I would save Vegeta. And I succeeded. But I paid the price."

Videl looked at her Gohan, heartstricken by his words.

"What happened to you?" she asked, concern obvious in her voice although it concerned past things.

He winced at the memory, as if it still was creating pain.
"I caught the blast that was intended for Vegeta. It would have killed him, but did not affect me THIS bad. Well, the result was bad enough. It rendered my left arm useless. But both Vegeta and I survived."

Videl looked relieved.

"That's a good thing! But what happened then?" she asked, pushing him on.

Gohan continued.
"Cell decided to put an end to it. Literally. He powered up a kamehameha-wave."

Videl looked at him quizzically.
"What is that? I know it must be one of your attacks, but what are it's effects?" she asked.

"Well, the kamehameha-wave is an energy wave, that, if one puts enough strength into it, can obliterate anyone and anything." Gohan started.  "And Cell had decided to obliterate the Earth and everyone on it with this kamehameha-wave. As he had picked up the Instant Transmission from dad and did not need to breathe in space things were looking very bad for us. I must admit that I had lost hope. I thought that Cell was much too strong for me and gave up." He continued.

Videl looked at him disbelieving.

"That does not sound like you..." she said.

Gohan looked into her azure blue eyes.

"You must try to understand how it looked to me. There stood Cell, at his prime, unwounded and able to regenerate. On the other side me, wounded, and I had no senzu-bean to heal me and recover my strength. I thought we were done for." He said.

She looked at him.
"But something must have happened. Something that changed the events. What was it?" she inquired.

"Not something changed the events. Someone. Dad was the one who gave me the strength to continue. He communicated with me telepathically through King Kai from the afterworld. The others thought I had gone nutters, talking to myself. Well, Dad believed in me and he convinced me to tap into my deepest reserves. Dad had understood that I was unconsciously still holding back, because I feared that I would kill people besides Cell with my kamehameha-wave. But Dad reasoned that they could be brought back with the dragonballs. And he was right. So I waited to release my full energy at the right moment. That moment came when Vegeta decided to aid me and fired a blast at Cell that distracted him long enough for me to release all of my energy. Thanks to Vegeta's help I was able to overcome Cells kamehameha. He was destroyed to the core, and no Cells were left from which he could have regenerated. He was gone for good. I had killed him." Gohan finished.

Videl looked at him, pride obvious in her eyes.

"But that was wonderful, Gohan! Why do you think you let everyone down back then? You did what no one besides you could do! You beat Cell! So why do you feel you let everyone down?" she asked.

Gohan looked at her, pain in his eyes.

"Don't you understand? Because of my actions, my cockiness, Dad was killed and the Earth nearly destroyed! I AM responsible for this! No one else!" he nearly shouted and let his head hang.

Videl shook her head.

"Gohan, don't you see it? You rectified your mistake when you killed Cell. You saved the whole world! You did what your Dad believed you to be capable of. If anything, you proved yourself worthy of his trust in you! And you saved all our lives! We can not thank you enough, Gohan!" she exclaimed.

He looked up at her.

"Don't you see it? My cockiness killed Dad! I am responsible for his death! I am responsible for the circumstance that Goten never saw his Dad until he was seven! And that my mom cried every night for a whole year!"

Videl looked at her Gohan, sympathy in her eyes.
"Oh my Gohan, have you carried all this emotional weight with you for all those years?" she asked. He recovered enough to nod. She continued.
"As far as I know, your Dad could have been wished back with the dragonballs anytime. Why did nobody do that?" she asked.

Gohan cleared his throat.

"He did not want us to wish him back. Said his continued presence on Earth would draw other enemies to Earth who would want to challenge him."

Videl eyes lit up.

"Gohan, don't you see? HE chose to stay in the afterlife. This was not and is not your failure. You did everything you could. It was HIS choice. And I believe he stayed in the afterworld because he believed you were strong enough to protect Earth all by yourself. Ever thought of that, hmm?"

He shook his head and looked up.
"No, I must admit I never saw it that way. But still my cockiness killed him!"

Videl could not believe his stubbornness, his will to take the blame.

"Gohan, he chose to give his life to save the Earth. He died a heroes death. I s'pose he died the way he wanted to die. Upright and brave. In battle. And I remember quite clearly how he came back for one day during the World Tournament. He looked quite satisfied with himself. Obviously he had everything he wanted in the afterlife. I dunno who, but someone told me he even participated in quite a few afterworld tournaments. And he grew considerably stronger there! He had everything he wanted there! It is not and was not your fault that he wanted to stay there. Whether his decision was right or not. You are not responsible for his decisions! And in my opinion all this fussing is obsolete, cause he is back! Everything is in order, Gohan. Time to let your sense of guilt go."

He looked at her, and for a moment or two she thought that she'd convinced him.
"You may be right regarding Cell, but what about Buu?" he asked.

"Well, what about him?" she asked.

"I let everyone down in the Buu-crisis! I should have beaten him when I had the chance!" he exclaimed.

His girlfriend looked at him. Obviously this self-blame-thing was running quite deep within him.

"Gohan, I saw your fight from the afterworld. You did everything you could! Believe me! Nobody could have foreseen that Buu would blow himself up, then regenerate and absorb Gotenks and Piccolo. You even told Goten and Trunks not to fuse. But did THEY listen to you? Noooo. You are not the only one who makes mistakes, you know. You are not to blame. I saw you use every ounce of strength you had in your fight against Buu, but through the fusion he was simply to strong. This three-eyed guy" 'Tien' Gohan cut in  "didn't stand a chance either. And not even your father could beat him. No one had a chance against him. Not until Vegeta and your Dad fused..." she said.

Gohan looked at her, puzzled.

"You saw all of this from the afterlife?"

Videl nodded.

"EVERYONE in the afterlife was watching the fight."

Gohan continued.

"Then tell me what happened after I was absorbed!" he asked, curious.

She looked at him, tears in her eyes.

"Oh Gohan, it was so bad! When Buu absorbed you I thought I would never ever see you again! And that thought hurt more than anything else!"

Gohan looked puzzled. In spite of his genius intelligence he could be quite dumb headed sometimes.
"Why is that?" he asked.

Videl looked at him incredulous.
"You dummy! Haven't you figured it out yet?" she asked him.

"Figured out what?" he asked, truly unaware of what she meant.

"Aahh!" she screamed. "Sometimes I can't believe you! But I will give you time to think about what I mean during the time I tell you the story. I s'pose you are able of multitasking?" she asked.

Gohan nodded, obviously confused.

"Good!" Videl said, "Then stress your brain and you'll figure it out! Okay, back to topic: after Buu had absorbed you, Vegeta and your father put up a valiant fight against Buu. Obviously Vegeta thought at first that he could beat Buu on his own. Boy was he wrong! Even as they fought Buu together it did not look better in the slightest. They did not stand a chance. And Buu would have finished them off for good, if they had not done something really unexpected... I dunno if I saw right, but I think they used some kind of ear-rings to become one person! It was really weird! And I thought I was seeing things until the looks on Bulma's and Chi-Chi's faces told me I had indeed seen right!" she exclaimed.

"Ah," Gohan cut in, "I know what they did, then. They used devices called 'Potara ear-rings'. With those you can fuse with another person. But unlike a normal fusion created by the fusion dance like Trunks and Goten used, this fusion is supposed to be permanent. It can not be dissolved. I wondered the whole time why Vegeta and Dad were able to."

Videl looked at him and nodded. Gohan looked at her quizzically, but she made a gesture that told him 'later'.

So he continued to explain.

"For fusion to happen, two people only need to wear the ear-rings of a Kaioshin. The two fighters involved in the fusion must wear the earrings on opposing ears. And as I told you before, this fusion is supposed to be permanent and irreversible. The fusion creates a new being with a whole new mind and has the combined abilities of the fused persons. This fusion is even more powerful than the Fusion Dance, so I think the fusion of Vegeta and Dad must have been quite strong, huh?"

Videl nodded.

"Yes, he was. He called himself 'Vegetto'. And he beat the crap out of Buu. Especially when he went Super. It was quite a show. But you are not quite right, the fusion was not permanent. I dunno exactly what happened, but once Vegetto had been absorbed by Buu, we could not see any more what was going on. Time passed by and nothing of significance happened, until all of you emerged out of Buu and Buu started to change. I s'pose you were unconscious then, right?" she asked.

Gohan nodded.

"Yeah, I have no memories of this. So I guess I must have been unconscious." he said and smiled sheepishly.

"Well, as I said, Buu started to change. We wondered what he was up to now, but the only thing we could do was wait. When the change was complete, Buu was smaller in appearance. He looked more like a kid. But his eyes gave him away. They say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul. Well, in his case nobody was at home. His eyes were completely soulless. It was creepy. He looked like evil incarnate, and soon he proved that he was. Your Dad put up a very good fight, but in the end Buu proved to be too strong and blew up the whole Earth. That's when you died, too." she said.

Gohan looked at her, confused.

"Wait... yeah! I remember standing in front of Lord Enmas desk in a long, long row... and I thought that'd been a dream!"

Videl took his hands.

"Nope. Wasn't. Well, your Dad was able to save a few people, including Vegeta, Dende and my Dad. Would you believe it? MY Dad... sometimes I think luck favours him... ahh, never mind. Back to topic... Buu started searching for them, he even appeared in the afterlife and managed to mess things up like hell."

Gohan looked shocked at hearing this.
"He appeared in the AFTERLIFE? But that should be impossible!" he exclaimed.

Videl nodded.

"I know. That's what I thought, too. And it was really scary. Luckily I was far away from him... but I heard what happened. A lot of brave warriors faced him, but Buu defeated them with ease. Luckily he could not kill them... I dunno how it happened, but your Dad was brought back to life. I know this because the halo above his head had disappeared. He somehow drew Buu's attention towards him, and Buu teleported there. What I tell you now I've only heard from rumours... apparently your Dad and the others had teleported to the world of the Kaioshin. And your Dad lured him there. To make a long story short: your Dad put up the fight of his life, according to rumours he even transformed further than you. I s'pose your Dad called it Super Saiyan 3." Gohan nodded, and Videl continued.

"But according to rumours your Dad was not strong enough to finish Buu off by himself. So Vegeta 'volunteered' to distract Buu long enough for Goku to recover. Again, to make a long story short, your Dad was able to beat Buu with the help of something called 'Genki Dama'. I hope I got that right." Gohan nodded. "And if you believe it our not, but my Dad added something to save the universe." Gohan had a look of total disbelieve written on his face. Until now, nobody had told him what had happened. But he found THAT very hard to believe...

"Well, Earth and it's people had been restored through the dragonballs. And Vegeta had the idea to use the energy of Earth' population to aid your Dad in his struggle against Buu. But he was unsuccessful in convincing them to do so." Gohan smiled at hearing that. Yeah, he could imagine....

Videl continued.

"Well, I don't know who, but someone convinced my Dad to try it. And as Dad is commonly regarded as Earth' #1 hero, he had no problem to convince them. With their additional energy your Dad, who had been restored to full strength trough another wish, was able to beat Buu with the 'Genki Dama'." She finished.

"Wheew!" Gohan whistled.

"You see, Gohan? Not even your Dad was able to beat Buu on his own. He needed the help of all of Earth' population to do so. So don't blame yourself for not being able to do so on your own! YOU... ARE... NOT... TO... BLAME! Got it?"

Gohan looked into the azure blue eyes he loved so much and saw nothing but truth in them. Finally he gave up on constantly crucifying himself. He let the constant feeling of guilt flow out of him and felt free for the first time in years. It was a very good feeling... and the special person responsible for this was sitting right next to him...

Gohan noticed that he was still looking into Videl's eyes, which forced him to smile. The smile he received from her was one full of mirth, for Videl must have sensed that he had seen the truth in her words.

He finally voiced his decision.

"Yes, you're right. I see that it was totally illogical, but it was the way I felt. I felt I had let everyone down... but you made it clear to me that I'm not the only one who made mistakes. After all, it's only human. Thank you for showing me this." Gohan said and leaned towards Videl. He embraced her in a tight hug.

Then, after some seconds he whispered into her ear
"And I think I've worked out what you meant earlier..." he said, lightly loosening the hug to make it more comfortable for her.

Videl didn't dare getting her hopes up yet. After all, she meanwhile knew that Son males (and that also included Gohan) could sometimes be VERY oblivious to certain hidden meanings...

So she only said

"Yeah?" innocently.

"Mmh", Gohan whispered, "I think you could not stand the thought that I'd been absorbed for good because you love me..." he saw the gleam in her eyes (~ Yeah, right answer! ~) and continued

"Do you want to know which thought hurt me the most, the one that dominated my mind before I was absorbed?" he asked.

Videl nodded.

"Of course I'd like to know!" she exclaimed.

He smiled at her.

"Okay. It was the thought that I might never ever be able to see your beautiful face again, your azure blue eyes in which I lose myself, your amazing grace which enchants me and the never ceasing power of your body, mind and soul. And that I never really had the chance to say that I truly and deeply love you."

The gleam in her eyes told him everything he needed to know. Yes, she did love him, too.

Beforehand he had been careful not to get his hopes up, but now it was different...

Videl looked at him with loving eyes.

"Wow, that was the most romantic speech I've ever heard." she said, nearly giggling.

Gohan scratched the back of his head in an embarrassed way.
"You really think so?" he asked.

"Of course I do! You are a romantic", she hugged him more tightly, "and I love you too." With that she leaned forward and gave Gohan a deep and longing kiss. They only had to separate after some minutes to breathe again. Afterwards they continued to exchange more kisses.

Then, after their desire to kiss was satisfied for now (A/N: it took quite long...), Videl wanted to tell Gohan something and looked directly into his eyes

"I guess I noticed for the first time that I love you when those morons Spopovitch and Yamu hurt you. I could not stand it, and if I had been able to I would have beaten those two into oblivion. How dare they! Even your Dad he to restrain me from getting to you. But obviously it was a plan from the Kaio-Shin. I hated it nevertheless!" she said, and Gohan thought

~ Remind me to never get onto her bad side... ~

However, Videl continued
"I felt not relieved until this big guy", "Kibito" Gohan cut in, "yeah, Kibito, had healed you. I was so worried! There and then I knew that I cared for you more than for a boyfriend, and that I truly love you!" she exclaimed.

Gohan was amazed. That was more than he had ever hoped for! He loosened the hug and knelt down before her. At this sight she nearly had to giggle, but she restrained herself.
"My Videl, I love you more than I could say, more than there are stars shining brightly from the heavens above and deeper than the deepest depths of Earth's oceans. Take my never ceasing love... Videl, what I want to say: do you want to marry me?" Gohan asked.

Videl did not hesitate one second.

"Yes! Yes! Of course I do! Oh Gohan, I love you so much!" she exclaimed. She threw herself at him, and both were thrown to the floor. Videl landed on top of him and started kissing him senseless. Not that he put up much resistance... now they were just doing what the others had suspected beforehand: they were snogging, and that rather heavily...



to be continued...

Thanks for reading! Please review!

A/N: I dunno if Videl (plus Bulma and Chi-Chi) really was / were able to watch the fight, but as the bad guys could (remember Babidi seeing Buu fighting Goku and wishing he (Buu) would lose?) why shouldn't the good guys?

A/N 2: I know it (the proposal) happened quite in a rush, but hey, Gohan and Videl ARE destined for each other. So why should she say "Hmm, I must think about it..." when she really loves him and does not wish for anything else? Just my 2 cent...

A/N 3: If I got some events from the Buu Saga not right, sry. But I wrote those from memory...

ANSWERS TO MY REVIEVER(S):

Trinity Son: Thank you! I'll try to update as regularly as possible, but I can't promise that cause I am quite busy in my RL. But I'll do my best! Promise!