-----Chapter Six------

The strong scent of men's cologne filled the air. Goten sat on the floor, waiting by the bathroom door like a good little guard dog. He was dressed in a fine two hundred dollar suit, his hair combed in a tolerable manner.

"Gohan! Hurry up! I'm hungry!" Goten whined.

They were dressed in fine formal wear as a requirement to the party Bulma was throwing. A formal dinner party to be exact. This made Gohan wonder why Vegeta would allow it, but to Gohan… Vegeta was very different now.

The routine criticizing he received as soon as he entered the room had completely gone and Vegeta was speaking in a way that surprised them all. His tone was respectful… Almost kind.

"Gohan!"

Giving himself one last once over, Gohan finally emerged from the bathroom. He let Goten take a good look at him.

"What do you think? Does it look okay?" he asked.

Goten of course was in a hurry to get his hands on delicious food. He gave his brother a quick nod.

"Come on, come on!" he said hurriedly practically dragging Gohan out of his apartment.

They decided to get a cab, much to Goten's annoyance and protests. They arrived quite late since the cabbie had to stop for gas. As soon as they set foot at Capsule Corp, Goten ran to the food table. Gohan spotted Krillin and walked over to join him sitting on the sofa.

"Gohan! Nice," Krillin grinned nodding. "Eighteen's just talking to the women."

"Where's Marron?" Gohan asked. The husband and wife never left without their precious only child.

"Well, we left her with Trunks. I think they're upstairs playing or something."

"At least you didn't leave her with Roshi," Gohan chuckled as Krillin shuddered.

"That is not funny."

The friends continued to laugh and once they'd caught up, Gohan went around to talk to everyone else.

"Gohan, let's eat!" Trunks grabbed at his sleeve. "Goten won't eat without you."

Nodding, Gohan followed him to the table where Goten and Marron were waiting. Marron was now seven, only four years younger than Goten. Gohan always seemed to wonder if they had something else going on.

"Finally! I'm starving," Goten exclaimed as soon as he spotted them.

"You could have eaten without him, you know." Giggled Marron.

Goten shrugged. "The more the merrier."

They began to eat, Gohan not saying much. He was way too old to be at the kid's table. He didn't mind it though. He enjoyed listening to their conversation. It wasn't moments later that they got a surprise.

Bulma came into the room. It seemed that she'd been searching for Gohan. She shook her head once she found him.

"Look at this! A grown man eating with the kids!" she pursed her lips. "Well, no matter. Videl, how about you sit with Gohan to keep him company?"

Gohan coughed, choking on his food. Marron quickly patted him on the back. Goten and Trunks exchanged a look before turning to look at Gohan. He seemed to have lost all the color on his face. Just then, Videl came in. She glanced at Gohan before taking the empty seat next to Marron and Gohan.

"Hi! I remember you!" Marron said being indifferent to the situation.

Videl smiled faintly, glancing at Gohan once again. The table had become so quiet. Trunks was sure that they could hear a pin drop. Smiling, and oblivious to the fact that she'd made things really awkward, she left them.

"How are you Videl," Gohan asked after a long period of awkward silence.

Videl blushed. "Um, I'm well… How about you?"

"Good… Good." Gohan nodded. Another awkward silence filled the room.

The silence was deafening to the ears of the young children. Not being able to handle it, Goten decided to break it. He engaged in conversation with Trunks and Marron. He glanced at his brother. He was a bit disappointed that his brother had not made much of a conversation with Videl.

"Where's Erasa?" Gohan tried again. He suddenly noticed his hands were trembling. He tried to calm himself.

"She had to go do something…" Videl trailed off. Now that she thought about it, it was as if Erasa had bailed out on purpose. Perhaps, Videl thought, because she knew Gohan would be here…

"What does she do for a living?" Gohan cleared his throat.

"She owns a salon called… Well she named it after herself." Videl mentally slapped herself. How stupid.

"Oh, I… I don't think I've been there." To be honest, he'd never heard of it.

"You wouldn't want to go there anyway."

Gohan nodded. He couldn't believe how hard it was to talk to her. It shouldn't have been so hard. He still loved her. It should've been easy. Maybe it was because that he still loved her so much that made it hard.

"What about you, Videl? What do you do," he tried again. At least he was trying.

"Nothing really…" Videl replied. She'd spent four years of her life doing nothing.

"I'm sure you've done something."

"Nope."

"Well what do you think you want to do? For a living?"

"I honestly haven't got the slightest clue. It's pathetic."

It was then that Trunks' ears perked up.

"You want a job?" he asked with a grin on his face. He nudged Goten who was oblivious to what was going on.

"I guess I do. It's better than doing nothing." The young woman replied.

Trunks jumped out of his seat before bolting out of the room. Moments later, he came back with Bulma. She seemed to be very excited.

"Videl, may I speak to you for a moment," Bulma said her eyes sparkling.

Gohan looked at Trunks, his face full of confusion. What had he told his mother? His thoughts were cut short when Bulma asked to speak with him. Slightly nervous, he stepped out onto the hall.

He glanced over at Videl. She seemed to be thinking about something very hard. Gohan turned to Bulma, waiting for her to say why she'd asked him out to the hall.

"Listen, I ad this great idea. Videl's not working you know, and well, you have so many inventions and I need more help as I decided to offer her a job!" she grinned.

Gohan took a moment to process it all. He turned to Videl to congratulate her. She smiled faintly while nodding.

"She's going to be your new assistant!" Bulma squealed excitedly.

Gohan blinked several ties. What a big surprise, but he should've known.

"She's going to be working…"

"It's not a problem is it?" Bulma peered at him her eyes narrowed and questioning.

"Ah, no, no! Not at all. She's going to be…"

"An assistant's assistant!"

Videl laughed forcefully. Was Gohan really okay with it? She was so busy worrying she hardly noticed that Gohan was talking to her and Bulma had left them.

"Videl?"

"Oh, uh, sorry."

Gohan nodded. He didn't seem to want to look at her. He looked past her shoulder, a far away look in his eyes. "Well, see you on Monday," was all he said before turning around and walking away.

Author's Note: Okay, so I updated again, but since I didn't update for so long and I'd written these chapters, I figured it'd be wrong to keep them from you since... Well I'd finished them. Lol, also, it's to make up for when I could've posted them up but didn't! See? Aren't I so nice to you? Lol maybe too nice... Hmm... Well anyway, there you have the chapters 4 5 and 6! Might be another while before I update again... Anyways, thanks for the reviews and thank you very much for reading!

PS: I just realized I have another favorite DBZ couple, Goten and Marron, they're absolutely just cute... Lol anyway hope you enjoyed them chapters!