Videl plopped herself down at the table groggily, rubbing her eyes. She'd never understand why her dad insisted on having breakfast so early on the weekends. She glanced at the ridiculously bougie clock on the wall. 8 AM - a full two hours earlier than she would prefer to wake up. She grunted and began sloppily slicing up her pancakes.

"Mornin', Sweet Pea." Hercule, Videl's father and Earth's self-proclaimed savior, took a sip of his coffee. "Got anything exciting planned today?"

Videl finished a bite of pancake and yawned before answering. "Yeah, I'm going out to the mall with my friends today at noon."

"Which friends?"

The teen waved her hand dismissively. "It's just Erasa, Sharpener, and the new kid."

Hercule set down his mug and narrowed his eyes slightly. "What new kid?"

"Oh, he's a kid who transferred in on Monday. His name is Gohan."

"Gohan, huh?" The burly man scratched his chin. "Sounds familiar. Where's he from?"

"The mountains, apparently." At this point, Videl was fully digging into her food, and her dad took her eagerness to stuff her face as a sign that she was done with the conversation.

"Alright, just don't bring him here or hang out with him alone without introducing him to me first. I wanna make sure he's fit to be the friend of the great Videl Satan."

Videl rolled her eyes in response.

Gohan, who had absolutely no idea what the etiquette for a friendly get-together was, was freaking out. He hadn't realized until his final bite of breakfast that his normal attire might not suit the situation. What if he was supposed to dress all fancy-like? What if this was a full suit-and-tie situation? How ridiculous would he look showing up to a three-piece occasion wearing a t-shirt? He raced to his room to figure this all out.

He'd been halfway through putting on one of his oh-so-fancy I'm-technically-a-prince outfits when he realized that the opposite of his fear may also be true. Showing up to a casual event wearing a tuxedo or (god forbid) a longpao would probably be at least about 10 times as embarrassing as the reverse. Gohan shuddered at the thought and slowly undressed himself, realizing he was gonna have to settle for something in-between. He opted to change into his not-quite-casual-but-not-super-fancy traditional silk jacket and pants.

He checked the time and gasped lightly. 11:30 AM. He figured it'd take about half an hour to fly to Satan City at a reasonable speed, find the mall and its correct entrance, and change out of his Saiyaman gear, meaning he'd have to leave ASAP. He walked to the front door and began saying his goodbyes before being interrupted by his mother.

"Gohan, are you really going out like that?" She cast him a disapproving gaze.

Gohan paled. Uh oh, this outfit really isn't going to work! What am I gonna do? At this rate, I'll be late! "W-whats wrong with what I'm wearing?"

Chi-Chi shook her head. "It's not your outfit that's the problem - it's your hair!"

"My...hair?" Gohan furrowed his brows, calming down at the realization that he wasn't gonna have to change clothes again. "What's wrong with my hair, then?"

"It's sticking up all over the place!"

"But I go to school like this everyday?"

"Yeah, well, this isn't school!" The mother stepped menacingly toward her son and stuck her hands in his hair, trying to smooth it down.

"Ah! Mom! I can fix it myself!" He tried to dodge away from her to no avail. He had no choice but to stand in horror as his signature spikes were replaced by a flatter but significantly more disheveled mess.

"Oh, alright." Chi-Chi reluctantly stepped away from her eldest son. "Just be sure to hurry, you wouldn't want to be late."

Gohan shot her a signature Son smile. He placed a hand on her shoulder and assured her he'd be fine.

With that, the boy walked to the bathroom mirror and tried to make his hair a bit more presentable. Unfortunately, however, his stubborn brushing did little to actually coax his locks into obedience. He sighed and resigned himself to looking how a full-blooded human would just after rolling out of bed.

After studying his visage properly, he decided he looked decent enough to head out (...but just barely). He said his goodbyes a second time and switched into his Saiyaman outfit, blasting off into the sky.

Today was gonna be great, regardless of stubborn hair.

Erasa was the first one to arrive at the mall entrance they'd decided on (the northern one) at 11:45, with Sharpener coming in second just five minutes later. Figuring they'd have a little until Videl and Gohan got there, Erasa decided on exactly what kind of conversation she wanted to have before they arrived.

"So, what do you think?"

Sharpener gave her a puzzled look. "What do I think about…?"

"About Gohan, silly!" Erasa crossed her arms. "Y'know, the whole point of this hangout thing!"

"So you're not here to spend time with me, then?" The more buff of the blonds gasped in mock-indignation. "And here I thought we were friends!"

The shorter of the pair rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Sharpener, do you think Gohan is friend material or not?"

Sharpener ceased his tomfoolery briefly to ponder this question. He looked out into the usual crowd entering and exiting the mall freely before his gaze paused on a group of young teens lounging on a bench under the shade of the large roof that covered the area immediately outside of the mall's doors. He glanced at the empty bench a few yards away from Erasa and himself and decided to saunter over to it and take a seat, Erasa following close behind with an impatient frown on her face.

Sharpener then took note of the weather. The sun's direct rays were hot, sure, but not as sweltering as they'd been the past few months, and there was a nice cool breeze blowing in. He figured the weather was finally cooling down, which was very much welcome in his book, as the intense mugginess of the warmer months meant for quick dehydration when exercising outdoors.

"Ahem."

Erasa's throat-clearing brought the brawny boy back to her earlier question. "Oh, right. Gohan." He rested his head in his hand absently. "He's cool I guess. Kinda nerdy, but he doesn't seem bad to hang out with. Actually, now that I think about it, he's pretty good at taking hits, huh?"

"Sharpener!" Erasa slapped his shoulder. "First you hit him in the head with a baseball, and now you're bragging about it?!"

Sharpener rubbed his arm and shook his head fervently. "No, no! What I meant was he might be a good fit for the boxing club!"

"Who might be a good fit for the boxing club?"

The two blonds jumped a bit and looked up to see their pigtailed friend standing a few feet away from them.

"Videl!" Erasa immediately rose from her seat and hugged her crime-fighting friend, completely disregarding her question.

Sharpener shook his head at the display. "I was talking about Gohan. I don't know how good he'd be at offense, but he's got one strong head."

Videl freed herself from the bubbly blonde's grasp and quirked an eyebrow at the not-bubbly blond boy. "Didn't you say he was a wimp or something?"

"I don't remember saying that!" He sighed. "Even if I did, that doesn't change the fact that I don't think that now. He's a nerd, sure, but he doesn't seem like a wimp to me."

"What are you basing this off of, the baseball incident?" Videl tapped her foot absently and studied Sharpener's expression. "I thought you wrote that off as a fluke?" She'd been sure that she was the only one perceptive enough to realize something was weird about Gohan, but now it was looking like she wasn't alone. "Are you suggesting there's more to Gohan than meets the eye?"

"Videl, I see what you're doing!" Erasa pouted at the raven-haired teen. "I thought I told you to drop that stuff! Gohan is a completely normal boy! He's just not used to society is all."

"I know, but still! There's just something about hi-"

"BEEP. BEEP. BEEP."

The honorary police officer sighed heavily as she clicked the 'answer' button on her communicator watch. Just my luck to be called in right when I get here. Ugh. "What's the situation, Chief?"

"Videl, it's terrible! The old Douglas Company office building's an inferno, and half of the workers are still inside!"

A fire? They're calling me in to deal with a fire?! What do they expect me to do, apprehend it?! She sighed heavily. "Got it, Chief. I'll be right there."

"Leaving already, huh?" Erasa pouted. She wanted to kick a pebble to better convey her frustration, but there were none located near her feet, and she wasn't about to walk away from the conversation just to kick a rock, so she instead just kinda kicked the air. "This sucks, we were gonna have so much fun!"

Sharpener didn't say anything, but his face clearly portrayed a look of similar disappointment. Videl shook her head at her friends' reactions. "Don't worry, we can pick up where we left off in a bit. This shouldn't take more than an hour, max. I'll call you if there's any change in plans, okay?"

The blonds seemed less put-off, but only slightly. The rock-kicking contemplater relented and gave her crime-fighting friend a parting hug. "Alright, just be safe, okay? We don't want you coming back all crispy."

"Erasa, I'll be fine. I can handle almost anything, remember? Anyways, I really need to get going. Y'know, 'emergency' and all." And with that, she was off.

Not five minutes later did Gohan show up to the blonds' bench, surgical mask and all. He sighed in relief as he noticed the casual clothing of his two friends. Awesome, I'm not underdressed. He strode merrily towards his pals, blissfully unaware of their odd looks until after he'd began greeting them.

"Hey, guys, how's it goi-" He paused as he tried to read their expressions. "What? Am I dressed wrong? I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was supposed to wear and I thought that this would probably be my safest bet but now I'm seeing that both of you are wearing tank tops and I'm wondering if I was supposed to wear one too and-

"Dude, you're rambling." Sharpener's surprised expression was exchanged for a more amused one.

"Gohan, you're hair is down!" Erasa got up from the seat she had taken on the bench and approached him, studying his head closer.

"Does...does it look bad?" He played idly with a lock of hair that hung over his forehead. "My mom made me put it down…."

Erasa giggled at that. "No, it's cute!" She ruffled his hair for emphasis completely unsolicited.

Gohan, having done this to his brother countless times, was relatively relaxed about the contact. He was not, however, relaxed about the compliment. "Heh heh, thanks…?"

Sharpener took this as his cue to stand up, walk over to them, and ruffle Gohan's hair himself. "Wow, brains, how can your hair possibly be this messy?"

"B-because it's supposed to be all spiked-up and stuff!" He calmed down a bit after the compliment had been forgotten. "Actually, I haven't worn it down like this in years."

Erasa clapped her hands together. "Alright, now that we're all here, it's time to head inside!"

Gohan furrowed his brows and looked around, thoroughly confused. "Where's Videl?"

"She went to go rescue some people caught in a fire. She said she'd probably meet up with us within an hour or so." Sharpener ran a hand through his own hair, as if comparing the texture to Gohan's.

"She WHAT?!" The half-saiyan jogged in place anxiously. "Sorry guys, but uh, something's come up!" He turned on his heel and took off toward the alleyway he'd just de-Saiyamaned in. He called out over his shoulder, "I'll be back soon!" The two teens left behind called out to him, but he was already gone.

its been like a month since ive last updated...writers block is fun

anywho i was gonna make this one longer but i figured thatd probably take a little bit and i didnt wanna make u guys wait for an update any longer so here ya go

as always suggestions are v much encouraged bc i have approximately 3 distinct thoughts per day and only abt .2 of them are creative

(as an aside does anyone remember back in the day when i used to update this fic like multiple times a week? holy shit)