Preface unrelated to the story: It's been a long few weeks for me. Motivation is getting harder and harder and time is less and less with what is going on the world today. Attending the funeral of a fallen officer who I worked with and knew has been a tasking experience, none less so than because I heard his final words spoken on the radio after he was senselessly murdered is a night I can remember vividly as if I was still there that night. The last pleading words to his family will forever be burned into my brain and won't go anywhere until I see him again on the other side of the grey veil that all head one day. I say this as I attempt to keep my own self in check, writing is forever my outlet. A place where the world doesn't matter, where the story isn't about what is going on today. I keep trying to work on these stories to provide relief for you as it is for me.

Today/Tomorrow it could be your last hold close the ones you love because you never know when the ferryman comes.

Chapter 13: Shake Up

"Ah, so you do recognize her? Well that certainly makes these introductions easier!" Hercule bellowed loudly, taking his daughter by the shoulder and walked with her and Chi-Chi on his other side. The scene was flashing with pictures of the paparazzi. The scoop and surprise of the day was upon them and no one was going to be last on breaking up this big news story.

Videl looked from Chi-Chi to her father, back to Chi-Chi and once again back to her dad. "Dad? Just-Just what is going on?" She just wasn't prepared for this kind of… reception. She'd expected some type of floozy, or girl of the moment to be with her father. That was commonplace, and she understood that to some degree her father's reputation required him to be a man's man. But to see her friend's mother?

That was probably taking things just a little bit too far for her to be okay with. Not that she had anything remotely against Chi-Chi, in fact, she was more than surprised to have met her and seen that the television in fact portrayed far less of the woman that she ever represented. Still… Her problem was the absurdity of seeing her dad with Gohan's mom. That was not the type of conversation she wanted to imagine having with her father or her friend!

"Oh, come on now Videl. You know how you always said you wanted me to find a woman that was just as good looking, smart, and as strong as your mother. Well," He paused to pat himself on the chest. "I just happened to do just that and considering you knew her before me I believe that she's more than acceptable of filling a void that I can't in your life." Her father boasted proudly taking a seat in the VIP wing of the restaurant.

Yet if Mr. Satan was trying to be subtle - if that weren't an impossibility - then it wouldn't be sending rumors and shocked whispers throughout the crowd of people inside.

"WHAT?!" Videl almost shouted, but she calmed down her temper, even for fifteen she almost made her father flinch slightly. "Dad, what are you- Seriously are you dating my friend's mom?! I mean… really, Dad, did you forget what happened when Era-"

Her father shushed her, "Sweetie, this is nothing like that I promise." Stopping her before she finished saying that he had dated Del… well dated was strongly implied. The world champion had gone through a blonde phase at one point and had hoped that it wouldn't have gotten back to her little girl that he may have had a tryst with the adult film star and the mother of his little girl's BFF. Yet that hadn't lasted for long and for nearly a week Videl refused to even look at him with how furious she was.

It had taken every endearing memory, cajole, smooth talk, and child shrink he could find to finally be looked at by his own child. He knew the risk of what he was doing now with Mrs. Chi-Chi but he didn't want his daughter to think he was doing this behind her back, considering the presumptions she'd no doubt have he didn't want her thinking he would do something like that again.

She barely contained her desire to shoot up and begin berating her father. He might say that it wasn't like that. 'Yet that's exactly what it looks like!' Her mind screamed, her father and Gohan's mom… 'just no! If anything Chi-Chi is better than my dad!'

Then something hit her, "Did you scheme something up, are you doing something with her already without telling me?" She kept her voice to a low growl. "If I even-"

"Baby please I prom-" The champ was silenced as Chi-Chi touched his side.

"How about you go enjoy yourself with the cameras and get some food ordered and let me have a little one on one with Videl. This is a mother's touch moment, alright?" She smiled at him and with a slight grip to his side that made Hercule flinch from a streak of pain… he was inclined to concede defeat.

"Y-Yeah! That sounds good." He then backed away before proudly and some would say obnoxiously getting the attention of the serving staff leaving Chi-Chi alone with Videl at the table.

"Hello again," Chi-Chi said, "Not what you expected or wanted right?" Calmly she moved her chair closer to Videl's side. The teen crossed her arms, it was a little rude but she wasn't friendly either. "Gosh you remind me so much of myself when I was your age." The mother admonished Videl up and down.

"Look, if this is some sort of, I don't want to replace your mom's speech or let's try and be friends. Just… don't, I can't have this conversation right now."

Chi-Chi chuckled, "No it's not that type of speech. The current relationship that I and your father have is mostly for the lack of having the right parental figures for what is coming up in your life. That and our busy schedules keep us from having someone there for our children." She began offering the younger woman a hand. "Considering everything this type of agreement we have agreed to, that will help benefit us both."

The celebrity cook could see the resentment already brewing in this girl's eyes. 'You are indeed just like me.' Recalling the times that others had tried to step into her father's life when she had been a little girl. Although she had been a bit younger than Videl currently was, the situation was much the same.

"I also feel that it would be good for Gohan and Goten to have more people around them than just a maid or nanny and considering you are quite close with my son..." Her voice trailing off just a bit making the other girls eyes go a little bit wide, the mother was well aware of the situation the two of them were in.

"I know that my son doesn't come home late with his little brother without a reason and of course Gohan said he was helping you with school work and I'm also his mother and can tell when he's trying to hide something from me." She gave her a coy grin, "So what exactly do you have my son doing for long hours after school?"

Videl wasn't exactly prepared for that response. "It's nothing that you need to worry yourself about. Gohan is just helping me with a few things, that's all and how would you even know if it wasn't involving school work?" Videl wondered what she was being accused of, Chi-Chi had a very sharp mind and obviously knew the inner workings of her family better than even her son realized.

"Gohan would do that kind of thing at school, or back at home. He also wouldn't visit you several miles out of town in the middle of nowhere either." Chi-Chi held up her phone. "I'm a bit paranoid around my children so I tracked where he was going, and considering my son told me he was helping you it doesn't take much for me to know there's a bit more going on than just school work."

'Shit… she's way more clever than I'd guess. But with how cordial and polite she was when we went over to have dinner I guess there was even more hiding behind the motherly exterior.'

"Not that it's any of your business, but me and Gohan are training." Videl wanted to slide the question by Chi-Chi, "Now how about you tell me why you and my dad are a thing?"

Chi-Chi smiled and shook her head. "I'm not going to drop the conversation and answer your question Videl. But… if you'd like a little wager then I'll happily oblige." Chi-Chi moved her chair slightly so that she was fully facing Videl. "I'll tell you everything, nothing hidden, everything will be on the table. But," She then moved her hand so that she was offering a grapple. "Should I beat you then you'll tell me everything you're doing with my son and heaven help you if you are trying to turn my boy into a degenerate. Though with your character I wouldn't imagine that." She then flexed her arm. "Whoever is stronger wins just like that."

Videl did not hesitate, which played right into the mother's hands. The girl was prideful and had probably more of her father in her than she realized.

Videl's hand grasped the mother's and the second she did, Videl attempted to win. Her hand moved to wrench the other woman's hand back. However, only managed a slight roll forwards, her arm twitching as the daughter of the world champ put her heart into it.

There was an approving nod from the other woman. "You have strength, a good amount of it. But if you expect to outmatch me I'm sorry to say that is not the case." Chi-Chi's fingers tightened and pushed Videl back and slowly rotated downwards. Moving to break through submission by wrenching the wrist backwards and bending the fingers of her opponent just enough.

Videl couldn't last, despite giving herself a slight chance with the early push. Chi-Chi's strength overmatched hers and in a way that was more startling than Videl would've realized.

When Videl's face began to twist from the pain being caused by the harash bend in her wrist Chi-Chi stopped. "You're strong Videl, but you're not not quite up to where I was at your age or very close to Gohan."

"How are you that strong?" Videl remarked, pulling back her hand slightly gripping her fingers. Looking the woman over you could see that she had a good figure, perhaps a woman who worked out and maintained a good physical regimen to stay in shape. But Videl wasn't a slouch there were only a handful of people in her school that could overpower her.

Settling herself back in a properly seated position Chi-Chi just smiled. "I'm the daughter of the Ox-King, there are some perks that aren't shown on the surface and I was the world's strongest woman years ago. That and when you live with the world's strongest man, and raise his sons - many of those days alone - I have more than a bit of muscle to show for it."

She settled her hands down in front of her. "Well now that I've answered your question and won our little wager, how about you tell me just what you're doing with my son?"

The sharpness of her words gave some emphasis that she didn't want to be kept out of it.

So Videl obliged… mostly. Explaining that she wanted to be stronger as she'd seen with Gohan. So Gohan had been teaching her how to use a hidden power inside of her and how to develop it. She hadn't asked about the partial blackmail so Videl decided to leave that little part out. If this woman was going to be involved with her life in any fashion in the future Videl wanted the fewest problems she could afford with such a woman. She clearly wasn't the type to back down or be intimidated by Videl or her father's stature.

Begrudgingly Videl had to sit back and take part in the little evening without much in the way of back talk and curbing her normal hostilities. Watching as her father and Chi-Chi shared several long conversations about the current state of their affairs.

Hercule mentioned that he had an ideal day-care and schooling program that could follow Chi-Chi city to city with its employees so that she could have round the clock care for her son while she was on the road instead of keeping him at home with his brother.

"I did the same thing with Videl, it also helped me find a good one teacher to make sure Videl was learning everything before she even made it to the first grade." Embellishing just a little bit, Videl hadn't known everything or been close too. But she was his perfect daughter and to him there was hardly a thing she had done wrong in her younger years.

Not that he had been around all that often to see them.

"Sounds interesting, but I don't know if they would be able to handle Goten. He's got more energy than a greyhound, an appetite of a whale and after my last scare I'm not sure if anyone would be good for him besides his older brother." The mother could see a lot of good from that, but Goten's talents would raise too many questions. Keeping Paris quiet had been one problem of many and finding a suitable replacement was even more challenging.

"But you have to let your son have his freedom, he's a young man. Smart, good mannered, and by my daughter's own evaluation remarkably strong. It is a shame to keep him from enjoying himself as someone growing up in high school. Taking that away from any boy to meet friends, find love are all important to any good social upbringing."

Chi-Chi gave him a hard stare. "Love is something a man should find and Gohan isn't the best at handling young women. Took me a while to teach my husband what love really was…" I wonder if he even still understands.' Looking over her wedding band that had been passed down from her mother to her.

She still loved her Goku dearly, but even she wanted him back. If not for herself, but for his sons. They needed their father.

She shook her head, "Anyway, Gohan doesn't need to be finding love so young. He needs to be getting used to girls, he's not the type of person who will put his own needs before someone else. Selflessness and personal sacrifice have always been a tenant of his upbringing."

The champ let out a hearty chuckle. "Hah, sounds like the perfect kind of young man for my Videl then!" He said putting his arm around his little girl.

Videl recoiled slightly, the connotations of what they were talking about. "Dad, please." Blocking his hand from pulling her in closer.

"Ah Videl, you always tell me how great he is at everything. I mean you said you considered him your rival to beat and you know when it came to loving your mother she was my rival who stole my heart you know. Perhaps there's something in there for you and considering the woman who raised him I just know she raised one hell of a boy." He kissed the side of her head, "You know I just worry about you puddin."

The teen rolled her eyes. "Yeah… I can only imagine." Her voice having more than a few spoonfuls of sarcasm.

Her father only gave out another boisterous laugh. "That's my girl. But don't worry, Sugarplum, I promise that this will be the best for both of our families." He then held up his hand and overed his heart. "On my word as the world champ."

Chi-Chi released a light snort, neither party was privy to it. "Perhaps we should dispease with the formalities though until it becomes official. I think that would be better, let our children still be themselves and we adults can handle our own concerns without distracting them."

"Heh, I agree." Hercule stated, puffing out his chest. "Hey come on guys, the world champ and company are getting hungry! Chop! Chop!" He shouted in the restaurant in an effort to get some food brought out to their table.

Hercule's daughter however remained quiet on the issue as her eyes stared at Chi-Chi only for so long as to not draw her attention any further.

[***]

The only person who wasn't ready for this information to hit him, was caught off guard the moment he came to school. Normally he'd meet with Erasa and go in together, but he'd been asked by the teachers to come in early and help set up the room and the all honors student accepted the request. It was a little bit of personal space he'd like having been really struggling to keep a level head with what he'd been doing with his girlfriend.

As a growing man he was excited, thrilled at the prospect of intimate actions. The lure and temptation of tasting such a forbidden fruit had exceeded his expectations. His mind recalling vividly many times how her mouth had fit around him, the way her tongue pressed against his skin. The manner in which her hot wet mouth had given him a feeling of euphoria. It was so much and so fast that Gohan wasn't able to process so many emotions, feelings, and sensations all at once.

Then his saiyan side, the part of him that revelled in becoming stronger, fighting, and taking pride in himself also revelled in it. A female was taking care of him, submitting to his will and pleasing him. It was a substitute for battle and bloodshed. After all, he hadn't gotten his blood racing like that in a long time. Excluding his spar with Vegeta, but that was a spar that had gotten him angry. There was no clash of survival or pushing himself to the limit. That and a part of him next time didn't want it to end so quickly, he wanted to savor it, feel everything take longer.

Yet, there was the mental part of him. The moral conscience within his beating heart for like he was being ripped apart. It was wrong! Wrong! He knew he shouldn't be doing these kinds of things, he told himself he wouldn't be involved with things like this and yet he was so close to nearly having sex and he was about to turn sixteen!

Gohan made his way towards the boards which had all of the instructions laid out by the teacher who was currently in a morning meeting, but the directions were simple enough for him to follow. Picking up the name list Gohan grabbed the dry erase marker and board, beginning to write out all of the groups for the lab they were going to be doing for science.

'I don't even know if I could've controlled myself… I mean what if Erasa wanted to… actually do' His mind paused for a moment, 'it, I don't know if I could've resisted that temptation and then what happens if I screw up from there?'

The teen had heard in some sort of jest several times from his mother and Bulma when they didn't realize that they could hear them say that saiyans were known for their virility. It didn't take long for him to catch on to what that had meant.

It didn't take much for saiyans to get a human woman pregnant. It didn't take much effort for Gohan to look at when his mom got married, then to when he was born to know that it was less than eleven months for him to have been conceived.

'Could be a fluke, but I'm sure birth control came into effect since Bulma and Vegeta haven't had any more children.' Somehow Gohan believed that it was the parenting aspect that kept the prince from having more sons or daughters. But seeing Vegeta with a female clone of himself might be cute, but also downright terrifying.

"I just don't know what would happen if I was put in that situation again." He spoke quietly to himself, "Believing that I can just control my urges and say no would've been possible maybe a month or so ago. But now I don't know if put in that scenario again that I might be able to pull myself out of it before I did something that I regretted."

Releasing a long sigh, Gohan just stared down at the class list in front of him. He could've had this done in minutes but he was dragging his feet on the task. There were a few other things to set out but he was just so clouded-

"If you talk a little louder I might be able to hear you," The voice said from behind him. His head snapped back around. Videl was standing against the wall, the small recess by the door hiding her from view.

The demi saiyan swallowed slightly. He hadn't even caught notice of her presence. The room was tainted with all kinds of smells and since he shared a class with Videl he just hadn't noticed she was nearby and his lack of focus hadn't let him sense her actual ki. Then add on all the extra training he did with Videl, he might just be used to her aura and not be constantly looking for it like he usually had before. When there was more outward hostility and possibility for conflict Gohan had been more wary of Videl.

But since they had been acting more like 'friends' it might mean that he was less on guard around her.

"Uhmm, Hey Videl?" He said nervously looking back at her, trying to fake a smile. "Are you here to help out?"

"No, I'm here because of what happened last night."

'Oh shit.' Gohan was worried that this might mean some physical confrontation. But would Erasa really have gone and told Videl everything… unless 'Did I do something wrong?' Swallowing, "Oh, well what about last night?" Gohan avoided her gaze and suppressed his blush as hard as he could in the meantime.

Videl put a hand on her face. "Either you're playing dumb or taking this too well." Her voice had a deep echoing groan. "I'm talking about the fact that last night my dad was dating your MOM!" Her hand dropped as she stared directly at Gohan.

The room paused as the saiyan processed the previous words.

"C-Could.. You you repeat th-that?" He stammered, he must've heard wrong.

"You heard me well enough, because last night I was treated to my dad taking out your mom. Full fanfare and everything, I even got to sit down and have a nice chat with your mother because apparently our parents have decided to give us another parental figure in our life." She pointed a finger at Gohan, "You and your brother don't have a dad. While I," Her finger pointed to herself. "Don't have a mother, so the two of them are now looking to better our outlooks apparently."

Videl had nothing against Chi-Chi, she'd give her a full pass on a lot of things. But Videl felt Chi-Chi wasn't the person for her dad, she was probably too good for her father and considering how her son was she didn't believe that Gohan really needed a male role model since he pretty much was one. It was a passing thought for his kid brother, but really when Gohan already acted like a proper father to Goten was there any real need?

The other teen however, he brought a hand to his head, his fingers digging down to his scalp. There had to be some answer for this? Surely his mom wasn't seriously dating Hercule? Her mom had a low opinion of the man since he was actively taking credit for all of the work Gohan had done. Goku died and this jackass steps and acts like he's the big hero? It wasn't his arm nearly blown off saving Vegeta, it wasn't his massive amount of pain in watching his friends suffer as he helplessly had to watch from the sidelines?

His mother just couldn't do that? Gohan pulled out his phone and dialed his mom's cell number.

It rang once, twice, and… picked up. "Mrs. Chi-Chi is currently unavailable however if you'd-"

"It's Gohan and I don't need an appointment. Where is my mother?!" Gohan demanded, hearing one of the assistants on the other end having obviously answered for her.

There was a slight muffling of words on the other end. "Oh, sorry but she's currently doing her show, I'll have her call you back-"

"Not, call me back. She barely does that and I'm not sure you even pass along those messages, so just put her on the phone now!" He wasn't trying to phone her for a 'hey when will you be home' or 'this is how my day went at school' type of call.

"I'm sorry." The phone clicked off and Gohan released an angry snort. His hand ready to crush the small device in his hand but he managed to keep himself calm enough to avoid that. Though just barely. He needed his phone when picking up Goten and other things.

"If I have to fly there myself I will-" Videl's figure moved in front of his line of sight.

"So your Mom didn't tell you?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Gohan remained in quiet rage for quite awhile, it was long enough to gain Videl's attention as he still had his back turned to her. "Gohan?" Thinking that perhaps he was just spacing out a little too hard. It had been a full minute and he had yet to do… anything!

"Gohan are you listening to-" Her hand came up and made contact with his shoulder, she felt a spark of almost electricity shoot through her. It didn't necessarily hurt, but felt like a massive static shock. Nearly jumping from the surprise and unexpected jolt she backpedaled away from Gohan- but the touch had an effect.

His stupor was broken from the unexpected contact. The saiyan reeled back in his ki, and stuffed his emotions back down again. His head spun round to look at Videl who was holding her hand. Fearful that he might've actually hurt he opened his mouth to apologize. "I'm- I'm sorry Videl. I didn't mean to hurt you."

His own ki had rippled outwards unconsciously as his self control had deteriorated. Fearful that he might've actually hurt Videl, the demi saiyan quickly forced his power back inside.

Videl looked at her hand and shook it, there was a little numbness but there wasn't any long lasting pain. "Yeah whatever, now what was that all about?"

"Just- Just lost focus." He admitted, feeling more ashamed because of himself.

"Well get it back under control. With what's going on, they're looking to have you and Goten stay at my place… they're practically making us step-siblings." The connotations for that were less than ideal.

"What?"

"It's why I came here, your mom and my dad are putting this thing together and you and I need to be on the same page, because before you know it you might have a new sister and I'll have two brothers."

As if he needed anymore surprises in his life right now. Because apparently life just needed to get more complicated.

The day passed by faster than he ever wanted to, so engrossed with his own thoughts he didn't even think about anything else. Every break he was sending his mom a message wanting an answer, an explanation, but there was never anything sent back. No replies, no calls from the office… just silence on the other end of his phone.

His classmates could also tell something was wrong, the normally quiet but reserved Gohan was anything but. Erasa knew something was off, he was incredibly tense and when she offered to help him relax he turned her down. But if he thought things were going to be getting any easier for him, he was sadly mistaken.

Both of his lockers had been ransacked, apparently someone clearly had it out for him. All of Gohan's books and papers were strewn across the hallway when he came back from his final period, His gym locker he thought was just a joke when his clothes had been thrown in the shower and then thrown back in his locker before P.E.

He always kept spares, but upon arriving back to his school locker, this had been deliberate. The news also went through the school quickly, some laughed, some shrugged, and a few other students helped him pick his things back up.

Leaving only Gohan to further fester in his own emotions as there was no reprieve from the circus-like day he was having. Upon leaving school he found Videl waiting for him, not that it was expected, but with Videl was one of her family serfs and a butler. Who apparently had gone and picked up his little brother. The confused demi saiyan was distracted by food, and with Videl nearby the older brother was left to think that it was probably another good reason he wasn't acting out or raising his ki, even if unknowingly to send a signal to Gohan that he was unsure or scared.

"Seems like you're supposed to be coming home with me." Videl said with a sigh clearly no happier than him in regards to their current predicament.

Running his hand along his face and into the thick black bangs, the saiyan let out a frustrated groan. "What the fuck."

R&R