"Uncle Goten, can I have those cool rollerblades you promised last year?" Seven-year old Pan asked excitedly as she walked to the kids' store with Goten to buy her Christmas present that year.
"It depends on how much is it, but we can see about it."
"Thank you."
"You still think about them?"
"Believe it or not, they're still a huge thing."
"Why? They are just rollerblades." Goten placed his hands behind his head, walking very casually in the mall.
"Eh… no. They have colorful wheels and they glow in the dark. It's like the definition of cool."
"They are still only rollerblades to me."
"That's because you're old."
"Hey! I'm not old." He protested. "I'm eighteen."
"Anyway, owing these rollerblades is basically saying you're in the cool group of people. You have a lot of friends and get to do cool things."
"This is a bunch of crap, Pan." He covered his hand the moment he realized he had said a swear word in front of his niece. "Block that out her mind or you father will kill me if he ever finds out I accidentally swore in front of you."
"Done." She made a gesture over her mouth indicating her lips were sealed. "It's not the first I hear these kinds of words though."
"Kids are so smart nowadays."
"Old."
"Anyway, are you parents okay with me buying them to you?"
"Of course! They are totally okay with it."
"Panny."
"Ugh, I hate it when you call me that." She rolled her eyes with annoyance. "No, they don't know about it."
"And why not?"
"Because they don't want me to have one. They say it's stupid to be in the popular group."
"Then you shouldn't be getting one from me."
"Please, uncle Goten!" She begged. "I promise I don't ask you for any other present."
"Why is it so important for you to look cool or have a bunch of friends? Most of them won't even be your real ones. They'll just pretend to because of your popularity. This is stupid and won't last long."
"She looks popular."
"Who?"
"Bulla."
"Pan, she's much older than you and you shouldn't be comparing yourself to her, it's not good. Besides, you should be worried in playing after school or getting stronger. Isn't it what you like?"
"Yes, but…"
"But what?" Goten raised his eyebrows and looked down at her.
"Uncle Goten, if I tell you something, will you promise to keep it a secret?"
"I'm not that good at keeping secrets."
"Ah." Pan looked away, disappointed.
"But I can try. What is it?"
"I actually think these rollerblades aren't that cool."
"Then why did you ask for them?"
"Because my friends all have them and I don't want to lose their friendship."
"Pan, if you need to have something you don't want just to prove something to someone, these people aren't your friends. No one should go through it. I'm sure your parents told you this already."
"Yeah, but they're not into fighting like me."
"Maybe you can ask my brother and Videl to put you in a martial arts class then."
"That's a possibility. I actually like that."
"Alright." Goten reached for his phone in his pocket when it started ringing and pulled it out. "Mom is calling me. I'll get this outside, okay? In the meantime, you can choose the rollerblades or whatever you want."
"Okay."

Goten sat on a bench in the middle of the hall to talk to his mother, but his eyes were focused on a blue haired woman window-shopping. Her haired already stood out on its own, but the knee-length red dress she was wearing made it very difficult not to see her. He was so distracted by Bulla that he didn't even realize Chi-Chi had already hung up on him until minutes later.
"Hello, Bulla." He tried to get her attention when he was some feet away from her. "What are you doing here?"
"Goten, hi!" She gave him a bright smile. "I'm just doing a last-minute Christmas shopping for my dad."
"You're buying a Christmas gift for Vegeta?"
"That's right." She nodded. "Believe it or not, it's quite hard to shop for him. But I figured I'd get him another black sleeveless shirt, since he wears them a lot lately. He already has a bunch, but he refuses to wear other colors besides black, very dark red and blue, sometimes."
"Yeah, light colors don't suit him anymore." Goten bit his lower lip. "Do you need any help with something? I can help you carry some bags."
"It's alright, thank you. They're not heavy at all."
"Alright then. So…"
"Uncle Goten." Pan screamed from the entrance of the store. "I already chose what I wanted."
"I see you're shopping with Pan today, huh?"
"I promised her last year I'd get these trending rollerblades, so…"
"That's sweet. You're a good uncle." Bulla smiled softly. "Well, I have to go before my father calls me asking me why I'm taking so long to go back."
"Right." He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a little embarrassed.
"But you should stop by Capsule Corp some time. I'm sure Trunks would love to see you. That'd help him get his mind off work for a while."
"He's focused on it a little too much, huh?"
"A little is an understatement. He'd work 24/7 if he could, but mom won't let him thankfully."
"Geez."
"Exactly."
"Alright, I'll make sure to stop by at some point and knock some sense into him."
"Great! So see you around."
"See you." He turned around and watched her leave in a hurry.
"Come on, uncle Goten!" Pan said loudly and waved her hands frantically as he walked closer to her. "Did you ask Bulla out?"
"No, and I'm not going to."
"Why not? She likes you."
"I'm her brother's best friend. Of course she likes me."
"That's not what I mean." She rolled her eyes with annoyance and Goten couldn't help but think it was the exact same way Gohan did with him when he said something very absurd and unreal. "I'm only a child, but even I see the way she looks at you."
"Okay, Panny." He picked her up and placed her over his shoulders, causing her to giggle happily. "Enough of this, alright?"
"Sure!"
"Also, I want you to promise me something."
"Hmmm."
"Promise me you won't tell your parents I left you alone for some minutes."
"Uncle Goten, I can take care of myself."
"I know, and you would have probably beaten whoever tried to harm you up."
"And I'm not supposed to lie to my parents. They say it's a bad thing."
"And they are right."
"Are you afraid daddy will beat you up?"
"No, I think I can fight him equally. Or almost." Goten looked up at his niece. "Alright, show me where these rollerblades are."

.

A few days had gone by since then. Goten was flying his way over to the Capsule Corp to visit Trunks. He looked down a couple of minutes before landing and spotted Vegeta doing his daily training outside. He couldn't help but notice the difference of clothing, since he was only wearing his usual sleeveless black shirt and leather pants, whereas Bulla was wearing two or three layers of clothes. He wondered if it was something from only pure-blood Saiyans, because he was freezing.
"You better have not stopped training like your brother did when he became a scientist."
"He's an entomologist." Goten rubbed the back of his neck and turned to them. "And don't worry, I've been training every single day."
"Whatever."
"Hello, Goten. It's nice to see you actually kept your word."
"Hmmm…" Vegeta looked at his daughter and then to the youngest Son family member with a death glare. "Have you met my daughter recently?"
"I… I'm gonna see if Trunks is around. See you later."
"Stop."
"Dad, please." Bulla intervened. "We ran into each other at the mall by accident. He was buying Pan's Christmas' present, right?"
"That's right."
"Is that so? So you're not… how do young people say? Seeing each other? Hooking up?"
"You using these slangs to look cool is as worse as your mustache."
"What?!"
"Enough training for the day." Bulla pushed her father inside. "You might want to put on some warm clothes before mom calls you out."
"No one tells me what to do."
"Get inside now."
"Fine."
Goten let out an awkward laugh after the pure-blood Saiyan disappeared from view.
"I'm sorry about that."
"It's okay. He's just being a father after all."
"I guess so." She shrugged. "Are you coming in?"
"Yeah, yeah." He shook his head and followed her. "I gotta talk to your brother. If he still remembers me."
"Don't be silly. How can anyone not remember you?"
"It can happen, believe me."
"I doubt it. Well, there's something I need to do, so I'll see you later maybe."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to…"
"It's alright. Trunks is in the office, if you want to see him."
"Great. Thank you. See you later."

Goten couldn't keep his eyes away from Bulla as she walked away. Pan's words to him the other day came back into his mind and for a moment he actually thought they could be true. But then he remembered she was only seven and might have confused things up. Eventually he shook his head and went to the lab of the Capsule Corp, the place where Trunks spent most of his time, especially with his mother.

"Can I come in?" He popped his head through the door and came across a shirtless Trunks fixing a time machine, or so Goten thought.
"Of course! Here I thought you'd never show up again."
"Don't be ridiculous. You'd never get rid of me. You could always go visit me at Mount Paozu though."
"I know, man. It's just… things have been a little chaotic over here lately. Mom decided to work less and you know what that means: more work for me."
"That sounds like a lot."
"Nah, it sounds worse than it actually seems. Besides, it's so fun it doesn't seem like work to me."
"Still, you could use some help."
"From who? Grandpa is too old for it now, mom wants to do other things, dad is only interested in training all day or calling me out for not doing the same and Bulla simply don't care about Capsule Corp at all."
"That's tough, man. I'm very sorry." Goten bit his lower lip for a moment. The words escaped his lips before he could even control them. "But, hey, I can help you out if you want."
Trunks was caught by surprise at first, but went back to his task when his words sank in. "Are you sure?"
"Of course! It'd be good to have a job and be able to be more financially independent, you know?"
"Wait a moment, are you expecting to have a salary?" The gray-haired half-Saiyan teased his best friend.
"Well, yeah. It would be a job after all." Goten replied unsure.
"I didn't say anything about it."
"Oh." He didn't know what to say in this situation, so he thought silence was the way to go.
Trunks, on the other hand, burst into laughter, which made the brunette have a confused look on his face. "I was just messing with you."
"You bastard!" He threw a punch on his friend's forearm.
"It's hilarious how you always fall for this. Of course you'd get paid for your job. When can you start?"
"As soon as you need."
"Great! Can you start on Monday?"
"Absolutely."
"Then it's settled. I'd love to talk more, but I really need to finish this here."
"Of course. I didn't mean to disturb you."
"Don't be stupid, you could never disturb me. We should hang out together soon."
"Definitely. Give me a call whenever you're free."
"Got it. I'll see you soon."
"See you. Try not to have a serious accident."
"Please, safety is my middle name."

.

Goten was making his way out of Capsule Corp when he saw Bulla again, walking down the hall. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then walked in his direction again.
"Hello again, Bulla. I was just on my way out, so see you soon."
"Goten, can you wait a moment?" She asked before she could even think and blushed a little.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I just wanted to give you something I bought."
"You bought me something?"
"It's just a small gift for Christmas. Well, belated Christmas." She put a lock of her long blue hair behind her ear. "I bought it on the day we ran into each other at the mall."
"Wow, Bulla, I didn't get you anything."
"Oh, I know. I just thought of you when I saw it and I just had to buy it. Come on, I'll walk you out and give it to you."
"Alright." He followed her outside.

He didn't know exactly how to react to the whole situation. Maybe Pan was right all along. Maybe she did like him after all. He wasn't really sure about what do to with that new information though, and anxiety was starting to get the best of him.
"So here you are." Bulla turned to him and handed him a square package wrapped up in a silver paper. "It's very simple, but I hope you like it."
"That's very thoughtful of you, Bulla. I'm sure I will." Goten carefully started wrapping it and came across a pair of wristbands that matched his orange gi. "Wow, those are amazing! Thank you so much!"
"I'm glad you liked them. I have to admit I was feeling very anxious about your reaction. I had no idea if you were going to be happy about it and I couldn't ask anyone, so…"
"These are perfect." He gave her a smile. "I promise I will give you a present too."
"You don't have to, it's totally fine."
"I want to." He insisted.
"Alright then. I can't wait." She pressed her hands together excitedly and then looked over her shoulder. "Well, I should get back inside and stop my father and brother from pushing themselves over the edge."
"Yeah, they do that quite often."
"So I'll see you soon, I guess." Bulla walked to him and kissed him on the cheek before walking away.
"Hey, Bulla."
"Yes?" She looked over her shoulder.
"Would you like to go out with me some time?"
"I'd love to." She flashed him a beautiful smile and continued her way inside her house.