Gohan had practically finished with his half of the cramped cupboard, and was just about to turn around and ask whether she needed or wanted any help from him. All he had been doing for the last ten minutes was moving some junk around into neater positions on their shelves, trying desperately hard not to stare at her as she worked.

He couldn't help but admire her, she was really going all out, just to complete this enforced punishment.

As he turned he noticed that she was having trouble with the top-most shelf. In truth it had been fairly high even for him and he probably had an extra ten inches at least in height over her. She looked so delicate when he noticed this. But he knew that she wasn't.

He watched her closely as she stretched to her limits until realising that she was nowhere near. And she was so close, there was only one crusty old file hiding up there left to be sorted. Next she tried jumping, but even when she crouched down as low as she could, and sprang up to a considerable height, she was still nowhere nearer than she had been all afternoon.

Nor when she made a makeshift pile of crap on the floor, or tried clambering onto the lower shelves to gain a higher foothold. All the while Gohan simply stood there smiling to himself, wondering whether he should offer her his services.

In the end he couldn't help but laugh, it was becoming far too difficult to keep it all bottled up inside. She span around in a flash to face him, looking rather angry. Her face was flushed due to the effort that she had exerted over the last few minutes.

"Something to say?" She growled.

"I could help if you want." He spoke quietly, trying not to provoke her into doing anything rash. He already knew how high her levels of pride ran, and that was simply from their very first meeting.

"I'm fine, thank you very much!" She scolded him quickly. She didn't want his help; all that would manage would be that she would lose face in front of him. And she wouldn't let that happen in front of anyone.

"You know how easy it would be for me to reach right up there and grab that file. Nobody would ever have to know about it, it could be our little secret."

"I'd know about it, so don't you dare even consider doing that you big idiot."

He couldn't help but smile even wider. Her anger scared him half to death, but there was something about it that just thrilled him. He mockingly stretched his right hand out towards the offending item, doing it excruciatingly slowly.

She almost screamed and grabbed his arm quickly at the elbow. He was mere inches from the shelf so she yanked down as hard as she could. She was surprised that his arm didn't budge, until she realised that the whole reason that the pair of them were there resulted from the little altercation that they had shared earlier when she accused him of being stronger than her. Funny how the mind forgets things sometimes.

He expected her to be staring daggers at him, but her expression was surprisingly soft. She looked painfully vulnerable and he understood straight away. Her pride was one of the few important things in her life, and he wondered just how hard it had been to come to the realisation that he outmatched her in physical ability.

He was struck dumb by her change in expression and let his arm fall limply at his side, before smiling. "I was just kidding you know, I'd never really do that. But asking for or accepting help isn't anything to be ashamed of Videl, it's a natural human process. And I'm sure even you aren't so cold that you couldn't be called human, hmm?"

She turned around and looked up at her enemy on the shelf, folding her arms across her chest. "I'll pretend that I didn't hear that. I have far more pressing matters to attend to right now." Her hand went to her chin as she struck a thoughtful pose. "Everything I do just doesn't seem to-"

She was cut short as she felt a pair of strong hands plant themselves firmly upon her waist, and lift her clear of the ground. Her feet now dangled at least a foot from the floor and her head was even above Gohan's own.

In her fright at the sudden shock her hands quickly grasped his own, fastening onto the top of Gohan's. The pair of them both had to catch their breath at the sudden and very unexpected contact. Gohan couldn't really believe that he had just done what he had done, but knew that he shouldn't really have been surprised at her reaction and where her hands had found themselves ending up.

Once the girl had fully composed herself she released her vice like grip on him, and realised that he was quite easily holding her off the ground, almost effortlessly in fact. She knew he was strong, but she didn't think that she would be quite this light for him.

She was a little annoyed that he was trying to help her after the conversation that had just happened, so she crossed her arms over her chest once again in defiance of his aid. "I told you that I neither require nor want your help, so put me down you savage!" She ordered him. But she didn't want him to put her down at all. She wondered what it would be like to be facing the other way, her own arms fixed around his neck, their bodies a little closer.

She was for a moment glad that she wasn't facing him, because otherwise he would have caught sight of the blush present on her cheeks.

"Just think of me like the box that you tried to stand on. Just an item at your disposal that you can use at your whim, as opposed to someone destroying your pride, dignity and honour by helping you."

Videl seemed to contemplate this for a moment as she came up with her decision. "Hmm, I suppose so, but only on the basis that you are simply a tool that I'm using for this purpose, just some big, dumb, inanimate object that I require for this one task."

"You can use me for whatever you want."

She blushed a deeper red as she spoke. "I might hold you to that Gohan."

"Um, OK." He didn't quite know what she meant, but he could figure it out later.

"And not a word to anyone else by the way."

"It goes without saying."

Slowly she reached a hand out and picked the folder up with her fingers, grasping it tightly, the object finally being well within her grasp.

And then the damn shelf had the nerve to fall off the wall.