Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z belongs to Toriyama Akira and will never be mine.

Discovering Gohan

Helping a Friend

He couldn't help but notice how bright the stars were that night and had stayed out gazing at the stars in his balcony for the past few hours. Gazing at the stars had always been a hobby of his that he had shared with his father, but now that his father was no longer there for him, he hardly ever went stargazing. However, the stars had been exceptionally bright tonight which had drawn the demi-saiyan in.

He had once been told that the stars were the dead that looked over him. That was preposterous since he knew that stars were merely nothing more than burning balls of gas, but he held onto that silly theory. He wished that it were true, so that he knew where his parents were even though he knew that they were watching over them in the other dimension. Gohan released a long sigh and tucked his hands behind his head as he lay on the bench on the balcony. Had it really been that long? Five years, he thought to himself. They've been gone for five years, yet he still felt the pain of their deaths as if it were yesterday.

"Mom, dad," Gohan found himself whispering. "I know you're out there watching over me, so I presume that you know of what I tried to do yesterday. Sometimes being a saiyan is so hard; then again, my whole life's been hard." Gohan gritted his teeth. "If only I had listened to you back then, dad, you'd still be here with us right now. I really miss you and it's a pity that Goten never had to chance to know both his parents."

"Sometimes I wonder how much would change if I had to chance to redo everything and make everything right again." Gohan scoffed. "A lot of things I bet. The world would be safe, you'd have the son you'd always dreamt of having, and a great normal, peaceful life." He continued to gaze up forlornly at the stars. "Yesterday I had almost gathered the dragon balls and wished that Saiyans had never existed. Pretty lame, huh?" He smiled sadly. "Without Saiyans, there'd be no danger to the Earth or anything. We wouldn't have had a care in the world and wouldn't have had to live our lives the way we did. God, how I wish you're still here with us."

"I'm pathetic, huh? I'm wishing and hoping for something that would never happen. Lime slapped some sense into me yesterday. Well, not literally, but her words hurt me a lot. It just reminded me of how weak I really am even though I'm the strongest fighter on Earth. I'm not as grown up as I thought I was. I guess I'm still that little boy that needed protection." Gohan sighed. "I can't stand this life that I lead anymore. Anymore of this suffering and I would go nuts. I'm tempted to carry out with my plan to eliminate Saiyans from history—we'd be normal humans. I know I'm really selfish. You can't blame me though. After having my childhood taken away so suddenly and at such a young age to defend the Earth against the forces of evil, what do you expect? I'd at least want a little something."

Gohan smiled slightly when he saw one of the stars glow a little brighter than all the rest. "Don't worry, mom. You've brought me up to be better than that." He got up off the bench and grasped the necklace around his neck. He yanked the necklace off and crushed it in the palm of his hand. That necklace was the only restraint to power he hid. He laughed at his own stupidity. What if he accidentally lost control of himself? He wouldn't care. If they discover him, he wouldn't care. As far as he was concerned, he didn't care about anything anymore. He just wished for the end of his pathetic little life, but he couldn't bring himself to do suicide. He just couldn't, no matter how many times he had tried.

He laughed at himself. He doubt that Goten even considered him as an older brother with the way he avoided and neglected him. He wouldn't be surprised if the kid denied having any living blood relative. Gohan raked a hand through his dark messy hair and sighed as he leaned over the edge of the railing. It was late and he had school tomorrow, he had better go to sleep.

Trying to sleep had done no good to him since his dark thoughts plagued his mind. He had yet to apologize to Videl like he promised he would. He had never broken a promise in his life and he didn't plan on starting now. He was a man of his word. He'd apologize later.

She was quite surprised when he showed up in class without his report. Both she and Lime knew that he had the necessary data and had probably done the report, yet he chose not to. Videl wondered what was with that boy's weird behavior. She had been intrigued by him the first time they had met and he had ceased to amaze her.

"You don't have it?" screeched the Ms. Muffin.

"Yes," said Gohan calmly for the fourth time.

"Am I hearing things or is my top student actually telling me that he doesn't have his report?" wondered Ms. Muffin once again.

"I do not have my report," stated Gohan again.

Ms. Muffin looked as if she was going to have a seizure and sunk into her chair, a hand clasped over her heart. "I cannot believe this…" she murmured repeatedly to herself.

Gohan couldn't help but roll his eyes at the teacher's behavior. It wasn't the end of the world. Truth be told, he had the report in his bag, but he just didn't feel like turning it in. After that emotionally draining day, he hadn't had the energy to really do anything.

This didn't go unnoticed by Lime though. The moment she had to chance to talk to Gohan, which was lunch time, she had asked him what was wrong.

As usual, he brushed her off and turned away from her, drowning out her words and her pleas to tell her what was wrong. His behavior should've been obvious to her because of the conversation they had the other day. Eventually she gave up trying to ask him and began talking about other topics. No matter what she said, nothing went through to him, except for one statement.

"It turns out that Robby is coming a bit earlier than expected. Isn't that awesome? He's going to be in town tomorrow so we can meet him after school," said Lime.

At that moment, Gohan felt his heart shattering to a million pieces. He grimaced at her words, but tried to hide his emotions like he normally did. There was no point in showing her how much it hurt to know that she had moved on. He wouldn't show her his weak side anymore. He had shown her too much of that.

Gohan ground his teeth and clenched his fists together so hard that he could feel the strain in his jaw and in his hands. His knuckles were turning white from the sheer force of his clenching. Luckily, that went unnoticed by Lime. No matter how hard he tried to control himself, he couldn't keep his voice level when he said, "That's great to hear."

Although Gohan's behavior went unnoticed by Lime, Videl noticed it. She understood his pain better now that Lime had cleared some things up for her. She could also hear the strain and the pain held deep within his voice. She pitied him. Gohan… she thought.

"Where can we meet him?" forced out Gohan. It took all his willpower to leave out the malice he wanted so desperately to show.

Lime was oblivious to how Gohan had to force some of the words out or how much he was hurting from thoughts of her boyfriend visiting her. For the past few minutes, Lime had begun talking about Robby, which only caused more pain and grief to Gohan. This was the thing with Lime, when she got started talking about her boyfriend, she would end up in her own little fantasy world and forget everything around her.

As Lime was going to continue, Videl placed a hand on Gohan's shoulder and pulled him away before he could crush the table that he was reaching out for. Reluctantly, he stepped away with her without saying a word or jerking away. They walked to the nearest tree where Gohan leaned against and sighed, running a hand down his face.

"Care to talk about it?" offered Videl.

Gohan grunted. "You wouldn't understand," he answered wearily and sadly.

"Oh yeah? Try me," said Videl, crossing her arms across her chest.

He glanced at her with weary and wary eyes full of doubt before turning away from her and sliding down toward the ground. "It's complicated," he stated heavily.

"I've got time and I'm willing to listen," she stated plainly.

Wait, why was she so willing to listen to his woes when all he had ever done was be rude to her and insult her? He didn't even apologize to her like he said he would either. "Why are you so willing to help me?"

She seemed a bit taken back by his question and hesitated to respond. What was she supposed to say? She pitied him? But then that would make him even angrier at her. In the end she settled for, "Because you're my friend."

"Your friend?" repeated Gohan bewilderedly.

Videl bit the inside of her cheek and nodded slowly. Sure, she could consider him as a friend if he didn't act like such a bastard. "Yes."

Gohan scoffed. "Then you have a bad choice in friends."

She sent him a glare and plopped down on the grass right in front of him. "Just tell me. I know that it has something to do with your history with Lime."

The young demi-saiyan turned away from the raven-haired girl and sighed. "You sure are stubborn."

Videl smirked. "It's one of my special qualities."

She kind of reminds me of Bulma and… mom…, thought Gohan sadly. "We used to date," he began.

"I gathered that much from how you look at her," said Videl.

"I'm that obvious, huh?" said Gohan, his eyes closed.

"Unfortunately," replied Videl.

"We dated for two years. I really loved her, but then… we broke up," said the demi-saiyan, his eyes open and full of pain at the memory.

She could practically feel the love from Gohan radiating off of him whenever they were around Lime. Right now she really pitied him, but also couldn't help but wonder the reason for the break up. "Why?"

His eyes were downcast and his words were full of regret, "I became too caught up with something else and we… drifted apart. She said that we didn't work out because I didn't give her enough attention and it was true. I didn't. I was a bastard…" He gritted his teeth and inhaled. He really wished that he could go back in time and change the past, but he knew that it was impossible. There was nothing he could do. "She moved on, but I didn't. I never did. I still love her."

It was then that she felt her heart reach out for him. She felt the need to console him, but she didn't know how. Videl had no idea how hard his life was. Well, she had an idea after what Lime had filled her in on yesterday. Gohan was worse off than she. He and his little brother was an orphan and were adopted. Gohan had blamed himself for his parents' death and never got over them. Even when he dated Lime, his mind was somewhere else.

"Oh God, I don't know how I'm going to handle the meeting with Robby tomorrow," he said sadly. "I'll probably mess it up and then Lime will hate me even more." Gohan ran a frustrated hand through his hair and sighed in exasperation.

Videl frowned. He was definitely in a tight situation and she was feeling generous at the time, so… "If you like, I can go with you so that it won't feel awkward for you," she offered.

Her offer got Gohan's attention. He stared at her strangely at first, but then slowly smiled gratefully. "Thanks." He hadn't thanked anyone in such a long time it felt weird, but also good at the same time.

It's been quite a while since the last time I updated, huh? Well, I doubt that anyone's really reading this, so I decided to take a little more time. I know that this isn't the best chapter, but writer's block can really be a pain sometimes. Anyways, I hope whoever is reading will enjoy this. Until next time, see ya.