Chapter 18

:The trip back to Earth

Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Dragon Ball Z. All rights are owned by their respective owners,Toei, Toriyama, etc. This is purely a fanfictional work done by a simple fan done for fun. I do no get profit from this in any way.

Over he next four days, Gohan and Videl went over the same routine. They would each go to sleep on one end of the bed and in the morning they would find themselves in the middle in each other arms. They along with all the other fighters in the ship would also go train together in the Holochamber day in and day out. Then one day, Gohan and Videl came out of the training chamber looking tired and covered in sweat after an intense session of training. "Phew! That was intense! It looks like we both worked up a sweat that time." cheerfully exclaimed Gohan. "Yeah, it looks like we'll both need to take a shower." replied Videl. Unfortunately for them Chi-Chi was just passing by while carrying some laundry and overheard them. "Just you don't go off taking it together." Chi-Chi teased with a grin. However, Gohan didn't quite get it that she was only joking and he was seriously confused by it. "Why would we do that mom? We would have to be naked if we did that and wouldn't that be embarrassing? Why would we do that?" Gohan questioned because he was geniunely confused and looked over to Videl for answers. Videl looked away and blushed as she felt embarrassed and ashamed both by Chi-Chi's insinuation, by Gohan's clueless nature on the matter and not to mention the very thought of having to be naked in front of Gohan. Gohan couldn't figure out why Videl was blushing but he let it go and left to be followed soon after by a rushing Videl. Meanwhile Vegeta had come out of the chamber from his own training and overheard the entire incident. The insinuation somehow gave Vegeta a dark idea on what to do for a prank.

Later that night, Vegeta entered Gohan and Videl's room while they were still sleeping and then silently went to work on his prank. Once he was done Vegeta left the darkened room with a devious smirk on his face. "Hehehe! Won't they be surprised when they wake up." Vegeta muttered to himself as he closed the door behind him and left with chuckling an ominous chuckle.

The next morning, the automatic lights turned on at the preset time like an alarm clock to wake up Gohan and Videl from their sleep like they usually did. Videl stirred first and found herself laying right next to Gohan with her left arm leaning over his chest and her left leg overlapping his right. Not an all too compromising position compared to some of the other positions they'd found themselves in over the last week, but something felt different this time. 'What!? What is this? It almost feels as if I'm touching bare skin?' thought Videl as she groggily woke up and started to notice the difference. Gohan was beginning to wake up now too and he too began noticing that something was off. They both looked down at the planket and realised that beneath the sheets they were completely naked and in a compromising position. They both looked into each others faces and just stared at each other for a brief second as their faces turned bright red. Then they frantically panicked and scrambled up to get away from each other and find something to cover themselves up with. Videl took the entire sheet and wrapped it around her body and covered herself like she would with a towel while Gohan had to make do with a pillow that he held vertically that covered both his nether region and most of his chest area. Both sides took their breath from just having the shock of their lives and got their wits about them. Neither one of them had gotten the opportunity to 'see' the other and as far as they were concerned that was lucky but they were still confused as to how they got that way. "How the heck did this happen!? What happened to our clothes!? I could've sworn we went to sleep fully clothed? Is it you? Did you you this?" asked a very freaked out and a very agitated Videl. "Don't look at me! I'm just as freaked out as you are. Look, why don't we just get dressed first and start figuring out what happened to our clothes later?" suggested Gohan. While Videl wasn't quite sure she could believe Gohan right now she did agree that the first order of business was to get dressed again. "Fine!" agreed Videl as she then went to her drawer and picked out and outfit quickly before disappearing into the bathroom.

A little later, after they'd gotten dressed and Gohan managing to convince Videl that he had nothing to do with this, they went out of their room to search for who'd done it to them. They didn't have to look long because Vegeta was just outside their door leaning back on the corridoor wall with his arms crossed and an unmistakable smirk on his face. "Well, well, well? Did you two brats enjoy your little morning surprise I left for you?" snickered Vegeta, obviously laughing it in their faces. "Grrrrrr! You did this Vegeta!? Well I certainly hope that your training has really improved this last week because we're going for a sparring match right now and I'm gonna use my full powers on you this time!" theatened Gohan as his eyes turned dangerously green and yellow aura began leaking around him. Videl wasn't in any better condition as she too was in an angry state. "I wouldn't do that if I were you brat. You see if you lay one finger on me then I'll tell everyone that you slept naked together last night." said Vegeta with a confident grin. Both Gohan and Videl knew that if word got out to his mother then there would be endless lectures and gushing from Chi-Chi about their relationship and they didn't want that. "Alright, you win Vegeta. But consider this, we still have the tape of you in the dress and we can still send it to everone in the globe if we wanted to. But so long as you don't talk then we won't do anything either. So let's just both consider ourselves even and call it a day. Deal?" proposed Gohan. "Deal, But let this be a lesson to you. Never challenge the prince of all saiyans to a contest of pranks." said Vegeta with his ever present smirk at the end of it. And then both sides parted ways to go on with their day.

About a week and a half later, the ship was rocked violently along with a loud KLANG!ing sound that was heard coming from somewhere outside the ship. A few moments later Bulma's voice was heard over the intercom system. "Everyone quick, come to the bridge, it's urgent!" said Bulma as then everyone on the ship dropped what they were doing and made their way to the bridge. "What's going on Bulma? What was that shaking we felt and what made that sound we heard coming from outside?" inquired an alarmed Goku who was leading in front of the pack. Bulma was busy examining loads of screens that showed various diagrams of the ship. "It looks like we were struck by a small meteor and I'm afraid that the hit damaged the ship's water recycling system." explained Bulma. "Umm? Is that bad?" asked Goku, totally clueless when it came to the finer details of technology. "Goku, without the system to recycle the ship's water supply then the water we use won't be renewing itself and that means that the water we use will be used up by our daily water usage. And what's worse is that by my calculations at our current rate of water usage we'll be out of water in a week and our destination to Earth is still at least two weeks away." Bulma said, explaining the gravity of the situation to Goku as well as everone else around.

"So then can't you do anything about it? I mean, can't you fix it?" asked Goku, voicing what everyone else wanted to ask. "I'm sorry Goku, but I'd need to be back on Earth to repair this kind of damage. I'm afraid we'll have to ration all of our water usage down to about half. That means we'll have to cut down on our water drinking and also have to somehow reduce our shower time down to half. And the only way I know how to make sure that we reduce shower time down to half is if we use one shower per two people." said Bulma. The suggestion to take showers together wasn't too much of a problem for married couples like Bulma/Vegeta and Goku/Chi-Chi nor for Trunks since his roomate Piccolo didn't need to shower since he was a Namek. However, the proposition was much more problematic for a certain pair of half-Saiyan preteens. Gohan and Videl looked at each other and just stared nervously with twin blushes adorning their young faces. Things had been a bit awkward between Gohan and Videl for a few days following 'the incident' two weeks ago and this situation that they were going to be placed in would be 10 times worse. The adults just looked on at the two awkward feeling preteens with a mix of anxiety and sympathy as none of them could find the words to reassure the two nor to speak out against a situation they knew that couldn't be helped. And so for several minutes they just stood there in silence as the reality settled in on Gohan and Videl.

Later that evening, after a hard day's work of training to keep their minds off of the coming event that they had both been looking forward to with dread, it was finally time for them to take a shower. It was very awkward for them as they just stood there in the bathroom with their backs to each other and both of them felt too embarrassed to make the first move. Finally Gohan just sighed. "Let's just get it over with." Gohan defeatedly said, wanting to get things over with and so he began taking off his shirt. Videl glanced over and saw that he was actually doing it and so she was forced to follow his lead and started to undress nervously. Once they were done they just stood there with their backs to one another and feeling awkwardly embarrassed at being naked with the person they each had a crush on. "Are-Are you f-f-finished?" asked a very nervous Videl, asking about wether he was done undressing or not. "Yeah, you?" replied Gohan. "Yeah. *sigh* Let's just get this over with." said Videl as they then both entered the stand in shower back-to-back and turned the water on.

It was awkward in that shower as they both stood back-to-back to each other the almost entire time they were in the shower. They signaled each other when it was time to alternate under the shower head by tapping the heel of their foot in the back of the other's leg. They also alternated to do each other's backs but always out of respect, they kept their eyes on the other persons back and nowhere else. When finally they finished they got out of there with their backs still to each other and dried themselves off with their towels all the while keeping their backs to one another. Finally they got dressed and it wasn't until once that was done did they allow themselves to look at each other. "Well, that was... awkward..." simply stated Gohan. His awkwardness still evident in his voice. "Yeah... Let's agree never to do that AGAIN!" vehemently agreed Videl.

And over the next two weeks they did just that. Somehow over the rest of the next two weeks, Gohan and Videl managed to find a way to cheat the "system" and halve the water usage while not ever seeing the other one naked. Either by alternating shifts, where one would take a shower one day, and then the other the other day. Or they would wear towels to their showers. The off days might of gotten a bit stinky for one of them. Given the sweat that they gave off because of all the hard training they did daily. But it was still far better than the alternative they both thought. But still that "incident" that played out the first time they tried it would play back in their heads and plague the back of their minds for much a time to come. What would the other one look like naked? It would be the start of an Awakening for a curiosity. A childhood curiosity that neither had quite experienced before and would plague them since. But for now, that would only be kept hidden, as neither would have the courage to admit this to either the other, or to anyone else. It would only be something to deal with in the backs of their minds and in private.

But over the rest of the next two weeks things on the trip, things went off without a hitch and finally the ship touched down at Capsule Corp. in West City and bringing an end to their over two month long odyssey. When the doors opened up and the ramp was lowered the gang were greeted by Bulma's parents holding baby Trunks, the Ox King, Yamcha, Puar and Oolong, Master Roshi and Tien and Chiaotzu along with an unidentified woman with purple eyes and a somewhat familiar bowl cut-like hairdo. Videl was one of the first to get off the ship and immediately recognised her mother Seripa or otherwise known as the Saiyan called Fasha in the small crowd that greeted them. "MOMMA!" exclaimed Videl as she ran to and hugged her now revived mother. "Hey kiddo." loving said Seripa as she hugged back her only daughter in a touching scene that warmed everyone who was watchings' hearts.

Then finally Goku came out last along with his family as everyone then cheered and few even cried in joy as they celebrated their greatest hero's return. "Hey guys! Did anything interesting happen while we were away?" asked Goku as he was greeted by everyone. "Yeah, you can say that, but we'll all tell you about it later. But just know it wasn't anything we couldn't handle." Yamcha said cryptically. Meanwhile, Seripa was surprised by everyone cheering and when she lifted her head to see what all the hub bub was about and what she saw she could've sworn it was a ghost from a previous life. "B-Bardock?" she uttered under her breath. As Goku was being congradulated by everyone on being back he noticed a woman he'd never met before was standing with Videl. Goku immediately put two and two together and figured that she was the girls mother and then made his way over to greet her. "Hi, my name is Goku. I guess you must be Videl's mother. You must be very proud, she came a long way to get you back and went through a lot along the way." said Goku with his typical cheery smile. "Yes I am, my name is Seripa here on Earth but if you want to you can call me by my Saiyan name, Fasha. Forgive me but is your name by any chance Kakarot?" asked Fasha. "Huh? Well yes it is but how do you know that?" asked a confused Goku. "Because long ago I served in the same crew as your father Bardock. I swear that except for the scars he had you look exactly like him. He honourably died trying to kill Frieza and save our home world but was overwhelmed. Shortly before he died he was cursed with the power to see the future and the last time I spoke to him he told me that 'If you ever meet my son Kakarot, tell him that I've seen the future and I'm proud of what he will become.' and that was the last thing he said to me." confessed Fasha. Goku had an undeterminable look on his face from she'd just told him. Fasha didn't know if he was glad or angry until a smile graced his features. "That's great to hear. I always wondered what my father was like and now thanks to you I get to know a little bit about him." said Goku as he put his arm around her shoulder and escorted her to inside the Capsule Corp. building and followed by everybody else for a much needed reunion and celebration.

Author's Final Thoughts: And so Gohan and Videl slept together naked. That and they had to shower together. And that will play into things much further down the line for both of them. But for now, their fine, and just a little extra sexual tension between the two will form up.

And so they've arrived back on Earth to a happy ending and now ends the second part of my story. Up to now I largely borrowed from the plot of Two Halves of a Soul, but from now on from here on in it's going to be largely other things and all me. So I hope you enjoy and once again I'd like to acknowledge Two Halves of a Soul for inspiring me to write this fic.