Title: Off the Beaten Path
Author: Piccolo is green (aka, PiccoloIsGreen on DA)
Rating: PG – Due to the large number of authors participating in this event, rating is subject to change at any time.
Disclaimer: None of the authors taking part in this Round Robin claim to own Dragonball/Z/GT.

Summary: Round Robin. Gohan and Videl get lost in the woods, and Videl doesn't know about Gohan's powers! What's a demi-Saiyan to do? (donated by texaspeach)

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Chapter Three

"F… fly?!" Gohan stammered, grasping for some sort of excuse. Desperate, he laughed nervously in the hope that it would ward off her penetrating stare.

It had the opposite effect.

"I… I think you must have hit your head too hard, Videl," he blurted, swallowing nervously as she pushed herself up on her elbows, her eyes no longer looking sleepy as they narrowed menacingly. He grimaced, both from the taste of the dirt that happened to be on his lips, and her glare, wishing desperately that they had turned back before the second bridge.

Stupid, he berated himself. Krillin always says that girls mess with your judgment.

"I didn't hit my head, Gohan," she replied harshly, averting her head to spit out the taste of polluted river water. Suddenly aware that her white t-shirt was plastered to her, she blushed, pulling the wet top away from her body and covering her fluster by glaring at Gohan again. "You flew behind me and turned us around. You hit the water and got knocked unconscious, but I was awake for long enough to drag your sorry body out of the river."

"Ahhhh… haha!" Gohan laughed again, avoiding any further eye contact. "I wasn't flying, Videl," he denied, speaking quickly; "I was falling! I hung onto the bridge but my hands slipped and then I fell on top of you. It was so quick it's hard to remember… I mean, we must both be in shock," he blabbered, voice rising in pitch as he searched for more excuses. "Normal people can't fly!" he finished lamely, adding another laugh and wincing when his voice broke.

Videl's eyes narrowed even more, but she refrained from pushing the topic even further, even though she knew that the law of gravity held that falling objects fell at the same speed – regardless of their weight. If Gohan had dropped from the bridge after her, he shouldn't have fallen on top of her until after she hit the water, meaning that there was no legitimate explanation for the phenomenon that had just occurred.

The naturally pretty girl shook her head to dispel the confusing thoughts; there was no point in wasting time on them now. People couldn't fly (unless you counted the Great Saiyaman, and she had a feeling that he relied on cheap tricks like hidden rocket packs), what had happened didn't make sense, and she was soaking wet, tired and dirty. Adding to their troubles was the fact that her backpack full of capsules had been lost, and her watch – the item she used to communicate with the Satan City Police Department – was water damaged and useless.

And, to top it all off, it was getting dark.

"I'm not sure how far we were washed downstream, Gohan," she said, her voice sounding harsh even to her own ears. "Let's just forget all this stupidity and do something. It's getting dark and we need shelter and warmth. I think I can speak for the both of us when I say that we don't want to get hypothermia."

"You're right," Gohan replied, looking suddenly brighter at the prospect of actually doing something. "My vest is soaked through… I guess I better take that off."

Videl watched inconspicuously as the tall boy removed his black vest, dropping it carelessly on the ground. He too was wearing a white shirt, and the thin fabric clung to the contours of his body. Videl couldn't help as her jaw dropped open; the nerdy boy's six pack and well-defined pecks were not what she was expecting to see under there!

He must work out in his spare time! she thought, her mind suddenly racing. Unless he just has freakish genetics; I've heard of people like that. After all, I've inherited my father's strength… maybe one of his parents is really built?

Unbeknownst to Videl, it was a combination of freakish genetics and workouts that had given Gohan the toned body that he sported. Although he no longer trained heavily, the teen still spent his spare time playing with his little brother. Given the fact that both Gohan and his younger sibling Goten were half-Saiyans, – giving them a large amount of energy, inhumanly perfect fitness levels, and a muscular build – the brothers' playing ended up being far more of a workout than even the toughest human athletes endured.

Gohan remained oblivious of Videl's stare, his mind instead turning inwards to mull over the predicament they were in. He realized with dismay that they really would be spending the night in the bush. Although he had the power to fly them both out of there within a minute, he couldn't reveal his powers like that, and his senses could easily pick up that his classmates' ki were all returning to the field trip camp. There was no way that a search party would start up tonight.

They probably think Hercule's daughter is out saving me from trouble, he mused with a shake of the head. I guess it's better than them knowing that I'm Saiyaman, though.

He picked at his own shirt, and with a shrug, decided to remove that too. Like his father, Gohan never had much trouble with body temperature (Saiyans tended to adapt to their environments a little better than humans; only the snow really cooled them down) and the teen decided that it was better to be shirtless than to be wearing soggy clothing. Picking up his vest from the ground, he folded both wet items neatly, rolling them together until they could be easily held in one hand. It was only then that he noticed Videl's condition.

"Videl!" he exclaimed in shock, "You're freezing! We've gotta get you dry and warm!"

"Wh… what ab…out you?" the girl asked through chattering teeth. Although the cold hadn't bothered her at first, the quick descent of the sun, coupled with an increasing amount of wind blowing through the forest, was enough to drain her already weakened body of the vital heat it needed to keep it functioning properly. Gohan recognized the danger in this; if Videl didn't get warm soon she'd risk suffering from hypothermia. He realized that the time had come to act quickly.

"I'm fine, Videl," he replied, extending his hand towards her in order to help her up. "My shirt wasn't helping with the cold. I don't think yours is, either," he added, his cheeks and nose turning pink, "but I guess you probably don't wanna take that off."

"Hmph! D… don't think I'm gonna fall for that one, Gohan!" she retorted quickly, despite the fact that she knew he was right. "Let's jussst hurry u…p and find shel…ter, and make a fire, ok? Thanks to you I l…ost my backpack and all my capsules, so we're gon…na have to rough it tonight." She pushed past the tall boy and headed up the steep hill that grew out of the riverbank, her shivers beginning to dissipate as she pushed herself to move quickly. "Hurry up, Gohan!" she ordered over her shoulder. "Soon it's going to be impossible to see and then we'll be really screwed! We need to find shelter now!"

Gohan sighed and stepped into place behind her. It didn't matter that he actually had great night-vision; he couldn't let her know about any of his Saiyan powers. As the girl slipped, sliding down a strip of loose rubble and into his bare chest, he hoped he could get through the next day without too much trouble from the feisty female.

Considering the fact that her buttocks just happened to fall into his hands when she slipped, Gohan felt that trouble was unavoidable, and braced himself for the worst.

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Beta'd by Ms. Videl Son (aka, megaminoeien on DA).