Puppy Love

Ch. 4

Disclaimer: Do not own.

"Papa?"

The hulking mustached man turned his attention to his daughter, "What is it, Pumpkin?"

The little girl's cerulean eyes darted around the television screen, "Who's he? Why's he like that? And why is he like that too? Or him? Or even that guy over there?"

"Oh, don't worry about that, darlin'. Those guys are just showing off with their flashy tricks. It's magic," Mr. Satan nonchalantly reassured her.

"I want to learn how to do that then. Papa, can you teach me?" A wide smile formed along Videl's cheeks as she craned her neck to gaze up at her father.

He quickly waved his hands frantically in front of him and stammered, "N-no, honey, I can't teach you that! Er, these tricks are for losers! All that flying, super-fast, glowing, rock-exploding stuff they do just tells ya they're all weaklings!" he huffed, "They just wanna be like me, is all – the World Champion! The strongest man alive! Bwahaha!"

As her father boisterously let out his trademark laugh, Videl set her eyes back onto the TV screen. She watched as a young boy stood there on the tournament grounds. She gazed at his glowing physique, her eyes curiously wandering from head to toe in awe.

'How is that kid glowing like that? It's like he's creating a wind storm with that golden light! It's not just him… it's all four of them! What's up with these golden-haired people?'

Videl wanted to know. She needed to know.

How were these men so powerful? How was that boy so powerful? He looked about her age, and as far as she was concerned, Videl was the strongest she knew of out of all the kids her age.

The four golden-haired men she saw broadcasted the day of the Cell Games baffled her. They maneuvered so quickly, on the ground or in the sky. They crushed rocks in their paths as if they were made from powdery snow. Videl couldn't recall ever seeing her father in action like these guys. Not even close. Yet, he was the one who ultimately defeated Cell in the end.

'Maybe Papa is right, that they're are all magic tricks… there's no way anyone can throw fireballs like in a video game… they gotta be like glowing grenades or something! …But still...'

Videl just couldn't wrap her head around it.

She truly believed her father defeated that diabolical monster. What child of the World Champion wouldn't?

Things just didn't seem to add up. Nevertheless, Videl attempted to suppress her doubts under the hidden pretense of her father's victory. And she continued to suppress those doubts even a year later.

o (o) (O) (o) o

However a year later, that very same boy Videl pondered about during the Cell Games was training hard for the upcoming tournament. He would be making his appearance in front of the public mass to display those magical fighting skills that had left Videl so awestruck.

Disguised as an adult, of course.

Gohan wouldn't dare show his Super Saiyan form in front of such a large audience. Especially not in front of the daughter of the World Champion. If she were to find out he was there at the Cell Games… well, he wasn't sure what he would do. Possibly hide at home for a few years like a hermit.

Gohan knew this was going to be a challenge. Vegeta would be at the tournament as well, and the boy was certain he and the prince would be battling against each other. There was no doubt in the half-Saiyan's mind that he would likely need to turn Super Saiyan during their match.

If only he was allowed to wear a helmet. The tournament regulations forbade the use of protective gear, however. Anything less would tear right off his head though.

"Maybe you could dye your hair, Gohan," Bulma interrupted his thought process as she laid a plate full of buffalo wings in front of him.

"Dye my hair?" The half-Saiyan questioned her suggestion skeptically, "Uh, I don't know… would that even work? I know Mom would throw a fit if I dyed it," he then ran his fingers through his spiky, jet-black hair.

"I suppose you're right, ChiChi's upset enough about your transformations as it is," she agreed.

Gohan sat there, staring at his plate in thought. He wondered if dying his hair really would work. Would his transformation override the color, regardless? It certainly would be an interesting experiment at the least.

"Bulma," he piped up after a moment, "can I use your hair dye?"

The blue-haired woman's eyebrows perked up as her mouth fell agape, "My hair dye?" Her expression quickly transformed into a menacing scowl, narrowing her eyes at the thirteen-year old boy sitting at her kitchen table, "What makes you think for one second I dye my hair?"

Gohan gulped, sensing her offended mannerism, "I, uh – "

Startling the two, Vegeta chimed in with a guffaw as he put a half-eaten wing back down on his plate. "Woman, don't deny it. You've been dying your hair for the past four months. Always complaining about those 'grey hairs'."

Redirecting her frown and glaring eyes at her husband, Bulma retorted with a sneer, "Well, sorry you freakish aliens don't experience aging! You guys have no idea what it's like to have to maintain your body to stay young-looking!"

"We're not immortal, you know. We age. We just don't deteriorate as quickly as you humans do. Pitiful, really," a small smirk formed on his face as he talked down at his mate, enjoying her writhe in an angered envy, "Our hair will always stay the same color no matter how old we get."

"Stay the same color?" she haughtily laughed back at him, "You guys change your hair color as much as I change clothes in the dressing room!"

Feeling uneasy about the argument he unintentionally initiated, Gohan attempted to chime in, unsure of how to tread carefully in this situation, "Um… so… could I borrow some of your dye?"

Violently swinging her head back towards the young boy, Bulma furrowed her brow even more as she spoke through gritted teeth, "Ugh, fine! Whatever! Do what you want."

Flinching at her outburst, Gohan watched her storm out of the kitchen through the corner of his eye.

"Stupid woman," Vegeta muttered as he picked his half-eaten buffalo wing back up again.

"V-Vegeta, do you want to dye your hair, too? We could fight all out, if you did."

Giving him a long stare through the black holes in his eyes, Vegeta's face remained frozen in that scowling manner, "Ask me when it's Halloween, and I might consider looking like a Smurf."

"Uh, never mind," Gohan quietly retracted his question back from the sarcastic prince.

Nevertheless, Vegeta had a point. Was Gohan really going to go through with it and dye his hair blue? His mother definitely wouldn't approve of that. Sure, it was Bulma's natural color of course, but if Gohan were to show up at home later that day with his black hair turned blue, he'd be the epitome of a delinquent in ChiChi's eyes. If he could find a more subtle color to experiment with, then that might not be so bad.

He decided it was time to go visit the store.

o (o) (O) (o) o

Gohan ended up flying to Orange Star – er, Satan City. It was hard getting used to the city's new name, but regardless, he knew that the best shopping centers lay within the metropolis.

Landing just outside of the city, Gohan walked in and headed towards the nearest plaza. He looked around, left and right, eyeing the store names for anything that might carry dye. Spotting a salon, he decided to give them a shot.

Peering in, Gohan was immediately greeted by a high-pitched, enthusiastic voice.

"Welcome! How are you doing today, are you looking to get a hair-cut?" a young woman smiled at him from ear to ear.

"N-no, I'm looking for some hair dye," he responded.

"Oh, well, come with me, I can show you our latest products!" she beckoned the half-Saiyan to follow her to the shelves of hair products.

"What color are you looking to buy?"

"Um, something natural, but different than what I have now, I guess," he pointed at his head of hair.

"Well, how about blonde? It's drastic enough of a change, yet nothing too crazy."

"N-no!" Gohan frantically burst out. The last thing he ever needed was blonde dye, "What about a light brown?"

Pouting, the salon worker picked up a bottle of dye, "This here will do the trick. Black to brunette sounds a little boring, but whatever you want, honey."

Grinning in satisfaction, Gohan received the bottle from the woman, "Perfect."

The boy bought the dye and was about to leave before the woman piped up, "Just so you know –You'll have to bleach it before you put the dye in, or else the color won't show up very well."

'Bleach it? She's gotta be joking… Mom will kill me if I do that!' however, Gohan quickly turned his line of thinking, 'Wait a minute. That's perfect! If this works out like I think it will, all I have to do is put the dye in my hair then turn Super Saiyan! Without my transformation, it will look like I never even touched my hair.'

The half-Saiyan walked out of the salon satisfied with his new purchase. As he looked left and right, scanning the area, he began to ponder about a certain pigtailed girl.

'That's right, Videl lives in this city… I wonder what she's up to right now.'

Curious to find her, he decided to ascend to the sky when no one was looking. He wasn't sure why he wanted to find her. There was no particular reason. But he liked being around her. He enjoyed talking to her and watching her expressions change as fast as his mother's did. It could've been the fact they had bumped into each other so frequently as of late; enough that Gohan thought it would be nice to bump into her again.

Realizing it was a bit of a stretch to scan the entire city for a single girl, he decided to come to a halt in the sky and close his eyes in a deep focus. He tried to remember back to last week, when Videl had challenged him to a sparring match. The Ki she had emitted was one to remember, so he was sure he could find her by sensing it.

Gohan reached far and wide across Satan City, sensing the various Ki's emitting from the bodies below him. It was definitely a difficult task – Videl's really wasn't all that strong compared to other folks within the metropolis, but he at least got a sense of its uniqueness so that he could spot it – and he did.

His eyes flew open at the feel of her Ki. It was small, but it was certainly nearby. He could tell she wasn't training or exerting much physical force due to its size. Delighted to discover her location, Gohan immediately headed towards the source of energy.

As her Ki felt closer and closer, Gohan stopped in mid-air and scanned the area directly in front of him.

'Orange Star Junior High,' he read the sign on the gate in front of the large building, 'I guess she's at school for once.'

Gohan felt a rush of disappointment. He really was looking forward to saying hello to the blue-eyed girl again. Nevertheless, he still landed himself on top of the school building.

He walked along the edge of the roof, balancing himself on the ledge, quietly thinking to himself. He had no idea when public school normally got out, but he had nothing to do at the moment (except dye his hair), so he didn't mind waiting.

It was as if he had perfect timing. As Gohan circled around the edge of the roof once more, a door swung open. A young blonde girl came running through, looking behind her as she laughed and grinned. Not a second passed when a pigtailed blur came running through as well, trailing not far behind.

"Erasa! Wait up!" the girl called out.

She suddenly came to a halting stop. Gazing past her friend, she set her blue eyes on the familiar boy. Her face expressed a mix of emotions – surprise, confusion, and delight – all before she walked up to him.

"Gohan!" Videl happily greeted him, "What are you doing here? Did you just transfer?"

He smiled as he shook his head, "No, I'm just visiting."

Videl looked at him quizzically, wondering what he was doing visiting the roof of her school.

"Did you just get out?" he asked as he jumped off from the ledge.

"N-no, it's lunch time right now. This is my friend Erasa – we usually eat lunch on the roof," Videl pointed at her bubbly short-haired friend who waved hello.

"Wanna join us?" Quick to welcome him, Erasa asked, dismissing any curiosity as to why this random boy was on their school's roof. She wasn't the type to ponder long about many things anyway.

"S-sure," Gohan smiled. He sat down next to the two girls as they laid out their lunch.

"What's in the bag, lunch?" Erasa peered at his hand as she fumbled to open her lunch box.

"O-oh, it's nothing…"

Deviously narrowing her eyes, Videl smirked before she snatched the bag from him, catching him off guard.

"H-hey!"

As she looked in the bag, Gohan watched her expression change to befuddlement, "What's this? Hair dye?" she picked up the bottle in her hand, examining its label.

"Uh, heh, yeah. It's – it's for my mom," he babbled the first excuse that popped in his head.

"Ho?" Erasa shot the boy a wily look as she teased him, "I bet you were gonna use that on your own hair. You delinquent, you!"

Waving his hands in front of him in denial, Gohan's face flushed, "N-no!"

Taking a moment to look from the bottle of dye to the boy's reddened face, Videl's own cheeks flushed as she quietly muttered, "I think you look fine the way you are now, Gohan."

Erasa had to do a double-take, staring at her friend in slight bewilderment. That look on her face… well, it was certainly new to her.

"T-thanks," the half-Saiyan quietly replied back with a sheepish grin.

The young blonde looked back and forth between the two. After a rare moment of analytical thought, Erasa smirked as she speculated the type of chemistry between the two.

"Videl, I'm gonna go find Sharpner. I'll be back later!"

Before her pigtailed friend could reply, Erasa hopped up off the ground with her lunch and took off to the door.

"W-wha?"

At that, the sound of the roof's door shut behind her friend.

"That was weird," Videl cocked an eyebrow, "Just a second ago, she said she didn't want to eat lunch with Sharpner."

The cerulean-eyed girl's ears suddenly perked up as a loud rumble and groan emitted from nearby. She swung her head around and noticed Gohan blushing even more than before. He cradled his belly in his hand as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Again, the strangled grumbling noise consumed the silent atmosphere.

Sheepishly laughing, Gohan flashed a coy grin as he looked down at the ground, "Heh, um, I didn't eat lunch yet," he meekly explained his stomach's outbursts.

Taking a second to register the inhuman noise as Gohan's rumbling tummy, Videl muffled a laugh, "Why didn't you say so? I can grab some lunch for you!"

Looking back up at her, Gohan watched Videl stand up and flash an assuring smile at him. She then walked up to the roof's door and latched onto the handle. Pulling it at first, Videl thought she must have grabbed it at a weird angle. She then pulled at the handle again, only to realize the door was locked.

"Uh-oh…" Videl gasped as she tried to pull at the handle with both hands, exerting as much strength as possible.

Gohan stood up and walked up behind her, "It's locked?"

She replied with a hesitant nod, quickly flashing a frown, "That Erasa. She didn't think about the fact we were still up here and closed the door all the way! Now we're locked up here until someone opens the door from inside."

Scratching his head, the half-Saiyan pondered for a moment before he gently pushed Videl out of the way. The pigtailed girl watched him curiously as he stood in front of the door. Hands in his pockets, he casually swung one of his legs forward. Kicking the bottom of the door, it violently swung open accompanied with a shattering metal sound.

"G-G-Gohan…" astonished, Videl gazed at the broken door with widened eyes, "T-that door wasn't supposed to open that way."

"O-oh, oops-"

BEEP… BEEP… BEEP… BEEP… BEEP… BEEP…

"The fire alarm! Oh no!" Videl jumped at the sound of the imposing alarm as she looked left and right.

Puzzled, Gohan watched the frantic girl dash around the roof in complete disorientation.

"What do we do? Crap, we're in trouble now, Gohan! We're not even supposed to be up here in the first place!" her blue eyes pleaded him for a means to escape the trouble they were headed in for.

Without a moment to lose, the young boy grabbed Videl's hand and dragged her down the stairs from the roof. Sneaking their way through the hallways, their tracks were stopped by crowds of kids lining out of the classrooms to exit the building.

He suddenly felt a hand fall on his shoulder. Looking behind him, he gazed up at the man who gently ushered him to follow the crowd.

As the two exited the building along with the other kids, Videl gave the boy a light nudge as she whispered, "I think they all think you're a student here, Gohan."

Taking note of her observation, she seemed to be right on the dot. Here he was, lined up with Videl's classmates standing outside Orange Star Junior High.

"Hey… it's you, Gohan! What are you doing here?"

The half-Saiyan turned around to see a bob of blonde hair, "E-Erasa, right?" he attempted to recall her name.

She nodded, "Videl told me you don't go to this school. What are you doing, lined up here with us?"

"Er, heh, well-" he wasn't sure how to explain.

"Where else was he supposed to go, Erasa?" Videl chimed in, "You know we're not allowed on the roof. Oh, and thanks for locking us out, by the way!"

Catching on to her sarcastic tone, embarrassment and guilt washed over her face, "I'm sorry, Videl! I wasn't thinking."

As Gohan scanned the area, he noticed a handful of eyes staring directly at him. Apparently the kids here were catching on quick that they could not recognize him. Nervously, the half-Saiyan averted his eyes from the crowd of kids and looked off to the side.

"Here, Gohan," the pigtailed girl reached down and pulled a badge off from her shirt, "Put this on you so the teachers will think you belong here."

"What about you, Videl?" Gohan pointed at the now vacant spot on her clothes.

Grinning, she assured him, "Don't worry. Everyone knows who I am. They don't ask me questions."

Content with her answer, Gohan pinned her badge onto his white Mandarin style shirt. Before he could say anything more to her, Videl wandered out of line to one of the adults nearby.

"Hey, teach?"

"What is it, Videl?"

"May I be excused? My papa told me he needs me. It's an emergency," the words rolled off her tongue like she had practiced that phrase a million times before.

"Of course."

At that, Videl walked back over. Without a word, she quickly grabbed Gohan's hand and guided him away from the crowds of school kids. They snuck through the back and managed to leave the school grounds undetected.

As Videl sighed in relief, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Gohan handing her the school badge back.

"Looks like I didn't really need it, after all," the boy smiled.

Smiling back, she received her badge as a longing tone emitted from her tiny voice, "You know, it would be nice if you did go to my school."

He questioned her with his eyes as he cocked his head.

"You're… interesting to say the least, Gohan." Videl didn't feel a need to explain any further. That certainly was the epitome of what she thought of the onyx-haired boy. There was never a dull moment with him.

Gohan never wanted to attend public school. His mother always threatened to enroll him if he didn't comply with her wishes. He loved the fact he had the freedom to do as he pleased as long as he finished his studies prior, and public school wouldn't let that happen. He'd be stuck in that institution for seven long hours of repetitive boredom.

However, it seemed his line of thinking was beginning to change. All because of the little girl standing in front of him. Maybe public school wouldn't be so bad after all.

"What are you going to do now?" Videl asked him with curious eyes.

Without noticing the rosy color flashing over her cheeks, Gohan naïvely replied, "I think I'll just head home. I need to uh, bring this dye back to my mom."

"Oh."

The young boy noticed the waver in her voice, but couldn't put a finger on why she sounded glum. As if her hopes had just dropped.

Flashing a warm smile, he managed to comfort her, "We'll probably bump into each other again real soon."

She grinned back at him, "If not, I'll see you at the tournament!"

o (o) (O) (o) o

Back at home, Gohan decided to experiment with the hair dye he had bought. Reading the directions, he complied with each step – with the exception of bleaching his hair first.

As he waited for the allotted time to pass for the dye to work, he crossed his fingers in hopes it wouldn't come out horribly wrong.

The time passed quickly and Gohan washed his hair out. Letting it dry, he didn't notice much change.

"Hm. Looks a little brown now, but not by much," he ran his fingers through the tips of his hair as he examined the new color, "Well, let's see if this worked out the way I planned."

At that, Gohan mustered up his Ki and built it up inside of him. Reaching the point where he was able to release his energy to complete his Super Saiyan transformation, the half-Saiyan suddenly noticed a few brown specs floating around his golden aura.

Gohan looked back in the mirror and practically yelped at the sight. His golden hair was blotched with specs of light brown, where the rest of the brown dye was either splattered all over the bathroom walls or circling within his aura.

"Uh-oh…" was all he could manage to sputter out as he aimlessly gazed at the mess he had created, "Methinks I need a change of plans…"

End, chapter 4.

A/N: Big thanks to Lets Random for betareading this chapter! Check his fics out. Do it! :)

Consider this a… filler episode!

But really, because I was having some trouble trying to figure out how to disguise Gohan, I decided, heck why not write a chapter about it. I do have a plan about the hair dye, though. :)

The plot will pick up next chapter, I promise!

Comments, criticisms, and suggestions are always appreciated! Thanks for reading.