Secret Heart

Chapter 21

Unable to see much of the fight between Gohan and Vegeta, Videl was getting bored. There were a few times where the two opponents would take short breaks, to catch their breath or to talk about something, but the cameras didn't catch the sounds, and she couldn't hear what they were telling each other. Furthermore, Gohan was shirtless, making her blush each and every time she would look at him during those breaks. So Videl preferred not to remain in the control room any longer and asked Bulma where her room for the night was.

The female scientist smiled at her with sympathy, immediately understanding that the young girl would rather go to sleep than watch a room that seemed empty.

"I will lead you to your room," she then replied. "I don't see much of the fight either anyway."

"Thank you, Bulma." Videl still felt a little awkward to be on first name basis with such an influential woman, but the heiress had insisted that she addressed her that way.

"Follow me." The blue-haired woman told her as she went towards the exit of the control room. Videl followed her out of the room and through the endless corridors of Capsule Corp.

"Here it is," Bulma said showing a door. "Goodnight Videl."

"Goodnight Bulma."

Chichi had seen Bulma and Videl leave the control room. She could have followed them to go to bed as well – after all, she didn't see much of the fight either – but she wanted to be there to make sure that her son was alright when the battle ended and the men emerged from the Gravity Room.

Gohan and Vegeta reappeared on the screens, once more taking a short break in their fight. Chichi pursed her lips when she saw her son covered in bruises; she noticed with worry that Vegeta looked less affected by the fight than Gohan. Maybe she should have let Gohan train a little more often rather than make him study constantly; he was, after all, very smart already. And right now, he seemed to need training more than books.

Thankfully, they had Senzu Beans.

Gohan knew that he didn't have the upper hand in this confrontation, and yet he had to admit that he was enjoying the fight immensely. It had been a long time since he had last fought like this, and he had missed it. What he didn't like, in the end, was fighting for his life, for the future of the planet; but he had nothing against fighting just for fun, as he was doing now. Rather than fearing the rest of the fight, he looked forward to it.

Gohan told himself that he really should have kept up his training throughout the last seven years; it would have been very useful to him in his current fight. Before launching himself again at his opponent, the demi Saiya-jin promised himself to train more often from now on.

Blows were pouring, often dodged or blocked, sometimes reaching their targets. Despite the fact that Vegeta had the upper hand, Gohan wasn't going to give up without a fight and he was giving everything he had. And as their battle wore on, the young warrior, becoming more and more familiar with his opponent's style of fighting, could dodge the latter's blows better and land his owns more often. The Prince noticed it and inwardly rejoiced; he was having more fun because of it.

Two hours later and the battle hadn't lost any of its intensity; the group in the control room continued to follow it with just as much excitement and anticipation as they had in the beginning. They could feel that the end of the fight was nearing and couldn't wait to know who would be the victor: despite the fact that Vegeta had had the upper hand during the whole confrontation, Gohan's performances could not be ignored and the audience knew that he had every chance of winning.

Moving away from each other once again, the two opponents watched one another in their fighting stance, catching their breath.

"I have to say that you are managing a lot better than I thought." Vegeta then noted. "Those seven years of peace didn't make you as rusty as I had assumed they would."

Gohan raised an eyebrow. Vegeta had almost complimented him, proving through his good mood that the Prince was really having a lot of fun in their fight. Considering that no one but Gohan could pit his strength against the Prince – giving Vegeta only limited opportunities to fight at this level – the royal's enjoyment of the fight wasn't that surprising.

In any case, Gohan couldn't blame him; after all, he too was having a lot of fun, and to a degree, he regretted that he would have to end the fight.

"As for you, you made a lot of progress; your current level is nothing like the one you had seven years ago. But it's not surprising since you train constantly for years," Gohan pointed out.

The Prince smirked. "Of course; what else do you expect me to do on this planet? But you should have followed my example those last few years; you wouldn't have to struggle so much had you trained correctly."

The young warrior frowned. "I don't have to struggle against you at all, Vegeta."

"Oh really? Well we'll see about that. How about ending this fight in flourish, with our most powerful attacks?" Vegeta proposed.

A look of determination came to Gohan's face, and he already started to power up as he said:

"You're on."

Gohan was walking in the corridors of Capsule Corp, a goofy grin glued on his face. He did it. He beat Vegeta. During their final attack, at the last moment, he had felt a sudden increase in his energy and his attack had rushed right at Vegeta. It was only when the battle ended on his victory that he realized that he had gone up to the second level of his Super Saiya-jin transformation; he hadn't even noticed.

After the both of them took a Senzu Bean, Vegeta hadn't been in a good mood. After all, he could reach the second level of the Super Saiya-jin transformation just as well, but before he could even think of going up to the next level, he had seen Gohan's attack rushing right at him. To him it was cheating, because they had both decided not to reach that level in order to minimize the damage they caused to the building; they didn't want to have Bulma on their back. Nothing had been said in concrete terms, but to Vegeta, it was an obvious fact, and he did not accept his defeat. He went to bed grumbling, followed by Bulma. Gohan hoped that she would manage to calm him down a little; he didn't want to have an unhappy Prince on his back.

While he walked down the corridors, the demi Saiya-jin sensed Videl's Ki behind a door, and she didn't seem to be sleeping. It was rather strange that she wasn't asleep yet; his mother had told him that Videl had gone to bed about ten or fifteen minutes after the beginning of his fight with Vegeta, over two hours ago. Why wasn't she sleeping yet?

He knocked softly on the door of Videl's room and waited. The young man heard the sound of soft steps coming closer to the door, which then opened on Videl, wearing her pajamas. Gohan blushed slightly when he saw that she was only wearing a long-sleeved shirt that seemed too big for her.

"Gohan? What are you doing here?" she asked, having not expected to see him at her door.

"I was wondering why you weren't sleeping yet," he replied while looking away. Thankfully she couldn't see his blush as it was dark.

"How could you know that I wasn't sleeping?"

"I could sense it in your Ki."

"Oh."

Silence followed, then Gohan asked her again, looking back at her:

"Why aren't you sleeping yet? My mom told me that you went to bed about ten minutes after the beginning of the fight, and that was more than two hours ago."

"I can't sleep."

Gohan frowned. "Is something wrong?"

Yes: I can't stop thinking about you, she replied inwardly. Videl sighed, running her hand through her untied hair. How did things end up like this? She had just wanted to know what Son Gohan was hiding; falling in love with him had not been part of the plan.

"No, don't worry," she ended up replying.

"You sure?" he insisted.

She forced a smile. "Yes, everything's alright."

His brows furrowed even more; he could see that something was definitely wrong, and it pained him that Videl didn't want to talk to him about it.

"Does it have something to do with me?" he then asked.

Videl bit down her lip, not answering. This worried him even more. So it really had something to do with him? What did he do?

"Videl, tell me what the matter is."

She avoided his gaze, not daring to answer. Instead, she asked him if he wanted to come in; he was still standing in the doorway.

Closing the bedroom door behind him, Gohan watched Videl in the darkness as she sat down on the bed, her head lowered. He went to sit down beside her, and placed his hand on hers, asking her what was wrong once again.

She blushed slightly, her eyes staring at his hand on hers. Then, she looked up at him, meeting the intense gaze of the young man next to her. She wanted to tell him then. She wanted to open up her heart to him.

But the words were caught in her throat. She didn't dare. Yet she had no reason to; she knew perfectly that he shared her feelings. But she was scared. She didn't know where it could lead them, if it would end well. What if he ended up leaving her? Videl didn't want to be brokenhearted again; it hurt too much.

And yet, gazing into the reassuring eyes of this boy who had stolen her heart, she told herself that he would never do that. Gohan truly loved her, it was obvious. And she loved him too.

But then, what was she waiting for?

Gohan didn't expect it at all when Videl moved closer to him to press her lips to his, and he needed a few moments to respond to this unexpected kiss. He pulled her to him, and she sat astride his lap as they kissed passionately. Gohan's questions were then completely forgotten.

They stopped after a while, catching their breath and looking into each other's eyes. Gohan could see lust in Videl's, and he didn't doubt that she could see the same thing in his. She kissed him again, pushing him back slightly until he lay down on the bed. He then rolled her on her back so that he was on top of her, deepening the kiss. She moaned against his mouth, proceeding to unbutton his shirt.

As she was finishing unbuttoning his shirt, Gohan's lips went down to her neck, and he slid her own shirt off her shoulders to have a better access to it. Her breath sped up and she stayed still for a moment as Gohan's fingers slid under her garment, caressing her skin, his touch burning her. She wanted him so badly that it was becoming painful.

She finished unbuttoning his shirt and got rid of it hastily, uncovering the young man's muscular torso. Her hands ran over his strong back, making him shiver, and his lips went back up to kiss her again.

Gohan had never felt anything like this before. His lust for her had never been as strong, and he had never felt as in love as he was now. He loved her so much. He wanted more than anything to show her.

But something stopped him abruptly. A realization. Could he really go that far with Videl, while she didn't even know what he really was? Could he do this to her, while she had no idea what she was getting herself into?

No, he could not. He had no right.

So, with inhuman effort, he broke their kiss, and spoke the words that tore his heart apart.

"I… I'm sorry. I can't."

In turn, Videl's heart broke to pieces, and she watched in horror as Gohan got up and exited the room in a hurry.

Tears filled up her eyes as realization hit her roughly. She had been about to give herself to Gohan. She had felt ready. She wanted to be with him.

And he rejected her.

Gohan was hurting terribly. When he arrived in his room, he closed the door and collapsed against it, tightly holding his chest which was hurting him atrociously. He wanted to cry, but no tears came out to relieve his suffering.

He couldn't believe what he had just done. He had abandoned Videl while they had been about to… He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think of how her lips tasted, how her skin felt, and how he shivered under her touch. He didn't want to think about it at all.

But he was unable to avoid it. He couldn't forget. He would never be able to forget. And more than anything, he wanted to go back to her and tell her everything… But he was scared. He was so scared of her reaction. He feared that when she would know, there would be disgust in those eyes he loved so much.

But now, he knew it; she would never look at him in the same way again. Not after what just happened, not after what he just did to her. They could never be friends like before, he was sure of it.

He was going to lose her. And it was tearing his heart apart.

But he could no longer do anything about it.

To Be Continued…