"Hey Krillin!" Gohan and Acia had left the restaurant and were taking a walk around Satan City when they'd caught sight of a familiar police officer on patrol.

The small man gave them a wide smile as he ambled up to them, coffee cup in hand. "Hey guys! Good to see you out and about!" He wisely decided to avoid mention of Acia's recent transformation, especially since she was now staring at him in a strange and vaguely discomforting way.

This is the man who should, by rights, be ruling this planet, Acia thought to herself as she examined Krillin and his strange outfit carefully. And none of these pathetic humans have the least idea.

"No donut?" Gohan teased as Acia considered the logical challenges presented to her by this planet.

"Well it's hard to resist, but I don't wanna feed the stereotype," Krillin said, frowning a little at the injustice of it all. "So anyway, what are you guys up to?"

"We're just walking around. I was thinking we might hit the movie theater, see if they got anything interesting playing," Gohan smiled at Acia, who was still staring at Krillin.

"Oh, I see," Krillin waggled his eyebrows suggestively at his young friend, who blushed. "Well I'm happy to see you out of the house. You can't spend all your time studying you know!"

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," Acia said suddenly. It was an Earth-ism Chiaotzu had taught her.

The two men stared at her wide-eyed. Was it Jack? Acia wondered. Perhaps it was some other male…

"Exactly!" Krillin said finally, pointing to Acia with his coffee cup. "Listen, I gotta get going, but you should come by sometime. You too," he said, turning to Acia and smiling. "I know Marron would love to see you."

"Sure! That sounds awesome. We could drop by over the weekend?" Gohan turned to Acia, who shrugged noncommittally.

"Okay, great!" Krillin smiled at the two teens as he hopped onto the police hoverbike parked on the side of the road. "I'll see you guys on later. Bye!"

Gohan waved to Krillin as Acia began prodding him with questions about where Krillin lived.

"So, you wanna go see a movie?" Gohan asked after he'd fielded her questions. He was starting to wish he had a little more dating experience. Movies and sparring – that was the extent of his dating rolodex.

"No," she said with finality. "I would like to see more of this city. This is not the same place Bulma took me to purchase clothing."

"Yeah, that would be West City. This is Satan City."

"The city is named after the devil?"

"It's a really long story."

"Good, it will give us something to discuss while we walk."

The two continued on their way as Gohan began to tell her about Cell (skipping, he thought wisely, the part about the Androids and Trunks coming from the future).

Acia had been looking around at the crowded streets and colorful storefronts when she suddenly turned to him, glaring. "I'm not going to run away and blow up a store, you know," she said, interrupting him mid-sentence.

"What?" Gohan's eyes widened with confusion. "Of course not! I don't think you're going to do that!"

"Then why are you holding me?" She looked down to where Gohan had surreptitiously grabbed her hand, then looked back up at him accusingly.

"What? Oh no!" Gohan fumbled for words. "No, I'm not holding you, I'm just, you know, holding…your hand?" He smiled weakly. "It's just a nice gesture, you know, to show that we're…friendly." He scratched the back of his head nervously.

Acia glared at him. Chiaotzu had never held her hand, but then again, Chiaotzu always seemed to be a little afraid of her. Perhaps Gohan was telling the truth.

It wasn't the most unpleasant thing she'd experienced, at least.

"Fine," she said finally, flipping her hair back as she once again turned her attention to the street.

Gohan smiled. See, he said to himself, all she wants is a little affection.

The teens had rounded a corner, hand in hand, when Acia came to a screeching halt.

"What is it?" Gohan asked, following her wide-eyed gaze to…

"Oh hey!" he called out, waving. "Hey Buu!"

Acia was clutching at his arm now, her nails digging into the exposed skin under the sleeve of his t-shirt and her body pressed against his side, a horrified expression on her face. "What is that thing?" she hissed into his ear.

Gohan felt a flush creep up onto his face and chided himself – he really shouldn't be enjoying her obvious panic.

"That's just Majin Buu," he said as the large pink creature waved back at them. "Don't worry, he's really nice."

"Hello Gohan!" Buu said happily as he reached them.

"Hey Buu! How are you?"

"Buu very happy!" he said with a wide, ridiculous smile, waving several hundred zeni in the air. It wouldn't be the wisest thing for most people, but the criminals of Satan City knew by now not to try to rob Buu. "Buu buy ice cream today!" Suddenly he turned his attention to Acia, who was still hanging on to Gohan and had unconsciously shifted herself behind him. "Who dis girl?" Buu asked.

"This is Acia, she's my friend." Gohan nudged her. "Say hi," he whispered.

Acia opened her mouth but nothing came out. She was too shocked to form words or thoughts. She'd thought she'd seen everything there was to see in the universe, and then this giant pink thing had come out of nowhere and was radiating so much power she thought she would faint.

"Hello Acia!" Buu said, leaning into her face. "You pretty girl. Buu like you!"

The simple declaration seemed to snap Acia out of the spell she'd been under and she drew herself up, loosening her grip on Gohan slightly. "Yes, well," she heard herself say. "That's very nice."

"You like Buu too?" he asked. Gohan nudged her again.

"Y-yes, I l-like Buu too."

"Yay!" He jumped gleefully. "Buu have new friend! You come with Buu, Buu buy you ice cream!"

"How about it?" Gohan turned to Acia, who was still looking a little pale. "You like ice cream, right?" Acia nodded mechanically. "Alright Buu, lead the way!"

Buu strode purposefully towards the ice cream shop and, once inside, was greeted with cheers by the staff. "Hey!" A man in a paper hat ran up to him from behind the counter. "There's our favorite customer!"

"Hello ice cream man!"

"Would you like the usual?"

"Yes please. And Buu want ice cream for Buu's friends too!" he said, pointing a large gloved finger at the two teens behind him, who had thus far gone unnoticed.

"Coming right up!" The man bounded back behind the counter and began to fill cones enthusiastically.

Acia stared wide-eyed as the man handed Buu a cone filled with seven scoops of ice cream, only to pull out another cone and begin filling it as well. It had to be Buu's – she and Gohan hadn't ordered yet.

"What flavor do you want?" Gohan asked, pulling her out of her trance.

"I want a cone like that!" she said, pointing at Buu's ice cream tower.

"Uh, usually cones only have two or three scoops. Buu's kind of a special case."

"And why is that?" Acia pouted. "He shouldn't even be having ice cream at all, he's fa–"

Gohan clamped his hand down on her mouth before she could finish the word. "Don't call Buu fat!" he whispered in her ear. "It makes him really upset and he won't like you anymore."

Instead of elbowing him in the stomach, which was what he expected, Acia leaned back to whisper to him, "Fine, but I want a cone like his. Just one cone, that's half of what he's having!"

"Alright," he sighed, letting go.

Small children pointed and stared at them as they walked out of the store.

A few minutes later the three of them were sitting on a bench at a small park, happily enjoying their ice cream.

"This is nice," Gohan observed to Acia as she attempted to keep her ice cream tower from falling in a heap on the ground. "You probably didn't get to do this sort of thing too often out in space."

"Well actually, whenever we stopped somewhere we'd usually go out and see what it was like and try the food," she said between licks, ice cream dripping down her chin. Gohan willed himself not to stare.

"What else did you do for fun?"

"Life on a spaceship is very different from here. There isn't really a lot of free time," she said.

"Huh." It occurred to Gohan that he was probably the only friend Acia had ever had who was close to her age. He sighed. That's one thing we have in common, he thought.

Gohan had experienced a sudden surge in popularity in the aftermath of the battle with Majin Buu, in the sense that he officially had three friends, counting Videl. She, Sharpener and Erasa were the only ones from his school who had witnessed the full extent of his power and his abilities, and so he no longer had to walk on eggshells around them. But as it turned out, Videl had been the glue that had held their group together, and once she broke up with him his friendships with Sharpener and Erasa had fizzled out. Erasa had wanted to date him after the split, but it had just seemed wrong to him; Erasa and Videl were supposed to be best friends. So by the time he graduated high school, despite his two-year-long relationship with Videl, he was as friendless as he had been on his very first day of school.

Gohan finished his cone and stretched out his legs, turning to look at Acia and Majin Buu more closely. Both of them were completely engrossed in their cones.

He smiled at the scene. Buu and Acia could not be more different from each other, but watching them enjoy their ice cream together made him more certain than ever that he was doing the right thing. Maybe Piccolo and his father had seen something in her, maybe they hadn't, but either way Gohan wanted to be her friend, an anchor to whatever there was inside her that kept her content.