Chapter Hundred-eight

All it Takes is Faith and Trust! Learning to Fly!

Saturday came quickly for Gohan. He and Goten were out in the front yard in their gi. Gohan's was purple, similar to what he wore to fight Cell, while Goten's was golden yellow and blue. Goten's was clearly inspired by her mom but the blue of Goten's undershirt and belt was more of an ice blue like Suno used for her own gi and the sleeves of her shirt were long and somewhat baggy. They were doing their stretches while waiting for Videl to arrive.

"Now remember, Goten," Gohan reminded his baby sister as he did some one handed handstand pushups. "Videl's not like us. She's kinda, y'know, normal."

"Are we not normal?" Goten asked in confusion while doing a neck bridge with her back arched and her arms folded.

"We are!" Gohan assured her as he switched to the other hand. "I mean, kinda. She just doesn't know about all the… aliens and magic and stuff. I still haven't really told her. So just keep it our secret, okay?" Goten rolled onto her stomach and sat in a full lotus position, nodding eagerly.

"Okay!" she agreed as she hopped excitedly to her feet. Before Gohan could say anything else, a car horn honked off in the distance and the siblings turned to see Videl's red rocket car literally hurtling towards them over the hills, coming to a stop less than an inch from Gohan. For his part, Gohan didn't really flinch. Wouldn't be his fault if Videl totaled her new car on Gohan's shins.

"Yo!" Videl said with a wave out of the window before opening the door and hopping out. She was wearing a baggy white shirt with her fingerless gloves, running shoes, and a pair of black leggings. Gohan was surprised with her new hairdo. It was… a lot shorter. She'd cut her pigtails completely off. It actually looked… pretty nice. "Sorry I cut it close but, y'know, you are the Great Saiyaman."

"Say it a little louder, why don't you?" Gohan muttered while rolling his eyes. Goten tugged at Videl's shirt and waved excitedly, smiling up at her.

"Hi, there!" she greeted. "I'm Goten!" Videl smiled down at her and held a hand out for Goten to high five. Her eyes were drawn to Goten's tail as it swished from side to side but she decided not to make too much of a fuss about it. After all, Goku had grown a tail at the 21st Budoukai, right? It would make sense for Goten to have one. Although that didn't explain why Gohan didn't. She'd have to ask him sometime.

"Hey there," Videl said cheerfully as Goten gave her an enthusiastic high five. "I'm Videl! So your big bro's gonna teach us how to fly, huh?" Goten nodded excitedly. "Sounds like fun!" Before Gohan could say anything, though, the front door opened and Suno walked out.

"Gohan," she said as she stepped out of the house. "What's with all the noi–" she stopped when she saw Videl and smiled. "Oh, hello! You must be Videl! It's nice to meet you again." Videl beamed from ear to ear at Suno and took one of her hands in both of hers as she bowed respectfully, to Gohan's mild surprise.

"It's an honor to meet you," Videl said earnestly as she looked up at Suno before standing straight. "You and your wife were huge… inspirations…" she seemed to fixate on Suno's hair. "...To me." She turned on Gohan, glaring at him. "You jerk!" she exclaimed, flinging herself at Gohan and bringing both fists down on him as he tried to shield himself.

"Hey! Hey!" Gohan protested in confusion. "What'd I do?!"

"You said I had to cut my hair!" Videl reminded him vehemently as she continued raining down punches. Since they were hopelessly ineffectual, Goten and Suno just laughed. "Look at how long your mom's hair is! Do you know how long I'd been growing it out?!"

"I never said you had to cut it that short!" Gohan pointed out defensively. "I just said you had to cut it! Your hair was way longer than my mother's! I said you could put it in a bun or braids or something! You're the one that lopped it all off!" Suno giggled and turned to go back inside.

"Well, I'm gonna go do some work," Suno said as she opened the door. As one of three living practitioners of the Odori style, counting the Polar Bear twins Mari and Timus, she'd begun compiling her knowledge and understanding of the style into a book in what free time she could find. She'd combined her own experiences with the samples of Master Frost's own writings that her mother had once sent her in the mail. "You all have fun! I'll bring you some lemonade later." With that, she shut the door behind her. After a few more seconds, Videl finally stopped hitting Gohan and dropped her hands, panting and catching her breath.

"Ya done?" Gohan asked as he rubbed at his forearms.

"Yeah," Videl sighed. "I'm good." She paused, looking Gohan over. "Jeez, I didn't do anything, huh?" Gohan shrugged. "What're you made of?"

"Long story," Gohan said with another shrug. "So, you ready to learn how to fly?"

"Totally!" Videl exclaimed eagerly. "So, how's it work? Think happy thoughts? Try to fall on the ground and miss?" Gohan laughed.

"It's a little more complicated than that," he began while sitting back onto the hood of Videl's car. "I actually realized a little while ago that there's actually a little bit of science behind it." Videl and Goten simultaneously rolled their eyes. "Aw, come on, science is cool!"

"Ehhhh," Videl said with a shaky motion of her hand.

"Ehhhh," Goten parroted while copying the hand motion without quite understanding it. Gohan rolled his eyes again.

"Okay," he sighed, "Think of it like this. Gravity is pushing down on you all the time, right? To fly, you have to expend energy that pushes yourself up, consciously and constantly in opposition to that force. That energy that you have to expend is called ki."

"Oh!" Videl interjected enthusiastically. "You mean like the stuff a Kamehameha is made out of and junk?" Gohan nodded approvingly and smiled.

"That's right," he told her. "But ki isn't always so bright and flashy. It's the energy inside all of us and inside everything. From me to you, to the grass and the sea. Sometimes it can be projected invisibly, which is called a kiai," Gohan held up one hand to demonstrate and swung it forward. A nearly-imperceptible force shimmered through the air, knocking an apple out of one of the apple trees in the garden. It bounced off the branch below it, rolled down the Son Household roof, and into Gohan's open hand.

"Cooool," Goten and Videl said in unison. Gohan grinned, glad to see that he had their attention now.

"So flying," Gohan continued, "Is basically a continuous kiai that you use to push yourself off the ground. So the first step to learning how to fly is to control your ki."

"Okay," Videl said with an understanding nod. "That makes sense. So how do we do that?" Gohan hopped off the hood of Videl's car, flipped end over end several times through the air, and landed between her and Goten… seated in a lotus position with the apple balancing on his head.

"Meditating," he explained simply.

"What?!" Videl exclaimed with a groan. "You've gotta be joking!"

"Awwww," Goten whined with similar annoyance. "But meddy-tating is boring! Mama says I always fall asleep!"

"Hey," Gohan replied with a bit of a smirk. "You guys wanted to learn how to fly, right? Besides," he added, "If I could sit still and meditate when I was four, I think you guys can handle it." Of course, he left out the part where he actually looked forward to meditation because it was the only time of the day where Mr. Piccolo wasn't beating him half to death. He didn't want to scare Goten or make Videl think he was some kind of crazy person.

….Come to think of it, maybe Gohan was. Just a little bit. He'd nearly died and seen people die far too many times for him to be completely well adjusted. He tried not to focus on it too much.

Reluctantly, Videl and Goten folded their legs and sat on either side of Gohan, closing their eyes.

"How long does this ta–" Videl began to ask before Goten shushed her.

"Shhh!" Goten whispered with a finger at her lips. "Mama says meddy-tation is quiet time." Videl rolled her closed eyes but said nothing. The trio sat silently for several minutes and listened to the breeze that swept across them and stirred the leaves in the trees and the grass at their feet.

"Breathe," Gohan explained calmly after several more minutes had passed while his chest rose and fell rhythmically. "Slowly and deliberately. Take deep breaths. Turn your focus inward. There's a light inside you. It might be big or it might be small. Focus on that light. Visualize it. Hold it in your hands. Let that light spread throughout your body. Feel it buzzing through your fingertips and your toes, through every part of you. Feel my light. Feel each other's light. Feel my mother's light and the light of everyone in this village. Our ki is all connected." Videl and Goten's eyebrows lifted slightly as they listened to Gohan's words, as though they could feel the energy passing through them. "Now let that light keep spreading," Gohan continued. "Because the light isn't just in you. The light is in the Earth under your feet. It's in the air you breathe. It's in the hum in the stars out in space. We are all part of the same light. Let that light lift you up. Don't fight the pull of the light, let it be a part of you." Gohan slowly lifted off of the ground and Videl and Goten followed up after him, all still sitting as they hovered into the air. Slowly, Videl and Goten opened their eyes.

"Holy sh–" Videl started to say before she realized she was in the presence of a seven-year-old, "Cr–" no, that wasn't good either, "Cow," Yeah, that would work. She was only ten or twelve feet off the ground but still, she was flying! Completely under her own power, no jetpack or rocket boots or airplane or anything! She slowly unfolded her legs and stood up straight in the air while turning to see that Gohan had already done so.

"Yippee!" Goten exclaimed as she thrust her arms into the air and started zipping around. This was so great! She could fly now, just like big bro! Videl, not wanting to be outdone by someone less than half her age, pushed off into the air, straightening her body out. She tried to focus on that light Gohan had talked about, pushing it out through her feet. To her surprise, she actually started moving. She was going at a pretty good clip, too, and started laughing exuberantly as she flew through the air. Then, however, Videl realized two things in quick succession: She was heading straight for a tree and had no idea how to turn.

"Up!" Gohan cried out with his hands cupped around his mouth. "Think up!" Videl screwed her eyes shut and flung her arms up in front of her face, wincing as she tried desperately to picture the light again, trying to think of it pushing her up into the air. When she realized that she hadn't hit the tree yet, the only logical explanation was that she had gone up. She opened her eyes again and looked straight up into the bright blue sky with a huge grin on her face.

"Woohoo!" she cried as she climbed higher and higher. "I'm doing it! I'm flying! Hey, Gohan!" she called as she started to look down. "Looks like I got the… hang… of…." the distance of ten or twelve feet in the air had now, somehow, become nearly a hundred feet. "This?" she asked in a small voice. As she realized just how dizzyingly high up she was, she lost all of her focus and any ability to picture the aforementioned light. Because of this, she immediately dropped out of the sky and the ground came rushing up to meet her. A horrible stream of expletives flew out of Videl's mouth as she tried desperately to focus again, screwing her eyes shut and trying to remember the light or calm down her breathing. All she could focus on, though, was the wind rushing past her and the fact that her heart had dropped into her stomach and that any second now she was going to–

Fall directly into Gohan's outstretched arms.

"It's okay," Gohan assured her gently as she clung to him like a cat that had been saved from a tree, shaking like a leaf and as white as a sheet. "I've got you." He smiled down at Videl and Videl smiled up at him, her face flushing slightly as, despite herself, her first observation was how rock solid Gohan was to hold onto. She recovered by hopping out of Gohan's arms and pushing him away haughtily.

"You could've caught me sooner, ya jerk!" she told him while pointing an accusatory finger at his face. Gohan laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck but before he could say anything, Goten flew over their heads, still laughing her head off. "What's her deal?" Videl asked. "How come she didn't fall yet?"

"We Sons pick things up pretty quickly," he explained with an apologetic shrug. Videl huffed and started to walk before her legs suddenly buckled under her and Gohan caught her again. "Whoa," Gohan said as Videl leaned on him. "Take it easy there."

"What the heck?" Videl muttered as she held onto the concrete pillar that was Son Gohan. "I… why am I so tired?" she was sweating and was suddenly short of breath. The shortness of breath could be explained easily enough as her still recovering from having just dropped out of the sky but she couldn't figure out where all her energy had gone. All she'd done is sit on the ground and flutter in the air for a minute.

"Flying takes up ki," Gohan explained. "And ki, like I said, is energy. It's just like running or doing any other exercise. You'll be able to do it more the longer you work at it," he smiled and offered Videl the apple. She yanked it out of his hand and bit down on it grumpily as Goten flew overhead again.

"So why hasn't she dropped yet?" she asked.

"She's seven," Gohan reminded her. "She's got a lot of energy." Right after Gohan said that, Goten dropped out of the sky and crashed into the ground, digging up a trench in the earth with her body. Gohan and Videl ran to her, only for Goten to burst out of the ground like a gopher and giggle.

"That was awesome!" she exclaimed as she shook the dirt off of herself. "Let's do it again!" Gohan laughed and reached down, putting his hands under Goten's armpits and pulling her up out of the dirt like a vegetable.

"Are you still gonna think it's fun when mom makes you take a bath?" Gohan asked playfully. Goten gave her brother a horrified look and began to kick and squirm in his grip.

"No!" she cried vehemently. "No, no, no! I don't wanna!" She slipped out of Gohan's hands and ran under his and Videl's legs in her mad dash to escape the terror of cleanliness.

"Get back here!" Gohan said in a playfully admonishing tone as he chased after the half-Saiyan half-pint. Videl watched this for a few moments as she finished eating the apple before she shrugged and gave chase after them. The pair of them chased Goten all through the backyard and the garden, around and around, before the trio finally fell into the grass in the backyard, laughing as they struggled to catch their breath. Granted, Videl was struggling much more than the other two. The trio heard the sound of a sliding glass door opening and looked up to see Suno walking out with a smile on her face and three tall glasses of lemonade on a tray. It was easy to tell which of the three was Goten's: it had a curly straw.

"Well," Suno observed as she started handing out lemonades which were quickly and appreciatively drank. "You all seem to be having fun. How's the flying lesson going?"

"We got a little sidetracked," Gohan admitted bashfully. Suno chuckled as she gave a sideways glance to the dirt-covered Goten.

"I can see that," she teased. "Videl," she asked, "How are you handling it? I know I had a hard time adjusting to all of this ki and flying stuff when I was younger." Actually saying the words 'when I was younger' gave Suno a moment's pause. Dear God, she actually was starting to get old, wasn't she?

"I'll figure it out," Videl replied with a grin after taking a sip of lemonade. "I've got a pretty good teacher." Gohan blushed furiously while Suno smiled and nodded.

"Oh, before I get started on it," she said as the idea suddenly struck her. "Would you like to stay for dinner? I'm doing a lamb curry and rice tonight."

"That's very generous of you," Videl said appreciatively, "But I couldn't. I told dad I was only gonna be out a few hours, anyway. Maybe next time, though?" Suno nodded and smiled before taking back the empty glasses.

"That would be wonderful," she told the girl encouragingly. "Well, I guess I'll let you get back to the lesson. Oh," she added as she turned to head back to the house. "And Goten?" Her voice dropped and took an almost icy tone. "You're taking a bath before you get any dinner, young lady." Goten let out a melodramatic wail of despair that made Gohan and Videl burst out laughing.

The lesson continued for a few more hours once Videl had regained her energy and they made sure to stay carefully close to the ground from that point onward. Videl was still fairly shaky when the lesson was drawing to its end but, for a first day, it was very impressive progress.

"This was a lot of fun," Videl told Gohan appreciatively as she started to get back into her car. "We should definitely do the next lesson soon."

"What about tomorrow?" Gohan blurted out before he'd had a chance to really think it through. Videl looked at him with a raised eyebrow and Gohan cleared his throat awkwardly, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck, his face growing redder with practically every syllable. "Just… I dunno. Why not? You can bring your school books and stuff, i-if you want, and we could, I dunno, help each other with our homework. You could s-stay for dinner if you wanted." There was a pronounced pause before Videl smiled at him.

"Okay!" she said eagerly. "I'll be back tomorrow!" Then she revved up her car and tore off back toward the horizon. Gohan sighed happily as he watched her go, relief washing over him.

"So," Suno remarked as she leaned in the frame of the front door. "She seems nice."

"Yeah," Gohan agreed with a nod.

"She's a very cute girl, too," Suno added.

"Yea–" Gohan agreed absently before catching himself. He wheeled around and looked angrily at his mother, his face so red it was actually more red than their hair. "MOTHER!" he exclaimed in embarrassment as Suno laughed her head off.

"Come on," she told him in a teasing tone. "Help me get your little sister in the tub." Gohan huffed and followed after her, snatching Goten before she could escape and tucking her under his arm like a pillow.

"Is Videl Gohan's girlfriend now?" Goten asked innocently, causing her brother to give a wordless cry of embarrassed rage which only made Suno laugh even harder.

OoOoOoO

"Hi Mom, hi Dad!" Videl called as she entered the Satan family mansion, her voice echoing off the walls as she walked into the parlor where her mother and father were sitting. Her mother, Miguel, was lounging on the couch in a green sundress and idly flipping through channels on their absurdly large television that covered nearly half of the wall and hung over the fireplace. Her father Hercule, the champion of the world, was reading the newspaper in a smoking jacket, slacks, and slippers while he smoked on an ornate pipe.

"Did you have a nice time, sweety?" Miguel asked, turning over the back of the couch to look at her daughter. "I've never flown an airplane before. What was it like?"

"I told you, mom," Videl reminded her mother, "It's not that kind of flying! There's no plane involved, I'm learning to fly without it like those people on the news from a few years ago."

"I always thought that was some kind of big marketing thing for a movie or something," Miguel admitted, making Videl roll her eyes.

"Anyway," Videl continued, "He invited me to come back tomorrow for another flying lesson."

"He?" Hercule asked as he sat up suddenly in his chair and took his pipe out of his mouth. "Now hang on a second, you never said it was a boy that'd be teachin' you to fly."

"Yeah I did," Videl reminded him. "Like, four times!"

"Well, I don't remember," Hercule admitted defensively. "Who the heck is this flyin' boy, anyhow?"

"I told you that, too!" Videl said with a huff. "His name's Son Gohan."

"Son Gohan?" Hercule muttered thoughtfully while he stroked his thick mustache. The name brought up… unpleasant memories of the day he died. Then Hercule shrugged and went back to his newspaper. "Eh, he's a good kid," he remarked offhandedly. "You have fun tomorrow, sweetheart!" Videl smiled and shook her head before climbing the winding marble staircase up to her room so she could take a shower.

'Just you wait, dad!' she thought confidently to herself. 'This year, I'm gonna win the Budoukai!'

OoOoOoO

Vegeta and Bulma lay in bed in the dark that night, Bulma straddling Vegeta's waist as she kissed him. He held her close, his hands running delicately up and down her bare arms. He could be surprisingly gentle when things were quiet which, to Bulma, meant that it was the easiest time of the day to talk to him.

"Hey," she murmured softly against his lips before sitting up. "I wanna talk to you about something."

"If you're going to ask me to attend the PTA meeting this week," Vegeta responded dryly as his hands rested on her hips, "The answer is still no. Those buffoons had the gall to say that my son can't have a peanut butter sandwich?"

"Well there are kids at Trunks' school with peanut allergies," Bulma reminded him gently. She could practically see him rolling his eyes in the dark.

"If there are children weak enough to be killed by beans," Vegeta said, "That's their parents' fault for raising such weak offspring." Now it was Bulma's turn to roll her eyes.

"That's not I wanted to talk to you about," Bulma told him. "I wanted to talk about Gohan." There was a long silence in the dark.

"There are only a handful of reasons why you would choose to bring him up now," Vegeta said, "And all of them have ruined my mood." Bulma slapped him lightly on the chest.

"It was about whatever you guys were arguing about the other day," she told him. "Something about the end of the world or whatever. I missed part of it but you were both very loud."

"You heard the boy," Vegeta muttered as he turned his head to one side. "He's the Chosen One. He only asked for my help because this god-woman told him to."

"Is that really what you heard?" Bulma asked as she slid her hands slowly up Vegeta's chest. "Because the way it sounded to me, it kinda sounded like Gohan needed you," she put her hands on the sides of Vegeta's face and turned it to look at her while she bent down so her face was an inch from his. "That he can't do it without you," she continued, embellishing the emphasized word. "You're the strongest person on the planet. Gohan just doesn't know it because he hasn't seen what you can do. But he knows how valuable you are."

"You're buttering me up," Vegeta pointed out with a smirk.

"Like an ear of corn," Bulma admitted shamelessly.

"Well it's not going to work," Vegeta lied, making Bulma snicker. "Besides," he went on, "I told him what I was going to do–"

"I heard that too," Bulma told him as she ran her hands up and down his chest, neck, and shoulders, "And I gotta say, I'm a little disappointed."

"What?!" Vegeta exclaimed in surprise. "I thought you'd be glad that I said you and Trunks were the only things on this planet that mattered to me!"

"I am," Bulma cooed reassuringly as she stroked his face. "And it was very sweet of you to say that. I know how much your pride means to you and it means a lot that you would put our safety above your pride to protect us and escape," Bulma could feel Vegeta bristling under her touch and knew that she'd caught him. "But," she went on. "I don't want you to run for me. I want you to fight for me! Whatever this Majin Boo thing is, I want you to kick its ass! Earth is my home! My whole life is here, all our friends!"

"Your friends," Vegeta interjected before Bulma hushed him with a finger on his lips.

"Trunks was born here. It's your home now, too, buster, whether you want to admit it or not!" She flicked his nose gently before kissing him softly on the lips. "We've built a life here," she reminded him in a voice barely above a whisper. "Isn't that worth protecting?" Vegeta muttered something softly, his face barely moving under her hands. "What was that?"

"I said I'll help him," Vegeta growled while audibly frowning. "When Gohan comes back to pick up his stupid helmet, I'll tell him that I've changed my mind. Of my own volition!" he added, making Bulma let out a giggle that turned into a whoop of surprise as Vegeta rolled over suddenly and her legs went instinctively around his waist. "I think that's enough talking for tonight," Vegeta purred before kissing Bulma deeply. Bulma kissed him back and smiled as she ran her fingers through his thick black hair. He might be able to blow the Earth up by thinking about it really hard but he was still wrapped around her finger.