Chapter Text
Videl landed on Mount Paozu with a light thud, her boots already covered in the morning dew. It was still early, but she smelled Chichi already cooking something delicious in the kitchen on the other side of the Son home. Checking her watch again, she made her way to Gohan’s window and stood on her tiptoes to get a glimpse of the teenager sprawled in his bed, still dead asleep.
“Psst!” she hissed, knocking on the window with her knuckles. “Gohan!”
In his sleep Gohan groaned, turning on his side to snuggle deeper into his pillow. Frowning, Videl briefly considered walking a room over to enlist Goten in helping wake up the tall teen. She sighed, knowing instantly what a headache that would instantly become, as Goten had more energy in the morning than the sun.
The whole point of her coming out early was to avoid the rest of the Son family, not that she had anything against them. In fact, they had invited her into their lives so easily and warmly that it was hard to believe that her and Chichi initially started off on the wrong foot. But this was different - for once she wanted Gohan to herself and she knew when competing in the hustle of a house full of Saiyans, stealth was her only option.
She tried knocking again, but it was hopeless. He was out like a light. Considering he was one of the strongest people on the planet, it was refreshing to see that he also succumbed to lazy Sundays like normal people.
“Sorry for the intrusion,” Videl said, eyeing the lock on his window.
Hovering slowly, Videl jingled the old cement window until it became unstuck from its lock. Peering over the edge, she was unsurprised to see Gohan still snoring away. She rolled her eyes, sliding the window open to as far as it could go before shimming herself through. Her legs were just about through when she heard Gohan’s snores suddenly stop. Freezing in place, she balanced herself on her stomach, hovering awkwardly above her friend’s bed.
“Uh…” Gohan groaned, sitting up and nearly missing Videl’s blushing face by a few inches as he yawned. Still trying to play it cool, the girl remained still as the other teen rubbed his eyes free of gunk. It was a few moments before he turned around and was nose-to-nose with Videl.
“Vi-Videl?!”
“Um...hi, Gohan!” Videl laughed awkwardly as the teen’s face drained of color and was replaced with a deep blush. “Remember when you said you’d teach me how to form ki blasts? Well, here I- ACK!”
Feeling the strain of balancing herself, Videl lost her poise and fell face-first into Gohan’s bed with a heavy squeak of the bedsprings.
“Videl!” Gohan whispered harshly, trying to pull the girl up from bedding to face him. “What are you doing here?”
“You said you’d teach me ki blasts if I came by today!”
“I didn't mean my bedroom!”
“I tried to knock but you were passed out!” she whispered back, holding herself up on her forearms so she was face-to-face with the teen, her arms on either side of his torso.After a second of thought, she realized just why Gohan was so red at the start of their encounter.
He was currently dressed only in his boxers.
Blushing herself, she pulled herself away and scurried to the foot of the bed.
“Gohan?” came Chichi’s voice from the hallway and Gohan’s mouth instantly slack-jawed. “Are you alright? What’s all that noise?”
Videl covered her mouth with her hands, her blue eyes meeting Gohan's full of panic. Clearing his voice loudly, the teen turned towards his bedroom door.
“N-n-nothing, mom!" Gohan’s voice cracked. "I just...stubbed my toe when I got outta bed."
"Well be careful!" Chichi's voice carried down the hall as she returned to the kitchen. "Teenagers..."
Once they were sure Chichi was out of earshot, Gohan turned to Videl looking exasperated.
"Well, I guess we can't leave this room without my mom suspecting something,” he said, sitting up with a look of defeat. “If you head back out, I’ll meet you in woods and we can train.”
Videl eyed him suspiciously, sitting up on her knees as she peered down at Gohan who was still trying to cover himself with his blanket. While she trusted him not to lie to her, Videl knew that Gohan was prone to getting distracted by his family. It was exactly why she had decided to corner him in the first place. After a moment, she let out a sigh.
“Alright, but don’t take too long,” she said, climbing out of the window far more gracefully than she came in. “I’ll be waiting!”
Landing on the grass, Videl shielded the sun from her eyes as she found a grassy area to sit and enjoy the morning shade. Running her fingers through the grass, she played with the fallen leaves before wiping the dew on her leggings.
Compared to Satan City, Mount Paozu was like an oasis away from the hustle and bustle of urban life. School had yet to be reopened from the battle against Majin Buu, but the students of Orange Star High received notice that classes would resume that following Monday. While Videl would’ve liked a better reason for classes to be cancelled than the threat of the end of the world, she couldn’t help but feel spoiled by the extended time with the Son Family she was able to spend during their recess.
Asides from Gohan, Videl hadn’t been keeping in touch with the rest of her classmates. Although Erasa would sent her the occasional text of “what’s up!” she had a feeling that after everything that happened at the World Tournament it was hard to pretend that everything was normal. Chewing on her bottom lip, Videl felt an unfamiliar twinge of nervousness at the thought of facing her classmates.
Was this what Gohan had been trying to avoid his first few months at Orange Star High?
Suddenly Videl’s nervousness transformed into guilt as the heaviness of her actions sunk in. Knowing what she did now, looking back at her relentlessly stalking and eventual blackmail during their early school days together seemed so cruel. Even now she had intruded on him in his home, waking him up as he rested on the weekend, probably just as worried - if not more - about how their classmates would treat him on Monday. And here she was, selfishly demanding he teach her more fighting techniques.
“Ah, there you are!” she heard Gohan’s cheery voice from behind her as he climbed over a log. She turned around and was met with his smiling face as he rubbed the back of his neck with a chuckle. “Sorry, I had a hard time finding my training gi.”
Swallowing hard, Videl stood slowly. In her head she tried to piece together an excuse to leave early as Gohan continued to ramble about his mother doing laundry and misplacing his training outfit.
"Hey...are you okay? "
Videl looked up to see that Gohan was standing over her, his dark eyes filled with concern. She instantly felt her face warm even though his tall stature blocked the sun.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, turning away hurriedly to hide her blush as she walked deeper into the clearing. “Let’s get started already.”
They walked in silence to the middle of grassy area, away from the shades of the trees. For some reason, Videl felt that the sun rays made a good sitting spot for learning how to harness energy. Sitting down crossed-legged, she fought the urge to squint as Gohan sat across from her.
“Alright, so,” he exhaled as he placed his hands in front of him in the same fashion he did when first explaining ki to her. “Harnessing ki-energy to fire energy blasts is not that much different that using it to fly. The main difference is that you’re going to need to pull that energy outside of yourself to unleash it on your enemies as an attack. Does that make sense?
He looked up at her with a small smile and Videl felt herself get warm again.
“So...” she said slowly, focusing on his hands instead of his smile. “I just need to pull the same energy I’ve been using to levitate myself out as an attack?”
“Don’t think of it as an attack, though,” Gohan said as a tiny warm ball of orange light emerged from between his palms. “Ki is part of yourself, so it can do anything you want it to do. Sure, it can be harnessed as a powerful energy beam attack like the Kamehameha wave, but it can also be used to warm yourself in a freezing environment or gage someone’s power level.”
"Or read someone's life force..." Videl said, absentmindedly. There was a pause between them before she looked up from the orange ball to Gohan. "Krillin told me that's why they thought you'd been killed...because they couldn't read your ki-energy."
Videl saw Gohan swallow hard, which made her stomach twist. Maybe it was still too soon to bring up anything from Buu just yet...
"Anyway," Gohan finally said, the ball of energy flickering between his palms like a candle's flame. "Do you think you understand the basics of ki? It'll make harnessing it easier."
"Uh..yeah, I think so." Videl nodded, happy to be off the topic of bad memories. "What's next?"
"Now, we pass it!" Gohan smiled as the orange ball of energy slowly moved away from his hands towards Videl's. "Don't drop it now!"
"Um, r-right!" Videl stammered, holding her hands out in front of her. She narrowed her eyes as she focused, hearing Gohan's instructions to concentrate her energy into her hands. As the ball's warmth reached her hands, her own energy mixed with Gohan's allowing herself to catch it. Instantly, the small ball of light grew, its fiery light dancing off her skin.
"I did it!" she breathed into an airy laugh, looking up to catch Gohan looking at her with a small smile. "So I just push this back to you, right?"
Gohan nodded and she complied, though the energy ball did not grow during their pass back it did teach Videl the basics in moving ki out of her body and towards a target. They continued to pass it back and forth, like a game of catch, in comfortable silence.
"Hey Gohan..." Videl started, her focus still on the ki-energy that was making it's way towards her more quickly. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, anything. What's up?"
"Well...I..." Videl started, but stopped when the ki-ball reached her hands. She looked down and focused on the ball, worrying her lip. "I just wanted to apologize for everything I put you through when we first met at Orange Star. Like...blackmailing you to join the tournament and everything."
"Videl..." Gohan said in a tone that she instantly recognized as him trying to tell her not to worry about it. He had used the same tone when she first fretted over the news of her father taking his glory of beating Cell.
"No, I know what you're going to say, but it's not okay," she asserted and he instantly sat up a little straighter. "I shouldn't have treated you that way, even if it did mean I got to know you better..."
They both blushed at this and Videl felt the ki-energy in her hands get a little warmer.
"Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry," she finished, staring at the other teen as she pushed the ball back to Gohan. "I hope you can forgive my selfishness."
"Nope." Gohan said and Videl's thoughts skipped like a record.
"Excuse me?"
"I don't accept your apology," he explained as he caught the ki-energy ball between his hands again. The hue of the orb gave Gohan a tan hue as it reflected off his skin.
"Why not?"
"Because I'm not sorry I met you," he said simply, staring at her as the ball of energy began to flicker again. "Even if it was under strange circumstances, I never met anyone like you before and I don't think I ever would. You pulled me out of my shell and - quite literally - unmasked me and pushed me to be honest about myself. It's really refreshing to have a friend who pushes me like do you, Videl."
Videl's heart skipped two beats.
A friend.
She looked down at her empty hands, already cold from the lack of warmth. Although Gohan's words had eased her mind of her earlier worries, it planted seeds of a different kind. Instantly she felt a familiar barricade take guard around her heart.
"Well, if that's the case,then you're welcome," she smirked, hands outstretched as Gohan passed the ball back towards her. "Maybe now you'll start taking our training sessions more seriously since you know how determined I am!"
Quickly Gohan's eyebrows rose as his mouth opened to say something, but it was too late. As Videl was talking, she had lost her concentration and the ki-energy flew from her hands and blasted into the adjacent tree, charring its bark. Videl felt her stomach drop, turning slowly to the other teen as Gohan bursted into a fit of laughter.
"Don't laugh!" she scolded, cheeks pink. "It's not like I meant to hit the tree!"
"I'm sorry!" Gohan managed, trying to hide his laughter behind his hand. "I'm sorry, but your face was really c-"
He stopped, turning away instantly the hide his face. Videl rose an eyebrow.
"Really what?" she demanded, scowling in his direction. "My face was really WHAT?"
"N-n-nothing!" he squeaked, hands in front of him again. "Let's try it again!"