Title: The Better Half
Disclaimer: Muahahahaha...you're gettin' NOTHING out of me.
Rating: PG-13 ( T ) – 'cuz of all the teenagers in it, duh. That and a touch of cursing and energetic kissing here or there.
Spoilers: Well, you could spoil your appetite if you eat too much candy, but I think the story's safe.

Summary: TwoShot. "So you're Saiyaman, huh?" GhVi, Pre-Blackmail.

Happy Halloween, everybody! n.n

(PS: This is for SweetestIrony. Theme – Cosplay.)

--- --- ---

One

"In the dark shadow of the grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, black and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveler.

The hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon his head with terror. What was to be done? To turn and fly was now too late; and besides, what chance was there of escaping ghost or goblin, if such it was, which could ride upon the wings of the wind? Summoning up, therefore, a show of courage, [Ichabod] demanded in stammering accents – "Who are you?" He received no reply. He repeated his demand in a still more agitated voice. Still there was no answer. Once more he cudgeled the sides of the inflexible Gunpowder, and, shutting his eyes, broke forth with involuntary fervor into a psalm tune. Just then – "

"What'cha reading, Gohan-kun?"

"WAH!" the demi-Saiyan bookworm cried as the devoted attention he had been bestowing upon his novella was suddenly and unceremoniously broken. Throwing his hands up simultaneously, the book went flying out of his hands and landed somewhere across the room out of sight. The accompanying scream and curse implied that it had hit someone during its descent.

"Omigod! I'm so sorry, Gohan-kun! I didn't mean to scare you!" Erasa, his right-hand neighbor and potential ninja in the making, apologized. "Are you alright?"

Excepting the necessity of retrieving his book before the first bell rang, Gohan figured he was mostly okay. Sure, she'd given him a start right in the middle of his extra credit assignment, but his pulse was nearly back to normal already. "I'm fine, Erasa-san."

"Are you sure?" she asked as she maneuvered around him, winding her way toward her assigned seat.

Scooching his chair forward a little to make her path wider, Gohan answered, "Yeah, I'm sure. You just startled me, is all."

"I didn't mean to...," the popular blonde girl said as she sat down, depositing her light tote bag under her chair and out of her way.

Gohan smiled at her sincerely before assuring her, "I know, it's fine."

"Okay...," Erasa said, finally letting the subject fade away. To replace it, she began a new topic; "So, you're coming to my Hooplah, right?"

Gohan thought about it for a second, but couldn't think of how she could have possibly drawn that conclusion. This was the first he'd heard of any "hooplah." "Your what?"

"My All Hallows Eve Hookup Hooplah!" she replied with gusto, turning in her seat so that she was facing him fully. Her excitement clearly bubbling just beneath the surface of her skin, she continued, "It's my annual Halloween party. I've had it every year since I was eleven. So, you in?"

"Uhh...," Gohan trailed off, tentative about giving his friend a definite answer without asking his mother first. Who knew if ChiChi would approve of a "hooplah" full of teenagers? "I dunno. When is it?"

"Halloween, duh," Erasa said, giggling openly at his expense.

"Oh...I might have to take my brother trick-or-treating that night, I'm not sure," Gohan told her, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. He could probably learn to live without going to the party, but it bothered him whenever he couldn't give someone – particularly one of the few peers that didn't treat him like a weirdo – a straight answer.

Just as if he'd said no, Erasa's expression fell from the heights of delight to the dark abyss of disappointment. "But you just have to come!" she insisted, leaning forward with her hands clasped together. "Please? If you don't, I won't have enough boys to go around!"

Yet again, Gohan found himself confused. He seemed to be missing quite a bit of context about this little soiree. "What do you mean?"

"It's a hookup party, Gohan-kun. All the guys and girls get paired off together randomly, kinda like one huge blind date. It's the most fun ever and, without you, one of the girls I've invited won't have a partner!" she explained, moisture beginning to gather at the corners of her eyes. "Won't you please come?"

Gohan was no more immune to the weepy appeals of women than any other man, so he felt compelled to say, "I'll...I'll ask my mom, okay? Maybe she can, I dunno...send my brother over to his friends house this year, or something."

Almost as if they had never been there in the first place, the tears in Erasa's eyes were suddenly gone and her mood was back to its original cheery intensity. "Yay! You're the best, Gohan-kun!"

Unless, of course, his mother said no. Gohan rather wondered what he'd be classified as if that happened...

While Gohan absently pondered the potential drop in his already low social standing if his mommy were to refuse her consent, Erasa was busying herself with something in her bag. When she sat back up, she had two small drawstring bags in her hands. Placing the red one on the desk in front of her, she turned back to Gohan with the green still in her possession and said, "Okay, pick one."

"Pick one what?" Gohan had to ask, his head beginning to throb with all the things he felt he should be understanding, but wasn't.

Pulling open the mouth of the velvet sack, Erasa held it out to him with the implied instruction that he should put his hand inside. "Your costume."

"We're getting assigned costumes?"

"Yep," Erasa replied quickly, shaking the sack on her extended palm with impatience. "I told you already, it's a hookup party. The way we figure out who is paired up is by drawing costumes and seeing whose costume belongs with whose. The boys get to pick from one bag, the girls from the other, and they get to see who their 'other half' for the night is when they get there."

Gohan thought he was following, but there still seemed to be a piece missing. "How does that work?"

Erasa paused in brandishing the green bag at him momentarily as she answered, "Oh, all the costumes are one half of a full theme. Like, famous pairings and stuff that's just supposed to go together, y'know?"

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Uhh...well, like Romeo and Juliet or peanut butter and jelly. When you get to the party, you just have to figure out who's your other half," the blonde elaborated, thrusting the pouch at him again. "So pick one already!"

Finally out of questions for his peroxide-frazzled classmate, Gohan did as he was bidden and dipped his hand into the proffered sack. He felt around a little bit before settling on one particular scrap of paper and pulled it out.

Careful not to snag one of the ragged edges and tear it, Gohan unfolded the paper to read it. It said –

"So you're Saiyaman, huh?"

When Erasa had startled him, his heart had sped up several paces. When this new, chillingly familiar voice interjected itself upon his thoughts, however, it stopped completely.

"Videl-chan!" Erasa scolded, her perfectly plucked eyebrows drawing together in displeasure. "You're not supposed to know who he is! That totally ruins the surprise!"

"Sorry," the voice – now revealed as Saiyaman's most devoted and clever adversary – apologized, sounding none too sincere about it. "But he had his paper open. I couldn't resist."

"You're so nosy sometimes, Videl-chan," Erasa accused as a warm, smooth body brushed past Gohan's back. The demi-Saiyan shivered as the heat disappeared, taking the soft flesh with it.

A few insignificant seconds later, Videl appeared to Gohan's right, having just emerged from behind his chair. She was making her way to her seat on Erasa's opposite side, paying no attention at all to the boy she'd just frightened out of his wits. "You're one to talk, Erasa-chan. You're practically a one-woman gossip rag."

"Yeah, but I don't scare people half to death!" the short-haired girl countered, obviously forgetting about her initial contact with Gohan that morning.

"But you do look through their trash."

"I did that only once and you know it!"

"Yeah, duh. It was me who showed up when the homeowners called the cops."

"I still can't believe they made such a big deal out of that...the can was totally out on the curb already! Besides," Erasa paused, haughtily crossing her arms over her diminutive bosom. "I was right. The wife wasn't a natural redhead! I can always tell."

"Oh, bravo..."

While the two girls bickered playfully with one another, Gohan raised the nearly forgotten scrap of paper with his assigned costume on it to his face so that he could read it. It said:

Saiyaman

Wow, fate sure had a sick sense of irony.

—

Still somewhat incapable of fathoming the strange mixture of good luck and bad that had contributed to his strange predicament, Gohan slowly donned the store-bought rendition of his own crime fighting uniform. On the bright side, his mother had been surprisingly enthused about his desire to go party with his "little friends" and get out of the house for an evening. On the darker, more sinister one, he was sure to be under suspicion all night because of the costume he had unluckily drawn out of Erasa's little green handbag. He figured that most of his classmates didn't give him enough credit to be the real Saiyaman, but at least one of them was already suspicious of him, and openly so. If he made it through this night without Videl (who routinely saw his caped alter ego up close during their collaborative efforts at justice) recognizing him for who he really was, it would be a miracle.

After pulling on his second glove, Gohan was officially transformed into Saiyaman! Well...sort of, anyway. The costume he'd bought at the mall was a weak copy of the real thing, to say the least. Most of the parts were present and accounted for, but little things like the color of his tunic and the thin texture of the cloth were off. Plus, the helmet he'd been forced to purchase separate from the rest was of a flimsy make and would, undoubtedly, not make it through the night. He certainly couldn't say that the entire ensemble had been worth the small fortune he'd paid for it.

Still, it was better than showing up in the genuine article, which might cause people to speculate more than they were already sure to. Videl, in particular, would call the quality into question and proceed to make his life more miserable than usual for the duration of the foreseeable future. The way Gohan figured it, he'd probably be lucky if he didn't spark some recognition in his classmates by wearing the ugly thing he already had on.

Thus, Gohan had quickly rejected the "real deal" option and decided to play it safe. He looked stupid, sure, but it wasn't like the costume designers could possibly recreate Saiyaman's coolness factor exactly. He was sure they had done their best.

Of course, despite the hilariously inept attempt they had made at recreating Saiyaman for the public at large, it proved to be one of the hottest costumes of the year, trailing only slightly behind Mr. Satan, Videl and (disturbingly) Scooby Doo in popularity. According to the saleslady who had helped him during his shopping trip, they were selling so fast that the once-a-week shipments simply weren't enough to meet the growing demand for the caped crusader ensemble, which made Gohan positively glow with pride. He only wished that his growing fandom were getting a better quality product...

Oh, well.

"'Nii-san! Mommy says we're ready to go!" a little voice called from the vicinity of the doorway.

Turning toward it, Gohan beamed in pride at his little brother who was an exact copy of the real Saiyaman in miniature. Since there was no fear of Goten being mistaken for the secretive masked fighter, Bulma had agreed to make him his own Saiya-costume for Halloween, complete with transforming watch.

"You look great, squirt!" the elder Son boy complimented as the younger struck a pose.

"Do I look as cool as you, 'Nii-san?" Goten asked, wobbling on his tiptoes as he fought to keep his precarious balance.

Gohan's grin broadened as he replied, "Way cooler than me. I'll have to watch it or you'll be more stylish than me soon."

"No way!" Goten disagreed, finally falling out of his stance. He managed to stop himself from descending completely to the floor by holding out his arms, but only barely. "No one's cooler than you!"

Gohan had to laugh a little at that. Sometimes little brothers were great. "You said Mom's about ready to go?"

"Yeah," the youngest demi-Saiyan answered, nodding fervently. "She says you'd better hurry up, too, 'cuz your party's starting in ten minutes."

Looking to his wrist in panic, Gohan belatedly realized that the watch he was wearing was the one that came with his costume and, thus, didn't work. Once that exercise proved futile, the teenaged superhero looked to his desk instead where the glowing red numbers on his digital clock were clearly visible from across the room.

"Darn it!" he cursed. It was 6:50 already and he was due at Erasa's house at seven! It would take him at least twenty minutes to get there, at least, which meant that he was going to have to fly at top speed all the way.

"Have fun tonight, squirt!" Gohan said over his shoulder as he dashed through the doorway, his flimsy orange (not red, but orange) cape fluttering behind him as he ran. "And don't eat any of your candy until Mom or Bulma-san checks it out!"

"Okay, 'Nii-san! Have fun!" Goten shouted after him, already out of sight around the bend of the stairs.

'Great! Late again!'

—

Gohan landed a safe distance away from the house to avoid being seen by any of his peers or Erasa's neighbors, but considering how he was already a full five minutes (at least; it was hard to tell, exactly, without his watch) late and still had a long walk ahead of him this didn't make him feel any better. Thus, he made the quick decision to risk a few weird looks and began dashing in the direction of the party at top speed.

Aside from a few tousle-haired trick-or-treaters who seemed to blame his supersonic passing on the wind, he made it to Erasa's front yard without incident. He was panting and sweaty, but he was there and he wasn't too late, which he figured could be forgiven.

The house was surprisingly quiet as he strolled up to the front door, causing him to worry that he'd perhaps shown up at the wrong house. He double-checked the address in his memory and couldn't find any fault with either the street name or the house number, so he figured the location must be correct. Of course, the silent house and lack of teenage presence kept the doubt nibbling away at the back of his mind...

Deciding to take the risk of being mistaken, he raised his gloved hand to knock on the bright blue door.

Almost immediately after drawing his fist back, he could hear movement inside. "No way! Is someone here already?" someone clearly asked, their voice only muffled slightly by the barrier between them.

"Could be the pizza guy."

"Oh, yeah. Could you get it? My wallet's in the purse by the door."

After a long pause in which rustling and the drawing back of a chain lock could be heard, the door swerved inward to reveal –

Videl. Wearing her usual street clothes. He hadn't shown up on the wrong day, had he?

"How much do we owe...oh, it's you," the pigtailed champion of justice said, lowering the pink Hello Kitty wallet that she was clutching in her fist to her side. "What are you doing here so early?"

"Uh...," Gohan began, reaching back to rub his neck. This was awkward. "Didn't...wasn't the party supposed to start at seven?"

"Yeah," Videl replied, raising her empty hand to check her watch. Having ascertained the correct time, she returned her attention to Gohan and continued, "It's not even 7:15 yet, Gohan-kun. Most people show up at least a half hour past the official start time."

Beneath the crappy plastic helmet that was obscuring the majority of his face, Gohan could feel his cheeks alight in a blush. "O-Oh...s-sorry."

"Who's out there, Videl-chan? It sounds like Gohan-kun," Erasa called, appearing behind Videl in the background.

Inclining her head to speak over her shoulder, Videl said, "Yeah, it's him. He thought we were all supposed to be here at seven."

Erasa's voice grew louder as she approached, stationing herself right next to her dark-haired friend in the doorway. She was giggling at him again. "Hasn't he ever heard of being fashionably late?"

A wry grin spread across Videl's face as she replied, "Apparently not."

The vivid reminder of humiliation on Gohan's face intensified, making him positive that all of the skin from the top of his head down had to be flaming red. He wanted to think of Videl as a nice girl, he really did, but she sure had an irritating way of making him feel like a complete dweeb.

"Well, whatever," Erasa said, moving out of the way to invite him inside. "Maybe he can help us set up, or something. There's still lots of heavy stuff that needs to be put out. Come on in, Gohan-kun."

"I told you I could do all that," Videl reminded her, stepping back into the house herself and wandering away, presumably to resume the task Gohan had interrupted.

"Yeah, yeah," Erasa replied, rolling her eyes skyward for a few exasperated seconds. Leaning towards Gohan as he was crossing the threshold of the suburban home, she whispered, "She really hates letting boys help her with stuff. I say the more muscle, the better."

Gohan didn't quite know what to say to that, so he laughed awkwardly in response.

"Anyway," the blonde continued, resuming her normal volume level once more. "If you could move those tables in the kitchen to that far wall over there, that'd be great."

—

Naturally, all the heavy lifting jobs that Erasa assigned him were easily conquered with his superhuman strength and were, thus, completed quickly. The tables were moved, the chairs set up and the stereo system rewired for maximum amplification (another thing Gohan was able to do in a jiffy), meaning that the house was set up for a par-tay.

"Wow, you guys do great work!" Erasa complimented as Gohan moved a tall (and extremely full) bookcase into the dining room and out of everybody's way. Videl was helping, too, but mostly just for appearance's sake; Gohan couldn't have her thinking he was stronger than he seemed, after all.

Videl was giving the relocated bookcase a strange glare as she said, "Yeah...piece of cake."

"Is there anything else you need help with, Erasa-san?" Gohan asked, turning to his blonde hostess for further instruction. His eager-to-help expression was fully visible to her now that he'd removed his sorry excuse for headgear and deposited it out of sight, out of mind in the laundry room.

"Hmm...," she said, looking around the room. "I can't think of anything."

"What about the banner?" Videl reminded her, finally tearing her suspicious gaze away from the shelving apparatus.

"Oh, right!" Erasa exclaimed, bringing one of her fists down into her open palm. "I almost forgot! It's over there in the corner, could you guys put it up while I go change into my costume?"

"Sure, Erasa-san. You can go change, too, if you want, Videl-san," Gohan offered, forcing a weak smile at her. He didn't dislike his pigtailed classmate, really, but the thought of being alone with her scared the dickens out of him.

Videl frowned in response. "Actually, I think I should help you. We've got to tie it up between one corner of the kitchen doorway and the other, which isn't exactly a one person job. Unless, of course, you can fly," she amended, sneering a little in his direction. "Can you fly, Gohan-kun?"

Holding back the rosy blush that was creeping across the apples of his cheeks again, Gohan replied, a little too quickly, "N-No, of course not, Videl-san. That's silly!"

"Then you'll need my help, won't you?"

"I-I guess..."

"Great!" Erasa said, clapping her hands together. She seemed cheerfully unaware of the tension brewing in the room around her. "I'll go get dressed, then, and Videl-chan can come up when she's done helping Gohan-kun with the sign. Sound good?"

After the quick assent of all parties present, Erasa bounded for the staircase and jogged up it. In only a few seconds, she was gone, presumably to her room where her assigned costume lay in wait for her.

"Alright, let's do this," Videl commanded, wandering over to the corner of the room where the rolled up banner was apparently kept. After retrieving it from underneath one of the tables, she returned to Gohan's side and instructed, "You take this end and hold it steady while I unroll it."

"Okay."

The pumpkin orange paper stretched out between them for about a yard and a half, making it almost as long as Videl was tall. Gohan decided not to mention this, but smiled at the comparison all the same; her huge personality in such a tiny frame was downright cute at times.

As that thought skittered across his brain, the blush returned to his face full force. What a thing to be thinking about the girl who practically bullied him!

"What's with you?"

Slightly startled, Gohan raised his eyes to look at Videl, who was staring back with an eyebrow raised. "Huh?"

"You're all red. What's wrong?" she elaborated.

"Oh, uh...," Gohan worked his genius brain hard for an excuse for the unmanly flush, but drew a temporary blank. "I'm just a little warm, that's all. Isn't it hot in here? I think it's hot."

Videl's other brow raised before saying, "Are you sure you're okay? You look a little sick."

For the first time ever (well, the first time he'd ever noticed, anyway), Gohan could tell that Videl was concerned about him. She didn't seem like she was about to fly into a hysterical panic about his health like his mother always did, but her expression belied a certain amount of...caring all the same.

Unable to look her directly in the eyes (her soft, periwinkle eyes) any longer, Gohan averted his gaze to the banner that they were holding between them. "Yeah. Say, isn't this acronym a little...off?"

"Yeah," Videl replied, thankfully willing to change the subject. "I tried to tell her that 'All Hallows Eve Hookup Hooplah' would spell 'A-H-E-H-H,' but she says people won't notice."

"Well, it does make more sense as 'AHHH,' I suppose," Gohan agreed, scanning the sign with a critical eye. "Since it's a Halloween party, and all."

"Yeah."

There was a long pause in conversation as the two teens collaborated on hanging the banner across the top of the arch that connected the kitchen and family room, neither of them needing to say any more than "a little to the left" or "raise it up an inch higher" every so often. It wasn't a terribly awkward silence, though, which rather surprised Gohan. Sure, there was a moment when Videl lifted herself up on a chair for leverage (the exceptionally tall demi-Saiyan was able to do without) that reminded him of the fleeting thought of her cuteness, but they were otherwise perfectly companionable. It seemed that, once they got used to each other's presence, all of their secret conflicts just went away.

"Done," Videl declared once her side was securely taped to the wall. She tilted back on the seat of the chair upon which she was perched to get a good look at their handiwork.

Gohan joined her in the survey of their completed task, taking a few steps backwards to get a better view.

AHHH!

All Hallows Eve Hookup Hooplah

Yeah, it looked good. The acronym debate aside, it was a nifty little sign that was sure to get everyone's attention as they came in. And, Gohan had to agree, it was doubtful that anyone would even notice the missing letter; from his experience in class at Orange Star High, most of his classmates overlooked a lot of the finer details. Videl and a few of his other classroom fellows could note the difference between a comma and a semi-colon, but it was obvious that most of them could not. Thus, Erasa was probably fine in her choice of lettering.

"So where did Erasa-san get the idea for this party?" Gohan asked as they gazed at the drippy black lettering.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Videl turn her head to look at him before she answered, "She's been hoping to meet her 'Prince Charming' ever since she was in elementary school. She figures that a party like this will help, somehow."

"How so?"

"Got me," the pigtailed girl said, sighing. "She's probably just hoping for some kind of romantic moment, or whatever. One of those love-at-first-sight things."

"Oh..."

"Alright, I'm gonna go upstairs and – woah!"

Stepping forward before it was even possible to blink, Gohan placed a hand on the Videl's lower back as she began to tumble backwards off the chair. With his other, he stabilized her upper torso by cupping it around the curve in her ribs. Her entire weight – what little of it there was – was being supported entirely by Gohan, who held her aloft and out of harm's way.

"Are you okay?" he asked, leaning over a little so that he could catch a glimpse of her face.

As he did so, Videl turned her head away. "F-Fine. Could you put me down?"

"Oh, uh...sure," he complied before realizing that her request was easier asked than fulfilled. She was leaning back against him, suspended only a few inches away from his chest, and at such an awkward angle that he couldn't possibly just let her go. "Uh..."

"Just put me down!" Videl commanded, squirming against his hands.

Reaffirming his grip on her so that she didn't accidentally throw herself to the floor, Gohan stammered, "I-I can't!"

"If you don't put me down right now, I'll – "

"Okay!" the panicked demi-Saiyan cried, doing the first thing he could think of to return Videl safely to the balance of her own feet. He picked her up.

Removing his hand from her lower back, Gohan used it and his arm to sweep Videl's legs out from under her at the knees. With a small scream, she fell completely into his arms like a bride. As she felt herself descending once again, she threw her arms out to twine around Gohan's neck and clung tight (well, Gohan assumed, probably as tightly as she could, being human and all).

"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded, turning her face to his so that she could glare directly into his eyes.

To Gohan's utter surprise (and secret pleasure), her cheeks were flushed a warm pink. Realizing that even this tough, tomboyish girl had a shy side caused Gohan to fall dumb for a moment, so when he finally replied it was after a long delay. "Uh...helping you down?"

"I don't need your help, you – "

"Hey!" someone called from upstairs. Both teens on the lower floor looked up simultaneously to find Erasa standing above them, leaning over the staircase railing in half of her costume. Whatever it was required blue, and a lot of it; blue headband, blue eyeshadow, blue top. The works. "People will start arriving any minute and you have...n't...what are you guys doing down there?"

Unable to resist, Gohan chanced a peek at Videl out of the corner of his eye. Her face was deepening in color, which caused a giddy jolt somewhere deep in the pit of his stomach.

"Nothing," Videl answered for the both of them, squirming in his arms until she got her legs free of his grasp. She dropped them down, still clinging onto his neck for balance, until she was close enough to the floor to drop down the rest of the way. "I'm coming!"

With no parting words at all to Gohan, she dashed up the staircase, skipping two or more steps at a time as she made her ascent. She met Erasa on the first landing and dragged her away down the hall, clearly in a rush over something.

As soon as they disappeared around the corner, the doorbell rang. Sighing, Gohan went to answer it.

— — —

Author's Notes: Just thought I'd mention first that the passage I included at the beginning of this story is an excerpt from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving. It's a classic novella here in the States that has been told to kids for generations at Halloween, so I figured it would be fitting as something Gohan might be reading for class. Besides that, doesn't Gohan himself kinda remind you of Ichabod Crane (the protagonist) in that awkward, nerdy way? He's even got women issues XD

Anyway...On to part two!

. ( . Ms Videl Son . ) .

– Who's your daddy? GohanVidel