Gohan was alien in more ways than one; but by the end, Videl had forgotten to be surprised. GohanxVidel oneshot.

Magic Tricks

When Videl was ten, the Earth was almost destroyed.

She remembers how it was: sitting in front of the TV, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders in a dark room. She still remembers the cold of the floor on her bare feet, hugging herself tightly, half anxious and half terrified. She was alone in the house. That television screen was her lifeline.

Watching her dad face down the greatest threat the world had ever seen.

She knew Dad was super strong, he was the greatest fighter in the world, everyone said so- but still, this Cell guy was threatening to blow up the entire planet. Who was Dad to stand up to something like that?

The image was blurry, but even she could see what was going on. There was that monster calling himself Cell. There was her father, fearless and strong. There was the reporter, terrified half out of his wits. There were those two dorks who called themselves her father's students and that dumb ditz who worked as his manager, and she wanted to dislike them because they were there and she had to stay home.

And then they showed up.

The strangers.

A bizarre crew that seemed to shoot down from the sky. (Probably the image was too blurry for her to see their hidden jetpacks.) Acting as though they really thought they were stronger than her father, the greatest martial artist in the whole world.

They were dressed like circus performers. A big blond guy and several others in the same orange training gear, a tall green man in white rags, two others in what looked like space ranger cosplay armor. Even a little kid, with blond spiky hair, who looked like he couldn't possibly be any older than Videl was herself.

Weirdest of all, it seemed like they had no idea who Videl's dad was. Even after they had it explained to them, they didn't get it. The big blond leader offered to step aside and let Dad fight, but he didn't seem to realize that they wouldn't need to fight Cell at all once the great Hercule Satan was finished with that freak. He acted like he was expecting Dad to lose and there to be a round two.

Videl hoped there wouldn't be a round two.

Except that monster Cell was stronger than he seemed. Videl flinched as she saw each punch connect. Then, with unreal force, Cell's fist shot out and slammed her dad into a sheer cliff some thirty meters from the ring. The microphone didn't pick it up, but she could almost hear the horrible crunching noise of a human body colliding with solid rock.

For a moment, she was sure her father was dead.

Then, to her astonishment, he got up, and she was flooded with relief. But he'd been disqualified for touching the ground outside the ring and the big blond man took the ring instead.

The man fought Cell with what could only have been crazy tricks. They looked like they were flying- there were huge blasts of light and Videl couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of tricks they were using to make those, and then Cell split into four and then the blond guy was moving so fast it looked like he was teleporting, and then Cell said he was changing the rules and there was an enormous explosion that wiped out the entire ring, leaving a crater.

And the blond man gave up. He forfeited.

They sent the kid out to fight.

And the boy went.

Unafraid.

It was totally one-sided. The kid was pummeled within an inch of his life, and they were just sitting there and watching while Cell literally crushed him to death.

"The boy is being squeezed to death!" cried the reporter. "It's horrible! I'm sure if we don't get help, Cell will torture us all like this!"

Videl couldn't watch. The boy's screams of agony carried all the way to the camera mike, and his writhing spoke volumes. She covered her ears and covered her head with the blanket, but she still couldn't get the sound out of her head. By the time she looked up again, the boy had crumpled to the ground like a ragdoll and Cell had gone for the other strangers standing on the cliff.

There was a melee, then. She could hardly tell who was fighting who- somehow, the little blond boy had gotten up on who knew how many broken bones, and small blue figures were attacking the other strangers and winning. The strangers were getting destroyed- she couldn't tell whether they were dead or alive, but they were sprawled on the ground, bloodied and motionless.

"Shut up!" Dad bellowed in response to some stupid comment by the reporter. "All these nobodies up there and even now a kid is fighting Cell! It would be shameful if a world champion were to run away."

Videl had never been prouder as she watched her dad run towards the thick of it.

A moment later, there was a scream.

It was the kid. A light brighter than anything she had ever seen was emanating from his body with unreal force. The earth seemed to be shaking and flickers of electricity sparked around his body. It had to be a trick, but she just couldn't imagine how.

"Stop it!" the kid screamed.

And there was a ripple of force.

The television screen blinked out.

When Videl was ten, the Earth was saved from destruction.

Apparently by her father.

When the sole live-streaming camera had been taken out around halfway through the battle, the world had been stricken with terror. No one knew what was going on. The fate of the world depended on the successful conclusion of a battle that was lost to them. Scientists tried to use all the technology they had to hand, but all they could tell was that the area appeared to be prone to earthquakes. Apparently satellites in the area were disrupted as well. The head honchos at Capsule Corp. were being uncommunicative and no one knew what was going on.

Then, hours after the blackout, the truth came out.

The great Hercule Satan, battered but alive, returned from the battle with news of Cell's defeat. The grateful public glorified him and hailed him has a hero- the hero who saved the world from destruction. Thousands flocked to his dojo, and they even renamed Orange Star City after him: Satan City.

For seven years, the strongest man in the world was also the greatest hero in the world.

As Videl grew older, she swore she would also grow stronger, and live up to the legend of her father. She trained as hard as she could, and she helped the police with criminals. While she knew she was no match for her dad, who could triumph over alien monsters who could even destroy the world, she became confident in her own skill as a martial artist.

All the while, wondering how that battle with Cell ended.

Never quite forgetting the blond-haired boy who'd gone toe-to-toe with Cell alone.

When Videl was seventeen, she heard about the golden fighter.

Early in the school year, as she was heading to school in the morning, she got a call from the police. Apparently there were a crew of thugs robbing a bank with automatic weapons. Videl cursed- she was on the other side of the city.

"It'll take me awhile to get there, but I'm on my way now," she said to her wrist-transceiver. "Hold on if you can."

But it was over before she arrived.

"What the hell happened here?" she demanded, glancing over the wreckage. Two cop cars were spattered with bullet holes, and a little ways away, the crooks' getaway car was completely flipped over. The third guy was sprawled in the street, blood dripping from a very broken nose. The few bystanders were standing in speechless silence.

"You!" she ordered one of them, a mild-looking teen. "Tell me who did this! It hardly looks like police work."

The teen jumped. "H-huh? O-oh, I guess I w-wasn't looking..."

Wasn't looking?! What kind of dork didn't look when someone so obviously powerful was beating people up right in front of him? How could he possibly have missed it?

"Damn!" she hissed, and punched her fist into her palm. "I can't believe I missed it. I should have stopped them!"

"Oh, Videl!"

She turned, not bothering to soften her expression.

"I was wondering when you'd show up," continued the old man. "Wasn't that golden fighter incredible?"

"A 'golden fighter'?" she asked, frowning. "Explain."

"You mean you really didn't see him? He was some kind of freakish superhuman! I saw him knock down a truck by yelling at it!"

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Uh-huh."

"Actually, I assumed he was a buddy of yours, Videl, since he went to your highschool. He had an Orange Star High School badge, just like yours."

"All the kids at school wear these," she informed him. And there's what, maybe three thousand kids at our school? That doesn't really narrow down the suspects. I guess it's better than one of half a million people who live in Satan City, but still.

"Well, if he really does go to Orange Star," she decided, "then I'll find him."

Videl had thought first of Sharpener, she had to admit. Of course, she dismissed the very idea almost immediately, and Sharpener himself had denied it vehemently. If it had been him, Videl knew for certain that he wasn't the kind of guy to shy away from taking credit for a win. The description matched- blond hair, muscly- but Sharpener was the last person you'd see intervening to help the innocent. It would be completely contrary to his character.

And then the new kid came.

She didn't pay much attention to the teacher's introduction. Blah blah blah scholarly addition to our class, blah blah blah dedicated student, blah blah perfect test scores on all of the entrance exams, blah blah welcome him to our class blah.

When he walked in, Videl blinked.

Of course. A new kid in town- and his outfit matches the description at least...

Then she shook herself. Don't be stupid, Videl. His hair is completely different. Besides, the teacher just finished telling us what a total nerd this guy is. He's got good balance, probably fit, but he's no martial artist.

"Um," began the teenager. "Good morning. My name's Gohan. Nice to meet you."

Beside Videl, Erasa murmured appreciatively. "Mm, what a cutie. Right, Videl?"

Videl shrugged.

The teen- Gohan- wasn't bad looking. He had a mild, surprised look on his face, and probably a pushover personality to match. Other than that, black hair and dark eyes, nothing special. He was tall but not especially so, and although he seemed unusually fit for a straight-A student- broader shoulders than she would have expected- he was pretty average in the end.

"Hey, new boy!" called Erasa. "Sit over here by me!"

The dark-haired teen smiled nervously and approached them. "Thanks," he said in a mild voice. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, same here. Right, Videl?"

Videl just frowned.

She would be doing that a lot in the next few weeks, mostly because of Gohan.

"Don't play dumb, Gohan. I know you're the Great Saiyaman."

It wasn't blackmail if you didn't tell the secret, right?

Okay, so maybe it was.

But Videl really really wanted to learn how to fly.

Gohan hadn't been lying.

He really did live in the middle of nowhere. It had been easy enough to find his file in the Orange Star student directory, of course. But it hadn't even really listed an address- at least not in the standard form of city, street, and so on. Instead it said "MTN area 439, section 26": an 'address' which encompassed an area of almost fifty acres.

It had taken a while to find the house, too- it was so small, she actually missed it during her first two flyovers.

On the third, she spotted a speck of white and made and educated guess. She landed the 'copter a little ways away from the cottage, just to be polite, and hopped out. Lickety-split, the 'copter was back in the capsule and safely tucked away in her pocket. Better safe than sorry, and it never hurt to have transportation handy.

But then, if Gohan really could teach her how to fly...

She shook her head. He'd better teach me, after promising like that.

"Hello?" she knocked on the door. "It's Videl! I'm here to see Gohan!"

"Videl, this is my little brother Goten," said Gohan. "And Goten, this is my classmate Videl. She's going to be learning to fly alongside you, okay?"

"O-kaaay," sing-songed the seven-year-old. "But can we get started already? C'mon Gohan! Please?"

"Sure thing," Gohan assured him hurriedly. "Videl, are you ready?"

"Of course I am," she snapped. "If you can do it, so can I!"

Inside, though, she wasn't so certain of herself. What kind of family did Gohan have that teaching a seven-year-old how to fly didn't even warrant a surprised look from Mom? If her dad knew what she was learning- and who she was learning it from- well, she didn't even want to guess what he'd have to say about that.

"Okay," Gohan was saying. "The thing about flying is that it's really pretty easy."

"Easy." She echoed him skeptically.

"You just use your energy to surround yourself and push you up from underneath." Gohan took a breath and closed his eyes. "Concentrate it all around you." He exhaled sharply and there was a sudden ripple of... something. The grass fluttered around him as if buffeted by an unseen wind. "And push yourself up."

Slowly, steadily, his toes rose from the ground.

Videl stared.

It was one thing to see Saiyaman fly. It was another thing entirely to see mild-as-milk, straight-A student, total pushover, socially awkward, completely harmless Gohan hovering in the air right in front of her eyes.

"How are you doing that?" She stopped and shook her head. "And what are you talking about?"

"What do you mean?" asked Gohan, descending back to Earth.

"What do you mean, 'What do you mean'?" she snapped. "'Energy'? What is that?"

"Huh?" He seemed honestly surprised. "I guess you call it something different where you're from."

"You have three seconds to explain yourself, buster."

Goten piped up. "Like this."

The seven-year-old stuck out his hand, and a ball of light shot out from his palm and blasted a crater in the ground.

Videl gaped.

Okay. She thought to herself. My wuss of a classmate can fly and is probably ten times the martial artist I am. I can handle that. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but I can deal. And, apparently, his little brother can shoot beams of light from his hands and vaporize solid rock. WHAT. THE. HELL.

If she had connected the dots and realized that Gohan could probably also shoot Destruct-O-Beams, she might have run away screaming.

"Yeah," said Gohan, apparently completely unsurprised. "Like that. That's what we call 'energy'. What do you call it?"

"Tricks," she said firmly.

Gohan blinked, then laughed. "No, no! It's not a trick!"

"People can't do that."

"Of course they can," he said cheerfully. "Energy is part of all living creatures. You can feel it in your body when you fight, giving you strength and endurance."

"Who are you to talk about my body, mister?"

"No, no!" Gohan corrected himself hurriedly. "I didn't mean... Sorry."

"Well, I don't feel anything like what you're talking about," she replied hotly. "If you need this energy to fly, I guess I don't have it."

"No...!" Looking put-upon (which only irritated Videl further) Gohan sighed. "I guess we should start from the beginning. We have to teach you how to feel energy... and then how to pull it outside your body."

Videl waited impatiently.

There was a pause.

"Goten... why don't you go play for a bit? This might take a while."

If there was anything more embarrassing than being upstaged by a seven-year-old, Videl didn't know it.

Oh, sure, Gohan tried to be nice about it.

Jut like always, Gohan tried to be nice about everything. God forbid he ever be impatient or rude or anything like that. But it was so obvious, even she could see it, despite all of his attempts to make her feel better. His tone was too patient- like he was teaching a three-year-old instead of a trained martial artist who was the same age as him. Meanwhile, the one who was actually a little kid was flitting around impatiently as he waited for her to catch up.

It was like Gohan actually thought his seven-year-old brother was stronger than her.

She couldn't just put up with that.

Still, the warm, flickering feeling the first time she managed to gather her energy... it almost made up for the humiliation.

"Great!" Gohan said with a wide smile. "You did it, Videl!"

She glared at him and tried not to feel pleased by the praise.

If being able to gather energy was a triumph, then learning to fly was a thousand times more rewarding.

Lifting off the ground, she still found herself wondering how it was possible. But she didn't have much time to think of that; if her concentration wavered in the slightest, she could feel the strength of the energy around her begin to fade. Breathe, she remembered. Relax. Focus. Feel the energy and allow it to flow outside of your body. Breathe. Concentrate. Pull the energy around you.

Then it slipped.

She didn't fall all at once, but she didn't exactly land lightly either. Still, the success was enough to make a smile tug at the end of her lips as she looked up at Gohan.

Not that she expected praise or anything.

"That's amazing, Videl!" he said warmly, smiling even though she wasn't. "No one learns to fly on their first day!"

She raised an ironic eyebrow. "Oh?"

They both turned.

Behind her, Goten was zooming around the countryside with enthusiasm, divebombing trees and the like. She could here him shouting excitedly, though she couldn't quite make out the words.

"Um..." Gohan trailed off. "Goten is a special case, Videl! He's been channeling energy for years and years. You learned all of that in just one day! That's huge progress!"

Of course.

Goten, age seven, had been channeling energy for 'years and years'. She wondered sourly how old he must have been when he started- how old was he when he first learned to shoot energy beams from his palms? Two or three? And Gohan wasn't acting like it was a big deal. Like Goten was just a tad precocious, nothing to be astonished about. Like Goten was just being clever and cute like all kids his age were sometimes, only instead of being able to tie his shoelaces, he shot lasers out of his body. Okay.

"I'm coming back tomorrow." She informed Gohan seriously. "I'm not done with you yet."

She didn't cut her hair because he asked her to.

It was all her own decision.

Really.

"No, I think you have the wrong impression," Gohan said. "My dad isn't divorced at all."

"Then what do you mean?"

"I told you, he's dead. Has been for a couple years." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "He's only back for the day, I'm afraid. It's kind of a temporary arrangement."

"He's dead?" Videl blanched. "But I can see him right there!"

"Yeah- we got lucky. Seems like he's got a twenty-four hour credit with somebody or other. See the halo? That's how you know he didn't actually come back to life."

Videl felt like she ought to have been more surprised.

But with Gohan... well.

She could get used to the unusual.

When Videl was seventeen, she attended her first real World Martial Arts Tournament.

'Real' because, as she soon discovered, the last few years had shown her nothing of the true greatest strength that planet Earth had to offer.

For one, Gohan hadn't been in attendance last year, or the year before that, or the year before that, or as long as she could remember. More than that, all the people who Gohan claimed were even stronger than he was- including the former champion, the allegedly-dead-but-still-standing-right-there Goku, the 'he taught me for a while when I was really little' green man who registered as Majunior but who everyone was calling Piccolo, and the ill-tempered but obviously strong Vegeta who destroyed the punching machine to absolutely no surprise from any of the group.

Even the little kids- eight-year-old Trunks who was at least the equal of- if not stronger than- the ridiculously powerful seven-year-old Goten.

But what she really truly didn't understand was how they all seemed to know each other.

So Chichi was Gohan's mom and Goku was his dad- and Goten was his little brother, of course. And... the big guy with the horns was maybe an uncle or a grandpa or something. And then there was the old man in the sunglasses, and the talking pig man, and the little blond girl- Mary?- who was the daughter of the little man named Krillin and the beautiful blond woman who'd registered as 'Number 18'. And Ms Bulma was Trunks' mother- though Videl honestly couldn't guess who Trunks' dad might be. Maybe he didn't come. And then there was that Vegeta guy who acted like he hated everyone, but as close as she could guess he was maybe a distant relative of Goku's or something. And... she honestly couldn't guess where that Piccolo fit into the puzzle.

And yet- somehow- it seemed to suit Gohan.

Which was weird.

Gohan wasn't violent. He wasn't even competitive. And while Videl had gradually realized that Gohan wasn't actually the total wuss that he looked like, he still wasn't a fighter.

He...

He was nice.

It wasn't an exaggeration. Gohan was nice down to the core. He didn't thirst for battle or competition or challenge. He just wanted to have everyone around him be happy and have fun, and if that meant having a friendly spar, he would have fun sparring. If it meant talking and laughing together, he would have fun doing that too. If it meant studying hard to make his mother happy, or playing with his little brother and Trunks, or lying to his classmates about his powers, he would do it just to make other people happy.

How the hell was a peacemaker born into a family of warriors?

Gohan was strong. With power like that, you didn't really qualify as human anymore. It was obvious enough that his family wasn't exactly employed in the traditional sense. His mother was busy raising warriors, and his dad was a mostly-dead spirit whose job description went along the lines of 'save the world, get stronger'. His little brother was ridiculously strong but a total stranger to civilization, raised in the forest.

He was literally the only one of them who considered the possibility of not fighting.

How gentle and peaceful did a person have to be to grown up in an environment like that and still turn out as nice as Gohan?

When she saw Gohan with the blond hair and the glowing aura, it clicked

"You're the kid," she said. It isn't a question. "In the Cell Games video. I watched it so many times. You're the little kid who fought Cell."

Gohan glanced at her, uncertain. Then he sighed. "Yes."

And if Videl had any further questions about exactly how strong her classmate- her friend- really was, that answered them. All of them. Instantly and without doubt. She still remembered the aura he had in the video- so bright and strong it was a force of its own. She remembered how he struggled in Cell's vise-grip for minutes that seemed like hours and then stood up again to protect his friends on shattered bones. She remembered him writhing in agony and spitting up blood and getting back up to fight and win.

Because really, who could it have been but him?

"My father didn't defeat Cell," she said. "It was you."

"Yes," he says. "I hope you don't mind."

And she wants to laugh because it's such a Gohan thing to say.

"No. I don't mind."

And she doesn't.

When Videl was seventeen, she learned new things.

She met Gohan.

Gohan, who lived in a world so different from her own- a world where seven-year-olds who can lift semis aren't so much impressive as cute. A world where saving the universe from destruction was what you did when you grew up. A world where dying was a temporary inconvenience. A world where aliens battled over the existence of the universe, where the strongest warriors in the world sat and watched the so called 'world champion' from the shadows, where teleportation was the norm and children shot energy beams.

Gohan, who was the exception in his world and her own. The exception because he fought but didn't live for it. Because he could enjoy a good book on a peaceful day as much as a good duel on a battlefield. Because he was the only one who would want to go to a normal school and act like an normal kid and make normal friends, even though he was terrible at it. Because this boy who seemed so incredible and superhuman to her was unusually human to his own family. He was a peacemaker raised in a family of warriors, brought up in a battlezone, and born with the power to destroy planets.

Gohan, who could have been different. He could have chosen to be immeasurably strong, even beyond human comprehension. He could have devoted himself to his training and been involved in the affairs of the universe itself- the champion of the universe. But he wasn't. Instead, he was just Gohan, who truly did not love to fight as much as he hated pain and suffering. Gohan, who was willing and happy to remain human.

Gohan, who...

Had too damn many secrets.

"Yeah, 'Saiyan'." Gohan said sheepishly. "So... after my dad and Piccolo killed my uncle Raditz, and Vegeta killed Nappa, my dad and Vegeta became the last two full-blooded Saiyans."

"Your dad is an alien," Videl repeated, choosing to ignore the rest of it. Maybe she'd misheard.

"Um, yes. Although he was raised on earth as a human ever since he was a baby."

"So you're half-alien?"

"Yeah. Although I lost my tail when I was little."

"You had a tail?"

"Not anymore," he assured her. "Neither does my dad."

"Right." She took a breath. "Anything else I should know?"

"Um..." Gohan winced. "Kind of... a lot of things?"

"Start talking."

"Number-18-is-an-android-and-Piccolo-is-a-Namekian-and-Vegeta-used-to-be-evil-and-Shin-is-the-supreme-kai?" Gohan said in a rush. "Also kind of a lot of other stuff too..."

Videl rolled her eyes.

And kissed him.

"I guess we'll have enough time to figure it out later," she said.

Gohan couldn't have agreed more.

A/N: And there's my DBZ itch all worked out. Yeah, it's a little AU, but where's the fun in rewriting canon? Videl and Gohan make such a cute pair, I gotta say.