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::Thoughts::
"Speech."
change of time or place
Change of point of view
The Trust Pact Chapter One: A Promise Is Made
Gohan's POVIsn't if funny, how out of hundreds of girls who fawn over you, the one you have a crush on hates you?
That's how it's like for me, Son Gohan. I am the most powerful person in the universe, but just hearing her name makes my knees tremble, my palms sweaty, and my throat dry up.
Her name is Videl Satan. She's the daughter of the man who took my credit for beating Cell, but I don't care. She's nothing like her father, and hates him herself.
She has all the good qualities that her father is missing. She's beautiful, strong-willed, a bit stubborn, but then again, I can be, too. She's knows that she's strong, but doesn't show off like Hercule. She's smart, as well. She's the only person I know that suspects that I'm the Gold Fighter.
The Gold Fighter, by the way, is my superhero name. I broke up a robbery on my first day of school as a Super Saiyan, and Videl thought it was me because I was wearing the same clothes as "him." So, I went to Bulma's house, and considered wearing a costume, but I decided to just ask her for a capsule that would make different clothes replace my school clothes. From then on, I was The Gold Fighter, Partner in crime-busting to my crush, Videl Satan. Anyway, back to my little problem.
Since I met her on the morning of my first day of school, I've known there was something special about Videl, that she wasn't like other girls, or like other celebrities, for that matter. There was just SOMETHING about her. But then, there's a little problem.
She hates my guts.
Regular POV
The story starts out around a month after Gohan started High School. No Buu, it's an AU.
Gohan walked down the steps to his homeroom, having landed on the roof, powered down, and changed clothes just moments before. Running into the school, he made it to his homeroom seconds before the bell rang, Videl coming in a few minutes after.
Gohan followed her with his eyes as she walked up to her seat, his cheeks flushed slightly.
"Good morning, Videl," he said cheerfully. Videl nodded in response. Gohan frowned, wishing that one day, he would get actual words out of her as a morning greeting.
"So, uh, sleep well?" the demi-Saiyan asked hesitantly.
"I guess," Videl replied grumpily.
"Um...any really good or bad dreams?" Gohan asked. ::Gosh, I'm really bad at small talk,:: he decided.
"Yes, actually," Videl said, "I had a nightmare."
"What happened in it?" Gohan asked, amazed that she was actually talking to him.
"A certain guy that sits next to me in ALL of my classes wouldn't shut up!" Videl replied, scowling.
"Oh...sorry...I'll shut up now," Gohan said quietly, frowning. ::Gohan, you idiot! You're not supposed to make her mad!:: he scolded himself. Videl glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, seeing his frown as he made it a point to stare at the back of the head of the kid in front of him.
::He's just trying to be nice. Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on him. Other than Erasa and Sharpener, he's the only person who doesn't care about who my dad is. But he's hiding something from me! I refuse to be friends with a guy who lies to me,:: she thought. ::But maybe he's hiding it for a reason. Maybe he's keeping a secret for someone else or something,:: she added. She sighed and went back to scribbling on her desk. ::I guess he has the right to a few secrets. I have a few secrets, too.::
Lunchtime
"Videl, go ask Gohan to sit with us. He looks so lonely over there," Erasa said, elbowing her friend in the side. Gohan was sitting alone under a tree many feet away from the outdoor lunch tables. One would think it would be no easy task to discern his expression through the flurry of food going into his mouth, but he was clearly depressed.
"Why me? Why don't you go ask him?" Videl retorted.
"Because you're the one that won't let him over here! If Sharpener or I ask, he'll just say 'Videl wouldn't like that too much.' You're the one that won't let him sit with us, so you have to go ask him," Erasa argued. They had FINALLY convinced Videl to let Gohan sit with them, but now they had to make her invite him.
"Oh, alright," Videl said with an exasperated sigh. Though she had quite a temper and was stubborn, she never won an argument with her best friend.
Getting up off the bench, she wandered over to where Gohan was eating.
"Gosh, now that I'm seeing you eat up close, that huge pile looks even bigger," Videl said, gaining Gohan's attention. Gohan, shocked and amazed, got a chunk of meat stuck in his throat, and banged on his chest to get it down the rest of the way.
"H-hi, V-videl," he stuttered out. ::She came over HERE, and talked to me! I'm dreaming!:: he thought.
"I thought you might want to come eat with us, if you think all your food can fit at the table," Videl suggested.
"M-me, eat with you guys? Are you sure?" Gohan asked, still in shock.
"Yeah, come on," Videl insisted. Gohan smiled, putting all of his food back in a capsule. He stood up, following Videl back to the table.
"Glad you could join us, Brains," Sharpener said, still using the nickname he had given Gohan on the Saiyan's first day of school. But now, it was less of an insult, and more of a compliment.
"Glad you're willing to eat with me," Gohan replied.
He sat down next to Videl as she said, "Damn, I forgot my lunch." Gohan decapsulized the food and took out one of the still-clean bowls, dishing some chicken fried rice in.
"Here ya go, Videl. My mom made it. It's real good," he said, sliding to bowl over to her.
"Thanks, Gohan," Videl replied, rewarding him with the smallest of smiles.
Gohan blushed and said, "No problem, Videl."
Erasa looked between the two, and whispered to Sharpener, "Those two are gonna get together, whether they both know it or not."
Last period, same day
Since it was free period, Gohan sat on the roof, enjoying the warm breeze in mid-April. The weather had just recently changed, and Gohan, being the mountain boy he was, was enjoying every moment of the pleasant temperatures he could.
"It's nice up here, isn't it?" he heard Videl ask.
"Yeah," Gohan replied, turning to see his crush emerge from the doorway.
Walking over to sit next to the eldest Son, Videl said, "Hey Gohan, listen...I'm really sorry for being so mean to you in the past. You're a real nice guy, it's just..." She trailed off, avoiding Gohan's eyes.
"Just what?" Gohan asked.
"Well...I feel like you can't trust me. Even if you were The Gold Fighter, I wouldn't tell anyone. Heck, if you asked me not to, I probably wouldn't tell anyone you were a murderer, if I knew you were one," Videl said, laughing at the thought of Gohan being a murderer. She would compare him to a teddy bear before calling him a murderer.
"Well, I don't really have anything to base trust on, cuz you don't talk to me...ever," Gohan explained.
"Yeah...sorry about that, Gohan," Videl said, blushing.
Gohan grinned and asked, "Did the great Videl Satan just blush?"
Videl laughed and punched Gohan's shoulder. "Shut up, Gohan," she said jokingly.
::She's even prettier when she smiles...which I've had the privilege to see her do several times today,:: Gohan thought happily.
"You know, I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much," Videl observed, nearly voicing his thoughts.
"Before today, I've never seen you smile, period," Gohan replied.
"Gohan, are you the Gold Fighter?" Videl demanded, her mood making a complete 360.
Gohan's smile disappeared, and he once again denied it.
"Videl," he said softly, "Do you trust me?"
Videl was silent for a moment, before replying with a simple "no."
Gohan sighed and nodded, walking back inside. Videl sat there for a moment, and then said, "I want to trust you, Gohan. But I don't think I can."
A few days later
Gohan and Videl, since the roof incident, hadn't really spoken at all, and Gohan had gone back to his tree at lunch.
"Videl, what happened?" Erasa asked one morning, watching her friends exchange looks: a glare from Videl and a sad frown from Gohan.
"I guess you could say we got into a disagreement," Videl replied. Fiddling with the half-fingers of her gloves she thought, ::Gawd, I miss talking to him. He sits right next to me! I can talk to him anytime! I don't know why I'm so scared of talking to him now.::
::How do I make her trust me? Should I tell her I'm the Gold Fighter? She said that she wouldn't tell anyone if I admitted it. But the thing is, I don't know if I can trust her. That's half the reason we're not talking,:: Gohan thought.
Lunchtime
Erasa sighed as Videl once again glanced over at Gohan.
"Videl, just go talk to him," she ordered. Videl stubbornly shook her head.
"Videl, you're gonna drill a hole in Brains' head if you keep staring at him. Just go talk to him," Sharpener said.
"Un-uh. I'm not going. If he wants to talk to me, he can. But I'm not going over there. He's the one that can't trust me," Videl argued. ::I did tell him that I couldn't trust him either, though,:: she added to herself. Taking a bite of her sandwich, she thought, ::I hope I don't regret this,:: and stood up, walking over to Gohan.
"Mind if I sit with you?" she asked.
"Go ahead," Gohan replied, without looking up from his humungous meal.
"Listen, Gohan, we really gotta work out this trust issue," Videl pointed out, sitting down next to him.
"Well, thanks for pointing out the obvious, but how do you propose we do that?" Gohan asked in an icy tone Videl had never heard before.
"I...don't really know," Videl admitted. "I do know that I really want to be friends with you. A friend is a terrible thing to waste, you know," she added.
"So I've heard," Gohan replied, turning his cool gaze to her.
Videl took a deep breath before she said, "Okay, listen. You said that you didn't know if you could trust me because I never talk to you, right?" Gohan nodded, and she continued, "Well, give me a week. We'll spend time together, talk to each other, get to know each other. If you can trust me and I can trust you, we'll tell each other our secrets."
"Sounds like a plan," Gohan said, his face softening.
"So, do we have a deal?" Videl asked, holding out her hand.
"We certainly do," Gohan replied, grasping Videl's hand and shaking it.
"No," Videl said after a second, "Not a deal, a pact. The Trust Pact."
"Okay. The Trust Pact," Gohan replied.
End of Chapter One.