A/N: Hey ppl this is my first fanfic so I'd appreciate some feedback. Flames, criticism, compliments, you know, the works. I know this type of story must have been written a million times, but I just could not help myself...

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ! So don't sue me! I only own the concept of this story, though...


Note: when I use those ~ it means either telepathy or thoughts.



Miserable Gohan

One day after the end of the Majin Buu crisis

The evil Majin Buu, in his final (and most evil) form known as Kid Buu, had been defeated by the combined energy of all the people on earth who had been willing to give some of their energy to aid Son Goku in his desperate struggle to gather enough energy for his Genki Dama. The victims of Buus rampage have been resurrected, and all atrocities Buu has caused have been reversed. Everyone had taken him- or herself quite the rest they deserved. Everyone was happy. Everyone?

The Z-Fighters (including Hercule and Videl) were gathered at the Briefs residence. The women (including Videl) were preparing a barbecue, while the men where talking animatedly about the valiant fight the Saiyans had put up in the Buu crisis (all minus Hercule, who was still quite swamped with the whole affair). All agreed that especially Vegeta's efforts to distract Buu in order to allow Goku to regain enough energy were most honourable and brave.

Without Vegeta's efforts and cleverness the whole universe might have been gone for good. If he hadn't had the most brilliant idea to restore Gokus energy through Porunga, Goku would never have been strong enough to finish Kid Buu off. This also showed how much Vegeta had changed. In former times he would never ever have helped Kakkarot, the „third class baka", how he had liked to call him. Yeah, Vegeta had changed, but he hid it quite well....


One Z-fighter did not join the celebrities, although he put up a brave front and pretended to do so. Gohan was in the most miserable mood imaginable, although he was good at hiding it.

Sure, he laughed with the others and all, but inwardly he was beating himself up. The others were used to the fact that he kept quiet most of the time, so they did not find it odd that he didn't join into their animated talk. Finally he found himself the excuse to leave for a few minutes.
„Well," he stated, „I'll be back in some minutes. Nature's calling."

„Give her my best wishes!" Yamcha called, and the others laughed themselves silly at this comment (A/N: well, all the others except Vegeta who would never ever laugh at the human weaklings antics).

„Yeah, sure." was Gohan's reply as he walked of towards the house. As he knew the Briefs house very well he also knew all the exits. A knowledge that came in handy. Gohan had never had the intention to visit the loo, he only wanted to have some time on his own. So he suppressed his KI and walked out of the house into the direction of the domed launch bay, where all the ships were located. Meanwhile the others sensed Gohan KI-suppression.

„Hey, what's with Gohan?" Krillin asked. „Why has he suppressed his KI?"

Yamcha elbowed him lightly into the side.

„He probably wants to go snogging with his girlfriend..."

Krillin and the others smirked.
„Ya probably right. Man, I wish I'd be that young one more time..." Krillin said.

Trunks and Goten on the other hand were quite confused.
„Snogging?" Goten asked his Dad. „Whats that mean?"

Goku scratched the back of his head in the all-to-familiar gesture.

„Umm... he he... I will explain once you are older, little one." he said.

Goten grumbled.

„It's always 'once you are older'. Grr..." he muttered, and Trunks agreed.

„Yeah, they always keep the good stuff to themselves. Adults!" he muttered.

The aforementioned adults looked at each other and burst out laughing (all but Vegeta, but even he had a hard time in biting back the laugh that threatened to get out... but hey, that would have spoiled his image...).

„Yeah, guess we all heard that phrase once...or twice..." Tien said.

„You betcha!" Yamcha said.

Soon their talking round returned to the previous subject: fighting! Gohan's KI-suppression was forgotten quite fast.

Meanwhile Gohan had reached the domed launch bays and started wandering around, completely lost in thoughts. He stopped dead in his tracks however when he saw what had to be Bulma's newest project. It was a ship, but a ship in the widest sense. Obviously it was capable of prolonged spaceflight, that Gohan could tell. But the design was rather... unorthodox. It reminded Gohan of a giant octopus...

His curiosity got the better of him and so he walked aboard and started exploring. The first place he visited was the cockpit where he checked the specifications of the ship. Obviously Bulma had invented some new gimmicks, cause this ship was really something else. It had an acceleration of 2 million kilometres per second and a real flight time of 50%. The fuel tanks were big enough to ensure the possibility of long-distance travels, and if one could believe the ships computer the ship was quite economic regarding the mileage.

~ Nice, Bulma. Really nice... another stroke of genius from you... ~ he thought. Then he got up from the pilot's chair and continued exploring.

He walked into the supposedly largest room, which turned out to be the recreation room. It was equipped with a rather comfortable looking red settee and two red armchairs. Gohan voted to test out, if the settee really was as comfortable as it looked... so he threw himself onto it.

It turned out to be really comfortable, and Gohan made himself at home. After several minutes of just lying on the couch his thoughts started wandering off again. Back to the fight and back to his incapacity...

His thoughts were evolving around ~ If only I had been stronger! ~ or ~ Videl died and I was not there! ~ and  ~ I am useless! ~ or similar thoughts. To cut a long story short, Gohan was beating himself up for his (in his opinion) incapacities...

He did not realize just how much time had passed, because meanwhile the others were wondering where he got to. At first Goku had said „Give them their time", but when Videl and the other women came outta the house some minutes later and Yamcha jokingly asked

„How went snogging?" and Videl replied „Excuse me? What about snogging? I was preparing dinner with Bulma and Chi-Chi." Goku grew worried. He quickly filled Videl in that they had thougth Gohan would snatch up Videl for a round of snogging...

„No, Goku, I haven't seen him since I went to prepare the barbecue with Bulma and Chi-Chi. I have no idea where he is. Can't you sense him?" Videl asked.

„No." was Goku's reply. „He has suppressed his ki. Weird..." Goku said in a serious expression, which was very unusual for him.

„Yeah. You know what? I'm gonna search for him. I don't believe he is in the house, so that narrows the search. BUT I must request that I, and ONLY I will search for him!" she demanded.

Bulma and Chi-Chi looked at each other, and Videl was quite surprised to see that they (and especially Chi-Chi) looked quite delighted.

„She has that gleam in her eyes. Do you concur, Bulma?" Chi-Chi asked.

„Yeah. She's a goner... I can tell." was Bulma's reply.

„Am not!" Videl protested, blushing, but Chi-Chi and Bulma only smiled knowingly.

„Videl is a goner, lalalala..." Goten sang, before asking his mum:

„Ma, what is a goner?"

Chi-Chi looked at her son.
„Well, my boy, I will tell you once you're old enough."

Goten looked extremely annoyed. The same applied for Trunks.

„Aww, they are pulling that on us again..." they complained, and the whole Z-Gang (minus Vegeta again, of course) burst out laughing.

Meanwhile Videl had recovered from this embarrassment and intended to start her search.

„Till later. I am gonna find him." she said and off she was.

Videl searched the grounds first which took some time, but found nothing. No Gohan whatsoever. Her next impulse was to search the house anyway, but then she remembered something: she had seen another complex on her flight to the Briefs residence. Domed buildings...

~ Yeah ~ she decided ~ I am gonna check these first before checking the house. ~

No sooner said than done. Videl walked off into the direction she suspected the domed buildings to be located. She quickly found out that she had remembered correctly from her flight, cause the domed launch bay were at the location Videl had suspected them to be. She walked in and found... a very strange looking ship.

Also in Videl's case her curiosity got the better of her, and she, like Gohan before entered the ship. As she was as curios as Gohan she started to explore the ship too. But unlike Gohan Videl started with the largest room and found.... Gohan!

He sensed her rather late, for he had been deeply lost in thoughts. But obviouly the presence of the most beloved person in the world had brought him back to reality. He sat up and looked at her.

Videl looked him directly into the eyes and asked

„Gohan! What are you DOING here?"

Gohan looked at her like she was an alien from outer space.

„Vi... Vid... Videl!" he stammered, lost for words.

„I know my name, thank you! So what are you DOING here? I have been looking for you everywhere!" she exclaimed.

Now the otherwise very intelligent Gohan was lost for words, as he could not explain rationally why he WAS here, away from the others.
„Umm... I.... actually...." he stammered.

Videl walked over towards Gohan and sat down right beneath him. She took his hands into hers.

„Hey Gohan," she said in her most caring voice, „you know that I care a lot for you. You can tell me everything. Regardless how ridiculous it may sound to you."

Gohan took a deep breath and looked at her. He had decided to tell her.

„Okay, I'm gonna tell you. I wanted to be away from all the festivities. I don't wanna celebrate cause I HAVE nothing to celebrate. Every time I see the others and especially YOU, I am reminded of my failures. My incapacities."

Videl looked really puzzled.

„Your failures? Gohan, you are not making sense."

Gohan looked her directly into the eyes.

„Don't you understand? Because of me Kid Buu was able to destroy the Earth! Had I done way of Majin Buu before he transformed into Kid Buu, that would never have happened! I let everyone down! Again!" he said toneless.

to be continued...

How is that for a start? Please let me know what you think! Any suggestions are more than accepted! I am more than glad to receive your ideas, suggestions and thoughts! Thanks for reading!