Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z, its characters and likenesses, are all owned by Akira Toriyama and the creators of the animated series. The characters are used for my amusement and are not being written for money purposes.
Note: this is my entry for the SweetestIrony contest at deviantART for the month of May, the theme being "anniversary". My dA name, if anyone cares to follow up on, is gardenofboyo (all one word). Enjoy.
Second note: I couldn't think of a good title for this. As such, this is my first untitled fan fiction.
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Untitled No. 1 (Moments)
A one-shot by Shaggydiz
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"Gohan!"
Today was Pan's third birthday.
"Gohan!"
She was nowhere to be found.
"GOHAN!"
"What?"
"Have you seen Pan?"
"No! I thought you were watching her!"
Videl sighed. Of all the days… "She's three! You know she likes to go exploring!"
"She's been exploring since she learned how to fly at fifteen months!"
"I'm going to kill him," she muttered to herself. Out loud, she shouted: "Have you checked the basement?"
"I am in the basement!"
"Oh for crying out loud… have you tried finding her ki?"
"She's been masking that since she was eighteen months!"
"What! Are you stupid? What made you do that?"
"It was my dad Videl! He's so excited to have a grandchild that he's spending more time with her than anyone else, and that includes teaching her everything he knows!"
Videl rubbed her head, trying to sooth the unfortunate headache that was attempting to overwhelm her. "He is stupid," she muttered under her breath.
"And don't call me stupid! I'm working on a double P-H-D for your information!"
"You're stupid and you know it! I can't believe you let your dad teach her stuff!"
"Why are you blaming me? I can't stop him!"
Videl shook her head. She was ready to send another retort flying downstairs when a large KA-THUNK reverberated throughout the house. Videl looked up to where the sound came from. An almost indecipherable giggle followed the house shaking sound.
"Hey Gohan!"
"What?"
"Did you look in the attic?"
"No. Why?"
"Cause I think I found the birthday girl." She waited for Gohan to come upstairs before she pointed up.
"You think she's there?"
"Didn't you hear that KA-THUNK sound?"
Gohan shook his head. "I was rummaging around in the basement trying to find her. I was only hearing you yelling at me for being stupid. And besides, I'm not stupid, I'm working on –"
"'– a double P-H-D', I know," Videl finished for him. "Don't worry, you're not stupid. You just lack common sense at times, especially when it comes to loaning our daughter to your dad." She leaned up and kissed him in the nose before walking into an adjacent room. The cord leading to the attic was pulled up. Gohan reached up and pulled it down, along with the stairs that led into the attic.
"Pan?" he called up. There was no sound coming from the attic. "You sure?"
Videl nodded, and repeated the sound effect.
And then a soft giggle came from upstairs. "Mommy makes funny noises!"
Gohan smiled. "You're right. Let's go see what the birthday girl got herself into."
The pair climbed up the stairs into the attic, looking around to try and find the girl amongst the scatter piles of boxes, totes of old clothes and holiday decorations, and other odds and ends that they didn't really have space for in their modest one story home. They did not see Pan though, who was able to hide effectively in the attic.
"Anything?" Videl asked.
"She's masking her ki again."
Videl shook her head. "Remind me to hurt your dad." Gohan just nodded.
"Any ideas?"
Videl opened her mouth to say 'no', but realized she had a way to lure out her daughter.
"KA-THUNK!"
Giggling came from the right, followed by a gasping sound, like a caught child covering their mouth after losing their hiding space.
"Pan, come on out, we know where you're at," Videl said as she and Gohan looked directly at her hiding space.
Realizing defeat, Pan popped her head from around a pile of boxes. She saw her parents looking at her with a funny combination of smiles and dismay, quite possibly at the mess she made while exploring the attic. "Hi mommy. Hi daddy," she said quietly.
"Hello Pan," Gohan said as he squatted down in front of his daughter. "Having fun?"
The three year old nodded. "Of course!"
"Good. Now, what have you gotten yourself into?" Gohan asked her, picking her up and holding her out in front of him.
"I opened that box and knocked it over." Pan pointed towards a box towards the back of the attic that had opened, its contents spilled onto the floor. Videl walked over to the box and lifted it up, unsettling more of the contents contained within. She saw a few of the items the box contained, and a small smile came to her face.
"Hey Gohan."
"Yes?" he said, walking behind Videl with Pan cradled in his arm.
"Look at these." Videl pointed to several of the now revealed pictures that lay on the floor. He picked one up and looked it over.
"When was it from?" He flipped the picture over and looked at the date: nearly nine years old now. "Were these from back in high school?"
"Daddy, what's high school?" Pan asked.
"It's the place where your dad and I met," Videl said from underneath Gohan, beginning to organize the pictures. Gohan stooped down and picked up several more. Memories were coming back to him from his days at Orange Star High School.
"Look here, Pan. This is when I was trying to play baseball," he said to her. The picture was of Gohan with a bat and helmet. The picture was timed perfectly: Gohan had swung through a nasty curveball and looked to be ready to stumble to the ground. Pan giggled.
"And this one here, these are our old friends Sharpener and Erasa." The two blondes were both smiling at the camera, standing side by side, holding onto each other and giving the camera a "peace" sign. The next picture was of the blondes as well.
"Let's see… oh, here Pan, there's mommy!"
"Mommy!" the three year old shouted. "What's she doing?"
"Um… hey, Videl, what exactly were you doing in this picture?" Videl reached up and grabbed the picture from his hand. She looked at it for a few moments before a small blush settled on her face.
"Mommy was being silly Pan. I'll explain to you what I was doing exactly when you are older," she informed her daughter. She hoped that the girl would eventually forget this picture.
"Aren't these pictures organized in folders or envelopes at all?" Gohan asked.
"Only a few," Videl replied. Gohan nodded and sat down, placing Pan next to him. He pulled the box towards him and looking inside, seeing a mix of pictures both inside and outside of envelopes. He started looking at the words written on the outside of the envelopes: Videl's 18th Birthday, Gohan's Graduation, Videl's Graduation, and so on. He kept shuffling through the envelopes until one caught his eye. He pulled it out and stared at it for a brief moment before pulling out its contents.
Videl looked over at Gohan briefly. She saw him flipping through a set of pictures. The envelope was discarded on the floor, and Videl saw what it said.
"Fi… fi… fir… mommy, what's that say?" Pan asked.
"First date," she said. "It was our first date."
"Who took these pictures?" Gohan asked.
Videl shrugged. "One of the blondes, no doubt." She leaned onto his shoulder to look down at the pictures.
"Can I see? Can I see?" piped the three year old. Gohan picked up the girl from the scruff of her collar and set her down gently between himself and Videl. The girl giggled. "That was fun, do it again!"
Gohan smiled at his daughter. "In a little bit Pan. Here, look at these pictures with your mom and me."
He placed the pictures in front of Pan, allowing all three of them an easy view. The pictures were humorous to begin with: Gohan had looked nervous preparing for the date, and the camera owner was able to catch Gohan in a few embarrassing moments. Videl was nervous, but not as much. She was a little red in the face, either from Gohan's antisocial abilities or from her own anxiety from going on the date. As such, Videl had some amusing photographs of her as well. Pan laughed a lot seeing her parents being silly.
The pictures remained amusing until the dinner was started. Both Gohan and Videl looked calmer than they had been. The pictures revealed a deeper conversation going on between them, interspersed with eating their own food and each others. One picture had Gohan feeding Videl with some spaghetti, while another had Videl attempting to force a meatball down Gohan's throat. Both of them sighed in relief as they continued through the pictures: there were no Lady and the Tramp moments.
The scene moved from inside the restaurant to outside of it. "How many pictures did they take?" muttered Gohan. Videl shrugged her shoulders. She looked through a couple more pictures until she told Gohan to stop. "Look at this one."
Videl held out the picture that caught her attention. The picture taker had turned around and start walking backwards (one of the previous pictures had been taken while the person was falling). In this picture, the person caught Gohan and Videl in an unscripted moment. They were walking down the street and holding hands, their fingers locked tight together. They were looking at each other as well: Gohan had a huge smile on his face, baring his teeth for the entire world to see. Videl had a softer smile: her lips were closed, but the corners of her mouth had a slight upswing to them. Her eyes told the entire story though: she was incredibly happy at that moment.
"I like this picture a lot," Videl said, looking over to Gohan.
He smiled. "It is. My compliments to the artist." Gohan flipped the picture over to look at the date.
It was exactly eight years to the day. Gohan looked at the picture again, studying it harder than he had previously.
"What are you looking at?" Videl asked.
"I think… I think this is the day we fell in love with each other." He was looking into her eyes now. "Today."
"Today?"
Gohan nodded. He showed her the back of the picture.
"I think so too," Videl said smiling. "Happy anniversary."
"What for?"
"Because," she started, holding up the picture, "today was the day that I knew I'd be spending the rest of my life with you."
Gohan had no response for a few moments. He eventually smiled a big smile like the one from the picture. "Happy anniversary, Videl." He leaned into her and gave her a light kiss on her lips. "I love you," he whispered.
"Love you too."
"Shall we get a frame for this picture?" Gohan asked.
"Sure. I think I have one downstairs. I'll take it with me. Ready to go downstairs Pan?" The pair looked down between them: the birthday girl was not there anymore.
"Where's Pan?"
KA-THUNK! A giggle came from downstairs.
Videl shook her head. "PAN!"
Fin.
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