My Life Would Suck Without You

Videl slammed her foot into the thug's face, satisfied with the crunch that his nose made on impact.

"Nice one." Videl turned and grinned at Gohan, glad she'd finally convinced him of her plan. He held the robber's partner firmly in his grasp.

"Thanks Goldie," she said. Gohan shot her a frown as he handed the criminal to the police.

"Wow, thanks, er…." The policeman trailed off unsure of what to call this new crime fighter.

"My pleasure," Gohan responded, not intending to give a name. He shot off into the sky, leaving the crime scene and his friend behind.

Videl smirked after him, giving over her own culprit before uncapsulating her jetcopter and heading for Orange Star High. When she landed, Gohan stood on the roof waiting for her, dressed in his normal school attire.

"Are you ready?" Videl asked, straightening her outfit and smoothing her short hair back down.

"I suppose," Gohan said heavily. The two were finally returning to school after the tournament, and Gohan was not looking forward to the inquiry over his absence. Videl had only left school a week before the tournament but Gohan had been gone for much longer and, unlike Videl, he didn't exactly have a reason. No one knew he had been at the tournament, thanks to the dragonballs.

"Oh, cheer up. If anyone hassles you, I'll just beat them up!" Videl grabbed Gohan's arm and pulled him to the stairs. "And you'll look much less suspicious if you stop being such a grouch."

Sighing one last heavy sigh, Gohan decided to forget about his impending doom. The pair emerged into the hustle of the hallway, going relatively (and thankfully) unnoticed. Stopping quickly at Gohan's locker, he grabbed what he needed and they then moved on to Videl's. As Videl extracted her books for her first few classes, she heard a familiar shriek.

"Videl!" Erasa squealed, hugging Videl tightly. "I missed you so much! Leaving me with only Sharpner! Not even Gohan was here to keep me company!" Erasa babbled a mile a minute, ignoring Videl's wince as she continued to squeeze her dark-haired friend. Videl noticed Erasa had suddenly stopped talking.

"Nice to see you too," Videl said good-naturedly, slipping from her lax grasp.

"Er, hey Erasa," Gohan said, giving a famous Son grin.

Erasa stared at him for a moment without any visual reaction. And then-"'Er hey!' That's all you have to say to me. You've been gone for months and months without a word and all you can say is HEY?"

Gohan was fairly certain he shouldn't give a response. This seemed like one of those trick questions Yamcha was constantly running into.

"I thought we were friends, Gohan Son! But I guess I was wrong, since you couldn't even be bothered to call me and let me know you were alive!" Erasa's face had turned an unnatural shade of pink.

"We are friends!" Gohan responded immediately. Videl, beside him, rolled her eyes, clearly not endorsing his statement.

"Then where were you? And why didn't you call? And why didn't you show up to support Videl last month?"

Gohan could feel himself panicking. "I, uh, I-my mom. She was sick! And I had to watch my brother for her. Because we can't leave him alone. And we didn't want him to get sick. From my mom. Because she was sick." Gohan could tell from Videl's expression that he sounded like an idiot. He really was a terrible liar.

"Oh. Okay!" Apparently he was a good enough liar for Erasa. "But why didn't you at least call?" Or not.

Videl, thank Kami, answered for him. "You know what can happen out in the boondocks, Erasa. Gohan's phone tower got hit by a storm. They still haven't gotten out there to fix it. He even lost email for a little while."

"Really? You lost all your cell service?"

"He really did. Lucky he had at least my email. I was supposed to tell you guys about it. I guess that, with the tournament, I just forgot."

"Honestly, Videl. These things are important," Erasa scolded. "I suppose this means I'm not mad at you anymore." Erasa flashed a brilliant smile at Gohan.

Gohan released the breath he'd been holding.

"Besides, we have much more important things to discuss. Like the blonde hottie that replaced Sayaman!"

Gohan wondered if Sayans could melt into the ground, because he's really like to.

"What do you think Videl? Is he the same guy as the Gold Fighter?" Erasa asked.

"Yeah, I think he must be. I mean, how many superheroes could there be running around? What did you think of his outfit?"

"It was so awesome!" Erasa clapped her hands in excitement.

"Is she talking about Goldie again?" Sharpner approached the group from behind Erasa. "Thank Kami you're back to chatter with her."

"Excuse me? I do not chatter, Pencil." Videl looked about ready to punch the blonde boy in the face.

"I definitely wasn't talking about you, Videl." Sharpner nodded towards Gohan, who flushed red.

"Oh shut it, Sharpner," Erasa broke in. "Anyways, like I was saying, I love the Golden Fighter's new outfit! Very retro, the whole fighting uniform. Like all the really old Tournaments."

"Gi." The group turned to look at Gohan, Videl with an eyebrow arched.

"Huh?"

"It's, uh, it's called a gi. The Golden Fighter's outfit. It's a traditional martial arts gi."

"You would know that, Nerd Boy," Sharpner laughed.

Gohan wrinkled his nose at the other boy. He wasn't particularly fond of the blonde.

"Plus that blue just looks so good on him!" Erasa turned the conversation back to the Golden Fighter, the one subject Gohan was not interested in discussing.

Gohan could feel Videl's smirk of triumph without having to turn and actually look at her. She had pushed Bulma until the genius agreed to remake the transformation watch, replacing the Sayaiman outfit with Gohan's practice gi. She'd then forced him to leave behind Sayaiman, claiming he was much more himself as the Gold Fighter. Gohan didn't particularly like that, actually. But she was right. It was so much easier to just be the Gold Fighter.

"Class is about to start, guys," Gohan said.

"Ironic, you wanting to be punctual," Sharpner replied, still leaning against the door to Videl's locker. She snapped it shut, throwing his balance. "Hey!"

"Ugh, that lesson was horrible." Erasa flipped open her pocket mirror, inspecting her lipgloss as the students waited for their next teacher. "I mean, seriously, who care about the kingdom system. All those different types of rulers. Why can't they all just be called the same thing?"

Gohan opened his mouth to respond, but Sharpner cut across him. "Yeah, she doesn't actually want an answer."

Videl kicked Sharpner in the shins. Gohan grinned at her.

"Ouch Videl! Since when are you defending Brains?"

"You know-"

"Just shut up, Sharpner," Gohan said.

Sharpner looked at him, dumbstruck. This time, Videl grinned at Gohan. Erasa was too preoccupied with her eyeliner to notice. Gohan turned back to the front of the room as their teacher entered.

"Well, I'll be," he heard Sharpner mutter.

Videl sunk down beside Gohan on the roof as he uncapsulated his lunch feast.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, pausing with his first sandwich in hand.

Videl took a moment to appreciate the seriousness of his concern if he was putting off food before responding. "It was one punch to the face. Just because not all of us have faces of steel that don't bruise."

"My face can bruise," Gohan replied. "It just has to be hit really, really hard. By someone who's really, really strong."

Videl arched an eyebrow.

"Uh, I mean, someone inhumanly strong." He laughed awkwardly.

"I'm just teasing, Gohan. Go ahead and eat." Videl leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes. She could hear the excessively unique sound of Saiyan food inhalation beside her. In the shine of the sun, with the oddly lulling sound, Videl started to drift off. So she nearly jumped a mile when Gohan touched her arm.

"Sorry! I just thought you might want to ice your face. No offense, but it looks pretty bad."

Videl gently prodded beneath her left eye. It did kind of hurt. She took the ice pack from Gohan without thinking too much about where he got it.

"You know, you could take a senzu bean." Gohan fidgeted with the capsule in his hand.

"Gohan, I'm not going to take a senzu bean every time I get a little hurt. Not to mention, how wasteful that would be."

"I just—I don't like to see you hurt."

Videl couldn't help the grin that took over her face. Gohan's whole face was flushed, not that Videl didn't feel her own face radiating tell-tale heat. Her stomach flopped a little as she reached her hand out to gently rest it on top of Gohan's leg.

"Thanks."

He nodded, still red and still not looking at her.

A bell sounded from beneath them, signaling the end of the lunch period, and the two made their way down the stairs together.

"Where were you guys?" Sharpner asked when they settled back into their seats. "Damn, Videl, that looks nasty."

"Thanks, Sharpner," she snapped.

"It's not that bad, Videl," Gohan assured her.

"But seriously. Gohan disappears all the time at lunch, but you guys came back together."

"If you must know, Sharpner," Videl began, "Gohan waited on the roof for me to get back from my police call, to keep me company during the rest of the lunch period. It was really thoughtful."

"Very chivalrous," Sharpner muttered.

"You guys better be careful or people will start to talk," giggled Erasa.

Videl and Gohan were both highly aware of how they both started blushing again.

"Oh my God!"

"Seriously?" Sharpner asked.

"No." Videl refused to look at Gohan.

"We're just friends," Gohan said.

"Whatever you say, guys. I mean, I never would've guess it, but, you know, to each his own," Sharpner said, shrugging.

"What happened to your undying love for Videl?" Gohan asked curiously, forgetting his own embarrassment for a moment.

"Ew, what?"

"Hey! That's offensive!" Sharpner glared at Videl. "I've moved on. Don't worry, it won't get between us, Nerdboy. Our blossoming friendship will survive. I'm going after Bizu. Sorry babe."

"Somehow, I think I'll survive," Videl replied. "And what is this about a budding friendship with Gohan?"

"Blossoming," Sharpner corrected. "And what do you mean?"

"You're kind of an ass to me," Gohan put in.

Sharpner looked assaulted. "I am not! That's how guys are." Even Erasa gave Sharpner a disbelieving stare. "Okay. But that was before you proved you had a backbone. I thought it was just a big noodle in there."

"That doesn't make any sense." Gohan smiled at Sharpner anyways.

"But don't think that means I'm going to stop teasing the two of you. Your girlfriend can kick your ass."

"We're not dating," Videl muttered.

"Want to bet that we're going to get a call in the next ten minutes?"

"No," Gohan groaned. "Three in one day was more than enough."

"All the criminals just want to come out and meet Goldie!"

Gohan scowled at Videl, who only laughed at him.

"Want to come over and work on the chemistry homework?" Videl asked.

"To your house?"

"Yeah."

"Uh-sure."

"Good. It still creeps me out that Buu is there. I mean, I know he's good now or whatever, but, come on. He's pink. and he wears a diaper."

Gohan tried not to show his disappointment at her reason.

"We should probably just walk the rest of the way. No point getting out the jet. And we can't exactly just fly in."

"We can't?" Gohan pulled Videl sharply down an alley.

"Gohan—what-"

In an instant, Gohan flared his ki and transformed, clicking the button on his watch. He grabbed Videl and took off toward her house, which was pretty easy to find. He shot quickly over the gates.

"Which is your room?"

"Third balcony."

Gohan landed, placing Videl down gently.

"You know I can fly too, right?"

Gohan blushed. "I thought we were keeping that quiet."

Videl just smiled knowingly at him.

"Chemistry?" Gohan swiftly opened the doors to her room.

After he entered, he realized he probably shouldn't have just assumed he could. But Videl wasn't yelling at him, so he took the opportunity to look around. The room was fairly minimalist, just like Videl. The cream-colored walls had a lot of pictures, but other than that there weren't many decorations. Her furniture was a deep drown, matching the suede curtains on her windows. The bedspread boasted no pattern but a plain deep blue. Staring at it, Gohan started blushing. He turned quickly.

"So?"

"So what?" Gohan swallowed the lump that had made his voice squeak.

"What do you think?"

"It's nice!" As he said it, Gohan spotted a picture hanging beside the balcony doors. It was of him and Videl. He didn't know quite when it had been taken. It had to be when they were training before the tournament. Which meant, he realized, that his mom must've taken it. They were sitting opposite one another, staring in concentration. Gohan knew what they'd been thinking about in that moment, but if he hadn't known about the ki training, he would've thought something entirely different was occurring.

"That's one of my favorite pictures," Videl said, turning around to see what had caught his attention.

"Yeah."

Gohan quickly turned around, pulling his chemistry book out of his backpack and settling onto the soft-carpeted floor. Videl followed suite.

Half a homework assignment later, as Gohan ran through an equation, he couldn't help but feel like Videl was looking at him. Lifting his eyes, he met her gaze.

For a moment they just looked at each other.

"You know why it's one of my favorite pictures?"

Gohan shook his head.

"It's—you're one of the best things that's ever happened to me."

Gohan didn't breath for a moment.

Videl was staring at him intensely.

He felt almost naked before her.

"You too."

Videl smiled, and Gohan was sure he'd never seen anything so amazing. And he'd seen the planet from outer space.

The beeping of Videl's watch interrupted the moment.

"Yeah, Chief?"

"There's a hostage situation at the bank."

"On the way."

Videl took the hand Gohan offered her up. As he turned to the balcony, she jumped on his back.

"Come on Goldie! Let's see those locks! We've got work to do."

Gohan dislodged her, and she landed hard on her butt, causing him to laugh.

"You just wait until I learn ki blasts."

Gohan powered up. "I'm terrified."

"You should be!" she called after him as he blasted through the window.

Videl shook her head, glancing once more at the photo beside the exit before taking off after Gohan, who she could still see hanging in sky, waiting for her.

A/N This is just a little one-shot I wrote a while ago. Though I'd post it. Might write some more like it, within the same universe.