Dragon Ball Z - Lost Years (Goku X OC)

Chapter 10 - GOHAN

Videl's hand was locked around my arm, the long dainty nails on her fingers digging deep into the flesh. I knew her rage was delving deeper down, into depths they'd never reached before. She'd seen me staring and now her mind had given in to all of her insecurities. It was impossible to fight her in any form in this moment, be it physical or mental. She had complete control of me, for now.

I stayed by her side, walking away knowing that there were eyes following our steps, both my father and Piccolo were watching intently, unsure as to what was happening before them. I couldn't bring myself to look back, knowing the humiliation alone was enough to stop me.

It didn't take long for us to turn a corner and finally find some resemblance of privacy, it wasn't until we were finally alone that Videl stopped. Her hand didn't drop away from my arm, but instead dug in deeper. Clearly her rage was reaching it's peak. Until she turned to face me, her eyes were brimming with tears, some of which had already escaped. I could feel her emotions bubbling up to the surface, finding every exit they could. She was bursting at the seams, until she lifted her eyes up to mine.

"Why Gohan, why?" The words passed by her lips, but each one was weak and feeble and barely resembled the person I knew who was buried deep beneath the overclouded sadness. I shook my head, knowing the next few words we were going to exchange were going to be ones that could break us. For the longest time we'd trusted one another, but now I needed her to trust me more than she ever thought she could.

"I can't stand back and watch you look at her Gohan, the way you are watching her is so intense. There is more to this than you're telling me, and I need to know." Her words spilled out into the air around us, filling the space between us with nothing more than pure paranoia. Videl kept glancing back to the path we'd just taken, her eyes trying their hardest to contain the emotions that were spilling out from beneath the surface.

"I know you are doing this to protect me and Pan, but I need to know Gohan... I am still going to have a husband at the end of this, because I'm getting worried now. I can see the way all of you men are looking at her, even Goku." At the mention of my father's name I held my hand up to stop her, her words had reached their limit for this moment. And I refused for her to dig any deeper down into this conversation.

She couldn't know, because she wouldn't understand.

"I can't fight about this again Videl, please. Just let it go, for this once, I need you to stop." She watched me as the words spilled out, before looking down towards the floor. The smallest movement happened before us as she took my hand once again. But this time there was no hidden depths of rage, instead it was replaced dramatically with overwhelming sadness. I knew she was struggling to grasp a hold of what was soon going to be happening, but she was getting there - bit by bit.

"I'll stop, I promise. But Gohan..." The words hung in the air, until she locked eyes with me once more.

"You had better win that match Gohan, otherwise I can't provide a reason for what will happen next. Do you understand?" I nodded, knowing that this was finally Videl's way of giving me her blessing. Pulling her body close into mine, she placed the gentlest kiss on my cheek before departing back to the group. Leaving me stranded on my own, taking full advantage of the situation I began to scout out the members of staff who were in control of the fighters. I shifted myself through the crowd, looking for that overly familiar coloured uniform they had, until I caught sight of one of them.

His eyes were tense, and he had tightly gripped on to the clip board in his hand. He was clearly panicking about his role, but now was my chance to secure my first opponent.

Darcy.

Strolling up the man I caught sight of his quick jerky movements, which only confirmed the tension he was feeling in his job role today. Once I neared the man, his head twisted in my direction. But even from a quick glance at his eyes, I could tell he hadn't quite registered the fact that there was someone walking up to him.