Title: Point Taken
Disclaimer: I write, therefore I own (...okay, maybe not).
Rating: PG-13 ( T ) – for cussing 'n stuff.
Spoilers: Errr...Gohan loves Videl? Wait, maybe that's obvious...

Summary: Sequel to "Making a Point." OneShot. Gohan, unwilling to scream back at her, responded in a calm voice. "So the kiss didn't matter, but the fact that a bunch of people you don't know thought you were a lesbian did?" Post-Gohan's First Date, GhVi.

Always remember to take turns, children.

Also dedicated to dbz-lover91.

To the casual observer, it probably seemed as if the spikey-haired boy in the second-to-last row was studiously taking notes like he and the rest of his classmates were supposed to be doing while the teacher droned on and on about...something that was meant to be important. However, it was less than half an hour until the final bell rung for the day and even bookworms like the infamously smart Son Gohan eventually lost interest in the pretense of learning and allowed their minds to drift off to more interesting topics. For the teenaged demi-Saiyan, said topic sat only a few seats away from him, nodding off into her hand.

Since it was nearly impossible to look directly at her without facing her enormous wrath, Gohan was relying on his memory of her face and expressions to enrich his fantasies. A reproduction of what he saw in his mind's eye was being unconsciously sketched out on the paper that he should have been using for note taking, hidden from his fellow student's views by the barrier of his arm. His drawing wasn't very good, but it was her nonetheless. He'd even colored the eyes in with a blue pen.

Glancing to the side, Gohan's gaze swerved around the blonde girl to his immediate right and locked onto the object of his inner torment. Satan Videl was leaning casually on her left hand, eyelids heavy with boredom, and looking as pretty as he ever saw her. Gods, it was hard to believe that someone like her had kissed him once.

The situation had been explained to him many a time by Sharpener (who had warned him not to get any "funny ideas" about it), Erasa (who seemed to take the entire debacle as something straight out of a grocery store romance novel) and even Videl herself (who was, depressingly, straightforward about the kiss having meant nothing to her), but Gohan still found himself confused by it. If she'd only been trying to make a point, why him? Why not Sharpener or the guy on the row below them? Why was it not a "big deal"?

Originally, Gohan had wanted to classify the whole ordeal as a "girl thing" and leave it at that. He knew that he didn't understand women, had been told so many times by the few females he interacted with on a regular basis, and he could live with that. But, as far as he knew, kissing was supposed to be...well, special in some way, right? That's what the media told him, anyway. And weren't girls supposed to make even the smallest of semi-romantic gestures into something significant? Angela and Erasa sure seemed to.

Perhaps it was these thoughts that had kept Videl in the forefront of his mind over the past few weeks, or maybe Gohan genuinely liked her, he wasn't sure. It wasn't as if he'd ever had what his peers called a "crush" before, so how was he supposed to know the difference between "real" love and a conundrum? To a socially-challenged boy from the sticks, it was all the same either way.

Still...even if he didn't like like Videl, he couldn't deny that he found her attractive. More attractive, even, than the other girls in his acquaintance. There was just something about a woman half his size that could kick the crap out of a man twice his size that was appealing...or maybe he just had some kind of weird mother complex that encouraged him to lust over strong, capable women like ChiChi (Gohan rather hoped that this wasn't it).

Just thinking about all of this as he gazed longingly at Videl from his seat was making Gohan's head ache. His heart, it seemed, concurred and tightened beneath his breast. And all of this over one "meaningless" kiss...a kiss he hadn't even been given time to enjoy (it kind of hurt, too).

Without even meaning to, Gohan sighed. This "normal" thing was more difficult than his mother made it out to be when proposing his entry into high school.

"So, Gohan-kun," came a whisper from only a few inches away. Suddenly fearful that he'd been discovered in his staring, Gohan jumped to more adequately cover the little drawing on the corner of his paper with his hand before turning to look at the person who had addressed him. It was Erasa. "How'd your date go?"

Certain that he was blushing at least a little, Gohan stuttered his reply. "Wh-What?"

Erasa giggled at his expense before repeating herself; "Your date, Gohan-kun. I heard from Videl-chan that you asked out that Angela girl. How'd it go?"

"Oh...um, okay, I guess...," he supplied generously. In actuality, it had been a complete disaster.

"If by 'okay' you mean she dumped you," a snide voice joked from a little further down the row. It was Sharpener and he, apparently, found Gohan's one and only dating experience/fiasco hilarious. "So, Brains – wait, should I call you 'Stud' instead? You're becoming awfully popular with the ladies lately, after all."

This time, Gohan knew he was flushed bright red. The teasing from Sharpener had increased ten-fold in the past few weeks, presumably because of the kiss incident. "Jealousy," Erasa had called it. "I wouldn't say she 'dumped' me, exactly..."

"No?" Sharpener replied, laughing loud enough to cause one or two people on the row below them to turn around and give him a sharp glare. "That's not what I heard. Hey, did you really take off your pants and flash your underwear at half the school from the roof of the auditorium last week?"

"No!" Gohan immediately denied, earning a few of those offended looks from his fellow students himself. One of them – who probably studied even more than he did – even shushed him. Lowering his voice, the demi-Saiyan teenager asked, "Where'd you hear that?"

"From everybody," Sharpener replied with a grin.

Erasa, wonderful friend that she was, jumped to Gohan's defense. "That's just stupid, Sharpener. Gohan-kun wouldn't flash anyone!"

"Yeah," agreed Videl, finally jumping into the conversation that was carrying on around her. Gohan felt his heart stutter as he realized that she, too, was on his side. "Though I could picture you doing it."

"No way! I only do private showings," Sharpener said, waggling his eyebrows at Videl. "I can arrange something just for you, if you want."

Videl's eyes narrowed into icy slivers of malice that Gohan, thankfully, had never experienced first hand. It seemed that Sharpener was the only one to suffer them on a regular basis. "I'd rather have my lip stapled to my forehead, but thanks."

"I'll bet you'd take Gohan-kun up on the offer," Erasa teased, nudging her pigtailed-friend in the side with her elbow.

Without even having the grace to blush, Videl denied this accusation immediately with a healthy dose of sarcasm. "Oh, right, I'll go get me some singles right now. Or do you think Gohan-kun'll have change for a fifty?"

Inexperienced as he was, Gohan still new a stripping reference when he heard one. Gah, even Videl joking about wanting to see him naked made his blood heat up.

"Forget nerd boy," Sharpener interjected, leaning closer to Videl and bestowing her with a suggestive wink. "He doesn't know how to please a woman. Meanwhile, I'm an expert."

Erasa, once again, took up the challenge of defending Gohan. "I'll bet he's better at it than you, Sharpener-kun."

When Videl snorted, all eyes turned to her. "I dunno, Sharpener might have a point. According to Angela, at least."

"I never k-kissed Angela-san," Gohan countered resentfully, humiliated that she'd ever think such a thing about him. Not only was he a gentleman, but Angela was...well, whatever she was, it was self-explanatory. He'd never had any desire for romance with her.

Videl turned her face towards him, her chin still balanced in the palm of her gloved hand, and grinned evilly. "If you say so."

"I didn't!" the demi-Saiyan persisted, honestly a little insulted.

"Fine, fine," Videl relented, clearly unconvinced. "Not that I care, or anything."

Erasa, whose eyes were darting suspiciously back and forth between the two friends squabbling across her, interjected, "Videl-chan, be nice. If he says that he didn't kiss her, then I'm sure he didn't. I mean, who would? She's so ew!"

"I...don't...care," Videl reiterated slowly in a low hiss. Her patience with the subject was clearly wearing thin. "I've been there, done that, remember? If he wants to kiss someone else, he has my wholehearted blessing to do so."

Gohan's heart thumped painfully beneath his ribs in disappointment. He wouldn't bother to lie to himself; what she'd just said had hurt, and it had hurt bad. Perhaps more inclined to vent bitter feelings than usual, our demi-Saiyan hero countered, "So it's okay to go around kissing just anyone? Like you do?"

The silence that followed was angry, resentful and incredibly awkward.

"Ex-cuse me?" Videl replied, not even bothering to lower her voice. Gohan wasn't looking at her – he couldn't, honestly – but he could imagine her expression and he rather figured it was similar to the ones that she threw at Sharpener all the time. "Are you calling me a hussy?"

"N-Not exactly," Gohan pressed on, righteous anger still bubbling up inside over the slight she had given him. He, too, had abandoned the pretense of a private conversation and ws speaking at his normal volume. "But I still don't think it's right to kiss someone just to prove a point. It's...It's..."

"What?" Videl urged loudly, the feet of her chair squealing against the linoleum in a violent burst. "Go on, say it." It was a dare.

Gohan finally turned in Videl's direction, an intense frown forming on the lower half of his face. He countered her glare with a serious gaze of his own and refused to wilt under her ire. "It's not fair."

Videl scoffed openly at his answer. "'Fair'?" she repeated scornfully, leaning back into her chair with a haughty air. Her speech slowly increased in volume as it flowed from her lips. "You think what I did was about 'fairness'? Please. What's unfair is having to prove myself to a bunch of idiots who can't be bothered to judge me based on who I really am! Maybe you wouldn't get your panties in a bunch about it, but I have to answer to the world wide media!"

Gohan, unwilling to scream back at her, responded in a calm voice. "So the kiss didn't matter, but the fact that a bunch of people you don't know thought you were a lesbian did?"

"What is your problem?" Videl screeched, her face purpling in rage. She stood up so fast that her chair toppled to the ground behind her. "You act like I was just playing with your feelings! Well, excuse me, but at least I was honest about it, which is more than I can say for you. Why do you take such long bathroom breaks every time I leave class to fight crime, eh? What are you doing all that time?"

Gohan found himself standing and his face burning by the end of her latest speech. Dimly, he realized that every eye in the classroom was turned towards them while they fought. "Just because you're comfortable in the spotlight doesn't mean that my family is! Besides, wasn't what you did dishonest, too? You wanted to manipulate everyone – including the media – with that...that...display!"

Videl was dumbfounded for a moment, her cerulean eyes wide and bright with surprise. She recovered more quickly than expected, however, and closed the distance between them to more effectively shout in his face. Poor Erasa was shoved unceremoniously out of the way as her pigtailed friend stomped past.

Teetering on her tip-toes, hands balled firmly against her hips, Videl thrust her presence into Gohan's personal space with their noses only mere millimeters apart. Unconsciously, the demi-Saiyan's humility caused him to shrink away from her glare and redirect his gaze down to their feet. Unfortunately for him, Videl was having none of that and moved so that she was directly in his line of sight once more.

"I think you're just pissy because I didn't want to be your girlfriend after it happened," she accused in a low, throaty growl. Out of the corner of his eye, Gohan noticed more than one person leaning towards them for a better auditory view. "You're just like every other boy on the planet! You think that girls should be all weepy and emotional and throw themselves at you! Well, I've got news for you, buddy, that's not the way it works with me. If I want to kiss someone, I will and if I don't want to instantly marry them afterward, I won't. Deal...with...it."

It was Gohan's turn to be dumbfounded. He'd never really thought about it like that...it wasn't as if she'd ever built up his expectations for something more, or that she'd ever even lied to him about the kiss being meaningless. Hell, no one could even accuse her of acting like a regular girl – before or after the incident – so what did he really have to reproach her with? Though he would never fully appreciate her motives (they were a little self-serving, after all), her behavior toward him was exactly what he should have expected. If he'd gotten the wrong impression, maybe that was his fault.

"You're...right," Gohan finally replied, all of his previous anger drained away into hopeless defeat. "About all of it. I...I really like you, Videl, and I think...I think that maybe made me expect something different. I'm sorry."

Videl blinked at him in clear confusion. "What?"

"I still don't think you should have done it, but...," Gohan paused to take a shuddering breath. "I guess I can understand why you did. Sort of. And I won't bother you about it again."

After stooping down to collect his bag, Gohan left. He walked to the end of the row, stomped listlessly down the steps, and exited the classroom. His fellow students followed his progress silently with their eyes; no one made a move to stop him. As soon as the door shut behind him, the bell rang to announce the end of the day.

000

A full three hours later, Gohan still didn't want to go home yet. He didn't really want to be at school, either, but he figured the roof might be his only place of quiet solace in the whole wide world. If he got within fifty miles of the 439 mountain area, Goten was sure to sense his chi and come looking for him. If he went further west, he'd probably get solicitation for his company by someone at Capsule Corp. He rather doubted that Piccolo, being asexual and all around unfamiliar with human emotions, would be able to help...And he certainly couldn't go toward the coast; Master Roshi's idea of "girl troubles" consisted of chafing.

Blushing heavily at the implications of that, Gohan leaned his head back until it collided with the hard surface of the staircase building. The shade provided by the structure was cooling on his heated cheeks, yet nothing felt particularly soothing at the moment. He'd just made a spectacle of himself and Videl in front of his entire class, essentially admitted to being Saiyaman to all of his peers, and then been informed that he wasn't "boyfriend material" by his crush. If he'd thought jumping off the roof might actually hurt, Gohan would've been willing to give it a try.

As it was, he figured that the only relief for his present pain and humiliation was solitude. Solitude that he would use to plot out how he was going to tell his mother that he could never go back to school – or even Satan City – ever again. Would she believe him if he told her that the cafeteria was infested with rats? Maybe...but she'd probably march up to the school to complain and then force him to go back once the health inspector had given the green light. He could always tell her that the other kids were mean to him, but that would probably have far more seriously embarrassing consequences; he could just picture ChiChi storming into his classroom to give his peers a piece of her mind. Yeah, that would make it all better...

Gohan sighed with heavy defeat. Maybe he should just tell her the truth? Admit that his heart was broken and that he couldn't ever face the object of his infatuation ever again, much less his entire class. Would she let him quit school? Or would she make it her mission to hunt down Videl and make her sorry for shattering her poor widdle baby's feelings with an iron mallet? It was hard to say...

Gohan jumped when he heard the tell-tale squee of an opening door. Footsteps followed, which logically suggested that his sanctuary had been invaded by another person. "Hello?" called a female voice.

Without putting much thought into it, Gohan sprung into the air and relocated to the haven of the outbuilding's roof. His feet slid against the clay tile, but he maintained his precarious position as best he could while waiting for the invader to leave.

"Hello?" the girl called again, still hidden beneath the overhang of the roof. "Gohan-kun? Are you up here?"

Horrified, Gohan threw himself flat against the clay tile and silently prayed to any gods watching that he wouldn't be discovered. His heart thumped erratically as he listened and waited for the sounds of abandonment. He was rewarded with a slamming door.

Heaving a large breath of relief, Gohan flipped onto his back to stare up at the clouds. Whoever it was had gone and he was safe from prying questions about what must (by now) be considered an infamous incident.

"There you are!"

The demi-Saiyan jumped nearly three feet into the air when the voice once again intruded into his private thoughts. Spinning around to locate the source of the disturbance, Gohan discovered it to be the person he least wanted to see. Feeling the heat return to his cheeks, he stammered, "V-Videl-san!"

There she was, clinging to the edge of the rooftop with clawed fingers and wind-tousled hair. In spite of his better judgment, he couldn't help thinking that she looked especially pretty with her pigtails whipping around her face in a soft frenzy. "I've been looking all over for you since you stormed out. I was hoping that you hadn't left yet..."

"Wh-Why?"

"Because – waugh!" Videl exclaimed, her head bobbing out of sight behind the edge of the roof. Her fingers were still grasping desperately at the tile while she fought to keep herself from falling.

Gohan was at her side in an instant with his hands outreached to her for aid. In the shadow of the overhang, she accepted his help gratefully and grasped onto his arms one at a time. The vestiges of panic lingered on her face until he'd successfully pulled her up onto the rooftop with him and placed her as steadily as possible on her feet.

"Thanks...," she said, wobbling a little. "I didn't think stucco was so slippery."

"No problem..."

Gohan wasn't sure if Videl was aware of it, but their current proximity was making him highly agitated. Her breasts, hidden successfully beneath her baggy shirt, were brushing up against his abdomen with every one of her heavy breaths. Considering how far they were standing apart, the demi-Saiyan realized that he'd greatly underestimated her...self.

"Hey," she said, recalling his attention to her face.

Fearing that she suspected him of staring at her (again), Gohan snapped his eyes back up to where they belonged. Her expression betrayed no knowledge of his wandering attention, however, and he was grateful. "Y-Yeah?"

"I'm...sorry," she said, sheepishly averting her eyes to his chest. Gohan considered the relocation ironic considering he'd been so recently looking at her torso. "About what happened, I mean. I shouldn't have yelled at you."

"It's fine, I – "

"I'm not finished," she interrupted, earnestly looking up into his eyes to beg forgiveness for this transgression. To his surprise, he found that she was blushing (a little). "I also wanted to say that I was sorry for kissing you before. I didn't realize that I would be hurting your feelings...That's not what I meant to happen."

Gohan ventured a weak smile. "I know. I never thought that you meant anything by it."

"It's not that I don't like you," she continued, seeming to ignore his previous statement. "I just...I wasn't thinking about it when I did it, you know? Erasa-chan and Sharpener were being so...annoying before you got there and I sure as hell wasn't going to kiss either of them...you just seemed like the safest choice."

Suddenly, Gohan was feeling insulted all over again. She hadn't even expected the kiss to mean something? He was the safe choice? He was pretty sure that his ego would never get over this experience.

His disappointment must have featured prominently on his features because Videl rushed to correct herself; "No! That's not what I meant! What I meant was...ugh...how do I say this?"

Gohan waited impatiently for her to continue, his hopes rising in spite of his caution.

Videl huffed in frustration against his chest before venturing to speak further. "What I meant was that you're the only boy I could even think of kissing. I mean, Sharpener is just...ugh, and all the other guys in our class...the whole school, even – let's just say that I like you best, okay?"

"Really?" Gohan couldn't believe his ears until she confirmed it. He was actually the most likely candidate in the entire school to date Videl? (Not that even his chances seemed particularly high, but it was a compliment all the same.)

Shyly, Videl rolled her eyes upwards to meet his gaze. Her blush was much more pronounced now and she replied, softly, "Yeah."

Gohan gathered up all his courage – every last shred of it left over from the Cell Games and helping his mother raise his younger brother without Goku – for what he was about to ask next. He gulped to steady himself, yet it still felt like there was something lodged in his throat. He was just going to have to talk around it. "I – ," He squeaked, swallowed, and tried again. "Would you...maybe...want to..."

"Maybe," Videl replied quickly, saving him from finishing the end of the most awkward sentence he'd ever ventured to begin. She was smiling shyly up at him as she answered, "I mean, I owe you one, right? After all of that...But I'll only agree on one condition: we can't tell my dad."

Feeling no inclination to speak of any of this to Mr. Satan, Gohan readily agreed.

"And...I'm sorry again about what I did. The kiss, I mean," she clarified. "It didn't really mean nothing, you know."

"Really?"

"I'm not made of stone, you know," Videl reminded him playfully.

"I don't know," Gohan teased back, his voice trembling a little with awkwardness. "That kiss was pretty hard."

"Ha ha..."

"Could I maybe...could we try again?" he ventured in a whisper.

Videl didn't answer this time, but merely allowed her eyes to drift slowly closed. With his heart beating like a drum in his ears, Gohan leaned down and touched his lips to hers...

His kiss wasn't as...forward as hers had been, but it lasted just about as long. After a few quick seconds, it was all over, as was his life as he had previously known it.

— — —

Author's Note: Sorry if that wasn't romantic enough for some of you, but (as ShadowMajin can attest to) I absolutely hate mushy romance. (I know that some of you are thinking "and she calls herself a girl" right now.) It sickens me, to be frank, and I prefer writing love in a realistic way without all the cheese and sap. I refuse to cheapen it, in other words.

That said, I don't usually feature a GhVi fight in my stories (in fact, I'm pretty sure I never have...at least not one where Gohan fights back), so I'd like your thoughts on how it turned out. Gohan tends to be kind of spineless in the face of Videl's fury, but I still think he can be provoked into anger...kind of like in battle, but without bloodshed. What do you think? I know a lot of you like Gohan to be a little more badass, lolz. (Personally, I think the scene with them making up is more awkward and unlikely XD )

Anyway...this is all you get of this little series. Hope you weren't looking forward to more.

Un-beta'd. Self-edited.

. ( . Ms Videl Son . ) .

– Who's your daddy? GohanVidel