Don't Read

AN: My entry for the third contest of Sweetest Irony. Summer work! Well, this fic is actually a result of my being high on magic anti-writer's block pills.

Warnings: No lemons, no worries. Just some kissy-kissy. (Kind of PWP… but I do hope not.)

Staring at the large, ivory walled mansion, Gohan came to a deliberate and forced conclusion that maybe spending the majority of his time here for the next couple of days or so wouldn't be so bad. The tall polished windows stared back at him ominously, opaque with the darkened curtains inside the residence. The door seemed threateningly small compared to the size of the house, seemed to shrink as he got closer; as a matter of fact, he was sure they would close in on him if he tried to enter. It was an omen, a warning, a beware sign. It was saying that this would not be a very good idea in the slightest, but Gohan downed the thorny feeling down his throat, reminding himself whom he was doing this for. So even if the gate was an unmoving collection of metal pieces, the vines upon the bricked walls of the front yard fountain and the grass, shrubs, bushes and any other greens were all chasing him away from the front door, he walked briskly from the homely phantoms convincing himself that they were merely fragments of his broken imagination.

The cool bronze metal of the doorbell was a relief from the intensity of his walk. The only important thing that would come out of his daily visits for the next several days was the money. It would be a lot of money; that he was certain about. And maybe the quality time he would get from Mr. Satan's daughter. That Mr. Satan who was reported to have flown to… which country was it? Estonia? Well, whichever nation it was, he was said to do some promotion of some sort, whether that was personal or business. Usually, there were no barriers between both, and whatever personal for him was also strictly business. Or vice versa. After all, wasn't it himself that he was selling? The art of the media… it was all there to explain the implicit phenomenon celebrities went through.

But anyway, celebrities had nothing to do with Gohan, really. There was only one which his family had befriended, and up to this day remained a loyal companion to him. However, there was another celebrity which he had a rather complicated relationship with. That Mr. Satan was a thief to his family, a saviour, an entertainer, a threat. He was neither a friend nor an enemy.

But that Mr. Satan's daughter was whom he had been seeing behind the clueless man's back.

It was a couple of weeks back when both the teens had claimed it official. There was nothing really astounding with the event, but it was significant to both of them. It was a monumental moment, and was rather happy to keep it between only two people. There was absolutely nothing they could do to keep away the guesses and the suspicions that lingered around the heads of Gohan's friends and family. But to keep it concealed from her father was a must. Just imagining his reaction would be even more unbearable than his unfriendly welcome with the house itself. This meant that he would survive, but it would be an intense and terrifying moment.

The door opened as a response to his punching of the doorbell button. The smiling face of his secret girlfriend greeted him, melting away his tense muscles and banishing any doubt that still poked about in his mind. It didn't matter if this was Mr. Satan's house. It was Videl's house as well, and he would make sure that they would both have an amazingly good time. After all, this was summer. Regardless of the fact that he was here for paid work, and that it would be considered as a job almost, they were still together, and that always meant fun.

Good fun.

"If you just want to stand there on the porch, you're free to do so, but I'm getting kind of tired holding the door for you," Videl replied, hinting for the boy to come in.

"Uh, of course." The half-Saiyan stepped inside and looked curiously around the place. It was his first time here, and he had to admit that it was as clean as clean could get. So why had this girl hired him to do some cleaning?

"I would offer you some cookies and milk, but that's not in the nature of a strict boss," his employer stated.

"No," Gohan protested. "But it's in the nature of a good boss."

"Well, I don't want to be good to you, Gohan." The female teen smirked.

"How about a good girlfriend?"

"It's still bright outside," she whispered lowly, a rather indifferent wink following the statement. The mere act brought a rush of blood to the fleshy cheeks of the boy, pupils dilating at the hidden meaning. She continued, "Don't we save those for night time?"

It was just a sultry joke. No, nothing had happened at night time, or even day time if you please. Whether it was going to stay that way for long was another story.

Videl led her employee up a couple of staircases, rounded off a corner or two, and paced across a long hallway before coming to a stop in font of a wooden door. A nice printed paper was taped on the top portion, eye level with an average height person. It said 'Please Knock'. He knew that there may be a few people who had violated such simple request, and could see clearly from the parallel wall several cracks, a definite sign of violent acts committed justly upon the rule-breakers.

"My father smashing his head after having too much to drink," Videl roughly explained as she noticed from the corner of her eyes the attention the cracks on the white wall were receiving from Gohan.

"He went out cold, but when he woke up, it seemed as if nothing happened," she continued.

So, they weren't from violators after all.

The door opened up to reveal a room with substantial space. Objects and furniture had cast reddish shadows upon the floor. Gohan spotted the crimson curtains hanging lightly over the windows that lined the opposite wall, and the bright sunshine trying to penetrate through the material barrier with its powerful rays. The thick cloths filtered away the invading forces of nature, but through no fault of their own, allowed some through.

The bed, not as big as Gohan had initially though, was situated on the far corner of the room. It did not have a canopy or silken curtains. It did not have velvet or the most expensive textile. Rather, it was simple; a puffy comforter of an amalgamation of natural colours -a little beige here, and some soft brown there- covered the majority of the space on the bed comfortably. A matching set of pillow cases and blankets were neatly set atop of the bed, just waiting and welcoming a body to fall upon them. They were clean and tidy. The only clean and tidy thing in the room.

The rest were unkempt, a steady pattern of fallen sheets of paper emerging as he stared down on the floor. Various miscellanies covered the much needed spaces on the tables, drawers, closets and cabinets. A slight layer of dust had covered some of the least touched furniture inside the room, an old vintage low table being one of the victims. To Gohan's surprise, there lay small round pieces of Styrofoam originating from an old diorama, most certainly a result of a school project. A couple of juice boxes were strewn in random places, and the young man thanked Dende that there wasn't a slight trace of food here. If there was, it would be rotting away. It wasn't that the room was filthy; it was just untidy and maybe that was what Videl needed help with.

"So…" Videl began. "Now you see what happens when all of my energy is focused on acing those final exams." It had only been a week since school ended.

"It didn't seem like all of your energy was focused on the exam, Videl." Now, it was finally Gohan's turn to tease. "Remember what happened in the girl's locker room?"

"Well, would you rather have that kind of attention on my room rather than on you?"

"No, of course not,"

Videl smiled and walked inside her bedroom. "All I really need help for is organizing some of these things into cardboard boxes that I could store away in a small portion of our attic. There are things that I need help getting rid off as well."

"No problem, Ma'am." Gohan saluted, heading past her, and began picking up the pieces of white paper, an occasional blue or yellow slipping into his fingers. The contents of the pages were things that he recognized immediately, notes on lessons that appeared on the exams they had taken. There were successful and failed calculations, highlighted facts, and random doodling of someone obviously bored. Some were crumpled into rounded balls, or folded into unrecognizable origami, or simply left the way paper was supposed to look. Behind him, he heard his girlfriend pulling in a few large boxes in which they could place some of the unused, but still needed items. And thus, Gohan began his first job of the summer.

-o-

A couple of hours into cleaning, half of the room could now be clearly seen without the obvious distraction of a random object that clearly did not belong to that specific location. The tables were tables, the chairs were chairs, and although the floor was still not completely a floor, it was tolerable. The few cardboard boxes prepared just for the occasion had already filled up to the top. Most of the things were books that Videl had wanted to keep just because she knew they would be a great resource in the future. Others were projects that she felt emotionally attached to, whether that was her first model of the Solar System, or some research done on a deceased unknown being which she managed to pull off an A. Even those assignments that were clearly marked with an unrespectable grade were held dearly by the daughter of Mr. Satan, just so she could be reminded how greatly she desired to do harm on the teacher who had given her that. Of course, there were very few of them, and that was all the more reason for her to keep them.

"Videl, you do know that the point of me helping you clean is so that we can get rid of some of these things, right?"

"Well, we can't throw those projects away. They remind of good times," the young lady explained, a feigned pained expression on her face. "And some bad," she added simply. She paced across the room, and handed Gohan a large box filled with random books; not the texts that she said she wanted to keep, but rather plain or over decorated notebooks that were rather torn and yellowed on the edges.

"Here, can you please take this outside? I'm not going to keep this in the attic. I don't need it anymore. Take it to the back, though. That's where the garbage truck comes and goes." she explained.

"And how do I get down there?"

"Well… I guess it would be rather difficult to explain. Um, I guess you could take the front door, the one you had come in through and just go around the house. You have a pretty good sense of direction, Saiyaman, so I don't expect you to get lost."

"Sure," the half-Saiyan took the load from her, and exited through the door. He walked briskly down the corridor, trying to evoke to memory just how Videl had led him through the maze of this house a few hours ago. He wasn't even at the end of the hall when the overflowed container spilled some of its contents on the ground despite his gentle movements. Over the carpeted floor some of the books plummeted down. They made soft thudding noises that echoed in the empty hallway, landing on their paperback coverings, and bending the soft cardboard on random angles. However, there was one in particular that had a hard cover. Instead of folding against its pulpy wrap, it opened widely, revealing its penned white pages. Unlike the others inside the box, this certain book was rather new. The sheets were still white although they have been thinned out by harsh writings across its lines.

Gohan settled the big box down beside the scattered books, and one by one began picking them up. Those which had been damaged slightly by the fall were smoothed out by his hands and made sure to be in the condition they were before. Just when he was about to reach for the only hard covered object on the ground, he couldn't help but notice the messy and rushed writing inside. What caught his eye came as a strange surprise, but what he would eventually discover would be even worse.

'I found out today.'

He read the first line on the page revealed.

'The doctor said that I had only three months to live. I've been suffering from a rare untreatable illness these past two years, and finally my life had been marked. It wasn't shocking to me anymore. The tremors I feel biting my insides at night, the haunting visions of ghosts (which I'm pretty sure are some of my family members) in my dreams that come when I sleep, all those along with my constant feeling of restlessness and paranoia are all signs that I will be going soon.

'I don't feel bad, really. This death is only a warm welcome back to my mother. When she passed on, she was as lovely as any living person was, so how can I be afraid of death when it is not so bad at all?'

'Three months. That's all I have. And I'm pretty contented. During that time, I would have done all the things I have always wanted to.'

Confused, the eighteen year old flipped the notebook closed to take a closer look at the front cover. Etched brightly with a green marker was the statement 'Don't Read' in a harsh motion, but somewhere underneath the big blotted letters was the printed word 'Diary'.

'This is Videl's diary?' Gohan thought dreadfully. 'What? She's dying?'

A feeling of dread and another emotion that could be easily compared with something like utter despair overcame the poor boy. Contradicting thoughts entered his mind; Videl was as healthy as ever, wasn't she? Sure, sometimes she'd complain about pains around her midriff, but he was certain it came with her joy of fighting criminals. Sure, she could be a bit paranoid and suspicious… a bit restless even… oh no. Was she really this person writing? His hands shook with nervousness, but with a sudden desire to read more into what the diary would reveal further, he fingered through the thin pages. However, he couldn't recover the certain one that he had read not so long ago. Frustrated, he flipped right to the last entry at the very last page of the little pocket notebook.

'The sudden turn of events has forced me to weep about my near end.'

"Wow," Gohan whispered, despite the uneasy beating of his heart with the fear of losing his girlfriend. "When did Videl ever get so poetic?"

'I can't die. No, I can't. It's not fair that this has to happen to me now. Why couldn't it have happened three years ago? Two? Even one? One would at least be enough for me to spend my time with him. Yes, him. There's a him, and it's a secret. He loves me (so he says.) I love him too, but I will hurt him. I will hurt him because I will leave him.'

'She's talking about me,' Gohan realized.

Just then a voice from behind him startled the half-Saiyan, causing him to drop the book back down again. The pages whispered a hushed conversation as they brushed and enclosed one another, the thick and heavy cover burying them under its weight.

"Gohan, are you okay there?" Videl's head came around the corner, peeking to see what had happened when she heard the books drop on the floor.

Surprised and rather afraid of being accused of snooping around with her secrets, the young man threw the book from his hands into the pile inside the box.

"Nothing. I just… some of the books fell, that's all," he explained quickly. He gathered himself up from the floor and proceeded to carry the big load down the hallway and towards the directed place. Although Videl had gone back inside her room to resume the cleaning and the house was dead quiet, Gohan's walk was rather the opposite. Yes, it could almost be called dead judging the expression on his face and the motion of his legs, but certainly not a silent one. His head, filled with puzzled thoughts, caused a rather unsettling feeling which resulted in him picking up the book once again. Curiosity at its peak, his eyes scanned over the last page once more to continue the part where he had been interrupted. What he read surprised him beyond anything else.

'He still doesn't know how much I want him. He kisses me once a while and leaves it there… leaves me hanging. I feel his hands around me on the small of my back, but they don't go anywhere else. Can't he tell what I'm suggesting when I tug at his shirt while kissing him as passionately as I know how? Sometimes I imply what I want him to do, by taking his hands where I want them to be, but he becomes hesitant and doesn't continue.'

'I know that he doesn't understand why I'm trying to do these things, and I wish I can explain to him. But I don't have the heart to tell him. What would he do? He'd mourn. He'd be lonely, when he doesn't really need to be until I'm gone. There's absolutely no need to lengthen his misery… even I won't be able to bear the guilt of knowing I was the one who did that to him.

'Sometimes I dream about him. I dream about my supposedly future life with him if I had more time. Sometimes I dream of the nights I want so badly to spend with him; except he's a different boy in my dreams. He's not shy, not reluctant. He's knowledgeable and generous at the same time. He lets me do what I want, but suggests better ways of doing it. Most of the events in that kind of dreams are hazy with heat and wet with sweat… along with other substances. And when I wake up I find my hands in places where his should be, and the ethereal miasma that separates dream from reality is still there, making me feel burning and bothered. But I'm not ashamed. I just want to show him how much I love him… before I go.'

Though bewildered and anxious about what he had just read, a slow resolve came to his mind after absorbing the information he had gathered from the small diary. This was Videl he was thinking about. She was ill. She had three months to live. She wanted to make love to him. No, that's not right. She wanted to make love with him… even if that was the last thing she would every do.

Would he deliver?

Could he?

The microscopic dust particles which had previously made themselves comfortable on one of the window sills in Videl's bedroom were now evicted from their home as a bushy duster roughly brushed them away. The air collected them one by one, as if they were little precious children, and it carried them away caringly to a safe place on another piece of furniture.

Sneezing for about the fifth time during her clean up session, Videl waved the duster around one final time before throwing it away behind her. Wherever it landed, she didn't care; she could take care of it later. She hadn't realized her mistake until she heard a flabbergasted 'ouch'. She turned around to see Gohan clutching his nose with his hand.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized. However, barely even finishing her sentence, she found her arms grabbed by the boy in front of her, as he pulled her towards him.

"I love you Vi," he told her, before bending down to her height so he could catch her lips in a quick, chaste kiss.

"Uhm… I love you too, Gohan." She stared at him wondering what in the world had happened to make him show a sudden sign of affection. Well, it wasn't like he was unromantic with her. It was just that he usually wasn't the one who initiated these moments; sure sometimes he would, but while cleaning? This was one of the highest unlikely times that he would ever start something like this. Nah, there was probably something wrong.

"What happened?" she asked, startled by the change of appearance on his face. He became teary eyed, and his brows were furrowed in what seemed like concern and misery.

"Uh… Gohan? What's wrong?"

He didn't answer.

He waited for a few seconds. The girl suspected that he did not have any plans to respond to her question, when suddenly, she felt his grip on her arms tighten to pull her in once again for another kiss.

It was longer this time. Longer and she could tell he was attempting to be passionate. He was attempting so hard he was almost forceful. The young woman shook her arms free from his hands so she could grip his face and pull her away from him.

Gohan shot her a questioning look. She mirrored his façade.

"You better tell me what's going on," she demanded, voice serious and unnerving.

The half-Saiyan's face melted away once again into a dejected expression before answering her with a rather vague comment.

"I just… want to kiss you."

"Why?"

"Because I love you?"

The uncertainty in his short, choppy articulation teased Videl's suspicious behaviour. Something was definitely happening… something she did not know, or wasn't allowed to know.

"Why now, Gohan?" she asked once again. "Why at this time?"

"Because later, you won't have any time," he answered solemnly, before closing in the gap between their bodies. He cupped her cheeks gently and raised her face to his so he could kiss her again. He absolutely did not have a single idea how to grant the wish she had made in her diary, but making out was a start, right? He guessed so, and it was not like he was going to gain any more experience at the moment. She was his first everything, so might as well learn right at the job.

Gohan felt his girlfriend stir uncomfortably against him, felt her as she tried to talk, but he would not give her the chance. She was backing off quickly, but he made up for it by holding her tighter. Sooner or later, he knew she would run out of space, and would be backed up against the wall. This happened within only a matter of seconds.

The cerulean eyed teenager found herself sandwiched between the cool and hard cement that made up her room, and the equally hard physique of her boyfriend. The firm grasp of his big hands on her cheeks were long gone, though that did not mean his hands were no longer busy. How they found their way anonymously to her slim torso, she did not know. They squeezed her sides gently, heat rushing off from his skin which made her feel like he was branding her. In unison, they slid to her lower back, massaging her flesh along the way, and pushing her closer to him if that was even possible.

The teenage male felt the sharpening of the girl's breath, the sudden intakes of air, and the change in her attitude. She was not resisting him anymore, and he realized that she had not been starting from the beginning. Simply, she had just been curious. It was just too bad that his answer for her questions at the moment would have to wait. There was something he needed to show her before she could judge his unexpected amendment of mannerisms. She began responding back, more eagerly and with more want as the minutes ticked by slowly. Before long, their lips were not the only ones getting some exercise. Tongue and teeth were eventually included, and their little kiss could not be called a simple kiss any more. A little nip here, a small bite there, some licking and some tasting were all added to steam the atmosphere that the plain job did not have early that morning.

Pulling away for one moment to inhale some fresh air, Videl moved her head to the side to break her connection from Gohan. The boy just leaned back in, shifting his attention away from her mouth and onto the skin on her upper neck.

"Gohan?" Videl whispered quietly.

He looked up, chocolate orbs concentrating on cobalt ones.

"What?" he asked.

Slowly and almost sadly, the young lady answered, "I think we're done for today."

-o-

The second day of Gohan's work, Videl found a bouquet of burgundy chrysanthemums meet her when she had opened the door. Behind the bundle of fresh flowers, she found her boyfriend smiling bashfully, before entering the opened door.

"Not that I don't appreciate the gift, Gohan, but what's it for?" she asked as he took off his outdoor shoes by the entrance.

"It's your favorite, isn't it?" he answered with a question.

"Yeah, but…"

"Don't worry about it," he stated. "Should we get started?"

All Videl could do was nod and accept the generous present for her. They made their way upstairs back to her room, where some of their cleaning rested last night away from their touches. As soon as they got in, Gohan noticed the evident changes from yesterday. The floor was now tidy; the furniture dusted and wiped with a cleanser, and the air was much fresher. All that was really left to do was to organize the random objects into containers so that there would be some kind of order to them. The books were all taken up to the attic, except for the bunch that needed to be thrown out. The projects were neatly stacked away, although some had to be disposed of the previous day. It didn't look like he would be needed to help out after this day. Tomorrow Videl may not need to call him over, for he guessed that there was very little she would need to do by then. This meant that if he wanted to engage in a specific activity with her, he better do it today.

"I've changed my mind about where to put those old toys," the female fighter stated. "I need to move my clothes all to the right side in my closet, and then I'll just throw those play things in there."

The young Saiyan stopped arranging the objects on her desk into the plastic cubicle she had instructed him to place them in. He looked at Videl's direction only to find her pulling her hanged clothes and throwing them on her bed.

"Here. We can just fold these and then place them on top of the rack above the bar in my closet. These clothes don't need to be ironed to look pressed so no need to worry about them. I barely even wear them as well, so it's just better if they're folded," she explained.

She went on a few minutes about how to order her possessions about in her room so that everything would be neat and easy to find. After explaining her plan, she began randomly recalling a nightmare that she's had for a few nights. This, above anything else, caught Gohan's attention immediately, causing a chain reaction of thoughts in his mind. The diary, the doctor, the illness, the pain, the dreams… At the very end of it, he was reminded about his limited time with her and her dying wish, the two things which he tried to avoid for hours the previous night and early that morning.

"Videl?" Gohan called.

She turned around to face him. For the first time that day –and countless time since yesterday- , she could not help but notice his crestfallen façade.

"Your father's not here," he continued. "But I'm here… and you too. If you really want to do something with me right now, I want you to know that you can. I'm not going to stop you."

"Something like what?"

He paced across the room towards her, and caught her up in an unyielding, warm hearted embrace.

"Videl, you're the best friend I've ever had!" he exclaimed emotionally.

Perplexed, Videl could do little to retort against her boyfriend's abnormal behaviour. Simply, she patted his back and tried to comfort him in this state.

"It's alright?"

"I love you, Vidy."

"I love you too Gohan," she responded. "You know that, right?"

"Yeah,"

"And you know I hate it when you act silly, right?"

"…no," he pulled back from the hug, this time with a face seeming hurt and offended by the accusation. "I'm not acting silly. I'm just trying to give you what you want before you go away!"

"Go away where?"

"You know where!"

"No I don't know where! And what do I want?"

"To do the things we apparently do in your dreams!" Gohan answered.

"What?!"

The spiky-haired half-Saiyan realized his mistake. He had lost control over himself as he frequently did nowadays around her, and now she would find out that he had known her secret all this time. If Videl happened to discover that he had been snooping around her diary, she would go crazy! She'd be extremely angry. He tried to cover his tracks up quickly before she became suspicious of him. Too late for that, though.

"I… I mean… to do the things we do in your dreams, should you have dreams involving you and me…" he trailed off.

"…and what is that exactly?" Videl inquired, curious.

The boy hesitated for a moment.

'No, I need to do this,' he thought to himself, trying to convince his doubt and uneasiness to go away. 'I need to do this for her, because she wants me to, and she has very little time left.'

The fact that if Videl had absolutely craved to have intercourse with him, that she would have inaugurated it herself had not entered his mind at all. All gone were the times that she proved to him just how willing and distant she would go to ease her inquisitiveness and her desiderata. At the moment, only one thing was in the mind of the boy, as he assumed that he was the only one who could spark off this moment.

And so he sensually shortened the gap in between them, already feeling Videl tense up with what she incurred was going to happen next.

"Here, let me show you," he murmured gruffly.

Slowly, almost measured in time and length, he bent down to capture her lips into his own, feeling the tenderness and the suppleness of the flesh against his. She had always been delicious that way, in that natural state. Her response was not immediate, but it came encouragingly and bountiful when it began. While he could feel his own mouth water with her taste, hers seemed humid and dry. Parting his lips slightly, he started to lick at hers until she separated them to let him in. The feeling of his rough tongue against hers sent shivers down her body, and another aching sensation that she had not quite experienced before.

Her hands did not remain silent for long, and neither did his. Roaming around each others' bodies would be a great understatement of what they were doing at the moment. The grabbing, massaging and caressing were all just examples and preliminaries of what both planned to do next. Unbeknownst to the teens, they subconsciously backed up against the bed, tumbling over the edge until Videl was seated on the mattress, Gohan a leaning tower of muscles above her. And yet, the kiss did not waver nor break. They continued the osculation of their lips, their mingled breaths hot and steamy against the skin on their faces.

"Do you know what I'm talking about now?" the male asked against his girlfriend's still moving mouth.

"Mhms…" an answer, which closely resembled a 'yes', was muffled between the two.

From her lower back, Videl felt Gohan's hands travel up to her shoulders, and pushed her down to a reclining position. The soft material of her comforter appeared very cold against her heated skin, causing her to seek out more warmth from the boy now lying on top of her. Deliberately pushing the hem of his shirt aside, she firmly pressed her palms and fingers on his back, tracing and memorizing the intricacies of his hardened muscles, and reveling in the fervor of his body.

Moaning quietly from her torrid touches, the dark-eyed boy decided to make it a little easier for her to explore, when in one quick movement, his shirt was welcomed warmly by the marble tiles of the floor. The kiss had now been broken, and the two realized just how badly they both needed oxygen. They sweated profusely as the summer sun blazed its strength through the windows uncovered by the curtains, and added to the rising temperature in the room. Videl gave her mouth a break as she turned her face to the side, away from Gohan's capturing lips, and so instead he caught her jaw in small butterfly and nipping kisses. Her creamy skin was so soft and fragile even with the thin layer of wetness lubricating it, that he felt it would break under the pressure of his teeth. But she did not complain when his bites got pricklier and harder, and instead just closed her eyes and let her head loll back.

A few minutes after he continued his actions on to her neck, Gohan began to realize the lack of reaction he was getting from the girl, except for the occasional moans that elicited from her mouth. She was panting arduously, but not enough to provoke any further ministrations from her body. As a matter of fact, with her eyes closed like that, she simply looked like she was in a deep sleep, having the dream of her life. Wondering if his next movement was going to change her passiveness, the young man hooked his fingers at the bottom of her shirt, and pulled it over her head and arms, joining it with his down on the floor.

He predicted correctly.

The female Satan opened her eyes and shot him an irritated look; she suddenly pushed him away in a fearful and furious manner. Gohan was taken back by the impetuous change in her approach, eyes wide with questions and abashment.

Suddenly, the room seemed a lot cooler.

"Gohan, why don't you just tell me what's bothering you?" she asked, half yelling although concern was evident in her voice.

"What?"

"You know what I'm talking about!" annoyed by the dumb answer, the Earthling got up from where she lay in bed and trudged towards the young man, giving him another push on the chest when she reached him. "You know I hate it when you keep things away from me!" she continued, voice rising. "You know that, Gohan!"

Another push.

However, the denunciation did not make sense at all to the accused. She had wanted this, didn't she? She wanted him to do this, so why was she pushing him away now? And why in the world was she acting like she did not know the answer to the question she, herself, had asked? She was dying. She was freaking dying, and she had the nerve to ask him what bothered him. Forget the fact that he had read her stupid diary, and that he violated her privacy. Forget that she would get angry, because she was angry now anyway. The teenage Saiyan, emotional from all the blaming, rose up to her and began his own series of questions.

"You're one to talk Videl," he began. His tone was soft and quiet, contrasting her intonation. "You have your own secrets that you never bothered to tell me, and now you're angry because we're doing this? This is for you."

Videl shook her head violently.

"What? No, Gohan. I'm not angry because of what we're doing right now. Heck, honestly, I'd do it with you any day if you genuinely wanted to." Her articulation was gentler this time, but the sternness was still there, as well as a tinge of anger. "But you don't. Not today… not even yesterday. I can tell."

When the spiky-haired boy did not retort, Videl continued.

"Just tell me… please,"

He looked away from her eyes for one second, concentrating on the discarded clothes on the floor. They looked funny in that kind of position, simply strewn like that, a bunch of colours against the pale shade of the tile. Looking back at his girlfriend, he began his explanation with another interrogation.

"Why didn't you tell me you were sick?"

Her exasperated face evaporated, and was replaced with one of confusion… very much like his.

"What?" she asked, using the almost over-used word of the day. "Gohan, I'm not sick!"

"See? You're lying too! You're hiding something too. I'm not the only one here."

"What are you talking about? Gohan I'm fine."

"No you're not, Vi! You're not because -"

"Yes, I am!"

" – because I read it in your diary!"

The boy did not even have time to witness the change of her expression, from denial to stunned and finally to rage. He only had time to open his eyes, and wonder why he was now gazing at the doorway. Then he felt the rather excruciating pain on his cheekbone, and only then he realized that Videl had punched him. Turning his head back towards her, he saw her reddened fist and reddened face which confirmed his guess.

"Stop playing games with me, Gohan!" she yelled, fully now just like she did when he had suggested her to cut her hair.

He did not even need to ask 'what'. She continued on her own.

"If you're trying to keep me away from your case, at least have some decent facts to back it up… because just so you know, I don't keep an idiotic diary!" sarcasm laced her voice.

Shocked and caught off guard by her revelation, Gohan could do little except but to stare at her as if she had condensed into a blurry spirit or ghost of some sort. The realization hit him… was it all a mistake?

"But…" he mumbled, looking at her earnestly. "The book… it said diary… and you said you were dying…" he continued incoherently. "You said you wanted to sleep with me…"

"What? What book?"

"It was a hard cover one. One of those in the box that you asked me to throw outside in the backyard… it had 'Don't Read' scribbled on the front by a green sharpie, and –"

His explanation was interrupted abruptly by another mood swing. Suddenly, the Videl who had been extremely indignant just a few seconds ago disappeared, and now came a different young woman. One who had a gush of laughter erupt from her mouth, and one who collapsed back on the bed, laughing abundantly to the point that tears squeezed out of her shut eyes.

Videl looked odd and different in her current position, the young saviour concluded, when he could do nothing but to watch her crack up. Her pale skin was for all show as she had nothing on her top but a lacy bra of faded blue to cover her breasts. He watched uncomfortably the vibrations on her chest and stomach as she continued to cachinnate. He changed his mind, and decided that she actually looked good that way, avoiding resisting the smile that tugged on his lips. Suddenly, his hands itched to touch her again.

Gathering herself up from her giggling state, the blue-eyed fighter sat up on the bed, stifling another burst of cackle.

"Gohan, that was not my diary!" she said. "That was a story I wrote a few years back for an extra credit assignment. I didn't want to waste my regular sheets of paper, so I bought the notebook. Unfortunately all of them had the word diary printed across the cover so I didn't have any choice."

Another series of laughing followed her elaboration.

Gohan could only stand there, staring once again. He said nothing, and did nothing; he thought of nothing, because he knew that his mind would not work properly. At least not in the way he would want it to so he could decipher what just happened.

"Oh, baby, I'm sorry," Videl replied. She tugged on his hand and pulled her towards him. He sat beside her, as she took his head in her arms and laid it on her shoulder, fingers brushing against his cheek. It would not bruise, she knew that. His skin was made too tough for her attacks to scratch or damage it, a lesson she has learned a while back. However, it still turned red against her sudden act of fury a minute ago. "I'm sorry I punched you."

A moment of silence followed, Gohan still unable to recuperate from the strange turn of events.

"So… tell me," Videl replied. "Did you like the death scene? Was my spelling and grammar okay? What did you think of it?"

"Uh, it was… believable," he answered simply.

She chuckled.

"So you don't touch yourself?" he asked.

"What?!"

"Nothing…" he answered quickly. "Nothing… I'm just… Videl, I'm sorry I hit on you."

"No worries," then she slowly added. "If you really want to, we can continue."

The late teen pulled slightly away from the warm hug and smiled. "No… I think I'll wait until my cheek heals. But, you could do me a favor and not put your shirt on for the rest of the time I'm here," he teased, which earned him a playful slap on his other cheek.

"Not happening." Videl stood up from the bed, snatched her shirt from the floor and swiftly placed it back on. Impishly, she took Gohan's shirt as well, and in one clean movement, threw it out of her window, leaving the boy gaping at her mischievousness.

"Sorry," she shrugged.

AN: Any comments are greatly appreciated.