Love, A Game..

Chapter 18

I need love, love
To ease my mind
I need to find, find
Someone to call mine

Gohan Son shook his black hair out of his eyes and jogged along the rain-soaked footpath. He chose a great day to be walking to the library after school – it had been threatening to rain all day, but the charcoal-maned eighteen-year-old had decided to chance it only to be caught the second he stepped out of the door.

But papa said:
“You can’t hurry love.
No, you just have to wait ”
He said, “Love don’t come easy,
It’s a game of give and take.”

The demi-Saiyan paused under an overshadowing tree, where it was relatively dry apart from the occasional heavy drip from the branches and leaves above. He shivered slightly, brushing the damp ebony strands off his forehead again. His jacket was now misted with a fine spray of water, his boots and the hems of his pants soaked as he’d charged blindly through any number of puddles. He doubted they’d even let him in the library in his present state. He’d drip all over the books.

“You can’t hurry love,
No, you just have to wait.
You got to trust, give it time,
No matter how long it takes.”

He sighed. To be entirely honest, he wasn’t annoyed about the delay – Videl was waiting for him, supposedly there for a study session. Not that he didn’t like Videl or anything, she was a nice girl and all, but … he knew she wanted to go out with him and he just didn’t find himself attracted to her. Add to that the fact that his mother was constantly pressuring them to go out together, to the point of taking Gohan’s phone calls and making arrangements on his behalf when he wasn’t around, and his reluctance to spend more time with the violet-eyed girl was understandable.

But how many heartaches
Must I stand
Before I find a love
To let me live again

Gohan shook his head, a rueful smile quirking his mouth. Any other guy at his school, especially Sharpner, would be ecstatic to be in his position. Videl Satan was beautiful, rich, a great martial artist – there was no reason not to like her. Which made Gohan wonder why, exactly, he found himself disinclined to spend time with her.

Right now the only thing
That keeps me hangin’ on
When I feel my strength,
Yeah it’s almost gone

There was one possibility … but he pushed that thought away. That had been years ago, when he was much younger and more impressionable. And it had all come to nothing. It had no reason to affect him now, seven years on.

I remember papa said:
“You can’t hurry love.
No, you just have to wait.”
He said, “Love don’t come easy.
It’s a game of give and take.”

And yet he still occasionally – well, more than occasionally, frustratingly often in fact – found his thoughts drifting to Mirai Trunks. At the age of eleven, Gohan had fallen in love with the cerulean-eyed bishonen from the future, and felt certain that his affections were returned. But Trunks had left him, taken his time machine back to his own home to destroy the androids there, and refused to stay in the past or even to visit again. The demi-Saiyan’s heart had never really healed…

I remember papa said:
“You can’t hurry love.
No, you just have to wait.”
He said, “Love don’t come easy.
It’s a game of give and take.”

Gohan looked out at the veil of misty silver that was growing heavier by the minute. A dull ache still returned to his chest every time he thought of Trunks, but he forced himself to ignore it, to put the past behind him. What was done was done, and there was no reason to keep pining for the dreamy teenager from the future.

No I can’t bear
To live my life alone
I grow impatient for a love
To call my own

Startled at his own thoughts, he shook his head sharply. He wasn’t pining … well, not exactly … more like brooding … But he had good reason to. It was reasonable to take some time to get over his first love, anyone would agree. Gohan just happened to have taken seven years. He would forget him, in time. … Just not any time in the foreseeable future.

But when I feel that I,
I can’t go on
These precious words
Keep me hangin’ on.

The dark-haired demi-Saiyan put his head down and jogged out of the shelter of the tree into the rain again. The rain, now lashing harshly against the pavement, hit his exposed neck, trickling down the back of his jacket and causing shivers to run up and down his spine. He didn’t really mind rain until it got to this degree. There weren’t many things he liked inside his clothes, and water wasn’t one of them. Mirai Trunks, on the other hand…

I remember papa said:
“You can’t hurry love.
No, you just have to wait.”
He said, “Love don’t come easy,
It’s a game of give and take.”

All of a sudden the weather’s chill didn’t seem to be affecting Gohan. He felt warm, almost toasty, with the sudden onset of seven-year-old memories. Although he and Trunks had never gone all the way, they’d done basically everything conceivable short of actual sex. In the short time Gohan and his Mirai koibito had been together, the eleven-year-old’s flexibility had increased several times over. He hadn’t been the only one to show improvement, however – by the time he went back to the future, Trunks’ own arsenal of tricks had seen many new additions. It had been quite fun, really…

“You can’t hurry love.
No, you just have to wait.”
He said, “Trust, give it time,
No matter how long it takes.”

Abruptly Gohan realised that he had reached the library and a familiar pigtailed girl was waiting for him.

No, love, love,
Don’t come easy.
But I keep on waiting,
Anticipating,

For that soft voice
To talk to me at night,
For some tender arms
To hold me tight.

“Gohan!” exclaimed Videl happily. She rushed to his side as he came in, stamping his feet on the mat in the coatroom, and took his arm as soon as he’d divested himself of his jacket. The taller boy felt more than a little weird talking to Videl after the memories he’d just been entertaining, but he dismissed the recollections as no good for him. He had to get over Trunks, and those kinds of thoughts wouldn’t help the process.

I keep waiting
I keep on waiting
But it ain’t easy
It ain’t easy

“Come on, we’ve got a lot to do. I found some books that have loads of information, and those pictures you said you’d bring will be a great help.” Suppressing a tired sigh, Gohan let himself be dragged through the library to the study station his supposed girlfriend had picked out. She was a stubborn one, this Videl. Even without Chi Chi’s encouragement she would have latched onto Gohan and refused to let go, determined to snag the gorgeous Son for herself whether he liked it or not.

But papa said:
“You can’t hurry love.
No, you just have to wait. ”
He said to trust, give it time,
No matter how long it takes.

With Videl’s enthusiastic assistance, Gohan soon buried himself in study, determined to forget about Trunks. It had to happen eventually.

“You can’t hurry love.
No, you just have to wait.”
He said “Love don’t come easy,
It’s a game of give and take.”

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