Hiya BV readers, this is a personal challenge into writing something that is not dark, with angst and drama or any other heavy emotions. A simple, light hearted, romantic AU is what I am aiming for. Of course there will be some adult content in later chapters but I simply can not write a romance without at least one fully fledged lemon scene in it. Yes, I know, I'm shameless.
While I love to read humour I struggle to write it and honestly I can't put this under the humour genre because I don't think it's at all funny. I'm very insecure about this fic so if you do decide to review, remember that while constructive criticism is appreciated – flames are not!
Happy reading …
Something Odd
Chapter One
RED.
That was the sole colour young Bulma Briefs saw in that moment. Not the pitch black of his furrowed eyebrows or glinting eyes that pierced into the very heart of her anger, making it rage forth like the red sea.
No, all blue haired, pretty faced Bulma saw was an arrogant Prince who deemed it fit to have Universes placed at his feet due to physical superiority. And oh how she wanted to show him strength. Currently the fierce grip on her screw driver begged to be wedged into his chiselled chest. Her practical combat boots almost vibrated with the need to be introduced to his crotch.
"You can not just barge in here and demand I finish on your time. Had it not been for your incompetence then we would not have been in this position at all."
He growled at her and she idly wondered if this was a Saiyan way of communicating. While she had not found herself in the presence of many engaging Saiyans – she thought of Goku more as a human really – this one had grunted and growled at her more than once in the last ten minutes. Bulma knew he could speak normal words though; it seemed it was only reserved to expressing his displeasure or demands.
Yes, Vegeta could be very vocal when it came to demanding.
Demand. Demand. Demand.
Bulma would have liked to demand many things from the Saiyan Prince herself then. Like asking him to turn around so she could kick him in the rear end with all her might and pray to Kami that Vegeta was moved out the door. Right then however, she would be happy to simply just scream at him as she did not think she had the energy to attempt any adventurous physical movements. Had the Saiyan Prince not had such a foul temper and air of contempt Bulma would not have minded his presence in watching her work.
However the fact that he had so blatantly overlooked her gorgeous beauty – something that men all over Earth coveted – and spoke to her, the richest woman on her planet, in such a demeaning tone irked her.
When the Prince had come in to check on her progress repairing his latest toy, Bulma had immediately fluffed out her shoulder length, blue hair and pinched her cheeks. She had curtsied to him in a dignified manner that had not seemed like a lower class bow but a respectful greeting. The fact that it had given him a lovely look at her extraordinary cleavage was a mere coincidence. Yet his dark eyes had not strayed to her breasts.
Not once.
Bulma was offended. Naturally. Usually she could not get men to stop looking at her boobs.
"Do not let me interrupt." Had been his first raspy words to her, which made Bulma easily overlook that his acknowledgment had been slightly stilted.
Thinking that he was a graceful Prince with fine etiquette Bulma had flipped her hair and bent down to work on the gravity room as requested, the fact that her rounded bottom stuck out provocatively was simply a result of her job. Yet when she discreetly lifted her blue eyes, she was shocked to see Vegeta engrossed in examining her work on the control panel. His gaze no where near her lovely derrière.
With a huff Bulma decided that she needed a more direct approach. Slowly she inched her way around the control panel, finally his gold tipped boots in her vision. Walking over towards some scattered tools Bulma "accidentally" slipped over some stray spanners.
She stretched her arms out, knowing how fast the Saiyan reflexes were and readied herself to cling to the handsome Prince's muscular chest. A coy glaze already forming in her eyes and a soft gasp escaping her now pouty lips.
Only Bulma had not prepared her arms to flail wildly as she zoomed face first towards the floor when Vegeta, instead of catching her, took a step back. His reflexes were lightning fast however when, instead of falling flat on her face – which surely would have ruined her perfect nose – she was pulled back like a three year old by the back of her clingy top. Vegeta having already dematerialised behind her.
The fright marred her face into an ugly expression of fear and embarrassment. Cheeks red, adrenaline pumping poisonously with angry humiliation Bulma whirled around to face the Saiyan Prince.
"Your attempts to seduce me are disgusting." He sneered at her and Bulma was sure she was as red as a tomato with mortification stamped shamefully on her forehead. "I demand you finish your work at once."
Mentally shaking of her … something that went beyond embarrassment at having her advances seen so clearly and spurned so cruelly, had Bulma feeling something odd bloom in her chest. With an indignant huff she turned around with a flick of her thick tresses and ignored Vegeta's presence in the room.
After he started complaining on how long she was taking and her incompetence, Bulma had been sorely tempted to hit him hard over the head with a wrench. All traces of her earlier humiliation forgotten.
"You can not just barge in here and demand I finish on your time. Had it not been for your incompetence then we would not have been in this position at all." That was how Bulma had found herself in her current predicament.
"You are the servant and I am the Prince. Show me some respect or my father will hear about this."
Her cheeks were flushed and some stray tendrils of hair stuck to her wet forehead from having to work inside a gravity room on a planet with scorching temperatures, without being able to turn on any air-conditioning. The last thing the genius wanted was some haughty Prince breathing down her neck.
Ever since she had been four, Bulma had looked forward to coming to Vegeta-sei. Since her father, the brilliant Dr. Briefs had offered his personal advice to King Fury of Earth a peaceful alliance had been born between Vegeta-sei and her home world. Their resources and technology in exchange for the Saiyans' protection. It was a fruitful deal and both ends benefited entirely.
However sixteen year old Bulma was definitely rethinking her options. She had been packing for an adventure with Goku that summer, the little Saiyan who was duty bound to Earth, in the hopes of finally finding her dream boyfriend. She was going to see the world, traipse around her beautiful planet and have all the fun she wanted to. Soak up the sun until she tanned her fair skin, play in the water till she wrinkled and build snowmen as large and as tall as she was.
Then her father had taken ill and the Prince of Vegeta-sei had broken his most prized possession. The gravity room her father had built for the King. Since Dr Briefs' daughter really was the only one with such mechanical know how, Bulma had been sent in his stead. How could she refuse? This had been an opportunity she had dreamed of since she had been a little girl.
She would finally get to travel into space. She had wanted to see her own world first before venturing out of Earth but she knew sometimes life didn't go exactly as she planned. She would be seeing the castle of Vegeta-sei, something only very few people were privileged to and Bulma would finally get to meet the Prince.
If Bulma had not been so disappointed with the short, troll haired Prince and was a little more self reflective and honest with herself at sixteen, then she would have been more likely to admit that the Prince had been her main attraction
Not the Prince who was momentarily sneering down at her with bared canines, sharp as a lion's, nor the one who called her names and insulted her intelligence and almost let her fall from her pedestal of vanity, no.
The Prince who did dress in wonderful gleaming armours and possessed such a magnificent physique – standing tall like a sculpted statue of stone that you had to caress with your fingertips to feel its true beauty – without the disgusted sneering and disdainful arrogance. The one who bent over her hand and placed his sensual lips over it in a way that made her swoon. The Prince who pulled roses out from fresh air behind his back and placed it into her hair. She wanted the Prince she had spent sixteen bloody years reading about. The charming one.
The man who would slay dragons, cross burning bridges and climb hundred feet, stone towers for her. Yes, she wanted that fairytale Prince because Bulma Briefs was an idealistic dreamer at heart.
Vegeta the Prince of all Saiyans though was a pragmatist. A realist who did not even know what it was like to feel any kind of emotion for a woman who wasn't his mother besides the uncontrollable lust that came about with puberty. The time where a woman was just the necessity to fornicate with and satiate urges that he only indulged in when his intense training couldn't wipe such thoughts from his mind and rid such pains from his body. He was a virile young seventeen year old after all. A definite misfortune for all women who currently endeavoured to have such foolish notions as feelings for him. Vegeta had yet to outgrow any of his rigid principles.
"If you have a problem with my work, go speak to the King. He had no issues with the time frame I gave him for replacing an entire central chip. A chip, may I add that this gravity room can not function without. Had you been more brain than brawn you would have been able to understand that."
"Are you implying that I am of low intelligence?" He gritted his teeth and Bulma was surprised they were not chipping from how forceful the act looked.
"I am not implying anything. I am stating that you are an idiot. Now leave."
She was not afraid of his clenched fists or reverberating chest and the tail that lashed out from around his waist at her insult. Even the fast twitching of his left eye or the vein throbbing above it that looked ready to pop in her face did not scare her. She was protected under her land's treaty and her father's personal alliance with the King. She was simply interested in having him leave so she could do the same.
Bulma was very disappointed. Nothing on the planet had lived up to her expectations. It was too hot here, she was expected to work for an absolutely loathsome idiot and there were no acknowledgments.
Praise was important to Bulma. She thrived on it. For all her many shallow characteristics and vapid notions she was still a sixteen year old girl with normal insecurities. One who was still trying to find acceptance. She had never received it from her own young generation as they failed to relate to her intelligence and her elders viewed her as a protégé that was not yet at the peak of having an opinion that mattered.
Sighing internally Bulma was simply glad that she was almost done. Wiping at her brow she slid a screwdriver back into the trusty tool belt around her waist before reaching for her water bottle nearby. It was too hot and she was fast becoming lethargic. She was grateful that she would be asleep for the trip home.
Finally she pressed a few buttons and programmed everything as needed. She was extremely excited when the gravity machine started to reboot without any altercations and she knew it would work again. She was pleased with herself for doing such a fine job. She knew her father held his work with the utmost pride. This would be the perfect opportunity to show him that she was capable in working more hands on in the company instead of going to school. A lab and tool never subjected you to embarrassment.
Feeling satisfied with herself Bulma felt slightly more affable and turned to offer the expressionless Saiyan Prince her prettiest smile.
"All done your highness." She knew she was mocking him as she curtsied again but she couldn't help it. She really disliked him.
She watched as Vegeta walked towards the gravity room control panel and inspected the thing as if he could find a fault with a closed section and her programming. Something that made Bulma roll her big, blue eyes at. With a satisfied grunt he nodded at her and started to engage the gravity.
"Jerk." Bulma muttered under her breath as she gathered her things quickly and exited the room, however she was sure his Saiyan hearing had picked up the slur.
She truly did not like Vegeta and she did not feel like he deserved to be a Prince.
"What?" Bulma screamed in disbelief. "Daddy, I fixed the thing perfectly. It was just a frazzled control panel. He pushed the gravity room to the maximum without it being properly tested. And I fixed it."
The still recovering Doctor had a very rare look of light frustration on his aging face. "Well you must have not done it entirely well Bulma because the King has requested that I come over and sort out the gravity room immediately. Apparently Prince Vegeta is not happy because you spent most of the time being distracted by flirting with a soldier."
Bulma's face went redder. That bastard. She had not even spoken to a soldier on his planet. So she might have flicked her hair and stuck out her curves at him, really it had been harmless. Nothing more.
However she knew her father would not believe her because he had already taken the King and Prince's word for it. Her friendly nature with boys having raised her father's eyebrows many a time before. Furthermore Bulma realised that Vegeta had set her up. She knew full well that the gravity room had been in perfect working order before she left. Which meant he wanted her to get into trouble. The bastard had sabotaged her.
"I expect more from you, Bulma. This is not just about your genius. This is about responsibility and carrying the family name and business. I am truly disappointed."
Dr Briefs walked away leaving a very hurt Bulma in his wake. She hated disappointing her father in any way possible. She knew that her parents could not have children after her and Ted Briefs had always wished for a son. While he loved and spoiled Bulma immensely she always felt like it was never the same kind of love and attention she would have received had she been a boy.
Bunny Briefs on the other hand loved to spoil her daughter. Seeing the forlorn look on her daughter's bright features Bunny stood up. "Would you like to go shopping, Bulma darling?"
"Urhg." Bulma noisily stomped up to her father's private labs, leaving Bunny's "was it something I said" unconcernedly behind her.
Bulma powered on the communication link, quickly trying to connect to Vegeta-sei. She was surprised to see that the person she wanted to speak to was the one who answered her. A very pleased smirk on his lips and Bulma dearly wished she was seeing him in person. She wanted to slap it off his face.
"You absolute arsehole! You did this on purpose, didn't you?" Bulma screeched at him.
Vegeta's smug smirk grew into a grin that could best be described as feral and victorious, sharp white teeth gleaming across their state of the art communication monitors. "The next time you think you can defeat the Saiyan Prince female, remember that I am invincible."
Bulma was not given the chance to voice the scathing reply on the tip of her boiling tongues as the link went dead. A black screen replacing the Prince's once animated and handsome face.
In her rage Bulma swiped a hand across the table. She was never, ever going back to Vegeta-sei.
Ever.
And she would not fix a damn thing for that blasted … monkey ever again.
Seven Years Later …
King Vegeta sighed deeply as he showed a moment of tired irritation while he was left with only his mate and son's mentor in audience.
"I think Vegeta needs something that would ground him somewhat." Queen Selairia suggested from her place next to the King.
"He is too young to take a mate, Lair." The King spoke to his wife as Nappa stood bloodied and bruised before him.
The Prince had beaten his guard simply because Nappa had questioned his authority on a mission. If the King knew better, which he certainly did, Nappa's age and experience had probably been right to question the Prince. The King was not so skewed by his emotion for the boy to not know that Vegeta was a spoiled brat who was not used to being denied his way.
"What happened, Nappa?"
"He refused to listen to my advice, my King. I told him not to use force but he went in with enough ki to annihilate a small planet. The lands were too volatile and erupted. We lost everything. We were not able to salvage one ounce of mineral and an emergency exit was required. We lost three soldiers and could do nothing for the inhabitants of the planet either."
Queen Lair sighed heavily next to the King. "Ask Zorn to make sure no one knows we were on Planet Trops last. Make it look like a stray meteor. I do not want the Intergalactic Council in my courts."
"I will deal with the families of the deceased tonight Nappa, make sure Zorn arranges for their arrival this evening." The Queen said wanly and King Vegeta nodded approvingly.
"Go to the med bay, Nappa." The King waved his hand at Nappa's thanks and rested his head on his fist, elbow leaning heavily into the plush armrest of his throne.
"Vegeta needs to be sent on a mission that trains his mind, my King." Lair spoke softly and the King agreed.
However the King was failing in his attempts to find such a mission as the Prince continued to prove he was relying too much on brute strength, struggling to reign in his vicious irritability. Vegeta was very temperamental and the last thing the King needed was for his son to endanger the Saiyan Empire with his impulsive rage. That would not bode well for his family. Over the years they made sizable alliances with other planets. Gaining by exporting and importing and keeping their own planet flourishing.
They still satisfied their Saiyan instincts by new training regimens thanks to the technology provided by other planets and all the protection duty they did around the Universe. The Saiyan Empire was a masterpiece and King Vegeta had come a long way since his own father. He had done what no other King had managed to do. An Empire that was built for the King's heirs. The Prince though seemed to come up with the most ridiculous ways to screw up missions and lose the King profit.
"Enter." King Vegeta boomed as he heard the familiar knocking from outside.
"Dr Briefs of Earth to see you sire." Zorn announced and allowed the wizened doctor inside.
Ted Briefs gave a respectful nod of his head and walked towards the King. It was a show of mutual respect that the King of Vegeta-sei did not expect Dr Briefs to bow before him. When you worked with someone as good natured and trustworthy as Dr Briefs for over a decade it was difficult not to gain respect for them.
King Vegeta appreciated how Dr Briefs had handled the Saiyans on their time on Earth with his mind rather than his fists. The man was physically weak, laughable really, but he was a genius and immeasurably powerful in his own right. And King Vegeta always respected valuable people. They were not easy to come by. Not many as honourable as Dr Briefs.
"King Vegeta, Queen Liar." It was a mark of respect that Dr Briefs used the titles King and Queen, but a show of friendship that he addressed Salairia as Lair. It was a nickname only few were privileged enough to call her by. One that not even some queens of other worlds had garnered.
"To what do we owe the pleasure, Dr Briefs?" King Vegeta asked easily.
He did not think Ted was due on Vegeta-sei for another week. The King wondered if something was wrong. As he listened though he could only share a silent look that spoke volumes with his Queen. This was it. This could be exactly what they needed to better train Vegeta. The Gods were offering them a solution and the King would not refuse.
"You have my word, Dr Briefs."
"You have lost me quite a lot of profit son. What say you about this?"
Prince Vegeta looked up at his father with empty eyes. He had long since learned to steel himself against his father's prying gaze. Vegeta remembered as a boy that showing weakness was something that could be easily exploited to his own disadvantage. He knew he shouldn't have messed up the latest mission when he had insisted he could handle his own team but how the fuck was he supposed to know the stupid place would blow up.
"I apologise, father. I will prove better on the next mission." The last thing Vegeta wanted was to be cooped up in the Palace on interplanetary relations as punishment.
There had been the time before his initiation when he had been punished for challenging a foreign dignitary's son. It had not been his fault that the boy had been all talk and ended up in the med bay for two weeks after Vegeta had sparred with him. The Prince had even gone easy on the fool. Weakling. His father however had seen fit that Vegeta be introduced into the political side of their Empire and had punished him by making him sit through political meetings for two weeks. A forth night of endless drivel from snivelling pansies droning on about issues that Vegeta would have simply just smashed his way through. It had been an utter waste of his time to even seem remotely interested in such tripe.
At this the King looked up at Vegeta with an entreating stare. "Your word, Vegeta?"
Vegeta knew that his word with bind him to whatever it was his father wanted and he was not in a hurry to do so. He remembered when he had been eight and refused to sit in during his formal tutoring, choosing to play truant and intimidate his weak instructor instead. That had not worked out well so well for him. His father had made him live a life of third class status and threatened to disown him if he did not educate himself in the ways of a Prince and future King. He could not believe that the Prince of all Saiyans had been subjected to such horrors.
He shuddered as he thought about some bullies placing worms within his clothing. Yes, he could still remember what it felt like to have vermin crawling around your … all over you. Ever since, Vegeta refused to even look at a worm again. The Saiyan Prince involuntarily shuddered.
Therefore he was very sceptical to answer however; he knew he could not really deny his father. He did not want to be sent with Tarble to the weaker planets on planetary consolidation. Vegeta's face scrunched up in disdain at the ghastly thought.
"Of course, father." Vegeta replied smoothly.
"Excellent." The King called genially and Vegeta inconspicuously looked over at his mother. Her eyes were downcast but he could see a small smile playing at one corner of her lips. That was bad. If his mother was in on it then there was no way he could bribe her into dissuading his father if he did not appreciate the punishment.
"What is it, father?" Vegeta asked. He needed to know.
"You are to travel alone on a very special mission, son. Retrieve a priceless asset to this Empire for the future. No harm must come to it son because it is a rather fragile treasure but I have experienced the sheer brilliance it gives to this world already."
Vegeta was unsure if he should be disgusted by how much his father was prattling on about something that was undoubtedly weak. The Prince never did appreciate anything that was not of power and strength. He wondered what his old man could possibly be so thrilled about. "Which is?" He tried to keep the irritation from his impatience in his voice.
Vegeta could see that the King was enjoying himself by keeping his son in suspense. Therefore when the reply came Vegeta wanted to snort. Surely it was a joke.
"Bulma Briefs."
