Any Given Sunday--Chapter 1

By Elektralyte

Disclaimer: I write for fun, not profit and Dragonball/Z/Gt is owned by Funimation and others. It is not owned by me.

Rating: T/PG-13

Summary: It's about a reunion, a bet, a game of touch football and maybe a few still sore issues that finally get resolved. At least that's what happens when a certain pro baseball player faces off with his genius ex-girlfriend.

Warning: Mentions of alcohol consumption, language.

It was a beautiful fall day. The weather was warm, but not unbearable and the air was sweet. Although it was noon the sun sat low in the sky, ready to to begin its descent into dusk. On days like this Yamcha would give into a feeling of melancholy, almost verging on heartache. He never understood why he felt this way; perhaps he was just getting old.

A pair of supple, slightly tanned legs parked themselves next to Yamcha's personal space. He casually set aside his beer, tilted his head up and squinted at the invader.

"Hey there Slugger," she said with a wink. She crouched down on the balls of her feet and asked, "Whatcha doing here all by your lonesome?"

Yamcha peered at the blue-haired beauty for a moment, and then gave a shrug. He took the martini glass she was holding and patted the ground next to him. She sat down in that spot and waited for his explanation. Before he responded he took a sip of her drink.

'Gah!' he spat. The rim of the glass was coated with sugar. "Eww, Sidecar?"

"Sorry," Bulma apologized sarcastically. "Next time ask before stealing my drink."

He passed the offensive beverage back to her. The pair was soon enveloped by an uncomfortable silence. They watched the kids play ki-tag while the Saiyans ate themselves silly.

"So?"

"So what?"

"So what the hell's wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong with me, Bulma. What's the matter, no one paying enough attention to you?"

Bulma hissed in exasperation. "You are such an ass Yamcha!" She stood up to leave.

"And you have such a beautiful ass, Bulma."

The god-awful drink and the glass flew into Yamcha's face. "Ouch!" He complained. The action didn't go unnoticed.

Great! Thought Yamcha as he saw Vegeta scowling at him.

He carefully wiped the sticky beverage off his face and made his way to the picnic table. While he fixed himself a pre-dinner snack Yamcha mused about his and Bulma's friendship. In truth, the two of them got along quite well and they still kept in touch after all these years. But occasionally, they had moments like this when they didn't like each other.

This normally happened when Vegeta was around. After almost 10 years, he still didn't like the guy. Vegeta even proved himself to be one of the good guys and a family man, but Yamcha would never get over the fact that the prince once killed him and stole his girlfriend right out from under him. Go figure.

I really need to get over it, he sighed. Everyone else has.

"Hey Yamcha, I hear you're thinking of taking a coaching position for the Taitans?" Tien's voice broke into Yamcha's thoughts.

"Huh? Where'd you hear that?"

"I think I read it in the paper or something. I dunno." Tien answered while foraging for table treats.

"Yamcha wouldn't be interested in that. He's barely interested in baseball. He's only playing for the money." Bulma interjected. It seemed she was still ticked off at him.

"What makes you think that?" He was slightly annoyed with how she inserted herself into the conversation.

"I don't know, maybe all the times you complained about having to go to practice instead of training?"

"Hey, coaching is a different thing. I could do it if I wanted to . . ."

"Yeah, right!" She shot back. The volume of both their voices were increasing bit by bit. People were starting to look their way in vague interest.

"Coaching requires decisiveness. It requires directness and initiative. Not to mention intelligence, you know, things you lack."

Vegeta began making his way to the table. He did not like the sound of the argument and was going to put an end to it.

"Actually Bulma, I am considering a coaching offer. Some people think I'm capable of doing a good job."

"Oh yeah? I bet I could do a better job than you."

"What? You wouldn't know the first thing about sports! Or exercising for that matter. You cry if you have to run to the phone!"

That got a chuckle out of everyone, even Vegeta, though he immediately went back to scowling.

"How about a game then? You and me pick teams and battle it out now," Bulma challenged.

"We don't have any bats or balls, how can we play?"

Bulma looked around and spotted Goten and Trunks playing with a football. "Okay, we'll play football. Whatever team scores the most points before Chichi finishes barbequing wins!"

Yamcha was skeptical of the idea. "Do you know anything about football?"

"Sure, I watch it all the time on TV. Time to choose teams."

Bulma quickly stood up on one of the picnic tables and announced. "Okay everybody. Yamcha and I have a little challenge, we're going to see who can be the best coach. All those who want to play a friendly game of football, come up here."

Goten and Trunks jogged over. Goku shrugged and came up followed by Gohan. Krillin, who was somewhat curious, also walked up. Bulma glared at Vegeta and mouthed the word "couch". Vegeta grumbled and joined the rest of them.

"Come on Piccolo, it'll be fun!" Gohan pleaded with him slightly. Piccolo rolled his eyes and joined the group too.

Videl noticed that there were no girls so she stepped up. Krillin cajoled Eighteen and she grudgingly agreed.

"Let's flip to see who goes first. Heads or tails?" asked Yamcha, showing Bulma a coin.

"Heads!" The coin was tossed and the two moved in to see how it landed.

"Heads it is. Your call Bulma."

"I call Goku and Gohan!" She began.

"What? Why two?"

"Because, you can be a player coach. I can't. I might get hurt." At that, everyone face vaulted.

"Fine. I pick . . .Vegeta." Vegeta was not thrilled. Not only did his own wife not pick him, but he also had to play on the weakling's team.

"Eighteen!"

'Damn!' He swore. 'She's getting all the good players!' "Piccolo!"

"Krillin," she announced smugly.

"Videl."

"Trunks." Trunks did a little dance. Vegeta took note of this minor betrayal.

"Goten."

"Aw. Why do I have to be on the loser's team?" He whined.

"Wait a minute!" Gohan shouted.

Everyone stopped and looked at him. "You can't play Videl, you injured your wrist, remember?"

"Oh, yeah! Um, sorry guys." She held up her wrist to show that it was bandaged.

"Ahg! Okay Bulma, I get one of your players and I want Gohan."

"No way! The Son's are a set." She insisted.

"WHAT? Says who?"

"I do, pick someone else."

"You can't do that . . ." No way was he going to let her get away with this.

They bickered back and forth until they decided to play "Rock, Paper, Scissors". Yamcha ended up with Eighteen, but somehow Bulma finagled a way to include Tien in her lineup.

Pissed off and tired of screwing around Yamcha gave into her demands. The two agreed to just play backyard style except that tackling was allowed. Also no one could use their 'special' ki abilities and anyone caught using them would be ejected from the game. Oolong and Roshi agreed to ref, and Puar agreed to be the scoreboard.

"Oh, and Yamcha?" Bulma called out mockingly. "When I win, you're gonna kiss my ass."

"I guess it's a good thing I'm going to win then. Come guys, huddle."

Coach Yamcha surveyed his team. Let's see, Vegeta, Piccolo, Eighteen, Goten and me.

He became alarmed at the number of ex-villains on his team, himself included. Two thoughts occurred to him as impending doom settled on his heart. The first one was, bad guys never beat Goku.

The second, after noticing the outright disinterest of his teammates was, Man am I gonna hate kissing Bulma's ass.

TBC