a./n.: In every B/V I've ever read, Bulma has dumped Yamcha. Whether they
parted on good terms or not, she was the one that pushed him away, and he
was the one that begged to stay (hey, that rhymed!). Well, what if it was
the other way around? Yamcha finds happiness, and Bulma is trying to scheme
her way back into his life. Will she break up the new couple? Will Vegeta
get mixed up in this somehow? Who knows! I sure don't. I have a feeling I'm
going to get some flames for this, which is good in a strange way. If I do
get one, it will be my first flame! Yay! Anyway, read. Unless you hate
Yamcha.
Disclaimer: If I owned DBZ.hmm.I'd put Dragoness Eclectic, Ash the Wanderer, and Jessibelle67 in charge of writing it. Since I don't, I present you with this humble fic instead.
Chapter One: Crazy for Bein' so Lonely
Yamcha sat in his favorite post-breakup haunt and stared ruefully into his beer. He really shouldn't be here. He should be training, like Vegeta and undoubtedly everyone else, but Bulma had dumped him. Again. He knew that if he tried to train now, every move would bring a picture of her, shouting at him, "I hate you!! I never want to see you again!!"
He wondered idly what had caused the blowup this time. All women were strange, alien creatures as far as he was concerned, but Bulma was sometimes as mysterious and distant as another universe. As far as he knew, he hadn't done anything. He had been spending all his time lately either training at Capsule Corp. or playing baseball with his team. Maybe he hadn't been spending enough time with her? But she knew the androids were coming in three years! Well, two and a half now. Yamcha sighed, shook his head, and took another swig of his drink. Women. You couldn't understand them, you couldn't live with them, and when they dumped you it felt like the world had ended. Not that he had much experience of women, outside of Bulma, since he had been 'going steady' with her since the tender age of sixteen. He was no longer shy to the point of freezing around other girls, but he was still far from smooth. He tended to blush, stammer, and generally act like an awkward, clumsy teenager. And it didn't really feel like the world had ended. Not anymore. He had been through this routine too many times.
"Hi. Mind if I sit here? The other tables are full." Yamcha looked up into chocolate-brown eyes in a very pretty face, framed by equally chocolate-brown hair. Uh-oh. Here it came. He felt his cheeks turning an embarrassing shade of red and ducked his head.
"S-sure. Sit down." God, he sounded like an idiot. Why couldn't he ever relax around girls? It wasn't as if she had even done anything! Just a simple request to sit down at his uncrowded table, and all the old reflexes kicked in. At least he hadn't fallen over or stiffened up yet. All those years with Bulma had done him that much good, at least.
She had noticed his reaction. "What's the matter? I don't bite, you know."
"Y-yeah, it's just." He was as red as a beet, he could feel it. "I get really.um. nervous around girls. Ever since I was a teenager."
"Oh, I see. I'm Cesily, by the way."
"Y-yamcha." He tried to force himself to stop blushing, but it wasn't working. He ducked his head again.
"Hey." she cocked her head at him, "Aren't you that famous baseball player?"
"Y-yeah, that's me." Idiot, idiot, idiot! He sounded so stupid!
"I don't watch that many sports, but everyone's heard of you. Aren't you going out with Bulma Briefs? You know, the owner of Capsule Corp.?"
Depression temporarily enabled him to overcome his shyness. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, I was, but she dumped me. Again." Oops, shouldn't have added that last part. Now she'd get curious. Oh well, he didn't really care at this point. Maybe it would be a relief to talk out his problem with someone.
Sure enough, she wanted to know more. "What do you mean, again? You've dated her before?"
He snorted bitterly. "I've been dating her since I was sixteen, on and off. Sometimes I think she thinks she's 'just settled' for me, and that she could do better. But she always takes me back, and I just come when she calls. Like a dog." He took another drink as his black mood settled back over him and dispelled his natural temerity.
Cesily looked puzzled. "Why do you go back? I mean, a guy as handsome and well-known as you should have girls falling all over him!"
"That's just it. If a girl ever fell on me, I'd probably take off screaming for the hills and become a bandit, like I was before I met Bulma. I'm just too damn shy to get another girlfriend!"
"You don't seem that shy to me. Well, you did before, but not now."
Yamcha thought about saying something complimentary before his unusual boldness evaporated, but decided that honesty was the best policy. "That's because right now, I'm too depressed to be shy."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
They sat in silence for a while, listening to the music and thinking their own thoughts. Yamcha wondered what had possessed him to reveal so much to this total stranger, a woman (a very pretty woman. Yamcha hoped he wasn't starting to blush again) who had just happened to sit at his table in a bar. Sighing, he took another drink. The band struck up a new song. At last, Cesily broke the silence.
"If you're normally so shy, how did you meet Bulma?"
Yamcha shrugged. This was one story he definitely wasn't going to tell (at least, not in detail) to a stranger in a bar, no matter how depressed he was. "Long story short, I tried to rob the two guys she was with before I noticed they had a girl with them, Pu'ar had to rescue me, I followed them."
"Who's Pu'ar?" Cesily injected.
"One of my best friends. She's a shapeshifter."
"What about your girl phobia?"
Yamcha grinned. "In her natural form, she's a cat. No go. Anyway, I followed them, blah, blah, a lot of stuff happened, and eventually we decided to become girlfriend and boyfriend. We've been going steady since then, but the past few years have been pretty rocky. I don't know how much more I can, or should, take." Hmm, he noticed thoughtfully, his shyness seemed to have gone out the window, but he wasn't all that depressed anymore. What had happened?
Cesily nodded thoughtfully, choosing to ignore the fact that he hadn't really answered her question about the girl phobia. "I see. Sounds to me like you need a new girlfriend." Suddenly realizing what the last comment could be taken to mean, she shot a look at Yamcha. To her relief, the thought didn't seem to have crossed his mind.
"Yeah, you're probably right, but I doubt the particular circumstances that got Bulma and I together are ever going to turn up again." Definitely not, he added to himself. His life had gotten a lot stranger since then. In fact, that period had been the closest to 'normal' he'd been for a long time.
"Whatever you say," Cesily said, a bit skeptically, but she chose not to press the subject. The two sat in silence again, that rare, companionable silence that doesn't beg to be filled up with talk. Cesily snuck glances at Yamcha, who was watching the country-western band perform on the bar's small stage. He was handsome, she admitted critically, even with those scars. He seemed likeable enough, once he got over his shy self- consciousness, but she could see how it would be hard for him to get a girl. For one thing, he didn't seem likely to ever muster up enough courage to try. She surveyed him with the look usually reserved for a particularly knotty math problem. Should she do something? If she was going to do something, then what?
Meanwhile, Yamcha sat and pretended he couldn't tell she was looking at him. A part of him was amazed. He had managed to talk to a girl, she apparently didn't think he was an idiot (yet), and she was still there! This was an occurrence unprecedented in all of Yamcha's previous experience, except for his dates with Bulma. And even then, he couldn't always rely on her to be there by the end of the night. It was ironic, really, he mused. The only times he seemed able to muster up enough courage to talk to girls were when he was with Bulma, but at such times he couldn't talk to girls because he was with his girlfriend! He sighed. Life was really unfair. Well, he was talking to a girl now. Or at least, he had been talking to her. At this point he couldn't resist glancing at her, and she hastily tried to pretend she hadn't been watching him. Cesily was pretty, she was nice, and she seemed smart. Nowhere around Bulma's level, of course, but to tell the truth Yamcha had always found the blue-haired genius's formidable intellect to be somewhat intimidating. So.Yamcha gulped as his brain took the bit in its metaphorical teeth and plunged onward towards the obvious thought.he liked Cesily. So far, he liked her a lot. He was (at this point) officially broken up with Bulma, and this left him at loose ends as far as time between training and baseball went. Not that he considered a girlfriend as just something to fill up his spare time, but.well, maybe.he really shouldn't, with the androids coming in three years and all, but.well, he did like her. He was blushing again, he could feel it. He had better seize his chance now, before embarrassment had a chance to tie his tongue up in knots again..
"Do you." he began. She looked at him, and he nearly lost it, but plunged bravely onward. "Well, I, y'know, kinda like this song, and, well, um.. doyouwanttodance?"
Cesily swallowed a sudden lump in her throat (nervous, her? Nah.) and managed to answer teasingly. "Aren't you recovering from that breakup awfully fast?"
Yamcha gulped. "Um." Was he? It didn't feel that way.definitely not like he'd just broken up (again) with the love of his life. He filed that thought away for future consideration, and replied uncertainly. "No? I've never really done this before." Blushblushblush. God, he had to stop doing that!
Cesily was giving him a look that reminded him of himself, back in his bandit days, trying to decide if it was really worth it to rob that caravan. Finally, after the longest few seconds of Yamcha's life, she replied.
"Okay."
"Okay?" By now he was so nervous that he had all but forgotten the question. She grinned at him, rather impishly.
"Okay, I'll dance with you."
* * *
Slow-dance. Yamcha's natural coordination and grace (not to mention superhuman strength) helped him hold his own even in the most hectic mosh pit, but slow-dancing was another matter entirely. The feel of Cesily's body (Cesily's very feminine body) pressed up against his was nice, but also very frightening. What if he messed up? What if he stepped on her foot? Maybe this had been a bad idea.
"Just relax," Cesily whispered into his ear. "Jeez, I don't bite or anything. You're as tight as a coiled spring!"
"Sorry," Yamcha whispered back. "I'm just."
"Nervous?" Cesily grinned up at him, then ducked her head and continued a little shyly. "Me too. Just a little." Embarrassed, she glanced up at him, sidelong, to find that he was gazing at her in near-wonder.
"Really?" he asked, sounding amazed.
"Well, yes. I mean, you're a very attractive guy, you know."
"Th-thanks. Y-you're.um, you're really pretty. I mean that."
"Thanks."
The pair swayed together on the dance floor, relaxing in each other's arms. Nope, Yamcha thought, inhaling the scent of Cesily's shampoo with a sigh. This had definitely not been a bad idea. It was possibly a very good idea. Maybe even one of the best ones he'd made in his life so far, not that it had to be incredibly good to rank high on that list. He came back to reality with a start as Cesily slapped his arm lightly.
"You're brooding again. Stop it. Besides, the song's almost over."
He blinked, then smiled at her. Gathering his courage, he said (almost evenly), "There's another one starting, though. D'you wanna.?" He raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Sure," Cesily said, smiling suddenly and brilliantly up at him. "I'd like that."
Willing himself not to blush (it wasn't working) Yamcha led his partner back out onto the dance floor as the band began another song.
* * *
They walked outside together, Yamcha courteously holding the door for his dancing partner as she stepped through. They stood for a moment, silent as they breathed the night air, until Cesily spoke up.
"I had a good time tonight, Yamcha."
"Th-thanks." Willing himself to stop stuttering, Yamcha continued. "I had a good time, too. Much better than I was expecting when I came in here." Much better. The blush seemed to be fading, as well. "Um, I was wondering."
He trailed off; Cesily glanced up at him expectantly. "Well?"
"Would you, y'know, like to do this again.sometime.maybe?" His voice rose in hopeful inquiry as he gazed at her sidelong. Refusing him would have been like kicking a puppy. Besides, Cesily found that she really was enjoying herself. When Yamcha forgot his shyness, he was funny and entertaining, not to mention handsome and sexy.
"Tomorrow night, you, me, a movie. Sound good?" Yamcha nodded with a shy smile, and Cesily grinned. She had quickly figured out that if this relationship was going to go anywhere, she was going to have to take the lead. "So, you want me to show you where my apartment is?"
"Sure. I can pick you up tomorrow night at seven. Um, if you want."
"I'd like that."
As they walked towards the parking lot side by side, Yamcha cautiously reached for Cesily's hand. Encountering no resistance (on the contrary, her fingers laced securely through his), and feeling an odd warmth spring to life in his chest, the warrior heaved a sigh of content and continued forward, smiling.
Disclaimer: If I owned DBZ.hmm.I'd put Dragoness Eclectic, Ash the Wanderer, and Jessibelle67 in charge of writing it. Since I don't, I present you with this humble fic instead.
Chapter One: Crazy for Bein' so Lonely
Yamcha sat in his favorite post-breakup haunt and stared ruefully into his beer. He really shouldn't be here. He should be training, like Vegeta and undoubtedly everyone else, but Bulma had dumped him. Again. He knew that if he tried to train now, every move would bring a picture of her, shouting at him, "I hate you!! I never want to see you again!!"
He wondered idly what had caused the blowup this time. All women were strange, alien creatures as far as he was concerned, but Bulma was sometimes as mysterious and distant as another universe. As far as he knew, he hadn't done anything. He had been spending all his time lately either training at Capsule Corp. or playing baseball with his team. Maybe he hadn't been spending enough time with her? But she knew the androids were coming in three years! Well, two and a half now. Yamcha sighed, shook his head, and took another swig of his drink. Women. You couldn't understand them, you couldn't live with them, and when they dumped you it felt like the world had ended. Not that he had much experience of women, outside of Bulma, since he had been 'going steady' with her since the tender age of sixteen. He was no longer shy to the point of freezing around other girls, but he was still far from smooth. He tended to blush, stammer, and generally act like an awkward, clumsy teenager. And it didn't really feel like the world had ended. Not anymore. He had been through this routine too many times.
"Hi. Mind if I sit here? The other tables are full." Yamcha looked up into chocolate-brown eyes in a very pretty face, framed by equally chocolate-brown hair. Uh-oh. Here it came. He felt his cheeks turning an embarrassing shade of red and ducked his head.
"S-sure. Sit down." God, he sounded like an idiot. Why couldn't he ever relax around girls? It wasn't as if she had even done anything! Just a simple request to sit down at his uncrowded table, and all the old reflexes kicked in. At least he hadn't fallen over or stiffened up yet. All those years with Bulma had done him that much good, at least.
She had noticed his reaction. "What's the matter? I don't bite, you know."
"Y-yeah, it's just." He was as red as a beet, he could feel it. "I get really.um. nervous around girls. Ever since I was a teenager."
"Oh, I see. I'm Cesily, by the way."
"Y-yamcha." He tried to force himself to stop blushing, but it wasn't working. He ducked his head again.
"Hey." she cocked her head at him, "Aren't you that famous baseball player?"
"Y-yeah, that's me." Idiot, idiot, idiot! He sounded so stupid!
"I don't watch that many sports, but everyone's heard of you. Aren't you going out with Bulma Briefs? You know, the owner of Capsule Corp.?"
Depression temporarily enabled him to overcome his shyness. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, I was, but she dumped me. Again." Oops, shouldn't have added that last part. Now she'd get curious. Oh well, he didn't really care at this point. Maybe it would be a relief to talk out his problem with someone.
Sure enough, she wanted to know more. "What do you mean, again? You've dated her before?"
He snorted bitterly. "I've been dating her since I was sixteen, on and off. Sometimes I think she thinks she's 'just settled' for me, and that she could do better. But she always takes me back, and I just come when she calls. Like a dog." He took another drink as his black mood settled back over him and dispelled his natural temerity.
Cesily looked puzzled. "Why do you go back? I mean, a guy as handsome and well-known as you should have girls falling all over him!"
"That's just it. If a girl ever fell on me, I'd probably take off screaming for the hills and become a bandit, like I was before I met Bulma. I'm just too damn shy to get another girlfriend!"
"You don't seem that shy to me. Well, you did before, but not now."
Yamcha thought about saying something complimentary before his unusual boldness evaporated, but decided that honesty was the best policy. "That's because right now, I'm too depressed to be shy."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
They sat in silence for a while, listening to the music and thinking their own thoughts. Yamcha wondered what had possessed him to reveal so much to this total stranger, a woman (a very pretty woman. Yamcha hoped he wasn't starting to blush again) who had just happened to sit at his table in a bar. Sighing, he took another drink. The band struck up a new song. At last, Cesily broke the silence.
"If you're normally so shy, how did you meet Bulma?"
Yamcha shrugged. This was one story he definitely wasn't going to tell (at least, not in detail) to a stranger in a bar, no matter how depressed he was. "Long story short, I tried to rob the two guys she was with before I noticed they had a girl with them, Pu'ar had to rescue me, I followed them."
"Who's Pu'ar?" Cesily injected.
"One of my best friends. She's a shapeshifter."
"What about your girl phobia?"
Yamcha grinned. "In her natural form, she's a cat. No go. Anyway, I followed them, blah, blah, a lot of stuff happened, and eventually we decided to become girlfriend and boyfriend. We've been going steady since then, but the past few years have been pretty rocky. I don't know how much more I can, or should, take." Hmm, he noticed thoughtfully, his shyness seemed to have gone out the window, but he wasn't all that depressed anymore. What had happened?
Cesily nodded thoughtfully, choosing to ignore the fact that he hadn't really answered her question about the girl phobia. "I see. Sounds to me like you need a new girlfriend." Suddenly realizing what the last comment could be taken to mean, she shot a look at Yamcha. To her relief, the thought didn't seem to have crossed his mind.
"Yeah, you're probably right, but I doubt the particular circumstances that got Bulma and I together are ever going to turn up again." Definitely not, he added to himself. His life had gotten a lot stranger since then. In fact, that period had been the closest to 'normal' he'd been for a long time.
"Whatever you say," Cesily said, a bit skeptically, but she chose not to press the subject. The two sat in silence again, that rare, companionable silence that doesn't beg to be filled up with talk. Cesily snuck glances at Yamcha, who was watching the country-western band perform on the bar's small stage. He was handsome, she admitted critically, even with those scars. He seemed likeable enough, once he got over his shy self- consciousness, but she could see how it would be hard for him to get a girl. For one thing, he didn't seem likely to ever muster up enough courage to try. She surveyed him with the look usually reserved for a particularly knotty math problem. Should she do something? If she was going to do something, then what?
Meanwhile, Yamcha sat and pretended he couldn't tell she was looking at him. A part of him was amazed. He had managed to talk to a girl, she apparently didn't think he was an idiot (yet), and she was still there! This was an occurrence unprecedented in all of Yamcha's previous experience, except for his dates with Bulma. And even then, he couldn't always rely on her to be there by the end of the night. It was ironic, really, he mused. The only times he seemed able to muster up enough courage to talk to girls were when he was with Bulma, but at such times he couldn't talk to girls because he was with his girlfriend! He sighed. Life was really unfair. Well, he was talking to a girl now. Or at least, he had been talking to her. At this point he couldn't resist glancing at her, and she hastily tried to pretend she hadn't been watching him. Cesily was pretty, she was nice, and she seemed smart. Nowhere around Bulma's level, of course, but to tell the truth Yamcha had always found the blue-haired genius's formidable intellect to be somewhat intimidating. So.Yamcha gulped as his brain took the bit in its metaphorical teeth and plunged onward towards the obvious thought.he liked Cesily. So far, he liked her a lot. He was (at this point) officially broken up with Bulma, and this left him at loose ends as far as time between training and baseball went. Not that he considered a girlfriend as just something to fill up his spare time, but.well, maybe.he really shouldn't, with the androids coming in three years and all, but.well, he did like her. He was blushing again, he could feel it. He had better seize his chance now, before embarrassment had a chance to tie his tongue up in knots again..
"Do you." he began. She looked at him, and he nearly lost it, but plunged bravely onward. "Well, I, y'know, kinda like this song, and, well, um.. doyouwanttodance?"
Cesily swallowed a sudden lump in her throat (nervous, her? Nah.) and managed to answer teasingly. "Aren't you recovering from that breakup awfully fast?"
Yamcha gulped. "Um." Was he? It didn't feel that way.definitely not like he'd just broken up (again) with the love of his life. He filed that thought away for future consideration, and replied uncertainly. "No? I've never really done this before." Blushblushblush. God, he had to stop doing that!
Cesily was giving him a look that reminded him of himself, back in his bandit days, trying to decide if it was really worth it to rob that caravan. Finally, after the longest few seconds of Yamcha's life, she replied.
"Okay."
"Okay?" By now he was so nervous that he had all but forgotten the question. She grinned at him, rather impishly.
"Okay, I'll dance with you."
* * *
Slow-dance. Yamcha's natural coordination and grace (not to mention superhuman strength) helped him hold his own even in the most hectic mosh pit, but slow-dancing was another matter entirely. The feel of Cesily's body (Cesily's very feminine body) pressed up against his was nice, but also very frightening. What if he messed up? What if he stepped on her foot? Maybe this had been a bad idea.
"Just relax," Cesily whispered into his ear. "Jeez, I don't bite or anything. You're as tight as a coiled spring!"
"Sorry," Yamcha whispered back. "I'm just."
"Nervous?" Cesily grinned up at him, then ducked her head and continued a little shyly. "Me too. Just a little." Embarrassed, she glanced up at him, sidelong, to find that he was gazing at her in near-wonder.
"Really?" he asked, sounding amazed.
"Well, yes. I mean, you're a very attractive guy, you know."
"Th-thanks. Y-you're.um, you're really pretty. I mean that."
"Thanks."
The pair swayed together on the dance floor, relaxing in each other's arms. Nope, Yamcha thought, inhaling the scent of Cesily's shampoo with a sigh. This had definitely not been a bad idea. It was possibly a very good idea. Maybe even one of the best ones he'd made in his life so far, not that it had to be incredibly good to rank high on that list. He came back to reality with a start as Cesily slapped his arm lightly.
"You're brooding again. Stop it. Besides, the song's almost over."
He blinked, then smiled at her. Gathering his courage, he said (almost evenly), "There's another one starting, though. D'you wanna.?" He raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Sure," Cesily said, smiling suddenly and brilliantly up at him. "I'd like that."
Willing himself not to blush (it wasn't working) Yamcha led his partner back out onto the dance floor as the band began another song.
* * *
They walked outside together, Yamcha courteously holding the door for his dancing partner as she stepped through. They stood for a moment, silent as they breathed the night air, until Cesily spoke up.
"I had a good time tonight, Yamcha."
"Th-thanks." Willing himself to stop stuttering, Yamcha continued. "I had a good time, too. Much better than I was expecting when I came in here." Much better. The blush seemed to be fading, as well. "Um, I was wondering."
He trailed off; Cesily glanced up at him expectantly. "Well?"
"Would you, y'know, like to do this again.sometime.maybe?" His voice rose in hopeful inquiry as he gazed at her sidelong. Refusing him would have been like kicking a puppy. Besides, Cesily found that she really was enjoying herself. When Yamcha forgot his shyness, he was funny and entertaining, not to mention handsome and sexy.
"Tomorrow night, you, me, a movie. Sound good?" Yamcha nodded with a shy smile, and Cesily grinned. She had quickly figured out that if this relationship was going to go anywhere, she was going to have to take the lead. "So, you want me to show you where my apartment is?"
"Sure. I can pick you up tomorrow night at seven. Um, if you want."
"I'd like that."
As they walked towards the parking lot side by side, Yamcha cautiously reached for Cesily's hand. Encountering no resistance (on the contrary, her fingers laced securely through his), and feeling an odd warmth spring to life in his chest, the warrior heaved a sigh of content and continued forward, smiling.