Title: The Lesser Evil (couldn't conjure a better name)
Author: Infinite Pen
Prompt: Scenery
Genre: Drama, Angst
AU/CU: AU
Rating: T
Warning: Gambling, Adult Situations
Word Count: 2,078
A/N: This not tied in with my previous one-shot, Technical Difficulties...just another different AU I'm throwing out. This one won't be continued. Oh, and if you can think of a better name, by all means be my guest. Thank you VSM for beta!
Summary: Just when Bulma thought she had him all figured out...
Kicking and screaming, she was being dragged from the storage area of private quarters to an unknown destination. The shackles that tightly bind her wrists and ankles scraped across the metal floor behind her and had already bruised her delicate skin. Her once glamorous garbs were now in tatters, filthy and reeking.
Her oppressor shouted and cursed at her in an alien tongue in a futile attempt to quiet her, a language she had begin deciphering as months went by that she was held captive on a spaceship.
The reptile-like creature stopped suddenly and covered her mouth as he tied the material he had torn from what was left of the red evening gown she was wearing tightly to stifle her cries.
Through her muzzled objections, she noted they were just going across the hall to what seemed to be another person's chambers. The door screeched across the railing as it opened automatically, and they slowly entered.
The room was hazy, filled with smoke of a substance foreign to her human lungs, and the air she breathed slightly burned in her chest. The whites around her blue irises where further reddened in reaction to the irritant, and more tears flooded over her eyelids to follow where the washed away mascara once flowed. Through her blurred vision, she saw a table, covered with green cloth and centered with colorful coins? No, they were akin to poker chips! And the three beings that sat the table ceased their drinking and conversation as they feast their eyes on her.
"Here she is, gentlemen!" the reptilian said with a wicked smile as his long skinny tongue slinked through the cracks of his sharp teeth. "An exotic beauty and just a fraction of the spoils I claimed from purging a small planet called Earth." He tossed her on the floor before them, causing her to wince.
She then looked up at the three occupants and noticed they were each of a different species but one thing they all had in common, besides their attire, was the hand of cards they each held. Bulma's heart skipped at the grim revelation. She was going be gambled and the winner would claim her as a prize!
"We don't want your leftovers, Samese!" Dedoria said with a snarl and rolled his eyes as he flicked ashes from his cigar. Bulma flinched at the husky voice and eyed the fat, pink-colored man with caution. His tongue came out to wet the tip of his stubby index finger as he positioned his hand not giving her a second glance.
"What do you mean by leftovers, Dedoria?" Samese angrily protested, slamming a hand on the table. Dedoria paid him no mind and kept moving his cards around.
"What he means is we don't want anything you've picked over already!" Kui growled in disgust. Bulma's head turned to the direction of the current speaker, who sat across from the one called Dedoria. This one was a slimy, deep purple-colored creature with a big head. He wasn't as intimidating as the other one, but it didn't matter; she was still trembling in fear. "Now give us something to work with or you're out!"
"That's right!" Dedoria spoke again, looking up at Samese. Bulma eyes automatically trailed to him when he spoke.
"I haven't touched her, Kui! And I'll prove it!" Samese yanked Bulma up by her chains and pushed her towards the other person sitting at the table, who had not said a word since she entered. Her eyes widened as she studied him up close. He looked human minus the black, gravity-defying mane in the shape of a wild flame and the tail covered with brown fur she saw coiled around his waist. His eyes possessed a mysterious glint, complementing the sharp, defined features of his face.
"Vegeta, tell these fools I speak the truth!" Samese then said in frustration.
"And what does Vegeta know?" Kui hissed back.
"He makes a point." Dedoria said after taking a puff of his cigar and rolled it attentively with two fingers. He then eyed Vegeta suspiciously and smirked. "Saiyans can sniff out anything…Go ahead and tell us, Vegeta."
Vegeta shot Dedoria a glare before turning to the female that stood shaking before him and narrowed his dark eyes. Bulma jerked a bit as his nose briefly flared and he took in her scent.
Vegeta held the verdict silently to himself before he turned back to Dedoria with a sigh. "He speaks the truth."
"See what'd I tell you?" Samese chuckled in relief and took his seat at the table, tossing Bulma away from Vegeta chained her down beside his chair.
"Alright then." Dedoria stated with an evil grin, and his were like daggers locked on Bulma . "He's in."
Bulma instantly began perspiring in fear as she imagined what would become of her if that big pink monster won. He then licked his dark crusty lips as he sized her up and sent her wink. She quickly turned her head away in disgust to find Kui doing something similar. She looked back to her initial capturer in panic only to realize that he was no better. Things were not in her favor no matter how she looked at it; it was hopelessly a lose/lose situation. Any one of those bastards would win and do whatever they pleased with her.
She clenched her hands against the cold floor and the tears began pouring from her eyes. She was once an heiress to the most prominent corporation on Earth, but soon to be a slave of some vicious alien. Why couldn't she have been killed with the rest of her kind and her loved ones? At least they were resting in peace and didn't know of her current torment.
"What's your wager, Vegeta?" Dedoria asked without looking up from his hand . Kui had started the betting, and it was now Vegeta's turn. At the sound of his name, Bulma ceased her crying and looked up to the saiyan, who had been observing her the whole time much to her surprise. He was fairly different from the others; his expression was unreadable. And yet, a hint of relief touched her as she pictured the outcome in his favor.
Vegeta quickly took a glance at his cards and smoothly slid a small amount of chips towards the center of the table; the minimum he could bet.
The initial betting was over, and Kui coolly tapped his hand twice to discard one card. His fingers gently strummed across the tabletop as he eyed Dedoria, who gave a slight nod and flicked an ash.
Bulma didn't know much about gambling, but she could sense something was not right about how those two looked at each other. She glanced back at Vegeta who sat as cool and calm as he had been the whole round.
She quickly turned back to watch the progression of the next round, glancing at Samese as he scratched his head nervously and muttered a string of curses before discarding three cards.
Dedoria chuckled confidently, holding the cigar to the side of his mouth by his teeth and then discarded two cards of his current hand.
It was now Vegeta's turn again, and he casually flicked two cards from his hand and slid them face down on the table.
Each player then received the same amount of cards they discarded previously, and Bulma squinted as she paid close attention to Kui. She believed that he and Dedoria where hinting each other, and the other two players were oblivious to their dirty tactics. It wasn't right at all! But what more could she expect?
She didn't know what this Vegeta person would do with her if he won the pot, but she suspected his yoke would be the lighter out of the four, figuring he had higher standards than the other three.
She watched as he studied his hand nonchalantly. There was something about him, like he had this princely air surrounding him. If any one of them should have her, it should be him, but those two scoundrels were going to win by cheating and split the pot by the looks of it. She had to inform him somehow.
She looked up at him and blushed when his eyes unexpectedly met her own. She quickly raised a hand to half cover her face in an attempt to hide her embarrassment. Then, he showed her something rather astonishing; his lips twitched to form a quick and knowing smirk that only she had seen, and he commenced to studying his cards as if nothing happened.
She gasped mentally; it was all a façade, this poker face of his. He knew what she was thinking. He knew she had compared them all and chose him as her possible savior. And that wasn't all! He could read everyone else's actions as well. He was fully aware of Dedoria and Kui's devious plot and didn't need her to signal anything to him. Come to think of it, she was the naïve one, never playing a single hand of poker in her life.
At any rate, she hoped from the bottom of her heart that the one called Vegeta would claim her in the end.
The air was tense in Kui's quarters as the last betting round was over. This was it. Whoever had the best hand would win the pot, claiming her along with it.
Kui slowly revealed his four of a kind and diabolically rubbed his empty hands together. He was certain victory was his or Dedoria's, which it really didn't matter to him since they agreed to split the pot whatever the outcome, forming a smirk as he imagined he and Dedoria taking turns with the earth girl. Samese's one pair brightened Kui's smile even further.
Dedoria blew a circle of smoke as he laid down his straight flush and stamped out his cigar. That was it; the pot was all his, and Kui was a damned fool to believe he would get a piece of it. He rose from the table arrogantly and began to collect all the proceedings. Bulma thought her heart would beat right out of her chest when he started in her direction.
"Not so fast." A deep voice startled Dedoria from his self-proclaimed victory, and he looked down at the hand Vegeta slowly spread out.
Vegeta smirked as he stood up to seize the pot from a flabbergasted Dedoria and walked over to the girl in shackles on the floor. Without a word, he kindly detached her chains from Samese's chair and gently pulled Bulma to her feet.
Dedoria kicked over the table in sheer rage and the winning hand, the royal flush, was tossed up in the air with the rest of the deck.
Her eyes sparkled as tears rolled down her brighten cheeks. She was happy as she slowly followed Vegeta back to his quarters…happy until that door closed behind them and he gave her the most evil smile, sending shivers up her spine as he pulled two cards from up his sleeve and set them aflame.
Bulma couldn't believe her eyes! She was worried about the other two guys' unfair play and here this Vegeta, who she thought to be the most decent, had revealed that he was just as conniving!
Vegeta could care less about the credits he had won…no, maliciously stolen from the other players as he carelessly tossed it in a mountain of other riches he possessed. She was his main objective from the very start. Although she was dirty and unkempt on the outside, her intoxicating scent was like a hidden treasure that he had found buried beneath her trifled state and enticed him into cheating. And he had told those fools only what they had asked of him because Dedoria was mainly making mockery of his saiyan background in the first place. That's right! Samese hadn't delved into her sweetness…no one had! It's only a shame this female had figured him to be the good guy.
He laughed mentally as slowly pulled her towards him, stopping when her body was flush with his own, and said what Bulma had deemed his most terrifying words as he lifted her chin up to his face with a single finger.
"Now, don't expect me to go easy on you." He whispered and then, in a flash, ripped the remainder of the dress from her body and ravished her.