When One Door Closes...

Three weeks went by and there was still no word from Yamucha. Bulma thought she could handle the separation, but she felt so alone. Vegeta had healed and spent virtually all of his time in the gravity room, Son-kun and the others were too busy training to come visit, her father was constantly working on new projects in the lab, her mother was constantly out shopping and taking care of her insane amount of animals, and there was NO way she was about to call Chi-Chi. She decided she would call the Turtle Hermit Roshi, and see if Yamucha had even been there at all.

"Moshi moshi?" Muten Roshi answered.

"Hey Mr. Roshi, it's Bulma. I was just wondering if you've heard from Yamucha at all. He's been gone for a few weeks and hasn't called…"

"Oooi, Yamucha!" Roshi called out, "Bulma's on the phone, she wants to talk to you!"

Oh shit, thought Yamucha. He totally forgot to call her. She was sure to be pissed off at him, and he did not feel like dealing with her attitude. She could be so unbearable at times.

"Tell her I'm going out to the city to pick up some things, I'll call her back later!" he shouted back.

"Oi, Bulma-"

"It's ok, I heard the idiot. Tell him calling won't be necessary," Bulma said sternly, hanging up the phone. He had better be going out to the city, she thought. Maybe he wasn't planning to propose to her after all…maybe he was simply avoiding her. This outraged Bulma. Although she wasn't exactly keen on the idea of marriage, had Yamucha proposed to her, she just might have said yes. She figured she might as well follow her mother's example and indulge in some good old fashioned shop therapy.

Even though Yamucha was partially avoiding Bulma, he wasn't completely lying. He just didn't want to listen to her yelling and nagging. He told her he was going to be gone for a while. Although he felt bad—he indeed had forgotten to call her like he had told her he would, but he wasn't about to get into another "lover's quarrel" over it. He WAS going to the city to pick up a few things for Muten Roshi. Maybe if he picked something up for Bulma she wouldn't be so mad at him when he called her back.

Making his way through the city, Yamucha couldn't help but notice something he was never allowed to look at before…beautiful women! They were everywhere! He couldn't help but look. It wasn't like he was doing anything wrong…he was just looking. He had been with Bulma and only Bulma for so many years. He had never been in any other relationship before, and he never really had the chance to even so much as look at another woman. He was glad that Bulma got him to get over his fear of women, but now that he wasn't afraid of them, he couldn't talk to them anyway…he was in a serious relationship.

Bulma saw him looking all right. What the hell was Yamucha doing, ogling at a bunch of stupid girls! The moron was just STARING at them with big googly eyes and his tongue hanging out. Bulma was outraged. She could have just walked up to him and started screaming at him, but decided she wasn't going to say anything. Still, at least if she was attracted to someone, it wasn't as obvious or as disgusting like the show he was putting on.

Still he was looking, not cheating, Yamucha concluded, and he was gladly looking. Ugh, why did he have to be so deathly afraid of women before he met Bulma? He would have loved to flirt with any one of those girls, just to see if he was as irresistible as he thought. No doubt he wouldn't have any trouble; he was a famous baseball player, after all. He just wondered if he even had the nerve. It was time to boost his ego and get some of the adoration and attention he oh so desired.

Bulma was fuming. Yamucha had women huddled around him, giving him the same googly eyes and faces that he had been giving them earlier. Oh yeah Yamucha, you are just soooo irresistible, Bulma thought. She had had enough. She thought this guy wanted to marry her, and here he was, flirting with a bunch of skanks right in front of her face. Granted he didn't know that Bulma could see him, but that almost made it worse. She had not spent what seemed like her entire life with someone only to watch him boost his ego by being around a bunch of other women. He never once shooed them away, stated that he was seeing someone, or acknowledged her in any way. He was flirting back with them and acting like a womanizer.

What he was doing was completely inappropriate, and it did not help her feeling of distance from him. First he didn't call, then he avoided her, and now when he was supposed to be running errands, he was acting like a playboy. She decided then and there, that she could not handle his celebrity status. No matter where he went, women would be following him around, and with the way he was acting, it wouldn't be long before he gave in to all of the temptation quite literally surrounding him. Pssh, and let's not forget about all the times he was late for one of their dates, or even worse, failed to show up! Yamucha could be such a flake! Ugh, it was time to go home.

"Oooi, Vegetable-san, have some wine with me!" Bulma slurred.

"Are you drunk?" Vegeta asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Y'know Vege-san, you should shtop worrying about the Carrot for a shecond and loosen up a little bit! Here I'll pour ya a glass right now!"

"Wha—" Vegeta stammered.

"Yeah yeah, c'mon c'mon!"

"I'm not drinking with you woman…" Vegeta managed to get out. He really didn't know what to make of this situation.

"Oh, you're just being a jerk because you're mad that you'll never be as strong as Goku. Or Carrot… whatever you call him," Bulma said, eyes glazed over, "Besides, this is a celebration!"

"And what are we celebrating exactly?" Vegeta was getting annoyed now, yet too intrigued to just walk away. He rarely had any interpersonal contact with anyone, and he was genuinely curious as to what the woman was celebrating.

"Didn't you know? I broke up with Yamucha today silly!"

"Congratulations," Vegeta said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"So join me Vege-chan!"

Ugh. He knew she was drunk, but did she really have to call him that?

"I don't think so," Vegeta said, walking away.

"Whatever, you're nothing but a big loser anyway. Big loser to Son-kun, big loser of super Saiyans, and big loser of losers. You even lost your tail, you loser!"

Vegeta stopped, clenching his teeth. Although she was drunk and hardly made sense, he wanted to blast her into oblivion for saying that. It was bad enough that he HAD felt like a big "loser" as she put it, for not being stronger than Kakarrot, constantly being surpassed by him, only to have that stupid lowlife save his life…

"If it gets you to SHUT UP, then FINE!" he cracked in his frustration. Maybe he did need one after all; at least something to take this edge off. He hated his whole life right now, and drinking with this incessant woman would probably be the best thing that had happened to him since he arrived on this cursed planet.