Daddy's Princess

Chapter 2: Hidden in the Drawer

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"Where's Daddy?"

Bulma sighed with impatience at the six-year-old's question.

After spending the day playing at Pan's house, Bulla had noticed that Pan's daddy was always around. He never left.

"Daddy isn't here. He's out training somewhere. He'll be back soon."

Bulla laid in thoughtful silence as her mother tucked her into bed. She waited until after Bulma kissed her goodnight to ask," But where is he?"

It became clear to Bulma that Bulla wasn't going to bed anytime soon.

Bulma settled into bed next to her daughter, exhausted. " I don't know baby. He could be anywhere right now, playing with Goku, teaching Trunks some new fighting moves, or causing a mountain to explode. . ."

"Boom! Boom!" Bulla exclaimed while making popping noises with her mouth. She knew exactly how It sounded when Vegeta became too irritated and blew up something. Usually, it was the gravity room.

"You know, your daddy is a lot like a tom cat your grandpa used to have. His name was Onyx, and he was my favorite cat as a child." Bulma smiled at the comparison." Onyx liked to sleep next to me at night. He always looked angry when I hugged him or carried him to different rooms, but he never scratched me. He was proud of his hunting skills, always carrying back dead birds in his mouth and dropping them on my pillow. Sometimes he'd stay gone for weeks at a time, but he always came back. . . I fed him his favorite food, so of course he'd come back for that. "

"Ewww. I hope Daddy never brings me back dead birds," Bulla giggled.

She snuggled close to Bulma, yawned, and stretched her arm out over her." Where is Onyx? Is he sleeping with grandpa?"

Bulma caressed her daughter's long soft hair, eyes gazing out the window at the bright crescent moon.

Onyx often stayed away from home for long periods of time, so when he never returned….Bulma hadn't noticed. Until that moment, Bulma had forgotten all about her favorite cat. Perhaps the tempting call of freedom had convinced Onyx to live out the rest of his life as a stray, or maybe he had a fatal run-in with a large dog. There was no way of knowing for sure.

"Onyx moved out years ago," Bulma yawned. She checked the clock on the nightstand and groaned, flopping her head back on the pillow. She needed to be at work in five hours." If you go to sleep right now, I'll take you to the pet store tomorrow and you can pick out your own kitty."

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The years passed by peacefully as Bulla grew into a young woman.

Vegeta wasn't around much, always focused on becoming stronger and off training in areas of the world where there weren't any people to disturb him. What he was training for, exactly, Bulla didn't have a clue. He sure as hell visited his family more often than Goten's father ever did, as Goten had pointed out once when Bulla complained about how unfair it was that Daddy was never around. She instantly shut her mouth and never complained about having an absent father ever again. No one had seen Goku in years, not since he left to train Majin Buu's reincarnation.

Bulla loved her father. He played along with her imaginary games, confirmed there weren't monsters hiding under her bed or hungrily waiting for her in the closet when it was time to sleep. She also liked it when he took her shopping and treated her like his most favorite person in the world. His scowl softened when he was with her, and his voice was tender as he called her, "Princess."

Bulma found it endearing that Vegeta could love his daughter so much. Trunks , however, couldn't stand to be in the same vicinity as his father and sister when they were together.

Trunks was gentle and kind to everyone except his sister, and Bulla couldn't understand why.

"Sibling rivalry," Gohan consoled when Bulla was visiting Pan's house, holding an ice pack on her cheek where Trunks had mercilessly hit her during her weekly training.

Gohan exchanged a knowing smirk with Goten before sipping his coffee." Trunks is obviously jealous of how much attention Vegeta gives you. I kinda felt the same way with how my mother treated Goten. What he's feeling will eventually fade away in time. Trunks has also been under a lot of stress since he started working at the company, so he might just be taking his frustrations out on you during training. I'll talk to him about taking it easier on you the next time I see him."

Gohan must've forgotten, because that talk never happened.

Bulla's strict training schedule came to an abrupt end when Trunks was declared as the new CEO of Capsule Corporation. This made huge waves in the business world. The attention Trunks never got from his father as a child suddenly didn't matter anymore, all eyes were on the young CEO. Men envied and admired him for being successful at such a young age, and there wasn't a woman on the planet who didn't want to sleep with him. Most importantly, the sibling rivalry Trunks felt towards his sister disappeared like Gohan had said it would. Since he was busy working at the company, Trunks didn't have the free time to train his little sister.

He could've told their father that Bulla needed a new teacher, or asked Gohan or Pan to teach her.

Heck, even Chichi or Videl would've been tough teachers to have.

Master Roshi was an old pervert, but a possible candidate on Trunks' list.

So many strict, horrible teachers to choose from. The old Trunks would've chosen the harshest. Instead, Trunks gave his sister the easiest teacher a girl could ask for.

After Bulla's first day of her second year of high school, she dropped her backpack by the front door, walked through the house, and found her new teacher waiting for her in the kitchen. There was a plate full of hot cookies on the kitchen table, and he was in the process of refilling his glass of milk. He shut the fridge door with his foot and took a huge gulp of his milk while balancing a cookie and his phone in the other hand.

"Hey," Goten greeted his new and probably first ever student.

Bulla bowed deeply from her waist, showing proper respect for her teacher the way Trunks had taught her. Goten's brows rose and he choked a little on his milk. Trunks' bossy kid-sister had never shown a shred of manners or respect for him before. He found her behavior a little scary.

Bulla's long hair flew over her head and laid flat against her back as she stood up. She was smiling. " YOU'RE my new teacher? Are you serious?" If Trunks was home she would've kissed him. She was so happy.

Eating cookies and deciphering text messages and signals from a girl Goten liked was how Bulla spent her first day of training with her new teacher. She hoped everyday of high school would be as fun and carefree.

Her happiness was short-lived when Trunks called later that night, asking." How'd training go?"

She couldn't lie to her older brother. She told the truth. They hadn't trained at all.

" That idiot was supposed to stick to the schedule I printed out for him. Ah, I knew he'd do this." Trunks groaned, and Bulla could practically see him massaging a headache." Listen, Goten is one of the strongest fighters I know. You can learn a lot from him. But It's up to you to keep him on track, don't let him teach you how to fish or finger paint tomorrow. This is serious. Dad won't be happy if you don't become stronger."

Bulla turned over on her bed, propping her elbows up on a pillow and kicking both legs in the air. Her grip on her phone tightened, unaware that she'd put another crack in the screen.

" What if I say I don't want to become stronger?" She waited a second for Trunks to get mad or suddenly hang up, but he didn't. She kept going." Why should I be the one training when it's Dad who's obsessed with becoming the strongest fighter in the world? Martial arts isn't fun and my arms are starting to look muscular like a man's arms. I'd rather learn how to cook or take a dance class or, you know, learn something that's useful for once. Training is so stupid."

Bulla thought Trunks had hung up during her rant. He was so quiet. She didn't hear any of the usual background noise from the office, not even an annoyed sigh. She pulled the phone away from her ear and glanced at the screen. The phone call duration was still being recorded. He hadn't hung up. "Hello?" She asked, uncertain.

" Fine. Stay a weakling. It's your decision. I don't know why Dad chose you over me."

Click.

Their phone call ended.

Bulla stared at her phone, wondering what her brother meant when he said their father had chosen her.

"Chosen me. . . for what?

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Bulma found she had a lot of free time since Trunks took over the family business. She wasn't retired per se', but a lot of burden had been taken off her shoulders thanks to her son. She visited each floor of the building, checking in on the progress of each individual employee at their cubicles. She could tell her presence only made them nervous, so she decided to call it a day after visiting the floor where Gohan worked. He was busy and couldn't join her for a cup of coffee.

She caught one of the maids carrying a basket of folded laundry when she came home.

"I'll put the clothes away," Bulma said, taking the basket from the maid despite her protest. She laughed." Work has been so dull for me these days. I'm going a little crazy not having anything to do."

Bulma took out some cash from her pocket and handed it to the maid." Could you let the others know that I'll handle the rest of the chores? Don't worry, I'll still pay you for a full day."

The maid shrugged, took the money, and spoke into the radio-watch all the maids had.

Bulma hummed to herself as she carried the laundry back to her room. The basket was filled with hers and Vegeta's socks, underwear, and a few of Vegeta's undershirts that he hadn't ripped through yet. Bulma put her clothes away in her dresser first, then stacked Vegeta's clothes in the basket and carried them to the bedroom just down the hall from hers. Vegeta insisted he have a room for just his clothes since Bulma's clothes left no room for him.

Bulma became alarmed when she couldn't go into Vegeta's room. It wasn't supposed to be locked.

She jiggled the handle a few times, then kicked the door in frustration.

"Vegeta are you in there?" Bulma growled, pressing her ear up against the door. She remembered shocking days when she peeked into the room and found her husband sound asleep when she thought he was out training somewhere. His explanation was that he wanted to come home and rest, and use the gravity room without any disturbances from his family, which didn't defuse her anger.

" If you're in there then you better unlock the door right now! I'm not in the mood for this."

There was no answer.

Bulma set the basket by the door and went back to her room to retrieve a key she made that could unlock any door. She inserted the key, twisted, then gently pushed the door open. Its hinges let out a loud, slow creaking noise as she did so.

The room smelled empty ( Bulma couldn't detect Vegeta's sweaty body odor) and the single bed was made, not a soul had slept in it for quite a while. Bulma walked over to the window and tried to open it, but it was locked. As it should have been. Bulma placed both hands on her hips and let out a heavy sigh.

"I guess…Vegeta really isn't here. One of the maids must've accidentally locked the room when they last cleaned it." Bulma shook her head, refusing to let herself miss her husband. He'd come back soon. When he did, she'd make him stay longer and force him to go out on dates every night until they were sick of each other.

She quickly put away Vegeta's socks, underwear, and undershirts in the first three drawers. There was a fourth drawer, which had been empty for years, and a small closet to the left of the dresser in the corner of the room filled with extra Saiyan armor, boots, regular human outfits, and formal wear he wore at Capsule Corp's parties.

Bulma was about to put away the last of Vegeta's undershirts in the third drawer when she noticed that the fourth drawer was cracked open a little. It seemed silly it had been empty for years. Why not start using it?

Bulma shrugged and fully opened the fourth drawer. Vegeta's undershirts fell into a crumpled pile on the floor beside her knees, and she gasped at what she saw.

Lying inside the once empty drawer, partially wrapped in a blue cloth, were five of the seven dragonballs. Vegeta was preparing to summon Shenron! He hadn't uttered a word about this to Bulma!

She couldn't believe it. Vegeta was married to the richest and sexiest woman on the planet…he could literally have anything he wanted. Why would he want to summon Shenron? Bulma's stomach twisted into painful knots as panic started to set in. She recalled a time when Vegeta wanted to wish for immortality, back when he was one of the bad guys. He willingly turned evil once before when he became Majin Vegeta and killed all those people at the tournament. He was a Saiyan after all, constantly thirsting for a fight, for the chance to kill someone.

Bulma couldn't begin to imagine what her husband wanted to wish for.