Chapter 2: The Carnival

*AN: Ok guys, gals and those who have yet to make up their mind, another chapter. So I'm hoping that if you like it you'll encourage me to continue and update. And like most writers, I'm a desperate needy person so please for that love of (insert deity and and/or superstition) REVIEW!

WHEW! So I know this chapter is late, and I am SOOOOOOO sorry! But I had loads of trials and tribulations to overcome lately! Computer crashed and my backup as inaccessible, then computer completely died leaving me with no way to type! Kid got out of school so was swamped with rug rat duty, THEN (!) I decided it would be a GREAT idea to start my own business! While becoming the Girl Scout leader for my daughter's daisy troop. So basically, Chance got put on hold. Not to mention, I had about 6 months worth of writers block. But suddenly, while driving around, my muse must have flown by 'cuz I had to pull over and pump out this chapter. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I had thinking it up!

6/26/15 I re read and edited a few things to make it smoother

Loves! LaKinta no Hime

Reviews are my addiction and people like you are my fixes! :)

I don't own DBZ, but this story and any pertaining characters and such are mine. Any questions?

Chance

Chapter 2

Bulma tugged on her cardigan nervously for the 6th time, her eyes roaming the crowd for her mother. A loud laugh nearby made Bulma turn her head only to be bumped against the right shoulder, causing the white ribbon she had tied in her hair to come loose and fall into her eyes.

"Watch it!" a voice called sharply behind her.

"I'm sorry!" Bulma cried out trying to retie the ribbon in her hair. She yelped as something snagged the back of her cardigan, pulling it up and off her shoulder. "Pardon me!"

"Bulma!" Bulma spun around almost falling over in the white heeled sandals, finding herself face to face with her mother and a young man standing just a few paces behind her talking to another gentleman.

"Oh, hi mom." Mrs. Briefs took in Bulma's tousled appearance. With a glance back at the engaged young man and little huff, she roughly pulled the cardigan back down while Bulma tried to fix her hair.

"Tsk, I was hoping the dress would hide your hips and the cardigan would help with the bust line, but apparently not." Bulma looked down at the white polka doted blue halter dress with the sweetheart neckline and skirt that flared around Bulma's hips, ending just below her knees. She shifted on her feet, embarrassed by her body and crossed her arms under her chest while looking down at the ground.

"I'm sorry," Bulma started before her mother interrupted her with a hiss.

"Uncross your arms! You're pushing your bust out!" Bulma's mother spun around to face the young man who had just finished talking and was approaching the mother and daughter. "Yamcha, darling, this is my daughter Bulma who I was just telling you about. Bulma, this is Yamcha Sanzoku, he's the son of a chairman on the School Board with me and a very dear friend of mine."

"It's nice to meet you Yamcha," Bulma said with a tight smile as she held her hand out to shake. Yamcha took the offered hand, and while giving Bulma a bored smile, his eyes slipped down to rest on her cleavage. Bulma tried to keep the smile on her face as she attempted to pull her hand away, a feeling of unease creeping up her back. But Yamcha held tight, lifting her hand to place a kiss on the back of her knuckles. Bulma yanked her hand away and wiped it off on her dress with a grimace.

"Yamcha has been away attending boarding school in England, but has returned home to finish high school here. He will be spending his senior year with us at Westing Academy. We are so lucky to have such a distinguished young man attending our school." Mrs. Briefs smiled at Yamcha as if he was the answer to all of her prayers. "I thought that maybe, Bulma, you could show him around the fair and school grounds."

"Oh," Bulma said despondently, "I was actually hoping to-"

"Excellent! Oh look, there's Mrs. Benton! I've been needing to talk to her about something. Have fun you two. Ta!" Bulma and Yamcha watched Mrs. Briefs walk away into the crowd, each with different feelings.

Bulma glanced at Yamcha, who was looking back at Bulma with what could only describe as a leer. Shifting uncomfortably, she decided to be the first to break the ice. "Let me show you around, and if you have any questions, please, don't hesitate to ask."

The two fell in step as they made their way through the crowd, walking aimlessly. "Westing Academy is a great school," Bulma started, "It was established in 1849 by Alb-"

"Yes I know," Yamcha interrupted. "My father is on the school board and attended Westing when he was younger."

"Oh, I see." Bulma bit her lip. "Well, we've just added a beautiful new addition to the science wing. It has the latest-"

"I know that too. I am actually very familiar with the school from both my father and mother. I also took a tour of the school just the other day," Yamcha said, sounding quite bored.

"I see," Bulma said again. "Did you have any questions or wanted to see a part of the school grounds you haven't see yet?" Bulma asked confused, not knowing why she was supposed to be walking around with Yamcha if he already knew everything. Bulma heard her name called and tuned her head to wave at a fellow class mate when she felt Yamcha snake his arm around her waist. She jumped away when Yamcha started to whisper in her ear.

"What's the matter?" Yamcha asked, his smile oily. He took another step closer to Bulma, forcing her to step back into the crowd. "You asked if there was something else I wanted to see."

Bulma wrapped her arms around her waist. "Please keep your hands to yourself Mr. Sanzoku," Bulma said softly but firmly. "And I asked if there was a part of the school grounds you wished to see."

Yamcha stepped closer, forcing Bulma to choose between standing still and being trampled by the crowd that was exiting the Ferris Wheel. "You are on the school grounds, are you not Ms. Briefs? And I haven't seen you before." Bulma wasn't given a chance to retort. An older gentleman called out to Yamcha, recognizing him as the son of a fellow chair board member. Bulma looked around franticly for an escape. Creaking and squealing of mechanics drew her eyes to the Ferris wheel behind her. Quickly glancing to make sure Yamcha was still engaged, she swiftly made her way up the stairs.

"Ticket."

"What?" Bulma said startled, staring at the hand stretched out in front of her.

"You need a ticket miss to ride the ride," the body connected to the hand said. The ride operator was a heavyset older man, rough looking and bored.

Bulma started at the man for a second before comprehending. "Oh, I don't- I didn't," she stuttered digging in the pockets of her dress. Her hand grasped a piece of plastic and pulled out a 30 credit. "Look, I don't have a ticket but can you take this?"

The man still looked bored as he looked down at the credit in her hand. He then looked up, past Bulma. "No ticket, no ride." And with that, the man turned to start up the machine.

Bulma looked behind her and saw that Yamcha was done talking and was now looking for her. "Please mister! I need to get on this ride! Just one ride! I can get you more tickets or money after the ride! Just please, let me on now!" Bulma begged. The operator turned and actually looked at Bulma. He squinted to see her pleading face and then looked behind her where Yamcha was now frantically looking around. With a sigh, he undid the chain blocking Bulma.

"Hurry up, I have a solo you can ride with," the operator said, motioning her to the seat just behind him.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Bulma exclaimed walking quickly to the seat. As the operator locked the bar over her lap she tried to hand him the 30 credit.

"Keep it. It's just one ride," he said and turned to the controls. Bulma saw Yamcha standing at the bottom of the Ferris wheel and quickly ducked, pressing her head into soft darkness. The wheel lurched to a start and rose above the grounds. A soft ahem made Bulma look up. And her world stopped.

The soft darkness was a worn black t-shirt wrapped around the body of a god. A perfectly chiseled chest and stomach stretched the shirt to its limit, and the sleeves looked be painted on the most amazing arms. The "ahem" had come from two firm but beautiful pair of lips set above a yet another, perfectly chiseled, jaw. And all of that belonged to the man sitting next to her. The stranger stared back at Bulma from two Onyx eyes, rimmed with a charcoal color, set beneath the most amazing gravity defying black hair. Bulma suddenly was overcome with the need to run her hands through his hair to see if it was as soft as it looked.

Another ahem snapped Bulma out of her trance, as she quickly sat herself up. "I- I- I'm s- s- sorry," Bulma stuttered, a soft blush spreading across her cheeks as she scooted away to her side.

"Who were you hiding from?" the strangers husky voice asked as he shifted, leaning his back to the side of the car and laid his arm across the back of the seat.

"Nobody," Bulma replied as her hands fidgeted in her lap.

"You were hiding from "nobody"?" the stranger said with a chuckle.

"What? Oh no!" Bulma said with a laugh, embarrassed. She looked at the stranger. "I meant, he's nobody. Just a guy I was supposed to be showing around that I needed to get away from."

"Ahh. I see. Needed to huh?"

Bulma looked back down at her hands. "Yes, needed to," she said softly.

The stranger didn't reply and the two fell into an awkward silence, neither of them knowing what to say to each other. Suddenly, the wheel jerked to a stop. "What the hell?" the stranger growled leaning over the side trying to see what was going on at the bottom. The wheel jerked again, this time, followed by a loud splash behind them. The stranger turned and looked at Bulma who was staring back in shock. Her back was covered in soda. The couple above them started shouting down apologies, explaining that the jerking of the wheel had made the guy drop his soda. The stranger waved them away and turned back to Bulma who had taken off her cardigan. "Are you ok?"

Bulma opened her mouth to reply when the wheel jerked again throwing her against the bar across their lap. The stranger grabbed Bulma's arm, yanking her back against his chest as the wheel started up again. A few seconds later it jerked to a stop again, leaving them one car from the top. Bulma looked back at the stranger giving him a smile and shivered. "Bumpy. Hope everything is alright," she said as the wind blew making her shiver a second time. Bulma smiled again and scooted back over to her side. She stuck her hand out. "I'm Bulma."

"Vegeta," he says, taking her hand.

"It's nice to meet you. Thank you for grabbing me, Vegeta."

"Nice to meet you too. And no problem," Vegeta said, leaning back against the side of the car again. Another gust of wind blows by them causing Bulma to shiver yet again just as the wheel jerked for the fourth time bringing them to the top of the ride. Vegeta grabbed Bulma once more as she was thrown against the lap bar, pulling her to his chest. The two sat there quietly, neither making the move to pull away as the sounds of the carnival below faded in and out with the wind. Several more minutes passed by with them like that until Bulma, suddenly aware that she was resting in the arms of a complete stranger, tried to pull away. Another gust of wind blew as she tried to pull away, causing her to shiver more. Vegeta's arms tightened around Bulma, forcing her to lie back down against his chest. "It's cold. Who knows how long we'll be up here. Might as well stay warm," he said rubbing her cold arm.

Bulma waited for the need to pull away to come to her. Time passed and she still felt no compulsion to withdraw from the warmth of his body. With every minute, Bulma found herself relaxing more and more into Vegeta's arms, even going so far as to lay her head into the hollow of his neck. Neither of them knew why they were so comfortable with another stranger, or why it just felt right to sit that way. But neither of them thought about it that much. A comfortable silence engulfed them.

Another 10 minutes passed when suddenly the wheel started up again, this time with less jerking. Vegeta looked over the side and saw they were letting people off but no one was getting on to replace them. "Looks like they're shutting down the ride to fix it. I wonder what the problem is."

"A bearing is out on the breaks. It fell, causing it to jerk to a stop whenever they tried to start it. They must have just gotten it out and are trying to pull everybody off now so they can replace it," Bulma said leaning over Vegeta to look down as well.

"How do you know?" Vegeta asked, curiosity filling his face.

With a straight face, Bulma replied, "50 years ago, in this very chair, a girl died. She now haunts the Ferris Wheel hoping to one day save somebody from death from the Ferris Wheel so she can move on to the afterlife." Leaning forward, making her eyes super big, she whispered, "Vegeta, I see dead people!"

Vegeta started at Bulma in shock for a second before bursting out laughing. Bulma couldn't keep a straight face anymore and started laughing with him. The two laughed all the way to the bottom of the ride until the operator unlatched the bar.

"Sorry about the ride folks. Seems to be having some mechanical failures." He handed Vegeta back his ticket and winked at Bulma. "Seems you didn't need a ticket after all miss."

Bulma smiled while thanking the operator and followed Vegeta down the steps into the crowd. The carnival was even more crowed now that night had fallen, making it difficult to move through. Bulma was pushed into Vegeta's chest abruptly, where he wrapped his arms around her as the two were jostled about by the busy crowd. The two looked at each other, their faces only inches apart. Bulma felt her heart start to pound as she started up into Vegeta's dark eyes. Suddenly, a voice called out behind them.

"Bulma!" Yamcha cried angrily from a few people away.

Bulma turned whiter than normal while whispering "no, no, no" and tried to pull away. Vegeta released Bulma, grabbed her hand and drew her into the crowd. Never letting go of her hand he pulled her clear across the other side of the carnival in a matter of minutes, ignoring the angry calls and names. When the two finally stopped to catch a breath, they looked at each other at started to laugh. Bulma caught her breath first.

"Thank you. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't pulled me away!"

Vegeta chuckled, "No problem. I couldn't let him get you after you went through so much trouble to get away to begin with!" Bulma laughed again and then turned to look at where they had stopped.

Behind Vegeta was a path with booths lining each side. It seemed they had found all the vendors. To the left was a carnie shouting, trying to lure people to his booth. He turned his head and saw Bulma and Vegeta.

"Hey you! Don't just stand there! Come give your arm a shot and try to win a prize for your girl! Two balls for a credit or 5 balls for two! Come on sir, don't be shy, step right up and impress your girl!" the carnie shouted at Vegeta. Bulma and Vegeta looked at each other and with a shrug they walked over to the booth. "That's right sir! Best way to impress your girl is with the traditional game of knocking the milk jars down with a ball! You get two balls for a credit or 5 balls for two. All for a good cause! So what do you say sir? Think you can get it with less than two balls or are you gonna need 5?"

Bulma laughed and pulled out her 30 credit. "I want to try! I'll take the 5 balls, I'll need them!"

Vegeta was quicker though and pulled out a 5 credit handing it to the carnie. "This game is on me," he said with a half smile. Bulma blushed and looked away as the carnie quickly made change then placed the 5 balls in the bucket in front of Bulma.

"Here's how it works miss! If you can hit all three milk jars down with just one ball you get a large prize! If you manage to knock them all down but it takes more than one ball, then you get a small prize! Good luck miss!" Bulma grabbed the first ball, and with a saucy look to Vegeta she threw her first ball, knocking off the top milk jar. Vegeta laughed and Bulma stuck her tongue out at him, picking up the second ball.

"Don't miss!" Vegeta shouted as she threw the second ball. The ball went wide nearly hitting the carnie making Vegeta laugh. Bulma glared at Vegeta but laughed as well as she grabbed the second ball.

"Hush! I must concentrate!" Bulma said, eying the milk jars. Just as she was about to throw, Vegeta coughed and Bulma missed again. "Awww! That wasn't very nice Vegeta," Bulma said with a fake pout.

Vegeta smirked. "No, you're right. It wasn't. You were just so cute upset I couldn't help it. Here, I'll help you with the next one." Bulma's heart skipped a beat at Vegeta calling her cute. It then started pounding as he stepped up behind her and placed his hand over hers. Together, they picked up the ball, Bulma distracted from Vegeta's warm breath on her hair. Closing her eyes, she inhaled his scent and opened in time to see the ball strike the last two bottles. Bulma jumped up and down laughing and threw her arms around Vegeta's neck, hugging him. Vegeta wrapped his arms around her waist, lifter her up and swung her around, making them both laugh. The carnie couldn't help but be caught up in their laughter.

"Congratulations miss! You get to have any small prize you want!" Bulma looked over the prized and pulled out a bracelet with seven orange balls on them, each with a star ranging from one to seven. "Ah! Good choice! Those are modeled after the myth of the Dragon Balls and will bring you luck! Now, you have one more ball, care to try your luck and win a large prize?"

Bulma shook her head. "Oh, no. I think I had my fill of luck tonight. I doubt I'll win anything else." She then turned to Vegeta. "You're welcome to try the last ball and see if you win anything," she said softly.

Vegeta smirked and without a word, picked up the last ball and knocked down all three milk jars. Bulma laughed and smiled at Vegeta, her heart still pounding. She turned away and looked at the crowd. She couldn't believe what was happening to her. She had expected a horribly awkward and boring night of helping her mother with the carnival while trying to survive all of her mother's comments to her. Instead, she was able to spend it with a handsome stranger who made her heart pound every time he looked at her. Closing her eyes and pressing her new bracelet to her heart, she wished the night would never end.

"Here you go," Vegeta said, making Bulma open her eyes to a stuffed plushy of a green alien wearing weird purple clothes, a white cape and a turban. Bulma blinked at the bizarreness. "I know, it's weird looking, but I thought it was funny, and that you might like it."

Bulma blushed as she took the plushy and clutched it to her chest. She looks up at Vegeta, their faces only inches apart again. "Thank you!"

Vegeta turned away so Bulma couldn't see his cheeks turn pink. "It was nothing." He started to walk again and Bulma followed. The two strolled together slowly, the crowed pressing them closer and closer. They sometimes talked about the people around them or stopped to look at the other booths, but mostly, they just enjoyed each other's presence quietly. Eventually, not on purpose, they two found themselves holding each other's hands. Neither of them tried to pull apart.

After a while, a smell brought them to a booth selling cotton candy. Bulma's face lit up at the pink and blue sugar treat. Seeing this, Vegeta bought a stick and the two stepped to the side. "Here, I bought blue. You know, to match."

Bulma groaned. "I know. I'm sorry. My hair is so weird!"

Vegeta snorts. "Not any weirder then mine! Besides," Vegeta said, taking a big bite out of the candy, "I like it." Bulma ducked her head, grinning at the ground. Then looking up, she pulled a piece of the candy from the stick giving Vegeta a shy smile. They make quick work of the candy until there's just one piece left. Bulma and Vegeta both make to grab for it, Bulma's hand touching it first. Vegeta pulled his hand back. "You have it," he said and tossed the stick into the trash can behind them.

Bulma's heart pounded as she looked at Vegeta. Holding her breath, her mind empty and the world silent, she held the candy out to Vegeta. She placed it just in front of his mouth. The world froze. It became just the two of them, Vegeta staring down at Bulma. Slowly, he opened his mouth and took the candy from her hand. Vegeta's warm breath on her fingers snapped Bulma out of her trance. She began to pull her hand away only to have Vegeta catch her wrist. Lowering his eyes to her hand, Vegeta saw the bits of sugar left on her finger. Mesmerized, he placed a sugared finger in his mouth and licked it clean. His tongue swirled around the ridges of the pad and flicked against the short filed nails. Bulma's eyes fluttered and her heart pounded as she struggled to catch a breath. Vegeta looked up and their eyes met. He switched to the second finger, every lick letting him feel the pounding of her heart. Bulma's breath hitched making Vegeta blink, suddenly coming back to reality. He dropped Bulma's hand.

"I'm," Vegeta choked out, coughing to get past the lump in his throat. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

Bulma's hand hovered in the air, the air cool against her feverish skin and damp fingers. And she knew. She knew if she let this drop here and now, this would be it. Gathering all her courage, she took a step closer. Her voice, a whisper only he could hear, "Don't apologize." Looking up through her lashes, she held her hand up a little more. "I think there's still some more sugar on there."

Vegeta paused with surprise. He eyes turned dark as he reached out, wrapping an arm around her waist, bringing her against his chest. Bulma's eyes widened and met his heavy lidded ones. Vegeta's fingers closed around her delicate wrist again and brought her thumb to his mouth. Gently, he bit the pad of it, causing a small moan to escape her lips. The world around them ceased to exist. The sounds of the carnival disappeared. The only thing that mattered to either of them was each other, connected by the beating pulse of Bulma's heart beat in Vegeta's mouth.

"Bulma Briefs!" a voice shrieked, shattering that world.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeph! That was a LOOOOOOONG one! It had been a while since I wrote so I had to keep going back and fixing the tenses lol. Well hopefully this long chapter will make up for the fact that its 6 months late! Enjoy guys! And remember, review cuz I need my crack.