Chapter Nine: The Nutcracker Closes In

Four weeks passed quickly much to Bulma's happiness and with them signaled the end of November and the start of December. She smiled and got out of bed, humming happily to herself that morning, glad she didn't have to go to the WCPAC later for practice. She took a quick shower and threw on a pair of light blue capri sweat pants and a white noodle strap shirt. Yes, today would be a good day for Bulma Briefs, after all it was December first which meant it was time to start decorating for Christmas. She headed downstairs to find her mother already cooking breakfast and also humming to herself.

"Good morning Mom!"

"Oh Bulma sweetie, good morning! Breakfast is almost ready honey."

Bulma sat down at their smaller kitchen table, happily awaiting breakfast which presented itself shortly. Even her father joined them for breakfast, claiming his work could wait a little bit longer.

"Oh I'm so happy it's December now!"

"Why is that Bulma dear?"

"Well Dad, it means only twenty-four days till Christmas!"

"Bulma sweetie, are you going to start decorating today?"

"Of course Mom, I wouldn't dare wait till later!" She smiled at her mother who was giggling and then proceeded to finish her breakfast quickly so that she would have plenty of time to decorate. She thanked her mother hastily for the breakfast and headed outside to the storage shed located on the southern edge of the Capsule Corp. grounds. Bringing in the Kami knows how many boxes filled to the brim with Christmas items was only one of the many daunting tasks of decorating for this holiday however Bulma didn't mind. It was the reason Christmas was her utmost favourite holiday. It wasn't that she was extremely religious or that she loved receiving presents, though she did enjoy that part, it was what the holiday meant to her personally. The holiday always brought out the best in everyone and it always brought all of her friends and family which always made her smile.

However, her smile did falter for a moment as she thought of a certain flame haired friend. Bulma had come to terms with the prideful prick always being on her mind, and she found herself missing him even more. I wonder what he's doing . . . if he even misses anything about Earth. She sighed, letting the thought drift about in her head, and began heaving the boxes of Christmas trinkets towards house, wondering if Saiyans had a holiday like Christmas . . . or for that matter if they even had holidays.

Two hours later, Bulma set the last box of Christmas decorations down in her house and wiped off the sweat that had accumulated on her brow. She smiled as she looked at the clock, it wasn't even ten yet. She quickly opened all the boxes, looking into each to see what they contained, and pushed the ones that had the ornaments, tinsel, and other smaller Christmas trinkets into a corner where, when they bought it, the Christmas tree would go. She also knew she had to buy fresh mistletoe, after all what sane person didn't like a little peck on the lips or cheek under a sprig of the silly little herb.

By the time 3 p.m. rolled around the entire Capsule Corporation grounds had radically changed. Bulma had strung up the lights on the outside of the house in record time and was happily pleased with herself. She was now humming to Christmas tunes as they played while framing the doors of the great room with silver and gold tinsel and wreaths. She stepped down from her step ladder (A/N: No pun intended haha) and marveled at her work, Christmas was definitely in season at the Briefs household.

"Oh Bulma sweetie, the decorations are amazing!"

Bulma grinned to her mother, "I'm not done yet Mom!"

"You should take a lunch break sweetie, you haven't stopped working since breakfast."

Her stomach grumbled slightly at the mention of lunch, it was true, she was hungry. "Alright Mom, I'll make some food in a bit. I want to finish this room first."

Bulma pulled out the fake snowflakes from a box and hung them from the ceiling, the light catching the glitter causing the walls to come alight with sparkles. She smiled as she hung the last snowflake in the great room as she recalled the Halloween Party. Thinking of that night made her knit her brow together. She remembered Vegeta's words on that night and then the hurtful ones the week later. The damn man, no not man, Saiyan was so damn confusing. Bulma figured she had his pride to thank for that along with his stupid mountain sized ego. She sighed, flicked a strand of stray aqua hair out of her eyes and headed towards the kitchen.

As she entered, she was hit with the strong smell of sweets beings baked. She knew her mother was baking sweets for the orphanage that her parents helped out during the Christmas season. It was an extremely wonderful deed that her parents did and she knew the orphanage was extremely grateful. After all, not only did her father make create little gadgets and gizmos so that the children could say Santa Clause came but he also donated a large sum of money to help keep the orphanage afloat.

"Smells good Mom." Bunny giggled but continued to bake without another word. Bulma made herself a sandwich and a small salad, trying her best to stay out of her mother's baking flurry.

After eating Bulma returned to working on putting up decorations. This allowed her to also think of what she would get for everyone, she figured she would get her mother a nice necklace and for her father she would probably double check and try to help him finish his blue prints without him noticing. But what about Vegeta? She pondered this for sometime, would the stupid saiyan actually want something that didn't help his damned to hell training or would he totally disregard her feelings and blast whatever she gave him. Her face soured a bit, he would probably do the latter.

Bulma walked into her lab to decorate the room and her eyes betrayed her by drifting over to the computer that monitored the G.R. turned space ship. The readings showed the machine was going at full power, he was obviously training to his heart's content. Stupid jerk, you're going to hurt yourself out there . . . A small smile appeared slightly on her lips, knowing Vegeta like she did she knew he wouldn't accept a silly material gift like her ditz of a mother would. She put the box of decorations that had still been in her hands down and headed over to her blue-print drawing table. Lately she hadn't used her lab much but today was different, even if Vegeta didn't want her gift, which she knew he would just love even if he wouldn't admit it, she could still begin drawing up her plans for it. After all, Christmas was only twenty-four days away. Perhaps she was being foolish, he probably wouldn't even be there for her favourite holiday anyway. He sure as hell hadn't been there last year for Halloween or Christmas so what made this year different. Even as these thoughts went through Bulma's mind she couldn't not stop her hand from racing across the paper with pencil in tow. She was surprised how easily the formulas came for her creation, and how quickly it was all coming together. Being a genius does have its perks. She smirked as she continued to write out the plans, it wasn't every day she decided to build something for the pompous asshole, especially when he wasn't bitching at her to do it. Do I really miss him that much? He's only been gone a few weeks . . .

Bulma later came to the conclusion the only reason she missed him so much more this time was because Yamcha wasn't around. Last time Vegeta had been in space for four months and frankly she had been down right giddy he was gone but now she missed him dearly. Her brow furrowed, what was it about Vegeta that drew her like a moth to the flame. She hadn't even missed Yamcha this much when he would go out into the wilderness for weeks to train. I guess I always knew he would come back . . . Perhaps that was why she missed him so, she wasn't truly certain he was coming back. She let out a short sigh, she figured she might as well get Yamcha a card for Christmas. She would be the bigger man, or woman in this case and take the first step to try and mend their friendship at least. Sure she had lost him as a boyfriend, but that was bound to happen, but she didn't want to lose him as a friend.

She glanced up from her plans and was shocked to see the time, it was already after six. Three hours gone but at least she had finished a rough outline of her 'present' for the Saiyan Prince. This is like some record or something, I've never finished anything this fast before. Bulma double and triple checked everything, from the basic formulas to the hundreds of complex formulas scrawled out on the blue-print. Everything so far worked out in her head which made her smile, yes she truly was a genius. She figured she could easily build it and complete it by Christmas Eve and even if he wasn't back by then she could always just give it to him when he came back. If he comes back . . . She chided herself a bit, she knew better than to get her hopes up when it concerned Vegeta but right now, she just couldn't help but get her hopes up.

The next week went by nicely for Bulma, rehearsal for the Nutcracker went smoothly, the promotional photo shoot went well, and she had already gone out and bought most of the Christmas presents for her friends and family before the big Christmas season shopping spree's started. The only thing she really had left to do was finish her 'present' for Vegeta and even then that was practically completed. This week however also signaled the opening day for the play, which although she would never admit it, made her nervous. Five years of not being on the stage in front of crowds did that to people, but she figured she didn't have too much to be nervous about. But Friday night was opening night, and it was already Wednesday. Just tonight's practice and tomorrow's and then show time.

Even after the incident with Leon, not much had changed between the two. They both snapped and quarreled with each other while at the same time perfecting their pas de deux. Their clashings had actually made their dancing better simply because both were trying to outdo the other. This at least pleased Mike, after all he was the one who wanted to bring the play out of retirement once more to give it its long awaited happy ending.

"Okay everyone that will do it for tonight. Tomorrow we'll run it once more in costume just to make sure everything works out fine and then you can go home. Have a good night, be safe and don't do anything stupid."

Mostly everyone began chatting about Friday, even Bulma could feel their excitement radiating off them in waves. It wasn't that much of a surprise either, they were all being cast in the Nutcracker with her, the person who nearly died performing this same play, so she could understand why they were all excited.

"Hey Bulma, can I talk to you?"

She turned to face Mike who had a slightly serious expression on his face, "What's up Mike?"

"I want you to know that if you want, we can close a section of the pit . . . though it will still be opened in places."

Bulma frowned, closing the pit wouldn't help her at all, it would make her feel handicapped if anything. "No, leave it open. I'll just have to be careful and not stupid."

"But Bul-"

"No buts Mike, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me so much. Plus we've been rehearsing with it open, if you close it you might mess some people up." She smiled at him once more before leaving and he smiled back, though she noted his was a bit forced.

It wasn't long before she was pulling up to her home though she had to focus hard on her driving to keep herself from falling asleep. She yawned as she unlocked the front door and stepped into her home, surprised to see her parents, or at least her mother, weren't up. Bulma knew it was somewhat late though she had thought it was that late. Perhaps, she figured, it was because her parents were starting to get older and thus they didn't have the stamina to stay up late. Or maybe I'm just over analyzing this and they just decided to go to bed early. She yawned once more, surprised at how tired she was after the rehearsal. Though Mike had drilled them all until the point of exhaustion and perhaps that was why they were only running the play once tomorrow.

"At least Mike isn't at all like Cherise . . . damned woman would drill us to death everyday till performance night and even after performing if she didn't like it . . ."

Bulma headed into the kitchen, grabbing a bowl and some fruit from the fridge. She was too lazy and tired to make herself a real dinner and after all fruit was nutritious. She picked out a few ripe strawberries, a couple slices of apple, pear, and mango and a nice small ripe blood plum. A fruit salad, glad Mom always has a garden, fresh fruit is the best. She walked out of the kitchen towards the couch, noticing her parents had finally bought a Christmas tree while she was out. A smile graced her lips, she had one more thing to decorate tomorrow before rehearsal and one more little Christmas item to buy after rehearsal.

She sat down on the couch with a sigh, but something felt strange on her butt. Her 'couch' was abnormally warm, no it was downright hot, and it was squishy but solid. Her 'couch' had also twitched when she sat down and she was pretty positive her father had not created and hot, squishy yet firm, twitching couch. What the . . .? She glanced down only to see a pair of piercing onyx eyes glaring at her, she was sitting on someone's back.

"Woman . . . you had better get off NOW!"