Disclaimer: I KNOW Mr. Handy is in this one so BOOM: Do not own him, neither do I own Db/z/GT or any characters that come from that.
Dude Where's My World
Revised
Chapter: The Fiery women
"Really?" Bulma couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice, frowning down at her work phone, that sat atop her desk, currently on speaker. "She is…here? Huh…well yeah, go ahead and let her in then." Pressing the phone to shut off the communication, Bulma pushed her rolling black leather chair back and stood up, straightening her blouse and skirt to greet her guest. She briefly spared a glance at the wall to her right — comprised of multiple floor to ceiling framed windows — to gauge the time of day.
A moment later her office door opened and her secretary ushered in none other than Son Chichi, wearing a purple and pink kimono, able to dominate the room with her presence in a way that rivaled Bulma's ability admirably. It was one of the reasons the two women got along so well. Bulma smiled at her long-time friend and came around the desk, head tilted ever so slightly in question, as her friend thanked her secretary and turned her fiery eyes to Bulma's. "Bulma" She nodded in greeting, mouth somewhat tight, making Bulma think that this wasn't a purely social visit. "I hope I'm not interrupting you, I know you're a very busy woman."
"You know you're always welcome." Bulma said with a smile, gesturing with a hand towards a seat on her couches across her desk. Bulma went around the desk to take her own seat across from her. "Tea, please." She instructed of her secretary who bowed slightly and made her way out of the room. "What can I do for you?"
"You can tell me what on earth is going on with my son." Chichi cut to the chase easily enough, taking a seat but her posture still stiff and regal as any queen. Bulma couldn't help but let her smile widen a fraction as she leaned back onto her seat, putting her arm over the support of her chair, oozing nonchalance and amusement, despite her weighed ignorance.
"What do you mean?"
Chichi wasn't buying it. "He's spent the last two weekends at your house and won't tell me what's suddenly got him so interested in spending all his free time over there again. Him and Goku have been whispering amongst themselves and they look like kids at a theme park— so what is it this time, Bulma? What kind of absurdities have your husband and mine brought onto planet earth now? Normally I would think that it relates to fighting, but fighting has never held my son's interest this much, so it has to be something else. What did they find that has my son itching for the weekend so that he can go to your house?"
Bulma could not combat that immovable grin, especially when Valerie entered her office with a tray for tea. Valerie set the tea down on the coffee table between Bulma and Chichi, unaware of who she was about to serve; it became painfully obvious the moment she became aware, because she stiffened so abruptly that her still moving hand knocked the tea kettle over. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights, Bulma thought to herself, unbothered by the mess on her coffee table now. Chichi immediately got up, took the rag from Valerie's arm and efficiently contained the spill, clearly more concerned for Bulma's furniture and papers than she was. Valerie simply took a step back and stared, wide eyed.
Bulma stood up and took a step towards the girl, putting a comforting hand on Valerie's shoulder, smiling at her. "Are you okay?"
"S-she's h-here—" That caught Chichi's attention, Bulma noted.
"—You'll have to excuse her, Chichi, she's a big martial arts fan, and is familiar with Goku and his family's history with the…sport." Chichi glanced over at the girl, not apparently very impressed with that tidbit of information.
"Is that right? Does that mean you're a martial artist?" She asked, eyes sizing her up obvious enough for Valerie to straighten up her spine.
"No, ma'am"
"Good," Chichi nodded, pulling back and handing her the rag. "What do you do, if you're not a martial artist…or a good assistant." She added somewhat jokingly, lifting a soggy few sheets of paper from off Bulma's coffee table.
That made Valerie blush and Bulma laughed softly. "I-I-I'm…an aspiring artist." That made Chichi's head tilt, surprised, but not unpleasantly.
"Valerie is a student from Trunks secondary school who is interning over spring here. I've seen some of her work, and she is a very talented artist and a wonderfully polite young lady." Valerie blushed at the praised but seemed a bit confused, unsure about when had Bulma looked at any of her art. The answer came to her almost as soon as she finished the question:
Josie.
She was tempted to roll her eyes but instead she smiled brightly, bowing slightly. "I'm very s-sorry, I'll bring some more tea Mrs. Son." Valerie cringed, almost having gotten through the sentence without the end squeaking up into an unnaturally high pitch. Valerie shakily made work of putting everything on to her tray, her cheeks and ears burning brightly, before she scuttled out of the room as fast as possible. She wasn't very surprised to see a wide eyed and wired Josie standing out in the lobby, nearly shaking in her eagerness with Trunks at her side, grinning like a Cheshire cat, his hands in school uniform blazer.
"Is…she really in there? Can I have a turn at the tea? She clearly messed up." Josie asked Trunks, gesturing with her thumb towards the soaking rag on the tray and turned over cup.
"No," Trunks said to Josie without missing a beat, he turned to look at his mother's secretary who sat at her desk and observed Valerie's tray with horror. "Retta, could you get another tray set up for my mother?"
"Yes, sir!" The older woman immediately got up and grabbed the tray from Valerie's hands with a glare and rushed out of there.
"You already have your own job to do." He reminded Josie, shooing the whining girl away from the door and preparing to lead her out. He turned to Valerie before he ushered Josie out of the lush waiting area outside his mother's office. "Make sure to tend to the phone while Ms. Retta is away from her desk, there should be a notepad beside it in case you need to take any messages." The phone chose just that moment to ring and a panicked Valerie rushed to it.
The first week that the girls were at Capsule Corporation, Bulma had focused on letting the girls adjust to school fully. The second week, as promised —for Valerie's sake— Bulma added a part-time internship at Capsule Corporation. Today was the girl's first day and they'd gone through an orientation with three other high school kids, who Trunks later explained, would all be working on lower levels except for one who they might see around from time to time. When given choices for the different tasks they could be performing, Josie had given Valerie the better sounding of the two offered positions: assistant to Bulma's assistant, while Josie took mail distribution and for today, she'd be a lunch/dinner lackey for those who were staying a few extra hours.
"Yeah, yeah, fine…" Josie sighed as she was finished being nudged when they entered his own waiting area outside his own, much smaller office. A dirty blonde woman with high rounded cheekbones dressed in a pencil skirt and blazer, stood beside a round-faced curly brown-haired teenage girl, dressed in the exact school uniform Josie was in, in front of the secretary's desk. They stopped all conversation when the two entered and bowed when they caught sight of Trunks.
When they came up, the older woman's attention was on Trunks with a smile while the younger girl was fixed on Josie. "I'm sorry about the interruption." Trunks said to his secretary with a smile. "The third interruption" Josie cringed at that. "Shall we continue?" He gestured towards the office and all three ladies took his offer and entered the office with pens and pads at the ready. Trunks went around his desk and unbuttoned his blazer as he sat, smiling eyes on Josie. "Do I need to tell you my—" Josie brushed off his question with a hand that held a pen.
"—No, I put in your massive order before I even started making rounds, and since you seem to eat like a piggy, I doubt I chose anything you won't like." She assured with a small smile, turning to the gaping girls, pen at the ready but blinking in confusion at their thunderstruck expressions. Trunks couldn't help but laugh at the horror the girls were expressing and Josie's complete lack of understanding as to why they'd find her comment and interruption so horrifying.
"Harmony, what would you like for dinner?" Trunks asked with a grin, trying to redirect the girls before they ate Josie alive for her insolence. A heated Harmony — the actual up-coming assistant to Trunks — cleared her throat for composure and tugged at the bottom of her blazer to restrain herself, and she told Josie her dinner order, turning to the teenage beside her.
Josie finished writing what Harmony had requested and expectantly turned to the girl from school, who she had yet to see, but had clearly recognized her on sight, with obvious disdain. "Silver?"
"It's Francis" The girl voiced with so much acid in those two words that Josie had to lift her brows to stare at the more rounded but very pretty girl. Francis inspected her nails, apparently not deeming Josie worthy of eye contact for any longer than necessary to show her how repulsed she was by her. She told Josie her order and went to take a seat across from Trunks to prepare for the meeting. Josie rolled her eyes at how hard she was trying to look important, but the reality was that she was only the temporary assistant to Trunks' assistant in-training, and Josie highlighted this by shortening her title above her order, to the first three —and most important—letters of the word: assistant, for Francis order. She left the office giggling to herself, wondering if she could get the food people to label her food order with her shortened title.
…
Once lunch had been delivered, Josie and Valerie had been invited to Bulma's office to eat with her. "So today you're staying to oversee Trunks with his project to make sure he doesn't mess up?" Josie asked Bulma conversationally from the other side of the desk where she happily bit into her sandwich.
"Account, but correct, that is it—more or less." Bulma agreed with a smile. "My son is a natural, and I know he'll be ready by this fall, but—" She shrugged lightly. "It's hard to stop the instinct that tells me to hold his hand through it all."
"Um, can I ask how badly Chichi thinks of me now?" Valerie asked nervously, barely having touched her own sandwich, too anxious from her previous encounter with her heroes wife to focus on anything else. Bulma smiled at the girl.
"She was too focused on her questions about why Goten has been spending the night so many nights since you two arrived." She said with a big smile that both girls matched with a giggle or two. "Of course, I didn't tell her because I still don't quite know how to introduce you to our friends — that and I've wanted to get you guys adjusted to the planet before you get bombarded with questions from all sides."
"I creeped on her when she was leaving from far away…but unfortunately your son has a super power that wasn't shown to us when we were in our world." Bulma raised a brow in question. "Knowing when I'm doing something I'm not supposed to." Josie clarified with a laugh. "So he took me away before I could get out more than an I LOVE Y—" Josie cut herself off with, imitating the effects of a tackle as best as she could in her chair with a lap full of food. "She looks a lot shorter than I imagined her to be, did you notice?"
"Nope, too busy trying to bring the blood that dropped down to my toes back up to my brain when I nearly burned her with hot tea, to really worry about her height." Valerie explained,
"At least it couldn't have taken your blood long to get back up there—ow!" Valerie smiled finally when Josie was rubbing her arm from where she'd been pinched. "Worth it." Josie shrugged, still rubbing her arm. "Bulma, she nearly gave poor Ms. Retta a heart attack when she saw the spilled tea in the tray." Josie told Bulma with a grin as Valerie bit into her sandwich, nodding in agreement.
Bulma could very easily picture what that must have looked like and laughed. "Retta is a good woman. She is stern but a dedicated professional who has served me loyally for a very long time. She's been stressing planning a charity gala this weekend, so go easy on the ole gal." Bulma explained with a fond smile. "She was my dad's secretary for a while and when I took over he asked her to watch over me and she stuck it out with me throughout my entire career here. She's looking forward to retiring when I do. I wish I could pass her along to Trunks but I had to settle for her daughter who seems to be promising."
"Please don't tell me that silver-eyed Francis is her daughter…" Josie begged with her nose wrinkled in distaste.
"Oh no, nothing like that." Bulma reassured. "Francis was intended to be the only intern to this level of the company this year, as a favor to her father who's been a prominent account for the company for a long time. You might have seen her at school with you."
"Thankfully, no, she absolutely hates my guts. I seriously don't think I've ever had someone hate me so fast…other than Vegeta." Josie added, scratching the side of her head at the depressing thought. "Now I know how you felt with Sharon, Val. Huh…" She huffed thoughtfully at the end, sitting up, her eyes widening. "Do you think she has a thing for me like he did you?"
"He didn't have a thing!" Valerie argued automatically, shoulders tense.
"Oh, he had a thing, I kicked it, remember?" Valerie mock-gagged but it gave way to silent laughter at the memory of the teenager doubled over in pain, Josie joining her in a fit of giggles.
Bulma stared at the laughing girls, with a fondness so maternal and so sharp in its insistence that it surprised her. "…You two are my favorite things my husband has brought home to me." She told them happily.
"Now we're things?" Josie asked horrified.
"Ew—" Valerie laughed, unable to help herself and Josie smacked her arm with the back of her hand, scolding her on her crass humor through a grin at Valerie's immediate outrage. Valerie cried out in faux pain, throwing a glare at Josie for her hypocrisy, tucking her sandwich under one arm and standing up to defend her own honor.
"Definitely my favorite things…" Bulma murmured to herself through her smile, watching over her interlaced hands that were supported by her elbows on her desk once.
…
Four days later — around dinner time — a blue haired pre-teen hummed to herself as she waltzed through the double doors of the CC home, carrying arm loads of luggage. "I'm home!" Bra shouted happily, dropping her luggage at her sides with an exhale of relief. Her smile turned into a frown at the sight of only her brother sitting in a living room, barely having spared her glance when she made her announcement.
Rolling her eyes at his annoying –yet predictable—lack of excitement, she turned to the intercom beside the front door and pressed a few buttons, before announcing once more. "I'M HOME." Within a minute, Mr. Handy — her mother's robot — appeared before her and she grinned at it, jumping up to high five it and asking it if it could take her things upstairs. As the Mr. Handy bot was taking her things upstairs, her father first appeared through the dining room, followed by soon after by her mom who came down the stairs. Bra grinned when her mother made a small noise of surprise and she braced herself, as her mom rushed her and pulled her into a tight embrace.
"My baby girl!" Bulma gasped happily. "You're here earlier than we—what happened?" She asked, pulling away after a moment, eyes searching her daughter for any sign of harm, and finding none, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "…What did you and Pan get into?"
Bra had the good sense to look sheepish. "Sorry mama, there was this really cool part of the festival that we couldn't get to because it was only adults since there was some drinking there. We didn't care about that though, we just wanted to see the dancers with the big skirts and the aztec ceremonies so we, you know, didn't ask for permission anymore." Bulma snorted lightly and leaned down to peck her youngest on her forehead.
"Well, I'm glad you're back safely. I'm going to go call Videl and see if there's any damage control we need to do. What am I going to do with you, little Bra Brief?"
"Love me always?" Her grinning daughter suggested, cheekily. There was no doubt that her daughter knew how to play her like a fiddle, Bulma thought to herself, unable to fault her for it because she had been the very same way when she was her age.
"You're too smart for your own good, kiddo." She pointed out, stroking her daughter's beautiful blue hair back over her shoulder. "Dinner will be ready in half an hour." She reminded, leaving the room to go make that call. Her father approached her with his arms crossed, checking her for a single hair out of place, it seemed like.
"Did the humans bother you?" Her father asked her, his frown seemingly permanently etched on his face. She gave her father a dazzling smile. It was good to be home.
"No, daddy, don't worry, I was just fine." Bra assured, fearlessly hugging her father around the chest tightly for a moment, gratified when she felt a singular pat on her back.
"Trunks," Her father called while still in his daughter's embrace. Trunks looked over his shoulder at his father, as Bra started to pull away. "Run interception." Vegeta commanded, pointing a single finger upward. Both of his children followed the direction of his finger with their eyes, Bra expression confused, while Trunks cleared. His son immediately stood and gave his sister's a small wave in greeting.
"No problem. Bra, If you hear any noises in our hall, don't freak out, okay?" He advised, before jogging up the stairs to do as his father asked.
"What on earth is he talking about?" Bra asked her father, who'd tucked his hand back into his crossed arms. Vegeta followed his son's retreat with his eyes for a few moments, and then finally turned his attention back to his daughter.
"If anything about what's coming bothers you, I want you to tell me, immediately." Not only was Bra confused now, but she was starting to feel a little scared too.
"…Daddy?"
"I'll be downstairs." Was all Vegeta said.
After a few more minutes, Bra retreated upstairs to her room with no clearer an answer than her father's previous one to answer her question about what the heck any of them were talking about. "I knew my family was weird, but geez we are so weird…" Sighing, Bra entered her room to get ready for dinner.
…
Trunks thought he needed a few minutes to figure out how he was going to tackle telling the girls about his sister having come back sooner than they'd expected. He found himself wondering what their reaction would be like to the youngest Bief's resident, and really hoped that they weren't going to fawn over her the way that his parents did. He loved the little tyke more than life itself, but she was irritating little snot most days and he knew that the last thing she needed was fans. He entered the common area first to figure out a plan of attack but he stopped when he spotted Josie curled up amongst throw-pillows with a book inside the window seat.
"Damn." He muttered with a dry laugh, rubbing the back of his neck when her eyes landed on him almost as soon as he walked in.
"Hey," She greeted, bringing her feet back to the ground, sitting up and setting her book to the side and studied him with curiosity in her brown eyes. "What was that a few minutes ago?"
The 'Im home' announcement over the com system, right… he'd almost forgotten about that. His other hand came to rub the back of his head too and Josie tilted her head, her curiosity growing at his obvious anxiety. She stood up and slowly made her way to him ready to give him her theories if he wasn't going to willingly answer her question.
"…At first I thought that it was maybe the surround system on the TV—" She started, nodding towards the TV but keeping her eyes on his blue ones, searching. "—But it's not on, so then my second guess went to the possibility of you having a ghost in your house —but that took me to wondering if there are ghosts in this world at all! But I remembered your kamikaze ghosts from Gotenks, and for some reason a waiter ghost at some cafe in other world that had one of those straw hats—" She gestured a wide brim and pointed top, "—I was going to call them Chinese hats but then I realized that would be racist—or that's stereotyping, right? I don't want to do that and anyway I think I've seen Vietnamese wear them too…" Trunks nearly choked on how abruptly his laughter came to him.
He was constantly surprised by how he could be astounded and fascinated by the brain on this girl and equally disturbed and flabbergasted by the things that brain would cause her to say. Josie stopped her rambling when he started laughing, and she gave him a minute to recover, smiling all the meanwhile because her rambling had a point she was trying to lead them too, and the thought made her heart race excitedly. "…So, I think that if it's not your TV, or ghosts, it has to be her, doesn't it? I've never heard her voice before but that somehow sounded right. She's here, isn't she?" That made his grin turn to surprise and concern immediately after.
"Josie, you have to promise to keep calm—"
"—Not really possible" She said, her eyes widening at the continual confirmation of her suspicions through his increasing uneasiness. She looked around his shoulder to the large open doorway, her head already trying to figure out what part of the house she could be in. Her wide eyes looked between the hands he wrapped around her upper arms to keep her from bolting.
"Though your honesty is charming, I still need you to promise me that you're not going to — at the very least — scream."
"I'll…try." She promised weakly, unable to look at anything but him since he had her held down.
Trunks nodded, knowing that was as sincere of a promise as he was going to get from her. "Yes, she's here." He confirmed, finally. In almost less than a few seconds, he had to transfer one of his hands from holding her arm, up to cover her mouth to keep her squeals at bay. The only words he could make out from the muffled noises coming out from behind his hand were things like:
Tiny Bulma
probably so cute
squeeze her
He knew his little sister would appreciate none of these sentiments and so he held her back from bolting towards the 'tiny blue cutie'. "—Josie, she's not a baby, she's a pre-teen — and a half-alien one at that who can crush you — you can't do anything in the continent of squeezing her." Josie's frown and the silent but protruded bottom lip pressed against his palm told him that she was not pleased by his response. He grinned at her sigh and dropped his hand from her mouth and put it back down to her shoulder. "Sorry."
"—Yo Josie! Did you hear that voice—" Trunks turned half his body towards the open entrance, making Josie completely visible to Valerie, who stopped talking and walking, taking in the strange scene, blinking blankly at them.
Trunks and Josie looked back towards each other, finally registering what must have gobsmacked Valerie into silence. They quickly took a step away from each other and started an onslaught of flustered excuses for Valerie.
"—I thought she was going to scream—"
"—Baby Bulma is here and he was trying to stop me from—"
Valerie's blank expression finally started to ebb away and became replaced with confusion at their inter-lapping voices, until her ears caught the word 'baby Bulma' then her eyes settled on Josie, realizing something was really happening. "Baby Bulma?" Valerie asked, confused.
Josie's body vibrated in place, as she squeaked. "Bra is here!" Valerie's eyes-widened and she too turned around, trying to figure out what part of the house the small girl could be in. Trunks mistook her curiosity to mean that she intended to set out after his baby sister right at that moment, and he quickly appeared in front of her with his arms extended to his sides to stop her.
"Afraid I can't let you guys go see her until mom has given the okay," He explained apologetically. "I can bring your dinner up here if you'd like? But you'll both have to be as quiet as possible until we tell her about you." Valerie blinked at how fast he had suddenly moved, but when her brain finally caught up with his speed and what he'd just said, after a moment of contemplation, she smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, that's fine," She assured. "Josie and I will go wait in our rooms as soon as you tell us the coast is clear. The last thing we want to do is make this any harder on you guys than necessary, you just tell us what you need and we'll do it. Right, Josie?" Valerie asked Josie, a threatening note in her tone, as she turned around to glare her into submission.
Josie rolled her eyes, not finding the glare —on top of the tone— to be necessary, but nodded in agreement, all the same, which seemed to make Trunks relax, somewhat. He exhaled and smiled at Valerie, thanking her and asking the girls to remain in the common room until he gave them the all clear. Leaving Valerie in charge of the Josie situation, Trunks left the common area and made his way carefully down to their bedroom hallway, quickly finding his baby sister's bags partially outside of her room. Bra herself, was standing at the doorway to Valerie's bedroom, hands on the door frame, leaning her shoulders and head leaned into the bedroom, out of his view. He jogged to her side quickly. "What are you doing?" He asked her, startling her.
She came out with a slight jump and glared at her brother. "I saw the door wide open and there's stuff in the room." She explained. "I didn't realize Goten's been staying while I've been gone."
"He has." Trunks agreed, not correcting her assumption that the lived in room was where Goten had been staying.
"Its strange though…it smells like a girl in here." Bra explained, her expression perplexed as it had been before he startled her. "I think Goten needs to cut back on whatever cologne he's been wearing lately because it makes him smell like a girl." Trunks smiled at that and nodded, grabbing his little sister by her shoulders and pulling her away from the bedroom, closing it after her.
"Mr. Handy, you okay with having another bot unpack the rest of Bra's things? I need to ask you for a favor in the kitchen in a few minutes?" Hearing a jolly affirmative from the bedroom, he put his hands back on his small sister's shoulders and lead her towards the stairs.
Downstairs, the Briefs family sat down to dinner, except for Trunks and Bulma who went into the kitchen after Mr. Handy. After a few minutes, the robot came and went past them, while Bulma and Trunks sat down to eat.
"So why couldn't Mr. Handy help me unpack tonight?" Bra asked her brother unhappily, thinking that he was taking one of their mom's favorite bots away from her tonight just to be spiteful.
"I needed him to check on a hurricane for me." Trunks answered, grinning at his mom nearly choking on her food at his words. Bulma momentarily glared at her oldest son for his wise crack and took a drink of her cup of water, giving her daughter a soft smile of reassurance, when her youngest turned her suspicious eyes on her mother.
"Sweetheart, we have something to tell you…"
…
Josie answered her bedroom door and her eyes widened at the sight of Mr. Handy, floating in the air with his little creepy tentacle claws spinning. "VALERIE RUN, HE'S FINALLY HERE TO KILL US!" Josie shouted, backing up a few steps before running into the bathroom and jumping into the bath tub, quickly yanking at the shower curtain to close it.
Despite how loudly her furiously beating heart sounded in her ears, Josie could still make out that Mr. Handy was saying something to Valerie, who briefly replied from her inside her bedroom, but despite pressing her ear to the curtain, Josie didn't hear anything else. There were a few moments of silence where Josie mourned the death of her friend, before she heard footsteps making their way towards her, which seemingly at the doorway to the bathroom, and all she could hear…chewing? Josie gingerly opened a few centimeters of the shower curtain and peeked out, seeing Valerie leaning a shoulder onto the doorway with a plate of food in one open palm, and the other hand was scooping it up with chopsticks. When she met Josie's eyes, she nodded up in greeting and continued slurping her noodles. Josie didn't quite know what to make of the scene but unable to see the creepy robot, she pulled the curtain completely open and studied Valerie for any damage, grateful to find none. Valerie continued to chew on her food and after she swallowed it, she finally said, "Trunks sent him with dinner for us. It was actually kind of cool, he pulled open his chest plate and the food was sealed away inside, I guess they did that to keep Bra from getting suspicious. Your food and fork is on your bed side table." Valerie finished explaining, pushing off the wall and turning away from the shameful sight of her friend hiding in a bath-tub, and going to Josie's couch to finish off her own dinner.
Josie scratched the top of her head, a little embarrassed at her mistake, and once she was sure her blush was completely gone, she got up and went to go join Valerie for dinner.
…
"WHAT?" Bra asked, her small eyes wide, as she pushed herself up and out of her chair, staring at her solemn family in absolute disbelief. "You've all gone nuts! Memo to myself, never ever leave my family alone to go on a vacation, they will lose sanity…"
"Yeah well, talking to yourself isn't that healthy either, little sister." Trunks said with amusement, unable to hide the fact that he was getting some pleasure from ruffling up his younger sibling like this.
She snapped her head towards him sending him a fierce glare that could rival her mother's or father's. "Shut up!"
"Both of you, stop it." Bulma ordered firmly. Bulma turned her blue eyes on her youngest child, who was still standing angrily. "Sit down, Bra Brief."
Bra, hesitated, but did so unhappily. "Daddy…" She whined, turning her attention to her frowning father whose eyes came up from off the table to meet hers. "Talk some sense into them."
"Though their origins are unclear, the two girls do exist, and they are here."
"Oh no, not you too Daddy..." Bra gasped, horrified.
Their children continued to argue about the impossibility of such an occurrence, while Bulma occasionally interrupted to correct, redirect or stop their argument from becoming a shouting match. Thankfully, with the many fierce temper's that lived at the capsule corp household, it wasn't that uncommon for them to spend their time at the dinner table going back and forth, so nobody was too ruffled. They were unable to convince Bra, however, who stood firm in her conviction that no such thing was possible, but all seemed to silently agree to at least stop talking about it. Bulma and Trunks comfortably ended their meal, untroubled, while Bra stared at the table unhappily.
Bra hesitated to say anything that remotely entertained the idea that they were speaking the truth, but she had to ask one last question. "Suppose…suppose I were to believe this crazy story of yours." Bra started with her brother, who glanced over. "Then where are they now?" Trunks simply pointed a finger to the ceiling and Bra glared.
Trunks smiled at her as he stood up and put his chair back in. "Their rooms are right in front of ours. They were what you smelled earlier." He clarified. "Curiosity will beat you sis, I know you. You'll check, no doubt about it." He said confidently, as he left the dining room to the living room.
Bra growled and ran after him, pushing the door open. "I will not, I'm not crazy like you!" She shouted, more infuriated by the fact that her brother was ignoring her and going up the stairs. "There isn't anyone here! YOU HEAR ME!" She yelled, shaking her fist at him. She huffed and turned back into the dining room where both her parents watched her with surprise. "I'm not crazy!" she shouted defensively.
"We didn't say anything, sweetheart…" Bulma said, blinking.
"Yeah, but I know what you're thinking and I'm not, I tell you!" She said defensively, stomping out of the room like a child in the middle of a tantrum, leaving her parents to watch her go. She muttered things to herself as she went up the stairs and into her bedroom, slamming the door after herself. She paced the length of her room for a few minutes, until she calmed down a little, and with a sigh she placed her hands on her hips and came to a stop in the middle of the room, quietly concentrating. It took only moments for her half-saiyan ears to pick up voices from the next room, and though she tried to convince herself that it was probably just a television and ignore it, she still made the robots in her room that were helping her unpack go into standby mode while she prepared to investigate the situation. She looked out into the hallway and seeing the coast was clear, she carefully went to the door beside hers and pressed her ear against it.
"I don't know why I expected it to be warm when I put my hand through his chest. It was a super weird sensation!"
"Ew, I don't know if I could have done that…"
"Eh, if you're hungry enough I think you would have done it too. It wasn't so bad, really."
Bra's eyes were gradually growing bigger and bigger at the gory and bizarre things she was hearing, before a male voice whispered behind her:
"…Boo"
The poor girl screamed and jumped up, hitting the ceiling with a thump and landing on the ground with a whine. Ungracefully, the young girl grabbed at her sore head and rubbed at her backside with her other hand, taking a step away and glaring at her brother, who only grinned at her.
"Dear baby sister, w-were you spying?" Trunks asked with an entirely fake stutter and gasp of disbelief.
"NO!" She shouted immediately.
He gave her look that told her he did not believe her. "…So now do you believe us?"
"Believe what?" Bra asked stubbornly, ignoring the throb in her head to cross her arms and straightening her shoulders. "That you probably picked up some strays?"
"Excuse me, baby blue, but we are no strays." Bra turned her head and froze, eyes wide when they landed on two female teenagers leaning on opposite sides of the same doorway. Josie froze similarly, struck by how pretty the miniature Bulma in front of her was. The two had been minding their own business talking about Mr. Handy and Bra's return, and what they thought that would do to the house dynamic before they heard Bra's yelp of pain and contemplated their options. They had pressed their eyes to the door and caught the tail end of the conversation that verified the younger girl knew about them, so shrugging at each other, the two girls took a deep breath and opened the door.
And now here they were.
"Look Val, she's your height." Valerie glared at Josie immediately for the untrue jab and was going to retort but then Bra's turned her gaze on her, and the fear she saw there made her hesitate in saying anything back. Josie had no such reservations. "So you're a non-believer then, pretty BB?" Bra turned back to Josie, a mild glare on her face, her stubborn jaw locked as she nodded her affirmative.
She looked like the Bra they'd seen in so many pictures, minus her leather red suit from the future. Her face was slightly more rounded, and she was a little shorter but it was easy to see that this young girl would mature early and be a remarkable beauty. Josie briefly wondered if all saiyans females matured early or if Bra was just a special case.
Coming back to the present, Josie smiled at Bra, unbothered by her stubbornness. "All right, I see that she's going to need some major conversion therapy." She said with a disheartened sigh to Valerie beside her.
Conversion Therapy…? Bra wondered nervously.
"Nurse Vali, get the table set up — be sure to use the one with restraints and ki absorbers." Josie requested, glancing at Bra with one final assessing look over. "...We might need a few tranquilizers." She added as an afterthought.
Bra's eyes widened into comical saucers and sweat dropped down her side. She stumbled for a second and only a 'whoosh' sound was heard as she disappeared out of sight —presumably having run very far away, very fast. "...Nurse Vali? Make that a dozen tranqs." Josie ordered, with a tilt of her head as she looked in the direction that Bra had run in.
"Shut up!" Valerie said annoyed. "You're mean."
"I know huh?" Josie asked with a grin of amusement. "It's a gift!" She said with a happy sigh.
Trunks studied the hallway where his sister had disappeared with a frown. "Yeah, well, surviving my father's temper is a true gift and if you do indeed possess that gift, now would be a very wise time to use it." He said, frustration evident in his voice with his little sister for being so dramatic. Josie glanced in the direction that he was looking at, not seeing why he looked so worried.
"He's right." Valerie said with a sigh.
Josie frowned, these two starting to make her seriously nervous. "...That bad?" Josie asked Trunks, who nodded grimly. Josie blanched and turned to look at Valerie expectantly, and Valerie's eyes widened.
"No, no, no, No! I did absolutely nothing this time— you are NOT getting me on the bad end of Vegeta's wrath this time, do you hear me?" Valerie shouted, going towards her bedroom and closing the door after herself and locking it for good measure.
Josie stuck her tongue out at the door. "Coward!" Josie shouted, turning back to the hallway, eyes narrowed, as her mind thought up dozens of ideas as to how to get out of this one — dismissing them all just as quickly as they came up.
"Any ideas?" Trunks asked.
"…Do you have paragliding gear?" She asked, scratching her cheek thoughtfully, a half-crazed look in her eye.
Trunks burst out laughing with surprise at not only her ridiculous statement but how quickly she could lighten his sour mood. He shook his head at this girl's antics. "You're such a bizarre girl." He grinned with amusement, but the grin dropped within seconds when he felt his father's energy moving quickly towards them. The safest place for her, he knew, was by his mother's side, but she was at the other end of the house, and his father would get to them before Trunks could even consider which route to take to get her to his mother. He smiled down at Josie's nervous and helpless face peering up at him helplessly. He exhaled audibly knowing that this could lead to nothing good, but none the less pointed a thumb at his back, and receiving no argument from her, Trunks only caught a brief hint of her happy grin, before she quickly got behind him.
He still couldn't help but smile when he felt her small hand latch on to the back of his sweater. "Why do you do this to me, Josie?" He asked rhetorically.
"…I wasn't loved as a child?" Josie offered up with a grin at his back, making him laugh out loud.
Seconds later, an angry Vegeta bore down on them, glaring through Trunks to Josie, his fists clenched at his sides. "Give her to me." Vegeta demanded, muscles tensing.
Trunks gulped but stood his ground. "Dad, no one did anything that deserves death. Valerie and Josie were just joking around and Bra took it way too seriously." He explained.
"Nuh uh!" Bra argued, sticking her tongue out at them from behind the safety of her father's back. "They said they were going to use tranquilizers on me, Daddy!" Bra accused, pointing a finger at them.
Trunks growled, a familiar annoyance bubbling to the surface. "Bra, cut the hysterics," He admonished. "You KNOW that I would have never allow that. If you were to just use your brain for one-second and stop acting like a spoiled brat, you would see that. No one was going to do anything to you, now leave Dad out of this before these two girls get hurt because of a simple joke!" He scolded angrily.
Bra wavered under her brother's intense anger and tried to glare back for a few seconds before finally acceded his point. She sighed, coming out from behind her father. "Fine." She finally agreed. "Daddy." She called, taking his attention away from Josie who he was trying to glare to death apparently. "I'll holler if I need you, okay?" She promised. Vegeta took another moment to glare at the new girl, before turning to his little girl and nodding.
"Fine." He said simply, turning, and walking away four steps before looking over his shoulder at Josie who'd just come out from behind Trunks. She froze in her spot when she he pinned her with Vegeta's eyes. "I'll be watching you." He mouthed, before leaving.
Josie glared at the retreating man. "Great…" Josie mumbled, kicking at an invisible rock on the ground, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "More threats." She muttered. "I don't like threats. I don't like them at all." She said growling.
"Yeah, well, welcome to my world." Valerie said as she opened her bedroom door again.
Josie glared at her and crossed her arms. "Oh, now you come out." Josie hissed angrily. "He could have killed me, you know!"
"You're a damned cat, Josie, you have at least seven lives left!" Valerie argued back from her doorway.
"If I'm a cat what does that make you? Courage the cowardly dog?" Josie asked glaring and taking a step into Trunks who now stood between the two girls with a hand on either of their heads to keep the girls who were pathetically swinging at each other now, and unable to reach each other, or him apparently...
Bra stood back from them, a giggle bursting from her lips, catching the attention of all three in the midst of their strange fight. Bra noticed the attention was back on her and smiled shyly at the two new girls, giving a small bow, before she grinned and closed the large gap between them. Josie blinked as Bra Brief suddenly grabbed onto her wrist and yanked her out of her brother's grip, starting to drag her towards her bedroom door. Josie gave no resistance, but she did look back at the others with confusion. "Come-on," Bra urged. "If you're new to this planet, then there's a ton of things I can teach you about our world."
"…I thought you didn't believe us?" Josie asked, causing Bra to pause and look back at the others who also stared at her, perplexed.
"Yeah, well... I think I'm starting to come around, and you're pretty funny." Bra said with a shrug and a grin. "This can be kind of cool now that I think about it — I can be your teacher for all earth things!" She said, eyes alight with the possibilities. "You haven't even gotten to see any of our boy bands, huh? They are so hot!" She dragged Josie's wrist again, much to Josie's chagrin.
"Come-on I really am not interested in any—wait, do they look at all like the CNCO? I like CNCO." Josie asked, following after her.
Trunks and Valerie blinked at the closed door, confused as to what the heck they had just witnessed. "Why didn't I get invited?" Valerie asked, a little affronted. The door immediately burst open and Bra's head stuck out, glaring at Valerie.
"You talked about putting your fist through people's chest!" She reminded, slamming the door shut.
Trunks turned to look at Valerie with some surprise. "I was talking about your robot—" Trunks didn't quite look like he believed her, and jokingly he took a nervous step back, and then another towards his bedroom, further inciting Valerie's indignation. "—With our food that you sent us! I was just commenting that it felt cool — STOP SNEAKING AWAY, THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME WEIRD DAMN IT!"
Note: Accidentally the longest chapter, whoops! Hopefully this was a fun read anyway, please review! For any of those curious, this chapter is half new and half just modified old.