Thank you for reviews from Lady Lan, Seren McGowan, catgirl26 and Shades of Crimson. I'm glad people are liking the way I'm writing Goku (although this chapter is a little light on in the Goku department) particularly since he's probably my least favourite character, so writing a story where he's so central was always a bit of a gamble. I'm not sure if I'll do a drunken party scene in the future; I've not planned it all down to that level, but it's possible.
I think this chapter is not all that funny (and a little short) because a good half of it is another Vegeta and Bulma hanging out in the woods scene, but I hope you guys will enjoy it anyway.
Chapter Eleven: Second Place
"Hey, uh, 18?"
"What?" she snapped, whirling around with her eyes flashing, showing possibly the most animation Krillin had ever seen from her off a sports field.
"Er, well, ah, see, the thing is, um…." he twisted the booklet between his hands nervously.
"I don't have time to stand here listening to you stutter." She turned and began following in the tracks of the other students, all of whom had already made their way from the dinner hall to their various prep rooms.
"Well, okay, um," he licked his lips. "It's just that, ah, this has been going around and I wasn't sure if anybody had even shown it to you yet or anything and I just thought you should know what people were saying about you, I guess."
She looked back at him with eyes so angry they were nothing more than dark slits in her face. She slapped the booklet from his grip and let it fall to the floor.
"Either you are terminally stupid or you have chosen a ridiculously convoluted way of attempting to mock me."
He swallowed hard. "I'm not mocking you. I, um…." Where was the eloquent, funny Krillin? Where did he go whenever 18 looked at him? He'd had a plan for how this was going to go down, for what he was going to say, and it wasn't anything like how things had actually happened. It was really incredibly inconsiderate for all the intelligent, personable parts of him to run for the hills the moment she locked eyes, leaving behind only stupid, fumbling … Charlie Brown.
Oh, god, that name was sticking even in his own mind. He should just give up. Stop talking to her. Admit to himself that his subconscious was never going to stop pulling away that football at the last damn minute.
"I have received no less than eight of these booklets. You're a little slow off the mark."
"I just, um, I just," he half-jogged to catch up with her, taking two steps for each of her long strides. "I just wanted to tell you that I don't believe it. I don't believe you read that kind of thing or have any kind of weird stuff going on with your brother. I don't believe that kind of thing. About you, I mean."
"You probably should", she said in her usual emotionless affect and Krillin could have sworn he felt his heart stop pumping for a full thirty seconds, at least, while he tried to process the comment. She stopped walking to watch him flail about, incapable of even basic respiratory or circulatory function. "I can't see any reason people wouldn't believe it. I do spend all my time exclusively in the company of my brother, after all."
Krillin thumped at his chest and attempted to adopt normal operating procedures.
"After all," she continued, "everybody knows if you spend a lot of time with someone there's no possible reason other than sex. You, for instance, must be having a hell of a time with your little pig farmer friend and that new boy."
He wheezed. "Oh man, 18, I've got to tell you, you need to work on some kind of tonal variation when you lay on the sarcasm. I nearly had an aneurysm there."
Krillin had dared to hope for a smile or some other sign of a crack in 18's icy façade, but she stared him down in stony silence for a moment more, then left for the prep hall at a brisk pace.
"But, hey, it was nice to hear you crack a joke", he told her retreating back.
Krillin had been doing some detective work. It had occurred to him that the detective work he'd promised to do was for Goku, and that it had fallen by the wayside somewhat. He brushed away those thoughts with a reminder that it was in Bulma's hands for now, and continued on with his unsolicited detecting only slightly guilty.
By Thursday he had worn down Mai. Krillin Chastain, Master Detective, had targeted her first simply because he couldn't actually think of any friends or close acquaintances 18 might have, and the room-mate was his only lead. Mai had initially attempted to redirect him towards the mysterious giver of 18's annual novels, or outright prevaricated under questioning, but when she'd cracked she had pointed straight towards Melody Kaczka as the unintended recipient of this year's book.
So Krillin was now switching his sights to Melody's group of friends. He was armed and ready to harass on this particular lunch break, having located them sitting indoors. Krillin had asked Goku to run backup but the taller boy had plead extreme not wanting to give up his eating time and refused to leave their lunch spot.
Krillin cunningly detected that Goku was feeling a little put out at all this master detecting not being focussed on his own mystery, but didn't have time to soothe his feelings right now.
"Melody!" Krillin announced boldly. "and Haski!" Neither of them looked particularly impressed. "and, ah, Chichi. Hi."
Chichi put down her plate and looked at Krillin flatly. They were no longer at each other's throats, with the distribution of power in the Theatre Club resolved, but Krillin doubted Goku's expansive friendship efforts could ever make the two anything more than coolly cordial colleagues.
She made him nervous.
"So, uh, the thing is that I've been told, Melody, that you got a book from Mai and I was wondering if it was you, then, who made that booklet. You know the one."
Melody shrugged and Chichi sat down next to her. Haski affected an elaborate yawn and stretched one arm above her head slowly, running the hand through her thick, blonde hair on its way up. The movement made her shirt strain against her chest and Krillin could see her bra through the space where the fabric pulled away in between buttons. He knew she was doing it on purpose, to tease or distract him, but could feel his eyes bugging out anyway. It was a purple bra and it was lacy.
Haski dropped her arm and sniggered. "Melody's not brave enough for anything like that."
"Ah-ha!" Krillin bounced onto the balls of his feet and pointed dramatically. "Then it was you!"
She shrugged. "Not exactly a secret."
"Oh."
"Probably half the form could have told you it was me."
"Oh."
This wasn't quite the way Krillin had imagined bringing the case to a close. In his head, things had been a lot more conspiracy theory. A lot more Sherlock Holmes without the crack. In his head, maybe 18 had been so grateful she'd dropped to her knees and pressed her cheek to his chest to gaze up at him adoringly and coo over his impressive insight and intellect.
Now that he examined them a little closer, perhaps his expectations had been too high to start.
"So anyway, I don't know if I should tell her it was Haski or if she already knows and she'd just laugh at me."
"Mm-hm. Yamcha and I have broken up."
"Uh, right, but what do you think about—"
"No, Krillin, I mean really. I'm going to look for a new boyfriend starting right now."
"Oh." It was obvious Bulma wasn't interested in helping Krillin with his 18 problem. It was, in fact, unusual for Bulma to actively look for new romantic interests during her 'off' times with Yamcha and he wondered if they really were serious this time. "Is that an invitation?"
"Ha. You never stop cracking jokes, do you? I kind of like that about you." She laid a friendly punch on his shoulder. Krillin grimaced. He had only been half joking.
"So how come the serious attitude this time?"
She shrugged and pulled her feet up under her on the couch. Before she could answer properly one of the doors opened. Vegeta headed straight for the kitchenette at the back of the common room but Goku wandered over and draped his arms over the back of their couch.
"Hey, you two kiss and make up, then?" Krillin regretted his boldness the instant Vegeta's dark gaze fell upon him. He cringed downwards as though the couch was a shield.
"Ha, gross," Goku chuckled, "really, though, Bulma what are you doing over here? Boys only."
"Whatever." She waved a hand in the air. "I'll come into your clubhouse if I feel like it and there's nothing you can do about it."
"We could get Roshi to kick you out", Krillin said.
Bulma shuddered. "You wouldn't though. I've just been telling Krillin how Yamcha and I have had a serious talk since coming back from our holidays and we've decided to call this break permanent. For real this time." This wasn't quite true just yet but, Bulma figured, it sure would be true soon if she snagged herself a newer, better boyfriend.
"Wow, why?" Goku was all wide eyes and open curiosity.
"We didn't see each other at all this holiday; didn't even call or text or email. It's the longest we've been out of contact since we started dating and we both just realised we didn't miss each other."
"You were your usual possessive self earlier this week, though. When did this talk actually happen?" Krillin asked.
"Well," she huffed, "just because I don't want him any more doesn't mean I want him to go running off with the first girl to shake her tits in his general direction. We weren't officially broken up yet until yesterday." Regaining some composure (and confidence in her lie), Bulma continued. "Anyway, I don't plan to be boyfriend-less for long. I already have someone in mind." She smiled slyly and Krillin felt a little better about her earlier rejection of him. At least she would be rejecting him for someone specific, not just on principle.
Bulma continued with the smug smile for a while without speaking again. Goku continued to stare at her with rapt attention. He was just the sort to enjoy this sort of suspense-building pandering. Krillin had the feeling that Vegeta was watching him, or them, but when he looked over the other boy was just staring very studiously at a kettle.
"So what I'm getting at is: Goku, do you want to go out?"
Krillin let out an undignified squawk.
Goku made a horrified choking noise.
A couple of other boys looked up from across the room with incredulous expressions.
An entire box of teabags mysteriously upended itself on the kitchenette floor.
Bulma beamed expectantly and there was a sudden exodus from the room, leaving Goku to face her alone.
"Are you out here?"
An horrible, hateful, shrill voice assaulted Vegeta's ears. He hunkered down further, as though by making himself as small as possible he could become one with the tree at his back and disappear. He didn't want her to find him.
"Come on, I need someone to sulk with."
She was getting closer but if he moved she'd hear him walking and find him even more easily. He attempted to commune with the spirit of the tree and compel it to hide him. The spirit of the tree was probably thinking something like 'ha ha kid, maybe you shouldn't have stubbed out that cigarette on me ten minutes ago, you stupid punk' because it didn't seem interested in a healthy exchange of ideas.
"There you are!"
Her stupid, spiteful, ugly face appeared from among the trees. He hissed on an inwards breath and refused to acknowledge her. Maybe she would just go away.
She did not go away. She sat down directly opposite him and rested her chin in her hands, elbows on her knees.
"Are you still sulking about that dumb race?"
"No", he said and it was partly true. By now it was not so much the race as it was Kakarrot in general, and Vegeta wasn't quite sure why. Certainly he knew other people with an easy, casual attitude and certainly nearly everybody he knew found things came easily to them, and yet certainly he didn't hate anybody quite as much as he hated Kakarrot Son.
"I think you are."
"I don't care what you think", which was also partly true. He didn't care what she thought he was thinking about, but there were other things he would like to know what she thought on. He just wasn't sure what those things were, right now.
"We can both sulk about Goku together." She stretched her legs out in front of her. "He turned me down. Can you believe that?"
"Yes."
"Shut up. There's no reason he shouldn't want to go out with me. I'm cute and clever and we're already friends. I mean, he may be good-looking but he's seriously out of his league, intellect-wise, with anybody around here. He should be jumping at the chance to date me."
"You're over-rating yourself."
Bulma scowled. "Maybe I'm just under-rating his qualities. I mean, he is very tall and, oh gosh, such a fast runner.
She waited.
"What? No comeback? Fine." She sighed and leant back against the nearest tree trunk. "Well, now that all the serious talk's out of the way, let's get down to the niceties. What did you do on your holidays? Go anywhere fun?"
"I stayed at home. I studied. I practised."
She screwed up her nose. "That's no fun. You should be having more fun than that on your holidays. What are your parents thinking?"
"They want what's best for me," Vegeta replied automatically. Even if he might secretly think holidays were for doing fun things, the only person who was going to go around criticising his parents was him. And only in his head, where nobody could hear him. "It's not so bad. He says when he was my age his father employed a tutor during the holiday periods, so he wouldn't fall behind, so by comparison my holidays are very relaxed."
Bulma didn't say anything for a while and Vegeta thought if she said something else against his family he was going to hit her, girl or no girl.
"That's probably the least flattering thing I've ever heard you say about your family."
Vegeta wasn't sure how to reply to that. Eventually he settled upon "I am very lucky to be part of a family with such a proud ongoing heritage" which was something he'd discovered you could feel was more true if you repeated it to yourself on a regular basis.
"I'm pretty sure I've heard that from you before, verbatim. Doesn't change the fact that you spent your whole holiday slaving over something or other. As for me, I went cavorting across the countryside." He didn't ask for the details but she provided them anyway. "I was trying to run away a little bit but my parents just assumed I could look after myself and never even came looking."
She smiled at him, not a smug smile but a real one. It was a nice smile until he reminded himself that it was, in fact, a vile, execrable, loathsome smile.
"I guess we've got pretty much opposite families, hey? Yours regulate your every move even though you're sickeningly responsible anyway, and mine just place absolute trust in me even though I'm always trying to violate it by running off to parties with boys or whatever. I'd suggest we should swap but I kind of like doing whatever I like."
"I can do what I like." This was true, he reasoned. It's not like his parents could physically force him to study or run or ride a horse. If he really wanted to, he could just not do what his father said. The part of him that was more reasonable than the reason said it was a very different thing to think about all the things one could do and to be actually able to make yourself do them. The angry part of him, which was most of him, replied that he was able to do whatever the hell he wanted so that other part could just shut the fuck up and stop suggesting he was … whatever that part was trying to suggest.
"Oh, really? What would your daddy do if you ran off to a bunch of parties this weekend instead of studying or playing your sports?"
Vegeta hesitated. "Nothing much. He would just talk to me about it. He'd be angry." That was not just partly true, but absolutely true, and when he said it out loud like that Vegeta couldn't quite place why the idea filled him with so much dread. It was just talking when you said it like that, and there shouldn't be anything unsettling about talking with your own father.
Her forehead crinkled up in confusion. "I don't get it, then. If all he's going to do is talk at you, why slog away at things the way you do? You don't need to do even half the work you do to be at the top of the pile."
"No, I need to do twice the work", he spat. She straightened up in surprise. "I should be—I could be—the best at anything I put my mind to but I'm not. I'm not working too hard; I'm not even working hard enough."
He regretted the outburst immediately. Vegeta was working harder than ever since beginning sixth form and he felt like a spring in intense compression. Every moment of every day he just wanted to lash out and hit something, smash something, to relieve some of the tension. He'd originally thought it would wear off over the holidays but then, on top of his usual holiday work he'd added the failed attempt to train up for his race against Kakarrot and had come back to school more pent-up and frustrated than ever.
"How could you be working any harder?"
"I could be working right now, instead of sitting here listening to your bullshit."
"I think you need to relax."
"I don't need to relax." Now she stood up to face him and he wasn't sure how long he'd been pacing. He didn't stop pacing.
"You could at least stop shouting and walking about like that."
"I'm not shouting."
"Seriously, just settle down." She put a calming hand on his shoulder from behind and when he turned around to berate her for it she kissed him.
"That's two", she said when she pulled away, putting up two fingers. "Are you going to puke again?"
Vegeta held up two fingers of his own, mirroring her gesture. "That's second place." Her brow furrowed into a gently confused frown. "Because Kakarrot was your first choice."
Bulma watched him leave then tried to kick a tree to death.