CHAPTER 11- ACHOO!
Disclaimer: I don't own dragon ball z, Vegeta, Bulma, Goku, Yamcha, Mrs. Briefs, Dr Briefs or even Oolong (who would want to?)… But I do own Hasslehoff, not much of a consolation really…
Bulma and Vegeta walked together back to the house, Bulma stared at him in awe
"did I spill something on 'your' face woman?" Vegeta was in a light hearted mood, and he knew that everyone was going to be extra willing to do his bidding for the next couple of days 'all due to my genius' Vegeta thought smugly to himself
"oh…" Bulma realized she had been staring, she knew Vegeta didn't like that "I'm sorry Vegeta it's just…"
"what woman?" Vegeta said, impatient for the gratuitous praise to begin
" you carried off that meeting, you gained the customer's respect AND you got rid of Hasslehoff. I take back every 'stupid monkey' comment I ever made…"
Vegeta smirked but did not reply, knowing that there was more to come…
"you were right, you are coping with this well, I wish I was this good at living my life…" a single tear slid down Bulma's cheek. Vegeta didn't notice this however, he just knew he would burst out laughing or something if he forced himself to look the woman in the eye while she apologized.
They reached the house and Bulma ran inside to wash her face before Vegeta noticed her sadness. Vegeta meanwhile sat down on the couch and finally replied
"I knew that one day you would come to see me as the superior being I have always been. I handled both your boyfriend and your clients effortlessly…"
Bulma sank down into a chair at the kitchen table and tried desperately to keep her sobs in.
'am I really that useless that even Vegeta has better people skills than me? Oh kami I really must be unbearable!!' at this one more tear streaked down her face before she wiped it away and prepared her witty come back
strutting into the living room she replied
"Vegeta, I merely said that you aren't as stupid as I previously thought, I didn't say that you weren't still a selfish snob with a severe attitude problem and a hairstyle that could make a porcupine weep with laughter!! Although I will admit one thing, Yamcha does appear to be more attracted to you than me!" after this she stormed off back into the kitchen, pleased with her cover up
'I knew it wouldn't last, but I made the best of it while it did' Vegeta thought, still pleased with himself. Somehow he could tell Bulma hadn't meant what she said, besides he didn't care. What did he care if she thought he had an attitude problem? The hair thing kind of stung though…
the next morning Vegeta awoke with the sun on his face and what felt like storm clouds in his head.
'what on earth is wrong with the woman's feeble body now?' suddenly Vegeta felt an itching in his nose, he didn't know what it was so tried to calmly wait for it to go away. However he became increasingly alarmed as the feeling intensified, demanding release. Then it got it…
"A…A…A…ACHOOO!!!" Bulma's high-pitched voice rung as Vegeta sneezed for the first time in his life.
'where have I seen that happen before? Ah yes on the television, what was the cause again? Oh no…' Vegeta realized what was going on 'anything but that…'. He desperately tried to convince himself that there was just dust in the air, until he felt the sensation come again
"ACHOOOO!" Vegeta sniffed and then froze as he realized that his sneeze had woken Bulma…
he watched, not breathing to see if she had realized what had just happened… her eyes opened slowly and she got up almost automatically. Vegeta felt another sneeze coming on, there was no way he was going to be confined to a bed for the rest of the week!
"quick womad, rebove de handcufps!"
"what's wrong with your voice? Well my voice, you know what I mean!"
Vegeta didn't want to reply and add to her suspicion instead he removed the key from around her neck and undid the handcuffs himself, then ran to the kitchen
"musd ged vitabin C!" he muttered desperately searching for an orange, or any kind of fruit for that matter…
"what did you just say?" Bulma muttered sleepily following him
"nothink!" Vegeta snapped as he found a huge bag of oranges and ran, cradling it like a sick child, to hide in a closet before Bulma realized what was going on.
"Strange, very strange" said Bulma. She had gotten used to allowing Vegeta to roam freely with her body. perverted thoughts did not seem to have entered his mind…
'perhaps he's gay' thought Bulma, briefly trying to imagine Vegeta kissing Yamcha
"nah, that'd never happen" she dismissed the thought as quickly as it came and went to help her dad with his new 'body-swapping reversal machine'. They'd have to work out a snappier name for it another time…
as she walked down the halls though, she heard a muffled rustling in one of the broom closets.
'Hmmm, strange' she thought 'the janitor is only here on Sundays… oh no!' she thought 'it must be a rat!! Eww!' she decided to walk on the other side of the hallway while passing the cupboard. 'dad can deal with that later' she thought.
She reached her destination finally and found her dad bent over, looking back and forth between a set of blueprints and a large pile of heavy parts.
"hey dad!" she said, as cheerfully as she could make vegeta's voice sound
"hmm? Oh hi… sweetheart" Dr Briefs shuddered almost visibly
"whatcha doing? Can I help?"
"actually you can, I can't possibly lift half those parts on my own and the assembly of the smaller ones would be a lot faster with an extra pair of capable hands"
"I don't know dad, these are vegeta's hands we're talking about here, my mind is capable but my current body is only used to blowing things up! But I'll try anyway" she smiled
they set to work, Bulma had fun lifting heavy chunks of metal with an almost humorous amount of ease. She made a few clumsy mistakes in assembling smaller parts though, she just wasn't used to vegeta's bulky hands, and she longed for her own nimble, agile digits.
"how long do you think it'll take to finish if we keep working at this rate dad?"
"oh we should be finished in three days I should think."
"I hope so, I don't think I could hold onto my sanity much longer…"
"has it been a difficult week dear?"
"we just seemed to pick the worst week to swap bodies, if there is such a thing
as a good week to swap bodies that is!" Bulma giggled at this thought "I don't
know, everything just seems to be happening this week. Goku visiting for the
first time in ages, Yamcha proposing, the meeting, I can only imagine what'll
happen next…"
"well it'll be over soon and I think you and Vegeta did an admirable job working as a team on that presentation…"
"well to be honest dad, most of the credit belongs to Vegeta, he sure can think on his feet!"
"well, being a warrior I suppose that's necessary at times"
"yeah…" Bulma trailed off dreamily
'did my daughter just talk about Vegeta without insulting him? Hmmm perhaps we'll be living in a more peaceful environment from now on. Kami works in mysterious ways…'
they finished for the day at around six in the afternoon and began to walk back through the halls off capsule corp., inevitably coming across the 'rodent infested' broom closet…
"eek dad, that closet, I think it's got a rat in it!"
Dr Briefs stopped in his tracks, to be honest he didn't like the creatures any more than his daughter 'be a man briefs' he thought.
he slowly crept toward the closet door but jumped about 3 feet in the air as he heard a noise from inside…
"achu" the noise was small and muffled but Bulma knew it was a sneeze
"what kind of rat gets a cold?" she pulled open the door to find a guilty looking Vegeta crouched at the bottom of the closet with a carpet of orange peelings about 2 inches deep around his feet and a half peeled fruit stuffed half way into his mouth
"a saiyan rat!" she answered her own question, Vegeta not having heard the first part, looked confused "why didn't you tell me you got sick Vegeta??"
he spat out the orange
"who says I'b …a….a…A…ACHOOO!"
"uh huh and next your going to tell me that mass genocide was never for you…"
Vegeta stood up and held his head high in a futile attempt to look unconcerned, and healthy
"what if I ab sick? What busdess is it of yours?"
'SO the wrong thing to say' he thought as Bulma prepared to give him a verbal lashing
"it's MY BODY! You idiot! I don't fancy getting pneumonia
because you don't want to stay in bed for a couple of days!"
"oh dear…" Dr briefs interrupted ominously
"what is it?" they both asked suddenly concerned
"your illness could affect the reversal process, I'm afraid we can't risk it till you are well"
there was a long pause
"is dis true?" Vegeta asked
"well, yes of course it is!" Dr briefs replied, slightly confused at why Vegeta should doubt him
"very well den, woban, you wid I will….rest" Vegeta felt sick, and it wasn't just his groggy head and runny nose…
aww poor Vegeta! How will he cope? Keep reviewing damn you!!!
My exams are officially over so I'll have more time to finish my fic, I'll have to decide how it ends first though!!!