Disclaimer: Buttmunches!!!! O_O".....uhhhhhhhh..heh heh..^_^ "

Oh, and Vegeta is way OOC, but remember he's a little hobo dude. ^_^ ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*

Abandoned & Homeless

CHAPTER 2

30 minutes later, she was back in her car, with a nice big, diamond set in pure silver as her navel piercing. It really went with her current outfit well. She started the ignition, and sped off, forgeting completely about the man she saw before.

~That young woman was Bulma Briefs, heiress to the Capsule Corp. fortune.~



Vegeta tried to make himself comfortable on the thin cardboard that served as his bedding. He picked up the pie off the floor. Both of the animals, Mushi and Shinigami, raised their heads up, and looked at him. Vegeta sighed. "I suppose we can eat it." He told them.

Vegeta pulled the pie out of the bag and broke the it into three pieces as best as he could, and gave them each one of them. They all messily ate their share of the pie, and made sure they didn't leave any spills. This was good food, they couldn't afford to waste it.

Vegeta laid back, resting his head on a burlap sack filled with scrunched up newspaper, that he used as his pillow. His tail flopped aroung lazily on the floor. He was bored stiff. As well as frozen stiff. His feet felt like they were totally numb. Like hundreds of tiny little pins were poking him. He watched a spider slowly spin its web in the corner. He needed to get out and do something.

Maybe he could go out and sit near the footpath, and see if people would take pity on him and throw him a bit of money to put in his collection. He had a little jar that he put his money in, that used to be a pickle jar. He had about $200 in there, that he strangly didn't use to buy food with. Instead, he was saving up to buy the second hand acoustic guitar that Joe said he could have if he got enough money. Normally Joe would have sold it for $500, because it was a valuable one, it was signed by some famous guitarist. But Vegeta was his friend, so he was selling it for less.

All he had to do now was get 20 more dollars and the guitar was his. Joe taught him how to play it when he was off his shift. And it also gave him something to do in his spare time. Which he had a lot of. Most people would think he was extremely weird, or totally crazy for wanting to buy a guitar instead of food, but that was just the way he was. Vegeta got to his feet and dusted himself off. Not that he really needed to. It would take a lot more than dusting to clean him up. It was just a habit that he had. He climbed up on the cabinet below the window and boosted himself up to the ledge, and slid out into the ally.

He had found out that it wasn't very pleasant sliding out into the mud, so he had placed some thin plywood boards he found on the ground, so he wouldn't get any more dirty. Vegeta stood up and stretched. Then he got back into his crouching/gorilla position, and went back over to his favourite crate. The first thing he noticed, was that there were new footprints. But they weren't his, they had shoes on. He looked to where they were headed. Right up to his window. Someone had been looking in on him. He wondered who. It couldn't be Joe, his feet were much bigger. Judging by the size of the print, and the lingering scent of a vanilla perfume, it seemed as if it were a female who had been there.

For some reason, he knew the scent was something he had smelt before. He just couldn't remember exactly where he smelt it, but what he could remember was that it was from sometime in his childhood. It was really weird, because along with that memory of the smell, came memories of this warm, fuzzy, thing that the smell came from. The only indication of what it could be was blue. Only blue. That's all he could see. The only reminder was a colour. He knew he had to find this thing, whatever it was. Maybe this object was the key to his freedom of this wretched place. All he knew, all he felt, was this warmth in his heart, when he smelt that perfume.

Vegeta's breath rose up in front of him in a mist when he exhaled. Goosebumps began forming on his body from the frosty afternoon air. 'Maybe this was a bad idea coming out here.' He thought. He rubbed his arms to try and get some warmth into them, while he sat on the crate that was up against the wall.

Vegeta curled up and tried to make himself as sad looking as possible. Maybe someone would take pity and throw him a few dollars. He despised doing this. It just wasn't his thing. Practically begging for spare change. He'd rather go work for a living, but nobody would hire him. They didn't want a stinking little hobo working for them. He heard that from Joe's wife. Joe had offered him a job in the gardens of his house, but one day he had overheard Joe and his wife arguing about something, so he decided to listen.

Joe was defending him, while his wife couldn't stand the fact he had let Vegeta inside the house where he could have easily stole something. She was ranting on about how Joe should have thought why he was out on the street in the first place. She said he could have been an drug addict or something. He heard her saying all kind of things about him. And then Joe told him he had to leave, his wife didn't like him.

Soon an old lady hobbled past him. She stopped when she saw the sad look on the man's face. She wondered why he was sitting there like that. "Excuse me young man?" Vegeta looked up. "Yeah?" "I couldn't help but wonder, why are you sitting there like that? Shouldn't you be inside keeping warm?" The kindly old lady had bad eyesight, therefor couldn't see his tattered clothes. "I live live on the streets." He sipmly said. "Oh.Shame that is. Why are you living here? Did you get evicted?" "No.My parents abandoned me.What do you care?" "Oh no.That's not nice.Tell you what.Here is $10. It's not much, but you can get something nice and warm to eat with it. Get some meat on them bones sonny!" With that, she walked away.

Vegeta was stunned, nobody had given him that much in one go, except for Joe when he gave him the job. He debated wether to use some of it to get more food, or use it all for the guitar fund. In the end, he decided to go and get two dounuts from the bakery, and use the rest for the guitar. Now he only needed $12 more dollars, and he could get it.

~*~*~*~

4 days later, Vegeta had the money for the instrument. It was near the end of Joe's shift when Vegeta ran out of the ally holding his jar of money. "Joe! Joe I got enough!" He waved the pickle jar in front of the man's face frantically. "That's nice little man. Now go and wait. My shift ain't over yet. Heh heh heh." The older man chuckled and patted him on the head. Vegeta was a bit hyper. He had never held this much money in his hands before. "Okay! Okay! How long?!" Joe smiled nervously at the annoyed people waiting in line for a hot dog. "I'll come and get you when I'm done. How's that sound?" "Yeah okay." With that Vegeta ran back into the ally with the jar full of coins and a few notes under his arm. He squeezed through the basement window and jumped down onto the cabinet.

He placed the jar on a small table he made out of wooden crates and sat down on his raggedy old couch that Joe gave him. Unfortunatly it was too small and uncomfortable to sleep on. Vegeta doubted that he'd ever be able to repay Joe for all he's done.

10 minutes passed and Vegeta heard a tap on the window leading out to the ally, and man's voice telling him to get out there. Vegeta grabbed the jar and dived through the window, and slid through the mud, startling Joe. He quickly stood up. "Come on let's go!" Joe smiled and Vegeta hugged the pickle jar to his chest as they walked out.

Soon they arrived at Joe's house. "Now you should probably stay here cos the missus cleaned the floor today. I don't want her screaming in my ear about getting the floor all muddy and bringing you into the house. I just can't understand why she doesn't like you. I can't see anything wrong with ya little man!"

"Little man" Was Joe's nickname for Vegeta, because he was short and always crouched down like a little monkey. Vegeta grinned stupidly. Joe was the only one he trusted now. He didn't like girls because they always broke their promises. He swore he'd never like another girl again.



Vegeta clutched the jar under his arm while he sat on the steps out the front, while Joe went inside to get the guitar. He came back out with it. It was a really nice looking one too. Vegeta could see the scrawl of a signature on the front of it.

"Here's the pick that goes with it as well." Vegeta stood up and took the guitar and the pick from Joe, and he handed him over the money. "I'll give you back the jar once I find something to put all this money in. That okay with you?" "Yeah." Vegeta was too busy looking at the instrument to take much notice of what he was saying. His tail wagged excitedly behind him.

"I see you like it don't you?" He chuckled. Vegeta nodded without looking up. "Oh well.I suppose you'd better go before the missus finds out you are here. I'll get just as bad, if not worse, if she sees you." "Okay Joe. Thanks. Bye." "See ya little man." Vegeta put the guitar strap over his head, and let the guitar fall behind him. He gave the man a quick wave and ran down his driveway and back to the ally.

When Vegeta got back, he pushed the guitar through the flap first, and then went in. "Hey guys I'm back!" He called out. Mushi lept onto his shoulder from a high shelf, and Shinigami stood up in the corner and yawned. "Well glad to see you too Shin." He mumbled sarcastically. He gave Mushi a pat on the head, and sat her down on his pillow. At night, he liked to snuggle up to his pets. One, because they kept him warm, and two, because he felt more comfortable around them, like they would protect him from everything. And just the smell of them would make him relax and feel reassured.

Mushi curled up into a little ball on the pillow, and started purring really loudly, the sound vibrating throughout the room. Vegeta smiled and sat down on the couch with the guitar. He got the pick, and started to warm up his fingers by playing a few chords. Then he started to play a song Joe taught him. It was called Wherever you will go, by a band called The Calling. He really liked the song and it was one of his favourites. Vegeta sang the words to it. He actually sounded a lot like the original singer from the band, but he was able to sing in many different styles and different voices.

~*~*~*~

It was about a month since Bulma saw the man in the basement. Although she still didn't remember it. Bulma was taking her friend Natsumi to get her eyebrow pierced. Natsumi didn't really want to go down to the poorer parts of the city by herself so Bulma went with her.



After getting Natsumi's eyebrow pierced, they stopped at the hot dog cart. It was nearing lunch time and they were getting a bit hungry. Natsumi just got a plain one with tomato sauce, and Bulma got one with with the lot. Unfortunatly, she didn't know that it had something on it that she was allergic to. Sauerkraut.

The two women neared the ally where Vegeta was sitting on his crate, staring at a bug stuck in the mud, before Bulma realized that there was sauerkraut on her hot dog. Luckily she hadn't bitten into it yet.

"Dammit. I am allergic to sauerkraut. Yuck. I'll just throw this away and get a pie from this bakery up here. They have really nice pies. Come on let's go." Bulma spotted a bin near the road side. She went over to it and was about to throw it in, when she felt a tug on her arm. It was Natsumi. "Bulma." She tried to inconspicuously point to the guy in the ally. He was staring eagerly at the food she held and was licking his lips.

"The poor guy must be starving Bulma. You know I have a soft spot for helping people. Don't waste it. Give it to him. Pleeeeeeeease???" Natsumi whined. "Fine." Bulma cautiously went over to him. She held out the food in her hand.

As soon as she got near, Vegeta jumped up and scooted back into the shadows of the dark ally. "No.Leave me alone. I don't like you people. You make me stay in small rooms and don't let me do what I want. Go away." Bulma wondered what he was talking about.

Natsumi went up to her and whispered into her ear. "I think he's talking about the people from those homeless shelters. I think he thinks you are one of them."

Bulma sighed. "Look. I'm not here to take you to a shelter. I'm not one of those people." There was silence for a few seconds. ".You.you're not??" "No. I just wanted to know if you would like this hot dog. It has something that I am allergic to on it, so I can't eat it. Do you want it or not?"

Vegeta stepped out of the shadows a tiny bit. He was crouched down. Bulma thought he looked like a monkey. He slowly scooted over to them looking all around just to make sure no one was going to jump out and grab him. He sniffed the food, and looked up into their faces. Then he looked back down at the food, and sniffed it once more before snatching it out of her hand quickly and running back into the ally, and hiding behind a stack of crates and bins. The last thing they saw of him was a long, fuzzy black tail streaking out behind him.

"What? No thank you?? Well see if I ever get him something again.Whoa.That was weird.He had a tail.But oh well.That's not the point!!!" Bulma walked off in a huff. Natsumi rolled her eyes then whispered into the ally. "I hope you like it.Vegeta." Then she went to follow Bulma into the bakery.

Vegeta sat behind the little wall of crates and bins, waiting until they left. He looked at the hotdog in his hands. It smelt so good. Joe had been fired recently, because he had been giving too many sausages away. The new guy was fat, ugly and really mean. He wouldn't let Vegeta anywhere near the cart, much less have a sausage.

Vegeta had been having really bad luck lately. There had been barely any food in the dumpster for ages. He was starving, and even skinnier than he usually was. The extremely low food consumption had left him very tired and without energy. He could barely find the energy to get up and climb through the window to get outside. So he was grateful for this food.

Vegeta sat cross legged on the ground, and unwrapped the food from the napkin. He took one more sniff of it before eating it as fast as he could. There was stuff all over his face and hands, but he licked all of it off. Being hungry for so long, and now having this food suddenly in his stomach, he felt almost full.

He licked his lips again, then splashed through the dirty puddles back to the crate. But just before he got there, he noticed something. There was a set of keys, with a tag, lying in the mud. He picked them up, as well as a fair bit of mud, and looked at the tag.

Vegeta couldn't read very well, he only knew the basics that Joe had taught him. The first name on the tag looked familiar, he couldn't read the last one. And he also couldn't read the thing that came before the first name either. But what he did understand, was a company name, that everyone knew. Capsule Corp.

Vegeta knew this must be important, so he had to give it back to this person. He figured that it was one of the girls who dropped it. He didn't know the way to Capsule Corp. though. So he would have to ask someone. Well, since Joe was fired, and the fat guy wouldn't let him near the cart, he'd have to ask the people in the bakery, or ask people on the street.

Vegeta found no help in the bakery, the fat ugly man's brother was in there. So he walked around the street asking people.

It turned out not to be very successful. Most people just ignored him, or told him to get lost. The most info he ever got out of one person, was that Capsule Corp. was on the other side of the city. He sighed. He'd have to take the bus. Vegeta ran back to his place and got some spare change from his jar. He put it in his pocket, and went to check the bus time table. The next bus was due to arrive in a few minutes, so he sat and waited.

Sure enough, it came right on time. He climbed aboard, gave the driver his money, and told him that he wanted to go to Capsule Corp.

The bus stopped at a few places, before arriving at the Capsule Corp. head quarters. He got off the bus, and stepped down onto the lawn. The grass was nice and soft between his toes, quite a contrast to what he was used to. He wondered where he should start. If he knocked on the door, they would probably slam it in his face and call security. He didn't want that.

Vegeta wondered how he was supposed to get in. There was a big gate with guards posted at it. He supposed that was the way. He walked up to them. "Ummmm.Does this person live here?" He held up the keys and pointed to the name on the tag. "Yeah.Why?" "Well, I found their keys." The guards stared at him. "Well what do you want me to do about it?" "I wanna give them to the person." The other guard suddenly spoke up. "Why do ya keep saying the person, or they or their or whatever? It's weird." Vegeta was silent for a moment. "Cos I can't read good."

The guards burst out laughing. "Hahahahaha!!! The little bugger can't read!! Hahahahahahahaha!!" "I don't see what's funny. I just wanna give this person their keys back." The guards laughter soon died out. Their faces quickly went from amused back to a blank expression. "Okay." With that, they opened the gate.

Vegeta went through the now open gates. 'Stupid idiots.' He thought to himself. He walked around the garden for a while, careful to hide his tail under his shirt. He spotted a blonde haired woman who was watering some exotic plants in a far corner. Her hair was done up in a kind of an afro, and she was singing a song in a high pitched voice, while skipping around with a watering can. Maybe she'd know who this Miss Briefs was. He didn't know which one of the two women was this Briefs lady, so he would have to ask.

He walked over to her. "Ummm.Hi?" He asked uncertain of what he should say. "Ahhhh!!" The blonde woman spun around and tripped over the wound up garden hose. She fell to the ground with a thump, just laying there on her face.Vegeta's eyes widened. He looked around to make sure no one had saw it. He poked her in the side with his foot. "Uhhh.Hello? You okay?" The woman was on her feet before he could say another word. "Ooooo!! Yes dearie, I'm fine! That happens all the time. Silly me!" She giggled like a little schoolgirl. Then she went back to watering the plants. "Yeaaaaaaaaah.Ummmm.I found this. Who is this Miss Briefs? I can't read the first name." The lady turned back around, and took the keys off him. "Bulma Briefs. That's my daughter! She isn't here now. She went down to take her friend to this place to get something pierced." Mrs. Briefs trailed off.

"My my.Aren't you a handsome boy!! But thin though." She poked his ribs with her finger. "Hmmmm.You look like someone I have met before. Yes.The hairstyle. Oooooo!! Oh well.No use living in the past.You are too thin!! Let's fatten you up! I baked some nice yummy cakes and made fresh lemonade. Come on inside, Bulma should be home soon." She dropped the watering can at her feet and skipped merrily to the door. Vegeta stood in the same spot, dumbfounded at the fact that she was so air headed. "Well come on then you little cutie!! If you don't hurry then my husband will eat all the yummy cakes on you!! Hehehehehehe!!!"

He wondered how she could be so happy and lighthearted, and so trusting to let him into her house. But he didn't question it for long, he could smell the freshly baked cakes in the kitchen. He quickly ran up to where Mrs Briefs was standing. "Ooooo!!! Silly me!! I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Bunny! What's your's?" "Uhhh.Vegeta." He looked at her strangly. He had never met a person so happy, unless they were high off some kind of drug.

"Okie!! Now you just take a seat right here while I go and get the cakes and lemonade!!" She pointed to the picnic table on the grass. Then she pranced inside like the ditzy woman she is. Vegeta shook his head. How could the wife of the world famous scientist, and mother of this Bulma girl be so dumb? He placed the keys down on the table and then sat down himself. After a short period of time, Bunny came back out with a tray of cookies and cakes of all sorts, and a large pitcher of lemonade with two cups.

"Ooooo!!! It's so nice to have company these days!! I get so lonely, just me and the flowers. Bulma and my husband are always in those labs of their's working on new inventions all the time!! I barely ever get to see them!" She sniffled. But her mood quickly brightened as she remembered the cakes. "Oooo yes! Here we go! Help yourself to as many as you want! There's plenty more where that came from!" She poured them each a glass of lemonade after she sat down. "We were suppose to have this big party with a whole heap of important people, but it got canceled because of the rain. Bulma's friend Goku, handsome man that, always eats quite a lot. We were going to give this all to him, but we just haven't got around to asking yet!" "Uhhhh.Okay." Vegeta looked at all the things on the tray. He couldn't decide on which one he should eat.

"Well help yourself! They aren't gunna poison you, you know! Hehehehehe!!!" She giggled. "I.I've never eaten any of these things before. I have only seen things like this in the bakery window. I never had enough money to get any though."

Mrs. Briefs eyes widened enough so that you could actually see what colour they were. Now that would explain his ruff and dirty appearance. "Well, my favourite is this chocolate cupcake with cream and jam. It's nice and sweet. Why don't you start with that?" "Okay." Vegeta picked it up and looked at it. Bunny took a bite out of a choc-chip biscuit.

Vegeta put the cake up to his mouth. He sniffed it once before taking a bite. It was really good. Really sugary. He grinned at Bunny after swallowing it. "This is very good. I have not tasted things like this before." "Ooooo!! Thank you dearie!! That's very nice of you! Hehehe!!" She covered her mouth with her hand as she giggled. "Now you can try some of the lemonade!!" She pushed the glass over to him, and he picked it up and drank some of it. It was much better than the dirty water he was forced to drink. Occasionally he would get fresh stuff when it rained, but lately, the Bakery hadn't been cleaning the drains properly, and the water was bad. He had set up a water catching system by putting a hole in the drain pipe and putting an extra part of pipe in that, which made the water run down into a canvas funnel. The water was then filtered down into a large can. He got his water out of that. He could even sometimes have cold tea, if there was a teabag in the garbage.

~*~*~*~

15 minutes later, Bulma arrived home in her Mercedes, after dropping Natsumi at her place. She parked in the driveway and turned the engine off, taking the keys out of the ignition. She got out of the car, and went inside the CC building.

Bulma threw her keys down on the kitchen table. There was a large plate of cookies and cakes in the middle of it. 'Hmmmm.Mum must have been bored again.' She grabbed a cookie and started yelling. "MUM!! WHERE ARE YOU?!" She listened for a response. "Out here honey! We have company!" Bulma nibbled on the edge of the cookie as she pushed the screen door open and walked outside. She turned towards the picnic table and dropped the cookie, her jaw also dropping. Sitting at the table with her mother was the same man she had given her hot dog to.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~* Finally. I got this chap done!! Damn my legs are sore!! I knew I shouldn't have done 2 karate classes, one after the other!!! Dammit!! _!! You guys better review or I won't put the next chap up!! R&R!!!