A/N: Chapter 8! Luckily I've had quite a bit of free time on my hands so
this fic of mine has been receiving some much-needed attention. I'm going
to have this entry be a bit longer than the previous ones in celebration of
passing the 10,000 words mark.
Disclaimer: DON'T SUE ME!! Think of this, not as rights infringement, but as a high form of flattery.
Love By Another Name~
Chapter 8. All The Better To See You With, My Dear
"Ah, just the weakling I wanted to see." Vegeta grinned evilly and pulled a bewildered Yamucha inside by his collar.
"Uh, glad to see you too Vegeta. Is err Bulma hanging around here somewhere?" He tried to pry the saiyan's fingers from his shirt and ended up flying through the air a second later, landing in a strategically placed kitchen chair.
"No weakling, luckily for you she is out socializing with the harpy." Vegeta poured himself a cup of tea from the steaming pot on the table and motioned for Yamucha to do the same.
The scar-faced warrior was too confused by now to do anything but grab a cup. He took a hesitant sip, testing it for poison, and upon finding none asked, "Why is it lucky for me?"
"Because, Yam-chop, I don't think you would make it out of here alive if she had answered the door." Vegeta smirked when he saw the human gulp. "And no, human, you didn't do anything to piss her off."
"Then why wouldn't I make it out of here alive?" The man's voice betrayed his inner panic.
"The answer to that, my dear weakling, is a long story." He downed the rest of the contents in his cup and glared at the unnerved baseball star. "I can see that you're frail nerves can't handle a long story so allow me to put it all into a condensed version your puny human mind will be able to comprehend. The woman, as you know, was hit by one of Kakkarot's blast and had to be placed in the tank." He waited for recognition to shine in the man's eyes before continuing.
"She hadn't made it compatible for human DNA so the machine pumped her full of saiya-jin. Now she has a tail and more ki than you ever will. Plus, she is about to eclipse. My only words of advise for you are to kiss your ass goodbye." Vegeta finished with a sadistic smile and started on another serving of tea.
The words slowly made their way into Yamucha's mind; imbedding themselves into the soft flesh of his brain. He opened his mouth and was able to push a few words from his throat. "Bulma's a saiyan?"
"Yes you baka!" The ouji roared, now thoroughly irritated. "Didn't you hear any of what I said?"
"Jeez Vegeta calm down before you bust an artery! This is all coming pretty fast, ya know!" He thought for a moment. "What do you mean by 'eclipse'??"
"When a saiyan woman goes through their mating cycle it is called an eclipse. The female will be blinded by complete and utter animalistic lust whenever the object of their desire comes within a certain range of them. The amount of space differs, depending on the female but it usually is around 2 to 5ft. At any other distance they will just be extremely moody an unpredictable in their presence. The woman will try anything and everything in their power to make the male their mate. It lasts up to a week and normal saiya-jin females only experience it once every Chikyuu decade. Thanks to the woman's human genes it seems that she will be going through it every month." He shuddered.
"What if a female already has a mate when it happens?" Yamucha asked, fully interested.
"Then they will just keep them trapped in their chambers until it passes." He answered coolly.
"What happens if the guy doesn't want to?"
"Well, then he had better hope he's stronger than his pursuer." Vegeta chuckled.
Suddenly it dawned on him. "Why should I care?" Yamucha asked with a smug smirk, crossing his arms.
Vegeta leaned forward on his arm and gave a smirk of his own. "Oh disillusioned moron, even if you don't mind being ravaged by the onna, she will be using all of her strength. It's what you humans would call a 'security net'. It prevents her from successfully mating with a lower being so the next generation of saiya-jins will be stronger. And I can easily say that though the female in question has little to no fighting experience, she could beat the shit out of you without breaking a sweat... or should I say a nail?"
The lesser warrior paled but continued with his questions. "So what do I do? And why did you bother telling me all of this?! I thought you of all people would have been happy to see me screwed to death!" He stated with ire, making the prince smirk deeper at his double meaning.
"I don't want to have to listen to the woman's shrewish screams when she finally snaps out of it and finds your mangled corpse. That and the fact that I just love scaring the shit out of you." Yamucha narrowed his eyes but remained silent.
"As for what you should do about it... the obvious thing would be to stay as far away from her as you can until she gets back to normal. Who knows, maybe you're worried for nothing and the onna secretly had a thing for the Namek all this time." He laughed manically at the obvious display of jealously and rage on the man's face before literally booting him out the front door.
*~Back At Starbucks~*
The raven-haired beauty was trying to make sense of all that her friend had just told her. "So let me get this straight. If I do that stuff to his tail then I can get all the action I want, when I want it?"
"That about sums it up." Bulma said with a smile.
"How did you find out about all this? Oh wait, let me guess, experience?" ChiChi gave a knowing look.
The partially saiyan woman blushed, "No of course not Chi! Veg-head told me about it when I fixed his tail."
"Right."
"I'm serious!" Her face was now a lovely shade of cherry.
"Okay, okay, I'll pretend to buy that for now, but only if you tell me all about that mystery man of yours!"
"Huh? What mystery man?" Bulma raised an azure brow.
"The one who gave you the fuzzy belt." She gestured to said belt to further emphasis her point.
"Oh! My friend, I can't believe I forgot to tell you about him." The genius spoke with a false amazement. *Kuso! Now I get to tell her that Vegeta, of all people, is my friend and gave me a freakin' present too! What a riot! I bet it'll take all of two seconds for it to get back to him and then will I be in for it. 'The saiyan no ouji does not make friends with lowly baka humans'* She mentally mocked. *Then again, I'm not exactly human anymore... ::Sigh::*
"Well?" ChiChi prodded after a few seconds.
"Actually you've already met him." She replied nonchalantly while stirring her coffee.
"Really? What does he look like?"
Bulma smirked, "He's about five inches taller than me and extremely well built. He has dark hair and eyes with warm olive skin." She watched in amusement as ChiChi tried to match her description to a face.
"Is he attractive?"
"Oh yeah." *Fine as hell!*
"How did I meet him?"
"You met him through Goku and the rest of the gang." This was too much fun.
"Everyone knows him?"
"Yep."
*Hmm.. dark hair and eyes.. little taller than B.. knows everyone.. met through Go-* "VEGETA?!?!" She screeched at the top of her lungs, causing everyone in the café to loose their sense of hearing.
"The one and only." Bulma had seen it coming so was able to plug her ears before the woman made her sensitive drums burst.
"V-Vegeta?! B, I was joking about the experience thing!"
"CHICHI I DID NOT SLEEP WITH VEGETA!" She roared venomously, thankful the other Starbucks proprietors had yet to recover from ChiChi's recent screech.
"He bought you a belt?!" ChiChi asked with saucers for eyes, ignoring her friend's outburst.
"I wouldn't say bought.." Bulma said in a calmer tone.
"AND you want to take HIM on a date?!" The loud woman's mind reeled at the very thought.
"Yeah, what's the big deal? Its just Vegeta." She stated with a what's-the-big-deal look.
"But Bulma, what if he decides to blow up the place or picks a fight with my Son-kun?!" The homemaker whined.
"Don't worry so much Chi! I have everything under control. I'll take full responsibility for his actions should he decide to do anything stupid." *Jeez I feel like I'm talking about a kid...*
"Alright B." She conceded. "I know there's no changing your mind when you decide on something." The woman rose and slung her purse over her shoulder. "At least you didn't do something stupid like fall in love with the guy."
Bulma gathered her things as well and laughed nervously. "As if!" She only halfway convinced herself but her friend seemed to have bought it.
The pair set out for the parking lot. "What I want to know is how in the world did you convince him to go with us in the first place?"
"Oh he doesn't know he's going yet." The self-assured female said smugly with a familiar glint in her eye.
ChiChi had to laugh at that. "What exactly are you planning to do to him?"
"I'll tell you when you're older." Her friend jabbed her in the ribs. "Alright I don't know yet but he IS going!"
She grinned broadly. "Why don't you call me tomorrow and tell me how things go with Son-kun."
"Will do." ChiChi winked. "I'll talk to you then okay?"
Bulma threw her capsule into an empty parking spot. "Fine, bye Chi!"
"Bye B-chan!" She waved and saw her friend drive away before a pair of loving arms circled her midsection.
~*~
The cerulean goddess was pulling into her driveway when something smashed into her windshield. It happened so fast that she didn't realize anything was coming until it hit the glass.
She slammed on the brakes and turned off the motor. Bulma was waiting for her heart rate to return to normal before she surveyed the damage. *It's okay Bulma... you're fine. Just calm down and see what happened.* She took a few deep breaths and stepped out of the still gorgeous car.
"YAMUCHA?!?!" Yep it was he. Embedded firmly into the front of her mustang, sporting various scratches over his exposed flesh and an unseen boot-shaped bruise on his aching rear.
"Hey B.." He mustered groggily, most likely on the verge of passing out.
"What the fuck did you do to my baby?!" The dedicated car restorer's tail thrashed wildly behind her and her eyes attained a blue-greenish shade that the warrior was so far unaccustomed to.
His head bobbed with his slurred reply, "Well you see a funny thing happened, Vegeta to-"
"Don't you dare try to pass the blame onto him, mister!" She shook an accusing finger at him.
"But babe!" Yamucha tried to reason, while spitting blood.
"Don't 'but babe' me! Damn it! Grr.. I wanted to come home and relax not put with this shit!" She massaged her temples in annoyance. "You can come in for five minutes. I'll fix you up and then your better get your ass out of here before I change my mind and really fuck you up!" *I could have sworn I saw him shudder..*
More flashes of the conversation with the saiyan prince came flooding back to him. "No that's okay B, I'll be fine! It's only some internal bleeding." He rambled while trying to pry himself free. "I'll just walk it off."
"And leave you with the possibility of not fully recovering?! I think not! I want you at your best when I beat the ever-loving shit out of you for wrecking my car!" The partially-saiyan woman growled.
"Inside. Now." She pulled him effortlessly from his glass prison and set him less than gently on the ground. Pointing to the medical wing entrance, Bulma marched in after her reluctant patient.
~*~
*Great, just great* Yamucha mused. *Here I am, stuck with my ex-girlfriend turned saiyan, who any moment now is going to screw me to death and the only person who can stop her is.. Vegeta.* He warily watched her scour through several cabinets looking for a bottle of antibiotic and screamed like a girl when she looked up at him with gold tinted eyes.
They were eerie and yet in a way, extremely beautiful. As if her orbs collected the sun's rays instead of reflected them. "Yamucha what's the matter? Its only going to sting for a second."
The mixed concern and irritation radiated from her liquid pools, snapping him out of their spell. *I guess that's one of the signs of her condition.* "Sorry, I'm fine."
The little female turned back to her equipment and readied a tray. "I didn't know it was normal for royalty to lurk about in shadows and spy on lowly being such as ourselves." She grinned when she felt the prince stiffen in his hiding place across the room and soaked a cotton ball with some antibiotic.
"I was not lurking or spying, onna. I merely thought you were in danger when I heard the feminine scream but evidently I confused the prey." Vegeta finished with a smug smirk; Yamucha now red as a tomato.
Bulma stopped suddenly and whispered, "You were... worried about me?" She rounded on him and glanced up with her now hopeful golden-blue eyes.
"Kuso.. Err um I mean, of course not baka I was just-" Vegeta stepped out of the doorway and locked onto her gaze. *KUSO! I thought I had more time than this. Grr.. Evil human genetics messing up the onna!*
"Just?" Her eyes were twinkling brightly.
"...hoping someone wouldn't deny me the pleasure of killing you myself." The ouji covered quickly.
The gold hue in her expectant orbs dulled, allowing the rich baby blue to shine through with fury. "Grr.. Bastard." She grumbled, returning to the task at hand.
Vegeta released a mental breath he had been holding and exchanged an unreadable glance with Yamucha. Both males stared after her with morbid apprehension as she finished her preparations and approached the weaker fighter with the doused swab.
A/N: Ooooh, what is going to happen next, suspenseful, ne? Hehehe I was originally going to have that be Veggie at Goku's place in the beginning, asking for help with Bulma, but I figured it was more fun to get in some bashing action and maintain a little in-character-ness. (True, I didn't make Yamucha a cheater, but that doesn't mean I like the guy or anything. ;P) Review people!! I need some more encouragement!! LOL
Ja!
~MOV
P.S. If you look immediately below you will find the greatest invention since anime. ;P You must take advantage of such a gift!!!
Disclaimer: DON'T SUE ME!! Think of this, not as rights infringement, but as a high form of flattery.
Love By Another Name~
Chapter 8. All The Better To See You With, My Dear
"Ah, just the weakling I wanted to see." Vegeta grinned evilly and pulled a bewildered Yamucha inside by his collar.
"Uh, glad to see you too Vegeta. Is err Bulma hanging around here somewhere?" He tried to pry the saiyan's fingers from his shirt and ended up flying through the air a second later, landing in a strategically placed kitchen chair.
"No weakling, luckily for you she is out socializing with the harpy." Vegeta poured himself a cup of tea from the steaming pot on the table and motioned for Yamucha to do the same.
The scar-faced warrior was too confused by now to do anything but grab a cup. He took a hesitant sip, testing it for poison, and upon finding none asked, "Why is it lucky for me?"
"Because, Yam-chop, I don't think you would make it out of here alive if she had answered the door." Vegeta smirked when he saw the human gulp. "And no, human, you didn't do anything to piss her off."
"Then why wouldn't I make it out of here alive?" The man's voice betrayed his inner panic.
"The answer to that, my dear weakling, is a long story." He downed the rest of the contents in his cup and glared at the unnerved baseball star. "I can see that you're frail nerves can't handle a long story so allow me to put it all into a condensed version your puny human mind will be able to comprehend. The woman, as you know, was hit by one of Kakkarot's blast and had to be placed in the tank." He waited for recognition to shine in the man's eyes before continuing.
"She hadn't made it compatible for human DNA so the machine pumped her full of saiya-jin. Now she has a tail and more ki than you ever will. Plus, she is about to eclipse. My only words of advise for you are to kiss your ass goodbye." Vegeta finished with a sadistic smile and started on another serving of tea.
The words slowly made their way into Yamucha's mind; imbedding themselves into the soft flesh of his brain. He opened his mouth and was able to push a few words from his throat. "Bulma's a saiyan?"
"Yes you baka!" The ouji roared, now thoroughly irritated. "Didn't you hear any of what I said?"
"Jeez Vegeta calm down before you bust an artery! This is all coming pretty fast, ya know!" He thought for a moment. "What do you mean by 'eclipse'??"
"When a saiyan woman goes through their mating cycle it is called an eclipse. The female will be blinded by complete and utter animalistic lust whenever the object of their desire comes within a certain range of them. The amount of space differs, depending on the female but it usually is around 2 to 5ft. At any other distance they will just be extremely moody an unpredictable in their presence. The woman will try anything and everything in their power to make the male their mate. It lasts up to a week and normal saiya-jin females only experience it once every Chikyuu decade. Thanks to the woman's human genes it seems that she will be going through it every month." He shuddered.
"What if a female already has a mate when it happens?" Yamucha asked, fully interested.
"Then they will just keep them trapped in their chambers until it passes." He answered coolly.
"What happens if the guy doesn't want to?"
"Well, then he had better hope he's stronger than his pursuer." Vegeta chuckled.
Suddenly it dawned on him. "Why should I care?" Yamucha asked with a smug smirk, crossing his arms.
Vegeta leaned forward on his arm and gave a smirk of his own. "Oh disillusioned moron, even if you don't mind being ravaged by the onna, she will be using all of her strength. It's what you humans would call a 'security net'. It prevents her from successfully mating with a lower being so the next generation of saiya-jins will be stronger. And I can easily say that though the female in question has little to no fighting experience, she could beat the shit out of you without breaking a sweat... or should I say a nail?"
The lesser warrior paled but continued with his questions. "So what do I do? And why did you bother telling me all of this?! I thought you of all people would have been happy to see me screwed to death!" He stated with ire, making the prince smirk deeper at his double meaning.
"I don't want to have to listen to the woman's shrewish screams when she finally snaps out of it and finds your mangled corpse. That and the fact that I just love scaring the shit out of you." Yamucha narrowed his eyes but remained silent.
"As for what you should do about it... the obvious thing would be to stay as far away from her as you can until she gets back to normal. Who knows, maybe you're worried for nothing and the onna secretly had a thing for the Namek all this time." He laughed manically at the obvious display of jealously and rage on the man's face before literally booting him out the front door.
*~Back At Starbucks~*
The raven-haired beauty was trying to make sense of all that her friend had just told her. "So let me get this straight. If I do that stuff to his tail then I can get all the action I want, when I want it?"
"That about sums it up." Bulma said with a smile.
"How did you find out about all this? Oh wait, let me guess, experience?" ChiChi gave a knowing look.
The partially saiyan woman blushed, "No of course not Chi! Veg-head told me about it when I fixed his tail."
"Right."
"I'm serious!" Her face was now a lovely shade of cherry.
"Okay, okay, I'll pretend to buy that for now, but only if you tell me all about that mystery man of yours!"
"Huh? What mystery man?" Bulma raised an azure brow.
"The one who gave you the fuzzy belt." She gestured to said belt to further emphasis her point.
"Oh! My friend, I can't believe I forgot to tell you about him." The genius spoke with a false amazement. *Kuso! Now I get to tell her that Vegeta, of all people, is my friend and gave me a freakin' present too! What a riot! I bet it'll take all of two seconds for it to get back to him and then will I be in for it. 'The saiyan no ouji does not make friends with lowly baka humans'* She mentally mocked. *Then again, I'm not exactly human anymore... ::Sigh::*
"Well?" ChiChi prodded after a few seconds.
"Actually you've already met him." She replied nonchalantly while stirring her coffee.
"Really? What does he look like?"
Bulma smirked, "He's about five inches taller than me and extremely well built. He has dark hair and eyes with warm olive skin." She watched in amusement as ChiChi tried to match her description to a face.
"Is he attractive?"
"Oh yeah." *Fine as hell!*
"How did I meet him?"
"You met him through Goku and the rest of the gang." This was too much fun.
"Everyone knows him?"
"Yep."
*Hmm.. dark hair and eyes.. little taller than B.. knows everyone.. met through Go-* "VEGETA?!?!" She screeched at the top of her lungs, causing everyone in the café to loose their sense of hearing.
"The one and only." Bulma had seen it coming so was able to plug her ears before the woman made her sensitive drums burst.
"V-Vegeta?! B, I was joking about the experience thing!"
"CHICHI I DID NOT SLEEP WITH VEGETA!" She roared venomously, thankful the other Starbucks proprietors had yet to recover from ChiChi's recent screech.
"He bought you a belt?!" ChiChi asked with saucers for eyes, ignoring her friend's outburst.
"I wouldn't say bought.." Bulma said in a calmer tone.
"AND you want to take HIM on a date?!" The loud woman's mind reeled at the very thought.
"Yeah, what's the big deal? Its just Vegeta." She stated with a what's-the-big-deal look.
"But Bulma, what if he decides to blow up the place or picks a fight with my Son-kun?!" The homemaker whined.
"Don't worry so much Chi! I have everything under control. I'll take full responsibility for his actions should he decide to do anything stupid." *Jeez I feel like I'm talking about a kid...*
"Alright B." She conceded. "I know there's no changing your mind when you decide on something." The woman rose and slung her purse over her shoulder. "At least you didn't do something stupid like fall in love with the guy."
Bulma gathered her things as well and laughed nervously. "As if!" She only halfway convinced herself but her friend seemed to have bought it.
The pair set out for the parking lot. "What I want to know is how in the world did you convince him to go with us in the first place?"
"Oh he doesn't know he's going yet." The self-assured female said smugly with a familiar glint in her eye.
ChiChi had to laugh at that. "What exactly are you planning to do to him?"
"I'll tell you when you're older." Her friend jabbed her in the ribs. "Alright I don't know yet but he IS going!"
She grinned broadly. "Why don't you call me tomorrow and tell me how things go with Son-kun."
"Will do." ChiChi winked. "I'll talk to you then okay?"
Bulma threw her capsule into an empty parking spot. "Fine, bye Chi!"
"Bye B-chan!" She waved and saw her friend drive away before a pair of loving arms circled her midsection.
~*~
The cerulean goddess was pulling into her driveway when something smashed into her windshield. It happened so fast that she didn't realize anything was coming until it hit the glass.
She slammed on the brakes and turned off the motor. Bulma was waiting for her heart rate to return to normal before she surveyed the damage. *It's okay Bulma... you're fine. Just calm down and see what happened.* She took a few deep breaths and stepped out of the still gorgeous car.
"YAMUCHA?!?!" Yep it was he. Embedded firmly into the front of her mustang, sporting various scratches over his exposed flesh and an unseen boot-shaped bruise on his aching rear.
"Hey B.." He mustered groggily, most likely on the verge of passing out.
"What the fuck did you do to my baby?!" The dedicated car restorer's tail thrashed wildly behind her and her eyes attained a blue-greenish shade that the warrior was so far unaccustomed to.
His head bobbed with his slurred reply, "Well you see a funny thing happened, Vegeta to-"
"Don't you dare try to pass the blame onto him, mister!" She shook an accusing finger at him.
"But babe!" Yamucha tried to reason, while spitting blood.
"Don't 'but babe' me! Damn it! Grr.. I wanted to come home and relax not put with this shit!" She massaged her temples in annoyance. "You can come in for five minutes. I'll fix you up and then your better get your ass out of here before I change my mind and really fuck you up!" *I could have sworn I saw him shudder..*
More flashes of the conversation with the saiyan prince came flooding back to him. "No that's okay B, I'll be fine! It's only some internal bleeding." He rambled while trying to pry himself free. "I'll just walk it off."
"And leave you with the possibility of not fully recovering?! I think not! I want you at your best when I beat the ever-loving shit out of you for wrecking my car!" The partially-saiyan woman growled.
"Inside. Now." She pulled him effortlessly from his glass prison and set him less than gently on the ground. Pointing to the medical wing entrance, Bulma marched in after her reluctant patient.
~*~
*Great, just great* Yamucha mused. *Here I am, stuck with my ex-girlfriend turned saiyan, who any moment now is going to screw me to death and the only person who can stop her is.. Vegeta.* He warily watched her scour through several cabinets looking for a bottle of antibiotic and screamed like a girl when she looked up at him with gold tinted eyes.
They were eerie and yet in a way, extremely beautiful. As if her orbs collected the sun's rays instead of reflected them. "Yamucha what's the matter? Its only going to sting for a second."
The mixed concern and irritation radiated from her liquid pools, snapping him out of their spell. *I guess that's one of the signs of her condition.* "Sorry, I'm fine."
The little female turned back to her equipment and readied a tray. "I didn't know it was normal for royalty to lurk about in shadows and spy on lowly being such as ourselves." She grinned when she felt the prince stiffen in his hiding place across the room and soaked a cotton ball with some antibiotic.
"I was not lurking or spying, onna. I merely thought you were in danger when I heard the feminine scream but evidently I confused the prey." Vegeta finished with a smug smirk; Yamucha now red as a tomato.
Bulma stopped suddenly and whispered, "You were... worried about me?" She rounded on him and glanced up with her now hopeful golden-blue eyes.
"Kuso.. Err um I mean, of course not baka I was just-" Vegeta stepped out of the doorway and locked onto her gaze. *KUSO! I thought I had more time than this. Grr.. Evil human genetics messing up the onna!*
"Just?" Her eyes were twinkling brightly.
"...hoping someone wouldn't deny me the pleasure of killing you myself." The ouji covered quickly.
The gold hue in her expectant orbs dulled, allowing the rich baby blue to shine through with fury. "Grr.. Bastard." She grumbled, returning to the task at hand.
Vegeta released a mental breath he had been holding and exchanged an unreadable glance with Yamucha. Both males stared after her with morbid apprehension as she finished her preparations and approached the weaker fighter with the doused swab.
A/N: Ooooh, what is going to happen next, suspenseful, ne? Hehehe I was originally going to have that be Veggie at Goku's place in the beginning, asking for help with Bulma, but I figured it was more fun to get in some bashing action and maintain a little in-character-ness. (True, I didn't make Yamucha a cheater, but that doesn't mean I like the guy or anything. ;P) Review people!! I need some more encouragement!! LOL
Ja!
~MOV
P.S. If you look immediately below you will find the greatest invention since anime. ;P You must take advantage of such a gift!!!
