Inevitability

Chapter Eleven: Disasters

Bulma had been awaken quite early the next day, or at least so told her sixth sense in timing, by a rather foolish reason. Or so one would think before they see the look in the princess' sapphire eyes. The door had been slammed rather rudely, scaring her awake. She was ready to jump on whoever it was and tear them alive. She was considering the option until she saw both her parents, Goku, Radditz, ChiChi and a few other servants. One of those other people held a champagne bottle in his hands.

The Heiress blinked a few times exchanging looks with all of the inhabitants of the room, still trying to figure out what was going on there, forgetting completely that it was actually her birthday this day. The Queen's blonde head was nodded at the servant with the champagne, who shook it fiercely and then let the cork fly freely as the bottle was opened. For all of the present people's horror, the alcohol spilt over Bulma's satin covers. ChiChi's face fell immediately and the Princess herself laughed a little at the man's discomfort.

"Ah, don't worry about it, we'll get it changed." She smiled brightly and jumped out of the bed, making Radditz blush when he noticed her luxury yet almost see-through nightgown. But the lavender haired girl was too busy hugging her friends to note the young man's unease.

"Change them?" ChiChi repeated, looking at the stain on the expensive silk. "Change them?!" She screeched, making both her long-time friend and the guilty man jump as their eyes grew wide. "Do you have any idea how this silk costs!?" She shrieked in fury, shaking the poor man mercilessly with her eyes themselves sparkling in rage. "It's worth more than ten times your own life, you impudent brainless jelly-fish!!!!!" She let go of the shocked man's collar, taking a grip on the sheet, ripping it out of the bed. The raven-haired teen sniffed and began stroking the fabric. "There, there, darling. I'll make you feel like new once I'm done with this nasty stain." And she left without another word spoken.

Bulma was stoned on her place with her eyebrow still twitching. She laughed nervously and put a hand behind her head. "Yes, well, that's my Chi."

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The birthday girl had arrived half an hour later for breakfast. She was so excited about all of the things she could just feel her parents had done for her that she was faster than ever getting ready for the day.

She plopped down on her seat and smiled brightly at her mother, who had a matching expression on her own face, and her smiling father.

"You remembered!" She giggled.

"How could we possibly forget?" The queen did the same and clapped her hands. A beautifully dressed man, one of the servants that brought their breakfast every day and what we would call a butler, came and bowed down to the elder woman. She whispered something in his ear at which he nodded and bowed again before he left the royal family alone. Bulma blinked a few times at the place where the man had been located a few seconds before as her mother shifted her beautiful blue eyes back at her.

"So, what were we talking about?" The lavender haired girl pouted, but she couldn't put up with such expression today longer than a second.

"What was that about?" She blurted, half-laughing.

"You'll see." Her mother chirped and squeezed her eyes tightly closed in happiness. She and her husband had planned one wonderful day for their daughter today. One day she should never forget!

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Vegeta slammed the door to the training grounds angrily and stormed off to some unknown destination. He looked extremely pissed at something, or, to be more precise, someone. He had been used to that brown haired girl to be uneasy around him, act as if he was superior to her in any possible way and there she was giving him... What did she call it? Advice?! He needed no advice from her, he would never need one, from anyone! Not in a lifetime. Only over his dead body!

"Stupid Ariane..." He muttered, frowning deeply getting back to his room, still thinking about the topic he had been actually arguing about with his personal maid with. Perhaps... Just perhaps... No, it wasn't possible. But still... He could give it a try, now couldn't he? It wouldn't cost him that much to.

Or so he thought.

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Bulma wondered if she could get any happier today. First she had this wonderful huge breakfast and ate the best parfait she had ever laid eyes upon, got a new horse since she set the last one free for it longed for the wilderness it was torn from and now, her mother and father were taking her somewhere she could know next to nothing about, for it was another surprise for her. Her mother had her soft palms over her daughter's eyes in case the girl couldn't resist the urge to take a peek before the King was done.

"You can let her go now." His cheerful voice sounded like a demand for the elder woman's hands to leave their place and let the thirsting orbs of her offspring take in the scenery revealed to her. It took the teenager a little more than a minute to gaze over all of the shelves on her front and cry out in awe.

"Mommy! Daddy! This is the best present ever!!!" She continued to talk enthusiastically about the books that were placed over the shelves twice higher than herself and more than a hundred times wider. It was a room, a huge room with high ceiling, whose walls were made into bookshelves. There were other shelves, standing like obstacles in the midst of the library, but not creating the same labyrinth her parents were afraid to send her in anymore that was her previous library. But what startled Bulma even more was the fact that not one book she had yet lied eyes upon in this place had been the same one she had. But how could her parents possibly know which books she had and where did they get all of those anyway?! She decided not to ruin her own mood with her insolent questions and just to enjoy her time. The girl could already feel her blood running ever faster through her veins in excitement.

The Queen's ever so evident smile grew in happiness as well as her pride of her own genius swelled within her. It was, after all, her idea to create this library, a second sanctuary to her daughter. She had even had a few servants to help her pick out the names of the books and authors the Princess values the most.

"We're glad you like it, dear. It had been made specially for you. The books are the most valued ones from all of our allies. All of their wise men were willing to make a birthday present to the Earth Princess on her adulthood." Bulma was in awe. She never knew she was so popular among the other planets. There were others, much bigger than Earth, but none of them could match her father's genius, not to mention her own. She grinned happily and nodded, still reading through random pages of books she'd picked from the shelves.

"This is absolutely wonderful..." She muttered to herself. "I don't really want this day to ever end."

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By the afternoon, the Princess was kind of getting tired. All these emotions running through her all at the same time made her feel nauseous. But she held her ground as her friends, relatives and acquaintances continued to shower her with various gifts. Some with more of a sentimental value rather than material one, other plainly beautiful more than anything else. All in all, they were all wonderful. But the whole day, she had been missing something. Something rather important to her, or so told her intuition.

"Ariane, has Vegeta been to his training today?" The lavender haired heiress asked the woman rushing by her politely. The servant stopped dead in her tracks and dropped down on her knee, bowing deeply to the maturing princess.

"The lord had obviously listened to Ariane's advice, my lady." She smiled brightly up at the younger girl. "You should be patient with the Lord. For you will be very surprised as to what he might have come up with." With another bow, the auburn haired girl left her future ruler, who scoffed and turned on her heel for the room to her brand new library that she already felt so honored to have. She had no time for stupid Vegeta. She had to calm her nerves a little for she had been even more excited when she learnt the ball that would be held in the Palace would be in her birthday's honor.

The youth swallowed hard. She never really liked Ariane since the girl began spend so much time with Vegeta anyway...

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The King stood from his seat in the head of the table and cleared his throat to collect all of the inhabitants' attention, which wasn't an easy task to perform. There were over five hundred people in the whole room, but surprisingly everyone fell silent.

"I want to thank all of you for coming here tonight." There were several nods of heads and whispers in affirmation as the king continued his mini-speech. "The star of tonight's event will be arriving shortly, for you know how conceited girls are about their dressing." The large premise was filled with chuckles and giggles from the ladies.

"There is no need to further wait, father."

All heads were turned to the source of the voice. Before them stood the possibly most beautiful creature that had ever and would ever live on Earth. Her natural beauty was amplified by the gorgeous long gown she was wearing. It was a floor length beige made in tiers, as each one was longer than the previous and every next one was darker shade from the one before. It had delicate straps that made the slender features of her shoulders and collarbone stand out and yet they weren't delicate enough to be considered sluttish. She had, obviously, cut her waist long lavender hair down to shoulder length one, barely brushing over the almost naked neck. The princess had put one of the presents she had previously received - an exquisite silver bracelet with an endless sculpted in it line, that she guessed had to symbolize her eternal life and beauty. Another one of the presents, a beautiful silver tiara with some white stones plastered in it was twinkling in a soothing light on the princess' forehead.

The princess liked plain things. She didn't like being too flashy. Yet, without realizing it, she was in the spotlight of tonight's show. She was the one everyone wanted to talk about. All talks were concentrated on her future as a Queen and how she needed a husband to help her with the boring lawsuits and meetings she despised so much. And to that point, none of the 'candidates' for her had seemed fine enough. All of them had something wrong, something too wicked for her to stand. Not that she wasn't a pure angel herself, but she wanted not to regret being with someone for the rest of her life.

Bulma snapped out of her thoughts and so did most of the guests as the King cleared his throat again and began hitting his glass lightly with his spoon.

"Dear guests, my dear daughter," He nodded at her and she nodded back, taking a place next to him. "I'd like to announce our special guests. They have come across most of the Galaxy just in order to greet our little girl on her reaching of adulthood." Bulma pouted. Now who might that be and why wasn't she informed? Oh, well, it couldn't be that bad. She took a sip of her Rakia, the alcohol the earthlings loved to drink. She never drank much... Mainly because she didn't know why and she had the glass' bottom up before she could figure out how her drink really tasted like.

"Prince Yamcha and his cousin, Princess Marron have come to our invitation." The heiress spat out all of the liquid she had in her mouth as she stared with widened eyes at the entering regals. No... it had to be a lie. Anyone but them.... She hoped she was seeing things because of the Rakia, but it wasn't that. She was really living in his nightmare. Things could never get worse than this...

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By a hour from her arrival, Bulma had been mad over what seemed a thousand times to her. She had been forced by her parents to dance with Yamcha, who was a total fool in everything he did. Sure, he was sweet and caring, she knew that quite well, but his ultimate stupidity and ignorance was what made her blood boil. He knew nothing about women. It was as if he had been raised under a glass dome his whole life and now he was set free to know the world, to see what it was really like beyond the earlier mentioned glass dome.

It was not the fact he blushed whenever he made a compliment on her looks, her genius or anything that had to do with her. No, the princess thought that was very sweet. But it was the fact he knew next to nothing how to dance. And she wasn't sure she was in mood of teaching someone such trivial things. He had stomped on her feet a few times now, not on purpose of course, and it had taken him somewhere like fifteen minutes to excuse himself for doing so.

The whole evening the sapphire orbs had been searching the ballroom. She hadn't seen ChiChi, who she insisted was present on her biggest day of days on this stage of her life. Radditz was by her father the whole time and Goku was talking with princess Marron about something and they were both laughing. Everyone was having fun. Everyone but the birthday girl herself. She could never consider Yamcha fun. He was too... too... simple to be fun. He had to be taught what girls are, what they like and how he should threat them, but Bulma could judge by her previous behavior these years that she could never be the one for that.

All put together, the day was very near to end as a disaster. She needed a release from this man. She needed to have a break from him. But no one seemed to notice as they were blinded with the 'possible future Earth King'. She felt a strange feeling of contempt to these words. She hoped they were wrong, and she swore she would do anything for them to be proven wrong.

"Ah, Prince Vegeta." The blond queen called as the dark youth neared the trio. Goku had never seen the Saiya-jin prince in such clothing before and he was sure he wasn't going to see it ever again. Marron was totally awestruck by the handsome strange-haired male that was nearing them ever further. The young man had changed into his official clothing by what the Queen herself could judge. He had a pitch-black spandex outfit like the dark blue one he liked so much, for the exception that this one made his whole appearance even closer to divine. His long crimson colored cape was flapping behind him as he stepped.

"We have been expecting you." The elder woman continued. "Marron, this is Prince Vegeta, the tactician the Kingdom had been looking for. He had been sent and escorted here by Lord Frieza himself." The woman seemed quite proud with this boy, as if he was her own child that she had a swelled pride in being so 'popular' among the higher stages of power over the Universe. "Vegeta, this is Princess Marron, Prince Yamcha's cousin and future ruler of Fregalia-sei." The man nodded at the marine haired girl that looked no more than a year younger than himself. She strangely reminded him of someone, but he couldn't quite remember who right then.

"It's nice to meet you, Prince Vegeta." Marron chirped in her strange high-pitched voice but then cleared her throat and continued normally. "But, of which race are you actually a Prince? I have not heard of a regal that's such a high-rated warrior as you yourself appear to be." Her politeness startled the person in question. She looked more like a kid with her chubby face and her round azure eyes. Yet, the only thing she seemed to lack was the strength of the voice as even when she coughed not much had changed.

"I'm a Saiya-jin." He stated simply, sitting down next to her. Well, he had nothing else in mind for tonight so he could sure as hell spend some time before he decided whether to do what Ariane had so kindly 'advised' him to or not.

"I have heard of your mighty race." Marron smiled brightly revealing her in-line white teeth to her interlocutor, who made a puzzled expression for a second before his roughen full lips stretched up in the corners for a smirk. Well, he was now sure it wasn't going to be as bad as he had previously believed it would.

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"Mother!!!!!" The Princess' voice rang viciously as the heiress kicked her way through the crowd to get to the royal table where her mother had been located all night. "Mother, you're going to pay for this!!!" She yelled again as she slammed her hands on the table, startling all of the people that were sitting around it. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"We could ask you the same thing." Marron smiled at her only to receive a malicious glare that made her forget which language she was speaking. The sparking expression of the newly turned into an adult girl shifted back to her grinning mother.

"What is the meaning of what, dear?" She asked sincerely, looking really surprised as to what her daughter was referring at. The female shook in rage and pointed at the rising Yamcha.

"He tried to force me into a kiss!! What is the meaning of this?! Have you told that idiot anything that might make him think he is allowed to do such a thing?!" She screeched on the verge of shaking her mother by the collar of her beautiful light blue dress that could actually rival her own by beauty. The woman just kept on smiling, setting the girl further off.

"You have surely noticed that Prince Yamcha has an interest in you."

"Well, it is not mutual." The princess snorted, crossing her arms firmly across her chest not in a really lady-like manner. But by the time, she was too caught up in her own little hell to notice such trivial things as her own behavior. Despite the heiress' venom spat words that the Queen ignored completely, she continued with her 'explanation'.

"And since you're single-" "No..." Bulma interfered. "...Me and your father decided it would be good that you come to know each other better. Maybe something good would come out of your friendship." Her bright smile was more than enough to make Bulma's heart drop. Get to know each other? Get to know Yamcha, of all people?! That was crazy! Totally nuts. She would never want to do that. Suddenly the princess' temper flared as she clenched her fists tightly, her knuckles turning white.

"Is that why you have been treating me so well today? Is that why you were trying to get under my skin? So you could make me promise that I will try to get used to Yamcha so you could marry us?!" Her voice had raised dramatically and by the time the whole ballroom had fallen silent, watching speechlessly as the daughter of the most famous scientist and one of the greatest rulers that had ever lived, King Briefs, was arguing with her mother about her possible love life. Gossips were what regals loved the most, especially when it was big time ones.

"Dear, you can't live in your library and dream land your whole life. You have to get to know the world. You have to-"

"Don't tell me what I have and have not to do, mother! You understand nothing! I have seen this world, with my very eyes! I have seen it! I don't like it, but I don't hide from it. There is a slight difference between friendship and love and you know it very well yourself. Why are you trying to force me into something I dislike?! Why?! I thought you never wanted me to do something against my will!" The princess defended herself. Awful pictures of her childhood had popped out of her mind, blinding her current vision. Pictures of a certain stage of her life in her childhood.

"Honey, you can't live with the thought of the boy from your past your whole life! You can't do that! You need to love and to be loved in return. And that is not something your dreams and reveries can give you. I just want you to be happy..." The Queen had stood up by the time as well and she was now looking straight into her daughter's sapphire eyes that matched her own. But then the sapphire orbs shifted away from her gaze and found the tiled floor far more interesting.

"You don't understand. You do not understand at all." The heiress muttered sadly. "It's not about him anymore. It's not about anyone but me. Why won't you learn from everything you have done to please me these years that my love and devotion is not bought with sweets, presents and well-meant deeds that always come out wrong? Have you not even wondered why they always come out wrong? It's because I don't need them, mother. I can do just well on my own. But if you do not believe in me and my abilities to live my own life... How can you possibly want to make me happy any other way?"

Boy from past? Vegeta frowned in thought. Could it possibly be that the two women had been talking about him just a second ago? No, couldn't be. He stood up from his place as the strange man with the scar on his right eye approached the two royals. He pushed him back, only to have the younger boy growl in annoyance.

"Get out of my way, servant!" He demanded.

"Call me a servant once more and you will never see the day light ever again." The threat's effect was amplified by Vegeta's stoned expression, showing the rascal how serious and cold-blooded he could be.

"I'm wasting my time with this..." Bulma muttered taking the tiara off of her head, placing it carefully on the table. Her mother and father tried to object but she had already fled to her quarters in a mad dash, grabbing her long dress not to step on it in the process, for the consequences would've been dreadful for her pretty powdered nose. The room fell silent after the huge wooden doors were slammed with a deafening noise. Neither of the guests knew what to say or do to make the rulers of the planet feel better, to give them courage that the princess would overcome her outrage, that it was because of the drinks she must've taken this night. But all of them knew that it wasn't true. All of them knew that as short-tempered as the princess was, she would never do such a thing because of alcohol in her blood or because she just wanted to entertain herself. Strangely, a second slam was heard...

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Bulma had collapsed on the balcony, shutting the sliding door behind herself as she did so. She wanted to have peace. Just this night, she didn't want to be angry with her mother and father. But it seemed that fate had a second word about it.

"What do you want from me?!" She snapped as she heard the door slide back shut. "I'm not in the mood to talk to you at all."

"Same to you." Vegeta muttered as he relaxed against the railing on his own.

"Why the hell are you here then. Get out of here or I'll kick you back to your precious little Ariane-Chan." She muttered angrily glaring at the stars as if they were the ones that were guilty for her own misery. Yet she knew they weren't but looking at that arrogant jerk's mug would probably make her scream some more and she didn't really feel like losing her voice right now.

"Your groundless jealousy has nothing to do with my actual deeds."

"Yeah, right it doesn't."

Silence yet again fell over the couple as the kept on staring up at the starry sky. Bulma had that feeling of deja vu right then, for just the night before they were doing the same things, yet again, on separate balconies.

"No one understands me..." She suddenly broke the 'seal' of the stillness and Vegeta blinked at her. "No one ever will... What's the use of trying to talk to people if everything they see is the mask I put up for them?" She spoke to no one in particular and had never expected an answer.

"Maybe you should try to be yourself some more around your parents and your so called friends." He muttered, placing his head in his hand on the railing. "They might be thankful for your truthfulness to them. Trying to be someone else for a foolish reason is plainly stupid. And you try to make everyone believe you're a genius. How could they possibly believe you if you don't believe it yourself?"

"But I do think that I'm-"

"No, you don't get it." He shook his head. "Who are you?" He asked her, looking straight in her eyes that had been fixed on him for a while now.

"I'm Bulma Briefs, heiress of King Briefs-"

"No, you still don't get it." He continued to shake his head dejectedly. "I do not ask you what you're meant to be. I ask you who you are, what person do you want to be? Who did you work so hard to build these eighteen years?" Bulma looked down. She stared numbly. Now that she realized it... She didn't know herself what she was or who she was. She had been chasing the ghosts of her past for so long that she had completely forgotten if she was even alive. But what could she possibly do about it? It was not her fault... or was it?

"Thanks for reminding me I am nothing just on my birthday..." She slumped down against the railing, letting her head collapse against it.

Vegeta thought about it for a minute, but didn't say anything. He decided totally against it.

"Why did you come? To make me feel worse than I did before you came?"

"I don't know myself." He answered truthfully.

"Great. And here I thought you'd give me a birthday present." She added sarcastically.

"What if I really do?"

"Excuse me?"

Before she'd known it, the youth by her side had thrown a small envelope with a blue ribbon over it. A color that matched her eyes strangely. She doubted Vegeta could do such a thing so precise by himself.

"But.. Who helped you?"

"Ariane said it was your birthday today." He informed. "She made me give you this thing. I was thinking of throwing it away, but since it could come in some kind of handy, she said I could give it to you. As a present." He sounded really annoyed with himself for saying this to her and actually giving in to that minx of a maid's plan.

"And you actually-"

"Shut up. Don't mention it." He was about to leave when he heard her dismissing the paper that was wrapped around a little jewelry box. She grinned widely as she opened it and she was stunned. There was a beautiful dragon necklace. The chain it was hanging on was made of a material she had never before seen. The dragon was completely gorgeous, made masterly by someone's golden hands and it was holding... a dragon ball! Well, not a real one, but it was holding it.

"I took it from a planet named Namek that we have purged over more than ten years ago." He informed stepping behind her and putting the necklace over her neck. "You told me about your foolish myth that you seemed to believe so much in and I decided to-"

"Thank you!!!" She yelled, jumping on his neck when he was done clasping the thing. The Saiya-jin was too stunned to do anything else when she unwrapped her hands and ran back to her bed, jumping on it happily still looking at the dragon with the dragon ball. "It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen..." She trailed off as the youth passed by her and smirked in the dim lightening of the room.

"Vegeta."

"What?"

"Thanks."

With a grunt, he left for his own room, feeling the sleep trying to battle over his body before he had reached his salvation given the name 'bed'.

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Bulma smiled in her bed, still looking at the marvelous jewel she had been given. Maybe the day wasn't such a disaster after all...

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So, how was that? I hope you liked it! -grins- Please, please review! And thank you sincerely for your great support! You guys really give me the strength to continue! -smiles widely-

Well, don't have much to say, except for... Please review and be patient with me the next few weeks! -smiles- Love you all!