Author's Note:
Hey Guys!
So this chapter is where Vegeta gets a little OOC. But I have a backstory for it. That I will explain at the end.
Also, I think it's important to know Vegeta and Bulma's majors at this point. Vegeta is a Kinesiology and Physics major with a minor in Mathematics. Bulma has already completed a BS in Mathematics and Chemistry and right now her majors are Physics, Engineering, and Computer Science with a minor is Robotics. Bulma though is just basically going through the motions so she has the degrees to back up her intellect. Oh! And they all attend Stanford University which is in California.
I would also like to point out that I was NOT a physics major or anything like it. I know just the basics of math and sciences, so I kinda am just talking out my butt when it comes to all that content. Science side, feel free to help a girl out!
Chapter 4: The Internship
Vegeta wiped the steam off his bathroom mirror, scowling at his reflection and started brushing his teeth. It was Monday afternoon, the first day of his new internship. He was curious as to what he'd be tasked with doing in this internship. It was for a company called Capsule Corporation and apparently it was very well known in the scientific community. Even though Vegeta was a Physics major, he never really paid much attention to the tech side and was more focused on the application to sports and other physical activities. But apparently the internship called for someone that was "physically fit" and since most science majors were anything but, his professor, Dr. Gero, thought that Vegeta would be a perfect fit. He didn't mind much. He'd noticed before that his physique is more than a little intimidating, especially amongst his scrawnier classmates. And this internship was paid, so he didn't really care much if he was lugging boxes and equipment around all day.
After setting his toothbrush back in its holder, Vegeta made his way over to his closet. The welcome email he received the other day said to dress casually and be prepared to soil clothing, so he pulled out an old pair of jeans that he didn't care much about but would still make him look presentable. He still wanted to make a somewhat good impression. He threw on a navy blue athleisure polo and some sneakers before grabbing his book bag and jacket, then headed out the door and to his beat up motorcycle in the underground garage. Revving its engine, he pulled out of the garage and made the trek to Capsule Corp.
When Vegeta pulled up to the building, he found the dome-shaped structure very… unique. The building was a light tan and dome-like with some towers and what looked like a few smaller buildings attached around the back. It appeared to have have only three floors, which was odd considering this was suppose to house the most advance technological company in the world and also doubled as the Briefs's estate. As Vegeta walked in, he was greeted by the petite brunette sitting behind a long circular reception desk. "Hi! How can I help you today?" the woman asked, staring Vegeta up and down.
"I'm Vegeta Ouji from Stanford University. I'm suppose to intern for Dr. Briefs."
"Oh! Yes, I was told to expect a new intern today. Let me get him for you. You can have a seat."
Vegeta remained standing but walked over to the windows to look out at the expansive property. But he didn't get to see much because only a few seconds later, he was called back over and was being escorted through some security doors and into an atrium that looked more like a zoo. There were animals everywhere. A monkey swung down from a tree right near Vegeta's head, while a peacock strode along the path in front of them. He could hear a bunch of birds in the distance and who knows what other animals were lurking in the foliage. The receptionist continued forward, completely at ease amongst all of the exotic animals, until they came across an elderly man sitting in front of a small stream that ran through the room. The man had silver-purplish hair and glasses. Vegeta had to look twice because there appeared to be a small black cat perched on the man's shoulder. What other planet did I just land on? Vegeta asked himself.
"Why hello Barbra! And who is that you have there with you today?" the old man inquired.
"This is Vegeta. He is your new intern sent by Dr. Gero, remember?"
The old man looked at Vegeta and smiled as he took out a pack of cigarettes from his lab coach pocket. "Oh yes! Of course! Thank you Barbie, you may leave us." He dismissed the brunette. "Come take a seat, my boy," the old man directed to Vegeta, patting the empty space next to him on the bench. Vegeta obliged, somewhat uncomfortable at how familiar the world-renowned scientist was being.
"Thank you, sir," he said, taking the seat next to him. "Dr. Gero said that I would be assisting you in a new project of yours, sir?"
"Ah, yes. Well, not exactly." Vegeta furrowed his eyebrows at those words. "I happened to mention something about a new project to Gero, but the project isn't mine. It is my daughter's. You will be helping her with the more physical demands that she requires." Dr. Briefs's eyes seem to catch something over Vegeta's shoulder. "Ah, here comes my daughter now," he said, standing. Vegeta stood as well, turning to see who the old man's daughter was. "This is my daughter-"
"Bulma?!" Vegeta all but yelled.
"Vegeta? What are you doing here?" Bulma asked, confused.
"Oh! You two know each other already? How wonderful. Bulma, Vegeta here is going to be your intern for that new project of yours," Dr. Briefs said, enthusiastically.
"WHAT!" Bulma yelled, loud enough to scare some of the animals away.
"Bulma, sweetheart, what's wrong now?," came a voice with a southern accent. A middle-aged blonde woman came up from behind Bulma and put a hand on her shoulder. "Oooh, who do we have here?!" the lady exclaimed.
"Hello dear. This is Vegeta, Bulma's new intern. Vegeta, this is my wife, Panchy." Dr. Briefs said.
Vegeta offered his hand out to Panchy and she gently placed her fingers in his with a giggle. "Nice to meet you, ma'am."
"Oh my," Panchy giggled, "what a gentleman. And not bad on the eyes either, right dear," she loudly whispered to her daughter.
"Mom!" Bulma screeched. "Don't say that about Vegeta."
"Oh, you two know each other?" Panchy asked.
"It would appear so, dear," Dr. Briefs said, putting an arm around his wife.
"Bulma and I are neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Briefs," Vegeta explained.
"Call me Panchy, dear. Oh! Wait, Bulma this can't be the one that you're always complaining about. Vegeta just seems way too sweet." Panchy exclaimed.
"Mom." Bulma grumbled, avoiding eye contact with Vegeta. She still caught the shit-eating grin that spread across his face.
"You hear that, woman. I'm just too sweet." Vegeta was starting to feel like this internship wouldn't be completely terrible.
"Ugh! Whatever. Mom, Dad, I'll be down in the lab late tonight, so I won't be at dinner."
"Come on dear. I'm sure Vegeta doesn't want to stay here all night," Panchy chided. "Oh! How 'bout you both join us for dinner! You always forget to take a breaks, sweetie. This way I can cook up a big spread. Vegeta looks like a young man who can eat and really appreciate my cooking."
"Mom, that's really not-"
"I'd be honored to join you all for dinner," Vegeta interrupted. He was never one to pass up a free meal. Bulma glared at him.
"Wonderful! I better go stop by the grocery store. Bye dear," Panchy said, kissing her husband on the cheek then leaving the room.
"Well, it was a pleasure meeting you Vegeta. I look forward to getting to know you better at dinner. I'll leave you kids be." And with that, Dr. Briefs walked away, farther into the jungle inside Capsule Corp.
Ugh! I can't believe my parents. Inviting the stupid monkey to dinner. And what was he even doing here?! Bulma turned to Vegeta, "so, what, are you stalking me now?"
"What are you on about now, woman?" Vegeta asked, exasperated.
"It's not enough for you to annoy me at our apartment building, now you have to bother me at my family's home and company too? I'm starting to think you only agreed to train me so you can torture me at the gym also!" Bulma's voice was starting to rise the more she spoke.
"Please," Vegeta scoffed. "Like I'd want to spend more time than I already have to with you. I didn't even know this was your family's business."
"Yeah, right," she said with a roll of her eyes. "It's not like we aren't the most successful and advanced tech company in the world or anything."
"Despite what you may have been taught growing up, woman, the world doesn't revolve around you. I have more important things to worry about than if your family made it in the tabloids' headlines this week. Now, like it or not, I'm here. So you can either give me something to do or I'd gladly just sit here while your father pays me 25 an hour."
Bulma stood there raging. Gah! The nerve of this guy! But then she had a sudden realization. Vegeta is suppose to be my intern. That means I'm the boss of him. A slow grin spread across her face at all the things that she could make him do for her. She tried to school her face into a neutral expression as to not draw attention to her plan, but unwittingly failed.
"Okay, fine. I guess I have no choice but to accept your assistance."
She said, raising her hand out for him to shake.
"Fine," Vegeta agreed, accepting her handshake. Then he pulled her arm to bring her closer to him, making her gasp. "Oh, and if you think you can boss me around, woman," Vegeta said, towering over her - even with his short stature, "think again. I may be your intern, but I am no servant. Let's not forget who the stronger being is here."
"Is that a threat?" Bulma seethed, trying to ignore the pleasant feeling growing in her lower belly at his sudden domineering behavior.
"Woman, when I threaten you…" he gazed into her bright blue irises. Bulma held her breath at the intimidation in his dark eyes. She didn't miss the fact that he said when and not if. "You'll know."
They stood there staring at each other, with Bulma still pressed up against Vegeta's chest, for what felt like forever. Of their own accord, it seemed, their heads were inclining toward one another. Their faces were just centimeters apart before something seemed to snap Vegeta out of whatever spell they had been under and he practically shoved Bulma away. What the hell, he thought. Was I about to kiss her?
Bulma regained her balance and shook her head. Her mind was a whirlwind of confused thoughts. Was I about to kiss Vegeta?! She needed to get ahold of herself. She wasn't attracted to that giant ape. No way! She straighten up and stared Vegeta down, assuring herself that, no, she had not been about to kiss him. With that all brushed aside, her anger took over. "Let me point this out to you, buddy," she said terrifyingly calmly. "You lay a finger on me again without my consent, it won't matter who the stronger one is."
"You threatening me now?" Vegeta asked, irritated that he was turned on by her calm rage. He also didn't miss the fact that she said he couldn't touch her 'without her consent.' Interesting.
"You better believe it. Now we can either stand here all day threatening each other, or you can come do the goddamn job my father is paying you for." And with that, Bulma turned on her heal and walked away. Vegeta rolled his eyes, but followed a few steps behind.
Vegeta followed her through an archway and into a hallway with large sets of metal elevator doors. She stood in front of one and waved some card in front of a scanner, then out popped a retinal and handprint scanner. When the elevator doors opened, she stepped in while Vegeta just stood there, still dumbstruck by the security measures. He was almost afraid to see where they were going.
"Are you just gonna stand there all day or are you going to get in?" Bulma stood in the elevator with her arms crossed, scowling at Vegeta. "I don't have all night." Vegeta screwed up his face and silently stepped into the elevator.
The space was big. Almost like a freight elevator only fancier. But even in the large space, and even though they were nowhere near standing close to each other, it felt like they were in the smallest room on the planet. There was an odd static in the air that they both chalked up to some weird science experiment happening somewhere around them. Suddenly, Bulma started thinking about Grey's Anatomy and what happens in elevators on the show, making her cheeks pink. Why does this keep happening?! Bulma shouted at herself. I do not like Vegeta! And even though she screamed this like a mantra in her head, it didn't stop her from looking at him from the corner of her eye. She stared at his lips, how the material of his polo clung to his muscles in the most unprofessional way, and how his jeans hugged his hips perfectly. She was almost salivating before Vegeta turned his head and glared at her before grumpily stating, "What?"
Bulma jumped. "Nothing," she said, turning her head to look straight ahead. Although that wasn't much better since she could still see him in the mirrored doors of the elevator. But to Bulma's mercy, the doors finally slid open, revealing the basement.
They stepped out into a hallway, passing a few doors on either side of them. Vegeta looked through one of the little windows to one of the doors and could see a bunch of men in lab coats standing around a giant sphere that Vegeta couldn't even begin to guess what it was. He moved along to find the woman stopped at the big metal double doors at the end of the hall which had its own sets of scanners - one of which appeared to be for DNA. He stopped right behind her and she jumped as she realized he was there. "Jeez, don't sneak up on me like that, you creep." Vegeta ignored her.
The doors slid open to reveal a huge laboratory, with blue tiled floors and fluorescent lighting. The room was two levels, with the top level having a railing that overlooked the bottom. Two sets of stairs, one on the right and one on the left, led down to the bottom floor.
Stepping through the doors, Bulma made her way down a set of stairs, walking to the desk that followed the entire length of the far wall where about a dozen computer screens of varying sizes were mounted above, covering the rest of the wall. Vegeta stayed on the top floor overlooking the railing. The wall occupying the space under the railing was full of different tools and other forms of hardware. There were two sets of double doors on the left and right sides of the room on both floors. Vegeta assumed they were storage or led to freight elevators. The bottom floor had about three small tables - all with varying degrees of disarray - that looked to be work benches. He stood there with his arms crossed watching the woman take a seat on the stool in front of one of the tables. She put on a pair of thick work gloves and a pair of goggles that bore her name on the head-strap. She picked up a weird looking tool and started tinkering with the big mechanical object in front of her. A spike of pleasure ran through him and he had to avert his eyes. He made his way down the steps and started looking around at everything. Bulma could see him moving about the lab and it was starting to get on her last nerve.
"Would you sit down!" she yelled at him. "You moving back and forth is driving me nuts."
"I thought you were going to give me something to do, not just have me twiddling my thumbs while you mess with that hunk of junk." Vegeta pointed at the object in front of her.
"It's not a hunk of junk. This is an important component in my latest invention."
"Oh? And what's that?"
Bulma squinted her eyes at him, trying to see if he was just trying to tease her or if he really was curious. She decided to answer anyways.
"It's one of the main engines for a gravity enhancement simulator. I'm trying to create a room in which the gravity can be increased. I've gotten a small chamber to go up to 3 times Earth's gravity so far. I'm hoping to get to a larger scale soon. This is the prototype for a room thats 12' by 12'. The only issue is figuring out how to keep the pressure and speed going for enough force to be exerted, all while having the room stay stationary." She was rambling now. But this was the issue that had been plaguing her for weeks now.
"What will the room be used for?" Vegeta asked, bringing her out of her head.
"The military is offering top dollar to utilize it for endurance and strength training. If it works, it'll be used by astronauts as well."
"Why are you making it?"
She looked up at him quizzically, not fully understanding his question. "What do you mean?"
"If you aren't going to use the machine for yourself, what's the point of making it?"
Bulma's eyes went wide behind her goggles. She stared at Vegeta for a second too long before she answered, "I just want to see if it's possible. We've been able to simulate zero gravity, why not try increasing it? If it can be done, I want to be the one to figure it out."
He was surprised by her answer. He'd never seen this side of her before. He knew she was smart, but he never thought she was this smart. And he never would've guessed that the tiny woman full of rage was also full of resolve and determination. It was… hot. Man, I need to get laid.
"Sorry," Bulma said, misunderstanding his furrowed brow as annoyance. "I ramble sometimes when I'm stuck."
"Whatever," he grumbled, turning his head away.
Bulma was confused by his reaction. "Well, how 'bout I give you something to do. You're studying physics and math right? Care to crunch some numbers for me?"
"I thought this was suppose to be about physical labor?"
"What," Bulma smirked, "too afraid to show that you really are all brawn and no brains?"
"Tsch. I'm the whole package, woman. What do you need me to do?"
She tried to not think about anything regarding Vegeta's package and just got up and headed to the wall of computers. She logged in and started pulling up a program for Vegeta to look over. "I need you to go through all of these equations and make sure there are no mistakes. I feel like something is off in the math and a second pair of eyes could be beneficial. Think you can handle that?"
"Of course I can, woman." He sat down in the swivel chair and got to work. Bulma went back to work on the engine.
Hours passed without either of the two uttering two words to each other. Around 7 o'clock, one of the jumbo screens turned on, showing the face of Bulma's father. "Hey kids!" he said happily, making the two jump.
"Dad!" Bulma yelled. "You almost made me destroy my lasted alteration!"
"Sorry dear, but your mother asked me to call you and Vegeta up for dinner."
"Oh! I completely lost track of time. We'll be right up."
The computer went back to black and Bulma began taking off her gloves and goggles. Vegeta got up from the computer chair and began stretching out his arms. As Bulma stood, she caught a view of Vegeta's stretching, and she stopped all her movements. God, he is sexy…
"What are you looking at?" he grumbled, as he caught her staring.
"You walk around with muscles like that and you expect people not to stare? Yeah, right." Bulma rolled her eyes, walking over to him and looked at the computer he'd been working on. "How far did you get in the program?"
"I went through all the equations first to see how you had them working together. There was a few mistakes in variables to this equation, so this one had to be slightly altered," he said over her shoulder, pointing at the screen in front of her.
Bulma was shocked. She never thought the giant ape actually had a brain. "Wow. Never expected you to actually have a working brain cell in that skull of yours. This really works out well. Good job," she appreciated, turning her head to give him a smile. She hadn't realized that he was so close to her and as she turned toward him, their noses almost touched. Bulma fumbled backwards. She tried to catch herself on the ledge of the desk, but her hand slipped, so she braced herself for the fall. But she never hit the ground. It took her a second before she realized that Vegeta had caught her. And she was being cradled against his chest. His incredibly warm, muscular chest. She looked up at him from below her lashes. He was staring down at her. He looked utterly lost. Their heads seemed to be doing that thing like earlier, inclining of their own volition. Bulma could hear her blood rushing in her ears. And maybe that's why she hadn't heard the laboratory doors open.
"Bulma, Vegeta- oh!"
Vegeta and Bulma both turned toward the intruder, still holding on to each other.
"I didn't mean to interrupt anything," Panchy said suggestively. "I'll just leave you two alone and save you guys a plate for later."
"Wait, mom, it's not what it looks like," Bulma tried to explain, reluctantly pushing away from Vegeta.
"Oh, I'm no prude, sweetie. I know you're a grown woman and you have needs."
"MOM!"
Panchy jumped at her daughter's outburst. "Inside voice, dear."
Bulma spared a glance at Vegeta. He was standing stoically, seeming to be ignoring her and her mother. Bulma groaned, walking around her mother. "Let's just go eat."
The elevator ride between Bulma, Vegeta, and Panchy was incredibly awkward to say the least.
"Now I made a big spread, so I hope you aren't allergic to anything Vegeta." Panchy said, brushing her fingers along Vegeta's bicep.
"No worries, ma'am. No allergies. And I am by no means a picky eater either."
"Wonderful!"
The elevator came to a stop on the second floor and Panchy was the first to skip off toward the kitchen. Vegeta made his way out next and Bulma sluggishly followed. What is happening?! She screamed in her head. That's twice in one day that we almost kissed. Ugh! Maybe this is just residual sexual tension from the breakup with Yamcha, she thought. She hadn't been with a man since him and that was months ago. She really needed to relieve some of this sexual frustration because she refuses to end up with the one guy she's hated for the past two years. Maybe hate is a strong word…
They turned the corner into the wing that held the family kitchen and dining area. "After you," Vegeta said, letting Bulma walk to the kitchen before him.
"Thanks…" She gave him a skeptical look before heading to the dining table where they saw Panchy taking a seat next to her husband, who was already seated at the table.
To be continued...
Author's Note:
I love writing little cliffhangers... heeheehee
I also plan to further fledge out the interior design of Capsule Corp. Since we don't know much about it to begin with, I'm taking a lot of artistic liberties. I'm someone who really likes a detailed setting.
So, I wanted Vegeta to be a gentleman and "nice" to Bulma's parents because I find the opposition of Vegeta's behavior towards Panchy and his behavior towards Bulma to be funny. I like that Panchy just loves Vegeta so much and finds him to be such a gentleman even though he's, like, not. And Bulma will try to get her parents to understand but they just won't. I also have this explanation that Vegeta was older when he lost his parents so they were able to instill a sense of manners and pride in him being a gentleman. There's more to explain in Vegeta's backstory, but that'll come later... ;)
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter!
Edited 12/27/20: spelling corrections and minor other changes
