Chapter 6 - Crisis!
Vegeta took a glance at the phone in his hand, reading '7:18 AM'. Okay. Now he may make his way to the balcony. He didn't know anything of this crisis Bulma spoke of, though he was curious himself too, what with how unusual it was that she snuck up on him out of the blue. Still, he wasn't taking orders from anyone, so he figured showing up eighteen minutes late might depict just that.
It wasn't as if he was waiting to be late though, he'd hit up the training room, albeit alone since the two fools weren't around. Probably still lazing in bed, he scoffed at the thought. As he entered the main building, he spied with his little eye; Mrs Briefs, the devil herself lost in her cooking as she hummed. He tried to walk as discreetly as possible, a tough task considering his shape of hair, but he eventually succeeded in reaching the staircase unnoticed. It sure seemed a blessing that her eyes were mostly shut. On the other hand, he hardly caught sight of Bulma's father after the first meet at dinner, though he of course hardly spared that a thought.
Up on the fourth floor, he made his way to the balcony, a quite sizeable one at that, though that hardly surprised him at this point. There in the center was a blue ponytail, turning around to reveal its person.
"Vegeta! What does crisis mean in your dictionary huh? Didn't you get the idea that this was important?, she said in greeting.
"Calm down, woman. What is this even about?", he said as she motioned him to join her on a table.
"Yamcha is coming, is what this is about!", she said, her eyes enlarging as if he was suppose to know what she was on about.
"Now who the hell is this Yamcha?", he asked, his expression something between annoyance and disinterest. Why was he even here?
"My ex! We dated on and off for like the whole of high school and we made a silly pact that we were gonna get married like he would propose after we get done with college and I thought this was all a funny silly thing in the past but after talking to him last night it's confirmed that he still believes in this silly thing and he's probably gonna propose when he comes which is today helloo", she rambled on without the slightest hint of a pause.
"Woman! Are you twelve? You called me seven in the morning for this?"
"Yes! Why I know you wake up early, and this is a real problem, and I am not twelve, quite the other way round mister"
He didn't even process a hundred percent of her rambling, but it sounded nothing short of elementary school drama to him. What in the world? "Why have you called me for this?", he asked, genuinely confused.
"Because everybody here knows and loves Yamcha! I can't discuss the rejection of marriage proposals with his friends!", she said.
"Discuss the rejection of marriage proposals? That's what I'm here for?", he rhetorically asked, not even quite believing his own words.
"Well... kinda! I mean I don't even know, we talked last night and he was basically talking as if we're still dating. And I panicked and hit you up, for you know.. advise?", she said, not sounding sure of herself at all. Dammit, am I really being impulsive again?
He rested back against his seat, surprised to find himself chuckle.
"You think this is funny, mister?"
"I'm just surprised this is you talking. You followed me after the train not knowing a thing about me, not scared about the possibility that I could infact be a murderer, and now you can't simply tell a guy off?", he said as a smirk found his face.
"Well yeah! I mean... he's a great friend of mine nonetheless, I can't simply be like 'No fuck off marry someone else' and besides that's ruuude", she said petulantly.
"Oh right, I forgot how helpful and nice you are", he mocked, his smirk not leaving.
"Soo, is this the only advice you have?", she asked impatiently.
"Pretty much. Or you could set him up with your sister as you enjoy doing that", he chuckled.
"This still funny to you? No! I'm not setting him up with Tights, it's hardly a good match anyway", she crossed her arms.
"Hmm what else then? Prove he's impotent?", Vegeta laughed, surprised to find himself enjoying this. Him teasing her for once.
Now it was her turn to return him a grunt, "Vegeta! He's not by the way, anyway"
"Ooo, not twelve after all are we?"
"No, I mean no, we never did it, but I know he's not"
"Uh huh", he continued to tease her.
She found herself laughing in too. "Really, you can just tell", she said. And she wasn't lying. Being the idealist she was, of course she was going to save her virginity for the one, and just the amount of on-and-offs with Yamcha made her doubt he was it. "You know, you wouldn't have had to deal with me creeping up on you at night for an urgent meeting if you'd given me your number"
"Isn't this your phone? You don't have your own phones numbers?", he asked incredulously.
"Sure they're ours, but why would we track numbers of all the phones? Here, I'll feed my own in", she said, reaching her hand out as he filled it with his phone reluctantly.
"Fine, but don't bombard me with silly texts", he said, giving her his side profile.
"Oh don't you worry about that", she winked.
Surprisingly enough, the first text-sound Vegeta heard was later in the afternoon. He'd had another intense session not only with Goku, but this time with Krillin too. The midget was nowhere near Goku in terms of fighting ability, but a good spar nonetheless. Anything that could make him sweat would add to progress. Following a refreshing shower, he sat himself on the couch before switching on the TV and grabbing his phone from the table.
"if ur all freshed up do come down - the guest is here", the text on his lockscreen read.
His eyes flickered to the screen in front of him, the loud shrieking of rain catching his attention. 'STARRING BRANSON KRACKMAN' it read, as the screen showcased a jagged bolt of lightening ripping the sky in half. Looking back to his phone, he started to type.
"Are you engaged yet?"
"Your beloved Krackman's movie is on"
—
It only took a mere few seconds before his phone buzzed again.
"no mister! still single thank u very much!"
"he's not brought anything up so far thank god"
"but dayuummm, i've got Krackman another fan eh? ;) which movie?"
—
"No, stupid! I am not a fan. I don't know what movie."
"It just started"
"With a literal storm"
—
"thats benjaminnnn, action romantic movie where he plays benjamin, obviously! get this- he's a secret agent so bound to keep it a secret that he lets his wife ketsiya believe he's in a relationship with his friend rioka, JUST so she wouldn't suspect his real secret and then he actually falls for rioko in the process so yep, action romance and confusion"
—
"Pathetic. Not watching this."
—
"well don't keep the guest waiting, mom's even made delicious cheese bezgeris!"
Sighing, he switched the TV off before making his way downstairs. These kind of pathetic movies are what people watch today? Cheese bezgeris sounded a hundred times better, whatever the hell those even were. Mrs. Briefs never disappointed in anything regarding food, even her disease-looking drinks were great. That, and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't curious to see Bulma's ex-lover she was so keen to run from.
Reaching the livingroom, he hardly processed the mostly vacant dining table in front of him before Bulma sprang up from the seat she was sat on. "Vegeta, there you are! Come meet Yamcha, an old lovely friend of ours", she said as the man sat beside her got up.
"Hi, Yamcha, nice to meet you", the man said, reaching out his hand.
Judging by how much Bulma sounded she wanted to be rid of this guy, Vegeta expected to meet someone nothing short of a punk-rock-weirdo with pink hair or something, but the man in question had a regular outlook.. albeit a foolish one, what with his nerdy mushroom hairdo. Vegeta shook his hand nonetheless, before taking a seat opposite them. His priority right now were definitely the cheese bez-whatever-things Bulma mentioned, serving himself a generous amount.
"He's the one I told you about! The one who helped me on my way here, not only that but he's a spectacular fighter, he even gave Goku a tough time! This year's tournament would sure be interesting", Bulma said animatedly.
Vegeta merely looked up from his deliciously yellow plate. What was she on now?
"Huh. Well I've been training too, Goku might not even be the toughest after all", the mashroom-head said. "Did I not tell you about how I beat that kid Meelo's school bullies? I mean I let those kids have a lil go at me y'know but eventually they had to be taught a lesson. Honestly my most perfectly-timed side tackle, you should've been there B"
Five minutes into meeting his guy and Vegeta found it a tough task to bear him. How did Bulma? If he were Bulma, he'd have told him off after the first encounter. Perhaps a pink punk-rock hipster would've been a much more bearable option after all. He looked around, noticing they were pretty much the only ones present in the room. Mrs. Breifs could be seen ahead in the doorless kitchen, seemingly lost in her cooking. Where were the two idiots?
He didn't get much time to ponder on that as he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. '3 Voice Recordings from R', it read. Finally. He quickly excused himself from the table, making his way outside to the Capsule compound.
"Yo Vegeta, sorry bout the delay, hardly been on my phone and you wouldn't believe how come! Now I know better than to spill the gory details to ya, but Raddy boy's found love! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? About Icejin, I've been outta touch myself man, Jeneeca's what's in my ears instead of Icejin bs, well she's in more than just my ears HAHAHAHAHAH but yeah, heard nothing much, just that pretty boy Zarbie's been seen around, up to what shit I don't know but that's all I hear. Hope you copin well with the loss man, lemme know if ya solve the photo mystery", the first recording said before he clicked the next one.
"I'd have texted you that but y'know I'm too lazy to type", said the second.
"And hardly find time for phone conversations ya feel", said the third.
Imbecile, was obviously Vegeta's first thought. Just as he was about to press the 'record voice' button on his own phone, he was interrupted by none other than Bulma, who was practically skipping her way towards him.
"Am I interrupting operation-murder?", she cheerfully said.
"Quite so", he replied.
"Damnnn, you've already got leads?"
"Not quite. It's a tough task when ones 'partner' is an absolute imbecile"
She laughed, "Wow, just something you'd say"
"Where's your lover boy?"
"Oh thank god mom trapped him, she wanted him to pick the best out of three smoothies so I ran out", she said, heaving a sigh of relief.
He couldn't help cracking up. She was running from him, it was absolutely hilarious. "Why, you weren't interested in him taking down kiddie bullies?", he smirked.
"Very funny. Don't make fun of the guy, he's just like that. Don't wanna marry him but he's still a good friend, and anywa-", she stopped her speech short as she heard the heavy front door a short distance behind them open. "Shit, is it him?", she asked.
He simply nodded, before being left dumbfounded as she threw herself onto him in a hug, planting a kiss on his cheek. The fuck? Vegeta was stiff as a stick as her arms were still wrapped around him, closer than food wrap even as her mushroom-man walked closer towards them.
"Uh... Bulma?", he said.
She suddenly unwrapped herself from him, as if she'd been caught redhanded. She even covered her mouth with her hand for good measure. "Yamcha? Heyyy, Vegeta and I, we're just really good friends"
Vegeta was not only stiff now, but even his face colouring changed to that of red, as he was left utterly aghast while Yamcha just stared at them wide-eyed.
"Why don't you tell him Vegeta? Even in Ratlegate Town, nothing happened between us a-"
Suddenly a different voice cut the tension, coming from the open door, "Sweeties, I've further perfected the smoothie Yamcha picked! Wouldn't you like to try?". None of them had to guess whose voice it was.
"Sure mom! Can't wait!", Bulma hurriedly said before bolting. "Come on guys!", she called out, eagerly making her way inside.
"You're dating Bulma?", the mushroom-head spoke, much to Vegeta's surprise. "While pretending to be hero helper?"
"Idiot. I am doing no such thing", Vegeta said haughtily.
"What was all that then?", he asked skeptically.
"An act"
"Why you really think I'm some sort of fool if y-"
"Yamcha! Aren't you gonna tell me if I've bettered the smoothie? You too Vegeta, I know you loved the juice you tried earlier!", Mrs. Briefs' tittering voice came as her head popped out the door.
"Uhhh.. of course", Yamcha nervously said before joining her.
Vegeta too walked in, putting his turbulent thoughts aside. What the hell?
Following the awkward silence during the smoothie-testing, Yamcha excused himself for a shower, much to Bulma's relief. Vegeta had been stiffer than ever following the encounter, and she wasn't the least bit surprised when he walked over to the couch she was sat on as they seemed to be the only ones in the livingroom.
"What was that all about, woman?", he said, sitting beside her with his arms crossed, his face not even facing her.
"We're not talking if I'm woman again, mister!", she said before continuing. "You know, you gave me the idea to pull that act!", she said, quite ecstatically to his surprise, before turning to sit cross-legged facing him.
She could be excited about anything. "What are you on about?", he asked, turning his face to her side.
"Who was watching Benjamin again?", she looked at him expectantly, her eyes mischievous.
He grunted in annoyance as he put two into two. "Are you stupid? You think this is some kind of secret agent movie we're in?"
She chuckled. "Maybe not, but hey I didn't even think about the whole embracing thing up until he actually came out and it was the first thing that popped in my head", she said animatedly.
"I will not be the.. Rookoo to your Benjamin, woman!", he said grunting.
She couldn't help bursting out in a laugh. "Brandy Krackhead and now Rookoo? It's Rioka. And no, you're not Rioka because she was a really sweet lady! And Benjamin was just using to begin with, I'm not using you. I simply boasted about you and kissed you. Once. On the cheek. And don't worry, I think the job's done. Pretty sure he's got the idea that I'm with someone else", she winked.
He grunted. "I will not entertain that idea, woman"
"Won't have to anymore", she smiled.
"Where are the two fools anyway?"
She narrowed her eyes playfully. "You mean Goku and Krillin? I see somebody's made friends", she teased before continuing, "They pretty much volunteered to get the last of the Christmas decorations as well as some tomatoes for mom's dish"
Vegeta scoffed. Fools. Shopping instead of training.
"Hey, you remember after you made me lose my train, I bumped into a crazy lady's sack of tomatoes?", she chuckled at the memory.
"Made you lose your train?", he rose his brow. "I recall otherwise"
"Yeah yeah, Mr. Brooding"
He recalled a different memory of that night, one that made him chuckle himself. "Hotel Decent", he said.
"Oh lord that was bizarre, but still the receptionist was sweet"
Vegeta laughed. "Pretty sure he thought you were- you know"
Her expression didn't change. I was what?
"You don't?", he said incredulously. "Don't tell me you didn't know that was a 'hotel' for hookups, for the lack of a better word"
Huh? Then realization kicked in. "Seriously?", she stared at him wide-eyed.
He simply chuckled. "Yes, ignorant woman. You confirmed his suspicions with your meddling while I was handling it", a smirk crossed his face as he recalled.
Bulma too recalled her 'meddling' as it all started to make more sense now, what with the raid and all. Still, she wasn't about to admit to being unaware of it. "I am not ignorant! And not woman! Are twenty-one year olds considered women?"
"Hmm no, you're twelve in the head anyway so..", he gave a slight chuckle again. No, she wasn't a woman per se, he knew. He wasn't sure why he continued to called her that. It wasn't even derogatory to him. Rather playful he'd say. He sure started to refer to her as Bulma in his head, but found that he couldn't stop calling her Woman, especially since it annoyed her so much. It made it all the more fun.
It didn't take her any more than three seconds to lift the couch-cushion behind her and smack him with it, or so she tried as he dodged, laughing harder. She was getting ready to smash again before remembering something. "Hey, you didn't reply to the memes I sent"
"What?"
"Memes, you know?", she said before his blank expression said it all. "You don't check out memes in spare time Vegeta?"
"I have no idea of what you speak, woman", he said haughtily.
"Those videos I sent, gimme your phone, I'll show you", she said as he dropped her phone in her hand.
Opening his unprotected phone, she opened the text conversation they shared and was surprised to see the first message was "if ur all freshed up do come down - the guest is here"
"Huh? Did dad remove the phones ability to receive video memes or something?", she thought out loud. "For reeal?", she whined before unlocking her own phone. Scrolling up the same conversation, she found what she was looking for, "Check this out"
Vegeta sighed as he brought his his head closer. Of course that text hadn't been the first.
As Yamcha made his way to the guests' floor, he was stopped short as he caught sight of Tights coming out of her room. "Yamcha? You're already here!", she said as she came closer to hug him with one hand as her other was occupied by her open laptop. "Jeez, sorry, I had no idea, been busy with stuff from work all day"
He gave a nervous laugh, "No worries"
"So how've ya been?", she said cheerfully before her tone changed as she took in his expression. "Everything alright?"
He continued to chuckle nervously. "Ah yeah, of course.. hey um.. I gotta ask, what's with this new 'house guest' guy?", he said, his tone much more alert now.
"What about him?", she casually replied.
"He's pretending to be some hero saviour, I think he's using that to lure Bulma! I saw them outside, stuck to eachother like glue", he said in disgust.
Tights giggled. "Yamcha, is this jealousy talking?"
"I'm not jealous, I'm worried for Bulma! This guy seems fishy, no?"
"Yep, jealously I hear"
"For real though! Tell me more about his guy"
"Yamchaa, stop being a jealous creepo, the guy's done nothing fishy. I didn't see much of him, he just played some games with us, Bulma even felt safe talking to him outside his room last night"
"What? They're an official thing?"
"I don't know, why's it even matter? Wait... are you still not over Bulma?"
"I.. well.. I met a girl at the internship", he nervously brushed his hair. "We really hit it off.. but I wasn't sure between her and Bulma, I was confused myself..but of course I'm worried if she's getting on with this new guy! What do we even know about him?"
"Yamcha! You've got someone else in your life and you're still after Bulma?"
"No, Jesus! I don't, she's just a close friend, just like Bulma is right now.. I guess, I mean I'm not after her, I'm worried about her at the moment"
She sighed. "Yamcha look, I really don't think there's much to worry about, okay? You don't expect Bulma to do a background security check on every guy she's interested in, do you?"
"... I guess.. wait, she told you she's totally interested in him too?"
Oh boy, Tights thought in a facepalm.
"Oh my, Bulma! Do you think she's gonna pick Verzo?", Bulma's mother said as she stared intensly at the screen before her. Married My Crazy Neighbour season three was no joke, living up to the crazy level of the previous installements.
Bulma was sat beside her, though her eyes were mostly on the phone in her hand, scrolling through memes. She's been excited about working with her dad again on some new inventions but he'd been cooking up something of his own, too deep inside it that she'd just have to wait till he was done. It was a shame that the stupid phone she'd given Vegeta didn't open the meme videos, she'd found great material. "I don't know mom, I'm with Loris on this one. Verzo needs to pay more attention to the girl, and what's with the weird glasses?"
"Noo dear, didn't you notice how his glasses match with Christiana's beanie?"
Before Bulma could reply, the sound of the door opening caught her attention. Was it finally Goku and Krillin? A glance to her right confirmed her suspicion as she got up to greet them.
"You guys! Really? It's already bed time, what took you guys so long? I was really starting to worry"
"Oh sweeties, you're finally here", her mom greeted.
The two boys were the picture of exhaustion as Goku spoke, "Man it really was hard to find the right shops. Krillin and I kept going in circles! We did get all the stuff though, and Mrs. Cadbury next door was kind enough to offer two plates of brownies! I ate one whole", Goku cheered even as he looked worn out.
Finding shops really wasn't their forte. They even looked less tired than this after a training session, Bulma thought. Placing down the rest of their buys, he offered them the plate, "Why don't you guys try some?"
"Yep, before he gets his hands on that one too", Krillin joked as the boys discarded their giant jackets.
As she took one, she found that Goku wasn't kidding, of course he ate the other whole plate! These were incredible. Mrs. Briefs too was munching on them as she rejoiced to see Christiana did infact pick Verzo. Why must she have such terrible taste?, Bulma thought as the tired boys shortly disappeared upstairs.
That got Bulma thinking of someone else. Someone else who loved food as much as Goku. Seeing as the plate was already half gone, she wanted him to have some before they all disappeared. Without a second thought, she picked up the plate and headed upstairs.
As she reached her desired floor, she was surprised to find the lights were completely turned off. Strange. Last she remembered they were automatically dimly lit around bed time, but then again maybe Vegeta preferred them off. Brushing the thought away, she walked further to Vegeta's room before her eyes caught sight of something.
Something in the dark. A figure. A figure pressed sideways to the wall. She still couldn't make out much from the distance and lack of light, so decided to walk towards it. It moved, more like bolted ahead as panic found her, bells blarring in her mind. Intruder! Intruder! What's going on!
She rushed forward, her free hand catching and yanking something long, snake-like as she realized it was hair. A braid maybe? The figure screamed and jerked back against her, making her trip to the floor, joined by the brownies scattering everywhere.
"Beast", she thought she heard the figure mumble as it haphazardly got itself up and opened the door in front of them, rushing inside.
As she got herself up on her feet, she saw the figure speed outside the already partially-broken window of the unoccupied guest room. Loud screeching of the glass shattering filled the air as she covered her ears, before walking up to the now-completely broken window. Looking down, she didn't catch sight of the figure. What the hell was that?
Suddenly the door to the left opened, as a wet Vegeta covered in a mere towel rushed to her. "What in the world just happened?"
Authors note: Not sure if anybody even is reading my story on this site, but hope you're enjoying it nonetheless :)