Genius?

Vegeta woke up before the sun rose over the horizon, the same as he did every day. Naturally an early riser, he combed the pieces of dead leaves and other debris out of his thick hair with his fingers and stretched before crawling out of his nest. He peaked around the corner of the building and, seeing no one, wrapped his tail tightly around his waist and walked into the open to search for some food. He hadn't eaten much since his crash landing, seeing as there was little game to be found in the city. He could have stayed out in the wild, but he retained the lingering hope that he would come across some materials he could use to repair his pod in the city. That was why he ventured out on a daily basis; not to mingle with the humans, but to search for some useful technology on the primitive planet.

He started jogging down the empty sidewalk, knowing he had to keep himself in shape for when he went back into the lizard's service. Though naturally capable of staying in good condition without exercise for rather extended periods of time, he preferred staying in top condition in case any unexpected challenges came his way. And, knowing his luck, he would run into trouble sooner or later, even if he was on a pathetic little planet where all the inhabitants were total weaklings.

It had been almost two weeks since his 'talk' with the little blue-haired girl. He still watched her every day as she went home after school, but he was careful never to let her see him again. The last thing he wanted was her pestering him or trying to apologize more. She hadn't really offended him, at least not in the way she thought she had. Foolish girl, thinking that because he didn't speak to her in her own language he couldn't understand it.

Still, for some reason he couldn't name, he felt drawn to the hot-tempered girl. Not because he wanted companionship. No, he preferred solitude. Despite being amongst thousands of humans, he was still very much alone, and he wanted to keep it that way. Knowing human sentimentality, she would attempt to befriend him and coerce him into speaking with her on a regular basis and perhaps even sharing pieces of himself with her. Well, that would never happen. He liked keeping to himself and keeping his life private. No one else in the universe had any right to know anything about him or his past. Especially no one he'd never see again after he left the mudball he was currently residing on.

His stomach growled loudly, reminding him that it had been quite a while since his last substantial meal. At least two days. He turned right down one of the main roads cutting through the city and passed another morning jogger who looked somewhat surprised to see someone so young out and about. Vegeta ignored him, instead following the enticing aromas of food wafting on the breeze from a nearby diner. He stopped when he reached it and looked in the window to see what kind of food was available there. Nothing he recognized, that was for sure, but it smelled delicious and really at this point he would eat almost anything.

Vegeta went in the front door and took in his surroundings. There was jazzy music playing softly in the background behind a loud clattering of dishes, talking, and shouts back in the kitchen announcing meals being prepared for the waiting patrons. It was noisy, yet somehow welcoming. The smells were more tantalizing than ever, making Vegeta's stomach rumble louder with eager anticipation as he walked to a counter and hopped up onto a stool.

A kindly old waitress came over to him, smiling at her young customer as she pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. "What would like, honey?" she asked in a thick Brooklyn accent.

Vegeta's eyebrow raised. He had a choice? He didn't know what to order. "What would you recommend?" he asked through his thick accent, deciding it would be smoother to ask that than to tell her he had no idea what he wanted.

The old lady tapped her pen against her chin. "Well, the special today is the farmer's platter, but that's an awful lot of food for a boy your size."

He shrugged. "I'll take that."

"Anything to drink?"

"Water."

His order taken down, the old lady turned and went to the window where she stuck the piece of paper with his order written on it on a wheel that turned around so the cooks could see what they needed to prepare. She wandered off to another table where a disheveled businessman was holding out an empty coffee cup for her to refill. Vegeta watched their exchange in silence before turning his attention to the large windows where he could see an occasional car driving down the street and a small crowd of humans gathering at a bus stop. Nothing out of the ordinary.

It wasn't long before a plate was set before him. There was an omelet filled with sausage, bacon, ham, peppers, mushrooms, and cheese with a side of American fries and two pieces of toast. He frowned. This wouldn't be enough to satisfy his hunger. He sighed and started eating voraciously. Whether or not it would be enough, he would take what he could get. In under five minutes it was all gone, not a single crumb left on his plate. He drank his glass of water and wondered if he should order more food.

He had yet to come to a decision when the old waitress returned and, after muttering her surprise at the speed at which he finished his meal, set a small piece of paper down in front of him and went to tend to an elderly couple who had just come in. Vegeta grabbed the paper and looked at it, recognizing the strange symbols as part of the human number system. 'Of course,' he thought, 'They want to be paid for the food. As if I have money.' He scoffed. He could easily leave without paying, but it was dishonorable not to give payment for food. He looked around the diner again. There was the same disheveled businessman walking toward him, probably on his way out. Vegeta smirked.

As the man passed by, Vegeta's tail unwrapped from his waist and snatched the man's wallet out of his back pocket. It coiled back around his waist before the man had even moved past him. He opened the wallet and pulled out a bill that had a number that matched the one on the piece of paper the waitress left with him. Figuring that was all he needed to do, he got up from his seat and left the diner.

He started walking down the street back toward his humble abode when he overheard two men speaking to each other about some impressive technology. His ears perked up as he thought perhaps they would have some information that could help him break free of his imprisonment on their puny planet.

"I hear she's already smarter than her father," the first man said.

The second man nodded. "It's wild, isn't it? She's a kid and already the smartest person in the whole world!"

"Can you even imagine the kinds of technological advances that'll come when she takes over the company?"

"It's unbelievable. I hope I'll still be working for them when she's president. Talk about financial security."

"You're telling me!"

Vegeta had no idea what they were talking about. What kid were they talking about, what kind of technology was she capable of creating, and what company produced said technology? He needed to know more, so he paced himself to stay well enough behind the men that they wouldn't notice him following them but kept them in hearing range. This girl, whoever she was, might be his ticket off the mudball.

"Oh, man, we're going to be late at this rate!" the first man grumbled after checking his watch. Both men started walking faster, unaware of the odd boy trailing after them.

'Oh, man, I'm going to be late at this rate!' Bulma thought as she grabbed her backpack and ran out the door of the domed Capsule Corporation compound. She pushed her way through the multitude of scientists who were coming in the front gate to begin another day of work as she dashed to school. Genius or not, she had already been late to school twice in the past week and another tardy would mean an after-school detention.

Running as fast as her legs could carry her, Bulma rounded a corner and ran straight into one of the men a certain flame-haired boy was following. She fell backward and glared up at the man who served as a wall against her small frame. She jumped back to her feet and was about to give the apologizing man a thorough tongue-lashing when she saw the boy a few feet behind them, stopped in his tracks and scowling at her sudden appearance. They were about to mention the name of the girl who might be able to help him fix his space pod!

"I'm so sorry, Miss Brief," the man stammered.

"Whatever," she mumbled, shoving her way past the two men and walking up to Vegeta.

His scowl deepened with each step she took toward him. "Hi, Vegeta! You remember me, don't you? Bulma Brief! I've been hoping I'd find you again. My parents said it was ok for me to ask if you wanted to come stay with us at Capsule Corporation. That is, if you don't have anywhere else to stay." She blushed a little when he looked at her incredulously. She'd gone and done it again, forgetting he spoke a different language.

"Capsule Corporation?" he repeated. That was the name of the company the two men, who had since continued on their way, were talking about before she ran into one of them like a blind idiot.

She grinned and nodded. Even if he didn't know her language, he'd surely heard of the world-famous corporation that was rapidly taking over every area of the global market, especially in the science and technology department. "It's where I live. Will you stay with us?"

Vegeta seemed to be considering her answer, though she wasn't sure if it was because he knew what she asked or if he was trying to figure out what she was saying. She didn't know how else to ask, though, since she definitely didn't know his language. All she could hope for was that he would be able to somehow decipher her inquiry and give a clear answer.

"You live there?" he asked skeptically. He didn't know why anyone would live at a place of business, especially a business so large.

She nodded again, completely forgetting she was going to be late to school. "It's great! There's tons of guest rooms and we're filthy rich so you wouldn't be imposing at all if you came to live with us. I promise!"

He wasn't interested in how comfortable the living quarters may be or how anyone would be willing to provide for his basic needs. He was interested in the fact that he might be able to find the girl the men were talking about and 'persuade' her to help him repair his space pod so he could get off the planet and go on with the mission he was supposed to currently be on. Then he could return – late, but not over a year late – and face his beating and get on with life. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. Being so close to the mudball's best technology was exactly what he'd been hoping for since he came to the city. Maybe fortune was on his side for once.

At the same time, he was wary about staying with the planet's inhabitants, and he had learned long ago not to trust anyone or make himself indebted to anyone if he could help it. He didn't usually accept charity, considering it to be for the weak. Besides, he wouldn't be able to repay them, and he still clung to his honor even if it was slowly fading with each purging mission he completed. He turned his eyes away when he saw the annoying loud-mouthed girl looking at him expectantly. Why would she want him to stay with her anyway? Was she crazy? He sighed.

"Maybe."

Bulma frowned. That wasn't a very heartening answer. If he was even partially willing to accept, that probably meant he didn't have anywhere better to go. She couldn't imagine what the issue was if that were the case. Surely he would want a comfortable bed to sleep in and good cooking. "Well, how about you think about it today and you can come home with me when I get out of school? I'll be around here around 3:30 this afternoon."

His only response was a noncommittal shrug. She still didn't know how well he could understand her, so she had to assume that was agreement. With a small smile she stepped around him and resumed her mad dash to make it to school on time. If she thought she was going to be late before, now there was absolutely no doubt about it. She was a block away from where she talked to Vegeta when she remembered she was going to get stuck with a detention, which meant she'd be an hour late getting home. Hopefully he'd be willing to wait around that long.

When Bulma was gone, Vegeta turned his thoughts back to a more pertinent topic. Namely, who was the genius the men were talking so highly of? Could there really be a human capable of understanding the advanced technology of his space pod well enough to help him get it back in working order? He doubted any humans had such intelligence, but it was the best he could do given his poor circumstances. The men said it was a girl, very young. That made his hope dim more. He was hardly willing to put his trust in some little brat. Not that he had many options available…

'I'll find out who this girl is, and then if she can help me I will enlist her services. If she can't help me, then I'll kill her and her whole damn family for wasting my time. How do I go about figuring out who she is though? No names were mentioned.' Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest and rapped his fingers against his bicep. If that bimbo girl hadn't come flying around that corner and seen him he could be on his way to the corporation right now with all the knowledge he needed. Finally, he reached the conclusion that he would accept the girl's offer and decided to explore the city more until that afternoon when she would come by and get him.

Bulma sprinted through the halls of her school and skidded into homeroom, but she was too late. The bell had already rung four minutes ago. The other kids in the class looked up as she slammed the door open, and, panting, started for her seat near the back of the class. She prayed that her teacher would have mercy on her. There had been extraneous circumstances that kept her from making it to school on time!

"Bulma Brief," her teacher groaned in exasperation while gesturing for the girl to come up to her desk. When the girl stood in front of her desk with head hanging, she shook her head in disappointment. "What's the excuse this time?"

The girl turned her head to the side when she heard some of the students behind her laughing at the situation she found herself in. It wasn't unfamiliar, but it still hurt the way she was the butt of everyone's amusement. Just because she was younger and smarter didn't mean they had to be mean to her all the time. She swallowed back the growing lump in her throat as she turned back to her teacher. "I'm sorry, Ms. Beketov, I got delayed on my way here. I would have been on time but it was really important that I talk to someone."

Unsurprisingly, Ms. Beketov didn't seem impressed. She sighed as she pulled a pink slip out of the top drawer of her desk and started writing on it. Bulma groaned when she saw it and briefly considered telling her teacher off for being such a tyrant. She was four minutes late to homeroom, why did it matter so much? Sadly, she accepted the pink slip and shuffled out of the classroom to the office to turn it in and have her detention formally arranged for that afternoon.

'Why do I even have to go to school?' she wondered as she made her way to the office. 'It's not as if I'm going to learn anything here that'll ever be important. I've already mastered mechanical and computer engineering, and that's all I'm ever going to need.'

By the time she made it back to Ms. Beketov's classroom, the lesson had already started. She quickly went to her seat and collapsed into it and rested her head on her desk. She was having a miserable morning and didn't care to take notes about plant cells. Biology bored her anyway. She already knew what cell walls, nuclei, and vacuoles were; she'd learned about them all years earlier when she read some of her dad's science magazines.

"Miss Brief, there will be no sleeping in my class," Ms. Beketov barked when she saw the blue-haired girl with her head down.

Bulma raised her head and glared fiercely at her teacher's back. She hadn't been sleeping. 'That stupid woman needs to get over herself,' she thought angrily, making it a point to ignore the snickers from her classmates. Sometimes she thought she was given a hard time as a form of entertainment for everyone else. Or maybe they all had a vendetta against her simply because she was so much smarter and they were all jealous. Even the teachers.

The rest of her day wasn't much better as she went from class to class, hardly ever paying any attention to the lectures. It was no wonder she was such a source of endless frustration for her teachers. She drew blueprints in her notebooks through all her classes and still managed to ace all her exams and write exceptional papers. It was clear to them all that she didn't belong in middle school. She was more than ready for a college education already, but she wouldn't graduate from high school until she was fourteen. It was a pity, and a distraction. Other students would emulate her behavior and refuse to pay attention thinking they could get away with it too.

When the last bell of the day rang, Bulma dragged herself out of her seat and grabbed her books from her locker and stuffed them in her backpack before going to detention hall. She had another hour before she could get out of school. While she never cared for detention, she was more aggravated with it than usual, especially when the clock read 3:30PM. She should be on her way home that very moment with Vegeta. Instead she was still at school and still had 45 minutes left to spend there.

At 3:30, Vegeta returned to the corner where the girl said to meet him that afternoon. He looked up and down the street, but he didn't see blue hair anywhere. Either she was running late or she'd already gone by, meaning he'd missed his opportunity to get inside the corporation where he could find some potentially useful technology. He growled and the tip of his tail twitched in agitation as he continued searching for her.

Bulma groaned when the clock seemed to be moving in slow motion. Only fifteen more minutes before she could leave. Then she would race home and hope Vegeta was waiting for her. She banged her head on her desk a few times, bored out of her mind and anxious to get out of detention.

'Please, Vegeta, please, please, please be there when I go home!'

Vegeta was tired of waiting. He sprang up to the top of a building and sat on the edge with his head held in his hands and elbows propped on his knees. He should have known better than to accept her invitation. He didn't know why it mattered so much. Had he really allowed himself to put his faith in the unknown girl genius who might be useful to him? That was the only way he could explain the deep sense of disappointment he felt when he once again looked through the crowd of humans below for the blue-haired girl. She was nowhere to be found.

'I've already wasted enough time waiting for that stupid brat,' he growled mentally. He threw himself over the edge of the building and landed gracefully with his tail stretched out behind him for balance. With a deep scowl etched on his face he went back to the alley where he had made his nest and crawled into it.

"You're free to go," the teacher in charge of detention that day announced at 4:15PM. Bulma leaped out of her seat, threw her backpack over her shoulders, and ran out of the school building at a dead sprint. She had to get back to her meeting place with Vegeta as fast as possible.

But when she reached the place where she talked to him that morning, he was nowhere in sight. She ran around the corner and looked down the street, but she saw no black flame of hair. She turned back down the other street, but he wasn't there. She stood there a few minutes, hoping he was running late, but deep down she knew he wasn't going to show up. She'd missed him, and now she had no idea if she'd ever see him again or if he'd really be willing to stay with her. He probably thought she'd stood him up on purpose.

"Darn it! I hate Ms. Beketov! Why did I have to get a detention today?" she hissed. She tried to fight it, but before she'd gone another block on her way home she was in tears. She felt terrible about what happened.

A/N: Aw. Nothing ever seems to go right for these two in my stories. For those of you wondering, this is not going to be a school fic. I'm not a huge fan of those, so I'm not going to write one. Thanks for the positive reviews on the first chapter! I've decided I'll post a chapter every time I get a new one written, so hopefully that'll be motivation for me to write faster. I have 21 chapters done and I'm working on chapter 22 right now. This is a different way for me to do things, so I hope it works.