Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wish For The Past ❯ Shopping Woes ( Chapter 49 )

Frozenflower: Yay! You let me keep my self-insertion!

Brenda: *chuckles* Yeah, I'm such a nice person. ^_^ Also, Frozenflower wrote a lot (not all) of the Radditz/Bulma shopping torture in this chapter because I was having writer's block about it all. I tweaked it a bit, added a few pieces and paragraphs and so forth, and changed some of the wording to fit the style of my story, but she wrote the base material. Thank you, Frozenflower!

Finally! They were finally done fitting Radditz for that tuxedo! He had thought that the torture would never end, and it had certainly seemed like time had suddenly decided it had a personal grudge against him, but the tailor had eventually finished putting the various pieces of the ridiculous suit together. After what seemed an eternity, a very relieved Radditz and a self-satisfied Bulma walked out of the store and back into the main halls of the complex, Bulma carrying the capsule that contained Radditz's new clothing and the shoes they'd picked out for him.

As the Saiyan's stomach so kindly reminded him, it was well after noon, and he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast that morning, a pleasant memory that had been all but forgotten in the back of the teenager's mind. Passing by an area of the mall where food was sold, his keen Saiya-jin sense of smell picked up the aromas of hundreds of different kinds of Earth foods, and they all smelled wonderful. Unfortunately, it looked like Bulma was bent on visiting yet another store since she didn't even pause as they passed by the food court.

"Umm... Bulma? Can we get something to eat now?" All right, so he was pleading. He honestly didn't care at this point. His pride had already suffered far worse blows today than mere begging could inflict, and, damn it, he was hungry! Taking a leaf from his nephew's book, he decided to attempt one of the Son Puppy Eyes (TM) that seemed to work so well for Goten. Radditz widened his eyes a little and tried to look as pathetic as possible, quickening his pace so he could stare directly in Bulma's face. He inwardly cringed at what he was about to do next, but hunger easily triumphed over the last vestiges of his dignity, and he added, "Please??"

Bulma frowned as she thought it over. She hadn't had anything to eat yet, either, and since Saiyans needed food more than humans did, she could only guess how he must be feeling right now. However, she also knew how much they could eat, and she didn't want to spend the next hour or so watching Radditz wolf down one larger helping of food after another. "How about this?" she said, stopping so she could meet the other boy's eyes. She nearly cracked up when she saw the expression he was trying to pull, thinking privately to herself that he either just wasn't cut out for Son family expressions, or he needed to work on his puppy dog eyes. What he'd ended up with was a kind of sickened, grimace with a pleading tone to it. "We'll go to one more store, and then we'll get as much food as you want." The bill would be enormous - nothing she couldn't handle - but it was the best way to bribe her crush into putting up with the delay that visiting one more store would create.

Torn between the desire to eat now and the thought of eating as much food as he wanted, Radditz hesitated for a moment. Finally, his shoulders slumped wearily, and he conceded, "Fine, we'll go to one more store, so long as we get to eat immediately afterwards."

Grinning from the thrill of victory, Bulma grabbed hold of Radditz's hand and dragged him off down the crowded hall. "Great! Now, there's this really good sports shop I want to take you! It's called "Biker Glory" and they have the best sports clothing, accessories, and equipment! They specialize mainly in biking, but they dabble in a few other sports as well. Come on, it's not too far!"

Not really knowing why they were going to a sports store, Radditz simply shrugged and allowed himself to be led towards the store in question. He didn't participate in any of these Earth sports, the only plausible reason perusing a sports shop that he could see, so he couldn't imagine what Bulma wanted to go there for, though he thought he heard her mutter something about 'spandex biker shorts' to herself. Shaking his head ruefully, he watched as the crazy little onna darted away into the crowded rack of sports clothes. With any lucky, she'd get lost in there and never come back.

Radditz made his way carefully through the store display racks of bicycles, gazing at the strange contraptions curiously. He really had no idea why anyone would want to use such an odd mode of transportation in the first place, but he decided that it was probably more geared towards recreation rather than travel.

Sitting behind the desk, Twi, saleswoman extraordinaire, spied a likely victi-er-customer. "There's a sucker born every minute," she murmured, sauntering sweetly over to the young man who was examining a pricy 10 speed. Radditz blinked fearfully as a predatory grin came over the saleswoman's face. Why were all these Earth women so intent on chasing him around? "Why don't you hop on and give it a try?" Twi asked the twitching teen.

Confusion swept over the Saiyan for a moment, then relief as he saw that the girl was referring to the bicycle. With a little shrug, Radditz hopped onto the seat. After all, how hard could it be?

Seventeen knocked over bicycles, a dozen toppled displays, two nearly injured customers, and one irate salesperson later, Bulma finished helping Radditz pull his hair out of the bicycle spokes and hastily yanked the spooked Saiyan out of the store, weaving through the small crowd of curious onlookers that had gathered ever since Radditz had first begun accidentally wreaking of havoc.

"AND DON'T COME BACK!"

Bulma winced. Perhaps shopping with Saiyans was more hazardous to her shopping habits than she'd previously supposed. Sighing, she couldn't even find it in her heart to be angry with Radditz, especially as miserable as he was looking right now. It really hadn't been his fault, from what she could tell. It had just been an accident. Or, rather, a lot of accidents. She had to stifle a chuckle as she recalled how he had ridden that bicycle right into the mountain bike sections and had the whole rack fall on top of him, trapping him and entangling his hair. If it had happened to anyone else, it would be cause for serious concern, but since it was Radditz, meaning he wouldn't be injured, it was utterly hilarious. Except for the fact that it had gotten her banned from a store. She was going to have to talk to Radditz about that later. Right now...

A rather loud growl from the teenager's stomach pointedly reminded both of them about the promise Bulma had made to Radditz before the whole biker story fiasco. "Can we eat now?" Radditz whimpered.

"All right, fine, we'll go eat now," Bulma said, smiling faintly as she reflected that Radditz was getting better with his puppy dog eyes. When he did that, it really made her want to just give him a hug, he was that cute! Fortunately for him, she held back on her impulse and led him off to the food court.

While the three boys toweled themselves to a state of semi-dryness, Bardock was examining their clothing - or lack thereof in Goku's case - and determined that they all needed to be washed. Fortunately for them, Bardock did have that capsule containing some of the children's clothing Bulma had picked out, so they at least had something to change into. Unfortunately for himself, the capsule had nothing but chibi clothes. Except for one outfit his size that had somehow gotten mixed in with the pile of chibi clothing that Bulma had capsulized. Recalling that rainbow tie-dye shirt, he winced. Maybe it would be better to just wear the green gi, even if it was a little bloody.

Picking up the gi to put it back on, he despairingly noticed just how much blood had gotten on it while he had been holding Goku. As clean as he was feeling after that bath, and considering it was Goku's blood, he suddenly realized he did not want to wear that gi. With a regretful sigh, he dropped the gi back to the floor in the pile of clothing. It looked like it would be tie-dye and blue jeans for him after all.

On a second thought, he gathered up the three gis, blue, orange, and green, as well as his weighted clothing, preparing to take them to the laundry room, to be washed with the bandages when Bulma returned. Tossing the capsule with their clothing to Trunks, he said, "There are some new clothes in there for you three, but there's probably too many things in that capsule for you to safely open it in here. Take it to the den and open it there, so you boys can get dressed. I'm going to take these things to the laundry room." When the three chibis murmured their various forms of acquiescence, Bardock padded out of the bathroom and walked towards the laundry room.

Yawning sleepily, Vegeta raised one hand to rub a little sleepy-dust out of his eyes, then wriggled back into the warm blankets that surrounded him. Wait a minute. Blankets? I thought I was in that chair by Kakarot's bed... how did I end up in a bed? As awareness stole over his sleep-fuzzed mind, he sat up in the bed and looked around, ascertaining that he was still in the capsule house, but in a different room from the one he last recalled being in. That's odd... I don't remember falling sleep, much less going to another room to do so...

Feeling slightly disoriented, the young prince crawled out of the bed and, yawning again, stumbled towards the door. He was feeling a little hungry - well, more than a little - and Saiyans always thought better on a full stomach. He would get something to eat and then he'd tried to figure out how he had managed to move from one room to another without realizing it. As distracted as he was, and since he hadn't completely woken up yet, he didn't even notice the three damp and naked boys racing down the hallway until after they crashed into him.

Vegeta cursed rather harshly as he suddenly found himself at the bottom of a pile of chibis, now fully awake and rather ticked off. With a few more choice phrases from his arsenal of foul language, he roughly extricated himself from the tangle of arms and legs that consisted of the other boys. Standing up and brushing himself off, the ten year old glowered down at the offending boys, who were also picking themselves up off the floor and hastily apologizing.

"Kisama!! Why don't you watch where you're going!?" He would have added a few more ear singeing curses, but then he caught sight of Goku and Goten. Unfortunately, since neither one was wearing any clothing at the moment, it was impossible to tell them apart. Glaring from one to the other, he finally turned to Trunks and asked, "When did that baka Kakarot get better?"

Trunks gave a fair imitation of the famous Son Grin (TM) and rubbed the back of his neck, somewhat embarrassed about running into his chibi father like that. "Me and Goten went to Karin's tower to get some senzu beans. We got back a little while ago and Bardock gave one of them to Goku."

Putting on his best scowl, the young prince folded his arms across his chest, his tail lashing back and forth in annoyance. "And just where were you three off to in such a hurry?" he growled, still angry about being run over.

"Grandpa got new clothes and since our old ones are dirty and we just took a bath, we get to wear the new ones!" Goten chattered excitedly, dancing from one foot to the other in anticipation. "Wanna come with us and see what Bulma and grandpa bought?" Not waiting for Vegeta's answer, the black haired chibi dashed eagerly down the hall towards the den, pulling Goku behind him. Trunks glanced at his father briefly, then took off after them, not wanting to be left out of the fun.

Vegeta grumbled to himself while staring balefully down the hall where the three boys had disappeared, but eventually gave in to his curiosity. He really didn't have anything better to do, and he was slightly interested in seeing the new acquisitions, so he started after the three Saiyan children until he came to the den. They'd already opened the capsule containing the new clothing and were happily rummaging through the plethora of brightly colored chibi clothing that had quickly been scattered all over the room. Most of the various shirts were so bright, in fact, that it nearly hurt just to look at them! Sprinkled amidst the tie-dyed shirts, rainbow colored prints, and assorted pants and shorts were a few normally colored gis, shirts and pants, which the three boys neglected in favor of admiring the more eye wrenching clothes.

A feeling of uncertainty suddenly fluttered in the pit of Vegeta's stomach. All his life he had remained aloof from those around him. He was the Saiya-jin no Ouji, so he was naturally better than everyone else. It wouldn't do to associate with the common rabble, or even most of the palace staff. His father and Frieza had been the only ones to hold any sort of power over him, but they never interacted with him beyond what was necessary. In Frieza's case, that was no big loss, but he sometimes secretly wished that his father had shown just a little more emotion towards his son. Why King Vegeta had remained apart from his son, be it from preoccupation with ruling the Saiyan race or simply the normal barrier between adults and children, Prince Vegeta didn't know, but it had meant that he had no equals. He had essentially been alone all his short life.

Until now.

In the same room as him were three boys who treated him as their equal. Not their better, not their lesser, but equal. Trunks and Goten, being Super Saiya-jin, were far more powerful than Vegeta. It still irritated the young prince somewhat to accept the fact that the grandson of a third class soldier could ever surpass him, but he had adjusted to it now. Trunks being stronger than Vegeta no longer bothered him, since the boy was, after all, his future son. Both boys treated him as an equal because they either didn't care about strength, or because they knew what Vegeta would one day be capable of. Then there was the third child. Goku. Goku was pathetically weak compared to even his brother, Radditz, but had the potential to become much stronger than he was now. And yet he didn't seem to realize that there was any difference between him and Vegeta. He treated everyone as an equal simply because he didn't care about strength in terms of how he interacted with others. It was an odd concept for Vegeta to understand, and yet that was the way Goku was.

As he continued to watch them, a part of him wanted to go join the three in their fun, to sort through the shirts and pants in search of something that would suit his tastes, make jokes about some of the wilder articles of clothing, and participate in their casual rough housing. Something inside him longed to play with other children, to be able to laugh and have fun and not care about who was stronger. He had never had the opportunity to do so before, but he did now. He was in the presence of three boys who would accept him as their equal, if he would only allow himself to think of them in the same way. All he had to do was swallow his pride.

Vegeta had never faced a more difficult challenge in his whole life.

Still staring longingly at the three children thoroughly enjoying themselves, the little Saiyan Prince waged a silent war within himself. Pride, dignity, and every one of the ten years of his royal upbringing dictated that he should just turn around and leave. But there was a terrible, lonely ache in his heart that tugged at him, pulling him towards the other children. A small lump formed in his throat, and he made his decision.

It was all Bulma could do to keep herself from gaping in amazement as Radditz chomped down on his dozenth hotdog. She'd seen it before, but each time was a new opportunity for confoundment. Seeing a Saiyan eat was like watching a sunset, except considerably messier. Each experience was unique, involving a palette of colors that was unrivaled in all of nature.

Radditz's palette now consisted of ketchupy-red and a bright mustard yellow, with just a splash of green and white from the relish and onions.

Spread out over three of the small food court tables were Radditz's previous works. The delightfully orangey-yellow of sweet and sour chicken, the cheerful remnants of devoured nachos, the crumpled and forlorn waxy papers that had once wrapped scrumptious hamburgers and tacos. Fortunately for the mall clean up crew, the teenager was a neat eater. Only bits of gooey mayonnaise and relish that had somehow found their way into his black mane stood as evidence of the mighty feasting that had just occurred.

Where does it all go? Bulma wondered for the thousandth time. Shaking herself out of her daze, the blue haired girl looked at her watch, her eyes widening in shock. They had spent the entire day here! The mall was about to close!

With a look of relief, the food court employees began hastily shutting down their respective restaurants. Not that there was much to clean up. Radditz had eaten most, if not all, of their stock, with the exception of the relieved staff at the ice cream parlor. For some reason, Radditz just didn't seem to have an appetite for ice cream.

Slowly, Bulma pulled herself to her feet and latched onto Radditz's arm, dragging him towards the exit. The Saiyan protested a bit, claiming he was still hungry, and that she'd promised that he would get to eat as much as he wanted. With a groan, Bulma reflected that this was the first time in her life that she'd ever left a mall willingly.

"Just shut up and get in the car," she said wearily as she popped the car out of its capsule and hopped into the driver's seat. Radditz, realizing that she wasn't planning on taking him to yet another store and was, in fact, going back home, could only too happily comply, wholeheartedly thanking the Earth's Kami that the ordeal was finally over.

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