Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Sheep and the Hedgehog ❯ I Want to Feel Real Love... ( Chapter 13 )

Come and hold my hand
I wanna contact the living
Not sure I understand
This role I've been given
I sit and talk to God
And he just laughs at my plans
My head speaks a language
I don't understand

Damn it. It looked like everybody was against her! Who did that old man think he was? Bulma Briefs wasn´t for him, no, no!fresh wind helped Bulma to calm down andher mind. Better to come back later, when Krillin and Oolong were around.
" Mount Paoz is not too far away..." she thought aloud, in a slightly forced tone. However, she couldn’t make herself turn in that direction. Goku most probably would forget to go to the party, and she didn´t felt like facing the Sons after Vegeta had threatened them. However, there was no one else she could invite for her birthday. Yamcha was out training somewhere in the world, Tenshinhan and Chaos too - and even if she could find them, it wasn´t likely they would agree to come. Lunch was Kami knows where. She tried to remember her childhood friends and schools colleagues, but they were just blurred faces and names, that not caused feelings. It was like her life had started only after she began her first search for the dragonballs.
Those were the good times. Lots of danger, of course, but nothing compared towhat they had experienced to last years. Even their troubles with the Red Ribbon Army looked like fun now, compared to the violent battle with aliens able to destroy planets with a simple finger. She thought about her strange feeling when she found herself completely alone with Kameroshi. It hadn´t been not only fear, but nostalgia... she had gotten used to thinking about Kami Island as a crowded place. Yamcha, Mutenroshi, Krillin and Goku -still as chibis, Turtle, Lunch... those were happy days that never would come back.
She felt her friends becoming more and more distant, too involved in their own personal problems. Apparently, only a battle was capable of bringing everyone back together. The times were now darker and much more complicated.
"The point is: what I´m going to do now?" Bulma asked aloud as she stepped abruptly on the brake, scaring away a few wild animals. Until that moment, she had driven automatically, watching the traffic but not actually paying attention where she was going to. She was in the middle of a wide, clear meadow, with no one at sight. That was the perfect place to think for a while. Driving out of the road, she parked the car, jumped out and cozied the best she could at the top of the car´s front part.
The last thing she wanted now was to go back home. Her parents would be delighted to help her to invite other guests, but the simple thought terrified her. Bulma could already feel the chubby fingers of Mrs. Pickle-her mother´s best friend- pinching her cheeks like she was still three, or the younger shareholders pursuing her, intent on a marriage that could be a foot in the door for the Capsule Corp presidency.
"Who am I trying to deceive?" she asked of a rabbit that stared at her in curiosity. "I don´t want any blasted party!" she finished with a scream, scaring the bunny away, before sorrowfully raising her hands to support the weight of her tired head.
At least, she didn’t want the kind of party her parents wanted for her. Without any apparent reason, she felt tears coming to her eyes and took a deep breath to keep them from falling.everybody seemed to want something from her, but nobody ever asked her what SHE wanted.
Why, my dear, you never know what you want .
"Shut up, mom!" she snapped as if Mrs. Briefs was really there. Bulma knew perfectly what she wanted now. She wanted some time for herself; she wanted to be a careless girl again, and forget all her duties and obligations at least for a few days. She wanted to feel alive once more, for maybe after three years there would be no life at all.
I just wanna feel
Real love feel the home that I live in
Cos I got too much life
Running through my veins
Going to waste

As Bulma thought about that, she slid from the hood of the car and paced absently by the meadow. The sunlight-heated air was warm but pleasant, freshened by a soft breeze. Slowly, Bulma felt her spirits rising a bit. She wished to take her shoes off and feel the grass under her bare feet, but refrained from doing so because she remembered there could be snakes and spiders hidden among the tall leaves. However, she stopped and slowly laid down on the grass, before picking up a flowers and spinning itin her hands.
"I wish I could stay here…" she muttered, her eyes opening with a start almost instantaneously.own words had pushed to the front of her mind an idea that had been subtly nagging at her for the last minutes. She actually could… if only… Jumping to her feet, Bulma rushed to the air car and checked her capsule box. It had an airplane, a few motorcycles and, more importantly, one model-house. Her wallet was filled with money and credit-cards. Perfect. Whatever she couldn´t find in the house or the capsules could be bought later.
A few seconds later, the telephone rang at the Capsule House. Dr. Briefs answered it at the kitchen.
_Hello? Bulma? Are you ok? You mother and I want to know when do you come back. Did you already invite your friends? No? What? You´re off to another adventure? But, darling, what about the party? Yes, of course the safety of the world is more important than your birthday… I guess.
"Who is it?" asked Mrs. Briefs as she entered the kitchen.
"Bulma. She´s saying she has to go in another trip. Looks like there´s someone menacing Earth again… a crazy scientist or something. And they´ll have to be out for a couple of…"he paused to hear something else in the phone, then corrected himself, " no, a week out."
"Oh, that´s allright," the blonde waved her hand dismissively. "As long as they came for the party in time. We just received the first tons of pastries, it would be a shame if they had to go to waste," the blonde woman concluded. She turned to look at the piles of boxes that filled the entire table, whose legs looked slightly arched.
"Wait, I´ll ask her,” the old man turned to speak at the phone again. “Hello? Bulma? Are you still there? Sure… Are you sure you and your friends can´t come in time for the party?"he stretched the arm that held the phone a little, so his daughter´s screams wouldn´t make him deaf. “Now, now… no need to be nervous. I know it´s important, but your mother will be so disappointed. She has already ordered the pastries and sandwiches… what?" Going silent, he listened carefully before looking back at his wife with his usual confused expression.
"Bulma asked for us to have the party without her. She said we must invite all her friends and workers, and throw the party in honor of her birthday."
"What a wonderful lovely idea!" Mrs. Briefs raised her hands together happily. "We have such a wonderful daughter, she´s always thinking about us. I´m going to tell all my friends!"Rolling her eyes at the other side of the line, Bulma heard her mothers´ happy squeals as she waited patiently until her father got the phone again.
"Dad? Yes, I heard it…" she let out a very heavy sigh. "No, no thanks, please. It wouldn´t be right to waste all mom´s pastries after the whole trouble she had… to order them. Don´t feel sorry for me. This time out will make much more good for me than all the parties in the world. Have fun, I love you both. Bye."
A deep, blissful relief washed over her as she put the cell phone down. There wasn´t any way for her parents to know she was lying, for they never would call her friends to ask them about the fake 'mission' , or even ask even if she was alive and well. They never did it. The thought brought a slightly bitter taste to her triumph. The blue-haired woman always had been grateful for the unlimited freedom she had enjoyed during practically her entire life. Normal parents never would have allowed a 16 years old girl to wander through the dangerous world by herself just to look for magic balls. Or to skip school and risk her life in order to help her friends against monsters and terrorists. At this point, she had a great advantage over common teenagers. On the other hand, she frequently wondered if her parents really cared about her. If something ever happened to her, Dr. Briefs probably would keep himself busy with his inventions and pets, and her mother would keep finding new pastry shops at the West City, never worrying if their daughter was alive or dead.
Abruptly, she pushed the unnerving thoughts to the back of her mind. She was free now, and that was all that mattered.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The first day-and-a-half were absolutely heavenly. She uncapsuled her house in the middle of that meadow and spent the rest of the day and the night watching TV and eating ice-cream with popcorn. She fell asleep finally at 2:00 am and woke up at midday, eating anything in front of the TV, something Bulma hadn´t done in years. After that, already tired of the place, she capsuled the house again, uncapsuled a motorcycle and rode aimlessly, just for the pleasure of riding.

Stopping in a little, nameless town, she bought a few extra capsules and ate a few morsels in a small restaurant. There, two boys came onto her and insisted even after she dismissed them both. It took her longer than she expected to get rid of them, and she only did so with some help of one of the waiters. After that, many onlookers, including even a few women--all of them with respective male companions--started giving her unpleasant looks. Evidently, a single woman eating there wasn´t exactly considered a lady, so Bulma decided to leave the town fast before she got into new trouble.
The incident reminded her when she, Goku and Oolong had made a pitstop in that little Arabian town, and the soldiers of the Bunny Army had hit on her, too. Whatever could have happened if Goku wasn´t there to stop them she preferred not to think about.
A dinosaur roared far away, and Bulma shivered at the threatening sound. Suddenly, to be all alone had less appeal than it did before. Actually, to not have anybody to talk was a little boring, too.
The price of absolute freedom was loneliness. Maybe that was why people like Piccolo and Vegeta preferred living isolated from others. Bulma sincerely admired their absolute independence, but she knew she never could be like them. She needed the company of other people, even if they drove her crazy at times.
Her memories of her first trip after the dragonballs gave heridea. Now that she was free again, she could now do what she had planned to do fourteen years ago which Pilaf had ruined. That´s what I should have done... I should have waited for one year and then searched for the dragonballs again to wish a perfect boyfriend, instead wasting my time with Yamcha and V... and othermen that didn´t deserve my attention.Now she would wish for a new, handsome, caring, perfect boyfriend that never would leave her alone.
There was only one last thing she needed. Quickly, Bulma uncapsulated the aircar that had brought her there and scanned its contents, not leaving even the tiniest place overlooked. It didn´t took much to confirm what she already knew: the dragon radar had been left at home. Shit! The goddamn party was probably starting now. She would have to go home and try to figure out a way of slipping into the house and into her lab then leave again without being noticed. Almost as easy as it would be to convince Piccolo to wear a pink tutu.

I don't wanna die
But I ain't keen on living either
Before I fall in love
I'm preparing to leave her
Scare myself to death
That's why I keep on running
Before I've arrived
I can see myself coming
It was already dark when Bulma finally arrived at the neighborhoods of the Capsule Corp. Hiddenthe woods at the back of the gigantic house, she stood beside her car, watching thethat only increased with each passing hour. Her plans of
"Are you afraid to return to the madhouse? No wonder. Even I didn´t want to run the risk of getting caught by those buffoons there in my way to the gravity chamber."

Bulma jumped slightly. It wasn´t necessary for her to look to know whose voice that was. So, when she turned around, , she formulated a long lecture in her mind, ready to hurl it at the irresponsible man despite the happy glint in her eyes. However, whatever she planned to say was instantaneously forgotten when she finally spotted the Saiyan seated in the shadows a few feet from her.

"V...V... Vegeta!!" remembering just in time that she was hiding, the young scientist pressed a hand to her mouth, just in time to muffle her shocked scream.

Apparently annoyed with the pitiful look in her face, he frowned. Literally, Vegeta looked like he had gone off to fight some war. The uniform that had taken her so much time and work was now completely dirty and blood stained, and so torn that left him almost undressed. His hair lookedlike it had been ‘combed’ with the claws of some wild beast. But, what really shocked Bulma was his posture. Vegeta was sitting on the grass and leaning forward, his shoulders slumped and his arms dropping limply at the sides. His legs laid loosely on the ground, with his knees slightly folded, making him look like a ragdoll that some child had tossed in a corner. Yet although his expression remained stoic as ever, there was something in it that Bulma couldn´t define.

All she wanted to do now was run straight to him to hug him as tightly as she could. Instead, she timidly walked towards him and stood staring at him with very sad eyes.

"Just... just look at you! After all the trouble I went through making this damned cloth... luckily for you I have made so many copies, or you´d have to fight naked. Cause I´m never going to help you again! Ever…”

Vegeta barely seemed to notice her, his eyes far and staring at something invisible.

"Sounds good to me," he agreed vaguely, in an inexpressive, slightly broken tone that could be like anyone but him. That was the last thing Bulma expected to hear, so she forgot the rest of her lecture to stare at him dumbfounded and jaw-opened.

"W... What?!"
A bit of Vegeta´s old annoyance made him frown and he turned his head towards her, but never looking Bulma into her eyes."Are you deaf?” he snarled. “I said it´s sounds good to me because I no longer will have to lower myself requesting your help. Now go away and celebrate it. Isn´t that what you wanted? To get free from my demands?"With that, Vegeta looked away again, expecting that she finally would go away. However, she just walked slowly towards him, as he was a cornered, wounded animal."You... you no longer need my help because you turned Super Saiyan, right?" she offered hopefully.Vegeta´s frown increased, hating so much that woman who forced him to remember his ultimate humiliation. But did it matter now?Nothing mattered anymore."I´ll never turn Super Saiyan," he muttered in such a low tone that wasn´t even sure if she had heard his words.Bulma´s arms dropped at her sides, giving in to the weight of the implications that statement brought."Are you serious?" she asked very slowly. Both her tone and posture would make anyone think that she had suffered a defeat, too. Vegeta glanced her in curiosity, but didn´t trouble himself to respond to her. For long moments they stood there in silence, watching the lights and movement at the house as a cold breeze grimly blew on their backs, creating a sense of doom. However, Bulma wasn´t a woman togive up. She put a hand on his shoulder, scaring the prince slightly."Come with me," she demanded.He didn´t give any signs of having heard. Bulma opened her mouth to repeat, then remembered something and fixed it quickly."Wait a moment... can you enter my laboratory and come back here without being noticed?"He couldn´t ignore such a funny question, even still refusing to look at her."Why?" he grunted."Because the capsules containing the copies I did of your cloth are in the drawer of my desk. You´ll need some street clothes, too, cause I´m not going to walk around with someone dressed as a spaceman.""What makes you think I´m going with you?" this time he turned his head to glare at her right in the eyes."Do you prefer to arrive there and be fussed over by mom´s friends?” Bulma waved her head toward the party. “ They´re much worse than her, I warrant. And if f I´m not wrong, Mrs. Pickle´s younger daughter is still single and dying to find a handsome boyfr..."For the first time since the scientist had found him there in those woods, Vegeta had a reaction. His eyes opened wide in shock and horror, just for a few seconds, before he stood up and dissapeared. In a split second, he had returned, with a heavy bag of clothes in his hand."Are you standing there and laugh or are you going to drive that piece of junk you call a car?" he growled, with a threatening glare that just made him look even funnier.