Chapter 3 (original)

Title: It’s Not Where You Start…

Chapter 3: Paved With Good Intentions

Rating: T (for now…)

Fandom: Dragon Ball Z

Genre: Alternate Universe/Romance/Angst/Drama

Pairing: Vegeta/Bulma

Warnings: Language. Abuse of commas and semi-colon as necessary, they made me do it.

Short Summary: AU. Bulma’s finishing up her Doctoral Degree at age 21, Vegeta’s in classes at age 24. When the two meet, things become hectic for the both of them.

Summary: Alternate Universe. Bulma Briefs is the daughter of the world renown Dr. Briefs of Capsule Corporation. Smart, beautiful and charismatic, Bulma is the middle of getting her Master’s Degree at only twenty-one years of age. When she meets college student Vegeta Ouji though, things begin to change and she’s unsure as to whether or not she likes this change, much less can control it.

Disclaimer: All Dragonball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT characters belong to Akira Toriyama. Cause let’s face it, if I owned these characters I would totally be making this into the animated canon or manga cannon somehow.

Author’s Notes:

Please leave a review as they are like candy to me and I like candy. :) Also, I squee like a little school girl when I read them.

Recommended Listening: “Psychobabble” by Frou Frou.

---

It’s Not Where You Start…

Chapter 3: Paved With Good Intentions

---

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” —George Bernard Shaw

---

“Hey, Bulma! Over here!” A familiar voice called from across the gym. A young man with his long hair gathered and tied at the base of his neck waved happily enough to the girl who entered the large gym.

Bulma smiled and waved back, “Hey Yamcha! See you after I get changed!”

The Judo class offered by WCU had been something the girl genius decided to take originally due to her at-that-time-boyfriend Yamcha’s involvement in the Judo Club. After their break-up, Chi-Chi had insisted she finish out the course and learn some sort of self-defense moves, which Bulma had to admit was the intelligent thing to do. Still, she found it a little painful to be around Yamcha, as they both attempted to continue being friends.

Walking into the women’s bathroom Bulma took the first stall on the right out of habit and availability. As she slid out of her skirt and into the pants of her gi, she frowned thinking about her ex-boyfriend’s reasoning for the break-up. They had been an on and off couple since high school before he decided to completely end it a few months ago. Originally Bulma had thought he was simply needing a break from their relationship, which was always a rather fractious affair, but as the months stretched on she began to realize that the prospect of getting back together wasn’t anywhere in his thoughts.

Yamcha had been a lot of Bulma’s relationship ‘firsts’, so it was only natural she would have a tough time letting him go. However, that knowledge didn’t ease the pain when he had started dating other girls. Originally it hadn’t been such a bad arrangement to take Judo, even in light of the break-up; she’d get to see Yamcha and eventually, she was confident, he would come to his senses and they’d get back together. But with each day that passed, her decision seemed to only exacerbate the wound lurking in her heart as he confided in Bulma for advice with his new dates—dates that didn’t include her.

Now she was stuck seeing him in class twice a week in the evenings when the Judo Club would come and help out with the Judo class. It wasn’t that he wasn’t pleasant enough, she just didn’t know how to deal with her emotions towards him; which left her at a loss of control on the situation and a very uneasy feeling in her stomach.

Technically Judo Club took place after class was finished, but several of the advanced members were known to show up for class to help out the instructor, Mr. Muten Roshi—or as everyone in the beginning class referred to him, Roshi Sensei.

Tying her gi belt over the heavy-collared top and attempting to dismiss her negative thoughts, Bulma quickly packed her clothes into her school bag and headed out to chat with Yamcha before class began. She only hoped the topic of discussion wouldn’t be about any of his recent dates.

But considering the circumstances of their break-up, she found it compellingly strange that she couldn’t blame him for his actions. At least, not when he explained it anyway. Had any of her friends had the same experience she probably would’ve kicked his ass real hard and berated him so bad verbally he’d be going back to kindergarten as part of the repercussions. Her and Yamcha’s relationship was different though. At least, that’s what she convinced herself of.

He had said she made him feel stupid by comparison and that it had hurt his feelings constantly when she would turn down spending time with him to attend a lecture made by some renown scientist. That coupled with the amount of neglect she unknowingly inflicted upon him due to her school course load had caused him to in turn, cheat upon her with another girl from the school; a girl who was not as smart or ambitious and had far more free time.

While she tied her periwinkle locks down into two small pony-tails, she vaguely wondered if definition of ambitious had been translated to stupid when it came to herself.

She could understand Yamcha’s point, despite how Chi-Chi had made a list of the grievous errors on his part, and they managed to part on agreeable terms. When it came to love, she really was dumb.

---

“I don’t care what you say Vegeta, I think you like her.” Goku declared for the umpteenth time. After the commotion at lunch, Vegeta hadn’t left a very good impression upon Chi-Chi—who had screamed and cursed and berated Goku’s friend until the grumpy individual got up and stormed away, which in turn had made Chi-Chi send Goku after him in hopes of getting Bulma’s phone back. Thankfully Chi-Chi had not given Goku an ultimatum of choosing between his friends; just getting him to give Bulma back her phone.

Kicking a rock off the sidewalk Vegeta could only respond with a pathetic ‘Shut up Kakarrot, I was eating’ response. He had been bugging him since lunch about Vegeta liking Bulma, because unlike either of the girls, he knew his abilities. Goku knew Vegeta had allowed Bulma to take his skateboard and wasn’t about to let his friend get away with it without some tormenting.

“You never did say why you visiting Vegeta,” Goku began, then added, “and I doubt you’re here just to spar with me. What gives?” The duo were walking to the old gym on the far side of campus in hopes the Judo class could let them borrow the floor mats after class. If they were lucky they might run into Tien and Yamcha to spar with as well. This was particularly exciting to Goku who hadn’t had a decent sparring match since the Japan trip where he met Vegeta.

The spiky haired visitor in question merely grumbled, “It’s family business,” and refused to say anymore about his reason for being so far from his home country. “You’d better make this a worth while fight Kakarrot or I swear I will beat you until you die.1”

Goku seemed to accept this as friendly banter as the two passed under another streetlamp that began to glow with the onset of the sun dipping below the horizon. As the seasons turned from summer to fall, the taller of the two fighters—Goku—relished the weather change. In summer it was nearly unbearable to train particularly hard with all the heat and humidity, where as fall was just right. Not to mention it would be football season soon and there was almost nothing the orange clad man liked better than a good game, save maybe Chi-Chi or a good sparring match.

The two weaved their way through a small parking lot outside a rather neglected looking gym. Since a newer facility was being built in the middle of campus it seemed as if the school had forgotten about it’s existing gym, causing multiple paint scrapes, rust marks and other visual eyesores not to be fixed. It was still a sturdy building, it just wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at and—needless to say—never featured in any recruitment brochure.

Passing a sleek looking red coupe brought Vegeta to a halt as he glanced inside the vehicle only to recognize his very own skateboard was strewn in the backseat, clumsily covered by a thin jacket and text books. Motioning for his sparring partner—for he would never consider such a simpleton to be a friend—to continue into the gym, assuring him that he would be inside shortly, Vegeta stopped just shy of the driver’s side door. Remembering the foreign phone in his backpack he stripped his book bag from his back and set it down next to the automobile. Briefly glancing at the logo—Mercedes—he shrugged; her expensive choice in vehicles would only deter him a few seconds at most. Either way, he wasn’t leaving without his skateboard.

---

By the time class had ended, Bulma was exhausted. Tonight they had decided to do several randori2 rounds in preparation for an upcoming Judo Club meet and her inner ear had no intention of letting her forget just how bad at the martial art she was. Yamcha had wanted her to hang around until after Judo Club, probably for more dating advice, but she had declined saying she needed to finish another paper for her molecular biology class. Not wanting to come between Bulma and her research the ex-boyfriend had wisely wished her good luck and had not invited himself over after the club meeting. Perhaps he was beginning to get the idea that she wasn’t a fountain of advice for his new romantic life. A girl could hope, right?

Slipping out of her Judo gi, Bulma could swear she heard her friend Goku’s loud and jovial voice out in the main gym area. Even with the thick padding between the walls it wasn’t hard to hear Goku’s happy chatting above all the other generalized commotion. Normally she would be happy to run out and talk with the popular athlete, but she really did have to get home and finish a paper.

Finally back in her normal clothes with her gi folded neatly into her book bag Bulma emerged with a slight glow from the vigorous exercise, oddly relaxed. Waving goodbye to her friends she past the one person she wanted to see least at the moment, Vegeta. There was a certain look on his face she didn’t like as he acknowledged her momentarily.

His eyes were...smiling.

His face may have been in its usual scowl but she definitely didn’t misinterpret the look in his eyes. It was a malicious smile in his eyes and for a moment she realized that her car was parked in front of the gym. With the skateboard very visible in the backseat. Shit. But wait! He couldn’t possibly get into her car without the alarm sounding off---right? Now unsure of the skateboard’s whereabouts she ran out to her car.

As she neared her coupe she gradually slowed to a halt. At least the window wasn’t broken. Gazing into the backseat she couldn’t find her collateral item. The skateboard was not there. Opening the door and pushing the seat forward, she fervently searched the back seat, leaving no bit of trash unturned.

Shit. She’d never get her phone back now.

Sighing she reclined the seat to its’ regular position. As she was lowering herself into the seat something caught her eye. Sitting on the dashboard, obscured by the steering wheel was a very familiar looking item.

It was her phone.

Heaving a sigh of relief, she clutched the phone lovingly in her hands. Then she realized---her phone didn’t have a password on it. He could’ve erased EVERYTHING on her phone while in his possession. “Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!” She chanted, starting the screen up to check it’s contents.

It didn’t look like anything had been done to it. She checked the pictures. Everything seemed intact. She checked her contacts list next. Everything checked out there too. Wait a minute, she thought to herself. There was a new contact listed as ‘V’, She could easily guess who that was. She found it strange that he decided to leave his number in the phone but decided she’d deal with it later as she glance at the car’s clock. If she didn’t hurry home she wouldn’t be able to finish the paper and get her beauty sleep. Keeping herself beautiful was one of her top priorities as far as she was concerned. She wasn’t afraid of aging, per se. She just wanted to stave it off for as long as possible.

But as she drove her car home, she couldn’t help but wonder why he had put his number in her phone. And under ‘V’ as if he was too cool for school.

What an ass.