Chapter 4 (original)
Title: It's Not Where You Start…
Chapter 4: A Lesson Learned Is A Lesson Earned
Rating: T (for now…)
Fandom: Dragon Ball Z
Genre: Alternate Universe/Romance/Angst/Drama
Pairing: Vegeta/Bulma
Warnings: Language. Abuse of commas and semi-colons 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: You have no idea how hard I had to keep myself from putting Freeza as 'King Kold'. It was/is way too tempting. XD
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: "As Heaven is Wide" by Garbage, "Calling You" by Aqua, "Little Red Riding Hood" by Sam The Sham and The Pharohs
It's Not Where You Start…
Chapter 4: A Lesson Learned Is A Lesson Earned
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." —Mark Twain
A cold night can be a ferocious enemy. With high winds licking over and nipping each unprotected surface from it's reign of seasonal terror; only to die down again and become stagnant as it lie in wait for more unsuspecting victims. A few flattened cigarette butts lounge on the pavement as a crumpled remnant of paper drifts by, unaffected by the night chill found in the air yet thrown by it's unyielding force. The night is bleak and unusually cold for the beginning of winter, although no one makes mention of it inside the scruffy warehouse that lingers on a random corner of the Shibuya district.
Tonight is a right of passage for the youngest of the Ouji clan; Vegeta Ouji V.
If anyone were walking by at this time of night, they might hear the middle aged man inside beg for his life. Odd how they always resort to begging, when they had signed their life away willingly and with a smile at first. Vegeta Ouji the Fifth is unsure if it the problem was an inability to commit or simply an issue of follow through with these lowlifes, but in all honesty he doesn't care. He almost looks forward to the end game when a debtor comes to them, knowing when they can't hold their end of the bargain; when he can smell the fear in their veins as they sign over their useless lives one letter at a time.
His hand fit around the gun exquisitely, almost as if he had been born with it in his hand. In a very real sense, he practically was. One couldn't be a Yakuza boss's son and not become accustomed to tying up loose ends from time to time; especially if you were part of the Ouji family. He still marveled at how well it filled the palm of his hand, the barrel glinting in the dim light of the old warehouse.
Unlike the newest head of his faction Boss Kold, Vegeta Ouji the Fifth liked to get his hands bloodied and dirty before he was satisfied with a job. He longed to see his enemy bruised, bloody and broken beneath his feet, crying for mercy but receiving none. They had signed the waiver to their long life when getting involved with Yakuza business; it wasn't his fault that they couldn't hold up their end of the bargain. It was simply business with an added bonus for him. He was an Ouji; A Yakuza member for life, whether he liked it or not, so he might as well like it.
And he liked it. A lot.
Elegantly cocking the gun with his free hand he made an inner commentary upon the use of such a device. He would much rather feel their blood oozing over his every knuckle as their will left their body, their bones cracking and breaking underneath his mighty fists. But tonight was different. Tonight they demanded young Vegeta learn discretion and efficiency, which meant not enjoying the task as much as he'd like.
He frowned, mildly disgusted by the fact his victim couldn't fight back. He may be a killer but he didn't like to be put up against someone who couldn't even defend themselves. Ever since his father went missing, and subsequently pronounced 'deceased' by the law, the Kold clan had been the major faction to take over. The Kold clan had a very different view of how power should be used; very abusively.
A single shot reverberated around the empty warehouse walls. Red blood oozed from a mans' head, which now had a hole it didn't before. Vegeta scoffed. There were things about being a yakuza boss' son that he didn't like under the Kold reign. Picking on the weak was one of them.
Another day, another lecture. Bulma sighed at the thought. It was day three of substituting for Dr. Gero's classes. Tomorrow was the weekend, which meant Dr. Gero would be back on Monday. It wasn't that she didn't like teaching and watching the truly good students learn as their eyes sparkled with interest. However, the teaching ate into her own time as a student and she found she had less and less time for any kind of social life. Which, to put it in short, sucked. She may be a genius but she was also a social butterfly and damn if she was going to be cooped up because of some class that she wasn't even supposed to be teaching.
Surprisingly, Vegeta had been oddly present during the following lectures and managed to stay awake. He even made it to class on time, which was suspicious in and of itself. For the past few classes she had taught she remained on edge as she saw him in the back of the class. He was plotting something-she just knew it.
Watching students trickle into their seats, Bulma took her phone from her pocket and glanced at the clock. Noting it was time to start class she nodded to the TA to start taking attendance. She straightened her papers behind her podium table, put the phone back in her pocket and took a deep breath. Showtime.
Not even half way through her lecture there was a loud wolf whistle from inside her pocket. Bulma could feel the heat go to her face as she blushed profusely. Ignoring the text she continued reviewing the slide being projected.
Phwit-phwoo!
It sounded again. Shit, Bulma thought as she hurriedly changed her phone to silent mode. Shoving her phone back inside her pants pocket quickly she went back to the lecture.
Bzzzt!
Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She was going to kill whomever it was sending her the texts. She had told her friends that she would be in this lecture during this time so why the hell were they texting her?!
Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
Her phone continued to buzz in her pocket, making it very hard to concentrate on the class. Gingerly she attempting to removed the phone discretely from her pants pocket and place it inside the podium...where it buzzed and reverberated, making the sound even more obvious and loud. Bulma grimaced and placed the buzzing phone in her pocket once more. She would've shut it off but she didn't have the time to look at the phone enough to power it down. She begrudgingly accepted the fact that she was going to have to learn to deal with it and stuck it in her back pocket, hoping she might not be able to feel it there quite as harshly.
Looking around the class in a vain attempt to distract herself from her phone, she noticed a very familiar face looking quite pleased with himself. He kept glancing up and down. Up and down. All the while smiling smugly every time Bulma squirmed from the vibration in her back pocket. She didn't have any evidence but Bulma was positive that Vegeta had something to do with this predicament.
Bulma finally made it through the lecture. She didn't know how she did it, but she had finally managed to come to a stopping point enough to assign some homework. Rubbing her temples she tried to relax as the buzzing went off again.
"DAMMIT!" She finally screamed, causing what few students who had yet to leave to stare at her. She furiously took her phone from her pocket and glared at the screen to find out what the hell was going on. One of her eyes twitched in irritation. 'V' had texted her several...several times. Not to mention he had very obviously changed her text tone to that damn wolf whistle. The texts read:
'Having fun?'
'I wouldn't put that in the podium if I were you.'
'Told ya.'
'Hey.'
'Hey, Woman.'
'HEY!'
'You're really bad at this whole guest lecturer thing aren't you?'
'Pay attention to giving the lecture dimwit, some of us are trying to learn.'
'You're just making it difficult to concentrate by squirming around like that.'
'Although it is hilarious.'
'Maybe I should video tape it?'
'What do you say?'
And several other texts that were just as meaningless filled the screen. She looked up to where Vegeta had been sitting but no one was there. Growling, she looked around the room with the most hateful look she could muster.
Bzzzt!
Her phone went off again.
'If you make a face like that it'll stay that way.' Was the next text sent from 'V'. She was at a complete loss for words. Somewhere between exasperation and aneurism she tensed her fingers and looked around the room once more with an incredulous look. Looking towards the door at the farthest corner up the stairs was a familiar hoodie with a familiar face. It was a sadistic grin he had plastered on his face. It was actually creepy how well that smile suited him. In acknowledgement of her gaze, Vegeta thrust his chin up in a nod and strode out the door.
Growling, Bulma punched in a response to her tormenter.
'You ASSHOLE. Shut the hell up.'
She sighed as she finally managed to have some outlet of retaliation. Although it was short lived as she got a text back almost instantly.
'Aww. Thanks.'
As Bulma let out an exasperated groan she could swear she heard someone in the hallway laughing entirely too enthusiastically.
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