Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Princess WHO of WHERE?!? ❯ REOW! HISS HISS! ( Chapter 18 )

Hey! Here's the next chapter. Sorry I didn't post it quicker. I got a little side tracked by Inu Yasha. Anybody who doesn't know who this is needs to get with it. I mean, this stuff is almost better than B/V. It's all the arguments and one sided love, but you actually get occasional moments of affection. And Inu Yasha is simply the most adorable anime character I've ever seen!!!!

But anyway, I'm a little off topic……….

DISCLAIMER: How many different ways can I possibly say that I DO NOT OWN DBZ.

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"Hurry up, Bulma! I want to get to the baths and be finished before everyone else gets there," Chi Chi whined outside of Bulma's door. The raven-haired girl hopped from one foot to the other impatiently, clad only in a towel, her dark tresses piled high on top of her head.

"I'm coming! I'm coming! Hold on a moment. Let me get the last of these tangles out," Bulma told her. She was sitting on her bed brushing out her hair. She was wearing one of Vegeta's castoff tunics. He had given a few of them to her when they had an exceptionally grimy task to do. The one she was currently wearing, she used as a bath robe. It was faded and obviously repeatedly mended in some places, but Bulma didn't care what it looked like. It was comfortable from its well use. It also didn't hurt that it still smelled of Vegeta.

She finally finished brushing her hair out and was ready to go. She left it hanging free since she planned to wash it anyway.

"Okay, Chi Chi. Let's go." Bulma pushed aside the curtain that served as her door to join Chi Chi outside.

"It's about time! If we wait too long the baths will be packed and I hate having to fight over something as simple as a bar of soap!"

Bulma laughed at her friend. She hadn't yet seen a female not back down after bumping heads with Chi Chi. Bulma didn't argue with any of them about anything. She had discovered while serving Vegeta that not only did she not like being around large crowds of people, but that she really disliked being around large crowds of females. The chattering and the giggling and the squealing were enough to make Bulma sick. That's why they were going to the bathing room so early. As far as Bulma was concerned, Chi Chi and Eighteen were more than enough female friends. She far preferred being around Vegeta and his men.

The two girls talked about possible activities for the day so they didn't hear the voices coming from inside until they were already there.

"Really, Mother, I don't believe this! How can Lord Vegeta provide this lavish bathing room for his………his……..concubines, but not one suitable for his guests!" said Valeria who was now in the bathing pool, slapping her hand in the water for emphasis. The water went everywhere, including on the elegant mother, Lady Rouhani who was lounging on a bench beside the pool getting a massage from one of the female servants.

The older woman wiped a drop of water from her nose. "Valeria, how many times have I told you about controlling your temper. I truly do not understand where it came from. Definitely not from my side of the family, so it must be your Father's. He must have some common blood from somewhere," her mother told her.

The lack of response led Lady Rouhani to continue on. "Besides, it is not our business what Lord Vegeta does in his free time. When you are Lady here, then you can sell away all of the disgraceful creatures." Had she looked at her daughter, she would have seen her with her mouth open in outrage, not a sound emerging.

"WHAT?" the girl shrieked, finally having found her voice and once again sending water flying everywhere. "I," she said sticking her nose in the air as high as it would go, "do NOT have a DROP of common blood in my veins!"

"Yes, dear. Whatever you say, but I'll have you know that I mated your Father for his family's money, not their impeccable lineage," she told her daughter matter of factly.

Bulma and Chi Chi watched this scene hard pressed not to laugh, but when the girl shrieked again and began thrashing around like a spoiled child that hadn't gotten her way, Bulma could hold it in no longer with Chi Chi following behind. Their laughter echoed through the room causing the girl to immediately stop her tantrum and turn to look with wide eyes at the people who were laughing at her.

On the other side of the pool, Valeria saw two females, one blue haired, the other black haired and bother were doubled over in laughter. She shrieked again, this time causing everyone to wince.

"How dare you laugh at me! Get out! GET OUT!" she yelled.

Bulma had to pat Chi Chi on the back as she began to choke from laughing even harder. She could tell from here that Valeria's face was flushed and her eyes nearly bulged from her head. She almost wished Vegeta could see this.

Bulma finally got her laughter under control, though Chi Chi continued to giggle from behind her back. "Oh, I didn't know that his lordship had gotten some new women," Bulma said suggestively, knowingly full well who Valeria was.

"I am not one of Lord Vegeta's WHORES!" she yelled at them.

"Are you sure?" Bulma teased. "That's whose bathing room this is you know."

The girl growled and slapped the water. "Obviously you do NOT know who I am," she said sounding filled with self-importance. "I am going to be Lady here after I marry Vegeta."

Bulma snickered. "That's IF you marry Vegeta," Bulma told her and couldn't resist adding, "but since it's no secret that he doesn't like you anyway, I doubt we'll be seeing you again after this."

"Of course Vegeta likes me! All men adore me. You'll see! And I will get rid of every single last one of you and have Vegeta wrapped around my little finger. Everything here will be MINE! I have al-," she went on.

"Okay. Whatever," Bulma said cutting her off and waving her hand as a signal that she had heard enough. "Keep the bathing room to yourself. You've gotten yourself so worked up you stink. We'll come back later after the water clears itself." Bulma turned leave pulling the still laughing Chi Chi behind her.

Valeria, however, was quite pissed. "I will have you punished for speaking to me in such a way!" She stomped her way out of the pool, or tried to being that the water masked any sound until she actually got to the top step leading from the pool and then it turned out to be a pretty bad idea. She was brought her foot down so hard on the wet marble tile that the water there squirted out from beneath her foot and caused her to slip and fall backwards into the pool.

The splash from this one nearly soaked Lady Rouhani, but this time, she didn't even bat an eyelash. She had listened to the exchange between her daughter and the servant. Ordinarily, she would have also been quick to reprimand a servant, but when she saw the girl something stopped her from uttering a word. Something about that girl was terribly familiar.

Once she got past wondering who that girl was, she just wanted to see how her daughter would handle the situation and was not surprised at the outcome.

Valeria had finally gotten her feet under herself and stood up looking like a half-drowned animal. Her hair was plastered all over her face making her look like some kind of monster just from the sheer amounts of it covering her.

"MOTHER!" her offspring wailed.

Lady Rouhani cringed at her daughters annoying whining. She had been trying to train her out of it for years, but her Father's constant spoiling kept her from being any more than a brat. The servant girl was right. There was no way Vegeta would want to marry her daughter if he ever caught her displaying this appalling behavior. She hoped that she could convince Lord Vegeta into signing a betrothal contract before he or his son were any the wiser. The sooner she could get her out of her own home the better.

"Valeria, I do not want to hear it now. Just get out and dry yourself off, so that we can go to breakfast," Lady Rouhani said to her daughter.

"But…….but……..Mother……… ;," she pleaded.

"Valeria, do not make me repeat myself." Lady Rouhani got up herself, waving the servant girl who had been attending her away.

Valeria got out of the pool, this time more carefully than the last, and began peeling her hair from her face and squeezing some of the water from it. She saw the servant girl that had been massaging her Mother still standing there.

"You! Come help me and stop standing there like an idiot," she yelled at the poor girl who was now getting the brunt of her anger at Bulma. The girl quickly got two drying cloths, one for her body and one for her hair. She quickly got Valeria dry and stood back to await her next order.

Valeria realized that the girl had seen everything that went on. "You had better not mention a word of what went on here to anyone!"

"Yes, my lady," the girl told her and bowed.

"Good." Valeria left the bathing room not waiting to see if the girl was following, which she wasn't.

All the servant girl could think was who she was going to tell first.

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For the next couple of days, Bulma went without anything else interesting happening to her. Bulma had spent most of her time with Chi Chi and Eighteen improving her Kylarian in both reading and writing. She still hadn't seen Vegeta, so she assumed that until Valeria and her parents left she would continue as she had been doing, which was pretty much nothing. She had found out one evening that the men Vegeta had been training, still trained on the other side of the guard barracks, where no one could see them. They accepted Bulma in their presence since they were already used to her being around and it wasn't long before they were letting her practice with them. She had already proven her skill, so they figured there was no one else better to help them.

Vegeta had no clue how Bulma was spending her time. His Father had him spending every waking moment with Valeria and her parents. They had already ridden over every inch of their lands and introduced them to all the important vassals. Vegeta was forced to travel next to Valeria, who obviously didn't do a great deal of riding on anything except a carriage. He had already had to restrain Valeria's horse more than once. She would squeal in fear if it so much as side stepped and it had long ago wore on Vegeta's nerves. His thought was often `Bulma would never do that.'

He was happy that he didn't have to make a word of conversation with Valeria. She did more than enough talking for the both of them. He just stared between his horses ears and listened out for anything else that might be of importance while they were out. While in the fortress, he promptly disappeared to his rooms where it would be inappropriate for Valeria to follow him, as he learned she would if he didn't hide. He was tired of hiding and was mad at the amount of training time he was wasting because of their visitors.

Vegeta stood on his balcony, watching the sun just now beginning to set, which meant it was almost time for dinner. He folded his arms over his chest and sighed. He prayed that Lady Rouhani and Lord Gefen wouldn't be able to talk his Father into a betrothal contract. He didn't think that Valeria was the sort of punishment he deserved for the rest of his life.

He heard of Bulma's run in with Valeria a couple of days ago and it gave him a great deal of enjoyment, despite the fact that he told her to stay away from Valeria. He knew that it wasn't Bulma's fault that she ran into her, but he wished that she would have just turned around and walked away instead of taunting her. This was going to make things more difficult if the two of them ran into each other again.

Dinner went as usual. The four of them chatted it up all night, while Vegeta picked over the lousy meal and sulked. Lady Rouhani had different plans for this evening though.

"Vegeta, I don't think we have yet to give the children time to really talk to each other. Why do we not excuse them from dinner so they can do so now?"

Lord Vegeta quickly glanced at his son knowing he would be mad at him for this later. "That's sounds like an excellent idea. Vegeta why don't you take Valeria for a walk on the battlements? The weather outside is still pleasant and there's a moon out to light the way."

Vegeta wanted to rip his Father's head off for going along with Lady Rouhani's suggestion, but there was nothing he could do about it.

"Of course, Father," Vegeta said. He got up from his seat and went to help Valeria out of hers. He held out his arm to her, which she took smiling brightly.

Vegeta led her from the dining room and up to the battlements on the shortest route possible. He had to admit that the weather had been nearly perfect the past week. He wished that he had been able to spend it outside training………with Bulma.

"Vegeta are you listening to me?" he heard Valeria break into his thoughts.

"Oh? What was that? I didn't hear you," Vegeta said.

"I SAID would it not be great if we lived closer together, then we would be able to visit with each other more often," Valeria announced, with a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Perhaps," Vegeta replied and dropped Valeria's arm to cross his over his chest. His Father had told him not to say anything that would be taken as outright negative, so he went for the middle answer. He walked off looking at the quarter moon which was now quite high. He didn't even check to see if Valeria was following him, but obviously she was because she gasped on his left.

"There is that annoying creature!" she said. Vegeta looked to see whom she was talking about, but he already had a clue. He looked over the wall to see his men actually practicing by torchlight. At least they weren't sitting on their tails waiting for him. He thought briefly about rewarding them, until a brightly colored head caught his attention.

Vegeta saw Bulma simultaneously fighting off three of his men. Her skill still impressed him no small amount. She was fast, clever and strong, a good combination in any fighter. Even in her half form, she was better than anyone else down there.

"Ugh," Valeria said in disgust, "what a common creature. What female would fight?"

"Actually, Kylarian women were the traditional warriors in our homeland," Vegeta enlightened her.

"Well, then thank Kami that we're no longer there. I so much prefer having a strong man to protect me," she said coyly, placing her hand on Vegeta's arm.

He quickly pulled away causing her hand to fall. She looked a little shocked and then pouted at him. "Vegeta surely you do not mind public displays of affection?"

"No. I just don't like empty-headed simpering fools who are only interested in me because of my family's wealth."

Valeria gasped again at his bald statement, but she quickly hid her surprise. "I assure you that it is not like that at all. I like you! I truly do and I am sure that it would blossom into love if we gave it a chance."

Vegeta merely snorted. `What kind of fool does she think I am?' he thought. He looked down over the wall, quickly spotting Bulma's blue locks again. She looked like she was doing well even without him, but he would be a great deal more content when he could spend time in her presence again. He then walked away before Valeria had a chance to figure out what he was searching out.

She just looked at Vegeta curiously wondering why he was so interested in the men fighting below. The light from the torches was bright and in some cases blinding, so she really couldn't see who was down below. Valeria was content to think that it was just a `male thing'. She shrugged her shoulders and quickly ran off to catch up with Vegeta.

Bulma stopped her fight with the men she was sparring with, pleading weariness. Her real excuse was that she had gotten the feeling that she was being watched. It wasn't the usual unpleasant being spied upon feeling. More like someone was just watching over her, making sure she was okay. She had joined the men standing on the edge of those still sparring and looked around not seeing anyone who peeked her interest. She looked up the wall and saw two retreating figures, but couldn't figure out who they were. She shrugged it off and attributed the feeling to a lack of food.

She said good night to the men, who all stopped what they were doing to bow to her, which caused her no small amount of embarrassment, and went back to the harem.

She stopped were a quick bath and then went to her room to prepare for bed. She brushed her hair out and rebraided it before lying down. Her lasts thoughts were of Vegeta before she drifted off to sleep.

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Alright, I know everyone is saying where's the fight scene. Well, I couldn't get to it in this chapter, but I promise it will be in the next one. I trying to build up Bulma and Valeria's dislike of one another before they actually duke it out. I even thought of writing a super duper long chapter, but changed my mind because I don't like chapters that are TOO long.

I'll be back soon!!!!

R&R