Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Pseudo Ferocity ❯ Seriously Deep ( Chapter 17 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z or any of the character appearing in the manga or television show. Nor am I making any profit off of this story.

Author's Notes: Okay, so I know this took a really long time…3 days short of a month, actually, but I have reasons. See, first there was Grad (yep, I graduated!!! Well…not technically. We just have ceremonies early 'cause a lot of people are posted at the end of the school year) which took up a lot of my time, since I was on grad committee…And now, I'm trying to prepare for finals, and teachers around here, they start preparation early…so for the past 2 and a half weeks, I've been swamped with studying for review exams, and mountains of review homework assignments, so I really haven't had any time to write. And I feel like a total ass saying this, but chapter 18 will take a while as well. Finals for the next week and a half, then job search, then trying to figure out what the hell I'm going to write…blargh.

*Special thanks to Bulma Peacecraft, Kat8125, and Silver Sun for beta-ing*

17: Seriously Deep

 

Caleb found Bruce sitting all alone in the costume storage trailer, wiping his eyes on one of the elaborate gowns that had been designed for Delaney, and would hopefully be altered for Bulma. "B…Bruce, look…I…" The young businessman sputtered, stepping into the cramped space and closing the door behind him. "We…we need to talk, alright? I'm not letting you leave until I've said what I have to say." He took a deep breath, and tried to steady his shaking hands. "That kiss…"

"I know. You were drunk, and it never should have happened." Bruce put in, dejectedly blowing his nose on the train of a velvet gown.

"You're right, it shouldn't have happened." Caleb nodded his head, and swallowed a lump in his throat. Bruce tried to hold back a small sob. "I never meant for it to happen that way…I wanted to…to…" he blushed hotly and trained his gaze on the floor. "I wanted to make it…more romantic. I wanted to make this moment more romantic."

"Wha…I don't understand…" Bruce said, his eyes wide and vulnerable. "What moment?" He stared uncertainly at his friend, confusion written all over his face.

"The moment when…when I tell you I love you." Caleb's throat was burning with the effort it took to force the words out, but the moment they left his lips, it was as if a dam had broken, allowing all his emotions to flow freely. "God, Bruce…I've loved you for so long, and I know you probably don't feel the same way, but I…I just had to tell you! I couldn't hold it in any longer." He released a shaky breath, and looked up to see tears spilling down the designer's cheeks. "Please…please don't hate me."

"C…Caleb!" Bruce cried out, launching himself at the other man and wrapping his arms tightly around. "I…was so afraid…I thought you were…I mean, you always said…Oh God, Caleb, I love you too." He wailed, burying his face in the taller man's chest. "How could I tell you though? You were always straight…I thought you would hate me if I told you."

"I was too afraid to come out…I always admired you so much Bruce. You were never afraid of what you felt…but I was terrified. I still am."

"I'll help you." Bruce whispered, tilting his head ever so slightly to look into the other man's eyes. "We'll get through this together." Caleb nodded quietly, and wrapped his arms around Bruce. They stayed like that, holding each other, breathing, calming down for several minutes, before Caleb spoke, in a voice hoarse with emotion.

"You know," he smiled, "I've never kissed a boy before." Without hesitation, Bruce reached up and pulled Caleb into a long, gentle kiss, grinning devilishly as he finally pulled away.

"There's a first time for everything."

 

 

Bulma sat, squirming in her seat as she watched the tape play back from the previous day. To put it bluntly, she thought she and Vegeta had looked extremely good in that bed, and just thinking about his body atop hers was getting her a little excited.

"Now Bulma," Max turned to her as the footage ended, "I have an itsy bitsy little confession to make." He scooted his chair closer to her. "You see, yesterday was not really about working the problems out of that scene…it was more like…an audition."

"What? An audition?" She asked, puzzled. Had she heard right?

"Bulma, I want you to be in my movie." He blurted out, grabbing her hands and holding them between his own.

"Are you crazy, Max? I'm no actress! I can't be in a movie! Besides that, I don't have the time in between all my duties at Capsule Corp!"

"Now, Bulma, please consider this. It's really not a big part, just a few lines at the beginning of the film as Queen Aria, and then a little bitty reappearance at the end of the movie!" He squeezed her hands, pleading. "You've read the script, correct?"

"Well, yes…"

"Then you know Aria is important only to set the mood, and to begin the plot! Most of this movie will focus on Dominic's search to find Aria's reincarnation and his relationship with her. Really, you'll just be a bit of support."

"I really don't know about this Max." Bulma mumbled, and he persisted, seeing her resistance beginning to crack.

"You saw how good the two of you looked together Bulma." Max prodded, "It was so convincing, the way you two interact on camera. Please? Pretty please?"

"Well…I guess if it didn't interfere too much with my work at CC." She relented, playing out the scene she had acted out with Vegeta in her head. It would definitely provide her with a chance to get close to him again…

"Perfect!! You won't regret this Bulma, I promise! Now, here's a copy of the script, and a quick overview of the plot that you'll need to be familiar with. Marille's been instructed to make herself available for re-sizing all of the costumes that were made for Delaney, so any time you're ready, you can go see her about that."

Oh god, what am I getting myself into? She wondered briefly, before smiling with a tiny nod of understanding.

"And if you don't mind, I'd like your cell and home phone numbers, so I can get in touch with you and set up a shooting schedule that won't inconvenience you."

"Oh, of course," she replied, with a grimace. Judging by the way that he had acted so far, Max would probably be calling her day and night, trying to coerce her into more commitment than she could handle.

"And I hope you won't mind if I end up stopping by, in the event that I can't get a hold of you in any other way." Max smiled, charmingly.

"I suppose…" she suppressed a heavy sigh.

"Oh, and that reminds me; do you have an email address?" Bulma nodded and obediently divulged her contacts, already beginning to regret her decision.

I should've asked for some time to think it over, she thought, or at least found out what I'd be getting myself into before I agreed to this. She frowned, already envisioning the extra stress her decision would bring, and dreading the wrinkles and gray hairs that would most definitely come about as a result. Maybe it won't be so bad, she reasoned, after all, he did promise to work around my schedule. And I suppose it won't do me any good do to worry over it. I'll be willing to put up with nearly anything, as long as I get to be in such close contact with Vegeta. She allowed herself a small smile, thinking of her new co-star, and once again recalling the urgency of their on-set kiss. No matter how good an actor he was, that kind of passion couldn't be so easily faked.

Sure, the movie stars did it all the time, but this…this was different. It was the real thing, not just a scripted illusion…well, scripted, maybe, but the feeling had been absolutely, completely and totally real. On her end, at least.

"Oh man," she moaned to herself, "I'm getting in seriously deep here."

 

 

"Somebody's going to have to break it to Vegeta." Bruce piped up, and Max nodded, eying the slight flush across the designer's cheekbones. It had been there since he walked in, and Max was desperately curious as to its origins.

"You think he'll take it badly?" he asked.

"Well, Vegeta's a little unpredictable sometimes. He got all weirdly when I told him Bulma would be reading that one scene with him, so I don't know how he'll react to a whole movie. He may be fine with it…or he may explode in a murderous rage." Bruce laughed; Max looked nervous.

"Maybe…you or Bulma?"

"No problem!" Bruce waved off Max's concerned look. "Even if he goes all nut-buttery on us, he'll calm down. 'Sides, what man wouldn't want to kiss Bulma…well, straight man, you know." He chuckled.

"Yea…speaking of straight men, where'd Caleb head off to?"

"Oh, Cay?" the blush deepened. "He had a meeting scheduled for 3:00, so he had to head back into the city."

"Ahh, nice guy. Is he single? I thought maybe I'd set him up with a lonely friend of mine; I think he'd really like her."

"Ummm…he's not exactly…on the market."

 

 

Vegeta paced his trailer, back and forth in the small space, like a caged tiger. How DARE she? He raged inside. How dare she force herself into my life like this? Yet again, I am forced to be dependant on her for my livelihood! His fists clenched and unclenched with the raging desire to wring Bulma's neck.

He had just learned from Bruce that she had agreed to play the role of Queen Aria, replacing the injured Delaney Ritton. Granted, it was a small supporting role, but an important one, nonetheless. Without Aria, the rest of the plot would make little sense, so in essence, the success of Pseudo Ferocity had been placed on the delicate little shoulders of Bulma Briefs. And it just so happened that Vegeta's success was directly proportional to that of the movie.

"Damn it!" he cursed. "Damn her!" Just as he had begun to enjoy her company again, she had to go and mess things up! "Well screw her!" he snarled into the air. "She can do whatever the hell she wants, and if she thinks she can control me, she's sorely mistaken!" He slammed a fist on the table, wincing as it cracked under the force. Someone would probably yell at him for that later.

Vegeta flopped heavily down in a nearby chair, crossing his arms over his chest, with the usual scowl etched across his features. "What the hell am I going to do now?" He wondered aloud, letting the real reason behind his anger surface. "I'm going to have to kiss her and touch her, on the set in front of all of those people." He reached over the broken tabled, grabbed his script and began to thumb through it, looking for all of the Dominic-Aria scenes.

Sure, he'd have to kiss Kali Delmar, the actress who was playing Aria's reincarnation, and Jaqueline Brill, who was playing Dominic's wife, but that was different. With those two, it really was acting, but with Bulma…when they had read that scene together, it was as if a switch had been flipped inside of his brain, surrendering all control of his body to the nature of his passion. He hadn't been able to stop himself, and had Max not called 'cut' so loudly, he was sure he would have continued on with Bulma, right there on the set.

It bothered him immensely that he had been so willing to commit such an act in front of all of those people. Since his experience within Frieza's army, he had grown to believe that such matters were of a highly personal nature, and most certainly not to be shared with a crowd of onlookers. He was losing control over his body, his mind, even his own heart, and it was not something he liked. To depend on someone for livelihood was one thing, but to depend on someone for joy, for sanity, was an entirely different situation.

"Damn her!" Vegeta cursed again, softly this time. "Why do I have to feel this way about her? What is so different about her that captivates me so?" He squeezed his eyes tightly shut and took a deep breath, filling his lungs with air, trying to calm his nerves. "This is so foolish. I am a Saiyan, a prince! I should not need her." But I do… his mind screamed, I need her so badly and I can't figure out why, and it is driving me absolutely insane!

 

Bulma sat alone in her room, absorbing herself in the script Max had given her. It would be wise to familiarize herself with the nature of her character and to get a feel for Aria's particulars. "Damn good thing I took that Drama class way back in grade nine," she mumbled to herself as she turned the page. She had looked at her own scenes already, and had begun looking over the rest of the play, slowly becoming horrified with the amount of kissing Vegeta would be doing with women that were not herself.

"How the hell am I going to be able to watch him do that?" She wondered aloud, already feeling the jealousy bubble up within her at just the thought of him touching another woman. "I'm going to have to hide every time he films with someone who isn't me, or I'm gonna flip…" she sighed, noting another kiss scene and adding it to the tally in her head.

Something that worried her even more, however, was how she would film some of her own scenes with him. The one that she had read with him the other day continued into the bed, and partial nudity that, while not exposing her body to the world, would definitely expose it to Vegeta…and him to her. Beside each scene, a note about the costuming had been made, and all they would be permitted to cover themselves with were tiny skin colored thongs, to provide an illusion of nudity between the sheets.

"I really, really, really should have figured out what I was getting myself into…" she moaned, conjuring up images of herself and Vegeta, oh so nearly naked in that big four-poster bed. It would definitely be an experience…

Absently, she wondered whether or not Vegeta had been told of her role in the movie yet, and was desperately curious to know how he was handling the fact. She hadn't seen him before leaving the set, as he had been needed elsewhere, but she had noticed his distance once the scene had ended. Would he be mad, happy, or indifferent? Was he as nervous about their scenes as she was? Or did the thought of being so close to her faze him at all?

Bulma had no idea where she stood with the Saiyan, aside from the fact that they had nearly fooled around that one time. Before that, she had been pretty confident that he shared her attraction, but afterward, she was terribly insecure about the whole matter, and it didn't help that he was so damn hard to read. It was nearly impossible to tell what he was thinking, unless she happened to catch him in a rare moment when his guard was down, which had happened only a few times in the few years that she had known him. It was infuriating sometimes, the way he was so introverted…but then again, she supposed that was half the reason she had become so attracted to him. A sense of mystery was an irresistible trait, and she couldn't help but to be drawn in to the enigma that was Vegeta.

She had, of course, discovered some things about him; he slept for only a few hours each night, though she didn't know whether that was due to his different physiology, or whether it was psychological. He also had a penchant for deep-fried anything, and could not stand the taste of mustard. He was quiet most of the time, though didn't hesitate to speak up when he wanted something, and strangely enough, she had caught him one or two times, late at night, deep in thought with one of her father's classical cd's playing softly on the stereo. It was a trait she would not have thought him to possess when they had first met, but supposed it must have been a throwback to his royal heritage or something like that. When it came to his past, she knew next to nothing. It was something he was never open about, and she assumed he had a very good reason to want to forget it all.

"Bulma, dear," the high, bubbly voice of Mrs. Briefs called, jarring Bulma from her thoughts. "Are you in here, honey? Oh! You are!" she squealed, poking her head in through the door. "Oh, and you're studying your lines for your little play! Why just think of it! My baby, the lead actress! Why, I haven't been this excited since you played Little Red Riding hood in grade 5!"

"Mom," Bulma sighed, "for the twentieth time, it's not a play, it's a movie, and I'm not the star, I'm just a supporting actress."

"Oh details…Anyway, tell me all about your little play."

"All right, all right…let me see…" she thought for a moment, wondering where to begin and how to go about telling the story without confusing her mother. "Okay, so in olden times-"

"What olden times?" Her mother interrupted.

"I don't know, they didn't tell me." Bulma huffed, "So anyway, there's this King, he's old, his first wife is dead, and he's married a beautiful young woman named Aria. They hold a ball to celebrate their marriage, and this guy, Lord Dominic Satayn, and his wife come to the ball. Anyway, they don't really get along very well, and Lord Dominic kind of has a roving eye."

"Oh, that kind of type eh?"

"Yes, anyway, so when Dominic and Aria meet, they're instantly drawn to each other. They start spending time together secretly, fall madly, deeply in love with each other, and start having an affair. When the King starts becoming suspicious, they make plans to run away together, but Dominic's wife finds out and tells the King all about their plans. On the night they are leaving, the King's guards intercept them, and when Dominic refuses to let them take Aria back to the castle, the guards get all physical."

"I think I see where this is going…"

"Anyway, Dominic is trying to fight off all of these soldiers at once, and he's getting pretty beat up. One of them goes to stab him with his sword, but at the last moment, Aria jumps in the way, knowing that Dominic will be killed. She dies instead, and the guards capture Dominic and take him back to the King, who wants to avoid the embarrassment of everyone knowing that his wife run away with another man. They frame Dominic for her murder, and he is hanged."

"What a horrible movie!" Bulma's mother gasped. "Everyone dies!"

"No, that's not where it ends. See, as Dominic is dying, something happens, and he is suspended between life and death. It turns out that there's this strange man, 'Luke' who's really Satan in disguise. He offers Dominic the chance to remain in the plane of the living so he can exact revenge upon the King, and so he can wait for Aria's soul to be reincarnated and they can be together."

"Ooh, that's really weird Bulma…"

"It's how it goes! So anyway, there's a catch. Satan is old and tired, so in exchange, Dominic will have to watch over Hell for him. Now, I think that by agreeing to rule Hell, Dominic will end up having to forfeit his soul when he finally dies, because, you know, it's kind of evil and all, but he doesn't know that; he's being tricked."

"Oh, That Satan is a tricky one!"

"Yeah mom…So Aria's soul is reincarnated a bunch of times, but it's always something bad. One time she's a dog, another she's a man, and some other stuff. Anyway, the last time he finds her, she's a very sick old woman, on her deathbed. He didn't find her until it was too late, and combined with all the other disappointments, it drives him insane. The next time she's reincarnated as a woman, he's a little off balance, and absolutely determined to have her, but she's pretty scared and confused, not to mention engaged to another man. Most of the movie deals with how he tries to get her to be with him. I know the whole thing sounds really crazy, but it's really pretty neat."

"I suppose…"

"So in the end," the phone rang, and Bulma's mother perked up, completely forgetting about the story.

"Oh! I bet you that's Muriel! I'll talk to you later honey! Good luck with your play!" She jumped up off the bed and scurried off to answer the phone, leaving Bulma alone again.

"Well," Bulma muttered to herself, "I guess I'll tell her the ending some other time." She shrugged, closing the script and tossing it onto her vanity table. "I've got stuff to do!"

 

 

 

 

So I thought of writing a Caleb/Bruce lemon, but I decided against it because they are both original characters, and I don't want to focus on them too much. Personally, when I'm reading fanfiction, I dislike it when a story's focus becomes an original character, and I don't want to be a hypocrite. If I do write one, it'll be in some sort of 'lost lemon' form and probably won't be posted within Pseudo Ferocity.

Mp3 of the Day: "Raining Men" by the Weather Girls. Eh heh heh…