Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Arrangement ❯ Cat and Mouse ( Chapter 1 )

Vegeta stormed into the house visibly fuming. Bulma smiled to herself in the shadows. Every day was like this with Vegeta - hours of destruction in the gravity chamber followed by hours of sulking after he'd failed to reach Super Saiya-jin. That was the one good thing about living with him - he was so utterly predictable.

For Bulma, this fact was becoming something of a hobby. First she had merely experimented with various stimuli, but now she was determined to try something new. "Oh, Vegeta... " She purred, stepping out of the shadows. She had no illusions about her 'invisibility'; she'd known perfectly well that he could sense her there. She was, however, determined to be the one in control.

"What do you want?" Vegeta turned to her with his usual scowl and unimaginative demand. This time, however, his voice faded a bit on the last word and he blinked. There was no change of expression on the rest of his face, but he blinked.

Bulma smiled at him with a slow, sensual smugness. She was extremely pleased with herself for getting so much of a reaction from him. Vegeta was a master of hiding his emotions (except for anger, which he was always more than happy to share). But she had surprised him into an unguarded blink.

Actually, the sight in front of Vegeta would have made most men do a lot more than blink. Bulma had aligned herself in a patch of light so that the soft, silvery glow would shine on her just perfectly. It outlined her soft skin, glistened on her sleek, sexy hair - and shone through the thin, dark blue negligee in just the right way to make it tantalizingly transparent.

Bulma's smile widened as she watched Vegeta's eyes slide down the almost floor length silk gown, then back up the enticingly high slit in the side.

"What -are- you doing?" he demanded, his brow furrowing in puzzled irritation.

She tilted her hips saucily, deliberately revealing a glimpse of one long leg. She wasn't the fitness maniac Vegeta was, but she did make it a point to take care of herself. "Doing?" she asked innocently. "I'm not doing anything Vegeta. Or are you afraid that the 'frail little human' is up to something?"

He snorted and his scowl replaced itself with a smirk. "Afraid of you?" he replied, the scorn and amusement obvious in his voice.

"You should be," she smiled. "I AM up to something."

And leaving the prince with that interesting tidbit, she left.

Bulma wasn't sure later just what she was up to. It had started out innocently enough-- just one of her numerous plans to tease him. 3 It was just too much fun to annoy him, and she'd had a lot of time on her hands recently. Her new game was addictive, and she made herself nervous sometimes with just how far she was willing to go. If it had been anyone else, she WOULD have been a little scared but, odd as it sounds, she never felt afraid of Vegeta. 4 It probably had something to do with the fact that he didn't seem to understand what she was doing. Which was probably why she found the game so addictive. Also, as rude and arrogant as Vegeta was, he had a lot more to him than she'd thought. With every sardonic tilt of his eyebrows she wondered just what he was thinking behind his impenetrable black eyes. Besides, how could a man his age fail to understand something as basic as sexual attraction? He was just too fascinating.

"Ah, it's too hot today," Bulma pouted, glaring at her closet. As a scientist, she was meticulous in her organization, but as Bulma Briefs the woman, she was something of a slob. As a result, her closet was still full of her winter/early spring clothes, despite the fact that summer was well advanced. Grumbling, she dug around in her bureau until she found something worth wearing.

"Oh lord," she laughed, looking at herself in the mirror. "I look like a female Vegeta." The slow, gleefully evil grin that then spread over her face only heightened the resemblance. She eyed her reflection and debated styling her hair (which had been cut and straightened after the break up with Yamcha) straight up, but decided against it. The small white tank top with spaghetti straps and the short, black cotton shorts were enough for what she had in mind.

The chance to tease AND annoy Vegeta... Today was going to be a great day.

He didn't even do a double take when he came in for lunch, though. Bulma pouted as she nibbled her sandwich in the kitchen. Here she'd made sure to come in from the lab, and he didn't notice. She moved to stand near him, hoping to catch his eye as he plowed through his army of sandwiches. He grunted at her, but he didn't look up. She glowered at him with her hands on her hips-- then narrowed her eyes in thought, studying him. SOMETHING had changed in his body language when she glowered. He still seemed to be ignoring her, but there was just the tiniest twitch of his eyebrows and a tightening on one side of his mouth that gave her the impression of vast amusement.

Interesting as this new information was, it wasn't the reaction she was trying for and it highly annoyed her. She glared at him hotly, then growled "Shove over, monkey-boy" and flopped into the chair opposite him. Angry she was, but she knew her chances of actually physically pushing him were about the same as the chances of a penguin pushing an iceberg. And Hell would be just as cold as an iceberg too, if she ever managed it. On an irritated whim, she reached out and snatched one of his sandwiches for herself.

"MINE," he growled, catching her wrist before she'd even finished stretching out her hand. Using what she could only call "Vegeta Power", he managed to look threatening sitting at her kitchen table with one hand holding a half-eaten ham sandwich.

"It's only yours if you can keep it," she said, sugar-sweet as her other hand flashed out. The nanosecond debate in Vegeta's head-- whether or not to drop the sandwich in his other hand to stop her-- gave Bulma just enough time to grab one. But then Vegeta found one of his unique solutions. Stuffing the rest of the sandwich into his mouth, his other hand shot out and grabbed Bulma's.

They made quite a scene, sitting there glaring. Vegeta had most of a ham sandwich hanging from his mouth, and his arms were crossed awkwardly.

"Oh, grow up," Bulma snapped, irritated. Fed up with his attitude, she pulled away and stomped off.

Victorious, Vegeta dove back into his sandwiches.

Hours later, Bulma stood up from her workbench and stretched prodigiously. She didn't like admitting it, but she got some of her best work done when Vegeta had her so frustrated she could barely see straight. It was bad for her back to spend too long in that cramped position though, so after a minute she decided to loosen up with some Tae kwon do.

Kicking off her shoes and socks, she wandered over to the space that she'd started to keep clear for this purpose. She brought herself to attention then flowed into the first of the five form sets she'd learned so far. Bulma knew she wasn't very good, but she was only doing it to satisfy herself. She liked the sense of well-being and power that it gave her, but she had no illusions of becoming as good as Goku or the others. She didn't need to be, anyway, since she had them.

She was having a pleasantly invigorating time when the door to her lab suddenly smashed open and Vegeta stormed in. "What do -you- want?" she snapped, not even pausing. "I'm busy."

He stopped just out of her reach, more's the pity. It would have been interesting if she could have "accidentally" kicked him. It would probably have broken her foot and done nothing to him, though.

He was scowling, as usual. "The Gravity Room is malfunctioning," he snapped, folding his arms.

"Tough break," she said, moving from low to high kick and imagining her foot connecting with his face. "I'm busy."

"You're not busy. You're dancing around like the little blue-haired idiot you are."

"Listen you," she snarled, whirling on him with a vicious back-kick and punch combination, "I run a multi-national company. I design all of our high-end products. I don't have time to baby-sit your toy!"

Since she hadn't actually meant for the attack to connect, it didn't, but Vegeta was now watching her with something predatory in his eyes. "If you want your little company-- or the rest of this mud ball-- to BE here in two years," he snapped, "then you'd damn well BETTER take care of the Gravity Room."

Bulma's workout had been getting harder and faster since His Royal Brat-ness had intruded. Now her chest was almost heaving for air and she had to stop. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him while she tried to calm down. "Fine. I'll fix it tonight. TONIGHT," she emphasized to cover his expected protest. She continued, hoping to steam roll him. "I have one project that I MUST finish, so don't even try to stop me. You go have dinner or something."

Vegeta grunted what sounded like an agreement. Bulma stared at him, shocked out of ignore-Vegeta-and-and-keep-yelling mode. He was staring at her hungrily; a shiver ran down her spine.

//Hm,// she thought, //so THIS is what it takes to get his attention.// She smiled a rather predatory smile of her own and leaned over slightly, exposing more of her cleavage. "We're agreed then," she purred. "You go away now, and I'll fix the gravity room tonight."

"Whatever," he grumbled. "Just be sure that you DO fix it." He was staring at her.

"Consider it done, Veggie," she giggled lightly, triumphant. At last she had the key she'd been looking for. Life was going to be a lot more interesting, now. She almost felt sorry for Vegeta.

Almost.