Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Too Close for Comfort ❯ The Seiya Corporation ( Chapter 1 )

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

Disclaimer; I don't own it! Not even a slice! Poor me. ):

A/N: Yay, new chapter!  Thanks for the reviews from chibij and an anonymous person! It makes me really happy to hear that this is unlike most V/B fics, because it's one thing if I tell myself that but quite another if a reader does. I really appreciate it.

11/21/11 Revised again for continuity and story flow.






Too Close For Comfort







Chapter One : The Seiya Corporation




"Bulma?"

Bulma stirred and awoke immediately at the worried tone of her friend. Judging by Chichi's smile, she could tell it was nothing serious, so she quickly relaxed and languidly rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, shooting her companion a sheepish smile at being caught in the act.

"Asleep on my couch again?" Chichi asked playfully, sitting down next to her friend. Bulma was beginning to become notorious for making a total mess and then crashing on her furniture. Chichi's hair was down from her businesslike bun and was swept over one shoulder. Regardless of her relaxed state, Bulma could tell just how tired her friend was.

"What time is it?" Bulma yawned mid-sentence but still managed to make her question understandable.

"Late." Chichi was deadpan.

"Well, you---" Bulma stopped and looked down at herself. She was wearing only her white blouse and panties and the remains of her suit was strewn across the floor. The TV was blaring some late night talk show and her hand had an imprint where she had slept with the remote clutched in her grasp. Chichi stifled a laugh from looking at Bulma's dumbstruck expression and got up to turn off the television.

"You were OUT, you crazy girl." Chichi shook her head. Bulma sat up on the couch for a moment, thinking about her day, trying to remember that one important thing she did that day, and then finally she broke into an ecstatic smile.

"Oh, I have news!" Bulma shrieked excitedly. Chichi broke into a grin.

"Really? I have news too!" Chichi playfully mimicked her excitement but it didn't seem like Bulma noticed.

"Oh! Yay! Hey, so, I ordered out Chinese earlier and I put the leftovers in the fridge. I bet you're hungry..." Bulma said to Chichi, whose eyes widened considerably.

"I'm famished."

Chichi tailed Bulma to the kitchen, which was kept meticulously clean as always. Bulma was pretty messy by herself, but anyone could be considered messy in comparison to Chichi, which just made her feel worse about tossing her clothes all over the place. All in all, Chichi didn't seem to mind, and in fact actually seemed to enjoy cleaning up after her tenant. Bulma grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and settled down into a chair at the kitchen table, watching her dark-haired friend heat up the take-out.

By the time the food was out of the microwave and on the table, Bulma was practically squirming in her seat with excitement and anticipation. "Okay, what is it? What news do you have?"

Bulma paused for dramatic effect, but Chichi knew that she couldn't be more eager to tell her the news and urged her to continue by playfully hitting her on the shoulder. Bulma began by telling her of visiting the apartment sites and how crappy most of them were, and then told her with contagious enthusiasm that she had found a gem among them that was exactly what she wanted.

"So the agent told me he'd call me in a couple days, and then I can get out of your hair." Bulma beamed but Chichi shook her head wildly.

"Oh, you're not bothering me at all! I get lonely just going to work and coming home to nothing. You're like my housewife...but a crappy one. You don't cook or clean or anything."

Bulma cracked up and corrected her. "If anything, you're the housewife! All you do is clean up after me!" They both laughed and talked more about Bulma's apartment and what exactly it looked like. Mid-conversation, Bulma remembered that Chichi had mentioned that she had news also.

"---Oh yeah, what was your news, Chichi? You said you had something to tell me." Bulma prodded.

Chichi lit up for a moment and then her face immediately fell and she sighed and scratched her head. "Well, it's good news, but..." Bulma gave her a look. "I got you an interview at Seiya Corp!"

Bulma was stunned. She could almost feel her spirit flowing out of her body and watching herself open and close her mouth like a goldfish. The familiar wave of guilt crashed on top of her and her chest began to feel heavy. She hadn't asked Chichi for help at all, she had even taken lengths to avoid even talking about her finding a job! The last thing she wanted was for someone to feel obligated to assist her out of pity. Rather than taking it in good will like she was sure Chichi had meant it, Bulma was having to fight off feelings of betrayal, as if Chichi had helped her because she thought she couldn't find a job by herself. Her resolve felt like it had been punctured and it deflated, making her shoulders and heart sag along with it.

"Wow, Chichi... you didn't have to....do that..." Bulma was unsure of what to say and stumbled over her words. Chichi let out a sigh, having known that she would react this way. She scooted closer to Bulma and put her hand on her shoulder. Chichi was beginning to feel frustrated  that her friend had such a stubborn mindset and such unfathomable pride, because it was what was going to hold her back if she wanted to get anywhere in the real world. It was pride that had pushed her to move out and try to live on her own, but it hindered her because she often thought she was too good for things. Most of all, Chichi wanted to grab Bulma's shoulders and shake her until she got back to her normal self, but she knew that her lifelong companion was probably changed for good, all because she couldn't back down.

Chichi pushed a lock of hair behind Bulma's ear and said softly, "Come on, Bulma. I know you needed help, and you had been beating around the bush when it came to getting another job. What kind of a friend would I be if I didn't help you?" Bulma looked away from her and sniffed. "Don't be like that. You could have found a job on your own, hell, you're probably too qualified for this job. But you were putting it off and putting it off, and if you don't want the job, you don't even have to make an interview."

Bulma was easily sated by Chichi's reasoning and nodded numbly, still feeling pangs of anger, but relief at the same time.  

"Thanks, Chichi." She smiled halfheartedly. "But what kind of work do you do anyway? You don't talk about it much." Chichi thought for a moment, surprised that she couldn't recall one time that she had talked in-depth about work with her best friend.

Chichi was surprised. "Really? I guess I don't. It's kind of hard to explain..."

"It's not illegal, is it?" Bulma asked jokingly. Chichi chuckled.

"Well, no..." 'Not to my knowledge, anyway,' she thought.

"Haha, okay. I never thought to ask you about it because I figured that since you didn't talk about it it must be stressful." Bulma mused. Chichi tilted her head side to side and made a "so-so" gesture.

"It's not really hard, per say, but I've recently been put in charge of going through all of the reports because I'm good at proofreading." She explained. Bulma didn't find that hard to imagine, as Chichi was quite the perfectionist.

"What are the reports for?" Bulma propped her head up with her hands.

"They're reports that relay information about the whereabouts of the top guys at our company. They can be about anything from scandals to where they're residing at the moment, so we basically just check on them."

"What? What for?" Bulma asked.

"Basically, my department manages the affairs of the higher-ups in the company. We type up reports, and sometimes we even have to clean up their mess, but if it gets too involved we can transfer over to the law department. We also manage their finances and suggest investments and things like that, and we also deal with investing money for the company itself." Chichi explained. Bulma still looked confused.

"I didn't even know there was a job to clean up after the big guys like that..."

"We have an entire department dedicated to it. We're their janitors." Chichi said distastefully. Since all of the reports had to filter through her first, per Vegeta's irritating orders, she got to know more about the company than she had ever known before, so much that her explanation of the basic workings of her department seemed trite and banal when they were quite the opposite; aside from the never-ending stream of reports that headed her way.

"Aw, it doesn't sound like a fun job at all." Bulma leaned back in her chair, dejected.

"Not all jobs are fun, Bulma." She answered in a maternal tone. "Aside from all of that busywork, it pays pretty well and you get some good benefits from working there. My coworkers are pretty nice and I've made some friends working there. Well, except for..." Bulma saw a look of annoyance cross over Chichi's features that she had seen a few times before when Chichi talked about work, but she never pressed her to talk about exactly what was causing it.

Bulma took a sip of her water and raised an eyebrow. "Who's that? An annoying coworker?"

Chichi pushed the remains of her food around on her plate. "You could say that. He's my boss." She said curtly, violently stabbing a piece of hunan chicken with her fork and eating it.

"Ew. Is he a pervert or something?"

"No, not really. He's just a douchebag." Chichi rolled her eyes. Bulma stifled a laugh; for some reason, seeing Chichi get mad was always entertaining to her because they often shared the same sentiments when it came to what they thought about other people.

"Oh, is he?" Bulma egged her on.

"Oh my God, yes! He's such a little shit. He's super arrogant and particularly notorious in the office for his constant sour mood and his insanely short temper. He's a perfectionist and he doesn't tolerate mistakes, and will chew you out if you so much as look at him wrong. He's also, apparently, very intimidating because half of the office is scared to death of him and will do anything he says without a word," Chichi paused and shook her head with contempt. "But he doesn't scare me at all."

"Pssh. Geez, what an asshole. Why does he still work there, then, if he's such a royal pain in the ass?" Bulma crossed her arms.

Chichi's mood shifted completely, and Bulma was sad to see her forked tongue go. "Aside from him being such a jerk, he's actually very good at what he does. He's also related to one of the top guys at the company, I've heard, so no wonder he keeps his job." Chichi shrugged and took her plate to the sink. This piqued Bulma's interest greatly.

"Really? Why isn't he further up, then, rather than being the head of the department that just cleans up the top guys' mess?" She interjected with a suspicious tone.

Chichi was lost deep in thought from Bulma's question. She had asked herself that many times before. Why, indeed? He was over qualified for the job and had a lot of potential to move up in the company, but other less-qualified coworkers in the department had moved up while he stayed put. Was that why he was so pissed all of the time? She decided to dismiss it for the moment but knew that the enigma would continue to prod her every idle moment she had.

She shook her head incredulously. She turned off the water and dried her hands. "Who knows? They probably couldn't tolerate his shitty attitude and he got demoted or something." Chichi speculated with a giggle.

"Maybe." Bulma shrugged, losing interest. "Doesn't matter, I'll have to meet him anyway."

"Yeah." Chichi nodded. "Oh yeah, I tried to call you today but it went straight to voicemail. That happened a couple of days ago, too." Bulma laid her head down on the table in frustration and ran her fingers through her aqua colored locks while making an irritated noise.

"I've been getting calls from people I'd rather not talk to." She grumbled. "They've been making their numbers untraceable so I'll pick up, thinking it's a leasing agent, but instead it's the same old asshole who won't leave me the hell alone, so I turned it off. I don't even want to turn it back on to see how many voice mails I probably have now."

Chichi nodded. "Okay. I was just worried. You'll have to turn it back on sometime, though."

Bulma made a non-committal noise and got up from the table. "I'm going to go to bed. Properly, I mean, in the extra room, not on the couch." Bulma deliberated drowsily.

"Okay. Nite!" Chichi said, not looking up from the kitchen counter, which she was now wiping clean, even though neither of them had used it.

Bulma made her way to the small guest bedroom by the den and changed into a large, comfy nightshirt. She fell onto the bed and let her thoughts swirl around inside her head. The past week and a half had been the hardest in her life, but she fell asleep hoping that once she had a job, the stress would lift and she could settle in and get used to her new life.

When it came to her interview, Bulma knew that she would nail it. She would charm the socks off the bastard and he wouldn't even know what hit him.




~




A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it. Thanks for waiting. Give me some feedback if you want! Any is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading.



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