Dinner: A Relexing Meal or a Tense Occasion?

Second chapter of Christmas present.  You all should be thankful.  I’ve worked my butt off here, and this chapter’s even longer than the last one.

Disclaimer:  I don’t own Dragon Ball Z.  (Sorry about putting it so bluntly, but I’m in too bad of a mood to be creative)

Steal after my heart, would you?

Bulma and Iiovana headed out into the main room to find that Zoë, Madonna, and Cleopatra were all beautifully dressed and waiting, along with Phoenix.  He was bouncing on the balls of his feet nervously when the two girls entered.

Both Bulma and Zoë examined what the other was wearing.  Zoë had on beautiful, strapless green dress to match her eyes.  The dress lightly brushed across the ground, but there was a split along her left leg that ran waist high.  She had pulled up her hair into an elegant, high ponytail on top of her head, and was wearing large-hooped, golden earrings.  Bulma snorted, and let go of Iiovana’s arm.  Iiovana looked at Bulma for a moment, then merely shrugged and ignored it.

“Great!  You made it!” Phoenix exclaimed.

“We were going to leave you two if you were another minute late, Bulma,” Cleopatra explained, a sneer on her face.  “Too bad you did make it, though…”

Bulma ignored her; she was still staring into Zoë’s eyes, and Zoë her.  Both refused to look away.  Zoë, surprisingly, didn’t say anything rotten.

Maybe I’m too perfect for her to think of anything.  That’s ok.  She looks like an angel anyway.  Not that I’m going to say it to her face…

There was silence for a while, until Phoenix cleared his throat.  “Now girls, if you’d just follow me…”

They did, and he led them down several hallways, and up a flight of stairs.  Down another hallway, and down two stairways, but not before walking down another hallway and taking a left at that fork.  Or… was it a right?  Bulma made a face.  If she didn’t have a guide, she’d definitely get lost in this place.

Phoenix reached the end of a hallway, and stood before large, wooden, double doors.  He turned around and looked at them all.

“Now, several rules.  Don’t speak to the King or Prince unless they address you first.  Also, don’t speak to Nappa.  All three of them are above your status on Vegetasei, and you could be whipped cruelly for breaking that rule.”  Bulma gulped.  That sounded pretty strict.

“You may speak to anyone else… although I recommend not speaking to Gildon.  He can be a little… harsh, around females.  Now,” Phoenix opened a door for them.  “After you ladies.”

The five girls stepped inside, eyes wide, and everyone who was already situated at the table looked up.  There weren’t many people there.  Only three.  And she noticed that the Prince and the King weren’t among them.

“Iiovana, you’re going to have to point all these people out to me,” Bulma muttered to her.

“Well you’ve at least seen the Prince, right?” Iiovana asked, astonished.

“Yes, as well as the King.  I saw the King when I was brought here from Earth.  But everyone else… and that Gildon guy.  You’ve definitely got to point him out.  I don’t want to get whipped or beaten or anything like that.”

Iiovana nodded as the five girls approached the others at the table, Zoë at the front.  Phoenix shut the door behind them.

A tall, skinny man stood up as Zoë came nearer.  He had a smile on his face.

“My dear lady, you look magnificent!” he said, taking her hand, and lightly kissing it.  “But then again, every one of you are beautiful.”  Zoë’s tail came undone from around her waist, and started waving back and forth behind her in a pleased sort of way.

“Radzimierz, you big flatterer,” Zoë chuckled.  “You always knew the right thing to say to a woman.”

“Ahhh, but my dear Zoë.  It is simply, the truth.”

“How does Zoë know this guy?” Bulma whispered to Iiovana.

“Her father is real close with all these people.  I saw it on the news.”  Bulma nodded.

Zoë giggled, and the rest of the girls, along with Phoenix, sat down at the table.  Bulma sat between Iiovana and Phoenix, and across from some woman she didn’t know.

“That’s Zia,” Iiovana muttered in Bulma’s ear.  “She’s the King’s secretary.  I’ve never met her before.  Most people say that she’s sweet on the inside, but rough around the edges.”  Bulma nodded.  She glanced at the last man across the table.  He was twiddling his thumbs patiently and staring off into space.

So that’s Gildon, huh… Well, I’ll just make sure to avoid speaking to him.

“You look beautiful tonight,” Phoenix purred, making Bulma jump.  She turned to look at him.  He was smirking at her slightly, but a smirk that could almost be passed off as a playful smile.

“Thanks… I guess.”

Suddenly, the doors on the opposite side of the room banged open, and in stepped King Vegeta, looking incredibly respectable.  Bulma smiled.  She liked him.  He had a nice personality, and even though he was harsh and extremely strict, he was nice at times.  Bulma knew from the moment she met him that he was a good man.

Prince Vegeta appeared at the King’s right.  He was looking just as aristocratic and handsome as ever, and Bulma felt her heart thump hard inside her chest.  An extremely tall, bald man appeared behind him.  Bulma winced.  He didn’t look half as nice as the Prince.

Gildon, Zia, Radzimierz, and Phoenix all stood up quickly, their chairs scraping the ground, and saluted.  Prince Vegeta smirked.  He loved it when they did that.  Bulma and Iiovana looked around nervously.  They, along with the other girls, didn’t quite know what to do.

But Bulma slowly stood up anyway.  Everyone watched her as she curtsied long and low for the King and Prince of Vegetasei.  King Vegeta smiled warmly at her.

Iiovana was the next to stand up.  The girl winked at Bulma, before curtsying for her King and Prince.

Next were Zoë, Cleopatra, and Madonna.  Zoë, instead of curtsying, bowed with many a flicking of her wrists; allowing the Prince to get a nice, long look at the top of her breasts.  The King, unfortunately, saw this act as well, and it took every ounce of self-control he had not to blush.  Prince Vegeta smirked.

The three men walked foreword, and sat down, King at the end, Prince on his right, and the bald man on his left.  Everyone else sat down after them.  All eyes were on the King.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to greet the five lovely young ladies my son has so wisely chosen,” the King announced.  “I hope that your stay is comfortable, and I wish you all luck.

“Now, I’m starved.  Let’s eat!”

Dozens of slaves came out from the room that Bulma and the other girls had entered.  They were carrying plate after plate after plate of delicious looking meals.  Bulma’s eyes widened as she watched, and she wondered just how all of it was supposed to fit.  But the slaves did manage, and after pouring everyone a glass of wine, moved off to the side where they wouldn’t disturb anyone.

Bulma was famished, not having eaten lunch, and piled her plate high, along with the rest of the Sayians around her.  After King Vegeta blessed the food, they dug in.

“This is all so good!” Iiovana muttered around her food, her mouth half full.

“I know…” Bulma replied.  She looked at Phoenix from out of the corner of her eye.  He was taking a sip of wine out of his glass, cupping it in his hand.

Bulma turned her gaze to the three she wasn’t supposed to talk to, taking another bite out of some vegetable she didn’t know, but tasted wonderfully like green beans.  She watched Prince Vegeta and the bald man chat quietly across the table.

“Hey… Iiovana?”

“Yea Bulma?”

“Who’s that guy?”  She pointed to the bald man, and Iiovana followed her finger.

“Oh, that’s Nappa, Prince Vegeta’s bodyguard.  You know, the Nappa we’re not supposed to talk to?”

“Yea,” Bulma replied.  She took in his appearance, recognizing name with face.

Well, I wouldn’t want to talk to him anyway, she thought.  He seems a little intimidating… and stupid.

Chi-Chi heard the front door open and shut as she stirred the boiling pot on the stove.

“Commander Bardock, is that you?” she called.  Kakarroto, who was looking over her shoulder and sniffing hungrily, looked up.

Chi-Chi and Kakarroto had returned to his house as soon as Kakarroto had regained his composure and relaxed a bit.  They found Bardock to not have returned yet, as he was still checking out the destruction Mrs. Witters’s blast had caused.

Bardock appeared in the kitchen’s doorway, looking tired and covered in dirt.  He sniffed the air, and smiled.

“Miss Chi-Chi, you know that you didn’t have to fix dinner…” he said, putting on a pained expression.  She guessed that he was a little embarrassed.

“That’s ok, Commander Bardock,” replied Chi-Chi, grabbing several plates from a nearby cabinet.  She had actually cooked here often enough that she knew where everything was.  “I enjoy cooking for you two.”

“And I enjoy eating it!” Kakarroto announced, raising his hand.  She giggled.

Bardock chuckled, looked himself over, and mumbled, “Well, I’m going to take a shower.  I’m a mess.”

“All right then.  Dinner will be done by the time you get through,” Chi-Chi told him.  He nodded, turned around, and slowly trudged towards the bathroom.

“Does Mrs. Witters usually cause problems like this?” Chi-Chi whispered to Kakarroto, not loud enough for Bardock to hear.  He nodded.

“Every now and then.  You know old people.  They feel that, because of their age, they can bend the rules a little.”  He shrugged.  “Why should she think any differently?  She never gets punished for it.”

“Why?”

“Age.  Most people think she’s half-crazy, so no one really takes much notice of what wrong she does.”

Chi-Chi nodded, then handed Kakarroto several napkins and silverware.

“Set the table, would you?” she asked him.  He smiled wide, took the utensils and paper, and hurried into the dining room.

Chi-Chi took several fluffy rolls out of an oven, and turned the stove off, stirring the continents of multiple pots.  She was removing the glasses from their secure place in the cabinets when Kakarroto came back, smiling wide.

“Job done!”

“Great.  Would you please take these glasses in, Kakarroto?”

“Will do!”

And he left again.  Chi-Chi started picking the rolls off their pan, and placed them in baskets, covering each basket with a towel to trap the heat.

Kakarroto came back in, a smile on his face.  “Did that!”

“Cool.”

“Anything else I can do?”

“Well…” she hesitated.  Chi-Chi had been around Kakarroto long enough to know that she couldn’t trust him with food.  The morsels would usually end up in his stomach, and not on the table.

“No,” she answered, piling food onto plates.

“Really?  You look like… you’ve got a lot of stuff to take in there….”

“Kakarroto, go wait in the living room until I’m done, would you?  Stay there and… inform me when your father’s out of the shower.”

He pouted, but turned around and sulked into the living room all the same.

Chi-Chi shook her head, smiling at his retreating form.  Actually… her eyes traveled lower.

He does have a rather cute butt… doesn’t he?  So… so…attractive.  She licked her lips as he moved from her range of vision.  Chi-Chi sighed, and started piling food onto the plates.

What in the world am I thinking?

“I don’t think I can eat another bite,” Bulma mumbled, pushing her plate away from her.  She sighed, patting her full stomach contently.

“Are you sure?” the King asked her softly.  She looked up at him, surprised that he would actually talk to her.  “There’s always more, if you want it.”

“Uh… um, no.  Thanks.  I’m pretty full.  But it was good all the same.”

“Father, please, don’t offer her any more,” Prince Vegeta interrupted, turning to look from the King, to Bulma.  There was a strange glint in his fiery eyes.  “She’s already bloated as it is.  She doesn’t need another few pounds.”

King Vegeta gasped, and turned to look at the Prince.  King Vegeta, much to the surprise of everyone, including Nappa, slapped his son across the face.  “Vegeta!  You will hold your tongue if you have anything inappropriate to say!  I will not tolerate such rude comments!”

The Prince, his expression never changing, slowly touched the slightly pink place where there was skin-to-skin contact.  He glared at his father, who glared back.  Prince Vegeta inhaled deeply, and turned his gaze to his food.

“Yes Father…” he mumbled.  The King nodded, gave Bulma an apologetic smile, and continued the consumption on his dessert.

Zoë gaped at the whole situation.  Bulma snorted with laughter.  Her expression was actually quite entertaining.  Zoë glared at her, before shoving her chair back with a loud screeching sound.  Everyone’s eyes, except for the Prince’s, who was still looking shamefully at his food, were on her.  She briskly hurried over to the Prince, crouched down by his side, and gently laid a beautiful, tender hand on his arm.

“Vegeta?  Vegeta dear, let me see your face, please.  I only want to--”

SLAP!

Before anyone realized what had happened, Zoë was clutching her jaw protectively, and Vegeta was staring at her, fury in his eyes.

“Don’t address me!  Don’t you dare touch me!  During your stay here, you will act nothing more than formally to me, understand?”  Zoë studied his set face.  Bulma could tell she was hurt, and surprised.

Prince Vegeta shoved his chair backwards as he stood up abruptly, looming over everyone else who was sitting down, or in Zoë’s case, crouched on the floor.

“I will excuse myself,” he announced, turned on his heel, and stormed off.  Just as he opened the door to exit, he paused.  All eyes were still on him.

Without turning around, or even looking over his shoulder, he said in a tone that didn’t match his words, “Goodnight all.  I wish you… pleasant… dreams.”

And with that, he left the room, the door slowly closing behind him.

No one said or did anything for a minute.  They were all too stunned.  Then, Zoë slowly stood up, and walked over to her seat, and sat back down again.  Even though she had her head bowed, Bulma could tell that her cheeks were red.  The blue-haired female couldn’t figure out if it was from Prince Vegeta’s blow to her face, or because she was embarrassed.  She decided it was a combination of the two.

“Should… should I go after him… sire?” Nappa stuttered.  It was the first thing anyone had said, and it felt odd in the uncomfortable silence.

King Vegeta sighed, and turned back to his food.  “Not if you don’t want the shit beat out of you.”

“Oh…”

Everyone slowly tried to turn back their food and eat, but it was evident that no one really had an appetite anymore.

“Miss Chi-Chi, this is stupendous!” Bardock exclaimed, his eyes closed in bliss as he swallowed another mouthful of food.

“Thank you, Commander Bardock,” Chi-Chi replied, her chest swelling.  She was so proud of her cooking.  One glance at Kakarroto told her that he was enjoying the food just as much as his father.  She giggled; he was stuffing his face as if he hadn’t been fed for weeks, and as if there was no tomorrow.

Bardock looked from Chi-Chi, to Kakarroto, and back.  He was diagramming this scene in his head….  Suddenly, it hit him, and his eyes widened.  He smiled out of the corner of his mouth, chuckled slightly, and turned back to his food, shaking his head.

Kakarroto looked up at his father.  “Whaffs so dunny?” he asked through a mouthful of food.

“Don’t speak with your mouth full,” Chi-Chi scolded, though there was mirth in her eyes.  He reminded her so much of a happy-go-lucky child; she liked him for it.

Bardock replied, not looking at him, “Nothing, son, nothing.”

Kakarroto swallowed.  “Oh.”  He looked at Chi-Chi, and when their eyes met, he smiled wide, giving her a peace sign.  She laughed in her throat, smiling softly at him.

Commander Bardock watched Chi-Chi for a moment, studying her face.  She reminded him so much of his own wife, Lillian.  That dark, long hair, those cheerful, caring eyes, and this cooking….

Bardock cleared his throat, and both kids turned to look at him.

“Could you pass the rolls?” he asked Chi-Chi.  She nodded, grabbing one of the roll baskets, and Kakarroto turned back to his food, and began stuffing his face again.

“DAMN IT SON!” King Vegeta shouted, slamming the door after himself.  Prince Vegeta looked up at him from his bed.  “YOU HAVE TO MAKE A SHOW ABOUT EVERYTHING, DON’T YOU?  AND THEN ONCE YOU GET THE PROPER PUNISHMENT FOR IT, YOU RUN OFF AND POUT LIKE A SPOILED LITTLE CHILD!”

“I am not pouting,” Vegeta answered calmly, although, deep down, he was extremely afraid.  “I was just full, and I didn’t want to listen to you, Nappa, or those girls anymore.  I was merely… tired.”

“Tired my ass!” the King hissed.  “Just admit it Vegeta.  You were embarrassed.  But why in seven hells did you have to go and insult Miss Briefs?”

Prince Vegeta snapped.  “Damn you father!  Just leave me alone, would you?!  It’s bad enough that you had to go and put both Bulma and Iiovana on, might I remind you, my list, but now you have to go even further and harass me too?  Why won’t you just stay out of my life?!”

King Vegeta took a deep breath.  Then he answered a soothingly as possible, “Vegeta, all I want is the best for you.  I care about you son, and this is an extremely important time in your life.  I’ve never told you this, but… my father did the exact same thing to me when I was your age.”

Prince Vegeta eyed the King questioningly.  He was taking deep breaths, trying to calm himself.  “Really?  What’d he do?”  King Vegeta sat on the end of the Prince’s bed, and Prince Vegeta sat up, curious.

“I was choosing the five girls that I wanted to study closer too, son.  And my Father, your Grandfather, did not like the first four girls that I had already chosen.  He could tell that I was going for looks and lust alone, and he decided to do something about it.  He chose the last girl for me.”  Prince Vegeta’s eyes widened, and the King nodded.  “Yep.  Didn’t give me any say about it.  He chose Miss Patricia Capps.”

“But… but that’s mother’s name…” Vegeta whispered.

The King nodded again.  “Yes, it is.  I got to know your mother better and better as the days went by, a little reluctantly though, seeing as how she was my father’s choice.  She had such a free spirit, yet was caring and had a sensible mind.  She was polite, proper, and grew more beautiful each time I saw her.  I also got to know that other girls that I had chosen, and let me tell you son, all of them were bitches if not bimbos.”

The King and Prince were silent for a while.  Prince Vegeta was staring at the comforter on his bed.  “So you did the same thing for me?” he finally asked.

“Yes.  Both Miss Briefs and Miss Veen are wonderful girls.”

Prince Vegeta regained his composure, and his mouth twisted into an awful smirk, his eyes flashing cruelly.  “That doesn’t mean I’m going to like either one, Father.  You know that, right?  My choice is my own, and not even you can change that.  Zoë’s the one.  I already know it.”

The King was silent for a while, not blowing up in his face like Prince Vegeta had expected.  This actually made the Prince a little uncomfortable, and, for just a millisecond, his smirk faltered.

“I don’t believe it,” King Vegeta said calmly after a while, standing up and heading for the door.

“And why not?!”

The King opened the door, and paused; he turned around to face Prince Vegeta.  “Vegeta, you’re trying to convince yourself of that poppycock as much as you’re trying to convince me.  Don’t be afraid to hybridize.  I know that you’re smarter than that son.  And I know you’ll choose wisely.”

He then left, leaving a bewildered and confused Vegeta to deal with his thoughts.

Bulma and Iiovana entered their room, Bulma pulling the note on her door off.  Iiovana shut the door behind them.  They were both snickering about Zoë.

“Did you see how the Prince slapped her?” Iiovana whispered excitedly.  “Pow!  Right in the kisser!”

“I’m surprised that she didn’t get more than that,” Bulma muttered, plopping on the couch in their living room.  She kicked off her shoes.  “Phoenix said that you get whipped for that, right?”

Iiovana headed into the bedroom to change.  “I thought so…” she called.

“Oh well.”  Bulma looked at the note in her hands.  “We’ve got our schedule for Monday!”

“Oh really?!” the female Sayian’s loud voice questioned.  “Why not tomorrow?”

“It’s Sunday.  A rest day for us all.”

“Oh.  Well, what and when on Monday?”

“Hang on!”  Bulma read a little further as Iiovana entered the living room again in her training clothes.  “Says here that we’ve got breakfast/free time until 10:59 AM, then at precisely 11:00, we are to appear in the Prince’s bedroom for our first beauty and outfitting test.”

Iiovana punched her punching bag with a left jab.  They still hadn’t put Bulma’s up, as Bulma felt no need for it.  The younger girl hit it again with her right.  “Cool.  What are we going to do there?”

Bulma read it further.  “Well, there’s a lot of crap here saying stuff about how beauty, grace, and charm in certain clothes have always been a royal necessity, but to put it bluntly, they want us to parade around in different dresses and hairstyles, trying to persuade the Prince seductively that we’re better than any other girl.”

Iiovana kicked the punching bag several times, an eyebrow raised.  “Persuade Prince Vegeta seductively?”

“You know… wink at him, show as much skin as you can; basically try to win his favor over others.”

“Oh.”

“Yea…”  Bulma sighed and, in a sarcastic voice, said, “Sounds like such fun!”

“Sounds to me like something Zoë would do,” Iiovana commented.  Bulma watched in fascination as her ‘gentle and easy-going’ friend beat the crap out of her new ‘toy’.

Bulma snorted.  “Yea, it does, doesn’t it?  I suppose Zoë will beat us all in that competition.”

“Anything else?”

“Well….”  Bulma glanced at the sheet again.  “We’ve got that thing from 11 to 12:00.  And then we break for lunch till 1:59.  And then we have training in the palace gym from 2:00 to 3:29.”  Bulma winced, and Iiovana stopped training to look at her friend; beautiful brown eyes wider than usual.

“What are you going to do during that time?” she asked Bulma.

The blue-haired female shrugged.  “I don’t know.  Train, I suppose.  Although I’ll probably make a fool out of myself more than anything, seeing as how I’ll be in a room with a bunch of girls so much stronger than I am.”

“You… could do something else, you know…”

Bulma raised an eyebrow.  “Like what?”

Iiovana shrugged.  “I don’t really know.  I was just saying that to try and cheer you up.”  She smiled apologetically.  “I was expecting you to take that idea and run with it.”

Bulma giggled.  “Well… I guess you’re right.  There are other things besides sparring and beating things up with my fists.”  She thought about it a moment longer, Iiovana’s curious gaze on her.

Bulma suddenly looked up at her good friend.  “I could go swimming in that pool we saw earlier!  I got some swimsuits today with all my other clothes!”

Iiovana smiled wide.  “Yea!  Good idea!”

Bulma nodded, pleased with her genius.  “I’ll ask Phoenix at lunchtime if I’m allowed there or not.”

“What if you aren’t?”

The blue-haired female sighed.  “Then I’ll bring that book I packed up in my trunk with me and read.  I’m not going to embarrass myself.  Zoë would tease me about it until she or I died, whichever one came first.”

Iiovana growled, and hit her punching bag hard.  “What I wouldn’t give to be able to kill Zoë now….”

Bulma’s eyebrows rose in surprise.  “Ok, who are you, and what have you done with Iiovana?”

Iiovana laughed, and scratched the back of her head with one hand sheepishly.  “Sorry.  Training gets to me sometimes, and I just want to…”  Her eyes flashed as she stared at their wall.  Bulma watched her warily.  “I just want to murder something….”

“Right!  Well, I’m leaving!” Bulma said, moving to stand up.  Iiovana laughed.

“Don’t be stupid Bulma!  I’d never hurt you!  Maybe a punching bag, or a certain female whose name beings with a Z, but never you!”

Bulma looked uneasy.  “Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Oh… well… ok.”  Iiovana nodded, grinning, and turned back to her punching bag.

Note to self, Bulma.  Never, and I repeat, never cross a Sayian while it’s training…

“Well do we have anything after that?”

Bulma looked down at the sheet.  “Um, yea.  After 3:29 we get to wash up, and from 4:00 to 6:29 we have another test on beauty and outfitting.  Then, from 6:30 to 8:00, we have dinner, and are sent back to our rooms.”

“Man, our lives are going to take a sharp turn to strict-ville!”

“You’re telling me… and it continues for who knows how long.”  Bulma yawned, stretching, and stood up.  “Hey Iiovana, I’m going to take a shower and call it a night.  Don’t stay up too long.”

Iiovana hit her punching bag violently.  Bulma was quite surprised that the poor item hadn’t broken yet.  “You say that as if I was a 4-year old, Bulma,” she said calmly.  Bulma paled, and quickly hurried into the bathroom, not wanting to cross Iiovana.

Bulma shut the door, and turned the shower knobs, waiting for the water to heat up.

Man, Sayians can be so weird sometimes…

I agree, Bulma.  They can be a little, frightful, at times.  Sooooo, what do yall think?  I tried to make this chapter longer, JUST FOR YOU!!!!!!  Ssjprincess, I hope Prince Vegeta’s ranting answered your question.  I am also trying to end this on a non-cliffhanger note.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but this chapter went along pretty smoothly, apart from the dinner scene.

And yes, for all of you who are wondering, I did name Bardock’s dead wife after the girl Adam (my heartthrob) likes.  Hey, I can be spiteful too!

Review please!  And Merry Christmas!