Disclaimer: I don’t own DBZ or any rights to it. Maybe in an
A/U I do, but not here.
“Hungry?”
Chichi led the way down a hallway lit with torches on the walls. The beauty of
everything in the underground was unreal to Bulma. The walls of the hallway
were covered in beautiful paintings and tapestries which depicted battles
between many mythical creatures.
“Well,
actually…” Bulma started to shake her head in a negative but Chichi swung her
towards and huge door and cut her short.
“Sure
you are, now lets find you some food…” Chichi pushed a heavy wooden door opened
and stalked through, incredibly sure if herself. “Hmm…no body in here. Lets try
the other kitchen.”
“There
is more then one kitchen?”
“Of
course. Once upon a time there was thousands of fey living here.”
“So,
are you Fey?” Bulma decided that it was probably best to get to know this woman
a little better, especially seeing how nice she’d been to her already. Nice
people in her experience were few and far between.
“Half
Fey. My mother was one of the humans you people throw down the hole for us and
my father was the Ox.” Chichi said with pride.
“The
Ox?” Bulma timidly ventured,
“You
wouldn’t know him of course but he was the greatest Fey warrior there ever was.
He was killed in a war a long time ago.” Chichi threaded her way through a maze
of corridors.
“Oh…are
you close to the king?”
“I’m
Goku’s wife…”
“Goku?”
Bulma interrupted.
“He’s
the kings right hand man. Since I am partnered with Goku I got to know the king
pretty well.” Chichi’s ace took on a soft quality. “I’ve known Goku for ages,
we grew up with each other.” Chichi came to another heavy wooden door and
opened it with minimal effort, somehow Bulma didn’t think she’d be able to open
the door herself.
“What
about the king? You didn’t grow up with him?” Bulma followed her through the
door and had to stifle her gasp when she saw the half human, half animal
creatures that sat in the hall eating.
“The
king is thousands of years old…Goku and I are only a few hundred years old.”
Chichi whispered a she threaded her way through the tables.
“Chichi?
How come you don’t look like this?” Bulma whispered back as several of the Fey
turned to stare with their half human eyes.
“Because
I can shift into my animal form. Its just the way the Fey are, we either look like
a mixture of human or animal or we look human half the time and animal the rest
of the time.” Chichi turned her head around and gave Bulma a big grin, “Don’t
worry about it kiddo, you’ll get used to us all in time.”
“I
never dreamt it would be like this! In our legends the dark elves looked
nothing like this! The women were hollow at the back and…” Bulma but her lip
and looked at the ground, sure she was offending Chichi. “Does Vegeta turn half
animal too?”
“Yep…although
his animal is…unique.” Chichi chose her words carefully as they came to a stop
behind a counter. A half goat, half woman looked back at them, her eyes
curiously watching at Bulma as Chichi made their orders and then led her to a
table to sit. Bulma shivered as she felt the eyes of the Fey looking at her,
Chichi merely laughed and gave Bulma a pat on the arm.
“Don’t
fret so much, none of us are going to hurt you – they’re just curious about the
mortal who the king fel for.” Chichi began to eat her food, Bulma picked at
hers, it was some kind of meat and fruit but it was like nothing she’d ever
seen.
“Try
it. Its good.” Chichi nudged Bulma’s food closer to her and sternly watched
Bulma until she had taken a few bites out of the meat that she found tasted a
little like lamb. The fruit was tangy and yet sweet at the same time, it was
very refreshing. Sometime later after
Bulma and Chichi had discussed everything from fashion to the air temperature
Bulma brought up the question that had been bugging her.
“So
tell me, what animal is it that the King can turn into?” Bulma pushed her half
empty plate aside and took a swallow of the drink that Chichi offered her. “She
had a faint memory of being carried by some giant creature who she felt sure
was Vegeta.
“Well
he’s…” Chichi stopped and stared at something behind her, Bulma turned around
and saw Vegeta standing in the halls doorway; he spotted them and motioned for
Chichi and Bulma to come towards him.
“Come,
we’d better go.” Chichi gave Bulma a rueful grin and led the way back to Vegeta
who was surveying his subjects with superiority. When they drew level with him
he flick a hand at Chichi dismissively.
“You
may leave now Chichi, I shall remain with Bulma.” Vegeta took Bulma’s arm and
led her away from the dark haired fey who was trying to stifle her laugher at
Vegeta possessiveness.
“So,
have you come to your senses yet?” Vegeta firmly closed the door behind him and
faced Bulma with a smug self-satisfied look on his face, he moved towards until
Bulma was forced to back up until she fell over onto the bed to try and
maintain a distance between her and him. She scrabbled over the bed and was
about to jump off it and scurry away, when his hands grabbed her from behind
and pulled her into his arms.
“Well
woman? Are you still going to act childish or have you realised the futility in
fighting me?” Vegeta pulled her back until she was against his chest. As she brushed
up against the hard wall of his chest she felt his arousal through the material
of his trousers pressing against her. For a second Bulma couldn’t breath, so
shocked was she by his forwardness.
I…“I
don’t want my people to suffer…because of something that one man did.” Bulma
stuttered weakly. She tried to pull out of Vegeta’s arms but knew it was
useless and her struggles were only half hearted.
Behind her he laughed and lay down on the bed, pulling Bulma back with him and wrapping his arms around her. “You’re supposed to be thankful you know. A king has saved you from a horrible monster and all you can do is complain about how all the little monsters are going to be punished as well.”
“They
don’t deserve…”
Vegeta
put a finger to her lips and lent in close so he could kiss her. Bulma felt
herself falling into his kiss, being sucked down…like falling into a dark deep
abyss…
“No!”
She pulled away again. “I’m not going to let you use your powers on me!” Bulma
sat up and glared at Vegeta.
“I
wasn’t using my powers.” Vegeta grinned in satisfaction. It painfully obvious
that the poor girl had never been kissed by a fey before, the effects were
often described as drugging by humans. “Of course, if you feel that I am you could always tie me up.” He
raised an eyebrow and couldn’t stop the small grin that briefly crossed his
face.
“No!”
Bulma jumped backwards off the bed and began to pace. “I don’t want my people
punished and I don’t want to be a Fey!”
“What
did you say?” Vegeta had somehow appeared in front of her with out her hearing
or seeing him. He looked at her as though she was mad or ungrateful or possibly
both and he wanted to throttle her for being so, but his voice was painfully
quiet and serious.
“I
said I don’t want to be fey! What if I end up looking like a freak?” Bulma
pulled out of Vegeta’s grasp, oblivious to the anger that now lit his eyes.
“Freak?
My people are the most beautiful in the world! That you could dare to call them
freaks is an insult of the highest proportions.” The king’s eyes blazed and
Bulma took a step back, cowering from his rage. “For that alone I should keep
you down here, but I wont.” Vegeta watched as Bulma slowly looked up and met
his eyes. Despite all his anger Vegeta couldn’t help but notice how gorgeous
she looked when she was being defiant and angry.
“You
wont keep me here?” Bulma took a hesitant step toward shim, hope in her eyes,
“No.
I wont.” Vegeta sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed.
Damn
that woman, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed to love me back. Vegeta hid his emotions from his eyes as he thought
over the one possible way that she could leave him – through the labyrinth. He
didn’t relish the thought of throwing the woman into those cold dark tunnels by
herself but there was nothing else he could do. Although his laws said he had
every right to keep her here against her will he couldn’t seem to make himself
force her. Besides – no one had every come through the labyrinth before. A
small servant girl wasn’t like to succeed where so many before her had failed.
“No,
I wont keep you here.” Vegeta said again, looking deeply into Bulma’s sweet
blue eyes. “But I wont take you back up. You have one whole day left before you
become Fey and even you must know that once your Fey you cannot leave the
underground with out my permission.” He stood up and walked over to the
doorway. “But, if you manage to make it out of here before time is up, then you
may have your freedom and I will never bother you again. None of us will, this
will all be but a dream to you. And as an added bonus I’ll return you to your
frightfully friendly Lord Kendal and lift the curse.” Vegeta leaned back on his
elbows against the door from and watched her.
“And
what if I fail and don’t make it out in time?”
“Then
you stay here with me forever. So Bulma…what’s your choice?”