Anticipation

Disclaimer: I don’t own DB/Z/GT or any of the characters found in this fic. They are the property of TOEI ANIMATION in Japan and FUNimation in the U.S.A. I am making no profit from this work of fanfiction.

A/N: A huge thank you goes to Pixelgoddess for beta’ing this for me. ::Smirks:: Ah, I love corrupting the corrupt even more.


For those of you who are interested in what is going on in the G.R. between Gohan, Goku and Vegeta, ‘Anticipation – A Side Trip’ has been posted in the Yaoi section. I would suggest you read that before this.

Ratings – R

Warnings – implied yuri, yaoi and het. How’s that for you folks?




Anticipation 5 - Triage


The trip to the top floor of Capsule Corporation’s head quarters was sort of creepy. It had been strange to walk into the front lobby of the building and see it empty except for a lone security guard. “Mrs. Briefs is expecting you,” the young man said.

I nodded at him before entering the elevator. I had only been here on a handful of occasions, but I knew my way around enough to find Bulma’s office.

True to her word, I smelled coffee when I opened the door to her secretary’s office. I knocked on her door and waited. “Come in Videl.” I heard her say.

The scent of the brew was even stronger as I opened the door and entered the room. “Care for some?” she asked me, as she poured herself a cup.

“Sure.” I said as I looked around at the plush furnishings. The room was somewhat dim, with only one lamp on a side table close to the windows lit.

“Cream or sugar?” she asked me.

I shook my head. “No, black is fine.” I walked over as she stretched a cup out to me.

“Why don’t we have a seat?” she said, leading by example. I was surprised when she didn’t sit behind her desk, and she gave a small chuckle at the look on my face. “I am supposing this is not business?” she quirked an eyebrow in my direction.

I blushed and hung my head, “No, it is not.”

She nodded, “Sit, relax.”

I sat, taking a sip from my cup before placing it on the mirrored coffee table. It was a little difficult for me to relax though.

She cleared her throat, getting my wandering attention. “So, what issue was so urgent involving your husband and my best friend that you needed to speak to me this late at night?”

“I-..” I stalled for a moment. “Goku and I have been having an affair,” I spit out in a rush.

Bulma choked on her coffee. She grabbed a tissue from a box sitting on another end table to clean her mouth with. “I am sorry. That was rude,” she apologized.

“No, it’s okay to be shocked,” I told her as I twisted my fingers together. “Gohan found out, and that is why he and my father-in-law were at your place earlier tonight.”

Bulma nodded, “And you are just blurting this out to me because…?”

“Chichi told me the plan you two had come up with, and how apparently it had failed,” I cringed even as I said this.

“Ah.” Bulma set her cup down. She was quiet for a moment before rising and crossing to her desk to lean over it for a moment. As she returned to her seat she noticed my curious glance. “I’ve paged Vegeta. We should hear from him when things clear up, or if they do,” she amended.

“What do I do?” I asked her, hoping she had some sort of answers.

She looked at me calculatingly for a moment. “Well, to tell you the truth, I won’t know how to react until I can find out what goes on between your husband and his father.”

I slumped back into the chair, bringing a hand up to cover my eyes. “I am sorry, Bulma. I should have stayed home this evening, not dragged you into this.”

I heard the leather of the chair she was sitting in creak, and then felt her hand patting my knee. “It’s probably best that you did not dear. It would look bad if you were there when Goku went home. It may not be good for you either, if Gohan got home. We’ll just have to wait and see,” she smiled genuinely at me.

I nodded at her, and picked up my cup to take another sip. “So, how was he?” I spit my sip of coffee out at her questions. She laughed, and handed me a couple of tissues. “I am such a perv! I just have to know.”

I couldn’t get my mind around the fact she had asked, let alone form a coherent response to voice.

She sighed, settling back into her chair. “Chichi swears Goku is great, but then, he’s the only guy she’s been with.” Bulma said. I got the feeling she was able to continue with the conversation even if I stayed silent. I was proven correct. She looked at me appraisingly, “You’ve only been with Gohan before this, haven’t you?”

I could only nod dumbfounded. “Well, before Vegeta, I had only been with Yamcha.” She gave a small shudder. “How I ever let that man touch me, I’ll never know. Breaking up with him was the best thing I ever did.”

“Because he cheated on you?” I asked. It was the rumor anyway.

Bulma waved her hand in a negative gesture. “Oh, no. I was glad he did; gave me a good reason to dump his ass. No, that clown had no clue as to what a woman needed. At least, not at the time. It was all about him, and his climax.” I could feel my eyes widen as she stated this so candidly. “He was a very selfish lover,” she confided.

“Oh” was the only reply I could come up with. We both sat in silence for a moment. There was a chirping noise, and I jumped in my seat. Bulma smiled and went over to her desk. She clicked something, and noises started coming over a speaker.

“This had better be good,” Vegeta panted into the line.

“Actually, dear, I was hoping you could tell me,” Bulma said, a quizzical look on her face as she gazed at the speaker.

“I had company. Gohan left about fifteen minutes ago.” The man groaned over the line. I shivered; I had heard that groan before. “I didn’t see your page light until a moment ago,” he panted.

A smirk slowly crossed Bulma’s features. “But not Goku?”

Vegeta hissed, “That’s right.” The projection of the voice was different; I got a feeling he wasn’t speaking directly at whatever communication device he was using for the conversation.

There was a crash from the other end, and I covered my ears belatedly. “Everything okay over there?” Bulma asked with mock concern.

“Yeah, knees buckled,” Vegeta’s shaky voice came back a moment later.

“You’d better be recording this,” Bulma warned.

“Crap.” I heard a smacking noise come over line. “I am now.”

“Hi, Goku,” Bulma said cheerily.

Vegeta growled. “He waved. D-don’t distract him. I think he’s t-trying to prove a pooooint…” the word faded into a moan.

Bulma covered her mouth with a hand, trying to stifle a giggle. “How was Gohan when he left?” Bulma asked after she had pulled herself together.

“I-I gave h-him…a misssssion,” Vegeta stuttered.

“And that was?” Bulma asked.

“He needed t-to t-talk with hisss wife.” I did cover my ears as Vegeta howled.

Bulma’s eyebrows were almost to her hairline. “Well…I think I will call Chichi and tell her to send Gohan to the office when he gets home.”

“Why?!” Vegeta asked tersely, although I didn’t think it was at Bulma’s suggestion.

“Because Videl is over here,” Bulma stated blandly.

“Don’t choke on it, idiot…” Vegeta’s voice hissed over the line, although the statement was obviously not directed at Bulma, “O-okay.”

“I’ll see you in the morning,” Bulma told her husband.

There was only a hiss as an affirmative before the line went dead.

“That was…interesting,” I stated, not really certain how I should be reacting.

Bulma didn’t respond immediately. She chewed on one of her fingernails for a moment. “Ah, yes. Verrry interesting.” Her eyes became more focused. “I am sorry. That’s just been something I’ve wanted to see for a very long time,” she turned and told me.

“Oh…” I certainly wasn’t going to tell her I had seen it already.

She sat behind her desk and dialed the telephone. After a moment she started making some entries on her keyboard and flipping switches. “Hi, Chichi? Yes, Videl is here and safe. I guess Gohan is on his way home…no, Goku is doing just fine…as a matter of fact, if you turn your T.V. to UHF channel 16, you should be able to see just how fine he is…” even I could hear the squeal that came over the line as Bulma pulled her ear away from the phone. “You got it? Good. Just don’t have that on when Gohan gets home. Tell him to come to my office. Videl and I will be waiting for him here,” she waited for a moment as Chichi said something. “Actually, you won the bet,” Bulma smirked. “Good night.”

She hung up the phone and sat back in her office chair for a moment, elbows on the armrests as she thought. I could actually see the gears change as she went from pervert to genius mode. “You are going to have to apologize to your husband.” I nodded understanding. “And obviously, Gohan has something he needs to talk about; otherwise, Vegeta would have never given him that objective.”

“Okay…?” I stated. I squirmed in my chair for a moment, not really knowing where to direct the conversation from here, but also not wanting to sit in silence while we waited for my husband to show up.

Just as I was about to speak, Bulma picked up the phone again. “Hi, Samuel. I am expecting another guest this evening. A young man,” she waited a moment. “Thank you very much,” she said and hung up the phone. “Would you care for a warm up?” she asked.

I felt embarrassed as I handed my cup to her. I could have done that while she was on the phone. She came back with both cups steaming and handed me mine. “Thank you Bulma,” I said shyly.

“It’s no problem,” she said, taking a sip and settling back into her chair.

“I-I have some questions,” I said, setting my cup down, not really feeling like drinking it at the moment.

“Go ahead.” She picked up a remote from the coffee table and hit a button. Metal came over the speakers surrounding the office. She grimaced and turned the volume down before changing the station. “Sorry, had a bad board meeting earlier today.”

“Oh.” I was much happier with the choice of music she had chosen.

“Your questions?” Bulma prompted.

“Well…Chichi said something about you and Vegeta having an open relationship…” I trailed off, not really certain if this would be something Bulma would want to talk about.

Bulma eyed me in a fashion I was totally unprepared for. Then she smiled wickedly, “Why? Are you interested in my husband?”

“N-no…” I stammered out shocked.

“Are you interested in me?” she asked, a wicked gleam in her eye.

“No…I mean, not that either of you look bad or anything…that’s just not where I was going with the question,” I said in a rush.

“Okay,” she said, waiting for me to continue.

“How…how do you do it? I mean, doesn’t Vegeta become jealous or anything?” I asked.

“Well, he might, if he thought any of the men I sleep with were competition, but he knows they aren’t,” Bulma said.

“How does he know that?”

“We talk about it dear,” she stated plainly.

“Oh…” well, that made sense…sort of.

“Part of being in an open relationship is being open about everything. Including what is running through your mind about an extra-marital partner. In such a life-style, silence can be the start of misunderstanding and jealousy. Well, actually, any life style, silence can be the start of misunderstanding.”

“How did you get Vegeta to start talking?” I seemed to remember part of the z gang’s problems with Vegeta had always been his silence.

Bulma smiled knowingly at me. “I started talking first.” She continued at my amazed stare, “I started with pointing out women I thought were cute. I was actually quite surprised when he pointed out a man he thought was good looking. I didn’t tell him how shocked I was, though. It wasn’t that I was adverse to men being with men, I just hadn’t expected it from him.”

“Oh…” was all I could think to answer.

“Then, one night when we were out to dinner, I pointed at a cute girl…I say girl, but believe me, she was a woman,” she made curving motions with her hands, “and he asked me if I wanted to invite her home. I thought it was some sort of challenge, Vegeta wanting to see how far I was willing to go, so I got up and asked her to join us…it eventually came around to me asking her to come home.” My eyes widened in disbelief, but Bulma continued, “I was even more surprised when we did get her home; Vegeta didn’t lay a hand on her. He was happy just watching.” She smirked at me.

“uh…” I hoped Bulma didn’t think I was interested in women.

“A couple more dinners out later, and Vegeta pointed out a guy I found attractive also.” I sat back in my chair. “We actually rented suite at the Imperial for that one.” She smiled, her eyes un-focusing for a moment. “I am certain room service was not happy about having to clean up all the whip cream and condoms.” She shivered at the memory. I didn’t have the guts to ask for more details, although a part of me wanted to know exactly what had gone on.

Bulma spared me though, probably thinking I wasn’t ready. “Eventually I found out there were actually sex clubs in the city, and Vegeta and I went together.”

“Sex clubs?” I didn’t think they really existed.

“Oh, yes. It’s a good place to meet people or couples that are like-minded.”

The buzzer at her desk went off. “One gentleman on the way up to see you,” I heard the guard’s voice come over the intercom.

“Well, I think I’ve given you enough to think about,” Bulma said, standing.

I stood also, thinking it was late enough for me to be going. “Oh, no, stay. This is good neutral ground for the two of you to talk. I’ll leave instructions with the guard that you have my permission to be here,” Bulma said, grabbing her purse.

“Okay…Thank you, Bulma,” I said as she opened up the door.

“Not a problem dear,” she said over her shoulder. Just then I could see Gohan opening the outer door to her secretary’s office. “Hello, Gohan. Coffee is on. Be nice, I expect my office to be in one piece in the morning,” she said as she passed him.

Gohan stood with his hand on the doorknob as she walked by, and nodded. He waited a few minutes after she had left before closing it behind him. We stared at each other for a moment, trying to get a feel for the other, the distance between us seeming like a safe zone.

I finally lowered my eyes. “I am sorry, Gohan. I know that isn’t enough, but I really am.”

He nodded his head before dropping his own gaze. He ran a hand through his hair before sighing. “I want this marriage to work,” he stated quietly.

I was so happy to hear those words, as unexpected as they were. “I do, too.”

“I have something I have to tell you though,” he said, walking through the second doorway and stopping.

“Okay,” I said, resigning myself to hear hurtful words.

“I-I think…no, I know, I am bi, Videl,” he said.

I sat back down in the chair quickly, those not having been the words I was expecting to hear at all. He translated my action into something it was not. “I am sorry, Videl. I-I never wanted to talk about it, because I was afraid. Just…forget I said it,” he turned back towards the entry.

“Gohan!” I said, hoping to stop him; which it did. “Gohan, I don’t mind.” He turned quickly back to look at me. “I just wasn’t expecting you to say that. I thought you would be more concerned about…” I shrugged my shoulders helplessly, not really wanting to say it out loud, “You know.”

“Yeah,” he said, a scowl on his face.

Finally, an emotion I could deal with! “Come in, let’s talk.” I said, getting up and pouring him a cup of coffee, adding the amounts of sugar and milk I knew he liked when he did drink it.

He came in and sat down in the chair Bulma had been using earlier. I handed him his cup before I sat back down in my chair. “Where to start?”

Gohan took a sip and nodded. “Why?” he asked, looking up at me.

I sighed. This was going to be a very long night.