The Prince and the Showgirl
By: Verona-chan

 Bulma sighed as she pressed her forehead against the mirror. She watched as rain fell on the red soil of Vegeta-sei, rains that came often. She fell not the cool surface of the window but the warm chest of her boyfriend. Bulma growled. Make that ex-boyfriend, she amended silently. She had dumped Yamcha about a year or two after they got together. She watched the rain and remembered how she’d come to be one of the most prized dancers on Vegeta-sei.

~*~*~*~*~*~Flashback~*~*~*~*~*~

Bulma laughed as she zoomed across the ocean in her air car. As her friends said, she was a speed demon. She was going to be late to Master Roshi’s get together. The whole group was getting together to celebrate the first time they’d ever met. Bulma pulled up in front of the Kami House a few minutes later. "Ahhhh, welcome Bulma," Master Roshi said, grinning like a fool. Bulma growled at him, and flexed her arm, which was muscular. "I’ve been working out old man. Try anything funny and I’ll plant you into the ground," Bulma said.

Master Roshi backed up a step or two, even as he stared and Bulma snorted. She headed into the house and heard clattering in the kitchen. She walked in to see Oolong struggling with a few heavy pans. "Hey, whoever’s there, I could use some help here!!" whined Oolong. Bulma sighed and walking over to the shape-shifting pig. She lifted up all the pans and Oolong sighed. "Thanks a lo-BULMA!!" Oolong stared, even as Bulma held up all the pans. "What?" Bulma said, cocking an eyebrow. "It’s just that I was expecting Goku or Krillin to be there. Not you!! Wow. You’ve been working out, haven’t you?" said the pig, even as he ran his eyes up and down Bulma’s now muscled figure. Bulma grinned and dumped the pans on the table in the center of the kitchen.

"Hey, Bulma!!" came a familiar voice from the door of the kitchen. Bulma turned and saw a man with shaggy black hair, onyx inkwell eyes, wearing an orange and blue gi, grinning at her. "Goku-kun!!" Bulma yelled, running over and flinging her arms around the fighter. He held her close, then pushed her out to arms length and looked her up and down. "Bulma, I can see you’ve be working out!!" Goku said. Bulma nodded and made a fist. "Now, if anyone pushes me around, I’ll probably give them a split-lip, a bloody or broken nose, or a black eye. I plan on giving Yamcha all three," snarled Bulma. She smirked at Goku.

"Well, good luck," Goku said. Bulma stalked out of the kitchen. Behind her, Goku shook his head. "I pity Yamcha once she catches him," he said.

Bulma walked out of Kami House a little later, clad in a one-piece swimsuit. The suit had a low back, dipping down to about three inches above her butt. The straps crossed over each other, making a large X. The hips were as high as they could be and still be modest. Bulma grinned and ran her hand down her bathing suit. It was deep blue at the bottom; indigo they called it, and the suit grew lighter as it went up, until a small bit of the straps were white. She heard a low wolf-whistle behind her. She growled and turned around.

There stood Yamcha. He was wearing a pair of red-and-gold swim trunks, a white tanktop and silver rimmed sunglasses. He walked over to Bulma, his gaze fixed on her chest. "Lookin’ good, babe," he said. Before he could say anything else Bulma had landed three punches on his face. Yamcha fell to the sand with a black eye, a split lip and a broken nose. "Yahhhhh!!! When’d you learn to do that?" said the former desert bandit, scrambled backwards. Bulma stalked him. "I’ve been training for a long time," she said.

They were interrupted by the sound of amused clapping. Bulma turned to see a man that was six-feet four-and-a-half inches tall with a sharply defined widows peak and hair to his feet, clapping. Around his waist was a dark brown tail. The only other person to have a tail ever was Goku. The said man raced out of Kami House at that moment. "Bulma!! What’s the ki I’m feeling?" He just then spotted the mystery man. More of the tailed people floated out of the sky. The group of the tailies grew to seven.

The other warriors showed up and they knew that they were about to fight for their lives. The first man stepped forward, his gaze on Goku. "Ah, little brother, Kakarot. You are alive. We thought you might be thanks to the power levels that we detected. We sent you to this planet as an infant to clear it. But, it appears that you didn’t do your job of clearing this planet for us. What happened?" he asked.

Goku rocked back and Bulma laid her hand on his arm. Finally, Goku recovered. "You’re…my brother?" he asked warily, staring at the man. "Yes," replied the stranger. "I am called Radditz. I am the son of Bardock, brother to you and your twin sister Verona. I am a first-class Saiya-jin warrior. We are the greatest warrior race in the entire universe. You are one of us. We sent you to this planet as an infant to clear it of its inhabitants, but that obviously didn’t happen. What went wrong, Kakarot?"

Goku stared at this man who claimed to be his older brother. "Attack the others. Keep Kakarot, the woman and the tailed brat alive though," said Radditz. Bulma and Goku watched helplessly as their friends were killed. She did the surprise everyone when she threw a ki blast at one of the Saiya-jin. Goku saw them losing and surrendered as they killed Krillin. They took Goku, Gohan and Bulma back to the spaceship.

There, they were given rooms. Bulma was happy that they’d let her keep her capsules. But, when they saw the way she danced they made her a dancer. And so she’d been trained to dance as she traveled to her new home……

~*~*~*~*~*~End Flashback~*~*~*~*~*~

Bulma snapped out of her memories as she heard the door open. She saw her employer, a kind Saiya-jin named Matero peer in. He looked panicked. "Matero, what’s wrong?" Bulma asked as she stepped towards him. "Bulma, please dance your best tonight. The Saiya-jin no Ouji is coming tonight to watch you dance. He’s heard about you, so he now wants to see you dance. Please, be careful. If he doesn’t like your dancing he could kill you!!"

Bulma frowned. She hadn’t given up when she’d come here, she wouldn’t give up now. She picked up the heavy white veil she always wore while dancing and hooked it over her face. "Well, tonight, you’re going to see a show," she said. Matero smiled and Bulma grinned. She was known as the famous dancer Azure. None had seen her face. Many said she was a goddess, too beautiful to be seen by mortals.

Tonight, her dress was azure. It had two slits going up to her hips. The skirt was full and wide, but when she whirled it lifted up to show her legs. She felt the neckline, which was a v-shaped cut. The two little claps were still strong. She sighed. A bell rang somewhere and Bulma ran to stand behind the stage’s curtain. It lifted to loud roars of approval from the Saiya-jin that frequented this place. Bulma bowed.

Up in his box Vegeta snarled. His father had commanded him to come here to judge how well this dancer was. If she was excellent, Vegeta was to bring her to the palace. He twirled the long-stemmed nyartah between his fingers. The flower was native to Vegeta-sei alone. It had short, wide petals that were dark blue at the base and grew to lighter as grew up. The petals formed into an elegant structure, that looked like a cluster. The scent was sweet; indeed, some Saiya-jin actually ate this flower. But, the difference about this one was one of the petals was gold. It had the Royal Crest embossed on it. Vegeta had slipped the small chip into the flower. He had made it so the chip would fall out when it landed at the dancer’s feet.

Then, the music began.

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