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Suzey took this praise as appropriate homage to her infallible taste and in turn let her gaze wander disparagingly over Bulma's turquoise-blue dress. It went perfectly with her hair and eyes, and the tiny pearls at the neckline, as well as the long slit under which a pearly white stockinged leg peeked out, gave the simple cut a certain elegance. However, it was completely out of style and Suzey's raised eyebrow spoke volumes. But Bulma didn't mind. During her shopping spree, she had decided to buy an outdated model rather than go along with stupid fashions.




"Oh yeah, you don't even know my companion. This is Vegeta." Bulma waved her hand at the middle-aged guy whose hairstyle was just screaming. At least Yamcha was big and firm, someone to lean on.Had Bulma lost so much eyesight all of a sudden, or why was she messing with a burly gnome with a receding hairline? His clothes also apparently came from his grandfather's moth box, although ... somehow the short guy in the black trousers, the white shirt and the black jacket (all three interwoven with silver threads) managed to convey a certain dignity. Suzey couldn't explain it, but the way he moved, his dismissive charisma and something she couldn't name made the hairs on the back of her hand stand on end. One thing was clear, this meal was going to be very interesting ...




Bulma was very happy that they had managed to greet Suzey in a semi-civilized manner without Vegeta, who had been driving away from home since they had been driving away, looking like a powder keg with an indefinitely long fuse.




The next hurdle was already waiting in the form of a blonde Adonis with incredibly blue eyes and a perfectly white smile, who was standing next to Suzey."I hope you still remember my brother Safrano," Suzey remarked in passing. "He's still a bachelor and will take over the development department at our company early next month. He was really looking forward to seeing you again."




“Safrano?” In Bulma's memory, he was a gaunt little boy, a year younger than her, who had put frogs in her picnic basket and threw mud on her shoes. That man who made models and movie stars look pale was that Safrano?




Perfectly he took her hand and breathed a kiss on the back of her hand. "It's hard to believe how wonderful you look, Bulma," he said, and the timbre of his trained voice would have passed out any teenager. But Bulma was too old to be impressed by looks alone. It also struck her as strange that all the couples were sitting together and only they had been placed next to Safrano and Vegeta next to Suzey (almost at the other end of the table).Whatever kind of practiced flattery Safrano uttered went in one ear and out the other with Bulma. She thanked her politely and uttered a few words of approval, but all of her attention was on Vegeta and whether he remembered her lessons in eating well.




Suzey looked down at this weird little man (she was a good head taller than him) and wondered what she found so fascinating about him. All her remarks regarding weather, politics of the day, gossip somehow passed him by, he seemed to ignore them completely and as he concentrated on his food it could almost seem as if he hadn't dined properly in weeks. Maybe Bulma kept it tight so it wouldn't get too fat. In any case, his arms were larger than was advisable for his size. Bulma was really poor, first she sacrificed all of her youth to this useless Yamcha, and then exchanged it for this fat gnome.



"Where are you from, Vegeta-san?" She asked straight out between the soup and the fish course.


"From Vegeta," was the short answer.


"Vegeta?", Suzey pondered, but she couldn't remember any country with that name. "Where is that?"




He mentioned a few numbers that were probably coordinates. Since geography and astronomy were hardly any material for party chats, Suzey's knowledge was only mediocre and she came to the conclusion that "Vegeta" had to be some kind of backwoods folk in the mountains, where each nest has more than three huts for its own Land held.




When Vegeta mentioned that "Vegeta" had been destroyed by Freezer, it sounded very logical to Suzey, because it was nothing unusual for whole villages to be flattened as a result of cold snaps, avalanches and ice falls. So a hillbilly without any education, just like Yamcha. Inwardly she laughed at Bulma's stupidity to get involved with such hollow heads.Turning to Vegeta, however, she made a friendly, even compassionate face. "That's terrible. And now you are staying with dear Bulma, as I have heard. Not all penniless asylum seekers are so lucky."




Vegeta let the fish fork drop and for the first time since he sat down next to this woman he really noticed her. Her hair, dyed bright green, bit itself with the pale blue of her eyes, which reminded a little of robin eggs. Her face was perfectly modeled, the scarcely visible scars from the cosmetic corrections could not escape his trained eyes. It smelled like a whole bed of exotic flowers, and he was grateful that his stomach was used to a lot, otherwise it would have made him sick thanks to his sharpened Saiyan senses.




Her charisma, however, was a different matter. Vegeta felt the feelings of hatred and disgust hidden by the whitewash of civilization, not only for Bulma, but also for the whole society present and above all for himself.This woman was on the one hand cold and empty, on the other hand a whole panopticon of complexes and conflicting feelings. He shook his head. People. It was really wiser not to get too involved with them, otherwise their chaotic, sick personalities would rub off on his superior Saiyan character in the end. At this thought he threw a quick look in the direction of where Bulma was sitting with this blonde handsome. She seemed to be having a good time, at least she nodded and smiled at the gestural comments from the person sitting next to her.




"Oh ... Vegeta-san," said the woman next to him, tapping his shoulder. "Do you have a habit of crushing your cutlery while you eat?"


Vegeta winced and guiltily looked at the fish fork, the handle of which he had unconsciously squeezed together.


Bulma must have heard the remark, because her gaze wandered to him immediately and he hurried to devour the rest of the fish in order to get rid of the fork as quickly as possible.

Bulma had actually heard the remark about the fish fork and she broke out in a cold sweat. Vegeta wasn't going to blow up with the asylum seeker over Suzey's stupid remark, would she?




"Your friend must have some problems with his self-control," said Safrano, slightly pitying. Bulma looked at him sharply. "You have no idea how much self-control Vegeta has ...", she thought quietly to herself, but pretended that she hadn't heard the remark and quietly went to her fish.




Third gear went without incident. Vegeta didn't even listen to Suzey's chatter and pulled herself together so that this time the plates and cutlery remained intact.


While they waited for the steak, Suzey took another swipe. "What is your job, Vegeta-san? Are you a farmer or a fisherman ...?"


Vegeta frowned. Was this woman trying to insult him? "I don't need a job, I am a prince and the strongest fighter in the world and the universe."



Ohhh ... the gnome suffered tremendously from overconfidence. In a dump with three houses you were quickly a prince of nothing. As for strength, well, silver cutlery was softer and more pliable than steel, so Yamcha or some other brainless muscleman could have crushed it.




Still, she pretended to be impressed. "What you don't say, Vegeta-san. So Bulma has in you a loyal watchdog and bodyguard. Or pay her in another way," she lowered her voice meaningfully, while her gaze wandered even more meaningfully over his body, " for board and lodging? "




The undertone in her voice made Vegeta blush, mainly because he remembered the two kisses and imagined what else could have happened ...


For Suzey, his blush was a sign of shame and embarrassment, and she silently congratulated herself on hitting the nail on the head.Then came the steak and any conversation was impossible. She decided to finish the poor idiot at the dance after the inventions were presented.




Bulma, for her part, had tried to catch as much of the conversation between Vegeta and Suzey as possible. She hadn't missed the last comment and when Vegeta had blushed, the blood had gotten to her cheeks too, which Safrano, who did not know that all his talk passed her by in response to his hot compliments, took it and decided, to finally conquer them while dancing.




The presentation of the nonsense inventions went like every year. The aged inventors stepped on the podium one after the other and presented their inventions. There was a singing toilet seat, a mattress with a built-in back scraper and the like. Suzey's father was the penultimate one (the order was determined by drawing lots). He called two women from the audience and put a bracelet on each of them, on which sat a round case, only a little larger than a somewhat bulky wristwatch.He made a few adjustments to this and then asked them to press the crystal center piece of the "Exchanger", as the parts were called, together. The women did that with a lot of giggles and lo and behold, suddenly their hair colors were reversed. Touching the two crystals again reversed the exchange. The applause was really enthusiastic for the first time that evening.




"Well, what do you think of my invention?" Asked Safrano Bulma, who had also clapped along.


"Your invention? I thought your father ..." wondered