Lower Instinct - beginning of vegebul (+ gochi, tienlaunch)

Interruptions (vegebul, gochi, tienlaunch)

Bulma was sitting at the kitchen table in her pink dressing gown, her half-full mug of coffee raised to her lips. Immediately after a hot shower and a headache pill, coffee was just the thing on this hungover morning. She wasn't fully fit yet, but she felt a lot better than she did a few hours ago.
What had possessed her to empty that whole bottle of wine by herself? And what could she possibly have been up to after that? She couldn't shake the feeling that something strange had happened because strangely enough she didn't make any negative associations with that night. On the contrary. There were faded memories of a pleasant smell, a pleasant sensation on the skin. A sensation that she couldn't define more precisely... Had she simply dreamed something beautiful in her drunkenness without remembering it?
She looked thoughtfully over the rim of her mug. And before she could take another sip, her head snapped up as suddenly muffled but familiar voices rang out in the hallway. And one of them undoubtedly belonged to her ex-boyfriend.
"Bulma? She's in the kitchen, I think!'
//Oh no!// she thought when she heard her mother's words. //I haven't even gotten around to telling her that I'm no longer with Yamcha--//
And then her mother and Yamcha entered the kitchen together.
"Look who's here, Bulma!" Mrs. Briefs exclaimed delightedly, her hands clasped beside her face. "And what a beautiful bouquet of flowers he's bringing you! Oh yes, young love is something wonderful!"
Bulma's eyebrow just twitched aggressively. And Yamcha had stayed more or less rooted in the doorway.
When there was an awkward silence in the room for a moment, Mrs. Briefs then decided to leave the two 'lovebirds' alone.
As soon as she was out of sight, Bulma hissed, "What are you doing here?"
Yamcha picked up the bouquet. "I want to apologize." He had an extremely humble look on his face.
"I told you it's over, Yamcha," she said firmly. "But if you came to pick up the rest of your stuff, go ahead."
She remained adamant and didn't move from the spot, fixed him with a serious look. Yamcha felt queasy and a bead of sweat formed on his forehead.
"Come on, Bulma... You can't be serious."
"Oh no?" Her gaze grew angry. "You should know me well enough to know that I AM serious." She got up and walked over to the sink, where she poured the rest of her coffee down. "And now you better go. I have a lot to do today," she added without looking at him.
"Bulma..." Yamcha lowered his head. "I... I need you..."
She gave him an angry shoulder look, her pupils contracting. "But I don't need YOU! I don't need a man by my side because you all have big fat ego problems!"
And while she was addressing these words to Yamcha, Vegeta suddenly came to her mind - because they applied to him as well!
She stared in his direction for a moment longer, then she turned away and an irritated sigh escaped from her throat.
"The doors of Capsule Corporation are always open to you, you know that," she said coolly. And after a short pause she added: "But give yourself a little more time until your next visit."
Yamcha was deeply affected by her words because he knew what she meant by that. And he was also painfully aware that she was really serious. That it was finally over between them.
There was no turning back. He'd screwed it up once and for all.
Depressed, he now looked down at the bouquet in his hand, from which a few petals had already fallen off to the floor. And since Bulma apparently had nothing more to say to him - because she was now literally giving him the cold shoulder - he simply put the flowers on the table and then left the kitchen. Bulma could hear him leaving and her serious expression wouldn't leave. She stood with her arms crossed, squeezed her upper arms tighter and looked out the window.
//That's it,// she thought determinedly. //I don't need a man!//

Yamcha respected her wish and didn't show up at Capsule Corporation after that day. He decided to leave with Puar and follow the example of the others: Training for the arrival of the androids. Although he already suspected that he was not up to them...
And Bulma began to focus more on her work again. Another presentation for her combat simulator was due and the deadline was getting closer and closer.
In the coming weeks she had barricaded herself so hard-working in her laboratory that sometimes she didn't see her parents or Vegeta for days. But he had strictly avoided crossing her path anyway, because since the nightly incident - which luckily Bulma didn't even remember - he just didn't want to see her anymore. Because every time he dealt with this woman, it somehow ended up awkward for him!
In fact, even Bulma had hardly had to think about Vegeta these days. She was fully committed to her work and could do without any distractions that weren't productive anyway. And she could do without those men who either thought only of themselves or wanted something from her...

"Hey Bulma, do you have a minute?"
"GOOD GRIEF!" Screaming, Bulma snapped up from her desk.
She pressed a hand to her chest and then glared at Goku - who had once again turned up unannounced in her laboratory.
"Y-Your new teleportation trick is all well and good, Goku... but one day you'll give me a heart attack!!"
"Sorry!" With a goofy grin he scratched the back of his head. Then he picked up a capsule between his thumb and forefinger. "I wanted to ask you if you could take a look at our car. It kind of pulls to the left."
Bulma ran both hands down her face and hairline.
"Of course," she said, but couldn't help but sigh. Because actually she didn't have time for something like that at the moment...
She took the capsule and got up from her swivel stool.
Meanwhile, her father entered the laboratory because he happened to be walking down the hallway and had heard her loud screeching. When he spotted Goku, his puzzled expression turned into a smile.
"Oh Goku! What a surprise!" he immediately greeted him in a friendly manner.
"Hello Dr. Briefs!"
And while they exchanged a few words, Bulma was about to throw Goku's capsule into the space between herself and the two. Her laboratory was of course so oversized that a car should easily fit in it.
But what came out of the capsule was hardly recognizable as a car...
"T-That's a total wreck!!" Bulma yelled in horror, both hands raised to her head. Then she turned her gaze over the pile of scrap to Goku. "H-How on earth did you do that?!"
"Can you fix that quickly?" he just asked her, without responding to her sheer horror. "Unfortunately, we had to interrupt our family drive and Chichi is anything but happy about it." Then he murmured to himself: "She said it would be nice if I finished at least one thing... No clue what she meant by that."
"Women are a mystery, Goku," was Dr. Brief's simple explanation for this.
Meanwhile, Bulma stood with trembling shoulders and arms stretched stiffly down, eyeing the scrap heap with twitching eyes. She wouldn't have known where to start with the repairs... This thing was just completely screwed up!
But Goku didn't seem to care. Instead, he agreed Dr. Briefs and then said: "I stopped my training just because of her! But well... a promise is a promise."

Exactly the same phrase Tien had to recall at that very moment. Because there had already been more than enough moments when he wanted to flee from his quirky and kleptomaniac traveling companion. Unfortunately, Launch couldn't resist once again and had to seize every opportunity that came her way to improve her bank balance.
Apparently, friend karma had struck this time, because after ambushing a helpless old couple, she was soon ambushed by a handful of bandits herself. Before they could flee on their motorbikes, however, Launch grabbed her machine gun and let her opponents taste a full load of bullets.
"Whadda ya think of that, bastards, huh?!" she yelled angrily.
With horrified faces, the men jumped wildly to avoid the bullets.
"Whoa!! She's gone completely crazy!!"
Launch was indeed firing like a maniac, and completely neglecting cover, she did not notice one of the men - evidently quite brave - sneaking up on her from behind. His expression betrayed his anxious determination. He didn't normally ambush women, but this one was obviously one of the more homicidal sort. So he drew his pistol and held out both arms to aim at her.
Launch caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and grimaced in bewilderment. "What...?!"
However, she couldn't react that quickly and was sure that she would have to take a bullet in the next second.
But before the guy could pull the trigger, he suddenly got a lightning-fast karate chop in the neck.
"Gargl...!" He made a startled, pained noise and then fell face first to the ground.
The pistol dangled from his index finger, and as it fell to the ground, Tien smashed it with a single powerful kick.
Everyone stopped abruptly. Launch stared at him, her machine gun still trained on the bandits, who were breaking out in cold sweats.
"S-She also has an accomplice..." one of them gasped in horror.
Tien's scowl alone scared the hell out of everyone.
"Let's get out of here!", the first yelled. "Here, you can have everything back!!"
The bandits threw the bag of money in front of Launch's feet and then left as fast as they could on their motorbikes... and just left their poor, fallen comrade lying on the side of the road.
Launch looked after them with a gleeful expression and raised her fist in triumph. "Yeah! Well done, Tien!"
Then she picked up the money bag from the ground and happily peeked inside. She could hardly get enough of all the notes! When she finally averted her gaze and looked over at her supposed 'accomplice', she recognized his unwaveringly serious expression. Tien turned his three eyes first on her - then on the bag she was holding - then back on her.
A moment of silence passed.
"What?" Launch asked critically.
...

"Here's your money back." He bowed humbly from the old couple. "I beg your forgiveness. It will never happen again."
The two looked a bit puzzled, but then gratefully accepted their bag. Tien then turned to Launch, who, unlike him, wasn't being very polite. She just stood next to him with her arms crossed and looked sideways in sulk.
When the two old ones said goodbye and turned their backs to Tien and Launch, her fingers were tingling again... But as soon as she took a step forward to follow the couple, Tien grabbed her waist.
"Hrgh! W-What's that?! Let go of me, ol' three eyes!!" Wriggling and shrieking, she immediately tried to free herself from his grip. Of course without success.
He took to the air with her and let out a deep sigh. //There's no way I can concentrate on my training like this,// he thought dissatisfied.
And while Launch continued to rant, he simply silently carried her back to her camp, where Chiaotzu was already waiting for them. He looked questioningly from one to the other and when he saw Tien's uptight expression, his gaze stayed on him.
He now turned to Launch. "Hey, um," he began, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead. Because what he now wanted to propose to her would certainly not find a positive response. "How about we take a break from our journey together for a while? I would also take you back to Master Roshi..."
Launch's expression instantly darkened. "What?!" she asked incredulously, uncrossing her arms.
He avoided her piercing gaze. "Only for a few months or so."
"Are you kidding me?!" she snapped immediately, her raised fists clenched, her feet spread. "I've waited so long to be with you again!"
"Yes, but..." Tien broke off his sentence, because at that moment something occurred to him. So he looked at her again and instead asked, "Why actually?"
"Why?! Why are you asking?!" Launch blushed and clenched her fists tighter. "I'll tell you why-yaa-AATCHO!"
The blue-haired Launch promptly stood in front of him - without knowing what it was about, let alone that she had just spoken to Tien. Confused, she looked at him and then down at herself. Noticing the machine gun she had strapped on, she pressed both hands to her cheeks.
"Yikes! Oh my, have I been fooling around again?"
With her big round eyes she looked at Tien and Chiaotzu alternately.
And in the next moment she put on a cheerful smile. "Come on. As an excuse, I'll cook something nice for you!"
She was just so sweet that they both blushed on the spot. There were still beads of sweat on Tien's forehead. He was still watching her as she disappeared into the camp... and then he suddenly remembered what he had actually wanted from her.
//Ugh, this woman is really killing me!//


pic by https://www.pinterest.es/pin/417568196680113621/