Finally updating, after so many years stuck! It took me forever to translate this for English, and I'm not sure if it is all correct... I'll be grateful at any beta offerings.

Chapter 18 - Capuccinos and Toxinas

For many inhabitants of the West City - and of the rest of the land, too - the definition of "dream job" meant working at the Capsule Corporation. Besides the good salaries and several benefits, like medic and odontologic assistence, children daycare, etc, the company proportioned to their employees small treats so they would feel at home. The most insignificant janitor could have a hot coffee and a healthy lunch there, without having any discount in his/her income or waste time going to a bar in the streets. Thanks for the drink and food machines spreaded around the CC compound.

However, since the last month, many of the CC workers had a reason to envy their colleagues of the sixth floor, where Miss. Briefs worked. Without any explanations, the coffee machine of the sixty - which hadn't a year of use - was replaced by a sophisticater one, which was able to make capuccinos that would put Starbucks to shame. Even the workers blessed with such privilege were confused, until someone recognized the new machine as the one that Ms. Briefs had installed in her own lab about one month ago, back when the "space outfit" project was closed. It made a lot of sense, the workers commented, reminding that there wasn't a day when Dr. Briefs and his daughter found some coffee left for them in the bottle because of the pointed-hairy man collaborating with them. (some laughed at this, reminding that the supplies truck now came every week for the very same reason) When the project was closed, the little man never came back to that floor, so obviously Ms. Briefs felt that it was too much coffee just for herself, her father and assistants. That's why she had the machine placed out there. The Briefs always had been very generous.

But such a simple explanation didn't satisfy the gossip club. Since the end of the outfit project, no one had seen that Vegeta guy again, they argued (some of the presents tried to say they had seen him, but they were blatantly ignored). That matched with Ms. Bulma`s "travel", before her birthday party. Since she came back, she was quiet and reserved, her former joviality lost. She never spoke of anything but work. She was becoming a workaholic. She spent all her time locked in her lab or outside making some field tests. Almost as if she was avoiding...someone, the gossipers concluded as they exchanged looks. Why, since Mr. Vegeta had gone before the party... Probably "something" unpleasant happened and Miss Briefs got rid of the capuccino machine because it gave her sad memories.

"One thing has nothing to do with the other!" protested Miki, a female dog with long, soft furred ears ( Bulma`s new secretary, since the blue-haired scientist had caught the envious Sae bashing her to the rest of the workers, in a very memorable scene)" Miss Briefs has been a little depressed this last month because of the pressure she has suffered since she came back. As hard as she works, nothing will good enough for...some people. That`s why she`s been burning both sides of a candle." the little dog concluded sadly.

Although Miki didn`t go forward on her explanation, all the presents understood that she referred to Dr. briefs` older stockholders; some of them were incredibly old-fashioned for men who invested in a company of high technology. Not that they denied the talent of Dr. Briefs` daughter as a scientist, but to have a woman as CEO... that was different, very different! An awkward silence fell over them for a few minutes.

Just for a few minutes.

"Hmm, maybe" conceded Saiuru, the red-haired secretary who was once Sae`s best friend and now replaced her as the Capsule Corp gossip queen " But you can`t deny that Vegeta guy was gone exactly when miss Bulma was out. And she was fullof wounds when she came back home!"

Many of the listeners bulged their eyes - in horror, shock or eager curiosity. Some whispered that they didn`t remember of having seen any wound on her mistress, but their timid protests were promptly muffled by Saiuru's minions, who swore that yes, they had seen Miss Briefs covered on bruises and cuts, too, and already started insinuating much worse. Miki almost protestedagainst those absurd lies, but didn`t find enough strenght to do it an silenced, instead. Probably someone would tell her to run after a cat or catch her fleas if she opened her mouth now.

A sarcastic laugh boomed near the capuccino macchine, turning all the heads on that direction and made Saiuru's victorious smirk fall.

"All hurt? Is that how you call a simple scratch on her neck? That little thing was not bigger than a nail" laughed a burly, tall man with gray hair - the chief engineer of car. It was 30 years he was working at the C.C, and he of having carried both the Briefs` daughters in his arms. His laughs shook his massive body and spilled part of his coffee; owever, the humor quckly abandoned his eyes to be replaced by a disapproving frown.

"You don't belong here, Saiuru*. You would be much happier working in a tabloid or writing chick lits."he scolded her" First, Mr. Vegeta didn't 'disappear when Miss Briefs was out' ; the day after her birthday party he was making his push-ups on the grass. I know that because one of the gardeners tripped on him and Mr. Vegeta almost sent him into orbit with a punch ! The poor boy ended up hanging from one of the balconies and we had to call the firemen to save him. And Mr. Briefs had to bribe him, so the boy wouldn't sue the company for aggression."

He was spinning a yarn, too. In fact, Vegeta's punch had sent the unsuspected gardener to the extreme opposite side of the yard. And Mrs. Briefs' tender assistance was more than enough to calm the 'boy'. No bribe at all.. However, the engineer's cock-and-bull story based upon true facts was by afar much more interesting than Bulma's ghost wounds which no one had actually seen.

"And Mr. Vegeta is still here." added a blonde, tall designer, who had recently joined the CC staff "One of the janitors told me that he is still working up in that ball resting on the yard, even though nobody sees him going out. The lights of that machine never are off before 1 A.M. I saw once Mrs. Briefs taking a tray of food for him, early in the morning."

"He never goes out? Even to make number two?" a passing intern asked as he wrinkled his nose in disgust "It must stink a lot inside!"

"The 'ball' is a spaceship, we already talked about that" said the engineer spoke with restrained patience "It has a sleeping room, a bathroom and even a kitchen inside. You can live in it if you want. I don't know what he is doing there, but it has nothing to do with Miss Bulma - or to us. The man is like a cat: he comes and goes as he pleases and takes care only of his OWN business, and you all should do likewise!"

Silence fell again on the corridor. Some of the onlookers started their retreat back to their works on other floors, leaving a mortified, speechless Saiuru stuck on her spot. Miki addressed her a sympathetic but also relieved smile, before giving her the coup of grace.

"And just to finish, there's something we didn't think about. If Miss Bulma wanted to get rid of the coffee machine because it gave her bad memories of Mr Vegeta, don't you think that she would have it installed in another floor instead of it right here, in the way to her laboratory?." she observed calmly.

"Or would have dissassembled it herself, with that fiery temper of hers", joked a young researcher as he helped himself of a generous cup of mocaccino with caramel "Anyway, she tossed pearls to the swine..."

"I agree totally." rasped a well-known voice at the young man's back, causing him to spill the precious capuccino on himself and whoever stood by him "Giving such an expensive coffee machine to chatterboxes like you is a waste."

All the heads turned automactically to look at the owner of the voice that many had secretly hoped to never hear again. For a few seconds, the workers just stood in a shocked silence, before opening a passage to the prince like they were used to do before his 'disappearance'. The present women, especially the blonde designer and Miki, noticed that the Briefs' cranky guest looked slightly tinner and had dark circles under his eyes.

"M...Miss Bulma... is not here. She... "the engineer stammered as bravely as he could, as Vegeta strutted his way towards the coffee machine. That little man barely could reach the engineer's chest, and still always gave the older man the creeps.

Vegeta paid him no attention. He was too busy glaring at all the buttons of that complicated thing.

"Where is the button to get a decent pure coffee, without those stupid smells and flavours?" he asked retorically.

"How about the machines of the third floor?" the researcher suggested arrogantly "Even you must be able to use them."

Vegeta turned on his heels to toss the researcher a glare that would blanch even the Incredible Hulk. At the blink of one eye, the daring young man found himself all alone, with plastic coffee cups at his feet.

For a few seconds, a tragedy seemed unavoidable. Until Miki, one of the only two girls who hadn't abandoned the researcher to his fate, found herself able to move.

"Mr. Vegeta, it's here!" she called as she pointed at the button of common coffee with a trembling finger. Before she pushed it, however, the blonde designer did it and filled a plastic cup with pure coffee to offer at Vegeta, who had already turned his back at his offensor. He didn't look at the blonde's face as he received the steaming cup from her hands, refused with a grunt her offers to put some sugar in the coffee and turned to walk away. As he marched by the frightened researcher, Vegeta gave a look at the dark stain that slowly grew on the younger man's pants.

"There is a baby changing room on the sixty floor. Even you must be able of put a diaper on yourself." the Saiyan said amusingly as he left the corridor as silently as he had came.

Slowly, the workers started coming back as the air again was filled with the usual murmurs and buzzing sounds.

"H...He uses this machine to... produce pure coffee... a-a-and he s-s-says that it was w-wasted with us..." the peed researcher still articulated before fainting.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Resuming, Ms. Briefs..."

"Call me Bulma, please. That's the hundreth time I ask you this."

The therapist frowned at her rich client through her thick glasses as if Bulma had asked to strip herself naked in front of the elder woman. Bulma sighed inwardly. "Why do psychologists - or therapists, whatever - no longer have those big divans where the patient could lay and stare at the ceiling? Not that there's anything to look in this ceiling, but... it would be so good not having to stare at this ugly woman's face! I wonder if everyone who does therapy feels like a criminal interrogated"

True that the room was just a bit less unpleasant to look than its owner. White naked walls, only a picture hanging on one of them - a hideous abstract in browns and grays. A window covered by blinds, a big metal shelf with three thin, small books that looked lost in it and a pair of large armchairs. Ah, and a few brown cushions resting on a corner. The only spot of colour was given by dr Kasana's greyish blue shirt. Maybe it was purposely, so the patients would automatically set their eyes on her, but Bulma suspected that she just didn't have any taste for decoration. "A therapist´s office should be a nice, cosy place, with colourful curtains, vases of flowers and walls painted with a nice colour, like pale blue or yellow... And a therapist should be a warm, caring person instead of a zombie that hm-hms at every word you say." she thought.

According to Bulma's researches, Doctor Kasana** was the best therapist in West City. Even though she looked as expressive as a dead fish. Fish was the perfect word to define her: she was a shorty, chinless middle-aged woman, with a large mouth of thin lips and huge, thick len glasses that made Kasana ressemble a lot with the bulge-eyed golden fishes that Doctor Briefs loved to raise in Capsule Corp lakes. Bulma disliked the older woman at the first sight, and she suspected that Kasana didn't like her, either. At every word Bulma said, the therapist answered with a dry, automatic "huh-huh", sometimes not even bothering to let the scientist finish talking. Even Goku, with his aired attitude, was a better listener! With all those interruptions, Bulma didn`t get to say half part of what she meant before the first session was finished. She had to pay a good money for it and book a new session at the next week. Same thing at session two. That was the third. The only thing that kept Bulma from sending the fishwoman to Hell was her small, desperated hope that the unsensitive therapist could help her to get out of the depressed state Vegeta had tossed her into.

Since the night of his return Bulma felt overwhelmed by a mixture of anger, sadness, deception and some unspeakable feelings she couldn`t put he finger on. Turning off the gravity chamber didnt make her feel better; actually, Her childlish revenge didn`t last more than a few seconds because she quickly reminded that Vegeta could explode the ship easily if she trapped him there. So sheimmediately turned the energy back, getting nomore retaliation than a few curses from the angry Saiyan. However, a of irresistable fury took her to Vegeta`s abandoned room. Half an hour later, all his clothes and other belongings were spreaded around the ship as the broken-hearted young woman trudged back to her room to cry until she fell asleep. The next morning, she had a good talk to her parents - better saying, with her father. First, she convinced him to give her the most complicated projects they had in progress; fortunately, many of them had field tests, so she would spend many hours out. This time Bulmawouldn`t allow herself to be moping around again, like when she had those fights with her friends. The second, hardest thing, was to convince her parents that Vegeta should be restricted to his quarters at the gravity chamber from now on. If that was everything that mattered for him, then he could live there as well! Mrs. Briefs, of course, objected that was too hard on him just because of 'a little misunderstanding'. In her simple mind, Bulma and Vegeta should have another 'nice talk' and everything would be allright. But Dr Briefs promptly agreed that their rambunctious guest should face the music. The little old man made a point to offer himself to tell Vegeta the new arrangement, if Bulma wouldn't mind. She took his offer with a great relief (there were always the senzus and dragonballs, anyway).

But there was no need to worry. When Bulma came back from work, she learned that Vegeta had promptly agreed with the arrangement. "It is hard to say since he is always looking sour, but I felt that he liked it." Dr. Briefs had said. That way, peace came back to Capsule Corporation. It was just like Vegeta's first year there along with the namekusejin, when he avoided people's contact at any cost. Mrs Briefs brought him food at the door every morning. When he needed anything else, he would send a message through through the radio and wait for a few minutes. No more threats. The employees no longer got scares. Bulma could go to the kitchen and find her cereals in the proper place, instead of an empty box and cereal bits on the table. Even Dr. Briefs was satisfied because now he more time to work without Vegeta's constant interruptions and demands, and -mainly- because now he always always milk for Scratch in the fridge. Mrs. Briefs, of course, wasn't happy, but, miraculously, didn't talk much about the subject, except for some occasional comment that Vegeta was getting "thin and pale". Bulma simply ignored her.

Everything was doing wonderfully again... except her. The blue-haired woman lived in a sort of automatic pilot: she woke up, ate breakfast, worked, ate her lunch, returned to the domestic of the compound, bathed and slept. There was always work to be done, projects that had been put on the back burner while she was working on Vegeta's battle clothes (that ungrateful jerk...), new technologies to be experienced and fresh workers to meet and help. But nothing really caught her interest. The time was wonderful, the fields shining with the fragrant petals falling from the blossomed trees and the birds cheerfully celebrated the sun. For the team workers, all that was a pleasant distraction that softened their hard work. For their younger mistress, it could be raining cats and dogs. Anybody who would be caught talking or enjoying the sight would be scolded until his/her ears caught fire. Even the young and handsome new engineer working on her team was spared; apparently, Vegeta had healed Bulma from her weakness for attractive men. But she would have preferred to be a Mutenroshi in skirts if that brought back her pleasure for living. Her mother prepared Bulma's favorite plates everyday and included strawberries in every dessert; for Bulma, everything tasted like plaster. Why did she never feel like that all the times she broke up with Yamcha? Even his death hadn't made her feel so down. After two gray, dull weeks, Bulma's combative side started to protest: she had to do something, but what?

What Bulma really would like would be open her heart to any of her friends and get some advice... if only all of them hadn't tons of reasons to hate Vegeta.

"What did you expect? You shouldn't even have invited Vegeta in your home" That was the only reason why she was going there every week and putting up with the fishwoman. At least Bulma was talking to someone who hadn't any reasons to hate the Saiyan thus wouldnt judge her for having hooked up with him. And wouldn't tell that to anyone, either. More importantly, the therapist wouldn't press her to make up with Vegeta just because he was "cute", like her m...

"Miss Bulma?" the therapist called her "That's the third time I have to call your attention. Would you like to share with me whatever " despite her inexpressive tone, Bulma felt a subtle sarcasm on Kasana's words.

Well, if that creature could be sarcastic, at least she was human.

"Nothing important" Bulma "Go on, I am listening."

"I was making a resume of the things you told me the two previous sessions. You are suffering the effects of the end of your toxic relationship with your ex-boyfriend Vergilio..."

"Vegeta. And he wasn't my boyfriend. We just...been together twice" Bulma explained, blushing slightly.

"A relationship takes much more than sex, you must know that" observed the therapist "He has lived with you about one year..."

"Much more than this! I told you last session that he lived in my home last year for awhile, then he was out for a few months but came back. It's true that he practically didn't live with us, but..."

"You had already sheltered other people before inviting him into your home, hadn't you?" Kasana cut her off.

"Yes, but the situations are very different. My other friends never actually needed us that much. They can take care of themselves. While Vegeta... well, he is completely unable of interacting to other people. He can't get a job because he can't do anything else besides fighting and won't learn anything else. And he can't go to a hotel..."

"Your father adopts stray animals, doesnt' he?" the therapist cut Bulma again, her face unreadable.

"Yes, he's got and gardens full of animals. Dogs, cats, dinosaurs... They are the most important things in his life, besides the inventions!" Bulma practically snarled. "If she'll cut me off again, there'll be hell to pay!"

"Aha!" the little woman exclaimed, a sudden glint on her eyes. By her expression anyone could say that she had found the solution of a mind-breaking puzzle; Bulma, however, was so irritated that didn't notice the change.

"Your mother likes these animals, too?" Dr. Kasana asked her eagerly.

"Of course! She's not as dedicated to them as my father because she also loves gardening, looking for new confecctioneries and talking about our lives to anyone, but in her spare times, she takes care of Dad's pets, too. That's the only thing they have in common, besides the fact that they are both perverts. But what do my folks' activities HAVE TO DO WITH ME AND VEGETA?!" Bulma screamed as she jumped to her feet, so abruptly that if her seat was a chair she would have turned it upside town. Since she was sitting on a heavy armchair, Bulma just bumped her shins against its quilted border.

"They have absolutely everything to do with you and... this man." the doctor explained calmly, as if she was very used to be yelled at "If you sit again, I'll explain you why."

Grudgingly, Bulma sat again and rubbed irritatedly one of her aching shins.

"I must confess that your case puzzled me initially" the therapist begun "Usually, the women who get toxic relationships..."

"This word, again. Why does she insist into calling my relationship with Vegeta toxic?" Bulma wondered, her frown deepening.

"... have low self-esteem caused by disfunctional homes." Dr. Kasana finished. Misinterpreting her patient's glare as confusion, the older woman decided to enlighten her "They are daughters of alcoholic, or violent or indiffernt parents."

"Like your children, if you have some?" Bulma thought sarcastically.

"And your self- esteem is not low, that's obvious. You have a stable home, even if your parents are a little, uh... unconventional. Besides, the women I described always get involved with the same type of man, while this your...uh... Vegetable... and your former boyfriend Lunch..."

"Yamcha. And you say 'Vegeeeta'. Like 'geek'. It's.. the name of the place he came from. A... farm that produced vegetables."

"Uh-uh, I guess I heard of it." Kasana accepted the info without batting one eye. Maybe because there were really some products with the same name as the proud Saiyan prince "As I was saying, those two men look very different from each other, except for their same interest on martial arts. They are different from your father, too..."

"No doubt about this!" Bulma burst into an uncontrollable laughter. It was her first laugh in weeks, and that made her feel good. She couldn't even tell what was so funny; maybe her mental picture of her father wearing an orange gi and making poses into a tournament, or the one with Vegeta with a big mustache, a cigarette in his mouth and Scratch on his shoulder. The fact was that she laughed until realizing that she was running out of time. As she took a few calming breaths, a small, pale hand offered her a handkerchief.

"I'm sorry", the scientist apologized as she took the gift to rub her eyes.,

"Don't" Dr. Kasana said drily; just like her face, her voice din't show any approval or disapproval; absolutely nothing "If my comment cheered you up, then we are making a progress. Back to the subject, your case is completely out of standards. Honestly, I considered about recommending you one of my colleagues because I didn't know how to help you. Until I realized that your problem relationship was just a sympton."

"A 'symptom' "? Bulma echoed in shock.

"Uh-uh. Several times you've complained how much your friends have neglected you because they are always too busy with their own lives. That already used to happen before you met Vegeta, right?"

The pleasant filling that Bulma had with her laughs instantaneously gave place to the pain that had been tormenting her for weeks. and once again that unsensitive woman tossed that on her face. Fighting against the growing umidity in her eyes, she just nodded.

"And your parents don't seem to need you either, because they have their own interests", the therapist went on coldly " As much as they've given you love and freedom - more freedom that a teenager usually has - they never came to truly understand you. Especially your mother. Deliberately, she has ignored all your wishes, even the most reasonable ones, to impose her will in a non-tyranic way."

"Impose? My mother never..." Bulma started before stopping abruptly, as she remembered the way her mother always ignored her pleas, orders and even threats to not tell other people the most humiliating details of Bulma's private life. Not out of intentional sadism, just for the pleasure of a little, 'inocent' gossip. "My Bulma is five years old now, but she still pees on her little bed. Isn't that cute?" "Yamcha is good-looking and is rich, too. That makes him popular among the girls and Bulma doesn't like that." And the way her mother always made Bulma crazy and stunned when Bulma's birthday party was coming, rubbing all those decoration magazines on her face. Just to always end up choosing the decoration HER MOTHER wanted, under the excuse that Bulma 'never knew what she wanted'. And all those time when Bulma didn't want to eat, see someone, etc, and her mother always manipulated her into doing these things with playful teasings: "I know why you're so sad; it's because Yamcha and Vegeta have no time for you."

"Why, that big...!" Bulma exploded as she jumped to her feet again, a fierce, determination look in her eyes All my life she's treated me as if I was three! But this is going to change now! When I'll back home..."

Anyone who would see Bulma right now would be happy that Mrs. Briefs wasn't around. Even the impassible therapist looked a little worried.

"We may discuss about your mother next week, but now I'd like to finish my trail of thought before our time ends." she interrupted Bulma quickly, before adding in a cautious tone "You are not going to like it, though."

"Oh, really?" Bulma mumbled as she grudgingly sat again, still angry with her mother.

"Uh-uh. As children grow up, they unconsciously tend to mimmick their parents characteristics, especially the ones they hate most. Your parents adopt stray animals; you give shelter to people in need in order to feel necessary. Giving these stray people whatever they need, you expect them to give you the admiration and attention your parents never did, but gets disappointed because this never happens. Until someone needs your help again and the vicious cycle restarts."

"Wait a minute!" Bulma protested "First you told me that I'm the third wheel in my own home and my mother's puppet. Now you're saying that I let myself be explored by others in order to feed my ego?"

"Not ONLY with this purpose. Consciously, you might have good intentions, but... you always had some expectations whenever you help the others, don't you?" Dr. Kasana asked, arching her eyebrows.

"Everyone expects something..." Bulma started to answer, but trailed off, as she remembered her disappointment when Vegeta didn't give a damn about all the trouble she had making clothes for him "I made the point to give a small party at the laboratory, even knowing that he wouldn't care", she thought. Besides, whenever she helped her so-called friends - even she risked her precious life -, they never recognized her efforts because she hadn't any superpowers and didn't solve problems with her fists. She had been practically forced to go to Namekusei with Krillin and Gohan because she would be the only person able to fix up Kamisama's spaceship if it broke; but after those bandits destroyed the ship, their "cientist friend" became useless and was abandoned in a cave like an old doll. "I could have been raped or murdered because of that stupid dragonball they left for me to take care... not to mention that evil frog who pretended to be my friend just to steal my body!"

By other turn, they didn't mean to hurt her intentionally. For her friends, she had been "safe" and in better situation than them, who were almost killed by that Freeza guy and his goons - what was she complaining about if she hadn't been blown to smithereens, like Krillin? And there was also her strong resentment because everybody was busy training and didn't come to see her anymore... a resentment that she shouldn't feel,since they were working hard to protect Earth's future.

"Do you want to die within three years?"

"No, I'm still too young and beautiful to die."

"Then SHUT UP!"

Her memories of Vegeta's berating reminded her also of that day when he dragged her to the gravity chamber and told her that people supposed to lean on themselves, only. Even though he had done that just for himself, he had noticed how down Bulma was feeling and warned her to stop living on other's pockets. Not that time, only... in their last fight, too: ""If you wanted to be pampered, then you should never have became involved with fighters like us." he had warned, before she turned the screen off.

Or it was she who was trying to find excuses for Vegeta's awful behaviour? Frowning, Bulma tried to concatenate all these realizations with the things the therapist just had said.

"So, according to your line of thought... I fell for Vegeta only because he needed me so much? Is that why you call our relationship toxic?" she asked just to confirm her suspects.

"Uh-uh. A toxic relationship happens whenever only one of the sides gives and the other only receives but doesn't love you back. I understand you feel atracted for him, since he obviously is much more disturbed than anyone else you have ever known. He is alone in the world, is a secret, closed person, and probably full of traumas, according to your relat. I wish that you could talk him into assign a session with me."

"It would be easier to convince him to dance mambo." Bulma replied, trying to not laugh again.

"Uh-uh." the elder woman agreed unimpressed "You two apparently have much in common. Both of you are independent, self-centered and hate to be told what to do."

Bulma frowned at the "self-centered, but Dr. Kasana didn't give her the chance to reply.

"You thought that you could change mr. Vegeta with your cares so he would become a better person, haven't you?"the therapist asked.

The question caught Bulma completely off-guard.

"I...uh... Look, he is an unsensitive, boorish jerk, but he is not as mean as everyone says! " she protested vehemently" I have come here expecting that you could help me because you're not involv..."

"Uh-uh. That is typical of relationships like yours. Women (she spoke as if she wasn't one) frequently don't want to give up on toxic relationships because they always see something good in their abusive lovers... just like Beauty, who saw the good in the Beast. You all believe that you can change a man just with the power of your love. But the point is that Beauty NEVER try to change the Beast... she accepted the monster the way he was, with his flaws and virtues. He just changed naturally. This man called Vegeta doesn't seem to have any intentions of changing. You did well into stepping away from him before he caused you more harm."

Silence was the only answer she received. With a satisfied smirk that ressembled too much the ones of a certain Saiyan, the little woman glanced casually at her watch.

"Our session has finished ten minutes ago. I'll have to charge you for the extra time." she said simply.

"Uh-uh". Bulma mocked the other woman's unexpressive tone as she picked up her purse and stood up.

Her absent mocking did what looked impossible: it irritated the formely impassible Doctor Kasana. The short woman jumped from her chair and opened the door wide, her thin lips stretched on a perfect straight line. Noticing that, Bulma decided to finish with the creature once for all.

"I'm going to give you some advice,"she said as she strutted her way out of the room like a queen " but it's not to promote myself, because you're not going to like it. Use this extra payment to hire a good decorator, or your patients will all end killing themselves!" As soon she found herself out in the reception room, she turned around to give Kasana the last blow.

"And for Kami's sake, change your glasses! Nobody else wears such an old-fashioned model now!"

SLAM! The door thundered on her face.

Glossary

*Saiuru - urusai scrambled. In Japanese, Urusai means noisy, and it is also used as "shut up". For those who don't remember who Sae is, just check on the chapters Coffee Time and There's a Hole in My Soul". Saiuru is the red-haired woman who chatters with Sae at Bulma's birthday party and is harassed by Mutenroshi.

**Kasana - sakana (fish, in Japanese) scrambled. I don't know why, but Edna Moda from The Incredibles showed up in my mind whenever I wrote about the therapist, though their personalities are very different.