This is the first part of a story that I've actually been working on for
a long time.  I intend for the entire story to be 3 parts when finished.
 This first part, callled "Tea With Lunch" is almost more of a character
study, with very little action taking place.  However, the next two
parts will move much faster and have a more "interesting" story.  These
stories are my own vision of what happened to Lunch when she disappeared
from the Dragon Ball manga after the 23rd Tenkaichibudoukai.  I hope you
enjoy the story!  Please C&C, in public or private.  However, please
don't flame.  Oh, and I can't remember if the "jungle room" had a real
name or not, and my manga is a little buried right now.  If anyone
knows, please let me know so I can fix it.

Thanks!!
Jennifer


jcaliff@nsai-petro.com       http://www.topher.net/~jcaliff/iserlohn.htm

Broken mirror, a million shades of light
The old echo fades away
But just you and I can find the answer and then
We can run to the end of the world
-"Small of Two Pieces" lyrics by Masato Kato, end theme of Xenogears


Tea With Lunch

A Dragon Ball fanfic by Jennifer Califf
Dragon Ball is created by Akira Toriyama and Bird Studios

The blue-haired woman stood nervously at the door.  She double checked
the piece of paper in her hand, just to be sure she had the right
address.  She'd never realized just how much money Bulma had until this
moment.  She felt a little out of place and underdressed.  Finally she
worked up the nerve to ring the bell, and moments later a small robot
answered.

"May I help you?" asked a small tinny voice.

"Um, yes.  I'm here to see Bulma?  She invited me."  She smiled
brightly, but cringed inwardly at how puny and pathetic she sounded.  Of
course, there was always the other alternative. . . .

"May I ask who's calling?"  the robot queried.  The lack of emotion in
it's voice actually made her feel a little better.  

"I'm Lunch,"  the woman answered. 

"Of course.  Miss Briefs is expecting you.  Please follow me."  The
robot opened the door and gestured for Lunch to come inside.  She
followed the small robot through several corridors through the mansion.
If it looked large from the outside, the inside was positively
humongous.  Finally the robot opened a door and stood aside.

"Miss Briefs is waiting for you in the library."  Lunch wasn't sure if
she was supposed to thank the robot, what with it being a robot and all,
but she decided to err on the polite side.

"Thank you," she said quiety.  The robot almost seemed to bow.  Lunch
marveled at the incredible technology.  However, somewhere inside her
another part of her grew increasingly frustrated.  

*Enough!  Let's get this over with!!* it seemed to say.  Lunch took a
deep breath and walked into the library.  She was immediately greeted by
the person she had come to see.

"LUNCH!!  I'm SO glad you came!"  Bulma was a young woman with light
blue hair, blue eyes, and a figure many women would kill for.  Currently
her hair was cropped short and she was wearing a short-sleeved sweater
that left little to the imagination.  

"Did you have any trouble finding the house?"  Bulma led Lunch to a
small table that stood in a corner of the library, near a large window
looking out over a garden.

"No, it was really easy to find.  It's very big."  No sooner had the
words left her lips that Lunch mentally kicked herself for sounding so
stupid. Why couldn't she ever seem to think before she said those types
of things?  *Because you are stupid, you ditz!* the other side of her
seemed to mock.

"That's great!" Bulma said happily, "Now please, sit down.  Tea's almost
ready.  I'm really excited about having you here today.  It's nice to be
able to talk without all those testosterone-laden simians around."
Bulma said the last sentence almost angrily.  Lunch figured that Bulma
and Yamucha must have broken up again.  She made a mental note not to
talk about that.

"So, how's Yamucha?"  she asked.  *Shit, I can't believe you asked
something like that!* the voice in her head screamed.  She tore up the
mental note.

". . .and you would not believe that when I asked him about it, he LIED
to me and told me that he didn't know anything.  Can you believe that!?!
 That man is the most insensitive, thoughtless, chauvenist. . ."  Lunch
sighed as Bulma went off on her tirade.  She looked out the window and
listened to the voice in her head that continued to berate.

". . .Lunch??  Lunch are you alright?"  Lunch suddenly jumped when she
realized that Bulma was addressing her.  She blushed bright red when she
realized that she hadn't been paying attention.  *So what else is new?*
the voice in her head asked.

"I'm sorry.  I was just thinking," Lunch said quietly.  

"That's okay," Bulma replied, "So, how are things between you and
Tenshinhan?  Have you two, well, you know?"  Bulma winked at Lunch.
Lunch looked blankly at Bulma.  She didn't get it.

"No, I don't know.  What do you mean?"  Lunch asked curiously.  Bulma
stared at her incredulously.  

"Um, I mean, have the two of you been sleeping together?" Bulma asked
candidly.  

"No, I don't think so," Lunch answered truthfully.  "Of course, I might
just not remember it."

"Boy, that would really suck,"  Bulma thought out loud, "It must be
really strange, switching personalities like that."

"Mmm.  A little."  Lunch looked out the window again.  Just then,
another robot appeared and announced that the tea was ready to be
served.  

"Come on, let me show you to the jungle room."  Bulma took Lunch's hand
and helped her to her feet.  As Lunch stood up, she nearly lost her
balance and grabbed the nearest  bookshelf to steady herself.  A huge
cloud of dust wafted up from the shelf, and into her face.

"AH, AH, AH-CHOOO!"  Lunch sneezed, and the world turned upside down.
Her first thought was the same as always, *Where am I?*  She
instinctively reached for the nearest weapon, ready for whatever trouble
she would find herself in this time.  

"Lunch?"  She looked up at the face of Bulma, the closest person she
could call a friend.  Looking around she quickly realized that the two
of them were alone, and she forced herself to calm down, warding off the
sense of unease that always accompianied her "awakening".  

"Bulma?"  Lunch asked.  She moved toward the door, ready to escape if
need be.  

"This is my house, Lunch," Bulma answered, smiling, "and you and I were
just going to have tea.  Are you coming?"

"Oh, yeah.  I do remember seeing the invitation."  Lunch smiled back at
Bulma.  

"Great!  Let's go to the jungle room.  You'll love it!"  Bulma gestured
for Lunch to come with her.  Lunch followed obligingly.  When Bulma
opened the door to the "jungle room", even Lunch was amazed.  She'd seen
many places, but never had she seen a room like this.  It was like an
indoor zoo, and she couldn't even begin to guess at the number of
animals living there.  She followed Bulma to a small glass table in an
open area of the room.  As soon as she sat down, a small squirrel hopped
right up on the table in front of her.  Cocking it's head to the side,
it looked at her with big black eyes and chattered curiously.  It was
incredibly cute.

"Get the hell off the table, you little rodent!" Lunch yelled, smacking
the table.  The squirrel, startled, scampered away out of reach. "That's
disgusting," Lunch growled, "and you expect me to eat off this table?"
Lunch suddenly realized that Bulma was looking at her with fear in her
eyes.  Following Bulma's gaze, she looked in her hand and realized that
she'd unholstered one of her handguns.  Lunch carefully put the gun
away.

"Sorry about that," she said, "It's an old habit."

"No, no problem!. No problem at all!" Bulma quickly worked over the
incident.  She'd grown used to Lunch's outbursts, even if she was still
a little startled by them now and again.  

The two woment spent the rest of the afternoon talking and enjoying
themselves.  Bulma was happy that Lunch finally seemed to be having a
good time.  When she'd first met Lunch, she'd never imagined they would
be able to sit and talk together like this.  However, since they'd spent
nearly all their time together at the last two Tenkaichi Budoukais,
she'd learned how to interact with Lunch and actually enjoy the time
they spent together.  Every now and again Lunch would sneeze, and Bulma
would catch her other half up on the conversation.  

As the day grew old, it seemed to Bulma that Lunch was again becoming
increasingly agitated.  Although she was currently in her blonde-haired,
outgoing personality, she still seemed a little withdrawn.  Unexpected,
Lunch suddently decided to interrupt Bulma's incessantly cheerful
chatter.

"Bulma, I'm leaving," she said, looking away.

"Well, I know it is getting late," Bulma replied, looking at her watch,
"I'm so sorry I kept you here so long.  I know it's a long trip back to
the Kame House.  If you like, you can spend the night here and leave in
the morning.  It'll be just like a slumber party!"

"That's not what I meant," Lunch answered.  Bulma sat for a moment
looking at her friend who continued to look away.  

"It's not that I don't like living at the Kame House.  I mean, for the
first time in my life I feel like I've found a place where I can belong.
 The old pervert doesn't even bother me anymore.  But . . ."

"But?" Bulma prompted.

"But, Kuririn's come home and suddenly the house feels a lot smaller.
And I feel a lot older.  And . . ."

"And?" Bulma asked.  She'd never heard or seen this side of Lunch
before, and she wasn't really sure if she liked it.

"And then there's Tenshinhan," Lunch finished.  

"You really like him, don't you."  It was more of a statement than a
question, and Lunch looked back at Bulma.

"Yeah, I like him.  But I don't think he's really interested in me,"
Lunch said uncertainly.

"Why don't you ask him?" 

"I don't know," Lunch hesitated, "It's just that, well, part of me wants
to ask him, and to find out.  And the other part doesn't want to know."

"Your other personality?" 

"No, I think we both feel this way," Lunch smiled, and Bulma could see
the frightened girl that lurked beneath her usually rough exterior.

"Lunch,"  Bulma said soothingly, reaching out for her friend's hand, "I
think you need to do whatever you think will make you happy.  And I
don't think you're ever going to be happy unless you know how he feels
about you."

Lunch thought for a moment, then coming to a sudden decision she grabbed
Bulma's hand in a vice-like grip.  She grinned widely.

"I'll do it!" she said boldly, standing up and lifting Bulma to her
feet.  "I'll find out how he feels.  What was I thinking?  I'm not going
to sit around and spend the rest of my life mooning over a guy.  If he
likes me, great, and if not, then I'll move on.  It's my life, after
all," Lunch said confidently, although Bulma was sure that at least part
of her bravado was for her own benefit.

"Thank you, Bulma," Lunch said enthusiastically as they headed towards
the front door.  Bulma had tried to insist that she stay, but Lunch was
determined to leave that very night to find Tenshinhan and make her
feelings known.  

"When will I see you again?" Bulma asked, opening the front door and
feeling the cool night wind blow through her blouse.

"I don't know," Lunch answered, as her hair blew gently in the wind.  

"Well, I won't say goodbye," Bumla answered, "so how about 'goodnight'?"

"Alright then, goodnight," Lunch replied.  As if controlled by fate, a
piece of her own hair blew against her face, and suddenly Lunch sneezed.
 Her hair reverted to it's dark shade, and a brief look of surprise
crossed her face. 

"I guess I'm leaving now?" asked Lunch, pulling her hair back.

"Yes, you just decided to leave.  You were going to find Tenshinhan, to
find out his feelings and tell him your own," Bulma explained, "but if
you want, you can still stay the night."

"No, I really should go then," Lunch said, smiling.  "But I'll see you
again," she added.  *You bet!* added her mental companion.  She hefted
her small pack and walked away from the Briefs' home.  She wasn't
entirely sure where, but she knew she would find Tenshinhan.  *And then,
we'll figure out where we go from there,* added her other half.

"You bet!" she answered. With a small laugh, Lunch picked up her pace
and left to find her future.

End of part 1