- 25 -
Relationships
Part 1
"Little Miss, I do not reckon that that is wh-" a man's voice echoed softly through the room, pulling Bulma's attention to the screen as she rubbed her tender shoulder gingerly.
A young-woman, no older than her late teens cut in, "Nonsense, Mister Henry... My father only affirmed that I could not step a foot off our land and Squa'ni Creek is our land, right?" With his small nod she continued, "So if you carry me across the parts that are not, then I fail to see how I would be disobeying. Do you?"
There was an awkward silence as the brunette on the TV stared down the older male servant with her cool green eyes and he fumbled, face paling. Bulma chuckled softly at his expense before taking a deep breath, the clean scent of lavender that was always left behind after her mother tickled her nose and she let all the air out with a tired sigh. Her mother must have sneaked in and did a little light dusting and picking things up before leaving her flowery scent behind. As one might expect, the lavender cleaner had, over the years, become imbued into her mother's natural smell and made it so that every time Bulma passed anything cleaned by such a product she would automatically think of her mother and her rambling talks. And just like all those other times it brought a sense of comfort to her and a small smile on her lips. Good ol'mom...
Glancing at the projects sprawled out around her, she frowned. So many things needed her attention... Not only was she now working on the communications issue her father and Bardock had been struggling with before the incident three days ago, the invisa-shield project, and the scouter project, but she also had four other projects her secretary had sent to her overnight that needed immediate attention... Let's also not forget all the things pertaining to the Expo and running the Headquarters either! Even with Chi Chi helping her, there was still so much to do. And speaking of the younger woman, Bulma still had to figure out how to get Goku and Chi Chi together again, damn-it! Everything was stacking up around her much like her wobbly piles of projects were quite literally mirroring at the moment, and to make things worse, all of them were important. She was starting to feel like she was too little butter spread over a burnt crumbling biscuit, where at the slightest touch all of it would become a chaotic mush of nothing.
"It can't be helped," she mumbled as she reached up to her forehead and tried to rub the stressed wrinkles she knew just had to be there. It's only for another week. She swallowed and let her hand drop with a heavythump to the floor. "I certainly hope it's only a week..." She didn't think she could keep it up for much longer than that. If not for all the excitement with these Saiyans she would have been fine. But things never did turn out exactly like she planned. She was a genius, but even she couldn't have predicted Vegeta.
The heiress closed her eyes once more as she leaned her head back against the wall. No matter how many times she went over the communications project, she simply couldn't see what they were missing, and if she couldn't figure it out they were probably going to scrap it seeing as enough time had already been exhausted on it. What a waste... There had to be a way to get it to work, to solve this one little issue and not create a whole mess of others.
The sounds of clattering pots and pans from her mother and Chi Chi could be heard over the voices from the TV if she strained her ears hard enough. I wonder what's for breakfast...? They will probably cook too much again... Guess that's why we have animals. No, we have animals because mom finds them 'cute' and 'adorable'... Frustrated, she pinched the bridge of her nose. Why am I even thinking this? I have better things to do...
And yet the pointless nagging of random questions and thoughts surged on in her head. She lightly pounded her head against the wall and groaned. "What the hell... why can't I concentrate? Come on, Bulma... you have got too much to do to spin your wheels like this..."
"Hero Beatrice McConnel, I told you to stay here!" bellowed an angry father on the TV to the same brown-haired, green-eyed young woman from before and Bulma looked up at it again. The girl had been attacked down at the creek, the male-servant killed and she only barely escaped her own horrific death.
"She was my twin sister, Father!" Covered in mud and tears in her eyes, she shook her head as she balled her hands down at her sides. Then softly whispered as her gaze fell, "She was my best friend..." She let the tears fall as she grew bolder again. "How can you expect me to stay here when her murderer is still out there?"
It was a simple distraction that stilled the thoughts in Bulma's head as she watched the Carpenter-father pace, too furious to talk right away before he turned on his daughter and said lowly, voice shaking with pent up emotions, "You put yourself in danger! Were you trying to end up like her...?" He hesitated before his look softened, "... And you scared your mother. Was it worth it, Daughter? Was it worth putting us through this hell all over again?"
Hero didn't answer right away, simply looking into her father's eyes. No doubt thinking about the pain she had caused them and how it hadn't been her intention. "Yes... yes it was worth it, Father... because I found this." Everyone in the room -which other than her and her father was a detective, his partner, and a few men from the town that had been out searching for her- looked to her as she pulled out a dirty, crinkled up letter.
Bulma crinkled her nose at the horrible acting. Why is a new-gen movie on this set? It's supposed to be old movies... Not only was it the acting but they had things -if she recalled correctly- from so many different eras. The setting was supposed to be in the Americas back when steam engines were first invented, but they spoke like people from a country that had been across the oceans and everyone was wearing jeans and t-shirts. It was a hodgepodge of things seen in other movies that the modern masses had liked, taking them so far out of context that they didn't really make a lick of sense... But then no one but her and those who actually studied the past would know that. This had gotten 'rave' reviews, but honestly she saw nothing raveabout it and would have gotten up to switch to the next movie if she wasn't so lazy.
The horrible actors on the scene gasped after the letter was read out loud by the main detective. "So James is the killer?" the girl's father snarled, barely holding in his rage as he turned and headed for the door. "I'm going to skin that boy..."
The brown-haired girl rushed to her father, grabbing his wrist, her voice urgent with fear, "No, Daddy! It's not James!"
Bulma rolled her eyes as the father gave his daughter a look that was heated but supposed to show that he knew his daughter liked the boy. "How could it not be? The proof is-"
"It's a farce, Daddy! A man is pretending to be James so that he could get Annie alone."
"And you know this how, young lady?" She shifted under his gaze.
Swallowing, she hesitated before saying, "I just know, daddy."
Bulma groaned and muttered, "Moron, it doesn't take a genius like me to find the significant hints in that letter, showing that it's an inadequate counterfeit that is describing the victim's demise..."
"Hero Beatrice McC-"
"Oh and there it is... there is that dreaded tone all children cringe at again..." She rubbed her chin. "Hmmm. That's right... I always surmised whether they did that back then..." It was one of the things she had been meaning to look into. Just for curiosities sake. Was the dreaded look and use of the full name something common among the ages? Or had the terrible writers of this script taken liberties. They certainly wouldn't be the first.
"Fine!" Hero looked away as she pulled out another letter and this time her father took it, giving her a puzzled look.
"Dearest Hero,
For the longest time I have wanted to tell you how I feel, but every time I'm
near you I lose myself and my courage. So this letter must suffice. I do so love
that way you say the most absurd things and the way you always seemingly find
trouble out of nothing and the way your eyes sparkle with mischief when you
are up to no good. Never have I ever met a girl like you and I doubt I ever will.
Even if I were to traverse the swamps to the east, to the wild forests to the-"
"Oh... puh-lease," Bulma groaned again and looked around her for something to throw that wasn't important. Finding a blank paper, she crumpled it up and chucked it at the TV. "Who the hell wrote this shit? No one says those things... and it's not even remotely believable."
Crossing her arms, she huffed at the screen as she looked away, scowling at the wobbly piles of papers before her. She tried to tune it all out, ignore it and focus on what was more important, but like that annoying headache at the worst opportune time, the voices throbbed in her head as they echoed around the room.
"See, Daddy... Not only could he not physically be there... but the handwriting is all wrong and the wording on the other one mentions superficial things that anyone would know." The girl's tone was almost pleading with him (or trying to, it came out more like a whiny sneer; Bulma didn't even know how that was possible...), trying to get him to see how she saw things.
Silence thankfully followed for a few minutes as they all tried to process this and Bulma rested her head back against the wall once more. "Blah-Blah-Blah, there's a fake McRoy, yada-yada-yada..."
The detective looked the two letters over, shaking his head with wonderment. "So someone is pretending to be Mr. McRoy to make us unaware of who he really is..."
"Oh, really? I soooooo didn't noti-" Bulma's eyes widened as she froze and then swiftly straightened as she reached for the first document on her right. "Wait... is that it? Am I going about this the wrong way... fixing something that is parading as the real issue?"
She rubbed the back of her neck as she looked over one of the projects Beth had given her. Quickly she scanned the scientists' notes and her notes from earlier only for her brow to rise. At least with this first one her hypothesis had been backed up. "Hmmm... It's not the flux capacitor but the coolant that was the issue." She beamed and scribbled a few notes. "Instead of a liquid sulfur-nitrate... if I do this... then that... Yes, yes, it needs to be plasma and the salt calcium-nitrate!"
Finishing her notes on the paper, she put it inside the folder and then off to her right side, which would be her 'done' pile before reaching for the next folder. "Right... the bullets that explode..."
Ignoring the supposed problem she glanced at the notes on the summary page, then took a more thorough look inside the yellow-folder at the rest of the documents inside. It took longer than the first one to find the real problem, but she did manage to find it. Circling it, she then returned to the summary page and added the problem. Nibbling on her lip she looked at it, wondering how to stop the shock of firing from making the bullets explode prematurely. It wasn't the metal failing, they just needed something to absorb the vibrations. Adding her ideas and thoughts, she then put it on the done pile. Obviously it wasn't solved completely, but it wasn't her project. She paid the scientists to think and invent, and if they couldn't figure out the solution with the help she gave them then they deserved to be fired.
Vegeta layin bed with his eyes closed. In fact, he had been awake listening to her for some time but refused to move and alert her -not that he could really move with everything still hurting like it was. It was just that he didn't want her to know he was awake. Didn't want to deal with the hassle that was Bulma Briefs. If anything he would give away a month of food just to fall asleep again and ignore her altogether... ignore the world. But given he wasn't all that hungry at the moment had a lot to do with that.
All he could do was lay there, unable to fall back asleep, trapped in a room with the woman and his thoughts. Neither of which sounded all that good to him. It was hard not to focus on her every move, the slow in and out of her breathing or how she mumbled equations and ideas off to herself. It was hard trying not to picture the way she was probably nibbling on her lower lip, brows drawn down in concentration, or how her eyes lit up when she figured something out...
Oh, and let's not forget the way her scent had clouded up the room until he could smell little else but her with each breath he took. It was like he was sitting at the kitchen table downstairs while the harpy and the ditz cooked food, only everything smelled like that sickly-sweet scent of strawberries. It was maddening. He was tempted to hold his breath so he wouldn't have to smell her, but then she would notice -with his luck being as shitty as it was and all- and he unfortunately needed air after a certain length of time. It also wasn't that he overall objected to the smell either, but rather fact that he hated admitting that he did like it and who it was coming from.
"No... that isn't right..." Bulma's voice cut over the gods-awful noises coming from that box on the wall. "The power needs to go here... not there... but how? Can I do this to the circuit... no this..."
He would rather listen to the woman and think about her than anything that device on the wall contained. Especially the one... movie?... that was on now. The girl was a whiny wench, the father a moron, and everybody else were worthless pieces to a puzzle that didn't matter and all had some other annoying habit that irked Vegeta to no end. If he had his powers he would have searched these annoying weaklings down and taken great pleasures in torturing them for hours on end just for the one terrible hour or so he had to listen to them. When or how the device got there, he had not the foggiest idea, but needless to say he wished that it was gone. Not only werethe current people on it irritating, but It made his dreams twisted and weird...
Slowly he opened his eyes, the ceiling greeted him as did the early morning light that reflected up on it from the blinds. There wasn't much, given the orientation of the house, but it was enough to give the room some light other than the thin box on the wall and the light coming from the laptop Bulma had just opened and started typing on. Tick, tak, tak were the sounds her fingers made as they went speedily across the keys, at the same time muttering to herself about the message she was making to someone about the projects sent to her.
"There we go... And now that that's all done let's see if my new trick applies to that communications thing!" she cheered quietly to herself and he glanced over to see her dancing excitedly where she sat on the floor amongst piles and piles of work. How she managed to make his room look like her lab in a handful of hours was beyond him... She better clean up her mess.
He lay there staring at her, and she did exactly what he had pictured her doing not but a few minutes before, worrying her lower lip and brows wrinkled in thought. He wasn't sure what he should be more angry about, the fact that he was watching her now or the fact that he knew what she would be doing without seeing her. But then he didn't really think about that either, just watched her, unthinking for... seconds? Minutes maybe? He wasn't all too sure how long it had been when a man's voice playing on the device on the wall made him look to it.
"... partial deafness in ear, first point of attack..." Vegeta's brow rose as the man on the screen planned out his attack, hiding in the shadows listening to the guard with the lamp on the stairs. "Two, throat... paralyze vocal cords, stop screaming. Three, got to be a heavy drinker... floating rib into liver. Fourth, finally... grab left leg, fist to patella. Summary prognosis: unconscious in ninety seconds, martial efficacy in a quarter of an hour at best. Full faculty recovery... unlikely."
Normally Vegeta wouldn't have continued watching as the hidden man waited, but he was intrigued by what he saw. Not only was it a topic he enjoyed -fighting and planning out the attack- but the way the man spoke was... different. The tense music started when the black-haired man attacked, the motions quick (at least for a human) and when he finished he grabbed the wounded man's hat, putting it on his head, and seized the laptop before rushing for the stairs. It wasn't as flamboyant as that other movie the woman made Vegeta watch. At least this little part wasn't. It was to the point, getting the job done. Something he very much liked.
Chanting was added to the strange tense music, and while he knew what the humans were trying to do with the music he still found himself on edge wanting to know what came next. No doubt the drugs that were still in his system were altering his mind in some way... The screen changed to a woman in a white dress, who layon a table with a man in black and a hood over his head, arms raised before her as he chanted with others not on screen. But the strange thing was that... she wasn't just lyingthere, she was doing some weird swaying, jerking thing that Vegeta couldn't rightfully explain... He was glad when the scene changed back to the dark-haired man checking the place out and eyeing the number of guards in the room.
Someone tried to attack the man, but he grabbed his attacker's arm, countering just as someone who was clearly his friend put a choke hold on the attacker. The two then proceeded to have a casual conversation while choking the other man. Something Vegeta actually found mildly amusing, not for the words exchanged of course, but the lax attitude about it.
"I like the hat."
"I just picked it up..." the dark-haired man retorted, hand over his attackers mouth so he wouldn't alert the whole room.
"You remember your revolver?"
"Oh, I knew I forgot something, thought I left the stove on..."
"You did."
A few seconds later the dark-haired man noticed the unconscious state of the man who attacked him and pulled away. "I think that's quite enough, you're a doctor after all..." They let the man fall to the floor before clasping hands in the human gesture of theirs. "Always nice to see you, Watson." Both took their hats off -something that didn't make any sense to Vegeta considering the dark-haired one not named Watson just picked it up- as they surveyed the place together. "Where's the inspector?"
"Getting his troops lined up."
As one they went down the stairs, attacking three guards leaning up against old pillars of white stone. More guards joined in, one fired a gun... the scene jumped around trying to give a picture of all the chaos that was happening, even returning to the woman in white. Considering the hits were fake (a few times the sound of hitting not even lining up with the punch), the fighting looked more or less 'real'. If you could really say that. And Vegeta even saw one -and only one, that wasn't that overly impressive- move that he could use in his own set of moves. So he guessed it wouldn't be a total loss if he watched this movie. Unlike the other one, it was barely entertaining... just enough so, that he would rather watch it than the woman... Finally! He was able to do something other than think about her.
After the dark-haired man saved the woman in white from plunging a dagger into her heart, the man in all black spoke as his plans were seemingly foiled, "Sherlock Holmes... and his loyal dog. Tell me, doctor, as a medical man have you enjoyed my work?"
"Let me show you how much I've enjoyed it."
"Watson, don't." Watson, instead of firing the gun in his hand, went to attack the hooded man instead, only the dark-haired man... now Sherlock Holmes... stopped him from accidentally impaling himself on a pointed glass object. "Observe..."
"How did you see that?"
Holmes swiftly replied as he shattered the glass. "Because I was looking for it." If Vegeta hadn't wanted the woman to know he was awake, he would have snorted at that. Even before the humans had wanted the watchers to see it, he had. Pathetic...
His thoughts were drawn away from the movie by Bulma just as the two men were un-hooding the fiend. "I got it? Oh Kami, I got it! Haha... Ohhhh!" she gasped, realizing she had been loud and covered her mouth before looking over to him, but he was able to close his eyes in time. The heiress whispered quietly again, "Ops... Sorry..." Vegeta heard her moving and sneaked a peek as she started to do some sort of dance, jig... thing. "I did it... I did it... I did it... I can't believe I actually solved it! Bulma, you're a genius!" She stopped, arms folded and tapped her finger on her chin as she looked up. "And... I think I know what to do with ChiChi and Goku now..."
In the silence that followed as she pondered, the device on the wall became the loudest thing in the room once more. "Gentlemen... Cheese!" Something that captured Sherlock Holmes, Watson and some other guy's image, flashed with some sparking noise and strange, uneven music started as the movie transitioned.
"Oh, I like this movie..." Bulma shrugged, as she turned for the door. "But I can watch it later... I have to go tell Bardock and daddy!"
Vegeta rolled his eyes as she left and sighed with relief, "Thank the cosmos..."
He looked back to the movie. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. Nor was it like he could get up and turn it off, it felt like a handful of Nappas were sitting on him... mostly his chest. With a shake of his head, he cleared that disturbing mental image from his mind. Also... What did cheese have to do with what just happened?... He didn't see any food. Had he missed something? He sneered, Humans... He didn't think he would ever understand them.
.~-~.
He opened his eyes and looked to her again. Sometime during his failed attempt at trying to ignore her she had slid to the floor and was now grasping her legs close to her body much like he had held onto her last night after waking from that nightmare. He frowned. He had tried so hard earlier to not recall what had happened or even ratify it, but now the thought was there, the memory was there... Damn, how he hated feeling so weak. And it was unforgivable that anyone would have seen him like that, let alone that it was this woman. But seeing her crying there on the floor, it was easy to temporarily push these thoughts off to the side as he watched her.
Her forehead was resting on her knees, but even so he would not have been able to see her face seeing as her hair would still be in the way. He also noticed that for whatever reason, she wasn't wearing that sling on her left arm anymore. It made him feel a little better, not having the reminder of what he had done to her there... but it did not do much when she was sitting there so pathetically at his door, looking like some lost girl he had ended up killing back during his days as one of Freeza's men.
Flash of crimson-violet. An oppressive mix of churned dirt and plaster dust with the overpowering rank of decay from decomposing bodies filled his nose. He found himself back there again, standing on the rubble of a downed building, his feet crunching the glass like material as he shifted. She was sobbing but it sounded more like a shrill shriek coming from a Kive, a huge rodent from Norden that would take a good chunk out of his arm a few years later. Yes, definitely more like a Kive than any sentient being he knew. All around him he could hear the others from the purge team cackling merrily about the thrill of the hunt and the kills. He still didn't understand why this was amusing. These people were weak, unworthy of his time. Of course he wouldn't know back then. He may have been nine... or was it ten? Vegeta wasn't all that sure. Time and memories all blurred together, resembling that time he saw Gohan's atrocious attempt at drawing. The red mixed in with the green, violet, and light blue mass of the dinosaur's form, the sky and the ground that was all blurred together. The mutt failed at making anything that resembled a straight line. Then there were those rose-colored eyes of the beast. What kind of blasted monster has pink fucki- No, the violet skinned child had had those strange rose eyes...
She had heard him, heard him somehow over the shrill of her cries and looked up at him. The painful noise ceased, leaving his sensitive ears throbbing in the silence. There was something there, something in those eyes. She was scared. Who wouldn't be? And yet, there was something else... something he hadn't seen before in any of his victims. Normally this would be the time they started screaming or begging for salvation, crawling on the ground at his feet, wailing about their family or something else that was supposed to make him feel anything. Fools, he had long lost the ability to feel anything akin to remorse. These fools were swiftly met with a bright, blinding flash and surging pain. He always made the ki blast small to give the most pain before leaving their corpses to rot there with the rest. Done and dealt with, and on to the next kill.
Not this crimson-violet skinned child. Even with the screeching around them, she remained there, almost like she was already dead. In fact, he could see this too in her eyes, that she had already resigned herself to her fate of becoming nothing more than ash on the wind of her now desolate planet. It was the first time he saw real courage from the weak-ones. Never would he associate giving up with courage, but she wasn't really giving up. She may have, if he was anyone else, tried to fight... but she had seen something in him. Had seen what all the others had failed to, they hadn't even tried honestly. What they failed to see and what this alien child saw was that he had no choice; it was either kill or take a beating and maybe die for refusing to bow even in the slightest.
The realization came quick after that: sorrow was in those oddly large and squarish rose-eyes. Not for her, but for him. The girl pitied him! Vegeta blinked as his room came into focus again, the woman sitting there softly crying even as the memory of what he did to that girl for that emotion played on faintly in the back of his mind. It hadn't been a pleasant death, not that dying was pleasant. But it was what she got for daring to pity him. Pity. How he hated it. He wanted no pity. The word alone left a horrid taste in his mouth... like that time he found some fruity beverage in the fridge and then had that garlic chicken Mrs. Briefs cooked that night for dinner.
Why was he remembering that alien-girl now? Other than the way the woman was sitting nothing else about her related to that memory... He mulled it over in his mind, these thoughts and memories unable to be banished. Perhaps there was something else that related the woman to that girl after all. Both had that spark of courage, and while the former's appeared more idiotic at best most times, he could not deny her of that. Instead of similarities, maybe it was the striking differences that made Vegeta draw the connection. Pale skin not violet, vivid crystalline eyes not pink, and she was far more like his own species than any other alien race he had ever came across -that included Recoome whose own race dwarfed the biggest of Saiyans, stupid in spite of their overly large heads that most would not realize was mostly bone for the cranium to protect that minute brain of theirs (you may laugh now but no way was this opinion biased, they were really that dim-witted). Another blaring difference between the woman and the girl was the fact that Bulma did not pity him. How had she put it? She felt sorry or something for him, but wasn't going to force him into being a weak victim. Okay, so he was taking a few liberties with the words, but that was the gist he got from it.
Was that why he was drawn to this woman? Vegeta shook his head, trying to clear it. There were more pressing issues than his lapse into memories better left forgotten and those thoughts on that alien child compared to Bulma were no help at the moment either. The biggest issue being the heiress who was crying in his room. Eying the woman warily, he then briefly glanced at the blinds. The sun was streaked further across the ceiling than the last time he was awake, and if he had to guess it was probably late afternoon. Almost a whole day had passed since he last remembered seeing her. What could have happened to make her this pathetic sniveling mess? And again, why did he care? Because he did... he cared, in spite of his hardened wall that he had built over the years to protect himself... that no man, woman, or child had ever been able to pass... she somehow had slipped passed and made him care.
He didn't like the way his stomach knotted up or how he had this yanking impulse to do something. She looked so crushed. And crushed wasn't a word he would have thought to associate with the woman... even if he had imagined being the harbinger of it a few times. She was too head-strong, a hot-tempered minx who knew how to somehow hit every single one of his vulnerable nerves and yet still remained in the realm of the living. Seeing her like this... he didn't like it. It made him feel... feel... He wasn't even the one to cause this -at least he didn't think he was... how could he, he had been asleep!- and he felt this... this guilt? He recognized it now for what it was. He still couldn't believe he was feeling it, but he was. Then there was this other odd feeling... A sensation he thought had long left him. It made him want to destroy whatever had caused... this! He couldn't remember the last time he had felt such an overpowering urge. Probably back on Planet Vegeta... with Tash.
Damn it... He was going to have to do something. What that was... he honestly didn't know. It wasn't like he had much experience trying to get women to stop crying. If anything he was the one that caused their woes to begin with. And there was no way he was going to... comfort her. Maybe if he sat up he would feel more in charge again? Rather than this sinking feeling of things spinning around him, out of his control. He groaned as he tried to move, pain shooting down his spine like a red-hot lightning bolt and his eyes widened a little, the whole ordeal leaving him breathless. He barely moved an inch and he felt his stomach realing from the pain. He sneered at himself, disgusted as he struggled on, managing to sit up against the headboard.
Bulma jerked her head up at the noise and squeaked startled, "V-Vegeta?"
Comprehension that she had gone to Vegeta's room instead of her own tinted her cheeks cherry-red to match her puffy eyes. Why had she come here? Last thing she wanted was for him to see her weak. He would maul her alive with it. Besides, friend or no-friend, she didn't like others seeing her cry. It never dawned on her until now how much alike she was to this unruly Saiyan, even before he crashed-landed here on Earth she had thought crying was pointless and weak. That didn't stop her from doing it on occasion, but if she could help it it was always out of sight of others -not including her parents of course. But then parents would never call you names because of it, or use whatever upset you to hurt you more... She stood and hastily brushed her tears away, trying to find some sort of normalcy even when she felt like the floor was caving in on her. Why did she do it? Why, why, why? She felt the tears press against her eyes again and shook her head. She would not cry again! Not in front of Vegeta...
Slowly and unsure, she came to the side of his bed and reached out concerned that he was moving. "Stop that... you shouldn't be mov-"
She froze when he swatted her hand away. It wasn't hard, but for some reason it still stung her. "I wouldn't be if it wasn't for your blubbering tears that woke me, woman." She pulled her hand to her chest, looking at him with water welling up at the sides of her big blue eyes.
Vegeta felt the nasty stab of guilt again, seeing her look so painfully innocent and hurt-filled... what with her eyes this dull bluish haze rimmed with red and the sign of those said tears staining her flushed cheeks. This was not the woman he was used to. She would have normally shot a retort back at him for being so grumpy with her... Which meant something had to have happened to knock her off her base like this. She started to back away, no doubt to flee the room, and he gave up on sitting up any further as he grabbed her wrist. I'm only curious to see what did this... he kept telling himself, maybe I can use it later against her? Never mind the fact that seeing her like this unnerved him... and angered him to the point of wanting to dismantle the cause of her pain limb by limb.
She stared at where he held her wrist for a few seconds before looking to him. Her face had gone slack other than her wide eyes, and she innocently glanced up, questioning him. What was with this whole weak innocence from her now? He didn't like it. Surprisingly it wasn't so much because she was doing it, but how it furthered his anger at this someone who was unknown to him. He also had to remind himself that, for how tough she acted, he kept forgetting that sometimes she was just as prone to her emotions as the rest of her feeble race. She acted like words meant to hurt her didn't matter, storing it up until they all came crashing down around her when something or someone took a jab at her just right. He would know... he had done it. So what was the cause this time? Was it that estranged mate... ex-mate of hers again? Or was it something else?
"Woman, what made you come in here of all places and disturb me?" He had meant to be harsh, punish her for bringing this weakness to him. It had been anything but that. She blinked before the left corner of her mouth twitched and he quickly let go of her wrist as he folded his arms, looking away as he grumbled, "Don't make anything of it, woman. I could care less about your pathetic emotions."
"Sure... Okay, Vegeta," she said before giving a drawn out sigh as she sat down next to him, staring at the carpet.
Should she tell him? Bulma wasn't all that certain that she should, but then he already had enough information to hurt her, what could it hurt?... A lot. She fingered her sleeves, trying to find something to distract herself with. Would it make any difference if she told him of her more recent short-comings? No, it wasn't so much what he would say. What made her hesitate was that she didn't want to admit that she messed up out loud. That would make it true. And it wasn't like she would gain anything telling him. He wasn't going to lie to her, try to make her feel better or even offer anything that could possibly make her feel better... That wasn't him. Sneers. Insults. Threats. Dark looming glares. That's all anyone got out of Vegeta. She didn't expect anything different, and it wasn't something she cared to deal with at the moment.
As the silence grew, Vegeta increasingly felt the urge to grab her by the shoulders and shake her out of whatever this stupor was. It was irritating. Irritating how it made him feel all these conflicting things that he would usually not be tormented with. How was he supposed to deal with them? And did he really just think about dealing with emotions?... He covered his face with his hand, exasperated with himself, trying to gain some sort of steady ground on his thoughts. What was this woman doing to him? So many times he found himself asking that question... If anything, it seemed the frequency was picking up. But he feared the day he stopped saying it, for then he would no longer notice the changes her influence brought. Blast-it, why am I thinking about it this much?
"Is this your attempt at annoying me, woman? I think it's the only thing you are good at."
The woman's head bowed more, her hair cascading down around her face so that he couldn't see it. Her tone was deceptively neutral as she replied, "I have to agree... the evidence does appear to be aligning with that theory. Perhaps I should become a recluse like Roshi and live where I am unable to fulfill the one thing I am capable of doing..."
"So you botched something again." He snorted. "Not surprising... What was it this time, woman, one of your pointless experiments break?"
He noticed how her hands clenched the bottom of her shirt with his words, and she took a shaky breath in... and then slowly out. Didn't matter though, her voice still cracked when she started talking again, "I-I wanted... to make things better... You know, between ChiChi and Goku..." Was that what this was all about? So what, why did the clown and the harpy matter? "Everything has been so... so tense between them..."
"Really, that's why you're so pensive?" He grumbled, frustrated, "And here I thought it might actually be something important. Stop annoying me with something so frivolous and cry somewhere el-"
She looked at him, cutting him off with her tearful glare. With each streak of her tears he felt more apprehensive. "This is not frivolous, Vegeta. I always took care of Goku..." Testily she tucked her hair behind her ear before looking away again, only this time he could still see her face. She closed her eyes, turning some of that anger onto herself as she spoke, "He was-is my little brother... I'm supposed to take care of all his troubles, but I just keep making it worse. Oh Kami, Vegeta..." She sobbed as she suddenly turned sideways, resting against the bed with her feet still dangling as she buried her face in her arms.
What she said next sounded to him like, "His well-being was my responsibility..." or something and, "... I always get in the middle... thinking I can help..." There was more. Lots more, but that was all he could make out between her body quaking sobs and muffled words from her arms. "Mama told me not to get involved... Why... why didn't I listen for once?"
He sat there, simply staring at her, unsure what to do. He felt this protectiveness rear up again, but it was mostly overpowered by his confusion. Why was she here? She had to have come in here for some reason and not to her own room or somewhere else in this house... But did she seriously think he would be the one to comfort her, especially for this? Even if in a round-about way he was the cause of the pain... Was she hoping to guilt him into giving her whatever she sought? It wasn't going to work... It wasn't working... Blast-it!
"Woman..." She continued crying, like she didn't hear him. He grabbed the arm closest to him and painfully forced her to sit up. "Woman, get up. You're doing a horrible job taking care of your patient, namely me."
Her bewildered look with her red puffy eyes was almost too much for him to bear. Slowly she dried her eyes with her sleeve, hiccupping, "I-I'm sorry... Are you okay? I really didn't mean to disturb you..." Sniffling she sat like before, refusing to look at him. "I honestly don't know why I'm here... I didn't even realize I was in your room until you moved."
His brow rose at that. Interesting... She blindly came to him? As in not a conscious choice? He was no mental expert but he was fairly certain that there was something important in that. It also meant she wasn't trying to guilt him into saying or doing anything. She hadn't wanted anything from him. And subconsciously she only wanted his presence... What that meant he didn't have a clue, but he did finally come to terms with something. She wasn't forcing herself to be his friend because of some pious moral code -which no matter how much she may have tried to deny it before, he still wouldn't believe she did all of this because she simply wanted to be his friend... there was always something someone wanted. But now he had his proof with her own actions -though one would think that what happened three days ago would be all the proof he needed, but no... he was stubborn in his ways. Ways that had kept him alive countless times before. Yet time and time again she kept proving to him that she was honestly wanting to be around him, to be this... this friend.
This unexpected revelation left him startled, confounded, and -most importantly- he was reminded of that feeling he had when he realized that she trusted him. Reminded of that flushed permeating sensation he gained after eating the older ditsy woman's food, one that jolted him awake like having jumped into a mass of frigid water. He never grasped how much he wanted this... had even shunned it... until it was standing there before him. Well sitting rather... sitting there trembling after seeking him out not because of some holier-than-thou moral code but because she crazily wanted to be near him. He couldn't help but think that she was insane for this, ant yet... He wanted it. Gods help him, he wanted it... and damn was that a bitter pill to swallow. He was a man that needed nothing and no one, one who relied on his own power and intellect to make others fear him into respect. Having this feeble weak woman's trust and seeking him out like this was never an agenda of his. So what was he going to do about it?
The silence stretched on, a hunk of bright blue taffy growing too thin by each passing second and threatening to snap. This could very well be the defining moment he had been waiting for, with one well placed word he could turn her away and hurt her, make her wish she never saved him or he could... he could.. He could do what? No way would he reciprocate what she was offering him, that would be asking far too much from him. Or he could simply ignore this... But this was his chance to finally push her away, probably for good. Why was he stalling like this? She was vulnerable. Hit her when she was weakest would solve all his problems...
"Why... why did I do it, Vegeta?" she whispered softly, more rhetorical than any real question. "She's right... I always have to be at the center of every conflict. I-I always make it about me..." He could hear the tears in her voice, her body shaking more and he knew she was going to crumble again, now would be the perfect time to end it all...
Yet he stilled his hand, instead surprising himself when he asked, "Who?"
"... ChiChi..." As if the harpy's name alone was the key, she started to cry once more as her head and shoulders sagged, body quakes shaking the bed as she took loud gasping sobs. "I've ruined everything!"
Vegeta gritted his teeth, finding the sound starting to grate on his nerves... but more than anything hating the thrashing pressure to protect her rising within him. The sound snapped him out of his stupor, making him comprehend the opportunity that he was allowing to slip by and mentally started to berate himself. He needed to end this. Now. He sorted through everything in his head, everything he had against her. Searching for theone that would cut him free forever. The insult to top all other insults. A dark sinister smile tugged his lips up into a wolfish grin as his eyes sparked with malice. I have it. But first before he said it he wanted her to face him, to see the look on her face when he threw everything she did for him back at her.
"Woman..." She didn't stop, didn't look at him. Simply sat there, her disgusting display continuing. He reached out with one hand to turn her, the words on his lips ready to say them the second her blue eyes met his.
Only they didn't. The second his hand brushed her arm she suddenly turned, latching onto him like some vile leach as her head buried into his chest and neck. The breath hissed out off him like the other day she had hugged him from behind as his eyes opened wide, taken completely by surprise as all thoughts left him. He had thought her scent strong before, he was now being blasted with her strawberry aroma. Could feel the small trembles in her warm body as she pressed against him, reminding him of last night... his nightmare. He hadn't been crying but he couldn't help feeling they had switched roles somehow. And as the memories of her standing up to him, trying to help him and trying to be his friend slipped through his mind he felt the drive to insult her and push her away trickle out of him, leaving him instead with that food like sensation that he didn't really want to lose.
She had been... and still was his grounding in so many ways. And no matter how angry he got with himself or how utterly embarrassing it would be if any other Saiyan found out, he realized he couldn't deny anymore how much he actually did want this... this... friend thing. It was the first time in all his life that he had known true peace around someone like this... had someone that trusted him and wanted to be around him. He begrudgingly had to admit that he liked it and that he didn't want to lose it. He was also relieved that she had stopped him from making a mistake he would have regretted... though never admit it, he would have.
All this came cascading down inside him and he felt the tension leave his body as he relaxed. He simply couldn't deny anymore that she meant something to him. What that exactly was, he didn't know. This woman had always had a weird effect on him. And he was tired of asking why... Why her? Clearly no matter how many times he asked that single question he wasn't ever going to get a reply. But it was honestly astonishing how she could even stand being near him now. What with all he did to her. No Saiyan would, and Bardock and Tash would both be hard pressed to... they certainly wouldn't still trust him like this woman was. Even realizing all this he refused to say anything... he wasn't going to. He glared up at the ceiling. Wondering when he had become so weak? Her muffled crying continued, her tears soaking his shirt, wraps, and skin. Even as he repeated in his head that he wasn't going to say or so anything more, his wall against her started to crack again. Again finding some way through all his defenses.
Sighing, he gave up as he finally spoke in the silence, "I fail to see why the harpy's opinion matters, woman. Not only is that cooking utensil of hers smarter than she is, but what times does she have to base her views on? I got the impression she was not part of you pathetic gang of disgustingly cheerful morons. Or was I wrong?"
Bulma had stilled, listening to the rumble of his voice before pulling back slightly and stared at him with those big blue eyes. He refused to meet them, feeling unsettled by her being so close... only to wonder why he was shying away from such an obvious challenge. "What?" he growled, meeting her gaze.
For a few heartbeats she still said nothing, before abruptly hugging him again and startling him again. "Only my cranky Saiyan would be able to use insults to make me feel better."
He blinked. Had she just said her cranky Saiyan? He blushed somewhat unsure what to do... now that she was both laughing and crying. How was that even possible?
~~~~.~-~.~~~~
Mostly Beta'd by LPphreek
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