Disclaimer: Dragonball Z isn't mine.
It's summer and her arms are lined with bumps from the chill that has crept into her. Summer rains, summer storms, she'd always been afraid of them as a child. But Bulma was now a woman, her body lined with the softest of curves in the most dangerous of places. It hadn't taken her long to notice them peeping out at first from beneath her clothes, beneath the girlish charm she trailed behind her like an aura or wedding veil, accompanied by nothing more than a giggle here and a wink there.
Goku hadn't noticed the shiver that passed through her. He was far beyond the peak of innocence but nowhere near as close to the awakening she felt. She would rather he stayed that way for Bulma was learning well that the path to adulthood was stained with thoughts that weren't as forgiving. Or clean. Or pure.
Bulma was a woman now. Even beneath the mud stains on her skin, the aftermath of a rough kickball game with the boys (her boys, she thought fondly), the dirt ran deeper. Under the shower she stood, gazing at nothing as the hot water poured over her scalp and trickled through the strands of her hair. She consoled herself, the little voice in her head assuring her that the day had been splendid. Her friends had all been there, so happy and alive.
Knowing full well that she would regret it later, she peered through the gap in her curtains. Thankfully, the star was no longer in sight and yet, neither was her old sense of security. Safety. Peace.
The cold seeped in again, making her shiver beneath the layers of cloth and towels. Tomorrow, she would build a telescope and put her fears to rest. The star was a star and nothing more. She willed herself not to dream, anything to keep away those demons with their teeth bared in feral grins, the eerie glow of approaching machines and beings with eyes that gleamed with wanton rageā¦
In time, Bulma would awake from her nightmare with a shriek.
A hundred miles away from the sky, the space-pod loomed nearer and a young conqueror within its confines looked on at the impending battlefield. He grit his teeth and prepared for the impact.
Their time of reckoning had come.
