"I'm sorry I'm late," I apologized, leaning against her doorframe

Author's Note: … Right… Jeez, I'm really bad at explaining feelings, so this isn't as good as I wanted it to be, or as long. O well, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

"I'm sorry I'm late," I apologized, leaning against her doorframe. It's hard being casual and humble at the same time.

Her clear blue eyes looked up at me. They seemed uncertain, even a bit distrustful. "You smell like perfume," she said.

"I do?" I lifted my shirt up to my nose and took a whiff. She was right. "Darn. Spoils the surprise, I guess."

"Yamcha…"

"Well, I guess it's kinda ruined, but hey." I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out a small glass vial. It was the body spray she ran out of earlier, and I remembered she complained cuz she really liked it and didn't have time to go out and buy another bottle. "Happy Birthday!"

Bulma took the bottle and examined it. I looked at her hopefully; I knew she'd been upset and I wasn't sure if this was good enough for her to forgive me. But soon a small smile crept upon her lips.

"It's so hard to hate you," she said, wrapping her arms around my waist and smiling happily. "I love you too much anyway."

"I hope so. I have another gift for you, Bulmie-chan." I returned the hug and carried her into her house. It was gonna be a busy night.

It seemed so long ago, but it was just a few weeks. We used to be all romantic and sweet, and if we made the other upset at all, we quickly made up for it. I loved her so much, I knew we wouldn't lose our relationship over petty little arguments. But that was before.

I haven't talked to her in what seems like forever. We've both been busy. With the Androids coming in only two years, I've been training twenty four/seven. I know I won't be able to catch up to Goku or Piccolo or any of them, but I want to be of some worth. That's my goal.

Last I heard, Bulma was busy taking care of Vegeta's needs. What a pompous bastard, when I was over there a week ago, he was yelling at her for not having repaired the gravity chamber in time. I wanted to hit him, but she told me to just let it go. She said to go back to my house and she'd call me back later. She never did.

"Maybe you should call her first," Puar suggested once. "Maybe she forgot and she's waiting for your call."

So I called, and she explained rather hastily that she just hadn't had the time, and instant she was free, she'd call me. Again, nothing.

"Let's go to the movies!" Puar said, tugging at my arm and trying to get me up off the couch. "They have a really nice one playing that I really want to see, and-"

"Maybe later."

"Oh. Okay. Why don't we go to the mall? You haven't done your Christmas shopping yet, and Christmas is right around the corner."

"Yeah, sure. Why not." I got up and started walking out to the car. She gave a little squeak to show her glee and hopped onto my shoulder. On the way out, I added, "I haven't gotten Bulma her present yet anyway."

"Oh…"

At the mall, I spotted Krillin. He was sitting across the table from some blonde at the food court, apparently trying to get her to try on a bracelet. She didn't seem too interested.

"Hey, Yamcha!" he called me over. "C'mere!"

I sat next to him, and Puar sat across from me.

"This is Naomi," he introduced, giving up with the bracelet and putting it away. "Naomi, this is Yamcha, and this is Puar."

"Hi," she said, eyeing me.

"Hi." I smiled politely, then turned to Krillin. "I gotta get a gift for Bulma so she'll start talking to me again. Any ideas?"

"Girls like jewelry," Naomi said, resting her elbows on the table with her chin in her hands, looking at me sweetly. "At least, I do. Especially necklaces."

"Bulma's different," I answered. "I think she has all the jewelry she needs. She doesn't wear too much of that stuff."

"Oh."

"Well, I think she told me once there was this computer program she wanted," Krillin said, scratching his round, bald head. "Sims or something."

"Any idea where I could get it?"

"I saw a few in the Software ETC."

"Okay, thanks. Nice meeting you, Naomi." I got up and started to leave.

"Nicer meeting you!" she said, smiling widely.

It snowed the night I went to give Bulma her present. I wasn't too keen on flying there, and driving was out of the question, so I just walked there. The thick snow crunched under my boots and the snow flakes sparkled into my hair and instantly melted. The sky was dark with all the little white dots landing to their doom of feet, car tires, or children's play.

It wasn't too cold, but I had put on a jacket anyway. Lucky, too, because the breeze was a lot colder than the temperature, and I thought maybe my lips were purple.

I reflected a bit over my last few conversations with her and gave a little shiver. Would she accept the gift or turn it away? My insides churned at the latter thought. Most likely, I'd have to ease her into accepting it, like her perfume birthday present. Yeah.

When I arrived to my destination, I saw several cars parked in the parking lot, and lots of people and noise. The door was open, so I let myself in, just to find what I guessed was a party. There was a huge Christmas tree in the center of the main room, and under it were large, scattered, wrapped gifts. All around people were eating, laughing, and generally having a good time.

"Hey, Yamcha!" Krillin was sitting on the couch with Naomi and waved me over. "Hey! I didn't know Bulma invited you."

"She didn't," I replied, sitting on his other side. "I came over to give her her present. I didn't know she had a party."

"Oh." He shrugged.

Naomi came over, plopped down front of me, and rested her chin on my knees. "Guess she blew you off, huh?" she said, grinning. "What a bitch, you deserve better."

I was about to reply when a gruff voice sounded from behind me.

"Presents go under the tree."

I turned around, and there stood Vegeta. He looked a lot healthier than since I'd last saw him; his hair had grown thicker and didn't make his face look so long, and his torso had definitely improved. I'm not saying I thought he was good-looking or anything, just that he looked better than before. There was sort of a glow to him that I couldn't quite place.

"I'd rather give it to her myself, thanks."

"Presents go under the tree," he repeated. I suddenly noticed he was wearing a dashing tux, and wondered what Bulma had done to persuade him to wear it.

"Okay, I'll put it under the tree, but I want to talk to her. Any idea where she is?" I asked.

He gave a chin-up nod to the other side of the room, where Bulma was surrounded by other important-looking business associates, deep in discussion. "She looks busy to me. Go home."

"Yamcha can stay if he wants," Krillin said defensively, and Naomi nodded in agreement, causing her chin to bounce a millimeter up my leg. I tried not to notice.

"Fine. What do I care? I've wasted enough of my time with you losers anyway." With that, he strode off to the food table. There, Goku was gobbling down everything, and Vegeta tried to get him to stop.

"What a jerk. This whole place is full of jerks," Naomi said. "Yamcha, take me to your house, I wanna see it. And then we can forget about this whole house of jerks, okay?"

"No thanks, why don't you ask Krillin?" I got up, causing her to fall back onto her bottom. I walked away towards Bulma before she could do anything to retaliate.

"Yamcha!" Bulma said when she saw me. "What a nice… surprise! What're you doing here?"

"We need to talk. If you're busy, I can wait." I wasn't going to let her get away.

"Oh, I guess I could get away for awhile. Alright?" she asked the men, and they shrugged casually and started up a new conversation.

I led her to a vacant room, with nothing in it except for a card table. Seated on each side was a folding chair.

"We don't need those two chairs," I told her as I sat down. She sat down in front of me, a smile fixed on her face.

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Us. Bulma, you've been avoiding me, and I really miss you. What did I do wrong?"

She looked startled. "You didn't do anything wrong, Yamcha. You've always been really sweet to me. It's just that I… Well, after hearing about the Androids and stuff, I guess I needed time to clear my head."

I could practically taste the lie as it left her lips. She was never a good liar. "That was almost a year ago, and I haven't talked to you in like seven weeks," I told her. "Just tell me the truth."

"Okay…" She took her time to pick out the words, breathing slowly. Finally, looking down at her hands, she spoke.

"The thing is… The truth is, I don't love you anymore."

… Her words stopped my heart dead…

Didn't love me anymore? That couldn't be true… She cared about me and I cared about her… It must've been some kind of joke.

But if it was, her eyes didn't show it. The oval liquid sapphires for eyes that I used to stare into night after night were still looking down at her hands. They looked guilty, but not regretful. Just sort of saddened.

What had I done?

"Why not?" I asked, trying my best not to let my voice tremble.

"It's nothing you did," she said quickly, as if reading my mind. "It's just… I don't know, Yamcha. Relationships come and go, and I feel like ours went. It just kinda… burned out. I know you don't understand, but I feel like breaking up is the best thing for us now. I'm sorry. I still love you, Yamcha, you know that, but not as a girlfriend anymore."

"Then who do you love?" I spat, before I could stop myself.

"No one," she said, but her cheeks had turned a slight shade of pink. It was a good thing she lied, I didn't want to know the answer anyway.

"So… you're dumping me."

"Yes."

"I still don't understand why."

She nodded. "I don't expect you to, but I don't think there's any other way to explain it. Our boyfriend/girlfriend relationship has hit a plateau, and we can either break up, or… Or continue wasting our times."

I took the wrapped box out of my coat and put it on the table. "Merry Christmas." I got up, stepped out of the room, and started to leave before she could say anything.

Vegeta was leaning against the front door in my way, wearing a smirk on his face. I had a feeling maybe he'd been listening to the conversation.

"Hello, hello," he greeted.

"Move."

He obeyed, but as I swept past him through the door, he leaned close enough so he could whisper into my ear.

"Loser."

I couldn't sleep for the next few weeks. I was getting bags under my eyes, and my hair… yuck. The goal to be worthy of fighting the Androids was gone. There just wasn't any point; I'd stopped training, and developed a sort of flab about my waist.

Puar begged me, pleaded me, practically ordered me to get out of the house and see a doctor. I didn't listen. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

Except…

Why're you doing this? a voice inside me asked as I flew to Capsule Corp.

"To find out who Bulma's seeing," I replied out loud.

It's only going to hurt, Yamcha, it promised. I landed within a block of where she lived and walked the rest of the way. Don't do this.

"I have to."

I quickened my pace and was almost running by the time I arrived. My hand was shaking when I knocked on the door, but no one answered. That's when I heard a noise coming from the back. I hopped off the porch and made my way around. The noise turned out to be a female's squealing and a male's grunting.

Get the hell out of here, Yamcha. Please.

"No," I resisted in soft a whimper. Curiosity had gotten the better of me, and I couldn't…

I heaved myself up the ten-foot fence so I was hanging off it and peering over the side. What I saw turned all my guts cold.

Vegeta and Bulma were entangled in a small mud pit, doing what I guess was supposed to be some sort of wrestling match. Vegeta was winning, I think, because he was on top of her. They wore no clothes.

I couldn't tear my eyes away until after they were done, both lying on their backs side by side, covered in mud. Vegeta said, "Saiyan's mate for life."

"Mmm," was her reply. It looked like she was about to doze off to sleep.

He got up and hovered above her. Quite simply, he stated, "You're mine."

"Okay."

He leaned down and kissed her. Before I could see if she returned the kiss, I fell from the fence and flew off as fast as I could. I knew for sure Vegeta noticed the sudden burst of power, but I didn't care. It didn't matter.

What now? I wondered after two or so hours of releasing my emotions in the mountains. I was calm now.

Keep training, the voice said, though now considerably softer than before. You have a purpose: help protect the world from the Androids. So fulfill it.

I nodded to myself and took off back home.

No, I'm still depressed for having lost Bulma, but she's a stage all of us have to go through, I guess. With that out of the way, now I think I'm ready for a real, meaningful relationship; something that I won't regret later on, and maybe affect my future in marriage or some junk like that. And with someone who'll care about me more than having a boyfriend.

Maybe Naomi.