A/N: You could say that this is set in the three years before the androids, I make a mention of it somewhere in the story. But, I don't know. I don't really like Yamcha, but I don't hate him enough to believe that he would do something like this but I was listening to a song that just possessed me to write this. I don't think that it is something that WOULD happen, but I wrote it and that's that.

Pieced together

'Shit. How am I going to get through the house without him seeing me?' thought Bulma as she limped up to the front door of Capsule Corp. She stopped at the front door looking at it as if it could possibly help in her dilemma.

Finally, she sighed and opened the door cautiously, casting a quick glance at the light coming from the kitchen. Silently she listened to see if there was any noise coming from it.

Nothing.

Another sigh, this one of relief. She stepped into the house and closed the door quietly behind her. She made her way to the kitchen and peeked around the corner. Naturally, no one was in it so she turned the light off. She climbed the stairs, occasionally side stepping so that they wouldn't squeak as they had a tendency to do sometimes. 'How can I face the gang tomorrow? Is he going to be there? Maybe I should just say I'm sick? Yeah…I think that will be the best plan. Maybe kill two birds with one stone; say I'm sick and his Royal Pain In the Ass will hopefully leave me the hell alone for once. Ah! Finally! Bed!'

Bulma silently shut her door, being as the Royal Pain was right next door and would surely wake up if her door slammed….then he would come in and, naturally, start arguing with her. 'Not tonight buddy. I gotta get cleaned up and there ain't no way I'm going to be talking to you till I can see how bad he did it tonight.' She walked over to her bedside table and turned the lamp on, casting a soft glow on her pale blue room. Painstakingly, she removed her shirt. 'Why did I have to wear a damn pull over shirt?' Then proceeded to remove her skirt, 'At least I did something right…' Sighing and kicked it away. Silently she thanked herself that she didn't wear socks or stockings being as she was too sore to even bend over. So she sat on the bed and kicked her heels off. She stood up and walked to the mirror on her wall and gasped.

He had completely lost control this time. Her legs were black and blue where he had taken the book to her. Her hips and waist had his handprints ebbed into her skin where he had grabbed her as she tried to get away from him after she fell. Her torso and breasts were a sea of open wounds where he had smashed the vases on her. She turned to the side to see what damage was done there and gasped. Her right thigh was terrible. 'No wonder I couldn't walk.' There was a deep wound about 4 inches long starting mid thigh. She had backed up onto the couch and had gotten it when she fell onto it. One of the springs from the damn thing had poked out and got her in the leg. But since she was too scared to even think about a silly little spring, she just ripped it out and ran, thus falling and getting the bruises she had now.

She turned back around. The only places she didn't have any bruises or cuts were her arms and surprisingly her face. In a way she was thankful for that because now she wouldn't have to explain to everyone why she was wearing long pants and sleeves in the middle of summer. She had some light pants that wouldn't look too out of place that she could wear until the bruising went away…but no swimming for a while.

She didn't have to take a bra off being as the shirt had a built in one, so she took her underwear off and grabbed her bathrobe and proceeded to her personal bathroom. She turned the bath on, checked the water temperature and grabbed some alcohol from the medicine cabinet, some cotton balls, and a wash cloth. She turned the water off, took her bathrobe off, and eventually got in the tub.

She hissed as the warm water engulfed her and washed over her cuts. She tried to relax in the water, get used to the warmness on her cuts but it didn't work. She took the wash cloth, soaked it, and drained it on her poor body where the cuts were. Hissing and occasionally yelping in pain. She had to keep her right leg up and out of the water since the cut was not doing too well in the warm water. She didn't think she was yelping too loud but apparently she was.

"Damn it woman! What the fuck are you doing?! Some of us like to sleep to ya know!" shouted a certain angry prince on the other side of her bathroom door.

"Sleep? You actually know what that is? I'm amazed! Congratulations Vegeta! Now you can go back to bed!" shouted Bulma.

"I would but your yelping like a damn dog!"

Bulma sighed, clearly not in the mood to be arguing with him. It had been 8 months since that kid had told them about the androids that would be coming. And when Goku told her about her having a kid, something that wouldn't be happening, 'He HAD to be delusional or something.', Yamcha had thought that that had meant that they would finally get married and start a cute little family. Bulma scoffed. Not if she had anything to do about it. Actually, that's why she was in the state she was in at the moment. She had broken it off with him, this time for good. Some of her friends had seen him the other day with a girl who clearly did NOT have light blue hair. She didn't want to know the details, because the only reason he would be with another girl, other than Chi chi, would be for one thing: sex. She gave him sex! They did it like any other couple! But apparently, she wasn't good enough for him.

"Damn it woman! What the hell are you doing?! "

"Taking a bath Vegeta."

Vegeta faltered on the other side of the door. Something was clearly wrong with the woman. She wasn't arguing as much as he would like her too. And, was that, depression he heard in her voice? Yes. It was. 'Damn it. That damn idiot again. Why does he always have to ruin my fun with her? Verbal sparring is just as much fun as physical sparring…and he has to go and ruin it every damn time.' He stopped thinking to himself as he heard her splashing and having a hard time getting up out of the bath.

He heard a soft "Damn it" on the other side of the door and smirked a little. He may appear like a hard ass but he respected Bulma and being as she was significantly weaker than he was, he took it upon himself to look out for her. He could easily kill her, but then who would he have his daily arguments with? Yes there were other people but he liked arguing with Bulma better. And who would fix the GR when it broke? Yes her father could do it, but Vegeta was SURE that Bulma looked a LOT better in cut-off jeans and he was sure she had sexier legs and a cuter butt than her dear old dad.

CRASH!

"Woman?! Open up the damn door!!"

Something happened. He could feel it. Something wasn't right, whether it be with her or the fact that something crashed in her bathroom after hearing her struggle to get out of the bath tub.

He heard a weak voice. "I'm fine Vegeta. I just slipped that's all. You can leave now."

He glared at the door, folding his arms over his chest. "Over my dead body I'm leaving."

He heard her sigh. "Okay. Since I know you're not going to be leaving any time soon, you might as well come in and help me with this. The door's unlocked."

Bulma looked at the door from where she was on the ground and then looked back down at the floor when he opened the door. She heard him take a sharp intake of breath and she looked up. His body was rigid, his face was normal, but his lips had gotten thinner, and his eyes were a sea of rage. She looked back down.

He opened that door and was NOT expecting what he saw. He half expected to see her half in, half out of the bath tub. But no. She was face first, all out of the tub. Her bathrobe thrown carelessly over her back in attempt to cover herself from Vegeta. He noticed that it wasn't her long robe, but her shirt cotton one. He looked at her bowed head and felt…what was it that they called it? Sorrow? He looked at her legs. He did a double take. Bruises? And then he saw the red streak on her right thigh that was seeping through the cotton as he stood there. His next emotion? Rage. He saw red and fought with himself to keep control. Her crying brought him back to reality.

He walked in to her bathroom and picked her up in his arms, turning her around so she faced him. She started sniffling and tried to cover herself up but the robe was stuck between her and his arms.

"Stop moving. I'm not going to do anything to you right now but get you in bed and have you put some bottoms on so I can look at your leg." He whispered in her ear. Bulma nodded and didn't look at him as he took her to her bed. He gently laid her in it and went rummaging through her drawers till he found some pale pink boxers for her to wear. He took them to her and turned around so she could put them on with some privacy.

"Okay." She whispered.

He turned. She was still embarrassed about him seeing her naked. A small smile crept onto his lips as he sat down on her bed next to her. Her hair had fallen on her face and he reached up and put it behind her ear. She still couldn't look at him and he could see a faint blush on her face. He took her chin and gently turned her head towards him. Her deeps pools of cerulean blue looking, penetrating, his onyx eyes. He put his forehead on hers, closed his eyes and said in a soft voice she had only heard once before, "Tell me you're done with him?"

"I am."

He opened his eyes, his forehead still planted on hers, and leaned back. She looked at him with confusion in her eyes. He got up and walked into her bathroom and came back with the alcohol she had pulled out of her cabinet.

"Roll over." His voice deep yet soft.

She did and she felt him taking a cloth and putting it underneath her leg. Then he wiped away the excess blood that had oozed out of the wound and she bit her pillow, tearing into it as he poured the alcohol right into it. The tears were running down her cheeks. She didn't know when he stopped pouring, all she knows was that the pain was still there; her eyes clamped shut, her tears seeping out of her shut eyelids. And then she felt his finger wiping away her tears. Her eyes snapped open.

"He's not worth it, Bulma. Let me take care of him. Let me be the first to take care of him. But even if you tell me no, I will leave this place and go after him."

"I know you will Vegeta. But why are you doing this?"

She looked at him some more. The confusion evident in her eyes and amazingly in his eyes. "I don't know. I honestly don't know why I'm doing this."

"Stay with me tonight Vegeta. Please? I don't want to be left alone."

He took his hand away from her face and looked at her wall. Should he stay or should he go back to his room? God knows he needed the clothes…all he was in were his black boxers…but maybe he could live without his pajama pants till morning. He didn't want that excuse for a fighter coming here and terrorizing Bulma. And all these new emotions she was making him feel. What were they?

Vegeta got so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice Bulma's hand on the side of his face until she turned his head towards her. They looked at each other and she kissed him. At first he was surprised but then leaned into the kiss putting his passion and confusion into it. He leaned into Bulma pushing her back into the bed and crawled on top of her. 'What am I doing?!?! She just had the crap beaten out of her by Yamcha and here I am taking advantage of her!' He started pulling away but Bulma's hand stopped him.

"Don't leave me. I didn't protest what you were doing." She said in a voice laced with passion. "Come back to me."

Vegeta leaned back over her and kissed her again, while undoing her bathrobe that she must have tied together after getting her little boxers on. He pushed it over her shoulders and kissed her down her neck and down to her breasts.

The next morning

"BULMA! GET THE HELL DOWN HERE YOU DIRTY LITTLE WHORE!"

Vegeta's eyes snapped open. Bulma had shot up in bed. She looked at him.

"I know your sleeping with him Bulma! You have been! For MONTHS! Don't think I don't know about it! Your as guilty as I am you WHORE!"

Vegeta had rolled out of bed and put his boxers on and walked out to Bulma's balcony to look down at the disgrace of a human on the lawn. Vegeta's nose wrinkled in disgust at the smell coming from Yamcha. This was one point in his life where he wished he didn't have an acute sense of smell.

"You BASTARD! You took her from me! You should have stayed DEAD!"

Vegeta smirked and crossed him arms over his chest. "And leave you here to continually beat her and treat her like shit? Or you've got to be kidding. It's YOU who should have stayed dead."

"Say that to my face you dumb ass monkey!"

Vegeta growled and flew down to the ground where Yamcha was. Bulma at this time had carefully wrapped herself in a sheet and walked out to her balcony where Vegeta had been not 10 seconds before. She glanced over the balcony ledge and watched what was happening.

Vegeta clearly had the upper hand since Yamcha was drunk. Vegeta knew she didn't want him dead so he just toyed with him. Pushing him around with some ki blasts and knocking him over, spinning him around, making him sick. Bulma was actually enjoying herself until Yamcha attempted to punch Vegeta. Vegeta easily dodged the 'attack', but punched Yamcha himself and watched him pummel through trees and walls till he stopped at the edge of the Capsule Corp. property. Vegeta flew over to where Yamcha laid and said in a deep, menacing voice, "If you EVER come back here again, I WILL kill you just like I did that first time got it?" Yamcha nodded. "And if you EVER come near the woman again, I will kill you like I killed Nappa got it?" Another weak nod from Yamcha. "Now SCRAM!" Yamcha fell over himself more times than he would care to count to get away from Vegeta. Vegeta stood at the edge of the property until he could no longer sense Yamcha anymore, then he flew back to the balcony to see Bulma standing there in nothing but her sheet, the wind blowing in her hair making her hair flow beside her and the sheet wrap around her ankles.

He landed and walked up to Bulma, stopping just a foot away from her. She looked at him then walked right into his arms. He wrapped his arms around her, inhaled her scent, and kissed her hair. Then he smirked. "Ready for round 2, little one?"

"Don't you mean round 5, Vegeta?" He could feel her smile against his chest as she said that and he laughed. He kissed her hair, laughed some more and picked her up.

"Yes. I mean round 5." And shut the door to her room.

A/N: Okay. My first fic so please, if your going to say something, be as nice as you can okay? Lol. And don't ask why I named it "Pieced together". I don't know why lol.

R & R!

KJ