This little one-shot is just something I cooked up as a present to my good friend, and normal beta, Kanotari because today marks one year she's been part of Team Dragon Star and she's a huge Bulma & Vegeta fan. Also thanks to kalebxdd who beta'd this for me. Please enjoy.
Fire and water are the two elements commonly referred to as polar opposites. To a certain Saiyan prince, everything which had two distinct positions, he thought of as either fire or water. Consistent with the flame-like nature of his widow's peak, Vegeta thought of things more so in the sense of fire, whether it'd be a flame, fireplace, or, he feared, the burning, fiery passion in the eyes of his wife.
That was the problem the Prince of all Saiyans faced at this point. Apparently, he'd forgotten something important and, for the life of him, he couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. He knew he was in deep shit, considering how mad his wife was.
"Vegeta!" Bulma screeched. "How fucking dare you!" The battle-hardened warrior winced, instinctively covering his ears in apprehension.
"Woman, I cannot take your insufferable babbling!" he shouted back. Despite being in a tricky situation, he couldn't allow his pride to take a blow. On the inside, where nobody could openly see it, his emotions were whirling. He hated seeing his lifelong mate upset and on the verge of balling her eyes out.
"You are such an arrogant prick!"
"Sue me for it, Woman." Vegeta smirked arrogantly when he heard the Brief's heiress mumble under her breath and angrily stalk towards her bedroom.
As the bluenette exited the room, the surly fighter's two children, Trunks and Bra, entered the room.
"Dad," Trunks greeted. "What did you do to piss Mom off this time?"
Vegeta grunted but otherwise didn't reply, not even entirely certain himself.
His little princess, however, jumped in. "You forgot the anniversary of your first official date, Daddy," the eight-year-old chimed.
The Saiyan prince internally facepalmed at his stupidity. He knew just how sentimental the mother of his children could be, and yet he continuously tested her patience. Vegeta sighed in exasperation, resigning himself to his fate. "What do you brats suggest I do?" he inquired, calling his children brats in the nicest way possible.
"You could take her on a romantic date," Bra cooed, earning a resentful snort from her lilac-haired brother. The Saiyan princess levelled the finest eight-year-old glare she could manage at Trunks, which subsequently earned a proud expression from her father.
"I don't know, Bra," Vegeta replied uncertainly. While it would resolve the situation, it would also open up the hard-hearted warrior to a slew of emotional weaknesses.
His children left him at that moment to consider his options. No option appeared to be foolproof, and Vegeta knew he would need to relent on his convictions in order to appease his woman this time.
The former world-destroyer glanced in the direction his blue-haired lover had disappeared to and realized exactly what he had to do.
...
"Where the hell are you taking me, Vegeta!?" Bulma hollered as her rough Saiyan husband scooped her up unceremoniously into his arms and took off into the air through a nearby window.
"WOMAN! Stop your screeching, my ears are killing me!" Vegeta glowered down at her, causing the blue-haired heiress to smirk triumphantly.
"Fine. Have it your way, Vegeta," she acquiesced. "I wouldn't want the big, bad, pink badman to be angry with me," she added with a chuckle, referencing the abomination of a shirt the Saiyan warrior had adorned when King Cold and the robotically-repaired version of Frieza touched down on the planet so many years ago.
"Speaking of that time period, Woman, I think I know why you're so angry with me."
That confession startled Bulma since she thought that she had been inconspicuous about her anger, but hearing her lover's words intrigued her. "What would that be?"
The man carrying her very rarely showed even an ounce of emotion, even towards her, so to hear him audibly growl at her was surprising. "I will say this once, but do not ask it in future years. I can barely even stand the fact I've become soft enough to remember this. Yesterday was an anniversary of our first date. Am I correct?"
Bulma loved her man, but knew he'd be too proud to admit it out loud. Aside from the one instance immediately following the Majin Buu saga, he had never once admitted his deep-running feelings for her.
"By the way, Woman, we're going to a village I discovered a long time ago while sparring with that third-class clown of a Saiyan." Bulma was certainly intrigued by his statement, but opted not to question the matter and instead chose the wait-and-see method.
She clung closely to her husband's chiseled muscles and sighed contentedly. Considering how scarce the moments were where they could enjoy one another's company without the distraction of Trunks and Bra, or any of his self-entitled speeches of Saiyan dominance, she wanted to relish this one. Glancing upward, the Capsule Corporation president took in Vegeta's features, from his hard, sharp jaw to his deadly eyes. She could see so much passion and love for herself within those eyes, and the knowledge that for anyone else besides her and their children those pupils held contempt, or at best indifference, pleased her greatly.
...
It was some time later when Bulma recognized her surroundings coming into focus as Vegeta slowed to a stop. The couple was now floating high in the air above a small town, a large dome shaped building gracing the center of the town. "Where are we, Vegeta?" his wife inquired.
"We're hovering about a small village called Popo Poco, Woman. Kakarot told me his human weakling friends saved this place as kids, and I thought you would like it. That volcano is active and its ferocity matches your personality."
As Saiyan royalty, Vegeta carried himself with pride, and this day was no different. With an arrogant stride befitting of an alien prince, he approached a local restaurant.
"Mint!" he called out, raising his voice.
Immediately, a tall, beautiful blue-haired woman exited the building. Her sapphire eyes perfectly matched the beautiful shade of color of her hair, the similarities prompting Bulma to do a double take.
Vegeta had of course noticed Bulma's instant jealousy, but paid it no heed considering the circumstances. Hell, he had awarded her a public display of affection! If she was expecting something in addition to that, she was sorely mistaken!
"Hello, Vegeta." Impassive, unreadable eyes bore holes into the warrior's soul, the penetrating gaze prompting even the mighty Saiyan to flinch ever so slightly.
"Hn." The short, unintelligent response did its job well enough, causing Mint to spin on her emerald-green high heels and maneuver herself back towards the restaurant.
"Follow her, Woman. She'll take us to where we'll be dining for this wretched anniversary dinner."
Bulma released a yelp of excitement when the short Saiyan warrior grasped her hand within his, and the pair followed Mint into the small restaurant. The setup of the restaurant consisted of two main components; the first was a small tower with a red dome for a roof, whilst the second and larger portion of the building was a huge red dome. Plastered across the front door was the sign 'Mint's Eatery.'
"What kind of food do they have at this restaurant, Vegeta?" the heiress queried.
"Woman, must you ask about every little detail?" Vegeta then proceeded to internally sigh, knowing the answer before she even had the opportunity to respond. "Nevermind, don't answer that."
Mint showed the duo to a table nestled in the back corner, flush against a wall adjacent to the stairwell which Vegeta assumed led to the tower. Their bluenette waitress came to take their orders.
"What would the lovely couple like to drink?" Mint asked, nonchalantly flipping a small, rectangular notepad open and clicking her pen cap off.
Vegeta shifted his eyes towards his beautiful wife uncomfortably, obviously not used to such interaction and openly being seen with his mate. She looks undeterred and remained the course, asking which beers are on tap. After receiving her answer, Bulma ordered a kind of fruity beer called a 'Cold Heart.'
The Saiyan prince mulled over his options, before simply ordering his favorite soda. With Mint's business completed, the gorgeous blue-haired maitre d' turned around and left the odd couple to their own bidding.
"So what is all of this, Vegeta?" Bulma finally asked. The silence between them since Mint had left was apparently starting to bug her, Vegeta theorized. He wasn't exactly keen on admitting that her very apparent anger the past day had been bothering him endlessly.
"Nothing, Woman. Leave it alone." The strong warrior grumbled a few incoherent comments under his breath, but otherwise remained silent after his five word statement.
A few minutes later, Mint returned with the beverages in hand, proffering one to each of the patrons. "So what brings you back to this village, Vegeta? Last time I saw you here was with Krillin and Goku, before Cell struck terror into the planet."
Bulma looked over at Vegeta, eyes wide and stunned. It didn't surprise the alien fighter, considering how little he had communicated with Baldy and Kakarot back then. Deciding to give her the explanation that her eyes demanded at a later date, Vegeta set his eyes on Mint. "That's none of your business." He opted to be polite and civil rather than call her a bitch and a whore. He'd seen the way Krillin and her had interacted and if it weren't for the simple fact that Baldy was, incompetent he would've thought they were sleeping together, with how she latched into his arm.
"No need to be so rude, Vegeta." Mint then smirked and offered a flirtatious smile, shining her pearly white teeth in a way Vegeta guessed she thought was sexy. "Last time I saw you, if I recall correctly, you were whining uncontrollably about some, and I quote, 'insufferable bitch'," she added, complete with air quotes and everything.
Even someone as oblivious to women as Kakarot would've picked up on warning signs to how fuming Bulma was. Even as Saiyan royalty, Vegeta knew he needed to perform damage control, and immediately if he wanted to avoid a cruel fate, most likely sleeping on the couch for a week. After all, his current course of action was intended to rectify the already-existent rift between Bulma and him.
"Mint!" he barked. "Get lost, please." He knew, even from limited interaction with her, exactly how stubborn she could be and wanted, no needed, her to evacuate the premises and leave the task of calming the raging hurricane that was Bulma Brief to him, hence why he broke character and added the please.
With one blue-haired problem out of his neck, Vegeta turned his attention to his positively furious wife. If it weren't for the current source of her anger- namely, him- he would've thought she looked stunningly sexy.
"Explain. Right. Fucking. Now." Her words came out through clenched teeth, her tone giving away that she was seethingly angry.
Vegeta gulped, something he had only done a handful of times in his entire life. He was prepared for a war of words with Bulma, and even somewhat excited at the prospect. Sure, he was a proud warrior, but after the Buu saga and the birth of his wonderful daughter, his precious treasure, he had mostly relented his stubborn, mean ways. These days, the spats he had with Bulma were mainly used to maintain the deteriorating sexual tension that existed between them.
Realizing his silence had lasted long enough, since he could practically see the steam coming out of Bulma's ears, Vegeta decided it was time to respond. "During the three years from when Trunks warned us to when those buckets of bolts arrived, Kakarot and I travelled once or twice. He's the only other pure-blooded Saiyan on Earth," he explained, "so it made sense during our more prolonged spats to go spar with Kakarot. One of those times," Vegeta continued, "Baldy and Kakarot were visiting this place. Apparently Scarface, Triclops, China Doll, and Baldy saved this village from a volcanic eruption. Your short little buddy was all over Mint during our time here, and that's all there was to it."
The Brief's heiress allowed her anger to dissipate slightly, now knowing more of the facts. In fact, if Vegeta wasn't mistaken, a smirk began to grace her lips. "So, Krillin knew Mint?"
Grumbling audibly, he answered, "Yes, that's exactly what I just said, Woman!" He could not believe that she just repeated exactly what he'd just said!
"Wait a second, Vegeta," Bulma suddenly said, perking up as she did. "Did you say something about a volcano?" He could practically see the stars forming in her eyes at the prospect of whatever she wanted him to do. Grunting, he nodded affirmatively. "If you take me in the air, and float whilst holding me above the mouth of the volcano, you're forgiven for forgetting why the day was special."
Knowing he might not get another golden opportunity like this, the formerly vicious Saiyan planet cleanser agreed apprehensively. Placing enough zeni on the surface of their round, black table to cover their respective drinks, a very generous tip, and compensation for the abrupt lost business, the pair was off and running towards Popo Poco Volcano.
...
The volcano was a beautiful sight. It towered over the entire town, acting as a beacon of light, a protector of the entire village. It was truly a majestic sight to behold and it made Bulma Brief exuberant. Ever since she was a teenage girl and set out to wish for the perfect boyfriend, beautiful sights had been something she often sought out.
Glancing up at her prince, she sighed contentedly. She was currently situated with his arms wrapped around her slender waist, her head resting on her neck. Nuzzling her face into the crook of the neck, she kissed the side of his face softly, tenderly.
Beneath the hovering pair, the glorious sight of vibrant, crimson red lava remained from the many previous eruptions. Bulma took in her surroundings, realizing the beauty that existed in life was something not to be taken for granted.
"Vegeta?" she questioned, looking up at him with big, blinking eyes.
"Yes, Woman?" he responded gruffly. He was always short and to the point with his responses, even years after she'd gotten him to admit he loved her. No matter what happened, only Bra received actual constant affection from her Saiyan husband.
"Isn't it gorgeous?"
"You cannot possibly expect me to indulge in your immature infatuation with this volcano, Bulma." She knew right then she wouldn't get him to budge. When they playfully bantered, he would call her 'Woman' but when he lost his no-nonsense attitude, he always called her by her real name.
"Fine," she relented. Opting to simply stare at the breathtaking sights, the bluenette took it all in. Her lover clutches her sides firmly and she gazed upward, looking to the clouds.
As they floated high in the sky, Bulma realized the volcano, or rather, fire in general, actually, represented her love with the fiery Saiyan prince. They fought, sparred with words, and had hotheaded tempers.
It was essentially an towering inferno, much like when a volcano erupts.
Thanks for reading and please a review if you'd like.