Why do You Care?
The sun warmed the sky as a slim, tall figure stepped onto the balcony of her room. Bulma Briefs fluffed her aqua curls and leaned over the railing to see her mother laying in a chair next to the pool, sunbathing. She sighed and went back into her room. Only her mother would be tanning at eight in the morning. Her father was probably still sleeping half of the day away, and her none too polite houseguest was probably training like he always did.
She dressed in jeans, a pink v-cut shirt, and her lab jacket and headed downstairs. Breakfast was usually a solo event unless Vegeta had skipped dinner. Then, it was usually a grab-what-you-can situation that involved plenty of swearing and complaining from both sides. As Bulma finished, her mother entered in her bathing suit.
"Oh, hey dear what are you doing up this early?" She asked, whipping off her sunglasses and setting them down on the table.
"Eating." Bulma said shortly. She was far from a morning person.
"Well, I can't believe you have to wake up this early!" Mrs. Briefs grabbed a glass and filled it with water then faced her daughter. "What keeps you so busy?"
"Vegeta, lab work, Vegeta." Bulma said tiredly. "If dad didn't keep up Capsule Corp. I don't know how I'd be able to handle everything."
"Well I'm sorry you have to do all that, dear! If there's any way I can help just let me know!"
Bulma shifted in her seat and smiled painfully. "Thanks, mom but I've got to get going. We have to re stock food again."
"Ok dear have fun!" Mrs. Briefs turned and walked back outside, glass in hand.
Bulma sighed and went outside to her air car. The bright yellow car glared in the sun as Bulma fired it up and headed out. She concentrated on the road, not wanting to think about her miserable situation at home. Of course she had never been happier to see her house after the events on Namek, being a frog hadn't been fun, but there was certainly something missing. She had been (almost) on her own, and had kind of liked being away from the world for a little while. Now that she was back with her parents…. Well, it was taking some getting used to.
At least she had the androids to keep her mind off of her problems. Just a few days ago she had thought of making a switch to deactivate the robots. She figured that the technology used to create them must be far superior to what she had, but in time she would be able to work out the kinks and hopefully help everyone to defeat the coming threat. Between that and Vegeta she had little time to herself, but she didn't mind. The earth was in jeopardy, and she was ready to help.
Another problem appeared as she was checking out. She had finished pushing the fourth cart of precariously stacked food at the cashier and was about to whip out her card when she heard a very familiar voice. She turned to see Yamcha and a pretty brunette kissing.
"YAMCHA?!" She shrieked, almost dropping her wallet.
"Bulma!" Yamcha choked out, stepping back from the woman next to him. "What- what are you doing here?"
"I don't believe this!" Bulma continued as if she hadn't heard him. "I'm busy for two days and you move on to the first slut you see!"
"Hey!" The brunette said angrily. "I'm no slut! Its not my fault you can't hang on to a man!"
Bulma rounded on her, "You can keep this one, he's not worth it!" She turned from the couple and tossed the boy hiding behind his cash register her card. "Bill me and ship it to this address." Bulma stormed out to her car and raced for home, drying her eyes only after she knew she was far enough away.
Vegeta gasped for air. Working and 350 times gravity was taking its toll. He could barely gather enough energy to stay walking, let alone fight off a robot and his own Ki blast. The only thing that kept him going was the sight of Kakkarot standing across from the boy from the future. His hair was bright yellow and his entire essence crackled with power. He was smirking and easily deflecting the boy's swings with a sword as if it was nothing. That was Vegeta's glory, Vegeta's birthright. Given to a man with no allegiance to their Saiyan race, no experience. He was a level three dog who had somehow, impossibly, surpassed the prince.
He drilled himself to the breaking point, spending day and most of the night perfecting his skills and fighting for his life. Kakkarot's presence was always there and always above him.
He fell again, the gravity taking a toll on his body. He could barely fill his lungs with air but smirked through the pain. The more the better, the more the closer. He struggled up and flew into the air as a bot fired at the spot where he was crouching. He sucked in as much air as he could and screamed, raising his power level to seventy percent of his maximum. He gathered an energy beam in his hand and sluggishly threw his beam at another of the four bots. It was easily caught and bounced back at him. His eyes widened with shock. He crossed his arms defensively across his chest and powered up to his maximum. The blast exploded and shook the interior of the gravity room. Vegeta lowered his arms slowly and looked around. Good, everything had stayed in tact. He lowered to the ground and turned off the gravity. He walked past the four grounded bots and stepped out of the room.
The woman had made improvements to the bots at some point of time. They should not have been able to block a blow of that kind. He was pleased with the improvement, but he couldn't have the room breaking down on him like last time. He entered the main capsule corp. mansion and sought out Bulma's ki. He locked on and made his way through the labyrinth that was his temporary home.
Bulma sat heavily on the boxes of food that had just been dropped at her house. The boy at the cashier must have warned them to be nice to her, because when they had dropped off the boxes they had smiled and tried to cheer her up. It hadn't worked and Bulma wished she had never felt the need to go shopping. Still, she guessed that it was about time their relationship had ended. Yamcha had cheated on her one to many times in the past. Her not-so-charming-prince had to become history.
She started opening the boxes and placing items in their proper places. She stashed food underneath the sink for anytime during the next month she might feel the need for some comfort food.
The door to the Kitchen banged open, and Vegeta entered, his arms crossed. Bulma continued working as if he wasn't there until she realized something. She rifled through the bags and pulled out a bar of soap. "This is for you." She said matter-of-factly, holding it out to him.
He looked startled and stared at the off white slippery blob in her hand without moving to take it. "What?"
"I don't know if you're familiar with the word hygiene, but here it usually means showering. It may be difficult for you to understand but here on earth we don't act like animals." Since he wasn't taking the soap so she set it on the counter to the right of him and continued sorting through food.
"I don't need a stupid woman such as yourself to tell me what to do." Vegeta growled.
"Well this stupid woman keeps your gravity up and running and your food stocked." Bulma snapped, "So I wouldn't suggest making me mad."
Before Bulma could think she was up against a wall. Vegeta's hand was around her throat and her feet were flailing a good foot about the ground. Panic-stricken, she kicked wildley only to have her legs pressed against the wall under Vegeta's other arm. He smirked triumphantly, "Let's re think that, woman." He growled. He dropped her down onto the ground and she collapsed with her back against the wall. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back up to face him.
A shiver ran down Bulma's back when she realized how close Vegeta was. His body was practically on top of hers, and even though he was the same height as her she felt like he was towering over her. She stared into his cold black eyes with real fear and… something else….
Vegeta noticed her shiver and inwardly chuckled. He liked the way she reacted to him. He wanted to get closer, to see how much he could affect her… He jerked backwards slightly but returned before she could tell he had moved. What the hell was wrong with him? He stared at Bulma, at how close they were and felt a surge of desire, something he defiantly didn't expect to feel for this woman. "Structural repairs need to be made to the gravity room." He said gruffly and suddenly Bulma was alone.
Bulma collapsed onto the ground and breathed in and out slowly. She had to have imagined her heart pounding with excitement, not fear. It was all a trick of fear, all of it. No other explanation made sense. Still, she could not get the feeling of his body close to hers out of her head. She sighed and left the kitchen. An afternoon locked in her lab would make her feel better; she didn't want to have to the think about her confusing feelings.
Two hours later, Bulma had come no closer to a solution to her emotions than a solution to the overwhelming technology she was trying to tackle. She threw down her pen and rubbed her temples. "WOMAN!" Vegeta roared, pounding on the door of her lab. Her heart leapt into her throat and she instantly latched on to her desk. Her data crumpled underneath her grasp and she let go, cursing to herself. Vegeta pounded on the door a second time and demanded that she show herself. She opened the door and jumped. Vegeta was right there, glaring at her. Something had pissed him off, and now he was out for blood.
"What do you want, Vegeta?" Bulma demanded, hiding her fear behind falsely confident blue eyes.
"I had said that I wanted the gravity room fixed." Vegeta growled impatiently, "Not two hours later. I have to train now, and every moment wasted is another moment I could have been preparing to save your pathetic planet. If you don't as I say the minute I say it from now on I'll just kill you and find a better replacement."
"There is no one better than me and you know it, Vegeta. I'm working towards defeating the androids as well. But I doubt you're actually worried about the androids as much as beating Goku. Or, at least, that's what you say."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Vegeta asked, his voice was dangerously calm.
"I think you want to be good, or you want to try to save people instead of kill them for once."
Vegeta frowned angrily, "There is no good in me, woman. Just do what I say." He walked away from her, seething and not knowing exactly why he was so angry. How could her words affect him in that way?
Bulma watched Vegeta retreat and sighed. She went into her lab and picked up her toolbox. She didn't know what was wrong with the gravity room. Vegeta had said that it needed structural repairs but if that was true she would need more than her toolbox.
She exited her house and crossed the grass to the huge GR. It was badly beaten, and it broke Bulma's heart to see her creation destroyed, but she was more concerned about why it was so badly beaten. "What happened?" She looked Vegeta over but there were no physical injuries that she could see and there was no falter in his movement.
Vegeta frowned as if the question bothered him, but responded, "A combination of your robots, Ki blasts, and me."
"Do you even know when to stop, in case you kill yourself?" Bulma asked. Her voice was on the edge of anger. He didn't seem to care about what happened to him as long as he beat Goku.
"I can tell for myself when I should quit." Vegeta didn't add that he usually disregarded his own warnings and continued training. "Just repair the thing, woman. I'm behind enough as it is."
By just looking at it, Bulma could tell that it was going to take more than a simple patch job to fix the thing, but she went inside anyway. She wanted to make sure Vegeta didn't kill himself, and there was only one way to do that.
The inside of the GR was worse than the outside. There were dents everywhere, and her bots were almost dead. She went over to the main controls and opened the top. After fiddling around for five minutes, she had completed her task and closed it up. Still, she had to tell Vegeta the bad news.
Bulma walked out into the sun and sighed. Vegeta was standing with his arms crossed. He seemed to know that there was a problem, but didn't say anything. "Vegeta, this is going to take more than one day. I'll need at least a week to fix this thing."
Vegeta looked pissed. "And you couldn't just do it right the first time?" He asked dangerously.
"I'm sorry, I know how much you need to train but unless you want to be buried again, I would find some other way to train for the next week.
"This is the first and last time I will allow this." Vegeta growled. "Don't screw it up again, woman." He powered up and flew away.
Bulma sighed in relief. She had been sure that Vegeta was going to hurt her, but apparently he didn't want to. She smiled. He has good in him, whether he likes it or not. She headed inside and immediately started gathering men and supplies. Vegeta may have good in him, but she didn't want to test his patience if she didn't have to.
Vegeta flew through the air, headed for the mountains. His jaw was tense and his fists were closed tight. He could practically feel his eyes burning with anger. Still, unbelievably, he had been able to control himself.