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Bulma was nervous. More than that, actually; she was tense and agitated. Her father would have some business partners in the house, and they intended to spend a few hours here, checking out Dr. Briefs's lab.

The main reason she was on edge was obviously due to her unusual house guest, Vegeta. He had lived with them for more than a year now, but she still couldn't get used to him. No, "used to" was an understatement; she couldn't even accept the fact that she was sharing her home with him. Sure, it had been her who had invited him at first, and no, there had been nothing wrong during the 130 days when they also had the Namekians here.

It had been logical that she offered the same gesture after the boy from the future warned them about the androids. They needed every fighter, especially in this case, as the future looked so dark. Yet somehow, since that day, her life had drastically changed. She remembered how Vegeta had begun to demand training equipment. First only from her father, then from her as well, and finally only from her. Sometimes it was a curse to be a genius. As the Prince soon figured out, she knew more about mechanics then her father, so she became his primary target.

She wished it was only about creating new tools for him, but no… that royal jackass broke almost everything instantly, and he demanded her to repair it with impossible deadlines like "right away" or "at this instance". She tried to reason with him, saying that even for her it takes time, but he was just so damn stubborn! The situation in itself was hard, but now that they had actual guests, she wasn't sure what to do.

"He is always sleeping at this time. You don't have to worry!" her father commented when she raised her concern regarding the idea of letting normal people in their house.

"Even if he meets them, he is such a gentleman that he won't cause any trouble," her mother smiled, not helping at all.

"I think both of you are forgetting what he did in the past. Come on, he even came to Earth to kill us all!" Bulma said, not believing how naïve her parents could be.

"I don't see why you are worried; he never tried to harm me," Bunny called, a warm smile on her face.

"Yeah, because he needs you to cook," Bulma tried to explain, but seeing how her mother wanted to object, she decided it was better to leave the living room.

From one perspective it was lucky that the business partners arrived at two a.m., because indeed, Vegeta was in his room from one until five. Still… What would happen, should he decide to get up for some reason? Also, he only wore really tight training shorts with sneakers, leaving his muscular chest bare. Truthfully, Bulma mostly didn't mind that as she was enjoying the sight - and she was angry with herself for that. Still, it might not be wise to let their business partners see him, especially as some of them were women. Middle-aged, sex-less, hormonal women.

"This sucks. Yamcha was right, I shouldn't have invited him…" Bulma thought, then grinded her teeth. They'd broken up a couple of months ago, and this time she had decided that it would be a permanent break-up. No more going back, no more forgiving. No, she still preferred to think about Vegeta and the guests, other than Yamcha.

So, the guests… Yes, they would arrive within a couple of minutes, and luckily Vegeta was already in his room, thus she shouldn't worry. Regardless of what her realistic self told her, she was sitting on the floor in front of her door, and she was keeping a look-out for the Prince. His room was only two doors away, so she had a good view. First, she played with the idea of camping in front of his door, but she realised that he could sense Ki, and he would find it quite strange.

"And here they come," she murmured, looking up from her laptop as she heard the doorbell ring. She faintly heard how they exchanged greetings with her father, then all became really quiet again. She tried to focus on her new project, and just when she managed to do so she heard Vegeta's door open.

Before she could get up, he was already looking down at her, asking, "What are you doing here?"

It was a good question, but she wasn't planning on telling him the truth. To be honest, she had no idea what to say. Damn, she should have prepared a lie! How could she be so dumb?

"I needed some other perspective," she heard herself saying, while she put down the PC and got up.

Vegeta looked at her like she was crazy, and sincerely, for this once, she did agree with him. Other perspective… really? Was that the best answer she could come up with?

She suddenly became conscious of the fact that her unusual house guest was about to go down to the ground floor. While the business partners were most probably on the roof, as their primary objective was to check a brand new telescope made by her father - and that's why they came so late, they would eventually go down to the lab, which was also on the ground floor.

"Where are you going?" she asked, blocking his way.

"To the kitchen," he answered, somewhat irritated and indicating with his hand for her to move.

"You never go to the kitchen at this hour," Bulma said, trying to keep her voice calm.

"So?"

"So… you shouldn't go. You need food? I can get you some!"

This last statement earned a shocked look from Vegeta. She never offered to serve him food; she always emphasized that she was not one of his servants.

"I don't have time to fool around, move!" Vegeta snarled.

"Make me!"

Bulma wanted to mentally kick her own ass, challenging him that way. It was obvious he could push her out of the way. Sure, he wouldn't hurt her for known reasons, but still, he could easily remove her from his way. Unexpectedly, he seemed to hesitate, and that caught Bulma off-guard. He lifted his hands to grab her, but somehow he froze halfway. It was almost like he was afraid to touch her. Why?

Vegeta had no idea what this was all about. When he had woken up a couple of minutes ago, he had already sensed that the woman was outside his room, and he couldn't understand why. It was confirmed once he stepped out of his room and saw her. She behaved more than strange, even compared to her "normal" self. He had no intention of making sense of any of her actions, yet this was only more strange to him than anything so far.

Okay, maybe her inviting him to live here was crazier, but apart from that… Yes, he still couldn't understand that move; not that he minded it. It came in handy, especially since he discovered that she could even invent stuff to help him train. If only he had known that when he first came here! He was still outraged that he simply wasted 130 days. He had every intention to push her out of the way, yet he couldn't, because that would require touching her, and for some reason he didn't want to do that. For a while now he had been trying to avoid her and minimize their conversations even more. Not that they talked a lot in the first place.

Anyway, he wanted to avoid physical contact, because… well... Damn, it's not important why! He just needed another way to get to the kitchen. As soon as the idea formed in his mind - which was going back to his room, fly out of the window and climb back using one on the ground floor - he turned around to leave. That was when he felt it; her touch. She simply grabbed his hand and tried to hold him back.

"How dare you touch me?" he asked, grinding his teeth.

"I…" Bulma began, not quite sure how to continue.

As she was holding his arm, it felt pleasantly warm and as somehow the muscles tensed, she could feel them under his skin. She never imagined that even his forearm was so gorgeous.

Gorgeous? Just what the hell was she thinking? Sure, she was aware that Vegeta was actually good-looking and his body was… well, let's just say pleasing to the eye, but that shouldn't have any influence on her. He was a major jackass, with the worst attitude ever.

"Let me go!" Vegeta repeated, and at just that moment Bulma heard the elevator going down.

Crap! Her father would go downstairs and it would be inevitable that Vegeta ran into them. Unless… Unless what? It's not like she had any physical power over him, she could not force him to stay. What other choice did she have? Think girl, thing fast!

She could try to distract him, but how? There was no topic in the world which would start a conversation between them. She had already offered to serve him and that didn't help either. Then what?

As soon as the idea hit her, she was sure she had gone nuts. But it seemed like a plan, on the grounds that nobody would ever try to distract him that way.

"Vegeta?" she whispered, and he looked back at her impatiently.

That's when she acted, thinking that this was the only way. She stepped closer, closing the gap between them, and simply kissed him. First, as her lips were touching his, there was no reaction from his side. He wasn't kissing back, yet he didn't push her away either. She assumed he just completely froze, most probably never expecting this action from her.

As she reached this conclusion, she wanted to pull back, yet it felt nice. She could also feel his chest as she pressed herself against him. Then suddenly he opened his mouth, and while Bulma wasn't sure whether it was for him to object, or to let her deepen the kiss, she decided she couldn't care less. She deepened the kiss, and to her utter shock, the next moment Vegeta was returning the favor. Her head began to fill with questions, yet she pushed them aside, determined to enjoy the moment as she was sure it would be over soon. She was right; only a couple of seconds passed when the Prince pushed her away and took back a step. They were facing each other, slightly out of breath. Then, after a moment or two, Vegeta went back to his room and slammed the door.

"What the hell was that?" Bulma asked, steadying herself by using the wall.

She had never expected this reaction from him, and it was even stranger that she ended up enjoying it a lot. Her dream was right after all; Vegeta was a great kisser.

In the meantime, the Prince also struggled with his own questions. Sure, he was outraged that the woman had kissed him, but he was more infuriated with himself for kissing her back. She was just a mere human with no significance. Sure, she had a nice body, and her looks seemed exotic, as Saiyans had black hair and…

Damn! That was not even the point! He took a cold shower, then angrily threw himself on the bed, completely forgetting that he wanted to have some late dinner.

When Vegeta didn't emerge after half an hour, Bulma was sure that after all she had managed to distract him, but at what price? Her heart beat like crazy after the kiss, and now when she thought back on it, her face flushed and her heart-rate increased again. She shook her head and went back to her own room, determined to forget the kiss once and for all. She needed to stay away from Vegeta, because... because she just couldn't let herself get attached to him. No way!

…

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