Fandom: DBZ/ Dragon Ball
Characters: Bulma/Goku, mentions of Chi-Chi and everyone else
Word Count: 1113
Warnings: Schmoop, wildly AU, breaking up canon and my own fav pairing to make this, the rarest pairs of rare pairs. Bulma's barely restrained horniness underneath the flowery prose.

Summary: "You're right," He says, smile going soft. "But then, you're always right."

Notes: So yeah. Wild au. In order for this to be complete fluff instead of fridge angst, assume Yamcha and Bulma were already broken up at this point. In regards to GoChi's marriage promise, assume Chi-Chi never got to fight Goku in the tournament but revealed who she was to Krillin and Roshi. Bulma overheard and had a moment of "wait no, i like him a lot too". Chi-Chi was probably bummed but was just like ahhh well. Title is from As The World Falls Down - David Bowie.


i.

"Hey monkey boy," Bulma says. Her chest feels tight and her face feels hot and Goku is such a beautiful boy.

Goku laughs, the sound of it like bells and the wind in the rolling countryside. His grin is wide, unashamed; his eyes as black as the sky at night and as bright as stars. He takes her hands in his, all calluses and warm skin, and Bulma likes the feel of it, his fingers against her wrist. "I'm happy you're here," He says, simple and easy. Everything about Goku is, and it twists Bulma up inside sometimes.

This is not one of those times.

Not when he's tugging her close and there's nothing else she wants but to go with him, pulled into his orbit to bask in his warmth and simplicity. She smiles, overly aware of his gaze on her red, red mouth. "Of course you are, you'd be lost without me now that you're not up in the clouds."

His eyes are the stars and his laugh is like windchimes and he feels like light and the sun, and Bulma is suddenly, horribly, perfectly, ferociously in love.

"You're right," He says, smile going soft. "But then, you're always right."

ii.

This is a crossroads.

This is an intersection of fate and prewritten destiny.

Bulma has seen too much, gone through too much, lost and won too much, to let even her scientist's heart disregard what she can't see and touch with numbers and stacking lines of math.

She looks at Chi-Chi's milk-white skin and her fierce eyes, then looks across two branching paths. One has a tulle wedding dress and a small sleepy cottage in the woods, Goku's sweet face sleeping in another woman's bed. The other has sea salt wind blowing through her hair, her heart in her throat and Goku's hand around hers, an endless blue sky unfolding beneath them.

Bulma's hands tighten where they're clasped over her heart. Her legs feel rooted to the spot, staring down at twin iterations of herself. A Bulma who lets Goku go and a Bulma who is too selfish to even think about it, Chi-Chi's face a lovely ghost in the peripheral of her vision.

"Goku," Chi-Chi says. The veil of the wedding dress lifts at the end of the first path.

Bulma vaults over the rubble and breaks into a run down that second path, her hand reaching out for warm skin and endless sun before Goku's eyes can meet Chi-Chi's. She barrels him over, arms around his neck, the gasps of all their friends are loud in her ears. Someone shouts, "Careful!"

But Bulma doesn't need to worry.

Goku catches her because it's impossible to think of him doing anything else. She's laughing, fat tears rolling down her cheeks, blurring his beautiful face until he's a wash of colors and dark, endless eyes.

"Bulma, why are you crying?" he says, and hearing her name from his mouth brings forward a fresh flood of tears. His sturdy, gentle, kind hands cup her face and wipe her tears, inelegant and smudging her makeup. She probably looks a mess, but her vanity is her least concern because now they match; a mess but alive. Even with the sensu, he still looks like he just finished fighting for his life, dried blood at the corner of his mouth and in his hairline, dirt, and ash smeared over his face.

She fits her hand in the back of his neck, going up on her tiptoes to bring their foreheads together, intimate and close. "I don't know," she says, something low in her stomach going hot. "Maybe it's because you've gone and done the impossible again."

She's being selfish, she knows, keeping Goku's attention all on her even though he's gone and saved the world again. All their friends, all the people here would love to congratulate him, thank him, bask in his presence. But she found him first, her selfishness and love eclipse's everyone else's and he's her's if he'll allow it.

Goku laughs, nuzzling their noses together like it's nothing. "Nah, it wasn't impossible. I guess it's just what happens when you and I are together, this is just like everything else we've done."

Heart knotting up in her throat, Bulma kisses him.

Just a simple thing, lips pressed against lips, but she tastes the iron tang of his blood at the corners of his mouth. His skin is soft, but there's an electric current where they touch, she can feel it all the way to her toes. He makes a surprised sound in his throat, yet his hands stay steady on her waist. His finger's curve over her hip bone, and she shudders, drawing in his body heat like a cat soaking in a sunspot.

And then it ends. A slow, warm parting.

Her lips tingle, as if she's been kissing him for hours instead of moments.

Goku blinks down at her, a slow dust of pink touches the tips of his ears.

iii.

There's stardust in her eyes, and her skin is singing as they fly over the glittering water towards the sinking moon.

She's draped across his back, arms locked around his shoulders, and face pressed into his neck, laughing as the wind steals all her breath. The air is full of salt, bitterly cold, yet Goku's back is like a furnace. His skin smells sweet, like trees and rain and pastries. There's nowhere else Bulma would rather be but here, the stars and the sea spreading out before them. The waves crash into far-flung shores and somewhere out there is an infinite number of lonely stars collapsing in on themselves, and here on the nimbus, they'll visit each one.

It's an unspoken promise given to her when Goku pulled her up unto the golden cloud, his arms wrapping around her waist and his smile pressed secretively into her hair. Their friends waving goodbye with wet eyes, the ruined tournament grounds sinking into the distance. Insignificant in the face of their next adventure.

Goku's hand reaches up towards Bulma's where they're clasped around the jewel of his throat and tangles their fingers together.

"Take me to the edge of the universe," Bulma says. There's no need to ask if he'd follow her there, the answer is held in the absence of space between their bodies. She presses her lips to the side of his neck, soft and lush. Her lipstick has long since worn off, so she lingers, leaving her desire there.

His smile is in his voice, and Bulma knows what his happiness tastes like. "Alright, I promise. Just lead the way, because I'd be lost without you."