THEIR OWN BLESSING

Summary

Third in the "Proverbs from The World" series. Vegeta asks Bulma's hand in marriage.

Genre, couples and rating

Humor/Angst/Romance – B/V, Tarble – Rated PG for the random cuss word

Disclaimer and author's note

Nothing belongs to me, except the plot (if you'll forgive the overstatement!). I'm violating my own iron rule no.1, that DBZ movies do not exist. The idea of Vegeta having a brother needled me until I had to write a plausible explation for the secrecy of his existance and his far too young appearance. It all came together with a B/V romance, even. Aren't I grand? XD

"No blessing is bestowed upon a secret." – Yiddish proverb

Bulma realized she was slamming the breakfast dishes around and couldn't be bothered to stop. She couldn't help herself: she was mad, terribly mad at Vegeta, probably more than she'd ever been before. His pride, his callousness, his grudges, she could take all of that and love him regardless, but knowing that she was not trusted was a bit harder to digest.

"You seem upset, my lady, may I inquire about the reason?"

Bulma dried her hands and turned to Tarble, currently her host for his stay on Earth and the innocent source of her inner turmoil. She marvelled once more about his open countenance and impeccable manners. Besides the physical resemblance, he was as different from Vegeta as he could possibly be. Another particular that made her fume.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a rude host" she blurted out, too upset to keep her reasons to herself, "but having never heard about you before you appeared the other day makes me wonder what sort of relationship I'm in. Why is Vegeta so distrustful? I know I've never given him a reason to doubt me! And why hide the fact that he has a brother anyway? It doesn't make any sense!"

Tarble inclined his head to the side and looked at her intently, as if he was puzzled and was trying to understand. Finally, he smiled ruefully and shook his head.

"Brother Vegeta merely wished to protect me" he said. "He has always been that way, even as a child: he feels deeply, but will let no one see it. Surely, as his wife, you have realized this by now."

Bulma gave a frustrated huff, finding in his patronizing tone the first true resemblance to Vegeta, and the fact that he was assuming they were married made her want to throttle him.

"I just can't see why he needs to protect you from me. I'm a whole lot weaker than you in any case, how could I want or even be able to threaten your safety? And, for your information, I am not his wife. He just didn't want that to appear on his records, I imagine."

At his scandalized look, she blushed and turned away.

"Sorry, but he can be such an ass, sometimes!"

Tarble looked at her in that assessing manner of his again, and Bulma realized that was another thing in which he resembled Vegeta, that silent way of studying people that made everyone feel as if they were being judged. All her good disposition towards the smaller prince was rapidly dissipating.

"Brother Vegeta did not want to expose you to unnecessary risks" he stated confidently. "I am a target for anyone who holds a grudge against our people, and I am unfortunately not really a great warrior, as you already know. Knowing about my existence would have made you a target by extension."

Bulma shook her head. What Tarble said made little sense to her.

"A target? How can you possibly be a target more than Vegeta himself is?"

Tarble's eyes suddenly grew huge, as if he'd just had an abrupt epiphany. He looked around, seemingly to make sure that they were alone, then turned back to her.

"Of course..." he whispered, before adding more firmly: "Lady Bulma, I need to talk to you, somewhere in private."

Bulma blushed at the way he addressed her.

"Stop calling me Lady Bulma. Just Bulma will do. We can go into my study, it's soundproof."

In the study, they sat at the coffee table in the corner, and Bulma waited with baited breath for Tarble to tell whatever it was that he deemed so confidential.

"There is a lot more than I had guessed that my brother has not told you. For you to understand, I have to tell you things... things Vegeta would probably be upset about me divulging. Even if we occasionally communicated with each other over the years, we never spoke at lenght about certain matters. Please, promise me you will not tell him what I am about to reveal, at least not before I do so myself."

"I swear" she replied breathlessly.

"The reason why I am a bigger target than Vegeta is that I am the crown prince, not he. I would have been crowned the king of all saiyans, if our planet had not been destroyed. Vegeta has been acting, all these years, as my decoy."

Bulma blinked, surprised, then took a dubious look at the saiyan before her: small of built, absolutely unthreatening in appearance and attitude. She doubted that the fearsome saiyans could have ever accepted him as their king. She could hardly say that to his face, however, so she found a less offensive pretext for her doubts and voiced it.

"But... you called him older brother, he's evidently older than you, isn't the eldest prince supposed to be the heir? At least, that's how it worked on Earth in the past."

Tarble nodded.

"That's how it worked for saiyans too, but even though Vegeta is older than me, he is only by a few hours. In spite of my younger appearance, my brother and I are twins."

Bulma nearly fell out of the armchair at the astonishing piece of information. Tarble looked twenty-five at the most, but now that she thought about it, it simply couldn't be. Vegeta was thirty-eight, like her, and his home planet had been destroyed when he was six, so Tarble would have been at least thirty-two, even if they hadn't been twins.

"Uhm... so, if you're twins, why are you the crown prince? I don't want to be rude, but he's clearly stronger than you, and... well, kinda more regal, if you know what I mean."

He smiled in reply to her apologetic tone.

"I know" he admitted good-naturedly. "Brother Vegeta is small enough to be a saiyan, even Kakaroth would be considered lithe of built among our people, try to understand how I feel about my own height. However, the reason why I was chosen as heir is only because I am the ruler, while he is the fighter."

Bulma shook her head, uncomprehending.

"How could you possibly determine that from birth?"

"In the past" he explained, "it was a common thing for the royal princes to be born in couples. In very old times, the royal line was genetically engineered to produce offspring in this way. Of the two, one was the ruler, and the other was the fighter. By a simple analysis of our fighting strength I am the former, while Vegeta is the latter. The first is supposed to possess wisdom, intelligence and equilibrium, to serve his people as a king should, while the second is the strong one, engineered to physical and mental perfection to protect the home planet from invaders. Over the centuries, however, the genes that caused this distinction mingled, and when twins were born at all, their characteristics often did not match their apparent role. Our father was a single child, for example, and while his body would have led you to believe he was a fighter, in truth he was a ruler."

"He was... not strong?"

Tarble smiled, a little embarrassed.

"Father had a very imposing demeanour, but the truth is that Vegeta surpassed him in strength already at birth."

"Wow" she commented, impressed.

"Yes" the prince agreed curtly. "When we were born, Father took his time to declare which one of us would succeed him, I suppose he wanted to see which of us would be best suited for the job."

"And he chose you" she inferred, sounding disbelieving and not really caring anymore, at that point.

In spite of the fact that she'd been mad at him like crazy only a few minutes earlier, she couldn't shake the feeling that her Vegeta was the fittest for the role of king in every possible sense, even if the destruction of the saiyans' home planet and basically all of its inhabitants made the debate pointless.

"Not officially, but yes" Tarble confirmed immediately. "Father erred, by his own admission. He didn't really understand Vegeta. My brother was too strong, too serious, too proud for the child he was, and for our father to truly connect with him. It's such a pity. Vegeta adored him, he would have never even dreamt of disobeying him, in anything, even if he's really never been one for following orders. He suffered so much, because he realized that Father was... afraid of him, I think."

"But your father changed his mind finally, right?"

"Not exactly, not formally at least, but he did realize he had misunderstood a number of things about Vegeta. I suppose my brother's determination to be strong and responsible made him look ambitious, while in truth he just wanted to make Father proud of him. Vegeta strove so hard to please him, but any time he achieved something, he found himself only with a formal recognition of his accomplishments. It must have been extremely frustrating."

Bulma's heart ached at the thought of her proud saiyan prince as a child, trying and failing to get his father's approval.

"And when did your father realize he'd made a mistake?" she asked sadly.

"Most realizations of this kind come with a prevailing trait, Bulma: they come too late. Father finally saw how affectionate and loyal Vegeta really was when my brother sacrificed himself for me, and there was no longer anything he could do."

"I don't understand."

"When Freezer demanded that the crown prince be delivered to him, Vegeta realized that I wouldn't survive a single day in Freezer's tender care. He fled the palace and presented himself to the tyrant in my stead, claiming to be the crown prince. At that point, in order not to make his sacrifice vain, Father shipped me away to a distant planet for protection, but all he could think of was a way to get Vegeta back. I think that's how he died, trying to rescue my brother from Freezer's clutches. In the last days before I left, he hardly talked about anything else. He was completely heartbroken. He would have gladly cut off his own limbs himself, to be able to hold Vegeta to his chest one more time."

"Oh Dende, what a terrible, terrible story..." she said breathlessly, feeling a knot tighten in her stomach.

"Vegeta never saw our father again" Tarble went on, "and he remained true to the pretence of being the crown prince, to protect me against our enemies, as he thought was Father's will. I wish I could make Vegeta see how much Father cared for him, how devastated he was when he left. I have to thank you, Bulma. I argued this in my head for many years, but I've made up my mind. I didn't want to possibly lead him to think that his sacrifice meant nothing to Father, so I kept silent, but I need to find a way to tell Brother Vegeta about this. He deserves to know. Please, do not be angry at him any more."

"How could I? He's so... Oh Dende, Vegeta... so stubborn..."

"I am glad that he has you, Bulma. I may not be strong as Brother Vegeta, but I am saiyan. It is infinetely precious to us, having someone that can cry the tears we cannot, for our pride. You must have really bewitched him, if he allowed himself to break the law for you. The fighter is not supposed to mate. Only the ruler is allowed to pass on the line."

"That's so harsh!" she exclaimed in dismay.

"Yes, I know, but it was a rule established to avoid conflicts for the throne. Vegeta came to me, last night, and all but begged me not to force him to disown you and your child. That's why I assume you were married."

"Disown?"

"Yes, normally when the fighter mated and produced offspring, he was forced to disown them, so they would have no claim to the throne. According to the law, it would be my right to demand it. It makes no sense anymore, since our planet was destroyed, and it wouldn't have made sense anyway because of my brother's loyalty. He can be shrewd and deceiving, I know, but that is only on the battlefield. As for the rest, his honor is as strong and pure as any saiyan's that ever lived. He may have done terrible things at Freezer's orders, but not by choice. Please believe that."

A knock on the door made them both jump in their seat.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Woman. I'm looking for Tarble, I know he's in there. Open the door."

Bulma unlocked the door and let Vegeta in.

"Hi, dear... I'm sorry, I forgot to make you breakfast. I'll do it imme..."

A finger to her lips hushed her.

"I already ate. What are you two doing, locked up in here?"

"Uhm, we're talking, Vegeta."

The look her husband threw to his brother told Bulma that the story about the fighter not being allowed to have a family of his own was true. Relief, gratitude and affection all passed through his normally guarded eyes, even if tinged with melancholy and... could it be? Envy...

Bulma's heart almost broke at the realization of what it must feel, for someone constantly striving to perfection, to always find himself second best, and for someone who'd been forced to do unspeakable evil in his life, to hide the one misfortunate act of generosity that had started it all.

She wanted to say something, but it seemed Vegeta's thoughts took another direction almost immediately, because he suddenly turned to her and blushed profusely.

"Tarble, how long are you going to stay?" he asked his brother, while he kept looking at her.

"Gure and I are rapidly growing fond of Earth, we'd like to stop for a while, if that's alright with you, Brother."

Vegeta nodded minutely, then focused completely on Bulma.

"I have something to tell you" he informed her gruffly, staring at the floor.

Thinking about it years later, Bulma could easily admit that she would had never, in a million years, expected what followed. As soon as she signalled she was listening, Vegeta awkwardly went down on one knee and lifted a small velvet box, pushing it into her hands more than truly offering it.

"Marry me" he said, evidently trying to keep up a façade by failing to go all the way and tell her those infamous three words that constantly got stuck in his teeth.

She opened the box slowly, but the fact that the ring was magnificent was immaterial to her. Her mind was in a jumble from her earlier emotions and the suddenness of the proposal.

"Why?" she asked breathlessly. "Why now, after ten years?"

"I couldn't before" he replied simply, without elaborating.

He didn't need to. Bulma understood. He had wanted or, more accurately, needed Tarble's permission to formalize his union with her, and now that he had it, he was giving her this ring, this human thing, which had apparently been bought years before, if the slightly battered velvet box was any indication. His role as decoy for the heir of the saiyan throne was out in the open and, with Tarble's permission, he was free to be hers now.

"Can you say yes, so I can rise?" he asked in annoyance, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"Confident, aren't we?" she asked while fresh, happy tears sprung in her eyes.

"Woman…" he growled warningly.

Bulma smiled and, hoping her running mascara wouldn't ruin her image too much, she gave him the haughty reply she knew he expected of his fierce mate.

"Well, it didn't sound like you were asking me, but since you are... Yes, I suppose I will. I mean, who else would?"

Vegeta rose swiftly, but did not omit to at least take the ring from the box to place it on her finger.

"Woman, I…" he tried, his voice cracking slightly before it trailed off into silence.

"I know" she told him indulgently. "Same here."

"Let me do a graceful exit before you do what is customary in such circumstances, Brother Vegeta" Tarble intervened. "I wouldn't want Bulma to blame your reluctance on my inopportune presence. Some secrets are their own blessing, after all."

"Best man? Wow, Vegeta is feeling magnanimous, isn't he?"

"He said that at least I'm saiyan, even if I am a third class, yadda yadda, so he wasn't taking no for an answer" Goku explained to Crilin.

For some reason, he didn't look like he was all that keen on being the prince's best man, and Crilin called him on it.

"I thought you'd be happy to do this, for Bulma at least. You're her oldest friend, it's very important to her."

"Yeah" Goku agreed miserably. "But Vegeta said that if I mess up or arrive late he'll have me locked up in a nuts hospital where they'll give me shots every day!"

Crilin grinned and tried to look comforting. It was wise, at that point, not to inform his distraught friend of the threats Bulma had made. Time and marriage may mellow ten Vegetas down, but they were powerless against half a Bulma.

END

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