"I fold."
"Again?"
Vegeta looked up from his cards, Bulma's skeptical - but undeniably thrilled - expression far too close for his liking. She leaned back in her seat, arching an eyebrow at him.
"That's like, the fourth time in a row!" She shifted closer again, peering over his cards. "Let me see-"
Vegeta threw them back into the pile before she could manage. "Like I said, they're garbage. Next deal."
Bulma's brows furrowed as she sat back in her seat, but she gathered the cards - and her newly acquired zeni - without complaint. "You know," she began conversationally, "I figured with all the down time you must have at your.. job, that you'd be pretty good at cards."
He gave her a half-shrug. "Not much down time."
"Really?" She shuffled the cards, debating whether or not to ask more. Well, no time like the present. "But isn't a lot of it just sitting around?"
He shrugged again, tossing more zeni onto the table. When Bulma realized she wasn't going to get more of an answer than that, she sighed, then dealt the next hand.
"So if not cards," she continued, "what do you like to do in your free time?"
He scanned the cards idly as he picked them up, taking his time to sort them accordingly. A few seconds of silence stretched between them, and just when Bulma thought she wasn't going to get an answer, he spoke. "Don't have much free time," was all he said.
She felt something akin to a pout forming on her features, and hardened her gaze. She was determined to get him to talk, whether he wanted to or not. "Well you have to have some time to yourself," she insisted, then suddenly looked thoughtful. "How does that work, anyway? Do you get weekends off? Or like, vacation time or anything? Or are you just on call twenty-four-"
"I thought you hated what I do," Vegeta interrupted, watching her sardonically. It was the most he'd said all night, the closest to anything with actual emotion, and she looked up. Her expression was open, trusting, and it set Vegeta on edge. "Why are you asking so many questions?"
"Well, you're quiet enough for the both of us," she said, smiling. "Besides! Is it so bad to want to know more about you?"
"Yes," he said, arching an eyebrow at her. That should have been obvious.
She pursed her lips. "I don't-"
"I raise," he said, dropping more zeni between them. He watched her with the same stern, stone-faced expression he always wore around her, and Bulma wondered when the last time he smiled was. "Your call."
She seemed to be debating something, then dropped it, her lips tight in a thin, stubborn line, and her eyes trained pointedly on her cards. Vegeta watched her with some interest as she hesitated a long moment, the uncertainty obvious in her gaze, then met his raise. A clear bluff. She was too easy to read for a game like poker. But if that was the case, why did he have so much difficulty understanding her motives for everything else she did?
He dropped more zeni in and she followed suit, then laid her cards on the table. They were worthless, aside from a pair of fives, something that even a moderately decent hand could beat. Vegeta laid his cards on the table - face down - and without hesitating stood up.
"Well, I've lost enough money for tonight," he said, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "I'd better get some sleep. Big job tomorrow." As Bulma got to her feet he headed for the door, and it shut with a surprisingly gentle click behind him.
She let out a sigh, watching the door for a lingering moment before she pulled herself away to clear the table. She'd won most of their hands, and pocketed the zeni in the middle of the table before moving to the cards. Her gaze landed on Vegeta's cards, still face down, and curiosity had her turn them over before she even realized she'd reached for them. Three, seven, nine, and a pair of aces. Much more than what was needed to beat her measly pair of fives.
Bulma glanced back towards the door, almost expecting to find him there, but she was met with an empty apartment. Gradually, a small, happy smile formed on her lips. She was betting they'd play again.