Hormonal Imbalance
By Chrizzii
Bulma's hands shook as she tried to hold them still, clasping them in front of her knees as she sat in the bathroom, waiting.
Wearing only her tank top and underwear, she shivered in the cold of the tiled room, unwilling to move until she had her answer.
Her day had started like any other these days: she had woken up at 6am, looked over to find Vegeta had left either during the night or before she had woken up, as usual. She had showered, brushed her teeth, drank three cups of coffee, then preceded to the lab to work on the drones her boyfriend had broken.
Boyfriend? Is that what he was?
Bulma shifted her weight and ran her fingers through her hair.
Vegeta had fallen into bed with her a few months after Yamcha had left.
At first, it had all been physical, fulfilling a biological need both of them had. Bulma smiled thinking of the overwhelming passion of the first few encounters, the desire and lust which had consumed them. They never talked about it and they acted as they always had during the day-like a secret they shared, kept behind closed doors.
In the last month or so though, Bulma felt whatever this was had evolved.
She shook herself from her thoughts to check the time, only to find she still had to wait another two minutes.
Her mind took her back to him.
It had started to feel different.
The fire between them had slowed down but grown in intensity. More than once, her blue eyes had locked with his black ones during the act itself, stirring something within her she had never experienced before.
Pleasure had become amplified from the slightest of touches, a deep yearning for his presence taking over her every thought.
Whether he reciprocated this was unclear.
Vegeta was blunt, dismissive and distant.
He barely spoke before, during or after sex- though strangely, she had started waking up in the early hours to find him asleep beside her, and had caught his eyes lingering on her during the day, if only for a moment.
Bulma shook her head again and straightened up, rolling her shoulders and willing her eyes to stop stinging with tears.
Vegeta was so mysterious, so powerful and strong- but just impossible to talk to on any human level.
"He isn't from here…Why do I keep forgetting that?" She told herself, checking her watch again.
Yes, the day had started like any other, apart from the sense something was wrong.
She couldn't shake it, all the way up to lunch time. She was distracted, irritable and tired. After a quick calculation, PMS definitely accounted for her mood, but she thought she'd do a pregnancy test, just to be sure.
Nervousness overtaking her emotions, she checked her watch once more. Nearly time.
"It'll be negative," She reassured herself, pushing her hair off her face and standing to face herself in the mirror, "I'm on the pill, it's never let me down before…it'll be fine…"
Vegeta howled in annoyance and smashed his hand into the 'off' button of the gravity simulator.
Beads of sweat ran down his body as he collapsed to his knees on the floor, gasping for breath.
He swore in his native language and flopped onto his back, wiping sweat out of his eyes as his skin met the cold of the metal floor.
His training had hit a plateau and he wasn't getting anywhere. Whatever the solution was, it was alluding him.
His hands balled into fists as he struggled to recover from his session, frustration seeping into every corner of his fragile mind.
A screen lit up beside him and the blue-haired woman's face appeared projected on it.
"Hey, you, how're you doing?" She asked, smiling slightly.
Vegeta turned his head away, refusing to interact with her.
She seemed undeterred.
"Ok, I get it, I didn't mean to bother you," She explained quickly, "we should just have a talk after dinner, ok? Can I come see you in your room around eight?"
Vegeta made a non- committal grunt which Bulma took as confirmation.
"Ok, good luck then. See ya later!"
The screen vanished and the pod was plunged into near darkness again.
Vegeta exhaled angrily, only to find he had lost his train of thought.
He ran his hands down his body, checking for injuries under his skin before feeling himself hardening at his own touch.
"Dammit!" He muttered, "Not now!"
He sat up and tried to shake himself out of it.
Random erections, an increased sex drive and uncontrollable mood swings: this planet was finally getting to him. How long had this pattern of behaviour been happening?
Grabbing a towel and drying his neck, Vegeta thought back over the last month or so.
Yes, he had definitely started feeling unbalanced and off for a few weeks and it was almost certainly the Earth female's fault.
His previous sexual experiences had been far between, fleeting and almost all for the thrill and fun of conquest. He could barely remember any of their faces, let alone names- not that he'd cared much at the time anyway.
This was the first time he had gone back again and again to the same person.
"Not like I have much option…" he noted, bitterly.
As a soldier, he had developed a bloodthirsty and fearsome reputation.
He had encouraged the outlandish rumours about himself, as the fear of any of the gossip being true kept enemies away to the most part.
It had kept everyone else away though too, including women.
Vegeta sighed and left the towel in a pile for someone else to deal with before exiting the ship, his traitorous appendage having softened again.
He crossed the grass towards the house, still deep in thought.
He had walked in and caught Raditz screwing a girl in the living room of their shared quarters when he was no more than ten. Confused by what he had seen, he had asked his body guard, only then to have been subjected to a humiliating discussion on sex and Saiyan sexual functions.
His face flushed at the memory of Nappa attempting to draw pictures of reproductive organs on a piece of paper.
In a nutshell, Nappa had explained, Saiyans could screw any time they wanted, the basic function worked and was pleasurable, but the females would not release eggs and the males would fire blanks until a chemical cascade was triggered by 'mating' or 'bonding'.
Sex was one thing to Saiyans, but their fertility only came when there was a deep emotional connection formed and this was a different thing entirely.
Vegeta opened the door to the compound and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, finishing it in a few gulps.
The hormonal cascade could only be triggered by one mate per lifetime: fertility would come and go in cycles of a few years, but the bond between mates would remain indefinitely.
The Prince shuddered at the thought.
Throwing the empty bottle into the trash, he went to his room to shower, trying to shake the feeling of frustration and unease.
He had felt very hormonal lately, but that couldn't be... could it?
He reached for the shampoo and massaged it gently into his scalp.
If a massive dose of hormones had hit him strongly enough to bond him to another being for life, he would definitely had noticed it, he figured. Besides, the earthlings were a pathetic, weak species, hardly worthy of his presence, let alone his devotion.
The earth woman, Bulma, was fiery and useful, he had to admit he enjoyed her company- and her body, but that was all.
The androids were coming in two years. Vegeta had yet to become a Super Saiyan and his rival- that low born third class clown-was still breathing. The Prince did not have time to be distracted by emotional nonsense.
He had seen lovers die, holding each other and whispering reassurances as they perished. Vegeta would not allow himself to give in to such weakness.
"She means nothing to me. This is idle lust, nothing more…"
Bulma squeaked in surprise as the Saiyan entered his bedroom at eight o'clock exactly. His eyes narrowed as he noticed she had sat on his bed: a personal intrusion normally intolerable.
Right now, however, curiousity got the better of him and he chose to forgive her indiscretion-for the time being.
He made his way to the chair by the desk, sitting with his legs crossed and his arms folded over his chest.
"What do you want, Woman? As you know very well, I do not appreciate being distracted from my training…"
A warning shot to get this discussion done quickly, not worth ignoring.
Bulma gulped and straightened herself up, locking eyes with him and frowning slightly.
"We have a problem, Vegeta. I don't want you to freak out or have one of your tantrums, just hear me out, ok?"
Vegeta ignored the knot which was forming in his stomach and fixed an annoyed expression on his face, giving away nothing.
"Go on…" He invited, his voice cold.
Bulma looked away and pouted slightly.
"I'm pregnant…I took the test last night, then another this morning… we need to discuss options…"
Vegeta's breath caught and he blinked in shock.
"I know, I'm a little surprised too!" Bulma stated, noticing his reaction, "My birth control has never been a problem before…it's not a hundred percent, but close enough!"
"How do those pill things work?" Vegeta inquired, struggling to remain calm, "could you be mistaken?"
Bulma shrugged and shook her head thoughtfully.
"They work using hormones to stop my ovaries releasing eggs…" she explained, "I have to take it every day, which I have been… false positives are rare but they do happen I guess…"
Hormones? He thought, Maybe if my body had produced a high enough dose, it could have rendered the pills ineffective? Does that mean my body's strange behaviour is linked to mating? No! Impossible! I'd have noticed that...
"It isn't mine… you have been unfaithful…"
Vegeta's words had a physical effect on the human woman who recoiled violently and stared at him with large, frightened eyes.
"No!" She said quickly.
"Tell me the truth!" Vegeta snapped, standing up and looming menacingly over her.
"I am!" She protested, "Why would you think that? I haven't been with anyone else in months! It could only be you, I swear!"
Bulma pressed herself into a defensive ball with her hands covering her face, her pleas sounding sincere.
Vegeta backed off and started turning over the ramifications of this new development in his mind, his heart racing.
Bulma wiped her eyes of stray tears and unfolded herself slowly.
"Vegeta…"She said cautiously.
The man turned back to her, his body language softer but his eyes full of unfathomable emotion.
"We could terminate?" she suggested.
Vegeta's breath caught slightly but his face continued to betray nothing.
"I need to think. I'll be back. Do nothing until I return."
With that, he turned and left the room, setting off into the air the moment he got outside. Bulma watched him leave from the bedroom window.
Bulma's head jerked up as she heard the door to the lab open.
It had been two days since her conversation with Vegeta and had taken two more tests just to confirm, both positive.
To take her mind off things, the heiress had thrown herself into her work. She rubbed her eyes and unstuck the papers from her cheek, realising she had once again fallen asleep on her desk.
"I have returned."
She spun around in her chair and stared at the muddy form of Vegeta as he stood confidently in the middle of the room. He strode over and sat on the desk nearby without waiting for a response.
"Saiyans are not like humans," He began, glancing at her only to confirm that she was listening, "we are not fertile all of the time from adolescence. We experience a second hormonal trigger- like a second puberty- and for a short time we can reproduce before becoming infertile again. Raditz figured we could have sex without the worry of children outside of these periods so we could 'practice for real mating'. Nappa had the theory that since reproduction takes a hell of a large amount of energy and is so distracting, we only have short bursts every few years so we can focus on fighting…"
He paused and glanced up, trying to read her expression.
Bulma's mouth had dropped open and her tired eyes were wide.
She realised he had stopped speaking and put her fingers to her chin thoughtfully.
"Every few years, huh? Is that why Goku only has Gohan right now? I know ChiChi wanted a couple of kids…but you're saying Goku couldn't produce any more for a while?"
Vegeta's brows knitted together in annoyance at the mention of his rival's name, but nodded anyway.
"But, you're in your thirties now, have you had this cycle before? Is this your first kid or are there others?"
Vegeta did not like this line of questioning and made an irritated sound in the back of his throat in reply.
"No. Definitely no others…"
"What triggers the hormones then?"
The Prince stayed quiet for a long time. He shifted his posture so that his elbows rested on his knees and fixed his gaze on the floor.
Bulma watched him, unsure of what to do.
After a long, uneasy silence, the man spoke.
"Emotion."
The word was said so quietly, Bulma almost thought she had imagined it.
"Emotion?" She asked, leaning towards him, "like…love?"
Her stomach did a flip the moment she had said it and she cried out in surprise when the Saiyan stood abruptly and started pacing around the room.
"Love? Oh yes, that earth nonsense. What does that word even mean? You use it for everything!" The Prince declared, "You said you 'love' those chips you were eating last week when we were watching that stupid movie. You also stated you 'love' your parents! When they told me my home had been destroyed, I did not equate the loss of my family to the loss of my snacks!"
He blinked for a moment realising he had blurted out something unintentionally personal and struggled to regain composure. He looked over to Bulma who was holding herself up on the desk, staring at him in disbelief.
"What I'm experiencing," he explained, his tone more even, "is a hormonal reaction brought on by companionship and the need to procreate- that's all!"
Bulma nodded slowly and tidied her hair to buy herself some time, her thoughts racing.
"So…the baby…?" She asked.
Vegeta scoffed and sat down on the edge of the desk again.
"Is probably my only chance at having children- an eventuality which has never featured before in my mind! With the androids predicted to kill me…" he finally made eye contact with her for the first time in the whole exchange, "well, offspring assures 'biological immortality'…"
"So…we're keeping the baby?" She asked, confusing even herself at how hopeful her voice sounded.
Vegeta shrugged heavily and stood up before nodding slightly.
"I am no 'father' though. I'm a warrior- I will not be tricked into becoming domesticated. You have my genetic material and my protection, do not expect me to become soft like Kakarot is-that will not happen!"
Bulma nodded and raised an eyebrow.
"You'll stick around then- right? I could turn my room into a nursery and come share with you?"
The Saiyan started towards the door, leaving a trail of mud as he went. How had this happened to him? Why was he not fighting this harder?
He sighed in resignation and turned to her before he got to the door.
"I suppose that would be acceptable..."
Notes:
Little theoretical explanation for:
a) Why the age gaps between ALL of the half-saiyans is so big
b) Why Frieza dismissed Vegeta as possibly being Gohan's father on Namek
c) Why Vegeta never says 'I love you' to Bulma, but still sticks around and is clearly devoted to her
d) How Saiyans can go off and train for ridiculous amounts of time without seeing their wives (or sometimes anyone at all) seemingly without it bothering them.
Hope you liked it, please let me know your thoughts :)