AN: Thanks you guys! Again it is my muse and the encouraging words from people like you all that I write. I know my grammar is messy and sometimes my sentences make no sense; but bare with me. Again I'm my own worst critic. Either way I think what I'll do is I will try to post a chapter a week; expect it either on a Sunday or Friday. I will try to shoot for Friday but if not the it will be that Sunday depending on my work/course schedule this semester! Thank you all for staying with me!
Chapter 2: Precious Hope
In the days that quickly turned to weeks that followed the incident in the kitchen, Bulma had made it her personal goal to keep to the normalcy of life as she could be. When her parents had returned home from their day to find the kitchen in ruins it didn't faze them as they were used to the Prince's 'tantrums'. Her father grumbled and signed the check over to the renovators to restore the kitchen to its new shape; whereas her Mother couldn't help but like the fact the Prince gave her a reason to remodel the kitchen again...for the either time this year. Regardless it was an incident long forgotten as her parents were concerned, but to Bulma it was a reminder that there was tension between her and the Prince. She wouldn't take these few precious months away from her family for the sake of appeasing the Saiyan. The last thing she needed to do was burden them with the stress and worry of her impending fate that loomed over them all. She much rather keep this secret with her until the very last moment.
However, the one fact of normalcy that Bulma did change was avoiding the Prince at all costs. She didn't want to deal with his constant need for a verbal battle and the strain it put on her already fragile physic. With this change it wasn't hard to avoid someone who didn't want to talk or see you anyway. The Prince, in his own way, was coming to the terms of the secret that they now shared together. He was coming to the full realization that the obnoxious hostess days were literally numbered and since that incident in the kitchen Bulma hasn't talked to him much about her illness other than he assumed that she had contacted it on her travels in space and that she had little under a year left on this plane of existence.
Prince Vegeta trained, meditated, ate, and he sat in silence as she plagued his thoughts of her and what he will never experience. He wouldn't hear her stupid laugh, see her in her slightly revealing clothing, smell that obnoxious and intoxicating scent of hers...Prince Vegeta shook his head as he focused more on fighting the invisible opponent in front of him and tried desperately to rid these thoughts of her from him, however, this did nothing but increase his obsessive thoughts of her. When she is gone he wouldn't hear her laugh on the phone while she talked to those fools she calls friends; more like annoying pests and the first to die when he finally ascended to his birth right. He wouldn't come into the kitchen and see her standing there at the ungodly hours of the morning that he forced her to awaken to cook his meal before he went on his rigorous daily training regimen. And he most certainly wouldn't lay awake at night, after she is gone, softly hearing her cry into her pillow when she thinks she knows no one is awake. Up until this point he had assumed it was lack of a mate that made her cry but now it could have been something more these last few months. Prince Vegeta stopped fighting as he looked down at his clenched hands. His nails digging into his own flesh as these thoughts keep coming at him in waves. In his mind's eyes he saw her fighting with him but would there ever really come a day when she wouldn't have that fighting spirit she gladly used in their verbal sparring matches? What she lacked in muscles she made up with the quick wit of her tongue.
Never was a word Vegeta was all too familiar with and forever was a really long time. Even at an early age, never always seemed to always be associated with him. There was always constant disappointment and hardships. Prince Vegeta was never a real stranger to loss and losing everything he ever kept close to him. He was a hard man and he learned to never let things close to him and this was no different. He had to learn to get used to never having her around...but he was never one to let things go or to give things that he saw as his up...even annoying, blue haired, ignorant human females. "Normal Earth's gravity!" He gruffly told the computer. "Restoring to Earth's normal gravity" repeated the female robotic voice that recognized Prince Vegeta's commands as he powered down to normal. He grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat that was on his body. He had a permanent scowl on his face as he wasn't looking forward to what he must do next.
~Bulma~
It was a normal day in the business offices of Capsule Corp. Enterprises in the middle of West City. Bulma was sitting in her office. Giant windows behind her desk as she sat in her plush chair. It was mid afternoon and the sunlight was pouring into the office as she was trying to catch her breath when she finally sat down. She was finding it harder and harder each day to keep up her energy and to hide the predominant symptoms from being exposed to everyone. She was short on breath and coughing almost uncontrollably into her handkerchief. What caused this episode was her Mother's shopping afternoon delight. Bulma's Mother was notorious for going on daily shopping sprees and knew Bulma had a free afternoon and started to drag her with to the shopping districts. Bulma had agreed to lunch with her but had to leave early. As the weeks move on, it seemed that she had less and less energy to do anything.
"Damnit..." she wheezed as the coughing finally subsided. Blood seeped into her handkerchief as a knock came at the door. Quickly, Bulma stashed away the cloth into one of her desk drawers and quickly got rid of any evidence that she was having any reaction to her condition. She stood up from her desk and went to answer the door. She did a quick check over in the mirror on the wall and open the door. Her male secretary looked nervous as he held a piece of paper in his hand. "Miss Briefs, I hate to bother you but..." the secretary, Mason, looked almost pale as a ghost. "What is it? Are you alright?" Bulma asked concerned but she can already guess what, well more like whom, could cause this normal reaction out of a normal person. "Um...well...uh he is here..." he almost whimpered. Bulma resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I will deal with him. Send him in Mason." Bulma sighed in annoyance.
As if it took any real hard guessing, Bulma hated when the Prince would just show up at her work place of course unannounced. he just LOVED to terrorize the poor people at her job or the fact he can just show up, at his own leisure, and attempt to try and put her in her place. Of course, the one attempt that she tried to ignore him and have security escort him back to her home ended rather badly. He was so insulted that she refused to even see him and that to even send, in his eyes, guards to take him back to her home was more than insulting to him. He was a Prince and she had shown him a great disrespect that he would teach her a lesson to never forget. After his little 'tantrum'. When it was all said and done there were three deaths and a slew of lawsuits that had to be settled with hush money. It took every ounce of Bulma's willpower to not destroy the Prince right then and there but the Earth needed the Prince to be part of the Z fighters and Goku was called in to resurrect them with the Dragonballs. The lives of the people were restored and the Saiyans fight it out but Vegeta made his point and there was no more to it.
Mason sighed in relief at her decision and returned to his desk to have the Saiyan Prince sent up to the President's office. Bulma closed the door and returned to her own seat as she quickly shuffled through the documents on her desk and pretended to actually be working. Mason had knocked on the door once more as he opened it and the Prince proudly walked into the middle of the room. And just as quickly as Mason had come he gently closed the door behind him and rushed back to the safety of his own desk. The Prince has his arms folded across his chest as he glared at the woman who was flipping through files that were on her desk as she pretended to be reading them. Bulma didn't even look up from her reading as she was the first to speak. "Break the G.R. again? (gravity room) or have you come here to terrorize?" she asked as she licked her thumb as she flipped through her notes. Vegeta's scowl deepened at the way she was treating him. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "I'm riding my unicorn to Alaska, what does it look like?" Bulma snapped as she continued her work. "I'm at work Vegeta. Someone has to pay for your stupid toys." Bulma picked up a red pen absently as she went to make a few corrections to the document in her hands.
"What is the point Woman? You will be gone and it won't even matter." he purposely spoke coldly but Bulma didn't even rise to the bait he sat out for her. "Why did you come here Vegeta?" She put an end to whatever shenanigans he might be concocting up. "Tell me more about thi-" he was cut off as Bulma slammed the document on the desk. "I am not going to discuss this again Vegeta. What was said is all there is needed to be said. Just drop it and let things be." Vegeta come around a chair in front of her desk and took a seat as he got comfortable. "Tell me more about this condition you have?" he repeated himself not fazed by the glare he was receiving from her. "What is the point? What good does it do me to even tell you anymore about it?" Bulma sighed annoyed as she sat her pen down. "There is no hope Vegeta so just let it go okay?" she almost pleaded as he continued to stare at her with that blank face of his. It was so hard to read him and the only betrayal to him was sometimes his eyes.
"So you are going to roll over and take it? There is no cure, so you are just going to let it take over with no fight? You are so weak." he scoffed at her. Bulma sat back in her chair and started to slowly clap. "Ladies and Gentlemen there he is, the ass who doesn't give a fuck. Do you enjoy being an asshole to people no matter how badly they are hurting? You come here and insult me because I'm too damn tired and in a much different place than you? I have better things to do than to waste what little time i have left to fight with you Vegeta. Why don't you go make an ass out of yourself somewhere else?" she picked up the file that was on her desk but suddenly felt it ripped out of her hands and thrown across the room. The Prince was on his feet and hands slammed so hard on her desk that it shook the ground. "Not until you stop being a bitch and hiding behind your excuses. Now answer the fucking question instead of beating around the bush. I fucking hate small talk and so use your logic Woman. The sooner you answer me the sooner I can get on with my fucking day!" he hissed menacingly. "If I do, will you finally drop it and go be a dick to someone else?" Bulma leaned over and slapped his hands off her desk. "Cute Woman, but you know I don't do favors." he smirked darkly as he retook his seat and they stared at each other down.
"My body is shutting down and my immune system is not responding anymore. I am losing rapid weight, I'm having problems with keeping blood out of my coughing, I experience insomnia and yet i will crash for almost days on end if I don't force myself to get up. My muscles are losing shape and firmness and I mostly I can barely keep food down. I am slowly and painfully dying. I just don't have energy for anything anymore. Is that descriptive enough of what is happening to me?" she sarcastically told him her symptoms. Pink tint flooded her cheeks as she felt so vulnerable revealing anything to the Prince. Gods know what would come out of his mouth and she couldn't help but feel she was giving him ammo to use against her later. "When did the symptoms start to appear?" he didn't miss a beat to ask the next question. Bulma sighed as knew the quicker she gave him what he wanted the quicker he would leave her alone. "A month after we returned from the last time we all were in space." she focused on the wall to her right as her mind went to that place many, many months ago. "Did you eat anything? Come in contact with anything dangerous or abnormal?" he continued to pry.
Bulma closed her eyes as she remembered the particular memory as it was fresh as if it just happened only moments ago. "We got on this one planet." she started but Vegeta interrupted, "We?" he asked. "Gohan, Goku's son, and Krillen...we were heading to Nameke but...we landed on this planet we thought to be Nameke. ...we must have got it there but...if Gohan and Krillen aren't sick and it is just me, then it couldn't be..." she tried to rule out the planet they visited but something was nagging at the threads of her memory.. "Did you do something apart from the brat and moron?" Vegeta closed his eyes as well as he tried to visualize what Bulma could be seeing in her own mind. "I think...they gave me...we ran into these men that used illusions to make us believe they were Nemekians..." Bulma tried to remember every detail she could and Vegeta shook his head. "The damn brat told me this story. Tell me something I don't know." Vegeta urged her to really think.
Something fuzzy came into view for Bulma, sort of like a long ago dream, well night mare, that no one really wants to remember. She opened her eyes as it finally came into focus.
"They injected something into me...well tried to. Krillen got there in time just as the needle was in my arm." Vegeta nodded as she started to uncover a missing piece of the puzzle. "Describe it." He could feel they were getting close to something that he could almost taste it. He kept his eyes closed as he could start to visualize what it could be and wracked his brain of his knowledge of what it could be. "I am not sure..it was a red liquid in the syringe...it had fleck of gold in it though..." Bulma really tried to focus but there is so much a memory can remember. That was all that Vegeta needed as it triggered a memory of his own and it took him back to a place before this plane. Days to when he was just a child and on his homework before it was destroyed by that tyrant when he was with his tutor. He remembered that one lesson they were discussing class F planets. It was planets that low scum would hang around and traffic slaves and underhanded deals. He knew exactly what slipped into her system as he took in the information.
His teacher set the example syringe in front of the young Prince along with the other examples. "Now this one is called Dupravile. It is a lethal disease that causes death in a slow manner. Mostly used for punishing concubines and slaves for going against their master or kill an enemy slowly. One doesn't know they are sick until it is too late. If so much as a drop passes into a person it is a death sentence if they do not get the cure in time but if they hit the stage where the symptoms show then there is one of two things a person a can do but it would be much easier to let them die." the instructor in Vegeta's mind explained. Why would they give such a drug to the woman however? It didn't take him long until he realized why. The brat had said they wanted their ship. What better way than to kill them and then take it underhandedly. The good news was there was a cure however the bad was that it was near impossible to create.
His mind made the memory of his lesson disappear to one of a planet many light years away from this one. The ingredients would cost a hefty sum no matter which way you looked at it. To create this cure would be no simple task though there is a way to make it. His mind came back to where a diseased woman sat in her chair and focused on her desk as she tried to think of anything else that could have caused her condition but the answer were pretty obvious what it was. He studied her and couldn't help but weigh his options. Would she ever survive that long to even create the cure? Would she even make it past collecting the ingredients? Was she even worth saving? He studied her face as worry engulfed her. She was vulnerable and scared and she trembled in her chair as she let the Prince into her every waking thought. He could easily see the questions running across her mind. Just how much longer did she really have left? Why was he asking questions? Was he really trying to hurt her in some new twisted way? "You shouldn't worry. I understand your pain. Facing death is never an easy thing to do, even for a weak woman." he, in his own way, consoled her.
"What do you know Vegeta?" Bulma snapped as her walls came back up and she stared at him coldly. She had had more than enough of him passing judgment on her. She didn't want his pity and tried to hide the pain behind her anger. "I know enough Woman or did you forget that I died once?" he stated coldly as she threw back his attempt at kindness back at him. Bulma looked away as she knew she mostly likely had most definitely struck a nerve. She had forgotten that he had died on Nameke during the battle and was brought back to life. Fear and curiosity filled her. If anyone knew where she was going or what was awaiting her at the end of this life, Vegeta would know without going to her friends about this. What was death truly like? How did he die? Would even share his secrets with her? "Stupid Woman." was all he said as he stood up. "Wait! I'm sorry! Please, can't you tell-" Bulma pleaded but was quickly quieted by the look the Prince gave her. She knew that this look was for those he despised more than anything and to her dread, she knew this conversation was over. "We are done here." he turned to leave out the door.
"That isn't fair! I answered your questions!" Bulma urged as she stood up from her chair in hopes that he might come back and talk to her some more. She knew he hated her but surely he can't deny her at least a few questions. "You of all people know that life isn't fair for anyone." he knew he had to strike a nerve with her otherwise she would not let this topic go. He wasn't ready to deal with this information anymore than he had at the moment and Bulma felt the sting of his words. "Get out." she glared and prevented any tears that might have built up. She would not give this bastard the satisfaction of seeing her cry. Silently Vegeta made his leave; leaving behind the shell of a bitter woman on the edge of going to die. The balance was in his hands now.
