Not In A Million Years

Chapter 2

Kakarot's scent invaded my dream that night. Nothing else; just his scent. The dark, smoky, Saiyan scent that titillated my nostrils and sent chills skittering down my spine. My eyes snapped open as someone shook my shoulder to wake me.

The woman stared down at me, a curl of blue hair tumbling down over her face. Sometimes I wondered if she's been born with blue hair or if she'd dyed it. Maybe she'd been in some kind of radioactive accident that…. Wait, was she talking to me?
"…said he was concerned," she finished. I wished I'd caught the beginning of her statement, not wanting to make a fool of myself.

"Vegeta, hello? Earth to Vegeta," the woman waved a hand in front of my face and I sat up, scowling.

"I'm sorry, woman; I didn't hear," I muttered. Bulma stared.

"Are you feeling okay? You just apologized and admitted to making a mistake in one sentence."

"I'm fine," I gritted out, "What were you saying?"

"Just that Goku was worried he'd hurt your feelings or something when he sent you away yesterday,"

I perked with interest despite myself, Kakarot was worried…. About me? I shoved the thought away, refusing to give in to whatever was possessing me to think such things. Since when did I care?

"I don't think I have any 'feelings' to hurt," I sneered breezily, standing up and pulling on my boots and gloves.

The woman started to say something else, but I suddenly didn't want to talk to her anymore and left without a backward glance.

X

I had hoped I would be able to train in the gravity room until I could think straight again; blasting the robot drones that hovered around me effortlessly as I ran over the same string of thoughts in my head over and over. I felt like I was stuck in a rut, unable to think about anything else, and I wore those same thoughts down to nothing like water eroding stone. What exactly did I feel for Kakarot? Why? When did this happen? Why didn't he seem to feel the same way? Wait… what way did I feel? How could he not feel the same as me if I didn't even know what I was feeling myself?

As you, reader, are probably guessing; the more I thought about such things, the more frustrated I got.

While I was distracted with my nattering questions, one of the drones actually managed to singe my shoulder, and with a snarl of irritation I disintegrated the lot of them. And glancing at the piles of ash that were all that remained of my so-called opponents; I absently wished I could quiet my mind as easily as I could the robots.

Still scowling, I wiped the sweat from my brow and exited the gravity chamber, annoyed that the training session had done nothing to settle my thoughts and doubts. I was halfway across the lawn of Capsule Corp, distantly wondering what it would take to get this mudball of a planet's populous to kneel before me as I well deserved and fuming with the injustice that I, the Prince of All Saiyans, had to get stuck with so many petty worries that other people should be taking care of – I had more important things to do than wrestle with feelings that I shouldn't even have – when, to add to my streak of bad luck, I stumbled – stumbled! – and, attempting to catch my balance and cursing at the same time, I found myself crashing right into the object of my fretting. Kakarot. Where the hell had he come from? I hadn't even sensed his energy….

"What are you doing?" he asked flatly as I scrambled for my tact and my balance, probably looking for all the world like a startled, flailing child. Oh, the humiliation. I'd never admit it out loud, but I felt heat crawling up my face as I disentangled myself from Kakarot and backed away shakily.

"…Tripping?" I said blankly, honestly having no reply. He chuckled at this, and the heat flooding my cheeks intensified.

An extremely awkward silence fell and we both stood there; me trying to look anywhere but his eyes, him seeming to do everything in his power to force me to meet his gaze.

Kakarot cleared his throat obstinately; but I still looked away.

My tongue felt like it was made of sand. Also, I couldn't seem to get my heart to stop making this annoying fluttering motion. Stupid human influence, this must be some asinine physical response of theirs….

…Response to what? I still had no idea what I was feeling, even faced with the person that I had been grinding my teeth over for almost two weeks.

Finally I unchained my traitorous tongue and managed to spit out a sentence, "Why are you here? What do you want, Kaka… K….?"

I tried to force his name to leave my lips but very suddenly, without warning, my throat closed up, eliminating my powers of speech. What the hell is wrong with me?

"I came to see Bulma, she wanted to talk to me," Kakarot said, then his eyebrows furrowed a little in a concerned expression that was simply adorable.

"Vegeta? What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost,"

I realized that I'd been staring into space, trying to get control over myself, and all the color from before felt like it had drained from my face.

I made the mistake of looking at him, as it only worsened my inability to speak. I had no idea why I was suddenly this off guard around the third-class Saiyan that I'd fought countless battles beside; maybe my relentless contemplation of my feelings in addition to the dreams that so haunted me had had some kind of effect on my mind.

Something clicked and I realized quite suddenly what was wrong with me.

"I-I'm fine, Kakarot." I stammered quickly, evasively, "The door is unlocked; go on inside and see the woman."

Kakarot's gaze remained on me a moment longer, as if he wasn't quite satisfied with my explanation; then he walked away with a shrug and a parting glance over his shoulder.

I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding in a rush, and my godsdamned heart did that stupid little fluttering thing again as I watched the younger Saiyan leave.

I'd seen enough of human behavior to say I understood them pretty well. And I almost refused to admit to myself that what I was feeling was real; because it was demeaning and damn near impossible for a prince to confess, even silently. The symptoms that had been plaguing me were reminiscent of something that was common in young – usually teenage - human females, if that gives any indication to my predicament.

But I'll say it, for time and convenience sake; judge me not:

Unless I was quite mistaken, I, Prince Vegeta, had a crush on Kakarot.

TBC