A/N: I actually wrote and posted this awhile back but since joining the Bulma/Vegeta community on livejournal and deciding to make a whole story I had fix the old ones to better fit the new story's plot.

This takes place several months after Summer Fun.


"Pumpkin carving is a tradition because…," Bulma shook her head before scooping out another spoonful of pumpkin. Taking another breath, she tried a different approach, "You see, many countries throughout the world carve pumpkins into lanterns to ward… spirits… away."

Bulma sighed out loud and hung her head. Though she personally loved the tradition of carving out pumpkins and making Jack-o'-Lanterns, she was getting a headache coming up with a logical reason why. Not for her, mind you. She didn't need an explanation for why she or anyone did this act. To most it was just a fun Halloween tradition.

No Bulma was mentally preparing herself to explain the tradition to her easily perturbed house guest. Vegeta: The Prince of All Sayians and lord of the 'why'. The man had been living at her house for nearly seven months and he still acted as if he'd never seen a house before. Explaining why they were covering their house in cobwebs and why they were stockpiling candy for children dressed in costumes had been one long conversation that merely ended with him stating that it was just like their other bizarre Earth customs.

To him everything was a bizarre Earth custom. From the way her family lived to the way they celebrated holidays. He even commented on her 'odd choice of dress'.

"Only a man who parades around in nothing but spandex shorts and tank tops in the middle of fall could claim that my choice of dress is odd," Bulma huffed out aloud. Looking down, she smoothed down her comfy red turtleneck sweater and tight blue jeans. You'd think that after months of complaining about wearing underwear to swim in and shorts too to cover anything he'd like baggy sweaters and blue jeans but it'd just merely changed his form of observance from random questions to intense concentration. Normally Bulma liked when men paid enough attention to her to comment her outfits but with Vegeta it was more liked she was being analyzed for some purpose. She just couldn't understand what he wanted from her.

"What are you doing now, Woman?" Bulma jumped as the subject of her thoughts seemed to appear out of nowhere. Looking up, she saw Vegeta lounging against the wall wearing his loose black pants, grey tank top, and his devilish smirk. He'd caught her off guard again and was enjoying the fact that he'd made her jump.

Bulma glared and then looked back at her now empty pumpkin. 'You knew this was coming. Just get it over with. It's not like anything you say will make sense to him anyway.' Looking back at Vegeta she put her best smile on. "I'm making a Jack- o' -Lantern," she said as simply as possible.

Vegeta looked over her work with a bored look on his face before looking back to her. "You're carving a vegetable."

Bulma tried her best not to laugh at Vegeta's blunt comment. "For Halloween, people empty out and carve faces or shapes into pumpkins. Then we put lights into them and set them outside."

"Won't it rot? Wouldn't it make more sense to make it out of something more substantial?"

"Well yes, but it's not supposed to last forever. The fun comes out of carving it and making a new one every year." Getting no further comments from Vegeta, she picked up the bowl of pumpkin and the spoon and placed in on the counter. Looking through the drawers, she finally found a good knife to work with and turned to get back to work.

She stopped as she noticed that Vegeta had moved away from the wall and over to the table. He was looking into the pumpkin with an almost curious look on his face. 'Wow, could he actually be interested in this?' She moved back to the table and put the knife down so that she could safely push up her sleeves. Noticing her movement, Vegeta's eyes instantly went to her arms and then to her clothes before meeting her eyes with a smirk again. Bulma's huffed knowing exactly what he was going to say with him having to say it. Wanting to avoid another conversation on her clothes, she smiled again catching him off guard. "Do you want to help me?"

Vegeta dropped his gaze to the knife on the table before moving them back to her. "Help you carve a vegetable?"

"Or you could just watch if you want." She didn't like the fact that his eyes were once again casually moving across her clothes. She frowned and waved a hand in front of his face snapping him out of whatever trance he was in. "I don't get your fascination with my clothes."

Vegeta's eyes widened a little before quickly narrowing. "I could care less about the way you dress woman."

"Vegeta, up until a month ago you've always made comments about the indecency of my summer clothes whether it was about my swimwear or about the length of my shorts."

Vegeta quickly looked away before unconsciously returning him stare back to her clothes again, "I don't recall making any comment about them now, woman."

"No, now that I'm wearing longer pants and sweaters, you've gone from making comments to staring as if you're trying to figure out something." 'Or see through them,' she added mentally knowing he would flip out if she even suggested the idea. "You're doing it right now, so don't deny it." To her surprise Vegeta looked away from her quickly with what could be a trace of a blush gracing his cheeks.

"I… I just don't understand why you're wearing such a puffy shirt if you're just going to push the sleeves up." He moved his gaze back to her no longer bearing anything resembling a blush.

"Puffy! My shirt is not puffy you jerk."

"Woman, I know what your body looks like. Your torso and neck are not that wide and with the sleeves pushed up your arms look twice as big. Your natural shape is completely hidden."

Bulma was stunned at Vegeta's clear explanation. It was obviously made up on the fly, trying to defend himself, but he had a valid point. The sweater she was currently wearing did swallow her up quite a bit, but it was comfy and warm. Good for lounging around the house, sipping cocoa and sitting by the fire. It's not one she would ever wear outside when meeting people, just around the house.

He had a point but that didn't mean she'd let him get away with his staring scot-free.

She put on her best smile which instantly got Vegeta's attention. "Well, it's good that you pay special attention to how my body looks, even going so far as to notice how much my comfy sweater hides my natural shape," The blush on Vegeta's face was now painfully obvious, his mouth opening as if to say something to redeem himself but not having the words to back up the motion, "but you're right about how it's pointless to wear this if I'm just going to push it up so much. I'll go and change." She finished as sweetly as possible before brushing past him and up the stairs, taking one last glance at his flustered stance before quickly continuing to her room.

Giggling to herself only when she made it to the safety of her bedroom, she started looking for a good top to wear; nothing too old, but then nothing to new as she was probably going to get it dirty. "I don't know why I'm worrying so much. It's not like he'll be down there when I'm done. I think I'm over his tease quota for tonight." She didn't get to do it very often, but when she did get Vegeta to lose his tough man façade and get so flustered that he was at a complete loss for words, it was a feeling she couldn't compare with anything.

Bulma pulled out a deep purple three-quarter sleeve top and put it on. Looking at herself in the mirror, she turned to see if the snug top flattered her form better. It did, but then again, with her form not much didn't work. "Ha, this should satisfy the Sayian Prince," she thought smugly before realizing where her train of thought had gone. 'Why does that matter? It's not like I want him to stare at me.' She considered finding something a little less form hugging before shrugging. 'It's not like he'll be down there waiting for me to come back anyway.' Turning the light off, she went back downstairs.

"I could have carved this pumpkin myself in the time it took you to change woman." Vegeta commented without looking up as she re-entered the room.

Bulma stopped at the door shocked to see that Vegeta was still there. "Wow, I didn't think you'd still be here."

"Did you not invite me to join you in this activity, Woman?" Vegeta calmly stated finally looking up at her. He looked her up and down. Catching her gaze he quickly lowered his own back to the pumpkin.

Bulma blushed a little at the look he had given her before moving back over to the table. 'I guess this was a good choice.' "Okay to start with we need to pick a side to work on," looking to Vegeta, she noticed that he quickly looked back to the pumpkin. 'Even after calling him on it, he's still staring at me. But at least he's trying to be subtle about now.' Deciding that she couldn't expect too much at once she continued with the lesson. "This side looks good", picking up a craft book she added, "Now we need to decide what design to make."

"Isn't that it?"

Bulma looked over to see that the book did have a picture of a standard jack-o'-lantern on the cover. "Well, we could do that one, I suppose. It's the most common one with the triangle eyes and crooked smile, but I was kinda hoping to do something different this year."

She held the open book up for Vegeta to see, "See there are all different kinds of things we could do." She flipped through a couple of pages before noticing that the designs were getting more difficult with each turn. "Ah, some of these look hard. I'd never be able to do something that detailed."

She snuck another look at Vegeta and was surprised that he was actually looking at the book. Even with an activity as simple as this one, he still managed to look regal. 'Maybe that's why he doesn't care what he's wearing. He so naturally handsome, he could wear anything and make it look intentional and comfortable.' Bulma blushed as she realized what she was thinking. Looking up, her blush deepened as Vegeta's cocked eyebrows and smirk concluded that she'd been caught staring.

"Umm… Aren't you cold?" Vegeta's smirk deepened and she knew that he didn't buy it. Nonetheless he carefully lifted his hand and gently placed the back to her cheek. Instantly she felt a flood of warmth come from him. 'No, he's not cold at all. He's hot. He's really, really hot. I wonder how it'd feel to have him cup my face instead of just touching it.' Her blushed deepened even further. "An-anyway… Let's look back towards the beginning." Bulma quickly pulled herself back from his hand and quickly went about looking in the book. "Here are some easier ones. We should be able to pull off one of these."

"This one's not too difficult?" Vegeta pointed down to picture of glaring pumpkin with a jagged toothed smile.

"No, I think that'd be do-able." Bulma had finally composed herself. Her sudden train of thought, being caught staring, and Vegeta's comfortable warmth: It was all a little overwhelming. She was fine now. After all, it was nothing to worry about. He stared at her all the time for whatever reason he had, so what's fair is fair. As for his touch, that was just him showing her that his body temperature was high enough to not be cold. Nope, nothing to worry about at all.

Picking up a marker she started tracing out the areas that they'd have to carve. Luckily it was mostly large cuts that didn't require too much detail. She finished tracing out the pattern as close to the picture as possible then looked back to Vegeta. "And now we start cutting. Can I have the knife back?" She shivered slightly at the warmth that she felt where her hand touched his during the exchange.

She smiled sweetly again before turning back to the pumpkin. 'Wow, I never imagined getting this far. Vegeta's hasn't even complained that much yet'. She quickly jabbed the knife into the line marking the first eye. With a little more effort than she thought she'd need, she carefully pushed the knife in and out carving the eye as close as should could to the original. "Shoot, I thought I'd made it thin enough on the inside that it wouldn't be this hard," she huffed out, mostly to herself. Her efforts cause her bangs to fall into her eyes and she blew upwards and put more force into her carving.

Finally after a hard three minutes, she pushed hard enough that the eye popped right out. She smiled, proud of herself, until she realized Vegeta shaking with carefully contained mirth out of the corner of her eye. "And just what do you find so entertaining?"

Vegeta quickly covered his face, "I just never imagined you'd be so determinedly violent." He removed his hand, his trademark smirk clearly in place and his eyes sparkling with a sense of humor she would never have imagined could be seen there. "Is this how it always goes?"

Bulma, momentarily taken aback by the formerly unseen look on Vegeta's face, quickly snapped back to the matter at hand with a blush on her face. "No, that's not how it normally goes. The skin of this pumpkin is just a bit thicker than I thought it was that's all. But even then, it's not like it's soft in the first place so it does take a lot of effort to carve." At Vegeta's raised eyebrow and cocky smirk, she pouted and held out the knife. "Well it's your turn. You can cut out the other eye."

Bulma watched as Vegeta took the knife from her hand and carefully began cutting out the other eye. Her eyes widened as she watched Vegeta skillfully and easily move the knife along the line and make the other eye. She would have normally just claimed that it was his super strength that was making his work look so easy if it weren't for the fact that he was also following the design as close as possible, taking extra care with being precise.

In less than a minute, Vegeta popped out the second eye and stood back to compare his results with hers. Looking up at Bulma, he cocked his head. The words 'You were saying?' didn't need to be said aloud.

Bulma pouted again but couldn't deny that Vegeta had done a much better job than she did. "Wow Vegeta, you're really skilled with a knife."

Vegeta let out a small bark-like chuckle, "You'll find that I am quite skilled at a lot of different things, woman. Dangerous things are just the beginning of a long list."

A blush spread across Bulma's faced at the scale of thoughts that quickly passed through her head at the statement. Quickly turning around so he couldn't see she decided to do something useful. "Why don't you just finish carving that while I find a candle that'll work?" She turned back and was startled to see the confused look and frown on Vegeta's face.

"Aren't you going to carve anymore?" It was such an innocent question; Bulma was shocked at its sincerity.

She shook herself. 'No, he probably just wants me to embarrass myself again.' Smiling to hide her discomfort, she stated, "No, I think it's clear that you're much better at it." She expected him to make a jab at her skills or remark about how she's making him do all the work but was once again surprised he just turned back the pumpkin slowly and went back to work. She could have sworn that he'd almost been pouting a little, but quickly dismissed that thought before setting off to find a candle.

Moving towards the hall closet she found a candle that was short enough to fit without being seen but with a long enough wick to burn through the night. She smiled and went back to the kitchen to see that Vegeta had already finished the mouth. She was a little surprised that he hadn't fixed the mistakes she'd made but shrugged it off thinking he just didn't want to do anything unnecessary. When he turned to look up at her she moved away from the door and back to his side.

"It looks great. Thanks, I could never have made it this well." She smiled up to him, surprised to see him looking directly back at her with the same look he'd had earlier.

It was confusing but before she could ask if something was wrong, he quickly masked the look. "What's next?"

"Ah, well now we light a candle and put it inside." She started to light a match when she saw his confused look. "What?"

"With all the technology you possess, you'd think you would something more advanced than a candle."

"Some people do use lights or glow sticks, which are little tubes that glow in the dark, to replace candles since it's considered safer and easier to maintain," Finally lighting the match, she lit the candle and turned off the lights, "But I like candles better. I like how the flickering is more inviting and warm than modern methods." Placing the candle in the top, she smiled, "See? Isn't it amazing to see how the light enhances everything and makes it more warming?"

She turned to Vegeta only to be caught by his intense stare. The candle light danced across his bronzed skin and gave a warm glow to his eyes. Her eyes scanned over his face as she took in his features more closely than she ever had before. She realized that he must be doing the same thing.

'He really is quite handsome.' The darkness of the room and the warmth of the candlelight made him seem so much closer than before. Her eyes moved down to his lips, they suddenly seemed so intriguing.

Before she could stop herself she moved forward and gently brushed her lips against his. She saw his eyes widen slightly before he returned the gesture. His lips, she found, were as warm as his skin. His eyes remained open as if analyzing even now but they seemed to be burning in the candlelight.

Suddenly realizing what she was doing, she jumped back startled. Looking up, Vegeta also seemed to have come back to himself. Blushing deeper than she had all night, she moved back to the wall and turned the light back on. "Well, it's done," she tried to change the situation's focus as quickly as possible "Now we just put it outside for everyone else to see. And that's it."

"I see. Another bizarre Earth custom done for random reasons." Bulma frowned and looked away. 'What were you expecting? Even if he participated in the activity, there was no guaranteeing that he'd enjoy it.' She was shaken out of her thoughts as Vegeta hand reached out and cupped her cheek, the warmth instantly making her blush as he brought her eyes to meet his. "But definitely very interesting." He finished with a warm smirk before he left the kitchen and went up the stairs to his room.

Bulma fell against the wall and reached up to touch the cheek that Vegeta had touched. "Interesting, huh?" She laughed nervously, "Does that mean that he expects a repeat of that every time we carve a Jack-O-Lantern." She smiled at the thought. "You know, I don't think I'd mind that too much."


A/N: Hope you all liked it, though I'm sure that there were a few who had read it before in which case I'll say Sorry, please bear with it for another week. Next week I'll repost 'Christmas Tree' and then it'll new after that. Thanks for your patience. Reviews are very much appreciated.