Eye of the Storm...ch.3
Ch.3

"Over here! No, not there! Here!" Bulma barked at the worker droids. She glared over at a smirking Vegeta. "And just what do you think that you're doing?! Hurry and get to work!"

Vegeta's smirk turned into a frown. "Hmph! Don't try and boss me around woman! I'm not one of your stupid robot slaves!"

Bulma stomped over to the stubborn Saiyajin and glared up at him. "Oh really? And I thought that you were going to help? Or do you want the gravity room to be levelled? Hmm?...."

Vegeta returned the scowl with just as much intensity, if not more. But he couldn't find an appropriate come-back so he just 'hmph'd' and crossed his arms over his chest.

Bulma grinned victoriously and pointed towards some sheet metal. "The first thing that you can do to help getting that sheet metal up in place."

Vegeta didn't answer her as he made his way over to the metal and flew up with it. ~Dammit! How does that baka woman get me to do these things?! I think I've been on this stupid rock FAR too long..~



Once they had finished what they could do to prepare for the upcoming storm, they decided to just relax, as best as they could anyway, and waited for the storm to make landfall.

"Oh mom, it's so terrible! There's gonna be a hurricane and....Oh no, don't you dare! You wouldn't be allowed in until the storm passes anyway.... No mom! Listen don't worry, Vegeta's here and I'm sure that between him and myself, we can keep this place together along with ourselves.....OK and...." Bulma was cut off from her mother as the phones went dead. She shuddered at the thought. She had tried to keep her mother from going into hysterics, but she herself couldn't help but be nervous. She looked out into the living room to see Vegeta standing by the window, looking out at the storm.

He had that thoughtful intrigued look that he seemed to have a lot of recently. ~Wow, who would think that Vegeta could actually look so calm....~ She slowly made her way over to where he was.

~I wonder what that woman is looking at me like that for? She seems to be doing that a lot recently...~ He could some how sense that she was staring at him. It was kind of unnerving, but when she looked at him like that, it was like a jolt to his system and he just knew that she was there. He wondered for a moment if his new ki sensing abilities where screwed up or something seeing how this woman didn't have so much as a twinge of ki in her...

"Something else, isn't it?" Bulma said softly, breaking his line of thought.

He grunted but didn't turn around. Bulma stepped up next to him and looked out as well. The storm was just beginning to really pick up now and the trees in the front were beginning to bend from the force of the wind.

"I think that I'll be going outside to train..." Vegeta started to say but he was cut off abruptly by a shocked Bulma.

"What?! You can't be serious?! No way buster! You're staying right here with me!! Honestly is that all that you damned Saiyajin's can think about?!!"

Vegeta looked indignant for a moment but then smirked at her. "Hmm... You humans are such cowards."

Bulma glared at him and sat down on the love seat. She tried to turn on the TV before remembering that the power was out. She threw the remote down in frustration and sat with her arms crossed.

Vegeta was VERY amused with his most current victory in their arguments. He decided to see just how far he could push her.

He decided that sitting on the couch in front of her wasn't quite enough to piss her off, so he casually made his way up to the love seat and took a place next to her. To his great disappointment, it seemed as though she wasn't mad anymore, in fact she actually smirked when he sat down. Uh-oh.

She turned so that she was facing him with that ridiculous smirk on her face. She shuffled a bit closer and almost whispered, "Bet you thought that you were going to get another fight out of me eh, my prince?"

It was Vegeta's turn to glare. He defiantly turned his head away from her and folded his arms across his chest.

~Ha, got you Princey...~ Bulma was feeling pretty victorious herself then, but then she took another look at Vegeta. It was the weirdest thing, but it seemed as though she could read him perfectly. Although anyone else would have seen a very pissed off prince, she could see what his true emotions where. She could tell it all by just looking at those ever shrouded dark eyes. The window to everyone's soul. Most would be terrified to look into the Saiyajin Prince's soul, afraid of the unspeakable horrors they might find, but that wasn't what was there at all. Sure there was anger, hate and pride. But the traits that dominated that soul was hurt, loneliness, uncertainty and fear. The hate, anger and pride was a result of the other traits.

She was completely taking aback at this sudden realization of the loneliness and pain that resulted from it that this person must have. His so-called "evil" ways was a way of escape from his internal pain. It was so clear to her ~How could anyone else not see it?~

She smiled encouragingly at him and lightly touched him on the arm.

He flinched at her touch and quickly spun his head around to face her.

She was only slightly surprised at his reaction. ~He's probably not used to someone making contact with him other than to inflict pain on him...~ And nothing could be any closer to truth.

~What the hell does that woman want now? And why does she have to look at me like that dammit?!" Vegeta was definitely not used to physical contact. He cursed himself for flinching like she had burnt him or something. He was starting to feel REALLY uncomfortable around the woman now. He fidgeted on his spot until he was somewhat facing her. "What is it woman?" He said in almost a whisper. He cursed himself as it didn't come out with the hostility that he was hoping for.

Bulma smiled sweetly at him and shuffled closer. She hesitated but asked a question that she felt that she NEEDED to ask, even if she already knew the answer. "Vegeta, has someone ever given you a hug?" She felt INCREDIBLY stupid at that moment but managed to look up and face him.

Vegeta was COMPLETELY taken aback and confused by a question like that. He was flustered and could feel the color starting to rise in his face. "Wha...what kind of a stupid question is that supposed to be woman?! I'm a Saiyajin! And Saiyajin's DO NOT share in your human, sentimental garbage!! Listen woman, don't try and 'reach out' to me or something, because it's REALLY starting to get on my nerves!!!" And not waiting to hear a reply, he sprang up from the love seat and began to leave.

Bulma quickly grabbed his hand, however, before he could leave. "Please don't leave Vegeta. I didn't mean to offend you....I just.. I just wanted to help, that's all." She sadly, yet desperately.

Now Vegeta didn't know what to do. He desperately wanted her to let him leave so that he could sort out his emotions and keep them in line. But there was another nagging feeling that wanted him to stay, and for some reason that he would never be able to explain, he listened to her.

He sat back down on the love seat as far as he get away from her. ~What the hell am I doing?! Get up and leave dammit!! This woman is NOT good for me...~ He cursed himself for not being able to do a thing about it.

Bulma was surprised that she hadn't blown up at his outburst a moment ago, and even more surprised that he had listened to her. She carefully chose her next words as to not upset him again.

For a moment, there was an uneasy silence and finally Bulma got up the courage to speak. "Thanks for staying Vegeta. Umm.. How about I get the cocoa that I put in some thermos's earlier in case the power went out?" She looked at him hopefully.

Vegeta mumbled something that she didn't quite catch but he just murmured the reply, "Yeah, whatever."

Bulma smiled and made her way to the kitchen, beckoning him to follow.

Vegeta reluctantly got up to follow.



It had been 30 minutes since anyone of them had spoken and they were happily sipping on their cocoa. Vegeta suddenly looked up at Bulma and out of nowhere simply said, "No."

Bulma looked at him strange for a moment before realizing what he was talking about. "Oh, I see. Vegeta.." She realized that she might be ruining a good thing by saying what she was going to say next but she did it anyway. "Do you WANT to be?"

He looked at her for a moment and seemed to be seriously thinking about what she said.

The way he looked at her sent chills up her spine. It wasn't the same kind of chills that were associated with fear, they felt GOOD. She felt almost mesmerized by his stare and was suddenly jerked back to life when he spoke.

"Why are you asking me these questions woman? They must serve some purpose. Or are they merely out of curiosity?" He said in an almost gentle tone, or as far as Vegeta went anyway.

Now it was her turn to be flustered. She didn't really have a good reason to be asking these questions, she had just done what her heart had told her to. She quickly tried to get them both out of this uneasy and yet intense situation they had somehow worked themselves into. "Ahh.. Listen Vegeta we should be getting to bed. It's getting kinda late and all... and um... Vegeta? Would you be able to stay down here to make sure that nothing happens? Please?"

Vegeta looked at her curiously for a second and then inclined his head slightly. "Sure woman, why not?" And with that he got up to go get some blankets to prepare for his night on the couch.