***Gosh, thank you all so much for liking this. I'm truly honored, thank you! This and the next chapter technically should be together, but I think that separating it into two chapters were for the best. Chapter 4 should be up in a couple of days. I hope everyone continues to like this little story, it's only going to get more intense from here!****

Disclaimer: I wish I owned DBZ, but then again, I wish I were also just a little bit taller, and since that's not gonna come true, then most definitely I have no claim to the DBZ world whatsoever. ;)

Chapter 3 - Let the games begin

That had not been the first time she had ever laid a hand on his arm, even though the ill-tempered and often snarling Prince despises and cringes being touched, especially by her.

That had not been the first time she'd been paralyzed and lost in the abyss of his soul, even though the windows she peered into showed how much of a chaotic place it was, so full of pain, terror, anguish and torture.

And…that had not been the first time that they had shared a kiss. Leaving one party to suppress and hide a long held desire, of desperate want and need, while the other thinking it meant absolutely nothing, nothing more than a part of a cruel game to be played by people who were no longer innocent babes, using that excuse to protect a frightened heart.

No, there had been one other time before.

It had been an accident, that kiss. Well, in his eyes at least. An accident that he'd been trying to avoid repeating so desperately since then. He'd been going out of his way to avoid her, again, but this time, consciously, so that he wouldn't have his heart instinctively begging his brain to allow his eyes to show her how much yearning he had for her.

He closed his eyes as he sped over the countryside looking for the little onna. His traitorous heart had not been giving him any peace since that day, berating him, nagging him. Insisting that the feel of her gloriously soft skin underneath his fingertips, the sweetness of her wondrous scent, that seemed to be a mixture of jasmine and orchids, and the way her lips tasted like blueberries, drove him insane, his heart constantly pounding into him that once was not enough.

He knew that for some time, she had been trying to gradually let Yamcha know that they did not belong together anymore. Not in the present, and definitely not as part of her future. There had been many hushed and quiet conversations he caught between the onna and Kakkarot's mate, about her feelings toward the human, what had gone on between them, that after all this time of being together, they both obviously had changed and were going in different directions. Gone were the days of insecurity and naivety of her youth. The stark reality of adulthood was that they were both no longer innocent; cheating on each other was a common but unspoken bond they'd shared, at least after the first time.

The woman vehemently attested that she had not been the first one to cheat, that a passionate, spontaneous fuck on the 2am train heading home between two complete strangers DEFINITELY was the definition of cheating. And as she'd said to Kakkarot's female "what goes around, comes around, and that Karma definitely is a bitch" as it were in Yamcha's case. The gorgeous redhead that he'd had a 5 minute quickie with on the train turned out to have been the sister of one of Bulma's sorority sisters. Strike number two for Yamcha was that the fraternity he was a part of was the corresponding "brother" of Bulma's sorority, and the classic scenario of college frat parties, lots of drinking, lots of illegal contraband, lots of drunk sex always leads to the unfortunate revelation of secrets thought to never see the light of day.

So that A + B = a very volatile, knockout, drag out, bitch-slappin', ball-kickin' "C". Boy, had Yamcha been surprised.

Yamcha's indiscretion devastated her. Gone was the shy, easily-flustered, adventurous, good-hearted, bombastic, fire bomb super genius. In its place was a devious, deceitful, sexy, sexual, temperamental, aggressive, manipulative temptress. Bulma graduated Suma Cum Laude in wielding this new set of skills, ask the men's gymnastics, swim and baseball teams. Nothing but a trail of tears left behind in her wake. Needless to say, Yamcha had not been happy.

But like she'd said, what goes around, comes around. And karma had definitely been a bitch.

Hard to imagine how one person could have flipped a person so drastically, but then again we're talking about a woman that came from pomp and circumstance and privilege, sheltered in a homogenized environment, her childhood fun and charmed. She had grown up with the children of the most wealthiest and powerful people of the world, and had grown up with friends that simply describing them as extraordinary would be an insult. She was completely ill-equipped to deal with the vacuous reality of the outside world.

Yamcha should have been proud of himself. The first person she fell in love with broke her heart, and set Bulma down the path of future battles and confrontations with the Prince of Pain.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's rewind a bit, shall we?

So, what exactly did all of this mean? After so many years of backstabbing, games and cruelness between Yamcha and Bulma, she'd decided it was time to grow up, and learn to be a well-rounded woman, someone that was innately sweet and kind, but had enough savvy and experience with the fact that treachery lay within every person's heart, and she definitely was no exception.

And though she was slowly weaning Yamcha away from her, a small part of her was growing, the one that wanted to cut him off now, to finally taste the freedom that she'd long craved. Besides, her heart and mind had been drifting off lately, and daydreams of a certain cranky houseguest had begun to invade her thoughts. The only way to protect herself was to mercilessly annoy, antagonize and goad the magniloquent prince, to hide her true emotions from him as well as herself, knowing that he would never feel for her the way she's beginning to feel about him.

Vegeta of course upon hearing her disclose her wish to Chi Chi, relished the thought of finally being rid of this poor excuse of a human, in his opinion. His dislike of Kakkarot was because he hated to admit that the younger, taller warrior was more powerful than him, and…that he had close bonds with others that didn't deceive him, and haven't been used against him by his enemies. 'No check that, Krillen had been killed right in front of Goku...and look what happened." Snarled the prince, closing his eyes and shaking his head in disgust, reliving the reason why the kind-hearted fool was now the most powerful warrior in the universe. Vegeta's aura glowed angrily, a streaking blinding light zipping around in the night sky. Vegeta learned early on, that close bonds with another person was filled with pain, because they'd either abandoned or betrayed The Prince, or were used against him, often times…tortured and or killed right before his eyes. Vegeta's dislike of Yamcha…was just because he did. Try as he might to pinpoint an exact reason why, in the end he gave up, deciding that the reason was of no real consequence.

Unfortunately, Chi Chi wasn't able to come up with any ideas of how to help Bulma. She was loud, demanding, psychotic, way too overly protective of Gohan, a complete despot, and a damn good cook, but treachery was just not in her makeup. And as much of a genius Bulma was and she definitely had been around the block, for the life of her, she couldn't figure out a way to get rid of Yamcha now, short of murder.

Boy, Bulma should have thanked her lucky stars that The Prince of All Saiyans, arguably the foremost authority in deceit and lies was staying at her home. Although, truth be told, he would have subscribed to the idea of just murdering the bastard to be done with it.

So in the last conversation that he'd overheard between the two women, the wheels began to turn, a battle plan was being formed. As he saw it, he really was going into battle, to finally release the little blue haired female from the ties that binded her to Yamcha, so that her eyes and her heart would finally be opened to show her that there was a much more worthy being in her midst.

'Wait, what the fuck was that? Where the hell did that come from?', gasped the young prince in horror.

'I must be really low on fuel to think of something as foolish as that', Vegeta thought, growling angrily to himself, chalking it up to low blood sugar because he hadn't eaten yet. A 26k pre-dawn run and a brutal 500g training session afterwards would cause anyone to talk out of their ass and make them delusional. Still, the chance to so thoroughly embarrass the so-called fighter, even if it was as trivial as participating in the demise of their relationship was just too irresistible to leave alone, and promised to be loads of fun for a very long time.

'Who knows?' he mused, 'I might even get an extra bonus surprise after I help her." The smile that quietly graced his features was so very cliché, but definitely fit into the situation at hand.

Truthfully, it would have been nice if Bulma had known that something was afoot, that things would be said, and secrets would be revealed and exposed. At least, she would have had time to prepare. But of course, this is Vegeta were talking about.

When it comes to battle, surprise is the ultimate weapon, and for her to be completely freed from him, genuine betrayal would be needed. As he continued to listen in on their conversation, the devious smile turned into a wicked grin slowly spreading across his face.

Let the games begin.