Revelation to Vegeta

By: Vaniti

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z © Akira Toriyama


Four

Storm

Warm fingers of wind whisked tendrils of her turquoise hair across her face. Bulma sat simply in a navy tube top and shorts the color of cream. Her long arms were wrapped around her knees and she rested her chin on top of them in contemplation. She was seated on the very top of Capsule. Corp. overlooking her stretch of property and the surrounding land. She loved to sit up here. Most people thought it would be impossible to get up there or even crazy. But she had her own ladder that she would use to escape through the sunroof. She had it especially designed to getaway when she did not want to be found. On stressful days, like that one for example, she immensely enjoyed coming up there to think and not be bothered.

The slight problem with today was that although the air was comfortably warm, the sky was rapidly losing battle to heavy, deep-bellied clouds. As she stared off dreamily, she noted the sun losing more and more authority. A satisfying, yet warming rumble confirmed her predictions.

"Yep," she said out-loud to herself.

"Are you really having a conversation with yourself, and then being agreeable to whatever idea you debated?"

Bulma did not jump in startle. It was no surprise the owner of that haughty, gruff voice could easily find her up here. After all, the owner did not need a human's ladder to climb.

He was able to fly instead.

"And look who so conveniently decided to interrupt and invade the only private time I get all day. Classic. Give yourself a hand, Prince of Saiya-jins. You're not predictable at all."

She did not have to peer over her shoulder to observe his displeasure.

"Your Earthling means of sarcasm have little effect on me."

"Probably because you don't understand them."

"That's not it. They say sarcasm is the lowest form of astuteness."

"Then I'm sure you know all about sarcasm."

Now, she was finally surprised, when he permitted her a throaty chuckle. He almost sounded human. Almost.

"Not bad, Bulma."

Bulma? BULMA? He just addressed her by her name? Now something must truly be going on; Vegeta had acted like a human being with feelings twice in a row.

And she bit her lower lip at what the warmth added to his gruff tone did to her.

"Okay, what gives. I know you didn't break away from your training to come chitchat with me. What can I do for you today, Prince?" She smoothed some pieces of hair from her face as another, louder crack of thunder growled.

He was silent for a moment, which made her worry. During his prolonged silence another peel of thunder banged.

"Well? Do you not hear the conditions of the weather or are you deaf?"

"Yeah. I hear them. But it's not raining yet."

"It doesn't need to be, you stupid woman. The rain is not the only time you may be struck by lightning."

Now she did rotate to skewer him with her gaze at last. An impish, wide grin impulsively spread across her mouth.

"Are you insinuating that you're worried about me?"

"Do not be so vain! I am insinuating nothing! What is there to insinuate? The weather is about to storm; you could be hit by lightning and fried. These are hard, cold facts."

"Awe, Vegeeetaaaa —"

"Stop that! Stop that right now!"

"You really do care about me —"

"Get over yourself, you hopeless woman!"

"You're going to make this girl blush —"

"ENOUGH!" Vegeta's roar was lost in another clap of thunder.

In the blink of an eye he was in front of her and had her surrounded by his massive arms of muscle. He looked directly into her eyes and Bulma swallowed back the cotton ball that suddenly seemed to be lodged in her throat. She felt the warm dewdrops of rain begin to poke against her bare arms and legs.

"The Prince of all Saiya-jins cares about no one," he said softly.

She could not take her eyes off of his onyx ones, and could not find her voice when abruptly Vegeta hoisted her up into his arms. Before she could comprehend what was happening, the sky blurred past her and then back again as she realized they were flying. Then Vegeta's feet touched the ground. They were in front of Capsule Corp. and he effortlessly set her down. He nodded to the door with his chin.

"Inside. The rain has begun."

Bulma, to not allow him see how much he had affected her, shot him a sardonic expression before she hurried in. It was most certainly not because of the rain or thunder though.

It was because, she realized with dawning awareness, that despite what he had just said, that was the closest thing he had done to caring since he had been there.


Vegeta sat for a long, long time stewing over what had just happened.

Despite what he had told the Earth woman, he remained outside in the rain, high up even. His circumstances were different, of course. No weather or lightning would affect a Saiya-jin to critical injury. So he sat far above the ground in a tree on his favorite thick branch. He had rested there often since he had been living at the place called Capsule Corporation. This tree was close enough to the gargantuan yellow building that he was permitted to look in the higher floors.

Sometimes he would see her later at night skitter throughout her room and back and forth through the halls. She was always moving.

The warm summer rain had him drenched but he didn't mind. It felt good over a long day of training.

Then, on cue, her bedroom light flicked on. He watched her; he was constantly watching her.

She momentarily released her silky locks from the ponytail it had been in and combed it through. She left it down and hesitated a moment before lighting a couple candles. His inhuman sense of smell could tell what they were even from there; fresh strawberry and vanilla.

She seemed to become distracted about something and she rested her elbows on the windowsill. Her impossibly blue eyes looked up to the sky. He wondered what she was thinking about.

Immediately, he sent a mental curse in defense. What did it matter what she was thinking about? How ridiculous. How would that help him attain the level of a Super Saiya-jin? He felt angry with himself for even taking her off the roof earlier as well. How did it concern him?

With his usual scowl on his face he told himself rationally it was merely because it would be unfortunate if something happened to the host who allowed him to live there. That was all.

But as the Earth woman continued to stare off at the pouring dark sky, with a sad look on her face, he realized he could not deny that he did want to know what it was that made her look like that.


Bulma could not sleep that night.

Her nerves were jittery and she realized she probably had consumed more caffeine than she should have throughout the day. Or maybe it was something, someone, else. Whatever the cause she was awake now.

Exiting her bedroom she slipped into the darkened hallway. She had walked a few meters down when a shadow moved. Bulma faltered and strained her eyes to see. She stared at him in the dim light of the hallway uncertainly when she recognized who it was. His guest room was down the hall from hers, after all.

"Can't sleep either?" She winced at such a generic line.

He made a deep guttural sound, which Bulma supposed was to mean the negative. Quiet passed between them. She did not know why he was still awake, but she hesitated and figured what harm could it do?

"Do…do you want to enjoy a nightcap with me?"

"Nightcap?"

"You know…a drink to help you sleep."

He was silent. Bulma shrugged, expecting him to launch into a frenzy about how he would not lower himself or it was beneath him. So it shocked her when he slowly nodded his head.

"Sure. Why not."

Holding her breath Bulma led him to a sitting room a few doors down from her own bedroom in the opposite direction. She loved this sitting room; it even had a spacious balcony that revealed a spectacular view. The billowy curtains were open and flapped and twisted from the glass doors being open a crack. Through their translucent textile it gave view to the storm that still raged. Bulma poured herself a gin and tonic and when she asked Vegeta what he wanted, he requested the tonic without the gin. He did take a lime wedge, though.

They both took a chair by the sliding glass doors to have front-row seats for the summer storm. Neither of them spoke for awhile. They simply enjoyed their respective beverages in silence and observed the thunderstorm.

"What was it like?" she asked finally. Maybe it was the slight relaxation effects of the alcohol, or maybe because she had been curious for a long time. "On your planet?"

Vegeta regarded her critically. An amused smirk graced his lips. "Oh? And you'd want to know?"

"Well, I'm asking, idiot."

He threw his head back and laughed. His scarred fingers stroked around the perspiration coating his glass as he thought for a moment.

"The planet was rough and in dire conditions. It was very hot and not much scenery. Despite the searing conditions there was an abundance of preserved lakes. There were endless fields that stretched open and open. It was brutal and made the perfect conditions for training."

Bulma thought it sounded awful. Evidently not to the Saiya-jin prince.

She told him as much and he merely smirked at her, quite unbothered.

"An Earthling such as yourself would not understand."

"Clearly."

She paused and then asked, "Do you…miss it?"

"Yes."

"What do you think you will do after the androids? Where will you leave?"

Vegeta pursed his lips together and leaned back in his chair. "I have not considered that yet. I will go wherever the conditions are right so that I can continue to train to be the greatest warrior."

Bulma looked down and the tiniest hints of a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"Well, that could be anywhere. What's important is where you consider a place home. And because you no longer have one, you had better start thinking of a substitute."

"Home?" he lightly scoffed, "Now that is a foreign idea to me."

"Not really…It can be wherever you like."

"You make it sound so simple."

"Because it is, Vegeta."

They observed each other for a long moment after that in the dark.

"Why did you ask me to sit with you?" he said at last.

"Why? Well, like you said. Why not?" she smiled.

The storm was still going on outside and provided the perfect amount of background noise to the otherwise quiet room. She thought he was going to say something, but instead he closed himself off.

"Goodnight…Bulma."

"Goodnight Vegeta."


Bulma could not focus very well on her work the next morning and was not at the level of quality she took pride in. The summer storm had carried on throughout most of the night. Even after her interlude with the Saiya-jin warrior she did not succumb to sleep immediately. Now she forced herself to keep working through for about another hour when she stopped for a break. She was hoping to clear her mind.

After pouring herself a glass of iced tea and noncommittally munching on some strawberries she decided to make a phone call. She simply put it on speaker phone so her hands could be free to graze if she so chose. Her friend answered on the second ring.

"Son residence!"

"Hi, Chi-Chi. It's Bulma."

"Hey, Bulma! It's nice to hear from you. How are things?"

"Good. I didn't catch you at a bad time, did I?"

"No, just doing laundry. The break is welcome."

"Same. Well, break from work that is."

"Getting a lot accomplished? Inventing new things?" Bulma could detect the smile in Chi-Chi's voice. She had always been impressed by what Bulma did.

"You could say that," Bulma smiled back. She pivoted on her heel and stared out the window at the gravity machine.

"Chi-Chi…"

"Hmm?"

"What is it like…to be married to a Saiya-jin?"

"What it's like to be married to a Saiya-jin?" Chi-Chi repeated her question nonplussed at the change of pace, "Well, as you can imagine I'm sure. Why…do you ask?"

Bulma bit her bottom lip in contemplation and realized how ridiculous she sounded. "Never mind," she amended quickly.

"Bulma?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well…"

"What, Chi-Chi."

"Well," Bulma could hear the raven-haired woman take a breath on the other line, "We're worried about you."

Bulma leaned her back against the counter with her eyebrows raised to her hairline. "Who's 'we'? And why is 'we' worried?"

"We're concerned about you being alone with that…that Saiya-jin madman Vegeta."

Bulma fell utterly still. For some reason, her skin prickled in defense for the warrior.

"Chi-Chi that's ridiculous. What do you think he's going to do? All he cares about is training."

"Well, you never know how someone that possessed could react. Give him a bad day and…I'm not scaring you, am I?"

"No. You're making me angry."

"Angry?"

"And there's nothing wrong with Vegeta. So he's a little proud and blood-thirsty and lives for the fight."

She was overcome with sentiment and in fever she ended the call and slammed her cell phone across the counter. Indignant, she realized that she should probably call Chi-Chi back later. However, when she glanced up what she saw startled to her core. Vegeta was staring at her intently in the doorway.

He had heard every word.


A/N: Hello there! I hope to find you in good health and spirits. Is the weather starting to warm up finally? And well here it looks like "someone" is starting to get attached :} And oh Bulma, speaker phone is never a good idea. What do you think so far? I'd love some input, opinions and suggestions! Until next time —

Vaniti