Vegeta stood next to his father waiting for the ramp of the small ship to lower and its passengers to exit.

'There goes my last month of freedom for awhile,' Vegeta thought bitterly as he crossed his arms. 'Now I'll be spending my days babysitting this old codger hoping that he doesn't die before he gets anything done.'

"Remember what I told you, Boy," his father interrupted his thoughts.

He barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "You know that I'm not going to go around beating the fool up or making him do my personal tasks so I don't know why you're warning me so much."

King Vegeta laughed at his son's annoyed tone. "Yes I know that you're at least capable of that much." Suddenly all the humor left him and his face became serious. "However, that not what I meant by saying that she is not to be touched," he made sure to accent the part of his statement that Vegeta was oblivious of.

Vegeta opened his mouth to question what he meant when it finally registered with him. 'She?' A hissing sound brought his attention back to the ship where the door was slowly descending. Out from the doorway, a few people appeared and made their way to the planet's surface. He couldn't count how many there were or what they looked like; his focus was glued to the woman leading them.

The first thing that registered in his mind was blue: Sparkling blue eyes and long blue hair that bounced around her shoulders. He'd never seen anyone with a similar body structure to the Saiyans with hair and eyes as vividly colored hers. She looked young, not too much younger than himself, but her pale skin was smooth and unmarred. He had never seen someone from a non-royal status with such fare skin since all Saiyan females were warriors and all commoners of other species had to work for their whole lives. Even the women that worked in the brothels had scarred skin, testaments to how harshly they were treated. As soon as she reached the end of the ramp she looked up at his father with a brilliant smile.

"Vegeta." At his name his eyes snapped away to look at his Father's profile. "Remember. She is not a slave. You need to make sure that no one, elite or otherwise, forces her to do anything against her will. And I mean anyone, Vegeta, including you."

"I'm not a hormone driven teenager."

"Why don't you wipe that drool off your mouth before you try to defend yourself?"

Vegeta's hand covered his mouth only to find that it was dry. He flinched as he heard his Father's chuckle.

With their visitor only a few steps away, King Vegeta stepped forward. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Miss Briefs."

"It's wonderful to meet you too, your Majesty. And, please, just Bulma is fine."

"Well then, Bulma, we have a lot to get done so I hope you're ready to work. First off, I'd like you to meet my son, Vegeta. He'll be overseeing your work."

Suddenly those vivid blue eyes were looking at him directly. He was shocked that he couldn't form any words of introduction so instead he looked away, huffing in disgust at how foolish he was being.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Bulma frown apparently thinking that his disgust was towards her. 'Good, let her think that. Better than her knowing that I was temporarily struck dumb by her appearance.' Looking around, he noticed that the elite soldiers that had accompanied them were less concerned about being caught staring at her. He couldn't explain why but that didn't sit too well with him. "What are you all staring at?" He snapped out. "Help them bring everything to the palace. The sooner we get this started, the better."

The soldiers got to work immediately helping Bulma's assistants carry their equipment and supplies knowing better than to cross their prince. After a few seconds of observation, King Vegeta turned back to Bulma with a smile. "While they're setting up your lab, we'll show you to your private quarters in the palace."

"In that palace?" Bulma asked with a shocked look on her face. "I mean, it's an honor but wouldn't it be better if…"

"I'll have no discussion on this, Bulma. It will be easier if you don't have to go through the palace guards every time you need to report your findings. Not to mention that we've already cleared out a large room that will be perfect for your lab."

"It's just… I've read up on your traditions and it said that unless a foreigner is royalty they're considered to be of a lower status and that the only lower status people allowed in the palace are servants and, um…"

"Pleasure slaves? Yes that is true. However you're an exception, now aren't you? Not royalty and yet not a servant. Our customs don't have a classification for such a role but you'll have to place your trust in my word that no one will be allowed to do anything to you against you will. Isn't that right, Boy?"

Vegeta grimaced as Bulma chuckled at his Father's nickname for him but nodded.

"Now come. We'll talk about your trip on the way."

Vegeta grudgingly got into the transport vehicle along with his Father and the woman. He absolutely hated riding in these but since not all beings in the universe possessed the ability to fly they had to provide them for matters like this. Leaning against the side and looking out the window, he tried unsuccessfully to tune out Bulma's voice as she and his Father discussed her trip, her company, her family.

He cursed the fact that he couldn't stop from taking quick glances at her from the corner of his eye. There was no reason to consider her beauty; she was off limits after all. He could not order her to sleep with him and it was unheard of to have relations with someone of such a lower class than himself. 'It's just lust, nothing to get caught up in. I'll get over it eventually.'

Soon after reaching the palace, Vegeta left claiming that he wasn't going to sit around and chat. Instead he made his way to the training fields hoping to beat this restless feeling out of himself. He had be disappointed to see that Kakarot wasn't anywhere in sight. Irritated that his best challenge was absent, he order four elites to attack him at once, hoping that quantity could make up for quality. It didn't.

"Pathetic. No wonder the Old Man had to call in a frail woman to build training equipment. At this rate the Namekians could defeat you all." And with that insult he left the wounded men behind, thinking back to his Father's remark last month about how it was unfortunate that Kakarot had been born a first class. 'Kakarot's ability far outclasses those fools. Perhaps we should change things around where our warriors have to prove their strength every year to determine their class.'

He smirked at the thought of the 'elite' warriors fighting, and losing, to Kakarot and being forced to move down to the lower quarter. His good mood was quickly replaced with shock as he thought about his idea again. 'What am I thinking? Third classes are third classes and elites are elites. There's no reason to change what has been a perfect system for generations.' Shaking his head, he forced himself to continue to his room, ignoring the nagging feeling that, perhaps, the system did need to be reevaluated.

It wasn't until later that evening that Vegeta decided to make his way to the designated lab area. However upon stepping into the room he froze at what he saw. The once bare storage room was now wall to wall machinery, flashing lights and buttons everywhere the eye could see. Several humans in white lab coats ran about in all directions checking equipment and taking notes while some third class warriors moved heavy metal tables and boxes to places they were designated to.

Scanning the room, he was shocked to see not only Kakarot but also his father Bardock talking to Bulma about some blueprints she was leaning over.

Bardock looked up to see Vegeta walking towards them. "Ah, my Prince, how good it is to see you."

Vegeta ignored Bardock and turned his attention towards Kakarot instead. "Why weren't you at the training grounds?"

"Huh?" Kakarot's confused look just angered Vegeta further. "You said that you were going to be busy today so I went ahead and trained earlier. Also, Dad said that there was a possibility for work coming up so I needed to free up my afternoon anyway."

"Work? What are you talking about? As if you're good for anything other than fighting." Vegeta barely resisted the urge to growl at the thought that Kakarot was planning on cutting down their possibly sparring time.

"Geez, you're a bit of a jerk, aren't you?" Vegeta's eyes snapped to Bulma's. "You'd think that with the fear all of your men have for you that you'd be a little nicer to your friend."

"Kakarot is not my 'friend', Woman. He is merely a third class warrior that's decent to spar with."

She gave him a disinterested look. "How sad."

"Don't you dare act as if you pity me, Woman."

"It's not pity. I may not be Royalty but I'm pretty high up as far as the corporate ladder goes. I know what it's like to be alone and how important it is to have someone to confide in." He was about to mock her weakness but she continued on. "In any case, I requested some workers from the King so Kakarot and Bardock will be working with us on these projects along with the others here. As much as you may know about the current state of affairs, it's always better to have someone that actually affected by that trouble tell us exactly what's wrong. That way we can work more efficiently."

Vegeta looked at the blueprints. The detailed rendering were confusing to say the least but he recognized that word 'WATER' at the bottom. "So you're working on the water issue first?"

"Yes, for now a simple water filtration system can be made by boiling the bad river water and using slanted covers to catch the steam. At the bottom of the pots we'll have pots to collect the clean water."

"I can't believe the solution was so simple." Bardock remarked. "If only we'd tried something like this before, our planet wouldn't have gotten so bad."

"Well, this will only work in small batches. We'll have to build a filtration plant to clean water in large amounts. Then we'll have to build water tanks and irrigation system so the crops can be better watered. After that we can concentrate on mass producing capsule technology to prepare for universal trade. That should bring in enough interest and give us some room for bartering. Depending on what we can get we'll…"

Vegeta listened as Bulma continued her well thought out plans. Despite all his attempts to think of something bad to say about this arrangement he had to admit that everything seemed perfect. 'The Old Man actually has some good judgment for once.' Everything seemed to be falling in place and seeing Bulma in her element made Vegeta think of her more as a scientist instead of an extremely attractive woman. 'That's right, she's just a worker. There's no reason to think of her as anything else.'

"So, um, Bulma. What happened to your friend? The black haired one?"

Vegeta resisted the urge to smack Kakarot for bringing up such a random topic but Bulma's sigh stopped him.

"Chichi? I put her in charge of setting up Capsule Corporation. The capsule process is pretty much perfected so she can handle it without me. But, I don't know where the Saiyans took her to set-up and I only just realized after she left that the phones I made don't have as wide of a range as I thought they would. And since I'll be living here and she'll be living there I won't be able to fix them."

"They didn't tell you anything about where she was going?"

"King Vegeta said something about some ruins but other than that no."

"Were they the Tuffle city ruins, perhaps?"

"Ah, yes that was it!"

"I know where that is. If you want I'll be happy to take you there."

"Oh my gosh, really?" Bulma squealed with delight and jumped up that wrap her arms around Kakarot's neck. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Vegeta's fists clenched so tightly that his nails would have cut the skin if he hadn't been wearing gloves. He didn't know why but seeing the woman's shapely body pressed so tightly to Kakarot's chest made his blood boil.

"No problem," Kakarot said with a smile. "It shouldn't take too long, maybe a little over two hours there and back."

"That's not too bad. Maybe tomorrow, before work we can…"

"No," Vegeta cut her off. He couldn't take the sight of her being so close to Kakarot any longer. It's not like he was envious of the clown, he just didn't want the woman to get sidetracked by his stupidity.

Bulma pulled away from Kakarot and put her hands on her hips. "What do you mean, No?"

"There are more important things for you to work on. In addition to the plans for the water problem you also need to get to work making training equipment that will aid our army in their training. You can save your little day trip to see your 'friend' after I've seen you do enough work to justify time off. Now hurry up and get busy."

Bulma walked around the table to stand a few feet from him. "No."

Vegeta's raised an eyebrow. After all, aside from his Father and his Mother when she was still alive, no one told him no. The room got quiet and he knew that everyone was watching them, shocked at her gall. "What did you say Woman?" He growled out.

Instead of backing down like most people, Bulma walked forward and poked him chest. "First off, my name is Bulma, not Woman. Second, I am not a slave and I won't stand for you ordering me around like one. Third, I understand how important the water situation is which is why I'll be working through the night to get that project ready for tomorrow. As for training equipment, I have some ideas but I can't just conjure up the materials at will. This planet doesn't have the resources needed to build what I have planned so we'll have to import it. To import it, we'll have to have something to trade which requires me to be in contact with Chichi. So if you want your training equipment you'll have to wait until I have the materials and time to spare for your hobby."

"Hobby?" Vegeta snapped, his surprise at her backtalk replaced by his anger at her denial. "You have no idea what the Cold Empire is like. It is of the utmost importance that our warriors are at their strongest in order to defend our planet in the case of an attack."

"Perhaps you're unaware of it, Vegeta," there were several audible gasps heard at her use of his name without his title, "but your warriors can't live on fighting alone. If they don't have their basic needs fulfilled then they won't be at their best. There is an order to things that need to be done to better the planet as a whole and despite your protests preparing for a random attack that may never happen is not anywhere close to the top."

The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Even though she wasn't a slave and she was a very important part in the plans to rebuild their planet's economy, she was still ranked far below him. Everyone was frozen in place waiting for the last thread of Vegeta's control to snap and for him to kill this woman who dared to stand up to him. But the blow never came. Not only because Vegeta had the control to not attack but also because at that moment Vegeta had no intent to strike her.

'This woman has absolutely no physical strength and yet she has more courage than the warriors I've been surrounded by my whole life. Not only that,' he quickly took in her flushed face and heaving chest her ranting had caused, 'it's pretty entertaining to see her get worked up. Perhaps there are more benefits to this arrangement than I thought.'

"Very well, Woman," he made sure to put extra emphasis on his new name for her, smirking as she tensed more, "I was thinking about giving you some space to work alone but since you've admitted that you're unable to work on everything that needs to be done I'll have to come by and make sure you're keeping on track every day so I hope you're prepared to prove your worth."

"Bastard," Bulma muttered, quiet enough that only he could hear her.

Instead of getting angry at her, he just turned away. "Kakarot. Come. You're taking her to the ruins tomorrow so we're going to train now."

"Oh, sure thing, Vegeta. Bye, Bulma. I'll come get your first thing tomorrow, ok?"

"Thanks again, Kakarot," Bulma gave him another hug and Vegeta barely resisted the urge to pull her off Kakarot when he hugged her back.

After they pulled apart, Vegeta and Kakarot left the lab and flew towards the training fields.

"Bulma's sure smart, isn't she?" Kakarot said, unaware of Vegeta's seething.

"Obviously. She wouldn't be here if she wasn't it. Now if you're done talking about pointless things, you're long overdue for a beating." And with that Vegeta swung without warning, giving Kakarot barely enough time to react.

"Whoa! We're not even at the fields yet, what's the deal?"

"The deal is that you're an idiot. That's more than enough reason to want to hit you," he answered simply before continuing his onslaught.

'Yes, that's the only reason.' It had nothing to do with the fact that he wished that he was the one the Woman had pressed herself against or the fact that Kakarot could do such things without anyone batting an eye because they were considered to be the same class while him just talking to the woman was considered odd enough to stare at. 'I don't need her affection after all. Her anger is much more amusing.' He punched Kakarot in the gut with a smirk. 'It's only right after all. If I can't have her the way I want and she won't follow my orders, then I'll make her life a living hell. I swear, I'll haunt her thoughts as much as she's been haunting mine.'