Disclaimer: Dragonball Z and all of its characters belong to Akira Toriyama. I do not own them nor do I claim to.

A/N: Takes place after Christmas Tree but flashes back to the end of Summer before Jack-o-lantern. It's also the longest chapter by far. I actually had to cut quite a bit to fit into the livejournal's word limit when I submitted it to the Blue and Black writing community.

Edit: I've gotten a few comments about Vegeta being ooc in the chapter but I already told people at the beginning that I feel that it's impossible to have a 100% in character Vegeta in a romance and that I'm going for a dark, secretly charming side that only Bulma sees. Vegeta's a jerk but he knows how to get what he wants if he doesn't want to lose it and if that requires smooth talking or explaining that he's going to let himself go completely then that's what he has to do. I'm sorry if I put anyone off with my version but seriously go read the manga or watch the anime and then go read your favorite fics where Vegeta is "100% in character" and I'm sure that you'll realize that he's not unless it's a pwp where they just rip off each other's clothes and don't explain why. In any case just sit back and enjoy the fact that I don't have him confessing his love or anything that ooc.

Okay rant over, please enjoy the story.

"Champagne: Check. Hors d'oeuvres: Check. Music: Check," Bulma smiled as she finally reached the end of her list. "That's about everything for the party tonight. It should be a relatively stress-free evening.

At that comment, her smile fell a bit. "Speaking of Stress-free," she looked out the window to see the flashing lights coming out of the GR suggesting that it was in heavy use, "I better tell Vegeta that he needs to move to the backyard if he plans to continue training tonight." Putting down her checklist, she pulled on a thick jacket and made her way outside.

"I've got to remember to sneak in and re-enable that comm. screen next time I get a chance. It's completely ridiculous that I have to go outside in this cold just because he doesn't like to be interrupted. Luckily it hasn't snowed yet." Picking up her pace, she climbed the stairs to the GR and knocked on the door. When she didn't hear the sounds inside cease her frown deepened and she knocked on the door as hard as she could before clutching it to her chest in pain. She sighed in relief when the sound did stop, the red light signaling that the gravity was in use turning off.

A few seconds later the door opened a crack so that she could just see Vegeta's frowning face. "What do you need, Woman? Can't you tell when I'm busy?"

Bulma gave him a confused look at his actions. "Um, are you going to open the door?"

Vegeta visibly shifted and a strange look graced his eyes before he hid it behind one of annoyance, "I don't have time to chit-chat or whatever you call your prattling ways, Woman, I need to get back to training so just tell me what you want."

'The nerve of this jerk!' Trying her best to keep her composure intact and her anger in check she answered. "Sorry for bothering you, your majesty, but I've come to inform you that you need to move the GR to the backyard so you won't be an eyesore for our party guests tonight. If it weren't for that I wouldn't dream of coming out here to see you at all. Now get your warm clothes on and come outside so that we can get this done and over with." With that, she made her way down the ramp and waited for him to come.

She tried to keep her mind off Vegeta's rude behavior and the cold by thinking about where she was going to have him take the GR and what she should wear tonight. However her train of thought was broken by none other than Vegeta himself, "Do you want to wait inside?"

Bulma was slightly shocked at his question but her pride made her keep her eyes looking ahead. "Just hurry. I need to get ready for the party and I'd like more than an hour to do so." A few seconds went and, not hearing the door close, her curiosity got the better of her. She turned and looked up the ramp only to see that Vegeta was now inches from her. Jumping back in shock, she would have fallen if not for Vegeta's iron tight grip on her wrist. "What's your problem, Vegeta?"

Instead of answering her he just turned and walked back up the ramp and into the GR with her in tow. Before she could say anything, he was across the room and going downstairs to change.

'I swear I just don't get him,' she thought with a sigh. 'I shouldn't be surprised though, he always has to have his way with things. I just don't understand why he's being twice as difficult lately.'

Leaning against the wall she let her thoughts drift back to the night they had decorated the Christmas tree together and the kiss they shared under the mistletoe. Despite being their first kiss it was easily one of the most passionate kisses she could recall ever having. She closed her eyes as she reminisced in the feeling it had given her. Vegeta had put a lot into it, as if he'd wanted to kiss her for a long time but had waited for the exact moment to strike. With the mounting passion of the kiss she had expected him to try to go farther than just kissing but to her surprise he just pulled away soon after and quickly left, locking himself in the GR. It was all so sudden that she hadn't known if she had dreamt what happened. To make matters worse, he had suddenly decided to turn up his training regime so she hadn't see him since.

It all brought up two big questions that she didn't know exactly how to answer: Why hadn't he just kissed her earlier if he had wanted to and why did he dash off afterwards and avoid her ever since?

'Oh, I can make up answers, that's easy,' she thought as shifted her weight to a more comfortable position. 'He had waited so long because he didn't know any other way to initiate a kiss other than taking advantage of the mistletoe tradition and he ran off because his want for me was so strong that he couldn't control himself,' she scoffed as she finished that thought. 'More like he couldn't pass up teasing me since I did something as stupid as not pay attention to where I was standing and he left because he got he didn't want to do anything other than gloat that he had gotten me excited so easily,' she thought with a twisted frown and a nod as she decided that sounded closer than her first scenario.

Sighing, she opened her eyes and nearly fell over as she saw Vegeta, now dressed in black jeans and a dark blue sweater, standing a few feet in front of her, his face showing wonderment, 'Probably at the strange expressions I was making while thinking. Stupid Vegeta, not making sound when he walks, 'she blushed before turning towards the door. "Well let's get this moved so you can get back to training."

Once they were both outside, she capsulated the GR and picked it up before moving towards the backyard and the place she decided to put it.

"So what pointless custom are you having that requires a party?" Vegeta asked without looking at her.

"I thought you didn't want any 'chit-chat', Vegeta," She responded dryly as she rubbed her arms, the cold feeling more brutal than before after being inside the warm training chamber. 'It has to be 30 degrees out here. I can't believe that he's completely fine just wearing one layer of clothes,' she thought with a shiver. Suddenly she felt a wave of heat spread over her from Vegeta's general direction.' Looking over at him she saw that he was now looking at her instead of straight ahead. 'Was that his ki?

"I have the right to know why so many strangers are coming into my territory, Woman. Or are you okay with me attacking anyone I see as a threat."

Frowning deeper, she looked away with a sigh, knowing that this tradition would be just as hard to logically explain as the others, "We're celebrating the new year. Basically at midnight it will no longer be this year and it'll be the next. We're going to celebrate by staying up late and counting down the last few seconds before it becomes tomorrow," Looking back, she watched as he tried to make sense of having a party for the sole purpose of the days changing, "Then we make resolutions about what we want to accomplish in the new year. Some people aim to lose weight, stop smoking, or to find a new love interest," he thought about that before trying to say something but she decided to change the subject and avoid any questions or snide comments about her needing to lose weight or stop smoking, "And before you ask, no Goku and the others won't be here. Everyone is busy training for the androids like you are. This party is just for stockholders and acquaintances of Capsule Corp. In other words, people that aren't accustomed to flying men or martial arts and I highly doubt that you'll truly see any of them as a threat."

"There are more ways to be a threat than just in a physical sense."

Bulma thought that over as they came to a stop at the designated place, far from the prying eyes of her guests, "I guess that's true but I doubt that anyone will be planning a hostile takeover of the company tonight."

"That's not what I was referring to," as she gave him a confused look he quickly looked away, "never mind, just put the chamber down so I can get back to training."

Clicking the top and throwing the capsule as far as she could, the GR re-emerged about 20 feet from where they stood. 'Ah, that's right. I should active the comm. screen so I won't have to come out her again,' she moved towards the capsule with the intent of going inside and fixing it when Vegeta cut her off.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Bulma, exasperated, threw her hands up in the air, "Vegeta, what is your problem tonight? First you won't open the GR enough for me to properly talk to you, then you insist that I come inside to wait for you to change, and now you're back to not wanting me inside. Make up your mind already!"

"The first time I thought that you just wanted to say something trivial and pointless and I didn't want you wasting my time, the second time I knew you'd be waiting for me so I granted you access to the warmth inside the chamber while I went to change. As for now, I want to get back to training which you coming inside to do who knows what would no doubt stall my already limited time."

"For your information, I just wanted to go inside and make sure that the comm. screen is working so I won't have to come all the way outside to tell you something important."

"I don't need you interrupting me every two seconds," he started before Bulma cut him off.

"Oh, please, every two seconds indeed. Like I'd want to see your temper tantrums any more than I have to. At least turn it on tonight so I can tell you when we're all going to the party so you won't come looking for us to fix your bots or make you dinner."

"Fine, I'll turn it on, Woman, now go on and get ready for your countdown and leave me alone so I can finally get something worthwhile done," he almost turned to storm off when he saw her face fall.

"Okay then, Vegeta, I'll leave you to your work then. Sorry that my company is so unbearable that you can't stand me for a few minutes."

Vegeta seemed a little shocked by her statement, "I didn't say that your company was unbearable, just that I don't want distractions from my training."

Sighing, she turned towards the house. She was starting to wonder if it was possible to skip tonight and just go to bed. It wasn't at all late but the events of the last few weeks were sapping all the energy out of her, "You don't have to say anything, Vegeta. Whether my company is a distraction when you're training or slightly tolerable when you're not, you obviously don't want it so I'll leave you be." Not wanting him to see the tears that started falling from her eyes, she started to run towards the house, ignoring the fact that Vegeta clearly stepped forward to stop her.

'Why am I getting upset about this? He's the same jerk he always is so why does it hurt so much to have him push me away?' Finally reaching her room, she slammed the door shut and leant against it for a moment fighting the urge to sink to the ground and curl up into a ball before going to the bathroom for a shower. As horrible as she felt right now she had to get ready for the party. "I'm not going to think about him anymore tonight. I'm going to pamper myself and go all out dressing up," she thought as she wiped away her tears with a determined smile. "After all, I'm a beautiful woman in my prime and I should look my best. Who knows, maybe I'll be swept off my feet by a mysterious, charming prince…," her frown returned as the first person that popped into her head that fit the description was the very one she was trying to forget, "never mind."

After hopping in the shower and pampering herself to the max, she walked into her closet to find the perfect outfit for the evening. Instantly her eyes were drawn to a short, strapless, red dress. "No, that's more of a club party dress than something like this, not to mention that it's way too cold." She looked around a little longer but found that her thoughts kept coming back to the red one. Walking back over to it, she pulled it out and looked at it. "It's a little informal but I could pull it off. When is the last time I even wore this thing?" She wanted to put the dress back and continue looking for another dress but her mind refused to move on until she figured out why it was calling to her so much.

Then it all came back to her: August. Her last date with Yamcha. Vegeta stopping her at the door. And despite her deciding not to think about Vegeta anymore tonight she couldn't stop the memory from resurfacing.

=5 months ago=

Bulma hummed cheerfully as she made her way downstairs for her night out with Yamcha. He had called for the first time in 3 months to apologize and take her out before he left to train in the wilderness for a year. She had accepted because she felt that they both needed some finality and closure to their relationship.

She stopped by the mirror in the hall to make sure that her strapless dress wasn't showing too much cleavage and that the hemline was smoothed down, stopping just above her knees. "Perfect, I'll certainly catch some eyes but it's not enough to make him think I want him as anymore than a friend. So I took a little longer than needed. It'll be good to make Yamcha wait a bit." Looking out the window, she noticed that the GR was off meaning that Vegeta had already called it quits for the night. "Hopefully he'll actually get some rest while I'm gone."

Reaching the front door, she twisted the knob and pulled the door opened only to feel the knob fly out of her hand and the door slam loudly. She jumped at the sudden motion and looked up to a gloved hand holding the door flush against the door jamb. Though her mind told her that it was obviously Vegeta behind her, the hot breath rustling the fine hairs on her neck caused her body to lock up preventing her from confirming it.

"And where exactly are you going?"

Vegeta's husky voice caused her entire body to shiver but it wasn't hard to figure out why. She was literally trapped with nowhere to go. In front of her was a solid door that she couldn't budge. To her left was a wall and to her right was his arm. Directly behind her was his solid body, as unmovable as the door. She swallowed down the sudden dryness in her throat. "I'm going out to eat and to dance. People here do that when they feel the need to get out of the house."

There was a moment of silence before she felt his mouth directly by her ear. "And you're going with the weakling because?"

Bulma swallowed again and straightened up; the last thing she wanted was for him to think that he intimidated her. He totally did but she wouldn't let him know that. "Not that it's any of your business but he asked me out to say goodbye before leaving to train in the wild for awhile. That and he wanted to make amends for our harsh break up. It's not a date, it's just as friends."

She jumped as she felt him move his fingers across her upper back. "Just as 'friends'? In these indecent clothes?"

"I've told you before, Vegeta, people on this planet dress like this. Just because I want to look nice doesn't mean that I'm trying to seduce him."

"I've seen you wear less suggestive clothes than these before."

"I decided to dress up. I may be through with Yamcha but that doesn't mean that I can't look for another man. It would be a waste to stay single forever."

"Is it so easy, Woman?" Confused at that statement, he continued, "To simply find someone that knows who you really are, your dreams, your desires," he moved his mouth back to her ear, "your needs?" She shivered again at the possible double meaning of his words. "Is it so easy to become comfortable enough that you truly let go and enjoy another's company?"

He had a point. Some believed in love at first sight but the truth was that it didn't work like that. There was little chance of meeting a guy tonight that truly wanted a relationship or that would understand that she needed mental stimulation as well as physical.

But there was something else she knew for sure. "You'll never know if you don't try. It may take some time but in the end it's worth it to find someone that you can truly enjoy and let go, to no longer need to hide behind a façade that is made for the world and to instead allow you to confide your true self to another."

She knew it wasn't wise to word her answer in a way that made it seem like she was talking about him but if there was anyone who needed to really let go and enjoy someone else it would be Vegeta. After all, just as much as she would have problems finding someone that didn't want her solely for her looks, her company, or her money, someone that could put up with her attitude and stubbornness, it would be just as hard, if not harder, for Vegeta to find someone who would listen to his past and not want to run away screaming.

After what felt like a lifetime, Vegeta finally moved away allowing her to turn and look at him for the first time that night. "How much longer until the upgrade is finished?" he asked while walking towards the kitchen.

She smiled, far from upset about his change of subject, "Tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, but you'll be happy to know that I found a way to improve it to give you better effects than what I quoted you before." He nodded but she decided to say one more thing before she left, "You know Vegeta, you're going to be here for awhile so you might as well try some new things," he turned to look at her but didn't say anything so she pushed on. "I'm not saying that you should come out with me to dance or anything that involves lots of people but little things like swimming or watching TV with us. There's going to be some holidays coming up soon as well and I'm sure that you'll learn a lot from all the things we do then that you'll find enlightening."

He seemed to think about it for awhile, "Maybe if I have time and the activity isn't completely idiotic," he answered before walking out of the room.

With a smile, Bulma turned and quickly headed out, their conversation completely worth being 10 minutes late.

=Present day=

Much like her memory, Bulma's face also held a smile. "That's right; this dress incited such a reaction from him that he refused to let me go until I told him what I was planning. And he took my advice about letting go and joining me with odd activities." She moved in front of a mirror, holding the dress in front of her. "Maybe he is trying to find someone that he can confide in. After all, I know about his past and I haven't run away yet. And despite his complaining about my way of dress and being a distraction, he hasn't run off either. In fact," she pulled the dress on and smoothed it down so it covered her curves perfectly, "maybe my way of dress and being a distraction are one in the same," her smile turning into a wicked smirk of her own. Pulling out all the stops, she made sure that every element of her outfit and make-up was perfect.

'One more chance, Vegeta. If you don't make a move tonight that proves that you're interested in something more than being acquaintances, even a subtle one, I'll let this go.'

Moving downstairs to the lab, Bulma checked to make sure that everything was in place and that nothing she didn't want to show was showing. Once sure that everything was fine she moved to the comm. screen and turned it on, happy to see that Vegeta had fixed it.

Her smile fell as she saw the state of the room. Parts of droids had been thrown throughout the room, the floor was scorched and the walls looked dented. All in all, it looked like Vegeta had been working out more intensely than usual. She'd have to give the chamber an overhaul tomorrow for sure. She looked around, moving the camera to see if Vegeta had injured himself. After a few heart pounding moments, she finally saw him sitting in the floor amongst the rubble and let of a breath she didn't know she had been holding. At first glance she thought that he was meditating but upon closer inspection she saw that he was holding his head in one of his hands like he was thinking or worrying about something.

She was quickly brought out of her thoughts by Vegeta's voice, "Off to your party, Woman?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to check-in to see if you need anything before I go. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for me to fix up the room though."

Vegeta turned to scowl at her comment but his words stopped as he realized what she was wearing.

Noticing him looking at her appearance, exactly as she had planned, she gave herself a quick turn so he could see her at all angles, "How do I look?"

"Like you're going to freeze," he said quickly but made no attempts to look away.

Bulma did her best to not let her disappointment show on her face, "Well, I'll be inside for the most part. Not to mention that I'll be drinking and dancing which will raise my temperature more."

Vegeta's scowl deepened at that comment. "I'm sure plenty of males that will be excited to that spectacle."

Bulma nearly laughed at loud at that comment. He was hiding it well but she was almost positive that he was pouting. 'Could he possibly be jealous? Perhaps saying that I'll freeze is his way of saying that he doesn't want me dressed like this in front of others.' "Don't worry, if I get too hot or tipsy I'll step outside to one of the private fire pits. We set them up outside so that people can get away and enjoy the night air if they want to get away from the crowds but don't want to get chilly."

Noticing that Vegeta's scowl softened a little she decided that she'd let him get back to his private time, "Anyway, I'll leave you to your training. See you later, Vegeta." Receiving little more than a nod, she turned off the screen and left.

"Alright Vegeta, I'll take that as you being interested, or at least that you don't want to share the view. But you're going to have to do more than that to prove that you're worth going after. Hopefully you'll get the subtle hint and make a move."

Several hours went by and the New Year's party was another sound success for Capsule Corporation. She chatted with many of the social elites, young and old, male and female, and as the night went on she decided to excuse herself from her Father's side for some fresh air.

Checking the clock she realized that it was a little less than five minutes until midnight. "Crap, I didn't realize that this much time went by. I was so busy greeting and talking about projects that I didn't get to do anything fun. Not to mention that even if Vegeta did plan on coming to see me, he wouldn't wait this long."

Opening the door to the deck where one of the fire pits was located, she shivered as she was hit with the freezing night air. "Luckily no one is here. I really don't feel like making anymore small talk right now."

Quickly moving to the fire pit in hopes of warming up, she found a seat that she could still see the action inside from and sat down. After holding out for another two minutes, she rubbed her arms. 'Darn it. The fire pit is warm but it doesn't help if you're not wearing any sleeves.'

For the second time that day, she felt a warm wave of heat wash over her. Instantly looking behind her she saw that Vegeta was indeed standing behind her. "Oh hi, Vegeta, where did you come from?"

Keeping his eyes on hers, he tilted his head gesturing towards an overlooking balcony.

Bulma's mouth dropped in shock at this, "You mean that you saw me sitting her freezing and you didn't say anything?"

"I believe you said that you didn't want to make anymore small talk."

"I meant with the guests. I'm tired of talking about work and things that people really don't care about and … you know what, never mind. I'm going to go back inside, the countdown's about to start. You don't want my company anyway."

She ignored the cold she felt walking away from him and started to open the door only to, in a way reminiscent to what happened in August, have it ripped from her loose grasp as Vegeta stood behind her holding the door closed, effectively trapping her. Once again she felt heat wash over her but she wasn't sure if it was from her ki or from the sheer warmth coming from his body.

"You have a bad habit of making up things, Woman."

"Well then, perhaps you'd like to enlighten me about the truth then, but are you willing to tell me?"

"You'll never know if you don't try."

Bulma smiled a bit as he used her words from the last time they were in this situation. "Why didn't you want me to go inside the GR?"

"There wasn't any need for you to. I was the one that disabled it, so I was completely capable of turning it back on."

"So I saw, but it doesn't change the fact that twice you refused to let me inside."

"I didn't want your scent where I train."

Confused, Bulma narrowed her eyes, "My scent? Are you saying that I stink?"

He chuckled, a low rumble that told her he found her question amusing. "Far from it. Your human senses aren't nearly as advanced as mine so you can't understand it completely but every person and thing has its own unique scent and when I'm trying to concentrate they become a distraction."

Bulma thought about that for a moment. 'I can actually understand that better than he thinks. I remember one valentine's day, Yamcha had gotten me a nice bouquet of flowers but I couldn't work with them nearby because the scent was different from what I was used to in the lab.'

Vegeta's answer worked for her so she decided to move on to another more sensitive one. "Why did you kiss me after we set up the tree?"

Though she couldn't see him she could tell that he stiffened quite a bit before answering, "It's your planets custom, is it not?"

"Yes, but if you didn't want to kiss me you could have just done a quick peck or ignored it completely. I told you before that mistletoe doesn't force people to do things against their wills."

"Who said that I didn't want to kiss you?"

Bulma blushed at that comment. 'He almost seems offended that I would suggest that he did something against his will.' "I don't know, the way you kissed felt like you wanted more but afterwards you just ran off like you wanted to be as far away as possible."

Another pause as she felt Vegeta shift behind her, "excluding that brush of the lips from before, that would have counted as our first kiss. Moving beyond that would have been too much. Despite that," he let out a breath as he tried to find the proper way to say what he wanted, "despite that, I wanted to. I've been through a lot in my life but I've never had the urge to engage myself with someone that I wouldn't throw away after being used. In the end, I decided that I wasn't ready for it, so I left."

Bulma's breathing got heavy as she took in all that he said. She was shocked that he would come out and confess to something like that. Everything felt odd and she suddenly became aware of the voices nearby. She looked at the people inside realizing that they were counting down the final seconds to midnight. She jumped a little when she felt Vegeta's other hand move to hold her chin, turning her face to look at him.

"I'm not ready for that but this much at least," he brushed her lips, the people in the background counting down the last five seconds, "this much, I do know that I want."

And with that, he leaned forward and touched his lips to hers. Bulma could hear the people inside burst out into cheers and though she knew that it was because the year changed, she felt as if they reflected her own feelings at that moment.

Turning around to face Vegeta fully she pulled away from the kiss and traced his face with her eyes. "Happy New Year, Vegeta," she said before leaning back into the kiss which he eagerly accepted and quickly deepened.

Yes, it was true that Vegeta came from a different world than her and that he did things differently. But in the end he was worth trying for. She decided that her resolution this year would be to help Vegeta become more comfortable with this new idea. It may not be forever but she was determined to help him open up to her. It would be well worth the wait.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I love to hear what you think so please review.