Jenny's words stuck with Vegeta for the rest of the day. Why had it been so important to her to ask him those questions? To be perfectly honest, Vegeta had never given a lot of thought as to why he fought, other than to simply become the best, to surpass Kakarot, to become the ultimate Saiyan warrior. For years, those had been his only thoughts, his only desire.

He growled to himself as he wandered the hallways of Capsule Corp, not paying any attention to where his feet were leading him. Jenny had stirred up something in his brain that continued to nag at him, despite the fact he kept trying to will it away. Was there really more reason to his continuous struggle for more power? All his life he'd been focused on becoming a warrior. Strength, speed, technique, anticipating your enemy's next move – all these things made sense and were second nature to him now. He had never imagined himself with a wife and children, yet here he was, on Earth, with those very things. And he cared about them much more than he wanted to admit.

Vegeta had never understood Kakarot. How was it that he could be so carefree and gentle with his loved ones, yet be the fiercest warrior on a battlefield? It didn't seem possible to Vegeta that such opposing personalities could be contained within one person. He was always rough with everyone. Perhaps he feared going soft or making himself vulnerable. The Fate Verdandi's words came to him now.

"You are doing well, building a new life for yourself. But not everything that has been done here today can be undone. You must remain strong to keep that which you have worked so hard to attain."

What had she meant by "But not everything that has been done here today could be undone." Something more had happened, he was sure of it, but he had thus far been unable to figure it out.

Building a new life. Was that what he had been subconsciously doing? He didn't even realize it. While he'd been focused on training, life just sort of happened. One day he found himself married, with a son. He'd never really played with Trunks, only taught him to fight, bringing him up the way his own father had raised him. He didn't understand this family dynamic. It was strange, almost foreign to him. Yet he found himself becoming very fond of his wife and child. And then Jenny showed up. He couldn't stand her or her antics when she'd first come to live at Capsule Corp as a foreign exchange student. And then future Trunks arrived, adding to the mess. Then Catie. He thought Jenny's shenanigans were bad, but Catie… Catie was an entirely different mess altogether, and the two of them teamed up was unimaginable. And then suddenly, they were gone. Taken in a pathetic attempt at world domination by a fool who had no idea what she was dealing with.

He'd worried over them that day. He'd grown so used to their presence, their pranks and silliness that the house felt empty without them. He fought to save them without ever questioning the why. Who were they but mere humans to the Prince of Saiyans? Ah, bullshit. They were more to him than that and he knew it. If he was going to start lying to himself, he ought to think of a better one than that. He'd come to care for them as his own. He'd seen the potential locked inside them when they were incased in those glass boxes as though they were to be put on some sort of sick display. And he had determined then and there to bring it out, to shape it and direct it so that they would never fall prey to another enemy again. So he taught them, pushing them to be stronger, faster, harder. Always pushing them to take it one step further. And he smiled inside every time they progressed. And his own sons were right there along with them. All of his children, whether biological or adopted, were capable fighters now.

And then the attack on Kakarot's girl happened. Vegeta shuddered. He'd been bewildered by it. How had she lost her powers in a moment of panic to two average humans? He'd feared the same for Jenny and Catie, that they may one day be staring evil in the face and somehow forget what they'd learned. It shook him to his core. Again, he questioned Kakarot's character in letting the human justice system handle it. If it had been Jenny or Catie, Vegeta would have ripped those young men apart with his bare hands and laughed as he did it. So he resumed training with the girls, pushing them harder than he ever had before, even though Jenny had been pregnant. He hadn't given much consideration to the child, in all honesty. He'd assured her that everything would be fine, that because it was Piccolo's child, it would survive. He'd had no way of knowing that. But he was far too preoccupied with assuring their success in battle that he threw caution to the wind and trained her anyway. What sort of damage could he have caused if he'd been wrong? He didn't want to think about it. He was slightly concerned now, but Paige was fine, so surely this child would be, too.

Paige. He still didn't know what to make of her. A beautiful child with pale green skin and big, shining eyes. Bulma was certainly fond of her. He wondered what she would become. She was important to Sigourney's plans. She was the first of her kind – half human, half Namek. With another child of the same lineage on the way, he couldn't help but worry if that would make Jenny even more of a target. Perhaps she knew this herself and that's why she was working so hard. Still, she didn't have to destroy the gravity room in the process.

And now Bulma was going to have to repair it. It was going to take her days to fix the damage Jenny had done. He'd been rather amused to listen to Bulma screaming at Jenny in that moment, but now he almost felt sorry for her. He knew his wife too well. She'd be up all night long, downing cups of coffee to keep herself awake to finish the task at hand. He admired that in her. She was relentless when she was working on a project, working herself to near exhaustion as if her hands couldn't keep up with the ideas in her brain. A smile pulled at his lips as he thought about it. Anything he'd ever asked of her, she'd worked out a way to design it, build it, perfect it to his specifications, even if he himself wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for. She never ceased to amaze him. His smile faded to a frown as he realized he'd never voiced this to her. He wondered if that bothered her. Perhaps allowing himself to embrace this life, this family, wouldn't make him soft like he'd always thought it would. Maybe they were the secret to becoming a greater fighter. If he was fighting for something beyond his own selfishness, his own desires, it would awaken something inside him. He'd seen that in Kakarot before. And now the same was true with Jenny. They fought for their loved ones, not for their own desire to become stronger. It wouldn't weaken him physically to open himself up just a bit, to let them in, would it?

Vegeta huffed. That wasn't his fear. What concerned him was if it would cloud his judgment on the battlefield. If he became too attached, could he bear the trauma of losing one of them? He thought he already knew the answer to that. He'd felt it rip at his insides as Jenny lay in the hospital room after having Paige, the doctors working frantically to save her. He'd felt it before when he watched Cell kill Trunks in their battle. He'd flown off the handle then, attacking Cell in a blinded rage, foolishly wasting his energy and efforts in a hopeless attack. He didn't want to risk that again.

But Bulma's image swam in the forefront of his mind again. There was more than one way to lose someone you cared about. Would Bulma eventually grow tired of his lack of affection? She was the only woman in the universe who would put up with him and he knew it. He couldn't help but snicker as he thought, "I'm the only one who will put up with her, though, too." And then he tried to think of his life without her. He couldn't do it. He couldn't imagine where he would be in life if it hadn't been for her. And he didn't know what he would do if he ever lost her.

He'd been in that place before. He'd watched as everything he knew had been destroyed. His father, most of his race, his entire planet – all gone. Ripped away from him and there was nothing he could do about it. No, he wouldn't let that happen again. Verdandi was right – he'd worked too hard to carve out his place on this planet and he'd be damned if he was going to sit idly by and watch it fall to pieces.

He opened the door to Bulma's lab and found her exactly where he knew she would be. She was hunched over her desk, muttering angrily to herself as she fiddled with wires on the ruined control panel. She was so consumed with her work that she didn't even notice his entrance.

"Bulma."

She jumped at the sound of her name and spun in her seat. "Oh, it's you. You startled me." Slight confusion crossed her features as she stared up at her husband. He was watching her with a soft expression on his face, the tiniest hint of a smile on his lips. "You okay, hon?"

He continued to stare at her, warring with himself. It was so awkward to him. He'd never been affectionate before. Normally when he was with her, he was aggressive, thinking only of his own needs. Not tonight.

Vegeta gently took Bulma's chin in his hand, leaning closer to her. Her blue eyes went wide at his soft touch. "You know I care about you, don't you?" The words felt funny in his mouth, his stomach curled at the vulnerable sound of his own voice. This wasn't going to be easy for him. But he felt it had to be done. He wanted to do it. Now the only question left was how. He knew the why now. He fought for her. So that at the end of the day, she was safe and so she would be proud of him.

She blinked in surprise. "Well, yeah, of course I do. You don't have to say it."

A relief washed over him. At least she didn't demand to hear it all the time. Perhaps he wasn't doing as bad as he thought. His hand slipped from her chin to her arm to pull her to her feet.

"Vegeta, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Something I should have done a long time ago," he answered and covered her mouth with his own.

Bulma felt her knees shake. His kiss was slow and soft as he slid his hands around her waist, pulling her body against his. He'd never kissed her like this before. She wrenched her fingers in his black hair, crushing her lips against his and threw her leg over his hip.

He broke away from her suddenly and pushed her leg back to the floor. "No."

She blinked in surprise again. "What? I don't understand."

He took her face in his hands and kissed her again, gently probing her mouth with his tongue, struggling to keep his aggressive nature in check. He didn't want to be with her like that tonight. His hands slid from her face, down her neck and over her chest as she sighed against the kiss. He slowly unbuttoned her blouse, fighting the urge to rip it from her. She pulled it from her shoulders and unsnapped her bra, letting both articles of clothing fall to the floor. Vegeta ran his hands up Bulma's stomach to her chest, gently cupping her breasts and teasing them lightly with his thumbs. He loved the way her breasts fit his hands so perfectly, as though she was built for him alone.

Bulma loosened Vegeta's belt and hooked the pockets of his pants with her fingers, tugging them down. Vegeta shivered as the cool air of the lab washed over his bare skin. He felt Bulma's fingers wrap around his hardening length and a fresh wave of goosebumps erupted over his body as she stroked him, twisting her wrist, making him harder. He ran his hand up her thigh, pulling her skirt up and was surprised to find she wasn't wearing panties. She'd done that on purpose. She'd strutted around most of the morning, trying to distract him from his training, wearing that skirt that drove him wild and made him want to take her right then and there. She must've forgotten to put them back on in her frustration with the control panel.

He broke the kiss as he pulled her body against his and looked deep into her eyes. He grabbed the back of her thigh, lifting her leg, and hooked the crook of his elbow under her knee. He held her gaze as he slowly pressed himself into her, his jaw dropping slightly at the warm feel of her body enveloping him.

Bulma threw her head back, closing her eyes and hissed, "Yessss."

Vegeta grabbed the back of her head and pulled her face towards him. "Look at me," he commanded in a quiet voice. She locked her big eyes on his once again as he began to thrust into her, his left arm still holding up her leg, his right hand pressed into the small of her back to steady her. His own breath was catching in his throat as he drank in the sensation of her – she was so tight and wet on him, making him ache for release already. He pulled her tighter against him, driving deeper into her with a steady rhythm.

"Oh, Vegeta," she whispered, blinking her eyes slowly as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She didn't understand this tenderness, this deliberately slow pleasuring of her body that he offered. Her heart swelled within her chest. He could be affectionate, he did love her, and this was the best way he knew to express it. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach as she stared into his intense eyes.

He leaned his forehead against hers, both of them breathing heavily as their bodies met again and again. He felt her body contract around him, her breathing became more shallow, and she squeezed her eyes shut again.

"Look at me," he repeated in a strained voice, locking eyes with her once more as he felt himself starting to climax. He never increased his pace as her muscles clenched down on his hard shaft, her body trembling against his, as sheer bliss shattered their senses. He could see the excitement and relief in her eyes as she gave in to the pleasure; he wanted to roar in ecstasy as he came deep inside her.

His right hand traveled to the back of her left thigh, lifting her from the ground without separating their bodies, and he kissed her passionately again.

"Oh wow," Bulma breathed as she broke the kiss and laid her head on his shoulder.

Vegeta was shaking as he held her, not from exhaustion or the weight of her in his arms, but because he'd never had such an intimate moment in his life. Something about staring her in the eyes like that, about making sure she was satisfied, shook him to the core. She was his woman, his princess, and she loved him deeply. He realized how much she needed this and how long she must have wanted it. He was proud of himself. He'd opened up to her and expressed himself without turning into a mush. A small smile pulled at his lips as he continued to hold her, her wet warmth still slightly clutching at him. He lowered her from his arms to let her feet rest back on the floor again before he slowly withdrew from her body.

She fixed her skirt and put her top back on, slicking her hair out of her eyes as she did so.

He was fastening his belt when she turned to him again. "Vegeta," she said in a soft voice, "I…"

He pressed his lips to hers again once more. "I know. Me too."

She smiled and he turned to leave the lab, giving her the space she needed to get back to work.