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Little Runaway (Chapter 7)

As soon as Bulma had finally fallen asleep Vegeta softly pulled out of bed, careful not to wake his wife. He opened the French window soundlessly and slipped out into the night. He looked back at the sleeping form of the woman, content that she was resting. It had been rather hard to come to an 'agreement' with her, but he excepted no less from the fierce woman he considered his own.

Flashback

"You can't be serious!" Bulma screeched, pointing a finger at Vegeta warningly. "Do I look like I'm jesting, woman?" he asked, a scowl on his face. "You want us to rest? Our little girl is out there, Vegeta! Could you really just lie down and sleep?" Her voice was ear-piercing and Vegeta winced, his sensitive ears ringing with the noise she was making.

"Well, what's your plan? It's getting dark and there is no way you can start with your search today... not that some ridiculous search party consisting of pathetic humans is going to help anyway! The boy and I will not be able to find her in the dark, too. So what would you have us do?" There was a rather long silence. "I can't sit around and do nothing, Vegeta! She's my little baby! For God's sake, she's only eight! Did you ever think about how many horrible things can happen to an eight year old when she's all by herself? Did you?"

One of Vegeta's eyebrows rose. "Trunks was eight when he fought Boo." But it wasn't the same and they both knew it. Trunks had been strong, a super saiyan. Bra was a little girl who had always been reassured by the fact that her brother and father were there and would always guarantee her safety. "Besides, she's got herself to blame for this in the first place. She shouldn't have run off for no reason."

Bulma's mouth opened and Vegeta knew that she was going to yell at him so he beat her to it. "That aside, you didn't sleep at all yesterday because of that damn project you're working on. You are practically dead on your feet, woman. And you're going to sleep tonight, whether you want to or not." The threat was evident and the air suddenly seemed heavy and hard to breathe. Trunks, who had backed away from his parents as soon as they started fighting, duck his head, preparing for his mother's tirade.

"You jerk!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "You can't make me!" Her husband just stared into her eyes, making it clear that his threat wasn't idle. "I beg to differ" was all he said and Bulma began to hit his chest. She knew that he was right and the frustration of not being able to do anything was eating at her. Her energy quickly faded and her punches grew weaker until her hands were almost moving in slow motion. "Go to bed. You need the rest." His words would have seemed harsh if he hadn't been holding her wrists gently. She just nodded.

End Flashback

Vegeta sighed. He'd told her that searching in the dark was futile and that he wasn't going to do it... Well, he'd lied. Fuck the dark, he was going to search for his daughter. And when he found the little brat she was going to get an earful. What the hell was going on in that girl's head? Running off like that was just plain stupid.

He shook his head and spoke, "What are you doing?" Trunks was there, almost completely hidden in the shadows, sitting on the balcony railing. "You know what I'm doing, Dad."

Vegeta scowled at him, making it very clear that he was not pleased with his son's actions. "You heard what I said, son." Trunks shrugged and stepped into the faint moonlight. "And I know why you said it. You didn't want Mum to pull an all-nighter and we both know that she would have if you hadn't convinced her that searching for Bra in the middle of the night was pointless. You didn't fool me, though. Then again, you probably wouldn't have fooled Mum either, if she hadn't been so jazzed..." A sly smile spread over Trunks' face. "It's kind of cute, actually. You taking care of mum like that, that is."

Vegeta's eyes narrowed at his son and his former unfriendly scowl became downright menacing. "Careful, boy." Trunks sighed. He knew when to call it quits.

"Any plan of action?" he asked his father instead as they both left the ground. Vegeta kept silent for a few seconds as they slowly flew higher. "That depends. Do you know how this bracelet works?"

Trunks blinked a couple of times before replying. "Sure. You know that Mum likes to brag about it when she invents something new. So she showed me how it works." His father nodded, a faint smile touching his lips for a split second.

"The way it suppresses Ki... does it only suppress the Ki of the person wearing it or does it suppress the Ki within a certain radius while being worn?", Vegeta questioned, all of his senses active as he searched the premises for anything that could possibly help him to find Bra.

Trunks brows drew together. "Interesting thought. It works like this: If the bracelet is unfastened, then it doesn't do anything at all. But once the bracelet is fastened then all the Ki within a two meter is intangible to others." Trunks took a look at his father. Vegeta's face seemed unreadable, but Trunks knew what was on his mind.

"Do you think we can actually search for an area with no Ki?" he asked his father, aghast. The idea seemed almost mad... but then again they didn't have any other options. But still... "It's only a two meter radius, Dad, that's like searching for a needle in a haystack!"

Vegeta gave his son an annoyed glance. "Give me a better option, boy! If you have one, I'd be happy to listen to your annoying prattle, if however you do have nowhere to go with this, then please cease talking. It's irritating and I can't concentrate."

Vegeta knew that he was being – maybe unnecessarily – harsh on his son, but he couldn't help it. His nerves were as taut as a wire, his muscles tense and he was beginning to have a heading from worrying so goddamn much. He wasn't used to the feeling and he most certainly didn't like it.

"What do we do, then? Split up?" Trunks asked, surveying the area with all his senses. Vegeta stopped in mid-air, looking at his son. "Yes. Your sister can fly, but she's not that skilled at it and can't keep at it for that long... She can't be that far away, probably within a radius of thirty miles... It's probably the best if we search different directions, we can cover more ground that way." Vegeta fell silent for a second as he saw the shame and guilt from earlier flash across his son's face once more.

"Trunks." The boy had been looking at the dark sky, but know his head snapped back and he looked his father straight in the eyes. "It's not your fault. Her actions were those of a overreacting, hormone-ridden young girl. Noone could have foreseen that she would do such a thing, Trunks. The best we can do right now is search for her..." His voice dropped an octave. "...and give her a piece of our mind when we find her."