A/N: I don't own DBZ or the characters, that honour belongs to Akira Toriyama. I use British English spelling.

Vegeta and his eight year old son Trunks go back in time to warn the past of the Androids' arrival. When the machine needs repairing the two of them are stuck. At least the past has good food! There's just one problem... Bulma begins to fall in love with Future Vegeta, instead of his younger self. Can Vegeta ensure his son's birth, defeat the Androids, and save the world?


Vegeta shrank towards the tree behind him, stepping backwards until his shoulders hit the tree trunk. The late morning light slipped through the wide maple leaves, casting moving contrasts of light and dark across his features, making it difficult for Bulma to read his expression.

She peered at him quizzically. He didn't look terrified like Goku would have been, but his brow had furrowed and he had one foot in front of the other, knees slightly bent as if he were about to launch into battle. As she stepped closer again, his hands flinched into fists, and his nervousness became obvious. His gaze seemed fixed on the needle, so Bulma lowered her hand and put the syringe behind her back.

"What's the matter?" she asked, genuinely curious about his reaction. "I didn't think you were as much of a baby as Goku when it came to needles."

That got him going. He fixed a sharp glare on her and took a step forward, slowly unclenching his white-knuckled fists. "I'm. Not," he said through gritted teeth.

Bulma just raised an eyebrow at him and tried not to laugh.

"It doesn't mean I like being a laboratory monkey," he spat out, the odd phrase and the sharp edge to his tone making her wonder if he was talking from actual experience as opposed to a general dislike of the idea. He crossed his arms in front of him. "And I have no interest in saving that idiot's life." His lip curled into a sneer. "Why don't you go and get my future self's help?"

Bulma started at the venom in his tone when he mentioned his future counterpart. "Oh…" Bulma grinned and waggled her eyebrows at him. "Why, Vegeta… are you jealous of him?"

"What?" Vegeta's back straightened and a furious glint entered his eyes. "Of course not!"

"You are!" Bulma took a step closer and saw him recoil. "He's stronger than you, and a Super Saiyan. It looks like you are both afraid of giving blood though."

"I… I am not jealous!" Vegeta spluttered.

"And then you saw me and future Vegeta whispering together… It's quite understandable. I'd be jealous too." She dropped him a wink as she got close enough to lay a hand on his bicep.

Vegeta flushed bright red and jerked away from her, making her burst out into laughter.

"Look, I know your future self said he'd tell you about becoming a Super Saiyan, but you still need to train, right? I think I have some great ideas for how to help you. I can improve the gravity machine in the ship, and I have a few plans to weaponise robots with ki and have them withstand the higher gravity."

Vegeta stared at her, his muscles relaxing ever-so-slightly. He didn't say anything, and kept his arms crossed, but he didn't run away either, which Bulma took as a good sign.

"Come to my lab," she said. "I'll take your blood then show you what plans I've drawn up so far."

She could feel the tension rolling off Vegeta as he clearly tried to make up his mind. Kami, he was wound tighter than anyone she'd ever met. Bulma glanced at Goku who was still out cold. She should probably move him somewhere more comfortable, but it likely wouldn't be too long before he woke up, and he'd been hit on the head enough times for her to not be too concerned for his wellbeing.

Bulma gently touched Vegeta's shoulder, and this time he didn't flinch, but turned his head to look at her hand.

When he didn't brush her off, but instead lifted his head to look at her, his endlessly dark eyes swirling with what she suspected was confusion, she dropped her hand and smiled. "Let's go."

She turned and walked in the direction of her lab, holding her breath to listen for evidence of him following. After a moment, she heard his quiet footsteps behind her and smothered a grin. He was too easy.


Inside one of Capsule Corp's smaller labs Vegeta sat in a long medical chair, tilted back to elevate his feet. The machine clicked and whirred as blood flowed from a vein in his arm to a bag attached to the machine.

Since agreeing to it, his facial expressions had been stoic, but Bulma noticed he was a little pale once the needle was in, and when she told him to keep squeezing his fist to keep the blood flowing, he took it to an extreme, going white knuckled with the effort.

"I don't see why you couldn't have done it with a syringe like Kakarot," he grumbled. "You're sucking me dry with this thing."

"Nonsense, if you drink lots of water you'll be fine," Bulma said, chuckling as she sat down at the desk to label Goku's samples. "I would have done this to Goku because I would have got more blood from it, but if he woke up during the procedure he would have flipped."

Vegeta snorted. "Being scared of something that small is pathetic."

"Oh yeah?" Bulma grinned and swivelled on her chair to face him. "Says the man who's scared of itsy bitsy worms."

Vegeta's cheeks flushed and he opened and shut his mouth like a fish as he stammered out a reply. "I… I'm not! How…"

"I saw you when my mother got the Namekians to help her dig up the front garden for replanting." Bulma threw him a wink that made him blush even more. Gosh he was kind of adorable when he did that. "One look at all those wriggling worms and you fled like Yajirobe from a fight."

"I am not scared of worms," he said, narrowing his eyes at her. "I merely… dislike them."

"Whatever you say, tough guy." The machine started beeping, letting her know the bag was full, so Bulma stood up, turned off the machine and disconnected the bag. Vegeta's arm muscle twitched as she placed one hand on his elbow and the other on the needle embedded in his vein. She hid a smile at his flinching and carefully removed the needle. "All done. Stay seated for a while, because I took quite a bit of blood."

Vegeta scoffed at that. "I've lost more blood than that before."

"From fighting, or donating your blood for medical research?" Bulma asked as she placed a bright pink plaster over the spot where the needle had penetrated his skin.

"Both," Vegeta muttered, a deep scowl marring his youthful features and making Bulma wonder exactly what medical research he'd been subjected to under Frieza's reign. He swung his legs over the chair so he sat sideways on it and leaned his hands on his knees. "Now, are you going to show me these plans for ki weaponised robots?"

"Don't stand up yet," Bulma instructed. She carefully labelled Vegeta's bag of blood then put it in the fridge with Goku's samples. "I'll be back in a minute."

She went up to the kitchen and got Vegeta a large glass of juice and some biscuits, then headed back down to the lab. When she returned, to her surprise Vegeta was still dutifully sitting on the chair, although she noticed that the pink plaster had been ripped off, and sat crumpled on the chair beside him.

"Drink," she said, thrusting the glass into his hands.

Vegeta looked at the glass, crinkling his nose suspiciously, but took the glass from her hand and sipped it. He grimaced and tried to hand it back.

Bulma shook her head. "Drink it all. The hydration and sugar will prevent you from feeling like crap."

"I feel fine," Vegeta growled, but he tossed back the rest of the glass, sticking his tongue out in disgust when he'd finished.

Bulma handed him the pack of biscuits, glad that she'd picked plain ones instead of chocolate. He seemed to have an aversion to sweet food. Vegeta sighed dramatically, but accepted the packet and started popping them one by one in his mouth, crunching obnoxiously. Satisfied that he was doing as she asked, she dug into her filing cabinet for the draft plans for the gravity machine's upgrade and the robots. She spread the plans over the wide desk, placing paper weights on the corners to keep the paper flat.

"Is this them?" Vegeta asked from beside her, making her jump. He was always so stealthy in his movements. He placed one hand on the edge of the desk and bent over it, his eyes scanning from top to bottom as he inspected the plans.

Bulma frowned at his standing up too soon, but he didn't look pale, so she figured the risk of him keeling over on her was low.

"The hardest part of the bots isn't harnessing ki," she said. "I figured out how to do that out years ago. The tricky part is managing the blast acceleration with the targeting system because any increase in gravity will alter it. On top of that, I need the shell of the gravity room to not only withstand the increased gravity, but the ki blasts themselves." She tapped the paper next to the calculation in question.

Vegeta frowned and placed his finger at the beginning of the formula and started tracing along it as he read it. When he got to the end, he started muttering under his breath as he worked out what it meant. "The gravitational constant on Earth is nine point eight. But as the machine increases the gravity, the constant is no longer constant, affecting the acceleration of the blasts proportionally. The increased speed also increases the ki's power on impact. So, as I turn up the gravity, the robot's ki blasts will also become more powerful." He glanced sideways at her and raised his eyebrows. "Clever."

Bulma felt a blush creep onto her cheeks. She knew it was clever, she was a genius after all, but Vegeta so rarely complemented anyone or anything.

He must have noticed, because he immediately scowled at her. "Don't let it go to your head. How are you going to reinforce the room so it doesn't collapse on itself or get damaged from the ki blasts?"

"I'm not sure yet," Bulma admitted. "I was thinking about simple reinforcement but it has the potential to wear down over time. And knowing you, that won't take long."

Vegeta grunted in agreement. "You are using the increased gravity to increase acceleration… working with the changes in force rather than trying to work against them. Maybe you need something that increased gravity will make stronger," Vegeta said, turning back to the plans. "A material that becomes stronger when compressed perhaps?"

Bulma blinked slowly, taking him in. "That's brilliant."

He looked up at her, his eyes widening and mouth open slightly in surprise for a short moment before his lips twisted into his trademark smirk. "Of course it is."

Bulma slammed her hands down on the desk, trying to bump Vegeta out of the way with her hip to pour over the plan. Her pushing didn't budge him, but at her frown he stepped to the side. "I think this could work," she said, grabbing a pencil to make notes in the margins of the plans. "We've been developing a new capsule material that increases its compressive strength when shrunk. I think I can apply the same logic…" she trailed off and started mumbling equations under her breath and writing them on the plans.

"When?" Vegeta asked. When she looked up at him, he crossed his arms. "You also need to create a cure for the idiot and if I'm not mistaken that machine my future counterpart arrived in will require repairs."

Bulma glared at him. "It will be ready when it's ready. I'm not going to rush it and have the room blow you up, so you'll need to be patient."

"We only have three years," Vegeta pointed out.

Bulma tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Oh please, I'll have the machine working soon, and you'll be kicking those android butts in no time."

Vegeta snorted and shook his head. "It had better be soon." His mouth quirked again. "I'll just keep pestering you until it's done."

"Kami help me." Bulma rolled her eyes. "It's not like you wouldn't pester me regardless."

Vegeta bared his teeth and leaned in close to her, placing his warm hand lightly on her elbow. "Clearly you love me pestering you," he said, his husky voice making her shiver. "Since the evidence of that is sitting in your kitchen right now, eating your mother's food."

Bulma drew in a sharp hissing breath and slapped his arm, which felt like hitting a brick wall, but found herself unable to make a retort. It was true after all. She'd missed his 'pestering' while he'd been off in space chasing Goku. No one else had both the intelligence and the will to argue with her, shooting back creative insults as quick as her.

Vegeta gave her a wolfish grin and let out a laugh as he dropped his hand. "I'll return pester you later. Have fun figuring out the gravitational compression." Then the jerk left the room, still chuckling as Bulma found herself horrified that she'd actually let him get the last word.


A/N: Since future Vegeta got a nice scene with Bulma, I figured past Vegeta was owed one too! Thanks for your patience in me updating a little slower since I was away on holiday. As a reminder, if you want to see what stage the next chapter is at, check out my profile page and it will tell you if I'm plotting, writing or editing, and what my word count is to give you a vague idea of how long it will be until the next chapter.

Review commentary:

Will Goku and future Vegeta become friends?

In the past? I'm not sure - it's not really a focus for me but I wouldn't rule it out completely. In the future? There will be a flashback of Goku's death that will address that.

I'm surprised you didn't give Vegeta his cannon transformation story cause it would have made sense in the future too.

I thought about it, but decided I needed Vegeta to have a more traumatic transformation too move him further down his emotional journey in that timeline.

How far into DBZ to you plan to write?

At this stage I have vague plot points out to Cell. I'm not really sure yet!

Is Trunks able to tell which Vegeta is his father when they wear the same clothes and does not speak? And is Trunks going to call present Bulma "Mama" and young Vegeta "Papa" too?

The next chapter may have a Trunks POV scene that could answer some of those questions!