Chapter Nine- Little Sins
"Bulma?" Vegeta felt like he couldn't breath, his eyes widening as he saw himself at her feet, her lips spread out into a nasty grin one that echoed something familiar. He watched as the Vegeta who was bent down before Bulma knelt, head lowered to hide the shameful expression painted on his face. "You haven't learned your place Monkey. Zarbon tells me that he overheard you and your little flea-ridden kin mocking the Cold Empire, tut tut. I thought we had learned better!" Punted by a powerful kick from Bulma Vegeta hit the ground, suddenly no longer an onlooker but the recipient Vegeta of this abuse. Her blue eyes were tinted with calm satisfaction as she stalked towards him, Vegeta did not move this was wrong. This wasn't right, Bulma didn't do these things. Agony overcame his senses as the woman put her heeled foot down onto his tail, grinding into the furry appendage with the precision of a practiced skill.
"Little piece of filth wallowing under my foot, you should be the most grateful of all my little pets!" Vegeta's vision swam as his body withered and writhed. "Ungrateful pets get punished." Stars burst out around like a big bang before his very eyes, as she scooped him up by the tail and slung him to land directly with his back into one of the large pillars that decorated the room. "Foolish monkey." The woman smiled, the one that was usually reserved for when it was just them and something they both knew crossed too many sentimental borders for him to handle. The one that secretly he loved to picture, it was cruel now on the Bulma's lips. Vegeta surged forward followed only by the memory of how these events played out in the past, he was beyond the control of this body. "I am a Saiyan!" He thundered, looking back on this moment he felt embarrassed and ashamed of how weak his attempt to retaliate looked even to him and how swiftly he was brought to a pitiful, crumpled mass on the far side of the room.
"Foolish Vegeta. Your planet is long destroyed you are nothing but what I make you." Looking up, before him stood Frieza a mocking smirk painted along his purple lips, the tip of his tail twitching behind him in anxious anticipation for the next part in teaching humility all with Bulma's sweet tender smile fixated his features.
"Capsule Corp Heiress Charged with Assault!" the words were written in shiny black ink which glared out over the cover photo, a shot of the blue haired woman leaving a ballet from a year before. A sleek golden dress hugging her frame and a shiny clutch held up to try and shield her face from the obnoxious flash of reporters cameras, all while trying to step into the black hovercar waiting for her.
Bulma sunk further into the kitchen chair, her mother busy behind her humming as she made another omelet to add to the stack. The strong breakfast aroma filtered through the large kitchen blending with the bitter scent of coffee. Licking her lips a pale hand reached out to grip the warm mug in front of her, "Well we have to give her credit, Gardena certainly didn't waste her time." Bulma growled out, her teeth setting as she held her mug inches from her lips but untouched. Being woken up at four in the morning by Greta, the family's lawyer was not a good way to start her day off, but as soon as the story started to show up in newsfeeds there between " due to erupt" and "Cute clip of Dolphins Playing" along with heading the local paper Greta had pounced into action to protect the Briefs name. "Hey, Mom, can you make sure we send something nice to Greta, she really earns her paycheck," Bulma mumbled the last few words, truly grateful to have a lawyer with the attitude of a tiger on her side, but anxious over having to use her services in the first place.
"Of course hun! I'm sure I can arrange for something. I know! Every woman just loves a bottle of wine, I'll make sure to send her a fine wine arrangement!" Her mother's voice was brimming with excitement as the idea as she began to babble off certain wines to add to the gift.
Bulma interrupted before her mother could get to warmed up to the idea. "Mom I really don't think that Greta, a devout health crazed vegan would want a basket of wines, she didn't even have wine at her wedding remember." Instead, they had replaced with wine with sparkling cider, a wedding with a dry bar was not a wedding Bulma enjoyed, so the unpleasant experience had stuck with her.
"Shoot your right, I'll send her something dear don't worry no wine!" Her mother chimed as she flipped over her current omelet with a precision Bulma could never replicate.
"Well-woman awake before noon isn't that a miracle" Vegeta's growling voice ripped through the fresh silence that had settled over the kitchen and both the Brief women jumped from the suddenness of it, Bulma threw Vegeta her best icy glare over her mug and sipped the now cooling drink smugly.
"Oh ! I was just finishing up your breakfast, triple meat omelets your favorite, what would you like to drink?" Sitting the serving platter of food in front of Vegeta's usual chair the older woman walked over to the fridge to pull out a pitcher of orange juice and turn to the prince hopefully. Bulma no longer was paying attention to what her mother was interrogating the lost prince over. Her eyes sank back to the pile of magazines and open laptop to one of the media's early morning coverage of the headline. She knew this would not look good to the board members and her father would certainly have a few new meetings to attend this week over it. Recovery from this would be a little shaky but easy, a flashy headline and "alleged" cat fights didn't win reporters rewards. But people looking is what worried her the most, people poking around too much could uncover a lot more than a sordid love triangle.
With another long draw of the cooling coffee, she began to think back to some theories on how to increase the gravity rooms durability with the limited resources of the earth. Sipping again from her mug she stifled a yawn and sighed deeply instead exhaling noisily from her nostrils. "You even breath loudly!" Vegeta's voice cracked the silence causing Bulma to blink in surprise her cheeks quickly tinting pink. "Well Excuse me Vegeta! Please forgive me your highness!" snarling she was sure her upper lip even curled with the gruffness she put into it. Vegeta's eyes brow raised at the tone and he sat back from his plate which was halfway full of overstuffed omelet.
"Well aren't you finally learning how to address me." He was growing sure she would pop a blood vessel when a nasty snorting cry of rage filled with haughty contempt passed through her clenched teeth promptly before storming out of the kitchen spilling coffee and nearly dropping her laptop in the attempt to grab it and her phone in the same hand before she finally juggled them into a sturdy grip and disappeared. "I did not excuse you servant woman!" Vegeta yelled to the empty space behind him focusing back on his omelet's.
She appeared back in the door way looking ready to rip out his tongue. Before he could warn her against it a shattering of white porcelain and cold overly creamed coffee flooded down into his lap the impact on the table corner had chipped the wood and done a good job of making such a sound Bulma's mother squawked like a startled bird. After hurling her coffee mug with all the force in her body she turned and continued down the hallway.
He was out of his seat before Bunny could gather her wits, stalking down the hallway like a rabid animal, his spandex shorts were sticking uncomfortably too his legs, droplets of coffee running down in dull brown streaks soaking into the bands of his socks even though she had turned and fled, he could smell her suffocating inviting scent hanging heavily in the air, a pleasant warmth where her body had just been all mingled with the scent of coffee.
He sulked out of the back door of the house that bleeds out onto the large patio with snakes of walkways, he knew which one she would have retreated slam of her laboratory door sounded the location of her refugee, his fist tightened at his sides his gloves squeaking with the setting of his teeth. "Wench!" The roar vibrated in his throat, dying out into the open air. He felt her Ki spike and wondered amusingly if it was from fear, the thought was appealing.
The lab door dented in the middle for the third time, the loud impact sounding like a cannon as she jumped holding a hand over her lifting breast to steady the erratic heartbeat she was sure the damned Prince could hear. "Vegeta you stop that right now! Stop ruining my door!" She shrieked, anger flushing down her neck like the spill of hot oil. Fixing that door would take up a lot of necessary time, even more, vital than usual due to her little game of bop the bimbo.
"Then open this door!" The volume of his demands had her lips turning pale as she huffed out through her nose, her hands slamming down onto her work table with enough force to have them stinging. "Why would I open the door to a fucking maniac!" Her own scream was muffled by the sound of yet another blast, this own made the locking device groan in protest lights starting to blink in distress.
Before he messed up the inner wall mechanics any further she bit the bullet and ran over to the door quickly. Nearly tripping on her flats as she punched the blue button that sent the broken barrier into release mode. The warped metal could no longer slide smoothly into the wall and instead clanked noisily as it opened a few feet. Stalking in with a shadow cast over his face he stared her down and her blood began to grow cold. "When did you upgrade your little box Bulma."
He didn't say her name often and whenever he did, it sent a cocktail of extraordinarily complex responses through her body, some of which were more mortifying than others. "The same shielding as on the inside of the gravity room to absorb blast would benefit the security systems of Capsule Corp." She replied automatically, her mouth working out the sentence she had pitched time and again to the board through more complex terms in order to be approved for a mass upgrade. After what Vegeta and Raditz had done years before was enough to have nearly everyone in quick agreement.
"Tsk tsk, Bulma seems like you haven't been selflessly slaving away for me after all, I should be hurt." He replied lowly the sarcasm in his tone was biting enough but the look he kept giving her was unnerving, he was studying her as if she were a rabbit, and he was the clever fox. "You didn't put up those doors just to keep me out did you…" He taunted, she felt herself turn a little pink he was calling her a coward. Blue eyes turned sharp as she stared at him, straightening her spine like a crane with her head held at full height.
"If I really wanted to build doors to keep you out, I would just make the access switches higher." She hissed, taking a jab where she knew it would bleed quickly. He growled lowly and stalked forward but she stood still he was trying to back her into the wall near the control panels for the doors. Taking a step to the left she began to circle around him and he moved with her. "You have a sharp tongue wench, too bad you don't have the strength or even aim for that matter."
She was trying to maneuver so she could bolt out of the open doorway if they kept up this half circle stalking she would soon be with her back to it. "It was just a cup of cold coffee Vegeta are you really going to be such a dick." She pleaded finally, her hands throwing up at her sides for effect. "I am the prince of all Saiyans and I will not be treated like one of your pathetic friends!" Bulma's face contorted into anger, so he wanted to go back to this bit about his wounded ego. "Grow up Vegeta! This isn't your home planet!' She knew instantly bringing up Vegetasi was a bad idea, but the words were out now and she wasn't going to apologize.
"This disgusting mudball reminds me every day I'm not on Vegetasi, I would not have to tolerate pathetic weaklings you mewl over, your idiotic mother prattling and your loud mouth everywhere I go! It is painfully clear to me that this is Earth! It will never be my home!" He roared his hands were into tight fists his breathing was beginning to race. He hadn't planned to become so angry, he wasn't even that upset over the coffee, but it was what came quickest to his mind. He was becoming more enraged with every second she stood there, gawking at him.
What had he been thinking over the passing weeks, what had ever possessed him, the Prince of all Saiyans would ever find company in the arms of a weak little human. "You just want to come sniffing around me like a bitch in the heat because that disgraceful boy finally had enough of you too, pathetic." She cracked if only for a moment he caught the familiar pangs of betrayal played out on her face, but she was quick to recover with respectable swiftness.
"Vegeta." She hissed, the word slithering out like a skinny snake from between her lips. "The idea of you staying in my home any longer then you have to is sickening. My mother spends hours toiling away in the kitchens for you, this Earth was a victim of your terroristic behavior and still, we invited you in! I invited you in. But you make no mistake, you're not welcome anymore. You are tolerated. Get out." Her tone lost none but instead grew in its animosity, she stared at him as if he were nothing. Just another compound employ who stepped out of line.
He felt the fire in his belly consume him and in a moment he was before her, his teeth locked and hands in tight balls at his side. He was mere inches from her his body was on a trigger trembling to release all the energy squirming inside of, him down every vein and in all his pores. Staring down at her, he glared, her face was unusually pale in the cast of his shadow amplifying the shine in her hardened stare.
"What not going to call me a sick little pet name? Where did all that sickening forgiveness go Woman? All that sickening human compassion, you poisoned me with. Not so giddy now are you, not smirking at me now!" He screamed his lips brushing against hers, disgust skimmed through her blood as she felt his spit hitting her face, seeing his veins bulge in his neck. He slammed his fist against the walls of her lab, finding it absorbing his impact and jarring the bunched muscles of his arm. "You lizard." It was a snarl that barely sounded like any language except beast.
"You monster"
"Don't forget your own little sins."
The ringing of skin on skin vibrated out like a bell its tolls echoing off the sterile lab walls, overshadowed and swallowed by the sheer magnitude of the action. "Get out." The tiny words were distant and small coming from her lips, her face red but blank of expression.
He forced all of the over-whelming ki beneath his feet, propelling himself skyward. A shower of debris hailed down, Bulma being thrown back against the wall from the force of his takeoff, redding skin developing on her legs from a stinging burn of ki. The sounds of her staff and mother running her way were drowned out by the ringing echoing around somewhere deep in her ears. Bulma stood back up grimacing at the pain that lanced down her back, but she wouldn't let anyone see her down and defeated, not her worried faculty and parents and never again a Sayian.