Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or the characters.

*****PLEASE READ*****: I have a friend that has recently gotten into DBZ and she's been working on a Dragon Ball Z/Yu Yu Hakusho crossover called "What you Saiyan?" It's a really good story that I think you would all enjoy so please look it up. Her FF name is dragoscilvio. I am also writing the sequel, Tarble in the Family. Hope you enjoy.

Princess Caramel: Oh me too…not this bad, but my family…*shakes head* sometimes people really need to grow up, on both sides -_-. Not a day goes by without drama somewhere in the fam. Hope yours isn't too bad. If you ever need to talk or vent, that is what PMs are for ;)

KimiruMai: You really like the Japanese names now, don't you :p I have to admit, they do sound cool. And I KNOW! Love that movie. I watched it and immediately fell in love with the small Saiyan; however, he didn't get enough screen time XD

Goku Rules 98: I agree with you there. I think they are the best anime couple ever!

Moka-Chan8: Um, because my ideas kind of stopped flowing ^^ Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter.

Lintu-lvr4: Glad you think so. I try to keep things interesting :)

DaniellaDBZ4ever: Thanks! :D

Middlekertz: Aw, thanks :3 Glad you like it.

LunarSinner: Thanks; I'm glad :D

Lady Weavile: Aw, well, sad pasts do that. Heck, when I'm writing these stories, I tear up…It's a cycle, lol. And yeah, I had to make him extra cute to compensate for the sadness.

Sonia-s.a: Well, you shall find out soon enough.

KKsaiyancat: Yes, there will be some BXV fluff this chapter. It is really needed after last chapter, lol.

VegetaBulma Fan: *raises hand* Right here. Thanks for your patience.

Smile-bestthingintheworld: The funny thing is that I was in the process of writing this chapter when I got your review ^^

A few weeks had passed since Bulma's and Vegeta's first day of babysitting Tarble. Thankfully it hadn't been their last. Vegeta was getting more comfortable around his younger brother, and the Swifts were getting used to their son's brother. It was amazing that this had all happened so suddenly and was already resolving itself.

Vegeta sighed contently as he lied down on his bed. After a long day at school, he just wanted to relax and take a short catnap before going over to his brother's for dinner. He wished Bulma was going with him this time, but she had her own family night to go to, and he knew Bardock would be going all out for it. It wouldn't surprise him if the house would remain empty that night. He didn't mind so much as he would be able to type up his report without Kakarot managing to get stuck…in his computer. Sometimes Vegeta felt that the guy was doing it on purpose.

As Vegeta started to drift off, his phone rang. He didn't want to answer it, but reluctantly picked it up to stop the annoying ringtone and grimaced once he saw the name. Wishing the phone would disintegrate under his glare, he answered it. "What do you want, old man?" he said nonchalantly. "You're calling early this month."

"Nothing," his father stated. "Just checking up on you. Rumor has it that you have a new girlfriend."

Vegeta rolled his eyes. If this was the reason his father was calling him, he had some serious issues he needed to work out. "Hm, guess the paparazzi are doing a good job of keeping hidden," Vegeta sneered. "But she's not my girlfriend, not that it's really any of your business."

"Actually, it is my business," his father retorted. "We made a deal."

"No, you made a deal," Vegeta muttered. "I just have chosen not to date. It has nothing to do with your deal."

"Then who is she?" his father asked skeptically.

"Kakarot's sister," Vegeta replied. "Again, not that it's any of your business."

"Watch it," his father growled.

After a little more interrogation, and Vegeta denying that he had any type of feelings for Bulma, the conversation was pretty minor. Vegeta just gave a brief update about his classes and test scores and his father pretended to care about his discussions of his projects while truly caring that his grades were impeccable and wouldn't ruin the business' name.

Vegeta nearly threw his phone across the room when the conversation was over. He didn't know what was worse, the fact that his father knew about Bulma or the fact that people were following him around and digging into his private life. Who knew what else they knew? What if they knew about Tarble, or that he would take Bulma to a psychiatrist? They didn't deserve to be dragged into the crazy world that was business. And who knew what his father would do if he found out he even had any contact with Tarble? It would surely end in disaster any way he looked at it. He would have to talk to Tarble's parents later that day about their options. If he had to disappear out of his brother's life to keep him safe, he would…he just didn't want to.

"Bulma, if you don't go and sit down, I'm going to have your brother tie you down," Bardock said strictly.

"But dad, I want to help," she replied with a frown. "You all have to stop thinking I'm doing this because I think I have to. Maybe at first I was having issues with that, but I'm good now."

Bardock sighed and walked over to her as she poured the few bags of popcorn into a large bowl. "I know, princess; I just worry."

"Well, don't," Bulma said, now smiling. "Let's just enjoy tonight…and make sure Kakarot didn't get stuck in the tent."

"Yeah, he seems to do that a lot…" Bardock said with a chuckle.

Tonight was a special night for all of them, and to celebrate, they were reliving one of their old traditions. When Bulma and Kakarot were younger, their mother would go on weekend shopping trips with her mother and they got the whole house to themselves. They would put up a tent in the living room and pretty much camp out all night watching movies. It was silly, definitely strange, but it was their thing. Bulma was actually quite surprised when she found out from her brother that he and their dad hadn't had another indoor movie campout since they were all separated. It was still completely their thing.

Bulma and her father gathered food and drinks on a couple of trays and carried it into the living room surprisingly finding a perfectly intact tent put up by Kakarot. They both placed the trays on the floor in front of the tent as Kakarot threw a ton of pillows and blankets inside. The three of them took turns crawling into the tent. Bulma ended up wedged between the two and laughed. "Is it me, or did this tent get a heck of a lot smaller?"

"Well, seeing as you were both children the last time we were in this, I would say you both just got a lot bigger," Bardock teased.

"Eh-hem," Kakarot retorted, "you definitely didn't get any smaller, dad."

The three of them laughed as they curled up together under the blankets, looking at all of the TV channels for some decent movies. As they watched, the three of them munched on the popcorn and plethora of snacks. Bulma was taken by surprise when Kakarot pulled her into a hug. "I missed you, sis," he whispered. "I missed doing all of this."

"I did too, Kakarot," Bulma responded, hugging her little brother back, trying to stop the tears forming in her eyes from falling.

Bardock looked over to his two kids, feeling both sadness and joy. He looked back to the screen and turned off the emotion evoking movie before pulling both of his children to him. They didn't protest as they all embraced in a group hug. Moments like these had been greatly missed by all of them, and they were happy that they'd be having many more.

Vegeta felt a little anxious about going to dinner now that he knew there was a possibility of being followed. He looked around, just in case, but as usual he saw no one, which didn't really mean anything anymore. Sighing, he knocked on the door and when it opened, he was met by his happy and energetic brother.

"Veggie!" the little boy exclaimed, hugging his legs. It made Vegeta chuckled and he moved to pick the boy up for a better hug.

"How have you been?" Vegeta whispered in his brother's ear. Tarble smiled mischievously. That meant he must have done something that he knew he'd be scolded for. Vegeta smirked and shook his head. "Did I not tell you to behave?"

"Well, people keep making fun of me 'cause I'm adopted," Tarble said with a frown. "And it was just a prank and no one got hurt."

Vegeta wasn't even going to ask. "Let's go inside," he suggested. That distracted Tarble from his day at school, and he went back to being a happy little kid.

When Vegeta got into the kitchen and set Tarble down, Mrs. Swift turned to him and smiled. "Good to see you, Vegeta," she said kindly. When she talked like that, she almost reminded Vegeta of his mother, and he was happy that there weren't any hard feelings from that first day.

"Likewise," he said before sitting down at the table. Tarble ran upstairs to go get something, and Vegeta and Mrs. Swift were left alone.

"So, what happened?" she asked the teen.

"I'm sorry?" he asked in shocked.

"Come on," she laughed. "You think you're good at hiding stuff, but you always seem quieter when something bad has happened. So, I ask again; what did happen?"

"My father," Vegeta growled. Mrs. Swift stopped stirring whatever she was cooking and looked over to him. "Apparently I've been stalked by the paparazzi and they are saying Bulma is my girlfriend. My father mandated a long time ago that I wasn't to date until I got my degree, so of course he found out and was harassing me all afternoon about it."

Mrs. Swift's eyes filled with sympathy at the life this young boy had to live with such a cruel parental figure. It wasn't fair that he had to give up so much freedom to appease a man who never wanted to be a father in the first place. And then, of course, there was the problem of him being stalked without knowing it. "If you don't want me to come here anymore for Tarble's safety, I will agree." Her heart nearly broke when he said that.

"I would never ask that of you," she told him. "You seem happy when you come here, and I would never tell you to leave just because your father might find out."

"It will cause problems for all of you," Vegeta argued.

"And we can deal with them." Vegeta and Mrs. Swift turned to see Mr. Swift entering the kitchen. "Look, if your father found out, he wouldn't be able to do anything about it or his reputation would be tarnished. The truth, and I think you're old enough to hear this, is that your father pretty much sold Tarble to us. It was done under wraps because he didn't want it getting out that he had a kid. It may seem, because he forged documents, that it was a legal adoption, but it wasn't. The paperwork might have gone to the government center, for example, but the truth is that the documents my wife picked up that day were the first legal documents we have regarding Tarble's adoption."

Vegeta shook his head. His father was angering him even more, and this he was supposedly never to find out. "I'm sorry," Vegeta replied. He honestly didn't know what else to say at this point.

Mrs. Swift walked over to him and took his hand in hers. "It's not your fault," she whispered. "Look, my husband is right. If your father does find out you've been coming here, what can he do? We now have a legal document in the system, so if he ever came out with the truth, we can say he is lying, and then he will just have to deal with the fallout. He can't hurt us, and we have always taken precautions in case he had decided to come after us. The reason we acted so frightened that day you came was because the document hadn't been processed yet and we thought you were your father coming to take Tarble away. He had always threatened that if we ever let what happened slip, he would come and find us and say we kidnapped his child."

"I can't stand him," Vegeta stated. "I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything," Mr. Swift responded. "Just don't let this situation get to you so much. Everything is fine now, and we are protected."

Vegeta still couldn't bring himself to say anything. When he was about to give his thanks, Tarble came back into the room and the conversation was immediately ended. "Veggie, look," he said as he held out a small packet. "I got a hundred on my math test."

Vegeta smiled and took the test from his little brother to review it. He had to admit that he was impressed with his little brother's potential, especially in calculating rates and finances. The math he was doing at such a young age was astounding; and in thinking that way, Vegeta began to think about what would happen if his father found out about Tarble, and what would happen if he found out that Tarble was better suited for his business that Vegeta was…

Vegeta was right in assuming Bulma and Kakarot would be gone all night, which was good for him, especially because he needed to concentrate for what he was about to do. For the rest of the night, Vegeta looked into what it would take to double major in psychology and business. He wasn't doing this to appease his father. No, he wanted to make sure he understood how business worked so that if his father ever did find out about Tarble and what he could do, Vegeta could argue that he knew how to do all of that too. He would never let his little brother be dragged into that kind of world, not his father's world.

It was about five in the morning when Vegeta finally got all of the information he needed. Later, after he got some sleep, he would need to go to the registrar's and declare his second major. He had a list of all the classes he needed to take for a business degree, so when registration for the next semester's schedule came around, he knew what classes he needed to take. The only thing that meant was that he would have no choice but to take the maximum amount of credit hours the school allowed, if not request special permission to take more. That would be the most challenging part.

It was seven when Vegeta was roused by the smell of food. As he opened his eyes, he realized that he hadn't eaten much the night before because of his soured mood and worry. He decided to leave the comfort his bed was offering him for food. At least if he got up early, he'd be able to get more done that he planned.

When he got to the kitchen doorway, he saw Bulma cooking with a smile on her face. It was so surreal seeing her so happy doing something that used to upset her or have her running around like she had a time limit. Vegeta smirked as he looked her up and down. She looked breathtakingly beautiful, and Vegeta could picture himself wrapping his arms around her waist as she continued to cook. Being as exhausted as he was, he couldn't really think rationally, and was unaware that his body was moving on its own accord.

Bulma paused in stirring the eggs as she felt arms move around her. She assumed it was Vegeta and smiled before she resumed her cooking. She felt him slightly nuzzle against her neck and sighed in contentment. When the eggs were finished, she turned off the heat and turned to go get a dish, but she was pretty much pinned against the stove. Her cheeks flushed red as her eyes met Vegeta's, but then she became concerned. He looked awful, as if he hadn't gotten any sleep at all the night before.

"Are you okay?" she asked him softly. "What happened?"

Vegeta quickly snapped out of his haziness and let go of her, crossing his arms as a means of defense. "I'm fine," he said looking away from her.

Bulma shook her head. Even his voice was laced with exhaustion. "Come on," Bulma said in concern. "You need to go back to sleep."

Vegeta flashed her a glare and growled out, "I told you I'm fine."

"Yeah," Bulma agreed, "but you clearly aren't. Now do as I say and get back into bed. I'll bring you something to eat in a bit, but you need to rest. You look like you've been through the war."

Vegeta's expression softened and he sighed in defeat. "Whatever," he grumbled out. He walked back to his room without another word. It didn't make sense to him why his behavior was so off and why he was being so compliant, but he was attributing it to only getting two hours of sleep. Bulma followed closely behind him with breakfast on a tray. She set it down on his night stand and watched as he got into bed. He refused to make eye contact with her and she sighed.

"Vegeta, what happened yesterday?" she asked again.

"Nothing," he lied in response.

"Vegeta…it's obviously not nothing," Bulma gently chided him. "You know you can talk to me. You shouldn't keep it bottled up."

"Like you did," Vegeta scoffed. He instantly regretted his insensitivity and turned over in his bed to avoid seeing her.

Bulma smiled weakly, feeling a little bit of the jab. "That's why I'm telling you to talk to me," Bulma explained, side-stepping his comment. "When you convinced me to talk, it really helped. If I had kept it in any longer, I really would have driven myself insane. You helped me and now I want to help you, so please…please just talk to me."

Vegeta sighed in defeat and turned back around to face her using his arm to steady himself. "As I said before…" he started, "my father is a well-known businessman, so with fame, there is always paparazzi. I just found out yesterday that I was being followed, because my father called to ask about you. He thought you were my girlfriend."

Bulma looked confused and asked, "What would it matter if I was?"

Vegeta looked down at the floor as he continued his story. "I'm not allowed to date. My father made that perfectly clear all of my life. It's just study and learn how the company works."

"But that isn't fair," Bulma responded. "How can he mandate something like that?"

"Well, he's paying for my education for one thing," Vegeta grumbled. "Besides, I never wanted to date before anyway. I wouldn't subject someone to my father's judgment." Bulma frowned, but Vegeta didn't notice. "Anyway, I'm concerned about my father finding out about me finding Tarble. And then of course, I found out that Tarble is good with tax calculations. You know how elementary schools teach how to calculate rate of change and profit and all of that?"

Bulma nodded. "Yeah…I could never get the hang of it. Why?"

"Same here," Vegeta replied, "but Tarble can do it perfectly. When I chose my major, I did it to spite my father, because he wanted me to be a businessman. I threatened to drop out and he gave in, but a psychology major really won't help in terms of business. Last night I was looking up everything I could about double majoring, so that if my father finds out about Tarble, I can at least show that I am learning and willing to take over the business."

Vegeta still wasn't looking at Bulma as she moved to sit on his bed. She pulled him into a hug and rocked him gently. "You are a good brother, Vegeta," she whispered in his ear, "and so brave to stand up to him alone. If I were you, I wouldn't be able to do it. You see how terrible I was at defending myself from my mother. If it weren't for you and my brother and father, I would have given in right away if she had found me. You all helped me, and now it's our turn to help you. You're going to get through all of this, Vegeta; I promise."

Vegeta closed his eyes and leaned closer to Bulma, his hand curling around her wrist. He hadn't wanted to tell her about everything his father had done, but she was right about talking making him feel better. Or maybe it was the exhaustion talking. As he hugged her back and started drifting off to sleep, he smiled. Yes, just the exhaustion.

A/N: Okay, so yay, longer chapter. Sorry it took so long…very busy with…everything. My computer broke last week and I finally got a new one a couple of days ago, but I'm a week behind on schoolwork. In fact…I have a practical today, but I already finished studying for it, so I could finish this chapter and proofread. Thanks for all the support, even when I don't get to update as often as we would all like ^^'