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Disclaimer: No, just…no.

After Vegeta brought her back, she made it half way to her apartment when something inside of her partially snapped. She had kept the tears at bay until then and that seemed to be the breaking point for her. What Vegeta had told her just wasn't enough for her. Selfish as it seemed, but she needed closure. Bulma twisted around and sprinted down the hallways, nearly knocking down the poor palace workers as she made her way to her destination.

Vegeta's heart wrenching words still ringing in her ears as her feet pounded the ground.

She nearly skidded past his private training room and didn't bother to knock. She burst through the doors, startling both Vegeta and the Elder who was there earlier that morning.

The old man's face was screwed up into an appalled frown when he realized who had so rudely barged into the room. He twisted his body so he was facing Bulma, who was staring directly at Vegeta, red eyes blazing and tears streaming down her cheeks.

"You have some nerve, human. What makes you think-"

"Shut your old ass up." She said through a clenched jaw. Her eyes slid to the older Saiyan, whose eyes were large with growing fury. "Get the fuck out."

"Female, you had best remember who you're talking to. I don't know how they run things on Earth but I am a superior race."

"And I don't think you know who you're talking to, you old fart. I'm done playing nice with you assholes. I'm here out of the goodness of my heart. And frankly, I've had it up to here with your holier than thou attitude." She took a step forward, making Vegeta's lip twitch into a small smirk. "I'm a guest god damnit, not a leper, and frankly you and the Elder's hospitality sucks. You are all lucky I haven't told you all to shove this planetary defense project right up your asses. Now, if you'll excuse me, I would like to have a private word with King Vegeta." She crossed her arms and waited for the nameless elder to respond.

He was looking as if he was trying to keep himself from lunging at her, and to piss him off further she smiled condescendingly at him through her tears.

The older man turned to his King. "Sire, this human has obviously gone mad."

Vegeta, already recovered from the initial shock of her entrance, had his patient look of boredom on his face. He looked at the Elder and took a step forward, so he was standing next to him. "She said get the fuck out."

The man did a double take, shocked. "King Vegeta!"

The King turned his icy black eyes to him. "Do not make me repeat myself."

He opened his mouth to argue but quickly closed it, thinking better of it. He marched to the door and turned before he exited. "The council will hear of this."

"Yes, I'm sure they will." Vegeta deadpanned, staring at him until he retreated and then looked to Bulma, whose tears were still falling steadily.

To her surprise he stood there patiently as she gathered herself together. She dashed the tears away from her cheeks and took a shaky breath, but shifted her eyes to her toes. "I need to know something."

"Oh?" He replied.

She bit her lip. What the hell was she doing? All the sudden she wanted to turn tail and bolt, get away from him, this place, this planet… but instead she forced herself to look up at him and get what she needed off of her chest.

"I need you to answer a question. I want it answered truthfully. Consider this closure…" Fresh tears sprang to her eyes as she looked upon him.

He rose both eyebrows at her.

"Did you love me? Did you ever love me?"

The look of indifference fell from his face and a disgusted sneer replaced it, he opened his mouth to reply, Bulma was sure, a rude or hateful remark on his tongue, but she quickly silenced him.

"STOP!" She screamed. "Just…stop." Her hands fisted into balls at her sides, her tears of sadness and heartbreak instantly turning into ones of anger. "Don't give me the 'Saiyan's don't feel love' bullshit answer. Everybody feels love. And I know for a fact that your species feels love. Drop the proud, arrogant act and just tell me the truth, Vegeta." She clenched her jaw in attempt to keep the sob that was creeping up her throat at bay, but it didn't work.

Vegeta shook his head, his brow furrowed, not sure what to do. He had never seen the woman act like this before and was clearly uncomfortable with how much anguish she was in.

"You have no idea what you put me through when you left." She continued. "I felt as if a part of me died. It took Yamcha of all people to get me to snap out of the depression I slipped into. The last words you spoke to me kept replaying in my head as if it were a broken record that I couldn't shut off… after three months I finally got numb." Her eyes widened, just now coming to the realization as she spoke the truth that she didn't even let herself admit. "I never got over you. I just numbed myself and pretended that I was alright… I'll admit, Vegeta, whatever we had between us was dysfunctional and fucking complicated, but it was also beautiful and raw and real… and you just threw it away, like it was nothing… so tell me, Vegeta. Tell me the truth… Did you or did you not love me. Because if you didn't, that's fine, I just need to know this one thing before we write off each other."

He stayed silent for a long time, his facial features and posture gave nothing away, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, looking at her as if they were discussing something non important, like the weather.

After a long moment, his eyes slitted into an irate glare. He lunged forward, taking long angry strides towards her, making her back up with each step he took until she, yet again, was pinned to the wall behind her.

Why did this always happen?

He caged his arms around her, his hands pressed up against the cold steel wall, his eyes looking murderously down upon her. He growled deeply and sunk a fist into the wall just a few inches from Bulma's head.

Too scared to move or even make a peep, Bulma was forced to look at him, wide eyed as he pushed himself off of the wall with his hands and plowed both of them into his black mane, tugging at it as he grit his teeth at her.

"This wasn't supposed to happen." He growled in a low whisper. "How can one small human female cause so much havoc in my life?" Vegeta looked to her, as if he expected her to answer.

She looked at him, not sure what to say in response.

He let out another frustrated growl and then looked to the heavens. "I knew from the second I saw you on Namek you were going to be trouble for me. I don't know how I knew, but I knew." He shook his head and scowled at her. "Yet I couldn't push you away. You weaseled your way into my brain like an incurable virus… I supposed it was my own weakness that let you in, in the first place." He grit out.

Bulma stood perfectly still as she watched through soggy eyes as the Saiyan King stood just an arms length away from her, his face a mask of anguish and anger. For the first time in, forever, he was giving her a glimpse of what was going on in his tortured head.

He grit his teeth and looked away from her again. "When I got the call from my people that they were alive and they needed to me to lead them, I was conflicted." He shook his head, an ironic and dark smile gracing his lips. "Me, conflicted." He let out a small chuckle in disbelief and looked at her again, the small smile gone now. "One part of me thought it was a god send. My prayers had been answered… I no longer was a Prince of an extinct race and I was able to leave the miserable mudball planet of yours..." He let out a large sigh. Bulma could tell this was difficult for him to say, he almost look defeated as he shook head again. "It took me five days to decide if I actually was going to leave or not… all because of you. The thought of leaving you made me feel like I would go insane… Five days I had my things packed up and ready to leave, but you kept me from leaving."

She involuntarily let out a strangled sob, making his eyes dart to hers. The look sent shivers down her spine. It was clear that he was pissed. Pissed at her for making him feel, for making him tell her and pissed at himself, she supposed, for letting this happen.

He let out a roar, fisting his hands in the air making his blue ki crackle and whip around his body. "I have hundreds of willing and able Saiyan women that are practically throwing themselves at my feet to pleasure me until I pass out. Hell, I have a Saiyan woman that is begging me to marry her and bear me an heir, but the very fucking thought of bringing anybody but you into my bed disgusts me!" His voice boomed and echoed off of the walls of the massive training room.

Bulma pressed herself closer to the wall, bracing herself as she watched him power up, his ki whipping around him, his black eyes vanished leaving only the white of his eyes. He roared something that sounded like a curse in Saiyajin and blasted out the doors, leaving Bulma alone.

The days seemed to blend together after the incident in the training room.

Bulma kept herself busy with her projects, making sure that when she worked on the old GR Vegeta was nowhere near it. She was bound and determined to keep herself moving, keep her mind constantly working. If she didn't she found herself crippled with what Vegeta admitted to her.

She managed to rig up a decent sized flat screen in her lab, and with a few spare parts from the parts room she had scoured on her trek to New Vegetasei, was able to make it so she could watch Earth's television programming and tap into the planet's new channel as well. She rarely turned it off of the twenty four hour news programming that kept her up to date with what was going on at home.

When she wasn't in the lab, she followed Cappa around. And thanked Kami above that he was a good sport about the whole thing. He didn't seem to be too annoyed with her following him around and asking him questions as to what he was doing and so on. She was also thankful that he didn't pry as to why she was bugging him, she assumed that he already knew why.

The only time she allowed her mind to shut down and not think was at night, but once night time did roll around, she was so tired she rarely had time to let her thoughts drift to Vegeta.

The Saiyan King made it a point to never cross paths with her. He didn't come in to ask on the progress of the defense system she was working on, nor did he ask about how the gravity room was coming along. She thought for sure he would have been barking at her to hurry up … the the demand never came.

She did, however, hear from her lab techs, as well as Cappa, that Vegeta had been in a dreadful mood for the past few days. He had severely beaten three Elites for stepping out of line and was being more ruthless than normal. Rumor had spread as well that he was showing more resistance against the Elders, especially regarding the Cooler issue.

Other rumors where whirling around as well.

People were asking about the blue haired princess. Was she really here to build a defense system for their planet? Or was she really here to win the heart and throne of the saiyan people?

The Elders tried to put a squash on the rumor, but it didn't take too long for pictures and articles about Bulma and her family to surface. How they got them, she didn't know.

Another black mark against her with them.

Surprisingly, her outburst towards the Elder, who his name she later discovered was Shoga, was left alone. Bulma expected to be sleeping with the fishes by now, but nothing was said about it… maybe Vegeta threatened to tear their heads off their necks if they tried anything.

Before she knew it, a week had passed and the day of the Celebration had arrived.

She noticed, with mild interest, that the foot traffic was a little heavier than normal outside of her lab. Through the floor to ceiling windows she watched as the day progressed, palace workers become more frenzied, carrying back and forth things for the 'Celebration' Vegeta vehemently disagreed to participate in… apparently he lost that battle. Now that it was getting later in the day, she saw the Elites that were meandering about were dressed in formal attire, as were the servants.

Everyone was excited about the event. All casts were invited, third, second and Elites. All the lab techs could talk about was how excited they were and what food would be served. Apparently things like this rarely happened.

She was not invited.

Bulma wasn't sure if she was relieved or hurt. But she figured it was for the best… less chance of a nasty run in with Gia and the Elders… or an awkward one with Vegeta. Plus, it was when he and Gia's union was to be announced, and she really didn't want to be present for that. She wasn't sure if she could handle it.

"Bulma." Cappa's deep voice brought her back from her brooding thoughts. She looked up from staring at the foot traffic and couldn't help but smile at her large friend. He was dressed in pearl dipped armor lined with gold and dark blue under armor.

"My, Cappa. You look very dashing." She giggled when the large man blushed.

"Erm. I just wanted to make sure you're alright and if you needed anything before I went to the celebration."

Bulma leaned back in her chair and glanced up at the flat screen tv that was currently flashing the days stock quotes on Earth. "Nope, I should be alright. I'm going to take advantage of the quiet lab, make myself a fresh pot of coffee…" She shrugged. "Turn on a movie and work some more on this project."

He pursed his lips, clearly feeling sorry for her.

Bulma smiled at him. "Don't feel sorry for me just because you have an awesome night filled with drinking, dancing and eating and I'm stuck here all by myself, working."

Cappa shook his head at her. "Aren't we feeling sorry for themselves?" He retorted, arching a large black eyebrow at her.

She laughed. "Me? Feeling sorry for myself? No way!" She giggled. "Seriously, I'll be fine. If I pull an all nighter, I'll be able to get the first part of this baby assembled and tested." She patted a large piece of metal that dominated the large work table she was sitting at.

"I'll make sure to check up on you later on, make sure you haven't gotten into trouble." He gave her a smirk.

She rolled her eyes at him.

He shook his head at her and waved good bye before he left her alone in her lab, her workers long gone.

She turned the volume up on the tv and delved into her work, trying her best not to look up and watch the beautifully dressed men and women walk in front of her lab, making their way to the newly finished banquet room in the palace.

On the other side of the palace, Vegeta was sharing Bulma's enthusiasm regarding the nights festivities. He pulled at the heavy formal black and red armor that he adorned, grumbling to himself as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. The armor was his father's, passed down to him. It was one of the things he remembered about his father. He always thought he looked more menacing when he wore this particular outfit.

He scowled at his reflection as he heard a quick knock and then his door open.

"Your majesty?" A servant asked.

"What is it?" He bit out, not bothering to look at the small saiyan woman.

"It is time. The Elders are waiting for you." The woman bowed deeply, fisting her hand over her heart and quickly exited his room.

Vegeta continued to stare at himself. Black eyes staring into its reflection. He was a mess

This whole celebration was ridiculous. What was there to celebrate? Sure he found his people, and they were growing to be strong, just as they were before Frieza destroyed their home. But that happy fact was over shadowed, especially by recent events.

From the day he left Earth, the happiness he felt, died. Things would be much better if it weren't for the stupid Elders and the laws. If he knew he was going to be this miserable, he would have stayed on Earth, mated Bulma… hell maybe even sired a brat or two.

…but he chose his fate, one that he thought would have made him happier and stronger. And now, he was going to be forced to marry a female that he didn't find half as appealing as Bulma and wasn't able to rule his people as he saw fit, because of some old wrinkly ass men. How his father stayed sane because of them, he never knew.

The King closed his eyes and wiped his face with the palm of his hand, and then stalked out of the room, heading towards the banquet hall of his palace.

One hour and he had enough. He wasn't one for mingling or small talk.

He slinked away, unseen, making a clean get away. Doga was about to announce his betrothal to Gia and there was no way in hell he was going to be there for that.

It was a wonder the damned female let him out of her sight long enough for him to sneak off. She certainly loved the attention she was getting from everybody, and was trying desperately to get him to show any kind of affection towards her, other than disdain and loathing.

He knew it was his duty to marry the damned woman and knock her up… at least that was the right thing to do in the Elder's eyes, and the eyes of his people. He too knew it was his duty, but it didn't feel right. He wasn't lying when he said the thought of taking any other woman but Bulma in his bed disgusted him.

In his mind, there was no equal to Bulma Briefs. She was smart as a whip, beautiful, could most definitely be a queen and, most importantly, didn't take his shit…although, that last part made him want to throttle her more times than naught. She would make an excellent Saiyan queen.

He sighed deeply.

He hated to admit it, but life was much simpler when he was in Frieza's army, and dare he say…on Earth.

Vegeta looked around at his surroundings, surprised that he wandered into the wing of the palace where the labs were located. The halls were darkly lit, the only real light was coming from the windows of the lab, where flashing lights from the large TV that was hanging from the wall.

Sinking into the shadows, Vegeta peered into the room through the large windowed walls. Bulma's figure was perched on a work stool in front of a large table that had an even larger metal thing that he assumed was part of the defense system she was building. He watched as she stuffed a small screw driver in her mouth while she soldered something with her hands. She'd occasionally look up at the screen, where a movie was playing, and then turn her attention back to her work. She was tired, he could tell, not only from the dark circles under her eyes, but she yawned a few times as well.

The Saiyan King had gone to great lengths with avoiding her. He just couldn't face her after he had literally exploded on her. And, it had been easy keeping away from her. Sure, his thoughts were almost always about her, but at least with keeping his distance he was able to keep himself out of trouble with her. Taking his anger and frustrations out on others helped too.

But now that she was right in front of him, he wasn't sure he would be able to stop himself from at least talking to her, although, he wasn't sure what he could possibly say to her…

His feet had a mind of their own. He found himself just inches away from the glass door, his hand hovering about the censor to open it.

Bulma yawned for the fiftieth time in five minutes it seemed like. She peered impatiently at the percolating coffee maker.

'When will it be done! I need caffeine!'

She yawned again and then went back to soldering, her tired eyes burning from exhaustion.

"The Avengers." A gravely voice announced just behind her, making her jump and drop her tool.

She looked over her shoulder and nearly fell out her seat, when she saw Vegeta. Her mouth fell open as she took the sight in. He was dressed head to toe in black and red. And holy hell, he was wearing a cape. He looked sexy in a cape. The man looked elegant and intimidating, making him that more sexier. She was thankful his eyes were on the screen, watching as the Hulk and Thor fought off otherworldly enemies.

Bulma picked her jaw up off the floor and quickly turned away from him. "You remembered."

She heard him hurumph. "It was one of the movies I actually enjoyed watching."

She smiled softly, remembering when they watched it together. He actually let her curl up against him, and halfway through the movie, he put his arm around her. A rare show of affection.

He walked over to the table she was working at and leaned up against a work bench next to her.

"Aren't you supposed to be at a party or something and announce your engagement to Gia." She didn't look at him, choosing to keep her eyes on her work. But she could tell he was frowning at her.

"I don't like social events. You know this."

She nodded, noting that he didn't answer her other question. "So you snuck away." She said matter of factly.

Again, she felt his eyes on her, she imagined narrowing at her. "I did not sneak away. I left." He lied.

"Mhm. You snuck out." She chuckled. This time she did look up and he was indeed scowling and his eyes were narrowed at her.

"Must you always be such a bitch?"

She rose her eyebrows at him and shrugged. "Yes. Yes I do." She smiled at him. Just then the coffee maker binged, indicating that it was done. "Thank kami! It's about damned time." She stood up and made her way to the table where it was at. "Coffee?" She asked, holding a mug up at Vegeta.

"No." He stated gruffly and sat down on the bench she had just vacated and studied the contraption she was working on.

She shrugged and poured herself a cup. What exactly was he doing here? He was acting normal, as if what happened a week ago never happened. He had avoided her and now he was here, watching The Avengers… She stood by the coffee pot, facing Vegeta. She blew into the mug as she pondered his sudden visit. After a few moments, the silence between them got awkward.

Bulma cleared her throat. "I'm hoping to be done with the first piece of the system tonight. I would like to test it out possibly tomorrow or the next day. We will have to fly it up into the outer atmosphere and run some tests on it. Make sure it stays in place and works properly before we begin manufacturing duplicate pieces." She took a small sip of her coffee, her nose scrunched as she swallowed it. It was a little bitter. She sighed inwardly, scolding herself for making it stronger than necessary. She hated strong coffee.

Vegeta nodded. "That is fine. I will go with you when the testing is done. I would like to see a demonstration." He said as he watched her take another sip of coffee.

She nodded at him and then stopped abruptly, and looked down at her coffee cup. She looked up at him again. A look of confusion and horror on her face.

Something was wrong.

Her lungs felt constricted, and she was only able to get small drags of air into her body. Her fingers and toes started to tingle and were becoming numb and she was seeing double.

"Vegeta." She mumbled. Her tongue felt heavy. Her eyes quickly darted from her coffee cup to Vegeta, who was now standing, his black eyes wide looking at her.

He knew something was wrong too.

The tingling feeling, started to travel up her arms and legs, her coffee cup falling from her hands. She barely registered sound of the porcelain that crashed at her feet as she felt herself fall to the ground in slow motion.

"BULMA!" His voice sounded like he was talking under water. He leapt over the table that was in between them and caught her head just before it would have cracked on the cement floor.

Oh Shit… what happened to Bulma?

So, what do you think happened? I wanna know how you guys liked this chapter. It was really fun to write... and I've already started on the next one too. =)

beta'd by: Springandbysummerfall