Unfaithful

We went and we came back. Vegeta? He's gone. Gone, gone, gone. And my daughter, she's sad but she doesn't want to show it.

It's been very quiet the past few days. Except for...

"My, my, isn't it just wonderful? Can you smell the clean, Vegeta-free air? No monkeys in my house, not anymore!" He stretched and tilted his head towards the window to examine the crater just outside for maybe the millionth time. "With any luck, he ran out of fuel and just exploded into a million itty bitty pieces in space." A cry of glee.

Bulma watched, her eyebrows were knitted like the talk disturbed her, but a small smile across her pale lips expressed slight amusement. She didn't say anything, and no matter what she didn't look at that window.

"Honey, don't you want some cake?"

"Oh, Mom..." She sighed, "No, I'm not quite feeling up to sweets."

"I think," I winked, "That you should come keep me company then. I get so lonely in this house, you know."

Again with a confused, amused smile and she sat up. "Dad?"

"Yes, Dear?" He sang out.

"I think Mom and I are going out to the city for a few hours. She wants cake."

"Alrighty!"

And as we left, we could still hear him singing another rendition of his new favorite song, 'Vegeta's Gone and Dead.'

"I don't think he could really want anyone to actually die, Dear..."

"Oh, Mom, I don't worry about that."

I raised a brow, "I know you think you don't, but it upsets you. Why don't you contact him? You were able to talk to Gokou on that other, older model."

"I don't think it's a good idea, not until I know why he's gone."

"He got cold feet, of course. All men do it..." I frowned, "It's just most men don't tend to leave the planet."

Forced smile, "No, I think maybe he is angry at me for something."

"Well, whatever for?" I rested my chin in my palm.

She pushed her cake, barely a bite taken out of the pretty thing, to the side, "Do you think he'll come back, Ma?"

"Oh, sure." I beamed. It seemed like it'd been forever since we spoke like this, to be honest. When she started travelling, I no longer got to talk to her so often. "Haven't you read that article? Men are just like rubber bands, they snap right back, it says. And you know what? They do! They can't leave a good thing for a long time, just long enough to realize that it's good and they want it back before suddenly it belongs to something else."

"How can you refer to women as being possessions, though, Mother?" She seemed slightly exasperated, heavily resting her hand down by her plate.

"Darling, all men consider women to be possessions in one way or another, you know that."

"It's not like I'm just a toy for him to come back to, and it's not like I'm sitting here waiting for him to, Dad's right! Maybe he should just die out there!" She stood. Just like her father, she always says the meanest things when she's worried, hurt, or angry. "It would be a whole lot better for the baby, and for me."

She's so set on being a big woman in a man's world sometimes. I admired the fact that she was a combination of beauty and intelligence, but she obviously lacked tact. For a good few minutes I sat there with my cake and hers and I mourned the fact that she seemed to lack the ability to control her emotions long enough to think things through like any woman should.

Then, I got up and I left and she was standing outside the restaurant, she looked like she wanted to light a cigarette, but didn't. She was sweating, making angry, jerky movements this way and that and I laughed.

"What?" She spat, throwing the unlit cigarette to the ground.

"You." I took her by the arm and we moved together towards nothing really important.

"Maybe I should go back with Yamucha, Mom. It's not like it'll be really hard to get him back."

"No, no it wouldn't be." I shook my head.

"Maybe we could get married and have a family together just like he wanted."

"He did ask you to marry him..."

"And think of how happy Gokou and Krillin would be for us, and how many friends we could all invite..."

"A lovely white wedding..."

Her face was pale, "Yes, with a big cake, a huge one."

"A chocolate one."

"No, strawberry."

"With little roses on top..."

"Think of how lovely that would be, Mom..."

I nodded, "But Darling, you don't want to marry Yamucha. You could get him back, very easily, but he would never treat Vegeta's child as if it were his own. You were with Yamucha for years, but now that silly childhood crush is gone. You gave him a very special part of you, and he needs to learn to be satisfied with that. If you promise him your future now, then think of the miserable life you're setting up for yourself."

Buruma sighed, "I'm not saying I love Vegeta, Mom, because I don't. You know that, right? I really don't love him."

"Maybe you don't," I said calmly (because I knew she did, she must), "But the fact that you were with anyone when you'd already promised Yamucha you would be his wife means that you don't love Yamucha."

"Well, what if I got cold feet?"

I raised a brow, "Darling, did you think about Yamucha once on those ni-"

She flushed very red, "Alright, fine, hush about that already."

"Maybe you were just looking for a way to get out of your marriage with Yamucha. I mean, you knew that eventually Yamucha would find out."

Buruma looked different now, like she wanted to agree, but instead she just said, "Mom, you watch too many soap operas."

"It was actually a romance novel, Dear."

"Oh, Geez..."

"But listen, she didn't want to marry the man that she thought she loved, and so she slept with his rival, not to hurt him, but to damage the relationship beyond repair and she let him sail to Europe alone while she stayed home,"

"And then married the rival."

"No, she never saw the rival again and married a butcher."

Bulma groaned, "Mom, I don't really think we need to talk about this."

"Why not? Can't you tell your mother of all people why you slept with another man so close to your wedding day?"

She blushed, "I don't know mom, Hell, maybe I just wanted to? Maybe it just seemed like a good idea at the time and we didn't really care about weddings or lack of weddings or who I was going to spend the rest of my life with. Maybe, just maybe we just wanted sex."

I blushed. "Yes, that happens too, but I still believe you have feelings for Vegeta."

There, the store we'd been making our way to for the past half hour. "Come on, let's start looking for furniture. Have you figured out where you want the nursery, Mom?"

"Oh, yes. But we'll have to wait to know if it's a boy or a girl, because I want to paint it."

"Well, we'll shop around and brainstorm for both boys and girls..."

"That's a wonderful idea, Darling. I was thinking about rainbows and unicorns with that lovely beautiful golden pinkish color you see at dusk if it were a girl, with little roses on the bottom and pearls and a lagoon with mermaids on one wall..."

-CL