Sorry about the delay, I was scrambling to finish something before spring break started! I don't really have much to say about this chapter other than ENJOY!
It was just past dawn when Vegeta, Verles, Nappa and the rest of the crew were preparing for their leave with Kaede there to see them off. As the workers finished loading up the individual pods, Kakarot made an appearance, in what appeared to be training attire. "Good morning, everyone. I'm glad I caught you all before you left!" He said with much relief in his voice. "My apologies for being so late, sire."
"No apologies necessary, Kakarot." Vegeta said. He looked down at the younger man's gray t-shirt and saw smudges of black oil. "What were you doing anyway?" Gesturing his head to his shirt.
Kakarot looked down to see what he was referring to. "Oh. I was helping someone move some heavy machinery around in the research department."
Just then Vegeta finally remembered what he was planning on doing yesterday before he was distracted by Verles. "Kakarot, may I speak with you."
"Of course."
Vegeta lead them away from the everyone else to the other side of the ship dock. "While you were there, you didn't happen to see Baylor did you?" He said speaking quietly.
He cocked his head to the side in confusion."In the research department? Yes, he is a senior scientist." He was truly confused by the question. "Why?"
"What was he doing?"
"Sitting in his office, writing something down. Why?"
"No reason." He said trying to hide his complete and utter dismay of the man in question. The thought of him being here with Bulma, uninterrupted, was eating away at him.
"You sure."
"Yes." He said in a very unsure tone of voice. "Kakarot, did you also happen to see that new inventor as well?" He knew what he had to do to have any sort of peace of mind while he would be away.
"Uh. Yeah I have. Actually I saw her earlier." He said a little hesitantly.
"Good. I need you to keep an eye on her while I'm gone." He said very casually.
The younger saiyan raised an eyebrow at the request. "Keep an eye on her, sir?" He echoed. Vegeta nodded. "For what reason, sir?"
He knew he had to come up with a realistic reason for him to have the man look after her. "I want you to keep her from being distracted by the others while she is working. I need that chamber done when I get back, and she can't finish it with everyone constantly bothering her, so be sure to stay with her regularly throughout the day until she is done."
"Yes sir!"
"Can I trust you to do this?" It was a very rhetorical question. He knew if could in trust anyone with this task, it was him. The man that was raised on earth was not that far from the man who stood before him, so hopefully he would fall under the category of what Bulma called "the friend zone" like they were back on earth. Actually when he thought about it; Kakarot may have been the only man he had met that never made a pass at her. Maybe it was because the duo had known each other since childhood.
"Of course, your majesty! You can count on me." He said straightening up into a salute.
"Good." He said patting the man's shoulder.
"Vegeta, their ready for departure." Kaede said from across the room. She was standing in front of her son with her hands on his shoulders. "Well, I guess you're off again, and so soon! I will miss you son." She said lovingly.
"I will miss you too, mother." He said pulling her into a short hug.
"Look after your father." She said after releasing him.
"Yes, mother." He walked over to his pod and began climbing in. "See you soon." Then shut the door.
Kaede turned her head to see her mate saying his goodbyes to Kakarot before turning to approach her. "How long will you be gone?" She asked.
He looked at her face and saw that she seemed somewhat relieved to see him go, maybe because he would be away from Bulma for a while. "I honestly don't know. It could take a while."
"I see." She said looking over towards the pod her son just entered. "Will you be in contact soon."
He followed her vision to see her staring at their son in his pod. Just because he didn't experience the upbringing of this boy, doesn't mean he didn't have a childhood, and from the way Kaede was looking at him, she knew of it well. Even here on this planet the mother's still grew very fond of their children and worried for them when they were finally picked for battle. He remembers his own mother being the same way and Bulma as well. "Yes. As soon as possible." He answered. In a very uncharacteristic moment, he lightly hugged her, which shocked the woman. "He will be fine. I'll look after him." He reassured then made his way over to his pod. Before he closed it, he looked at the queen, then looked over at Kakarot who was still standing far away from everyone else. He nodded at him in a silent agreement and walked away. Vegeta caught this before sighing and closing the door to the pod.
As the numerous pods shot out into space and their inhabitants, who were focused on the battle that was sure to come began to embrace sleep, the two members of the royal family focus was not on their upcoming fight but only on each other.
(((Bulma)))
Bulma was currently in the middle of leaning over a table while welding two sheets of metal together, and did not see the man approaching her. He reached out and touched her shoulder. She immediately turned around at the sudden contact, with the still burning blowtorch in hand, and nearly scorched the person's chest, but a strong hand grabbed hers and stopped it before she could do any real damage. "Thanks a lot, Bulma!" He said, roughly wiping the embers off of his now ruined t-shirt. "Not only did you get oil on one of my favorite shirts, but now burned a hole in too!"
"What the hell are you doing?!" She said angrily, pulling the protective face mask off, and the first thing she saw was Kakarot standing there with an annoyed look playing on his features and immediately regretted her outburst. "Oh my gosh! I am so sorry, Kakarot!" She walked closer to him to inspect the remains of his shirt. "Are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?" She said, looking at his chest.
He chuckles and shakes his head at her. "It takes a lot more than a little fire to hurt me!"
"Good!" She said with a relieved sigh, then her face turned serious. "What is wrong with you?!" And she punched his arm.
"What?" He asked surprisingly, barely feeling her hit.
"You don't sneak up on a person who has a lit blowtorch in their hands!" She said dramatically gesturing both her hands to the, now turned off, tool on the metallic floor.
"I'm sorry!" He said, putting his hands up defensively, with a pretend frown.
Still somewhat irritated, she rolled her eyes and sighed deeply. She couldn't stay mad at him. "What do want?" Rubbing her temple.
"Ah, yes! Well before I was so viciously assaulted." She rolled her eyes again at his words. "I was actually told by Vegeta, before he left earlier, to keep an eye on you."
She was absolutely taken aback by what he just said. "What! 'Keep an eye on me'! Why?"
He shrugged. "That's the same thing I asked, but he said that it was to keep you from being distracted!"
"Distracted?! Are you serious! I'm already on a short enough leash as is!" She said, crossing her arms across her chest and shifting her weight onto her left leg.
"I know that!"
"Okay, so why the babysitter?" She said, raising an eyebrow.
"I don't know!...But before he that, he asked about Baylor for some reason." He shrugged.
"Baylor?" He nodded at her, and she scoffed. "Really!?" She said quietly, narrowing her eyes and looking up.
"What?" He was confused.
She looked back at him. "He wants you to keep because he thinks there's something going on between Baylor and I." She formed her lips in a straight line.
"Why would he even care?"
"I don't know, but he's been hanging around all the time, and the way he's been acting, I think-never mind." She waved it off.
"What were you gonna say?" He said, suspiciously.
She shook her head. "It's absurd." She wrapped her arms around herself and directed her gaze towards the ground.
He caught her sudden discomfort and approached then put both hands on her elbows. "What is it?"
Still not looking at him, she spoke. "This is gonna sound kinda crazy, but I think he might be jealous."
"What? Bulma, what are you talking about?" He said in disbelief.
"Just hear me out, okay!" She said, looking at him. "Every since that day in the throne room, he has acting so different towards me."
"Different how?"
"Nice! Civil! Like a goddamn human being!" She exclaimed, waving her hands frantically around.
"So what? Is that such a bad thing?" He asked, not really understanding her frustration.
"Yes, Kakarot! it is a bad thing when the guy in question is a psychopath, who you hadn't run into for a year, did a complete 180 and now all of a sudden is being friendly with you and semi-stalking you!" She finally took a breath. "I can't explain it, I really can't!" She said as her voice cracked from slight panic.
He instantly pulled her into a reassuring hug. "Does this really bother you that much?!" He said, rubbing circles in her back.
"I wish it didn't." She said, into his shoulder. "Everyone thinks that I should be perfectly content with this, but I'm not."
"He's gone for now. Try not to think about it for the time being, alright." He said, holding her away from him at arms length so that he could look at her. "I promise. This time, I will be there with you to cross that bridge when you come to it again."
She shook her head again. "No! I can't let you do that for me."
"Look. I wasn't here the last time, but I'm here now! I care far too much about you, Bulma, I have every since I was a boy. It broke my when I heard about what happened to you. I felt useless and responsible, because I was the one who brought you here to this hell-hole. It was my fault that I didn't find you in time before-"
"Kakarot, for the last time; there was nothing you could have done to prevent that! If anything, it was my fault. I opened my mouth and they paid for it." She said putting her hand on his chest. They remained quiet for a very long period of time before she broke their silence. "Hey! That's enough of all this talk of the past." She gave him a smirk and patted his broad chest. "I need to get back to work, and you have some rounds to make."
"But I'm supposed to be watching you!" He said giving her a smile.
"Did he tell anyone else this?"
"No. I don't think so."
She clapped her hands together. "There you have it!" She said, as she went to put the welding mask back on over blue locks.
"I don't get it."
"Of course you don't." She giggled. "You don't actually have to be here. When he calls in just tell him that everything is going smoothly, okay?!"
"Okay! But what about the others distracting you?"
"You really believe that I would jerk away all of my time socializing?!" She asked sarcastically.
"Good point. I guess I'll see you later then. I got paperwork to do." He walked over to her and kissed her cheek. "See you later!"
"Alright!" She returned to her work with new determination and as of today a new deadline.
Later on that night, Bulma was already halfway done with the outer structure for the chamber. "I think that that might be enough for the day." She murmured, pulling the gloves off of her ivory hands and tossing them on the table. Just before she could take a seat, she heard the loud sound of heels coming towards her. She looked up to see none other than the queen herself. "Good evening, your highness. Is there something I can do for you?"
Kaede almost completely ignored the woman to somewhat admire her work. "You did all of this today?" She asked, looking at her from the corner of her eye.
Bulma looked at what the queen was referring to. "Yes, I did!" And walked to stand a bit closer to the woman.
"I guess the king was right about you then." She said very nonchalantly, still looking at her creation.
"Well I'm not exactly close to finishing it yet, but it's getting there."
"But you are definitely capable of doing this."
"Thank you, your highness!" She said kinda shocked by the compliment. The woman usually never had anything nice to say to her. Bulma was no fool; she knew that the refined and regal woman didn't like her, and part of her knew why. "Not to be in a rush or anything, but I was just packing up for the night. Is there something I could assist you with?"
Kaede turned to face her. She was almost a foot taller than her, as she had to look down to see her face. She studied the woman's features; full head of thick back length hair, aqua eyes, pure white teeth, and a porcelain complexion, other than the faint marks that adorned her skin, it was flawless. "How do liking your new position, Stone?" she said, completely ignoring her question.
Bulma started to fidget under the intense stare. "I'm getting adjusted!"
"That's good. So from what I see here; you will be done soon." She didn't even blink as she spoke.
"Hopefully." She stuttered.
Kaede began pacing circles slowly around the woman, looking her up and down. "You know, I still don't how the king knew that you, of all people, were capable of such a thing, do you?" She said suspiciously, stopping behind her.
The queens actions made Bulma extremely uncomfortable. Without turning around she glanced over to the left. "I have no idea." She answered as calmly as possible.
Kaede snorted. "Is that so?" She merely nodded in response. "He seems very interested in your activities as of late!"
She knew that the woman was very close to her, because she could her breath on the back of her neck. "Really. I haven't noticed." She lied. She was well aware of just how interested he has been in her lately. "I think that maybe he got the idea, because of my work in the armory!" She honestly didn't have a clue.
"Maybe." Kaede said. She hated this woman even more, because now she is beginning to see what is so captivating about this weak being. She was certainly beautiful, and on top of that she was brilliant. She was brimming with jealousy toward the human. "I heard that you were introduced to my son."
Bulma's heart skipped a beat at her statement. "Yeah! I met him on my first day." She stammered.
"And what did you think of him?" As she walked back around her to stand face to face again.
She narrowed her eyebrows. "Are you serious?"
She cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Have I been known to jest?"
"No! I meant why."
"I just want to know what impression you got from him!"
"He seems like a decent man." She shrugged.
"Charming?"
"I suppose so." She said blankly. This conversation was quickly heading to an awkward place.
"Did you speak with him?"
"Yes."
"Alone?"
"No. The king was present at the time."
Kaede inwardly scoffed. Of course Vegeta was there! He wasn't about to allow his son to be alone with her. "What did he say?"
"Who?"
"Verles."
She rubbed the back of her neck. "He asked me about this." She said, pointing towards the incomplete machine to her left. "He wanted to know what it does." She answered honestly.
"A gravity simulator, am I correct?"
"Yes." She said, thankful for the sudden change in subject.
Now it was time to ask exactly what she came here to find out. "How long will it take you to complete this?"
"Uh! Hopefully it will only take a couple of weeks. Maybe sooner if I can get everything that I need to make it with."
"What do you need?" She will do whatever she can to push the process along.
"I'm not entirely sure yet. I'll let you know when I get start the programming phase."
"Be sure that you do!" She said, and looked at the machine one last time. "Well! I won't hold you up any longer. Have a nice evening, Stone." She walked away from her and headed to the other side of the room towards the door. Before she crossed the threshold, she stopped and looked over her shoulder. "Nice chatting with you, Stone." And continued on through the door.
"You too, Kaede." Bulma muttered to no one. When she heard the door close, she dropped her head with a sigh. "Now Kaede's doing it too!" She murmured, then picked her head back up and ran her slender fingers through her blue mane. "Perfect!" She didn't even bother to finish putting away the equipment. She turns off the lights and head's straight to bed. "Here we go again! I am definitely screwed."
I'm putting Kaede in the stalker position while Vegeta is away! R/R- wait no! If you got this far I don't know why I saying Read/Review. I'm just gonna say Review from now on. Please Review! And stay tuned to find the key to MyLockedHeart!
