Chapter 20 – Discovery

"You're leaving your left side unguarded!" Vegeta yelled as he landed a powerful kick into Bulma's side.

Where she would have once yelped or cried out in pain, she instead gritted her teeth and focused her energy into a counter attack. Bulma gathered both of her hands in front of her and threw ki blast after ki blast at Vegeta.

The two had been training for well over seven hours by now and even though Bulma wanted to stop, Vegeta wouldn't let her. He kept saying how in a real battle, there would be no time limits or breaks and there was no telling how long a battle would last. Both of them were covered head to toe in cuts, bruises and burns but it was nothing a trip to the regeneration tank couldn't fix. They had skipped lunch, much to Bulma's surprise. She honestly didn't think Vegeta was so interested in training her… or able to last without food. The amount he ate still shocked her.

"Stay focused!" Vegeta shouted loudly as a ki blast struck Bulma on her back.

The pain was enough to knock her down to the ground as she twitched in pain. It took everything in Vegeta to not stop training right at that moment and take her straight to one of the tanks. He didn't like seeing her in pain or being the one to cause her pain but it was necessary. If they didn't do this now, then how was she supposed to last or even survive in a real battle? This was only a sparring session! He couldn't bear the thought of losing her or something happening to her during the upcoming battle, so he pushed her. He was pushing her a hell of a lot harder than he ever had before and to be honest, he knew that he should have been doing this right from the start.

Bulma jumped up whilst yelling loudly as she tapped into the last of her energy and started throwing punches at Vegeta as though her life depended on it. Some landed, some were dodged and the rest were blocked. As her nonstop punches flew at Vegeta, they both started to ascend into the air.

"You're getting sloppy, girl!" Vegeta said angrily as he knocked her back down to the ground as though she was nothing more than a fly.

She tried to lift herself up off of the ground, but Bulma found that she could barely even move. Bulma fought with herself as she demanded that her body move but it didn't seem to want to listen to her. She could understand why Vegeta was pushing her so hard, but right now, all she could think about was the pain and how badly she was going to get him back for this. It felt as though each part of her body was burning and all of her muscles ached with her exhaustion. She could feel Vegeta waiting for her to get up and attack him like she had done before, but all she could do was close her eyes.

"I can't believe you're giving up." An angry voice said to her.

Bulma's eyes snapped open and she narrowed them at her other self as she knelt down in front of her defeated form. Before she could understand what was happening, the other Bulma placed her hand on Bulma's head and suddenly Bulma could feel her energy returning and the ache in her muscles was slowly starting to leave. Bulma stared with wide eyes as she watched her other self slowly become littered with the same injuries as she had and watched as the energy visibly drained out of the other Bulma and was given to her.

"Don't you dare let him win." Inner Bulma said in a tired voice.

She was about to say something in return but the other Bulma gave her a weak smile and disappeared. Feeling more energised than ever, Bulma smirked and flipped over so that she was upside down and flipped over again whilst spinning in the air, so that she was right side up and facing Vegeta. She narrowed her eyes at him whilst he stared at her in shock.

Vegeta couldn't understand what was going on. One minute, she looked like she had been beaten to within an inch of her life and was slowly losing consciousness as well as the last of her energy and then the next minute, she was fully healed and had more energy than ever! He had to admit that it was pretty impressive and it would most definitely be useful during the battle.

He was about to ask Bulma how she did it when her knee connected with his gut, making him double over as his eyes widened with his surprise and pain. Bulma was quick to attack again as she brought both of her hands together and slammed them down onto his back, knocking him back down to the ground.

When Vegeta managed to get over his shock, he quickly leaped up but only to find that Bulma wasn't anywhere to be seen. He narrowed his eyes as he concentrated on her ki. Vegeta felt the air behind him stir and was quick to turn around and block a punch aimed for his face, but his hand went through an after image.

The air started to change and the weather became cold as a harsh blizzard made the room feel like it was below freezing temperatures. It was hard to see anything with all of the snow that looked like it was just pouring from the now invisible ceiling. Vegeta narrowed his eyes again. Why would she choose an environment like this? He may not be able to see that well, but that only meant that she would be having an even harder time seeing. Unless…

Unless she was using her psychic abilities to use his Saiyan senses to help her.

All thoughts left his mind as a ki blast hit his stomach and was quickly followed by a punch aimed for his face. However, he blocked the punch when her fist was less than an inch away from his nose and he brought his knee up to her stomach. Bulma caught his knee just as it was about to hit her stomach but her eyes widened as she was punched in the chest, making all of the air in her lungs feel as though it was forced out of her.

Despite feeling as though she couldn't breathe, Bulma went on the offensive and started throwing ki blasts, punches and kicks at Vegeta. When he went to catch her fists, she quickly opened them and released ki blasts at him.

O.o.O

It was another seven hours until they both started to feel the strain of their training session. Bulma was once again, covered in cuts, bruises and burns and they both looked even worse than they had before. The two of them barely had enough energy left in them to drag themselves down the halls and to the regeneration tanks.

As they got half way to the medical bay that held the tanks, Bulma started to stumble until she eventually fell to the ground on all fours and as Vegeta turned to pull her back onto her feet, he too fell and started to cough up blood.

"Maybe…" Bulma said through her ragged breathing and panting. She sounded as though she was a chain smoker. "Maybe… we pushed… ourselves… too far this time."

Vegeta didn't reply as he continued to cough up blood but as soon as his coughing fit was over, he nodded his agreement and tried to take a deep breath. He wouldn't say it out loud, but he did agree with her. What would make having to crawl to the medical bay in their pitiful states even worse was if someone saw them in such a condition.

As if on cue, Kakarot and Raditz turned the corner and started running towards them once they caught sight of the two royalties. Vegeta growled as Kakarot went to lift the Saiyan Prince but Kakarot ignored him. Raditz quickly but gently picked the human Princess up bridal style and the two brothers rushed Vegeta and Bulma to the medical bay.

"What do you think happened to them?" Kakarot asked out loud. "Were they attacked?"

"We… were sparring." Bulma tried to speak loudly but her voice was hoarse. She had to squint to try and keep her eyes focused as she watched Vegeta. He didn't look too good.

"Sparring?!" Kakarot exclaimed. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Shut up Kakarot." Vegeta said as Kakarot's voice made his ears ring.

"Sorry." Kakarot chuckled nervously and picked up his pace.

Kakarot had heard about how serious Vegeta and Bulma were about their training but he would never have imagined he would see them in such a state. Vegeta looked like he had been through a meat grinder whereas you could barely even see Bulma's pale skin due to her already forming bruises and blood. However, as he placed Vegeta down on the medical bed and as Raditz placed Bulma down on the bed next to him for the doctors to help them, Kakarot noticed that Bulma hardly had any burns on her whereas Vegeta's skin was littered with burns. He almost sighed in relief. It meant that Vegeta wouldn't have gone all out on her and mostly only used hand to hand combat. There was no doubt in Kakarot's mind that if Vegeta had gone all out on the Princess, she would be dead.

When Bulma found that she could no longer use her voice, she pushed her mind out to Kakarot.

He gasped as a soft voice spoke in his mind, "Thank you, Kakarot. You may leave us now. I'm sure the doctors can take it from here."

Kakarot nodded and motioned for his brother to follow him out of the medical bay. Vegeta looked at Bulma but she simply shook her head and told him through their bond that she had asked them to leave. For this, Vegeta was grateful. He didn't like them seeing him in such a state, even if they were only third classes.

They were both operated on as the doctors cleaned them up and reset broken bones. Bulma and Vegeta were both surprised. They hadn't even realised that any of their bones were broken. Soon enough, they were both placed in regeneration tanks.

O.o.O

Vegeta was the first one to leave the tanks. Thanks to his Saiyan physiology, he healed a lot faster than Bulma. He still felt guilty about hurting her, but his mind kept telling him that it was necessary. At least now he knew that she could recover fully at least once during battle. Vegeta still couldn't understand how that had happened. Also, he was glad that she could last at least seven hours in battle before having to use her newfound technique. He wasn't sure how much time they had left, but he was going to make sure that she could battle for at least twelve hours before she needed a break or needed to heal herself. Vegeta knew that she didn't have the endurance of a Saiyan or a Saiyan's healing ability, but she was a hell of a lot stronger than most Saiyans so there was no doubt in his mind that if he pushed her hard enough, she would be able to do it. He just knew it.

About two hours later, it was time for Bulma to leave her tank. As soon as he got out of his tank, Vegeta had ordered one of the humans to go and get her some clean clothes and to get him some new armour.

As soon as Bulma stepped out of the tank, Vegeta wrapped a towel around her so that none of the doctors or anyone else would see her naked body. He knew that the doctors had already seen her body since they were the ones who took off what was left of her clothes, but he still felt the need to keep her covered around other males. Bulma smiled her gratitude at Vegeta and stepped on the tips of her toes to kiss him. For a moment, he kissed her back but he stopped not too long after. Again, he didn't want anyone else to see what went on between the two of them. What happens between mates, should stay between mates.

Bulma followed Vegeta over to the medical bay's private shower rooms and sighed in content as the hot water washed over her aching muscles. The regeneration tank may have healed all of her injuries, but she was still sore. Again, she sighed in content as Vegeta helped wash away all of the regeneration tank's liquid. When she was clean, Bulma washed the leftover liquid that was still on Vegeta. He hadn't bothered to dress or shower until Bulma was out of the tank. He simply pulled on his old pair of training shorts from their training session, which were now in the bin.

Vegeta's tail wrapped around Bulma's waist as he pulled her body closer to his. She ran her hands up his chest and around his neck as she closed the remaining distance and placed a gentle yet passionate kiss on his lips. When the kiss started to heat up, they reluctantly pulled apart due to the fact that this was a public shower room, there was people next door and the room was not sound proof.

The two soon left the shower room and got dressed, even though they wanted nothing more than to do the exact opposite. They knew that they couldn't however, as it was dinner in less than fifteen minutes and the King did not like having to wait for them to arrive before he could dig in. Bulma smiled at the memory of the grumpy King telling them off and took Vegeta's arm as they both took off towards the dining hall.

A/N - Okay, so I know that that's not the sort of action you were all hoping for, but I promise that in the next couple of chapters, the real fighting will start.

Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing this story! Some of the reviews actually make me laugh or smile to myself like an idiot so yeah, thanks.

Another quick question (I think I'm starting to ask a question on every chapter?) do you guys like Naruto/Shippuden? I've gotten proper into it these past couple of weeks and I'm obsessed with 'GaaSaku'. I'm planning on a couple of fics for the GaaraxSakura pairing but I won't be starting them until I've finished this. Oh and if you do like Naruto, who's you favourite pairing?

Also, I have a surprise for you all but you'll have to wait until the end of this story to find out what it is!

Thanks for reading and don't forget to REVIEW! :-D