Chapter 46

You're my only living savior
Sometimes I hate ya,
But I'm whipped

Bulma shot awake as her covers were ripped away from her and her pillow disappeared from beneath her head. She sat up, looking for the culprit in the dim morning light, when her balcony door slid open to let more light and cold air in. She shivered as the late January morning cold settled into her previously warm room and groped around on her bed in search of her missing blankets.

"What is going on?" she mumbled sleepily when she couldn't find any blankets to block out the cold. With eyes half shut and barely awake, she looked around again to find the source of her discomfort.

She heard a snort from beside her bed and turned to see the godlike silhouette of the saiyan prince standing in front of the her balcony door. He tossed her pillow at her and barked, "Get out of bed, Woman. I won't mate with someone too lazy to get up."

Lazy? Who did he think he was calling lazy? She got up every morning before dawn (since dawn was so late in winter) and went jogging despite the bitter cold and darkness. It was lonely, running through the city when everyone else remained curled up in the warmth of their beds. She scowled at him before glancing at the clock. 7:10AM. Oh.

"Seven o'clock?" she shrieked, "How did it get that late? I could have sworn I set my alarm for 6:15!" She jumped out of bed and grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a thermal long-sleeved shirt and ran into the bathroom to change. In two minutes she emerged from the bathroom again and sat on the edge of her bed as she put on her socks and running shoes. All the while, Vegeta was watching her with some amusement as she seemed to be going in overdrive because she was an hour late in her daily ritual. That's another thing he liked about her: she was quick to remedy her mistakes.

Bulma pulled her warmest hoodie on over her head and looked expectantly at Vegeta. Since he woke her up, surely he intended to go with her on her jog, but his back was turned to her and his tail was twitching slowly behind him. It didn't seem to convey any interest in what she was doing.

"You coming?" she asked, finally tiring of the silence and his lack of acknowledgement.

His head turned so she could see his angular profile and his tail wrapped itself loosely around his waist. "No. I have more important training to do." She was struck by his callous answer, but if she didn't misunderstand the tone in his voice, he wasn't particularly happy about his decision to abandon her to go on her morning jog alone.

She sighed and nodded. "Fine, I'll see you at breakfast then." As she walked out of her room she grabbed a hair tie from her vanity and pulled her long blue hair into a messy bun on her way downstairs. Taking a deep breath before the cold hit her head-on, she opened the front door and went out to start her jog. Since she had already wasted over an hour in her daily schedule, she wouldn't be able to run nearly as far as usual if she wanted to make it back to the compound in time for breakfast, but that didn't bother her too much. Tired as she was, the idea of jogging wasn't particularly thrilling. Having Vegeta with her would have made it so much easier to want to go out and exert herself. But alas, he had his own training to do. She missed the days when there wasn't even a question about whether or not he would go with her. He always went. It was an integral part of his daily routine and nothing could change it. Now, it was a real question every morning, and unfortunately today was one of the days when he declined her offer to accompany her.

Bulma had been gone for over half an hour and Vegeta was training hard in the gravity room, again ascended to super saiyan as he fought hard against the training bots. Though he wasn't with her, he was still keeping track of her by her ki so he didn't feel quite as lonely without being with her physically. And so, when he felt it spike with fear and it started moving much faster than before, his attention to her perked up. Searching for the source of her fear, he felt out another ki, slightly stronger, that was following her and slowly overtaking her. With a growl, he disappeared from the gravity room.

"Get away from me!" she screamed as she ducked down a narrow gap between two old buildings, hoping her pursuer would give up and leave. But there was no such luck as a burly man squeezed in behind her, hardly losing speed. She screamed again as she kept running, praying to Kami that she would be able to get away from him or someone would come to her rescue. The sooner the better, too.

The man laughed and kept chasing her, again picking up speed once through the narrow path and into a wider alleyway. "Come on, baby, don't play hard to get," he yelled. What fortune to find someone like the Bulma Brief early in the morning! Who wouldn't want a piece of that? For being a bit drunk from his night spent at a nearby bar, the man was surprisingly able to run in a mostly straight line and keep up with the blue-haired heiress.

Bulma knew she needed to get somewhere more populated where the creep's pursuit would end. There was no way he would go after her if there were a bunch of witnesses around. Unfortunately, it was still early and she was in an area of the city that took longer to wake up than the business district. She was burning up what little energy she had to start with as she ran as fast as she could, and her breathing was becoming difficult as her lungs fought to take in more air. The cold was freezing her throat and she wanted nothing more than to collapse and regain her breath before continuing her flight from the monstrous man behind her.

"You wouldn't deny a man down on his luck a good time, would you?" the man laughed as he gained more ground on her. He could see she was tiring, and though he was too, he imagined he had more fight left in him than she did. He grinned and ran faster, eyes constantly scanning the area for anyone who might play witness to his crime.

After what seemed like an eternity of running, Bulma's legs started giving out on her and she could barely lift her feet up off the ground. She ran across a street but tripped over the curb and fell down with a shriek of surprise and dismay; if she fell down, there was no way she would be able to get up on time to keep running away. Her eyes shut as she waited for the pain of the sidewalk scraping the palms of her hands and her knees, but it never came as she instead felt the familiar security of two warm, strong arms wrapping around her waist and steadying her.

Her feet were still off the ground and eyes still clamped shut as her arms, seemingly on their own accord, shot around the neck of her savior and held him tight. Through ragged breaths, she gasped out, "Vegeta, thank Kami. Help me."

The large man skidded to a halt when a small but muscular man appeared out of nowhere and caught his blue-haired prey. While he might not have been afraid before, the glare he received made his courage melt away until he wanted to be dead. He didn't know how someone so small could make him feel such terror, but there was no denying it. Somehow, he knew that man was not one to mess with, and he had a feeling that he was in deep trouble by the way the man was holding the woman.

"How do you always find trouble like this, Woman?" Vegeta teased once he saw that the other man was not only frozen in place, but terrified beyond reason. His teal eyes continued to pierce the man's soul even as he spoke to Bulma, never letting his enemy out of sight.

Bulma gave him a shaky laugh and nuzzled into his chest. "Lucky, I guess." No longer afraid, she turned her head so she could see the man who had been chasing her and gave him a glare almost equal in hatred to Vegeta's. If the man hadn't been shaking in his boots before, he would be now.

Vegeta chuckled and coiled his tail around her waist. "You have a strange concept of luck, Woman. Now, what do I do with this scum?" He set her down and took a couple steps toward the man, tail still firmly grasping her waist.

The man, who looked more like a gorilla without all the hair, took a couple steps backward to maintain the distance between himself and the flame-haired, tailed man standing before him. He raised his hands and waved them defensively as he slurred out his appeal to have mercy, claiming his innocence and promise never to do anything bad ever again. But his words fell on deaf ears as Vegeta continued advancing on him and Bulma stayed silent instead of urging the saiyan to leave him alone.

"You piece of shit," Vegeta snarled as he backed the man up against a wall, "wanted to hurt my woman. No, you were going to rape her, weren't you?" His voice was so low and menacing it commanded full attention, even though his audience didn't want to hear his words. "I will not forgive you for that."

Tail now lashing angrily behind him, Vegeta closed the gap between himself and the would-be rapist and grabbed his throat, pulling him down to eye level. Bulma watched intently, not wanting Vegeta to kill the man, but at least severely punish him for what he planned on doing. If things got too rough, she would speak up. Until then, she would let justice be served.

"No one touches the mate of the Prince of all Saiyans," Vegeta hissed as he drove his knee into the man's gut.

"I'm sorry," the man wheezed as he coughed up some bloody phlegm. "I wouldn't have done anything, really!"

That was, apparently, the wrong thing to say, as Vegeta punched him hard in the jaw. There was a cracking sound as the bone broke, rendering the man incapable of telling more lies. "Don't give me that bullshit. I know damn well what you would have done if I hadn't been here to stop you."

Bulma winced at the sound of a breaking bone and decided maybe she should speak up before Vegeta got carried away. And yet, she was filled with hatred for the man who was trying to assault her and felt little pity for him in his terrible situation. He brought it on himself when he chose to attack her and he was getting what he deserved. Besides, she was filled with more love for Vegeta because of his defending her, after having sought her out, which surely had interrupted his training, a great inconvenience to him. That meant he had been keeping tabs on her even though he wasn't with her. She giggled with a wave of adoration for him even as he threw the man to the ground and kicked him hard in the ribs, sending him flying into the air a few feet. She grinned as he hit the ground hard and silently cheered her lover on.

It wasn't until she watched him choking the man again that she realized she was acting very unlike herself. She was devoid of compassion, waiting with anticipation for the man's suffering, feeling gratified by the pain he was receiving on her behalf. When had she become so vengeful? It was unlike her to so seriously want someone to pay for a wrong they had caused her. Maybe Vegeta had been rubbing off on her more than she thought. Then again, no one had ever tried to rape her before, so she was experiencing an animosity toward someone for an offense she had never been dealt before. Either way, she didn't like what she saw in herself and figured now would be a good time to stop Vegeta from going any further in beating the man.

"Hey, Vegeta," she called out, "I think he's had enough. You'll kill him if you don't stop."

He turned to her and she nearly stumbled backwards when she was struck by the murderous intent roaring like a fire in his teal eyes. She knew he was more prone to anger when he was a super saiyan; something about the power took away some of his inhibitions, but it was unnerving to see him so bloodthirsty.

"Is there a problem with that?" he asked calmly.

Slowly, she nodded and forced one foot in front of the other until she was standing right next to him. "Don't bother, 'Geta. He's scum. Hardly worth the effort of killing, right?" She hoped an appeal to his ego would get him to give up his quest to end the man's life slowly and painfully.

He snorted and dropped the man's limp body on the ground. "You're too soft-hearted," he drawled as he scooped her up in his arms and levitated off the ground, still glaring at the man who was, to his chagrin, still alive.

"You shouldn't complain," she teased, "If I wasn't, I never would've fallen for you."

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "As if you couldn't fall for my charm."

"I'm sorry, were you making a joke?" She laughed at his indignant expression and nuzzled into his neck. "I should probably call the police or something so that creep doesn't get more chances to attack other women."

"Hn." Vegeta wrapped his tail around her waist again as he waited for her to pull her cell phone out of her pocket and call the lazy men supposedly responsible for upholding the law who never seemed to be around when they were actually needed. He flew up to the second floor of the building they were in front of and reclined on a windowsill with Bulma held on his lap.

When she finished her call she put her phone back in her pocket and stroked Vegeta's hair affectionately. "Thanks, by the way. I thought for sure I wasn't going to get away."

He started purring when she scratched behind his ear and leaned his head into her hand. "Foolish woman, I wouldn't let a lowlife like him hurt you."

"I know, but how was I supposed to know you would come? It's not like you could have heard me if I screamed for help."

He rubbed her back and smirked at her. "I can sense your ki. I'll always know when you get yourself into trouble." He just hoped that she wouldn't find more trouble like this; already he had saved her from being robbed, kidnapped, and raped. What next? He hated to imagine.

Surprisingly, it wasn't too long before a police car showed up and parked next to the large man's unconscious form. Vegeta, holding Bulma tightly, hopped off the window ledge and landed quietly behind the policeman who was looking around for the woman who had called about the attempted attack. Bulma cleared her throat as she untangled herself from Vegeta's arms and tail, though she stayed close enough to lean against him.

"Hello, officer," she said when he whirled around to see who had sneaked up behind him.

The policeman's eyes widened slightly when he realized who was addressing him. "Miss Brief! Are you the one who called in…?"

She nodded and shot a dark glance at the unconscious thug. "Yeah. That guy there, he tried to attack me."

"Alright, I'll need you to file a report," he told her, then asked with some awe, "Who took him out?"

Bulma smirked and gestured with her head to Vegeta. "This guy."

The policeman looked Vegeta up and down and shrugged, taking her word for it. He may be a small man, but he looked tough as nails and he knew that personally he wouldn't want to mess with him. Whatever happened, he was glad that someone saved Bulma Brief from being raped by a common criminal like the man lying on the ground. He looked like he needed to go to a hospital more than a jail, so he called in for an ambulance while Bulma filled out the report.

It was a long time before all the legal rituals were out of the way and Bulma was allowed to go back home. The policeman offered her a ride, but she declined in favor of going back to the compound with Vegeta. Once everyone was gone, Vegeta slung her over his shoulder and took off into the air, headed straight to Capsule Corp. It was after breakfast time and his stomach was growling impatiently even though he hadn't had much of a workout that morning.

Back at the compound, Bulma explained her tardiness to her parents, pouring praise on Vegeta the whole time. She didn't want her parents to worry about her going out alone, so she was a little frustrated with their comments to be more careful. After all, she was a grown woman and could usually take care of herself.

"I just can't believe anybody would want to do that to my baby," Mrs. Brief murmured sadly, wiping a tear from her eye with her napkin.

"Don't worry about it, Mom," Bulma tried reassuring her, "The creep's going to get locked up and it won't happen again. Instead of worrying about me you should be thanking Vegeta for saving me. Something really bad might have happened if it weren't for him."

Vegeta cast her a glare for bringing attention back to him as he shoved another forkful of eggs in his mouth. He didn't want the crazy woman fawning over his heroism. He was simply protecting what was his. Had she been any other woman he probably wouldn't have cared.

Mrs. Brief sniffled and nodded her head vigorously. "Of course, you're right, Bulma dear. Oh, Mr. Vegeta I'm so glad you were there to help her. I don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to my baby."

Vegeta grunted and spent the rest of the meal shrugging Mrs. Brief's hands off as she tried to hug him, pat his back, or make any other physical contact that he didn't want. She was definitely fawning over him and it was all his woman's fault. Shouldn't the crazy woman be fawning over her after her 'traumatic' experience? He finished his meal as fast as he could to get away from the Briefs and their admiration for his selfless act of chivalry.

Bulma laughed when he made a slightly less than dignified retreat as soon as he was finished with his breakfast. While she was disappointed that he left hastily instead of sticking around to engage in a little banter, she still thought it was funny that he was still so uncomfortable being recognized for his goodness. He still didn't believe he had any good, so when someone else mentioned it he was immediately put on the defensive. She couldn't understand why he thought being good meant being weak. If anything, in her opinion, it made him stronger. But there was no way to convince him of that. Her laughter died down and she sighed as she thought about whether he would ever admit or willingly show he cared about her as much as she knew he did. Yes, he was possessive, and she had no doubt that he would claim if asked that he was only keeping someone's dirty hands off his property, but she knew it was more than that. He really, truly did care for her in a way she didn't think he understood himself.

Little did Bulma know that her incident would change Vegeta's mind about ever letting her go on a solitary outing on foot again. From that day forward, he never missed going with her on her morning jog. For a while, he was loathe to allow her to leave the compound without escorting her period, but she was finally able to reassure him that she was fine going by herself into the city if she drove and stayed in well-populated areas.

Truth be told, Bulma was scared for a while at the idea of leaving without Vegeta by her side. While her fear had subsided once he showed up that morning, the fear that a similar event could happen again gnawed away at the back of her mind. It took several days for her to get over the scare and function normally outside of the compound. Fortunately, nothing too serious had happened and she was able to bounce back from it quickly. It helped, too, that Vegeta was with her a good deal of time for those days, as he seemed to sense her insecurity and wanted to be around to protect her from her own fears more than any actual threats. It was calming to know that one of the strongest warriors in the universe was her personal bodyguard. Whenever she thought about it she chuckled, thinking how humorous it was that he would 'lower' himself to such a trivial position for her benefit.

Vegeta started training with renewed fervor after having been reminded of what he was really fighting for. Sure, he would protect the planet he was living on, but more importantly, he was fighting to protect his blue-haired woman, his future mate, the person who had given his life new meaning. Seeing her in a situation where she would have been hurt, both physically and mentally, tore him apart inside. He was filled with rage and guilt whenever he thought about what would have happened had he not shown up when he did. She wanted him to go with her that morning and he had refused for his selfish drive to train harder than jogging would have been for him. He was angry with himself for being so foolish and mentally kicked himself for choosing not to accompany her that day. Thus he pushed himself ever harder in his training because his focus was reset on saving the woman from the android threat rather than gaining personal glory and recognition. Yes, he would defeat the tin cans. For her.

And so Vegeta was rarely seen in his base form after that morning. Even when he felt as if his body would implode from trying to remain in his ascended state too long he kept going, forcing himself to strengthen his endurance and power. By the time February rolled around he was even stronger than he had been before he starved himself almost to death. He took enough rest to recuperate and start again, leading to greater gains in his power in a shorter period of time. And somehow, despite his avid training, he found more time to spend with Bulma.

This, of course, thrilled Bulma. When she saw how hard he was working himself, she was afraid that she would essentially never see him. Surprisingly, though, he never trained after dinner, instead staying with her. He occasionally took breaks during the day and went to her lab to visit her while he ate a snack the size of a small feast. Though he didn't talk much during those visits, the fact that he was just there, with her, was endearing. He didn't have to go to her lab. He could have sat by himself in the kitchen and had easy access to more food, or he could have taken his food back to the gravity chamber. But he went to be with her, even if only for a few short minutes before leaving to return to his training.

It was through small actions that she picked up on how much he cared for her. He would never speak the words she sort of wished she could hear from him, but he could show her through what he did. He was a man of actions rather than words, which was fine by her. Actions were undoubtedly more sincere than any words could be anyway. The more time he spent around her, the more she would look back on their strange relationship and realize he had always been like that. Of course there were the times he left her for extended outings, but that was because he was afraid of what was happening between them or because he was having an inner struggle that he needed to sort out on his own. It wasn't so much a rejection of her as a need to be alone that she had to admit she wouldn't have given him if he stuck around. She came to realize that, while he wasn't shy as her mother still claimed, he was very introverted. She used to think he was just reserved for the sake of keeping others from being able to hurt him, but after getting to know him more intimately it became more evident that he really was an introvert and he could only stand so much time spent in the presence of others, even her, before he was burned out. He didn't particularly like people, but it wasn't simply because he was an arrogant jerk with a serious superiority complex.

Frequently while training Vegeta would get a craving for Bulma's presence and wanted nothing more than to quit and go see her. During those times he would spur himself on by thinking of harm coming to her because he hadn't been prepared well enough to defeat the androids and prevent them from hurting her. Then, fueled by a fury of his own making, he would throw himself more ardently into his training until he felt as if his body would break under the stress. Even then he would press on, forcing himself so far beyond his limit he surprised even himself when his body didn't give out on him.

After such training sessions he could feel a substantial growth in his power level. Perhaps there was a connection between emotion and power. That seemed bizarre to him, but there was no doubting that, when it came to transforming into a super saiyan for the first time, there was a great deal of emotion triggering the rush of power that had been locked away somewhere deep inside. Therefore, it was oddly reasonable that the more he used emotion – especially anger – in his training, the more his power would increase. Perhaps that was why it was so many generations since the last super saiyan before himself and Kakarrot. Saiyans started rejecting their emotions instead of allowing them to fuel their power.

There were times that he was astounded with himself for taking interest in such a weak creature who needed his protection. Without him, she would have found herself in a great deal of trouble more than once because she was unable to defend herself from other weak creatures. It made sense that a female could be overpowered by a male as in the case of when she was being chased by that apelike man, but what if she was faced off against another weakling like herself who could gain the advantage merely by having a weapon? Her strength was negligible, pathetic. And yet, he still found himself interested in her. No, infatuated with her. Attached. Dependent. How had he allowed that to happen? How could he, the Prince of all Saiyans, lower himself to mating with an exotically colored female of a species who relied on toys for safety?

Even as he thought those things, he knew it didn't matter to him now as it once may have. Her strength was minimal, but she didn't need to be strong physically if she had him as her mate. She was strong in other ways, instead. She was brilliant, her intelligence was unrivaled, except by his own. She was strong mentally in that she was so resilient. Something bad happened to her and she was able to recover from it shortly whereas another woman may have been broken by it. Even if she couldn't win a fight, she had a fighting spirit, which was probably the first thing that had attracted him to her. When she was still afraid of him, she stood up to him. She refused to back down when someone tried to best her in a disagreement and had no qualms about asserting her authority to underlings. Yes, she was a strong woman without being a warrior. That was good enough for him. In fact, he almost liked being needed to protect her.

It occurred to him that they might not be such a bad match after all. In some ways they weren't as different as he had originally thought. They were strong, competitive, protective, and proud. Despite their arguments, they were able to reconcile somehow. They were both intelligent and curious and wanted to learn about each other. Both of them were a sort of royalty; while he had been the heir to the throne of the great warrior race, she was the heir to the biggest company on her planet that practically ran the economy and thus all the world's governments. In other ways, they were very dissimilar. She was good, he was bad. She was idealistic, he was cynical. But all their differences seemed to complement each other well, creating a balance both needed.

Earlier in his life he would have been deeply ashamed for his attraction to the blue-haired woman. But now, after choosing to be more like saiyans were meant to be and accepting his feelings and need for companionship, he was proud of his choice in a mate. He could not imagine a better match since the saiyans were gone. In many ways, she reminded him of what he thought a female saiyan would be like, minus the lack of physical strength. And so, he gave in to his attraction to her and pursued her and came to peace with his decision to mate with her.

A/N: Seems like this story has been nothing but fluff lately. That may be so, but things are going to get pretty action-packed again in a few chapters. It is my pleasure to inform you that I have a poll on my profile for you to vote on whether or not I should write a sequel to this story. It isn't guaranteed even if I get a million people saying yes, but it will factor in to my decision quite a bit. Even if it does happen, it won't be for quite a while because I have several other stories in the works right now and I'd like to either finish them or get them mostly done before I start on a huge project like that.

To answer a couple reviews... Vegeta, at this point in the story, is about as strong as he was when he was when he fought Imperfect Cell... ascended saiyan? Whatever. I also want to throw it out there that I don't write lemons. Sorry. And the new story I'm writing isn't going to be posted for a pretty long time. I want to have it all written before I start posting it so you won't have to wait forever and a half for updates. :)

Song: "Addictive" by Faithless