Chapter 20. Bulma
Bulma made her way over to the front door with Bra on her hip and a huge baby bag slung over her shoulder. They had just returned from the mall where she bought Bra the cutest little dress. When Bulma spotted one of the monkeys down the lawn she moved quickly and slipped inside the house to avoid a run in. It proved to late. She had already been spotted.
"Oi!"
"Darn it." Bulma cursed to herself. She reappeared from around the front door and put on the friendliest smile she could summon. "Can I help you with something?"
It was that scary female. She came striding over and Bulma's fear grew with every step she took closer. Bulma liked this one least. The other two at least showed some form of civility. They even thanked her after their head-chip surgery. Not this one. The female had done nothing of the kind, even if Bulma and her father had actually saved her life. All this one did was snarl and spit like some feral animal. They were all cold-blooded murderers, but this one was far more threatening than her bigger congener. And those awful scars on her ugly face made her horrible to look at too. A brute she was and she scared Bulma out of her wits.
The female monkey froze in front of Bulma and it startled her again how short this one was. Bulma was at least a head taller. Still, she was a menace. The female's fierce yellow eyes dashed from Bulma to Bra and she scrutinized the little girl in silence for a moment. Bulma turned to the side to get Bra out of the Saiyajin's reach when the female extended a gloved hand to Bra's cheek. Over her dead body would that brute touch her little girl. Having Trunks spending time with them was bad enough.
The female's hand returned to her hip and her terrifying, luminous eyes found Bulma's again. There seemed to be something off with this one today. She had clearly received a beating, her face was bruised and swollen. There was something else wrong with her as well. Her cheeks were flushed and small beads of sweat glimmered on her forehead. Bulma trembled unbidden. Dear kami, maybe the brute was powering up… Powering up to attack her and Bra.
"I'm kind of in a hurry. What can I…"
"You have nothing to fear, main woman." the female broke her off curtly in a raw, rough voice.
Bulma frowned. What was up with this main woman stuff. She had heard the males address her in the same way. She took a deep breath and bravely asked: "Why do you call me that?"
The female raised the brow that was cut in half by that horrible scar. "Well, that is what you are, right? The main woman of the Prince?"
Bulma evidently looked so dumbfounded that it got on the female's nerves because she snorted roughly and continued: "Never mind. As I was saying, you have nothing to fear from me. I have no intention to harm you or yours. Provided that you stay the fuck away from mine."
Harm her or hers? Bulma took a shaky step back to distance herself. "W-What are you talking about?" she stammered, noticing how fear made her voice tremble.
"I gave the Prince my word that I would leave you unharmed." the female clarified in a snarl. "Furthermore, I have no desire for your position. He allowed me to keep my station."
Bulma had no idea what the monkey was talking about. She tried to relax her tensed shoulders. The female just said she wouldn't harm her so there was no reason to be scared. Besides that she refused to let herself be intimidated on her own doorstep. The nerve of that ape. Who did she think she was anyway?
Her eyes were drawn to the small abbrasions down the female's neck. Some of those looked suspiciously like teeth impressions and Bulma was reluctant to admit to herself that she had seen similar marks before. She clutched Bra tighter to herself, her heart dropping into her stomach. It had to be one of the male monkeys, it just had to. Vegeta wouldn't…
Bulma swallowed as realisation hit. Why was she even surprised? She already knew this was going on. Vegeta's concern for the female when he brought her into her lab for help with the head-chip, his nocturnal roaming, the bitemarks and scratches on his shoulders Bulma had tried to pass off as injuries from his training when she spotted him coming out of the bathroom shirtless the other day, how he had hurt her that night not so long ago when he came to sleep with her and his total lack of interest in her after that. Vegeta hadn't touched her since. That on its own was indication enough since sex was about the only thing they shared, and had shared often due to his high sexdrive. Bulma had refused to understand why, but the answer was standing right in her face.
She found the malignant, disfigured face of the Saiyajin in front of her. That scumbag was having an affair with this ugly brute. Probably had from the day the Saiyajins arrived. There was no denying it any longer, yet even now that the evidence was shoved under her nose, Bulma was ready to make up more excuses for him.
"Is that how you repay my hospitality? You should be ashamed of yourself." It was out before Bulma could stop herself. She froze up in fright again. She with her big mouth.
"Ashamed?" The female gave a very unpleasant little laugh. "No, I think not. Let me tell you this Earthling: where I come from you are the disgrace and not just because you fail to show proper respect to our Prince. You smell like prey. Had I been him, I would have skewered your skinny arse on a spit rather than on my cock."
With that she spun on her heel and strode off.
Bulma bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from shouting after her. That brute could kill her with a simple snap of the fingers. She took a couple of deep breaths to regain control over her shaking knees and shrieked when the female froze halfway down the walkway.
"Oh right, Kakarot sends his regards." she threw over her shoulder.
"You're sleeping with him too?" Bulma muttered under her breath in spite of herself. Though she could only see the side of the female's face, the leer that curved her lips was clearly visible.
The threatening silence seemed to last for ages.
Bulma nearly sank through her knees with relief when the female finally walked away for real, making for the back compound. She threw the door shut, the baby bag falling from her shaking shoulder when bitter tears started falling from her eyes. That scumbag was going to pay for this. As for the female ape, she and her fellow monkeys would be out of her house before the end of this day.
.
.
.
Vegeta entered the kitchen and ignored the woman and the weakling seated at the table. He opened the fridge to take a hungry look inside. It was time for the conversation he had been putting off so long. Too long, apparently. The woman obviously already found out some other way. He needed something to eat first. And a pop at the weakling, that too. Just for the hell of it.
"Funny, just today I had this thought about the weakling and look here, he is sitting at the kitchen table." he mused without bothering to lift his head from the fridge.
"If you are referring to Yamcha, he came to see me." Bulma snapped. "What, just because you are the prince of apes you think you have more rights than I do?"
Vegeta pulled a plate of left over cake from the fridge. "Did you make this, woman?"
"No." Bulma spat.
"Nice." Vegeta threw the fridge door shut and dug in. Nice indeed. Even if he was very hungry, he wouldn't touch anything the woman made. He had no idea how she did it, but her cooking actually managed to upset a Saiyajin stomach. She might have awesome brain power, she couldn't fry an egg to save her life.
Vegeta took note of the frightened looks Yamcha was giving him. It lifted his spirits.
"Could you give us a minute, Yamcha?" Bulma asked.
"Let the weakling stay." Vegeta said loosely. "This concerns him as much."
He grinned inwardly at the blind panic in the other man's face. Poor pathetic Earthling exposing himself to all this terror for his place between the woman's thighs. He really was desperate for it if he was willing to confront Vegeta to defend it.
"Just wait in the living room. I'll be right out." Bulma urged.
Yamcha didn't need more encouragement. He dashed out of the kitchen as if his life depended on it and in his mind it probably did. Maybe Vegeta should send his unborn son after him to finish him off. He laughed. That was just brilliant.
"I know." Bulma said.
"No, you don't get to do that, woman." Vegeta said, motioning after the weakling with his chin. "I know too. I've known a long time."
Bulma's face flushed a deep red. "Why... I... It's not like that." she stammered.
Veget raised a brow. "It's not?"
"It's just... You... You never do nice things with me. I miss that. Yamcha just takes me out for dinner or a movie sometimes. He's my friend."
It was more than that, at least on some occasions, especially those where Vegeta had taken off to train elsewhere for longer periods of time. He wasn't going to throw it in the woman's face. He didn't have the right. Neither did she for that matter.
"So you're sleeping with your monkey girlfriend out of revenge?" Bulma asked pointedly.
Vegeta felt unexpectedly provoked by the insult. It didn't bother him so much anymore when she trash mouthed him, yet hearing her do it to his little concubine angered him. He remained leaning against the counter and folded his arms. "Don't call her that. It pisses me off. This is not revenge."
Bulma was rubbing her red cheek, tears brimming in her big blue eyes. "I don't understand. If you knew about Yamcha, why didn't you say something before?"
"Because you're right, woman. I never do nice things with you." Vegeta said, regaining his poise. "It aren't nice things to me. I told you a long time ago that I can't be arsed with it. That made you unhappy and you went to find it somewhere else. What was there to say?"
"But don't you care?" Bulma asked, sounding hurt.
"I might have cared once. I'm not very good at sharing." Vegeta shrugged. "But you seemed happier for it. It made my life here easier as well. You stopped pestering me. I thought it a fair deal. Besides, I don't want you to be unhappy. You deserve nice things."
Bulma's eyes were brimming over now and fat tears started rolling down her blotchy cheeks. "I wanted it to be you."
"It was never going to be more than it was." Vegeta simply said. "You know that too. It wasn't meant to be more."
"We have been living together for over twelve years." Bulma pointed out shrilly. "Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
"About as much as it means to you." Vegeta sighed at the insulted look she gave him. "I'm not trying to be an arsehole. You do know this, woman. We can't even stand to be around eachother outside of your bed."
Her denial grew only fiercer. "How can you even say such horrible things! We have two kids together!"
"Tell me when you have ever even felt safe enough around me to let your guard down? You don't even trust me with my own daughter."
"That's not true." Bulma sobbed. "You're just not interested. All you care about is your training."
"I care more than you know, woman." Vegeta was getting angry again. "You get in my way. You keep my daughter from me. You did it with my son as well until he was six."
Bulma was shaking her head just as angry. "You could have asked me if you wanted to spend more time with them. Why didn't you ever talk to me about any of this?"
"Would it have made you more trusting towards me if I had told you to hand them over while you are convinced that they aren't safe with me? You are their mother. I wasn't going to force you to go against your own instincts. I don't know what you think I am capable of, but if it's bad enough that you think I would cause harm to my own children, I didn't think there was any reasoning with you."
Bulma was silent for a long time, her tears drying up as his words sank in. It was the truth and she knew it. She kept his children away from him in their first years out of fear he would harm them or probably something worse. What the hell did he know which things she had conjured up with her warped views of him? She might even think he would eat them if she looked away long enough.
"I am not blaming you. This is on me as much." Vegeta felt the need to say. "When you showed an interest in me, I pursued you. I thought it might grow to be more in time, especially after you gave me a son. It didn't happen. You never became much more to me than a pet. Something to play with when I felt like it. That's why I never said anything about the weakling. I was never going to give you what you need. I didn't want to."
Bulma looked at him horrified, tears coming to her eyes again. "How can you be so cold? It's not like that for me at all. I loved you. I still love you."
At that moment Kakarot popped into the kitchen.
"Yet you never trusted me." Vegeta said with a look at the idiot. He had been able to keep a lid on it so far, but his anger was really taking him over now. "You don't know me at all. Why is he here? What did you think I was going to do, woman?"
Bulma was sobbing again. "I don't know. I want those Saiyajins out. They scare me. Your monkey girlfriend threatened me in my own house."
"I told you not to call her that." Vegeta spat aggressively.
"No, it's not very nice Bulma." Goku agreed kindly. "And I already said that there's no need to be scared of Akane. She looks mean, but she's harmless."
She really wasn't, but Vegeta chose not to share that. Things were already out of hand. He wondered whether it was true. He wouldn't put it past his little concubine to harrass the woman just for kicks.
"Your eye looks worse." Vegeta threw at the idiot. "You're here to kick us out?"
"Of course not, Vegeta." Goku said innocently, poking a finger at his black eye. "Bulma was scared. She called and asked me to come, so I came."
"Well, you can fuck off back home." Vegeta snapped. Then he turned to Bulma. "And you have nothing to fear. We're leaving."
He pushed away from the counter, suddenly wide awake to how out of place he had always been there. He didn't want to stay a second longer. All the slights and the insults and the constant feeling that he was mistrusted, that he was some fucking animal that was always on the verge of turning on her. The little Captain couldn't have spoken truer words that day. He didn't have any honour, he had just let her treat him like shit all those years.
Bulma shot up from her chair so forcefully that it fell back on the floor with a clang. "What about Trunks and Bra? You're just leaving your children behind for that ugly little bitch?"
"Are you seriously going to use that against me after all the trouble you went through to keep them from me?" Vegeta snarled. "I will come back to see them. If you can find it in you to allow me, that is. And fair warning, if you ever say anything like that to her face, you will find out exactly how harmless Akane really is."
Bulma's mouth opened, but Vegeta tuned out. He was done talking to her. Without another word he left her behind in the kitchen screaming her head off, Kakarot standing next to her wincing and covering his ears with his hands.