You know the disclaimer!!!! You know, Vegeta is the most complex character. He's so gruff and mean on the outside, but if you watch carefully, they give glimpses into what he's thinking, and he's really kinda sweet. So I will try my best to keep him in character, but don't hate me if I can't.
Chapter 6: What's With You, Jerk?
It was mid June now, a good three weeks since the odd scene between Vegeta and herself, she had seen him only a few times, and they had not been pleasant encounters. He had locked himself away in his gravity room and ordered his meals to be brought to him by the robots. Her mother and father had asked her what was going on, but all she could do was shrug.
It had been a confusing thing to her. The way he had kissed her had made her loose control of herself, and that had never happened before. But there was so much behind that kiss. She knew it, had felt it. Something deep and promising, just out of her grasp. Did he care for her? It was hard to imagine Vegeta caring for anybody but himself and becoming a damned Super Saiyan so he could kick Goku's butt.
She sighed as she sat absently staring at her computer screen. The blueprint layouts were blinking in various spots, awaiting the changes that were supposed to take place.
Dr. Briefs was standing at the filing cabinet, silently watching his daughter chew on a pen and stare at her work. He knew something had happened between her and the prince, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what. They argued constantly, but he always caught the little looks that they threw at each other when they thought no one was watching. He had conflicting feelings about the situation. He was more than a little scared of the Saiyan prince, but he had grown to admire him. You could never say he wasn't devoted to the cause of the moment.
"Bulma, do you need help with those?"
She blinked back into awareness. "Huh? Oh, no daddy. Thanks." She blushed. Why couldn't she get that jerk out of her mind. And why was he avoiding her? "I was just thinking that after this project is over, I would take a vacation. Would that be alright?"
"Why of course dear. We're caught up around here. You can go now if you want. I'll finish up those blueprints."
"Oh, thank you daddy." She hopped up and kissed him on the cheek as she flew out the door.
He sighed. Maybe a little time away from that stubborn man would help. He looked at the computer and sighed again.
Vegeta was beating himself senseless. He hadn't taken any breaks in his training except to eat and sleep for a few hours every other day. His muscles shook with fatigue and it was all he could do to stay out of the way of the energy ball bouncing around the room. He had worked the gravity up to 420. His highest level yet.
It had been the only way he could keep the events of that night from consuming him. He had almost made the worst mistake of his life. Mating with a human female. He gritted his teeth, trying to banish the thought from his head. A bonded Saiyan was no better than a slave as far as he was concerned. He had more important things to worry about, the coming of the androids. That boys predictions.
At the thought of the boy from the future, his anger grew. That boy couldn't have been more than seventeen and he was already a Super Saiyan! As if Kakarot beating him to it wasn't bad enough, now he had been humiliated even more by the fact that that child had reached the goal that should have been reserved for him alone. He was the Prince, the strongest Saiyan ever born. So why couldn't he do it!
The energy ball hit him square between the shoulder blades, slamming him into the floor with an impact that rocked the chamber. He felt his skin burn, but he couldn't muster enough energy to even raise his head off the floor.
Bulma looked at the training sphere as it rocked, bright red light coming from the small circular window. "Now what has he done?" she walked up the ramp and knocked at the door. "Vegeta!" no answer. Ok he was taking this a bit too far. The least he could do was acknowledge her. "Vegeta!" She punched in the emergency override code and listened as the machine powered down. Still nothing. Her heart began to pound. He always screamed at her when she did that.
The door opened and she looked in. He was lying on the floor, beat to a bloody pulp. "Vegeta?!" she screamed and ran to him. "Are you alright?" oh Kami please let him be alright.
He groaned and rolled over, reluctantly looking up into those worried blue eyes. "Go away woman, I don't need your help." His voice was barely a whisper.
" I don't care if you need my help or not, your done in here for the next few days until you heal. You got that!" she shouted back angrily. 'Why do I care?'
She wondered.
He raised himself up on his elbows and gave her his best intimidating look. "Why can't you leave me be woman!? I don't want your help! I don't want your concern! And damnit, I don't want you!" he growled.
A frown tugged at her mouth, but she was to angry to let the sadness show yet. "You big jerk! I don't give a damn what you want! Go ahead and kill yourself! Why should I care! Just don't destroy my home while I'm gone, got it!" she stood up to leave.
"Where are you going?" it was out before he could help it. Great! You baka.
"Not that it's any of your business, but I'm going on a vacation. I can't take the stress around here anymore. This has been a really bad year and I'm going somewhere and get away from the memory of Yamcha, work, and… and you!" she shouted and stormed out of the room.
"Great! I'll finally have some peace around here!" He sat up, watching her go. She wanted to get away from him? Well, good. It would make things a lot easier knowing he wouldn't run into her around the compound for awhile. Stupid humans. He had been reduced to hiding in here because of what? One weak, loudmouthed female that had brought out the only thing in the universe he was actually scared of. Feeling responsible for someone else. The one thing that made him susceptible to his enemies. A weakness that he couldn't afford nor wanted. It was good she was leaving for awhile. That should be enough for him to forget about the ridiculous feelings he felt around her. Yes.
Mrs. Briefs filled another plate full of steak and potatoes and sat it down in front of the brooding little man at the table. He never spoke much anyway, but for the last two weeks he had been completely silent. Only a brief nod here and there. He had moved back into the house after Bulma had left for her vacation, and seemed to spend more time just sitting around doing, well, nothing. She was beginning to become concerned.
Dr. Briefs sat down at the table, giving the Saiyan a quick glance before digging into his own food. "I got a call from Bulma today." He said to her.
They both noticed the young man as he paused briefly in his eating at the mention of the woman. Dr. Briefs smiled under his mustache.
"Oh, is she having a good time?" her always cheery voice asked.
"Hmmm. Well, I couldn't really tell. She sounded kind of homesick, but I guess things were well enough."
"I hope she's having some fun, poor dear. That breakup with Yamcha just really took it out of her. Maybe she'll meet some nice boy while she's there and have a good time." She smiled inwardly as the prince's face darkened a little.
"Yes, yes that would be nice."
He just looked at her, then got up and left the kitchen without another word and went upstairs to his room.
"Think they miss each other?" Dr. Briefs asked his wife.
"A blind man could see it." She smiled back at him.
Vegeta stared at the ceiling. He just hadn't felt like doing anything the past few weeks. 'I've just burned myself out. Damn that woman, she was right. I just need a break from my training. I wonder what she's doing? Maybe her mother was right. She'll meet some stupid human man and…' his face faltered. He hadn't thought about that. That she might meet someone while she was gone. He suddenly got angry. The thought of her with anybody else made him want to kill. Oh Kami, this couldn't be happening to him. He had fought the most powerful beings in the universe, killed without a thought or care for his victims. And now here he was. Lying in bed, wondering what that fool woman was doing on her vacation.
He shut his eyes, the day she had brushed his lips with her fingertips, and told him his mother must have been beautiful, flitted through his mind.
He didn't remember his mother. She had been killed not long after his birth. He suddenly found himself wondering what she had been like. His father had never mentioned her except to say she had been a great warrior. He pictured his father's face as he had told him that story. There had been pride in his voice. But, his eyes had been, sad? Had he missed her? If he did then she must have meant something more to him than just being the bearer of the heir of Vegetasai. And he had been proud of his son, too. He had proven that by keeping him with him to train instead of shipping him off to a training school like the other elites did. His father had made a point to impress upon his only son, the importance and pride of being a Saiyan. That he had the best chance of becoming a legendary Super Saiyan than anyone else in the last thousand years. Then, Freeza had decided to 'train' the young prince. His father had fought him over it. And lost. He remembered feeling disgusted by his fathers show of emotion towards him.
That's what caring about someone did to you. Made you weak and open to attack from your enemies. Gave them leverage to use against you in battle. He had made his father weak. He had been a responsibility. And that woman couldn't even protect herself. She was weak, even for a human! And this was who he had almost picked for a mate? He didn't have time to look after someone like her. So. That was that. He would resume his training in the morning, and put the woman out of his mind. With a determined look upon his face, he rolled over and went to sleep.
Bulma had returned home the following week. She felt guilty about taking so much time off, but every time she had called home, her father had said everything was fine and to just take her time.
She sat at the kitchen table and sipped her coffee, flipping through a set of schematics her father had given her. It was a new prototype laser. Capsule Corp. had been contracted by the military to upgrade one of the weapons systems on its newest tank. They had been working on it for several months and it was finally time to test it out.
Vegeta walked in and glanced at her. He had done a good job keeping his distance since she had returned. Not that he had needed to. She practically had ice-cycles hanging on her where he was concerned.
She looked up and uncharacteristically smiled. "Good morning Vegeta."
He froze. They hadn't spoken in weeks, and now she was being, nice? He cut his eyes to her and humphed.
"You're in a good mood this morning dear!" her mother chirped from the living room.
"We finally got the prototype ready for a test fire. And I get to do the honors." She felt the usual exhilaration she got when getting to actually test one of her projects.
It was the one thing she actually got excited about no matter what else was going on in her life. And nothing could ruin it. Not even his royal pain in the ass.
Her father walked into the kitchen. "Well, did you look over the new schematics?" he noted the papers.
"Yes. I see the target has been changed to 3 feet thick. Did you reduce the power level?"
He nodded. "It didn't seem practical to test it at full strength. The military can do that and then we can make any adjustments. Besides, the lab isn't equipped to take such a blast if it were to rupture its containment field."
She laughed. "Yeah, Vegeta would never let me live it down if I blew myself up the way he does all the time." She saw him frown.
Her father didn't think it was funny either. "You couldn't come out of a blast the way he does." He reminded her, even though it was nice to hear her laughing again. "Well, are you ready?"
"Thought you'd never ask." They said good-bye and headed out the door to the other side of the compound where the immense experimental labs were.
"Those two and their projects!" Mrs. Briefs complained as she cleared off the breakfast table. "I wish they would find safer hobbies. Kami knows you can't get killed pruning roses."
Vegeta had been in the training capsule no more than an hour, when he heard it. A low whine that gradually grew in pitch until he had to put his hands over his ears. Then the pulse of the laser. He went back to training. This went on for the better part of the day.
He was never going to get his training in today he decided. Every time he got into a good rhythm, the laser would start up again and break his concentration. He turned the gravity back down to normal and was about to open the door, when it started again. He gritted his teeth, annoyed at the infernal noise. But the hair stood up on the back of his neck. Something was different this time. The pitch grew much quicker. Then the explosion rocked his capsule.
He bolted through the door. One whole side of the laboratory was in ruins. People were running about frantically, screaming, trying to put out the fires.
He was there in the blink of an eye, searching for her. Then he saw her father. His lab coat was in shreds, blood ran down the side of his face and he was digging through the debris.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. It just overloaded and then blew the target up. The wall just collapsed." A battered technician offered.
He made his way to the old man who was panicking. "Where is she?" he yelled.
Dr. Briefs was throwing pieces of wall over his shoulder. "I think she was in here somewhere."
Vegeta felt his chest tighten. She was under all that? He closed his eyes and concentrated on her ki. After a few moments he jumped into the pile and started clearing it carefully. He removed a large piece that revealed a small pocket. She was there. Injured but alive.
End of 6. Ooh the suspense! Well, I'm gonna try to wrap this up in about 10 chapters. I may include Trunk's birth or even possibly up to the day the androids show up. What do ya think? R&R! thanks.