CHAPTER 24 – Lover's Tiff

'Another beautiful day to be dead' Bulma thought somewhat bitterly as she dragged her curtains open and stormed downstairs. Something was really bothering her, nagging in the back of her mind, causing her to wake up irritable even after a decent nights sleep (which was a difficult thing to get in a place where it never went dark). She knew she had a problem, but she didn't want to admit that to herself. If she admitted it she'd have to fix it, and this problem didn't have to do with machines or bad guys, which meant she was fresh out of ideas.

She poked her head around the living room door and found Vegeta still asleep on the couch

'Where he has slept every night since we got here.' Bulma thought irritably, telling herself she was only bothered because she couldn't sit in the living room before midday, when his royal highness would roll out of bed and demand breakfast. Really, however, she knew something else was eating her, and it had to do with her problem… she shook her head as if to physically push the unpleasant thought to the back of her mind, and went to get a head start on the cooking

'It's not like I've got anything else to do!' she thought as she grabbed a frying pan with a scowl that could turn milk sour.

Around midday, as she predicted, Vegeta wandered into the kitchen and took his seat, still rapped in his blankets

'And nothing else…' thought Bulma as she surveyed him through the corner of her eye, taking in his half exposed chest. She didn't usually stare at men like this, why would she bother? She'd been surrounded by enough muscle bound he men in her time to figure out that as far as boyfriends went, muscles had nothing on brains. Her problem tugged at her mind, demanding her attention yet again. She almost growled with frustration, before realizing that Vegeta was still very much in the room.

She served him his food 'just like a good little wife' she thought to herself as he inhaled his food with skill, never dropping a morsel or even looking up at his waitress.

Bulma sighed for the first time that day 'the first of many' she thought sadly, and took her seat opposite Vegeta. She pondered the idea of trying to play footsie with him while he ate, but then imagined all-too-clearly what his reaction would be

'What do you think you're doing woman?' the imaginary Vegeta in Bulma's head began 'can't you see I'm busy? I have no time for your earthling games!'

She turned to the clock and wondered how she should pass the six remaining hours before Kami came to give her an update

'And maybe even a change of scenery' she managed a small smile at the prospect.

"What are you so cheery about this morning" a gruff voice called, she turned to see its owner, who had now finished his breakfast and was staring intently at her.

"Nothing" she said quietly and tried to find something else in the room to focus her attention on. She had decided not to say anything to Vegeta about Kami's idea, not that she knew much about it herself, she thought he'd probably become quite destructive if it fell through. Luckily for her, Vegeta didn't pursue the issue and instead rose to leave the house, to go and do whatever he did with himself all day. He paused awkwardly before passing her. Much to Bulma's surprise he leant down and kissed her on the cheek before disappearing, or moving away too quickly for him to be visible by the human eye, Bulma wasn't sure which.

She smiled slightly before realizing that she was alone

'Great' she thought 'just me, an empty house and my problem for the next six hours'

She tried to get into a book, or look through leaflets to find out more about the land of the dead, or even learn to cook, but in the end she crumbled and give in to the urge to brood over her problem. Eventually she decided that she would haven to confront Vegeta when he got back, before she lost her nerve or went insane from thinking about it.

Vegeta sat in his favorite tree staring off into space and pondering his living situation. He liked the tree because he was pretty sure that it was the same one Bulma climbed when she went "a little floopy" as she liked to put it. As for his living situation, he wasn't quite sure what to think. If he was honest with himself the majority of his thoughts centered on his female housemate.

'One minute she's grinning like the village idiot, the next she's all sighs and pathetic glances' he shook his head 'something is bothering her and I somehow doubt that it is merely boredom. Is it possible that she regrets her decision to…' he drew a blank right there, what had she done? Become his girlfriend? He snarled at the alien term and ignored that question for now 'her decision to confess her feelings to me' he finished and then pondered this idea 'surely not, from what I've heard of her previous…' there it was again did he dare to call himself her boyfriend? Yet again he pushed the thought away, dismissing it as unimportant '…Yamcha' he continued 'I think it's safe to assume that if only by comparison she should be more than pleased to have me as her… partner. But what else could be bothering her?' He put it down to concern for her friends mixed with impatience to get back to the land of the living. He could surely relate to the second thought. This last couple of months he had done nothing but train to keep himself at the level he could not seem to surpass without turning super saiya jin, attempt fruitlessly to get himself into what he believed was the correct frame of mind to do so or alternatively spend large amounts of time sitting in this tree.

'Anything rather than be cooped up in that house with that woman' he thought to himself, not that he didn't like Bulma's company, he just didn't want to be half way through pummeling Frieza and suddenly feel the urge to offer him coffee and ask what the gossip was with him and Zarbon. He shuddered at the thought of becoming soft under her influence. He also didn't want her making attempts to lure him into consecrating their union, to put it politely. Not that the idea wasn't appealing, but to his mind such things where purposeful, to produce a child, not merely for 'fun' as these earthlings seemed to view it, and he certainly wasn't thinking about producing an heir until Frieza was well on his way to hell with a good few of his little lackeys in tow. No, such things would have to wait till the appropriate time, just like everything else he had put on hold for the whole of his life in order to focus on destroying his childhood tormentor. Somehow though, he hadn't been able to put Bulma on hold, even though every time he kissed her he inwardly scolded himself for being so irrational, just like he began to scold himself now as he realized that he had wasted a good few hours pondering the meaning behind her recent moods.

Back at the house, Bulma had been sat watching the clock for a solid hour by the time Vegeta returned. As he walked through the door he was surprised by the troubled look on her face,

"What's your problem? Did the little green man cancel your meeting tonight?" he smirked, hoping that an argument would help her let off steam as it had so often done in their year here.

"No Vegeta, as far as I know Kami is still coming tonight, and don't even pretend that you're not as eager as me to find out how their doing" she sighed heavily and looked up at him. His smirk faded, replaced by a confused scowl.

"What's wrong with you?" he said bluntly

She sighed again and let out a humorless chuckle

"Do you really want to know?" she asked in a small voice

Vegeta actually considered this for a second before nodding yes

"Well," she started "you see, I have questions I need to ask… things I need settling before… before we go on, like we are"

Vegeta relaxed a little, questions weren't so bad for someone who had an answer for everything. He took a seat and crossed his arms

"Fire away" he smirked.

She paused, building the courage to look at him before asking

"Vegeta, what am I to you?"

His face dropped slightly

"What do you mean by that? You're an earthling female, what else would you be?"

"Don't be difficult Vegeta"

He panicked a little, she seemed to be losing patience fast, and he failed to see how his response was inappropriate.

"Difficult? You asked me a question and I answered it to the best of my knowledge!" he growled

"Fine, then try this one, am I your girlfriend?" she watched him intently for a response, he seemed displeased to say the least.

"Woman, that term has no meaning or relevance to me. It is an earthling term and as you frequently forget, I'm no earthling!" he replied heatedly, pointing to his tail for emphasis.

She nodded her understanding and tried again

"I just need to know where I stand, Vegeta" she averted her gaze, expecting the worst.

Vegeta was lost for words. He considered playing dumb and replying something along the lines of 'in the kitchen', but thought better of it. If he were being honest, he'd have admitted to himself that he was scared. He knew if he said the wrong thing she would react very badly, and not in an amusing way.

She stared up at him again; confused that this was taking him so long. He almost visibly squirmed under her gaze, knowing he had to say something soon, his frustration lead inevitably to anger.

"Why must you ask?!" he growled, "how dare you ask? Are you a fool? I am soon to be the most powerful being in the universe, I did not need to tolerate you as I have…"

"Tolerate me?!" Bulma spat back as she shot out of her seat, fury evident on her face "do you often kiss people that you 'tolerate' as you so nicely put it? Darn it Vegeta, I thought you cared!" and with that she burst into tears and ran from the house, leaving the door swinging open behind her.

"Well, that went well" he sneered to the empty room.

O.o yes, I'm leaving it there… and it'll stay there for a looong time if you don't review ^_^ I love being evil.