I lay down on the bed and started thinking about my plan. What first step should I take? What ad- vantages and disadvantages do I have on Kakarrot? I know I'm about a decade older than him...and a royal prince at that! How come he has surpassed me?! Let's see...he's taller than I am. HECK! Can't do anythin' 'bout that! When it comes to brains, I hold the trophy. When it comes to personality...we're like night and day! And because of that personality of his, he's got lots of pals...UGH! What am I thinking?! With a look of disgust on my face, I proceeded to take the first step of my plan.
I found that Bulma had returned to the lab to work on the gravity capsule. She was still in a
bad mood. She worked furiously on the machine's leg which I had broken. I sat down beside her.
At first, she was startled, but then, I proceeded to look her in the eye...giving her a different
gaze than I ever had before. With that, the fires of anger burnt out from her eyes and were
replaced by...admiration? More like surprise but I'm not sure.
"What are you doing here?" she tried to make her voice cold but it turned out as soft as a
hum.
"You need any help with that?" I asked, still not breaking away from her gaze. Now this time, it
was a look of disbelief that I saw in her eyes. Her mouth gaped in awe.
"P-pardon?" she stammered.
"You heard me," I tried to keep my voice as melow as ever, as I tried to hold away my feelings of
disgust.
"Are you planning something Vegeta?" Bulma asked sarcastically.
"Me? Of course not! I just thought I could for once, just help out. You folks have done so much
for this royal prince," I pointed at myself, nearly barfing to death as I managed a smile. Bulma
looked at me suspiciously and gave me a return smile.
"Thank you, Vegeta. You can start by handing me that screw driver."
We worked on the machine for hours and hours but it seemed to pass by like seconds. I didn't know
that a good conversation with this human turned out to be quite amusing. She had her share of
adventure since she was young. She taught me a lot of things while we worked...an education
deprived from me under Frieza's reign of terror. Before I knew it, I had told her almost
everything about my life that I had never wanted anyone to know. Her eyes widened each time I
told her something new about me.
"Vegeta, you never told me you had a mother..."
"Of course I did. How did you think I was made? Genetically?"
Bulma laughed. I wondered why she did when that wasn't even a joke. I saw something in her eyes.
There was that sparkle...a new sparkle that brought so much life and joy to her lovely blue
eyes.
"Vegeta, when were you born?"
"I can't remember the exact date. Only the year. 21457 VS."
"What's that in Earth time?"
"I don't know..." I answered with uncertainty. Bulma stood up from where she was working and took
out a small device which she calls the "dater".
"It reads out how old you are from your biological structure," she explained, while wrapping the
instrument around my wrist.
"DB 732 AD!" she read out loud, "a year older than me!"
I could care less of our age gap but it seemed to matter to her. She beamed a broad smile my
way, holding on to my wrist where the instrument was still attached. It was as if she doesn't
ever want to let me go...but why?
"Oh, sorry! I got distracted," she blushed and took off the dater. Now why would she blush like
that? And why did she look at me with such intense emotions in her eyes? Humans are weird. We
continued working on the machine. We didn't speak for a certain time, our mouths dry from the
hours of conversing. Finally, she stood up, took two cans of root beer and handed one to me.
"Looks like a permanent damage..." she opened her can.
"WHAT?!!" I bellowed. How could this be?! Hours of slaving and fixing...all wasted?! Bulma
backed off a bit. I guess my sudden outburst took her by surprise. I have to control my anger!
Kakarrot learned to control his long ago. I'll have to control...but not to the extent of being
too sickly considerate. I turned my back towards Bulma and eased up my breathing.
"S-sorry for that..." I swallowed. GEEZ! I can't believe I'm being so...so rotten polite!
"Don't worry, Vegeta. Your training doesn't stop here," Bulma patted me on the back. The touch
of her soft hand sent electrical jolts running up and down my spine. I've never let anyone touch
me like that before...and I would have blasted her right on the spot! She knows that! It's ama-
zing how she could still put on a smile and stand so close to me...the one who had once scared
her out of her wits. She's extremely brave...the bravest being I've ever encountered...and she's
a female! She looks at me without fear, but with joy and friendliness.
"I'm working on something..." she continued, "I'll be showing it to you pretty soon," she headed
for the door.
"Oh, one more thing," she turned her head towards me, "thanks for being such a pal as to chat
around with me. Don't worry. I won't be tellin' nobody about it,"