Chapter 2 - Yesterday

"Yesterday

All my troubles seemed so far away…"

Bulma yawned.

The robot that lay on the table in front of her was nearly finished. All it lacked now were a few back up connections to be wired in for some added durability. Not that anything she did would matter in the end, she thought wryly. Vegeta would push these 'bots to their breaking point no matter what measures she took. At least with her new improvements, these ones would last maybe a few days longer. Putting down the tweezers she was using to attach the connections, she stretched her arms above her head. Rubbing shoulders cramped from her stiff position over the benchtop, she glanced at the time and sighed in rueful surprise. It was close to half past three in the morning, much later than she had thought it was. No wonder she was tired. She really had to stop these late night sessions in the lab fixing or modifying Vegeta's damn robots. It was worse than having to fix the dragon radar every time Goku broke it. At least Goku used to get at least a few weeks out of it before it broke. Vegeta broke her robots every couple of days. She really should just refuse to fix them one day. That would serve the arrogant Sayian no Ouji right. Bulma toyed with the idea for a moment, then sighed again. She knew that she would end up fixing them. It was just too important for Vegeta to train for the coming menace for her to not help in any way she could. But that didn't mean he couldn't be a little more polite about it.

Bed sounded terribly inviting. Her late nights had fallen into part of Capsule Corp's routine. Since they had heard news of the androids coming, life at Capsule Corp had fallen into a steady routine. Bulma would stay up late after her work for the company was finished, often working past midnight on personal projects of her own. These days, it was usually to work on Vegeta's robots, modifying and improving as fast as he could break them. Because of this, she often slept until about midmorning, while Vegeta would have been up training since dawn. Because it was closer to lunch time than breakfast when she woke, Bulma usually skipped eating until her mother called her and Vegeta for the noon meal. There, she would have her first argument of the day with Vegeta, which usually woke her up enough for work. After lunch Vegeta would return to training, and Bulma would review the work done that morning by her staff, and work hard at her own jobs. After a late tea, she would return to the lab, free to work on Vegeta's training aides until early in the morning. Then the cycle would begin all over again. Occasionally it varied, as Bulma had a date, or her parents left for a conference in this place or that, but the basic structure remained the same. Capsule Corp had adapted to the sayian prince much easier than she had once thought, in those first few tempestuous days of his arrival.

But then, that had been while she was going out Yamcha. With Bulma and Vegeta bickered constantly, much to the dismay of the rest of Capsule Corp, with Yamcha around, Vegeta's taunts had been more vicious, with a crueller edge to them. Yamcha too, had been at no pains to hide his dislike and mistrust of the man who had ordered his death, and small grievances quickly became violent. Bulma always hurried to intervene in these and no one had yet been hurt, but it was undeniable that without Yamcha hanging around constantly, Vegeta had relaxed fractionally, and life was smoother.

Bulma covered her mouth as she yawned again, and decided it was definitely time for bed. She would finish these tomorrow morning. Getting up, she stretched cramped muscles again, and reached over to tun off the light. Pausing at the door to the lab, she ran her keycard through it, activating the alarm system. She slipped the card into her pocket, and typed in the password quickly. The first employee in would turn it off in the morning, a scant five hours away. The security measures employed on the lab were not extreme as it contained nothing of real importance.

As Bulma walked away, her jacket brushed up against the wall carelessly. She pulled it tighter around her, and headed for her bed on the upper levels of Capsule Corp.

Behind her, the figure that had waited patiently in the shadows of the hall fingered the keycard he had palmed from the inattentive genius. Once he judged the woman to be sufficiently out of hearing range, he slipped silently forward and ran the card through the panel by the door. Typing in a few key numbers, he was rewarded by a flash of green light, and the doors opened with a hiss. With one last glance around the hall, he slipped inside, and closed the doors behind him.

..~..

Bulma paused as she passed Vegeta's bedroom on the way to her own. The door was shut, as usual, but strange sounds were coming from the room. It was almost whimpering, like someone caught in the throes of a bad dream.

I wonder what's wrong? she thought. Her hand hovered over the knob, curiosity as usual overpowering her exhaustion. As she stood there though, a light was snapped on in the room. Before she could turn the handle, the door was flung open. Bulma jumped back, and looked up to meet the angry eyes of Vegeta in front of her.

"What do you think you are doing?" he snapped.

Bulma blinked at him, still half stunned from the suddenness of his appearance. That and the fact that he was wearing only a pair of boxes. She swallowed, scolding her mind away from the images that arose unbidden in her head. That was easier when she tore her fascinated gaze from his torso and glanced at his face, which was scowling with more than his usual anger. He looked furious.

"Well?" he demanded.

Bulma found the shreds of her composure. "I saw your light on," she said tartly. "I assumed you were still asleep, so I was going to turn it off."

Looking at his face, she could tell he hadn't fallen for her flimsy excuse.

"Look, I'm sorry if I disturbed your highness." She was unsettled enough that her words held more bite in them than she intended. Curiosity fought to prevail, and she made her tone more friendly. "What's wrong? I thought I heard noises. Were you having a bad dream?"

Vegeta's bearing remained angry, despite her effort to be civil. "That is none of your business, woman. As I am obviously not asleep, you may leave. Rest assured I will turn out the light myself when I am done with it."

Bulma's mouth dropped open. "I may leave? This is my house, monkey-boy. You can't order me around like a servant." The familiar anger began to rise up again, and she opened her mouth to begin yet another fight with her arrogant guest but before she could say anything more Vegeta turned his back on her, slamming shut the door in her face.

Bulma stared at the closed door, and fought down her irritation. Something was bothering Vegeta for him to act so. In as far as she had learned to judge his reactions since he had taken up residence in her home, her presence before his door had not warranted the anger she had seen him display. Vegeta was troubled about something that had nothing to do with herself. Knowing she would get no information out of him tonight, Bulma turned away from the door and headed up the stairs into her room and crawled into bed. I'll ask him about it in the morning, she resolved finally before exhaustion overtook her, and she fell into a deep sleep.

..~..

Vegeta waited tensely as he listened to the faint sounds of Bulma climbing the stairs and entering her room. Her room lay upstairs of his and almost directly above. His sensitive hearing picked out the sounds of her preparing for bed, but he did not relax his stance until he sensed her ki change slightly, as she drifted off to sleep.

He let out the breath he had been holding in one long slow exhalation of air. He turned back towards his neatly made bed and sat cross-legged on it again. Closing his eyes, he returned to a meditative state.

Something was wrong in the house tonight – a faint sense of things not being how they should be. He had been wakened a short while before as the turbulence of his dreams became violent enough to jerk him back to consciousness. He had sat up, sweating with exertion and felt the presence of the onna outside his door. Anxious for her not to witness his weakness, he chased her off. More than likely though she would pester him again about it in the morning. Since he had moved in to Capsule Corp he had discovered her curiosity was difficult to balk. Even outright hostility did not alter it. At least she would not disturb him any more tonight. He would just avoid her in the morning until she forgot about it.

He shook his head almost imperceptibly and returned his concentration to his meditation exercise. He could feel it.

There was a strange unbalance in the air ways. He concentrated, shaking off the lingering traces of his dream and his annoyance with the onna, and felt an unfamiliar ki moving around downstairs. He was about to press harder and identify it, when a sudden instinct of caution warned him off. Somehow he knew that the being downstairs would sense him if he pressed to hard. A feeling of danger edged into the night and Vegeta withdrew his senses at once. Making his energy as small as possible to avoid detection, he fought the urge to charge down there and destroy the intruder summarily. He was confident he would be able to dispose of the man when the time came, for the moment, he wanted to observe, and see what exactly this strange intruder was up to.

...~...

Inside the small lab, the figure glanced around, as if double checking that the place was empty. Kneeling down, he withdrew something from his shirt and chucked it on the floor.

The characteristic poof of an exploding capsule occurred, and the figure leaned back slightly so as to be out of the way of the puff of carbon that accompanied the encapsulated object. When that cleared, a small squat figure was crouched on the floor next to the first. In the gloom of the chamber, the creature looked like a kind of misshapen dog, but with a pair of glowing red eyes that shone through the darkness. The man reached out and snapped something around its neck – a collar of sorts. Tiny lights flashed on it, and it emitted a strange beeping sound. The creature peered up at his master, seeking instructions. The man put a finger to his lips.

"Wait," he breathed softly.

He closed his eyes, and slowly extended his senses throughout the house. Above him and slightly to the left was a faint ki signature – the woman returning to her bed no doubt. On the other side of the house were two sleeping ki's, pathetically weak. He scowled in frustration and strained to sense something else. Finally he got it – a tiny wisp of ki that brushed ever so lightly past his senses. He concentrated, and felt it again for a split second, before it eluded his mental search and disappeared. Try as he might, he could not find it again.

He sighed and relaxed, allowing himself to return to the small room again. The creature was still staring at him with large, unblinking red eyes, its head tilted slightly to one side as if it was measuring him.

The figure smiled softly and patted it on the head. "It seems our target is more skilled in hiding his presence that I expected. We will have to practice on someone else tonight until I can get hold of him."

He bent down, and taking something out of his pocket, he showed it to the creature, who sniffed it suspiciously. "This is the one you want tonight," he whispered. "Got it? Good. Now!"

...~...

Vegeta felt the man search the house with his mind. Keeping his aura as tight as possible, he observed the man. Once or twice he felt the man's ki brush over his, but it was unable to gain purchase.

Curiosity was burning in him now. Who was this man who crept into Capsule Corp in the middle of the night? And why did he seem so at home on the mental plane? Vegeta hadn't had to share the mental plane with anyone on Earth since he came to this mudball, save for that clown Kakarrot and the Namek.

He felt a change, as the man withdrew his senses. All was quiet for a moment, then Vegeta felt a peculiar rushing sound head past him. His eyes widened and he realised that it was not going after him, as he had assumed, but after the onna. Cautiously he extended his senses up to the top floor. He felt the onna stir out of sleep as the thing woke her up. He tensed, ready to barge up there and prevent anything from happening, but almost immediately a strange lassitude filled the room. Vegeta withdrew his senses quickly to prevent getting caught in the mental trap he recognised. After a few seconds, he warily probed the room where they had been before, and encountered…

…nothing. It was as if both Bulma and the strange thing had disappeared. Frowning to himself, he opened his eyes. He had better go up there personally, and see what the hell was going on.

...~...

Bulma stirred out of a heavy sleep, and looked around, bemused. She was sitting in a hospital room, beside a white sheeted bed. A figure lay in it, his foot bound up in a cast, and a bandage around his head. She stared at him for a moment blankly, trying to think what she was doing here. The man moved, and groaned, muttering her name under his breath. She started and looked more closely at him.

Yamcha, she remembered in a rush. It's Yamcha. Of course. He was hurt in the world Martial Arts Tournament, fighting against that Tien guy. This is his hospital room.

Shaking her head, she went to the adjacent bathroom to splash some water on her face, hoping that would wake her up. As she straightened, she caught sight of herself the mirror above the basin, and felt a moment of shock at her appearance. When did I cut my hair? Her blue hair was cropped short, close to her head. A piece of memory tried to tug at her mind, and for a moment, she could see a vision of herself with long curly hair superimposed over her reflection. She blinked, and it was gone. Strange…

Back in Yamcha's room, she saw a young boy with black hair bending over Yamcha's bed, apparently checking his pulse.

"Gohan, what are you doing here?" she asked in surprise.

The boy looked at her, his face crumpled up in puzzlement. "My name's not Gohan. I'm Goku. Don't you remember me Bulma?"

That's not right, thought Bulma, confused. Goku is…taller than that…isn't he?

"Why did you call me by my grandfather's name, Bulma? Did you hit your head or something?" Goku cocked his head to one side, concern showing on his childlike face.

Gohan is Goku's grandfather. Bulma remembered. Why did I think he was someone else as well for a moment? Bulma shook her head again. What is the matter with me? This is Goku. How could I have not remembered that?

"Sorry Goku, I guess I must have been dreaming or something."

"That's alright Bulma." As Goku smiled his trademark grin, Bulma felt the edges of the unfamiliar memory slip away.

"I came in here to check up on Yamcha," said Goku. "Hows he doing?"

"I think he is a little better," said Bulma with a sigh, turning back towards the bed. "Not in so much pain anyway."

"Well, I'm going to fight Tien for what he did to Yamcha," said Goku, an unfamiliar look of determination coming over his face.

"You better be careful," said Bulma. "He really has it in for you after hearing about how you destroyed that Tao guy."

"I can handle it," he said confidently. "Are you going to come watch me fight?"

"Of course," she said, looking fierce. "I want to see you trash that guy for what he did to poor Yamcha."

"Go get him, Goku."

Bulma and Goku both spun round to hear a feeble voice coming from the previously silent hospital bed.

"Yamcha!"

"Yamcha, you're okay!" Bulma ran over to her boyfriend and hugged him quickly.

"Hey, careful babe," protested Yamcha. "I'm still sore you know."

"I'm sorry," said Bulma, smiling in relief that he was conscious.

Goku smiled at Yamcha. "I gotta go and warm up before my match," he said. "Wish me luck!"

Yamcha smiled weakly at Goku as he dashed out of the room. "Good luck Goku….you'll need it."

Bulma watched him go, then turned back to Yamcha. "So, are you feeling any better?"

...~...

Vegeta stared hard at Bulma. She was standing in the middle of the room, her eyes shut. There was no sign of the other creature.

Something strange was going on. Normally he would just dismiss this foolishness as Bulma perhaps having a weird dream, but there was an unusual feeling pervading the room. Somehow her ki was erased from the room, but she was still alive.

He looked hard at Bulma as she continued to stand there, transfixed in the middle of the room. On a sudden impulse, he gently pushed his thought out, and encountered a strange barrier around her. He pushed harder, trying to find a way in.

He found it.

...~...

Bulma was adjusting Yamcha's pillows, when suddenly he opened his eyes again. Bulma was pushed back as he sat up with a force that surprised her. His eyes darted around the room, finally coming to rest on her. Bulma thought she could see a flash of recognition in his eyes, and he lay back slowly.

"Yamcha are you ok?" she asked, a trace of worry creeping into her face. "You really shouldn't be sitting up yet you know."

Uncharacteristically, Yamcha said nothing in reply, but seemed instead to be examining the room for something.

"Yamcha?" she said, and eyebrow raised. "Yamcha what's wrong with you? You're acting kinda weird." She put her hand on his head. "Maybe you have a temperature."

He flinched, and Bulma looked down at her boyfriend, puzzled. Maybe his head hurt more than he had said. That was just like Yamcha, not to tell her how much pain he was in in order to spare her worry. She felt a sudden rush of love for her boyfriend. He was so sweet. She took her hand from his forehead, watching him relax now she was no longer touching him. Poor Yamcha. He's so brave. He must be in so much pain.

"I have to go," she said aloud. "I'm going to go watch the match. I need to cheer Goku on."

Yamcha scowled, and Bulma interpreted it as a sign of concern for his friend.

"Don't you worry Yamcha," she said firmly. "Goku is going to beat him, I just know it. He'll be fine." She smiled. "You just concentrate on getting better, and everything will be fine."

With that, she leaned over and kissed him.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well that was fun, wasn't it ^_^ Next time on Aishiteru, we find out more about the mysterious man and his strange creature, and Vegeta gets a nasty shock of his own. Check it out in the next chapter of Aishiteru!

Y muchos gracias to Nebula, Bebi-Mara-Jade, Tempest, Piccolo's Love Slave, snowbell101, DBZ Fanfiction Queen and MyStIcSaIyAn45 for reviewing. Love you all ^_^

Oh, I should have said this last time, but I do not own DBZ. Like, duh.