Untitled Document Dragon Ball Z: Unlikely Romance
A Dragon Bball Z FanFic By Eric Jacobson
Chapter One -- First Steps
Story Home Site Eric's Writer's Lounge

Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to DBZ. But I do wish I had bought stockin FUNimation before DBZ hit the mainstream....

The Prince of Saiyans sat alone at the top of the hill overlooking the Capsule Corp. compound. He stared at the stars above him, his thoughts on the events which brought him here.

It had been almost a year since the ordeal on Namek. He had died at the hands of Freiza, and brought back to life by the same Eternal Dragon he sought to grant him immortality. He thought of his arrival on earth with his bodyguard and partner, Nappa. How he battled Kakkarot and lost. So much had happened to him in that time...

And now he was here, on a planet full of weak humans. How had he, the Proud Prince Of The Saiyans, ended up on such a worthless hunk of rock?

He thought back to the words of his father. He knew he would someday become a Super Saiyan, come hell or high water. But Kakkarot had already beaten him to it.

What was left?

The androids were coming. That was certain. That lavender-haired kid had told them some months ago, the day Kakkarot came back from wherever he was. His thoughts turned to the kid again. He had gone Super Saiyan right before his eyes, yet he knew that he and Kakkarot were the only Saiyans left in the universe. Kakkarot's brat was half Saiyan, but other than that, they were all that remained of his once mighty race.

Lost in his thoughts, Vegeta fell asleep on the hill. That night, he dreamed that he had finally acheived his goal...

Bulma spent the morning in the kitchen, making herself some eggs and bacon. The night before, she was down in her laboratory, fixing the training drones Vegeta had demolished. Again. How many more times would she have to fix things for that brute?

Dr. Breif walked into the kitchen. "Morning, Bulma! Late night again?"

"Yes, Dad. I swear, if Vegeta keeps trashing those drones, I'll never have time to work on anything else."

"He he. Don't sweat it, Bulma. It's for a good cause in the end, if the androids even show up, that is." Dr. Brief rummaged through the fridge and pulled out some ham to make himself a sandwhich. "Speaking of Vegeta, where is he? He went out last night and didn't come back."

"I have no clue, dad. And frankly, I really don't care..." Before she could finish her sentance, Vegeta came in through the door.

"What are you two staring at?" he bellowed after a moment, when he noticed the two humans staring at him. "Humph."

"Hello to you, too, grumpy..." Bulma said half under her breath.

"What?!? What did you just call me?"

"Oh get over yourself, Vegeta. The least you could do is learn how to say hello like a normal person. At least Goku has that kind of decency in him."

"Fine. Hello. Now out of my way, I'm starving." With that, Vegeta made his way to the refridgerator.

"Well," said Dr. Brief after an awkward silence, "I've got to get to the lab and get to work on a few things. Talk to ya later." He looked at Vegeta, still hunched over in front of the fridge, and made his way out the door.

Bulma watched her father walk out the door, and sighed. 'How could he leave me here with this cocky lug?' she thought. She looked over at Vegeta, who had found what he wanted and seated himself at the table. She stood in silence, looking over the warrior who a few years before had been a threat to her very existance. Back then, she feared him like any other rival Goku and the others faced. But now, she saw him differently. It wasn't so much fear as it was annoyance. His cocky, self serving attitude and cold, mocking tone of voice. He was a big, whiney kid to her now.

Vegeta snapped his head up and looked at her with his usual cold stare. "Is something wrong, woman?"

Bulma caught herself. She had been staring at him the whole time, and didn't realize it as she lost herself in her thoughts. "What does it matter to you, you moron? You're sitting there, eating us out of house and home, and with what thanks? None, that's what. You know, Vegeta, if it wasn't for us, you wouldn't have a place to stay and train, chasing after your silly, arrogant dream of becoming like Goku..."

Vegeta stood up abruptly and turned to Bulma in anger. "Listen to me, woman. I am the Prince of Saiyans. I'm stronger than Kakkarot, and I'll prove it to all of you soon. So just leave me be!"

"Whatever, your royal pain-in-the-ass. You're obviously a prince. Only royalty would have an attitude problem like yours. And as far as Goku is concerned, if it wasn't for him, you wouldn't even be here right now to chase your ambitions. So LAY OFF ME, YOU STUPID JERK!!!" Bulma turned and stormed out of the room.

"Humph. Stupid woman." He returned to his meal, but his thoughts began to lean towards her. She didn't fear him any longer. She actually stood up to HIM! Why? He couldn't understand it. All these humans SHOULD fear him! But this one, she didn't anymore. And he let out a little grin. He liked her attitude. There was something about her that was... almost... Saiyan...

Bulma and her father had moved the Gravitational Trainer into the room accross the hall from her lab some months ago. Vegeta kept blowing it up, and it would cause a scene with the locals. This didn't make Bulma very happy, since he kept blowing it up there, too. And today was no different.

The explosion knocked Bulma out of her chair, and scattered her tools all over the floor of the lab. She picked herself up and dusted herself off. 'Jerk' she thought. As she bent over to pick up her tools, Vegeta stormed into the room.

"Get over there and fix that blasted thing, woman. How can I possibly make myself stronger if your machines can't handle what I'm doing?" He was being as cold and matter-of-factual as usual.

"What do I look like, Vegeta? Your personal pit crew? I'll fix it when I'm done with these other drones you so graciously obliterated yesterday."

"How dare you speak to me in that tone of voice, woman? Have you forgotten so soon who I am and what I could do to you if I..."

"IF YOU WHAT? Think about it, Mr. Princey Pants. If you didn't have me around to keep fixing that thing every time you send it to the scrap heap, you'ld never get stronger than Goku, though I doubt you ever could be. So you can just sit and wait for me to finish! Now get out of here before I really get mad!"

Vegeta was stunned. The look on his face was of total shock.

"Are you deaf? I said GET OUT OF HERE!"

Vegeta stood for a few more seconds, staring at the human female before him. Her face was beet red with anger. For a moment, he almost was afraid. Almost. He managed to compose himself and turned to leave.

"Vegeta..."

He stopped in his tracks, halfway out the door.

"Vegeta, I'm sorry. I've been frustrated lately. I know you're training so you can help the others beat those androids that are supposed to be coming. It's just that I've been working really hard to try to keep everything together, and I'm afraid that it just won't be enough. With you overloading the GT every other week, and all the other work I have to do, I've been stressed out. I'm sorry I got cross with you."

Vegeta stood, his back still to her. As he listened to the words she spoke, something inside him began to relax him. But how? Nothing made him relax. He was always high strung, it was part of what made him the warrior he was. But hearing the tone in her voice, hearing how despaired she must be.

"I'm... ss... ss.. sorry, Bulma..." With that, Vegeta left the lab and closed the door behind him.

Bulma herself was in shock. Vegeta, just said he was, sorry? She couldn't understand it. He'd never appologized for anything before. Not to mention he had never called her by her first name before. He had always referred to her as "woman" or "earth girl". But he had actually called her Bulma. She dropped the tools she had just picked up and continued to stare at the door...

Vegeta walked out the front door of Capsule Corp. and immediately took off. He had no particular destination, but he knew he had to get out for a while. As he flew, his thoughts raced over what had just happened. "What's wrong with me?" He didn't have the answer. Something in that woman's voice had made him feel... different, than he had always felt. It was almost as if she had shattered the warrior's soul that flowed within him. And all she had to do was speak. "Why did I say I was sorry? I'm never sorry for anything! I don't have to be!"

He flew northward and landed on a solitary mountaintop in the wilderness. There he sat beneath a large oak tree and pondered the situation. What was it that made him say what he had said to her? He stared up at the sky for a time, thinking all the while. He watched the clouds overhead, moving gently in time with the planet's rotation. 'How silly' he thought. 'There's no way a simple human female can disarm me, the Prince of Saiyans. I'm the strongest fighter in the universe! And yet, she had some sort of effect on me.' He couldn't comprehend it.

The clouds started to take on shapes as he sat. One reminded him of the pod that brought him here in the first place. Another reminded him of his old companion, Nappa. Still another seemed to take the shape of Kakkarot, with that wild hairdo of his. And then, he came to a realization. He had spent all his life destroying things, laying waste to planets, all in the name of Freiza. He had never taken time to really experience them, though. Not like he was this day. The silence around him made him relax a bit. He wondered if his home planet of Vegeta would have ever been like this. As he remembered it, Vegeta had a black sky, nearly an eternal nightfall. But this planet, it's sky was blue, just like her eyes...

Her eyes. He was thinking of Bulma again. 'Ooooo, why does she invade my every thought now? It's like a virus that doesn't go away! Am I getting weak like Kakkarot? But still, there's something about her...' No matter how he tried to play it off, he kept thinking back to her. That woman. And as he did, the feeling he felt when she said those things to him came back to him in a rush. Annoyed at this new feeling, he took off again and began to fly back towards the town.

As he flew over the quiet town Capsule Corp. called home, Vegeta looked down at the humans walking around, talking, going about their insignificant little lives. They didn't seem to notice him. Noone ever did unless he was attracting attention in battle. There were all these little humans, yet only himself and Kakkarot remained of the once mighty Saiyan race. Deep down, this upset him. Here he was, the prince of a race that had only two full blood members left. Yet these humans were plentiful. This was an emotion that he, in all his pride and Saiyan glory, could not escape: Lonliness.

As he flew over the area that the humans called "Downtown", something caught his eye. It was that other human, the one they called Yamcha. And he wasn't alone. Vegeta flew down closer to see what he was up to.

Yamcha and a blonde girl sat at a local coffee shop, laughing and holding hands. "So, anyway, this alien guy shows up, right, and starts demanding to know where the Dragonballs are so he can wish to be immortal. But we weren't having any of that, and we all started whooping up on this dude. When we were done with him, he went running back to space crying. He learned not to mess with me and my crew!"

"Oh, Yamcha, you're so brave!" The girl said.

"Yeah, but it's all part of the job, really." He took her hand in his and looked into her eyes. They sat there, staring at each other. He didn't even notice the Saiyan Prince landing nearby, watching them with interest...

'Well well well' Vegeta thought to himself. 'Isn't that the one who's supposed to be that woman's mate? What's he doing out with another woman?' It's known throughout the universe that Saiyans have very acute hearing, and Vegeta heard every word Yamcha spoke to the girl. He was talking about his fight with Kakkarot and making it sound as if he were the hero and the Saiyan was nothing more than
a coward. This made him very angry...

"So, anyway," Yamcha stood up from the table and motioned for his lady friend to do the same, "Where do you wanna go now, baby?"

By this time, Vegeta stood behind Yamcha, hiding his power level so the human wouldn't sense his presence. "Why don't you start by sitting that woman back down and telling her what REALLLLLLY happened that day, you worthless little insect."

Yamcha felt a chill run up and down his spine as he realized who's voice it was. "V.. v... ve... Vegeta! What are you doing here?" He turned to see his former foe standing against the wall of the coffee shop, his arms crossed in his usual, defiant pose, sporting an evil grin he had become all too familiar with.

"Why don't you begin at the part where you and your 'crew' sent me crying back to outer space. Or should I tell her about how I nearly destroyed you if Kakkarot hadn't been there to save your sorry hide?"

"Awww, come on, Vegeta. Ha ha! I was just kidding. Really..."

Vegeta wouldn't let him finish. "And besides, don't you already have a woman, that one called Bulma? What are you doing here with this one, eh, Yamcha?"

Yamcha froze in fear. Of all the people to catch him moonlighting with other girls, it had to be Vegeta. "Uhhh, you'll have to excuse me, I got, uhhh, some training to catch up on, yeah! Heh heh." He took off running like a bat out of hell down the street. His lady friend remained, staring with wonder at Vegeta.

"What are you looking at? Shows over, little girl. Why don't you go home and do your nails or something." And with that, he took off and headed back to the Capsule Compound to see how things were going with his GT. The girl, still as awestruck as she was when Yamcha had told him that phoney story, simply fainted.

As Vegeta flew away from the scene, his smile turned to a serious scowl. After hearing what Bulma had said to him earlier, he thought how this would add to her hardships. And then he caught himself. Why did he care? What made him so overly involved with how this woman felt? What was happening to him?

The rest of that week was pretty much the same as any other week. Bulma had repaired the GT, and Vegeta went right back to his training. They hadn't spoken to each other at all. But in the back of his mind, Vegeta was thinking about the other day when he caught Yamcha with that other woman. He had felt like telling her on several occasions, but something kept him from doing it. To take his mind off of the whole matter, he devoted himself to his training. But as he worked his body to it's limits, the thought of how that would affect the woman ate away at his concentration.

He kept his silence until that Saturday night. Bulma had been out all day doing her weekly shopping, and Vegeta spent the day as usual, training. It wasn't until after dark that he came out of the GT and made his way into the house. His first stop was the refridgerator. Training always made him extra hungry, and turned Bulma's shopping trips into grocery convoys like no other. Deep down, he felt himself appreciate what she was doing for the first time. But he quickly squashed those feelings and sat down to a large meal, even for his appetite.

After he finished eating, he headed to his room. For some reason, the humans had placed him in the room directly next door to Bulma's. As he walked by, he heard her screaming. She was the only one in the room, so he figured she must be on the device they called the "telephone". Curious as to why she was so angry, he stood by her door and listened as she shouted obscenities to whoever was on the other end. He managed a smile. 'The woman deffinately has some spark in her. She's a real firecracker' he laughed as he thought. But then, suddenly, he heard her scream "YOU ASSHOLE!" and slam the phone down on the hook. What he heard next again made those unknown feelings swell up inside him: she began to cry.

As he lay in his bed, Vegeta could hear Bulma in the next room, crying to no end. Normally, he would have ignored it, playing it off as human weakness, the same kind Kakkarot was prone to at times. But tonight, his thoughts were not of how weak and pathetic humans were. They were on the woman. Something must have really hurt her to make her this upset. He listened quietly for some time, until there was no sound coming from her room. 'Must have cried herself to sleep' he thought. As he drifted off to sleep, a single tear made it's way down his cheek.

The next day, Vegeta trained with a renewed sense of urgency. The thoughts of the previous night were with him, and he struggled to comprehend why. This only made him fight harder. As he laid waste to one drone after another, he wrestled with the feelings he had been experiencing over the last week. 'I am the Prince of Saiyans, the strongest fighter in the universe! What's wrong with me? Why am I allowing myself to get weak-hearted like Kakkarot does? I'm stronger than he is! His feelings are his weakness!'

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?!?" He let out a blast like no other, and blew the GT's drones to bits. He stood there, breathing heavily. The computer in the trainer chattered that it was ending the gravity simulation, which was set at 350 times the earth's normal gravity. All he could do was stare at the monitor. His every thought should be on training, not the petty squabbles of the humans. Yet, that's exactly where they were. And this scared him...

Vegeta walked out of the room which housed the GT, and made his way down the hall. He paused as he heard Bulma working in her lab, and stepped back to the door. From behind it, he could hear her muttering something about Yamcha. Had she found out about the other day? Did she know? He had to find out. Slowly, he opened the lab door...

"Stupid Yamcha. Why does he have to do that sort of thing when he knows things are as bad as they are? I should have known a long time ago I couldn't trust him. Why did I go back out with him? 'Oh Bulma, I'm sorry, it'll never happen again, I promise', yeah, right. How could I be so stupid?" She was hunched over a series of gadgets, working furiously. She didn't notice that Vegeta was behind her. "That jerk. Going out with all these bimbos all the time, never thinking about what he's doing to me. He should be training to fight these androids, not sewing his wild oats." In her frustration, a knife she was working with slipped from her hand, and cut her palm rather badly. "Oooooh, DAMNIT!" she yelled, and clasped her hand. She bagan to cry.

Vegeta stood there. He didn't know what to do or say. Seeing her sitting there, crying over what that stupid human man had done to her, he felt the rush of those feelings coming over him again. But he supressed them again, and spoke.

"What's the matter with you, woman? Why are you crying?" He said in his usual tone.

"What does it matter to you?" She yelled at him without turning around. Vegeta said nothing. "Well, if you must know, Mr. High and Mighty, I've cut my hand, not to mention Yamcha has been nothing short of a moron lately." She was still sobbing slightly, trying to hide her feelings as well.

"Let me see the cut woman. It can't be all that bad." He stepped towards her, but she swung at him with her uninjured hand.

"Back off, Captain Ego. I don't need your help. Besides, it's not like you care anyway..."

"I said let me see the cut, you crazy woman!" He took her hand and examined the wound. And it hit him. He couldn't supress it any longer. Touching her hand made him overflow with that feeling that had been haunting him all week. "It's not very bad at all. Just get some bandages on it and it will be fine."

Bulma, still crying a bit, turned to look at the Saiyan now holding her hand. "Wha... What did you say?"

"Did I stutter? I said get some bandages on it and it will be alright. Are you deaf, woman?"

Bulma could only stare at him. Had he really said that? Had he actually shown some concern over her injury? Vegeta? She couldn't believe it. She just stared at him, speachless.

Vegeta's eyes moved and met hers. There they were. Those eyes. The ones he was reminded of that day on the mountain. He found himself helpless. He couldn't tear himself away from her gaze. For some reason, he was frozen. And, in that instant, his cold, Saiyan heart seemed to melt. He felt warm, a feeling he had never felt before in his life. Was this woman getting to him? Yes, he thought, but couldn't do anything to stop what he felt. He was powerless...

"Vegeta..." Bulma was almost smiling now, though tears were still running down her cheeks. Vegeta reached up with his other hand and wiped them away. 'Is this the same Vegeta?' Bulma thought. 'But why is he acting like this?' As she looked into his black eyes, she noticed that they didn't look as distant as they had before. Her heart began to race like it never had before. A feeling of comfort and trust overcame her. But, around Vegeta?

The Saiyan Prince was equally as speachless. He was totally disarmed now, unable to tear his gaze from hers. It was though they were locked in a moment in time. He felt his heart begin to beat furiously, and he had no clue why. This woman was getting to him, and for some reason, he didn't care. All he could do was stare at those big blue eyes of hers...

"Vegeta, I should go get some bandages on this cut..." Bulma spoke in a near whisper, but still she didn't move. The blood from her cut ran down onto Vegeta's white glove, but neither of them seemed to pay it any mind. Finally, Bulma was able to regain her senses. "Really, I've got to go take care of this." She pulled her hand away from his, still staring into his eyes. There was something different about him now, almost human. She made her way out of the lab, and as she left, a smile crossed her lips as she looked back at Vegeta, who was still staring off into space...

That night, Vegeta sat on top of the main housing building of the Capsule Corp. compound, staring up at the stars. For the first time in a long time, he was at ease. Kakkarot wasn't around, and he felt that he could let his pride go for a bit. His thoughts were on Bulma. She was the only person, Saiyan or otherwise, to ever see him as he was earlier in the lab. And yet, for some reason, he was OK with it. He didn't understand why he felt this way, but he reasoned that it can't be all that bad. What harm could she cause? And in all his years, he had felt so alone. But now he had some sort of bond with her, and that void was slowly being filled. He stared at the night sky, wondering at which ones had planets which he destroyed. All those systems, countless civilizations, obliterated at his hand.

Yet this one, this one remained. And on it, he had found someone who made him feel different, like he never had felt before. Was he becoming soft like Kakkarot? Was this place starting to affect him as it did his rival? No, he thought. He was, after all, the Prince of the Saiyans. But what did that matter? Being that there were only two left, he and Kakkarot, he had no people over which to rule as he rightfully should. There was no point in it. All he ever had was taken away by Freiza, and now he was gone, dead at the hands of that mysterious young Super Saiyan. Even his father, King Cold, fell at the hands of that strange youth. How could that boy be a Saiyan? And so powerful a Saiyan, at that? He felt himself start to drift off to sleep, when he heard a sound behind him.

"Vegeta?" It was Bulma. She had climed up onto the roof after him.

"What do you want, woman?"

"What are you doing up here this late?"

"It's none of your business, now leave me alone."

"Listen to you. Always with that pompus attitude. The big loner, Mr. I'm The Prince of Saiyans. What is your major malfunction?"

Vegeta heard the demeanor in her voice, and for some reason, he let his guard down a bit. "If you must know, I'm thinking about what all has happened. My home planet, Freiza, and that kid that did him in. It all doesn't make any sense."

"It must be hard for you, knowing that you're one of the last of your kind."

"You have no idea how it feels, woman. You wouldn't know, because Kakkarot got lucky and kept me from doing the same to your kind and this pitiful rock."

"Hey, look, you don't have to get testy with me. I didn't come up here to take that kind of abuse from you."

"Then why did you come up here? Why are you so concerned with me?"

"Vegeta, earlier, when I cut my hand, I noticed something. Something different. It was almost like you actually cared about me..."

"Well, don't get too used to it. You caught me at a moment when I wasn't feeling like myself."

"Oh, don't worry, I won't get used to it. No matter what, you'll always be the same Vegeta we all know and hate."

"Glad to see that you feel the same way I do. Now then, if you don't mind, I'd like to be..."

Vegeta was cut off by Bulma, who laid down next to him, stairing up at the sky along with him.

"So, how many of them have you been to? I was only to two of them, that weird planet we thought was Namek and Namek itself. You must have been to hundreds..."

Vegeta couldn't say a word. He was in shock that she totally ignored him telling her to go away. He looked over at her for a moment, then looked back up to the sky above. "I never kept track of how many planets I went to. It didn't matter when I was working for that scum bag Freiza. And most of them, I destroyed. So it's not like I took the time to care, either."

"Oh, come on, Vegeta, drop the attitude and talk to me! You don't know how lonely it gets having everyone thinking you're just a mechanical genious tomboy. Or a meaningless ex like that idiot Yamcha."

Vegeta felt his heart growing warm again. So she did feel like he did. He wasn't alone in his lonliness. Though he had lost nearly all of his kind, here was another being in the universe that felt the way he did. Alone.

"I don't know why he has to keep doing that. Hell, I don't even know why I keep giving him another chance. He can be such an ass. It's guys like him that make me think there isn't a man in the universe that understands what love is."

Love. Was that what was taking over his mind, his body? Was it that emotion the humans called love? He had seen it when Kakkarot and his wife were together. They fought alot, but in the end, they remained true to each other. And their son, that brat Gohan. When they were wished back from Namek, he fiercely defended his father though things seemed impossible. Was that love? Was that what he was feeling now?

Bulma, in a bold move, moved her head and rested it on Vegeta's shoulder. "You must feel alone, Vegeta. You and Goku are the only Saiyans left. That's gotta make you feel so lonely. Well, you're not the only one. Sure, there are a bunch of other humans around, yeah. But in the end, I feel like I'm an outcast. They all think I'm Mrs. Fixit. They don't seem to know how I feel..."

How she feels. These words struck a chord in Vegeta's soul. She understood him. In a way, she understood what made him who he was. The anger, the feelings of vengance he had against Freiza. She felt them too, on her own level. He felt the urge to yell at her and tell her to stop her mindless drivel, how her emotions made her weak. But then he'd be exposing himself in the process.

"Bulma..."

He had said it again. He had said her name. She tilted her head in his shoulder to look at him as he spoke. "Yes, Vegeta?"

"I... I... I understand how you feel..."

It was all he had to say. It wasn't much, but it got the point accross. She raised her head and looked at him as he stared at the vast expanse of starlit heavens above them. He seemed to be like a child to her, a scared, lonesome boy. He had opened up to her. The cold, murdurous Saiyan seemed more human than ever before to her. She smiled. This was a side of Vegeta noone had ever seen before. So, there was a light shining in his dark heart.

A chill breeze blew accross the two, and Bulma began to shiver. She threw her arm around the Saiyan Prince and pulled herself closer to him. Vegeta was in a small state of shock. He felt her shivering up against his body. But, he didn't yell. How could he? This woman was the only one who seemed to understand him, even if it was only some small part of his being. One that noone ever knew about, not even
Nappa. But she had figured it out without effort. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. The breeze kept going, and she continued to shiver. Without a second thought, Vegeta pulled her closer and powered up his ki, generating a small warm glow around them. She stopped shivering and snuggled close to him, and was soon fast asleep. He looked down at her. She was so peaceful. And at that moment, he realized that he too, for the first time in his life, was feeling rather peaceful himself. He smiled and drifted off to sleep himself...

That's it for Chapter One. If you wanna 2nd R, feel free. But remember, there's ALOT more to go! Thanks for the great response, everyone ^.^ Remember to visit the Home Site for all my FanFiction!