A/N Thanks to lil Mari, Catgirl26, isn't-someone-missing-me and Mrs. Trunks' Mom for the reviews of Ch. 7, Much appreciated, Guys!

Life at Capsule Corp.

Chapter 8

"BUUUUUUUULMAAAAA! Veggie's being mean to me!"

Bulma smiled and looked up from her work as her oldest friend whined at her, "Don't let him hear you call him that. Just ignore him, Goku, you know what he's like."

Goku plopped down into a seat across the workbench from her, picked up a HoiPoi capsule, and started fiddling with it, "What's this one do?"

Reaching over, Bulma plucked the capsule from his inquisitive fingers before he could pop it and explode her small workroom, "This one is Vegeta's new training room for when he either out-grows that one," she flicked her thumb over her shoulder, "or blows it up." She raised an eyebrow, "That should be any day now." She resumed her work, head bent over a set if plans.

Idly playing with an empty capsule, the scheming Saiyajin asked, "Which would you rather he do?"

Bulma peeked up, raised her eyebrow again and looked back down before replying, "It's more fun when he blows it up."

"But?"

"But then I have to look after him while he recovers, and until he can train again he follows me around the house, criticizing me and everything I do."

"First sign of love."

Bulma snorted, "Yeah, okay; if you say so."

Goku bounced to his feet, "Glad you agree with me! See you later!" and strolled from the room, leaving Bulma rather confused. Standing up, she stretched and allowed herself a moments reflection. Vegeta had been acting strangely all week and she didn't think for one minute that it had anything to do with him upsetting her; no, it had to be pretty serious to be affecting the grouchy Saiyajin the way it was. He was off his food, she often heard him wandering through the house in the middle of the night, he'd barely spoken two words to her and he kept slamming angrily into the house after his teaining, muttering something about purple super clowns, having failed yet again to attain his transformation.

Yesterday she'd quite literally bumped into him as he stomped into the house after a particularly long winded training session. He'd grabbed her upper arms to keep her from falling and she'd stumbled against him. Pressed tightly to his body, she'd felt the heat he was giving off from his workout, his pulse, strong and rhythmic and just a little bit quicker than normal, and oddly, she had felt him tremble slightly. Looking up at him curiously and half hoping he'd finally speak to her again; she was surprised at what she'd seen.

She sat back down and returned to work as she replayed in her mind what had happened next.

His eyes had been wide, brows slightly raised and his mouth was twitching ever so slightly as if he wanted to say something. She'd stood held close to him for slightly longer than was necessary, waiting to see if he would speak. What she hadn't expected him to do was visibly swallow and slowly lean down as if to kiss her. Surprised, she hadn't moved, and when his lips touched hers lightly, hesitantly, she didn't respond, shock freezing her. He'd pulled away and let her go with a snarl, "Watch where you're going, Woman." Then stormed off down the hall, back the way he'd come.

As the reality of what had happened had sunk in, she'd touched her lips and considered going after him, but cut that impulse short as she'd registered the look of rage on his face at her apparent refusal of his advance.

Throwing down her soldering iron, she cursed quietly as she realized how long she'd been musing and stretched the kinks out of her back. Looking at the clock she cursed again; she'd missed dinner. Getting up and turning off the light, she headed to the kitchen to grab a snack before she took a bath.

Rubbing at her strained eyes, Bulma sagged wearily against the fridge as she peered inside; empty. Clucking her tongue in frustration and rubbing her tummy as it grumbled its need at her, she tried the larder; empty. Scowling, she checked the freezer; empty.

"VEGETAAAAA!"

Furious, she raced up to his bedroom and slammed the door open without knocking. Opening her mouth to begin the yelling as she entered, the words died on her lips at the sight that greeted her.

Her already open mouth hung slack and her eyes bulged as she stared at the room's occupant.

"Bu-Bulma!" Vegeta quickly grabbed a sheet to cover himself, so flustered at her abrupt entrance that he'd forgotten to snap at her. He blushed a furiously un-regal shade of red as he tried to cover as much of himself as possible with the fabric he'd snatched.

"Veh…Veh…I…oh my." Bulma's eyes danced over the bits of him still visible. As she devoured him with her eyes, a part of her sank as she belatedly noticed that he was being extremely coy. Shed known him to stride around the house in nothing but a pair of sneakers and skin tight shorts that left nothing to the imagination, and she couldn't deny that she'd gotten rather hot and flustered a couple of nights, thinking about how he'd look without them. Well now she knew and she liked what she saw; what she didn't like was the effort he was going to in an attempt to hide himself from her. She knew she'd hurt him the previous night, but this behaviour was not like him at all; just how much had she hurt him?

Stepping closer, she reached out and gently grasped one of his wrists, pulling his hand away from his body. He turned his head away in shame as she took the other, not resisting as she made him let go of the sheet he had wrapped tightly around himself.

As the fabric hissed to the floor and Vegeta was left naked to her view, Bulma's fingers tightened involuntarily around his wrists. He muttered almost too low for her to hear, "Sorry…"

She whispered, afraid that if she spoke too loudly he'd bolt, "What for?"

He squeezed his eyes shut, "For being so…ugly…"

Bulma was so surprised that she almost fell over, "Vegeta, no. You're…" She ran a hand gently up one of his arms to touch his face, "You're beautiful."

He looked like a frightened child as he slowly raised his eyes to hers. Bulma wanted to cry; he looked broken. She rarely seen any emotion from him except anger, so seeing him like this, so fragile, was the most surreal thing. Seeing his brows twitch with some sort of internal battle, she did what weirdly felt like the most natural thing in the world; she stepped closer and slipped her arms around his naked neck, pulling him down into a comforting embrace.

After a moments surprised hesitation, he wrapped his arms around her back and waist and buried his face in her hair, pulling her closer.

They stayed that way for what felt like hours, until,

"Uh, Vegeta? What's that?"

He frowned into her hair, "What's what?"

She wiggled her hips against his, "That." Vegeta's heart froze in his chest, no, not now, please not now. He pulled away and turned his back to her, hoping against hope that she hadn't noticed. He bent down to retrieve his sheet, "Nothing.", and wrapped it around his waist.

"Vegeta? What's the matt – oh!" She brought her fingers to her lips in surprise as she realized what had just happened. He bowed his head, muttering so she could barely hear,

"Let me go."

She frowned, puzzled, "What? You want to leave? Aren't you comfortable here?"

Expecting him to turn and yell at her, she was surprised when he sighed and his shoulders sagged, "If you don't know what's happening, how could you possibly understand?2

Now she was really confused, "Vegeta, what are you – " she broke off as he spoke again, seemingly to himself,

"This wasn't supposed to happen. I'm supposed to be the strongest in the universe, I should be able to resist anything."

"Vegeta, you're not making any sense."

"No, I don't imagine I am." He picked up his clothes and walked past her, head bowed, heading for the bathroom.

A/N Next time: Bulma confides in Chichi, and Goku harasses Vegeta some more

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