Inevitability

Chapter Fifteen: Foreign Feeling

The same night Bulma had a hard time changing. Her underwear was wet. Her clothes were dirty. She had brought none to change into. What was she going to do now? And besides, they were now too deep into the woods to go back now. And they have collected three whole Dragon Balls. They couldn't go back now!

She sighed as she looked back to the tree branch Vegeta had declared he would be sleeping on for the night. The princess' expression turned into a deep scowl. For no time after he had jumped off of her, which was exactly the time she had just noticed his actual location, she felt her power coming back to her. It was probably because of the air filling her lungs that made her feel better so fast. And having her strength back meant having her attitude back. And he certainly would hate having her attitude flared again because of him and having her screaming her lungs off at him for being naked.

She snorted at his lying form on the branch and grabbed her clothes rushing to the most far away place by the coach of the now beautifully midnight-colored water of the forest Gora's lake. She looked around, still spotting the fade hint of his silhouette on the same tree branch she had last seen him on. Bulma snorted loudly again, in a Vegeta-like way, and began flipping her clothes around, checking the damage done to them. Well, she could probably live with it. She hoped they found all of the other Dragon balls soon. It would really suck for a honorable person and princess, nonetheless, such as her to walk around with improper clothes. That would be a disaster!

The lavender haired head shook, making the beautiful slightly wavy locks stir as if alive even though their soaked state. She was beginning to melodramatize too much, and she hated herself when she did that. That was why she was going to stop right there before she turned into one of those haters that think that the world is a stupid place where they can't fit in. She leant against the nearest tree, looking somewhere far off in space, though her eyes seemed very much fixed into a certain spot in the lake's water.

Since when had she begun feeling so alive? Before she had the feeling that she had her soul caged, her own person dying with each passing day. She was always trying to achieve something she did never need to achieve. Being better than the ghost of her past was her priority for most of her life. That was why she became so good in anything that she came across: reading (to become more knowledgeable), fighting (to become stronger), her taste had become like one of a real princess, she had become a beautiful young woman... But she was still not content with anything she achieved because she had the feeling that it was not her own goal. It was something she wanted subconsciously, not what her sober mind wanted.

And now, when Bulma made the dragon radar, things seemed to have changed, if even slightly. She didn't have all those feelings of distress, she felt better than ever and she felt ready for any fight anyone would put up for her. Even the fight the day with Vegeta had made her feel even superior. She was sure he was holding back because she was a girl and his task was to protect her and making her suffer himself she was sure he would never consider following orders. On a second thought, Vegeta following anyone's orders could make her laugh sincerely.

Shaking her head, Bulma decided on having more of those thoughts tomorrow when her head didn't throb the way it did right on that instant. She pulled the shirt over her head and when she took her hair out from in it, she froze on the stop. Why, you will ask?

"Christ..." She whispered lowly and backed away, her body shaking slightly at the sight of the wild boar that was sizing her up as if mistaking her for its dinner, probably. Not good. It truly did mistake her for dinner. And the princess did the only thing she could think of doing in such situation.

"VEEEEEEEEEEEEEGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

000000000000000000000000000000

The ebony haired Saiya-jin jumped slightly at the piercing shriek of his name echoed in the quiet woods and scared away some birds he could hardly recognize in the night. He hopped off the tree branch and with a heavy sigh and an irritated look put firmly on his face, he approached the spot the shriek came from. The woman was in trouble again, he presumed.

000000000000000000000000000000

By the time the Saiya-jin prince arrived, Bulma had already pulled back against a tree and was now screaming her lungs off from time to time when the boar made a step towards her. Vegeta rolled his eyes and sweat dropped as he watched the scene from beside. The bad news for him was that Bulma instantly spotted him and directed her yelling at him.

"Why are you just standing there!? Come on! Help me!!!!" She plead almost jumping when the boar pointed its fangs at her. Her squeak made her companion to roll his eyes again but approach further nonetheless.

"Hey!! There's a muddy Dragon ball stuck in its... horns, or whatever they are!" She pointed at it and just then Vegeta noticed it as well and a sly grin spread over his features. Maybe something good could come out of this. His stomach was still growling...

The boar noticed his obvious 'hunter' coming closer and it ran as fast as its feet could get it from the spot it was previously on.

With a loud growl on his own half, Vegeta dashed after it, leaving a stunned Bulma sliding down against the tree. That was a close call, she thought...

000000000000000000000000000000

Bulma had been standing on the beach for what seemed like an eternity to her. She wondered what Vegeta might still be doing with that boar. It did scare her, but she did hope he did nothing bad to it. And what else she hoped was that he didn't forget about the Dragon ball it had in his mad chase.

Lost in her trail of thoughts, the young princess almost missed the small orange colored globe that flew at her. In the last moment, registering it in her brain with a surprising speed, she stretched her hand before her face and caught it right before the impact it was going to have with her right cheek.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She yelled at the top of her lungs as she turned to her companion with an angry expression on her face after regaining her compose from the surprise. "You could've hit me with that!" She pointed her index finger at the warrior that was currently approaching her with something over his shoulders. The youth's finger dropped by her side when the Prince came out of the shadows that were covering most of his figure.

"What did you do to it?" Bulma's menacing voice made it to his ears, earning nothing but a snort from the princess' interlocutor.

"You caught it, didn't you?" He snorted again, making his way to the woods. Soon after he returned back with some sticks and two dark stones under the watchful and stern glare of the Earth princess who still expected an answer about the animal's lifeless body that had been thrown on the ground right before the Saiya-jin had made his way for the sticks. However, being famous for his gift in ignoring people, Vegeta kept up with his ministrations, placing the sticks in the middle of some rocks and then trying to create a spark with the stones before he made a strange expression, throwing the rocks away and setting the sticks on fire with a small ki-ball. Must have remembered who he is...

"It will be far more effective if you take some sharp object and try to knock my skull open rather than looking at me like that for the whole evening." He stated as he put two massive sticks on two sides of the fire and tearing the dead animal to shreds and placing them on a third stick, setting it on the other two he placed right before. Bulma twisted her face into a disgusted expression at the actions her bodyguard had taken. She glared at the Dragon ball in her hand as if it was guilty for the poor boar's fate.

"Why did you have to do that?" She snapped again, rather sure in her words. The onyx glare that had been directed at her did not as well do anything else than infuriate her further.

"How else do you think we'll survive if there is nothing to eat?" He asked firmly back, turning the meat on the stick around so it could get baked on both sides. The princess' sapphire eyes shifted to the fire and she sighed, collecting the Dragon Ball in the bag by her. She glared at the 'baking area' that Vegeta had made and relaxed against the sand, still refusing to give in to her stomach's riot.

"If you do not eat as well, you might be the next one that gets eaten. That is, of course, if any of the animals living here like to eat corpses." His statement did nothing as to make her appetite grow rather than decrease even more at the thought of her lifeless body lying on the ground as some bear tried to tear her to little shreds like Vegeta did a moment ago with the boar. Little did she know, the bears had no intentions of eating people.

"I'm not hungry." She announced, but her stomach had to be a traitor as to make a suspicious sound in the same moment, making the princess blush and her Saiya-jin companion frown.

"Very well." He grabbed the roasted meat from the stick and replaced it with a new one but still left some piece of it on his armor that he still hadn't put on after Bulma's little accident. Wait a minute. If his armor was down there than that... The sapphire orbs slowly lifted from the Saiya-jin armor to its yielder who had currently only his spandex bottom on since that was the only part of his suit that was left after their little adventures.

All of a sudden she didn't feel as courageous as she did before. She just then noticed the small scars that his chest was covered with and the way it heaved up and down rhythmically as he breathed.

"Tomorrow we're going out of the woods." She informed earning a grunt from him as she looked back at the lake.

The end of the evening approached faster and faster and sleep was covering the two as a dark veil. But the princess' stomach was still growling even after her bodyguard got back to the branch he had claimed he will sleep for the night. She looked around for any trace of him and when she found none, she jumped on the rest of the roasted boar that had been left for her.

A smirk stretched on the Saiya-jin's features on the tree as he relaxed back, giving in to the exhaustion that had been trying to take over his body for some time...

000000000000000000000000

A/N: Aw, man, and that's only half of it! LoL!

The next day started pretty normally. In the meantime, Vegeta found out that when he was asleep, the woman probably kept the fire up to heat her during the night and to dry her clothes that she had washed after he had fallen asleep. Stupid woman was still shy of him, he thought.

After going out of the woods they have encountered a huge hill that actually looked more like a small mountain rather than anything else. Since Bulma could swear that there was another Dragon Ball, they had no other chance but to look for it there.

"I'm getting tired of climbing." The princess whined as she felt sweat pouring down the sides of her face in form of small droplets that could very much resemble tears with a little bit of imagination. "Where the hell is the stupid ball?! I can't keep that up pretty much longer!" She moaned as she wiped her brows.

"Will you stop complaining, goddamn it!? I'm getting tired of your constant whining! You're the reason we're here, aren't you!?!" He snapped back stopping dead in his tracks as he spotted something that he obviously liked. By the time Bulma could consider him absolute psycho with the way he thought of himself as a hunter.

"What?" She asked quietly as she lined up with him.

"I think there is no need to complain anymore, woman." He smirked as he approached the flat surface in the hill. Frowning slightly and glancing over his shoulder, Bulma covered her hands over her mouth as she saw a snake munching on something. A poisonous snake, she could tell. She had seen those in the books she had read about the animals over these lands. What surprised her more than anything else was that the snake was munching on the fourth Dragon ball.

"Vegeta, don't!" The female tried to warn her 'friend' in a rough whisper. "It's poisonous, it's dangerous!" She tried again, earning but a snort on behalf of her Saiya-jin escort.

"Don't be foolish, woman; no Earth snake can kill me with such shit as poison." He claimed as he took the Dragon ball from the snake's grasp, but before he could catch it, it had already bitten the back of his hand. Bad move for the snake. It earned it a one-way ticket to oblivion. He took the Dragon ball and turned around on his heel, stopping to look back at her strangely.

"Are we going?" She finally urged, preferring to forget about the whole story with the blasting and such, her only wish to find the rest of the three Dragon balls and go home. But her acquaintance did nothing to move from his spot as he stretched his hand out towards the stunned princess. She just stood there as well, daring not to move but a muscle. Her mind was screaming at her to run, not even knowing why, but her feet refused to obey and she was just stoned on her place. And then a blast was charged and all went dark.

0000000000000000000000

She opened a sapphire eye. Then another. She looked to her right and found the remaining pieces of another snake that was probably about to bite on her foot as she moved away. That is, if it wasn't for Vegeta.

"Let's get this over with. I'm getting tired of this circus." Her Saiya-jin escort snapped as he passed by her, pushing the newly collected Dragon ball in her hands.

Bulma just stood there dumb folded. She didn't know what to think. She thought he was going to do something to her, threaten her. He was far stronger than she was, that one could never be doubted. Even though he had been pulling back in their fight just because she was his charge. He was a killer, she knew that the moment she arrived on Frieza's spacecraft those almost nine years ago. And yet, here he was. On her own planet, on her own lands, being there to protect her, giving her food and the security her father would most likely require.

"Hey! Wait for me!" She yelled as she got back at herself and ran down after him.

00000000000000000000000

The same night, they lit another campfire by a glade nearby the hill with the snake. Bulma was occasionally turning her gaze at him with a slightly worried look plastered over her features. Vegeta did his best to ignore all of her actions as he felt uncharacteristically tired and his head was spinning slightly.

"Vegeta," He didn't hear her. "Vegeta." She insisted, but he seemed to still not pay any attention to her. "Vegeta, are you feeling alright?" All of a sudden the male felt that his legs and arms that he had been supporting his body weight on were betraying him and his whole body collapsed on his back with a large thump. Not to mention, the sudden action made Bulma panic and rush towards him.

"Vegeta! Are you okay?" She asked as she pulled him up in her lap only to have herself pushed away as the Saiya-jin fought gravity to regain his previous position.

"What..... the hell is... wrong with me!?!" He hushed out as his breaths became more frequent and he put a palm on his right eye, feeling the heat of his forehead rise slowly and his whole being slowly agonize inside.

"It must be because of the snake bite and the fact that you haven't eaten properly for the last few days." She stated worriedly pulling him back on the grass so he would rest a bit at least.

"Let.. go of me.... woman." He struggled hard against her, trying to push her away furiously, refusing to have any help from her.

"Stop behaving like a child, Vegeta! You need to rest a bit!" She stated pinning him down in his weak state. "In this moment, even I can out-power you!" As if to prove her wrong, her Saiya-jin friend flipped them over so that he was standing atop of her.

"You can out-power me if I let you, woman! Remember that!" He let go of her wrists as he lay back on the grasp, feeling the huge regret of standing up so suddenly. His temples were throbbing and he felt as if his head was about to explode.

"Just stay here, okay? I'll be right back."

"Do you think I can go anywhere right now?!" He yelled back at her as she rushed somewhere around the hill with her canteen in hand.

00000000000000000000000

When she got back from the small streamlet she had spotted while they were climbing the hill she found him relaxed against the grass looking far better than when she left him there.

"Here. The cold water might help you a bit." She ripped the bottom part of her shirt and soaked the cloth with some water, placing it over the youth's forehead.

"I hate your planet, woman." He whispered before falling fast asleep.

The young ruler could not help but giggle at the statement he had made. She kept looking at him for a little while longer before she finally realized something. All this time, no matter how deep in trouble she got, he was still there to help her. He had a hard character, but... He was still... A smile spread over the future queen's features. Without realizing it, she had become close with the Saiya-jin no Ouji. So close that she could consider him a real friend to her.

Yet.. She still couldn't help but notice the foreign feeling in her stomach as he watched him sleep peacefully on the grass with no scowl on his face but an expressionless facade...

00000000000000000000000000000000000

-sigh- Finally. I hope you liked this. -grins- because I sure as hell didn't -.- Anyway.. It can always be better, I know, I know, but... Yeah, anyway. Please review!

Sorry for taking me so long. I have been so much into Gundam Seed around now and it was hard even writing this. All I can think of is how the hell can it end, LoL. Well, I'll be back to watching now and I'm eager to know what you guys think! -grins widely- Love you all!