The sound of the door slamming echoed in her head. Bulma sat among the shattered objects. Just like her. Shattered.
"Mom?" Trunks peered out from a corner. His eyes were red and puffy.
"Oh my boy, my sweet boy…" Bulma held out her arms to him. He ran to her.
"I'm so sorry Trunks." Bulma cried.
"It's not your fault Mom. How are you and Dad going to fix this?"
"I don't know…it might be something we can't fix."
"Can't you forget?" Bulma shook her head.
"No, we both hurt each other very much. We can't forget."
"Mom?" Trunks asked timidly, "Can we go over to Goten's?"
"Why?"
"When you were gone, Dad told me he hated humans…I'm scared." Bulma hugged her son tighter.
"You can go to Goten's. I have to stay here."
"No! If he's mad, he might hurt you!"
"He won't hurt me Trunks, he can't. Go. If he comes back we'll probably just have another fight and you don't need to hear that."
"O-ok." Trunks sniffed. "I'll call right when I wake up."
"Good." Bulma gave him one last squeeze before letting him go. As soon as she heard the door shut she broke down again.
"Dammit Vegeta, he's scared of you! What kind of father are you? How many scars have you inflicted on him?" She shouted to the empty house. She lay down in the rubble, too exhausted to make it up to the bedroom, and cried until everything faded away.
Bulma was awake, but she did not dare to open her eyes. Maybe it had all been a nightmare. A horrible nightmare. The reason her face was dry and raw was because she had been crying in her sleep. When she opened her eyes, Vegeta would be there next to her, sleeping soundly. She'd wake him up with a gentle kiss, and tell him about the terrible nightmare and then she'd tell him how much she loved him. Then, in his soft cold voice he'd tell her to stop being weak and go back to sleep because it's the middle of the night. She'd comply, but hold him close and wiggle into his arms, forcing him to snuggle. He'd grumble something about how she was invading his space, but allow her to stay there. Finally comfortable, she would say, "I love you." Vegeta would pretend to be asleep and 'by accident' his forehead would lean on top of her head and he'd hold her just a little bit tighter. It was a weird fantasy, but it was what she wanted, it was what she loved. How he showed his love for her in the most discrete ways. For a while longer, she kept going over her odd fantasy in her head, not daring to open her eyes.
At long last she did. Her heart fell. She was alone in the bed. She almost believed he would be there. Wait, what was she doing up here? She had fallen asleep downstairs. She was in her nightwear too…well; she might have come up and been too groggy to remember it. She got out of bed, took a quick shower and brushed her teeth. Feeling a little better after rinsing off the day, she returned to her room and glanced at the clock. 2:18am…it had only been four hours…she waited for tears to come rushing up, but they didn't. There weren't any left. Now feeling worse than she had before the shower, she crawled back into bed. But as she lifted her feet in, she kicked something. It grunted. Bulma looked to the end of the bed. Vegeta was collapsed on top of the covers. Her heart leapt back into her chest. She scooted over to him.
"Vegeta…" she said quietly, brushing his hair with her fingers to wake him up.
"Vegeta…"she called again, more audibly, "we have to talk." She shook him lightly. He opened his eyes and sat up. For a moment, they simply looked at one another with a studious gaze.
"We really screwed up Vegeta." said Bulma finally. "I know I'm going to have to do the talking for both of us, so here goes. I was fed up with the injuries Trunks gets during training sessions and the fact that you are a totally negligent father and husband. You always have your own agenda. I was thinking of taking Trunks and leaving you. But then Shiriga came along and since you never seem to care about me and Trunks I assumed you'd be going with her. That hurt…beyond what words can describe. I went to Yamcha's needing someone to talk with. He said he still loved me, he was there and I was convinced you were leaving. You saw us kissing in the window and got extremely angry. I know you didn't mean to hurt me when you threw me into the wall or what you said, you weren't thinking properly. I still don't know why you and Shiriga were getting so close when I walked in…but anyway…" She was panting a bit by this point. She said this all very quickly. She looked down from his face.
"There's no excuse for what we did to each other Vegeta. It might be even beyond forgiveness. We betrayed each other's trust and lied...I don't know how we're going to fix this, but…Vegeta, if there's anything this week has taught me it's that I love you. I want to be with you. I believe you love me too. At risk of sounding cliche, I also believe that love is stronger than anything, and since we love each other we can work through anything, even this. I know you, and I know it's a lot to ask, but could you just say 'you're right' or 'me too'? Anything, just two words, please?" But Vegeta simply stared at her.
"I understand if you don't want to be with me anymore. If that's the case then just say 'no way in hell'. Ok, that's four words, but just say something, at least do something, Vegeta—" Vegeta leaned forward, catching her lips.
"I'm sorry." He whispered. Bulma gazed into his black eyes. Had he just said that? He did...he really did. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him like he never let her before.
That night, she was able to put her head on his chest without hearing him grumble.
"What a pair of star crossed lovers we are." Bulma said with a light laugh. "You know Vegeta, it doesn't matter to me what Chichi or Yamcha or anyone else says. They don't need to understand us. We don't need to understand us. We'll just love each other, right?"
"Mm." Vegeta grunted. That small sound made Bulma's heart soar. He did love her, honest and true. He couldn't say it, but he did. The best thing was; he knew he did.
"I'm sick of this Vegeta!" Bulma said angrily as she examined numerous cuts and bruises on her son. "You have got to make your training sessions less harsh!"
"Woman, this is less harsh! Do you think an enemy would be 'less harsh'? If he had defended himself properly this wouldn't have happened!"
"Then turn down the gravity so he can move his arms!"
"I'm gonna go play…" Trunks said. He wanted to get out of there before the shouting started.
"No! I'm not done bandaging you yet." ordered Bulma, making him sit back down.
"If a new enemy comes along and I die, he has to be strong enough to protect your sorry ass!"
"I'm strong enough to protect my own sorry ass!" argued Bulma. Trunks covered his ears, waiting for the shouting.
"Fine! You win! I'll tone it down. No more broken bones." said Vegeta, exasperated. He kissed her cheek. "But it's your hide if I die." Trunks uncovered his ears, thoroughly relieved.
Well, that's it. Hey, if you wanted to go read any of my other stories, that'd be really cool. hint hint I'll read yours too. Just send me an email saying "HEY! Go read insert name here> stories! And like them!" and I'll be all, "eek! yes mastre!" (that is not a typo). Yep.Ooh, Charilie and the Chocolate Factory comes out today! Yay Johnny Depp! I love his expressions, "Heheh ;; you're really weird!" So buy/rent it! Anyway, I really hope this chapter hasn't ruined all the other ones. That'd be swell. Well, bye!