Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z.
A/N: Thank you for the reviews! And again I'll reassure you that I won't stop writing this story! Whatever I begin I'll finish!!! You just have to understand that Until we meet again is now more important for me, okay?
Chapter 11: "Arrival"
************************************************************************************
Bulma stood at the rail of the ship, watching in awe the high rock faces on the left and right side of the ravine. Always being at the palace and never traveling that far it was just natural, since she had never seen something like that before. It was just beautiful. The water was almost as clear as glass, letting her see the ground and the play of the rare sun in the ravine and the water, when it splashed against the rocks, caused small rainbows.
She took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh and salty air. The light breeze was playing with her hair, letting it fly over her face. She let out a relaxed sigh, for that moment completely forgetting that she wasn't on a holiday, but a hostage of some ruthless pirates. Being out here, able to breath this fresh air was way better than sitting in this locked cabin all day. Just one thing was missing – a deckchair.
Right now Bulma could fully understand, why her friends always liked to go to sea. This feeling of freedom was really incredible. Looking to the bow of the ship, she suddenly got an idea. She looked around, seeing that the Prince was leaning against a mast with his eyes closed and the rest of his crew didn't pay attention to her, and then walked over to the bow. She climbed over some tows, having some problems with her long dress, but finally succeeded to reach it. She carefully leaned over the small rail, and watched how the water ran past the ship. The ship didn't go that fast, but Bulma was sure that whenever someone would go over board here, he would die for sure. Though knowing that, she stood up and stretched the arms away from her body, feeling the light breeze in her face and her dress flying. (A/N: I know, I stole that scene… But who cares? *g*)
As soon as Vegeta heard that the woman was moving, he cracked one eye open, looking what she was planning. Without moving a bit, he followed her with his eye, watching what she was doing. It really seemed like this female had completely forgotten, why she was on the ship in the first place, according to the way she was behaving. Not just now, but also since she had arrived on this ship. She was the only one on this ship who stood up to him. Him! But even that made her company interesting, and as hard as it was to admit… He kind of liked having her around. But even though he would never admit that to someone, he had often heard his men whispering about him. They thought that he was becoming soft. He? The Prince of all Saiyajins? Soft? Never! Her stay on his ship was just making his life a bit more interesting.
Suddenly he was torn out of his thoughts by a scream. Instinctively his head turned to the bow. She was gone! Within a matter of seconds he was where he had last seen her standing. He looked down and luckily saw her hanging with one hand at the rail. He quickly leaned over the rail and grabbed her hand, right at the moment at which she let go.
Bulma didn't know what has happened. One second she was standing there, enjoying the cool breeze and the next second she somehow slipped and was now hanging with one hand at the rail, struggling to not to fall. She squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to look down to those now dangerous roaring waves. She felt her grip loosing and had almost accepted that her life would end at that very moment, as she felt a strong hand grabbing her hand. Startled she looked up and saw her rescuer. "Vegeta…" she said weakly. "Please, don't let go."
He just 'hmphed' and easily pulled her back over the railing into safety, tearing her dress while doing this and revealing quite much of her leg. As soon as she had again solid ground under her feet, she let herself fall against him, crying against his hard chest, now that the shock sank in.
Vegeta didn't know what to do. It was the first time in his life that someone, who wasn't a whore, was that close to him, so he just stood there motionless. He could feel her heart beating quickly against her chest, and how the sobs erupted in her body. Awkwardly he noticed that all eyes of his men were resting on him and that woman. He growled at them, causing them quickly to return to their work and acting as if nothing had happened. Growing rather irritated with this closeness, he then grabbed the woman by her shoulders, a bit too gently for his liking, and pulled her away from him, staring into her eyes and noticing for the first time since she has arrived on the ship how blue they were. Shaking his head to get rid of this sudden unwelcome thought he turned his attention back to her. "Don't do something like that ever again!" he told her. It should sound like a threat, but somehow it didn't.
Bulma looked at him, staring into those black bottomless orbs. She could've gotten lost in them, if his voice didn't bring her back into reality. She nodded slightly, sniffing the last tears away and looked to the ground.
"Fine, now sit down on that pillar and don't move! Otherwise you have to go back into your cabin," he demanded and went back to the mast, leaning again against it.
Bulma followed him and sat down on the pillar across of him, wondering, if she had heard right. Had that really been some kind of gentleness she could make out in his voice? For a small moment it seemed like he cared for her. Just the look in his eyes, as he had grabbed her hand. She could bet that this had been worry. Thinking of this, a small smile appeared on her face.
Later that day, it was already evening, Vegeta brought Bulma down into his cabin, where they would've dinner together. All the time none of them had said something. First halfway through dinner, Bulma felt the need to say something. "Vegeta?" The Saiyajin gave her a short growl and looked up. "I just wanted to say… thank you. For saving me today. I know, you could've just let me fall, but you didn't. I'm really grateful for that."
"Whatever…" Vegeta mumbled and turned his attention back to his food, not quite knowing what to say. This woman was right. He could've just let her fall into the water. He could've just let her die. His crew was right: He was becoming soft! Without really noticing he started to care for this weak human, not that he would admit that to himself of course. He just told himself that he just let her live because of Kakarotto.
They continued eating, until the silence was once again broken. This time by the abrupt halt of the ship. "What was that?" Bulma asked confused.
Vegeta looked out of his window and nodded in approval. The sun had started to set. "We'll stay here over night. It's too dangerous to sail in this ravine when it's dark. The water is too low at some places and there are also reefs, as you may have noticed during your stay on deck. At dawn we'll set out again." Bulma stared at him, realizing what that could mean. Vegeta noticed that she was thinking and decided to say something. "Don't get any false hopes up, woman. Even if Kakarotto were following us, what I'm not even sure of, he would just be able to catch up a bit. But even then we'll have a head start of a few hours. Enough time to drop anchor at a safe place, get the sphere, go back to the ship and maybe even enough time to get you something new to wear, before we leave this island again," he told her, looking at her still torn dress.
Bulma's face fell, as she listened to what the pirate told her. "Why do you think that they don't follow us?"
Vegeta got up smirking and went to his desk, taking something out of a drawer and put it down in front of her. It was the map. "See, we are here," he motioned to two small xs on the map. "Here's the sphere on Namek, there's another one and there are the two Frieza has. One sphere is following us. It could be Kakarotto, but I'm not sure, because the only ones, who know where another sphere is, are those who are in possession of said sphere or have one of those maps. There are exactly three of them. I have one and one has Frieza. I don't know where the third one is. Fact is that there was another sphere in the country you were living, but I never got the chance to steal it, since you got in my way." He chuckled, as he saw Bulma starting to pout. "And this sphere is now coming after us. Maybe it's Kakarotto, who knows? And even if it's him and he catches us, as long as I have you, he will do everything I want him to do…"
"Oh no!" Bulma yelled. "Goku will come to safe me! He's not afraid of you!"
Vegeta just shrugged. "Whatever. Do you still eat that?" he asked, as he again sat down in his chair.
Bulma scowled at him and continued eating, trying to ignore him for the rest of the dinner.
~*~
"Yes! Gohan, you were right!" Goku told the others cheerfully. Everyone was sitting on deck, sailing into the sunset. "Vegeta has stopped!"
"I was right? Great!" Gohan said proudly.
Goku grinned down at his son and then walked up to Tenshinhan, who was standing at the rudder. "You know what you have to do. When you're tired, change with Yamcha, okay?" Tenshinhan nodded. Goku smiled confidently. Maybe it won't take long until they got Bulma back.
~*~
The next morning Bulma was woken up by a sudden jolt of the ship. She groggily opened her eyes and saw that it was starting to get light outside. Closing her eyes again, she decided that it was still too early to get up and quickly fell asleep again. A few hours later her door was thrown open and Vegeta stepped in. Bulma slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes. "What do you want, Vegeta? It's still early."
"Get up, woman! We'll arrive at Namek in about one hour and I want to have breakfast before," he told her firmly. "I come back in a few minutes."
Groaning, Bulma got up and dressed herself again in her torn dress and was just finished, as Vegeta got her for breakfast.
About one hour later the whole crew was gathered on deck, as they dropped anchor a few kilometers away from the harbor. "Okay, Nappa, Radditz, you and the woman come with me to get the sphere," Vegeta commanded.
"Wait a minute! You want me to come with you?" Bulma asked confused.
"Yes, or do you want to stay on the ship with the rest of my crew?" Vegeta asked her smugly, as he climbed down the rope ladder into the small boat.
Bulma turned around and saw the other men staring at her. "Perverts…" she mumbled under her breath and followed the other three Saiyajins.
************************************************************************************
I know, another short chapter, but I hope you like it though!
Please review!
Eternally yours
ChibiChibi