Hey pals and gals! Sorry about the cliffy, I just couldn't resist! Here's Chapter two, and I promise it'll be longer!
Disclaimer: I do not, repeat DO NOT own DBZ…though I wish I did…then I'd own Veggie-Chan! Muahahaha!
Vegeta: HAH! Foolish woman! NO ONE owns the Prince of the Saiya-jins! Hahahahaha! Ahahahahaha!
Dawn M.: [stares at him]
Vegeta: What are you staring at? Cut it out!
Dawn M.: [eyes sparkle] Laugh again…
Vegeta: [thinking] {Oh crap! She's getting that look! I gotta get outta here!} [Speaking] Err, I've got to go train! Uh, bye!
Dawn M.: Huh? Train? { Mmm…spandex!} [Runs after him] TAKE ME WITH YOU!
Vegeta: NOOO! HELP! TRUNKS! BULMA…KAKAROOOOOOOT! *WHOOSH*
Dawn M.: Damn Saiya-jin flew away! Oh well, he'll come back. [Pulls out a HUGE sandwich] They ALWAYS come back!
Melting a Winter Heart
Chapter Two: TLC? Who Knew?
"Onna!" Vegeta cried out as he caught her. He'd arrived in time to see her falling and catch her, but not in enough time to keep her head from hitting the counter. He inwardly cringed at the thick sound it made when it connected. She'd passed out almost immediately. "Onna? Damn, out cold," he grumbled. He raised his hand to her face, gently patting her cheek, trying to awaken her. No dice. He sighed and shifted her weight to make her easier to carry and went into her room. As gently as he could, he laid her on her bed. He would have left at that, but something inside said he had to do something about a rather nasty looking cut on her head. The skin around her right eye had begun to swell and redden. She'd probably have a black eye by tomorrow. "Kami, how hard a hit did you take?" he wondered, lifting a strand of hair away from the little trickle of blood. "Not that anything could actually hurt that thick skull of yours anyway," he smirked. Her brow furrowed and she sucked in air through her teeth.
"Lukoostakin…" she mumbled through her oncoming consciousness.
"Are you all right?" he asked, immediately biting his tongue afterwards. {Why do I care? She's just taking up valuable training time!}
"I…think so," she replied and tried to sit up. Her vision swam immediately and she fell back against the pillow with a groan. "Probably not…"
Vegeta sighed and shook his head. "Clumsy onna," he muttered and left the room.
Bulma frowned and tried to sit up again. "Hey, where are-"
"Don't you move!" he ordered from the bathroom. After a minute he returned with a bandage and a few other medicinals. "Take this." He stuffed a pill and a glass of water into her hand. Bulma popped the painkiller into her mouth and swallowed it, curious about how he knew what the right pills were. "Now just hold still. Got it?"
"Yeah, yeah…" she nodded watching him wet a cotton pad with disinfectant. {How embarrassing. Just call me Miss Graceful.} She didn't like being babied like this when it was such a little thing like a bump on the head. But the pain in her head told her otherwise, so she resigned herself to letting him care for her. {Care for me? What the…hmm, could it be that he might? No way! This is Vegeta we're talking about!} She whimpered at the stinging touch of the disinfectant and instinctively scooted away.
"Hey, I said don't move!" he snapped, getting a grip on her arm. "Stubborn onna! I don't want this to hurt anymore than it has to!" He frowned inwardly. {There you go again! What's with the comfort talk?}
{Wow. Guess that's comfort with Vegeta…} Bulma mused. {When did this come about?} But she only nodded and winced again as the stinging came back. When he brought the pad away, she could see a red smear of blood on it. Jeez, this was no little bump was it? She made no more sound and closed her eyes as he applied a dry pad to her wound and secured it with the bandage. He worked quickly but with a gentleness that was so unlike him. To see him now, you might never have known that they'd been screaming at each other a few hours ago.
Vegeta stared down at her face as he worked. He was more than a little uneasy about acting so nice towards her, but she needed it right now, and something inside of him told him to give it. It seemed that something had been more apparent in the last few days than ever. Today was actually their first official fight in three days. Perhaps the weather on this planet affected human emotion, because the onna had been off and on moody and strangely tolerant of him in these last days. So why was HE doing this? He mentally growled. HE didn't want to be nice!
"Hey you okay? You look pissed 'Geta," Bulma asked quietly, still feeling weak as the painkiller kicked in. Her question shook him out of his thoughts. He must have been deeper in them than he thought for him to show them on his face.
"Nothing. Well, you're patched. You're lucky you didn't get a concussion, but if you move from here without me telling you to, I'll strap you down," he growled, holding a warning finger up to her face. She grinned and, unexpectedly, tapped her nose on the tip of the pointing finger. The look on Vegeta's face was absolutely priceless; an interesting mixture of embarrassment and puzzlement. She let out a quiet chuckle and smirked at him. He glared at her, fully aware of his blushing face, and pushed away from the bed. "I'm going to train," he spat out and turned away.
"Thanks Doctor 'Geta," she said to his retreating back and closed her eyes. Vegeta stopped in front of the door but didn't look back.
"Forget it. And onna…"
"Hmm?"
"Don't ever call me 'Doctor 'Geta'," he almost snarled and went back out to the GR. Bulma chuckled and pulled the blanket over her. {Looks like Mr. Prince gets a new nickname…} she thought as she fell asleep.
"What the hell was that?!" Vegeta shouted as he blasted a droid. He couldn't stop kicking himself for his behavior in the house. "You're getting soft! You can't afford to CARE!" He flew into a crowd of robots and blew them apart with a powerful ki wave. He back-flipped three times and landed squarely on his feet. "Damn these soft humans and their weakness! Why the hell did she DO that?!"
An innocent thing really, not like it held some hidden meaning, but WHY!? Was she trying to tell him something? Not that it really mattered. She was crazy over that weakling. And even if she wasn't, he wasn't interested. She was just trying to embarrass him. WAIT! Why was he even thinking about this? He shouldn't be occupying his thought with such stupid things! He should be focusing on kicking the crap out of Kakarot as a Super Saiya-jin!
"You WILL be the best! You are the Saiya-jin no Ouji! You are the greatest Saiya-jin of all!!" His thoughts enforced, he leapt into the air and threw a series of punches and kicks. He sailed towards a robot at top speed with a yell. Right before his foot connected with it, he was thrown back into the memory of her skin gently brushing his finger. He flew right past the droid and into the wall. Groaning, he slid to the floor holding his head in pain.
"Dammit onna!" he screamed in a rage. Why him?
A few hours later, Vegeta emerged from the GR, sore and hungry. He was surprised at the drop in temperature outside. Winter on this planet was much harsher than it was on Vegeta-sei. Not that he was ever there for a winter really. He hurried inside before the cold could really bite. The transition from coldness to warmth made him shiver involuntarily. He glanced into the bedroom and was satisfied to see the onna still curled up on her bed. Well, she knew how to take orders after all.
His stomach insisted on food, but for some reason, he didn't feel like waking her up just to fix him lunch. With a grumble both from him and his stomach he entered the kitchen. He glanced about, realizing he didn't know where ~anything~ was kept, besides that the cold stuff was kept in the fridge. "Clumsy onna. If you hadn't bashed your head I wouldn't be in this damn fix," he muttered, wishing this uneasiness would pass so he could bellow for her to get in here. But he sucked it up and went into the fridge to pull together something simple.
Ten roast beef sandwiches, six sodas and eleven chocolate cupcakes later, Bulma's cell phone began to ring. For a moment he stared at it on the table, knowing full well it could be the weakling. But the woman was asleep and no one else was there so he picked it up.
"What?"
"Vegeta? Why do you have Bulma's phone?!"
He growled. His hunch was right. It was indeed the woman's idiot. "It was ringing," was the only answer he gave.
"Whatever. Put Bulma on," Yamcha nearly ordered.
"She's asleep."
"What? It's three-thirty, why would she be asleep?" Yamcha challenged.
"Maybe she's tired. Ever think of that? Or is thinking too much for your tiny Earthling brain?"
"Just put her on you jerk!"
"She got hurt and she's asleep! Now buzz off!" Vegeta growled and clicked the phone off. He wanted to avoid telling him that, but now that he did, he wanted to avoid questions. But luck was not with the Saiyan prince. The jingly tone of the phone assailed him again. With a deep growl he picked it up again.
"What!"
"HOW THE HELL DID SHE GET HURT!?" screamed Yamcha, causing Vegeta to pull back, his ear ringing from pain.
"Ouch… She hit her head!" he shouted back, rubbing his ear.
Pause. "I'm so sure!" Yamcha snorted. "What did you do to her?"
Vegeta squeezed the phone tightly, envisioning the weakling's throat in his grasp. "I did nothing to her! How dare you suggest such a thing you insolent…" He was so enraged that he hung up again and turned the ringer on silent. That baka weakling! How could he even think that he, a prince, would strike a weak woman like her? By Kami, he'd lose a fistfight to the weakling before he'd hurt the onna!
{What in the…Where do these thoughts keep coming from?! Why is this happening to me, the Prince of all Saiya-jins! I've been living on this pathetic mud-ball for too long!} Or maybe it was the blue-haired onna in the other room. She seemed to be in a LOT of his thoughts lately. He wished he didn't, but when he was living in such close quarters with such an attractive woman…ATTRACTIVE? Kami, maybe the onna was right. Maybe he'd been training too hard lately.
Then he thought: That black eye she was bound to get wouldn't look too good in front of her date tomorrow. Especially after that accusation he'd just been thrown. Without thinking, he reached into the freezer and pulled out a handful of ice. He wrapped it up in a clean rag and went quietly into her room, silently cursing himself for his behavior.
To his relief, she was just beginning to stir, stretching her arms over her blue hair. She let out a pleased little sigh and opened her blue eyes. Well, one of them anyway. The other had already begun to swell. She frowned, confused at only seeing through one eye and began to move her hand to touch it. "What's…"
"Here," he said, pushing the ice rag into her raised palm. "Put it on your eye. It'll bring the swelling down."
"Thanks," {Swelling? Oh yeah the can…youch, that smarts…well, at least I'm not bleeding anymore. Hold up! Did Vegeta really take care of me? Unreal…} He only snorted in reply. "Was that my cell phone?" she asked as he hesitantly pulled out the desk chair. {He's sitting? I'm surprised he hasn't bolted yet.}
"Yes, it was your baka mate," Vegeta grumbled, wondering why he was so reluctant to leave. {Very simple idiot, just lift your feet and move to the door} his mind tried to say but his body didn't respond. For some reason, he wanted to talk to her.
"Oh, what did he want?" she asked, shifting her position so she could sit up.
"He wanted you, but I told him you were asleep," he half lied, leaving out the part where Yamcha accused him of hurting her.
"You sounded really pissed though, what happened?"
"Woman you know just the sound of his voice is enough to piss me off," Vegeta sighed, rolling his eyes. He didn't feel like telling her that her mate treated him like shit. Besides, if he were going to tell her that, he'd prefer a good argument in return. And right now the onna was so tired he doubted if she could even raise her voice.
Bulma shrugged. She didn't argue the fact that Yamcha and Vegeta didn't like each other. For some insane reason, Yamcha had once told her that he felt threatened by Vegeta living in her home. This was answered by a lot of laughter on her part and reassured him with a kiss. How could he think that she'd ever dump him for that arrogant snot?
Still, now that he was just sitting here talking to her, and after he'd just bandaged her head, he seemed just like anyone else. At a glance of the untrained eye, one might have mistaken them for good friends at the moment. But Bulma barely knew anything about Vegeta, even though they'd lived under the same roof for months. She didn't even know if they were ~average~ friends!
Still, things had definitely improved between them over the months. They had gone from screaming and bickering everyday to just bickering every other day. The in between days held the screaming. She supposed that after the second month, they'd formed a true love-hate relationship; they loved to hate each other.
"Onna?"
"Huh?" she asked, started violently out of her reverie.
Vegeta eyed her strangely for a moment. "I asked if your head was hurting."
"Oh, uh, no not a lot anyway," she answered, genuinely surprised that he cared.
"Feel dizzy?"
"Err, no…"
"Good, then I'll expect my dinner at the usual time. I'm going out to the GR," he smirked and turned to leave.
"Ooh, you!" Bulma growled and hurled her pillow at him. He turned swiftly and caught it in midair, his smirk stretching into a grin as he walked back towards her and plopped it unceremoniously onto her head.
"Your aim sucks onna. One of these days I'll teach you a lesson," he purred before exiting the room leaving behind a rather puzzled and slightly miffed scientist with a pillow balancing on her head.
"Would you quit calling me 'onna'!" She shouted to him, snatching the pillow off to shake threateningly. She gave it a look and threw it aside, realizing he couldn't see her. "What. Was. That?" she breathed. One minute they were just talking and the next he was barking orders as usual. But that last comment…Teach her a lesson? About what… but Bulma could feel the onset of a headache and decided to let time worry about that one. As she traveled to the bathroom for another painkiller, she though back to the feel of his careful hands cleaning her wound.
"Who knows? Maybe things will get better after all," she smiled and gently touched the bandage his hands had been on.
"SHUT UP VEGETA!"
"It's the truth, so try and make me!"
"I know I've got a black eye so you can stop rubbing it in my face!" She heard him guffaw and turned blazing eyes on him. "That was NOT funny! And I'm not a klutz!"
"Right, sure onna. It was your natural grace that toppled you yesterday!" he smirked, taking great delight in this particular argument- because they both knew he was right.
"Grr…rrr…Bite me monkey boy!" She spat, quivering with anger. She gasped when he phased out and reappeared behind her. His fingers lifted her hair over her ear and she felt his warm breath on her neck.
"Be careful what you wish for onna," he crooned, brushing through her silky hair with his hand.
Bulma swallowed hard, trying to ignore the involuntary shiver that went through her. "Hey! Stop that! Cut it out!" she protested, swatting at his hand and stepping away from him. "In case you haven't noticed 'your highness' I'm taken!"
"Humph, like that makes any difference to me," he snorted, smirking when he saw her eyes widen slightly. "I'm not interested."
"Well… thank Kami for that," she huffed, walking away with her arms fastened over her chest. Vegeta grinned. This battle was his.
"Jerk! Who does he think he is?" Bulma growled as she slammed her bedroom door. She kicked her house shoes off and began pulling clothes out for her date with Yamcha. "Thinks he can mess with me, I'll show him!" she grumbled to herself.
As angry as she was, Bulma found herself thinking of when he touched her hair. He'd moved so fast, she couldn't see how he did that. Some kind of Saiya-jin power no doubt. And then, the feel of his fingers brushing through her hair, and…his warm breath caressing her earlobe…
{Hey! What am I thinking!? Bad mind! Back, BACK!} she screamed to herself. WHERE did that come from! She shouldn't be thinking like that! Especially about Vegeta!
~Why not?~
Bulma jumped in surprise at the arrival of this thought. She couldn't BELIEVE her mind had just uttered those words! She was in love with Yamcha! She shivered. The thought felt like some kind of betrayal. But in terms of their looks, Vegeta would be the winner of that contest. Well, at least when he didn't look like he was constipated. Which was most of the time…
Thankfully, her cell phone began to ring, jarring her out of her inner debate. She smiled and picked it up. "Hello?"
"Hey babe," came a husky voice from the other line.
"Yamcha? Is that you?"
"Yep. Look, I ahem I gotta break our date tonight. I kinda cough cough got a cold over here," he croaked.
Bulma cringed, disappointment and concern rising in her. "Oh I'm sorry Yamcha. Well, considering the weather, it happens to the best of us. Maybe I'll stop over and bring you some soup or something."
"Ahem I dunno if that's such a good idea babe. Doc says it's contagious. I wouldn't want to give my pookie the creeping crud. Sniff Best if you just wait this out. Sorry."
{Pookie?}"No, no that's okay. Feel better Yamcha. Love you," she sighed.
"Ditto babe," he rasped and the connection ended. Bulma flipped the phone closed and sank into the armchair. Another broken date? Boy this was becoming tedious. It was like every two weeks brought on another one. And "pookie"? He'd NEVER called her THAT before. And "ditto"…that had come up more often that a "love you too". What was happening?
"ONNA! HEY! You ALIVE in there?!" Vegeta thundered from behind the door. Caught off guard, Bulma let out a shriek and toppled off of the bed. Unfortunately, she bumped her wound on the desk chair, lightly, but enough to send a firework through her head. She let out another scream and clutched it tightly. The door flew open in an instant, and the Saiya-jin entered. "What happened?"
"Ouch… nothing! You just scared the bejeezus outta me and I cracked my head again!" She hissed, thoroughly pissed with him.
"Sorry," he blurted out as he offered his hand without really thinking. Bulma's clear blue eyes flashed up to his, bright with surprise. Did he just ~apologize~? To HER? He realized his situation and smirked broadly. "…That you're not as graceful as I."
"Oh, you little…well, THANK you, but I don't need your hand!" She sniffed, shoving it away. Her feet tucked under her to push herself up up. "I am perfectly capable of-" But before she could get up, her heel turned at an odd angle and she slipped right back down. She let out a yelp as she landed on her tailbone. Vegeta almost exploded with laughter as she glared venomously at him. "That. Didn't. Happen, GOT IT!" She hissed through her clenched teeth. The corners of his mouth began to twitch uncontrollably.
"PPPHHBBBTTT!!!" This last sound resulted from a suppressed laugh through his lips. Soon he was laughing in loud hysterical peals, tears of mirth streaming down his cheeks as he swept out of the room.
"Shut up! SHUT UP! It's…it's not…that hehe not that fah hahahahahaha!" Bulma tried to say but only ended up laughing almost as hard as he had. She got up and walked to her lab to work, still laughing.
Before he exited the house, Vegeta stayed his pace to listen to her laughter. Funny how he never noticed how musical it really was. Strange.
{Well, she has the grace to laugh at herself…if not to stand on her own two feet.} His last thought caused him to burst out laughing again as he went out for another bout of training.
They were both so caught up in their own agendas that they failed to notice the sky beginning to cloud over.
Well there's Chappie 2!! Sorry it took me SOOOOO long, but writer's block has been plaguing me like nothing else! But it's finally over, and Chapter 3 will be put soon. Hope you like it!
############8D- Hi it's me again! Reviews are appreciated! And thanks for all the reviews so far!