Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ/GT

Living With You

Chapter 4

Bulma woke up the next morning feeling groggy. She felt her stomach and rubbed it absently, thinking of the little life that was growing there. Her calculations told her that the baby would be less than two weeks old, since she hadn't fooled around with Yamcha in that long. She vaguely thought that that must be the reason why Yamcha cheated so often.

"What should I call you?" she wondered aloud. "I guess I should maybe wait to see if you are a boy or a girl yet. I hope Yamcha won't want to name you something dumb. Don't worry, I won't let him."

She could hear voices coming from downstairs. One she knew was Vegeta's deep voice, the other was Yamcha's raised in anger. Her mother's voice also drifted up. She was going around asking if either of them wanted something to eat. Everyone was always amazed at how her mother would get in between two arguing people and offer them food. It was obviously not a good time to ask, but Bulma knew that her mother did not feel like a good hostess if she didn't offer some food every five minutes. Bulma pulled the covers off of herself and crept to her door to eavesdrop. Unfortunately, she still couldn't hear, so she decided to get closer to the action.

"You better stay away from her! We've had enough of your crap to last a lifetime. I think it's about time that you left. You have to find somewhere else to train. We don't want you here, especially after what you have done to Bulma."

"Human, I had nothing to do with her and want nothing to do with her. She's your problem."

The weakling was starting to annoy Vegeta. Yamcha was already waiting for him when he had come down for breakfast and since then, Yamcha had followed him around badgering him. At first, he had played along, then Vegeta's patience started to run thin, and now he was nearly at his breaking point. He bared his fangs in an attempt to make Yamcha run away, as he had always done in the past. It never took much to make Yamcha flee, or make him want to flee, but this time Yamcha seemed to have grown some balls or was at least pretending to have grown some.

"Bulma is not a problem," Yamcha argued through clenched teeth. "She's smart, but she not smart about you apparently. She let you stay here against everyone else's opinion and advice, and you've been nothing but trouble ever since. Don't think that I'm not on to you, Vegeta. Unlike her, I don't think you've changed at all. Just because you landed on Earth, it doesn't mean that you've suddenly become an angel."

"That's right. I'm Saiyan and damn proud of it."

"I don't care what the hell you call yourself! You're a murderer and it's only a matter of time before you kill again."

"Keep talking, and I'll do it even sooner than you think."

Vegeta's eyes glinted under his lowered brows.

"Boy, boys, boys! Why don't you two settle down and I'll get you both some tea," Bulma's mom chimed in. "I'll even get you some cookies. I made them last night. They're the ones you like best, Vegeta. Chocolate chip!"

She touched Vegeta's arm in reassurance with a wide smile on her face. He looked down at her hand on his arm and sneered. Before either of them could make a reply, she grabbed Yamcha's elbow and pulled him over to a chair and went off in search of the cookies. Vegeta still stood standing and he glared down at the seated Yamcha. He was trying to understand why this particular act had set off Yamcha. What was it about the situation? Yamcha had never really seemed to care about Bulma very much…He cheated on her often and easily. Every time that he apologized to her for doing it, Vegeta witnessed that there wasn't very much remorse in his apology. It was almost as if he was just going through the motions again because he was tired of the bimbos and wanted a steady girlfriend for a while.

"Vegeta, I think you had better leave this house. Soon if not now. I don't want you anywhere near Bulma."

"And you think that a Saiyan prince will listen to a lowly human weakling like yourself?"

They both turned as they heard someone running down the stairs. Bulma appeared in the kitchen, out of breath, but determined. Vegeta vaguely thought that she should not be running the way she was as she could have fallen down the stairs. He pushed the thought away wondering why he should even care about what she did.

"Yamcha, he can't leave the house!"

He sat dumbfounded before regaining his composure. "What are you talking about! He raped you didn't he? Don't you want him out of the house? He could do it again!"

Bulma quickly looked over at Vegeta, who was staring at her intently. She remembered her promise to him that she would tell the truth about the incident, but she was having difficulty figuring out how to put it in just the right way so that Yamcha wouldn't be so mad at her.

"Well…he… he doesn't have any money…"

She looked over at Vegeta again and noted that he had absolutely no facial expression. What did it mean?

"So tell him to get a job! You want him to rape you again? What, did you like it?" Yamcha was thoroughly pissed off that she was trying to keep Vegeta in the house.

"Wha- Yamcha! Geez…no, but…" Bulma started. She was shocked and hurt that Yamcha could be so heartless about it. Though, she had no room to talk and she bet that if she did happen to have sex with Vegeta, he wouldn't be disappointment in bed…

"Don't insult her integrity, you stupid piece of-"

"Vegeta!" she scolded. She sighed. It was time to face the music. She looked at Vegeta yet again for some sort of support that she didn't deserve from him, but still he didn't move or show anything in his face, though she was grateful that he had shown at least a little support through trying to protect her honor…what little she had after a lie like the one she had told.

"Well, I…uh…" she looked at the ground. "I kind of lied to you."

Yamcha didn't get the point. "About what?"

It didn't enter in his mind for one moment that Vegeta DIDN'T rape her. He was convinced of it at this point.

"I lied about Vegeta raping me. I wanted you to kick him out of the house."

She looked up at Yamcha to see his reaction and was startled to see that Yamcha wasn't even looking at her. No glares. No disbelief that she would do something so dumb. Instead, he was glaring daggers at Vegeta.

"You put her up to this, didn't you?"

"I did not."

She knelt down in front of Yamcha. "No! Yamcha, I'm serious! He didn't do anything. I made it up! He was getting on my nerves way too much, I snapped and said that he raped me so that someone would get him out of the house! I would have done it myself, but obviously, I'm no where near as strong as him and I wouldn't be able to do it…Yamcha I was lying before, but I'm not lying now. I'm so sorry I did such a stupid thing and put you through all of this, but he did not rape me, and I want you to understand that. You don't have to fight him or anything. Vegeta and I have…we've already worked it all out, and we've agreed to be civil to each other, so there won't be anymore problems…Okay?"

"Hmph. I don't believe you. He's always up to something. It would be just like him to rape you, and then to threaten you to tell everyone it wasn't true. I saw how scared he made you when he found out that you had told on him."

"You don't know me, human. How do you know what would be 'just like me?'" Vegeta was getting madder and madder by the second.

"Well, yeah! He was pissed because I had lied about something like that," Bulma cut in. "Wouldn't you be mad, Yamcha? And I was scared because I angered Vegeta. Vegeta, the grumpy guy that no one goes near if they can help it. Vegeta, the guy that is easily angered. Vegeta, the Saiyan that can easily squish me for making up a serious lie about him."

"Yeah, Vegeta the killer, Vegeta the rapist. He was mad because you told on him. I won't let you hurt her anymore, Vegeta."

"Why don't you listen to your woman. She's finally telling you the truth. Your hate of me is clouding your senses." Vegeta found himself sharply reminded of his past because of Yamcha's words. He had been a killer, but he hadn't been specifically labeled as one by someone in a very long time. He had never raped anyone, though, and he was proud of it. It was a great disgrace on a Saiyan family if it was found out that one of their own had raped someone. Even though he was basically the last Saiyan, he did not give up tradition and he felt it was his duty to keep his people's values alive.

"Whatever. I know what you're up to," Yamcha sneered

Finally Yamcha looked at Bulma and saw tears welling in her eyes. His eyes softened and he reached out to hold her.

Bulma was near tears because he didn't believe her. She didn't know what else to say or do to get him to understand. She had spoken from the bottom of her heart. It was the most honest she had ever been in her life, and he didn't believe her.

"Why does everyone believe me when I lie, but not when I tell the truth?" she thought.

"Yamcha, you have to believe me! I'm not lying right now! He did not rape me! I made it up so that you would get mad at him. Nothing has to be done except you have to be mad at me for a while. Vegeta had nothing to do with my scheme and he has nothing to do with me apologizing to you right now, so you can just leave him alone and everything will go back to normal."

Okay, so Vegeta had had a little bit to do with the apology. He did agree to be a bit kinder if she agreed to tell the truth, but Bulma figured since people believed her lies, a little white lie wouldn't hurt in this case.

Vegeta was watching the scene unfold and was annoyed to find that the weakling did not believe a word that she had said. Yamcha was too wrapped up in his own schemes to protect her, rather than hearing the truth about the matter. Vegeta realized that Yamcha was too stupid to listen at this point, so he made a decision.

"Woman."

Bulma looked up at him for the fourth time. His gaze had softened slightly when he saw her tear-stained cheeks.

"Just forget about it," he said, and he turned and left the room.

3 Months Later:

"Heya, Bulma!" Krillin called across the grounds to Bulma, who was seated under a tree by the gravity room.

She smiled and waved to him to come over and sit by her.

She had not seen Krillin in a while. In fact, she had tended to avoid her friends as much as possible after finding out about the baby. She still had not told Yamcha about it, and he didn't even seem to notice her growing bump. He had taken to patrolling the grounds so often that her father thought it was only fair to pay Yamcha in order to compensate for all the work he missed while doing it. Vegeta had not changed his routine in the least. He still trained into the late hours and when they passed each other, his gaze would automatically fall to Bulma's waist, checking on her progress. True to his word, he had become more civil around her and her family, and especially at times when they were alone together, the stray chance meetings when Yamcha was not glued to Bulma's side. Bulma still found herself feeling guilty that everyone still thought that Vegeta had violated her, but no one, not even Goku had confronted him about it. Bulma wondered about it until she heard from Chichi that Yamcha had explicitly declared Vegeta as his own problem to take care of and he didn't want anyone else to interfere. Apparently, he had been so convincing with his argument that even Goku agreed to let him handle it on his own.

"How've you been?" Krillin asked as he finally made it over to her and sat down.

"Pretty good."

"We haven't seen you around lately, what's up?"

Strangely enough, Krillin was the one that Bulma always confided in. She didn't have any girlfriends to talk to. At least not any that she trusted. And Chichi was more of an acquaintance, not someone that she felt she could tell all her secrets to.

"Well, I've just been a little stressed out lately, that's all. I didn't want to ruin everyone's day if I were to visit them. I've been such a downer lately." She shrugged and smiled apologetically.

"Does it have anything to do with the, uh, rape? Did you ever get any counseling for that?"

Krillin looked worried for her, and Bulma winced a little as she realized all the trouble she had caused. She really hadn't thought every little thing out when she had hatched this scheme. She had not realized how far her lie would go and how it would affect everyone.

"Well, I'm going to be completely honest with you right now. He didn't do anything to me. I made it all up. I wanted Vegeta out of the house." She sighed heavily. "Yamcha doesn't believe me. It's strange that any lie I make up will be believed, but he didn't believe me when I told him the truth."

Krillin sucked his teeth and sat reading her face for a bit. After a while, he decided that she was telling him the truth and said, "Well, I'm glad that you're okay and that Vegeta didn't do anything to you." He wasn't sure why Bulma had decided to lie about it in the first place. Who would want to mess with Vegeta? But Bulma was always getting herself into and out of trouble, so he let the matter rest. "I was really worried about you. Goku wanted me to see how you were doing too."

"What does he think about all of this?" she asked. "I understand that Yamcha went and told all of you not to get involved, that he would handle all of this on his own, right?"

"Yeah," Krillin sighed. "I wasn't too happy about letting him do it. I mean, I'm no match for Vegeta. Yamcha's not either. Piccolo might be able to take him on, but only Goku really can for sure defeat him in a battle. Yamcha was just so serious though. I mean, he really took this personally. Man, I'd be mad too if someone raped my girlfriend."

"Well, yeah, of course you would be. It's not an easy thing to deal with. I bet he felt guilty for cheating on me so much, leaving me alone and prone to predators and everything. You think that's why he's trying so hard to make up for it?"

"Maybe," Krillin shrugged. Then the question he had been wondering about the most, "How has Vegeta been acting?"

Bulma looked at the humming gravity room nearby. There were many knocking noises coming from inside, a sure sign that Vegeta was getting a good work out with the robots, though she knew that every knock meant that another robot had been smashed into the wall and broken into tiny pieces. He was being wonderful to her, all things considered.

"He is surprisingly not very angry with me anymore, since I tried to tell the truth. I guess it's enough for him that I tried. It's surprising, actually, that he would settle for anything, especially something like this."

"Yeah. He's unpredictable sometimes. Glad to hear that he's not holding a grudge against you though. What about with Yamcha?"

"Oh, Yamcha's trying to pick on Vegeta any chance he gets! It's kind of funny. I mean, everyone knows that Vegeta could squish Yamcha like a little bug at any moment, but Yamcha has completely lost his mind," she waved her arms around as illustration, "and is always provoking him. Vegeta has been taking it surprisingly well. No deaths yet."

"Hehe, good for him, I guess."

Krillin reached across Bulma to grab one of the sandwiches at her side and accidentally bumped her stomach. Her abnormally large stomach. Bulma tensed slightly, then tried her best to look unconcerned.

"Bulma…why is your stomach so big?"

"Hmm?" she asked innocently as she shoved a sandwich into her mouth in order to buy her some time from having to answer any questions.

Krillin suddenly noticed that Bulma was in fact wearing baggy clothes: a sweatshirt and baggy blue jeans. It was decidedly unlike her, as she had always worn tight and revealing clothes. "Is there something you're not telling me?" He raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Geez, Krillin, I've just been getting a little fat, is that a crime? I mean, I've been staying here at home avoiding everybody, so what else am I going to do except eat and sit around? And obviously after doing that for so long, I'm going to get fat."

Krillin didn't seem convinced. Wouldn't she get a mushier stomach instead of a firmly round one if it was just overeating? Thankfully, the gravity room stopped and Vegeta walked out of it, heading to his lunch.

"Vegeta!" she called. "Come over here! I have some sandwiches!"

Krillin wasn't too thrilled at sharing a picnic with the grumpy Saiyan. Vegeta made his way over to them, only to stand looking down at them. Bulma grabbed the plate of sandwiches and held them up for Vegeta, who took one and looked at it in minute detail before deciding to eat it.

"Vegeta, I was just telling Krillin about how you didn't attack me."

She still felt guilty that the truth hadn't been declared to the world to exonerate Vegeta from a non-existent crime. She wanted to make sure that he knew she was telling people about his innocence.

"Good," was his only reply.

There was a pause in the conversation as Vegeta watched both Bulma and Krillin carefully while he ate his sandwich. He also kept track of Yamcha's energy signal approaching rapidly from behind.

"Hey, Vegeta," Krillin ventured, "how come you eat the way you do? I mean, you're neat when you eat. Goku makes all sorts of noises and messes when he eats and he shoves everything in his mouth, but you eat like a human."

"I'm a prince," was his gruff reply. He wasn't too thrilled at being compared with a human either.

"Oh…"

Yamcha had finally arrived and skidded to a stop at Vegeta's side.

"Get away from her," he threatened.
"Yamcha, I gave him the sandwich," Bulma argued.

He ripped the remaining piece of the sandwich out of Vegeta's hand. Vegeta's eye twitched ominously and he slowly turned his head to glare at Yamcha, every Saiyan instinct begging him to rip off Yamcha's head. Bulma caught this look and jumped up.

"Um! Uh! Yamcha, why don't you take a walk with me?"

One time when she had been having one of the rare conversations with Vegeta, she had asked him the same question that Krillin had just asked. Vegeta had explained to her then that he had been raised to have better manners than the rest of the Saiyans. While most of them would pig out at meals, the nobility had always eaten with as much grace as their ravenous appetites would allow. Then after a few moments of silence, Vegeta had launched into a story about how serious eating was to Saiyans. In their past when they had still lived in the caves, they had had to hunt for their own food, or for food to be shared among the clans. Any food that a Saiyan received would be his own and if need be, they would fight to the death over it. If anyone tried to steal someone else's food, it was considered acceptable to kill that person. Vegeta explained that it was also not an uncommon thing to happen in his day and age, though most Saiyans had by that time learned not to mess with someone else's food. At this point in time, Bulma vividly recalled this story Vegeta had told her and realized that Vegeta was reacting exactly the way he should be…on his own planet though, but definitely not on Earth!

She grabbed Yamcha's arm and literally dragged him away from the scene, leaving Krillin alone to calm down Vegeta, something that Krillin was not looking forward to, as he had no clue what would calm the prince down.

"So, hehe," he started with a slight tremor in his voice. "A…Another sandwich? Hehe."

Look at that! I updated even earlier this time! Yay for me!

Lady Branwen