Disclaimer: DBZ isn't mine
Living with You
Chapter 5
Bulma walked with Yamcha back across the grounds of Capsule Corp. She was relieved that he had yielded and came with her instead of fighting Vegeta. She knew that Yamcha wouldn't last five seconds in a fight against him since Vegeta was much stronger and better at tactics. Yamcha's fighting style, well, it was mostly for show. Sure, he could take out other humans quickly and easily if Yamcha really put his mind into it, but in reality, he was just like Hercule. Yamcha thrived on attention and didn't pay much attention to what he was actually doing. Vegeta on the other hand, avoided attention like the plague and he paid careful attention to the moves other fighters were making and he stored them in his head to block next time or to use the same move against them. He was a fighting machine that calculated and used various tactics and strength to win. She knew all this because of having to help her father build the gravity machine. She had the bright idea of tailoring it to Vegeta and his fighting style rather than making a generic one that could be used by just anyone, which of course made it more difficult to fix when Vegeta broke it…which was often. But in doing so, she learned how Vegeta thought while fighting and all his techniques and as she learned more and more about his fighting style, she realized just how superior Vegeta was to most of the other fighters in the Z Warriors.
"Yamcha, thanks for not fighting Vegeta. Honey, really, you should let this fight go. I've explained to you a thousand times that he didn't hurt me at all. It was a lie."
"I know," he replied gruffly.
"You do?" she asked in shock. She stopped walking beside him and stood looking at him suspiciously. He had never even acknowledged that she could possibly have lied about it, so why did he believe her now?
"Yeah. I believe you."
He was lying. He believed that Vegeta was definitely capable of raping, especially if his victim was as beautiful as Bulma. He wondered sometimes if maybe she were telling the truth about it not happening, but he just didn't even want to risk it. Yamcha only slightly believed that the event hadn't occurred. Vegeta had killed before and Yamcha believed that it was only a matter of time before he went on a killing spree. How could a simple gravity room satisfy such a monster's craving for bloodshed? Was it really likely that Vegeta would suddenly just stop going around and killing people? Yamcha thought that Vegeta had always wanted to kill, that it was a central part of his existence. It did not enter his mind that Vegeta had been forced to do so by a cold-hearted tyrant by the name of Frieza. He knew that Bulma believed that deep down Vegeta was good…very deep down, and that was why, he believed, Bulma was always defending the Saiyan. Actually, he was happy to have something to pick on Vegeta about. He wanted the excuse to try and run Vegeta out of town. Yamcha knew that Vegeta was better than him in just about every way and he didn't like the fact that Vegeta was always around to rub it in.
"Oh, really! Oh that's so wonderful, Yamcha!" Her eyes lit up when she heard that he believed her and she hugged him warmly. "I thought you would never get it through that thick skull of yours!"
Yamcha laughed half-heartedly as he looked over his shoulder where he saw Vegeta leaving to go inside the family area of Capsule Corp. Krillin, it seemed, had been spooked and had decided to go back home rather than stay and visit. It only served to make Yamcha madder at Vegeta. Bulma realized by the look on Yamcha's face that he did not really believe her. She cast her eyes down solemnly and walked back to his side to resume walking.
"What are you going to do now?
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Well, if you believe me, then I think you should stop bugging Vegeta so much. I think he's pretty near exploding in a rage over you." She leaned closer to Yamcha and whispered, "You have been a little annoying lately, you know."
"Psh. So what. He deserves it. The bastard," Yamcha muttered.
Bulma closed her eyes slowly and wondered what she should say next. All these months she had been trying to convince him that it was all a big lie and that he had to let it go. He had to be mad at her, not at Vegeta. She was the one who had lied after all. Unfortunately, nothing she said seemed to make any sort of difference to Yamcha. He was set on being mad at Vegeta, like it was his job or something. She felt a twitch in her stomach and furrowed her brow, but thought nothing of it. She felt her stomach through her sweatshirt, wondering if it was some sort of kick the baby was making, but nothing happened so she resumed her thoughts about Yamcha.
"Do you want to go out and eat?" she asked in her most pleasant voice.
"Nah."
"Why not?"
He didn't want to admit to her that he had been spying on Vegeta, waiting for anything that would point to Vegeta being a secret killer. Yamcha had officially become obsessed. He collected newspapers from all around the city and flipped through them looking for the latest murders. He set up a chart, mapping out how many occurred, where, what time, and how close each murder was to Capsule Corporation. All of them, much to his disappointment, were the normal run-of-the-mill murders. There were no truly heinous crimes that would point to Vegeta, the murderer of millions of lives on countless planets, being the culprit.
"Because I don't feel like going out," he lied.
"Oh."
"I really hate him," he gritted out. "He's always making everyone feel so inferior to him. Who does he think he is?"
"A prince?" she offered. She was really starting to get annoyed with Yamcha's attitude. It wasn't like Vegeta was this way because he wanted to be. There was a whole lifetime of abuse and slavery that made him this way.
"Huh, yeah of a dead race," he retorted sarcastically. "A prince of nothing. Who does he think he's fooling? I don't respect him. No one here has to respect him at all! He wants to go around catering to him out of fear. I hate him."
Yamcha continued on his tangent, but Bulma's mind was drawn elsewhere. She had just felt a more persistent pain in her belly and it was scaring her. Yamcha was too busy complaining to truly notice the panicked look on her face.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked absently when she gasped.
"N-nothing. What were you saying?" She desperately wanted to run and hide from Yamcha. She felt as if the world would end if he were to find out about his child, especially at a time like this when she might be losing it!
"Are you sure? Well, I was saying that there was this one time I remember him…"
The pains were getting stronger and Bulma didn't know what to do. She knew that it would definitely look bad if she suddenly had to admit that she was pregnant. In his state of mind, Yamcha would immediately conclude that Vegeta had in fact raped her and had made her pregnant. She didn't want to deal with that. In fact, she didn't feel like dealing with Yamcha at all. It annoyed her that he wasn't paying any attention to her pain and that he was off on some other fantasy world where he was better than Vegeta and could take him on. She was sick of it.
"Yamcha just shut up!" she screamed with clenched fists. The scream was partly out of anger, but mostly out of the pain that had suddenly surged through her. "Get out of here! I don't want to see you lurking anywhere on the premises again, do you hear me? I've had enough of your vendetta against Vegeta from some imaginary wrong he did to you. If you don't believe me, then fine, you can just leave. I think that three months of putting up with your crap has been quite enough punishment for my stupid lie, so now you can just take your stupid butt off of my property!"
He looked at her in surprise. "Where did this come from? Fine, if you want to go out for dinner, we can go…"
"Forget about the stupid dinner! Leave! NOW!"
She had not screamed at him like that in what seemed like forever. He had forgotten how angry Bulma could get and it immediately cowed him. For the past few months, Bulma had been docile and submissive to him and Yamcha had grown more and more dominant. He was not sure of what it was that he did that had suddenly set her off and switch back to her former self, but he decided that it was better to get away from her for a while.
"Good! Stay away from here. I don't ever want to see you here again. We're through!" Bulma yelled at his retreating form.
When Yamcha was a good distance away, Bulma fled back to the entrance to the family quarters. She didn't know what to do, but she only trusted one person in the house at the moment. First she looked in the kitchen, fully expecting to see Vegeta sitting at the table in a bad mood after the confrontation, but he wasn't there. She dashed to the living room to see if he was watching the television. It was rare, but sometimes he would watch the TV with her, but he wasn't there at the moment. She ran up the stairs to Vegeta's room and barged in. Bulma found him propped up against the headboard of his bed, with a book in his hand and a leg dangling off the side of his bed. He seemed greatly annoyed that someone would intrude into his sanctuary, but his anger quickly turned to concern when he saw how ragged Bulma looked.
"Veg…Vegeta," she huffed and puffed, "I think I'm losing it."
The second she thought the words, a knot formed in her throat and the second she said them, the tears spilled out of her eyes. She couldn't believe that her baby was going to die. She hoped and prayed that it was not the case. Maybe it was a normal thing for a new mother to go through, but she knew that it was not true. This was serious. Vegeta was caught completely off guard. The woman was usually so composed and only used tears to get what she wanted. This he knew was not the case. These were real tears and he didn't know how to handle them. What was more, he didn't know how to handle seeing the blood staining the crotch region of her jeans.
"Um…" he looked around his room in an effort to find some sort of inspiration to help him in the situation as he stood up and walked slowly toward her. He felt ashamed of himself for reacting the way he was at the sight of the blood. What would his parent's think of him if they saw him recoiling?
"I need you to take me someplace else. I don't want a hospital, it would be all over the news that the heiress to the Capsule Corporation fortune miscarried her first baby. I don't want to stay here because my parents would find out and Yamcha might come back soon and see. I don't want him to know, Vegeta."
She collapsed in tears on his chest and he held her up awkwardly with one of his arms.
"Um… I guess I could take you someplace."
Without another thought, he lifted her and flew out his opened window away from the city. He could hear Yamcha now, telling anyone who would listen that Vegeta had just kidnapped his girlfriend. He frowned at the thought. Why would he want to kidnap someone who cried, lied, and screamed as much as Bulma did? He made sure he had a tight grasp on Bulma. Remarkably, she did not seemed to be too bothered at flying so high up in the sky, rather she was understandably more concerned with the growing pains coming from inside of her. Vegeta watched the ground, seeing small towns pass by underneath them. Finally, after what seemed to take hours in so desperate a situation, he found the area that he was looking for and started to slowly descend.
Bulma thought she was seeing things. They were now over a desert region and were fast approaching a cave in one of the red mountains in the desert.
"What are we doing here?" she yelled up at Vegeta.
"You said you wanted to go somewhere else."
They touched down and Vegeta let her go only after making sure that she could stand on her own.
Bulma walked near the edge of the cliff and looked down at the desert spread out before her. It went on for miles and miles around, with hardly any vegetation. She felt helpless and alone in this place and wondered why, of all places, did Vegeta bring her here? He stood next to her, keeping a careful eye on her in case she collapsed. He didn't know what to expect from this situation. He knew that this place was no place for her to give birth or miscarry a child. He brought her here more for his sake than for hers. It was his home away from Capsule Corp, or at least that was how he thought of it.
"This desert region reminds me of my home planet," he finally answered her question. "Long before my time, my people had shared a planet with another race of beings."
Bulma looked at him with interest. It was rare that Vegeta ever offered any information on his past and she always listened in rapt attention. Even now with all her fear for the baby, she found herself captivated with his words. Anything that shed some light on Vegeta's history was something she wanted to know and understand.
"The others lived in what you would consider the more inhabitable regions of the planet, the parts with the trees and large amounts of water. We were left with only the desert regions to make our homes in. It was a red planet, with red earth and mountains, much like this desert. We lived in caves in the mountains, both naturally made and ones we dug out for ourselves."
He stopped talking, but Bulma continued to stare at him, though he didn't seem to really notice for once. Any other time, he would yell at her for staring, but for now, he seemed to be caught up in his memories.
"I come here when I'm sick of dealing with you humans. This is where I train when I don't use your gravity chamber."
"Because it feels more like home to you?" she asked.
He looked sideways at her, but chose not to answer. "Are the pains getting worse? I keep medical supplies here incase I over train and need to heal myself. Do you need anything?"
"No," she shook her head. "Not yet…I don't think so."
She saw that Vegeta was looking at her pants. She knew it wasn't because he thought they were cute. Sometimes he looked at her when she wore some of her more skimpy clothes. She knew that he liked her, but now there was a frown on his face and she was too scared to look down and see for herself exactly what was making him frown. She felt that if she didn't see it, then it wasn't happening and everything would be okay.
"Are you sure that you would rather not go to some sort of healer? A discreet one? One that you can trust? You'll have to at some point…you know…to check…to make sure."
She had never seen Vegeta at a loss for words. He was always shooting off his big mouth, but this really seemed to get to him. To her, it made the situation more real and she struggled to keep her tears back.
"I…I think it's too late for all that," she replied.
He looked directly into her eyes. He had seen that look many times on the faces of people about to be killed, who witnessed their loved ones being slaughtered, and on the face of the soldiers doing the killing who were taking it all in and realizing the carnage they were creating. The look of loss and of pain. He didn't want to tell her that he agreed that it was too late. He knew of nothing else to do, so he sat down against the rocky wall and motioned for her to do the same. She looked from side to side, as if looking to see who else was there that he was motioning to, then finally walked over to him and sat down as close to him as she dared. He wasn't big on people sitting extremely close together, but she tried once more now and found that he was going to allow her to lean against him. She wrapped her arms around his left arm and leaned her head against his shoulder.
"My mother once told me that I was the most evil baby on the planet," he said with a smile.
"What?" Bulma said with a laugh. It seemed like such a random comment for him to make.
"She said that I had constantly kicked her stomach. I never gave her a break. And she compared giving birth to me to being like extreme torture without death. Apparently I had continued kicking or something while I was coming out…"
Bulma stared at him with her mouth hanging open. She was shocked that he could be so mean to his mother before she realized that he had been a baby and didn't know what he was doing.
"But that's basically normal for a Saiyan birth," he continued. "We're very…energetic right from the beginning." He looked at her and grinned.
She shook her head. "Yeah…remind me never to have a baby with you. I don't want to go through what your mom did. And knowing you, you'd make a child that was exactly like you."
"Well yes, if I could, I would."
Bulma had the fleeting feeling that maybe she was supposed to have his baby. She figured it probably wouldn't be so bad…the baby would have her genes too after all.
"The pains?"
"I don't feel them anymore."
He nodded and furrowed his brow. He looked at her tentatively, then reached out to pull up her shirt, as he had done before. Again he put his hand just far enough under the waistband of her jeans to cover her stomach with his hand. She waited with baited breath to hear what he found. She didn't understand how he was doing it, though she had an idea it had something to do with searching for the baby's energy, but she knew that he would know the answer to her burning question: was the baby alive? He looked at her stomach without really seeing it. Vegeta was concentrating all of his energies on finding some sort of energy signal from the little life that was supposed to be growing in her stomach. His face was grim when he finally looked back up at her.
"It's gone."
Aw…but really, who didn't see that coming? Lol. No worries, though! There's another baby, right? A cute little one with big blue eyes and purple hair? Yeah, that cutie! But of course, he'll not be there next chappie, but he'll be here soon!
Lady Branwen
