Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ!
Living with You
Chapter 9
Vegeta flexed his hand menacingly and Yamcha took an almost imperceptible step backwards. Yamcha knew this would not end well. He wildly wondered what in the world he had been thinking of when he had started making all those rude comments…why in the world he had EVER picked on Vegeta. He vaguely remembered that he was trying to protect Bulma, that she was being too care-free around Vegeta and if she couldn't or wouldn't protect herself, then he would do it for her. No matter how many times she had told him to leave her alone, to quit bugging her, he felt a strong attachment to her. She had been his steady girlfriend for a long time now. Even though their relationship had been rocky most of the time, he now wanted nothing more than to keep her safe. All the other women were forgotten and he had no cruel words for her, only a strong need to guard what had been his. He felt stupid and small at the moment, though. He was no match for Vegeta. They all knew it. Vegeta was second only to Goku and all the rest of the warriors except for Piccolo were far behind in strength when compared to Goku. He tried desperately to put on a straight face, tried to appear confidant.
"Man…what have I gotten myself into? Why did I ever open my big mouth? All I wanted is for Bulma to be safe. I wanted to start all over again…I wanted to get things right between us this time. I guess I…blew it," he thought.
Vegeta, meanwhile, was wondering how best to deal with Yamcha. Kakkarot would definitely be on his case for the rest of his life if he killed Yamcha. He so wanted to do that. It would end his Yamcha problem forever. Perhaps the woman would not want him to, though? He could beat Yamcha severely, but he was sure that Bulma would not approve of the kind of beating he had in mind, even if she were truly angry at the weakling. Was she serious about allowing Vegeta to take Yamcha into the gravity room to make him "train?"
"Okay, look," Bulma said. "Yamcha, if you just agree to get off of the grounds and go back home, we'll let you go this one time. I don't EVER want to see you here again. Vegeta has permission to do what he sees fit. He tells me," she looked over at Vegeta meaningfully, though he didn't see her since he was staring Yamcha down, "that he has perfected some new moves and he wants to test them out. I don't particularly feel like creating some new droids for him to destroy, so if you don't leave, YOU will be the new droid."
It sounded harsh, Bulma knew. She couldn't believe what was coming out of her own mouth. Never in a million years would she have believed that she was capable of threatening Yamcha in that way. Threatening to leave him forever, yes. Threatening to call the cops on him, yes. But not this. In truth, she didn't really mean any of it…she just wanted to scare Yamcha enough to get him to leave. Vegeta was really helping her by looking so menacing, but she had a feeling that he didn't see all this as simply wanting Yamcha off the property. The look on his face looked like a "game face." He looked way too into this plot of hers…
Yamcha looked at Bulma. His face was slightly slack and had lost all the machoness he was trying to infuse in it to appear unconcerned about fighting Vegeta. Had she actually just said that to him? "What has he done to you?" His voice was soft in wonderment.
"What do you mean?"
"You're making threats now? You've never made threats like that to one of your friends before, Bulma. I think you've been hanging around him for too long. Did you…did you two really spend the night together…intimately?"
"What's it to you," Vegeta broke in. "Worried that she likes having a man rather than a boy?"
"Yamcha" Bulma raised her voice to stop the new argument before it happened. "Yamcha, I did not sleep with Vegeta. We went away so that we couldn't be interrupted so that we could work out the details of this partnership to keep you off of my property. And all of it will be null and void if you go away and don't come back. You are allowed here if, and only if, there is some sort of world shattering catastrophe that requires everyone to come here. Okay? So if you leave now, Vegeta won't get to do anything to you. I don't want to see you get hurt."
"Don't get into any sort of contract with him, Bulma! He'll twist it to his advantage and he'll never leave you alone! He's a criminal! A murderer! Don't let him trick you! He'll blackmail you or make you his slave or something."
"He's not tricking me, Yamcha," she said in an exasperated tone. "This was my idea."
"But he'll twist it all!"
"Yamcha! I'm leaving you a way out! Go!"
"Or don't…" Vegeta took a step forward and cracked his knuckles for even more effect.
Yamcha raised and lowered his energy frantically. He definitely needed backup. He found that he couldn't back down for two reasons. One: he didn't want to look like a wuss. Two: he found that he couldn't move at all due to fright.
"What are you doing? Calling your friends over? Don't think you can beat me?" Vegeta taunted with an evil grin. He immediately felt several strong energies on their way to the compound. "His friends are coming," he said to Bulma. This was her little game. It was time for her to end it if she didn't want her boyfriend to get hurt. Yamcha had gradually worn away Vegeta's already short fuse. He was dangerously near his breaking point.
Bulma thought wildly of what to do now that she had started this whole fight. She didn't want either of them to get in trouble. "I wish Vegeta would just punch him just a little bit to scare Yamcha. I think that I could defend him for it if he did punch Yamcha."
Vegeta looked at Bulma out of the corner of his eye. He had heard her thought. It was yet another sign of their growing bond. It was actually a symptom of the last stage of bonding. They were progressing much too rapidly for his taste. He disregarded all of his thoughts and chose to act upon what Bulma had thought. He moved forward faster than either Yamcha or Bulma could see and planted a well-placed fist in the middle of Yamcha's stomach with much less force than he would have liked to.
Yamcha doubled over in pain and fell to his knees on the soft grass beneath him. Bulma rushed forward and planted herself in front of Vegeta before he got any more ideas to harm Yamcha.
"She warned you," Vegeta said. "Are you going to leave yet or am I going to have to hurt you again? I say don't leave. I would just love to give you the beating you deserve."
"I think you you're enjoying this more than you should be," Bulma said as she turned to look at him.
She looked up as she spotted Goku's orange outfit floating down. She noticed several other figures approaching in the sky as well.
"What's going on here?" Goku asked. He was staring at Vegeta, clearly knowing that this was all Vegeta's fault.
"Goku, it's not Vegeta's fault. Just wait until everyone else gets here and I'll explain."
Goku kept looking at Vegeta with crossed arms for a bit before moving to help Yamcha stand up again. When the rest of the warriors landed, Bulma explained to them about what was going on.
"It's simple, really," she said. "I just want Yamcha to leave me alone. He wouldn't, so I have enlisted Vegeta, the only person around here that can help me, to keep Yamcha away from here. None of the security guards can beat Yamcha in a fight, and none of them can fly to catch him if he decides to fly to the roof to get in. I needed someone who can fly and who can fight in order to keep Yamcha away from me. I knew that none of you would agree to kick Yamcha's butt, so Vegeta was my choice. And he agreed. That's it. Yamcha wouldn't leave and I've been asking him to do so for about ten minutes now and he didn't leave, so Vegeta punched Yamcha to encourage him to go."
"Is Yamcha stalking you or something?" Gohan asked.
"It's not the way that he sees it, but yes."
"But I am trying to protect you!" Yamcha yelled. "Vegeta is not the type of person you should let into your house! He kills people for a living! He raped you!"
Bulma made a noise between a grunt and a roar and stamped her foot. "Haven't we gone over this already? Isn't this the reason that I want you out of my life! HE DID NOT RAPE ME! I've told you so many times! Do you even listen to me? Everyone else gets it, even Goku. What I did was stupid and reprehensible. I should be punished in some way for the huge and ugly lie that I told. I was wrong, but it is over now and you need to get it through your head that Vegeta didn't do anything to me and since I've apologized to him for having told the lie, he has forgiven me and he isn't going to hurt me. I realize that you wanted to protect me when I made that up, and it was a very noble thing to do, but it's done. It's over. I was never in any danger, it was a lie that I deserve to be punished for, and apparently I am because YOU ARE STILL HERE!"
"He does not belong here! Tell him to go back to his own planet and leave us alone."
Vegeta stepped forward again instinctively. On Frieza's ship, he had always been taunted about the death of his people. In truth, Frieza destroyed many of the planets his warriors were taken from unless the planet happened to have something that his empire didn't currently have. Many of the soldiers had no real home to go back to, but in some way, they got over it and learned to live in the new life they found themselves in. Vegeta had never gotten over his destroyed planet, a planet full of Saiyans to whom he was attached to telepathically by way of his royal blood. He would always step forward, ready for a fight with anyone who dared bring that subject up. "I don't have a planet to go back to, you idiot. It was destroyed along with all of my people." Vegeta said this harshly, but Bulma and Goku could detect a hint of sadness in his voice that Vegeta would be mortified to know was heard.
"So what? Just go to a different planet then!"
"Yamcha." Goku's tone was sharp. "I realize that you're not in the best of moods right now, but think about what you're saying. Vegeta's people…my people, are gone forever. That's not something you just dismiss like that."
"You're on HIS side?"
"I don't need anyone to defend me, especially you, Kakkarot!"
"Okay okay! Everyone shut up!" Bulma yelled. "Yamcha. Get. Off. My. Property. Now. I want you gone in one minute. I'm not going to let you stand here harassing me anymore!"
Bulma wanted this whole situation to end. Was Yamcha ever going to leave her alone? She looked desperately to Goku, who seemed to understand that she didn't want Yamcha to get hurt, and that she and Vegeta were not really in any sort of contract. He couldn't imagine why Vegeta was going along with one of her schemes, though. Usually he complained about Bulma's nagging and screeching voice. Maybe they did have a contract?
"Come on, Yamcha," Goku said. "Vegeta isn't going to hurt Bulma. He never has, and hopefully never will. Maybe Bulma will let you come back once you both have calmed down and won't be yelling at each other all the time." He grabbed Yamcha's elbow and before Yamcha could complain, Goku dragged him into the air and flew towards Yamcha's apartment, saying his farewells to the other fighters over his shoulder.
It had now been four months since that day. Yamcha had ignored Bulma's repeated warnings and Vegeta's numerous attempts on his life, and continued to show up unexpectedly at Capsule Corp. These days, however, he hid his concern that was very much still inside of him and instead opted to become a friend to Bulma again. He felt that if that was going to be the only way that Bulma would allow him back into her life, then that's what he would have to settle for. He wasn't about to leave her alone with a rampaging maniac like Vegeta.
Bulma grudgingly allowed Yamcha to visit. She had been glad when he had left Capsule Corp with Goku that day and she thought that her problems were going to be over, at least for a while anyway. Every time she saw Yamcha, she remembered his child that she was going to give birth to, the one that never had a chance to be born. She wanted Yamcha to leave her alone completely. She didn't want him around and didn't want to be tempted to tell him about all of it before she knew what to say. It was very difficult for her to think about it and she didn't need Yamcha's pacing and staring when she wanted to just sit and think. Allowing him to visit wasn't helping her find quiet time.
Vegeta had left her alone for the most part. Things didn't change. He kept on training, though he seemed to be spending more and more time inside the house lately. She could hear his thoughts sometimes, and a few times during the night she had the strangest dreams about some sort of spaceship with weird creatures passing her in the halls as she walked through them. Sometimes there would be sinister scenes that she couldn't understand. Sometimes she would find herself on strange planets with people covered in blood running past her, afraid for their lives. She had the sickening feeling that these were Vegeta's memories. A few times she woke up to yelling. For the first few moments she would think it was the screams from the people in the dream, but would suddenly realize that it was Vegeta having a nightmare. Every time that it happened, she would run to his room and would open up the door, fully prepared to wake him. He never woke up when she opened the door. In the past, he would always be alert and if he had been sleeping, he would be awake in an instant and would jump out of the bed, ready to attack her before he realized who she was and where he was. When he had his nightmares, he would stay in his dreams and roll around uneasily. It always made her nervous to see this vulnerable side of Vegeta. This Vegeta was scared and was not aware of intruders in his bedroom. It was unsettling to Bulma who knew Vegeta as the strong, uncompromising warrior.
"Bulma," her mother broke in, "Yamcha's here to see you!"
Bulma groaned into her hands. As soon as her mother had left the room, she jumped up and ran through the French doors to the lawn and quickly made her way over to the gravity room. She had been planning on this escape for weeks to be used when she became too fed up with Yamcha. Today, Bulma was not in the mood to deal with Yamcha, and she knew that her mother would never turn away a friend of the family, so this was her only option. It was good timing, because Vegeta was just coming out of the gravity chamber, wiping his face and neck with his ever-present towel.
"Vegeta! I need your help!"
"Don't you think you've asked for my help far too many times already, woman? You're lucky you're not dead yet after that lie."
Bulma waved her hands dismissively. "Ugh! Forget about that! Just go along with my newest plan, okay? It's nothing bad, it has nothing to do with rape, I promise!"
Vegeta was about protest before he noticed Yamcha emerging from the house and looking in their direction. "Huh…don't tell me that this is some way to get back at Yamcha…"
"Well," Bulma said as she wrung her hands, "maybe…"
By this time, Yamcha was close upon them. Bulma had noticed that Vegeta's face had become more set and stern, so she realized that Yamcha was getting close. She chose this time to start with her plan by practically pouncing on Vegeta and hugging him. Unfortunately, she forgot to take into account that people sweat when they train, and man sweat was not the most pleasing smell in the world. The result was that Bulma was nearly knocked out by Vegeta's strong odor, a smell that had been two full days in the making, as Vegeta had trained almost non-stop for that amount of time.
"What the-"
"Just go along with it!" she hissed.
"Bulma?" Yamcha asked incredulously. He wondered why Bulma was hugging Vegeta and, more importantly, why was Vegeta letting her?
She turned and beamed at him with a slight giggle. "Oh, Yamcha! I have good news! Vegeta and I are together now!"
Yamcha didn't make any reaction. He was sure that she meant together as in…well, together, but he didn't want to believe it. Would she stoop so low? …No way! "What do you mean by together?" he asked, trying to appear unconcerned.
Vegeta looked at Bulma sideways, also wanting to know what she meant by "together."
"Well, I mean together! As in 'going out,' 'boyfriend/girlfriend,' that sort of thing, you know? Just now too! We've sort of been getting close to each other over the past few months, and now we want to make it official."
It was true in a way. Bulma knew tons more about Vegeta than she had known a few months ago, but he didn't tell her anything. She got it through their growing bond.
Vegeta stared horrified at her for even thinking to say that they were getting together. What had he been avoiding her for? To have her declare her love for him? No! To avoid her and to avoid the bond, which by the way was growing in strength nonetheless.
"Wh-what?" Yamcha was in a state of disbelief. "When? I never noticed you two getting close!"
"Well, Yamcha, you aren't here all the time…especially at night," she replied playfully.
Vegeta struggled to keep back his protests. If this plan of hers would get Yamcha off of his back, then so be it, he would go along with it.
"Have you two…? No, never mind. I don't want to know. Bulma, I thought WE were getting closer."
"I thought YOU said you wanted to just be friends again."
"But you, with Vegeta? Mass-murderer of planets? Why him? Couldn't you have just gone with Krillen instead? Or Tien? Someone less…evil?"
Bulma smiled and said in a sexy tone, "But Vegeta's a bad boy. Girls like that."
Vegeta was torn between several reactions. One was showing his anger for Bulma talking about him in this way and for making such insinuations. Another, and the one most wanting to break free, was laughter at the expression on Yamcha's face at the moment, which was a look of horror.
Yamcha struggled in vain to find something to say to either of them. He had no clue about what to do or to say and instead he chose to turn and fly away from the building. Bulma waited a few moments until she was sure that Yamcha was not coming back for a while before jumping up and screaming, "Woo!" in victory. Vegeta crossed his arms after she had untangled her arms from around his neck and stood watching her as she did a victory dance around the lawn. She did this for several minutes before she decided she had celebrated enough and turned to look at the quiet Vegeta.
"Why did THAT have to be your plan?" he asked.
"Well, it's true, isn't it? We have a bond, we understand each other, soon we'll be in love and you'll be buying me teddy bears and bringing me chocolates and other presents to show your undying love for me and-"
"Enough." He held up his hand to stop her from continuing. "Tell me, did you think that whole thing through? Was what just occurred the only part to your plan?"
"Yes and yes. Why?"
"What the hell was your reasoning behind it?" He was definitely angered now, and he showed it. She couldn't possibly be so dumb as to think that that little trick would work.
"Yamcha won't bother us anymore if he thinks that you love me even a little. Vegeta," she spoke to him as she would a child, "when people are in love, they generally don't make threats of killing each other. If you are in love with me, you won't hurt me. Yamcha will get that."
"Or he will ignore that and see me for the murderer that I am and will be even more worried about you now that you are supposedly so blissfully and blindly in love with me. How is that for an interpretation?"
I don't know about you guys, but I found myself laughing during the second half of this chapter :-p
Shinigami-Virus: Thanks for the heads up. There will be something like that in there, but to me, the story isn't about the baby dying, really and that event was something to bring V/B together, rather than something to dwell on story-wise. Maybe it wasn't the best choice if I didn't plan to dwell on the event that brought them together, but I thought it was a good idea at the time. People react in different ways to deaths. When someone close to me died, people thought that I didn't care at all because I'm not the kind of person who shows my anguish in front of everyone or even to myself. I didn't think about it too much; kind of like Scarlett O'Hara's "I'll think about that tomorrow." I see Bulma as a very strong person, more like Scarlett O'Hara than I am anyway, and would definitely be saddened by such an unexpected death, but I'm not sure that Bulma would go around talking to her dead kid or about them the way you described the person you know as doing. I see her as being very sad for a while, but after she works it through for herself, she will not let it rule her life and will come back stronger than ever. Some people do what you said, and I have a feeling that when a particular person in my life dies, I'm going to do it myself, but I don't know that an unexpected baby would dosomething drastic to such a strong character like Bulma. But, like I said, there will be anguish and comparisons between the unborn baby and Trunks that I don't want to give away since they will appear later; I'm not completely heartless! You have given me a few ideas, though!
To All: Will everyone tell me what they think? If everyone thinks that Bulma would be completely broken up by this (BULMA based on what you all have read and seen of her, not based on yourself or on the general population because I know that generally people get depressed and feel like they can't go on when their baby dies. I want an unbiased consensus on what Bulma would feel like.), then I will steer my story a different way than it's going.
Also To All: I just realized that my favorite short story (I always seem to do better at the shorter ones…), Don't Stay, fits in perfectly with this story, even though it was written before I even had this story in my head. I guess I have what happened to B/V in my own mind and it all fits together in a way. But yeah, that story would take place sort of as an aside to this one. Like when it's mentioned that Yamcha has cheated before and Bulma has threatened to leave him, that short fic is an instance of it.
Lady Branwen
