Bulma absentmindedly ran her arm over the left side of her bed, where she was expecting a warm body. But of course, she was alone.
Her eyes blinked dully, and her entire body stretched as she yawned. Had she dreamt that Vegeta had come to comfort her in the night?
It definitely seemed…out of character for him to snuggle up with her. Her mind sifted through the hazy memories of the night before. She had been surrounded in green again: it was her least favorite place in the universe, Namek. Except this time, Frieza's ship had exploded, leaving shrapnel bursting through Vegeta's poor body like he was a metallic porcupine. His body was completely shredded, blood and gore everywhere…
She shuddered. How did her mind invent these horrible images?
In her dream, she ran up to his corpse, begging him to stay, not to go. She was completely useless, crying hysterically.
But then she woke up to find the real thing right there in front of her. He was stroking her hair with her head cradled in his lap. It felt like another dream, but she hoped it was truly happening.
In her sleepy state, she managed to convince him to stay with her. He even wrapped his arms around her.
Bulma's stomach did a somersault. She had never felt so safe, so comfortable, so fucking turned on.
She brushed the hair out of her face, rolling over and inspecting her pillow with an eagle eye. If he had been there, she would find evidence.
…There! Two long, black strands of hair were there on her pillowcase. A childish giggle escaped her. It hadn't been a dream. She squealed in delight as she threw back her sheets and hopped out of bed.
The saiyan bastard had a heart after all!
She practically danced around her room, grinning at her reflection in the mirror. She felt giddy. Never in her life would she have pictured herself crushing on Vegeta, but here she was!
She got dressed as fast as she could, eager to find the warrior and see if she could get him all flustered. It was driving her crazy that she still wasn't sure if he was attracted to her. She chose some ass-hugging jeans and a low cut shirt. Hopefully this would help things.
Practically skipping down the hall, she narrowly missed the small pile of broken glass on the floor. It looked like Vegeta had toppled a picture frame off the wall at some point last night. Huh. Weird. Whatever, she'd get a bot to clean it up.
Bulma thrust open the swinging kitchen door like she was a cowboy in an old western saloon. There he was!
Vegeta was wearing a tank top and exercise shorts, shoveling cereal into his mouth with a spoon so quickly she could hardly keep up. He was using a huge popcorn bowl instead of a regular dish, because of course he was.
"Goooood morning, Vegeta!" she crooned in his direction. He offered a mediocre 'eh' sound in response. "How'd you sleep?"
He shrugged, continuing to consume cereal like he was a vacuum.
"Well I never slept better." She turned her back on him, starting a pot of coffee on the counter.
Shit, she needed some more coffee filters. Stupid bots not doing their jobs. She bent over, opening a lower storage cabinet in search of the little papers she needed. Her arm carelessly groped around in the cabinet as she leaned in, trying to feel for the package.
She turned her head to ask, "So, when are you going to join us humans in our caffeine addiction?"
Wait. Wait a second!
His eyes quickly darted away from her ass and back to his bowl of cereal. His face was suddenly very, very red for some mysterious reason.
She closed the cabinet, turning back to her coffee pot as if she hadn't seen anything. She let herself grin for just a moment while she popped a paper filter in the machine. She felt victorious. Validated. It was pumping through her.
"I bet if you started your day with some coffee, you'd reach super saiyan in no time," she wryly commented, poking the bear. This oughta be good.
"Woman, if ascending to the legendary form of Super Saiyan were that easy, everyone would be doing it. Gods." A loud scoff met her ears.
She kept her back toward him, shoulders shaking slightly as she tried to contain a giggle.
"What's so fucking funny?"
Uh oh, busted.
She flipped the coffee maker switch to on. "Oh, nothing."
"It sounds like you're laughing at my race's ultimate transformation, the last hope for you and your puny little planet."
Bulma turned back to face him, dropping her smile. "It sounds like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Which is weird. Because I woke up on the wrong side of my bed, but I feel great."
His face remained flushed. Maybe it would never go back to its normal color. That would be cute.
"Just get out what you're trying to say so I can move on with my day."
So grouchy.
"Well," she crossed the kitchen, pulling out a seat across the table from him. She sat, tucking her hair behind an ear. She guessed it was time to get to the point. "I wanted to thank you for last night. I'm not sure exactly what caused it-"
"You were going insane again," he interrupted gruffly.
Her eyebrows furrowed together. "Insane?"
He nodded, finally pushing his comically large bowl away from him and crossing his arms. "Absolutely insane. Your energy was like a wildfire. It woke me up from a dead sleep."
Now it was her turn to blush. She felt her face heating up. "I…What? Really?"
"Yes. I thought you were in mortal danger."
She felt her cheeks getting warmer. "Well…sorry about that. I didn't realize. Thank you."
Vegeta shrugged. "Don't expect that to be a regular occurance."
Bulma propped her arm up on the table, resting her chin on her hand. She took the time to survey the saiyan across from her. He had that regular stern expression on his face, arms crossed, but he seemed…different today. Softer somehow? Calmer?
She idly tapped her index finger against her lips, thinking. Did she want to play it safe, or keep pushing his buttons?
One of his eyebrows shot up. "What?" he pried, irritation clear in his voice.
"Oh, I'm just thinking…" she hoped her voice sounded innocent.
Vegeta promptly stood up, his chair practically toppling over from his speed. "Whatever it is, I don't want to know."
She pouted at him, dropping her hand back to her lap. She didn't bother getting up, she just stared upwards at him. "You don't want to hang out while my coffee brews?"
"Tch, I don't have time for hanging out, I assure you…" his eyes slid over her once more, and this time she was sure he took a quick look at her cleavage. She picked the perfect outfit today. He made his way to the door.
She finally stood, following him. "Well, Dad is still working on the gravity chamber. It's gonna be a little while before it's up and running again." She grabbed his arm again, like last night, halting his movement. His skin was warm. "Why don't you stay on the grounds today, and we can have a rest day?"
"Woman, I do not have time to rest, no matter what you say." He pulled his arm away and continued to the door. His palm touched the surface, but he hesitated, not pushing the door open yet. "I…will be back for dinner." He sent the door flying open, and disappeared from there.
She thought her jaw might fall off from the shock. Was that…was that Vegeta's version of a date?! Either way, that was him actually considering someone besides himself for a change. The coffee maker made a beeping sound, and she grinned to herself. As long as Vegeta didn't kill himself training, today was shaping up to be a great day.
—
Bulma knew that between the bots and a few employees, her dad had the gravity machine reconstruction completely under control. They were basically rebuilding it with a few minor tweaks to help its reinforcement and containment.
Knowing that it was being taken care of, she felt better about hunting down her mother to beg for her help. She found her out in the large greenhouse, watering some plants by hand with a watering can. She really loved those plants.
"Mom!" Bulma rushed over to her petite mother, who was bent over some begonias.
"Hmm? Oh hi, sweetie, good morning," she answered with a big smile, her eyes seemingly closed as usual.
"I need your help." She had rushed over so fast, she didn't plan a strategy here.
Panchy gently placed her watering can on a small, decorative metal table, before gesturing over to some patio furniture nearby. They both took a seat across from each other, and her mother took a moment to call over a bot to ask for some coffee.
"Well, sweetie, what's going on?" Her mother crossed her legs in her seat, getting comfortable.
"I…" Bulma stopped to think about her words for a moment. "I need help making dinner."
"Oh?" She smiled. "You suddenly cooking dinner for us?"
Bulma laughed, putting her hands up in the air in a surrender motion. "Oh no, nothing like that! I kinda think that I maybe, sorta have a date?"
"Oh! With who?" A bot hovered over and placed two small mugs on the table in front of them, then poured coffee from a pot into each mug. Her mother thanked the bot.
"Vegeta."
Bulma was expecting some sort of spit-take situation, where her mother would sputter her confusion and insist that she couldn't possibly date the warrior or they'd all end up dead.
She wasn't expecting…a positive response.
"Oh, that's nice, sweetie. Well, what were you thinking of cooking? You're going to want to at the very least quadruple any recipe. Maybe multiply it by eight to be safe…" Panchy seemingly stared off into the distance for a moment, thinking.
"So you…you're okay with that?" Bulma swallowed nervously. Was she really taking it this well? Vegeta was basically a homicidal maniac, after all!
"Okay with what, sweetie? You know we have more than enough food stored away, we order in bulk now for Vegeta dear."
Huh. She did always call him Vegeta dear, like dear was a part of his name.
"I meant, are you okay with me dating a murderous alien warrior prince?" Bulma was exasperated.
"Oh hun, you know I don't care as long as you're happy." She paused to take a sip out of her coffee cup before continuing. "And I know you weren't happy with Yamcha, at least not for a long time."
Bulma followed suit, tenderly grasping her mug and blowing on her coffee before sipping. She was probably gonna get the caffeine jitters. "Yeah…you're right. I was with Yamcha for so long, and in the end it just felt suffocating. I'm not expecting boyfriend material out of Vegeta, but it kinda feels nice to have a crush again." She couldn't hide her smile behind her mug. "He's a fucking maniac, but I think he has a heart of gold deep down."
"This is perfect!" her mother managed to daintily place her coffee back on the table through her excitement. "Now you can help me with training him!"
Her face fell. "I…wha…training him? He's not a poodle, mom, he's a mass murderer."
Panchy dismissed her comment with a wave. "I've been working on him for the past couple weeks, and he's showing signs of improvement already! He just needs some positive reinforcement."
"Positive reinforcement?" Bulma couldn't believe what she was hearing.
Her mother nodded at her enthusiastically. "Mhm! I gently corrected his bad behavior, which was destroying half of his bathroom and his bedroom door, and then when he promised to be a good boy I rewarded him with taco salad. He is very food motivated!"
Bulma practically choked on her laugh. "He did not promise to be a good boy."
"Believe it or not, he was very agreeable."
She was shaking from laughter. She took another sip of her coffee, feeling genuinely content for the first time in a while. "Well…he is food motivated, I'll give you that. I think it's a saiyan thing."
"Well our dear Goku is a saiyan, and he is one of the most wonderful people in the whole universe. I'm sure you could fix Vegeta up to be, well, a decent enough guy in the universe."
Bulma grinned. "I don't think I need to fix him, Mom. He's rough around the edges, but I kinda like where he's at."
Panchy sighed, shaking her head as Bulma took another casual sip of coffee. "Sweetie, you are beautiful, smart, and have everything you could ever want. Why do you always chase the assholes?"
Bulma sputtered her drink out, making a mess of the table. "Mom! You never talk like that!"
Her mother shrugged, signaling for another bot to come by to clean up. "I just call it like I see it."
—
Thanks for reading!
I adore Panchy, and I want everyone to know it.