Wow! Thanks to each and every one of you who reviewed, chose it as a favorite, and/or are following my story! I have to say, I am humbled…I wasn't sure if anyone would read this, let alone like the story so far. I appreciate the time you take out of your day to read a fan fiction about my favorite anime couple. They must hold a special place in your hearts as well, since you're reading this…and we all know that great minds think alike! Nice to know I'm in good company! Thank you for making me feel welcomed into the fan fiction world.

A/N: Sorry for the wait, work has been crazy and the days have been long. I hope you enjoy this next chapter! I don't own DBZ or any of its characters. If I did, I would have made Vegeta the main focus. It's all about the anti-heroes.

Chapter 2: Swimming Through Sick Lullabies

Bulma slept deeply and soundly for a very short part of the late night. Working hard everyday, stressing out, and getting by on only a handful of hours of sleep a night for the past few weeks would burn anyone out. She had been lost in the oblivion of the darkness, as her body sank into the deepest of sleep cycles. It was during this time that her subconscious came into play, and presented her with a dream she could not escape from.

She didn't know how the dream started, or that she was even dreaming for that matter, as Bulma found herself surrounded in absolute darkness, with only a soft light bathing over where she stood. She looked around at the black void, and saw another light further down in the distance. She took a step tentatively outside the perimeter of the ring of light, expecting her foot to touch nothing but air but found solid ground instead. Curious by nature, she quickly took off, hurrying through the darkness to make her way to the only other light around. As she approached it she noticed a man cloaked in the shadows of the light, standing there…waiting for her.

"Hello?" Bulma called out softly, unsure of who this man was, or what he wanted.

"It's about time." the male voice said. It sounded very familiar, but she couldn't quite place who it was. Before she could question any further, the scenery changed around her, and she shielded her eyes from a rapid whirlwind of brightness and color. She found herself dazed, in the middle of a church, with her arm around her father's. She gathered from her surroundings that she was already more than halfway down the aisle, heading towards an altar.

"What's going on?…" Bulma trailed off, shocked at the abrupt change around her, and she looked over at her father, who gave her arm a squeeze.

"Why, it's your wedding, sweetie." Dr. Briefs chuckled, as they approached the altar. Bulma gulped with difficulty, and stole a quick glance-over of the wedding party, her eyes then settling on the groom.

A groom who was a dark, shadowy figure, with no discernable features.

"I-I can't marry you." Bulma squeaked out, afraid of whoever this shadow man was.

"Very funny, Bulma." Yamcha's amused voice rang out from behind her. She glanced back behind her shoulder, expecting to see Yamcha. She only saw the crowd of spectators there for her wedding, laughing at her comment.

"What…?" she trailed off, momentarily distracted by his absence. Suddenly she felt her arm being handed over to the groom, who had now turned into a recognizable person. It was Yamcha, dressed in a dashing black tuxedo.

"I was beginning to think you stood me up." Yamcha smiled, bringing her arm and the side of her body tight against his own, almost painfully. Bulma's discomfort and unease was apparent. Even in her dream she began to panic, as time seemed to warp, and before she knew it, Yamcha was saying 'I do.'

"Bulma, do you take Yamcha to be your wedded husband? To have and to hold, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?" the presiding official asked her.

Hell, she was still struggling to free herself from Yamcha's grasp, let alone answer him! Was he crazy? How could he expect an answer from her right at this instant?!

"I…I can't do this right now! I need a moment! Let go of me!" Bulma cried out in distress. It seemed like Yamcha nor anyone else had even heard what she said.

"She's speechless with happiness." Yamcha spoke proudly, earning laughter from the crowd. "Of course she does." he answered for her, causing Bulma to freak out.

She tried to speak again, to deny everything and stop the wedding, but she couldn't get her voice to work. She tried and tried, straining to speak, but nothing came out! Her struggles against his grasp were futile. In desperation, she looked behind her, over her shoulder at her parents, trying to plead for them to help her. Abruptly, she felt the iron grip that had been on her arm loosen up completely.

"Now's not the time to get cold feet, woman. You insisted we have an Earthling wedding, so kindly answer the man." a stern whisper hit Bulma's ears. She quickly whipped her head back around, only to look right into Vegeta's formidable eyes. She gasped, and looked down, seeing their arms hooked together, holding hands. Where did Yamcha go? She looked back up at Vegeta, seeing urgency etched on his handsome face. "If you do not wish to be my mate anymore, then I will end this right now."

"But-I don't-what?…" Bulma stammered, not understanding what was going on. At least her voice was working again.

"Bulma, do you take Prince Vegeta, or not?" the official said, rudely pressing her for an answer. Vegeta glared at him with a deadly look, and he wisely decided to snap his mouth shut, giving them a much needed moment to talk.

Vegeta gently pulled her closer towards him. "If you are changing your mind, woman, tell me now. There's no going back after this." he said softly into Bulma's ear. She had expected him to be lit up with rage at her indecision, not as calm and serious-minded as he was at this moment! His close proximity had unnerved her. A slight shiver ran through her. It wasn't unpleasant, but it wasn't pleasurable either.

"It's not that." Bulma emphasized, trying to explain. What the hell happened? One moment she was getting married to Yamcha, and now Vegeta?

He seemed somewhat relieved. "I knew this Earthling wedding was a waste of time." Vegeta sneered, crossing his arms across his chest, expressing his discontent.

"Our wedding is NOT a waste of time!" she whispered harshly back, glaring at him. Vegeta's eyes seemed to sparkle in amusement, a smirk on his lips.

"When we get back to Vegetasei, we'll have a proper royal wedding. It's the only one that counts." he said very matter-of-factly.

"You have some nerve!" Bulma grit back out, ready to pick up her dress and storm away from him. How dare he think such a beautiful traditional Earth wedding didn't count! It mattered to her, damn it! It was important for them to be married under Earth customs also! "You know it's important to me! If you don't want to marry me on Earth, then I sure as hell won't marry you on Vegetasei!" As she started to turn away from him, Vegeta's arm reached around her waist, pulling her back over to him. He leaned in close, looking into her eyes, a predatory smile gracing his lips.

"Calm down, woman. I wouldn't have agreed to this if I didn't want to. I'll go along with your silly Earth wedding, but to become my princess, nothing short of a royal Saiyan wedding will do."

His dulcet tones managed to calm Bulma down a bit, as she huffed in irritation. "Then stop being a jerk about it!"

Vegeta perked an eyebrow up, amused. "You're the one who's not answering the question."

"I…" she stammered, not sure how to reply to that. What was the question again? Oh yes, did she take Vegeta for her husband?

That was one hell of a question.

"Answer the man, and let's get on with it. We've got another wedding to go through with. Not to mention a honeymoon…" Vegeta whispered in a husky tone. "I promise you that no honeymoon on Earth will match where I will be taking you to, or everything I plan to do to you." he assured, bringing the tip of his tail to caress her arm, in a rare display of affection.

Bulma managed a difficult swallow, feeling butterflies in her stomach. Damn his words and sexy voice. And that tail! The simple, but profound, gesture of affection he made towards her had her biting her lip softly. Not to mention the lust that was swimming in his dark eyes for her. Or maybe it was the other way around?

An awkward clearing of the official's throat pulled both Bulma and Vegeta away from their moment with each other, and they dually glared at him. "Bulma, do you take Prince Vegeta to be your husband?" the presiding official asked, his voice shaking a little, looking like he didn't want to be blasted to bits by the surly Saiyan prince for interrupting their heated moment.

"I…" Bulma hesitated fleetingly, and looked at Vegeta again. What was she doing? She was going to marry Vegeta? She was not in her right mind. " I do."

Yep, she was definitely not in the right state of mind.

"Then I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride." the official gestured at Vegeta, bowing in respect. Bulma suddenly felt Vegeta's tail curl around her waist and bring her body flush against his.

She began to feel some sort of nervous excitement, being so close to him, as she felt his lips close in on hers. She closed her eyes, and could not really feel his lips, or the intensity of the kiss….perhaps because she truly did not know what it was like to kiss him. Alarmingly, the grip around her waist began to tighten and hurt, and she opened her eyes and pulled away, ready to snap at Vegeta for being so rough with her, only to see it was Yamcha again.

"What!" Bulma squealed out, not understanding why Vegeta was now Yamcha. Where was Vegeta? What happened to him? Who had she married?!

"We did it, babe. Now we're together, forever!" Yamcha said in a sickeningly sweet tone. "You're mine, and now everyone knows it!" Suddenly, before she knew it, she was caught in a swirl of colors and sounds, and the scenery morphed again. Now they were on the Capsule Corp grounds, at their reception in the ballroom. Everyone was happily eating and chatting away, not noticing the newlyweds.

"NO!" Bulma yelled out, pushing Yamcha away from her, breaking free from his arm around her waist. "No I didn't want this! How could you do this to me? You forced me into marrying you!" she yelled out bitterly, beginning to cry in her dream.

"You said 'I do!' " Yamcha yelled out, getting angry. He gripped the sides of her arms. "If you didn't want to marry me, you should have said something!"

Bulma started choking on her sobs. "I did! But you couldn't hear me, no one was listening to me!"

"Well, it's too late now." Yamcha smirked proudly. "Ah it's nice to be married to the richest, most beautiful and powerful woman on Earth. And someday I'll be owner of half of the corporation!" he boasted, ignoring Bulma now as he walked over to an scantily-clad female wedding guest, putting his arm around her and leaning into her, and began to whisper sweet nothings into her ear. He earned a horrified gasp from Bulma.

"You bastard! We just got married!" Bulma seethed, going up to Yamcha and smacking her fists against his chest. "What's wrong with you?! How could you be cheating on me again already?! Am I not good enough?! How can I keep trusting you?!" She continued to cry and rage against him, bitter and heartbroken that she was now tied down to a man she wasn't sure she had wanted to marry.

Bulma was tossing and turning uncomfortably in her bed, whimpering in distress and crying from her dream. She could not break free from it.

Her dream continued on, and in it, Yamcha shrugged her off, turning and walking off with the other woman in his arms, as the wedding guests continued on as if they never saw what happened. Feeling the panic grip her once again, she gathered up her wedding dress and ran crying out of the ballroom, down a private hallway. She sank down against a wall, gathering her knees up to her chest and covered her face with her arms, feeling like she had lost control of everything. It was a feeling she was not familiar with. Her sobs wracked her body, and around her the darkness started to engulf her. She looked up, expecting to see the hallway she was in, and instead saw her dream fading away into blackness.

The darkness was menacing and suffocating, as she felt she was stuck in some hellish never-ending eternity. This time she was frightened. She once again saw a light in the darkness, very far away from her…farther than it had been the first time. She managed to stand up, and this time ran full speed toward the light, feeling as though something ominous and intimidating was behind her, trying to drag her into its depths. As she reached the light, she stopped dead in her tracks, seeing a very familiar outline of a man. A man with his arms across his chest, standing strong and unyielding, with long, spiked up hair that looked like a black flame.

"Vegeta?" Bulma questioned in uncertainty, unconfident of what was going on anymore.

"It's about time you made your way to me." he said darkly, scowling at her. He looked intimidating, the shadows of light and dark that crossed his face made him look menacing. Bulma wasn't sure if she should be unnerved at his appearance. But whatever was behind her in the darkness was far more terrifying than the Saiyan prince in front of her.

"Where were you?! Where'd you go?!" Bulma couldn't help but lash out at him. She felt betrayed. She watched Vegeta's face change from displeased to confusion.

"What the hell are you bitching about?! I was there the entire time, watching you marry that sorry excuse for a human." Vegeta said coldly. "Then again, all humans are pathetic."

"Even me?" Bulma asked, as she stepped partially into the light with him. The genuine tone in her voice urged him for the truth.

"You're not as pathetic as the average human. Although marrying the weakling is a lapse in your judgment that is proving to be a hard thing for me to oversee."

"Jerk." Bulma continued to sniffle, harshly nudging Vegeta's chest with one open hand. He didn't budge. She was irritated. Figures he would throw something like this in her face. "Why didn't you stop me from marrying him?"

"It wasn't my place, woman."

"As my friend, you're supposed to tell me when I'm making a bad decision." Bulma remarked, feeling hot tears well up in her eyes again. She tried to not let the tears fall, it would be shameful to cry in front of him, and she didn't want to seem weak in front of Vegeta. Well, it wasn't like he couldn't already tell she had been crying her eyes out…she was sure her makeup must have been smeared all over her face. She probably looked horrible.

"I am not your friend. And my dislike of scar-face is not something that you already didn't know." Vegeta said darkly. Before Bulma could even get a chance to reply, her dream morphed again. The darkness she was surrounded in had given way to the ballroom dance floor, where she and Yamcha were the only ones on it. Everyone else was gathered around, all eyes on them. She quickly forced her tears away, confused as to what was going on. She quickly scanned the audience for any sign of Vegeta.

"He's not here." Yamcha strolled up to her, grabbing her into a ballroom stance as the lights dimmed and music began to play, and he forced her to dance across the floor. She struggled to remove herself from his grasp, but it was like she was glued to him. "So I suggest you start being happy with being married to me. After all, if you didn't want to, you shouldn't have said 'yes' when I asked you."

Bulma started getting angry again. "Let go of me, Yamcha!" she yelled, trying to break herself free, but he wasn't having any of it. "I can still undo this! I don't have to stay married to you!"

"Just smile for the cameras." he said, ignoring her last comment, gesturing over with his head to a group of paparazzi who were snapping endless photos and videotaping their reception. This enraged her even more! They had no place in her most private affairs!

"Why are they here?! I didn't invite them!" Bulma screeched, as they continued snapping photos.

"I know you didn't. I did. We couldn't very well tease the world with such an epic wedding without letting them get to see it first hand. It's great for publicity, babe, and it'll definitely help me with my newfound fame." Yamcha smiled happily for the cameras.

"How could you!" Bulma started to cry again in her dream, struggling against Yamcha's iron grip. "How could you use me this way?! I thought you were the only one in the world who wouldn't do that to me!"

Bulma's pillow was damp with many tears "No! No! Why!" Bulma cried out in her sleep, fighting against the demons that were haunting her. She restlessly thrashed around, willing herself to get out of whatever trap she was in. Very slowly Bulma started to feel her dream slip away from her, as though she was being pulled forward from the deepest vortex of sleep, as her consciousness began to awaken. Her eyes finally opened up, and in fright, she sat up abruptly, looking around in desperation, unsure of what world she was in. She still had some tears streaking down her face as she willed her lungs to breathe deeply, trying to force her body to stop shaking. "What the hell?" she said weakly, her voice trembling as the torrent of emotions from her dream were still raw.

A dream? She's had dreams before. That was no fucking dream.

'A nightmare…' Bulma confirmed quietly in her mind, trying to shake her grogginess off, mentally telling herself over and over that it was just a dream. A very bad dream.

"Kami…" Bulma breathed, covering her face with her hands, still feeling overwhelmed at the intense emotions that carried over from her dreams to the waking world. Couldn't her mind differentiate between a dream and reality? She felt as though all of this really happened! What the hell kind of dream was that? It was too much for her to handle. She let herself fall back onto her bed in a huff, frustrated and plagued with so many more thoughts and emotions that her nightmare had ruthlessly brought to her attention. To her dismay, her pillow was really damp from her crying, and her bed sheets had a sheen of sweat from her panic attack during her sleep. Sighing, she got out of bed, and rubbed her face, trying to shake off how she was feeling. She glanced over at the clock, seeing it was just past 6am. It was almost dawn out.

'Two and a half hours of sleep, you have got to be kidding me. Unbelievable.' she thought irritably. Feeling sweaty and feverish, Bulma gathered a fresh change of clothes and went into her bathroom, and began to draw a warm bath. After undressing, she entered the large tub and rested her head on the neck support. She took a couple of deep, relaxing breaths, and let them out. She closed her eyes, and began to think.

Honestly, she was afraid of going back to sleep, worried she'd slip into another nightmare. If she stayed awake, she was only going to think about the dream. She wasn't sure she wanted to analyze it just yet. She relaxed, letting her hands gently swipe at the layers of bubbles on the surface of the water. She let the gentle motions comfort her, letting the warmth of her bathwater soothe her frazzled nerves. She was trying not to think of the dream, but she couldn't help it. How could she not replay the dream over and over again, analyzing everything the way her scientific mind was trained to do?

She couldn't figure out who the shadowy figure was at the beginning of the dream. She knew she hadn't been scared of him. She realized that since her wedding had been on her mind so much lately, it would only make sense that her dream would be about it. The fact that the shadowy figure turned into Yamcha…well she wasn't sure what that meant. And the way Yamcha treated her up on the altar, forcing her by his side! Her face furrowed, displeased. He wasn't like that in real life, so why in her dream was he so possessive and rough with her? More disturbing, was how she protested against him and panicked. She didn't understand why she would react that way in a dream, when she agreed to marry him in real life. Sure, she was having more than her fair share of doubts about things, but to have reacted that way….

Then in came Vegeta. Well didn't he just make it one big clusterfuck of a mess. 'Kami, what was that all about?' Bulma mentally chastised herself, wondering how in hell her mind put Vegeta at the altar in Yamcha's place. It was that damn talk her mother had with her, putting all these crazy ideas of her and Vegeta into her mind! That had to be it. Like she would ever consider marrying Vegeta! Hell, like he would ever consider marrying her! The fact that unnerved her was that she didn't reallly protest to marrying him. Then came his flirtatiousness and Bulma couldn't help but blush as she thought about what he had said and how she had felt towards him in the dream. The feelings that Vegeta invoked in her within the dream felt very real, but she reasoned that she didn't know what she was doing.

And when she said 'I do' to marrying Vegeta….what in the world compelled her to agree to marry him? She fought tooth and claw against Yamcha, but gave in so easily to Vegeta? 'You're insane, you've really lost it.' Bulma told herself as she soaked in the tub, enjoying the therapeutic water. Her dream made no sense. Her face scowled slightly, thinking about how Vegeta disappeared, and Yamcha came back into the dream. She had flipped out, she felt she had been tricked into marrying Yamcha. 'I'm a horrible person.' Bulma mentally berated herself, unhappy with how she felt towards Yamcha in the dream. She felt like she betrayed him somehow.

Hell, he betrayed her, in real life and in the dream! Even in her dream world, he walked off with another woman! She remembered what she yelled at him about. Perhaps she never really forgave his past infidelities and moved on, since her dream made that perfectly clear. Maybe that was making her be so doubtful about marrying him?

Damn her mother and her talk! It was all her fault, filling her mind with these absurd ideas that she didn't 'want' to marry Yamcha, and that Vegeta would be a 'better' option. No wonder she had such a fucked up dream. Never mind that her actions in the dream reflected exactly that.

Bulma sighed miserably, bringing her hands to her face and rubbing it in frustration. She was still feeling some of the emotions she had felt during her nightmare, but on a much lesser scale. The most frightening part of her whole dream, to her, was the fact that she agreed to marry Vegeta. 'I don't see him in that way….I don't feel anything like that towards him…' Bulma tried to convince herself, but she couldn't dispute it -she had said 'I do' in her dream. Even more unnerving was that Vegeta seemed to want to marry her also. What would make her mind do that? To make her think that Vegeta wanted her as his mate?

"Ugh!" Bulma groaned out in complaint, huffing out in irritation. "It's just a stupid dream, brought on by stress and sleep-deprivation. I didn't know what I was saying or doing…" Bulma said out loud to herself, determined to convince herself, but deep down, the events in her dream bothered her greatly. She decided to get out of the damn tub and get dressed. She couldn't think about the nightmare over and over again anymore, she didn't want to. It was dumb, and stupid, and held no truths in it at all! Dreams came from the mind, and her mind was brilliant, and strong, and logical. This dream meant nothing, and she refused to let it affect her. She refused to let it be a sign.

Alas, no one told her that dreams were pathways, originating from the heart.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It was a joy to write. Please, leave a review and let me know what you think! I'm still working on chapter 3, I'm not even close to being done with it, but I can at least tease you with this….Vegeta will be making his official appearance! Anyone else care to join me in the happy-happy-joy-joy dance?