Hello my lovely readers! That is….if any of you are still following this story after my long absence. Sorry for being gone so long, I can't blame you if you're frustrated with me. It's been a month. One very long month. Honestly, I wasn't sure when I was going to be able to write and update my story. My father-in-law passed away very suddenly about a month ago. It turned things upside down. We had a quick funeral to deal with, and my mother-in-law had to move in with us. During this abrupt adjustment, we've had to help her move and support her financially since she's been left with nothing. Also my job sent me to a different store and put me on the closing shifts, so I have a longer drive to and from work, and come home much later than I used to. Did I mention I had a dental emergency also? Three visits to the dentist, one for a root canal three weeks ago, reconstruction of the tooth last week, and a crown put on it this week.
My stress level has been high, work has been tiring and long, and it's just been a very trying and stressful past few weeks. I've been trying my best to work on this story as I found the time, but honestly with everything going on, my inspiration and focus has not been around as much as I wanted it to be. I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to get this chapter out to you, but I do promise to finish this story. I have another 5 or 6 chapters on the way, so I hope you'll continue to stick with me throughout this journey.
On a more positive note, I'm very happy to be presenting you with the next installment of our favorite DBZ couple. I really hope you enjoy it, please let me know what you think!
A/N: I do own Dragonball Z. On DVD. Speaking of, three of my seasons are missing (my husband lent them to one of his coworkers). It's not like I have the time to watch them, but still, knowing that they are gone still bugs me.
Chapter 11- The Web I Spin For You
'Fucking hell..' Bulma quietly cursed to herself, seeing the damage that Vegeta had caused to the gravity room as she cautiously entered. Standing momentarily awe-stricken by the destruction, she was not quite sure what to think at first. She snapped out of her daze as it was quickly replaced by a heightened sense of irritation and frustration. "Damaged the power core and control panel, my ass." she muttered to herself as she carefully made her way through broken and bent pieces of metal, wiring, plastic, and stepping over other unrecognizable debris that littered the gravity room. The damage was much worse than Vegeta had first led her to believe.
Bulma walked over to the main power core that used to be in the middle of the room. The power core not only had a hole in it, but it was also completely disconnected at the top where it had once reached the ceiling. Now it tilted sideways, perched precariously against the side of one of the gravity room's walls. 'Well he sure wasn't exaggerating about blowing a hole through this..' she thought as she saw straight through to the other side of the wall. She shook her head slightly and proceeded to walk over to the control panel, seeing it thoroughly bent inwards, '…or smashing this…' she finished her thought as Bulma placed a hand on her hip and sighed in aggravation. She pulled one of thicker strands of hair that framed her face behind her ear, still assessing the damage to the gravity room. Aside from the power core being out of commission, the large flat screen monitor was wrecked, as well as the wiring to the video feed, and the metal frame that held it. She glanced downward distastefully, seeing the majority of the floor was demolished as large jagged chunks of flooring were upheaved. The tiles were broken, cracked, and mostly turned into rubble. The once sturdy walls were in no better shape. Bulma glanced upward and saw the red morning sky….it wasn't difficult, considering how there were multiple holes completely blown through the gravity room walls.
She sighed irritably. The damage was extensive. Beyond extensive. This was not an easy fix like she had initially thought it was going to be. The control panel would have been easy enough to repair, the replacement parts for it would be readily available, she figured, as well as the microchips and the wiring. The power core would have been more of a challenge. The replacement parts required to repair it most likely would not be readily available, and she would have had to go through all the spare parts and materials there in the engineering sector to see what she could use in substitution to repair it. Even if she had found all the materials today and used her engineering genius to fix the power core, repairing and replacing the damaged wiring and connectors-as well as reprogramming the system-would have taken hours, if not days. And that was if it had only been the control panel and power core she needed to repair.
Bulma huffed again, drinking in another panoramic view of the destroyed gravity room. The walls and the flooring were utterly compromised. Even if she were to restore the flooring, the walls had been too badly damaged. There was no way she would be able to repair the walls or reinforce them. Their stability was completely and entirely compromised, and she could not trust the machine to perform under the overwhelming strain of such enhanced gravity without posing a very real dangerous and deadly threat to the prince who would be confined within it. And it would be a dark day in hell to let Vegeta get hurt again by any mistake, miscalculation, or mis-engineered work on her part. He had almost died by her mistake once, and it would not happen again.
"Ugh, he's not going to like hearing this..." Bulma murmured to herself, knowing Vegeta would be less than pleased to know that not only could she not repair his machine, but that she would have to build him a new one, which would take much longer than either one of them had expected. His new gravity room was going to take weeks, maybe even months to design and construct. Time was a luxury that neither one of them had, and the beautiful scientist let out a breath of annoyance at the situation. 'Why the hell didn't he tell me he completely destroyed the gravity room!' she griped to herself, wondering why Vegeta would decide to not tell her the full condition of the machine. Well, she thought to herself, why not just ask him?!
Saiyan guards stood stiffly at attention along the long, winding hallway that lead to the luxurious, round foyer, which in turn lead directly to the grand conference room where the royal family and their foreign guests were currently discussing interplanetary trade agreements. Bulma breezed by the guards, a stern and determined look on her face, not noticing how the guards each nodded to her in respect and granted her unquestioned access as she approached the entrance to the room.
"Bulma." Turles said, hiding the surprise in his voice as best he could. It wasn't everyday he saw the blue-haired human beauty. "So the rumors are true, you are here."
"Turles." Bulma commented back, wanting to smile and hug him hello but knew that she had to keep things professional in front of the other foreign dignitaries who were waiting around for their audience with the royal Saiyan family. She was already getting looks from some of them, half of them probably wondering who in hell she was, and half of them probably wondering if she was a Saiyan, going by the curious looks on their faces. Not to mention she was already in an irritable mood after seeing her precious gravity machine in pieces. "I am. But for how long remains to be determined."
"Leave it to my cousin to not tell me you were coming."
"It's not Goku's fault. He didn't know I was coming to Vegetasei today. It was a last minute kinda thing." Bulma smirked, watching as Turles tried to stifle a smile. "Anyway, I know they just went in there not too long ago, but would you get Vegeta for me? I need to talk to him."
"Of course." Turles nodded his head, placing his right arm over his torso as he gave her a slight bow, before opening one of the enormous doors of the conference room. He headed inside while Bulma stayed outside, crossing her arms over her torso as she patiently waited. The other Saiyan guards watched over not only the door-but protectively over their beloved human female-who was causing a small murmur amongst the foreign dignitaries.
Rap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
Rap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
Rap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
Vegeta sat back in his large, plush throne chair as he mindlessly drummed his fingertips on the large table, the tip of his tail flicking against his hip in synchronicity. It hadn't even been half an hour into the discussions and he was already horribly irritated. His darkened demeanor was evident to everyone, and wisely no one addressed him directly, choosing to point their comments and concerns to the King and Queen. It was fine with him. He'd rather sit there and stew in silent annoyance than have to open his mouth and inadvertently burn bridges with other planets. After all, killing a foreign ambassador would definitely taint the atmosphere of the conferences. Let sleeping dogs lie, was the saying back on Earth…and everyone inside there, although they were unfamiliar with the saying, knew just to leave him alone.
His finger-tapping became more forceful as he sensed Bulma's energy signal heading his direction. He knew that even she was not able to fix his gravity room so quickly…so this meant she was either going to yell at him about something…or worse. His mood grew a little darker as the woman approached the entrance to the conference room. His gaze swept over the room for a moment, seeing that everyone was engrossed in discussions. Vegeta abruptly stood up, taking off his scouter and placing it on the table as he began to walk away from the meeting. Apparently his actions did not go unnoticed as there was a noticeable hush amongst everyone, their discussions momentarily paused as they eyed the dark prince and tried to anticipate his actions. He offered no reason, excuse or explanation for his sudden departure as he began to leave the room, and the discussions resumed. He ignored the angered glares he swore he could feel behind his back from his parents as Turles entered into the conference room and headed toward him. Vegeta sighed in irritation as he snappily nodded at him to turn back around and exit. He refused to have Bulma inside that room if he could help it. Turles got the hint and abruptly did an about-face, hastily leaving the room.
To Bulma's slight surprise, Turles walked right back out of the conference room, with Vegeta following right behind him. Upon Vegeta's appearance in the foyer, the Saiyan guards brought their right fist over their heart and firmly pounded on their chest twice as they bowed to him. Those in the other foreign parties who were seated quickly rose up, all of them bowing graciously to the tumultuous Saiyan prince. Bulma was the only one who did not acknowledge the prince in such a way, and this did not go unnoticed by the foreigners. Perhaps this particular female was someone strong-or important-that she did not to have to address Saiyan royalty the appropriate way. Upon seeing that the dark prince took no offense to her actions, or lack thereof, only confirmed that perhaps she was someone that was not to be crossed.
Vegeta paid no mind to the bodies in the room as he look at Bulma, seeing the tell-tale flicker of anger within those blue orbs of hers. She was angry about something. Apparently whatever it was that she was angry about could not wait, since it was important enough to pull him out of the meeting. He became defensive, his face frowning in agitation as his moodiness from being in the conference room carried over in his voice. "Done already? I find it hard to believe that you've fixed my machine so quickly." he spat in sarcasm.
"Is that so?" Bulma snipped back. "Well, believe it or not, it's done." Bulma emphasized her last word with frustration, placing her hands on her hips in an aggressive stance.
Vegeta raised a skeptical eyebrow at her for a moment, analyzing her words. "I don't have time for games, woman." he growled out as quietly as he could.
"I'm not playing any." Bulma retorted. "You have some real nerve, you know that?" she griped back, trying to keep her tone in check, realizing this wasn't exactly the best place to have this quarrel with Vegeta.
The prince took a determined step forward, closing the gap between them so he could speak her to in more of a hushed tone. Seeing as there were many ears wanting to eavesdrop and many eyes trying to subtly watch them, he had to be mindful of his behavior around her. Vegeta looked at Bulma squarely in her eyes, as he refused to back down. "I don't know what the hell you're bitching about, but there better be a damn good reason you're here. Make this quick." he growled, too low for anyone to else but her to hear.
Bulma was about to go off on him, but managed to bite her tongue back. Her jaw muscles clenched from the effort as she seethed in anger for a moment. Was he joking? Was he just trying to exacerbate her temper? "This is a conversation we should be having in private." she whispered harshly back at him.
Vegeta studied her for a moment, seeing the tense and angry look on her, and it was all directed at him. What in the hell had set her off? The prince huffed in aggravation as he contemplated his next action. Go back into the conference room and incur the woman's wrath later on? Or take her somewhere private where they can duke this argument out and incur the wrath of his parents later? He was already treading uneasy waters with his parents, and him leaving the room so abruptly without a reason was already going to cause more problems.
"Well?" Bulma snapped in an irritated whisper, demanding to know what the delay was in answering her. She saw how quickly Vegeta's demeanor darkened at hearing her, and she vaguely thought in retrospec that maybe it wasn't a good time to have bothered him. Too late now.
"Let's go. Now." Vegeta said harshly as he glared at her. She wanted to argue with him right now, then so be it! Vegeta turned away from her and began to storm out of the foyer and down the hallway, ignoring everyone bowing to him as he walked past them, as Bulma followed behind him with an attitude. The air was filled with tension, apprehension and curiosity as the foreigners watched the dark prince storm off with the beautiful female in tow, reaffirming that she must be someone who was immune from the Saiyan prince's wrath.
Vegeta led Bulma out of the hallway and to another separate wing of the palace, opening one of the doors that lead to an unoccupied guest room. As soon as they entered and Bulma shut the door behind her, she let her anger show. "You big jerk! I don't have time for this shit!"
"And I do?!" Vegeta loudly questioned, pointing to himself in emphasis as he looked at her incredulously.
"Why didn't you tell me the truth?!" Bulma yelled as she poked him in his chest.
Vegeta growled as he looked down at her finger poking his chest, and glared back up at her. "Truth about what?" he snarled, pushing her hand away from him in an annoyed manner, his tail starting to uncurl around his waist and snap in irritation.
Bulma poked his chest again for good measure. "This is bullshit! Why did you hide the real condition the gravity room is in?!"
The prince growled again in rising anger, pushing her hand away from his chest again a little more forcefully this time. "What the hell are you talking about, woman?!"
Bulma huffed angrily, placing her hands on her hips firmly as she stared him down. "You know damn well what I'm talking about, Vegeta!" she said, crossing her arms underneath her bosom and tapped her left foot impatiently. "I can't believe you!"
"I don't have time for this nonsense." Vegeta began darkly, stepping up to Bulma in an intimidating way, as the lower half of his tail snapped back and forth in anger. "Knock off your bullshit, and get to fixing my machine."
Bulma narrowed her eyes dangerously, stepping up to Vegeta also. She wasn't going to let him intimidate her! "Fix your machine?! Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?!"
"Do I look like I'm fucking kidding?!" Vegeta snapped angrily, still not understanding what their argument was about. "That's what you're here for, isn't it?! That's what you said you'd come here to do, so I don't see what your fucking problem is!"
Bulma threw her arms up in the air in utter frustration. "My fucking problem, you asshole, is that you damaged WAY more than just the power core and the control panel!" she argued back, glaring at him in disbelief at his audacity.
Vegeta looked at her incredulously again. "You've lost your damn mind!" he growled. "Once again, woman, what in hell are you talking about?!" he snapped at her, as his tail continued to lash back and forth.
"Kami, Vegeta! You're un-fucking-believable! You piss me off so much sometimes!" Bulma groused in frustration, stamping her foot down in a small tantrum. "You need to knock this shit off right now! It's not funny!"
Vegeta let out a sharp breath of irritation as he brought his gloved hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose, willing his temper to calm down. The woman was spitting out nothing but nonsense at him, and he still didn't know what her malfunction was. He was too tired for this. It was time for him to put his foot down. He pulled his hand away from his face and looked at her darkly, his cold, icy glare piercing her brazen blue eyes. "Will you start making some damned sense, woman, and just tell me what in blazes you are bitching about?! I don't know if you've forgotten, but I have intergalactic conferences to get back to." he said angrily, their gazes matching each other, neither lacking intensity, neither of them willing to back down first. This was ridiculous. He knew Bulma would be pissed about the damage he had caused to the machine, but enough to warrant such an extreme reaction?
Bulma had to look away from his intense gaze, it was suffocating her. She took a moment to calm down her temper and make sense of the situation. They were going in circles, and their tempers were starting to get the best of them. She inhaled slowly and deeply, and let it out in a steady, concentrated breath. It wasn't like Vegeta to hide any damage he caused to his machine. If anything, he was always vocal about what repairs and upgrades he needed. He seemed genuinely irritated and demanding to know what she was so pissed about. "Kami help me…" she breathed out softly, not knowing why she was going to go ahead and humor him. She held her forehead in her hand for a moment, trying to find a resolution to this argument with him. She sighed in frustration, turning to look at the prince defiantly. "I can't fix your gravity room." she told him in a voice that was octaves lower than her earlier tone.
Vegeta's eyebrows furrowed in seriousness as he frowned. "What do you mean you can't fix it?" he grit out in a lower tone as well, unsure if Bulma was joking around, or of what twisted game she was playing with him. "You can't repair the power core and fix the panel?" he scoffed, not believing her as he eyed her suspiciously.
Bulma made no efforts to huff out in agitation again. "That's exactly what I said. I. Can't. Fix. It." she slowly emphasized, seeing the irritated look on his face. "You damaged it beyond repair, Vegeta! The control panel would have been easy enough to fix. Even the power core would probably have taken all of today and some of tomorrow…but not the rest of it!"
"What do you mean 'not the rest of it'?!" the prince demanded, crossing his arms across his chest as his tail began to fuzz up.
"This goes beyond something as simple as needing replacement parts! I can't fix the gravity room." Bulma stressed the last part, her tone of voice going down another octave as she watched confusion briefly cross Vegeta's face.
"Woman, you can fix anything." he said to her, giving her a challenging look, not believing her.
"Vegeta, seriously, we don't have time for this!"
"I'm being serious! Why can't you fix it?" he demanded again.
"For Kami's sake!" Bulma threw up her hands slightly in frustration, as she spoke to him in a quieter but exasperated tone. "The floors are all torn up, and there's tons of holes in the walls! The structural integrity of your gravity room is compromised! I'm not going repair it when chances are it will buckle under your insane gravitational settings and implode and kill you!" Her voice had begun to raise again at that last part, and she took a pause as she gently stressed her next words to him. "I don't care how mad you get at me. I don't care how much you bother me about it. I refuse to make repairs on it. It would be too dangerous for you to be in." she finished off more softly, watching the confusion flicker across Vegeta's face as she spoke, as well as seeing his tail relax and curl and uncurl in growing puzzlement. It seemed he really didn't know what she was talking about.
Strange.
"But I didn't…" Vegeta started off strongly, then snapped his mouth shut as he fisted his hands. Either the woman was crazy, or he had done more damage to the machine than he originally remembered. He was exhausted lately…maybe he missed some other damage he had done to it? Perhaps the woman was exaggerating the damage also? His confusion must have played out on his face, because Bulma's concerned look for him was starting to put him on edge. Or maybe it was the softness of her voice or the indescribable look in her blue eyes as she looked into his?
Vegeta then took a step back away from her, suddenly noticing how close in proximity they were standing in front of each other. Awkwardly they both turned their gazes elsewhere, and remained standing in silence as they both tried to figure out what was going on. After a few more moments they looked at each other again, not knowing what else to say that wouldn't throw them back into a heated argument, besides what had already been said. It was Vegeta who broke the silence. "C'mon." he said definitively, making a decision as he walked past Bulma and opened the door, turning to look at her expectantly as he waited for her to follow suit.
Bulma tilted her head sideways slightly, wondering what he had planned. "Where are we going?" she asked as she walked out of the room and into the hallway, turning to watch Vegeta close the door behind her.
"To the gravity room."
So much for the woman exaggerating the condition of his gravity room.
Or what once used to be his gravity room.
Vegeta frowned in annoyance as he surveyed the damage. The last time he was in his gravity room it sure as hell wasn't destroyed the way that it was. For one thing, the power core had still been standing upright, attached to the ceiling…not broken off and leaning against one of the walls. A wall, by the way, that had quite a few holes blown through it, as did the rest of them. At least now he knew what the woman was yelling at him about. His gravity room was demolished. Her frustration and anger were justified. The prince turned his darkened gaze back to Bulma, who remained standing there with her arms crossed across her torso, waiting for some sort of explanation from him.
At getting Vegeta's attention back, an annoyed look crossed her face as she gazed back at him. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself, mister?" she demanded. The gravity room seemed even in worse condition this second time around, and having such a visual reminder of the insane work she had ahead of her was starting to put her in a foul mood again.
"I didn't cause this damage."
"What?!" Bulma squealed out incredulously, lowering her arms down to her sides as she glared at the man who drove her positively insane. "I can't believe you! You're still denying it, even when the evidence is right in front of your eyes?!"
"Woman, I damaged the control panel and the power core. I told you that from the beginning. I didn't, however, detach it from the ceiling, and I didn't cause the rest of this damage." Vegeta said sternly, giving her a challenging glare and daring her to call him a liar.
"Ugh!" Bulma huffed out, reaching up with a hand to gather a lock of her blue hair and guide it behind her ear. She bit her lip…she didn't know what to say. She saw his confusion earlier, and watched him as he surveyed the damage to the gravity room. She knew him better than she knew herself. He wasn't lying. "Well fine Vegeta. Since you didn't do all this, then who did?" she asked in frustration. Things were just not making sense.
Who, indeed? Someone had destroyed it, and very recently.
"I have my suspicions." Vegeta ground out, thinking back to the ki spikes that he had sensed earlier in this same general area after he had entered back into the palace. He was on his way to the conference room after Tarble had called him on his scouter for a second time when he had felt Kakarot's energy spike up rapidly a handful of times around the vicinity of this area. Vegeta had thought nothing of it at the time, figuring he had been sparring with someone. Now that he thought about it, why would Goku damage…
"Bardock!" Vegeta grumbled under his breath, realizing that his mentor must have had a hand in this. Even Kakarot wasn't idiotic enough to destroy his property like this on accident. This was no coincidence. Vegeta's irritation spiked as he fisted his hands at his sides, visibly angry and frustrated.
What the hell was the point in having his machine destroyed further?!
Not only did he still not have a functioning gravity room, but now it was going to take even more extensive work for Bulma to repair it. And if she meant what she said, and chances were she probably did, then the woman would refuse to repair it and she would have to build him a new one. Either option called for a great amount of work, and precious time that the woman did not have, nor did he. Bardock had told him last night that he'd find a way to get him out of his meetings…and he hadn't taken him seriously. What the hell was Bardock thinking?! Was this part of his master plan?! To set him and the woman back with such absurd inconveniences? It didn't make any sense! The prince brought a single hand to his forehead, lowering his head down a bit, feeling a headache coming on.
"Vegeta?"
"What?!" he barked, taking a quick breath and exhaling it, briefly feeling bad for snapping at her as he lowered his hand from his forehead and clenched and unclenched his fists.
"What happened here? Who did all this?" Bulma asked more calmly, sensing he was really angry.
"Later." Vegeta promised her as he turned to look at the beautiful woman who stood nearby. He had to be sure what had happened here before he told her of his suspicions. Her wrath, coupled with his, would be unleashed on whoever did this, and he wanted to make sure of who was guilty. Her confused eyes asked him for answers, but his refusal was clear. "I don't have much time, woman. I need to get back to the meeting."
"Right." Bulma nodded with a frown, willing to drop their spat over the gravity room. She took his hint that something was going on and it would be dealt with another time. She sighed in frustration, no longer directed at him, but at their dilemma. It was clear that for right now they needed to focus on finding a solution to their problems. She took a couple of steps towards Vegeta, one hand on her hip as she placed the other hand on top of her head, trying to think. "What do you want me to do, Vegeta?" she asked him genuinely.
"Fix it." he answered her.
"I already told you, I can't." Bulma began, then seeing a stern look from the prince, she continued. "It's not that I don't want to, but I just can't. It's beyond repair. We have to scrap it."
"Fine." Vegeta said moodily as he stood unyielding, crossing his arms across his chest. "Build me a new one."
"Can't you at least say 'please'?!"
"No."
"You're unbelievable!" Bulma griped.
"I know." the prince said, turning away from her to survey the damage to his gravity room again.
"You know, Vegeta, I could say no and make you keep using the one back at Capsule Corp." Bulma lightly threatened.
"Tch. Then how about I destroy that one? Then you'll be forced to build a new one." Vegeta smirked, knowing she wouldn't appreciate that answer.
"Jerk."
"Brat."
"Are you sure you didn't sabotage and destroy it, just so that I could build you a new and improved one?" Bulma asked, almost teasingly.
"Woman…" Vegeta warned, with no real bite to his word. His tail swung back and forth lazily, as he heard her stifle an amused chuckle. He turned back to face her, and she gave him a playful smirk.
"Just making sure." Bulma quipped. "I mean, I figured I'd have to someday. Even with all of my speedy repairs and genius upgrades, I knew eventually you'd get too strong and outgrow it." she mused, a ghost of a smile on her lips.
"Hn. I've been strong for a long time now. I outgrew this machine a long time ago. I've been telling you that I needed a better machine, and now you're going to have to build one." Vegeta said very matter-of-factly.
"Well then, I guess there's no rush in building this new one, since you still have the one back on Earth to train in." Bulma smirked, trying to be a smartass.
Vegeta rolled his eyes slightly. "Right, like I really want to wait however long it's going to take you to build me a new gravity room. Probably years, going by the rate at which you work." he challenged.
Bulma frowned a bit. "It won't take me years! Weeks….maybe a month and a half, tops!"
"Tch. I'll believe it when I see it. And how exactly do you plan to find the time to build it?" Vegeta asked, perking up a curious eyebrow at her as he took a step closer toward her.
Bulma shrugged, and answered him honestly. "You manage to find the time to come to Earth and train in the one there, and spend time with me." She paused for a moment as he stood in front of her. She felt the faint flutter of butterflies in her stomach again, and quickly ignored them. "I will find the time to come here and build you your machine and spend time with you."
"What makes you think I want to spend time with you?" Vegeta mused, giving her an arrogant smirk, which faltered ever so slightly when she took a small step closer to him this time.
Bulma reflected that arrogant smirk right back at him. "Well, you're still here talking with me, even though you said you 'didn't have much time'. After all, dear prince, you do have a meeting to get back to. Or have you forgotten?" she mused.
"Tch. I don't forget anything. I'll use any excuse to get out of that room, heiress, even if it means I'm forced to spend time with you." Vegeta chuckled lightly, seeing a slight frown and pout form on Bulma's face as he smiled in victory.
"You're such a jackass, Vegeta."
"Just another word to add to that list of yours, woman."
"That word has been on my list for a long time now. You're going to run out of room on that list someday." Bulma said assuredly, rolling her eyes slightly at him.
"Probably. Speaking of list…make a list of materials you are going to need to build me my new gravity room."
"Sure, but I'm going to need some heavy duty stuff. I've got a few new ideas for you that I think you're going to like." Bulma beamed happily at the last part, as she already was preparing a mental list of what she was going to need.
"Hn." Vegeta simply stated, as his tail swished in curiosity. He wanted to know what she had planned, but he needed to get back to the diplomatic negotiations. He was sure if he had brought his scouter with him that he would have been constantly paged to get his ass back inside. He was already skating on thin ice with his parents, and this was pushing it. Then again, the meeting had started not to long ago. He frowned, recalling how he felt about wanting to stay and spend some time with the woman, instead of being stuck all day in that damned room having endless intergalactic conferences. He was pretty sure if his mood didn't improve, he was going to end up blasting a hole through some ambassador by this afternoon.
"Hey, you better get going." Bulma said, breaking Vegeta out of his thoughts as she placed both hands firmly on his chest and started to push him backwards, trying to guide him out of the gravity room.
"And you call me pushy?" the prince mused as he looked down at her, allowing himself to be shoved backwards for a few moments before he stopped dead in his tracks, making her struggle to move him even a centimeter.
"You are pushy!" she answered, trying to put more effort into getting him to move. It was like trying to move a mountain! Something Vegeta could probably do, she joked to herself. "Seriously, you better get going. Can't have intergalactic conferences without the prince of Saiyans there."
"Tarble is there. He will suffice." Vegeta said, as he re-allowed himself to be pushed out of the gravity room. The woman would strain a muscle if she kept up with her antics. He smirked at her, an amused glint in his eyes.
Bulma rolled her eyes at him. "Being technical, huh? Fine. The eldest Saiyan prince needs to be there." she said, finally letting off of him as she gave him one last gentle shove as a reminder. She pretended to dust her hands off at accomplishing her goal of getting him out of the room.
"And you need to be working on building my new gravity machine." Vegeta told her, curling his tail back around his waist as he imitated her actions, pretending to dust off his chest. He looked at her expectantly as he readjusted his gloves for good measure.
"As soon as you leave." she promised him.
"Fine. I'm leaving." the prince said, looking at her thoughtfully for a short moment before turning around and taking off in the air, flying back towards the conference room.
Bulma watched Vegeta fly off, and couldn't help but sigh. She had a lot of work ahead of her, and she needed to get started. She turned and began to enter the gravity room again as a distant, vague feeling came to her. She was forgetting something. She remembered she had something she had to do later on today, but what was it? Not being able to immediately remember what it was, she shrugged to herself, and figured she'd remember later.
As the prince headed back to his dreadful conferences, Bulma continued to stand in silent contemplation as she stared at the destroyed gravity room again. She realized that Vegeta had in fact told her many times, in his own pushy, demanding way, that he needed a new one. Most of the time he pestered her to fix the machine, but as she thought about it, his repair requests had been more frequent, and he had mentioned more than once that she needed to build him a machine that could stand up to his strength.
A feeling of sadness came over her, feeling as though she had been neglecting what Vegeta had been really trying to tell her. A concerned look crossed her face as she couldn't understand why he wouldn't come straight out and tell her to build her a new one. Realizing what she just thought, she sighed despondently. Vegeta did tell her to build him a new gravity room, but for whatever reasons she hadn't felt it was a genuine request. After all, Bulma knew him, and he was not the type to ask for anything at all, even from her.
Had she been so wrapped up in the past months with her wedding plans, and her work, and her inventing, and everything else that she had been so blinded to what he was indirectly asking of her? Bulma closed her eyes, bringing her hand up to her face and pinching the bridge of her nose for a moment, before dragging her hand down her face in utter realization. She felt like a bad friend. Even though they weren't really friends.
Not wanting to get back into the hopeless analysis of what Vegeta really was to her, and her to him, she surveyed the damage once again. Thoughts of him were confusing, mucking up her thought process. She decided to refocus on how immense Vegeta's power must have been for him to have destroyed the power core the way he did. Even if he hadn't been the one to cause the remaining damage, it was a sign to Bulma that he had outgrown that machine. 'And for awhile now apparently…' she thought to herself as she recalled Bardock's comments about healing Vegeta's wounds. It must have been often, since he had tested out his new and improved healing salves and gels on Vegeta's injuries to get his formula to perfection. Just how much energy was Vegeta outputting when he trained? How powerful had he become? Enough to hurt himself so badly all the time to require such frequent and intense healing? How extensive were his injuries? How much power was the gravity room outputting, upholding, and withstanding as it struggled to operate under such demanding and straining conditions?
She needed data.
Bulma rolled up her proverbial sleeves and carefully stepped over the debris, making her way over to the crushed control panel. In a way she was glad it was damaged, since she didn't currently have her tools on her at the moment as she dug through the damaged wiring and circuit boards. She bit her lip as she continued to go though the mess, hoping Vegeta hadn't damaged it until she found the data chip she was looking for. Glad that the microchip was intact, she was renewed with a new sense of duty as she left the gravity room, heading back over to her own personal lab.
After greeting a few of her fellow scientists in her division, Bulma made her way over to her own lab. She was pleased to find it had been kept clean and neat during her absences. She turned on the computers and machinery in there, and as soon as they were up and running, she inserted the microchip into her computer and set it to upload the data onto her hard drive. About 20 minutes later, the computer let her know the upload was complete, and Bulma proceeded to scan over all the data that was on the chip. She ended up printing out tons of paperwork, since the data was full of the mechanical outputs, performance, and energy readings from Vegeta's gravity room.
After organizing the paperwork, Bulma sat down and spend time going over it. A disturbed and concerned look graced her beautiful features as she continued to delve deeper into the revealing data that was before her. Going by the readouts, Vegeta constantly had the machine running at maximum gravity, for very long periods of time. This told her that he had become more than accustomed to those forces. The machine would then overheat and proceed to shut down procedures, assuming a component did not get damaged prior to that process.
Vegeta's energy output was completely off the charts as she continued to pour over the reports, seeing how his power level would spike to unheard of numbers before the sensors would overload and either short-circuit or malfunction. He must have had the resident mechanics and engineers on Vegetasei constantly busy with the upkeep and repairs on his machine. She had thought Vegeta had bugged her constantly about repairing his machines both there and back on Earth, but based on the recorded data and repair/maintenance logs, he didn't come to her for repairs nearly as much as he should have. Something akin to guilt hit her, and it was a feeling she tried to push down and ignore for the time being. She frowned. There was a lot of missing data when it came to his power level and his energy output. The machine and the bots were simply unable to keep up with the prince.
Bulma inhaled heavily, slouching down further in her chair. She plopped a stack of paperwork back on the table as she exhaled the heavy breath of burden she was holding. Even before she dove deeper into the more detailed data, she already knew that Vegeta had outgrown his gravity room here, and even the one back on Earth. She could tell when she took a quick scan over the numbers and readouts as the computer ran through the data and organized it before printing it out. What she needed was more information on Vegeta.
Bulma got back on her computer and typed rapidly for a few seconds, gaining access to the medical system, proceeding to download Vegeta's medical files. As she waited for the information to finish downloading, Bulma arose from her seat, stretching out the stiffness in her joints and muscles, as well as stifling a yawn. She hadn't realized how tired she had felt until she actually stood up and yawned. She looked at the time on her computer and was startled to see that she had been pouring over all this data for a couple of hours now. Where had the time gone? Crap, and she hadn't even started on making that list of materials she was going to need to build him his new machine! Bulma bit her lip, knowing Vegeta would be unhappy that she had spent the last couple of hours pouring over data instead of making that list and starting to gather what materials and supplies that she could.
The computer alerted her that the data download was complete, and she sat back down, proceeding to print out reports on Vegeta's vitals, as well as his energy levels and output before, during, and after his training. As she quickly scanned over the paperwork, she was somewhat alarmed at some of the spikes in data she saw. She needed to design and build him a bigger, better, stronger, and stable gravity room that could withstand much higher gravity settings, that could maintain a steady power source capacity and load, as well as not buckle under Vegeta's own power and stamina. With her reports in hand, Bulma was determined to build Vegeta a gravity room and training bots that would not fail him. And with her new and crazy ideas she had, it was likely she would be able to accomplish them.
Bulma left her lab, and headed over to the industrial and engineering divisions to see if there were any spare parts or materials she could use in building the new gravity room. After spending another hour going through different metallic alloys, endless machinery components, and talking with some of the mechanics and engineers, she was faced with the fact that in order to build Vegeta the room he needed, she would literally have to start from scratch.
And it would be expensive.
Half an hour later Bulma had composed the majority of her list. It consisted of existing types of materials she would need, and vague ideas and wishful thinking for other materials that she wasn't even sure existed in the universe. Well, she hoped at least some of the properties that she was looking for in building materials existed. Unfortunately these items would not be found on Vegetasei, and it was something she was going to have to actually shop for.
Vegeta would be thrilled to hear about that.
The blue-haired scientist headed back into the palace and made her way back to the conference room, as the Saiyan guards remained standing at attention, guarding the hallways. They nodded at Bulma again as she entered the foyer, seeing some different alien foreigners there before that weren't there a few hours ago. The meetings must be going by faster than she had thought. She vaguely wondered if Vegeta's temperament had anything to do with it. The thought brought a slight smile to her face.
Before Bulma could stroll up to Turles again and ask him to get Vegeta a second time for her, the conference room door suddenly swung open harshly as Vegeta walked out, looking highly irritated and pissed off. The Saiyan guards promptly tapped their fists to their chests again and bowed in his presence, as well as the foreigners bowing hastily in respect at the prince's abrupt and unnerving appearance. He glared at all of them, which prompted almost everyone in the area to get back to their conversations and what they were doing previously.
Everyone, except a certain blue-haired, beautiful, genius scientist and engineer.
"Things not going well in there, I take it?" Bulma asked softly, trying to hide a slight smile as Vegeta looked at her sternly.
"You know I hate being in there." was his answer to her, as they kept their voices low enough for no one else to overhear. "Are you done with that list?"
"Yes." Bulma replied, stepping closer to the surly prince.
"Took you long enough."
"I didn't know you were waiting for me. You should have told me I had a time limit." Bulma stifled a chuckle as Vegeta narrowed his eyes and glared at her.
"Well, get on with it. What do you need?"
"Unfortunately, a lot of materials that we don't have here."
Vegeta sighed, the tip of his tail flicking against his hip in an agitated manner. They needed to talk, and in private. He had already caught silent hell from his parents when he had returned to the conference room after leaving abruptly the first time. Their eyes bore into his skin in a silent warning that he better stay in the meeting room and not leave off-planet. Their non-verbal message was no different when he left the room again this second time. He nodded his head sideways a bit, gesturing for Bulma to follow him again as he left the foyer so they could be away from prying eyes and ears. She followed him as they entered another different empty room. After closing the door again, he turned to her, relaxing his stance. "What do you mean? We don't have the materials here?"
Bulma shook her head. "Yeah, there are some, but I'm going to have to build your new gravity room from scratch. The metals and materials here won't do. They aren't strong enough or good enough."
Vegeta ran a gloved hand through his flame of hair. "I'm assuming that's what's on your list, right woman?"
"Yep. I'm gonna have to buy a lot of new, different raw materials and bring them back here for us to process and do the metal working and welding on it. The construction of it should be simple enough though, provided the materials are readily available…if most of them exist." she trailed off, looking at him with a shrug. "I need to bring your gravity room to a whole new level, but it will be worth it. And I can build it in mere weeks. I promise, Vegeta." Bulma said the last part with endearment, giving him a warm smile.
Vegeta nodded, his eyebrows slightly furrowed in thought as he listened. "Fine. Do what needs to be done." he unwillingly agreed.
"It's going to be expensive."
"Of course." Vegeta said, rolling his eyes slightly at her, already knowing it was going to be. He ignored Bulma's smirk. "Go ahead and buy whatever you need, woman. I don't care how much it will cost."
Bulma's smirk faltered a bit, as she looked at him with veiled curiosity. It wasn't like Vegeta to be as agreeable as he was at this moment. She guessed the past few hours in the conference room must have really gotten to him if he was this calm about having to wait weeks for his machine, on top of the expense.
"Well I'm glad to hear you don't care how much it'll cost, but I don't think even I have enough credits in my account to buy all the materials I'm going to need." Bulma said honestly. If she had that many credits, then she'd buy everything for his machine, if she could. It wasn't like she needed the credits for anything else. She had wealth back on Earth and rarely had to purchase anything off-planet. Vegeta and his family provided everything she ever needed or wanted when she was with them.
"That expensive?" Vegeta sighed, not because of how much it was going to cost, he really didn't care. He was beyond wealthy. He sighed because now he realized that he would have to go with her to get her more funds so she could buy what she needed. Not to mention that she'd probably want him to go with her to get the materials, and to find all she needed would take most of the day to do, if not a couple of days. Normally he wouldn't really mind going with her, despite the act he might put on, but him leaving Vegetasei for the day again, or longer, would not sit well with his parents. Or his bodyguards.
At all.
"Probably. It's going to be a kickass gravity room, though." she assured him.
"Hn." Vegeta commented, as he continued to contemplate his options. "I have to take you to Capital World, don't I?" he groused, glancing over at Bulma.
"No, you don't have to, Vegeta. I know you're busy. I'll get Goku to teleport me there. I'll buy what I can and at least get a start on building it. I'll let you know how many more credits will be needed to buy the rest of the materials."
"I refuse to let you and Kakarot parade around there all day! I want this machine done as soon as possible, and getting only half the materials is idiotic."
"So that means you're taking me, then?" she asked, quirking an amused eyebrow at him.
"Hn."
"Well hey, look at it this way…at least you don't have to spend all day listening to foreign ambassadors and talking business now." Bulma lightly chuckled, giving Vegeta an encouraging smile, not knowing that her words had triggered a realization within the prince.
Vegeta growled softly. So was this Bardock's plan?! To have his machine destroyed so that he and Bulma had to go off-planet together for most of the day? His machine being demolished had made no sense to him at all at first…it was a major setback to not only his training, but to enjoying the woman's company on Vegetasei. He thought she would be busy, stuck on making repairs during the few hours she would be there. But now…it seemingly turned out to be quite the opposite.
Damn Bardock and his meddling!
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go." Vegeta said begrudgingly. He knew he was going to catch absolute hell for disappearing off-planet again. He was expected to stay on Vegetasei and uphold his royal duties as the crown prince, no matter how much he hated the political side of things. His parents had warned him. Nappa and Raditz would be furious with him if he left again without them, or even telling them where he was going. What was he doing? He knew he should let Kakarot take her to Capital World and have her get what materials she could. It wasn't like she was going to be able to build the machine in a day, or even in a week. There was time to spare. He could train in the gravity room on Earth while she spent the next handful of weeks building him his new machine. He needed to stay there, go back to the conference room, and not incur the wrath of his parents or his bodyguards, as well put even more fuel to the fire when it came to speculation between him and the woman.
So why was he willing to defy his parents and cause more trouble for himself? Was it worth it? He took a look at the woman he's known his whole life. Was she worth it?
Yes, she was.
"Ok, I'll go find Goku so he can teleport us there. No point in getting a ship ready when he can zap us there in a blink." Bulma said light-heartedly, beginning to turn away.
"There's no need." Vegeta said as he walked forward, quickly closing the distance between them. Without a warning, he wrapped his arm around Bulma's waist and pulled her closely against him.
"What?…" Bulma trailed off, caught off-guard at Vegeta's brash move. She didn't have time to think about what he was doing as she gave him a confused look, and was rewarded by his arrogant smirk.
She watched as Vegeta put two fingers to his forehead and her eyes widened in surprise. Before she could voice her shock and realization, he teleported them to Capital World.
This ended up being the second longest chapter of my story so far! It was a struggle, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Did you like it? I hope you did! Please leave a review and put in your two cents!
I'm excited about the next chapter. Our two main characters, away from their respective planets…..anything could happen. Just sayin'.
For those of you wanting to know where exactly we are in the timeline of the story, it's 4 days until Bulma's wedding. I know…this week-long story is taking months! We should be used to it, we're no strangers to time-discrepancies in DBZ. Like the whole debacle on Planet Namek.
Thanks to each and every one of you who continue to read my story! You are greatly appreciated!