*****A/N*****
Super short chapter. Idk what happened lol
******Bulma******
Several years had passed and Bulma had come to accept Yamcha's need to train alone and occasionally with Master Roshi. There always seemed to be danger, always some kind of silent threat that the world didn't seem to know about. She sat in the family room of Capsule Corp with an array of tea cakes on the table, her coffee growing cold as she stared at the TV.
Yamcha had trained with Master Roshi and gone on a quick journey to prepare for the World Tournament. He worked hard to keep up with Goku in hopes of beating him this time around and was instead met with a broken leg at the hands of Tien Shinhan.
Bulma watched in a daze as Tien stood over Yamcha with an evil grin, Yamcha's wails of agony hitting her like a ton of bricks. He was already down, hadn't even had the chance to get back up if he wanted before Tien brought his knee down onto Yamcha's leg and broke it. It was outright brutal and yet there was no rule against it.
Her memory of that day was rather foggy – all she did remember was going back to the tournament after making sure Yamcha would be okay and cheering on Goku. It was a tough match and as always, Goku managed to befriend a foe. Bulma shook her head and smiled gently, wondering how Goku was doing these days.
With a loud sigh, she clicked on the next video, mentally preparing herself with what she was about to see. Piccolo.
She cringed the whole time, never taking her eyes off the green monster. It was hard to believe he just left after Goku healed him. She thought, like Goku, that there was possibly a nicer side to him, he just needed to see there was more than world domination. In her opinion, that seemed like a tiresome responsibility. Always looking over your shoulder for the next person to take over, always having to deal the punishments, living life knowing that no one liked you but feared you. It seemed lonely.
Towards the end of the video, she just couldn't stomach it anymore. It was hard to watch Goku get pummeled but even harder to watch Piccolo fly freely with no punishment for what he had done. He's still out there, training and plotting. She was sure of it.
******Vegeta******
It had been mission after mission, almost no time to rest aside from trading in the pods for much faster models. It seemed like Frieza's new torture tactic was to keep him far too busy to be in the way, which was fine by Vegeta. Wake up, destroy, clean up, move on – and not once in this full year had he had to see Frieza.
The only issue now was he was often too mentally tired to dream, which meant no blue-haired beauty and no peaceful training. On the off occasion he was able to visit either door, nothing interesting ever happened. It was becoming boring. Part of his exhaustion came about when he started searching for more Saiyans, per Frieza's orders.
Vegeta had balked when he first got the transmission from Saffron, thought it had been a joke until he was given higher clearance to the army's database. He knew he was being set up for another failure, that's all he was ever given – false hope – but he willed himself to go through the motions knowing that his activity on the system would be tracked. Raditz and Nappa did as much as they could to help, asking anyone and everyone they could for any information before and during purges.
A lot of help that did, it only wasted their time. No one on these hell-forsaken planets ever knew anything, some planets still didn't have space travel mastered. One planet had even tried to capture them since they didn't even believe "aliens" existed! They had a lot of fun messing with the scientists sent to dissect them and gather information – up until one tried to cut Nappa's tail off and he lost his temper.
Their search finally led them to Kakarot, Raditz's brother, on the other side of the universe. It wasn't until then that Vegeta had found out his new clearance would allow him to pick and choose his new missions. He had chosen a couple headed in the right direction and was never intercepted when he moved further and further away from the nearest bases.
"This is going to work out for us in the long run as long as we don't raise any flags. Raditz, once we get close enough to the Milky Way system, where your brother should be located, you will go and get him. There isn't much mapped on that particular side of the universe, but the Cold family has already established a few bases for when they expand in that direction.
"So, it will look like we are paving the way for the expansion while trying to get to your brother. As far as Saffron can tell from his end, Frieza has no clue we've got a hit on another Saiyan, so we'll use this to our advantage since we may need to train Kakarot. His birth power level looks like it was one of the lowest ever recorded. Since I no longer need to be under Frieza's constant supervision, we can use these missions for training as well and raise our power without him ever knowing."
Vegeta explained the details of the plan, or at least as much as he was going to tell them, while the others took their mental notes. Raditz would go to Earth once within range and was given the coordinates to memorize so they wouldn't need to get into the system again and set off alerts; Nappa was given the order to stick with Vegeta during purges and do the remaining "heavy lifting" so to speak, while Vegeta trained.
The boy from the orange path had a knack for getting stronger with his relaxed methods of training and Vegeta wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to try it for himself. The hardest part would be pretending like there aren't bigger and stronger monsters lurking in deep space, something the boy seemed to have absolutely no clue about.
******Bulma******
Things had been relatively quiet around Capsule Corp since Yamcha had his leg broken. Bulma had babied him entirely too much while he was healing, something Yamcha had hated at first but came to take advantage of. He liked seeing that side of her, the nurturing side. It made him adore her even more than he already did. She was always looking after him, from the physical wounds to his mental "illness," as the doctors called it. Which was why her actions today had caught him off-guard.
"You need to get back to training! Lumping around like this is just making you soft and I honestly don't have the time to wait on you hand and foot anymore," she said firmly with both fists curled and placed on her hips.
"W-what are you talking about, Bulma? I can't train yet; my physical therapy doesn't start until next week!"
"Yamcha, you are one of the strongest people on Earth! You made it so far in the tournament and that in itself is proof. Are you really gonna sit here and tell me that you can't start your own training and let Goku and Tien get that much further in strength? I watched the video again, you have so much potential, but you are literally accepting a healed injury as an excuse not to move forward."
Bulma softened her tone and sat next to Yamcha, watching the fire in his eyes spark up as he took her "tough love" motivation to heart.
"You're right! I can't let a little thing like this keep me down! I need to get stronger, so I can prove myself at the next tournament!"
"That's the spirit! Start off slow and work your way back up to 100 percent, but small progress is still progress!" Bulma smiled at Yamcha, happy to have been able to spur him on.
Two hours later, Bulma watched happily from the balcony as Yamcha began to train out in the yard. He was moving better than she had thought he would for only being out of a cast for 2 days. In fact, he was doing so well he was starting to attract a crowd – a female crowd.
Yamcha continued with his workout, focusing on getting his legs back to full capacity when he finally noticed the women watching. His cheeks began to blush and rather than give them a full show of his naked torso, he dropped down to a push-up pose.
'Just look at the ground, Yamcha. It's just you and your training. Don't look up! Don't look up!' he thought to himself.
Despite the mantra, he looked up. The women were all still there, some making lewd comments and gestures, others trying to climb the gate. Not that that was a good idea at all. He smiled at them nervously and the crowd went wild – women arguing about who he been smiling at and pushing each other out of his viewing space. It wasn't until he heard Bulma that he realized he was in trouble.
"Get out of here you pitiful hens! He's taken! Don't make me get the security bots involved!"
"Oh shit," he muttered under his breath. He hadn't even known she was there – she had been working in the lab when he started his warmups. Without missing a beat, Yamcha pushed himself up and darted into the building. He had to admit, he loved the attention – missed the days when his baseball career had brought him a fan club of adoring women wanting to throw themselves at him.
Bulma made her way back into her bedroom and stared out the sliding doors to the balcony in a huff. 'How dare those women come to MY property and try to flirt with MY boyfriend! Ugh! Why didn't I convince him to train in the private garden!'
"Bulma?"
For a brief moment, she froze, her spine locking in a straight pose before she shook it off. It was just Yamcha, probably coming to see if he was in trouble or not.
"Oh, sorry. You scared me. What's up?"
Yamcha chewed on his lip for a moment, contemplating if he should even ask if he was in trouble. She didn't seem upset with him, maybe the situation but he would have gotten yelled at the moment he walked in if she was angry at him.
Thinking on his feet, Yamcha played it off and instead suddenly remembered something important.
"Well, I was just thinking, and our anniversary is coming up. How would you feel about celebrating early? I mean, I don't want to forget since I'm picking up my training again."
"Forget? Are you planning on going on another journey or something?"
"No, no. It isn't that, it's just with all the training I have to do to get back on track and catch up to Goku and Tien – as you mentioned earlier – I was thinking I could really use the long hours. Don't you have a big project you're supposed to do too?"
Bulma thought about her current job list and gasped when she had remembered about a project she pushed back to take care of Yamcha.
"Oh, you're right! I do have a capsule upgrade project that I need to get started on! An early celebration is a great idea, Yamcha. No sense in us both being too busy to celebrate later! When did you have in mind?"
"How about tonight? There's enough time to get ready and make a reservation, right?"
"A little last minute, but I can work with that! I'm going to be slammed all day, every day this week anyway. Tonight it is!"
Bulma smiled at Yamcha with a very romantic look in her eye. Oh, was she going to have the time of her life tonight! A mischievous glint took over as she leaned in for a kiss, oh yes, she was going to take a preemptive strike to her stress by getting a full night's worth of relief.
As Yamcha made the preparations, Bulma began to get ready. Her only objective was to seduce the pants off Yamcha, literally, and make him remember that gaggles of women were no match for Bulma Briefs.
******Vegeta******
The further they got from Frieza, the more Vegeta spent trying to search for more Saiyans. They checked in several times to report any findings that had inevitably led to dead ends and had been allowed to continue their traversing to the other side of the Galaxy. What they didn't know was that Frieza wasn't too far behind.
The amount of time they had been traveling was now lost to Vegeta, he was sure it had probably been years. He had lost track of everything except this mission. He fought and purged and searched. When he slept, it was dreamless. He had almost completely forgotten about the lucid dreams, but something blue always brought back the memories of the girl. Usually an ocean with soft serene waves, or a woman with blue sparkling, tear-soaked eyes as she pleaded and offered anything for a chance to live.
They were much closer now and Raditz was finally sent off alone. The planet they had purged before he was sent off was one of the easiest missions they had ever completed. Raditz could have done the entire thing on his own in 2 days if Vegeta had let him. Rather than waste time, they finished in a matter of hours and set course for the next planet. This time Raditz would just keep going while Vegeta and Nappa did the work.
Vegeta still had plenty of energy left but the allure of sleep was winning him over. He almost shook it off, almost decided to continue with his search until the blue, glowing tail of a comet reminded him of what sleep could bring him.
'I wonder….'
It had been a long time…. could he still even do it? Were the girl and the guy even still together?
'Only one way to find out.'
Sitting back in the seat, Vegeta propped his feet up on the control panel and started drifting himself to sleep. His mind empty and his body tense as he had once trained himself to do in order to recreate the experience. Almost as if he was never out of practice, he was back on the blue path. Last time all they did was fight, and the time before he was training alone in some jungle.
When he stepped through the door the sight almost jerked him awake. It was unexpected! Had it really been so long since he had last seen her?
Sitting across from him was Bulma, wearing a teasingly low-cut dress. The halter top only barely holding itself together as her breasts threatened to burst the clasp. Her make-up was done to accentuate her eyes and she had such an ethereal glow that Vegeta almost physically gaped. Several soft curls flowed down from a sophisticated bun, giving her a playful look that accompanied the long, side-swooped bangs, framing her face.
'She's more gorgeous than I remember…'
He gave her a playful smirk as she continued to ramble about her day in the lab, trying not to be too obvious that Yamcha was no longer in control. He was still stunned by her beauty as she continued to talk. He wasn't listening as clearly as he should have been, but he couldn't stop himself from looking her over. His eyes slowly dropping from her eyes to her jaw, following every soft curve he could see and hoping he'd get a chance to touch every inch.
Vegeta was left feeling a sense of longing. He had missed so much. He found himself wanting to know everything, her personality, her work, and most of all, her body. She was probably a full-fledged woman by now, and if she wasn't, well, that would be a damn shame. One that he would have to help correct.
"So, I was thinking…. maybe we should take a vacation together pretty soon. It's our 5th anniversary and we've never taken an actual vacation together. Wouldn't it be fun to go to a private beach somewhere and just…"?
Vegeta took a moment to process what she was saying. He had almost forgotten that she had been talking.
Bulma looked around to hopefully avoid any eavesdropping ears and lowered her voice. "…have sex on the beach until it was time to leave?"
Vegeta's eyes widened and he cursed himself for ever having missed the chances to have her in bed. He shook it off and nodded, inching his chair just a bit closer to her. He took her hand in his and kissed it.
"I didn't think Heaven was a real place," he said with a smirk.
'Oh yeah, I'm going to really enjoy tonight!'
