WAAAASSSSSSSSUUUUUPPPPP!

Kami...Strange word. Wonder if Vegeta has learned that one yet.

Anywayz...I hope you guys are satisfied with the story so far. No, I'm not preparing you for my ending speech. Not yet...

As for sequel talk...No idea. I don't even want to approach the subject right now. Too teary. So anyway, I think we'll talk about it at the END of the story. Not the middle.

So...Here we go kiddies.

Rating:PG-13-Language, Adult Themes/Situations

'-thinking

"-speech

Italics represent vocal emphasis and lyrics.

Enter:Prince Vegeta no Ouji /Location: East District woods

He felt it, for the first horrible time, he felt himself feel guilt. But that was because, also for the first terrible time, he could feel the cold cruelty of Frieza coursing through his heated veins. He was puzzled, however; was he guilty about becoming Frieza, or feeling guilt itself?

Vegeta would have thought it out further in his frustrated mind, but that's when he heard the rustling in a nearby bush. The small grin on her lips had vanished just as quickly as it had formed. Before he could scold himself for noticing that, his eyes bolted to the far bushes then to hers.

"You-woman! Leave. Now," He rasped at her, his chest heaving up and down with pressure and anxiety. An expression of rage overcame her features when the danger was blocked out of her mind.

"Where the hell do you get off-"

"WOMAN! Now!" He rasped at her again before unleashing a sparking Ki blast at the bush, hoping it caught whatever was behind it. She shriekd and wimpered before stumbling away. That's when an unrecognizable voice screamed as well.

Bulma and Vegeta froze in their tracks. Bulma felt her veins freeze at the scream, her eyes closed and veins pulsing, she slowly turned, her eyes side-staring at Vegeta who only stared back with equal question in his solid eyes. That's when snapping footsteps echoed through the woods and stopped when the figure tripped only feet away from the startled Prince.

His arms instinctively shot out with the fingers poised at Ki access, but when she saw the unmistakable flash of platinum blonde hair, she let out a scream. The scream caught his ears, halting the blast, and when he turned to see tears in the woman's eyes, his heart stopped.

"Woman, what-"

"My mother...," She whispered, but loud enough for his shocked ears to hear. His arm was still positioned as he stared at the close to sobbing woman while she stumbled to the fallen body, tears streaking down her face. Bulma fell to her knees, and he almost had half the urge to catch her before she did so.

He wasn't sure what do, except nothing. He rested his arm down to his side as he looked down at the two women. He rolled his eyes at the display of emotion in the moment, while amazement formed itself in his mind.

'Such a stubborn woman she is...And then she breaks down at this?'

It was strange though, because he wanted to figure her out all the more after that.

Enter:Bulma Briefs /Location: East District woods.

All thoughts of everything ceased to exist in her mind as it cleared at the sight pof her injured mother, collapsing onto the ground. There was only fear, despair, and daughterly compassion flowing in the waves of her anxious mind, swelling with guilt that she didn't stay with her mother when it happened. Out at the fucking library for Kami's sake. She should have known, as a daughter, she should have known.

Her mother's head rested on her arm, those make-up smeared eyes closed and relaxed as if in a deep slumber, which Bulma prayed with every piece of her shattering heart that it wasn't too deep of a slumber. Her free hand swept away the stray, blonde hair that disturbed her mother's relaxed forehead.

"She's still alive woman. I didn't hit her."

Her eyes opened a little more, wet and swollen,"Y-You better not have...She better b-be alive, dammit."

He didn't answer, he just watched as she checked her mother's pulse, as if she didn't trust him. He chuckled sardonically inside at the fact that he cared enough to even consider it. He still wondered, though, if she really trusted anybody. Including herself.

He could wonder no further, however, because of another episode of twig-snapping footsteps approaching them. Bulma didn't even look up. Vegeta folded his arms, but every vein was pulsing with instinctive preparation. Suddenly, they stopped.

"Oh my Kami, Bulma! What happened?"

At the sound of her name, her tear-streaked face spun around at the source, which was none other than...

"Yamcha!" She cried, but no louder than a whisper, as she dropped hold of her mother and ran into his muscular arms. Vegeta could feel his eyes twitching as a growl went up his throat. Yamcha walked over to Bulma's mother with Bulma's arms around his neck and his arm around her waist protectively, and almost territorially when he glanced at the boiling Prince.

"Is she-"

"No. She's alive and well," Vegeta answered cooly. Yamcha peered at him with an unidentifiable expression. Bulma glanced between the two worriedly, but said nothing.

"I...I checked her pulse," She expained to Yamcha, as if she were a two-year-old who found a crippled dog,"She is...alive, I think..."

That's when she lost it, buring her face into Yamcha's shirt as the sobs poured from her, her chest and shoulders wracking along as he held her tighter. Vegeta scoffed and looked away, but the pair didn't seem to notice. It was like that for at least five minutes until the Saiyan couldn't tolerate it any longer.

"ALRIGHT already! The bitch isn't dead! What MORE is ailing you woman!" He exploded. Her head came up from Yamcha's chest as she took herself away from the startled man.

"Oh shut up! Just because you don't know what it's like to nearly lose someone important to you, doesn't mean that I can't!"

"You don't have to express what you feel," He retorted.

Her eyes were just as fiery as his, the tears only making them more flaming as they narrowed,"I refuse to make myself some empty, heartless nothing like you!"

"Is that your opinion of me, woman?"

"Maybe it is. But why would you care? All you care about is YOUR opinion and YOUR credits. Or maybe that's what you want everyone to believe, huh? Maybe that is ALL you care about-everyone else's opinion on you. That's why you just lay around like an emotionless, guiltless Prince of power, so then you can keep everyone guessing and you won't be forgotten."

"Bulma...Just stop-" Yamcha was cut off by the glaring Prince, who kept his heated eyes at the snide woman.

"No, it's fine. She enjoys trying to analyze others and expose their problems to make her own look minimal and even non-existent."

"No," She calmly started,"I do not symbolize myself as a powerful, egotistical enemy, constantly making them and chasing imaginary goals and dreams to make something out of a forgotten life. I do not draw these lines to wow everyone so then I have something to throw in everyone else's face when they figure out my problems."

He was silent. For the first time, he felt the stab and he said nothing.

"Uhh...I think I'll...take Ms.Briefs over to the site now...," Yamcha stuttered nervously as he quickly picked up the limp body and fled from the tangle of static sparks between the two bundles of pride.

"And tell those idiots not to fly anymore. The Ki detection would be too risky,"Vegeta called out, his perr still piercing into Bulma's.

"Y-Yeah...I'll do that!" Yamcha called back, not at all hesitating to return to the campsite.

"My problems are no one's business. Especially not yours, someone who puts on an act to make sure that every person who knows her believes that she is independent and doesn't need them, when in reality she is helplessly dependent and emotionally reliant on every word that person says to her."

Then she was silent. She just gazed at him with an almost hurtful look on her still tear-gleaming face. Her eyes still glimmered glassily with the shining gather of tears glazing over her cerculean eyes, the color enhanced by the reddening of her eyes. He felt his breath catch in his throat when he registered what he had just said, and when he realized that he had forgotten how fragile she really was to what people said to her.

She was different from him.

She listened. She listened closely.

He had also forgotten that she was a genius. She took everything seriously, so seriously that she put on a very deep insight on everything she read or heard.

But still...How could he care...?

"Do you really believe that?" Her bell tone, yet scratchy voice cut smoothly into his troubled thoughts, his eyes hadn't moved from hers the entire time, however.

"I...Woman, many things slip through my tongue-"

"Do you?"

Hesitation was written over his features,'She won't believe me anyway...She had heard what I said...She listened, and the cut was made already.' But he didn't care, he wasn't supposed. And in his stubborn anger, he made another cut,

"I thought you didn't care what I thought? Remember? I am just another empty, emotionless, guiltless Prince of power with nothing better to do than care what everyone thinks. But you know what woman, at least I am not burdened with the constant WORRY of what others SAY."

Another slice on her already bleeding heart. He could hear her strangling, her breath staggering, her mind choking for something to say back that would make deeper a cut

Her eyes glazed over again with hot tears over her cold face,"I...I will not listen to you. I won't."

That's when she spun on her heel, her shoes crackling over the rocky terrain. He could see her shoulders wracking already. He looked down, and that's when he felt the rippling change, the deep sense that he had changed. After considering the damage of what he wanted to do, and after considering that he didn't even care, he went after her at the speed of sound.

But she had listened. She had. And he was feeling guilty that she had.

He had felt it. He had.

Enter: Bulma Briefs /Location: East District

When she went off, away from him and the source of emotional realization and pain, he went after her. She felt his gripping, yet gentle hands grab hold of her upper arm, spinning her around to reveal her sobbing form. The sobs were silent, but her eyes were closed, the only thing moving were the tracking tears running down her cheeks.

Before he could do anything, she fell onto her knees. He looked down at the top of her bowed head and shaking shoulders. With an eye roll and a blush, he picked her up cradle style as they went back to the camp site, the effects of the previous analytical accusations drowning into the drastically affected pieces of both shattered egos.

Enter: Prince Vegeta no Ouji /Location: East District campsite

He wondered if she had a nightmare last night as he did. But before he could scold himself for even wondering, his mind registered where he was and what had previously happened, as well as what scars were made by words the night before. Pushing the thoughts aside, he got to his feet, eyes closed, and reminded himself of where he was. And when his eyes bolted open, he reminded himself of what he had to forget.

He looked around at the charred remainders of what had been a forest, subtle, gray rocks and ashes, with patches of disarrayed trees and greens that lay behind it. Then he looked ot his side to see the sleeping woman, breathing in and out peacefully and slowly, her eyes not catching sight of the horrific images that surrounded her, but didn't bear on her conscious mind.

That's when she suddenly moved, whimpering a little as he did so. After she stretched out her arms like a kitten, she got to her feet and opened her eyes to see him staring at her closely as he always did.

With a blank stare, she said simply,"Good morning."

He grunted in response, looking away back at the burnt soil.

She shrugged and went a few steps toward the houses to get everyone, but stopped and said,"Are you always this anti-social in the morning?"

"Is your voice always that deep in the mornings?"

He could sense the sheet of crimson creeping on her cheeks even with her back to him,"...Whatever. I can't help it that I have to stimulate my throat after hours of not using it. You still haven't answered my question."

"You haven't answered mine."

"Okay. Leaving now."

She did leave that time, going down to the other two houses to find that no one was there. She returned to him with an expression of confusion and fear. He already knew what had happened.

"V-Vegeta...Do you have any sort of idea...?"

"Woman, did you notice that creature that your mother had with her?"

"Hm-hm."

"Then that's all I have to say."

Even through their distance he felt her shoulders start to shake,"I...I didn't know it was dangerous-"

"You are a fool! You knew exactly what that was! You and I both witnessed it at that damned planet. It probably followed you here!"

"No! I brought it here."

His arms fell from their crossed position before he spun around slowly to face with a bewildered expression,"You...mean tell me you DELIBERATELY set up this mess!"

The flashing flame of rage faded underneath the coat of fear that blanketed her turquoise eyes as she gazed at him suspiciously and fearfully, backing up to the wall of the house,"P-Please...Don't h-hurt me-..."

"HURT YOU! I think you've done that yourself, woman. I wouldn't have to lift a finger to have you harmed, because YOU brought the danger with YOU. You are the one formed your soon-to-be untimely fate, as well as everyone else's!" He landed a punch directed at her, but she cringed when it landed next to her head. He was only inches away, and she could feel heat emanating from his aggressive body.

Ignoring the heat on her cheeks, the fear disappeared, yet again allowing rage and ice to overcome them,"Oh, really? Well, how the hell do I know that you just didn't let out your rages on everybody from what we discussed last night! Maybe it was you who did this and decided to pin it all on me and the creature-"

"And maybe you are just afraid."

She froze, the expression of suspicious cunning fell, being softly replaced by question and denial, her head shaking just barely.

"You are only trying to put me in blame out of fear. If I was the enemy, you imbeciles would have a chance. There would be no mystery, you would all know what to expect. You would now exactly what to prepare for if it was I. But it isn't, and those are not the only reasons you are trying to blame me..."

To her frozen horror, he moved in even closer, his breath dancing upon her lips.

"You are only pinning this on me...So then no one will have any sort of reason to abandon you...You are afraid of being alone, and this will only give everyone a validity to leave you behind..."

A soft breeze came upon them, a stray bang on Bulma's forehead swaying along with it as her eyes peer into his as if trying to hear what he just said. The tear fell from her eyes so softly and so lightly, its trail invisible as it glided down a pale cheek. His eyes never left hers as he leaned forward, his lips capturing the fallen tear.

She nearly flinched at the sudden contact, but when his head came back up, both eyes were questions. But the question in his eyes quickly dissolved into a cold disclosure as he spun around, his back to her as he rasped,

"It hurts to be exposed, I know...But it is even colder to be forgotten, even when you've managed to prevent the exposure."

Her breath seemed to have faded, but she was off when she found her feet before she could pay any ind to what he said. It was too much, too much reality with him, yet it was hardly realistic-the hysteric tone he had when he explained her in such detail that it was sharply painful to even breath or look at him as his steel black eyes stabbed into hers with such ease and vision. She might as wear nothing around him because that was exactly how he made her feel.

But she wasn't prepared for this...This new taste, this new experience of finally being shown in the light and having all of your faults laid out for you. She was terrified and grateful for it at the same time. Yet she had no clue if what he did...How he saw through her like glass...Was a good thing or not.

So she decided to escape it just for a minute as she explored the depths of the East District woods, completely unaware of the panting beast only ten feet away from her.

Enter:Prince Vegeta no Ouji /Location: East District campsite

His mind was whirling, his vision was fogging, everything seemed unfamiliar to him. His self-boundaries, his detachment from everything and everyone, and even his damned dignity that just went up in flame after that stunt he let himself pull with the woman. He was completely losing control, and he didn't know who to blame. And it scared him.

But the Prince! Scared! A pity!

A scoff escaped his lips when he heard Frieza's voice echo in his confused mind. He was losing all that he had sculpted and fought so hard to create over his lifetime so far, and to think only a mere Earth woman had begun it all.

His fists clenched, anger rising up in his chest like a volcano directed at himself. It outraged him that he would give in to such an urge, it outraged him that this woman's stupidity was the cause of him even being there, it outraged him that he was falling deeper and deeper into something he didn't care to deal with. And it outraged him to know that he hadn't the first idea of what to do with the woman.

But when he heard that high-pitched scream that slit through his frantic thoughts like glass, he knew nothing but to save her.

Enter:Bulma Briefs /Location: East District woods

By the time the Saiyan had gotten there, she had been attacked. He froze in his tracks when he saw her leaning against a tree, cuts, gashes, and trails of blood all over her frail body. Her eyes were unfocused, and soon closed when he picked her up cradle style just as he did the night before. Small moans and murmurs escaped her numb lips as he effortlessly carried her back to the campsite.

The first thing he searched for in the camp was the medical supplies. He had perched her where they had slept the night before, only she was sitting against the wall of it so he could get to her shoulders and neck. He had a good idea of what to put and where, although he couldn't translate the Earth markings on it. He made a mental note to learn it once this mess had been rid of.

He motioned for her to turn so he could inspect her back. She did automatically, her purple eyes closed and swollen. He tried to eradicate the lump in his throat as he saw her like this. It strangled his insides to see this fragility and vulnerability in her manner. It just wasn't her at all. But he kept his mouth shut, not wanting to make it at all any worse for the woman.

The deepest gash had been on her left shoulder. He used the Earthly thread supplies to patch it up, muting out her winces and whimpers of objection and protest when he demonstrated what he was to do. It didn't phase him, though, at all from all of the experience from his late childhood with Frieza's soldiers. This sort of thing was only expected, and the woman's case was minimal.

When he was finished, he gave her tablets that he guessed provided what she needed to get a deep, numb sleep. As she laid her head on her hands, her bruised eyes open, gazing up at him with a grateful peer, like what a toddler gave to a tailor when he fixed a torn teddy bear. Vegeta's lips attempted to kick up at the silent gesture of thanks that he knew he would only allow form that very woman that had awoken such a flame in him. He despised and craved it at the same time.

After minutes of stroking her hair in order to send her to sleep, he got near the fire, just like six years ago, and started his meditation process. And as much as he hated to notice, he didn't do so without a generous glance over the sleeping woman in his limited company.

ABOUT time, eh? Yep, this is 18 folks. R-E-V-I-E-W. Please give a generous glance to that, too.

Okay. After you review, eat a banana and enjoy your well-deserved summer.

Oh, and for a little comic relief(because this chapter was annoyingly dark to me): School is like a boner--long and hard.

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