A/N: Wow, it's been a little while since I've updated, but I hope to update more regularly in the future once finals are over with. I know I promised to update "Doctor Doctor" before this one, but "Doctor Doctor" has been a little slow-going, and I have so much inspiration for this fic right now. Like I said at the beginning of Chapter 1, this story will develop slower than my other ones, because the relationship must take awhile to be established. BUT, things start to happen in this chapter, so I hope you will enjoy.

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z belongs to Akira Toriyama.

Chief Vegeta had been gone for a little over a week, having left the day after her incident. His commander had requested his presence to straighten out some final details of the plan. Though the chief was not as knowledgeable as she, since it was her plan, he was the next best thing. Commander Edza might have difficulties accepting her strategies, but he was intelligent enough to realize she would be irresistible prey to the hordes of men gathered at the main camp. So Vegeta had gone and had given her specific instructions to listen to Commander Nappa and not to cause any trouble. Surprisingly, those orders were easier to follow than she had expected.

She had temporarily taken up residence in the commander's home while the chief was absent and found it very pleasant. Torae, Nappa's mate, was a stout woman with a temper to match, but the way she and her mate interacted could make the most cold-hearted person smile. It was always subtle and yet it spoke volumes. A small touch of the hip, a tail wrapped about a wrist, just little things that showed how much they cared for each other. It was rather annoying, however, that she was having romantic notions of her own.

Whatever it was that made chiefs chiefs made them slightly different than other Saiyans. Her brother could always make her feel better whenever she was in pain or in a bad mood, just by being close to her. Vegeta had a similar effect on her, but it was slightly different than it had been with her brother. She was not an idiot, she realized she had been in heat for the past week and her thoughts were merely the manifestations of an unfulfilled mating, but each time she saw her temporary guardian and his mate her thoughts went to the chief. Had he not embraced her after the incident, her thoughts would be filled with males from back home that she had found enjoyable. His absence made life a bit more tolerable, since she did not have to see the object of her wandering mind, but in some ways she missed his presence.

She shook her head and sighed. Even when trying to clear her head he pervaded her mind. The wind ruffled her hair and brought with it the rocky scent of the mountains. An orange tint colored the sky as the sun descended slower and slower about the horizon. She worried for the men at the main camp; it had been more than a week and still no word had come about the outcome of the attack. With the sun setting she might as well head back inside and come back tomorrow to wait for news.

Inside, Nappa, his mate, and Tervas were all seated about the dining table, helping themselves to the generous meal Torae had prepared. She bowed her head a little when Tervas looked her way and took a seat next to him. The Dormant envoy had proven himself less of a chauvinist than she had first anticipated. He did flinch whenever she or Torae did something blatantly different than a Dormant female, but held his tongue and remained civil. He also tolerated conversation, and she had learned a great deal about him and she found him a pleasant person.

"Smell anything tonight?" the brutish commander said in between mouthfuls.

She took a bite of some sort of roasted animal and chewed carefully before answering. "Just the usual. I am concerned about the duration of the campaign, as it was not supposed to take more than a day or so to complete."

"It is possible the campaign has not yet started. My experience has been, and do pardon me Commander, that Dominant males tend to be slow when it comes to doing anything but bashing skulls in." Nappa grunted in agreement and Torae laughed.

"That is certainly true. Why, trying to get this man to do anything but cavort with the other males is a chore in and of itself."

She laughed when the commander shrugged his shoulders and continued eating. "Yes, Envoy Tervas, I do believe you have a point. It would have taken some time to select the warriors for the assault, and it is entirely possible they are still continuing to do so. But you can understand my concern?"

"Yes, Envoy Aina, I do understand. It is your plan they are carrying out, and it would be disastrous if it failed. If it does fail, I believe the fault will lie not with the plan, but with those executing it. It is just shame you were unable to go along to see it put into action." She nodded and turned back to her food. The Dormant envoy was very perceptive. She hoped nothing went awry.

The morning brought with it frantic shouts and rumbling bodies. She dressed quickly and followed the commotion outside. More than half the tribe must have been gathered at the front of the camp. She wondered why and then a heavy scent of blood wafted forth. Many men, several with bloody injuries, set down as gently as they could and sunk to the dirt. Others escorted them and shouted for help. The women quickly went to work, sending their children either away or to fetch supplies. Most of the injuries did not look mortal, but several of them were in danger of becoming so.

She saw Torae scrambling back from her home with an armful of medical supplies, bandages and stitching material mostly. "What can I do to help?" She had a knowledge of first aid, but she knew most of the Dominant men were not on any sort of terms with her yet. Injured or not, she wanted to be cautious.

A small amount from Torae's armful was deposited into her own. "Go tend to the chief. I saw him slink off so that his men would be tended first, but I think he's injured."

The commander's mate was correct, as she found out upon entering the chief's home. The scent of blood was present, but not at a life-threatening level. She scented her way to the chief's sleeping quarters and found him sitting the edge of his bed, tugging at one of the small barbs embedded in his arm. There were dozens more.

"Don't do that!" she scolded, rushing over to stay his hand. He growled and attempted to bat her away, but she thrust her other hand into the center of his chest and knocked him flat on the bed. "Stop it, you stubborn male. I'm going to help you." He sat back up, but did not growl.

"Attend to the others first. I'm alright." He began to stand up but she forced him back down. Now he growled.

"Knock it off. The others are being attended to by the rest of the village, and you are most certainly not alright. You got hit by a fragment grenade, did you not?" Even without him answering she could tell he had. His right arm was dotted with tiny barbs, each embedded at a different level. There was not a great amount of blood yet, but he had aggravated some by tugging at one of the barbs.

He huffed out an affirmative and looked away. She had the feeling he was not used to being given orders. At least he was cooperating, which meant she could treat him. "These barbs have to be taken out carefully. You'll tear your skin more if you do it by yourself, and you're strong enough to break off some of the spines. Those spines stay in your arm and infection will set in. Now, lean up against the wall and let me get them out."

He did as he was told and she sat next to him on the bed. She had no knife to dig out the edges of the barbs, but the stitching needle Torae had given her worked about the same. To credit the chief, he made very little noise even when she knew she was causing him pain. The process took a little less than an hour, but finally she had extricated the lot of the barbs. His arm was now bleeding a lot more, so she placed her hand over it and sent a tiny amount of chi to the area. It would temporarily cauterize the wounds—and clean them--, without nerve damage, while she stitched them up.

When the wounds were stitched and covered she felt his other hand on her shoulder. "It's all done now. You'll be able to keep your arm." She covered his hand with hers. "You need to rest now, but I will go and see how everyone else is faring. If you are feeling up to it later, we can speak. I am curious to know how everything went. Does that sound reasonable?" Reluctantly, he nodded his head. "Good. Lie down for a few hours, sleep if you can, and I will see you later.

How that little woman had been dominant over him he had no idea. It sort of just happened. Part of it had been because he knew she was correct about his injury, but the other part had been her blunt show of force. He would be lying if he said her care had been entirely unpleasant. Sure, it had hurt like hell, but he found he liked the gentle side of her. The only weakness she had shown since she had been here was her small breakdown after the attempted rape. But she showed she actually had a nature other than the stoic grump she had been.

He took her advice and lied down, though he did not sleep. There was too much going through his mind for that. For two hours he let his body rest, but after that he could not stay still any longer. He found the Diminutive envoy outside, conversing with Torae. It was his commander's mate that spotted him first.

"Ah, our chief awakens." Aina turned around, a pink tinge to her cheeks. Interesting. "Why don't the two of you go have that conversation you were going to have, and Aina can inform you of what has been going on out here. Can't have the rest of the women following you around like you were a wounded babe, now can we?" She had a point, so he turned back and walked into his home, the envoy trailing close behind.

He led her to his office area and motioned for her to take a seat, which was really just a large boulder conveniently located in front of his make-shift desk. "So, how is everyone doing?"

"Everyone has been tended to, and all but four are in the clear. The others have been moved and are being watched constantly: they lost a lot of blood, but I think they have a good chance of making it as long as they make it through the night. Um, almost everyone who came back was injured. Did…did the others not make it?" He saw the distance in her eyes, the tears pooling at the corners. Something grasped at his heart. This was not what he expected from her at all. She was genuinely concerned for the well-being of his men. She did not want her plan to be the cause of so much pain.

"No, that's not it. The men with minor or no injuries stayed back at the main camp. That's where they were stationed, after all. This camp is not nearly big enough for all of them, especially when the injured need all the room they can get. Two men, however, did perish." He saw a visible twinge in her face.

"I see. Did the base fall?" She was not accustomed to death, at least not death she had had some hand in. Not that the death was her fault, but he knew she would think it was anyway.

"Yes. The plan worked well. A couple less-experienced men did not look around them when the missiles were being fired and were taken out. Their death is no fault of yours, I can assure you of that. Without your insight, many more would have died."

She made a small noise and pinched her lips together. "I am glad my skills were of use. Forgive me, I should compose myself. We Diminutives have never had a situation quite like this, and I am not sure of how to handle it." She stood and sped away from the office. He liked that she was more than a stubborn female, but he too was facing a situation he did not quite know how to handle.

It had been years since she had cried. The last time was right after her parents had been killed. Saiyans naturally had guarded emotions, but with the current situation she felt she had every reason to cry. So she did. She sat on the rocky outcropping she had discovered during her first night in the Dormant camp and let the tears roll down her cheeks. The plan had worked, but still men had died. Even though she knew she was not responsible in the least, she did not feel as though nothing were her fault.

"It's a natural feeling, to know you took the right action yet feel responsible for any misstep." Her head shot up to see Vegeta standing behind her. She stood quickly, a little too quickly. A warm arm wrapped around her to keep her from tumbling off the outcropping, even though she would have stopped the fall mid-air. "It is also natural," he said, laughing gently, "to lose your wits when someone finds you sulking." She wiped her eyes and crossed her arms.

"I am not sulking." His arm was still at her back and he was very close to her. Something tingled down her body, a semi-pleasurable feeling she was not all too comfortable with.

"Really? Well, then you were doing the most sulking-like not sulking I have ever seen." She gave him a stare.

"Those men died while executing a plan I put together. I don't care how much it is not my fault, it still feels like it anyway. I have the right to sulk if I want to!" He still had not let her go, and it was irritating in the oddest way.

"Go ahead, but that won't change anything. Those men are dead and the base is destroyed, and both happened while executing your plan. Think of how many men died before you came along. Hundreds, Aina, hundreds died because they did not have the patience to come up with a plan. Dominants are brutes to the core, and we don't have the capacity for patience, not by ourselves. You have already started to change that, so don't you think otherwise. We are at war, more people will die, and you will have to come to terms with that. I cannot have you shutting down, not after you have given us a fighting chance." His voice was soft and his grip had tightened.

"I apologize. I forget that you have been on the frontlines of this war since the beginning. I guess it is an insult for me to get upset over the events of today." The chief laughed.

" I do believe that is the first time I have ever heard you apologize." The smile on his face threw her off.

"I do possess the ability, but I only use it when I actually need to. Don't get used to it, I don't apologize often."

He chuckled softly. "I can live with that." And she did not know what to reply. She stood facing him, his arm around her back, warmth flooding the front of her body. His eyes stared back at hers, never faltering. It seemed so natural when his free hand caressed her left cheek, so natural when the hand cupped the back of her head, so natural when he bent over her, so natural when he pressed his lips to hers and kissed her fully.

A/N: I know that's not a lot of development, but it's finally getting started. It will still be awhile before any full citrus appears, but they may make a few cameos along the way. :) Hope you enjoyed.