"W-What do you mean you want to break up?" Yamcha stuttered out shocked by Bulma's bluntness. When she had found him in the crowd and taken him to the side this was the last thing he'd expected.

"Look Yamcha…," she tried to explain but was interrupted.

"Is it because I'm not staying here with you? I'm not trying to avoid you or anything; it's just that my apartment is closer to the wilderness which is where I've been training."

"Yamcha…," Bulma tried again to speak but again Yamcha jumped into the conversation.

"Ah, you must have seen me talking to those women! I wasn't trying to pick up any of them, I promise. I mean… well I guess I was looking but it's hard to avoid looking at outfits like that, they kind of just beg for attention. N-not that they're anywhere near as nice to look at as yours. "

"Yamcha!" Bulma yelled this time uncaring of the terrified look on Yamcha's face or that any guests within earshot would hear her. She was too tired to care anymore. She'd been too tired to care about making small talk with people she'd only seen a few times before in her life. She'd been too tired to care that Yamcha had been flirting with those women despite his protests. She'd been too tired to snap back at Vegeta's attempts to goad her into a fight. And now she was too tired to listen to Yamcha's rambling off excuses in a desperate attempt to appease her.

There was a tense silence between them before Yamcha sighed. "Bulma… I just don't understand. What happened?"

Bulma rubbed her neck before looking back to him. "Trust me, Yamcha, if you'd done something worth apologizing for I wouldn't have calmly asked you to come and talk to me in private." Noticing his confused look she took a hold of his hand. "Look Yamcha, we've been together for over a decade. We've gone through some tough times and had a lot of fun but surely you've noticed that we've grown apart. The only thing either of us is doing wrong is forcing ourselves to stay in this relationship when we have different interests in mind. I'm not saying that you have cheated or that I have… had sex with anyone else but if we go on like this much longer who knows what will happen. If we can't be honest with ourselves then how can we be honest with each other?"

"Bulma…I…," Yamcha started but seemed to be at a loss for words for a second, "I know what you mean. I really haven't cheated on you but I have caught myself looking at other women, like when I was training at the gym. I didn't have any desire to sleep with them but just the fact that I was looking at them is proof enough that I'm not just thinking about you."

"Me too," Bulma confessed. "Not exactly like what you're talking about but remember when I told you about my dreams yesterday? There wasn't anyone in those but the feeling the dream caused me… it's just as bad. To want that feeling when I know that it is a completely different feeling than I experience with you is completely different, even though I'm not acting out on those desires it still feels like I am."

"Is that what has been distracting you today? You had another dream?"

She nodded. "I just think that as we grew up we found that different things make us happy. We stayed together because it was the only thing we ever knew. It was safe and steady which is fine for you, maybe, but…"

"You've never been one for doing the same thing over and over." He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at the ground. "I must have been boring you."

"No, I've had fun with you, as a friend, just like I have fun with Goku and Krillin, but as far as what I want in a romance, it's just not what I need anymore."

Bulma watched Yamcha's down-turned face patiently until he finally looked up with a smile. "Yeah, I think that's pretty much it. I'll miss you, Bulma."

Before she knew it, Yamcha had wrapped his arms tightly around her. She allowed herself to return the hug. After all, he was a dear friend and she was more than happy that they could remain that way. 'This is for the best,' Bulma thought with a sad smile. It would have been bad if they had continued on their way, drifting apart and doing horrible things behind each other's backs. Not only would it have meant the end of their relationship but more than likely the death of their friendship as well.

"Brr, I should have gone inside and changed into some decent clothes or at least grabbed a jacket. It wasn't so bad earlier but now it's freezing. Hopefully Vegeta has the GR nice and toasty" Bulma said aloud as she rubbed her arms.

It was around midnight when people finally started to leave. Yamcha said his goodbyes to Bulma and parents before heading off as well and soon there was only staff around cleaning up the yard. Remembering Vegeta saying that he had something for her at the GR she said good night to her parents and made her way around back. "I swear, if he just wants me to fix something, I'm going to murder him," she muttered aloud as she picked up her pace a little.

Finally making it to the backyard, she smiled as the GR came into view. However her smile faltered as the exterior lights surround her house suddenly flickered simultaneously. "Dad, I know it's Halloween but surely you didn't need to install the eerie mood lights back here where the guests weren't going to be." She tried to laugh but it was immediately apparent that her Father had not installed the special flickering lights when they suddenly went out completely. "What the hell? Why are the lights off?"

Looking around she noted that it wasn't completely dark since the sidewalk lights lining the path were still on. It wasn't much of a comfort, however, since their design only illuminated a 10 foot circle directly beneath the bulb leaving several parts of the paths shrouded in darkness. "We've never had the exterior house lights off before so I've never seen what the sidewalk lights look like alone. I'll have to talk to dad about it tomorrow, it's entirely too dangerous to walk out here like this."

Bulma looked around thought fully before another breeze made her remember that she was standing outside in nothing but a thin dress. "Oh what am I talking about dangerous? It's not like anyone could sneak past security and onto the lot in the first place. For now I've got better things to think about."

Stepping out of the ring of light she'd stopped under she made her way down the path towards the next. Passing through she looked up at the remaining three lamps ahead of her and laughed. "Seriously Bulma, you're 30 now. There are scarier things to think about than boogey men, you know like the Androids coming in less than two years."

The sound of a twig snapping underfoot from some indeterminable direction made her jump and dart towards the next pool of light. Clutching her hands over her rapidly beating heart she tried to calm down. 'Get a hold of yourself! It was just someone stepping on a stick there's nothing to worry about. No one can get through security… unless it was one of the guests but they wouldn't come back here. But I clearly heard something. Ah! Maybe someone got lost. I'm sure that if I just call out they'll answer back.'

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Bulma called out, "Hello? Is someone there?" Hearing no one answer back she tried again. "The party's over so you need to head home. If you're lost you can just head back…," she turned to point back towards the way she had come only to have the rest of her sentence die at what she had seen, or rather what she didn't see.

The other lamps that she had just walked through were no longer shining. Her eyes widened in fear as she stepped back. "Anyway j-just go that way until you reach the front. I have to go now." However upon turning she found that the lights ahead of her were also no longer shinning as well. "What the hell is going on?"

She was trapped. Was there someone out there or was it just her imagination? In either case she had two choices: Either she could stay where she was and wait for something happen or she could make a beeline for the GR and hope that nothing got her.

'Wait, the GR… Vegeta. Surely Vegeta would be able to sense me coming and he'd also be able to know if someone he didn't know was getting too close to his GR. He may be a bastard but there's no way that he'd tolerate a strange person attacking me, especially when he wants to be the only one to 'attack' me. That just leaves two options: either I'm just panicking for nothing and there's no one here or the person out here with me is none other than Vegeta himself.'

She should be furious that he'd try to scare her like this but just like last night, when her mind had made the connection that only Vegeta could have gotten into her room, anticipation and desire were quickly mixing with the fear. Last night when she had begged Vegeta to let her go, truly wanting him to because she wasn't comfortable with being tied up, he had relented and she had realized that he truly wasn't going to force her against her will and that, as he had said, this game was just that: a game. Because while an attack by a stranger would be terrifying because they would only think of their needs and not care about hurting her, playing out her twisted fantasies with someone she trusted gave her the feeling of comfort because they would understand when to stop and would consider her feelings before their own.

The light surrounding her disappeared and she was left in complete darkness. A puff of air caressed her neck and she instantly forgot all about the chill of the night wind. And despite knowing that it was most likely Vegeta behind her, her fight or flight instincts kicked in overtaking her rational.

Before she knew it she was running, taking only a split second to kick off her 3 inch stilettos. She didn't know where she was running in all this darkness but the feeling of cut grass on her bare feet told her enough to know that she was off the paved path and most likely running in the opposite direction of both the house and the GR. Her mind told her to stop running, to look around and try to see where she was and who was chasing her but her body wouldn't respond, it just kept running until it hit a wall.

There was a deep chuckle and just the barest feeling of finger tips running down her arm could be felt but it was enough to make her shudder with desire. She heard the chuckle again and frowned.

'He thinks it's funny that he got the best of me? That he can make me helpless to his touch? Well, too bad for him that he's dealing with Bulma Briefs. And I'm not giving in without a fight.'

I hope you enjoyed it and please feel free to review. One more chapter to go. I've been sick and busy so I'm not making any promises as to when it'll be up but it should be before the month is up.