From Cold to Warm
Watching Vegeta strip down to his black silk boxers after he'd ditched her coat was an experience Bulma wasn't going to forget any time soon. Had it not been for the dryness of her mouth she had the very uncomfortable feeling that she'd be drooling right about now. She'd known how built Vegeta was of course having seen him shirtless too many times to count so why was his upper body suddenly more gorgeous to her then any male model in any of her magazines? Not to mention the fact that she'd seen him in shorts before which was basically what he was wearing but she'd never seen him stripping off clothes and they weren't his shorts but his boxers..there WAS a difference. Her mother had bought him those boxers come to think of it which was weird though she wasn't exactly sure why. Watching the firelight play off his muscles Bulma wished that she had a camera even though odds were he'd bust it as soon as she snapped the picture. Or if the picture survived she'd sell it for big money and call it something like Young War God or something. Oh yeah he was definitely worth getting down on your knees and worshipping. But this was all so silly, she was use to being around guys who were a whole new definition of buff. I mean look at Goku, he was buffer and taller for that matter but you never saw her gawking at him. Part of that would likely be do to the fact that Chi Chi would attempt to kill her if she ever did but still. Watching him as he moved closer then got to his knees Bulma stared at him blankly then gave a startled yelp when she felt his hands began unzipping and removing the layers of clothing she'd put on under her suit after she'd crashed. "Vegeta!"
"Woman do you want to die or not? Personally I could care less." Vegeta said more harshly then he'd intended but he wasn't exactly enjoying his current task. Or maybe he was and that was the problem. "Do you think I stripped for the fun of it? The only way we're going to transfer my body heat to you quickly is if my body comes into contact with yours with as little between them as possible. If I was interested in something else I certainly wouldn't chose a half frozen idiot like you."
"And I'd rather date Krillin." Bulma snapped back and enjoyed the way his eyes flashed at her words for a moment before going to their usual blackness. Didn't like that idea did you, oh mighty prince, Bulma thought smugly. She would imagine being told she preferred Krillin to him had to be a big blow to the guy's already huge ego. "It's really too bad Goku didn't come in your place. I bet he would have gotten here quicker." That was definitely the wrong thing for her to have said and Bulma realized it as soon as the words had left her tongue. She was in big trouble now.
)
"Oh is that so? Well maybe I should throw you back into the ship in your underwear. Go back to tell him to come get you." Vegeta sneered looking every inch the arrogant prince of a warrior planet where strength was everything and kindness a weakness. In other words she had an ego wounded Saiyan prince on her hands and that was never a good thing. "And even if you were still alive by the time he got here I have no doubt you'd simply have the luxury of dying in his arms were you not too frostbitten to notice." Pissed off now Vegeta practically tore the last shirt down the middle sending buttons flying and her shirt to hang open in tatters with only the top two buttons still attached properly to the shirt. Blinking as he was now looking at Bulma's cleavage in a barely there emerald green bra Vegeta felt all the blood leave his head and head downward at an alarming rate. Staring for several moments Vegeta finally managed to tear his gaze away and looking into her half amused half shocked eyes tried to hide his reaction with words. "And what kind of an idiot wears something like that?" Vegeta said motioning to the bra with a hand that shook slightly since it was itching to removed the rest of the shirt to get the full picture. "It's serving no purpose, it would have made more sense to go without it or wear one that actually covers something." Instantly Vegeta felt the need to go dive into icy cold snow as images of Bulma minus said article of clothing came to mind. Damn it all to hell why hadn't he let Mrs. Briefs get Goku? Curses!
"Well if I'd known you'd be looking at it I'd have worn long johns." Bulma said as she worked up the effort to stick her tongue out of him though her pulse was jumping all over the place. He hadn't been looking at her bust thinking about the impracticality of her bra that was for sure. The idea both surprising and strangely enough thrilling her. Well, well. Looks like he was human..well not human but not the man of titanium steel either. "And this way there's more skin contact, you should be pleased." Bulma shot out when she returned her attention to the task at hand. Having said it just to see his reaction she was pleased to see him lose just a bit of color in his cheeks. "Now are you going to help me with my pants or not?"
"Weak woman." Vegeta muttered under his breath to make himself feel better then putting all his mental power forced himself to block it all out and helped her out of the bottom of her snow suit. The snow suit bottoms were soon off to be followed by her sweat pants and then to tight black leggings which had him counting from a hundred to one in his head, anything to take his mind off what he was doing. "Can you manage the leggings?" Vegeta said, his voice a touch husky but not in an unappealing way as he struggled not to stare. He wanted to remove those leggings too much...For the love of Kami let her be up to it.
"Yeah. I think so." Bulma said with a tinge of pink to her cheeks as he moved away and her hands went to her waistband to start tugging them down. Her plan to make him suffer for the idiot comment had backfired big time and his help getting undressed had gotten her blood moving and circulating better then any bonfire. Taking minutes instead of the usual seconds to get them off Bulma threw the leggings across her stomach to hide her underwear however stupid that was. Good God but now..now came the body contact. "Uhmm, Vegeta...I..I.. Uhm.. appreciate this....a lot. I know you'd rather be blowing my droids up or plotting Goku's slow and painful death."
)
Blowing things up and Goku were the last things on Vegeta's mind at the moment but he just shrugged then tried to figure out how to go about this. He'd squish her so top was out of the questions, sides would work but the then at least a side of her would be touching cold ground. The logical and best way would be to have her stretch out on top with the blankets over her back to warm that while his body warmed the front. The problem was that he didn't quite know if he could stand being in that position with the woman. What are you thinking, Vegeta of course you can a little voice in his head told him darkly. She's the same old annoying idiot human female you've been living with who drives you insane with her annoying little habits. Are you a Saiyan, the greatest race to ever be created or a pathetic human who can't handle contact with a measly weak girl. He was a Saiyan God damn it and he was not going to be taken in by her charms. "Okay, I'll lay down on that blanket, layer the blankets on your back and then lay on top of me. That way you'll get the maximum amount of heat. Think you can manage that much, onna?"
"Quit calling me woman, I do have a name ya know." Bulma said with a huff as she glared at him as she sat there shivering with the blankets she'd pulled over her while he'd been thinking things through. "And yes I can manage to fall on you however unappealing the thought may be, Vegeta. Sure you can take my weight since you're only a little Saiyan after all." Bulma added with a cheeky smirk. "I wouldn't want to make you any smaller then you are already."
"Despite you're size I think I can handle it for a short period of time." Vegeta replied as close to sweetly as he ever got, enjoying the flames that burst into her eyes as the barb hit home. He'd noticed that human females were abnormally obsessed with their figures and he'd had to listen to Bulma complain about the size of her butt and hips more then once. Not that she needed to worry in that area but Vegeta would have sooner bit his own tongue off then say it. "Now hurry up, onna. You most definitely don't have all day." Vegeta added as he walked over to the blanket he'd laid on the ground in the middle of the area then stretched out with his arms under his head as a sort of pillow.
"There's nothing wrong with my figure." Bulma mutterer with annoyance as she glared at him, picturing herself wringing his neck. Then the picture he made got to her and all thoughts of ringing his neck promptly left her head. It took his impatient glaring at her to snap her out of it and hesitantly Bulma moved over to kneel beside him then lifting one leg over to straddle him Bulma braced herself on her hands as she lowered her head to his chest, gasping in surprise when she felt the heat pumping out of him. Survival instincts coming into full force Bulma moaned in pleasure and buried her face into his neck, her arms coming up to rest against his chest. "So warm." Bulma purred happily as her hands instinctively stroked the skin under them. All nerves evaporating under the pleasure of being warm Bulma couldn't even remember why she hadn't wanted to do this. "No wonder you were okay..God I could stay here forever! You're like a furnace and forest fire combine!"
)
Oh dear God no, Vegeta thought as he closed his eyes which only made the pictures floating through his mind that much clearer. When she'd moaned and nuzzled against him he'd come within inches of forgetting who it was making his body react this way. And if she didn't stop stroking him he was going to blast her into the rock surface. Was she doing it on purpose, Vegeta wondered suspiciously as his eyes narrowed but he couldn't even get a look at her face since it was currently busy nuzzling against his neck which was doing strange things to his body as his senses were overrun with her. The smell of her hair and skin, the feeling of her soft body pressed against him for warmth and protection from the elements. He wasn't even noticing how cold her flesh was because all he could think of was touching it with his fingers to see if it was as soft as it seemed to be. Turning his attention back to the whole point of this with some difficulty Vegeta moved one of his hands from under his head and reaching out drew the blankets over her more securely so that they covered her from shoulder to feet. Now she was covered on all sides and would absorb as much heat as possible. Actually since you lost your heat quickest through you're head maybe it was a good thing she had her head where it was, Vegeta thought, subconsciously trying to come up with an excuse not to ask her to quit with the nuzzling. "Are you cold anywhere?" Vegeta asked roughly when he couldn't take it anymore and needed something to take his mind off things related to anything but speeding this up so that he could move as far from her as possible. Well there were other ways to get her even warmer..NO! What the hell was he thinking..damn it why the hell did all the females of his species have to die so that he was stuck with a bad tempered human hellion who shouldn't have been appealing in any sense of the word.
)
"Nope, I've never been this warm in winter ever." Bulma said with a happy sigh as she continued to defrost. It was strange how he was such an enigma, Bulma thought as she moved her head down so that she could look at her hands as they rested against his chest. He was so muscular and hard looking but his skin was soft to the touch and generated massive amounts of warmth and heat. Warmth was definitely something missing from his personality but perhaps it was there and she just didn't pay enough attention. After all she'd never thought he'd go out of his way to help her and even if he had ulterior motives he was still going the extra distance when normally he wouldn't have bothered. Every time she thought she had him nailed he changed slightly or showed another faucet of character that altered the whole picture. She would be dead by now if it weren't for him and she wasn't too pigheaded to admit it but there was always the chance she wasn't going to make it out of here alive. Even this was no guarantee and even if she lived she might have repercussions like frostbite or get really, really sick. Well in that case she supposed the Dragon Balls could be brought in and then she could be wished back. What was heaven like and did it vary from person to person or was it the same for everyone? Would she even get to heaven? She wasn't what you would call a particularly religious person that was for sure and she knew she'd done things over the year she doubted God had exactly approved of. Then again people said that Vegeta would drive a saint to drink and since he'd never managed to drive her to drink did that mean she had saint status? But she wasn't going to die so there would be no thinking about that, Bulma thought sternly. She needed to get her mind on something else, something that would distract her from thoughts of dying and stuff like that. And there was one person who was great at that unless he was issuing death threats or making her want to issue them right back. "Hey, Vegeta...I'm glad you came instead of Goku......Goku would have fainted in embarrassment by now."
)
Blinking at her words Vegeta thought about that in silence then before he even realized what it was welling up inside of him Vegeta broke into laughter that rang with amusement. The full body laughter that came from his lips was one of pure and true humor, his body shaking with the force of his amusement. Trying to cut off the laughter Vegeta met with little success since he kept picturing the idiot fainting dead away like some weak woman at the sight of a scantily clad female. Come to think of it it really was amazing that Goku had a son at all given the fact that Vegeta was sure there were HUMAN children out there with higher intelligence not to mention common sense. Laughing harder now Vegeta couldn't remember laughing like this since..well since he was a child and even then... There hadn't been a lot of time for fun and games when he'd been a boy being prepped to become a king one day.
Jaw dropping when he started to laugh Bulma shifted and moving her face shifted to rest against her arms as she stared at his face which was so..so un-Vegeta like. His eyes were so different when they were shining with humor and amusement, his face so much younger and handsome when it was loose and unlined with strain or concentration. Grinning at him Bulma started to laugh with him as they shared a moment of complete agreement and unrestrained joy. Slowly though Bulma could see him getting himself under control, remembering who he was and Bulma could literally see his mask come back over his face so that the eyes that stared into hers were expressionless and his face giving off the usual cold and hard impression. A face that suggested there wasn't a speak of feeling in his whole body but Bulma knew different. "You have a nice laugh, Vegeta." Bulma said softly as she lifted out a hand and gently cupped his cheek as she stared into the black pools of his eyes which were bottomless and full of danger. "You should do it more often even though I know you won't."
"You're hand is on my face, onna. It has no reason to be there." Vegeta said coolly as he stared at her, refusing to let her draw him in away from the safety of his shell. She wanted to make him weak and useless, always telling him to get a sense of humor or smile more. He'd smile more when he finally beat Goku and took his place as the strongest being in all the worlds and galaxies.
"You don't like it move it." Bulma shot back as she stared at him having a feeling that if she was ever going to get to see the real Vegeta behind the masks she had to push now and push hard. And she wanted to know so very, very much who he was.
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His eyes flashing slightly at the dare in her eyes Vegeta moved his hand to her wrist, wrapping his fingers around the delicate skin and squeezed slightly, enough to be uncomfortable but she made no move to stop him even as she winced slightly at the pressure. Seeing the faint hint of pain in her eyes Vegeta's stomach recoiled at what he was doing to her. Instinctively loosened his hold so that his grip was close to gently as Vegeta fought his desire to let her hand remain there, his eyes never giving away his inner battle but his hand did it for him as his thumb gently stroked her wrist even as it held it captive. "What do you want, Onna? Why are you playing with me?" Vegeta finally asked as he moved his hand away to instead cup the back of her head, drawing her closer so that their noses were practically touching. His dark eyes were deadly serious as he searched her eyes for the answers he sought.
"I want the real Vegeta."
