Not Taking it Well
Chapter 4: Bulma
Bulma was an understanding person. I mean, she didn't have any problems as a kid with Goku having a tail, or Master Roshi being a goddamn perv, and Piccolo being green for Dende's sake. Green. And of course her husband being an alien. She had managed to stay friends with Yamcha after their break-up all those years ago. She could play nice with 18, even if she HAD killed all her friends in some alternate future.
Sure, she might freak out a little bit sometimes (she ignored the mental "hmph" her mental Vegeta gave at that), but in the end she always came through for her friends and family. That's how understanding she was.
But this?
This was just too much.
It was Valentine's Day.
Translation for Bura: THE most romantic day of the year. Translation for Goten: Day he was forced to take Bura to a fancy restaurant, buy her flowers and chocolates, send her a ridiculously cliché card, and overall easy day to earn brownie points. A sentiment which most of the men of Z Senshi had picked up years ago. Fighting Frieza, Cell, Buu, or Baby? Kind of fun in that oh-no-we-all-might-day sorta way. Dealing their enraged significant others? HELL no.
Which was why Gohan was preparing a romantic candlelight dinner for Videl. And Trunks had flown Marron halfway around the world to Paris to dine near the Eiffel Tower. And Krillin had gotten Bulma's help getting into this really high-class restaurant. And why Vegeta had been forced to dust off that ridiculous tux his blasted wife had gotten him years ago and put to use those mortifying dance lessons he'd been subjected to. Even Goku had remembered long enough to come back from whatever ridiculous training he was currently doing and spend some time with Chichi.
And of course, that's why the recently engaged Goten and Bulla had decided to have a romantic, low-key picnic in the park on the Capsule Corps grounds. A relatively risky place to go on a date – on the Saiyan prince's very own property – but a couple quick ki checks told them that everyone was far from West City. Perfect.
They sat in a clearing in the woods under a cloudless sky, watching the changing colors as the sun set. Letting the stars and fireflies light them as they savored their dessert under the canopy of leaves and flowers just beginning to bud. Even if it weren't an uncharacteristically warm February, the gentle ki levels they radiated kept each other comfortable.
Honestly, the two were so in love that it wouldn't have mattered how romantic the scenery was. Not to mention that they were still riding the high of Pan being really good about the two of them. She'd even agreed to be maid of honor and help with some of the early wedding plans. AND – which was a total bonus – she wouldn't tell anyone about them until they decided to give the green light.
It was starting to get late when they finally agreed to head back. There was no real reason to – it was still relatively early. Even if everyone they knew wasn't on a romantic escapade, no one would have been back before eight.
They took their time walking back. Hand-in-hand, they would alternate between inane chatter and simply enjoying each other's company.
Goten couldn't help but feel content as he thought about how much he loved this woman. How comfortable they were together and the calming effect her presence brought him. He sometimes wondered if this was how all couples felt with their mates, but he would always dismiss the question. He didn't care how other people felt, and frankly he didn't want other people to have what they had. They were special. She was special. Enough said.
Always the gentleman, he held the door open for her when they got to the back door leading into the impressive Capsule Corps kitchen. Bura gave him a devilishly coy smile as she walked past, one that screamed "thank you" and "come get me" at the same time.
Something about the way she sashayed her hips back and forth enticed his human side, and the way she carried herself (like nothing in the universe would get in her way) had his Saiyan side biting at the bit to get to her.
In the three seconds it took for the door to slam shut, he was all over her.
He had her backed up against the island, hands on either side of her to keep her from escaping. But her arms were already around his neck and her hands were staking claim to his hair. He nuzzled and nipped at her neck, breathing in her smell which was made all the more alluring by the grassy and floral undertones from their picnic.
Goten didn't know when he'd lost his shirt, but he loved feeling her hands move across his chest and back. He wasn't sure which one of them had taken off her shirt, but it was heaven to feel her soft skin against his. She moaned into his kiss as he pulled her legs around his waist and he very much hated that their lower bodies were still clothed…
And then the kitchen light turned on.
Bulma was deciding if she was in a bad mood or not. While it was uncharacteristically romantic of her husband to take her dancing, it was very characteristically Vegeta to leave early to go spar with Goku. She wasn't sure if the earlier part of their date balanced out getting ditched at the fancy club. Wait, no… it definitely did not balance out.
At least she didn't have to worry about punishing Goku for the intrusion – she was pretty sure Chichi would handle that.
So she left the dance club, miffed and completely alone. Story of her married life. Oh well, it's not like I didn't know what I was getting into when I married that Saiyan bastard.
Never one to miss an opportunity, she stopped by the office on her way back home. After changing and showering in her private lab, Bulma finished up and submitted a couple designs for new projects she wanted the company to start on ASAP. Then she double-checked Trunks' stack of work to make sure it was actually getting done – an old habit that she really shouldn't be indulging in anymore. Honestly, he was a grown man. He should have this figured out by now.
Even with her little trip to the office, it was still an embarrassingly early hour to be coming home. Alone. On Valentine's Day.
NO Gravity Room for a month, she decided as she encapsulated her car and headed inside.
Her stomach growled as she made her way to the kitchen. Vegeta had been so eager to spar he'd left before they'd even gotten a chance to have dinner. Even for a Saiyan, he seemed to have mixed up his priorities. Honestly, it should have been dinner, sex THEN sparring. Instead he chose sparring, dinner and an absolute lack of sex. She could not emphasize enough how little sex he would be having because of this. In fact, he had chosen to enjoy the next week on the not so comfortable couch in the living room.
Bulma was still concocting plans of revenge on the prince she loved / hated in almost equal measure when she flicked on the light to the kitchen, hoping to grab some leftovers and head to bed early or take a relaxing bubble bath.
Instead, she flicked on the light and wished she had been born blind, because there was NO WAY she could wash this image from her eyes. Not if she lived to be a thousand could she forget the spectacle before her, so branded was it in her mind.
There was her little girl, half naked, wrapped around Son Goten of all people. Son Goten, Chichi's good little boy who never did a thing wrong in his life, the one Bulma had visited in the hospital when he was born and had babysat for years, who was her son's best friend in the world… and who also happened to be missing his shirt and had his arms around her daughter.
The couple had frozen when the light went on. They slowly turned to face Bulma, all three of them with that deer-in-the-headlights look. They just starred at each other for what must have been several minutes until finally Bura pushed Goten away and jumped off the kitchen island.
"Mom!" she yelled as she looked for her shirt and threw it on. "What are you doing home so early?" She threw Goten's shirt into his chest, which he caught reflexively, but he still had a dazed look and didn't seem to be quite yet ready to move or speak.
"Bura. Dining Room. Goten. Out. NOW."
Goten automatically turned to leave – it had been drilled into all the Earth-born Saiyans at a young age to listen to their mothers and, really, any woman who had the same authoritative tone – but Bura grabbed his arm and whispered something. Bulma watched, arms crossed over her chest as she heard her daughter tell him to wait outside.
"Bura," Bulma snapped as a warning, then turned into the adjoining room, expecting her daughter to follow.
"Yes, mom?" Bulma would have been more upset if Bura had sounded calm and collected about all this, but she couldn't help but be pleased when she heard a slight quiver in the younger genius' voice.
"You mind explaining to me what the fuck that was that I just walked in on?" She was surprised how easily she kept control of her own tone. She had all of the "angry parent" she was going for and managed to keep out all of the "freaked-out mother" from being too obvious.
"I… uh… well…" Bura coughed nervously. "Well, when two people-"
"BURA!" Bulma's face was scarlet, whether from anger or embarrassment, neither was sure.
"Sorry," she said as she rung her hands together.
Silence reigned for a moment as they each tried to figure out where to go from here.
"Your shirt's on inside out."
Bura blushed but just nodded in response.
Finally, Bulma sighed and let her shoulders slump a little. She was honestly too tired for this. "Why were you and Goten going at it in my kitchen?"
Bura muttered something incomprehensible. An annoyed tap of her mother's foot made her repeat herself. "Because we didn't think anyone would be home so early…"
Bulma was absolutely scandalized by the answer. Not because the answer seemed to be honest, but because her daughter would admit to it. "And do you two have a habit of making out whenever the Compound is empty?"
"No! I mean… Not every time…"
"What's that supposed to mean!"
The girl fidgeted under her mother's gaze. She hadn't been interrogated like this since she was a child, and she had hated it then. And back then, the worst thing she had to hide was that she had broken something. Now, it was that she was pregnant and had been secretly dating her mother's best friend's son.
God, it really DOES sound like a cheesy soap opera…
Though Bura couldn't help but be thankful for her mother's timing. While not exactly ideal, if Bulma had come back ten or fifteen minutes later, she was sure a meeting in the dining room between the two women would NOT have been the outcome. In fact, she was pretty sure her mother would have immediately found her father or brother to handle things themselves…
Her mother interrupted her worrying with another tap of the foot. "I'm waiting, Bura."
Bura's arms slumped in defeat, unconsciously mimicking her mother's tired pose. I was going to tell her sometime this week anyway… "Goten and I… have been dating for a while."
Bulma raised on eyebrow, intrigued. Bura had always had a crush on the older Saiyan, but Goten seemed too oblivious to the advances of the pretty young girl. She had always supposed it was only a matter of time before he finally noticed and fell under Bura's spell. While normally this might have satisfied her, knowing the two youngest half-Saiyans had decided to pair up, she could tell there was more to it than that. "Go on."
She cleared her throat. "We've been dating for…" she briefly considered giving the real number, but decided this wasn't the time, "… a while now. We're in love." ALWAYS start with the "we're in love" stuff before moving on to the "by the way we're getting married because I'm knocked up."
"In love?"
"Yes." She stood up a little straighter. "A few weeks ago, Goten asked him to marry him and I said yes."
A long pause. "My daughter is marrying Son Goten?"
She nodded. She was slightly concerned – her mother's voice up 'til now was strangely flat and emotionless. Like she was too busy digesting the information to actually have formed an opinion about it one way or the other.
"Well, you could each do worse..."
Bura glared at her mother. Even if she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, so to speak, it did nothing to diminish how easily her temper could flare up. "Hardly the level of approval I was hoping for, Mother."
"Well, daughter, I don't really like finding out my daughter is dating someone by walking in on the two of them. In my kitchen. Half-dressed." Her voice was level but inside she was still extremely unsettled. Like all good parents, she liked to pretend her children were the chastest of virgins. Any evidence to the contrary needed to be burned or ignored. Unfortunately she could do neither at the moment.
"UGH!" Bura's arms went up in frustration. "You seriously cannot be complaining about that! I mean, yeah, totally not the most responsible thing or whatever. And I'm sure it's like traumatic or something, but- But Mom!" She could barely find words at this point. "Do you have any idea how many times Trunks and I have walked in on worse!" She watched her mother turn very white this time. "I mean, geez, at least Goten and I were still mostly dressed-"
"THAT'S ENOUGH! I do NOT need to hear more about that!" She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed at the oncoming headache. Dende, she felt old right now. "I know we had 'the talk' when you were younger, so please just tell me you two are being... careful." The lack of response was worse than anything she could have imagined her daughter saying. "Bura..." she said as she eyed the girl.
"Yeeeeah, about that..." Seeing that this was as good a time as any to actually say it, she added, "I'm pregnant."
"NANI! Bura, you're PREGNANT?" She didn't mean to overreact. But she couldn't help it. She'd JUST found out her daughter – who had NEVER had a serious relationship in her LIFE – actually had been IN a serious relationship for some unspecified length of time and was PREGNANT. Worst Valentine's Day EVER.
Bura winced at the pitch her mother's voice took. "Yep."
"Bura! There's no way you could have been PLANNING to get pregnant! How could you two be so… irresponsible! I mean, you two just aren't ready to have a child-"
"Excuse me," Bura snapped, hands going to her hips in what her mother immediately recognized as a defensive and aggressive pose, "isn't that a little hypocritical of you?"
"And what is that supposed to mean, young lady?"
"I don't exactly remember it being a part of the story that you and Dad sat down together and had a nice heart-to-heart before deciding to have Trunks. As I recall, even I was an accident, so don't get all high and mighty and talk to me about 'planning' to have kids."
Bulma flushed at the low blow. "That's completely different! I was older than you-"
"Then shouldn't you have known better?"
"WHAT I MEANT is that I was more prepared to deal with having a child." Dende, she hated arguing with her children or her husband. The three of them knew exactly where to strike to make her feel less in control. Probably something that carried over from fighting, some underlying Saiyan instinct. Or maybe they were just good at arguing.
"At least my mate was supportive when he first found out-"
"BURA BRIEFS VEGETA! THAT IS ENOUGH!"
"Sorry," Bura muttered. Apparently this was a sensitive topic for her mother. Though Bura wondered if it had something to do with the fact that her dad had seemed to abandon her on Valentine's Day. At any rate, it probably wasn't helping.
The two women starred at each other. They both knew yelling wasn't going to resolve this. They had the rest of their lives to sort this out. Bulma only had right now to let her daughter know she could be okay with. "So when's the wedding?"
"In sixth months." Another pause. "You'll come to the wedding, right?"
"Oh, honey," Bulma said, tearing up a little. "How could you even ask me that?" She rushed forward and swept her daughter up in a massive hug. "And I want to be in the delivery room when my first grandson is born."
"Or granddaughter."
"Or granddaughter."
She heard her daughter sniffle a little. "Thanks, Mom." A couple more sniffles. "Please don't tell Daddy yet."
Bulma in no way shape or form wanted to tell Vegeta about this. Ever. It had been bad enough telling him about Trunks and Bura. Telling him he was going to be a grandfather AND that the child would also be related to Goku... Bulma did not envy Bura and Goten that conversation. "Of course, not sweetie."
Even with all she'd been overwhelmed with, Bulma was sure there was more going on. She was not at all pleased with some of the things she'd found out, and she would have a serious talking to with Goten. But for now, she was willing to let it go and support her daughter.
AN: Next chapters will probably be Gohan and Videl, and then Goku and Chichi. Last chapter will probably be an epilogue about the wedding itself.