Everything Went Wrong

Chapter 7

"Please?"

"No."

"But, I'm hungry."

"Stop pestering me."

Bulma groaned. Another failed attempt to get the Saiyan to favor her with a break. She had not eaten in well over a day and a half now, and the painful clenching of her stomach was almost to a nauseous degree. Vegeta had refused to stop. It was as if he was refusing to relax until his mission was complete. She however, didn't have the luxury of an immeasurable amount of energy and found her supply running dangerously low. To further this point, a bellow of a growl rumbled from her stomach and she sighed.

"I have food and it will only take a few minutes I swear." Bulma licked her lips and decided to change tactics. "I have enough for both of us."

She heard Vegeta growl, a sound she was surprisingly growing used to, as he slowly began to decelerate. In Bulma's mind, she chirped in victory for convincing the Saiyan to take a break.

They landed and he quickly released her and took a seat opposite her, none too pleased looking.

"Well," He said, the roughness in his voice hinting towards unabated irritation. "Where is this food you promised? I fail to see where you could have stored enough to sate my hunger."

Bulma was surprised by his impatient tone of voice. For a man who was complaining not long ago about stopping, he sure sounded eager at the sound of food. Bulma chuckled in her head, knowing it was a Saiyan thing. Goku would have invited Piccolo Daimyo over for tea if it meant getting a meal in his stomach.

"Right here."

Bulma reached into her back pocket, pulling out her small pack of capsules. Finding the correct one, she turned nervous eyes onto her Saiyan captor.

"I warn you though, not to freak out when I activate it."

Vegeta snorted, sticking his nose into the air. "I assure you there is nothing that can possibly –"

BOMB!

"What is this witchery!"

Bulma jumped at his tone. The smoke cleared away and a capsule fridge was suddenly accessible.

The woman huffed. "It's not witchery," she said. "It's a capsule. They are storage devices. They are capable of carrying large objects with minimal capacity. This was a food capsule."

Surely he must have realized where she had gotten her flashlight from? Then again, Bulma thought with another huff, he probably wasn't paying that much attention to her.

She watched almost amusedly as the Saiyan leaned over and stared curiously at her capsule. She couldn't help the welt of pride suddenly swell up inside her at captivating the dangerous Saiyan's attention.

"Remarkable." He examined, before shaking his head and sitting back, taking his former position and crossing his arms.

"Yes, they are." Bulma gloated, a sucker for stroking her own ego. "My father created these. I was in the developing project in the later models. I helped widen its aptitude to hold from six- tons to a whopping ninety-two tons, and expand its capability to shrink large matter such as ships and houses into these sizable little pellets. Cool huh?"

She heard only a grunt and her excitement deflated. She pouted mentally, wondering why he was suddenly uninterested in the science. Was her speech that boring?

"So… you must be real hungry huh? If you have an apatite anywhere near that of Goku's anyway."

At the mention of food, Vegeta's eyes immediately locked on her. Hastily she reached over and opened up the large chest. Taking a position across from him, she presented him with a small Styrofoam box. Placing it in front of him and one for her, she watched as his eyes stared at it peculiarly, then looked back at her, one of his dark brows rising.

He was probably waiting for her to try it first, thinking it was poisoned Bulma thought with a roll of her eyes. Demonstrating that the food was not poisoned, the woman opened up the container and took a small bite of the food, pointedly staring at Vegeta as she did so. Copying her ministrations after believing the food was safe, Vegeta hurriedly pulled the box to him and stared at the small meal that met his eyes. She watched amusedly as he brought it to his nose and sniffed it, then pull it away from his face his disgust.

"Hey, it's not the best but it is space food, it's meant to last, not for taste." Bulma quirked. He only grunted.

Awkward silence stilled the air for the brief moment Bulma took to picking up her chopsticks and jabbing them down onto an unsuspecting mushroom. Just as she brought it to her lips however her eyes darted over to the Saiyan who had a confused expression on his face.

"How do I use these accursed things?"

Bulma looked at him a betrayed a small smile as the Saiyan tried unsuccessfully to utilize the art of holding chopsticks. She reached over into a drawer on the fridge and pulled out a fork, gingerly handing it to him.

"Here, this might be easier for you." She offered.

He snatched it from her, offering no thank you's in return, not like she was expecting one anyway. To her relief he seemed to comprehend its use and began to scarf down his food like he hadn't eaten in days. It was an amazing feat to watch a Saiyan eat, Bulma realized. It was true, he ate with much the same vigor as Son-kun did, though she was pleased to see that at least Vegeta seemed to have better mannerisms in the way he chose to consume his food, meaning, he got more in his mouth then on his face.

Bulma tore her eyes away and stared down at her own meal, she picked at the mushroom skewered on her chopstick before bringing it to her lips and eating it. She choked it down, realizing just how awful space food really was but showed no outward sign of her distaste. She was happy just to have food.

The soft thud of the empty tray hitting the ground stole her attention and she dared a glance at the Saiyan, who looked aggravated more then anything. She was willing to bet she knew why. Wasting no time, Bulma reached into her capsule fridge and pulled out another helping of the nasty food, handing it over to Vegeta who wasted no time in snatching it, opening it and inhaling the contents.

Bulma forced down another mushroom, or what she guessed was a mushroom, it was too dry to tell. Feeling brave, she decided to test her luck with the testy brood with a conversation.

"So," Bulma cleared her throat. "If you don't mind me asking, but weren't you working for Freeza at one point? I noticed your armor is the same type as the one –"

"The armor was of the Saiyan's design. Freeza only copied it when he noticed their value in battle." Vegeta clipped, still refusing to look up from his meal.

"So that means you did work for Freeza. So then why are you…"

Vegeta's growl made her comment die in her throat.

"You have no idea what kind of creature Freeza is."

His eyes slowly rose to her face and Bulma had to choke down the ball that began to form in her throat from just his expression. Instead she decided to change the subject, a minute ago they were close to being civil (in her mind anyway), and the last thing she wanted to do was bring up a subject that could very much make Vegeta take his rage out on her.

"I'll take your word for it." She said awkwardly, taking another bite. She made a choking sound as she forced down her food. "This stuff really is disgusting, isn't it?"

"Your human provisions are among one of the vilest tasting things I have ever encountered." He snorted, thankfully returning to the aloof tone in his voice as his eyes drifted back to his meal.

"It's not all bad," Bulma shrugged. "Back at home we have some really tasty foods; chocolate has always been my favorite." She shook her head. "Though, I'm not the expert when it comes to food, Son-kun is really the one to ask, I'm sure he has tasted everything as much as he eats!"

"Son-kun?"

"Goku. I think you and Raditz called him Kakarrot."

Vegeta snorted. "How many names does that fool have?"

"When I met him it was only one." Bulma said whimsically. She didn't know why she was telling all these things to Vegeta, of all people, and she was sure her friends would never believe her if she told them she was having a conversation with him.

"Ironically it all started with the hunt for the Dragonballs. I had hit him with my car and he attacked me back, thinking I was a monster. He was living in the wild, like some kind of jungle boy." She chuckled slightly. "I was actually the first girl he had ever seen before.

Goku agreed to help me along my journey and that's how it all began, our big adventure. Though in the end, we never did wind up making any extravagant wish, because a depraved pig wished for underwear. Son was always a good man, he always cared about helping the Earth rather then himself. He was brave and incredibly strong, in fact now, I wonder why I was so blind to the possibility that he was from another planet. It would have explained the tail."

"So then he's the father?"

His tone of voice grew slightly harsher, and Bulma was oddly surprised that he was listening to her. She half expected he was ignoring her. She blinked at him for a second, not understanding the meaning of his words until she saw his eyes narrow on her bulging stomach.

"What? No …no! Never!" Bulma quickly denied. "Son-kun is like a brother to me, I could never do… do that with him!" Her face scrunched with disgust just thinking of it.

Oddly enough Vegeta seemed to look pleased with this, as he visually relaxed. Why would he care about if Son Goku was the father or not was beyond her, but she refrained from asking, not knowing what kind of response she would get from him.

"Besides, Son-kun has Gohan's mom. Even though I think he's a little afraid of her, I know he cares for her."

"Afraid?" Vegeta looked disgusted by this. "Kakarrot is afraid of his own woman? He is even more disgraceful than I first thought."

"I don't know, I've seen Chi-Chi." Bulma countered.

Vegeta only snorted, going back to finishing his fifth serving of food.

"Bulma." She whispered sometime later.

Vegeta's head shot up and stared at her, his heavy brows narrowing slightly.

"That's my name." She revealed, pulling herself into a tight ball as if to lessen her insecurity and thinly veiled uncertainty. "Not girl, or woman."

He only grunted and returned to his food, ignoring her presence as if she was not there. That was fine by her, Bulma reasoned. It wasn't like he was the best company either.

There was a sudden halt in his movements. Bulma rose her head questioningly at the Saiyan. His gloved hands were stilled as his whole body seemed to stiffen, the fork paused inches from his lips. His eyes were wide, pupils contracted to small black dots. Then, there was a snap, as the utensil in his hand snapped into two, falling from his inactive grip to a mess on the ground.

"I-It can't be… He wouldn't…"

Bulma stared at Vegeta, trying to understand the broken ramblings he was uttering with such dread.

"What? What's wrong?" She started to panic.

"So that's why he was returning to his ship…" His body shook with rage as his voice once again changed into that horrifying rasp that could slice open her stomach with just a hiss of his tongue.

Did he mean Freeza? She wondered, her panic hitting overdrive. Did he mean when they saw him flying above them? Was that where he was going? His ship? Confusion set in and she stared pleadingly at Vegeta, willing him to give her an answer to her plea.

His fists clenched tightly as he slowly rose to his feet, head bowed to stare at his boots menacingly. His mouth moved slowly, uttering the words like they were laced with venom.

"The Ginyu Force."