Life was pretty status quo for the next few months. Vegeta trained and was rarely seen by anyone. He hardly spoke and kept mostly to himself. The gravity room (surprisingly) was holding up pretty well to his daily beatings. Dr. Brief and Bulma continued to work for Capsule Corp. Both of them were workaholics and their hours were long, but varied. They both probably put in 80+ hours a week, though they would always take intermittent breaks during the day to go and do what they wanted. Their hours were never predictable. Mrs. Brief simply ran the household. Her biggest challenge was ensuring that the kitchen was always adequately stocked to meet Vegeta's appetite. She knew that if the food inventory dwindled, that their Saiyan friend would go off the deep end.
At times, Vegeta would sit down at the kitchen table with the Brief family. Usually, he was too busy scarfing down his meal to look at or talk to anyone else in the room. He definitely preferred to eat alone and away from the possibility of having to make small talk. The Brief family did try a couple of times to talk to their guest, but learned pretty quickly that Vegeta was the way he was and not to try to force anything. He didn't seem interested in changing who he was or getting to know the family who was hosting him.
Bulma and Yamcha continued to see each other. They had been teenage sweethearts and had dated intermittently ever since. Ever since the day when Goku returned, Yamcha had been especially attentive to Bulma. Perhaps it was the idea that was planted by Goku that the two should finally settle down and start a family. Yamcha seemed to be leaning in that direction, but as much as Bulma enjoyed dating Yamcha, she still hesitated in thinking he was "the one" for her. She just didn't feel that she could make that next step and she wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was because of Yamcha's reputation as a playboy – a reputation that he probably didn't deserve. Women did throw themselves at him – he was good-looking and popular, after all – but she was not aware of any time when he took them up on their offers. As far as she knew, he had been totally faithful. In truth, he just wasn't very exciting to her. Bulma never saw herself to be the kind of woman who would settle down, have kids, and turn into a housewife, which is ultimately what she thought he wanted.
OlOlOlOlOlO
The first change to the status quo happened on a blustery autumn afternoon. Bulma was in her personal lab in the basement of one of the Capsule Corp buildings on their property. She was working on a new fuel that could be used to make space travel more efficient. The fuel seemed perfect; the problem was its compatibility with the existing drive engines. Capsule Corp had already built more than a handful of space vessels and right now, unless she figured something out, all of their engines would need to be changed out in order to take advantage of the fuel. That would be just too expensive. She had to figure out a way to make it work.
Just then, the door to her lab slammed open.
"Woman!" Vegeta shouted.
Bulma had been so startled that she dropped both the vial of fuel and the graduated cylinder she had in her hands. They both smashed to the ground with a clatter as the glass broke – and unfortunately for Bulma, the fuel also spilled down the front of her pants as well.
As soon as it sunk in what happened, Bulma could have sworn steam had to be coming from her ears.
She turned and shouted at him, "Vegeta! Don't ever do that again!"
"Woman! The gravity room is broken! You need to get out there and fix it…NOW!" he shouted.
Bulma gave herself a few seconds. She took a deep breath and gathered herself. "Vegeta, I will be glad to fix the gravity room for you. However, believe it or not, I do have other things to do at the moment."
"I need it NOW! I need to train!" he shouted.
"I will meet you there tonight at seven," replied Bulma, calmly, walking over to where Vegeta stood in the doorway.
Vegeta opened his mouth to shout again, but was interrupted by Bulma sticking her forefinger in the air straight in front of his face. "Seven," she said. "I need to change, thanks to you. And I've got a meeting to go to afterwards." Then she shouted at him, "Take it or leave it!"
She walked past him hurriedly just waiting for him to say another word to her. He watched her walk past him but said nothing.
Bulma walked straight for the residence and into her private quarters masked behind an ordinary white bedroom door. Just as their family was not "normal", neither was the family residence. Bulma's bedroom was luxurious and came complete with its own gigantic closet, bathroom, and sitting area. She had everything she could need in her bedroom with the exception of a kitchen and the food it provided. Her parents enjoyed a similar set-up at the other end of hallway on the 2nd floor. All the guests, including Vegeta, were placed in their own smaller, yet still very comfortable bedrooms on the 3rd floor.
She slammed the door when she entered and heard her mother walk by and say, "Is everything alright, dear?"
"Fine, mother," retorted Bulma. "I just have to change my pants." Darn it, now I'm going to be late for my meeting.
She took out another pair of gray dress pants and put them on. All the while she was thinking to herself in a garbled mess, What the hell? What a jerk! What's his problem? Does he think the world revolves around him? Huh, if he thinks I'm going to jump every time he wants me to, he's got another thing coming! Her thoughts were a mishmash of inner incoherency.
As she walked back to the lab building, she started to calm down and think straight.
Why would he treat me that way? And after all we've done for him. Maybe Yamcha is right….maybe he is simply a jerk. No…there has to be more to him than that. To think, I have been feeling sorry for him for months. Does he even deserve it? Maybe….maybe not. I'm done assuming…I need to figure out what makes him tick…especially if he is going to keep staying here. I need a plan. Hmmm…ok, I said seven. Tonight at seven I will see him in the gravity room.
It would seem that due to the lack of real contact and her own imagination running away with her, Bulma had obviously started thinking that Vegeta was less acerbic than he truly was.
OlOlOlOlOlO
Bulma finished her Capsule Corp work for the day at 6:45pm and walked over to the gravity room as she promised. She opened the outside door and entered the inner corridor and went directly through the inner door into the gravity room itself. I wonder where he is? She looked down at her watch. Oh…not quite 7pm yet. The controls were located on a center console. She brought up the alarm history of the equipment and the problem was listed there clear as day. Grrrrrr!
She heard a noise behind her and spun around to face Vegeta opening the inner door to join her.
"Listen, dummy, when you are given instructions, you have to follow them," she sternly said to him.
"Baka, what are you yammering about?" Vegeta replied.
"It says right here that you went to 310 times gravity," said Bulma.
"Yeah, what of it?" he replied.
"This gravity room only goes to 300 times gravity. You pushed it too far," she replied. "That's why it shut down on you. Keep it under 300 and you'll be fine," she said.
Bulma turned to walk away and as she passed Vegeta, he stuck out his right arm and grabbed her by her right wrist.
"Onna, where do you think you're going?" Vegeta asked.
"I already told you, don't go above 300 and you'll be fine," repeated Bulma.
"I've already mastered 300," replied Vegeta. "I require more."
"Tough," said Bulma, who then tried to pull her arm away from the Saiyan prince. "Do you mind?"
He let her arm go and she continued walking. He sneered at her, though she never saw it.
OlOlOlOlOlO
BLAM!
Bulma opened her eyes. What the hell was that?
She turned onto her side to look at the digital clock sitting by her bedside. 4:15am? You've got to be kidding me.
She turned back over hoping to go back to sleep. Her peace only lasted a few more seconds.
BOOM!
Once she heard that second sound, she sat straight up in bed.
CRUNCH!
Damn it!
She quickly sprung from her bed and grabbed her robe and hurried out the door and down the stairs. She opened the door to the outside.
BOOM!
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" she asked the floating Saiyan in the yard.
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm training!" he replied back, slowly lowering himself to the ground.
"In the yard?" she asked with a little hint of desperation in her voice.
"Well, since the gravity room no longer suits me. I just thought I'd get the benefit of some fresh air instead. Besides, being outside lets me maneuver a bit more; the gravity room is a bit cramped," said Vegeta.
"Fresh air?" she repeated. "Vegeta! You can't be doing this so early in the morning!"
"Why not?" he asked.
"You're going to wake everyone up," Bulma replied.
"If I'm not mistaken, I have observed that you work whenever you want to. You have no set hours. Well, the same goes for my training. If I want to train in the middle of the night, I'm going to!" he said.
"At least my work doesn't cause half the city to panic!" Bulma said. Just then she heard the sirens.
Both of their heads turned in the direction of the street in front of the Capsule Corp compound.
"Niiice, Vegeta. Thank you so much," said Bulma as she took off running for the gate to the outside world.
Vegeta sat back with a smirk on his face and watched as Bulma explained to both the fire department and the police that there wasn't a problem at Capsule Corp. They still insisted on having a look around so they entered the property and scurried about looking for any signs of mischief. Vegeta simply turned his head to observe what they were doing. He didn't move an inch. Pretty soon, they were satisfied and departed.
Bulma walked up to Vegeta when it was all over. "Vegeta, I'm sorry, but you can't just do that."
"Woman, I can do anything I please," he replied.
She let her head drop so her chin hit her chest. "Ok, Vegeta. What do you want?" she asked him.
"I want the gravity room to go up to 400 times gravity," he replied with his arms crossed.
"Ok, I can get to it later today. Oh, no I can't! Damn that meeting. I'll ask my Dad to do it," she told him.
"I accept your offer," he replied. "But I want it functioning by tomorrow."
With that, he turned and walked back into the residence. Bulma could only watch him leave. Vegeta 1, Bulma 0.
OlOlOlOlOlO
Bulma put in a full day at Capsule Corp and it was 9pm before she had a chance to check-in on her father's progress on the gravity room.
"Dad, how's it going?" Bulma asked her father who was lying under a portion of the gravity room with only his feet exposed to the outside world.
"Oh just fine, dear," he replied, muffled.
"How far did you get?" she asked.
"I'm installing the last component now so I obviously haven't had a chance to run through the diagnostics or the test sequence yet," Dr. Brief replied.
Bulma sighed and her shoulders sank. "I guess I can take over from here," she said.
"Are you sure you don't mind?" Dr. Brief asked.
"No, Dad. I know you hate working when you are exhausted and you have a busy day tomorrow. Let me finish this up," she replied.
"Thanks, Bulma," he said. When he finished with the last component, he lifted himself off the ground and wiped his hands with a nearby rag. "I think that'll do it," he said.
"Ok, I'll head inside to run the tests," said Bulma. She gave her Dad a peck on the cheek and they went their separate ways.
Bulma spent the next 6 hours in the gravity room running the programs she needed to make sure the room was functioning properly. If anything was wrong, with this type of power being applied to achieve the gravity pull, the room could very well explode if anything was wrong. She wanted to make absolutely sure all the parameters were within specification.
With her eyes half-closed, she slowly made her way back to the residence. She entered the kitchen only to find the Saiyan prince partaking in a rather large snack. Her eyes wandered over to the clock on the microwave. 3am? Ugh! Don't you even say a word to me.
"Don't you look lovely so early in the morning?" quipped Vegeta.
She was tired and her nerves were already frazzled. "Don't start with me, Vegeta," was her reply as she continued to trudge slowly through the kitchen.
"How's my gravity room coming along?" asked Vegeta.
Bulma slowly turned to the source of her irritation. "I just finished the upgrade."
"Good," he said as he pushed himself back from the table and headed for the door. "I was hoping to get an early start."
"Aren't you going to clean this up?" she asked referring to the food and dishes he had left out.
"I'm the Prince of all Saiyans. That's low-class work," he replied and continued to walk.
Bulma's temper flared and she ran to the door and grabbed his arm and flung him around. He snarled at her.
"Don't you ever touch me again!" he flared.
"Listen here, Prince. I am not your servant and neither are my parents. You are our guest and you should count yourself lucky we have taken you in. We don't ask for much. But a little bit of gratitude and kindness isn't too much to ask, is it? You keep reminding us of your royal, high-and-mighty background. Well, let me tell you something, the best leaders I have ever known don't belittle, degrade, or otherwise crap all over their subjects. Or maybe you just aren't capable of picking up a tiny dish and running it under the water? That's it…isn't it? Your brain is too tiny!"
Bulma let it all out and let out a stress-relieving scream as she turned away from Vegeta and walked up to her bedroom to get some rest.
She got up late the next morning (understandably) and made her way back down to the kitchen to get herself some coffee. Her mother was already there.
"Thank you so much for cleaning up last night, dear," Mrs. Brief said to Bulma.
Bulma then realized that there wasn't a dirty dish to be found in the kitchen. They had been completely wiped clean. Vegeta 1, Bulma 1.