I'm back! I'm hoping I can still keep you all interested in the story

Chapter 12

Feelings

As Kakarott walked into the kitchen one late afternoon, Chichi greeted him with a bright smile:

"I have something for you!"

"Is it food?" He asked back with a hopeful smile.

"It's a cake, but a very special kind. Close your eyes!"

Kakarott obeyed, though not fully understanding why he had to do so. He felt Chichi guiding him to a small table and pushing him down to the chair.

"No peeking!" She called and opened the fridge.

While he couldn't see, he instantly smelled strawberries and fresh sponge and as he sniffled he felt himself dribbling. He heard her setting a plate in front of him and when he was finally allowed to open his eyes, he saw a very strange but appetising cake. It was indeed a strawberry cake, covered with red marzipan and garnished with small strawberry slices. As he looked at it, he also saw 15 small candles, which were burning.

"Wow, it looks good!" He cried out and wanted to grab it, but she hit on his hand, saying:

"Can you at least wait until I slice it up for you? Also, it's not just a cake, it's a birthday cake for you! Happy birthday!"

"Birthday cake?" He asked, confused.

"Yes. I know saiyans never celebrate birthdays, they are not even caring about it, but I thought you would be happy to have your own cake. It's a nice tradition, what we had on Earth."

"So humans always got cakes on their birthdays?"

"Yes!"

"That sounds fun" Kakarott said with a goofy smile on his face.

"Now you need to blow out the candles and wish something!"

"Ok" He nodded and obeyed.

Chichi smiled at him and cut the cake. She wasn't surprised at all, when he ate almost every slice at the end.

"That was the best cake, you made so far. You are really good with these things!"

"Oh, stop flattering me, you are making me blush!" She cried and hit him on the back, while she felt that her face became warm.

Kakarott not fully anticipating the impact almost beheaded the plate in front of him. He had the tendency to forget, that Chichi was much powerful as humans in general. Sure, she never came close to a saiyan, still she was impressive.

Karris felt foolish, even compared to himself. He was watching a woman from a tree, who was putting up the bed-linen on a huge rope, to dry them. She recently got transferred from Aoi-sei to help out the cleaning personnel on Vegetasei. She was wearing a light-blue blouse and dark trousers with tennis shoes, just like the other slaves from the cleaning crew. Somehow, every time he had seen her, he felt something strange. Karris was 27 years old and of course he has slept with several women, but this one was somehow different. Her name was Chessa, she had long wavy red hair, blue eyes and a great body.

"What are you doing up there?" He heard Bulma's voice and almost fell down from the tree.

"Nothing" He answered, jumping down with red face.

He felt how strangely she looked at him and to his dismay she noticed Chessa. As she looked back at him, he knew that he was caught red handed and there was no use denying it.

"Wow, don't tell me you like her!" She smiled.

"No… well she looks good…"

"She does. I know her, she was 4 years ahead of me in school. You already know her, right?"

"Sort of" Karris answered.

He remembered that he met her a few months ago on Aoi-sei, when he repaired one of the machines. She told him, that even though he is helping them, she clearly still despises all saiyans, for destroying her home and making her a slave.

"Oh, so she already hates you" Bulma said and Karris felt like she was reading his mind.

"She hates all saiyans" He sighed.

"That can easily change and I'm one of the best examples."

"I know; you are friends with Kakarott…"

"I'm also friends with you. Anyhow, why are you watching her?"

"I don't know. I just keep thinking about her, since I talked with her on Aoi-sei."

"That sounds like you like her. You see, I might be able to help you out. She is from Earth, so I know how she is thinking. However, I need to know your intentions."

"My intentions?"

"Yes. Do you simply want to have sex with her?"

"What?!" Karris cried out and as Chessa looked back hearing it, he grabbed Bulma and pulled her behind the tree.

"Gee, I never thought it's so easy to make saiyans blush" She laughed looking at his face. "So?"

"That is not something, what I need discuss with you!" He snapped.

"In case you want my help, it might be. Whatever you saiyans do within your own race, what you call mating… humans would not be happy about it. And she is a human. I'm also a human, making me just the right person to help. Let's try it one more time; do you just want to sleep with her?"

"I… I don't know! Actually I never thought about sleeping her, until you mentioned it… I just wanted to get to know her. Like I did it with you."

Karris was too embarrassed to look into her eyes and he felt himself stupid for even discussing this in the first place. On the other hand, they were friends. It was thanks to her, that he learned what the true meaning of friendship is. He trusted her and respected her; no longer caring about the fact that she was a slave.

"Good answer! You see, there are ways, you can make her change her mind about you." Bulma said and that's how she began to give "dating advices" for Karris.

First, he was reluctant to listen to her, he blushed more than one time and he simply left on one occasion. Still, as he finally forced himself to talk with Chessa, using all the advices what he learned from Bulma, he felt how the ice began to melt and soon enough she was willing to talk with him.

"Hey Karris!" Chessa greeted him one day as she was coming out from the laundry room, with a huge basket of clothing.

"Let me help!" He said and without waiting for her reply, he grabbed the basket and began to walk towards the garden.

"Do you realise, that all the other saiyans are looking at you rather strangely?" Chessa asked.

There were not many saiyans walking on the floors, but whoever saw them, looked at Karris like he was crazy. It was known, that he was familiar with the other scientists who were slaves, but so far he never approached others, who were also working as slaves in the palace.

"Who cares? I'm already an outsider with my scientist carrier path" He shrugged.

As they entered the garden and she put the garments on the rope, Karris was simply sitting under a tree watching her.

"I'm hot" She remarked as she finished and also sit down next to him to rest a bit.

"Yeah" He answered without thinking, then as she looked at him surprised, he corrected himself: "I mean I'm hot as well!"

He felt himself blushing slightly as she kept looking at him and finally he had to look down, not being able to stand her gaze.

"Say Karris, what do you want from me?"

The way she said his name sounded so different! He generally enjoyed listening to her voice it was sweet and calming.

"Nothing! I mean I want to be friends, that's all."

"Friends… you are saying it like you know what it means."

"I do. Maybe you are forgetting something; I'm not an average saiyan."

"I'm beginning to realise it, but it's just so hard. I mean why were you helping on Aoi-sei? I also heard you did the same on the other colonies. How come?"

"First, Bulma asked me to do so, she was worried about you and the others. Then, I'm not sure when, but I ended up enjoying it. Just like when I was demoted as a scientist from a warrior. The King thought it will be a practical joke and I had to agree with it. Nobody ever expected that it will work out, but it did. I wasn't much of a fighter anyway and I most certainly never enjoyed it."

"That still never prevented you from killing."

"No, that's true. I blindly obeyed my orders, thinking it was the way it is supposed to be. It took me years until I learned that war and killing is not the only way of co-existing. I can never give back all the lives what I took, but I can try to redeem myself in my own way as long as I'm alive."

Chessa looked at him, trying to figure out whether he was serious. There was one thing though, what she knew about the saiyans; despite being killers, they were not liars. She also had to give him that; he was indeed different as the rest of them. Still, it seemed impossible that he just wanted to be friends. While on the other hand, he could have forced her to do anything. Anything apart from liking him, because feelings cannot be forced upon anybody.

One day, Bulma again found something invaluable in the storage rooms; DVDs with movies on them. She got so excited, that she run over to Chichi and they watched one of their favourites straight away, on her laptop. Kakarott had no idea, what a movie was, neither did Karris, but once they were forced to watch one, they found it rather entertaining. A few days after all those movie nights, Bulma decided to watch one on her own. It was already pretty late, but she was working in the lab, making a desperate attempt to finish something. As her brain refused to work after 2am, but she wasn't sleepy at all, she put in a movie and decided to watch it. She already acquired a big coach in the lab and moved there, placing the pc in front of her, on a smaller desk. Somehow, she failed to read the description of the story and she ended up watching a horror. All the lights were turned off, the only light was coming from her pc's screen and she became more and more frightened as the plot moved on. Suddenly she heard the floor cracking behind her and she cried out in fear, jumping up and grabbing the first thing what was next to her; a screwdriver. Somebody turned on the lights and as her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, she recognised Vegeta, who looked at her rather amused.

"Don't ever do that again, you almost scared me to death!" She called, then she realised something.

The movie was about a serial killer, who tortured his victims in the most cruel ways and got hunted by his victims corpse and she was now looking at a man, who was responsible for entire races' extension. Still, she felt safe with him. She had to laugh, realising the full irony of the situation.

"Sorry" she managed to say. "What brings you here so late?"

"What is this?" Vegeta asked, pointing at the screen, where the movie was paused.

"Oh, it's a movie. Hmm, let me try to think of a way to explain it briefly. Basically people are pretending to be somebody else and they act out a story, what never happened in reality."

"What kind of retarded idiot invented it?"

"Actually, some of them are pretty good. Come to think of it, you might actually enjoy this one, it's pretty brutal. Sit down!"

The Prince looked at the screen, then back to Bulma until against his better judgement he occupied the place next to her.

"You haven't missed much, it only started 10 minutes ago, but I will "rewind in" for you" She commented and restarted the movie.

While Kakarott and Karris were fascinated by it within a few minutes, she wasn't so sure about the Prince. Still, she was happy just to be able to sit next to him in the semi-dark, doing something normal for a change. Sure, she would have preferred to cuddle with him, instead of just sitting next to each other, but hey; he was at least in her close proximity. She was painfully aware that their relationship wouldn't last; it cannot last, still she forced herself not to think about it and just go with the flow. It wasn't just the fact that he felt nothing for her, there was also a separate reason. He was a Prince, she was a mere slave; it just couldn't work out, regardless how she thought about it. Maybe it was for the better though; losing him because he will end up marrying somebody elite was better, then losing him as he will simply get bored of her.

Bulma decided to focus on the current happenings and she never expected the result; it turned out Vegeta was indeed interested, but instead of being scared, he watched it as a comedy show. He was laughing at the scariest scenes, while she had to struggle not to close her eyes and keep looking at the screen. As she thought about it, in a way his reaction was logical. He killed so many people, that killing in itself couldn't be scary for him and she was sure he has seen more dead bodies as he could count, hence walking corpses again, didn't really had much effect on him.

"It was interesting, wasn't it?" She asked smiling, when the movie ended and she turned on the lights again.

"It was retarded, just as I thought" He answered.

"I do realise it; from your perspective, it wasn't scary…"

"Is this supposed to be scary? Why?"

"You see… humans did not really kill people, because it was punishable by death or by imprisoning. So when they see a killing in so much detail or look at a corpse, it is frightening for them."

"Are you saying that in case a human kills another human, he gets killed as well? How is that any different?"

"Well… it is different, because in case he is not punished, he will kill again."

"But killing him is ok? How can you justify that?"

"Even humans had long discussions about it and that's why at some countries, he just ends up in prison and spends his remaining life there."

"It sounds like a waste of resources, not mentioning that living in a prison is more cruel than death. Death, even with an extensive torture only takes a few hours/days, while living locked up means years. Any after this, you are saying that we, saiyans are merciless? We are; but why would humans be better?"

"Humans were not perfect either" She answered with a sad smile. "Neither was their logic flawless."

They looked at each other in silence and as Bulma realised that last night was surfacing in her mind, she tried to get herself under control, by asking:

"Why did you come here?"

Vegeta grunted as truthfully he had no idea. Originally he wanted to back to his room after he finished the strategy meeting with a few of the fighters, yet somehow he ended up in the laboratory. More outraging was, that he felt some kind of strange joy, when he realised she was still there. As he had no idea, why he came here, he was perplexed what to answer. They were still sitting on the coach next to each other, their bodies not touching, but only separated by a thin layer of space. Suddenly acting upon an urge, he leaned closer and kissed her; avoiding the answer. Bulma was startled at first; this was the first time he initiated the kiss, but she welcomed it. She responded to his kiss hungrily and as he leaned back on the sofa, she climbed into his lab, placing her legs to his right and left side. She felt how he developed a hard erection almost instantly and she moaned as it touched her lower body. Again her body was on fire and she wanted to feel him inside her. Vegeta had similar thoughts and he was on the verge of tearing off her clothes, he stopped, realising that they were in the middle of the laboratory and anybody could walk in, catching them kissing. That made him realise what he was about to do (again); it hit him with its full weight. He could never take her as his mate, that was clear and she had to be aware of it as well. She was annoying, but she wasn't stupid. Sure, saiyans had affairs until they were not mated with another saiyan, but they rarely used the same partner. He remembered how happy she was yesterday when she saw him, stating that she missed him. Upon asking her why, she refused to reveal it to him. Whatever her reason was back then, it was the same now, as she let him kiss her. He was just about to ask her again, when she wrapped her arms around his neck and by snuggling closer, her hard breasts ended up pressed against his chest. At that point, he lost every ability to think and his body acted upon its own again. There and then, he even forgot to care about where they were; he simply took her.

After the act as they got dressed again, he couldn't take of his eyes from her body, not until she was fully clothed. Then, he remembered his doubts and asked:

"Why?"

She turned back and looked at him, again with the same sad expression on her face.

"You know, I'm just unable to resist you; you are too hot!" She answered winking.

This time though, even the Prince knew that it wasn't the truth. At least just a part of the truth anyway.

"That's not all" He insisted.

"No, it's not. But I already told you, you would never understand it."

"Spill it! What do you want in return? You do have to want something, right? Do you want your freedom back?"

As he was asking these questions, he was desperate to find some kind of explanation. She just had to want something, otherwise it made no sense.

"No… just like I built the gravity room without wanting anything in return. Why is it so hard to believe that people don't always have a hidden agenda?"

"Because it makes no fucking sense! You are not stupid, you know that I can never mate you!" He cried and pushed her to the wall.

"Why would you think, that I even want to be your mate?" She asked back, also shouting.

This did it; he was more confused as ever. Putting aside anything; who would not want to be his mate, when it would mean to be part of the royal family; to be a ruler? As she looked at his face, she realised his expression was reflecting how lost he was. He was trying to find an explanation and every time he came up with one, she denied it.

"Then why? You have a reason, you told it yourself. Try me!"

"Because I love you; you egoistic, conceited jerk!" She shouted it into his face and left the room.

Vegeta was so shocked, that he didn't even attempt to stop her, he just remained there standing. As he looked at the spot where she was standing a few seconds ago, he was trying to make some sense from the conversation. He couldn't… at least not right now.

As usual, I'm hoping you liked the chapter, even with the interlude about Karris. Also, Bulma finally said it; she confessed to Vegeta!