Stolen Hearts Chapter Twenty-Nine
It was late as they neared the not so incredibly humble "cottage" that the royal family was residing in, safely tucked away from the world and out of the hearing distance of peace.
When Trunks knocked on the door, he was a bit shocked to find it flung open so quick and so harshly to reveal a relived looking but enraged mother.
"Trunks, you have no business being out this late what ever were you thinking!? I've been worried sick about you, just think of all the things that could happen to you all alone in a place you don't even know!" she cried in a fluster from her brain over piled with thought, and with, perhaps, a bit too much drama.
"Mom chill! I'm old enough to take care of myself, and besides I wasn't even alone."
"The nerve! I will say when you are old enough mister and- wait what? Who were you with?"
"Well I made friends with some of the local kids, and I met this really cool guy who is all strong and could kick anything's ass in this whole forest!"
"Watch you language, I will not raise a barbarian for a son. Now are you going to introduce me to this mystery person of yours of am I supposed to just use my imagination? Where is this superhero of yours?" Bulma replied with immense skepticism and a highly arching eyebrow.
Trunks and Vegeta had decided the best way to break the news to his mother was to do just that. Break it to her, and see where the pieces fell.
"Yeah, one sec, I have a feeling you will be very glad to see him… where is he? Hey come here, don't lurk over there, it will be ok, remember?" Trunks said with a small laugh.
"Trunks what are you talking about? Who's out there?" Bulma said, her anger fading and being replaced with curiosity as she peered out into the shadows.
Vegeta was frozen to his very core. There she was, before him after all these years, and just as breathtakingly beautiful as the day they had met, perhaps even more so. Someone had tied expert knots all through his stomach that were impossible to untangle, and his heart was striving vainly to leap out of his throat. He couldn't think. He couldn't speak. He could only feel. And the feelings were almost too much to bear.
He hadn't known, or remembered, actually how much he missed her until this moment. Out of sight, you can learn to keep it out of mind, but now it was no more. After all the years of refusing to acknowledge, it all came rushing forward like a tidal wave and it took all of his strength not to fall to his knees. Some strong warrior he was.
Her bright eyes were so blue, so azure in their faded depths that he could not see into them. It seemed there was no part which you could hope to catch hold of. And beside her, just as radiant, together making them even more fascinating, her son. Such beauty. Such light. His darkness had no place here.
She had not wanted or needed him then, she did not want or need him now….. right? But Trunks had said…… and Trunks knew him now….. there could be no turning back.
There were seeds of hate and confusion and pain in his love, yes, but love can exist with hatred, and this is what gives its greatest unbreakable fury.
It was then he realized that he was being pulled forward into the light by small polite hands.
Bulma recognized him in two heartbeats. The first beat was a rising one which faltered at the top in crazed hope. The second one caught up with the first, picked its momentum from the crest of the wave, and both came down together like a rearing horse that falls.
They saw her blanch, then stagger as though struck by a physical blow, such was the intensity of her shock. Imagine seeing something you held dearer to you then anything in the world, including yourself, after ten long years of thinking it was lost to you forever, that even a part of you was lost with it, but now suddenly returned. It was almost too much to comprehend.
At first there seemed to be only lines of confusion and disbelief, but under it you could perceive that there was a great joy, a fountain of mirth enough to send a kingdom laughing were it to gush forth.
An electric message went between their eyes before either dared speak a word. It was as if the tortured past had never been. She was serene and sane again, he was alive before her, and they were young creatures once more- the same creatures whose eyes had met with the almost forgotten click of magnets all those years ago.
"Is it really you?" Bulma managed in a strangled gasp of air, "Please Gods don't let this be a dream!"
Relief poured into and soothed both of their sorrowful souls. The whole world seemed to fade away in that moment, along with the past, all was dwarfed in comparison to the surging love that pulsed between the two, the need to end the pain that only the others touch, a breath away, could heal. Heal at last.
They had finally arrived at home, at peace, at happiness.
Bulma felt like she was dying from an ache she hadn't even known was so strong. Her attempt to speak turned into incoherent cries as she simply collapsed forward into his arms, warm and welcoming, and he held her closer then anyone else ever could. She cried for the hypocrisy, for the loss of innocence, for all the stolen years, and for the darkness of the world. But most of all, she wept for Vegeta, for his tired eyes and inerasable scars.
Yet there was a different edge to her cries as well. Tears are born of too much emotion, and this time it was joy not sorrow that sowed them. They were the rare and beautiful evidence of too much happiness to contain.
Trunks, smiled and he slowly retreated off to his room knowing all would be sorted out in the morning.
"How?? I thought you were dead!" Bulma finally yelled realizing that if he had indeed not been dead, then why the hell was he not with her? Why had he waited so long??
"No, I ...escaped," Vegeta replied with a strained tone into her soft hair, hoping it would be enough.
"Why didn't you come for me?" Bulma cried pulling back and looking at him with hurt eyes, "Why would you have me believe all these years that you were dead?!"
How could he explain? How could he explain something that he didn't really understand himself?
"I wanted to go to you Bulma, by all the stars in the sky I did, but...well firstly you have to understand what they did to me in that dungeon was unspeakable and doesn't leave one in the best state of mind…..I was near death…..and as I escaped and thought of telling you somehow… something stopped me. For the first time in my life I wasn't selfish. I knew we were chasing a falling star, and that we were deceiving ourselves, and if I were to lead you further away from your true destiny... that would have been blasphemous. I had to let you go, you were better off without me."
"How can you say that!" Bulma exploded, her state of high emotion caused her to fall to passion quite easily, "It may have been difficult for us to be together, and it might not have been the best or wisest thing, but I will NEVER be better off without you. Never!"
"Think about it Bulma. Just think about it for a second. It's something we never did. What would have been the repercussions to our actions? I can tell you right now that it wouldn't have been anything magical. We were too young and unprepared for that. You don't deserve to be hidden away in some dark insignificant corner of the world. You are a queen, a Valkyrie, you are so much more then just my love and I would be foolish and arrogant to try and keep you all too myself when you were meant for the world."
"I don't want to be the world's! A lot of good I have done anyway."
"You have, and you still have much more to come. And what about Trunks? What kind of life would he have had known? None too glamorous I can tell you that. Struggling every day to survive, becoming as harsh and bitter and jaded like his father. I know the world out there Bulma, and it is cold and unforgiving. It would have torn us all apart eventually. Can you honestly look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn't want something better for Trunks? Something more for your life?"
"Well…..," Bulma whispered through her tears after a long moment of silence, "For Trunks I guess you might have some point, but….. The past is the past, we can't do anything to change that…….Vegeta," she cried her voice breaking again, "The years have been so long and empty, I need you!"
Something like joy flashed Vegeta's eyes before they became sad once more.
"How much?"
"What?"
"How much do you need me Bulma? How long will you need me?"
"What is more then every grain of sand? Every drop in the sea? What is longer than forever? What is more eternal than death? I'd cut my hands and feet off if that would make you come back to me," Bulma strained through her tears, still shaking and tightly entangled in her lovers grasp.
"Then we will simply have to try this again," Vegeta said unable to subdue a brilliant smile as he pulled her lips to his in a violently passionate embrace.
They were no longer foolish adolescents any more, but seasoned lovers who knew what they were about. Even when the fervor of youth had died away, they were still just as much in love. They were cautious of their devotion and loved someone only if they would love them for life, and they didn't choose on passing standards of the flesh alone, nor abandoned it lightly when things began to fail.
Their love was deep, intertwined, and immaculate, for their being fit so perfectly together, like pieces to a singularly stunning puzzle that was finally complete.
His touch opened worlds. It raged, it rioted. All that Bulma had been holding inside, all the trapped emotion, came rushing forward in an overwhelming torrent of passion. She couldn't hold on. Both were still filled with wonder and disbelief that this was actually happening, almost too good to be true.
Her lids closed for a second as she replayed her life. She had such awful memories, but now they were all super-imposed with this picture of him. She would never let him go away, they would be together always. She would wander no more, for all the love she had she had for him.
The past was reduced to nothing. There was simply here and now and they would do what they must.
They kissed slowly and deeply, their bodies trembling slightly as they reacquainted themselves with one another. The sheer intimacy of this act, which was the closest and gentlest they had ever exchanged, took Bulma's breath away. She wanted a hundred things, none of which I could name, but she did know one thing. She wanted to be closer. She wanted more. She wanted everything.
So she stepped closer still and brought her other hand back up to Vegeta's face, letting her fingers glide around his eye, over his cheekbone, and down the line of his jaw. He couldn't stop himself from leaning into it and sighing with content long lusted for.
Vegeta moved to kiss her earlobe. Such a small piece of flesh, and hardly the most sensitive, yet in his mouth, beneath his tongue, and between his teeth, it became the center of the universe.
Warm breath rolled across the sensitive place behind Bulma's ear making her shiver with anticipation as his strong arm took hold of her waist. She was utterly captured, as simply as that.
He kissed the softer flesh under her jaw, languidly making his way down her throat as if determined to reacquaint himself intimately with every piece of her. She quivered under his touch, aching for it with everything she had. He could have done anything he wanted to. The feel of his mouth, the warmth of his body, his scent - all these combined to push Bulma into a sort of delirium dearly missed.
Solemnly, he reached up to brush her face with the back of his fingers again. So soft. Hands that had beaten men bloody whispered across Bulma's skin. Her heart thudded heavily in her chest, threatening to tear itself loose. Soft wet heat covered and invaded Bulma's mouth again. He sucked at her lower lip, tasting her fully.
She had been kissed before, certainly, but never with such passion, such manifest desire to bring her pleasure. Her hand clasped his waist as he pulled back, but he only wanted to kiss her again, and she was eager for it. Their tongues played and Bulma's body surged deliciously against his.
Her Vegeta... He was so adept and so relentless that he would have had her screaming his name even if she hadn't wanted him, even if she didn't welcome his touch with every part of her being.
Bulma hadn't even realized that they were now in her bedroom and clothing was very scarce on either of them. Vegeta's burly arms wrapped tighter around her with a desperate intensity and he held her tightly against his frame as if afraid to allow a millimeter of space between them. With few unsteady steps backwards they had fallen onto the bed in a rush of desire.
Bulma was beyond herself as she felt his heat between her legs pressing her with the most wonderful pressure into the soft mattress below; it had been so long since she'd had tactile contact of any sort and she pressed her body back into his wantonly, reveling in his hard warmth.
As Bulma's mouth was skillfully plundered, all she could think of was the supple body writhing in her arms. Loud groans of utter fulfillment tore through both of them as tongues swirled and sucked lightly, and the two became one.
Bulma was screaming his name, all her need, all her want, all her joy forced into that one perfect word. A heartbeat later, and Vegeta was there with her, roaring his release. Visions shattered in white starburst as heads tossed back with primal shrieks, bodies trembling violently in orgasmic ecstasy.
Vegeta was hers at last and she was his, her one, her only, and she...they were safe, they were whole. Cradling him after he collapsed against her, feeling their hearts beat together, she told him all of these things, with words and without, and for the first time in longer than either of them could really remember, they were at peace.
Two bodies entwined in the inky darkness, luxuriating in the delicious and boneless liquid euphoric aftermath. Complete contentment vocalized in the form of soft mummers. Simply enjoying the moment and the feeling of heated, sweat-slicked skin cooling in the frosty night air, full of more happiness then they thought they could ever know.
The future seemed distant and vague, but it would come all the same. All that mattered now were the simple true words exchanged.
"I love you."
AN: Together again! What will morning hold? Thanks for reading!