Healing

The first thing Vegeta saw when he opened his eyes was the fluorescent light glaring down on him. He blinked a few times, adjusting to the light, and groaned when he felt pain all over his body. It wasn't sharp, just a dull pain persistently throbbing at the back of his conscious. He remembered how he got in such bad shape. Fighting with Kakarrot. He barely came out victorious, only able to hold on to consciousness a moment longer than the third-class idiot. How could he have come so close to being outmatched by someone who should have been many times weaker? It wasn't natural, it was – it was infuriating! And Kakarrot gained his power by using a gravity room exactly like his own that that traitorous bitch built for him.

"Well, look who finally decided to wake up."

Vegeta turned to the side when he heard her voice, the obnoxious voice of the blue-haired back-stabber. He sneered at her as she walked across the small, white room and pulled the blinds open. He squinted as the bright rays of the sun shone in on him. "What the hell are you trying to do, blind me?"

Rolling her eyes, Bulma sat in the chair next to his bed and crossed her legs. "No, Vegeta, I'm trying to cheer you up since I know you won't like what I'm about to tell you."

He sat up, carefully masking his pain. "Let me guess, you're going to tell me I can't train because of these trivial injuries."

She shrugged. "That's the gist of it. Look, Vegeta, I know you're eager to get back to training, but there's no way you can do it today. It might be a few days, maybe even a week. I hate to break it to you, but Goku did a real number on you." She held up her hand to stop him when he opened his mouth to speak. "And before you go on about how you hurt him worse, I already know. You beat the tar out of him."

Vegeta's eyes narrowed as he glared at her, miffed that she stole his thunder. He crossed his arms over his chest, only then noticing the cast on his left arm. He stared at it for a moment, then turned back to Bulma. "Why did you build him a gravity room?"

"Is that what you're so mad about?" Bulma rubbed her forehead. "Shouldn't I have? You've told me a thousand times that Frieza is going to come to Earth to hunt you down. I think it would be foolish not to have everyone prepared for him. Goku and Raditz can grow a lot stronger training under high gravity like you and Nappa. Don't you want them to get stronger? It sounds like you'll need all the help you can get."

The saiyan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He knew she was right, but he was still upset that she hadn't even had the decency to tell him that the low-class saiyans were training in a gravity room. "Is their gravity room capable of the same level of gravity?"

"No, I only did the 100G upgrade for you." Bulma looked up at the ceiling and chuckled. "You're not afraid they're going to become more powerful than you, are you?"

"Of course not," he snapped. "I am the Prince—"

"Of all Saiyans, yeah, I got it," Bulma finished for him. She smirked when he glowered at her for interrupting his speech. "Anyway, Goku's not going to be training for a while either, so I don't see what the big deal is. Besides, your body could probably use the rest. You've been going practically nonstop since you got here. All work with no rest isn't the most effective way to gain power."

"What would you know?"

"I know your arm's broken and you have a couple cracked ribs, so I think resting a few days would be best. If you don't agree, I'd be happy to take the power core out of the gravity simulator. Don't think I won't."

Vegeta had no doubt she would follow through with her threat. It angered him, but at the same time he felt strangely inclined to listen to her. This was her way of protecting her pack mate from further injury, how could he dishonor that? Growling, he threw off the covers and swung his legs off the edge of the bed and planted his feet on the cold tile floor. "Where the hell are my clothes?"

"The clothes you were wearing are in the wash, though I doubt we'll ever get all the blood stains out. There's a new set of clothes on that table," Bulma answered, pointing to a table in the corner of the room. "I'll leave so you can get changed."

"Hn." He waited for her to exit the room before he got up and grabbed the clothes. She had given him a fresh pair of boxers, blue jeans, and a plain blue t-shirt. Figuring she could have chosen worse, he ripped off the hospital gown they put him in and put on the jeans. He had more a struggle with the shirt, getting his good arm through fine, but then got the shirt stuck over his head as he tried getting his other arm through, nearly suffocating himself before he managed to pull it down over his face. Once dressed, he walked out of the infirmary room and found Bulma leaning against the wall waiting for him.

"Mom's got breakfast ready," she told him. He grunted and started walking toward the kitchen next to her. "So would you mind telling me why you were fighting Goku?"

Vegeta huffed. "The fool came looking for a fight. I wasn't doing anything, but he assumed that because I had my ki raised I was killing people or some shit."

"Well, given your track record, can you blame him?" Bulma asked. She pushed the kitchen door open and went inside.

The saiyan prince followed her in and they took their seats at the table where Mrs. Brief already had breakfast laid out for them. "I gave my word I would not hurt anyone," Vegeta reminded her. "I do not break my word."

"I know that," Bulma said, "but that doesn't mean the others believe you."

"They saw what happens when they doubt my honor." Vegeta started piling waffles and bacon onto his plate.

"Yeah, they saw alright, and they're not happy about it."

"Like I care."

"Maybe you don't, but I do!"

"Hn." Vegeta finished the conversation by starting his meal. They were eating later than usual and all the others had already had their breakfast and gone to work or training. It was strangely quiet without Mrs. Brief's chatter and Dr. Brief's comments about news articles.

Bulma ate quietly and finished before Vegeta. She remained at the table, waiting for him, trying to stifle her snickering as she watched him eating clumsily with the cast, having to stretch his neck forward to reach it and more often than not dropping the food back on his plate. "So I've taken a few days off work to stay with you and make sure you don't get too bored while you're healing."

'And to make sure you don't try training,' she added mentally. She rested her hands on the table and rapped her fingers against its surface. She had already thought of dozens of different activities to do with the saiyan prince while he was banned from the gravity room, but she didn't think he would particularly care for any of them.

"I should also warn you that some of my friends will probably be coming around to check up on Goku. He's still in the infirmary."

Vegeta finished eating and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why is he still here?"

"Where else would he go? I told you he's in worse shape than you. I don't want to send him to a hospital and he's not well enough to go home yet. I'll send him home in a day or two depending on how fast he recovers." Bulma stood up and started clearing their dishes off the table. "So what do you want to do with all your free time?"

Vegeta thought about that for a moment before smirking as he answered, "We can design new upgrades for the gravity room. I want it to go to 300Gs and I need better bots."

That didn't sound like Bulma's idea of fun. She sighed and nodded. "Fine, how about we do that until lunch? Then we can do something not training related for a change."

He was standing up to leave the kitchen after Bulma had carried the last of the dishes to the sink when the door opened and Nappa walked in. He was covered in sweat, probably having just come inside from training in the yard. He looked over at Vegeta and relaxed a little. "There you are, Vegeta. I thought I felt you wake up. You're not going to do any training today, are you?"

Vegeta rolled his eyes. "No, Nappa. The girl's already made it clear that I'm not allowed to train until I've fully healed."

Nappa glanced over at Bulma, who stood leaning against the counter with her arms crossed much like Vegeta. "Oh, well, good."

"Is that the only reason you're not training?" Vegeta growled.

"Yeah," Nappa mumbled. "You're feeling okay and everything?"

"I'm fine."

Nappa nodded and rubbed his bald head. "Well, okay then. I'll just go back to my training. I'll be outside if you need anything."

"Thank you, Nappa," Bulma said politely as he backed out of the kitchen. She chuckled after the door closed. "He's like a mother hen with you."

"It's his job," Vegeta briefly explained. He crossed the room and opened the door. "Are you coming or are you going to stand there all day?"

Bulma pushed away from the counter and followed Vegeta out of the kitchen and down to the hall to her laboratory. He stopped in front of the door and allowed her to enter the code to open the door and lead the way down into her lab. They went to one of her mostly clear workstations and sat on the stools to begin discussing upgrades and drawing blueprints for them. Vegeta mostly told her what sorts of upgrades he wanted and left the designs up to her. Sometimes he would provide input on the engineering or calculations, but mostly he was there to provide ideas and specifications.

They had been down in her laboratory for about an hour when the doorbell rang. "That's probably Chi-Chi and Gohan," Bulma said as she got up and ran up the stairs to leave her lab. Vegeta watched her exit and shrugged indifferently, turning back to the notes she had written for the increased gravity. He didn't think much about her leaving to open the door until she was gone for over twenty minutes. By then, he was growing agitated and decided to go find where she was.

He found her ki – still weak – and followed it until he found himself in the infirmary wing of the compound. He stopped in front of a door where he heard people talking inside. Figuring it was the right room, he opened the door and went in, not caring in the least if he was welcome or not. He saw Kakarrot in the bed, his brat sitting on the bed next to him, and his harpy wife sitting in one of the chairs next to his bed. Bulma was standing at the foot of his bed writing something on a clipboard.

The occupants of the room looked over when they heard the door open. No one looked particularly happy to see who their visitor was. Chi-Chi stood up, ready to force him out while Gohan moved closer to Goku for protection.

"What do you want, you – you big monster!" Chi-Chi screeched. "Get out of here!"

"Shut up, you fucking banshee!" Vegeta shouted over her.

Perhaps for the first time in her life, Chi-Chi was left speechless. She sank back down into her chair and glared at the intruder from afar. Goku sat up despite his protesting ribs and scowled at Vegeta.

Vegeta sneered at them as he walked over to Bulma and grabbed her wrist. "Stop wasting my time. You're supposed to be working on updates for my gravity room."

"Honestly, can't you wait a few minutes? I'm just checking Goku's progress. Go back to my lab." Bulma tried to pull her arm free, but Vegeta's hold didn't loosen. There was no way to break free; his hand completely encircled her narrow wrist.

"The clown is fine."

Shaking her head, Bulma set the clipboard on the table and frowned at Vegeta. "Well, if you don't want to go back to the lab I guess you can stay here as long as you're out of the way. I'm not done checking up on Goku."

"Have one of your employees take care of him!"

"I prefer not to have my employees dealing with saiyans. It's safer for me and my father to handle your medical needs." Bulma took a step and was nearly jerked off her feet when Vegeta didn't move with her. "Vegeta! Let go!"

He snarled as he let go of her wrist, then went and leaned against the wall to keep watch over her. Bulma went to Goku's side and felt his ribs, eliciting a whimper of pain. Vegeta sneered. What a weakling. She muttered something about his ribs not having healed yet and started peeling bandages off his arms and chest. Most of the cuts were already healed, but some of the deeper ones needed to be cleaned and bandaged again.

Chi-Chi kept her eyes on Vegeta, not trusting him to not try hurting her husband again. "Bulma, I don't want him in here," she hissed.

Bulma glanced over her shoulder at Vegeta and shrugged. "He's not doing any harm, Chi. We were working on something before you got here and he's impatient to have me get back to it."

The brunette woman huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't trust him. He's the reason Goku's here in the first place. He started the fight! You know Goku would never—"

"Vegeta might have done his part to provoke the fight, but I don't think Goku is wholly innocent," Bulma said firmly.

Goku made a protesting sound and Chi-Chi gaped at Bulma incredulously. "You think my Goku would start a fight? You're crazy!"

"If you say so, Chi-Chi." Bulma knew better than to try arguing with her friend about Goku's innocence. Whether she was right or wrong, Chi-Chi could never be convinced that her husband was anything but an angel. "We'll let Goku tell his side of the story once his jaw heals. Until then he won't be talking at all."

Bulma soon finished her check-up and wrote a few more notes on her clipboard before leading Vegeta out of the infirmary room. "Stay as long as you like, Chi. If you need me I'll be in my laboratory. My mom should be home soon if you'd like anything to eat." She excused herself and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Vegeta and Bulma returned to her laboratory to continue working on his gravity room updates and stayed there until lunch. When they went to the kitchen to eat, they found Nappa and Raditz in there eating already. They sat down at the table and started eating. Mrs. Brief wasn't around, probably in the garden watering her flowers.

Bulma only picked at her food; it hadn't been all that long since breakfast and she wasn't very hungry. "You know, I'm really getting tired of everyone blaming you for the fight," she told Vegeta. "I know you probably helped instigate it, but Goku should have left you alone."

Nappa looked up from his plate and grunted. He didn't find it hard to believe the earthlings were putting all the blame on Vegeta. They would never think their precious hero, Kakarrot, would start a fight with him. He agreed with Bulma that Vegeta played a part in starting it, but he doubted there would have been any fight had Kakarrot minded his own business. What did surprise Nappa was the fact that Bulma was taking Vegeta's side. She was close friends with Kakarrot and their band of misfit warriors, but she still chose Vegeta over them. He was mildly impressed.

The truth was, the more he watched the Briefs interact with Vegeta, the more he was willing to accept them as his prince's pack. They showed genuine concern for him, and they were encouraging and supportive of his endeavor to grow stronger. The old man built him the gravity room, the crazy blonde woman provided filling, nutritious meals, and the blue-haired girl made upgrades and training bots for the gravity room. Most of the time they left him to his own devices, not wanting to disturb his training, but now that Vegeta was injured, he saw how much they cared for him. The girl was willing to stay with him until he was healed to make sure he didn't go out and hurt himself again, something neither he nor Raditz could do since they were still busy with their own training. On top of that, the girl was standing up for Vegeta against her other friends to defend his honor, if only with words. These humans were a strange breed, forcing him to rethink his original assessments about their motives and usefulness.

He never discussed his thoughts with anyone, but he continued silently observing the Briefs and listened to how they talked to and about Vegeta. He never heard anything negative, except from the girl, who occasionally said nasty things about him or yelled at him. Usually, though, Vegeta provoked her and fully deserved her verbal retaliation. In a way, that made Nappa like her more. She was weak physically – not as weak as most humans, though – but she was strong mentally, definitely a fighter in her own right. So, he was slowly warming up to her and her parents.

The saiyans were all finishing their last plate when Mrs. Brief came into the kitchen humming one of her favorite tunes. "Oh, Vegeta, dear, there you are! I'm glad to see you're up and about. You haven't been training, though, have you? I should hope not! You poor boy, you must be in so much pain!"

Vegeta grunted and shied away from her when she rushed over to hug him. He was generally willing to accept her affection, but it was sometimes embarrassing when she coddled him in front of the others. He sighed when he was unable to evade her arms for long. He glared over her shoulder when Raditz and Bulma started laughing. Raditz stopped laughing, but Bulma stuck her tongue out at him and kept laughing despite his nonverbal warning to stop.

Mrs. Brief stepped back, but still held onto his arms. "You don't have to go to the store with me today, dear. You can just stay home and rest."

He shook his head. "No, I'll go with you."

Mrs. Brief smiled and shrugged. "Only if you want to, sweetie."

"Hn."

"Well, then, are you ready to go now? I'd like to be back by two so I have time to prepare dinner." When he nodded, Mrs. Brief released him and turned to Bulma. "Would you like to come with us, honey?"

Bulma shook her head. "No, I'll take a break from saiyan-sitting. I'm pretty tired, so I'll take a nap while you're gone."

"Okay, dear. We should be back soon," Mrs. Brief said as she picked up her keys and hovercar capsule from the counter on her way out of the kitchen.

Chuckling, Bulma shook her head as she stood up and started clearing dishes off the table. "I still can't believe he goes with her to the grocery store every day."

Nappa grunted as he stood up and stretched. He had to agree with the girl on that one. Shopping was not a prince's duty, but he did it willingly. Beside him, Raditz also rose out of his seat to go outside and resume training for the afternoon. They were leaving when Bulma called after them, "Hey guys! I don't know if you're using the gravity room or not, but if you are you should be careful with bot 4. It's been prone to malfunctioning. I don't want you to get hurt too."

"Er… thanks," Raditz mumbled. He nodded once, almost in a bow, as he followed after Nappa.

Bulma finished taking the dishes to the sink and went across the hall to the living room to lie down on the couch for her nap. She got to bed late the night before after taking care of her saiyan friends and got up extra early to make sure she beat Vegeta so she could keep him from getting up to go train. Then he didn't wake up until after 9:00, so her early morning wasn't even worth the trouble. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry with him. She pulled the blanket from the back of the couch over herself and closed her eyes, ready for a quick power nap that would get her through the rest of the day.

She was drifting off to sleep when the doorbell rang. Groaning, she cracked her eyes open and stared at the wall for a few moments before sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Really, all she wanted was a little rest, but it would be rude not to answer the door, especially if it was one of her friends coming to check up on Goku. She pushed herself to her feet and shuffled out of the living room to the front door. She threw it open and gave a weak smile to greet Krillin.

"Hey, Bulma," he said, nervously peeking around her down the hall, as if expecting the boogeyman to jump out and attack.

"Hey," she mumbled. "You here to see Goku?"

"Uh, yeah, I mean, if it isn't too much trouble," he answered, tapping his index fingers together.

Bulma stepped aside to let him in and pointed down the hall. "You know where the infirmary is. Second door on the left when you reach it. I'll be in the living room if you need me. Going to take a nap." She yawned and turned around to go back to the couch to sleep for a little while, leaving Krillin to fend for himself.

She was stopped when she reached the door to the living room when Krillin called after her, "Bulma, wait! V-Vegeta isn't around here, is he? Or the other big guy? I just – I don't want to run into them, if you know what I mean."

The blue-haired heiress braced her arm against the wall and rested her head on her forearm. "Krillin, they won't hurt you. Vegeta's at the store with my mom and Nappa and Raditz are outside training. Leave them alone and they'll leave you alone."

"Yeah," Krillin muttered, "You mean like how Vegeta left Goku alone."

Bulma rounded on him, blue eyes blazing with rage. "I can't believe you, Krillin! Vegeta didn't start that fight any more than Goku did! Stop blaming him for everything! I'm sick of everyone assuming it was all Vegeta's fault."

Krillin took a step back, raising his hands defensively, but she hadn't changed his mind. "Why defend him, Bulma? He's bad news, but you seem to be the only one that can't see that!"

"Oh, is that what you think?" she hissed. Bulma marched past him and opened the front door. "Get out of my house!"

"What?"

"I said get out! Until you stop talking about Vegeta that way, you're not welcome here!"

"But what about Goku?"

Bulma's hands clenched into fists at her sides. "Get! Out!"

"Okay!" Krillin scurried out the door and stood on the front step, facing her. "Yeesh, it's not like I said anything wrong."

The front door slammed closed in his face. Bulma stormed into the living room and threw herself down on the couch, hardly able to rein in her anger enough to calm down so she could get some shut-eye. She pulled the blanket up to her chin and glared at the ceiling for a few minutes, silently fuming over Krillin's accusations against Vegeta. So they hadn't hit it off during their first meeting. Did that mean everyone had to hold a grudge against him? He made some bad decisions, but he wasn't a bad guy. Just misunderstood. And cranky. She sighed and shook her head. No use thinking about it now. She was too tired. She closed her eyes and a few minutes later finally fell asleep.

Nappa caught one of Raditz's fists and twisted his arm around until the younger saiyan cried out in pain. "Did you hear that?"

"What? My bones cracking? Loud and clear."

The bald saiyan rolled his eyes. "No. The girl was screaming at someone."

"Oh. Yeah. Sounded like she was yelling at Krillin to leave. Something about him saying something bad about Vegeta or something." Raditz winced as the pressure on his arm increased. "Could you let go of me now?"

"Figure out how to free yourself."

Raditz sighed; he hated his defensive technique lessons from the former general. They were extremely painful, often humiliating, and they left him sore in more places than he cared to count. He had to admit, they were helpful, but he would have preferred skipping them for an ordinary spar.

They were still training when Mrs. Brief and Vegeta returned home. The saiyans didn't pay much attention to them, though Nappa did notice that Mrs. Brief wouldn't allow Vegeta to carry any grocery bags with his injured arm. Perhaps she was being a bit overprotective, but it was good to see he was being well taken care of by the human woman. Nappa shook his head, refocusing on his fight with Raditz. He didn't need to worry about the prince – his pack was going to make sure he recovered properly.

Vegeta walked into the kitchen and set the grocery bags on the counter. While she started putting the groceries away before fixing dinner, he left the kitchen and went to the living room to wake up Bulma. He did not intend to sit around waiting for her to wake up and entertain him. If she insisted on him not training, it was the least she could do to give him something to do. He found her sleeping on the couch, drool trickling from the corner of her mouth. His nose wrinkled in disgust.

"Girl, wake up!" he barked.

Bulma shifted in her sleep. "Hm? Wha'?"

"Get up!"

"Five more minutes…"

'Five more minutes, my ass,' he thought. Vegeta grabbed her blanket and threw it off her, then gripped her wrist and pulled her off the couch. "If you don't get up this instant I'm going to go train in the gravity room."

Bulma beat the floor with her fists and whimpered. She was so tired, she just wanted a few more minutes of peace. But peace was a rare commodity when Vegeta was in the compound. She pushed herself up to her elbows and glared up at the smirking saiyan prince. "You are possibly the biggest jerk I have ever known in my life. Right up there with all the Red Ribbon Army creeps and Emperor Pissant."

"I'm hurt."

Bulma stood up and brushed the invisible carpet fibers off her shirt. "Be any more sarcastic and I might believe you."

"Hn."

"Well, since you seem to have something against me ever getting any sleep, what do you want?"

"You tell me. You're the one who banned me from training until these minor injuries are healed." Vegeta gave the cast on his arm a sour look to emphasize his distaste for it.

Bulma sighed with exasperation and rested her hands on her hips. "Are you that incapable of finding something else to do on your own?" She held up her hand to stop him before he could answer. "No, never mind, don't answer that. Fine, I'll tell you what you can do. Sit your ass on that chair over there and meditate."

"That doesn't count as training?" he asked snidely.

"Train your mind all you want. Just don't do anything physical, got it?" Bulma glanced at the clock on the wall and groaned. "I have to go check up on Goku anyway. I'll be back in a few minutes. Don't go anywhere."

Vegeta scowled at her as she left the living room, then sat down in the chair and closed his eyes. If she wanted him to meditate, then fine, he would meditate. She better not expect him to come out of his trance anytime soon, either. Nope. He was going to meditate until dinner. If she gets bored, that's her own problem. He cleared his mind and sank into his meditative state a minute later.

Bulma finished writing her notes and set her clipboard down. "So, I think you can go home after tomorrow," she told Goku. His expression brightened when he heard that, but he still couldn't talk.

Chi-Chi clapped her hands together. "Really? That soon, Bulma? Wonderful!"

The blue-haired scientist nodded happily. "Yeah, he's healing pretty fast and I think you'll be able to take care of him as well as I can. You'll have to bring him back when he's fully recovered for another check-up, but I think his body can heal itself well without my help."

Gohan slid off the bed and ran over to Bulma, wrapping his short arms around her legs. "Thank you, Miss Bulma!"

Bulma smiled and patted his head. "Don't thank me, squirt. I'm happy to get one of these saiyans off my hands." She chuckled and sat at the foot of the bed. "I'm telling you, Vegeta is driving me insane since he can't train for a few days."

Chi-Chi's smile faded. "Well, what do you expect?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean that man is a self-absorbed, arrogant, hateful creature. He probably demands things left and right and he doesn't deserve any of it!"

Bulma sighed. She was tired of arguing with her friends about Vegeta. He was a good man, underneath his rough exterior. They couldn't see what she could. He wouldn't let them. There was no changing their minds; they had already decided he was evil and that was final. "Well, I'll let you guys talk. I'll be around if you need me." She stood up and strode out of the room, slamming the door closed behind her.

She walked back to the living room and saw Vegeta sitting in the chair, eyes closed and breathing slow and steady, almost as if he were asleep. She figured he had taken her advice to meditate, which meant she could get a little more sleep in before dinner. She lay down on the couch, pulled the blanket over herself, and drifted into a light sleep.

It wasn't until after dinner that they spoke to each other again. Bulma somehow convinced him to watch a movie with her, though he insisted it would make his brain rot. She dragged him with her to the recreation room and shoved him down onto the couch in front of the television and picked a movie at random – unfortunately, a fairy tale with a beautiful princess waiting for her gallant prince charming to come sweep her off her feet – and put it in the DVD player. She sat down on the couch next to him and put her feet up on the coffee table.

Vegeta didn't say anything through the movie, but every time Bulma glanced over at him he had a fiercer scowl on his face. Obviously he wasn't impressed with the movie, but she hadn't expected him to be, so she wasn't disappointed. She got more amusement from his reaction than from the movie itself. Halfway through she couldn't hold her laughter back anymore. His lip curled in a snarl, but he still didn't say anything. When the movie ended, he stood up and walked out of the room without a word.

Bulma was still snickering when he made his silent departure. She turned the TV off and got up to go find him, but she didn't see him in the hall. "Vegeta? Where'd you go?"

She was answered by the sound of his door clicking shut and the lock turning. She ran over to his door and started pounding on it. "Vegeta! Come out! Seriously, are you that mad?"

"I can't believe you would waste my time with something so foolish!" his voice came through the door, slightly muffled.

"Oh, come on! I know it's a stupid movie, but that's the point!"

"Go away, girl."

"Oh, fine, you big baby," she grumbled. She kicked the door once before stomping over to her own room to take a bath. She was drawing her bath when she remembered she hadn't told him he shouldn't get his cast wet. She put on a robe and ran out into the hall and started pounding on his door again.

"What now, girl?" he yelled.

"Open the door, I need to tell you a couple things!" she yelled back.

She heard the sound of his bed creaking, then heavy footsteps moving toward the door. The lock clicked, the doorknob turned, and the door flew open. Vegeta stood in the doorway, barring the way just in case she tried to weasel her way inside. "What?"

Bulma cleared her throat and lifted her chin high. "I came to tell you that you shouldn't get your cast wet. Also, I need to know if you need help getting your shirt off."

He rolled his eyes. "I'll manage."

"Oh." Bulma crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, okay then. Good."

"Is that all?" Vegeta looked her up and down. "Or do I even want to know why you came to my private quarters wearing that?"

Bulma's mouth gaped open as a blush spread across her cheeks. "Vegeta! Gross! I am not that kind of girl! And – and – you're practically my brother!"

He snorted. "Hardly."

While his dismissal of her familial attachment stung, she reassured herself by assuming he simply didn't want to admit she was like a sister to him. "Fine, jerk. I'll see you in the morning." She whirled around and stormed off to her bedroom to take her bath.

The next day passed in much the same way, with Vegeta and Bulma working together after breakfast to design updates for the gravity room, then after lunch Vegeta went with Mrs. Brief to the grocery store, then he spent the afternoon meditating while she went to her laboratory to work until dinner. After dinner, Bulma sent Goku home, then went with Vegeta on a walk to the city park. After they returned to the compound, Bulma took him to the library so he could read until he decided to go to bed.

On the third day, Bulma started the day by taking x-rays of Vegeta's arm and ribs to see how fast he was healing. His ribs were completely healed and his arm was healed enough that she could take his cast off and give him a brace until he was fully recovered. Vegeta was pleased to have greater mobility in his arm again, but he was still frustrated with the brace and wanted to rip it off.

"If you do," Bulma warned him, "You'll probably break your arm again and have to start over with a cast."

Vegeta continued testing the mobility of his arm. Better than before, but still not great. He couldn't wait to begin training again. He could feel his energy building as he recovered. Finding out exactly how much strength he gained from his fight with Kakarrot was what he looked forward to most. It no doubt provided a substantial boost in his power level.

"So I was thinking last night, and I think I came up with a way to make the gravity simulator go up to 500Gs," Bulma told him as she led him out of the infirmary.

"How?"

Bulma grinned at him. "Come to my lab and I'll show you the calculations. I might need to make some minor adjustments, but I'm pretty sure I can do it."

"Hn." Vegeta didn't show his enthusiasm, but he definitely felt it. Hell, if Bulma could make an upgrade for 500Gs, why not 1000Gs eventually? He would ask about that later.

She took him down to her laboratory and slapped a notebook filled with notes on the gravity simulator down on the table in front of him. She leaned over and started pointing to the different calculations. "See, if I did this, then I'd have to reinforce the internal structure of the gravity room, which shouldn't be too hard. I'm actually more worried about the console, so I might have to rebuild it a little to be able to withstand gravity that high. Wouldn't want it to be crushed and then have you trapped in there at some insanely high gravity. I also need to work on updating the safety mechanisms in case anything malfunctions."

Vegeta glanced over the numbers and formulas scrawled all over the page. He knit his brow when he saw one that didn't look right. Pointing to it, he asked, "Didn't you overestimate the pounds per square inch that the alloy could hold under?"

Bulma turned the notebook and looked over the equation in question. "Huh. Yeah, I guess that is kind of high. Well, that changes some things." She frowned as she looked through the rest of her notes. "So, if I change that…"

When she started mumbling to herself as she recalculated, Vegeta lost interest and started wandering around her laboratory, kicking aside stray scraps of metal and looking around at the half-completed machines sitting on the tables. He couldn't understand how she could want to dedicate her life to working with machines. It seemed so dull. But then, Vegeta was no mechanic, nor was he a scientist. He was a warrior, and his only real interest was in fighting. So, of course, the only machines of interest to him were those that helped him grow stronger, like the gravity simulator and the training bots Bulma created for him.

The blue-haired scientist shoved the notebook off the table and held her head in her hands as she tried to calm down. It only took a few minutes to become incredibly frustrated. "Damnit! It's not going to work."

Vegeta glanced over at her as he carefully picked his way through the mechanical carnage. "What isn't?"

"Unless we can develop a stronger alloy or something, we're not going to be able to up the gravity to 500Gs." She raked her hands through her hair and sighed. "Sorry, Vegeta. Didn't mean to get your hopes up."

"So develop a stronger alloy." It seemed like a simple enough solution.

She didn't agree. "It's not that easy. We're already using the most durable material ever created. It's not like I can just make something better. We've already got a team of scientists working on that endeavor, and after three years they still haven't come up with anything new."

Vegeta picked up a device that looked like a remote control and turned it over in his hands, trying to figure out what it was for. "If you had the same metal the space pods were built from you would be able to go beyond 500Gs."

"Yeah, well, we don't," she snapped.

"So create it." He tossed the remote aside when he couldn't figure it out and leaned against the table. "I'm sure you have some way to copy it and produce it."

Bulma shook her head. "I doubt it. Anyway, since that's not going to work, why don't we do something fun for a change?"

"Fun?"

"Yeah, we could go shopping, or get ice cream, or go to the beach, or go bowling…"

"You have not named a single activity that sounds 'fun.'"

"Oh, really?" Bulma put her hands on her hips. "Then what do you propose we do?"

"I want to train," he grumbled. He was practically going through withdrawal. His body hadn't been pumped up on adrenaline and endorphins for over two days. He felt sluggish and agitated and his mood, never pleasant, was rapidly worsening.

Bulma sighed and walked over to Vegeta. "Well, I guess maybe some light training couldn't hurt. It would be good for you to keep your shoulder, elbow, and wrist moving, but nothing too heavy. Like maybe jogging or … or dancing." Smirking, she grabbed his hand and dragged him out of her laboratory, though she knew she was only able to move him because he allowed it.

Vegeta stopped listening to her when he heard her say he could do some light training. It wasn't much, but it was better than sitting around all day doing nothing. He followed as Bulma pulled him upstairs, down the hall, and up another flight of stairs to the third story of the compound. He had only explored up there a time or two, not finding it of much interest. There was one large room in the middle, some bathrooms and closets, and a few more guestrooms.

She led him into the large room. There were ornate chandeliers, a small stage for an orchestra off to one side, and the floor was polished marble. Sunlight streamed in through the large windows all around the room, illuminating it without Bulma having to turn on the lights.

"What the hell are we supposed to do here?" Vegeta groused.

"Dan—er, train." Bulma grinned and pulled him to the middle of the room. "This is the kind of training you do with another person and you don't beat each other up. It's, uh, it's to work on coordination."

His eyebrow rose. "Coordination?"

She nodded sagely. "Yes, coordination. Warriors can't fight if they're always tripping over themselves, can they? And it would be just as bad for them to trip over someone else close by. So we're going to work on coordination."

Vegeta's eyes narrowed suspiciously when she intertwined her fingers with his and faced him. "Strange how in all my years of training I have never heard of such a form of training."

She shrugged. "Well, every planet's got different techniques, right?"

"Girl, if you're lying to me…"

"Oh, hush. Now put your hand here, on my hip." Bulma placed his free hand on her hip and rested her hand on his shoulder. Her breath hitched when she looked at him. She had rarely been so close to him when they weren't fighting. She could see a crease forming on his brow. He obviously wasn't entirely convinced she wasn't trying to pull something. "So, in this particular exercise, we move to a set rhythm in triads, okay? So if I were to count one, two, three, you make a particular movement with each count."

"Next you'll want me to do this with music," he growled.

Bulma laughed nervously. "Only if you want to." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, on the first count, you move your left foot forward, and I have to counter by moving my right foot back. Try it."

Vegeta moved his left foot forward. Bulma moved her right foot backward. She smiled at him. "See? Nothing to it. Then on the second count, you move your right foot to the right and forward. But don't move your left foot." He moved his right foot and she moved with him. "Good. Then on the third count, you move your left foot over to your right foot."

"This is pointless," he said as he brought his feet together.

"Be patient. You have to learn the moves before we can get started with the actual training. Now, on the next count, which would be one again, you move your right foot straight back ."

He moved his right foot back and she moved her left foot forward. "And then on the next count you move your left foot back and to the left. Basically the opposite of the first three counts. And then you bring your right foot over to your left foot on the third count. Then start over again."

Vegeta finished the move and rolled his eyes. "If that's the extent of this, it's a waste of my time."

"Sure, anybody could do that," she agreed. "But while we're doing this you have to keep this distance between us and you have to lead me around the room. We don't stay in this one little area."

"Still sounds stupid."

"Just try it. If you get this one, we can do something more difficult."

"Fine."

"Okay. I'll start counting." Bulma could hardly stifle her laugh. Vegeta was dancing and he didn't even know it! She took a deep breath and started counting at a moderate tempo. "One – two – three, one – two – three…"

Vegeta led Bulma around the room a few times before she told him they could stop. "That was good. You picked up on that fast."

"If I'm not mistaken," he said, "we just did what those idiot humans did in that foolish movie you made me watch two days ago."

"What movie?" Bulma bit her lip as she tried to remember which one they watched. She started laughing when she remembered it was the fairy tale movie. "Oh, that one! Um, yeah, they might have done something similar."

"This isn't training."

"It can be." Bulma moved closer to him and moved his hand on her hip to her back. "Now let's try to maintain this distance." Her body was practically pressed against his now. She was so close his body heat was making her sweat – or was it because she was nervous?

"I am not going to waste my time with this," he snarled. He tried to step away from her, but she held on to him.

"No, Vegeta, wait!" Bulma smiled guiltily. "Ok, so it's not training, but it's kind of fun, don't you think? At least you're getting to move around."

Vegeta exhaled slowly. She felt his warm breath on her face. "You lied."

"Only because I knew you wouldn't want to do it if I told you what we're really doing. Come on, don't be mad at me." She held his gaze, though she could see anger in his eyes. She knew he had little tolerance for dishonesty, but she was right in thinking he wouldn't agree to dance with her if he knew that was what he was doing.

"If you knew I wouldn't want to, you shouldn't have tricked me into doing it in the first place, you idiot girl."

Bulma frowned and shifted her gaze from his eyes. Instead, she fixed her eyes on his broad chest. She inhaled deeply through her nose and smiled again when she smelled his wild, masculine scent. Not disgusting, sweaty body odor, but the faint scent that made her think of burning wood, ozone, like an approaching thunderstorm. It was actually pleasant. "You smell good," she murmured.

"What?"

She slapped her hand over her mouth and looked up at him, wide-eyed. Did she really just say that out loud? "Nothing."

He looked about as shocked as she did at first, but then a smug smirk formed on his lips. "So, you think I smell good?"

"Er, yeah, I mean, you're not all sweaty and nasty…"

He snorted. She wasn't going to cover her compliment that easily. She didn't know it, but in saiyan culture, giving a compliment on another's scent was the highest form of flattery aside from declining a fight because the other saiyan was too strong. His mood was lightened by her small comment.

"So what do you call what we were doing?"

"Dancing."

"That was dancing? Pathetic."

"What do you mean?"

"It was slow, simple, boring, and non-violent." Or sexual. He decided to leave off the last part since he had no interest in bringing that up with her anyway.

"And I suppose saiyans danced violently, and it was fast, complicated, and exciting?" she asked pugnaciously.

"I wouldn't call it exciting. I always hated dancing."

Bulma laughed. "I can't imagine a bunch of warriors dancing!"

Vegeta shrugged. "What culture doesn't have some version of dancing?"

"I don't know. I guess I never thought about it." Bulma stopped laughing. Maybe it wasn't really that funny. Hell, maybe they just danced around a bonfire made from the corpses of their enemies. It was still dancing. He never said what kind of dancing they did. "But you're right."

"Hn."

"So show me how saiyans danced if it was so much better."

"You can't fly."

"So?"

"Dancing wasn't entirely on the ground."

Bulma shrugged one shoulder. "Well, fine. How about I teach you one of our faster, more interesting and complicated dances?" Bulma took his hand and extended her arm out to the side. She rested her other hand on his shoulder and inched closer to him. She grinned, deciding it would be best to leave out the little detail that it was also considered one of the more seductive dances of the world when he moved his arm around her, holding her close. If he noticed, he didn't mention the quickening of her heartbeat and the flush in her cheeks. "It's called the tango."

And so they spent the rest of the morning dancing. Vegeta mercilessly insulted the human dances and Bulma laughingly agreed they were silly as they gracefully circled around the ballroom. Vegeta would never admit it to anyone – not even himself – that he had fun with Bulma, and the exercise eased his need to train. And strangely, he never found it awkward to be so close to Bulma, not when he held her hand and not when he wrapped his arm around her. With each breath he took he could smell her sweet scent, and every time he looked at her she was smiling, her lips parted just enough to reveal her white teeth. Even if he hadn't been having fun, seeing her so happy would have been enough for him to keep going. It was a nice change from her typical irate moodiness, screeching, and name-calling. Though, of course, he still preferred getting her riled up for a verbal spar. But that didn't mean he didn't like being able to get along with her from time to time.

A/N: Majority vote wins: Friday 17-5...so here's the early chapter. Next update will be Monday. Now off to a wedding I go...

Beta'd by lilpumpkingirl

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