A/N: Sorry for the wait. Please enjoy. :)

Bulma had always been a realist when it came to things; it was helpful in her field of work as well as with the lifestyle she had been living. While other women or teenage girls may have seen the romance stories told on TV or in books and thought that they would one day have a special someone to act out those events with, Bulma never really saw the practicality of such far-fetched daydreams. Quite frankly she doubted that she'd ever meet someone she could be in a relationship with, let alone share a first kiss with but if she ever did it would be a standard, run of the mill experience and not some surprising turn of events out of a daytime drama or a harlequin romance.

She had never been more wrong in her life.

What she had considered too close before would have been a comfortable distance compared to how they were now. Right now her body was pulled flush into Vegeta's and their lips were tightly pressed together. Every muscle in her body tightened, not wanting to stay put but too tight to move away. Her brain was overloaded from the panic trying to grasp onto anything that would prevent her from collapsing from fear. Finally her eyes settled on his noting that they were not closed or even looking at her, but rather at the far end of the alley. Moving her own to look in the same direction her body impossibly seized up more as she realized that the three men that had chased her were standing at the end looking at the two of them with confused looks on their faces.

Feeling Vegeta pull his lips from hers she looked away from the men to look at his smug look. She would have been angry, if she were capable of doing anything other recovering from her panic, but she realized that he was obviously putting on a show for the men and not thinking that he got anything out of her.

"You three look like you're in a rush," Bulma jumped as Vegeta's deep voice seemed to echo through the alley. "Did your master Frieza send you to make sure I was picking up my gift? Or did he want to discuss his search for his mystery scientist more?" He cockily asked while touching a strand of Bulma's hair, mimicking her earlier action by twirling it around his gloved fingers as if brazenly flaunting the fact that he'd found her before Frieza did. Offhandedly she wondered if all women in the universe were treated like objects since so far she'd been chased down without regard to her feelings, informed that Frieza wanted to make her work for him without her acceptance, and was now a prop for the Sayian Prince's games uncaring that he'd just forced a kiss from her.

Bulma didn't understand why the men weren't answering but they seemed to be flabbergasted by what they were seeing. 'It's as if they've never seen anyone being intimate before. Or maybe it's the fact that it's Vegeta being intimate that's sent them into shock.'

After what seemed like an eternity, he green skinned man jumped and stuttered a response. "Ah, n-no, Lord Frieza has already left on the main ship, back to… to the main headquarters."

"Ah so you were on your way to the stockyard? Then by all means get on with it and stop wasting my time."

This time the blue cat man stepped forward. "No we weren't going there, not directly at least. It's just… that woman there…"

"Ah," Vegeta feigned surprise while moving his hand down to the dip of her spine pretending to be comforting her, "so these are the men that chased you after you got separated from Kakarot." He looked down at her and Bulma distantly realized that he wanted her to answer further confirming his story.

She knew that she should play along but her she found it impossible to speak, her throat had already tightened to the point that it was getting hard to breathe. She could see Vegeta frowning at her silence, confused as he certainly was as to why she wasn't answering when she had cunningly tried to talk herself out of trouble earlier. Of course he wouldn't understand how he was making it impossible for her; the intimate touch adding to the already claustrophobic distance sending her into a panic.

Not knowing what else to do to keep up the act Bulma turned her head away from the men resting her face on Vegeta's hard armored chest, her body shaking with the strain to stay where it was instead of trying to jump away from the threat.

"I swear," she heard him let out a sigh loud enough for the men to hear, "I've only had you for a few minutes and already you're so attached to me." His warm breath ruffling her hair nearly made her jump away but she remained locked in place, knowing that it would result in their act falling though. "In any case, you were chasing this woman, weren't you?"

"Yes, we thought that she had escaped from the stockyard and were going to return her. We didn't realize that she belonged to anyone, especially you since you've never bothered with one before." she didn't know which one spoke this time and she didn't care.

"Yes I suppose it is common knowledge that I didn't want to purchase a concubine since it was the same as forcing yourself onto a woman. But as I said before, Frieza decided to give me and my second in command any choice of all the women he had picked up from his last mission as a gift and we all know that you don't turn down Frieza's offer. Lucky me I found this lovely one that is completely enamored with me. She'll need some training though, I don't care for public shows as much as she'd like," he chuckled, if Bulma hadn't known that he was just using what she was giving him to work with she would have smacked him for his 'training' comment. 'Like I'm some sort of dog that needs to be taught to sit on command.'

"I had sent Kakarot back to the ship with them while I finished some work but she got separated in the crowd and tried to find me again."

"I see. We're sorry about the confusion then."

"If you acknowledge your fault then go on and get out of my way." Bulma felt the arm holding her leave her back and grab her wrist. Before she could concentrate on the action she was already being pulled behind him as he walked past the men without pause. "Oh," he called over his shoulder, "and be good little minions and report to Frieza that Kakarot and I both found our 'gifts', would you?"

Bulma barely heard their answer before Vegeta had pulled her out of their sight and through the alleyway, still holding tightly onto her wrist. Bulma forced her body to robotically follow along with Vegeta's pace through sheer will alone. She decided that now was a good time to collect her wits and calm herself down.

'Okay, let's be logical about everything now. I'm no longer at risk of dying or being raped or being sold into slavery and Vegeta is no longer holding me against him so there's no reason to panic anymore. Now all I have to do is find Chichi and we can all sit down and talk about this as adults.' She took in a deep breath trying to calm herself. 'Once I'm off this horrible planet and in a more controlled, private setting I'll be back to my strong self, maybe even make a better deal out of this turn of events.'

Bulma's new found confidence was quickly lost as they finally exited the alley and came into what could only be referred to as a wall of people. Her eyes widened but she didn't have time think about what was going on before Vegeta, who hadn't even stopped his stride, walked straight through them with her in tow and started off in a determined direction.

'Why are there so many people?'

"Tch, Cowards. They all praise Frieza but hide away until he leaves. It would be impossible to find Kakarot in this crowd if I was a common soldier. Lucky you…," his mouth continued to move showing that he was still speaking but the roar of the crowd drowned out his voice.

'What is he saying? Where are we going?'

She jumped as she felt someone brush against her only to run into another person. She thought that they were going to attack her but they just continued on as if nothing happened. A pull at her wrist brought her attention forward to Vegeta's glare as he said something to her once again drowned out beyond her range of hearing.

'Odd, the crowd seems to have gotten quieter but I still can't hear him. That's not a good sign. Probably worse that it seems to be getting darker. No, I can't faint, not now. Take a deep breath and keep it together.' She inhaled but the breath felt shaky as it passed through her tight throat and she was sure that it sounded like she was coming up for air after nearly drowning.

Bulma was confused when she felt Vegeta's hand leave her wrist and grab her shoulder. Looking back at him she noticed something was off. 'Did he get taller? No, I'm lower than before.' She looked down and saw that her legs had, in fact, given in. Quickly the ground came closer and she felt another hand on her other shoulder, this time shaking her slightly.

"Wo…man… wha…," Vegeta's voice finally breached her senses.

It took more effort than she thought needed to look back up at Vegeta who had knelt down to prevent her from falling all the way to the ground. 'I must be white as a sheet if Vegeta looks that surprised.' Surprised, not scared, she doubted that Vegeta would care that much. He was shaking her roughly but she had lost all the feeling in her body as she focused on his voice in attempts to stay awake.

"Woman! …amn wha…'s… happening?"

One of his arms moved around to her back to better support her as he gently placed his hand on the side of her neck to check her pulse. Bulma could tell by his expression that it was far higher than he thought it should be. But of course it was, even though she knew he was trying to help her all she could register was that he was too close to her. Vegeta didn't realize that she had gone through a traumatic experience when she was younger or that his arm holding her close and his hand around her neck were so terrifyingly similar to the thief's that had grabbed her so cruelly.

When his face blurred she realized that she her vision was fading completely due to her overwhelmed mental state. She didn't want to give up the fight, she was in a strange crowded place and the only person she knew was this stranger who had forced so much onto her in such a short period of time, but she knew it was a losing battle at this point.

"Woman! Woman, wake up! Woman!"

"BULMA!"

'There's only one person… that would know my name here…,' forcing her eyes to focus one more time she saw that Vegeta was looking away from her and moving her head to the side she saw none other than a panicking Chichi running towards her. Relief flooded her at the sight of her dear friend and she let a smile creep onto her face before she finally blacked out.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Please feel free to review. I love to hear back from you guys.