Here we go, I hope you enjoy this chapter. :) Feel free to review. I said this before but since I've gotten many requests I have opened anonymous reviews again so if you wanted to review before but couldn't I'd love to hear from you as well.

Bulma was still frozen against the wall for several seconds after Vegeta left the room. Finally, the sound of the shower starting pulled her out of her stupor. Blinking, she looked down at the crumpled blueprints in her hands before throwing them to the ground in a huff.

"You… you jerk!" She yelled at the closed door, uncaring whether or not the occupant inside heard him. "Monster! Bastard!" Remembering his comment about her studying his armor, she added, "Pervert." She glared at the door for a few more seconds before grabbing the blueprints off the ground and making her way over to the sofa. Sitting down, she pulled the coffee table close and spread out the paper so she could see what she was working with. "Oh, wow! He wasn't kidding about the size of his place."

While Vegeta had described the living arrangements before Bulma didn't think it was anything like the scale she was seeing with these plans. Starting from a private access door, the entire floor took up the length of two side-by-side football fields. One half was split up between a huge training area and a common area. Bulma made a mental note that there didn't seem to be any windows on this side of the complex and wondered what kind of lighting the room had or if they actually used it outside of training. Looking to the other side of the plans she saw that it was split up between two well sized, for lack of a better term, apartments. Each apartment had a generous living area and two large bedrooms with on-suite bathrooms. Unlike the training/common side, these rooms had large windows so it was likely that there was plenty of natural light making her wonder why the private areas had more access to the outside than the common areas. In fact, the only room in the apartments without windows was in what she assumed was Vegeta's room. It was marked 'Study' and, while not as large as the bedrooms, was spacious enough for her to convert into a working lab.

Opening her bag, she pulled out some white chalk pencils ready to jot down some specifications for what changes needed to be made. Luckily she was a genius and could instantly adjust plans to whatever specifications were given to her. "Let's see, some metal counters," she left what type of metal out knowing that Vegeta could fill in the blanks with what was available, "and a private desk for writing." After a few more quick notes, she smiled sadly at the perfect replica of her lab back home. "And since the study shares a wall with Kakarot's living room, we can add a door so Chichi will be able to help without going all the way through Vegeta's side." She grinned as she realized how perfect this was all working out until a nagging thought pushed its way in. "Although I won't be able to work on anything big in there. It'll be fine for making the scouter and the suppressor but if he wants training equipment and ships I'll need a larger space."

Looking back to the common area made her realize that none of these rooms had a kitchen area or a laundry room for that matter. "Probably used to room service taking care of everything. That'll be a problem though since we can't have anyone accidently stumbling in and seeing what's going on. Luckily we brought some appliance capsules with us." She drew a line splitting up the common area so that one third of it was a kitchen/laundry room worthy of the best housewife, which Chichi basically was with the exception of the wife part, and two thirds a larger working area that would be able to house larger projects.

"There, all done!" Looking behind her, she noted that the water was still running in the bathroom. "Wow, either he's into longer showers or," she looked at a wall clock confirming her suspicions, "I finished all of the plans in five minutes. Well, I basically just threw what we had back home everywhere so of course it didn't take me that long."

As proud of her skills as she was there was a downside to getting finished so fast: She had nothing to do. Well that wasn't entirely true since she had a computer that she converted to work with the alien ship's power source with thousands of books, tv shows, and movies uploaded to it but she truly doubted that she'd be able to get into anything before Vegeta came out of the bathroom and she needed to discuss the changes she'd made with him.

That left the room itself. Looking around, she saw that instead of installing something to make the room more 'homey' that the designs opted to just leave the walls metal. Oddly enough though it didn't sound like she was in a metal room and upon closer inspection she found that the walls seemed to be coated with some kind of resin. "Could it be… for sound proofing?" Clapping her hands a few times she was shocked that, no matter the distance, there was no echo. "That's incredible!" Running over to the blueprints, she made a note that both labs should be coated with the same resin so that her work wouldn't disrupt anyone else.

Leaning back, Bulma rubbed her hands along the sofa glad that the furnishings in the room were more luxurious than the walls. Suddenly curious, she kicked off her shoes and nearly died when she felt how plush the black carpet was. Curling her toes once more, she put her shoes back on and decided to continue her investigation.

Aside from the few function pieces like the couch and the bed, there didn't seem to be anything used for entertainment in the room. "He must not spend a lot of time in here or perhaps there's some kind of space tv or space phone hidden away," she added as she noticed a panel by the door.

Looking around again she brought a finger to her lips as she thought of something else. "Come to think of it, there are not too many personal items in here at all. Except…," she turned to look at the side table next to where Vegeta had pressed her to the wall. Still on the table, face down, was the picture frame that she'd nearly thrown at him in her fit of rage earlier.

There wasn't anything odd to consider about it under normal circumstances. People kept pictures all the time but this situation was different. The room looked barely lived in, you couldn't even tell whether the occupant was male or female, and yet there was one frame sitting by itself on a table. Its placement was as, or perhaps even more, important as the frame's existence itself. If the picture was just a constant piece in the room, wouldn't it be fixed to a wall? After all, even the best of ships are bound to experience some turbulence so having an important item that could easily fall over and break would be impractical… unless it was not meant to stay on the ship. Was it possible for a prince who personified himself as being cold and indifferent to have such an attachment to a single object that he felt the need to bring it with him wherever he goes?

The temptation to look at it was too much to resist.

She was inches away from picking up the frame when the bathroom door opened. "Are you having trouble with the blueprints or are you just interesting in wasting time?"

Bulma first thought was to act all innocent while continuing to inch closer until she could grab the picture but that plan was thrown out the window when she turned to look at Vegeta… and realized that he was completely naked; just strutting out of the bathroom water dripping off every surface of his body with little care outside of getting his hair dry.

"What are you doing? Use a towel, for crying out loud!" She yelled as she covered her eyes and spun so she couldn't see him.

"I am using a towel, Woman," Bulma couldn't tell if he was joking or if he honestly didn't understand what she meant.

"Not your hair, I mean on your body!" And what a body it was! She may have only examined the body through text books or movies but even she could tell that Vegeta had a body that would make a Hollywood movie star green with envy. He may be short by Saiyan standards but she was sure that he'd be considered a perfect man, at least look wise, to most women on Earth.

"The carpet won't get ruined from a few droplets of water. The fibers were developed to mimic the fur of…"

"I don't care about the carpet! In case you haven't noticed, you're completely naked. Don't you have any decency?"

If she wasn't hiding her face, she would have whipped around and glared at him for the chuckle he had at the situation. "First off, this is my room so I don't see why I should cover myself. And second, Saiyans are unconcerned with notions of modesty. It works against our natural fighting instincts to worry about trivial matters like covering out bodies since it would counterproductive during a fight. We can't just stop fighting because our genitals get exposed since it would give our opponent an advantage on us."

"I don't care if you normally attend tournaments or formal galas completely in the nude; please put some clothes on while you're around me." Vegeta chuckled and Bulma stiffened when she heard his footsteps getting closer thinking that he was going to tease her further. However she relaxed slightly as they stopped a few feet from her before moving away again. Taking a chance to peek, she saw him move into the closet area with the picture frame in hand. "Hey, wait!"

"Change your mind about me getting dressed, did you?" He asked suggestively.

Bulma blushed madly and shook her head vigorously even though he couldn't see her, "NO! I was just wondering where that frame went." She fanned her cheeks hoping that it would make her blush less noticeable. 'I swear, every time I'm near this man I get in a situation where I'm utterly mortified.'

There was a pause, followed by the sound of a dresser opening and clothing being moved around before he spoke again. "I clearly told you that my things are none of your business."

"What's the big deal? Is it something embarrassing?" She teased but jumped as Vegeta came back out of the closet again. She moved to cover her eyes but noticed that he'd, thankfully, taken the time to put on a loose pair of pants. Crossing her arms over her chest, she continued her 'interrogation'. "Is it a picture of you as a baby?"

"As if I'd have anything as pointless as that in my room?" He said with a huff, rolling his eyes before moving over to some kind of console on the wall.

Undeterred by Vegeta's attitude, Bulma pressed on determined to get answers. "Is it your Momma?"

Vegeta gave her an annoyed look, "Are you an idiot?"

Bulma frowned and watched Vegeta worked for a bit more before another suggestion came to her. "Is it a girlfriend, perhaps?"

"Look, I get enough of that 'friend' crap with Kakarot, I don't need it from you too."

That comment made her raise an eyebrow. "I'm not hearing a no."

"I don't even know what a 'girlfriend' is."

"It's a significant other that you see exclusively."

"Exclusively?"

"Yeah, you know, you only spend time with her and no other women."

"I've never been with any women more than once." He smirked before adding, "Though I'm sure several of them would have been overjoyed if I did give them a second chance but outside of sex or combat I don't deal with women very often. In fact, you're going to be first intimate relationship I've ever had and that's out of necessity, not want." With that said he moved back to the console, avidly focusing on the screen.

Bulma tapped a finger against her lips as she took in what he was saying. 'He doesn't seem to think much of the women he's been with but then he also doesn't consider Kakarot to be his friend. Perhaps it's just a matter of culture clash and Saiyan terminology isn't the same as ours.' She thought about it for a bit longer both pushing forward. "But it is a picture of a woman, isn't it?"

Seemingly tired of the conversation, Vegeta finished whatever he was doing at the console and gave her an irritated look. "This," he gestured at the air around her as if to signify that he was talking about the situation more than her, "is exactly why I took the picture out of your sight, because you want to waste time asking asinine questions instead of working."

It was Bulma's turn to smirk. "I already finished making changes to the blueprints while you were in the shower." Vegeta looked at her incredulously before moving towards the coffee table and examining the paper. "You'll have to add what kinds of metal you guys have access to so they'll know what supplies need to be used but other than that everything should be there. I also added a door in the new lab so Chichi can come help without having to go all the way through your living. Oh, and I split up the common area into a larger lab for bigger projects and a kitchen/laundry room so that Chichi can take over any chores that you'd normally assign servants to do. Can't have unwanted eyes accidently seeing what we're working on." She added with her brightest smile at Vegeta's look of disbelief.

"How… how long was I in the shower?" Vegeta looked over at a clock on the wall before moving his eyes back to the blueprints as if trying to find a flaw he could pick on.

She shrugged, knowing that he'd find nothing since she knew her additions worked perfectly. "Not long." She pointed to the chalk. "So, supplies?"

As Vegeta made the necessary additions, Bulma heard a knock at the door. Standing up, Vegeta opened the door to reveal a Saiyan pushing a cart of food. "Here," he handed the soldier the blueprints, "take those to the communications deck and have them sent to the palace."

"Yes, Prince Vegeta," the soldier saluted before taking off.

Bulma eyed the food just now realizing that she hadn't eaten all day. "Wow, did they fix food that quickly?"

"Of course," Vegeta stated before looking over the food as if deciding what he wanted to eat first. His thoughts were cut short as the sound of Bulma's stomach grumbling interrupted the quiet. Turning away from the Vegeta to raise an eyebrow at Bulma's once again mortified face. "Hmm, perhaps I better order some more since it seems like you'll be eating a lot."

Embarrassment temporarily forgotten, Bulma glared at him for his rude comment. "You're such a jerk!" She yelled before plopping down on the couch.

She had expected him to laugh or ignore her and dig in but she heard him moving towards her she looked up realized just how close he was as he placed his hand on the arm of the couch. "Yes yes, I heard you before." At her confused look, he continued getting noticeably closer with each word, "Jerk. Monster. Bastard. Pervert."

Before she knew it she was laying flat on her back with him directly over her, one hand placed next to her head and the other gripping the top of the couch. "Wha… what are you doing?"

"I said that we'd continue with examinations and since you already finished with the blueprints I thought that we should do that now."

Bulma was about to push him back for making fun of her before but froze when she realized that she wouldn't be pushing against his armor this time but his bare chest. She had to find another out of this situation. "Aren't you going to eat first?"

Vegeta placed his knee against the couch cushion this time. "It's more important to work with your phobia enough each day so that you'll be able to act properly when the time comes. Earlier your efforts were cut short so we should finish before it gets too late."

"But the food will get cold! You don't want cold food, do you?"

Vegeta seemed to take joy in her desperate attempts to get out of their 'practice'. "The food won't get cold. The trays are specially designed to keep the food fresh and warm as long as the lid covers them."

"Wow, really? That's amazing." She turned to look over at the trays, already thinking of what the technology could be used for. "I need to study that. Before we couldn't store perishable foods in capsules but if I look into those trays I might be able to figure out how to store food to send to people in famines or even living plants so that they can start new ecosystems or…," she was jolted out of her comments by Vegeta's right hand gently holding her jaw.

"Focus, Woman," he said with a small chuckle as he moved her head to face him. "You can work on your theories later. Right now the only thing that should be on your mind is how to properly react to me."

Having said that, Vegeta moved so that he was basically straddling her. The way his body was positioned over hers was like a cage and the feeling of being trapped once again filled her. "What are you doing, n-no, get away."

"Calm down, Woman. Look, our bodies aren't nearly as close as they were earlier and I'm not going to touch you aside from what little I'm doing now. Just do what you were doing before."

"But you're not wearing armor so," she clenched her eyes shut and shook her head as much as his loose grip would allow, "so I have nothing to distract myself with."

"You didn't need the distraction earlier, when we first met."

"I was just imitating my Mom's flirty way of talking, to get you to lower your guard."

"Well then just do that."

Bulma opened her eyes to look at him, confused by what exactly he meant. "Do what?"

Once again, he gave her a dark look and smirked at her, leaning down nearly close enough to touch noses together. "Flirt with me. Make me drop my guard."

'There it is again, that foreign feeling that jumps through my body and makes my heart skip a beat. Why is this happening?' She honestly never felt this way before this excursion happened so all she could do was compare it to what feelings she did know deciding that it was a mix of panic and embarrassment. 'Why won't it go away? I'm stronger than this but this panic is too overwhelming, I can't think straight.'

Vegeta cocked his head to the side, obviously amused with her flushed demeanor. "Well, I'm waiting. What would your Mother do if she was in your place?"

"I-I," Bulma swallowed and bit her lip trying her best to think of exactly what her mother would do in this situation. "If my Mother was in this situation… she'd say something like…," she placed the back of her hand dramatically on her forehead and sighed, "'Oh Mr. Vegeta, you're so bold. Why, if I wasn't a married woman…"

There was a moment of silence before Vegeta chuckled again. "Your mother sounds terrifying."

Bulma frowned and looked to the side, realizing that even something as simple as his laughter sent that heart skipping panic through her. "She wasn't terrifying, she was just… friendly, and a bit of a ditz."

"Well in any case, try to mimic her actions, not her words. Remember how you played with your hair, lowered your gaze and batted your eyes, stuff like that. The lip biting thing too, that works quite well."

"Ah, that's just a bad habit of mine. Mom always got onto me saying that I was going to ruin my lips biting them so much." Looking back to Vegeta, she noticed that his eyes were focused on her mouth, which wasn't usual since it was the topic of their current conversation. However she froze when his fingers followed suit and lightly traced her lips leaving a tingling feeling in their wake.

"I can see what she means. You wouldn't want to crack them. Luckily there doesn't seem to be any damage so I don't think it's too much of a problem."

"Yeah," Bulma answered back quietly watching as Vegeta started at her lips a few moments longer before moving her eyes back to hers.

"I've changed my mind," he announced.

"Changed…?"

"Yes, instead of trying to have you flirt with me, since you seem to be having trouble concentrating on that task, we're going to try kissing again."

"What? Why?"

"Because I've seen from before that you can pretend to flirt but when I kissed you to distract those idiots you just froze. Given your secluded background I doubt that you've kissed much before then."

"Never. I mean, I've seen it in movies and on tv and I've seen my parents share a peck every now and again, but personally I've never been in a situation where I'd have to. But I, I'm not ready to…," she struggled, surprised that Vegeta's hand moved away from her face.

"You don't have to do anything. Just close your eyes and let me do the work. If you get the hang of it you can try to mimic my actions and we'll move on from there."

She wanted to shake her head in protest and push him away but decided that it was pointless to try. 'Besides what's needed to make this plan work he's not going to do anything to me. I have to trust him.'

Closing her eyes tight, she nodded. As much as the thought of kissing him terrified her, the anticipation of waiting for him to it was excruciating. Finally after several tense moments, she felt the gentle touch of his lips against hers. It wasn't anything like the hard press in the alley, but rather more like a whisper, a tease that sent her heart rate soaring. Her body stiffened as the motion caused not only the heart-skipping panic from before but also made her stomach both tighten and flutter.

She didn't want to end up fainting so she tried to concentrate on the matter from a scientific standpoint like she had earlier. 'What is going on? Is the panic making me sick? It doesn't feel like I'm going to throw up so I'm just nervous? Yes, that's the closest emotion I can relate this feeling too so that must be it.' Something about his actions caused these weird feelings to course through her body. 'Is this common? Does it always feel like this when you let someone close to you?'

She would have continued to contemplate whether these feelings were common place or only because of her fears when a hand skimming her waist brought her out of her science based distraction.

Her eyes popped open ready to protest him touching her when he said he wouldn't but she realized that it wasn't Vegeta's lips covering her mouth but a hand. Above her was the eerily recognizable sight of the ceiling of her Father's lab. The skylight, which just minutes ago she had looked up at to observe the storm, was shattered and rain showered down on her ruining the paperwork on the desk she was pinned on top of and causing her to shiver from the cold. Flashing red lights cast spinning shadows across the room accompanied by the piercing wail of the attached alarm.

"Damn it." A voice reached her ears. "I didn't even notice that stupid skylight. Ah, the pain." The stranger's hand circled around her waist and pulled her up slightly to look at her face. She couldn't make out his face because of his ski mask but he seemed to be rather rough, though that might have just been from all the cuts he'd gotten when he'd fallen through the glass and onto her desk. He winced and covered he eye which, due to being exposed by his mask, had gotten a gash across it. "I was told this lab was fully automated, I didn't know a person would be here. What do I do?"

Moving his hand from his eye, he looked at her for a moment until a door opened and the lab's security droids entered. The man panicked fell on top of her, holding her tight against him. Seeming to notice that the droids would not fire as long as she was in the way he pull her torso up, blocking himself from any harm as he thought about what to do. From her close position she could see him pull out a knife from his back pocket and move it behind her out of her sight.

"I'm sorry, I can't afford to have witnesses. I don't have any other choice."

'No no no no no,' she shook her head and suddenly regained her ability to move. Moving her hand across the desk, she grabbed the first object she could hold onto ignoring the pain as it cut into her own hand and lashed out. "NO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" She said striking the man in the face with the blood stained glass. Yelling out in pain, he jumped back allowing her to roll off the desk and land painfully on the cement floor.

Only there wasn't any pain. Opening eyes she didn't remember closing, she noticed that the ground wasn't cold, wet cement but lush, black carpet. She was beyond confused at the moment as she panted heavily trying to catch her breath. 'What's going on? Why am I dry and warm and why is it so quiet?' Taking in a few more strangled breath, her mind cleared enough to think reasonably. 'I'm on the Saiyan's ship, not back on Earth in the lab. Not to mention that even if I was on Earth, we haven't had a skylight in the roof since I was 16 after… after that incident with the thief.'

Suddenly she realized that she'd just had a painfully realistic flashback. But it had all felt so real: The man's hand skimming her waist, the freezing cold rain, the blaring sirens, and the contact she'd made with the man's face. But here she was on the floor of Vegeta's room, safe and sound in peace and quiet.

'Oh no, if I'm on the floor then,' she looked over her shoulder through her disheveled hair to confirm that Vegeta was watching her with wide eyes, more confused than she had ever seen him. Sitting back on the balls of his feet, he had the back of his hand pressed to his cheek making her realize that she had lashed out at him before rolling off the couch, though he was probably holding it more out of surprise than trying to ease any pain she could have possibly inflicted.

Taking advantage of his confusion, she pushed herself up off the floor and ran to the bathroom, ignoring him as he broke out of his stupor long enough to call after her. She didn't want to be yelled at or mocked for her fears any more today, she just wanted a moment to relax and forget what had happened.

She barely took enough time to strip her clothes off before jumping into the shower. Not even a second after both of her feet touched the floor freezing water began to fall from the ceiling. Looking up, she saw that entire ceiling of the shower was basically one giant shower head made to mimic a rainstorm. If she hadn't just had that very vivid nightmare about a traumatic experience involving freezing rain she might have enjoyed it but since she had she only wanted it to stop.

Frantically looking and feeling around on the walls for some kind of control, she tried her best to ignore how each drop stung her body. All the while, her thoughts were running rampant as the day's activities finally caught up to her: Being chased by soldiers that worked for Frieza. Being forced into a deal to avoid being caught. Her first kiss with a man who didn't feel anything for her. Being leered at by more people than she could remember seeing. Her separation from Chichi. This unexplainable sense of panic and nervousness Vegeta seemed to cause in her. The nightmare of her past. The mortification of knowing that Vegeta surely thought even less of her because of her overreaction. He'd surely mock her for that.

"And why wouldn't he mock me?" She asked aloud as her hands fell limply to her sides, giving up on her attempts to stop the cold shower. "I made fun of him for bragging that he was skilled at something he wasn't but then I just turned around and did the same. He may know very little about science but what do I know about love or lust or romance? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The way I am I can't seduce someone, I can't enjoy intimate company, I can't fall in love. I can't do anything.

She couldn't hold back the tears anymore and instead sank to the ground, her loud sobs shaking her body as she curled up as tightly as she could as she tried to ignore the overwhelming onslaught of self doubt that pelted her body like the cold rain.