Chapter 7
'Miss Me?'
As the dust cleared Bulma opened her clenched shut blue eyes. Confusion spread throughout her entire body. Why wasn't she in immense pain right now? Blocking her view was a muscular back. Vegeta? She wondered. Bulma watched as his masculine shoulders moved up and down as his breathing got increasingly faster before his body gave out and he began to plummet to the hard ground below. The battle was over and it was apparent than Vegeta had thrown himself in front of the blast at the last minute and taken the damage instead. 'But why?' Bulma looked at his hardened features. He looked awful. She could feel his ki getting weaker and weaker and was getting increasingly worried. Trozar was nowhere to be seen and his ki was nonexistent so Bulma came to the conclusion that his body couldn't handle the intensity and power of the blast. Although Trozar was dead he had achieved his goal. The planet was unstable and would explode in any minute. Bulma shot off towards the ship carrying the unconscious Vegeta over her shoulder, only hoping she would reach the others before they left the planet leaving her and Vegeta to their demise.
The group had waited around 5 minutes longer than Vegeta had told them too. None of them mentioned that they should leave they just had all stared out the bay looking at the unstable planet hoping to see the two royals emerge over the horizon unharmed. They knew if they waited too much longer they would all be destroyed along with the planet. Raditz went to speak when they felt one ki heading towards them. They all got prepared to fight in case the ki happened to be Trozar. As the ki came over the horizon they saw the familiar glint of blue hair and noticed a figure lying over her shoulder.
"BULMA!"Chi Chi shouted and flew towards her royal princess and quickly glanced over her features making sure she was unharmed.
"OMG BULMA" Chi Chi's panicked tone was clear as she saw the state of her friend and the saiyan prince. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED OUT THERE? IS TROZAR DEAD?" Chi Chi waited for a response which her arms firmly planted on her hips.
"Female I suggest you stop screeching at go start up the ship. This planet has mere minutes." Vegeta growled his response through gritted teeth over Bulma's shoulder; he attempted to stand on his own but ended up falling into unconsciousness again. Chi Chi nodded at Bulma and then flew into the ship and followed Nappa into the control room. Chi Chi noticed the mixture of anger and confusion that was all over Bulma's features and decided keeping out of her way for a while would be best.
Bulma flew into the ship and straight to the healing chamber in the medical room. She inserted Vegeta's data and placed him into the chamber. She had removed his armour although she didn't bother removing his spandex since it was already in complete shreds from the heat of the blast. She watched aimlessly as he floated in the healing liquid and sighed. Now she truly had a chance to look at him without one of his snide remarks she realised how battered he looked. He had dry blood coated on his face and spandex, although she assumed that the majority of the blood was not his own but the natives. In this moment she realised how sharp his jaw line was and how innocent his face appeared in that moment. His skin was covered in burn marks from the heat of the explosion. She clenched her fists in pure rage and then let out a deep sigh. 'Why did he do that? I could have handled it'. He knew better than to get involved in other people's battles and he had stayed uninvolved for the majority of the fight. Surely he didn't do that to save her from the damage of the explosion… right? The unstable planet shook releasing Bulma from her thoughts and the ship began to rise into the atmosphere. She gave the prince one last look before shooting into the control room with the others.
Returning into the control room Bulma walked over to the control panel and began aggressively pressing buttons. Everyone was silent. Bulma placed the ship into hyper speed and raised the shields and mere moments later the ship shook. Planet Taska was no more. The explosion sent rock and debris all across the open space, fortunately due to the hyper speed the ship was well out of the blast radius that the planets demise had caused. Bulma let out a deep sigh and rubbed her forehead. If the planet was gone then that meant that Frieza's precious cargo was as well.
"B.. it'll be-" Chi Chi's attempt at comfort was interrupted.
"Be what? Fine?! If you didn't notice the planet in which we are supposed to be harvesting Frieza's oh so precious materials from just exploded. Meaning we have failed our mission." Bulma snapped at Chi Chi in a harsh tone.
Chi Chi looked taken back and she was. Bulma had never snapped at her like this before. Sure she knew the punishment for the failure to complete any of Frieza's missions and it was enough to stress anyone out. Chi Chi and Bulma had always successfully completed purges and missions and had the perfect record. This would be their first failure. Bulma turned and looked out of the window into the depths of space, it would take another month until they had to face Frieza's wraith. Bulma growled and ordered everyone out of the control room. She had a lizard to call. Once everyone had left Bulma connected her scouter to the large screen on the side of the room and dialled Frieza's personal scouter. Within moments the tyrant answered.
"Bulma dear, I was just about to contact you; I have reports saying that your ship is no longer within the atmosphere of planet Taska. Care to explain my loveliest pet?" Frieza sat in his usual chair holding a glass of wine which he was impatiently twirling around the glass. He looked beyond agitated.
"These reports are correct Lord Frieza." Bulma responded with little emotion.
"And the explanation for this is?" Frieza remained oddly calm whilst he waited for a response from his favourite royal monkey.
"Planet Taska no longer exists" Bulma was extremely blunt when she responded. Frieza took a sip of the wine before responding with a long sigh.
"Well… you've made quite the mistake, haven't you little one" The coldness in his tone almost made Bulma shiver as she listened. "You see now I will have to punish you, which I do not enjoy in any way." Bulma let out a sharp chuckle and sent a smirk his way.
"Now come on Frieza, there's no need to lie to me, we've known each other for long enough now that you can be honest." Frieza continued to twirl his wine when he looked up into her soullessly blue eyes. She had her arms crossed and was leaning casually against the control panel.
"Well I can confess I do gain some form of enjoyment out of torturing my favourite little monkey pet. I will see you and your team in a month." Frieza then shut off his intercom and the screen went black. Bulma crushed her scouter in rage and slowly unravelled her fist as the pieces fell to the floor, continuing to keep her eyes on the screen where the lizard had just been. Her palm was now bleeding heavily, but she didn't seem to notice or care for that matter. Making her way slowly through the ship she entered her private bathroom and locked the door. Looking in the full length mirror she finally realised how bruised and broken she looked. She like Vegeta was covered in dry blood. Her face was coated in scratches; one deep cut went from her upper check bone down to her jaw and was still dripping blood. She washed her wounds out and wrapped bandages around the major ones. Walking back into the empty bedroom she changed into a new spandex suit and left for the training ground without any form of rest.
Dark black eyes sprung open and blinked a few times to adjust to the bright lighting. Looking around they took in their surroundings. He was in a healing chamber. Oh that's right; he threw himself in front of the blast. Although the majority of his wounds had healed his body ached immensely making him groan. The last thing he could remember was collapsing in mid air after blocking the blast. He scowled at his actions. FOOLISH IDIOT. THE GIRL COULD HAVE HANDLED THE BLAST FINE WITHOUT MY INVOLVEMENT. He couldn't understand why he had thrown himself in front of a blast that was intended to hit the traiyan princess. He had come to realise he was attracted to the princess… but that couldn't be why? Could it? He was fond of her company sure. She rivalled him in every way and kept things interesting. Growling he pressed the drainage button and the fluid in the tank drained and the tank door sprang open. He noticed he was in what was left of a spandex suit when he heard a voice.
"Hey Vegeta, you're healed and awake!" It was Kakarot. He was beaming a smile at the prince which was returned with a scowl.
"How long have I been out?"
"Er … about 3 weeks." Kakarot muttered before rubbing the back of his head.
"3 WEEKS?!" The prince's eyes popped out of his head. He was out for 3 weeks… He didn't realise the extent of the damage that the blast caused. What a waste of time, he could have spent training.
"Yeah, you were pretty knocked up after that blast. We were all worried" Kakarot mentioned.
"Pfft, nonsense, your feelings were misplaced, of course I would have survived that pathetic attack" Vegeta retorted before pushing past Kakarot towards his own room. He sensed around and found the girl's ki in the training room and headed in her direction instead.
Ever since Vegeta had been placed in the healing tank Bulma had been training nonstop barley stopping to complete necessary tasks such as sleeping and eating. She was stressed and had found in the past that training was the easiest and most effective output that she knew of. She would be back on Frieza's ship in less than a week and facing his 'punishment'. As if being there on its alone wasn't enough of a punishment. She continued her kicks and punches when she sensed a ki heading towards the training room. It was him. Vegeta. Turning round she was met with a confident smirk. Vegeta stood leaning against the training room wall with his arms crossed. She couldn't help but stare at his muscular body. The torn spandex revealed a lot. His bare tanned skin was impossible for anyone to resist. And she couldn't tear her eyes away.
"Miss me?" Vegeta asked pushing himself away from his position against the wall and stood right in front of her.
"Pfft hardly, I see you've healed, about bloody time." In an attempt to appear bored and un-amused with his return she turned away from him and continued her punches and kicks.
"Ah come on. Is that anyway to speak to your saviour?" She turned in one sudden movement and slammed him into a wall by gripping his neck. Her face wore a look of pure rage. Vegeta merely wiggled his eyebrows and his smirk got increasingly arrogant.
"Look, I did not need you to step in. I could have handled that blast, and you know that. So I wonder… why did you step in? Hmm perhaps my dear prince you've become rather fond of little old me." She kept her hold on him and whispered the last part slowly and softly in his ear causing a blush to spread across his normally stone cold cheeks. But he quickly recovered his emotionless facade.
"Don't be foolish girl. I hardly find you bearable." Vegeta attempted to recover from his show of weakness.
"Yeah… sure." She muttered before realising her grasp on his neck and walking away and rolling her eyes. She unravelled the bandages on her hands and then wrapped them back up tighter as she spoke. "Frieza will be expecting us in a little over a week. You will not interfere when I 'speak' with him." She knew Frieza would make them all watch her being punished to test their loyalty and the last thing they all needed was Vegeta to go all saviour again.
"He will ask what happened and you will agree with my take on the events. He will test us all. We cannot afford to fail again" She spoke again but this time she was staring off into space.
"What do you mean by test us?"
"He will want to see where our loyalties lie. We cannot show him that they lie anywhere but with him." Vegeta merely nodded and stared at the girl's bandaged hands, they should have healed by now if they were from the battle. He quickly approached her and gently grabbed her hands and unravelled the bandage to reveal fresh burn marks. A scowl spread across his face.
"Girl, what is the meaning of this?" He almost growled. Upon hearing the growl Bulma decided it was best to avoid sarcasm and give him a straight answer. She shrugged her shoulders and responded.
"Training, the training room is modified so ki bounces off the walls… I was practicing my blocking" Vegeta was still holding her hand when he suddenly dropped it.
"Hmph. Foolish girl, you are not usually this careless with wounds. This needs to heal" Bulma didn't respond she just looked away. She had been so caught up in preparing herself for their return to Frieza's ship that she had been careless.
"Thanks Vegeta. Didn't realise you cared."
"I don't. I just don't need careless soldiers on my team" He folded his arms and turned away from her.
"Yeah, yeah, keep up that routine" Bulma rolled her eyes.
"What routine girl." Vegeta growled in response and turned to face her once more.
"Come on, you must like me if you were willing to take that blast for me?" She knew she was playing with fire so she ceased the mocking tone and was gentle.
"Hn. I enjoy your company more than the other idiots but that does not mean I like you, I-" He was cut short when Bulma's lips crashed onto his. He was so shocked he did nothing. Her lips were so soft against his and he liked it. Suddenly she broke the kiss.
"Lie to yourself about that Veggie" She smirked and then turned to leave.
AN: Keep the reviews coming!
LVR4Trunks-n-Vegeta- I was thinking about having some kind of legend for traiyans but I haven't got any ideas yet of what it will be or what I'll call it
xSapphirexRosesxFanxhe0ky - Happy? ;)
ThomasaTa– Hope this chapter was worth the wait!