Human Hospitality
by pureleaf
Chapter 4
Recollection
Author's Note: Many thanks to cara9001, Mrs. Raditz'n'Nappa, qkumber, xSmallLadySerenity13, and anonymous for the lovely reviews! As always, feel free to leave reviews, comments, or shoot a PM my way! -pureleaf
Bunny leafed through a magazine, reclined on a chaise-lounge in the living room. She hadn't seen her guest in several hours, but she had noticed he'd raided her refrigerator and cupboard.
She didn't know what to make of him, but sensed he desperately needed a place to rest and recover from some unspoken ordeal. Something was haunting the strange man but he seemed determined to keep pushing forward- what he was aiming to achieve or acquire, Bunny did not know, but she knew there had to be more to him.
Besides, she thought, it was nice to have such a fit young man around the house...
At three thirty in the afternoon, Bulma returned home with more groceries and two large canvas bags stuffed with brand new athletic gear and shoes.
"Vegeta must have been hungry if he ate an entire chicken! I guess the grocery list is going to become a lot longer for the next while," Bunny followed Bulma into the kitchen and started to unpack the groceries.
"I don't even want to think about how much this is gonna cost..." muttered Bulma, sitting at the kitchen table and cutting price tags off of garments, "at least the Namekians don't eat! And unlike the so-called prince in our house, they haven't been demanding or imposing, either! How can you just brush off this guy's attitude and appetite, Mom?"
"Maybe he's a little overwhelmed, honey. You need to remember he's not from around here and might find our way of life a little strange. He seemed so dazed when I first saw him... must have been through an awful lot! After all, he showed up here covered in dirt and with that torn clothing! Oh, speaking of that, I washed that outfit he showed up in; would you return it to him when you bring those new clothes up?"
"Sure, Mom. So, if Vegeta ate all the chicken and your cake, then what are we going to do for dinner?"
"Do you think he'll even want dinner, Bulma?"
"If Vegeta's anything like Goku, he'll want five dinners!"
"Oh, dear..."
Vegeta had figured out how to draw a hot bath in his en suite washroom and decided the smooth white bar wrapped in waxed paper had to be soap. He was impressed by how quickly the bathtub filled and by the warmth of the water. The soap smelled good but left his skin feeling dry, and he wondered if humans had extremely oily skin or if they deliberately stripped their skin of its natural oil and replaced it with something else. Vegeta decided he'd ask the woman called Bunny for a salve or skin oil next time he saw her.
The Saiyan disliked washing his hair and paid little mind to the pastel green bottles and blue circular container that had been set on his sink. He let himself slide into the water and rubbed his scalp until he couldn't stand it any longer. When he came back up, he saw the bathwater was tinged grey and quickly pushed himself out of the tub.
After patting himself dry with a towel, Vegeta stood in front of the mirror and stared at his reflection. He inspected his hairline and wondered if it would recede any further; checked his teeth, finding he really had chipped two incisors and lower left cuspid during his time on Namek. Finally, he ran his fingers over the spots where Frieza's fatal blast had penetrated and exited his body, still in disbelief over the lack of scars or lingering injury after his unexpected resurrection.
Was I really dead? I left my body, that much is certain. And yet despite knowing my body stopped working, I've yet to make sense of where my spirit went... or didn't go...
There had been no Hell nor Heaven when Vegeta died. There hadn't been an otherworldly "check-in station" or a guiding light that drew him to a creator or overseer, not even a spectre or spirit to inform the Saiyan he had perished and it was time to leave the mortal realm; there had been nothing. He had felt himself being plunged into an icy darkness as wide as an ocean and a million fathoms deep, and Vegeta could do nothing but hang there, suspended in this nowhere realm that seemed to absorb all light and sound, and his spirit recognized very quickly that this would be its eternal prison. With no mouth, he could not scream with fury or in fright, and with no body he could not run or fight his way out of this empty space. There was no way out, nobody to have mercy or even argue with, and nothing for him to grab on to or to find comfort in.
Hours into this new eternity, Vegeta found himself facing Kakkarot in this blackness and urged his rival to destroy Frieza, all past conflicts with Kakkarot be damned, he begged his nemesis to complete the task he'd failed to see through to the end, one Saiyan spirit to another Saiyan spirit. Those seconds with Kakkarot had been a fleeting, beautiful moment of mercy before he was once again alone in the darkness.
When he suddenly woke up again, back in his own body, the weight of soil crushing his chest and forcing him to claw frantically upwards, he actually hoped he'd finally arrived in Hell- anything to get away from the no-space he'd been trapped in before.
When he realized he was on Namek, by then going to hell in a hand-basket, a deep sense of gratitude and even joy grew inside his chest like a bubble and simply couldn't pop. Moments later, after confronting Frieza one more time, he found himself transported to a sunny, grassy field miles outside a major city. Vegeta recognized he was back on Earth and couldn't help but laugh at the wonderful absurdity of his situation.
Bulma knocked on Vegeta's door, and when she didn't hear anything from his room, she went inside and started sorting his new clothing into different drawers, unaware he'd slipped out of the washroom and stood mere feet away from her, completely naked and still damp from his bath. It took a minute before Bulma caught his figure in her peripheral vision and jumped back. "Jesus! That's the second time you've startled me today!"
"What are you doing in here?" He suspiciously eyed her canvas bags.
"I'm putting your new clothes away, Vegeta. Were you in the washroom this whole time? Speaking of which, you may want to consider getting dressed..."
"After I get skin salve. Get it for me now. The old man explained how these garments work, I don't need you to put things away for me."
"Salve?! Did scrape yourself?"
The Saiyan rolled his eyes and approached the chest of drawers with his clothing, looking through the items she'd brought him. "Salve, balm, skin oil! Something for dried out skin, girl, am I making myself clear enough yet?"
He decided the clothing Bulma had purchased were substantially better than what he'd been wearing before as he pulled out a soft blue t-shirt and black sweatpants with a drawstring waist. He spotted the brand new athletic shoes and sandals she'd also purchased for him and decided to try the human version of open-toed footwear.
She scoffed and turned on her heel, exiting his room quickly. He noticed how her hips swung and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. It was nice having an attractive woman around, and even better that she didn't seem at all reserved or prudish.
Bulma stood in the doorway to Vegeta's room and tossed a large white bottle at him. "Here, pal, try this. It's called lotion. You just rub it into your skin until it's absorbed, alright? It's my bottle, but you can have it, alright?"
"Hmm," he unscrewed the cap and sniffed cautiously, unsure of how to feel about its somewhat sweet fragrance, "then perhaps someday my complexion will look as lovely as yours." He cocked a brow and the left side of his mouth curled into a crooked smile.
"Whatever, Vegeta. Dinner will be in a few hours. I blew one of my stereo speakers before I went to Namek, so today I'm finally going to repair it. If you need something, I'll be in the lab. Oh, and by the way, it's not acceptable to talk to people when you're nude. Just a heads up!" She flashed a grin and left his room again.
Dumbfounded by her statement, he followed her into the hallway and shot back: "You came into my room first! What was I supposed to do, throw you out?"
Bulma ignored him and went downstairs. He stood there, hair still dripping down his bare back, and shook his head in disbelief at her rudeness. Humans were a strange bunch.