A/N: Anybody ever moved their work to AO3? I was thinking about it because of the freer policy with content, but I'm also not crazy about the basic set up of the site. Thoughts on that? Would anybody WANT me to put this story on there? I might be able to add some other things there, if you know what I mean… ahem. Thank you to all who reviewed!
Vegeta monitored Bulma and the boy closely until they had left the planet's atmosphere. He knew that Bulma was well-capable of trashing the ship if she had the mind to, but she wouldn't risk endangering herself or their offspring by attempting to crash it now. He showed them to a room where they could leave their things and then left them to find Nappa and distribute orders.
"We will be planet-side in a few standard weeks, sire." Nappa said as Vegeta approached him. Vegeta grunted in agreement, knowing that Nappa was afraid to say what he wanted to about the situation at hand.
"Prince Vegeta… I understand that these new developments have come as a shock for you, but—"
"I don't want to hear it, Nappa. I've told you—"
"This was not your mission," Nappa said flatly, raising his voice to be heard. Vegeta fell silent, willing to hear his second out if he was willing to be bold.
"Forgive me, Your Highness, but I thought the plan was to study the hybrid Saiyan here, with the blue woman assisting, and then to take what you've learned to Vegeta-sei or wherever you wished to train to defeat Freiza. Or kidnapping Kakarot's son if all else failed, but this?"
"I went to find the woman in her paltry laboratory and there I found a child of my blood," Vegeta responded. "How can I ignore such an occurrence? I have grown since those years past, because I've been from planet to planet, searching for it. We can be certain about one thing: hybrid Saiyans have the potential for varying degrees of power. They are not weak caste. And if Earthling blood is the most powerful asset to Frieza's defeat, I do not care what all of Vegeta-sei thinks!"
"But why take the woman and child home with you, my prince? Your father has not seen you in ten standard years and you choose now to go home and you bring a human woman and your illegitimate offspring?"
"Since when has legitimacy ever matter to the Saiyans, Nappa?" Vegeta said. "Yes, my plan was to develop my knowledge on Earth, with Kakarot's half-breed. But I'm no longer interested in him, I have no reason to be. One hybrid is just as good as another, moreso if you measure basic power level. My son is strong, as befitting a first-class warrior. And I will not allow my son to be raised as an Earthling, ignoring half of his history!"
Nappa wouldn't look at his prince, busying himself with piloting. "Are you sure that is all?"
Vegeta crossed his arms, having waited for Nappa to break. "What's that to mean, Nappa? Do you think I'm being dishonest with you? Put the ship on autopilot and face me."
Nappa obeyed and faced Vegeta. "Perhaps, you are being dishonest with yourself…"
"Go on."
His second took a breath. "Perhaps your ties to the pretty little Earthling woman are still as strong as they ever were. Saiyans…when they mate, ah—you fled her bed all those years ago for a reason, my prince. She was your first attraction. It is unnatural for—"
An increasingly frequent position for Nappa, he found himself choked by his liege, but this time, the prince was trying, expending energy in cutting off his oxygen. "You imply," Vegeta growled, "that I care about that bitch. On that score, you are very wrong. Listen to me carefully, Nappa. I meant what I said; anyone who touches that woman will answer to me—but not because I have any care for her. Were you not useful to me, I would disintegrate you. The very same goes for her!" He released Nappa and his hands swept over his breastplate nonchalantly while Nappa's gasped back into awareness. "Once I overthrow Frieza, I will take my father's place, and when I do…there will be no more weakness glorified on Vegeta-sei. We will not be vassals beholden to a tyrant's whims!
"Do you not think I realize how narrowly I escaped Frieza's hand as a boy? Why do you think I left? To remove myself from Frieza's radar and quietly accomplish his missions when it suited him. My father, coward that he is, would have had nothing left to compromise, no more second sons, and he would have handed me over. I chose. And I choose now, Nappa. The woman has unparalleled abilities, I've seen them myself. And if that achieves me anything, I will not do away with it. And woe to anyone who gets in my way!"
Vegeta stalked out of the room, leaving Nappa to pant on the floor, no more convinced than when Vegeta started.
VBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVBVB
Vegeta strode down the corridor, trying and failing not to be incensed by his conversation with Nappa. As if Vegeta didn't know what he was doing! He hadn't lost sight of his intended goal, but Nappa forgot himself, and Vegeta occasionally had to remind him of his place. He had yet to shake off his fury when he entered the room that he had designated for Bulma and the brat. The brat's ki was slow and even, indicating sleep. When they had entered the ship, the little half-Saiyan had ricocheted from one end of the ship to the other, loudly asking questions that he didn't seem to expect any answers to. Besides the boy's coloring, only the loudness and never-ending babble he had displayed then actually reminded Vegeta strongly of his mother. Clearly, he had exhausted himself of his own chatter.
Next thing he registered was the woman talking to a screen in her lap. She clearly hadn't sensed him yet.
"…I wish I had been able to communicate with you sooner, but he wouldn't let me out of his sight. I'm gonna find a way out of this as soon as I can, but I wasn't sure what Vegeta would do if he had stayed on Earth. I'll make contact again when I can… I know you never pay attention when I tell you anything…but I was cannibalizing the space pod you were sent in as a baby in the hopes that I could, well… my dad will know what I mean when I say, just work on finishing that ship!" Bulma then noticed Vegeta standing in the door and bowed her head again over the screen. "Well, this is goodbye for now, Goku. I'm trusting you with…everything there. You just trust me. Don't try to come after me, okay? You can't breathe in space and you don't have the ability to pilot a ship to get you there."
With that obvious bit of information (though Kakarot, Vegeta remembered, was a moron), she clicked the screen off nonchalantly, as if she wasn't bothered by the fact that Vegeta had overheard part of her conversation.
"Sending out the distress call?" Vegeta said smoothly, walking into the room. He had seen everything she put in her little tech bag and recognized it all as nothing that could track them. And like she had said to Kakarot in her message, there was not really a way her pathetic Earthling friends would be able to save her anyway. Without her, they didn't have the brains to construct anything to assist them.
Bulma rolled her eyes. "I don't care what you heard, I haven't made any secret over the fact that I didn't want to go with you. And I'm not going to pretend that I'm not getting Trunks out of here the first chance I get."
"Then I can't trust you," Vegeta said. "Which is a shame, since it's going to make your life far more difficult than it will make mine. I'm the prince and I will have many at my command to watch your every move."
In truth, what she had said before was much closer to the truth. He could command them as long as they feared him…but the Saiyans on his planet would not be receptive to an Earthling woman freely living on Vegeta-sei, and an exotic and beautiful one like herself would be expected to be nothing more than a pleasure slave in his world.
But perhaps he might let them think that… any other gifts she may have would be known only to him. He reached out and stroked the side of her face, considering that. She was completely still as he did so, and he saw her glance toward the bed, where Trunks undoubtedly lay.
"Why did you give the boy such a stupid name?" Vegeta said, withdrawing his hand. He almost mourned the absence of her skin against his palm.
She sent him a haughty look, seemingly unruffled by his touch. "It was my choice. And it's a family name."
"It's a foolish, idiot name."
"Says the man named for vegetables!" She raised her eyebrows at him, but she didn't seem insulted by his words. She never really did. It was one of the more…frustrating things about her. He, on the other hand… he had always known that she sometimes said things just for him to react explosively, even if she hadn't meant them.
It had been a very long time since he was last with a woman. Everything about her right now was seeming very attractive, in fact, it was overriding his desire to snap her neck for trying to keep secret that she had had his child.
"Is that all you even care to know about your son?"
He came out of his reverie to stare at her. "What do you mean, Woman? Why do you think I decided to take you with me? I plan to learn about him once we—"
"You plan to test him. Experiment on him," she corrected him sharply. "I'm talking about what he likes, his favorite foods, how much trouble he gets in, you know…Dad stuff."
Vegeta scoffed. "Why would I have interest in such things? I'm sure he likes to fight and gets into a lot of trouble, he's a Saiyan. And who cares what the boy ingests, as long as it is edible and non-toxic to his system?"
Bulma groaned. "You're as hopeless as you ever were, Vegeta. I don't know why I slept with you."
Vegeta colored at her blasé manner of discussing sex. "Shut up! Still a vulgar woman…"
"I didn't hear you complaining about vulgarity before."
"I did! Many times, I have called you 'vulgar'. You are just an idiot that doesn't pay attention," Vegeta said.
Bulma rubbed her eyes, "I meant… nevermind…"
He knew what she meant, but he found that sometimes letting her think he didn't was actually less of a hassle than arguing with her.
"So…Nappa was happy to see me."
"Tch. It doesn't matter what he thinks. And it's nothing he's not said before."
Bulma looked contemplative. "No, he never did like me…"
"It pressurizes the room and can multiply the gravity enormously, more than would be on your planet, but it should still make you much stronger if you train in these conditions." She eyed his muscular form in appreciation. "I would hazard a guess that just our Earth being ten times lighter contributes to human's more fragile makeup. As much as I hate to admit it, your constitution is incredible."
"Naturally, Woman," Vegeta sneered at her. Every time he looked at her stupid blue head, he was reminded of the fact that he had spared her life and everyone else's on her whim and promise. He recalled her face, warm with determination and the sincerity of her eyes. But he trusted no one, not even his own men, completely. Until he saw results, he wasn't going to rule out snuffing her life out with a tiny ki ball. That's all it would take.
She stared at him. "If you keep being so sweet to me, I'm gonna think you have a crush, Vegeta… You should relax."
It always threw him off a little when she used deadpan sarcasm. Her straight face always prompted a moment of hesitation. But when he scowled at her and she grinned, he had to squelch the urge to pull all of her limbs off like torturing an insect. It would be so easy on her so-called fragile human body.
He turned away instead. "I will relish your demise."
She had the audacity to pat him on the shoulder. "You're gonna have to wait, buddy. I'm making magic here."
He still thought it was insane of her to be so comfortable with him when only weeks ago, she was practically in pissing her pants at the sight of him, worried that he was going to kill her.
She trotted over to the door of her obscene structure and beckoned him with a waving hand. "Come on! Someone's gotta try it out and I don't trust your lackeys to be honest."
He didn't want Nappa and Raditz trying it out anyway. Compared to him, they were both weaklings, especially Raditz. He stepped into the center where she was pointing and turned to face her as she entered the control room. "What am I supposed to do?" he said impatiently.
Her voice magnified over the speakers, she was protected where she was in the control room. "Hold on, will you?! I'm trying to figure out what level to set it at."
"Your highest! Obviously." Vegeta snarled.
"No way, Vegeta! I'll pancake you if I do that! Considering your biology, it would be possible, but you'd really have to train up for it. The place can hypothetically go up to 500x Earth's gravity, if it works."
"That is nothing I can't handle, you fool woman." He crossed his arms. "And what is a pancake?"
"My mom will make it for you sometime. It's very, very flat. Like you'll be if I raise the setting to 500."
Vegeta rolled his eyes at her as he floated to mid-level in the ease of Earth's actual gravity. "Would you stop whining about it and turn it on! I want to experience it's greatest potential and if you don't let me see it, I'll just have to end your life like I've wanted to this entire time!"
There was a long pause there and Vegeta was about to snap at her to hurry it up when she looked over at him and smiled sweetly…but at the same time, the smile didn't seem sweet. "Your wish is my command!"
He smirked arrogantly as she moved to obey him. At least she now understood who was boss. The machine room whirred to life and he felt himself lowering to the ground slowly. He frowned and went to right himself when suddenly an incredibly pressure flung his face into the mats like he would splinter into a thousand pieces.
"Let me know if it's too much!" Deafened the room. But Vegeta couldn't so much as utter a syllable the way his face was slammed against the floor.
"I can't hear you! Wave an arm or something!"
He couldn't lift his arm to wave it. Finally, after several agonizing moments, the incredible weight lifted and Vegeta was left panting on the ground. He heard pounding coming closer and saw two slender legs come to rest at his nose. "I told you it was too high!" She knelt at his side. "Are you okay?"
Vegeta turned away from her scent and mumbled, "I should have you executed for treason, Woman. Attempting on the life of the Crown Prince of Vegeta-sei."
"You should be executed for treason AND stupidity! You demanded that I put it so high and I didn't even want to!" She tsked sympathetically though. "You are going to have a rough time of it for the next couple of days, you'll be so sore… You're gonna have to take it easy."
"What have you done to Prince Vegeta?!" barked a nearby voice. It was Nappa, of course. Vegeta lifted a lame hand.
"Don't kill her, Nappa. She was running an experiment for me. And it was successful."
"He was going to kill me?" Bulma hissed. He smiled slightly at her horrified demeanor.
Vegeta sat up with a little effort and he then knew instinctively that he would be crippled the next day. "What do you want, Nappa?"
"A communication from Freiza." Nappa held the readout to Vegeta, who swiped it up from his hand. He glanced over it and then crumpled it into a ball.
"Gather Raditz and meet me at the ship."
It didn't take long for Nappa to follow through and shortly all the true Saiyans congregated around the ship. Vegeta held out his scouter, which he never wore anyway. "You both have a mission."
"We do?" Raditz said. Nappa took the proffered object and looked up at his prince.
"I take it you were ordered as well?"
"Yes, but I'm not going. You will keep my scouter to suggest that I am." He held up a hand to stay their protestations. "The Woman has made a breakthrough with her large machine and it is powerful. I will not waste my time purging planets when you two can do it effectively without me. Our goal must always be to first and foremost defeat the Cold Empire."
He looked around at them and saw that they understood his line of reasoning, but neither was too happy about it. Raditz, he knew, was just lazy and didn't want to be sent to purge a planet, especially down a person. But Nappa was a different story. He just didn't know what…
"Problem, Nappa?"
Nappa shifted from one overlarge foot to the other. "No, sire. I merely wonder…"
"What do you wonder?" Vegeta said lowly and dangerous enough that Nappa debated whether to choose his words carefully.
"Have you already bedded the blue woman?"
"WHAT?" Vegeta roared. He took it about as well as his compatriots would have expected him to. He sputtered with rage. "Why would you even—what would make you—how DARE you! To ask ME, as if it were any of your concern!"
"I apologize, my prince," Nappa bowed his head. "I only ask because I wish to impart some advice."
"I'm only going to say this once, and if I have to say it again, you'll need a regeneration tank. I'm not fucking the Woman!"
Raditz looked as if he dearly wanted to ask something, but wouldn't for his own well-being.
Nappa, on the other hand, wasn't put off so easily. "Your Highness…I must say this. One of the reasons that we Saiyans do not procreate in a natural fashion is because we can develop very…strong attachments. Obviously, whores present no obstacle, as you wouldn't return to one and after the night, you go your separate ways. But in the event you copulate with a woman that you know better…" Nappa winced. "You could find yourself making adjustments for her, changing your desires, your plans, all in the name of mating. And distance will not stop the desire, once you do."
"None of this matters because it isn't going to happen. I'm not going to mate with the little Earthling scientist!"
"The way you look at her, my prince, forgive me but—"
The fist to his face threw him several yards. Vegeta's arms were crossed too tightly to be comfortable. "Continue this line, Nappa, and the only person in danger will be you."
Nappa stopped at that point, his bald head glistening nervously in the Earth's sun. "I see, my prince. I won't say another word about it."
Vegeta turned to Raditz, who raised his hands in surrender and said absolutely nothing. With one final glare, Vegeta spun back towards Capsule Corp and the newly-christened Gravity Room. "You leave tomorrow morning. Report back here when it is done."
By the time Vegeta recalled that conversation months later, he was too far involved with Bulma for it to be of any consequence. And as promised, Nappa didn't bring it up again so boldly. But his distaste for Bulma was unreasonably harsh, lest you were privy to that day by the ship.
Months later, he had realized his mistake and fled Earth. And now, here he was, shipping the woman back to his home planet, where he himself hadn't been seen in ten standard years.
But it was about the brat, wasn't it? Their brat.
Vegeta's eyes landed on the bed, where the brat was indeed sleeping soundly on the bed, sprawled out like a starfish (another charming trait from his mother, Vegeta thought to himself). The boy's hair was so utterly ridiculous that Vegeta was nearly embarrassed by it, however, the power level made up for any aesthetic shortcomings. The boy's face, even in sleep, scowled. That face belonged to him, as did the tanned, overly-muscled limbs. That wasn't a human trait. Vegeta had noticed that most human children were either chubby or frail sticks with no definition. Not so with his brat.
"Honestly, the only time I wish you had been there was to tell me what a Saiyan birth would be like, and if some things were normal," Bulma said, watching him watch their son. She shuddered. "When I was pregnant, he used to kick me so hard, I was sure he was displacing organs and I would hemorrhage to death before I carried to term."
Vegeta grunted, but didn't actually tell her that he was astonished she survived too. Then again, Kakarot's insane shrieking harpy of a wife did it too… Instead, he said, "Saiyans no longer give birth the way that humans do."
Bulma sat up straighter in her chair, intrigued. "Really?"
Vegeta sighed, already bored with the discussion and not liking the look on her face that might suggest she would want to talk about it for hours. "No. We are far more advanced than that. They only match our genetic material, collected as soon as we are able, and used whenever ready."
"What an awful story…how can a mother bond with her baby if it's floating in some tank like a science project?"
"She doesn't, you stupid woman!" Vegeta said. "They're Saiyans! What care do they have in bonding with their offspring during fetal development? The baby isn't useful for anything at that point."
"It has nothing to do with being useful!" Bulma said incredulously. "It's about a mother and a child!"
"No," Vegeta said, sitting back. "It's about your little Earthling feelings. That doesn't exist for Saiyans, I've told you before."
Bulma was looking at her son. "Yes, it does. You just choose to ignore it because you think it's weakness. And you know, I think part of me used to think like that too, because I didn't want to get hurt either." Her eyes met his, open and heartfelt in a way he hadn't seen in five years. He wanted to turn away from it, because that kind of exposure was not decent to him. However, if felt like weakness to flee from it. "Then I had Trunks, and I didn't know I could feel such love."
Vegeta huffed. "How many times do I have to tell you woman? Love is an Earthling construct. It doesn't exist."
She actually smiled. "It does, though. You may not have felt it, or recognized it, but I know, okay? I love Trunks with absolutely everything in me. And 'love' is the only word powerful enough to describe it."
"Whatever, Woman." He had never been able to relieve her of her little fantasies, so he would just let her think what she wanted. As far as he was concerned, her attachment to the hybrid was good as it could potentially keep her in line. If he didn't have some sort of leverage on her, she would prove to be very difficult, he knew. If she thought that he presented a danger to her little hybrid child, she would be very compliant.
"There's one more thing we need to discuss, Vegeta," Bulma said, her face now much colder. "What you want to do with Trunks. Under no circumstances is he an animal in a lab. Measure his power and abilities all that you want, but that's as far as it goes. I don't even want him to know that you are doing anything but playing with him."
"I don't play, Woman," Vegeta said with disgust. "And you are not in a place to be making demands of me."
"Trunks loves to train. If that's what you do, he'll think it's a game. And if I am the one to examine him, he won't think anything of me doing that. I don't see why Trunks would have to know what you're doing." She didn't address the part where he told her she couldn't make demands of him. "He might just think he's bonding with his father."
"I'm not going to hide anything from the brat. I don't care to expend such energy. But I'm not going to tell him what I'm doing either. Take that as you will. But he will be schooled in his Saiyan heritage as well. No son of mine is going to be ignorant of where he comes from, half-breed or not."
She was very quiet when he talked about school, but he didn't know why. "What is the matter now, Woman?"
She shook her head, the faintest smile on her face. "If I told you, you'd blow up."
"Try me."
She shrugged her slim shoulders. "You just—the way you're talking, it's like…" her smile got a little less faint, but more mocking. "Like we are having a normal parenting conversation. You are talking about Trunks going to school. It's weird. But it's cute too."
"I'm not cute," he growled. "And this has nothing to do with the needs of the brat. I don't want him growing up a disgrace to his own kind. Look at Kakarot and his spawn!"
Her smile faded rather quickly at the mention of her friend, sending an uncomfortable pang through him. "Goku isn't a disgrace. Neither is Gohan."
"No, you wouldn't think so, would you? That's another reason I had to get the brat off your planet." Vegeta finally stood up, done with this mindless chatter. "We will be there in a few weeks. Until then, make yourself comfortable, keep your hands off the controls and stay out of Nappa's way."
"Staying out of Nappa's way won't be a problem," Bulma said. "I honestly don't know why anyone would volunteer for his company."
Vegeta couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Then I'll keep him in the engine room, so I don't have to break your little fingers to keep you from touching anything."
She raised her eyebrows. "As if I would do anything so obvious." She stood up and stretched, yawning, her shirt lifting and giving him a glimpse of her bare stomach. He looked at her intently so that when she lowered her arms, she seemed to know what he was thinking and he saw a slight blush in her cheeks. It had always been near impossible to make the vulgar woman become embarrassed about anything.
"What?" he said defensively when she didn't look away. She was watching him rather carefully, in fact.
"Nothing," she said. "You were just looking at me like that, and I thought…"
"What?"
"Where are we going to live, Trunks and I?" She sounded genuinely curious.
He knew what she was really asking, but if she wasn't going to be direct, neither was he. "At the palace, Woman." He saw her blink, so slowly, a span of a heartbeat and he was right in front of her, invading her space. It had always entertained him to use his considerable speed to throw her off, puny human that she was. "I'm keeping you very close to me, for several reasons." He raised his hand and she gasped at the shock of his coldness gripping her neck, warm and delicate. "Don't forget that."
He wanted to taste her, to dominate her, to make her sorry that she had ever said she didn't want him around. Perhaps having her beg his name as she rose to a climax would be sufficient for him…but he didn't know. He looked at her, so beautiful…and Nappa's warning rang true in the back of his head. Again, she was very, very still when he touched her. Curiously, he leaned in and breathed against her neck like he was smelling her. She didn't move, but he heard the catch in her chest.
His self-control was fantastic and born of years of practice, so he slowly withdrew from the skin of her neck, his face was clear of absolutely anything. "My father will not be pleased that I've brought you with me. He will not understand your purpose."
"That makes two of us," she muttered.
"Keeping you near is the only way to ensure your safety, for as long as I need you."
And as long as he wanted her.
A/N: Vegeta is stone cold. I'm not giving you too much insight into HOW he feels about B for a reason. He's not into feelings, even less than he was in DBZ. There will be more to the backstory later on. Also, Nappa gets beaten up a lot, doesn't he? I almost feel bad. Also, there was a question about Bardock? Truthfully, he will not be essential to this fic at all. The focus is really V/B with Trunks. Goku and Gohan will be present later on, but I never really went in for the whole "Bardock is a Super Saiyan" stuff. That always come off as very random and off to me. And there was no stand against Frieza because Frieza didn't destroy the planet in this fic. So if you are reading and waiting for him to be a big part of this story, you will be disappointed. Sorry to say! But PLEASE review and tell me what you think about the story! Little encouragement goes a long way.