A/N: Awwww thanks so much to sukisuzukipuki (Trunks is a joy! And a complete Mama's boy…but that's part of why I enjoy him so much!), a guy (some of that will be addressed, but not in this chapter because the explanation has to come in a more organic way and Vegeta has no reason to talk about that yet, especially why the Saiyans weren't wiped out…and let's just say, my King Vegeta is a bit more clever than the canon one, but more to come on that), elsi (well, Vegeta thinks its about possession, Nappa fears that he can't control it, so he talks a big game to Bulma, and he's right to be worried, at least as a Saiyan might think), Jonnie Joke (some of Trunks' POV in this chapter! Little Trunks is such fun to write), sora 79 (I don't actually include the Saiyan mating thing in this, but it is similar…just less telepathic and surreal than what I've read elsewhere…however the V/B bond is going to be a problem once they arrive, of course), maxridelover (yes, it did, didn't it? You'll see more of his different sides playing a part coming up), Amalley (thank you!), TeeLee123 (yeah, Trunks—future and present, is my favorite character and he came from my favorite relationship!), elianni (thanks!), lovesorrow (thank you!), and RedSmileyFace (the Saiyan way of reproduction will be pretty important coming up, but that's all I'm saying ;) and yeah, I'm trying to make Vegeta a little more discerning than the canon-Vegeta, because his relationship with Frieza is way different and more distant, so he's not as crazy and murderous…so he's more reasonable with Nappa) for the awesome reviews! It means so much. Anyway, on to business!

Trunks didn't know much about fathers, but he still knew enough to know that his papa wasn't probably very good at it. For the short years of his life, he had watched Goku and Gohan do things together. Gohan was always saying that his dad wasn't really a normal one, but that Goku tried and he loved him and that was really the most important part of the job.

Trunks was pretty sure his papa didn't even do that. It was like that time Yamcha wanted Trunks to be a baseball player on his last birthday. He had bought him a bat and a glove and told him that he would play catch anytime he liked. But Trunks wasn't interested in playing catch. And his papa reminded him of that. Being a papa to Vegeta was like playing baseball to Trunks. He didn't know how and he didn't want to learn.

But Trunks did want to fight and get strong like Gohan. He and Gohan were the same, except Gohan had his papa to show him things. But now, Trunks did too…and Trunks decided he would be okay with it if that were all his papa wanted to do.

But Trunks was worried for his mother, especially when it came to the guy that called himself "prince of all Saiyans".

Trunks wasn't stupid. He knew Mama was lying to him. She hadn't wanted them to go on this trip, but she had definitely wanted Trunks to think that was what she wanted. She wasn't scared most of the time, but her ki (it was so tiny that if Trunks weren't her son, he probably couldn't read it at all) was fast and worried ever since Vegeta showed up that night. It was like when she had a lot of coffee and a big science thing, when she told Trunks that she would be in her lab and to ask Grandma if he needed anything. But now it was about being in this ship with his papa and the big, bald, nasty guy named Nappa.

Trunks decided that he hated Nappa. Every time the guy looked at his mama, Trunks could feel the spark of bad coming from him. It was strong and it made Trunks worry for his mother. His papa, Vegeta, said that she would be safe. But he didn't even know Vegeta, so why should he believe him? And if Vegeta had made Mama take him on the trip where she was worried most of the time and where big ugly Nappa could grab and hurt her…he couldn't trust Vegeta either.

After Trunks beat up Nappa, he expected to be yelled at or punished…but he wasn't. Instead, his mother stared at him like she sometimes looked at the things in her lab that she couldn't figure out yet. The ones that she really wanted to figure out. And Vegeta, his papa, looked really happy. And Mama looked mad when his papa looked so satisfied.

Mama tightened her grip on him when Vegeta came over to them and put a hand on the top of Trunks' head, the way Goku sometimes did with him and Gohan, except it wasn't as playful or friendly. "What do we have here?" his papa murmured.

Mama pulled him so close that it was almost felt like she was trying to make him disappear. He thought if he weren't partly Saiyan, it would hurt. But when he looked up at her face, she was still mad.

There was a long pause as Vegeta's eyes flickered to his mother's and nobody made a noise, except Nappa panting behind Vegeta. Finally, Mama relaxed her hold.

"I'm fine, thanks, no harm done," she said, but it was like when she said something she didn't mean at all…when Yamcha or Krillin or Goku really annoyed her and they said something stupid to her. Usually, Trunks thought it was funny. "I'd be even better if you stopped looking at my son like he was a piece of meat, Vegeta."

Trunks had no idea what that one meant, but his father narrowed his eyes at Mama, before casting another look at him. "Your neck is bruising, Woman. Boy, stand up."

Trunks found himself jerked into automatic obedience by the curt, adamant tone. But then he looked past Vegeta and glared. "He hurt her."

"Yes," Vegeta said, almost thoughtfully. "I will take it from here."

Mama came to her feet behind him. "No," she snapped. "This is—you're…" she didn't seem to know what she was trying to say. Then she looked down at Trunks. "Sweetheart, I think we're done training for today. Why don't you go exploring?"

"Yes!" Trunks pumped his fist, not needing to be told twice, and flew out the door, his feet just barely scraping the ground. Or at least, he was going to leave…until he heard his Mama again.

"Vegeta, I said I would help you, but not like this. I know you Saiyans don't think it's a party unless somebody dies a gross, bloody death, but if you think that Trunks—"

"So dramatic as usual! You think I planned this, Woman?" Trunks peeked around the door to see his papa close in on Mama. He felt his muscles coil in warning, as the Saiyan prince lifted a hand, but he stayed very quiet. The four-year old watched as the hand reached out for his mother's neck, gently massaging the bruises there. He felt his Mama's ki rise just a little bit at the touch and he waited, still suspicious of the man who had taken them away. His loud voice didn't match the niceness of his touch and Trunks felt some confusion over it. "Don't you think I would have attacked you myself if that was what I intended?"

"No," Mama said simply. "But I saw the look on your face."

The silence between them was not good. Vegeta looked like he was about to talk back, but then he glanced toward the door and Trunks ducked back, hoping that his father hadn't seen him. He was to be disappointed. "We will talk about this elsewhere. Your brat is still within ear, and I'm sure you don't want him overhearing anything that would disturb his little feelings. Nappa, rise from your utterly disgraceful loss and take care of the ship."

From farther away, Nappa spat on the ground grimly and said, "Yes, Prince Vegeta." He didn't look at Mama or his boss, Trunks' papa. Trunks wondered if Saiyans got beat up a lot of the time. It really seemed like it. If they did, he guessed they weren't completely different from Gohan and Goku. Goku loved getting beat up!

He drifted backward a few feet as the prince pushed Mama towards the door, a hand on her back. She seemed annoyed, but not scared, so Trunks thought to jet off. He only got a few yards when he was jerked backward by the scruff of his shirt. "Nice try, brat."

Trunks knew that on Earth 'brat' was a mean word for a kid, but his papa never sounded very nice, so Trunks found that it didn't really bother him. He dangled in the man's grip like a stray puppy, but he was more scared of Mama, who always got very mad when he disobeyed her, especially when she wanted to have an adult conversation.

She frowned at him. "Are you going to do what I say this time?"

"Yes," Trunks grumbled. Vegeta dropped him without worrying about where he would land and Trunks had to admit that he liked that about his papa. People normally never understood his strength and speed, even his family. His grandparents were always fussing over him and even his Mama would warn him repeatedly away from doing 'dangerous' things that wouldn't be dangerous for him at all! Trunks landed on his feet and crossed his arms. "But why can't I hear? You said we were just going on a trip! But this isn't just a vacation, is it, Mama?"

"It is!" Mama said, rubbing the sides of her face. "Look, kiddo. You've been bugging me forever about wanting to learn how to fight and Goku never being around enough to teach you. Now you can get all the training you want and you can explore a new planet and make history, along with your genius mother, as the first Earthlings on Vegeta-sei!" She nudged his taut arms, trying to pull a smile from him, but he wouldn't have it, even though that all sounded good. "Whaddya say to that?"

Mama wasn't telling the truth, still. But Trunks knew that he wasn't going to get it out of her with his scary papa standing there. So he smiled and nodded and said he would go and do as she said. And with one warning not to break anything, he was off…thinking about what had happened.

He had beat up that big jerk before. He was so mad that someone would try to hurt his Mama that he didn't realize what he was able to do. And now, he stuttered to a stop down one of the corridors and looked at his hands. They didn't look any more powerful than they ever did. His papa definitely looked powerful. But Nappa looked powerful too… but more just big and nasty. How could he have beaten up someone so big?

Trunks didn't know…but he did know one thing: it had felt good.

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On a perfectly normal day, weeks after sending Nappa and Raditz on another mission, Vegeta had initiated their first real kiss, yet when Bulma pulled back after a long, heady moment, his eyes were wide and bewildered, like he hadn't meant to do that at all.

"Vegeta?"

He grunted, a grunt that she knew meant he wanted her to be quiet, after many months of dealing with his almost non-verbal behavior. This was the first time she had ever obliged him, though, usually preferring to chatter even more to raise his blood pressure. She inhaled sharply as his finger traced her lower lip, staring at it like it would suddenly change beneath his touch. They had been arguing, they had been close, it had been totally heat of passion stuff that was so cliché, she would have never leaned in and kissed him herself.

She had been mid-word, "Damnit, Vege—!" and the rest of it went right into his mouth as he reeled her in commandingly and kissed her. He wasn't practiced, she wondered right then if he had ever kissed anyone before or if the impulse had been entirely instinctive when he looked at her lips while they moved furiously and the temperature rose around them, a reaction to a moment. He lacked in experience but Bulma thought he more than made up for it in confidence and intensity.

She didn't want to catch her breath. She drifted back towards him and he swiftly backed up; she could see just the shadow of an uncertain glare on his face. "What are you doing?" he asked, his voice was still stunned soft.

"Kissing you back," Bulma said.

"Kissing," Vegeta said slowly, as if he had never heard the word before. "Kissing." He was rolling it around in his mouth, testing it, and Bulma had to restrain herself from scaring the daylights out of him and showing him how much more there was to kissing.

He took a slow step back into her space and she smiled a little, hopeful but gentle. "Do you want to—" she began, and her gasp was all breathy as his arm went around her like quicksilver and his exhale was hot against her face, hungry and curious. She forgot what she had been about to say…

His face completely filled her sight, all granite, black and depthless. "You…" How could something so accusatory sound so seductive? He abruptly bowed his head, escaping into her neck and letting his lips burn there. Chills immediately erupted on her arms and she clenched her hands around his flexing biceps. She shivered and he groaned. "Woman, what are you doing to me?"

She would have laughed if the excitement of his nearness wasn't threatening to burst from the pit of her stomach. She couldn't pretend that she hadn't entertained the thought of him…like this. But she never imagined that he would be the one to initiate anything. In fact, she wondered if he had ever been like this with anyone else.

What she did know is that he had had an increasing tendency to close in on her while they were talking, he had touched her enough that she sensed it was a compulsion that he didn't understand. His confusion pointed to the possibility that he had either never been around anybody he was attracted to, or he had only spent the time it took to murder around women. 'Woman' that awkward moniker he had given her. She guessed it was the latter, unfortunately.

He's a killer, she thought wildly, as they stared at each other and breathed the same air. Why am I so attracted to someone that has done terrible things?

Suddenly, he was blasting Goku out of the air, laughing as he gripped her hair, relating to Goku the bloodthirsty history of their race, the pride he took in it…

What's wrong with me?

She unconsciously stiffened in his embrace and Vegeta released her, the change affecting his own demeanor. She felt the loss.

And then…her father walked in and whatever hung between them dropped to the floor and died. And they just stared at each other, unable to move.

"Sweetheart, I was looking at these schematics and I think it might actually work with some minor—why hello, my boy!"

Vegeta, after a long moment, tilted his head in the direction of the voice and raised an eyebrow at the old man, as always, debating whether the insult of "boy" from such a weak specimen was worth decapitation if it meant he lost an extra brain in the lab devoted to making him stronger. It was always a fleeting thought, and he blurred out of the lab, barely catching Bulma's sire saying, "it's always nice when you come for a visit!"

Such strange creatures.

There was the woman. That infuriating, gorgeous girl that Nappa had warned him about, her blue eyes winking at him from every corner. Little, harmless scientist. What could she do to him? He logically thought there was nothing she could do to him…but this was also, very, very different. It was very new.

"An enigma," Vegeta said to the high ceiling of the gravity room.

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"So…what exactly was so fascinating to you about what Trunks did today?" Bulma asked, hands planted on her hips.

"It was very similar to how Kakarot's brat behaved and I know that we can create an expansion on that spontaneous moment somehow. I'm just trying to figure out a way to tap into that power burst without it resulting in your death." Vegeta said, scratching his chin.

Bulma was speechless. When she felt able to respond to Vegeta's surprisingly scientific method-mind (she recalled that it cropped up occasionally, but he never expended energy on cultivating it when he had other people to do the heavy work for him), she was still completely lost on how he had so quickly concluded that her death would be some kind of obvious solution to Trunks' powering up further.

"Excuse me?" she finally sputtered. "You're gonna have to take me back a few steps."

"Our brat's protective instinct towards you," Vegeta said, apparently irritated that she couldn't come to her own conclusion. "His power is greatest when your life is in danger."

"I'm his mom," Bulma said. "It kind of comes with the territory. Especially since I can see that little he-man coming out in him. It's a big mystery where that comes from!"

Vegeta ignored the sarcasm. "Be that as it may, if the boy can only get stronger when harm comes to you that will be rather useless to me. So I have to figure out if the source expands beyond that."

"And how are you going to do that, Vegeta? Start lining people up for killing? Threaten more lives? Torture him?" Bulma was starting to feel sick again at the thought of it all. "You gave me no choice but to come with you. But I've told you before, you will have to kill me before I let you destroy my boy. And if I die, I'm taking a piece of you with me, guaranteed."

Rather than infuriate him, the absolute certainty in her voice was as much of a turn-on as it ever was. He supposed that was why her disrespect often went unanswered. He was too involved in the response of his own body to strangle the disrespect out of her. She once told him, eons ago, that he liked her that way…and maybe he did. She could bluster all she wanted, but he had the power. If he didn't, she wouldn't be here on his ship with the boy.

"You won't be able to," Vegeta told her. "I hold everything here, including your lives."

"Which isn't going to be worth much if you kill me," she said calmly. Her bravery impressed him, but it wasn't enough.

"We'll see, Woman." He turned his back to her, pacing around the room. "I've seen enough today. We'll start slowly. Despite the fact that I can see that he's had some meager training, it isn't nearly what I could hope it to be. He has the ability within him to withstand my planet's gravity, but he will have to quickly build to it. I will work with him daily to make up for those lost years and make him a warrior to be proud of…" Vegeta decided to forgive the woman for her disrespectful snort at his words, realizing her ignorance of Saiyan culture, "in the meantime, you will gather everything you have on Saiyan physiology and your own knowledge of human physiology and try to pinpoint what could possibly empower a half-breed enough to so increase their potential. We need to know for sure that it is even distinctive to them."

When he looked up at her to guage her reaction, he paused at her half-smirk. "Something amuses you, Woman?"

She shook her head, but the smile didn't shake from her eyes… "No. I just…think I already know the answer. And you'd hate it."

"Tell me then," Vegeta demanded.

Bulma shook her head even more, but she still looked so damn bemused. "It's just a running theory. And if I'm right, gathering knowledge on physiology is going to be a waste of time."

Normally, Vegeta would tell her to go with her instincts when it came to this, but he wanted to be thorough here. If she went over it, at least she would know for sure that it was not their physiology. "Still do it. If it isn't our make-up, that can only be good news for me."

As he said that, her grin died, causing him to stop and wait for her to speak. "What?"

Her gaze was both soft and penetrating, but it had a knowingness to it that made him angry. "If it is what I think it is…I believe it will be even more difficult for you to overcome."

"Stop your guessing games and present me with actual facts," Vegeta snapped dismissively. "Otherwise, I am unmoved by your assertion that I am incapable of anything."

He left then in a huff, leaving her to stare at the closed door behind her.

"I don't think you're incapable," she muttered sadly. "It would almost be easier if you were."

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She fought with herself for three more weeks after that. Three weeks of avoiding him whenever humanly possible. Three weeks of skirting his touch and his demands, begging her father to deal with him. Three weeks until she realized that he knew exactly what she was doing.

"Avoiding me, little one?" She was sitting out on her balcony, pathetically drinking alone. "Your ki, though miniscule, is all slovenly and weepy right now."

"How would you even know, if it's so miniscule?" Bulma shot back, wrapping her arms around her knees more tightly. She had been supposed to go out tonight with friends, but she never made it. So here she was, lame and overdressed and cold, with only an alien and a bottle to keep her company. Vegeta didn't answer her question, but skimmed over the railing to lounge against it, giving her a once-over that Bulma was sure he didn't really mean, but it made her hot all the same.

"Why do you ignore me?"

"I didn't want things to be awkward," she said miserably. The alcohol would keep her honest, if nothing else. She was merely tipsy, but she actually wanted to get this out.

"After what happened in the lab…"

She chanced a look at him and saw that his face remained still, watching her explain. She swallowed, her throat dry, and continued. "I just…Vegeta, after all that I've been doing for you…after everything, you know…" she waved a restless hand, then gripped the neck of the near-empty bottle. "Do you think anything's changed?"

Vegeta looked up at the sky, as if pleading for patience with her. "What do you mean by that?"

"Have you changed?" she asked bravely. She fully expected to receive no kind of answer that she wanted. But she had to ask.

The night sky was beautiful then. But Bulma knew that when Vegeta looked up at it, he didn't see the same thing that she did. There was so much more knowledge in his vision. Did he think of his planet? Or the planets that he destroyed? Did he think about how far away all of that was? And why he stayed?

Maybe part of her attraction to him was that she rarely knew what he was thinking and when she did, it was so utterly different from her own perspective or anybody else's she had ever met. Even when she was sure that he was so completely wrong about a lot of it. What had made him what he was? What made him not kill her the moment he found her here? What made him like her?

"Things have changed," he said, guardedly. "My impulse to destroy you is practically nonexistent now. My self-control doesn't waver…but the impulse, it is usually there. With others." His gaze grew more demanding. "Tell me why it has suddenly faded. Is it this shitty planet?"

"But what about other people?" Bulma insisted. "Do you want to kill other people like you did before?" She had to know, so she pressed harder than she would have, barely worrying about whether he would run away. But he hadn't seemed to pick up on her train of thought, so he gave the question serious consideration.

"If they annoy me," Vegeta said. He shrugged. "Why all of these inane questions? You are all alive, aren't you? Have I take anyone's life since that first day here? You know the answer to that. So stop prying. I don't want to associate with that disgusting harpy that Kakarot bound himself to, but you're doing a good impression of her."

That was a ridiculous comparison if she ever heard one, but Vegeta loved to exaggerate, she had found. And besides, she was caught on what he had said before. He hadn't taken lives on Earth. That was true. He had played by her rules since he'd been here. She couldn't discount that, could she?

Rationalizing, a little voice within her whispered. She shoved that away. She knew she was rationalizing, but she didn't care. She allowed herself to hope because that was what she wanted, damnit. She wanted him, and her friends could call her a terrible person, but she had been protecting everyone on this planet from a bunch of aliens for long enough. She wanted him, and he wanted her.

Couldn't it be that simple?

She climbed to her feet, completely steady on them, and walked towards him. His expression was expectant, but not suspicious at all. He did want her. She knew beyond doubt.

"What are you doing, Woman?" It wasn't even a real question, but Bulma gave him a real answer.

"Kissing."

A/N: Vegeta's such a romantic that having a "nonexistent impulse" to kill Bulma is practically pillow talk! Please let me know what you think…bonding on the ship. I personally can't wait until they get to Vegeta-sei. More to come.