Chapter 6

Vegeta had decided to take another shower, considering that he was now covered in blood. Just as he was pulling on a black pair of silk boxers the door to the bathroom opened revealing his mother.

"I'm done now, you can come and see her" she said turning out of the doorway and heading towards the bed Bulma was laying on sleeping peacefully.

Vegeta curious to see the condition Bulma was in now hurriedly made his way out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. Seeing Bulma laying on the bed her wounds no longer visible, but rather covered with bandages and gauze, dressed in pair of his training shorts and one of his shirts which were too large for her small frame, he released a breath he didn't realise he was holding.

Sitting down on the bed next to her motionless form, something within him pulled. He didn't like seeing her in this condition. She was a strong woman, well not physically, but in heart and spirit. She had a pride within her large enough to even rival his, and it pained him to see her chained down by what that weakling had done to her. That scarred-faced idiot was going to pay, that was for sure. He was going to make sure that bastard would never be able to walk straight for weeks, that was if he survived. Smirking at what he was going to do to that weakling, his mother's voice broke into his thoughts.

"Hope you don't mind, I had to use your clothes to dress her, since her own were pretty much useless" his mother said walking towards him and standing right in front of him.

Vegeta only nodded, turning his attention back towards the woman on the bed.

"You're lucky I have been healing your father's training wounds for years and know how to deal with severe injuries"

Vegeta still remained silent, knowing where his mother was going with this conversation.

"You know, she's lucky she's alive considering the amount of blood she lost. It's a wonder how she came to be in such a condition."

Vegeta just rolled his eyes, not wanting to give in to his mother and say what she wanted him to. Sighing to herself she decided to get straight to the point, seeing as how beating around the bush was getting her nowhere with her son. Just like his father she thought irritably. "Okay Vegeta, what happened to her?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"Nothing of your concern" he said turning his head to the side away from the queen.

"Vegeta, I'm not stupid, I tended to her wounds I know what she has been through"

Vegeta frowned, deciding it was best if he didn't say anything to reveal anymore of Bulma's secret than was already let out.

"Who did that to her? Vegeta, who took her innocence?" the queen asked trying to get answers from her stubborn son.

"As I said before, that is none of your concern. If the woman wishes to tell you she will with her own mouth, but my honour will not allow me to speak without her consent" he said now looking his mother directly in the eyes.

"Alright fine then, take good care of her Vegeta. I'm sure she will have a restless night, considering what she has gone through" she said turning to leave.

Just as she had reached the doorway Vegeta spoke up "Don't tell anyone what has happened"

"Wouldn't dream of it" she said closing the door softly behind her.

Vegeta sat upright in a chair positioned beside his bed where Bulma was sleeping, his head down and his chin resting on his chest as he slept uncomfortably. However his sleep was soon broken as he was woken with an ear-piercing scream. Jumping to his feet in a fighting stance, ready to take on whatever had awoken him he heard another shriek coming from the direction of the bed.

Looking down he caught sight of a distressed Bulma who seemed to be having a nightmare. She had completely kicked all of the sheets off of her and they lay in a jumbled heap on the floor. She was writhing and wriggling, her head tossing from side to side as her eyes remained tightly shut. Vegeta knew he should probably wake her up before she injured herself and reopened her freshly tended wounds. However before he could make a move he heard her talking.

"No….don't….please….just….stop…"

Looking at her face, he knew she must have been dreaming about what that bastard Yamcha had done to her.

"Someone….help….please…"

Yeah, it was definitely time to wake her up. Moving closer to the bed, he reached out to shake her shoulder gently. As soon as his hand touched her skin, her eyes flew open, a look of pure fear was written across her features. Not realising where she was and still caught up in the realism of her dream, she tried to push herself off the bed and make a dash for the door. However as soon as she had moved an inch her body erupted in pain and she fell back to the bed in a heap. Looking around her frantically, she caught sight of Vegeta and her whole body froze. Vegeta saw recognition glint in her eyes before she relaxed back into the bed, her breathing still heavy.

Sighing to herself, she turned her head towards him and their eyes met for a few brief seconds before she turned her attention to her body which was now wrapped in bandages and gauze. Looking at him once again she asked nervously "Thanks for helping me, did you … uh… did you do this?"

Shaking his head slowly he replied "You have my mother to thank for that"

"Your mother? She healed me?" she asked tilting her head to the side

"I thought you might prefer it if she attended to your wounds, rather than me"

Blushing slightly she broke his gaze before she asked "She wouldn't…you know… tell anyone about this?"

"No, I have her word"

A few minutes of silence passed between them, as Bulma fingered a bandage on her hand while Vegeta just looked at her.

Bulma being the first one to break the silence started awkwardly "Vegeta…I… I'm sorry for not listening to you… I… just thought he was… I mean he was so good to me…I never thought he would…he never seemed like the type to…"

"Woman, quit your stuttering, it doesn't suit you" he said turning his head to the side his arms crossed across his chest.

"Well, I guess now I'm not the same Bulma that I used to be" she said quietly as she stared at her hands in her lap.

Sighing to himself Vegeta brought his attention back to Bulma and stood up from his chair to sit on the side of the bed that Bulma was currently laying on. Taking a deep breath, he tried to mentally prepare himself to talk to the woman. He was never good with words and dealing with emotions was not his strong suit. Nevertheless he knew he had to do this, otherwise he may never again see the strong-willed, short-tempered, witty and determined woman he had grown to know so well.

Lifting her chin with his finger so that she would meet his gaze he started to say what he hoped would help her forget about that idiot and what he had done to her so that she can remain as strong as she once was.

"Listen woman, don't become what he wants you to become. Don't give him the satisfaction to know that he has broken your spirit, extinguished your fire. Fight it, fight him. It's your choice whether you want to fade away and wallow in your sorrow or to stand back up and grow stronger from your experience."

Looking into his coal-black eyes, Bulma realised he was right. She was not some weak woman that Yamcha can just use and dispose of. She was Bulma Briefs one of the most intelligent beings on the planet! There was no way in hell that she would allow Yamcha the satisfaction of knowing he had broken her. In fact she was going to become the exact opposite of what that bastard wanted her to become. She would become stronger; she would rise and become one of the most influential scientists Vegetasei has ever seen!

Realising Vegeta was still looking at her for some sort of response; a smirk grew on her lips showing him that his words had gotten through to her. Smirking back at her, Vegeta let his hand fall away from her face and he made himself more comfortable on the bed as he sat cross-legged in front of her.

"So…what do you want me to do to him? I can make sure he never sees the light of day again" he said, the smirk never leaving his face and the beast within him roaring at the thought of beating that idiot into a pulp.

"No, don't do anything to him"

"What?! You don't want him to suffer for all he has done to you?!" he asked shocked at her response.

"Hold on, I never said he wouldn't suffer" she said slyly

"Oh and what did you have in mind?"

Taking a deep breath she began "Well when Yamcha and I started dating, I noticed he had a strong attraction for me and the extent to that attraction was only made clear last night. I also got the feeling that after he was done with me, he had the intention of killing me, thereby effectively crushing his desire for me after he had done what he wanted with me. I realised that this is how he works. When he desires a certain woman he charms them, worms himself into their head, gains their trust and eventually has his way with them. However in order to ensure he no longer desires them afterwards he either kills them or he watches them slowly fade away so that they are no longer as desirable as he once thought. The reason he was so rough with me, was probably to ensure that I will not survive, however he is in for a big surprise when he wakes up and finds that my body is not in his room. Hopefully he will not be concerned with this small flaw in his plan and will turn to his other alternative that has worked for him in the past. He will expect me to slowly diminish in character until I become only a shadow of the woman that I once was."

Pausing to make sure Vegeta was still following he nodded for her to continue. "However becoming a soulless invalid is not in my agenda" she said slyly. "I will not do what he wants me to do. I will become even more strong-willed. I will grow and become as feisty as I was. He will not expect this and soon enough he will probably start desiring me again, thereby making him frustrated as he knows he can't have me again and making him lose his sense of power over women. Everything he that gave him a sense power and strength would be crushed as he would think he had absolutely no effect on me, which from what I have seen is torture for a saiyan. Don't you see? By doing this I will break him down from the inside instead of just letting him being mindlessly beaten up!" she finished excitedly.

Vegeta looked at her excited face, knowing she would probably have been jumping up and down if she was not so injured. Thinking over her plan, he realised that she had thought about this pretty thoroughly and there was no way he could stop her from continuing through with what she was planning for two reasons. Firstly, she wouldn't let him. Even he had to admit she was pretty intimidating when she was angry. Secondly, he didn't think he could find it within himself to stop her. This was her way of fighting and he would let her have her glory. There was one thing he respected and that was pride. Her pride would not let anyone else solve her problems for her and he was in no position to push aside her pride and take the victory for himself. This was her fight and he would let her have it.

Smirking at her, he crossed his arms over his chest "Very clever woman, but I see only one flaw in your brilliant plan"

"Yeah, and what's that?" she said furrowing her eyebrows.

"Did it ever occur to you that he might just try to come after you, injure you and take what he wants?"

"Yeah, but that's why I have you" she said slyly

"What?" he said confused

"You can protect me if he comes for me and I'm pretty sure he knows that too, so I highly doubt he will try something as reckless as that" she said smirking at him

"Who says I will protect you?" he said smirking back at her

"Pfft, stop being stupid and just agree that my plan is flawless"

"You didn't answer my question woman" he said inching towards her

"Whatever Vegeta, you and I both know that you will protect me otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here on your bed wrapped in bandages. Now just shut up and let's get some sleep"

She somehow found the strength within herself to lift her arms up and wrap them around his neck and slowly pulled them down towards the bed. Cuddling herself towards his warm body, she felt his arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer to him.

"Stupid woman" he muttered before he leaned his forehead against hers and they both fell into a deep sleep.

Vegeta was awoken by a bright light shining in his face. Slowly opening his eyes, his eyes stinging due to the light shining in his eyes, he located the source of the light from his half opened curtain which was allowing the morning rays of the sun to enter his room. That was when he felt a stirring in his arms. Bulma was starting to wake up and when she opened her eyes she saw him staring down at her. Blushing slightly she rolled out of his arms and tried to stretch, however she was soon stopped by the intense pain she felt shoot through her. Shrieking slightly from the unexpected pain, she looked down at her still bandaged body, wondering how she was supposed to walk around the palace and carry out her duties as if nothing had happened to her if she was still this injured.

Vegeta who was now fully awake made a move to exit the bed so that he could get started with his day, however he felt himself stopped by his tail. Looking behind him he saw that his tail had somehow wrapped itself around Bulma's thigh during the night and had refused to leave its place. Sighing he unwrapped his tail from Bulma's thigh, who seemed to hardly notice as she was too busy worrying what she was going to do to keep her secret hidden.

He turned to make his way towards the bathroom, his tail swishing lazily behind him; however he was soon stopped by Bulma's voice.

"Hey Vegeta, how am I supposed to work today, if I can't even move out of this bed?" she asked looking at his back.

Taking a deep breath, he turned around to face her. Kami, did he have to come up with all the answers around here? That was when he spotted a familiar green bottle on his bedside table. Going over to it, he realised his mother must have left it here for Bulma to apply when all her wounds were not so fresh anymore.

"Here" he said throwing the bottle towards her. "Apply this on your wounds and it should ease some of the pain." Turning around he walked towards the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

Bulma looked curiously at the bottle in her hands, before opening it and smelling the cream inside. Ugh that stuff was disgusting! How did he expect her to put that stuff on her skin?! Well, it's not like she had a choice. Sighing to herself she began to unwrap some of her bandages and started to apply the cream. Immediately she felt the pain decrease, looking shocked at the bottle of cream again, she began to apply it everywhere it hurt without hesitation.

Vegeta sat at the breakfast table impatiently waiting for his food to be served to him. Why was that woman taking so long to make the food? Didn't she know he had training to do? His thoughts were broken by a laugh that had come from Kakarot. That stupid idiot, I swear he's not saiyan Vegeta thought shooting Kakarot an angry glare. Kakarot catching Vegeta glaring at him immediately threw his hand over his mouth trying to hide his laugh. Dr Briefs who was sitting next to him just smiled and whispered something to Goku, who immediately let out another laugh. Vegeta just sighed, he was surrounded by idiots.

His eyes strayed to his mother and father who were at the head of the table and were currently engaged in deep conversation. Carefully studying his mother and his father's reaction to her words out of the corner of his eye, he tried to determine whether she had given anything away about what had happened to Bulma the night before. But it was hard to tell from just looking at them what they were talking about. Well, he had her word that she would not say anything and being royalty meant that she would never go back on her word. Before who could put more thought into the matter however, Bulma walked into the room with a slight limp that was hardly noticeable. Vegeta however noticed her limp and he was pretty sure his mother did to; however no one else at the table seemed to notice as they all wished her good morning. Taking a seat opposite him, he saw her give a small smile to his mother before she turned her attention to Goku sitting next to her who had started talking animatedly to her.

"Hey Bulma, you smell different today" Goku asked curiously leaning towards her and taking a sniff of her.

"Really" she said nervously

"Yeah, you smell like…like… healing gel" he concluded a bit confused

Vegeta immediately tensed, hoping she wouldn't lose her cool and somehow find a way to answer him.

"Oh that… I… well actually…I was working in the labs earlier this morning and I accidently hurt myself so I had to use some healing gel" she finished nervously.

"But it smells like it is all over you" he said staring at her strangely

Luckily for Bulma, who was starting to work herself into a panic, at that moment the kitchen doors opened revealing Chi Chi and her mother carrying dozens of plates filled with their breakfast. Goku now distracted by the food completely forgot about Bulma as he jumped excitedly up and down in his seat waiting for the food to be laid out on the table. Bulma shot Vegeta a relieved look before she quickly turned her attention towards the food, so that no one would notice their exchange.

Vegeta smirked to himself at the woman's luck as he grabbed whatever food he could reach before Kakarot ate it all.

Yamcha was frustrated as he stomped down the palace corridors heading towards the throne room to begin his afternoon shift. He had woken up this morning to see that Bulma had somehow disappeared from his room. He was actually quite surprised, seeing how roughly he had treated her, he expected she would have died eventually during the course of the night. But no, instead he woke up to find her gone and even more disturbing was that when he had walked into the labs to fetch his upgraded scouter he saw her acting as if nothing had happened.

She looked completely unaffected. Kami, it didn't even look like she was in pain! What the hell was going on?! He was not used to this. The women he dealt with in the past would never have acted in the fashion she was now. They would have withered away, but she, she looked completely normal. In fact if he wasn't certain she looked even more radiant today than she normally did, which left him completely baffled. Kami, did his actions have no effect on her?!

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the prince walking towards him. When Vegeta walked past him he roughly bumped Yamcha's shoulder sending him flying into the wall. Yamcha watched the prince walking away with a large smirk on his face. That was when it him. Vegeta probably knew what he had done to Bulma. He was almost certain that Bulma would have told him what had happened.

Oh fuck.

He was a dead man.

No wait. If Vegeta was going to kill him, then surely he would have done it by now. Surely he would have found out about Bulma ages ago, maybe even last night. Then why hadn't he done it yet? Knowing the kind of person the prince was, he would have wasted no time getting his hands on him unless…

Unless Bulma told him not to.

Okay that made no sense. Why would Bulma not want him killed, especially after what he had done to her? That stupid whore, she was too stupid for her own good. Smirking to himself he thought she probably didn't want him to die due to her good nature. Earthlings can be so dumb sometimes. He had heard of their tendency to let their emotions rule over their lives. Well, he did not want to waste his time thinking about how stupid she was to let him live, he had bigger problems to deal with.

Last night was good. Too good. Actually it was one of the best he ever had. And that is what worried him the most. If Bulma was all healthy and back to her usual self, there was no doubt in his mind that he would be tempted to take her again. No he can't think like that, he can't have her again. Vegeta would probably waste no time in killing him, if he tried again. He just needed to control his urges and all would be fine, but imagine if he could just have some of that…

Shaking his head to rid himself of these thoughts he suddenly felt angry. How could it be that he Yamcha is prevented from getting what he wants? He now has to restrain himself, something he has never had to do before. That was a real knock to his pride. Damn that stupid blue-haired woman and her beautiful, tempting body. All he had before, his power to take anything he wanted was now gone. How would he be able to live with himself? Being able to seduce, charm and eventually take whatever he wants from women was his way of feeling strong, powerful. And now that he knows that what he did, did not work this time he felt crushed. Saiyans often prided themselves on their strength and power, but he was never really that strong or powerful. In fact the only way he had been able to get a position as a royal guard was because his father was once a royal guard, and no one really bothered to test his power so he had automatically qualified for the position. He found his sense of strength and power through his ability to manipulate and take advantage of women, but now he had apparently even lost that ability.

Sighing to himself and running his hand through his hair, he knew that the turmoil he was now feeling was all Bulma's and the prince's fault. He was going to make them pay, that was for sure, but he had to wait until the right time, until the right opportunity arose to extract his revenge.

Authors Note:

What is a Vegeta Bulma romance without some Yamaha bashing?

Thank goodness we have our Prince in shining armor lurking around.