Chapter 12

Bulma woke up to the most incredible feeling. She felt so warm, so secure. Slowly opening her eyes she was first met with the sight of Vegeta's bare shoulder. Shifting slightly, she heard a small groan emanate from him and his grip around her tightened. Somehow during the night the two of them had become entangled in each other. Vegeta's arm had found its way under her shirt and now rested on her bare upper back, her shirt being pulled upwards in the crook of his arm, so that it just barely covered her breasts and exposing her flat stomach. His other arm had slid underneath her and wrapped around her lower waist. His head lay cocooned between the crook of her neck and the pillow that they were currently sharing. Her head rested on his, and her leg was lazily wrapped across his waist while the other lay in between his.

Bulma blushed slightly at their closeness and shifted slightly again to check if Vegeta was awake. At her movements Vegeta groaned again and pulled her even closer to his body, so that she was pressed against him. His breathing returned to its deep and even pace as he snuggled his face into her neck. Yep, he's still asleep she thought to herself. There was no way they would be in this position if he was awake. However it did feel good to awaken wrapped up in his arms, his body pressed against hers, his warm breath fanning over her cheek. Snuggling closer to him her hand found its way to his hair, her fingers entwining in the thick, but soft strands. Vegeta moaned at the feeling and Bulma giggled softly. He looked so cute when he was sleeping, like an innocent child. Smiling to herself she closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of being so close to him.

Sunlight shone into the room, and Vegeta awoke to the greatest feeling he could imagine. He felt so content, so … complete. Slowly opening one eye, he felt his eyelashes brush against skin. Curiously, he opened his other eye and immediately felt a stirring in his arms. His mind was blank as the foreign feelings overtook him. What the hell was going on?! Slowly pulling his head out of the alcove in which it had found itself, he caught sight of a slowly awakening Bulma. Smirking to himself, he realised what must have happened. Somehow during the night, the two of them had found each other and had become entangled under the covers. The smirk still gracing his features, he gazed into Bulma's half-lidded eyes as she slowly awoke from her slumber. Oh kami, it felt so good to wake up to such a beautiful sight. She was truly a magnificent creature. Bulma's blue orbs were fully revealed to Vegeta as she caught sight of him smirking at her. Blushing slightly and breaking his gaze, she looked down embarrassed. Vegeta's smirk deepened at her shyness.

"Oh Kami" she mumbled realising their position once again. Her blush deepened as she tried to untangle herself from Vegeta. Vegeta however had no intention of letting her go. Tightening his grip on her, he looked her straight in the eyes and spoke huskily "I don't think you should do that woman"

At the sound of Vegeta's deep voice she shivered unconsciously. "And why not, it's getting late. I have to go to work" she spoke, her leg that was resting across his waist slowly untangling itself from its position, brushing across his thigh and coming to rest with her other leg on the bed.

Vegeta's arm that was resting underneath her shirt on her bare back, started to run across her skin gently tracing invisible patterns sensually. "Take the day off" he whispered burying his face in her hair. He didn't know what had come over him. All he knew was that he didn't want to let her go, he wanted to hold her for all eternity, he wanted this moment to last forever.

Bulma was beyond shocked. Why was Vegeta acting like this? She had never known him to become so attached like this, but she wasn't going to lie, she was flattered that he wanted to spend more time with her. Her thoughts soon turned to mush as she became lost in the feeling of his hands on her bare skin, tracing slow patterns on her back. She moaned slightly, pushing herself closer to him causing Vegeta to smirk against her hair at her reaction to him. He gently rolled them over, so that she was underneath him with the top half of his body covering her and the other half lying off to her side. Softly nuzzling into her neck he inhaled her intoxicating scent, breathing in as much of her as possible. Bulma in response wrapped her arms around him and turned her neck to the side to give him better access. Both Bulma and Vegeta were slowly starting to lose themselves in each other's presence. It just felt so right, to be wrapped up in the other's embrace, their bodies pressed together, their bare skin touching.

They were suddenly broken out of their haze by a harsh knocking on the door. Vegeta growled against her, angry at whoever dared to disturb him. Propping himself up by his forearms on either side of Bulma, he pulled away from her and turned his torso so that he was half-facing the door.

"Go away" he shouted at the door

"Vegeta, it's time for you to get up" a stern womanly voice sounded from the other side of the door.

Vegeta sighed, immediately recognising his mother's voice. "I'm up mother" he growled

"You'd better be, and wake Bulma up to, your father needs to speak to her about something" she shouted from the other side of the door. Smirking she turned around and made her way to get some breakfast, imagining their shocked expressions at her knowledge of Bulma's presence.

Vegeta and Bulma turned to each other with surprised expressions at the queen's words.

"How did she know I was here?" Bulma asked shocked

"Hell if I know" Vegeta replied gruffly as he gently lifted himself off Bulma and made his way to the bathroom. "Nothing gets past my mother" he sighed

"Oh this is just great. Now what is she going to think? Me spending the night here with you" she said agitatedly sitting up on the bed

"Calm down woman" Vegeta said stopping in his tracks and turning to face her. "She won't think anything. This is not the first time you have spent the night here, and I'm sure my mother already knows this. Trust me; she won't think anything out of the ordinary"

"But we are not 10 years old anymore Vegeta, this isn't the same" she said nervously

"Woman, you worry too much" he said turning away from her and heading once again to the bathroom

"Hey, what am I supposed to do? How can I go back to my room, without getting spotted?" she said crossing her arms over her chest.

Vegeta shot a look at the digital clock on the side-table next to the bed. "It is 7 o'clock right now. Everybody would be in the mess halls for breakfast, the corridors would be empty. If you run, you won't get spotted"

"Okay right" she said quickly getting out of the bed, slipping on her fluffy pink shoes and grabbing her notebook from last night she made a quick dash for the door. Opening the door and peeking outside to make sure no one was around she turned around to Vegeta once the coast was clear.

"See you later" she said slipping out the door and quickly running towards her room.

Vegeta just nodded in reply as he turned around to prepare himself for the day ahead.

"The gravity generator is operating as planned, your highness. So far everything seems to be on track and if it continues to run smoothly, by the end of the week I will be able to install some additional upgrades" Bulma said a clipboard in her hand as she faced the king and queen in the throne room.

The King had called an audience with her again for the third time that week. He wanted regular updates on the operation of the gravity generator. At first she thought it strange that he was so interested in its progress, but she soon realised that he had even bigger plans for the machine. He planned on installing a gravity generator in all of the palace training centres and soon one in every training facility on the planet, so that every saiyan could experience the enhanced training. Of course Bulma wasn't complaining, in fact she welcomed his ideas with open arms. His plans would inadvertently showcase her name across the planet, and maybe eventually across the entire universe when other planets came to know of her brilliant invention. She would become known as one of the most influential scientists that ever lived. Her dreams would become realised.

Ever since that nasty ordeal with Yamcha she had worked harder than she ever had before, pushing herself to achieve great things. She wanted to prove to the world that Bulma Briefs was not one to be messed around with. She was intelligent beyond comparison, she was a true genius! Sure she was nowhere near as strong as the saiyans, but she had her own strength. She had her brains, her smarts which placed her at an advantage over most beings.

Facing the king and queen who were sitting in their respective thrones in front of her, she met the king's questioning gaze.

"Perfect, our plans for national distribution of the machine can soon be achieved" he smiled at her

Bulma nodded in response, clutching her clipboard nervously. She sensed there was something else that he wanted to ask her and for some reason she started to feel rather uncomfortable.

"On other matters Bulma, I hear rumours that you are assembling a group of candidates from which my son can choose a potential mate" he said staring at her intensely

Bulma fidgeted nervously with her clipboard as she answered him "Yes I am, your majesty"

"And may I ask what is wrong with the group of women that I have selected for him?" he asked his eyes unwavering.

"Well, your majesty I have spoken to Veg … uh I mean… Prince Vegeta" she said noticing the look he gave her at addressing his son so informally. "He has confessed that he finds none of those women suitable to his taste, so he has asked me to select a few women which would be more suitable to him."

The king ran his hand through his hair tiredly. There was just no pleasing his son, and now he had to go and pull something like this!

Looking at the earthling in front of him he studied her momentarily. She had truly grown into a beautiful woman, one whose beauty that could rival even that of his queen's. Although the queen held a special part in his heart and in his eyes she was the most magnificent woman to ever grace the planet, but even he had to admit Bulma came in close second.

Turning his thoughts back to the matter at hand, he addressed the woman once again "And tell me Bulma, why would he ask you to complete such a task for him?"

At that Bulma just shrugged "He said he would get the best results if a woman performed the task for him and since I know him better than most women, he asked me"

The king studied her thoroughly. She didn't look like she would do anything to harm his son or Vegetasei in any way. In fact, she was currently helping him make his people stronger. No, she was not treacherous in any way and he did not see the look of a traitor in her eyes. Her intentions were as innocent and pure as they come.

The king nodded at her. "Before you leave Bulma, I'd like to ask you one more question"

Bulma just looked at the king awaiting his question.

"Did my son spend any time with the females that I have chosen for him?" he asked looking at her expectantly

"Um … no, not that I am aware of your majesty. Even though I am of the knowledge that they do persistently try to get close to him" she chuckled knowingly, as she thought of Tomara's actions that night a few weeks ago.

"Why is this amusing?" he asked curiously

"Well, your son is quite repulsed by them, so whenever they manage to catch him it leads to some pretty hilarious situations" she snickered. Quickly quietening down she looked at the king and continued "However, do not be concerned about your son not spending time with the new batch of females I have chosen for him" she said mischievously

"Oh, and why is that?" his curiosity rising at her sly tone.

"I made an agreement with him, that I would only find him a potential mate if he promises to spend time with the women I have chosen for him" she said slyly

"Clever, very clever" the king looked at her in admiration. "I have been trying for years to get my son to spend time with a woman. It's incredible that you managed to do so"

"Yeah well, you just have to know how to get him" Bulma blushed shyly. "I just hope he isn't too stubborn and actually bothers about learning about the women before he chooses one as his mate."

The king looked at her curiously again. It looked like this woman was genuinely concerned about his son's choice in mate. It was not often that he found a woman who had his son's best interests at heart. He wasn't stupid he knew what most of the women he had set his son up with when he was younger and the group of saiyan females he had recently selected were truly after. It was just that it was close to impossible to find a strong, worthy saiyan female who was not taken with his son's wealth and status. He, himself, had been lucky to find Vanessa but he wasn't so sure if his son was just as lucky.

He returned his gaze to the female in front of him. "Well Bulma, I think we're done here. Well done with the good work on the gravity generator and good luck with my son's task, you are dismissed"

Bulma bowed respectfully and left the throne room heading towards the labs once again. Once Bulma had left, the king turned towards his wife. "That girl really is something, isn't she?"

"More than we could possibly know" the queen replied happily.

Bulma breathed a sigh of relief as she exited the throne room. She was relieved that everything had gone well with her meeting with the king. At least he was pleased with the progress on the functioning of the gravity generator, but when he had started to ask her about her involvement with Vegeta's choosing of a mate situation, she had begun to get slightly nervous. She figured he would get angry that she was in a way preventing Vegeta from choosing a potential mate from the group of females he had handpicked, but luckily he hadn't. It looked that he was relieved that at least Vegeta would be associating with a few women. She had been thankful that he had not questioned her on whether or not she was choosing saiyan or non-saiyan women for Vegeta. She knew that he wanted Vegeta to have a saiyan mate and queen, but recently she had found out from the queen that in fact the law books did not specify the race of the future queen and prince's mate.

This, of course, worked in her favour as she now had a wider variety of women to choose from. She had already gathered a select few who she thought would be suitable for Vegeta, but she had to admit, these women did not have every characteristic he had specified. His requirements had made her job considerably harder, as it was close to impossible to find one single women with all of those characteristics. So, instead she had found a few women who had some of those characteristics. For instance she had found one woman who was extremely beautiful, but who unfortunately had a brain the size of a pea, another was extremely strong except her large muscles made her look more like a man than a woman. However she had been unable to find any woman with the 'fire' that Vegeta had so graphically described to her.

Shaking her head, she knew that she would spend a few more days searching, trying to perfect her results before she presented the women to Vegeta. He had better pick one of them, this search was taking a lot out of her, otherwise she might just have to strangle the stubbornness out of him herself.

Bulma stomped angrily down the halls not caring if anyone heard her, heading towards the place where she knew the cause of her massive headache was. Reaching the prince's bedroom door she knocked forcefully and then proceeded to cross her arms over her chest as she waited for him to open the door for her. Oh when he showed his face, she was going to release her temper on him ten-fold! How can he be so stubborn and arrogant and … and stupid?! Agggh, he was truly frustrating!

The door slid open in front of her, revealing a smirking Vegeta with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Oh, there you are woman. Took you long enough" he smirked arrogantly crossing his arms across his chest.

"Let me in Vegeta. We. Need. To. Talk" she growled angrily through clenched teeth.

"Now now, no need to be in such a mood" he said clicking his tongue mockingly

"Just let me in" she spat

Vegeta smirk deepened as he moved to the side to let her in. Closing the door behind her, he turned around to face her. He knew why she was in such a mood and he knew that unfortunately he was going to be on the receiving end of it.

Preparing himself for the verbal beating he was about to get he took a deep breath before he began "Wha-"

Bulma however, had other ideas. She was not about to listen to his excuses, it was high time he started listening to her!

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she shouted poking him in the chest

"I-" he started

"Do you have any idea how much time and effort it took me to assemble that group of women? I was scrounging around the palace for days with hardly any rest. And what do you do? You go and fucking reject every single one of them!" she shouted angrily throwing her hands up in the air.

"They were not to my tastes" he said calmly crossing his hands over his chest

"Not to your tastes?! Agggh, I found women for you who almost matched the criteria you gave me!" she glared at him

"That's just it, you said it yourself. Almost" he said turning his nose up in the air

"I did my best Vegeta. Do you have any idea, how hard it is to find a woman with every single one of those characteristics you described to me? I'm starting to think that no such woman even exists" she scowled. Looking at him she asked pleadingly "Didn't even one of those females seem suitable to you?"

"Woman, those females are not worthy to become my mate. I deserve the best mate, not some imperfect creature" he said haughtily

Bulma sighed at his pride "You know maybe you need to cut down the attitude a bit and then you might find someone worthy of you"

Vegeta glared at her "I will do no such thing woman! This is who I am, I am the prince of all saiy-"

"Yeah, yeah I know" she cut him off waving her hand at him. "What we need to do is focus on the problem we are facing now" she sighed taking a seat on the couch.

Vegeta took a seat opposite her running a hand through his hair; he sank back into the cushions of the couch. "You need to find another woman. Look harder" he said looking her straight in the eye

"I've looked, trust me Vegeta, in every nook and cranny of this castle. I've sifted through all the nobility, dignitaries and even ordinary working class women I know and I have already shown you the best of my findings" she said desperately

"Woman, my birthday is a week from now"

"I know, I know" she sighed. Running a hand tiredly through her hair she looked at him "It's just … I have run out of options. Is there no woman on this planet that has caught your attention at all?"

Vegeta sighed. He was as tired from this mate business as she was. The pressure his father was putting him on finding a mate was growing each day, and he just couldn't take it anymore.

"I will keep my eyes open, as should you. If you find any one, show her to me. If we don't find any suitable match in 5 days, meet me here in my chambers and we will try to come up with something" he said tiredly

"Right" she said looking at him softly. "You know, Vegeta, I'll be here, I'll help you through this. Don't worry about what your father says, I'm sure we will find the perfect mate for you" she smiled at him

Vegeta lifted his eyes and met her soft gaze. He was glad that he didn't have to do this alone, especially since this type of matter didn't fall into his strengths. She was more than he could have ever hoped for and not for the first time since he had known her, he was glad that she had found him in the gardens 15 years ago. At least he knew she would always stand by him, would always have his back, support him when he needed it and oddly enough, he knew deep down that he would do the same for her. There was no other like her, she was irreplaceable and right now when life seemed the toughest, he was happy to know he had her beside him.

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he looked at her. "You know woman, I think we just might"

Tomara stomped angrily down the palace corridors, her group of female followers behind her as they searched for the prince. Recently it had been harder to find him. It seemed that he had been purposely mixing his schedule around so that they wouldn't be able to find him. Growling to herself, she figured that somehow this was that stupid blue-haired earthlings fault. It didn't make sense, she knew, but she really hated that bitch and it just felt good to blame her for their misfortune.

After she had spotted that blue-haired woman in the prince's chambers that night, she had noticed that the prince and Bulma had been spending more time together. Not only that, but they seemed to be getting much too close for her comfort. She was not stupid; she had seen the way they looked at each other when they thought no one was watching. It was the look of two people who were attracted to each other, and she didn't like it one bit. In her opinion the prince's disinterest in her was all Bulma's fault. That bitch had somehow kept him distracted from her, so that she, Tomara the most worthy mate of the prince, was unable to make her move. Not only that, but as of late Bulma had been sending the prince on dates with other women. This got on her last nerves, but luckily the prince had rejected every single one of those women. It was so obvious that Bulma was just jealous of her and her obvious superiority, so that she tried her hardest not to allow the prince to land up with her.

It was time to eliminate her completely from the picture and she knew the perfect way how to. She would break that bitch's heart and leave her shattered, so that she would never get in her way again. She would make sure that she would never want to see the prince again. The only problem was that she had to act fast. Time was running out and the prince's birthday celebration was in just a week. If she played her cards right, she could make her move soon.

It had been 5 days since Bulma had met Vegeta in his room and since then neither one of them had found any other suitable candidate for Vegeta. Bulma, dressed in her nighties, made her way towards Vegeta's room that night. She really had no idea what they were going to do. Vegeta's birthday was in 2 days' time and he had chosen no potential mate. If he turned up with no woman on his arm, in front of what was probably going to be almost all of Vegetasei attending his birthday celebration, he would be dishonoured and would be forcefully denied his birth right as ruler of Vegetasei. They had no choice; they somehow had to find a woman for Vegeta. The problem was that he was just too damn stubborn. He wanted his idea of the perfect mate and no other woman.

In the past few days that Bulma had spent with Vegeta, she had felt closer to him than she had ever felt before and somehow she had a strange feeling that Vegeta felt the same way too. She felt so content, so happy when she was near him. His attitude and smart remarks brought a smile to her face. She was starting to feel … different towards him. A feeling she had not experienced since she was with Yamcha. A feeling that brought wholeness to her life, a feeling that made her feel like the happiest woman in the world. She couldn't be attracted to him, could she? Right now, she wasn't so sure. Shaking her head, she knew that she couldn't focus on these feelings. Her attraction for him, was probably one sided anyways, and even if they weren't, which she highly doubted, there was no way they would be able to follow through with it. Vegeta needed to find a mate; he didn't have time to spend with her. There was no way in hell he would ever ask her to be his mate, of that she was sure. He would never see her as 'mate material'. Sighing to herself while running a hand over her face, she rounded the corner to his room, however what she saw in front of her caused her to stop dead in her tracks.

There in front of her, right outside Vegeta's bedroom door, stood Vegeta and Tomara kissing furiously. At the sight of them kissing so intensely, something within Bulma pulled. It felt like a knife had just pierced through her heart and something deep within her shattered into a million pieces. She couldn't stand it anymore, she couldn't stand the sight of them together like that, she had to leave now. Turning around furiously she ran back towards her room, unable to stop the tears flowing freely down her face.