The Crystal in The Night
The next day wasn't as awkward. Roshi's grandson, Krillen, came by in the morning with breakfast for them. They did a little more research on the glowing orbs. Bulma figured out more about the compass that was in the bottom of the chest. "So it's a Dragon Ball finder. You can widen the range around the compass by twisting the dial." She said, showing Vegeta. "It starts to beep when I do because we have a Dragon Ball right here." Bulma picked up the capsule in the box. "We've also found out there's nothing in here, I think I'll put our stuff in here whenever we leave." She said tossing it in the air and catching it.
Vegeta wasn't too interested in that right now. They hadn't talked about what happened yesterday. 'I know this is way more important but shouldn't we talk about what happens next' Vegeta thought to himself.
Bulma looked over at Vegeta who was lost in thought. "How about we sit down for lunch." She said walking to the kitchen. "Krillen brought over some curry." Bulma grabbed the food and some plates. Vegeta nodded and walked towards the table. "What makes you so quiet?" Bulma started putting food onto her plate.
"I wanted to talk about last night." He said, while looking at the mark he left. "I'm not saying you have to accept it but I would like to know what you're thinking." Vegeta crossed his arm and sat back in his chair.
Bulma put her plate down and placed her hands in her lap. "I don't really know Vegeta, I'm not too sure what to do either." She blushed. "I know some of your traditions but this one is a little confusing to me, I don't know what you were asking me to do when it happened, I don't know what this entails and I was too scared to ask." Bulma rubbed her finger softly over the mark causing the heat between her legs to come back.
"Well this tradition is a little more intimate." Vegeta leaned forward placing his elbows on the table. "What I did was a natural instinct that Sayians have when they've found someone they want to mate with, this happens with men and women." He said not able to look at her. "This…" Vegeta sighed deeply. "This was me asking you to…" Vegeta's face went completely red. Bulma smiled watching the normally emotionless Vegeta get flustered. "I was unconsciously asking you to be my mate." He said, still not looking at her. "In Saiyan culture if you reject the request you would verbally deny it, I'm not too sure with humans but with Sayians if it's verbally denied and the blood of the initiator is not ingested by the person who was bitten then the mark heals." Vegeta was finally able to look her in the eyes.
Bulma took in the information just given to her. "And what would I do if I were to accept it?" Vegeta's eyes went wide at her question.
"You would do the exact same thing I did, just bite me like I did you." It was so difficult for him to keep eye contact at the beginning of this conversation but now he refused to look away from her.
"So do I get super powers or something if I accept?" Bulma giggled at the quizzical look Vegeta gave her.
Vegeta rolled his eyes. "The only thing you get out of this is getting to spend the rest of your life with the man of your dreams." Vegeta crossed his arms and gave her a shit eating grin.
Bulma snorted. "More like nightmares." She said laughing.
Before Vegeta could continue their back and forth there was a loud explosion outside. Without hesitation Vegeta ran to the noise. Once outside he saw Frieza's men grabbing the villagers and questioning all of them while a few others were blowing up shops and houses. Vegeta sped over to take care of them. Within seconds they were all dead with the help of Roshi and his grandson. Roshi came up to him breathing heavily. "You both have to get out of here before more come." He said, wiping the sweat from his bald head and breathing heavily.
"But if they do come back what will happen to you?" Bulma asked. "They'll come back 10 times harder." She watched as the villagers came together.
Roshi smiled. "We can handle ourselves." He said. "We're stronger than we look just like you." He grabbed Bulma's hand giving it a reassuring squeeze. "I see a lot of him in you, you're smart and have a fire to you that can't be explained." Roshi's smile faded. "Now go." He said, letting go of her hand.
Bulma gave a small smile, then her and Vegeta ran back to the house to gather their things and leave. They took all the stuff they came with and the chest and put it in the capsule. Bulma grabbed a satchel and some of her father's journals and put them in there with the capsule. Once they were ready to go they walked out of the house and turned to look at it once more. "What are you going to do with it?" She asked hearing Roshi come up behind her.
"Your father told me once you've found what you were looking for, burn it." Roshi said softly.
Bulma took in a sharp breath and nodded her head. Not knowing what else to say she turned towards Vegeta and motioned for them to leave. "Where do we go now?" She asked as tears started to roll down her face.
"We're going to find an old friend." He said grabbing her and flying off towards their destination. "It's nowhere near the palace so we should be safe to fly the whole time."
Once at their destination Vegeta set Bulma down in front of the house. "So, who is this friend?" Bulma asked, adjusting the bag across her body.
"Someone who used to work with my father." Vegeta said, knocking on the door. "Step to the side a little." He moved her out of the way of the door.
The door swung open so fast it created a wind that blew Bulma's hair back. "Who is it!" A loud voice bellowed from the front door. A man the size of a giant walked out and looked down at Vegeta and Bulma. Bulma, terrified, sized the man up. He had legs the size of tree trunks and his hands were huge to the point he could enclose Bulma's entire head in one hand and throw her across the planet. He had big bushy eyebrows and a bald head. "Well isn't this a surprise." The man gave a hardy laugh as he grabbed Vegeta's hand.
Vegeta smirked as he shook his hand. "Bulma, this is Nappa, he was the high general of the Saiyan Royal Army before Barrdock." Nappa looked over to Bulma who smiled and bowed her head.
"Oh, you're the famous Bulma the King has told me about." He said, chuckling. "You are more beautiful then he let on, so you've come to show me your wife?" Nappa softly grabbed her hand and kissed it.
Out of instinct they both grimace before remembering the situation they were in. "Um no, we came for help." Bulma said, blushing at Nappa's question.
Nappa looked over to Vegeta confused. "The Cold empire attacked the palace taking my mother and father as prisoners, they're after her because of her father and we came for shelter and your scouter if you have one." Vegeta gave the man a serious look.
Nappa's eyes went wide and he stumbled back a little. He put his hands on his hips and looked down. "Do we know if they are still alive?" He asked, looking between the pair. Bulma and Vegeta looked from each other, back to Nappa and shook their heads.
"Nappa, please we need your help." Bulma said, grabbing Vegeta's hand.
Nappa nodded his head. "Right, please come in." He said moving out of the way. "I'll get you both some clothes, I have a box of clothes from my late wife and Vegeta I might have some stuff that could fit you." He said walking to the closet.
"I doubt it." Vegeta said, smirking.
"It was from the start of my military career, when I was barely 18, so I think it will." The older man chuckled when Vegeta's smirk washed away. He handed both of them a box and showed them a room they can stay in. "I'll search through some more of my stuff to see if I can find anytype of communication device." He said, then bowed and walked away.
Vegeta nodded and closed the door behind them. Bulma was already searching through the box looking for clothes. "Was his late wife in the royal army too?" She pulled out a lot of armor and training suits.
"Actually she was a 3rd class he had met while scouting for unknown elite recruits." Vegeta said. "It was very taboo for an elite to mate with a 3rd class but he was also the commander of the royal army so he didn't really care." He started searching through his own box.
"Why is it taboo?" She asked, finding a simple army green spandex training suit and some black boots.
Vegeta turned to look at Bulma. "Because it's 'contaminating the elite bloodline' and 'will cause elites to go obsolete'." Vegeta found a black spandex suit that looked his size. "I used to believe that was the case, but now…" Vegeta turned to look at Bulma.
Bulma smirked and walked up to him. She placed her arms around his neck pulling him in for a kiss. Vegeta instantly wrapped his arms around her waist tightly. His tail unraveled from around his middle and wrapped itself around her leg. Before anything could go further the door to the room they were in swung open and their heads snapped towards it.
"Oh well this is awkward." Raditz said laughing.
Vegeta and Bulma, both red faced, let go of each other. Kakarot pushed past his brother and was about to hug Bulma. "Oh wow." Was all he could say while looking at her neck. "That's new." Kakarot looked over at Vegeta and smirked. Raditz came in more to see and once he got a good look started to laugh uncontrollably.
"For a second there I was almost relieved when I saw you two idiots." Vegeta pushed past the brothers and went down stairs.
Raditz followed after joking about the whole situation. "Where have you guys been?" Kakarot asked.
"We found my father." She gave a sad smile.
Kakarot gasped. "That's great, why do you look so sad?" Kakarot asked.
Bulma felt tears coming to her eyes. "I was too late, he's been gone for 10 years." She shook the tears away. "He left me with some help but not the help I was looking for." Bulma leaned her head onto her forehead onto her friend's chest. "Goku I never planned for this, I just knew he was going to be here, alive, when I found him." Tears started to fall from her eyes. "I didn't expect to be too late, I didn't plan on being too late and now I don't know what to do."