Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A Dark Heart ❯ A Gift From A Prince ( Chapter 7 )

Bulma's plane landed softly on the gardens of Capsule Corp.

While she'd been previously about to fall asleep from exhaustion after her draining visit to The Lookout, she was wide awake now, after having spent the entire journey back home thinking about Piccolo's words and about Vegeta. Had he actually left something for her before he left? And if that was the case, what was it? She knew the warrior was a man with few possessions, and he certainly had never been romantic enough in order to get her any kind of gift…

And speaking of gifts, her baby boy was also wide awake now, almost as if he had been feeding off her suddenly very nervous energy. He kept staring at her with curious eyes as she carefully got out of the flying vehicle and she walked into the dark towards their home.

Bulma entered the now empty kitchen, looking at the time and realizing it was way past dinnertime and everyone was probably asleep by now. Poor Trunks' sleeping schedule was certainly going to be a mess that night. She looked at her baby again and she wondered whether he'd still be hungry. Three bottles of warm milk later, she had her answer. After feeding the child, she gave him a quick bath and she put him to bed. Thankfully, the baby wasn't very fussy tonight, no doubt due to the fact that it had been a long day for mother and son. She stared lovingly at her sleeping baby for a few minutes, making sure he was resting properly and, after doing a double check on the baby monitor, she walked towards her laboratory.

After having done some thinking during her flight back home she realized that there was a way of discovering what Vegeta had done during his last hours at Capsule Corporation: the security cameras.

The Briefs' were a very famous and wealthy family so, of course, they had a top of the notch security system in the compound. Thankfully, they'd very rarely had to rely on it, but still, it gave the entire family some peace of mind.

As Bulma approached the lab she realized that the lights were still on, and she knew that there was only one person, other than herself, that could stay awake in the middle of the night…

“Hi dad!” said Bulma, warmly greeting her father.

“Daughter” he replied absentmindedly, not even looking at her, completely absorbed in whatever it was he was looking at inside that microscope.

“I'm going to get the key to the security rooms” she said as she looked through some drawers.

Dr. Briefs stopped what he was doing and he looked at her, mildly surprised.

“Why? Did something happen?”

“Um, no… Everything's fine dad, I just want to check on something”, she said slightly nervous.

“Don't worry about it, dad”

“Alright then” the scientist replied as he redirected his attentions back to the microscope.

“There you are…” she whispered as she finally found what she was looking for.

“Goodnight dad”, Bulma said as she kissed her father's cheek before she left the room.

“Goodnight, my child. Have fun…”

Bulma chuckled sadly as she closed the door and she walked through the hallways in the direction of the room that held the recordings of the security cameras.

`Fun', she thought to herself shaking her head. She was feeling anything but fun right now. If anything, the closer she got to the room, the more nervous she felt, waiting in anticipation to be able to find out if Piccolo and Dende's words held some truth.

She arrived at the room, where she was greeted by one of their security guards.

“Good evening, Kevin” she said politely.

“Miss Briefs” the guard replied, nodding his head respectfully.

“Would you mind leaving the room for a few minutes, please? I'd like to check on something privately. You can take a break until I leave the room, if you want to…”

“Uh? Um, sure Miss Briefs. Thank you. If there's anything you need, I'll be waiting outside”

“Sure Kevin, no problem!” she smiled at him.

The man left the room and Bulma sat on the chair in front of a large screen that held the view of all the different rooms and corners of the Capsule Corp. grounds. She took the key she'd been holding in her hand ever since she'd found it at the lab, and she introduced it into the computer. She waited a few minutes, fidgeting as the program loaded, and she typed her secret code. At times like this, she was thankful that she'd decided to make the recordings of hers and Trunks' rooms private, so that only she could go through the files. Especially now that she had no idea about what she was going to find in those videos.

The system finally loaded all of the files and she typed the exact date of the day Vegeta had left the Earth.

She gasped softly as the computer finally showed her the black and white security footage of that day, and she pressed the fast-forward button until she reached the recordings from the night.

There it was.

There was a figure in the balcony, standing quietly in the dark. She frowned, realizing there had been some light in the room coming from the bathroom; her bathroom.

`Fuck!' He'd been listening while she bathed!

She felt her eyes begin to burn and her chin tremble as she silently watched the events that had taken place that night. How he'd buried his head in her stomach, how they'd held each other, first with her standing up, and then laying down. She blushed slightly at the sight of herself naked, being held by the Prince, and her chest constricted at the sight of him covering her gently with the blankets.

At some point, she guessed she must have fallen asleep in his arms, and she just sat there, alone in that room, watching the footage of the both of them laying together in the dark…

All she could think of is that it felt right. It had always felt right being held by him, feeling his warmth against her body, and she briefly wondered whether it had felt the same way for him.

Suddenly, she saw some movement, and she realized that Vegeta had been softly petting her hair while she slept, and her heart broke a little when she witnessed her man gently kissing her cheek as well.

It was too much, all of it, it was simply too much, and she finally let her tears fall freely as she kept watching, hypnotized by the tenderness the fierce warrior had showed her that night. She sat there in confusion, unable to reconcile the man that held her protectively, with the man that had abandoned her without even saying goodbye, in order to take the place of some evil space overlord…

`Stop it, Bulma!' she thought as she felt herself starting to surrender to self-pity. She hadn't done it before, and she sure as hell wasn't going to do it now. She wiped her face with her hands, forcing herself to calm down and to stop crying, and she pressed the fast-forward button once more, in order to see what else had taken place that night.

And then it happened.

At some point, Vegeta had delicately let go of her, he'd stood up, and he'd stared at her, completely immobile, for a few minutes. Bulma then saw him slowly undress himself and walk out of the room in his underwear. She lost sight of him for about fifteen minutes, and then, she saw the figure of the Saiyan Prince walking back into her room, while she was still asleep in bed.

He was now wearing his tattered armor, and she realized that it wasn't one of the ones she'd made for him, but the one he'd been wearing when he'd arrived on Earth after his resurrection. The one he'd been wearing when Frieza had pierced his heart…

She saw him standing by the bed again, staring at her for a couple of minutes, and then he sighed deeply and he opened the drawer of her nightstand. And then she saw it. It was a small white box, and the blue haired woman saw the warrior introduce it carefully into the drawer and close it silently.

“Oh, Dende…” she whispered in shock.

The young God had been right: Vegeta had left something for her!

She felt butterflies in her stomach and all she wanted to do right now was to go back into her room and find out what her Prince had left for her. But she couldn't resist to keep watching until she'd see him leave.

Bulma witnessed her man looking back at her and slowly approaching her nude figure. He made sure her body was completely covered by the blankets and then he buried his nose into her hair, inhaling her scent, and softly kissing her forehead before he finally left the room. To her surprise, Vegeta hadn't used the balcony in order to exit. He'd actually used the bedroom door, closing it carefully as he left.

Bulma sighed, feeling a sense of despair at the sight of the warrior's figure finally leaving her home. She took a deep breath and she made a move to leave the security room. But, just as she was about to remove the key from the computer, she saw some movement on the screen again.

He was in Trunks' room.

A tear rolled down the scientist's cheek as she looked, dumbfounded, at her Prince entering their child's bedroom. He stood by his crib, staring at the boy, and he frowned. He then proceeded to remove one of his gloves and, almost fearfully, he caressed Trunks' cheek with one of his rough fingers. She zoomed into the footage and she saw her baby pouting softly, smiling in his sleep.

And then, she witnessed something she'd never seen before.

Vegeta covered the child's body with the blanket that lay in the corner of the crib, no doubt a as a result of Trunks stirring in his sleep. She watched in awe as the Prince moved his lips, as if whispering something to his child, and he placed one of his large hands on top of the baby's tiny head. He bent down and he kissed his soft hair. And then, he walked towards the door, looking back at the child briefly, before he disappeared from their lives forever.

Bulma just sat there, with her head in her hands and her elbows on the table, trying to assimilate all that she'd seen and attempting to calm down before she left the room and the security guard could see her like this.

“Fuck it!” she said as she finally decided to stand up. She closed the files and she removed the key from the computer. She wiped her face again and she opened the door, where she was greeted by the guard that was in the process of smoking a cigarette. The man's smile faltered a little when he looked at her face, no doubt red and swollen from all the crying.

`Who gives a shit?' she thought as she walked towards her room. So, what if people saw her like this? She'd been a mess from the time that man had abandoned her, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that she'd be looking like this now, would it? Right now, the only thing that mattered was getting into her room. And as she kept approaching it, she kept feeling more and more excited about what she'd discover in there.

Bulma arrived at her room and she opened the door, softly closing it behind her. She knelt in front of the nightstand and she took a deep breath. She opened the drawer and she saw the box. It was white and shiny, as if it were made of some kind of very polished stone that she couldn't recognize. She opened the tiny golden latch with trembling hands, and she gasped when she saw the object that lay inside.

It was the most gorgeous thing she'd ever seen.

She slowly approached it to the lamp, trying to examine it a bit closer, admiring its beauty, almost afraid to touch it. She run her pale fingers softly over it and she closed the box delicately, holding it against her chest with both arms.

She decided that this was all too much for her, so she carefully stood up, still clutching the box, and she left her room, walking once again towards the lab.

Dr. Briefs was sitting at the table, taking some notes about the discoveries he'd made with his microscope, when the door opened slowly. He kept his head buried into his work as soft steps approached him…

“Daddy?” a soft, trembling voice asked.

“Yes?” he replied distractedly, still focused on his notes.

A pair of pale tiny hands placed a white box in front of him and he frowned. He looked to his side and he saw his daughter, shaking, red face and puffy eyes. She was openly crying now and the doctor couldn't recall the last time he'd seen his daughter like this.

“Bulma! What's the matter, dear?” he asked in a state of shock.

She couldn't even talk, so she pointed with her head in the direction of the object she'd placed in front of him, silently begging him to open it.

He stared at the box for a minute and he cautiously opened it, revealing the object inside.

There, resting on a velvety burgundy cushion and hanging from a thin silvery chain, he saw the most beautiful pendant he'd ever seen.

It was oval shaped, made of some kind of royal blue stone, and in the middle, a bright star-shaped stone that looked like a white diamond, shone proudly.

The doctor took the object in his hands and he moved it towards the nearest light, examining it with scientific eyes. He looked back at his daughter with curiosity.

Whatever this object was, it wasn't from Earth.