Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Attachments Detached ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4

Bulma was still giggling as Kakarott helped her into the training room. Vegeta raised his face from his towel and smirked. Bulma chuckled as she approached him. He lowered the cloth and gave her a curious look.

Bulma held up the wad of money she had earned, quite a lot since she was one of the few who had bet for Vegeta. Her finger was separating the money into two even piles and it was one of these piles that she handed to Vegeta.

Vegeta took the money with a puzzled look, "What's this?"

"Well, since you won the fight, half of the money I won should be yours."

Vegeta gazed at the money he held, "What would I do with this?"

Bulma shrugged and put the rest of the money in her pocket, "Whatever you want. You should have seen the look on Kiwi's whore's face when she lost all that money. Seven hundred zenni from that dumb blonde alone."

Vegeta shrugged and turned back to hang his towel on the rack, but he did pocket the money. "While it was fun, it was hardly a fight." All evidence of his good mood had vanished.

Bulma turned to Kakarott, who supplied her with an answer, "Frieza didn't like what happened. He's sent us to go purge a planet, but he won't tell us what it's like. Plus-"

Vegeta turned to the other Saiyan, eyebrows drawn down, "Shut up, Kakarott! She doesn't need to concern herself with us. Or did you forget we aren't supposed to form attachments?"

Bulma huffed, "Don't yell at him just because you're in a bad mood, Vegeta! Besides, the problem of not knowing about the planet is easily solved."

Vegeta raised a brow at her, "Really. And don't you have projects to finish since you only have three months left? And what about your guards? I heard when you're working you have four watching you."

Bulma smiled, "Well, three now. Kiwi was one of the guards so I have that to thank you for as well. I doubt he'll be back anytime soon with that 'problem'. The other three guards are pushovers

"Anyway, I have plenty of time to finish the projects. In fact, I could get that all done tomorrow but I don't want Frieza to give me any more projects of mass destruction to create."

Vegeta grunted and looked over at Kakarott who raised both hands in surrender, "You've beaten me up for long enough, Vegeta. I'm going to get some rest since we leave tomorrow."

Bulma looked shocked, "You leave tomorrow?"

Kakarott smiled sadly, "Yeah." He looked behind Bulma to Vegeta and didn't say anything more, just gave her a big hug that prevented her from looking back to see what he had been looking at. The hug about squeezed the-oh, wait. Kiwi's already done that.

Bulma returned the hug and watched as Kakarott left the room, his attitude making her feel as if she wasn't going to see him again.

When Kakarott had left, Bulma turned back to Vegeta, who was beginning his push-ups. "Vegeta, what's going on?"

"Nothing."

"Bull! You're never this monosyllabic unless something is going on."

Vegeta glared up at her, not answering.

Bulma sat down with a sigh, "Well, did you bring the blueprints?"

Vegeta grunted, "Don't need them."

Bulma cocked her head to one side, "Why not? I could probably get some of them done tonight and have the rest of them ready when you get back."

"Don't worry about it. Your help isn't needed any longer."

Bulma crossed her arms over her chest, but decided to ignore the stinging comment. Only a few days of Vegeta and she already knew enough to know that if you wanted him to talk you had to beat around the bush. "So, what did Kiwi say that made you challenge him?"

Vegeta paused in his push-ups to look at her. Seeing her looking genuinely curious, he shrugged, "Said I was asexual."

Bulma laughed and immediately apologized when Vegeta stopped his exercise and stabbed his dark eyes at her, "Who in the world would think you're asexual? With a body like that-"

Vegeta's eyebrow rose as he himself did. He inspected himself and looked back up at Bulma, "With a body like what?"

Bulma made an exasperated sound, "Of course you can't see it, silly! But every woman on this spaceship would drop the man they have for one second with you."

Vegeta seemed to preen under the compliment and Bulma sighed, "I should know better. Am I going to need a pry bar to get your head through the door now?"

The question deflated him slightly, but he still cocked his head at her, standing with his arms casually at his sides, "It's not like I'd want any of them. None of them fit my requirements."

"Your requirements?" Bulma grinned.

Vegeta shook his head, folding his arms across his chest, "No, you look the type that would play matchmaker." He shrugged, "I don't have time for anyone else anyway."

"You have time for me," she was quick to point out.

He shrugged again, "Not really. I just look up and you're there." He acted as if her being there was a big nuisance.

Bulma threw her head to one size, "Well. I see how it is…."

She pulled out her tool kit she'd said she'd bring; ignoring his smirk, and opened it to reveal a laptop, "Well, you arrogant jerk, you want to know about this planet?"

Vegeta's eyebrows rose, "Don't you need something to connect that to?"

Bulma rolled her eyes, "Please. I'm not that barbaric. It's called wireless."

Vegeta shrugged, "Whatever. The planet's called Yardrat."

Bulma typed in a few things and waited before the computer beeped at her, "Ah, here it is. Yardrat. Population-"

Vegeta cut through her, "What are their defenses like? How many troops? Any specialized weapons or other means of attack?"

Bulma smirked, "Well, according to Frieza's database-"

"Frieza's database!" He was looking over her shoulder in a second and she scooted over so he could sit next to her, which he did without moving his eyes from the screen. "How did you get into there? It's coded."

Bulma shrugged, "It's called hacking." She pointed to a sentence on the page, "Troops: none, a peaceful race. However it says they have a special technique. Something called Instant Transmission. It says they can just vanish into thin air and appear somewhere else."

Vegeta scoffed, "It's probably speed."

Bulma shook her head, "Looks like the Ginyu Force was sent down and couldn't get rid of them, in fact one of them died of some kind of heart disease."

Vegeta peered at the screen; though at the moment Bulma was scrolling down to find out more about the heart disease, "Why didn't they just destroy the whole planet?"

"Oh, the buyer wanted it kept intact, just the people and any sign of their existence erased. Here it is," she trailed off, mouthing the words she was reading. Vegeta leaned back, waiting for whatever it was she was looking for.

"Vegeta-"

The tone of her voice straightened him right back up, "What?"

She pointed at the screen. To the right of the paragraph Bulma had been reading about the disease was a list of people susceptible to the disease. Bulma was pointing to a name that made Vegeta give a sharp intake of breath, "Kakarott?"

Bulma nodded silently and clicked on the name, bringing up a page that showed a picture of Kakarott that he obviously didn't know was being taken of him. To the right of the picture was a full history of the Saiyan, including all the purgings that had been done and how long each had taken.

Vegeta's eyes widened at what else was on the page and he rose, rage etched into every line. "That bas-" Bulma's hand tugging on his arm broke him off and he looked down at her, "He's going to kill Kakarott!"

Bulma shook her head, "You can't go after him! You know that! Just let me figure out a way around this."

Vegeta stared down at her for a long moment before grunting in acquiescence and sitting back down, folding his arms across his chest once again and leaning back as Bulma furiously tapped on the keyboard, scanning so many pages it made Vegeta's head spin.

Bulma was shaking her head at the end of two minutes. She turned to Vegeta with a frown, "There's nothing in here that will get him out of that purge. Frieza's making sure he goes no matter what."

Vegeta did not look at her, opting to stare at the ceiling instead, "We're not supposed to form attachments!" Perhaps he didn't know he had said it aloud.

Bulma sighed, "You have to wonder what kind of person you would have been if you didn't have Kakarott for a friend."

Vegeta's eyes flicked to her, but the rest of his body did not budge, "I never said he was my friend."

Bulma rolled her eyes, "Of course, Vegeta. I can see the hate seething off you in waves."

Vegeta stood suddenly, almost knocking the laptop off her lap. She barely caught it in time. By the time she looked up at him, he was already boring a hole through her. She sighed again, softer this time, "I'm sorry, Vegeta. I'm just not too happy about this either, you know. I've only known you two for what-three days and I can't imagine anything happening to either one of you."

He grudgingly seemed to relax, though he still didn't look pleased. She decided moving on with the topic would be best. "Should we tell him?"

Vegeta shook his head, "I'd rather not. Frieza already knows and there's just no way to prepare for anything Frieza has planned," he made a gesture at the laptop, indicating the purge as an example, "He'd only become paranoid, make a too obvious blunder."

Bulma nodded and put a finger to her chin, tapping it, "Well, what about you knocking him out before you get on-planet?"

Vegeta snorted, "That would be a good idea except for the fact that we'll be in individual pods under a drug-induced sleep."

Bulma brightened, "Separate pods and asleep, huh? Well, show me which pod is his and I can rig it so that it never stops releasing that sleeping gas and never opens. He'll sleep right through the purge."

Vegeta raised a brow and gave her an appraising look, "That might just work." He moved to the grate and Bulma had to quickly pack away her stuff and hurriedly follow him.

He tapped a foot impatiently, "We don't have long till I'm expected out of here and in my room. Will you have enough time?"

Bulma nodded, "It's easier to break something than it is to fix and since I can fix things quickly we should have time to spare. You lead or me?"

"I'll lead." So saying, Vegeta jumped down into the hole and was snaking through the crawlspace before Bulma had placed both feet in it.

"Wait up!" she hissed.

He stopped and glanced back, not hiding his impatience. Bulma frowned at him, "What? Already know the place so well you don't need me?"

He made a shrugging motion she barely saw in the dark and continued on, talking as they moved, "Once I knew the way from to the mess hall it wasn't hard to map out the rest. Though I don't know the location of your rooms…." He paused, "Nevermind. I do now."

"Huh?"

He sighed with frustration, "Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to Kakarott." He ignored her indignant huff, "Saiyans have better senses than a human. I can smell your scent."

Bulma kept pace with Vegeta, feeling like every breath that came out of her was her last, "Oh? What do…I smell like?"

Vegeta slowed down marginally as he answered, "I don't know. You smell like you. It's like asking what a certain person's ki signature feels like."

"Oh. Well, do I smell nice?""

Vegeta stopped and turned around. Bulma almost bumped into him and could clearly see the incredulous look on his face. She almost giggled. "Girl, what kind of question is that? You shower, don't you? You don't smell like last week's lunch, do you?" He turned around just as abruptly and started off again, causing Bulma to have to catch up with him, out of breath once again.

"It was just a question!"

"Well, that topped the list of all the stupid questions Kakarott has ever asked me. I swear, if he ever asked me if he 'smelled nice' I'd deck him! You're lucky I don't do the same to you!"

Bulma scoffed, "Whatever, Vegeta."

"Shut up, girl! We're here." He had stopped right above yet another Bulma-made hole in their ceiling, or the floor as it was.

Bulma hissed at him, wanting to keep her voice low, "My name is Bulma! You can at least call me something other than girl! I am not a girl!"

He seemed to test the air around her with his nose and she shrank back, "What are you doing?"

He frowned at her, "You are a girl." He said it with such conviction that she knew what he meant.

"That's just gross, Vegeta! You don't see me asking you if you've ever done it!"

Vegeta smirked, "Like I'd ever tell you."

Bulma felt like hitting him, but instead settled with pushing past him and crawling out from under the workbench she had hidden the hole under.

Vegeta followed after her, staying low and being glad he did when he saw the low bench he would have surely cracked his head on. He glanced over at the female to see her crawling out from under the bench, giving him a look that was full of disappointment. He ground his teeth. She wanted him to hit his head!

As Vegeta rose to stand beside her, Bulma folded her arms across her chest and stated stonily, "Since you can't seem to tell me if I smell good or not, don't smell me!"

Vegeta sneered, amused by her childish ire. "It's second nature, girl. It would be like asking Kakarott to stop eating."

Bulma glared as she moved through the rows of pods in the docking bay, "What you did not one minute earlier was not second nature!" They were both still talking lowly, although Bulma's voice was an angry hiss.

Vegeta shrugged, "You brought up the point. I just saw fit to clarify you on it."

"Well, don't clarify me on any more points, Vegeta! Now, where's Kakarott's stupid pod?"

Vegeta smirked and moved past Bulma, leading her around a set of pods, "Testy, test-" He suddenly swallowed his words and darted back around the set of pods, pulling her back with him. She almost scolded him but stopped at his pale face. She dared to peek around the corner he was looking around and quickly darted back around with him.

Frieza paced in front of the pod, behind a mechanic who was obviously checking the ship out. The lizard's voice reached her and she shivered, looking up at Vegeta for his response. His lips were thin lines that were starkly outlined against his flushed face. His eyes were narrowed pinpricks that she would've been hard pressed to see if he wasn't pressing her back against his chest with an arm around her waist, as if she would run right out where Frieza could see her. She did not try to escape his grip.

"Are you sure you've checked anything?"

"Y-yes, milord, but of course. Everything is ready to go for tomorrow."

"Good. That Vegeta is too cunning. It would be just like him to find out what I was planning and sabotage the pod so it wouldn't start. I will not allow my plans to backfire. Everything must be perfect."

"Oh, it will be, sire!"

Frieza's voice went down several octaves and Bulma felt the blood freeze in her veins. What in the world would this monster be like close up? How could Earth ever had signed a treaty with this lizard? Then again, she well remembered his charm just nine months ago. "It better. Or it will be your life instead of that monkey's."

She felt Vegeta's arm twitch where it was around her waist and put a hand on it, as if to still it. She didn't have to look at Vegeta to know he wanted nothing more than to attack Frieza and rip him limb from limb. You didn't live, eat, and train with someone for ten years, even if he wasn't the brightest, without forming some kind of amity.

She heard footsteps and dared to look around the pile again, feeling Vegeta's arm tighten minutely around her. She shrugged her shoulders at him and he loosened. Frieza was walking off and Bulma felt as if a great cold had left the room as soon as the doors closed behind him.

The mechanic, too, seemed to feel a change in temperature, or at least tension. He heaved a great sigh of relief and bent down to work, muttering something neither Vegeta nor Bulma could hear.

Bulma leaned back with a sigh of her own and was suddenly very aware of Vegeta's presence at her back; a very warm and comfortable presence. She shifted slightly and he immediately released her. She turned her head to look at his expression but he seemed not even to notice her, his eyes locked on the mechanic.

She looked too to see the mechanic putting his tools away and getting up, shuffling to the door as fast as his arthritic legs could carry him. As soon as he was through the door, Vegeta left the cover and approached the pod, back pressed as far against the pods as possible in case either Frieza or the mechanic had forgotten something.

Soon he motioned for Bulma and she followed him to stand beside the pod. She knelt down and opened up her case, getting out the tools she knew she would need and opening up the panel the mechanic had been tinkering in with a screwdriver.

She sat back on her heels at the collection of wires and blipping lights, trying to sort out each of their functions from looks alone.

Vegeta made an impatient growl, almost sounding like a caged animal, "Hurry up."

Bulma narrowed her eyes at Vegeta, not looking at him, as she bent to the task at hand, "Calm down, Vegeta. Let me work. If I don't get this right I could give Kakarott too much of that gas and put him to sleep forever."

Vegeta grunted and knelt down beside her, watching her every move. She found his observing didn't bother her half as much as Kiwi's, as he wasn't looking at anything but her work.

She soon found the controls for the release of the gas and carefully adjusted its shut-off time so that it wouldn't shut off until Kakarott got back to the mothership. This automatically kept the door locked. Nothing short of a direct hit with a ki blast of more than average proportions would open the pod.

She leaned back and wiped her hands on her pants, "Done."

Vegeta rose smoothly and Bulma did so as well. He didn't even look at her as he headed back to the crawlspace. She knew the sight of Frieza had disturbed him, but not this much.

She reached him before he reached the bench and lightly touched his arm. He actually jumped at the light contact, his eyes widened slightly as they looked at her, "Vegeta, what aren't you telling me?"

Vegeta sighed and turned fully to face her. She did deserve to know. How could it be only three days that they had known each other? It felt longer. "You'll be leaving before we're back."

She tilted her head to one side, her raised eyebrows asking him to explain. He felt like running a hand through his hair but resisted the urge, "This purge is going to take us four to five months. With all that stuff about the Instant Transmission, it may take longer."

Her face fell, "Oh. That's why Kakarott was acting like that."

Vegeta didn't answer as he turned back around and ducked under the bench. Bulma took a deep breath and followed him. They were silent the rest of the way back to the training room. Vegeta entered the training room, but when Bulma tried to follow, Vegeta held her back with a hand, "I need to sleep and so do you. Go back to your room."

Bulma lowered her head. Vegeta moved the grate into position to be halted by Bulma's voice. "You know where my room is, right?"

Vegeta's brows furrowed but he nodded.

"Good. If you guys get back before the three months," at his shaking head her tone became harder, "IF, then come give me a visit, no matter what time it is. It probably won't be safe for me to come back here."

Vegeta reluctantly nodded, not wanting to give the girl false hope. "IF we get back before you go, you can be sure we'll come see you first."

"Good. Don't get yourself killed, Vegeta."

Vegeta looked at her with utmost sincerity as he replaced the grate, "Neither me nor Kakarott."

A/N: I'm glad everyone liked the 'hershey squirts'. I hope you liked this too, lacking in action but full of emotion…it's one or the other for me! So, I've once again included Yardrat and the infamous heart disease…. So, what's going to happen on Yardrat? Will Vegeta and Kakarott survive? And poor Bulma, she'll be on Earth by the time their done! So, no gravity room? (rolls eyes) This is me, people! Don't expect anything….

JadedBest: Oh, was that too big a hint? (gg) When it does come you'll not see it coming…. I love doing that to you! I loved the fight scene too. Those piggy pills come in handy, heh? ;)

Moonlight152: Sorry. It usually just ends on a note like that. The Frieza scene was actually added last minute.

Moonsaiyanprincess: Hey, shouldn't have worried about Vegeta, huh? Lol

Scorceress Fujin: HERE HERE HERE HERE HERE…..HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY? Sorry…. Too much tea….

Masamune: Oookay… Well, at least you made me laugh O_o; and here my friends tell me I'M on crack!

Susan: I was wondering where you were! Well, thank you for reviewing each chapter, that was nice! Hershey squirts! Roflmbo I love that! That's what I use to describe what I did to him now. You won't imagine the grins and crazy looks you get describing giving a character 'Hershey squirts' and the other character's reactions to it…. O_o I need a break or something…. Now you know what exactly Kiwi said to him. (Ah, for the dreams? Just watch Evil Dead II, watch Majin Vegeta Saga, say goodnight to all your Vegeta action figures [3], and have lots of caffeine. BOOM! Instant dreams.)

Ah, there's a storm coming…. Review-see, school is out, so of you review, I post…that easy! Plus, I reply to your posts! Cool, huh? (slaps Ginyu who tries to answer her) You're dead AND in the other fic! Get over there! (oh sh--. Great. I just-yeah, that's going to be a problem…wait. No nevermind, no problem.