Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Attachments Detached ❯ Chapter 13 ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter 13

Kakarott easily swung the axe, going through the tree as if it were paper. ChiChi, just coming out with a cool lemonade for the hard-working man, couldn't help but appreciatively stare at him.

He had taken the top of his gi off and now sweat coated the upper half of his body. As ChiChi came closer she noticed the beads of sweat falling from his brow to the tip of his nose and watched, fascinated, as it dripped to the ground.

The sudden removal of the iced drink from her hand brought her back to Kakarott's grinning face. "Thanks." He drained the glass in one gulp and ChiChi felt a jolt as his hand brushed hers when he handed the glass back.

Kakarott cocked a brow at the blushing woman before him and picked up the tree under one arm, setting it in such a way so that he could chop it into more manageable pieces for her stove. He had offered to do this job and some others while ChiChi tried to contact Yamcha. She hadn't had success so far, but Kakarott kept his hopeful attitude up. They had three days left.

ChiChi followed Kakarott, wanting to watch him work as she waited for their lunch to finish cooking. Kakarott could already smell it and it was making his mouth water. Of all the cooking he had ever experienced, including the botched-up meal he and Vegeta had tried to make, ChiChi's was by far the best.

In only a few minutes he had the tree chopped up, mindful of the female's eyes on him. He frowned as he looked at her, picking up a bundle of the wood and carrying it into the house. "Is there something wrong, ChiChi?" He found her scrutiny-pleasing somewhat. But he didn't understand it.

ChiChi shook her head, glancing off the side and gulping back whatever foolish emotion she was feeling. He was obviously not interested in her and she didn't know if she really wanted to 'chase' him. Maybe when she had been younger…but she was older now. Things were different. "Nope. Lunch's almost done."

Kakarott carefully stacked the wood by the stove, thinking that she wouldn't have to do any chopping for at least a month now, even with the way he ate. He turned to her fully and grinned. "Good! I'm starving!"

ChiChi smiled and Kakarott was disturbed to notice that the smile didn't reach her eyes. He watched her, concerned, as she continued to the stove, stirring the soup she had fixing there with a blank look on her face. His concerned look upgraded to a frown again. With each passing day he had watched ChiChi grow further distant and he frankly didn't like it.

He believed that she and he had gotten closer over the past four days. They had shared stories that made each other laugh, some that had made them sad, and some that had steam pouring out of their ears. He liked her opinions about things and usually found that they not only agreed with each other on a lot of items but they strengthened each other's beliefs. He didn't understand this sudden drawing away.

Truthfully, he found himself watching the woman more and more every minute. He always found something new about her, some little detail that captivated and held his attention. Right now, she was humming that tune she had been humming in the woods. The music was swirling around him and he found it hard to concentrate on even the thought of food. He was starving all right, but he had the sudden thought that it was for something other than food.

ChiChi let out a startled squeal and dropped the metal spoon into the pot as two arms wrapped around her waist and a head bent down to her neck. "Hey, Chi? I was wondering something."

ChiChi had to clear her throat several times before she could work words around the sudden tightening of her vocal cords. Even then she was sure her voice came out a little too high-pitched. "Yeah?"

A chuckle sounded and she could have died at the vibration that traveled through the muscular chest and into her spine, flowing up it to make her dizzy when it reached her head. "Well, I like you a lot, and I was just wondering-if you liked me too."

She nodded slowly, biting her lower lip and wondering if 'like' was as far as it was going to go. As if in answer, Kakarott asked his next question. "And do you think it might be more than like?"

ChiChi swallowed, eyes widening as hands slowly massaged her stomach. She quit fighting the loss of all conscious thought as cool lips gently sucked at the area where neck met shoulders. She tilted her head to allow him more access to the sensitive area, and almost went on her tiptoes as his lips trailed all way the up to the even more arousing spot behind her ear. An involuntary groan escaped her lips and an answering one echoed behind her. She turned, quite glad he allowed her to, and grabbed his head, pulling it into her lips and drawing him toward her as if he would never be close enough.

Kakarott let out another groan and grabbed her firmly around the waist, barely thinking of the still simmering food as he picked her up, not breaking the kiss, and carried her into her bedroom, stripping clothes along the way.

Well, some guys have all the luck!

<~>

Vegeta quickly dodged the blast that hurtled at him, leaping over it and ramming a fist straight through the bot that had fired it. He chuckled as he turned in midair, his now clean navy body suit easily conforming to the movement, batting away the second blast yet another of the bots aimed for his back. The woman had even programmed the things to fight dirty.

He phased out, reappearing behind the bot and sending it crashing to the ground with the other littered robot parts. That was the one thing Bulma hated, having to make new bots every day. He tensed up, waiting for the next bot, but looked around to find all his enemies vanquished. He shrugged as he landed and again chuckled. If she made the bots harder to destroy, she wouldn't have to make new ones every day.

He stood there for a moment in the red light that signaled the gravity was one and glanced to the display that read how many G's the thing was currently in. 60 G's in four days. At this rate he'd be able to reach one hundred by the time Frieza got there. However, he had the itching sensation it just wasn't going to be enough. There was just something he was missing, some bit of information that would warn him of the coming-

Vegeta clearly heard the tapping outside the door of the gravity room and frowned, glancing at the tiny view-port in the door to see a blue-haired head waving to him. He scowled and pressed the button on the control panel that would open the door, folding his arms across his chest and taking up a pose that told he wasn't happy about the interruption.

The red light shut off, returning the room to its regular lighting and Bulma stepped into the room, eyebrow raised at Vegeta's obvious displeasure. "I just wanted to tell you dinner is ready."

He needed to train more, so he just shrugged, though his quietly grumbling stomach said otherwise. "So?"

Bulma's other eyebrow raised to the meet its match, "So? So come in and eat and come back out here and train yourself until you stumble into the house and fall into your bed, asleep before you hit the pillow, clothes and all." She took a few steps closer and waved a hand in front of her face, "Have you even bathed? Jeez, Vegeta, it's been close to four days. You could at least try to smell nice!"

Vegeta rolled his eyes, "Yes, dear. You know, Kakarott may have been right about that whole married thing. You nag like a mate, or a mother."

Bulma nodded, stopping when she was directly in front of Vegeta. She pinched his cheek, "And you've got a face only a mother could love. You're so cute when you scrunch up your brows like that."

Vegeta raised one hand to the pinched cheek and Bulma laughed lightly at the entirely shocked expression on his face. She was pretty sure no one had ever done that to him before…and had their arm kept intact.

His scowl deepened and then he recalled her words, quickly switching to an expression that didn't 'scrunch up his brows'. Unfortunately, he truly had none that didn't so his face ended up going through a myriad of different expressions before he gave a snarl of frustration, giving up.

Bulma laughed again and headed back out, turning her head before she exited, "Are you coming? Krillin and I made steaks; rare, just the way you like it. With," she put a finger to her chin in mock thought, "egg rolls, I think."

With the mention of egg rolls Vegeta vanished from in front her, the passing of the wind the only indication he had rushed into the house.

"AND WASH BEFORE YOU EAT!" Bulma yelled after him, then chuckled and closed the door as she went to go grab at least one egg roll before Vegeta ate them all. She didn't know why, but the Saiyan had a strange craving for the little vegetable-filled bread things.

Vegeta was already cleaned and delving into the egg rolls when she walked in and she quickly rushed up and snatched one from the plate-full he was guarding from Krillin. Vegeta actually growled at her and she smacked him on the arm, "Hey! You can share, you know! We worked hard to make all that for you! Now give some to Krillin too!"

Vegeta grumbling complied, handing the half-eaten one he had in his hand and receiving another smack to his arm. He whirled around to stand and glare at the impetuous human, plate still clutched close to him. "You are very close to getting smacked back! So stop! Baldy can get his own food! I'm hungry!"

Bulma merely smirked and snatched two egg rolls from his plate, handing them off to Krillin before Vegeta could react.

Vegeta growled, eyes snapping from Bulma to the man who quickly retreated to the living room to eat his egg rolls away from glaring dark eyes. "You know, you're really cranky, Vegeta."

Vegeta turned his attention and glare back to the woman, "No? Really?" His voice feigned shock as he sat back into his seat, sulking over something more than the loss of three egg rolls.

Bulma sighed at the difficult man and sat down in the other chair, scooting it closer to him. He glanced at her but did not react as he finished off the last of the egg rolls and started on the pile of steaks. "So, what's up? How's you're training?"

She had obviously hit on what was bothering her for he immediately clammed up, stuffing a whole steak neatly, how in the world he did that was beyond Bulma, into his mouth to indicate he couldn't speak.

Bulma folded her arms across her chest and gave him as good a glare as she was getting. "Have you reached the gravity room's limit? Do you need me to upgrade it?"

His eyes narrowed and he gave a short shake of his head. She sighed and put her head on the hands she now rested on the table, staring straight ahead at nothing, "You don't think you're strong enough to defeat Frieza, I haven't heard anything about Kakarott, and Frieza gets here in three days. So, what can I do to help? I feel like a piece of flotsam."

He cocked his head to one side at the strange sound of defeat in her voice and paused in his meal, "You're doing it."

She raised a brow at him; lip curled slightly, "Huh?"

He made a great show of rolling his eyes but decided to spare her any comments, "What you're doing now; looking for Kakarott, fixing the Gravity Room and the bots, feeding me. That's how you're helping. You're not flotsam." His lips curved upward into a smirk, "You are much too ugly to be flotsam."

Her head rose and, as he wanted, her eyes flashed with anger, "Excuse me? Look who's talking! You look like something that's been run through a meat grinder a couple times."

He shrugged nonchalantly, "Comes with the job. You, however, pride yourself on your good looks." His grin widened to take on an evil aspect, "Too bad all that pride's going to waste, huh?"

She huffed, "Whatever, Vegeta." She was sick of feeling useless and then having to deal with Vegeta's crap at the end of the day. She needed to get out before she said something she regretted.

Without another word, she pushed her chair back and stood, not glancing at him as she left the kitchen toward the living room.

He frowned after her. Now that he thought about it, maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to say that. He'd hoped her anger would bring her out of whatever she was in, but it seemed to have pushed her in further. He sighed, rolled his eyes, and rose from his chair, finishing off the last of the steaks. He wouldn't be able to train nagging himself over saying that to her.HHH

He followed her into the living room to find only baldy sitting on the couch. Krillin looked nervously at Vegeta and stuffed the last bite of egg roll in his mouth, as if fearing Vegeta had come for that.

Vegeta smirked, not letting the man think anything different, and continued on through the room. He heard Krillin gulp behind him and allowed himself to indulge in the satisfaction one got from shaking someone up.

He followed her scent out the front door to see her walking briskly away from the path, into the woods. He floated up and decided to just follow behind her a ways, seeing where she went and what she was doing. He took to the air just in time as she glanced behind her and he smirked, alighting on a tree a little bit ahead of her and watching as she passed underneath before going to the next tree in the line, waiting till she caught up before he went to yet another tree.

Finally he ran out of trees and watched as Bulma entered the clearing with another backward glance. Vegeta faintly heard the sound of water running over stone and quickly guessed that this was probably a place Bulma came to often. He'd had such a place on Vegeta-sei.

He climbed higher into the tree, which was conveniently on the edge of the clearing, continuing on until he came to a splitting of the branches that naturally pushed back the leaves, allowing him a clear view of where Bulma now was.

She had sat herself at the edge of the deep yet skinny brook, bare feet dangling in the water as she stared into it. The light reflected off the water and caught on her face and he wondered at that until she turned slightly.

Bulma angrily wiped the tear away. It wasn't so much Vegeta's comment, he always said stuff like that, but after she had confessed what she had…. Well, he had tried, in his own way, to dispute her words. She just still didn't feel as if she was doing anything, or if she could do anything. And, frankly, she was scared.

She'd been scared when she had left Earth. She remembered how very brave she had tried to seem, but it wasn't until she ran into the two Saiyans that she realized how very nice it was to lean on someone. Now it seemed that Vegeta had his own problems. She couldn't expect him to drop his to look after hers. It wouldn't be fair. Still-didn't she deserve something?

She let out a light laugh that was slightly mocking. What did she deserve it for? What had she done that was worthy of what every girl wanted? What was that saying? 'Those who want it the most, never get it.' Yep, story of her life. She sighed and trailed her hand in the water.

She jumped almost two feet into the air when a person dropped down beside her to put his own feet into the water. "Are there any fish down there?"

The question was so simple and unexpected that she just stared at him for several seconds. He turned at her silence and met her eyes solidly. "You know, you really need to learn how to walk through the woods without leaving a trail a blind man could follow." He was not smirking as he said it.

She turned her head and stared back down at the water. Not saying anything was her best bet right now. She could feel something inside of her pounding to get out.

Vegeta turned back to the water too, kicking his feet a little. The water was clear and blue, sparkling like a gem being turned in the light. The silence was unnerving and wasn't helping the slight anxiety he was feeling, as if he'd lost something.

"Heh. Kakarott's probably frolicking in some wood somewhere, eating all the animals out of house and home."

Again he was met with silence and he scowled down at his reflection, "Will you talk to me?" The question certainly came out softer than he had intended.

Bulma looked up at him to see him intently studying the brook, as if he had been speaking to it. "What do you want me to say?"

He whipped his head around, his black eyes acting as daggers would. The question, seemingly one she could have answered herself, unaccountably caused him-pain? "I don't care! So I'm not the best conversationalist in the world! It wasn't exactly something Frieza taught! Just say something!"

Bulma's eyes widened at the shining look of hurt in his eyes. "I did say something. You responded with your normal banter and I left to think, alone, which I can't do now."

He stood up suddenly, "Fine. Have fun with your thoughts." The rigid way he walked away had her standing, realizing what she had said and how he had taken it.

"Vegeta. I didn't mean it that way!"

He paused momentarily, not turning around, tone bitter. "Then we understand how the other feels now. Good for us." He took off right after saying it, not giving Bulma a chance to form a response.

She sat down in the grass as his form vanished and seriously considered just jumping in the brook and drowning. Now she'd alienated the only one who could understand her position and she didn't even understand how she'd done it.

What had he meant by that last comment he'd thrown back at her? Was he saying he hadn't meant what he'd said earlier to come out the way it had? She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, feeling much worse than she had been feeling.

<~>

The girl slipped silently through the woods, peering through the branches to glimpse the flame-haired man and the blue-haired woman just as the flame-haired man flew away. She watched as the other sat down right where she had been standing. She frowned.

She looked back the way she had come. She'd left him somewhere along the way, but he had really been annoying her. He wanted to take things so slow and she really just wanted to have a little fun. She could think of no better way to have fun then to see where this blue-haired girl lived.

The scent of death still clung to her and all of nature went silent. She wasn't like them, and she frankly didn't want to be. However, something tugged on her about the man and woman. They'd had a fight, obviously. He hadn't looked happy when he'd flown away and she didn't look happy now. She could go talk to her, find out what happened and ask some questions the scene had brought up. She sneered and shook her head.

Turning, she started down the path the woman had come here by. She would watch and wait. Perhaps she would find something fun to do.

<~>

Yamcha gave a sideways glance to Piccolo; not believing the Namek could be this pessimistic. "What do you mean 'we might not able to stop it'? I certainly will not stand aside and just let the Earth be destroyed by that lizard!"

Piccolo rolled his eyes, continuing his flight to their destination. He spoke as if he was answering Yamcha's disbelief, "I can't believe you humans can be so near-sighted. I'm just saying we might want to prepare for it. You yourself said we'd need the dragonballs. We spent three days gathering them and today getting senzus.

"You've spoken to this Vegeta character and he says our training will be a waste. You felt that Saiyan's power even through the ki suppresser. He was stronger than both of us combined. If he says Frieza is stronger than that, we should prepare for the worst."

Yamcha shook his head. "And I still say that all we need to do is find Kakarott and get him and Vegeta together. As a team they can beat Frieza. Miss Briefs has obviously retrieved Vegeta and is in hiding with him as I suggested. Now all we have to do is find Kakarott. We give Vegeta and him senzus and BAM, they're ready to go unleash at Frieza."

Piccolo turned his head to the man flying beside him, "As you so aptly told General Ribery, these Saiyans are not our soldiers. You have yet to tell either of them your plans. What if they don't want to help Earth? Why would they want to?"

Yamcha wondered if the Namek was really wondering this or if he was making Yamcha sort through his thoughts. "Why in the world would they have risked their necks for one human girl?" He cocked an eyebrow at Piccolo, smirking slightly with his warm brown eyes twinkling, "I think one of the Saiyans has a crush on Miss Briefs, and I'm pretty sure she feels the same."

Piccolo sneered at the other man, "You're putting the fate of Earth in the hands of a human emotion. I hate to tell you this, Yamcha, but the Saiyans aren't human. They're Saiyan."

Yamcha glared, "I know they're not human, Piccolo! But I just have a feeling, okay? Can't you let me have my 'inane hopes and wishes'?"

Piccolo turned grim, mouth set downward, "No. Too much is at stake-" He suddenly looked down. "Radditz is at it again."

Yamcha sighed, "Then again, we might just be outnumbered, old friend."

Piccolo chuckled his agreement and both men swerved downwards into the woodland beneath Mt. Paozu.

A/N: Whew! That was difficult. Hey, I don't like Kakarott and I don't like ChiChi, so it was hard. Well, that was an uninformative chapter. Another day passed. Three more days? Jeez! Whatever shall be done…. You guys are gonna hate me, but it must be done…alas! Um, the scariest part of this story… "…with his warm brown eyes twinkling…". My goodness! I can't believe I just gave YAMCHA warm, brown eyes that twinkled…. I need medical help, going into cardiac arrest…(dies) (comes back) Next…chapter…. (sorry, had to do that Vegeta-dies-on-Namek looooooong death scene) (dies)

"He opened his eyes with a start as-something pushed into his mind forcefully. It was not a voice, not a presence, more like a feeling-a warning? He looked around, now noticing the mountain range he had stumbled upon. Below him was a quiet, darkening wood. Beyond that was an entire section of that same wood that was flattened. To the right- Whoa, back up!

He focused on the flattened section, looking at it with wide eyes. Halting and moving down, he tried to see what could have caused such a phenomenon. It seemed to be a perfect circle of smashed trees and he had a feeling that whatever was in the center was the cause."

Oh, what's that, hm? Well, you shall see…. I'm gonna love this! ^_^

Masamune: Well, I serve to please.

Susan: (holds ears) Ow! Yelling bad for author's ears! Aw, she's just being a 'pain in the butt'. So you know, I equate my mom with Frieza. Ain't I nice? Lol Well, he made an appearance. Looks to have made more than just that however. My first K/CC lime O.O

JadedBest: I hope so too. I'm not going up until she is…. I spent four days at my parent's house and I'm just now getting put back together! lol (crosses arms across chest) Do not! 'Sentimentality makes me retch', to quote Vegeta. O.o I do believe it…. Mirai Trunks is a pansy…. If he ever did talk to me and wanted to, you know, go to my room and prove to me he's his father's son, I might reconsider my opinion. (nasty grin)

KangaKilla: Nope. I had lemonade and that makes you go, so I wasn't very constipated…. (ugh, sometimes I can be a little too vulgar…)