Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Birth of a Prince ❯ A Truce of Sorts ( Chapter 17 )

Part 17 A Truce of Sorts…

Early afternoon found Capsule Corp in more than its usual chaos. After breakfast, Bulma had Trunks and Goten practice walking through the house without knocking over stuff with their tails. The cleaning-bots got a LOT of use.

Vegeta had cleaned and dressed Sage's burns, lightly covering the healing salve with a layer of gauze that Sage immediately tried to chew off. After his father explained to him the importance of keeping it on, the chibi pouted, but obeyed.

After eating himself, Vegeta handed Sage off to his mother and dragged Goku into the gravity room to spar. Bulma came to the unwelcome discovery that she could no longer rely on Sage to stay put on a blanket with some toys. Despite his painful burns, he continued combat-creeping, no matter what she said, or how she scolded. He simply would look at her, scowl just like his father, and continue doing whatever he darn well pleased. After a couple of hours, she knew he was hungry again, but didn't quite dare to nurse him, at least not without Vegeta there. They had agreed to try to get Sage to nurse nicely, but if it wasn't possible, then Bulma would continue to use the efficient pump and simply put Sage on half demi formula, and half breast milk out of a bottle for the foreseeable future.

The whole blood thing still slightly disturbed Bulma, but she was coming to terms with it. And Sage hadn't tried to bite her again, for which she was grateful. She didn't mind feeding her son from her body, but she had her limits.

She finally had enough of the boys knocking stuff over, (she suspected they started doing it deliberately, turning it into a game as they did everything else) and had banished them to the yard. She picked Sage up and attempted to feed him a bottle, but he refused to take it. Frowning, she tried again. Sage turned his head, and shoved the bottle away in an unmistakable gesture of rejection. He glared at her, but also made no attempt and gave no signal that he wanted to nurse instead. She tried again with the bottle. This time Sage lost his temper. As he pushed the bottle away again, his ki flared and the bottle exploded, sending a shower of hot demi-formula and melted plastic everywhere.

Bulma sat there drenched and stunned. She didn't hear the door to the gravity chamber burst open, slam shut or Vegeta and Goku hurry into the room. She simply sat there and stared at her furious son, who stared angrily back at her.

Vegeta and Goku skidded to a halt, startled eyes taking in the sodden Bulma, the scowling Sage, and the remains of the hapless bottle. Goku couldn't have stopped it if he had wanted to. A choked giggle permeated the bewildered silence. He tried in vain to suppress it, but it escaped again. In a few seconds, he had slid to the floor and was laughing helplessly, arms clenched over his stomach as he doubled over, tears of hilarity streaming down his face.

Vegeta found the situation somewhat less funny than Goku, but couldn't suppress a smirk of his own as he gazed at Sage's defiant face, his very expression reminiscent of Vegeta's own temper. He was in perfect control of his voice as he asked, "What happened, onna?"

Her voice was barely more than a whisper as she answered, "He was hungry, I know he was, but he won't let me feed him."

Bulma didn't find the state of affairs funny in the slightest. She felt rejected, and very very hurt.

"Kakkarott, go and get another bottle from the refrigerator," said Vegeta. The younger Saiyjin complied silently, as he composed himself with some difficulty.

Sage looked at his father, and held his arms up, chirping for Vegeta to pick him up. Bulma smothered a sob. Vegeta ignored his chibi for the time being and gently stroked the back of Bulma's neck.

"We're going to try this again," he said quietly. "Sage still thinks that you are upset with him, or me. I'm not sure which. Added to which, he's been away from you for a few days. It's ok," he told her, uncharacteristically gentle. "We'll stop this in its tracks. He needs to remember that you are his mother."

Bulma looked at Vegeta, tears in her eyes. "How could he forget that?" she choked.

"He didn't, not really. I think that last night may have had more of an affect on him than we originally figured. He understands us Bulma. He knows what we say." He chuckled slightly. "Although whether or not he actually LISTENS is anybody's guess. But look, he kept the gauze on his arms this morning after I explained to him that it was important."

Bulma muttered, "He completely ignored me when I tried to get him to stop creeping."

"Baka onna, you are not the Prince of Saiyjins. But you are a prince's mother, and he needs to learn to respect that. And so he shall."

Bulma was shocked. Vegeta's tone of voice hadn't changed, it was still the same, composed, gentle, so not Vegeta voice that he had calmed her with. She simply couldn't believe what she was hearing. Neither, it seemed could Sage. She held the squirming chibi on her lap with some difficulty, gasping as his ki flared again.

"None of that," Vegeta said sharply. Sage looked mutinous. Vegeta returned the glare. "I will not repeat myself brat." Scowling, the baby powered down, and held his arms up again for his father to pick him up. Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest and turned away, making a show of watching for Kakkarott to bring in the replacement bottle.

In truth Vegeta wasn't angry much at all with his son. He was inordinately proud of him in fact. The control of that temper tantrum ki flare had been unprecedented. He was also feeling more than a little smug that Sage was rejecting Bulma in favor of him. Smug, yes but he was not surprised. Nevertheless he didn't want that. Regardless of his true feelings for the woman, she was the mother of his children, and she was a good one at that. He could feel how upset Sage was still from last night; hopefully he could nip this in the bud. After all, the boy had to be able to be left with someone some of the time. He had to train after all. And he didn't like hurting Bulma. He may not be in love with her, he may love to trade insults with her, but he did not want her to be hurt.

Goku returned with not one but three bottles. Vegeta grunted his thanks, and taking one from him, he handed it to Bulma whose hand closed over it with some trepidation. Vegeta knelt on the floor beside the chair so he was at eye level with the chibi in her lap.

"Vegeta," he said quietly, choosing to use the boy's birth name instead of his chibi name. "You are going to let your mother give you your meal, and you are not going to make a fuss about it. Understand that if you don't, no one else will feed you, neither Kakkarott nor I, until you have done this one simple thing. Your mother is not angry with you, nor with me. Yesterday was a misunderstanding that was all. It is over. Your mother loves you. You will let your mother feed you, and you will obey her as you would me."

That last sentence, thought Vegeta in wry reflection could have been worded better, seeing as how well he actually obeys me. He watched Sage thinking over what he had said, could almost see him wondering just how far he could push his father. Don't try it chibi, thought Vegeta. You won't like the result.

Sage apparently came to a decision, as he hesitantly reached for the bottle his mother held. She offered it to him, and the room let out a collective breath of relief as Sage began to eat quite calmly. Vegeta stroked his son's wild mane of hair once, and stood up to leave.

"Vegeta, wait," said Bulma.

"What is it, onna?" asked Vegeta irritably. "I need to get back to training."

Bulma bit her lip, fiercely suppressing the urge to reply with a sarcastic, barbed retort. "I'd like you all, the boys too, to come to the med lab later so we can run some tests on your tails, if for no other reason than to have a bank of information incase of a medical emergency."

Vegeta thought for a moment. "No," he said finally.

"What?"

"No," he repeated. "It will have to wait until Gohan gets here. He's the one you will need to gather the most information from."

Bulma shook her head slightly. "What, why?" she managed to sputter out.

Vegeta looked at her scornfully. "Because he is going through puberty of course. The effects of the tail regeneration will be most dramatic with him." He smirked. "It will be interesting indeed, to see how those Saiyjin hormones affect sweet, gentle Gohan."

He turned to leave, nearly striding into a brick wall named Kakkarott. "Baka," he growled, not noticing Sage visibly perking from his place on his mother's lap. "What is the matter with you? Let's go already."

Goku didn't appear to hear him. He stood there stuttering, "G…g…Gohan….hormones?" in a dazed sort of voice.

Vegeta growled and grabbed the younger man's wrist. "Come on Kakkarott," he said as he dragged the stunned man back to the gravity room. "I will explain it to you."

Sage, disappointed that his father and Baka had left, went back to eating.

To be continued….