A/N: Same old drill: I do not own DBZ or The Cure

Chapter Fifteen: I'm Sorry

The annoying rattle of the grounds keeper's lawn mower was the sound that actually pulled Bulma from her dreamless sleep. Her subconscious had been beeping it's own internal alarm for the past hour, but she had managed to subdue the persistent nagging… until now.

She rolled over and squinted at the clock, it read 7:55 a.m. Groaning, she hoisted herself out of bed and stumbled over to the window. She rolled up the blinds and squinted out into the yard. Once her eyes adjusted to the early morning sunlight, she was able to see Arlen the grounds keeper puttering contently on his custom-made riding lawn mower.

Bulma threw open the window and leaned out, "Arlen! Do you have any idea what friggen' time it is? It's eight o'clock in the fucking morning! You know better than to mow outside of my bedroom this early! Now go and cut grass someplace else!"

The gardener, unable to hear her shouts over the clatter of the implement, only waved a cheerful salutatory greeting to her as he passed by.

Frustrated and pissed off, Bulma slammed the casement shut and flopped back onto her bed. She rubbed her eyes, which were still swollen and sore from her crying jag the night before.

She felt like a dumb shit for having lost her heart over the Saiyan Prince, but things had been going so well, especially last night. That was until she had to go and open her big mouth. She hadn't meant to scare Vegeta or make him suspicious, she was only trying to flirt and let him know, in her own way she thought he was perfect for her.

But he had taken her words literally and stormed off raging and spitting vicious words at her. Bulma sighed and told herself to quit irritating her already sore eyes. She had an obligation to attend tonight's Gala and it would in her best interest not to show up with eyes so red she looked like a stoner.

"Well Bulma, you're awake now, no thanks to the Lawn Mower Man out there. You might as well get this day started. You have to find yourself a new date for tonight," she said aloud to herself.

This would be no easy task. She thought over her options as she grabbed her bathrobe and some clean panties.

'Let's see…Piccolo is much too strange looking. There's no way I could talk my way around his green scales. Yajirobe is a slob, Master Roshi is way too perverted and old, Gohan is too young, Yamcha is going with some smutty centerfold model, and Goku is married. So who is left? That would leave Krillan and Tien…oh Gods…I'd be better off going alone! Bringing Krillen would give Yamcha the last laugh and Tien? It wouldn't be so bad explaining his third eye to everyone but I'm sure he'd insist upon dragging Chiaotzu along with him. My luck no one would recognize him as the former Emperor and think he was my kid. I could just see the headlines now…'

'BULMA BRIEFS ARRIVING AT CHARITY BALL WITH THREE EYED HUSBAND AND DOLL FACED SON.'

The thought made her giggle and if Tien and Chiaotzu weren't so damned impossible to reach, she would actually consider brining them just to see the looks on all of high society's faces when she walked into room.

Bulma left her room and peeked tentatively into Vegeta's room. He was not in there and the room echoed disturbingly of being untouched the night before.

"He never came home last night." she thought sadly. Bulma never dreamed things would end like this. She expected they would continually dance around the subject of sex and their mutual physical attraction of each other until they ended up in bed.

She sated her own morbid curiosity and checked Vegeta's Gravity Room, which was also empty and un-used. Bulma sighed and fought back bitter tears, she had somehow been naïve enough to believe that despite his harsh words the night before, and she would at least find him training.

"He's still angry with me. And maybe he meant what he said last night. You have to face the fact that Vegeta is through with this charade of living together happily ever after. Maybe he is really gone. Maybe I scared him off once and for all."

She went into the bathroom where she undressed robotically and stepped into the shower. She turned on the water until it was scalding hot and slumped down onto floor, sobbing. She hoped somehow the searing spray could burn away the heartache that consumed her.

With no sign of Vegeta, anywhere, she had to admit defeat. It was possible that the single most important person in her life was lost to her, until she could somehow set things right. She felt consumed by a lonely and painful ache as the burden of life without Vegeta weighed heavily down upon her. Loving the Saiyan Prince had been as natural to her as breathing and she now found herself gasping at the loss.

With a feeling of utter hopelessness, Bulma curled herself into a little ball and let the water saturate her saddened soul.

Arlen the Gardener drove his specially made mower into the Capsule Corp garage and parked it in front of the scowling little man. He stepped off of his machine and gave the man an encouraging smile.

The diminutive Saiyan shot the larger man a look of disgust, "Well, did you wake the Woman as I asked?" In truth, the sight of all Earthlings sickened Vegeta, this moron being no exception.

He was a large hulk of a man, much like his former comrade Nappa, with amazingly enough, even less intelligence than his Saiyan body- guard.

Arlen, still smiling, turned a pulled a rag from his pocket and began to lovingly wipe away all grass shards from his mower.

"Uh-huh. Miss Bulma is awake all right, but she is not very happy with me making that noise outside her window and all." The thought of Bulma being angry with him caused Arlen to rub the metal with a joyless fury.

Arlen Banks, Jr. had been in love with Bulma Briefs for years and no amount teasing would convince him to think otherwise. His own mother told him he was a fool to fancy such a pretty and smart girl like Bulma. "There's no way such a classy girl would ever love a stupid, ugly oaf like you Arlen, so give it up!" she would scold him whenever he mentioned an encounter with her.

And it was true, Bulma spent all of her time with those pretty fighter boys, but Arlen was too stubborn to give up hope that someday she would look upon him with same adoration she gave this little bully man in front of him.

Arlen liked most of odd assortment of fighters that visited Capsule Corp from time to time, especially Goku and his boy who were always nice, but not this guy Vegeta. No way, no how! He was so mean he actually gave Arlen the shivers whenever he was unlucky enough to cross his path, even though he was twice the smaller man's size.

Vegeta chuckled wickedly, "Good. I prefer the Woman when she is feisty. But then again, anything is better than her obnoxious caterwauling, that noise makes my skin crawl. What about the flowers? Did you do as I asked?" he demanded.

He was growing impatient as he watched the lumbering ox wipe clean his riding machine. He needed to apologize to Bulma so he could resume his training. A nap would be helpful too, but he had wasted too much of his precious time already this morning. Sleep was the last on his list of priorities right now.

Arlen nodded, not meeting the intensity of the smaller man's glare. He had done as the Vegeta had asked, but not for his benefit. Arlen had only helped because he knew the end result would make Bulma happy, really happy.

"My mum even put some cut flowers into a vase and dressed them up all pretty. I'm going to take them over to Miss Bulma right now," he said, shuffling his large boot through the grass shavings. His mother had insisted on arranging the flowers into her best vase and Arlen couldn't wait to give them to Bulma. Mrs. Banks had a talent for taking a bunch of flowers and turning them into a masterpiece. He shot a wary glance at Vegeta to gage his reaction.

Much to the gardener's relief, the flame-haired man nodded, "Excellent idea, although I'm sure it wasn't yours," he said smirking. "You deliver the floral arrangement and I will clean up." Vegeta had caught a glimpse of himself in the side mirror of one of the air bikes. He was filthy from digging in dirt all morning and wanted to at least have a clean face when he finally faced Bulma.

Arlen nodded again and made a hasty but graceless exit. Vegeta shook his head and grumbling about 'all Earthlings being a waste of oxygen', left the garage to wash up at the main CC house.

Bulma wiped a smudge across the foggy bathroom mirror. She administered two splashes of eye drops to each eye and blinked away the stinging sensation. She felt much better now that she had cried again. She seriously hoped she had gotten it all out of her system, lest she meet up with the Saiyan this morning. She knew he hated weakness and crying was her Achilles' heel.

She took her tiny silk robe off of the wall hook, slipped it on and tied it shut. She had to get some coffee into her system before heading off to her parent's house for her barrage of beauty appointments. But first, she was going to call Chi-Chi and beg use of Goku for the evening.

She had decided going stag would be too embarrassing and Goku was her only hope. She knew luring her childhood friend would be easy enough, as the dinner was an exquisitely catered buffet; she just hoped Chi-Chi would take pity on her plight.

Bulma knew explaining her predicament with the Saiyan Prince would fall upon deaf ears with her judgmental friend. Chi-Chi hated all of Goku's friends, especially Vegeta.

Besides, no one but Yamcha even knew they were living together and it was better to keep it this way. Having to face the whole tribe with her woe-de-jected heart would be humiliating.

"No, I'll just tell Chi-Chi that I was stood up at the last minute. That's basically true anyway." Her only trouble would lie in the fact that Goku was way too big for Vegeta's designer tuxedo. She doubted Goku had anything else dressy, since he lived in his orange gi day in and day out.

She shuddered at the thought of shopping with her child-hood friend. "I'll just have to bribe him with a really good lunch," she decided as she popped a bagel into the toaster.

Bulma was just settling down to her breakfast when she heard a knock at her front door. "I wonder who that could be?" she murmured as she went to answer the insistent banging. Part of her secretly harbored the hope that it was Vegeta, coming home to beg her forgiveness.

But what if he hasn't come back to apologize? Maybe he's just come back to collect his things? She made a hasty decision to add incentive for the Saiyan to make amends and darted back to the bathroom for the damp towel she had just used to dry herself. She quickly wrapped it around her head and untied her robe. She removed her underwear, as an after thought and stuffed them her pocket.

She gave herself a once over in the full- length mirror; she looked as if she had just stepped out of the shower. Wet tendrils of hair hung out of her head wrap and her open robe revealed both generous amounts of her breasts and blue tufted pubic hair.

"This should do the trick," she thought with wicked satisfaction. The pounding on the door had increased to an impatient Vegeta-like level and she ran to the door in hopes of preventing it's future destruction.

She threw open the entrance and exclaimed, "My Gods! Don't destroy the front door, just come in for Kami's sake!" She had prepared a look of false irritation which rapidly changed to horror as she realized the visitor was not her beloved Saiyan, but Arlen the grounds keeper.

Arlen stood dumbfounded for a moment not comprehending her greeting. He held the vase of flowers awkwardly in his left arm and nearly dropped it as he ogled her near naked form.

Bulma took an involuntary step back and shrieked. She swiftly covered her nakedness and struggled to conceal her mortification.

"Arlen, wh-what are you doing here?" she stammered retreating further into the safety of her home.

The burly man took this as an invitation and crossed the thresh-hold into the Great Room. "I brought you these flowers," he answered offering her the vase. His eyes never once left her chest and the dangerous glint in his eyes made Bulma uneasy. Panic was beginning to spread throughout her body like a wild fire. Arlen had always creeped her out, but before this moment she had assumed him harmless.

She motioned for him to set the flowers on the couch. She was too afraid to move any closer to him and she had no desire to invite him further into her home.

Bulma swallowed nervously and forced an uneasy smile, "Thank you for the flowers Arlen, they're beautiful. May I ask what occasion would merit such a lovely gift from you and your wonderful mother?"

Bulma was trying desperately to remain calm and had decided to use Arlen's over-bearing mother in hopes of diffusing the uneasy situation.

Arlen ignored her request to place them on the couch and walked towards her kitchen instead. He set the flowers on the table and arranged the vase so the blue bow tied around the neck of the crystal faced Bulma.

Bulma had used his distraction to make her way closer to the door. She held it open as an invitation for his departure. She had known the younger man for years, his father having been the previous groundskeeper. His limited intelligence worried her, as he was clearly misreading the entire situation.

"I gave you those flowers because I like you," he said slowly. He made no move to leave the kitchen.

She again forced another smile and motioned to the exit. "Wow, that's really sweet Arlen. You'll have to thank your mom for me, too. I've never seen flowers quite like those before and I am touched by your thoughtfulness. But you'll have to excuse me. I have a million things to do today and I'm afraid I don't have much time to chat. Perhaps you and your mother could join me for lunch one day…"

Bulma's voice faltered as Arlen began to approach her with an unexpected speed. He quickly reached her before and she could react he grabbed her into a rough embrace.

"You don't seem to understand Miss Bulma. I love you and by the way you opened the door, I know you love me too," he told her in a dreamy whisper. He kicked the open door shut with his foot and attempted to place a kiss on her lips.

Bulma turned her face away, giving him a futile shove. She squirmed frantically to escape from the pressure of his bear-like arms.

Irritated Arlen grabbed her by one arm and began to pull her towards the couch. She uttered a terrified screech as he shoved her roughly down on the velvety cushions.

She landed sprawling, displaying enough flesh to make him lick his lips in hungry anticipation.

"You don't want to do this Arlen," she implored. "You're wrong…I don't love you. I'm in love with Vegeta and if he finds out what you've done he'll…"

"Kill you," growled a low voice from behind them. Both Bulma and Arlen turned in surprise to see a very angry Vegeta standing in the doorway. Radiating fury, the Saiyan Prince stormed into the Great Room and swung a vicious fist into the larger man's gut.

Arlen expelled a loud 'whoof' and hit the floor like a falling Redwood. Vegeta picked up the massive man pinned him against the wall.

"I suggest you gather your things and leave the premises immediately. If I see you again I will destroy you. Do you understand?"

The injured man nodded in horror. Vegeta released him and watched as Arlen half-scrambled and half-crawled his way out of the house. He turned and looked at Bulma. "Are you all right?" he asked gently.

Bulma sat wide-eyed, still in shock over the amazing rescue. Deciding that events just recently played out were genuine, she released a loud sob and rushed into Vegeta's arms.

"You came back," she cried and covered his face with soft little kisses.

He pulled her into a secure embrace and allowed her affections until her lips traveled to his own. He pulled away from her and regarded her with inquisitive silence.

Bulma searched his eyes hoping to find an open door to his emotions. His usual piercing intensity was replaced with tenderness and apology.

Vegeta wiped away a renegade tear with his thumb and said softly, "I'm sorry that I hurt you and I'm sorry that I was not here to protect you."

He watched as forgiveness washed through Bulma's eyes with tears of gratitude. "You came back," she whispered and pulled him close until their lips were once again united.

This time Vegeta returned her kiss.