Quick Note: Hey. Long time no write. To get the creative juices flowing I have written a little one-shot. It takes place at the end of the Buu Saga. It is the evening after the party at Capsule Corp. and Vegeta is feeling a little insecure about a joke Chi-Chi made to Bulma regarding Goku. Can Bulma convince him his concerns are unfounded? Just an FYI - I went by the Japanese version for this one… Enjoy…

Never Enough

"I wonder if Son-Kun isn't going to come after all."

The sound of his mate's concerned voice echoed through the prince's ears as he turned the scalding shower water off.

"Are you that concerned about it? Ah! So that's it, Bulma-san! You like Goku-sa, don't you? You'd best give up on him! I'm far and away prettier, after all."

Kakarrot's harpy had to be out of her mind if she truly believed she was prettier than his mate. Clearly it had been a joke. The boisterous laughter of the idiots surrounding them had proven as much. He had even joined in the amusement with a deep chuckle of his own. But after he had opened his eyes, and the immediate amusement of jest had faded, the embarrassed look his wife displayed filtered through Vegeta's mind.

She had almost looked frightened when Chi-Chi made the accusation that Bulma might like the bumbling third-class in a vein that was something other than platonic. Her slender fingers had been pressed perplexedly against her lips, until the suggestion had been made. She had taken a deep breath and then contracted her hand into a fist, clenching it closely to her chest as her crystal blue eyes widened in astonishment. The gasp she accompanied it with was nothing short of shaken. Of course her disposition changed the moment the allegation switched to an attack on her vanity. She huffed and looked away, and then her idiot of an ex refocused the attention onto Kakarrot's harpy with a comical insult of his own.

No one had seemed to observe what Vegeta did at that moment. Perhaps it was because he was reading too much into a bland exchange. Or perhaps it was because no man dared to pay such close attention to his mate's reactions. Even after more than ten years of being with her, her power of drawing his attention was just as potent as ever, imprinting nearly every breath, word, expression or action onto his mind. But this one, tonight, seemed to stick out more prominently than any other.

Stepping out of the shower, Vegeta reached out to grasp a drying cloth when to his irritation he realized there was not one. Grinding his teeth he looked to the floor to see if it had fallen, when the scenario was disproved he grumbled, "I know there was one here when I came in."

Shaking some of the excess water from his body, Vegeta headed out of the bathroom to retrieve another towel from the linen closet. He stopped dead in his tracks not more than one step out of the room.

"Ah, just the way I like you, naked from head to toe." His flirtatious mate stood proudly in nothing but her black lace bra and panties she had worn under that conservative green dress she had selected for the party. He liked this look much better. "I suppose you were looking for this," she pulled from behind her back the towel she had somehow managed to steal without his notice. Dangling it off of her middle finger she casually asked, "I guess you want to dry off?" She took a few cautious steps forward before stopping just inches away from him, "Mind if I do the honors?" Her eyes raked over his skin, landing momentarily on his growing arousal before finding his gaze once more.

With no other encouragement than a stiff nod, Vegeta's eyes slowly fell shut as he felt the towel touch his body. "Insatiable wench," he hissed through clenched teeth as his muscles trembled against her hot trail down his chest.

"Don't be angry with me," her mischievous digits guided the linen dangerously close to his erection before dropping to her knees and outlining the muscles of his toned thighs, "You'rethe one that ignites my 'insatiable' hunger." She circled the towel around the back of his legs before lifting it flat over his rear. After striking him with a playful slap that caused his eyes to open, she pulled the towel up to wrap around his neck, "All dry." Her lips formed a smirk that honored him. "Too bad it won't last long," she puffed out her bottom lip in a mock pout.

"Oh?" Vegeta's formerly immobile arms slowly reached out to circle the slender waist of his stunning mate. "And just why is that?" he pressed her against his enflamed flesh, desperate to feel her against him.

"Because," she teased him once more by offering her lips and then retracting them quickly. Shifting them over to bite his ear, she whispered, "in a matter of minutes I am going to have you sweating beneath me."

The Saiya-jin released another low growl before he chuckled, thoroughly amused, "Beneath you?" His hand cupped her still firm behind as he lifted her into the air. She immediately accommodated him by wrapping her legs around his waist. "If anyone is going to be beneath anyone," he laid her on their neatly made bed, "it will be you," he crawled atop of her, "under me." He crushed his lips to hers, having no further patience for her games. He had wanted to be inside her ever since he sat watching her swaying her hips on the dance floor earlier that evening. In fact, after he sated his hunger for her, he might even have to encourage a private encore.

"I was terribly proud of you tonight," the sound of his mate's voice after he broke their kiss resonated in his ears. "Not only were you on your best behavior, but at times you were, dare I say, social."

"Hmm… And that pleased you?" he casually asked as he slipped his hands under her arched back to unhook her bra.

"Very much," Bulma lifted her arms slightly so her husband could slide off the straps. Once her first arm was freed she slid her fingers into his still damp hair as she confessed, "my heart practically flipped after Goku invited you to come away from your secluded corner and, to my shock, you actually did. I thought it was awfully considerate of him to want to include you. You two really seem to have put your differences behind you."

Vegeta flinched the moment his longtime adversary was mentioned, "Yes, of course, Kakarrot's quite the humanitarian." Lord, did the woman know how to ruin the mood! Pushing himself back on his knees, memories of his earlier mental debate resurfaced. Crossing his arms, Vegeta stared at his mate accusingly, "You seemed awfully pleased when Kakarrot finally showed up."

A long silent pause engulfed the room.

After staring blankly at her mate for several seconds in complete bewilderment, Bulma blinked slowly before answering. "Well sure, Goku is one of my hardest friends to track down for any sort of gathering." She paused, trying to reorient herself before adding, "But right now if you do not mind, I would rather be debating who is going to be on top than Goku's propensity for chronic absenteeism." Reaching out to grasp Vegeta's neck to pull him into a kiss, Bulma fell short as he dodged her embrace. "Vegeta!?" she cried as a mildly angered Saiya-jin prince lifted himself off the bed and began pacing back and forth across the room.

Halting his pacing, Vegeta asked sternly, "You would never dare lie to me, would you, Bulma?" An almost sinister tone laced his voice as he crossed his arms to eye his wife.

"Lie to you?" Bulma reflected her husband's stance as she knelt in the center of the bed, crossing her arms as she tried to make some sense of what he was suddenly having a mild fit over. "What the hell are you talking about? I would never lie to you; how could you even suggest that?"

Silence; Vegeta continued his pacing, considering his next choice of words carefully. Once he decided upon them, he stalked back to the bed, stopping right in front of his mate. "Ok, forget the word 'lie.' How about omitting a truth in hopes of maintaining the status-quo?"

More silence.

Rubbing her temples, Bulma slowly began to mumble, "I walked into the room… I stole your towel from the bathroom… We flirted… Ended up on the bed… You're accusing me of lying." She shook her head, and cleared her throat before raising her voice to speak clearly, "yep, I definitely just missed something. What just made your mind wander completely off the map?"

"My mind?" Vegeta accused, "You're the one who thought of Kakarrot right before we were about to mate!"

"This is about Goku?" Bulma raised a befuddled brow. "What happened, Vegeta? I thought the two of you got past all your issues after the fusion."

"This has nothing to do with my relationship with Kakarrot on the field of battle," his tone was clipped and cold as he spun around and inelegantly lowered himself to sit on the edge of the bed, "But it has everything to do with your relationship with him."

"My relationship?" Bulma crawled to the edge of the bed and swung her legs over the end. Sitting adjacent to her husband, she responded with mild irritation, "Goku's always been like a little brother to me. He's practically family. If that bothers you I am sorry but-"

"A brother?" Vegeta repeated slowly, almost menacingly as he turned to look down at his wife, "Is that really it?"

Letting out a frustrated groan, Bulma exhaustedly questioned, "Vegeta, where is all this suddenly coming from?"

Returning his gaze to the floor, Vegeta was silent for several minutes before he finally confessed, "Your reaction… when Chi-Chi accused you of… eh… 'liking' Kakarrot… concerned me; and the fact that you had the gall to mention him while we are in b-why are you laughing?" The sound of his mate's snickering caused his head to jerk to the side, where he observed her delicate fingers covering her lips in a weak attempt to hide her inappropriate behavior. "You think this is funny!?"

Bulma bit her bottom lip as she calmed her temperament. "Oh, Vegeta," she reached up to circle her arms around her husband's neck as she turned to straddle his waist. "I'm laughing," she paused until she settled herself comfortably over his thighs, "because your thinking that my feelings for Goku are anything more than platonic is simply ludicrous. Chi-Chi was joking. If anything, I was surprised because normally she is not that witty. Why would you think otherwise?"

Their foreheads met as Vegeta lifted his arms to circle his wife's waist, keeping her securely in his embrace, exactly where she was meant to be. "I just have to wonder…" he paused again, a usual sign that what he was about to admit was grave. "You know better than anyone that while I may pretend my pride can protect me from all truths I wish not to hear, deep down it doesn't. I know Kakarrot is a better man than me. I know he's better looking than me. And I know he has more to offer a woman than I do. So I cannot say I would blame you for… being interested in him. Perhaps not 'in love' per say, but to… to 'like' the idea of having better. I just would prefer you'd be honest about it."

For yet another time in the short period the two had regained each other's presence that evening, they sat staring at each other in silence until Bulma found the words to articulate her shock. "Oh my Dende," her entire body slouched in his arms. Lifting her hands to encircle her mate's face, Bulma separated their heads so that she could look into her husband's eyes, "Do you actually believe that?" The moment he lowered his eyes from hers she had her answer. "Vegeta," she moaned his name in a half broken sob. "Have I taught you nothing over the years? Has my standing by you no matter how deeply you have hurt me with your malingering, cruelty, selfishness, aloofness, laziness-"

"I'm not lazy!" he interjected to refute the first accusation he could.

"Oh?" Bulma raised a surprised brow, "and just when was the last time you took out the garbage, mowed the lawn or stayed the entire time with me as I shopped?"

"Not shopping with you has nothing to do with laziness; it's about preserving my sanity."

"Or what's left of it," the response was muttered so quietly that without his sensitive Saiya-jin hearing, Vegeta would have not picked it up.

"So you have put up with me," he attempted to steer the conversation back in the direction he wanted it to be, "I am not claiming you haven't, just that if the option was available, case in point the third-class idiot, you might not choose to stay and 'put up' with me."

With a heavy sigh, Bulma disentangled herself from her husband and rose to stand in front of him. "I am not sure which part I need to refute first," she said more to herself than her mate before she crossed her arms and decided on a course of action. "Alright, look at me, Vegeta." She accompanied the command with a presentation sweep of her hands through the air, gesturing to her still firm body. "Do you see just how hot I am?" She pointed to some of her best features before moving on to her next example, "Have you looked at this house recently?" She waved her hands around the massive room, gesturing to the more expensive pieces of furniture that decorated it.

"Do you know how much money I am worth? My occupation? How brilliant I am?" Her hands returned to her hips. "Not to be arrogant, but I'm as close to the perfect woman as any man is going to find on this planet!" She strolled back to him with a confident smirk upon her face, an expression she could have only mastered after having spent years with the 'king' of superiority himself. "Do you honestly think I chose you because you were all I could get? I can have any man I want, including," she poked him in the chest with her index finger, letting it linger as she as finished with, "your favorite rival, Kakarrot."

Bulma immediately shifted her finger up her husband's chest, over his throat, and then stopped at his lips to prevent him from responding to her flippancy, "I am not finished yet." She lifted her finger not a moment before she was certain he would not try to interrupt her. "To the suggestion that Goku is a better man than you, I might be inclined to believe it on a few points. He certainly has a cleaner past than you, and a sweeter disposition, BUT as far as his abilities as a husband, which currently are of particular interest to this dispute, his is grossly sub par. Goku couldn't tell you what Chi-Chi's favorite flower is because the poor man doesn't have any sense when it comes to anything that has to do with romance. His idea of a date is taking her to watch grown men beat each other up! When given the choice he would choose training instead of spending time with her. I mean, Dende, Vegeta, you are comparing yourself to a man who chose to stay dead for seven years instead of being with his wife, a wife he abandoned while she was pregnant with his child! And as we saw tonight, his desire to be everyone's hero all too easily seduces him away from his loved ones."

She paused for a long breath before relating her tirade to her focus, "Now, I understand since Goku has frequently… bested you on the battle field that you may feel inclined to believe in every realm of life he must be better than you, but I can assure you, you're wrong. Now, granted, you haven't exactly been the perfect husband over the years, but you have never abandoned me for any lasting period of time. You're romantic, in your own way; like when you always come to escort me home from the office if I end up working after dark, or when you suffer through those awful Capsule Corp. galas, even though you hate such social gatherings, just so I do not have to spend the evening alone. And of course then there's all the little stuff, like the one time you flew halfway around the planet just to find me a yellow orchid that was in full bloom for my birthday, which you have never once forgotten. You have always made me feel like out of all the people in the universe I am the only one that matters to you."

"That's because you are," he interrupted her with the soft admission. "You and the boy are all that I give a damn about." He could see that now more clearly than ever, their deaths had highlighted that very truth brilliantly.

"Do you see, Vegeta? That's exactly my point." Bulma sat back down beside her mate as she cupped his stern face and twisted it to meet hers. "Goku is a wonderful man, but I think to some degree he has been spoiled in life. He makes friends with everyone he meets; he has countless numbers of people across the planet who are indebted to him for all the good works he has preformed. I mean, that's all well and good, but I think his love for the greater community of the world sometimes makes him take for granted his immediate family. Not just Chi-Chi and Gohan and Goten, but me, Krillin, Yamcha, some of his oldest friends who he never comes to visit. That's why I was so upset when he did not show up today. For someone so caring, he has an amazing propensity to be completely thoughtless when it comes to his loved ones. But family priorities happen to be one respect you have in recent years far surpassed him in. And more than because of those romantic reasons I just cited, but because… well, you have experienced so little love in your life, Vegeta, I think now that you have it, it's more precious to you than it ever has been or needed to be with Goku."

Bulma shifted her grasp so she could run her right thumb over Vegeta's lips as she concluded, "Do you understand what I am telling you, Vegeta? I am not 'settling' for you, I am choosing to be with you not just because you are the man I love, which you are, but because you are a good man, a good husband and a good father. So no, when I look at Goku I do not see what I could have, I see just how fortunate I am to have a man in my life who, despite all his pride, emotional damage and isolation from the world, he has found some way to 'put up' with me over the long years. You know for all my beauty, wealth and intelligence," she flashed him a wide smile, "I still have plenty of features that can, and have, sent men screaming in the opposite direction."

With a partial smirk, Vegeta kissed the digit pressed to his lips before he grasped his mate's hand to interlace it with his. Yes, his mate was a spitfire, but he would not want her any other way. She would not have been worthy of him if she weren't so strong. "You're right," the proud man's smirk turned to an atypical smile, "Kakarrot's not a strong enough man for you, and clearly unworthy. You're better off with me."

"Ah, finally, the voice of reason," Bulma twisted to resume her position in her husband's lap. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she brushed her lips against his as she confessed, "I love you with every fiber of my being, Vegeta. No matter what you do, my love just never subsides. No matter how many years, months, weeks, days, hours or minutes we are together, the passion, the need, it's never quenched. I will never, ever, get enough of you. So please, trust me when I tell you that it is quite impossible for me to desire, even consider, another man. You simply have raised the bar too high for anyone to ever hope to reach it."

Having no self-restraint left, Bulma finally set the kindling ablaze and pressed her lips to Vegeta's in a deep, heated kiss. Running her fingers through his thick ebony mane, she suddenly pulled her lips away as she abruptly recalled something he had said earlier. "And by the way," she gasped out between pants, "I do not know who told you Goku was better looking than you, but they must either be blind or have a grossly skewed idea of handsomeness; because I can assure you, there is no man I have ever laid eyes upon who has more perfectly sculpted features, both muscularly and facially, than you. Are we clear on that?"

"Perfectly," Vegeta pressed his mate tightly back against his torso, strangely feeling invigorated by the compliment. Though he felt certain she had to simply be humoring him with the judgment, he could not help but believe that when she looked at him, really looked at him, she truly saw, and thus meant, every word she said.

"Can't you feel it?" Bulma asked as she began nudging her mate to lie back upon the bed. She locked one hand on either side of the bed next to his neck as she begged his recognition, "How deeply we are entrenched within each other." She crawled over him, alternating between licking and kissing the skin of his chest as she straddled his waist. "How badly we need each other," she felt two strong hands accept her invitation by grabbing onto the ends of her panties. With a rough pull, Vegeta tore the fabric in pieces to quickly free that which he needed to become one with, the only woman he has ever, will ever love, whether he could admit it in those words or not.

"Bulma," he panted the word that he knew would always undo her as he guided her hips over his erection. "Ride me," he demanded as he helped her push down on him, surrounding him, swallowing him alive. "Bulma," he cried her name again as she began an agonizingly erotic rhythm, up and down, up and down, up and down. The sway of her breasts as they glistened with sweat above him, the soft moaning of his name, and the feel of gently stroking her silky hips as he helped her keep up the rhythm completely undid him. Between her confession of undying love for him and the sensuality her body oozed, he could not hold on…

"Vegeta!" the sound of his name being screamed echoed through his ears just as he let go, comforted by the realization that her body had been just as ready as his was. As always, their bodies had been so in sync that they released at almost exactly at the same moment. No two people could possibly be more perfectly coupled with each other. He felt her juices flowing over his pulsating member as she collapsed atop of him. "Vegeta," she whispered his name softly as she buried her head in the crook of his neck. "Never enough…" she repeated her deduction, knowing fully well it could be applied to every aspect of their relationship.

"Good," Vegeta grunted as he wrapped his arms around his precious mate and rolled them over so he would keep her securely bound to him for tonight, forever. Keeping himself buried inside her, Vegeta indirectly confessed the equality of the, if not perhaps more desperate, need he would never be able to fully sate with a thousand eternities together, "Let's keep it that way."

The End

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note: OK… Just a quickie… I wanted to put a little something up to test the waters before I got back into posting. It is December and December, as I promised, is going to be the magic month! The final chapter of Surviving Together: Retribution will be up in about a week. The first chapter to Unwanted, my new fic, will be up about a week after that. I am looking forward to getting back to posting. So until the next update, happy reading…