Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Only What You Can Give ❯ Library Encounters ( Chapter 2 )

Bulma sat up late into the night thinking about her latest argument with Yamcha. That had been happening more often now and for the first time she wondered why. Why were they fighting all the time? Was it, as he said, because she was a covetous jealous girlfriend? Or was it perhaps something else entirely? She closed her eyes and pictured Yamcha, her desert pirate and felt a sudden thrill run through her at the memory of that long ago man. Then she pictured him today and felt…nothing. She felt nothing for the Yamcha he had become. Was it the same with her? Had she changed too? She certainly thought so. So perhaps it wasn't so much that they hated each other, that simply they didn't love each other anymore. The idea did not hurt as much as she thought it would and that in itself provided her with all the answers she needed.

It was late and she was tired, but sleep was fleeting. She needed something to help her nod off. Her father had a rather large collection of impossibly boring books on history that would do the trick so she rose from her bed and prepared to grab her robe. She paused, her hand poised over the garment. She didn't need it really, and it was still very warm out, too warm in her opinion. She would be fine in her T-shirt and underwear. Besides, it wasn't as though anyone was up.

She tried to move as quietly as possible through the sleeping house. Even the robots were not out at this hour. She stopped outside the library. There was a light on. Mentally she reviewed the list of people who could be in there. Certainly not her mother and father, they both tended to retire early. Goku didn't read very well and Chichi would have announced herself. Krilian and Roshi both would have tried to get a look at her breasts so that left Yamcha. She felt a righteous anger build up inside her. Yamcha was in her library reading her books without her permission. She stormed through the door and froze at the sight that greeted her.

Vegeta sat, or rather floated several inches above a sofa, a book in his hands. He seemed to be almost finished from the placement of his mark. His eyes, alert and intelligent surveyed her then dismissed her. She took a step closer trying to make out the cover then gave it up as a lost cause. She turned instead to the shelves, trying to find something to meet her needs. She thought she heard Vegeta growl something and turned to look at him. His eyes were boring into her, taking in every detail of her body and clothes. When they at last found her eyes, she saw neither desire nor enjoyment but rather disgust.

"Don't you humans ever wear anything? I know places where you would be flogged for showing half that much skin."

She squared her shoulders and turned to face him. "How I dress in my house is my business and I'll thank you to stay out of that."

She saw him shrug and return to his book while she tried to rein in her temper. She reached for a book and something suddenly occurred to her. She turned back to Vegeta.

"He was going to attack me, wasn't he?"

"Yes." Vegeta's response was not much more than a growl.

"And you protected me? Why?"

"Because I don't like Yamcha." She did not say anything and he looked up to see her face twisted with rage. "What? Did you think I did it for you? I wanted to see the terror in his eyes. I wanted him to know just how helpless and pathetic he really is. I suppose I should thank you for providing me with the opportunity."

Her fists were clenched at her sides, but her anger was slowly fading. Deep down, she was grateful, though she would never admit it to him. Instead she reached over and snatched the book from his hands. He opened his mouth to protest until he saw that she had a finger stuck in on the page he was at. After a moment of examining the cover she handed it back to him. Wordlessly she pulled two other books from the shelves and set them beside him before taking a book herself and leaving. Vegeta watched her go then picked up the books. The first was called The Iliad and the second was The Odyssey. He decided he'd read them next, after all, she had yet to steer him wrong.