Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Proximity Protection ❯ Yamcha's hesitation ( Prologue )

Proximity and Protection

By Trynia Merin.

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z. Akira Toriyama does. DBZ is licensed and owned by Shonen Jump, Toei Animation Co. Ltd. Shuisha Bird Studios.

 

A/N: Another stupid plot bunny that wouldn't leave me alone. More VxB smut.

 

 

Bulma was concerned. Extremely fraught with worry each time when she had gone to bed recently. She was certain she had heard someone in her bedroom at night in the depths of darkness. The question of just how anyone could get past the world's best security system plagued her, and she had spent most of the mornings sitting in her lab analyzing yards of videotape.

 

Only to find nothing. Was it her imagination that was running away with her? Ever since the mysterious youth had warned the Z warriors of Androids, her mind had spun overtime with the possibilities. They had invaded her sleep as well as her wakeful moments even though she had two powerful warriors both training day and night at Capsule.

 

“What's wrong, Babe?” Yamcha asked, poking his head in the door. Bulma blinked up and looked at him standing there in his orange Turtle School gi. The martial arts shoes on his feet had made no nose when he had stepped inside the door.

 

“Where have YOU been?” she asked, blinking up at him.

 

“Training, where else? Vegeta's not the only one who needs to bust his hump. He's reminded me how I got to work harder to keep up,” Yamcha said, stepping inside.

 

“Wait,” Bulma asked, noticing the backpack he carried over one shoulder. “Are you going away?”

 

“Well I thought I'd go on a training mission, you know?” Yamcha said quietly. Bulma rubbed her eyes, pressing her hand to her forehead as she absorbed the meaning of his words.

 

“Oh is that all?” Bulma asked, glancing through her fingers at him. “And you were just telling me this now? Why didn't you tell me before?”

 

“You`ve been kind of busy lately. Say, what's with the video surveillance footage?” he pointed to the screens near her elbow. Many of them showed Bulma's bedroom from sunset to sunrise. In the large king sized bed Bulma tossed and turned fitfully, waking up periodically and wandering from her bed to the en suite bathroom at least ten times in one night.

 

“Funny you should ask. I've been hearing funny noises at night. I wondered if someone was sneaking in because I can't see ZIP on the footage and yet I could swear…”

 

“Just your imagination hon,” Yamcha waved with a chuckle. “Besides, maybe you're watching too many scary movies?”

 

“Do you think this is the LEAST bit funny? Unless you're the one sneaking around for the shits and grins as part of your latest TRAINING?” Bulma snapped, slamming her hand on the desk. Yamcha leapt back, flinching.

 

“No way Bulma! I was training in West City gym! You may have heard me coming back late at night, but what makes you think I'd be anywhere near your room?” he asked. Then Yamcha flinched again at her answering icy glare.

 

“That's part of the problem isn't it? You're going away; leaving me here all alone with hell knows what!” Bulma grumbled, spinning her chair around to turn away from him.

 

“Bulma seriously, you know things aren't working with you and me lately. And I um… well I'm just too distracted here to train properly,” Yamcha said gingerly, trying to avoid her erupting at him again. She was so bitchy lately he didn't know how to say two words without her going off at him. At least Vegeta shouted back at her when she blew her top. He wasn't so bold, because he knew it would be painful.

 

“Distracting? I'll show you distracting!” Bulma yelled, grabbing a stapler and hurling it towards him. He neatly dodged and it slammed into the far wall.

 

“Whoa Babe settle down! I didn't mean that the way I said!” Yamcha held up his hands, waving them back and forth in a time out gesture. “Calm down!”

 

“I'll show you calm!” Bulma snapped, launching herself out of her chair. “How dare you just leave me here all alone when some PROWLER is probably going to kill me in my sleep… why it could even be one of the damn androids?”

 

“Bulma, wait, hold it!” Yamcha shouted, catching the pencil holder she chucked towards him. “Just listen to me a minute, damn it!”

 

At the sound of his harsh shout, she blinked, unaccustomed to him raising his voice at her. A moment later she pounced on him, screaming like a hellcat. Yamcha grasped her wrist as she swung out at him, and held her firmly. “Bulma, stop it! You're working yourself NUTS!”

 

Bulma felt the firm grip of his hand stopping hers, and her body trembling as it pressed to his. A blister of migraine pain erupted behind her temple and she trembled from head to toe with rage. The look of fear in his eyes registered, and she realized he was truly terrified of her. His hands held her away from him, and he backed off, releasing her at once as he dodged behind the desk. Panting, she leaned on the desk and stared at him in shock.

 

“I'm sorry Yamcha I don't know what came over me… I am so damn tired… I haven't gotten any sleep. I didn't mean to scream at you…” Bulma apologized. After the GR had exploded and blown a gasket the tension had increased. He had hauled Vegeta's prone body as a last favor to Bulma, and then left her and her father to get the Prince the much needed medical aid.

 

“Babe, that's why I think we need space. I can't be around you like this. And I think that you're so sleep deprived you're seeing and hearing things,” said Yamcha softly, as he walked up towards her. Bulma sighed, scrubbing at her eyes with both hands futilely before looking again at him.

 

“You're probably right, but still… just the thought of something possibly bypassing Capsule's security system… it makes a girl nuts,” said Bulma quietly. Ever since he had made that attempt to propose to her and she had screamed back at him things were not quite right between them. It was apparent now that her conclusion that they should break things off was sadly correct. Even though she wanted to deny it, they both knew it as they silently looked at one another with sad eyes.

 

“You won't be unprotected Bulma,” Yamcha said, going over and hugging her. She pressed her face into his shoulder.

 

“But if you go…” she trailed off, accepting the comfort of the hug that was platonic. He had drawn the line now, and she could tell.

 

“Not with VEGETA here.”

 

“Are you shitting me?” she blinked, stepping out of the hug and holding up her hands between them. She saw hurt in his dark eyes, and knew it mirrored her own.

 

“Seriously Bulma, I'm more afraid of anyone who would try coming in here than him hurting you. You bossed him around and he didn't incinerate you yet. So I think he's got a reason to keep you alive. You scare the crap out of any man,” Yamcha said.

 

“WHAT WAS THAT?” Bulma shrilled.

 

“See what I mean?!” Yamcha yelped as he clapped his hands over his ears. He backpedalled quickly towards the doors; his eyes squeezed shut while still facing her.

 

The sight of him cringing in fear like Goku whenever Chichi yelled at him was as effective as a bucket of cold water splashing over her. Bulma's anger evaporated and she felt her blood equally frigid. Was she such a monster to him? How many times had she screamed at him and he simply took it or fumbled for the right words to try and talk her down from heated anger. Yet Vegeta simply shouted back at her and they would argue like cats and dogs.

 

Sighing deeply she kept the space of ten feet between them. Yamcha opened his eyes cautiously, and lowered his hands from his ears. His muscles still tensed and twitched under that gi as if expecting her to throw something again at him or verbally harangue him. Bulma this time said softly, “Yamcha… please don't go… I need you.”

 

“I won't be far away Bulma. It's just that it's hard for us to be around each other without fighting so much. And it's not healthy. Sometimes people need time apart. We've done this before you know,” he said softly, hating the look of vulnerability in those blue eyes staring at him. Her shoulders were slumped and she seemed so young and lost.

 

“But what if someone is… waiting for me to be alone and unprotected,” she trailed off, her voice halting.

 

“You're just overreacting. Besides, if you were in trouble, I'd be more afraid for what Vegeta would do to them, or what you'd do to them. You're a tough woman Bulma. Tougher than you know. And if you WERE in danger I'd be here faster than you know it,” Yamcha reassured her. “Or Goku would… any of us would sense the ki.”

 

“That's true,” she murmured.

 

“Why not use that scouter toy and keep it turned on? If someone IS getting in you can tell because it bleeps so loudly,” Yamcha said, raising his hand to his ear and miming the telltale object she'd played with so many years ago.

 

“Yeah, that's true,” Bulma murmured. She turned her back to him and resignedly wandered over to a shelf high on the lab wall. The whole north wall opposite the bank of windows was filled from floor to ceiling with various boxes of her inventions and tools. Each was in a neatly labeled drawer she could pull out and sort through. Her lab consisted of three benches filling the large room, piled high with broken training bots in various stages of repair. The desk was on the east wall, near large blueprint schematics she would post there to look at form a distance.

 

“That's right babe,” Yamcha said softly. He turned away from her, seeing the gleam of genius sparkling in her eyes. She dipped her hand into one bin at waist level and tugged out a white earpiece with an attached green lens. While she still had her curved back to him, he quickly stole out of the lab. Not looking back he shouldered his bag and closed the door behind him.

 

“Goodbye Babe. See you around later, when I'm stronger then Vegeta,” he whispered. Just inside the hallway hovered Puar, who was glancing at him concernedly.

 

“She didn't take it very well did she?” Puar squeaked.

 

“C'mon let's go,” Yamcha whispered, motioning to his friend. Drifting behind him, she followed him down the hallways towards the exit of the Capsule complex.