Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Reconcile ❯ Reconcile Part II: Dark Prince. ( Chapter 2 )

***************************************************************** ******

Reconcile Part II: Dark Prince.

********************************************************** *************

He closed his eyes impatiently. Letting go of her arm, he snapped the light switch on. The lamp brightened up the room, causing the couple to look at each other in the brightness. "No. We speak now." He folded his arms expectantly, waiting for her to speak.

She sighed in defeat. Tossing the pillow back to its location on the bed, she sat gently on the edge of the bed and stared at the black silk covered duvet for a moment. It was now or never to set the record straight. Bulma prayed that they would somehow reconcile their differences.

But was their relationship beyond repair?

Only this conversation could determine that.

************************************************************ ***********

"Why?" Her voice broke from the pain she was feeling. She felt so utterly betrayed, by the person she had loved the most. Not even Yamcha had hurt her this much when he told her he wanted to end their relationship. But in the end Bulma knew it had to be done, and they came out of it remaining as the best of friends.

Yet this man that stood stoically in front of her, had done more damage to her than her first love. Why? It was a simple enough question for anyone to ask, but for Bulma it was heart breaking. She was afraid of the answer she would receive. That was why she had been avoiding Vegeta all day. She couldn't bear to be in his presence, it just pained her too much.

The question filtered through Vegeta's brain. At first he had not registered the meaning of the question and so spoke out impatiently. "Why, what?" He instantly regretted his words as the pained expression on his mate's face increased tenfold. An instant tugging at his heart, caused him to take a step back.

It was then that he realized they no longer shared the special bond that had been created between then. For the first time Vegeta felt panic rise in his emotions. Why couldn't he feel her presence? How in Dende's name had they drifted apart so much, and in only one year?! It was absurd to say the least. To what extent had he damaged their relationship? He was afraid to find out.

"Why did you do it Vegeta?" The question was barely whispered out and it felt as though the wind itself had spoken the unanswerable question.

Vegeta understood what she meant. She meant, why had he accepted Babadi's power. Why had he let himself become the subject of a slave. It was even beyond him why he had chosen to let Babadi take over his mind, and that was unnerving. He had to answer her question some day, it may as well be now.

"Onna I-" But he didn't get to finish. Only because Bulma didn't let him finish. She continued to barrage him with a onslaught of questions.

"What didn't you have Vegeta? Why in Kami's name did you let that manic wizard take over your mind? Why did you let him give you power and strength that did not belong to you? Why Vegeta, why?!"

"ENOUGH!" He roared, his mind becoming frazzled with all of her questions. He frowned as he heard her whimper, fear evident in her composure. He stared at her, a penetrative gaze fixed on his hard features. He was tired. Tired of everything. But he knew he could not deny her the answers to the questions she had imposed so justly. How could he apologize? He had only ever apologized once in his life and vowed never to do it again. But this was different, wasn't it?

Walking closer to the bed, he saw the raw fear that burned in her features. It caused another painful tug to his heart. His own mate, his strong and willful mate, was afraid of him? Even he could believe it. The loud mouthed woman had finally learned to fear him. But he wasn't happy about this like he would have been a few years ago. Her fear now only constituted the broken heart that she nursed from his betrayal.

Bulma scooted slightly further away, not knowing if he was going to hurt her. His angry outburst had only caused more fear to burn within her being. That fear overpowered any anger she felt towards him, or any love and respect she had once held for the Saiya-jin no Ouji.

Vegeta couldn't believe she was even remotely afraid of him. He was hurt by this tremendously, but knew that it was through no fault of her own. It was entirely his fault. And for the first time he lowered his pride, he accepted the blame. Crouching beside the bed, he lifted her chin with one finger and forced her to look at him, as he had done many times before. But things had been different then. They had been in love and understood each other. Now if felt like they were two strangers that were stuck together, like two sides to a coin.

"Do you fear me?"

She looked at him in surprise. "How can I not..?" She trailed off when she saw his lips droop down in disappointment.

"I thought you knew me better than that Onna." He began to gently stroke the base of her chin. Running his rough thumb against the smooth contours of her skin. She looked absolutely breath taking at that moment. He held back a smirk as he felt her shiver, her skin beginning to heat up. So all was not lost, yet.

"I thought so too," bitterness creeping out of the statement. Bulma pulled her head back, away from his gentle strokes. She was not about to be seduced as she had been many times before. This time he had gone too far for her to accept him.

He dropped his hand with a ragged sigh. He would not win her affections this way. He would have to take matters into his own hands. Without any warning, he stood up straight and scooped her up into his arms, earning a gasp from his mate. "What are you doing?" She cried out in alarm.

"Showing you that I am no longer who you think I am." Not saying anything more, he walked to the double glass doors that led to the balcony. On his way out, he switched off the light and continued his way out of the bedroom to the balcony.

"Vegeta, put me down." Bulma demanded sternly. Her anger towards him had once again returned, slowly seeping into her mind and replacing any fear she was feeling. It was funny that no matter how scared she had become of the dark prince, her anger somehow always managed to rule over that fear.

"No."

"Vegeta," she warned. "Put. Me.Down."

As he stepped onto the balcony a light breeze assaulted the two, lashing at Bulma's untied hair and his wild upright mane. "Are you listening to me? Put me down you jackass of a monkey! I swear if I was stronger, I would so knock your teeth out! Now, PUT ME DOWN." She screeched unsuccessfully into his ear, pounding her tiny fist against his chest as hard as she could. Why was he being so stubborn!? She screamed in frustration.

He winced from the pain caused to his sensitive ears but secretly smirked at the anger she was showing to him. Now this was the Bulma he knew... And loved. Allowing her to continue hitting him (he deserved it), he blasted off into the air and flew at a fast rate to the destination that had always soothed him whenever he had felt he couldn't reach his goal of Super Saiya- jin.

Crying out, Bulma gripped tightly onto his neck from the fear of being dropped. She didn't have a thing against heights, especially in her famous air cars but there was something about flying without anything around to protect you, that scared her the most. "When we land, I'm going to kill you!" She hissed into his strange Saiya-jin shaped ear, which only twitched in response.

Vegeta felt his heart swell at her words. This was the second open threat she had thrown at him. This was working better than he thought. He just needed to get her more angry at him. "If you don't stop screeching, Onna, I might drop you."

With that, Bulma fell silent.

Ok, maybe he shouldn't have said that. Maybe deep down she had still not forgotten the fear and distrust. Afraid of saying something even more damaging, he remained silent himself.

In an instant reaction, Bulma found herself curling into his warm body closer. The need to sleep was weighing down on her greatly. Her heavy eyelids began to drop unwillingly. The soothing rush of wind that was flying past, causing a heavenly brush against her skin and making her yawn loudly and close her eyes. She knew she couldn't do anything at that moment except enjoy the ride.

Vegeta looked down at the sleepy woman cradled in his arms. A small smirk played on his lips as he rose above the clouds and flew at full speed. The strong rays of moonlight danced on her porcelain skin, causing her to look like a fragile little doll. He didn't know why or how, but he had fallen deeply for this tiny human, and he knew he would never do anything to jeopardize their bond again. He had learnt his lesson. Power and strength be damned! He would much rather touch her smooth skin than to lose her again to his hunger for strength. His breath caught in his throat as he felt her stir.

They still had a long way to go until they reached the destination, and so Vegeta concentrated on his thoughts about his sleeping mate as he flew.

************************************************************ ***********

Minuscule drops of water splashed onto her cheeks and nose, causing her to awake from her slumber. Blinking herself awake, she found herself still in the arms of her husband. "Where are we?" She asked with a sleep coated voice, rubbing her right eye.

Vegeta slowed down his speed as he flew and looked down at his mate as she woke up from the raindrops. "We're almost there."

She sighed in frustration. She still didn't know where they were going and he was acting so strange that it was beginning to annoy her. Yawning, she unconsciously nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck, unknown to her of the slight shake Vegeta incurred as she pressed closer. "How long have I been asleep..?" She murmured.

"Two hours."

"We've been flying that long?"

"Hn," He smirked as looked below and saw a great expanse of ocean, glimmering in the moonlight. Lowering himself over the sandy dunes, he landed swiftly. He gently placed her on the ground and backed away from her, letting her absorb the view.

Bulma gaped at the scenery presented before her. She looked around in wonder at the lush green palm trees dotted around on the beach. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked down at the grains of white sand that were sprinkled around her feet. A small smile flitted across her face as she wiggled her toes deeper into the sand. How long had it been since she was in the beach? It seemed like a lifetime. Looking up, she glazed over the twinkling sea of stars that were clustered together so magnificently. Her eyes finally landed upon the great expanse of ocean. It was simply breath taking. She had never seen any thing so beautiful as the ocean waves rippling under the soft balmy tropical breeze. She blinked slowly as she realized why she had been brought here. Had the circumstances been different, she would have shown her gratitude. But at this moment, she could not.

She whirled around, anger taking control of her reasoning. "What was your purpose of bringing me here? You think that by showing me this hidden oasis, it will change things between us? That I'll forgive you? If you think that Vegeta, then you truly don't know me at all."

He had listened to her silently up until now. Striding over to her, he glared down at her face only inches away. "I know more about you, than you know of yourself Onna. So don't tell me that I don't know you." He stared fearlessly into her shining blue eyes. How could this woman dictate so many of his feelings? How had he even chosen her as his mate? And yet with her temperamental characteristics, he couldn't blame himself for helplessly falling for the mystical creature. Why couldn't he just tell he that he loved her? Why the fuck was his pride overriding his happiness? He just wanted to hold her upon his return to Earth, not have to deal with the events that had occurred in the past. But he knew he had hurt her deeply, he could see it in her tired yet bright blue eyes. The eyes had tormented him so much when he was in HFIL, because he didn't know if he would ever see them in their splendor again, he had pined for those eyes. In that instant, he found himself drowning in her deep blue pools as she looked at him with her melancholy gaze.

The anger drained from her face. Once again, her features were graced with the sad look she had donned for the past year. "Are you sure you know me that well Vegeta? Because I think that if you did, you would understand how I'm feeling right now."

"Perhaps it you who chooses not understand me, Onna. For if you did, you would know why I chose to let Babadi give me his power. You would know of my humiliation at the hands of Kakarott, my pride having been dwindled to nothing by a third class lowlife! I had to get revenge to save my withering pride. As a Saiya-jin warrior, that was the only thing I had left, until Kakarott stole it from me." Vegeta still couldn't let go of the pain he had been caused by the only other full blooded Saiya-jin living. But he had finally learned to make piece with it.

She snorted, oh this was rich! But instead of speaking in anger, all she could muster up was sadness. "Pride... Hm, pride... That's all you ever talk about." She whispered. "There's more to life than pride Vegeta. There's so much more. And because of your damned pride, you killed innocent people? You chose power over your family, over my love for you and for what? To get a final chance at defeating Goku? The man was already dead Vegeta and took away part of his special day because you wanted to fight him? To beat him?" She shook her head despondently.

"You lost my respect when you killed those people at the stadium and forced Goku to fight with you. What didn't you have Vegeta, that you chose to lose it all for a moment of glory to defeat your rival." Tears welled up in her eyes and she couldn't bear to look him anymore, "You hurt me that day Vegeta, more than you did when you left me to train in space. More than the times you ignored my love for you because someday, like a fool, I thought you would love me more than your precious power. I thought you would love me..." She sunk to the ground and began to sob into her hands. Her entire body wrenched from the heart rendering cries that shook from her tiny body..

Through her sobs, she began to whisper. "When I saw you at the stadium, attacking all those people... You showed me side of you that I hated from the depths of my heart and soul. I never knew I could hate and yet love the same man you had become. And then to listen to my Chi Chi say such horrible things about you, broke my heart. But I couldn't say anything in your defense, because I knew she was right." Wiping away the tears, she sat on her knees and looked at the soothing ocean waves. "You betrayed your son, he looks up to you so much. He still does..." She started quietly. "You betrayed me, Vegeta. And I don't know if I can... If I can forget that. I could see so much evil in you that day, so much that it's haunting me to this day..." And with that, she couldn't have said anything more.

Throughout the entire time, Vegeta had stood perfectly still. He had absorbed every word she had cast upon him and stored them away into his acute memory box. Never had he felt so ashamed, but he didn't want to admit it. She was right and he was wrong and he knew it. By Dende's name, he sure as hell knew it.

Bulma picked up the courage to look at him. "All I want to know is one thing; Tell me if the so-called 'Dark Prince' is still within you?"

He stared at her with hidden shock. How could he answer that? He didn't even know himself.

She continued over the silence, "Because if he is, then he is not the man that I fell in love with. And has no place left in my heart or home." She looked up at him in earnest as the the breeze blew tendrils of blue hair across her cheek. "Answer it truthfully Vegeta because if you don't, I will know if you are lying... And then we will have nothing" Her lips trembled as she whispered the words.

A lump in Vegeta's throat stopped him from speaking out rightly. Swallowing, his throat felt rough and brittle. How could he convince her that he was no longer that way?

All he could say was the truth, but he didn't know if the truth was enough.

********************************************************** *************