Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Arrangement ❯ I Think I'm Paranoid... ( Chapter 6 )

Another night, another visit. Strange how quickly it had become a routine. Bulma watched sleepily as Vegeta pulled his shorts back on. "Hey," she said, sitting up and propping her head on her fist. "Why don't you ever spend the night? You don't HAVE to go back to your room every night."

He didn't even glance at her. "Don't be an idiot."

"How is that being an idiot?!" she yelled. Good grief, she'd never known anyone so frustrating! "It's a natural question! We've been doing this for a few weeks now, and you've never once stayed. If you hate me that much, why did you even agree?!"

"If I hated you, you'd have more to worry about than our little agreement."

"Whatever. I don't like you coming and going like this. It's so-- so cold and impersonal." He raised an eyebrow at her, and she moved on before he could make a comment. "It bothers me. You seem to be enjoying yourself, and I know I am--" //Brilliant, Bulma,// she immediately thought, seeing the huge smirk that plastered itself across Vegeta's face. //Give him something new to be arrogant about.// "Anyway, I thought we were partners in this. Don't you trust me?"

He was looking at her like she'd just asked the most ridiculously basic question in the world. "I don't trust anyone," he said.

She stared at him, nonplussed. She knew bits and pieces about his life, and it stood to reason that the life of an intergalactic planet pirate/mercenary was a far from peaceful one... But she'd grown up on placid little Earth and had never learned paranoia as a survival skill. Looking at it now, staring at her out of Vegeta's black eyes and through his perpetual scowl, it made her sad. Also, after a moment, determined to change it.

"Now who's being an idiot?" she asked, smirking.

"WHAT?" he growled. "The high-and-mighty Prince of the Sayans, afraid of one little human woman." she said with off-hand sarcasm.

"I am NOT afraid of you!" he snapped.

Bulma smiled triumphantly. "Then you can spend one night in the same bed with me."

"Maybe I can," he said, "but we'll never know because I'm not going to."

"So you're afraid of me after all?"

"I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU! Where in hell are you getting that?!"

"Prove it to me."

"I don't have to prove anything to you." Ooooh was he glaring now! Bulma grinned smugly.

"I think tomorrow I'll call Goku and tell him about how you're so scared of me."

Vegeta raised a hand and blasted her phone. She jumped out of her skin, then shot him a death look. Pissed as she was about his attitude and the loss of her phone, she was getting more and more determined to see this through. He WOULD spend the night if she had to chain him to the bed. "You know," she said, narrowing her eyes, "everything you're doing is only convincing me that I'm right."

"Fine!" he yelled, stomping over to the other side of the bed. "If it will SHUT YOU UP I'll stay for ONE NIGHT."

"There," she said as he settled himself in. "See? It's not so bad." No answer. "Goodnight."

He jerked the pillow up and pulled it over his head.

When Bulma woke up the next morning, Vegeta was gone. At first she was disappointed but not surprised. Then she found him slumped in her desk chair. //He can't possibly be comfortable like that,// she thought, watching him. He had managed to fall asleep sitting up with his arms folded and his head sunken on his chest. Reaching down to throw off her blankets and get out of bed, Bulma stopped in surprise. Her mother had joked that she slept like an eggbeater, but this morning her blankets looked more like a tornado had gone through. On the side of the bed that Vegeta had taken last night, they'd been ripped out and twisted into Gordian knots.

"It's about time you woke up," Vegeta said. Bulma's eyes snapped back to find him staring at her with grim satisfaction and irritation. "I have met your challenge. I don't want to hear anything about this again, do you understand?"

"No you haven't," she said. "I challenged you to stay in the same bed. I said nothing about a chair across the room."

"And -I- said that I would stay. I didn't say where, now did I?"

She glared at him. "Don't dice words with me."

"I have stayed for one night. I am never going to do so again. That's all there is to it." With that, he got up and left.

"Grump," she muttered, staring down at the remains of her bed. "Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed. He didn't even stick around for a good argument." She paused. Vegeta? Pass up an argument? Not likely. She frowned, trying to remember how he had looked. Now that she thought about it, he had had dark circles under his eyes and his eyes had lacked their usual ferocity. He'd looked exhausted. Looking at the state of her bed, she sighed. Had he actually gotten any sleep last night?

He'd probably been jerked awake every time she rolled over. And that twitch thing she did-- she usually dreamed that she was falling when she was on the edge of sleep. Usually she slid from there into sleep, but sometimes she woke up with a jerk. She'd done it last night. Vegeta had grown up in Frieza's army, which from what she had heard gave new meaning to 'it's a dog-eat-dog world.' "You're not paranoid if they ARE out to get you," she said quietly in realization.