Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Veil ❯ Change ( Chapter 16 )

Crouching beside the bed, she dabbed the towel across his face hoping to cool him. He was still moaning and grunting, "Shh.. It's ok," she hoped he had heard her.

Of course, he had heard her soothing voice. He spoke between the tremors he was receiving, "Build your machine," he growled weakly.

Bulma's brow furrowed, "What?"

"Your chamber that increases grav-"

Bulma cut him off, he was too ill to speak. "The gravity chamber?"

He nodded mutely, but opened his eyes. "I must become stronger than Frieza."

Even though his voice was firm, Bulma could see there was a haunted look in his eyes. He must have had an extremely awful dream to be exacting this sort of reaction. She agreed to his demand, only to keep him quiet.

She stayed with him the entire day.

*****

Bulma sighed and wiped away the beads of sweat that were forming on her brow. Her stomach had been grumbling, much to her annoyance. She had been trapped inside Vegeta's training arena, building a gravity machine non stop, for the past eight hours. It was safe to say that she was a little grouchy, if not extremely hungry. The door slammed shut behind her, causing her to jump from her images of food that were floating in front of her eyes.

"Is it done yet?" An impatient voice rang out in the large sleek room.

Bulma stood up from her crouched position irritably. Narrowing her eyes, she turned to glance at the bandaged Saiya-jin Prince. "Not yet." She said between gritted teeth.

A grunt escaped his lips, "Well then when is it going to be done? I don't have any time to waste."

"Be patient!" She snapped, "I can't get it built like that." She snapped her fingers, as if proving a point.

"You are trying me patience, woman!"

"I do have a name you know!"

Vegeta rolled his eyes, not this again! "I can call you whatever I damn well like!"

"Well then try calling me by my name!" She was getting increasingly pissed off. He had done nothing in the past two days except come into the training arena and comment about her lack of intelligence and insult her every action towards building his 'precious' gravity chamber.

But Bulma had also noticed something strange. Ever since he had awoken from his dream two days ago, he had not laid one finger upon her, much to her relief. She didn't know what had happened, but she was as happy as hell to have his volatile temper directed elsewhere.

Maybe Kami had been kind enough to answer her prayer. No matter what she had said to insult him, he merely returned comments with his own quick tongue, never once hurting her physically in the process.

A murderous look crossed Vegeta's face. From the moment he had that dream two days ago, he could not bring himself to touch her. The thought of Frieza's hand ripping through her stomach, literally made him gag and shudder. Every time she would retort to his demands, he wanted to smack and pound at least a tiny bit of sense into her thick skull for being so insubordinate. But he just couldn't do it, as the image of the dream assaulted his senses at every damn waking moment.

At that moment, he was about to raise his hand at her degrading mouth, when the images once again flashed through his mind. The strange flashback of her holding his child overwhelmed his thoughts. Grinding his teeth, he growled and backed away slightly. "Get it done, and soon. Unless you want to be destroyed by Frieza and his minions and personally humiliated."

Bulma stared at him for several moments. They had not mentioned what Frieza had done to Vegeta, and in honesty Bulma was afraid to ask. Such an act was not always normal, and the fact that it happened to the person who held the most pride, it was pretty saddening. She found the courage to speak, instead asking him about something else.

"Was your dream really that bad?"

"Yes!" He snapped back, not making a sign to move.

Bulma took this as an open invitation to question him further. She had never asked what the dream had been about, and now she was too curious. "What was it about?" She asked softly.

Vegeta couldn't take it anymore, whirling around he started to storm out of the empty arena, when a soft hand caused him to freeze on the spot. Momentarily closing his eyes, he secretly wished he had never met the small woman standing behind him.

She was causing him to.. feel. To have alien emotions, that he didn't want and need to deal with. Gods, he hated her with a passion! He wanted to rip her delicate limbs from her body, wanted her to see the monster he really was.

That was a laugh though, she already knows the kind of monster her could be and yet, she offers him pity!? If she wasn't a fool, then Vegeta didn't know what to believe anymore. So, the ever burning urge to rip her to pieces began to course through his veins once more.

And yet, with all the hate, he knew he could never bring himself to lay a hand upon her ever again. The dream, or nightmare, still haunts him to the depth of his soul. That was the only reason he stopped himself from hitting her at that moment.

Or was it because of something else?

"It's ok. I won't ask about it, if you don't want me to."

Vegeta inhaled slowly, letting the oxygen fully circulate through his body. Her soft voice pounded against his eardrums. Moving forward so that her hand fell away from him, he spoke without turning back.

"Just build the machine."

He walked out of the enclosing arena, away from her and her ideals. What would she know? She would never understand what he felt, what he was about.

She would never truly understand him.

Bulma blinked in surprise. Now she was beginning to get scared. He hadn't even hit her once! Not one single 'bump' to the cheek, nor did he leave a parting bruise. Her stomach began churning. Could that dream really have had such an impact on the cold Prince?

"That must have been some dream.." She muttered, grabbing the wrench that she had tossed previously on the floor in aggravation. Once again, she returned to working diligently on the transformed Prince's gravity chamber.

*****

Hours seemed to fly by like seconds for Bulma. She looked out of the window of the arena, yawning in the process. She had been working on this metallic piece of junk for Kami knows how long! As she lay on her back under the machine, connecting a few wires, she yawned again. Her eyes seemed to have their own will as they closed forcefully, much to her aggravation.

A little nap wouldn't hurt, right?

*****

Vegeta made his way towards his training arena. After sparring with his child hood friend Kakarott, he now returned to check on Bulma progress in building the machine. Carefully opening the door, he peered in, frowning. Not a single sound could be heard from inside. He wondered what the hell she could be doing in there. Swiftly stepping in, he noticed a pair of legs sticking out from under a large round, impressive chamber. He grunted in amusement, as he heard her deep breathing.

He had to give her some credit, the woman had gall.

Walking up to the lifeless pair of legs, he was about to kick at them, to wake her up. A strange feeling came over him as he was about to bring his tow down upon her calf. Pausing mid-kick, he bent down and looked at her sleeping form. She had been working hard... Maybe he would allow her this tiny mistake, just this once.

Pulling her out from under the machine, he cradled her in his arms and carried her to their room. He still found it odd that she was his mate, and that she was bearing his child. The premonition in his dream caused him to think twice about how he acted towards her. He didn't know what to think about this new development.

Placing her gently on the bed, he stripped off his sweat covered training clothes and promptly slid into bed next to her. As soon as his head hit the pillow, his eyes closed.

*****

Bulma moved to the left and bumped into something soft. Sitting up groggily, she blinked herself awake. How in Kami's name did she end up in bed? She gasped as the soft 'thing' she bumped into came to life and turned around. "Vegeta!"

Vegeta frowned up as two shimmering eyes stared back at him. "What is your problem Onna? Can't you keep still?" He asked in annoyance, for once he had been enjoying a dreamless sleep and now he had been rudely awoken.

"Sorry," for some reason she felt as though she should whisper, such was the effect of nightfall on Vegeta-sei. Still staring into his eyes, she attempted to speak with the antisocial Saiya-jin. "The gravity chamber should be done by tomorrow..."

Vegeta just simply stared back at her, making no attempt to speak.

Giving up, she flopped back down and scooted away from his rigid form as far as the large bed would allow. She was still uncomfortable about being in such close proximity with him, but as always it couldn't be helped.

She was supposed to be 'dead' after all. And now, had to live under her new identity as his 'concubine' kami, she hated that word and its harsh meaning.

A bitter tear rolled down her temple as she rolled away from him, her back facing him. She had always found night time on this planet, amazingly frightening. She shuddered, wrapping the covers around her small form tightly.

Vegeta felt a small stabbing in his chest as he watched her turn away from him, not even bothering to make an attempt at retorting with her quirky comments. He found it odd that her whole demeanor changed with nightfall. Sneering, he shook his head. Was he becoming soft? "You shall show me its functions tomorrow ningen." He said harshly.

Bulma made a sound of understanding, scooting away even more. Even though she lay still, she was very much wide awake. She didn't know what it was, but she could sense a small change in the proud Saiya-jin Prince. Or maybe it was her imagination?

Vegeta felt another stabbing sensation in his chest. He hated her for making him feel this way. Growling quietly, he turned away from her and delved deeper into his own thoughts.

For the rest of the night, nothing was spoken between the pair, although they lay awake in each other's company, contemplating their own private thoughts.

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