I got so many requests for a sequel, (long ago) that I had to do it!
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Vegeta opened his eyes with a pain-filled groan. There was something
or someone on top of him and it was uncomfortable to say the least.
He winced as harsh sunlight suddenly hit him in the face. He closed
his eyes with a sigh as he realized that his body had not even begun to
heal. He felt every abrasion burn painfully and he mentally acknowledged
that he had never felt so miserable in his life.
The fact that Bulma lay across his chest, dozing peacefully did nothing
to help. If anything, it made him feel worse. He gazed at her
enviously and noticed, for the first time, the remains of a dreadful bruise
that had been on her cheek and a small cut above her right eyebrow.
He could see dried blood still clinging to the short blue hairs
How had that happened? He wondered. He hadn’t noticed it the
day previous, but then, he barely remembered the past two or three weeks
which bothered him more then he cared to admit.
What exactly HAD happened anyway? All he remembered was a sense
of dread and rage. And fighting. Fighting continuously for
weeks against something his mind refused to remember.
Had it been that bad? Whatever “It.” Had been? He remembered
his whole childhood and all his years growing up under Frieza’s wing, and
he had always assumed that nothing would ever be worse than that.
And those long years had been a time he was all too eager to forget, but
he never could.
He needed someone to tell him what had happened. And he knew
Bulma wouldn’t give him the whole truth. He felt fear grow deep in
his gut as he looked at her. The fading bruise on her pale cheek,
had he done that? He shuddered at the thought. He would never
forgive himself if he had, but he HAD to know regardless. He sighed.
There was only one person he could trust to get the full, unbiased truth
from.
He closed his eyes and concentrated…
Goku sat outside of Vegeta’s room snoring loudly. He was startled
awake when he felt Vegeta’s voice in his mind.
Kakarotto.. Goku jumped to his feet and quickly entered Vegeta’s
room, a look of worry plastered on his face. Vegeta sat up in bed,
his face white as ash. The flesh under his eyes was dark and his
eyes looked strangely hollow.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Goku asked, his face creased with worry.
Vegeta gave a half-hearted smile and nodded.
“What happened to her?” he said motioning to Bulma. “The bruise
on her face. Where did it come from?” he said quietly. Goku
bit his lip. Vegeta didn’t remember. Goku really didn’t want
to tell him what had happened while he was possessed, but he could
tell by Vegeta’s burning gaze that he had no choice.
Vegeta sensed Goku’s apprehension and his fear increased. He
knew then that he had done something. Something horrible that he
would feel guilty for until he died. It felt strange- guilt.
He had never felt it before he met Bulma. Goku nervously cleared
his throat.
“You were possessed. You ordered a Budokai and we fought.”
“That’s not all. Tell me what happened?” Vegeta said, his voice
rising. Bulma stirred slightly and his voice dropped to a whisper.
“Did I do that?” he hissed pointing to the fading bruise on her cheek.
Goku swallowed and nodded, his eyes wide as saucers. Vegeta grimaced
and nodded, his eyes clenched shut.
“It wasn’t your fault.” Goku said. Vegeta snarled and shot him
a look that clearly said: “Get out.” So Goku sighed and turned to leave,
a frown on his face.
Bulma sighed and stretched, she felt so much better after her nap.
Her arm no longer throbbed and her cheek didn’t hurt either. She
felt a finger gently trace the curve of her jaw and her eyes slid open.
Vegeta sat before her, a look of pure anguish on his too-pale face.
“Bulma.” He croaked, his head dropped, he couldn’t look at her anymore.
He curled up in a ball and rolled onto his side, burying his face in his
hands. Bulma felt her heart clench. She knew what he was thinking.
She crawled over to him and put her hands on his shoulders. She could
feel him trembling violently and she bit her lip to keep her tears in check.
She didn’t want to cry and upset him even more. She tried to move
him so that he would face her, but it was like trying to push a semi-truck.
There was no way in hell she could do it alone.
“Vegeta, please look at me.” Bulma whispered. He rapidly shook
his head and Bulma sighed. She crawled up behind him and wrapped
her arms around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder, her bruised
cheek pressed against his neck. Her hands traveled up to his chest
and she pulled herself flush against him. She snuggled up against
his back and they stayed that way for several minutes in deep silence.
“How can you stay here?” Vegeta finally muttered. Bulma sighed
and squeezed him gently.
“You know why.” She replied.
“I could have killed you.” He stated flatly.
“But you didn’t.” she felt him jerk and he suddenly sat up, wincing
lightly. She didn’t move or loosen her grip, but merely gazed at
him with eyes full of love. Vegeta choked and turned away again.
He felt her cool hands on his fevered skin trying to turn his head to look
at her. “Vegeta.” She sighed. “Stop this. You’re in no
condition to be stressing about this. I forgive you. Why can’t
you ever forgive yourself?”
“Why should I?” he snapped. He winced as pain raced up his spine,
but ignored it and continued. “I hit you, didn’t I?” Bulma
frowned as she considered his words.
“Don’t you know what happened?” she asked.
“Not really.” He muttered after a few minutes.
“Then how-?” she began.
“Kakarotto.” He replied cutting her off. “I asked how you got
the bruise.”
“Oh.” Bulma mumbled. Damn it Goku. she thought angrily. But it
didn’t matter. Vegeta could almost always bully Goku into doing whatever
he wished. “But you don’t remember anything else?”
“No.” he admitted quietly. “All I remember is coming home and
you started yelling and hit me. Then I was here. Again.”
Bulma felt her face go white. She sat up instantly, her hand flying
up to her lips. She had almost forgot about that. If she hadn’t
hit him maybe none of this would have happened. All those innocent
people wouldn’t have died. And Vegeta probably wouldn’t be in the
state he was in now. She cursed herself and her temper. Why
couldn’t she control it. If she had listened to him she would have
found out that he’d been possessed and maybe he wouldn’t be so hurt now.
She stared at him as her eyes filled with tears. He still wasn’t
looking at her as if was no longer privileged enough to look into her eyes.
His face was drawn and pallid and he looked so sad! She’d never seen
such a look on his face.
“Oh Vegeta!” she cried, bursting into tears. She buried her face
in her hands. Vegeta, startled by her outburst, gazed at her questioningly.
“I’m so sorry!” she sobbed.
“What?” he was confused. Why was she crying? Why was she
sorry? She had done nothing. He sat up and carefully wrapped
his arms around her, afraid to harm her in the slightest.
As soon as she felt his arms around her, she buried her face in his
chest, her salty tears rolling down his smooth skin.
“Its all my fault!” she sobbed. “If I would have listened- I
should have controlled my temper.”
“What are you talking about?” he murmured in her ear, gently stroking
her hair.
“When you came back and I hit you.” She blubbered. Vegeta
smiled softly. “Goku told me, I’ve never seen him so mad!”
now he was confused again.
“Told you what?” he asked.
“He said you had regained control over the Majin and I went and fucked
it all up when I hit you!” she whimpered. Vegeta almost laughed.
“Kakarotto said that?” Bulma sniffed and gave the tiniest smile.
“Not exactly like that, but basically that’s what he said.” Vegeta
was silent, thinking back to the day she spoke of. He had regained
control but it was tenuous at best. He was actually glad she had
lashed out at him when she did. What if he had lost control later
when no one was around to protect her and Trunks from him? He shuddered
at the thought.
Bulma felt him shiver and pulled back slightly to gaze into his face.
He looked like he was in pain.
“Are you okay?” she murmured.
“Don’t be sorry for what you did. I deserved it. You couldn’t
hurt me anyway.” He said with a sigh, totally ignoring her question.
Bulma frowned. Something was not right. Why was he so.. she
didn’t know what to call it. He seemed different than before.
He’d never said he’d deserved to get hit ever. And he just didn’t
look right. So sad and pale. She feared the Majin had taken
something from him and he would be totally different from the Vegeta she
knew. She gently cupped his check in her palm and forced him to look
at her.
“No Vegeta. You did not deserve it. You were possessed
by that… Thing. It wasn’t your fault.” He opened his mouth to protest,
but she leaned forward and placed her lips on his, giving him a slow, lingering
kiss. She crept forward until she was straddling his lap and wrapped
her arms around his neck and gave him a gentle squeeze.
Vegeta sighed in relief, his arms instantly coming around her and pulling
her close. He didn’t want to admit it to her, he doubted he could
ever tell her, but part of him had rejoiced at the return of total freedom
from consequence. It had been like his younger days only a little
more than ten years ago. He had done as he pleased and no one could
do anything about it. He had missed that for a long time, but as
long as he had Bulma he could not be that way. She wouldn’t tolerate
it and would condemn and shun him as the heartless murderer he was.
‘Was’ being the key word. As he sat and pondered it now, he felt
guilt for anything that hurt Bulma and his son. What had she done
to him? He asked himself that question so many times, but it no longer
mattered anymore. Whatever he’d lost from becoming her mate was far
outweighed by the simple fact that she cared for him. Loved him even.
No one had ever loved him before in his whole life. And for that
reason alone he cherished her like nothing else. Every once in a
great while he would sit alone and think of what his life would be like
without her. He knew Earth would most likely be destroyed.
But worse than that, he thought of how his life would be when she died.
If he was not killed in battle she would eventually die before him.
She was human and thus her life span was far shorter than his. He
could only bring himself to think of it for a moment before he had to switch
gears and think of something else.
The thought of her gone from him forever filled him with such painful
sorrow that he dreaded the thought above anything. When Goku had
informed him that he was the cause of the bruise on her cheek he felt like
he was going to be sick.
“What would I do without you?” he murmured into her silky blue hair.
Bulma merely sighed and rubbed his back, forgetting that it was covered
in huge gashes that had needed to be stitched. Her hand grazed one
of the wounds and he flinched, hissing in pain.
“Oh! I’m so sorry!” Bulma cried, “Are you okay?” Vegeta nodded,
his teeth clenched, sweat standing out on his brow. Why did it hurt
so much? He rolled onto his side and pulled Bulma down next to him so that
their noses were nearly touching.
“You worry too much.” He said quietly. And he closed his eyes,
preparing to drift off to sleep. For some reason he was beyond tired
and as soon as he closed his eyes he knew they weren’t going to open again
for a good while.
Bulma watched his face as he fell asleep. She knew that whatever was bothering him would subside and as soon as things got back to normal they would be having their little spats. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly so as not to wake him. He would get over it, she smiled when she thought about the first year he’d spent on earth. She didn’t doubt that he would have loved to crush her skull. And in a way, she was glad that he was so worried about her, it was better then him not caring at all. She smiled, gave him a kiss and closed her eyes, and she too drifted off to sleep.
THE END