Dangerous Bond

Chapter 22 : Midnight Attack

As always, Bunny knew nothing. When her daughter and their houseguest finally returned she was just putting dinner on the table.

"Why hello there Vegeta honey. And Bulma too. Well, that's nice. I just finished making dinner. Hope you're hungry!"

After a day of worry and upset the pair was ravenous. A bad thing if you were their dinner.

Vegeta practically ate his plate trying to shovel his food into his mouth while Bulma went at hers with a fork.

"More!" The prince demanded as he held up his plate, "And hurry up with it!"

"It's good to see you've got such a healthy appetite dear." Bunny replied as she took his plate. She was way too airheaded to even notice that he ate more than the entire family put together.

"Um, mum?" Bulma asked after Vegeta finished his second plateful.

Bunny turned around. "Yes dearest?"

"Can I have some more too?"

"Why of course!" She refilled her daughter's plate. "I didn't think you could eat that much." She told Vegeta, who was now (half a minute later) halfway through his forth serving.

"Hmmnuf." He mumbled, and dug into a fifth helping.

When dinner was finally over even Vegeta had to admit he was full. Bulma looked like she was going to pop.

"Oh Kami, why did I eat all that?" She complained as her Saiya-jin helped her to her feet. "I've never eaten so much in my life... I think I'm gonna be sick..."

"You only ate double your normal amount, onna. That isn't as much as you make it sound."

"Only you can say that!" She moaned, leaning heavily against him.

The Saiya-jin no Ouji chuckled, sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her up the stairs. Nudging the door to her room open with his toe, Vegeta gently laid Bulma on the king sized bed and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"G'night, Bulma."

She yawned, "G'night, Vegeta."

She reached out and flicked the tip of his Saiya-jin tail lightly. The tail wrapped around her finger, squeezing lightly before letting go. Vegeta left the room, closing the door behind him with a click.

After lying on her bed for half an hour Bulma got up and undressed, brushed her hair through so it wouldn't be too much of a mess in the morning and lay back down. She pulled the covers up to her chin and slept, a smile creeping across her perfect lips as she dreamt of Vegeta...

In the room beside Bulma's, Vegeta also lay down to rest. He was just about to slip away completely when a faint buzzing began to drone in the back of his head. The prince closed his eyes tighter, trying to block the noise out, but it came back louder than ever. Still he tried to block it.

'You think you've won, Monkey Prince.' A familiar voice told him, 'Well, you're anything but right...'

Both eyes snapped open and Vegeta sat bolt upright in bed, trying to place the owner of the voice. He couldn't figure out where he'd heard it before, but the Saiya-jin elite was sure it was Harathokin. Who else would be threatening him in his sleep?

Vegeta groaned.

'Your mind, fool. Half-asleep, tired from a mentally hard day, what do you expect? Get a grip before you lose it completely.'

He lay back down and rolled onto his right side. Stupid of him, to actually believe that someone was in his head and threatening him. It was just a half-conscious dream-like thing, nothing more. Forcing peace onto himself, Vegeta slept.

Bunny woke very early the next morning in need of a drink. Her mouth was completely dry. She reached over and patted where her husband should have been, but he wasn't there.

"Oh yes, he's gone on one of those lovely business holidays." She reminded herself quietly as she slid from the bed. "I wonder if he's having a nice time..."

As soundlessly as she could manage, the airheaded woman made her way down the dark hallway to the bathroom, momentarily forgetting that she had one in her room. By the time she had remembered it hardly mattered, a glass of cold water was in her hand and she was sipping it contentedly.

'Hope I didn't wake anyone up!' She thought to herself as she let the rest of the water drain down the sink, 'Bulma wouldn't be at all pleased.'

She was just about to re-enter her room when she realised the light was on in the kitchen.

'I wonder who's up at this time of night?' She wondered as she made her way back curiously. 'Ahh, well, we'll see soon enough!'

But when she entered the kitchen Bunny found it empty and silent, the only sound her own breathing. Dismissing it as Bulma or Vegeta forgetting to turn the light off she turned back to the dark hallway and made her way back to her room. She only made it three steps.

When Bulma woke it was eleven o'clock in the morning. She yawned and stretched, rubbing sleepy dust from half-opened eyes. She hauled herself out of bed, groaning as the aches and bumps from yesterday suddenly made themselves known. After a quick shower the Chikyuu-jin onna was feeling refreshed and revived (!!) and dressed with vigour. It was only when she remembered that Vegeta would be back to his Gravity Room training that a little bounce was taken from her step, but she quickly shrugged it off. He had to train if he was going to become a Super Saiya-jin and defeat the androids with Goku.

But when she peered out from behind her curtains at the compound below Bulma found the GR to be off, the normal red light not emanating from its windows. All right, so where was he?

'Eating, most likely.' She thought with a grin.

But as she left her room Bulma heard a noise she wasn't exactly accustomed to hearing. She pressed her ear to Vegeta's door.

'Is he... Snoring?'

As quietly as possible Bulma opened the door to his room and closed it carefully behind her. Vegeta was sprawled over his bed, the sheets crumpled beneath him. And, yes, he was snoring.

For the first time ever Bulma was repulsed by what she saw. She'd never seen Vegeta do anything quite so... human. And not a nice human thing either. Intent on shutting him up Bulma approached Vegeta's bed and rolled him over onto his back.

"Shut UP already." She ordered, shaking him by the shoulder.

No effect. Surprised, Bulma leaned closer and closed his mouth to stop the snoring, then tried shaking him again. STILL no difference.

"Okay, this is getting weird. Vegeeta! Hellooo? Anybody home?"

When he still didn't wake Bulma started REALLY worrying. She pressed her head against his chest, but the Saiya-jin's heartbeat was strong and true. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with his breathing either...

'Did someone drug him?' She wondered, but quickly dismissed the idea. 'Yeah, right. Drug Vegeta. Okay, so Yamcha did it once, but that was only for all of five minutes. You'd need some sort of super drug to knock MY man out...'

But still, it would be something to think about. Could he have eaten anything? No. Bunny had made their meal last night and Bulma had eaten the same as Vegeta without any side-effects.

'So eating something's a no-no... I guess I've got to consider a needle full of some crappy stuff..'

She began to look her beau over, not even blushing as she stripped him down to his boxers and studied him intently for any sort of puncture wound. There were none, but...

"Hey, what's this?" She wondered out loud upon seeing something shiny buried in the dark fur at the base of Vegeta's tail.

Hoping she wasn't going to hurt him by doing this Bulma pulled at whatever it was. After several useless efforts and three broken nails the object was removed. Bulma blinked. It was a gold thumbtack, the sharp end covered in blood. Bulma shivered, yuck.

As if on cue Vegeta woke soon after, yawning and rubbing his eyes blearily. Feeling the slight pain in his tail he reached over to it and touched the spot where it hurt. When he looked at his finger again it was spotted with metallic smelling red blood.

"What the...?"

Bulma jumped when he spoke, not having noticed his waking.

"Oh, hey, Vegeta." She stumbled, "Uh, good morning, I guess."

He rolled over and looked at her, then at the tack. His mind made a bad connection.

"What the Hell do you think you're doing, woman?!" He exclaimed, sitting up and lashing his tail across the bed.

"Huh? What me?" She looked at the tack in her hand. "Oh, you wanna know where I found this?"

"I want to know what the fuck you're doing stabbing my tail with that stupid little pin!" He cried, "Find it interesting? See how long it takes until he notices? Huh? Is that it?"

"N-no! No way!" She protested, "You know I'd never do something like that! I found the tack stuck in your tail and I took it out and you finally woke up!"

He glared at her, dark obsidian eyes boring holes into her own sky blue orbs.

"And how am I to know that your excuse isn't just a lie?" He demanded.

Now Bulma looked really hurt. "Vegeta... Why would I lie to you? Don't you trust me? Aren't we as good as mated, or something like that?"

He continued to stare at her, but his normal anger was beginning to fade. It seemed the hatred that normally came so easily just wasn't there when it was Bulma he was looking at. The Saiya-jin no Ouji, defeated by a little human onna.

'A very special human onna.' Part of his mind reminded him. The prince kept his expression emotionless.

But Bulma heard his thoughts again. "You don't really blame me." She stated, "Your pride just won't let you admit you were wrong."

Vegeta shook his head, not needing to ask how she knew that. "This bond could get a little annoying." He said after a while.

Bulma pouted, "Oh come on! It just saved us an argument! You don't really want to be beaten that bad, do you?"

"Beaten, by YOU?" He snorted, "I doubt it..."

A pillow suddenly hit him in the side of the head. Vegeta blinked for a second at a smirking Bulma who towered over him, pillow held triumphantly over her head. "Was that supposed to hurt me, onna?" He inquired, "You should know better."

"No, YOU should know better then to taunt me!" She cried and launched her pillow at his head.

Vegeta growled and caught the pillow from the air, then threw it back at her. A pillow fight ensued while the thumbtack sat forgotten on the bedside table, a thin layer of blood solidifying around it.

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