I don't own Dragon Ball Z. Toriyama created them, Funimation distributes the show, and Toei animation co. brought them to life. I only own the plot here, and it's a work of fan fiction, which I don't get paid for. My only pay is your wonderful reviews! So keep them coming! Many thanks! This story means no harm to Dragon Ball Z.

A Taste of Heat

By Trynia Merin

A Woman's Role Is No Less then Her Prince's

Rated M for Implied Lemon, language.

Drawing Trunks into his arms again, Vegeta held him securely but not too tightly in one arm. He dove through the clouds, misting around both of them. Soon the main dome of Capsule spun beneath them. Black hair waved back and forth in the generated currents, crackling with blue ki. Trunks shrieked not in fear but delight, small hands flailing and grabbing at Vegeta's dark hair. Vegeta shifted the boy to lay his head on his shoulder, forming a fist before him while cradling his son in a semi sitting position against his chest. That's why the small fist could snatch the spike of hair immediately behind Vegeta's ear. At that last moment Vegeta pulled out of the dive, leveling off to cause a cracking boom that rattled all of Capsule's windows.

Trunks slid up slightly so his face was turned to his father's ear. His small toothless gums clamped down on Vegeta's earlobe with the force of a vise. Vegeta gasped at the painful pressure squashing his ear, and then laughed. "Quite a bite you have, boy."

Bulma gritted her teeth when she heard the windows rattling. Racing onto the balcony she saw a blue streak speeding towards Capsule one moment, then a hovering figure in blue and white the next. Gracefully the Prince drifted downwards till he levitated at the precise height of her window's balcony. Bulma tapped a slippered foot and frowned at the sight of her husband carrying their baby so casually.

"Well, what the hell kept you so long! I was worried sick!" Bulma ranted.

"Quiet Bulma you'll wake the baby," Vegeta shushed her, placing a finger over her lips. To her shock she glanced down at the diaper bag slung over Vegeta's one wrist not holding their sleeping child.

"What on EARTH is he wearing?" she whispered fiercely.

"Clothes, what else? You think I'd let the brat run naked? Honestly, what sort of man do you think the Prince of All Saiyans is?" Vegeta smirked at her. Five seconds from blowing her top, Bulma whirled around in a huff. Presented with such a tempting view of her robe-clad ass, Vegeta chuckled softly. He levitated just high enough to clear the railing so he could drop down gently on the balcony behind her.

Bulma crossed both her arms across her chest in a mimic of his indignant pose. Instead of further needling her Vegeta walked past his mate into the bedroom beyond. His footsteps echoed through the carpeted floors in the direction of the small nursery she had prepared while he was away in space. Blue eyes snapped open in shock while her feet carried her after him quickly.

Silently Vegeta approached the large crib covered with a cloth awning. He carefully laid Trunks on his back on the mattress, and then pulled the blanket to his son's hips. Although Trunks stirred he did not wake up to Vegeta's delight. Once done he wheeled on his booted heel to exit the room. Narrowly he avoided colliding with an indignant Bulma. Just inside the door of the nursery he dropped the diaper bag Goku had brought him in the middle of the woods an hour or so before. Onyx eyes flickered back and forth surveying the room's blue and purple interior. Bright gold toned stars were pained on its ceiling clustered around a smiling sun faced center lamp. Just over the crib dangled a colorful mobile comprised of small planes and other flying machines in miniature.

"At least it's not that disgusting pink," Vegeta snorted, still facing away from Bulma.

"Thank Kami," she breathed. Carefully she closed the door till it was just a crack of thin blue light before approaching the statue still figure of the Prince.

"Well, what have you to say for yourself?" he grunted. "Why are you pissed off when you wanted me to take care of the brat for the day? Some thanks I get for playing nursemaid."

"Vegeta you drive me crazy," Bulma groaned. Immediately behind him he sensed her ki. Hands stole around his waist from behind; hooking her soft robe covered chest to his armored back.

The contrast between her soft body and his armored one represented their diametric states of being. Bulma, feminine and plush contrasting to smooth angled hardness of a Prince. In the circle of her arms Vegeta whirled around with oiled precision of a drill soldier. Dark graceful brows furrowed over his bottomless eyes, taking in hers.

"You're wearing that new armor," she said quietly. Bulma pretended to wipe an invisible spot from the flawless white surface. A gloved hand caught hers, pulling it firmly up to his cheek. He turned his head so he could lightly nip the inner palm.

"Perhaps you aren't as much a weakling as I had initially thought," he muttered, fixing her in his gaze.

"Excuse me?" she snorted.

"Taking care of that brat's no easy work. That's why you're better equipped to do it," Vegeta coughed.

"If it's because I'm a woman I'll kill you!" she said through clenched teeth.

"Not so. Don't interrupt me, woman," said Vegeta, shaking his head. "I'm a warrior you're a scientist and a mother. You know more about things that I can't comprehend. It's too late for me to be a soft hearted sort like the type that you'd expect. I am the product of my past as much as you are."

"I don't want you to change, Vegeta. I just want you to be a father to him. And you proved to me you can. I was just not expecting it that's all," she said.

"A Prince doesn't normally change diapers, but he can if it is necessary. I never said I wouldn't spend time with the brat. It's just not my role. But to prove to you my word's sincerity I did so," Vegeta said matter of fact, clutching her hand in his.

"Thank you, Vegeta, that's all I wanted," Bulma nodded slowly, clearing her throat from the lump that formed.

"Bulma, I don't want the brat to die because I wasn't strong enough, man enough to protect you. You don't wish to die in two years or him to die, do you?"

"No! Of course not!" Bulma cried, shaking her head violently.

"Then let me train. Let me grow strong enough to protect you both so that the brat will have a future," Vegeta explained, not looking away.

"You're asking me to sit here while you go away again, is that it?" she nodded, swallowing hard. Although she did not cry outwardly inside she was weeping.

"Yes, Bulma. It's the only way. I don't leave here for weeks on end to piss you off but to achieve my birthright. In order that Trunks will achieve his, don't you see?" Vegeta said.

"Don't be a stranger to him. I want him to know he has a father, and that I have the man that… that is my mate," Bulma said, not wanting to say aloud that she loved him. She knew he would ridicule her for being so mushy.

"You don't comprehend, Bulma. Your fight is here, with the brat. Mine is there, with those tin cans. But today I have seen that they are no less important. What you must do is as essential as what I must do Bulma. That's the only father I can be right now. I can change the brat's diapers and fix its bottles, but that's not as important as being the strongest fighter right now. When the battle is won, then I can be here so much you'll bitch at me to leave," Vegeta explained with a low voice like velvet. A note of concern wrapped in with the horseness, melting her already breaking heart.

"I hate it when you're right," Bulma complained. Leaning forward she kissed his brow then wove her arms around his neck to squeeze him tightly. Vegeta encircled her waist with his gloved hands, resting his chin in the groove of her shoulder.

"I know. I usually am," he chuckled lightly against her ear.

"Jerk," she mumbled, nibbling on his ear. "When do you have to go?"

"I will leave tomorrow. To train in the wilderness. But you will see me around to use the graviton. And for other reasons," he said, sliding his hands down to rub her backside lightly. Bulma's own hands stole down to grip his muscled ass and pinch it. Vegeta's lips parted in a hissing gasp, his hands crushing her close.

"Stay with me tonight. Give me enough to remember you in the times when you're gone, you lunkhead," she urged.

"That boy in there, he's as much you as me. You won't forget me so easily because of him screaming and carrying on, will you?" Vegeta scolded her. "He's a Prince's son. And you're a Prince's mate."

"Tell me something I don't know," she responded. Lightly she brushed her lips over his, feeling him repositioning his head so he could catch her mouth clumsily before devouring her mouth. Lifting her in his arms he carried her towards their bed. Still Bulma's room was covered in shades of sickening pink, but he noticed blue drapes and the absence of the net of stuffed animals.

"Let me remind you that you belong to the Saiyan Prince, the Mighty Vegeta, who protects you and his son," Vegeta purred, levitating up to lay her on the bed. He sat on her hips, bearing down on her with only a bit of his weight. Sturdy muscled thighs imprisoned her. He divested himself of the weighed armored breastplate, tossing it aside, and then leaned down to pull the halves of the robe open.

Vegeta straightened his one leg out, toeing his boot off by abruptly kicking and swiping the other down it. To do this he had to lay his full weight on Bulma's chest. With a grunt he removed the other. Both landed with a thump on the side of the bed. All she could see through half veiled eyes was the spiky cone of that hair of his and feel his lips worshipping her glorious white skin. Slipping a bare leg between his Bulma twisted her body abruptly to one side. Vegeta grunted as she spun them both over so he was under her.

"Hmm, you learned a trick or two?" he smirked.

"You taught me that, remember?" she chuckled.

"When?" Vegeta muttered against the smooth column of her throat.

"Sometimes when you'd attack me out of nowhere and insist I needed to know a little self defense. I was listening," she whispered, grasping his wrists and pinning his hands above his head with light strength. Her thighs encompassed his waist, and she rubbed her hips overtop his spandex covered pelvis. Rocking up she slid her fingers between the seams that separated his shirt from his leggings, pulling the cloth up. Vegeta's hands folded behind his head, watching her with amusement. He'd let her have the dominant position then he'd show her a thing or two.

Her tongue slid down the creases of his defined muscles, before wavering over to his own chest. Any response was muffled through his clenched teeth. Still he kept his hands crossed behind his head, letting his woman work her magic.

"You really think you're in charge here, how sadly mistaken you are, woman," he snickered with that devilish smirk two shades away from an evil grin.

"Says you," she laughed, leaning down to kiss that smirk off his face.

She seized his bottom lip in her teeth, biting down on it. His own tongue darted out to slide across the tops of her upper teeth, coaxing her to release him so he could claim her mouth in a firm kiss. Gloved hands slid from behind his head to bind her to him. For a time he simply probed her sweet mouth with an adventurous tongue between merged lips. Her pheromones saturated the air with their distinctive perfume irresistible to Vegeta’s flared nostrils.

"Remember it well. I don't think you can forget the pleasures that I the Prince of all Saiyans, can grant you for your devotion to me," he purred, flipping her over so they lay side by side. Tangling her legs in his, he rubbed his muscular thigh between hers, causing her to gasp. Her knee brushed his desire, moving back and forth as his hands claimed the curves of exposed skin. Anxiously they removed whatever still separated them. Both sat upright on the bed. Gloved hands gripped her hips, and she slid her fingers over his to unite them as one being.

"I shouldn’t let you anywhere near me after having Trunks so soon!" she gasped.

"Now how could you resist me?" he smirked. Bulma’s red lips parted, and her dark lashed lids fluttered closed as she cried out his name. Their bodies joined and she felt that same tingling surging through her. It dawned on her that all the time the ki had build between them, but she was so caught up in the simple kisses and his scent to notice.

Bulma gasped opening her eyes for a moment. All around her the glow increased to encompass her flesh. Many times in the past they had both been wreathed in it, but he had placed the energy around only her. At skin depth and inside, the blue ki shielded her body from the full force of his Saiyan appetites. Realization dawned on Bulma that he had grown so strong in each time, that such energy was needed to protect her frail flesh from what he could do.

It was a force field around her, reinforcing her delicate human body normally one tenth the strength and density of his Saiyan physique. He had bottled his beautiful butterfly in a solid jar so he could preserve and love her at his full strength. Waves of energy surged around them, fluttering the curtains and shimmering the entire room with his ki. For a split second the blue hissed to a blinding hot white intensity that seared her with a residual gold radiance. The sun itself peeked through the curtains and hit her full in the face, casting them both in its golden glow.

"What was that?" she whispered, blinking at the gold radiance spilling in from outside and bathing them in its sheen.

"Mating with you as if you were a full blooded Saiyan such as me," he panted. "Now you see the other reason I must be away from you while I train? I could destroy you before I knew how to fully master the power."

"I'm sorry Vegeta I didn't know," she whispered.

"Now you understand. When next we meet I will have mastered it. And then you need not fear the proximity," he whispered. "Because you carried my brat, his ki reinforced your body. Sex at normal force was possible. But now that you are again as you were, I must restrain my urges. As in all things."

"You could have told me, you idiot," she laughed lightly, kissing him.

"Would you have listened? No," he mumbled sarcastically.

"I know you'll hate me for saying this, but I do love you, Vegeta," she whispered.

"Now you had to go and ruin it by going all sentimental!" he snickered teasingly.

"Sorry, I just had to say it. Just in case I don’t get another chance to, Geta-chan," she trailed off, before burying her face in his neck. Vegeta pulled off his gloves, immersing his fingers in her silky blue hair. He picked up the strands and let them drop lazily, then scratched her scalp.

"What makes you think I won't triumph, eh? That you won't have another chance to fill my ears with your sentimental drivel?" he snorted.

"If you don't I'll bring you back and kill you myself," she sniffled.

"I know woman, I know, and for that loyalty I am eternally grateful," Vegeta said, binding her close in his arms. A lump swelled in his throat, and he suddenly realized that emptiness was filled for a moment. It terrified him even more than anything he'd felt before. He loved her and truly knew what it was. Even more shocking was that part of him didn't' care that he'd suddenly allowed himself to be weakened by love.

"Love isn't a weakness," that part of him said. "Perhaps it isn't that sappy syrupy thing you thought it was. Maybe it's something the humans are too stupid to comprehend in all its awesome savagery."

"Who the hell cares if it's weakness or not. I have what Kakkarot has," Vegeta murmured aloud. Mentally he added, "And soon I'll restore the natural order of things. So the time that punk from the future returns I'll be the one laughing in his face!"

Bulma lifted her head and glanced up, shivering at him. Liquid blue eyes met hers, a shade towards turquoise. She swallowed hard, realizing the radiant light of the setting sun had faded, and the gilded glow was not coming from outside, but in. Her fingers brushed over the bristles of his hair.

"Vegeta," she whispered.

"What, woman?" he asked.

"Look at yourself," she whispered.

"That sunlight is rather irritating! You should have closed the curtains woman," Vegeta griped, shading his eyes with his hand.

"That light. It's not coming from the sun shining through the window. It's coming from somewhere IN THIS ROOM," Bulma stammered, gazing at him in fear and wonder. Now she knew why she had been shielded by his royal blue ki. To protect her subconsciously from the metamorphosis, the Prince's own body had done so, anticipating what was to transpire. What gilded glow remained was only from the shimmering lord of light resulting from a dark prince.

Raising his hands he felt the strength humming through his body. That blue glow was no more. The royal blue ki had transmuted to something far more glorious. Sitting bold upright in bed with his woman I his lap he saw a pair of turquoise eyes and a tower of bright blonde spikes regarded him. Bulma parted herself from him, her face bright with unshed tears. "You're beautiful, you know."

"Again I have achieved it but for another reason before this," he said quietly.

"But a pure heart and calm mind was needed, wasn't it? That's what Gohan said Goku claimed," said Bulma uncomprehending. "All you ever felt was rage, frustration and desire."

"Yes, but that's what I have lived for. The desperation of becoming more than I was to claim the birthright that was always mine, Bulma," Vegeta whispered.

"How?"

"Once before I felt this way. In the depths of space when I sensed you were carrying my brat," Vegeta said. "I felt as if everything were conspiring against me, and I had no reason to fight anymore. I loathed and hated the weak flesh I was, hated the man who could not be the Prince he so proported to be. Then I understood if for a second that if I wished for it hard enough, I would achieve it. Then the revelation faded. And then suddenly I no longer hated myself. I felt proud of what I had achieved, and knew it was for a purpose far greater then my own selfish desires."

"You mean anger and desire, and pure unbridled passion?" she asked.

"The other side of Saiyan nature. The drive to be better then one already is, Bulma," said Vegeta with a slow grin. The intense self-hatred and detachment at realizing the weakness of love floated from his mind. He stared comprehending the vision before him, and understood fully how it had come to pass. Self-hatred changed into something that pushed beyond what he once was capable of, and what could be. Relief filled him, knowing that what was once a weakness was now one of his greatest strengths.

"Your hunger to be the best you can," she nodded.

"Love isn't something that I truly understood, Bulma. I think you humans are the ones that don't comprehend it. Love to a Saiyan is a state of being, a savage desire to posess and protect with every fiber of one's being. A hunger that surpasses all others. That is not love by its meager human definition, but a desire to be one with one's mate to have a purpose to exist," Vegeta said quietly.

"You're part of me," she murmured. "And I will say it again. I love you, Vegeta. Trunks and I both love you, even if you don't want to say it aloud."

"Your human concept of 'love' is not a word in my vocabulary. Rather the drive to be what I rightfully should. The best and the strongest. And you united yourself to me in that purpose. That is a Saiyan's true desire, to know that you would do anything for me, blindly," Vegeta murmured.

"Then you do… love me?"

"You are mine, body and soul. To protect, to defend and to take pride in. Not a weakness but a secret of strength. And it's for that reason I must keep my cold ruthlessness so the enemy does not take away my two greatest treasures, Bulma," Vegeta said, clutching her close. "You and the brat."

"So I'm not a weakness?"

"You're my secret weapon, Bulma, you and the brat. My reason for continuing this fight. But keep that close to yourself in confidence. Let no one guess the secret of my power. Lest my enemies destroy everything that holds any meaning. Outside of these walls, these words must NOT be uttered, do you understand, Bulma?" he said.

"Your pride?" she asked.

"It is necessary. I request that you honor this command for your own safety as well as that of Trunks. I may appear uncaring to your 'friends' towards you, but that does not diminish my duty to protect what is mine. Know in your mind and body the truth, for my actions are what matters, not paltry foolish words," Vegeta said.

"I'll do it, because I know why, Vegeta, and I don't want to lose you. Neither does Trunks," she nodded, kissing him lightly before the gilt faded and he was again himself. Vegeta nodded, seeing comprehension in her eyes. He knew he would remain the rest of the night, and leave first thing that morning. He had to recapture that moment of transformation and make it last long enough so that he would be the strongest of all. So that his woman and son would see another day in the coming years.