Chapter 7


When Bulma got back to the Capsule Corporation compound, the first thing she did was go check on Yamucha. She found him in the same place she’d left him – out cold.

“Poor Yamucha,” Bulma thought sadly as she pulled his arm over her shoulders and lifted him up. “Vegita knocked him out after just the first hit. This’ll be a real blow to his pride.”

Bulma brought Yamucha into the house and laid him out on the couch. Everyone was already done watching the movie, and all the Nameks had gone. Mrs. Briefs, however, was still up, and she was in there on her favorite chair with a book when Bulma walked in.

“Oh my goodness!” She exclaimed when she noticed Bulma come in. “What happened to Yamucha?”

“He and Vegita got into a fight,” Bulma said, adjusting his legs so he’d be more comfortable. “Yamucha lost. But don’t worry. He’s not really hurt. He got knocked out after the first punch.”

“Oh well,” Mrs. Briefs sighed. “I’m glad no one got hurt. Do you know what they were fighting about?”

Bulma winced. She was too ashamed to tell her mother that. “No,” she lied. “But I made Vegita promise to behave himself. Anyway, Yamucha’s going to be pretty upset and excitable when he wakes up. Just tell him that I’m in Vegita’s gravity room. That’s all he’ll stick around to hear.”

“Okay dear,” Mrs. Briefs said, frowning. She wasn’t stupid. She could tell Bulma was being dishonest with her, and she wasn’t happy about it, but she didn’t want to force the truth out of her either. So she just let it go. “I’ll tell him,” she said. “Be careful, okay?”

Bulma smiled. “Always am, Mom,” she said. She left then, and Mrs. Briefs sighed. She had a sneaking suspicion that her daughter had something to do with the reason that the boys had been fighting. There wasn’t any way to be sure, though. She didn’t think it was her place to pry. She’d just have to trust Bulma to tell her whenever she felt it was necessary. She was a grown woman, after all. She could take care of herself.

Bulma left right away for Vegita’s gravity room. It would take her an hour or so to rewire it, but at least the process was reversible. She sighed as she removed the screws holding down the control panel. She’d really messed things up this time.

It wasn’t more than a few seconds after Bulma had finished when Yamucha came running toward the gravity room, shouting out her name and sounding very distressed indeed.

“I’m in here!” She called, clamping the lid back on the control panel. “Come on in, Yamucha!”

He ran in and immediately gave her a crushing bear hug. “Thank God,” he croaked, his voice choked with emotion. “I thought he’d… I thought you were… Oh, Bulma, I was so worried!”

“It… It’s okay, Yamucha,” Bulma said, a pained expression on her face. She hated that she’d caused him all this grief. “It’s okay.”

“No it’s not,” he said, loosening his grip and leaning back so he could look her in the face. “Are you all right? Where’s Vegita? I swear that if he’s hurt you…”

“He didn’t hurt me, Yamucha,” she said, holding a hand up. “I managed to talk him out of it. Come on. Let’s go get something to drink. I’ll tell you everything that happened, from start to finish, okay?”

She left for the house then, followed by a very relieved Yamucha. They sat down in the kitchen after Bulma poured them each a cold drink. And once they got settled, Bulma told Yamucha everything, from the night she and Vegita had their first little go-round, all the way up to the point where she had come back to fix Vegita’s gravity machine.

“That bastard!” Yamucha said viciously when she had finished. “He can’t get away with that! And what makes him think he can boss us around like that? I won’t stand for it!”

“Don’t get so upset, Yamucha,” Bulma sighed. “It’s mostly my fault anyway. I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”

“Yeah, but Vegita has no right to treat you like that! The jerk had better keep his filthy hands off of you!”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before,” Bulma said, looking down at her half-finished glass of club soda. “But I knew you would react to it this way.”

“The only complaint I have about any of what you did,” Yamucha said, scowling darkly, “was to tell Vegita you’re still a virgin. I’m absolutely certain that was a bad move. The sick creep sure changed his tune when you told him that, don’t you think?”

“What would you have me say?” Bulma snapped. “That I’m some kind of floozy? And anyway, it’s not like I said it on purpose. He made me mad, and I said it without thinking. But there’ll be no more of that. I’m not giving that creep any more chances to do this to me. He’s too dangerous. I’ve decided that we should just leave him alone. I don’t know about you, but he scares me spitless. I don’t ever want to have to face him like that again. I can’t even think straight; I get so scared.”

Yamucha sighed. “I told you you shouldn’t have let him stay here,” he chided gently. “That man’s no good.”

Bulma just shrugged. “Maybe you’re right,” she sighed, shaking her head. “But Vegita is here to stay, regardless. Let’s just leave him alone. In about three weeks we’ll be able to collect the dragonballs again. Then we can wish Goku back, and he’ll take care of Vegita for us.”

Yamucha nodded. “All right then,” he said. “I’ll keep an eye on him until that happens. But in the meantime, I want you to keep away from him. He seems to be singling you out for some reason, and when I saw you two this evening, I thought for sure I knew why. I’m not entirely convinced that my suspicions are unfounded, so I want you to stay away from that maniac. I don’t want him to hurt you.”

Bulma laughed dryly. “He’s not singling me out, Yamucha,” she said. “I’m the one who’s been starting all the fights here. If you stop to look at it, it actually seems more like I’m singling him out. Besides,” she added, frowning at him. “I can take care of myself, Yamucha. And I can promise you that right now, there’s nothing I’d like more than to never see Vegita again. You can be sure that I won’t be spending any unnecessary time with him. But I don’t want to hear anything else about you spying on him, either. I won’t have you sneaking around after him and giving him cause to fight again. You heard what he said. And quite frankly Yamucha, he could easily kill you if he so chose, and I can tell you right now; he’s just itching for an excuse. You’d be wise to avoid him too.”

“Yeah,” Yamucha sighed. “I know. But I can’t help wanting to keep an eye on that guy. I just know that he’s up to something.”

“I think it’s unlikely,” Bulma said in a rather frank tone. “I believe him when he says he’s going to try to surpass Goku, and I’d say that’s a full-time job. It doesn’t leave much time for scheming. Anyway, what could he possibly be planning? There’s nothing else for him to do. He hates it here. He won’t want to rule the planet. And besides, he’s a lot stronger than any of us, so even if he is planning something, we won’t be able to do anything to stop him. Just ignore him, Yamucha. If Vegita gets angry again, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”

“Oh all right!” Yamucha said in exasperation. “We’ll leave him alone! But I have to tell you that I’m definitely not happy about ignoring him. He might just be waiting for us to let our guard down!”

“Oh well,” Bulma said, shrugging and flashing him a coy grin. “I guess we’ll just have to pretend we don’t care about his Earth-shaking plans of conquest. Too bad for us, huh?”

“Shut up, you!” Yamucha said playfully, snapping his arm forward and grabbing a chunk of her hair so he could yank it.

“Ow!” Bulma shrieked with a laugh, shoving him back in his chair and jumping up out of hers. “That’s it, mister! I know a challenge when I see one! You and me, pal! Come on! We’ll take it outside!”

Yamucha laughed. He couldn’t help it. Bulma took the opportunity to shove him hard in the chest and he went crashing backwards, the chair flying up into the air and landing awkwardly on top of him. Bulma bolted for the door, just as Yamucha detached himself from the chair and leapt up to follow her.

“Nyaaah!” She taunted him, sticking her tongue out at him and making a funny face. He chased after her then, and they raced all the way outside, where they took to the air.

That night it was really more fun than real training. After they got through playing around and chasing each other all over the compound, they eventually made their way to Bulma’s gravity room for some light sparring. Bulma only set the machine to twenty, and they basically grappled and struggled with each other to see who would give first. Neither one made any signs of giving up until about two in the morning, and by that time they were so tired that they finally agreed to call it a draw. Bulma turned the machine off and they pretty much dropped where they were, panting and very much exhausted. Bulma fell asleep nearly right away, and as she lay there – snoring rather loudly – she was unaware that Yamucha had crawled over to lie down next to her.

He watched her sleep for a few minutes before he settled down himself. He smiled at her as she drooled a little in mid-snore. God, it hurt him to know that she’d never be anything more to him than just his best friend. He loved her; he was sure of it. But he knew that she didn’t feel the same way, and somehow he had to accept that. He sighed as he settled down on the floor up against her, the warmth of her body complementing his own. They’d done this so many times before out in the desert: fallen asleep together under the stars after a long day of hard training. There had been so many nights when he’d practically begged her to do more than sleep, but she had always gently but unwaveringly refused him. She was such an old-fashioned girl in that sense, and it was surprising to him sometimes, when he considered the fast-paced type of life that she led. He’d never been able to get past those firm moral values of hers about love. It was a bit disappointing at times, but it had by no means lowered his opinion of her.

But those times were gone. They were no longer the carefree, happy couple training together out in the quiet desert he and Puar used to call home. All he could do now was just be there for her when she needed him. She may not want him as a boyfriend anymore, but that didn’t mean he was going to just stand by and let something happen to her. He was determined to protect her by any means necessary, and it seemed that lately she needed it more than she ever had. With Vegita around, Yamucha had witnessed a total change take place in Bulma’s personality. She had become far more withdrawn and nervous than he’d ever seen her, and it only seemed to worsen at the mere mention of the Saiyan’s name. The man really did terrify her. It made Yamucha wonder if maybe she was hiding something terrible from him – some event that might possibly explain this terrible fear that Vegita managed to have struck in her. He scowled as he reflected on the scene he’d walked in on tonight. He had thought for sure that his suspicions about Vegita’s motives had been confirmed by tonight’s events. And why shouldn’t he think such things? He saw no reason to put it past Vegita to force himself on Bulma. He rather doubted Vegita’d done that yet, though. Bulma’d be much worse off than this if that had ever happened. But still, that psycho might be considering it. It would certainly explain why the freak was always staring at Bulma with such interest. He knew himself what a charming, beautiful woman Bulma was, and he had little doubt that Vegita had noticed the same thing. If Vegita really did get it into his little pea-brain to commit such a terrible deed, there would be little Bulma could do to stop him. She was strong all right; she hadn’t noticed it yet, but all that intense gravity training she was putting herself through had already made her a far cry more powerful than he was. But even so, Vegita had her beaten by such a high margin that there was no way she could win in even a fair fight with him, much less the kind of fight Vegita could be expected to provide. He already knew that if Vegita did try something, he’d be even less help to her than she would be to herself. All the same, though, he was determined to make sure that didn’t happen. He decided that he’d just have to watch things for a while. That was all he could do. Maybe he was worrying too much; he really hoped that was the case. But he certainly didn’t care to take that kind of chance. If he ever had to feel the anger and helplessness he’d felt tonight, it just might make him do something drastic. He wasn’t necessarily above using unfair methods of assuring Bulma’s safety. There were easier ways to kill Vegita than fighting him. And he knew that it would come down to that if Vegita ever did threaten Bulma again. He’d have to kill him. That’s all there was to it. He never wanted to see the terror he’d seen on Bulma’s face tonight ever again.

Sighing again, he rolled over onto his side and waited for sleep to come. Bulma would never be his, but at least if he had his way, she’d always be safe.



On To Chapter 8 ~~~>