A Light in the Darkness - part 25: Broken Hearts
by Mia Skywalker & Wataruo

PAIRING: Vegeta/Bulma
RATING: G
WARNINGS: Angst
DISCLAIMER: Neither of us owns any of the DBZ characters or anything about DBZ, but we both wish we owned the Saiyans. All of them. At least all of the ones with hair. These characters are owned by Toei, Viz, Akira Toriyama, and FUNimation, even though the last one is a crying shame. We do own what we've written here, and our specific storyline, just not Dragonball itself. We make no money off of any of these guys, nor off this fic. We just have fun writing it.
SUMMARY: Broken hearts.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Thanks to saiyengerl for beta'ing!

NOTE: This is another short chapter, but the next chapter has absolutely nothing to do with this chapter, so definitely belongs in a new one of its own. So deal with it. 

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Last time on Dragonball Z: A Light in the Darkness....

Vegeta's reaction to Bulma's confession

Vegeta flew for at least an hour before a small island caught his attention. From his position up above he could tell that it was not inhabited by anyone. It was too wild, with too much vegetation, not to mention it was in the middle of nowhere. His curiosity piqued, he regulated his ki so that he could land. Vegeta had to admit that he was impressed. The place was beautiful. A white sand beach, untouched by anything but wildlife, was a sharp contrast to the clear blue water of the ocean and the deep greens of the surrounding trees. 

Vegeta strolled along and found a natural path in the vegetation, and stopped when he saw a waterfall that emptied into a clear pool. The surrounding foliage and outcropping of rocks gave it a feeling of privacy. ::Bulma would love it here:: he thought immediately, but when he realized of whom he was thinking, a deep longing shot through him and he dropped to his knees. For the second time in his life, Vegeta, prince of the Saiyans, wept.

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Bulma remained in her room for the rest of the afternoon. Her mother became worried when she didn't come down for dinner but pleaded a headache instead. Mrs. Briefs stopped by with a plate of food, but when she came to Bulma's room later, her daughter hadn't moved from her position on the bed, and the food was untouched. Mrs. Briefs sighed with worry, but didn't know what to do to snap her daughter out of it. She wished that Bulma would talk about it, but knew her daughter tended to hold too much in, that she was not given to confidences. 

She sat next to where her daughter lay on the bed, brushed her hair from her face and stroked her back gently. Bulma was no longer weeping; Mrs. Briefs suspected that her tears had long since been cried out. But she was obviously not ready to face the world, and her mother wasn't going to force her to.

Eventually Mrs. Briefs left Bulma alone, and tucked Gohan in bed, making sure he didn't stay up too late playing Tekken and other games.

Long after the sun had set and the moon had risen, and everyone else in the house had gone to bed, Bulma stirred from her position curled up on her bed. She rubbed her eyes, got dressed in her nightgown, but then stared at the bed, unable to consider settling into it just yet. Although they'd been together such a short time, somehow Vegeta had managed to brand his presence in her life and worm his way into her memories. There were too many memories yet in that bed and she didn't want to face them just yet.

She instead stepped onto her balcony, and studied the moon and the stars in the clear night sky. There was something oddly familiar about that sky, and she tried to remember what it was.... then it occurred to her. It had been almost exactly a year since they'd returned from Namek; these were the same star positions that had been in the sky when they'd come home. It was almost a full moon again, too. It had been a waning moon at the time, right now it was waxing, but it was almost at the same exact fullness as it had been then. That memory had been a strong one for her, and she'd remembered. 

Now, gazing at those same constellations... she remembered how she hadn't really wanted Vegeta to stay with them. She'd invited him to stay so that he wouldn't go around killing people, to keep him out of trouble. She hadn't really wanted him there, though. But now he was gone, and she wished... she wished that he'd come back.

She gripped the rail of the balcony as she stared at the moon, and then she lowered her head, tears trailing their way down her cheeks and glistening under the moonlight.

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Vegeta wasn't sure how long he knelt there. Even after he managed to get a hold of his emotions, he felt... drained. As if his will to exist had disappeared. When he stood up, he was more than a little surprised to notice that the moon had risen. ::Where has the time gone?:: he wondered as he looked up at the moon. ::Have I been here moping over some female all afternoon?:: 

Vegeta took to the air. If nothing else, he could assure himself that Bulma was alright. He would be able to check on her without her knowing. It was a mystery to him, why he had this sudden urge to see and protect her, but it was a need that could not be ignored, and he took off with all the speed he could muster as he headed back towards Capsule Corporation.

He slowed as he reached her balcony. Even at a distance he could tell that she was standing there. He rose slightly to hover above her. Even if Bulma had looked up she would not have seen him, watching her in the darkness, head tilted to the side, brow furrowed in thought. ::Why am I here?:: he questioned himself. ::What hold do you have over me, woman?:: He stayed there long after Bulma had gone inside, trying to make sense of these emotions he had no experience with. 

Bulma had no idea that the man she was thinking of so intently was watching her as she gazed up at the stars. Her thoughts drifted from one image to another, turning memories over like leaves in her mind, trying to make some sense of them. She was, at the moment, temporarily drained of tears, but she knew they would be back later. Despite her exhaustion she wasn't yet ready for bed; the embrace of sleep held no attraction for her at the moment. Paradoxically, she longed for the temporary surcease from pain that sleep would bestow.

After gazing up at the indifferent stars for a long while, she gradually became aware that she was shivering. She unconsciously moved to draw her nightgown closer, and then realized that she'd neglected to put her robe on before coming out here. She sighed, gazed wistfully at the empty bed a moment longer, then re-entered her room, closing and locking the balcony door behind her. She was unaware that a particular Saiyan prince landed lightly on the balcony as she moved about her bedroom, hiding himself in the shadows as he watched her through the glass pane of the balcony door. She washed her face of the traces of tears, realizing how futile that was, as she could feel more just at the edge of returning.

She slid under the sheet, but didn't lie down to rest for several minutes, as she stared at the spot on her bed where Vegeta had lain the previous night. She touched the spot gently, almost reverently, and then her hand clenched suddenly against the sheets as she bowed her head and began to weep again.

Vegeta scowled in the darkness as he watched her. ::Now what?:: She was the one that had thrown him out. She should, by all rights, be glad to have gotten rid of him. So why was she upset? He found himself fighting the urge to go to her. Embrace her, soothe her tears away and tell her that everything was all right. But his pride held him still. If Bulma wanted him back, then she would have to ask him. He would not go crawling to her, begging for forgiveness like some common human. He was a Prince, one of the strongest warriors of the universe; he would not grovel at that woman's feet. 

But he wanted to, how he wanted to. His father would be ashamed of him to see him acting like this over a female. Acting like a third class soldier bonded to a female. Vegeta snorted. Him? Bonded? That particular gene didn't exist in his family line. It was a curse of the common soldiers. It was an emotional bond, something that could not be controlled, and was looked upon as a disadvantage. Especially if the female that you had bonded to was not bonded to you as well. The male in question would suffer horribly. He wouldn't sleep in the first stages, and after a while wouldn't eat and would just wait until death claimed him. That was the worst case, but even if the warrior were strong enough to survive, he would never be the same again.

Vegeta shivered at the thought. ::No I am not bonded to that female:: he comforted himself. ::I can live without her. It is not the end of the universe because she finds me unacceptable.:: 

He stood there long into the night, before he finally felt the need to sleep, and he headed back to the island that he had found earlier to relax. He failed to realize that he had not eaten since earlier in the day. And stranger yet, he was not at all hungry.

After she'd cried for so long that she was weak with fatigue, and drained of her tears for a while she managed to curl up on the bed on the side where Vegeta had slept the night before. She could smell his scent, and it felt like he was closer to her again. She knew his scent would eventually fade from the sheets and that saddened her, but right now... right now it felt like maybe he was there with her. She closed her eyes, imagining his arms around her holding her tightly and protectively, and eventually she fell asleep.

To be continued.....

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And in the next exciting episode of DragonBall Z: A Light in the Darkness... More quality time for Goku and Chi-Chi.