A Light in the Darkness - part 33: Yamcha Learns the Truth
by Mia Skywalker & Wataruo

PAIRING: Hm... maybe you can figure it out! ^_~
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: Yamcha learns the truth about Bulma's feelings for Vegeta
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Thanks to saiyengerl for beta'ing!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

A few people get some unexpected news, and Vegeta is almost killed.

~*~

Yamcha stared at her in shock, unable to speak for several minutes. "If I don't kill him now," he said slowly, "you know he'll come after me later, for revenge. Will your love be enough to keep him from killing me, even though it's enough to keep me from killing him?"

Bulma looked up at him with a stricken expression. "I don't know," she whispered. "I love him, but he doesn't love me. He's never loved me. I don't know what he will or won't do. I only know that if he dies, then I'll die. I can't let him die." Her expression firmed, and she stood up. "Help me take him to the regeneration tanks," she ordered Yamcha, and the warrior, accustomed to obedience at that voice, picked up the fallen warrior and started following Bulma to the infirmaries.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Vegeta heard voices, Bulma arguing with Yamcha. Her telling the other warrior that she loved him. Yamcha replying, and then the warrior knew nothing as he passed out.

Hakusai and Goku touched down outside Capsule Corporation in time to see Yamcha pick up Vegeta and start to follow Bulma inside.

"Bulma?" Goku asked hurrying up to her as the went indoors. "What happened?"

Hakusai went white at the sight of Vegeta's limp body over Yamcha's shoulder. "Kami. You better do something fast," she said, her voice sounding suspiciously on the verge of tears. "His ki is fading." She brought her head up to glare at Yamcha. "What the hell did you think you were doing?" She demanded. "He was in no condition to fight. He has not eaten in almost two days." She was practically shouting, her voice raising on each word. "Do you realize what you have done?"

Without breaking his stride, Yamcha glanced at the Saiyan woman who was shouting at him. He glared at her. "And who the hell are you? He attacked me! And even if he hadn't, I wasn't about to let him get away with...." He stopped speaking, choking on the word made him so angry. He refused to believe that it had been anything other than rape. Bulma couldn't have wanted to sleep with Vegeta. He had to have done something to force her, and she had just managed to convince herself that it was mutual. 

"It's none of your damned business," he snapped at her. "And how was I supposed to know he hadn't eaten, if he was the one attacking me? He seemed strong enough to me when he started the attack!"

"Goku, I don't have time for this," Bulma growled at her friend. "If you want to come with me, that's fine, but there's no time for explanations right now. Or accusations." She glared at Hakusai. "You don't belong here. Goku's my friend, but I don't know you. But I'm going to take care of Vegeta, no matter what it takes."

They reached the infirmary, and she pressed a button to open one of the regeneration tanks. "Put him in this." She gestured to a harness that was hanging from the ceiling. Reluctantly, Yamcha followed her directions. He had no idea what it was for, but Bulma had been insistent that she wanted to rescue Vegeta, and he believed her. 

"Wait," she commanded, causing him to pause. She considered the unconscious prince for a moment. "We need to get him out of his clothes, it'll work faster." She looked at Hakusai and said coolly, "You might want to leave, if looking at a naked man offends you."

"I hate to inform you of this," she replied, dark eyes showing her irritation, "but Vegeta is my brother." She turned her head and glared at Yamcha. "And if he dies, human, then you die." She and Goku watched as Bulma and Yamcha quickly stripped Vegeta to nothing and put him in the harness. "I know how these work," Hakusai said impatiently. "I can do it faster."

"No you can't," Bulma replied, forcing her out of the way. "The controls are in Japanese. I don't know what languages you know, but likely you don't know ours." She handled the controls with ease, deftly lowering Vegeta into the tank and setting the controls.

"Don't you think you're overreacting a bit?" Goku asked.

Hakusai sighed. "Sorry, I can't help it." She shook her head. "He is sick and I don't know what's wrong with him besides this sudden death wish of his."

"He will be ok," Goku said as he watched the tank fill. "He has been through worse."

"I wouldn't doubt that." She sighed again, turned and looked at Yamcha. "Sorry about biting your head off." She gave him a polite bow. "It's just that, well, he is family."

Goku smiled. "I'll give him a day or so in there. Then he should be alright."

Yamcha frowned, feeling a little guilty about having almost killed someone that couldn't really defend himself, but it made him feel a little defensive. He'd learned at Kaioh-sama's how to sense someone's ki level, but it wasn't a skill he was used to using, and he'd never expected to have to worry about Vegeta being weaker than himself. 

"I wouldn't have fought him, if he hadn't attacked me." His tone sounded defensive even to him. Then he shook his head. "No, I would have. He's always been much stronger than me, and he's always wanted to kill me. He's wanted to kill all of us, but especially me, and now I know why!" He glared briefly at Bulma, before turning back to Hakusai. "But even if he hadn't attacked me, I was avenging Bulma. He raped her...."

"HE DIDN'T RAPE ME!" Bulma shouted, absolutely furious. "How many times do I have to explain that?!? I chose to be with him! What we had was... wonderful!" Her eyes filled with tears and she pressed her face to the glass, staring at Vegeta. "And if he dies, I'll die too," she whispered.

Hakusai heard Bulma's quiet voice and she turned her head to see the other woman's nose pressed against the glass. She blinked a few times before whispering, "I'll be damned. It can't be?" It made sense, she realized. It was the only thing that made sense. Vegeta's sudden death wish and Bulma's illness. "You've bonded to him," she explained quietly. "And if I am right he is bonded to you."

Bulma ignored the other woman's words. They were unimportant to her, and didn't make any sense, anyway. At the moment all she could think about was Vegeta, and how she wanted him to get better again. She pressed both hands on the glass as she stared into the tank, willing him back to her. ::Get better, Vegeta. You have to get better. Ai shiteru, Vegeta. I love you. If you die, then I die. You have to get better. For me. For the baby. For you. Please, Vegeta, come back to me!::

"It will be ok Bulma," Goku said softly from his position by the doorway. "It's up to the regeneration tank, now."

Hakusai nodded. "There may be nothing more you can do but pray. That is if you believe in that kind of thing."

Vegeta was vaguely aware of being in the tank. At first he was fighting the regeneration process, then he heard Bulma's voice. He thought that he was hearing things, but the more he concentrated, the stronger it became. Bubbles floated up to the top of the tank as the warrior took a deep breath. He wanted to speak but found that he did not have the strength. ::Did you mean that, woman?:: he thought to himself. It had never occurred to him that she could be bonded to him as well, and that hope was what was keeping him alive. He sighed again, bubbles floated to the top of the tank, and the computer that was monitoring his heart rate noted that it had fallen into an acceptable range and was now healing.

"I believe in prayer," Bulma whispered. "Kami chose to bring him back before, maybe he'll save him again, this time for me."

Goku smiled, and then nodded. "Yeah, Kami did bring him back before. He could have worded it so that Vegeta stayed dead, but he didn't. Maybe there was a reason to bring him back."

Yamcha frowned. Goku's words implied that there might be some good in Vegeta, something that Kami alone could see. And Goku, perhaps. The other Saiyan seemed to see the good in everyone, no matter how deeply buried, and somehow he always managed to bring that good to the surface. That was something that Yamcha admired, but he didn't want to believe that there was any good in Vegeta at all. After all, this was the man that had killed him... and had apparently taken Bulma from him. 

That last thought tore Yamcha's heart, and he tried to pull his thoughts away from that. "Bulma, you need something to eat," he said gently to the grieving woman. "You're sick, and if you don't eat, you'll get worse."

Bulma waved him away, not taking her eyes off of Vegeta. She pressed both hands firmly on the glass again. "I'm not leaving him," she insisted softly. "It's my fault that he was hurt. I'm not going to leave him again."

"Bulma...." Yamcha protested.

"Yamcha... leave her be," Hakusai interrupted. "We can go and get her something. It's probably better that she stays here anyways."

Yamcha frowned. "All right," he said reluctantly. "But we're going to bring you something to eat. And you'll eat it. Understand?"

Bulma nodded absently, removing neither her hands from the glass, nor her eyes nor thoughts from Vegeta. ::Please get better, Vegeta! Please come back to me again! Don't leave me!::

Hakusai stepped away from the tank and reached over to pull Yamcha away from Bulma. "She isn't listening to you, warrior," she told him. "Let's go. Come on, Goku. Let's leave them alone." She gestured for the two men to follow her and headed out the door. ::I can't believe it:: she mused. ::My brother bonded to a human.::

Yamcha frowned as he followed Hakusai, his gaze lingering on Bulma as he walked out. He didn't like leaving her alone with Vegeta, no matter that the Saiyan was stuck in a regeneration tank. Who knew how long before he got out? Yamcha didn't like her being at the mercy of Vegeta that way. He knew she claimed that she loved him, and that Vegeta hadn't raped her, but... he felt that somehow, it couldn't have been anything else. He growled softly as he left the room with Hakusai.

Bulma continued to stare at Vegeta, not even paying attention to the machines which were monitoring him so carefully, which were supposed to be telling her every little beat of his heart, every twitch of a muscle, every firing of a neuron. Somehow she felt that she'd be able to sense any changes in him before the machines could, no matter how much she knew otherwise. 

Her gaze never wavered, although tears filled her eyes, as all of the love she felt for him, all the longing and sorrow and need for him all flew its way across to him, through the glass and the liquid, finding his heart with her own. ::Vegeta, you can't leave me alone again!:: she thought at him, with all the feelings of pent-up loneliness and need in her heart. ::Please don't leave me alone again! If you leave me, I'll die! Oh, Vegeta. Ai shiteru!::

~~~*~~~

Bulma's mother was sitting at the kitchen table, and smiled at them as they entered. "Excuse me." Hakusai spoke quietly. "We wanted to let you know that we are leaving now. But if you have a moment you should take some food out to Bulma." Hakusai sighed. ::That is if she even touches it.:: "She may get hungry later."

Mrs. Briefs frowned at the Saiyan woman. All pretense of air-headedness was gone. "Bulma? Isn't she in her room?"

"No, she is with Vegeta in the infirmary," Goku replied.

"In the infirmary?" Mrs. Briefs sounded alarmed. "What happened?"

"Vegeta and Yamcha had a disagreement. Vegeta lost," Goku replied. "He will recover, though. Bulma's with him." Goku smiled with confidence in the belief that Bulma could do anything, if she put her mind to it.

"Vegeta is hurt?" They were all surprised to see the look of alarm that crossed Mrs. Briefs' face. "Bulma is with him?" She appeared upset at first, and then she calmed down, nodding as though considering. "This could work out just fine," she murmured, almost approvingly, and then she smiled, once again the blonde airhead. "I'll make sure I bring Bulma something to eat later. Don't worry about her!"

Hakusai smiled back. ::I was right. She knows more than she is letting on.:: "Thank you. I appreciate it. We will stop back tomorrow to see how everything is going."

Mrs. Briefs continued to smile vacuously at them. "Oh, I'm sure Bulma will want to see her friends again! But you might want to wait an extra day... for her to recuperate, you know!"

Goku smiled. "All right," he agreed. "We will see you in a day or two." He turned and headed out the door. "Come on, Yamcha. Let's get going."

"What? Oh, right." The handsome warrior followed the two Saiyans out the door. He paused briefly and looked at Mrs. Briefs. "If you need anything, I'll be at Goku's...."

Mrs. Briefs shooed the trio out of the house. "I'll be fine! Bulma will be fine! We'll see you in a few days!" She waved good-bye at them as they left, noticing that Yamcha had left his aircar behind. She had one of the valets park it, knowing that if Vegeta saw it he would probably destroy it. She wasn't going to give him the temptation. 

Then she went back into the house and went to the kitchen, and considered what to bring Bulma. She knew her daughter's favorite foods, and had the robots prepare some of it. She had learned what Vegeta's favorite foods were over the past year as well; many of them were things he had eaten for the first time since coming to Chikyuu. She made sure to include several of them as well.

When the robots had finished preparing the meal - which was quite obviously more than Bulma could eat even when she was feeling well - Mrs. Briefs took the tray out to the infirmary. She wasn't terribly surprised to see Bulma leaning on the regeneration tank, not taking her eyes from Vegeta, but it saddened her to see how worn and drawn her daughter looked. She knew that if this didn't end now, that Bulma would be endangering her life.

"Bulma-chan," she said softly. When that didn't attract the younger woman's attention, she placed the tray on a counter and tilted her daughter's chin towards her. "Bulma-chan, you need to eat. I brought you something to eat."

"I'm not hungry, mother," Bulma said sadly, turning her attention back to the unconscious Saiyan prince.

"Bulma," her mother said more firmly, drawing Bulma almost forcibly away from the tank. "What good will you do him if you become ill? You need to eat. When he gets out of the tank, he'll need to eat, too. And he'll need your help. If you're too ill to help him, it will only make things worse. Do you want him to die?" Mrs. Briefs knew that being blunt was the only way to snap her daughter out of her self-inflicted misery.

Bulma turned stricken eyes to her mother. "Mother, I'm so afraid. I hurt him so badly, I threw him out, he couldn't possibly want me anymore! Oh, mother!" she wailed, throwing her arms around her mother.

"There, there." Mrs. Briefs patted Bulma reassuringly on the back, allowing her daughter to cry for the moment. "It will be all right, Bulma-chan. You'll see."

"No it won't, mother." Bulma sniffled, then, not finding any tissues immediately available, wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve.

"Oh, Bulma," Mrs. Briefs admonished her. "That's unladylike. Here." She opened a cabinet and opened a fresh package of tissues, handing Bulma one. The girl gratefully wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

"Mother, he... I...." Bulma wasn't sure how to explain. She hung her head in shame and misery. "Mother, I love him. But he doesn't love me back. It hurts so much!"

"Don't be so certain, Bulma," her mother replied calmly, handing her a fruit-roll. "It's your favorite. Marionberry. Eat."

Bulma dutifully ate, the flavors catching her attention despite herself. After several minutes she discovered that she'd eaten more than she'd expected to, and she no longer felt as weak and faint as she'd been. "Thank you, mother," she said sincerely.

Mrs. Briefs smiled at her and patted her hand. "I'll leave this here. If you get hungry again, there's plenty more. And if Vegeta wakes up, there's some for him as well. He's sure to be hungry. He's a Saiyan, after all!"

Bulma smiled weakly at her mother's quip, and turned her attention once more back to Vegeta as her mother left the room. She sat in a chair next to the tank, and leaned one hand on the glass again, leaning her cheek against it. "Oh, Vegeta," she whispered. "If only you loved me. Even if you only like me a little, if you want to stay with me, I... I want you to stay. Please don't leave me again. I can't bear it." 

She closed her eyes wearily, intending only to rest them a moment, but her exhaustion wouldn't allow her to remain awake. "Vegeta," she whispered one last time, as her hand slipped from the glass and she drifted off to sleep for the first time in days.

~~~*~~~

The three warriors were quiet until they reached Goku's home. The noise that interrupted the silence was Goku's stomach growling. Hakusai raised an eyebrow at him, and Goku shrugged, giving her a sheepish smile. "Can't help it. I am hungry." The look that he gave Hakusai was so comical that the female warrior started to giggle uncontrollably.

"What's so funny?" Yamcha asked as he seated himself at the Sons' kitchen table.

"That expression was just so Goku," she said, waving to Chi-Chi when she entered and took a seat across from Yamcha. She linked her fingers together and rested her chin on it, staring at Yamcha thoughtfully. "I am sorry, Yamcha."

"For what?" Yamcha frowned, not knowing what she was apologizing for now.

"For losing Bulma," she stated flatly. "Trust me when I tell you that he won't ever hurt her."

"How can you be so damned sure?" Yamcha snapped, angry that she made assumptions about someone she did not know well.

"They are bonded."

"Like that explains everything," he grumbled.

"What's bonding?" Goku asked.

"Bonding is something that almost never occurs among the nobility, but a little more frequently among the lower class troops. Good thing, too. Otherwise, before the planet was destroyed we would've died out."

"So what does that have to do with Bulma?" Yamcha asked, eyes narrowed.

"Let's see... how can I explain this?" Hakusai took a deep breath, thinking about it for a moment, and then spoke. "You have a deep awareness of the other person, your telepathic ability with them is something that no one can match. You feel what they feel. You know what your mate knows. Some bonded pairs have actually been able to communicate when they weren't even on the same planet."

"That doesn't sound bad," Goku said. "So why are they sick?"

"They were suffering from bonding withdrawal," she said looking at Goku. "Bulma's illness and Vegeta's sudden death wish occurred at the same time. You see, if for some reason one person bonds and the other does not, the one that is bonded goes through some horrible consequences. Loss of appetite, refusal to eat, weight loss, sleeplessness."

"Sound like what Vegeta was going through," Goku admitted.

Hakusai nodded. "It was probably worse for him that he fell victim to this. This particular gene was thought to be wiped out from the DNA of the royalty and nobility. They considered it a disadvantage."

"I don't know. Couldn't be that bad, could it?" Goku asked.

"In the worst case scenario," the Saiyan woman stated, "the person that is suffering from bonding withdrawal will die. If you are strong enough you will live."

"You seem to know an awful lot about this kind of thing," Yamcha said after a moment.

"I went through it when my mate died," Hakusai said. "I feel bad for them. I know what that is like. I only wish I had seen it sooner."

"Is there a cure for this?" Goku asked.

"For their illness, yes. They simply need to stay with each other."

"That's it?" Yamcha snorted. "So why is Bulma bonded to him if you are so sure that's what it is? Why did Vegeta do this?"

"He did not do this on purpose, Yamcha. Remember that it is not supposed to happen to royalty. Otherwise Vegeta would've recognized it for what it was and reacted accordingly. It was probably why he attacked you. He was not thinking rationally and was extremely self-destructive." Her eyebrows arched. "He would not have lost to you if he had been stronger. As for why Bulma is bonded to him, I could not say. I can't remember if this has ever happened to a non-Saiyan before. But she is bonded to him. And if Vegeta dies, Bulma will find a way to end her own life."

Goku shook his head. "I hope everything works out."

Hakusai grinned. "I doubt that Bulma will let Vegeta leave her again. She seems determined to keep him this time."

"So, what's for dinner?" Goku asked Chi-Chi, as she re-entered the room.

To be continued.....

~~~*~~~

And in the next exciting episode of DragonBall Z: A Light in the Darkness... Vegeta wakes up and confronts Bulma.