This time, Vegeta didn't knock on his own bedroom door…the bedroom he shared with Bulma. He heard her crying before he even saw her. She was lying on her side, her back to the door. When he entered, she heard him and turned around.
"Get out of my room, Vegeta." She snapped.
"It's my room, too."
"No, your room is down the hall, remember?"
Vegeta looked at his woman's eyes, glistening with angry tears, and then at her pale tear stained face. Without thinking, he got into the bed with her, crawling up to her like a stealthy lion, getting ready to pounce on his prey.
Not knowing how to react, she leaned away as he got closer. When she felt herself at the edge of the bed, she stopped and decided to stop moving away and attack the matter at hands. "Vegeta, first you move yourself into another room, then you refuse to acknowledge my presence in the house, and now you're basically about to attack me. I don't understand you at all."
"On the contrary, you understand me a lot. More than probably even myself."
Suddenly, her mask of anger turned to one of innocent confusion and finally into suspicion. "Is this some kind of joke you're trying to play? If it is, then you have some weird humor."
Bulma saw pained embarrassment flash through Vegeta's face before quickly being replaced by bewildered face. Then she realized that he was backing away. She knew he regretted this. He wasn't looking at her anymore. As he simply stared at the bed, she figured that the deep thought in his eyes showed he was thinking of what to do.
What exactly was he doing, coming in here like this? This was completely different that Bulma wasn't sure how to react. His eyes began to shift angrily around the room, his lips moving slightly. Maybe he was trying to decide what to say.
"I shouldn't have…asked you to leave me alone." He said, slowly and hesitantly, but his eyes still hadn't met hers.
"Asked?" she gave a little insulting 'Ha' afterwards. "That's an understatement. What do you want?"
"To…sleep…" he said quietly, and nervously.
"I'm not stopping you."
Suddenly, the tension seemed to slip out of his body as he gave out a long breath of relief. He looked skyward and gave a little prayer to Kami.
Bulma found herself feeling a little disappointed. Part of her wanted Vegeta out. But another part of her wanted Vegeta to stay, to talk to her, and to tell her…why he was acting so weird. She wanted him to beg her for forgiveness, but she knew Vegeta never did ask for forgiveness…he never begged, either. His pride may keep him standing, but it pushed him so far away from others that sometimes it made her angry and sad.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the realization that Vegeta, who had changed while she was in her own thoughts, was now slipping underneath the covers.
"What are you doing?!" Bulma shrieked. Vegeta jumped with surprise and looked at her with wide eyes.
"I want to sleep." He simply said, looking at her as if she was daft.
She shook her head. "I know that. But your room is down the hall!"
He gave her a one sided smile. "You must be bad at geography, because my room is right…here…"
"That's not what you said earlier!"
"I read Trunks' paper." He said, his face wiped clean from the smile.
Bulma stopped and simply stared, hoping he would continue, but he didn't. He seemed to suddenly interested fabric of the blanket because he was intensely staring at it.
"The reason…I was angry in the first place…was because…you insulted me."
"Why did you think that? When did I--" she suddenly stopped, looking guilty. "You were there, weren't you?" When he didn't respond, she continued. "That's why you weren't at dinner that time, and neither were you in here the other night." He nodded. "But…if you had listened to everything I sai--"
"That's the thing," he interrupted. "I didn't. I was so…angered because you seemed to agree with the others, that I didn't want to hear the rest you had to say."
"Oh, Vegeta, you never cared about what others think about you, remember? You wouldn't give a rat's ass if Krillen and Yamcha made fun of you for having a huge widow's peak--" at that, she saw him quickly lift his hand to his forehead, and was tempted so laugh, but didn't --"Or how much of a…a jerk you can be…"
"I care when it comes from those I care about."
Bulma was quiet. Something in her was telling her that Vegeta had admitted to caring about his family, which meant that he does acknowledge them at all! And to know that he cared about her and their son filled Bulma with so much joy that it brought tears to her eyes. He was staring at her, and then he looked sorry.
"It's apparent that I make you unhappy." He started to rise. "I'll be going now."
As he got off the bed, he felt small frail hands grab hold of his strong arm and lightly tugged at it. He looked down at her, and saw a smile on her face.
"You doofus," she said with a little laugh, "These tears are tears of joy."
He scoffed. "Preposterous! Why would you cry when you're happy?" But on his face was a little smile as he sat back down, his eyes not once leaving hers.
"That's what we humans do."
He scoffed again with a one-sided grin. "Weak humans." He said before descending his lips upon hers.
Trunks in his room heard a shriek down the hall in his parents' bedroom. He had stayed quietly, hoping…praying that screams wouldn't erupt from the room. Thinking his prayers had gone unanswered, he began to wrap himself in his blanket, wondering why his parents never got along.
Suddenly, he realized there was another sound. He strained his ear to hear what it was. It was…was it? Yes, indeed! It was laughter!
"Stop it!" the laughing voice pleaded. "I'm ticklish there!"
Trunks' little frown turned into a happy smile as he realized that his mother was being tickled. Too happy he was to go back to bed. Thinking quickly on what to do, he grabbed his pillow and ran down the hall into his parent's bed room.
On the bed, on her back, with her foot in the hands of Vegeta as he mercilessly slid his fingers down her foot, was Bulma, laughing hysterically. Tears poured down the side of her face, which was beet red.
With Trunks' presence in the room, both adults stopped what they were doing and looked at their soon, who had a mischievous grin on his face. Jumping into the air, he made a move to his father with his pillow, but only in succeeded in hitting nothing. In mid-air, his head frantically turned around, looking for his father.
Vegeta was standing to the side of the bed, arms folded across his chest. Ah, his ever-so-confident stance of the Saiy-jin Prince.
"Trunks," Vegeta said with a mocking smile, "Looks like we need to work on quickening your speed. You're simply too slo--"
A pillow smacked him across the face, silencing what else he had to say. The proud holder of the pillow pulled it back and held it up, ready to attack again. Vegeta found himself staring at his attacker with surprise for he had never expected her to get him.
"Either put up, or shut up, Vegeta!" she said with a wolfish grin.
Vegeta laughed at the very own quote he had once said to Zarbon a long time ago. How she knew that was beyond him…or maybe she didn't. But what did it matter? His eyes moved lazily and slowly from his son to his mate, purposely doing it to show he had nothing to worry about.
Mr. and Mrs. Briefs could only sit in their seats as they heard the chaos and destruction followed by screams of laughter upstairs. The walls shook, some picture frames sliding down and crashing into the ground, completely unnoticed. Even the ground seemed to vibrate. The plates on the table shook, then stilled…only to shake again when there was another crash. The sound of glass breaking didn't seem to make the old couple move from their seats. They continued to sip on their tea like it was nothing.
"Trunks! Pantsing is against the rules!" a dark voice yelled.
"There are no rules!" two voices screamed with unison.
"I guess everything is back to normal," Mr. Briefs said after more crashes and screams.
"Normal?" Mrs. Briefs said incredulously. "Normal would be arguments, dear! This is new and completely different!"
"Is it bad?"
"Of course not!"
"That isn't fair!" a loud muffled voice screamed, this one being lighter than the first. "I can't fly!"
Suddenly, all the crashing and shaking stopped, but the laughing continued. The old couple was left to wonder what was going on now.
The next morning, Vegeta woke up with a start as something came down on his neck. He looked down and saw little toes. His eyes followed the leg connected to it, that led his eyes to see a snoring Trunks, who looked like he wouldn't wake up to the sounds of Vegeta's loud yells in his ears.
Picking up Trunks' foot, Vegeta threw it aside, completely disgusted by the stench. He turned to his other side to a much better image. To his side was a sleeping Bulma, lightly snoring, with her mouth slightly open for air. Vegeta's fingers fiddled with the beautiful soft blue hair before brushing the tendrils from her face so he could have a better view. He kissed her forehead, fondling her face in his strong hands. He sat up and had to push Trunks out of his way to get out of bed.
He was about to walk out of the door when he noticed Trunks was dangling at the edge of the bed. Before he fell, Vegeta caught him. He then placed him next to Bulma, and brought the blanket up to his cheek. After glancing at the sleeping forms on his bed, and of course stepping over broken items on the ground, he walked out to do some serious training.
It was hours later when Trunks woke up. Stretching like a cat, he yawned. Around him he felt nothing. He sat up with a jolt and looked around. His mother was on the other side of the bed, her back to him, but his father was no where to be seen.
He jumped out of the bed, but yelped when his foot landed on the sharp part of a piece of a broken vase. But when he balanced on the other foot, as he held the injured one in his hands, he accidentally hopped onto a little ball that his mother squished every time she needed to relieve herself from stress. He slipped backwards, falling on his bottom.
Looking around him, the memory of last night came to his head, making him smile. The small little pillow fight turned from something so small into a major brawl before Trunks and Vegeta started flying outside. He remembered his mother at the balcony, looking at her flying boys in the air, screaming that it was unfair.
Trunks held out his hand for his mother, and when she grabbed on, he threw her at his father. Bulma had probably known his plan all along, because she didn't scream with fright. Instead, she held out her pillow, ready to smack Vegeta. She and Trunks both knew that Vegeta would have no choice but to catch her. And when he did, she didn't wait to smack him with her pillow multiple times. Vegeta looked away to protect his face, only to see Trunks' evil face.
It was then that they thought they had him. But then Vegeta…he held Bulma in front of him as a human shield.
He also remembered the angry frustration in his father's face when he pantsed him. It was something to remember!
Deciding to fly, Trunks went downstairs. His grandfather was not around, but his grandmother was cooking some food. When she saw Trunks, she greeted him. "You and your mother missed breakfast, but I'm making some lunch now! Go and wake up your mother!"
"I will," Trunks replied, "But have you seen my dad?"
"Oh, he's always where he is! The gravity room!" Trunks nodded and left.
He stood outside the metal sliding door with big black bold prints on it, saying "GRAVITY ROOM". With his fist, he pounded on the door. "Dad!" he called.
After some seconds, it slid open to reveal a sweaty Vegeta.
Father and son simply stared at each other, wondering what is now to happen after last night. Trunks admitted that last night was indeed fun, but would his father continue to be the carefree fun man he was last night, or return to the ever-so-busy father who continued to train. He wasn't sure, because on Vegeta's face were no expressions at all. Would his father even pretend that last night never happened? Trunks head looked down like a defeated man.
"You know," his father said slowly. Trunks looked up and saw a smirk on his face. "We still need to work on your speed. I find it dreadfully slow, judging by last night."
Trunks grinned and happily nodded, stepping into the gravity room behind his father with the metal doors sliding shut behind them.
fin.