Bulma sighed and leaned over her work. He had been in the house for 6 months and he was still demanding nearly all her time. She was getting tired of Mr. Royal pain in the butt ordering her around like she was his slave. She chewed absently on the end of her pencil and stared down at the circuits she was piecing together.
There was a knock on the door. She sighed and wondered what his highness wanted now, but she then realised he wouldn't have knocked. Curious she stood up and walked to the door.
"Who is it?" She asked. The knock was much quieter. She opened the door and beamed. "YAMCHA!" She squealed. She threw her arms around him and held him close. He grinned.
"Hey, babe, I see that you missed me." He said. She kissed him deeply and he returned it.
"I did Yamcha, with my mother and father away on their cruise it's been just me and his Royal Highness for the last month." Yamcha laughed and lifted her and swung her around.
"Well, I promise I'll visit as often as I can." He said. Bulma furrowed her brow and looked at him curiously.
"What is that supposed to mean? I though you were going to stay while my parents were away." Yamcha put her down.
"It means what it means babe. I'm going off to train in the woods, and I won't be around that much for a while."
"To train in the woods." she should have known. "Why can't you train here? You can use the gravity chamber like Vegeta." Yamcha flinched.
"I don't trust him enough to be around him for any length of time Bulma."
"But you trust him enough to leave me alone with him. Look, He won't hurt you if I tell him not to." She put her arms around his neck. He looked towards the door and sighed.
"I can't Bulma." He said. He lifted her arms off his shoulders and held her hands. He smiled down at her and she turned away.
"Fine Yamcha, I understand." She let go of his hands and turned her back to him.
"Oh Bulma, don't be like this." He said. She flinched slightly. Since when had Yamcha become so whiney? She sighed and her shoulders slumped.
"Be like what?" she asked angrily.
"Be fine on the outside but inside be all bitter and frowny." He said. He put his hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off and folded her arms across her chest.
"If you need to train you need to train. Kami knows we need every ounce of help we can get." She said. Yamcha scowled.
"Fine Bulma, if you are going to be that way, I won't bother you at all." Bulma spun around her eyes ablaze.
"Fine Yamcha you may as well say goodbye for good." He was taken by surprise by her outburst. "Kami knows you need the training, so you may as well go for good. Maybe you can find a dinosaur to be your new girlfriend, because clearly you don't want me." Yamcha looked hurt. She didn't care. How dare he leave her here alone with Vegeta again, didn't he care? Yamcha balled his fists.
"Bulma, I love you, why are you being like this?" He said. There was a tone of hurt in his voice that she couldn't ignore.
"Because I am sitting here trying to work away the worry that all my friends are going to die in less than three years. You all seem to forget that I am one of the only survivors of earth and you are all so eager to leave me here alone to forget you all." She turned away and went back to work.
"I'm sorry Bulma." Yamcha said. She shook her head.
"Forget about it. Look, Yamcha, I'm sorry, I'm just overworked and exhausted and worried." Yamcha nodded.
"Do you want me to go?" He asked. Bulma shrugged.
"It's up to you." She said. Inside her head a voice whispered, but if you go Yamcha, you go for good. She heard him let out a long breath.
"You are being so difficult Bulma. You can't expect me to know exactly what you want from me." She turned back to work. "I can't handle you when you are like this."
"I don't want you to handle me Yamcha. I want you to be here. I want you to keep me safe. I want to love you like I did before you died."
Yamcha narrowed his eyes.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means what it means Yamcha." She replied. Yamcha seemed to shrink before her. "And I think you do know what it means."
"Fine," he said. "I'll go because clearly it's what you want." She didn't say anything as Yamcha stumped out the door. She cursed herself under her breath and went to follow him, but the royal pain was in the doorway. He was smirking that knowing smirk. She glared at him and put her hands on her hips.
"That was the smartest thing I've seen you do." He said.
"I have to go Vegeta."
"He's already gone. I felt his ki vanish." Vegeta said waving his arm dismissively. She pushed Vegeta aside and ran after Yamcha. But Vegeta was right, he had already gone. She dropped to the floor. She had been so stupid, he came to see her and she pushed him away. Vegeta looked at her with a mixture of pity and disgust. However his disgust was greatly outweighing the pity. He turned away from her and went back to his training. He had heard their meagre argument in its entirety. As soon as that fool let his Ki be known he had to find out why the weakling was coming back.
He had chuckled at humans feeble attempts at understanding her. She was more complex than his human mind could comprehend. He was wasting his time. Vegeta stopped for a moment. His thoughts had been troubling him lately. They seemed to linger on the blue haired female more often than he liked. He found those thoughts disconcerting and they distracted him from his training. He shook them away quickly and went back to the gravity room.

Bulma felt foolish. She didn't think she loved Yamcha as much as she did before. He was more like some kind of long lost friend who showed up unannounced once a year. They had been going on and off for so long it seemed inevitable that they ended up together. But the more she thought about it, the more she realised she didn't want to end up with him. She wanted to be with someone who made her feel like she wasn't ending up with them. Like it wasn't just some last resort or like she couldn't do better. She stood up and walked back to the lab. She was slightly relieved that Vegeta had retreated to the gravity room. She didn't have the strength to face him now.