Hi, I know the people who keep track of my stories are probably as angry as hell itself for me to do this to them, but blame my roommate. She got started on this when she said... "Why do you hate Goku?" Of course, I don't hate him, I just think his character is highly... irresponsible and glory-grabbing. Then she looked at me and asked "Who do you like from that series?" I had to smile as I gave the simple answer of the most crabbiest, serious character that DBZ has: Vegeta.

She seemed confused. Goku's everyones favorite character because it is about him. But I liked the one character that stayed on the whole series and never never won one bloody fight after he killed Zarbon. So, I told her to watched the series....

She watched the whole series within three weeks. Then, looked up all the Vegeta lines and what can I say... she got me curious, so I hopped on fanfiction and looked up the Vegeta/Bulma stories...

Let's be honest... I was happy about there being 149 pages worth of stories over the 29 pages of Deidara/Sakura stories. Much more quality writing to find through all the other crap.

So after reading over 50 stories of Vegeta and Bulma, I decided to try my hand. Both are stubborn characters and it is harder to write one of these stories because the character of Vegeta was not well explained in the canon. You could see some of his character, but none of his culture within his character. Spouting off 'I am the Prince of all Saiyans' does not mean that he is trying to boast, it is merely him trying to remind people of him not being a human and not easily defeated by human standard.

But let's be serious, there is a definite lack of understanding the Saiyan culture in DBZ...

So what if Bulma had been raised a little more open minded? Because someone in her childhood bothered to show her that there was different ways of looking at things?

You get a whole different story.

Call it an AU if you must, but I would like to call it a different dimension similar to the canon's but with one butterfly effect.

So without further ado:

Trusted One

Chapter 1

Beloved Mentor

Disclaimer: Yeah... Like I would write DBZ more like DBV (Dragon Ball Vegeta)

Fingers raked through the usual blue hair as hard blue eyes stared at the paper in front of them, almost willing the paper to combust to end the misery.

"Argh! I can't do this!" The pencil was thrown across the room and hit the wall with a thunk.

"Yes, you can," a calm but ragged voice said as a left feminine hand held hers, "Bulma, use what you know and dissect the problem. It's nothing you haven't learned."

Bulma looked up at the woman who was instructing her. Her face was soft and elegant on one half of her face and the other half, the right half, was burned, twisted scars and her right eye as frosted over. Her appearance was almost enough to make people puke in revolt, but it was a face that Bulma had come to love.

"I'll try," she sighed, allowing herself to calm down at look at the equation once more, "Is the answer… 5?"

"Yes," the ragged voice of the woman said with pride.

Her good onyx eye gleamed happily as she looked down at the child, "Your father will be impressed by your studies."

"Do you think that one day he will let me help him with his projects, Azel?"

"Yes," the woman said, nodding and consenting to the idea by closing both eyes and letting her head nod slowly, "But you are only twelve, let's try getting you through the rest of this calculus homework and your lessons in the computer language skills before thinking of trying to help your father."

"Azel," Bulma asked, looking over her shoulder to once again look that the haggard form of her most beloved friend and guardian.

"Yes child?"

"You'll always be there when I need you, right?" She asked.

Azel's breath hitched for a moment, the unguarded surprise evident on her face as she looked at the child she had come to serve, guard, teach, and even love.

"I will be here till my time on this realm is up." She finally consented, nodding her head and allowing her jet-black hair to fall into her eyes and hide the emotion that ran through them.

She was getting in too deep. She had started to notice that, but she couldn't muster the control to leave. This family was alluring with their unnatural kindness and nonjudgmental ways.

"Promise?" Bulma looked at her worriedly as if she feared her leaving.

Azel let a smile run across her lips, even though it pulled uncomfortable on her burn scars, "promise, little one."

With that, she placed a kiss on the blue haired child's temple and continued to help her with her homework, mutter a few foreign words that Bulma knew were curses.

Bulma woke slowly. Her heart sank a bit at the dream. It had been a while since she dreamed of her mentor.

That's no reason to darken my day! Bulma thought as she pulled herself up and headed for her bathroom, I refuse to let something that's supposed to be endearing and happy as a sad thought.

With that she took a shower and readied herself for another long day of dodging Yamcha, who was trying to get her to go on a date with him; dealing with her spazzy mother that she could not figure out for the life of her; her father's forgetfulness and busy calculations that would need correcting; and last but definitely not least, try to avoid Vegeta and his attitude problem. At least Puar or Scratch- her father's ever present black cat- never caused her problems.

"Okay, breakfast, exercise, lab, lunch, lab, dinner, bed," Bulma chanted to herself as she quickly headed down the stairs to go grab something to eat.

It was as if that dream about Azel, her beloved mentor, was a sign things would not go right today. For there at the breakfast table was everyone she was hoping to avoid or deal with separately.

"Good morning deary!" Her mother said in an upbeat tone, "How are you this morning?"

Bulma shrugged as she grabbed a plate and began to fill it with the breakfast her mother was making, "Good."

Her mother might have been a strange woman that seemed to miss a lot, but what Bulma had discovered a long time ago was that Bunny Briefs didn't miss a thing.

"What's wrong sweetie? Did you have another dream about that sweet woman again?" Her mother's face didn't give away the intelligence that was held in that since comment.

Bulma didn't answer, but it didn't mean she didn't miss the recognition that entered Yamcha's eyes as he tried hard not to make a face of disgust or the saddened look on her father's face at the thought of the same woman.

Her mother didn't even have to say her name for everyone to know whom she was talking about. Well, all except Vegeta. Fortunately, he didn't say anything about the comment. He was distant to them, refusing to talk to any of them unless he needed something out of the ordinary. He had been like this since the day the GR had exploded with him in it.

As long as Bulma didn't catch him alone, he said nothing to her.

"So babe," Yamcha started, trying to snap her out of the depression that he could sense was rising with the memories of that…woman, "How about you and I go out today and shop at the mall."

Bulma sighed inwardly. She was afraid he would pull this on her. It wasn't even ten in the morning and he was already trying to get her to go out with him.

When they had first met, there had been a fire. He was the Desert Bandit and was aloof and unpredictable. She loved how she could never fully guess what he was about to do. Mystery was one of the few things that caught her attention. However, when she had brought him home, taken him in and all that jazz, he slowly began to conform to the city life and became, dare she say it, predictable.

They had kept going for a while after that, but after she caught him cheating on her, it had been over at once. There had been nothing to talk about because he had hit one of the biggest taboos there was on her list: not being faithful.

It had happened way before any of the other Z warriors had even assumed, but then again, Bulma wasn't one to rat a person out like that. Her nature might have been short-tempered, but she was not one to ruin another person's reputation.

She had tried to be with him again after he had been wished back, hoping he had become different during his term of being dead, but he was the same, predictable, and unfaithful man that had died. She and he were over, even though he still tried to get her to go places with him as 'friends'.

"No thanks," Bulma said as she quickly began to finish off her breakfast, "I have some stuff I need to do in the lab and tests that need going over, so I don't have time to go somewhere today."

She had tried so hard to get up and leave before he could try again, but Yamcha had been trying a lot lately.

"Oh, well then how about we go somewhere tomorrow? It'd do you good to get out of the lab for a while, maybe we could go to the new theater and see a movie or something or to the new mall that just opened."

"They built a mall? When?" Bulma asked, surprised that the city had yet another mall.

"Bulma, babe, everyone's been talking about it. It's the biggest mall to date and has been announcing their opening for almost a year!" Yamcha exclaimed as if she was nuts not to hear about it.

"Oh," was all the blue haired woman said as she got up and began to wash her plate, "Well, I guess I wasn't paying attention."

Just like you don't pay attention to the fact that I hate crowds. Bulma thought grudgingly. It was only the most obvious thing that she hated crowds.

When she had been sixteen, yeah, traveling and crowds were fun because she wasn't an eligible bachelorette yet. That changed on her eighteenth birthday. Once she was eighteen, all sorts of creeps took their shot at trying to woo her or even worse things to try to grab hold of her fortune. Ever since then, she was opposed to the public and avoided people at all costs. Even at work, she only had a handful of people she would even talk to or work with because she knew where they stood.

"Bulma, you'd have to be blind not to see it when you go anywhere!" Yamcha said, not dropping the subject as he got up as well, "It's right smack in the middle of town. You'd have to avoid the city entirely not to notice it."

Bulma let out the smallest, but definitely the most exasperated sigh to date.

"Yamcha, I have only been off the property once or twice this year," Bulma said, "Thrice in about a month to go visit the cemetery. I don't leave very often."

"Man," Yamcha looked shocked, "Where's your sense of adventure for the city life?"

"In the trash along side your common sense." Bulma shot back before leaving the room, "You should have known that Yamcha."

She glanced one last time at the room to noticed the amused smirk on Vegeta's lips and the sad sigh that escaped Puar. Her mother just nodded at her and her father was already too busy with jotting down an idea to notice her agitation. With that she left the house and walked over to the lab that was on the property.

She hadn't forgotten about exercising but she preferred that people didn't ask her about it. She liked her privacy. When she had been younger she didn't mind having privacy and all that.

Well, she didn't like it when Goku had tried to help her take a bath or when she had discovered that he had taken her panties after she had shown Roshi… Bulma shook her head violently at that memory. She had never been so humiliated then at that moment. It was probably then that she had slowly developed into being rather private about her life.

She had seen things that no one else had ever seen, done things that were suppose to be impossible, and yet she knew no one other then those who had witness such things along side her would believe her. So slowly she had withdrawn herself from that world into her own little world filled with the impossible. There was no way to return to that world, but she was content.

She entered her domain and grabbed some of her paperwork, hopping onto her treadmill and jogged as she looked over her work. Her father filled her inbox with the things he needed her to do, and she went over them and finished them up.

She started looking over the notes and paused for a moment. It wasn't her father's handwriting, but it was painfully familiar.

"Az," Bulma whispered as she touched the letters on the page.

The memory of the horrid looking woman flashed through her mind. She smiled as she looked at her lovingly. Most people preferred her to cover the right side of her face while she worked because they couldn't stand her acid burned scars. There had been writing on her forehead, but Bulma didn't know the language it was written in. She just remembered her as the kind old humbug of a woman she was.

Bulma chuckled lightly as she realized that she was slowly turning into her reclusive mentor, minus the scars and horrid acid burns that covered the right side of her body.

"Oh Az," Bulma thought as she looked at the equation.

She missed her so much.

The equation was as marvelous as the mind that had developed it. It was the foundation of the gravity simulator formula. She had taught it to Bulma as a young girl and now she was actually looking at the written product. She easily realized that she could use this very formula again to upgrade the gravity room so that it could go to higher gravity simulation.

The next page even had formulas to make the metal reinforced enough to withstand the higher gravity.

Bulma stopped jogging, turning off the treadmill as she did. She just stared at the paper a moment more before she dashed out of her lab, papers in hand.

Does Daddy realize that Azel had written the very foundation formula of the gravity simulator and even left it open for improvement! Was this her original project? Why would Daddy continue it for her after she-

Bulma's thoughts were interrupted when she turned the corner of the GR and ran straight into someone. She would have crashed hard on the ground had it not been for the strong hand that quickly wrapped round her waist and righted her quickly.

"Watch where you are going woman," a gruff voice bellowed, "You're rather embarrassing to watch since you since even a blind animal has more grace than you."

Bulma rolled her eyes as she pulled away from the Saiyan Prince, "Wow, thanks Vegeta." Sarcasm dripped off of every word she spoke, "I guess us brain types just aren't as graceful as you muscle heads. Now shove off, I need to get my work done."

She heard him growl something unintelligible as she took off again looking for her father. It was strange. He hadn't talked to her since he told her to shut up and stay out of it that time in the GR after he had gotten hurt, so it had mildly surprised her that he was talking to her again.

But that revelation would have to wait till later, she had to talk to her father.

She found him still in the kitchen with her mother going over notes as the blonde woman washed the dishes.

"Hey Daddy," Bulma said as she put the notes in front of him, "Did you realize what this was?"

"Notes that Azel had made, sweetie, I know she's a sore subject for you still, but I really needed someone to go over her work that she had stuffed in her office. I knew you'd be even angrier if someone else did this, so I put them in your inbox." Dr. Briefs said, apologizing as he looked his daughter in the eyes, "It doesn't bother you to do that, right?"

"Hm?" Bulma blinked, looking back down at the notes, "Oh, I figured they were Az's, but look at the formula. It's the foundation formula that you and I were trying to write."

Dr. Briefs swift took the notes in hand and began to scan the paper, his breath hitching as he came to the same realization that his daughter had.

"Azel, you sly devil," He said under his breath, "You did it." He looked up at his daughter with an excited twinkle in his eye, "Bulma do you know what this means?"

"Besides one very large upgrade to the GR?" Bulma said with a grin, "It also means that we could create gravity for people trying to settle on planets with gravity too high for living requirements. She even put in the formula for the metal alloy to be much more resilient."

"Well, won't that charming boy be happy to hear you can upgrade the GR. He works so hard." Bunny Briefs stated with a happy smile.

"Mom," Bulma sighed, having gone over this a thousand times, "Vegeta is not 'charming'. I don't think he appreciates you always thinking of him."

"Oh, well, if I don't think about him, no one will remember to take him meals. He is so dedicated, that's something good to find in a man. Oh, but what am I saying? I'm a married woman."

Bulma sighed again. Her mother had to be the strangest thing on the planet and unfortunately, no one let her forget it. Ever. Not even Yamcha could take more then a hour of her mother's queerness without trying to find a way out.

"Don't let him catch you saying that," Bulma warned before gathering the papers and going back to talking to her father, "Well Daddy, I'm going to start working on the upgrades for the GR. Hopefully his royal pain will let me take a look at his 'precious' GR."

With another long sigh, Bulma headed out to the garden again to see the alien warrior about 'his' GR room.

"Out!" was roared angrily as Bulma tried to push the Saiyan out of the GR.

"No," He growled angrily as he stood there, like a un-moveable rock, "I refuse to have my precious time wasted because you need to do something as stupid as a routine check. Do it when I am done with the machine!"

"You're never done with the machine!" Bulma shot back as she continued to try to push him, "Just give me a couple of minutes to sort out the current program and I'll be out of your hair!"

"What's in it for me?"

"What?"

"You heard me, what's in it for me if I even consider letting you take over my GR?"

Conniving jerk. He knew that she just wanted to get done as fast as possible and go back to her hole of a lab to hid away again like she had been doing. He probably thought that he had scared her last time he had told her off because she had considerable backed off of his training habits, but she wasn't scared. She just couldn't watch him be so self-destructive.

"A new program that allows you to go higher on the gravity scale. I need to rewrite the foundation formula for the machine with the completed formula. All I need right now is to download the current program onto a thumbnail and I'll be on my way."

"Why can't you do it with me in the GR?" He slyly shot at her.

Bulma bit back a curse as she pushed harder. She didn't like him watching her when she did menial tasks like this. Call her crazy, but she didn't like being looked at like a piece of game ready to be killed any moment.

"It's better for my health if you leave," Bulma hissed at him, her foul mood from this morning rising again.

Why did she have to dream of Azel on such a terrible day?

Vegeta growled angrily and gave her on of the best glare she had ever seen before dropping into a sitting position on the floor, crossing his legs swiftly as he made contact with the ground. Because the object she had been pushing so adamantly had moved, Bulma could only let out a cry of startle as she fell forward and crashed into the Saiyan's lap.

Apparently Vegeta hadn't expected that either since he quickly disappeared from under her just to reappear across the room quite spooked looking. Bulma had only registered the look on his face before he could reign it into another scowl.

"Ouch you big dope," Bulma growled as she slowly pulled herself off the ground where his lap use to be, "Could you not do that? It is hardly ethical for you to sit when someone is pushing all their weight on you."

"It's not my fault that you're so weak that you couldn't even make me budge a inch," Vegeta snorted, still ruffled by his reaction.

Bulma could tell that he didn't like contact by the way he dodged her mother like the plague. Her mother was harmless, but she had picked up this terrible habit of grooming people, patting them gently, and even doing this caressing contact thing that meant absolutely no sense to other people. Her father didn't even mind that she could stroke another persons arm with her fingers when she sat next to a guest. Bulma still couldn't figure out that one for the life of her, but she could understand that unexpected contact like her falling in his lap sent off alarms in his head. She knew she was lucky that he hadn't attacked her in response.

"Look," Bulma sighed, hating to be the one to give in first, "I'll go over it right now okay and see if I can't have the program up and running tomorrow for you. You don't even have to leave the stupid room, okay? Just…" she paused for a second, walking over to the computer and beginning to access it before glancing at Vegeta, "Just don't stare at me like I'm the bad guy. I'm trying to help."

"And I'm trying to train," he hissed, "which you are interrupting."

"Look! Do you want a better program or not? I don't have to give you one and I certainly don't have to let you use my gravity room. I am being nice! So either you drop the attitude with me or I will make sure there is no gravity room for you to train in!" Rage danced in her eyes like a passionate fire flickering to life.

She didn't mean to be such a sourpuss, but her day was already rotten. There was no salvaging it in her viewpoint and fighting with a un-compensating alien being that could crush her without a second thought was making her day worse.

She could already see that she had hurt Vegeta's delicate ego. It wasn't hard to stroke him the wrong way as of late. His nerves and social skills were already stretched way past their limits and she knew it was only a matter of time before she finally snapped them.

"Get out," he growled dangerously low.

His eyes were flashing with anger and Bulma knew that it was time to get out before he lost it further. She quickly grabbed her thumb-drive that she had put into the system and pulled it out, already done with what she had come to do. With one final huff, she stormed out of the GR, but not without yelling one last thing.

"Vetiimiis!" It was one of Azel's curses that she had found out meant something along the lines of 'To hell with you'… or something along those lines. It wasn't a nice way of saying it though, that much she did know.

Grabbing her pack of capsules from the kitchen, Bulma activated her motorcycle bike and hopped on, no longer caring where she went as long as it was far away from the city, far away from Yamcha, far away from her parents, and far, far away from Vegeta.

She needed to wallow somewhere where no one was looking so she didn't seem stuck up or snobbish or spoiled. She needed to vent and she needed to do it soon. Azel's memory was crushing her and nothing was going right…

"Termir." She muttered under her breath, knowing that meant something along the lines of 'To hell with it all'.

Funny how the words mean something so similar, but different. But she didn't stop to think about it, she was off in a rocket, not caring what deserted land she found so long as she was alone to cry in frustration.

It was strange for her to be there so early. She usually came on the same day for the whole day, then continued on with life without worry. But she was early.

That was what Baba could tell as she watched the blue haired woman head over to the private cemetery that she had made for close personal friends who weren't ones to be placed somewhere where there were tons of dead ones buried. Baba had consented to letting Bulma bury one of her own here. She had met the woman before and knew how cold the woman was with most people, so she knew that Bulma wanted her body where little others were buried.

Sort of as a way to honor the reclusive woman.

"You're early Bulma," Baba noted to the woman who was just looking at her, tears threatening to pour out of her eyes.

"Yeah, well today was a bad day, Baba," Bulma said, "I've already started to have dreams about her and then her work showed up and I don't know… I just… I need to go visit her grave."

Baba sighed as she pulled the key that rested around her neck off and handed it to the blue haired minx.

"Don't wallow all day. I highly doubt that she even likes the fact that you miss her this much."

"Thanks Baba," Bulma whimpered before heading straight for the cemetery.

The old woman sighed. It was high time that Azel put Bulma back in place, she couldn't go on like this. Baba grumbled under her breath. If she even risked fetching the raven haired woman, there was HFIL to pay.

Bulma had gone straight for the gravestone, memorizing the trail as a younger woman. It was bizarre, her mentor had been dead for almost ten years and still the wound of loss ached as if she had just died yesterday. When she was busy or with her friends, the memory didn't surface too much, but when she did remember her mentor, her heart instantly ached.

"Hey," Bulma said to the grave, touching the name of her teacher who had no surname to write upon the stone, "It's me…"

With that, she sat down, leaning against the grave and began to cry aloud, ranting to her dead mentor about everything that had been going on and trying to find some guidance by talking aloud to no one.

"I just can't take it," she finally said, "I see why you were so against welcoming other people into your life, it's hard. I know, I know, friends are important and it is vital to have them, but it hurts when none of them visit or your ex-boyfriend who practically lives with you doesn't even know you even after more than ten years of dating! I mean, come on! Then there's Vegeta! I can't stand him! He… he…" she trailed off for a moment before beginning to laugh in irony, "He reminds me of you and it hurts. Az, what I am going to do?"

"Well for one thing, you can stop talking to a stone," Baba's voice said as she floated over to Bulma on her large crystal ball, "Azel wasn't a friend of mine for a long time, but I knew her enough to know that she wouldn't like her passing to hinder you like this Bulma."

"Oh?" Bulma said sarcastically, "Then what would she want?"

"She would want you to move on. Trust me when I say I know she's happy where she is," Baba said with a sigh, "I had to head over to King Yamma for a client of mine and she was there. She has been hired by Yamma to keep HFIL in order. She looked thoroughly excited to do so."

"Sounds like her," Bulma scoffed, smiling as she listened to Baba's story.

"She wasn't scarred or hurt anymore, she was whole," Baba said with a nod, "And quite a force to be reckoned with apparently. Without her burns crippling her body, she might be one of the strongest people I've ever met. She's beautiful too." She added that part so Bulma knew that Azel's haggard appearance was no longer causing people to look down on her.

"I'm glad. She's very vain, you know? It hurt her to see that she was so… horrid. I didn't mind, I always thought she was beautiful…"

"You saw a side of her no one but your family saw, Bulma, of course you saw beyond her looks. Now, I think your temper tantrum is done, so go home and be with your family. Be sure to show up on her day of death and I'll see if I can't get in contact with her." Baba said, nodding her head in a bow before floating off without waiting for a goodbye or consent.

She knew what Bulma would say so there was no reason hearing it again.

It was close to midnight when Bulma showed back up at the compound. She had lingered at the grave, retelling her tales of her time at Namek to the hunk of stone. She knew Azel really couldn't hear her, but it made her feel better. She cut the engine of her bike a few blocks away from the compound and capsulated it so she didn't disturb anyone.

She headed to the kitchen, just to grab something to eat. She hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast and her mood was finally calm. Talking to the gravestone always made her feel better.

She left the lights off as she walked to the cupboards and pulled out a midnight snack.

She glanced at the GR that had been turned off for the night, quickly thinking about the mess she had made with the temperamental prince. She would need to finish the program quickly to placate him.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the deep growl that came from the kitchen table. She glanced over at the table to see a shadowed figure in the dark room.

"Oh, hi Vegeta," Bulma said lowly, worried over how this would go. It appeared as if he was still quite sore about what she had said.

"Vetiimiis," he hissed.

Bulma froze as she heard the word escape his lips. It sounded like how Azel use to say it, without an accent that someone unfamiliar with the language –like Bulma- would say it.

"Oh… sorry about that… I just spouted off the first thing that came to mind and that was it…" Bulma said as she bit her lip in guilt, "I'm guessing you know what language that is…"

"Yes," he said with a snarl, "but what I want to know is how the hell a little fool like yourself ever heard a single syllable of Saiya-jin."

"That's Saiyan? Oh…" Bulma said with surprise, "My mentor would mutter different languages when she was angry. She was in charge depicting languages and learning to speak them, so not surprising she muttered something that wasn't… human."

"A pathetic human could speak Saiya-jin?" Vegeta laughed cruelly, "No doubt she butchered the language and mispronounced the syllables as badly as you did."

"She could speak it fluently," Bulma said, her tone lowering as she tried to hold in her anger, "In fact, she spoke it perfectly. She said that word just like youdid."

"No pathetic, stupid, weak human could speak our language like a Saiya-jin." Vegeta snarled, his temper still poor from their last argument.

"Oh really?" Bulma exploded. No one talked about her mentor like that, "Well let me tell you, mister! She was not like most humans! Most humans are sick beings that go on everyday trapped in desires of riches, power, and beauty! But Azel was not even enraptured by the thought of any of it! She was nothing more then a scholar looking for truth and the thrills of invention. She might have been possessive about her things, but never ever did she lust for more then what she was given! She wanted no riches, she wanted no power, and she didn't even want her beauty returned to her by cosmetic surgery! She lived with herself as she was. So before you start spouting off things about people you don't know maybe you should shut your trap because then you'll look less like the spoiled, conceited prince you are! With your lust for power you're not any better than us weak humans!"

Bulma clapped a hand over her mouth as she stared at his dark figure with wide eyes. She could not believe she had just said that! It was one thing to be angry that he insulted her mentor's intelligence, but it was another thing to say he was like human when he clearly was anything but human. It was an insult worse than calling him Frieza's lapdog.

Fear penetrated her thoughts as she watched him. She could feel the heat of his ki as it rose dangerously. Today was a bad day and she had probably made it her very last day.

However, instead of attacking her like she thought he would, he quietly got up, shoved his chair in, stalked out of the house, slammed the door to the point of breaking the hinges, headed to the GR, and turned on the machine to probably a ridiculous gravity rate. It always amazed her how much self control he actually had when the situation demanded it.

It took a good fifteen minutes before Bulma was actually able to register that she was no longer in trouble. Her tensed muscles relaxed and she no longer looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Guilt washed over her as she looked at the ground, disgusted with herself as she realized how terrible that was to say to him.

She felt like crying, but knew that he would only hate her more if he ever found out she cried because of what she said to him. She let out a long sigh, giving the heavens a long suffering look as she mumbled a few words to Kami in his watch tower above to give her strength. She headed to her room, swiftly changed into pjs before burying herself in her blankets, wishing silently that she had never risen to his barb.

She knew his pride had taken serious blows lately and he was still trying to recover what little pride that was left, but she still had gone and attacked it.

It was times like this she wished that Azel was still alive. The woman always knew how to handle things like this. With one last sigh, Bulma willed herself to sleep and hoped that tomorrow would be better.