Maintaining: Goodbye

Chapter 26 - Goodbye

Vegeta smirked at the scene before him when he quietly landed by the pool. The blue haired woman was resting on a lounge chair and the scarred idiot was kneeling by her feet polishing her toenails.

"So she already has you groveling?"

"Ve-Vegeta!"

The smirk never left his face Yamcha practically leapt to his feet, managing to draw a vivid red line on Bulma's foot. The fool seemed torn by wanting to protect the woman from him and the much stronger need to run away.

"Damn it, Yamcha!" Bulma complained, sitting up and trying to wipe the excess polish on a towel. She looked at the stained cloth and grimaced.

"What the hell do you want, Vegeta?" she demanded, returning to her relaxed pose.

Vegeta resisted the urge to make an evil chuckle. He really wanted to find out what it would take to make the coward piss himself. At least the woman didn't back down. She always stood up to him - one of the things he admired about her.

"You can leave, wimp," he said, tail slashing behind him as he advanced on Yamcha, making him back away.

~~Don't let him leave, monkey. Kill them both. They betrayed you. They don't deserve to live.~~

"Knock it off, Vegeta," Bulma spat, not moving from her seat.

"I won't let you hurt her," Yamcha said, stumbling to a stop and trying to draw himself up to his full height.

Vegeta growled, enjoying the shudder of fear that passed through the scarred idiot. He was going to ignore the voice - the idea that he would hurt his son's mother was ridiculous. Even the scarred asshole was safe from him, although he was not going to let him know that.

"Very good. You've been all macho and protective. Now go away. I'm not going to do anything to her but talk - but you are in danger." He'd forgotten how much fun it was to intimidate people.

"It's okay Yamcha," Bulma said, getting up and slipping on a robe. "He's just being an asshole. Why don't you go get our lunch?"

She walked over to a nearby table and chairs and sat down. Vegeta almost chuckled as he realized she was accentuating her swaying hips and was careful to let the robe open to display thigh and cleavage.

"Is that how you caught him?" he asked, waving his hand at the exposed skin.

"What? Oh, you bastard," she said, jerking the robe closed.

She sat and studied him a minute, letting her eyes travel up and over his body, finally coming to rest on amused dark eyes and a smirking mouth. She rolled her eyes at the prince.

"Alright Vegeta. What do you want? The gravity chamber? You can have it."

"Of course. But I'm really here for two other reasons. To deliver this," Vegeta pushed the envelope across the table, "and to talk about Trunks."

"What about Trunks?" she asked, concerned. "Is there a problem?"

"He was quite unhappy - apparently you've been making plans to send him to a boarding school." He was determined to remain calm - but he was annoyed that the woman would make any decisions regarding his son without him.

"Yeah, I was thinking about it, but it wouldn't be for awhile yet."

"Why would you even consider something like that without talking to me?" he asked angrily.

Bulma stared at him, surprised. "It wasn't going to be for a long time - just a few months. I was just trying to figure out what to do while Yamcha and I were on our honeymoon - it wasn't definite."

~~See? You were nothing to her. She has already forgotten about you.~~

"My son was inconvenient, so you were just going to send him away," he growled. It sounded too much like what had happened to him. His father thought he hadn't gotten strong as fast as he should have, and decided he was more valuable as a gift to Frieza.

~~But think how strong Frieza made you.~~

"What? No!" Bulma said. "It wasn't like that at all!"

"Then explain it to me. Because that is what it sounds like," he said, glaring at her, eyes narrowed.

"To start with, my parents wouldn't be able to take care of him for that long. And I didn't think you would want him to stay with you for an extended period - you have to admit you've never been much for his day-to-day care."

Vegeta sighed - the woman was right - he didn't participate in all of Trunks upbringing. "You can't send him away from his family and friends." He wouldn't allow that to happen to his son.

"Okay Vegeta - I am open to suggestions. Keep in mind though, that no matter how much I love him, I need a break."

"Kakarott's woman has said he can stay there - hell, he practically lives there as it is. She will make sure he gets fed and such - I will be able to see him more - and he will not be separated from his friends."

Bulma blinked in surprise. "Chichi said that? I mean - that would be fine with me, but I can't believe she would volunteer for it."

"I asked her. She thought it was an excellent idea. You should give her some funds to buy food for the brat, though." If Kakarott's woman said no, he would have tried to take care of the boy himself - although he was afraid of his internal monster.

~~Pity he won't be staying with you. It would be interesting to see what it takes to make him scream.~~

"I hadn't considered it,' Bulma said slowly. "She was pretty pissed about Yamcha, you know."

"She wasn't as pissed about Scar-face woman, as she was about your methods."

Bulma looked down, fidgeting with the ties of her robe.

"I'm sorry, Vegeta. I should never have done that," she quietly said.

Vegeta leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, and glared at her. Most of his anger at her had faded, but he wasn't going to make things easier on the woman. Her betrayal still hurt, but if she hadn't left him he wouldn't have had a chance with Kakarott. He knew the Saiyan would not have interfered in his relationship - so he was almost glad she had gone to the ningen.

"It's just that...you had always been kind of distant...and I tried to give you hints..."

"I am not from this planet, woman. I did not understand your 'hints'."

"I realize that now - actually Chichi threatened to pound that fact into my head."

Vegeta smirked at the image.

"Look Vegeta, I needed more than you could give me. I know you try in your way, but it wasn't healthy for me."

~~See. You used her - taking all the time.~~

Vegeta struggled not to growl his annoyance; the twitching tip of his tail wrapped around his waist the only indicator.

"I should have told you - okay? We should have had a long, meaningful conversation - that we both know wouldn't have changed anything. We might have tried to stay together longer, making each other more and more miserable."

They stared at each other in uncomfortable silence.

"Why didn't you say anything?" he finally asked. "If you were that unhappy, I would have let you go."

"Every reason that sounded good then sounds ridiculous now."

"So you made me look like a fool to Kakarott and his friends."

"I already said - I shouldn't have done that. It's just that...well, you had gotten kind of scary since you came back. You said and did some strange things - I wasn't sure what you were going to do. I mean, come on, you trashed my lab one night looking for something...vanished for days afterward...and acted like you didn't know anything about it when you came back."

Vegeta resisted the urge to growl. That had been the first time he had blacked out. When he had woken up he had no idea where he was, relying on locating familiar kis to find his way back. He had apparently been in a battle - wrist and ribs broken and severely bruised. He had to fly to Karin's for Senzu before he could go back home.

"I really had intended to get you aside at the picnic and talk to you. I was worried about how you would react and wanted to be able to call Goku or someone if you freaked out."

"You thought I would hurt you?" he asked, unbelieving. They had spectacular shouting matches, but he had never once raised a hand to the woman.

"I didn't used to - but you hadn't been yourself lately... I did intend to talk to you, though - but then Yamcha proposed that day, and... well, you know how that went."

"Yes woman, I know how that went," he growled. "Your stunt almost got the big-mouth monk killed - Kakarott's woman intervening is all that saved his life."

"I never thought he would say something like that. I know you two never got along, but that was..."

She returned to fidgeting with her robe, aware of Vegeta's angry gaze.

"Look Vegeta - I'm sorry. If I could do it over, I'd do it a hell of a lot differently. I'm sorry I hurt you like that."

"I'll survive, woman," he growled, tail flicking.

She made a wry grin. "I know, you always do."

Yamcha chose that moment to return with a laden tray of food. Close on his heels was Bunny, Bulma's mother with another tray.

"Vegeta! You cutie! Why didn't you tell me you were coming by? I would have made some more of my chocolate cake for you!" she exclaimed, depositing an entire cake in front of the prince.

Bulma resisted the urge to giggle at the grimace on Vegeta's face when her mother pecked him on the cheek.

"You know," Bunny said as she danced back into the house, "since you are so handsome and single now, maybe we could go out."

"Moooom," Bulma groaned.

Yamcha dragged his chair close to Bulma, making Vegeta smirk with amusement. The ningen might think it would look like he was staking his claim on the woman, but Vegeta could smell his fear and knew he was actually relying on her to protect him in case the prince got mad.

"So Vegeta," Bulma asked, between bites, "What happened a couple of weeks ago? Yamcha said yours and Goku's ki went haywire. Trunks was upset, but he wasn't making much sense."

"It was nothing," he said, glaring at Yamcha, daring him to contradict. "Just a misunderstanding - fixed by some senzu."

"Trunks said you almost died," she argued.

"And I said it was nothing," he insisted angrily.

She sighed. "You aren't going to tell me, are you?"

He smirked. "No."

"Asshole," she muttered.

The rest of the food was eaten in silence. Vegeta entertained himself by glaring at the scarred coward, growling when he thought he was getting too comfortable. He noticed Yamcha watching the last piece of cake and made sure to snatch it off the table just as the ningen was reaching for it. He knew the woman had noticed, but she limited herself to rolling her eyes at him.

When all the plates were empty, Bulma ordered Yamcha to take them into the house. He looked at her in shock, and then glared at Vegeta.

"Please?" she asked, pulling the scarred fighter down for a kiss.

Vegeta ignored the display, carefully studying the tip of his tail.

"You trained him quickly," he said as Yamcha walked away.

"You aren't going to hurt him, are you?" she asked, watching her fiancé enter the house.

"No. But I am going to enjoy making him uncomfortable," he said with a grin.

"I swear, you are worse than Trunks. Must be where he gets it from," she said, grinning back.

She picked up the envelope and began opening it as she spoke.

"Do you need anything, Vegeta? It will be a few days before the gravity room is ready for you. Anything else? Money? Robots? A bigger house?"

"You feel guilty," he said, smirking.

"Yeah, I do, alright? I was unnecessarily cruel about the whole thing. I was pissed when Chichi came over and read me the riot act, but the more I thought about it..."

She stopped for a moment and read the card.

"What the hell did you do to make her like you so much, anyway? You would have thought I had done something to Gohan the way she acted..."

"I'm not sure myself. I was there quite a bit when Kakarott was gone, training her brats."

"Well I'm glad Vegeta. You should have more friends - I hope we can still be friends. You aren't really the total ass you make yourself out to be."

"I went because she cooks better than you," he smirked.

"Suuurrrreeee," she said with a laugh. She held up the invitation. Vegeta, you know this is for Chichi and Rezu's wedding, don't you? I assume you will be there. Will you be okay with Yamcha and I attending?"

"I delivered it, didn't I woman?" he said, rising to his feet.

She got up and took his hand.

"I'm sorry it ended the way it did, Vegeta. And I really mean it - if you need anything, tell me."

Vegeta was surprised when she flung her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly. He slowly returned the gesture, gently wrapping an arm around her shoulder. After a few seconds he stepped back and slowly rose into the air, realizing he was saying goodbye to his home for a decade. He turned and flew to his new home and Kakarott.

TBC