A Quick Pause
Back to present…
Vegeta gave the woman a shocked look. She wasn´t supposed to know until
he was far away and out in space. He already would be there, actually,
if he didn´t need her help so much. Less surprising than the fact of
Bulma knowing, however, was the way she was behaving. He had been
prepared for screaming, tears or threats of definite expulsion if she
happened to know before time hand. Anything would do but that calm, cold
behavior, as if he was going to spend a few days in a nearby city, and not
almost one year out on space. But his surprise didn´t last too long.
Sometimes, he could swear that imp of a woman read his mind.
“How did you know that I´m leaving? Have you been spying on me?”
“Silly. Who´d need to spy, with momma down there in the kitchen
preparing some snacks for your trip?” her tone suggested that the ‘snack’
would be enough to feed a family of Saiyans instead of only one. “But even
before that I already knew. Dad told me a couple of days ago that you
‘asked’ him to prepare the ship. Since you´ve forgotten to threaten to
kill him if he shut his mouth, he thought it was not a secret.”
Vegeta raised one of the corners of his mouth.
“Actually, he asked me not to forget to bless him with a quick and
painless death, in case of the Androids defeat us.”
Bulma rolled her eyes.
“That´s very much like him,” she sighed. Both shared half-smiles at
Bulma´s parents´ irritating oddities.
“If you weren´t a scientist like your father and a boy-loving boy-crazy
like your mother, I would think you were adopted,” he remarked.
“Excuse me?”
“Make your own conclusions,” the prince stated as he closed his eyes
and smirked.
A shadow of confusion clouded Bulma´s eyes. Vegeta was chatering, beating around the bush and that was not like him. He was always so direct and to the point.
“You didn´t respond to my first question,” she ventured.
Silence.
“I can ask it again, if you forgot what I asked before,” the woman
insisted.
His smirk vanished to be replaced by an irritated frown.
“She must be crazy to have me out of her blasted hair. Good. I didn´t
think that would be so easy.”
“I´m not deaf. I heard your question at the first time you asked it,”
He finally snapped.
Bulma opened her mouth to ask why he hadn´t responded before, but
another glare from Vegeta silenced her. Didn´t she prefer it if he went
right to the subject? So that was what he did.
”I need more of those battle suits. That´s the only reason why I´m
still here,” he explained, in his concise, yet rather tactless way.
“The only reason why I´m still here…
the only reason… “ The cruel words echoed over and over in Bulma´s brain, clashing painfully against the walls of her already pained skull. She took several moments before inhaling a few
calming breaths and felt sure she could talk without her true emotions
betraying her.
“What would have become of you if I wasn´t a rich, generous, girl with
plenty of assets (besides being pretty, of course)?” she sighed again
and reached for a drawing in her desk. She slowly opened the drawer,
took from it a small capsules box and tossed it displicently (I’m not sure
which word you mean here. Explicity?) for the prince.
He caught the box easily, opened it and frowned after examining the
contents.
“What kind of joke is this? This box has only four capsules.”
”Uh-uh,” the female scientist wiggled a finger playfully. “But each of
these capsules has a big container filled with clothes. You´ve got
there a supply for at least one year.”
Any person other than Vegeta would have gaped, but he just raised his
eyebrows in admiration and put the small box in his pocket. He shouldn´t
be so surprised. They both knew that, soon or later, that trip would
happen, he had just it.
“You´re making these clothes faster now. Funny, to make the first one
you took almost one month.” The Saiyan teased, more because he no longer
had a reason to remain there than for anything else.
Bulma shrugged at his words and humphed in response.
“I could have done it much more quickly, if you hadn´t been in my hair
all the time.”
That was not entirely true, but it didn´t matter at all.
