Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball/Z/GT.

A/N: Wow, you guys like violence. Anyways, prompt is cuddling. Danihime86, I thought they needed a sweet moment too; I hope this scratches your itch.

Cuddling

A soft groan roused him from his restless sleep, and the pale green light from the bedside alarm clock illuminated Bulma's scrunched up face. She tossed her head and winced and whined, sometimes said something incoherent. Vegeta felt sympathy; he knew that place, the place of endless beatings and situations that could have gone worse, that do go worse in dreams. As he furrowed his brows and watched her writhe, her busted lips parted and she tried to say his name, but the thick haze of deep sleep held it back. He eased one arm around her waist, placed his hand flat on her back, and pulled her gently into his chest. After a while, her tossing eased as she buried her face in the hollow of his neck.

A sprained wrist. A concussion. A broken nose. Three broken ribs. A cracked cheek bone. Two dozen contusions. Seven stitches.

Vegeta had only left her side to wash off the blood.

The doctor had wanted to keep her in the Capsule Corp. infirmary, but the Saiyan had been adamant about returning her home. Eventually, the doctor had relented and let him carry Bulma back upstairs, all the while calling after him to watch carefully for signs of serious physical damage and call him if she worsened. The prince had ignored him; if need be, he'd take her to Dende, but for now, she would survive, and he wanted to keep this entire incident under wraps.

Trunks had seen Vegeta return to the house before he could shower; they had stopped and stared at one another, the boy turning pale and feeling weak in the knees, the man staring hard at him with an unrelenting and unapologetic gaze. Trunks turned and dashed to his room, vomiting into the trash can and locking the door tight. He wondered long into the night if that was the man that had first come to Earth; if that was the gaze that had watched planets die; if that was the rampaging Saiyan his mother had tamed. A new appreciation for his parents' bizarre bond dawned over him as he drifted into a restless sleep where he dreamed of his father walking the streets of Earth and killing everything in his path.

Bulma had awoken in the dark, weak and sore and very confused. She'd started to twist and winced in pain. Panic had begun to cloud her mind when a rough hand touched her forehead gently.

"Quiet, woman," a gravelly voice mumbled. Bulma raised her eyes, and in the dark, a silhouette with flame hair was sitting up beside her.

"Vegeta," she whispered, easing against his touch. He grunted.

"You are safe," he continued. "Though not unharmed. They beat the hell out of you, didn't they?" She tried nodding, but dizziness made the world toss, so she sufficed with a soft 'yes.' He shook his head as he growled. Bulma smiled slightly.

"You were worried about me, weren't you?" Through the dark, she could still see his glare, and it made her chuckle.

"Stupid woman," Vegeta grumbled, turning his body so he was facing her. "You are weak and I could not sense you. I thought you were dead."

"You were worried." Another growl, deep in his chest, but his hand was turning her face to look at him, and he seemed to be inspecting her in the dark. "Vegeta? Did… Did you…?"

"Mind what you ask, woman," he interrupted. "I will not lie to you."

That told her enough. Yeah, he got them.

"No one else but Trunks knows," the Saiyan said suddenly. "It was dealt with privately." For some reason, this came as a comfort to her; knowing she was safe with her prince, the bad guys were gone, and she wouldn't have the entirety of the Z-Warriors fretting over her health came as a relief, and she began to drift off once more, but Vegeta shifted, and suddenly his face was very close, his breath warm on her tender features. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Bulma," he whispered; the use of her name gave him her full attention. "They didn't…do anythi-"

"Mind what you ask, Prince," she muttered. "I won't lie to you. Besides, does it really matter now?"

He blinked. Damn her for turning his own words against him. Yet, she was right: did it really matter? The men were dead, regardless of what they may or may not have inflicted upon his wife. Knowing the details now would only entice more rage. Her gaze matched his, until he relented and his hard features eased as they only did in the dark, when he thought she couldn't see him, revealing a relief and disgrace so deep it hurt her to see it haunting him. As gently as he could, he kissed her, calmed by the knowledge that she still had some strength of her own, and returned to his vigil beside her, watching and thinking and basking in her warmth.

She called it 'cuddling.' He wasn't sure he liked the term, but in the night, alone in the room they shared, Vegeta allowed her to nestle against him, one arm curled close to her stomach, the other with its hand placed flat against his chest, her breath tickling his neck as she breathed. When her hair had been longer, it would tangle in the night and sometimes poke his face; now, it stayed in place (mostly) and splayed beautifully over her sleeping features, which he would watch when his own dreams kept him awake. Tonight, it was bruised and slightly misshapen, but he didn't look away. The Saiyan prince had not slept well in days, but so long as he could look at that battered face and that cerulean hair, all was well.

The face he had killed for. The face he had died for.

He rested his forehead against Bulma's, breathed deep, eased back into his light doze.

The end.

A/N: Woo! That's the end, guys and gals, hope you enjoyed it. I know it gets maybe a little sappy, but I started this series with this exact end in mind: peaceful, gentle, happy for the most part. This was a fun series, but it was a little short. If you guys think of any prompt ideas, send 'em my way via message or review, and maybe I'll collect them and do another drabble series like this; also, if you'd like to see that series involving different characters, tell me. Anyways, please review, tell me what you thought! And go read 'How It Should Have Been,' my other series that I'm working on. Not drabble.

Thank you all for reading! ~Lezlarr