Hey guys, I'm back, I'm still not dead! I'm sorry I haven't been writing my other ones, but this one I just had to write, so here it is. This one is set when Vegeta and Bulma are really old and Bulma dies. I warn you, it's sad, and yes I realize that Vegeta gets a little OOC, but you can expect someone to be different when their lifelong mate dies…
~Lady Branwen~
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The Death of Bulma
Vegeta sat at the kitchen table waiting for his lunch. He had been sitting there for more than ten minutes waiting for Bulma to make him something to eat.
"I know she's not as young as she used to be, but this is ridiculous!" he thought.
"Woman! I thought you were going to make me something to eat!" he called as he got up from his chair.
Vegeta made his way through the hall to their bedroom and found Bulma lying facedown on the floor. He froze and stood staring at her still form.
"Bulma."
Nothing. Not even a twitch.
More forcefully, "Bulma." Still she didn't move.
He got on his hands and knees and kneeled next to her on the floor.
"She can't be dead," he thought. "I'm sure I would have known… She told me that when I had died she knew. She told me she had felt a great pain in her heart. I didn't feel anything."
He checked her pulse and found, to his great relief, that she still had one. Vegeta sighed in relief and closed his eyes, giving a silent thanks to Dende. He shook Bulma gently. "Bulma, wake up. Don't joke around like this Bulma."
She still didn't move so he shook her more forcefully and finally her eyes fluttered open.
"What?" she asked.
"Woman, don't ever do that again," he warned.
Bulma looked around and saw that she was on the floor. Suddenly she realized that she could not move, then remembered what had happened.
Vegeta stood up and looked down at her. "This is no time for sleeping. My lunch is late." When Bulma didn't move, he rolled his eyes and offered his hand to help her up.
"I can't move, Vegeta."
"Of course you can, you just don't want to."
"Vegeta, I fell because I didn't have any strength to hold myself up any longer." He didn't move, just kept looking at her steadily. "I still can't move. Please put me on the bed."
He looked at her a minute longer, then picked her up and placed her gently on the bed. He stoked her hair. It was graying, but he didn't care. To him, she was still as beautiful as the day he first fell in love with her. She smiled weakly and with some difficulty, brought her fingers to her lips, kissed them, and put them on Vegeta's lips.
"I'm going to die, Vegeta," she said as calmly as she could.
"What?!"
"My doctor told me that I had it a while ago. It's a relatively new disease. This is what it does. It lies dormant for a while, then suddenly it attacks your nervous system, then your respiratory system, and then everything else until you die. It all happens quickly. I think it's started in me Vegeta."
"You're not going to die. Do you understand me? You will not die. Not even if you want to. I won't allow it." She looked pityingly at him and he looked away. "I'll get you a glass of water."
As he stood up, Bulma grabbed onto one of his fingers and tried to pull him back. "Don't go," she said weakly. "I don't want to die alone."
"I'll only be a second," he said. "Literally a second, Bulma. You know I can move fast."
"I can also die in literally a second, Vegeta." He looked away again, wanting to deal with anything other than this.
"You knew this would happen one day," he told himself. "One of you had to die first. Everyone dies. Everyone has to die sometime."
"Please, lay next to me. I've always imagined myself dying asleep in bed next to you. You would be holding me and when I died, my spirit would float up to heaven and the last thing I would see of the mortal world would be us lying together on the bed. Please, let me die like that."
"You're serious about this aren't you?"
"Of course I am, Vegeta. I wouldn't joke around about dying."
Vegeta sat on the bed and looked at the phone, then finally picked it up and dialed 9-1-1. "I'm going to call an ambulance," he said.
"No, honey, I don't want one. They can't do anything for me anyway…"
"Hello, I want an ambulance to come to my house. My wife is sick. She says she is dying and she can't move…Yes, she's still conscious..." He took the phone away from his ear and held it out to her. "She wants to talk to you."
Bulma reached out for the phone, but was so weak she couldn't even hold the phone and it dropped to the floor. Vegeta grabbed the phone from the floor and held it up to Bulma's ear for her. "Hello? Yes, I do feel weak. I collapsed on the floor; I just couldn't hold myself up any longer. Look, I don't want an ambulance. You can cancel that. I don't want to die in a hospital, I want to die here at home-"
Vegeta yanked the phone from her ear and said to the woman on the phone, "Don't listen to her, I want there to be an ambulance here at the house."
"But Vegeta," Bulma said, "I don't want one. Please, just let me die here."
"Bulma, I will not allow you to just die! Why are you doing this? You're not even trying to fight against death."
"Everyone has to die sometime," she said quietly. She looked meaningfully at him.
"She used the very same words as I did."
"I'm dying, but that doesn't mean our bond is broken yet," she said.
He sighed and hung up the phone. Vegeta sat wearily on the bed facing away from his dying mate.
"How can I do this, Bulma? I don't want you to die. Why should I just let you die like this?"
"Because there is nothing you can do." She coughed loudly.
"But there must be something I can do!" He looked at Bulma for an answer, for anything that would tell him there was even some little thing he could do that just might let her live.
Bulma grabbed his hand and held it. "You can make me happy. Just get into the bed with me and hold me."
He roughly pulled his hand away and stood up again. "I'm going to get you water."
"Vegeta, water isn't going to help me." She coughed again. "Please, just come back here and hold me. All you've eve done is call me 'woman.' You've never really done anything romantic except when you wanted sex. Please, just do this one thing for me before I die."
"I gave my life for you and Trunks when Majin Buu was around, Bulma. I would count that as something."
"That's not the point. I just want you do hold me as I die. Is that so much to ask?" She was finding it harder to breath with every second.
"Yes! It is a lot to ask! If I were in your place, I would want you to do everything in your power to keep me alive! Why don't you want to stay alive?"
"I do, but there isn't anything you can do. I've come to terms with it already, Vegeta. Now you have to."
"I'll use the Dragonballs," he said with new hope.
"That would take too long-"
"I would wish for the both of us to become immortal, then neither one of us would have to deal with the other's death. We could live forever, Bulma."
She shook her head. "I've already lived my life, Vegeta. I've had a wonderful life. I don't need to live forever. Besides, I don't want to have an advantage over everyone else. People die every day. I want to see what heaven is like."
"So you're saying you want to die then," he said in disbelief.
"I'm saying I don't want to have to live forever and miss seeing what heaven is like. Besides, you'll die sometime and we'll see each other again. I'll be looking forward to that. But promise me, Vegeta, promise me that when I die, you won't kill yourself. I don't want you to do that. I didn't kill myself when you died. If I had, then you wouldn't have had anyone to come back to."
"Let me wish you back then."
"I don't want to be wished back, Vegeta, you're not listening to what I'm telling you. Just please hold me." He sat on the bed again and Bulma coughed repeatedly. She grabbed his arm and held it.
Suddenly Vegeta felt his heart being ripped out and Bulma's hand slipped from around his arm back down to the bed. He swiveled around on the bed with his eyes wide open with shock and hurt that went through every fiber of his being. Bulma lay on the bed, eyes open, but glassy.
"Bulma!" Vegeta checked her pulse even though he knew that she was gone. He shook her again desperately. "No…" he pulled her up to his chest and held her close. Tears sprang to his eyes.
"Bulma, come back. Don't leave me!"
"I never did what she asked," he suddenly realized. "She wanted me to hold her before she died. It was her one last wish, and I didn't give her that. How could I be so selfish…"
He pulled her with him back on the bed.
"Bulma look. I'm holding you. I'm holding you, Bulma, just like you wanted. I'm sorry I didn't do this sooner."
Tears ran freely down his face and he squeezed Bulma's body so tight that he was sure he must be crushing her bones. He sobbed into her neck and smelled her hair. But, thanks to his keen sense of smell, he smelled the first stages of death. He kissed her then pulled the covers over top of them and lay crying on the bed with her.
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3 DAYS LATER
Trunks walked into his parent's house.
"Mom! I'm home!" he called.
Everything was quiet in the house. "Mom? I came to pick up some papers you told me you had… Mom? Dad? Is anyone home?"
He walked around the house. Every room was empty. Finally he came to his parents' room. He saw his father's hair sticking out of the covers, then saw his mom's hair next to him.
"Oh, there you are," he said. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything…"
Trunks walked into the room and was struck with a horrible stench. He walked farther into the room and stood next to his parent's bed. To his horror, Trunks saw his father stroking is mother's blue face. Instantly Trunks knew what the smell had been: death.
"D-Dad, what happened."
Vegeta didn't answer him. He kept stroking Bulma's face lovingly and kissed the tip of her nose.
"Dad, what are you doing? She's dead!" Trunks tried to pull Vegeta away from his dead mate, but Vegeta growled loudly and threw him across the room.
"Don't come near her or I swear I will kill you!"
Trunks sat shocked on the floor. Vegeta stared him down. Trunks stood up and backed out of the room and immediately went to a phone while Vegeta climbed back into bed.
"Bra? Hi, it's me. Listen, you have to come to Mom and Dad's house quick. Mom died."
"Oh, Dende! I can't believe it!" Bra cried. "No! Not Mom!"
"I know, I know," he said, "but you need to come over here now. Mom has been dead for a few days. I just found out because I came over here to get something. I found Dad holding her in bed, but Mom is blue and she's starting to decay. Dad doesn't seem to care. He won't let me anywhere near Mom. I think maybe you can coax him away from the bed."
"I'll be right over," Bra said and hung up the phone.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Daddy?" Bra said as she walked into her parents' bedroom. "Can I come in?"
He didn't answer.
She walked slowly closer to the bed, Trunks right behind to protect her in case Vegeta tried to throw Bra across the room. "Trunks told me about Mom…Can I see her?"
Bra looked over her father at her mother's body.
"Oh Daddy," she sobbed. "You have to let her go. Just look at her, she's all blue!"
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Vegeta asked. "Just as beautiful as the day I met her."
"Daddy, she's dead. You can't keep her in the house. You can have her cremated, but you can't keep her actual dead body in the house. Come on, get out of the bed."
"I loved her, you know," Vegeta said. "I never really said it, but I did. I still do. She's my mate." He kissed her lips. "She's cold." He pulled the covers up more and tucked them under her chin.
Bra looked back at Trunks, who stood quietly crying. "Daddy, of course she's cold. You have to let her go now." She touched his arm.
Trunks walked to the other side of the bed and climbed on top of the covers and hugged Bulma. "Mommy," he quietly sobbed. Vegeta didn't move to throw Trunks away from Bulma, he just watched and continued to make sure she was kept warm.
"Not you too Trunks!" Bra exclaimed. "You both have to get a hold of yourselves. Mom is dead, we can't change that. Come on, get up, Dad." Bra pulled on her father's arm and managed to pull him out of the bed and onto the floor.
Vegeta curled up into a fetal position and cried. "Daddy, everything will be okay," Bra said.
He looked at her and said, "You look so much like your mother."
Bra smiled. "Do you want a hug?" She didn't wait for him to answer, she just hugged him and he hugged her back.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Vegeta watched as Bulma's coffin was lowered into her grave. Everyone the family knew showed up, even Dende. Vegeta threw in the first clump of dirt and stood there, even after everyone else had left and Bulma was finished being buried.
"Bulma," he whispered, "I'm sorry I never held you as much as I should have. I'm sorry I didn't hold you before you died like you wanted me to do. I'm sorry I didn't tell you that I loved you more than I did. I should have tried harder to make you happy all the time, not only when you getting on my case. I know this sounds cliché, but I didn't know how much I loved you until I lost you. It's the truth. I feel like I've lost my soul. The world has come crashing down around me and I don't know what to do. I feel so helpless. You know how much I hate feeling this way. You understood me better than anyone else ever has. I'm glad you were my mate."
Vegeta felt tears run down his face for the millionth time that week.
"What have you done to me, Bulma? I've only cried a few times in my life. Now I cry all the time. I never thought I would feel like this about anyone. How could a human female do something like this to the Prince of Saiyans?"
He kneeled down on the newly packed earth and kissed his mate's tombstone.
"Don't worry about me, though. I'll be fine. I'll see you soon enough. I don't want you to you waste your time worrying over a wretch like myself when you can see the wonders of heaven. Goodbye, Bulma."
He stood up and walked back home to cry alone in the dark.