Wow, I'm sorry this has taken so long to update. As most of you are aware, I put this on hold until I finished The Water's Edge. I finished typing that up and am now in the final edits while also uploading chapters to AO3. Anyway, I'm now back on track and working on this one. I have an idea where I want this to go and I ask you to be patient as I get back in the swing of it.

-VP

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Seven – The Edge

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Bulma looked out at the inky blackness of space dotted here and there by bright flickering lights of distant stars. It seemed strange to be looking at it from this perspective. Usually, she only saw the darkness partly lit by the chaos she'd caused. It was a depressing thought, one she couldn't keep from feeling. Doctor Briefs was lost to that darkness. She had promised to save him, a promise she had failed to keep. A growl escaped her lips as she punched a dent in the hallway, her mind elsewhere. This never-ending spiral of darkness with no light in sight.

"Bulma?" Vegeta's voice beckoned her from her mindscape and she looked into his dark eyes, the depths darker than the void outside but warmer. He balanced her soul, her heart slowing to a resting tempo. Her prince.

"Yes?"

"What troubles you?" He pressed his palm on the scanner and the room opened with a swish. "You've been lost and wandering since we took off."

"I've never had the time to slow down since my 'birth'. I've always been doing something, even if it's something I don't want to do." She sighed. "I feel a bit strange."

"I suppose that's normal. Even if you're only part sayain, being inert is a terrible feeling."

"Indeed."

"However, that's only part of the reason I've sought you out." He smirked before walking forward. "I've been coming to accept this bond between us, this feeling. At first, I believed you to do it on purpose, but then I realized what did you know of mating?"

"Vegeta, my Prince, I never ..."

He placed a fingertip on her lips and then brought her in for a heated kiss. The first one they'd shared since leaving the planet. Her taste was more sweet, headier, more heated. The time was drawing nearer for them to fully complete the bond. Mates were rare among his kind. Even before Frieza's tampering, warriors bread other warriors but some became more. He, as being a royal, had that need for a mate running through his veins. A trait passed on from his particular lineage. A deep-seeded desire for balance. He remembered the driving force his mother played for his father before her death. The balance lost after her demise.

In this moment, Bulma was the only one who mattered to him. His Princess, his mate. If they overcame Frieza, she would be his Queen. Just as he moved to pull her closer, she pushed away and started breathing heavily.

"I can't." Bulma shuddered as her old tormentors' eyes flashed before her. Their red depths stealing her breath in fear.

"Breathe." Vegeta said, pulling her back towards him. "Let me in."

"Vegeta..."

"Let me in..."

Vegeta was sucked into her mind then, the shapeless form of a memory, a blurry vision coming into focus. Frieza stood there holding his mate, twining his tail around her own, her body shaking in disgust as a long purple tongue licked her cheek. "We will become one my little Blue Flame. Just you wait."

"I will never be yours." She spit and he bit her neck before releasing her to crash to the floor.

"You already are, my sweet. I have all the power in the universe. All that could ever be held and more. You are my creation, my pet. Mine to use as I please. Sure, Zarbon and Dodoria are for unique twists in my realm of pleasure, but you, you are so much more to me than they are." He hissed before climbing on top of her. He bent down and licked the shell of her ear before continuing, his breath hot and foul on the nape of her neck. "When we become one, there will be no mistake of whom you belong. Not only are you my top destroyer, but you are my most prized possession. Out of all of my projects, you are the perfect specimen. Mine and mine alone. The doctor may have given you life, but I will give you pain. I will give you heat, and maybe pleasure if I please."

"My Lord ..."

"What is it, Zarbon?"

"There has been another round of warriors born in the chambers. You wanted to know when they were ready."

"Of course, give me a moment."

"As you wish my Lord."

Frieza bent back over her and smirked before patting her cheek. "You got lucky for now, but tomorrow you will be completely and totally mine. Nothing will stand in my way and the whole ship will witness the claiming of my property."

Vegeta was violently thrown out of the memory, his body quaking with rage. "That bastard!"

"I'm sorry." Bulma looked down. "I want to be yours, not his, but he ..."

"He will die." Vegeta punched his own dent in the wall, a deeper chasm than her own, his fist flexing with rage as he pulled it out of the twisted metal. "He will die."

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Kakarot smiled as he brought food into the room that he shared with Chi-Chi. She seemed a little less stressed since he'd saved her. She smiled more, laughed, and was putting weight back on her small frame. He passed her some of the food before he took his own seat. "Once the ship has completely settled down I'll talk to my dad about finding you some better clothes to wear."

"Thank you."

"It's not a problem." He tucked into his food with a lopsided grin. Their bonding had been going very slow. Kakarot was still a bit afraid to spook her. Sure, they'd been growing closer and he had explained mates to her, but as of anything deeper, he held back.

However, he had a feeling that she was trying to tell him something. There were a few gestures he wasn't sure he was reading right. Touches, smiles, and she would often caress him in a way that set him on fire. All of this was so new to him that he didn't know what to do, yet all he could really do was feel and the sensations were so damn good.

"Kakarot?" Her voice broke his thoughts and he met her dark eyes with his own, her gaze heated and lustful and for once he wasn't thinking about food.

"Yes, Chi?"

"Come here."

Kakarot gulped hard and stood to move around the table. He knelt in front of her, and she pulled him mostly into her lap, her lips meeting his and he groaned into the kiss. Her mouth was hot, wet, and tasted of the sweet warm tea. He panted, and mewled, and when he connected their minds together he was lost to sensation. He saw her standing before him in their mindscape, two people becoming one, and then he could take it no longer.

He broke their kiss and picked her up in his arms, whisking her away to their bedroom and placing her on the soft, cool sheets.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." She giggled. "I was wondering when you'd finally take the hint."

He blushed at his blunder before kissing her again and also fighting with his armor, ripping one of the straps off in the process. It felt like he couldn't get to her fast enough, didn't want to stop kissing her, listening to her delighted coos in his ears. Her hands were hot on his skin when he finally tore away his chest plate and spandex top, her nails raking fiery trails along his skin, his body heaving with the effort to breathe.

Kakarot broke free of their kiss and started trailing open-mouthed nips and licks down the column of her throat as he finally joined her on the bed and loomed over her. He shredded her top, palming her breasts softly. Cupping the warm flesh in his hands, tweaking the pert rosy nipples to pointed peaks before taking one in his mouth and sucking softly.

Chi-Chi groaned in his ear, a high-pitched whine, and locked her legs around his waist. She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled, he released her left nipple before moving onto her right one, giving it the same treatment. He was hard to the point of pain, his pants straining to keep his cock planted against the side of his leg, and he shed them quickly to ease the pressure.

He reared up, releasing her nipple with a soft pop, and stripped the rest of the way before taking off her pants as well. It was maddening, this need for completion, for connection, but he did not fight it. He brought his hand up in between her legs and felt her wet curls before finding her opening. Testing the waters, he gently eased a finger inside her wet heat and gently pumped inside a few times before adding another.

At three fingers, he decided she was ready enough and he then positioned himself before gently pushing inside before bending down and placing his head between the crook of her neck and biting down hard.

A scream escaped her lips before turning into a moan and he started to thrust his hips into her in a sharp rhythm. His body was on autopilot then, a drive towards mating, their first connection, and after a few moments of this, he felt her answer his rhythm with her own to counter it. She moaned in his ear, her body chasing the same high, and he ground into her with a moan of his own as he released her neck and licked the tiny trail of blood and saliva that started to slide down the skin of her shoulder towards the pillow below.

He huffed a breath, his body shuddering, and he lifted her into his arms as he sat back on his knees. Kakarot held her tight, knowing that this would be the first of many instances of their bonding throughout the night. Finally, he felt complete.