Chapter 16

"Did you miss me, Woman?" Vegeta looked at the woman standing before him, smirking at the shock on her face at his presence. While she's standing still, he takes the time to look her over. He notices that her hips are fuller than before, as well as her chest. Changes that he approves of greatly, if the stirring of his desire is anything to go by. Her hair no longer falls to the small of her back but rather brushes the top of her shoulders. The biggest change, however, would be the bundle in her arms. In them, rests the sole heir to the non-existent throne of the Saiyan race.

Meanwhile, Bulma is making her own assessment of the man leaning against the doorframe. Just by looking, she can tell that he's immensely different than the time he left all those months ago. Her eyes roamed over his form slowly, taking in his physique. He gained more muscle but somehow still looked lithe. He looked...taller than before, but not by much. There was something else about him that she couldn't pick up with her eyes.

Bulma couldn't sense power levels in the slightest but...she could feel his strength from where she stood. He's always had a commanding aura about him but this time it was different. His power radiated around him, forcing you to acknowledge his presence. That must mean…

'He's a Super Saiyan.'

The Prince stepped into the room, neither of them saying a word as he makes his way to the child she's holding. Once his gaze lands on the baby, an involuntary sneer makes its way onto his face as he takes in his son's features.

"He's got purple hair. And blue eyes."

Trunks looked up at the unfamiliar voice and when he saw the surly expression directed at him, he whimpered a little bit before bursting into tears, wailing at the top of his little lungs.

"Lose the sour face, Vegeta. You're scaring him." Bulma turned her back on him as she tried to calm her baby down. "It's alright, there's no need to be afraid of him, sweety. That big lummox is your daddy. He may look scary but he's all bark and no bite." Vegeta scowled at that last statement. She may have said it to the child but it was clearly directed at him, leaving him feeling a bit irked at her attitude.

The heiress rocked him gently and rubbed his back, her soothing embrace managing to quiet her son more and more. When she looked down at him, she couldn't help but give a small laugh at the adorable sight. Trunks was out like a light, his arms curled upwards with one of his little fists against his mouth. Bulma placed a feather-light kiss on his forehead and laid him in his crib, pulling the blanket to his chest. She smiled down at him, her heart filled with adoration for her little prince.

"You coddle him too much, Woman. If you keep doing that, he'll turn out the same way Kakarot's whelp was when I first encountered him."

Bulma closed her eyes and grit her teeth, trying to keep her temper in check. She wasn't going to wake up her son just because his father was acting like a gigantic jackass. She took a deep breath and turned to face Vegeta, her expression blank.

"He's my son, I'll raise him in the way I see fit. Unless your Highness has a problem with that?" She raised her eyebrow at him, daring him to challenge her words.

The Prince narrowed his eyes at her at her calm words and easy posture. Of all the things he was expecting her to do or say when he returned, this blasé attitude certainly wasn't one of them. He had prepared himself for her fury when he returned, expecting her to throw the mother of all hissy fits. This cool response he got instead...it set him on edge. Before he could respond to her words, she beat him to the punch.

"Well, seeing as you're here now, I assume you need to spend the night before the battle with the androids tomorrow." She addressed him with an unreadable expression. "Your room is just as you left it. There's a few sets of armour in your closet and there are enough blankets and towels so you won't have to disturb me or my mother to get more for you." She gave him an impersonal smile. "Have a goodnight, Vegeta." She stepped around him and made her way to her room.

As Bulma walked down the hallway, she thought about her approach towards the arrogant prince. She had a sneaking suspicion he wanted her to have a meltdown and throw a tantrum worthy enough to rival that of a spoiled five year old. Unfortunately for him, she wasn't planning on giving him that satisfaction. Bulma reached the door to her room and stepped inside. She took her night clothes and went to the bathroom for a quick shower. When she was done, she donned her pyjamas and walked into her bedroom.

"Holy shit!" She shrieked at the dark figure standing by her window, until she heard a chuckle coming from it. A chuckle she'd recognise anywhere.

"Dammit Vegeta, don't scare me like that! I almost had a heart attack!" She crossed her arms and scowled at him. "What are you doing here, anyway? Is something wrong with your room?"

The Prince pushed himself off the window and stalked towards her, his gaze focused on her intently. He noticed her body tense slightly and smiled smugly.

"Yes, actually. There is something wrong with it." He stopped in front of her, so close that she could feel his body heat without him touching her. Vegeta leaned closer to her and whispered in her ear, "You're not in it."

Before she could snap at him for that, he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her roughly towards him and kissed her. Her mouth fell open in shock and he wasted no time deepening the sultry kiss. Bulma's eyes widened and it took a few seconds before her mind caught up with her body. The heiress tried to jerk out of his hold but his grip was unrelenting. So she does the only thing she can think of at that moment.

She bit his lip, hard.

Vegeta groaned and immediately pulled his head back. He touched his lip and grimaced at the blood on his fingers. He turned his head and looked at her with rising anger in his eyes. "Woman, you dare to bite the Saiyan Prince?"

"You deserve more than me biting you, my Prince." She spat out like the title was cursed. "What the hell did you think you were doing?! You honestly think that you can leave for almost two years and then expect me to greet you with open arms and spread legs?!"

Bulma got closer to him and poked him in the chest with her finger, her voice deadly calm when she spoke. "Listen here, Vegeta. Maybe when you ran around in space, you were used to women falling at your feet with the snap of your fingers but here, with me, you'll be old and grey before you see me bend to anyone's rule, including yours."

The Prince swiped her hand off of his chest, growling at her impudence. She certainly became bolder since he left the Earth…

Of course. That's what this is about.

"Well, at least now I know why you've been acting so strange since I returned. You're in a bitter mood that I left without saying anything and now you're feeling resentful about it." Vegeta slowly shook his head at her, chuckling darkly when he sees the spark of anger in her eyes at his words. "And then you wondered why I deliberately didn't tell you of my departure. Is it really any surprise that I said nothing since I've been gone, Woman?"

So she'd been right. He did get her message and left her worrying about him on purpose. She'd already had a strong suspicion that he had seen it but he just confirmed it for her. Bulma's body shook as her anger kept on climbing with each passing second. She wasn't sure she'd be able to hold back from injuring him again.

Bulma took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves. "Well, since you've managed to figure it out on your own, you can get the hell out of my room. Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

She turned around, listening for the shuffle of his feet, the swish of the door. Anything to tell her that he had left. What she heard next was not what she had been waiting for.

"Hmph. And here I thought the boy was the only child in the building. Turns out there's actually two of them."

The Prince wasn't ready for her to turn around so quickly and deliver a slap so strong, his head flew to the side with the force of it. He licked his lip clean of the fresh blood, his respect for the woman growing begrudgingly.

"How dare you?" Vegeta looked at her and was slightly taken aback by the venom shooting out of her eyes. If looks could kill, then he would've died a hundred times over by now.

He scowled heavily and gripped her upper arms tightly, not enough to hurt her but enough to convey his anger. "Bulma, you are really trying my patience", he snarled in her face. She laughed humorlessly and brushed his hands off of her.

"Yeah, well join the club buddy boy." She sneered at him, her sapphire eyes sparkling with indignation. "You wanna talk about trying someone's patience? Well, how about we start right from the top! First off, when I found out I was pregnant, I had so many questions that had no answers. You have no idea how many times I fought with myself from calling Chichi and asking her how her pregnancy went, just so I could have an idea what I was in for, but knew I couldn't. I was afraid of being judged harshly by my own friends, people that I knew would support me, no matter what! It was agonizing! If it wasn't for Yamcha, yes Yamcha, then I would have been a lot more miserable. And if my mother hadn't been there for me till the very end then I don't know what I would've done.

The day I gave birth, it was the happiest day of my life. But at the same time, it was also one of the one of the worst because you weren't present for the birth of your own son! Imagine, my entire family was with me but I couldn't be completely happy because you weren't there. The cruel irony of it all, am I right? But do you want to know what's the icing on this shitty cake?"

Bulma grit her teeth as tears started forming in her eyes, but with her will alone, she managed to keep them at bay. "For months, I had no way of knowing if the ship was irreparably damaged and if you were stranded in the cold reaches of space. I was worried sick about you, not knowing whether you were still alive or if you had finally succeeded in killing yourself trying to reach your goal. I knew nothing about you because you gave me radio silence on purpose! All because of your suicide mission of trying to achieve Super Saiyan!"

Vegeta scoffed at the scent of her tears. "I didn't try, Woman. I succeeded! I managed to achieve the legendary on my 'suicide mission' as you say. I left so that I could get away from the distractions of this mudball planet. Something you don't seem to get!"

"Congratulations Prince of all One-and-a-Half Saiyans! But you see, you're wrong about one thing. I completely understand why you had to leave Earth! I'm not stupid Vegeta! I could see that nothing was working for you here. No matter what I did to help you, no matter how much you tried, you weren't getting to where you were supposed to be. If you had just told me your plans, I would've helped you get ready to blast off! Instead, you chose to assume that I was going to try and hinder you."

A couple of tears escape her eyes and she swipes at her cheeks roughly, hating how weak she appears with them running down her face.

"And now, almost two years later, you have the absolute nerve to stand in front of me and tell me that I'm being childish for worrying if you were injured or worse!"

The Prince growled in her face, feeling like his ears were close to bleeding with her shrill voice. "And just why the hell do you care if I live or not?!"

"Because I-!", she stopped herself from blurting out her emotions, not very keen on seeing the horrified look on his face at her confession, "Because last time I checked, I was your mate! You know, the Saiyan equivalent of a wife!"

Vegeta merely laughed in her face at her ridiculous statement. "Woman, just because you're my mate, it doesn't mean I'm obligated to tell you everything! Lest I end up in a position like I am right now, having to explain myself to you when I really shouldn't have to."

"You aren't listening to me, you insufferable man! Honestly, how damn big does your ego have to be for you to-" She was interrupted by the sounds of her son crying from the monitor. She let out a doleful sigh when she saw that the two-way function on the monitor was on. They'd woken up their son with their stupid fight.

The heiress took a deep breath and looked up at the man before her, noticing his angry stare was directed at the monitor. She shook her head at him, feeling exhausted. "Look, clearly this is going nowhere fast. Quite frankly, I don't think you even realise what this is about and I'm not about to lose sleep over it."

She walked towards the door and just before leaving, she turned her head to look at the Prince, her face a picture of calm. "Now, you have a choice. You can either stay here and we can talk this through when I come back. Or you can leave and we'll carry on as if nothing's wrong, which is clearly what you think is the case. It's up to you." With that, she made her way to her wailing baby.

By the time Bulma went back to her room, Vegeta was nowhere to be seen. The only sign he was ever there were her curtains flowing from the wind coming from her open sliding door. She let out a sorrowful breath and closed her door. She crawled under covers and attempted to sleep.

That night, her dreams were plauged with blood, screams, tears and destruction and ended with her surrounded by the bodies of her dead friends, holding the body of her Prince, wailing her sorrow to the blackened sky.

Bulma's eyes fluttered open and she groaned at the annoying shrill of her alarm clock. She hit the snooze button and got out of bed. She looked out the window, taking in the beautiful sunny day. "This doesn't really scream 'android apocalypse' does it?"

She merely shrugged her shoulders and went to check on her baby. While Bulma walked to his nursery, she thought back to the dream she had last night. It was disconcerting just thinking about how real it felt.

'No, don't think like that. Goku and Vegeta are going to tear those androids apart and send the useless parts back to Gero. After that, we'll be able to carry on with our lives as normal. I just know it.'

The heiress got to her son's room and smiled brightly when she saw him holding on to the bars of his crib, using them as support to stand on his own. He saw her and gave her a wide grin, babbling away at her in his baby lingo. She couldn't help but laugh at the sight. It was just too cute!

"Good morning sweety. Are you ready to meet Mommy's friends today?"

The little boy giggled his agreement and Bulma lifted him out of the crib, giving a peck on his chubby cheek.

"Come on honey, let's get you ready for you big day."

For the past three years, life had really taken an unexpected turn. Bulma had been thrown loop after loop, preserving old memories and making new ones. And now, they were about to fight for their lives once more. But she was confident that they'd make it out of this alive and they would all go straight back to living their normal, everyday lives.

Bulma looked down at her son and smiled softly at his innocent features.

Just the way we were meant to.

Author's Note: And that's it ladies and gentlemen! We've reached the end of the fic! *Blasts fireworks*. This fic was so much fun to write and I loved every second of it. Fear not though, cause I will return with a new fic involving our favourite royal couple...as soon as I get an idea for one, haha.

I hope you all enjoyed this fic. I'd say, for a first attempt, it really came out alright. I wanna thank each and everyone of you for liking, following, commenting and supporting this fic. You all have my thanks from the bottom of my heart.

And so, for the last time, I wish peace, love and pixie dust to you all. Stay safe everyone and keep being awesome. See you soon! Until next time!

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