A/N: This is my first story on this site. I have been a member for a very long time however, and I feel like I have to go through an initiation. Therefore, I am writing a B/V fic. It seems like a prerequisite, so... here it is! I update very frequently and make chapters long. Not because I want to get reviews (I do!), but because I get carried away. Like now. R&R please!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own DBZ as of now. But I am currently negotiating a contract with some guy who knows a guy who has a cousin who watches the show. I expect good things.

Chapter 1: As Always, The Beginning

That stupid, bullying, arrogant, prick!

Bulma pulled an orange tank top over her head, her anger causing her head to get stuck several times in an armhole. By the time she had laced up her work boots and buckled her belt, she was so mad she couldn't see straight.

Her walkie-talkie crackled from its place on her bed and her father's voice fizzled in saying, "Honey? Let's not keep him waiting. He's growing impatient!"

Bulma seized the walkie-talkie and bared her teeth. "I'm coming dad! So you can tell that undersized thing out there to hold his horses!"

She proceeded to fling the device at her bedroom wall and her father's response was left on deaf ears. Bulma could not really blame her father for devoting his spare time and energy to their new house-guest. After all, her father was getting older and he was no match physically.

Neither was Bulma, but that never stopped her.

"It's about time you lazy, insufferable woman!" greeted her housemate, the Saiyan prince Vegeta, once she had stepped outside.

With narrowed blue eyes Bulma stopped to look in his direction. He stood next to the Gravity Room in tight blue training shorts, bare-chested with, for Kami's sake, white gloves on.

"You've got some nerve Vegeta!" she replied bitingly, blowing fallen teal hair from her eyes. She was furious now and wanted him to see every bit of her. "This gravity room is perfectly fine! Why in the world do you want to go and have us redo it for?"

Vegeta raised a solitary eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest. "That is none of your concern, nosy earthling. Join your father and do as I ask!"

As Bulma prepared herself for a leap of death (because that's what it would be if she actually dared to jump on the prince, who was short, but certainly superior in strength), her father leaped in the way.

"Dear, no! Come and see what I've done so far."

Her father's blue eyes were wide beneath his glasses and Bulma decided that for his sake she would not attempt suicide. Instead she followed her dad to the GR's open control panel and looked inside.

"I've adjusted the controls so that the levels can be increased at a faster pace," he announced grandly, his white lab coat sparkling in the bright sunlight. "Why, now he can train up to 300g's!"

Bulma placed her hands on her hips. "This is nice dad," she commented, "but these walls aren't going to sustain so much gravitational pull. We're going to have to rebuild them."

"I thought as much," he said with a sigh, stroking his bushy mustache. "Adding more insulation, more steel and wiring… it's going to be a big job dear. Are you up for it?"

Bulma smiled at his inquiry. As heir to Capsule Corporation one day, she was up for anything that would increase her scientific knowledge- and she had a lot of it. "Of course dad."

"That's my girl," Dr. Briefs said proudly. "I'll go in and get my toolkit and a few of our best workers."

Bulma waited until her father had disappeared into the Capsule Corp. mansion before rounding the GR corner. Vegeta was still standing there and it was quite obvious that he had been listening to their conversation.

"Happy now?" she asked haughtily.

"You're still here aren't you?" he asked with a smirk. "So, no."

Bulma poked a finger at his chest and he stumbled back, probably surprised some weak earthling woman had the audacity to touch him. "The least you could do is say thank-you! After all, I don't have to do this!"

Vegeta grabbed her wrist and squeezed it in his gloved hand. "Thank-you?" he spat out. "Maybe you'd rather I didn't train so that those damned Androids can blast you and your pathetic family to bits!"

"Oh yeah?" Bulma shot back. "I think Goku will do just fine without your help!"

Vegeta laughed in such a way that Bulma became instantly infuriated once more. She tried to yank away from him but his grip was like stone. Using her free hand, Bulma hit his arm over and over and over.

"Drop her Vegeta!"

Hearing Yamcha's voice lifted Bulma's spirits. She instantly stopped attacking Vegeta and turned towards her boyfriend, a scarred ex-bandit with long, thick black hair. Vegeta, who had voiced his dislike of Yamcha at least once a day since he had arrived, did not stop holding Bulma's wrist at the other man's command.

Instead he pulled Bulma closer to him and snarled, "Make me."

Bulma rolled her eyes when Yamcha hesitated. Of course she understood her boyfriend's reluctance to cross Vegeta, but she sure as hell wasn't going to let Vegeta treat her like his personal servant. He was going to have to learn how things were settled here on the planet Earth.

She bit down hard on his gloved hand, tasting dirt and leather. So surprised by her action was he, Vegeta actually released her from his grasp and stumbled backwards.

Yamcha grabbed her, shaking her shoulders anxiously. "Bulma! What's the matter with you? That guy's a psycho!"

Bulma could not respond. She was too busy watching Vegeta's reaction, which had turned from surprise to complete disgust. His face was scrunched and his hand had been taken out of his glove so that he could inspect it further.

"Oh! Yamcha! Hello there boy!"

Dr. Briefs was approaching with five other men in dark blue Capsule Corp. uniforms. They were all carrying giant tubs of metal and tools.

"Hey there Doc," Yamcha greeted her father. "Well Bulma, looks like you're busy, so I'll be heading off okay?"

He kissed her cheek and leaned into her ear. "You call me if he starts any trouble, alright?"

That blasted woman and her teeth!

Vegeta was lying on his side in bed. It was so dark that he could only see the flickering of stars through the window. Yet he could see the woman's germs crawling across his skin like tiny infected microbes.

There was a knock at his door and before he could respond that he was going to kill whoever was disturbing him, the very witch he had been so fondly reflecting upon entered his room.

"Vegeta," she whispered. "Vegeta, are you awake?"

Vegeta gave the blue-haired woman a once-over and then growled. "Get out."

He didn't expect her to comply. If there was one thing the prince had learned about her, it was that she was hard of hearing.

She closed the door behind her.

"Gee, it's uh… a little dark in here. Mind if I turn on a light?"

Vegeta sat up in bed as his overhead light was flicked on. Near the door stood Bulma in red pajamas, her finger on the light switch. Her hair was pulled up under a scarf printed with pink smiley faces. They were the only faces smiling in that room.

"Look, woman," he said, squinting under the harsh light, "I'm only going to ask you one more time to leave before I throw you out of my window!"

Bulma paid him no attention and turned up her nose. "Jeez Vegeta, don't you ever clean your room? And what about a bath? Whew!"

"That is the scent of a warrior!" he said, glad he had made her visit slightly uncomfortable.

She rolled her eyes at him and then sat on the edge of his bed.

"Get off of that!" he demanded, quickly on his feet. "And just what do you want anyway, woman? Come to bite another hand?"

Bulma looked at the floor and then back at him. "No… in fact, that's sort of why I'm up here."

Vegeta leaned against the wall across from the bed, his arms crossed. He arched one eyebrow.

"I shouldn't have bitten you," Bulma said, sounding pained. "It was a really stupid thing to do. I'm sorry, Vegeta."

He hadn't expected to hear an apology. "And here I thought you were completely incompetent." He smirked. "There's still room for improvement I see."

He liked this, making her angry. She was just about the only earthling who would succumb to his provoking nature.

Bulma's nostrils flared and she stood quickly from the bed. "Don't you think you owe me an apology? After all you nearly ripped off my wrist today!"

"I owe no one anything!" Vegeta stated firmly.

"And then you stomp around here ordering me around like I'm some kind of slave girl or something! How about treating me with a little more respect, Vegeta."

And when she said his name he froze, because he had never heard anyone say his name quite like that before.

"Wow! Speechless, huh?" the woman asked with a smug look. She put her hands on her hips and closed her eyes in glee. "That's a first."

His left eye was twitching.

"Those words may be your last," he said threateningly.

"You can't kill me," Bulma said. "Goku would…"

"Kakarot is not my concern," Vegeta said coldly, standing close to her and whispering. "And while you tempt death, he's asleep in his bed."

And-blast her!- he still could not sense her fear, her intimidation; only that she had as much pride as he, and that she would not ever back down without a large, unnecessary fight.

"You won't hurt me," she told him matter-of-factly. She flicked his nose with her finger and left his room, turning off the lights and closing the door behind her.

Vegeta stood there in the darkness, pondering her words.

She was right.