A/N - This is a fic which I had running around in my head for a while. Originally I was going to write it as a long one shot but as the idea bloomed it became a fic that would probably tell itself in several smaller chapters. This is the kind of thing which I don't really write about - a cannon V/B get together fic. Originally inspired by one of my beta readers, I've tinkered with this for about a year until the idea was...well...developed out fully. You can thank the Black and Blue LJ V/B community for actually inspiring me to do some writing!

The Storm

Her breath sobbing her throat, Bulma slammed her car door and half-ran half-stumbled ran across the front garden before she collapsed in the shade of the gravity machine. She stared down at her slender fingers and twisted her hands together, feeling the muscles tighten until her nails cut into her palms and a thin line of blood trickled down her wrist. She stared at the thin red line and slowly opened her hands again, staring at the bloody half-moon shapes that her nails had made in her palm. She choked back a hysterical laugh and buried her face in her hands, determinedly holding back the tears that were threatening to fall.

So…Yamcha was having an affair. She'd known this day was coming. She'd known she was going to look in the window of his apartment one day and see his body intertwined with that of some blonde strumpet. Kami! Kami, how she hated that fool and his inability to stay faithful to her. She did everything she could to please him and yet he never failed to let her down.

Oh, she'd seen the way the young women at the gym looked at her boyfriend and she'd caught the way that Yamcha watched them in return. She'd known it was only a matter of time – after all, Yamcha was still a good looking man who was widely known from his stint playing baseball in the World Series.

It was her own fault that she was in this predicament! She'd known Yamcha's track record when it came to women and she'd known in her heart that she would never be able to satisfy him. He was addicted to fame and addicted to women.

Bulma lifted her head and bit her lip angrily as her eyes blurred with tears. She would not cry over him! He wasn't worth her tears let alone her pain! Bulma slowly stood up, forcing herself to move and no give in to the crushing feeling of defeat that she felt. She ran a hand through her rumpled blue locks as she unsteadily made her way into the house and threw herself onto a chair in the kitchen.

"Damn you, Yamcha!" She muttered into the empty air. "I'm not going to let you get away with this!"

"Hello Vegeta."

Bulma mumbled at him and glanced up at the perpetually cranky saiyan as he walked into the kitchen and sniffed the air. He returned her gaze with suspicious eyes and quickly looked away again; her hollow tone instantly putting him on edge. The woman aroused feelings in him fluctuated between wanting to ring her neck for the idiot things she would say, to deeply disturbing sexual thoughts which usually crept out to bug him while he tried to sleep.

...Not that he'd tell her that of course. If was one thing to admit to himself that she was attractive and another thing entirely to tell her.

"Woman." He nodded in her general direction and then froze and glanced back at her as a small tremor of shock ran through him. Bulma looked...ghostly. Her makeup was smeared over her cheeks as though she'd been crying and she seemed to have smears of...blood? Blood on her cheeks? He paused, unsure of exactly how big of a deal he should be making, while his heart thumped in his chest and adrenaline began to charge through his system. If someone had hurt her they would pay...

"Have you...hurt yourself?" He asked gruffly, pointing at the blood on her cheeks and feeling painfully aware of the silence that had descended. Bulma started to raise a hand to her cheek but stopped when she caught sight of the nail marks in her palm that were still oozing blood.

"No, I..." She started to tear up again but determinedly fought against them. "...I just cut myself, that's all." She clenched her fists again closed her eyes to hide her tears, but unbidden the image of Yamcha and the other woman tore through her mind and without thinking about it she let out a scream of frustration and slammed her fist down on the tabletop, smearing it with blood. "I hate him, Vegeta! I hate him!"

"What? Who?" Vegeta crossed the room in an instant and caught her hand, looking at the small nail marks which the woman had clearly inflicted on herself. Unsure of how to handle Bulma's rage or her self inflicted wounds he stood awkwardly by her side while she dissolved into tears in front of him.

"Yamcha...he's with another...woman!" Bulma hiccuped loudly as she stifled the tears before they could take hold properly. "I hate him! How could he do this after all we've been through?" She twisted her hand in Vegeta's grip and grasped his wrist, looking up at him with bitterness.

Vegeta felt his body tense as he registered the source of her pain and realised that he'd been given a scare for nothing. The idiot boyfriend had cheated, that was all. He'd reflected on more than one occasion that the moron Yamcha seemed on odd choice for a woman such as Bulma, and now she was paying the price.

Gritting his teeth, he shook her hand from his wrist and stomped to the sink to run some paper towel under the water. He could still hear the woman sniffling behind him at the table and the sound was driving him mad.

He'd never felt much for women before – when he'd been on board Frieza's ship he'd never had trouble procuring women to fulfill his needs, but he had treated women and sex as just another appetite to be satisfied. He'd never actually had a woman raise much emotion in him at all...but Bulma did.

She always had.

Angrily Vegeta clenched his teeth. He was not going to become just another idiot male like the men on this planet. He was not going to pat Bulma on the back and comfort her while she cried over a man who was even more foolish than that idiot Kakarot.

He was strong! He was a saiyan warrior and he was not going to be ruled by his emotions! As far as he was concerned, if you lay down with dogs, you were bound to get fleas and Bulma was getting what she deserved for dating that baka!

"Get yourself under control." Vegeta hissed at her as he walked back and threw the wet paper towel down on the table next to her, his body language radiating aggression. "And clean yourself up! You look atrocious." He added and then stomped out of the room, forcing himself not to look back as he heard Bulma begin to sob once more.

A/N - Rather short, but it needed to be :) I feel kinda sorry for poor Bulma here but I do know where Vegeta is coming from.