Lower Instinct - beginning of vegebul (+ gochi, tienlaunch)

Gut feeling (vegebul)

Bulma walked briskly through the house, swinging clenched fists back and forth, eyes boldly determined. Finally she would meet him! Finally she would confront him!
She was already very close to the main hall, but as soon as she turned the next corner, she realized that she didn't have to go to the gravity room in the first place. Because Vegeta was in the house! Yet. She caught a glimpse at the last second as he was making his way back through the main entrance. The automatic doors slid open noisily as he headed toward them, and faint daylight fell into the foyer in a long rectangle.
Immediately, Bulma's stomach tightened into a knot. Had he seen her? Oh, he didn't need that at all! These guys could sense energies! He certainly knew she was there!
So she just ran after him, knowing that he might find her pursuit terribly annoying. But that didn't matter to her at all. So the dear gentleman showed up after quite a while and then he just treated her like air?
//Oooh no no no, not with me, buster!//, Bulma thought and when she had reached the main entrance and hurried through the still open gates, she called him loudly,
"Vegeta!!"
Outside it was hazy, cloudy and somehow oppressive. Should the weather have agreed with the current mood between them two?
Certainly he had heard her, but made no move to turn around or even to stop. Bulma's expression darkened increasingly. She picked up the pace and called his name again, this time with much more force,
"VEGETA!! Now stop!!"
And a few meters further on the sidewalk slabs he actually stopped. He didn't turn around, however, but kept his extremely dissatisfied face forward. His shirtless upper body was marked by bruises and scrapes, and his blue sports pants had bloody tears. How far had he pushed his training now? Oh yes, Dr. Briefs mentioned that he would now train at 450-times gravity... This guy just wasn't normal!
Bulma had come to a halt right behind him, legs apart, one fist raised in front of her face, ready to rant like hell.
"Vegeta, you...!" But she hesitated, because at that moment it struck her that she didn't really know what she actually had to say. Uncertainty mixed into her angry expression. "I'm... um... well I--"
"Interesting," Vegeta mocked.
Bulma's face immediately turned red. With anger. With shame. Of all the men in this world, only HE could make her stutter so embarrassingly. And she would have preferred to vent her anger about it right here and now - as she actually always does - however, this time she tried to keep her impulsive temper in check and not jump at his throat from behind.
"What's that about?" she ground out between her teeth instead. "Why... why did you just disappear? And why didn't you let me know you were back?"
Vegeta now showed his teeth as well and lowered his brows, making his expression increasingly hostile. He still didn't turn to Bulma, but now peeked out of the corner of his eye over his shoulder.
"Since when do I have to justify myself to you??"
"You don't have to, but--"
"Your wimpy boyfriend might let you boss him around, but I won't!!" Disgusted indignation was in his voice.
How much Bulma hated it when someone kept interrupting her - and in such a rude tone at that!
"Don't you dare snap at me like that, you...!" she demanded at the same volume, ironically with an equally rude tone. But before she got REALLY insulting, she preferred to take another deep breath, close her eyes for a moment, and then try to adopt a more friendly tone with the following words,
"I... just wanted to talk to you. About us."
And then she even stretched out a hand to him forgivingly. But as soon as her fingers touched his arm, he immediately pulled it away roughly.
"There's nothing to talk about!"
This answer came so promptly that Bulma caught her breath. She had remained in her position and blinked at him in irritation. "W-What...?"
"There is no US!" Vegeta even added and then seemed to just want to continue on his way. "And now leave me alone! I don't have a nerve for your woman's stuff!"
But now Bulma swelled a vein quite enormously. She clenched her fist emphatically in front of her face and then it blurted out of her,
"Oh please, spare me your BADMAN posturing!! Or do you honestly think you can taste the milk without paying a deposit on the cow?!"
"What?!" Now Vegeta turned to her after all, because this statement had clearly confused him. Uncomprehending and angry, he stared at her face.
And that first eye contact after their night together was far less pleasant than one would expect after such a beautiful, intimate experience. Too much time had passed. Too much distance had built up. Too many thoughts had manifested into emotions.
„You know exactly what I'm talking about!" Bulma now let these emotions run free. She pointed a finger at him, then jerked a thumb at herself. "I'm not a fan of one night stands!!"
She had never 'just slept' with anyone before because she never was and never wanted to be a woman for just one night. She wanted to make that clear to Vegeta now. And enraged as she was, she didn't care if half Capsule Corporation got wind of it or not.
Vegeta, however, flinched a little angrily from her shouting, but his expression remained as angry as ever.
"But that's all you get," he then said to her in all seriousness and his voice was like sandpaper in her ears, cutting and raspy. "I took what I wanted... and that's it."
"Wh-Wh--?!" Bulma could hardly put her disgust into words and her pupils contracted as she stared into Vegeta's face.
Was he serious? How could he say such a thing? How could he be like that to her after they had spent such a wonderful night together? Where had the man gone who had been so loving and tender to her? Who had taken her so wildly and passionately and held her so tightly in his arms? Should all this only have taken place behind the sense-blurring curtain of lust? Was it only passion and loneliness that had brought them together?
No. Bulma just couldn't and didn't want to believe that! There was more between them. Much more!
Fleeting memories flashed in her mind's eye. She saw him amidst the wreckage of the exploded gravity capsule, saw his face contorted with pain and how he had then been lying in bed with the breathing mask. She remembered bandaging his wounds and their tough conversations, each of which she secretly enjoyed immensely. She remembered the full moon night when he had really opened up to her for the first time. Their alluring encounter in the gravity room. Their first kiss. And his look just before he kissed her back... There it was! There was the other side of him!
But where it was now?
Bulma's eyes filled with tears and with an expression of sheer bewilderment, hurt and disappointment, she alternately fixed his. But Vegeta's expression remained ice cold. He met her emotional gaze and could hardly have seemed more repellent to her. They had never been so close and at the same time so far away as at this moment.
And then Bulma noticed something else. Something he had said to her just a moment ago, but which she had flatly ignored in her rage.
"Wait a sec. My 'wimpy boyfriend'?" she repeated his words, very suspiciously. "Do you mean Yamcha?"
Vegeta didn't seem to have anything else to add except a derogatory sound and then just turned his back on her.
"I... I'm not with Yamcha anymore," she murmured a little more sheepishly than she had intended. She was obviously quite irritated.
"Tch. You ditched the clown because of me?" Vegeta scoffed scornfully, crossing his arms over his bruised chest. "You should have kept him, then he could comfort you now."
The consternation didn't and didn't want to leave Bulma's face. Inevitably, Yamcha's face appeared in her mind's eye. Inevitably the question of whether it really had been a mistake to part with him... Doubts, regrets and discouragement ran through her mind.
But all of this was even trumped by the question,
//Did he seriously thought I would sleep with him even though I'm with another man?//
Her pupils were drawn into tiny dots, her blue eyes shaky and shiny, and she was holding her breath as a horrible feeling crept up in her, culminating in a sudden realization.
Bulma realized that Vegeta just didn't care.
That she didn't matter to him.
He was not in the least interested in her or her concerns, let alone any human relationships at all. He wasn't interested in anything or anyone, only in himself. In himself and his stupid pride! How could Bulma seriously believe that there had ever been another side to him? How could she ever fall in love with someone like him??
"Ugh--" Suddenly she had to lean over as a sudden pain shot through her abdomen. They held her stomach with both arms.
Since Vegeta had noticed that immediately, he had turned to her in a flash. For a brief moment his gaze seemed different and he seemed to be preparing to approach her. The muscles in his shoulders were already twitching, as if he were about to reach his hands out for her.
But he didn't. Instead, he clenched them into fists and at the same time his eyes darkened again. He stayed away from Bulma and, after that very obvious moment of hesitation, he had nothing but a snotty reproach for her,
"You see?! That's what you get now, stupid woman!"
Luckily her pain had subsided just as quickly as it had come. And the knowledge that she would feel better again was enough for Vegeta to just jump up off the ground with a powerful push - and actually leave Bulma alone on the terrain.
By the time she got up, he was already gone. Just the energy beam in the sky still testified to its recent departure. But instead of yelling at him angrily, fist raised and the wildest insults she could think of at that moment, she just stood there and stared straight ahead. Still kept one hand on her stomach.
//What was that?// she ask herself.
Did the quarrel with Vegeta bother her so much that she got a stomach ache from it? Actually, she was tough and could argue like no other, so it was not typical that an ordinary dispute would cause her physical pain... But on the other hand this dispute was anything but ordinary. After that she had been in such a tricky emotional state for the very first time.
//Yes!// Bulma nodded confident while rubbed her stomach. //Yes, that must have been the reason!//


pic by https://i.ytimg.com/vi/o3Grf9W3ZiQ/maxresdefault.jpg