No Regrets [A DBZ Fanfiction]

Chapter 3 - Helping Hand

Bulma was hunched over one of her father's earliest robot models, with the wrench clenched in her teeth as she manoeuvred a screw driver with her right hand while holding a magnifying glass with her left. She then felt her friend's familiar ki radiate behind her. She dropped her tools as she scrambled up and wiped her greasy hands on the lap of her Capsule Corp. denim overalls. She turned to see a confused look on Goku's face, which caused her to smile at the typical Goku expression.

"This area doesn't look as half as bad as Chichi described it to me at breakfast. I thought Vegeta went on rampage because of the full moon." Goku said as he looked more bewildered by the minute.

"If Vegeta went on a rampage, it kept it contained to the Gravity Chamber and to himself." Bulma replied.

"And you look normal," Goku said staring at Bulma.

Bulma didn't know why but she felt self-conscious as Goku gawked at her. She was wearing her oversized Capsule Corp. overalls, with an old short sleeve ripped t-shirt underneath. She had her aqua hair pulled back in a ponytail, which peaked out from under her Capsule Corp. baseball cap. She was certain she grease and dirt on her face from playing Ms. Fix-it with a few of the gravity robots. Goku usually saw her more form-fitting stylish clothes, her hair and makeup styled to the nines. But he said her current rough look was her 'normal' look.

"Are you trying to say that I always look like this to you?!" Bulma answered angrily. Goku went from looking confused to looking scared. He didn't understand how he insulted her but he did get the feeling that she was insulted somehow.

He just didn't understand women and he found them almost as scary as the enemy. Last night his wife was so upset with him over Gohan's bruises that she informed him to sleep in the spare room. But this morning Chichi was fussing all over him as she described a harrowing tale of Bulma's escape from a maniacal saiyan-jin prince, making sure that he promised to stay by Bulma's side for the entire day so she could recover from the trauma of being attacked. Now Bulma was offended because he had told her she looked normal. To Goku, Bulma looked adorable in her overalls and looking adorable was Bulma's normal. Well, now that she was obviously angry she didn't look so…who was he kidding? She still looked adorable to him. Her angry pout made Goku break out into a smile, forget his fear and he laughed.

"Yes! You always look this angry to me!" Goku said with another laugh. Goku's laughter was so infectious that it totally disarmed Bulma that she broke out into laughter too. She was never one to remain angry at Goku.

Yamcha? Sure.

Vegeta? Definitely!

Master Roshi? Most certainly!

Goku? Not so much.

"Goku, stop it. I do not always look so angry!" Bulma giggled.

"Well, I wasn't really expecting to see your angry face today. I thought you were hurt by Vegeta, I came by as soon as I could." Goku explained.

Chichi must have really wanted to Goku to keep away from Gohan to lie to him like this, Bulma thought to herself.

"Maybe the phone connection was a bit off, I really did need your help with a Vegeta problem." Bulma offered as an explanation, as she led Goku into the Gravity Chamber.

Goku saw the prince on the floor and was able to put one and one together, knowing how the moon's light pushed him harder as a fighter. He hauled the shorter saiyan over his shoulder at once.

"Where's the regeneration tank here?" Goku asked.

"Follow me," Bulma said leading him back to her parent's mansion.

"I'm beginning to see a design flaw in keeping the regeneration tank on the 4th floor," Bulma huffed as climbed the last set of stairs. Goku hadn't broken a sweat as he levitated the entire time and he smirked at Bulma's comment.

Bulma leaned flat against the wall as she pointed to the tank for Goku's benefit. Goku hooked Vegeta up to the tank and Bulma watched him. There was no way she would have managed to do this all by herself.

"We should leave him in there for a couple of hours and then he should go to bed," Bulma said.

"You're probably not going to be able to take him there, huh Bulma?" Goku said using his excellent skills of deduction.

"Well, who knows? Maybe in the next couple of hours I could grow a tail and be a saiyan and have super strength like you," Bulma joked.

"Nah, I like you better this way," Goku said as he chucked her under her chin affectionately. Bulma's blue eyes held onto his gaze two seconds longer than she should have. There was strange energy between them. This was kind of the first time the two of them had been alone together as adults, if you didn't count Vegeta's floating presence. On many of their previous journeys they had spent lots of time together alone, but they were still very young, practically children. Bulma quickly looked away breaking the spell between the two and giggled nervously.

"You might be the only one to say that," Bulma quipped, using some self-depreciated humor. "Hay, why don't we go out for lunch with my parents while Vegeta soaks in the tank? Afterwards, you can help me tuck him in and then head back home. You could even fit in some last minute training," Bulma suggested.

She knew said she would help Chichi out by keeping Goku occupied the whole day but Goku's presence was making her feel nervous and tightly wound up all of the sudden. If she spent any more time alone with him, the knowledge seeker inside her might start defining that strange energy that held onto them for those quick two seconds.

"There's this really terrific sushi place that just opened up here is West City. My treat!" Bulma enticed. As if on cue, Goku's stomach rumbled loudly. Goku grinned sheepishly as he nodded. He didn't eat his normal amount of breakfast because of Chichi's horrific story, he just wanted get the necessary amount food down before he went off to rescue Bulma, like he always had. He never thought that he would ever be faced with a situation where he might have to rescue Bulma from himself.