"For as long as I can remember, even when I was a little girl, I had this vision in my mind. One time, my father had read me the story of Cinderella. How a Prince was looking for the girl of his dreams. A fairy godmother came and gave Cinderella her wish. She then got to dance the night away with her love, the handsome Prince. But, at midnight, it was all taken away from her, and she ran off, thinking she'd be alone forever.

"But, a few days later, her Prince came for her. The glass slipper he had with him fit her, and she magically regained all that made her more than just a step sister. In the end, she had found her Prince, and lived Happily Ever After...

"And then there's me. In fairy tales, the Prince always comes to take the maiden away and ride off into the sunset, totally in love. That'll never happen to me at this rate. Yamcha has been acting totally weird, being a total jerk. Why doesn't he even try to see what's going on with me? I don't think he'll ever understand. He's coming over tonight to talk to me. I can only hope that I can make him see. If he can't, I guess I'll have to stay lost and alone for the rest of my life. I might never find my Prince at this rate..."

Bulma closed her journal and sighed. It seemed like she was writing this same story over and over again. Yamcha could be such a moron. Acting all sneaky and never being able to give her a straight answer about anything he had been doing while he was gone. She had long ago settled on the probable cause: He was out with other girls. But she never had the proof she needed. Tonight, she would confront him about it and settle it once and for all. She couldn't take much more heartbreak...

An explosion rocked the house. 'Vegeta again. I'll bet he trashed his trainer for the millionth time.' There was no end to the cycle. Vegeta would overload the gravitational trainer, she would fix it. He would be good for a week or so, then he would blow it up again. It went on and on like that. And it made her mad...

She stormed down to the lab and got her tool belt strapped on. She then made her way to the trainer room, and was given a bad surprise when she opened the door. Amid the debris and smoke of the ruined trainer she found Vegeta, buried underneath a pile of rubble. All she could see was his right hand laying limp on what was left of the control panel.

"Oh my god! Vegeta!" She ran to his aid, digging through what was left of the former ceiling of the trainer. Deep inside her, her heart raced. She was moving with a determination she had never before shown. "Vegeta, say something, give me a sign. Oh god, Vegeta..."

As she uncovered him, she found him to be unconcious and unresponsive. She cradled him on her lap immediately, and began to try anything she could to bring the Saiyan warrior back to reality. "Vegeta, speak to me! Oh, this isn't good, SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Vegeta awoke to find himself in new surroundings. His vision was blurry, and he couldn't make out anything. All he saw above him was what he thought to be a white ceiling. 'Where... where am I? How did I get here? Oooohhh, my whole body hurts like crazy! What the hell happened to me?' His thoughts were racing. He tried to piece together the details of the recent past. 'I remember working out in the GT. The gravity was set at 375, and things were going alright, arrrgh! It's still a blur...'

He closed his eyes and opened them again, half hoping that the world would clear itself up a bit. There was some improvement, but not much. He turned his head to one side, hoping to get some clue as to his surroundings. He barely made out the outline of someone sitting on a chair. From what he could tell in his weak state, that person was face down on what looked like a desk of some kind. Their face was turned away from him, all he could really see was a bluish blur. He could only think of one person he knew with that color hair...

"Bul... m... ma..." His voice was barely a whisper, his strength wasn't even enough to give it much of a tone at all. With that, he passed back out, too weak to even stay awake.

Bulma stirred a bit, she had heard something. She opened her eyes and looked around, her mind still groggy from the nap she had apparently been taking. "Hmm, I must have dozed off. Oh! Vegeta!" She turned to her patient, who lay on his bed, still out cold. "Hmm, no change. Oh Vegeta, why do you have to push yourself so hard? You've really got me worried."

She looked at him for a little while. It all seemed so strange, seeing him here like this. The proud Saiyan now unconcious and bedridden. He looked like a child to her. A hurt little boy too proud to think about getting help. But this time, he was too hurt to have the choice. He looked so helpless. 'I wish I knew what made him so driven. Is it because of the androids? Or is it because of his lonliness? Please, Vegeta, get better. You've got to.' As she thought, a single tear formed and ran down her cheek. She got up from the desk and made her way out of his room. As she closed the door, she paused to look at him one more time. 'You've got to get better, Vegeta. Don't leave me alone again...'



Vegeta awoke again, his head still ringing a bit from the blast that had knocked him out. "Arrrrgh. My head is exploding! I guess I lost a rough battle with that machine of theirs. Oooo." He sat up slowly and looked around. He was in his room, in his own bed. "They must have brought me up here after the explosion. I don't see why, they know I'd be fine, even after a jolt like that one." He swung his legs around to the side of the bed and tried to get up, but he couldn't make it very far.

He brought his hand down onto the desk next to his bed to right himself as he fell back, and he felt something on the top, under his hand. After he shook some cobwebs out of his mind, he picked the object up from the desk and looked at it. It was an earring. "How did this worthless bobble get in here? Oh, wait, it must belong to... Bulma..."

Amid the pain and anguish his body was going through, it came again. It overtook the pain he was feeling. That same feeling he had experienced that night on the roof when he talked to her. It was happening again, and again, it made him scared. He could only stare at the earring, wide eyed from the emotions swirling through him. 'Why does simply picking up a meaningless nick nack make me feel this way? How can something as stupid as this little rock do this to me? Bulma... What is this power that you seem to have over me?' Suddenly, he heard shouting coming from the next room.

"What? What's going on over there?" Vegeta slowly got up and limped his way towards the wall that seperated his room from Bulma's. He stumbled and fell to one knee, his body wincing from the pain. But he sucked it all up and got back to his feet, and continued on untill he reached his destination. He pressed his ear up to the wall and listened...

"Yamcha, what the hell is your problem?" It was Bulma. That pathetic human Yamcha must be in there with her...

"Look, Bulma, you know I can't help myself. I mean, I get it from Master Roshi, really..."

"I don't care where you get it from. You shouldn't get it at all. You were supposed to have quit this nonsense a long time ago. And now I find out that you were with another girl. Hell, Yajirobi even told me that Vegeta gave you a good earful."

"That little snake in the grass! When I get my hands on him, I'll..."

"You'll what, Yamcha? Beat him up because he caught you with one of your little bimbos? That's pretty pathetic, Yamcha. Blaming Yajirobi when you know full well that you're the guilty party. You're such a jack ass, you know."

Vegeta squeezed tighter on the earing in his hand and lifted it up. He looked at the tiny piece of jewelry and smiled. 'She really is almost Saiyan. She's got some serious fire burning inside of her.' He pressed his ear back to the wall and listened some more.

"Come on, Yamcha, get over it. I can't believe I'm admitting this, but even Vegeta has more sense in him than you do. You must be doing something wrong if HE even says you're in the wrong. You're such an idiot..."

"Vegeta? There's no way he could ever be a better man than me! That bastard doesn't even have a sympathetic bone in his whole chimpanzee body! I'm 10 times the man he is..."

"More like 10 times the simian. Face it, Yamcha. You're a womanizing loser. Now get out of my face and don't ever come near me again, not while you still think you can convince me that there's a good reason why I should ever go out with you again. There is no good reason."

"Yes there is, Bulma. Give me one more chance, I can change, I swear it! You don't know how sorry I really am..."

Vegeta was growing sick and tired of hearing Yamcha's lies. Such a coward, trying to talk his way out of a hole instead of taking his punishment like a man. He wasn't anywhere near the warrior he was.

"Yamcha, there is nothing you can say to me that would make me give you another chance. Now I believe I told you to leave..."

Yamcha reached out in desperation and grabbed Bulma by the arm. "Bulma, you've got to listen to me..."

"Yamcha, let go. You're hurting me..."

"I swear, Bulma, this is the last time. I'm done with all the other women!"

"Yamcha, LET GO OF ME!!!"

Vegeta couldn't take anymore. A shot of adrenaline coarsed through his veins, and he powered up his ki as much as he could in his injured state. "NO MORE!" He screamed and blasted his way through the wall. He now stood in Bulma's room, staring Yamcha down with his icy glare. He didn't speak a word, he just stared at the man before him. Bulma stood in shock. She looked at the hole in her wall, then back to who had come through it.

Almost as suddenly as he broke in, Vegeta took off straight for Yamcha. He grabbed him and plowed him through the wall by the door leading out to Bulma's balcony, and flew up into the sky over the compound. There, he hung Yamcha in midair, staring into his eyes with hatred. But this hatred was different, and had different origins...

Bulma ran out onto her balcony and looked up at the two men floating above her home. What had made Vegeta pull a stunt like this? All she could do was look as Vegeta seemed to be saying something to her former beau. After a few moments, she was even more surprised to see Vegeta let Yamcha go. Normally, when Vegeta was angered by something or someone, he wouldn't stop until he had demolished them. But he actually let Yamcha go. As Yamcha flew away, Bulma turned her stare to Vegeta, who was now flying back to her room.

Vegeta landed next to her, and immediately collapsed to his knees. Bulma hurriedly came to his aid again. "What are you doing out of bed, Vegeta? You know you're too weak yet to do much of anything, let alone this. What the hell possessed you to do that, anyway?"

"He... he was... hurting... you..."

"What?" She couldn't believe it. The mighty Saiyan, who she always looked at as a brutal murderer, was now showing compassion for someone else. And, to make things more interesting, he was showing compassion for her. "Vegeta, you've got to get back into bed. You're going to kill yourself if you don't rest."

"I'm alright, woman. And I don't need your..." He fell onto his side, clutching his body in severe pain.

"Whatever, Vegeta. I'm taking you to bed, right now." She picked him up and helped him through the new entrance to his room and into his bed. After she got him situated, she sat down at the desk and turned to him. "What the heck did you say to Yamcha out there? And weirder still, why did you let him go?"

Still weak from his outburst, Vegeta resolved to speak softly. "I told him that I didn't want to see him around you for a very long time. You don't deserve to be treated like that by apathetic person like him. And I let him go because killing him would have only made you hurt worse that you do now."

"My God. What's gotten into you, Vegeta? Since when did you care about me so much? You must have been eavesdropping while he and I were fighting. What the heck am I going to do about those holes you put in the walls? What were you thinking, Vegeta?"

There was no answer.

"Vegeta?" She looked over to see the Saiyan Prince, asleep. She smiled. He looked so vulnerable lying there. She looked down to his hand, which still held her earring. "There it is. I wonder how he got it?" And then she remembered her nap. It must have fallen out while she was sleeping at the desk, and he found it when he woke up. But he had held onto it the whole time? Her heart skipped a beat, and she sighed. "Get some rest, Vegeta." She ran her hand down his cheek, and he stirred a bit. 'Maybe I shouldn't give up on finding my Prince.' she thought to herself, and layed her head down on the desk. She looked at him for a time, and drifted off to sleep.

Vegeta awoke and looked around. He wasn't in as much pain as he had been the night before. The vague memories of the incident with Yamcha began to flow back into his memory. He remembered taking him through the wall and chewing his ear off about the way he was hurting Bulma, and how he told him to never come near her again. Humans could be so pathetic sometimes.

He rolled his head towards the desk, where he saw Bulma sitting in the chair, her head laid down in her arms, fast asleep. 'What is she doing here? Did she sit there with me all night? Why?' He couldn't figure out what she was thinking. As he stared at her, the new feelings gushed up inside of him. He was getting all too familiar with them, but at the same time he was getting used to them. As long as noone but her saw them, he could retain his pride.

Slowly, he sat up and put his hand to his head. He still had one serious headache. Must have come from going through the wall in his weakened condition. He made his way to his feet, but doubled over from the pain. As he hit the floor, the noise woke Bulma up. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the bed, only to find Vegeta not in it. She looked behind her and saw him laying on the floor, cringing in pain.

"Vegeta? What are you doing?"

Vegeta looked up at her with something of an annoyed look on his face. "I... I'm starving. I need... something to eat..."

"Oh, well you're never going to get to the kitchen like that, silly. Here, let me help you."

"No! I don't need your help. I can make it there on my own, even if it kills me to do so."

"Come on, Vegeta. Drop the attitude and let me help you."

There was no way he could resist. He couldn't move very well under his own power, and she was being as adamant as ever. He only hoped that noone else would see him being assisted by a human, let alone a human female. If Kakkarot knew that this was happening to him, it would be a serious blow to his pride...



"It's all clear, Vegeta, come on. You big baby..." Bulma tugged on Vegeta's arm to get him moving. The Saiyan warrior had told her to make absolutely sure that noone was watching him while he moved from his room upstairs to the kitchen on the first level. They were at long last there. He kept pushing her ahead of him, just to make sure, and she was getting tired of being yelled at. Deep down, though, she found it rather amusing to see him like this.

She sat him down at the table and began to rummage through the fridge for a
breakfast fit for a prince. Vegeta sat staring at the table top. The Mighty Prince of Saiyans, reduced to getting aid from a human female. He was actually releived to know that noone else had seen him in this state.

"What do you want, Vegeta? We have eggs in here, and sausage, yummy! There's bacon, and orange juice..." Bulma was calling off options to him with her head still nose first in the ice box. Vegeta turned to look in her direction and answer, but his answer never came. His gaze instead met with squarely with the seat of Bulma's pants. 'There it is again! What is it about this woman? Although, I haven't really seen a good female in some time, and she... is... rather attractive, I suppose... Oooooh, what am I thinking, I'm becoming more and more like..."

"Vegeta? Vegeta, hello..." Bulma was still calling to him, waiting for his breakfast order. "Come on, Vegeta, it's cold in here. Tell me what you want to eat already!"

Quickly realizing that he'd been staring the whole time, lost in his thoughts, Vegeta snapped his attention back to the tabletop quickly and answered. "Whatever you like, Bulma, I'm sure it will do fine..." He turned slightly to look at her again. And when he saw her, she was looking at him as though she were suddenly awestruck...

Bulma couldn't believe it. She stood there, staring at Vegeta, unable to speak much at all. The mighty Saiyan, Mr. Take No Prisoners, had suddenly shown a true moment of calm. She couldn't understand it. And then, as it came to Vegeta, it came to her. That unrelenting feeling. In her state of shock, she was powerless against it. He turned to look at her fully now, and she was immediately overcome with with a sensation she hadn't felt in a long time. Her knees felt like rubber, her heart was in Indy 500 mode. She took short, desperate breaths as if she had the wind knocked out of her. Without realizing it, she dropped the still unopened milk carton, which landed upright, unharmed. But still, she stared...

'Hello, Vegeta...'

Vegeta totally ignored the milk carton. He was fixated on her gaze. He watched as she stood there, seemingly unable to move. His mind raced as he tried to piece together the jigsaw that were his feelings and thoughts, scrambled inside his head. 'She, she's looking at me. Why is she looking at me that way? Could it be that I have the effect on her she has on me? Did I actually do this?' Like a giant tsunami, Vegeta was completely overtaken by the new emotion he had been feeling these past few weeks. It was then he realized that it all had come together in a flash. That was it. That was the emotion that eluded him all his life, the one that was ripped away from him by that tyrant. He had found the part of him that was missing...

'Hello, Bulma...'

"HEY KIDS!" Vegeta and Bulma both jumped a mile high as Dr. Breif entered the kitchen from outside. "What's going on with you two this fine morning, eh? Whatcha got good cookin, eh, Bulma? Ha haaaaa! And how about you, Vegeta, feeling any better, son? Thaaaaat's good..."

"I'm not your son, old man, and for you're information I feel perfectly fine. I'm merely taking a repreive from my training. Now, if your satisfied, get the hell out of my face, I'm really not in the mood right now..."

"Gee wiz, Vegeta. Heh heh. No need to get all cranky now..."

Vegeta turned his head to the old scientist and shot him an icy glare. "You want to see me get cranky, gadget man?"

Dr. Breif realized that he was setting Vegeta off on one of his ego trips again. He knew better, but he just couldn't help himself. "Well, I think I'll be heading off to the Lab. Gotta work on that enhancement you want for the trainer to send it to 450 times Earth's normal gravity. Lord knows why you wanna train at that ungodly level. I think it'll rip you in two..."

"It doesn't matter what you think old man, just make the changes. I'll become a Super Saiyan even if it kills me..."

"Well, you don't have to go that far. Anyway, ta ta! I'll get breakfast somewhere in town." Dr. Breif turned, and muttered something under his breath that Vegeta couldn't quite make out. At this point, he didn't really care what the old man had said. He wasn't feeling up to hearing more pointless gibberish from that senile human.

"Well, I'd better start cooking. The way you eat this could take till an hour after lunch..." And Bulma began to prepare their food. Neither spoke a word to each other for the remainder of the morning.



Vegeta's Saiyan biology caused him to heal quicker than humans, but it still took a good amount of time. That evening, Vegeta had regained enough strength to move around without too much trouble. His muscles still ached as he moved, but he put the pain in the back of his mind. He had to, otherwise he'd dwell on it and make himself feel worse. He stood at his window, looking out over the compound.

He looked up to the skyline. The sun had gone down a few minutes ago, and all that remained held his attention. It was a mixture of bright red, fading down to violet and ultimately the black of night as he went up. Above the colorful skyline was a single star, the first one of the young night. Since he was here on earth, he had heard a silly legend. According to it, if you wished on the first star of the evening with some silly little rhyme, your wish would come true. Nothing compared to the Dragonballs, which could actually grant wishes, but he pondered it for a time. He decided, since noone was looking, that he would recite the poem out of sheer curiosity.

"Now, how did Bulma say it went again? Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight... I..." He searched for the words carefully, not wanting to put a hex on the whole crazy process. "I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might..." How did she finish it again? His head was still acheing from his injuries, and thinking made it hurt a little more. "Have... this wish... I wish tonight..." He sighed as he lowered his head to make his wish.

"All my life I wished for immortality. To be the strongest fighter in the entire universe. But tonight, that's not even close to what I want. I wish I could understand what was happening to me. What makes me feel the way I do around her? What is it that makes me go soft when she's around? This has been gnawing at my soul for weeks now. All I want is to know why..."

Vegeta hadn't heard the door opening behind him. Bulma was standing in the archway, looking at him with quiet wonder. "Vegeta?"

Vegeta didn't jump like he normally did. He didn't snap at her and tell her to leave him alone. The truth was, he didn't want her to leave him alone. He just turned his head and looked at her. He even managed a smile. "Hello, Bulma."

"I thought I'd check in on you, see what you were up to. You feeling better?"

"Yes, I am. But I still hurt somewhat. It's no matter, though. Soon I'll be back to my old self."

"Why am I afraid of that notion? He he he! Just kidding. What are you looking at over there?" She walked accross the room to the window where Vegeta stood, and looked out. "It's lovely, isn't it, Vegeta?" Without thinking, she leaned back into him, laying her head between his arm and shoulder.

"Bulma..." Vegeta couldn't speak. Those feelings were as strong as ever. He searched for the words he wanted to say, but he wasn't sure about any of them. Not yet, at least. "Yes. Yes, it is quite lovely. I never really stoped to notice it before."

He looked out at the star he had just wished on, and looked down at her. The evening sky was reflecting in her eyes. The shades of color danced and played with the blue in her eyes. Vegeta was transfixed. 'How do I explain it all to her? And how will she take it? She knows me as a tyrant, an arrogant snob. How could she understand what's going through my mind?' At that moment, he made his decision. He reached down, opened the window, and then took Bulma into his arms around her waist.

"Vegeta, what are you doing?" She was surprised by his bold move.

"I want you to come somewhere with me, right now."

"Right now? Are you sure you're strong enough to fly? I mean, you're still hurt and all, and..." She didn't have a chance to finish. The next thing she knew, she was floating high above the town. She threw her arms around his neck in a panic, and closed her eyes. A few seconds later, she opened them to find herself flying over a tranquil wilderness, the woods to the north of town. "Where are we going, Vegeta?"

"You'll see soon enough." He flew on for a few more moments before beginning to decend at a very quick rate. Bulma tightened her grip on the Saiyan, afraid she was going to crash. To her surprise, she felt herself slow to a near stop in an instant. Vegeta set her onto the ground. "This is the mountain top where I first began to think about what this planet meant to me. It was here that I first sat back and just... looked at the world around me. I had never done that before, no matter how many planets I've been to. And as I took in everything, my thoughts kept drifting back to one thing. The one thing that seems to make being stranded on this rock worthwhile..."

"Wow. Vegeta, this spot is so lovely! No wonder you were able to relax and look around. There isn't anything else here to distract you."

"No, there isn't. It was here that I began to come to terms with something. A change that's been taking place inside of me. At first I was afraid of it. But now, I only want to understand why it happens." He turned away from her and started to walk towards the edge of the mountain top. "Every time I was around that something, these... feelings... began to swell up inside of me. It clouded my judgement, and even made me feel as if I was becoming soft like Kakkarot. But at the same time, it made me feel at ease. That's something I haven't felt my entire life."

"Vegeta, I don't think I understand..."

"That something is..." He turned back to her and looked her straight in the eyes. "You, Bulma."

"What?"

"It's you. Everytime I look at the sky, I'm reminded of your eyes. Everytime you touch me, I become helpless. Everytime I hear your voice, the raging fire that burns in my soul is doused. My heart beats like it's never beaten, not even like when I battled Freiza or Kakkarot. It's you, you're the cause of all this."

"Me? Vegeta..." She didn't know what to say. Vegeta had just poured his heart out to her. She couldn't move, couldn't tear her gaze away from his. They were standing mearly 5 feet apart, yet she felt so close to him. He had touched her heart like noone had ever done before. She tried to speak. "Vegeta... I don't know what... what to say..."

"I don't want you to say anything. I only want one thing. Help me understand what's happening to me. Help me figure out how to..." He walked to her and took her face in his hand. "How... to love..." And with that, he pulled her close to him and looked in her eyes. The star, the same one he had wished on, shone brightly in them. Possessed by a demon he did not understand, he closed his eyes, brought his lips to hers, and gently kissed her...

That moment, to them, seemed like an eternity. Two beings, as different as can be, brought together by fate. Was it really fate? Neither of them knew for sure, but neither cared. They were caught in the moment, frozen in time. It was just them, the rest of the world seemed so far away. When it was over, Vegeta opened his eyes and looked at the woman standing before him. Her eyes were closed as well, she was still reeling from the kiss. She slowly opened them, their gaze focused squarely on him.

"Bulma," he said, "Earlier, when you said the night was lovely. It cannot compare to how lovely you look tonight..."

Bulma threw her arms around Vegeta's neck again, and laid her head on his chest. "Vegeta..."

"Yes, Bulma?"

"Thank you..."

They didn't speak another word for some time. They didn't have to. Above them, the star which Vegeta had wished on shone brightly, pulsating with it's white light, as if to signal the begining of something magical...


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