We had it all
You believed in me, I believed in you

After Yamcha left, I went upstairs, threw myself on my bed, and cried.  I hated doing that to him.  I hated doing that to myself.   We had been together for so long, it was hard to contemplate my life without him in it.  We’d seen so many things, had so many shared experiences.  I didn’t have that with anyone else.

I’d always envisioned myself married to him when I was younger.  I was the brilliant and beautiful scientist and adventurer and he was the reformed, but still dashing, desert bandit who had stolen my heart.  A bit overly romantic, but I was a teenager then.  However, slowly the dream changed.  He had become a little less dashing and exciting and more needy. I had noticed that ever since Namek that my vision of marriage to Yamcha had faded into nothingness.

I couldn’t see me spending the rest of my life with him.  We never really fought.  Oh, I would rant.  I won’t deny that.  It’s how I work.  I get angry.  I rant.  I feel better.  He would normally take it in stride, but I could see that he was afraid of my temper.  Which amounted to being afraid of me.

That wasn’t going to work.  Not with me, at least.

I wanted someone who was my equal.  Someone who could deal with me in both the best and worst of times.  I needed someone who could stand up to me.  But where was I going to find that?  Hell, not even Goku could stand up to me when I got on a roll.  He was the strongest fighter on the planet, perhaps even the universe.  But when I went off on one of my little tirades, he would cringe and look nervous.  In fact, only Vegeta ever argued back.
 
I rolled over and stared at the ceiling.   Here I was nearing thirty and I now had no prospects for marriage.  It wasn’t like I was ugly or a bad catch.  Quite the opposite, really.  I sighed sadly.  Today was the first day of the rest of my life, and all I felt like doing was curling up into a ball and crying.  That wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

I sat up slowly and walked out to my balcony.  Maybe I needed a change of scenery to help me move on.  But somehow that idea didn’t feel right.  It felt like running away.  Something, I wasn’t very good at and considered the epitome of cowardice.  It bothered me that even if only for a moment, I had contemplated it as a viable plan.  Which left me with what?  I couldn’t run away, as much as a part of me wanted to.  Staying at home didn’t appeal.  I knew from experience that if I didn’t do something constructive with my time that I would sit around crying.  In fact, I built the Dragonball Radar right after my High School boyfriend broke up with me claiming I was too smart for him.

It’s funny how life works sometimes.  If it hadn’t been for that stupid, immature boy, I would have never been poking around my basement and found the first Dragonball.  I never would have done the research and discovered the power of the wish.  I never would have gone on that journey to make that silly wish for the perfect boyfriend.  That same journey which had led me to Goku, Yamcha, Oolong and the others.  If it hadn’t been for him, the world probably would have been destroyed by now.  Of course, if it hadn’t been for him Yamcha and I wouldn’t have broken up and I wouldn’t be feeling like this.

For a moment, I couldn’t make up my mind whether or not to kiss that stupid boy or crucify him.  Then I smiled.  Memories are funny things.  Distracting.  But funny.

I stood there, leaning heavily on the wrought iron railing.  I needed to clear my head and getting lost in past wasn’t going to help with the future.

Forcing myself to pay attention to the outside world, I looked around.  The sun was beginning to set and the entire sky was changing color.  Even being on the outskirts of a bustling city, didn’t detract from the beauty of the scene.  The sun’s glowing rays painted the clouds and windows in shades of brilliant magenta and gold.  I looked down at the grounds below, feeling like a monarch surveying their land.  I really was lucky to live in such a beautiful place.  I closed my eyes and tried to let the serenity of the evening wash through me.

An incessant beeping broke my reverie.  Grimacing in annoyance, I opened my eyes and attempted to find the source of the offending noise.

It was the bloody gravity room!

What in the hell was Vegeta doing in there to cause the proximity warning to go off?  I leaned over the balcony in an attempt to see better.  I knew that the warning would only sound if the occupant of the gravity room had disabled the safety features and was pushing the machines within to the limit.  The alarm was a modification built into the replacement room, after Vegeta had blown up the first one.  Luckily no one had been hurt that time, other than the stubborn Saiyajin.  But my father and I weren’t going to take any chances.

I debated with myself for a few moments whether or not to go down there.  I didn’t relish another meeting with the arrogant alien prince.  But the beeping was driving me mad.

I had finally decided to go back inside my bedroom and avoid the whole issue, when the noise stopped.  I tilted back, crossing my arms over my chest and waited.

I didn’t have long to wait.  The red light over the lintel went out, the heavy metal door slid open and Vegeta stepped out.   He had a towel slung around his shoulders and a skintight pair of training shorts on which left little to the imagination.

I caught my breath.  The sun’s dying light emphasized his sweat-sheened skin.  By Kami was he beautiful!  I found myself imaging the feel of that skin under my hands, and had to shake my head to clear the image.

Down girl!  I told myself.  He may be scrumptious, but he is also and annoying pain in the ass.  The two don’t balance out.

“Enjoying the view?”

His deep, harsh voice penetrated my thoughts.

“What do you mean?” I asked, stupidly without thinking and I mentally cringed.  “I’m just watching the sunset.”  Good response, Bulma.  Why don’t you hand that great intellect that you obviously aren’t using over to someone who would.

Vegeta smirked and walked into the house.  I could feel my temper rising.  Bad enough that his stupid training had to interrupt my meditation.  But then he had the gall to point out the fact that I was watching him.  I wanted to go downstairs and find him to give him a piece of my mind.   But I quickly axed the idea.  The way my emotions were acting today, I would either end up crying or caressing him.  Either way, I would be feeding his already enormous ego.

I took one last look at the setting sun, all of a sudden glad that the day was going to be over.  Tomorrow things were going to be different.  I was going to be different.

It was time to move on.

With that thought, I went back inside and flopped down on my bed.  I snagged a half-read mystery.  I already knew who the killer was, of course, but the author had such a wonderful writing style and character voice that I wanted to finish the book anyway.

Maybe a distraction is what I needed, I thought as I settled into my book.

AN:  I want to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed.  I really do appreciate it!  This is a new writing experience for me.  I rarely write in the first person and never as closely as this.  In general, I prefer third-person limited omniscient or Third person Narritive voice.  This is first person limited omniscient and while it is being written in the past tense, it is very close to the action, almost like a diary.

Sorry, I get entranced with some of the technical aspects of writing.  I have no idea when the next part will be out.  This one was partially written and while I still massively revised it, the core text is still here.  The next part is likely to take longer, based on the direction I see this story going.  I have an outline plotted, but whether or not I stick with it remains to be seen.

Feel free to check out my other works.  I am especially proud of "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "Remembrance."  Although I will warn people who are new to reading my works, that I have a disturbing tendancy to kill off my main characters.

Happy Reading!

Lady Lark