Chapter 10
Disclaimer: I don’t
own DBZ…none of us fanfic writers do…unless Akira Toriyama is actually one of
us…
~*~
“What do you mean you don’t know if you can love anymore?” Chichi
looked at Bulma, aghast. “You have to love people, Bulma.” She grasped her
friend by the shoulders and gave her a little shake.
“I know but it seems as though everybody I love gets taken away
from me. I loved Vegeta and had to leave him, I loved Trunks and had to leave
him, I loved Frieza and he was killed…and think of everybody on Earth who I
loved! They all got killed too! I don’t want to let myself fall in love again
Chichi, it’ll just end in more pain and I don’t think I can take anymore pain.”
Bulma closed the door behind Chichi and led her into a spare bedroom.
“Oh Bulma…” Chichi started to speak again but Bulma interrupted
her.
“Have a shower and get changed, we’ll talk later. I’m still a
little too raw to talk about all this now.” Bulma’s eyes were shadowed with grief
and her shoulders were slumped forward as though weighted by sorrow.
“I understand.” Chichi hugged her friend again. “But please
don’t let this get you down, I can’t bear to see you this unhappy.”
“Oh don’t worry about me.” Bulma managed a half-hearted smile.
“You know what I’m like, I’ll be over this soon enough.” She turned and left
the room, closing the bathroom door behind her.
Piccolo stood in the living room. “Was that Chichi’s voice I
heard?”
“Yeah.” Bulma suddenly felt uncomfortable with Piccolo watching
her, her hands nervously fluttered by her side as she talked. “She’s pregnant
to Raditz, but she didn’t want to stay with the saiyans. I have the feeling
that something really bad happened, something worse then what she originally
told me over the Com link.” Bulma’s eyes drifted back to Chichi’s door. “It’s
almost like she’s running away again.”
“Again?” Piccolo took a few steps closer to Bulma and tilted her
head up. “She’s run away before?”
“When Goku first died and we were fleeing planet Earth she acted
like this. You wouldn’t know anything was wrong unless you knew her, but she
doesn’t act like Chichi, she acts like somebody trying to act like Chichi. And
that means she’s hiding something.” Bulma pulled away from Piccolo’s hand, her
jaw tingling where he had touched her.
“Bulma…” Piccolo grabbed her arm as she walked past. “I have to
tell you something, it’s fairly important.”
“Yes?” Bulma turned around slowly, her heart suddenly galloping
and her insides suddenly feeling like mush.
Piccolo looked at her with a curiously expressionless face.
“No…No, don’t worry. It was nothing.” He turned and walked into the kitchen,
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Okay.” Bulma said softly and took a seat in the living room to
wait for Chichi. Within a few moments a restless energy had her up again and
she began to pace the living room like a caged tiger, eventually making her way
towards the kitchen hoping a snack would calm her down.
She reached the kitchen’s entrance just as Piccolo was coming
out and they collided with a small squeal from Bulma as she lost her balance.
Piccolo grabbed her with strong hands and steadied her. They gazed down into
each other’s eyes for endless seconds before Piccolo cleared his throat almost
embarrassedly and let go of her shoulders. Bulma pulled back and gave a nervous
laugh as she circled around him and walked across to the fridge.
She opened the fridge and took out a Jube-Jube fruit; she washed
it off carefully before taking a bite and walking back into the living room where
Piccolo was sprawled in a chair. He watched move across the room towards
another empty chair warily, as if Bulma had some sort of weapon she might hurt
him with at any second. When he realised she was watching him, he looked away
quickly as if Bulma had caught him doing something he shouldn’t have been
doing. Against her will Bulma gazed at Piccolo’s awesomely muscled arms and
well-toned chest, she looked up again and realised that Piccolo had been
watching her watch him.
Bulma blushed scarlet and sat down next to him, pretending that
she hadn’t just been all but undressing him with her eyes.
“Do you want to put the television on?” Piccolo’s voice sounded
louder then it should have been in the silence of the room, and Bulma jumped at
the sound of it.
“Yeah, TV would be good.” She reached for remote control at the
same time as Piccolo and their hands brushed against each other’s. For a moment
they merely paused, each of them waiting for the other to make a move, then
slowly Piccolo’s hand closed around Bulma’s and drew it up to his lips. He
kissed her hand gently, then slowly pulled Bulma across the couch towards him.
“We shouldn’t do this…” Bulma whispered as Piccolo held her
easily around the waist.
“Why not?” Piccolo kissed Bulma on the neck. “Did I hurt you
last time?”
“No…but…” She looked into his eyes again and sighed, “But I
don’t want to get hurt again.”
“I wont hurt you Bulma….” Piccolo lent forward until his lips
were just touching hers, “…not ever.” He kissed her passionately, Bulma’s arms
wrapping themselves around his neck. It felt so right; Bulma knew she couldn’t
deny what she was feeling now. Maybe she had always loved Piccolo and hadn’t
known it. She could remember Vegeta’s jealousy on planet Yardrat when he’d seen
Piccolo hug Bulma, had he seen something more then friendship between them?
Even Cooler had sensed some sort of tension between them. How could she have
been so blind as to her real feelings towards Piccolo…?
“Oh my God! Bulma! Piccolo! What on Earth are you doing?”
Chichi’s shrill voice shattered the moment and Bulma and Piccolo sprung apart,
each of them blushing a bright red.
“It’s not what it looks like…well, okay, it is what it looks
like but…” Bulma stood up and tried to explain to Chichi.
“I know what it was! It was you and Piccolo kissing and it
was…it was…Bulma! Have you gone insane?”
“Hey!” Piccolo stood up. “Are you insinuating that Bulma would
have to be insane to want me?”
“I didn’t mean that!” Chichi suddenly shrank back from Piccolo’s
booming voice. “I merely meant that I never thought…well I’d never have even
imagined that you two were involved with each other!” Chichi looked
incredulous. “How long has this been going on for?”
“Not that long.” Bulma admitted reluctantly. “But I guess the
feelings were always there.”
Chichi sank down onto the couch where Bulma and Piccolo had just
been kissing, “I can’t believe this.” She seemed to be about to add more, but a
loud rap in the door forestalled whatever she might have been about to say.
“Who is it?” Bulma called cautiously as she wove her way across
the room to the door.
“King Cooler.” Coolers voice rasped through the voice box on the
side of the door and Bulma reluctantly opened the door.
“Please come in.” She stepped back as Cooler proudly marched
through the door, his tail swinging behind him. Bulma curtsied, Piccolo bowed
and Chichi stared in horror at Cooler, not being used to the variety of looks
that the Ice-jins came in.
“And who might this be?” Cooler stared at Chichi with mild
curiosity.
“My best friend, Chichi Son.” Bulma motioned for Chichi to
curtsey and reluctantly the black haired female did so, never taking her eyes
off Cooler.
“Ah yes, the female human that was living with the saiyans on
planet Yardrat. How interesting.” He turned his gaze on Bulma again. “I’ve come
for your answer Bulma. Do you wish to stay here as my queen or do you wish to
leave?”
“Well I…hadn’t given it much thought…”
“I require an answer now.” Cooler impatiently lashed his tail.
“Do you wish to stay or go?”
Bulma looked at Chichi, and then at Piccolo. “I want to…to…” She
took a deep breath, “I want to leave.”
Cooler nodded slowly. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that. Are
you sure you will not stay?”
“I can’t stay, I have to see my son…” She looked at Chichi from
the corner of her eye. “And there are people who I need to talk to.”
“Very well. I was hoping that it would not come to this.” Cooler
raised his finger slowly.
“To what?” Bulma took a step back.
“Well you see Bulma, I need you here as my queen because after
surviving the attack from the Ice-jin dissidents you have gained the respect of
my people. If I allowed you to leave then my people would see it as a weakness
on my behalf, so you see I need to have you here.” Cooler began to gather his
ki. “I’ll give you one last chance, stay with me.”
Bulma took another step backwards. “I…I can’t!”
“So be it.” Cooler took aim…and shot at Chichi.
Chichi screamed as the white-hot ki beam raced towards her,
closer and closer until…Suddenly a green flash jumped in front of the ki blast.
A white flash filled the room, then slowly it faded.
Bulma brought her hands away from her eyes and stared in horror
at Piccolo’s body as it lay on the floor in front of Chichi. “Piccolo…no!” She
ran to his side and fell to the floor, the ki beam had sliced open his chest
and purple blood was almost gushing from the wound.
Slowly Piccolo’s eyes fluttered open. “Bulma…”
“Piccolo.” She put her hands over the wound. “Why…?”
“I couldn’t let Goku’s wife die…I owe him too much” He grimaced and
coughed up blood. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Tears rolled down Bulma’s face. “You’re going to be
alright, you’re going to survive.”
Piccolo lifted a hand to her face. “I love you Bulma Briefs,
never forget that.”
“I love you too.” Bulma sobbed.
Piccolo slowly closed his eyes. “Find a way back to
Vegeta…Chichi’s right, he does love you, maybe even more then…I…do.” Piccolo
let out a final breath and was still.
“Piccolo? Piccolo? No…” Bulma felt her chest tighten and it was
suddenly hard to breathe. She too her hands away from Piccolo’s chest and
stared at the blood. “You said you wouldn’t leave me.” She whispered, as
blackness filled her vision like smoke.
Bulma felt sideways, the last thing she saw was Chichi’s face
floating over hers, calling her name desperately.
Then there was nothing.
~*~