They sat across from each other, not quite sure what to day. It was as if a ghost had popped up before their eyes, and the haunting image was too much to bear.
"Vejiita," Bulma whispered numbly. "You're him, yet not quite him… " She trailed off.
His tongue frozen in his head, Vejiita could say nothing to the woman before him, so much his Bulma, but, as she had said, so much not.
Gingerly, he traced the delicate outline of her jaw, her cheek, her lips…
And as if drawn in by his movement, Bulma found herself moving imperceptibly closer to the man who she both knew, and didn't know.
"Why ask questions, why think so much, why try to make such strong boundaries and definitions between what was and what is now? Why not let it just happen?" This Bulma wondered to herself, and deciding to give into her own advice, she "just let it happen".
And as Vejiita's strong arms closed around her and his lips found hers, she knew that he had come to the same conclusion too.
Mmmm. "She taught him well. He's a much more gentle kisser than my Vejiita was…" And as that one last thought flitted briefly through Bulma's mind just before her world closed to focus only on Vejiita and how they would make up for all the years gone…
It was the mornings that were hardest. As the sun peaked up from the dark eastern horizon, it was easy to forget the present and slip back into the past, to forget that the one beside them was a relic of a fond dream, and not someone new, someone else.
Ironically, it was harder for Vejiita. Vejiita had gone through many subtle, personal, inner changes that made it easy for Bulma to view him as different, but also wonderful in his own way. Vejiita, however, had to cope with the memories of a woman who had not been gone from his life for anywhere near as long as his counterpart had been absent from Bulma's. She had had much more time to deal with her loss than he had, making it easier for her to accept him as more of a totally new mate, rather than a replacement for the one lost.
This Bulma, Vejiita noticed, was very similar to his. She was still the strong-spirited, stubborn, and beautiful woman he had known in his time, and the ravages of the jinzouninzen had not significantly eroded her spirit. She wasn't as delicate anymore, nor was she nearly as pre-occupied with her physical appearance as his was, but he had never really cared about her make-up and dresses, except, of course, when he was gleefully removing them.
Even now as she slept in his arms, he felt himself slipping back into the past, into reminiscences so hard to leave behind.
But he knew she would soon wake up, and both their dreams would be shattered by the morning light. So Vejiita lay back, and held her close, as if to never let her go again.
The dawn's light touched Bulma's eyes and she was rudely dragged out of a particularly pleasant slumber. Grudgingly, she awakened, only to find deep coal black eyes fixed upon her.
It surprised her for a moment, until she remembered the current situation. They had been sleeping together for nearly a week now, a decision which had come naturally the first night he had been there. Needing no discussion, he had merely followed her to the bedroom when she become tired, and it had seemed right.
And it was right, she decided. Why bother with the foolish and rather absurd courtship that they had begun their first relationship with? Now they both knew the value of time, especially Bulma, and had dispensed with such foolishness in order to make the most of their time. For why should she protest when they both knew that she needed him as much as he needed her.
Smiling, Bulma disentangled herself from his embrace, and rose to prepare the enormous breakfast she knew that all her Saiyajins were anxiously awaiting.
The mornings got easier. Gradually Vejiita felt himself marveling at the woman before him, snuggled deep into his nighttime embrace, rather than trying to both compare and differentiate from the other Bulma who had been his mate for so many years.
And Bulma no longer felt the need to make breakfast so early, much to her son's dismay. She would often remain locked in Vejiita's strong arms for quite a while after she awakened, reveling in the lovely feeling of warmth and a long-lost sort of sheer contentment she had found there.
One day Vejiita asked Bulma to show him what still remained of her Earth. She agreed and was shocked as he nonchalantly lifted her up into his arms and leapt into the warm afternoon sky.
"Nani!" She exclaimed as the ground receded rapidly below them. Bulma gulped and felt her stomach sink at the thought of just how high up she was.
"Hmph. Don't you trust me woman? Do you think I might drop you?" An evil sort of grin passed over Vejiita's face and Bulma's grip around his neck tightened perceptibly.
"You - you wouldn't dare!"
Vejiita only chuckled in response, and let his hold on her relax ever so slightly.
Bulma shrieked, and unfortunately for Vejiita, she was very close to his ear. "At least this one doesn't scream as loudly as the other one," Vejiita thought. He smiled wryly. "Maybe she's out of practice without me to yell at."
"Baka. Did you think I would drop you after going through all this trouble to find you?" he reassured her gruffly. "Didn't he ever take you flying like this?" he wondered as an afterthought.
"N-not really," she replied, not loosening her grip on his neck.
"Well you've flown before. And I don't break down like aircars do. So calm down!"
That was true. Bulma relaxed her hold around Vejiita's neck. Soon her curiosity got the better of her, and she craned her neck to watch the ground flying past far below them.
Eventually she managed words again. "How am I supposed to show you what this Earth is like if you're in control of the flying? You're going so fast that I can barely tell where we are!"
In response, Vejiita slowed down, and suddenly Bulma spotted a place she recognized and a small, choked back sob escaped her lips.
But Vejiita caught it however, and looked into her face to see what had caused it. Seeing that he had heard her, Bulma replied numbly to his unspoken question.
"There, below us. That's where… that's where I found him… " She trailed of as a new sob found its way into her throat. "I - I haven't been back here since." She continued as if in explanation.
Vejiita nodded mutely in response and then changed his direction, quickening his pace away from the land as if to put as much distance between her past sorrows as he could.
Suddenly amidst the blue of the ocean below them, Vejiita recognized his island, or al least, the island he had laid claim to on his Earth. Deciding that it would be as good a place as any, he banked sharply and headed in for a landing, aiming for the little beach on the lake that had formed in the old volcano bed.
Distracted from her tears at this new turn of events, Bulma lifted her head to take in the beauty of the island that they were now landing on. Vejiita gently placed Bulma down on the black sand of the beach, and moved to sit down beside her.
Neither spoke at first, the new barrier that had sprung up between them making them strangers once again. Finally Bulma broke the silence.
"I - I'm sorry," she began hesitantly. "I know it must be irritating for you to be reminded that you're effectively dead here."
"Che. I've been dead for a while on my Earth too."
Bulma looked at him in obvious surprise. "Then you died fighting the androids too?"
"Iie," Vejiita replied, "Later, against Majin Buu. A creature far worse than the machines who destroyed this world."
Bulma shuddered. "I can't imagine anything worse than them."
"Well, Buu destroyed the Earth, and was set to destroy the entire universe before we destroyed him."
"Uhn." Bulma let her gaze fall again and then drift over to watch the waves as they gently lapped against the shore of the lake. "At least you didn't stay dead," she said finally. "Not like he did… "
Vejiita felt himself begin to grow uncomfortable with all this talk of his death at the hands of Gero's machines. Nevertheless, Bulma continued.
"I had Gohan show me the body," she went on, tonelessly, as if attempting to nullify the pain that this memory obviously caused her. "It - it tore me apart worse than I could have ever imagined to see him destroyed that way. He was so proud. To have been defeated like that - it must have been worse than the pain of the injuries." Tears formed in her eyes again, but they fell noiselessly down her cheeks. "To see him so humiliated, so broken - it was like nothing I could have ever dreamt. My proud, wonderful Prince lay mangled almost beyond recognition before my eyes, and I almost thought I could still hear the mocking laughter of the jinzouninzen still echoing in the place where he had died."
Her head dropped. "And the worst was that I never know how much I needed him - never truly realized how much he meant to me and to each other - until I saw him there." She paused, choking back a sob.
"Until I realized he was gone," she whispered. "Forever."
Bulma broke down at that and it seemed to Vejiita that she crumpled up as each sob broke through her. Maybe she wasn't as unaffected by the ravaging of her world as she had let him believe. Maybe more than even Bulma herself had allowed herself to believe.
Wordlessly, Vejiita gathered her into his arms and let her cry herself out.
After she had finished, they sat quietly on the lakeshore and watched as the sun slowly fell down from the sky, bathing the whole world in a warm orange glow.
Once again, it was Bulma's voice that broke the silence.
"What is this place?" she asked him. "It almost seems as if you know it."
"I do know it in a way," he replied. "At least, I knew this island on my world." He grinned mischievously. This was not lost on Bulma who noticed this and demanded to know what he was smiling about.
"I took Bulma here once," he replied simply.
Bulma narrowed her eyes, already falling into once familiar habits. "And… " she prompted him.
Vejiita chuckled. "So, you want to know what we did there, ne?" This had been a difficult decision for him to make, almost as difficult as the first one. But they needed to start off their new relationship right, and he needed to start over again, and not to merely continue in the past.
He looked down at her and very gently bit her nose. "We bonded here."
A look of surprise appeared on Bulma's features. "Bonded? As in… " she trailed off.
"Hai. As in the Saiyajin method of forming a bond between lifemates."
"But we're already -"
"Iie," Vejiita interrupted her. "We are not. The other Bulma and I were, and you and the other Vejiita were, but we are not." He took a deep breath. "And we should be, if we want to make this work. This time, for good." He added.
"Hmm," Bulma smiled. "Too bad my other Vejiita couldn't have come in this new mature version from the start. It would have saved a lot of time."
"Hmph!" She giggled at his annoyance. "Maybe I should know better now than to take such a loudmouthed woman for a mate."
Bulma laughed, happier than she could remember being in a long time. "You can't fool me, Saiyajin," she told him. "I know you too well. And I also know that you love me just as much for being loudmouthed as you do for all the other things." She smiled up at him, and they both felt a warmth that wasn't only from the setting sun.
Vejiita lowered his head and gently bit her nose. And as if guided by a forgotten instinct, Bulma closed her teeth on Vejiita's chin, at once letting him claim her and claiming him for herself.
And bathed in the glow of the setting sun, on a remote island, a Saiyajin Prince and his mate found each other again.
Owari
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