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I Remember it Well
Short drabble based on the song from Gigi. Bulma and Yamcha catch up after the birth of her daughter. Yamcha admits he’s jealous of Vegeta, but Bulma reminds him they were never very good together.
Bulma was grateful for Whis’s help in delivering Bulla, who wouldn’t be glad to skip the painful delivery and go straight toward the most adorable little girl to grace the planet with her presence since she’d made her own debut approximately 30 years earlier. Couldn’t have been much longer than that surely. All she knew was that thanks to the dragon balls, she would never look her age.
But she had to say, throwing together a welcome party for her daughter needed to be sped up considerably thanks to his intervention.
Her mom was finally slowing down a bit and Bulma found she had to handle more and more of these events herself.
Luckily this pregnancy had been a cakewalk compared to her first. Maybe the happy little girl was part of it, but certainly having Vegeta here and not somewhere in the galaxy, possibly dead, helped. He’d really stepped up this time. Taking care of Trunks, even doing laundry.
And now he was off to fight in another universe take all tournament. Wasn’t Vegeta getting a bit old for this?
Her friends were arriving now, everyone eager to meet the latest member of the Saiyan royal family.
Even Bulma struggled to find a trace of Vegeta on her daughter’s face, her nose perhaps? She was almost a carbon copy of her mother, not that that was a problem of course. Both she and Vegeta were enamored with her, and even Trunks was warming up to the idea of a little sister.
Ah, Yamcha made it!
“Hey B!” he waved at her, a slightly nervous smile on his face. Ever since they’d broken up he’d never been entirely comfortable on Capsule Corp. It was probably more to do with the man who’d replaced him however. Vegeta didn’t have fond feelings for her ex, but she was pretty sure he wouldn’t kill him by this point. She wouldn’t bet money on it though.
“Hi Yamcha! Come see Bulla!” she held the smiling infant in front of her. The girl had scarcely uttered a peep since she’d come into the world. A much easier baby than her brother had been, but she didn’t want to jinx things yet.
He scooped up the giggly girl in a moment. Unlike Vegeta, Yamcha was naturally great with kids. He was happy to help out as the cool uncle to all his friends. She was surprised he hadn’t settled down yet and had a few of his own.
Just then Bulla let out a small cry. The strange face Yamcha had been making pulled back into a look of worry. They both turned around to see Vegeta powered up to Super Saiyan Blue. Really homeboy? Bulma took her daughter back, rocking her gently to comfort her. Seems the girl had something in common with her father after all.
Yamcha laughed nervously and made his way to Krillin and 18. Anxious not to upset Vegeta perhaps. Bulma simply rolled her eyes. Would those two ever grow up?
Mr. Satan seemed to frustrate Bulla as well, and she wondered if perhaps Vegeta was more concerned with their daughter than she’d thought initially. She called Trunks over. “Hey, why don’t you ask Dad to hold her?” she smiled at her son’s worried look.
She almost died of shock when Vegeta carefully held the small girl in front of the small crowd gathered. Even seeing him hold Trunks privately as a baby had been a wish she’d never seen fulfilled. He was a good dad now, she was proud of him. Wait, did she hear he say something about a Saiyan name?
Before Vegeta could ruin her perfectly planned announcement, she held up the certificate she’d had prepared weeks ago at the nearby temple. She had a theme running already mister! He knew how she felt!
He may have stuttered a bit, but Vegeta knew what she wanted to name their girl. He didn’t put up much of a fight against such a cute name.
She heard laughter next to her then. Yamcha had returned.
“Wow, can’t believe I’m jealous of Vegeta!” he laughed. Bulma joined him.
“Oh come on now, I’m sure you’ll find someone nice soon! You’ll be a great dad!” He really would.
“Oh, well, I guess it’s more finding the right woman right? Thought I had that figured out 12 years ago…” he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
“Come on Yamcha, we were horrible together. All we did was fight toward the end,” she said, wondering what brought on this burst of nostalgia from the baseball player.
“Yeah, but a lot of that was because of him,” he said, almost defensive in his rebuttal.
“Are you kidding?” she was getting a bit miffed at this now. “You were cheating on me and kept denying it until I broke up with you for good.” She glared daggers at him. Why bring this up when they were supposed to be celebrating the birth of her second child?
He blushed furiously, no doubt forgetting his indiscretions in the rose-tinted version of their relationship he was ‘remembering’. He didn’t try to defend himself in that at least.
“I’m sorry. I don’t think I ever told you that huh? I should though. I fucked up then, didn’t I? You didn’t deserve that kind of break up.” to his credit, Yamcha looked truly sorry. Bulma was happy to hear him apologize, even if it was a decade too late.
“Yeah, it wasn’t the best way to end things.” she agreed. She looked over the group of people gathered, strange to think that almost all of them thought she would be married to the man sitting next to her instead of the Saiyan who insisted on maintaining a ‘safe distance’ at social gatherings. He was probably still checking for enemies knowing him.
“You know Vegeta’s worked hard for this too.” she was still a bit angry, but mostly wanted Yamcha to accept things as they were. “It was his idea to have another baby,” she added.
Yamcha looked back now, eyes bugging out of his head. She knew he had an image of her husband as a warmongering violence obsessed ape, but Vegeta had a soft side to him, especially where his family was concerned. “He…wanted another kid?” he asked, almost incredulous.
“Yes. I think he was hoping for a girl even more than I was too.” she smiled as she shattered that vision for Yamcha. “Said he doesn’t care if she’s interested in training even.”
“Ok, now I know you’re messing with me!” he couldn’t take this seriously. It was one thing to imagine Vegeta was accepting he had a family, but to imagine the guy didn’t want his kids training was another.
“I’m serious!” she said, a smile covering her features now. “I know you think he just kind of landed at the right place at the right time, but Yamcha, even if he wasn’t there, I don’t think we would have ended up like this. I just… it never felt right to me.” she hoped he didn’t take this the wrong way.
Yamcha visibly slumped, maybe he had thought Vegeta “stole” her away. “Really B? I was so ready after Namek…”
“For a while you were.” She agreed. He’d gone through a strange mid-life crisis of sorts after being revived with the dragon balls then.
“You were the one who wasn’t ready to have a kid until some psychopa–” he dropped the comment when he saw the anger burning in her eyes. “Sorry, you told me you weren’t ready to settle down.” he finally said.
“I wasn’t ready to settle down. I’m still not.” Yamcha looked at her quizically. “Vegeta gets that. Hell, I just traveled to an alternate future to watch my husband kick a different Goku’s ass. With a time machine, I built. Specifically, against a god’s orders I might add.” She was awesome, wasn’t she?
“Yeah, still not sure why he let you get away with that!” he was laughing.
“He didn’t.” she snapped. “That’s something you never got. I don’t ask Vegeta for permission to do something, and I don’t expect him to either. We discuss our plans like adults. We compromise on things. He didn’t ‘let me’ go to the future, he realized if he and Goku wanted back they would need my help.” why was this so hard for him to understand?
Yamcha paused a moment, looking back over at Vegeta who was bringing Bulla over to her grandmother. He’d always thought of Vegeta as a rude, destructive interloper. But the same man who had been responsible for his death nearly 15 years ago was now carefully handing his daughter over to Panchy, not a mean look or threat even ghosting his features.
“Huh” was all he could manage.
“Vegeta is Vegeta,” she continued. “And I’m me. He never asks me to change who I am. Never wanted me to stop chasing adventure just because I had Trunks. You were talking about moving out to the suburbs before even proposing to me. That’s a million times more terrifying than he is.”
He had to laugh at that. Yeah, he remembered that. One of his old teammates had just gotten married and for a while, the whole house in the suburbs, stay-at-home wife, and 2.5 kids had seemed like the greatest thing ever. Thinking about it now, he could see how it was not the life for Bulma.
“I guess you’re right Bulma. I got caught up in following what we should do next. I didn’t really think if it would make us happy. And then I overreacted when you wanted to slow things down. Seems like everything ended up as it should though.” he agreed.
Just then Vegeta looked over at Bulma. A brief flash of worry as he looked between first her and then Yamcha. A decade ago he would have come running over, screaming at “the weakling” to get away from “his woman”. Now, he might not look happy about her talking to her ex, but he did his best to ignore that feeling. The reassuring smile from Bulma didn’t hurt.
“Yeah, this feels right. Besides, I always planned to wish for a prince didn’t I?” she smiled back at Yamcha, teasing him with memories from their childhood. It seemed impossible that she had set out roughly 30 years ago to wish for the perfect boyfriend. She wasn’t sure if she got perfect, but she got what she wanted.
Yamcha smiled, they had known each other for over half of their lives. She’d been his first love. And she was definitely the smartest person he knew. If she was happy like this, he had to trust she was right.
“Well, I hope I’m still allowed to drop by the ‘palace’ from time to time. Bulla is adorable, and I imagine I could probably get some dates out of showing her off on my Instagram.” he winked at her.
Bulma rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Show off how good you are with kids. Plus, you’re SO nice, you still get along with your fabulously wealthy ex-girlfriend! I’m sure we’ll get you a few girlfriends with her.”
They smiled at each other. They still had a good 40-50 years on this planet right? They wanted to spend it as friends. Friends who once upon a time may have been something else, but who would always care for each other, no matter what.
“I’m going to go check on Vegeta,” she said, getting up from her chair. Yamcha waved her off.
She found her husband sulking in a corner away from most of the guests.
“Hey,” she said, sliding next to him. “You doing ok?” he had a grumpy look still painted on his face. He sniffed her, then scrunched his nose.
“You smell like weakling,” he said, and Bulma laughed.
“Well if I know you, that just means the next time you get your hands on me, you’ll be twice as attentive,” she said, drawing a hand over his bicep. She was glad there wasn’t anyone else nearby so he wouldn’t back away from her touch.
“Oh that reminds me, I should check with Whis about what this magic instant baby stuff means for our sex life,” she said, putting a finger to her mouth in thought.
Vegeta blanched. “What, why would you ask him something like that?!” he asked, face washed in shock.
“Oh well, usually after you have a baby you have to wait like 6 weeks before you can have sex, remember? I know I told you about that,” she said, a small smile the only betrayal that she found his discomfort entertaining. “It’s just I feel surprisingly good, and you’re going off to the tournament soon…” she trailed off, resting a hand over his armor.
Vegeta was still embarrassed beyond belief however. “Just…we should…just wait 6 weeks,” he said finally, desperate not to bring up intimacy with his teacher. Ugh.
Bulma sighed but decided she had punished him enough. “Ok, if you think you’ll be ok that long.” she winked and ran her hand up to tap his nose. He glared at her.
“I’ve waited years for you.” he snapped, it hadn’t been that long since he’d begrudgingly spent 3 years in the hyperbolic time chamber with Kakarot. Could she forget that so easily?
She looked at him softly now. “I know,” she said simply, wrapping her arms around him appreciatively now. It was an intimacy Vegeta was warry of sharing when so many idiots still mulled around his house. “Thanks for being so good with Bulla,” she said into his neck, and like that his worries vanished.
“I’m afraid it will be hard to deny her anything.” he agreed, wrapping an arm around his wife.
The tournament against the other universes would start soon. While he longed for a good fight, as any true Saiyan, it was for this he would fight to protect. Bulma, Trunks, and now Bulla meant everything.