MCMLXXXIX - I - VII

i remember you had a HC about Bulma not wanting him to touch her, but do you believe she still talked to him and spent time with him or did she simply avoid him unless it was absolutely necessary?

Do you think he sorta did things to try and be close to her and do things to try to win her trust back?

Digging through my posts like a disheveled researcher fjdjdk

If it’s the hc I think you’re talking about, I think(?) I was talking about touching sexually (unless it was older than that post, which it might be!) Basically I think/hc that it was an uno inverse of what Bulma did creating a soft place for Vegeta to land and encouraging his more emotional trust in the 7YG, except this time it’s Vegeta having to be the strong one for her while she finds her footing and decides if and how she wants to move forward.

I think I have a post about it somewhere unless it’s lost to one of my many tag essays, but basically I like to think they kind of started dating for the first time. Despite being married for years, their relationship was really non-traditional (and as many of us hc, hypersexual as a means of both coping and bonding).

I love the idea that this time around they had to slow things down and have limitations to how physical they could be based on Bulma’s comfort and hesitation. I love to think that came with her fears that Vegeta would get impatient now that (what I hc as) the source of the sexual instigation is not comfortable with sex, and Vegeta getting an opportunity to be gentle and learn to offer affection as a show of reassurance that he’s not going anywhere unless she dismisses him. I imagine there was still touching and cuddling and grooming bonding, and now with the bathtime canon I love thinking that was incorporated heavily into their trust rebuilding, but I really love the idea that Bulma was hesitant in the same way Vegeta used to be in that kissing could only go so far and touching could only get so intimate before she got uncomfortable and had to bow out for the night because she wasn’t ready to give him access to her that way again.

I have a super specific hc about their first night back, after borrowing the time chamber because Vegeta is upset that she isn’t angry at him and Bulma explains that she doesn’t even know what happened, and they end up talking for a Long Time so Vegeta can tell her everything and they can talk about it and she keeps trying to rationalize it and he keeps not letting her do that because he needs her to accept that he chose to do a bad thing and he just found out he won’t be with her in the afterlife and what does she want to do about that because he thought he was going to be gone and doesn’t know how to move forward and all she wants to do is go home with her family because she woke up this morning just wanting to go to a stupid little tournament and then their whole world literally exploded, so they talk for hours (they’re probably gone for like 10 minutes in the real world) and kind of agree that she’s allowed to be upset later but right now let’s just go home together since we still can.

So Vegeta gets some time to talk to Trunks later that evening and it’s cute in my head but that’s another post and after Trunks goes to bed, Bulma’s had some time to decompress on her own and offers Vegeta his old room For A While and he’s of course gutted by it but is like yeah, fair, of course. If Trunks asks, Papa trains at night now so he can be with the family during the day (which is probably true anyway) and doesn’t want to wake up Mom afterward. It’s fine. So they go to bed in separate rooms and like half an hour later Bulma’s crawling into bed with him just to sleep next to her husband, and there’s nothing sexual about it, there’s no kissing, they just want their arms around each other, they just want to be here, home, and alive, and together. That’s all.

And I think that kind of summarizes The Vibe I imagine for that period of their lives. A lot of grief dealing with a fate that feels like borrowed time for something terminal, a lot of grief dealing with the one decision Vegeta could make that could really deeply hurt Bulma, a lot of faith in the thousands of good days they’ve had between the few incredibly bad ones, a lot of love for the effort they’ve put into their relationship, and just a lot of patience and careful hands slowly healing fractures that never fully broke and can’t quite be reset.

Adjacent ficlet but I also love to think that a month or so later when they decide to take a bath together Bulma notices that all of Vegeta’s scars are gone and says something about it being like all of his memories being erased and he very suddenly remembers what Piccolo told him and makes a mental checklist like

✅ Destroyed My Body

✅ Cleansed My Soul (came back without Bobidi’s mark)

✅ Erased My Memories

And he goes to rush off to find Baba and Bulma’s like “Hey take me with you I’ve been to her house” and so they go and he asks her about it and that’s how they find out Vegeta’s technically been reincarnated as himself just like Piccolo was and that’s why he’s been upgraded to just going to hell in super

and because I am a comedy hound I decided Bulma’s like ‘oh well maybe I can come visit you’ and Baba’s like ‘you won’t need to visit’ and that’s how they find out Bulma is also going to hell for fucking with time and the dragon balls and shooting a child in the face with a gun gjdjd

[Ask My Top 5 Anything]

Oh god they’re all so good

5. Every time he makes room in his busy schedule to flirt with Piccolo

4. Losing his shit over Bulma

3. Losing his shit over Trunks

2. Losing his shit over Bulma and Trunks (and/or every time he is bullied into doing something he doesn’t want to do simply by being reminded his family needs and/or loves him)

#1 - Faking a phone call to get out of a cameo job

the original grumpy cat, in fact

I think it would depend on how it manifests. I think they’d definitely fall into the “my kid is so lazy lately” trap with Trunks, because he’s more lackadaisical in general, but I think with Bulla it would be more clear that something was wrong. With Trunks I think it could slide under the radar unless he started isolating himself, since he’s always been more on the social side.

I think if it’s later in the series, since they’ve both had to navigate Vegeta’s depression (and probably helped with some of Gohan’s), they’d have some softer hands dealing with Trunks and Bulla than they might’ve had with themselves and each other earlier on. I also think having Gohan to ask about what he needed at that age in retrospect would help a lot, especially because he would probably be very well-suited to reach out and talk to Trunks (maybe Bulla wouldn’t want to confide in Pan’s parents, but I do think Videl would probably be able to relate to and help a young girl growing up in a social limelight).

Redraw of fanart from 2024 for @serenityhime1's Overheard.

15-year-old me would be so happy to know I can finally draw cute fluff. I will be abusing this power in the future ehehe

A Saiyan should never have ended up here.

Not on this weak planet. Not in the warm, chaotic clutter of her room. Not sitting in comfort while hands too gentle tended wounds that were nowhere near fatal. All instincts cried against it. Failure must be hidden, pain endured. And yet he remained.

The enormous mattress dipped beneath Vegeta's weight. The blankets smelled of detergent, machine oil, and an overwhelming layer of artificial strawberries. Clothes spilled across most surfaces, and where they didn't, blueprints claimed the space instead.

A childish pout tugged at his mouth while his arms folded. A strip of bloodstained bandaging was peeled from his skin. The sting of disinfectant barely registered. He could endure far more than a little alcohol on torn flesh.

But this room, this human…

His fingers flexed on his knee as she moved to another cut. He tracked her movements without meaning. Until blue met black. The room fell silent. A feeling he had no name or use for stirred in his chest.

Tch, annoying.

Then Vegeta dared to react before pride intervened. His hand shot forward and caught her wrist with just enough pressure to keep her still. His eyes searched hers with the same scrutiny he reserved for opponents. Looking for intent, weakness, or the perfect window to strike. Only this time there would be no ki blast or punch, just a simple question that refused to leave his thoughts.

Folks, I’ve gone and done it again, like an absolute madman. If you hated me when I posted Dragon Ball z fic before, you are going to double hate me now, because i just wrote a sequel and i’m uploading it and you can all have a look and enjoy my jokes

PINKLOVERS 09 - Vegeta x Bulma douijn september 2010

VxB are the best! XD

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