Talor Rhett

Let Me Hear You Call My Name

by Talor Rhett, trhett@yahoo.com

Let me hear you call my name,

Let me see you too.

I need you here beside me

To heal my tattered soul.

Though I do not call aloud

My heart does scream for you.

I'll never shed a tear you see

For anyone but my love.

I try to hide from you the truth,

But somehow you see right through.

I'd never forgive myself

If I let you get away.

Let me hear you call my name,

And say you love me too.

His eyes. Deep, dark, cold, merciless, but no matter how hard he tried to hide it the loneliness was still there. His eyes told a story that his lips refused to reveal. A story that he was even now trying to forget, but it lingered. Painfully slashing at him in his weakest moments like a bird of prey cutting into a fish with its sharp talons. Still he tried to hide it all under a mask of hatred and evil that he had worn for so long he had forgotten it is only a mask. Are these his true depths, or is he as shallow as he acts? Is this truly what [lies] underneath the rough exterior to the arrogant Saiyan Prince?

Bulma looked down at the book she had been reading. Her mind had [wandered] off of the book as some other thoughts surfaced in her mind, but now that she had lost her focus on them, they had simply slipped away.

"Oh I knew a novel like this would make my mind wander," she said tossing the 300+ page novel over shoulder.

"Hey! What was that for? For once I haven't blown anything up!" shouted an angry voice making Bulma jump slightly. She turned around to see Vegeta holding the book and glaring at her.

"Oh. I didn't know you were inside," said Bulma as her heart rate returned to normal after the little jolt of being caught unawares.

"For you that is unusual. You always seem to know exactly what everybody else is doing. Even when they don't tell you," said Vegeta smirking slightly.

"Are you implying that I am nosy?" demanded Bulma angrily.

"Remember. You're the one who said it. Not me," said Vegeta with a definite note of amusement in his voice. He walked back into the kitchen without further comment on the subject to enjoy it fully.

"Hey!! What about my book?" she asked a minute later. Suddenly something came zooming into the living room. It hit an expensive vase, which fell to the floor an instant later shattering into pieces.

"Just great. Another mess that I have to clean up because we have such lousy house-guests," said Bulma picking her book out from the shards of porcelain. She heard the door in the kitchen slam shut signaling Vegeta's return to training.

****

Vegeta felt that his training was going too slow, but the problem was that he wasn't sure how to speed up the pace. He had been training ever since his return to Earth, but he still wasn't a Super Saiyan. It was both his insanity and sanity. He was possessed by the urge to be stronger than Goku, and the urge to join the super elite in all Saiyan history. However he wasn't quite sure how to achieve it as of yet.

Suddenly a video screen popped up in front of him.

"What do you want woman?" snarled Vegeta angry for the interruption in his training.

"I just wanted to tell you that tonight I'm going out with Yamcha, and I won't be locking up the house before I leave. So don't blow up the door this time!" she yelled at him from the memory of her last date when she had come home to find the fire department there wondering if a bomb had gone off.

"Fine. Now leave me alone, and let me train," he growled. He didn't know why, but every time she mentioned Yamcha he felt a hot wave of hatred wash over him. He found his mind wandering onto other things, which he wouldn't admit he was actually thinking about. He finally gave up, and went inside to get something eat. After all it had been hours since he had left the gravity capsule.

He walked in the kitchen to find Bulma sitting at the table with her hair wrapped in a towel, and wearing nothing more than a bathrobe.

"Oh! Can't you ever knock? It's not like this is your home," she said both angry and surprised at his sudden entrance.

"Oh I'm so sorry your highness. Perhaps next time you'll care to inform me that you're sitting in the kitchen in your bathrobe," said Vegeta his words dripping [with] sarcasm .

"Just go away and learn some manners," snapped Bulma trying to regain any dignity that she had left lying on the floor.

Vegeta stalked out of the kitchen having lost his appetite. He decided that he'd take a nice cold shower to cool off both his hot body and temper. He walked up the stairs, and into the bathroom grumbling softly under his breath. He didn't know why he put up with her. He still had trouble making the connection between the Bulma on Planet Namek and the one on Earth. On Namek she had been scared and near hysterics, but now she had the nerve to insult him even though she knew he could easily kill her. It just didn't make sense to him that this was the same person.

"I wonder what drives that man to love her," thought Vegeta as he pulled off his sweat drenched shirt. He turned on the water, and let it run for a minute while he finished getting undressed. He stepped into the shower, and let the cold water run over his hot body. He felt his tense muscles begin to loosen slightly as he began to relax his mind. He stood there for a little thinking of nothing at the moment.

Suddenly he heard the bathroom door open. Even though the shower door was made so that you couldn't see through it clearly he could already guess who it was.

"What was that little speech you gave me a minute ago?" asked Vegeta mockingly.

"I thought I smelled something when I walked in, and I was right. It was you, Vegeta," she said in bad sarcasm.

"Shut up and leave me alone," spat Vegeta his temper beginning to rise again.

"Fine. I'm leaving. Just don't forget to pick up your clothes unless you want them on the flag pole outside," threatened Bulma before sliding out of the bathroom. Vegeta turned off the shower. He had had enough of Bulma to last him a lifetime, but he wasn't leaving just yet.

He got dressed, and walked back to the gravity capsule where he could almost escape from that woman. He had been on Earth a few months, and as he walked across the lawn he felt a small chill in the air as the wind blew by him. He looked at the few trees in the yard noticing for the first time that they had changed. They seemed to have lost a great many of their leaves, and the leaves that they still had on their branches were orange, red, and yellow colored. He didn't know much about Earth other than it was mostly filled with weak humans that had no ki ability, so he didn't know that this was supposed to happen, and thought it strange. Still he passed by silently watching the trees as yet more leaves fell to the ground in another gust of wind. Without them the trees looked bare, desolate, and almost lonely. Vegeta shook himself out of his thoughts, and wondered why he had been thinking about the trees. They were only stupid plants anyway. Who cared if they were losing their leaves? With this he walked into the gravity capsule, and began today's continuation of his training.

Bulma rushed around the house like a mad woman as she tried to get ready for her date with Yamcha. As always she wanted to outdo her last appearance by stunning him into stupor.

"This one? No. Perhaps this one will be good. Oh No. I wore that last time I went out with him," she said digging through her closet, and throwing out the reject dresses. Suddenly she straightened up with a look of triumph on her face.

"Ok. I think this one will do nicely," she said pulling out a royal blue dress that was really too short, but like that was going to stop her from wearing it?

"Hmm. I wouldn't be too surprised if even Vegeta noticed me in this little gem," she said looking at her reflection with a smile of satisfaction hovering on her lips. She walked downstairs, but found that her watch was running fast because the atomic clock said it was only six-fifteen. After quickly resetting her watch to the correct time she just began wandering around the room aimlessly. She wandered into the kitchen because she had nothing better to do. She opened the door, her mind calculating over a new project, but then she suddenly heard something like glass shatter. She looked up to see Vegeta, who had come in after giving the gravity capsule a new door with a wide-eyed look of almost shock on his face. She turned her eyes to the floor to see what had fallen, and saw a pile of broken glass surrounded in a puddle of water. He suddenly seemed to catch himself, and left the kitchen wordlessly.

"I guess I was right. I am looking good enough to be noticed by Vegeta. Not that it matters, but it's just nice to know," she said smiling. Suddenly she heard the patter of rain outside as a relatively soft shower graced the area.

"Well I guess I'd better get my coat," she sighed walking out of the kitchen. She noticed that Vegeta wasn't in the living room, but he had gone this way when leaving the kitchen. She shrugged her shoulders, and decided to leave Vegeta to his own devices.

****

He stood out on the balcony that overlooked the front lawn of Capsule Corp. He paid no attention to the cold rain as it dripped down his body. He wondered what those two saw in each other. Yamcha was a weakling who couldn't defend himself if his life depended on it, which it often did. Then there was Bulma. Well what could be said about her? She was loud, obnoxious, and those were just his good thoughts about her. Still every now and then she would seem to forget herself, and she would be relatively nice to him. That however happened less and less as time passed. His cold eyes watched them as they ran through the rain to Yamcha's cruiser laughing the whole time. He glared at the idiotic grin he wore, and wondered how he could go out in public with that on his face.

He stood watching as the two of them [drove] off into the darkness laughing and with some awful cacophony that was supposedly music blaring out of the car speakers. Even after they had been lost to his sight he stood just glaring at the spot where they had disappeared. Finally he went back inside the house to put some food in his stomach.

He hated that idiot Yamcha and all of his friends as well. Of course he hated Goku the most of all, and after that he hated Goku's son most. He felt so out of place on [the] planet. Almost nobody had any real power to speak of. Everyone else seemed to find this life relatively comfortable.

"Even the Namek fits in better than I do, and he's green with large pointed ears," snarled Vegeta angry with himself even though he didn't know why. He walked down to the first floor with his wet body sometimes leaving a water droplet or two on the floor. He stopped in the kitchen to grab some food, and cleaned out the fridge with the exception of Bulma's cooking experiments.

"I don't think even Kakarott would try that stuff. Still I wonder how she managed to make that casserole blue," said Vegeta as he shoved some leftover pizza into his mouth. When he finally finished eating he went outside to finish today's training, but he returned a minute later when he remembered that he had damaged the capsule.

"Damn. Why doesn't he just much a bunch of spare ships. Everyone knows I blow them up all the time, so it would be much easier just to do that," he said as he tried to think of something to do to help his training. When he couldn't think of anything he began to get frustrated.

"I guess I can just train outside then," he said as no other options appeared to him. Walking back out into the rain he began training once again.

****

The next morning came bright and beautiful, but it was a bit cooler than the day before. It was a day where you could no longer wear shorts and T-shirts, but the sudden break in the warm weather would make people seem to have much more energy than normal. This however wasn't a good thing for Vegeta since he had to wait until the Capsule was rebuilt before he could get back to any real training.

"Well, whose fault is it that the capsule has to be repaired," said Bulma as Vegeta's restlessness began to wear on his own nerves. He was standing by one of the kitchen windows with Bulma at the kitchen table writing a letter to someone. Vegeta decided not to satisfy her with a response. He knew that would just give her more ammunition to use against him, but he could do the same thing by sometimes throwing her words back at her or using her remarks for future reference to wear on her nerves. It was like a constant war between them, but neither one seemed to ever run out of ammunition.

He looked over at the paper she was writing on, and noticed a bunch of little squiggles on the paper. Now Bulma doesn't have the neatest handwriting, but it is very legible. Vegeta wondered what it was that she was writing because he couldn't read it. Of course Vegeta had been taught how to read and write, but that had been the Saiyan style of writing. He had never learned how to write in English because he had never needed to, but he was curious as to what it said.

"Why are you reading over my shoulder?" asked Bulma who had suddenly noticed Vegeta looking at the letter. Vegeta looked at the paper a moment longer before giving her his answer.

"I wasn't reading over your shoulder."

Bulma looked at him not believing it to be sure.

"Then why were you looking at my paper? It's a rather personal letter, and I don't want anyone other than the person I'm writing to, to read it," she said explaining it as if to a small child. Vegeta just looked at her as if she was crazy. How could anyone read those little squiggles all over the paper.

"Well then don't you think you should write it so that someone can read it?" said Vegeta.

Bulma looked slightly taken aback, but she quickly recovered herself.

"I may not have the best handwriting in the world, but I assure you that anyone who knows how to read could read it," she said.

"How could anyone read that? Those don't even look remotely like letters. They just look like little squiggles on the paper to me," said Vegeta pointing at the paper for emphasis.

"Of course their letters. They're the same twenty-six letters that everyone you know uses. Well I guess everyone. I'm never sure about a couple of those guys," said Bulma saying the end part more to herself than to Vegeta. Suddenly a thought struck her as to what might be the cause of this argument.

"Well, Vegeta why don't you write something," suggested Bulma.

"And what exactly is it that you are proposing I write, and why do you want me to write something?" he asked suspicious about her intentions.

"Oh I don't know. Just write your name then, and then we'll both find out the answers we're looking for," she said. Vegeta stood there for a minute before finally consenting. Bulma handed him a piece of paper and a pencil to write with, and then waited as he wrote his name.

"There. I don't know what that has to do with anything, but that's what you wanted," he said. He was only putting up with this because he had nothing else to do, and it kept his mind off his boredom. He waited for a minute as she sat at the table turning the paper this way and that with a curious look on her face. Finally se set down the paper and looked at him.

"Alright. You've given me just the answer I was looking for. I see that I was right as well and I guess you were slightly right as well. You weren't reading over my shoulder, but people can read this kind of writing. You just don't know how," said Bulma smiling slightly.

Vegeta stood there in silence. What do you say to something like that? Most people would ask to be taught how to read, but Vegeta was far too proud to ask anyone.

"So what if I can't read what you're writing. It means nothing to me," said Vegeta, but he was curious for some reason to know what this stuff meant.

"Fine then. Because if you wanted I'd teach you," she said smiling slightly.

"Why should I care if I can't read what you people write? It's not anything important," replied Vegeta indifferently.

"Oh, but it is important on this planet. You have to read to be able to do almost anything. If you don't know how to read on this planet then you are looked down upon as an inferior being," said Bulma. She had caught Vegeta's attention when she had said the word inferior. He already knew what it was like to be looked upon as one because that was what Freeza had thought of the Saiyans, and he wasn't about to let these weak humans think of him as inferior.

"These people are weak, but they look down on someone that can't read? It just doesn't make sense to me. Still for as long as I'm here I won't be looked down on like a weakling, but that would mean accepting her help. Can I really stoop that low?" Vegeta mulled over these thoughts in his mind examining everything before he made his final decision. On the on hand it was really pointless for him to learn any of this, but on the other hand he had said he would never be looked down upon again. Finally he came to his decision.

"Fine. Teach me," he said, "But nobody learns of this!" he added hastily.

Bulma looked at him in a surprised way for a minute as if she hadn't expected that he would really agree to it, but it quickly changed to a satisfied smirk. She stood up and held out her hand to him.

"Alright. We'll start tomorrow. I need to get a few things first," she said, and then they shook.

****

The following morning Bulma led Vegeta into what looked like a school classroom with a large table in the middle of the room. She sat him down in one chair, and put a large stack of thin workbooks in front of him.

He looked at the stack for a minute before looking at her with an expression that said, "What the heck are you doing?"

"This is your study material. If you want to properly learn how to read and write then you are going to actually do the work. It won't be fun, and I doubt you will find it easy to learn. The English language is the most advanced and difficult to learn in the entire world," said Bulma with a definite note of enjoyment in her voice. (Whoop! If Lily might interject. :P English is actually the third most difficult language to learn, with Chinese being the first and something or other that I can't remember being the second. Was it German or something else entirely? I can't remember, though I wouldn't call English the most advanced language. Maybe I'll write a rant about this. Heehee! I'll put a link here at some point so you guys can read it. Anyways, keep reading this!!)

Vegeta had a feeling that he should have just kept his big mouth shut, but there was no way he would back out of it. Bulma knew it too. She knew he was too proud to ever back out of something no matter what his later regrets [were]. This [was what] giving her so much enjoyment.

"If you really want to learn how to read and write you will need to practice everyday. Even after the capsule is finished being repaired. Remember you said you would, so now you will. At least practice for half an hour every day. If you break the gravity capsule any more then you'll have the whole day to practice, so let the lesson begin."

Vegeta pulled the top workbook off of the pile, and opened it up to the first page. Bulma gave him the directions, which he reluctantly followed. She was impressed at the relative speed he was learning because it usually took adults longer to learn things than it did children. Every now and then he would start writing it in the way he was used to, and Bulma would have to correct him. Other than that, however, he didn't have much difficulty. Soon he put down that book with a smirk stationed on his face.

"That was easier than you made it out to be. I could have done that in my sleep. I don't see what's so hard about all of that," he boasted not really realizing what he was starting.

"Vegeta get a grip on reality, and hold on tight. People go their whole lives without ever learning the whole English vocabulary. Nobody ever knows it all, and do you know why? Because new words are getting added to it all the time. Dictionaries constantly have to be updated because of new words and definitions that are added. Vegeta, knowing how to identify and write separate letters is good, but writing whole words and sentences is what you must at least achieve to be slightly successful in this world. You have not yet begun the fight," said Bulma in a dead serious tone.

Vegeta was now sure that he should have kept his big mouth shut, but he couldn't bring himself to back out of it. He was going to do this no matter how hard it was. Besides it couldn't be harder than training to fight the androids. Could it?

****

Over the next month Vegeta went back to training, and trained even harder than before since he now had less time to train. Bulma wasn't a help either. She would watch him sitting at the table working in one of the workbooks, and laugh whenever she saw him get frustrated at a mistake he made. By the time he went to bed he would be burnt out in both body and mind from the training and learning to read and write. He often found himself wondering how he had gotten himself into this mess, but then he'd instantly blame Goku for it.

Bulma was actually rather impressed with how fast his progress was. She had thought that he would be unable to maintain enough patience to actually learn anything, but there he was everyday sitting at that table at the exact same time working in those books. She found that she admired his determination to learn this stuff, and actually felt slightly attracted to him for that. But she, of course, would never admit that to herself. She would watch him as he worked in the books, and thought it was funny how he reacted whenever he made a mistake. He would sit there growling at it for a minute before erasing it and correcting himself. She checked his work everyday, and would correct in red pen any mistakes he made.

One day when he walked in he found the table empty of all books except for one sitting in the very middle. Bulma walked in behind him wearing a tight red dress that was five inches above her knee, and had no straps to hold it up meaning one thing. His mind instantly went blank as he saw her standing there. She smiled at him as she saw his face, and pushed his mouth closed with a slight giggle.

"Tonight I have a date with Yamcha. I want you to take that book and read it. Then tomorrow you will read it out loud to me. This will be your first real test to see how much you've learned. Now if you'll excuse me I've got to finish putting my hair up," she said leaving the room. Vegeta stood there in a stupor for a minute longer before he came back to his senses. He grabbed the book, and went to his room to read it.

The two of them had become almost friendly over the last month, but her going on a date with Yamcha just wrenched Vegeta. He wouldn't admit it, but he had started to like her, and he meant as more than just a friend. But now it looked as if he would always play second string to that weakling Yamcha. Who knew something so simple could make him feel so differently for her. He looked back down at the book, and began reading it. He saw it was just a stupid children's book, but he had also found that this language interested him because of how complex it really was. Every word seemed to have its own set of rules that needed to be used if you wanted to spell and use it properly. Now he would see how much he had really learned from those workbooks, and he was actually hoping that he had taken in all that they had offered.

****

Bulma drove down the busy street that had all of the really expensive restaurants in it. She was looking for The Climax. It was called that because it had a very interesting reputation. This place was known to either be where you met your true love, or where you would have heart shattered by someone. This is why it has that name because your current love life would always come to its climax here. That's sure what Bulma was hoping to happen tonight. Yamcha had said that he would meet her there, and not to come early because he didn't want her waiting alone at the table. However Bulma knew that if she wasn't going to be early she was going to be late. That was just the way things went for her. She could do this side or that side, but she just couldn't seem to land in the middle. Finally she pulled into the parking lot outside of the restaurant, and walked to the front doors smiling to herself whenever some guy would stop in his tracks to stare. She was her own walking climax, but one that ended badly.

There sat Yamcha all by himself with a slightly bored look on his face. He was over in the far corner of the restaurant that was slightly secluded from everyone else. Bulma thought that that was romantic, and she decided that since she was a few minutes early she would sneak around to surprise him. She quickly started walking around the edge of the restaurant making sure that Yamcha didn't spot her.

Suddenly a girl with shoulder length blonde hair, and light blue eyes walked up to the table Yamcha was sitting at. She sat down next to him, and started up a casual conversation. They laughed at something funny that Yamcha had said, and then she leaned in to kiss him. He made no move to resist it, but a second later he received a hefty smack in the face.

"Did anyone get the license number of that truck," he said slightly dazed. He shook his head to clear things up, and when he looked up he saw Bulma standing beside him with a scowl that would have made Vegeta proud. He swallowed with some difficulty before he opened his mouth to speak, but for some reason nothing came out. However Bulma didn't need him to say a word to figure out what had happened.

"I don't believe you. I risk my life to wish you back, and this is the thanks I get? To be cheated on? How long have you been going out with her?" she asked glaring at him with a rage that could make anyone seem powerful.

"I-I…look Bulma this is just a…uh misunderstanding of some kind. It's not what you think…" he tried to explain.

"NOT WHAT I THINK!!! Oh I know what wasn't what I thought it was! I thought you loved me, but I guess I was wrong! You're no better than when I first met you! In fact you're worse because now you aren't afraid of girls anymore! " yelled Bulma with tears threatening to spill out of her eyes, but was going to hold them back as long as she was in front of everybody else.

"I hate you, Yamcha! And I never want to see you again!" she yelled before running out of the restaurant. She ran to her car as fast as she could. She wanted to get away from Yamcha, the restaurant, and the people that had seen it all. She just want the ground to open up and swallow her. She sat down in the quiet car, and finally let the tears she had been holding back run down her face. She shakily started the car, and drove home wishing she had somebody to comfort her right now.

****

She burst into the living room with tears streaming down her face and sobbing loudly. Through her blurry vision she could make out a person standing a few feet away. She'd probably surprised whoever it was by busting in like that, but she didn't think of that at the moment. She just wanted someone to comfort her right now, so without worrying who it was, she flung herself at them. She heard a small grunt as she rammed into them, and wrapped her arms around their chest. She felt the person seem to pull back slightly, and felt the muscles under the shirt tighten as if something about this was uncomfortable. She knew she grabbed Vegeta, but right now she felt that if she let go of even him she would be sucked into a void of despair. Her tears dripped onto his shirt as she stood holding onto him as tight as she could. She didn't want to let go. She felt his hand pull her head up to look straight into his face, and for a moment she thought she saw concern for her in the normally cold eyes.

"What happened to you?" he asked sounding as if he had to force himself to sound smug. She didn't care as long as he didn't push her away she would tell him.

"I-I saw Y-Yamcha w-with another w-w-woman," she said before she broke down into uncontrollable sobs. Vegeta stood there in silence, his mind for some reason almost numb.

"You fool! Help her to feel better. She wants you to," said one part of his mind.

"No you idiot! You don't want her to think that you're weak. Be strong, and just get her off of your shoulder. Don't let her know how you really feel about," yelled another part of his mind. Vegeta wasn't sure what to do. One part of him said to hold her close and never let go, but the other part said to push her away. He stood there looking at her as she cried on his shoulder.

"She needs somebody to comfort her, and she's looking to you to do the job. Take your chance. Don't let her get away from you. You know you want to have her as your own, so don't give that other guy the chance to have her back. Show her you aren't totally heartless," said the part of his mind that was telling him to hold her. He knew that all of that was true, and he did want to make her his, but could he break down the barriers to his emotions that he had built up over time.

"Don't let her think that you are a sentimental fool. You are the Prince of all Saiyans, and you should therefore be above petty human emotions. Don't let her bring you down to her level," said the other part once again trying to get him to push her away. Vegeta looked over at her again, and saw all of the pain she was carrying in her eyes.

"Nobody should have to hold so much pain. Nobody. Not even a weakling human should suffer like that," he thought. The barriers in his heart came crashing to the ground as he wrapped his arms around her, and his eyes glistened as her pain became his pain. As her hatred become his hatred. As her sorrow became his sorrow. He had her, and he wasn't going to let her go if he could help it. She looked into his eyes. Eyes normally filled with cold hate, merciless evil, and arrogance to spare. They now held emotion in them that she had never seen in there before now. He had lowered all of his defenses towards her, as she had done towards him. She leaned her whole weight against him, and just let him support and secure her from the rest of the world.

"Thank you," she said looking into his eyes.

He didn't answer. She didn't need him to answer. She could feel what it was that he couldn't and didn't know how to say to her. She felt his embrace as the security she had never felt from Yamcha, and she felt that the meaning also went much deeper than any of his ever did. She leaned her face in closer to his, and before he knew what was happening she kissed him. Then something that Bulma had almost not expected happened. He kissed her back. It wasn't the best kiss she had ever experienced, but it had depths to it that made it all worth it. Somehow this felt almost as if it had been intended to be, and she refused to let go. Even if she had decided to let go Vegeta wouldn't have.

He had decided that he wasn't going to let her get away from him.

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