#but this masquerade was so fun even if i couldn't go dressed like a ghoul.

[belle--ofthebrawl]

Some plans fell through due to the flu so now I'm stuck at home thinking about the things Aether and Dew did in the two days before they went to go see Omega.

[mo-art-please]

Toads and Corpses

Title: Toads and Corpses

Rated: T (for teens)

Dragonball Z - Vegeta x Bulma

Disclaimer: I do not own or profit or make anything off of this.

The music was blaringly loud, a fact that Vegeta wished he could ignore. The pounding beat echoed in his ears as he pushed his way through the gyrating crowd , out of the dancehall's large wooden doors, and into the lobby. Capsule Corps Annual Halloween party was in full swing in the next room but Vegeta wanted nothing to do with it. How many years has he attended or at least acknowledge the annual holiday bash? Too many and he was tired of being crowded by worthless masquerading humans with hideously-fake looking costumes that smelt like rubber and plastic. He needed to breathe god damn it and there was no way in hell he could do so in there!

With a agitated sigh Vegeta threw the jacket he was carrying on the arm of one of the lobby's expensive leather couches and sat down with a thud. With an irritated growl he crossed his arms and ankles and glared across the room. Oh how he hated such pointless human celebrations. It was a waste of time and most importantly oxygen.

Vegeta watched as several humans dressed in outlandish clothing entered the building in a fit of giggles and pointless chatter and quickly make their way to dancehall. He hoped that if he were lucky that maybe he could spend the rest of the evening in the lobby where the music was muted to a tolerable level, the air was clean, and people were scarce. Footsteps from behind told Vegeta that he would have no such luck.

"Hey Vegeta! What are you doing in here? You're missing the party, " Goku's large clumsy hand landed on Vegeta's shoulder from behind the couch as he spoke and a goofy grin plastered onto his youthful face.

"I'm trying to get away from idiocy but it seems to follow me wherever I go." Vegeta sneered up at the taller man and shook the hand on his shoulder off . Kakarott was by-far the last person he wanted to run into at the moment. The idiot could give a rock a headache. And by the stupid baseball costume Kakarott was wearing Vegeta figured he too decided to join the humans in the festivities. What a pathetic excuse of a Saiyan.

Goku removed his baseball cap to scratched his head in bewilderment but quickly shrugged it off and started looking around the room as if searching for someone or something. Who knew what the imbecile was thinking…if he even thought at all.

"Hey Vegeta?"

Vegeta cringed at the man's voice but managed to stay stoically still. Was it just him or was Kakarott's voice an equivalent to nails on a chalkboard? Or worse, Chichi. "What?" He ground out through clenched teeth.

"Have you seen Bulma? I haven't seen her all day. I looked for her at the party but I couldn't find her anywhere and her Ki is so small I have a hard time locating her with all these people around. Do you happen to know where she might be?"

Vegeta blinked in surprise. He hadn't seen his wife since that morning and was stunned that he hadn't noticed her absence at her own party. It seemed no one had noticed except for Goku, something that Vegeta didn't want to acknowledge at the moment. Having another man being more in tuned with his own wife wasn't something Vegeta wanted to think about, especially when it was his greatest rival. So instead of pondering his reckless abandonment for observation he decided to cover it up the only way he knew how.

"Do you think I keep track of that wench? I have better things to do with my time," Vegeta huffed and stood up from the couch. Despite his aloof behavior his eyes scanned the expansive lobby for a blue headed beauty that he was intimately acquainted with. Only a hand full of people were scattered around the room, most of them secluding themselves away from the loud music to make some phone calls before going back to the party.

"So you don't know where she is?" Goku asked the older man while scratching his chin.

Vegeta gave the younger man a deadpan glare. "No, I don't."

All of a sudden several women's screams pierced the lobby as a group of girls came tumbling through the dancehall's doors and into the room. Vegeta and Goku wince at the earsplitting pitch of their shrieks and squeals as they ran across the lobby's glossy tile floors. Not far behind the small horde of females were Trunks and Goten carrying large bloated toads. The pre-teens chased the women almost to the exit and would have continued out into the parking lot if they hadn't been summoned from their fathers. With heavy disappointed sighs they abandoned the chase.

"Having fun?" Vegeta asked his eleven year old son dispassionately.

Trunks shrugged casually and tossed the obese frog to his other hand. "We were before you called us," he muttered but then grinned wickedly. "Those girls are so easy to scare, it's hilarious watching them stumbling over themselves because of a little toad."

Vegeta grunted in agreement and eyed his son. Trunks costume wasn't more than tattered clothing covered in artificial blood but it looked convincing. His skin was airbrushed pale and Bulma had done an excellent job making Trunks look like a zombie with bloody bite marks and decaying flesh. She was definitely a master at make up. Vegeta also noticed that Kakarott's youngest son was also dressed up as the living dead. Great, he thought, two ghouls to haunt him the rest of his miserable life.

"That wasn't very nice Trunks and Goten," Goku scolded half-heartedly but then smiled and ruffled his son's dark hair . "Oh by-the-way have you happened to see your mother, Trunks? I've been looking for her," Goku asked Vegeta's son.

"Mom?" Trunks scratched his chin with his thumb and pondered. "I can't say that I have. Goten, have you seen her?"

Goten shook his head negatively.

Goku sighed in defeat and shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well, I guess if you see her let her know I was looking for her. I'm gonna' go back to the party before Chichi starts getting too upset. Oh Vegeta, I almost forgot to ask, what is your costume suppose to be?"

Vegeta glared at the man in front of him. The moron couldn't tell that he hadn't dressed up at all? That he was just wearing his casual tee-shirt and jeans? The man was dumber than a brick. "Human" Vegeta snarled sarcastically.

"Oh…" Goku blinked several times. "Well it does look like a human costume I suppose…" He patted his son's head one more time and saluted Vegeta before heading back through the dancehall's wooden doors. Vegeta rolled his eyes at his departure.

Vegeta looked down at Trunks and Goten. "You're dismissed," he waved the boys off and they eagerly left in search for their next victims. Vegeta watched the boys leave and then with a heavy exhale he sought for Bulma's Ki with his mind. He searched the entire compound, shuffling out the useless Ki signatures that surrounded him and found her energy ebbing in the vicinity of the gardens. He slipped his leather jacket on and headed out the building to find her.

The air was cold and Vegeta's breath came out as puffs of vapor. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans to keep them warm as he trekked down the pathway toward Bulma's Ki. Although Saiyans were known to be a hardy race that could withstand even the most brutal environments, Vegeta still preferred the hotter deserts or even the humid tropical climates over the cold that surrounded him now. Fortunately Bulma and himself were heading to their winter vacation home on its own private beach in Maui in two weeks and he'll miss the rest of the cold front that was coming through.

Vegeta cursed when he tripped over a heavy plastic tombstone. He glared down at the offender before he kicked it in retribution for causing him to stumble. Vegeta watched as it sailed through the air and off into the night with a sense of vindication. It was about a minute before he heard a crash from the parking lot and the screeching of a car alarm. There was so much mist from the multiple fog machines placed strategically throughout the vegetation that he was slightly surprise that he had only tripped over one of the many tombstones scattered throughout the park.

Vegeta continued on and it wasn't long until he spotted Bulma sitting on a bench deep within the center of the garden. She looked so small and fragile next to the large foliage and hedges that the dominating male in him wanted nothing more than to carry her back into the warmth and safety of their bedroom. His protective nature seemed to come out quite often when he was in the presence of his delicate wife. But for now he pushed the need down and with a calculating eye he took in her appearance as he approached her from the side.

Bulma, like their son and his friend, was dressed as a member of the living dead. Her usually porcelain skin was even paler than normal and false blood was splattered over her black tee-shirt and bleached jeans, up her arms and across her chest while several drops stained the smooth skin of her cheek. A large gash expanded across her neck as if someone had tried taking an axe to her throat and the blood had dripped down from the wound to the swell of her breasts before drying. The fake lesion was unnerving but as she turned and smiled at him he realized that it was not as unsettling as the smoky grey contacts she wore. They covered up her bright, jovial eyes and made her look cold inside and out. She looked legitimately dead and it made his heart stop.

"Hey you," Bulma smiled brightly up at him through dead eyes and patted the empty space next to her on the bench . Vegeta sat numbly next to her, his eyes never leaving the grisly wound in her neck. He kept telling himself it was fake, just a special effect for a stupid human ritual but his heart was constricting with a sickening emotion. Horror. Horror that the demons of his past have come back to haunt him. If they had touched her…killed her…he clamped down on the sickening feeling of panic . It was just makeup. It wasn't real.

Vegeta couldn't resist and reached out to touch Bulma on the neck. She took it as a sign that he wanted to view her craftsmanship but in truth he wanted to feel her warmth. Wanted to feel her blood pulse strongly in her veins beneath her flawlessly delicate skin. Wanted to know she was alive.

"So whatcha' think? Not bad huh? Looks pretty darn authentic doesn't it?" Bulma asked proudly as she craned her neck so he could inspect her handiwork more closely. Vegeta knew her eyes would have been sparkling with self-satisfaction if it weren't for those damn contacts she wore.

"Humph," he snorted, " not bad I suppose. I've seen more realistic." He answered quietly as he swiped his thumb back and forth over the fiery pulse in her neck. There was no way he was going to admit that her makeup job disturbed him so much. Vegeta felt that he was sitting next to the talking corpse of his wife and if it wasn't for the soft sound of her breathing and the steam it made, plus the healthy beat of her heart beneath his fingertips, he knew for sure the pressure of fear that was clenching his heart would burst it in-two. Never had this holiday made him feel so sick to his stomach. Sick with fear that he would lose Bulma.

Bulma rolled her eyes at his statement. "I'm sure you have you evil son-of-bitch but I still did good." She pouted playfully and stretched her arms up over her head, unconsciously arching her perfectly ripe breasts forward. "I think rigor mortis is setting in." She said jokingly while twisting back and forth in an attempt to pop her spine.

"Where have you been?" Vegeta changed the subject from his past, a topic he was still uneasy conversing with his lover about. If his angel truly knew what horrible atrocities he had done in the past she may leave him. God what would he do if that were to ever happen?

Bulma sighed in frustration and slumped rather unlady-like on the bench. " I just went through hell and back these last three hours in the kitchen. It seems that the catering company royally fucked up and didn't send enough food. I've been calling every restaurant I know to see if they could prepare more hors d'oeuvres and entrees for the buffet. They could but they had no means for delivery so Tony, Vinny, and myself loaded up into the shipping trucks and picked up the food ourselves and brought it back. I just recently had the chance to come out here and catch my breath." She sighed heavily in exhaustion. "It was a nightmare." She finished by running her fingers into her short crop of hair.

They sat in silence for a moment before Bulma groaned audibly ."Ugh these contacts are killing me…"Bulma grumbled more to herself than to Vegeta and tilted her head back to remove the lens from her eyes. Vegeta sent up a mental thank you to whatever god answered his prayer. He felt a weight lift off his chest at the sight of her azure irises.

"So why'd you ask? You've been looking for me?" Bulma questioned him with a delicately raised eyebrow, her beautiful, vividly blue eyes staring at him lovingly.

Vegeta grunted and pulled his hand away from her neck to cross his arms. "Not hardly, that fool Kakarott has been searching for you."

"So you went to find me for him?"

"Of course not! Like I'd help that retard do anything." Vegeta growled out between clenched teeth. Like HELL he'd do errands for that third class idiot! He may not throw his authority around like he use to but he was still a prince and a prince did NOT help the lower class.

Bulma's laughter sounded rich and heart-warming as it danced across the cold air. Her smile was so bright that it lit up the night with it's beauty. Vegeta felt his insides melt at the charming melody her voice held. How had he been so blessed to obtain such a precious woman? How did the gods see him fit to have her?

"Uh huh so you just happen to wander out here and stumble upon me. Like I believe that." She playfully flirted with him.

"I don't wander or stumble," Vegeta left out the little incident with the tombstone, " I know exactly where you are at all times, at all hours. I was just curious why you were missing your own party."

Bulma's shoulders dropped tiredly before a large shiver racked through her body. She wrapped her slender arms around herself for warmth. Without thinking Vegeta removed his jacket and placed it over her quivering shoulders.

Bulma smiled up at him and eagerly slipped into the oversized coat. She didn't thank him outright knowing he'd just scuff at his slip of emotion. Instead she framed his face with cold hands and pulled him down for a deep kiss, showing him without words how much she appreciated his action.

Their lips touched gently at first, a soft brush of skin before they settled against each other. They moved in a synchronized rhythm, neither one fighting for dominance just enjoying the feel of each other's mouth. Bulma moaned and Vegeta groaned while he slipped his tongue through her lips and into her soft heat. Their tongues waltzed in a seductive dance as Vegeta pushed his weight against Bulma's lithe form, slowly lowering her onto the bench beneath his solid body.

He would never get enough of her. Never. She was a potent drug that sung through his veins and he was an addict for it. How had one woman entranced him so?

"EW GROSS!" came a boyish cry of disgust several feet next to them.

Vegeta whipped his head up and glared at his son and Kakarott's brat who were both making bitter faces of repulsion. He snarled angrily at the interruption but Bulma's bubbly laughter caught him off guard and before he knew it she was slipping out from beneath him.

"What are you two doing out here?" Bulma asked while Vegeta sat himself upright. From even under the pale makeup on her face, Vegeta could see the soft blush of embarrassment stain her porcelain cheeks.

"My dad is looking for you so we decided to find you for him." Goten said with a grin that mimicked his father's as he wedged himself between Vegeta and Bulma on the bench.

"Is that so? I must be popular tonight." Bulma said with a chuckle and winked flirtatiously at her husband. Vegeta rolled is eyes at his wife's antics.

"Yeah it's true so Goten dragged me out here even though I TOLD him not to," Trunks crossed his arms arrogantly. Trunks had learned that when his parents' ki's were fluctuating it was best to leave them alone or have a really pissed-off father on his heels.

"Well it's alright, I suppose I should go see what Goku wants then. I think I know what it is but I should double check," Bulma smiled warmly at her son who was still standing defensively. She opened her arms and without hesitation Trunks came running and leapt into her lap. She closed her arms tightly around him and rocked him playfully. "You are good boys to come find me for him." She looped one arm around Goten and pulled him into the hug.

Vegeta rolled his eyes at her statement. Those kids were anything BUT good. More like hell on wheels, he thought sardonically as he watched them. But the three of them looked happy in their hug despite their ghoulish appearance and Vegeta wondered how his life had managed to turn in this strange direction. His thoughts were interrupted when Bulma raised an eyebrow at him, silently asking if he would like to join the group hug. Vegeta made a false gag and Bulma slapped his arm and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Well I hate to be the one to interrupt this Kodak moment," Vegeta said sarcastically as he rose to his feet. The awkward zombie loving was a little too strange for his liking…at least with the two kids involved. If it was just him and his wife…well he could become a necrophiliac for a night.

Trunks quickly jumped off his mother's lap as if he just remembered his father was there and stood at attention with a slight blush of mortification on his cheeks. Goten stood with a little less vigor.

"I'm sure you are," Bulma replied cynically as she got up and stretched in Vegeta's jacket that nearly swallowed her. "Trunks, Goten, would you be so kind as to tell Goku that I'm on my way and should be at the party shortly?" The boys nodded and quickly took off.

"And you mister," she poked a delicate finger into Vegeta's muscular chest, "better behave yourself."

Vegeta raised a inquisitive eyebrow and grinned wolfishly. "Me? I'm a prince, the paradigm of civility, hospitality, and etiquette."

Bulma scuffed at his banter and handed Vegeta his jacket. " Well I hope you remember that while you're at the party or…" She seductively backed away from him as she spoke.

As she moved one of Bulma's hands lifted her shirt , exposing the smooth pale skin of her stomach and the glittering bellybutton-ring that pierce through its dainty naval, while her other hand pushed her jeans down to expose the tantalizing skin between her swaying hips. It was a double tease for Vegeta's hungry gaze and he could feel his blood drain to his lower region in response. He licked his lower lip in anticipation for the feast her body would make.

"…none of this. Got that baby?" She smiled bewitchingly and winked before she took off for the party, leaving Vegeta standing hot and heavy in the garden.

Vegeta resituated himself so his hard-on wouldn't be evident through his jeans and grinned wickedly. Even if he misbehaved he was still getting her tonight one way or another. Bulma was a sucker for a bad boy and he knew his little zombie lover couldn't resist his devious charms. But he supposed he could try to be a little civil just for one night…try being the key word.

Vegeta shrugged on his jacket and followed the scent of his wife's desire back to the Halloween party. This Holiday might not be so bad if it ended the way he intended it to.

The End