Home Sweet Home

Hikaru moved through the crowds of Katas Harbor smoothly. She had decided to make a visit to the markets to procure more items for her home. She hadn’t intended to at first, not feeling a need for much more, but had been cajoled into the shopping by her young Brenchian friend Denth.

So that was how she found herself with a large pack on her back, young a lemon-yellow fellow, and his little brother, eagerly leading her to a small building displaying a Red Ribbon market logo on the store front.

“Look, I told you! With these you won’t need that big ass backpack Hikaru!” Denth gestured proudly at the display cases of various capsules.

“Yep! Not only do they have empty capsules you can use to carry whatever,” Tonfa said excitedly, “But they also sell capsules that already have really cool stuff in them!”

Denth was an adolescent Brenchian. He had met Hikaru through Mollau when the namekian had last taken her to market to pick up some food for her. Denth’s family were small owners of a produce stall with the produce imported through the Red Ribbon Intergalactic Market.

Mollau had assigned Denth as Hikaru’s unofficial guide through Katas Harbor when he couldn’t be there. However, Denth had gotten to see some of Hikaru’s strength and became a little star struck. So he became a guide and a follower.

It was a unique contradiction.

Tonfa adored his brother and thus adored Hikaru by extension. So both the young Brenchians took to shadowing Hikaru whenever she came to town. Hikaru didn't seem to mind. She never tried to brush them away, or discourage their attentions.

And so that was how she ended up with a near constant entourage of two brightly colored boys.

Hikaru had some money, the various people of the village wouldn’t even consider her working for free. From construction with Gastro and his crew, occasional rewards forced upon her from stopping dark clan namekians,to even from Mollau when he insisted that she had become “an assistant healer and should be compensated as such.” And because she lived a simple lifestyle, she hadn’t really spent any of it. Her rewards and payments had accrued into a small nest egg, and now that she had a new home to furnish… now seemed a good a time as any to spend it.

“Check it out, Hikaru,” Denth gestured Hikaru over and pointed to a glass case with capsules inside. Some had numbers inscribed. Some had different colored labels and different symbols. Next to every capsule there was a small plaque explaining its contents or usage.

Hikaru was shocked at how versatile these things were. One of the biggest surprises was that entire buildings could be carried in a capsule. She mildly wondered if you could put a pre-built home in a capsule, or if the building would have to be in the capsule to start with… maybe she’d ask about that later. For now Denth and Tonfa had her buy a basic capsule that would be able to carry anything Hikaru could possibly buy today, and more.

With the ridiculously small and light capsule tucked carefully in her pocket she followed the boys back out into the market. They started by taking Hikaru towards a shop that sold various modern appliances for those on Namek who were accustomed to a faster life pace than usual on Namek. TVs, Dishwashers, Generators, Laundry Machines, Refrigerators, Computers, and more were placed in various rows inside the shop. Denth and Tonfa pulled her down to the televisions, but Hikaru declined. She would never use it…

No, she only wanted necessities. She could wash her clothes and dishes by hand. But, she couldn’t power her home with electricity, or keep her food chilled beneath room temperature on her own. That she required something, and that something was what she would get.

Hikaru figured that one of her most expensive purchases would be a generator or some form of power unit, but was pleasantly surprised that solar powered generators were readily available. Namek’s lack of a night time made Solar Power the most efficient method of power. Hikaru picked one that was decently within her budget. But it was still more power than she thought she might ever need.

Next came a refrigerator for her food. The human looked through a variety of chillboxes, and settled on one that actually sat horizontally on the floor to also act like a counter or table top. One pulled the fridge drawers out to access the chilled food inside.

Denth and Tonfa pulled Hikaru down through more kitchen appliance aisles, and Hikaru privately debated on whether or not she would use an oven, or if a campfire would be enough… when she saw it.

Hikaru suddenly stopped, catching the two boys by surprise.

“Hey, what's up?” Denth asked looking back at Hikaru, but was caught completely off guard. Hikaru’s eyes were wide and seemed to almost be sparkling. He had never seen her like that before! What on Namek could possibly invoke such a reaction from Hikaru???

Denth and Tonfa turned to look at what Hikaru was so focused on…

It was a coffee maker.

A deluxe coffee maker…

Hikaru made a beeline for it leaving the two boys behind with jaws agape. Hikaru immediately picked up the large box, arms wrapped around it like it was some sort of teddy bear, and then returned to Denth and Tonfa. When Hikaru rejoined the two boys, her expression returned to its usual flat tone, the shine and excitement faded away. She was back to normal.

Back to normal and hugging a giant coffee maker.

“You, uh, like coffee?” Denth asked slowly, almost cautiously as if he might scare away some skittish animal. Hell, the chance to see Hikaru excited and to learn something about her was fleeting enough that it may as well be an exotic animal.

Hikaru gave Denth a little nod. More of a bob of her head. Then two more. A few more nods and Hikaru was doing a very good impression of a bobble head.

“Pfft,” Tonfa snorted, and then began laughing wholeheartedly at Hikaru being so strangely out of character! But she didn’t seem the least bit ashamed or off put by his laughter. Denth tried to shut his brother up with a soft smack upside the head, but it was obvious that he too wanted to laugh.

“Er, right, what next?” Denth asked as he lead Hikaru and his still laughing brother to the next aisle.

Word Count: 1107

The small shopping crew made their way to a shop that sold more combat oriented things. Here they had training supplies, weighted clothing, armor, scouters, weapons, and more. The variety was almost overwhelming for Hikaru, who’s life never had more than PTO regulation supplies.

The shapes, the colors, the textures. It was quite a lot… At first she gravitated towards the saiya-jin style armor that the PTO typically used, if only because it was familiar. But… did she really want to rely on the familiar? No… she didn’t want anything to do with that life. So she drifted away from the Saiya-jin armor and towards a different type of familiar. The very same Namekian garb that Tonfa had just spurned.

Both of the boys got a hold of Hikaru’s arms and drew her away from the standard Namekian clothes, telling her to try new things. Hikaru let herself be pulled away by them, and left the clothes hunting to their decision. She didn’t care how she looked… she just needed clothes…

“Look! Human clothes!” Tonfa pointed and scrambled over to the racks of clothing by the wall.

“Good a place as any to start,” Denth nodded and pushed Hikaru after his brother.

Hikaru felt a little… she wasn’t sure how to explain it. The way these two boys were excited to see human clothes. The way their father was happy to have human food to give her. Their excitement to bring Hikaru closer to what they thought of as her homeland…

Even though the boys now knew Hikaru had never been to earth, they still seemed to connect Hikaru to her people’s culture. And in a strange way, that made Hikaru want to connect too. Connect to the humanity she had never known.

For the next 10 minutes the boys and Hikaru tried hopelessly to pick practical clothing and outfits. Finally a shopworker took pity on them, and helped the fashionably ignorant trio in finding clothing that was practical and not gaudy.

“We even have a service that we can modify and tailor all your clothes should you wish to change the weight levels, the material type, color, and-” the shopkeeper drawled off as Hikaru just stared at them, “...Just come back and see me if you have any questions.”

Hikaru nodded and then finally had settled upon 10 sets of clothing. They were all the same basic styles and colors (to which Tonfa said, once again, that was boring). Various long coats with hoods and pockets for supplies. Hikaru liked the way they felt. She didn’t feel restricted, even when the weights were applied to the gear. If ever she did feel like the weights were holding her down, it was a simple matter of throwing off the coat.

Underneath she had her loose combat pants. They had cargo pants she could store supplies in, and gave her free range of movement. Lastly she wore a skin tight sleeveless shirt with a high collar. The material was similar to the material that the PTO undersuits had been like.

The basic outfits picked, Hikaru just needed to place an order for the weighted pairs to be adjusted. Hikaru paid her tab with the shop worker, and made a date to return later to pick them up.

“Maybe then, we can look at armored clothing. Not just weights!” the worker smiled enthusiastically, but Hikaru just nodded and left with Denth and Tonfa.

Once outside she looked at the two Brenchians expectantly.

“What?” Denth asked, almost nervously.

“What now?”

“Oh,” Denth laughed awkwardly, “Well, lets see…”

“We got you electricity. A fridge. Some coffee. Some food. Some clothes. Some extra stuff like curtains and towels and soaps and-” Tonfa began to rattle off the long list, ticking his fingers off one hand, and moving on to the next when he needed more fingers.

“I think that's enough,” Hikaru’s quiet voice cut Tonfa off in the middle of his listing, but not unkindly.

“Yeah, I think she’s got plenty for now. And doesn’t mean she can’t come back if we forgot anything, right?” Denth asked his little brother with a grin.

“I guess you’re right…” Tonfa pouted quietly, he seemed reluctant to end their trip… “Do you need any help, Miss Hikaru?”

Hikaru placed one hand on top of the young boy’s head and gave it a friendly pat, “I’ll manage…”

“She’s got it all capsul-ized. She doesn’t need help,” Denth said.

“But what about unpacking everything!” Tonfa protested.

Hikaru patted Tonfa’s head again, “I’ll manage.”

That seemed to finally appease Tonfa and he stepped back to stand with his brother, an odd mix of sullen and happy. Happy to have spent the day with Miss Hikaru. Sullen that it had to end.

Hikaru looked Tonfa’s sullen frame over for a moment, then she slowly thumbed over her shoulder, “You… could walk me to the harbor gates?”

Tonfa’s expression lightened and he nodded happily. He pranced ahead of his brother and their friend to lead the way out of Katas Harbor.

“You could, you know, just fly off,” Denth pointed out.

“I know…” was all Hikaru said as she followed Tonfa.

Word Count: 879

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Total Word Count:
3,883