Cleaner, and feeling much better than she had, despite a little stiffness in her shoulder, Jade walked into the kitchen after using Trunks as an anchor point to negotiate her way around. In less than ten minutes, she'd managed to get lost in the vast complex, and she'd be damned if she'd mark herself a fool by asking. She'd walked with purpose, ignored the stares of the occasional worker she passed and had finally honed in on Trunks' location.
"You made it. I thought you must have gotten lost. I was about to come looking for you." Trunks teased her from his seat at the table, where he'd been flicking through magazines left there by his mother.
She screwed up her face, sat down, and looked pointedly out the window, feigning wounded pride. If she made him speak first, she'd be in a stronger position, a part of her knew.
"You look different."
I win, a childish voice giggled in her thoughts. She glanced down at her attire, and wondered what was so different.
"I just ditched the armour, like the Prince said." Having spent most of her time around Trunks, Jade had picked up his colloquialism.
The expression sounded so strange coming from her that Trunks laughed out loud, to her consternation. He sobered.
"Ready to go?"
"Of course." She stood up, moving towards the door, and Trunks was acutely aware of the long slit in the skirt she wore for battle that revealed most of her leg, and the backless catsuit she wore above it.
"Wait," he pleaded helplessly. "You can't go out dressed like that."
Her face tightened.
"And why is that?"
Now you've done it Trunks, explain to her how you don't want her to dress like that in front of anyone but you. He stammered for a justifiable reason.
"Um – because – that's a fighting outfit." His meek excuse amused Jade quite a lot.
"Well, what do you suggest I wear, then?" the dark green eyes bore into his uncomfortable blue ones.
Trunks glanced down at the table and spotted the magazines. He picked one up, and flipped to a page depicting a blonde woman in jeans and a light purple v-neck sweater. He held it out for her to see.
"Can you make this?"
"That looks really uncomfortable," she sighed. "But if you mean 'can I do it', then of course. Child's play."
She flicked her fingers intricately and instantly faced him in the outfit he'd indicated. She looked down at the foreign outfit.
"I look ridiculous. What would the Prince say if he saw me dressed so absurdly?"
Trunks laughed at her again. She didn't look ridiculous at all; in fact, the outfit he'd picked suited her perfectly down to the sweater that set off her hair.
"I don't think the Prince would mind. He's got some doozeys in his wardrobe."
"Doozeys?" she gave him a familiar look of puzzlement.
"Never mind. Let's just leave it at 'he wouldn't care' and go, okay?" He smiled at her and led her purposefully through the complex and out the door.
Jade had moved to take to the air as soon as she cleared the door, but Trunks had pulled her back, and they walked through the crowded city streets.
"Why can't we just fly? We'd get there much faster," she argued through irritated green eyes.
"It makes people…uncomfortable to see others flying around. Kind of freaks 'em out, if you know what I mean." Trunks studied his boots, avoiding the impending glare. But it didn't come. Instead, when he looked up, Jade looked frustrated and confused, and jammed her hands further into her pockets.
I've got to remember this world is even stranger to her than it is to me, he made a sharp mental note of. Looking down at the crown of her head, he found her looking so isolated and unhappy that on impulse, he reached out one arm and put it around her shoulder. Jade stiffened, realised there was no threat in the gesture, and relaxed a little.
"I'm sorry. This is a strange place and I don't understand it yet." A barely audible whisper, followed by a deep sigh. Trunks tightened his grip on her shoulder and drew her closer to his side.
Rounding a corner, the pair was confronted with the vast expanse of Orange Star High School, though they were early and it hadn't ended for the day. Instead, they made for the park directly across the street to wait for Gohan and Videl.
They sat in a comfortable silence broken only by twittering birds and the dim rumble of traffic. Jade listened intently to the song of a robin in a tree above their heads, and startled Trunks by mimicking it so well that the little bird flew down and hopped on her outstretched finger. He watched in wonder as she spoke quietly to the pretty creature in a language he didn't understand and stroked the red plumage on its chest.
Jade reached out her other hand, opened her fist and presented her new friend with the grain it contained. Where the hell did that come from? He remembered the sword, the outfit and his tail curled around his own waist, and kept his mouth shut. The robin hopped onto the hand with the grain, and Jade drew it nearer for him to touch. He extended a gentle finger to touch the glistening feathers, but at that moment the bell went at OSHS and the bird flitted away, annoyed with the commotion.
Trunks scanned the emerging crowd for his friends, and as he did, brushed the lavender hair out of his face.
"Hey," Jade vied for his attention, and got it. "If you get to pick my clothes, then I get to fix that hair."
She reached into her pocket, produced a band like the one in her own hair, and smoothed his hair back into a ponytail out of his eyes.
"It was driving me rocks."
He burst out laughing.
"Nuts. It was driving you nuts." Her cheeks reddened and she tried desperately to save face, her previous disparity gone with the robin.
"Rocks, nuts, same thing. There's Gohan." She pointed towards the school, and sure enough, she'd picked Gohan and Videl walking along with a blonde haired girl and a tall guy in a varsity jacket.
Videl was pretending to listen intently to Eliza's babbling – it never changed anyway and she'd heard half the news three times already. Spotting Trunks' pale hair above the crowd, she found an excuse to cut her friend off.
"Gohan! Over there." She indicated Trunks standing with an unfamiliar and even at that distance obviously pretty girl in the park across the street. For some childish reason her heart sank. For all she adored Gohan, this version of Trunks was so different from the one she looked after sometimes she was intrigued, and besides, he was extremely handsome despite the fact he reminded her of Vegeta.
Gohan waved to Trunks and as he waved back, Eliza spotted him.
"Oh, who's that? Friend of yours? Come on, introduce me." Eliza grabbed Videl's arm and dragged her along after Gohan. With a shrug, Sharpener followed them.
"Hey," Gohan called out cheerfully. He recognised the girl standing near his friend. "Jade? Is that you?"
"Of course it is." In a tone that would not have shamed Vegeta, she added, "I've had enough of being mollycoddled. I'm stuck here and I might as well learn my way around."
Gohan raised an eyebrow and Trunks smirked. Eliza, dragging Videl behind her, burst onto the scene with Sharpener hot on her heels.
"Who are your friends?" she asked the audience in general. Gohan introduced them with an embarrassed hand on the back of his neck, shooting his Saiyan friends an apologetic glance.
"Eliza, Sharpener, meet Trunks and Jade."
For reasons beyond her control, Jade extended a delicate looking hand to each of them. She nearly crushed the one Eliza held out accidentally and softened her grip to that of the other girl's as she shook hands with Sharpener.
The tall blonde youth stared into her face, then turned her hand over and moved to kiss it theatrically. Jade yanked her hand out of his grasp, and dealt him a blow to the face that sent him flying smack into a nearby oak tree. Acorns and leaves rained down from above as he sat there, stunned, looking adoringly at the girl who'd nearly knocked out his teeth.
Trunks looked down at her sharply and addressed her in Saiyan.
"Jackass or not, that was rude, Jadali."
She smirked back up at him and eyed the figure under the tree struggling to its feet.
"Yes. It was." And she left it at that.
Walking down the broad footpaths of the city towards Videl's house, Gohan figured out what was nagging at him about Jade sending Sharpener flying into the tree. Trunks had reproved her, but done so in another language – and as far as Gohan knew, Trunks wasn't bilingual.
"Hey, Trunks, I have to ask – since when can you speak another language?"
The question caught Sharpener's attention, who was walking along massaging his jaw.
"I – um – just picked it up recently. I'll explain it to you later."
Videl used this momentary distraction to grab Jade's arm.
"Why'd you have to hit him so hard? You could have taken his head off!"
Jade's eyes creased in mischief.
"I didn't hit him hard."
Videl looked flabbergasted.
"You still could have taken his head off."
"Yes, I could have, and by my own customs I probably should have. Let the fact that I chose not to be a sign of my good faith." She smiled wickedly.
Eliza butted in and addressed the Saiyan girl.
"So, you from out of town or what?"
"You could say that."
Rounding a corner, Videl groped around in her bag for a key, produced one and let the group into her house. Looking around the vast foyer where Videl dropped her things, Jade unintentionally locked eyes with Sharpener again. She glared belligerently as he stared at her, and she took hold of Trunks' arm to encourage him to quit it. She didn't want to break anything in the other girl's house, it wouldn't be civilised.
Trunks looked down at her – from what he knew of her, Jade wasn't the type to be intimidated by nothing. She indicated Sharpener with an irritated flick of her eyes, and Trunks understood. It'd take quite a display to discourage the blonde idiot, and it was a show he'd get, or Jade would lose patience and knock his block off.
As the small group stood around waiting for Videl to organise herself so they could leave, Trunks raised the arm Jade was holding onto and pulled her close against his chest. Sharpener eyed this suspiciously. Pleased with the response she was getting, Jade shifted her arms and hugged Trunks low around the waist, cuddling into him as he placed a hand on her head, and she shot Sharpener a filthy look she hoped said take the hint.
Sharpener wasn't alone in his observations. Eliza was beginning to look annoyed, having thought she must have been in with a chance with the handsome purple-haired stranger, and Gohan looked towards them, puzzled, and gestured for an explanation with his open hands.
Trunks rested his chin on top of Jade's head, indicated Sharpener and Eliza (who was frankly beginning to bug him) with his eyes and scrunched his nose to display his exasperation. Gohan understood, and smiled slyly back.
Videl walked back into the room, having changed her clothes, and sensed something amiss. She glanced from Trunks and Jade (who'd let go of each other when they sensed her coming), to Gohan, to Eliza and finally to Sharpener who kept his face down and scuffed his shoe on the floor. She frowned.
"Alright, what's going on in here?"
"Nothing important," Gohan answered noncommitantly. Then, to still Videl's mouth before she opened it again, he walked over to her, threw her over his shoulder affectionately and made for the door.
After seeing Eliza off, Trunks, Jade, Gohan and Videl made their way back to Capsule Corporation. Walking along the wide streets, Jade again ached to just take to the air and get out of the commotion. Despite the fact it would irritate her new friend, she gave up, tapped Trunks on the shoulder and declared she'd fly home.
"I thought we went through this before," he said sternly as Videl and Gohan looked on, "It's cruel to scare people like that. When they see you, they'll probably think the Apocalypse has come early."
"They won't see me," she responded, half-pleading and half-stating.
Trunks ran his hands over his hair.
"Really? How could they miss you?"
"You just did, little Prince!" her voice faded echoingly and when he looked down, to his surprise she was already gone, only a wavering after-image standing in her place.
Trunks took a frustrated kick at a signpost, and Gohan clapped him on the shoulder.
"Trunks, old friend, I think you should probably cancel your plans for a career as a drill sergeant." He said with mock-seriousness. Videl burst out laughing, and Trunks scowled like Vegeta as they continued to walk.
