Disclaimer: Doesn't this stuff feel kind of insignificant due to the US bombing Afghanistan? Please say a little prayer for my twin brother who is in the US Army. Thank you! Now on to a pleasant (I hope) distraction….
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Before
either could say anything, their attention was drawn to the child tugging on
Trunks' pant leg.
"Trunks,
Trunks, Trunks," pleaded the girl in time to her tugs.
"What, Bra?"
Came an annoyed sounding reply from the boy.
"I caught a
fish! See?"
Trunks
finally looked down at the little girl who was now triumphantly holding up a
small fish for him to see. She had a
big smile on her face even though the fish was only a small sunfish. At another time or under other
circumstances, Trunks would have shared the tiny girl's enthusiasm.
"That's
nice, little sis," he said walking away. He went to the car and capsuled it so they could fly. He turned around and saw that his sister had
turned her attention to someone else. She was now trying to show it off to the
Saiyan.
"See? Pan's
daddy took us fishing today! I caught it all by myself…well I didn't put the
yucky worm on the hook. Worms are yucky!"
"Aren't you
afraid of me little girl?" Homini asked. She was a little shocked at the girl's lack of fear of strangers let
alone fear of aliens.
"No. Why should
I be?" Bra replied in all innocence.
"Because I'm
a Saiyan and could hurt you."
The girl
giggled wildly. "You're silly!" Bra then ran over to her brother and held her
arms up, "I wanna fly with you." She was promptly picked up and they took off
silently.
All Homini
could do was stand there and blink at the encounter with the child. She wondered who these people were that
seemed so unfazed by Saiyans, knew the Prince, and why were they so trusting of
her. From what she saw from her scouter, none of them had power levels to brag
about. So much had transpired since
she picked the fight with the boys that she did not recall Goten's power level
rising, and because she didn't have her scouter at the time she did not know
that his power level had raised well above hers when she sent the blast at him.
There were
too many questions she needed answered. She had too many questions that she thought could possibly be answered
when she left home originally. Now, even though she found who she was looking
for, all she had was more questions. And
these questions seemed even more difficult than the original ones.
Someone
talking to her brought her out of her thoughts. "Homini? Is that what Vegeta
called you?"
"Whatever
Earthling. I'm not in the mood for small talk," she stated looking at the man
with a black haired toddler in his arm.
"Anyways, I'm
Son Gohan," he extended his hand for her to shake. "Welcome to Earth," he
mumbled under his breath when she did not respond to the gesture.
Confused by
the man's gesture, Homini just ignored his extended hand. She did not know if
it was a greeting or some sort of challenge. "Are you going to take me to Vegeta anytime this century?"
"Um, sure.
Follow me," he said lifting off. He looked back behind at the other boy. "Goten,
let's go. You have some explaining to do."
Homini
tried to ignore their conversation as they flew. It was hard, she could not tell if they were making it all up for
some reason or if it really was the truth. Then again, she did not know which would be worse, the expanse of their
lies or the truth.
"Now,
Goten, whatever possessed you to fight an unknown enemy? And why didn't you at
least power up?"
"Well…uh…you
see, Trunks and I, we...uh...made a bet…" stammered the younger one.
"Great,
that again," Gohan groaned. "Why didn't
you go and get Dad or I or any other adult if you knew there would be trouble?
When I was your age, I knew enough not to start a fight alone."
"Gohan, by
the time you were my age, you had already fought Freiza, the androids, and
Cell. Trunks and I never got to do any
of that other than we fought Buu," Goten whined.
Gohan
stopped midair and turned to glare at his brother. His voice was steeped with anger, "I fought because I had to, not
because I wanted to. You didn't have to watch Frieza hurt and kill your
friends."
"Whoa! Wait
a minute, back up!" Homini exclaimed as she stopped beside the earthlings. "You mean to tell me that you fought Frieza…and
lived. He was on Namek when it was
destroyed so you would have had to fight him prior to that. Which means that you would have been a mere
child!" She looked confused to the point of being frantic. "What the hell is
going on here on this planet?!"
"Yeah, he
was just a little guy and fought the Ginyu Force and Frieza. 'Course, Krillen,
Mr. Piccolo, dad, and even Vegeta were fighting, too. It would have been so
cool to have seen that!"
"Yeah, real
cool," Gohan said angrily. "I watched
that monster kill Dende, Krillen, Vegeta, and the innocent Nameks there. Then I
had to drag an unconscious Piccolo back to the space ship and leave dad there
on the dying planet to face Frieza alone. Then back on Earth we didn't know for the longest time who survived the
explosion of Planet Namek. It must have been horrible because dad still won't
tell us what happened exactly." Saying no more Gohan flew off again leading the
way to Capsule Corps.
Goten
shrugged and followed knowing better than to try to bring up the topic
again. Homini just flew, still lost in
thought. She was even more confused. She knew she had heard him say that he watched Vegeta die but she knew
that she had just seen him. She almost did not notice that they were descending
near a large building.
They landed
and stood in an awkward silence. Gohan
was first to break it. He turned to face his brother and Homini as he spoke, "I'm
going to go tell Bulma what's going on and call Videl. I have a feeling that we're
going to be a while here and she might want to take Pan home."
Homini walked
over to a nearby tree and sat with her back against it. She drew her one knee
up to her chest and wrapped her arm around it, the other one she kept out in front
of her. Goten mumbled something about
finding Trunks. He wandered off leaving the girl alone with her own thoughts.
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A/N:
Patience, grasshopper, you will soon find out who Homini is. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and
especially those who reviewed repeatedly! It is very much appreciated.
