Just fiddling

The Long Way Around

"Why Keiran of course."

"W-what do you w-want?" The girl stared at him petrified. There something so familiar about her. He could swear she was, no, no her ki was different. It seemed more in tune with this mud ball of a planet, not the monkey wrench his was to the system. And her hair and eyes, he had never seen someone with such blue pigment before. Maybe it was common here he hadn't really paid any attention before now.

Snapping out of it Keiran realized Bra was coming out of her stupor, what to do. Now armed with the knowledge that Ottama and his goons weren't on his back as of yet, Keiran had the dilemma of quietly reinstating his hostage to it's natural habitat and finding a way for her not to spill out his existence to a daddy that could pound him to New Vegetasei and back. But her father on the other hand… he seemed- behind bra the dog whined. "Oh shut up you," Keiran reached over Bra to finally show the miserable mutt why no one defies of the ouji and lives… in some cases. But a small hand slapped him across the face with all the unleashed fury of a seven-year-old. Well this is only going to end in tears.

"Don't. Hurt. The. Doggy.," she said with an exaggerated pause after each word, jabbing a finger in his chest. The air around Bra crackled as her power shot through the roof. Keiran's eyes widened a fraction. Mayhap mine. The blue of her eyes flickered green and her hair slowly rose. At the end of the small extended finger a pale yellow energy ball began to form.

"Don't. EVER. Hurt. A. Doggy." The energy ball pulsed and grew an inch or two after each word. She leaned in and pushed the finger in Keiran's face. "Okay?" Menacingly she brought the small, but potent, energy ball between Keiran's eyes. Fighting the urge to blink he stared into the light, and responded with calculated nonchalance

 "Yes M'lady." Bra just stared at him, confused. Keiran mentally slapped himself and summarized. "Fine"

The unnatural wind calmed, and the golden glow Bra had formed dissipated, as did the attack. "Okay!" All giggles and sunshine now as if she hadn't delivered a basic death threat, Bra hung off the burly stray's neck, laughing. "So what's his name?"

"How do you know it's a he?"

"Because I know. So what's his name?"

"Bob."

"You made that up."

"Your point?"

"It's not his real name"

"How do you know it's not?"

"Because I know" Bra giggled again and whispered something in the mutt's ear. The stray stopped panting and seemingly leaned his head in to listen. Bra pulled back and stared the dog in the eye. Keiran just stared period. This is one nut job of a planet. After a few seconds Bra nodded sagely and turned to Keiran.

"He says his name is Ashley." He nearly fell over at this statement. It took a moment for him to recover.

"Does he now?"

"Yep, ask him for yourself."

"I'll take your word on it." And again Bra gave into girlish laughter. Keiran sighed and slumped down, sitting cross-legged, throwing rationality to the wind. "What now?"

"He says you look funny"

Despite himself Keiran glared at the mutt. Then he remembered who this was coming from. Before replying, he took his time to fall back on the grass and stare up into the sky. Blue… "Does he now?"

"Yep." Bra grinned in childish mirth, then sat on his chest. "And he says you smell funny too." Keiran didn't bother to look up, but closed his eyes waiting for lightning to strike him down.

"How am I not surprised"

"Prolly because you think funny too."

"Hit the nail on the head"

"Huh?" Bra scrunched up her face in confusion.

"Yep" She brightened up immediately, and started picking at weeds. The mutt, Ashley, apparently felt lonely left standing and flopped down on Keiran's legs.

For awhile it was silent. Peaceful even. It was proving to be a beautiful spring day, with a few puffy clouds casting patchy rolling shadows. The breeze was slight and warm, ruffling the cut-needing grass and playing with Bra's hair. It carried the sweet smell of flowers, and scent of far off rain. Keiran was sure he was the only one here, able to pick the last up. It was like some kind of thick drowsy blanket had covered him up, all he wanted to do was doze under shade of the dome-house, without a care until he became a part of the scenery. He needed time to adjust to everything. Nevertheless at the same time he knew that sleeping his worries away wouldn't help anything, plans needed to be made and carried out. But his own mother…

The multitude of blues and greens to were new and overwhelming to Keiran. New Vegetasei is chaotic mess, blistering heat during the day, freezing at night in the inhabitant areas. The ground's dry and cracking at the equator and a permanent ice box at either pole, which shift every 300 years or so. The only real constant is red. The sun is red. The sky is red. The stars, the dirt, the plants, all are god awful clashing different versions of red. Nothing so beautifully harmonic or tranquil as here. Ah the joys of natural planetary existence.

So lost in the moment was he, that when Bra complained of being cold he shook out of his stupor and wrapped her up in his coat without a thought, simply content to be helpful for once.

"Eeww," Bra whined with half heartedly. She huddled against his right arm and pointed to his left with one hand, pulling the heavy coat around tighter with the other. "What'd you do?" What she was referring to was half way healed mass of red between his elbow and shoulder. "And did it happen the same time as that?" She said, shifting her point to his face, and trying to hold back a yawn. Apparently the day had affected her as well.

"Yep." Keiran worked on suppressing a yawn on his own.

"Why?" Bra cuddled closer to him. Her eyes slowly began to close and each question was slower and spoken softer then the last. Keiran slipped into a groggy monotone to her constant battering.

"People suck."

"Why?"

"They're egotistic"

"What's that mean?"

"They're self centered."

"What does that mean?"

"They don't care about anyone but themselves"

"Oh." Bra paused, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why-," Bra paused again to remember the word "Why are they e-go-sick?"

"They're all inbred" It was silent for a second time. Keiran watched the clouds placidly, studying the wind made eddies and swirls. He had time to wonder what was it exactly that he was doing, trespassing in some steroid popper's lawn with a child sitting on him absentmindedly plucking grass to cover his arm and a snoring dog named Ashley laying across his ankles. All in all it was a good twenty minutes of pensive ponderment.

"Keiran… What's inbred?"

This time he did slap himself.

__

Bra giggled, her energy renewed. She bounced off Keiran and to her feet, grabbing his good arm. "Come on its lunch time"

"Lunch?"

"Well maybe only brunch, but I'm still hungry. So let's go get some food."

Keiran perked up a great deal at the mention of a meal. Up and stretching he frowned, "I haven't seen any game bigger then a Rictat since I got here." He sent a sidelong glance at the stray. "Where do you keep the herds?"

Bra continued to pull him towards a side door of the dome-house, "In the kitchen silly."

"Kit-shin?" His frown deepened and he looked suspiciously at Bra, then back to the house. Granted it was big, but still… "In there?"

But Bra's attention was focused on a green pad next to the door, on which she placed her free hand. In a second the door was open. Bra turned back to the dog. "You're not really supposed to go in-" The stray whined pleadingly. "Buuuut if you're quiet I don't think no one will notice.", then as an after thought, "Really really quiet because Trunks brought Goten over and Krillin and Gohan and Pan came early to help out with the cookout. Okay?" Again the dog stopped panting and dipped his head in agreement. "Okay" And again Keiran was floored.

Skipping Bra led the way through a dimly lit hall, the stray and Keiran in tow, the latter barely suppressing the urge to look at everything at once. The bizarreness of painted rectangles scattered on the walls, and upside down colored-glass domes on the ceilings, among everything else, was only feeding his culture shock.

Bra skipped sharply to the left, into a blindingly white room. "Don't worry I'll make lunch. You can sit there." She pointed to a line of stools on the outside of a countertop jutting out from the wall. Dumbly Keiran sat in the closest chair, and the stray at his feet. Bra hummed and out of tune song while she open a low cabinet grabbing a small package. "Spaghetti or Hamburgers?" 

"Uh…"

"We have roast beef and potatoes too. But they come with green beans. Ick"

Keiran slowly caught on, she was inquiring about his ration preference, not that it made a difference. Spahgetie made as much sense to him as the scraps metal the people here squeezed themselves into to get place to place. "Doesn't matter."

"Okay, Ashley what do you want?" There was a pause. "You like green beans? Really? Okay!"

From the package she pulled out 3 capsules, pushed in the device on the top and tossed them at the far wall. Keiran in spite of himself jumped at the explosion and stared shamelessly at the huge metal boxes that had materialized out of thin air. As an explanation Bra supplied, "Mom likes to store in bulk."

She rummaged around in another cabinet, and soon stood up with a big ceramic bowl in her hands. After filling it with tap water she placed it in front of the stray, and walked to the nearest box, opened it with a door he hadn't noticed, a crack and then slammed it shut. "Nope… Keiran this one's yours." Bra moved to the next one, the whole side swung outward, then shut. "Nope…" She glanced back at him. Giggling again but in an eerily serious tone she said, "Don't Be shy silly we can feed a whole army, now dig in" Hesitantly Keiran got up and made his way to the first box.

An/ -_-' ^_-? 0_o?