Visible Stranger

III.

So the three of them were off to the mall. They decided to take Yamucha's hot new sports car, since it looked the coolest to go to the mall in. Of course, Yamucha was driving, but Bura and Pan had a little quarrel of who would sit up front and who would be stuck in the back. In the end, they decided to let Pan sit up front on the way there, and let Bura sit up front on the way back.

All the way there, Pan kept flipping through every music station possible. She would end up on a country station, look horrified, and then turn it to a pop station. That's when she would scream and turn it to rock, only to find they were playing a song she didn't like. Heavy metal was her specialty, yet when she went through those stations, they were advertising. Pan repeated this pattern for about a half-hour, leaving them only about ten minutes away from the mall.

"Pan, would you just pick something already!" Bura yelled from the back seat, her long hair whipping all around her head. Some got in her mouth, making her give a disgusted look. She dug through her purse to find a hair tie, leaving her in a struggle to tie her hair up.

Pan looked back at her, her eyes narrowed, "It's not my fault there's nothing good on!"

Bura just sighed and shook her head, leaning her head back against the seat. So much for that. She was the kind of person that would mostly listen to any kind of music (as long as it wasn't gospel or musical) and only hearing one or less syllables from each station every two seconds was not her style.

"We're here," Yamucha then spoke up, turning into the parking lot. Bura's eyes lit up, her purse suddenly feeling very heavy as she thought about all the stuff she was going to buy.

"Great," Bura let out, opening the car door and stepping out when Yamucha parked the car between a small white car and a mini van. Pan didn't even bother with the door, as she just jumped right over. Seeing this, Bura rolled her eyes, hoping Yamucha didn't mind how much the girl messed with his car. When she glances over at him, he gave her the impression that he didn't even realize, what with the smile on his face.

Just seeing his smile made her smile, also. She walked next to him, looking up at him. It was then that she realized how tall he really was, the boots she had on even making her feel short.

"So what are you planning on doing here?" she asked, stopping for a car to pull out of it's parking space before continuing.

Yamucha grinned down at her, "Nothing really, I just had to get away from your dad." He rolled his eyes and gave a fake horrified look, "He would probably kill me without your protection."

Bura blushed deeply once Yamucha blinked, making her look down at the black pavement, "Nah. My dad's the nicest guy you'll ever wanna meet…he just doesn't like to show it," she giggled upon saying this, knowing that no one would ever believe that.

He chuckled, shaking his head, "I promise I'll work on believing that."

She was going to comment, but got interrupted by a yell coming from the mall doors.

"Come on, you slow pokes! I know we have all day, but you don't have to walk like we do!" Pan scolded, her dark eyes full of impatience.

"Coming, coming…" Bura mumbled, going into a slow jog to make it to the mall entrance within four seconds so Pan wouldn't have to wait any longer.

As soon as the blue-haired girl reached the black-haired girl, Pan grabbed her hand and dragged her inside, already running to their right, "Music store, here we come!"

Bura sighed as she got dragged along, her other hand holding onto her purse so she wouldn't lose it. It was never one of her favorite hobbies to run in boots anyway; why couldn't Pan just walk around the mall like a normal person. That reminded her…

She looked over her shoulder, seeing tons of strands of her hair flying at her side. She saw Yamucha just coming into the mall and laughing at the sight of her.

"We'll meet you at the food court in an hour or so!" Bura yelled through all the people, making sure the older man heard her.

She watched him nod and give the okay sign before she turned back around, just in time to see the music store in front of them.

Pan finally let go of her hand as she ran to the rock section, picking up four to five CD's at a time with wide eyes, "Wow…they have a new album out?! How did I not know this?!" she screamed in frustration yet amusement as she continued to look through the stack.

A sweat drop appeared on the side of Bura's head, but she quickly shook it off, "O-kay…"

**********

About a half-hour later, the two of them ended up in Hot Topic, Pan's "Absolute Favorite Store!" As soon as they entered it, loud music blasted into Bura's ears, making her really wonder how the music in the stores could only be heard in the stores themselves, and not outside of them.

"Whoa, Bura, check it. What do you think about this?" Pan asked as she held the dark, baggy pants in front of her bottom, kicking her feet a little to show the effect.

Bura forced a smile, thinking that the thing looked horrific, "I think it looks great!"

Pan nodded, smirking, "Wicked," was all she said as she threw it over her arm, an indication that she was going to buy them. Bura, again, shook her head and looked around the place a little.

She happened to spot a black tee-shirt hanging up on one of the walls with a teddy bear on it, its arms and legs wide open. Above the bear, it read in big red letters "Your Mommy's Not Here."

Raising a thin eyebrow, she read another plain black shirt that simply said, "I love ice cream."

"What the heck? Why does Pan like this stuff, it makes no sense…" she mumbled to herself, but only heard the low vibrations in her chest, since it was almost impossible to hear anything over the music.

"Wonder what it would be like if I was like Pan…" her lips moving, but not bothering to make a sound. A little image came to Bura's mind of her dressed in jeans that were so baggy they looked like a terrible dress, and a shirt with a teddy bear on it that read "Your Mommy's Not Here." She would wear just plain tennis shoes everyday, her hair cut shorter with a…

"My hair!" Bura suddenly said, her fingers automatically sliding through her long, fine hair. "I've been wanting to do something with my hair, this is the perfect place to do it!" A huge smile quickly came to her lips as she yelled across the store, "See ya at the food court later, Pan!"

"All right!" Pan yelled back, both of them used to splitting up in the mall sometime.

Bura exited Hot Topic, her ears ringing from the sudden quietness. She began walking down the left hall, knowing exactly where all the stores were located. And in fact, it only took her four minutes to reach the hair salon, walking into the big, lighted room with many mirrors and about three employees working on people's hair. The atmosphere smelled of hair spray and other fragrances the women were wearing. Seeing that everyone was busy, she decided to take a seat in the waiting area and look through the hair style books they had lying around, seeing what kind of style she would like best.

"Hmm…should I get it cut to my shoulders?" She tilted her head to the side in thought as she flipped through more pages.

"Maybe a little higher? To show my neck…that cut would go good with a lot of my outfits," she commented, yet not done looking for the perfect look.

"May I help you, Ma'am?" Bura heard one of the hair stylists' say from behind the counter.

As soon as this question was asked, Bura flipped the page to a style she fell in love with, "Oh, yeah…you can help me a lot," she answered, her eyes bright.

*********

Forty-five minutes later, Bura was heading to the food court, a huge grin on her face from satisfaction. She couldn't wait to see the expressions on Pan and Yamucha's faces, staring at her new self, giving her compliment after compliment.

Already, she felt as though she were getting a lot more attention from the guys around her, making her stand taller, pride fulfilling her eyes, taking long strides to show her positive attitude.

Amazing how one little hair cut can make a huge difference. She said to herself, smirking as she entered the food court, a lot of guy's heads turning her way. She was about to sit down at a table that was in the middle of the huge dining area, but happened to spot Yamucha in line at Sbarro's, the famous pizza place. Immediately, she walked over to him, standing beside him and cutting all the people behind him in line.

"Hey," was all she said as she felt her hair fall over one of her eyes, making her grin again.

"Hey," he said back, giving her a quick glance before doing a double take, his eyes widening a bit, "Bura?!"

Bura smiled in delight, assuming that the look and surprise on his face was a good sign. She ran her hand lightly over her hair, almost as though she was afraid she would mess the whole thing up if it weren't handled with absolute care.

"Do you like?" she asked.

He nodded, "Yeah, definitly. What did you do to it?"

"I got a body wave," she explained, flicking her hair over her shoulder, "I got so tired of the straight look with no layers. This makes me look so much older, don't you think?"

Yamucha chuckled and took a few steps forward, almost ready to give his order, "Yeah, it really does, Bura. I like what you did with it," he suddenly stopped and smirked at her, "now that you experienced the life of different hair styles, are you gonna change it every four weeks?"

Bura laughed, knowing Yamucha was referring to her mother, "You never know, I may surprise you."

"Mm, I like surprises," Yamucha shot back, giving her a sly grin that made her face heat up.

Oh, well aren't you the player? She sarcastically commented. She stepped forward, scanning the menu hanging above the counter.

"What are you planning on getting?" she questioned, squeezing in between him and a person that was in front of him.

He shrugged, "Probably just a large pizza."

She shook her head and pulled out a fifty-dollar bill from her purse, pressing it in his palm, "Make that four large pizzas. I'll go find a seat, okay?" and without waiting for an answer, she walked out of line in search for a table that was even semi-clean.

Yamucha only stared down at the money in amazement before looking up to watch her walk around tables to get to the one she wanted. A small smile came to his face as he muttered out, "Just like her mother…"

**********

It wasn't long before Yamucha and Bura were able to sit down and eat their pizza, Bura showing her Saiyajin side. At least she does have manners instead of just shoving everything into her face, was Yamucha's main thought.

"So where's Pan at?" Yamucha asked, watching the cheese stretch as he grabbed a piece of pizza.

Bura shrugged, grabbing her third piece, "Who knows, probably still in Hot Topic looking at shirts that say "Let's all kill the cat."

Yamucha was about to bite into his pizza, but stopped with the tip in his mouth, trying to figure out if he heard right. He put the pizza down, raised an eyebrow. He finally decided against asking any questions and just began eating.

Just like she knew they were talking about her, Pan suddenly showed up, taking a seat next to Bura and grabbing a piece, "Mmmm, thanks for ordering, guys. I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait in line."

Bura smiled, waiting for Pan to say something about her hair. She noticed that the older girl got three shopping bags at her feet, all of which had the famous HOT TOPIC logo.

"So, what'cha get?" Bura asked, crossing her arms over her chest and resting them on the table.

Pan shrugged and began to mumble out a big jumble of words that were very incoherent from trying to talk around eating. Lucky for the other two, she didn't talk very long, so they wouldn't have to learn a foreign language.

"Oh, that's cool," Bura said after Pan was done, nodding slightly.

Pan suddenly screamed something with tons of pizza in her mouth still, making Bura and Yamucha jump and look at her with wide eyes, noticing the odd stares from the people around.

"Uhh, Pan?" Bura began, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Do you think you can swallow before you talk?"

She obeyed, chewing for a couple more seconds before swallowing hard and taking a deep breath, "I said, what did you do to your hair?!"

"Oh, this?" Bura rolled her eyes up to see, acting as though she was unaware that she had gotten it done, "It's called a body wave. It gives more life to hair. You like it?"

Pan shrugged again, taking another bite of her pizza, "Eh, it's okay."

From hearing those three words, Bura's face reddened with anger, wondering why Pan couldn't be nicer about it and not so blunt. After all, whenever Pan shows her something and she hates it, she never says she does.

Bura turned away from her and began picking at her pizza, her ocean blue eyes narrowed down, "Oh yeah? Well, I think those pants you showed me earlier were terrible."

"You can say whatever you want," Pan said, obviously unaffected by Bura's insult, "I don't care about other peoples opinions, as long as it's what I want."

Bura thought about what she said for a moment before coming back with, "What, are you lecturing me now?"

"No," she shook her head, taking a sip of pop from a straw, "just telling you that insults don't work on me."

"Whatever. You're just lame," Bura stated, rolling her eyes before looking down at her pizza.

And all through this little "argument," Yamucha was only looking back and forth, from speaker to speaker. Finally, he couldn't help but speak up after they seemed to get quiet, "And…you two are friends?"

"Best friends," they said in unison, yet without any enthusiasm, nor without looking up at him from their food.

"Oh," he said quickly, nodding slowly, his eyes wide, "I can tell. It shows, really."

That's when Yamucha went on talking about what he did at the mall the whole time; starting with the places he went to, to the weird people he ran into, to the things he bought. Pan wasn't listening at all, only concentrating on her pizza and a few guys that were messing around a few tables away. Bura was listening, however, finding everything he told very ironically humorous.

As he went on talking about the "gay gothic people," she found it very hard not to giggle continuously.

He sure does have a way of telling stories… Bura thought, smiling widely, still half listening to him speak delightfully. And he's so comfortable to talk to and to be around. I haven't felt this relaxed around someone in ages. Her smile grew just a little more as she thought about it.

Maybe I should really consider getting to know him better…