White. Every damn thing was white. And quiet. Sabriena thought she was about to lose her mind after only one week of living at the Lookout. She couldn't wait for classes to start so she could interact with other people. These Nameks were so serious all the time. Piccolo wanted nothing to do with her and she wanted nothing to do with him either.
Dende was nice enough she supposed, but he always seemed to be walking the very edge of the place, stopping and concentrating for long periods of time before he quietly resumed his walk, the only sound from him the methodical tapping of his staff on the big tiles. They didn't even sit down to eat dinner when she fixed it! Dende had politely thanked her, but told her that he was vegetarian, to which she ferally sank her teeth into her steak and turned her nose up at him.
So Sabriena amused herself with listening to music, blaring her headphones so loud that Dende winced every time he walked by her, or banging around in the kitchen as she tried new recipes out for herself. There was simply nothing else to do.
She sighed as she sat in the middle of the tile floor, the sun shining brightly down on her, and she wondered if she could get away with tanning out here. She pulled her phone out and her headphones again, but paused. Maybe she could talk one of her friends into coming to visit. She clicked Jenny's name and waited for her friend to answer. "Dude, come hang out with me," she whined without greeting. "This place SUCKS. I'm so fucking bored!"
Jenny huffed, "Sabriena, we've barely been here a week and you're bored already? Haven't you like tried to get your host family to take you around the town, show you the sights, something like that? I think Bulma's taken me across most of the city. I know where I can find food, the college, and a dozen shopping malls. Catie and Trunks came with me to pick up art supplies. It's pretty awesome. Who are you staying with again?"
"I'm staying with NAMEKS," she hissed. "You would not believe this place. It's like a million miles in the sky. And there's nothing here. Not even a TV! And they haven't taken me anywhere. You're lucky you got to stay in the city," she huffed. "Look, if I just text you the GPS-thingy of where I am, will you PLEASE come hang out with me? Or can you ask someone from your host family to bring you here? I'd go to you, but I can't figure this new capsule car out. I'm trapped!" she wailed dramatically.
Jenny chuckled and nodded, though she knew Sabriena couldn't see her. "That bad, huh?" She had known Sabriena for longer than she could remember and she did not enjoy quiet. It usually meant trouble. "Alright." She looked over at the clock to see that it was just the early afternoon and their class wasn't until ten the next morning. "Text me your location and I'll be on my way."
"I'd come to you, but Dende doesn't know how to work this thing either. And if Piccolo does, he's not saying so," she grumbled, shooting a hateful glance at Piccolo's back as he sat on the edge of the Lookout, meditating as usual. "Just get here as fast as you can. Maybe you can help me figure out what's wrong with the damn capsule so I can actually make it to my first class tomorrow." She hung up and texted Jenny how to get to where she was before she put her phone back in her pocket. She sighed and flopped back on the tiles to stare up at the bright sky overhead. "I should tan naked," she mused to herself. She jumped when she heard Dende's staff clatter to the floor and she glanced over at him and snickered to herself. "Sorry, forgot you could hear me."
Dende wrenched his eyes shut, rubbing at his face. He was doing his best to try and tune her out, but her personality was just so big. It was almost as if Goku were on the Lookout with him. That man was hard to think around as well. He shook his head to himself.
No, Sabriena was far worse.
He picked up his staff and looked over at Sabriena before he walked over and sat next to her. "You know, I do not mean to offend, but some of the work I do requires the utmost concentration on my part. It is very hard to concentrate when you have that music turned all the way up," he said and eyed her headphones warily. He lifted his hand to her, a faint golden light surrounding it as he let it drift near her ears. "Plus you are doing irreparable damage to yourself. Do we really upset you this much?"
Sabriena jumped and shied away from his hand without sitting up. "The hell are you doing?" she asked as she gave his hand a suspicious glare. Dende didn't seem bothered as he let the energy surround her ear and she felt a strange warmth seep into her. She blinked at him as the slight ringing she always heard faded away. "Hey, that was kinda cool," she said. She turned her head and let him heal the other side. "Heh. I've gotten so used to it, I didn't really notice it anymore." Truth be told, it wasn't so much the music but the hours upon hours spent at the shooting range that had done the most damage to her hearing.
She sighed as she folded her arms behind her head and stared up at the sky again. "You don't upset me. You're just... well... boring. Sorry," she muttered, even though she didn't sound very sorry at all.
Dende chuckled softly, "Yes, I think to the outsider, my brother and I are rather boring. I don't think that, but you can't see what I see. Hear what I hear." He looked off to the closest edge of the Lookout. "The planet is always at war with itself. Natural disasters, humans, conflict. The list is much more detailed and more extensive than anyone could ever know. If you heard what I hear…"
He trailed off for a moment, closing his eyes briefly. "I relish in the peace and quiet here because it is the briefest respite that I can manage before I need to listen to the woes of the planet again."
The Namek smiled at her, a sheepish look appearing on his face as he paused to rub at the back of his neck. "I snuck one of your baked potatoes the other day. They were exquisite. As was that chocolate cake." He licked his lips at the thought of it. "Perhaps I could trouble you to make it again?"
She cocked an eyebrow at him. "I KNEW it." She smirked and shook her head. "I think you're wrong. When you take a break, you shouldn't be sitting here in the quiet. Cause when it's quiet, that's when your brain starts thinking of all the crazy shit in your life. Or, you know, whatever it is you do. You should spend that time doing something FUN. That way you can escape. I hate the quiet. It fucks with my head." She sighed again and thought about the warehouse back home. "I'm not used to it ever being quiet and I like it that way. Seriously, you need a hobby or something."
Dende smiled faintly at her. "If only I could, it is rare for me to take a break from my work. The world never stops turning and her troubles only seem to grow. They come and go, like waves on a beach. Each pass taking away a little with it."
He worked his lip for a moment before he held his hand up to her. "Perhaps you would like to listen in for a short moment. Silence seems more peaceful when you live with everything the world has to offer playing around in your head. Like you said, it is what I hear."
She stared warily at his hand for a moment before she took it in her own. Her eyes went wide and she sat bolt upright as the strangest jumble of sounds flooded her ears. Screaming, wailing, crying filled her head, the sounds of gunfire and explosions, the earth rumbling and storms raging. It was overwhelming. She listened for only a few moments before she wrenched her hand away, the sound stopping immediately. She scooted back, breathing heavily as she stared at him. "That's what you hear all day long?" she shrieked.
He inclined his head at her. "To me, silence is golden. Sometimes I hear the good. Children laughing, cheers of a battle ending, the joy of finding loved ones when they were thought to be lost. However, most of the time all I can ever hear is that." He looked around the Lookout. "I must look very strange to you as I make my rounds. When I stop, I am trying to heal an area of the earth that calls out to me the loudest. The more energy I use to heal the earth, the less I have to hold back the voices and keep them at bay. Most nights I will have to put myself into a meditative trance to just get some sleep before the cycle starts over again the next day."
"That's insane," she said. She didn't know what to think. If she heard shit like that all day, she'd go nuts. She chewed her lip for a moment as she glanced over her shoulder at Piccolo. "So what about him? Does he hear the same thing? That would explain the stick up his ass." She snorted in amusement as Piccolo slightly turned his head towards her. "Yeah, I'm talkin' about you!" she called loudly in his direction.
Dende laughed at his brother's reaction before he remembered to be respectful and covered his mouth with his hand. He shook his head and lowered his hand to his staff. "No, he does not. There is only one Guardian. Only the Guardian can hear the voice of the planet. Which is just as well. I would not wish these voices on anyone." He looked at Sabriena, trying to understand her. He could sense a great potential within her. Something wanting to burst out, but he did not know what. He promised that he wouldn't read her mind again. "Come, I will help you make chocolate cake for your friend."
"Mmhmm," she hummed skeptically as she stood up. "You want more chocolate cake for yourself," she accused and grabbed his hand to pull him to his feet.
Dende smiled at her and followed her into the kitchen. "But of course. However, it sounds better if I say it the other way."
She shook her head as she started rummaging through the kitchen, pulling out utensils and ingredients. "I just don't understand," she said as she worked. "I mean, okay, I get it. What you do is important. But don't you ever take some time for yourself? The world isn't going anywhere. You can't run yourself ragged twenty four hours a day and expect yourself to be able to handle it all the time. Like Gramma always says, you need balance. I'm serious, man. You need a hobby. A girlfriend. A boyfriend? SOMETHING!"
Dende sat down and watched Sabriena go about her craft. "You are not the first person to say that. However, I do not have much time for dating. I suppose I could come up with a hobby." He thought for a moment, it might be nice. The trouble came from finding something that would fit in with his lifestyle. "I think I will need help on that venture," he sighed and leaned back, feeling his neck pop. He had definitely had it bent more than usual today.
Sabriena grabbed her long blonde hair and pulled it in frustration for a moment before she wheeled around to look at him. "Don't have time for dating? That's… You…" she spluttered before she crossed the kitchen and grabbed his face in her hands. "You need to MAKE time! You don't listen well, do you?" she demanded, but paused and snickered at the way his cheeks looked smooshed between her palms. "You're hard headed," she stated with an amused smile. She laughed at the wide-eyed expression on his face and squished his cheeks a little more. "You're kinda cute like that," she laughed and let go of him. "I seriously don't know what to do with you."
Dende wasn't quite sure what to do with her either. He was fairly certain his predecessors were rolling in their tombs at the fact that his cheeks had just been pinched. He absentmindedly rubbed at his face as she went back to cooking. "I find the very same question raised with you," he said, winking at her to show he said it in good fun, "It is rather hard to make time when the Earth is demanding. Always turning, always going on, never pausing in her efforts. Perhaps I will be able to take a break, but there are a lot of wars being raged on the planet. Some big, some not so big, but every one causes pain. The size of the war does not matter, the pain is equal." He leaned his head on his hand. "Though, it would be nice if I had someone help me ease this burden." He shook his head. "Like you said. If I did find someone, they would no doubt be bored, if they got past the green skin of course. Then, if they knew what I listened to every hour of every day, they would be gone so fast I am sure my head would be spinning."
Sabriena scraped the cake batter into a pan and set it in the oven, then kicked it shut. She dragged her finger through the bowl and licked the batter from her finger before she offered over the spoon to him. Leaning on the table with her hands, she fixed him with an intense stare. "Okay, first of all, if you DO want to meet someone, knock off the insecurity shit. That's not sexy. Women like a man who's confident. Second, if someone's gonna judge you on the color of your skin, then fuck that bitch. She ain't worth your time anyway. And THIRD, you're never gonna meet anyone if you don't make the time to. So you got work to do, boy, if you're gonna ever find a moment to get out of your own brain and relax."
Dende licked at the spoon, much too pleased with his treat for her words to sting. "You don't know how old I am, do you? I could very well be centuries older than you," he said simply.
She cocked an eyebrow at him and boldly pressed her fingers to the side of his neck, feeling his pulse there. "Nope. You've got a pulse, so you're not a vampire. Not buying the centuries old thing." She looked him up and down. "You're twenty at best. Maybe not even that." He had a young-looking face, although his eyes seemed to hold a wisdom far beyond his youthful features.
Dende chuckled, "Twenty-two by earth years I think. I lose track. Though, with what I've been through, it feels as if I have lived a few hundred lifetimes." He smiled at her. "Thank you for looking out for my best interests."
"Bah, you don't care what I think," she muttered, waving a dismissive hand at him. "You're just after the cake." She started whipping up the icing as she heard a car door slam outside. "Oh! I bet that's Jenny." She popped the bowl of half-mixed icing on the table in front of Dende. "Here. Be useful," she said and hurried outside.
"JENNY!" she squealed as she trotted across the tile in her high heels, throwing her arms wide to hug her friend. "OMG, someone normal! Well, sorta normal," she snickered. "Come on, follow me. I'm making Gramma's chocolate cake. Try not to go blind from all the boring white walls everywhere. It's maddening in here, I tell you. Like some sort of fucked up medieval torture chamber."
Jenny laughed as she followed Sabriena into the kitchen. "Mmm, feels like it's been forever since I've had Gramma's chocolate cake." Though honestly it had only been a little over a week or so. She inhaled deeply the fragrant scent of the chocolate cake baking in the air and for a moment it almost felt like home. "You should just bake this all the time, it makes me feel right..." She paused in her sentence and blinked at the green alien who was sitting at a table, frozen with a spoonful of icing in his mouth, clutching at the bowl as the girls walked back in. There were little smudges on his cheeks and a little dollop on his nose. "So, uh, that's Piccolo?"
"No, that's Dende," Sabriena answered with a sigh. "You were supposed to MIX the icing. Not eat it," she scolded. She shoved at his shoulder playfully. "Guardian my ass. Sugar freak is more like." She went to the cupboard and pulled out a fresh bowl to make another batch of icing. "Piccolo is the grumpy green bastard outside. Yes, I'm talking about you again!" she said loudly. She looked at Jenny. "Be careful what you say. They can hear EVERYTHING." She narrowed her eyes at Dende and shook her head. "Useless."
Dende watched them both with a gleam in his eyes before he decided he was not going to be yelled at for eating the rest of the icing and pulled the spoon out of his mouth, dipping it into the bowl for another helping. He bowed his head at the newcomer, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Jenny. Sabriena has been telling us all about her friends." He licked the spoon clean, sighing happily. "Sorry about the uh, state of things. I have a weakness for sweets," he admitted.
Jenny laughed. "Well, I can understand that. Sabriena's cooking is rather potent stuff anyhow," she chuckled and stood by her at the counter. "Trying to win over a man already with your cooking, huh? Not bad." She looked around the place. "I thought you said this was like a medieval torture chamber, it's beautiful out there. You are just missing the warehouse and the pulsating music that will make your brain explode. That place is so much more like a torture room. All grey and gloomy. Yuck. I think I've had enough of that place."
Sabriena's eyes went wide at Jenny's words. "You cannot be serious," she breathed. "You better not ever say that in front of Yorgi. He'd kill you." She shook her head as if she couldn't even wrap her head around Jenny's words. That place was like a sanctuary to them. It was their escape from everything. They had everything they could ever want there. Money, cars, parties, men, clothes, freedom. It was like heaven to Sabriena. And only the outside appeared gloomy. Well, okay, the inside was rather dark, but it had an expensive gothic air to it that appealed to her. "Literally kill you," she muttered under her breath. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine and she pressed her lips shut, refusing to say anything more about the owner. The relationship with Yorgi was hard to explain, she didn't know him that well and what little she did know was best kept quiet, and she was grateful she didn't have to attempt it.
She stuck her fingers in the icing and lightly slapped Jenny's face, smearing the icing across her cheek. "And THAT is for the 'winning over a man' comment," she snipped before she licked her fingers and pulled the cake from the oven to cool. "I have a man back home, thank you very much. Have you completely forgotten about Tumbler? It seems to me that YOU are the one without a man. Unless, you know, you wanna let Kolya have a go at you. He's had his eye on you lately, you know." She giggled at the expression on Jenny's face. "Aw, c'mon. Tall, blonde, body of a god, sexy Russian accent. You know that man is like pure sex."
Dende just watched as Jenny just shook her head. His eyes had narrowed at the serious talk of being killed for mentioning ill of someone. He had a feeling there was more of a story behind their hushed words, but he kept to himself. He was, for the moment, content to listen to them talk of simple things and eat his bowl of stolen icing.
Sabriena made sure the cake was cool enough before she iced it. She cut big slices for herself, Jenny, and Dende before they sat down at the table to eat. "Are you even gonna be able to eat that?" she teased Dende. "You just ate that entire bowl of icing." She snickered and shook her head as he pulled the cake closer to him. "Ah, I'm sure you can find someone around here if you're really looking for a man," she said to Jenny. "Hey, I know! Go out there and flirt with Piccolo! Maybe he'd be in a better mood if he got laid!"
Dende chuckled into his cake as he heard his brother sputter across the Lookout. He looked up at her. "You should meet my brother at least. Give him some hope for humanity. I think he is still traumatized about finding Sabriena in his bed the first night she stayed here," he said with a smirk.
Jenny laughed, "In his bed huh?"
Sabriena scowled. "Well it wasn't my fault! I didn't know it was his room. There was nothing in there that made it look like anyone was using it. Seriously, I have never seen a bedroom so spotless." She shook her head, thinking of her own room which in all honesty probably needed to be straightened up a bit. But at least there was color in it with all of her clothes and belonging strung all over the place. "Asshole yanked me outta bed and dumped me in the hallway."
"You should take a few lessons from him about neatness," Jenny teased, "Then again, where would the little bugs find homes if you cleaned up the floor and made everything spotless?" She finished her slice of cake and pushed her plate back from her. She watched with amusement as Dende got up and helped himself to a second slice. "Careful, Dende," she said with a smile on her face, "Not too much all at once or we will have a hard time getting you clean. Gramma's chocolate cake is addictive." She decided she liked this alien, certainly not the little green men she had been told about as she was growing up.
"There are not bugs in my stuff!" Sabriena narrowed her eyes even more. "You wanna get bitch-slapped with icing again, don't you? You liked it." She shook her head and got up to walk over to the counter and cut another slice of cake and put it on a fresh plate. She marched back over to the table and set it down in front of Jenny. "Here. Go take it to asshat, I mean, Piccolo, and see if you can get ya some. Maybe it'll make him easier to deal with."
Dende tilted his head, listening to his brother as he spoke in a growl and he chuckled. "Piccolo says you might as well just give that to me. More or less his words."
Jenny blinked at him for a moment before her eyes went to his ears. "Oh! That's right, you guys can hear really well." She grabbed up the plate and fork. "Maybe he just needs to smell it, this stuff is irresistible up close."
The Guardian shrugged his shoulders. "Suit yourself, my brother is out back near the edge of the Lookout. Play nice," he said, less to her and more to his grumbling brother who was cursing him under his breath. Honestly, it wouldn't kill him to eat something.
Jenny smiled and grabbed up the plate with the fork before she headed in the direction Dende had nodded to. Sounds of Sabriena and Dende talking faded as she walked farther away. She honestly couldn't see what had Sabriena so frazzled about this place. They had come all this way to escape from the world and what better way to do so then to be up here, away from it all. She finally emerged out onto the gleaming white tile and spotted the other green alien, hovering above the floor in a zen like meditative pose.
Piccolo braced himself as he heard her footsteps drawing closer. He was going to murder Dende in his sleep for this. All he wanted to do was to be left alone for a while so he could meditate and concentrate on his training. The World Martial Arts Tournament was coming up and while at first he didn't think he would enter, Goku had challenged him to do so and he couldn't turn it down.
"You're wasting your time," he warned her in his deep, rich voice without looking at her. "Go back inside with your friend. I'm not interested in anything she was suggesting."
Jenny chuckled but walked closer. "Neither am I, but it is good cake. I won't tell her if you eat it," she said as she looked him over. He was a shade darker green than Dende, definitely more muscled and bigger than the other Namek with sharper facial features. She was surprised at how handsome he was, really. "What are you doing out here all alone?"
Piccolo sighed heavily through his nose and lowered himself to sit on the tile. He finally opened his eyes and looked at her. "Meditating," he answered. He wrinkled his nose at the cake she held in her hands. He didn't trust anything Sabriena made. She'd probably poisoned the piece she sent out to him.
Jenny smiled at the look he gave the piece of cake and she set it on the tile next to him, before she sat down as well. "Don't worry, she doesn't mess with food. That's taboo for her, food is sacred and if she was going to prank you, it wouldn't be with this. It's safe."
She looked at him for a moment, there was something about those dark eyes and his voice. He spoke with an accent almost, but she couldn't place it, most likely from his own planet. "Sorry for the twenty questions, what are you meditating for? Or is it just a general meditation to escape from all that?" She thumbed over her shoulder towards the kitchen from where she had come from. She knew Sabriena was a bit much for people to handle, she didn't make new friends easily.
"Actually, I'm training my mind for the martial arts tournament," he answered. Why was she so interested? He wasn't sure what to think of her. He hadn't been around many humans besides the other fighters, and half of them weren't even truly human. The only females he'd ever been around were Bulma and Chichi. Neither of which he cared much for. Bulma had calmed down over the years and wasn't quite as demanding and spoiled as she had been in her youth, but Chichi could be a downright pain to deal with. And now there was Sabriena, who made him just shudder to think about. If that was what he had to judge women by, he was better off without one. "Why are you so interested?"
Her eyes widened as he mentioned a martial arts tournament. It rang a bell in her mind and she could have sworn Catie or Trunks might have mentioned it. Maybe Vegeta mentioned it while they were training? She smiled, "Well, back in America, we haven't been really visited by any aliens. I'm just a curious sort, if I offend, you can tell me to go away."
She watched him a moment more. "Is that meditation technique something you learned on your home planet or on your own?" She was fascinated by the newness of the situation. How often did you get to meet someone like this?
Piccolo's eye twitched at the word "alien." He'd never much cared for the term. He closed his eyes for a moment and drew a long breath through his nose. "Self-taught," he answered flatly. Did she have to stare at him like that? He slightly shook his head. He and Dende were going to have a long talk about these humans showing up and throwing off their routines like this. And he still owed Goku a rather intense sparring match for dumping Sabriena off like that. He knew why the Saiyan had approached Dende instead of him. Dende was too kind to say no.
Jenny bit back a snicker; this was a man of few words. No wonder Sabriena didn't much care for him, she would have preferred to be yelled at in Russian than stand the silence here. She felt a bit out of place then, like she was intruding and she nudged the cake closer to him. "Sorry, I'll leave you alone. It was nice meeting you."
Piccolo said nothing and nudged the cake back at her.
She blinked at him a moment, he had closed his eyes again and faced outward towards the edge of the Lookout. She just couldn't believe he was resisting this cake that much. Curious, she pushed it back towards him.
Piccolo's jaw clenched as she pushed it back at him. Damn, she was stubborn. He didn't know whether to be impressed or irritated. Most people were intimidated by him, but she didn't seem to be. Forcing himself to keep his temper in check, he pushed the plate back at her one last time. "Aren't you supposed to be spending time with your friend?"
Jenny chuckled. "You've been around her, she's best in small doses," she said as she teased the little plate back towards him. "You probably heard it, but my name's Jenny." She felt a little embarrassed that she had just pretty much skipped introductions, but in her defense, it was easy to get distracted when faced with someone who came from the stars.
Dear gods, she was just not going to go away. Piccolo finally picked up the plate and stood up to his full height, looking down his nose at her with an intense stare that clearly said he was not amused. With a flick of his wrist, he threw the cake over the edge of the Lookout and handed the plate back to her. "Piccolo. And I'd rather not have any sort of dose of her at all." And with that he turned and walked away from her before he took to the air, heading for a nearby waterfall that would hopefully provide him with the peace and quiet he needed to concentrate.
Sabriena leaned in the doorway with her arms crossed and a smirk on her lips as she stared at Jenny who seemed frozen to the spot. "Isn't he a peach?" she asked loudly.
Jenny peered over the side of the Lookout and watched as the cake fell to the ground below. A fit of giggles overcame her and she burst out laughing, "Oh I do not want to be the person that lands on. They are going to think some bird just took the crap of its life."
Sabriena doubled over with laughter. "That's so wrong. So wrong," she laughed. She wiped at her eyes and shook her head. "Still, that's like sacrilegious to waste Gramma's cake like that. Now I really hate him." She turned as Dende walked out onto the tile. "Did you see what your brother did? YOU should be mad at him for wasting cake like that."
Dende shrugged. "Well, you gave him cake and he did with it as he pleased."
Sabriena rolled her eyes and went to Jenny. She linked arms with her friend and took the dirty plate from her and marched back across the Lookout. She handed the plate to Dende without a word and continued on towards Jenny's car. "Come on. You're taking me to the city for an afternoon of shopping."