New Namek Neighbours

Nero had started to wander through the area near his family home; currently observing the growth and health of local farmlands or wild plants. Eventually something else caught his attention— a very recognisable spacecraft could be seen entering Namek’s atmosphere and it landed not too far away! “Oh cool, she’s back.” Nero smiled, skipping into the air before floating over to the ship just as the door opened to reveal the occupants. “Oh yes, fancy..” Nero replied, adjusting an imaginary suit and tie for extra measure. “Very fancy indeed. It’s almost as if I live here~ Good to see you!”

Nero snickered and gave Zhalla a polite wave all the same. Of course, he noticed the gaggle of children, they were hard to miss— and in a sense they stood out next to Zhalla’s comparative height. Even more than that, this sight pretty handily confirmed Nero’s suspicions of Zhalla being a lot more than just a bounty hunting badass. As such, Nero gave Zhalla a knowing cheeky little smirk before giving his attention to the children. “Heya!” He began, with a bright smile and wave. “How was the trip for everyone? Not too hectic I hope.”

“Exactly, I’m the most hilarious man to have ever lived.” He said with what seemed to be a straight face and absolute confidence at first before he just gave off a dorky snort and laughed to himself a bit. “Man, imagine if someone actually said that unironically.”

When Zhalla asked about her choice of landing ground, Nero waggled his hand in a ‘so so’ kind of way. “Yeah, you’re not far off, it isn’t too far from here even by walking standards.” Which could, in all honesty, mean anywhere between 700 meters and 700 kilometers coming from Nero of all people given that he often walks almost everywhere unless he’s in a rush. This of course, also assumed he didn’t specify. Which he didn’t— surprise, surprise. He smirked slightly at Zhalla, very clearly messing with her in a playful way over it.

What happened next however, blew everything else out of the water. While he passively registered the gaggle of children, it hadn’t yet fully clicked to him. He took a moment to actualize the existence of something that could have proved him right regarding what was essentially the luckiest guess of all time. The truth of it all damn near floored him! “Y^up!” Nero chirped in a somewhat embarrassed way as his voice cracked a bit, his ears tensing up as he blushed slightly too.

Nero coughed loudly as he quickly got himself back together, just in time for the plucky little blonde kid to speak up, get thwacked in the head by one of his friends and laugh it off. “Aww whaaaat? Dion can’t be that rowdy, can he?” Yes, funny little jokes, Nero was in his element now, nevermind the fact that he was still kind of dumbstruck by his guess all those days ago being right! Speaking of Dion, there was also the matter of that capsule Nero had received from Dion recently— but that could wait, it was a surprise for Zhalla and these kiddos after all!

The children bombarded Nero with a series of questions at Zhalla’s request, and each one only increased the size of Nero’s grin as he quickly winked at Zhalla. “Technically, I actually first met her when I was three, so younger than a lot of you— but recently we ran into each other again. We ended up having a sparring match— and lemme tell you kids she’s definitely a tough one, I’d say Zhalla is amazing actually. You’re in good hands, that’s for sure.” Nero nodded sagely. “She’s helped me out a lot too, we’re quite close in fact! Depending on where she thinks it’s sensible to set up a home for you all, I’ll probably be nearby!”

“Oh yeah, utterly mortifying, surely.” Nero rolled his eyes in a positive yet exaggerated fashion as he sarcastically matched Zhalla’s banter. “That’d make me the nightmare you’ve been dreaming of wouldn’t it?” Nero added, comically wiggling his eyebrows as he gave off another snort of laughter.

Nero could tell Noki was something of a well meaning mischief maker. He would get along with a fair few youngsters his age if he was enrolled at any of the local schools sometime. “Look out for this one, if you’re not careful he’ll be wittier than me even.” Nero chuckled seeing Noki get chased around by the other kids.

As for what the kids now believed as a ‘sparring match’, Nero simply let his input be taken as it was. He indeed had no real clue if any of these kids knew about Zhalla’s line of work, but she did seem pretty concerned with Dontoph knowing when she met him after their fight, so along with it being a fair assumption, Nero also omitted his knowledge of her being a bounty hunter out of respect. To signal Zhalla in on this he mentally projected a wink to her via his telepathy.

Zhalla even freely admitted her loss without a second thought. Huh. That was different, Nero barely expected that, but he supposed she wasn’t going to straight up lie about it to those in her care since they asked. It made sense, there was obviously a reason she had the respect of these kids.

Speaking of, they were all incredibly eager to find a spot to set up their new home, most of the kids voiced the opinion that they wanted to be closer to where Nero lived— Zhalla eventually caved and settled for roughly where they were currently. Perfect! He could enact the plan he got Dion’s help with now!

So, Nero decided to spill the beans on where his home was. “Well, you guys are in luck because my place is just down there.” Nero casually pointed down a small hillside nearby, and within sight there would be a nice multi-story building of primarily Namekian architecture with a sizable fenced yard littered with a mess of what looked to be training dummies, wood, tech junk and broken boulders. Yep, Nero absolutely lived there.

Zhalla seemed intent on building a house here herself, which was unsurprising but Nero quickly stepped forward after hearing that it might take a bit longer to make it ‘just like the home they had back on Earth’. In secret, as sneakily as he could manage, Nero grabbed the capsule from one of his pouches and hid it in one of his hands. “Hhhhmmmmmmm— I dunno about that.” Nero gestured for everyone to move back a bit towards the ship as he seemingly began to... Measure the ground? “I’ll need you all to stand back a bit, I don’t want anyone to get injured accidentally, okay?” Nero smiled and looked to Zhalla, trusting her to mind the children.

Once everyone understood what he was asking for, Nero took a deep breath, holding his hands together in front of himself. He closed his eyes and began to glow slightly, his clothes and hair rising and falling to a mystical rhythm of sorts. The glow travelled and gathered around his hands before condensing within them. Nero opened his hands, showing what looked like a small glowing marble. “Check this out.” He flashed a beaming smile and a wink at Zhalla.

Nero then entered a more solid stance, not quite a fighting stance, more one that easily gathers the flow of energy. With that, his aura flowed outwards from him, cool and calm. “In one single flash, quick and quiet as a mouse, turn this thin air before me, into a house!” In one graceful and fluid movement, Nero threw the marble within the area he measured and it popped into a sparkly light show, with a puff of glittery blue smoke. As he had said with his silly little rhyme, there was indeed a house there now.

But, not just any house. The house. “Tadah!” Nero flicked a wrist, dispelling any leftover blue smoke and dust, fully revealing the structure.

Nero waggled a finger in an over-exaggerated manner. “Handsome stupid face, get it right.” He smirked seeing Zhalla try her best not to laugh as well.

“I’ve got two younger brothers actually.” Nero explained, though he would rather the two introduced themselves of their own accord on their own terms so he kept his answers more brief out of respect for them. “The answer to that really depends on which of them you mean. They’re both very brainy— geniuses in their own right I’d say. So as far as playing any game would go, it would have to be something that they would find engaging and exciting.”

Nero chose to let his actions speak for themselves. As much as Nero made a show of things, there was no funny games to be had here, but also basically no work whatsoever to be done now in terms of recreating a house. Hearing the unrestrained joy of these kids was really something, and Nero couldn’t help but grin widely. He bowed when he heard the applause. He would have explained everything to the kids but they all scrambled into the building before he could.

“Aha, but there is a way you see— _hyo^OP—” In that moment, Zhalla had scooped him up and squeezed him tight in a hug, he could handle it cuz he was tough, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t at least a little surprised. “Ahahha— yup, he helped— okay, alright, okay, I’ll— I’ll almost crack him in half for you!” Nero snickered, and eventually Zhalla set him back down. “But yeah, you’ll find that everything is —” Nero began to speak but Zhalla gave him a little peck on the cheek. Ok, that was the bigger surprise. Nero went red in the face again. “—in place...” Clearing his throat, Nero chose to now focus on Zhalla’s smile. “Well I’ll be damned...” Wait, his face was still red, which he soon realized and tried to focus on something else, giving himself a few gentle slaps when Zhalla looked away from him.

“Yeah, didn’t have to.” Nero gave a smug little smile. Zhalla should know by now exactly what he was going to say next and Nero half expected her to say it at the same time as him. “I just wanted to.” The next hug from Zhalla was one that Nero was ready for even though he noticed it was a much softer one than the first, he knew this was one that nobody else would get from Zhalla. Nero simply hugged her back. “Heh, no problem. Welcome to Namek, neighbour.”

“Indeed, two, both geniuses.” Nero nodded sagely. He himself didn’t have their level of intellectual aptitude, but he was no slouch by any means. “I see no harm in goofing off every now and then, in fact, in good moderation its healthy.” Nero paused, speaking rather seriously moments later. “Making an undue habit of it is very unhealthy. Do keep that in mind.” He advised. “I might not be a genius or anything, but I’ve got something else up my sleeves other than my arms— its that I’m quite clever.” Ah yes, a man of intuition he was; Zhalla would know this of course.

Nero snorted, he would make sure to do as he had promised when the time was right. In response to her gently thumping his shoulder, Nero gave a cheeky grin in return— she was trying not to be cute! He could hear it! “Oh for sure, anything looks good on me!” He too, owned it proudly. “Don’t think you can get away with it though, red suits you just as well as it does me.” Yeah, that’ll show her.

“Yep. Exactly right.” Nero made no effort to conceal any part of the plan he and Dion had to essentially prank Zhalla wholesomely. “Telepathy is great, I’d be more than happy to teach you— whenever you like.” He wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to teach Zhalla more things, especially if she was openly interested without any form of resistance to the idea.

“Will they be all good carrying everything to their rooms, or should we lend a hand? I get that they’re excited but thats no excuse to rush and hurt themselves by accident.” Nero suggested, also watching over the children scurrying around with their belongings. “Of course, I’d love to show you all around sometime. Are any of them particularly invested in that? They could be part of the first group.”

“It isn’t like he’s wrong, you’re a tough cookie.” Nero chuckled, gently bumping Zhalla in the shoulder with a free hand. “Not that you needed reminding.”

Zhalla agreed that Nero could rock anything, now that was something, there wasn’t even a hint of hesitation from her! Nero puffed out his chest a little, he was pretty proud of that. “Yeah, it is so.” He also had no hesitation in owning his compliment towards her. But, if she insisted... “Oh, I have an outfit that features red in it, don’t say I didn’t warn you, cuz its a really good one.” Nero returned her hip bump with one of his own. “So be careful what you wish for, Sunshine”

“Good thing you know better and that I do indeed enjoy your company!” Nero couldn’t help but laugh, this was fun! As always he left it to Zhalla to decide if she wanted to pursue telepathy as a skill. “We could go to Juice Pod, I recall you wanted to try more things from there. I’ll always take the chance to visit there, they do really good stuff.”

Nero kept watch on the kids scurrying around, and it was as Zhalla said, they looked like they knew what they were doing even if things looked rather chaotic. “Fair enough, They look like they’ve got it.” Nero moved his tail to try and gently hold onto Zhalla’s, flashing her a big ol’ grin before calling out to the kids again. “Good stuff everyone, just remember to pace yourselves!”

Zhalla was going to sort larger furniture herself, Nero would have offered to assist, but she would probably tell him off and say he had done enough already, so he chose not to say anything about it. “Fair enough, makes sense.” When it came to a small tour of sorts, Zhalla was confident that they could handle taking everyone, and Nero was as well. “Oh sure—” Of course, the kids themselves had things to say about the prospect of said tour. Their enthusiasm was nothing short of adorable.

Noki and a few others suggested two names for the first group; Uba and Harper— Nero could easily recognise those were Namekian names, and sure enough the ones with said names were Namekians. Both of them were young as far as Namekians went. Harper was around Chime’s age by the looks of things, and Uba looked to be much closer to a hatchling, but there was also the chance that he was simply small. “Sounds good to me.” Nero nodded to Zhalla, waiting for Harper and Uba’s input. It looked like Uba might need some reassurance or encouragement, which Zhalla was already handling. Nero gave the little guy a warm smile and a little wave, leaving the rest to Uba himself.

“Deny it all you want, the cookie portion of that statement is valid.” Nero grinned, he had all the proof he needed to make a statement like that, the evidence was literally running around the two of them between the ship and the shelter.

“I might need to get that outfit tailored and fixed up cuz it might be a bit small for me right now, but still, I like it a lot.” Nero nodded, red would suit Zhalla quite well in terms of an outfit but Nero had another suggestion in mind. “I think you’d fit something thats pink and white as well— whatever you think works best of course!”

Nero had a bit of a laugh to himself, Zhalla’s banter was fun, a spiced kind of sarcasm which was pretty unique. “Oh, me, all of your other friends and these children, yes.” Nothing said Nero couldn’t banter back after all. “There’s other places to go too though, I think it might be nice to go to a place that you’re also a bit more familiar with to get the full experience before we go elsewhere— and hey, fruits are good. There’s no arguing that.”

Happy to trust Zhalla’s judgement, Nero simply waited and watched the kids with her as they moved their things. There was still the matter of who would go on the tour, and one little guy still needed a bit of encouragement to step out from the ship. Zhalla kneeled down with open arms to get Uba’s attention. In no time at all the little guy scurried his way over to Zhalla and into her arms. Everyone cheered him on and Nero couldn’t help but smile too. “<You have a dragon’s heart, Uba. Well done.>” Nero spoke a simple phrase in Namekian tongue to Uba, as a way of welcoming the youngster to the planet of his ancestors— be it a first welcome or one heralding his return, it didn’t matter really. For those interested, Nero would translate. “If anyone’s curious, I basically said he is very brave. But you all know that to be true anyway.”

Nero looked to Uba himself when Zhalla mentioned he was going to be the tour guide. He gave a polite little bow to Uba “It is an honour to be showing you around.”