New Namek Neighbours

“Well, what do you think of my suggestion regarding a suit though? I think that sort of colour setup could be very fitting on you, personally.” In terms of a tie, Nero wiggled his hands to indicate that he wasn’t fully sure on what to do for that. “I’m not sure what kind of tie would fit you best, either a classic one or a bowtie.” As for himself, Nero thought about it for a moment. “Not really? I think I’d rock one pretty well. Maybe something like a dark blue suit, trousers and shoes, black collar shirt and white bowtie? I wouldn’t be against that.”

Nero wasn’t sure on when he would ask Zhalla for another match, but the glint in his eye showed that he was definitely considering it. “Sure, I’ll think about it! And hey, what’s the point if it isn’t a challenge? I’ll have more for you than my epic and cool classic Masenko, I promise you that, you smelly technique shamer.” Nero poked his tongue out and did a little raspberry, he was jovial yet quite serious about having more tricks up his very funky sleeves. He smiled when Zhalla reacted to the idea of that smoothie joke. “Oh sure, I owe you a chicken and mincemeat BBQ smoothie, duh.” He said sarcastically.

“Yeah, that’s a discussion that should include any of the kids that would want to be tutored or have a go with schooling here. I’d be happy to, obviously, but I’ll ask mum, just a second.” Nero looked off to the left slightly for a moment. He looked to be using telepathy. A moment later he flinched a little. “Well. Uh. She’s— she’s all for it, and massively excited to have the opportunity!” Nero cupped a hand to one of his ears and snickered. “Pfft, I can hear her screeching in glee from here, good grief.”

Either way, Nero trusted Zhalla to take care of any of the kids’ schooling needs. If she needed any pointers or specifics from Nero on what sort of things that would be needed, he would always offer assistance.

For now, there was the matter of the tour. Nero understood what Zhalla was meaning with that, it would take quite a while in hindsight, so Nero just let her choose in his stead. “Works for me, I’m fine with that.” Soon enough, Zhalla picked out three more kids to join Uba and Harper. Mosca, a dark furred cat Zoan, Alo, a little majin and Max, some manner of dog Zoan, possibly of Oni descent. “Well alright then, Mosca, Alo and Max, can you tell me a little bit about yourselves? Is there something on Namek that you would really like to see?” Nero repeated his questions from earlier to the three, eager to hear what they had to say.

“Bowtie it is then?” Nero smiled, evidently completely serious about such a suggestion. Either way, suits weren’t a worry, even less so for Nero. “There’s a bunch of tailors out here on Namek, I’m kinda good at it, but I mostly do resizings and repairs rather than fully making something.”

Nero was happy to continue with other conversations though, this one in particular was great because he could tease Zhalla relentlessly in an affectionate manner. “Oh yeah, go ahead, shame me all you want I still won.” Nero made a funny face at Zhalla, poking out his tongue, swirling his eyes and wiggling his hands up by his head before doing a raspberry again. This time he started laughing immediately after doing so. “No but seriously, I’ll have way more than just that, I promise you.”

It was a great joy to see all these kids eager to learn from him, let alone his own mother; he had a feeling she would cry with joy at this point given her reaction to just being asked.

Nero patiently waited and allowed the three children to introduce themselves. Mosca wanted to see where the nearest shops were— she also wanted to design clothes and since Nero knew a fair amount of locals that did just that, that would be easy! “That’s cool! I fix and resize clothes a bit myself, it’s a hobby for me rather than a career. I do know a lot of tailors and such though.” Alo on the other hand had an inclination to arts and crafts, crochet was a stand out! Nero did something similar with wood carving. “Crochet sounds lovely! Also good news, we have a lot of flowers and some fantastic places to eat!”

Noticing that the five gathered children looked at Zhalla with some mischievous little goblin expressions among them, Nero had no time to tease her, the kids were effectively doing it for him!

Max was a bit different, he was hard of hearing and needed to use some manner of sign language. Nero didn’t have a full understanding himself, he just knew a little bit of the basics like anyone with some interest in languages would have. Luckily, Zhalla was there to translate— which meant she knew sign language herself! She did everything she could for these kids and she had the gall to say she wasn’t sweet? Preposterous. “Thank you Zhalla.” Nero nodded, before signing ‘thank you’ and ‘is my honor’ to Max in return. “I uh, should get into this sign language business huh. I hardly know any of it.” It would be something else to do, and worthwhile too. “Could you sign what I say back to him please, Zhalla?” Nero asked, waiting for Zhalla to be prepared. Nero spoke slowly so that she could translate properly and keep up. “The animals here are very cool, very different from Earth, and we have lots of dinosaurs, so you’re in luck.”

“Neat. Note to self, win something.” Nero nodded sagely. Obviously, he thought Zhalla in a top tier formal getup was worth a lot.

Either way, Nero had a lot of fun with their match— he didn’t give even the most remote equivalent of a shit as to why or how they came to clash, he had fun! “Honestly, it was still fun, results be damned. You’re a worthy opponent.” Nero smirked. “Doubly so with an assertion like that, so you better bring it!” He added excitedly. “I like that kinda bold attitude!”

When it came to the children and their reactions, Nero couldn’t help but feel strangely accomplished, excited and powerful even! He made no effort to hide his pride from Zhalla, hell, he wasn’t gonna hide it from anyone! When Zhalla offered to teach Nero sign language, he simply jumped at the offer. “Yeah, I’m game!” Wasting absolutely no time, even before she followed up with making sure about it.

So now it was up to Nero to decide where to go first— and people seemed to be a bit hungry. There were quite a few options nearby actually, and Nero knew for a fact his mother would be excited to meet everyone too... After a bit of thought, Nero had an idea; something that would fit both criteria. “Well, we could either go to a cafe just past that ridge there—” He began, pointing behind the shelter. “Then go to mine so you can all meet my mum, or we could just go there now and we could get some snacks from the fridge. I’ll leave it up to you guys.”

“Yeah!” Nero smiled brightly. “Better make it a good challenge then, Sunshine.” He added, with a goofy, comically exaggerated wink. Cheeky bastard. “A bowtie would look nice on you, that just so happens to be a fact.”

“All the more reason to make our next clash all the more worth it. Let’s step it up, all the good stuff!” Nero excitedly replied, his hair went a bit more wild as his aura flowed through him for a moment. In almost any other situation he may have just suggested they have a match right here and now, but they were busy with these children running about, so that took priority.

“I think that could work really well, that way everyone can be learning something! You could probably even learn some of the Namekian language by proxy if we just do all of that at my place.” That sounded like quite a lot of fun actually, and Nero figured his mother would be more than happy to accommodate these educational ventures.

Speaking of his place, the kids pretty handily decided what they wanted to do first. They all wanted to visit his place first. Nero was glad, that way, his mother could meet everyone bit by bit— and since she reacted with extreme glee at teaching the Namekian language to children, Nero figured this was for the best. Zhalla seemed a little worried, but Nero held up a hand and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, we have more than enough to share. Pankaa has his own special foods, Chime prefers water and fruits same as mum, and I’m partially Saiyan, so we basically always have surplus goodies.” Nero smiled when Mosca offered to bring back some extra food from the nearby café, it effectively meant that everything would even out in the end. “Sounds good to me! Lets go~!” Nero reached out to grab one of Zhalla’s hands before beginning a jolly walk towards his house.

“In some sense it is also your responsibility to accept a worthy challenge.” Nero raised a finger to give emphasis to his point. “But hey, you could just accept a deceptively easy challenge and guarantee your fate to wear an absolutely exceptional outfit if you want to.” He teased tilting his head a bit to appear more cutesy. “Plus, I can always just imagine you wearing the outfit.” He put two fingers on his temples. “I’m sending my imagination beams your way right now in fact.” Nero used his telepathy to show Zhalla what he meant in terms of an outfit, it fluctuated a bit in terms of classic tie or bowtie and whether or not Zhalla’s hair was up, but the general getup was what he had described earlier.

“Yeah, of course, it shouldn’t be too hard to set up.” Nero gave Zhalla a thumbs up, clearly excited to get this education train going soon! It would likely be quite easy since they were going to Nero’s house and his mother was already there at the moment.

Soon enough, the group would reach the front door of Nero’s house, and they didn’t even need to knock as the door swung wide open— in fact it was a wonder that it didn’t just get torn right off its hinges— and on the other side was the smiling visage of Zukha, Nero’s adoptive Namekian mother. She was a rather tall spry woman with a sharp bone structure, especially in regards to her facial features. She was a dark blue Namekian with bright blue eyes and some cyan features, like a bioluminescent segment on the top of her head, accompanied by antennae that shot straight up from just above her brow. “Hello everyone~!” Zukha waved, smiling sweetly, evidently quite excited. She skipped over to greet everyone. First, she greeted the children“I’m so very happy to meet you, dears. Nero tells me that there are many more of you that are to come by sometime soon, what fun~!” She then looked to Zhalla and clasped her hands together. “Hello Zhalla dear, now that I’m able to get a closer look, I understand precisely what Nero has told me so far, isn’t that right, son?” She said, giving Nero a knowing look. “That she’s badass and pretty? Well yeah, like I’d say anything less.” Nero put his free hand on his hips and smiled in response.

“Ohohoho~ But of course, I expected as much!” Zukha said, reaching out to gently put her hands on the sides of Zhalla’s face. “I’m sure you will do so without a second thought, but do I have your word that you will take care of my son, and have his back as he has yours?”

“I will literally grant myself that wish, you be careful~!” Nero grinned, happy to be given some sort of challenge himself, this sort of thing was fun! “Why would I kiss a bowtie, that’s goofy, I’ll just kiss you instead.” Bold, bold statement, and he said it confidently. Only time would tell, but Nero was quite confident.

“Groups of five? Clever! Now, do we know approximately how many of you there would be in total? That way I can make sure we have enough to share with everyone~!” Zukha grinned, was this where Nero got his winning smile from? It must be! “Awwh, aren’t you all just so sweet!” She said, blushing somewhat when Alo complimented her looks.

“Of course dear! My Nero is very open and honest, you see.” Zukha explained to Zhalla, though she was sure the Saiyan already knew that well enough by now. “No need to be shy now, Zhalla. You will not be shamed for whatever or however you feel— not on my watch!” Zukha struck a triumphant pose with a sparkle in her eyes, showing how honoured she was for this wonderful opportunity. Nero on the other hand, shrugged at Zhalla, even when she sent her look of vengeance beams his way. He absolutely knew what he was doing and regretted none of it.

Zukha gleefully scooped Zhalla up into a hug after her response. “Ohoho~! Wonderful, wonderful!” She even tried to spin around once, before letting Zhalla go. “It’s quite alright dear, in fact I welcome it wholeheartedly! We should have a few extra snacks that would work for the children.” Zukha confirmed, turning her attention back to said children. “So, what sorts of things do you all like? Just let me know and I can tell you if we at least have something similar.”