The Outer Date at the Outer Plait

Nero on the other hand, was not nervous in any way whatsoever, what was he so excited for? Everything! He was in a stellar mood at the moment, and in some cases his family may have noticed his eye’s possibly flickering between his regular blue and a strange gold. Or was that an illusion? A trick of the light? Part of his costume that he was getting together? Who knows.

Either way, he was having fun preparing for his date with Zhalla! Regarding his costume, he decided to go with a black coat and cloaky cape thing that could be pulled over the front of him for some goofy little dramatic moments, he had given it blue trims on the bottom as well. Nero also chose to wear a plain looking black sleeveless undershirt with additional blue trims through the stitches. He also wore some black worn out jeans with blue chains hanging off of the belt loops, accompanied by some black boots with blue soles. In addition to all of this, he frizzed out his hair to look a bit more wild, and put on some dark blue eyeliner and shadow. In terms of other accessories, Nero also wore a black upper mask styled after the skull of a wolf, which had blue details around the eye holes. He didn’t wear it over his face though, and chose to fasten it above the scar on the side of his head.

Soon enough, Zhalla had made her way over— good timing since Nero had just finished getting himself together! He peeked out of the window of his room just as Zhalla knocked on the front door. “Hey, Zhalla!” Nero called out, gracefully and swiftly rolling right out of the window, his cloak covering him dramatically as he swirled his way down. Nero would land, tossing his cloak backwards, allowing it to flow with a quick breeze that passed by. “The prince from the dark side of the moon has arrived~!” Nero grinned, giving Zhalla a wink. “Lovin’ that look, also! Didn’t think you’d be one for nail polish!” He started up some conversation while using telekinesis to close his window from a distance.

“Indeed!” Nero offered Zhalla yet another exaggerated and goofy pose after a super embellished bow. “The one and only!” Nero, of course, couldn’t keep a straight face with all this silliness. “Nah, nah, this is good!” Nero shook his head and gestured to Zhalla’s outfit. “It has a certain vibe to it that your work getup just doesn’t have. Besides, it just goes to show you can rock damn near anything you want— and that’s cool!” To Nero, it would just further prove that he had to convince Zhalla to invest in that suit idea from a while back. “So basically, we both look great!”

Nero smiled after hearing that it was none other than Alomora who had assisted Zhalla with the nail polish. Nero recalled that Alo offered to style his hair for another formal occasion down the road, so he chose to ask Zhalla about her hair. “Did she style your hair too? Because it looks really nice!” Regarding the eyeliner, Nero snorted. “It took me like ten tries because I was doing it myself. I don’t care what anyone says about makeup, that shit is hard to do right.”

Soon enough, it would be time to go. “Yeah, we can go now, I’ve finished everything I’ve needed to do here.” A few seconds later, Nocti had wiggled on over from behind the house, chirping to greet Zhalla. “Alrighty, flying will get us there faster, then we’ll have more time to enjoy the sights and festivities!” Nero patted Nocti, as if to offer Zhalla to hop onto the funky little cloud. If she didn’t want to, he could always just carry her all cute-like himself.

“Yup.” Nero simply answered. What was he saying that to? That he was a dork? That he was pointing out Zhalla said yes to this date? Knowing him, both. Definitely both.

“Oh, pfft, don’t worry about it! Intimidating and scary isn’t the only theme available to us.” He gestured to his own getup. It wasn’t intimidating and scary, not really. If anything it was more mischievous and whimsical in terms of vibe. Zhalla also confidently returned Nero’s compliment, pinning similar on him now. “Yeah, says me. The expert. The expert that knows all about it, as you said. Therefore, what I said is the truth.” Nero, of course, loved to do the same thing too.

“All the same, I’m sure she had fun helping. Like I said though, you’ve ended up with a solid look.” Nero nodded before giving a completely over-exaggerated shocked expression. “Oh no! the scariest thing in the known universe, rebellious teenagers!” He said, just as dramatically as the dopey expression he made just a moment ago. “Who would I ask about makeup in the future then? I’d like to learn better techniques.”

Nero raised a brow when Zhalla questioned if everything was alright by his mother. “Yeah, why wouldn’t it be? Honestly she almost couldn’t stop asking me for details and encouraging that I take you!” He asked, somewhat confused. “Anyway, we typically go to these festivals together on the later days, everyone is free to check it out before then to see if there is anything particularly interesting.”

Nocti chirped a bunch and curled as if to flex muscles. Clearly, Nocti was more than strong enough to carry both of them. Was there really all that much of a limit to what a Nimbus could carry beyond their own preference? Probably not. “I think Nocti is more than happy to give us a lift.” Nero said, to which Nocti started to twirl around. “Oh, before we go...” Nero rummaged through his coat before bringing out a tinier version of the mask he was wearing which he placed on Nocti, with the funny little cloud free to rearrange it as they saw fit— they chose to wear it similarly to how Nero did. “Perfect.”

“Oh come on it’s not your only thing.” Nero scoffed and raised a brow at Zhalla. “Unfortunately for you, you’re also bright, blazing, and cool.” At least he didn’t go with anything mushy this time? “As well as sweet, thoughtful and caring and—” Well, almost.

“Good! It’s good that she has something like that to enjoy. I bet you she feels accomplished whenever someone is happy with her help.” Of course, Zhalla would likely know all about that! “Yeah, he is, and I’ll be sure to help him. As someone that has somehow managed to navigate the minefield of youth with my own problems, I know that stuff isn’t easy no matter how you slice it.” As far as makeup was concerned, Nero nodded, being sure to remember the two Zhalla had recommended to ask for tips and tricks. “No worries, I know a fair few people like that, kids, people my age, elders, some are just like that.”

Nero understood what Zhalla meant in regards to his family, it made sense, but they had already sorted everything out— they’ve had many years to perfect their traditions after all, same with Zhalla and those in her care. “Hahaha, you know how she is, you’ll get used to it.” Nero smiled. “She’s really impressed with you, you know.”

Nocti began chirping and beeping, confident as ever in their ability to carry multiple passengers. It isn’t really known if any given Nimbus has much of a carry capacity limit in terms of weight, or at least not for Nocti. Nero, having heard Zhalla’s mutterings, simply grinned. “I mean hey, if you say so!” He chuckled, doing exactly that. He went to pick up Zhalla and hop onto Nocti. In either case, Nocti would be carrying their weight, but Nero thought this would be sweet. “Alrighty, lets go!”

With that, Nocti began to fly up and off towards the Outer Plait. As the group got closer, they would be able to see groups of other people either walking down on the surface or flying past. It looked like they were all going the same way. Dang, apparently this event was super popular! “Ooo, quite a turn out if all of those folks are going the same way.”

Nero simply smiled and chose to kiss Zhalla’s finger when she put it on his lips. She walked right into that one.

“Well sure, you’re our new Namek neighbours after all. I look forward to getting to know everyone better!” Nero smiled. “Speaking of, I got to speak with Gramps earlier this week. He reckons that he can get my aunty and uncles together after the new year for a meet’n’greet. Do you think any of the kids would be interested in any of that?”

Nero was happy to have made a positive impact and impression on those 41 delightful gremlins, he hadn’t really thought about the sheer scale of it until now either. Regarding his mother’s opinion of Zhalla, Nero simply laughed it off. “Haha, nah, nah— because I explained it completely and truthfully. Plus, well, she’d be a bit of a hypocrite if she got mad about how we properly first met.” Nero smiled, certain that Zhalla might understand what that meant. Still, he chose to explain regardless. “Basically, mother and father picked a fight with each other over a treasure they both ended up finding at the same time. It’s their story to tell, but they’ll tell it freely if you ask.”

Raising a brow, Nero simply blew a kiss at Zhalla after picking her up. “Yeah sure, Zhalla. She asked, he delivered, it was only fair! While there were more people going the same way as them than Nero had expected, he wouldn’t really call it a true crowd, at least not thus far. “Mhm, the Outer Plait is this way.” Nero answered simply, instructing Nocti to fly lower to the ground once they had the Outer Plait within sight. Now, depending on what Zhalla knew about this area, it may look drastically different to what she might have previously heard...

“Sure, five at a time is good, but there’ll be more adults there to keep an eye on things, so I think around seven is fine too.” Nero suggested, given that there would be seven older folks or so there too.

Nero raised a brow at Zhalla. Was she really still having this hard a time with Zukha approving of her? Maybe she just wanted to be absolutely certain, but Nero was confident about the truth here— when wasn’t he? “Contextually speaking maybe, but the point is a fight was involved in both cases.” Very different fights, but still fights.

“What? D’you think I’d say we’re going to the Outer Plait then not take us there? Now who’s the goofy dork huh?” Nero winked, he was just teasing her. “I’m being serious, this here is the Outer Plait.” He confirmed as they had finally landed. Nero looked around, a content smile on his face, he was silent for a moment as he hopped off of Nocti and allowed Zhalla to stand on her own. “The descriptions you were given were true, once upon a time. The past tense is key here.” He said, not saying much else about it from that point as he began to walk in the same direction as the other people were going. In the near distance a series of floating lights could be seen— as well as a myriad of tents and stalls.

Along the path however, someone seemed to recognize Nero; it was a younger Namekian— they themselves were wearing a form of costume, like some sort of armoured knight. “Nero? H-hey! Mister Nero!” They scurried over to Nero and Zhalla and waved enthusiastically. “Hm? Cordin? Hey bud! Nice getup, is it a recreation of Master Abalon’s armor? Very cool!” Cordin nodded. “Yup! Lujo helped me make it!” Cordin turned around and started waving for someone to catch up. “Lujo, Lujo! Come quick! It’s Nero and the new lady Saiyan!” An older Namekian hurried along, wearing a sort of undersea ‘monster’ cloak type deal. “Yo, wait, for real?” Lujo looked over to Nero, also noticing Zhalla. He coughed and spluttered in surprise at the sight of both of them. “Wah!? You weren’t kidding!!” Lujo grinned, bowing to both Nero and Zhalla as a greeting.

Nero, surprisingly, waved his hands in alarm. “Haha, hey Lujo, maybe uh, can you guys not draw too much attention to me? Please?” Nero smiled bashfully. That... That wasn’t normal of him, was it?

“Listen, listen, my brand of pranks is different, you should know that by now.” Indeed, a lot of the time it had something to do with exposing the truth or just being a really goofy practical joke. “I have no reason to go anywhere else than where I said I would.”

Nero poked out his tongue after Zhalla flicked his nose. “Pbbbt, it happens to be a title I hold proudly.” As for what Zhalla missed, Nero smiled, she was effectively standing and looking at what she missed. “Well, look around. This is what you missed. The land was healed.” This was indeed true, Nero just neglected to mention it was also his doing.

Cordin blinked, only just realizing he maybe overstepped some kind of boundary. “O-oh, my bad.” Cordin smiled and nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Lujo on the other hand gave a slight smirk. Okay, he could turn the volume down, that was sensible. When Zhalla spoke up, pointing out Nero’s odd behaviour. “Shy? Hahaha, naw, far from it.” Lujo chuckled, putting an arm over Nero’s shoulder just after Zhalla had jabbed him. “Y’mean he didn’t tell you?” Lujo gestured to the lively Outer Plait in general. “He made this happen.”

Nero sighed, he wasn’t going to deny it if someone else brought it up. “Yeah, I managed to pull it off a bit ago. I won’t lie about it.” Of course, as is typical of Nero. “But,” He began, giving Lujo and by extension Cordin a sort of stern look. “I’m here on a date with this lovely lady. I’d rather not be swarmed by people right now.”

“Wow..!” Cordin’s eyes sparkled with joy at this news, how nice! Lujo’s jaw dropped, looking between Nero and Zhalla. Then he grinned and gave Nero’s hair a tousle. “My man! Alright, alright—” Lujo kept grinning as he stepped away. “Say no more, we’ll make sure nobody bugs you two if you guys want. I’ll get Kassu and Snarr on board too— if that’s okay?” Lujo asked both Nero and Zhalla. Nero nodded, and looked to Zhalla. “Fine by me. Is that cool with you, Zhalla?”