She landed silently next to the semi truck and its cargo sticking out of the fallen brick wall. Across from the semi was another building with huge smashed in windows, some kind of department store. Many different types of garments covered the floor in huge piles, ranging from sheets of fabric to fully tailored apparel. Completed outfits were protected by clear plastic bags. Bura stepped through one of the gaping windows and crossed the threshold.
The structure of the store itself was still intact. It was the ceiling that was the problem; it was unstable, with the obvious intention of caving in any moment. Luckily for Bura, her point of interest was just five feet in front of her. The male uniform she had seen in the magazine was one of the finished products protected by plastic; it was conveniently on the top of the piles that were on the floor. She carefully walked a few steps in, pushing aside other garments with her foot. A long deep moan drifted from the steel of the ceiling from above. Bura glared upward,
“Just give me one minute” she asked aloud. She knelt down and examined the tag of the male uniform,
“Well, I think it’s safe to assume that a large ‘L’ is universal for ‘large’” she smiled to herself and tossed the outfit over her shoulder, “now where is the female one?” The ceiling let out a louder moan and set off a chain reaction of creaks and groans from above that traveled deeper into the department store.
“Oh sure, you act up as soon as I set foot in here!” Bura protested as she hastily dug through the clothes on the floor. She took a few steps forward, clawing at the piles until she reached the bottom,
“Where is it?!” she frantically asked herself, “it has to be close by; they look like they could be a set!” Further down, the department store ceiling had begun to fall like a line of dominoes.
“Damn it!” she cursed in anger and stood up. Then she saw it. Just a few more feet in front of her, the red bow and the stripes on the neck of the female’s version shirt, wrapped in plastic. She lunged forward and yanked the outfit up, spun around and made a dash back through the window, the roof of the store collapsing behind her. A large dust cloud engulfed the area surrounding the once standing department store. Bura rose from the cloud, coughing slightly, but ultimately fine and with both uniforms in tow.
“Why does everything on this planet try to kill me?” she muttered to herself as she flew further into the city. She landed near a partially collapsed freeway, a rather tall and glassy building leaning against it.
“You’re not going to fall on me are you?” Bura asked the ruined structures. She was answered with silence, “alright then”. She laid the plastic bags side by side together on the floor and dusted herself off.
“Why go through so much trouble to attain such frail looking shrouds?” came a familiar voice from above. Bura gave a small jump and looked up. A lean tan skinned boy hung upside down from his legs on one of the fallen light poles to the freeway, his dark green hair swaying slightly, his arms crossed.
“Are you sure you want to be hanging from that busted pole, Drake?” Bura asked with a slight smile.
“What? Are you worried I might fall?” he grinned back, “Unlike you, these ruins have the up most respect for me” he said and patted the light pole. As he did, it cracked away from the rest of the freeway. Drake spun around in mid air away from the light pole as it fell straight down impaling the ground. He landed, laughing embarrassingly,
“…I meant to do that…”
“Is that so?” she smiled at him as she shook out her hair, “How did you know where I was?”
“I stopped by Ruta’s and asked what your schedule was today. She said you were taking a free day. And this seemed like the most obvious place you’d be in. That and I saw you sitting on that huge fallen building. You’re hair’s a dead give away in this place. I thought you had another training session?”
“Raditz and Nappa were having trouble keeping up with me yesterday, so they’re doing some training of their own today. I’m sure they’ll want tomorrow to themselves too” Bura turned and crouched next to the plastic bags on the ground. Drake walked up and crouched down beside her,
“So…what did you find this time?” Bura smiled excitedly,
“Well first I found this” she pulled out the burned magazine, “most of the pages are destroyed but the pages in between are decent enough to make out some pictures”. Bura flipped through the magazine and pointed out the pictures she was looking at before. “And then I saw this one”, she turned to the page of the embracing couple, “I recognized the clothes they were wearing and pulled them out of this building before it collapsed”
“Oh yeah, I saw that. You really like to cut it close don’t you? And it was all for these?” Drake poked the bags, unconvinced, “what are you going to do with them?” Bura picked up the female uniform,
“I’m going to try them on”
“What? Why?”
“Because it looks like fun, see how they’re smiling”
“And you think they’re smiling because of the clothes they’re wearing?”
“Maybe, I just want to try them on and see what it feels like”
“The guys clothes too?”
“Yeah, unless you want to try it on yourself”
“And why would I want to do that?” Bura glanced at Drake, a bit annoyed,
“I didn’t say you had to try it on. If you’re too chicken to try on a different set of clothes then you don’t have to” Bura disappeared in between the fallen lanes of the freeway with the female uniform in her arms leaving Drake still crouching next to the male uniform. He rubbed the back of his head in uncertainty,
“Fine then,” he sighed, “I’ll humor her”, and pulled off his boots. Drake then carefully tore open the plastic bag of the male uniform and lifted up the bottom piece, a pair of black slacks. He sighed again and slid off his waist armor, it easily stretched giving him enough room to get it off. He then pulled the dark slacks up to his waist. They were definitely lighter than his armor, a little floppy near his ankles but at least it didn’t itch.
“So far, so good” He then lifted his chest armor over his head, sat it on the floor and picked up the top piece of the outfit. It seemed like some kind of jacket. It was easy enough to pull on, though he wasn’t too crazy about the cuffed neck. And he was a bit irked when he found the zipper stuck halfway up.
“Come on, you stupid…” he growled as he struggled with the metal zipper.
“Having some trouble?” Bura asked from behind. Drake looked over his shoulder to see Bura dressed in the female’s uniform and looking rather…dare he think it, ‘cute’?
He couldn’t help but grin at her,
“Wow…that actually…suits you”
“Yeah?” Bura smiled and turned a bit making the skirt swish across her legs,
“It’s really light and soft but it makes me feel completely defenseless”
“No kidding. Well at least mine has some metal to it. I’m convinced nothing would be a match for this ZIPPER!” Drake had tightened his grip and was straining to pull the metal tab all the way up.
“Ahh! Don’t be so rough with it!” Bura trotted up to Drake and stopped his hands, “It’s going to break if you pull too hard!”
“Well it’s giving me a hard time!” he retorted.
“Just hold still” Bura gently eased the metal zipper back and fourth over its obstacle, a small snag of the jackets fabric got caught in the zipper’s track. With a little patience, she was able to get the zipper moving easily all the way up the jacket.
“There you see all it needed was a gentle touch” she smiled up at him. Drake blushed and turned his head,
“If you say so” he was adjusting the collar of the jacket to make it more comfortable for him. Bura picked up the burned magazine and turned to the picture she was inspired by and had started walking along the glassy building leaning against the freeway.
“Now where are you going?” Drake followed after her.
“I’m trying to find a window that would give a decent reflection. I want to see for myself how I look”. Bura had walked the entire base of the leaning building but all the windows were shattered.
“Look, up there” Drake was pointing up along the building on the furthest side away from the freeway. The higher windows had taken less damage and were in almost one piece, despite having a few cracks. Both he and Bura rose steadily through the air to reach the windows.
“Wow, I look really strange in these” Bura said as soon as she caught her reflection.
“Nah, you look fine” Drake assured her. He was turning slightly, trying to catch his profile, “How about me?”
“You look good,” she giggled, “Especially while wearing that jacket”
“Oh? You like this huh?” he said with a sly smile. He pushed out his chest and lifted his head which caused Bura to break out into laughter. He watched her quietly until she gradually composed herself.
“Hmm…well I guess you were right about the clothes making the wearer smile. It isn’t very often I see you laugh”
“Heh, actually, I thought the way they were embracing was the cause of them smiling” Bura glanced at the photo again, “They really look happy” Her eyes narrowed, a slight tinge of envy swept through her. She turned suddenly to Drake,
“Will you hug me like this?” she asked hopefully, holding up the magazine to Drake. He took the magazine, glanced at the photo and then to Bura hesitantly,
“You don’t mind me being that close?”
“I wouldn’t have asked if I minded” she sighed, took hold of his left arm and tugged, “Come on!”
“Ok ok!, Jeez you’re pushy!” They floated a little closer to the leaning building’s windows. Bura had taken the magazine back and held it above her left shoulder to show Drake again,
“Just like the picture, ok?”
“Right, right”, he replied and gently wrapped his arms around to go under her chin and over her shoulders. He noticed a pleasant fragrance coming from her hair and inhaled,
“You’ve been cleaning your hair with that strange ‘shampoo’ stuff again haven’t you?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah,” she smiled, “I like the way it makes my hair softer”
“It smells nice” he said and inhaled again.
“Stop acting weird!” she laughed.
“Look! There! Is that what you wanted?” Drake was pointing at their reflections in the cracked windows. Bura looked at the picture in the magazine and then at their reflections. Despite having different colored hair, they resembled the photo entirely. Bura smiled, satisfied.
“It’s almost like you’re supposed to be wearing these clothes” Drake said, giving her a slight hug.
“Maybe I was supposed to be” she replied sadly, “Raditz does usually say that I’m not cut out to be a saiyan warrior.” Drake released his hold around her and firmly turned Bura to face him by her shoulder,
“Don’t listen to him. You have more than enough potential and skill to send him and Nappa running now”
“That’s not it,” Bura floated away from Drake and closer to the building, starring at her reflection, “He said that I didn’t ‘have the heart for it’. And…I feel that he’s right. Sure, I train just like everyone else but I’ve never really liked doing it. It’s just so I can survive here”. Bura looked beyond the ruined city, the palace just noticeable on the horizon. “And nearly everyone on this planet questions my existence. I get the feeling they don’t want me here”
“You don’t have to let them get to you. They don’t even know who you are yet. You’re the princess of our race for crying out loud!” Bura spun around angrily,
“Don’t call me that!”
“Why not, it’s what you are” Bura sighed and leaned against the building,
“I don’t want it”
“Huh, and I thought most girls wanted to be a princess” Drake leaned against the building with his left arm.
“Does that mean you want me to be with the saiyan prince Kumat?” Bura asked with dread in her voice. Drake turned suddenly and looked at her in surprise. He hadn’t even considered that situation. But if it were ever leaked out that she was the actual descendant from the royal house of Vegeta, Kumat would claim Bura in an instant, regardless if she wasn’t a full blood saiyan. His eyes narrowed and he slouched against the building,
“Never” he practically growled. Bura grinned at him,
“I thought so” The metal of the glassy building gave a sudden shriek and the support beams buckled inward suddenly. Drake and Bura quickly flew away from the collapsing building as it fell beneath the freeway, the top lane crashing down from above. Another cloud of dust appeared along with the sound of shattering glass next to the now fallen building and freeway. Drake and Bura emerged from the cloud, the clothes they wore covered in a thin layer of dust. They both were looking at the huge pile of glass and steal beside the freeway.
“Our armor is underneath that” Drake said in discontent.
“I know” Bura replied with equal disappointment, “I didn’t plan on returning dressed like this”
“Yeah, me neither” They looked at each other. No doubt they would draw unwanted attention if they returned to the vicinity of the palace wearing such frail attire.
“You think Ruta can get us some more armor?” asked Drake.
“I’m sure she would, but she’s definitely going to ask questions”
“I’m more worried about her picture taking fetish, she’s going to go nuts” Bura giggled, recalling Ruta’s fascination with a digital camera she brought to her. She had ignored Raditz and Nappa’s needs for medical attention and spent most of the time photographing their wounds.
“Let’s go, I think it would be best if we get out of these before Nappa and Raditz return from their training” said Bura.
“Oh hell yeah, if they seem me like this, they’ll never let me forget it!” Drake and Bura darted toward the saiyan palace on the horizon, leaving the “Round House Ruins” quiet and still once again.
