Coco Crispies!

Bulma watched as Hope devoured bowl after bowl of Coco Crispies, not pausing to catch her breath or speak. Though she ate fast, she was quite neat, and her manners esquisite. Trunks was hard pressed to keep up. It seemed a secret battle emerged, one wanting to out-eat the other. Bulma chuckled. Hope had already finished nine bowls.

Bulma went to fetch another box of cereal. If Hope stayed here, she’d eat them out of house and home. Well, it’s not like they couldn’t afford it. Perhaps she would be better off staying at Capsule Corporation. She’d have to talk to Goku and Chichi about it, later. It might be fun to have a girl around the house. Bulma wondered if Bra would eat like this when she gets older.

Trunks put down his spoon and gazed at Hope. She just kept eating, oblivious to her surroundings. Bulma sat back down at the table and smiled. “I guess she won, ne Trunks-kun?” Trunks blushed, and pretended not to know what she was talking about.

“After breakfast, is it alright if Hope and I use the gravity room?” Trunks took a sip of milk. “We won’t set it too high, Mama. I promise.”

Bulma paused to consider this. She knew Vegeta would not want Trunks messing with his gravity room—not that this mattered much to Bulma today. Where the hell is he?! Trunks was a big boy now, almost fourteen years old, and Hope looked like she could handle herself fine. “Alright, but be careful.”

Hope looked up from her bowl of cereal and smiled. “I have not eaten this well in a while. Thank you.” She paused to drink the last of the milk in her glass and wipe her mouth with a paper napkin. “This is your home?”

Trunks grinned. “Yeah. Mama and Grandpa are inventors.”

“Hope, where are you from?”

Hope appeared hesitant to answer Bulma’s question, but she did. “I was from New Zandria.” A pained expression crossed her face. Bulma held her breath. They both knew her story had to come out sometime. Hope looked down a bit, letting her gaze fall to some place out in the middle of the kitchen table as memories of the past surfaced in her mind. “I suppose that I should tell you about myself, that I should. You have both shown me such kindness, such kindness I thought I might never see again outside New Zandria’s city walls, that I did not. A danger to you may still follow me, though. Perhaps it may be best if I leave, soon, before it comes for me, that I should.”

“New Zandria was a peaceful colony world built by the survivors of the Great Devastation. Our original home world had been conquered by Frieza’s elite saiyajin soldiers, during my grandmother’s generation.” Hope shifted in her seat and tears streaked down her cheeks. “My family was killed two years ago, along with the rest of my people... I was off world when it happened, that I…” Her voice waivered, “That I was.”

“Oh, Hope-chan, I’m so sorry,” Bulma rose from her chair to offer comfort to the young alien girl. “I had no idea.” She was shy at first, but she did accept Bulma’s warm embrase. Trunks, with a concerned look on his face, stood up from his chair and went to stand by them as Hope sobbed a bit in Bulma’s arms.

Hope took in a deep breath through her nose and let it out her mouth, then wiped her eyes with her sleeves. “I had thought I was done mourning, no more tears to shed, that I did. I am sorry for my emotional outburst, that I am.”

“Don’t be sorry. It’s okay to cry. You’re a brave young girl, Hope.” She placed a hand on Hope’s shoulder. “Do you mind if I ask what happened to you? Who hurt you?”

Hope appeared to be on the verge of tears again, yet she nodded, then took another deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth, before answering, “My brother,” Bulma didn’t say anything—she just almost wished she had not asked. She could not imagine the amount of pain and sorrow this small, fragile-looking girl must be enduring.

“He was the reason I was off world when New Zandria was destroyed. We had believed him to have been kidnapped, that we did… I had been searching the galaxy for him in my grandmother’s space pod, while evading his suspected kidnapper, that I was. She may still be in persuit of me, unless they believe me dead, that I do not know.”

“Her name is Zera. She appears to be part saiyajin, yet claims to be the terrible tyrant Frieza’s sister, that she does. Last I remember, Zera’s ship captured my pod, after I had set coordinates for Earth. My brother was there… waiting for me. He…” Hope began to sobb and Bulma held her tight. “He was different, that he was. He looked like him, but it was not my brother gazing out at me through Trust’s eyes, that he was not. Not at all… His ki smelled all wrong.” Her voice began to waiver, “He.. he attacked me… that he did. Then, then I passed out, only to awaken in my pod, then here, again I did.”

“Hope-chan, you can smell ki?” Trunks asked, remembering their previous conversation out in the hall. “Is that how you knew I’m part saiyajin?”

Bulma’s eyes widened. “You knew?”

Hope nodded. “Hai. Zandrians could smell ki. It is just like any other sense for us, that it is. To the best of our knowledge, no other species in the galaxy has it, that they do not.” Hope smiled. “You two both have nice, healthy smelling kis, that you do. I know I can trust you both, that I can.”

“You said I smell like your grandmother—was she a saiyajin, like my father?” Trunks asked.

“My grandmother was a saiyajin, that she was, though I look almost nothing like her, that I do not. She had been a member of the elite team assigned to destroy Zandria. Instead, she rebelled, and saved many, that she did.”

“So, you’re a quarter saiyajin, right?”

“Actually, physically speaking, I am three quarters saiyajin, that I am.”

“Nani?”

“My father, Calm, was saiyajin as well, that he was. His origins are unknown, pehaps his people assumed him dead, that they did. His pod crashed on New Zandria when he was a youth. My grandmother took him in, that she did, and raised him. He had no memories of life before the crash, that he did not. Later, he married my mother, that he did. ”

Bulma stood up and began clearing the table. “Well, that sure explains your appettite!” she remarked as she removed a few of the empty boxes of cereal from the table and began stuffing them all in the trash.

Hope gazed at her empty bowl. That was a good breakfast, that it was. This woman and her son had given her so much. She wondered how she could ever repay them for their kindness. These were the first friendly people she had met since she had left New Zandria. Perhaps she could return again someday, after all her troubles were resolved and her brother restored. Perhaps that she could…

Trunks was looking at her. She could feel his gaze fall upon her face. Hope blushed and lifted her head to meet his blue eyes with her own golden slits. He grinned and asked, “Are you ready to go sparr?”

Hope returned his grin and absently brushed her wild jet-black hair with her hand. “Sure.” She turned to Bulma, then, before leaving, and asked about her space pod.

Bulma shrugged her shoulders. “Your guess is as good as mine. I haven’t seen it yet. Son-kun is supposed to bring it over soon, he’d said, when I spoke to him this morning. He could be along any time now. Do you mind if I take a look at it?”

Hope nodded. “Not at all. I built most of it, that I did.”

“Honto? You’re that experienced with technology?”

“Hai. I had attended the Galactic Academy, that I did. Before the Devestation, it had been known as the top school in all the Milky Way, that it was.”

“Wow, I certainly am impressed. I can’t wait to see your pod.”

“Thanks.”

Trunks tugged her hand, and together they left for the gravity room.