This is a collection of side-stories with varying degrees of seriousness and continuity.
There is only one prevalent rule to this story: Neptune and Noire have become a couple. "Best Girlfriends Forever!" deals entirely with the aftermath of a post Neptune x Noire world (although I will surely get to some other characters that are not directly involved with those two). In the timeline it takes place after Megadimension Neptunia VII.
The lead up to the relationship and the confessions themselves are up to the reader's imagination. One of those possible routes could be "Best Friends Forever?", but it is not a required read for this.
A late text message is a wish your insomnia makes
This is a tale from the early days of Neptune and Noire's relationship. Their awkwardness was truly unrivaled in the entire country. People still to this day talk about the NepNowa phenomenon.
It was late evening in Planeptune and even the tall Planeptune Tower was slowly extinguishing its many lights. Neptune was still avidly 'working' in her room, despite the late hour. With a short knock Histoire entered the chaotic space at her own risk. Her eyes were those of a mother that was inspecting a naughty child's room after repeatedly telling them to clean it up. Which was also actually the case.
But the small Oracle didn't dwell on her growing fear of getting swallowed by whatever was thriving below the spacious bed, even if it might have gained sentience by now. Instead she flew over to her protégé with a much milder interest.
"What are you looking at Neptune?" She asked over the purple haired girl's shoulder.
Neptune didn't react immediately. She was leaning on her desk and holding some papers in her hands. Surely those weren't work related?
"Look at this Histy!" She finally turned around with a wide grin and almost shoved one of the big drawings in the winged tome-girl's face. Histoire counter-balanced her grimoire and floated in place to take a closer look.
"A drawing?" She titled her head and inspected its contents. There were several stick-figure like people depicted on it. Although some had the appearance of something less humanoid, one could roughly tell which person was supposed to be portrayed just by their color scheme. In the center were a purple and dark black figure holding hands.
"Yeppers. It's the stuff P-ko sent me last week." Neptune seemed delighted.
"Peashy? I see." Now Histoire reflected Neptune's smile. Peashy was one of the many CPUs of the Ultra Dimension's version of Planeptune. She had developed a deep fondness of Neptune, affectionately calling her 'Neptuna'.
"Isn't she getting crazy good with the artsy stuff?" Neptune shook the pictures in front of Histoire as if to forcefully make her acknowledge the eipcness of this artwork.
"She has improved on the… line work." Histoire said in her most masterful foreign ambassador tone.
"Ohhh! I didn't even notice that. You've got a good eye on you Histy. You should become a cure-a-thor or something." She laughed and put the drawings down again.
"You mean a curator? If I left the Basilicom it would probably mean you would have to work much harder. Is that alright?"
"On first thought, you make a way better Oracle Histy!" Neptune's tune changed directions faster than the northern wind during a blizzard.
Histoire chuckled at the distressed Neptune. There was even a laughing emoticon in her text box.
"You wanted something - other than scaring the living nep out of me that is?" Nep pursed her lips.
"Indeed. I was wondering what Noire thought about the last meeting. She has still not called back. Did she text you anything about it?" Histy came back to business with a thoughtful expression.
"Eh?"
To her surprise Neptune seemed confused about that proposition.
"You do know how to write text messages on your phone, right?" She carefully inquired. Neptune wasn't good with high-tech stuff. Although nobody would consider smartphones very high-tech these days, she still had trouble with cell-phones in general. She just never used them.
"W-what are you even asking Histy~? Don't treat me like some piece of anachronistic outdated hardware!" She laughed hollowly and put her hands behind her back. From Histoire's perspective it seemed like she was moving something out of view.
"I see." Although her brow was raised, Histoire did not poke any deeper. It wasn't her intention to embarrass Neptune after all.
"She didn't say nothing about no meeting, that's all." Neptune reassured her and basically pushed her out of the room by the edge of her tome.
Of course, she never had texted Noire even once.
"I understand the problem." Nepgear conceded. After being pulled out of bed and into her sister's room she had been patiently listening to Neptune's troubles.
"Really?" Neptune asked excitedly.
"You want to text Miss Noire like real lovers do." Nepgear repeated the summary of their conversation for the audience. For some reason.
"Exactly!"
"Why did you never do it before Sis?"
"Weeeeell… I never really had to? We are just calling each other or meet up. I like to hear her voice." It was a cute sentiment.
"I understand completely." Nepgear crossed her arms and nodded sympathetically. She could never tell what Uni was thinking when they exchanged text messages. One moment she would write a happy retelling of her day and in the next she would complain that it was not Nepgear's business what she was doing! When they talked over phone it was a lot easier to understand what was going on. "But text messages are also convenient in their own way."
"I kinda get that. Which is why I'm asking you for tech support Nep Jr.!" Neptune put all her trust into her little sister it seemed.
"Ehm… I will do my best!" She couldn't help but respond with guts as well. "Firstly, do you have any topic you want to talk about?"
"Nay."
"…eh?"
"Drawing a total blank here." Neptune smiled with empty eyes. The first hurdle might have already stopped their race towards a new text filled future! "But don't worry about that. It won't be any sweat for Neptune, the Textpert!"
"Just what is that supposed to be…?" Didn't she call her here, because she was clueless about texting in the first place? Nepgear scratched her cheek and then gave her opinion. "Maybe you should first check if she is even awake right now."
"Pffft, Noire sleeping? This ain't Omegadimension Snoozunia! My hard working GF won't even blink for another six hours or so."
'That can't be healthy.' Nepgear thought to herself.
"W-well, even if she is busy with work and doesn't notice the message immediately, text messages can be read later. It would be wonderful if you made the first step for the conversation."
"Got ya! Noire would be way too squeamish to make the first contact. That must be why she didn't text me yet. Yep." Was Neptune actually a little upset about that after all?
The sisters sat down on Neptune's huge bean bag and both looked at the screen as she typed her magnum opus.
[Nep: How r u? Slpy?]
It was perfect.
Neptune gulped once and then pressed the 'send' button.
The sound of a received text message overlapped with the 'ding' that accompanied a successful sending. Noire replied… the same moment Neptune had sent her own text? It was so lightning fast that Neptune doubted the radio waves even made it to Lastation yet!
[Nep: How r u? Slpy? (1 sec ago)
Noire: I am doing fine, thanks for asking. I am indeed not asleep, but that is surely obvious seeing as I did reply to you after all. Wait, that was perhaps presumptuous of me! You just wished to know if I was going to sleep now, correct? I apologize! There is no reason to worry; I will rest in a few hours earliest. There is still work to be done. Oh, but I am not saying that I cannot talk to you while doing it! Please don't feel obligated either! – Noire (1 sec ago)]
"…" Neptune stared at the endless paragraph with sweat drops running down her face. She was too stunned to even make a quip about it.
Afterwards she kept texting Noire, who was apparently mindreading her every move. And she always replied with long paragraphs.
[Nep: What did u have for lunch? (1 sec ago)
Noire: I ate a slight snack around 12:30, nothing with artificial flavoring or fatteners. You know I try to be healthy. Don't misunderstand please; I am not saying you should stop eating pudding. It is however not good for you to limit your food choices too much, so please eat properly. Oh no, this sounded like I am preaching, did it not? I apologize. There is nothing wrong with putting on some weight, you are not fat! – Noire (1 sec ago)]
She had this weird tick to sign her messages even though her name was displayed anyway. And somehow she managed to stumble more over herself in these written messages than she ever did during a verbal conversation.
Weird thoughts were swirling around Neptune's head. Had she become predictable? Was this what they called 'lover's telepathy'?! And why was it so one-sided?
This couldn't be!
Soon it became her declared goal to make Noire slip up. Her replies were always accurate to the question, but what if Neptune wrote something completely random?
[Nep: It's horsebird breedin' season. I heard they call 'em baby horsebirds flutterponies! XD (1 sec ago)
Noire: That is a common misunderstanding in the collective mind of the populous. Horsebirds are scientifically referred to as equus aves sashimiensis. Their offspring is thus referred to as horse sashimi. I did not know you had an interest in Gamindustri's wild life though Neptune. That is very admirable! Perhaps we could watch a documentary on the topic. O-only if you want to. It doesn't really matter to me or anything! – Noire (0.2 sec ago)]
"…. ..."
She replied even faster!
She must have had several hundred replies saved for absolutely any occasion...
"Don't stutter in a text message either! It's ridiculously cute!" Neptune's hands were vibrating.
And just how much was she glued to her phone anyway, to have these kind of instantaneous finger reflexes!? She couldn't possibly do any work like this!
While Neptune was getting more fired up to make her girlfriend trip up for good, Nepgear slowly slipped out the door with a smile. Her support was clearly not needed anymore.
The next morning Nepgear woke up with a small yawn and rubbed her eyes, completely relaxed. As she dressed up and moved out of her own room she wondered if Neptune was already up as well. She was usually a late sleeper.
Histoire came flying through the hallway with a rejuvenated expression and greeted her.
They both looked at Neptune's room's door with expectant expressions. Neither of them had seen her at breakfast, so they assumed she would soon burst out with a grumbling tummy.
But after a few minutes of silence, it became worrying. So they knocked on the door and went inside. It was unexpectedly dark in there. The blinds and curtains had been closed and there was only one light source in the corner of the room.
There Neptune sat, hugging her knees and staring at the glowing screen of her cell-phone. She was all huddled up in blankets and the folds of her bean bag.
Nepgear approached her hesitantly and noticed the dark bags below her eyes. She must have been texting Noire all night!
Then the small CPU looked up with tears in the corners of her eyes.
"Nepgear… I think I broke the internet."
The other two made poker faces.
Looking at the screen of the smartphone, they could see that its power was at 1 percent. And there were slight indents around the area of the virtual keyboard.
But more importantly there was a message blinking that stated [Cloud storage has reached full capacity.]
It seemed Neptune broke something alright. The unimaginable amount of data that was necessary to bring down the very cloud storage of the nation…
Histoire put a tiny hand on Neptune's shoulder.
"Neptune, please only talk to Noire directly from now on."
FIN