Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Ryuusei no Rockman or these characters. This story takes place about half a year after Tribe.
A disaster in the making
Subaru sighed as he followed Luna and her little "gang". This was perfectly in-character, both for him and for Shikamaru Nara, the boy he was dressed up as. Luna had convinced him to come with her to an Anime convention, and decided the four of them (for of course Gonta and Kizamaro would follow no matter what) would go as Team 10 from the popular anime Naruto. Luna was dressed as Ino, of course, with Gonta as Chouji and Kizamaro as Asuma.
"You didn't have to go, you know." Warrock pointed out.
"I never said I didn't want to," Subaru argued.
"Come on, I know you just did it to make Luna happy…"
"T-That's not it!" Subaru protested, waving his arms around. He got a few stares, but ignored them and hurried to catch up with Luna.
The class President had stars in her eyes, and her hands were clasped close to her chest. "Oh, I hope Rockman-sama comes as Sasuke!"
Subaru sweatdropped. "Um, Inchou… I don't think he will…"
"But he has to!" Luna cried, whirling around to face him.
"I-I mean, h-he has to… um… s-save the world and stuff, right?" Subaru stuttered, perhaps from trying to find something to say, but more likely since Luna's face was now only a few inches away.
"I suppose you're right…" Luna sighed and turned back around, looking disappointed.
Subaru cautiously laid a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, we can have fun anyway, right?"
Luna perked up "S-sure! Let's go then!"
A shadowed figure stepped towards the building, cocky smile on her face.
Misora walked forwards, dressed as Sakura, from the show Naruto as well.
"Rockman's gonna come as Sasuke I bet, and I will finally win his heart!" She raised a hand to her mouth and laughed long and hard as flowers, musical notes and hearts exploded behind her.
She frowned, however, as soon as she saw Subaru.
"He's… with Luna?" Misora continued talking to herself, as Harp was away. "That's terrible! I have to do something… hmm… he's dressed as Shikamaru, which means… Aha! Harp!" Misora called, and her friend showed up. "I need your help…"
Meanwhile, Luna was walking side-by-side to Subaru, blushing and trying to think of a legitimate reason to hold his hand.
I… well, there are people who like Shikamaru and Ino together, right? Right. So, I'll just… slip my hand into his… slowly… I mean, it doesn't have to mean anything, right? Friends can hold hands with each other, right?
Just as Luna worked up her courage and her fingers brushed Subaru's, a girl cos-playing as Temari ran by, pushing Luna out of the way and slung an arm around Subaru's neck. She looked over her shoulder at the girl she had just knocked onto the ground and smirked. The girl was obviously Harp Note, not only by her actions but also due to the fact you could see her helmet and visor under the Temari-esque wig.
"Hi, Subaru-chan~!" Harp Note said cheerfully, ignoring a pair of eyes glaring holes through her skull. "Let's go off and have some fun!"
Subaru tried to pull away from Misora. "Um… but I came here with Luna, it would be rude to leave her… oh, and the others too, I guess." Subaru glanced around for the other two, and noticed for the first time Gonta in the distance purchasing some chips, and Kizamaro being chased by a group of angry Asuma fangirls claiming it was an insult for Asuma to be cosplayed by someone so short. Subaru gulped.
"Oh, who cares about her? I want us to hang out, just the two of us!" She batted her eyelashes at the boy, who rolled his eyes. He wished desperately at this moment that he didn't have a policy against hitting girls, or else he would have been able to escape Misora.
"Harp Note!" Luna, who had jumped to her feet, yelled at the other girl. "You already stole Rockman-sama from me, and now you're trying to take Subaru too?!" Luna immediately raised a hand to cover her mouth, as her face blushed deep red from the realization she had just admitted to having a crush on Subaru.
Subaru turned to face her as well as he could with an arm practically choking him around his neck. "I-inchou… you…?"
Misora let out a huff of impatience. "Come ON, Subaru, let's go." She declared, pulling him away.
"Hoshikawa-kun!" Luna called out, as Subaru flailed his arms in an attempt to escape from Misora and get back to Luna. Suddenly, music started playing and Luna started singing softly.
"How many times have you told me, you love her?"
"I never said I love her!" Subaru protested, trying his best to slow Misora from dragging him off.
"As many time as I've wanted to tell you the truth…"
"Then why didn't you?!"
"How long have I stood here, beside you?"
"Help me, Luna, please!" Subaru cried as Misora pulled him further and further away from the other girl.
"I live through you, you looked through me…"
"I LOVE YOU, LUNA-CHAN!" Subaru called out just as Misora pulled him out of earshot.
Luna's head shot up at this last comment, but Subaru had already been pulled out of sight. She looked around her to see if Gonta and Kizamaro were there, but they had wandered off even farther then when Subaru saw them, and could not be seen either. Luna let out a sigh.
"I know how it feels to be lonely…" A soft voice came from her right as a hand rested on her shoulder. Luna turned around slightly to see Futaba Tsukasa standing there, dressed as Ryou Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh!.
"I feel so sorry for you, Shirogane-san." A voice came from her left, and she turned back to see Solo standing there, dressed in his normal clothes, looking less out-of-place than most of the cos-players. The two boys then glared at each other, and Luna sweatdropped in the background.
"What are YOU doing here?!" They both called out at the same, each thrusting an arm dramatically out at the other. Luna felt the oddest sense of deja vu, like she had been on the other side of something like this before…
"I am trying to comfort my Class President in her time of distress!" Tsukasa volunteered, starting up the glaring match once more.
"I was simply trying to do the same! …Except for the whole 'class president' part." Solo defended. "Besides, I'm sure she much prefer someone like me to a freak like you."
Tsukasa visibly bristled at this comment. "A fight to the death, then!"
Solo nodded. "For the love of Luna-sama!"
"Um…" Luna said, trying to tell them that she really didn't like either of them, and fighting each other would really have no point, but the two didn't seem to hear her and Denpa-Henkaned anyway.
Luna sighed. This doesn't look good…
"Misora… can't you let go of me?"
"No. You wouldn't go on a date with me if I asked, so I won't let you get away this time!"
Subaru sighed, and tugged at the arm that continued to choke him. He looked towards the guitar that was Harp to see the alien snickering.
"Harp! Talk some sense into Misora-chan!" Subaru cried out, distressed.
"No way." She snickered. "I'm on Misora's side with this one."
The human groaned, resigning himself to his torture until he could get back to Luna… until a small blue object came flying over there hands, landing in front of the two blinking pre-teens.
"Itai…" 'Bubbleman' rubbed his head.
"Cancer Bubble! Why are you here!" Misora demanded, annoyed at the interruption.
"H-how did you know it was me, buku?" Cancer Bubble asked, taken aback.
Misora rolled her eyes. "Only someone like you would come dressed like a character from a historical drama, right, Subaru-kun?" she turned to ask her partner. However, there was no one in the stop she had last seen him, as was emphasized by the little yellow lines.
The pop star growled, a vein pulsing on her forehead.
"Uh-oh, not good buku…" the crab murmured. He knew what happened when girls got angry.
Sure enough, two seconds later he was flying off into space.
Luna sighed. Sure it was flattering having two boys fight over her, but… well, she only really had feelings for Rockman-sama and Subaru. She had tried to explain it to the two boys, but they were too busy fighting.
"Why can't they just listen to me?" Luna asked morosely.
"Meow?"
"Huh?" the girl glanced down to see a black figure nearby. She smiled slightly.
"Aww, a cute little cat." She smiled and started stroking its orange hair. This was, in fact, Black Gemini, although he was perfectly fine with fooling Luna into thinking he was feline.
She giggled as he started 'purring'. "Oh, you're just so cute!"
'Score! While those two are busy, I get the girl! All right!' Black Gemini thought, grinning.
Cancer showed up a second later, holding up a sign stating "Not a cat". Luna promptly sent him flying.
"Ah!" White Gemini cried, stopping his fight with Burai swiftly. The crowd that had formed sighed in disappointment and walked off.
"Black Gemini! What are you doing here?" He demanded, pointing a finger at the figure Luna was stroking. The girl frowned.
"You're not a cat? Go!" She yelled, kicking Black Gemini away from her… and right in front of the verty angry White Gemini. His eyes were red, and he had a very dangerous grin on his face. Black Gemini gulped.
"So, while I was busy you decided to take Luna-sama for yourself, huh?"
"U-um…"
"DIE!" White Gemini yelled, pulling out an electro-sword and dashing forwards.
The crowd cheered and went back to watch.
"Well, shall we go?" Burai asked, dusting himself off and smiling at Luna.
"A-ah…"
A second later, Luna was saved thanks to a certain crab FM-ian landing on Burai's head, knocking both of them unconscious. The girl sighed in relief.
"Come on, Inchou, let's go." She heard Subaru ask behind he. Before she could respond, The boy had grasped her hand quickly and ran off with her.
The two children walked back to their houses slowly, the late afternoon sun casting an orange tinge to the world.
"Um, should we go back for Gonta and Kizamaro?" Subaru asked. Luna shook her head slightly.
"They know the way to their own homes, and they were the ones who left us in the first place." She lowered her head. "It's nice to finally have some quiet, anyway. If they were here, we wouldn't be able to have a moment of that." She added softly.
Subaru chuckled slightly in agreement. They took a few more steps forwards when Luna spoke up again.
"L-look, things were really crazy in there, weren't they?"
"They sure were."
"S-so… um, let's just forget it, okay?"
Subaru was silent, but nodded. He didn't know what had possessed him to call out to her like that, and he still wanted to know what Luna had meant, but he wouldn't push Luna to say anything if she didn't want to. A small part of him wanted Luna to know what he felt about her, but the rest of him convinced him that was a terrible idea.
As the two walked forwards side-by-side, Luna's thought unwillingly drifted to what had happened before. Even though she said to forget it… she didn't really want to herself. Things were confusing her now, in a way she wasn't sure was good or bad. She continued to deny Rockman and Subaru were the same person, but not for the reason most people thought. Truthfully, if this had been different and a certain person hadn't been in the picture, she would have been ecstatic the hero she adored and the boy she was secretly crushing on were one and the same. But she had resigned herself to the fact that Gonta was right, and Rockman and Harp Note were boyfriend and girlfriend. That was the reason she kept trying to convince herself and everyone around her Rockman-sama and Hoshikawa-kun couldn't possibly be the same person. Because if they were, there was no way he could love her back. But, from what happened today, it certainly seemed like he and Harp Note weren't boyfriend and girlfriend… and he had said he loved her… Luna's head dropped lower and started blushing. She didn't want to remember what had happened back there… but she didn't really want to forget either.
Subaru happened to glance down as they continued walking, and all of a sudden something came to his attention.
"U-um… Inchou, we're still holding hands." Subaru said, his face flushing very slightly. Luna's head raised, and turned to face him, then she glanced down to where their two hands were still clasping each other.
Her face blushed much more apparently than Subaru's, and she turned to face forwards again. "O-oh."
Subaru expected Luna to pull her hand away from his swiftly, if fact, he was surprised she hadn't done so the second she saw it still holding his. After a few seconds, Subaru realized that, to his surprise, Luna didn't seem like she was planning on letting go of his hand… which was fine with Subaru.
He turned his head to look at her, but she kept staring straight ahead, with a neutral expression on her face. However, her eyes flickered to meet his for a second, and though her head faced ahead this whole time, the lips formed a small, shy smile afterwards. Subaru faced forwards as well, with a similar smile on his own face.
Maybe this day wasn't so bad after all…
Author's notes: Oh yes, if anyone was confused, the part of the fifth section happened at the same time as the fourth section, and the reason Cancer Bubble suddenly flew over is because Luna punched him away. And if I was a bit vague about the convention… that's because I haven't actually been to one before and had to write based on what I gathered. Hope you liked!