On the outskirts of Gamindustri City, on one of the ring streets that circled the large metropolis, a bus was driving through the late evening. It was a fairly unremarkable vehicle, boxy and painted in the bland grey and red of the Gamindustri Transportation Group, being pulled along by one of their newer hybrid engines over the empty streets.
The only thing that could be called remarkable about this particular bus would be that it was not empty, as one would expect of a bus on the college line at about 10pm. Instead, it carried a mixture of tired students who had dragged themselves through extra credit classes, professors who regretted offering said classes, and the occasional uninvolved bystanders who had just walked their dogs or gone out for a walk in the lovely parks around campus.
Among the former group was a tall, blue-eyed blonde in a tight, green, V-neck sweater. Her name was Vert, and she was supremely bored.
Usually, she would alleviate her boredom by bothering her best friend Blanc, or by lasciviously appraising the men and women in the bus, but on this particular night, the world had conspired against her.
Blanc had a job at the library that kept her from taking the evening classes with Vert, her phone had run out of battery so she couldn't text her, and to top it all off the vehicle was filled with people Vert had long lost interest in.
One can only eat eye candy so many times before it goes stale, after all. Oh bother, this will be troublesome. How am I supposed to survive this dreary ride?
While she was busy pitying her fate, a high-pitched yell of frustration pierced the soundscape of quiet murmuring and the muted sounds of a vehicle in motion.
"Noo! I was so close…"
Sitting across the aisle, only three seats away from the suffering blonde, sat a girl that did not care at all for the quiet, somber atmosphere of the bus. Messy hair dyed a soft shade of pink and held back with D-Pad-shaped hairclips, her oversized white hoodie and striped knee-socks lent her a childish air. She was playing a game on a purple portable console, and talking animatedly at it.
"Okay, Iffy, you can do this! Bike, good, now this time we'll jump you over here…. YES!"
Every success or failure elicited soft cries from the colourful girl, and drew the attention of everyone around her. Tired glares implored her to just quiet down and let her fellow passengers rest, while others turned away and tried to ignore the energetic nuisance. But in Vert, tired and bored, this girl elicited an entirely different reaction.
How does she do that? That's … amazing! It's like she's glowing…
With slow, careful movements the blonde reached into her bag and pulled out her sketchpad and pencil. The sight of this girl, seemingly a living embodiment of vigour and youthful enthusiasm, amidst the gloomy late-evening atmosphere called to the artist in Vert. She couldn't not try to capture what she perceived.
Her pencil flew across the paper, sketching outlines and hinting at shading, angles and perspective joined together in an effort to create the impression of movement.
Occasionally she flipped her pencil around, bringing to bear the punitive power of her eraser on lines that had displeased her. There was no place for mistakes in Lady Vert's kingdom of paper, and especially not when she was capturing a view of such divine inspiration.
Whenever the artist paused in her act of creation to inspect her unwitting model, she couldn't help but stare for a few seconds. The sheer energy this girl radiated could have powered a city or be distilled into coffee enough to fuel a hundred gaming marathons.
Noone should be this awake after a whole day of classes! And if they were, it shouldn't make them this cute! It is truly unfair…
Shaking her head free of her fellow passenger's spell, Vert lowered her head and went back to work, creating on paper the holy instrument of the energetic muse's power, the little handheld gaming system.
The outlines were quickly done, followed by some buttons along the top. She had to look up again to check the design on the back…
And blue eyes met purple.
Oh god! She's looking at me!
Vert's heart skipped a beat. There were few things more embarrassing than being caught sketching someone without their permission. On the "Vert scale of embarrassing situations" it ranked just above Blanc finding her doujins and just below being seen in ugly clothes.
Drawing was something almost intimate to Vert, a connection of souls between the artist and the model. Now that she was looking directly into those deep purple eyes, that connection was almost tangible to her.
And it left her feeling vulnerable before the inscrutable gaze of the deific girl in front of her. Her cheeks were heating up and she's grinning. Why is she grinning?!
Mortification rising, Vert watched helplessly, paralyzed, as the other girl jumped off of her seat and strolled over to Vert, still exuding energy with every bouncing step.
One, two, three, four steps and then she was standing in front of the blonde art student.
"Watcha drawin there?"
And then the lilac locks were in Vert's face, as the surprisingly short girl bowed her head over the sketchbook to look at the drawing.
"Is that supposed to be me? Damn, I'm hella cute!"
"Yes, you are."
Vert's hand flew to her mouth in shock at her own muttered response.
Why did I say that?! What is wrong with me today?! Now she's probably disgusted or annoyed or…. Blushing?
The other girl was indeed blushing, and the sight again broke the artist's train of thought. The giggling that filled their corner of the bus soon after
"Oh my, how bold! I'm flattered, really!" As the pink-haired muse took a step back, and dramatically brought one of her hands up to her mouth in a shocked gesture. "You're not too shabby yourself, ya know? What with the whole "curvy blonde" thing and the adorable blush…"
The compliments brought Vert back to herself. This was nothing new to her, after all she was used to being admired.
"Why, thank you, dear. My name is Vert, by the way. May I know yours?"
The other girl leaned against the side of a seat with a lazy grin.
"I'm Neptune, but if that's too hard to pronounce you can call me Nep, or Nep-Nep, or Nepperoni, or Nepsy, or Nepster or…. Well, you get the idea!"
"I believe I do, yes. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Neptune."
The handshake that followed was unsurprisingly very energetic, and once again Vert was slightly awed at this girl's seemingly inhuman exuberance.
"Soo, why're you drawing me? Are you some kinda stalker? Were you hired by a stalker? No, wait, RED has her own camera… anyway, what's got your imagination up?"
Vert's cheeks flared up again at the ridiculous insinuations, and thus her response was slightly less measured than she would have otherwise liked.
"Excuse me? I.. what? I am certainly no stalker! I simply thought you were cute and that your energy and excitement were something worth capturing on paper… "
She trailed off as the pink wonder's smirk told her that she wasn't exactly making her situation any better.
Ah, whatever. In for a Penny, in for a Pound.
Drawing a deep breath, she calmed herself and decided to approach the situation with the same calm shamelessness Blanc so often rebuked her for.
"I only draw people I find exceptionally interesting for my long-term study project, and your energy and excitement were too captivating to pass up.
Such a beautiful sight could not simply be forgotten, after all."
At that Neptune seemed taken aback for the first time in this strange conversation. As fate would have it, at that exact moment the bus braked hard, and Neptune, already unbalanced by the conversation, suddenly went from leaning suavely against a seat to tumbling down the aisle like a ragdoll, coming to a stop lying on her back against the front of the bus, legs twisted to the side in a comical fashion and looking up at the driver with crossed eyes.
"Oouch. You ruined my image, man! That hurt right in the pride… oh shit! This is my stop, open the door!"
Vert looked on, mystified, as the pastel-coloured girl flipped to her feet, thanked the bus driver and ran out, stopping only to call out over her shoulder "Seeya again soon, Vertibird! I take this bus every wednesday and friday!"
And like that, she was gone, leaving only a memory of energizing light and the echoes of her amused giggling bouncing around in Vert's mind.
As the bus accelerated again and the other passengers lost interest, finally able to enjoy the quiet and relax, the whole encounter took on an almost dreamlike quality to the blonde art student. All that remained of Neptune was Vert's fading blush and the lines on her sketchpad, missing details but more than enough to reinforce the mirage-like image of the colourful, bouncy girl.
What a strange but lovely encounter.
Without really noticing, she wrote down "Neptune, wednesday and friday" on the opposite side of the page, before closing the pad and gingerly reinserting it into her bag.
She stared out the window for s while, not really seeing anything but rather just reliving the events of the past few minutes, every mental repetition letting the whole encounter seem more like a dream.
By the time the bus driver announced her stop, the escalating fantasies of her overactive imagination had almost made her forget that Neptune had been a real person she had actually talked to.
And then her eyes saw the blue and pink bookbag lying abandoned on the seat that had recently been occupied by a colourful ball of enthusiasm and energy.
A gentle smile found it's way onto Vert's face as the relevance of Neptune's parting words came into sharp focus all of a sudden.
"Well, it appears I wasn't the only one lost in the moment. I guess I'll have to give this back to her soon."
Loading herself up with both bags, she stepped out into the cool air of the summer night, smiling in anticipation of their next meeting.
I will capture your enthusiasm next time, for sure!
AN: Hello there friends and readers, and welcome to my Slice of Nep.
This is going to be mainly a place for me to dump random story ideas that I want to make but can't be bothered to flesh out, as well as drabbles, one-shots and things that are related to one of my ongoing stories but wouldn't fit into the story itself.
As such, this will probably be updated even more erratically than my main projects, so I'm apologizing in advance. The best way to get me to write more is to communicate with me, so don't forget to drop a review if you have something to say, be it good or bad.