At a Potato Roast
Dororo happily made his way to the Hinata house. Yesterday, the sergeant had announced a day off for the whole platoon, he must have remembered what day it was. He had to hand it to his green friend - he wasn't always so ignorant.
Or was he?
Dororo opened the door to Keroro's room, to find he and Tamama building Gundam models together.
"Ano… Keroro-kun, Tamama-dono… you do know what day it is, right?"
Keroro looked at him exasperatedly.
"YES, Dororo, it's a day off, ok?"
"…Nothing else?"
"Not as far as I know"
Dororo frowned and left. Surely he wasn't the only one who remembered?
He made his way down to Kururu's laboratory. He knocked on the door.
"Kururu-dono, please tell me you know what today is?" he called.
"I can't, that would be lying. I don't know, and quite frankly, I don't care… ku ku ku!" Came the crackly reply through the intercom. Dororo looked down at the floor sadly. He must have been the only one who remembered. Well… at least SOMEONE did.
He went to his garden room a lifted up a hidden potato sack and carried it out to the Hinata's back yard. He walked up to Giroro's tent.
"Giroro-kun" he called. Shuffling could be heard for a few moments before Giroro poked his head out of the unzipped tent flap.
"Dororo?"
"Happy birthday, Giroro-kun!" Dororo smiled.
Giroro's eyes softened for a second, before he sharpened his eyes and looked side to side.
"Where's everyone else?" he asked worriedly.
"I'm sorry, Giroro, I'm the only one who remembered…" Dororo frowned sadly.
"Thank God. Well… as long as it's just you, I can't stand big birthday celebrations. I was ideally hoping that no-one would remember… come in, come in, I'll shut up" Said Giroro, Dororo following behind with his potato sack.
Once inside, he pulled out what looked like a giant chopstick with an obscure button and screen from the sack.
"This is just something small and silly. You can use it when cooking sweet potatoes. When you pass it to someone, this little light shows a certain colour, which represents how the recipient feels about the person giving to them. I thought you could use it when you next eat with Natsumi…" said Dororo. Giroro blushed as he looked at it and the colour key that came with it, thinking of the pink haired warrior.
"Th-thank you… Dororo, how thoughtful of you" He said, smiling at his friend, feeling more understood now.
The second thing Dororo pulled out of the sack had been delicately wrapped in purple tissue paper. Giroro unwrapped it gently, and gawped at what he saw.
A young Giroro was staring into the window of a model shop, almost drooling at what he saw. It was his favourite train of all time, immortalised in metal and wood, handmade and intricately detailed. It was the model train on Keron, there were only 47 in existence. He had no hope of obtaining it though… not only was it to expensive, but also a child his age would never be trusted with and object that fragile and valuable.
Giroro's eyes went hazy, tears forming beneath them.
"How… how… how did you… know? How on Keron did you get it?" He said, staring admiringly at this nostalgic rarity.
"I know you to well not to know that this would mean a lot to you… and yeah… I guess it was quite hard to get… but it was all totally worth it" Dororo smiled.
"Oh… oh, Dororo, thank you so much!" Giroro said, his voice broken with emotion as he pulled his friend into a tight hug.
"I shall treasure this dearly" he said, picking up the model carefully, and locking it in a reinforced cabinet which also contained a blunted battle knife that had belonged to his mother.
"Now we need to get out somewhere so no-one else finds out it's my birthday" Giroro grinned before getting out of the tent.
"Giroro-kun!" Dororo laughed, totally unsurprised at Giroro's want of a quiet birthday.
The duo spent most of the day flying around the streets of Japan on their hover machines, just so Giroro could get away for a bit.
They were out for quite a while it seemed, as they only returned to the house when the sun was low in the sky. They touched down by his tent.
"What do you want for tea, Giroro? I'll cook you something"
"I'll cook some sweet potatoes"
"But Giroro, it's your birthday! You always have sweet potatoes" Dororo objected
"It's my birthday, and I shall have what I please" Giroro grinned in reply, poking his tongue out at him.
"…Fine" said Dororo, rolling his eyes, but failing to hold back a smirk.
They both sat on the breeze block by his tent, Giroro grabbing a few sticks to cook the potatoes on. He picked up the one nearest to him, the potato on it looking well cooked, and passed it to Dororo.
A strong pink light shone from the stick.
The two keronians froze, staring at the stick they held in their hands. There was an awkward silence that lasted nearly three minutes.
"…Pink means love, right?" Giroro whispered. Another pause.
"You… would be correct in that assessment" Dororo said in a shaky, monotonous voice. Giroro stared right into his friend's eyes.
They were interrupted by faint call from the kitchen.
"Giroro!," It was Natsumi "I can smell sweet potatoes, can I have one?" not much later, footsteps could be heard.
Dororo suddenly leapt into a nearby tree, leaving the sweet potato stick in Giroro's trembling hand.
"Giroro-kun, now's your chance!" whispered Dororo.
Giroro stared at him for a second before shaking his head and snapping out of it. He grabbed a cooler potato and threw it up to him, who smiled thankfully in return.
Natsumi soon made it outside.
Giroro passed her the stick with the sensor, not as interested now that Dororo's feelings had ironically been revealed.
The light came out a warm, navy blue - close friendship, usually shared between family members. Natsumi didn't notice, and Giroro no longer cared. They ate their sweet potatoes in silence.
They finished the batch quickly, and Natsumi said her thanks before returning to the house. Giroro looked up into the tree and smiled slightly as he saw that Dororo had fallen asleep there.
He quietly climbed up to the branch Dororo was perched on and gently shook him awake.
"I've still got some spare potatoes…" said Giroro.
"Never mind…" said Dororo, allowing himself to blush at Giroro's attention.
"I guess I'll have to take your mask off myself" Said Giroro, quickly slipping Dororo's mask off his face and pressing his lips to his own. Dororo jumped at the kiss, but quickly returned it, taking hold of Giroro's hands. Eventually they pulled apart, each cupping the other's face in their hands and gazing into each other's eyes.
"Happy Birthday, Giroro-kun" Dororo whispered.
"Thank you… so much" Giroro replied, pulling Dororo into a tight hug.
~Fin~