As a discalimer, I do not own Sgt. Frog/Keroro Gunso, it's characters, or anything affiliated with the show. This is simply something that is a product of my own imagination. That being said, enjoy!
"It's getting really late out, Sarge. " Fuyuki said as he stared out the open sliding door that lead to the small backyard. The sun was just touching the tops of the houses and the sky was shades of orange, pink, and indigo as night crept up. There was more than just one star dotting the darkened sky in the distance. It wouldn't be long and the last rays of the sun would be gone altogether.
Fuyuki had walked home alone today after a very short Paranormal Club meeting. Momoka had to leave almost immediately after school left out to go have tea with her father at the usual Scottish castle. So, with his only other member absent, he had left after a miserable solitary ten minutes. He hadn't expected his sister Natsumi to wait for him.
When he had arrived home, Fuyuki had gone straight up to his room to get started on his homework. The house was abnormally quiet, but he didn't bother to think about it. Only later, when he went to go ask Keroro something, more as a distraction to get away from his homework than for anything particularly academic, did he notice that the lights under the door to Natsumi's room were off, and that the rest of the house was empty. There weren't even another pair of shoes waiting at the back door. Just Natsumi's lonely slippers.
Keroro sat at the table picking through the take out that they chose to pick up with Natsumi being absent and Aki pulling an all nighter at work to meet a deadline she was worrying about. "I'm sure she's just fine. In any case, without her here we can comfortably sit down and enjoy a nice meal without getting beat up or yelled at for a change." Keroro grinned as he pulled out a piece of meat and proudly devoured it.
"I guess so.." Fuyuki said. Sighing he turned his back to the sliding door to make his way back to the table to join his frog friend before all the good parts were gone. "She's probably out with Saburo or something. Let's make sure we leave her some dinner, okay?"
Ignoring Keroro's loud protests behind him, Giroro looked up at the darkening sky with worry. The Corporal had been absently cleaning his weapons, now on the large rocket launcher he favored, as he waited for the fire he had started not long ago to rise to temperature. Natsumi's still not home? And she's out with that self-centered Pekoponain idiot?!
Without another a moment to waste, Giroro ran through the open door and down to the not-so-secret base beneath the Hinata household. He made his way to the dreaded Kururu Lab, a large yellow depiction of the insane frog himself with grinning teeth for a door. "Kururu! Open up!" Giroro yelled as he banged a fist on the door. Open up or I will not hesitate to bow this door into oblivion.. he thought as his fingers twitched to pull the trigger of the pristine rocket launcher in his hand. It was overkill, but this was Natsumi we were talking about.
The teeth of the door slid up allowing the fuming red frog entrance. "Make it quick, I'm in the middle of something very important." The dark room was lit up with the glow of a dozen screens, all portraying different information, statistics, calculations, diagrams… who knew what the frog was planning. Kururu turned in his chair to face the Corporal. The headphones on his head were open, extending out to the sides of his head as he plugged into many computers. On one side of his head was a gloved hand holding a plate of curry and rice, while the other side had yet another hand with a spoon, poised and ready with another bite.
"I want you to make something to track individual Pekoponians. And I want it fast." Giroro growled as he stepped into the lair. It always worried him to come down here and ask for something from their technology expert. He had a tendency to test his inventions on the platoon.
"A Pekoponian tracker? Not interested." Kururu opened his mouth as the spoon hand offered the bite of curry to him. Kururu ate in silence as he stared at Giroro, waiting for him to either go or offer him something more interesting.
Without a word, Giroro lifted the rocket launcher at the nearest screen off to his left. "Make it. And make it fast, Kururu. I'm in no mood to play games."
"Kukuku… it's the small red one in the box by the door with the bright green handle. Put in some DNA of the Pekopon you want to find and it should work. Follow the scanning screen on top." Kururu grinned as his headphone hands fed him another bite of curry.
"You had one this entire time?!" Giroro yelled. He didn't have time for this. He lowered his rocket launcher and ran to the box, digging through for the tracker. Of course, it looked like a Pekoponian hair dryer, but thankfully it was the only red item in the box. Knowing Kururu, he would have filled the contents of the box with the same looking items just to waste everyone else's time.
Within moments, Giroro was high over head with is shield activated as he searched for Natsumi. The moment of guilt he felt when he influtrated the red-haired Pekoponian's room was short-lived. He needed DNA, and sadly, the photograph he had did not qualify as such.
He gripped the strand of red hair he had claimed and dropped it into the back of the tracking gun. A few moments passed with nothing. "I will kill that frog if this thing-" Beep went the tracker. Giroro sighed with relief when he saw that she wasn't far off.
He flew fast to where the little pink dot blinked on the tracking screen. Below him, was a small Pekoponian play ground. With it being so late, the sky overhead nearly completely consumed with darkness, there wasn't a single child or mother around.
Except for one.
No, there was no one around, but the little light blinked that Natsumi was definitely down there. Giroro landed his little red saucer in the bushes where it was least likely to get tripped over since it was invisible to all but his platoon, of course, and the Hinatas. The red frog hugged a tree as he scanned the grounds. Three see-saws, one straight slide, one large turtle that formed a front and a slide, swing set… it was completely deserted. Checking the tracker again, the little light beeped and blinked that she was directly in front of him; the turtle, of course.
Quickly, Giroro ran to the small arch in the side of the turtle while he mentally readied himself for what he would find. What if she's in there with that stupid Pekoponian? What if he's kissing her?! What if… he chased the images of worse possibilities away and pressed his back to the turtles side next to the arch. If he has so much as laid a finger on her, I'll shoot off his whole hand. Giroro smiled at the thought as he lifted his rifle, the rocket launcher strapped to his back as a precaution.
Inside, it was dark and the only occupant was Natsumi who had her knees to her chest with her arms wrapped around them and her face hidden. No Saburo in sight. Giroro disengaged his cloaking shield and approached the girl. "Natsumi…"
Slowly, Natsumi lifted her face to look at the frog. Her cheeks were wet from tears, and still a steady stream fell as she looked at him. "Giroro.." She sniffled and wiped at her eyes. "What are you doing here?" She sat a little more straightly, bringing her legs down to fold under her, with her hands resting in her lap.
Giroro stared at his warrior princess. Even with her tear-stained cheeks and obvious distress, he couldn't remember a time where he had seen her look so… vulnerable; not even when she slept. He couldn't think past how beautiful she looked when she had her guard down around him. "I came to find you. Natsumi, what's wrong? It's not like my warrior princess to shed a tear."
Natsumi lowered her eyes to the sandy ground. "It's Saburo."
The red frog fumed at the boy's name, gripping his gun tighter. "What's he got to do with anything?"
"I had heard rumors." Natsumi said. "I heard Saburo started dating a freshman girl." She wiped her eyes again, still not looking at her companion. "I went to go ask him after school… and… he was..was…" Natsumi brought her hands to her face as she cried again; tears choking out her words. "I saw him kissing another girl!"
Unable to move, Giroro stared at his crying beloved Natsumi. Saburo? With another girl? Finally! He's out of the picture! But seeing Natsumi in such a state hurt him down to the bone. Worse than any wound he had ever sustained in battle, any pain he had endured at Kururu's experiments… and the heartache of his platoon leader being a manga reading, Gumdam obsessed idiot.
Cautiously, Giroro stepped over to his Natsumi. He didn't know what made him do it, but by the time his mind caught up to his body, his arms were already out, and reaching for his warrior princess. He hesitated only once, then gave in to the temptation. His reached up on his toes and wrapped his arms around Natsumi's neck so that her face barely touched his chest. I am going to die for this… but at least I can die happily knowing that for one moment I held my beloved in my arms when she needed someone. "Natsumi…"
The girl stiffened in surprise at the gentle touch. And from Giroro! She almost instantly brought her hands up to shove him away, but the soft way he said her name, full of such soft emotion and comfort… She lowered her hands from her face and wrapped her own arms around him, hugging him tightly as she cried into his chest; cried out the last of her heartache and pain. Who'd have thought? She thought to herself, of all the people in the world, a frog is the one that came to my rescue.
They didn't say anything as Natsumi cried and finally came to silence as she just held the red frog and he held her. Companionable silence as they enjoyed the comfort of someone they trusted.
I hope everyone enjoyed it! Cute little one-shot that I couldn't sleep from. Stupid thing running through my head over and over, but what are you gonna do? Thanks for reading! *Thanks so much everyone for the reviews! If I get enough of them, I will expend this story into a second chapter, so keep it up!