Koros45 doesn't own GaoGaiGar FINAL
Pizza for Two
The braves had fought and won, but the victory was bittersweet. Now they were stranded in space, far away from Earth and with no real tangible way to get back. That was an undeniable fact.
Renais Kerdif Shishioh was at the moment almost out of power. The only consolation she had\ was the other cyborg's hand she held in her own cybernetic arm. Her coat covered the two of them and it was all she could do to keep herself sitting up.
"Is Guy – dead?"
Renais heard one of the GGG crew members ask. She tisked. Her cousin was not that weak. It seemed that her companion felt the same as she heard a barely audible "hmph!" from him.
That was all she heard out of J at the moment, however. Since Kaidou and Mamoru had been sent back to Earth, he had been silent. She certainly understood the need to conserve power. Her own G-Stone could only give her so much and some of her unneeded systems had begun to shut down. It wouldn't be death, but she'd be in a bad state if Dr. Liger didn't work on her soon.
Then a response to the question. "No. Just injured." Swan White's reassuring voice answered. Renais quietly let out a sigh of relief and squeezed J's hand a bit harder. It was unnoticed by anyone else, but he reciprocated, widening his grip to give her more room to squeeze with her own hand.
She wanted to kiss him and his big stupid nose, but it would show the entire crew a side of herself she'd like to keep private though at the moment the room was empty other than the two of them. She'd only really known him for about half a day, but through battle they'd bonded and now they literally couldn't let go of each other. Even though the G stones' Hyper Mode had long worn off, the resonating energy of the stones they each had were giving the two enough reserve power to simply be – the only condition being they hold onto each other.
Renais really wished something – anything – would happen but at the moment all of GGG's efforts were just on maintaining the regular humans' life support for as long as they could. Regimens were created and supplies were rationed. She guessed it would be some time before anybody checked on the two of them.
"Gekiryujin's systems are mostly intact. Recovery may be possible with enough power." Entouji's voice was heard through a speaker system.
"Power's a bit limited now. We're barely managing to keep our regular crew safe." Hyuuma responded through the same speaker, sounding worn out.
"Well we know at least one more brave hero is still with us!" Commander Taiga's voice boomed over the two of them. "Keep pinging the rest of the Yuusha! We'll keep sending signals for as long as it takes!"
"Feh." A sigh escaped J's lips and Renais was glad that now the other cyborg was emoting something new.
"J?" Renais said softly – quieter than she'd expected.
"Humans are interesting creatures, Renais. You never give up hope." He said, also in a hushed tone. "I suppose that inspires me. A warrior should never give up, as there will always be battles ahead of us tomorrow." J said before he stopped.
Tomorrow.
The concept was funny now that they were aboard a spacecraft with no cycle of sunrises and sunsets, just waiting for the end, whenever that was.
Renais stopped. Us. She hadn't imagined it. Soldat-J had used a plural.
"Us?" She asked.
J smirked and raised his head to meet her gaze. He looked tired but seeing his exposed eye from his broken helmet and large bang of green hair was a rare treat.
"Of course. We are both warriors of the trinary solar system. I would not diminish my equal." He responded.
Equal. Renais felt butterflies in her stomach and then wished she could eat them.
"What do you think will await us tomorrow, J?" Renais asked him.
He was silent for a moment. "I don't know." He said, shifting his grip on her hand so that it was more relaxed.
She wasn't sure if she was blushing or not but she didn't care. No one would see them wrapped up in her heat coat in any case. She put her free hand on his waist and pulled herself closer so that she was leaning against him.
"Do you ever take off that armor?" Renais questioned.
J was silent to that. It might have been a sensitive question. That armor could very well be an exoskeleton housing a bunch of internals. She'd seen her fair share of cyborgs like that in her days with Bionet. In any case she'd wondered as he protruding breastplate would be a bit of a challenge to move around if she wanted more physical contact.
J moved to put his own free hand around her waist, pulling her closer still. In their state it was foolish – illogical. They'd run out of power a little quicker. And the gesture luckily didn't send her chest directly into the path of his pointed chest armor.
Yet Renais didn't care now.
"J, I want to see one thousand tomorrows with you." Renais said and found that her tired state made her filter less functional.
"Renais, I-" J began to speak.
"Hey you two!"
The response was cut off as her father, Dr. Liger, appeared down the corridor nearing the room they were in, holding something that smelled delicious in his puffy white gloves. The mohawked doctor grinned as he neared them, a mischievous expression under his blue goggles.
"Now we're having rations so I decided to make something for the two of you. According to my nephew it's something you should find ironic, J!" The old doctor said, holding a box in his hands.
"Food?" J asked as though it was ridiculous.
"Of course! You need food to keep that brain of yours working! I thought you'd like some pizza!" Dr. Liger said, throwing the cardboard case open to reveal a small, deep-dish pepperoni pizza.
"I am a cyborg warrior of the Red Planet. I don't need anything like that." J said dismissively.
Renais frowned. The look her foster father gave her was dangerous. If he teased J, Renais didn't know what would happen.
"Well I know dear Renais needs this at least. If you're going to sulk like that, I'll leave you be, J. We'll be back in about an hour with water, so don't get too familiar!" He winked.
"Thanks Dad." Renais said, removing her hand from J's waist, giving herself some space while still holding hands and grabbing the box of pizza.
"Of course! Your old man's gotta look out for you!" The doctor said with a laugh. "Remember J, you are what you eat!" He chortled before flying away on his hover-board.
"My name is not Pizza!" J whispered hoarsely and Renais laughed.
"Well regardless I'm hungry. And I bet that if you CAN eat food, this will give you some energy." The lion themed cyborg said as she took a big bite of it, savoring the processed dough and fresh heat of the food. At the moment it was a delicacy and she wondered how GGG had managed to make it taste so fresh. No doubt one of the perks of their Ultra Technology.
"Eat some." Renais said, sticking the piece she'd bitten into under the broken visor as well as his big nose.
"Hmph. This kind of sustenance is unnecessary for me to function." J responded, moving his hand from her waist to her upper back, leaning forward to take a bite out of the slice.
He chewed it and Renais wished she could see an actual expression beneath the helmet other than his mouth. Then she heard a swallow and a gulp.
"It's hot." He said and she felt the butterflies return. She leaned against his shoulder and took another bite of the piece, now mostly gone before she shoved the rest in his face. He didn't reject it this time as they both chewed it in silence.
"I don't dislike it." J said as he took a turn grabbing a piece to share between the two of them. Renais smiled as it was the first second-hand kiss she'd had in a while. It made her glad she didn't try and force-feed it to him, though the opportunity to tell bird jokes on that subject was tempting.
She opened her mouth as he held out the pizza and she took a bite, tearing a portion of it away and savoring it. A million tomorrows. If they contained things as funny as this, she'd definitely want to share them all with him.
/
The pizza was going faster than J would have liked though the phrase 'you are what you eat' still managed to hit a soft spot he didn't think he still had. Still it was ironic that the first of Earth's foods he'd eaten was also his own Zondarian namesake. The cyborg holding his hand had gone quiet, savoring her bite of the food taking slow, deliberate chews, moving her mouth in different ways to eat it. Her pink artificial sideburns – cylindrical tunes of connected metal – clinked as she turned her head.
Eating. Something he'd deemed unnecessary from his duties as a warrior. Yet here he was, holding hands with his rival's cousin and sharing pizza under her coat. It was utterly ridiculous. Perhaps it was utterly human.
Still he found that the taste and texture were something new entirely. Even if Pasder's naming him after such a meal had been mere coincidence, J could now say the food at least tasted good. He made a mental note to try the dishes that were named after the other Zondarians if they ever found their way back to Earth.
Their way back. Already he was including them as a pair. And the assumption they might get back to Earth had appeared in his mind like second nature. It was a new sensation to him.
"Third piece." Renais said and J indulged her, taking the initiative to bite on the food before letting her have a turn. The intimacy of something so mundane was surprising to J.
Then they chewed. There was nothing new to look at and nothing to do other than monitor his own internal functions. His J-jewel was working fine – perhaps due to the contact with her G-stone, though he was still slowly losing power to his internals that were not organic.
"Renais, do you like this food?" J asked as he finished his latest bite.
"Mmm." Renais said, nodding to him before she gulped down the food. "I like it but it's not my favorite food."
She paused and held up the pizza slice they'd been biting. "I like strawberries and parfaits the most." Then she took another bite before letting J finish the third slice.
"I wish I had a frame of reference." J said before finishing it off.
Once he'd finished eating the bite, Renais looked to the last one in the box.
"Still hungry?" She asked.
J felt something in his stomach. A craving. It made sense as it was the first food he'd consumed since he could remember. "Yes. Let's finish it." He said, realizing that they both were reaching for it at once.
Renais looked at him and stretched her arm, grabbing the slice before he could and taking a bite out of it before holding it behind her, out of his immediate reach.
"What are you doing?" J asked.
Renais suppressed a grin as she chewed and J realized she was toying with him.
He tried to reach around to get the slice with his free hand but she tightened her grip on the hand she was holding and gave it a yank, causing J to miss wildly. She took the opportunity to take another bite, suppressing more laughs as he tried yet again.
And yet again she was ready for him, dropping the slice of pizza in mid-air to grab his free hand by the wrist all while catching the slice in her mouth.
J felt something rise in him. It was not anger or pride as he saw her expression taunting him as well as one could while holding food in their mouth. The feeling of his nothing that a warrior would have. Rather it was the rare moments he'd see Arma express a vestige of hopeful humanity. Like how jovial Latio was even when he was in the foreign J-Arc the first time. A sense of wonder and -
It hit him that the world was playfulness.
J took the opportunity to push his head and neck forward, biting down on the bit of pizza sticking from Renais' mouth and pulling what he could away from her. She made an unintelligible sound and J moved away quickly – appropriately like a bird after striking with a well-timed peck.
This was truly the taste of victory, he thought as he finished the paltry bit he'd managed to snatch. She was still restraining his wrist but he didn't care.
"Looks like there's some on your face." J said, slowly moving his head and neck again towards her. This time it was telegraphed enough for her to react. Renais held still as J licked what pizza sauce he could from her lower lip.
Renais finished her slow chewing and suddenly pressed her lips against his, turning her head so that his nose wouldn't poke her. He tasted her now and he could confirm it was a different kind of flavor than the pizza. No, flavor wasn't the right word for it. Feeling, maybe? He was no poet. She let go of his wrist with her left hand and put it behind his head, lifting her chin so that he was looking down while keeping their lips locked together.
He broke the kiss to take a breath of air and she smiled at him. "Did you get it?" She asked and J couldn't help exhaling in humor. "I think so, but why don't we make sure?"
Renais grinned. "Hey I think you've got some pizza on you, J!" She teased. J was about to respond when she kissed him again.
Then she pulled away and smiled. A tired smile, but nonetheless a good one.
"Glad you liked it." She said, embracing him with her free arm.
J said nothing as now he was at a loss for words. He was not used to something so intimate.
"Well now my mouth is pretty dry, but we'll go for round two after Dad gets us some water." Renais said, winking at him.
One thousand tomorrows? For now he'd settle for making this today last he long as he could.