Author's note: June 17, 2006: Yes, I'm still alive. I've just moved onto different fandoms and I like j-dramas, Johnny's Entertainment ( 3) and manga far more than video games and anime now. I've decided that I will only keep the original one-shot. The rest of the storyline was really quite unsatisfactory for me personally and I need to please myself before anyone else, right? I downloaded the old chapters so just let me know if you want any of the old chaps sent over to you.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Rockman or Megaman.
Happy Birthday Netto!
Wednesday, November 18, 200x was Hikari Netto's fourteenth birthday. However, Netto had forgotten to set his alarm clock the previous night, so on his birthday, his mother woke him up twenty minutes later than he should have. Mrs. Hikari peeked into Netto's bedroom at 7:20 am. A lump under the blankets indicated that Netto was still asleep. Glancing at Netto's PET, Mrs. Hikari groaned. Rockman was also fast asleep. She could only think of one way to wake Netto up. Walking over to his bed, she snapped the blankets off Netto all at once.
"Netto, Meiru'll be here in ten minutes and you're still in your pajamas!" Mrs. Hikari warned.
The birthday boy just lay perfectly still. Mrs. Hikari let out a sigh.
At least Rockman woke up.
"Lucky I don't have to get ready," Rockman yawned.
"By the way Netto, happy birthday," Mrs. Hikari said, as she walked out of the room and went downstairs.
Ten minutes later, as usual, Meiru rang the doorbell. She wasn't too surprised when Mrs. Hikari opened the door.
"Good morning Meiru. Please come in."
Meiru smiled.
"Netto overslept again, didn't he?"
"He's still in bed… what a hopeless boy."
Netto came running down the stairs a minutes later looking a bit messy, but ready for school.
"Happy birthday Netto," Meiru greeted him as they went into the kitchen for Netto to grab some breakfast.
"Your hair's all messed up! Are you planning to go to school that way?" Meiru teased as Netto poked through the refrigerator.
"I'm hungry! I'm too busy to worry about something like that!"
Meanwhile……
"Rockman!' Roll ran towards him and pulled him into a tight, warm embrace.
"Hey Roll!"
"Meiru told me today's Netto's birthday."
"Yeah. And they're going to be late for school if they don't hurry up!"
Netto heard that last phrase.
"Just a minute Rockman, I haven't even eaten breakfast yet!"
He gulped down milk and went out of the kitchen with Maylu and a sandwich in his hand.
"See you later, mama," Netto said hurriedly, opening the front door.
'Bye Mrs. Hikari," Meiru added.
"Take care!" Mrs. Hikari called out as the two headed on their way to school.
By some sort of miracle, Netto and Meiru got to school with time to spare. As they entered the courtyard, Dekao came running to them.
"Hey Meiru! Happy birthday Netto!"
'Thanks Dekao!"
"Netto-kun, you have three minutes until the bell rings! You'd better get to your classroom before you get marked late! Again!" Rockman told him amidst the noise around them.
"Rockman's right, Netto. We may be here, but we'll be late if we're not in the classroom," Meiru agreed as she ran towards the building entrance . Dakao looked disappointed.
" What about meee? I don't want to be late either!" He started running after her.
Yoshizawa-sensei, their eighth grade teacher, had written a message for everyone in the class to see: "Happy Birthday Netto!" Never before have people stopped to greet Netto a happy birthday. Netto grinned widely. "Except for waking up late, it's been a good day," he announced during lunch.
"We can tell, Netto," Meiru said laughing.
Yaito tugged at Dekao's sleeve.
"I'm surprised they haven't gone out or anything like that yet. We should lock them in a room or something," she whispered as Netto and Meiru laughed about something Netto had said.
"Huh?" Dekao said, clearly confused.
Yaito sighed. "Glyde, I guess it's just you and me," she said disappointedly.
"Yes Yaito-sama."
Because it was a Wednesday, Mrs. Hikari wouldn't let Netto have any party of the sort until Friday. After school was pretty typical. They all went to Yaito's straight after, which Yaito used as part of her plan. Glyde had talked to Rockman and Roll privately, and they were more than willing to comply. Once they all got there, they were on their way to their secret hideout when Yaito turned to Netto and Meiru, who were both in the rear.
"Netto, Meiru, I forgot something in my bedroom. My daddy bought me some new battle chips yesterday. Could you two get them for me?" she asked in a tone she hoped passed for innocent.
Meiru sweatdropped. "But what about your security system?" she asked.
Yaito dismissed that away with a wave of her hand.
"Don't worry about that, Meiru. Once Dekao and I get to the hideout, I'll plug in Glyde to make sure nothing happens," Yaito said confidently.
"Well, in that case, I'll take a nap; I feel tired for some reason," Rockman said.
"Me too," Roll said.
Netto was confused. "But Rockman, you've never taken a nap!" The moments of following silence told Netto told Rockman was already fast asleep.
Meiru shrugged, and then turned to Yaito. 'We'll be back as soon as we can, Yaito."
As Yaito promised, they got to her bedroom without any problem but then realized they forgot to ask Yaito something.
"Netto-kun? Did Yaito say where she keeps her battle chips?"
Yaito had a massive bedroom. "Dunno. Her desk has a lot of containers; maybe the battle chips are there," Netto guessed.
Yaito, who was watching them through a hidden camera, gasped. "Oh no! That IS where I left them! Glyde, do something!"
"Go on and plug me in, Yaito-sama." After being plugged in by Yaito, Glyde went into the security system.
"Yeah, Meiru, the chips are right here!" Netto called out to Meiru. She ran towards him to take a look, but just as she got to him, a siren sounded. Meiru screamed. "Yaito!" Netto grabbed the panicked Meiru and moved away towards the door. To Netto's dismay, the windows and door were locked before they could get there.
"Argh! Meiru, we're stuck in here!" Meiru felt her anger rise.
"Yaito said nothing would happen to us. Just wait until we get back to the hideout!"
In the security system, Glyde found what he was looking for. Bars surrounded Netto and Meiru.
"Oh great," Netto muttered. Meiru pulled out her PET. "Roll's still sleeping. I can't believe this is happening."
Meiru let go of Netto and sat down on the floor. "Any idea of when the bars undo themselves?"
Netto shrugged.
"The last time I got caught, a hole appeared on the ground, I fell into a tunnel and landed outside the gate of Yaito's front entrance. But considering we're indoors this time, I don't think that'll happen," Netto explained, leaning his head on one of the bars.
"That's correct, Netto." Glyde appeared on Yaito's television screen. Meiru jumped in excitement to her feet.
"Glyde, you've got to help us!" Glyde shook his head.
"There's a way you two can do it yourselves. This is something I cannot help you with."
Then Glyde disappeared from the screen. Netto kicked a bar in frustration. Then he yelped in pain and fell lying down on the floor.
Meiru went to sit beside Netto.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure? You fell pretty hard."
"I felt like falling down," Netto argued.
Meiru laughed softly. "Whatever you say, Netto-kun."
After a while, Netto noticed her hand was trembling. Worried, his eyes drifted to Meiru's.
"Is something wrong?"
Butterflies developed in her stomach. She shook her head.
"No, everything's fine."
Netto had his doubts though.
'Just a few minutes ago, she was freaked about being trapped in here. There's no way everything's just fine,' Netto thought.
Back at their hideout, Yaito was impatiently tapping her foot.
"What's taking so long? It shouldn't take them five minutes to figure how to get out!"
Dekao, eating in the back of the room, heard what Yaito said.
"Who's getting out of something?"
"Nobody Dekao! Now go back to eating!"
In the uncomfortable silence, Meiru had retreated to a corner. Netto stayed where he was, lying down on the floor. Not very fun. And it wasn't of any help so that they could get out.
"Meiru-chan? We need to get out of here." he said, getting up and walking towards her ten minutes later.
"Netto, I'm getting tired. Can we wake up Rockman and Roll so they can fix the system?"
Netto shook his head. "Glyde said the two of us would have to work this on our own to get out."
Then he spoke up again. "Meiru-chan? Have you ever felt something is missing in your life?"
Meiru looked up in surprise. It was rare for Netto to be, well, reflective.
"What kind of something?"
"Dunno," Netto started, "stuff that makes you feel like you're somebody important, like you matter."
Netto laughed. "Netbattling seems to fit real well in there. And your family."
Netto turned red. "Well. besides that!" Meiru turned a little red as well.
"Netto…" she took a few steps closer in front of him. Inside, her heart was pounding like crazy.
Netto's mind was in frenzy also.
Netto leaned forward slightly, their lips meeting for the first time. Warmth spread through their bodies upon contact. Netto reluctantly broke the kiss moments later, then opened his eyes. Meiru opened her eyes as well. She exhaled blissfully.
"Wow." she whispered. It seemed only a split second later that Netto wrapped his arms around Meiru's waist and kissed her again. About a moment later, the bars clicked and Netto and Meiru found themselves to be free. As they broke apart, Meiru looked around and noticed the bars were gone.
"That's what it took to get the bars down?"
Netto was in ecstasy.
"Yaito should do this everyday, then."
"Maybe not everyday, Netto," Meiru said, reaching down to pick up the container of battle chips.
In ten minutes time, Netto and Meiru gave Yaito the container of battle chips. Yaito smiled knowingly.
"So, how was it?"
Meiru blushed as Netto smiled enthusiastically.
"That was the best gift I ever received. Thanks for making it happen, Yaito," Netto said happily.
Dekao walked over to the three.
"What happened Netto? Yaito wouldn't tell me a thing."
He then noticed Meiru blushing and realized what happened.
"Netto!" Dekao rounded on Netto angrily. After all, Netto wasn't the only one with a crush on Meiru. Rockman chose that moment to speak up.
"Hey Dekao, relax!" he called out from his PET.
Netto, who just looked scared out of his wits, looked down at his PET.
"You choose to wake up now?" he said incredulously.
"I've been awake for the past ten minutes, Netto-kun. Same with Roll."
"It's true; we've been awake for some time," Roll replied from her PET.
"But how come nobody told me?" Dekao complained. Yaito turned to Dekao impatiently.
"I was trying to tell you during lunch, but you wouldn't listen to me!"
Dekao looked confused. "Oh."
"What matters is that it happened; pretty much all of us knew it had to happen soon," Rockman spoke up.
Glyde, back in his PET, said, "Yaito-sama, Netto's mother is outside the front gate. Shall I let her in?"
"Go ahead, Glyde," Yaito said. Then she turned to the rest of the group. "I guess we'd better go out and meet her," she told them.
"No Netbattling? Well, that's not fair!" Dekao protested.
"There's always tomorrow," Roll said as everybody walked into Yaito's mansion.
Yaito answered the door to let Mrs. Hikari in.
"Mama, what's going on? You never come here," Netto said curiously as she kissed him on the cheek.
"Netto, I've been tying to contact you, but Rockman's been sleeping, so the message couldn't get through."
Mrs. Hikari turned to Meiru.
"Meiru-chan, your parents had an emergency trip to make and will be out for the next week. You are more than welcome to stay with us," she offered.
Meiru smiled. "That'd be great; thank you Mrs. Hikari!"
"Oh yeah!" Netto exclaimed, jumping into the air.
Several hours later, Netto was visiting Meiru in the Hikari guest room, both talking animatedly. Rockman and Roll were talking as well.
"I hope Netto-kun had a good birthday," Rockman said happily.
"It's been a good day for pretty much everybody here. Poor Dekao, though."
"Yaito will find someone for him, probably." Rockman started, but stopped short seeing Roll glare at him. He chuckled nervously.
"Seriously!"
"You don't trust Yai's abilities, do you?"
"I do trust her, Roll!"
As their conversation turned into an argument, Netto's and Meiru's was not close to an argument at all. Meiru was trying to tug off Netto's bandana, and he was trying to get away from her. Both sides were having fun doing so, crawling all over the bed.
"Netto, I'm already in my pajamas, nearly ready for bed! You could at least take off the bandana," she said teasingly, taking a swipe at his head.
"Well, I'm in my pajamas too, but I don' take the bandana off until the last minute," Netto explained, leaning away from Meiru's reach.
"Fine," Meiru said as she took the clip out of her hair.
"If you don't mind, it's bedtime, so……." she stopped there, hoping Netto would understand to leave the room.
Netto understood what she said. "Oh, so I guess I'd better to go bed now too."
Meiru nodded. "Yes, that is advisable."
Netto pulled Meiru into a warm hug. "Thanks for everything we went through today."
Meiru smiled serenely as she held onto Netto even tighter. "You're welcome..." and then she kissed Netto softly on the lips. "And thank you for making my life a brighter one," she added on.