Unbeatable Love I Surely Have
Author's Note: Set immediately after episode 25 of Beast. Titled after the opening theme song from Rockman X4, wherein the original Iris makes her first appearance. Enjoy the story and R&R.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.
Pairing: Netto/Tohru/Iris triangle. Referenced one-sided (canon) Tohru x Iris.
Summary:
Upon returning from Beyondard, Hikari Netto reminisces about Iris on the school rooftop. Hikawa Tohru keeps him company.
"Thought you might be here."
Hikari Netto withdrew out of his chest. Unconsciously, he reached for his tenantless PET, forgetting he'd sent Rockman off on assignment to Higureya as he needed some Battle Chips and some space.
Hikawa Tohru sat down a slim distance away on the school rooftop, an informal but appreciated substitute.
The very rooftop where they had their first heart-to-heart with her.
"Meiru-chan said you miss Iris-chan."
They'd beaten Dr. Wily, ended the war in Beyondard, and come home heroes, but two members fewer. Night hadn't even set in when Netto stumbled apathetically up the stairwell.
"Did Meiru-chan tell you?" he asked him. "Iris isn't human."
"What? What do you mean? She transferred into your class! We hung out!"
"That was a Copyroid."
"Iris-chan was a NetNavi?"
"Yeah. She's unlike any girl I ever met."
"In that she wasn't a girl at all?"
Netto didn't have to confess. His feelings were written all over his face.
"Leave it to you to fall in love with a robot!" Tohru read a column describing human-NetNavi romance in a magazine once. The article was purely speculative, and never in a million years did he believe it could actually happen.
Iris and Trill weren't the exclusive preoccupations plaguing Netto's psyche. Guy talk with Tohru. He missed it also.
"Who came running with Dekao and the boys in my homeroom the day she showed up?"
A tract of crimson marked Tohru's guilty mug.
"It's okay…" The older sympathized. "She really was something. I didn't even realize I cared this much until we got back, now that she's gone."
Attempting to cheer him up, Tohru half-humouredly paralleled, "I'm also unlike any girl you've ever met."
Netto laughed a genuine laugh, then accused, "Smooth, Tohru-kun. You've been taking pointers from Anetta?"
"Don't make fun of me! I haven't had any practice!"
Because who couldn't refuse an onsen nut? he giggled to himself.
"And I wasn't totally joking…"
"About?"
"I, I like y –"
Warm cheeks. Thorny speech. Overlapping their hands. The evidence was adding up.
"T-Tohru-kun! W-we were both angling for Iris a second ago!"
Owing to the new information, Netto's clear image of Tohru acquired a fuzzier focus, not so different than his perspective on Iris changing as soon as he left Beyondard.
And he thought he had problems! Try finding out the mysterious, fair-skinned beauty you longed after was an alien Repliroid from another dimension and crushing on your best friend just the same!
"Truth is, I'm scared. It's dizzying."
"I can only imagine." Netto laid his head on Tohru's knees.
"You're not sickened by me?"
"Why? I can make room in here." He pointed at his heart.
Regardless of how they felt, this uncertainty, though daunting, rang worthwhile. They'd give each other the strength to overcome loneliness.
"What about Iris-chan?"
"We'll see her again someday! And Trill too! I'm positive!"