You're Never Alone
"Zeroro! Zeroro! Zeroro, open up!" called Keroro as he battered my front door. I didn't answer it straight away. Keroro may have been my friend, but I knew he used me, sometimes for my money, sometimes to get me to do stuff he didn't want to do himself, sometimes to take the blame for him if he'd done something wrong. But in the end, as he was one of my only friends, I went to answer the door.
"Keroro-Kun?" I asked.
"Ah, Zeroro!," said Keroro "before we set off, do you have your wallet with you?"
"Unfortunately, no… we used up all my money two days ago, remember?"
My eyes prickled as I recalled that day's events. Keroro borrowed my wallet and said he'd buy some new decorations for our secret base. He came back empty handed, saying some bullies stole the money from him. He thought his face was clean, that we couldn't see that he'd spent all the money on sweets for himself.
"Well, there's no need for you to come out then. Never mind… Sayonara!" Said Keroro before beginning to walk away.
"That's so mean, Keroro-Kun!" I cried, tears streaming down my face. I closed the door and ran to my room. I cried hard into the pillow so my mother wouldn't hear me.
A few hours later, I was still there, lying on my damp pillow sucking my thumb beneath my mask. I heard a knock on the front door.
'It must be Keroro-Kun' I thought, so I didn't answer it. After several knocks, my mother answered it.
"Zeroro!," she called "It's your friend, Giroro"
It was only him. I quietly padded down the stairs and stood at the door. Keroro wasn't with him, which was unusual. He looked concerned.
"Zeroro? Are you ok?" he asked gently. He must have asked Keroro why I wasn't with him and Keroro will have told the truth.
I hid my damp face.
"I'm fine" I lied, my voice still broken from crying.
Unexpectedly, Giroro gave me a hug, which he never did out of fear for his image. I felt so touched by this. I hugged him back, weeping silently on his shoulder. At least Giroro was here for me, he was a real friend.
"Let's hang out today, just you and me. How does that sound?" he smiled
"G…Giroro-Kun!" I cried, grinning widely under my medical mask.
I Invited him indoors and we played with my action figures for a while. Then we did some painting (I had to help Giroro with his, because he didn't usually paint).
"Giroro-Kun, why have you drawn a gun?" I asked worriedly.
"It's an AK-47. I think they're quite cool. That other thing I drew is a train" He said, gesturing to a murky grey rectangle on some sloppily drawn rails.
"Hmm… I suppose I should go train watching sometime, just to see what interests you so much about them" I said.
So later on, we went and sat by the side of a train track and watched all the trains as they shot down the rails. I suppose it was rather fascinating, watching these huge slabs of metal rocketing down the tracks at break-neck speeds.
After a while, when one of the trains had passed, I spotted Joriri on the other side of the track. He suddenly crossed over to our side.
"Joriri-Kun, be careful that's dangerous!" I cried out in horror. When he got to our side, he put down his famous stool and propped his foot on it.
"Trains are not malicious" He said.
"Huh?" asked Giroro.
"Here's what it means," Joriri began "Don't forget the green cross code"
"Uh…"
So the three of us sat there for a while.
"Hey, where's little Keroro?" Joriri asked eventually. For a moment, no-one said anything.
"Keroro was being mean to Zeroro because he didn't have enough money for everyone to use. Keroro just uses him. I told him to go away, so me and Zeroro have just been playing by ourselves today" Giroro explained.
"Ah, you boys, always quarrelling. Hopefully this experience will have taught young Keroro a lesson."
"J…Joriri…" we stared at him in awe, that was the most sensible thing we'd ever heard him say.
"Here's what it means" He said. We waited eagerly.
"You're never alone." with that, he got up a walked away. It didn't seem to make any sense, but Giroro and I knew it had a hidden meaning.
It had gotten late. The sun had set while we where talking to Joriri.
We walked home. When we neared our street, we heard some sobbing sounds coming from the lot where we built our secret base. We crept in and saw Keroro, curled up in a ball on the floor, crying. He turned slightly and saw us.
"Zeroro!" he wailed before running up to me and clinging to me.
"I'm so so so sorry for everything I've done to upset you! I've finally realised what a crap friend I am. Please… please forgive me! I know I don't deserve it but I couldn't bear it if you weren't my friend…"
I froze. Keroro really wanted to stay friends. I realised how much I really meant to him. I hugged him back.
"Keroro-Kun, I forgive you!" I cried happily.
Giroro pulled us apart and looked at Keroro, his arms crossed in exactly the same way as his father.
"I hope you learned your lesson" He said sternly.
"Oh I have, definitely, I'll never be like that again, I promise!
"Looks like we can only afford two colas" said Keroro, counting the remainder of my allowance. He put it into the vending machine, gave one can to Giroro and kept the other for himself.
"Sorry, Zeroro, but you'll just have to go without today."
My lip quivered under my mask, but I didn't say a word. We walked round to the secret base together, Giroro hanging back just outside. He turned to me and gave me his cola.
"You have this. You deserve it more, you paid for it" he whispered.
"Giroro-Kun…" I drank from the can obediently, but when we'd got into the base, I handed the can back to Giroro, having only drank half of it. Keroro was to busy rooting around for his Gundam stash to notice. Giroro grinned at me. Even though we knew Keroro would never keep his promise, we knew we'd always be friends.
The End