Joshua was acting strangely.

And that was saying something, because as far as Neku was concerned, Joshua was always strange. But no, this behavior was new. As they walked around Shibuya and in between battles, Joshua would randomly sigh, a big, heavy, passionate sigh, and fold his hands under his chin whilst balancing on one foot. Weird. Yes, it was indeed weird. There was simply no other word to describe it. Neku wasn't sure how much more he stand of this bizarreness.

"What is your problem?!" he shouted suddenly at Joshua, after he had swooned for yet another time.

"Oh, Neku." Joshua patted his partner on the head in a most undermining way. "You're too young to understand."

"Um. Hello. Same age," Neku grumbled, smoothing his hair back into place. "Seriously, what's your issue? All day you've been acting super pleased, you're walking with a happy… step, and you're striking feminine poses. Okay, scratch the last one, you already do that. But still!" Neku blinked as it dawned on him. "Wait… Don't tell me…"

"Don't tell you what, Neku~?" Joshua grinned, clasping his hands behind his back innocently."You're in love!" Neku shouted, pointing at him. "You totally are! Dude! I didn't think you were capable of that!"

"Shame, shame, Neku," Joshua tutted, waggling a finger at him. "Calling me heartless. I do believe you've wounded my ego. And what do you know about love yourself?"

"Well, one time, my parents fell in love-"

"Really! Did they?"

"Shut up. Anyway, my dad said he knew my mom was infatuated with him because she acted just like you are now: sighing and swooning and being… creepy…" Neku shuddered. "So, come on, who is it?"

Joshua turned on his heel and started walking. "Wouldn't you like to know."

"Yes. I would. That's why I asked," Neku said, jogging to catch up to him. "Come on, you can tell me! I'm, like, you're only friend or something, right?"

"Ah! My poor ego. Why do you torture it so?" Joshua shook his head. "It isn't any of your business who I love and who I don't. Oh, look, there's some noise. Shall we?"

"… Fine." Neku folded his arms. "I'm not happy about this. You'll tell me later, right?"

"Maybe~!" Joshua sang. "Okay, let's do this."

Joshua and Neku then went into their separate dimensions to fight the noise. It was a just a couple of alterna wolves, no problem. But as Neku fought, he couldn't help but feel that he was doing all the work.

"Stupid Joshua," Neku snarled as he ignited a poor, yellow wolf in dastardly blue flame, causing people in the real Shibuya to question why they were suddenly smelling BBQ. "Not pulling his weight… Grumble..."

After about twice the time it usually took the two to defeat the noise, they emerged back in regular Shibuya. Neku scrambled around on the ground, picking up the yen and pins from the battle.

"Darn it. I got Poison Skull again," the orange-haired emo growled, chucking it. The pin 'sometimes inflicted attack break on enemies at the start of battle'. And 'sometimes' was practically never. "Hey, Joshua, what gives? During that battle, you totally weren't helping me at… all…"

As soon as Neku caught sight of him, he burst out laughing. Joshua's fluffy gray hair was thrown about haphazardly, in some areas laying flat, in others sticking straight up. One of his eyes was a sickly purple and he was massaging an area on his cheek.

"You look like you got hit by a trolley," Neku grinned, filled with shameless glee.

Joshua spat out a bloody tooth that had managed to dislodge itself from his gums. "It would appear I got distracted."

"Distracted by what? Your inexplicable puppy-love?" Neku rolled his eyes. "Now I'm tired. You had me doing all the work. Way to go."

Joshua didn't say anything. He was clutching his throat and his pale face was turning blue. It would appear he had accidentally swallowed a loose tooth and it had lodged itself in his throat.

"You're choking!" Neku shouted. Joshua halted his suffocating for a moment to glare at Neku before grabbing his neck. "Shoot… Wait… I don't have to give you mouth-to-mouth precipitation, do I?!" Joshua shook his head rapidly. Neku sighed with relief. "Then what do I do?"

Even though he was low on oxygen, Joshua got behind Neku and jerked up on his ribcage.

"Ow! That hurt," Neku growled. "Don't hurt me because-! Oh. That's what I do?" A smart thought popped into his head. "Hey. If I save your life, you'd better tell me who your crush is. Deal?"

Joshua hesitated, then nodded.

"Good." Neku got behind him and gave him the Heimlich maneuver until Joshua spat out the choking hazard.

"Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," Joshua sputtered after a few gasps for breath, "is for people who are having a heart attack, drowning, etc. If you did it to someone who was suffocating, you would only make the situation worse."

"Okay, okay, I don't need a first aid lesson," Neku snapped, though judging by his demonstrated knowledge, it was blatantly obvious that he did. "Now just tell me who you're in love with already!"

Joshua smiled in his usual sly way. "Why, I thought you would have guessed it by now. But very well." He took out his cell phone and flipped it open. "Take a look for yourself."

"Gah!" Neku shouted in shock, drawing away. "It's me!"

Joshua chuckled heartily. "Foolish Neku! You're ignorance never fails to amuse me. It's only the mirror app that Mr. Hanekoma so kindly installed for me."

"Mirror app…" There was a pause where Neku put two and two together. "Aw, man! You're in love with yourself?!"

"I could just look at me all day…" Joshua crooned, staring at his image most fondly, despite the fact that at the moment it was rather hideous.

Neku face-palmed. "Geez. That's so perfect. I should have guessed that you of all people would be a narcissist."

"You know what the best part is though? I'll always know I'll love me back," Joshua said.

Neku folded his arms and turned away in disgust. "Whatever. You suck. So much. That was such a let-down. Thanks for egging me on like that."

Joshua shrugged. "Hey, I told you. That's all you asked."

"Why didn't you want to tell me in the first place?" Neku asked.

"You and you're naivety. Do you know how much fun it is to bother you?" Joshua flipped back open his cell phone. "Oh… I'm so pretty…"

"Well, now that we've had that little episode," Neku began. "What do you want to do?"

"I suppose we could learn to juggle."

"… I meant something not random."

"Well, I guess we could complete today's mission," Joshua suggested.

Neku blinked. "We never did do the mission, did we?"

"Let's hope someone else does. Considering we face 'erasure'."

"We always face erasure." Neku sighed and looked at his palm. "Oh, hey. No timer. What was the mission anyway?"

Joshua flipped open his phone, for once not to look at his reflection. "Ha! You're going to love this."

Neku sighed. "Ugh. What is it?"

"Admit your love. Isn't that a riot? If I had just known the mission, I would have told you in a heartbeat. Funny how things like that work out."

Neku grabbed his head. "Oh-"

So Joshua and Neku walked into the sunset with a string of swears tumbling relentlessly from Neku's sailor mouth. THE END.

NekuxShiki all the way! :D Even though I do admit there is more in-game support for NekuxJoshua... Reviews would be lurvely, thanks.