Disclaimer: Guess who don't own jack shit? Me. But guess who DOES own the plot? That's right, me again.

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'

Author Speaking

Chapter 2

Beep... Beep... Beep…

Fuyuki rolled over lazily in his sleep.

BeepBeepBeep

He cracked one eye open and light flooded in from the half open curtains.

BEEPBEEPBEEP

"Gah! Fine!" Fuyuki sat up quickly in bed and slammed his hand down on the snooze button, "Stupid alarm…"

"Fuyuki! Wake up! Today's the first day of school, remember?" Natsumi's voice floated up from downstairs with the smell of delicious breakfast.

"I'm coming!" He shouted with renewed vigor as he hopped cheerfully out of bed and rummaged through his dresser for some clean clothes to wear.

He scrambled to get dressed in a light blue shirt with a cartoon alien's head on the front and a plain pair of jeans and stopped only for a moment to glance in the mirror and make sure he didn't have bed head. His appearance really hadn't changed much in these last few years, though he had hit a growth spurt so he was nearly as tall a Natsumi now. Then he grabbed his backpack and sped downstairs eager to start his first day of his sophomore year.

Natsumi looked up from cooking blueberry pancakes and bacon and said, "Oh, you're up! Could you grab the orange juice from the fridge?"

Natsumi had also changed somewhat in the past four years, she had decided to grow out her pink pigtails so now whenever she let her hair down everyone remarked about how much she looked like her mother, despite not having glasses, black hair, or some of Aki's other noticeable features.

"Yeah, no problem." Fuyuki set down his backpack next to the kitchen table and walked over to the refrigerator and pulled it open, inside something caught his eye, a single sweet potato sitting on the shelf next to leftover chinese take out.

"Hey sis, you do know sweet potatoes go in the cupboards right? Not in the fridge." I asked quizzically taking the oversized red-ish potato in my hand.

"Yeah I know, but I didn't buy any sweet potatoes.." She trailed off as she glanced over and saw the potato.

"Then where did it come from?" He shrugged it off and placed the potato on the counter, but Natsumi kept staring transfixed at the vegetable.

Fuyuki took the orange juice out of the fridge and shut the door with a thunk sealing the cool air inside. The closing refrigerator door snapped Natsumi out of her trance and she went back to cooking muttering something under her breath about coincidences and losing her mind.

When the food was ready Natsumi and Fuyuki sat down at the table and ate breakfast. Aki, their mother, unfortunately was out early that morning doing some extra work at her job as a manga editor, the two teens rarely saw her as she was almost always busy.

During breakfast Natsumi kept glancing over at the sweet potato, Fuyuki knew what she was thinking, but he didn't say anything.

'There was no way Giroro, who has been missing along with the other members of his platoon for the past four years, had suddenly come back to Earth, broken into their house, put a potato in their fridge, and then left without doing anything else… At least I didn't think so.' He thought somewhat unsure of himself.

After a short breakfast, Natsumi and Fuyuki put their dishes in the dishwasher and grabbed their backpacks ready to head out the door.

"Hey Fuyuki, you go on ahead, I need to check on something..." Natsumi said weakly, lacking her usual confident and authoritative tone.

"Yeah, I think I do too." He responded with a reassuring smile.

The two siblings walked briskly over to the alcove beneath the stairs and opened up a trap door leading down an old rusty ladder and into short concrete hallway. The damp air hung heavily over the two as they stood side by side before the peeling green painted door with a faded yellow star. Natsumi reached out tentatively and turned the knob pushing the door inwards and revealing that nothing had changed since they had last been down here to check. All of Keroro's old stuff had been pushed over to the side by a looming tidal wave of cardboard boxes as most of the room was now used for storage space.

A single tear fell from Natsumi's eyes as sadly she closed the door again with a trembling hand.

"Come on, were gonna be late for school." Fuyuki urged softly was he lead his older sister back upstairs.

The two of them left the basement and Natsumi composed herself before they headed out the door to hurry to school.

Fuyuki was worried about Natsumi, he knew how much she cared for Giroro, even if she never said it outloud. Where as he was just a friend to Keroro, she and Giroro had so much more, he knew it was hard dealing with the pain of losing a loved one so suddenly, so he did his best to support her emotionally as she supported him physically by doing the dishes and cooking their meals.

"Natsumi!" Koyuki's overjoyed voice came from above them as the not-so-subtle ninja dropped down from the tree overhead and landed in an overdramatic ninja-like pose beside her friend on the sidewalk.

"Hey Koyuki!" Fuyuki greeted her happily completely unphased by her grand entrance, he was used to her dropping in unexpectedly and often appearing from thin air, as she did it every other time she arrived.

"I can't wait for school!" She exclaimed moving on quickly to the next topic.

"Yeah! Our first day as juniors!" Natsumi replied excitedly.

Natsumi and Koyuki chatted joyously catching each other up on anything new as they walked, for the two friends hadn't seen each other since the end of the last school year. Every summer the young ninja girl went to the remote mountainside of Japan and trained rigorously to make up for time lost during the school year.

"Hey Fuyuki!" A familiar voice came from behind the trio.

"Oh! Hey Momoka!" Natsumi called and waved to the light blue haired girl.

Momoka ran towards them out of breath, she had grown her hair out a bit and tied it back into a short cute ponytail. Ever since her father passed away by an unfortunate accident at a dinner party, Mokoka had been running her family's company with the guidance and assistance of her butler Paul.

Mokoka caught up to her little circle of friends and latched her self onto Fuyuki's arm, "I missed you so much, Sweetie!"

Fuyuki let out a soft laugh as a light blush covered his cheeks, "Yeah, I missed you too, my little peach."

Despite spending almost three full days a week with one another, the cute sophomore couple just couldn't get enough of each other, mostly because of Momoka's busy work schedule.

Natsumi laughed uncomfortably at her younger brother calling his girlfriend cute nicknames but overall she was happy for them. The presence of their friends certainly helped cheer the both of them up from their depressing morning.

At the school gates Fuyuki stopped and grasped Natsumi's hand as their friends went on ahead.

"Are you gonna be alright?" He asked cautiously, knowing one wrong word could get him an elbow to the head.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, don't worry!" She said with a sad smile.

Fuyuki smiled back and the two of them ran to catch up with their friends.

I know how annoying long author's notes can be, so I'll keep this short.

I used this chapter to sorta show a glimpse of Fuyuki and Natsumi's lives after the frogs left as well as introduce Koyuki and Momoka as well as the FuyuMomo pairing.

I never really cared about Rates or Reviews, but if you like my story please Favorite! Thanks! ^^