"I'm going to die of boredom!" Taruru whinged, fiddling with a loose thread on his chair in frustration. He and the rest of the platoon had returned to Keron to log some more vital information about the Pokopenians and other alien species into the ship's database. It was a job for Tororo only. It wouldn't take that long, but two hours felt like a day to the energetic frog.

"Shut up, kid" Zoruru grunted, not even bothering to look at him. Taruru sighed and stared out of the window. There wasn't much to look at outside, and the building they were in was bizarrely right in front of a pier. Not a likely place for top secret data to be, not many hackers would think of coming here first. What he could see was another office building, an old pub that had long been closed and shop full of fishing supplies.

Fishing supplies?

"Hey Zoruru, wanna drown some space worms?" Taruru asked, quieter this time.

"What? No, just stay put. You should have brought a manga or something"

Taruru huffed childishly and changed the way his legs were folded. He stared across the room at Tororo, who was busy typing away at both her own laptop and a government owned one. She looked tired, but utterly focussed on her work, so Taruru didn't bother to disturb her. Glancing to his right, he could see that Pururu and Garuru were each absorbed in their own stacks of paper work. Taruru felt a brief pang of envy for Zoruru's ability to just blank his mind and meditate in silence for hours.

Suddenly, he stood, stretching his limbs. Everyone but Tororo looked up at him with either quizzical gazes or irritated glares.

"I'm sorry, but I need to go outside. I can't stay cooped up in here for another hour" Taruru said, quietly tucking his chair under the desk he was sat at.

"Don't wander too far from this building, ok?" Was all Pururu said before she got back to work, Garuru following suit. Zoruru only rolled his eye and went back into meditation. Taruru nodded with a relieved smile before leaving the room and silently as he could manage.

Walking along the promenade by the pier, Taruru happily breathed in the clean air and basked in the warm sunlight. It truly was a beautiful day, and he was glad he had been allowed to enjoy it. Further down the path, he spotted a small shop that sold mainly small food items like sandwiches and ice creams, but also contained other miscellaneous products, such as swimming gear, flowers and even kites. He decided to take a seat under the awning of the shop, and stared out at the gently lapping waves of the sea.

"Lovely day out, in't it?" came the voice of an older male, and after turning around to look for the source, Taruru found it was the middle aged frog who ran the shop.

"Oh yeah, it's great. I'm surprised there aren't more people milling around"

"We don't get to many people out 'ere on Saturdays, wudji believe"

Taruru nodded slowly, still taking in the lovely view. It had been a long time since he had actually sat still and just enjoyed something like this. He realised he'd been missing out.

"Jus' you alone t'day, then?" the older frog asked.

"Ah, no. I'm actually here with my platoon, but I can't tell you why, it's confidential" Taruru explained.

"Fair enough, lad, fair enough" the man chuckled before retreating into the cool shade of his shop. Taruru smiled as the friendly old soul walked off, before sliding back into the plastic chair he was sat in and slowly drifting off…

"There you are"

Taruru blinked his tired eyelids lazily as he woke up, rubbing the sleep out of them so that he could see clearly. Stood before him was none other than Tororo, her laptop tucked under her arm and her free hand on her hip. The sun bounced off her side, making her seem to glow on the side nearest the sun. Taruru probably would have found it adorable if he hadn't been blinded by the sudden introduction of sunlight into his tired eyes.

"Huhn? Where are the others?" Taruru asked, suppressing a yawn, inadvertently causing his face to contort oddly. Tororo laughed at the sight before explaining.

"Pururu is looking for you in the opposite direction from here, and Garuru and Zoruru are back on the ship"

"Oh…" Taruru moved to get up, but did so too quickly, causing his head to throb and his sight to cloud momentarily. He also realised how dehydrated he was.

"Can I just grab a drink before we go?" He asked, rooting through his wallet to see if he had enough money for one.

"Knock yourself out" Tororo replied. Taruru promptly made his way to the front of the shop, placing some money on the counter.

"A soda please, keep the change" he requested before rubbing his eyes once more. The shop owner nodded with a smile and went to retrieve the carbonated beverage. On his way back to Taruru, he spotted Tororo, who was waiting for him outside.

"She on yer platoon?" He asked, gesturing to her as he handed the Taruru the drink. "She's a little cutie in't she?"

"Yes. I-I mean, yes, she's in my platoon, not, you know, the other thing you said…"

The shop owner chuckled to himself, before pulling something from the side of the counter. Taruru raised an eyebrow as the man handed him a single wrapped Pokopenian sunflower.

"You have jus' enough fer this with the little extra ya let me have. Why not treat her?" He grinned, walking into the back of the shop before Taruru could reject it. Looking down at the yellow flower, he sighed and left the shop. On the way out, he noticed that Tororo had sat down. Now that he had a proper look at her, she looked exhausted. He looked at the flower in his hand, and then back to Tororo. He smiled before plopping down in the seat next to her. He took hold of her hand and opened it, placing the sunflower into her open palm. Tororo looked at it for a moment before looking to Taruru in confusion.

"What's this for?"

"You looked tired. You've been working hard, so I thought I'd get it for you" Taruru smiled patting her back gently with an appreciative smile.

"Er… thanks, I guess…" She said, before looking away to hide the slight blush that had formed on her cheeks. Flowers weren't her thing, but it was the thought that counted…

"Ah, you found him"

Taruru and Tororo raised their heads to see Pururu walking towards them.

"We should get back to the ship. Come on, you two" She smiled before turning around and walking the way she came, Taruru and Tororo following close behind. The salmon hacker hastily hid the flower behind her back in an attempt to hide it from Pururu's view. If she saw it, she might… assume something.

Back on the ship, Tororo went straight to work, duplicating files and encoding the extra data. Pururu and Taruru had wandered off, but she could tell that Zoruru was close by. She didn't do or say anything to suggest that she'd noticed him, and instead continued to work. Every so often, she glanced at the sun flower laid on the desk next to her. She didn't know much about them, they were a Pokopenian plant after all, but now she was curious. She opened up a browser window and quickly looked it up. A flower that always faces the sun. Strange. Looking further into it, she found that they were a Chinese symbol of intelligence, long life, luck, future success, and happiness. Did Taruru know this? If so, is that why he gave it to her? She shook her head. He couldn't have known that, could he? It was just a random gift he bought for her with loose change…

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a roof panel sliding open. Zoruru had finally decided to come out, then.

Landing almost silently, he moved closer until he was stood beside her. Saying nothing, he picked up the sunflower and gently examined it.

"Pretty" He mused.

"I guess so. Taruru gave it to me" Tororo mumbled. As expected, she felt Zoruru's piercing gaze shift to her.

"Oh?"

"He said that I had worked hard all day and that I looked tired, so he randomly bought it for me"

"Right…"

Gazing at it for a while longer, Zoruru placed the flower back where he found it. He peered over Tororo's shoulder at her laptop screen.

"How much longer will you be working on that?" He asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

"Like, two or three more hours, why?"

Zoruru pulled Tororo's office chair away from her desk, her hands stayed suspended where they were in confusion as Zoruru wheeled her to the other side of the room, by her bed.

"Zoruru?"

"You need rest. I won't allow you to make yourself ill just to get some work done. It can wait, for tonight" He said gently, yet firmly.

"You aren't my mother, Zoruru" Tororo mumbled.

"No, but I've made it my duty to protect you and make sure you stay healthy. I care about you, you know" Zoruru pressed more insistently. Tororo smiled warmly at his kind words before nodding and getting off her chair.

"All right, I'll turn in for the night" She relented, making her way to her laptop, saving her work and shutting it down "I'll see you tomorrow scraps"

Zoruru nodded, satisfied, before leaving the room. Tororo sighed and made her way to her bed, placing the sunflower she had unconsciously picked up on her bedside table. Turning off the main room lights, she lay down, staring blankly at the sunflower, bathed in the dim artificial light of her lamp. Eventually she reached out and turned it off, allowing herself to gently brush the soft petals of the flower as she drew her hand back. She turned over and frowned to herself. Why was she suddenly so curious about the reason Taruru bought her the flower? He always randomly bought stuff if something caught his eye, either for himself or someone else. This was just a measly flower. Sighing, she made a mental note to look too deep into the meaning of things. She was a scientist, not a philosopher…

A/N

This chapter idea came to me just before I went to bed last night, so I typed most of it late at night and completed the rest bit by bit throughout the day. It's a very relaxed way of writing, but I can't decide if I like the results yet.

This story is quite random, the chapters are more like none linear episodes than a straight out story (maybe because I'm making it up as I go XD) But each chapter is in a chronological order, just not necessarily close to each other (this would be about a month after the last chapter, I'd say)

There won't be any actual ZoruToro in this, Zoruru is more like an over protective older brother in this fic. And if you're curious, I imagined the shop keeper to have a very exaggerated Lancastrian accent.

Long A/N is long, I'll shut up now XP