Neptune was in love with Nepgear and she probably didn't even realize it. Based on what Gust had just seen of her new potion's effects that would be the most logical conclusion, granted she'd most likely have to do a few more tests if she wanted to be One hundred percent certain. But Lady Neptune aside, this tremendously groundbreaking news in that Gust was already formulating dozens upon dozens of ways she could profit off of this new venture. Although, since Neptune did have a hand in helping Gust figure all of this out, Gust would at least let her know about this free of charge. After all, even Gust had her own principles to follow and she had no intentions of turning her back on them.

Although uh… As much as Gust wanted to go inform Neptune about this startling new revelation at once, she still had a business to run. Not to mention that she'd need some time to properly start marketing her latest product so she could start raking in the credits as soon as possible. It made for a very difficult choice that Gust had to make that would inevitably result in something unsavory if she chose one or the other. Just how was Gust even supposed to-

"Hey Gusty, aren't you gonna call Lady Neptune and tell her what you told me?" Came the ever so innocent question from the ally of justice, Nisa.

"Gust is busy… wait..." What was it that Nisa said? "What was it you said?"

"Aren't you gonna call Lady Neptune and tell her about this?" And suddenly, with only a few words out of the blunette's mouth, Gust felt like a total idiot. It would only take a few minutes to call up the purple-haired CPU and tell her all of this, and yet somehow, Gust didn't seem to have the mental capacity to think of taking out her phone and dialing Neptune's number. Although in her defense, spending too much time with Nisa often lead to decreased mental activity and a few dead brain cells.

"R-right, will get right on that." And after taking a moment to facepalm herself, Gust did just that. She took her phone out and searched through her contacts until she found Neptune's number after a short while of searching.

And so, with phone in hand the short alchemist dialed up the purple-haired CPU to pass on the news. Although it was somewhat annoying to hear Nisa was still prattling on about how she couldn't believe this and how maybe there was a mistake, but Gust didn't really care. Now if only Nisa could just quiet down for a few seconds while Gust-

"Yello." Then again, Neptune has a thing for popping up at either the best or worst possible times. "Neppermint speaking." This just so happens to be the former. Although Gust did find it a little unusual as to how groggy Neptune sounded, almost as if she'd just woken up from a nap or something like that, but chose to simply ignore that.

"Lady Neptune. Gust has important news to share about potion." Gust replied calmly... well, mostly calm. As calm as Gust could really be after her latest realization.

"What is it?" Asked a now curious Neptune, sounding quite curious at the mention of that potion again.

"After observing effects, Gust has come to simple conclusion." It was time to drop the bombshell. "Gust believes that potion can unveil hidden feelings."

-~-~-~- Purple Lovers -~-~-~-

As Neptune regained her senses she quickly began to realize that her phone was ringing. She also realized that she should probably get a new one pretty soon cuz this one was surprisingly loud and bright, but that's not the main issue. Somebody was calling her right now after all.

"Yello." She was feeling a bit groggy as she replied, but did her best to sound like she was fit as a fiddle. "Neppermint speaking."

"Lady Neptune. Gust has important news to share about potion." Well that certainly peaked Neptune's interest.

"What is it?" It was already taking a lot of effort for Neptune to even stay standing so she really hoped that Gust wouldn't take too long in delivering her exposition here.

"After observing effects, Gust has come to simple conclusion. Gust believes that potion can unveil hidden feelings."

"Wha…?" Over on Neptune's end, hearing such news left her… Not knowing how to really feel about it. Especially since she didn't really understand much of what Gust meant and what she was getting at.

"Gust means that Lady Neptune may have feelings for Lady Nepgear." Hearing that seemed to only make things all the more confusing.

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold the phone Gusty buddy. What do you mean I might have feelings for Nep Jr.?" How did Gust even come to that kind of conclusion anyway? What the heck did she even see to come up with that kind of conclusion anyway?

"IF and Cave both drank potion and started acting strangely after Compa and 5pb showed up." Acting strangely? What was Gust- "If what Lady Nepgear said is true, then Lady Neptune also started acting strangely after getting home and seeing her. From what Gust has just observed, I can only assume that Lady Neptune may have hidden feelings for Lady Nepgear." Getting at…?

"Wha... I don't... I mean I just… Gah, this is so confusing!" And that was an understatement. "Are you sure Iffy and Cave weren't just feeling all-"

"Both showed strong signs of affection once 5pb and Compa showed up. Almost completely ignored Gust and Nisa."

"S-still, doesn't it seem just a little-"

"Put down Gust's bag! Apologies Lady Neptune, Nisa is being idiot… again."

"Hey wait, Gust I-" Sadly, Neptune was unable to stop Gust from hanging up the phone and was then left in stunned silence for a few short moments. An event that was very rare for the CPU of Planeptune. Either way, that short phone call had left her with more questions than answers.

The purple-haired CPU wound up spending a few more seconds in silence, still utterly flabbergasted for reasons she could barely even begin to comprehend. It certainly didn't help that she had just woken up from a rather restless nap. Now, not only did she have to deal with the grogginess from waking up from her short slumber, but now she had to deal with figuring out if she'd missed something important from the last few chapters that might serve to shed some light on what was going on. Not to mention that she still wasn't sure how or why she fell asleep which made it all the more confusing for the purple-haired CPU. And to top it all off, she couldn't remember a thing that happened after she finally found Gust and drank that potion again… Maybe she should tell Gust about that before she inevitably started selling the stuff and got in trouble for not knowing about the passing out and forgetting stuff part… But that could wait till later.

"Ugh, today just keeps getting more confusing by the second." Apparently having had enough of the silence that had enveloped her room for the last few seconds, Neptune decided that now might be a good time to leave. "I wonder where Nep Jr. and Vert are."

That was all that the short CPU said as she put her cell phone into her pocket and proceeded to leave her room in search of her little sister and buddy, Vert. Hopefully they would have some insight to share with little ol' Nep when she found them because right now Neptune might just give herself a headache from all the thinking she was doing right about now. So, with that new goal in mind she searched all of the possible locations the two might be in, starting with the living room area, then the kitchen, and third came the library. All of these locations yielded no results whatsoever.

… Well shoot, Neptune couldn't really think of any other places they might be in… Wait!

Nepgear's room! A light bulb might as well have appeared above her head as the idea popped into her mind. It was the only other place that they might possibly be in after all… Or possibly Neptune's office, but that would just be silly.

"Nep Jr.'s room it is!" She said to no one in particular.

The next few moments were spent dashing through the basilicom until she finally arrived at her sister's bedroom. She had probably also broken some sort of record at how quickly she was moving, she didn't know what kind of record she had broken, but what she did know is that probably in pieces thanks to her speediness. She was just that good… apparently.

Now, if Neptune had actually stopped for a moment to actually pay attention, then she might have noticed that there was a voice saying something. She might have also noticed that this particular voice was saying things that were a major indicator of what the owner of said voice was doing. Unfortunately… Paying attention wasn't really one of Neptune's strong points.

"Oh Nep Junio-" Of course, as soon as the door swung open, Neptune was treated to the sight of her sister, Nepgear, looking through her wardrobe. But if she was just looking through her clothes then that would just be too simple and expected.

"..." Neptune had walked in to see her little sister in nothing but her undergarments, obviously getting ready to change clothes. She had also gone completely silent as her eyes settled on her older sister. She was also starting to shake a bit, her eyes going wide, the realization of her situation gaining more and more weight as the two sisters stood there silently.

"..." The longer the silence lasted, the more Neptune's face began to burn a brighter shade of red than before, not knowing what she should say in this type of situation. Then again, it was kind of hard to figure out what to say when presented with the half-naked form of one's own sister.

There was also… an odd sensation Neptune was beginning to feel...

"KYYYYYAAAAAAHHHH!" And it wasn't just because of the fact that Nepgear's hand had given Neptune's face a high five.

"Bwah!" Neptune also ended up losing her balance somewhat, but she was quickly able to regain her footing before she fell to the floor and then proceeded to jump backwards and land on her knees, bowing and offering her sister an apology. "S-sorry Jr. I guess I shoulda knocked first! I'll be in the living room if ya need me!"

And before Nepgear could even respond, Neptune dashed off at an even quicker pace than when she was heading for Gear's room, once again breaking some form of record. Granted, it was pretty much the same record that she had already broken, but who cares about semantics when Neptune was still reeling from seeing her half-naked sister?

The most interesting part is that even when Neptune finally arrived in the living room of her basilicom, she soon found that her legs couldn't stop moving and she ended up pacing back and forth. Back and forth, side to side and all manner of other various combinations of steps as well. Some of the nerdier people in Planeptune might even think she was just trying to input some cheat codes or something along those lines.

"Aw man, this isn't helping. And what's with this weird feeling I have in my chest?" Neptune put a hand to her chest, as if thinking that doing so would calm the pounding of her heart. It had practically started beating a mile a minute once Neptune had laid eyes on her half-naked sister. And what was probably the worst part was that Neptune wasn't even sure why her heart was pounding so vigorously at the sight of her own sister. Or at least… until she remembered what Gust said to her over the phone.

"Gust believes that potion can unveil hidden feelings."

… No… No, that would be...

"Gust means that Lady Neptune may have feelings for Lady Nepgear."

No way… It couldn't be, it just couldn't… Could it?

"It could be. Never know until you try."

"Gust didn't say that!" Oh great, now Neptune's mind was making things up! Almost as if her mind was agreeing with what Gust said and trying to convince the short purplette of the statement's factuality. Then again, Neptune being Neptune, she just couldn't couldn't believe it.

There was just no way that it could be true, after all, the two were sister. Neptune having feelings for her own little sister? That was just… wrong, wasn't it? Big sisters aren't supposed to have feelings for their baby sisters! And as much as Neptune loved her sister, there was no way that she could develop any romantic feelings for her! How would that even happen anyway? There was just no way that-

"Uhh, sis."

"Waaahhh!" Upon hearing a voice from behind her, Neptune was not only brought out of her thoughts, but she also found herself jumping high enough to smack her head onto the roof. "Ow!" And, in true Neptune fashion, she began to fall, or rather float down like a piece of paper, down into her worried sister's arms… Wait what?

"G-goodness! I'm sorry sis. I didn't mean to startle you like that." There was genuine concern in the now fully dressed candidate's voice. There was also the matter of how she had actually caught her older sister in her arms as the shorter purplette fell to the ground. Needless to say, being held in her little sister's arms bridal style wasn't doing much to help calm Neptune's rapidly pounding heart. Unless making it beat even faster and making her face burn a bright shade of red counted as helping. "A-are you okay sis? Your face is really red."

"I-I'm fine! Yup, perfectly fine." Since Nepgear seemed rather focused on making sure her big sis was fine, Neptune took the chance to jump out of her arms, as if doing so would be enough to show she was really okay. That and putting some distance between the two certainly helped her heart calm down a little, if only a little. "Totally hunky dory."

"W-well, if you say so." Nepgear wasn't entirely convinced of that, but decided that it probably wasn't a very big deal, so she decided to let it drop for the time being. "Oh, that's right! How is your face? I did slap you kind of hard." Unfortunately for Neptune, Nepgear closed the distance the shorter purplette had put between them to make sure she hadn't hurt her big sis too badly by slapping her.

"D-don't worry about it, Jr. it's fine! Really! It's my fault for not knocking anyway, so it's all good." That was a lie. And while Neptune was doing a much better job at making it look like she was fine than she was just a few moments ago, the proximity to her sister was making her feel very flustered. Not to mention that it was also making Neptune rethink whether or not Gust really did make a mistake or not.

"Alright, but just make sure to tell me if it starts to sting okay?" To which Neptune responded by nodding her head eccentrically. Of course, there was still one more thing Nepgear wanted to know. "By the way, are you almost done getting ready for the carnival?"

"Yeah yeah, don't worry about it." Said the purple CPU while waving a hand dismissively at the matter… Wait a minute… Nepgear wasn't supposed to know about the carnival just yet! How did she find out? "Wait a minute wait a minute! Back up there Jr.!" Now Neptune was desperately hoping for some sort of explanation here. "What do you mean?"

"Huh? Don't you remember? You said you were going to take Vert and I to a carnival." Nepgear explained calmly. "You said it was a secret, but then you said it'd be okay, and then you said we should go get ready, but you were asleep when Miss Vert..." Wait a minute. Now that Nepgear really thought about it, the last time Neptune took the potion she passed some time after she got home. If she didn't remember what saying earlier and she really did fall asleep again that that would mean that… Well it probably wasn't a big deal for anyone (unless they were planning on selling the stuff that is). "W-well, the point is, you said we should go get ready for the carnival. We still have some time left so you should probably get changed."

"R-right." The short purplette slumped her shoulders a bit, clearly getting a bit frustrated by all of this stuff going on. And, now that Neptune was actually paying attention, she noticed that Nepgear had indeed changed clothes. Albeit nothing too fancy, but rather just a simplistic purple stripped shirt and skirt. Either way, it did offer Neptune a way to get some distance as well as some time to think about whether these feelings of hers were really genuine or not.

The CPU decided not to waste any time and headed back to her room. Hopefully she'd be able to sort out her feelings a bit while she went to go get dressed for a night out with Jr. And as much as she disliked doing it very often, Neptune would actually have to think about this for a while. Maybe if she looked back on their time together, Neptune might be able to figure out why she might have feelings for her little sister. And more importantly, why she had never noticed them up until she drank that stupid potion.

But regardless of what she came up with… Neptune mostly just hoped that she could still be together with Nepgear as her older sister at the very least.