Chapter 10

Partying with the Prototype

It was a few days till Christmas. Grim was taking out the trash, when he noticed it was snowing. He looked around for a while before realizing what it was.

Sohara was also outside at the time. She noticed Grim.

"Good morning, Grim-Chan! How are you?" Sohara waved at Grim and started to walk over to him.

"I'm fine. You?" Grim offhandedly asked as he continued to hold out his hands to catch snow.

"I'm fine." Sohara giggled. "So, is this your first snow experience?"

"Well, technically. I've seen it in my time on Synapse, but never touched it. It's definitely colder than I expected."

"Well, what did you expect it to be like?" Sohara asked.

"Call me crazy, but I thought it would be a little warmer. I expected it to be chilly, not freezing. I still like it, though. I think it's pretty." Grim chuckled and stuck out his tongue and let a snowflake land on it.

Sohara softly laughed as well. She then got awkward and silent.

"Hey, Grim, can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, what's on your mind?"

Well, I just wanted to know… Umm... What your thoughts on dating are." Sohara awkwardly laughed.

"Define dating, please." Grim's undivided attention was on Sohara now.

"Well, you know, going out with someone you like." Sohara sheepishly smiled.

GrimLock nodded his head thoughtfully. He finally answered "I don't really know. I've never dated before. Have you?"

"Umm, no, not really…" Sohara sighed. "Have you ever thought about dating? Could you ever date an Angeloid, being their ancestor and all?" Sohara quickly tried to explain what she said.

"No, it's okay, Sohara-San, I get what you are asking. I only say that i'm related because I am the foundation for all the other Angeloids, but, no, i'm not technically related to them. So, to answer your question, yes, I could 'date' my sisters.

Sohara tittered. "Umm, thank you for answering, but one more question…" Sohara began. "Would you date a human?" Sohara braced herself for his answer.

Grim thought a while. He nodded to himself and replied, "If this person whom I wanted to date or vice-versa could get over the fact that I am an interstellar being, then I see no problem with it." Grim nodded his head once and looked into Sohara's eyes. "Yeah, it would be fine."

Sohara nodded in return. "Okay, thank you for your time, Grim-Kun. I'll see you later! I think everybody from school is going to a party or something, you know, to celebrate Christmas." She started walking away and waved to him.

"Goodbye, Sohara-San. I'll see you then!" Grim waved back, threw away the trash bag, and walked back inside.

Grim went to the kitchen, grabbed a Root Beer from the fridge, and sat down at the table. Ikaros was making some deep fried croquettes and homemade ramen noodles.

"Hey, Ikaros, do you know why we celebrate Christmas?" Grim asked.

"I'm sorry, I do not know, but master told me to make lunch." Ikaros gestured with tongs at the stove.

"Okay, i'll just ask Tomo." Grim got up from his seat. He walked into the living room, where Tomoki and Astraea were fighting over who gets the last rice cracker. Nymph was just watching the News.

"Hey guys, why do we celebrate Christmas?" Grim wanted to know.

"Oh, Christmas, well, it started in America, I think, but in Japan it's more or less an excuse to party and have fun!" Tomoki responded.

"Oh. Thank you, Tomo-San." Was all Grim said before he went to his room.

Grim reflected back to what Sohara asked him earlier. He knew it meant something, but what? Did Sohara want to 'date' him? Was she interested in him?" He tried to make sense of it, but couldn't find a way.

"Hey, Grim. Everything okay?" Tomoki walked in the room.

"Yeah, just a bit confused."

"What about? Wanna talk about it?" Tomoki was interested.

"Well, I think i'm receiving mixed signals from Miss Sohara. Earlier, she asked me what my thoughts were on dating, more specifically, dating humans."

Tomoki just broke out in laughter, to the point where he was rolling around on the floor.

"Shut up, Tomoki, I've never had this happen before!" Grim stood up.

"No! No, I just think it's funny that Sohara has the hots for you! I knew it! She's always staring at you when you're not looking!"

Grim looked perplexed. "The hots? The hell is that?"

Tomoki stopped laughing. "Take a guess, Grim!"

Grim only nodded. "I figured as much. What do I do, Tomo?"

"Well, I would just carry on and play dumb. Or, you could just say how you feel to her?" Tomoki suggested.

"Well, the problem is, I don't know how I feel, I didn't think I would strike anyone's attention!"

"Well, i'll just let you decide." Tomoki said. He left the room to let Grim think some more.

Grim decided to just play dumb.

Later in the evening, everyone went to the party. It took place at a large restaurant. Everyone also wore a Santa hat, even Mikako.

Many of the tables were moved to make room for a dance-floor. There was a bar, and a long table with food stacked high on it.

For the time being, Grim hung out at the bar and drank a few Root Beers.

Later in the night, however, Grim decided to be bold. He ordered a shot of whiskey. He liked it alot, and ordered another. Soon enough, he was a bit drunk.

He noticed everyone dancing, and joined in.

It was a sloppy dance, but it caught the eye of some girls.

They were all dancing until Sohara strolled over to GrimLock.

"Excuse me, but I would like to dance with him. Alone." Sohara stared at the girls until they left.

"Hey, Grim…" Sohara awkwardly said.

"H-hey, Sohara, great party, right?" Grim laughed.

"Yeah, Grim, sure. So, you wanna dance?" Sohara sort of hugged herself.

"Yeah, sure! That sounds *burps silently* great!"

"Great!" Sohara put his right hand on her hip and his left hand over her neck.

"You know how to dance, right, Grim" Sohara asked.

"Umm, no, no I don't know how…" Grim admitted.

"That's okay, I can teach you!" Sohara slowly swayed with the beat, GrimLock doing the same.

"See, you're pretty good at it!" Sohara encouraged.

They danced for about three minutes before Nymph speed-walked over to Grim. She looked nervous.

"Sorry, Sohara-San, but I need a moment with Proto."

Sohara looked disappointed. "Okay, have fun…" She walked away with a sullen look on her face.

Nymph started dancing with GrimLock, but still looked fearful about something.

"Proto, I'm sensing another Angeloid, one that I've never seen before! I don't know where it is, but it's in here… It must have an advanced cloaking device." Nymph loudly whispered.

"W-What? That can't be, I think any Angeloid would think twice about causing trouble, especially after Scylla and Charybdis." GrimLock said slowly.

"Proto, are you drunk or something? This is serious!" Nymph half whispered, half yelled.

Grim got defensive. "I'm not drunk, just happy. If you're really worried that much, i'll take some action…" GrimLock released his hold on Nymph and transformed into the Demonic form. He stumbled his way slowly to the middle of the dance-floor. Everyone was silent.

In a booming yet slurred voice, he called, "If anyone has a secret to share, say it now, before I decide to take some action!" Nothing happened.

Nymph ran to the giant.

"Proto, this is not what I meant! Go back to normal, now!"

"See, Nymph, there's nothing to be afraid-" GrimLock was cut off. A small light blue dart came out of nowhere and stuck itself in GrimLock's neck. He went down like a tree.

Everyone panicked and fled the party.

GrimLock converted back to his original form. Electricity visibly coursed through his skin. Nymph quickly ran to his side and pulled the dart out of his neck. She scanned it and gasped.

Tomoki and the others sprinted to Nymph's side.

"Nymph, what is it!" Sohara shouted. The others were wondering the same thing.

Nymph looked terrified. "I-It's a paralyzing dart! I don't know how potent it is, though."

Nymph stood up. "I knew my suspicions were correct!"

"What suspicions, Miss Nymph?" Astraea asked.

"Well, I had been noticing on my radar that an unknown Angeloid was in the vicinity of the area, but I could never pinpoint where it was! Obviously, this Angeloid is malicious, and was probably observing us. However, thanks to idiot over here, now he knows we're suspicious."

Sohara face-palmed. "I knew he looked tipsy…"

"Whatever Angeloid this is, obviously has a very advanced stealth system. It probably uses small ranged attacks from the shadows. Whoever it is… Will most likely try to pick us off one at a time…"

Everyone got silent, however, GrimLock was beginning to stir. He got up and felt his head.

"Ah, what just happened?" Grim asked.

"You were being an idiot and ruined the party." Nymph said matter-of-factly.

"Oh… I'm sorry. I can convince people to come back, if you want?" Grim was trying to make it up.

"No, don't worry about it, just don't drink alcohol." Nymph said. "Let's just go back home. I was getting tired anyway." Nymph grabbed Grim's hand and led him out the door.

Grim looked completely confused and downcast. Everyone joined them on their way home.

Sohara, however, stayed behind most of the way. She looked more flustered than anything else.