Chapter 10

Noire giggled as I came back into her room, wearing a cosplay outfit. I was wearing a black mouth mask and a black headband that, for some reason, covered my left eye. I was wearing a leaf green jacket, with a black long sleeve jumpsuit, I also wore a pair of fingerless black gloves, I had an item pouch attached to the back of my waist, and I was wearing a pair of blue sandals. Ninja, I was cosplaying as a ninja, but I couldn't remember which one, even though I felt like I knew this one from somewhere. I do remember that the name started with a 'K'. However, it was still weird to cosplay. The idea had always appealed to me, but actually doing it felt a bit weird. I don't know how Noire found this fun, but it wasn't that bad. Maybe she was just a dress-up type of girl. I lifted the headband covering my left eye to look at Noire who was also cosplaying. She wears a pair of red thin glasses, a school uniform with a black short sleeve button-up shirt, a red and black checkered skirt, and a pair of black boots with white long stockings. She actually looked like a cute high school girl. I gave her a small smile.

She frowned. "What 's wrong? Do you not like it?"

I shook my head. "No, it's not that. It's just that I'm not used to wearing these clothes, or even cosplaying."

Noire plopped down on her couch and looked up at me with a curious expression. "B-but, you don't think it's stupid or embarassing, do you?" That's actually all a matter of opinion.

"I don't think it's stupid and I think you'll only find it embarrassing if you think it is," I told Noire, causing her to sigh in relief. I quickly added. "But you seem really self-conscious about this type of stuff."

She blushed and puffed out her cheeks a bit. "W-well, it's only because I don't do this much, it's not like I'm worried about my looks or anything." Geez, that's the worst lie you've told so far.

"I think you actually look kind of cute cosplaying. It seems like something that would be fun for you."

Noire became a bit more flustered. "Why are you calling me CUTE!? You don't just call a girl that! But, I-I guess...I don't hate being called cute..." Still so dishonest.

We kept trying on more outfits for about another hour or so before Noire had the idea of going to a cosplay convention nearby. We had fun there and people were taking pictures with us, but when I had suggested that we took a picture together, Noire didn't seem to like the idea, so I got some guy to take a picture of us to make it look believable. I don't get why she's being so bashful when she's clearly enjoying the attention.

We're now walking back to Planeptune, each of us are eating a slice of chocolate ice cream cake. I had suggested that we shared one to save some money, but Noire said something about it "Being embarrassing" and "Making us look like a couple" or something along those lines. So, we each got our own slices of cake, which I both paid for. I had slung a plastic bag, filled with a few cups of pudding, some wafers and a piece of vanilla cake that was for Neptune, over my left shoulder and was holding a plate of cake in my right hand.

"*Chew*…*Chew*..*Gulp*..Hey, Tolise," I looked over at her as I finished my piece of cake and threw the plate in a nearby trash can. "Thanks, for going with me to the convention. It was really fun," she flashed me one of her rare genuine smiles after she thanked me.

"It's no problem. It's just nice to actually see you happy," I smiled back at her.

The rest of our trip was filled with us talking about whatever came to our minds...

I waved a goodbye to Noire, placed Neptune's sweets on the kitchen counter and went inside my room. I found Nepgear laying on my bed, snuggling my pillow.

"Zzz...Tolise..zz..gimme back...zz..sis...zzz..." Um, I'm not even going to ask what this girl dreams about. I give Nepgear a slight nudge on the shoulder, causing her to wake up and notice that I was there.

Her eyes snap open as she jumped off the bed. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to fall asleep on your bed! Please forgive me!"

I give her a reassuring pat on the head. "It's fine, you did nothing wrong, also, don't doubt yourself. C'mon, I'm going to go make dinner. Have you showered yet?"

She shakes her head. "I'll go take one right now," said Nepgear before hurrying out of my room. Man, I might have to see if I can fix that girl's pessimism, but that's for another day.

I decided to make the classic steak and mashed potatoes. Neptune had eaten three servings by the time the rest of us had finished our first. I came back with another serving and plopped right down next to Neptune, who was already almost done with her fifth serving. "Neptune, shouldn't you slow down?"

"Nonrhense! His herd haste really good!" Neptune went back to gobbling her food.

Translation: Nonsense! This food taste really good!

"But won't you get a stomachache or get fat?"

"*CHEW*...*CHEW*...*GULP!* It's fine! Since I'm a CPU, I can never age or lose my awesome figure!" That's actually pretty cool.

"But you can still get tummy aches. You don't want that, do you?"

"Nepu! Gosh golly, you're right! Okay, I'll stop eating dinner," Whew, thank goodness. "Now bring me my pudding!"

*BANG!*

I slammed my head onto the table. I'll just let this girl live with her mistakes.

"Hm? What's wrong? I just want some dessert," Neptune asked. That's what's wrong with it!

"Goodness Tolise! Are you okay? You shouldn't do that!" Nepgear gave me a worried look.

"Self inflicting pain is bad for you, Tolise! If you keep hurting yourself, then I'm going to have to put nasty bandages on you!" Compa warned. I don't know how to take that.

"…" Histoire let out a sigh. Thank you for understanding.

"Well, at least someone here also agrees with me," IF stated. Yup, we must be the only two sane people here.

As I sit on the couch reading some manga, while Nepgear and IF washed the dishes, Neptune was playing a fighting game against Compa. Surprisingly, Neptune never I got a stomachache.

"…Gh!"

*Thmf!*

"Gotcha!" Neptune threw herself at me, causing me to be laid out on the couch.

I looked up to see Neptune looking down at me with her shining purple eyes. "Um, why'd you tackle me?"

"Well, you just looked so quiet and boring and stuff, so I decided to bring some smiles into your life!" That's nice and all, but you didn't have to tackle me.

"Okay. Then what do you want to do, oh wise one?"

"I want a rematch! You clearly cheated when we made that bet!" Girl, I play fair, no matter how unfair the other team is. "If I win, you have to buy triple the pudding cups in the fridge, but if you win, you get the satisfaction of winning!" That's totally not fair at all.

"No, that's not fair. How about, you give me a kiss if I win?" I teased her.

Neptune blushed a bit. "NEPU! No way! You're not taking my purity away from me!"

Girl, you're not that pure. "I'm kidding."

"G-good, because I was going to smack you with my sword if you had won." Okay, I'm going to have to make a mental note to remember to not get on Neptune's bad side.

I let out a sigh. "Okay, I'll play. And we'll go with your bet, not mine."

"Sweet! Hey Compa, tag in with Tolise."

I slapped Compa's hand to signal a switch out. "Alright, let's play!"

"Zzz...*snore*...cheater..zzzz...zzz..." Neptune lay asleep on the carpet as I turned everything off. We had played until it was midnight, I had beat Neptune fifteen to zero, and Neptune had passed out halfway through the fifteenth round. Compa and IF had also gone home after the tenth round.

I picked her up off the carpet and carried her to her room. I opened the door to see Nepgear writing in a pink book, muttering to herself. She looked up when she saw me.

"U-um...Tolise. Why are you carrying Neptune?"

I set her down on the bottom bunk. "She lost a bet and passed out."

"O-oh, okay," Nepgear quickly closed her book, looking a bit embarrassed. "I should've warned sis about staying up."

"It's fine. She probably wouldn't listen anyways," I say. "Well, good night, Nepgear."

"Good night, Tolise," Nepgear quickly said before I left the room.

I walked into my room and flopped onto the bed, letting the sleep take me...

It's been three for three so far. This was actually kind of a short chapter, but I needed to add this chapter in because some of the events in this chapter are important for later. I'm going to be moving on to the next event for Tolise and pull away from the girl part of the story for a while. Anyway, there WILL be an upload tomorrow because that's on the schedule. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter!

P.S. The two main stories will eventually join up to create one story, but that'll be for another time.