Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Keroro played with a Gundam model. It had been a while since he had seen Kululu and Angol Mois. He hoped Mois hadn't died on her trip with Kululu.
Honestly he wouldn't be surprised if she did.
They'd see her again soon, though. Kululu, not as likely. He had seen the resignation paperwork that Kululu had submitted. And it had been mean.
Resigning because my Captain is incompetent. Please court-martial him. He's never going to get anything done, Kululu had written on his statement. He had dissed everyone else, so Giroro had blown up the paper and now they were all in a world of hurt because they needed to submit it to Keron.
"We're back!" Mois opened the doors in a sing-song voice, carrying Kululu in bridal style. It was a weird picture.
"I bet you missed me." Kululu posed dramatically.
Keroro frowned. "I... I thought you quit."
Kululu let Mois put him down. "I did," he replied. "But then I realized that Pekopon has some amazing curry. Worth staying for. 10/10." He glanced Giroro's way. "And I wouldn't want to leave my adorable lab rat, would I?"
Giroro frowned, pulling out a gun. "I think it would be better if you had left!"
"Aww. You missed me, didn't you?" Kululu wiped a fake tear away from his eye and threw it at Giroro. Giroro didn't know how Kululu could cry out acid, but he somehow did. He hissed at the pain.
A true monster.
Mois frowned, "Kululu was nice enough to decide to stay!" she told them. "Isn't that amazing?"
"Sure... Sure it is," Keroro frowned. He had been disappointed enough that Kululu had resigned, but somehow him staying felt much worse. Was it better having Kululu, or being away from him?
He looked between the two of them. They didn't have their suitcases on them so it appeared they had already unpacked. "So how was your trip? What did you two do?"
"We - " Kululu was cut off as Mois answered for him.
"It was amazing! There were some rough parts, of course, but it was... you could say, a real life changer! Kululu was so sweet and we - " Kululu tugged at her sleeve and cleared his throat. "What?" she asked.
He cleared his throat again.
"You could say, have a frog in your throat?"
He glared at her and tapped his foot impatiently.
"Anyway, Kululu and I have something important to tell you all." She smiled proudly. Kululu grabbed her sleeve again.
"We need to finish unpacking. Got to put our luggage away," he told them, dragging her away.
"But... they weren't carrying any luggage!" Tamama pointed out. It was too late, though. They were gone.
I knew he fried her brain, Keroro decided.
Kululu took Mois alone to his lab.
"We don't have anything to unpack," she said. "Your suitcases did it for us."
"I know. It was an excuse," he said. "What were you going to tell them?"
"That we're a loving couple. What's wrong with that?" She looked at him so innocently that he was shocked that she didn't know.
He sighed irritatedly. "Look, I know this might be hard for you to understand, but remember Zhuang? Remember how much I wanted to look like I was dating you to him for my reputation?"
Mois nodded.
"That isn't the same here. I spend more time with these people than him. And sometimes having a girlfriend, specifically you, isn't as... How should I put it... fear-striking. The platoon knows me. I'm not supposed to be likable, unlike at the tech fair." He crossed his arms. "I'm not around nerds. This is a different playing field."
"Wait, what are you saying? Are you saying you're ashamed of me or something?" Mois asked. "Or is this about your reputation again?"
"No!" Kululu insisted. "I'm... I'm just not ready to tell them about us. I don't want them to know. At all. So please don't tell them," he begged.
Mois was confused. Why couldn't his platoon know?
"Look, I'm frightened of you. That's all they know about us. I don't care about people. I care about you, but they can't know about that. They're like me. When they see weakness, they pounce..." Kululu gave some huge lecture about how he didn't want to be teased or something, but Mois didn't really listen to him.
So basically he's just really really shy, she realized. She knew that. Sometimes when things had gotten too real at the convention, he had acted the same way. And Kululu was always worried about his reputation, whether she could help it or not. That was why he had brought her in the first place. He cared a lot about what other people thought of him, and having a girlfriend - at least around the platoon at that time - was just too embarrassing for him to take.
It was hard to adjust to that it was the complete opposite of the last month, but it seemed to fit. Kululu was such a worrywart.
He cares too much about appearances. But I suppose we don't have to tell anyone until he's ready. It wasn't like Kululu was going to take it too far. She could be patient with him.
"All right. I won't tell them until you're ready," she told him respectfully.
Kululu frowned. She didn't seem to get how important his reputation was to him. And there was no harm in keeping it a secret. His and Mois's private life was just that - private. She also didn't seem to understand that he'd never be ready to really make their relationship public.
"So we're going to be dating only privately. That all right?" he asked, just to make sure.
"It'll be a bit strange to not be overly affectionate in public, but I'll try!" she told him enthusiastically.
Kululu hoped she was right. He guessed he'd just have to have faith in her. He wasn't going to give her up, but he also wasn't going to give up his scary reputation.
He could have both. He just needed to balance this right.
Unspoken, they agreed that they didn't want to give up the things that they had become accustomed to. Namely sharing the same bed. It was more comfortable, so Mois just moved into his lab.
Hopefully I won't have to explain this to anyone. Kululu hoped. But he was happy enough to still sleep in the same bed as her.
She had to bring in her own touch to his lab though, cleaning it up a bit to be tidier. He liked the dark and gloomy look, but she insisted that would not be the way things would go.
It disappointed him. But he had to share his living space now, and if Mois wanted it to have a light in it it was a little odd to complain.
It was pretty easy to learn that sharing the same bed wasn't as innocent as they had expected. Previously they had just been friends snuggling, innocent enough. But now they were in a whole different relationship, and usually one of them wanted to kiss before bed.
And that kissing usually turned into a very steamy make-out session.
Nice enough as just a make-out session, but being in bed offered new possibilities. New, unfortunately inappropriate possibilities.
Neither of them tried to talk about how incredibly horny they were. Their sense of judgment wasn't perhaps the best.
Eventually, Mois brought up the subject. "So.. you know... Um..." she blushed. "This sweater vest is pretty hot to wear. Want to take it off?"
Kululu's jaw opened a little, but he nodded. He wasn't going to complain about what she was hinting at. He carefully started pulling up the sweater vest from off her body -
And the door opened.
"Hey! My gun is malfunctioning. The core heats up too fast and it explodes before it's supposed to..." Giroro glanced up from his gun to see Mois and Kululu. Kululu tried to make it look like they hadn't been just about to do anything by falling off the bed.
"Ohh no!" Mois yelled. "I'm trapped in my sweater vest!" she faked badly, unable to see since her sweater vest was over her head.
"Uhhhhhhhh... ummm... What's going on?" There were so many questions on Giroro's mind. Why was the lab so much bigger? Why was there a bed suddenly in it? Why was Mois pretending to be a ghost? Why was Kululu on the ground?
But most importantly, why was there a lamp? Kululu's lab didn't have light.
"Mois caught something on our trip. Some sort of space bug. I have to examine her until she's better. I would suggest you leave unless you want to catch it. Ku, ku, ku," Kululu told him.
"I had no idea!" That explained why Angol Mois was flailing her arms wildly. Giroro nodded. "Sorry about that. Will she be all right?"
"I hope so. Because she's been acting pretty weird. I was trying to draw some blood, and she just started taking off her shirt. Super weird. Ku."
"I'll leave and come back later, then," Giroro told him, quickly leaving the room. Kululu grinned when he was gone.
"Where were we?" he asked. Mois smeared her shirt back down.
"So I get to be the weird one." She seemed irritated. She knew that it would be hard to explain to Giroro what they had been doing, but she was still a little ticked that they had been interrupted. "Nowhere," she sighed. "Just remember to get a lock on your door next time."
Kululu frowned. He nodded.
Mois wasn't the best at acting like there was nothing going on with her and Kululu. She was an affectionate person by nature. And she really didn't understand what was bad about dating someone and why she shouldn't proclaim it.
Sometimes when they were sitting in invasion meetings, she tried to make jokes to him, to get his attention, to just validate that they really were dating. But for some reason he seemed to act like he hated her even more than he previously did.
"You okay, Kululu?" Keroro asked. "You've been real nasty to Mois. Have a bad trip?" Keroro asked.
"Ku. Ever been trapped with only one companion for one month? Now imagine if that companion was sparkly and pure. It was a nightmare," he lied.
Mois frowned. That wasn't how she remembered it. Couldn't Kululu just act distant from her? He didn't have to act like he hated her guts. It kind of hurt, actually.
"So you were the one who really died. Should have expected as much," Keroro replied, handing Tamama some money.
"Hehehe. I won the bet," he grinned.
Mois turned away from Kululu, a bit mad. He could have said simply that he enjoyed their trip; he didn't have to act like he was constantly arguing with her and constantly mad.
Kululu noticed her look of discomfort. She's really not used to the whole "being secretive" thing, is she? He sighed. She'd get used to it. She got used to pretending that they were dating, after all. And he'd make it up to her eventually. He just wasn't ready. He reached under the table and squeezed her hand, holding it.
She smiled a bit, happier that he was showing some attention to her. She stroked his hand back.
See? We can be affectionate without being all sappy and romantic and with all that gross PDA, Kululu thought to himself. But as soon as someone glanced over at them, he let go of her hand.
He couldn't risk it.
Even though he was incredibly secretive and mean in public to hide their secret, in private he was much more affectionate. They just usually started making out immediately, since acting like they disliked each other was stressful and hard.
They were kissing after the invasion meeting when Kululu's phone rung. "Saburo," he told her, recognizing the ring. He picked it up. "Hey man. I'm back from my vacation, did I tell you yet?"
"He saying anything interesting?" Mois asked.
Kululu made a "shh" sound with his mouth so he could listen to Saburo. Mois frowned. He probably didn't want her to be very loud so Saburo wouldn't know she was there. Lying to even Saburo? Yeah, that was like him.
So she decided to be as quiet as possible. She just continued kissing him along his body, making it very hard for him to talk to Saburo.
"Y-yeah, it was very, very good.~ I mean, no! I didn't get my butt kicked by anybody!" Kululu glared down at Mois. "You can stop," he pleaded, taking his face away from the phone.
"I'm supposed to be quiet. So I am," she whispered, giggling a bit.
Kululu frowned.
"I'm just being a little bit of a jerk. Aren't you proud?" she asked.
"Well of course I'm proud! But that's not the point!" He went back to the call. "Someone? Here? Oh - yeah, I'm working with Mois right now. But she's trying to prank me. ...It isn't working."
Mois kissed him softer, giggling a bit as she kissed him in places she knew he liked the best.
"How was Mois? Oh she was amazing, I mean dreadful! Dreadful! That's what I meant... I uhh... I have to go for a second." Kululu shut off his phone and glared at her. "Did you have to do that?"
"Just trying to make secretly dating actually fun. What if we almost get caught again? I've read enough books to know this," she told him.
Kululu sighed. "You gonna do that every time I'm on the phone?"
"Yep," she affirmed. "If I can only be affectionate to you when we're alone, doesn't that count?"
Kululu frowned and ruffled her hair. He knew this was hard on her. But tomorrow he'd make it up to her. That would be their first real date. And he was positive he knew how to do at least that much.
Please review! And so the secretly dating arc begins. The opposite of the fake dating arc. Perhaps it'll be less chapters than I thought since these chapters seem pretty short.