Pride Bloopers

by TaigaKunaix

Introducing to you, the amazing big ten of the Pride Troopers, disciples of true justice, the greatest heroes of Universe 11! Despite them being heroes, that doesn't mean they're lives are as strict and linear as a pile of bricks. Sometimes, our universal heroes have stories to be told… and these are a portion of them. [Rated T for sentence enhancers; aka curse words]

21. A Perpetual Plan

Return of the Mac…

o, back with a big ass update and… I said there would be an update in five days… three days ago. This was early and unexpected, but I like sneak attacks.

Zoiray's childhood best friend finally comes to visit, but they both need to come to terms with how they feel with one another…And that's exactly why Dyspo, Toppo, Kunshi, Jiren, Cocotte and Vuon are gonna help him with that.

On a far, far side note: I'm not even lying to you all; I have no experience in this crush department. Never have I ever developed a crush on someone and it sounds like bluffing (is that bluffing? Idek but I'm being srs), so I looked up a bunch of memes on this crush shit. Lmao gg.

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A Perpetual Plan...

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It was a night at Netfiss, a relatively calm one at that. All of the Pride Troopers were either in a bed sleeping, in a planet sitting, or walking through Netfiss' main base.

In the case of Dyspo, he wanted to check on behalf of Toppo's record keeping room, just in case if anything hadn't popped up outside of their knowledge. Toppo had only went to bed half an hour ago, but it was nice to double check for the leader. Also, Dyspo was practically bored and had nothing else to do or talk about.

That was, until Dyspo walked past a certain room with a certain someone speaking on the phone. At first he dismissed it, but then he stopped in his tracks when he heard some… unexpected words from the sassy short guy, things like 'sweetie' and 'pretty' and other affectionate sayings and phrases.

Dyspo took a few steps back, and leaned all the way back right in front of the room, looking Zoiray up and down as he spoke on the phone.

His back was turned to the open door, so he didn't catch the hare on sight. "Uh-huh… yeah, I'm sure you can hold yourself to it…" Zoiray smiled, even though their conversation was about to end. "Alright, see you later, hun…"

Hun? Dyspo's eyes went speculatively wide.

"Bye bye." Zoiray even waved as if the person was right in front of him. He stood up from his seat and ended the call while turning around, now Dyspo can see the big beaming smile on his face.

And his peeping-tom ass loved it. "So who was that on the phone?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake…" Zoiray didn't even look up to know who that was, and his reaction was classical. He rolled his eyes and allowed his hand to slap against his hip.

Dyspo took one step into the room, and Zoiray acted like he didn't just rapidly slide his phone into his pants pocket. "I've never heard you talk all sweet like that, not to mention calling someone things like 'sweetie', and 'honey'." The hare crossed his arms.

Zoiray chose to pick on Dyspo infringing his privacy because he's not answering that damn question yet. Nope. "You shouldn't be eavesdropping on conversations, Dyspo."

"But who was that though?"

"You don't need to know."

"It was someone important wasn't it?" The hare made himself quite comfortable on one of the bean bag chairs. He rested both his palms against the back on his head and he reclined into the seat. "You got a girlfriend?"

"No!" Zoiray placed both hands on his hips. "I'm not spilling."

"Why not?"

Zoiray plopped down on the chair adjacent to Dyspo. Keep in mind, by 'plop' he had to hop up to sit down. "I'd rather you don't know anything about them."

"I already know that it isn't your girlfriend."

The smaller Trooper rolled his eyes, and he sank back into the chair in retaliation. Not only was Dyspo being as smartassed as he was, but this was a topic he'd rather have away from Dyspo's ears, even though that is… practically impossible. He gave in. "Fine… it's someone I've known for a while."

"Ooooooooo-"

"Quit it."

"Sorry." Dyspo visibly cocked his neck back, and Zoiray waved a dismissive hand, almost apologetically. That's… strange, Zoiray is one of those people who never apologize. "But who is it?"

"A friend." Was Zoiray's quick ass reply. "What, you want me to give you their whole identity or something?"

"Well no but," Dyspo leaned forward, "You can't be just friends with someone and call them things like 'honey', 'sweetheart' and… what was that other one?" Dyspo scratched his chin in pseudo-thought. "Shortcake?"

"Oh my fu-you really dug your ears in on this one, didn't you?" Zoiray rolled his eyes, again. "It is just a friend. I knew her for a long time."

"How long?"

"Almost childhood friends." Zoiray said, almost in retrospect. "She and I knew each other through school. I still keep contact with her even though she's practically millions of miles away."

"Wow…" Dyspo mulled over that, these two have been in contact for that long? "What planet does she live in?"

Zoiray didn't even need to think on behalf of that. "Kanpin."

Dyspo blinked slowly. "You said millions of miles… Kanpin is on another solar system."

Zoiray placed his hand on his hips. "Still millions of miles, whatever. Doesn't feel that far."

"I can tell, if you two can talk with each other for so long." Dyspo chuckled a bit. "So she's coming over?"

"She plans on staying in Netifiss. I might visit her soon."

"Might?"

"Okay, will. I haven't seen her in ages." Zoiray almost looked like he was fidgeting. This was new.

"So you guys are gonna plan out a date or something?" Dyspo asked, and he was immediately hit with a sassed look.

"I told you, we're just friends!"

"Just friends, bullshit. You like this girl." Dyspo leaned back. "It's obvious; you can't stay a day without talking to her and every time you do, you get all smiley and giddy. Just admit it."

"No."

Time for some sweet wordplay. "That counts as you admitting it."

Zoiray frowned. "How?"

"If I ask you to admit something is true and you say no, that means what I said is true; it's just that you don't wanna say that you like her." Dyspo smirked.

There was a groan on the other end, because Zoiray was quite fed up with Dyspo's prying right now. "So what if I do?"

Dyspo blinked. Well, that was quick; he was expecting Zoiray to just walk out of the room. "You said you two were friends?" A reluctant nod. "Then why not ask her out?"

Zoiray mumbled something and looked away from Dyspo. The small, yet proud and sassy Trooper did not want to look Dyspo in the eyes; yes, Dyspo was marginally older than him and it's obvious that the hare probably has more... sauce when it comes to dating. Amidst that bravado, amidst the boldness he displays, there was one thing Zoiray can't admit without feeling hot in his cheeks.

"Zoiray?" Dyspo leaned forward. "I asked you a question."

"I heard your question."

"Okay, so why not ask her out?" He repeated himself. "You knew her for years, so you obviously know what makes her tick as a person. It shouldn't be as hard as asking someone you don't know out-"

It didn't sound like Dyspo was really to taunt him, Zoiray figured. But the longer he stayed silent against that question, the more anxious it made him, to the point where he shot off his seat and looked at Dyspo. "I don't know how to, okay?!"

Dyspo leaned back a bit, there was silence between the two. Zoiray had quickly settled back into his seat, and Dyspo registered what Zoiray said…

Why was he not surprised?

"Dude... all you have to do is, mayhaps tomorrow or whenever you're ready, call her or text her and ask if she wants to take things a step further." Dyspo suggested, holding out a hand in succor.

"But…" Zoiray got really shy all of the sudden. "What if she says 'no', and then I ruin our friendship?"

Unknown to anyone else, Zoiray had a really habit of overthinking. Unfortunately that is going to be prevalent habit he'll execute for the next coming days.

"She's your childhood friend. She probably knows how awkward you are more so than I do. She'll understand." Dyspo gave Zoiray a cheeky smile despite the smaller Trooper hitting his arm (having to get off his seat, jumping onto Dyspo's chair arm to do so). The interaction they shared was weird because, the both of them were so used to shitting on each other. But here's Zoiray caving in to his slight anxiety over his long-standing crush, and Dyspo giving Zoiray sound advice over his own lack of confidence.

But don't think Zoiray is going to let his snappy persona waver over the hare's support. He ain't stupid. "You make sure you tell nobody I told you any of this." Zoiray raised a tiny finger at the hare. "I don't want this to be anybody's business."

Dyspo blinked, and then he nodded. "Alright."

"I'm serious."

Now he had to raise his hands, because the tiny Trooper looked like he was going to uppercut Dyspo… if he could reach that far. "Okay okay, I won't go out there and just tell strangers about it. I promise."

Zoiray leaned back, concluding his bit of secret telling with the folding of his hands. "Good."

...

"MY. GOD." Voun slapped both his cheeks in shock. "SO ZOIRAY WAS FLIRTING WITH SOMEONE? ZOIRAY?!"

Technically speaking, Dyspo promised not to tell strangers. The Pride Trooper members in this room weren't strangers.

Kunshi and Toppo shared shocked looks as well. Dyspo's best friend leaned forward. "You can't be serious."

"I can't make this up!" Dyspo swept his hands. "It was a really old friend that he's been in contact with for many years."

"That's not a friend at all." Vuon shook his head. "You sure that was his friend?"

"That's what he told me." Dyspo said. "He said, well he didn't outright say this but… he actually really likes her." The hare sat down on a chair. "He's always smiling every time she contacts him and he's been even happier lately, because she's coming to Netfiss."

Vuon smiled underneath his beard. "That is sweet to hear. Maybe Zoiray will get a chance to ask her on a date when she arrives."

"I can't wait 'till that happens." Kunshi rubbed his hands. "I've never could imagine Zoiray being swoony over someone. Ever."

"How much you wanna bet, she's flying over because he already asked her out?" The dinosaur crossed his arms. "Knowing Zoiray, he'd plan that shit out before she'd step foot in this planet."

"...Actually…" Dyspo finally raised a finger to the three of them. "He hasn't asked her out because well… he's too shy to do so."

"No… he hasn't?" Kunshi frowned, disbelief crossed his face. "Zoiray is the last person I know to be shy. The guy's got too much confidence!"

"Maybe that shit's just inflated." Vuon waved a hand. "He's probably a completely different person around her."

That made quite a lot of sense. "I can vouch for that." Toppo was smiling almost in a dreamy sort of way because he was reminiscing. He looked to the younger three men. "To force him to ask her out would be damaging for the both of them. We don't know how she feels towards him, and if Zoiray's soft towards her he might come off as rushy, no matter how many years they have under their belts."

Dyspo raised both brows. "Really?"

Toppo nodded. "You wouldn't want to ask them such a thing after not physically being with you for so long." He then looked really sheepish. "That's how I messed up the first time."

"The first time? You knew your wife since you two were children?"

"Well not for that long, but I met her in my teen years. We broke apart because of where we went for studies, and then when I told her I was heading back, I jumped at the idea of dating her." Toppo looked elsewhere. "But I didn't know how dates went."

There was silence, and Vuon had an impending smile growing on his face. "She denied dating you didn't she?"

Toppo straight up answered. "Yes, right after our date." That earned pained looks from the others along with ooo sounds. "And then we tried again because she felt bad, during our second date we had an argument." The leader shrugged with an impending smile. "We forgive one another the next day immediately, and then we started liking each other and then we loved each other, and the rest is history."

The guys laughed. Speaking of which, they never really got to meet Toppo's wife. She lives in Toopike at the moment.

"So we basically gotta let them both sweeten up first before Zoiray could hit her with the question?" Kunshi oded his suggestion to Toppo's story. "What about rejection?"

"I was a little too optimistic on that behalf." Dyspo nervously chuckled. "I just told him 'Hey, go ask her out. She knows you, she'll totally accept it'."

"The exact opposite would happen in that case, Dyspo." Toppo said.

"Maybe if Zoiray introduces us to her, we would know how she's like." Kunshi scratched his chin. "We gotta know if she likes him back."

"But how?" Vuon asked. "We're not friends with her or anything, and to come to that conclusion would take a while."

They all pondered on the situation. Zoiray could be quite stingy, but that's not to say his closest hero-buds would not help him with his crush. They needed a solution, and quick, because if Dyspo had placed the thought of acceptance into Zoiray's brain, he might jump the gun and ruin everything.

Dyspo quickly snapped a finger. "I got an idea! Alright so…" The men involuntarily gathered together like they were having a conference call. The hare rubbed his hands together. "We're gonna need more people to help us with this, but I already know who can get the information we need..."

"Zoiray wants to date his best friend?!" Cocotte accidentally raised his voice, even though Zoiray wasn't here. "He has never told me that!"

"Wait, he's told you about her?" Vuon cocked his neck forward.

"Well only a little, like… that she's coming over and of some of the conversations they've had and that's about it." Cocotte smiled to herself. "I can't imagine Zoiray ever having a crush on anyone, not to mention him being shy over it."

"Well, yeah…" Vuon smiled tinily. Tinily. "That's why we kinda need you to seek her out."

She blinked once, twice, before straight facing. "You want me to spy on her?"

"Well-no, not you!" Vuon raised both her hands. "Dyspo thought it'd be reasonable if you guys became friends, since you're already friends with Zoiray, so it's like-"

"So I can get both their viewpoints and see if they are compatible with one another?" She crossed her arms.

"Now there we go!" The dinosaur snapped his fingers. "But don't make it too obvious; you're a woman and so is she so… you guys would share secrets easily." Not to mention Cocotte was real good with making friends. Jiren ought to take notes.

"I mean… I suppose it's not a bad idea." Cocotte gave it a meager thought; she knew more about Zoiray and his friend than the others did. Every time Zoiray brought up their conversations, the smaller Trooper would become a beaming ball of light. Cocotte had the privileged of hearing the two talk to one another while she and Zoiray were in her car, and his friend sounded really nice and cute. She would imagine that since they were from the same planet, she would also be as short as him, and the idea of the two becoming little lovebirds was too cute for her to decline this plan.

"I'll pitch in." She said, and Vuon smiled brightly. "But how are you supposed to know when she's coming around?"

"Don't worry about that." Vuon waved a hand dismissively. "Dyspo's got Toppo to get Jiren for that."

And speaking of Jiren, he would be the very first piece to evoke this strategy Dyspo laid out. In order to get him to partake in such a thing, his friend would have to ask him for his support. Later in the day, Dyspo said that Cocotte told him the specific day as to when Zoiray's bestfriend would be landing in Netfiss, which is exactly six days from now. All Jiren had to do for now was scout the planet and relay on the ship's passing. It sounded easy but it would be hard to get Jiren to participate in something that doesn't interest him.

Or maybe not, actually. This might not be obvious to most, but Jiren will do anything when he's bored.

Toppo opened the door to Jiren's room in Netfiss' base, used to how mostly empty it was minus the bed, and a drawer for keepsake. He looked at the floating Grey in front of him. Jiren's eyes were closed, as he was meditating again, and the Pride Trooper looked like even a truckhorn to his ear wouldn't perturb him. He approached Jiren calmly, it might take a few tries to get the Grey's attention...

"Jiren-"

"No."

...or not.

Toppo would have soured at the quick denial, but he didn't do so. Instead, he furrowed a brow in confusion. "What are you saying no to?"

"You don't think I've heard of what's going around in this base?"

A blink. And then two more blinks. "...You weren't here since last week."

Jiren opened one eye. Now that Toppo thought about it, Jiren was probably in the middle of the room for no reason; he was not meditating. If he were meditating, he wouldn't have answered Toppo so quickly… maybe he was eavesdropping. But no one has seen him since nine days ago.

Lowkey, Jiren was, but that's besides the point. "I am of no help in Zoiray's situation."

"No no, you can help. Just listen," Toppo sat on the bed and clasped his giant hands together to get his friends attention; meanwhile Jiren's eyes were back to being closed, "Dyspo already knows the time when she's supposed to arrive. We just need someone to be on standby and watch the skies in about six days from now."

That made Jiren open his eyes. "So you want me to stand somewhere, and watch a ship fly past me?"

Jiren was acting like he had a business to run and was in the middle of his vacation in the Bahamas or some shit with how bored he sounded. And what he needs to do isn't even that far from what he does normally! "Jiren, it's a simple task that we ask of you."

"It sounds unengaging."

"You literally stand and stare off of cliffs for hours on your own time." The leader was quick to check the warrior. "Being on watch for a ship is child's play for your attention span."

It is, but again, that's besides the point. "Why does this matter to all of you?"

"Because we want Zoiray to be happy."

Jiren blinked. "Who says he wasn't?"

"Well Jiren, if you were listening to us, you would know that he's quite frustrated over the fact that he has strong feelings for her." Toppo placed both his hands on his knees and leaned forward. "We simply want the two to… converge nicely."

"Why can't you all just greet her when she arrives?" That made the most sense in Jiren's brain.

Unfortunately, it was also the worst course of action in this case. "No! We want this to be a secret amongst all of us. Zoiray does not know that we all know he likes her, and we'd keep it that way up until things work as planned." Toppo sighed, Jiren was being difficult again. "Have you ever not felt such a way towards someone? You can't just jump the gun and say you like them."

"Yes you can."

Toppo cocked his neck back at how quick Jiren's response was. "And how so?"

"I did so." Jiren shrugged. "It worked for me."

The rest of us should not be surprised. This was new for Toppo. "...You had a girlfriend?"

"A wife."

The leader's yellow-black eyes went wiiiide. Jiren was married at one point? Jiren? "...Really?"

Jiren nodded.

"And you outright told her you liked her?" Toppo asked, he got another nod in response. "And she liked you back, and you two started dating?"

Jiren, for the life of him, could not explain how he and his wife were an item for so long, up until her death. It was like… well, it was gradual, but at the same time their attraction felt instant. Maybe it was because he was drawn in by her, and she was drawn by his idiocy.

Because… he relatively was an idiot when he was younger. Relatively.

"It just happened." Jiren shrugged, that's as best as he can explain it. If she were alive, she would have used better words for this subject. She was always good with words.

Forget about the fact that Jiren was supposed to accept a mission request, this was interesting information for his sworn friend. "How were your dates like?"

"Uhh…" Jiren actually reached up to scratch the back of his head in confusion. This was uncomfortable for him, he would have sounded like such a liar at this point; again, he could not explain what their dates were like because they weren't even dates. Aren't dates the stuff you have to plan? "We were in each other's company for long periods of time. That's all."

"Really? There was no food or any music or anything like that? No dancing?"

At dancing, Jiren straight faced at him.

"Okay not dancing, but you never took her out anywhere?" Toppo asked. "That's what I meant by a date."

Jiren blinked twice. "We would walk through her gardens. Does that count?"

"I suppose- wait… her gardens?" Toppo frowned.

"She was of regal status." Jiren said. He almost started fidgeting but caught himself instantly.

Toppo thought over it. "Wow…" Jiren… marrying a princess? Or a queen even? There was so much he had left to learn about the man before him, he could not imagine Jiren wooing a woman of such high tastes.

Expect he didn't woo her, Jiren just had the classic hero trope called charm or some shit. He couldn't even consider himself charming at a young age, and he used to annoy her all the damn time. But he liked it how she'd bounce back, and she'd like how he'd be around her constantly and uhh… yeah.

There was a bit of silence between the two. The draft in the room was very cool, bringing the two back into the reality of where they are sitting. The leader clasped his hands again. "So would you help us?"

Jiren heaved a long sigh.

"Jiren if you can do so much as sit in one place with a queen and end up getting married by her, why can't Zoiray and his friend be coerced together?"

There was really no point for Jiren to deny the request, because he was bored; that's number one, and number two, it did him no major harm. All it did was take away time he could have spent on something else like… watching a white dwarf; you ever seen those things? They are absolutely marvelous from afar.

But just this once, he decided… he'll take the plate. "Fine."

Toppo almost jumped off of Jiren's bed in triumph. Why he was exaggeratingly happy made no sense to Jiren at all. "Thank you so much, Jiren. I and the others appreciate it."

"Right." That was all he said. "What will happen from then on?"

Toppo had no problem telling him more of the plan at hand. "Well after you would report the ship's sighting, we can make Cocotte 'run into her'. We're getting her to give us a bit more insight to what Zoiray's friend would do when she comes around."

Jiren nodded blankly. It would not hurt to help the annoying, sassy Trooper if it meant he didn't need to be around him. That was why he asked what would proceed after his task was done, without throwing the eclipse over Zoiray's name. "And this is all you need from me?"

"Yes, Jiren." Toppo said. "You have more than enough time to prepare or something…" The heck was Jiren gonna prepare? His feet?

"Right." Was all he said, and then he closed his eyes, finalizing the conversation since he had already agreed. Toppo stood up after a moment, and left the room with a smile on his face. The very first move was made, now all they gotta do was see to how compatible Zoiray and his bestfriend are.

Here's Jiren standing on top of a really, really large building, miles above the surface of Netfiss six days later.

Here's Jiren, with his arms crossed and Pride Trooper suit on, looking into the silver-pink skies of this planet, still inwardly questioning why he partook in this lovey-dovey experiment thing.

All he had to do was spot a ship, a particular Red Tip Express ship with the number 8599 on either one of its sides. Much like a subway, ships are given numbers based on their dropoff and pickup areas. Red Tip ships are normally some of the fastest ships around, and a lot of ports in Netfiss have Red Tip expressways. He was told that it should be coming sometime in the morning, so he left the comfort of this one nearly inhabitable planet and stood on the tallest building in Netfiss, thinking it would pass by in no time…

Someone needs to tell him that public transportation, as useful as it is, can be unreliable as shit sometimes. When someone says their plane should reach the country in the morning, expect it to be there in the afternoon unless you're a multi-trillionaire with a few hyperspeed jets to his name. I'm not pointing fingers.

The fact that this ship was coming from many light years away would prove that Jiren's more-than-punctual feet would have to be standing for a few hours… or several, in this case, because now the sun was setting.

In the time he had spent looking at the sky doing nothing, his head was mostly empty, minus the occasional questioning of how he hadn't ditched this objective sooner. There would be random fleeting thoughts though, like how some of the birds that flew as high as to his waist were able to do so with the lack of air in this altitude, or like why the clouds were parted a few hundred miles ahead before he realized it stopped raining in that area. Sometimes he would shift and then a random part of his spine would crack out of lack of movement, and it would be relatively loud since it was silent, and then there was a period of time where he would blink just to see how much of the scenery would change before his eyes. Obviously there wouldn't be much change, so he went into looking at his hands, and counting all of his fingers before looking around. And he did this repeatedly, because he was bored as shit, and you'd think someone like him was as patient as a pangolin when it come to waiting for someone, who he didn't know, to arrive to a planet for the sake of somebody whose voice makes him want to scratch his inner ear, but he can't do that because then he'll accidentally tickle himself and he hadn't accidentally tickled himself in years-

Oh, there it goes.

Jiren's eyes followed the large ship that casted a shadow over him, despite being a few miles above his head. 8599 was branded bold and bright on the side of ship nearing its large underbelly. It slowed down as to accomodate for the presence of an atmosphere and descended far ahead onto one of the biggest docks on Netfiss' spaceport. Without causing any damage to the tip of the building he was standing on right now, he jumped high enough to pass miles of land before smoothly landing on the top of the spaceport the ship was heading to. It was around two hundred something feet below him since he was standing on a radio tower, but it was easily for him to see the people exiting the ship soon after.

He already assumed that this person resembled Zoiray species-wise, so all he had to do was seek out a really, really, really short person that looked like a Tic-Tac.

He narrowed his eyes a bit. The person in question was indeed small; and she almost stook out like a sore thumb; her horns were a bit curlier than Zoiray's. They were also darker, and her skin was pink. A clearer look upon her person and he could see that her wings were sat against her back, unlike Zoiray who has a tendency to hide them. Her eyes were more shaped and fluttery because of her lashes, and her smile was nothing like Zoiray's, which was smug and eggheaded. Hers was kind, warm and sweet, kinda like Kahseral's wife.

This is an innocent plug, but Jiren actually came to know Kahseral's wife recently before this ordeal. That is a whole other story.

That was all the confirmation he needed to know that the person in question indeed landed. With that, he phased off of the radio tower, and right into the conference room where Toppo, Vuon, Kunshi, and Dyspo were chatting amongst each other. He didn't waste any time with what he had to say. "She is here."

Jiren's voice cut through their conversation like a knife. The room when notably silent before Toppo acknowledged what he said. "What does she look like?"

Jiren gave them a brief description of her appearance, and Toppo smiled at him gratefully afterwards. "Thank you so much, Jiren."

Jiren nodded, and logged himself out of the room.

Dyspo clasped his hands together. "Alright. According to Cocotte, Zoiray said she plans heading down to Sweetie's once she arrives. That would be perfect for Cocotte to go over there and 'bump' into her."

"Isn't it like a two hour drive from here?" Vuon raised a brow.

"She got word of this four hours ago. I'm sure Cocotte will be there before and even during the time his friend heads there."

Cocotte had enough time to purposely meet Mirun by accident. She parked in the lot of Sweetie's and exited her car. She was so happy that Zoiray recommended this place to his friend because Cocotte hadn't eaten much today and she hadn't had Sweetie's in such a long time.

Dyspo may have bought her some like four days ago but that's still a long time. Thirty six hours in one damn day, multiply that by four you guys. That is a while.

Walking up to the store was a different story though. The last time she'd personally been here was a few months ago, a lot of the time she would just order stuff from here. But there was something refreshing about actually going to your favorite store aside from their speedy delivery service, being able to smell the many pastries waiting for her made her mouth water. Sweetie's was also a very homely designed place, you'd be comfortable just chilling there in their comfortable booths for hours on end. She was so busy thinking about what she was going to eat, that she didn't notice she bumped into something, or rather someone, by the legs. "Oh m- I'm sorry-"

Cocotte thought the person was her height, but she had to look down to see their face. They were really short, their height didn't even pass her knees. The face made it apparent that this was a woman she bumped into, but Cocotte found herself staring down in pseudo recognition. She vaguely knew what Zoiray's friend looked like because she saw a picture of her at one point, but here the young woman was… for some reason she didn't expect her eyes to be so big and cute, and her skin to be so pink. Was this her? She had horns so she couldn't be mistaken.

This interaction was an accident though. Cocotte came in complete clutch.

The woman, Mirun, didn't bat her an eye. Instead, she just waved it off with a smile that could grace anyone's bad day, before holding her luggage bags. "It's okay, I'm kinda short so it's really not surprising if I get nudged a little."

Yup, that was Zoiray's friend; her voice was very pliant and quiet sounding. Cocotte confirmed it mentally, that face and her wings were unmistakable. She chuckled a bit at her response. "Thanks, I was just gawking at this place because I haven't been here in a while."

"I've never been here before, but I could smell the goods even in the cab." Mirun looked at the large, warm colored sign of Sweetie's, having to crane her neck a bit higher like a kid would when staring at a tall adult.

Cocotte could pick her up and squeeze her, she was so adorable in person! "Really?" She made a mental note to act like she didn't already know this woman up until she'd pop the question.

They both already started walking in. "Mmm-hmm, I just landed not too long ago. I'm new here." She scratched her head with a timid chuckle, and Cocotte had just realized she had hair. It was in a messy low ponytail, lose strands framed her face prettily even if her hair looked quite untidy.

Cocotte smiled. "I have no problem showing you around if you'd like."

"Oh please do! I almost got lost around here!" Mirun shook her head. "I'm not used to how the addresses are. I almost gave my driver a headache."

She has a great sense of humor, Cocotte thought. "It's not hard to wrap your head around. You'll get used to it in no time, hun." She looked up at the menu. "You ever tried any of these pastries in your home planet?"

"Only thing I had was puff pastries and that's about it, but I'd like to try stuff here. Everything smells so good." She had to fly up to Cocotte's height to properly look at the menu. With the help of Cocotte, who is a pastry connoisseur, Mirun and she ordered some of the bestest pastries there. The two opted to sit together since Mirun was already getting well acquainted with Cocotte. While Mirun asked a bunch about Netfiss and what it has to offer, Cocotte got to uncovering more about, undeniably, Zoiray's bestfriend.

"I haven't even gotten around to ask, what's your name?"

"I'm Mirun." She placed a hand on her chest to address herself. One thing Zoiray didn't actually mention to Cocotte, was her name. She knew everything else that needed to be known to identify her, except for her name; the simplest possible query to identifying someone.

It made her wonder if Zoiray ever wanted her and Mirun to meet. They were both women, secret sharing was not an uncommon practice for them; he's probably afraid that Cocotte and Mirun might both get the wrong idea, or rather the right idea at the wrong time.

"Where are you from?" Cocotte asked, closing her eyes when she was hit with the smell of bread, muffins, macaroons and tarts that were placed on their table. Oooh girl…

"I'm from planet Amr." Mirun said, and Cocotte nodded. That was the same planet Zoiray was from…

"Wow… that's far actually." She knew that. "I have a friend from there actually."

"Really?" Mirun then tossed a hand with a smile, almost as if they were regarding a beloved family member. "I probably know who they are. Amr is not a big planet, everybody knows everybody there."

Cocotte admired how easygoing she was to talk to. "They do?" Cocotte took a sweet bite out of one of her rose pastries, trying not to show how much she missed the savoriness of it.

"Mmhmm; Amr is pretty small. I think one single continent in Netfiss is half the size of my planet, so we call it a giant neighborhood. And we're all tiny so..."

Cocotte figured that Amr was tiny, but to put that in perspective the smallest continent possible on Netfiss is around 10 million square miles. She could imagine double that would exceed the total terrain area on Amr. The Trooper giggled a bit, because she realized that Mirun was standing on her side of the booth seat this whole time. If Mirun sat down, she would literally look like a toddler trying to grab something off of a countertop. "Aren't you uncomfortable?"

The female Trooper usually keeps this one pillow in her bag just in case… okay well, she would say that she might grow tired when she'd have long cruises, and would put this pillow against her back while driving. The pillow was puffy enough to give Mirun a bit of leverage if she sat on it. Cocotte pulled out the pillow. "You can use this if you want."

Mirun looked at the pillow and then looked at Cocotte reluctantly. "Are you sure? That looks really expensive."

It was, but Cocotte had like five of them at home. "Yes, it's fine girl. Go ahead."

Seeing small Mirun have to reach over and grab the pillow from Cocotte's already outstretched arm, and her placing it down and plopping down on it would have made her giggle at the idea of her and Zoiray having to bring pillows everywhere they went in Netfiss.

Mirun thanked her, and the two gotten to know each other more and more as they spent time in Sweetie's. When the two were done, Cocotte told her that she was a member of the Pride Troopers, to which Mirun snapped her fingers and exclaimed 'Knew it!'; Cocotte's makeup today, or lack thereof, made her look strikingly different than usual, and Mirun didn't say anything because she didn't want to mistake Cocotte for someone else.

A smile form on the Trooper's face; she was so cute and timid. How the hell did she become good friends with Zoiray's sassy ass?

They were exiting Sweetie's when Mirun told her, as Cocotte was purposely bridging her occupation into the conversation, that she had a friend who was heavily involved with the top members of the Troopers. Cocotte raised both brows. "In the top ranks of us?"

"Mm-hmm." Mirun said. "I'm actually on my way to seeing him over the week." Then Mirun released one of the luggage bags and pointed to herself. "He looks like me but blue."

"Zoiray." Cocotte quickly said. "He told me that one of his longtime friends were coming for a visit annnd looks like I finally met you."

Mirun plopped into Cocotte's car since she offered to drive her to Netfiss' base for the two to see each other. "Waiiit, you knew me from the get-go, then?"

A sheepish smile formed on Cocotte's face. She revved up her engine. "Well I wasn't sure if it was you, Mirun, but now I know."

"Ohh… you've never seen a picture of me before?"

"Only vaguely." Cocotte shrugged. "I only know your voice very well, but I don't have your appearance downpack."

A blink. "Downpack?"

"Memorized, excuse the Netfiss slang." Cocotte giggled. "That's another thing about us, and Zoiray has spent so much time here as with many other planets that he's a strong user of slang."

"I've been in calls with him and I wouldn't understand the words he'd say sometimes." Mirun shook her head. "You guys speak so differently from us. We're not very 'slangy' people."

Amr is one of those planets filled with 'proper speaking' people, as in there aren't many words that are colloquially shortened in their languages. This was according to Khai when she asked him about Zoiray's planet, since Khai is the encyclopedia of the entire Universe. "I can tell. I'm sure he'd be very happy to see you."

Oh, Zoiray will be happy alright. He'll probably be the happiest he's ever been since she'd met him. That not to say that he isn't a happy person, but Cocotte could imagine him being so sweet and shy to her, the exact opposite of who he is around every single one of the Pride Troopers, and Belmod and Khai.

Speaking of which, she wondered if the guys called Zoiray in yet, at least to surprise him with Mirun's appearance.

"Is he here, is he here?" Dyspo peeked out of the windows, looking into the sky to see if he can spot Zoiray flying. Even though the smaller Trooper had a car, he had wings too; also the majority of cars were normal sized and his would look like some toddler's Jeep stranded in the highways.

"If you don't see him flying in the sky, he ain't here." Kunshi laxxed back into his seat, drinking Jumba juice.

Vuon looked to Toppo. "How about Cocotte?"

"I have messaged her already, and she said Mirun and she were on their way here." Toppo pocketed his phone after looking at it. "They are at least a few minutes away from our base."

Dyspo squinted down at the farther end of the streets. If that was the case, Cocotte probably jumped on the highway since Sweetie's was considerably far. He was looking for a pink car with purple highlights and yellow headlights. "He better fly his ass over here, like now, because his bestie is gonna be here soon."

"It wouldn't take that long for Zoiray to leave his suite and come over here." Kunshi shrugged. "If anything, he might have teleported into the hallwa-" Then he paused and suddenly looked around, which made the rest of the guys look around because Zoiray does have a tendency to teleport into places.

Not to the same extent that Jiren does, though.

"...Is he out in the hallway?"

"Who's out in the hallway?"

By clutch, it was at that moment Zoiray actually teleported into the hallway right outside the main lobby. Literally just after everything they had said. "Oh, you're here. Hey."

"Hi?" Zoiray entered the large room. The man could give no qualms with the way he was dressed; he was still clad in baby blue pajamas. "Who were you talking about?"

Kunshi furrowed his brows. "Why are you wearing pajamas?"

"I woke up two hours ago."

"...And you're still wearing your pajamas?"

A pause, and then Zoiray shrugged. "I was watching Ninja Warrior. I didn't wanna change into anything else."

To those who know what that is, that show was the shit. No boost.

"You can't just roll up to the Netfiss base in your damn PJs, man." Dyspo put his hands on his hips. "What if something important happened today?"

Zoiray, as sassy as he is, looked at Toppo in regards to Dyspo's question, and he tilted his head and repeated the same damn question. "Did something important happen today?"

"Well, not something, but someone is coming to our base." Toppo said. He stopped leaning against the wall and sat down on one of the chairs while addressing Zoiray. "At least dress appropriately."

Still no fucks given on his part. "And who would that be?"

There was a sound over the intercom that signaled someone had just entered the base. That could obviously be Cocotte since only Pride Trooper members and specialized tech or janitor forces could enter this building. The guys had paused in the middle of their talking to await whoever would walk through the automatic double doors that led to the main lobby. Several seconds later, give or take, the doors opened to reveal a near bare-faced Cocotte and a small, pink female looking all around wondrously before she would look at the faces of the men near gaping at her.

First of all, holy crap she was adorable looking. Her black eyes were so big and bright, and she had her hair in this cute messy bun that framed her oval face. Her horns protruded in the same way Zoiray's did but they were a bit darker, and she was dressed in a fashion that was similar to our stereotypical fairy.

Overall, Dyspo mulled over her cute appearance, this is what Zoiray liked?! He expected her to be bold, grungy even considering her male friend's personality. But looking at Mirun he seriously could not imagine her saying a single curse word without apologizing. He, Toppo, Vuon and Kunshi brought their attention back to Zoiray who literally shed off all the sass and disregard he had in nanoseconds.

"Mirun!" Zoiray done zoomed over to her, and she enveloped him in a warm embrace. "I-I didn't even know you'd be coming so early, I expected the ship to arrive at least in the evening!"

"Buuut I'm here!" Mirun smiled at him. She had her hands on Zoiray's biceps, still having not let go of him. Vuon can see Zoiray purposely tensing up to make his arms more pseudo-toned. "I know I could have told you I was coming, but I wanted it to be a surprise."

Good gods, even her smile was warm and sweet tooth-filled. Toppo stood up and smiled underneath her beard. "Hello, Zoiray's friend. He's been anticipating your arrival for some time."

"So much so that he came heavily prepared for it too." Kunshi crossed his arms, already making the small Trooper dart eyes at him.

Mirun giggled and looked her bestie up and down. "I can see that."

"Don't sour my finally getting to meet my bestfriend today with your shit jokes." Zoiray glared at the polka dot Trooper.

"They're funny." Mirun had this cute, giant smile on her face that made the other guys develop a urge to pinch both her cheeks. "I didn't know the Pride Troopers were this close."

"We are." Cocotte smiled; it was a common myth amongst many people that the Troopers only come together when there is trouble. That's not true; they are all friends of one another, at least some of them. "Hey Zoiray, why not introduce her to the guys? She knows my name already."

"Right." Zoiray blinked. "But she knows all of our names, because we're Pride Troopers."

"I meant personality-wise, Zoiray."

"I'm not familiar with some of you though." Mirun furrowed one brow. That's another thing she had that Zoiray didn't: eyebrows.

"Okay, fine. Guys, this is Mirun. Mirun, guys…" Zoiray gestured between the people and his friend, while Mirun kept her eyes away from Dyspo. "So, this is Toppo; leader of our forces." Zoiray pointed to Toppo, who nodded with a slight bow in acknowledgement. "He's a chill guy, if you ever need anything here you can ask him. That's Kunshi, he's a nice dude. Vuon is him," he pointed with three fingers to the dinosaur which make Mirun slightly chuckle; everyone raised their brows, "He's also real nice too."

"What was the giggle for?" Vuon asked.

Mirun gave him a sheepish smile and explained before Zoiray could tell her not to. "In Amr, pointing with three fingers means that a person is annoying and needs to be watched over."

"Really Zoiray?" Vuon straight faced.

"Yes." Zoiray nodded.

"What have I ever done to you?"

"You annoy me a lot." Zoiray crossed his arms, making the dinosaur roll his eyes and shake his to Mirun, as if saying 'He's just bullshitting'.

The small Trooper continued. "That over there is Dyspo." Zoiray gestured, dismissively, to the hare. "Don't listen to anything he says."

The only reason he said that was because he thought Dyspo was the only one who knew he had a crush on his best friend. He was that petty.

"Well 'scuse me." Dyspo frowned, but he noticed how shy Mirun's wave was towards him. "What's up Mirun?"

She kindly looked away from him. Zoiray peeped this behavior. "Nothing it's just… I hope this isn't inappropriate, but I always thought you were really attractive."

It is customary for Amurians to show admiration, and tell the person that they look nice or that they are good looking if they are so. Her bluntness made everybody in the room look at her in surprise, especially Zoiray because one; he didn't think she'd be into anyone outside of his species, and two; this is Dyspo we're talking about, his fucking frenemy.

Could you believe that Kunshi had the audacity to slurp on his Jumba Juice immediately after she said that?

"Oh… uhh..." Dyspo's face flushed not out of flattery, but because Zoiray was standing right there, next to his very crush, when she said that. It had him thinking of how absolutely tight Zoiray must be feeling right now. He refrained from looking even an inch to her left at the blue Trooper next to his friend. "Thanks? I'm sorry, that was just…"

"No no, it's my bad. People from Amr are known for being really blunt." Mirun smiled. "I'll tone it down when I'm here."

Yup, she better tone it down because her bestfriend has been toning up ever since he found out that she was coming to Netfiss. Speaking of which, Zoiray didn't even look any bit reactive to what she said; because everyone else in the room knew that Zoiray had a heavy crush on this woman, to them he was eerily calm. Dyspo hoped he wouldn't get a surprise dropkick once Zoiray's façade is wiped right off.

He decided to shut the fuck up, so Toppo spoke for him. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Mirun. Hopefully I can round about the other Troopers so that they can greet you as well. Do you have a place to stay?"

Mirun pursed her lips in thought. "I was going to rent a hotel nearest to Zoiray's suite, but he said I could crash at his place."

"Ah well, you are always welcome to find refuge here." Toppo gestured around the lobby.

"This place is really quite big though, I dunno if you'd like walking a lot." Vuon added.

"That's no problem for me. I have wings, I can fly out of a window if I wanted to leave. Faster than this one, too." Mirun pointed with her thumb at her bestie.

"What'chu mean you can fly faster than me!?" Zoiray frowned at her, and Vuon assumed he purposely blocked out what Mirun said about Dyspo half a minute ago.

"I mean what I said." Mirun gave him a cheesy grin that forced Zoiray to be quiet because to him, she was absolutely adorable and it's hard to argue with your crush. "I can fly faster than you."

"You're going up against a hero, sweetpea."

She argued back. "Not all heroes wear capes!"

"We don't even wear capes!"

"It doesn't matter, I'm still faster than you by flight." Mirun crossed her arms. Zoiray reverted back to his sassed nature and rolled his eyes at her with a tiny smile.

"This happens in every video chat they have." Cocotte chuckled. "Ya know what, Mirun; why don't you get yourself situated here? Zoiray'll show you around."

"Aww, thanks." She bowed a bit to both and Toppo and the other three men. Zoiray was looking between her and Dyspo to see if she'd 'flirt' with him as he slung his arm around her shoulders, you know, being territorial. As they both walked out of the lobby, the five of them could hear Mirun saying, "Woah, you've gotten so much more toned over the years!"

"Why yes." Zoiray had said, he sounded real proud. "I've been working out quite a lot; I do have a heavy responsibility I have to carry with me..." They both became inaudible afterwards.

Given a minute into their disappearance, when everyone was sure they were out of ear's plight, Vuon snorted so loud it made Cocotte jump. "Was he really trying to flex the tiny arms he has right now?"

"I find the both of them to be cute." Toppo smiled. "It's an innocent thing to watch."

"Yeah…" Kunshi sipped his drink again, and then turned to his bestie. "Dyspo, how you feelin' over there?"

"Shut up, man. That's, that's not-" Dyspo shook his head. "I can't imagine how pissed he inwardly was at that."

"I'm sure he knows it's just a compliment, but still…" Vuon remembered his very first elementary crush, which ended in a similar fashion to this situation: he was sharing his pack of 108 crayons with her- and to all us grown people out there, if you had even a 64 pack of crayons back in elementary you were immediately the coolest kid on the block. A kid was walking by and he didn't want his lollipop so he just offered it to her, and she said 'He's so cool, he gave me his lollipop. I like him.' After he heard the last three words, he literally snatched all his crayons from her and stormed away from where she was sitting in the schoolyard.

In this case, it must've been heartbreaking to hear your crush call someone you don't not hate attractive. "It's just an innocent compliment, and that was it. She probably doesn't have a crush on you or anything." Cocotte shrugged.

"Yup." Kunshi nodded. "You'll be fine."

"You really wanted some drama to start between the two." Vuon narrowed his eyes at the polka dot Trooper. "Don't sit up here trying to be a peacekeeper."

"No, that's horrible! I wouldn't want to see Dyspo and Zoiray fight over a girl!" Actually, he would. Actually he would pay to see that, because it's been too quiet for way too long and those two haven't bickered in a while.

"Now all we have to do is wait for her to meet the rest of the team." Toppo smiled. "She already seems like a sweetheart."

"Mm-hmm." Cocotte shared the same sentiment.

"I'm shocked as to how she's friends with him for so long." Vuon frowned. "Not to say he isn't a good friend or whatever, he's just seems too sarcastic for someone like her."

"He's probably a big sap around her, that's why." Kunshi raised his cup like he just pitched in a great business plan. "Remember: dude's got a crush on her."

"Give it a day or two, she'll meet everybody, and from then on," Dyspo rubbed his hands, "We can finally execute our plan."

Mirun got accustomed to the Netfiss base quite quickly. During Zoiray's quick tour of the premise, she started to fall asleep and instead decided she'd keep her belongings here for the time being. Zoiray offered for her to sleep in his room, and he stood outside looking at a thing on his phone while she was changing into her sleepwear.

"Zoiray?"

He almost completely forgot he was still standing beside his door like he was waiting for her, which he could have sworn he wasn't. It's not like he wanted to wish her a good sleep or anything… pfft, that's sappy. "Yes?"

Mirun cracked the door open, just enough for him to see her face. She looked so cute. "Can you come in?"

"Sure." He didn't mean to fucking say that, god dammit! Zoiray wanted to say that he had stuff to do, his mouth moved before his brain normally would and now he felt like smacking himself. "What's wrong?"

"Well, there is nothing wrong." Mirun shrugged while she approached Zoiray's bed again, hopping on to it and pulling the blankets upon her snug pajama. "I just want you to stay for a bit, at least until I sleep. I missed your company."

Score one, he thought to himself before berating that statement. "Mirun, every time you lay somewhere, you're out in less than a minute."

"So? I wanna spend that minute with you!" She giggled, what she said had no romantic connotation to it, but Zoiray's heart did that stupid triple-flip shit. We'll call it that for this situation. "Come, sit."

He sat, and even though he was walking at a moderate pace he felt like he was running. Can you stop looking like an idiot for at least five minutes? "Yeah?"

Mirun gave this poor man a smile that was worth millions. A meaningful pause between the two, and then Mirun placed both her hands on her right knee. "I missed you, a lot."

"I missed you too." He smiled at her. Did somebody fuck with the thermostat in his room or some shit? "How was home?"

"A lot of things have changed, like there are more cars being used since we have an old population." Their generation didn't have that many people in their age group, so Amr holds record for the oldest population in the Northern part of Universe 11. "I also went on the Zipline a few months ago for the first time."

"You finally overcame your fear?" Zoiray pushed aside the butterflies in his stomach, which was easy to since she was someone he came to know. The Zipline was a long… zipline that went all the way across Amr from its equator. Not many people can ride that attraction because of the insane height it was at, and Zoiray's race had wings that could only fly at lower altitudes.

Exclude Zoiray from that list since he's trained his wings to function well above any stratosphere.

"I've been overcame it, ok." She leaned in with both her hands on her hips. "I'm not scared of heights."

"If I took you up to where space and the sky meet, I'm sure you'd shake from terror." Zoiray made a face.

"Your wings can't get you that high all by themselves!"

"But I can." Zoiray snapped his fingers, before shifting to lean against his own pillow right beside his bestie. "I'm proud of you though. Must've been fun."

She sighed. "It was. I felt so tiny, even tinier than usual." Mirun crossed her small arms after pulling the blanket up a bit more. Zoiray could smell her maple leaf and cinnamon-like scent, he involuntarily moved closer to her. "I could take you there with me, but I'm sure that would be boring for you since you tackle monsters and stuff."

He chuckled. "It would, the Zipline is pretty slow compared to me. I could run a mile in ten seconds." The trooper smiled at his friend, who now gave him a cross look after yawning.

"Show off."

"It's the truth."

"Fine, fine." Mirun yawned again, this time stretching as she did so.

"You're falling asleep." Zoiray shook his head. "Stop trying to stay up if you're tired."

"Does it look… like I'm trying?" She giggled warmly. The stupid ass butterflies came back and Zoiray pursed his lips. "Come closer."

Zoiray did so, and almost tensed up when she rested her head on his shoulder, giving him an ample amount of maple leaf scent. At this point, his heart was beating faster than most speedcore songs. "You might… want to move a little bit closer."

He spoke quietly because he was inwardly telling him don't stutter, don't stutter, don't stutter… Mirun nodded slowly. "Mm'kay." She intertwined small fingers into the blanket, shifting so that her side was against Zoiray's as well. Her head rested against the crook of his neck and she smiled at how warm her male friend was. "Goodnight, Zoiray."

If this woman's hand goes from the blanket to even grazing his hand, he might actually explode. "Goodnight." He didn't want to move, he didn't want to perturb her, and even if she fell deep asleep he'd probably sit right here and fall asleep with her. A wave of nostalgia hit him; this was like those days after senior school when they would sit out by the large tree out in the grasslands, and lean against each other while watching the stars, tiny as they were back then.

Good Gods, when was the last time he was this intimate with somebody? It was like uncovering a shell that's been hiding a delicate entity, and apparently Zoiray found it riveting that he had just realized the extent of his ruggedness. He was aware that he appeared aloof, but for the longest time he had always been that way, even before meeting the Troopers and even when he was really young. Mirun always managed to make him softer, sweeter… nicer… He liked that.

A tiny smile brushed his features. He tilted his head against hers and closed his eyes, and the smile got even bigger.

"Y'all." Kettol walked into the lounge room. The entire squad save for Zoiray and Mirun were there. "What's up?"

"Zoiray's friend is here." Tupper briefed. "Toppo wants to introduce us to her."

The fish Trooper flailed his arms. "Good lord, now we have two of them here? You guys already know Zoiray is a prickbox." He plopped down on one of the sofas while Dyspo quietly chuckled to himself.

"Trust me dude, she is nothing like him." Vuon held out both hands. "When I say nothing alike, I mean like Zoiray is sassy, and she is an absolute sweetheart."

That made Kahseral, Tupper and Kettol go wide eyed. The 'stached Trooper blinked. "You're lying."

Vuon shook his head. "Hell no I ai- Cocotte, tell me I'm lying!"

"He's not, I was at Sweetie's with her and she's literally a ball of sunshine." Cocotte smiled. "When Zoiray was introducing us to her, she would bow at everyone slightly. It was so cute."

"What, she's well-mannered?!" Kettol frowned. "Okay no, I gotta meet this kid."

"Uhh… Zoiray is older than you." Kunshi remarked. "I'd venture to guess that Mirun is older, too."

Kettol waved his hand dismissively, while Kahseral smiled. "You know, if she is as such, I think that's mean Zoiray would switch himself up."

"He actually des, but that's because of something else." Kunshi raised a finger, and then looked among the group that knows. "Is it okay if they… know?"

Toppo shook his head. "At least not yet."

"Know what?" Kettol narrowed his eyes.

"You'll probably see it when they come along." Cocotte crossed her arms and sat on the chair arm of the same seat that Jiren was quietly sitting in. The Gray was looking at the floor. "You okay over there?"

"I'm fine." He responded, and leaned back against the chair looking up at Cocotte once he realized she was still looking at him. "Why?"

'You're just all silent and stuff." She smiled at him. You don't have anything to say?"

He shook his head.

"Do you know what's going on?"

He nodded. "I simply do not have anything to add on."

Everyone can hear the two tiny individuals out on the hall discussing something. When Tupper and Kettol heard this really warm and not asshole-like feminine giggle they raised their brows; the door opened and Zoiray was explaining something that seemed comical to the young woman and they both stopped when they were greeted with eight faces.

The three men who have never seen her before had their jaws dropped. Mirun looked so flipping cute with her hair now in a bun, fully exposing her pretty pink face. She had black brows, black eyes and was wearing a dress-like romper with florals.

"Oh my god, you're Zoiray's friend!" Kettol couldn't help himself; the man had a soft spot for really cute things. He went up to Mirun and shook her hand. "I'm Kettol, nice to meet you."

Two faced ass, Vuon chuckled a bit while Mirun had to wiggle her hand once kettol had finished because he was super strong. "Hi, Kettol! Nice to meet you too. I know all of you guys' names so, I'll just introduce myself: my name's Mirun." She gestured to herself, and everybody gave her a kind goodmorning while she slightly bowed again and bid them goodmorning as well. "Zoiray offered for me to sleep here after the long travel, and I've been shown almost everything here. You don't need to worry about me getting lost."

"Ah, that's great." Kahseral smiled. "How was the trip itself?"

Mirun thought it over, and made this long sigh as if reliving her own words. "Long, and boring. I did sleep through the majority of it up until I reached the system's belt. That's all."

"You're from Amr, right?" Tupper pointed. "That's hecking far."

"It is. And I plan on living here for a long time so I packed a bunch. I don't regret it though, I got to see this one again." She referred to Zoiray who side-eyed her.

"I have a name."

"I mean Zoiray." She looked at him dead in his eyes, and his sassed attitude went down to a degree because… she's really pretty. Tupper narrowed his eyes. "Anywho, aren't we all hungry? Why not eat while we're a-Oh… Jiren…"

Once again, we all know he does that thing where he's here at one point, and over there the next. Jiren was sitting next to Cocotte, but he moved… somehow during the Troopers seeing Mirun, and now he was fully visible to her leaning by the wall on the furthest right. And he looked intimidating.

"What?" He asked.

That's the strongest guy in the universe. Mirun meekly waved, she did not see him in the room at all! "H-hi…"

He did this really uncanny wave. He doesn't wave or anything normally.

Cocotte turned to look at him. "Don't scare her by teleporting in and out of places, please."

"I walked here."

"No, you didn't." She rebuked. "I would have obviously seen you."

Jiren plainly shrugged. "You weren't looking."

"I don't have to look to know you've moved." She crossed her arms. "Don't be doing that." The two individuals looked at Mirun when they heard her giggle. "Mirun?"

She pointed at them like a peeping child hearing two adults flirt. "You two seem really cute."

Cocotte's face went red. Too bad Dyspo and the rest of the usual guys are here, because they snickered too. Jiren closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Ah, they do that a lot. It's nothing special." Vuon tossed a hand at Cocotte's general direction. "About food tho; sure, we got things brewing in the kitchen. All in the house."

Mirun widened her eyes. "Really? You all haven't eaten yet?"

"If everyone is here, then we wait until everyone wakes up so we can eat together." Toppo said. "We're all family here."

Zoiray looked at his bestfriend. "Unless said person is Vuon."

"Excuse you?"

"It takes you sixty years to get out of your bed." Zoiray exaggerated. Vuon is one of those people who don't get up immediately after waking up; he lays there and either falls back asleep or goes on his phone for a long ass time. "So we never wait for him."

"I'm up early today thought so… ahem." Vuon coughed not-inconspicuously. That's like hearing you normally don't take the trash out and you just pop in and say I did so this morning; that's not gonna do shit to the argument.

"Geez, how long 'till the food is ready?" Tupper asked, shaking his head at the bickering dinosaur and ram. "We put everything in quite a while ago so..."

They heard a ding sound, along with a blue light going off in the very middle of the lounge room's giant round table. Toppo nodded. "Now would be the time."

The kitchen was big enough to support almost double of the Pride Troopers' roster. There was a giant rectangle table, in which the automated food system had prepared a tabletop of a diverse food banquet; the tabletop itself is to be place on top of the actual table they had to sit in front of since it had a magnetic bottom to it. Everyone sat in their rightful seats, with Zoiray being next to Mirun obviously, and ate and chatted amongst each other. The Troopers themselves learned more about Zoiray and Mirun from their 'arguments' because those two go at it over the smallest of things.

They learned that Mirun used to be Zoiray's sparring buddy when they were literally toddlers, and the two would fight with tree twigs. At some point, Mirun was actually better than him at martial arts, but he obviously trumped her in that over the years since he was more drawn into it as he grew up. Mirun was also into things that improve the mind, body and spirit, so her diet was very much healthy and omitted all junk and comfort foods. She had said she did many things to clear herself like yoga, detox drinks and meditation.

Jiren was sitting quietly next to Toppo with closed eyes and crossed arms, not bothering to eat because this kind of food did not give his body any nourishment. Son, when she said meditation, Jiren's eyes opened and he looked directly at her.

She jumped at the intensity of his look. He wasn't glaring at her or anything, at least, but he did speak up. "Meditation?"

"Yes…" Mirun was timid, his gaze was hella concentrated. "I mean I don't do it that often, but I do it on occasions."

Amidst everyone chatting amongst each other, here's Jiren suddenly bridging gaps with somebody who's bestfriends with a person whose voice make him want to be deaf sometimes. "How?"

"Hmm?"

"How do you meditate?"

Mirun blinked, now knowing his question. "Oh! Well, I do Seiza. It's the one that suits me the best and for some species out there, it's practically impossible to do for a long time since you know… it's a very formal sitting position."

Jiren nodded, he already knew what Seiza was. He expected a one word answer, but from the way Mirun explained her own posture choice, he can tell this was something that she knew a lot about, and could end up not shutting up about it.

Lowkey, he was like that too. His wife would hear him go on and on about things like that, especially fighting.

"How long do you meditate for?"

"It's kinda random but umm…" She thought about it. "I think somewhere between like fifteen minutes to an hour is my usual timeframe. How about you?"

"Few days."

"Huh?" Mirun's face dropped in shock. How can someone sit in one place for so long? She couldn't imagine meditating for more than an hour, let alone for one day or more.

It's not that hard really, either.

Jiren nodded. "It is important for me to do so, to keep my power at bay."

"Ohhhh, that's why." She nodded in understanding. "I just meditate for the sake of clearing my mind. I don't have that much like," Mirun held her fist up and then rested her hand back on her lap, "Strength in me. But knowing that you're really strong, it must be difficult to maintain all of that power in your body."

She might actually be Jiren's second favorite person next to Kahseral's wife.

"There isn't much that I do outside of it." He admitted. "My body is a vessel; it only needs the smallest of nutrients to thrive healthily. Such a responsibility is not as difficult as it seems."

"You don't do much?" Mirun furrowed her brows. "Do you not hang out with the rest of the Troopers or something?"

"I get bored of it very easily."

"So what makes you not bored?" She giggled a bit at his flat response.

...There is like a myriad of things that Jiren can do to alleviate his boredom, but the only thing that he knows that doesn't bore him is staring at suns. But out of boredom itself, he'll end up doing the weirdest shit. "I travel out in space to look at suns."

"Only that?" She asked, and Jiren nodded. "That's not bad but, I figured since you're super strong you can probably find entertainment in anyth- actually…" She backtracked; that might actually be the opposite of what she'd say. "Forget what i just said. Zoiray and I do the same thing, except we just look at the stars in the sky."

At that point, Zoiray turned to his bestfriend. "I heard my name. What's going down?"

On Cluckin' Bell's sake, Jiren did not want anyone to ruin this intellectual conversation and of all people, Zoiray just hops in.

"Me and Jiren were just talking about meditation." Mirun pointed at the Grey who went from looking mildly intrigued to ewww leave.

"Ohh right, yeah Jiren is into that stuff. Like really into it." The tiny Trooper looked at Jiren who now had his arms crossed. "Are you doing fine over there?"

I don't like your voice. "Yes."

"Ay, guys!" Vuon called the attention of everybody on the table, since their banquet was near done. "Who's down for Smack?"

Smack is a tavern located in the city outskirts miles ahead of this base. The very first people who jumped on the offer were the usual hype squad: Kunshi, Tupper, Kettol and Zoiray. Dyspo had something to attend to so he could not join along, and Toppo and Kahseral took a moment before they decided to agree, and the group settled out to leave, standing up and away from the dinner table.

Cocotte looked down to Mirun, who was smiling over something Zoiray said in their native language. "You wanna come with us?"

"Of course! This gives me more of an opportunity to get to know this place." The pink Amurian nodded. She looked to the reticent Grey. "Are you coming too, Jiren?"

At this point he had retreated again, having his eyes closed. So he opened them and looked at Mirun. "Why?"

"Why not?" Mirun shrugged. "You like going to taverns? It wouldn't hurt to join in."

"He doesn't like going to taverns or bars or anything of that nature." Zoiray explained, which was true. Jiren found no reason to sit in a place and listen to everyone chat and also have people staring at him because he's the hero.

If anything, anybody trying to start a conflict would sit tight-lipped in his presence.

"Oh…" Mirun looked down, and then waved her hand at Jiren. "No problem then! Maybe I'll catch you later!"

Holy florae bud, she didn't attempt to pressure him into joining this endeavor. Yup, Mirun was definitely in Jiren's favorite list.

The ten individuals chose to leave with Kahseral, Toppo, and Dyspo being the drivers of their own cars. Zoiray and Mirun stayed with Toppo, Kahseral drove Kettol and Tupper, and Dyspo offered to drive Cocotte, Vuon, and Kunshi. On the ride there, Dyspo turned to address both males sitting in the back seats. "So how do you guys think of the two?"

"Every time I looked in their direction the two would be talking to each other." Vuon chuckled. "And Zoiray would be cracking jokes all the time."

"The guy just wants to impress her even more." Kunshi added. "It's practically leaking out of him at this point."

"I think things will go by swimmingly since I highly doubt Zoiray said anything about him liking her." Dyspo shrugged, making a turn into an exit lane.

"I don't think...so." Cocotte shook her head. "As for her liking him… I dunno, I don't see that in her at all. Like, she strictly thinks that they are just friends and has no other feelings in him."

"You got all this from one car ride?" Kunshi furrowed a brow.

"Kunshi, when a girl likes somebody, you can see it." Cocotte turned to him. "And I am not saying that she doesn't return the sentiment, I'm just saying that I didn't see it. Right now, it's ambiguous."

"At least, for now." Vuon leaned back. "Too bad Dyspo ain't joining. Where are you going anyway?"

Dyspo looked down for a moment. "The new UMAC fight is airing this evening and I don't wanna miss it."

Cocotte rolled her eyes, and Kunshi hit the side of Dyspo's seat while Vuon snorted. "We'll be done beforehand, dude."

"Still, I gotta prepare!"

"Are you throwin' down, bunny boy?" Vuon casted an arched bow at the seat in front of him. "I don't think so."

As for us, the UFC fights can literally make a person take one whole day off from doing anything just to season themselves up for the hype.

After the three cars had arrived to Smack within minimal intervals, the Troopers and Mirun waved Dyspo a kind goodbye, and then spent the rest of their mid-afternoon in Smack.

Much to Dyspo's implication, they all spent the entire day together and by the time everyone had ought to actually leave, it was dusk. Mirun started getting really close to Cocotte; in fact the two were chatting with each other the absolute most which Zoiray didn't mind since he knew that the only person who he'd entrusted with his secret was Dyspo.

Well, whoops. He picked the wrong one; fool.

While he was reluctant, Mirun wanted to spend some girl time with Cocotte on her second day. Cocotte rode with Toppo this time along with Kettol, and Kunshi and Vuon joined Kahseral and Tupper on their rides home. Cocotte thought it'd be great for Mirun to hang around her place and the Amurian woman agreed happily. When Toppo pulled up in front of her house and she and Mirun exited, Zoiray waved at the two with a smile on his face, but that smile was yearning and Cocotte would practically hear his thoughts on calling his bestfriend back.

Their conversation went from so many different topics that they lost track of time. After a 'while', and by that I mean like two-ish hours, it had delved into the topic of relationships and Cocotte had forgotten herself in the midst of their chat because this was Mirun she was talking to. It wasn't until Mirun implied something that made Cocotte raise a question at her.

"Have you ever had a crush on your friends before?" Cocotte asked, after Mirun said that the best relationships are birthed between two great friends.

Mirun went silent. She felt wrong for admitting this, but Zoiray and she had been friends for as long as she can remember. But even many years of friendship can't dictate whether or not if two individuals should take it to the next level. In her case, she felt like Zoiray has grown into somebody who'd rather stay single for a long time instead of settling, and if it's with her, she would totally settle for him. And if he chooses to wait, then she has no problem with that either.

"I have one…" Her voice trailed and she slouched a little in her sitting position, to show how timid she is over saying this bit of information. It's not like she was unsure of what she was feeling, it is whether or not such a feeling was appropriate.

Dude Zoiray would melt, sag and backflip right back up to frantically retort if Mirun ever said that liking him at this time was inappropriate.

"Really? Who?" Cocotte clutched her red satin pillow, ironically the one Jiren 'hit' her with when they decided to watch something after Jiren de-babied himself.

Mirun fidgeted. "He's quite nice." She looked up at Cocotte, big black eyes grew sheepish. "And I've just reunited with him."

No… Cocotte gaped at the small woman in front of her. That just made the majority of Dyspo's potential plan a hundred times easier. "...Zoiray?" She leaned forward, now both knees against her bed, when Mirun casted a gaze downwards. "Mirun, why are you so bashful, hun?"

"I just- hehe, he calls me that a lot." She pointed when regarding Cocotte's term of endearment. "It's what I did yesterday when I got to meet the rest of you."

Cocotte frowned. Technically, with how late it was right now, that event happened two days ago. "What'd you do?"

"I accidentally put Dyspo on the spot. Is that the right term?" She scrunched her face up. "I did mean it when I said Dyspo was good looking, but… there was an ulterior reason behind why I said it."

"What could that be?" Cocotte asked. An innocent compliment, even with an ulterior motive, can be something to be embarrassed of.

"Well I mean, okay." Mirun clasped her hands together. "When I said that Dyspo was attractive, I did that to get a reaction out of Zoiray. I wanted to see if he would be a bit jealous, and I know that's mean to want, especially because Zoiray already is someone who can't not think about something." She twiddled her fingers. "I hope the two are still good friends."

Ha, Mirun has no idea what side Zoiray shows when he's around Dyspo. She's pushing it.

Cocotte raised her brows. "You wanted him to get jealous?"

"I dunno, maybe to show that he cares about… what I feel? I wasn't thinking quite well at the time, I'll admit that." Mirun chuckled a bit. "Every year I speak to him, I'd see him grow more and more into someone I really want around me forever, but I don't think it shows very well on me. I'm pretty good at concealing things like that."

Cocotte laughed a bit. She was right on that behalf. "Hun, I can vouch for you on that one. I've had guy friends who I, honest to everything, became hot as hell out of nowhere."

Mirun nodded and then blinked. "Is that why you and Dyspo are an item?"

"Wait, what?" Cocotte stopped her train of thought short at the sudden question. "W-hell no! No, Mirun- well yes, me and Dyspo are good friends but I wouldn't date him… at least not again..."

"Not again?"

She refrained from revealing what happened when they both made a bet to date one another. To put an actually long story short… everybody lost. "We did date for like, two seconds and then it… did not work out."

"Really?" Mirun laughed at the look Cocotte had on her face; she had her nose scrunched in retrospect. "You told me a lot of stories about him and you. You sure it wouldn't work?"

Cocotte shook her head. "I'm two-hundred and twenty two percent that it wouldn't."

"Two hundred twenty two is a lucky number by my people." Mirun smiled, despite Cocotte now pouting.

"Okay sure." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Now, about you and Zoiray… you think that he doesn't like you?"

"I can't see it in him. Unfortunately for us rams of Amr, a lot of the neurons in our brain that deal with emotion are not really connected to our eyes." Mirun explained. "So it's not as simple as just looking into his eyes, I really don't think he likes me at all, even though he's really nice. What's wrong?"

With every word Mirun was saying, Cocotte's eyes grew until her head cocked forward in shock. Mirun said that she could not imagine Zoiray liking her… "Not even in the slightest?"

"If he likes something, he'll definitely show it; even though Zoiray is the kind of guy you can't simplify, I can tell when he likes something. And it's usually when he can't stop talking about it."

"Girl." Cocotte emphasized with both of her hands, almost placing them on Mirun's tiny knees. "Mirun; when he found out that you were coming to Netfiss, he could not stop talking about you." The female Trooper laughed at the surprised look on Mirun's face. "If all of us are together, he acts like he doesn't care at all but between you and me, honey… he couldn't stay put knowing you were coming around."

Mirun's shocked face turned into the cutest smile Cocotte has ever seen. "Really?"

"Yes, really." Cocotte nodded. "Trust me, the guy likes you… like, he really likes you. Yesterday while you were sleeping, he came to me and called himself an idiot because he thought he looked stupid in front of you, for crying out loud."

"But he didn't even do anything out of the ordinary." Mirun started to laugh. "Oh, poor man, he probably over thought himself again. He does that a lot."

It wasn't until Mirun's arrival when Cocotte figured that out. The week before she came, Zoiray had asked her to help with pizzazing his apartment. "That's why his apartment is all nice right now."

"Huh? He did all that for me?" Mirun furrowed her brows. "He showed me pictures of it. I thought his apartment was normally like that. He told me it was always that nice."

Not that his apartment isn't nice, but this man decked his whole shit out. He bought indoor changing lights to hang around the top perimeters of his walls, specialized candles to make everything smell and look nice since she really likes candles… he even bought whole floral displays to accent the entrance to his kitchen and forget about the guest room he planned for her to sleep in; he made sure the blankets were her favorite color, of the right texture, he changed the lamps so they would be an incandescent purple color, he dressed her drawer with an LED mirror and organizing boxes to put her items in. He went crazy the week before tonight, and Cocotte was right there watching him.

"It wasn't, but he bought so many things to impress you." Cocotte said. It was so cute to think about, she remembered taking pictures of it and showing Toppo who got the biggest hit of nostalgia from the effort. "He could not sit still and he kept worrying that even your pillows wouldn't be soft enough for you once you'd reach his place. Like everyday, even though no one went in that guest room, he would fluff out the pillows because he was afraid they'd lose their 'fluffiness'." She started to laugh at the memory, it was so stupid.

"Oh dear- I mean, I really loved the way everything looked. I didn't know he did all of that just for me… I'm touched." Mirun put her hand on her chest. "He must be so uneasy right now. I feel bad…"

"Don't feel bad, Mirun." Cocotte put her hand on the woman's shoulder. "He has no idea. You can always break it to him when you're ready."

And here is where the problem lies. "I'm… I'm not ready…"

She shrugged. "That's why I said 'whenever you're ready', Mirun-"

"No like," Mirun fidgeted again, "I don't know how to tell him without pouring myself out."

That's basically Zoiray's situation right now. It's funny how the both of them are very bold in their rightful ways, but can't admit to one another how they really feel. So Cocotte, already knowing that she would still have to aid in Dyspo's scheme, clasped her hands together and held them to her bed. "Alright. I'll help you out."

"You'll help me?" Mirun asked, and then she frowned. "How are you gonna do that?"

"It'll take some time, but you'll see." Cocotte nodded. "Trust me, when I say he could go head over heels for you, I mean it."

"I know you mean it; the man had renovated his whole house just for my arrival. That alone is enough." Mirun giggled with the taller woman. She couldn't help the smile on her face knowing how good Zoiray's friends, the heroes themselves, were as people. It's quite riveting to know that you're now affiliated with the top ranks of power themselves, yet they act like the most normal individuals. Humility at its finest…

Her phone started to go off and she had realized that it was Zoiray, who texted her asking if she was awake. Mirun replied back, inwardly questioning just why Zoiray was up at this time of night. Not to mention… how long has it been nighttime here? "Cocotte, what time is it?"

"Hmmm…" She leaned over towards her clock. "26:45."

"What?!" Mirun had no idea clocks were that long in Netfiss. Amr only had 15 hours in one whole day! "How many hours are there in one day?!"

"Like thirty six." Cocotte was nonchalant, and she giggled when Mirun continued to look baffled. "I know you aren't used to really long times but yup. Netfiss is a giant planet, and it's far away from its star. Why, are you under a curfew?"

"Not really but, I didn't think that much time had passed. When I came here yesterday it was 7:23… or was that today?" She scratched her head.

Cocotte chuckled. "You came yesterday."

"Oh. Okay, good." The woman nodded. "But Zoiray just texted me and I opted to go back to his suite."

"Zoiray is supposed to be asleep right now." Cocotte's voice was sort of serious when she said that, Zoiray would never stay up until this time. Had he been sitting there waiting for Mirun to text him? "He's coming to get you?"

"Yup. I told him if he did fall asleep earlier then he didn't need to, but he was awake this whole time." Mirun blinked. "So I gotta wait but until then, let's discuss more about this crush situation."

Zoiray lived a good hour away from Cocotte under normal traffic conditions. Since it was late at night, and there were less cars around, and Zoiray was probably fucking speeding for his girl friend right now, he got there in a little under thirty minutes.

Her doorbell rang, and she and Mirun went downstairs to greet the small Trooper clad in snazzy pajamas and fluffy flipflops. "Hey."

"Zoiray!" Mirun was ecstatic to see him, so much so that she innocently hugged her friend thightly. Meanwhile, Zoiray's whole body was heating up again. "Me and Cocotte kind of lost track of time."

"I can see that, it's really dark out, hun." He pushed aside the giddy feeling in his chest with confidence. "Cocotte, how was you guys' little kick-it session?"

Cocotte loved how territorial he was over his own female friend, asking how their hangout was… geez. "It was great! I got to learn more about her and she got to learn more about me and this planet."

"I didn't know that this planet had a huge time… scale?" Mirun gestured weirdly, giggling at her choice of words. "Thirty six hours in one day… goodness."

Zoiray pointed at Mirun and looked to Cocotte. "It's funny because she can't even stay awake within fifteen hours."

"Hey, I did quite well throughout today, didn't I?" She retorted, crossing her arms and giving Zoiray a cross look.

"Almost. You nearly fell asleep in Smack." Zoiray shook his head. "Goodnight, Cocotte. I'll see you tomorrow or sometime afterwards, I dunno."

"Goodnight, Cocotte!" Mirun waved back at the female Trooper and blew a friendly kiss at her. Cocotte could have sworn she saw Zoiray lowkey double-take.

She closed her door after bidding them farewell, and skipped upstairs back to her bed, plopping down on her red pillow that faintly smelled like cinnamon. She knew Zoiray liked Mirun, but now Mirun liked Zoiray as well? This meant everything was falling right into place, even though she should've expect such to happen since they've been friends for a while. Dyspo would be so hype to hear about this tomorrow morning. Cocotte pulled the blanket over her and smiled to herself.

This was swell friggin' news.

۷۸۷۸۷۸۷۸۷۸۷۸۷۸۷۸۷۸۷

Yeah boii, we got two parts to this shit huehue

So… Zoiray has a crush on his bestie, Mirun has a crush on her bestie, and it looks like the job here is halfway done.

Only halfway, because it's up to the boys to come up with the perfect date setting for them. That's finna happen next, and I'll see youse when it does!

P.S. : About the cinnamon thing… Greys have a scent that closely resembles cinnamon. Huehue.