TIMELINE: Post-canon; pre-relationship
"You can borrow mine."
The screaming tips them off; breaking their attention away from their consoles.
It's Emu's day off and they were playing their games together at a park nearby their apartment. Honestly, the day is supposed to be trouble free and Parad despairs at the timing because do game disease need to break out on the few days they were supposed to relax!?
Emu chuckles beside him, pocketing his console. "It's just one of those things, Parad."
"I'm gonna hog-tie whichever idiot it is and let them hang," Parad growls, shoving his console into his coat.
As they run to the scene side by side, Emu tilts his head to give him a teasing grin. "Don't forget that you used to be one of those idiots."
It's a testament to how far they've come since they were on opposite sides. Nowadays, they can tease each other about their messy past without the hurt and resentment that used to come along with it.
"Not the point." Parad sends a blast of pixels to a group of bugster foot soldiers then, pouts at his partner. "Also, rude."
Emu laughs, vaulting over an overturned planter.
The commotion leads them to a plaza, and he takes in the sight of people running away screaming as a giant Bugster Union roars in the middle of it. Letting out a sigh of resignation, Parad rolls his neck and slips his gashat into his hand.
"Uh-oh."
Glancing to the side, he sees Emu rummaging through his pockets with barely restrained panic.
"Uh-oh?" Dodging a flying rubble, he raises a brow at Emu. "What do you mean 'uh-oh'? Because that's never a good sign."
Panicked and sheepish in equal measures, Emu elbows a lackey and takes its spear with a grimace. "I forgot my driver and gashats."
"You what!?" Parad gapes at his best friend as he rounds a kick at an oncoming bugster. "Why?"
Emu huffs, whacking a bugster. "It's my day off!
"Good point. But didn't you say this—" Parad jabs a thumb to the Bugster Union with a deadpanned look. "— is just one of those things? Shouldn't you've been prepared?"
Groaning in exasperation, Emu levels the spear at a group of soldiers to scare them away from some terrified civilians. "I know! I'm embarrassed that this even happened again."
"Again?" Parad asks before breaking down into pixels to bowl over the scurrying soldiers.
Snatching up a pair spears on the ground, Emu runs up to him once he reassembled back. "Burgermon."
Oh, that time.
Parad isn't fond of remembering what happened to that kind hearted bugster as it always leave a bitter taste in his mouth. Although it's hypocritical of him to think so since he's done a lot of cruel things in the past, he's not sure if he could ever forgive Genm for what he did that time.
"Ah...so that's why you were using that level 4 gashat," he says, settling for a neutral reply. Glancing down at his gashat, he shrugs and materialises his gamer driver before tossing them both to Emu. "Here, you can borrow mine."
Catching the items, Emu sends him a smile. "Thank you." The intern then gives him a contemplative look. "By the way, how you can carry these around so easily?"
"Hammer space." When his partner gives him a blank look, Parad snickers with a raised brow. "Game virus, remember?"
Chuckling, the intern snaps the driver on. "Of course. Still, I wonder if we can figure out an easier way to carry around our gear. Like your hammer space...or maybe an inventory."
"The driver is pretty bulky," he admits, sending a bugster flying to a wall with a punch. "And trying to keep track all of those gashats can be a bit of a pain."
Emu laughs like he can't help it, twirling one of the spears in his hand to smack another bugster. "How angry will Kuroto-san be if we point that out?
"Very." Parad smirks when he imagines the aneurysm such a comment will cause the former CEO. "He'd shriek at us not to bootleg his merch again and that we don't understand his divine genius."
Emu snickers. "True."
"Let's complain anyway."
Emu sends him a flat look. "You just love annoying him, don't you?"
"You can't tell me you don't find his Looniness hilarious," he says, sliding in front of Emu to raise a wall of pixels as cover when the Bugster Union tries to shish-kebab them.
Parad can hear the smirk in Emu's voice as he chuckles behind him. "Never said that."
CLICK AND LOAD!
"Henshin!"
There's a flash of light behind him as a wave of data covers their surroundings before they're transported to a different stage as to minimise any more damage.
Cracking his knuckles, he turns back and blinks in surprise at what he sees.
"Huh, it looks different on you."
Standing before him is Perfect Knockout but, at the same time...not. The head spikes and upper body resemble more closely to Ex-Aid's and he sees that the usual red and blue getup is replaced with Emu's signature magenta and green.
"Eh?" Emu turns in place and examines himself more closely in surprise. "Ah, you're right. I got a different colour palette...even some design changes too."
An understatement. Strange as it seems, the look works for Emu. Too well, in fact.
"Perfect Knockout just got a hold different meaning. It looks good on you," he comments as he comes closer, brushing his fingers against Emu's jaw and runs them down until settling on Emu's hip. "Very good."
Emu breathes out a laugh, gripping the back of Parad's neck as he pulls their fronts flush together. "Are you flirting with me right now?"
It's a good thing the barrier is holding up because they'd be in trouble right now if it wasn't.
'Although,' he thinks ruefully to himself, staring down at the magenta and green eyes as the bond spikes with an unfamiliar but welcomed heat. 'I think I already am in trouble.'
Parad swallows with some difficulty. "Can I?"
"Only if I get to flirt back," Emu murmurs as he leans close before smacking Parad's ass.
A squeak breaks past his lips before he can stop it and even with the headgear on, Parad can tell that Emu is smirking in a way that made many girls from their genius gamer days very, very dizzy.
Well, hot damn.
Mouth pulling up into an excited grin, his eyes flash red before he dissolves into pixels as he and Emu merge. Once the barrier falls, they lunge into battle with two hearts beating as one.
And if they continue to flirt and banter inside their shared mindscape as they take down the Bugster Union and its lackeys, well...
That's no one's business but their own.
