Point Of View: Arkas Payntace
When I saw Roy in the nurse's office that day, it kinda freaked me out. I was still a little jumpy over the whole tall man in black incident, even if it had been weeks now since we'd heard from the mysterious figure in any way. I was glad to hear it was just that Peter guy, although at the same time I was rather worried he was actually following through on everything he'd talked about.
I spent the rest of lunch catching up Compa and IF on what happened to Roy. I made sure to hold back Compa when she insisted to go see him, making sure to accentuate that he was okay, but part of me still wasn't totally convinced Roy wasn't shaken from that fight. Regardless, I sold it well enough for it to work, so it's whatever, I guess.
Lunch came to an unceremonious end and the day sludged on like a snail glued to the sidewalk until finally coming to its own end. My objective from there was to find IF before she went home. I wanted to remind her about the information. It had been weeks since we'd talked about it at all so I was beginning to feel like a reminder wouldn't hurt, and normally I'm not exactly the 'seek out interaction of any kind' type, so you could tell it was kinda bothering me.
Walking out in front of the school and down the side path toward the weight room was where I headed. I walked up around the corner to spot her walking out next to Neptune. "I'm just saying, Nep, we've known them for long enough, I think. Maybe it's time to drop it on them." The moment I registered what she had said, I wheeled around and hid behind the wall. My heart began to pound through my chest as I listened in what I was hoping was secret.
"I'm tellin' ya, I'm with you! The sooner the better at this point! It's Histy that's still hesitating," Neptune said.
"Maybe get Nepgear on your side," IF suggested. "If that doesn't work, I'll talk to her myself." Well, didn't I feel dumb? At least I now knew that she was actually trying to get this information to us for sure. I gave up on my hiding spot and walked out from behind the wall and almost directly into IF. IF looked away from Neptune over to me and jumped back before colliding into me. "Gah! Arkas?!"
"Shit!" I squeaked, losing my footing and falling backward onto my ass.
"Guys, you should really watch where you're going!" Neptune scolded smugly. "That's how you end up in sexy, sexy compromising positions with each other!"
"Nep, please stop talking," IF groaned, regaining her balance. She made her way to me and offered a hand out to me. "You alright?"
"Ye-yeah, I'm fine," I groaned, taking her hand and pulling myself to my feet. That class must have been paying some serious dividends because she almost pulled me straight into her. "Thanks."
"No problem. I've gotta run, though. Important work calls," she explained. As soon as those words left her mouth, she shot me a wink. I know it wasn't meant to be a flirtatious thing, but my reaction was a swift blush regardless. The next look she shot me was one of justified confusion before passing me by. "I'll see you guys later." I didn't feel great now, but at least I hadn't put off Neptune with it.
"Later, Iffy," Neptune called after her friend cheerfully. "That girl works so hard. I do not envy her." She then turned her short-spanned attention to me. "So, Arkas, what are you doing today?"
"Uh... Nothing really," I admitted. My entire purpose for this chapter had just been dashed in an instant, but even prior to that I had nothing special planned. I was probably going to laze around at home if anything.
"Wanna change that?" she asked. "Nepgear and I's place is just down the way if you wanna pop on in."
"Oh, I wouldn't want to... l-like, i-impose or anything," I withdrew.
"Now don't you start that with me, bucko. Your cousin showed us the Payntace house, now one of you guys gets to see the Nep house!" she declared confidently.
"I... Fuck it, okay," I gave in.
"Poppin, buckeroo. Let's go collect us a Nepgear and get on chooglin'!" motioned Neptune.
"Choogling?" I asked.
"I dunno, some old slang term. It sounds funny, though." And with that odd tidbit (not odd for Neptune mind you), we got moving back toward the front of the school. There we spotted Nepgear coming out the front entrance, her bag over her shoulder and little to no worry on her face. "Nep Jr.!" Neptune called out.
"Oh, hey sis! You ready to get going?" Nepgear asked enthusiastically.
"Yep yep!" Neptune answered. "I'm bringing Arkas along, too, because he needs to-"
"Wait, you're bringing him home with us?" Nepgear interrupted. "Neptune, we can't do that! Histoire, remember?"
"Oh, Histy stays in her room all day, I doubt he's gonna see a thing," Neptune deflected.
I raised my hand awkwardly. "What?" I cast out into the void, hoping for some clarity on any of this.
"Our caretaker. She's... strict about people seeing her," Nepgear explained. "It's complicated stuff."
"You'll learn one day, Arkie," Neptune said, getting on her tiptoes and patting my head. "We'll tell you when you're older."
"O-Okay?" I responded, awkwardly accepting the pats to the head with a light blush.
"Now, let's get going!" Neptune commanded, marching forth with hardly a care.
"I guess it's fine," Nepgear relented quietly.
"Don't worry, Nepgear, I won't go, l-like, snooping around or anything," I assured her.
"I... guess that makes me feel better," she admitted, a smile coming back onto her face. "Come on, let's get going." And with that, I fell in behind the two lilac ladies as we ventured forwards down the road. It was quiet for a bit, save for the tune Neptune was humming, all until Nepgear fell back a bit to walk beside me. "So, Arkas," she spoke up. "What electives are you taking?"
"Well, there's, uh... music theory," I said, pawing the back of my head. I hated saying that. It sounded like such a cliche interest.
"Oh really? Like Roy, then?" she asked, that sweet smile coming back.
"Sort of," I responded. "He more likes... the guitar music and stuff, I'm more into the symphonic side of stuff."
"That's really cool, actually," Nepgear assured me. "My friend Uni is taking orchestra, maybe you two could work together on something!"
"Or maybe you and Roy could combine your super musical abilities and make, like, an epic rock symphony!" Neptune suggested out of nowhere.
"T-That's... Not a bad idea on paper," I admitted. "I might actually bring that to him, if that's okay with you."
"Are you kidding?" Neptune giggled. "Dude, go for it! This Nep-brand idea is a gift from me to you!"
We approached the apartment building from the side. Cutting across the parking lot, we made our way up the stairs a ways and they lead me up to an apartment door. Nepgear fished a key out of her pocket and unlocked the door with a few swift motions of her hand, turning the knob and opening the door only for Neptune to dash inside. Nepgear drew a sigh and followed, myself following her afterward.
The inside was cozy. The walls were colored an odd creme color and the floors were mostly carpet leading through to a simple open apartment. It looked like there were two bedrooms and one bathroom, all to the back of the main area. That main area was sparsely furnished with a couch and a TV, not much more. There was a small kitchen off to the far side to complete the whole room, and as I looked around, I noticed that it was all very meticulously tidy. Everything seemed well-arranged.
"So? Thoughts? Feelings? Suggestions?" Neptune coerced me to speak.
"Uhh... I mean, I don't really know what I expected," I put forward, "but it's nice."
"It's only so big, but it's a pretty nice little place to call home," Nepgear said, setting down her bag next to the door."
"Gotta share a room, which sucks, but you know, live and let live," Neptune sighed.
"I'm not sure that phrase works there," I pointed out, lifting a finger.
"Let's fire up the ol' Nepstation," she suggested, completely ignoring me and moving to turn on a game console by the TV.
"Would you like something to drink?" Nepgear asked.
"Oh, no thanks, I'm alright," I declined, setting my bag down near the entryway and following Neptune toward the couch.
"Man, who manufactured this piece of crap'ola?" Neptune commented, fiddling with the machine. She drew a sigh and looked over to me.
"They really don't make it all like they used to, huh?" I joked.
"Oh, don't get started on that, please," Neptune whined. "Blanc has given us the speech many, many times."
"Oh, I didn't mean to, uh... sorry," I withdrew hastily.
"It's okay. Blanc's just really passionate about retro gaming sometimes," Nepgear explained.
"It explains why she loves books. She's just super old-school all around. She probably dreams of being a princess and, like, holding hands with guys and inventing fire and stuff," Neptune babbled.
"Neptune... w-what are you even talking about anymore?" I asked earnestly.
"Good question. What kind of games do you like, Arkie?" Neptune asked, once again completely dodging what I had said, as well as dropping that strange nickname for me for the umpteenth time.
"I... Fu- RPG's I guess?"
"Good choice!" she chirped, putting a game disk into the system slowly. "Now, let's get deep into the lore of the underworld!"
"Neptune, you know Histoire said she'd flip her lid if you didn't do your homework before binging another game," Nepgear stepped in, looking more nervous than mad herself.
"... FFFFFFFuuun tiiiimes at the circus," Neptune sang, narrowly avoiding that F-bomb in this explicitly M-rated story. "Yeah, but would she really chew me out with company over?"
"She's done it before," Nepgear said, laughing nervously. "Actually, she's chewed out our company before, too."
"Good lord, sounds like mom," I said quietly.
"Oh? Are we finally getting the deep lore on Arkas's family?" Neptune inquired.
"Neptune, I'm serious. Maybe he can help you out and you guys can get it done together," Nepgear encouraged.
"Aww, but there's already a pairing that emerged through interactions like that in the story," Neptune pointed out. "That's just being redundant."
"I don't mind helping," I said. "I mean, we have English together, right? Maybe we could knock out that sheet we got today?"
"Fine, worksheet, then the epic quest for gold and Neppin' glory!" she agreed. Without much hassle, we both grabbed our bags and yanked out our worksheets. Putting out heads together, despite the fact that one of them is mostly empty, turned out to be lucrative. Neptune actually had a few good ideas for ways to answer some of the short answer questions. Neptune's kind of like monkeys with typewriters, usually the things she says are pretty nonsensical, but every now and then she'll bang out a good one.
"Dude, I don't even get half this book," Neptune complained, staring down the last question.
"I-I-I'll be honest, I don't either," I admitted, tapping my pencil against my head in thought.
"Really?" Nepgear asked from the couch. "I thought it was good."
"Th-The entire center section just threw it off for me," I sighed, finally finishing up my last answer.
"Whatever, we're done with the stupid homework," Neptune rejoiced, smacking her pencil down on the table. "Alright, now it's game time!" And with that, she hopped happily back over to the couch. I made my way over and sat down between them. My legs began to get restless as I realized that I was between two really pretty girls. I could practically feel the warmth coming off them. Curses to my social anxieties, I took a deep breath and tried my hardest not to be creepy about it. "Alright, Arkie," Neptune squeaked, handing me the controller. "I've played this game a million and one times, it's your turn to give it a shot."
I took the controller, looking at the screen and learning the movement basics. "Okay so that's... and that's to attack..."
"Now you're getting it," she commented. "Notice how smooth and silky the controls are. Notice the game feel when you swing your sword around like that."
"I can, uh, take all this in on my own, Neptune," I said. "Thanks for the enthusiasm, but..."
"Yeah, sorry, Nepnep speaky too much again, I getcha," she nodded.
I proceeded to play the game with her commentary for a little while. It was fun and relatively harmless, but there was one point where something sincerely hit me. "Man, this is the first time I've ever really... been to someone's house like this."
"Surely that can't be true," Nepgear exclaimed, looking up from the device in her hands.
"No, I really... never had any friends back home... Mom really kinda hated everyone my age except me... Didn't let people around much, didn't let me around others much." It felt weird to be talking about home in this light, another first for me.
"Man, why is the whole Payntace clan so espresso deppresso?" Neptune questioned. "Kinda kills the mood whenever you talk about stuff like that, y'know?"
"Neptune!" Nepgear scolded.
"What?" Neptune returned.
"No, no, I get it, I just... this means a lot to me," I said. "To have people I can do stuff like this with, I mean."
"Everyone needs friends," Neptune smiled happily up at me. "If you don't feel properly appreciated, then we can do this as much as you want until you do! It's gonna be like a hurricane of friendship, you lucky buck!"
"I-I don't- that's not the point, I'm just... saying thank you for the hospitality, I guess," I shrugged.
"Don't mention it. We know you'd do the same for us," Nepgear said, adding her beautiful joyful smile into the mix. I could feel blood rushing to my face. This was too much validation for one lad to handle. I think it was there where I decided that no matter what this secret was, that these people would always be my friends. I promised myself that I wouldn't turn my back on them, no matter what they were hiding, because they clearly cared about me regardless and I wanted to do the same.
I left shortly after and began heading home, a smile firmly plastered on my face. Even as the darkening clouds overhead began to leak rainwater onto my head in tiny drops, I couldn't help but grin. The rest of that night was rather mundane, but I didn't need anything else special to happen today. Plenty had already gone on. I made sure to check in with Roy after I got home and we shared our after-school experiences. His was far less interesting than mine, I assure you.
It felt like not long later, I was getting ready for bed. I slipped under the blankets and drew in a long, filling breath before settling down. Just as I began to close my eyes, though, a buzzing on the nightstand awakened my senses. It was my phone, and now it was on my mind, so I decided to check it right there and get it out of the way. The screen lit up and revealed just who had texted me this late. It was IF
The text read 'FYI, you still need to get better at hiding.'
A/N: I felt like I needed to at least get a short Arkas chapter in there between this stretch of Roy stuff. It's natural there's a lot from his perspective given he's technically the main main character, but whatever. This chapter exists now thanks to my weird habit of writing shittons at 11 PM. Thanks for reading.