Karara surprised herself with how much sleep she got. Twenty whole minutes according to Pururu, who had forced herself to stay awake for the night to keep an eye on the hyper active tadpole.
Pururu had finally fallen asleep herself not too long ago, and Karara had a sudden determination to prove to the nurse that she could be left unattended without touching or breaking anything. She had decided that she was a 'big girl' now. She and Chiroro had only hit the sixteen year milestone mere month ago, but to Karara, that was a very important milestone passed. If she was old enough to leave home and or get married, she was old enough to sit still for a few minutes.
To stop herself doing something she'd regret, she focussed her attention on her sleeping sister, who was getting restless; a tell tale sign that she was about to wake up. She always had fun listening out for the end of whatever dream she was having, which she occasionally spoke aloud. Not today though, it seemed, as only muffled murmurs came from within her sleeping bag.
Chiroro suddenly sat bolt upright, whacked her forehead against the worktop she was situated by, and fell back down again. Karara just stared, wanting to laugh, and she would have done if it hadn't looked so painful. Letting out the tiniest of chuckles, she crawled over to her sister's side.
"Chiroro, are you ok?" she asked, a hint of worry showing in her voice.
There was a brief silence in which Chiroro just lay there with her face scrunched up. Eventually, she lifted her hand to her forehead with a quiet hiss of pain.
"Aggh... Bitch" She mumbled to herself.
"Hey! It wasn't MY fault!" Karara whined, thinking her sister was blaming her newly obtained head ache on her.
"I was talking about the work top, dumb ass" Chiroro replied, a pained grin on her face. She slowly sat up, making sure she was facing away from the table to avoid worsening her 'injury'
"Good morning, Chiroro" Pururu mumbled tiredly, having just woken up herself.
Chiroro, sure that she was asleep just moments ago was almost startled into banging the BACK of her head.
"H-hey..." she managed in return. There was a short silence that followed.
"Hey Pururu, I didn't touch anything! See? You can trust me!" Karara cried out suddenly.
"I was asleep for ten minutes, Karara" Pururu deadpanned in reply.
"You really are overestimating my sister's self control" Chiroro chuckled before receiving a curt slap to the back of her head.
"Crap..." Chiroro hissed, gripping onto her head again.
Pururu just shook her head and left the room, leaving the girls to their own devices. It was too early in the morning for her to listen to two early birds chatting for ages, probably unlikely to actually get up for a while. They were teenage girls after all. She was the same at their age. Hopefully, now they were both awake, chatting is ALL they would do, and refrain from causing trouble. Of course, she knew what a stupid thought that was, but she was honestly just too tired to care at this point.
She made her way into the living quarters of the ship – this included a living area, a kitchen and bizarrely enough, a gym – and collapsed on the two seater.
"...Is that my cue to escape?" asked Zoruru, who she hadn't noticed had actually been sat across from her the entire time on a different sofa. He was clearly eyeing the doorway, dreading the entrance of his new stalker.
"Fhnfh" Pururu replied, her face buried in a cushion, muffling her words. At this point, Tororo entered the room, making Zoruru jump out of his skin for a second. The chubby tadpole looked as tired as what Taruru would call 'a sleepy thing on sleep tablets'.
He sat down next to Zoruru, trying his damned hardest to keep his head upright, looking a little dazed.
"Couldn't sleep. Made a room f' the twins wiv a dimensional device I can't be bovvered explainin'... y' can thank m' later..." he managed to slur out before falling sideways onto Zoruru's lap, the cyborg's flesh hand shooting out to stop The tadpole's head landing on the sharp metal of his left leg. Rearranging him so that he held him in his arms, a bit like how you would cradle a baby, Zoruru stood up.
"Better take him to bed, Pururu. Be right back" He said, but then realised how pointless that had been, as Pururu had fallen asleep yet again, so he just left the room. He didn't even get halfway down the hall before he was ambushed by two tadpoles.
"Huh? What's up with Tororo?" Chiroro asked almost instantly, Worry clearly presented on her features.
"Don't worry about him, Zoruru will save him, won't you darling?" Karara smiled dreamily at the disturbed cyborg, who only sneered as he edged away from her.
"He's FINE. He didn't get any sleep is all," he explained "I'm taking him to his room"
"M' fine" Tororo mumbled, squirming weakly in a bid to be put down.
"Shut up" Zoruru ordered as he hitched up Tororo back into his original foetal position and continuing to the hacker's room, leaving the girls behind. Karara took in a deep breath and sighed.
"He's so Sweet, huh Chiroro?" She breathed, her eyes glazing over a bit, showing that she had drifted off into dreamland. Chiroro took a side glance at her and shrugged.
"If you say so"
Karara snapped out of her daze and pouted at her sister. This look soon changed into that of a puppy dog.
"You... will help me win him over, right?" She asked quietly, trying as hard as possible to look pitiful. Chiroro looked fully at the shining eyes set into such an innocent and gormless face before heaving a long sigh.
"When have I ever refused?"
Zoruru placed Tororo on his bed and put his hand on his hip, pointing down at the mattress.
"Stay" he warned.
"G't t' work..." Tororo yawned, sitting up a bit and feeling around for his laptop, which he did find, but was quickly confiscated by Zoruru.
"I'm sure we can let you off this once" He said, with a slight edge to his voice, but Tororo could tell that he just wanted to help. However, that did not stop him from shooting a sleepy glare in his friend's direction.
"S'pposed to 'ncourage me" Tororo mumbled. Zoruru just placed his hand on Tororo's forehead and gently pushed him down.
"Sleep" Zoruru hissed in a way that, in his own way, sounded gentle.
Tororo appeared to obey, judging by the soft snoring sounds he began to produce after a short while. Zoruru rolled his eyes as he made his way to the door. Before opening the door, stole a glance back at Tororo's sleeping form, the tiniest hint of pink staining his cheek.
"S-stupid kid..." he grumbled before finally leaving the room. He walked into Chiroro almost immediately after doing so. She smiled at him in a very unnerving way.
"Hello, Zoruru" she said, simply enough.
"Wait... if you're here... that means Karara is lurking about somewhere, right?" He asked, not in the mood to be jumped at by a hormonal tadpole.
"That's right. If you let me go in see Tororo, I can tell you what hallway she's in, so you can go down the opposite one" She said, sounding like she genuinely wanted to help Zoruru, but had a look on her face akin to the one Tororo wore whenever he was either bribing or tricking someone. Chiroro appeared to be the mature one, or at least seemed that way in the short amount of time that Zoruru had known her, so he decided to trust her.
"...Go on then. If you wake him up, you're dead, I don't care about the social status of your family." He said, leaving the door open a crack.
Chiroro puffed her cheeks out a little at the threat, before smiling again.
"She's in the left corridor. So you should go right" Chiroro said. Zoruru gave her a very odd look for a second, before going down the hallway she suggested. She walked into Tororo's room, shutting the door quietly behind her.
"Sorry mate... I meant my right..." she chuckled slightly. She really did feel sorry for the overly trusting cyborg. It was just that she liked this guaranteed to fail plan of her sister's. It meant that she had an excuse to go see Tororo. She wasn't one hundred per cent sure why she wanted to see Tororo that badly. Truthfully, she was quite worried about him, but like Zoruru had said, he was just in need of a long sleep. Speaking of which, she shifted her gaze over to the cubby hacker who had a passive grip on his pillow as he drooled in his sleep.
"Heh heh... Cuuuuuuuute..." Chiroro whispered before grabbing the stool she had used a day prior and sitting on it, watching over the salmon tadpole in silence.
"Now what do I do? I can't just sit here and stare, that's creepy," she whispered to herself "and who the heck am I talking to?"
She decided to listen out for what was going on in the hallway. She couldn't help chuckling a little at the sound of her sister running to Zoruru through the hall, the unmanly squeal that followed and the odd clanking sound of Zoruru legging it in the opposite direction. She heard what she assumed to be Karara leaping at the poor assassin, followed by a quiet slapping sound. Probably Zoruru's immediate reflex. Karara must have been slapped by seven previous crushes already, Chiroro was used to it. But Karara wasn't. She cried out rather loudly, Zoruru spluttering something akin to 'I'm sorry' and 'shut up'. At this point, Garuru could be heard shouting something, followed by Karara declaring her 'undying love' for him.
Chiroro shook her head slowly. Poor Garuru. It seemed age didn't matter to Karara at all – Garuru was definitely old enough to be her dad. Maybe even her granddad at a push. Ah well. She didn't have to worry about that right now. She had the sleeping hacker to worry about. She still didn't see why she freaked out at every small thing that happened to him. It seemed to her that she wanted Tororo to teach her things so badly that she had begun to worry whenever he showed signs of being unable to do so. Either that or... she just wanted to sit with him.
In the end, she was so absorbed in her thoughts that she ended up falling asleep, too.
Much later in the day, Zoruru decided to come out of the meditative state he had put himself in a couple of hours ago and go to check on Tororo. He hoped that the yellow tadpole hadn't woken him up. He would be pissed if she had.
Upon opening the door, he was met with the sight of Tororo, still out for the count, which was good. Turning his head a little to the left, he was met with one of the most bizarre scenes he had seen in a while.
Chiroro was sat on her head with her back to a stool, her backside in the air and her legs akimbo. She must have fallen asleep on the stool and eventually just lost her balance and fallen off it in her unconscious state. How that hadn't woken her up, he would never know.
He was about to turn and leave, but then he noticed that one of Chiroro's legs was sliding off the stool... slowly... slowly... until she finally kneed herself in the face.
"For god's sake. Not again. Ow..." She grumbled, sitting up and rubbing her sore head. She didn't even know Zoruru was there until she heard his husky laugh.
"Shut up" she said.
"I didn't say anything!" Zoruru answered back, his hands up in mock submission. Chiroro only rolled her eyes at him before looking back to Tororo.
"He's still asleep?" Chiroro murmured worriedly.
"Come on, leave him be. He could do with a little extra sleep. It's not like he gets much sleep on normal days either" Zoruru said, beckoning to the door. Chiroro nodded and came out of the room alongside Zoruru before running off somewhere. Probably off to find that love sick sister of hers.
Why was she so interested in Tororo anyway, he wondered. He knew that she was hoping to get him to teach her things about his work, but it seemed to be more than that. She seemed to enjoy his company. Maybe she just wanted to make friends?
He wasn't sure Tororo really liked being around people with that kind of personality, but hey, there's a first time for everything, he supposed. He decided not to dwell on it, and instead made his way down the corridors to Garuru's office. He wanted to make sure that Karara hadn't broken in and molested him or something.
Many hours later, Tororo finally awoke from his deep sleep. He had a bit of a head ache and was slightly disorientated, not entirely sure of the time. He was also a little creeped out at the sight of the stool he usually kept tucked under a work desk at the side of the room right next to his bed. However, he quickly deduced that someone had probably sat with him while he slept. Probably Chiroro. It was she had sat the day before, after all. But he didn't quite understand why she would be there. He did vaguely remember that she had been rather worried about how tired he was. He must have looked absolutely awful.
Hang on. He still had his previous theory that Chiroro was very uncomfortable around her sister, and seemed to be trying her damned hardest to stay away from her. So she came to him... because she thought he cared. If that were true, why hadn't she woken him up?
He groaned and held his head in his hands. He'd only just woken up, for crying out loud, and he was already thinking too much. He sat there for a moment, just sorting through his thoughts and trying to find the one with the highest priority. There it was.
"Foooooooooooood..." he moaned hungrily, climbing out of bed.
Swaggering with fatigue, he made his way to the kitchen for a midnight snack, if the clock on the wall was anything to go by.
As he was eating the sandwich he'd made using the leftovers of every meal from the past three days, he realised that he hadn't actually pointed out where the new room he'd created for the twins was situated. He decided that he would go and check it... who knows, the two of them may have found the right room while he was asleep.
Upon entering the room, he discovered that he was correct. The girls seemed to have picked a side of the room each and just collapsed onto the beds in fatigue. Tororo could tell because the lights were still on, and they were only activated by definitive walking movements sensed by the floor. Just a little added extra he'd thought of whilst making it. Also, Karara appeared to be face down and sprawled out the way she must have landed. Knowing what a light sleeper she is, if she'd been asleep for a while, she would have moved by now.
Glancing over to the right hand side of the room; Chiroro's side, he couldn't help a small smile. She looked kind of cute, half curled up in a crescent shape, her tongue sticking out and her brows slightly furrowed, as if she was concentrating on something.
He suddenly realised that he was staring at her and hastily left the room for fear of being caught doing so.
Unsure of what just happened, quickly made his way back to his own room and sat down, trying to calm his hammering heart. Staring into space, he frowned to himself.
"Am I supposed to sleep, now?"
A/N
Whaaaaaat is thiiiiisssss. Another chappie, mebbe? And so quickly, too! I just need to try and stay out of my writers block and continue writing this thing, cos people seem to be enjoying it O.o SORRY, I put in a bit of suggested ZoruToro, but but but it wasn't meant to be X/3 It's still a ToroChiro, gaiz :3
This was an odd chappie, mainly because I didn't know what the heck to write, because this fic will definitely lack action for the most part XD
Also, it was quite a bit shorter than the last one, but can you blame me? that last one was quite long XD
((no offense to Garuru, but if Giroro Keroro and Dororo are all in their mid forties, Garuru must nearly be sixty! That's what I was getting at for the 'he could be her grandfather' bit))
I think I was gonna write something else but I forgot. Enjoy this impossibly quick update while it lasts XDD
