Now for the Moonlit Lovers part and there'll be a combo with this one, so expect a few twists.

A Telepathy's Love (Forte Route)

Six months had passed since Eonia and the Black Moon were defeated a few things had changed. Tact was assigned to the Frontier to search for Lost Technology and Forte went with him as not only his girlfriend, but also his sub-commander. Meaning Lester was assigned to another team and that I was assigned as interim leader of the angel wing group. Speaking of the angels, they were still like the sister I never had...except for one.

Mint Blancmanche and I became more than friends six months ago and even though we didn't say much about our relationship, we just knew that we were happy together. But there were one or two things that we hadn't done yet in order to make the relationship stronger and official. Which was why today before the newcomer arrived to join the angel wing, Mint and I were in one of the accommodation rooms on the White Moon.

"Good morning, Arnold." Mint said as I woke up.

"Morning, Mint." I replied, trying to yawn. "Guess you caught me napping again."

"Actually, you were sleeping very soundly when I walked in. You have drool on your face..."

"I do..." I wiped my mouth. "...I'm not being a gentleman about this, am I?"

Mint laughed. "See, this is why I'm so happy to be with you. I can just drop my elegant appearance and enjoy the youth we have."

I smiled. "And I'm always grateful to hear that...speaking of us, it's been six months since we got together. Time sure flies by when there's much to do."

"Yes...not much has changed, but sometimes it's good to have some things be the same, like you and me and the angel wing."

I got out of bed, I was in my uniform because I was tired from work the night before and I didn't get around to change.

"So what brings you to me in the morning?"

"Oh right...just before we meet our newest member, I want you to have a look at this." She showed a magazine.

"Is this...a shopping catalogue?"

"Yes, I was going through these items...and then I thought of you."

"Me?"

"Yeah...I'm looking to buy new curtains and cushions for my room if we meet up with the Elsior again."

"Elsior...haven't seen that ship for months..."

"I wanted your opinion on this page." she showed me one with an image of pink coloured items.

Hmm, pink and blue, I can see that matching well together.

Mint looked at me. "You really think so?"

"Of course I do...ahhh, I can't hide anything from you." I replied, giggling.

"He he he, well you are dating a telepathic so you should be used to it."

"You're right, but back on topic. If you want me to help out with these, I can make a worthy donation of funds."

Her bunny ears perked up. "Oh, well that's very generous of you, but you don't need to do that for me. I'll buy these curtains and cushions when we get the chance and you'll help me with the moving, right?"

I nodded. "Absolutely, I'll help carry them for you."

She smiled. "Thank you, Arnold! Then I'll also buy a new end table, a new sofa cover and..."

"Mint..."

"Well if you're volunteering, I'm sure you can handle it."

"You're right...wait, did I detect a bit of affection in those words?"

Mint blushed. "Affection...maybe..."

"And speaking of affection, we're together but did you know that we haven't said those three words yet?"

"Well, there are some things that don't need to be said. Because you can tell, even if I don't say anything, can't you?"

"Of course I do, but I think it would make our relationship stronger if we said them here, where no one else is around."

She smiled. "If this was six months ago, I would've hesitated. But for being able to offer your carrying services to me...alright, you say it first."

I took her hand. "Okay...Mint, I love you."

She blushed happily. "Arnold, I love you too."

I was now blushing. "I don't think I'll stop smiling for the rest of the day."

"Well unless something serious happens...now allow me to show my appreciation for your love to me." She moved forward and kissed me on the cheek. "I hope you understand that, cause if you don't, you still have a long way to go."

"I understand completely...and I'll prove it by responding to your affection." I kissed her back on the cheek.

We then wrapped each other in a warm and gentle hug with smiles, when an announcement was made on the speakers.

Angel Wing, please report to the Throne Room, Lady Shatyarn requests your presence.

"That sounded urgent." I said.

"Yeah it did...then let's go." Mint replied.

We rushed out of my room and into the throne room where we were briefed on our objectives. Milfie, Ranpha and Vanilla were to assist with the allied fleets engaged with the automated ships towards the Lena system. Whilst myself, Mint and Chitose the newcomer were to escort Lester and rendezvous with the Elsior that was returning from it's frontier search.

We arrived in time to bring Lester who was in a cruiser to dock inside the Elsior whilst the rest of us and Forte dealt with the automated ships that tried to ambush the Elsior.

"Ahhh." I sighed peacefully. "There's nothing better to get your juices flowing than space combat."

"Juices flowing?" Chitose asked. "That's one way to comment on a battle."

"Anyways, let's go inside, I've missed this ship." Mint said.

We boarded our frames inside, I had missed this place for months.

"Okay then, is everybody back?" A familiar voice asked.

"Hey Tact, long time no see." I replied. "I did pretty well out there."

"Yeah, you've still got it."

"Tact, it has been a long time." Mint said. "I was able to perform quite well."

"Yep, you did really good."

"Well done Tact, that was nothing." Forte praised. "And Arnold and Mint, good to see you both."

"Great to see half of the group together again, but where is the new girl?"

Chitose walked up and introduced herself to Tact. We walked up to the bridge where after Tact was given a briefing on the next objective, Lester announced that he would be returning as sub-commander of the Elsior under Admiral Luft's orders. Meaning Forte was now back to being the ring leader of the angel wing with me once again second in command.

Mint and I were in her room, sharing tea and candy together.

Mint sighed happily. "There really is no place like home, I've missed this room."

"Couldn't agree more." I replied. "Oh now that we're back on the Elsior and in your room, would now be a good time to think about ordering the stuff you wanted?"

"That would be a good idea and Tact did say that we'd be heading to Crinea to stop for resupplying, so I'll remember to get you later."

"Later?"

"Yes...I'm pretty sure you want to catch up with everyone else you haven't seen."

"Yeah I do...alright, I'll be with you later."

"Make sure you do, Arnold." she teased before giggling.

I gave her a quick hug and I left her room. Now that I think about it, I should get her a somewhat expensive gift. Maybe some lipstick and in a colour that she would really like.

Later, the Elsior docked at Crinea station and Mint and I walked off the Elsior to find the furniture store she was looking for.

"There it is, I'm so glad you're with me to help." Mint said as we held hands.

"Same here...oh I think we've found it and it's part of a big super mall." I replied, pointing to the big building.

We walked inside and the place was huge, good thing I made sure that Mint wouldn't get lost... "Huh...where did she go?"

"Arnold! Help me!" She exclaimed, I looked to see she was caught among a wave of kids running past.

I run over and I grabbed Mint's hand to bring her away from the children and I held her in my arms before gently lowering her down.

"That was a close one." I sighed.

"Yes...I didn't mean for that to happen." Mint replied. "Anyways, there's the furniture store, I better hold on to your arm this time."

"Yeah, let's not go through that again."

We entered inside and Mint walked over to the store clerk whilst I decided to put my own plan into motion. I spotted an accessories section in the corner which had a collection of lipsticks. There was a sale on the pink colours, I found one that was in floral pink and thought that this is the one I'll buy for Mint. So I made a quick purchase whilst she wasn't looking and I walked back to Mint who was done with the ordering.

"Carry these curtains and cushions for me, Arnold." she said. "And I'll hold on to you, extra tight just to be sure."

I giggled to myself, I hope I'd able to carry all this.

When we brought them into her room, a siren went off across the Elsior.

"Civilian ship detected outside Crinea station, 20,000 feet away!" Almo said. "SOS message received, in need of assistance."

"An SOS that far from here?" I asked. "That doesn't sound right."

"It seems suspicious." Mint replied. "But we have to go."

I nodded, we put down the items whilst I remembered that I kept the lipstick I bought in my zipped uniform pocket, I would give it to her after this.

Turns out that there was an enemy fleet of automated ships in pursuit of the civilian ship, but we dealt with them quickly. Chitose was about to go and escort the civilian ship until she was ordered to fly away before the civilian ship shut down and exploded, revealing an undamaged boxed container. It was brought into the hanger where Creta and her team investigated it.

I was with Mint in her room and now that things had settled down, it was time to give her the gift.

"Mint, while we were in Crinea...I made a secret purchase and it's a gift for you." I said.

"Oh...well that was very sneaky of you, but what is it?" Mint asked.

I brought the lipstick out of my uniform pocket and handed it to her. "I saw this coloured lipstick and I thought of you."

"This is...floral pink lipstick?" She seemed surprised. "It's expensive...but it really fits what I wanted."

"Money isn't really important to me, my love for you is."

She started to blush. "Say, Arnold...would you mind putting it on for me?"

"Well I haven't done anything like that before."

"Oh I think you can do it, if you believe in yourself."

"Well I may not be perfect, but I'll do my best..." I put some lipstick around her lips as gently as I could.

Mint checked to look at her lips in the mirror. "It looks beautiful on me...you didn't put on too much either."

"I'm really glad you like it, I know what you said earlier, but I still wanted to be generous."

She looked at me happily. "Thank you very much for this gift, Arnold. I'll definitely look after it." She then kissed me on the cheek, leaving a lipstick mark on there. "Now everyone will know how much you mean to me."

I giggled. "You're very much welcome, Mint. Because you mean a lot to me too." I kissed her back on the cheek.

Sometime later, I was with Mint and we were resting on the chair when suddenly, sirens went across the ship and I heard a beep on my uniform transmitter.

"Arnold, can you hear me?!" Tact called. "Is Mint with you?"

"Loud and clear." I replied. "And Mint is with me."

"Good...we have a ship crises! Probes appeared from the damaged container we retrieved earlier. Forte and Chitose are dealing with them right now, but we could use your help. Make sure Mint is safe."

"Got it Tact, I'm on my way." I looked at Mint. "Looks like the work of the enemy if there's more than one probe around. Mint, you better stay here and keep yourself hidden."

She nodded with a serious expression. "Understood Arnold, I'll lock the door to this room after you leave."

I rushed out of her room and after she locked it, I ran across the ship and discovered a probe in the warehouse that hadn't put on a disguise. Luckily, I had my desert eagle pistol that Forte gave to me when I joined the angel wing. I aimed at the probe that just turned around to spot me, but it was too late.

*Bang* *Bang*

The probe collapsed and shut down in a puff of smoke, that's one probe down.

I made a quick call. "Tact, I got one in the warehouse, whereabouts are you?"

"Arnold, there's two probes left and I saw Chitose follow one into the engine room" Tact replied. "If the probes take over the engine room, it's over for all of us!"

"Crap...I'll be there quickly." I dashed out of the warehouse and into the engine room where it was a little dark.

I hid behind a corner as I noticed Forte moving backwards. On the other side was Chitose who was watching along with Tact. Chitose jumped out from hiding with a gun she borrowed and Forte turned around with her gun at the ready.

"NO DON'T SHOOT!" Tact yelled.

*Bang*

*Bang*

Just when I thought a tragedy happened, I opened my eyes to see them both still standing but two probes were on the floor in a heap.

"Woah! Don't scare us like that, girls." I sighed.

"Sorry about that, Arnold." Forte replied. "By the way, where's Mint?"

"She locked up her room as soon as I left so that no one, not even a probe could get in."

"That's good news." Chitose replied.

"Well...that at least takes care of the probes issue." Tact said. "But Chitose, how did you know there was a probe behind Forte?"

"When Forte turned around as I was aiming at the probe behind her, I knew there was one more left and it was behind me."

"I see." I replied.

"Forte, I think I finally understand what you mean by what you've said and taught me about."

"That's good, Chitose." Forte replied. "And Arnold, nice to see that desert eagle getting some action. I thought you were gonna leave it to rot."

I giggled. "Well I do my best to keep it clean when I have time, but it felt kind of good being an action man."

We left the engine room and the crew workers took care of the destroyed probes, I walked back to Mint's room and she was happy to see me safe.

What followed were two battles against Rezom who was a minor foe back when we were dealing with Eonia, the first battle Forte cleaned house and in the second one, the rest of the angels joined us and we won easily. Now all seven of us angels were together as we moved forward to Lena where the source of the automated ships was.

I was in my guest room when someone called for me. "Yes?"

"Arnold, I'd like us to meet in the hanger at 22:00, there's something really special I want us to do." Mint said. "Make sure you remember, okay?"

"I will Mint, I'll be sure to be there."

When it was the evening time, I walked over to the hanger and Mint was present, but there were also a pair of space outfits.

"Evening Mint, what's all this?" I asked.

"Arnold, glad to see you're here." She replied. "Mind if you put this on, we'll need it for this activity."

"Activity?"

"Yes...it's all prepared. Here we are."

"This is an airlock...huh, I'm wearing a spacesuit."

"Yes...we're going on a space walk. Don't worry, it's completely safe."

We put on our space suits that had built in oxygen systems, walked through the airlock until we were now out in the open space. She was dressed as a space bunny and mine was like a robot or something.

"Arnold, please come this way." Mint said as I held her hand. "The view of space is very beautiful...almost like a rose blooming."

"Now I can see what this is about." I replied smiling. "Watching the beautiful stars...swimming through the galaxy with just you and me."

"Ahhh, how graceful and wonderful it is."

"Well, just as long as I don't let go. I already like this space walk, but I wouldn't want to be lost in space without you."

Mint held my other hand. "That won't happen...because I'll never let you go whilst we're doing this."

"That's good...woah! My body is somewhat not used to this low gravity."

"It's okay, you'll get used to it...you're doing this for your girlfriend after all."

I was able to get the hang of it, eventually. "Yes I am, I'm taking part in something new and I like it, because I'm your boyfriend."

"Say, Arnold?"

"Yeah?"

"It'd be nice...if it could always be like this."

"I agree...a beautiful view, happy feelings. It all becomes even more wonderful when I'm with you."

"Yes...happiness is doubled and sadness is halved as people sometimes say."

I wrapped my arms around her in our space suits.

"It's getting a little late, shall we head back?"

Mint gasped. "Oh...I almost forgot, we agreed to meet in Chitose's room."

"You mean all of us? Then we should go back."

"Yes...sorry to cut this short, but maybe next time we'll do a space walk again."

I nodded. "I'd like that..."

We flew back into the airlock and inside the hanger. We took off our space suits and Mint stored them away. We walked out of the hanger and up to Chitose's room where the other angels and Tact were.

"Ah, you're here!" Milfie said. "We've been waiting for a minute."

"Well, what were you two up to?" Ranpha asked

"Mint, you're wearing lipstick." Vanilla said.

"Good point, is that Floral Pink?" Tact asked. "That's expensive...where did you get that?"

Mint blushed, holding my hand. "I got it from Arnold."

"Oh my! That's such a generous gift." Chitose replied.

"Now that you mention it, I can see a trace of a lipstick mark on Arnold's cheek." Forte said. "You're a real man for letting that happen."

"Ahhh so romantic." Milfie sighed. "Anyways, what did you bring us here for, Chitose?"

"I wanted to show you these, they're called sparklers."

She showed how to use them and of course we had be smart and safe with them.

It was the night before the upcoming battle against Nefuria and the Val-Fasc, I was in Mint's room and holding hands, looking into each others eyes.

A tiny beep went off near a space computer on the table. "What was that?" I asked.

"It must be a letter from my father." Mint replied as she looked over it.

"Your father?"

"Yes...I decided to be brave and mention about you in the letter, I hope you don't mind."

I nodded. "Not at all."

"Okay...well since it's just you and me, I'll play it."

Mint Blancmanche, this is your father. I received your letter with great interest, I am relieved and wonderfully overjoyed to hear that you're safe and that you are doing well. Whilst I may not fully understand your choices, I will none the less respect them, for you are my only daughter. I have heard of your relationship with the boy and from what you have told me, he may be the ideal choice for you. I do hope he continues to take some of the responsibility to care for you and to love you as much as I do. Your old caretaker says hello and is he also pleased to hear from you. Please remember to stand by the family corporation's business when there is ever lasting peace across the galaxy for you have all the credentials to lead in our family's name. Take care, my daughter.

I was quite taken back, he didn't say much about me but it was positive.

"So, that was my father." Mint said. "Don't you see how much he worries about me"?

"Yeah, he really cares for you, no matter how far away." I replied.

"He also seemed to like you and that was what made me happy...he never says things like that, you know."

"Then I guess I made a very good impression to him."

"Well you did ask me out months ago and that was brave enough...but about the letter, I didn't mention about the lipstick you gave me. Because I was a little scared..."

I blinked. "A little scared, why?"

"Well how to put it...I like to be treated as a special girl and my father would often tell me that when I was growing up. But it's always been jewellery, elegant clothing and rich tea. It never used to be costumes, candies, fast food or lipsticks like I get now."

"I think I get what you mean...so I guess that when you were growing up and started to think more for yourself, you didn't want to keep having the same thing?"

"Yes...it was when I discovered about my hidden talent to fly as a pilot where I started enjoying the new things I never had before. But through it all...there's still one part of me that hasn't changed."

"What part is it?"

"I'm very selfish..."

"Selfish?"

"Yes...I love all the gifts you give to me and how much your treat me, but I always want to be spoiled too."

"I guess the point you're making is that you don't want your father to know that you like to be a selfish child who gets spoiled?"

Mint nodded sadly.

"Well Mint, you don't have to tell me twice...be selfish for as long as you like and I'll spoil you as much as you like, because I love you."

"Arnold..." Mint blushed before she sat on my lap. "...thank you...I'll always accept whatever you offer me as well, because I love you too."

"And tomorrow, we'll work really hard to win, so we can have more time for me to treat you for as long as you want."

She blushed. "Well actually...I have a treat for you before tomorrow and I wanna show it to you now."

"A treat for me?"

"Yes...just sit here and I'll be out of my costume area in a few moments."

She walked to the costume corner and closed the curtain behind her. I sat back in the chair and waited...until she pulled the curtain back and came out.

My jaw nearly dropped...there was Mint who had changed into a nurse's outfit with a nurse cap on her head and she was holding an oversized prop, it looked like a syringe.

"Mint!" I gasped. "Where did you get those?"

"He he he...it's a secret." She winked. "Now if you're gonna treat me more, then allow me to treat you in return."

She put the syringe down, walked over with a smirk look and planted a lock-on kiss on my lips.

"Well...that's one way to perform CPR!"

Mint and I shared our laughter before we wrapped in each others arms and shared a passionate kiss.

We didn't go any further than that as there were more important matters to focus on, but it was a wonderful treat that I would not soon forget.

Up next, the final part of the Tact & Forte route. Whilst Arnold & Mint discover an unexpected twist!