Chapter 5: Getting things done
So, sorry about the wait. Given that finals were coming up and things were getting challenging (fuck VHDL), I had to put writing on hold to focus on the important stuff. I…also had to figure out what I was going to do with the beginning of this chapter, seeing as how the end of the last one was not planned at all. I would also like to say points to whoever got the references from last chapter. I tried to make some of them obvious, but there was at least one that was fairly out there. So, with my excuses said, on with the show.
And run I did. I ended up having to run half way across the country to a land bridge between Planeptune and Lastation. I am not a man of stamina (sorry 'Tia), so there was a few times where I had to stop and take a breather. I knew they were all there because I could hear the echoes of an argument. About what specifically, I don't know, but that's evidence enough to have gone deeper. Not in the mood for mobs, I used what little of Lucifer's power I could to torch whatever got in my way. Man, the experience rolled in as I trail blazed (heh, puns) my way through the dungeon. When I finally got to them, Plutie and Neptune were hugging it out, though Neptune had a large red mark across her cheek.
"Looks like it's my turn to make amends…" I muttered, walking in on the scene. "Hey…"
"Steven." Wow. Neptune never calls me by my name formally. Oh, serious HDD Neptune is gonna gut me. The two goddesses let go of each other as she said that.
"Neptune, Souji…I'm sorry for what I said back there. I really am. Sometimes…sometimes you say something you want to, but in such an absolutely shit way that you wish you'd never had said it at all. Honestly, this isn't the first time I've done this, and it won't be the last. I just hope you can forgive me." I hung my head, not feeling all that great, for what felt like years before a hand was put on my shoulder.
"It's fine, Stevie." Is all that I received before the hand was removed. "After talking it out, we agreed that we needed the wakeup call."
"So…I ran halfway across the country to try to make things right…just for you to agree with me? God dammit…"
"You ran here?" Souji asked.
"Yeah. I would've taken 'Tia's bike, but it would've been in the opposite direction and I'm not very good at driving the thing."
"He falls over like a drunken toddler." Cynthia added.
"I'm already feeling down, you don't need to rub salt in the wound."
"I'm still glad you came." Plutie said. The whole shebang became awkward soon after, with no one saying anything.
"We should…we should go…I'm pretty sure Noire is expecting us, and you know how she gets when we're late." Neptune stated, breaking the silence. Agreeing with that logic, we all left for the neighboring country's capital. It was an exhausting walk, and I was glad that someone had something to drink on them.
"You know, after all these year I've never been into Lastation proper." I commented, looking around at the black themed city. "We've been around the outskirts, but never into the city."
"We'll have to come by some time. Maybe Noire can show us around." Cynthia said. The building that Noire lived in was separate from the Basilicom, and it was a fairly plain looking building. Hell, it was less of a standout than our house. Souji, very politely, knocked on the door. The tired looking CPU opened the door, and I just slipped by her. Sitting down on the couch, I began finishing a cross stitch. I had grown fairly good at it, it filled the creative void of not having my saxophone, and it just became a meditation type thing to calm down. This one was of horsebirds flying over a field.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" The raven haired girl asked me angrily. I don't blame her, I did just barge in.
"Trying to calm down after one hell of a stressful morning." I replied before returning to my work. After several minutes, the world kind of just faded away. I was taken out of my groove when someone was tapping on my shoulder.
"You've been at it for a while. Noire and Plutia went to hang out and Neptune took Souji back to Planeptune. She let us stay because we're the least likely to break anything." Cynthia stated, breaking my out of my trance.
"Oh…So, we're here alone, huh? Welp, I know what I'm doing now."
"And what's that?" She asked.
"Getting some blackmail material. She's got to have her cosplay stuff around here somewhere, and there's nothing wrong with having dirt on the leader of a country."
"Steven…" Oh no, she's using the mom tone. "You're aren't taking pictures of the cosplay she has."
"Fine. Ruin my fun…" I pouted half-heartedly. After just making idle chit-chat for a while, the four missing from our group reentered the scene. Neptune seemed very panicked.
"What's wrong, Neptune?" Cynthia asked.
"Histy got even more Pisty when we came back and told her we only learned about the Scout thing Nowa taught us." She replied.
"She even got one of my soldiers to track us down. She scolded me, and she's not even the Oracle of my nation!" Noire cried out. "I planned on finally taking a day off, and you guys are getting me yelled at by a fairy." She huffed.
"So, what will we do?" Souji asked.
"Maybe you can teach them how to do paperwork. I don't think I've ever seen Neptune do it and the little that I've seen of Plutie's was…a thing…" I commented.
"It wasn't that bad…"
"You filled in a lot of the blanks with nonsense, like smiley faces."
"You didn't…" Noire said.
"…At least I did some…" She said aggressively. You couldn't take it seriously with the embarrassed red color that was painting her cheeks.
"Looks like I've got my work cut out for me." Noire chuckled. "Well, what will you two do?" She asked, turning towards the two of us, seeing as how we were sitting next to each other on the couch.
"Someone is going to be practicing. Once he got those flames, he started slacking on everything else." Cynthia replied, grabbing my ear.
"You know, we can still just take the day to relax…" Plutie said, giving Noire a hug from behind, before leaning down to her ear. "You know you want to…" And at that moment, Noire short-circuited. Smoke came out of her ears as she collapsed.
"Let's…Let's go…" I said, wary of what could happen if I stuck around. We ended up going back to the area we passed through to get to Lastation, and I was quite literally thrown into a fight. And of course, any time I tried to use anything, even if just on reflex, I was hit in the back of a head by a rock. After several hours, I'm sure I was back to par on my staff skills.
"Ugh…Finally done…" Neptune and I said in unison, both flopping down on a piece of Noire's furniture.
"Steven, stop complaining. It wasn't that bad."
"You weren't the one getting hit in the back of the head by rocks!" I replied. "To think that you, my girlfriend, would do such a thing to me." Just add a little dramatic flair, and…
"Just go get an ice pack, you whiner." I think she's learned to see through my bullshit. I have lived with her for three years, so it makes sense.
"Lady Black Heart! A soldier shouted, charging through the door. The commotion brought everyone into the living room. "There's a problem in Wanderer's Cave!"
"What's wrong?" The amount of worry in Noire's voice made it clear that the area was important.
"The…The monsters…There's got to be at least four times the normal spawn rate! We can't keep up and we're losing men quickly." The man left as quickly as he arrived, presumably to return to the fight.
"I hate to ask you all this, but can you give me a hand with this?" Noire asked, obviously wanting to help.
"Of course we can." Souji replied. "Just lead the way." We hauled ass to the aforementioned cave to see that it was literally overflowing with monsters. The area around the entrance was also crowded with guards. They were either keeping anyone away or fighting. But the scariest thing about this whole situation was that I saw monsters spawning INSIDE of other monsters. That was a sight that no amount of alcohol could remove from my memory. See, before a monster dies and breaks into the particles that we all expected, they bleed and what not like the thing they were based on, and let's just leave it at that.
"Let's lend them a hand, shall we?" I asked, calling upon the GCG of Orcus. The soldiers were given the relief that they needed as our attacks aided in their efforts. Unfortunately for me, that killed all my time for Orcus' contract. Some of the soldiers got killed, and the god of death reassured me that they would get a proper rest. Noire gave the signal to move deeper into the dungeon and of shit were we in for it. I decided to aid Souji in his ranged support by using Artemis' contract. The staff had two glowing, horn-like protrusions from each end, and they were connected by a string of light. The armor itself was mostly leather and green cloth, so it was easy to move and sneak around. The weirdest part of this one was the fact that it made my hair grow longer. I let the arrows of magic fly in-between the times that Souji had to pause to ready another spell so that everyone had constant coverage. Unfortunately I burned though this contract, as well as Anansi's, and ended up resorting to my pistol and smacking away anything that got too close to the two of us. I always found Anansi's armor to be weird. Well, that was because it wasn't really armor at all. My chest was bare and covered in tribal markings and my dignity was only hidden away from the world by a stylized mustard yellow cloth. Mixing bullets and Lucifer's flames had a fun result. The explosions of blood red fire really made my day. I also occasionally used the strings I use to read an object's history to pull stalactites down from the ceiling onto the mobs. It took many an hour, but we were eventually able to return things to normal.
"*Huff*…*Puff*…I'm…ready to go home now…" Neptune panted, transformation dropping before plopping onto the ground. Exhausted myself, I followed suit. In the span of three minutes, all of us were on our backs, just lying there. Thankfully, Noire used her status as a ruler to have some of her soldiers to cart us back to her place.
"I want you all to go back and investigate. There's no way something like that just happened." Noire commanded to the volunteers that carried us. They saluted her before leaving. "I'm going to call Histoire." She said, turning back to all of us, who were sprawled out on her various couches. "I don't think any of us could make it to Planeptune."
"We're having a slumber party? Yay! I knew you wanted us around!" Neptune cheered.
"W-W-Why would I want YOU sleeping over!?" Ah, there's the Tsun
"Because you love us." Plutie said, clearly on her way to sleep.
"Lady Black H-"
"Noire, Souji. I'm sure that, after everything that has happened today, you can call me by my name."
"…Alright, Lady Noire. Thank you for your hospitality." He replied after several moments. That night was one to remember. I had worked very hard to create a version of Cards Against Humanity for this world, and the fruits of my labor could be seen in the horrible jokes that were made that night. There was also the fact that except for me and Plutie, everyone present had turned shades of red rivaling Cynthia's hair. Revenge sucks, doesn't it, 'Tia? The decision was made that we would lay out a bunch of blankets and pillows and sleep in the living room.
"Steven…" I heard Cynthia growl, waking me up.
"…'Tia…? What's up?" I asked with my eyes closed, fully intent on returning to sleep.
"Open your eyes." I did as demanded and realized exactly why she sounded so angry so early. Now, this requires a little context. You see, those of us that were couples had agree that. To not make the two that weren't uncomfortable, we'd have girls sleep on one side of the makeshift bed and girls on the other. This, apparently, did not please my subconscious and its desire to cuddle. So, just taking a moment to try and discern the blurriness from not having my glasses, it turned out that I was currently using Noire's chest as a pillow. Welp…RIP me…No god is gonna get me out of this one, and Lucy is probably gonna laugh his ass off all the while.
"I did NOT do this on purpose."
"That really doesn't change the fact, does it?"
"I'm just gonna…get up and pretend this never happened." Too bad I made said decision a little too late. The flesh beneath me moved a bit before a hand started feeling up the different parts of my head. She even stuck a finger in my ear.
"What is-?" Orcus, looks like we'll be meeting face to face here in a second. "W-W-What the hell are you doing!?"
"I don't know!" I replied to the screaming black haired CPU. The next thing I knew was pain, a broken jaw, and I think I got a black eye. It happened quicker than I could realize. "Why…?" I groaned.
"That's what you get!" Noire shouted, face still beat read, before storming off.
"I can't believe you…" Cynthia said, tears running down her face. She turned to leave, but I darted up and grabbed her hand.
"I would never cheat on you, or do anything on purpose to hurt you. You know that, right?"
"…" She was silent for what seemed like hours. "I know, but I can't help but think that you might run away from me for someone else. Someone…normal…"
"It's been three years. If I wanted to, I would've left a long time ago. And since when have I wanted something normal?" We hugged it out, only for me to hear a small thud by my feet. Looking down…Ah, shit…
"What is that?" Oh, double shit!
"It's…It's a ring…I forgot that I had stick it into my pocket after we got back here. I went to the bathroom to change and it fell out there too." I couldn't help but chuckle as her eyes widened. She was clearly putting the pieces together.
"That's…"
"I had a much more romantic plan for all of this; Candlelit dinner, fancy dress, ring hidden as a dessert topper, the works. But, this works too." I picked up the box and opened it up. The deep purple stone was held atop a gold band. Simple, yet effective. The stone itself was cut from the very first stone we found when we started looking for the temples. "So let me prove myself, by giving me the privilege of being your husband."
"Of course I will." She answered. At least the source of her tears was different now. The ring slid on easily enough. "I don't think we should tell the others yet. After yesterday, well…"
"Yeah, I get ya. Also, imagine what Neptune would put poor Souji through." We headed into the kitchen hand in hand for breakfast. My breakfast, given my injured jaw, was a fruit smoothie. The conversation at the table was light, but Noire would not look me in the eye. As we headed out to head home, we ran into someone I really didn't want to run into with my jaw the way it was, because if it wasn't broken before, it will be soon.
"I finally found you, bitch!" The blue haired goddess growled.
"Who are you calling a bitch!? If you want a fight…" Noire activated HDD mid-sentence. "Then it's a fight you'll get!" The two literally butted heads as they brought their weapons to bare.
"Should we do something about this?" Souji asked.
"Of course. We can't let some naughty girls ruin such a nice city." The sickeningly sweet tone Plutie used, which was accentuated with the crack of her whip, promised nothing but pain.
"You pick who you'll deal with, and I'll get the other." I said. Plutie, clearly not happy with the invading goddess, went after her. That left me with Noire. Using my metal staff, I stealthily approached from behind.
"This isn't going to end well." Wow…Cynthia, Souji, and Neptune just spoke in unison. The two goddesses were so focused on their brawl, which left their weapons on the ground as hair was pulled and punches were thrown, that they never notices us before they could do anything about it. Plutie sent her whip into the dust cloud with mastery before pulling out an entangled Blanc. From there, I pinned Noire's back to mine by holding my staff against her collarbone and leaning forward.
"Hey! Let me go!" Blanc shouted, with Noire saying something similar.
"If you get into get into a real fight here, a lot of people will get hurt, and the punishment for that will be SEVERE." Plutie replied, putting as much malice into the last word of her sentence that I have ever heard from her, and I've seen her actually angry.
"Noire, you're the leader of a nation. Instead of picking fights, you should use the diplomacy inherent with the job and talk things out." I added from my admittedly awkward position. This is killing my back, but it was the easiest pin to get her into at the time. That aside, let's roll for diplomacy and…*rattle, rattle*…Nat twenty, alright!
"Fine. You're right. This is my nation, and I need to present myself as an example to my people."
"And…Alright, this wasn't exactly my brightest idea." The other goddess agreed. I released Norie, and Plutie released Blanc.
"There, that wasn't that hard, was it?" Plutie asked with a smirk.
"Oh, shut the hell up." Blanc said before transforming back to her regular form. Noire followed suit.
"Looks like we won't be heading back to Planeptune anytime soon." Cynthia commented.
"Darn. And I was hoping to play that new game that Planeptune just came out with." Neptune complained.
"It's alright. We can binge it once we get home." Souji said, putting his hand on her shoulder.
"If you don't mind, could we have this meeting in Lowee?" Blanc asked politely, a stark contrast to the language she was just using. "We have just made a room at the Basilicom for meetings like this, and I'd like to see it used."
"It would be a step in the right direction for forming a treaty or agreement." Cynthia commented.
"Okay. Lead the way."
"Sure. Come on, Souji."
"Of course, Lady White Heart." The two Lowee natives lead the way through an area near Wanderer's Cave. The walk was quiet. Too quiet. Luckily, the trope for me even thinking that never came to pass, and we made it to the snowy nation unharmed. After a bit of a hassle with the guards Blanc led us to the room that she was talking about. It was an ornate wood floored room that was styled after Japanese culture, much like the rest of the city. The four leaders sat at one end of the table that was in the center of the room, while 'Tia, Souji and I were at the other end. It was really entertaining, seeing the four not know how to begin.
"Should we help them?" Souji asked.
"But how?" Cynthia asked. Calling upon the things I learned in my high school US government class and from the comic reporters that give more accurate information than actual reporters, I stood up.
"I got this." I dragged my chair to where the CPUs were sitting.
"So, what do you mean 'You got this'?" Plutie asked.
"You're all just sitting here, so I'm going to guide you by the hands. Let's start with something simple. A peace treaty."
"Yeah, that seems like a good idea." Noire agreed. They worked out terms of the agreement, as well as what constitutes as breaking it. That took a few hours.
"So, what's up next, dear navigator?" Neptune asked.
"How about a trade agreement? It's either that or international immigration. Both of those should have some agreed upon rules."
"Okay. Neptune, are you actually going to participate this time?" Blanc deadpanned.
"Oh, don't forget things like copyright and technology. You could do some interesting things if you allow those to be implemented in each other's countries."
"Like what?" The four said together.
"Okay, but just listen before judging me as crazy. You can make it so that developers in a given country can make games for all of the countries' consoles."
"That…would be for the best." Noire stated after a bit of hesitation. "It would certainly boost trade economy, and that way our citizens can play a variety of games without having to buy so many consoles." All I had to do was sit back and watch as the discussions took place.
"Ah, this is going nicely."
"Shall we go get something to eat? I know a good noodle shop that is near here. I feel like Lady White Heart and the others will be at it for a while." Souji suggested. The growl from my fiancé's stomach answered his question long before her mouth did.
"Hehe…That'd be nice…" She replied shyly. I was cautious of the establishment. The last time I had anything like what I think this place had, it was instant ramen, and that was gross.
"Here we are." Souji said, beaming with pride. It was almost literally a hole-in-the-wall place, but I couldn't help but enjoy the smells coming from the place. He walked up and held the curtain open for us.
"So, what can I get for you three?" The little old lady at the counter asked.
"Three of the special, please." Souji ordered for us.
"Coming right up." The man in the back, who I assume is her husband, quickly got to work. Within fifteen minutes we each had a bowl in front of us. The two began to dig in while I…I attempted to eat the noodles. "You're not from around here, are you?"
"Nope."
"Here. This should help." She handed me a fork, and I have never been so grateful to see the utensil in my entire life. I hesitantly took a bite and holy shit was that good. I guess Storm was right all those years ago about how the instant stuff didn't hold a candle to the real stuff. Between talking and eating, we must've spent an hour in that little restaurant. I could really see why Souji suggested this place.
Upon finishing, we headed back to the palace looking Basilicom, only to be stopped by the guards. Said guards we accompanied by a large old man with glasses.
"Arrest these three!" He ordered.
"On what charges, Minister?" Souji asked him as he was placed into handcuffs.
"For you and Lady Blanc, treason. The others are simply foreign invaders."
"She created this nation how can she commit treason?" Cynthia reasonably asked.
"Shut up!" A soldier yelled, hitting her in the nose with the butt of their gun.
"By trying to collaborate with other nations breaks the principles that this nation was founded on." The old man answered. "Take them away!" The soldiers dragged us away after throwing some canvas bags over our heads. We were led down some stairs and into a cell before the bags were removed.
"Hey, are you okay, 'Tia?" I asked, checking out her nose.
"I think it's broken, but okay otherwise." She replied, her voice nasally.
"Alright, let me see what I can do." With some spare cloth I keep in my inventory, I cleaned up the blood on her face and set it the best I could so that it would hopefully be in the right place.
"Thanks."
"Stevie, is that you?" Neptune asked from the cell across from us.
"Yeah, it's me. You guys okay?"
"Yup. Is Souji with you?"
"Yeah, but…he's not in a good way right now…I don't think he's taking this very well."
"Blanny isn't either." Plutie said. "And we're stuck in these weird handcuffs."
"You guys want out?" A male voice said from a cell nearby. Since I couldn't see them, it must've been from a cell on the same side of the hall as me.
"The help would be welcome." A female voice that was, to me, known to be from Vert. "I was just visiting on vacation when they put me in here."
"Alright, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna kill myself, someone calls for help, and then I knock them out and we get out of here."
"You're the one we captured after you stole the cursed sword."
"Okay, in my defense, it didn't have a fucking label, and you didn't exactly have a label on the damn thing."
"Wait, I know that brand of douchebaggery anywhere. Johnny?"
"G1? You fuck, this is where you've been?"
"I didn't have a voice in the matter, and it's been three years for me, so…Yeah…Also, I'm older than you now."
"Really? Is now the time?"
"You're the one that wants to kill himself. I'm just giving you a reason."
"The sword he stole, Souless Synner, curses the user with the inability to die. If he were to kill himself, it would just bring him back."
"Ha! Suck it, bitch!"
"Motherfucker, I have deals with gods that let me use their power. Who needs killing themselves when you have Hellfire?" The crimson flames sparked to life in my hands and I proceeded to melt the bars. After doing so, I saw Johnny standing in his cell, as alone as he'll be for the rest of his life. "So, you got the red frosted tips, huh? Couldn't have picked something a little less cliché for your black hair?"
"Fuck off, I'm still taller than you."
"Maybe, but I have more money than you, being this world's Indiana Jones."
"You didn't."
"I have the hat."
"Of course you fucking would."
"Hey, what are you doing out of your cell?" A guard yelled. Strangely enough, they didn't unarm us. One revolver shot later, and I had the keys.
"So, who's ready to beat the shit out of an old man that's got it coming?" I asked, and almost every hand was raised. After everyone was free, of course. Oddly enough, Vert gravitated towards Noire as we traveled through the cave system that was underneath Lowee's Basilicom. It would be nice if we could go into a cave that wasn't inhabited by monsters. When we reached the surface, we were actually inside of the walls of Basilicom. It's weird to hear Vert and Noire speaking to each other so casually, but I guess things are different when you don't know that the person you're talking to is one of your rivals. Meh, maybe that'll make things easier later.
"Now if only I had that sword." Johnny mused, looking down at the knuckles that were red from punching so many things.
"Here." Blanc said, handing him the black and red blade to him. "After you got your hands on it, I decided to keep it on me."
"Thanks." After fighting our way through the guards and security robots, we found the minister.
"There you are, you bastard!" Blanc shouted.
"Ah, so you made it out. Well, you're too late. The country knows exactly what I want them to. You've lost the faith of your people, and this nation will be ruled by me, Mr. Badd. This shall be the greatest victory for the Seven Sages to date."
"Of course this is the Seven Sages' work. Why wouldn't it be?" Noire asked rhetorically. Blanc tried transforming, only to see that he wasn't lying. She had lost the faith of Lowee's citizens.
"He…He wasn't lying…" She said dejectedly.
"Well, you don't need their faith. You have ours." Plutie said.
"Oh, are we having the magic of friendship moment?" Johnny groaned.
"Just let it happen. And it'll end."
"Yeah, we've got your back, and I know ya got ours!" Neptune added. I looked around and saw that Vert disappeared like she was supposed to. Blanc transformed after receiving the faith from her newfound friends, and the others followed suit.
"What, are you not gonna do something either? You could in that other story of yours."
"Nope. It hasn't been twenty-four hours yet, so I'm left with my gun and my staff."
"Really? A staff?"
"Sometimes I can make it into a scythe."
"We really need to talk."
"Later, Johnny. Later." Mr. Badd decided his method of offense would be a robot suit that was as fat as he was. Honestly, not very impressive.
"Make sure to get all of this, Mister Rat." Plutie said, turning and winking to the rat she used as a weapon a few years ago.
"S-Sure thing, chu." Oh, how did I miss the rat with the camera? Alright, let's get this shit show on the road. Basically everyone but me charged at the machine the man was in while I hanged back. Not like I had a choice in the matter, given my melee of choice, so I just took pot shots when I had a good line of sight. After a bit of time, the mech broke, but that was not the end.
"B-But I lost! You can't do this to me!" The Seven Sages member cried out.
"Hmhmhm…But of course we can…You lost after trying to take over my friend's country. You deserve everything you're about to get; all of my attention."
"Yeah, you fucking bastard! Let me hear you scream!" I'm just going to take a few steps back, because I'm NOT getting caught up in that. Poor guy was mocked and beaten on camera for over half an hour.
"I like her." Johnny commented, staring at Plutie. Or, at least staring at her booty (heh, rhyming). Warechu tried running at one point, but all of us standing there made it so he couldn't.
"Come on, let the guy go, chu! He passed out five minutes ago." The talking rat pleaded.
"Hm…No wonder why this was beginning to feel boring." Plutie mused.
"Can I…Can I just take the guy home?' Smart rat. Ask. That way you won't be in the line of fire.
"Take him outta my sight!" Blanc roared. He was swiftly carted away, and everyone that was transformed released them. "I'm sorry about today. Could we resume our talks some other time?"
"Talks?" Johnny asked.
"They were discussing things like treaties and the like." Cynthia replied.
"G1, who's the furry?" Right, we never really did introductions, huh.
"Well, Johnny, this is Cynthia. She's my girlfriend."
"So you're a furry? Didn't think you had something like this in common with Conner." Oh no. He said the "F" word.
"I'm not a furry!" She yelled, punching my formerly internet only friend.
"I believe we've had enough violence for one day." Souji interrupted before a brawl broke out. "My name is Souji, partner to Neptune and accomplice in the partially legal explorations of these two's."
"Do you have a stick up your ass?"
"Only around new people."
"…Okay then…" Johnny said. After a moment of thinking, he spoke up. "Where am I going to stay? I've spent my entire time here in that prison."
"We have a spare ro-"
"No. We aren't housing him, Steven."
"I don't think Histy would mind someone of your height around. She has trouble with the shelves." Neptune joked.
"Says the one that transforms just to get to the mugs." Plutie countered.
"Hey! I thought we agreed not to talk about that."
"You are certainly a lively bunch." Blanc commented.
"And this won't be the last you see of us." Noire said. "Especially those three. Just wait. They'll be knocking at your door at three in the morning hoping you could confirm something that they found during their research."
"That was one time, Noire!" I replied, not caring how undignified my voice sounded.
"You know, you're right. The other times were ONE IN THE MORNING!"
"How many times are you going to make us apologize for that?" Souji asked.
"As many times as I feel like!" To think that's what our day of international affairs would be. Starting off the talks after stopping the fighting, having real ramen for first time, getting kidnapped, and then stopping a coup all while meeting a friend from back home. I'd drink this off, but I do need to start the wedding plans. After some rest in the comfy rooms that Blanc provided, we all headed home, stopping in Lastation before going back to Planeptune.
"So, how are we going to do this?" Cynthia asked as we walked into the door of our home.
"Do what?"
"The wedding. We have to plan out a venue and the food and…"
"Hold on, 'Tia. We have plenty of time to worry about that. We haven't even announced a date, so let's take it slow."
"Sorry. I'm just excited."
"I can't say that I'm not either."
"So, celebratory dinner?"
"I think I can get Plutie to pull a string or two to get us a reservation." Ah, that night was fun. The reservation thing fell through the moment we walked in the door, so we went to a version of Dave & Buster's in fancy dress before passing out as we walked into the door.
Yay! Done! So much bullshitting, so little time. I meant to get this out sooner, but things happen. It may be late, but happy holidays and a happy new year everyone. Here's to 2018!