Kururu watched, bored, as he idly counted his fingers. No need to move a muscle, of course.
One, two, three…
The plant exploded, revealing Mois in Angolian form, wielding her Lucifer Spear in front of her. She was covered in gunk, the green stuff oozing down her skin. She shivered.
"This stuff smells," Mois murmured.
Kururu sighed. "We might as well go home then, ku-ku."
"No, no! It's fine!" she responded quickly. "I could, um… just change back…?"
Mois did so, returning in the Pekoponian form of Asami.
Though she still dripped in plant matter.
"Eww…" Mois whimpered.
"Ku-ku-ku! Let's just go home-"
"But I want to stay…" she gazed up at him, her eyes large and sparkling with that pure, sweet innocence-
"O-okay, okay!" Kururu stammered. "J-just stop making those eyes!"
"There's like, something wrong with my eyes?" Mois only widened them, making him shiver.
"L-let's get you a towel, k-ku," Kururu said, giving up. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her along, ignoring the stares from random patrons that had been watching the whole display ("Daddy, was that a movie set?" "Why, no, son! They are merely aliens from another planet come here to destroy and/or take over our world." "Ohhh.")
"Ku. Here." Kururu sat her down near a fountain and splashed her with some of the water. "Try to clean yourself here, ku-ku."
"Thanks, Kururu."
Kururu cringed. "Don't mention it."
"My outfit's all ruined…" Mois said softly, gently tugging at her shirt.
"Ku-ku. I said we should just go home."
Mois took a deep breath and stood up, her eyes glimmering (to his disgust) with vigor and pride. "No! Let's get on some more rides!"
Kururu inwardly groaned as they walked away, leaving the plants to devour the pedestrians near by.
"Great!" Keroro cheered, pumping a fist in the air. "Mois managed to get out of this little hiccup!"
"Um, leader?" Dororo questioned, speaking up. "Don't you think that we're, I don't know, making their date worse?"
"Of course not, Zoruru!"
The ninja sobbed, crouching down somewhere in a nonexistent corner, planting a whole row of mushrooms and dandelions.
"I think he has a point there," Giroro said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.
"Kero-kero! I said it before, and I'll say it again: there's absolutely no way we're making our two lovebirds' date worse! I guarantee it!"
"Then why haven't they made out yet?" Tamama asked.
"That's all Kururu's fault," Keroro's face darkened. "He's being really stubborn. It's almost like he doesn't want a kiss from Mois!"
Tamama and Giroro decided not to say anything to that.
"Okay, okay, how about this…" Keroro stuck his tongue out, and then paused, suddenly licking his lips all around. He beamed. "I got it!"
"What?" Giroro demanded.
"Did you know that the Pekoponian mouth is actually one of the more sensitive parts of the body?" Keroro inquired cheerfully.
"…Um…?" Tamama tilted his head.
"Right next to the eyeball." Keroro poked his own to demonstrate, screaming in pain as he fell backwards.
Giroro rolled his eyes. "What are you getting at, Sergeant?"
Keroro stood up, one eye bulging red. "What I'm saying is that since Kururu is a Pekoponian now… his lips will be just as sensitive! How about we get romantic with food?"
Giroro and Tamama shared a glance.
"…And… how are we…?"
"Just listen up, will you? I know for a fact that this plan will work. I just know it!"
Why haven't I been given any lines for the longest time? The crew isn't actually firing me, are they?
Nah, it's just I've been too lazy to come up with witty lines for you.
Now that's just mean.
Isn't it?
"Can you win me that?" Mois asked, pointing at a little stand with teddy bears and dolls.
Kururu winced. "Ku-ku-ku. I think not."
Mois frowned slightly at this, but immediately brightened, much to his annoyance. 'It's okay! I'll try and win it instead!"
Taking out cash from no one knows where, she exchanged the money for five balls to the guy at the booth.
"Try to knock out the bottles," the man said plainly, popping a piece of chewing gum in his mouth and flipping open a magazine.
Doesn't he look motivated, Kururu thought.
"Hiii…yah!"
The ball missed.
Kururu snickered, but Mois's determination didn't falter.
She threw it again, missing.
And another.
And another.
"I only have one left," Mois whimpered. She turned to him, her eyes widening puppy-like. "Can you please try, Mister Sinister?"
"Ku-ku! No."
The girl said nothing as sighed, instead deciding to soldier on. She threw the last ball with all her might, and barely managed to knick the top bottle to the floor.
"Congratulations… you got one," the man muttered, glancing over his shoulder. "Eh, not very impressive. But still, you get something." He gave her a tiny pig keychain, and she cheerfully accepted it.
"Yay! You can say, 'winners never prosper'?" Mois chirped, pinning it on her purse.
Kururu rolled his eyes. "Ku. Whatever. Can we go now?"
"Well-" She paused and sniffed. "…Mmm… what is that?"
"Ku. What is what?"
Mois grabbed his hand and pulled him (against his will) to another stand. The people selling the delicious food that attracted her looked somewhat familiar, one of them having a green head with a mustache, or a red head with a goatee, or a black head (go ahead and laugh. I know you want to). The one with the blue head was unnoticeable to all.
Kururu sighed roughly. "Oh brother." He folded his arms, deciding to play along with this sad little display.
"Aloha!" Keroro cried out cheerfully.
"Oh! What country are you from?" Mois asked politely.
Kururu rolled his eyes. "They're from-"
"We're nowhere near that country!" Keroro interrupted in a very fake French accent, "We're from Ohio!"
Kururu gently squeezed the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb. Sigh.
"Really? That's so cool!" Mois beamed. "What continent is that in?"
"Uh…. Italy!" Keroro replied.
I'm surrounded by idiots. "Ku-ku-ku! I see." He examined the foods that had been spread out on the stand. "And what is this?"
"Oh! We're just handing out delicious meal packages to lovey-dovey couples passing by," Keroro said with a nod. "Yup! And you two look lovey-dovey enough to qualify!"
It took all of Kururu's willpower not to either slap himself or laugh hard at the absurdity of their whole spectacle. "Ku-ku-ku! Really." A thought suddenly came to him, and he smiled wickedly, sending very evident shivers up the three (…four?) frogs' mock Pekoponian-suited bodies. "I suppose if it's free…" He leaned down and gently squeezed Mois from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder as she stiffened slightly at his touch. "We'll take one~ ku-ku-ku~!"
"Oh." Keroro stared at them blankly, still not sure if there was anything… wrong with this. It felt so wrong somehow. But it was for the invasion plan…! "Here you go. It's on the house! Enjoy your meal!"
"Ku-ku-ku~ thank you." Kururu promptly let Mois go, grabbed the small basket of whatever the heck they sold (quite rudely too, if you ask me [nobody did]), and walked off, the girl snapping out of that sudden weird bout of emotion Kururu showed.
"I didn't think that would work so well," Giroro said, his eyes widening.
"Yeah, me neither," Keroro confessed.
"Wait, weren't they supposed to open it first?" Tamama inquired, wrinkling the nose that was not currently on his face. "I mean, they haven't even-"
"You reveal the plan now, then the audience will know that it's not going to happen!" Keroro scowled, waving a finger. "Geez, do you know nothing of how our TV show works?"
"Me thinks you know too much, Mr. Sergeant."
Ahhh.
So this was Keroro's plan.
"You can say, 'spaghetti and meatballs'?" Mois said happily, twisting her fork into the one-plated meal.
"Ku. I'm not hungry."
It was as if his Pekoponian body had chosen in that moment intentionally to make his stomach growl.
"C'mon, Mister Sinister!" Mois pulled up the coil of pasta to his mouth. He flinched and leaned back, his hands against the table.
"I'm not hungry."
It growled louder.
"Ku-ku-ku! I'll just get myself something inst-"
"Do you have money?"
"Ku?" Darn. I forgot about that…
Kururu consented reluctantly, sitting back down on his chair across from Mois. She had originally wanted to sit closer to him, but he kept pushing his chair back when he got the chance to.
"Ku-ku, I can feed myself." Kururu took the second pair of forks that were left for the 'couple' and dug in, too ravished by hunger to care.
They ate in silence.
This is still bugging me, Kururu thought, swallowing his bite. How could Captain and the others possibly know…? They might have broken the fourth wall to find out, but even that is stretching it a bit…
The stringy pasta in his mouth tightened suddenly, and he made a bored look as he casually snipped the noodle that nearly connected his and Mois' mouth. "Nice try, but I've already seen Lady and the Tramp. Ku-ku-ku. "
Mois blinked at him, sucking the strand of spaghetti into her mouth. It slapped at her nose, leaving a small red mark of sauce on it. "Lady and the Tramp?"
"Ku-ku. Don't make me explain it."
Love between dogs.
What happens in movies should stay in movies.
"I'm going to throw this away," Mois said, picking up the empty plastic container.
"Knock yourself out. And I do mean that in the most literal way. Ku-ku-ku-ku!"
The Angolian girl simply smiled sweetly to him and skipped off to the garbage can.
Is that girl ever going to break? What I would give to see that happen. Kururu leaned back and stared up at the sky.
It was getting dark now. It was amazing; he didn't even realize how much time he was spending on this ridiculous little… 'activity'.
And, as he had predicted, he got no pleasure from it whatsoever.
"Kururu!"
The Keronian-turned-Pekoponian turned to Mois lazily. She was holding out a lemon-flavored popsicle to his face.
Yay. More lemons. You readers must be so disappointed...
"What is that for?" Kururu asked disdainfully.
"Ice cream?" Mois replied questioningly. "Um… it's for us to eat?"
"I know. Why are you giving it to me?"
"To share!"
To share, mm? Kururu stared at the cold treated tiredly. Wait… all I need is a kiss from Mois… would it be at all possible to turn me back with an indirect kiss? Doesn't hurt to try. "Sure. Why not."
Mois started at this, her eyes wide. "Really?"
"Ku-ku! Now you're making me feel bad," Kururu said in mocking voice.
"No, no, like, I'm sorry!" Mois said, hastily ripping the plastic wrapper off the ice cream. "Here!" she held it out. "You can have the first bite!"
Kururu perked a brow and gazed down at the popsicle. He made a smirk. "Ku. No. You can have it."
"Oh. Okay!" Mois licked it before she handed it to him.
Kururu gingerly grasped the plastic stick in his hands, staring at the ice cream. He hesitantly licked it, and then glanced at his body in hopeful consideration, but then slumped his shoulders when he saw that it just wasn't meant to be.
"I hate the flavor. Ku-ku!" He practically shoved it back at her.
Mois gazed down at their ice cream. "Do you want me to get another?"
"Ku-ku! If you could find one with curry flavor, I would be eternally grateful~"
Something clicked in the girl's brain. "Hey. I almost forgot! Like, you said I could give you a kiss!"
Zut. ZUT. I was hoping she would forget…
"After we finish the ice cream," Mois affirmed, nodding at their icy treat.
It should last long enough for her to forget, Kururu mused. He folded his arms. "All right," he said coolly.
"Like, you'll really let me try and kiss you again?" Mois asked gleefully.
"Of course, ku." If you bother remembering.
"Can we go now, Mr. Sergeant sir?" Tamama whined. "I think I'm getting a headache…"
"Be strong, private!" Keroro scowled, putting down his binoculars. "This mission is important, may I remind you-!"
"HEY!"
Keroro, Tamama, Giroro, and Dororo spun around, jumping at the sight of a very, very, very ticked off man.
"Why the **** are you in my booth?!" he grabbed a mop. "GET OUT!"
The man lunged toward Keroro, who instantly grabbed Dororo and used him as a shield.
"RUNNNNN!" Keroro yelled, sacrificing the lance corporal to the seething business man.
He, Giroro, and Tamama ran off, their arms in the air.
Dororo held out his arm to his friends as he was being beaten by the mop. "WHYYY…"
"One more ride," Mois said sincerely, gently clapping her hands together.
Kururu licked the popsicle. "Ku-ku. Fine. Then can we go home?"
"Maybe."
The scientist rolled his eyes up to the sky, but then grinned at a particular thought.
The girl had been walking around with that drop of spaghetti on her nose this whole time; people had been staring at her and children were trying not to laugh.
When she found out about it, he was absolutely sure that she was going to run home crying in absolute disbelief at his cruelty.
"Two tickets for the Ferris Wheel," Mois told the young man at the ticket booth.
"Sure…" The man paused. "…You have a bit of something on your face, ma'am."
"Oh, do I?" Mois blushed. "Where?"
The man gently pointed at the girl's nose. "There."
Mois rubbed at the spot with her wrist. "Did I get it?"
"There."
It was quite a comedic display, Kururu noted. He watched on with great amusement, snickering when the girl began cleaning her forehead. Finally, he was glad to have found someone that was beginning to be just as annoyed at Mois as he-
"No, no, it's right there…" The man pulled a handkerchief from the box on his desk and helped her clean it off. "There." He stopped, and stared at her.
"Is there something else?" Mois asked, embarrassed.
"No, it's just… you have really pretty eyes…"
Kururu flinched at this, his amusement somehow dying. He crossed his arms in on each other and frowned slightly.
"Really? Thank you!" Mois beamed.
"Oh. You have a pretty smile too-"
"Ku-ku, enough with the flirting," Kururu said, taking one of the tickets from Mois's hand. He looked at her and planted his hands on his hips. "You said you wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel, fine. I'll be waiting. Though if you don't get on soon-" at this he gestured behind him by perking a thumb to the ride, "-then I'll ride without you, ku!" He turned around and walked off collectedly enough, though if one looked close enough, a vein pop was visibly appearing on his cheek.
"Oh," Mois smiled nervously to the man behind the counter. "Thank you for the tickets, sir!" She ran off after Kururu. Having caught up to him, she gazed up at him anxiously, "Are you alright?"
"Ku. I'm fine." Kururu looked around for the Keroro Platoon. Even if he couldn't see them there, he knew that they were around there somewhere, watching them. He shook his head irritably. Hm. They're idiots. They shouldn't be too much trouble.
Kururu tossed the popsicle in the trash bin before Mois settled on a little cart. He reluctantly sat down next to her, cringing when she gently hugged his arm as the man closed and secured it.
Awkward minutes of silence passed before the Ferris Wheel continued with a thump.
"So…" Mois said slowly, letting him go. Kururu was glad for the release; he immediately moved away from her as much as he could. She gave him a funny smile. "I thought you said I could kiss you now!"
"Ku-ku! That was then, this is now," Kururu said dismissively. He watched on, annoyed, as Mois carefully attempted to sit beside him. He merely moved again to the other side. "Ku-ku. This is going to last the whole ride, I'll let you know."
And then he forgot that Mois was… very persistent.
Viewers from below the ride kept noticing that one of the carts was rocking back and forth wildly. They stared in absolutely bewilderment.
"…Yup," one of them confirmed. He nodded to his companion. "Happens every time, this ride being a romantic one an' all."
"What happens?" his young friend asked.
"Well… it's a long story about love," the man replied. He placed his hands on the shoulders of his small friend. "And I suppose now it's time for you to learn the talk."
The young boy widened his eyes. "What talk?"
"Well, you see, when a man meets a woman, they fall in love," his friend explained. "When they fall in love, the man will take the woman to a very romantic place, and then…. try to propose to her. But then the woman doesn't want the man, right? She wants his money. So this place becomes the crime scene for many an investigation!"
The little boy nodded. "It all makes sense!"
If Kururu had the option to be brutally mutilated, he would have chosen it.
But in the end he gave up, panting from this over-excursion and leaning against the wall that didn't have a door. He blew his bangs away from his face, clenching his fists at the absurd inconvenience of having hair.
Mois again settled beside him, noticing this. "Hey…" she gently picked it out of his face. "Do you need help with this?"
"Ku. I don't need…" a strand fell on his brow. He consented bitterly, "…just get it out of my face."
Mois happily pulled it all back and pulled a ponytail band out of her purse. She expertly weaved it in and out, forming a braid, before tying it at the end. "There!"
Kururu was glad for the expediency, but when he saw what she had done… aaaand he just didn't care anymore. He fell back against the chair, exhausted.
Did anyone ever mention this was probably the first time in a long while he had done so much energy?
"Kururu? Are you alright?" Mois asked again. "You're worrying me…"
"I give up. Just kiss me if you have to. I just want to go."
Mois opened her mouth to reply just as their cart stopped and the door opened.
"Good, you're still alive," the manager said with great relief, putting a hand over his heart. He hardened his look as he gazed sternly over them. "I'm not sure what you were doing in there, but it's dangerous to be playing around in the Ferris Wheel like that! Get out, please, and come back when you learn proper Amusement Park Etiquette!"
"Aw, I didn't even, like, get to see everything so high…"
Kururu shrugged, glad to be away from there. "Ku-ku. Too bad." He paused, and examined her face. "What?"
"I just…" the Angolian girl was looking down, trying hard not to betray that disappointed look, but clearly failing.
Kururu shook his head. Typically he would be glad to just leave the sniveling girl there, but through her powers of good and innocence and all that blah, he was actually starting to feel… guilty. To his absolute disgust.
"Ku. Fine. One more place," Kururu held up a finger. "One. And then we go home. ç a va?"
"Really?" Mois gazed up at him hopefully. "Yay!" She hugged him, to which he responded very stiffly. "Thank you, Mister Sinister!"
"G-…get off," Kururu snapped, shoving her away. He shivered, mentally telling himself to take a long, deep, seeping bath of curry when all this was done and over. "Where do we go?"
"Second star to the right, straight on till morning!" a boy clad in green cried out, jumping out of nowhere and pointing to the sky.
"…Wrong story," Kururu said dully.
Wro- hey! I was supposed to say that!
"Oh. I knew there was something wrong here," Peter Pan mumbled, walking off.
"Can we go to the beach?"
Kururu turned his attention to Mois as she was glancing at the map she was holding. She pointed at a little section of land. "I want to see the sunset with you on the beach. There's one that's right next to the amusement park."
The inventor rolled his shoulders around in a somewhat halfhearted shrug. "Whatever. Let's just go."
Mois was surprised that he even let her hold his hand on the way there. Sure, he was as stiff as a dead body (she would know), but he was doing much better at this 'dating' thing. She was sure that they actually looked like the couples that were in the movies she had been staying up all night watching.
"Right here!" Mois let go of his hand and ran over to a small hill overlooking the ocean. She sat down comfortably on the warm, soft sand. She gasped delightedly. "Look, Kururu! The sun's going down!"
Kururu gazed at it in the most uninterested way possible.
So the colors were pretty. Big deal.
"Come sit next to me," Mois said cheerfully, patting the side near her. He did sit down on that hill, thought at least a foot or two away from her. She giggled, clearly not getting the hint, and stood up to sit closer to him. She put her head on his shoulder, and he leaned away, making their positions look weird and awkward. She sat straight up, and he regained his proper composure.
"You're silly, Kururu," Mois said with a sweet smile, hugging her knees together.
"Why, because I'm trying to stay away from you? Ku-ku-ku-ku."
Mois shook her head. "No, it's not that. Though, like, I can't really put it in words." She pondered at this, before snapping her fingers, "You can say, 'nervous dandelion'?"
Kururu rolled his eyes for what felt like the fiftieth time that day.
"Kururu?" she gently prodded his shoulder with a finger, and he turned. He shut his eyes in preparation for that… that kiss before he realized that she softly planted her lips against his cheek.
He blinked at her, confused.
"Thanks for the date," Mois told him. "I had a lot of fun! You can say, 'do it again soon'?"
Kururu touched the spot where she had kissed him.
"Kururu!" she cried out in surprise. "Y… you're glowing!"
And glowing he was indeed. Bring in the marshmallows!
Mois shielded her eyes as the light increased. It then dulled, revealing a Keronian Kururu with the oversized Pekoponian clothes sagging over him.
"…Hm," Kururu continued looking at his fingers. "Ku-ku-ku! I suppose when the twerp said a kiss from Mois was needed to turn me back, he meant anywhere. Ku! That makes sense… idiot."
"Twerp?" Mois repeated.
"Nothing, ku. I'm back to normal, and that's all-"
When the sun went completely down, there was another flash, though this time it was too dark for Mois to notice what happened.
"Kururu? Kururu! What happened?"
"…Zut."
Commercial Break~