Disclaimer: I own nothing.
I think the flashback chapter finally ends next chapter. Do not fret. Just your average Gironatsu stuff this chapter.
It had been a month and a half of being contained in the base. And Giroro was grumpy.
He crossed his arms as he glanced over at Natsumi flirting with Saburo again. She was laughing and smiling at him and he was making polite conversation with her.
They had really begun to grow closer, and naturally Giroro was jealous.
Sure, he had spent time with Natsumi too, but there was only so many times a guy could ask a girl to watch him shoot guns in a shooting gallery. The skills needed for a gun weren't that necessary in the base, and although it had been fun the first two hundred and six times, it was the only thing Giroro was really asking Natsumi to do with him, and he suspected she was getting bored.
Her attention was always focused on Saburo. Sure, she spent time with other people too - Koyuki, Keroro and Fuyuki, and him - but she was constantly focused on Saburo and sometimes even slipped up about how hot he was when she was with one of them.
They're getting closer. They might actually get together at this rate, Giroro realized. He could imagine years down the line them getting married as two of the last humans in the world. They would ask Giroro to be the preacher in his terrible fantasy and he'd have to watch them get married. Then they would head off to repopulate the world together with Pekoponian children.
Giroro tried not to cry in jealousy and anger. He had to just accept the facts that this was coming. But he didn't want it to happen.
He loved Natsumi. He had hoped, perhaps, she would see that they would work well together, too, but she wasn't really focused on anything except Saburo. And naturally he was very jealous of that fact.
He couldn't impress her at all. Whenever he tried to compliment her about how much she meant to him, she always brought up Saburo. Sometimes when she didn't bring up Saburo, Koyuki would jump in, interrupting them.
Because not only are we trapped with one of my love rivals, we're trapped with two, Giroro recalled bitterly. Koyuki also wanted Natsumi's heart, and although she wasn't nearly as jealous as him, she still was trying to impress Natsumi, same as him.
"Aren't Natsumi and Saburo such good friends?" she had told Giroro one day. Giroro tried not to snicker. The poor, poor oblivious girl.
"You just keep thinking that. It's easier that way," he told her. Koyuki nodded, confused as to what he meant, but still thinking that.
There were other Natsumi-related things Giroro did besides trying to impress her. His primary concern wasn't their future together, but her safety. And although she was physically safe, he was still worried for her mental safety.
Imprisonment, even if it was safe, waned on a person. It got to them. Sure, he had practiced for hiding out in a bomb shelter alone in training school, but Natsumi didn't have that experience.
He constantly tried to monitor her mood. Try to not let it get to her, keep her happy and introduce new things about the base to her. Dororo's garden was a good source of plant life to keep up her mood, and he was trying to get his cat to like Natsumi more (something that had not succeed very much) so that she could pet her to relieve stress, but neither of those things seemed to work much for Natsumi.
In fact, the thing that helped her mood the most seemed to be taking charge in helping out the rest of the team. She was a warrior, even in imprisonment. And Giroro was proud of her.
Fuyuki, who - from what he had heard from Kululu, should have been the one having the easiest time being in one place underground - was dealing the most harshly, throwing himself into his occult research and writing everything he knew from memory so as to distract himself from the loss of his mom and Momoka. Koyuki was dealing the second most harshly, not meant to stay in one place either. She was meant for forests, to hop from tree to tree. But there was nothing like that there.
Dororo was trying his hardest to help her, but all he could do was empathize with her pain.
Saburo, Giroro wasn't sure how he was doing. He seemed fine. Adaptable, but mostly bored.
Still, Natsumi was doing the best. She was fighting against the hopelessness, and he was proud of her. He just wished she'd spend less time with Saburo.
Just seeing them together made him grumpy.
He went to Kululu, hoping to convince him to distract his friend a little bit. It was Kululu who invited Saburo there, and he was hoping he could contain him.
Kululu spent most of his days in his lab, like usual. He didn't seem like he had changed much.
Giroro opened the door to the lab, seeing wires and computers strung around everywhere. Kululu clutched something small in his hands, a cellular device that he was typing on.
He didn't even notice Giroro step into his lab.
I guess he's really trying to fix things, Giroro thought. The communications channels were still down, to his knowledge, and that meant no way to call for a spaceship to get them all out of this dead planet. Getting the communication back up was a major priority that Kululu seemed to be working incredibly hard toward.
"Pick up. Come on." Kululu seemed irritated as he put the phone to his headphone. After a minute, he tossed against the wall. It fell to the ground with a pile of other broken cell phones.
"Not going well?" Giroro asked. Kululu turned around.
"Those are all supposed to be emergency phones," he pointed. "Even in an emergency where communication is down, I linked them to the one place that would still get reception. But... they aren't working," he admitted.
Giroro nodded. It looked like Kululu had a tough job ahead of him.
"What do you want, Giroro?" Kululu asked, sitting back in his chair, knowing that Giroro must have wanted something if he came to see him.
Giroro straightened up to give his request to Kululu. "You need to contain Saburo, keep him busy. Entertain him. He's been wandering off to Natsumi a little too much. He's distracting her from her goals and the fight - " He couldn't finish, because Kululu stopped him.
"What the hell?" Kululu asked, blowing up at him. "That's what you interrupted my work for?"
"Yes," Giroro told him.
"That's incredibly stupid. Natsumi and Saburo have no goals while they're down here. There is no fight. I'm not Saburo's babysitter. He can do whatever he wants with Natsumi. It's neither of our concerns, Giroro. It's their lives," Kululu hissed.
"But..." Giroro trailed off. He knew this was true. But honestly he was hoping to be a little selfish. He just wanted Saburo distracted.
"You just want Natsumi to yourself. And that's not my issue. What is my issue, though, is you bothering my friend because you don't have the courage to tell Natsumi about how you feel. Ku. And by the way, it was pretty underhanded to go to me to separate Natsumi and Saburo when they're doing nothing wrong. Or even solving it yourself. Ku, ku, ku. It was something I would do, Giroro. It was just that underhanded like that!"
Giroro rubbed his arm. Now he really felt bad. "I... I should have seen that it was wrong. You're right." He had no right to choose Natsumi's path for her.
"Also, I'm way too busy to solve your petty love life problems," Kululu muttered. He seemed grumpier than Giroro.
"Are you making a space ship? Fixing communication lines?" Giroro asked, slightly interested. Kululu was a valuable asset to getting out of there.
"I'd like to, but to do anything on that level, I would need the rest of my tech team. And you know what I don't have? The rest of my tech team! Since Mois won't answer her stupid phone, I can't fix anything. She was a valuable asset to helping me out and fixing this stuff," Kululu growled.
Giroro glanced at the pile of phones. Had Kululu been trying to call Mois? Was that why he was grumpy? "Why not ask for help, if the work requires two people? Saburo's smart. He could be the rest of your tech team," Giroro pointed out.
"He doesn't know alien technology like Mois. She knows my system and has her own skills that are helpful. She's the communications officer. Saburo can't fix communication lines," Kululu explained. "But... she hasn't answered any time I've called. Her phone is never off. Never. And yet, she hasn't answered once. It doesn't even go to voice mail. It just says the line is dead." He looked pale.
Giroro's mouth opened for a moment as he realized why Kululu was so stressed. He was worried. He had been trying desperately to contact Mois, but no matter what he did, he couldn't get through. That was what he had been working on in his lab, and why he hadn't been spending much time with Saburo.
He was incredibly worried. It was weird to see Kululu worried, and even weirder to see him very stressed out due to his own helplessness.
It was actually kind of pitiful. Giroro walked over a bit to Kululu, rather awkwardly. He put his hand on the back of Kululu's chair instead of his shoulder to offer support.
"She'll be fine. You said so yourself that the radiation wouldn't hurt her, remember?" he reminded her, trying to smile a bit. "She might just be out of calling distance. She's probably with Tamama and is fine. There is no reason why she wouldn't be," he tried to reassure him. "There's no reason to be like Keroro and think dangerous things about them."
"Then... Then why hasn't she answered me?" Kululu asked blankly, his voice barely above a whisper.
Giroro didn't know. He took his hand off of Kululu's chair and backed away as he saw how weak Kululu looked, how utterly helpless and sad he was.
"Why isn't she back yet, Giroro?" Kululu asked again, a hint of anger went through his voice. "She should have been back by now."
"I don't know. I don't know why she isn't here," Giroro told him. Kululu's expression of anger faded to that of distress.
Giroro backed away toward the door. Now wasn't a good time to bother him. "I'm sorry about being underhanded. I shouldn't have bothered you about Saburo. I'm sorry," he apologized. It was weird to see Kululu's weaker side. "At... At least he's here with you, right?" Giroro tried to brighten the mood.
"I should have told her, too. I didn't prepare enough. I thought the Captain would be smart. That was the biggest mistake I made. He's never smart." Even sad, Kululu was still a jerk.
Giroro, out of respect, left the room. It seemed like Kululu was about to cry, and he knew that would be awkward to see.
He had to deal with this himself. Kululu was right about that.
He saw that everyone had kind of gone in pairs of interaction, except him. Keroro and Fuyuki were always together, and so were Dororo and Koyuki. Natsumi and Saburo were always spending time together... Perhaps that wasn't something he could stop. Perhaps he'd just have to live with their love affair.
He wanted to tell her how he felt before she made a final decision, though. She deserved to have all the options set out before her, even if she didn't choose him.
He wanted to tell her how he felt.
"Natsumi, I have something to tell you. May I speak to you alone?" he asked her. He was going to be brave. He had to be.
"Sure?" Natsumi nodded, leaving Saburo's side for a moment.
Giroro took a deep breath, blushing. "I... I think you're amazing," he admitted. "You're a warrior, even down here. You're strong, a formidable opponent and I... I... lo-" He was redder than he usually was.
Natsumi just stared at him blankly as he stuttered terribly.
I can't do this. I'm sorry, Natsumi. I'm weak... I have plenty of time to gather my courage. I don't have to tell her now, Giroro realized. "I just wanted to tell you that, even though it may seem like we're all cowering underground and using the safety of the base to protect us, the fight isn't over, and you've kept strong this entire time like a true warrior. I admire that," he said instead.
Natsumi smiled. She wasn't sure what that blushing and stuttering was about, but maybe it was hard for Giroro to give people compliments. "Thanks, partner." She gave him a light punch on the arm, as buddies do. "And... thanks for looking after me down here. I know I'm not as used to hiding out from bombs as you are, and it really means a lot to me that you've been giving me tips on how to improve my mental state. I'm sure I would have broken long ago if you weren't helping me keep strong." She smiled.
Giroro blushed. She appreciates me! Even if she got together with Saburo, that was enough.
"Now, want to race me? I'm not about to let my body get out of tip-top shape down here," she smiled.
Giroro grinned. "Always. I'll always race you."
And the two launched off. Of course, Natsumi won, but it was still great.
And Giroro was happy.
Please review!