Over the course of their journeys in and out of the hyperdimension, Uzume liked to think she had gotten a better grasp on the purple haired enigma she was journeying with… but perhaps that wasn't the case. Neptune was an enigma of a person, and prying any information about her past was exceedingly difficult as Uzume learned throughout their adventures. But every so often, every odd moon, Uzume would get a glimpse into the life the woman had lived. Almost every time had one thing in common,
The campfire.
It felt like the time they spent around the roaring fire, with its soothing light making the dead woods they often camped in seem lively. The soothing warmth it provided made the wilderness feel like home no matter where they were. And the stories they would tell around them were subtle glimpses into the lives that had led them to where they were now. And while Uzume had no shortage of tales to tell from her days as Planeptune's CPU, some good, some not so much, Uzume always found it far more interesting to hear Neptunes tales, usually from her adventures prior to running into Uzume in the zero dimension.
But, on this one night, this one unsuspecting night, as the duo sat around their dwindling fire, as Neptune reached the end of one of her tales, Uzume would get more than perhaps she had ever anticipated learning about her dear friend.
"So I'm totally captured right?" She continued, a story about how her capturing a bug accidentally made her an enemy of a powerful criminal syndicate, "But, thankfully for our dear protagonist, she was able to use her feminine charm to get her way with some of the guards~" She explained with a wink, before hearing a clamor from her pocket,
"Ugh! Don't remind me, I wish I could bleach my eyes of that memory!" The ever sassy voice of Crorie yelled out from her confines in the Nep-Note, as Neptune chuckled,
"Aww don't be like that Crosty~" However, across from her Uzume had a somewhat puzzled look on her face,
"Wait, what do ya mean by that, Nepsy? Don't tell me ya actually you know… been with someone?" Uzume asked, as Neptune looked at her a muddled look on her face,
"Well… yea… sometimes a girl has to do what she has to do…" She explained, as Uzume closed her eyes in contemplation, before she opened them once more,
"Ewwww! Nepsy! That's like, totally gross! Icky! Icky!" Uzume yelled out in her dreamy voice, and for once. Neptune didn't feel like laughing at it.
"It's not like I enjoyed it…" She said, her tone unreadable, "I had to do what I had to do…" as soon as the words reached the red haired tom-boy, her eyes widened as she gasped, coughing as she regrounded herself,
"Oh… sorry…." She eventually apologized, far more embarrassed by this iteration of the 'daydream theater' than she usually would be, "Nepsy… I…"
"Uzume?" Neptune cut her off as she asked, her tone now shaky, as Uzume worriedly looked over, "Do you think I'm pretty?" she asked, as Uzume was taken aback, looking at her, she had never seen Neptune look so… vulnerable. Like she desperately needed the answer to that question, as Uzume gulped, feeling she had no other option but to tell the truth,
"Nepsy… I think you're gorgeous. Why would you ask that?" She admitted, before getting to the heart of the issue, as Neptune's face morphed into a somber smile, pinching off the tears in her eyes,
"It actually makes me happy to hear that for once… It makes me happy to have you call me pretty, Uzume. Unlike when they would…" She explained, a wry laugh following her words,
"Nepsy, what are you talking about?" Uzume reasked, as Neptune bit her lip,
"Uzume… I…" She tried to start, before feeling the words catch in her throat, eventually feeling a pair of arms work themselves around her back, as she was brought into an embrace with her best friend,
"Nepsy. Talk to me. What kind of friend would I be if I wasn't there for you; like you were there for me at my lowest point. How uncool and crummy of a friend would that make me?" She reassured, as Neptune let out a deep breath,
"It's just… I never have felt like I belonged anywhere. My whole life… even from the beginning my parents didn't even want me! I was raised in an orphanage! Every time… It's been that people have wanted something from me, not actually wanting me. They… either want me for my body, or… for my Nep-Note… or Crosty's power… like Kurome… she threw me out like some crummy reboot after she got what she wanted from me"
"Nepsy…" It hurt to hear her always confident friend's confidence shattered like this, or, was it, that the confidence was a mask to hide how she felt the whole time?
"I know I'm pretty… but that's the only thing they see. That or they think I'm some cheap copy of my other self. I get it… she's a goddess, I love her to bits and pieces but…" She forced the tears down, biting her lip, as she forced out the next words, "I'm my own person damnit!" She yelled, taking shallow breaths as the tears began to fall down her face, only feeling the arms around her wrap even tighter
"Nepsy. Listen to me." Uzume fiercely began, feeling a nodding on her chest, she continued, "I know what it's like to feel like you don't belong anywhere. I was born with a power I couldn't control, I hurt my own people, instead of helping them, they called me a monster. I felt like it'd be better if history had forgotten that I existed at all. And you know what, Nepsy? I still feel like that sometimes…"
"Uzume…" Those words gutted Neptune, she had spent enough time around Kurome to know that it wasn't that Kurome was evil, she was just confused, and hurt,
"But you know what? Nepsy? It's you guys that give me a place to belong. You all are the reason I'm here at all. How am I supposed to just sit here and listen to you say all that crap about yourself when you're the one who gave me a place to belong in the first place! Huh!? You dummy! Don't you see! You belong here. Right here! By my side! I don't give a crap about all that other shit! I don't care about those other punks! If I saw em, I'd give it to em, no one treats Nepsy like that! So don't talk about yourself like that, cause I ain't that shallow, and I ain't here cause you're pretty or cause of that weird power or nothin, I'm here cause I wanna be with you!" Uzume yelled as Neptune felt her heart warm, gripping herself around the woman, she let out all the tears she had welled for all those countless years,
And by the end of it, long extinguished was their fire, and even if it no longer remained, as Neptune gently rested on Uzume, she felt like it still was her home for perhaps the first time in her whole life. And for the first time in her life…
She felt like she belonged and she never wanted to leave her side. For the rest of her life
