Yin and Yang Chp. 6

Chapter 6

Well, here it is ^_^ Not much to say beyond that except that this was a fun one to write. Oi, about time to do the disclaimer, too -__-' All creative properties belong to their respective owners. There, done. Enjoy!

"After a good night's rest, I'm happy to report I have nearly fully healed, and only the psychological scars remain!" Keroro chirped happily the next morning at the meeting.

"Where's that other fool, he has to be here, too," Giroro grumbled, clutching onto his desk.

"He said not to get him unless it was life or death, and even then he'd have to think about it," Kirere answered. "He said he had to recover from some kind of trauma."

"Heh, he's probably just slacking off again," Giroro snorted, and glanced over to Kirere; she was kicking back and forth while Keroro carried on, looking about and obviously bored. He didn't notice her slip out of the meeting while he began to yell at Keroro over the latest bound-for-failure invasion strategy.

"Kuku, looks as though we have someone missing," Kururu crept into the meeting at the tail end and took a seat in between Tamama and Giroro.

"Kururu-dono, I'm here," Dororo answered with a grin beneath his mask, pointing to himself.

"Not you," Kururu answered curtly.

"K-Kirere-chan!" Giroro jumped out of his seat and bolted out of the room.

"I.... I wasn't done...." Keroro muttered.

"Could you say, a worried mother hen?" Mois added, blinking at the dust cloud Giroro left in his wake.

"Andddd here!" Kirere grinned, snapping an arm on the figure into place and grinning at her handiwork. She had newspaper spread on the ground, Keroro's toolbox opened with the necessary tools spread out about her, and the beginnings of a Gunpla model in her hand. "..Mm, this looks like it works...."

"Kirere-chan!?"

"Giroro-san?" Kirere turned about, and saw the red Keronian leaned against the doorway to the underground base. "Are you okay?... You look like you're going to pass out!"

"Wh-wha...."

"Ge-Gerooo! Wh-what're you doing!?" Keroro yelped, running past Giroro and staring down at the child in disbelief.

"I... I saw it here, and it looked like a lot of fun...."

"I'm surprised you didn't hurt yourself on that, too," Tamama sighed as he walked out, followed by Dororo and Kururu.

"Please tell me you were at least following the directions!" Keroro moaned, picking up the box.

"It has directions?" Kirere asked earnestly.

"....You did this.... Without directions?" Giroro lifted up the partially-finished model from her hands and studied it.

"Well, Keroro-san did some already, and I just saw one piece that seemed to go into one another, and they kept adding up as I went along... I'm really sorry, Keroro-san, I'll make it up to you!"

"You didn't paint it...." was all Keroro answered with dully.

"Hrm," Giroro took a seat cross-legged on the ground and leaned over, placing a hand on top of her head and turning her around. Kururu got a bit of a chuckle out of this, and Tamama, Keroro, and Dororo watched as Giroro took his own gun and disassembled it on the ground out of her sight. He then stood and turned her back around.

"Now try to put that back together," he instructed. "But don't fire it," he added quickly. Kirere nodded, and began to take the pieces and place them in their proper spots. Giroro could have put the gun together quicker, but for someone who'd never seen the workings of the gun before Kirere did an exceptional job.

"Guess she's not totally useless, after all," Tamama said, breaking the silence while Giroro inspected her handiwork.

"Ku ku! Seems as though she has a mind for puzzles," Kururu chuckled.

"Seems in good condition," Giroro remarked, and looked down at her. "What else can you do that with, I wonder?"

"We'll see, as of now I have a few more things to do," Kururu answered, that quasi-ominous tone in his voice.

"He really likes to be left by himself a lot," Kirere said as she stood up next to Giroro.

"I'm all right with that," Giroro answered with a huff.

"See? You were good at something after all, Kirere-chan," Dororo stepped forward and patted the young girl on the head. "It was all a matter of believing in yourself!"

"Thanks, Doro-kun," answered Kirere with a smile.

'Doro... kun?' repeated in Giroro.s mind... That, paired up with the beaming smile Kirere gave the ninja... He knew that smile...

'You're joking,' his shoulders slumped a bit at his realization.

"Are you staying to help Keroro-san?" Kirere asked, then both looked over to Keroro, who was still focused on the Gunpla. He had balled himself into Dororo's familiar trauma-switch position.

".....I think he's got a lot of his plate, as is," Dororo answered with a nervous twitter of a laugh, and then jumped up to his ceiling exit. "Bye, Kirere-chan!"

"Bye, Dororo-kun!" Kirere waved the ninja off and looked to Giroro, and gave another happy smile.

'Too... Cute... She's too damn cute," Tamama's eye twitched a bit as he watched this exchange. And then his poor Sergeant...

"Get over it, you mainly complained about how you didn't even like that model, anyway," Giroro snapped in Keroro's direction as he led Kirere out of the room.

"....There isn't room for something like that, especially if all she's going to do is cause Gunso-san pain," Tamama's jealousy was beginning to boil over as he was left standing there with Keroro still in the same corner. 'We already have the cute one of the group, damn it!'

"Where're we going?" Kirere asked, following Giroro as quickly as he small legs could manage.

"Some place you'll find fun," Giroro answered, hopping onto his hovercraft and motioning for her to join him. Kirere hopped on, clutching about his waist, and Giroro took off.

"Wow...." she gasped at the view they now both had from high above the ground. "Look at how many people there are!"

"And Keron will rule them all one day soon," Giroro added, continuing to look forward toward the destination.

"Keron?"

"The planet where you... Well, your race is from," Giroro explained. "We're here to take this all over and claim it in the name of Keron."

"And your girlfriend's okay with that?"

"M-my what!?"

"The girl whose picture you have on your belt!" Kirere answered, not able to see Giroro's face growing increasingly red.

"T-t-that was there when I bought it!" Giroro sputtered. "I just never took the time to c-change the photo!... She's not my girlfriend, she's just another Pekoponian. And you shouldn't be looking in peoples' things without permission to begin with!"

"Sorry... But you like her?"

"We're here,: Giroro answered gruffly, landing the craft in the middle of a junkyard and switching both himself and Kirere to invisibility mode.

"W-wow, what is this place?!" Kirere gasped, looking about at the piles of junk. Giroro saw a rat and shot at it.

"Be careful here," he answered, putting the gun back at this side. "It should be quiet about this time of the day... It's primitive technology but it;s a... Start... Kirere-chan!"

"Wheee!" she went running over a car hood and jumping over the other side, then shuffling through the pieces she found there.

"Hehe," Giroro merely gave a small smile at this, bemused at the child's raw excitement.

He waited a good couple of hours before fetching Kirere from a project she had gotten to work on... He wasn't sure what it was supposed to be, but it had a great deal of wiring, and tubes going down either side of its long body, and Kirere seemed extremely proud of it.

"We'll go back another day," he reassured her as they headed home. She was clearly sad about leaving the junkyard behind, but didn't protest beyond a small moan.

"Whew!" Keroro wiped his forehead with his arm and smiled at his handiwork; tile floors smooth enough to see one's reflection in, carpet fluffy soft and with the sweet smell of cleaner prevalent. "Nothing like a full day's worth of work at barely the wage minimum to keep one's soul strong!"

"We're home," Giroro announced as he slid open the glass door, Kirere running in and nearly knocking him back.

"Keroro-san! I just wanted to say again... How sorry I was...."

"Gero gero! Don't worry about it, Kirere-chan," Keroro patted the tot on the head and smiled. "After a brief mental collapse I realized that Gunpla is a hard hobby for anyone to resist, and I had four of those same common models in reserve anyway!"

"You mean it?!"

"Of course," he answered with a saintly grin. "Hehe, now run along."

"Go get a bath," Giroro instructed her, and she gave a groan, but went rushing off to the bathroom all the same.

"Oh, childhood, what a pleasant time," Keroro laughed warmly, then opened his eyes. It was then he noticed the dirt on his hand from where he had patted Kirere on the head. “Gero?”

He then looked down at the tile, and the carpet, and followed the trail of tiny dirt footprints running from outside and towards the bathroom. "Eh.... eh... GEROOOO!"

"Hrm," Giroro turned his head a bit towards the living room.

"What was that?:Kirere looked past Giroro to try to get a better look, but then turned her attention back to Giroro as he spoke.

"A duck, probably. Get in, I'll get you towels," Giroro instructed, and she nodded and slid open the door, nearly slamming it shut as she noticed someone already in there.

"Kirere-chan?" Natsumi leaned forward a bit. "Was that you?"

"Yes!"

"You can come in," the door slid open again, and Natsumi gasped. "What happened to you? You're a mess!"

"Giroro-san took me to a really fun place, full of machines, and I got to build whatever I wanted!"

"Well, why don't you tell me about it while you wash off?" Natsumi suggested, and Kirere nodded.

"Kirere, here, I--" Giroro opened the door, towels in hand. His eyes went white and his face beet red as he locked eyes with Natsumi.

"What do you think you're DOING?!" Natsumi screeched, and flying out the window Giroro went.

"Woah... You're really strong...." Kirere gasped, clearly impressed by this show of strength, more so than by the fact Natsumi had made a field goal with Giroro into the next door neighbor's yard.

"That jerk," Natsumi grumbled, and sunk deeper down in the bath.

After a bath and making sure Giroro's injuries weren't too, too severe (he had recovered quickly and was still red in the face at the thought of what he had walked in on) Kirere walked back down to the lab, where Kururu was whiling away on yet another invention.

"Ku ku, did you and Giroro Senpai have a good time?"

"Yeah, it was great!" Kirere answered excitedly. "Except for about a half hour ago... Natsumi-san threw Giroro-san out of a window... And Keroro-san's been crying, but won't say why."

"Kukuku! Pekoponian trash seems to interest you a lot. Maybe if you keep showing progress I'll give you something Keronian to fiddle around with, show you what real power is."

"R-really?" she went to hug him, but suddenly remembered, and resisted the urge to do so.

Kururu glanced at a screen with the time clearly written and gave a small noise of interest, "Lunch time, ku ku..."

"It's eight at night," Kirere answered, puzzled.

"I keep... Strange hours," Kururu answered, followed by a chuckle.

"Well, I want some of what you're having."

"Heh, you couldn't take it, kuku," Kururu answered with a snort as he headed to the large pot he had set up in a corner of his lab. "This is a man's curry, not meant for some little tadpole... But if you insist on torturing yourself..." he passed her a plate and took a seat in his chair after making a plate for himself; he was a bit surprised as the child wolfed down the spicy curry without barely giving a blink. "Kuku, if you can eat that and like it, I can guarantee you'll never go hungry."

Kirere sat cross-legged on the ground by the chair as she ate, looking at all of the different screens along with Kururu, who sat there blankly, the images reflecting off of the lenses of his glasses. She gave a yawn after setting her plate on the floor and sat back.

"Tch, it's your bedtime," Kururu announced as he saw this. "I have some work to get to, myself, and I don't need a child running about, kukuku. You'll only be in my way."

He took his plate of curry with him as she trudged to her bedroom, giving another yawn. Her tired eyes opened as she walked into the room, and saw it had been completely overhauled, and was now a proper eleven-year-old girl's room, done in mainly pinks and purples.

"Wow, you did this?!"

"You couldn't have slept in the crib," Kururu answered, and noticed her fidgeting. "...If you really have to get it out of your system, hug this...." he revealed a yellow hand puppet, and she did just this while he stifled a shudder.

"Good night, Kururu-san!"

"It's still early; we'll see how it goes," he answered in his usual mumble, turning out of the bedroom.

It was a few hours later Kirere woke up to use the bathroom, and on her trip back she decided to see exactly what he hadn't wanted her around for. There was no great invention anywhere to be seen, only a passed out scientist slumped over his worktable, small, insignificant gadgets all about him. She grabbed a blanket from his hammock and tossed this over him; he stirred a bit and she took a step back, then took a few more cautious steps forward and removed his glasses, setting these on the table in front of him.

"Hrm..." he looked sound asleep enough. She waved a hand in front of his face a few times; nothing. She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, having to rise on her tiptoes to do so. He fidgeted a bit again, and his light snoring sounded a lot like his laugh. She broke away from him, and walked back to her room, "Good night, Kururu-san."