For the second time in one afternoon-gone-on-evening, two CPUs found themselves sitting in front of the character creation screen of a certain fighting game. Noire was behind the wheel, just as she had been before, and as she had originally, it was her companion that she was making into a character on the screen before her. With the rest of the cast of fighters already made... which was namely just her opponent to be... this time around, things were a little less... hot blooded, so to speak.

Even so, Neptune couldn't help but notice Noire was going at it with the same quiet focus she had the first time.

It was perplexing, in a way. Hadn't she just made one of these? What was she doing, not copying the other one and moving on with things? Why did she insist on making this one from scratch again? Besides for some clothes, if Noire had a change of heart about those, Neptune was pretty sure it was going to turn out exactly the same.

Because Noire seemed like she had an eye for detail, and more than that, she seemed to somehow really have an eye for...

... Hm.

Neptune found that train of thought a rather precarious one, and did not pursue it further. There was fog ahead. The path was not clear enough for her to dare risk it. It might lead to the secret final boss, and she still needed to deal with the first one before she could go after the true ending.

Yep. That was the story she would stick with, she decided.

And so, once more, they just sat like that for a while. Two goddesses and their game. Nothing weird about that... except that it was weird that there wasn't anything weird about it...? That was... weird!

Neptune's unusual thoughts aside, comfortable silence fell over them once more, save the occasional comment here and there, such as...

"Hey, Neptune, if you wore glasses, what color frames would you wear?" Noire had opened up the menu for facial features and accessories on the game's trusty editor. Naturally, things like glasses, were among the choices. If Noire was hoping to get some information for any other purposes, for her own personal research perhaps, now would be the time after akk.

However...

"Whatever ones came with a funny mustache nose." Neptune smiled brightly as she answered.

"Ohhhh! Forget it, there's nothing like that here!" Noire should have known it would be like that! Why had she even bothered...

... or...

Noire suddenly found something tapping her on the shoulder.

"Hey, you got my eyes wrong this time." To her surprise, it was Neptune — and in extremely close proximity at that.

"I did?" Noire looked from the screen to Neptune and back to the screen again. Specifically, she wanted to keep her eyes on the screen. Specifically, she wanted to scoot away, because Neptune had gotten in her space all of a sudden, and she would rather like to be in her own space right now, but just as she thought this-

"Yeah, look." When did Neptune get bold enough to put her hands on shoulders like this?!

"No, I'm pretty sure..." Noire averted her gaze. Did Neptune have any idea what she was doing...?

Then again... Noire shot a look at the screen. She wanted this to be absolutely perfect. If Neptune did too, then it would be all the better. Why was she getting distracted?

"Come over here and look. at. me."

"..."

"Well?"

"... You're right, I should've gone one shade over..." Noire nodded. Neptune let her go after her resignation, and despite herself, Noire offered a small smile to the other CPU. She was glad. She wanted this to be just right. "Thanks."

... or...

Neptune was wondering if Noire knew that she was working on a very light tan when she heard the CPU in question's voice suddenly. She wondered why she had been wondering that.

"Can I put you in something like that dress you wore after we all made that truce?" Noire was looking at Neptune head on with this one. She hadn't asked this question the first time, had she...

Naturally, this meant she just had to ask about it.

"Huh? That's pretty specific, Noire. How come?"

"Well, I want it to be like Kei is interrupting something and you're fed up, so you..." Noire trailed off. Would Neptune pick up on the rest? Who could say?

"Ooooh, you've got a whole scenario in mind?!" Neptune's reaction made Noire wonder if Neptune ever thought about anything.

"N-Neptune?"

"Okay, do it, do it! I wanna see!"

... it was that sort of thing.

It was simple, comfortable conversation about... well... nothing in particular, was it?

All the while, Neptune watched Noire work. She had watched Noire play games before, and at this point, she had watched Noire make a Neptune before too. Just like then, there was something that seemed to pull her in that she couldn't quite... capture, exactly. At this point, as far as Neptune was concerned, she could puff out her chest in pride. She didn't need to beat Kei — the fact Noire had spent this much time on not one, but two Neptunes, yet had put together the Kei avatar in five minutes was all the victory Neptune felt she needed in her book.

When she started feeling like she needed that victory... to be totally truthful, she wasn't sure, but now that she had it, she was perfectly content relaxing and watching Noire work her magic. And as soon as the game got underway, she'd be able to make all the remarks she'd been holding back during this process too.

If she had to describe the feeling she had right now... It really was cozy. Maybe even more than just that.

It was like...

Neptune bit her lip. It occurred to her that she had been staring at Noire for an absurdly long amount of time now. She had been enjoying it too. Was she turning into a creeper? Was she plotting something behind her own back? Was there mind control afoot?!

... It almost like...

... What was it Plutie had said again...?

"I'd only been for something, huh..."

"Eh?" Completely unaware of the inner turmoils going on within the CPU on the couch with her, Noire blinked. She blinked many times actually. She suddenly felt like a lot of time had passed — looking at the avatar that would be one of their characters in her (using the Neptune avatar) and Kei's Epic Final Fight For Neptune's Heart For Real (Because Neptune Messed It Up) (TM) (Trademark Pending) later, though, she knew she had not wasted the time. Although if she didn't know better, she could have sworn she had heard Neptune speak up. She spared a quick glance to her side to chance a look at Neptune. She seemed to be thinking pretty seriously over there. "Did you say something?"

Their eyes locked.

Noire, for the world not having a clue that anything had changed between now and when they had had a serious discussion about why Neptune's avatar couldn't have horns earlier.

Neptune, slowly looking like a light bulb was going off over her head, its power source the events of the evening up to then — and perhaps many, many more before even those.

"Hey... Hey, Neptune, is... everything okay...?" Noire started off speaking slowly. Neptune was looking at her in a way that was both familiar and alien. The only thing that came to mind was that Neptune was probably sick — very rarely had she seen Neptune sick, after all. "We can stop if you're not feeling-"

Without warning, Neptune exploded.

Figuratively of course.

"Everything's great, Noire!" Bursting into a mile wide smile, then going a few dozen meters further for good measure, Neptune scooted more feet closer than they had been apart to begin with and draped an arm around Noire's shoulder. Her eyes were lit up with something that Noire had never seen before. "No, actually, everything's better than great — it's Neptastic!"

"Wh-Wh-Wha- G-Get off of me!" Lighting up like a Pongsmas tree, Noire struggled to escape the sudden, unexpected affection(?) of the other CPU. What was going on here? What had she done to deserve this? Was this some kind of annoying reverse punishment?! Had someone replaced Neptune with an alien?! And did any of that matter when she was still so cloooooooseeeee...?! "W-W-Why are you so clingy all of a sudden!?"

Neptune looked at Noire innocently.

"Didn't you hear the ding?" Neptune nodded seriously, as if what she was saying would explain everything. "Our Lily Rank just went up!"

"What!?" Noire didn't have to check their status to know that that couldn't be true because it had hit the max years ago to get some true ending or another... R-Right? "I didn't hear about this!"

"Ding!" was Neptune's response.

Despite the fact that Neptune was, essentially on top of her at this point, and that had her burning bright red, Noire couldn't help but stop to give the other CPU a look.

"N... N... Neptune..." Deep breaths, Noire. Deep breaths. There's no one on top of you, she told herself. There are no legs on top of yours, she told herself. There's no arm around her shoulder, she told herself. There's no face way too close, she told herself. "What... was that supposed to be? That... That 'Ding!' just now..."

"Our Lily Rank going up." Neptune explained simply, looking for the world like it was the most obvious thing ever.

"Eh?" Noire froze. She had seen Neptune's mouth- Their sprites moved for goodness sakes! "But you did tha-"

"Ding!"

"Hey, sto-"

"Ding!"

"I-I can see you-"

"Ding!"

"N-Neptu-"

"S-Seriousl-"

"Ding!"

"I mean i-"

"Ding! Ding! Ding!"

"Th-Th-They don't even go that high-"

"Ding!"

"H-Hold on a-"

"Ding!"

"L-Listen! W-We're not even grinding it, so that's not possible-"

"Grinding? Oh, that's easy! We can 'grind' if you want us to!"

"GET OFF OF ME!"

That may have been the line.

In Neptune's defense, she would point out Noire had been the one to assume what kind of 'grinding' Neptune had been thinking about doing in that moment, whereas Neptune had yet to do anything yet to give Noire enough evidence yet that could yet definitively point to her as the one who was going to do that yet at that time!

Sadly, Neptune would never go on to become the lawyer she always had dreamed of being.

Even if Noire really had been wrong about Neptune's intentions...

Arms flailing desperately in the air, secretly hoping she could take Noire down with her, Neptune found herself falling flat on her butt — and alone at that? what a bummer! had the goddess of cliches finally forsaken her?! — after being unceremoniously shoved off of Noire's lap... which she may have climbed completely on top of at some point or another. And Noire, ohhhh, she was so red right now — she was glaring at Neptune and she just looked mad. She was fuming!

Neptune wasn't sure what she did wrong, though, honest she wasn't! Had she gotten too bold too fast? Should she have started with some pudding? ... O-kaaaaay, even she could see where she might have gone wrong.

She should have changed into a maid costume first, right? Noire was into stuff like that, right?

"You... You..." Fists clenched tight at her sides, Noire was wrapped in shining light. When it faded, though her furiously steaming red face remained, her clothes had been exchanged for processors and her face was of the goddess Black Heart. "You jerk! I'm going home!"

Oh... Oh. Neptune understood what had happened. Neptune understood it all now.

So the goddess of cliches had chosen to side with Noire tonight, huh...?! She was siding with Noire?! After all of their years of happiness together?!

That traitor! That... skank!

... R-Regardless...!

Neptune wasn't that goofy to get so caught up in her monologue that she was going to ignore what happened. It really seemed like she really had pushed too far, huh? Noire was gonna have to get used to that, even if she didn't like Neptune too, but for now Neptune had to-

"Wait, Comfy Heart, don't have a meltdown or anything, your eyes will turn yellow and you won't be able to fly home! I was just teas-"

"Home!" Like she was so flustered she couldn't even completely repeat herself, Noire gave Neptune the biggest, fiercest, angriest glare she could muster, and made for the window.

For her part in things, Neptune at least had the brains not to chase after her with her so mad at this point... but she sure wasn't intending to apologize for it. She did kind of want to call up Plutie and tell her she owed her some pudding after all, though... Maybe. Then again, she didn't want to have to get into the fight on the game that had led up to this with Plutie of all people... There'd be nothing left of her to tease Noire with if she did that...

Neptune shook her head. There was so much going on inside right now, phone calls could wait!

Despite the loss of the black haired... well, right now she was silver haired since she had transformed so she could fly away, but... really that was besides the point... Right! So despite the loss of the dalmatian haired whatever Noire was to her now, Neptune was still grinning as she watched the other CPU fly off into the distance. All things considered, she was feeling... good. Really good. Really, really, really good.

Like... Like... Even better than the one time Plutia had "punished" her, and instead of being scared she had come out of it trying to figure out how to get her to do it again good.

That good.

"Noire better be ready, 'cause she may be sick of Nep-Nep now, but when I get through with her, she'll be begging for more of this love machine!" Clapping her hands together mischievously, her eyes twinkled — no, the air itself began twinkling around Neptune. "She's got no idea what's coming for her!"

Little did Neptune know that in reality, she was the one who had no idea.

Needless to say, it was a good thing that that attitude was one of the many, many things Noire liked about her.

Noire groaned.

She rolled over and threw her fourth pillow across her bedroom. Not even the poofy smack it made against the wall brought her pleasure.

Every time she got comfortable... She started thinking, and that was the last thing she wanted right now. Grimacing, she called out another one out of her inventory and grabbed it, hugging it close. She wasn't sure if she wanted to yell into it or what, but she wasn't going to get any sleep if this kept up!

All she could think about that night was Neptune.

It figured, really, because Neptune was exactly what she had gone to sleep early in the hopes of not thinking about her anymore.

"Why was she doing that anyway? Did she... Did she figure me out and decide to tease me about it?" Noire bit her lip. She didn't like that idea... but knowing Neptune — and she felt like, after how much they had shared with each other, today in particular, she truly could say she did know the other CPU... m-moderately well... N-Not that it was like she wanted to or a-anything, just... Whatever! "No... I don't think she'd do that."

There was a brief pause.

"... Probably..."

Sighing, Noire rolled back over and closed her eyes, thinking back to the day's events... Not just the end, the end that she had run from at that, but all of it.

It really had been fun, hadn't it?

Weird and... a little too touchy feely too fast for her, at least she thought it was, but... it had been fun.

"..."

Slowly, at long last, Noire began to drift off to sleep. Positive feelings and good memories tended to do that to most people, and Noire was no exception.

She didn't go off to the land of dreams without murmuring something, however. She didn't even realize herself she had spoken aloud, yet it most certainly left her lips as the curled upwards into a smile and she faded away to sleep.

"... Ding..."

end