Here it is. The end of Crimson Roses. There's a few people I'd like to thank:

Victorious Loser and Ermiene for beta reading.

Lacingaquanoba for helping me with inspiration

Cheese for tossing me suggestions

And Philip Quast and the Orkila staff for providing me with an ending.

Epilogue

"Wait! I'm not finished with you yet, Garuru!"

"No. I did not plan to kill you. That was my great failing."

A beat.

"You shot at the missiles, and not at me."

"Taruru, Tororo, Zoruru! The Garuru platoon is not yet strong enough to defeat the Keroro platoon. We withdraw from Pokopen."

"But wait, Garuru!"

"Mission accomplished."

"Garuru…"

The sharp thorn pricked my hand, bringing me out of as the reverie that forced me to relive one of the hardest conversations with my brother.

For once, I could finally appreciate my brother's kind thoughts as I held the crimson rose that Giroro had sent me. I sucked on the small, bleeding wound that the thorn had left when I noticed a note that had been tied around the stem.

The note was short, yet those words made me swell with happiness.

I hope we can get together for New Years, Keroro is giving us the few days before and after off. And by the way-- "Think of Me". I saw it on Broadway.

Happy birthday Nii-chan. Love, Giroro.

I dumped out the box to find a folded Les Miserables poster signed by the "Dream Cast". My eyes welled with tears.

"He folded it, God damn it!" I shouted as I tried to smooth out the creases. But it was the thought that counted. "Thank you, Giroro," I muttered as I stepped outside for my evening stroll along a small winding path through the garden.

The night was crisp and chilly out in the rural country where I took my residence. The night was clear but lacked a moon.

My eyes adjusted to the dark as I placed earbuds in my ears and turned on my iPod.

The song that greeted my ears couldn't be more fitting for my birthday present from Giroro. The deep, clear voice of Philip Quast was symphonious as his bold solo reached my ears.

"And if you fall as Lucifer fell, the flame, the sword!

Stars, in your multitudes, scarce to be counted,

Filling the darkness with order and light.

You are the sentinels, silent and sure

Keeping watch in the night,

Keeping watch in the night.

You know your place in skies,

You hold your course and your aim!

And each in your season returns and returns

And is always the same. "

Inspired, I sat on the bench beside the crimson roses and looked up. The sight that greeted me was breath-taking, overwhelming, and strangely beautiful.

The stars.

The stars were peppered all over the sky, filling the deep blue background with little pinpoints of light. I hardly dared to breathe—it was as if I was staring at the canvas of a portrait, and any motion would send a star off kilter. I saw the especially bright specks that signified planets.

It was so beautiful, tears were rolling down my cheeks as I tried name several different stars in the Keron system—some others in Gamma star cloud, but I was scanning the skies for one planet: Pokopen.

I could not hope to know all the names of the stars speckled all over the night sky; I could never hope to know just where Betelgeuse sparkled in the sky.

But I knew one thing—that night, Giroro and I looked at the same stars.