With a poorly hidden forlorn expression, Giroro accompanied Natsumi to the front door.

"Giroro, I'll be fine, you don't have to stick to my side" Natsumi said, smiling amiably at the red frog, though he still took the hint and scooted away slightly.

"You sure this is what you want?" He asked quietly, aware that this was not the first time he had asked.

"Yes, Dad" Natsumi chuckled, stopping at the hallway mirror to touch her hair up a bit "look, I appreciate the sudden concern for my safety, but I promise you I'll be fine. I've battled and defeated so much stuff with you stupid frogs, what's one teenage boy going to do?"

Giroro sighed and nodded, not wanting to annoy her further by pointing out that her guard would be down on the date.

Finally, the knock on the door Natsumi had been waiting for occurred.

"He's here!" she smiled, her cheeks getting pink.

"Later frog. Don't wanna keep him waiting!" she trilled as she slid into her shoes and left the building.

"Be… safe…" Giroro muttered under his breath, not moving from the doorway until it had slowly swung shut by itself. He should have been glad of his position. He had just boldly walked the main obstruction to the invasion out of the house, into the arms of the man he secretly knew she would be with all along. But all the corporal felt was pain.

Giroro turned from the door, vainly hoping that he would forget about it, and trudged slowly down the hall, and down the hatch that led to the basement. He felt like locking himself in an empty room and venting, something he couldn't do in the back yard with protective cat in hearing range.

Passing through Keroro's room, he sighed, glad, yet also a little disappointed that it was empty. He didn't need any more distractions.

Weaving through the many hallways in the underground base, Giroro concentrated on maintaining his steady breathing.

'Mum! Mum, guess what!'

Aki turned from the sink where she was chopping up some baby carrots and paid full attention to her uncharacteristically excited daughter.

'He confessed oh my gosh oh my gosh…!'

'Slow down, sweetie'

Natsumi took a deep breath before starting over.

'Mutsumi. He took me to the roof of the school and confessed that he liked me! He was so embarrassed, it was adorable!'

Aki chuckled at the childish look of happiness and excitement on her daughter's face. This event had been a long time coming.

'So we're dating now!' Natsumi finished, with a wide grin that barely fit on her face.

'I'm so happy for you, darling!' Aki cooed, coming over to her daughter to hug her, laughing at the excited squeals that were muffled by her chest.

Giroro dropped the gun he was holding and almost shot the cat.

Giroro shook his head vigorously. Those thoughts were imprinted in his memory, seemingly branded on the back of his eyelids. He couldn't get Natsumi's face out of his mind. The face that he had always dreamed would someday be for him.

Absently, he walked into the nearest room, the doors making a quiet 'shh' sound as he approached. Without taking in where he was, he retreated to a corner, opened his mouth to yell but closed it again. Instead, he simply sat silently between an odd limbo where he couldn't scream or cry. He eventually fell asleep that way.

"Giroro! Giroro, get up, you're impeding the view!"

The red frog rubbed his eyes and sat up groggily, his mind still sleepy. He could recognise that scratchy voice no matter what state of consciousness he was in.

"What view, idiot?"

An indignant huff followed this slurred question.

"No need to be so snappy. What are you even doing, sleeping in my sacred shrine?"

Giroro rubbed his eyes and looked around. Gundam models lined every wall, glass cases in neat rows in the middle of the room.

Yup, this was Keroro's 'shrine' alright. Giroro decided not to reply, not wanting to explain what happened.

Unluckily for him, Keroro seemed to have chosen this moment to actually take note of the atmosphere, as he sat down across from the corporal and eyed him curiously for a moment before seemingly working it out

"This is about Natsumi, isn't it?" Keroro asked.

All the memories of the night before and the fortnight leading up to it suddenly bombarded Giroro's thoughts all at once, and Giroro was rendered unable to give Keroro a verbal response, lest the lump in his throat got too much.

"Giroro?"

The red frog glared angrily up at the sergeant. Couldn't that idiot take the hint that he didn't want to talk to anyone?

"…buddy?"

For some reason, this caused Giroro to relax a little, even allowing so stray tears to roll down his face.

"It was obvious right from the start, wasn't it? I'm such a stupid fool for kidding myself for so long" Giroro growled quietly, taking his head in his and releasing a stressed puff of air. Keroro waited until Giroro seemed a little calmer before speaking again.

"Love is the strongest of emotions, Giroro. It can definitely get in the way of rational thought" Keroro said, carefully leaving out the parts where he'd use this to his advantage for many invasion schemes.

Giroro looked up at him a second, almost considering the green frog as a form of salvation before snapping his eyes shut and turning away.

"I'm not about to take counselling from you, idiot" Giroro huffed stubbornly. Keroro sighed before lifting the lid off of the model box he had with him.

"Well I'm not going anywhere. You wanna stay, feel free" Keroro said as he neatly laid out each sheet of parts.

Giroro would have normally left, but he just didn't have the energy, so he sat slumped against the wall, watching Keroro as he began to build yet another model to add to his countless dioramas.

Silently, he watched as the sergeant blocked out the outside world in an automatic fashion before gently clipping the parts from the frames. When he was done, he laid each piece in chronological order and painted them with professional looking model paint, blowing on them and inspecting them as they dried.

Watching his leader painstakingly assembled the miniaturised robot replicas should have annoyed him, but he just didn't have the energy. Instead, he found it sort of soothing and found the clicks of all the pieces fitting in the spot they were built for to be very satisfying.

He moved his gaze to Keroro's face. It was fixed with intent focus on the work he was doing, he wasn't even humming obnoxiously like he did with chores. Clearly, this was a thing he loved to do, and it did get in the way of the invasion, just as the red corporal's crush on Natsumi had hindered them. His understanding of his green friend seemed to grow somewhat at this realisation. Maybe they weren't all that different after all.

When Keroro had attached the final piece, he gently set it further forward on the newspaper he was working on so he could get a better view of it. Giroro even found himself feeling pleased for him.

"Giroro" Keroro said suddenly.

Giroro looked up at the green frog, who was still inspecting his newest creation.

"Building this before you now… I was thinking how hard it would be to have to stop"

Giroro sat up a little straighter, showing he was paying attention. Keroro remained silent for a few moments.

"I… I don't know how to help you. I'm no genius, or therapist… but if there's something… anything I can do to help you out… just tell me" Keroro continued awkwardly. Clearly, Keroro saw their obsessions as similar things also. Giroro smiled slightly.

"You got another one of those… Gundam things?"

A/N

This is freaking dorky and awkward. I had writers block, so the second this came into my head, I had to type it up XD There's prolly loads wrong with this, but whatevs mayn. Just enjoy these two being total bros XD

If you don't know, 'Mutsumi' is Saburo. I don't like the sound of his anime name so I just stuck with his manga one XD