I do not own Cave Story. Studio Pixel does.

The island fell. And then the fall was stopped. An ancient mage died and much evil was purged from the world. And the place that had seen so much bloodshed was finally at peace. This was all thanks to the courageous work of two heroes who had departed the island in a blaze of glory and on the back of a creature whose classification baffled biologists and technicians alike.

Their search for a new place to live, one with a nice view, was interrupted by nightfall. It wasn't going entirely well anyway. Most places with good views were mountains and thus tended to be rather lacking in certain comforts such as, for example, furniture, while being abundant in certain other things, such as sheer drops hundreds of feet tall. At one point the option of going back where they came from came up, since it's hard to find a place with a better view than a flying island. However, this notion was very firmly vetoed by Quote, who insisted that he would prefer to be able to get from one building to another without having to fight his way through a swarm of monster bats.

And now they were resting around a campfire. Well, Quote and Curly were, anyway. Barlog had departed several minutes ago and could now be faintly heard crashing around the woods. Though he wasn't the brightest bulb in the socket, he was certainly clever enough to realize that his friends, weren't the usual kind of robot, and could definitely benefit from some time alone with each other. Besides, he thought he saw a squirrel.

Now Quote was sitting down and when Curly looked at his eyes, she could see the fire reflected in them. She decided this would be an excellent time to get to know him a little bit better.

"So, Quote…" she started.

"Hm?" Quote looked up, and now his eyes reflected Curly's face.

"Why are you always so quiet?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it seems like you hardly ever say a word. And you're always so focused. You never just stop and smell the roses." Curly insisted.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that."

"Well, I would." Curly was enjoying teasing him now. "I bet the whole time you were on the island, you never took the time to do anything fun, or…or weird."

"That's not true!" Quote feebly tried to defend himself.

"Oh, yeah? Prove it!" Curly demanded, grinning.

"Okay."

That was not exactly the reaction Curly expected, but Quote was already rummaging through his things. A few seconds later he brought out an object that would prove his spontaneous nature once and for all.

Curly stared forward, her face frozen in shock, except for her eyes, which were gradually growing larger. She was looking at a pair of yellow-green panties with a cute little insignia. The thing was, though, they were familiar panties. And it was her insignia.

With a monumental effort of will she managed to tear her eyes away from the little heart and stared at Quote.

"The weird thing is I didn't even go looking for them." Quote explained. "I just noticed a crawlspace and followed it because I thought there might be some missiles there…"

"Why would there be missiles?" Curly interrupted.

"I don't know. Why was the Bubbler behind a fireplace? People put things in weird places. Anyway, when I reached the end I just found these, and I just stared at them for five minutes, because that is a really bizarre place to keep clothes." Quote finished.

"That's a long story." Curly explained, or rather failed to. "But why'd you keep them?"

"Honestly? I just wanted something to remember you by. I mean, that was before you gave me the Iron Bond, and what with Hell and whatnot, there was never a really good time to give them back since then."

"And why did you want to remember me?" Curly questioned.

"Are you kidding? I knew right away you were special."

"Special?"

"And pretty." Quote offered.

"Oh." Curly blushed furiously, putting her underwear away.

"Okay, so I guess you really aren't a stick-in-the-mud after all. So why are you so quiet?"

"Well, after I woke up I didn't really have a lot to say. Everyone else seemed to know more than me. So I shut up and listened. And after that-well, sometimes it's good to be silent. Keep a few things to myself, you know?" Quote explained.

"Oh, to have secrets? That makes sense. But you'll tell them to me, right?" Curly asked.

"Of course. I trust you."

"Really?" Oh, Curly knew that already, but hearing it was pleasant.

"Absolutely. I trust you completely."

"Completely?"

"Yep!"

At that moment Curly felt something being gently thrust into her hands. Looking down she found that it was the Spur, or as Quote always called it, the Almighty Spur. His favorite weapon, capable of dealing massive amounts of damage. Quote then walked a little bit off and sat down with his back turned to her, cupping his hands into his ears.

"You can shoot me now if you like." He offered.

Quote didn't really think Curly would shoot him, of course. After all, she could have killed him just as easily through negligence or incompetence. But she didn't and she wouldn't. He knew that much. That's what their Iron Bond meant-that they could trust each other with their lives, not just once or twice, but at least twenty times a minute. But he wasn't prepared for what she did do either.

Quote grunted as Curly slammed into his back and wrapped her hands around him. Her weight threw him totally off balance and they tumbled across the ground for some distance before settling down, Curly's arms still around him. Her grip had the strength of iron in it. Still, if Quote wanted to he could break free. But the fact that she wanted to hold him bound him in a way no physical force could.

Still, after a few minutes he decided to make a witty remark.

"This is nice, but don't you think I carried you enough for a while?"

"Huh?"

"It's just that I tend to carry you…a lot." Quote explained.

"Hey, that's not my fault!" Curly protested indignantly.

"Of course not." Quote answered soothingly.

"I just hope you're not suggesting that you're a better warrior than I am." Curly glared at him suspiciously.

"I would never do that. Even though the one time we fought I kicked your butt and it seems like I spent a lot of time lugging things around to cure you from something or other."

"So you do think you're better than me!"

"Well…maybe a little." Quote admitted.

Curly glared at him for a while before starting to grin.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

…

Curly dived as several missiles passed overhead and opened return fire, forcing Quote to duck behind a boulder. As her machine gun methodically chipped, she tried to figure out her next move. She didn't have anything that could get him from behind there at this range, but maybe if she got a little closer…

Quote jumped high into the air. As Curly tried to raise her stream of bullets, he leveled and fired his gun. Curly closed her eyes, preparing for impact…

And felt a rubber ducky smack against her forehead. She picked it up and stared at it and then at Quote.

"A leveled up Nemesis? Really?"

"Hey, we said the first one to get a hit wins. We never said it had to hurt."

"Okay, fine, you win. You are the better warrior. I just hope I wasn't too much of a burden to you."

"Of course not, Curly. I couldn't have done it without you. Any of it, really. I mean that." Quote looked at her.

"Thanks." Curly smiled. Her partner did know how to make her feel better.

"And what's more, I'm not even tired of carrying you!"

And with that Quote deftly knocked Curly's footing out from under her before picking her up into his arms.

"No. Hold on." Curly struggled out of his arms.

"What's wrong?" Quote asked, concerned.

"Nothing. It's just that you were right before. You've carried me long enough." And at that moment she replicated the maneuver Quote used on her earlier, ending up with him cradled in her arms. "It's my turn to do the carrying now."

Quote considered resisting, but it didn't seem worth it. So he just let Curly carry him back to the campfire, where they sat side by side.

"That was…fun." Curly remarked.

"Yeah. I'm really glad we're both alive." Quote answered.

"I hope to one day live in a world where that statement would be considered weird."

They both laughed briefly. Then they turned their heads and stared into each other's eyes. For another minute everything was completely still and quiet, except for the crackling of the fire. Then the two robots leaned forward simultaneously, getting closer until their lips touched. After holding the kiss for a few seconds, they pulled apart again, blushing.

"That was fun too." Said Quote.

"Yeah. It was."

"Huzzah!"

Balrog crashed through the bushes, looking extremely satisfied with himself. He looked around, surveying the campsite. He saw his friends blushing, the trees heavily damaged by gunfire and explosives, and a small clump of grass still smoldering from the fireball. He decided none of that was particularly unusual, so he ambled back over to the fire and the rest of the evening was spent discussing travel plans.