DAY ONE, DAY ONE: INTRODUCTION

"I have always been taught that you Pekoponians panic when greeted with someone not from your world."

"Ha. Ha-ha-ha. No. I'm panicking."

"You are?"

"Oh, yeah. On the inside."

I smiled weakly as I struggled to set down the glass of water. I'm sure that that thing could hear the ice cubes jingle inside it.

"I see."

You know those really cliché alien movies where like a spaceship would come crashing down through some poor idiot's attic and cause some sort of havoc? That's always hilarious. You laugh at the idiot who has to endure flipping over the sight of an extra-terrestrial (often resulting in screaming, smacking the thing, or attempting to call the FBI, though, in my case, was simply inviting it over for tea), attempting to hide it away from the eyes of their peers and/or family members, and try to get it back safely home. E.T. go home.

Only it kinda stops being funny when it's you. In my case, me.

Okay, stop laughing. I'm serious.

Alright, maybe I don't have an attic, but I have a park. Which was freaking conveniently empty (although I really wasn't that surprised; it was about 50 degrees… which is cold by our standards).

I wonder if it still would've been my problem if I decided not to adhere to my whining dog's objections about going out for a sudden urge to walk. She's spoiled, sue us.

The purple alien gulped down its second glass of water, and I just kinda watched in fascination.

"What?" It asked, wiping his lips with the back of his hand.

"O-oh, nothing!" I said, waving my hands nervously. "N-nothing at all."

"May I get some more, if you don't mind?"

"S-sure," I stammered. I grabbed the cup and hurried over to the freezer, pulled it open, dunked in the ice, filled in the water, and slid it back to the purple (…frog?) alien. It seemed almost amused, its head following my every rigid movement.

"Why is it so frogging dry here?" It grumbled, downing its third glass.

"Welcome to Arizona," I said automatically. I covered my mouth with one hand and mumbled several apologies, all the while praying that the thing didn't shoot me or something.

"I suppose we should begin the introductions, then," It said, putting down the empty cup. "I am…" It hesitated. "Garuru."

"Garuru?" I was quiet. "Um. Okay. Hi. I'm Johnny Cadet."

It gave me a solemn look.

"…Would you mind answering a question of mine?"

"Um. Sure. Shoot."

"…You don't want me to do that."

"….Right. So, um. The question?"
"Are you female or male?"

I blinked at it in bewilderment. Sure, I may be a little short, with thick brown hair and large brown eyes, but I thought it would've been obvious. I would've also appreciated a little bit of a meandering way to ask an awkward question. But I don't have the guns, so…. "I'm a guy."

It grunted. "I figured. You Pekoponians all look the same to me."

"…Would you mind answering the same question to me?"

Garuru perked a brow. "I am male."

"Good. Just… making sure." I gestured to his glass, to which he slid it back over to me, and I repeated the process the third time in a row. After I gave it to him, I decided to get several more glass cups and fill them with water to help the guy out, and to, you know, prevent me from embarrassing myself. I swear that I almost slipped on the stupid tile just to get him the first cup of water.

He was fidgeting with a device, occasionally smacking it against the wooden table.

My curiosity killed whatever sense of modesty I had. "What are you doing?"

"I'm signaling my team members," He said with a certain degree of concern. "It seems they're lost."

"…Wait. There's more of you?"

"Yes." Garuru glanced up at me. "You seem surprised."

"I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?"

I blushed. "I'm sorry. I do that a lot."

"Do all Pekoponians apologize for apologizing?"

"N-no. Mostly it's just me."

Garuru grunted. "You remind me of someone, though I can't remember his name…"

I shrugged a little and gazed over to the glass door on my left, the one that overlooked the huge backyard. "So… um. Not trying to be rude, but are you planning on crashing here?"

"No. I crashed at the park. You saw that."

I laughed, but stopped and reddened when I remember he was there. "Sorry. I tend to laugh a lot."

"You're fine."

"I meant, stay here. Were you planning on staying here?"

Garuru mused on that for a while before he nodded.

I rose both my eyebrows. "Seriously?" I didn't think he'd actually want to... I asked out of politeness. I mean, alien. Hello! What's wrong with me? Why am I suddenly treating this situation as if it were normal?

"I was originally planning to sleep in my ship, but… with this dry air, it's certainly not possible."

"About your ship…"

Garuru waved his hand dismissively as he reached for his seventh cup of water. "It's fine. It's invisible to the Pekoponian eye."

Okay, that made sense. He said he crashed, though I didn't see any space ship (which, admittedly, is a bit of a bummer; I always wondered what a ship from a different universe/world looked like). He had cursed that something of his was broken, because I could clearly see him, and he could clearly see me seeing him; my eyes no doubt wider, my face no doubt paler, and my dog checking him out like he was some sort of mysterious purple fire hydrant.

Ah, whatever the case…

"I'll get my room ready. Are you fine with a sleeping bag, or do you insist on using my bed?"

Garuru shook his head. "A sleeping bag would be appropriate." He raised a brow in my direction. "…Cadet-?"

"I'm never watching the Brave Little Toaster." I gave him a strict look. "You can tie me to the chair, but I'm never, ever watching that movie. Ever."

"…I beg your pardon?"

I flushed. "Nothing. Ignore it. I'm gonna set the room up now."

Garuru examined me for a moment. "Do I come with you?"

"Huh? Yeah, sure," I nodded. "Come on up."

He seemed mildly surprised at the huge living room and the wide, sharp-turning stairs.

"My room's straight down the hallway," I said. "Just let me get you your sleeping bag."

"…Who do these other rooms belong to?" Garuru asked politely, jerking his head to the ones next to mine.

"Oh," I got on my tiptoes and reached for one at the top, trying to avoid the purple one that was much closer to ground-level. "They belong to my sibs."

"…Are any of them… older?"

"No," I sighed in defeat and snatched the purple sleeping bag. "Here. I'm the oldest."

"I see," He said slowly, taking the bundled up cloth.

"You have any sibs?"

"…A brother," Garuru replied, turning the sleeping bag around. "I'm also the oldest."

"Really? What's his name?"

"Giroro."

"Garuru, Giroro. Huh. Cool. You two close?"

"I try to be support…" His voice trailed off, and he shot two piercing eyes at me. "Why."

"N-nothing!" I stuttered. "I was just trying to be curious! I'm sorry!"

"Stopapologizing."

"I'm sor-"

Garuru glared.

"Shutting up."

He gave me hard eyes just for good measure before he turned them to the opposite side, where an enormous room opened up.

"And… does that belong to one of your siblings as well?"

"No. My parents' room."

He turned to me. "Your parent's? So you have one parent?"

"No. My parents. I have two."

"Remarried?"

"No. Birth parents."

Something kind of clicked; I'm not sure what it was, but that faraway, distant look he gave me told me that something was going through his head when I said that. Like whatever I said was some sort of marvel.

He gazed down. "Do you have arranged marriages here, in Pekopon?"

"No," I said, a little surprised at this. "Well, actually, yeah, but they're not really common in the U.S."

"So… your parents… they married out of-?"

"Love? Um, first they had me, and then they got married." He just gave me this bewildered stare, and I laughed in response. "But yeah, I guess you could say that. They do love each other very much now, though."

"…I see," Garuru muttered.

"Why do you ask? Arranged marriages in…. wherever you're from?"

"Yes. They're more common, I suppose you can say."

I wasn't sure whether he agreed with the custom or not, so I just nodded. "Okay. And what about your parents?"

There was a still, almost agitated silence. Instead of glaring at me however, he just narrowed his lips into a straight, irritated line and refused to look into my face.

"…I'm sorry, I'm being-"

"-nosy? Yes. I'm afraid you are."

There was another long, awkward, vacant absence of sound.

I coughed quietly. "Okay. So…" I kicked my closed door open. "The lock's broken, so if you need to get it, literally just push. If you need to lock it, grab the knob and pull it up."

"What a strange house," Garuru murmured.

"It's just my room," I assured him. I unrolled the sleeping bag and threw it on the floor. "There. I guess… that's your space."

"So you wouldn't mind if I slept now?"

"No, of course not. Go right ahead."

As he made himself comfortable, I headed toward the door.

"Don't let the bed bugs bite!"

There was a piercing, loud ZAP the second the last word left my mouth. I raced back to my room to find the bag practically disintegrated (I'm being overdramatic; it was only singed at the tip) and Garuru poised with an enormous gun resting against his shoulder. I was awestruck. No, that's not the word. Shell shocked is the word.

"….DUDE. Did you just seriously shoot a hole through my floor?!"

This is for fun XD It's also an interesting exercise that I thought might help me with my writing. When I can, I'm going to write everyday with the "100 Theme Challenge" (yes… one hundred chapters… one hundred days… it sounds like a reality tv show). And since so little is written about the Garuru Platoon… well… I thought I might give it a shot!

Don't cry. I promise it isn't going to be just about me. I'm just the "narrator", and the Platoon are the main focus. This chapter just focused on me a little so that you could get a sense of my "character". Or something. Yeah. So, in this "challenge", I'm going to try to apply each theme to each character's personality, past, or thoughts and emotions. Sounds like fun, so..

Um. Right. This may be a stupid idea, but even idiots hit on stupid ideas sometimes!

…Wait.
Err, the point is, just like the Keroro platoon has a different human partner for each member, I need four more people. If you're interested, PM me, or review. It is kinda like a collaboration, except I'm writing everything XD You're just telling me what you would do in certain situations. There are only TWO PEOPLE right now that I will automatically agree to. You have to more or less impress me if you want to be in this story.

One hundred themes… what have I gotten myself into…?

If you flame, I will hurt you (: Criticism is one thing, being a jerk is quite another.