Archive of Our Own

178°: Itsy Bitsy ☆𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑤𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑘☆ Trouble

A partially washed bowl and two pairs of chopsticks in the sink. Two sets of shoes arranged by the door, one neat, the other haphazardly stacked atop the first. The carefully folded paper sleeve of a newly opened vinyl record. A jacket and a coat next to one another on the hook, still faintly warm from the afternoon sunlight. Red and teal beanbags squished so close together that, if not for their different colours, they would've looked like one big cushion.

"You should, like, take tomorrow off, too."

Her darling♡'s right hand rested in the small of her back, a gentle pressure—as if she'd ever scoot away of her own accord. Traced patterns wove down her spine and back up. Her arms curled up between their torsos, her nails clinging to the freshly laundered fabric of her darling♡'s pyjamas, while her♡ arm wrapped around her. Her left leg had fallen asleep under the weight of hers♡. Her right lay at a bent angle between her darling♡'s knees.

Only one entity in this ward or any other could hold her like the most totez adorbz teddy bear in Shinjuku☆, and that was her darling Tsugumi♡.

She breathed in: carved pinewood, clean linen, a hint of plum from dessert's onigiri.

"I'm totez serious. Take it off. I want another day just like this. And the next day, and the next."

The rumble vibrating through her darling♡'s chest's warmed Coco's cheeks♪.

"Waow, how rude. Your girlfriend's asking for another date at your place, and you're laughing."

"Sorry, sorry." Tsugumi♡'s left hand stroked an absentminded path down Coco's cheek, then ran slowly through her hair, recently dyed in sunset violet with a li'l rebellísima lilac streak. With the two of them reclining over the beanbags, their bodies bridging red and teal, Coco's arm had little elbow room. But she still squished in closer, any gap an affront. "I'd never make fun of you." Her darling♡ hummed. "Well, except for your legendarily bad taste in music."

If her darling♡ could feel Coco rolling her eyes, she♡ would've felt it at no less a force than five bacajillion, by conservative estimate. And she♡ definitely would not have felt any kind of smile. "I'm not even gracing that with an answer."

"Unfortunately for you..." Tsugumi♡ poked Coco's cheek. "I think you just did."

She♡ giggled. Every time she♡ opened her mouth, her♡ chin brushed into the crown of Coco's head.

Completely warranted. Tsugumi♡ was her crowning achievement.

"But I'm sooooo seeeeerious." Coco let the whine extend until her darling♡ laughed again. "I wish every day was like this one. Frick you having work and me having to do legit anything. Like, if all the birdbrains frigging dropped dead—I mean, peacefully gave up on all their itty bitty shitty city plans without a fight—"

Her darling♡'s right hand, which had paused♭, resumed its loop-de-loops along Coco's spine.

"—and you didn't have to wrangle that self-important rainbow chicken, and we both knew that no matter how unsplendiferous our day was we could always go back to each other, or if you took off work tomorrow, too—"

"Oh, Coco."

She puffed her cheeks out and blew a raspberry into her♡ pyjama fabric.

Her♡ right hand slipped its warmth between Coco's arms. "What do you want to do...when we're older?"

Coco froze her tongue mid-raspberry.

While her darling♡ fumbled around for her hand, fingers stroking elbow and wrist, she tilted her head up. Not that she could see much past Tsugumi♡'s chin, haloed by the ceiling light.

"Um...?"

"I was just thinking..." Her♡ knuckle rubbed the inside of Coco's forearm. "...that you're right."

Her tongue flit back into her mouth. "Inorite? Duh. I'm, like, nevz wrong. So you're gonna take tomorrow off, riiiite?"

"Well, it'll be really nice when we can leave all this freight behind us." Her♡ thumb caught the midline of Coco's wrist, only to slide away from her palm. "Someday, when our struggle against the 'birdbrains' and their plan is a distant memory. When I don't need to be Conductor because the trains can conduct themselves. When we're older. What do you want to do, Coco? What do you dream about?"

Blood, guts, and Angel cake♥, mostly. Or her hands around Carrottop's skinny throat♯. Or the hollow barrel of a gun, pushed against—

"When I'm daydreaming, I..."

Tsugumi♡'s voice had softened into a whisper, yet every syllable clacked so loudly down whatever track she♡ was taking this that Coco couldn't hear anything but.

"...I like to think about...what growing old with you might look like, Coco."

Her darling♡'s palm spread a warm puddle over her forearm.

Deep breaths, Coco. Deep enough to gag on the pyjamas. She opened her mouth.

"Um WTF LMFAO that sounds like an uh you problem so like waow that's the def of ungraciousness to drop that on the most adorbz Reaper in the tri-ward area."

She pressed her fingertips into Tsugumi♡'s chest, but—entirely due to the angle of her arms, yes, and nothing due to anything else, no—she couldn't muster enough strength to make even a millimetre of gap between them. The fact that she'd even briefly considered a measurement in millimetres meant someone♪ was getting whapped when she absconded♮.

"OMG u kno wat? I totez forgot. My precious little darlings, like, OMFG need to get their steppies in. Soz."

"Okay, I lied."

Her teeth clinked on one another hard enough for a self-inflicted concussion. Erm, hello, self-inflicted concussion? So she could pass out? No? Talk about useless♭.

"I'll make fun of you for your legendarily bad taste in music and for what a terrible job you do at derailing the conversation."

Tsugumi♡ giggled.

"...but we don't have to talk about it. I just like—I love—being with you. Think I could help your pwecious darlings get their steppies in?" Her♡ other hand reached around to poke Coco's cheek.

"Ummmmmmmmm." She trapped her♡ hand between chin and shoulder. "I suppose my charmagical self could allow you to mingle with my entourage. But you'll have to pay."

Her darling♡ wiggled her♡ caught fingers, tickling Coco's throat. "Oh? Whatever do I have that could interest a princess such as yourself?"

She winced but didn't lift her head from her♡ chest.

"Surely not these rustic wood carvings..."

"Gross. No way. What this luxurighteous princess wants from her kingdom's most ritzy train conductor is kisses." She kept her timbre as straight and regal as she could manage while being held teddy-bear-style. "Better start now, or you'll nevz get through them quick enough."

"My, my." Tsugumi♡'s thumb pushed Coco's chin up. "You're right. It's important for the trains to run on time, after all."

Um. Weird emphasis. Didn't like that.

Then her darling♡'s warm lips touched hers. Carved pinewood, clean linen, and most especially the taste of plum from dessert's onigiri. Not even blood, guts, or Angel cake could compare. Well, duh, since anything related to those featherfrickers turned nasty.

But, if Coco could keep this moment, bottle it and sell it, she'd never need to hawk onigiri again. Not that she would ever have sold this. Keep it all to herself, forever and ever and ever and...

"So," Tsugumi♡ murmured into her mouth, "your pwecious babies' exercise?"

Two shakes of an Ovis Canor's fluffy tail later, they had established the combat zone on the roof. The other Shinjuku Reapers could just cope with the noise outside their apartment complex. And the Noise.

Calling up the Dissonance Noise directly where the haloheads could see equalled asking for big trouble.

Ew. 'Equalled'. Where had she put that bottle of brain bleach, again?

Nepenthe-hunting aside, her other, non-Dissonance babies could use the exercise, too.

"Ready yet, Tsu?" Coco fanned out her fingers, a pin between each.

"Ready. And remember: don't stop unless I say 'ongiri'." Her darling♡ grinned. "I'm not fragile."

"'Kay, 'kay. Pinky promise." Reclining on a lounge chair at one end of the field, Coco drew out a trio of long fishy Noise first: the extra speedy red-and-orange eurowana beat, the elusive invisible-turning gold-and-pink eurowana pop, and the dodge-offsetting black-and-blue eurowana dance. Actual arowana had the most totez adorbz li'l triangular faces, and these eurowana had the tattoos on their jaws and fins to match.

Her darling♡ stood on the combat zone's far side. Dressed in a more combat-ready Def Märch tee and Tigre PUNKS jacket-and-jeans combo, she♡ was holding an unfamiliar MONOCROW pin: Stand Your Ground. "It's a test drive for me, too!"

The eurowana beat raced forward first, while the eurowana pop flitted in and out of view. The eurowana dance moved languidly across the field, but the moment that she♡ attacked, they'd show off their rapid dodging—up to three in a row. Only multi-hit pins or otherwise baiting dodges followed up by another rapid attack could take them out.

Tsugumi♡ raised her hand like a conductor's baton. Coco sat up on the lounge chair.

Not everyday her darling♡ agreed to enter a combat zone. Or suggested it in the first place.

She delicately dabbed the corner of her mouth with a monogrammed pink kerchief.

Trick cards blazed out from her♡ palm. A weird trick card psych: three different streams of cards occurring at the same time, with occasional gaps in-between that made dodge timing and positioning tricky. An area-of-effect trick card psych. Looked like a pain in the ass to use since she♡'d have to mind the gap.

Her darling♡ hadn't been joking about the test drive. Her darling♡ could barely aim one of the streams, much less effectively manage all three, even though she was somehow trying to fan her wrist to capture all three eurowana Noise in a trick card stream at the same time.

And the eurowana beat was almost on her.

Coco snapped her fingers. The three eurowana returned to her, nuzzling her arms and waist♫.

"Who's the cutest goodiest widdle fishy-wishies? You are! You are!" She stroked their tailfins, and they curled their lithe bodies around her. "So quick and cute. My good little girls."

Tsugumi♡ lowered her♡ hand. "Can we go again?"

"If you're legit ready this time, Tsu." Coco scritched the eurowana beat behind the gill, just where they liked it.

"I'm ready. I just wasn't expecting Stand Your Ground to look like that! It's been a...while since I used pins myself, is all. It's always a surprise when you see a pin used by a Cantus, and then use the same pin yourself as a Reaper. You know what I mean?"

Coco nodded. "OMG, like, seeing the curbstomping huge attack that a boss Noise can get out of a pin, then getting the same pin and being like, 'WTF this sux!'"

"I wouldn't say it 'sux', but...in hindsight it's obvious that this was a trick cards psych." Tsugumi♡ closed her fingers around the pin. "But I get it now. I'm ready." Her darling♡ lifted one leg, as if assuming a combat stance.

She couldn't help giggling. The tightness in her chest and the squeeze in her undead heart could drop her here and now, no need for erasure.

"C...come at me!"

The eurowana air-swam towards her♡. This time, she♡ held her♡ right arm in her♡ left hand and 'aimed' the pin. No funny business. No trying to get all three eurowana at the same time. She♡ just focused down the eurowana beat. Coco recalled her baby just before its HP depleted, sealing the Noise back into one of the pins on her jacket sleeves and stuffing the pin with plenty of emotional snackage to feed on so her baby could heal. From the corner of her vision, she watched her♡ move to the eurowana pop, which, true to its cutesy-wutsey name, popped in and out of view.

Coco clapped wildly. Tsugumi♡ beamed and waved at her across the field. She gripped her chest. Hnnngh. That was her darling♡ no-selling Noise right there.

The eurowana pop took her♡ a few more tries. The invisibility only lasted a second each time, but she♡ still had to target and aim at it when it popped back into existence. And she♡ did—but the stream happened to have a gap instead of a trick card at that moment. Coco laughed. Her♡ second try saw her scrambling to recall the eurowana pop. Not laughing anymore, only petting the pin as thanks.

The eurobeat dance, which Coco had designed as the trickiest of the three, took no time at all.

Every successful dodge should have given the eurobeat dance a brief window for free hits, but her darling♡ hit from across the combat zone before it could get close. The multi-hit trick cards, even with the gaps, made short work of her precious baby.

"Phew." Tsugumi♡ wiped her♡ brow and shook out her♡ hands. "Good first round. Time for a break stop before we fire the engines again?"

"Soooo...that pin..." Coco would have to go back to the drawing board for the eurowana dance. "...you can't move when you use it, amirite?"

She watched her darling♡ glance down at the black-and-white gleam in her palm. "I think so."

"But my darling just keeps moving forward. So, like, gross."

Tsugumi♡ rested her hand on her chest. Ew. "I know. I'm not going to stay rooted in one spot. Don't worry. I'm just trying different things. Seeing other perspectives. Straying out of my comfort zone. It doesn't mean I'm not going forward. It's more like...I don't want to be stuck only moving forward."

"Look at my darling go!" She clapped her hands against her cheeks. "Tsu in every direction! Choo-choo!"

Her darling♡ giggled again. "What's gotten into you?"

"Whoopsie. Am I a little OOC?" Coco batted her eyelashes.

The line of her♡ frown could have made Coco backflip off the roof♭. "You can be any way you want to—"

She shook her head dramatically from side to side. "Maybe I'm going too ezpz on you. Since my darling likes to move forward, let's make this an eensy weensy bit more fun, 'k? You can't just stand around in one terriboring spot. You have to go through my pwecious royal entourage and come all the way ovz here." Coco patted the lounge chair seat beside her. "And my babies will try to stop you. Can't just choo-choo forward, no wai."

"You're asking me to come sit next to you? Don't threaten me with a good time." Her♡ lips curved up until her♡ eyes squinched. That also could have made Coco backflip off the roof♫. "Let's see. Am I allowed to use other pins?" Tsugumi♡'s gaze returned to her♡ hand. Studying it. "No...I want to use this one. I want to understand how it works. If that makes this challenge a heavy load, so be it. Okay. I accept your challenge, Coco." She♡ smiled wider. "A quest for the princess's hand?"

"Ew. That's just Coco with you, Tsu."

Tsugumi♡ blinked, then nodded. "Then...a quest for my darling lover's hand?"

Coco extended her hand, her wrist daintily bent. "I'm waiting for you." She always would.

"I've been daydreaming about us travelling together. But I didn't think of this rail." She♡ walked back to the farthest side of the field. "Hit me."

Plucking one pin after another, Coco released a troop of adorabloodthirsty samba funkeys. From their lime green fur emerged a blue and yellow tattoo tail. Where they spiked their tails into the ground, neon palm trees and branched canopies grew, allowing their funkey brethren to clamber up. They swung through the air towards her darling♡.

While nestled in the trees, the nimble samba funkeys pelted her♡ with graffiti coconuts and bananas. Tsugumi♡ danced from side to side, trying to find a spot to stand and shoot. But the branches absorbed the brunt of the tricks cards.

Still, her darling♡ managed to down a tree. The samba funkeys that fell out lay on the roof.

Their spiral eyes betrayed their dizziness—as did the decal bananas that floated around their heads until they shook off the stun and went back to growing trees.

Tsugumi♡ advanced slowly. The samba funkeys skittered from one tree to another.

Coco added a second wave of timba funkeys. The neon blue simians scampered into the trees. Glittery red stars dotted their hides. Now the banana and coconut projectiles had a secret third thing being thrown out. A power throuple.

"That wasn't a joke, Coco. When all of this is over," she♡ said between dodging the sudden showers of coconut cream pies, "I want to travel with you."

She watched how her samba funkeys and timba funkeys worked together, and how they didn't, the funkeys overcrowding the trees instead of exposing themselves to grow new ones. Tragedy of the commons, really. Good thing that took absolutely all of her attention.

"I know it's cliché. And I'm talking big for someone who's never been outside of Tokyo. I know you can't take me to where you grew up, and you wouldn't call it home, anyway. But you know what the countryside looks like. I want to know, t—wah!" A pie to the face would do that to her♡.

Coco rolled her eyes. "Just put some clipart of old geezers in their undies over that one Windows wallpaper and you're, like, not missing anything."

The funky yellow tattoos from the cream would block her darling♡'s vision for a few seconds before the effect faded. "Okay, but there are so many other places we could go, too! I don't just mean Japan. There's an entire world out there we don't even know about because we've been stuck in two bubbles for most of our lives and afterlives." The mischievous lilt in her♡ tone had Coco stare more intently at the funkeys' antics. "What about all those 'super dee duper full-romo full-homo vacay spots' in your old Def Märch fanfi—"

"'Kay so much for promising to nevz bring that up again—"

Her palm stung from how harshly she clenched the country blues jay pin. The cerulean bird took to the air.

A very simple Noise. Just a divebomber. Even better at distractions than the funkeys.

Tsugumi♡ quickstep-dodged out of the way, but between the bananas, pies, and diving jay, she♡ had little time to Stand Her♡ Ground.

That didn't stop her lips from moving clickety-clack down the track. "But the best part of travelling will be coming back home. Just me and you. We'll kick our shoes off and collapse into bed exhausted. And we'll hug each other so tight. You know what I'd give to listen to you complain about how long we had to walk to the train station, or how the food wasn't cute at all even though you asked for seconds?" She♡ quickstep-dodged again and pointed her hand upwards.

When the country blues jay circled around for another dive, it ate trick cards. Didn't even ask for seconds.

"I'll pile into bed with you. I'll rub my face in our familiar pillows and sheets. And, and, and I'll hit you with a pillow, and you'll hit me back. And we'll fall asleep. And we'll go grocery shopping together the next day. Or we'll dress up for a fancy meal. Or we'll be lazy and order in, and we'll get a pizza with only half of it covered in pineappl—ooow!"

Her darling♡ rubbed her♡ head where a coconut had bounced off of it.

A second coconut bounced off the knuckles now rubbing her♡ head.

A coco-combo! From Coco with love.

"We'll have so much time. We'll try each others' hobbies. I'll go to more shooting galleries with you, and Minamimoto if you want to take him. You can try carving if you want! We'll spend hours pouring over what's in stock at TOWER RECORDS, CYCO and HMV. We'll probably be kicked out because we won't be able to stop laughing at each others' stupid jokes. I'll go clothes shopping with you and carry all your boxes for you. We'll have a fridge piled high with leftovers and novelty things you bought that you won't eat and I won't throw out because what if you do wanna eat it in the future?"

With the country blues jay recalled, Coco sent out a navy delta blues jay. A triangular divebombing pattern would trip her♡ up.

"And there's so many recipes I'll show you, and maybe you'll stick your tongue out at them."

Peck.

"And you'll show me how you make the foods you like."

Peck peck.

"And I know you're going to experiment with a million more ways to make onigi—"

Peck peck peck.

"—ri, and I'll get to be the guinea pig for every one. And I'll know that you're making them for me. Even though—"

Oof, trick cards miss.

"—you want to add meat, you won't, for me. And I'll get to sit there and watch you dreamily while you order entire tables' worth of rare meat. And we'll both go get ice cream or bubble tea afterwards and trade indirect kisses and direct ki—"

Peck peck peouchie there went the delta blues jay♯.

"—sses. And we'll go to so many concerts together. Concerts in Tokyo, and concerts everywhere else, too. We won't have any limits. And you'll show me how to do laundry for those fancy dresses. And I'll separate any band gear with spikes on them so they don't tear up the fabric. And our whites and colours will get to go in together, and we'll have to pull out whose socks and underwear are whose. And we'll forget because we're too busy tossing socks at each other."

Coco ran through her pins. The boogie blues jay could divebomb twice in a row—an electric bluegaloo—in a radial pattern. The jug blues jay didn't only divebomb itself, but could pick up other Noise and bomb them. Maybe that would convince the funkeys to get out of the trees instead of being sitting duck-monkeys for Tsugumi♡.

"We'll have to go through registration offices. We'll file taxes. Okay, I mean, we don't need to since we're in the UG, but metaphorically. You'll complain the entire time, and I'll basically do it for you, and you'll snuggle up next to me and point out any mistakes because you are paying attention even if you pretend you're not."

The jug blues jay went straight for a timba funkey. The funkey struggled to shake the jay off. The jay pecked the funkey's face in retaliation.

Coco slapped her palm over her face.

They were test driving for a reason. Never-before-used Noise would always have some kinks♭.

"And we'll try all kinds of new hobbies, too. Things we haven't done before, or we haven't done since we died. I think it'll be fun to try ice skating or learning an instrument or a new language together."

The trick cards sniped one tree after another. The idiotic egotiselfish funkeys kept forcing themselves onto the few remaining ones.

"So many games and movies to catch up on! Wow, I haven't thought about watching a movie in years!"

At least the timba funkeys' pies still slowed her progress down with a few seconds of blinding.

After spitting Noisy coconut cream out from her mouth, Tsugumi♡ went on. She really did keep moving forward. "We'll have to stand in lines together. Holding hands. Lines at amusement parks, lines at the shrine every New Year's, lines at the doctor..."

The boogie blues jay didn't bother with anything fancy. Coco would switch the radial pattern for a figure-eight to up the difficulty, but the double-pecks and the random intervals between divebombs gave her darling♡ a run for her♡ money.

"We'll—ow—sit with each other—ouch—at the doctor's office—ah—and figure out—augh—what we can do—oof—to help each oth—mmgh—er out when we get sick and when we stop being as young as we used to be."

Coco felt her neck moving in real-time, and yet the muscles wouldn't stop. Her gaze locked with Tsugumi♡'s across the combat zone. Deep, rich, earthy brown, like freshly tilled soil. A brown that Coco had an ever smaller time-window to memorise forever.

"Because, someday.."

She meant to recline her head on the lounge chair, but her neck seemed to miss the memo and crane further towards her darling♡ instead.

"...we'll be the old geezers in our undies." Despite the blues jay chipping at her head, the banana peels making her slip-'n'-slide, the coconuts clobbering her skull, and the pies blinding her, Tsugumi♡ beamed to rival the sun. "I will be, any—ow—way."

She♡ paused long enough to turn her♡ back on the funkeys and focus fire the boogies blue jay. The first few psych activations missed as the boogie blues jay sped up and slowed down.

Then, after getting a few coconuts to the back of the head, her darling♡ waited patiently with her eyes on the prize. The blues jay kept circling without bombing.

Only when Tsugumi♡ started to turn back to the funkeys did the blues jay dive—and dine on trick cards.

"I'll be an old geezer," she♡ repeated. "And you, if you decide to. Because I want to grow old with you, Coco, if you'll have me." The cream pie gluing her eyes shut didn't seem like it did anything to her vocal cords. "And we'll have every day off work together, when we can put this freight behind us. It'll be nice. I can't say that every day will be just like the one before, because we'll be changing. Sometimes, we'll be changing for the worse. But we'll know that we're there for each other, every day."

A lot of words emerged from Coco's mouth. Mostly acronyms, censored swears, and a few real ones.

A lot of her precious babies emerged from her pins, too. A bunch of old skool, new skool, and lo-fi hip-hoppers. A school of flamingo-gos in a rainbow of shades. A swarm of aphid techno, aphid house, and aphid rock. Her darling♡ would have to acquire a taste for aphid jazz.

A lot of tricks cards emerged from Tsugumi♡'s hand, but not enough to counter the horde of Noise and talk at the same time.

Coco sank into the lounge chair. She gave up most Imagination required by a Noise at the moment that she drew it from the static around her, pet it into shape, and called it down into a pin. But releasing them still used some♮.

Out of breath, her darling♡ twirled around and leaped between Noise. She♡ appeared to be trying to dash away far away to turn around and releasing some trick cards, but the hip-hoppers' powerful legs lent them a hare-raising chase, and the aphids' tendency to swarm in circles cut her off.

The flamingo-gos mostly hung around, waiting for her darling♡ to approach, but whatever. They didn't have to do anything except stand and look pretty.

Besides, their long necks blocked her♡ view of Coco.

If her Sho♪ had done anything useful in his entire life, he'd shown her how to read HP values from Imagination. She kept an eye on the bars, recalling Noise back into pins and watching Tsugumi♡'s steadily chip down.

"That's so unfair." The words pouring from her mouth were starting to condense from sounds to meanings. "That's so unfair, Tsu. You're so unfair. I can't, like, lie and say I hate you, but you're so unfair."

Coco could faintly hear her darling♡ panting out half a response before the aphid techno swarm closed in with a lightshow of lasers.

Their graffiti-decal antenna and thoraces made for the most adorabloodthirsty railguns, especially with the glittery tattoo kaomoji stickers on the ends. Six fuzzy legs stabilised them on the asphalt as their cutey booties raised high and swelled with Light affinity energy before beaming through their antennae.

'Kay, she wasn't an ent...an entomo...a bug biologist. So sue her. But she was an etymologist when it came to her darling♡'s words.

"You don't have to tell me all this bs about how I can totez pick. I know I can pick."

"Coco, I—" Nothing but the noise of timba funkeys' chittering whoops. "You can find some—"

She pulled her sleeves in. The pins jangled against one another. Too many pins on a sleeve. Too many eggs in one basket. "I can find someone else. I don't want to. It's not some super dee duper ezpz lemon sqz decision to pick between being totez adorbz forevz and turning into an old geezer one day."

The slang burned on her tongue.

"I've thought about it until my head wanted to pop. One more second of thinking about it, and it would, like, be like I just divided by zero." The pins kept her from moving the sleeves freely over one another. "I can keep being nineteen forever and find another girlfriend or stay single or whatevz. I thought about it. I already picked. Don't think I picked 'cause of, like, low fricking self-esteem."

Tsugumi♡'s pale hand briefly rose from the Noise swarm. "No I know you wouldn't pick out of—ouch—low self-estee—"

"I didn't think anyone else could evz accept me." Ugh, what was this, therapy hour? "I was wrong, 'k? I've got other friends now, who want to hang out with me even when I'm being my ghastly nasty tormenterrible self."

Her nails clawed into the spaces between the pins.

"And if I was looking for another girlfriend, I could find one. This isn't like it was two years ago."

"I'm hap—"

Coco sat up. Her legs dangled off the lounge chair. "And I'm still picking this. But it's not ez. It's not easy. And it doesn't mean I get it at all."

Tsugumi♡ ducked under a hi-fi hip-hopper's kick only for its lo-fi hip-hopper partner to bean her♡ in the face. Coco could see her HP stuttering downwards. "I can expla—"

"I've turned it over every way and there's no frigging explanation." She splayed her fingers out in jazz hands. "You get immortality without the drawbacks. 'Kay, sure, your RG friends won't get older. But you'll stay young and cute as long as you want. And if you get tired of all this, you can turn into a Noise or something or just let yourself get erased whenevz you want. Like, um, yeah, you can get colds."

Like certain kitties♪.

"But you can't get that kind of sick."

Like certain losers'🦋 family.

"Your body won't change that much. Unless you're so cringe you let yourself get hurt in the RG, you can heal any booboo with a flick of a wrist. You can go ice skating whenevz you want instead of waking up one day and realising that you can't ever go ice skating again."

It took her darling♡ several minutes of rolling and running around to pant long enough to reply. "I know."

"So, like, why? Is it 'cause it's 'natural'? Malaria is natural too, and I don't see my darling jumping into a vat of mosquitos to get it!"

That would've gotten Tsugumi♡ to laugh if not for the vat of aphids rock bombarding her with stones.

Almost definitely.

Meningitis was 'natural', too, but that wouldn't have landed a laugh even in the best of times.

"We could have together forever. Instead we're only going to get sixty years." Coco rubbed her temples. "I know there are issues. Like, people will keep changing, and the language is gonna get totez different if we wait long enough, or the tech. Buuut no one's gonna force us to live for a thousand years if we decide we don't wanna be here anymore. The thought of choosing when to die can't be the thing you don't like, is it?"

The dodging around gave the trick cards pin plenty of time to recharge. And the swarm meant that Tsugumi♡ could aim it anywhere and expect to hit Noise. Didn't have to learn how to aim the three streams after all. The tried and true spray 'n' pray. "No, I'm not scared to pick—augh—when I—ow—die."

"So like. Is it a 'natural' thing? You grew up changing so you wanna keep changing? What if in a millennium, peeps all lived to be five hundred years old? Or what if humans died at twenty? You'd still pop off the stasis and kick the bucket in two years?" Coco shuddered at the unintentional reference. "I'm choked up seething about the birdbrains taking our choices away. And here we're taking our own choice away, instead of getting to live how we want to."

She♡ had no reply for a long while. But Coco's sleeves were getting heavier with how many Noise she was bringing back into the pins.

Too bad she hadn't made as many notes about the hip-hoppers or aphids. She'd test drive them properly another day.

Looked like the surrounding swarm mechanic did put significant pressure on a single contestant, though. And Coco hadn't released any of the aphids that stunned and required a partner or teammate to unstun. Wouldn't be fair. Even now the aphids were causing some totez delish chaos. She♡ and the aphids together reminded her of a cartoon thundercloud, all jagged lines, skinny buggo legs, and occasional pale limb.

Tet the few fleeting flashes of her darling♡ between the kaleidoscopes of Noise caught Coco's breath.

A leap here, a roll there, a dodge there, a getting-bitten-in-the-side there, and a flurry of trick cards there. Tsugumi♡'s eyes narrowed. Her♡ pupils locked onto a Noise at a time, as though she♡ were estimating their movements, before she♡ unfurled a series of streams from her palm. Her♡ cheeks glowed with blush. Her♡ skin shone with sweat. Coco's own gleaming jewel, polished in the heat and pressure of the fray.

Only because, Coco suspected, she♡ trusted her♡ darling to recall her babies whenever Tsugumi♡ drew close to erasing one. No blood or static on her darling♡'s hands.

Someday, she♡ might have to. Not today. Not with her♡ lover.

And that stubborn pacifist streak worked out for Coco. Because Coco could trust her darling♡ with her precious li'l dears, too☆.

The more the crowd thinned out, the more Tsugumi♡ had to aim. And the more she♡ aimed, the surer her♡ shot. And the surer her♡ shot, the more Noise Coco recalled. And the more Noise Coco recalled, the more of her darling♡'s noise she could hear.

"You're right, Coco," Tsugumi♡ managed. "That's why I don't think it's right to take away all stasis in the—ouch—world." The aphid munching on her arm ended up back in its pin rather quickly. "People—Reapers—will be able to pick. You, Shiba, and others convinced me on that."

Coco sighed into her palm. "I get you're trying to be a good Conductor."

"A good person," she♡ panted out.

"Waow, no princesses or conductors in this kingdom. Next you'll say there's not even a spirit flute smh." She couldn't lean back in the lounge chair. The brief blips of her darling♡ were becoming more and more numerous, like ads on ZuuTube, but the opposite, since she wanted to watch this. "U rite, though. I'm not trying to ask Conductor Matsunae about her party platform. Tsu, why do you want to? Do you just think it's natural?"

"No. I'm not—oof—immune to propaganda. I'm sure growing up and seeing a world where people live until seventy or eighty has influenced what I think of growing old and dying. If I lived in a society where most people lived until, what was it, five hundred years old?"

Coco shrugged. "Can't remember. Make up a number."

"Well, if I did, I don't know what I'd think exactly. But the age isn't the important thing to me. It's the moving forward. It's the changing. The growing old. If I—augh—"

Tsugumi♡ spun around, but the mischievous old skool hip-hopper that had lobbed a carrot at her had already hopped away. Coco pumped a fist, but, like, in a dainty way.

"You're right. It's scary, in a way, to not have control over when you'll die, or what your body will do. Right now, while I can do anything I want with a body that lets me travel the world, I'm happy to say that I'm ageing and getting—ow—older." Her darling♡ staggered from a wayward coconut. "But when I'll be stuck in bed in sixty years, what will I think?"

"Um, that's my question."

"I don't know," she♡ admitted. "I won't know until I'm in that position. But I don't think I'll regret this decision. It's not about me."

Coco raised her eyebrows. "Wait, so like—"

"If I grew up immortal, I don't think I'd care as much. Because if all humans and Players and Reapers were immortal, we wouldn't have a disconnect like we do. I don't think we have to be all exactly the same in order to understand each other, but I think that gigantic differences like this, with a clear—owie—hierarchy of power, end up hurting the RG."

Even though Tsugumi♡ had to stop every few centimetres to blast some trick cards, she♡ was inching her♡ way towards Coco. Louder voice. Clearer words. More capable than ever at aiming directly between Coco's ribs and cutting her clean.

"And I can't watch that happen. I think it hurts us, too, but different people might not see it as being hurt. But it hurts me. So it is about me."

"Sooo you're saying that we should just make all humans immortal. That would fix your issue, amirite?" Coco tilted her head.

Tsugumi♡ wheezed in breathless laughter. "I—I guess. If RG humans could pick becoming immortal, and UG Reapers could pick becoming mortal, and it wasn't an RG-UG difference but one of choice, I'd be okay with that." She reached a funkey tree and tried to scale it, only for the neon graffiti to nibble at her HP.

"And you would pick immortality?" she pressed.

"I..." Her darling♡ circled the tree while darting past pies, but seemed to turn away after failing to find a safe way up. Duh. Couldn't touch tattoos. "I can't say for sure. It's hard to think of what a world where people could choose to be immortal would look like, or what I would look like in that world. But I don't think so."

"What."

"I don't think I'd choose immortality," Tsugumi♡ repeated. She♡ put her♡ hand against the trunk, point-blank, and fired.

Coco's jaw felt glued to the floor. She could barely move it enough to mouth syllables. "I understood. I mean. What. Why. You want to get sick? You want to get ugly and die?"

"Will you break up with me when I'm old and 'ugly', Coco?"

Hey, was her darling♡ the one getting cut up here, or was she?

Not a trace of irony or barb in her♡ question. Only that earnest sincerity. "It's okay if you will. I won't love you any less."

"Tsu. I fell in love with you when you were text on a screen trying to get my fanfic reported. You could look like a leather shoe and I wouldn't feel any different." Coco could have looked down, looked up, looked to the side, looked anywhere, but her darling♡'s form magnetised her gaze. "You could finally change your Noise form to a tapir and stay in Cantus mode forever and I'd still love you. And I don't think tapirs are kyoot."

"Not beating the bad taste allegations." Tsugumi♡ made a sound like clicking her tongue, but her lack of air meant the tsk didn't hit.

Coco fluffed up her hair. "Don't get me wrong, Tsu. You're cute and hot and precious. And, sure, you getting raisin-wrinkled up would probz make it a teensy bit harder after dark. But I'm the totez adorbz one. I'm not breaking up with you over that." She paused. "Now, if your taste in music gets even worse, that's a whole different story."

Her darling♡ giggled; it came out as a tight snort. The funkeys fell from the dissipating tree.

Ten little funkeys jumping on the bed; ten fell out and bumped their heads. Ten little funkeys taking trick cards in; ten got put back in their pins.

"I won't break up with you for that either." Tsugumi♡'s beam could blow away the years. "I want to know what it's like to grow old. I don't have a better explanation than that. Plenty of natural things aren't good. Plenty of unnatural things are good. But what I want, for me, is to see what it's like to change. With all the aches and pains and everything else that comes with that."

Coco shook her head. "What is it? Masochism?"

"I won't go back to the cold, Noisy dark, if that's what you mean." She♡ jogged towards the last funkey tree, aphids and hip-hoppers stinging at her♡ cheeks, until she♡ had a better angle for the trick cards where the coconuts and bananas couldn't reach. She♡ only slipped on a banana peel once and earned a facefull of aphid jazz sound-bombs in the process. "I want to know what it's like to grow older, so I can help others going through the same thing. But even more than that, it's a desire to...it's like climbing up a mountain even though you'll be out of breath and sore when you get up there."

"'Kay, I don't get that either, 'cause I hate working up a sweat. But on a mountain you get a good view. And you can just climb back down. Can't go Curious Case of Atarashi Coco back down to being young!" Coco wiggled her fingers.

Tsugumi♡ laughed. "I want to grow old with you, Coco. I want to watch us become raisin-wrinkled together."

Her fingers drooped. "So you're, like, what, a GILF-hunter? You think it's so romo to 'grow old with the girl you love', or what?"

"Hehe! I don't think so!" Her darling♡ let loose another stream of trick cards into the swarm of aphids house. Their junk mines went off, but their numbers dwindled. "If it helps, I'd be undoing this stasis for the sake of the RG no matter what. And this isn't a world where we can just make humans immortal...at least, not through any method I'm aware of. Maybe in a few hundred years."

"And you don't wanna be immortal and stick around long to see it?"

Tsugumi♡ looked like she♡ was going for a shake of the head, if not for a stray trash mine sweeping her♡ left leg out. She♡ ended up flat on her♡ back on the roof while the remaining hip-hoppers and aphids crowded.

A few seconds of Noise smearing around her in reds and greens and purples and yellows and blues and oranges and pinks and teals, and then a pillar of trick cards burst through the Noisosphere.

Her darling♡ leaped out, her♡ hand poised under her♡ to let the streams eviscerate the pile-up, and landed on her♡ soles. "No way. Like I said. I want to live a full life and die. I'm choosing not to have a choice. When I ask you to choose what we'll have for dinner, it's my choice to defer. And this time I'll defer to the future, but...I'll still be making choices every step of the way to make the future one I want to live in. Putting down a rail doesn't mean I'm not choosing to go down that rail. My Trailers can be changed—so—it's not set in stone."

A stray aphid rock took the opportunity to launch a boulder at her♡, but she♡ had already moved out of the way.

"Even a rail can be ripped up and rerouted. People change. Roles change. Ideas change. So I want to do what I can while I'm here and then rest." Tsugumi♡ swept the final aphids out of the way. Decal wings and bomb-fuse-lighting antennae dissipated in the wind. "And if I get erased right now, it'll be without any regrets. I'm going full steam ahead on fighting for a future I want..."

The final few hip-hoppers attempted a coordinated strike, their graffiti hindpaws hurtling towards her from five different angles. Trick cards knocked two out of the air. Two missed and rebounded. One clocked a hit on her♡ shoulder.

"...while I keep in mind that the future can't precede the present."

The offender's tattoo ears swivelled towards her just before Stand Your Ground recharged in its face. Coco cradled the pin soothingly. "Good hopper. Cute hopper. Wuv you, hopper. Sleepytime, now."

"And what I want out of the future," her darling♡ added, "isn't what others want from their futures. And many of these futures can coexist."

Tsugumi♡ was approaching the final gauntlet, now.

"Just not the ones where the RG, or Players, or Reapers, or the ones above, or anyone else, get unnecessarily hurt." She♡ smiled fondly. "Or you guys. Sorry, flamingo-gos."

When she♡ raised her♡ hand, the flock panicked and flew at her♡.

Graffiti yo-yos unspooled from their talons. The flamingo-gos assaulted her with every walk-the-dog and rock-the-baby trick in the book. Coco's mouth opened into a very undaintylike grin. But the squawking flaminyo-yos were infectiously laugh-inducing♫.

Tsugumi♡ streamed trick cards into the thick of the flock, but they didn't dogpile her♡ like the other Noise.

Instead they skated around the roof in loops. Yo-yos slinked at her♡ as they passed from different directions. Her♡ HP drained away♭.

Coco's laughter ended. She watched the bars. Would she♡—or would they—

Her darling♡'s HP ticked down, from ten, to nine, to eight, to seven. She♡'d cleared over half the flamingo-gos. If she♡ could have used the trick cards continuously or swapped between pins, Coco wouldn't have been nibbling at her nails. But having only a single pin and having to wait for recharge...

Six, five, four—

Maybe she could—but then her darling♡ would never forgive her—and she couldn't treat her♡ like porcelain anymore—and she'd promised—and she had to trust her darling♡ to open her♡ mouth and tell her if she♡ needed help—and she'd promised—but—

—three, two—

"Co—"

Tsugumi♡ sprinted forward from amidst the flamingo-go carousel. With a single percent of her♡ HP hanging almost unseen at the end of her♡ bar, she♡ bolted full-tilt towards the lounge chair. Her♡ Tigre PUNKS cap blew off. One second she♡ was all the way over there and the next she♡ was the only thing Coco could see in a blaze of red and white and oh Tsugumi♡ hi there with her♡ hands reaching for hers and her♡ bright pink cheeks puffed out in effort and her♡ lips so close.

But as much as she could have pulled her♡ in then and there, her darling♡ would nevz, evz, evz have wanted that. Ever.

And, like, as Shibuya's most selfish little fairy godmotherfucker☆, Coco had to wave her magic wand to make all of her darling♡'s loveliest deepiest and darkiest wishes come true.

Her magic wand's name? Strawberry Surprise♯.

The pepperbox revolver she hid under her skirt heavied her hand. Her♡ eyes went wide as fancifroufrou tea party platters. Silver glitter reflected in her♡ pupils, sooo big and sooo deep and sooo cute especially in momentary terror.

Tsugumi♡'s lips, already having begun to pucker up, spaghettified into a long line.

So anywayz Coco started blasting.

She♡ ducked forward. Her♡ hair, blown upwards from the sudden barrel roll, ate a bullet. Her darling♡ swung an arm out towards her ankle.

Coco clicked her heels together and leaped off. Strawberry Surprise's barrel pointed at the love of her life♡. As her darling♡ came in and out of view between the rippling ruffles of her dress, she squeezed the trigger. Abruptly she♡ vanished from sight—

—but not from feel, a grip stronger than gravity or mortality curled around her soul, a-hem-hem, her sole.

Oh, but she♡ had her floating on a cloud. Awww♮. Sweeping her off her feet before she could even hit the ground and so-long-gay-Cocoing her back onto the lounge chair. Owww♭.

The lounge chair bounced off her right shoulder first, then her right hip, then her left. Strawberry Surprise's hard angle bruised her side and pulled her thumb back against her forearm. Um, yikes much? Twisting around back towards her darling♡, Coco whipped her trusty pepperbox revolver's butt in an arc. The impact of metal on something vibrated down her arm. Not very funny to turn her humerus into static like that. Her reeling vision caught red fabric, flaxen hair, a flash of flesh. She curled her finger in, but heat branded her wrist.

The back of her hand slammed on the chair. A thumb nailing the inlet of her right wrist forced her fingers limp until Strawberry Surprise became Strawberry Bye-byes All The Way To The Rooftop Floor.

Her darling♡'s weight threatened to pin her against the lounge chair. And, like, wrow, but also, totez not pinteresting during a spar.

She lunged with her left hand towards her knees and she♡ caught her forearm in a second vice.

Tsugumi♡ leaned over her, hair cascading gold over her♡ shoulders like a waterfall of sunlight, mouth partly open, eyes brown as the earth she♡ was anchoring Coco to. The corner of her♡ tongue stuck out. Her darling♡ was bringing her♡ legs up onto the lounge chair, seconds away from immobilizing her.

LOL. LMAO.

"Coco—"

All was fair in wuv and war. And any fairy princess worth her sugar, spice, and everything vice had to stay kerfufflexible for any kerfuffle. Pressing her shoulder blades into the lounge chair and jamming her knees up into her chest, Coco clicked her heels together again for one more little magic trick: grabbing the assault rifle hidden in the inner back of her poofy dress.

La Petite Souris, which was not very petite at all, fwipped its muzzle from between the frills and into her darling♡'s tummy.

They happened simultaneously: the sensation of Coco's forefinger on the warm-from-being-inside-her-dress trigger; the sudden cold around her forearms; the pain of her wrist snapping back at a too-far angle; and the lightness in her empty palm, followed by a searing sting where metal had scraped against skin. The bullet hit a home-run off the roof. Her darling♡ stood at the lounge chair's side with La Petite Souris in her♡ wide-eyed heavy-breathed grip.

Coco blinked.

Tsugumi♡ dropped the assault rifle, swiped it from the air before it could hit the asphalt, and gently set La Petite Souris down.

Oh, her dearest daaarling♡, who had just pwned her.

Coco only let her♡ cheat a little. She didn't make Tsugumi♡ sit down. Coco stood up, instead. Her fingers slotted between hers♡. Her nose banged against hers♡. Her face bounced off of hers♡ but she came back again, her♡ hands a lifeline, until she couldn't tell who kissed whom and it didn't matter.

Sweat, plum, iron. Her darling♡ right there. No one else☆.

"I'm sooo proud of you." Could Tsugumi♡ even understand her through the kiss? She didn't purr. Cats were, like, so for subculture bitches. So she wasn't purring, 'kay? "I love a girl who can B-me-TFO. Even with my secret last minute boss fight. But you said you wanted to earn it. Sooo..."

"I wouldn't have had it any other way." Something between tears and glee gathered in Tsugumi♡'s timbre. Coco shivered♫. "You know how much it means that you never have the kid gloves on around me anymore? You're so good, Coco."

"Inorite?" Coco pressed her mouth further into the kiss, into her♡ kiss. Her words slurred from the contact of lips and tongues. "Praise me more."

"I will. But first I should be saying sorry. I cheated." Tsugumi♡ breathed through the kiss. The harsh warm air from her nose♡ tickled Coco's cheeks. She giggled. Her palms closed in to her darling♡'s sweaty ones. "I didn't finish the flamingo-gos. I need to get better. But I wanted to kiss you before you had to recall them. So I cheated and ran."

"IDGAF." The flamingo-gos, despite Coco's instructions to stop Tsugumi♡ from moving forward, kept panicking around the roof♮. "I nevz even said you couldn't sprint. I said my Noise would try to stop you."

Her darling♡'s warm laugh rumbled through her again. Again, and again, and again. Please. Please♫. "I loved that."

"O rly? Soo which of my babies was your mostest favouritest? Which wasn't? Fun? Boring? Hard? Ez?"

"That's my Coco." Tsugumi♡ nipped her lower lip. Coco eeked, hands gripping hers♡, thighs pressed together. "I love you."

"I l-love you too. Meanie." Coco pulled away from the kiss long enough to stick her tongue out.

"And who taught me to be a meanie sometimes?" Her darling♡ kissed her again. Coco pulled her♡ closer in. A meanie like Tsugumi♡ deserved a tongue stuck out at her, and in her, too.

After an eternity that couldn't have been longer than sixty seconds, she♡ broke the kiss.

Before Coco could whine, Tsugumi♡ spoke. "The flamingo-gos were my favourite. The blues jays were cute but mostly annoying, so my least favourite. I think the funkeys were the most fun. The blues jays...were also the least fun, but I liked the weird zippy patterns of the last two. The hardest were the aphids because there were so many and they throw things at you. Well, and the flamingo-gos since they nearly took me out! The easiest were the hip-hoppers, since they don't do anything except run up to you and kick. Though they do kick pretty hard...maybe the funkeys, actually, since all I had to do was take out the trees."

Coco nod-nod-nodded. "Duh the flamingo-gos are the bestest. They're pink. What about the eurowanas?"

"The fish from the start?" Tsugumi♡ tipped her head to the side. "Um, I only fought one of each, so it's hard to know. I like the one that I had to hit a few times in a row. It was tricky. The silvery one. You make really fun Noise, Coco."

She puffed her chest out. "I'm the bestest."

"You are the bestest." Her darling♡ kissed her forehead, her nose, her cheeks, her lips, her chin. Were her toes even still touching the ground? She♡ paused only when Coco nudged her♡ so she could call the flamingo-gos back into their pins. She kissed every pin softly before nestling it onto her sleeve. Tsugumi♡ did, too, following Coco's lead, pressing her♡ lips to the pin and then to her fingertips. When all of her babies had been cradled with care, her darling♡ kissed all over her hands, too. Her knuckles, her palms, her wrists, her fingers, her thumbs. "I want to do this again. With lots of different Noise and pins. Even if I'm battered when I come out. I...love doing this with you. Being with you."

The words left her mouth like an email she couldn't unsend♥. "Growing old with me?"

The line of her♡ mouth drew flat across her♡ face. Her♡ pupils moved slowly back and forth, like she♡ were trying to read something unknowable from Coco's face.

Woo-hoo. Coco super dee duper secret weapon number six hundred and twenty five: ruining a kiss with her girlfriend.

Her darling♡ closed her eyes. "...if you'll let me, and if you'll have me, and if you choose that, then yes."

"...I still don't get it. But, 'kay." Coco breathed in. Pinewood, sweated-over linen, plum. "You're doing this to make the world better. And you'd pick this anyway, even if I could snap my fingers and make the world better right now."

Tsugumi♡ inclined her head. "Yes."

"And growing old with you is totez better than me having to watch you wither away and die while I'm alive, or breaking up with you. So." Coco buried her face into her darling♡'s chest. "Get ready to hear a lot of MMM:001. Or else."

Her darling♡ laughed so hard she♡ snorted. "You're going to walk to that song when we get married, aren't you?"

"Um WTF LMFAO that sounds like an uh you problem so like waow—"

Her♡ thumb pushed up on Coco's chin until she had to lift her face up. "Sounds like a we problem. I'll be at the wedding, too." Tsugumi♡ rested her♡ brow on hers. Yes, her smart, clever, wise darling♡: better to look into those brown irises now and not let a single moment slip away☆. "I hope I don't ever have to live without you. Or not for long. I could. I don't want to."

"Sign me up for that train." With the two of them standing by the lounge chair, their bodies bridging red-white and pink-teal, Coco's arms had much elbow room. And she used them to squish in closer, any gap an affront. "I love you, Tsu."

"I love you too."