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-82-

Everything is a chaotic mess and we're almost to the date of my wedding!

Parad brought back Graphite so he can have someone to play with, which is a huge nightmare for us all. Now we are wasting resources monitoring his stupid butt along with Graphite's dumb butt. And in addition to that, Parad is planning his own wedding in an obsessive way despite it being too soon to plan that all out. 

"Are you sure you don't mind me wanting to get married as soon as possible?" Parad asks me. "You look stressed out." Yes, because you're stressing me the heck out.

"No, you can marry all you want." Even though it won't be legal. "Did you let her know you're wanting to marry as soon as possible?"

"No, not yet. I know she wants me though. We've been pretty forward with each other," he answers. "Elkie, if you don't want me to get married-"

"I do want you to be happy. I'm not going to stand in the way of your happiness." 

I don't want him to be single at all. It's just that he's rushing things and not thinking properly. Sakura isn't a bad peson, but what if she's wrong for him? What's right now can be wrong later. 

Parad pops down in front of me. "Elkie, I know you want that for me and I'm happy to know that. It's just that if you don't want me to get married, I will consider it for your sake. You are a smart person and usually think about things first. And you know what? I think Emu is thinking that I should slow down too." His face drops, looking tragic. 

"I'm not going to tell you to not be with her," I state, being firm. "Parad, you're allowed to make your own decisions. I've been doing that my entire time here. I deceived you in order to survive, so I have no room to make your decisions for you." 

He stares at me in shock. "Elkie..." 

"I am just being honest with you as your friend." I smile. "Now, don't worry about what I think too much from now. Live your best life." 

"I...I don't know what to say." 

"You don't have to say a single thing, Parad. You're a good Bugster. Sometimes." He really can be a good one at times.

His lips twist upwards, the previous look of shock leaving his handsome face. "I'm so good these days. I don't cause that much trouble, Elk." 

"You don't cause that much trouble these days? You do weird things to have fun," I point out, laughing. "Really, you do."

He nods his head in agreement. "Yeah, I do that don't I? But you know what? At least it gives us something to do. It's been kind of boring since we can't do anything without the Bugster Virus being spread around." 

"Who says that we can't do anything fun? We have video games that keep us entertained. We also have jobs to make us some money." He sort of has a job and he does get a bit of compensation these days it seems. "Poppy is happy with her position in life. Why can't you?"

"Because I want more." 

"Do activism then. You have it in you to do that." He can get donations to further his cause and it'll also make money for him as well. "You do gaming too. Become a Professional Gamer as your job in the future. I think you can join an e-sports team." 

"Hey, that's not a bad idea." He nods again, happy with my words. "Elkie, I think that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to join a team and raise awareness of the pain I've gone through as a Bugster. People shouldn't discriminate against us." 

"Exactly my point." No one should deal with that. "You were born that way and people should respect that about you. Our differences are our strengths."

"You should like one of those motivational speakers right now. You're motivating me to go out there and live my best life." 

I grin. "Of course I am! I am your personal motivational speaker!" 

"Hey, what's going on here?" Emu!

I look over as Emu approaches us, walking towards us casually. 

"I thought you would be at work for a bit longer," I say. I am liking that he is here though, so no complaints from me on him being here.

"I was let go by Hiiro. He told me to spend some time with you before the wedding. Of course, I didn't think that you would be hanging with Parad still. It seems like he needs something to do." Emu smiles, eyes going to his Bugster. "How's it going, Parad? I hope you're not too bored right now."

"How would I be bored right now? I am with Elkie and we're having a good time talking about what I should do with my life. I'm thinking of becoming a gamer for good. What do you think of that one?"

"Will it get you out of the house?" Emu asks him.

"Maybe." 

"Then go for it. I'm going to need a lot of privacy with Elkie once we get married," he says, eyes going to me. He winks. "Right?"

My face starts burning and I nod. "Yeah, that's right." 

"Hey, are you two planning on having a family right away? Wow, that's going to be insane! I can't wait to show them how to game properly. I'm going to lead them on the right path." Parad is already being a good uncle it seems. 

"Yeah, we are going to have a beautiful family as soon as we possibly can. I think it's a good idea to do that since we're already so happy together. We're working jobs that make us good money. We are definitely in a position to have as many kids as we want."

"Did they pay you that much for everything?" Parad asks, probably wide-eyed right now.

"They compensated all of us for dealing with the outbreak of the Bugster Virus. Kind of a hazard pay thing," Emu explains. "I can't really discuss the details of it all."

Emu and the others put their lives on the line to stop the spread of evil out in the world. They didn't just have to deal with the Bugster Virus, but they also had to deal with Kamen Rider Chronicle. I don't know how they did it so professionally, but they did. All of that was so emotional and was a complete and utter nightmare. I know I handled in the best way I could, but it was still hard on me and I showed my emotions a lot.

I look at Parad. "Where is his compensation for doing what he needed?"

"Being free is his compensation. He did a lot of bad things he has to atone for. So, he's getting paid in freedom," Emu comments. "We could lock him up in that prison Kuroto was in." 

I look back at Emu. "We should have done that. He's a troublemaker."

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Parad exclaims in his defense. What a weak defense.

I laugh. "Sure."

"Yeah, you're totally not that bad," Emu says in agreement with me. Of course, we're being sarcastic.

There are good things and bad things about Parad. He has a lot of good to him, but he's still mentally not in the best place to live like an adult should. I get his young in terms of years, but he's physically Emu's age basically. He needs to hurry up and grow up some more.

"You two are mean," he comments, sighing. "Why am I still friends with you two? I should be friends with Graphite only. He gets me." 

"He wants to fight, not do what you do all day." I am so right on this one. "We're lucky he isn't causing fights right now. He lives to show off." 

Graphite is literally full of himself and is happy showing himself off. I'm just glad he's found himself a proper job. Good for him. Now he can stay out of trouble and live a proper life for once. He isn't going to spread the virus knowing that we'll just stop him at any given moment. Also, he just wants to have all the attention on himself.

"Thank goodness he has a bit of an ego," Emu states, happy to know that Graphite loves himself a bit too much. "I always knew he was obsessed with himself."

"Didn't we all know that?" I ask.

"Yes, we did," he responds. "I think most people could take one look at him and see him for what he is. I hope he's more humble now compared to before." 

"I highly doubt that he is. He's busy getting his ego stroked right this moment." I highly doubt he'll ever not have his ego be huge. 

"Well, I think you two need to hang out for a bit. How about it? You two go and have some fun while I find something to do. Perhaps the one I love is free to hang out with me," Parad suggests. He's really going to let us go now?

I raise an eyebrow, my eyes going to the Bugster. "You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure about you two hanging out. I won't bother you two," he answers, smiling warmly at me. "Elkie, I promise you that I won't do anything to bother you two today. It'll be your time to shine with Emu." 

"Don't you mean that it is my time to shine with her?" Emu laughs.

Parad looks at him and gives a slight nod. "Yeah, that too."

"Okay, we will go now. You behave," I order, pointing at him. "If I hear of you causing trouble, I'm ending your life."

He holds up his hands defensively. "Hey, no need to do that! I will behave like a good Bugster!" 

Good boy. "Emu, let's go."

"Okay, love," he says as I look at him. He brings up a hand and waves at Parad. "I will see you later." 

"Yeah, you will. Let's play games later!" Parad exclaims.

Oh, how I love these two and their friendship. 


A/n: Hello everyone! Sorry for the extreme delay, but haven't had the greatest time recently. Work has been...well, work xD and my internet has been absolute trash recently. I do not write things in notebooks much these days, so without good internet I couldn't access my drafts. I hope to get the internet straightened out at some point. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Thank you for waiting and see you all next time. 

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