“Even though I said I had no intentions of being friends,” Neon continued, “I’m doing this because I still like you.”

Yes, Neon was afraid of getting hurt. Even if he was rejected, he didn’t want to give up. He wondered if he could do such an embarrassing thing, but when he met Gaige, it turned out like this.

Gaige tilted her head and raised a brow.

“Even though Flash and I fight alot, we are still currently going out,” Gaige said, “Nylon, where the hell is your conscience?”

“The impact she makes in real life is totally different, and she said the thing I didn’t want to hear the most.” Neon thought as he coughed and spoke, “Like I said before, I think I suit you more. I wouldn’t make you feel uneasy nor would I make you worry, and I’d take care... Of you more.”

Meanwhile at the bush, Hazel started to become even more hysteric as the time passed. She trembled as she watched Gaige and Neon talk. She turned back to Flash and Sunset and saw them eating a box of donuts.

“WAIT A SEC, BRAD! WHY AREN’T YOU STOPPING THIS?! YOU’RE THE BOYFRIEND!” Hazel exclaimed in anger.

“They might be discussing Gaige’s robot fantasies again.” Sunset said.

“WHAT KIND OF RIDICULOUS IDEA IS THAT?!” Hazel replied, “ARGH! YOU TWO! BE MORE PROACTIVE!”

“Hey... We’re friends with that girl?” Flash whispered to Sunset.

“No comment... More importantly, have you talked to Gaige?” Sunset asked, “Did you two make up?”

“Probably? I don’t know if we talked enough.” Flash sighed.

Flash maintained his cool composure, but suddenly turned into a terrified and nervous state. He peeked into the bush to find Hazel.

“Let’s just pull Hazel out of there and go home already!” Said the hysteric Flash, “I’m scared that I’m going to do something again. I’m scared of myself!”

“....So he was holding it in...” Sunset whispered with a smile.

Hazel continued to make obnoxious noises inside the bush as she eavesdropped on the two. The more and more hysteric she became while she listened to Gaige and Neon’s conversation.

“You said that you... Wanted to be best buds with me, right?” Gaige asked.

Hazel’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened in fear.

“The more or less means that I’m indispensable, right? If it’s me, we could work hard together while we’re going out.” Neon proposed.

“W-work hard together?!” Gaige asked in surprise.

“That’s right! For whatever you are working on right now.” Neon said with a smile, “Heh, attack logic.”

Back at the bush once more, Hazel and Flash started to become very uneasy as time passed. Sunset sat by and watched silently and Hazel started to gnaw on her fingernails.

“Oh, she’s really getting into it!” Haze panicked.

“That bastard! WOMAN, GET RID OF HER!” Flash whispered angrily.

Hazel and Flash peeked together to see what was happening. To their surprise, Gaige was looking up with her hand on her chin, looking like she was thinking about it thoroughly.

“SHE’S CONSIDERING IT!” Flash panicked as he grabbed his hair with both of his hands.

“ARGH! THAT’S IT I’M GOING WITH PLAN B!” Hazel exclaimed as she rose up from the bush.

The loud rustle from the bush surprised both Gaige and Neon. The two turned to the bush and saw Hazel with leaves and twigs on her hair and had a crimson red blush on her face.

“The hell?!” Gaige exclaimed.

“F-Flash has heaps of stuff to say!” Hazel exclaimed to them, “A-And, FLASH L-L-LOVES ANIMALS!”

Suddenly, Sunset and Flash came out and quickly pulled Hazel down back in the bush. Neon and Gaige grew confused by this, however Neon was simply annoyed that they had to intervene. He let out a sigh, stood up and took his bag.

“You free tomorrow?” Neon asked Gaige.

“Yeah? Probably?” Gaige answered.

“If it’s alright with you, can I have some time with you?”

With that said, Neon immediately left without a word. After he disappeared from her sight, Gaige stood up and walked towards the bush. She looked over and saw Flash, Sunset and a crying Hazel covering her face.

“Okay, any of you want to explain why you’re all here?” Gaige asked as Flash gulped in fear.

“W-We... Were just going to get some drinks....” Flash answered.

Gaige silently left the three spies and went on home alone. Tired, she stopped at a bus stop and waited for one to come. Since it was already December and almost Christmas, she brought a winter jacket with her and a scarf which she proceed to wear. Still, it was very cold and she started sniffling. Alone she sat at the bus stop and watched the night sky glimmer.

Oddly enough, she was happy for some reason. She was happy that Flash was there because he was concerned. She wanted to understand his feelings, but she still felt jealous and frustrated because of what happened during Blaze’s birthday. More problems came to her when she remembered her encounter with Neon earlier. Neon was a promising person, but what about Flash? Would it be better if she dated Neon instead of Flash? Aside from that, she remembered her talk with Flash on the bleachers of Canterlot. At that time, why didn’t she say anything back to him? She avoided hurting her own feelings, and hurt Flash’s instead.

Meanwhile nearby, Neon walked aimlessly on the sidewalk and was seemingly lost once more. However, it was intentional that he made himself lost in the world, for he was still thinking about what happened with him and Gaige.

“Bloody hell, we didn’t have a decent talk,” Neon said to himself as he felt his beating chest with his hand, “The hell am I getting flustered about? It’s not like I came to talk about that kind of stuff. I’ve never been agitated like this since I met Vinyl back then.”

As he turned to a corner, he saw a bus stop and a girl sitting alone. At first, he tried to ignore it, but as soon as he got closer, he noticed that it was Gaige. However, she looked like she wasn’t herself. It looked like she was rubbing her eyes and sniffling, moreover, it looked like she was crying. Neon’s heart started to pound faster and faster. He had some sort of feeling inside of him that he wanted to comfort the girl.

Neon hesitated at first and tried to walk away, but something was pulling him back. With this urge and the ability to not run away, Neon ran to Gaige to comfort her.

“OI! OI!” Neon exclaimed as he grabbed Gaige on the shoulder from behind.

“N-Neon?!” Gaige answered.

“Um... What? You’re crying...”

Immediately, Neon gave Gaige a tight embrace, surprising the girl. With the warm hug, Neon felt his worries going away and regretted not having to express his feelings to Gaige in the earliest.

“That’s right,” Neon thought to himself, “I should have said it from the very start that...”

At the Mix's residence, Moxi, Gaige's mother (FYI), sat alone in their dining table while drinking a cup of tea. She had her night gown on and appreciated the cold silent night she was having. Unfortunately, the silence was soon interrupted when Treble barged in, only in his boxers.

"Hey Mom! I see you're also going period mode!" Treble chuckled randomly while he opened the kitchen's refrigerator and took out a milk carton.

"Very funny pumpkin," Moxi chuckled as well as she rolled her eyes, "Is your sister home yet? She's awfully late again."

"No, I heard she was having love problems," Treble explained, "I swear, that girl has been getting busier with her life when she started dating Flash."

Moxi smiled as she took another sip of her tea. She felt glad that her daughter has grown up and matured. Not only that, she's gotten herself a boyfriend. Moxi dreaded the day that Gaige would turn out to be more like her father, however she was relieved it turned out like this.

"...Gaige has never been... A difficult child." Moxi spoke out.

"What do you mean Mom?" Treble asked.

"Ever since she was a kid, she'd often say more mature things than me," Moxi explained, "She's the type of kid who would make hamburgers for herself. Above all, she wasn't the typical girl I wanted my daughter to be. I'm worried about that."

"Hey, atleast it wasn't another me!"

"But, just once... Gaige's expression was strange when were leaving her in Japan. It looked as though she was depressed and about to cry... Or like she was eating a sour pickle," Moxi continued, "I didn't want her to make that expression during that time... But I'm glad that, she atleast reacted."

Back at the bus stop, Neon and Gaige were still at an awkward spot as the two were in a warm embrace. There was no one else in the vicinity and it was silent as a church. Gaige's face slowly turned red while Neon remained in his position, unaware that she wasn't crying at all.

"...Umm, Neon?" Gaige called out.

Realizing that she wasn't crying, Neon eased up on the wrap and looked at Gaige in close range.

Neon slowly let go of Gaige. He reached out to his pocket and gave a handkerchief to Gaige in order to fix the sniffling. As Gaige blew out her nose, Neon suddenly sat next to her with a serious look.

"Can I stay here for a bit?" Neon said, "Just... Until the bus comes."

Gaige kept on staring at him and expected Neon to be annoyed by this, but not a single reaction was made by him. He kept his serious look, almost as if he was getting flustered slowly. The awkward silence went on for a few minutes, which made Gaige very uncomfortable and started blushing. She began to question why he wasn't saying anything.

Finally, a bus drove up to the stop. Gaige stood up and patted her skirt.

"Um, Neon... SEE YA." Gaige said awkwardly as she rushed towards the bus.

However, she was soon stopped after Neon grabbed her hand. She turned to him and saw him with a furrowed look.

"Ah, um! Just this once, please consider me properly..." Neon said in a sincere tone.

Even though she was still technically dating Flash, Gaige couldn't just leave Neon hanging. The genuine tone and the serious look he gave to her made her think twice.

"....Okay." Gaige said as she departed.

Even though Gaige agreed to do so, she couldn't sleep from overthinking it. She looked at the time and saw that it was still early in the morning, and she wanted to sleep through the weekend until her meeting with Neon. She slowly rose up and walked towards the bathroom to brush her teeth. She did not even bother fixing her hair to her usual pigtail hairstyle.

"Considering him properly... How do you do it?" She thought to herself while she scrubbed away on her teeth, "Uh, what are his pros and cons even?"

Upon imagining what his advantages were, Gaige instead remembered the three words that Neon uttered to her during that night.

I like you.

The bubbly and watery mouth immediately spat out and choked. Gaige looked at the mirror and saw that her face was glowing red just from remembering such words. She violently shook her head and got out of the bathroom. She took the cube that contained Deathtrap on her table and rushed outside to their backyard.

The winter cold was still present, but somehow a bit of sunlight was shining through the clouds. She threw down the cube like it was a stone on the snowy grass. The cube spawned the killer robot that Gaige had created and moaned robotic sounds to its creator. The robot hadn't been touched for weeks and was greasy and dusty. Gaige groaned and went back inside to get her cleaning tools. She then came back and started to clean Deathtrap up from top to bottom.

Half an hour had passed and Deathtrap was finally spotless. Gaige wiped her sweaty forehead and looked back. Standing at the doorway to her house was Treble, who was drinking a cup of hot chocolate and had a smirk on his look.

"Working hard as usual little sister?" Treble chuckled.

"Sup Treb, going somewhere on this fine Saturday we are having?" Gaige asked, oblivious that she still had the burning red face.

"Not really. Vinyl is out of town and the guys are on dates... So I'm pretty much just going to laze around all day."

"Good to know... Now leave me alone or I'm taking you to a trip to Suplex City."

Treble chuckled at Gaige's statement instead of getting annoyed. He began to head inside but soon stopped and looked at Gaige once more.

"...You know... You look better with your hair down. It's cute." Treble stated.

After that, Treble left Gaige wondering what that meant. She looked up to the sky and saw the visible sun. It was truly a nice weather, and a nice day to finally finish everything.

At the Canterlot plaza, a lone Neon sat alone with his phone out on one of the benches. He fixated his scarf in place as he opened a text message from one of the girls from his school, who wanted to hang out with the British boy. Neon quickly replied that he was busy and put away his phone to enjoy his alone time. He too couldn't sleep from what had happened yesterday with Gaige, and the image of him saying those three words to her was stuck in his head.

His face turned bright red as he remembered the same exact moment for the hundred time. He covered his mouth, bowed down and took off his sunglasses in embarrassment. Nearby, he was very oblivious that Flash was passing by and was watching him.

"I SAID IT, I'VE SAID IT! I TOLD HER I LIKED HER!" Neon thought to himself as Flash walked towards him.

Neon looked up and saw Flash with a brow raised. Neon's eye twitched as he took a deep breath and maintained a cool composure.

"If you see me, you should call me instead of staring at me like a stupid wanker." Neon said in annoyance.

"Nah, I just thought you were in the middle of something," Flash said deadpanned, "I saw you from fifty meters back but you were laughing and moaning to yourself, so I thought twice about calling out to you."

"You're becoming more and more like your crappy brother..."

"Also you look like some kind of weirdo. Stop doing those kind of things," Flash finished as he turned his back on Neon, "Anyway, see ya."

"Flash." Neon called out.

Flash immediately stopped and turned back to Neon.

"I... Confessed to Gaige..." Neon stated.

Neon awaited for Flash to violently react, but to his surprise there was none. Flash simply stared at him and gave out a sigh. He then looked away and started walking away like it was nothing.

"I see!" Flash said simply as he left Neon alone.

Neon sat dumbfounded and relieved that Flash didn't go ballistic on him. As he was about to mind his own business once again, his phone started to ring. He took it out and to his surprise, there was a text that came from someone he wanted to see all day.

Neon quickly stood up and rushed to a certain destination. As he walked, he thought of what his fate was. Will he get hurt or will he achieve the happiness he was searching for? The answer awaits as he arrived at the park. He scouted around to see where the person was. Finally, he saw where she was.

The boy headed towards the bank of the lake where a girl awaited. She had her orange hair down and was wearing a red winter dress complete with a red scarf. Neon's face first went white, before flooding over with a brilliant crimson. He would have whistled, had not his lips suddenly found themselves too dry. He had a sudden sense of looking at something strictly meant for only a few number of eyes, and he did not know if he was included in that company, only that he was somehow blessed with the opportunity to view it. His heart threatened to leap out of his chest and burst into a glorious flame; he wasn't breathing; and all he heard was the thumping of blood flowing through his head, deafening Gaige's gasp.

"Oh, Neon," Gaige called out, "Good afternoon."

Neon was still stunned upon the beauty he was looking at. Not only that, Gaige had this feminine aura with an adorable look on her face, almost as if she was some kind of cute doll.

"W-Why are you making that face?" Neon questioned.

"Oh this? My brother said this suited me better," Gaige said, "More importantly, the hell have you been? You're an hour late Nylon!"

There was a moment of silence between the two. The two stood alone near the river and not a soul around them was present except the birds chirping on the trees. Gaige looked away for a minute and had a serious look. Neon noticed this right away, but it looked like Gaige was also bothered by something, or was in fact melancholic.

"Last night, I couldn't sleep." Gaige said.

Neon was caught off guard by this.

"Even in my house, all I could think about was you," Gaige continued with a serious tone, "There was no helping it, so I thought I would go to Hoofbucks and enjoy a hot drink. But I couldn't get into it."

Gaige turned her attention to Neon and sighed.

"Neon, what do you like about me?" Gaige asked with a brow raised.

"Is this an interview or something?" Neon said as he rubbed the back of his head and took a deep breath, "Well, to answer that question; It's how straight forward of you. You're different from me. You express your emotions. You're frank and always honest."

"You think I say whatever I think to that extent mate?"

"Not sugar-coating anything... Is incredible," Neon said with a serious tone, "Especially infront of the person you like."

Gaige let out a short giggle, but soon turned back to her serious state.

"You... Always help me out," Gaige said to him, "Whenever you're there, I'm calm and at peace. I feel as though I can be myself, and that makes me feel good."

Gaige's expression then turned to annoyance and anger all of a sudden.

"On the other hand, the bastard I'm dating makes me tired... I feel as though... Day after day, he surprises or angers me..." Gaige said out of anger, but her anger slowly turned to something more sincere and genuinely calm, and soon she wore half a smile, "...Realizing that I had feelings like that..."

Neon knew what was coming. All his hopes soon disappeared and melancholy shrouded his heart. He soon knew that his fate was sealed upon the next move that Gaige was about to pull.

It's just as you said, Neon. What Flash and I have might not be love, but even if it's like that... It's fun."

With that said, Gaige faced Neon with somehow a serious yet sorrowed look.

"That's why I'm sorry Neon, I can't go out with you." Gaige proclaimed.

Neon's expression quickly turned expressionless. Gaige wasn't aware that deep inside the boy, he felt his whole dream die in an instant. Suddenly, Neon pulled Gaige into a tight embrace.

This wasn't the fate that Neon wanted in the end. He wanted a cure for the thorns that bothered his daily living, but those thorns grew further to his aching heart. A small tear came out of his melancholic eye, which he closed to seal it and stop it from dripping down. He let out a last sigh before letting go of Gaige from his grasp. The boy soon let out a fake smile and waved to Gaige.

"See ya, don't regret it," Neon smiled, "A man of my caliber, won't ever appear before you again."

Gaige soon let out a smile of her own, oblivious that she was hurting the boy infront of her.

"Yeah," Gaige smiled, "Thanks Neon."

Gaige soon began to depart, leaving Neon still hurting. It was the opposite for him, as he will never meet a girl like Gaige ever again. He felt like an idiot and regretted every moment he wasted when he had the chance to say that he liked her. But, some feelings still stayed and he didn't want Gaige to leave his life.

"OI! You said you wanted to be friends with me right?" Neon shouted to Gaige, which immediately stopped her to turn back, "Well, the only one who would go out with that idiot Brad would be you. It will be definitely be troublesome, but if it's being a friend, I can be one."

Gaige took a moment to digest what Neon said and came to a realization.

"It took me ages to realize, but Neon you're not very honest." Gaige smirked.

"Leave it alone." Neon groaned.

With that said, Gaige let out a warm smile to her friend Neon. She was glad that the two made up and went with good terms, and the fact that one problem has been solved. The two then parted their ways and went forward with their lives.

Nonetheless, there was still one final problem she needed to deal with; Her boyfriend Flash Sentry.

Author's Notes:

OH YOU THOUGHT NEON WAS GOING TO GET HER! I FOOLED YOU ALL.

I just realized that I turned Gaige from this crazy weebo girl into some teenage girl who has love problems. I love it. ANOTHER!

LAST TWO CHAPTERS EVERYONE! In the next chapter, will we see reconciliation or a heartbreak? TUNE IN.

Special thanks to Jarvy_Jared for doing a literary piece on a part of the chapter. Care to find it?

And now for the multicultural:
Naghunahuna ka nga ako ang magpadala sa Neon ug Gaige sa Jarvy? HUNAHUNAA BALA NIMO IKAW ANG IDIOT.