Chapter 402: That’s What I Do, Pupa

"Stole that shit."

Cero and Roka’s faces dropped at once.

"That’s what I do, pupa." Nolan continued.

With the way that the people around them reacted, Cero could immediately tell that it was a slur.

"See?!" Hugo was on the verge of tears, pointing at Nolan.

"Fuck you, pupa, I stole that shit."

Everyone froze. Even Hugo went silent.

"Huh," Roka gulped. "You don’t even deny it... That’s cool..."

"Pupa, I don’t! Deny what, pupa? I talk facts!"

Cero had to rub his face to keep himself from laughing out loud.

"Nolan, that’s crazy," One of the bystanders said.

"What’s crazy? This pupa doesn’t know what to do with all that." Nolan continued. "Her shit fat."

By this time, Roka and Cero debated walking away to laugh freely.

"I always... I always told you this guy was an asshole." Hugo was sobbing.

"Pupa, you don’t know what to do with that, give me that," Nolan said as he tapped a bystander’s shoulder. "That’s what I did to the little pupa. You don’t know what to do with that, give me that."

Hugo cursed and shouted as he sobbed, but most of what he said was unintelligible.

"I wonder who this Angela is for them to be fighting over her like this," Roka whispered as she leaned closer to Cero.

"Who knows? I’m surprised to see Nolan like this. Completely changes the way I perceived him."

"I know, right?"

Nolan crouched in front of Hugo, who was crying and still on the ground.

"She started wasting her time with a fuck pupa like you and now she had to go back to work at Kraus. I’m telling you, you don’t know what to do with that."

Nolan continued berating the fallen Hugo, leading to more and more tears, while Cero and Roka turned towards one another.

"No way, right?" Cero asked in a whisper.

"No way..."

Roka reached into her pocket. She had shoved the Kraus Love Hotel catalog into her pocket in her hurry.

"You still have that?" Cero asked, a tinge of excitement in his voice.

"Let’s see..." Roka started flipping the pages. "Angela, Angela..."

Cero leaned over her shoulder.

They went through several pages and, eventually,

"Gulp..."

The two were fighting over a humongous, three-meter-tall creature covered in smooth, dark-blue flesh with a massive rounded torso and a head that seamlessly blended into the rest of the body.

Instead of arms and legs, Angela had an absurd number of long, thick tentacles extending from her body.

’They’re fighting over an octopus?’ Cero closed his eyes while trying not to laugh. "I wouldn’t know what to do with that either, to be honest."

"Don’t laugh," Roka tapped his elbow. "Don’t laugh, that’s disrespectful. Don’t laugh."

She was fighting back just as hard as he was, and Roka could tell that if he ended up laughing, she would too.

Roka slowly closed the catalog. Witnessing Angela in all her glory wasn’t helping them keep it together.

Hugo cursed and ran away, causing everyone to laugh out loud.

This, thankfully, gave the two the perfect excuse to stop holding back.

The next second,

"Party’s back on!"

Cheers erupted and people who had previously left due to the fight came back.

Suddenly, three dozen people were standing around the campfire, and the mood immediately shifted.

"Let’s move this elsewhere!" Nolan shouted after gulping down three drinks.

The spaceship’s ramp was lowered after he clicked the keys, and everyone started stepping into the ship.

Before Nolan could get on the ramp, however,

"We need to talk," Cero said as he grabbed the latter by the back of his collar and lifted him off the ground.

"So that’s how that feels," Nolan muttered, remembering that the same thing had happened to Hugo. "I can explain everything.

"Do it, then." Roka crossed her arms.

"Okay, so Angela-"

"The spaceship," Cero interrupted. "Is everything good with the spaceship?"

"Yes..." Nolan admitted. "I just wanted to see Angela."

"Oh, for fuck’s sake." Roka rubbed her forehead. "You’re delaying our mission so you can go to your favorite Love Hotel?"

"I don’t see her at Kraus!" Nolan shouted. "She’s doing it to get by! I’ve been gone for a long time, and when I heard she was messing around with someone else..."

’Isn’t that basically what she does every day at work?’ Roka and Cero asked themselves.

Nolan could read it on their faces.

"It’s different when it’s customers, okay? What the two of us have... She doesn’t make me pay... And I love her!"

Cero and Roka stared at him silently.

"Fine," Nolan sighed. "Bring the other two, and we can leave as soon as you want..."

The two exchanged a glance and sighed.

"Should we forgive him?" Cero asked.

"In the name of love?" Roka added in a puppy voice. "Little Nolan is so in looove after all."

"Oh, fuck off, you two," Nolan cursed as Cero brought him back down. "We can party for a bit, then I’ll meet Angela after she gets off work, then we can leave, okay? Please. Pleaaaaase!"

The two shrugged.

"Yeah, fine," Roka answered.

"But no more detours," Cero warned.

"Yes!"

Nolan ran off like a child who has just been let off the hook by his parents.

"Haa..." Cero sighed a couple of seconds later. "To be young and in love."

Roka got closer and rested the side of her head on his arm. "I know, right?"

He turned his face towards her, and Roka got on the tips of her toes for a quick peck.

"Are you two coming in or what?" Nolan waved from inside the ship.

The two followed inside while holding hands.

The music was booming. Three dozen people from all corners of the universe were drinking and dancing.

Cero and Roka liked the vibe in there a lot more than in that rave.

Before long, the two started dancing.

On the table where the crewmates usually took their meals, a card game had been set up. People were gambling.

The six-armed cook whose stock Cero had consumed in its entirety eventually joined the party as well.

Nolan was respectful enough to keep the rooms that did not belong to him locked. Only his was open.

Roka and Cero danced, sang, gambled, and talked with all kinds of people.

Eventually, however, they ended up longing for some privacy.

The two slipped out of the crowd and into the command room.

The moment that Cero closed the door behind him, Roka pushed him against the wall and kissed him passionately while stroking his shoulder.

Cero kissed her while caressing her side until his hand slipped below her shirt.

The two only paused once they were out of breath.

The music on the other side of the door was barely audible.

She had taken his shirt off, and he had taken hers off.

They stared into each other’s eyes silently before stepping out of the command room, through the dancing crowd, and into the locked room they shared.