Relationship Dynamic

Pino and Choco are a really wholesome couple, actually. The two act really cute around each other, and wanna do anything to make the other party feel safe and sound and comfy!
And both learn more about human emotions and social interaction together each day.
Choco, because she has the 'tism.
And Pino, because he is still a puppet.

Also, both shower each other with love.
Sure, Choco gets easily flustered and Pino is often confused about her flusteredness or flustered as well.
But they love to cuddle each other and make each other gifts.

First Meeting

What a huge city, Choco thought. A lot of people were walking through the alley, and Choco just searched for that one game in one game store. However, she couldn’t find the store, at all. Exhausted, she dropped onto a bench in the alley. She just wanted to quickly close her eyes, rest a bit and feel the sunshine on her face.

Until a huge shadow covered her body and she looked at the person above her.

A tall young man, with a smirk which didn’t seem honest. It seemed rather… dangerous.

“Ey Cutie Pie. Wanna go for a walk?”

Choco was in shock. She said nothing. All she did was look left and right, up and down. This man was gigantic. There was no escape, no way out. Was she really done for?

The man came closer and closer, waiting for an answer.

That’s when a cough sounded behind the man.

When he turned around, Choco couldn’t see who it was. But the man made it clear what kind of person was interrupting him.

“Heh, what do you want, little asshole? Such a small dude… you almost look like a puppe-”

Before the man could end his sentence, the small stranger apparently did something. The man was silent. Shivering. What was happening?

“Ok ok ok, she’s yours! I’m out, there are plenty of fish in the sea!”

He ran away, and finally, Choco could see the stranger: A dark brown haired young man, who just hid his sword back into his bag. Choco couldn’t even think about who the man was and why the hell he carried a sword. He looked without saying anything to her with gorgeous blue eyes. And Choco noticed: Fuck. This man is so perfect. So gorgeous… as perfect as a puppet.

The man tiled his head suddenly. Apparently, he waited for an answer.

With a few blinks, Choco got back to reality. She looked at the man, and smiled in a shy way.

“Th-thank you. For saving me.”

The man didn’t answer with words. Instead, he nodded and smiled gently. 

How could one smile be so wholesome, Choco thought.

But before she could think more about it, the man turned around and wanted to leave. Choco jumped from her bench and took his left hand to prevent him from leaving. She felt the metal of the robotic arm and wondered… Was he really human?

The stranger looked at Choco, a slight blush and big eyes in his face. He didn’t expect to be stopped, at all.

“My name is Choco”, the Woman started speaking.

“And- And I want to thank you for saving me.”

Apparently, the man wasn’t used to such kindness. But he just nodded.

And after a while, Choco just walked ahead, still holding the stranger’s hand.

Without any words however, the man walked in front of Choco, leading her through the city.

He led her through nice small stores, and they spent the whole day together.

And as it was evening, and Choco wanted to step into the train back to her city, the stranger tugged at her sleeve. She looked at him, just to see a piece of paper in his hand.

It read:

“Thank you for the wonderful day. Please text me, if you have time.”

“Pinocchio.”

With big eyes, she looked at Pinocchio, as he waved goodbye and the train started moving.

And finally, it all made sense…

She fell in love with a puppet. A very handsome and kind puppet.

First Kiss

It was a dark night in autumn. A storm was raging outside, while Pinocchio slowly walked to the room of his beloved. The two have been living together for quite some time now. And in all those times, Choco tried to make up for his help back then, each and every day.
And now, he knew. She needed his help again.

He carefully knocked on the door of her room. A short bit of silence.
Then, a soft "Come in, if it isn't a murderer."
Her standard sentence, when someone was knocking.

Pino walked into the room, to see Choco on her bed, getting ready to sleep.
He knew, humans had to sleep. But he didn't feel any tiredness yet. Maybe he was more puppet then human still.

O, right. He came in because of something else.
He walked to Choco, without any words, and showed her a book he found.

Her diary from years ago.

Choco froze. She remembered how much of her trauma was written down in this book.
With big eyes, she looked at Pino.

"...I'm sorry you had to read all of this bullshit."

Pino was a bit shocked about Choco's wording. Bullshit.
Was the pain of hers really bullshit?

She looked to the ground.
"Sorry for my wording. My past haunts me. And I hate it."

What was this on her face... tears? Yes. That's what human called it.
Tears.

Pino suddenly felt.. different.
The engines in his body moved.
And suddenly, he knew what to do.

Without any words, he took her shivering, sobbing form into his arms, sitting with her on the bed.
He heard a gasp. She was surprised.
But after a while, she relaxed in his puppet arms.
And Pino, hugging her tightly, said the first words coming to his mind and his first words to Choco:

"The past is over. You deserve to be free from pain."

Choco blushed heavily. And broke down in heavy crying.
Heavily sobbing, she still laid in PIno's arms. And poor Pino didn't know what to do.
Was this good? Was this bad?

He didn't think about was he did next.
He only saw this on drawings, and thought it was a good thing.

And so, he leaned a bit back, and gently took Choco's cried out face into his hands.
Her big eyes looked cutely at him, as he leaned in to kiss her.
And Choco? She didn't pull back. In fact, after a short shock, she closed her eyes, and accepted the kiss.

They stayed like this for a while, until pulling back for some air.
Choco looked more calm now, as she looked at Pino.
And he felt more human. He couldn't describe it.
But the butterflies in his stomach made him feel something.

"Do you know what you did?"
Choco asked in a breathy voice.

No. He didn't, to be honest.
He tilted his head, looking a bit worried.

"You kissed me. That usually means you like me, a lot. We humans also call it love."

Love... what a wonderful term.
He felt his cheeks getting red, and Choco chuckled a bit.

"I... I think I love you as well, Pino."

Pino looked with deep red cheeks at Choco. Did she really say that?
And... why did it feel so good to hear that?

He only knew one thing: He wanted one more kiss.
From her, and her only.

And so, they leaned in, kissing again.
And with this midnight kiss, the relationship started.

Trivia

Puppet to Human: During the relationship, Pino became more and more human. At the start of the relationship, he was still a bit stiff, following the “serving human kind” rules. But over time, he became more and more human, as he spent more time with Choco. Reason might be that he fell in love with Choco…

Bed Time: It wasn’t unusual for Pino in the start of the relationship to carry Choco in her bed as soon as the sun went down. He heard from Gemini that humans need to sleep when it’s dark, so when he caught Choco on her PC at night, he just joinked her from her place and carried her to her bed, so she would sleep.

Ship Name: Their Ship Name is “PinocChoco” (Thank you SeiKittea for that one ;///; <3)

Ship Symbol: The symbol of their ship is a blue butterfly on a violet heart.

Sleeping Problems: Since Pino was more of a puppet than human at the start of the relationship, he would be active all day and night while Choco slept. He used this time to help in the household or to study human behaviour. As time went on, he laid down in Choco’s bed with her, but stayed awake and read some books. And a bit later, tiredness settled in with him as well, and ever since, both sleep at nighttime.

Nicknames for the Puppet: Choco has a lot of nicknames for Pinocchio: Pino, P, Little Crow, Loving one, Guardian Angel and Cinnamon Roll are just a few of them.

Plushie Thief: Pino sometimes "borrows" Choco's plushies, since they smell like her and are incredibly fluffy. When Choco asks Pino where they went, he goes *shrug*

Real Life Trivia

• Selective Mute: Pino is the second crush ever I headcanon as selective mute. The first was Link.

• Butterflies: I associate Pino a lot with blue butterflies. That's why I always get happy, when I see butterflies in real life, no matter their color. So far, I haven't seen a blue butterfly irl. Idk what will happen when this happens /hj

• Love at first sight: Pino is one of the very few cases, were I fell for him the first time I saw him (Gamescom Opening Night - Lies of P Trailer)

• Competition: He is also the only crush, who was able to get on exact the same level as V.

• Anniversary: My Crush anniversary with him is November 27th 2023. I know, the game published September 19th 2023. It took me weeks however to admit I'm in love with him, since I was scared to be witchhunted for this.