Momo (Beyblade version) (Momo x Nile Relationship)

Ship Name and Meaning

SafariShipping is the name for the shipping between Nile and Momo. The name was chosen mainly for these 2 reasons:

• The most important reason is because Safari is a Swahili word that means "Journey". Nile and Momo met during a journey, The Quest for the Miracle Power; they weren't on good terms in the beggining, but during said journey they experienced many adventures and dangers together, they formed a very solid friendship and a strong bond, and by the end of this journey romantic feelings started to bloom, first on Momo and later on Nile.
  
  
• The second reason behind this name is that both characters come from African countries (Nile from Egypt and Momo from Morocco, even though she wasn't raised in this country), and Momo specially has a strong connection with the African savanna as she was raised there.

Relationship Evolution

(Note: this summary is still sorta imcomplete and probably will have more revisions in the future)

Momo's relationship with Nile had a kind of complicated and bitter beginning, for starters their first meeting wasn't on the best terms as Momo stole his Bey along with the other's Beys and was pretty much nasty with the whole group. Even after Momo changed and Ginga accepted her in his group of friends, Nile holded some kind of grudge against her as he has strong prejudices against thieves and criminals in general (headcanon), plus he didn't believe Momo's change was genuine. Since he wasn't agree with Momo becoming part of their group, his attitude toward her in the beginning was rude and cold, he even referred to her as "thief" and didn't call her by her name for a while.

When Momo befriended Ginga and the group, she always had interest in Nile, apart from considering him a "handsome and gorgeous" person, she felt the need to prove him that he was wrong and that her change was indeed genuine. Momo's way to try to get close to Nile was through a lot of flirting and teasing (wich, of course, didn't work and only caused Nile to be more annoyed at her), she didn't have a crush on him though, she was mostly curious about him as a person. She saw Nile as someone too cold and distant, but she didn't know another way that wasn't teasing to try to get close to him, she's not a friendly person and she doesn't know how to approach to someone in a friendly way; Momo's only desire was to be Nile's friend, specially after all the things Demure told to her about Nile not being as cold as she thought he was, she wanted the chance to get to know him better.

Momo did her very best to try to make Nile to accept her, at first it looked like Nile would never change his opinion about her, but he slowly started to be a little less harsh on her; during the time they traveled through dangerous places in Africa, he witnessed how Momo helped the group a lot either protecting them from criminals (giving advices of how to avoid them or how to face them) or trying to find useful information for the group (most of the times she ended up in troubles doing this due to the fact that there's a price on her head for being a criminal, and she was chased either by the authorities or by bounty hunters), this made Nile doubt about if Momo was still the horrible person they met and started to think that she may be sincere about her change of attitude. Momo finally managed to get a second chance from Nile when one day he fell ill, with a huge fever, and Momo decided to take care of him until he got better; she stayed with him day and night taking care of him with the occasional help of Madoka and Demure, wich were the only people present at that moment, and when finally Nile got better he was at first reluctant to thank Momo mostly for pride, but then after realizing he was acting immature ans stubborn, and that he caused troubles to Momo when she took care of him, he apologizes to her, thanks her for her hard work and calls her by her name for the first time. Starting this point, Nile gave a second chance to Momo and he opened his mind to the possibility of forming a friendship with her.

After Nile pretty much accepted Momo, he stops to refer at her as "thief" and starts to call her by her name. Some of Momo's habits annoy Nile a little bit (such as her vulgar language, how careless she can be sometimes, how she flirts with him to tease him...), and that causes that he has some arguments with her sometimes, however that didn't prevent him to eventually (and slowly) form a friendship with her; he slowly learned to accept Momo the way she is and even started to consider "funny" some of the things she does or say. Momo, in the other hand, didn't have too much trouble to get along with Nile, even if at first she thought he was very rigid, she still tought he was a nice guy.

Despite being so different, Momo and Nile managed to form a very solid friendship, even if they occasionally argue or if sometimes Nile scolds Momo when she has an improper behaviour, they unconsciously became close friends. Through all the experiences they lived with Ginga and the others, they get to know eachother better and discover things that weren't visible when they were just meeting: Momo discovered how gentle and kind Nile can be despite his cold and arrogant exterior, his morals and sense of honor served as an inspiration to her to be a better person; she discovered how understanding Nile can be when he apologized to her for judging her so hard and when he tried to understand her position, he also managed to understand Momo's true feelings when she discovers the truth about her parents, even if Momo pretended that she didn't care at all about what truly happened, Nile managed to see right through her and knew Momo was feeling incredibly sad and guilty, he offers comfort to her and for the first time in many years, Momo afford herself to cry; all of these, made Momo to slowly fall in love with Nile until her feelings for him became very intense. Nile, in the other hand, discovered that, despite Momo's "tough girl" facade and her kind of annoying habits, she can be incredibly sweet and someone very funny; he discovered himself enjoying the time he spent with Momo as she usually made him laugh with many absurd things she said, as well as have fun with her whenever they train together or when they simple do trivial stuffs (such as when he tries to teach her how to read and write); he discovered that Momo can be very mature sometimes, even if she usually doesn't look or act like a mature person, and is not really that bad at giving advices when the situation demands it; with Momo, Nile learned that no matter how bad a person was or how many mistakes they made in their lives, people always can change if they have the will to do it, and that he shouldn't judge people so harshly for their past; he also learned with Momo many things about nature and learned to appreciate better his surroundings; even if Nile didn't expect it at all, Momo became a really close friend to him and someone he feels he can open up to and trust.

During their adventure and after they experienced many situations together, Momo found herself really in love with Nile and she decides to confess those feelings to him. One night she sits with him and starts to explain how she feels about him, why she has those feelings for him and finally, how she would do anything to protect him because he's someone very precious to her. Nile, of course, is very shocked at Momo's confession as he never imagined themselves as something more than friends; he doesn't give an answer to Momo and for the next days he did his best to avoid her as he didn't know how to answer to her: he couldn't say "yes" cause he didn't think that was in love with her, but he couldn't say "no" either cause he didn't want to reject her nor he didn't want their friendship to be ruined and lose her. Momo noticed Nile's evasive behaviour and confronted him, she told him to relax and explained to him that she didn't confess to him because she expected an answer from him, she just wanted him to know how she feels about him and how important he's for her, he doesn't has to give her an answer if he doesn't want to, she also didn't expect him to correspond her feelings (even if that would make her really happy), it was ok if he didn't feel the same way. After this, Nile stopped to avoid Momo and they went back to normal, but he still felt that he owned her an answer. Nile was feeling extremely confused cause he had no idea what he actually feels for Momo, so he decided that there was no point on pushing himself to find the answer and realized that someday he'd find said answer.

Several situations helped Nile to find out if what he felt for Momo was just friendship kind of love or a romantic kind of love:

The first one was when they confronted the antagonists of the story with Ginga and the others (their final battle against them); after confronting one of the bad guys (probably her fiercest rival) and losing against him, Momo ended up badly wounded and her Bey severely damaged, this made Nile to worry very much about Momo and actually feel scared at the thought that her wounds could be very serious. After finding out that her wounds were not that bad and that she was just exhausted, he relaxes, but he's also very surprised at the way he reacted, he realizes that he worries about Momo more than he thought and that made him consider the possibility that he could like her more than a friend, but he was still unsure about it.

The second one was some time after they defeated the bad guys, when Nile found out that Momo was sending him cookies (his favorite type of cookies) everyday; at first he thought it was a fangirl who was doing it, and he actually wondered how on the earth a fangirl could know his favorite type of cookies when only his close friends know that, but he found out it was Momo thanks to Demure (he was supposed to keep it as a secret, but he accidently told Nile). Momo was a bit upset to be discovered as she didn't want Nile to think she was pushing him or something, she just wanted to make his day a little happier with that detail; Nile in the other hand, felt happy when he found it out, the fact that Momo took her time to buy him cookies everyday made him feel strangely happy and touched.

The third and final one was when Nile accidently accepted a date with Momo. She was joking about how she and Nile should have a date, but since Nile wasn't paying attention he carelessly said "yes", obviously Momo was very excited at Nile's answer and he had no more option than accept to go on a date with her as he didn't want to hurt her feelings. Demure told Nile that maybe a date is what he really needed to find out once and for all what he really feel about Momo, and after thinking for a moment Nile agrees. During their date, Nile finds himself feeling very nervous, wich he thinks is weird cause that was definitely not his first time hanging out with Momo, he thought that maybe the fact that it was a date is what made him feel nervous; Nile also realized that for the first time he found Momo to be atractive and thought she looked pretty that moment. Momo thought it was very weird from Nile to take her on a date (something she thought it would never happen) and she felt that he was acting very strange, because of that she decides to tease him a little by doing stuffs he would normally rebuke to her (such as holding his hand like lovers do or speaking to him in a kind flirtatious way), but surprisely for her, Nile didn't really complain. At the end of the date, Momo thought that Nile was doing that just to be nice with her so she thanks him and says to him that that was the sweetest thing he had ever made for her and gave him a kiss on the cheek. The date made Nile realizes that he does have strong feelings for Momo; what he felt about Momo is something he never felt for any other person before, he never felt as comfortable with somebody else as he felt with Momo, nobody else can make him laugh like Momo does, he really enjoyed to spend time with her and he loved how much Momo cares about him, he loves those small details that she does just to make him smile; but sadly Nile wasn't sure how to deal with all those feelings and he didn't know how to actually express said feelings to Momo. 

Nile found his answer. Now his next problem is how to deliver his answer to Momo...

To be continued~

Couple Dynamic

In their relationship Momo is usually the dominant one, she's the most straightforward of the two and usually takes the lead. Nile in the other hand is more shy when it comes to showing affection and usually waits for Momo to take the first step. However as they grow up, Nile starts to lose his shyness and by the time they're on their twenties he can act cheeky and flirtatious, but without losing his "cool and mature" aura. 

Momo is the impulsive one while Nile is the voice of reason. This combination creates plenty of comedic scenes between the couple.

Regarding to habits between these two, Momo's most frequent habits are her tendency to lift Nile up in her arms (as she's physically stronger than him), and her liking to flirt with him to witness his embarrassed expression (that she finds adorable). When it comes to Nile, his most frequent habits are to pull Momo's ear to scold her when she behaves improperly, and to stroke her hair (or pat her head) to show her affection.

Common interactions between Momo and Nile

Momo affectionately calls Nile, Prince Nile. It's a nickname that started solely as a form of teasing (as Momo thinks Nile has a "royal-ish" appearance), but later became something special as Momo believes many qualities of Nile (such as his sense of honor and his bravery, for example) make him look like an actual prince.

Nile has a nickname for Momo as well, Idiot Hyena (Baka Haiena), which he doesn't use as frequent as Momo uses the "Prince Nile" nickname. In the beggining, this nickname was simply Nile's response to Momo acting impulsive and also his reaction to hide his embarrasment when Momo made him feel flustered. But later he will use it in an affectionate way, claiming that Momo is "his idiot". 

Quotes