My first Tobecky fanfic! Please R&R, and be sure to let me know if the characters are OOC!
Tobey was trying his best to remain calm...though he was currently failing miserably. He bit his lip, and tried to keep his gaze from meeting Wordgirl's.
Lest she find out how truly exuberant he was to be here.
One thought echoed through his mind; This is so, so much better than a silly birthday party.
After all, it wasn't often that he scored a date with his dream girl. Even, y'know, if she'd never explicitly call it a date...he knew what it was anyway. And that was all that mattered.
"Tobey! TOBEY!"
The boy blinked, muffling a surprised yelp. "W-what?"
Wordgirl was staring at him, one eyebrow raised, though an amused smirk was spread across her visage. "I said, what flavor of ice cream do you want?"
Tobey chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck nervously as he felt his cheeks start to burn. "Oh, uh...which, uh, flavor are you getting, Wordgirl?"
Just then, a bowl of chocolate-mint ice cream slid across the counter, and the superhero gestured at it, still giving the inventor an expectant look.
Tobey turned to the clerk behind the counter, giving a sheepish look. "I suppose that I'll have the same."
A minute or two later, another identical bowl of chocolate-mint ice cream slid across the counter.
Wordgirl reached into her pocket. "Soo...five dollars and twenty three cents, right?"
Tobey frowned. "No, wait!"
The girl blinked, pausing. "What, Tobey? The ice cream's gonna melt if we dawdle."
The inventor felt his face grow even hotter, and he was sure that he was blushing up a storm by now. Confound it. "I-I, uh-"
Something flashed in Wordgirl's eyes. "Oh! To dawdle is when you-"
Tobey stamped his foot, interrupting her with an annoyed look. "I know what 'dawdle' means, thank you very much," he retorted. Then he sighed, turning to the clerk. "Don't let her pay, I'm taking care of the tab. just wait a moment while I get my wallet out."
The superhero blinked, going silent as the boy fished a hand into his pocket. Tobey's hand emerged a moment later, and with it his bill folder. He took a second to remove a few green bills, then hand them to the clerk.
"There," he said, stuffing his wallet back into his pocket. "That should cover it."
The clerk reached forward and counted the bills. "Alright. Your change is-"
Tobey shook his head, then grabbed his ice cream off of the counter and turned away. "Don't worry about it," he muttered. "Go buy yourself a new pair of socks or something."
Then he turned to Wordgirl. "Now, are you going to stand there with your mouth open or are you going to eat your ice cream?" he asked. "No dawdling, remember?"
Wordgirl squeaked something incoherent in reply, then picked up her own bowl of ice cream from the counter. She walked forward, busying herself in looking for a table to sit at.
"This one looks good, don'cha think?" she asked hurriedly, pointing at a table situated beside a nice, large window. Then, not even waiting for a reply, she plopped herself down in one of the chairs and began stuffing ice cream into her mouth.
Tobey sat down across from her. He leaned his elbows against the table, taking a moment to watch her. If he didn't know better, then he might've suspected that her cheeks looked a little pink. But, of course, he knew better.
Right?
He sighed, tapping the plastic spoon against his chin thoughtfully. "You shouldn't be so surprised."
The girl seated across the table blinked at him. "W-what would I surprised about?" she murmured, staring down at her ice cream to avoid looking into his eyes.
"That I can actually be what you consider decent," Tobey scoffed, and jabbed the plastic spoon into his ice cream. "You looked as if you'd seen a ghost when I paid your tab. I suppose that it was also rather shocking for you earlier when I chose not to crush Katy's birthday cake?"
Wordgirl blinked, remembering. It had surprised her, to be perfectly honest. She hadn't realized that Tobey could, well...
Be so...sweet.
Of course, the fact that he was going to crush Katy's birthday cake in the first place kind of had a negative impact on the situation, but all the same it was rather touching to see such a change of heart occur in the boy's heart. It had made her feel, well...almost affectionate towards him. And it was the reason why she'd even suggested taking him out to ice cream in the first place.
"Maybe," Wordgirl admitted, eating another spoonful of ice cream. "But it was a good surprise."
Tobey grew silent.
"Well, I suppose I surprised myself as well," he muttered, his voice barely audible as he shoveled a few more spoonfuls of ice cream into his mouth. "I'd fully intended to give Katy a good, strong taste of bitter revenge."
The girl didn't answer, and Tobey found himself unwilling to add anything else to the conversation. He was actually beginning to feel a bit ashamed of himself, deep inside; a powerful, genius villain like him who didn't even have the resolve to destroy a simple birthday party.
What would happen to his reputation, should anyone else find out about this? Would anyone ever take him seriously again? The name Theodore McCallister the III should be one of terror and power, not of...sensitivity and goodness. Blah.
Surely the attendees of the birthday party were laughing at him now. Sure, Katy had acted rather grateful while he was there...because she knew good and well that he could've changed his mind at any moment and restarted the robot storm.
Now that he was gone, they were surely laughing and joking about the spineless villain. The has-been. The one who wasn't bad enough to hurt a fly...much less a birthday cake.
Tobey felt his shoulders slump, and he let out a deep sigh.
"Too good of a surprise, if you ask me," he muttered, now finding himself feeling rather sour. He pushed the bowl of ice cream away, suddenly not in the mood to eat anymore. "And now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that this whole day has been rather humiliating."
"Having a conscience shouldn't be humiliating," Wordgirl retorted. Tobey looked up, and found that she was giving him a stern, serious glare. "I think you did very well today to show mercy on Katy. What's so humiliating to you about being nice?"
Tobey blinked, and felt his eyes grow wide behind his glasses. The question caught him off guard, and suddenly he didn't feel quite so sure about himself.
"I..." he said, then trailed off. A frown stretched across his lips, and he let out another sigh. "I suppose that I'm afraid no one will take me seriously now..."
...And I'm possibly a bit concerned that you would forget about me, should I grow soft. I quite enjoy our game of cat and mouse, and I don't know if I'm ready to give up what has quickly become the highlight of my life.
"Well, I take you even more seriously when you're nice," Wordgirl said. Tobey would've thought that she was joking, but she looked so serious that he knew she couldn't be. "You can act pretty childish and petty when you're just stomping around wrecking things, and honestly, I don't know what's so appealing to you about that."
"I'M-!" Tobey gasped, and narrowed his eyes. He opened his mouth to throw a flaming retort at her, but suddenly a breath of air hissed out of his mouth, and he felt unsure again.
He hated this feeling. He hated doubting himself.
Why was it happening so much today?
Tobey decided to just be honest with her for once. "Well, having enemies trumps having no one at all. It's not like I have any friends. Admit it, the only reason that you're even here now is because of the villainous things that I've done. If I had just been a normal, good citizen, you wouldn't have ever paid any mind to me in the first place, now would you?"
Wordgirl hadn't been expecting something like that. She leaned back in her chair, placing a hand over her mouth. "T-Tobey...!"
The boy gritted his teeth, suddenly feeling a wave of anger wash over him. It was true, after all. She wouldn't even be here...
"I'm going home," he suddenly announced, and pushed his chair back with a loud, abrupt SQKKK. "Forget today ever happened at all."
Then he swallowed hard, trying to ignore the tightness in his throat as he turned away and began walking off.
With the super speed that only she had, Wordgirl was in front of him before he could process that she'd even gotten up to follow him. To his surprise a pained look was on her face, and her eyes looked a bit glassy.
"I...didn't know you felt that way, Tobey," she said softly. "Are you really that...well...lonely?"
Tobey clenched his fists, letting out a cry of anger. "Don't look at me like that!" he cried. "The last thing that I want is your pity, Wordgirl. Do yourself a favor and go cry over someone who deserves it."
He stomped forward, roughly pushing her out of the way as he made his way to the door. He didn't want her, didn't need her. Her pity felt horrible, and he suddenly wished that someone else would attack the city so that her attention could be diverted away from him.
In a blur of motion and color, Tobey suddenly found himself wrapped in something warm. He blinked his eyes wide, and to his surprise, found that Wordgirl had caught up to him again. And that it was her arms that were wrapped around him.
She leaned forward, and let her lips meet his.
Tobey let out a muffled squeal at first, terrified by the sudden motion. It took him a second to really realize the gravity of what was happening; the shock of what Wordgirl was really doing. But when he realized was when she pulled away, and stared at him with those soft, yet stern brown eyes.
"You're so stupid, Tobey!" she cried, and shook him gently by the shoulders. The boy's glasses fell askew over his nose at the motion, but he didn't exactly care at the moment. "Stupid..."
"If I'm so stupid, then why did you just kiss me?" he breathed.
Wordgirl let go of his shoulders, and threw her arms around him again. Her breathing was heavy, and she murmered, "Because, big surprise, I care about you. Even if you're a dummy seventy five percent of the time. Even if you pretend to be a villain to get my attention," she sighed, and stared into his blue eyes. "And...I think that I don't want to be your enemy anymore."
Tobey opened his mouth in a half-effort to retort that he didn't want to loose her just because of this, but she cut in before he could finish formulating his thought.
"I don't want you to feel like you have to be the bad guy to get my attention. Can't we work something out? I promise, promise, that I wouldn't leave you alone if you just would give this new way of interacting a chance."
The boy bit his lip, looking away. He supposed that her sentiments sounded, admittedly, rather touching, but he wasn't sure if he believed her. Of course, being the hero, the goody-two-shoes, she'd say something like that. To, quote, 'reform his ways'.
To make her life a little easier; maybe if she could fool him well enough then she'd have one less villain to worry about. Empty promises weren't something that would win him over so easily, though, he decided.
"You're lying," Tobey retorted coolly, stumbling backward on shaky legs. He sucked in a deep breath, raising a hand to absently straighten his glasses.
Then his gaze hardened, and he examined her with cool, narrowed eyes. "And I've had quite enough of this. I don't want to be your charity," he spat. "Now, if you please, Wordgirl, I would like to go home."
"Tobey, please," Wordgirl cried, clenching her fists. "What can I do to convince you that I might really want to be your friend?"
The boy grew silent. He stared at her for a long time, looking solemn.
Then he gently pushed past her, and began to walk away. The door of the ice cream parlor swung open with a jingle, and he spared one last look back at her. "Be my friend."
After that, the door swung closed behind him, and Wordgirl was left standing alone in the doorway.
The heroine's chest felt tight and hollow, and hot tears pricked menacingly at the sides of her eyes. She sighed deeply, and leaned her forehead against the glass door, watching the inventor as he walked away.
Part of her wanted to go after him; keep pestering him. Keep trying to convince him. But a more sensible part of her knew that there was nothing that she could really say right now to change his mind. He could be more stubborn than a mule at times, and she knew innately that now was definitely one of those times.
Wordgirl watched his form grow smaller and smaller until he finally turned the curb and disappeared completely from her vision.
But she silently promised herself that she'd figure out how to fix her relationship with him. Somehow.