"Over your shoulder you have to watch
Heaven fall into hell"
Our Lady Peace, "Angels/Losing Sleep"
Felix leaned his head against the bus window as he waited for his friends to board. He sat in the very back of the bus, his wheelchair folded behind the seat. Five minutes later, Ron Stoppable, tripped up the steps of the bus followed by Kim Possible. Felix waved them back, indicating that indicated that he saved the seat in front of him as well.
"Felix! Cool, best seats in the house," Ron said, sliding in the seat beside him.
Kim smiled and slid in the seat in front of the boys.
"I should have stayed home," Felix said suddenly.
"Felix, you can't mean that! Come on, you said you'd come. And Tuk-A-Land is the best second-rate amusement park in the region! Boo-Ya!" Ron said, gesturing wildly. He was ranting on and on about Native American themed park food when Bonnie and Brick stopped by them. Bonnie looked as if she wanted to fight.
"You could at least respect the food chain enough to remember bus rules, Possible," Bonnie said. Kim was about to respond to the other cheerleader's rude remarks when Felix held up his hand after he pulled himself into a leaning position against the back of Kim's seat.
"Hey Bonnie," Felix said, gaining their attention as he pulled himself up above the back of Kim's seat. "Shut up. We're all adults here, so keep your immature comments to yourself. And please, must you always wear your cheerleading uniform?" Felix let himself fall back into his seat.
He looked up when the whole bus was silent. Everyone was staring at him. Including Bonnie, who looked like she was about to murder him. But the trance was broken when Monique simply slipped in front of Bonnie and sat in the seat beside Kim.
"Bonnie, girl, you better close that mouth before something you won't like flies in," Monique said smoothly before turning to smile at her friends. With the awkward silence passed, everyone resumed his or her normal routine.
"I didn't know you had it in you, Felix," Kim said, still shocked.
"Hey wait, I forgot. Felix, do you mind if I sat with Kim?" Ron asked.
"Dude, you've been inseparable for the past month and a half, it doesn't bug me," he said as Monique sat down beside him.
OOO
The bus ride to Tuk-A-Land was three hours. It wasn't long before Kim and Ron started holding hands and gazing lovingly into each others' eyes. As cute of a couple as they made, it got old really fast. It didn't help much that Felix was snoring softly beside her. As much fun as it might sound, she didn't want to try anything crazy to amuse herself... even if Felix's uPod was partially hanging out of his pocket and he probably wouldn't notice her relieving him of his music player, it would be embarrassing if he woke up while she was reaching over him.
Monique shook her head and started reading the latest Club Banana catalog, folding over pages which held the more promising outfits. It was then that she noticed her seatmate slowly sliding downward. The bus was going down a particularly windy road, which was making it difficult for even the able-bodied, conscious students to stay in their seats. The driver suddenly slammed on the brakes and Felix's butt slid off the seat completely. Monique lunged and caught him awkwardly before he ended up hitting his head. She breathed a sigh of relief and looked around to see if anyone noticed her sudden movements.
"Um... Monique? I can't breathe," a muffled voice came from under her. She paled and looked down to find that she was still holding Felix and he was face to face with her B-cups. She looked away and let him go. She didn't notice that his face was turning a rather dark shade of red.
"Sorry about that... you almost... fell," she mumbled only loud enough for him to hear as he pushed himself back onto the seat.
"Are we almost there?" He asked, looking out the window for a sign of civilization, or at least food.
"No, about halfway. Rest stop. Do you need out?" She asked as the embarrassment receded.
"Nah, I'm good. If you go, could you pick me up a soda or some other sort of liquid?" He asked, pulling a couple of dollars out of his pocket. "Hey, there's enough for two," he smiled, "Grab one for you too."
"Sure thing," Monique smiled and got up to get off the bus.
"What was that about?" Kim asked in a hushed whisper while she and Monique walked towards the ladies' room.
"It was nothing! I swear! He fell asleep and slid off the seat," the dark girl said with a blush.
"Oh? Then why are you blushing?" Kim asked, checking her hair in the mirror.
"Girl, you better keep this to yourself! Or so help me, everyone will have a list of your fears and deepest darkest secrets in their lockers," Monique threatened.
"What? Felix is a great guy. He's sweet, smart, funny, and doesn't care if you use him as a mode of transportation," Kim said as they stopped at the vending machines.
OOO
"You are a god, man," Ron said. Rufus, standing on the back of the seat, nodded profusely.
"Shut up Stoppable," Felix said. "If you change the subject now, I won't kill you."
"Okay! Okay!" Ron said, holding up his hands. "Are you up for hours of fun in the arcade? I've been saving for a while," Ron smiled, proud of himself.
"I don't know. I almost stayed home today. What with mom out of town, things haven't been going all that well. My robo-chair nearly exploded this morning because of a malfunctioning power cell. So I apologize in advance for not being much fun today," Felix said apologetically.
"I was wondering about the downgrade," Ron said, gesturing at the manual wheelchair Felix stashed behind the bus's seat. "Don't worry about that. We decided to hit the food first, then some rides and then arcade. Besides, Monique doesn't do heights so you have someone to hang with while Kim and I do the coasters. But I hope you realize that once we get started in the arcade, I'm not going to let up." Ron said with accompanying hand motions.
"Here you go, Felix," Monique came back with a can of Blue Moose energy drink. "I figured you'd want something a little stronger."
"Thanks. This should do it," he said, popping open the small can. The others watched as he downed it in one go.
"That's nuts, dude," Ron said. "I've never seen one of those disappear so fast outside of an all night gaming session." Rufus nodded as well.
"That's nothing. I should be good now. I had to err... make sure my chair wasn't going to explode before I left," he smiled and set the now empty can in the trash box under his seat.
"You scare me sometimes," Monique said, shaking her head and picking up her discarded Banana Club catalog from the floor.
Felix just grinned and pulled one of his legs underneath him. "Thank you."
OOO
"What do you have so far?" the agent said into his cell phone.
"Francis Damsey, son of Drs. Sean Damsey and Amelia King. It is said that he disappeared from the hospital the day Dr. Damsey was killed. Medical records show nothing we don't already know: born with Spina Bifida, exhibited early signs of genius, graduated high school shortly before Damsey was shot. We should have been able to track a cyberneticist and her paralyzed son through witness protection," said the voice on the other end.
"I know. But somebody screwed up. Tell me about this kid though. Does he display even half the intelligence as Francis?" the agent asked impatiently.
"No, he's a B minus student in high school. He's three years too young and his medical records show that he was paralyzed in a car accident. But it has to be the same guy; we've done a complete DNA analysis. We've got our man, alright," the voice said proudly.
"Is that right?" the agent said, looking at his watch. "I had no idea you obtained samples. Good. This just gets easier, call in our agent."
"We have no idea if the device still exists. What are you going to do with him?" the voice said with some trepidation.
"He could build one. I have evidence that he was close. Very, very close." the agent said, getting in his car.
"I put in the call. He won't be in until later tonight, so then uh… free agent…will have to wait," the voice said, sending information in a text file to the agent's phone.
OOO
"But I wanna go to the arcade!" Ron whined as Kim drug him away from their other friends. When they were far enough away, Kim shot him a 'this is what we decided on' look. The "we" in the sentence really meant that Kim decided and Ron was involved by proxy.
"Look Ron, if this is going to work, the two of them have to be alone," she said, ducking behind some bushes so they could effectively watch the soon-to-be couple.
"I know this is a noble cause and all, but doesn't this seem a little mean to you?" Ron asked. They were ditching Felix and Monique. The small fact that the two didn't look supremely pissed was amazing. In fact, they were still talking about video games and the new indy wrestling group that was gaining popularity.
"Look Ron! He's totally checking out her butt," Kim whispered excitedly.
"KP, that's his eye level. He's always looking at butts," Ron said, earning a smack. "Owww... what? He tells me this stuff," Ron rubbed his arm where he was punched.
To the couple's complete surprise, Monique smiled and sat down on Felix's lap. Ron's jaw hit the ground when the two smiled at each other. Felix turned the chair around and headed toward the amusement park's exit. The dark skinned girl wrapped her arms around Felix's neck as they turned the sharp corner and left Tuk-A-Land.
"They... they ditched us, Kim!" Ron exclaimed, stepping out from behind his cover.
"I can't believe it... she totally just... they... he..." Kim couldn't even think of a coherent sentence. She simply smiled. So what if her plan didn't work... their best friends were finally making a move on each other.
"No way!" Ron said suddenly, Rufus climbing to his shoulder.
"What's the matter Ron? Our plan worked, didn't it?" she asked her boyfriend and his naked mole rat.
"KP, when I go on those barfy-whooshy rides, I give all my stuff to someone else to hold," Ron explained. Kim just looked at him. "Felix still has my wallet!"
"Oh Ron!"
OOO
"That'll teach them to play matchmaker," Monique laughed.
"Oh yeah. Especially after they realize that I have all of Ron's money. All of his arcade money," Felix said evilly.
"Where's the nearest grub? I need to eat something that hasn't been fried three times," she said, still seated on the boy's lap.
"I like your style," he grinned. "I think I saw a steak place somewhere around here," he said, making his way around to the main street.
"Think we'll get in trouble for leaving the park?" she asked.
"Maybe, but who cares, its summer vacation. This is just an organized trip of a bunch of people from our class; the only affiliation with school is that we met up there on the busses. What can they do, give us detention when we get back on the bus?" he said.
She smiled, and Felix couldn't help but grin back.
Monique stood up and they decided to spare Ron a heart attack and they ate at a reasonably priced Japanese restaurant.
After eating the best sushi either of them ever had, they found a number of interesting shops. Monique bought a hand-woven blanket from a shop selling crystals and candles. When the shops lost their charm, they crossed the street to a small park with a scenic view of Tuk-A-Land. Monique spread the blanket down on the ground and sat down while her "date" bought some ice cream.
"Here, hold these," Felix said, handing the ice cream to the still-smiling girl. He gave her a grin before he unceremoniously dumped himself out of his chair and onto the blanket.
"What was that?" she asked. She never really saw anyone do that sort of thing before.
"I believe the technical term is called a 'dump'," he said, rolling onto his side and propping himself on one elbow before taking his drippy ice cream cone.
"It's really nice today," she said. "It's not hot... it looks like it might rain though," she looked up at the sky over the park.
"If it starts, we can always sneak back on the bus. Or we can duck inside that supermarket," he said, finishing off the strawberry cone.
Monique opened her mouth to say something, and then shook her head.
"What?"
"It's nothing..." she started.
"You can't do that. If you start to say something, you have to finish it," he smiled up at her, "Otherwise, I'll just go crazy and you wouldn't that, would you?"
"That wouldn't be so bad," Monique said, lying down beside him so they were face to face.
"Well now, I think we did pretty well for a first date," Felix said with a smile.
"Yeah," she said dreamily. Monique couldn't tear herself from his blue eyes.
Felix chuckled and pushed himself forward and kissed her. It wasn't the most mind-blowing kiss ever, but Monique felt as if it had been. When they broke the kiss, she almost didn't hear Felix talking.
"Hmm?"
"Are you getting cold?" he asked, rubbing her arm affectionately. She was wearing a rather short dress with no sleeves. The wind picked up and blew a dark cloud their way.
"Yeah, a little," she said.
She watched as he lay back and pulled off both of his shirts. Monique couldn't help but stare at his trim muscles. He wiggled his shoulders and pulled the clothing over his head, mussing his hair a bit. He offered her his long-sleeved black shirt before pulling the green tee back over his head. Monique smiled and pulled his shirt over her dress. She sat up to fix her hair.
"What's that from?" she asked just as he pulled the hem of his shirt down.
"What what's from?" he asked, not seeing where she pointed.
"The scar... on your back," she asked. She felt a little embarrassed asking such a personal question so soon.
"Oh that," he rolled over on his stomach and pulled his shirt up a little. There was a surgical scar running the length of his spine, but it was nothing compared to the series of what looked like puncture marks that ran parallel to it on either side. "I had a couple of operations when I was younger. Nothing major."
Before she could stop herself, she watched her hand touch the darkened skin where it disappeared under his waistband. Felix didn't say anything. He stayed propped on his elbows, watching her from over his shoulder. She traced the scar upwards until it plunged underneath the green fabric. She smiled at him before straightening his clothes.
"Thank you," she said.
"For?" he asked.
"Everything. The date, the shirt, talking..." she said. "I just hope our second date is just as memorable."
"Me too," he said with a smile.
OOO
It was around midnight when Ron's mother dropped Felix off at his house. Ron had gotten over Felix taking off with his wallet only after he counted his cash three times to make sure it was all still there.
"No hard feelings Ron-man?" Felix asked as he slid the van's door open.
"Nah, it was pretty rude of us to just ditch you guys," Ron said, sliding over his friend and jumping to the ground. He deftly pulled out and unfolded Felix's chair while Felix edged towards the door. "Besides, you still didn't tell us where you guys went."
"Tomorrow. I'll tell you tomorrow," Felix grinned as Ron helped him out of the van. "Thanks man, I got it from here."
"You are evil. Oh well... maybe Kim can get Monique to talk," Ron said getting back in the van. Felix waved at the Stoppables' van and rolled towards his house. He hesitated at the door. Something didn't quite feel right. It wasn't the fact that his mother wasn't at home. Hell she wasn't even on the planet right now. It was the fact that the kitchen light wasn't on like he left it that morning. And the fact that there were boot marks on the wooden ramp. No, it wasn't safe to go home.
Felix turned around and headed down the street. He only got so far before a ball of green fire tipped his wheelchair. The last thing he saw was a pair of black and green boots before the world went dark.