A Diner, Minutes Away From Jumba's Lab
A much younger Jumba Jookiba than the one we know sat at a rather small table for someone his size, in a mid-galaxy diner all alone. In front of him sat a green, rather mushy plateful with something that resembled waffles, with a purple gurgling sauce seeping from it. This wasn't the first time he had been left like this by his date's he had met online. To be honest, being an evil scientist was not an easy way to make a living, nor did it provide the assurance that any serious commitments could be made. So for another long night, Jumba ate alone. Not that he minded eating alone, his mind was full of evil experimentations he would soon been working on. He smiled, soon you will be wreaking evil my experiments, soon…
His thoughts were soon interrupted by the slight paranoia that he was being watched. Just behind the counter, a woman had her eyes fixed deeply on Jumba, obviously taking interest in the recent graduate. As soon as Jumba looked up from his meal, she turned her head. After a few moments the woman walked over to Jumba's table.
"Would you be liking your bill?" she asked in an accent similar to Jumba's
"I am guessing so." Jumba muttered under his breathe, and started to re-gather his thoughts
The woman quickly slipped away through the kitchen doors, glancing back at the evil scientist as she went. When she finally returned, she slipped the bill down on the table as well as another sheet of paper which Jumba did not notice until he picked up the bill. At the top of the sheet was the name Aria, followed by a phone number and a very large and messy lipstick kiss. Without thinking he slid the paper into his pocket and pulled out the money and set it on the table and left. It would be nearly a week later before he remembered the small sheet of paper with the lipstick mark, and even longer before he did anything about it.
Jumba's Lab, Galaxy Defence Industries, 3 ½ Weeks Later
Jumba had been awake for nearly a week, with minimal sleep. He had spent this entire time researching and planning. It was around 4 a.m. one morning when he had decided to go for a coffee break, and, not thinking stuck his hand in his lab coat pocket to find the phone number slipped to him on that of many lonely nights. He sat down at a rather small kitchen table and spread the sheet out before him while taking a big sip of his fresh brew. After several minutes Jumba reached for the phone. It wasn't as if he was in love, or even the slightest bit attracted to the woman whom called herself Aria, but, someone to watch over the house while he worked on his experiments wouldn't hurt. So after a short introduction, a date night was agreed upon. And several date nights to follow. And eventually a marriage after that. But never once in the entire relationship did Jumba love Aria. They learned to understand each other, compromise with each other, and disagree with each other. And eventually Jumba learned to fear Aria. And so Aria's position quickly moved from wife, to ex-wife, becoming Jumba's worst fear. And even today, Jumba will mention her on occasion, as his ex-wife. And, he has yet to ask himself, what about love?