"That's the third girlfriend you've dumped this semester, you know."
Maurice starts, his voice calm and even as always.
Chad raises an eyebrow, mouth full of food.
The two of them had reconvened at a fast food joint after a mission.
Rachel had asked them, face full of reluctance and apology, to retrieve a limited edition Rainbow Monkey from one the Hendry cheerleading squad's locker room.
"This isn't really KND territory– but the requestor is the biggest ice cream donor to the KND. We couldn't turn down his request, when he has so much… influence."
Obviously, Chad couldn't simply walk into the girl's locker room, pick up the monkey, and leave. It would come with foreseeable damages to his reputation. Instead Chad opted to date a cheerleader, Julie, and have her show him around the locker room (he had hinted at her how thrilling it would be, to be alone together in the closed locker rooms–where nobody would be watching.)
Maurice was to come knocking at the doors looking for Cree to distract Julie, while Chad swiped the rainbow monkey. A hassle to go through just for a stupid stuffed animal.
Anyway, the mission had only left him with a bad taste in his mouth. And not just because Julie had slapped him, hard, after Chad told her he'd been getting bored with her.
The KND had never been perfect, but to stoop down low enough to be an errand boy for a spoiled brat–to steal someone else's item (even if it were a teen's) just because–
Chad slowly chews, taking his time to swallow. Maurice takes this as an invitation to continue talking. (It's not, Chad wants him to shut up already.)
"Even if it's for the KND… Couldn't you have been gentler with Julie? She was crying, you know." Maurice begins, not even hiding his disapproval.
"I mean, I understand it was for a mission– but Julie's a really nice girl. She's been beaming all week, happy to be with the boy she's been pining for months…"
"I don't care." Chad cuts off Maurice, before he decides to go on another long-ass lecture.
Chad is sick and tired of Mother Maurice. Always right, always the kind, nice boy. He never figured out why Cree ever fell for this moron.
"Chad, listen! I'm saying you're being manipulative!" Maurice slams down his plastic spoon, drops of half-melted ice cream flying off the table.
"Manipulative? Ha! That's rich, coming from you," taunts Chad.
"You know how Cree feels about you; she's been all over you since forever. Did that stop you from screwing around with her? NO!"
Maurice chooses to ignore him, wiping away the spilled ice cream with a folded napkin.
"At least–I've never lied to her. Except my position with the KND."
"You've been lying this whole freakin' time to her. Admit it, stop acting like you're better than me, Maurice." Hisses Chad, absolutely beyond the point of caring.
"I hate that about you, you know that? Maurice, how you always shove your hypocritical bullshit down my throat."
"I'm god-damn leaving, I don't even want to see your face. Pissing me off with your dumb sermons." Chad crumples his trash haphazardly. He's half-considering shredding them right in front of Maurice, just to make a statement. (Into itty-bitty-pieces, Steve would say.)
"You've told Julie, haven't you? The words." Maurice stops him.
"What?"
Chad really rather wouldn't stay and keep talking to this condescending idiot, but Maurice has a firm grip around Chad's wrist. (And as much as Chad doesn't want to admit, Maurice does have better arm strength.)
"I love you." Maurice says.
His voice is so soft, Chad's not even sure if he heard him correctly. But that doesn't stop annoying red splotches from crawling up Chad's neck.
Maurice looks up at him, confused.
"The words. The words 'I love you'. Why are you blushing?"
"I'm not f-, moron! It's because you're being so dense about it! Let me go, you're hurting my wrist."
"Uh, so which is it?" Maurice lets go, looking a little apologetic about the red streaks around Chad's wrist, but still confused.
"Ok, stop this conversation now. There's no way I want to talk to you about this, of all people. I'm going to Rachel! She's freakin' waiting for my report."
Chad stomps out of the diner, before Maurice can come after him and ask more stupid questions. This meeting was pointless, Chad mutters to himself, pulling out his teen gear to fly off to Moonbase.
He thinks he can hear Maurice's voice when his gear finally kicks in.
…
"Thank you for your work, Chad."
Rachel's voice is flat and emotionless. From what Chad can see, the toll of consecutive sleepless nights have come back to haunt her.
"It does seem like you perform better with Maurice as your partner. Would you like to–" Rachel stops mid-sentence, her brown eyes examining Chad's expression with curiosity.
"You… seem a little pink, are you doing alright? Your ears are absolutely red."
"Worry about yourself, Rachel. You could sweep the floor with those bags under your eyes. But yeah, continue. You were saying?" Chad rubs his temples, already wiped out from his earlier conversation with Maurice.
"Would you like to be assigned as permanent partners with Maurice? Of course–by permanent, I mean during my reign as supreme leader." Rachel quips, neatly filing away the paper documents into a manila folder.
Chad hates himself for nodding yes