Mako's Message: This story is an old idea. It something I wanted to write two summers ago when I took my "season one" break from Precocious Crush. I never did though, obviously. But, it was always something I did want to write, and it has an expiration date that is rapidly approaching, so last night I decided that it was now or never. So here it is.
When Mindy snuck into my room in the middle of the night not long after she'd been grounded I wasn't really surprised. The fact that she had a backpack with her and said she was running away, shocked me, but wasn't really surprising either. After all, what kid hasn't thought of running away? But when she said she wanted me to come with her I was absolutely stunned.
I tried to talk her out of it. I really did. But she said she was going whether I went with her or not. The worst part was that I knew she had money, a place to go, had all the necessary skills to defend herself if anyone tried to harm or take advantage of her, and that those skills meant I had no way of physically stopping her.
I was going to have to talk her out of it.
I tried everything I could think of, I really did, but when she finally got tired of me trying to talk her out of it and left...I knew I had to go with her.
As I climbed out the window after her, I thought about how pissed my Father was going to be when he realized I was missing, and how pissed Marcus would be when he saw Mindy was gone, and how I could just pretend she'd never been here...and I wondered if this was going to be worth it.
The first time we went out, at all, we had to be careful not to be seen. We both knew that Marcus had reported her missing and every cop in the city had her picture. We both knew that Mindy being taken back wasn't an option. For her, it was because she wasn't going back. For me, it was because I knew she had to go back willingly or she'd just run away again.
But still, the first time we had to run from the cops, I asked myself if this was worth it.
The cops coming after Hit Girl wasn't a surprise. It was only a matter of how long Marcus thought it would be safe to wait to push for her arrest without anyone connecting it to his missing daughter. That Kick-Ass was wanted too was a bit of a shock though. We'd already been running from cops in and out of costume though. But what was different, was when we turned and ran from Justice Forever.
"They'll make us go back," was all she said when she dragged me down an alley.
I looked over my shoulder for a moment, and as I turned away from people I'd started to call friends, I wondered if this was worth it.
I knew there was nothing I could say to Katie to explain this. There was no way to make her understand that Mindy was my responsibility, and that I had to be here with her. Or how I was failing. So I didn't answer her calls, or respond to her texts.
On the day I realized she wasn't going to call or text again, Mindy asked if it was worth it.
The first time I killed a mugger, I was shocked at myself. I hadn't wanted to kill anyone I didn't have to. But I did. As I looked up from the bloody knife in my hand, and turned my eyes to her, she smiled at me. Mindy was proud of me. I'll always remember that.
She started training me to use combat knives instead of my batons after that. And not just any knives, these were real, Crocodile-Dundee-"this is a knife" knives. I liked the feel of them. They had weight to them.
When she sent me in to take out a group of gang bangers by myself, I made short work of them. I looked up from the bodies to see Mindy, sitting on a dumpster, smiling and applauding. I smiled back at her like she had smiled at me the first night I met her. And when I realized what I was doing, I remembered how horrified I'd been by what had happened that night. It made me wonder what had changed in me. What had I become? What had happened to my soul? And I needed to know if this was worth it.
One night, we caught a date-rapist in the park and Mindy cut his head off. Then she used his head as a puppet and mocked his pleas for mercy and I laughed. I laughed really, really, hard. And as I laughed I realized I was going to hell. I wondered, "Is this worth it?"
Since the first night Mindy and I hadshared a bed. She insisted. Every night she curls up against me and holds me tight, nuzzling into my chest. Every night she wears the most content and peaceful smile. And when she comes into bed wearing nothing, straddles my hips and presses her lips to mine. I answer, "Yes."