A/N: This was a request from Lemony Anemone. I didn't actually know who Sonya and Lee were, so I really am dreadfully sorry if they go OOC. Who knows? They might've changed by the time they were twelve. When I found out Lee wore an ushanka, I was like "OMG THAT'S HAWT. HE'S KYLE IN BROWN." Although I'm holding a candle for Kenny, not Kyle. …haha.
Just Like AlwaysA spinning blue circle whirls before her and retracts again. She watches it with fascination. She has no talent where yo-yos are concerned - her area of expertise is food, something she finds both more useful and more enjoyable - one can't live on yo-yos. The circle spins before her one last time before he catches it effortlessly in the palm of his hand and starts doing tricks with it.
"How do you do that?" she asks stupidly, blue eyes sparkling.
He raises an eyebrow at her from under his brown ushanka and says nothing. They've been in Sector W together for...well, a long time now. Not for nothing is he the yo-yo tactician of his sector.
The tree house is empty except for the two of them today. Their third member was decommissioned a short while ago. It was a sad loss. She cried while he hung his head miserably. Now the two of them are nearly always alone together. It's a funny concept, he muses, 'alone together', contradicting itself, and making romantic teenagers melt. He is neither romantic nor a teenager and so he sees it merely as meaning 'just the two of us'. She is very romantic and is nearly a teenager, but luckily, she certainly does not have any secret crush on him whatsoever, so she sees it the same way.
After all, the KND couldn't have two operatives from the same sector falling in love now, could they?
When she realises she won't get an answer, she scowls at his lowered head and reaches for her bag, which holds a bag of gummy bears, a Fanta and a squashed piece of sponge cake.
He walks the dog for a few minutes, then gets bored and twists the yo-yo around his finger. He grabs the remote controller and switches on the TV.
They watch in silence for a few moments.
"Gummy bear?"
He shakes his head.
She glares at him again. He's flipping channels and doesn't notice. If he would just make an effort, she thinks, if he would just make an effort to be somewhat human...
Still, she thinks, he's always there in a crisis, and he really knows his stuff, at least where yo-yos are concerned. That's what you really need in an operative, isn't it? Not - not...emotion...or anything like that.
She pops another gummy bear into her mouth and expertly twirls the edges of the packet, placing it back in her bag.
"It's quiet today," she declares, trying to make conversation. "Where's the adult tyranny we're supposed to be fighting?"
He shrugs.
"I'll tell you what it is - it's Sector V. They think they're so great, that hairless jerk and his cronies. They get all the jobs."
He gives her a look and she flushes in embarrassment, remembering Sector V has been made up of nine-year-olds since the last team got decommissioned.
After a while, she gives up trying to get any kind of response out of him. Flipping her blonde hair haughtily, she stands up and announces that she's going out. He makes no visible signs of even having heard her. She grunts angrily and storms out of the tree house, forgetting it is in fact in a tree and falling out of it painfully.
Left alone at last, he sighs in relief and flips the channel. Then he decides he might actually be held responsible if his partner breaks her neck and dies; he sticks his head out of the tree house to see if she's okay. He receives a terrible shock to see her (now rather small) form doubled over, unmoving on the ground.
He swings himself out of the tree house and climbs down quickly, dropping onto the turf beside her. "You okay?"
She whimpers and sits upright with an effort, nursing a broken leg.
"Next time, you should look before you leap," he says, trying hard to keep a note of amusement out of his voice. There's a fine line between cool and sadistic and he doesn't particularly want to cross it. He's supposed to be the good guy.
Her eyes fill with tears, from pain and embarrassment, and she begins to cry. "It hurts," she wails. "Make it stop hurting!"
He rolls his eyes at her, adjusts his ushanka and stands up, holding a hand out to her. "C'mon then. Lean on me."
Sniffing, biting her lip, whimpering in pain, she takes his hand and hoists herself up with his help.
"Can you walk?"
What kind of a question is that? She has a broken leg. Maybe, she thinks, he is panicking more than she realised. Panic makes people ask stupid, uncharacteristic questions. He realises what a stupid question it is around the same time she does and shakes his head.
He pulls her arm around his shoulder and takes a slow step. She whimpers again. "Slowly," he says quietly.
Looking ahead of them, he realises just how long it is to the KND medic and rather wishes they had a more practical, faster form of transport. Being a team of two, while comfortable, is not particularly practical for a pair of Kids Next Door operatives, especially if neither of them have any skill in the medical field - transport is limited, tree houses have less technology. Admittedly, one obtains better weaponry, but he hardly ever uses the gumball shooters and all that anyway. He's always been able to fall back on a yo-yo. Anyway, with no easily accessible form of transport, he can look forward to lugging this junk-food-loaded thing, his unfortunate partner, a long, long way today.
And so when the building comes into sight, Lee grins and says, panting, "Cool."
Her face is still streaked with tears, but Sonya manages a smile too. Her leg is in pain and dark is beginning to fall - and if there's one thing in the whole world Sonya has always feared, it's the dark - but Lee's arm is around her and he's smiling up at the medical unit and he's there for her. Just like he always is.