Even Boys Long For A Sweet Sixteen
By- Shiva's Avatar
"Some birthday this turned out to be," Raimundo sighed, leaning against a tree in the temple's luxurious garden. All in all the wind dragon felt bad about not feeling happier, felt guilty for expecting more then he'd already been given. The other monks and Master Fung had of course set up a not-so-surprise birthday party, Dojo having accidentally let the cat of the bag two weeks ago as to when the whole shindig was going down.
In his small partition of a room, Raimundo now had a plethora of crayon stained cards and small gifts from his mom and siblings back in Rio, not mentioning the few oddity gifts he'd received from his Xiaolin friends. The new goo zombies game from Kimiko. A wooden dragon handcrafted and painted by Clay. A box of chocolates from Dojo … with half the treats still uneaten. A book of zen sayings from master Fung. While Omi had managed to somehow obtain yet another life size portrait of himself to give to his good friend.
Raimundo sighed again, and felt his hands grip his elbows, an imitation of a hug that gave him no comfort. He wasn't sure what else he wanted, but was profoundly depressed that he hadn't gotten it. Not wanting to spoil all the effort his friends had made, Raimundo had pretended to take a bathroom break, then made a beeline for the temple garden. Granted pretty soon his friends would come looking for him, and he'd have to again put on his happy face as they played a few party games, ate cake, and then went off to bed, to ready for yet another day of training come sunrise the next morning.
Raimundo tightened his self-embrace, as he shut his eyes. He wouldn't admit to his friends, even after they'd asked about his declining martial performance, but he hadn't been sleeping well. He wished he could blame it on the shadow of fear again, but Raimundo knew the real reason for chronic insomnia … knew it in all its pathetic glory. He'd lost Juracan.
The group had been hunting for a new shen gong wu in the Appalachian Mountains a few weeks back. The wu had been called the sirens box, and allowed it's wielder to change their voice to sound like anyone they so chose. Not only was the wu almost completely useless in this day in age, but Dojo had cleverly thought to hide the thing in one of the millions of crevices that dotted the mountain range …and of course didn't remember where he'd stashed it over a millennia ago. It'd taken the group over a week of solid hunting to dig through snow, ice, and occasionally rock to find the stupid thing, battling Jack's slew of robotic minions at every turn. Juracan, taken for comfort value, must have slipped out of his bag during one of the fights against the floating pieces of debris. Now he was gone, no doubt buried in ice cold isolation, unaware of the owner that grieved for him so.
Raimundo couldn't help but scoff at himself, as he felt water begin to fill his eyes. It was his birthday, he had great friends waiting inside to party with him, he had an awesome family that had made sure to send him their love in construction paper form … and here he was, hiding under a tree, all but in tears because of a lost teddy bear.
Angrily Raimundo brushed his eyes with a forearm. Juracan was more then just a stuffed animal, he was family. His twin brothers Maurcio and Mauricio had pooled their meager allowances to buy the brown bear form a swindling shopkeeper. When Raimundo learned later how much they'd paid for it, he'd been ready to go back and give that salesman a piece of his ten year old mind. The twins had held him back though, saying that they didn't care how much the stuffed beast had cost, that it was the perfect gift for their big brother and that's all that mattered. Ever since then Raimundo had always kept Juracan near, the bear acting as a surrogate for the brothers he'd had to leave behind.
'Until I lost him' Raimundo thought bitterly, ashamed at how much he missed the piece of fluff, and embarrassed should his friends ever learn what was really causing his sleep trouble. Raimundo crossed his arms again, sat down. He was going to have to go back to his birthday celebration soon, might as well have his own private pity party while he could. Raimundo sighed yet again, and looked at the darkened sky. The stars would have been pretty if not for all those annoying red lights …
Raimundo hit his head against his knees; fervently praying those lights weren't what he thought they were. The night was going to be long enough without having to deal with Jack and his overgrown toys. The fates were not in his favor though, and several Jackbots began doing overhead reconnaissance. One of the brass figures descended down into the garden, where it floated in front of Raimundo, letting out a long series of clicks and beeps.
"I don't suppose you'd just, you know, leave?" Raimundo asked weary, standing up and cracking a knuckle. Unsurprisingly the Jackbot said nothing, only began flailing its arms in the air, making more complex beeping sounds.
"Welp, can't say I did try," Raimundo said, giving the robot a kick to its armored torso, sending it flying back it a tree, where it promptly broke down. Overhead the flickering lights of other Jackbots, stopped. Raimundo tapped a foot, impatiently waiting for them to attack in mass, when, much to his surprise, they began retreating. Flicking red lights fading away, leaving a serene star studded sky in their wake.
"… ummm … that was weird," Raimundo mused, fists still raised.
"Not really, I only brought them along to find you … well and maybe to draw off the others if they were around …" a hesitant pause. "They … aren't around, are they?"
Spinning around, Raimundo spotted Jack sitting next the koi pond. If not for his hair, and a multicolored box in his lap, the evil boy genius would have been all but invisible under the shadow of a nearby weeping willow. The whole thing seemed surreal, and Raimundo wondered if he'd fallen asleep standing again, and all this was just a dream. Then, almost bitterly, he wondered if all this was a dream, where were the bikini clad babes?
Deciding to take the safe route, Raimundo slouched against his tree again, and eyed his edgy rival. Jack, started several times to say something, only to end up making a few incomprehensible sounds before lapsing back into silence, thin fingers playing with the silver bow topping the box.
"Do ya actually want something Spicer?" Raimundo asked when the silence grew uncomfortable. Jake opened his mouth to speak, shut-it wordless, and then just held out the box towards Raimundo, red eyes suddenly enthralled by the nearby pond.
Raimundo lifted an eyebrow as he stared at the gaudily wrapped cube. Morbidly he wondered what might be inside … Napalm? Explosives? Itching power? Bees? The possibilities were endless, and he knew Jack well enough to know that whatever it was it would be cartoonishly evil. That seemed to be the only kind of evil the would-be villain could do right.
"It's … uh … umm …well, you see … ummm … er …" Jack began to babble, still holding the present out. Finally he managed to just blurt out what Raimundo had already figured. "It's a gift … you know … for your birthday and stuff,"
Raimundo walked over and plucked the box out of his rival's hands. Seeing as the night already sucked, and Raimundo highly doubted it could get worse; he tugged on the gossamer ribbon. Whatever was in it wasn't going to explode, otherwise Jack would have already scurried away … and whatever it was, maybe it could get him out of his party. He wondered briefly if it made him a bad person to want to skip out on his own birthday bash … then shrugged, deciding he really didn't care.
The paper peeled back easily, Raimundo littering the ground with the shimmering paper. Jack was looking at him now, an incisor digging into his lower lip. Pretending not to notice the other boy, Raimundo ripped off cover of the box...
… And yelped as a Juracan leapt into his face.
"Rai Rai! I missed you SO much!" the bear squealed in an overly enthusiastic, child pitched voice.
"What the hell!" Raimundo asked, eyes wide, as the toy nuzzled his neck. Jack gave him an embarrassed shrug.
"One of my Jackbots found him and brought him to me … and I kinda … accidentally … put the heart of Jong in it," Jack replied, his voice getting a suspicious quiver on the word 'accidentally'.
"Juracan missed Rai Rai!" the bear added happily. "And Jack was nice and brought me back to Rai Rai!"
Raimundo wondered if lack of sleep had driven him mad. He'd heard about people who stayed awake too long and started having all sorts of cracked out delusions. He was sure the scene in front of him fit all the necessary criteria.
'Then again' he thought, lifting a hand to absentmindly rub the animal's furry coat 'is this so bad? It really is Juracan … I don't know any other bear that's got it's right ear pierced … still not sure how Yelena thought that would make him look tough … it even looks like he's been fixed up some … I wonder how?'
"Anyway, just thought I'd return the little munchkin to you. You can send me a replacement shen gong wu later," Jack muttered quietly, standing up and starting to walk away. Raimundo was content to let him leave until the bear glomping his ear let lose an ungodly wail.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I didn't sing the song yet! You gatta be here for when I sing the song you taught me!"
Jack stopped and cringed as Raimundo sat up.
"Song?" he asked, giving the bear a confused look. Juracan nodded enthusiastically.
"I TOLD you to do it later, AFTER I left!" Jack turned around and hissed at the bear. Raimundo couldn't help it. A soft chuckle soon exploded into a fit of laughter. This night was just TOO weird.
"Go ahead Juracan. I wanna see your song," he said in-between fits of giggles, while Jack covered a growing blush with a hand. The bear's already too big smile somehow managed to widen, as it hopped down onto the ground and began to do a jig … a little can-can number, occasionally clapping as it sang.
"Rai, Rai, Rai …
It's your birthday!
Rai, Rai, Rai …
It's your day!
Rai, Rai, Rai …
You're so awesome …
And I really hope that everything is great.
Rai, Rai, Rai …
Your so coooooool!
Rai, Rai, Rai …
You're the best!
Rai, Rai, Rai …
It's your birthday!
And I'm sure that you can figure out the rest!
Cause Rai, Rai, Rai …
It's your birthday …
And I think that I kinda sorta am your friend!
Rai, Rai, Rai …
It's your BIRTHDAY!
And I hope the entire thing is GRAND!"
The bear stopped its dance, giving Raimundo a smile so sweet it would have an instantly downed a room full of diabetics. Raimundo, for his part thought it a great feat to smother the laughter inside him, only a few giggles sneaking out. Jack stared down at the ground, hoping that a well timed earthquake would save him from the humiliation he had just suffered. Suddenly implanting the heart of Jong into Raimundo's cherished childhood toy didn't seem like such a great idea … not mentioning the fact that he still hadn't told Wuya what he'd done with it yet …
Raimundo stood up and slung an arm over his rival's shoulder, his chest hurting from barely suppressed laughter, Juracan cradled in his free hand. Jack cringeing at Raimundo's touch.
"Come on my 'kinda sorta' friend, I've got a birthday party going on …" Raimundo said, his smile warm, a party with his friends … all his friends … suddenly sounding infinitely appealing.
"… You sure it won't be weird having me there?" Jack asked, obviously not needing much convincing. Raimundo shrugged, feeling an emotional high he hadn't felt in weeks.
"Who cares?" the wind dragon asked, using the arm around Jack to start guiding the evil boy genius back to the temple. Jack smiled back, allowing himself to be lead. The two entered the temple quietly, only to have the reverent silence shattered by an excited squeal from Juracan.
"YAY! BEST FRIENDS FOREVER! YAY!"
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Author's notes-
… :beats head into desk: …
First and foremost, I apologize severely for what you have just read. This piece is living proof that I should never writing something that I haven't mapped out … also, as I feel it prudent to mention again, angst is my specialty area … not fluff (and I promise if I ever write fluff again, I won't write it in-between my classes, and will more then spend just one evening editing it … I'll make at least a half week project, at least).
As to WHY this came about … let me say simply that I should never be allowed within sight/reach of fan art … at risk that it might "inspire me" (This piece was spawned after I saw/was inspired by "Wasted talent" by Jack-Spicer666 on … which reminded me of a comment Raimundo made about sleeping with a teddy bear … at which point I thought it a "brilliant" idea to write a fluff fic about it … the result being what you see before you).
… Again, I apologize for this piece … I'm going to slink away now and write something exceedingly angst ridden … :hides:
Laters
-Shiva's Avatar-