Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Somebody has to be brilliant, but it ain't me, although I hoped so. Everything mentioned belongs to their respective brilliant creators!


"Neutron, come on hurry up!"

"I'm running as fast as I can, Cindy!"

"Well run faster!"

"That's not physically possible unless I'm being put in a life threatening situation which would require my body to release large doses of adrenaline to elevate my abilities!"

"Well look at it this way, Neutron, if you don't hurry up, I will personally put you in an life threatening situation, one with lots of piranhas."

"On second thought, I think I can run a bit faster."

"That's what I thought."

"Since I'm already pushing myself to my limits, you might as well tell me why in the name of Albert Einstein I'm running like I'm being tailed by Poultra?"

"Weren't you listening when I told you?"

"Well considering what we were we doing when you told me, I can say that I really can't remember."

"What are you implying Neutron?"

"That when you ask someone to do something with you in the middle of a make-out session, the answer will probably be yes!"

"So that means it worked?"

"Yes- No!"

"It did, didn't it?"

"I'm here, aren't I?"

"True."

"Now where are we going?"

"Lovely day isn't it?"

"You're avoiding the question, Vortex."

"I thought we agreed to drop the last name thing, Neutron."

"Look who's talking, Vortex."

"Shut up Neutron."

"Make me."

"Neutron!"

"What?"

"Focus!"

"On what? I have no idea where we're going!"

"We're going to the mall!"

"What! You made me run for the mall? We could have just taken the hover car!"

"That rusty old bucket of bolts? Please, I think taking our chances with exhaustion is a much safer option."

"Hey, the hover car has class!"

"Yeah, lower class."

"You're so lucky I like you."

"I know."

~xXx~

The circumstances in which they had gotten together were certainly not the most normal circumstances. Well normal for them, the normal for everyone else was practically nonexistent to these kids.

It started off like any other day, with another one of his inventions blowing up in his face.

"It worked this morning!" He had cried out in shock as his latest invention flew around the classroom in a frenzy, knocking paintings and posters off the walls.

"Really Neutron? Which morning? Tuesday morning, 1812?" She had sneered from her spot at her desk, looking as bored as ever. He glared at her, momentarily pausing in his attempt to recapture his experiment.

"No Vortex, this morning. But I wouldn't be surprised what happened that particular day. After all, you look like you just stepped out of that century." He retaliated, looking down at her attired, which consisted of a librarian skirt, a white button blouse with a beige vest on top of it and Mary-Janes. Her hair was pulled up in its usual neat ponytail and her reading glasses lay perched on her hairline.

She gasped and fumbled around, trying to find an insult for the boy genius, "At least my head is not the size of the galaxy!" She snapped back finally, the old insult slipping out.

He looked at her like she had grown a second head, "Cindy, my head had long since become proportional with the rest of my body. Where have you been?" He asked, a little bit concerned. It was not like her to slip up in her insults with him. Even he had to admit that they were usually quite creative.

He took a closer look at her and noticed signs of weariness and fatigue. Her eyes had slight bags under them which were noticeably dark and her hair was disheveled and frizzy, only hidden by her usual ponytail. Her shoulders were slouched instead of their usual straight position and her skin was visibly paler.

"Are you feeling alright Vortex?" He asked her.

She looked at him, praying that the shock that he had might have figured it out was not evident in her eyes, "What are you talking about? Of course I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be?" She snapped at him irritably.

"Because your eyes have bags, your hair is a mess, your shoulders are slouched and your skin is paler." He said, listing off every visible sign of fatigue he could find.

She scowled, "Well I'm fine!" She said lamely. He was about to respond when a crash sounded from the other side of the room and their attention was brought back to his haywire invention, which had just crashed into the model of the solar system.

He cast one last wary look at her before returning to capturing his invention. She let out a small, inaudible sigh of relief. Hopefully, he would let it go, and wouldn't ask about it again. How else was she supposed to explain that her obvious lack of sleep was because of thoughts of him?

~xXx~

"I can't believe you convinced me to do this. Remind me again how you convinced me to do this?"

"Oh come Vortex, it's not that bad."

"Not bad? I have to go and strut around on stage like an airhead, smiling like an idiot and answering questions about humanitarian efforts which I'm sure none of the other contestants even know even know what 'humanitarian' means. Probably the years of being surrounded by hairspray and perfume have gone to their heads and now they can't even spell their last name!"

"Are you being a bit harsh? I mean I remember when there was a time when you would have loved to be in a beauty pageant. To have all those people admire you and applaud you."

"I was ten."

"A ten-year-old tyrant."

"Careful, don't make me punch you, Neutron."

"Like you could possibly hurt me."

"Please I have several black belts in Krav Maga, Kend-"

"There's no need to go into the list of extensive martial arts in which you have earned multiple black belts."

"You're just jealous because that list might exceed that of your list of successful inventions."

"I am not!"

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not!"

"Admit it, you are."

"I am positive that I have many more successful inventions."

"No you don't."

"Yes I do!"

"Want me to list the ones that have failed?"

"Go ahead, you'll find that it is quite short."

"Well there was that can- Wait no that worked. There was that one th- Wait no, that one also worked."

"See?"

"Well fine, let's change that to inventions that blew up in your face."

"Go ahead."

"The candy, the hypno ray, the one that brought things back to life, the time machine, the ChromoArch, the mind reading phone, the f- Mmph!"

"Shut up."

"You just kissed me because I'm right."

"Remember which ones later saved your ass and became patented for millions?"

"Hmph."

~xXx~

Of course he hadn't forgotten. He couldn't forget, even if he wanted to. For some reason the thought of something bothering her bugged him to ends that he thought couldn't be achieved. Why was he so worried about her?

So after receiving a week's worth of detention for causing chaos yet again in his technology class once again, he ran out of the classroom and into the busy halls of Retroville High School, looking for a certain blonde. He shoved his way through the crowd, wondering how far she could have gotten in a mere few minutes.

She couldn't have gotten very far in this crowd though she was one of the first to leave the classroom, he reasoned as he made his way through the crowd.

Finally after searching for fifteen minutes- he was definitely late for his next class, wait his next class was lunch, never mind- he found her seated by the old oak tree that stood tall in the courtyard behind their school. She had her head buried in a textbook, her AP Latin textbook to be exact. She had one hand resting in the book, ready to turn the page and the other was furiously taking notes on a notepad that resided next to her.

He approached her hesitantly; not exactly sure what to say- he wasn't sure why he was here in the first place-. He walked up to her and cleared his throat awkwardly, not really wanting to be the one to start up the conversation.

Her head snapped up immediately and her eyes narrowed, "What do you want, Neutron?" She asked venomously.

He shoved his hands in his pockets nervously, "I wanted to know what was bothering you." He said simply.

She looked confused, "There's nothing bothering me." She said monotone.

He rolled his eyes, "That's bullshit. You and I both know that; don't even try to deny it." He told her bluntly.

She narrowed her mouth and opened her mouth to say something snarky in response but the insult dried up on her tongue and she closed her mouth. She sighed; it was no use, lying to Jimmy. For some reason, he had grown to understand what she was thinking or feeling before she had even knew it herself.

Her shoulders slumped, "Okay so something's bothering me." She admitted, "But that doesn't mean I'm going to tell you." She replied, instantly putting her guard back up.

He sighed as well and sat down next to her, "I figured you would say that." He said, putting his backpack down in front of him.

She looked at him, confused, "Then why are you sitting here?" She asked.

He looked at her amused, "Because I'm going to sit here until you do." He told her with a quirky smile. She glared at him but didn't make any move to get away from him instead settling to returning to her book and notes. He leaned his back against the tree and stared at the sky, his expression peaceful.

"Why are you here?" She asked quietly after a while, not looking up from her book.

He turned his head to look at her, "I told you, I'm not leaving until you tell me what's bothering you."

She snapped her head up and glared at him, "I mean why do you care? You hate me and I hate you. You're not supposed to care if something's bothering me, you're supposed to be celebrating at the fact." She snapped at him, obviously very frustrated.

He looked at her, surprised, "What said I hated you?" He asked confused.

Now it was her turn to be surprised, "Why wouldn't you? I tease you, make fun of you and I'll admit it, sabotage you." She said blatantly.

He chuckled, "I knew I was that bad of an inventor." He said to himself. Cindy heard him and glared at him, "But even though you do that, you still helped me sometimes, you would help me when no one else would." He told her.

He paused and then turned to look at her fully, "You were there for me even though you hated me. It's true there might have been a time when I hated you, but come on we both have to admit you were pretty mean back then. But even though you were my greatest rival, you were also my greatest ally." He told her earnestly.

She blushed and looked down, "I don't know what to say, Neutron." She said laughing softly at her foolishness and but still smiling.

Out of impulse, he brought his hands to her cheeks and looked her in the eyes, green met blue and he whispered, "Don't." And with that he began to lean in. Cindy felt her breath hitch, this was her dream come true, it was her fairytale ending, everything was about to e right again.

And then Eustace attacked.

"I have returned and this time I will not fail, Jimmy Neutron, I will crush you!" He cried from his spot in his walking octopus machine. Jimmy swore and pulled away, turning to glare at Eustace.

Cindy also glared, "Every single damn time." She muttered under her breath.

~xXx~

"Screwdriver."

"Here."

"Thanks."

"You know Jimmy; we've been trying to fix your hover car for hours now. Can't we take a break?"

"No! I almost have it!"

"You said that three hours ago!"

"Well I was sure I had it then!"

"And what makes this time any different?"

"Because I have three more hours of work done."

"You know this is not how I planned on spending my Saturday evening."

"Well, you're welcome to leave at any moment."

"Then who will help you in your vain attempt to fix your hover car?"

"I'll call over Sheen and Carl."

"Those idiots? They couldn't tell a wrench from a screwdriver."

"Cindy they're my friends."

"So?"

"They're you're friends, too!"

"So?"

"Fine, I'll stop working on the hover car!"

"Thank you!"

"Happy now?"

"Not yet."

"Then what sho- Mm!"

~xXx~

"I hate to break up this oh-so touching moment, but I'm afraid it's time for Jimmy Neutron to be crushed!" Eustace cried, pushing a button on his remote. A tentacle reached out and grabbed Jimmy by the waist.

"No!" Cindy cried, wrapping her arms around his waist, trying to pull him back. Jimmy struggled to get the tentacles off but he was just pulled into Eustace's awaiting machine.

"Give him back right now, Strych!" Cindy cried at him angrily.

Eustace chuckled, "I'm afraid that can't happen! Ta-ta!" He said before turning around and stomping away, laughing maniacally.

Cindy raised an eyebrow, "What guy says 'Ta-ta'!"


I meant for this to be a one-shot but I decided against it. Review?