Title: Not Snow White
Genre: Romance/fluff
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown, or any of the Disney movies referenced in this purely fan-made story.
Word count:2452
Date of completion: 12:34 pm, August 2, 2007
Dedication: to NEWandKIC. Welcome to Rai x Kim fanshipping! lol! I'm so glad my last story helped you like the couple!!!
Summery: Kimiko has a pretty unusual fear of garden gnomes which started after she saw the movie Snow White. Will a certain Brazilian be able to help her conquer her fear? Rai x Kim oneshot! Not for Snow White lovers...sorry!
Just a Note: She doesn't really have a fear of gnomes, but one of my favorite topics to write about is overcoming fears. Just a humorous little fic that I thought up after a word game.
A Special Thanks to: CommonKnowledge, Heylin-Showdown, ktd123, sugaryum1239, death-n'-hell, Rairox64, raikimlover455673, Dominosowner, NEWandKIC, Stormy Dreamer, Noritsu, and Saiyukifan526 for the reviews to "Shopaholic." You guys are AMAZING!!!
Without warning the petite, raven haired girl gasped and shrunk back in fear. With the way she was acting one would assume the item she so feared would spring up and bite her, but it did not. She stepped farther away from it and accidentally bumped into someone.
"Hey girl, watch it!" a thick Brazilian accent snapped.
"Sorry Rai," Kimiko apologized, her eyes not leaving her biggest (well third biggest) fear.
"What're you so freaked about?" the leader asked curiously seeing nothing but an extremely innocent looking house. She honestly couldn't be afraid of that house. It was little and blue with a white picket fence, and a blooming garden. There was a cobblestone path leading up to a porch with a swing, and the air smelled of apples and cinnamon. It was the cute, country house most girls dream of someday having.
"It's nothing," she insisted, still not meeting his eyes.
Clay and Omi were way ahead of them now with Dojo in tow.
"The house?" he guessed.
"No." she replied.
"The color scheme? Does something not match?" he teased knowing her knack for fashion and design.
"It's not that, the house is cute, but..." she trailed off and pointed fearfully.
"Come on girl, we're far enough behind already. Just tell me!" he pleaded.
"The garden gnome!" she whimpered backing into Raimundo again.
"I know they're tacky, but get a grip girl. I've never seen you more freaked out of a cheesy lawn ornament."
"I hate garden gnomes!" she whispered looking at the short, white bearded man displayed in the flower bed.
"I'm going to ask why, but not now. We have to find the shengong wu first, and we're really far behind." he sympathetically said.
"I can't Rai, if I turn away from it then it's going to spring to life and attack me!" she cried not caring how impractical it sounded.
"No girl, it won't. I promise, but just incase..." he coyly smirked. Without another word he picked the blue eyed girl up bridal style and carried her past the picket fence house with its sole garden gnome. Still holding onto her he sprinted to catch up with the others and arrived just in time to see Jack getting away with the enchantress's wand (sounds like a pansy shengong wu, I know, but bear with me here!)
"Um...Rai you can put me down now." Kimiko blushed noticing the other's confused looks.
"Why was Raimundo carrying Kimiko that way? Was she injured?" Omi asked momentarily forgetting that they'd lost a shengong wu.
"It's a long story." Raimundo insisted, "what happened with the shengong wu?"
"Spicer found it first," Clay put in. "But he wouldn't of if ya slowpokes had kept up."
"Jack never holds onto them for too long anyway. We'll get it back." Raimundo stated encouragingly. "What did it do anyway?"
"It enchants items and brings them to life." Dojo explained.
"How very Beauty and the Beast!" Kimiko sighed. She watched a lot of Disney movies when she was little. Her papa was good friends with Mr. Walt Disney and his higher ups.
"Beauty and the Beast?" Omi puzzled.
"It was a movie with enchanted teacups, candles, clocks, footstools, you know..." she shrugged.
"You never struck me as the Disney princess type." Rai teased.
"Papa knew the people who produced..." she trailed off, still fretting over that garden gnome.
"Now that the shengong wu mishap was explained, ya'll care to explain yourselves?" Clay grinned nudging Raimundo. He knew all about the two's feelings for each other.
"Drats, almost curfew! Maybe next time Clay." Raimundo tried to use an excuse.
"Oh, we can yap on the way back." Clay stated as the four warriors hopped on Dojo's back.
"Silly me just slipped, and Rai caught me. He didn't want to waste anymore time so he just ran with me in his arms." Kimiko lied blushing intensely.
"Ya'll sure that's what happened?" Clay teased.
"Well actually Kim-" Raimundo grinned before being punched hard by the Japanese girl.
"They don't need to know." she forcefully whispered.
"It seems to me Kimiko was caught with hands of a different color." Omi deducted.
"I think he means she was caught red handed," Raimundo decided after some thought.
"Not helping Rai." Kimiko said through gritted teeth. The worst thing about being the only girl was that they ganged up on her a lot. If she remembered correctly Rai was just as much to blame as she was for what happened. She didn't ask to be picked up!
"But that makes little sense. Her hands are not red." Omi puzzled.
"All of you just drop it!" Kimiko snapped and they all went silent.
The rest of the ride to the temple was a very quiet and awkward one.
Finally home came into view, and they all parted to their selective rooms.
"What really happened back there?" Clay asked Raimundo as the guys were brushing their teeth in the bathroom.
"I'm not sure. Something about that house kinds freaked her out so I had to get her out of there." Raimundo lazily explained leaving the fear of garden gnomes out of the story. "Speaking of her I should probably go apologize to her."
"You'll have better luck than Omi or I would." Clay hinted.
"Yes friend Clay? I heard my name." Omi popped in from the doorway.
"What are you saying?" Raimundo asked ignoring the yellow shrimp.
"The girl's sweet on you." Clay teased.
"What does that mean 'sweet on you'?" Omi asked bemused while Raimundo just slunk out the door.
He pulled back the curtain to Kimiko's room, and ducked as her fist came flying at him.
"Rai, I could have been changing!" she scolded irritated.
"Wouldn't bother me." he smirked.
"You perv!" she grumbled. He was supposed to be responsible, considerate, and smart as the Shoku leader, but he was just the same old Raimundo with a new title. "Knock next time!"
"Even if I did knock it's on a curtain. You'd never hear it." he laughed.
"Rai don't be stupid. If you want to talk come in, if you don't have anything to say then leave." she explained.
"Well I was kinda hoping you'd do the talking, and tell me what that was about earlier today." he said with concern woven into his words.
"You can't tell anyone, but I'm really afraid of garden gnomes." she blushed.
"Why?" he asked softly sitting across from her on the mat. She was in her usual blue nightgown and he was in an old, loose soccer uniform.
"I watched a lot of Disney movies when I was little, and I really hated Snow White. I mean she was ditzy and airheaded...you've seen the movie right?" she asked feeling small and insecure.
"Yeah, don't remember much, but my sisters used to watch it." he gently said offering her his hand which she took.
"Well she runs away from the butcher and ends up living with 7 unusually short and old men. I don't know why, but I had this strange fear of them, and they looked a lot like garden gnomes. I had an overactive imagination when I was young, and I somehow convinced myself that the gnomes would come to life, and get me." she cried softly.
He pulled her into a reassuring hug and whispered soothing words into her ear until she calmed down.
"Kim, we all have fears. Just don't let it stop you. You're a tough girl and no short, old man could even stand a chance against you. So don't let them. You gunna be okay?" he whispered.
"Yeah, I think so. Thank's Rai. You always know how to cheer me up." Kimiko smiled a tiny smile to show that she meant what she said.
He wiped some stray tears from her face with his thumb, and they leaned in about to kiss when he suddenly pulled away.
"I'm sorry Kim, goodnight." he murmured heading for his own room.
"Night Rai," she whispered feeling down again. At least this was something she could really be okay with hurting about. She curled up on her mat and fell into a dreamless sleep.
Somewhere around three pm the next day Dojo sensed a new shengong wu.
"It's the ring of eternity. It's really useless in battle, but it can be quite dangerous to an enemy." Dojo explained.
"What does it do?" Kimiko asked, still feeling hurt that Rai stopped before the kiss. She flashed him a small grin to say she was okay about the gnomes, and to make it seem that she wasn't as upset about the kiss. He was probably just didn't want to take advantage of her when she was upset, but it wasn't like she'd mind. She liked him a lot.
Raimundo wasn't the only one who saw her grin, a blue eyed cowboy took note of it with his eyebrows raised. Something smelled fishier than a Friday fish-fry.
"It binds two people of the opposite sex together for eternity, but it doesn't force you to love them. You just can't attack them and have to stay with them. You can still consciously hate them." Dojo rushed turning jumbo sized.
"That could prove to be most deadly." Omi stated as they all hopped on the giant green gecko.
"Anyway to break it partner?" Clay asked curiously.
"Two ways...first the wearer simply takes off the ring and the trapped is free again. Or the trapped has to get kissed by a true love." Dojo explained, "at least I think that's how you break it. It was only used once...Wuya used it on Chase Young a long time ago."
"Someone seriously has to stop with the fairy tale cliches!" Kimiko snapped irritated.
"The Wu activating now were from an era of medieval times, so they'll be like this for a while." Dojo shrugged.
Dojo landed in a small, but neatly kept suburb in England.
"If this burning rash is correct the ring is somewhere in this yard," Dojo complained.
The house was a violet Victorian with many fountains, an elaborate garden, and quite a few lawn ornaments which included seven garden gnomes. Kimiko stuck close to Raimundo having a hard time with gnomes, but ignoring them for the sake of the shengong wu.
They began to search every inch of the yard when Kimiko noticed a speck of glittering gold coming from a fountain of the blind Cupid. He had a bow in his chubby arms, and a spout of pink colored water coming out of his open mouth. The simple, gold band with a heart engraved pattern was on his marble finger. She raced over and touched the ring at the same exact moment Jack Spicer did.
"Jack Spicer I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown! Your enchantress's wand (trust Jack to have the pansy wu) against my star of Hinabi. First to get through the garden maze wins." she challenged.
Suddenly the landscape changed and a giant hedge maze formed.
"Gong yi tempi!" they both shouted starting to run off through the maze. Jack was taking wrong turns everywhere until he stumbled upon an enlarged statue of a garden gnome. He didn't know about her fear, but he did know he could enchant them.
"Enchantress's wand!" Jack shouted and the gnome sprang to life. It chased down Kimiko who froze up in fear. There was nothing she would have liked more at that moment than to surrender the showdown which she almost did until she heard someone shouting to her.
"Come on Girl! I know you can do this, just fight him!" Rai yelled.
"Why's she freezing up like that? Jack doesn't have the reversing mirror so he shouldn't be able to turn her inanimate." Clay reasoned.
"She's petrified of garden gnomes." Rai whispered.
"She's not responding!" Omi fearfully interjected.
"I'll shock her out of it!" Raimundo said.
"How?" Clay asked.
"You'll see," he whispered before shouting to the girl who was about to be hit by a giant, marble fist. "Kimiko, he's nothing more than a crippled, old guy! I know you can fight him! Girl, I love you!" he shouted turning bright red.
She snapped back to reality and used her star Hinabi to blast the gnome to pieces. Jack was farther ahead in the maze but she hadn't said solve the maze, she's simply said get through it so she blasted a fiery hole in the hedges and ran straight to the end, arriving seconds before Jack.
"No fair!" Jack whined handing over the enchantress's wand, and flying home.
"I knew you could take it!" Raimundo grinned as she leapt into his arms.
"Good job!" Clay complimented Kimiko while nudging Raimundo, and laughing lightly.
"Master Fung will be most impressed when he sees we have acquired a most hazardous Shengong Wu." Omi smiled. It was his almost version of a compliment.
They all got on Dojo's back and the giant, hungry dragon flew them back to the temple. Once they arrived Kimiko pulled the dragon of wind away from the others.
"Rai?" she blushed lightly.
"Yeah?" he answered.
"Did you mean it?" she asked.
"Did I mean what?" he questioned having forgotten since he thought she hadn't heard him.
"What you said earlier." she replied.
It was his turn to flush bright red.
"Yes." he admitted.
"Well, I love you too!" she smiled.
The two shared a gentle kiss and pulled back happy.
Finally Kimiko thought grinning, she waited too long for this. Sometimes a princess has to go and get it herself or her prince will shy away from her.
"Just promise me one thing Rai, you won't mention Snow White ever again." she giggled.
"I promise." he laughed.
She didn't freeze up around garden gnomes anymore, but she still didn't like them, and if one thing was certain they would NOT be present at her dream house because she was no Snow White.
Finnnies!
This is probably the most out of the norm story I've ever written. I'm happy with it, it's a little weird, but I can rest assured no will blame me for copying an idea (unless you all thought of this while doing a fill-in word puzzle. Lol!) I'm happy with it, the ending's a little cheesy, but I like it. I'm not afraid of flames. Thanks to all who review! Please do review (I love to hear what you think!), and thanks for reading! I hope you liked it!
Much love,
heart.