Lullaby

By Berry's Ambitions

A/N: Credit for this pairing goes to my good friend Dance Elle Dance! Okay, so... don't know what to say about this fic. I'm not new to the new HHE fandom whatsoever but this is the first story I've written for Victorious, so bear with me here, everyone. (Victorious fans: Chameleon is from horror film The Hills Have Eyes 2, although my interpretation of him is very different from what's shown onscreen. Hills fans: Cat is a character from a TV show on Nickelodeon.)

This is radically different from my typical one-shots, but the idea wouldn't leave me alone. It does include character death, so if that bothers you, turn back now. For the record - I adore Cat. Just so we're clear.

Enjoy, readers!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Hills Have Eyes or Victorious.

"It's so pretty..."

Chameleon wants to scream at her, shake her by the shoulders. To tell her that there is nothing remotely beautiful about the shard of metal that's protruding from her stomach.

But he doesn't.

He can't.

Cat's giggle almost immediately turns to a cough, and all he can do is watch, mortified, as blood spatters onto her dress.

"No," Chameleon blurts as Cat starts to smile again, probably ready say something about polka dots. "Don't do that."

Her lower lip trembles like a scolded child, but she complies.

Guilt pricking his heart for snapping at the girl, Chameleon shushes her, brushing strands of hair from her face. It's only now that he feels Cat's perspiration, notices the colour has drained from her typically cheerful face.

No. No no no. His Cat is vibrant and strong and nothing like this quivering, rapidly-weakening bundle that he's now gathered in his arms. This isn't her. Can't be her.

Cat manages to smile again, albeit faintly. "Look, Chammy," she says in that high, airy voice of hers, "the sand matches my hair now."

"Don't start laughing again," the mutant commands, struggling to keep his voice level as she almost erupts into another fit of giggle-coughs. "You'll just..."

Just what? Kill herself faster?

It should be him. He smelt the smoke first, realized what was about to happen immediately, but it was Cat who reacted. They'd standing in the front entrance of the mines. The redhead had elbowed him - he'd been so startled that he stumbled backwards - just as the dynamite went off, the impact sending them both flying backwards with hazardous wreckage raining down upon them.

Her broken body had been the first image to greet him as the smoke cleared.

Cat doesn't even ask him "just what", the way she would have under any other circumstances. Instead she gives a half-hearted nod, trying to curl up against him, the way she did while they slept, and he pulls her close.

"Stabber's already on his way back from the gas station," Chameleon says, although he knows in his heart that there's nothing the clan medic can do.

"I hope he remembered to bring back almonds," Cat sighs. "Almonds are a girl's best friend."

Chameleon gives her a gentle look. "I think the song you're thinking of is referencing diamonds. You can't eat nuts because you're allergic."

Not that it matters anyway, of course. Not at this point.

She pouts. "Just because I'm allergic doesn't mean I can't eat them."

They're both becoming sticky from her blood. Chameleon pulls his tank top over his head and presses it against the wound - not because he thinks it will make any difference, but because he doesn't want to remember Cat like this. She coughs up more blood and complains of how cold she is. Immediately after this, Cat is beside herself with laughter, because she realizes that her spit now matches her hair colour, too.

He can't breathe, doesn't allow himself to speak. Chameleon wants to scream at God for allowing this to happen. It should be him who's bleeding out on the ground - the monstrosity, the sinner. The world can afford to lose him, would probably be better off without him. Not Cat, who's pure and sweet and had her entire life ahead of her. A life she threw away all so he could continue his.

"Don't cry," she murmurs, reaching upwards to touch his cheek.

Chameleon blinks. It isn't until resting his large hand over her tiny one that he realizes that tears are streaming down his face.

Cat smiles at him kindly, reassuringly. "It takes more muscles to frown than to smile. You taught me that, remember?"

He nods shakily, forces himself to smile for her. "Yes, Caterina." He squeezes her hand. "I do remember."

She smiles back, because only two people can get away with calling her that - her beloved grandmother and her equally beloved Chameleon.

"Chammy?" The breath she takes is a rattling one.

"Yes?"

"Please..." Her lips are trembling. "C-can I... have a kiss before I go?"

She's accepted she's dying. Cat has always been so much stronger than him, even if everybody else begged to differ.

Even through the coppery, salty tang of his tears and her blood she's still unrecognizably Cat. Chameleon cups her face as he presses his lips against her own, caressing her hair and whispering sweet nothings into her ear, because that's how he puts her to sleep at night when it won't come naturally to her.

He knows there's no need for it. He knows she's passed and that no amount of whispering would have slowed that down.

But Chameleon also knows that - in this world or one far away from here - Caterina Valentine has and always will be his guardian angel.

~The End~