Saturday Night at the Movies
Summary: Jaime takes Cassie to the movies and afterwards they kick some butt. Wonderbeetle
Words: ~2,800
A/N: I was itching for some Wonderbeetle drabble and the song "Saturday Night at the Movies" by The Drifters was stuck in my head, so wa la! Also, excuse any spelling/grammar errors. It's late and I haven't edited it because I'm lazy.
Disclaimer: I don't own YJ, The Avengers, or the song.
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Well, Saturday night at eight o'clock
I know where I'm gonna go
I'm a-gonna pick my baby up
And take her to the picture show
Everybody in the neighborhood
Is dressing up to be there, too
And we're gonna have a ball
Just like we always do
"That was so awesome!" cheered a bubbly Cassie Sandsmark as she and Jaime Reyes filtered out of a theater after a showing of The Avengers. "Like when Black Widow and Hawkeye dueled! She was all 'kpow!" She forcefully punched the air in front of her for emphasis. "Talk about knocking some sense into a guy!
"Oh, oh, and then Iron Man came whooshing in with the nuclear missile and aimed it at the alien battle ship! And just when Iron Man was plummeting to the ground! I swear to Athena,"
"You swear to Athena?" Jaime quirked with a smile. "Isn't that kind of against the law for an Amazon?"
She stuck her tongue out at him in reply before continuing her ramble, "But luckily Hulk soars through the sky and catches him!" She dived forward, reenacting Hulk's rescue of Tony Stark, before catching herself and swinging around a street lamp. Her pleasure was easily evident from her happy chatter to her glowing eyes to her brilliant smile.
Jaime enjoyed watching her. Honestly, half of his entertainment of their movie date came from watching Cassie's reactions throughout the movie. Her excitement at seeing The Avengers kick ass, her laughter ringing throughout the theater at Phil Coulson and the rest of the team's antics, her heart breaking expression at Bruce's confession and Phil's death, and her surprise at the two post credit scenes. As soon as the credits began rolling, she had jumped up with a huge grin and a need to burn off energy, but Jaime had merely grabbed her hand and pulled her back down to rejoin him. Cassie had given him a surprised look, which brought on a sharp warning from The Scarab, but relaxed at Jaime's easy smile as he said "Just watch."
After watching the Avengers eat Schwarma, Jaime announced that the movie was officially over and received a thankful hug from the Wonder Girl. Unfortunately, Jaime heard the familiar clicking of his laser cannon locking into place due to the "attack" and quickly stepped away, despite his and Cassie's dejected expressions.
Jaime covered the awkwardness by asking her opinion of her movie, inviting the girl to ramble on excitedly while he heatedly explained to Khaji Da that a hug was by no means dangerous and he was not allowed to blast Cassie into the next town. Jaime didn't receive an answer to his second request.
But despite Scarab's disapproval of Cassie and comments in regards to Iron Man's blast cannons and armor, the teen boy had enjoyed the night. The movie was as fantastic as the other team members and his friends had assured him it was. Cassie had a genuine smile when he had met her at the Cave to take her on the date. Even in a black tank top and a pair of blue jeans, he had thought she was stunning. Luckily, he hadn't made a complete fool of himself, yet. And even though he occasionally grumbled at the bug on his back, Cassie didn't shoot him any strange or worried looks for which he was very thankful for.
But now, he was watching her, swinging around the lamp, the light causing her hair to glow faintly against the dark sky. Her blue eyes shined with bliss that was only rivaled by her bright grin.
Cassie caught Jaime staring at her and she blushed. "Sorry, I know, I know. Too much fangirl." She sighed and stepped down from the lamp, wincing at the dent her fingers had made in the middle.
"Que?" he exclaimed in surprise, not realizing his Spanish was slipping through. "No, no, no. Estás equivocada." At her confused look, he glanced at his arms thinking the Scarab had set up a weapon without him realizing it. All he saw was tan, slightly roughed hands.
"Uhhhh." her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to think of the words. "I no hablo Español," she said slowly with a poor accent. "Sorry." She bit her lip, fighting a smile at her own lame attempt to speak the language.
Jaime just gave a breath of relief and laughed. "Oh, no, no I'm sorry. Sorry, I didn't mean to speak in Spanish. It happens sometimes." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I was saying that you were wrong. There was nothing wrong with your fangirling."
"Really?" she asked hopefully. "Because I know Wonderwoman said I had to calm it down." Cassie rubbed her bare arm, thinking of the fight against Black Manta's goonies and her mentor's slight chiding.
"Fangirling isn't bad. I think she just meant while we were on missions to stay focused. Because you're pretty awesome during missions." Jaime felt a slow blush creep up along his cheeks.
"You think I'm awesome?" she asked quietly, a shy smile sliding onto her face as she walked closer to him.
"Yeah," he replied. "The way you swooped in and took out those robots with your lasso last week? Pretty awesome, chica." He stood still as she walked towards him, returning her timid grin with one of his own.
Threat closing in. Defense system loading in 3…2.. He felt metal creeping over his arm.
Jaime sprang away from her. "No stop!" Threat decreased. His blue armor slipped back under his jacket and into his back.
Hurt colored Cassie's face and she stepped away. "Sorry, I just, uh, I mean…. Ugh!" She stormed away, feet pounding on the pavement.
"No, wait! That's not what I meant! Cassie!" He shouted after her, but she didn't give any indication of hearing him.
"Why do you always do that!" Jaime yelled angrily at Khaji Da. "There was no threat! She's a good friend of mine! A teammate!"
You are a teenage boy who lets his hormones obstruct his logic.
"You're right. I am a teenage boy! Can't I just be a normal guy for a couple of nights?" he grumbled. He caught the stares of some pedestrians and began to follow Cassie.
But that is not all you are. You need to remain focused. She is a distraction and therefore a threat to your safety and our objectives.
"Ay Dios mio. No she isn't. We're teammates; we can help each other out."
Jaime sighed and rubbed tiredly at his face. Ever since he realized his noticing of the littlest things about his teammate (her fierce to desire to be a part of the team, her bright laugh when something tickled her funny bone, the way her eyebrows furrowed while Jaime argued with the Scarab or someone made a pop culture reference she didn't understand, and her strength and determination on missions) his inner demon started picking more and more fights with Jaime. Frankly, it was making the teen more aggravated than usual, though he tried to save most of the anger when he was alone.
A crash and raised voices drew the boy's attention and he ran to the source of the noise. As he peered down the alley, he saw Cassie taking down a group of rough looking thugs. A quick kick to the head to one of them sent him flying into a brick wall.
"You little-" one of the fallen guy's friend's shouted as he whipped out a gun.
Danger detected.
"For once we agree," mumbled Jaime, raising his arm. In a second, the gunman was pierced to the wall by a giant blue staple. Now the young hero welcomed the armor covering his body, and when Cassie and her foes swung around to see their new visitor, they saw Blue Beetle standing in their midst.
"Blue," Cassie whispered, but it seemed it was only Jaime who heard her.
He couldn't help giving her a quick small smile, before becoming serious again."Back away from the girl," he barked.
The thugs just laughed. "Who's gonna make us? You? You little bug eyed freak!"
"Don't call him that!" The girl shouted and grabbed one of the remaining three goons by the collar and threw him into one of the others. They landed on the concrete ground with a smack and a string of curses. A bag of jewels rolled out from one of their jackets, spilling the shining gems into the alleyway.
It was silent save for rapid breathing of the goons. Then, more guns were pulled and the heroes sprang into action. Luckily, Cassie didn't pull out her lasso and accidentally give up her secret identity. Instead, she came off as a super strong girl who happened to know hand to hand combat. She easily knocked out a thief after a couple of punches, but not without the guy getting in a few lucky hits. Cassie rubbed at a sore spot on her side and saw a bruise start to form on her arm in the dim lighting.
Blue Beetle's opponent fired several bullets in his direction, but he easily dodged them by flying up and behind him. A swift kick sent the gunman flying to the ground. Jaime quickly used his staple cannon to trap him and Cassie's fallen opponent. But when he turned around, the sight froze him in his tracks.
Cassie was trapped against the wall by the last goon, a gun pressed to her forehead.
"Listen, I don't know who you kids are, but I don't want to make things messier than they need to be. Why don't you just let me and my pals go with our toys and we can all walk away happy."
Jaime scowled at the man, but lowered his weapon. Khaji Da was not pleased with this.
Don't be an idiot! Blast your enemy to bits or send a staple through his bones like you should've done with the others.
But Jaime shook his head, catching a smirk on Cassie's face, and ignored The Scarab's advice. He put his hands in the air in the universal sign of surrender.
The goon loosened his hold on her just a fraction, but it was enough. Cassie slammed her head back into the guy's face. He yelled and brought a hand to his nose, seeing blood when he pulled it away.
"That's it!" He aimed his gun, but before he could shoot, his weapon was crushed by the girl's hands. He screamed and tried to make a dash for it, but Cassie merely caught him and threw him in the air where he screamed even more.
"Hey, Blue, a little help?" she called.
"No problem," he replied with a smile, sending staples at his limbs and pinning him roughly to the wall as he came down.
"Who-who are you people?" the man groaned, weakly fighting the constraints but to no avail.
Blue Beetle merely grinned and said, "The good guys," while Cassie replied with "The Avengers."
Jaime laughed. "Bad guy, meet Lady Thor. Lady Thor, meet the guy who's butt you just kicked."
"Mhhhm. And my pal here," she said, swinging an arm around his shoulders, "is Blue Iron Man. So you better tell your buddies to watch their back."
With that, the two teen supers picked up the stolen gems, and left the common criminals in the alley. After dropping off the jewels at the police office, Jaime powered down and they began walking back to the cave. They were right next to the harbor and could see the stars and moon reflecting on the water, giving a nice glow to their environment.
"Nice job back there. See? I told you you were awesome," commented Jaime with a smile, putting his hands nervously into his pockets.
"You weren't so bad yourself, Blue, I, uh, mean Iron Man," she replied back with a grin.
That is a highly illogical comparison. My systems are far more complex and advanced than Tony Stark's.
"No. Now you're just being ridiculous," snapped Jaime.
Cassie raised an eyebrow. "What?"
He panicked. "No, I didn't mean, I just, I wasn't-"
"No, no. You're right."
"Huh?" Now the teen boy was beyond confused. Was she going to throw him into the bay? Tie him up with her lasso? Fly away and never speak to him?
"You're armor is like Iron Man's," she began. "But your personality's more like Steve Rogers. You're strong and you have all this power, but you don't act like you've had it your whole life. Like one day you were just a regular kid, not even the strongest or fastest kid in the world but just generally good, and the next day you get these powers and end up a super hero." She saw his incredulous look, and looked away embarrassed. "Sorry, that was probably weird."
Now Jaime was floored. Here he was, a guy with a weird killer bug on his back who liked to yell at him for not being more brutal, and she thought she was the weird one. But what also surprised him was how much she had guessed about him that was true. He hadn't told anyone on his team about The Scarab and how he ended up in the superhero business. The only ones who knew were Nightwing and Batman, for obvious reasons.
And after a few nights of hanging out the cave, going on missions together, and tonight, she seemed to know the real him without him having to spell it out. And it was…nice. A relief almost. Or it would be, if he could bring himself to tell her that she wasn't weird. That she was so accurate. That in fact, he had suddenly gotten his powers randomly one day. That it was all thanks to Khaji Da, who was permanently fixated to his back.
She knows too much. She's a danger to us.
"No," he said, answering both of them. "It's fine, really."
And the smile he received as an answer, made him go slightly weak in the knees.
"Really?" she asked.
"Really, really." He opened his mouth again, wanting to finally tell her. Because he felt like she would understand, wouldn't think he was crazy. And it would feel so good just to share it with somebody else. Then, he wouldn't freak out about freaking her out if The Scarab decided to go loco. He wouldn't have to hide. And maybe she would just laugh, brush it off, and threaten Scarab to calm down or else.
He was just about to make his confession when he noticed how close the object of his thoughts was, more specifically her lips in proximity to his. He swallowed, closing his mouth.
Just then, his cell phone rang and the teens sprang apart, both blushing. Cassie huffed and Jaime bit back a satisfied grin. So she did want to kiss him. And Scarab hadn't threatened to annihilate her, but he did hear an almost relieved sigh from Khaji Da.
When he pulled out his phone, he quickly saw it was a message from Nightwing, requiring both of the heroes to come back to the cave for an important mission.
He sighed. "We got a new mission. Need to be back at the cave yesterday."
Cassie nodded, and started making her way back to their base, but quickly turned around and gave Jaime a peck on the cheek. She grinned at his stunned expression and ran to the cave. "Come on Captain Blue, we haven't got all night."
He stood there for a moment, placing his hand to the cheek she had kissed and slowly smiled.
Tomorrow, he thought. I'll tell her.
Negative. She would be an unnecessary risk. She already knows too much. Bla-
Jaime shook his head stubbornly. "No, you don't get to be a hundred percent in control of me. I made my choice. And you're going to have to accept that, hombre."
Then he followed her into the night.
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Saturday night at the movies
Who cares what picture you see
When you're hugging with your baby
Last row in the balcony?
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A/N: So there's Wonderbeetle. I hope you enjoyed it. There's a little bit of Spanish thrown in, but I feel like most of it is common / easy to guess what the meaning is at least. But if you really don't know, feel free to ask or use google translate.
