Title: Keeping Up Appearances

Summary: Abby is forced to live with Kid Rot for a while. He will do everything she wants, follow her like a mindless drone, and when Ty and Labrat find her, his loyalty will be his downfall. Set several years after Rottingham Forest

Genre: Romance/Horror

Pairings: One-sided Kid Rot/Abby, Abby/Chester

Disclaimer: I do not own Grossology characters, baddies, environments etc, etc. Any OC, baddy or location not recognisable is mine.

Rating and Warning: T for the mentioning of gore. Kid Rot losing it, OOCness on both parts. Really T just to be really safe.

A/N: This was a big shot in the dark. I wanted to explore Kid Rot's obsession with Abby. Sorry if it's a little chunky, just let me know what you think.

…- Keeping Up Appearances -…

It's raining.

That is the first thing Abby finds out when she wakes up from a night of peaceful slumber. She's still tired, but forces her eyes to open anyway, to just mere slits. She blinks the tiredness away, and it takes maybe a minute or two, but she soon fully wakes up. The first thing the redhead does is checking the clock on the nightstand next to the bed. It reads 4.53, very early in the morning. That's probably the reason why it's still pitch black outside.

Sure she could've gone back to sleep, knowing that she won't get away without waking him up.

The young woman remains quiet for a little longer, just listening to him breathe. Not the gasping, rasping wheeze caused by fluid filling the lungs but a quiet breathing. His heartbeat is regular and slow, as it should be in sleep. Slow and soft.

Almost normal.

Mother Nature makes herself know and before Abby really thinks about it she's on her bare feet, quietly stalking out of the cosy bedroom into the bathroom. She still locks the door behind herself before turning the lights on, and she still listens for any sounds he could make.

However, Kid Rot is as silent as a shadow.

And furthermore, if he wants in, no door will stop him.

Not that he will disturb her.

When he brought her here, to this apartment is some nameless city in whatever country it may be, the bathroom had been her safe room.

Three months ago Abby had woken as if slapped in the face, waking up from a nightmare of Kid Rot standing next to her bed, bending over her and taking her away. The nightmare, though vague, had been real. He had taken her away and she has been waking up in that same bedroom for three full months now.

Flushing the toilet and scuffling towards the sink to wash her face and hands Abby gets to take another good look at herself. It's almost scary to look at herself, still looking healthy and alive when she is at the mercy of the blond psycho. In three months she's lost a bit of colour to her skin and a little bit of weight, but all in all, he was taking great care of her. Obsessed or not, all she had to do was snap her fingers and he was at her feet with food, or ready to answer her questions, or with a random gift he really wanted to give her.

He hadn't touched her though.

Sure, in the beginning he had grabbed her hand, reached for her arm and on one occasion had tried to embrace her, but she had kicked and screamed at the top of her lungs. Kid Rot did back off, and kept his hands to himself. Almost as if abiding by her wish not to be touched. Which probably disturbed her even more then when he wouldn't, though she doesn't want to think of the things he would do to her if he would just touch her in any way he wanted.

She knows what teenage guys want, but he is hardly a teenager anymore. Hardly human even…

He has a strong grip for such a scrawny guy. It must be because of what he has become, because of the parasite. Super human.

With a soft sigh Abby turns the light in the bathroom off, then unlocks the door and quietly opens it. He will be sitting there, on the bed, watching her and waiting for her to come back to bed. It's always like this, he will wake up seconds after her and will refrain from sleep until she comes back to bed. And if Abby decides she doesn't want to come back to bed he will stay awake too, even though he looks like he could use a good night's sleep. Which should last for maybe a week or two.

The carpet is soft to her feet, not the nasty cold of the bathroom tiles. Without looking at the bed in general she turns while closing the door, fully awake and unsure if she really wants to go back to bed. Quickly deciding against sleep again she turns around to face him, only to find he's still asleep.

Vast asleep.

Perfect.

He doesn't even move when she sneaks out of the bedroom, his breathing remains the same as she makes for an exit. She doesn't close the door behind her, knowing that the click might disturb him. Instead she tiptoes through the corridor, never touching the light switches.

The living room is fairly big, with couches and chairs, a table and a T.V. she watches when really bored. The coffee table is littered with books he brought her to read, even a few on the floor.

The whole apartment is fairly big and kept in great condition. It's clean, though maybe a little too much with all the flowers and plants occupying every room. Abby likes flowers, and Kid Rot knows it so he systematically creates her some when the plants are dying. Yes, creates them, like he used to in the beginning. She had been so impressed when the things he rotted grew back with even more vigour. That moment probably engrained itself inside his brain because he keeps doing it, keeps rotting the dying plants so that a new bouquet can grow, even bigger then the last. Though it has gotten old when he did it for the millionth time, she still pretends to be impressed so he will keep doing it.

So he will keep wasting power.

When the redhead passes a small cabinet something sparkling catches her eye. Intrigued immediately she goes for it, gently picking it up and turning it in her hands.

The chain is thin and made of silver. But although it's thin, it also seems very sturdy, it won't break easily. What had caught her eye is the pendant made of gold and ruby, a deep red rose encrusted with emerald and golden thorns. It looks fragile and Abby's almost scared to hold it. Careful not to bend it, though that might be more difficult then she gives the necklace credit for, she turns it around and slowly wraps it around her neck. The jewel is cold against her skin as she locks it, but also feels rather good. It glitters in the moonlight when she turns around to look at herself in the mirror. "It looks good on you." To Kid Rot however, everything looks good on her. When she turns her head she sees him standing in the hallway, not making a move to get closer to her yet. The soft light of the moon makes him look pale. Makes him look more normal and alive then ever.

More so then when he first brought her here.

Though he gave her everything she wanted, and something extra, Kid Rot refused to release her, to let her leave. What could she do? Nothing, she knows. She and her brother fought him enough times to know that this psycho is powerful, dangerous. They have seen what he is capable of.

Kid Rot had become your average super villain. It had been a joke Ty made once, about how the creep could seriously take over the world if he wanted to. However, his intensions were to make everything rot, which on its turn would cause global destruction. Eventually the world really could turn into a giant desert, and Kid Rot would have no reason to stop even when people would give him what he wanted. Growing up in a wasteland is not on Abby's agenda though, and therefore she had thrown a pillow at her brother for joking about it. She had seen a movie about an apocalypse where everything had died and people had resorted to cannibalism because there was nothing left to eat. The thought alone made her sick, and she had promised herself she would do anything she could to stop Kid Rot.

By any means necessary.

So while she was here she devised a plan. So simple, yet so devious.

After the drama in Rottingham Forest she had demanded the bureau would keep an eye out for any signs of rot, everything that seemed just a bit out of the ordinary.

Because they hadn't found a body in that sea of rot and death. And seeing as Kid Rot had kept to rotting trees and plants, surely his body would not have been consumed.

And indeed, after three years enough clues had been gathered. Turned out Kid Rot had been alive and well and had travelled to Europe, and then to Asia along the border of Russia. The first big clue had come when an entire animal reserve in China had been rotted to the ground. But this time it hadn't kept to vegetation. Animals had fallen victim too. All that had remained were bone and fur, and even that made Abby believe Kid Rot had left that on purpose.

It had been a display of power, what that blond freakshow had done. To let the world know he was still alive.

Sort of.

Which led to a chase through Asia, towards Mongolia and then towards Russia again, but not even Kid Rot can take the freezing winds of the midwinter there. Once more he had vanished, until he repeated what he had done in China once more in America, only worse.

He had rotten a complete Zoo to the ground, this time leaving no trace of bone and fur of animal and human alike.

Of course, Kid Rot is a complicated and troubled little maniac and can obsess over the smallest things. Mainly Abby. He might have disappeared, but of course he came back for her.

Which led to the redhead waking up in this apartment filled with flowers and plants and gifts just for her. First it had looked like a dream with all the beauty set up for her, which then turned nightmare when he reared his ugly head. The nightmare, though quite bearable now, continued and all Abby had to do was make the best of it until her brother and Lab Rat would come to her rescue. Three full months he's kept her here now.

Lucky for her Kid Rot kept to himself and would disappear most of the time, although she doesn't know how. The front door is barricaded with chains and locks and a wooden beam too heavy for her to move. The windows could be opened, but between her and freedom was a fall well over fifty stories down. Where they are is beyond her. All she can tell is that they are in a big city, presumably in America, but that of course makes one of hundreds.

There was also one thing that kept Kid Rot returning to her. All she had to do is ask. All she had to do was look a little sad and he would crumble. All she had to do was tell him what she was in the mood for and he would get her exactly what she wanted.

Because Abby needs to eat.

At first she had refused to eat anything. She kept it up for a good three days, barricaded inside the bathroom before she gave in to him. In three days, she had been starving herself and driving Kid Rot nearly insane. On day two he had broken the door down with what seemed to be very little effort, but he hadn't entered, as if there was an invisible wall holding him back. Or maybe he had been afraid he would hurt her. There were times Abby seriously wondered if he knew his own strength.

He didn't raise his voice at her ever since she got here, until the third day she had refused to eat. His sanity cracking was just an understatement and he had shown her what kind of monster he had become.

He had screeched and screamed and gasped like a drowning man. He had scraped his finger nails over the walls until they bled. He once banged his head against the corner of a table with a loud, sickening crack that seemed to echo through the entire floor of the den, of which the spot actually dented and the skin broke and he bled in a way only possible in movies. He had twisted his neck and hands and arms and limbs in positions she knows aren't possible unless dislocated with the cracking of joints and pulling of muscles. He hadn't touched her, hadn't come near her at all but he had been there, screaming, crying, howling, drooling and bleeding…

He had snapped.

He had actually thrown a fit out of sheer terror, had panicked so intensely he terrified her more then when he actually was trying to scare her.

And he stopped the moment she took a bite from a pear that he had tried to give her the day before. He'd watched with teary eyes, dripping mouth and bleeding other parts as she ate the pear just so he would stop.

So he did.

And he brought her a whole pile of pears afterwards.

After that, he made sure she got to eat whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, however she wanted it. There was a kitchen here too, fully equipped and actually very big. Just to get through with the time Abby made pies and cakes and cooked things that needed an entire day to brew. She would send him out with a shopping list and he got her what she wanted within record time. How he managed to get all of that was beyond her, as she couldn't picture Kid Rot just walking into a store and shop for whatever she wanted.

See, the young man was human, once, but in the beginning of these three months had looked like a corpse. His skin was purple, blue, green, dark and unhealthy. His eyes were bloodshot and his pupils constantly dilated. His hair was a mess, uncombed and seemingly cut randomly where it had become too long for his taste. His clothes were torn in some places and could not be considered warm but he didn't seem to notice it.

But all that had changed.

The parasite lodged into his brain and crawling down his nervous system is what gives Kid Rot his power, is what makes him the vindictive megalomaniac that she had come to know. Power, that takes a lot of energy to sustain. Power that comes from the nutritious rot he absorbs to leave a dead mess. From what Abby believes he needed to rot a lot of things to keep his powers up, and for the last two weeks he hadn't devoured as much as he would have needed.

So now he looks less like that sickening lunatic and more like the youngster she had come to know as Chester. His hair and clothes are still a mess but his skin has regained its somewhat healthy, natural colour. His eyes changed back to the normal dark brown colour she liked a lot on him. They still have a hint of copper and yellow in them, and are still slightly bloodshot with somewhat dilated pupils but other then that, he's really turning back to the Chester she had grown fond of.

"Where did you get this?" Kid Rot knows when she is lying, so pretending that she doesn't like this necklace won't work.

Because she really likes it.

"Outside…"

Others remember what Kid Rot forgets and when he does remember he's being mystically vague. Those were Ty's exact words and even now they make her smile a bit. She misses her brother, that is true.

They fall into silence. Abby because she doesn't know what more to say or ask. She isn't hungry yet, and will decide what she wants for breakfast later. So she slowly makes her way to the couch of the living room and sits down. Kid Rot remains standing in the hallway, staring at a plant with a somewhat hungry look in his teary eyes. If she's right, and Abby has been right about everything in the last month or so, he is losing power quickly. The young man doesn't eat, at least not that Abby knows. Sure he sleeps, but only light and only for a few hours. He must be running on reserves now, he must leave soon and rot something horrible and absorb the nutritious goo of his victims. "I have to… outside…" Indeed, she knows him.

"Oh…" She forces with a hint of sadness. "I was hoping you would stay with me a little longer." Before she even has a chance to look in his direction he is in front of her. No questions, no denials, no reasoning. He's just there, standing in front of her and silently waiting for permission to sit next to her, or in front of her on the ground, or even near her at all.

When Abby smiles at him he sits down next to her. There are a few inches between them, he doesn't move in to touch her at all. She always makes those moves. He let her know although he is the powerful one, he will not hurt her. Not touch her. Sometimes he barely looks at her. So it's her move, her call. Pulling her legs up Abby leans against him, resting her head on his shoulder and letting him put an arm around her. When she's finally settled he lets out a sigh, almost exhausted, but content.

While sitting here with her he will quickly forget he has a lot of power that needs to be sustained, and then he will follow her around the apartment the entire day, and he will leave with a shopping list or leave when he feels the need to bring her another gift, and he will watch her go to bed and wait for permission to lie next to her, and he will fall asleep with her close.

And he will lose more and more power like this, day in, day out.

He will do everything she wants, follow her like a mindless drone, and when Ty and Labrat find her, his loyalty will be his downfall.

Hopefully.

-Einde

I really wanted to look into Kid Rot and Abby, and especially what he could become. Sanity doesn't seem to be very high on his list, him obsessing over Abby seemed almost… natural? It happens with animals too, so why not with him?

Oh I really hope you guys liked this idea. Or not. Let me know what you think. This is my first Grossology and I hope it gave you a little something to think about. I do have a few more ideas for Kid Rot, and if this is a success I will also think of a second chapter. Abby still needs to be saved of course.