and then some~
We were young and learning, steady hearts hate turning
She was smart, pretty, and she knew exactly what she wanted. He had never met anyone so driven. But she was so, so young.
And, he, while he hated to admit it, was getting old. No one dared to mention it, he was the Soopreme Leader after all, but it was true.
However, that didn't stop him from graduating her at the top of her class (even though 274 was insistent that she was not that good) and giving her every little thing her heart desired. He would never forget the thousand-watt smiled that beamed up at him. "Eva Roberts, now Numbuh 10 of the Kids Next Door, you have been selected as the Leader of Sector L." And that night as he returned to Arizona, his "home" (Moonbase was really home), for a few hours, he pictured her meeting her teammates and he was jealous of them.
Numbuh 10 proved to be a cunning opponent. Sharp as a tack and quick, too. She scared not only her enemies, but some of her fellow operatives. But not him. Numbuh 100 was stubborn, stoic, and smart. He knew exactly how people worked and he had no weaknesses. Except maybe her.
Because, when she approached him wishing to be given a position on the KND Nightly News, well…he gave her that too.
He knew how cliché it was to lust after the "prettiest girl in the KND". But, he found he could not help it. Numbuh 100 never missed a single newscast. Even though it had always pained him to watch that list of names travel up the screen. Especially as more and more names belonged to some of his best operatives, his best soldiers, his best friends. No one could ever know that he felt that way. Numbuh 100 believed that it was a leader's duty to carry the problems of his people on his shoulders. He did not want his operatives to know how much there was that he carried. He did not want to them to worry, he couldn't bear to let her suffer.
Sometimes, he called Numbuh 10 up to Moonbase for trivial things. So that she could pick up some Mission Specs or so they could debrief after a mission. He liked to see her standing in front of him, perfection personified. She would stand tall, head held high. "Numbuh 100, sir." And he would long to tell her to drop the formalities. But, he rarely told even his best friends that. So he didn't.
The day came when he needed to pick a successor. Immediately, a sly smile and orange hair clouded his thoughts. But 274 was standing there with his signature cocky grin, and 100 knew it would be suspicious if he were to pick anyone else. He was certain the blonde boy will do a good, great, flawless job. But there had always been something about her.
Numbuh 10 sat in the audience on his thirteenth birthday. Just like every, single, other operative in the whole organization. The last thought he had, before his memories were forever stolen, was what a shame it was that she would never know that she was so much more.
A/N: Well, Steph, here it is. A little unrequited and one-sided and weird. And I may have failed you. The line at the beginning is from "Where We Went Wrong" by The Hush Sound. It doesnt have much to do with the ficlet...but I was listening with it when I came up with the idea. The pairing of 10/100 is the creation of RaidersEcho. I could never come up with anything like that.
Ciao, Terra