A/N: This is based on this Tumblr prompt: "Hello we are two grown adults fighting over this last balloon that's shaped like a cat's head."

I was also inspired to write this after writing "Superhero First Date"

Disclaimer: I barely own my phone (it's my mom's), what makes you think I own a cartoon? Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and all its characters belongs to its owners.


MY Balloon, Not YOUR Balloon

She was vaguely aware that had it been under better circumstances, this incident would have made her laugh. It's not every day she'd be one of two fully-grown adults fighting over a stupid kid's balloon, talking as if the end of the world is coming and the only way to save it is to give the other the silly cartoon balloon.

(And Cindy doesn't meet hot guys like him every day either, but that's beside the point. The point is that she's never backed down from a fight if she's sure she's in the right.)

"I. Want. My. Nephew's. Damn. Balloon. You. Freak!" Cindy yelled as she yanked the cat balloon she was holding away from said freak's grasp. Admittedly, she was causing a scene, but she'd rather this scene than the one she will inevitably be facing if she came back to her brat of a nephew bereft of his beloved Cat in the Hat balloon.

The man who was currently trying to relieve her of a peaceful Sunday morning with her nephew merely glared at her. "Listen, if you want what's best for the park, you will give me this exorbitantly-priced balloon." He said in a way that's both pissed and frantic, like she was the annoyingly problematic one in this situation that's going to doom them all if she doesn't stop.

Cindy scoffed indignantly. The nerve of that guy made her to punch him in the face, even in the middle of this crowd.

"Mister," Cindy hissed, every syllable of the word infused with sharp shards of ice. "If you want what's best for your manhood, you will give me my nephew's balloon back. I waited in line for it, and I paid for it. So get lost." She tried to walk away, but the man only grabbed for the balloon once more. She was sorely tempted to break his arm, but she restrained herself enough to simply twisting his arm and pinning him to the ground. If one could call that restraint. "And buy yourself your own balloon before I call the cops."

He groaned form his position on the ground. "Listen, if I could just simply buy another balloon, I would have, okay? But the request I got was for this particular balloon. And the consequences for not delivering it happens to be quite dire."

Cindy scoffed. "Mister, what child, or," she gave him a cool once-over she only usually reserves for jackasses. "Man-child, could possibly be so bratty that it would make a man like you want to steal a balloon from a black belter?"

After a beat, the man started to laugh darky. "Oh, if only it was a child." He said somberly, sending her a resigned grimace.

Before Cindy could ask about what he just said, the whole park went quiet, and a dark cloud descended upon the whole park. Only, it wasn't a cloud, because when Cindy looked up, she saw the most ridiculous thing she's ever seen (and she's been in her great-aunt's Zumba class – so this is a pretty big deal):

A gigantic, green, baby-like alien, that was probably the size of the whole park and more, was hovering above them, looking like it was about to throw a temper tantrum of apocalyptic proportions. The tantrum that beat all the others.

"Oh." Was all Cindy could say at the sight of it as she absently handed her balloon to man she was pinning to the ground.

"Yup. The queen of the Pacifier-boom-boom race can make any man want to steal balloons from insanely hot black belters like you."

"I seem to recall that you called me hot for a while back there." Cindy said impishly as she unrolled the bandages from the nearby first-aid kit.

Jimmy smiled. "Really? I don't quite remember saying such a thing." He said as Cindy started to bandage his bleeding forehead. Between being pinned to the ground and stopping the temper tantrum of a lifetime, he didn't know how he got the head injury, but if it meant having the hot and formerly annoying blonde girl from the park to bandage him up, he wasn't about to complain. "Must be because I was too busy saving the world."

"As I recall, I was saving it right beside you, and yet I still remember that you called me hot twice." Cindy teased, playfully smacking his forehead as she finished tying the bandages.

"Tagging along after almost making things worse is not what I'd call 'saving'." He said with a laugh and a grimace, because, really, his forehead was still tender and Cindy's version of a playful smack might as well be considered a light slap from a pro-wrestler on his best day.

She had insisted (read: coerced him) on coming along after finally giving him the cat balloon. And after a long quest where she might have saved his ass more times than he'd like to admit, Jimmy might have realized along the way that she wasn't as annoying as he first thought. And he may have said some things along the way in reference to her, umm, aesthetically pleasing curvatures and such, but he'd rather not inflate her ego any more than she already has (he swears her self-esteem made her head bigger than his own – which is saying something).

Cindy rolled her eyes. "It is when I realized that the queen actually wanted the mascot and not the balloon." She said laughingly, in a way that made her eyes glow and seem so…something. Jimmy wasn't sure what it was yet. Which was strange, because he was usually the first to get these things, but it's not altogether detestable. He actually liked being mystified by the nosy blonde in front of him.

He always liked puzzles.

What he was sure of at that moment was that he hasn't met anyone like her before, and she kinda, maybe, might be, sort of, perfect for him.

He didn't know it yet, but Cindy had been thinking the same thing about him.


Next chapter coming soon-ish. I'm not exactly the Master of Time. I'm more like a low-ranking member of the Procrastination League.

SNEAK PEEK: It's probably a Steam-punk AU with really hoity-toity bantering with really posh language. And oooh, pirate captain James. (I'm not completely sure I know how this Sneak Peek thing works).