It wasn't long after that evening before Jake Martinez was arrested. The day was overcast in the city. Kriem was hoping it would rain so that she could stand under their umbrella all close and dry. She watched his shoulders stiffen. Trouble!
Jake grabbed her wrist and jerked her into the side alley, taking turns right and left. After the seventh right angle, she finally heard the sirens and intercom, announcing a police pursuit for "Mr. Jake Martinez, spotted in the area. Wanted in the investigation of ki—"
Shoving Kriem away and then having to forcibly hide her after she tried to come after him before taking off again. Jake hated the police. They were little bugs that ruined the order he was trying to create. They scurried in bulk and were easily squished alone.
That particular thought brought a grin to his lips as he rounded another corner, leading the officers ever so nicely away from the sewer drain he'd man-handled his ward into. Really, what was her problem? Do as I say! How hard is that? He mentally sighed and stopped dead in his tracks.
Perfect. From here, the surrounding lawmen couldn't hear the 13-year-old's yelling. She was really making this 'looking after you' thing a pain in his ass. Sometimes it was fun though. Recent sexual tension aside.
He missed the early days when she wasn't curious. Granted, he hadn't 'kidnapped' (according to the people currently closing in) her that long ago, but damn! Three months? Really? Who reported her kidnapped is what he'd like to know! Her parents would have been fuckin' ecstatic that she was gone! ….Ass-wipes. (Like I'd ever wipe my butthole with either of those two.)
One day it was just like a switch popped on in her head and she was waaay too….ugh, he couldn't let his brain finish what she was because that would be admitting that there was SOMETHING there. Again, he mentally beat back that voice in his head reminding him of his lovely little frolic with himself in the shower. He actually growled then, but it was okay because the loud clacking of uniform shoes and shouting drew in.
About time. His thoughts were snide. How long does it really take to chase down one guy? There's ten of you! Pathetic.
He laughed and reached into his pocket for his emergency sucker. Securing it between his cheek and teeth, it shifted as he showed his teeth in a mock grin, the picture of unconcerned, while ten guns pointed at his person. They all looked brave and ready to take him down. (Like hell!)
Scratching the black sideburn gracing his left jaw, he angled his head, fixing the men with a hard, challenging stare. The other hand in his pocket. Jake shrugged and let his eyes go golden.
He never heard the Hero approach from behind the cops. He never heard a thought from Legend's mind. Not a single one.
Oh well. And, To protect her, I guess I can get arrested for a bit., ran through his head before a something akin to what felt like a fist to the back of his head rattled his brain. He smelled whiskey before his world went black.
Kriem's hands were bruised and her back was sore by the time she shoved and twisted and heaved the heavy man-hole cover off of her 'sanctuary'. She kicked the damn thing once for good measure in likeness of one of Jake's outbursts, cussing like him too when it hurt like hell.
The sirens were gone. The police had retreated…..it was chilly now, and the sun was starting its decent toward the horizon.
Wrapping her arms around her for warmth and comfort, she limped down this alley and that in search of Mr. Jake. The whole area was empty. Cars had detoured when they heard of the chase and Hero nearby. Making way. The people following example.
All that she found was his hat at a few suckers that had fallen out of his pockets. Numbly, she picked them up and made her way home.
Her 28th birthday passed and she celebrated it. Not for being born, but because it was the day Jake had brought her home. Distantly, she remembered her child self preparing to run away or worse that day. Another day that went by where people had remembered that she existed and made an effort to care less about her. Jake had insisted that she was superior to all of them.
She baked a plain cake with strawberry frosting and stuck lollipops in the top instead of candles. She ate the suckers, one a day, and threw out the cake after the last one was gone. She never cooked Miso soup. She kept plenty of his candy around the house, just in case. She learned with their umbrella (technically hers because he bought it for her, but she'd always insisted they share it and save his hat from the rain).
Pretending it was a sword or a short staff, she learned to dance with the thing and take down the common criminal types. Just about anything human was checked off her list of 'things I need to worry about'. She even made sure to acquire a homosexual underling to do most of the running around while she produced toy after toy. Less to worry about, more effort to focus on Jake's plan. Ouroboros employed them, sure, but she followed Jake. Period. Jake did things his own way, bosses be damned.
She waited fifteen years. Eyes glowing bright blue, she watched the news and reports in hopes of the mention of Jake Martinez as she sewed the dead-like bears. On THE DAY, she spent hours waiting for him to walk through the door. She (and her worker) planned, schemed, and finagled their way, and rewarded with results. The threatening finally paying off with the announcement of the release of Jake Martinez from custody.
She dusted, her regular cleanings 'just in case', proving the chore moot, but she needed something to do. She straightened his canister of suckers in the middle of the coffee table. She started a pot of soup and sat on the couch to wait more.
It took him fifteen hours to bust through the door, grinning like the mad man he was.
Indigo eyes took in the full, scraggly beard and then long locks, now a dingy blond, almost brownish, all the black dye having grown out and been sheared away. His face seemed … wider. His bone structure had filled out a bit more. Familiar tattoos, he was the same. Sinister eyes twinkled as he watched her giving him a once over. He waited a beat and made his eye glow, just to tickle her fancy a bit.
"Miss me?" he rasped before his arms were filled with 113 pounds of childishly thrilled woman.
She wasn't much different than he'd remembered. He snickered as she barreled into him, and his arms came around her in a brief moment of welcome. (Was that his old hat bumping his chin? No way, that thing was lost ages ago, right? Nevermind, she could have it—looked better on her, anyway.) She had gotten about three inches taller, her hips had rounded out and there was more squishing going on against his stomach.
Those got bigger. Jake thought. He wasn't exactly sure how he felt about that, but she didn't give him long to mull it over before she was talking faster than he'd ever remembered or knew her capable of. Ever.
"I kept everything the same. Miso is cooking! Won't that taste good after prison food?" She turned and breathed in deep and grabbed him by the hand to drag him further into the living room. He inhaled and his mouth watered at the smell of the simmering soup.
"We have lollipops, I made sure to keep those in stock. And the bears! I didn't forget what you told me to make. I made hundreds of bears for you. The mission, I mean. We're going to build a world just for us—our kind." She remedied quickly. She kicked a lime green bear out of the way and threw a puffy pink one to join its mate before practically shoving him on the couch.
She finally stopped and waited for his reaction. Hands clasped, elbows out, practically floating on the tips of her toes, she beamed at him with excitement and joy. Sooo different than the girl he remembered. So expressive in her adulthood. How odd, that those aspects seemed to be opposite for her. Before he had time to respond, a timer chimed in the kitchen and she let it sound, unheard, for a few seconds before snapping out of her….state….and flittering away to take care of the noisy reminder.
Jake leaned forward in his seat and snagged a strawberry flavored candy from the perfectly placed bundle on the table at his knees, knocking the canister off center in its placement. He really missed this flavor. More than the others, dreamed about it for years in prison. Years. Loooong years of nothing but thinking and planning and the occasional prison cell mural on the wall. (That last one was, really, a pretty nice landscape, in his opinion.) Oh, and the beatings.
Poor, pitiful human criminals who thought they'd have some fun with him, a NEXT. A rare, double-fucking-powered NEXT. Hero, his ass! Would he be here if he was a Hero? Dumbasses as well as filthy little excuses for beings. They mostly ended up crumpled, if he was feeling nice. Blood smeared across concrete with cheers from the crowd and his innocent, "But officer, I never touched him." Yeah…..that was a nice workout most times.
Now, it was almost like he never really left. Well, things had progressed forward without him. If he ignored the chunk of (Eons? His brain supplied.) ….that time, it was like he blinked and things were done. Wonderful news for his patience.
It felt amazing to sink into the cushions of his own couch again too. Well, the apartment's couch. It was all worn in from, as well as he figured, Kriem's countless nights, waiting on him. Jake was really liking the forgotten-that-it-was-familiar (so little time with her before Legend had sucker punched him) sounds of her around him.
He scrubbed his thick hands through his mane and decided it was time for some grooming. Standing, he said nothing to her. She only heard the sound of his bedroom door closing before the shower started.
He emerged, ten minutes later smelling of soap and wearing a towel and a shower cap. Kriem's brain stuttered and then gently set his steaming bowl on the table. She blinked for good measure and forced herself to turn to grab her own supper. Well if that wasn't just a steaming, yummy eyeful of surprise!
A little part of her shuddered when she heard a chair scrapping backward. Okay, so she was going to have her first adult meal with Mr. Jake while he was practically naked. She could handle this.
Sitting down across from him, she ventured, "What's that for?" while gesturing toward his head with her spoon. He grunted around his bowl, opting for gulping it instead of eating it with utensils. Her glasses steamed up as she tried to work on her bowl, so she removed them. He still hadn't answered.
"Used some of your dyes to do something with my hair. Cut most of it off." He finally answered, getting up for another bowlful.
She was practically fizzy-happy when she hunkered down in the couch cushions. In his own bed, he listened to her chaotic musings with a grin on his face and his hands behind his head. A soft golden glow on the walls and her scent on his sheets, he drifted off after she started dreaming about giant teddy bears and his hot, steamy touches—his dream self wearing nothing but a towel.
And that's how their first night back together went.