Winds of Change-A Monsters, Inc. Fanfic
Chapter 3
What a horrible day, Vanessa thought as she's sat on her couch to rest a bit before her next job. First, she got paired with a used-to-be criminal and now she got a notice on her apartment that she has to pay for her rent very soon or else she would be evicted. Is there possibly anything else to make the day worse?
She brought her hand to her forehead to try to ease her consciousness, closing her eyes to clear the worry, which she knew would come back anyway to haunt her later. She peered over to her small table next to her and saw a picture frame. She picked it up and stared at it in front of her.
It was of her and her parents. She missed them dearly. Her father was a reptilian monster and her mother was Nessie herself. She mostly had her mother's porpoise features and her personality, but she loved both her parents all the same. But they disappeared when she was very young. Her mother was first.
There was word that she was banished, but she always wonder for what reason and who was responsible for it. She remember the years after when she was with her father, or at least, she lived with him. He was mostly away after her mother mysteriously disappeared until one day he didn't come back home at all. Then she learned that he was killed. The police couldn't identify who, but Vanessa knew it had to do with her mother's disappearance. It had to be.
But ever since, she had to rely on herself to get by. But it was very tough for her. She had many jobs before, desperate for anything to avoid homelessness. She was hired and she would soon be fired. It was too overwhelming for her.
Going to Monsters, Inc. was her last choice to be, for it was very corprorate, so high up in business. She figured she would be fired the second she would be hired in such a top-notch place. Besides, she couldn't be as much of a Scarer like her mother. She personally didn't like scaring people, let alone children. She was never against what her mother did. She knew she did it for the good of the public, and she really was sweet with monster children. She also heard her once talk about how unfair it was that they had to scare human children while the monster children have nothing to fear in the Monster World. She expressed how she wished that someday, probably those children would be able to feel safe with monsters. That they were people like them.
Vanessa remembered vividly her mother's voice those times. Thinking about it now, she figured that Sulley made her mother' dream come true. Making children happy and safe. Never to worry about what comes into the night.
She thought that she would try to make this job really count. She knew her mother used to work there, and so she will take her place in the company like her mother dreamed it would be.
The only downside was obviously her partner, Randall Boggs. She frowned when she pictured him in her mind. When she pictured that murderous-looking scar on his left eye. She quivered a bit thinking about it.
She still couldn't understand why Sulley would let Randall come back to the company. After all he did to him and his friend Mike. After all, he did hear a personal testimony from Mike himself. Taking children away to collect their screams from an extractor. It sounded so terrible, she couldn't bear to picture it. Perhaps Sulley was being too forgiving.
She remembered when she used to be so naive and so trusting. It left her to fend for herself. She used to have so-called friends, but when she asked for help, they turned away. There was not one "friend" who felt sympathy for her loss or her need to thrive.
She knew what Randall was doing when he tried to engage in small talk with her. He was trying to take advantage of her. With the look of a predator, she had to keep away from him. She didn't want to be too trusting anymore. She didn't care if he says that he's willing to change himself. Any guy could say that. It meant nothing. She meant nothing to him. All the more reason to avoid him. She has no purpose to be around him but working, but there's nothing beyond that. Nothing at all. She also didn't care if he would be cold to her from now on. He could flirt with her all he wants if he wanted to. She just wouldn't associate with him at all. Her concern now is to keep herself up and try to keep her property.
She placed the picture frame back onto the small table beside her and gathered her pencils into her bag and left out the door.
A month passed and it wasn't the best for both Randall and his assistant. The did minimal progress after their first try on making kids laugh, often filling two canisters a day, three if they were lucky. But most of the time, Randall re-used his material to the point that Vanessa told Randall that it died out, but he ignored her advice ignorantly. By close to the end of the month, they were back to finishing two canisters a day because of those died-out acts. They were so dry that Vanessa would give up looking at the screen and would instead spend her time having her palm over her face at Randall's poor acts that had to be "funny".
She also had to put up with more of his attitude which she knew he saved up just for her to suffer. She told herself to ignore him as much as possible, but it soon became a pet peeve to her and became that start of never ending arguments between them.
Randall didn't take it any nicer either. He hated the way the loch ness gave sappy remarks at him whenever he insults her. Heck, she was almost as sarcastic as he was when she wanted to, and he guessed she only did it it to him.
He thought about it after he woke up early in his bed this morning, not able to sleep a bit more. Most of the time, he was unsure who won what argument. There were so many arguments that he couldn't remember what they were for and when they had them.
For the first time, he admitted that he probably regretted coming back. Vanessa was obviously his main reason, for sure.
He also didn't make much of an effort changing himself around others. Besides not talking to anyone else at all, there wasn't any progress made. He put all his stress, all his anger at himself and all his pressure out on Vanessa. Like he kept repeating to himself in his mind she deserves all of it. Those sappy remarks, those loathing glares, the way she argued. He could clearly hear her voice as if she were in his room. He covered his face with a pillow to block it out.
But he could never block her out. She is his permanent assistant, and he had to go through with it until she were to quit.
But she never did. Had it been anyone else, they would've quit weeks ago. But somehow, she was able to stay and deal with his attitude. He didn't know why. Something told him that she would have quit, but there's something that's making her stay on her own will. She will never leave.
He groaned into his pillow in an agonizing fashion. The he sighed.
"Might as well get up, Boggs. This is forever now." Randall said to himself before he got up to get ready.
Vanessa got up early, the sun shining down on her. Making her feel supremely warm and comfortable, almost regretting to get up and wanted to sleep more, wanting the sun to embrace her more.
She knew that her happiness would be temporary; she recently sent in her payment for the rent right after she recieved her pay from MI and her second job at a nearby cafe, where she works as an artist to attract in customers with her art on the walls and she would also get requests from incoming customers to draw them as well, which is also what she is paid for. Luckily for her, her employer was friends with her mother way back, so she could say that her second job would bring a smile to her after a terrible day at MI.
But she was thankful enough to know that she was guaranteed to stay another month in her apartment.
But she frowned when she realized another morning means another whole day with Randall Boggs. She fell backwards on her back on the bed and groaned. "Why?"
Vanessa was preparing Randall's first canister for the day when he heard him approach her and she looked up.
"What?"
"Hurry up. It's gonna start very soon."
"We have five minutes, dude."
"Dude?" Randall repeated in a disgusted way.
"Yeah, what's wrong with it?" Vanessa said, enjoying this game of irritating the lizard. "You're not down with my talk?"
Damn, she is annoying. he thought. "No. I'd prefer you not talking at all."
"I'm sorry, that's not possible." she said with a smile.
Randall narrowed his eyes at her. "Just hurry up."
"I am. Don't get your tail in a twist."
"I'll get your tail in a twist."
"What was that?"
"Nothing." Randall said as he began to sit down at Vanessa's desk. While she was fixing up the canister, Randall was looking at the desk, bored and eager to leave already. He saw that Vanessa left her bag with the corner of a frame sticking out onto the desk. She never brought a bag with her before.
He looked at Vanessa, now occupied with preparing the canister and the door. He figured he could sneak a peek at what she had. He slipped the frame out silently, thanking the noise of monsters having sports balls, sirens and horns around him covering his act. What he saw surprised him.
It was Vanessa, but so much younger. And she had black hair. He knew that she dyed her hair. But the smaller loch ness in the photo was with her mother, Nessie, and her father. The daughter was smiling brightly and her eyes shone lovingly with her parents. For a moment, he envied Vanessa for this photo. He wished he had parents as long as she had while he lost his mother long before hers and lacking a father at all.
"What are you doing?" Randall heard a female voice say. He looked up and saw her in front of him. She had a look of worry and anger. "Give that back."
"What? What do you have to hide here?"
"Boggs, please, just give it back."
"She is why you came, is it?"
Vanessa stopped and her eyes dilated in a pleading fashion. She hesitated for a while before she said, "It's none of your business."
"It's a simple answer."
"I told you, it's none of your business." she furrowed her brows together in annoyance.
"See, that's what doesn't make sense about you." Randall said seriously. "That seems to be your one and only excuse of keep something from me."
"Because I don't feel like I should share anything with you. It wouldn't be of any worth, anyway." she said uneasily.
"Why do you assume that?"
"Because..." she said, then remained silent.
"Because what?"
"Why the heck do you care?!"
Randall stopped and asked himself the same thing, until he came up softly with, "Because maybe we have the same problem."
At that, Vanessa let out a sad chuckle. "No... No, there's no way. I didn't kidnap a kid. We don't have the same problem."
"Will you STOP accusing me of something I did a long time ago?!" Randall snapped. "That has passed! I don't want to be that person anymore!"
"You seem to behave the same!"
"Because you deserve it!" Randall yelled in her face. "Everyone deserves it! What the hell is wrong with this damn world rejecting those who want to be like the rest?!"
The loch ness was backed up against the door she installed behind her, feeling scared and cornered by this menacing beast yelling at her for real. The scolding she had earned from him before this was nothing compared to how he was now. Her pupils shrunk frighteningly, wanting to escape desperately.
"I came back to straighten my life out and become normal like everyone else! But everyone still thinks I'm the same hateful and tight-ass lizard I was!"
"Because you still are!" she yelled back. "You think you're better than you were before? I don't see a difference! You almost assaulted Sulley's friend on our first day!"
"That's because—"
"No! There's no excuse!" she retorted. "There's NO excuse at all! You're still the same!"
"Well what am I supposed to do, huh?" Randall argued. He saw her eyes narrow to catlike slits and she was about to say something before he interrupted her chance. "What can I do to make you feel comfortable around me? To make you feel like you're not around a cold snake? What?"
She covered her face with her scarlet bangs as she sunk her head low, trying to block out his loud demanding voice. After half a minute passed, she said weakly, "Just give it back."
"Look at you." he hissed quietly. "You're so very insecure. So secretive and withdrawn. I can see that you rely too much on yourself... I used to be like that. I used to work endless and stressful hours on something that led to my own downfall. But you... You insist on being alone; completely alone. You shut yourself out completely."
She still remained silent at his words, as if she surrendered to him. She still listened anyway while staring at her frame in one of Randall's four arms.
"I pity you." he said in a straight-out manner. "You should feel sorry for yourself." he heard Vanessa express a shy and quiet sigh, as if afraid that he would scold her again if she were to let out a normal sigh. He held up the frame to her and her eyes wandered again up to the lizard's scar. "I just wonder what they; what she would think."
"Don't... You..." Randall heard Vanessa's voice escalate along with her right foot rising, her claws retracting slowly. The black-stained foot stepped on Randall's foot without warning, and he let out a curse when she finished, "... DARE talk about my mother!"
At the pain, Randall lost grip on the frame and when it fell, the glass shattered to pieces. At the impact, Vanessa gasped. While Randall held onto his injured foot, he turned his head to see her very expressive eyes glitter, welling up tears. She kneeled next to the shattered glass and quickly took the photo away from the shards.
When Randall saw the first tear flow down the girl's face, he felt his heart shatter in guilt. Perhaps he had taken everything too far. If he just didn't get all up in her face, none of this would've happened. He became so paranoid with all the stress he endured in wanting to change his old ways, but he never even progressed to. He did save all his self-anger for her presence. He should've known that if what she had was so personal, he should have left her alone. He has no idea what she's going through and it was a huge mistake to try to force it out of her. It was as if he were desperate to hear about someone worse off than he was. If Vanessa wasn't, she is now. He could see how miserable she looks now kneeling at her photo of people she loved and lost, her tears falling onto it.
"No..." he muttered. "I don't—I'm sorry, I—"
"I DON'T CARE!" she cried. "You know what? I got used to dealing with your stupid attitude the past few weeks, but this time, you've gone too far! You don't butt into people's lives and force their pasts out of them! Especially not someone like me!" Her breath caught, but she continued, "I'm sorry, but I'm not ready to trust anyone yet! And if you wanted to earn my trust, you clearly failed! If you were to give me a bit of space, maybe I would have warmed up to you on my own, but now..." she stopped, her tears returning again heavily. "From now on, I don't want you to try to 'warm up to me' ever again!"
At that, she got up with her photo, still in tears, then ran and left the Laugh Floor. Most likely to home.
Randall took notice of the awkward silence surrounding him. He turned his head and saw everyone in the Floor staring at him, none all too friendly at all.
Probably Vanessa didn't deserve what she had received from him so far. All along, he deserved this. He knew it. He is the same jerk he was before. His head throbbed again before he left.