Well, just a bit of adorableness between Lizzie and Ripred. Incredibly short chapter, but don't worry-working on the next one now. Like I've said, the plot picks up veeeeery soon!

Lizzie and Ripred

Gregor was woken up the next morning by a huge crash against his wall. One of his old trophies lay on the floor in pieces, and Ripred stood, breathing heavily, next to his sleeping bag on the floor.

"Ripred, what..." said Gregor, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Get out. Now," commanded Ripred.

Gregor dashed out of the room as fast as he could. Once the rest of the apartment was awake (which didn't take long with the crashes), they spent the day waiting for Ripred to stop throwing things.

He didn't. Dinner time rolled around, and still there were noises coming from the bedroom. Lizzie was especially worried.

"We could make him shrimp in cream sauce," she suggested.

"Liz, the only thing the angry jerk needs is for someone to put him in his place," Gregor said.

"Okay," said Lizzie. She marched back to the bedroom and shut the door behind her.

Everyone stared blankly after her.

"Gregor," said Luxa, "she is not in her right mind. Ripred is going to injure her."

"You would think so, wouldn't you?" replied Gregor. "But nah, he actually really likes her-"

Crash.

Gregor cringed. "...I hope."


The door clicked shut and Lizzie stood with her arms crossed over her chest. She cleared her throat.

Crash! went a bookend as it hit the marked-up wall. "Come in here to see what's wrong?" he sneered without looking at her. "I think you know damn well what's wrong-" he whirled to see who had come in. "-Lizzie. Oh...oh, Lizzie, I'm sorry."

Under any other circumstances, Lizzie would have let tears spill over her face. But her eyes were dry. "It's okay. I'm just worried about you," she said.

"I don't think my temper's news to anyone. But Princess, truly, I'm-" He moved toward her to finish his apology, but Lizzie stopped him with a light touch to his arm.

"I said it's okay. Now what's going on?" she asked. Gently, she sat down with him on the edge of Gregor's bed. "And don't tell me you're raging."

Ripred sighed. He almost sounded...defeated. "That's exactly the problem, Princess. I can't." He looked away. "Not anymore."

"Can't..."

"I can't rage." He said it like the words pained him.

Lizzie was silent for a moment. "...So?"

"What?" He looked up again, lost for the second time in two days.

"Yeah," she giggled, "So what?"

"I'm still not getting this, Princess."

"Ripred," Lizzie said, "you may not believe it, but even without raging, I think you could take any guy in New York."

He laughed mirthlessly. "I wish that were true, but..." He shook his head. "I just don't know."

"Want to try some math?" Lizzie asked quietly.

"I...sure. I'm running out of things to break, anyway," he said. For the first time, Ripred felt about ready to, well, cry. And that was such a very human thing to do.

Lizzie noticed. "Come here," she said, and opened her arms.


"That's it," said Gregor, "I'm checking on her."

"Gregor, be you wise. Ripred won't be able to handle another pitying person in the room with him," said Luxa. "He hates the feeling of weakness."

"Who said anything about pity?" replied Gregor, and stalked toward the bedroom. Without any hesitation, he gripped the knob and threw open the door. "Ripred-" he started, but couldn't finish.

What he saw shocked him to the bone. More than most of the things he'd seen in the Underland, in fact. There was only one exception.

Lizzie was hugging Ripred. Actually hugging him. He'd seen this one time before, the one exception. That night when he saw the two in the middle of the code room, Lizzie's arms around Ripred's thick, furry neck, he'd been pretty surprised. But what chilled him now was that Ripred was hugging her back. And he was crying. Not much, but there were a few stains on Lizzie's shirt that tattled on him. Gregor looked away quickly and shut the door before Ripred could kill him. Still shell-shocked, he wandered down the hallway.

Ripred had just looked so...

So...

Human. That was it. Even in his moments of softness, Ripred didn't come across as something to be messed with. But there was something different about him now. Something that made Gregor slightly more accepting of the fact that Ripred wasn't invincible.

He decided he'd be angry about his broken stuff later.


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