A/N: Hey, guys! Wow, I am SO thrilled that this actually got reviews!!! Believe me, I was REALLY surprised!!!! I mean, normally pairings/love triangles like this don't fly by too well with the readers, so WOW! Thanks!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!! Please R&R, and of course....ENJOY! ,
P.S. When Katerina tells the crew the amusing little tale about Asimov, it's a true story based on a friend of the family who actually acts like Faye, tee-hee. She's awesome.
CH 2: Jealousy
"No, Jet! You're burning the rolls!!!"
Cursing, the balding man frantically opened up the stove and began to fan at the flames with the sole hopes of extinguishing them, only to immediately cause the exact opposite once they suddenly spread out across the pan like a wildfire eating up the dry plains of the Serengeti.
"Oh, dammit...I'm butchering them!," he moaned, grabbing at his sparse black hair as Katerina then pushed him aside so that he hopefully couldn't do any more damage than he already had.
Readying the fire extinguisher that had been placed conveniently beside the stove, she then urged in an anxious holler, "Stand back! I need to get a clean shot before anything else catches on fire!"
In one long, powdery-white blast of foam, Katerina had somehow managed to successfully smother all of the flames, her left eye twitching every-so-slightly as she tossed the now empty fire extinguisher off to the side with a terrible crash and turned in order to retrieve the back-up batch of rolls that she had prepared just in case.
"I guess bald guys were never meant to cook," she muttered sourly under her breath as she reached the rolls on the counter, careful not to burn herself as she placed the rather bland meal onto five plates and added a few baby carrots to the meager assortment.
Lovingly garnishing each plate with a buttery sauce as her final touch, Katerina then leaned out of the kitchen and declared that dinner was, indeed, finally ready, only to find the shock of her life once Spike, Faye and Edward all came clamoring into the commons like a pack of ravenous wolves.
Upon seeing the platefuls of non-bell peppers and beef, Spike couldn't help but salivate, his sense of good manner and charm immediately melting away before he jovially swiped one of the plates from Katerina's outstretched hand and began to shovel it all down without barely even swallowing.
Katerina was absolutely disgusted.
Never in her entire life had she seen such barbaric eating habits (besides when Spike had swiped her hot dog in Tijuana) that actually left her wanting to dry heave.
Managing a slight smile in spite of her sudden pang of nausea, Katerina reluctantly gave Faye and Edward the other two plates, truly fearing a recap of what she had just witnessed.
Edward, as she expected, immediately commenced in eating in just the manner that Spike had, but Faye, on the other hand, gave the dish a look of pure distaste, muttered something about how she'd rather be eating garbage, then put the plate on the ground for Ein to gorge upon.
At that very moment, Katerina felt as if she were seeing red. She had slaved away in a hot kitchen for hours on end teaching Jet how to cook and making the crew's dinner at the same time, and that's how she was being repaid for all of her hard work and dedication? By having her food be fed to the dog?!
Upon realizing how her rival was faring, Faye couldn't help but wear a self-satisfied smirk once she inwardly conceded that she was winning. It was quite clear to her that the poor young woman was trying her best not to become too flustered, yet, in spite of all that, Faye was sadistically enjoying every single moment of it.
While stretching her long, slender limbs up towards the Heavens, Faye finally decided to remark in a piercing, poignant manner, "Sorry that I wasn't hungry....guess I should've asked if you or someone else had wanted it, first."
"Yeah," Spike agreed begrudgingly, "you really should have. I'm starving!"
Katerina couldn't help but smile, then, in spite of everything. "You sound just like my Asimov," she announced, a wistful tone within her pure, silken voice. "He was always complaining about how his stomach thought that his throat had been cut since we rarely ate due to always being on the run. In fact, on one particular evening when we actually did eat, he made a complete ass out of himself! We were at this really nice bar that had all these beautiful candles and other eccentric little baubles, so when we sat down Asimov was more than overjoyed to find a small snack dish in front of us. When he began to eat the crunchy stuff inside it, however, it was then that I realized that it was potpourri! He told me that he thought it was just a new type of cinnamon-flavored trail mix!"
Jet couldn't help but guffaw at this since he had had a very similar experience with Ein's dog food, yet every one else seemed to now be in somewhat of a surly mood since they didn't even crack a smile at the rather amusing prospect of their late bounty ingesting some dried plants and cinnamon.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Katerina then offered to take everyone's plate before waltzing back into the kitchen, her steps rather light as she swayed back and forth to the hypnotic tune of an Earthling song from roughly the year 2002.
It was a beautiful, soothing old tune that she often hummed when she was in a scrape of some sort, and becoming the newest addition of the Bebop crew was most certainly no exception to the rule.
Just as Katerina began to put the dishes into the automatic dishwasher, a strong hand came down upon her shoulder, thus causing her to practically jump straight up and out of her skin.
Whirling around in total preparation to use her completely unique, dysfunctional form of Tae Kwon Do, she then let out a tremendous sigh of relief.
It was only Jet.
"What do you need?," she inquired with as much composure as she could possibly muster, still shaking ever-so-slightly from her sudden adrenaline rush.
Jet just merely shrugged his broad, hulky shoulders in response, returning amiably, "Oh, nothing, really....I just thought that I might as well apologize for Faye's behavior back there since she sure as hell never will."
"Oh? Are you her personal negotiator, or something?"
"Well, no, I-"
"Then stop trying to be," Katerina snapped, abruptly pushing past him before calling reassuringly over her shoulder, "I'm fine...it's Faye that you should be worried about. She's the one with all the issues; not me."
Jet eyed her retreating form with curiosity as she left the kitchen humming a sweet, yet completely unfamiliar tune, his brow furrowing every-so-slightly as he found himself wondering why there was something so strange between the two women that he could not quite yet grasp.
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"There...that should be the last of it."
Standing there proudly over the suitcase and assortment of goods that she had managed to loot from different sectors of the Bebop, Katerina hurriedly picked it up and lugged it as quietly as possible out of the guest bedroom and over towards the galley.
In spite of her tremendous love of adventure, she no longer had any patience left for the dysfunctional crew that had seemingly adopted her, and adopted was a term that could be used very loosely. It seemed to her that most of the time she wasn't even welcome, so, in the long run, she had decided that she would just get out of their hair and leave.
Sure, it had only been one full day of living the rather uneventful life of a bounty hunter, yet Katerina was fully determined to meet back up with Jamie and help her take care of the chickens for the rest of her life, as incredibly boring as that sounded.
Letting out an agitated grunt, Katerina found herself frantically trying to walk through the rotating tunnel and tote her suitcase at the same time, only to find it be exceedingly difficult.
If it weren't for the fact that she so desperately wanted to get into the hangar and off of the Bebop, she might have actually laughed at her ridiculous display of perfected klutziness. That, however, was most certainly not going to happen.
"Oh, for the love of..."
Gritting her teeth, Katerina set down her suitcase before once again attempting to muscle the door to the hangar open with her already sore shoulder, a familiar chuckle greeting her ears from behind due to her trivial attempts.
"There's a button that you press....it's on that panel," the sensual voice instructed casually, clearly trying not to express the tremendous scorn that the individual felt. "Yeah, that's right. You've got it, now."
Feeling her cheeks burning like flaming embers, Katerina reluctantly turned to face her aid in shining armor, only to blush even harder upon seeing whom it was. "Spike!," she exclaimed, absolutely horrified, "Oh, dear Lord, now I'll never live this down!"
He laughed, then shrugged his shoulders. "Nah...I'm not the blackmailing type. It does appear, however, that you were trying to make a little escape. Care to fill me in?"
Katerina snorted. "Do you think I'm crazy? Of course not!"
"Well you never know with you Spanish."
"Excuse me?!"
"I mean....uh....sorry," Spike weakly apologized, anxiously rubbing the back of his neck as he uneasily met with his comrade's burning gaze. "I didn't mean anything by it, or anything....guess I'm just used to being a wise-ass, is all."
"Hmph...apparently," Katerina agreed, sighing in utter disgust once she realized that her plans had been foiled. "I'm guessing that I should unpack, then?"
Spike nodded with amusement. "Good guess."
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"Is Katerina here to stay?"
Jet nodded. "Seems like it. Now we might actually get to eat good meals for a change....she's so creative with my cooking utensils."
Faye sighed, then unceremoniously flopped back against the cold metal wall, questioning rather dispiritedly, "Is that the only reason that you guys like her? Because she can cook? Being a fellow bounty hunter, I thought that you might actually understand the prospect of her not being all that she seems."
Jet raised an eyebrow. "Come again?"
"Oh, for goodness sake! Katerina was a bounty's girlfriend! Who's to say that she won't somehow pin Asimov's death on us and get her revenge?!," Faye demanded shrilly, her eyes retaining the fear and anxiety that she absolutely refused to show on the outside. "Don't you think it's possible, Jet? Don't you think she might be secretly trying to gain our trust, only to nail us as soon as our backs are turned?!"
"Uh...well..."
"Did we miss anything?"
Faye bristled like a cautious feline upon seeing Spike enter the room, the ever beautiful, enigmatic Katerina at his side.
Smiling warmly in their direction, Jet gave them both a friendly nod of the head, clearly glad to be free of Faye's rather disturbing outburst.
Offering Katerina his large, callused hand, he greeted rather demurely, "Why hello, Miss Muscovitz. Are all of the Bebop's facilities meeting to your needs thus far?"
"Oh, yes, thank you," she returned, rather flattered that both Spike and Jet were suddenly going out on a limb to see that she was comfortable. "This is a beautiful ship....whoever bought it has remarkable taste."
Jet beamed like a fool while Faye made a face. It was beyond her as to how on earth the wisest of the crew had fallen head over heels for the newcomer's bewitching charm, yet Spike was surprisingly no better.
Ever since her arrival, he had made sure that Katerina was well taken care of, despite the minor detail that he was never the one to do the caring.
For just once in her life Faye would like to be pampered and receive the love and appreciation that she so sorely deserved. Neither Spike nor Jet ever paid the slightest bit of attention to her, and it hurt deeply to realize that the only one onboard the ship that had even the slightest bit of interest in her was the kid, and that wasn't saying much. Edward had the attention span of a gnat and was twice as annoying.
What good did it do her to be surrounded by a bunch of jerk-offs that would have much preferred it if she were dead opposed to alive, anyway?
Faye knew that she was decent-looking, so that most certainly couldn't be the problem. Maybe she showed too much skin?
No...she couldn't give up her best strategy for bounty hunting.
Perhaps her bad tendency to have PMS 24/7, even when she wasn't on her period?
Hmph....that could be it. She never was the friendliest person, after all. She loved to drink, swear, and gamble; everything that the "perfect" new addition wasn't.
Frowning, Faye then came to realize that she had quite a bit of competition on her hands, yet that didn't phase her in the slightest.
She was, after all, the Faye Valentine, and whatever she wanted, she got.
A/N: ::swallows:: So was that any good??? I'm hoping to make this a really cool/intersting story, but...well...it all depends on you for how it's gonna turn out since you decide the pairing! Whoo-hoo! Power to the people, right? P LoL I won't say who's winning so far in the reviews cuz I don't wanna influence anybody! If you're THAT interested, you can go see, if you'd like. LoL So yeah, the whole potpourri thing was true, & the woman that told the story actually DID end up eating dog food on the same night since she also thought that they were some sort of treat, so I tied that in, as well, for Jet, in case you didn't notice, hahahaha. Thanks a million for reading! Now please review! PLEASE???? 'Tis the holiday spirit! LOVE YA!!! -