A.N. Joon is all mine! So is Steg. . .and Ginna. . .and Stir. . . yeah. . . there was a spider crawling around my floor the other night... it was hairy and blended into my carpet quite nicely. . .anyway, my brother exterminated it for me, and then I was afraid to sleep in my room for three nights in a row. . . and tonight, I'm going to my grandparents' house. . . but possibly the following night, I will return to my room. . .you never know.
Thank you to everyone who's reviewed (I. . .love you. . .) and also to people who read without reviewing (I. . . think you're okay. . . XP, jk).
See if you can guess what my favorite scene in this chapter is. . .
Chapter 6- Frozen
"Just thought I'd pay you a visit," Joon says.
I'm staring at him in disbelief.
"How much taller did you get since I last saw you?" I ask.
"I dunno," he says. "Few inches, maybe."
"How'd you find me?" I ask. Suddenly I feel. . . excited. Looking to Joon, and actually feeling happy, not remembering anything bad, just the good.
"Research, Tak," Joon says with a smile.
He's here, he's here. . .
I wasn't so happy last time I saw him. . . but now it's like there's nothing to distract me from being happy.
I look up at him for a moment, and then he puts his arms out and says,
"I need a hug."
I smirk and say,
"Your head doesn't come up to my breats now, ya know."
"I know. You got the wrap on, anyway. I still need a hug."
So I give him one. My head comes to his waist. I just rest there for a minute. When was the last time I've hugged someone? Heh. I was just a kid the last time. And when I was a kid, I only hugged Joon and Steg, and even that was rare.
But after so long, it feels. . . nice.
But then suddenly I remember Zim is watching us, so I jump back, and he is not happy.
"Um, Zim," I say, "I told you about Joon..."
"Hardly," he growls.
"Oh shit," Joon says, "Are you Tak's boyfriend or something? Geez, sorry if it came off like I had a thing for her..."
"Joon," I say quietly.
"I'm like her brother," Joon says, ignoring me, "That's it. You don't have to worry..."
"Joon, he's not my boyfriend..."
Joon blinks and looks from me to a very confused Zim.
"Then who the hell is he!"
"No one, Joon, he's-"
"No one?" Zim asks, and for a second he looks. . . well, I can't be sure, but he looks. . .hurt, but then he looks angry and marches right up to Joon and shouts, " I am Zim! Future ruler of the filthy humans, and I am allowing Tak to stay in my mighty base until she can take her test!. . .But I don't know you, so get out!"
Joon blinks again, then says to me,
"Heh. He's funny. . . seriously, who is he?"
I roll my eyes and say,
"Zim, could you excuse us?"
I notice Zim's eye is twitching slightly, I'm guessing in anger or whatever.
"I want him out," Zim says.
"Okay," Joon says. He turns to me, "No problem. My ship's in the back, we can talk alone there. . ."
Zim glares and says,
"Fine. Talk here," as he turns to go, he adds, "But be warned of the green taco demon!" and then he runs from the room.
"Huh?" Joon asks, confused.
"Nothing," I say, "Just ignore him."
"So, you're staying with the guy who ruined your life?" Joon says later. I've just finished explaining to him all that's been going on since I last saw him.
When I nod, he continues,
"Why haven't you killed him yet?"
"Well, we're friends, I guess-"
"Don't tell me you forgave him? Since when do you forgive?"
I stare at Joon for a moment, then clench my fists.
Forgiveness? Have I forgive Zim? I've never really thought about it. . . Over time, it just didn't matter anymore. . . but how can I tell Joon that I've given up? That I'm. . . oh, God, I really am weak. . .
"You wouldn't get it, Joon. . ."
"Are you in love with him?"
"What!" I shout. "No! Why the hell would you say-"
"TACOS!" The door swings open, and Gir jumps in the room. He's holding a chewed-up shoe, for whatever reason.
"Gir. . ." I say slowly, "that's not a taco. . ."
Gir just starts giggling insanely for a few minutes, and I wait as patiently as I can until he abrubtly stops, then sits on the floor and quietly chews the shoe.
I cough and turn to Joon, who looks slightly frightened.
"That's the green taco demon?" he asks.
I nod, then say,
"So why'd you come?"
"To see you."
"That's it?" I ask. "You're not hiding from anyone, are you? No one's out to kill you?"
"Eh, no. . ."
"You don't have any bad news for me, do you?"
"No. Tak. . ." Joon says, "Ya know how I've always wanted to be a mechanical technician? Well, I got a job on the Massive. . ."
I stare at him in disbelief.
"That's great!" I say,". . .but that still doesn't explain why you're here. . ."
"Well, I have a free month before I start," he says, "so in the meantime, I thought I'd visit some old friends before my job enslaves me..."
Suddenly, I notice Gir creep behind Joon and then Gir says,
"I stole this shoe from a hobo. . . don't tell anyone."
Joon just looks scared.
Somehow, I manage to convince Zim to let Joon stay for a few days.
In that time, I'm skipping skool, because, like I said, it's boring without Zim, and also, so I can spend time with Joon.
Today though, Joon is out (in his own holographic disguise) with Gir, who Joon's taken a liking to. They're at the Krazy Taco place, I thinl.
And I'm at the base still, with Zim, though I haven't seen him.
For once, I'm just lying upside down on the couch, watching television.
Earth TV is. . .really horrible. All it ever shows are pathetic advertisements or whiny humans complaining how fat they are and why can't they find Mr. Right, whoever that is.
Right now, it's a fat woman commercial, and I subconciously begin to poke at my own stomach, for any fat that may possibly be there.
As soon as I tell myself I have nothing to worry about, I hear Zim say,
"What are you doing?"
and I fall off the couch.
I groan and see Zim by the kitchen's archway.
"Nothing. . ." I mutter.
He walks over and offers me his hand, and as I take it, I find the remote and turn off the television.
We stand apart in silence for a short moment.
"Where's your friend?" Zim asks, not looking at me.
"At Krazy Taco," I say, glancing in the direction he's looking in, "with Gir."
Then I look straight at him and ask,
"Got any other training rooms?"
"What if he dies?" Steg asked. He held my arm steady, as I wrapped a bandage around it.
"Like I care. . ."I muttered.
"Ginna will care," Steg said, "wasn't Stir her lover or something? You could end up in trouble. . ."
"Listen, the way I see it, Stir was completely screwing with me. If he dies, Ginna should just consider that a warning."
"She'll think you're screwing with her."
"You sound like Joon."
"Sorry."
It got very quiet after that. Steg looked at me for a short second. My arm was completely bandaged, yet he was still holding my arm. His hand felt warm, really warm.
We'd been in the same situation before. Where we would just stare, and freeze. . .only once did it lead to anything.
Now I felt like crying. I didn't know why.
"Tak!"
In the doorway of Steg's bedroom, was Joon.
"What's wrong?" I asked. I got off the floor, and placed a hand on his shoulder. He was near tears.
"Stir died," he choked, "just before."
"Who told you?" Inside, I was panicing. There'd be no way for him to find out, unless-
"Ginna told me. She told me, and. . . Tak. . . she killed your parents. She said it was revenge. I think she might kill you next."
"Don't hold back," I warn Zim.
He's in the opposite corner of the combat ring.
"Then don't complain when I destroy you," he says.
I smirk and say,
"Yeah, right,"
and then the battele begins once Zim jumps in the air, ready to attack.
And it almost ends a second later, when I block him and he falls flat on his face.
I start to laugh without meaning to, and say,
"Oh, come on Zim, that was pathetic!"
"That was just practice!" he protests, getting up quickly and attacking again, but once more, I block it.
This carries on for awhile, until I find and opening and send him flying to the opposite end of the ring.
As he tries to get up, I jump on his back to keep him down.
He struggles for a minute, then flips over, and I roll off. He activates his spider legs, and (once I've activated mine) he attempts to push me to the edge of the ring.
His palms are pushing against mine, and I'm actually struggling as he says,
"Step out of the ring, you lose,"
and our finger entwine as he pushes me back further.
For some reason, I can't push him back, even though I'm trying, and then I look straight at him.
"Hm," I say, "You're actually trying?"
"Yes," he hisses.
"Are you mad at me?" I ask. I'm at the very edge now. . .
"No," he says softly.
As I struggle to keep myself from falling, I say,
"You just seem so upset lately."
His concentrated face softens for a moment, but then he says defensively,
"I'm not,"
and as he says these words, I'm able to push him back.
His spider legs return to his pak as he lands, and so do mine, and then I find myself on top of Zim.
Not on his back either.
I turn to face him, and realize we're very close.
My face is hot.
Why is it hot?
I'm looking to Zim, and for some reason, some insane, stupid reason, I feel. . . nervous.
Why in hell is my face burning!
"A-are you sure?" I ask Zim softly, suddenly frozen.
He lifts his head slightly off the ground, and then our eyes lock, and he whispers,
"Yeah. . ."
and for a second, for just a second, I close my eyes and I think Zim does too, and right as I think something's going to happen. . .
"Holy shit!"
I jump up in surprise and turn my head frantically to find Joon standing by the entrance of the room.
"Sorry. . ." he says, "should I go?"
I get off Zim as quickly as possible.
"N-no," I say. Dammit, I'm stuttering. . ."We weren't. . .that wasn't. . .um. . . damn. . ."
"Okay, fine," Joon says. "Gir got tacos for everyone. If you want one, come upstairs."
I stand up quickly and follow him to the door.
"Um, Zim," I say, my voice sounding higher-pitched then usual, "You coming?"
I turn and see Zim hasn't moved from the ground. His eyes are still closed, even.
His expression just looks. . . not happy, is all.
"No," he says miserably, and I think I hear him mutter, "I'll just stay here and die. . ." but I leave too quickly to be sure.
"I don't love Steg, Joon."
"Sure," Joon said, "That's why you two were making out in his room."
"We weren't!" I shouted. "You just walked in on a bad moment! We weren't. . . doing anything. . ."
My face was hot.
Joon just said,
"Mm-hm."
I scowled and said,
"Why do you care, anyway?"
"Cuz I do. . .just want you to be happy, Tak."
End of Chapter 6. . .
The almost-kiss scene! My all-time favorite! Seriously, I got so into writing that scene, my face was flushing, and I really just wanted to make them actually kiss. . . but it wouldn't have worked. . . wouldn't have worked at all. . .(shakes head solemnly)
I rewrote the first flashback while typing this, cuz the first draft, you actually see Tak's parents, only then they die, and I was like, "What's the point of even showing them?" So. . . yeah, I got into that too, only I really felt like crying while typing it. . . I don't know why. But anyway, that's why I had the line, 'Now I felt like crying. I didn't know why.' Because I didn't. Haha. Anyway. . .yeah. . . I get too into my fanfics. . . heh, and I'm rambling. . .
kk, first line of Chapter 7. . .
Emotion.
I am serious, that's the first line. It goes into a whole contemplation about emotions for the first paragraph or so, but I'm not gonna type the whole thing.
Well. . . if you review. . . I will be so freaking happy. Like. . . yeah. . . happy. . .