"Don't you have an idiot brother to babysit or something?"
Concentration broken, the magic around Yin's hands faded along with the field around the rock she'd been levitating. She was only grateful that she was facing away from wherever Yuck was so he wouldn't see how much he had spooked her. "It's not like Yang and I do everything together, you know."
"Could've fooled me." The sound of something creaking; she turned around and saw Yuck sitting on a branch with his back to the tree trunk, smirking as he looked down at her. Her first instinct was to activate her magic once more and knock him off the tree before he attacked first (or just to wipe that insufferable smile off his face, really), but the fact that he hadn't attacked yet was...surprising.
"What're you even doing, anyways?" He snapped her out of her thoughts as he jumped off the tree and landed beside her. Without thinking, she got into a battle stance with her glowing hands pointing right at him, but all she got was a raised eyebrow. "Practicing magic? Don't you have, I dunno, a whole dojo to yourself for that?"
"Maybe I wanted to practice by myself for once. It's not like this part of the forest has your name on it."
"I could kick your butt right now, and maybe you'll see it on your way out."
He always had to have the last word, didn't he? But not this time. "Because that worked out so well for you in the past, right?"
The amusement drained right out of Yuck's expression, his smirk turned into a scowl. Yin's pride became uneasiness as she realized that maybe provoking one of her most dangerous enemies, in the middle of the forest away from civilization, was not a good idea after all. But after several painful minutes, he surprised her again by looking away altogether and walking towards the rock she had been training with instead.
"I was in a good mood, so I'll be nice for once and pretend I didn't hear that," was all the explanation he gave her. Inwardly relieved, Yin only answered with a roll of her eyes that he didn't see anyways. He picked up the rock, just slightly bigger than a baseball but twice as heavy, and threw it from hand to hand; "but for real though, what were you doing? I dunno what spell you were trying out but I could still tell you were doing it wrong."
"Gee, I didn't know you were a Woo Foo Master all of a sudden." She refused to look directly at Yuck and distracted herself by watching the rock. More than the fact that he was lecturing her, Yin was annoyed that he was right. For days she had been practicing the same new technique, and not once had she gotten even close to getting it right. She already knew she was doing it wrong (and she definitely didn't need to be reminded, least of all by him), she just didn't know why.
"Level Five, remember? I still outrank you AND your brother combined." Not like THAT'S kept you from losing to us every time. "Now, are you gonna tell me what spell you're trying to do or not?"
"Why do you care, anyways?"
"I don't, actually." The rock landed on his right hand abruptly, and she was forced to look him in the eye. He seemed even more annoyed. "But you're my rival in Woo Foo, Yin. If you can't even use it properly, what do you think that says about me losing to you?"
She had thought to say something like 'It's not like you need me to make yourself look bad" or anything along those lines, but Yuck calling her his rival threw her out of the loop. He really thought of her like that? Sure, he had lost in the past often thanks to her, but it was still the first time she heard of that.
And given how often she was underestimated or outright overlooked by other villains, she...didn't exactly object to the idea (not that she'd ever say it to his face, either).
"...Foo Fortress." She finally replied; "It's a new defensive technique Master Yo taught us recently, but for some reason I can't-"
She was cut off by a snort, then by Yuck bursting out into laughter that sounded more like a hyena with an asthma problem. The rock had fallen off his hand as he doubled over, one hand over his stomach while the other wiped a tear off; "Foo Fortress? THAT'S what you're struggling with!? And I thought you were the magic whiz; it's not even a new spell, it's a glorified Foo Field-!"
"And it's hard!" She growled, which only seemed to make him laugh harder. Which only made her angrier, in turn. " It's a Level Two spell for a reason! I can do Foo Fields no problem, but making more than one at a time takes a lot out of you! I've tried portioning my Magic output for each shield, I've tried calculating how much of it each would need and for how long-"
"OK, no. Stop." And suddenly he was back to annoyance, shaking his head as he kneeled down to grab the rock. "I take it back. I know exactly what you're doing wrong. You're overthinking it."
"Overthinking it!?" Outraged, Yin was right beside Yuck in a second as she angrily jabbed an accusatory finger at his arm. "Well, excuse me for not throwing Woo Foo left and right without thinking how it could hurt people, unlike you!"
"You're excused."
Oh, forget Woo Foo; she should just punch him in the nose and book it before he recovered.
"Just hear me out, will you?" Yuck brushed off her jabbing and focused on the rock; Yin, while still fuming, conceded and followed his gaze. Amber magic trickled down his arm and spread all over the rock's surface, flickering like flames on a coal.
"When you think of using your Woo Foo, you don't think about how you'll do it." She was taken back by how unusually calm Yuck's voice had turned, the amber light reflecting off his pupils of the same hue. "You just do it. Woo Foo is raw, unrestrained power; you don't hold it back with something stupid like magic formulas or precautions or morals."
Suddenly, he pulled back and threw the rock as high into the sky as he could. The rock shot out like a meteorite until it became a pinprick among the cloud, and then it became bigger and bigger as it shot back down, faster and faster, aiming right for Yuck's head-
Without thinking, Yin raised her hands to cast a Foo Field. But Yuck, both of his arms burning bright, beat her to it.
"You just let it run wild."
He clapped his hands together, and the magic pooled under their feet before forming into a translucent amber dome. And then another, on top of the first one and darker in color. And then another, then another, and finally a fifth shield dyed a deep orange with sharp spikes of magical energy jutting out of it.
Yin stared in wonder at the shields that had materialized around them, bathing them both in hues of yellow and orange. The rock had become a brown blur from the outside, and she nearly missed it turn into fine dust as it hit the spikes on the outer layer.
"And that's how you make a Foo Fortress." Yuck declared triumphantly, and with a snap of his fingers the shield layers popped from the first to the last like bubbles, a thin cloud of leftover rock dust raining over them. He turned to look at Yin, sharp teeth curled into a smug grin. "Your turn."
Now over her amazement, Yin was back to irritation as she brushed off the dust off her. She had spent days practicing without making to the second shield, and Yuck had just summoned five of them in a row without breaking a sweat. She didn't want to admit that she was jealous (specially not in front of him), but….how?
Woo Foo is raw, unrestrained power. You just let it run wild.
She replayed his words in her mind. The whole part about ignoring precautions or morals she could gladly do without, but the rest of his speech about letting her power flow freely was what caught her attention. It was easy to forget sometimes, but Yuck was essentially a construct running on Woo Foo energy; maybe there was something about it that he would understand better than anyone-
"Oh, for Foo's sake- You're doing it again! Here, just let me..."
Yuck's words snapped her out of her thoughts again, but that wasn't what surprised her the most. When her senses refocused, she was suddenly aware of green fur and orange eyes right in front of her, as well as a grip around her wrists. Looking down, her pulse quickened.
"What are you-?"
"No wonder you can't do it; you're so tense. Geez." Yuck wasn't even looking at her! He was looking at her hands with a frown as if inspecting them, speaking more to himself than to her. When he actually looked up and saw her expression, he rolled his eyes instead; "Just relax, will you? Or we'll be here all week at this rate."
Was he not aware of what he was doing? How close he had gotten to her? She didn't know if she should give him an earful or just blast him into next month already, but as she looked down at his hands over her wrists, she no longer felt like doing either.
His fur was coarse and his hands underneath were rough, but while his grip on her wrists was firm it wasn't painful at all, and also...surprisingly soft. She could easily pull them away if she wanted to; instead, she carefully rearranged them so that her fingers were linked with his.
"That's better."
His hands were glowing with magic again, but Yin didn't pull away even though common sense and instinct both told her so. Yuck's magic felt different from hers; it was warm, like placing your hands over a bonfire or basking under the afternoon sun. When she looked back at him, he had a look of complete concentration, brow furrowed and tongue peeking out between his fangs but no sign of any ulterior motives beyond that.
Her grip on his hands slightly tightened as her own hands trickled blue like water, fading into seafoam green where it mixed with Yuck's orange.
She took a deep breath.
"Foo Fortress!"
The magic almost seemed to burst out of her hands as it cascaded into the floor, forming a blue dome around them. Then a second one...it shimmered and seemed close to collapsing on itself, but Yin refused to give up and focused all of her power into it until it solidified and gave way to the final shield, its spikes not as long or sharp as Yuck's but still jutting out proudly.
They all held for about ten seconds before bursting out of existence. Yin watched them vanish in a shower of blue sparkles as her face lit up with realization. "I….I did it! I really did it!"
"And you said it was hard." She turned around to look at Yuck; he was smirking again but...maybe she was imagining, but he didn't look smug or malicious like he usually would. He was still holding her hands, leaning so close his nose almost brushed hers, but Yin didn't notice (or maybe she did, she just didn't mind it anymore).
His eyes were so close. They looked a more vibrant orange than she remembered, like the sunset, calmer than she had ever seen them as they stared right into her own.
Then they looked down at their hands.
Then back at her.
Then back at their hands.
Then back at her.
And she saw realization hit Yuck like a truck.
"AH!" Yuck let go of her hands immediately - or rather, he did so by pushing her away. Yin was snapped out of...whatever she had just experienced as she fell on her butt, glaring at the green rabbit with more shock than anger. "Hey! What-"
"IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!" Her anger stopped right in its tracks as she took a closer look at him; ears pressed against his head, eyes looking everywhere except her way, fur puffing out, red cheeks sticking out against pale green fur. "I didn't-! You were-! I was just-!"
She was just as stunned as he was, watching him blubber nervously - something she thought she would never see him of all people do. But before she could say anything, he disappeared in a flash of light, Fooportated to who knows where and leaving her right where she started.
Yin remained on the floor for a while after that, sitting on a more comfortable lotus position. Trying to figure out what had just happened. Trying to figure out what she just felt. Her memory went back to why she was there in the first place, and her eyes fell on a pebble right beside her foot.
Her hand glowed blue, and the pebble was encased in three bubbles, one after the other. She let it levitate into her hands as she admired it, the light reflecting off her excited eyes, before holding it close to her chest with a smile.
"...Thanks, Yuck."