"If I didn't know better, I'd think you actually want to spend time with me."
Yuck froze as he was about to stuff his face with another fistful of fries. Not that they were his to begin with, but Yin had already lost her appetite and she had a feeling the people she had come here with wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. He didn't seem to mind that they were cold anyways, so better that than to throw them away.
He narrowed his eyes at her, ate the fries in one bite and swallowed before baring his teeth at her. "And if I didn't know any better, I'd say you got stood up."
Yin's grip on her half-empty milkshake tightened. Technically, she didn't get stood up as much as she got third-wheeled against her knowledge; she'd been looking forward to hanging out with her brother and best friend for once, yet before she knew it Yang and Lena had run off to the arcade on their own and claimed 'they were only going to look around for a few minutes.'
It had been almost an hour and a half now. Not that she was keeping time or anything.
"Aw, don't be so sad, Honey Bunny. You're gonna get wrinkles that way." She seethed as Yuck pointed at her with a cold fry and nearly stained her nose with ketchup, voice dripping with mock sympathy; "I'll be your date if it makes you feel better~"
"No thanks, but if you're still in contact with Brett I'd rather take my chances with him."
Not that thinking about Brett made her feel any better either, but seeing Yuck's smug smile turn into a scowl as he bit a little too hard on that fry did help a little. "I still don't understand why you're just sitting there and annoying me instead of...well, challenging me to a battle or gloating about your plans for revenge?"
"Maybe I didn't feel like it. You're starting to make me regret that choice, though."
Yin made a face at that; she knew Yuck well enough to know he'd never pass an opportunity to fight or just cause trouble, so if he was sitting this one out it had to be for a better reason.
She also knew him well enough to know that he was right-handed (or at least she assumed so based on how he used Woo Foo in battle), yet he had been eating fries with his left hand this whole time while keeping his right arm out of sight.
She wondered if that was somehow related.
But she didn't dwell too much on it. Yuck could stuff his face with as many cold, soggy fries as he wanted; it wasn't her business. Hopefully if she just looked away and ignored him, he'd get bored and let her sulk in peace. Instead, she craned her neck in hopes that Yang and Lena hadn't completely forgotten about her and would come back any second-
"Do you think they're, like, on a date?"
"Doesn't seem to be going that well by the looks of it."
Yin frowned, ears twitching; she looked around the courtyard, and the people closest to their table were a horned cyclops and a lynx with a pretty impressive pompadour - a couple, judging by the way their hands were linked. They were leaning really close to each other and laughing, peeking over their shoulders her way every so often.
Oh, gross. They actually think Yuck and I are on a date? Yin looked discreetly in Yuck's direction, but he hadn't heard anything judging by the way he was 'doodling' all over a napkin with a fry dipped in mustard. She rolled her eyes, almost amused; Already been there once, it wasn't great-
"Can you blame her though? Just look at him; he's like, suuuuuper disgusting." The cyclops stared pointedly in Yuck's direction, pretending to gag before laughing; "We once had raccoons looking through our garbage and they looked, like, waaaaay cuter."
Yin's smile dropped.
"Yeah, geez. My dog once came into the house with a rat in his mouth and it still looked better than that kid's face." The lynx laughed, his free hand running a comb through his hair. "Think she lost a bet or something?"
"Ohmygosh, you think so? If I were her I would've, like, died before being seen in public with someone like that."
They both laughed, and the sound grated Yin's ears like nails on a chalkboard. Sure, Yuck wasn't exactly a looker - and she was personally more into the "tall, dark, handsome and hopefully also rich" type - but the way they were talking about him...it just wasn't right. Not to her.
"Hey."
Yin turned around. Yuck hadn't moved from his seat, mustard-dipped fry still held in his fingers, but he was looking right at her. She had nearly forgotten he was there to begin with; "Sorry, I was just...did you say something?"
"Why are you listening to those clowns? They're not worth getting so worked up about."
Her eyes widened, and she looked at the couple before leaning closer. "So you WERE listening this whole time! And you're not gonna anything?!"
"What do I care what those nobodies think about me?" The last thing she expected him to do was laugh. "It's not like they're wrong, y'know. Or what, you want me to get mad at people for saying that water is wet? The earth is round? A potato has more brain power than your brother?"
Yin couldn't believe her ears. She'd expected him to blow up, lash out at those jerks, kick their butts into next week - all objectively very bad things to do, but at least they'd be understandable. But here he was, hearing those jerks talk like that about him and just accepting it.
Well, if Yuck wasn't bothered by them, then it was all good, right? No reason to cause a scene. And specially no reason for her to get angry.
"...Yin?"
Nope, no reason at all. He was her enemy after all, so why should she care?
"Hello? Earth to Yin? Are you still there?"
Yeah, nothing wrong at all. The knot in her stomach had to be from something else; maybe the food hadn't set right with her.
"Seriously, what's with that face- hey, where are you going!?"
"HEY!" The couple nearly jumped out of their seats as she yelled almost right into their eardrums. Good. Once she had their attention, she pointed her milkshake right at the cyclops; "I don't know who you think you are, but you better take back what you just said about my…...friend!"
But while they had been caught by surprise at first, she saw their shock turn to disdain as they took a closer look at her. The cyclops brushed her hair off her shoulder with a scoff and pushed Yin's hand away from her face like it was too disgusting to look at; "Uh, first of all, don't you know it's, like, suuuuper rude to eavesdrop? And second of all, it's not my fault you can't afford better taste, sweetie."
"For your information, my taste in dating is great!" Yin stomped the floor angrily; she could feel the stares of all the other clients on her, but she didn't care. She was furious; these two were being horrible to Yuck and she couldn't understand how he could just accept that and it wasn't fair- "And don't call me 'sweetie'! I want you to apologize right now!"
"Whoa there kiddo, aren'tcha getting ahead of yourself, talking to us like that?" The lynx laughed, still combing his pompadour without even bothering to look at her. "You're no head-turner yourself; no wonder you're stuck with a little freak like him."
That last remark made Yin angrier, but it also made her chest feel tight. She could get any date she wanted! Just because she had missed several opportunities in the past didn't mean she'd be alone forever. And she definitely wasn't still hurting over those failures! "Don't talk down to me like that! I should just-!"
Wait. Her hand clenched on this air. Hadn't she been holding her milkshake a second ago?
Yin gasped as she was drenched in something sticky and very cold, getting all over her head and staining her gi. Once she had wiped it off her eyes as best she could, she saw the cyclops grinning smugly with her empty milkshake cup in her hands.
"Ohmygosh look, now you two totally match! You're welcome, sweetie." She sneered before sticking the upside down cup right onto Yin's head like a party hat. And before she could say anything, a flash of light nearly blinded her; once her vision focused again she saw the couple - with more people forming around them - taking pictures with their phones.
And they were laughing. All of them were laughing at her.
She should've Yincinerated the girl's hair to a crisp. She should've Fooportated their phones into termites, or even used her Pretty Pink Paws of Power to flatten her dumb boyfriend and his dumb hair. Many dark, angry thoughts crossed Yin's mind; she didn't have to put up with this humiliation! She couldn't let these two get away with this! She couldn't…
Her eyes stung. She let out a hiccup.
Another flash of light, and she would've assumed it was another picture being taken if not for the screams and the crowd suddenly dispersing. Wiping her eyes, she gawked at the now bald lynx screeching while desperately trying to pry off a rabid raccoon the same shade of chestnut as his pompadour off his scalp. The crowd had turned their cameras on him instead, all while his girlfriend had gone hysterical; "Ohmygosh, Brandon! What happened to your hair?!"
Someone pushed past Yin. Before she could complain, she recognized the green fur. Yuck didn't even acknowledge her as he made his way towards the cyclops, who stopped screaming her head off for a second to point at him accusingly; "YOU! You did that to my boyfriend! You little brat, when I tell my daddy about this-!"
"Shut up."
The cyclops flinched. The crowd froze. Brandon and the raccoon stopped right in the middle of their fight. Even Yin took a step back; she couldn't see Yuck's expression at this angle but the sheer rage in his voice was unlike anything she had heard out of him before.
"You've got some nerve, talking to her like that." The rabbit sneered, hands clenching and unclenching like he was itching to dig his nails into something. "She's a Woo Foo Warrior; she could turn you into a half-eaten pretzel and throw you in the garbage where you belong, and the only reason she hasn't done that is cuz she's too soft for her own good."
His hands ignited with magic, and everyone took a step back.
"But I'm not." Yuck took a step forward, and the cyclops tripped on her on feet and fell on her butt besides her equally terrified boyfriend. "So unless you wanna join the rest of today's leftovers, you better scram and never show your face here again. GOT IT!?"
She didn't need any more convincing; she was already crying past the crowd and away from the plaza. As soon as he noticed his girlfriend had left him behind, Brandon ran after her - or rather hopped, since the raccoon that used to be his hair latched on to his leg instead. Some of the crowd remained, but whatever expression Yuck had was enough to send the last of them running like their life depended on it.
But even after everyone was long gone, he still didn't relax.
"Yuck?"
He snapped his head around to look at her, and she was taken back by the hatred in his eyes. Not that it lasted long, quickly being replaced by confusion, and then by annoyance as he shook her shoulders; "And you! I told you not to waste your time with those morons! What the heck did you pick a fight with them for!?"
"Me!? What about you!?" Yin brushed Yuck's hands off her shoulders and plucked the cup off her head before throwing it into the garbage a little too strongly. "You sure didn't seem to mind having them walk all over you before, so what was that just now?!"
"I already told you, they weren't worth fighting over just for stating the obvious!"
Stop saying that! "Well, if standing up for yourself wasn't worth the trouble, then why did you stand up for me?!"
"I COULD ASK YOU THE SAME THING!"
Yin felt silent at that response, and Yuck seemed to have a similar reaction as he froze like a deer caught in headlights. It made her think: why did she suddenly care so much about what other people said about Yuck when not even he cared?
Why did it bother her so much that he didn't care?
Her thoughts were interrupted as she shivered. She had nearly forgotten she was dripping strawberry milkshake; she felt cold and clammy and gross. It also made her remember how she had gotten like that in the first place, and she felt even more clammy and gross not just because of the milkshake.
And it must've shown on her face, since she noticed Yuck staring. Was he gonna laugh at her too?
Instead, she saw him awkwardly reach out to her, then pull back, then reach out again. "Hey...do….do you need-?"
Then he froze, face hardening. And then disappeared down the street before she could stop him.
"Yin, what happened to you?!"
She nearly jumped out of her skin as she turned around to meet Yang and Lena's confused and concerned stares. Lena in particular looked at her worriedly before frowning and pinching Yang's ear; "I told you we should've come back sooner! If you hadn't wasted all that time on that stupid claw machine-!"
"Ow-OW! C'mon, Lena! They had a limited edition action figure, what did you want me to do!?"
"Oh, I dunno, not waste nearly two hours trying to get it?!"
Yin just stared as Yang kept trying to escape Lena's grip. While they kept arguing, she couldn't stop her mind wandering back to Yuck. The way he had reacted, the way he had reached out for her...
"Guys, please, I promise I'll explain later." Her brother and best friend stopped to look at her, but Yin was already walking past them. "But can we please go back home? I really need a shower.
It wouldn't be until much later that she'd realize she hadn't thanked him.