It was a very humiliating walk back to their offices. After a grueling workout in the off-hours, (why Chad was so adamant about nightly battles was beyond Rachel's current understanding at the moment), they had accidentally left their trusty first aid kit in his office.
Looking bloodied and beat up wouldn't do much for crew morale, that was for sure. To be fair, he had the most cosmetic damage around his face than she did. She had a sinking feeling he kept avoiding her face for personal aesthetic purposes.
Jerk.
They wordlessly retreated to his office and began the late night ritual. She took her usual spot perched on his desk while he moved around the open first aid kit with easy familiarity. Ladies get fixed up first was his 'gentlemanly' policy.
At this point, his touch didn't bother her as much. She didn't flinch when he gently pulled up her bruised leg and ran his hand up the pant leg feeling for any strain or injury on her calf the further he pushed the fabric up. It was almost soothing how careful he was off the battlefield.
"Nothing here?" he asked smoothly, leaning back in his chair when she shook her head and felt around her bare ankle. Her leg twitched under his fingers, but not of pain which made him smirk that stupid smirk. He found another one of her ticklish spots.
"Don't you dare," she warned, letting the weariness seep through her voice to drive the point home. He chuckled and continued to check her leg for any further injuries before moving to the other one.
This time she let out a faint hiss when his fingers brushed the inside of her thigh. She had forgotten he had kicked her there earlier.
"There it is," he purred and held her leg with one hand while fishing for an ice pack. "I was wondering what was making you waddle going up the Leda Deck."
She sniffed indignantly. "I didn't 'waddle'-ahhh!" Biting her bottom lip, she nearly twisted out of his grip and knocked a few things off her Supreme Leader's desk when he pressed the pack there. "O-ow! Pull it out!"
"Don't be such a baby," Chad purred and pressed the pack further against the bruise which earned him another groan of pain from her end. "You should have been used to it by now anyways. We've been doing the same dance for months now."
"Gentle is key," she said in protest, "but I forgot you don't have that in your vocabulary." She stiffened when the hand on her thigh tickled downwards and fought the urge to let out a bark of laughter.
He raised an eyebrow and drawled, "You're spewing lies even when we're alone. I like that."
She didn't want to admit that he was right here. This was a foreign thing, letting someone not a medical professional touch her body for any injuries, especially one who made the action very intimate. It was a world first for her. Doubly so when it's the guy that caused the injuries in the first place.
Why was he so brutal engaged in battle, but sweet in recovery? Something didn't add up. "Do you usually lock your opponents in your office and treat their injuries like this?"
"Only the cute ones," his voice deepened in amusement, "and I only lock it so they can't escape."
"At least you're honest," she snorted, hiding the trill of goosebumps riding up the back of her neck. Enclosed spaces worried her and he knew that, used it to his advantage many times the past year.
After he wrapped her leg up he turned her on her stomach to check her back. That was when she took a good look at the contents of his desk to keep her distracted from the fingers exploring the skin under her shirt. "You don't have much personal items."
"Elaborate," he said softly, pressing into a bundle of muscles in her lower back that were drawn taut from his punch earlier. He purposefully pushed his thumb deep into the tightness, attempting to loosen the muscles, which earned him a suppressed groan from his XO. If she could look over her shoulder, she maybe would have stopped the whole thing altogether. His smile was ravenous the more she squirmed under his grip.
Rachel let out a shuddering breath, not expecting him to massage her, for Zero's sake. "I mean... you don't have pictures. Don't like your family or something?"
"That's an understatement," he said in a rare moment of openness and, palm down, started to knead the tight flesh there. She stiffened under him. "The more you freak out, the longer it's going to take me to fix you," he warned and she took a deep breath before forcing herself to relax.
Folding her arms underneath her, she rested her chin on them, straightening out her back further which earned her a grateful rubdown for the compromise. "Tell me about your parents," she murmured sleepily, suppressing another moan when those fingers found another kink between her shoulder blades. For a jerk, he had such a nice touch for massages.
There was a pause in his ministrations and she knew he was thinking hard in her lethargic state of mind before he returned to his task. He lifted up her shirt more to get access to more skin, but at this point she didn't care the slightest of her modesty.
"They're just parents," he said dismissively, no doubt enjoying the way she curled her back for him when he pressed the right way. "Overbearing, coddling, looking out for number one."
"Ah, they care about Uno too, do they?" Rachel teased, but it seemed to be a joke in bad taste. She forced down a whimper when he very nearly climbed on top of her, adding a not-so uncomfortable weight into her.
His breath was suddenly hot against her neck. "Talk about Uno again and I may have to do something unforgivable." And just like that, his stifling presence retreated and those hands returned.
Except the air seemed to dip in temperature, which was impossible for a temperature neutral environment like Moonbase. "I can't talk to you!" she said angrily. He forced her back down when she tried to struggle up using her elbows. "I always feel like you're one step away from throttling me again!"
"Good instincts," Chad growled out after a moment. "It's just your mouth that needs to catch up with it." He flipped her back over and, sliding her down his desk, he crawled on top of her once more and kissed her before she could retort back.
Rachel twisted her head away for a moment in utter exasperation, breaking the kiss before her insides melted. He always, always had a way of lowering her guard before he could successfully pounce. "And why do you always pick kisses in our bets?"
"If it isn't obvious to you, I'm not going to dignify a response," he said shortly before bearing his teeth down on her for the next round of lip-on-lip contact. That earned him a good punch in the jaw for biting.
She didn't really need to heckle Chad about his home life since it came in the form of Mega Mom and Destructo Dad a week later.
They hit the Canadian sectors first. Rachel ended up sitting on her Supreme Leader's throne as per her duties as second-in-command while Chad had some kind of football practice going on today. All communications to Sector CA and it's surrounding Canadian operatives went silent an hour ago. Then the west coast of the US and then downward.
That was when visual confirmation came in the form of a 2x4 drone overseeing the missed transmissions. Global Command came to a standstill as they saw operatives unresponsive and covered in a strange glowing ice formation, their eyes blue and blank.
Before she could send out other sectors to deal with the threat, there had been a breach on the loading docks and Rachel could do nothing but issue an emergency lockdown before their new enemy reached the heart of Moonbase and disabled all communications in the process.
When she called Numbuh 274 he sounded extremely breathless. "Let me guess," he said in mid-pant, "treehouses going dark?"
"Worse, sir," she said through the audio feed. "Whatever is taking down our operatives has arrived on Moonbase. We're on lockdown."
There was a pause. "No one messes with my Moonbase!" he snarled. "I'm on my way."
"Denied," Rachel replied. "You won't be able to get through the lockdown anyways. It'll be much safer for you to find the nearest sector in your vicinity and..."
That was when the power failed them. Everything, including the overhead lights, dimmed to darkness.
The impenetrable shutters threw themselves up from the lack of power and bright jettisons of blue and violet light shot around them. Some operatives were caught in the crossfire in an explosion of radioactive ice.
Rachel grabbed her weapon and started firing for cover. "THEY'RE TOO STRONG! EVERYONE TO THE ESCAPE PODS ASA-NOW!" The emergency lights kicked on in the middle of the firefight, revealing a 50's styled mom with a gigantic animatronic head.
"What an uncouth bunch of children!" the woman shrilled and started firing ice from her fingers. "Oh! This must be where number 274 sits, isn't it?" she gestured to the throne and Rachel perched behind the arm.
She knew Numbuh 274. "Don't touch my operatives!" she shouted and fired mustard at the villain.
"Oh! Now that's no way to treat an adult, young lady!" Mega Mom said loudly, wagging a finger at her when the yellow condiment splashed on her dress. That was when she caught a glance at the codename on Rachel's helmet. "3-6-2? You look extremely familiar."
"Here, let me jog your memory!" Rachel yelled, jumped into the air and dropkicked the woman.
"Need a hand, honey?" A mechanical sounding male said before a shot of ice hit Rachel in the arm before she could deal the finishing blow on Mega Mom.
Unable to stay behind for the trapped operatives, Rachel's espionage instincts kicked in. She jumped off the Global deck to the Leda Deck down below and made them chase after her, hoping her operatives would use this distraction to escape.
She turned and hid in the corner, feeling up her encased arm. It was weird, not exactly unpleasant, but her arm was unresponsive, as if numbed.
Another shot snapped past her and grazed her on the side. She howled and jumped out of her hiding place, finding herself face-to-face with the menacing duo disguised as... parents.
Chad would probably punish her for getting captured so easily. She smacked her encased arm against the wall and, surprisingly enough, it started to crack. "Okay," she smirked dangerously, looking from her arm to the villains. "I can work with this."
"Don't you-" Mega Mom started, only to get smacked in the head with Rachel's popsicled arm. She went flying over the deck.
Destructo Dad wasn't amused. "Now see here, young lady! It's not nice to attack your eldAHHH!" She roundhouse kicked him in the face and punched the floor on her descent, causing the ice to shatter from the force. Her knuckles bled in return, but it was nothing compared to getting her arm back.
Flipping backwards behind a panel, she dodged the flurry of ice after her before it was safe to cartwheel off and charge at them. "GET OFF OF MY MOONBASE!" she howled and weaved between the blasts befitting the battle partner of Numbuh 274.
Her momentum carried when she kicked the top of a railing to gain air above the blasts and over Mega Mom and Destructo Dad's heads, dropkicking one before trying to spin kick at the other, only for her leg to be caught in Mega Mom's grip. Ice raced up the limb.
"I know that move!" Mega Mom said happily as she slowly started to freeze Rachel all over. "Oh, honey! I think this is the one Chad-dear is hiding from us!"
Chad-dear?! Rachel yelped when Mega Mom pulled her up by the leg, leaving her dangling and powerless.
Destructo Dad examined her, rubbing his fingers underneath his giant chin that reminded her vaguely of Chad when he scrutinized a difficult problem in tactics. "You're right, dear! She looks exactly like the pictures on his wall!"
Pictures?!
Half of her body was encased in ice by the time they set her back down. Mega Mom started trying to dust at her hair while she struggled. "Number 362 was it? You must let us invite you to dinner sometime! We'd love to hear all about our baby's girlfriend!"
Rachel wanted to choke on her own tongue.
"I beat up your parents," she told him dryly later in the evening, "and then they invited me to dinner."
They soon left Moonbase in defeat when Rachel kept her silence throughout their 'interrogation', too pissed off that not only did she fail in protecting the base, but apparently Chad had more than a few skeletons in his closet.
After Chad forced his parents to unfreeze everyone back on Earth, he ordered them incarcerated after fixing everyone on Luna. He was still spitting out expletives befitting his age and was in a sour mood all through the processing. Rachel decided dry humor was in order, with mixed results.
Chad lounged back in his seat, his uniform still frazzled and his complexion still covered in dirt and cuts. His mother begged him to take a bath before she got shipped off to Arctic Prison. It was safe to say he wasn't going to take his mother's advice anytime soon. "Tell me," he said instead, idly clicking his pen, "what kind of tattoo should I get?"
"Tattoo? Is that what you threatened your parents with?"
"I don't threat, I do," he growled, the clicking of his pen moving faster. "They should know better than mess with my affairs."
Rachel raised an eyebrow. "They're your parents." She flinched in surprise when she was given an extremely ugly glare, his body coiled and ready to jump over his desk and get her should she move the wrong way. "What's your damage?"
"They could have ruined my reputation," he spat. "They deserve everything they get. Everything." The pen in his hand started to glow and, with horror, she witnessed the pen ignite in ice. "No one's going to keep me from what I've fought tooth and nail for."
She opened her mouth, but then closed it when those glowing blue and violet eyes zeroed in on her face, preferably her lips. "I'm just gonna let you cool down with your... what this... I don't know, powers?" Intelligence was going to have a field day about this.
Rachel barely left her seat when a burst of energy grazed her cheek and hair. It ended up encasing the door in ice behind her. "Sir... please," she said cautiously, "if someone finds out..."
"Who's going to find out?" he said softly, walking around his desk like a caged lion spotting prey. "There's only one person who knows what I'm capable of. I'll know who if it gets leaked."
Rachel started to stumble back until he slashed his hand down and froze her boots to the floor. She held her palms up in defense, unable to use her famous speed as an advantage. "Numbuh 274... stop okay? I won't tell anyone."
There was just something in the way he looked at her with those unnatural eyes that made him look like a literal monster instead of just acting like one. He kept moving until her palms hit his chest and looked down at her. She found herself unable to tear away from his gaze and started to shake.
"I'm serious," she stuttered out, curling her fingers into his armor in a desperate bid for him to get a hold of himself. "Don't give yourself away!" If Intelligence suddenly checked on their secret video feed, seen the ice around their Supreme Leader's office, she was sure Chad would do much more than try to escape.
He'd probably raze the very base to the ground in ashes than leave it under someone else.
The safety of the KND calling to her like a siren's song, she pulled his armor down and kissed him, praying to Zero that it was enough to distract him. "I won't tell anyone, I swear," she breathed against his unresponsive lips. "You know this. I won't break my word. You know this!"
His hands were still unnaturally cold when they ran up her sides, over her shoulders, until they finally found their place grasping her neck and jaw. She could feel ice start to creep up against her cheek and uncomfortably encase the tips of her hair, but she didn't relent, praying that he was just playing with her instead of stupefying her into oblivion for her silence.
Fear gripped her when the tips of her bangs started to freeze, so she bit him hard on the lower lip in a desperate bid to distract him. He flinched under her kiss, paused, and then bit back in earnest until it became something of a demented tug-o-war between them. Using kisses.
Zero help her.
"You're still warm," he finally muttered, thumb brushing against her abused bottom lip. "That's new."
She didn't understand, but he was talking and once again, she succeeded the impossible with her exceptional skill in diplomacy. The cold glow of Chad's eyes faded away along with the ice in the room. Eventually the ice around her legs too faded into nothingness until only the ice around her neck and face remained.
"You look beautiful like this," he purred, curling his fingers through her frozen hair and lifting her face up to him. "So desperate and afraid. Now you just need to look at me like you love me."
The words spilled out before she could even catch it. "It's better to be feared than loved."
"He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation," he recited fondly. "Machiavelli accepts ruling by criminality."
She sighed a bit when he moved his lips to the side of her face and nuzzled her jaw. Today was exhausting. "He also accepts ruling by self virtue."
"Keep talking," he purred, the ice receding completely. "It's been such a long time since I talked to someone with a full brain."
She was more interested in what kind of incriminating pictures he had of her in his bedroom, but beggars supposedly can't be choosers.