"It's late," she realized with a shudder of her breathing.
Split chapped lips pressed against the side of her damp throat. "Good. No interruptions."
What possible interruptions could there be in the dead of night with just the two of them fighting? She wasn't a night owl and this was him using that to his advantage.
Her movements were a bit sluggish after a long day of work, but these days they were less sparring and more doing weird things Chad seemed to like. The random kisses, the tight embraces, things that should only be used exclusively for couples.
They weren't a couple, at least, according to Rachel. So what was this? A game? A passing fancy?
Obsession. That was what the stronger voice in her head said; one that seemed to grow more confident by the day. More smug.
Her eyes widened when he was doing something weird to her neck. It was small and fluttery and it made her heart beat fast and her insides warm and twisted. More so than any kiss. This was more intimate, more gentle.
He was kissing her neck.
She pressed two fingers against his lips to get him to stop, realizing what was going on. Annoyed, Chad nipped at her fingers but she was adamant. "What?" he growled.
"I know what's going on," she said softly, now too far gone to hide in denial of it anymore. "You're turning into a teenager."
As if touched by a live wire, Chad snapped away from her and his eyes darkened. "I'm not."
"Yes, you are," she accused, trying not to laugh breathlessly. It seemed so simple by comparison! "All this touching and now kissing… you're not aggressive because you're crazy. It's your hormones acting up." It made a lot of sense now. The territorial thing with her and the private sessions were all due because she was a girl and Chad was growing up.
Right?
Close enough, the voice in her head said, amused. She blinked when Chad got to his feet and looked at her with something akin to real hatred. "I touched a nerve, didn't I?"
"Like you could ever do that," he growled. "I'm untouchable."
"That's funny, because you were all over me just a second ago. Pretty sure you wanted to be easily touchable," she laughed and brushed herself off like she wasn't rattled by what happened. "What's wrong, Chad? I'd have thought older girls would be your schtick. Or are you just using the battle partner thing just so you can purge your little hormonal problem in secret? Disguise it as fighting and all-"
"Shut your mouth!" Chad snarled and rounded on her. "You think you can mouth off to your Supreme Leader like that?"
No longer amused, she stepped right into her personal space until they were barely a centimeter apart. "Yes," she hissed, her own eyes darkening. "I think I've earned that distinction, since you've used this mouth so many times before."
She won this when his gaze flickered downwards then back up again. Even now he wanted to kiss her, even with the teenager accusation hanging over his head. "I can do better," he observed unpleasantly.
Something inside her snapped. With a scowl, she tilted upwards and kissed him hard before bodily slamming him off the mat and into the metal crate full of basketballs.
She kicked her legs underneath the table, mildly admiring her pretty white ankle boots in the large chair belonging to her grandmother. It was her favorite tea chair and no one was to sit on the expensive plush seat, but she was grandmother's favorite and by association, they were a perfect set.
Simple logic for a five-year-old.
It was nice and cool out in the garden, with a gentle breeze swaying the tips of her golden hair, but it wasn't enough to blow away the cards on the table. Her Aunt Ruth paid careful attention to the cards in formation across from her, enough that her own tea was already cold.
"You have an old soul," her aunt finally deliberated, her voice still light and airy despite her middle age. "Worldly. Good or evil, many will be loyal to you for your wisdom will carry them to victory."
"It is a good read, if you're into that sort of thing," her grandmother approached her from behind and placed her hands on top of her favorite chair.
Rachel looked up at her and beamed. "I took your chair."
"So you did," she said and Rachel stood upon the cushions and hugged her, her elaborate white dress shifted a bit. "When your aunt finishes playing fortune-teller with you, I brought a special toy made for you. Just for you."
"She's done!" Rachel chirped excitedly, uncaring if her aunt was truly done or not in favor of the surprise.
With a nod, her grandmother gestured to the right and, from the shadows, emerged a familiar face. Her smile alight, she jumped off the chair and ran toward her favorite toy.
It's been awhile since she's dreamed of something like that. Opening her eyes, Rachel found herself daydreaming in the most dusty part of Archives, a picture of her six-year-old self at hand from her days in the Academy. Her younger self seemed to gaze back at her from her parade rest position, eyes so sharp and focused she couldn't really remember why it was so.
Prior to her induction into the KND Academy, her life before that was rather hazy. Patton Drilovsky had been the first thing she readily remembered when she joined the KND. No... no that's not right.
There was a flash of something gaudy. Rifling through the stack of photos belonging to the graduation folder, she found Numbuh 274 in all his young glory sporting a neckerchief during his first stint in Global Command.
It was so horrible, she was sure she had entangled her little fingers into the knot, threatening him verbal harm if he didn't get rid of the stupid thing. The fabric itself had been scratchy and unpleasant and the reason he wore it made her more exasperated than embarrassed on his account.
Rachel's elbow slid off the desk. No, she was sure she's never personally met or talked to Chad during her Academy days. He saluted to her during graduation, sure, but she's never touched him before.
"Are you ashamed of me, Chad?"
Well, are you?
Rachel winced and started to rub the side of her temple, feeling like someone just punched it. Her migraines were starting to become noticeably bothersome.
Shuffling up the mess at her desk, she decided another trip to the medical ward was in order.
Numbuh 686 was waiting for her near the entrance and saluted her. She didn't see Fanny around when she saluted back. "At ease, Numbuh 686. What's up?"
"Need an escort?" he said with immediate practice. Strangely compelled by his words, she nodded and followed him out, unaware that this was a monthly ritual for her.
Transfer forms, transfer forms, order of seizure, transfer forms, new hamster cleaning protocols, transfer forms...
Rachel found herself comfortable on the Dickson family couch, rifling through Chad's KND mail while his mother was hard at work fixing her a delicious strawberry cake that she just popped out of the oven. She could hear the woman humming happily to herself, which reminded her vaguely of Chad who would sometimes growl random rock songs under his breath while preoccupied.
He'll even hum while they fought, the notes keeping in time to the beat of his palm squeezing against her ribs until she cried out in defeat. Sometimes. She's gotten a few more victories under her belt using his own distraction against him.
When she looked at him like she wanted to eat him last night it had caught him off guard enough for her to gain a beat down so severe, he was still limping. It was so bad, he was now bedridden for the next couple of days and the guilt was starting to eat at her. Even he didn't hurt her so bad that she needed bed rest.
That was why she was at his home being served cake by a powerful villain dressed up as a 1950's mom.
"It was so sweet of you to bring Chad-dear's secret clubhouse mail," Mrs. Dickson said cheerfully from the kitchen. "I warned him and his father the football was going to kill him one day. I was right."
"You were," Rachel agreed politely. "Sounds like the linebacker really gave it to him."
She could hear Chad's mother sigh in sympathy, but she couldn't help the pride swelling up in her gut. Watching the older woman apologize and leave for the store for the missing cake frosting, Rachel smiled and allowed her to run out the front door before tossing the stolen frosting back into the pantry and moved up the stairs, tea and mail at hand.
Chad was dozing on his stomach, his preferred method of sleeping. It made things easier for him to roll off his bed and grab his weapon should he be attacked, but she hardly doubt he'd be able to stir now. She snorted lightly at his disheveled appearance, looking more like he just collapsed in his school clothes and bothered with little else.
Setting the mail and drink aside, she tiptoed around the room, drinking in the personal sanctuary she was sure no one in the KND had ever seen before. He had shelves full of trophies ranging from sports to academics and his corkboard was practically overfilled with letters and certificates both in and out of the KND.
It was only after careful scrutiny did she find what she was looking for hidden underneath the papers. True to his mother's word, there were pictures of her tacked up; some unflattering, some professional.
She smiled in very few of them.
There was only one picture that had both of them in it, standing together behind a backdrop of a familiar garden. She vaguely recognized the fluttering white dress she wore once upon a time.
Chad groaned lightly from behind. Abandoning her investigation, she sat down on the bed and easily slipped a chilled hand under his shirt to rub at what she knew was a giant bruise on his lower back. That earned her a groan of pleasure as he began to stir under her touch.
"Go away, mom..." he murmured into his comforter.
Mom? Eyebrow quirked up, she decided to play dirty and climbed on top of him, fitting herself perfectly against the dip of his strong back. She's done this before, often times earning herself a trip to the floor for trying. This time she hung fast and he didn't toss her off.
Chad didn't wake up fully. Instead he murmured her name almost absently and fell back to sleep again, lulled by her comforting weight and heat. When she was sure he was completely out of it, she slowly got off and found a torn invitation sitting on his work desk.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what it was. Still, she turned the two halves over and lined them up, resisting the urge to quirk the corners of her lips up.
Maybe she did have a chance to outwit the monster after all. Eying the laptop, she silently slipped into the seat and started lightly tapping at the keys, keeping a cadence of sounds to keep Chad from waking up as she put her KND Intelligence skills to work for the first time since joining Global Command.
According to the invite, her Supreme Leader's thirteenth birthday was due in a week. The computer said he had six months until then. She wasn't a math genius but even Numbuh 4 could tell something didn't properly add up.
With a snort, Rachel sat back and glanced at Chad's slumbering form. He didn't even wipe out his editing history. "Sloppy..." she mouthed and found herself with full Supreme Leader access to every KND operative's file in the organization.
"I can do better," he had said.
She really hated that phrase. With a few tiny key strokes, she started the tower of dominos to Numbuh 274's demise.
After all, she was doing her job as Global Tactical Officer.
When Chad's mother returned, Rachel smiled pleasantly from her perch on the couch. "So... I hear Chad's got an important birthday party coming up?"
"He does! Next week!" Mrs. Dickson smiled back. "Would you like a personalized invitation too? I've had so much trouble getting the names of his friends out of him for the party... he keeps saying he doesn't want one but you're only turning thirteen once!"
"Sure! And I can definitely help you with that!" Rachel's smile darkened. "I know a couple of sectors just dying for an invite..."
The sky was turning dark when she went back up to his room, encouraged by Chad's parents to go and check up on him since she was just 'the sweetest girlfriend he's ever had so far'. She almost missed the worried glances they shared when she dutifully climbed up the stairs and found it peculiar.
They seemed to know her all too well.
Chad's back was turned to her when she entered, idly nursing his lower back while he was on his laptop checking things on Moonbase. He had already opened up all the mail she left and seemed extremely tense. The torn invite was crumpled up and sitting on the bottom of his wastebasket.
Something akin to guilt hit her hard watching him slumped over his work desk as he tried to fight the inevitable. And after what she did earlier on that very laptop, well...
She slipped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her cheek against his, nuzzling under his jaw there in apology. He stiffened, but she didn't seem to care. Maybe this was what he felt when he first got close to her like this. "Tired of me now that I'm being affectionate back?" she murmured and started to pull away.
But he reached over his shoulder and grabbed her elbow, pulling her back in. He said nothing, too focused on the screen and the reports on it to spare a second glance.
So she just stood there with her arms around him, hoping that he didn't check his outbox and see the email she sent off to the Decommissioning Squad under his name and then really beat her up.
"Don't remember mom ever making me tea," he finally muttered a half hour later, startling her when she was starting to lean forward and doze. "What did you put in my drink...?"
His words were sluggish. That was when she knew it had taken effect. He couldn't protest when she gently tilted his head back to find his blue eyes glazed over. Despite his incoherence, he looked at her as if she had done this before, was anticipating this for a long time.
She turned his chair until he was directly in front of her. "Just an herbal remedy passed down from mother to daughter." There was something exciting about the power she was wielding over him.
He flinched, just a bit, when she placed her hands on his shoulders.
There were scars of some sort down the sides of his throat when she pulled the collar of his shirt back; tiny half-moons that she found almost pretty until she realized they could only be made by even smaller nails. He had covered them with a neckerchief once upon a time so no one could see her marks on him.
Because he belonged to her.
"Relax," she whispered, her voice so soft, even Intelligence would probably have had a hard time hearing her through their instruments. The muscles under her fingers were tense. She squeezed until he had no choice but to follow through with her words.
His breathing became labored, succumbing to the relaxant her grandmother taught her to make. There was a reason her grandmother was called the Black Widow in her youth. She continued kneading at his shoulders until he leaned back in his seat out of his own accord and then she moved to press into the tense sides of his neck.
"You haven't done this in..." he trailed off when she slipped her fingers through his hair and started rubbing around the pressure points there.
Has she done this before? A slow, lazy smile appeared on her face as she continued to scratch and rub his scalp, whispering gentle nothings meant to placate him, like a siren calling a sailor to his doom. "Soft gentle things can slumber a monster..." she whispered directly into his ear. "You can't kill an innocent in fairy tales."
"You're not an innocent," Chad growled, or tried to if it didn't end with a low purr of content. "I should have... I thought..."
"You thought I went through the KND 'clean slate' system years ago?" she purred back, taking advantage of the change in power by pressing her lips against the side of his jaw. He stiffened in alarm when she murmured into the skin there, "You thought wrong. Well... almost."
Chad was only seven and tears were starting to appear in the corners of his innocent blue eyes when he continued to rub his aching head. He shouldn't have fought Rodriguez during the banquet. Now he had to contend with his parents.
A pair of small arms found their way around his middle. He stiffened when he felt his fiancée press comfortably against his back with puffs of warm air against his neck.
She enjoyed watching him tackle Rodriguez and beat him bloody. For her.
"You're the best fiancé ever," her soft words were dark and playful. "Maybe grandma will let you play with me more often. My favorite toy."
Still finding girls icky, he tried to pry her arms away, but she was a little spoilt child who always got her way. Instead, she slipped and twisted until she got him from the front to hug him instead and, he had to ruefully admit, she was rather good at slipping around undetected. "Rachel..."
"Chad..." she sing-songed, lightly nuzzling his blood stained shirt. Her little hero of light. She got on her tiptoes, intending on giving him what only mothers and fathers do, only to be pushed away. "What's wrong?!" she demanded.
Chad squared his shoulders in defiance. "I'm not kissing you! And I'm not marrying you! I'll do what I want when I'm older!" The Kids Next Door was his chance, his opening to escape the web his parents were weaving for him. He wasn't going to grow up a villain like them, like Rachel wanted to be.
Her bottom lip quivered and she started to shake in anger. "Then you should have let Rodriguez hold my hand!" she snarled. "Weirdo!"
"I'm weird?! Rodriguez is a freak," he said, trying to bring reason to her. "He tried to look under your dress during the banquet." Not to mention the kid was at least a couple of years older than him. Where did he get off trying to chase after five-year-old girls?
She felt nothing but frustration and anger with Chad. He wanted to play hero, but he didn't want to reap the rewards of saving the damsel? What kind of boy was he? "You're such a saint," she sneered. "I don't think I want a saint for a husband."
"Good," he agreed with that stupid pure blinding smile she hated and loved ever since she met him. "We shouldn't be worried about that stuff anyways. That's what they taught me on Arctic Base."
All thoughts of anger fell away. "Arctic Base?"
"They're part of the Kids Next Door," he nodded, taking a step forward to hold her by the shoulders and shake some reason into her. "They're the enemy to our families, but it's a way out. You shouldn't let them control your life either."
All she got from his words translated to: I'll be spending more time with them than you. That just won't do. Her bottom lip jutted out just the way he hated and suckered for. "You're skipping the rest of the banquet for the Kids Next Door, aren't you?"
His silence said it all. If there was anything she learned from being a McKenzie it's that everything they wanted they would get through subterfuge and manipulation. Keeping Chad to her would be no different.
"Oh... well, if you go, I can't stop you," she averted her big brown eyes, compelling him to pity her, focus solely on her happiness. "But there's always the last dance at the banquet. Who am I going to dance with at the end of the night?"
Her eyes moved to the bloodstains on his shirt, more of it that belonged to the other suitor. "I suppose if Rodriguez finally manages to stop his nosebleed by then..."
The grip around her shoulders tightened. It made her wince, but she trembled with excitement when those blue eyes flashed in warning. She had him and got him. Hook, line, sinker.
Chad started biting his own bottom lip, deliberating between doing what he wanted or doing the right thing. In the end, he stiffened and gave her a short nod, trying his hardest not to be affected by her beaming smile in return. "Unless it's high priority from them..."
"Sure!" Rachel smiled and hugged him tight. "How's your head?"
The pounding in his head grew now that she mentioned it. Accepting his grimace for pain, she forced his hand into hers and intertwined them before pulling him in the direction of the study. "My grandma taught me how to fix headaches using tea," she purred mischievously, "if you trust me."
He didn't, but he followed anyways.
It was like this too. Except he hadn't been on a desk chair, but the couch in the study, with her singing softly and her dainty little fingers curling into his scalp that made him wish he did kiss her before succumbing to sleep. When he had woken up that time, his communicator blaring from his first sector ever, he couldn't move with her dozing on top of him, clinging to his shirt to subconsciously stop him from going anywhere without her.
"Hah..." Rachel breathed, her smile turning dark again. "Did you actually think I'd let the Kids Next Door just suppress my memories like that?" Her weight dipped on the seat of his chair, forcing it and him forward. He got a good look of her and terror started to creep up his spine. "You're a bad fiancé trying to get rid of me, Chad Dickson."
His fingers twitched. That was the only thing he could move thanks to the paralyzing agent. Numbuh 686 had promised to put Rachel through the 'clean slate' program when she joined, a full board of elite operatives had decided that she had too much of a villainous streak for Global Command to be comfortable with, but too valuable of a resource to let go.
He had been certain the partial decommissioning had worked. When he saw her afterwards, she didn't even recognize him, didn't even speak to him, when she bounded past for her next training session like a normal kid for once, rightfully free from the darkness of her lineage.
Something in him had cracked that day, like he lost something precious; twisted, but precious. At the cost of bringing the good in her, he ceased to exist in her memories.
He wanted to shake his head, but could only manage a slight turn. "I love you..." he murmured desperately. "I couldn't stand..."
"Ah, I figured," she purred once more. "How did it feel to see me every day for six years sharing my love with everyone but you? After all, you were the one who nominated me to the program, you were the one who transformed a future villain into a hero. How did you reap the benefits, I wonder? It must have been absolutely frustrating seeing the girl you supposedly love care for everyone but you."
She didn't need an answer. What he had become now was all orchestrated in her favor. She punished her white knight and showed him the darkness of jealousy, possessiveness, and entitlement.
He could have saved her from the dark. Too bad. "You remember what grandmother said all those years ago, don't you?" she continued softly. "You were made for me. Just me. It's your own damn fault you drove yourself to insanity trying to keep your distance. You couldn't handle it. Then you started to twist and turn until it made you what so you are now: you've become what you wanted to run from in the first place."
He was the villain, just like her. The Monster.
She miscalculated the extent of his ice powers. His eyes started to glow that unnatural blue and violet, forcing her to step away when ice started to race up her hands and arms. "Are you going to get rid of me?" Rachel asked softly, already feeling most of her body starting to become rigid and unresponsive.
"I'm going to stop you." Surprisingly, she watched as Chad flopped out of his chair on willpower alone and had to grip his desk to steady his wobbling legs.
"You're not the hero anymore, Chad." His computer started to beep in alarm, but Rachel knew exactly what it was before the ice started to race up her jaw.
Chad's jaw clicked hard when he read the information on the screen. "Clever," was all he spat out before he grabbed his helmet. If he can reach those letters in time...
She was completely encased in ice except for her face, but even then it was still creeping up her cheeks before it stole her breath permanently. "Consider this an early birthday present."
Finally, the second effect of the tea kicked in. Chad started to wobble and tripped over the wastebasket until he lost consciousness halfway to the door. Without him to control it, the ice started to shatter away and she dropped down to her knees gasping for air.
"...hah... sweet dreams, Chad," she hissed and slowly got back to her feet. "You've got a big, big day tomorrow."
"Numbuh 1!" Fanny hollered through the transmission. "You are scheduled for an immediate decommissioning!"
Satisfied, Rachel turned off her earpiece and gazed out from the windows of Moonbase before flickering her sharp brown eyes to the empty throne. It was about to become hers at the end of the day.
Sector V and Q were the victims to her little scheme, but she knew Nigel Uno. He wouldn't rest until the culprit was found and brought to justice. The real con was to reveal Chad for what he truly was and undo his legacy. It wasn't going to be easy and Chad would be extremely inclined to lay Moonbase to waste first before tarnishing his reputation.
"You always did let your morals get the best of you, Chad," she whispered as the dominos began to fall into place. "But now I'm in control of the game. So let's begin."