Title: Kiss in a Can
Rating: K
Genre: Romance/ fluff
Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown, and I never will.
Word Count: 2302
Dedication: To the lovely reviewers who remain loyal to my stories even after half-a-years absence. I really am terrible at posting on time because I live a busy life, but I try to, and I want to thank each and every one of you for your patience. Thanks a million! You guys rock!
Summery: She's never shared drinks before, but now she's dehydrated and Rai's the only one with water...can he convince her that it's nothing more than a kiss in a can? Rai x Kim oneshot.

It was immensely warm and muggy in the dense, South American jungle they were trekking through. The newly revealed Shengong Wu wasn't too much farther away, but the Japanese dragon of fire was having a hard time. Heat should have been her thing, and this should have affected her a lot less than the others, but for some reason she was the most affected.

She'd meant to grab her bottled water off the counter before leaving, but later realized she had forgotten it. It didn't look like anyone would be selling water out in the middle of the Amazon either. She was getting really dehydrated, but pressed on anyway knowing the task that must be completed.

The Shoku leader slowed down to fall into step with her. He'd noticed her struggling, and even if he didn't want to be too obvious to his other friends, he wanted to help her. Truth be told the Brazilian boy had something of a crush on the girl.

"You doing all right Kim?" he asked gently offering her a hand.

"Kimiko looks over the weather." Omi insisted.

"I think you mean under the weather partner," Clay corrected kindly.

Why all this noise? It was only making her dehydration headache worse!

"I'm fine," she adamantly stated pushing past Rai's hand.

"You're wavering a bit," Raimundo pointed out laughing at how silly she looked. A simple gust of wind, and she'd fall right over.

"I just have a headache! We have a job to do, if any of you remember!" She venomously snapped.

"Right," Omi said seriously. "We do not wish to lose the Cup of Nostalgia. If it falls into the wrong hands they will be able to view all our memories, and take us down with the things we regret."

"Well do you want to wait here, and we'll come back for you later?" Raimundo asked Kimiko as she leaned against a tree feeling woozy.

"Um Rai, I don't think the jungle's the best place to leave her." Clay reasoned.

"Probably not, you want Dojo to take you up in the sky for a while?" he tried again.

"But Raimundo who will sense the Shengong Wu then?" Omi deducted.

"That leaves one last option," he grinned crouching down in front of her. "Hop on."

"You've got to be kidding me," she grumbled climbing onto his back.

"You think of something else then," he muttered.

Both liked the close contact, but neither were willing to swallow their pride and admit it. Her arms laced around his neck, and she whispered "thank you" in his ear.

"Anytime girl," he murmured back.

She rested her head against his back, and he carried her piggyback through the moist jungle. Right before they reached the clearing Kimiko blacked out. Her grip around Rai's neck loosened, and her body slumped against his.

"Kim," he worriedly whispered.

She didn't answer, but he soon found a different problem. This worry wasn't as important to him, but it was to everyone else so he had to act like it was as well. A crystal wine glass with little emeralds (emeralds to signify the past) glittered from a small cave. The guys spotted the Shengong Wu at the same time Jack Spicer and his army of expensive, but pathetic robots appeared.

"Hey Xiaolin losers! The Cup of Nostalgia is mine!" Jack yelled.

"In your series of thoughts, images, and sensations that occur in a person's mind when they are not conscious Jack Spicer!"Omi challenged.

Jack stopped for a moment to ponder the meaning of Omi's ill-used slang. Suddenly he stuck his pointer finger up and grinned.

"Oh, you mean in my dreams!"

Even though there was a moment of tranquility and common sides it was just as soon shattered by the whirling and whizzing of brass robots. They were the normal half-bodied ones he always brought with, and they usually could be taken down with a single hit. There were roughly twelve of them since Jack hadn't had enough time to throw more together, but twelve was still quite a few when there were only three warriors able to fight.

Raimundo's eyes bulged out of his head, and he was unsure about what to do. Normally it was easy, he just had to fight, but with a girl in his arms he didn't want to have her get hurt, or worse taken away by Spicer. He wouldn't put Jack past taking an unconscious girl if that snake knew he could.

Raimundo was torn though. He tried fighting the robots with one hand while supporting Kimiko with his other, but that proved to be extremely difficult.

"Clay...Um..." Raimundo threw a glance back at Kimiko.

"Just put her down," Clay yelled back smashing one of the robots with his hand.

Omi tried to break apart from the others to go after the Cup of Nostalgia, but he was blocked by another row of one-hit machines. When Omi destroyed those with a series of simple kicks he went after Spicer.

In all the confusion Kimiko woke up and saw the Wu. She was a little shaky, but decided to try for it anyway, and snuck over to it.

She put her hand on it at the exact same moment another hand touched it. The long, gnarly fingers with red nails could only belong to one evil witch, Wuya.

"Silly child, you don't even look like you can stand up, let alone fight me." the witch taunted.

"We'll see about that!" Kimiko shouted, but luck was not on her side. Everything started to go fuzzy again. 'No!' her mind screamed begging the black dots to hold off.

She really, really hated the evil witch for what Wuya'd put them through. Kimiko wanted to fight her so terribly, but the blackness swallowed her before the showdown had even been called.

The next thing she knew cold water was being splashed on her face, and voices were muttering incoherently in the void, blackness all around her. She felt warm fingers on her forehead, and when it pulled away she felt small tingles where he touched her. That had to have been Rai's hand; he always made her feel a little tingly. She couldn't understand the words they were saying; she tried to scream, but no sound came out. The only word she understood was her name being said over and over by those muffled voices.

Another splash of water hit her face and her cerulean blue eyes fluttered open.

"What happened?" she croaked clutching her head in pain.

"Wuya got away with the Wu!" Omi chided.

"You blacked out," Raimundo explained shushing Omi.

"Where am I?" she asked feeling a cool, windy draft hitting her.

"On the one and only Dojo express." Dojo grinned, "by the way kid, you gave us all quite a scare."

"Sorry." she said softly.

"Told ya she was dehydrated," Clay grinned proud of his diagnosis. "Used to happen to my ma all the time."

"You feeling okay?" Raimundo asked looking down at her.

She finally realized where she was. She was lying on her back with her head in Raimundo's lap. She blushed ferociously and tried to sit up, but gave up immediately when a sharp pain shot through her head.

"Rai?" she questioned ignoring his previous inquiry.

She was far from feeling fine, but she'd never admit that to anyone. She was a tough girl, she didn't need to be babied, but right now she did hurt.

"Yeah?" he asked brushing some wet hair out of her face. He'd apologize for un-crimping her hair with the water later.

"You haven't been drinking out of the water you splashed all over my face have you?" she queried carefully.

"Yeah, why?"

"Ewww!!! I just had your backwash splashed all over my face," she shrieked gagging.

"Chill out, it's not that bad!" he shook his head. She could be such a priss sometimes.

Omi and Clay seemed fine ignoring the two who were bound to start fighting at any given moment. They were used to how things worked by now.

"Hmph," she disapprovingly voiced.

He held out the canteen bottle to her, and helped her sit up against him.

"You need water." he stated matter-of-factly.

"Not from something that has your spit in it," she snapped pushing the bottle away from her face. The spoiled girl in her surfaced momentarily. She had never shared drinks before, and she didn't want to start now, not matter how tempting the water.

"Don't think of it that way..." he mused pulling her into his lap. "Think of it as a kiss in a can."

"A kiss in a can?" she repeated raising her eyebrow.

"You know, a kiss in a canteen bottle," he explained offering it to her again.

"Well...no." she sighed, "I don't like sharing drinks. I'll just hold out until we get back to the temple."

A lopsided grin spread across Rai's face; he was determined to prove it to her that sharing a drink wouldn't kill her, but he'd deal with that later.

"You sure?" he asked lightly pushing the bottle again towards her small hands.

"Yes, Rai, now seriously, stop it!" she snapped closing her cerulean blue eyes, and allowing a dreamless sleep to overtake her.

She'd woken up some time later in her room at the temple. Her headache was gone, but she was still thirsty. She found she was able to stand and walk again, and the fuzzy black dehydration dots were no longer present in her eyes. She was still a little shaky, but she could manage. Nothing could have gone as badly as the Shengong Wu mishap.

In the kitchen she quickly located a bottle of water and swallowed a good majority of it in one gulp. When you're living with guys for so long you kind of pick up a few of their habits. A long shadow cast across the floor and she glanced to see Raimundo looking back at her.

"How're you feeling?" he asked softly.

"Better, thanks." she smiled lightly.

"You mind if I sit down."

"Go right ahead."

"You really scared us. Did you know dehydration can kill you! What where you thinking refusing the water?" Raimundo chided in exasperated worry.

"Rai, just stop, I'm okay now." she defended.

"Yeah, but what about next time. What we do then?" he pointed out.

"I won't forget my water next time." she shrugged.

"But if you do..." he said

"We won't be going to the desert or jungle."

"And if we are..."

"Then I'll remember. Geeze Rai, stop!" she snapped.

"Fine. Master Fung wants to talk to you for a minute." Raimundo said pointing to door.

Sighing Kimiko shuffled out of the room leaving her water bottle on the table. Raimundo grinned, determined to prove to her that sharing drinks would not be the death of her. He took a long drink out of her water bottle and then put it exactly as she had left it hoping she wouldn't notice that there was less water in there.

"What was that about?" she asked irritated upon entering a few moments later.

"Wh-what?" he stuttered, she couldn't have noticed already...could she?

"Master Fung didn't want to talk to me. Why'd you tell me he did?"

"Oh, um, I thought he said something like that. Guess I just wasn't listening. Sorry." Raimundo breezed.

"I swear you don't have a brain sometimes." she snapped taking another long drink out of her water bottle.

He could have told her then, but he knew she would spit the water out so he decided to wait until the next day so she could see that she was just fine.

"Yeah, see ya later girl." he shrugged walking off.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day she felt so much better. She woke up feeling refreshed, and amazingly cured. She hadn't the slightest a clue that she'd shared a drink...until he told her over breakfast.

"How are you feeling?" he asked sympathetically.

"So much better," she grinned piling her plate high with eggs, bacon, and hash browns.

"No wooziness, illness, feelings off approaching death...?" Raimundo listed waiting eagerly for a response.

"No. I feel better than ever before." she smiled in-between bites of food.

"See, sharing a drink didn't kill you." he laughed.

"But I didn't share a drink, I refused it remember?" she asked for clarification. She really had no memory of sharing any drink, but the comment was making her panic.

"Yeah, but I took a sip of your water when you went to look for Master Fung." he laughed as she choked on her food.

"You what?!?" she shouted.

"Yep, but it didn't kill you. After all it's nothing more than a kiss in a can."

And with that being said the brunette boy took off running from a very angry Japanese girl. She was sure to catch him and make him regret it soon, but in the end it really wouldn't kill her, and maybe she wouldn't kill him if he managed to run fast enough.

xxxxxxxFinnies!xxxxxxxxx

That one went way off the course of what I originally had planned, but I'm content anyway. I'll try to update soon...we'll see how soon that happens to be. (Possibly next Sunday depending on how much I need to study for finals.) Here's a preview to pique some interest:

Unanswered: They weren't allowed to ask questions this week, but Rai doesn't listen very well, and now Kimiko has to shut him up before he makes an enormous mistake. Will he manage to keep his mouth shut or is he doomed to ask her a certain question that's been on his mind?

Much love,

Heart