The sun was hot, and the outfit was not exactly helping matters. It looked more cumbersome than it actually was. With how tight the taleguilla were, she felt completely exposed in front of all of these people. Then again it wasn't really her crotch being ogled and possibly judged. It was Vega's. And she didn't want to think about it anymore than she had to. There was more to worry about right now than how much of her current body people could glean from the clinging blue fabric. Her heart was already pounding like mad, and she'd been so anxious she couldn't even bring herself to eat dinner the night before, and forgot about breakfast altogether.
She watched the banderilleros place their barbs in the bull's back. This was her bull. Its coat glistening with sweat and blood, frothing at the mouth, enraged. And why shouldn't it be? It was being murdered to the delight of a paying audience. Why had she let him convince her to do this again?
She inhaled deeply through her nose, eyes wandering over the faces in the crowd. Where was Chun-Li? There were a lot of people out there. Any of them could be here to kill her. They could finish the job before the bull did, easy. She closed her eyes, trying to force such irrational thoughts out of her head. She felt someone's hand smack her shoulder in a friendly manner, and a man-another torero-said, "How's it going? Nervous yet?"
"Never," she responded. She supposed that's how he would respond. Vega wasn't so thoughtless as to be cruel or harsh to most people he interacted with. He knew he could damage his reputation, cause people to lose interest in him if he acted like a jackass. Even if he thought someone deserved to be treated like crap, he kept it to himself, relieving his frustrations in less than savory ways under the cover of darkness. She didn't want to think about that, though. Didn't know what memories that would bring out of his mind.
The man seemed entertained enough by the answer, laughing. Maybe he was pretending too. "He's a feisty one. I'd watch your back, eh?"
Then finally, that dreaded, awful moment had come. The banderillas were all placed, and it was time for the final third of the fight-the few minutes in which all attentions would be focused on her and the death of the bull. She inhaled again, never seeming to get enough air. She gripped the sword rolled into the cape, holding the cloth stiffly. She just had to trust in his brain to take over here. She had to try not to get in the way. It wasn't nervous about the bull, the animal that was trotting in a tight circle, looking for the source of its pain. The rest of the cuadrilla had cleared the arena, and she was alone here now. Once more, she skimmed the crowd in search of her friend. She needed the reassurance. If she died here, at least then somebody would know what had happened to her. She took a few steps towards the bull, unsure of herself, and it was clear in her gait. The crowd was put off-this wasn't what they had come to expect. She could hear the animal heaving breaths, and it snorted, hooked its head. Feisty? It was pissed.
She swallowed hard, brows drawing together as she studied the animal. She heard someone whistle, and glanced up. Finally, there was some relief. It had been Chun-Li, waving and nodding discreetly. The little motion made Cammy feel worlds better, but she was startled to see her own body there too, sitting next to Chun-Li, arms crossed, eyes watching critically. He seemed annoyed almost, as if she'd already screwed up when the fight hadn't even started yet.
"She can't ruin this," Vega muttered under his breath.
"Don't be a jerk," Chun-Li said. "This must be nerve-wracking for her."
"It's my body, not hers. If it gets damaged, what would she care?" He knew well enough, now, that she wouldn't care. And it only made him more irritable.
Cammy gripped the cape hard, knuckles white as she held it out. Then the bull was on the move, and she thought she'd piss herself before it even got within five feet of her. She jumped out of the way, terrified as it went racing by, and the crowd laughed. Vega buried his face in his hands and groaned loudly. "No, no, no, it's all over."
She clenched her jaw as Vega's brain absorbed what was going on. He wasn't going to allow this. Anything less than perfection was worthless, completely unacceptable. It wasn't enough for him to just tell himself he was good at everything, he had to actually prove it. She drew her brows together as she stared down the bull. "All right," she whispered. "You do it then." And she let go, as risky as it was, allowing Vega's mind to take the lead on this one.
It was frightening at first. Not simply because of the bull, but because she was trapped in this body, watching it as if a spectator, as it moved across the sand. She shook the muleta with more fervor, crooned to the bull in Spanish, and it charged. She panicked, but Vega's mind ignored her, draping the cloth over the bull's face as it passed. She was right against it, felt its bloodied flanks drag by her body, leaving wet and sticky blood on the obscenely expensive uniform. And it wasn't so terrifying, after all. They went back and forth, pass after pass, and she thought she was finally getting the hang of it, until she slipped up.
A heavy head connected with her chest, and she felt her breath leave her. The horns were hooked under her arms, and she uttered a cry. She hadn't stumbled back, wasn't going to be trampled. Hadn't been impaled. But she was lifted into the air by the furious bull as the crowd cried out. Without thinking twice, she pushed off the ground herself, used the slight momentum provided by the bull's rising head to help her in this, legs pointed skywards for the briefest of seconds before coming down. The muleta fluttered wildly in a crimson arc, echoing the contours of her own arched back for a moment, and she unwrapped her arms from around the bull's horns, sitting upright. Quickly, but gracefully, she pressed off the bull with her hands, careful of the banderillos, and felt it disappear from under her, feet planted in the sand again. The crowd reacted pretty strongly, and Cammy could feel Vega's brain panicking. You let it hit you, you let it hit you! But the bull was coming back. Head lowered, horns ready to pierce skin and shatter bone, headed straight for her-
Kill it now.
Quickly she raised her arm, obeying his mind's demand, and drove the blade into the bull. The animal vomited blood. It crashed to the sandy ground as she stepped quickly out of its way, heaving breaths. She stared down at the dying animal, feeling dizzy and light-headed. The cheering of the crowd had become a bizarre drone in the back of her mind as her thoughts raced. She killed it. All it took was his brain to demand it, and she did it without hesitating. She'd let him take back over, and what would have happened if she couldn't get that control back? What else would she have done? She wobbled slightly, panting as she stared at the blood pooling around the animal. Killed it, just like he said. Murdered. He was, she was, they were murderers. Her eyes rolled into her head as she fell to her knees, and into the blood stained sand.
"Oh my God, Cammy," Chun-Li cried as she saw Vega's body collapse. It wasn't moving. Had she gotten hurt? There was so much blood it was difficult to tell from where she sat. She looked over at Vega, but was surprised to see he was already forcing his way down the arena stairs. She followed quickly, hesitating only for a brief second to jump over the wall like he'd done. He didn't seem to care about anything but getting back to his unconscious body, not slowing down when a few men ran after him demanding that he stop.
He slid to a halt beside his body, dropping to his knees as he did so. "Cammy," he whispered quickly. It wasn't wise, he knew, to move an unconscious person, and it was so difficult to keep from trying to roll her over onto her back to try to wake her up.
"Ma'am, step away from him!"
People were shouting at him to stop, but he was too focused. Chun-Li caught up with him, tugging him by the arm, trying to make it clear she didn't approve of this reaction. "We aren't supposed to be down here, you idiot!" she managed to say through gritted teeth. The crowd was torn between being upset at the people halting the final few seconds of the show and the next fight, and the rest were curious as to what was going on. Why had these two women run to the matador like that? Did they know him personally, or were they just crazed fans?
"Shit," Vega muttered beneath his breath as he spotted security finally.
"Good job," Chun-Li said, tugging him to his feet. He looked down at his body again, wondering what had gone wrong. Still breathing, so there was that. The whole fight had been a bit of a wreck, but the main goal was that she got out of it safely. And now that might not have happened. The security was followed by an on site doctor, and that provided a minor relief for Vega. The doctor all but ignored them, but they couldn't say the same of the security.
"You two know how dangerous that was?" the first guard asked.
Vega, while irritated with the condescension, bit back a nasty remark about rent-a-cops, and said instead, "I just wanted to make sure she-he-was okay." He pointed over at Cammy. "We're very good friends. I know I wasn't thinking clearly, and I shouldn't have jumped down here." He didn't want to deal with any legal issues, and knew that maybe if he showed some kind of repentance, they'd let the two of them off. If they got really lucky.
"Well, look, you know you could've gotten very hurt?"
They both nodded.
"And you should be arrested."
"We'll pay the fine," Vega said quickly. He couldn't be separated from her.
"Done this before?" the other guard asked, raising an eyebrow at the fast response.
"No," he said. He found it more difficult to control his irritation. Was that because of the situation, or was it just that Cammy's mind had a harder time with keeping a lid on her anger? "Like I said, he and I are good friends. He's told me about people jumping in here before, and what happens to them."
"I'm not paying this," Chun-Li whispered to him.
"You jumped in here too, sweetheart," Vega whispered back. But both were relieved that the appeal for a fine worked out in their favor. They were given their citations, and lead out of the plaza, warned that if they ever did anything like that again, they wouldn't be let off so easily. This didn't help with Vega's frustrations, though. He was still riddled with anxiety over Cammy, and his own body. It didn't look like she'd gotten injured at any point during the fight. The next bullfight had already started, and the crowd had probably all but forgotten about it. He had no idea what was going to happen with his own career. The display had begun in a cowardly manner, but Cammy quickly fell in step until she let the bull hit her. And to top it all off, there was the grand finale-a fainting matador. Or, at least, he had to hope the fainting was all that had happened.
"Oh, my head." She rubbed her eyes as she woke up, shaky and disoriented. Where was she? Glancing around, it looked a bit like a doctor's office. She remembered the bullfight, and then sighed. Right. She'd killed the animal, just like he'd wanted. She frowned, now upset at the reminder. How could she have gone through with it? She shouldn't have done it, shouldn't have ever agreed to it. Even if she let his mind take over, she still had the power to prevent it from happening. That made her no less guilty than him.
"How are you, other than that?"
She nearly jumped at the sound of the voice, startled that there was someone else present and she hadn't even noticed. "Oh, um, I guess. I mean I wasn't um, gored, if that's what you're asking."
The man smirked. "That much was apparent fairly quickly. After all, you never have been before, why would you start now?"
She blinked, and thought about that for a second. How many times had he done this before? How many other bulls had he killed?
"So what's the trouble?" the man asked.
"Ahh..." she hummed, thinking for a second. What was the problem? Other than the big, glaring one of aural displacement. "I remember feeling very dizzy, and light-headed. And then I just sort of blacked out."
"What did you eat this morning?" She shook her head, indicating that she hadn't at all. "How about for dinner last night?"
"Forgot that one, too," she said.
"Well, that could be a problem," the man said, shaking his head a bit. "You need to eat, especially when you have to do something so physically demanding as this."
She nodded. That made sense, she supposed. And she had been incredibly nervous, stressed, disgusted. All of it sort of culminated at once for her, and she couldn't handle it. Maybe he couldn't either. She couldn't be sure. In that brief, horrifying second, she belonged to him, and it was difficult to distinguish which one of them was feeling what. "Right. I'll make sure to do that." It wasn't necessarily true. She couldn't be sure that she would be hungry for a little while now. Anything with meat in it would just serve to remind her of the animal.
"You're free to see your own personal physician now, if you feel the need to do so. A check up could never hurt," the man said with a shrug. "And, ah, some girls have been really adamant about seeing you. They were expelled from the plaza for leaping into the ring when you passed out, but they're saying they know you."
His brain seemed pretty exasperated to hear that. Nothing new, some girl or another claiming to know him, doing whatever pathetic thing they could just to get him to talk to them for a brief second. They all thought they would be the ones he would fall for, become enamored by them after a chance meeting. They all read too many romance novels, or watched too many awful movies. At first, the attention was novel. He wasn't used to it. And then it just became frustrating to be chased after again and again, all of this superficial interest, his privacy invaded. The attention was fine at arms' length, hearing people say all of these positive things about him. But when they were actually approaching him, trying to genuinely gain his interest, it got tiring. Ready to dismiss these women as another few pathetic fans, she shook her head, but then caught herself. "Wait, what are their names?" she asked.
"Cammy White and Chun-Li Xiang."
Cammy ran a hand through her tangled hair. She looked down at herself. The outfit was still on. All that blood was still there. On her. But she perked up at the names. One of them, anyway. Cammy had come here? Did she care that he could be hurt? A brief surge of joy was stemmed quickly when she realized she was immersing herself in his thoughts again. And his own brain became disappointed upon the realization that it wasn't really Cammy out there. Cammy didn't care for him. She frowned. It really bothered him that she disliked him. It almost made her feel guilty. Almost. "I do know them, actually. Can they come here?"
"Sure. I'll show them in."
Within a few minutes, there were two familiar faces in the room. One made her irritated, but she quickly put a stop to that feeling. It didn't matter to her if Vega didn't like Chun-Li, because she was in control here, not him. And the other left her feeling some pathetic mix of warmth and emptiness. He looked worried, and asked, "What happened?"
"Your body is fine, I just skipped more meals than I should have," she said, crossing her arms.
He seemed content with that answer, but said, "Be more careful." Then, he glanced down at the bag in his hands, seeming to be debating something. "Here," he said, handing it to her.
A gift? For her? No one really did stuff like this for her. She blinked a few times. It was him no one really did stuff like that for. Her friends sent her gifts on her birthday, and at Christmas. She thought with his mind for the briefest of seconds, coming up blank for him. He didn't have friends. He was very lonely, in spite of his fame, which struck her as strange. He was too paranoid to get close to anyone. Too deranged to care much about another person. With the exception of herself, for whatever disturbing reason. She wasn't going to feel bad for him, though. He did this to himself.
She took the bag, and looked inside, eyes lighting up at the sight of a plush cat with a bag of candy tied around the neck. "Awwww!" she cooed, and Chun-Li laughed immediately while Vega sighed.
"Try not to do things like that," he said, shifting his weight uncomfortably. He didn't coo and giggle and make other silly noises like that one, and it was bizarre watching himself do it.
"This is-it's so sweet of you though!"
He blushed, eyes studying every other part of the room but her. "Well, you did me a favor. You can eat those if you want, and, well..." he trailed off.
She'd never seen him at a loss for words. She smiled and made the plush cat wave its arms at him. "You don't know what to saaaay," she said in a sing-song voice.
"Stop it," he warned.
"You gave me a kiiiitty," she continued singing.
"Cammy."
She smiled, but stopped embarrassing him further. "Thanks," she said finally, untying the ribbon around the cat's neck and taking one of the candies. How had she gone so long without junk food?
"I'll be honest," Chun-Li said, a hand going to her hip. "I didn't think he had it in him."
Vega shot her a dirty look. Normally he didn't do things like this. In Cammy's mind, when someone did you a favor, you were supposed to pay them back somehow. He felt almost obligated to give her something. Cammy said, "Life is full of surprises. I think I've learned that much from all of this, but hopefully that isn't the lesson Rose was talking about." She realized her mistake pretty quickly, and closed her eyes with a sigh.
"You went to her?" Vega asked quickly. "Don't let her near me, there's no telling what she'll do. Brainwash me, curse me, who knows?"
"Rose wouldn't do something like that," Cammy replied, disappointed that he felt that way about her. "She's my friend."
"She isn't mine," he said.
"Have you ever tried?" Vega didn't have an answer for that.
"What did she have to say?" Chun-Li asked, wondering if any sort of help was able to be offered by the woman.
Cammy shrugged. "She told me she couldn't fix it. But she said it wouldn't last much longer, either."
"There's some relief in that," Vega muttered, crossing his arms. The concept of being in the body of the opposite sex was novel for all of about twenty seconds. After that, it just became a cage, leaving you trapped in someone else's life. He wanted Cammy out of him, before anything else was required of her. Before she slipped up and got hurt. He could only hope that Rose was right.