Vicky awoke once again to the sound of mechanical alarm bells ringing, she felt somewhat stiff from sleeping on the couch, something she had promised herself she wouldn't do because this was your reward for sleeping on the couch. Still she wasn't yet ready to confront Timmy with the fact that she was commandeering his bed from him for two reasons; the first being that she didn't want to be completely evil and kick him out of his bed and make him sleep on the couch instead and the second reason being that she didn't want to be evil in a whole other sense and share his bed with him.
"At least not yet..."
Sleep had brought with it the realization that Vicky was losing the inner battle of her thoughts and she was not necessarily displeased with this fact, but still, she was feeling some trepidation about where this all might lead, after all, she was six years his senior and while she (though she would never admit it and would harm those who suggested it) had almost no experience with relationships and the few relationships she did have were train-wrecks at best. She didn't know if he had any experience in this field either. She hoped he didn't, and hoped he did at the same time; on one hand she preferred to be the more experienced one in most of her interactions (especially true in Timmy's case) but on the other hand she did not wish for him to be completely in the dark about this, what with her having little experience herself and not really being a suitable teacher in that regard.
"I'm gonna get some breakfast first. Think on this later." She was becoming quite skilled at procrastinating when it came to thoughts about her charge.
Venturing to the kitchen Vicky made a startling discovery the Turner's credit card was on the kitchen table, she was sure Timmy would have taken it when he went out.
"Must've put it back or never taken it."
She then made another, significantly less pleasant discovery, the Turner's, for whatever reason, left without restocking any food or drink in the house.
"This feels familiar." Looking in the fridge she found a lonely carton of orange juice, with only a few ounces left in it. "So does this."
Vicky hated the idea of going shopping on an empty stomach, but she had little choice in the matter, so she finished the orange juice then checked the time:
"Seven fifteen..." she needed to turn off that alarm so she stopped getting up so early and could sleep in. "oh well...better wake him up. Ahem TWERP!" (This was still Vicky after all.)
Hearing a sound that could only be him falling out of bed and chuckling to herself that some things never change regarding the fact that he always came when she called him, she heard him trudge down there stairs, the hesitation obvious in his footfalls.
"Yeah Vicky?" (she noted that he sounded pretty tired but no matter.)
"Apparently your parents want the two of us to starve to death so I'm going out to get some things, any requests?"
"What do you care what I want?"
"Because I don't get paid if your parents return home to find you dead." she was hurt (though not surprised) that he thought she didn't care about him. "Now, What. Do. You. Want?"
"Uh... some... things I suppose... Orange juice, cereal, milk, deli meat, cheese, bread... you know usual stuff to cover breakfast, lunch and dinner..."
"Alright, in the meantime... Here." Vicky produced from her pocket a long list of chores that Timmy assumed she had thousands of copies of. "You can do these while I'm gone, just like old times eh?"
"But I-"
"Or if you would prefer..." Vicky hesitated now, if she finished her sentence it would be another step towards the eventuality that she was not yet aware of. "you could come with me."
Timmy looked at the list and then at Vicky, he would have to do the chores either way but if he went with her he could at least postpone them and mentally prepare himself for them which may make them easier to deal with... but the growing emotions he felt towards her made him wonder if going with her was a good idea.
"Time's a'wastin'." he could hear the impatience growing in her voice.
"...I'll go get dressed."
"Make it quick."
Timmy shuffled out of the kitchen and back upstairs, Vicky waited until he left before changing from her usual frown to a slight grin. She figured he would have chosen to stay but was not unpleasantly surprised to find that he wanted to go with her. She was starting to feel almost giddy from her thoughts when he re-entered the kitchen dressed in his usual attire.
"Shall we?" he sounded like a zombie.
"Careful there Twerp, you're way too excited now."
Walking back to the living room Vicky approached her suitcase which Timmy noticed had a sword hilt sticking out of it, he had a brief mental image of Vicky, in one swift motion , grabbing the sword, unsheathing it, and slicing him in two, but instead she merely reached past it and grabbed her car keys. There was an audible sigh of relief from Timmy that Vicky ignored, for the most part.
"What'd he think I was going to do, kill him when his guard was down? She looked at the swords sticking out of her suitcase. "Oh, right..."
Getting in the car Timmy looked over the list, not knowing when exactly it changed hands. Looking at the list of chores he realized that most of them had already been done either by him or his parents.
"She does just have copies of the same list! Well at least I don't have to do most of it. I hope."
Backing out of the driveway Timmy noticed Denzel Crocker's totally not suspicious white van parked across the street.
"Jeez he never gives up." said Timmy.
"Yeah I know, he investigated me when I was younger thinking I had magic powers or something because I'm so mean."
Timmy knew the answer but asked anyway.
"Did you have magic powers?"
She flashed a smile at him. "Nope. Just evil."
"Well I wouldn't go that far..."
"Oh really?"
"Well I mean if you were evil then you wouldn't have protected me that time when we were caught in the avalanche and we... um... hugged."
She hadn't forgotten that incident but they had agreed not to talk about it, the thought brought a dusting of pink to both of their faces.
"That was necessary so that we didn't freeze to death, it was a desperate time and it called for desperate measures."
The pink on her cheeks emboldened him slightly and he continued.
"So the times when we were in dire straits and things like that happened, it didn't mean anything?"
"I didn't say that."
There was a hint of nervousness in her voice, she was no longer on top in this situation, and she didn't like it.
"Then what are you saying?"
"I'm saying that we can talk about this later after we are done shopping."
"Why not now?"
"Because I don't want to right now dammit!" she hadn't meant to snap at him but the role reversal was jarring to her. "Just- let's just finish shopping, you finish your chores, and let me stop and think about this, I'm sure you need to think more on it as well, and then we'll talk, hell I might even help you with your chores if you play your cards right."
She was feeling unsure again about her thoughts, she may be okay with a relationship, and he might be too, but society had its own ideas of what was and wasn't okay and their relationship might be... frowned upon to say the least. People might say things like "How long has this been going on?" "Since he was ten?" "Since he was eight?" Even with all she had at her disposal it would be hard to wriggle out of this kind of trouble, whether it was true or not. Timmy's voice snapped her back to reality.
"Who are you and what have you done with my babysitter?"
"Very funny."
Timmy noticed that Vicky didn't look happy but at least she was willing to talk about these new emotions that were apparently plaguing them both, plus she had offered to help him with his chores, so they were making progress.
Shortly thereafter they arrived at the supermarket and Vicky parked up front in a handicapped space.
"Vicky, neither of us are handicapped, this isn't well, y'know, legal?"
"I could always make you handicapped if you would prefer that to illegally parking?"
"Maybe I should just keep my distance and try to stay on her good side for now... if she has a good side." Timmy thought to himself.
He merely looked at her with a scared expression. This was evidently enough for her.
"Good, that's what I thought, now come on."
They entered the store happy for the respite from the summer heat.
"Alright Twerp." She said this over a stifled yawn. "You go get what you want, I'll get what I want and we'll meet at the check out in twenty minutes, don't make me have them call for you over the intercom."
Timmy was glad that Vicky was an apparently fast shopper like him, he would rather not run into Frances who had a habit of frequenting stores and shaking down whoever he could: senior citizens, small children, animals, magical creatures and the occasional eldritch abomination. So shaking down Timmy or his friends would be easy and in all likelihood they were his preferred targets.
Pushing the shopping cart at a brisk pace, Timmy grabbed everything he figured he would need for a while and quite a few things he almost certainly didn't, mostly junk food, but he wasn't paying, his parents were through their credit card, so what'd it matter? Not to mention he wanted to avoid Vicky's wrath if he took too long.
Vicky on the other hand, was pushing her cart around rather leisurely, she wasn't in all that much of a hurry, she merely wanted to keep Timmy on his toes. Entering one of the aisles she looked to the end to see Frances walking by, and he noticed her, the fear becoming evident on his face he quickened his pace and continued away from her.
"Great the gray one." Vicky was well aware that Frances bullied Timmy and originally this annoyed her to know end, Timmy was her property to bully, not his, now, however, she felt something else, perhaps a need to protect Timmy thanks to these new emotions, but preferred not to make a scene in such a public place. "He'd better watch his ass in here." She was referring to both Timmy and Frances. She guessed Frances had no qualms about starting trouble in a supermarket but he was an idiot, so it really wasn't surprising.
Her shopping finished she took out her phone and called Timmy, (she wasn't really going to embarrass him by having him called over the intercom).
After a few rings he answered:
"Yeah?"
"You done?"
"Pretty much."
"All right meet me at the front of the store and we can go. Also, watch yourself Twerp, Frances is around."
"..." Hesitation from his end.
"Twerp?"
"You know about Frances?"
"I babysat him for a few months and you for far longer, I know."
Timmy was surprised by this and briefly wondered which was the lesser of the two evils Frances or Vicky?
"All right I'll be careful, thanks Vicky."
"... Just hurry up Twerp." Over the years Frances had grown up quite a bit physically and Vicky wondered if in a one on one fight if she would be able to best him. Her advantage was that he still feared her and she was thankful for that at least.
Heading to the twelve items or less register she began to pile her groceries on the conveyor.
"Ma'am this is the twelve items or less register, you can't-"
A deathly cold stare from Vicky silenced the woman and she began to scan her items, shaking slightly as she did. Vicky turned her attention to looking for Timmy and saw him looking at the check out stands, obviously for her. She whistled to get his attention and he headed over to where she was, his cart nearly as full as hers.
"You good Twerp?"
"Yeah I didn't see him."
"Lucky you."
Timmy put his things on the conveyor next. The cashier had a worried look on her face, she could lose her job over this, and figured her boss wouldn't believe she was intimidated by this red headed girl likely less than a third her age.
The total came to just over five hundred dollars.
"Glad your parents are footing the bill and not me."
"Like you couldn't afford it?" Timmy deadpanned.
"Not the point Twerp."
They left the store and loaded the groceries into Vicky's car, Timmy noticed that they were loading the groceries into the front, or rather that the trunk was in the front instead of the back. He hadn't noticed before but now realized Vicky's car was a rather expensive looking sports car.
"Is this thing street legal?"
Vicky paused in contemplation for several seconds. "Probably not."
Getting back in the car Vicky drove them out of the parking lot and back towards his house when Timmy decided to speak up:
"Um... thanks for warning me back there... in the store I mean..."
Vicky glanced over to him and he noticed that her features had softened ever so slightly at looking at him, she reached over and he flinched only to realize that she was just ruffling his hair a bit,
"Don't mention it Timmy, and don't worry, long as I'm around he should avoid bothering you." she didn't smile, merely keeping a neutral expression, but he thought he heard a smile in her voice when she said this. What concerned Vicky was that her statement was not entirely true, Frances almost certainly didn't know about her current arrangement with the Turners, and she couldn't keep an eye on Timmy at all times.
"Guess I'll just have to do my best..."
His flinching however, hadn't gone unnoticed by her and she felt a pang of guilt for eliciting that reaction from him. Timmy on the other hand, felt his face redden at her touch, she had never really hurt him physically but he flinched all the same, and her affectionate touch had caught him off guard, though not unpleasantly so. Also, had she called him Timmy? This was unprecedented, clearly there was something strange at work here.
"So how's the gang of Twerps doing?"
"Well Uh... AJ is going to Cape Cod with his family and they are apparently driving there so he'll likely be gone awhile; Chester's dad is trying to re-ignite his dream of being a country music star, so who knows when I'll see him again; I've kinda distanced myself from Elmer, that boil of his creeps me right the fuck out...
"Amen to that." Thought Vicky.
"... I haven't the slightest idea what happened to Sanjay, I've not seen him in at least a year, and I don't know about Tootie she mentioned that your parents were going to surprise her or something..."
"They're going to the Bahamas, I saw the brochures..."
"They aren't taking you with them?"
"Yeah, exactly." Timmy could see the sadness in her eyes.
"Well I guess we have more in common than I thought."
"Looks that way..."
Timmy had grown accustomed to his parents leaving him behind when they went out but this was the first time they had gone on a long vacation and wouldn't be back for such a long time. He wasn't worried much, he was perfectly content to hang out with his friends and play video games rather than go to some faraway place. He hadn't expected to be left in the care of Vicky though, not for such a lengthy amount of time at least, but so far it had hardly been as bad as he expected. Vicky had really started to grow on him and while she was mean to him, she did look out for him, so she really couldn't be that bad.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Vicky's question snapped him back to reality.
"Eh, it's nothing."
"Well we're back, so how about helping me unloadthese groceries?"
He hadn't noticed that they were already back at his house, too lost in his thoughts apparently.
"Gotta give props to your parents, leaving us with no food and only a cup orange juice and various alcohol to drink, really good people."
After putting the groceries away, Vicky asked him what he had been dreading and hoped she had forgotten about:
"Alright Twerp let's see that chore list, and get this over with." Apparently we were back to 'Twerp' for now. He took out the list and handed it to her.
"Well my parents and I finished most of them already, apparently in preparation for them going on vacation, they didn't tell me that was why we were doing it though."
Vicky noticed that many of them were checked off, leaving only to clean the pool filters-
"Pool? What pool? Oh right, the one I had him build a few years ago in summer, man that must have been a real scorcher... God, maybe I am evil..."
-and water the garden.
"Wait you don't have a garden, every time your mom tries to grow things they die."
"You made the list Vicky."
"Oh right, well whatever, so clean the pool filters, lets do that... How do we do that?" Vicky's family didn't own a pool and if they did Vicky wouldn't waste her time learning to clean the filters, someone else could do a menial task like that.
"You just scoop out the dead leaves... or animals, and then put in some chlorine tablets."
"Dead animals?"
"It's an in ground pool, and animals are stupid. Don't worry though it's usually just mouse or two..."
"That's disgusting."
"Someone's gotta do it. Usually it's me."
"Ugh... fine let's get this over with."
Surprisingly there were no animals in the filters this time just dead leaves and debris. They were both thankful for this small miracle. They placed in new chlorine tablets and went back into the house. They noticed it was close to three in the afternoon by now.
"We should probably eat something before we collapse." said Timmy.
"What did you have in mind?"
"I dunno."
"Great suggestion Twerp! I'm gonna microwave something."
"Can't you cook something?"
"I am cooking something... with a microwave."
"I meant on the stove." Timmy deadpanned.
"Well I could, except... no.
Vicky began to open a box of microwaveable sliders. It was quick, easy, and had almost no clean up.
"Vicky... you do know how to cook real food right?"
"Well... of course I do... I'm just lazy, that's all."
Timmy looked at Vicky.
Vicky looked at Timmy.
-silence-
"Alright fine! No not really, my parents preoccupied themselves with their little princess far more than me, nobody taught me to cook, and I never had any desire to learn, I just didn't care, so I've always made microwaveable crap. Are we done sharing now?"
"Ah sorry, I didn't know..."
"Yeah you didn't, so I can't really fault you for it, but now you do and I suggest you drop it."
"Fair enough. But I could teach you, I mean I've watched my mom cook so I know how to make some stuff..."
While Vicky was touched that he had offered, she felt that she showed enough weakness today.
"Not interested."
"Well the offer's there if you should change your mind."
"Whatever."
Timmy was unsure as to why her usual bluntness didn't bother him as much and why he felt like he had more patience than usual.
"I suppose it's too hot to cook anyway..."
He decided to have some sliders as well rather than heat up the house even more and sat down at the table across from Vicky, the silence between them becoming maddening, he decided to speak up:
"So how have things been?" a stupid question, he saw Vicky pretty frequently.
"Fine."
"Want to talk about the whole 'parents' thing?"
"Nope."
"Wanna go for a swim after we eat? I know for a fact the whole cramps thing is bullshit."
"No."
"...Wanna just sit in the living room watching bad horror movies until we get tired and we have to go to sleep?"
"...Alright.
Well it was something in Timmy's mind, he had decided that he could try to be friends with Vicky at least, it seemed likely that it couldn't be any more dangerous than staying enemies.
So after they ate, they went into the living room and sat down on the couch together, Timmy making sure to keep a respectable distance from Vicky, just in case. And so it was good times, they made fun of the horrible acting, bumbling monsters, and the fact that nobody could ever stop the one man army that the monster was, and they laughed like old friends would together, and Timmy learned that Vicky's normal laugh, the one no one knew about (being that most were used to her distinctly evil cackling laugh) was much preferable to the evil one. To him she laughed in an angel's voice.
"Ugh... how poetic..."
This continued well into the night until Vicky looked at her phone and realized it was already twelve-thirty at night. She hadn't wanted the time to go by so fast as she was enjoying their time together but it would be better to get some sleep rather than stay up into the wee hours of the morning. Yawning loudly she spoke:
"Alright Twerp time for bed, I think we both need some sleep."
Timmy yawned in agreement.
"Yeah I suppose." Then a thought crossed his mind. "Vicky are you... sleeping on the couch while staying here?"
"Well... yeah, I'm not gonna sleep in your parents room, and as far as I know you don't have a guest bedroom here."
"Well that's true but... I mean..." his nervousness was beginning to overpower his words.
"What?" there was an annoyed edge in her voice that she hadn't meant it to have.
"Well you could always come and sleep in my room..." the last words were squeaked out.
A sly smile graced her lips.
"Are you saying you want to sleep with me? Your evil babysitter?" her face turned slightly pink from the words, she hoped he wouldn't notice.
"Wha-! N-no! I-I have a bunk-bed that my parents got me a few years back! You could have the other bunk!" It did not occur at the time to Timmy that he was inadvertently causing Vicky to come closer to learning about his Fairies.
She inwardly giggled at how red and flustered he had become over her suggestion. At the same time she could not hide the slight disappointment that crept out from deep within herself.
"Oh, well in that case... Lead the way."
Turning off the TV she followed him up the stairs to his room, grabbing her blanket and suitcase on the way. Opening the door, he invited her in and she got a look at the room she hadn't been in for several months. In the middle of the room sat a couch bigger than what was in the living room and in front of it sat a huge TV on an entertainment center filled with the latest games for all the big-name consoles. To her right was a desk with a computer on it and to the left of it was a door.
"Probably to a closet or bathroom."
To her left was the bunk-bed he told her about, built differently than any she had seen before, and next to that an end table upon which is fishbowl sat.
"Those sure are some long-lived goldfish."
She returned her attention to the entertainment center and, getting Timmy's attention, gestured to it.
"Let me guess... Internet?
"Indeed."
Wanda whispered to Cosmo, unheard by Vicky:
"Just act like a normal goldfish! For the love of everything! Just act normal!"
Cosmo responded by floating belly-up, obviously shocked by the fact that Vicky had been invited into Timmy's room, rather than breaking down the door.
Wanda face-palmed (face-finned?) at his reaction.
Timmy began moving the boxes that were on the top bunk, under his bed (which made more sense as a place to put them) and dusted it off.
"Well... there you go."
"Thank you Timmy..."
"Back to Timmy now?"
"Maybe you're not such a Twerp after all."
"Was that a compliment?"
Vicky merely shrugged in response and climbed onto the top bunk with her blanket. Timmy then crawled into the bottom bunk and rested his head on his pillow, just as he felt sleep about to take him, Vicky stuck her head out over the side.
"Goodnight Timmy."
"Goodnight Vicky."
She returned to her position on the bed and went to sleep, less than a minute after he followed suit.
A/N: I'd like to apologize in advance in regards to Vicky, I fear I might have made her a bit bipolar in this chapter when it comes to her emotions, but I imagine that she is probably somewhat unhinged, she's just better at covering it up than most of the other more obviously unhinged characters in the show; also I was kinda tired when I wrote some parts and not as tired for others so it's kind of an emotional roller coaster for her at times. That being said, I'm not changing it either so... :P