I'm in discrace... This chapter's dedicated to SORAW.T.K, for being so patient with me... (Is discraced)
700 opened her eyes, groaning telepathically. She was aware of a soft, damp towel placed on her forehead, and that she was lying down on the couch in the living room.
'How did I-?' she wondered, sitting up sharply. A second later, she regretted it, a hot rush shooting up her spine and into her head. She groaned again, falling back onto the cushion, clutching at her forehead. 'Why do I always go unconscious…?' She said to herself, closing her eyes.
"I wouldn't try that if I were you." A voice warned. She moved a hand to see 000 look up from his book. He was sat across the room on the floor, led on his stomach, feet in the air. "Fat-boy said that you're gonna be like that for most of the day. I suggested you stay her where I could keep an eye on you."
'Hooray…' She groaned, rubbing her eyes, which had started burning.
"What the heck were you doing up there anyway?" He asked, closing his book, rolling over and trotting to her.
'Oh… That…' she said slowly, brushing a stray white hair behind her ear. 'I was… Just… Meditating!' She said finally.
"Meditating?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow. "700, you nearly fried my life-sensors! D'you know how painful that is?"
'Do you?'
"Well… no, it's never happened before, but that's beside the point!"
'Well, what is your point?' She asked innocently, tilting her head to look him in the face.
"My point is-!" He hesitated, trying to think one up. "My… My point is that- That w-whatever you were doing, you could've gotten hurt!"
'I was only thinking to myself, silly.' She giggled, shaking her head slightly. 'How could I have gotten hurt in my own head?'
"… Um…" He faltered, curling up the finger he'd been wagging at her. "(Gah…)"
'Exactly.' She sighed, nodding gently. 'Anyway, what's with all the attention on me? I'm not exactly complaining,' She giggled. 'But, from glancing at your memories, you don't really lavish it on other people as much as me. Why?'
000 stood a second, thinking this over. Why was he doing this for her? Even when he, himself, was hurt, he never gave himself the luxury in bed to recover. It was irrelevant to keep all the pent up energy in lying down…
"I… Have no idea…" He confessed, scratching the back of his neck. 700's forehead creased slightly, equally confused.
'Well, whatever the reason, please don't stop(!)' She laughed, putting her hands behind her head.
"Actually, you've got a point…" he said slowly, tapping his chin in thought, gradually shifting his gaze up towards hers. Their sights met in time for her to notice the trace of an evil smile flicker over his lips.
'Nooo…' she warned warily, digging her claws into the soft cushions, shaking her head at him. 'No!' She quickly repeated as he grinned wildly. 'No-! Ack!!!' He jumped onto the far end of the couch, grabbed her tail, and then gave it a quick yank, dragging her to him. She yelped as she collided with him, concertinaing her tail up so she ended up nose to nose with his wicked smirk.
'That was unnecessary…' She sighed quietly, folding her arms at him, giving a death glare. His smirk widened as he gently shook his head.
A rainbow sheen…
000 blinked, staring at her eyes again.
The same death glare, if slightly softer. He frowned to himself, and then tilted his head slightly, so the light reflected off her eyes.
The sheen.
'…What?' she asked warily, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the way he was staring at her. He blinked, realising what he'd been doing; as in, leaning over her, staring into her eyes, steadily getting nearer her face-
He sat up sharply, coughing into his hand, turning his head away to hide any traces of embarrassment. …wait- what? Embarrassment? Where did-?
"Erm… Sorry." He muttered, trying to offer his hand to her without directly looking at her. "It's just…"
'Just what?' he asked himself, suddenly feeling very, very bewildered, trying to think of what to reply. He couldn't say 'It was just that I had this overwhelming feeling to push you back down and-' He growled mentally to himself, shaking his head. 'What the hell am I thinking?!?'
"Sorry…" He said quickly, hopping off the couch and steadily making his way to the door without so much as a backwards glance. "I- I think something must be up with me… I'm really not thinking straight…"
'Oh…' she said quietly, a slight intonation of concern in her voice. 'Well, you better find Jumba… Or- Or something…' She trailed off as he walked briskly out the door.
"Now, please do not be chewing this one…" Jumba ordered, throwing the shattered thermometer behind him into the bin as he stuck a fresh one in 000's mouth. "I am having enough troubles without glass and mercury splattered all over my workplace."
"Soh-rhee(!)" He sarcastically remarked, said thermometer impairing his speech slightly. "Not my poblem ib you don't have stro-" He caught it in mid-air as it popped out accidentally, replacing it before it gave a false reading. "Strong thermobeters."
"Well, if you didn't chew them, they wouldn't shatter, would they?" Jumba shot back, plugging the fresh connection into his laptop. "Or would you prefer a rectal examination…?"
"Ouch, bewow the belt, Fat-boy…" He patronisingly said, but slowly crossed his legs all the same, lest Jumba be serious. "(What is it with aliens and peoples' bu-?)"
"Well…" Jumba interrupted as the computer computed. "Apart from your old wounds, this doesn't seem to be anything wrong with you… Are you trying to pull a fast one to get out of training?" Zero spat out the instrument in his haste to answer;
"Naw, naw Fat-boy, I swear!" He put his first two fingers to his eyebrow to show his seriousness. "Would I lie to a relative?"
"We aren't related."
"Scout's Honour!"
"You aren't a Scout."
"I swear on the head of my wife!"
"Swear on-? Zero, you haven't even got a wife!"
"…someday I might." He muttered, folding his arms and looking huffily away. Without warning, the image of 700 appeared in his head. Growling loudly, he shook it, yanking his ears down in frustration.
"What was that about?!" Jumba asked, perplexed by his odd- well, odder behaviour.
"It's that new experiment of yours!" He semi-yelled, clawing angrily at his forehead in an attempt to claw the images out. "I- I- I can't get her out of my head!" He looked to Jumba for explanation, but was taken aback to find him looking flabbergasted.
"…no…" Jumba said quietly, shaking his head whilst surveying 000 with a disbelieving eye. "Could it be…?"
"What?"
"Tell me, 000," He asked warily, as if confirming something. "Do you get a strange sensation every time you think of 700?" Zero paused, thinking back…
"Yeah, but just recently."
"Not you… Impossible…" A small, knowing smile spread over his face. "I would have never had thought it…"
"What?"
"Never in a million…"
"WHA-at?!?" He almost wined, digging his claws into the tabletop he was sat on. Jumba grinned back, a wide, smug smirk on his face as he, almost triumphantly, crossed his arms. "Tell me!"
"Oh no, no, no." Jumba said haughty, laughing slightly to himself. "It's nothing detrimental to your health. In fact, it's a very good thing to… for lack of a better word, 'catch', but you must figure out what 'it' is for yourself." At that, he picked him up by the scruff of the neck, plopped him just outside the door, and then closed it.
000 blinked slowly, rather thrown by the unexpected ejection.
He slowly turned on the spot, looking up at a spot on the door he gauged to be Jumba's height.
He paused.
"…WHAT?" He yelled angrily at the spot, utterly perplexed. "What the heck does that mean?!?"
Naive, isn't he?