The Day Before

"Wow, we sure got Kami-crazy good, huh Ro?" Tommy asked happily. The small white and blue robot beneath him nodded.

"Yes! Tommy help a lot this time," Robotboy replied, "Robotboy impressed by hot-wire ability."

"Oh yeah, that…" Tommy said sheepishly, "let's not tell my parents about where I learned that little skill."

"Ok Tommy, but you know parents can't see Robotboy…" It was starting to get a bit confusing for him. Robotboy knew that he was a secret, so why would he ever tell Tommy's parents about anything his friend did on their adventures? Should he be worried about Tommy's parents catching on to their son's disappearances? After all, Mrs. Turnball would definitely not be happy with their escapades.

"Yeah, I know Ro. Don't worry about it," Tommy replied, sensing Robotboy's anxiety. He felt the android relax a bit beneath him and decided to relax himself. One of his favorite parts about being trusted with Robotboy was the flying. It felt so nice to have the wind whip through his fairly long blond hair and to actually feel a cloud every once in a while. Those things were freezing cold…but then again, what else was to be expected from a mass of condensed water?

"We home Tommy," Robotboy alerted as he came to a stop. Slowly, he lowered them towards the ground and Tommy jumped off of his back. In all honesty, it still scared the little mech to have Tommy on his back. Humans were so fragile and light compared to robots. He could easily drop his best friend into the ocean accidentally or be too slow to protect him from attacks. No matter what, he would always be afraid of losing his best friend. Landing in front of the house every day was the only form of solace he would receive for his unvoiced fears. Even with his adolescent mind, he understood his relationship with Tommy and his role in it. Robotboy would physically protect Tommy. Tommy would support him emotionally.

However, now they were home and the uncertainty could be shoved away again into the far reaches of his processor. Within a fraction of a nanosecond, Robotboy fretted and recomposed himself without his human companion batting an eye. Sometimes, it was helpful having superhuman capabilities.

"You coming or what Ro?" Tommy shouted over his shoulder, holding the door open. Robotboy blinked and watched as the boy waved at him trying to get his attention. Nobody could ever know of his insecurities, not even Tommy. It would worry too many allies and then his enemies could exploit his one true weakness. Whoever said robots couldn't hurt was dead wrong. But unlike humans, they had nearly impenetrable defenses.

So with a smile, Robotboy replied, "Yes Tommy. But first, Robotboy must scout area. Make sure Kamikazi not back yet." With more thrust than was completely necessary, the small android was launched skywards, leaving an ever-impressed boy and an exhaust trail behind him.

"Even after having him so long, this is still pretty cool," Tommy commented to himself. He then turned to enter his empty house. Thank whatever was out there that Donnie had a parent-teacher conference. Not only were his parents not home to bug him about homework (ok, so that was mostly his mom. Regardless, it was a Friday afternoon and who wants to do algebra problems? Not him…), but Donnie wasn't around to bug him for a few hours. That in itself was a dream come true. Now if only his parents would believe that Donnie wasn't the upstanding teenager they made him out to be. Tommy snorted at the notion. Yeah, that was asking a bit much.

Walking through the threshold, he couldn't help but feel that something was…off with the place. It was like, something was there that shouldn't be there but that he shouldn't be surprised or scared that it was there. He briefly wondered if that really made any sense at all. Shrugging it off, he continued his very short journey into the living room. After bad-guy-bashing with Ro, they usually just sat down in front of the TV and watched the Human Fist.

"Oh, there you are!" Tommy nearly jumped five feet in the air. Swiveling towards the voice, he noticed Lola sitting on his couch. She smiled and waved at him, as if her being in his empty house shouldn't be that much of a surprise for him. Well, it was…so what a failure on the "no surprise" part.

"Lola?" he stuttered in shock, "What are you doing in my house? I mean, I don't have a problem with you being here but my parents aren't home and did you just let yourself in?" He was rambling now, trying to come up with answers he didn't have. At least he knew Lola (they were best friends after all and best friends let their best friends break into their homes) and he was thankful that the person in his house wasn't a complete stranger. Then again, if they had been a threat, Robotboy would have detected and disposed of them. Maybe Ro knew Lola was there, inspecting her manicure, looking quite adorable curled up against the cusion…

Tommy mentally slapped himself out of that train of thought.

"I came over earlier to see if you were around," Lola answered, "Gus was stuck in detention (for the zillionth time…) and I didn't want to wait around for him. Donnie and your parents were leaving, so your mom gave me some cookies and told me to wait for you." Tommy blinked. Ok, he hadn't been expecting that.

"Um…were you waiting long?" he asked, "Ro and I had some Kamikazi stuff to take care of. You know, one of those last-minute ill thought-out crazy plans by the insane doctor himself."

"Oh yeah, I know what you mean." She giggled, remembering all of the times they had thwarted Kamikazi's weird plans. There was that tapeworm thing (she hadn't been there for that, but she heard it was fairly amusing to see Gus bond with a parasite), the candy fiasco (note to self: robots and candy DO NOT mix), and a whole myriad of other actions that could define insanity and desperation. But there were those rare gems in the slagheap, like the faux tune-up and the crying idea. "It's kind of hard to consider him a legitimate threat," she added. "And no, I didn't wait too long. Your parents left about fifteen minutes ago. They'll probably be out for a while since your dad started asking for more beef jerky or something."

"Yeah, he was complaining that we were all out this morning." Tommy scratched the back of his head nervously. He and Lola hardly spent time alone anymore, between Robotboy's "missions" and Gus being Gus. "So…what do you want to do?"

"Well, I brought this over to watch." Lola pulled out the newest Human Fist movie from behind her back. Her smile grew wider as she saw Tommy's gaping mouth.

"How did you get that?" he managed to say. "It's not supposed to come out on DVD for two more months!"

"Tommy, Tommy," she said, shaking her head, "you keep forgetting that my dad is an ambassador with connections. So, you want to watch?"

"Do I?" Tommy exclaimed, immediately grabbing the disc from Lola's hand and popping it into the DVD player. "You're the best!" The girl smiled, cheeks warming to a blush. She was always happy whenever Tommy complimented her on something. Butterflies would just well up in her stomach and, no matter how much she tried to deny it, her crush would make itself known. By now, she knew resistance was futile, so why not give in to such a wonderful emotion?

As one minute turned into twenty, neither of the two kids thought of the whereabouts of their third companion.

Meanwhile, Robotboy scanned the uppermost floor of the house. To be honest, he really didn't think he'd find anything detrimental right now. Once they beat Kamikazi for the day, the doctor would slink back into the shadows, cutting his losses there. Still, it was better to catch something now than later.

The small android finally made it to his last destination on the second floor: Donnie's room. Peering through the thick wood door, he noticed that the bedroom was exactly the same as when he pretended to be a broken robot toy. Smiling at the memory of driving the elder Turnball to the brink of insanity, he hovered into the chaos that was the teenager's abode. With a smirk, he decided to set up a small prank for Donnie's return. Maybe after that, he'd stop picking on his younger brother so much.

Brother…

Robotboy froze, spontaneously deactivating his jets and landing on the floor. The word brought up memories of his older brother. Why couldn't they get along? He wasn't as naïve to think that Protoboy would just show up randomly on Tommy's doorstep all nice and cheery. No, he wanted to believe that buried deep within his coding, Protoboy did have some good in him. There had to be. All of Professor Moshimo's creations had it in them. His creator would never purposely create an evil robot…right?

Of course not! He was silly to doubt Moshimo in the first place! But still…why create an adolescent fighting robot that needed the guidance of an elder? Why not just make it grown up?

His thoughts turned to Robotman. Oh, what a disaster! That big, clunky android thought he was better than Robotboy! Ok, so the guy mentally and physically outmatched him, but what kid wanted to be stuck with an adult all day long? Yes, he did respect authority, but the happy looks on his friends' faces were worth breaking a few rules for (as Gus says, "Life's too short to waste. You've got to eat dessert, then dinner, then more dessert, and just feed your veggies and disgusting healthy stuff to the goat or something. They like it, I don't; it's a win-win!"). And speaking of breaking a few rules, it was time to break out the duct tape and welding torch. Operation: Prank Donnie Turnball was on!

The noises upstairs were of little disturbance to the tweens on the couch. Tommy and Lola watched raptly as the Human Fist took on four enemies at once. Against impossible odds, he was prevailing. It was as though he didn't have any weaknesses.

"I wish I was like that…" Tommy mumbled to himself. However, Lola heard the comment too.

"Wish you were like what?" she inquired.

"Um…" he was a bit flustered and it took a minute to get his bearings. "Well, the Human Fist has seemingly no weaknesses. I wish I was kind of like that. I wouldn't get bullied all the time, I wouldn't have to listen to Donnie, my parents would listen to me, I could help Ro…"

"Don't think about it like that," Lola replied. "Weaknesses make you human. Weaknesses show us what we can do to improve and weaknesses remind us that we aren't impenetrable and that we have limits. It's always good to know those limits." Her insight shocked him and he couldn't help but agree. Little did they know that a certain android had overheard that part of the conversation while scouring the house for more duct tape. His volumes drooped a bit before he silently grabbed the silver cylinder and stealthily sped back up the stairs.

Weaknesses…he didn't have a lot, did he? His metal was an impervious alloy of titanium, platinum, and a few other trace elements. Electrical surges killed his battery, but he could just get another one and go on living. He could withstand underwater pressure, fire, military android onslaught, and even the strongest of humans were no match for him. If pitted against any of those encounters, a human would be dead within seconds or minutes. He would appear unscathed. So…there were no weaknesses. There wasn't a human inside of him. Perhaps that thought was the killer. He was a robot, not a human; end of story.

After a few more minutes of silence (minus the false punching noises given off by the TV), Lola still wasn't convinced that Tommy was over the inadvertent "Wow, I'm a wimp!" idea. Quickly glancing at the boy, she confirmed her suspicions. Tommy always got this half-pout, half-blank stare when he was thinking too hard about something trivial. Yeah, it was definitely time for an intervention.

"You know, there are some good things that come out of weaknesses," she said slowly. He turned towards her, eyeing her skeptically.

"That's hard to believe. They're called weaknesses for a reason," he stated.

"Well, I'm going to prove you wrong!" Faster than Tommy's brain could handle, he was on the floor with Lola over him.

"What are you doing?" he nearly shouted in her face. It was more out of shock than pain. He really wasn't expecting to be tackled to the ground by his best friend. And whoa, she could pack a punch when she wanted too. Briefly, he wondered how good she would be at American football. She was already a whiz at football…*

What she shouted next was completely unexpected.

"TICKLE FIGHT!" And then it started. Tommy's limbs were flailing madly as he laughed uncontrollably. The downside to having your childhood friend as your current best friend: they knew all your dirty secrets, including your major tickle spots. It was torture at its finest.

Lola knew she had won, but why not go for the overkill? Before Tommy realized what she was doing, she took his shirt off and tickled the soft skin underneath. Years ago, they had a sleepover and engaged in the ultimate tickle war. They both found each other's weak points: Lola's being the area behind her knees and Tommy's being his stomach. And yes, that was totally typical…

The laughter increased tenfold, Lola's own triumphant chortles mixing into Tommy's desperate attempt to get air into his lungs. After a few more seconds, she decided that enough was enough and stopped, slapping Tommy's shirt over his shuddering body. A large smile was plastered on his face as both recovered from their previous bouts of laughter. The movie was still playing, depicting some scene with the Human Fist and a feminine survivor from the city. Lola couldn't help but feel the butterflies return as she watched Tommy regain his breath.

Ok, this was the moment she had been waiting for: no Gus (he'd definitely ruin everything…), no Robotboy, no parents, no Donnie (thank whatever was out there for that!); no interruptions. If she was going to do it, it had to be now. Plus, the set up was perfect! They were alone, watching a movie, and just partook in a massive one-sided tickle fight that cheered Tommy up in the process. She had to act fast or the moment would be lost!

But…they were such good friends. What if Tommy didn't feel that way about her? What if she completely shattered their friendship? What if everything went wrong? She could lose Tommy forever and she'd only have herself to blame. She knew how boys were (she hung out with them all the time), Tommy would get nervous or scared and run away. But worst of all, he'd bring up Bambi. What did he see in that attention-seeking, bratty, insecure piece of-

No, she could rant about that later. Right now, she had to focus on her choice. To tell or not to tell, that was the question. Well, it was now or never. Besides, Tommy was finally coherent enough now that his breathing had evened out.

Well, sometimes you've got to jump without seeing to the bottom.

Here's hoping that the bottom was two feet away.

"Tommy, there's something I want to tell you," she started, mentally kicking herself in the process. Oh, now that was beyond stupid! Why couldn't she have said something less cliché and girly? Screw the author; she wanted to do this her way!

"Yeah, what is it?" Tommy was giving her his full attention. It was kind of unnerving. Maybe she shouldn't…no, it was time to be strong.

"I, well…I…can you promise me something?" she finally resigned herself to ask.

"What?"

"Promise that we'll always be friends." Tommy blinked. That came out of nowhere.

"Of course! Lola, is something wrong?" Great, now she got him all concerned over something that was not an issue! Ok, it was the wrong issue, but still!

"Yes, everything's fine! I…I just wanted to say that I think I like you more than a friend." It came out faster that she wanted it to. However, Tommy heard it all the same.

"…What do you mean?" Now or never…

"Tommy, I like you, ok? I mean, I really like you. I didn't bother telling you before because everyone else was around and it was just plain awkward! It's just been eating away at me and I just finally wanted to let you know. Ok?" Her heart was fluttering rapidly and she could feel her cheeks blushing furiously. Every second that Tommy simply gazed back at her was agonizing. Finally, he spoke.

"You know…I think I like you too…" He didn't find the words too hard to say. After all, it was always easier when someone else made the first leap over the edge. You could calculate your distance, expect the results. He knew Lola took a risk…and that was all the reason he needed to sort through his conflicting feelings.

Bambi was a crush and an unobtainable goal. Deep down, he knew that Little Miss Popular wasn't his kind and wasn't very nice. He had everything in common with Lola and now he finally recognized why she was ten times better than any other girl he would ever meet. They'd known each other for years, grew up together, fought villains together, and always had each other's back. If Lola jumped, he was definitely jumping after her.

Relief flowed through both of them and, as can be expected when faced with overcoming a monumental challenge, the mind acts on instinct. Mutual thought process guided them closer, bringing their foreheads in contact with one another. Although inexperienced, they both leaned to one side, knowing what would come next.

Their lips met as explosions sounded in the background. Nothing could shake them out of their state of pure bliss. They broke away a few seconds later, their affection represented in an innocent peck on the lips. However, peace cannot last very long in a household sheltering a naïve fighting robot.

"Tommy, Lola," a soft, familiar voice called out, "what doing?"

* Since Robotboy is technically European, I decided to stick with football referring to soccer and American football referring to, well, our football (y'know, NFL). Consider yourselves internationally educated! :D

A/N: Ha, my first true romance scene for any fanfiction has officially been written! And Ro awkwardly walking in on them! Can you spell "awkward" with a capital K? What now? :D

Ok, I want to apologize for the lack of update/apparent dead-ness of this story. It wasn't dead, it was in a state of indefinite suspended animation and it just woke up. I'm gonna try my best to post another chapter in a few days (finishing this sparked my muse for the story again :D) before I get shipped off to camp (counselor in training baby!).

Anyways, have a good summer everyone!