You, Me, and Your Space Cat

    Unconsciously, she took his hand as they walked side by side, her fingers fitting easily between his, like pieces of a perfect puzzle. She might have never noticed the gesture she'd done at all if not for the way he tenderly gave the offending hand a slight squeeze. Then it all came to her in an overload of senses. His skin was hot in comparison to her nearlu frost-bitten digits, the Fall air obsenely colder than expected that brisk morning. His hands were all in constant motion usually, and now here his hand was, clasped in hers and unable to flutter away as he spoke. It was a good feeling, somehow, to realize that he was willing to loose one important gesturing part of him for her, as much as it seemed to hinder his ability to lecture.

  She wasn't entirely sure what the subject of the morning was. It seemed to have shifted dramatically from the one-sided conversation begun that morning as they left the front door. He had moved on from whatever political rant he'd started to something seemingly more calm. She blushed slightly, feeling guilty for having entirely ignored him for the past few hours. She couldn't help it, really. It was their first walk together since he'd first said (quite all the sudden and in the middle of some other sentence...) that he was crazy in love with her. And then promptly after, not even waiting for a response from her, he'd suggested they go get some sleep. And now here they were, walking, and he was, as ever, talking with no room for her to intrude. She didn't mind it. She liked to hear him speak, usually. Now, though, her brain was still reeling from the shock.

  "Hey?...Are you listenin' to me?"

  She blinked, owlishly, and looked over at him with a grin she hoped was sincere in appearence.

  "Sure. Sure I am," she responded, nodding viciously, her blonde hair flying forward with the force. She tossed it over her shoulder with an idle motion, embarrassed, certain she'd been asked a question and therefore been caught in her absent-minded thought.

  "Hm. Right then. I asked you if you thought maybe we could use the accelerator. Ya know, to boost the field a bit. That'd probably keep the little blighters away for more than an hour. Likely drain your generator, though. Your electric bill will be nasty..."

  She mentally sighed, vaguely recalling a day not so long ago when all of that nonsense wouldn't have met a thing. Once there had been a world before soul-sucking demons and a crazy hyper in-human guardian who thought he loved her and never shut his trap.

  "Yah. Whatever you and Rick can get worked up...anything that will keep us safe at night."

  It was a long story, in the end...a typical story involving time-travel and magics and Fate and other things she still wasn't sure she entirely believed in. Certainly things that she didn't trust. Even him...even this strangely attractive demi-god from the Future...even he didn't seem entirely worth her admiration or loyalties. He could turn on her any second, she often thought. He was just that way, a flighty creature of space and time and whatever the hell. He was so..not human. It frightened her, even if holding his hand was comforting and listening to him babble on just made her love him more...it wasn't right in her gut.

  "Good! So, as I was saying..."

  And then he was off again, like a flash. This time, she nodded idly and tried to listen every few seconds, the rest of the time filled with thoughts she didn't particularly like.

  She was thinking of what was to come. What future was there for a girl that the world seemed out to get and a mystery god calling himself the ridiculous name of "Spade"?

  It was just so stupid. It made them the duo Eve n' Spade and that just rang so corny and artifical. She was still certain this was all sort of weirdly convincing dream. One that she had to disprove now, at all costs, before it all came tumbling down around her ears, a mess of shattered insanity involving the cosmos and her long-time neighbor Rick's stupid gadets that ripped a hole in time and sent Spade and all these Eve-obsessed baddies into their neck of the woods. She could still strangle Rick for this whole pile of junk. The genius little idiot, always messing around with facts of the universe. Even if she had never understood a syllable of it, she really wished she'd known enough to stop him early on...before that day a few months ago when he went all mad-scientist on her and bent the laws of reality.

  "Spade..." she said it sharper than she intended, forgetting for a second that the strange not-human demi-whatever man that loved her wasn't really to blame.

  He kept prattling for a few more words, his force dying, the words faltering to mere whispers before they finally fell still, like a train having to slow for a few miles before finally coasting into a dead stop.

  "Yah?"

  "I want...I want you and Darcy to go home," she blurted out, forcing her words to remain even and cool, like she was just announcing that she needed a coffee or something.

  Spade frowned, seeming to puzzle over this for a few long seconds before finally responding with a blankly uttered - "What'd Darcy do? Did she rip up the curtains again? I'm really sorry 'bout that. She just gets so excited and you know how those little Welkers are, they just love to climb, the little blighters and well she is really just in a phase but its no reason to get upset and besides she really likes it here in the 21st century, you know, and she'd be just cr--"

  "Spade."

  "-ushed to find out that you dont...like...her...anymore."

  "Spade, it's not Darcy's fault and you know it. I love that little fur ball, even if she is kinda creepy. I want you and Darcy to help Rick figure out how to get you and all the Annoying Bad Guys back to your own little timeline. I'm sick of watching you trying to stall for time. I can tell you know how to get back and if I can tell, so can Rick, and while he might not mind you routing him around on wild goose chases all the time, I do. I want you out of my life, Spade. You and your little pet...you're just nothing but trouble. Okay?"

  The more she talked the redder her face became, and her eyes had long ago burst with tears that flowed hotly along her cheeks and she kept hiccuping and sobbing and everytime she did she just became all the more frustrated with herself and finally couldn't speak at all, she just stood there in the middle of the park sideway, sobbing and crying and howling like a banshee all the while till she thought she'd pass out for want of an actual breath of air.

  She sniffled dejectedly as Spade impulsively clutched her to him, arms wrapped warm and comfy around her as he practically smothered her in his soft blazer, awkwardly raking his hand over her hair as if trying to smooth out a strange wrinkle in his good shirt. She struggled a bit, still sobbing, though with less force, and managed to pull away from his grasp before she sufficated.

  "I'm not g-g-oing to fall in love with any stupid alien whatever you are, Spade. If nothing else, you're too damn old for me and I think I'm allergic to your stupid mutant cat."

  And with that she turned on her heel and practically ran all the way back to the ultra-protected apartment.

  If she was lucky at all, her intergalatic future boy boyfriend would be gone by that evening and then her miserable life could get back to being boring again, just like she wanted it.

  ...Boring old standard single life of working at the library in the mornings and editing articles for the Town Gazette at night, never going out for drinks, let alone repeatedly slaughtering some nasty looking psycho aliens from Galazy 52-1A.

  Yep. Just like she wanted it.

  She sighed as she slammed the door behind her and threw herself down on the couch beside Rick, who, as ever, had his nose pressed against his laptop screen and was diligently crunching figures. He didn't even look up as she spoke.

  "What do'ya think it takes to apologize to an alien for telling him, in more words, to bugger off?"

  Without missing a beat, her super-genius-uber-geek-neighbor shrugged.

  "Dunno. Maybe buy him some flowers? He watches Lifetime and cries over it all the time. I bet he'd like a bouqet..."

  Frowning, Eve peeked out from between the fingers of the hands that had previously been covering a tear stained face.

  "You're a jerk."

  "Yes. I am. And so are all the other normal human guys on Earth, Eve. So maybe it would have been better to give Spade a chance, huh?"

  Eve quieted enough to ponder over this in relative silence (the laptop keyboard was noisy) for a long while, hardly noticing when Darcy came by and pressed her scales-n-fur head into her palm insistantly.

  "...Wheres the number to the florist?" she suddenly questioned, sighing heavily.

  Rick grinned at his screen.

  "1-800-BLOOMING" he offered, snickering.

  Eve just ignored the little hobbit of a man and steadfastly dialed the numbers into her cell phone.

  "Yeah, hello. I need to order a boquet. A big one. Can you send it quick? ...Yeh...uhm. My boyfriend is kinda leaving town..."

--

FIN