First Xiaolin Showdown fic... I'm still unfamiliar with the show, so forgive any eventual OOC-ness ; Also, there's a little Raimundo bashing, nothing major, though!
Enjoy!
Heat of the Moment
Unexpectedly enough, her first kiss had happened in a club, while they were out to celebrate her best friend's birthday. Even more unexpected, it had been nice, even if somehow… incomplete.This handsome guy she knew only as some classmate's relative asked for a dance, and when the music turned to slow and romantic, he just held her close, rocking gently, and she went with the flow. At the end of the music he had tilted her chin up and bent to kiss her, softly, lips closed. Kimiko had been too stunned to properly respond, and soon he had backed, looked at her burning face and laughed, told her "Sorry, got caught in the moment" Caught in the moment… the hell?! But she had just managed to mumble a vague "ok…" and had made it back to the bar, feeling her cheeks hot, and her head light. Uhm. The moment, ok. She had never seen the guy again.
The second time had been a complete disaster. Probably a karmic way to make up for the first. Ok, it was partly her fault, Kimiko was ready to admit it. Raimundo was a friend to her, a dear friend but nothing more. She had finally accepted his proposal to go out as an occasion to clear things up, feeling too embarrassed to tell him off right there and right then, since he had been so inconsiderate to ask her when the others were present. Wrong, obviously. A good lesson for the future: never, never, NEVER let a guy believe things, even for a moment. Apparently either he took for granted she was ok with, uhm, everything else that could happen, or, more probably, he just decided that showing his interest with facts was more effective and convincing than any kind of declaration… and so she had found his face over hers in the dark cinema. She punched him in the stomach and went out. Lately, to her own disbelief, Kimiko had found she was the one expected to apologize first. She did it, since she didn't want this to become something big enough to influence even their Xiaolin training, and Raimundo, who was proud but not stupid, had apologized in turn. No big deal, everything back to normal, except for the fact all that story had led her to firmly believe that one tongue was more than enough for a mouth.
But both previous experience couldn't quite prepare her for the surprise her third kiss was going to be. First, a Xiaolin Showdown, and one against the annoying Jack Spicer, wasn't exactly her idea of a romantical outset. Disco and cinema were not the ideals too, but they at least seemed to work better. And the place too… they fought (well, she fought, Jack mainly manouvered robots) on a cliff-side, constanly in danger to slide down in the ravine. Finally she managed to disjontle the head of the last robot with a well-aimed kick and quickly turned to attack Jack, who was standing some feet under her. She was planning to just hit him and make him fall, sure enough he was going to use his heli-pack and eventually leave the Showdown… but as she pushed to run downside, the stones under her fet abruptly gave in, she lost her balance and started rolling down the cliff-side, any attempt to get up on her feet and stop just producing more rolling pebbles till creating a little landslide. Jack was right on her traiectory… she thought he was just going to move out of the way… instead he looked at her wide-eyed and just opened his arms to catch her. She bumped against his chest, hard, and the next second they were both rolling down towards darkness.
She opened her eyes, slowly, feeling sore in every part of her body that wasn't just plain screaming in pain, and realized she was huddled over Jack's chest, his arms still around her. He was laying on his back in what seemed a small cave. The cave opening on the groundmust had stopped their fall, after a good deal of rolling over hard stones. In the feeble light, she looked at Jack's tattered robe, and realized he had been taking the roughest of the fall, shielding her. His eyes were close, and his breath was slow and deep.
"Hey… Spicer, are you all right?" she reached to give him a light slap, panick growing fast into her mind. What if he hit his head and got a very bad concussion? She had to get out and call for help…
He grimaced, then started mumbling
"…just another minute, Wuya, we can go after the Shen go wun later…" He frowned. "Wait, Wuya is never so gentle…" He opened his eyes and looked at the girl, who quickly tried to disguise her huge relief with anger.
"Well, look at what's happened!"
Immediately his vague puzzlement at why he still had Kimiko over him turned to anger too.
"What? It's you who came over me! It's all your fault!"
"You could move out of the way! I would have been fine!" He blinked and opened his mouth, then closed again with no sound, probably trying to remember what exactly he was trying to do, blocking his enemy's fall. "And why didn't you fly us both away?!" she added.
"I tried! I fell on my back, and the heli-pack was damaged, ok?!" He turned to watch away, pouting.
Oh… her anger deflated, as she became suddenly very conscious of what could have happened
"I'm sorry…" she said.
"You'll better be! I- wait you just said you're sorry?"
"I was going to push you down, thought that stuff would prevent you from fall… I coul have…" killed you. While you… She felt ashamed.
"Ah… no…" Jack was staring at her wide-eyes, confused. "Hey, I'm the greatest evil genius alive, I would surely have found something else!"
She nodded, still feeling usure.
"And we're enemies! I mean, why should you worry about what it's going to happen to me?! I would never do it for any of you!"
"Except you just did."
"Eh? But… uhm… that was instict! Kind of… You know, when you see a kid going to be run over by a car and you jump to push hims away… except I obviously would not do that, cause I'm evil, I mean, I think I wouldn't… and eventually I would have a robot to do it…"
She watched him stumbling over his words, feeling her sadness being re-placed by something more light-hearted, and comfortable. He still hadn't put down his arms, positively hugging her, and her hands were planted over his chest.
Kimiko didn't thought about it. She was watching him, and suddenly she was reaching up, pressing her lips against his. After a few seconds she pulled back, to look at Jack's frozen shocked expression. Already swearing into her mind at her own inconsiderate foolishness, Kimiko made a small smile.
"Ah… sorry, I…" got caught in the heat of the moment? God, how stupid…
Before she could finish her sentence, Jack reached up, took her face into his hands and uncerimoniously yanked her forward, to kiss her, for real. Kimiko answered the kiss with an eagerness that almost scared herself, she closed her eyes cutting out thoughts, giving in. Jack's hold softened, his fingers moving to brush her hair, running through them. Kimiko reached up too to touch his face, blindly caressing his cheeks and the black marks under his eyes. A little push, and she was opening her mouth, letting her tongue move tentatively against his, the feeling still awkward and weird, but not even vaguely similar to the sheer disgust of that other time… moving towards something tickly and pleasurable instead. She was surprised to feel him move with almost her same misture of uneasiness and want, but didn't stop to question. That just felt… wonderful.
Far voices shouting her name interrupted them. They parted, still keeping their faces the closest possibile, breathing each other. Jack's expression was… well, he still looked shocked more than anything else, but his familiar smirk was already playing back on the edges of his mouth, and it made Kimiko smile. It was absurd… just… minutes ago they were nothing more than enemies, and now they… were what?
Neither of them had still felt the need to put up some physical distance. She felt comfortable, like she'd never been.
"They are coming…" Jack broke the silence, gesturing towards the sounds coming from the cave entrance. Kimiko nodded: Omi and the others were looking for her.
"I should go… what are you going to do?"
"I can fix my heli-pack in a moment."
"Are you sure? You could come with us…"
"Hey, I'm the genius here, remember?"
"Mh." She was still smiling in a probably quite retarded way, but he didn't seem to mind. Oh, yeah, she had to get up…
They both stood, brushing the dust away from their clothes. She glanced at Jack only to find him already peeking at her. He quickly averted his eyes, embarrassed, and started messing about his backpack
Ok. Maybe it was the heat of the moment. But no moment in her life had felt righter, so, maybe…
"Do you have a cell-phone?" Jack asked, head down over his flying-device.
"…yes."
"…want to give me your number?"
"Why? So you can use it for some of your foul plans, mr. Evil genius?" Ok, now she had to stop feeling so damn exhilarated…
"Of course! Anyway, I was thinking about something, uhm, involving ice-cream. And… maybe a movie. Say, next Saturday?"
She smiled, full-heartedly. "I think that sounds evil enough."