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“Stand still!” Shadybug lashed out with her yo-yo.
A bright yellow trompo met it mid-air, the two bounding off each other for the umpteenth time tonight. Shadybug growled in frustration and swung her lucky-harm around to line up a shot, but the trompo’s owner had already dropped off the rooftops out of line of sight.
“Yellow inside and out!” Shadybug called after her. She threw her Lucky-harm into the air and down came a pair of polka dot scissors, a new angle to try.
Dropping from the rooftops to the street below she caught sight of her quarry, the damnably frustrating Honey Bee , disappearing around a corner. Shadybug charged after, rounding the corner and dodging aside to let the expected trompo-attack sail past her shoulder. Shadybug brought her scissors up to cut the string.
*Snap* the string flew past her, following the trompo down the street beyond before the scissors could close. Shadybug looked back up the street in confusion. Honey Bee grinned infuriatingly and waved her empty hands, before charging in.
Shadybug braced and threw her yo-yo again. I’ve got the edge.
Honey Bee juked aside and caught the yo-yo’s string without breaking stride. She closed the gap faster than Shadybug could credit and thrust the yo-yo string down on the still open scissors. Shadybug panicked, throwing her lucky-harm to save her own weapon. As she staggered, hands smooshed her face. Honey Bee boosted herself up and over Shadybug with an honest-to-God ‘wheeee!.’ The bee-hero continued her sprint after her discarded trompo, leaving Shadybug equal parts baffled, impressed, and annoyed.
“Graahhh! Get back here!”
Shadybug called her Lucky-harm back, reshaping it again. She donned the spotted jetpack, and took off into the sky. It was easy to pick out her target running along the empty streets at night.
“Gotcha.” Shadybug dove, angling a doublefisted charge square into Honey Bee’s back.
With scant CM to spare the hero twisted and instead of her back Shadybug plowed into her chest. Honey Bee latched on and both of them spiraled low over the ground. Shadybug struggled to free herself and avoid cratering at the same time. She angled upwards only to have Honey Bee’s delighted, “Oh wow, we’re really flying!” chime in her ears.
They squirmed and wrangled as they flew a crazed pattern in the sky. Shadybug managed to clear the hero away with a few well placed elbows, but the bee still clung to her side.
Shadybug tried to line up a better punch, “How did you know?!”
Honey Bee was grinning ear to ear. “Duh, you’re wearing a jetpack ! Fwooosh!”
The hero made a small motion with her hand and *click* one strap of the jetpack sprang loose. They rolled, the pack slipped, and both fighters were left with one hand each on the unguided rocket. One was scanning for a way out of this mess, the other was giggling madly.
Shadybug caught a chimney with her yo-yo and yanked the pack from Honey Bee’s grip. She landed hard, glancing back. There was a moment where she thought the bee hero might really end up a tacky crepe on the pavement.
Satisfaction warred with a sudden horrible sinking sensation in her chest.
But no, at the last moment Honey Bee’s trompo caught a street light and the hero used her momentum to swing onto the rooftop beside Shadybug.
She grinned, wobbling in place as a breath caught in Shadybug’s throat. Then with a fingerwave, Honey Bee was on the run again.
Shadybug gave chase, “Stand and fight! Do you really think you can win by running away?”
“Win?” Honey Bee jumped from rooftop to rooftop, “I’m just supposed to be distracting you.”
She pointed back behind Shadybug as she poke. A quick glance drove home just how far they’d come. She’d already chased this annoying bee across the length of Paris. Damn it!
Odds were slim her ‘partner’ had managed to round up anyone else in her absence. He might be a fighter, but she wasn’t sure the mangy cat could find a mouse in Disneyland. Shadybug growled in frustration and pulled up short. Time for a change of plans.
Instead of chasing, Shadybug twirled her yo-yo and called after the Honey Bee, “So… you don’t want to stop me? Some hero . I’m all alone . My earrings are right here for the taking…”
Honey Bee stopped two roofs away and turned back; a wide eyed expression on her face. “Your miraculous is your earrings?”
Damn it again! Shadybug managed to suppress her snarl, only just. “Uh- yeah, whatever. You going to come try and get them or not?”
The speed with which the Bee moved caught Shadybug off guard. It dawned on her that she’d only ever seen Honey Bee moving just fast enough to keep close out of reach. Shadybug was quick too though. She launched her yo-yo square at that suddenly serious face.
Honey Bee twisted mid-air like her namesake, slipping the strike without even checking her momentum. While Shadybug’s attack was still playing out, the hero was in her face already.
The seriousness vanished, “You want me to take them? Really? You want to give up? Maybe you want to join us? You could be a hero too! Oh that would be so cool.”
“Wha-No!” Shadybug lashed out with a punch, driving Honey Bee back. She reeled in her yo-yo. “God, you’re so gullible. I just wanted you within beatdown range. Now Fight me!”
Shadybug advanced and struck again, again, again, she had this stupid hero on the back-
Honey Bee met her next punch with a block instead of a dodge. The block turned into a bind, Shadybug’s arm was raised up and two quick stings followed. A kick to the side that stole her breath and a second to the head that rang her bell. She dropped and Honey Bee bounced back, face a mask of concentration again before it broke into concerned panic. “Oh, no! I thought you would avoid that. I’m sorry. Are you new at fighting? I thought you wanted to…”
Shadybug wiped her mouth on the back of one hand as she rose. “You just got lucky!”
It turned out, she hadn’t. Back and forth they sparred over the rooftops. Shadybug thought they were evenly matched, until Honey Bee let out a happy squee when Shadybug blocked a sharp right hook that had already tagged her twice before.
Shadybug dropped her guard in disbelief. “Are- you trying to train me?”
Honey Bee dropped hers too, blinking. “ Someone has to. You’ve got holes all over your guard, and if we’re gonna be on the same team…”
Something in that sweet, unguarded, encouraging tone tickled a hollow spot in Shadybug’s chest. That spot was used to loneliness, rejection, and pain. It reacted poorly. Shadybug howled and lunged, “We’re not-!”
She was off her game. That perky smile, the fluid grace with which Honey Bee avoided her unhinged assault, the way each counter left them disengaged; forgoing punishing Shadybug the way she would have punished an opponent at her mercy. Punishing her the way she knew she deserved. Punishing for every black mark she’d earned fighting against… life itself.
This bright golden hero wouldn’t take the shot, wouldn’t judge, wouldn’t blame, wouldn’t hate her properly. As they jockeyed back and forth the flow kept coming.
“Hey, if you switch sides maybe we can be partners! I don’t have one yet. Not like a real one. We need more of those miraculous things, but you have your own! We’d be set!”
It can’t be that easy! Shadybug’s inner voice screamed. They’re just stupid rebels. They just… If it’s that easy what are we- what am I doing?
They’d tangled trompo and yo-yo, strings and arms locked in a grapple. Shadybug was snarling her inner frustration directly into Honey Bee’s face. Sweet face. Caring face. Friendly face.
The unexpected thoughts made Shadybug strain in the grapple all the harder, trying to force the other girl to her knees.
Honey Bee perked even as she was forced downwards, “We have great style on our side too! No chin straps required! I promise!”
The non sequitur made Shadybug balk. In the pause Honey Bee ducked, caught her ankle, and flipped Shadybug onto her backside. The bee hero rose and offered her a hand up.
Shadybug scrambled backwards without rising, trailing her yo-yo and raising one hand to the fabric framing her face, hiding the mark of her miraculous use. “Shut up! You’ll need one soon enough!”
Honey Bee shook her head and fluffed her ponytail, “Squish all this in spandex? Oh no no no!”
Shadybug surged to her feet, “No, you idiot. To hide this! ”
She pulled at her costume and the fabric shifted under her grip, exposing the rest of her face and the purple lines creeping under her skin.
Once more the bee hero’s eyes went wide. That eternally innocent expression made that hollow ache again. Still, Shadybug braced for judgment.
Instead, “Oh wow, you’re a lot prettier with that off. Do those lines hurt? I’ll ask Betterfly about them! I’ve never seen them on him or me, and we’ve been doing this lots longer. I’m sure he will know what to do.”
That easy…? Shadybug was beginning to believe this idiot was sincere. The idea there might be another way tugged painfully again.
“You- why would you try to help me? Just to get me to change sides?”
Honey Bee looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “Because you’re hurt. I mean, it looks like it hurts. Does it hurt?”
She reached out. Shadybug didn’t remember how they’d gotten so close. Honey Bee’s fingers were inches from her purple-scarred cheek. Realization sparked the hollow to scream in rejection again. Another voice, a dim spark out of the distant past countered it though.
Instead of throwing a punch, Shadybug merely jerked her head to the side. Instead of a growl, she uttered a flimsy redirection as she turned away, hugging herself. “Whatever. Like I could ever team up with someone whose costume has a mask and glasses.”
Honey Bee’s expression turned to pure glee in the face of the snub. She waved her hands, “okay, okay, no. It’s got a purpose, watch!”
She spread her arms wide.
“I’m a Bee, right?”
Without waiting, she slid her hexagonal glasses down over her eyes.
“Now I’m a ‘See’,” she announced, posing dramatically.
She did not-
It was stupid. It was beyond stupid, but as she stood there so blithely proud of herself a response bubbled up from inside Shadybug and slipped out in a snort. Honey Bee posed again, V-fingers and a wink, the whole deal. The snort turned into a giggle. Honey Bee giggled along and the giggle became a laugh.
One followed another, laughter, honest to goodness belly laughs fell from Shadybug’s lips. Lips so used to a snicker, a sneer, or a frown. On a random Paris rooftop this ridiculous hero had penetrated years worth of shadows and let in the light.
Shadybug wiped tears from her eyes as their laughter subsided. Honey Bee was close again. How did that keep happening. All Shadybug would have to do is reach out to touch her. Not punch, not grab, just… touch . Looking into those merry, magnified, blue eyes and that smile, Shadybug thought, maybe…
She raised her hand slowly. Honey Bee raised hers in response, just a fraction behind, letting her lead. Shadybug’s heart was pounding so hard it ached.
Maybe…
“Cataclysm!”
A black streak landed between them. Shadybug found herself staring at Claw Noir’s back. The cat snatched for Honey Bee with his death-clad hand but caught only empty air. Honey Bee launched herself backwards, landed, jumped again, twisted, and threw her trompo. The top landed on the street below and sped off in a blur, pulling the bee away from them faster than they could ever hope to pursue.
I think she looked back. Did she look back? Shadybug had a sudden, desperate, need to know.
Claw Noir turned to face Shadybug, waggling the fingers of his still-charged hand. “Man, you let a goofball like that get the drop on you? Good thing I came along, or you’d have lost one of the miraculous. Then the Supreme would have both our asses.”
Shadybug was barely paying attention. I’ll see her again. She’ll stop us again. I can think of something to say, something cool. I can make her laugh next time.
Claw Noir leaned in close, “I think a ‘thank you’ is in order, eh partner? ”
Shadybug punched him in the arm.