The lack of conversation was getting awkward. Carmen seemed poised to leave at any minute. Julia found herself blurting the next words as a desperate ploy to keep her. “Would you like some tea?”
Carmen has been missing, gone “Dark Red,” for a while now. She keeps appearing at Julia's doorstep, though, and soon, others start joining.
OR: Julia and the V.I.L.E. operatives she makes tea for.
It's 17k, carulia, and was a pain to logic ty my betas @prentiits and @itsdappleagain who I love vv much 🫶🫶 read it here.
Sheena takes a step back, keeping an eye on Carmen as she does. Blood pounds in her ears. She doesn't like the glint in her gaze, the predatory smile. There's only been one other time Sheena has been subjected to that look and that was back when Carmen was VILE.
She's not VILE anymore. The night Graham betrayed them made that clear. Carmen came back right, fixed and apologetic like any spotless, horrified hero. She didn't come back wrong, not like Sheena did--messy and screaming and clawing. Sometimes Sheena barely believes she came back at all, still stuck in the dank prison cell jumbled in with the rest of the Faculty.
Carmen is talking. If Sheena concentrates enough, she would be able to hear her, but she can't. Not when the playing field is so uneven and it feels like Carmen is up on a pedestal so high that Sheena can't even consider the thought of reaching her. Sheena plunging into the bottomless pit; Carmen watching from above.
"--been a long time... you been... up?"
Why isn't she trying to capture her? Sheena's eyes flit around, marking her escape. If Carmen is here, that must mean her red-headed goons are nearby. And those agents she hired the night VILE burned. They must be back to put her behind bars again.
Carmen's hands raise in a calming motion, palm reaching out and pulling downwards. Sheena searches for a hidden weapon under those sleeves. Her expression morphs into something like worry as Sheena takes another step back.
Playing field. She needs to even the playing field. Blood rushing into a roar, Sheena takes a running leap forward, charging at Carmen with the pent up ferocity of a trapped tiger. Carmen's eyes widen, instinctively going on the defensive. But instead of pushing her away or throwing a punch, her hand grips Sheena's shirt and pulls her closer. Sheena stumbles at the force, arms wrapping around Carmen's shoulders.
And Carmen kisses her.
Her lips are chapped, rough and soft at the same time. Sheena gasps a heaving breath into them, mouth curled into a snarl that relaxes the next second. Then, Sheena's kissing back.
If this is a diversion for those agents to sneak up on her, it's a damn good one. At the thought, Sheena pushes Carmen away and whips her head around. Nothing's behind them.
"What is it?" Carmen asks, as if she doesn't know. As if she hadn't planned for every wrong move.
Sheena stares back into those warm brown eyes with so much distrust it makes Carmen frown.
"Where's the part where they shoot me?" Sheena asks. Her arms come down to her sides so Carmen's grip on her shirt grows tighter.
"What?"
"The part where I'm dead," Sheena demands, louder. "Where's the part where I'm locked away for another three years? Carmen, I'm not dumb. I know you wouldn't be here otherwise."
"No-- that's not happening. I'm here to check up on you, not because I want to you imprisoned. God, Sheena. What the fuck? Did you not hear what I was saying earlier?"
She didn't. Sheena is very good at not listening. She rolls her eyes anyways, just to be difficult. "What about what you said earlier? You were lying."
Carmen expels a long breath. Her brows furrow and she grits her teeth, clearly signs that she's getting annoyed. Her mouth opens to reply, but Sheena impulsively covers it with her own. It's a quick kiss, barely more than a peck, but it gets the job done. It shuts her up.
A bandaid over a wound. Those are all Sheena deals with.
just got tagged by the lovely @emily-prentits my fave and here's a long-dusty, yet the last wip I've touched! An unnamed cs fic to fulfill my yearly carulia tax!
Multiple hypotheses jockeyed for attention in her mind. She had never considered Carmen invincible, but the closest thing to it. Julia had seen Carmen almost die in Stockholm, lose in Egypt, and struggle countless times. No, Carmen was not invincible, but she was hard. She was pure grit with an unreserved kindness, passionate about the world and its people. Seeing her now was like having all the right pieces taped together the wrong way. This couldn't have been anyone but VILE's doing.
Carmen Sandiego, captured by the very organization ACME had thought her the leader of. The irony tasted metallic in her mouth. Julia needed to know what happened, she needed more information. What exactly had happened after Cairo? If she kept Carmen talking and stalled — if she kept Carmen here — maybe she'd get answers.
The silence was getting awkward. Carmen seemed poised to leave any minute now. Julia found herself blurting the next words as a desperate ploy. “Would you like some tea?”
thanks for the tag! would love to finish a wip some day...
Carmen hasn't thought that Paper Star could get more nerve wracking than she was, but she has been terribly mistaken. The pattern is unorthodox and indecipherable, but Carmen knows one thing for sure: Paper Star keeps sticking around.
How utterly annoying.
OR: Paper Star ropes Carmen into saving Sheena.
happy birthday @limbosava !!! here is the redpapertiger fic of your dreams!!!! Read it here!
#29 is Dating Guide by Cross Gene! I was (still am) obsessed with this song it's peak kpop
The Revised Edition of Carmen's Flirting Guide
Her round, soft jawline is something Carmen wants to trace. Her freckles — Carmen would love to count them one by one. If Carmen was a stage, Julia would be the spotlight, her eyes something Carmen wants on her all the time.
The feelings are new, she thinks. Not new new, but the kind of new that is like a progression: the newness you realize once it has been integrated into your life already. The newness of change.
I literally forgot about this ask when I fulfilled the prompt like over six months ago-- yeah anyways check out Call Me a Hero!
"Who said I don't want you?"
Lei Ling freezes. "... I don't… know?" Words splutter out like a broken water fountain, and progressively she grows redder. "I just– well, it was hard to tell. And, you know, heat of the m– moment–"
"I want you," Warbird says forcefully, putting down her chopsticks. "I can't imagine not wanting you."
She wore a skirt to the party today, a tight white one that matched her socks. She can feel it rustle as his legs shift their weight. A hand rests on her chin. “Can I?”
It is seven minutes in heaven, after all. It’s just the rules of the game. Sheena nods, dares to hold her breath. His hand swipes her lips, agonizingly slow. "Weren't you going to kiss me?" Sheena risks a rasp.
A hot mouth envelopes her own and the rest of the seven minutes pass by in a blur.
