thank you all so much! I didnt expect this much support at first lol. I promise I'll respond to comments soon.

Gray gets injured after a caper (for VILE) and Carmen helps patch him up.

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"You're an idiot."

Gray glanced up, his partner in crime standing before him clad in her signature scarlet ensemble. A laugh broke from his chapped, bleeding lips but quickly turned into a shaky guffaw as his abdomen screamed in pain.

"So I've been told." He choked out, witholding a wheeze and managing to break into a cocky grin despite being bloody and battered and utterly broken.

"Yeah?" The red rogue asked good-naturedly, leaning into him, her arms roaming his body as she inspected his wounds. "It doesn't look like you've done anything to change the fact."

He shrugged his shoulders, the length of which were much broader than the ones her red coat covered. His lips pulled again into that same one-sided grin, leading to a chuckle. "It'd make me lose my boyish charm. The ladies love that, you know."

"I bet they do." Carmen said absentmindedly, brushing her leather-gloved fingers along the curve of his jaw--specifically the trail of bruises lining them.

Not the face-not the face, Gray remembered thinking as he stayed behind to hold off the ACME agents while Carmen continued to seek the gems they had planned on stealing that night. Of course, ACME hadn't exactly taken his thoughts into consideration before cornering him like a pack of wolves.

"Tell me what hurts." Carmen said as she pressed her nimble fingers along his injuries. Gray bit back a seethe of pain because--in what world was she ever going to touch him like this again? But when her leather-glove clad hands brushed the gash on his neck that stretched further, he could take it no longer.

A guttural sound ripped from the back of his throat. "Gah!!" He cried, throwing his head back at the same time as Carmen yanked her hand away.

"I'm sorry, I-" The scarlet super thief began. "Wait a second..." His best friend pulled Gray's collar down, her eyes widening in shock at the sight. A large gash stretched from the beginning of Gray's collarbone and down to his abdomen, bright red still leaking from it in little sections here and there, the rest of it a calcified muddy color.

"Oh my god-" Carmen's fingers drifted over her mouth as she took in the sight. "How did--"

"One of them had a cane, I don't know..." Gray muttered, grimacing under the heat of her gaze.

"Gray, this is bad, like really bad. You need to check into the infirmary."

"Carmen, no-I'm fine, I swear. Its just a scratch." Gray struggled to get up from his seat, forcing himself up and walking towards the exit before letting out a groan and buckling to the floor.

"Just a scratch. Huh. You're such an idiot." Carmen mumbled yet again, a furrow resting in her brows as she helped him over to te bed of their hotel room. They had checked in just a 1/2 hour ago after barely completing their caper in Casablanca.

"You already used that line." He grimaced as she helped him out of his T-Shirt, slipping it over his head before tossing it to the floor. Damn. He had liked that shirt. But he liked the way Carmen had begun to gently tend to his bare chest even more.

"Why didn't you comm me to say that you were in trouble?" Her voice was all anger and frustration and something a little bit deeper than that. She brought out a first aid kit from their luggage, grabbing a bottle of medical alcohol along with bandages and cotton.

"What, you think I can't handle myself?" Gray smirked, biting back a groan as Carmen dabbed a piece of cotton soaked in alcohol against his gash.

His partner-in-crime said nothing, merely raising her eyebrow at his injuries.

"okaaayy. I see how it looks. But it was like seven against one so I'd say I did pretty good out there considering I'm, you know. Alive and all."

"Yeah, well, you'd be more than just 'alive and all' if you just called on me for some goddamn backup!" Carmen seethed, the cotton pressing harder into his wound simultaneously.

"What do you care?" Gray scoffed. " 'Caper comes first' remember? It was your own goddamn rule."

"I care because you could have been KILLED!" Her left eye was twitching, now. She was barely restraining herself.

"So could have you." He challenged back. "Have you ever considered that maybe thats all I'm trying to do? Protect you?"

"We both know I don't need your protection, Gray." Carmen said as she began to bandage the deep cut on his chest, winding the material around the bulging muscle of his shoulder. She did it carefully, so carefully that Gray knew it was no accident when her palms settled on his chest as she dragged the material down.

"Do we? Every single caper, you continuously put yourself in more danger than you have to."

Carmen scoffed. "Give me one example."

"That goddamn violin." When she said nothing he continued on. "I saw it by your dorm room, you know. Just lying there on your dresser like it was some sort of toy. This is all a game to you, Carmen. All we are-all I ever am-is a pawn in it."

The lady in red's lips curled downward, anger brewing in her stormy grey eyes. Even in the midst of their heated argument, Gray couldn't help notice how beautiful she was. Red lips lush and pouty and moving so rapidly as she berrated him. Cinnamon brown skin that glowed despite the dim and dank light of the lamp next to the bed. Brows so thick that every time one kicked up, it was like a challenge.

"Is that really what you think?"

Gray looked up, meeting her stormy grey eyes. Hurricanes of emotion were brewing within them, a thousand different shades of blue and grey playing within them and reflecting his frown.

"Its what I know." He whispered sadly. He didn't tell Carmen the real reason he hadn't called for her backup that night. Ever since VILE had reprogammed her, his best friend had been different.

Wild and reckless and merely invested for the thrill of the hunt, VILE's version of Carmen Sandiego had stripped her of her empathy, stripped her of her abillity to care about consequences.

If he had called her that night, Gray knew for a fact that Carmen would've murdered those guards. The fact that they had hurt him (because by some sick twist of fate, VILE still allowed her to care about him) and the fact that they had seen them would've been enough to warrant their lifelines being snipped away at.

Gray couldn't bring himself to watch her do that, despite the fact that he'd stolen countless lives the very same way before VILE had wiped his memory.

This new woman had the same name as Carmen Sandiego. She had the same hair and smile and skin and love for all things rouge. She even had her very same voice, raspy and sexy and low like the purr of a cat.

But her eyes were different. The glimmer of empathy he had grown so used to was amiss, replaced by this dark thing that was as far as one could get from the woman he had fallen in love with.

So why was he seeing that same twinkle right now as she stood before him, her eyes shining?

"All these years, and you think I don't care about you?"

She seemed so raw, so vulnerable, so open and true as she stood before him now in just her black stealth suit, her red coat and fedora in a pile on the floor. Its not real its not real its not real.

It wasn't her. And he had to remember that.

"Not like I care about you." He said, dejected.

"Gray..." And there she was again, her fingers dancing along his chest as she stepped closer. Carmen's free hand cupped the sharp line of his jaw, her thumb gently wiping away the trail of blood from his lips.

What was he supposed to remember again?

He breathed in sharply, his hazel eyes locked to her own. Everything was heightened, all of the sudden, and Gray could feel every heart beat in his ear, every pump of blood as it pushed through his veins, every contraction of his lungs as they shoved his chest in and out.

Why was she doing this? Was it to torture him? To throw him off his game? To play another sick mind game like the ones she liked to ensue to toy with tigress?

Its not her its not her its not her-

"This isn't real. You aren't thinking straight." Gray managed, a last ditch effort to stop the closing gap between them, ignoring the fact that he really really wanted to kiss her right now. At least I can say I tried....

"You're the one whose injured so how about you shut the fuck up."

Her palm settled on the back of his neck, now, and it only served to bring them closer. She had to stand on her tip-toes to reach him, and the fact was quite endearing.

This didn't feel like a one-time thing where Carmen was using for mere gratification, because he was in no condition to go further tonight.

So...it had to be....genuine.

Carmen found his hair, her skilled fingers weaving into his messy, slicked back curls, dragging him in. Gray was too wounded to pull her any closer, so he settled for a hand cupping the smoothness of her cheek.

His eyes dropped to her perfect mouth, the little curve of red and sheen of gloss enticing him further.

And then her lips were on his, moving in perfect synchrony as she gasped softly against him, her mouth ever so lush as his teeth closed around her and began to tug. It was like everything he'd imagined and more. She was the warmth against his cool, the softness to his bruises, the red to his grey.

The kiss was soft and sweet and careful- so careful. Gray didn't know that VILE Carmen could ever be so careful.

The lady in red was delicate against him, gentle so as not to trigger his many bruises. He could feel her curves press against his naked torso as she leaned closer, her nails gently grating over his bandages, sticky with gauz. Gray snaked his muscular arm around the sharp curve of his waist, because who knew when he was ever going to be given the chance to do this again.

Could it really be true? Could Carmen Sandiego love him back?

But, no. He reminded himself. This woman was not Carmen. Not his Carmen, anyways.

So why didn't he hold back as he yanked her against him? Why was his mind so clouded that he let it keep happening over and over and over, their lips parting and reconnecting over and over and over?

Over and over and over....

The world around him faded away and turned into nothing. Amidst the darkness, there Carmen was, a light against the blackness. In his dreams she appeared like this, a beacon that called to him. In this black and white world, Carmen was never white, always shining with a hue of crimson that matched her red lipstick that was currently smearing onto his lips.

But now, Carmen's light wasn't red. It glimmered green.

Green for VILE.

And just like that he was back to square one. Its not real its not real-

But he wanted it to be. So Gray let it be real. He let himself kiss Carmen Sandiego senseless, his rough, cut up fingers entwining with her own as their lips moved against one another. He let himself memorize the feeling of his arm settling around the small of her waist, her own hands raking into his chest. He let himself commit the feeling of how perfectly her slimness fit against his chest to memory.

He let himself do all of that because next he was going to save her and ruin his life and ending their time together, because he knew, he knew the hardest part of loving someone was letting them go.

They finally parted their lips and exchanged a few lines of flirty banter as she finished helping him adjust to his bandages.

Carmen let Gray watch as she slipped off her stealth suit and put on her red pajama set, throwing him a sly grin before lying down in bed.

He had returned her grin and he had lain down next to her all the same, and for the next few days he was showered with kisses and love and everything he had always wanted with Carmen Sandiego.

But a week later, when he was supposed to be on a solo caper, Gray was on a flight instead.

"10 minutes till landing in Reykjavik Airport." The Pilot relayed over the PA in english with an accent Gray couldn't quite place.

He stepped down into the icelandic city and onto the same street as five and a half months prior when he was first arrested and set back on VILE's radar. It was the only way he could think of to contact a certain Tamara Fraser.

He was in the same outfit with the same dread brewing in his stomach on his way to the same police station.

Gray walked in to the place with a swagger, happy to finally have some clarity in the madness that was his life. Ironically enough, the very same guard was sitting at the counter and sipping a cup of tea.

Of course his lips stretched into his signature cocky grin. Of course he smirked as he walked in.

"I'm back, mate." Gray announced. "You are going to arrest me, right?"

...