Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ A Love Story ❯ One-Shot

"Spike is so hot, don't you think?" Faye gushed quietly as Spike walked away. The tall, lean man with green, poofy hair and an enigmatic personality always left a trail of cigarette smoke behind him wherever he went.

"Sure, whatever," I said, taking a drag on my own cigarette. Secretly, I thought he was good-looking. You'd have to be crazy not to, but I was not admitting it. It just wasn't my style. My style was more like his- apathetic, sexy, and just plain cool.

"I think you need to see a psychologist-" Faye began heatedly, mixing her medical terms up.

"Psychiatrist," I corrected, sick of her ditzy personality. Her looks matched the personality: purple hair that was always in place, a figure that would take years of dieting to achieve, and a matching outfit that covered only what daylight should not see. Needless to say, all feelings towards her were antipathetic.

"Whatever. I'd do anything to get him in my-" That was when I tuned her out. The only reason I tolerated her babbling was that she was the only woman on this ship who was close to my age. The only other female was thirteen years old, named Edward, and always spoke in third person.

"Hey, Katryna! I need your help!" Jet called from another room. Relief spread through me as I stood up and walked out of the room. Jet was stationed on the observation deck of our spacious space ship, The Bebop.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"Nothing. I just thought that I'd save you from the credulous wrench," he smirked, tilting his head slightly towards Faye's direction in the other room. "I cannot believe she let you go like that. I never need anyone's help with anything," Jet said, bragging about his adroit capabilities with electronics.

"You are one incredible human being," I said sarcastically.

"Hey, watch it. If I had any common sense, I'd kick both you and the slut off of my ship-"

"Kat-Kat!" Edward's singsong voice rang out as she ran into the room. She came and stood in front of us, her computer balancing on the top of her head as she jumped up and down, and once again it became evident that eloquence was not one of her strong points. "Spike-person is in need of assistance from Kat-Kat!" 'So, the lunk-head is not as self-sufficient as he seems,' I thought to myself.

"Katryna, do you remember those space pirates I told you about?" Spike's voice came from the computer, his face on the screen. My heart jumped at the crude picture; damn him for being so sexy. "Well, I'm kind of in a jam, and I need you to come save me. Now, preferably." The sound of a machine gun rang out, and then the screen went blank.

"Lunk-head didn't even tell me where he was," I muttered as I stood up to go get in my ship, The Black Dolphin.

***

"Spike! Where the hell are you?" I yelled into the communicator, cursing the fact that I had chosen the prototype communicator over the more complacent, older model.

"Right below you." I shifted the controls to adjust for the disturbance he made cutting underneath of me. 'Show-off,' I muttered. "By the way, the pirates are right behind me." I grabbed my controls and swerved to the right, narrowly avoiding a volley of shots.

"What did you do to make them so hostile?" I asked, as I came back around from behind one of the pirate ships, an anachronism that could have been built by Earthlings.

"Nothing. But, they do have one million woolong on each of their heads…" Spike said, and his thought passed to me silently: money. Life as a bounty hunter was based on the stuff, as a drug dealer's life is based on crack.

The next five minutes happened in a blur of lasers and smoking metal, so I regret to say that I cannot tell them in great detail. All I know is that it ended quickly, with two of the five pirates injured beyond repair, the other three retreating, and smoke coming from my engine.

"Come on, Katryna. Let's chase after the others," I heard crackling over the communicator. The reckless look in his excited eyes spoke volumes.

"Can't. Serious damage to my engine. If I start it, it blows up. If I eject, I die painfully. If I sit here, I've got ten minutes to live before the poisonous fumes kill me." I announced calmly, in spite of the panic stretched beneath the surface.

"What? You can't be serious. It's not that bad-" he protested.

"I've got a perfect view from right here. Fifteen minutes tops before it blows. I suggest you get your ass out of here." The following silence told me that Spike had taken my advice. I sighed to myself, my heart filling with sadness at his abandonment. I guess I should have expected it....

RATATATATATATATATAT! I glanced up in surprise to catch the blur of his ship, spitting a stream of bullets through the nose of The Black Dolphin. It was just enough to cut off the nose, so that I was safe from the explosion that I knew would follow. But the fumes were getting stronger...

***

The sun beating on my face and the dusting blowing into every opening in my clothing were the first things I was aware of as I came to.

As I cracked my eyelids, I saw a Spike-shaped shadow leaning over me, his fuzzy hair blocking the worst of the rays. Noticing that my eyes were open, a smile lit his face, and I returned it, glad to be able to. A look of affection and tacit understanding passed between us as he leaned in and kissed me. And I couldn't help but laugh at the mental image of the dumbfounded, furious expression on that would have adorned Faye's face.