Chapter Text
Kim Pine opened up her eyes and felt more shit than usual. That was the first thing she noticed. Then she felt the covers of her bed, soft, softer than usual. They were usually so uninviting that even when she had just woken up she was itching to get out of bed. This was by design of course. But these sheets felt way better than what she was used to. “ Damn I must really be feeling like crap if I don’t want to get out of bed ” she thought. She rolled over and opened her eyes. Lying right next to her was Scott fucking Pilgrim.
Kim screamed, then Scott woke up and also started screaming. They screamed at each other, staring into each other’s eyes the whole time while doing it. Ramona ran in from the bathroom attached to the room, her room. Kim was in her room, in her bed. Along with Scott Pilgrim. Kim started to remember last night.
“The hell is going on with you two?!” Ramona asked “I thought you two were dying or something!”
“I- Kim just started screaming, so I screamed too!” replied Scott in confusion. Kim put her face into her hands. Kim continued to remember details about the night before, her face turned a pale red.
“Kim??” asked a concerned Ramona.
“I don’t know whether to hate you, Scott or myself for this.”
Kim took a deep sip of vanilla walnut tea, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Ramona’s kitchen was surprisingly nice looking, spacious and clean. Scott rocked back and forth in his chair, staring around at nothing in particular as Ramona ate her croissant.
“Alright so I’m still trying to get my head around it; what the hell happened last night?” asked Kim, trying to fill the silence with confusion.
“It’s pretty simple: we went to Julie's party together, we talked, Scott fought a bunch of robots, we all got drunk, we drunk cuddled, then we all went to my house and slept in my bed” said Ramona with her mouth half full, recounting the events partially for herself.
“Yeah!! That’s what I remember” said Scott, mouth completely full.
“But- I’m not a cuddle drunk, I never have been.” Said Kim, “I’m more of a ‘confessing my deepest crimes’ type of drunk.”
“I don’t know what kind of drunk I am, I’ve never been drunk before!” Scott laughed, his bright brown eyes shimmering “It was crazyyyyy”
“Thanks for the contribution Scott.” Sneered Kim sarcastically
“No problem!” Scott said with an earnest smile. Ramona giggled a bit then recomposed herself.
“Listen Kim.” said Ramona softly, “Everything is going to be fine, we can just forget this night ever happened and move on with our lives. Maybe tell it as a funny story over Thanksgiving. Nothing about our relationship has to change”
“It can change!” Inputted Scott hopefully.
“Don’t even try it, Pilgrim,” Kim said.
“I can get you home using a subspace highway, it’ll be much faster.” offered Ramona motioning to a suspicious door with a star on it at the back of her house.
Kim thought about just walking home herself. As per usual she didn’t want to talk to anyone ever. Especially not with a hangover still bouncing around her head. So walking home would be ideal if it wasn’t an unmitigated disaster out there. Kim glanced at the cold then turned back to Ramona
“You know what, fuck it. Take me through subspace Rammy. Thanks for the offer” Kim said gloomily but genuinely. Ramona took her hand.
“Alright, follow me and you’ll be fine.” Ramona told Kim. Kim felt… something. Was she really that damn sensitive to handholding?? Ramona yanked her off her feet before she could compartmentalize and without a second thought dove through the door into the snowy black abyss.
They were at Kim’s flat, bursting through the door with the wind of subspace rushing in from behind them.
“Damn, thanks. That was pretty spot on.” Kim said
“No problem” replied Ramona, “honestly I impress myself with these jumps sometimes. I guess doing it for work has made me pretty good at them.”
Kim looked down and realized that they were still holding hands. She thought about letting go but for some reason she hesitated. Ramona let go of her hand.
“Well, go ahead with whatever you do during the day. It was chill getting to know you better.” said Ramona
“Video store.” Kim shared awkwardly, “I work at a video store. No Account Video.” They both looked at each other in silence for a horrible couple of seconds.
“Cool.” said Ramona “Well I’ll see you around.” She gave Kim a two fingered salute and fell backwards into subspace. The door closed by itself. “ Why did I say that? Why did I say that? Why did I say that?” Kim thought repeatedly as she dwelled on the botched social interaction. She looked at the clock, it was 08:45. Her shift was in 15 minutes. The commute took 30 minutes. Kim let out a deep and regretful sigh. “I should’ve just told her to take me to work…” she bemoaned to the empty flat.
Kim walked through the doors of No Account Video as they jangled behind her. Hollie Hawks was sitting at the desk as per usual. “Hey Kim.” she said before getting back to work tapping away at her computer.
“I’m sorry I’m late Hollie, stuff has been dumb” said Kim as she got behind the desk.
“No prob, honestly I was kinda expecting you to just not even come to work from what happened last night with the whole robot thing. How’s the hangover?” she asked jovially.
“Wait- how the hell do you-” said Kim, clutching her head. That hangover was going to kill her at this rate. “Wait, you were at the party?!”
“Hah, yeah! I go to all of Julie’s parties. How could I not? She's my roommate’s boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend!” Hollie said. Kim blinked twice groggily. Her brain was way too foggy to this.
“Your roommate has a boyfriend?” she asked, that being the only thing she could take away from Hollie’s statement.
“Yeah actually, though I don’t think he’s out yet- the boyfriend I mean.” Hollie stared at Kim in deep thought, considering her next move. “Yeah, I won’t tell you who he is. But when you figure it out you’ll be soooo surprised”
“I’m sure I will. Now can we stop gossiping and get the hell to work?” Kim said grumpily, she didn’t intend her rage towards everything that’s been happening in the last 24 hours to be thrown at Hollie but she barely could muster the urge to apologize. Hollie’s dealt with her bullshit before, she can take it.
Kim sat stone still at the counter, barely functioning. The sunlight coming from the store’s front windows was the only thing keeping her slightly upright. Hollie returned to the desk. “You good Kim?” she asked. Kim stared blankly, thinking. Scott and Ramona… those two. Why did she do that last night, with them of all people? She’s never done that while drunk! What was so damn special about them? Special isn’t the right word, at least not for Scott. He’s the lamest guy in Toronto, a complete failure, he doesn’t even know how to tie his shoes. He sleeps for most of the day when Ramona’s not there to keep him in check, just sleeping peacefully, maybe even snoring. He’s just completely obnoxious, the scum of the Earth. She didn’t know why she still stuck around him with all of that obnoxious shit going on. He’s not important and she’s completely over him. She should stop focusing on him. She needs to stop focusing on him. Right now.
She finally stopped focusing on him; him and his dorky smile and puffy brown hair and doughy, doggish, brown eyes were as far out of her head as they could go. While he wasn’t special, Ramona was… a different story. Something about her was undeniably noticeable. She wasn’t lying last night when she wished that she was her. God what was she thinking- even if she did like girls, Ramona is way out of her league. She had everything, she was hot, clever, and level headed; everything that Kim wasn’t. That conversation they had last night, it felt so peaceful, almost like Ramona understood her despite them both being from completely different worlds. “ How the hell does she always know what to say? Even if I was drunk last night, taming me when I’m drunk is more of an accomplishment than getting me to cuddle when I’m awake. Wait- No, I need to stop. I shouldn’t be thinking this I shouldn’t do this. She’s already got Scott and I shouldn’t open myself up to her ruining my life like Scott did. If I keep my distance I’ll be able to protect her and myself, just like everyone else I love. ” Kim thought, “ Wait shit did I imply that I love her?! Shit I- ”
“KIM!” hollered Hollie, shaking her “Are. You. There?” Kim snapped out of her stupor and returned to the musty video shop in a cold sweat.
“Sorry-” Kim said, “Mondays am I right?” she forced out the fakest laugh ever chuckled. Hollie tilted her head at her
“You know it’s Wednesday right?” Hollie asked sassily.
“Ah, cool” Kim said with a grimace on her face, her head fell to the desk with a pathetic thump.
“Kim are you… alright?” Hollie asked, she put a gentle hand on her shoulder. Kim felt the warmth of the hand and shivered a bit. The touch, as meager as it was, made her feel a bit better about her crappy little life. She decided to do something she’d never done, say no to someone asking if she was okay.
“No- god no” Kim said, slightly muffled with her head in her arms.
“You wanna talk about it?”
“Hell. No.” Kim said sharply.
“Alright,” said Hollie, sighing at what she was about to do “Head on out.”
“Huh?” Kim took her head out of her arms and looked up at Hollie
“You heard what I said, scram” she said with a smile “I’ll cover your shift. I can’t work while seeing you like this, so get outa here until you get better. Got it?”
The doors of No Account Video jangled behind her as she left the shop, the cold Toronto air nipped at her once again. She gazed around, not exactly sure what to do with herself now. Hollie’s offer was both a blessing and a curse. She looked to her left and found a dainty door with a star on it. She walked to the door and put her hand on its handle. She pondered the door. “ God am I really gonna do this? ” she thought, feeling the cold metal of the door handle on her ungloved fingers. “Fuck it” she said as she tore open the door and dove into subspace once again.
She freefell through the familiar void that she had traversed with Ramona and Scott only a night before. As she continued falling, an odd speck in the distance grew bigger and bigger. She thought it was just a piece of snow that made it in with her through the door, but it looked like… a desert? She kept falling and falling until she smacked face first onto this unfamiliar ground. She got up and brushed off the sand.
“What the hell…” she said to herself out loud. She looked around, nothing but sand for kilometers, or sub kilometers, or whatever measuring system you use for subspace. She heard a voice in the distance, it was male but… oddly feminine.
“So… Scared.” she ran towards it
“So… afraid” the voice said, wait was that Scott’s voice?! Kim ran faster towards it. As subspace shifted around her, she saw a haze of greenery in the distance. An oasis. She ran as fast as she could, kicking up sand from beneath her. She finally arrived and brushed away the greenery. Scott was in a fetal position in the oasis’s shallow pool of water. It was Scott but something was different. Scott’s hair fell all the way down to the shoulder blades, way longer than it even was back when Scott was with Envy. His physique was off as well, in a way that was impossible to place. Kim crept over to him and hesitated. She slowly took her hand and placed it onto his shoulder. She suddenly felt a feeling of unease rushing into her body from the contact. He looked straight up at her, directly into her eyes.
“Kim???” Scott gasped as it felt like subspace unraveled around them. The ground shook, the plants around them withered and died, Scott turned to water and splashed into the pool, then it all drained. Sand fell out from beneath Kim and she tumbled deep into the void as Scott’s subconscious dreamscape evaporated. Kim felt herself disappear into the pitch black of subspace.
***
Scott awesomely woke up on Young Neil’s couch, breathing quickly. It was supposed to be a one on one practice sesh with Stephen but he fell asleep on the couch before he could play a single note on his bass. Could you blame him? Last night was craaazzzyyyyyy. He got to sleep next to Ramona AND Kim at the same time!! Honestly it’s surprising that Stephen DIDN’T need a nap.
“You’re up.” Stephen said while tuning his guitar for the whateverth time “are you ready to play now? I’m getting antsy.”
Scott rubbed his head with his hand. “I just had the craziest dream” he said in a daze.
“Oh god not this again…” Stephen said as he put his head in his hands.
“Like, it wasn’t like the other ones, well it was really similar.” Scott explained. “But- I saw Kim!” Stephen took his head from his hands and look at Scott weirdly
“Wait- Kim?” Stephen asked wearily, “what was she doing there?”
“Yeah I thought it was only Ramona that could come up in your dreams.” Neil said as he played his really-really-cool clear-case Gameboy on the couch, as always.
“Also something else was super weird about it,” continued Scott awesomely, “Kim just being there kinda makes sense… She knows about subspace too. But her being there made my dream… different.” Scott pondered this as the three guys sat in silence.
“Why don’t you play bass about it?” Stephen said with a smile, handing Scott his bass. Scott nodded as he grabbed the bass awesomely as he got to practice.
***
Kim kept falling through subspace without any ground in sight. Random objects hurtled through the air around her; she twisted and turned to dodge as much of the debris as she could. A lamp post, a big block of bricks reminiscent of one of Neil’s stupid games, random lost socks, they all whooshed past her in a blur. She careened into a massive piggy bank, smashing it on impact and sending the coins inside flying in all directions. She oriented her body downwards and through the whooshing, stale air she managed to pry open her eyes. A rectangular light, a doorway, her way out. She darted through the air, tilting left and right, aiming for the opening. Air flew past her, her hair flew backwards as the wind pushed against it. It would be close but she was going to make it. The light got closer and closer to her and she soared through the doorway like a thread going through a needle.
She was thrown out of the end of the highway forcefully, tumbling across the old snow. She managed to stop rolling and right herself, staring around at where she was. Where she was… Wait- where was she?