Carulia Oneshots

Long Night

~word count: 924

Carmen hobbled down the sidewalk, clutching her side and groaning with each step. She reached for her ear piece only to realize it was destroyed and so was her phone. She gave up and finally collapsed into the harsh concrete below. Carmen clutched her scraped face and  felt like sobbing.

She had just stopped two VILE operatives from stealing some ancient artifact. Overtime,  Carmen grew to hate—not hate—dislike this game of cat and mouse. Chasing operatives and pouncing on their operations. She loved the action of and the feeling she had when she and the crew completed a caper but this time was far too much.

Paper Star and Tigress were present, and Carmen was outnumbered two to one. She had managed to land a pretty bad blow on Tigress when she smashed her cat goggles and threw the broken pieces at her. Paper Star attacked from behind and slashed Carmen's sides with knives from paper. The attacks continued whether it be from Tigress' claws or Paper Star's paper knives. It turned out to be a trap anyways as the targeted artifact wasn't even real. Carmen had barely escaped and here she was now. On the fucking concrete ground and—

"Carmen?" A voice interrupted Carmen's train of awful thoughts. She glanced up and lo and behold, Jules. Julia was wearing a cream colored tank top and navy shorts. She looked down at weakened Carmen. 

"Jules, what are you doing out here?" Carmen questioned in a hoarse tone. Her coat was torn and her iconic fedora was nothing more than a hat with holes. It just didn't look the infamous Carmen Sandiego  image that she made herself out to be.

"Well I wasn't able to sleep and happened to glance out my window. And I saw you, crouched over and worried that you were—" 

"I refuse to die." Carmen inhaled and glanced up at Julia, "Not here, at least."

"Are you alright? Obviously not but I still want to ask," she questioned, her expression showed deep concern. Julia crouched down to Carmen's side.

"No," Carmen hesitantly admitted, "not at all. I've lost communication with my crew and everything just hurts!"

"Oh dear." Julia calmly said while glancing around to see if anyone else was about. "I wanna know what happened, if that's okay to ask."

"Caper," Carmen groaned, "it went—not how I expected it go."

"Gosh," Julia observed, "you look quite hurt."

Carmen leaned on Jules' shoulder. She just wanted to crash into Jules and let everything fade away.

"Let's get you inside, 'kay?" Julia reached for Carmen's hand. When Carmen grabbed Julia's hand, a feeling of warmth overcame her. Carmen shown a weak grin.

The pair stumbled through the building's doors, up multiple flights of stairs and finally reached the door to Julia's apartment. Julia removed the key from a pocket in her blue sleep shorts and unlocked the door. Carmen glanced around at the white walls, a small but sleek kitchen, a small living room, and a door to her right. Her eyes landed back to the living area and onto a faded red couch, Julia ushered her towards it and had Carmen lay down. She removed her scarlet coat and fedora and tossed them onto the hardwood floor.

"I'll get a blanket and some bandages," Julia went to grab whatever she could to help Carmen. "I'd take you to a hospital but the expensive would not be pretty."

"VILE would fit whatever hospital bill," Carmen shrugged. "But I feel safer here."

"I'm glad you feel my apartment is safe," Julia came back over and inspected Carmen's side where a large gash was. 

"This may hurt," Julia stated. She gently disinfected it and wrapped bandages around Carmen's waist. Carmen winced but held it together. Julia continued to tend to any visible wounds Carmen might have.

"I really appreciate this," Carmen inhaled. "You didn't have to do all this, but you did."

"Carmen," Julia paused her inspection and pushed up her glasses, "I had to. I saw you were hurt and doing the 'bare minimum' wasn't going to cut it."

Carmen wasn't sure what to say next. Jules was awesome. There were so many ways to describe the perfectness of Jules. How beautiful she was; how insightful she was; how her knowledge matched no other.

"Well, I think I've got all your wounds bandaged. You don't appear to have any broken bones." Jules sighed and put away the unused supplies. She returned and sat at the edge of the couch where Carmen's head lay. 

"Where'd you learn how to apply bandages as good as these?" Carmen questioned, feeling how her previous pain had subsided when the tight bandages were applied.

"Well, I've practice with chasing you all over the globe. Some agent, somewhere, got injured every time. I wasn't very good at first but within my years at ACME, I think I've improved." Julia softly chuckled.

"Even when you're wounded, you still somehow look intimidating," Jules teased. She ran her fingers through Carmen's hair. They stayed like this for a while, Carmen wish they would stay like this forever.

Jules adjusted her glasses and glanced up at a clock on the wall and read the time aloud, "11:57."

"I have work in the morning," Julia spoke quietly and stood up with a sigh. She began to walk to her bedroom and stopped at the doorway, she glanced back. Carmen jokingly frowned and sat up. Suddenly the aching side pain remerged, she clutched her side. Once again, she collapsed into the couch.

"Then," Carmen took a deep breath, "goodnight, Jules."

"Goodnight, Carmen." Jules turned away and closed the door behind her. Carmen lay and slowly drifted into slumber.