Work Text:
Julia is probably, most definitely, statistics-are-showing 100% overthinking this.
See, it’s an easy thing, loving Carmen Sandiego. Terrifying, perhaps, and a little exhilarating, but still so easy that she often wonders: how can anyone not?
Julia loves their sharp banter and her quick witted remarks, her unwavering and selfless heart of gold, their shared love of ancient history and exchanging tidbits of knowledge, and how whenever she forgets to close the kitchen cupboard, Carmen takes it as an excuse to sidle up next to her and kiss her on the head before shutting it for her.
Julia can’t ever forget how Carmen’s entire being seems to light up whenever she walks in the room; her eyes always crinkle at the corners and she beams, so bright and wide and sunny that she finds it hard to breathe sometimes. Whatever she plans on saying always dies in her throat and she just smiles right back, until Ivy or Zack or even Shadowsan or Player coughs to get their attention.
(Once, it was all four of them, having a coughing fit simultaneously.)
It’s an awfully cliché phrase that Carmen would groan at her for, but she’s stolen her heart. Julia knows she’s had it since the day they met on that train, quietly taking it with her as she went to chase the Magna Carta.
With every passing day, she thinks: I love you, I love you, I love you. It’s not that she doesn’t want to tell her, but it’s so soon— they’ve only been dating for several months, after all— were they even ready? Would she scare her off?
Carmen never backed down from anything, but this wasn’t a fight against other thieves that she could win. This was them, and the relationship Julia didn’t want to lose after waiting for so long.
She knew they stood on the same page— it was always equal footing between them, never one more or less than the other— but since Carmen hadn’t said the words yet either, she thought that she could be waiting for the right moment like she was.
If only there was a way Julia could test the waters…
And it strikes her suddenly, jolting her awake in the middle of the night. Carmen’s curled up at her side; she doesn’t even move, just mumbles from the slight disturbance.
“Jules,” Carmen hums. “Get back to sleep.”
“Sorry, love,” she replies softly. “Just thought of something.”
Julia glances down at the girl in her arms, her head resting against her chest. She runs her fingers absentmindedly through her hair, and Carmen leans contentedly into her touch.
“我爱你,” Julia whispers. I love you.
Carmen stirs in her embrace, but doesn’t respond. Moments later, she’s snoring, having fallen back asleep. Julia holds her close, praying that she can’t feel just how fast her heart is beating.
Well. Telling her in Mandarin was one way to do it.
~*~
Carmen slams the bathroom door closed. It’s the next morning, and Julia’s making breakfast; the sweet toasted scent of bagels and sizzling eggs and bacon weaves through the air, which she would be speeding over to feast on if there weren’t far more pressing matters at hand.
“Carmen, you alright over there?” Julia calls out. “If so, there’s no need to take it out on the door hinges!”
“I’m good!” she yells back, and she is, so so good and doing just fantastically peachy but she’s also one step away from exploding.
She has to tell someone.
With a tap to her earlobe, Carmen turns on her comms. There’s a click on Player’s side and he comes through, cutting in mid-yawn.
“Morning, Red,” he greets. He’s presumably stabbing into his own breakfast from the odd clinking sounds that she can make out. “I was under the impression that mornings are prime, and I quote, ‘domestic girlfriend’ time, but I guess I was wrong? What’s got you tuning in so early?”
Carmen snorts at the reference. Ivy and Zack had dubbed it that when they tried to talk to her a few weeks ago one morning; she was in a state, grumpy without coffee and no good morning kiss from Julia, who was filling in for an early shift at work.
Jules. Her wonderful, amazing, brilliant girlfriend who—
“Player. Holy shit,” Carmen hisses, her voice lowered in case Julia can somehow hear her from the kitchen. “Something happened yesterday night and I’m freaking the f— uh, hell, out.”
“I’m almost 20 and I’ve been on the literal dark web, Red. You can drop the f-bomb.”
There’s another stab at the pancake or piece of toast or waffle that Player’s eating, and some rustling, like he’s crossed his arms. Carmen paces back and forth, well aware that she looks like a mess, considering she hasn’t brushed her hair yet and is madly speaking alone in a bathroom at eight in the morning.
“Sorry, old habits. Okay, fuck. Jules said she loved me when she thought I was asleep but I was only half and I heard her, and I didn’t respond but that’s not too important right now because, Player, she loves me?”
She ends up blurting it all out in one go, hardly believing what she’s saying herself. Player chuckles, lounging back in his chair.
“You’ve got it so bad, Red,” is all he says, stifling laughter.
Carmen burns pink from mild embarrassment. “Shut up. I know I do. Listen, I love her too, duh, but I can’t tell her I heard her because she really believed that I couldn’t, and she said it in a whole other language too so I wasn’t supposed to know she did—”
“Pause,” Player interrupts, intrigued. “A whole other language?”
Carmen nods aggressively, though it’s not like he can see her. “In Mandarin. 我爱你.” She echoes Julia’s words, the language flowing effortlessly off her tongue. “It was really sweet, like she woke up just to say it. I couldn’t just say that V.I.L.E had been insane overachievers that hired fifty different language tutors just so I’d be able to communicate in any part of the world to fuel their criminal reign, could I?”
“ Fifty,” Player deadpans, ignoring the rest of her sentence. “Given what I know about you, I take it that’s not an exaggeration?”
Carmen stops pacing and lingers on the thought. She did have a lot of teachers.
“Give or take? V.I.L.E Academy was… not your usual school. Can’t say I’m mad about it, though, because now I know that Jules loves me.”
She’s borderline swooning at this point, but she doesn’t care, not when it comes to Julia. She hopes their names will go down in history side by side, just so that the future generations will know of the thief who dared to run, and the agent who dared to follow her.
“Was it not obvious before?” Player replies, his fork twirling in his hands. “She quit A.C.M.E for you, didn’t she?”
Carmen sputters. “She quit that unappreciative, not so secret organization because she wanted to be a history professor, not for me! ”
“Riiiight. Sure.” Player rolls his eyes, unconvinced in the slightest. “Why don’t I just call J and ask her to set the record straight?”
“You wouldn’t,” Carmen gasps.
“I would,” he says back.
Sure enough, ten seconds later, Julia’s cell phone starts ringing from the kitchen. Carmen yelps.
“Player!”
Carmen hurriedly washes her hands, grabs her hairbrush off the counter, and starts untangling her hair painfully. She tries to look impassive as she walks out of the bathroom, grimacing as she tugs at her split ends.
Two minutes later, she succeeds at last in making her hair look less like a bird’s nest. She tosses the brush to the nightstand, then beelines for the kitchen. She’s just in time to catch the tail end of Player and Julia’s conversation.
“…Yes, Chief did ask me to get my head in the game, which was the new ‘capturing Carmen’ mission she’d set us all on. I refused, because helping to take down a criminal organization was what I signed up for, not hunting down someone who was so clearly on the side of good. My heart just wasn’t in it anymore.”
At the words ‘my heart’, Carmen bends down and wraps her arms around her girlfriend lazily, pressing a kiss to the curve of her neck. Julia lets out a soft laugh, shifting the phone by her ear to kiss her back on the lips.
“Good morning,” she murmurs.
Julia lets her thief steal one more kiss before shooing her away, making her get coffee and breakfast. She places Player on speaker and continues eating hers, finishing up the last bite of her bagel.
“I can’t believe you actually called her,” Carmen grouches from the counter. Her not-quite frown is hidden behind the rim of the mug she’s sipping from; Julia knows she’s suppressing a smile without even having to look. “The high praise at eight in the morning is certainly doing wonders for my self esteem, though.”
Julia quirks a brow. “Saying you’re on the side of good is high praise?”
“Anything is when it’s from you,” Carmen answers smoothly, loving the way Julia’s face heats up. Her colour has always suited her.
“Flattery gets you nowhere,” Julia finally manages, but she’s grinning in return; a third-wheeling Player makes his presence known by gagging loudly from his side of the call.
“Kid’s still in the room, lovebirds.”
“So now you’re too young for something?” Carmen teases. “Haven’t you been on the dark web? Oh, and assisted in some pretty unlawful endeavours to boot?”
As she bullies her best friend, she slides her plate onto the table and takes her seat next to her girlfriend. Julia just chuckles, squeezing her shoulder as she gets up to put away her dishes.
“I’m deeply regretting this call, especially when you’re both being sleepy-sappy,” Player huffs, clearing his dishes as well. “How do Ivy and Zack handle you two on a daily basis?”
Julia laughs from where she’s standing by the sink, meeting Carmen’s eyes from across the kitchen.
“They don’t, we handle ourselves,” Carmen singsongs. “You should’ve seen their faces when they caught us kissing during a mission.”
Ivy had screeched so loudly that it had caused Zack to screech as well, who had no idea what was going on and was thus scared to death. It had cost them their Plan A escape plan, but it was worth it to see Ivy wheezing as they ran outside, bombarding them with questions about their relationship. Zack had just blinked at her owlishly and tried to keep up with his sister’s rambling.
“I do recall my eardrums being temporarily rattled,” Player snickers. “Alright, I’ll leave you guys to it. Red, call me back when Ivy and Zack are awake. In the meantime, I’ll start scanning for any activity from the remaining V.I.L.E operatives.”
“Awesome. See you then, Player.”
The call cuts off, allowing a comfortable silence to settle over the room. Sunlight’s streaming in through the windows, washing them both in some kind of incandescent glow. Julia sighs at the way the light hits Carmen’s hair, turning it to a beautiful fire. Placing the now-clean dishes on the rack, she heads back to the table and kisses Carmen’s temple.
Quietly, she repeats her words from the night before: “我爱你.”
Carmen chokes. She hurriedly disguises it as a cough, reaching for her coffee. Once she recovers, she asks, “Did you say something, Jules?”
Julia looks at her, concerned. She tilts her chin up gently, using a napkin to dab at her mouth.
“Eat slowly,” she reminds her. “I’ll tell you later.”
~*~
Though later does come, Julia doesn’t bring it up again— not what her words mean, nor what language she’s speaking. She’s certain Carmen has forgotten about it, or is waiting for her to make the move and tell her when she’s ready. She loves her for it, the patience and trust that she has for her.
“You ready, Jules?”
On an inconspicuous corner of the sidewalk, Carmen yells over the noise of traffic surrounding them. Paper Star’s been spotted in this area, according to surveillance images from both Player and A.C.M.E, who helps out their team when they need backup.
Julia gives her a nod in affirmation, double checking to see if her gas gun and comms are on. Zack and Ivy have taken up guard on two potential exits of the museum, if Paper Star is somehow able to get outside.
“Go get her, Crimson Ghost,” she says. Carmen groans at the nickname, but Julia grins, knowing that she doesn’t mind. “I’ll be right behind you. Be careful, okay? It’s been a while— We don’t know what new tricks she might have up her sleeves.”
“When am I not careful?” Carmen’s speaking on comms now, already running, climbing and swinging onto the rooftops with ease. “What is she going to do, anyway? Pull a rabbit out of a hat?”
Julia laughs and sprints after her, tracing her route from the ground. “Even rabbits bite when provoked. Stay safe for me, love. I’ll meet you inside.”
“Only because you asked so nicely,” Carmen replies, landing soundly on the roof of the museum. “You stay safe too, Jules. I’ll catch you there; let’s go and shred this star for good.”
Carmen clicks their communications line off, reconnecting to Player’s. I love you, Julia says, confessing to the wind once more.
~*~
Paper Star gets… a little tied up after her encounter with Carmen and their team. She sits bounded by red rope at the entrance steps of the museum, scowling and spitting useless threats and curses at them.
As they wait for A.C.M.E to arrive and take her to join the others, the team watches her in amusement. Julia glances at her after a particularly harsh insult, and nudges her girlfriend with her shoulder playfully.
“Told you rabbits could bite.”
“Please,” Carmen scoffs. “She’s too tied up at the moment to be doing any biting.”
“Fuck you,” Paper Star seethes, still trying to struggle out of the ropes. In a way, Julia admires how persistent she is, even if her past seven attempts haven’t worked.
A few minutes go by. The A.C.M.E vans pull into the parking lot, their tires screeching onto the pavement. Carmen gives a small wave at Paper Star, her fingers flexing in her black gloves.
“It was nice seeing you again, Origami,” she quips. “Such a shame it wasn’t on better terms.”
“When I get out, I’ll make sure I never see you again, Black Sheep,” she fires back.
The old codename is a low blow. Carmen momentarily falters, but Julia is right there to steady her.
“You won’t be getting out any time soon, Paper Star.” Julia’s voice is firm, and she directs the agents over to take her away. “We’d catch you even if you did.”
Paper Star lunges at them as she gets hauled up. Both Julia and Carmen stand their ground, gazing at her coolly. With no expected reaction out of them, she slumps forward in defeat and lets them drag her to the transport car.
Once she’s gone and it’s just the two of them holding each other in the dark, Carmen asks, “Is it bad that the codename still affects me?”
“Not at all,” Julia replies instantly. “A horrible, horrible place gave you that name, and you have every right to be affected by it. You’ve also made a better life out of a new name you chose for yourself, an extraordinary one at that. I’m proud of you.”
Carmen sniffles and gives her a watery smile. “You believe in me too much, Jules.”
“I’ll always believe in you.” Julia tilts her head to kiss her, loving how Carmen’s lips automatically meet her own. “我爱你,” she adds, breathless.
“我也爱你，我的珠宝, 你是我的一切,” Carmen answers, slipping up before she can stop herself. I love you too, my jewels, you are everything to me.
Julia gapes at her, her eyes widening.
“You— you know,” she says, her tone not accusatory but soft, her heart in her throat. “You… understood me all those times, didn’t you?”
Carmen shrugs sheepishly. “Blame V.I.L.E?” Julia just keeps staring at her, waiting for her explanation. “They hired a bunch of language tutors so I’d be their clever, fluent prodigy, able to communicate in any part of the world. Chinese, both Cantonese and Mandarin, were a part of that curriculum.”
Ah. That… made a lot of sense. Carmen had told her plenty about what she experienced back on that island; she should’ve expected this.
“I can’t say I approve of V.I.L.E dumping so much on you at that age, nor can I say I approve of V.I.L.E as a whole, but…”
Julia rests her hands on the back of Carmen’s neck. Carmen melts into the touch, bumping their foreheads together.
“I love you,” Julia says, in English this time, exhaling shakily. “My love, you’re everything to me too.”
Carmen’s arm slips around her waist, bringing them impossibly closer. Her eyes are shining, and Julia swears she can see the stars in them as she speaks.
“I love you too, Jules.”