(H2O: Just Add Water, Rikki/Zane) Part of the Teenage Angst Brigade
Title: Part of the Teenage Angst Brigade
Author: littledust
Fandom: H2O: Just Add Water
Pairing: Rikki/Zane
Rating: PG
Word Count: 5209
Summary: What exactly was on that playlist Zane made for Rikki? 14 scenes from the life and times of Zane Bennet and Rikki Chadwick, each matched to one of the songs.
Author's Notes: Originally written for Yuletide 2010.
01. The Cat Empire, “Sly”
if frizzy hair was a metaphor for festival time
It takes Zane weeks to notice that the new girl in town is sort of pretty. Something about the sun in her shock of hair makes his heart skip a beat, right there at a table in JuiceNet, waiting for a smoothie. Then he remembers that she’s Rikki Chadwick, resident freak from Planet Weird, who will probably grow up to be a serial killer or something. Wearing all that red and black must mean something, right?
“What are you looking at, Princess?” Rikki asks, and it’s not clear whether she’s talking to him or to Miriam, who was sitting next to him still texting on the phone he bought her, last time he checked. What’s the point of having a girlfriend if she never does anything interesting? There are days when he hates being Miriam’s accessory, even if she’s got great boobs (but doesn’t let him touch them).
He’s halfway to thinking of a semi-intelligent comeback when Miriam shuts her phone and rolls her eyes. “Don’t you have someplace to be?” she asks. “By yourself, I mean?”
Rikki rolls her eyes right back at Miriam, because freaks like her don’t understand that Miriam and her friends are honestly scary. “I wouldn’t call you company,” she snaps. Most girls would flounce off, but Rikki struts out of JuiceNet, back straight and shoulders squared. Her hair is pretty from the back, too, all twisted into some kind of complicated girl structure.
“Loser,” Zane says, partly because Miriam sees him looking and partly because she is a loser. She doesn’t dress right or talk right or do anything right. She stands out.
Miriam seems placated, but after they finish their smoothies, she all but insists they find a private beach and make out for hours. It takes him a few months to make the connection.
02. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Phenomena”
she’ll make you sweat in the water
“You should be in class, new girl.”
Rikki smirks and snaps a photo. “I’m on assignment.” The nice thing about switching to a ritzy school is that she gets to take cool classes, even if it means putting up with funny-looking spoiled brats like Zane Bennet. “Oops, did I just catch you skipping out early?”
He has the camera out of her hands before she can even blink. That’s what boys like him do: take, take, take. They’re good at it. Rikki lunges for the camera, but contrary to popular rumor, she’s never been in a fight before. Zane twists to evade her, popping out the memory card as he does so, laughing. Laughing.
“That’s the school’s, you moron!” she shouts, and punches him in the stomach as hard as she can. Apparently it’s not hard enough, because he takes to his heels, still laughing. She sprints after him, but classes have just got out, and she loses him in the parking lot. He’s probably left in a limo, so he can jet around in the family yacht or--or in that dumb boat she’s heard him bragging about.
That’s the moment when she comes up with a payback plan, one she nurses all the way home.
Rikki opens up the garage and retrieves her dad’s tool set, her anger a hot metal taste in her mouth, melted copper sliding down her throat. As much as she wants to take a wrench to Zane’s face, she’s going to have to settle for dismantling that stupid boat of his. Like the Zodiac even really counts as a boat, honestly.
She heads off to the marina, nerves humming. It’s broad daylight, and she doesn’t have much time before her dad gets home and inevitably starts working on his bike. This is a recipe for disaster, but every time she pictures Zane’s smug face, her blood boils. Maybe she’ll pry out his spark plugs and make him eat them. The thought cheers her enough that she actually starts whistling, and no one gives her a second glance when she steps onto the Zodiac like she owns it.
Popping out the spark plugs doesn’t take much work for the daughter of a self-proclaimed mechanical genius. Rikki slips them into her pocket. She’s still contemplating what to do with them when she hears a familiar laugh. She dives for cover, heart hammering. Zane and his idiot friend pass by without seeing her, so she settles down in the shadows to gloat.
Take that.
03. Savage Garden, “To the Moon and Back”
if love was red, then she was colorblind
Rikki knows what boys like, but she’s contrary enough to always do the opposite. It’s like she’s too cool to care, except she knows in the back of her mind that putting on the act requires a little bit of caring. It’s all about the face you make, the figure you cut. If attitude is a weapon, then she’s the goddamn Batgirl.
(Okay, so, maybe paraphrasing geek quotes isn’t exactly cool. Whatever. She went on a few dates with a guy she met in a comic store and ended up liking him so much she had to drop him. That’s pretty badass, right?)
Sometimes Rikki wants to pick a fight with Cleo and Emma before they go back to ignoring her. You can tell if a girl is nice by how much attention she pays you. With boys, it’s the opposite, unless you’re flirting, in which case all bets are off. When she shares this wisdom during a casual afternoon in the Moon Pool, Cleo looks confused and Emma looks upset.
“You’ve never...?” Emma asks, trying to be delicate, and Rikki snorts.
“Yes, I’m still a virgin. Would you have some kind of problem if I weren’t?”
As Cleo squeaks out an embarrassed, “No!” Emma reaches out and touches her hand. “You talk like someone who’s been hurt,” she says in her serious, granola girl way, and suddenly it’s hard for Rikki to swallow past the lump in her throat. Maybe it’s just all the salt water.
“Not hurt, just disappointed,” she manages, turning her hand over so she can lace her fingers through Emma’s. Because Cleo is Cleo, she takes Rikki’s other hand, and there they are in the Moon Pool, holding hands like they’re in some film on the Disney channel. It’s all very touchy-feely and girly and yet so sincere that Rikki stops fighting the tears.
“I’m really glad I stole Zane’s stupid spark plugs,” she says, with an undignified sniff.
“I’m really glad you didn’t get arrested,” Emma replies, and Cleo sums it up by saying, “Yeah, I’m glad we’re friends.”
Sometimes Rikki wonders if Cleo isn’t the smartest one of the three.
04. Paramore, “Crushcrushcrush”
don't you know, baby, we're all alone now
Kissing Miriam was like standing in a ray of sunshine; kissing Rikki is like getting struck by lightning. Zane wakes up on Mako Island, head swimming like all of his neurons have been firing at once. He feels scorched from the inside out, and he’s not sure how he got sunburned while sleeping under the trees. Maybe it’s got something to do with the ring of charred grass surrounding him, and maybe that’s got something to do with Rikki.
Getting home is awful with the glare on the water screaming directly into his brain. Stumbling into the house is a godsend. Only after downing a few glasses of water does he snap out of his daze long enough to register that his father has no idea he never came home last night. His father mutters something about a meeting in his general direction, so Zane makes a noncommittal noise and then wanders off to find the aloe vera.
Mako Island always makes him a little unsettled, but this is the first time the feeling has lingered beyond the beaches. He closes his eyes and there is a dance of colors: blue and orange, red and black. Blue for her eyes, orange for the flames; red for her lips, black for the night. In the blur of color, he remembers how sad she looked, the thrill of her mouth pressed against his, and then nothing.
Did Rikki light those fires last night?
Zane shivers, the aloe drying on his face. The answer seems obvious, but it doesn’t quite add up. Her only friends here are dull goody-goodies, and Rikki is more spark than flame, more sky than storm. Zane touches his lips and wonders when he started having opinions about Rikki’s character.
When he walks into JuiceNet, he tells himself he only wants a drink, but his little white lies to himself dissolve when he catches a glimpse of her face. He fumbles his way through a brief conversation, and walks away counting himself ten thousand kinds of fool. Of course it was some sort of strange whim, done just because she could. He’s never treated her well, never given her any reason to want to kiss him. That he’s a Bennet should be enough, but Rikki has made it quite clear that she doesn’t care about his money.
Miriam catches hold of his arm just outside JuiceNet. “I haven’t seen you for a while,” she says, batting her eyelashes like it somehow makes her appealing. “Still looking for your mermaid?”
“Something like that,” he mutters, and shrugs her off. She looks hurt, but whatever--it’s not like he’s good at reading girls, anyway.
05. Green Day, “She”
all her doubts were someone else's point of view
Rikki knows that she loves Emma and Emma loves her. It’s just that sometimes, she wants to punch her in the face. She hasn’t even defined this weird thing that she and Zane have between them, and here Emma is fretting about how her boyfriend will stop at nothing to uncover their secret and sell them off to science.
“I wasn’t the one who decided to play Little Mermaid,” she mutters, glowering at the smoothie in front of her. She should have known something was up when Emma gave it to her on the house. “Anyway, I thought we sorted this all out. Shook on it, happy friends, the whole deal.”
“The bit where he stood up to his dad in front of everyone was romantic,” Emma admits, then follows it up with: “But there’s no way he can be trusted with our secret.”
Rikki thinks about the patter of rain on pavement, the swish of a jacket round her shoulders, the goodbye kiss between elevator doors. “I’ve already trusted him with mine,” she muses, half to herself. Of course, she hasn’t let anyone seen where she lives, so maybe it’s just that she trusts everyone less, including her best friends. Suddenly noticing the expression on Emma’s face, Rikki adds, “Oh, shut up, I know the fishy one isn’t all mine to give up.”
Emma scrunches up her face, which has the intended effect: Rikki laughs. “Before you start calling me Mum, just remember that it’s my job to be the cautious one. Remember the last time I tried to stop being dependable?”
“Speaking of dependable, I think there are people in line,” Rikki says. Emma squeaks in horror and runs back behind the counter. Rikki tips the last of the smoothie back straight out of the glass. At least the “friendly advice” came with a free drink.
06. Pink, “Leave Me Alone (I’m Lonely)”
go away, give me a chance to miss you
Why is it that whenever she wants Zane, her stupid mermaid problem means pushing him away? Then there are the days when she just wants to be alone, and the entire world is trying to force its way in.
Which is why Rikki is walking up down her least favorite stretch of the local coastline, kicking up sand as she goes. The Moon Pool steadies her, but Cleo and Emma like to find her there, like just because they can find her means they should. Same with Zane when it comes to her favorite place on the beach, where the waves always look so blue they melt into the sky. He’s memorized the steps to get there, so of course it means she must want to talk to him.
“The problem is that I do want to,” she informs a nearby seagull, who tilts his head at her, indifferent to her very human suffering. “I wanted to kiss him after the stupid trick with the locket, but oh, mustn’t get wet, Rikki. I know I’ll never be normal, but why can’t I have normal problems?”
The seagull takes flight, streaking across the water, and Rikki sighs. “Should’ve known better than to expect answers from anybody, least of all a bird.”
Her phone begins trilling in her pocket. Should’ve known better than to expect she could get away even out here, too.
07. The Clash, “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?”
one day it’s fine and next it’s black
Without a doubt, Rikki Chadwick is the most confusing, frustrating, irritating girl Zane has ever met. Contrary to what the magazines say, it doesn’t make him want her more, but being annoyed is better than being miserable. Or, well, it’s at least a different kind of miserable.
Speaking of different kinds of miserable, there’s the unique misery of finding out that your sort of girlfriend and her two best friends are the sea monster you’ve been tracking for months. Most of the time, Zane is certain that no one in the world understands how he feels (except for Rikki, always Rikki), but this time he knows no one does.
“Like it’s surprising she never told me,” Zane says aloud. The house is empty: empty of servants, of his father, of the drowning rift between them. Now he’s trapped inside another rift, sinking slowly this time.
When Zane pulls out his phone, his hands are shaking, actually shaking. I’m not breaking anything that wasn’t already broken, he thinks, scrolling through his contacts. If anything, I’m fixing things the best I can.
It only takes Rikki a few rings to pick up. “I was wondering when you’d call.” It’s hard to tell over the phone, but she doesn’t sound flirtatious, only resigned.
“I think we should talk,” Zane says, and tries to ignore the painful way his heart thuds at her voice. “Meet me on the beach.”
08. Bowling for Soup, “Almost”
and I wish I would have had the nerve to ask you to stay
They never really say goodbye, even when their mouths are shaping the words. They meet on the beach, waves crashing softly in the background, and what they say gets pulled out with the tide, leaving what they mean bared until the next wave comes rushing in.
“We just went our separate ways,” Rikki says to Cleo, who, in the glow of her new romance, is over-invested in everybody else’s. Cleo and Lewis are so happy together that even Rikki can’t bring herself to be annoyed, though.
“Just because I’m not seeing Rikki anymore doesn’t mean that I want to see you,” Zane snaps at Miriam. He can’t bring himself to care about the way she flinches from his words, not after the whole business with the necklace.
“I’ve got a lot more than boys on my mind, Dad,” Rikki says, though for taking an interest, she presses a fond kiss to his cheek. “Don’t pretend to be disappointed.”
“For the record, she didn’t dump me, it was a mutual splitting up,” Zane says. He’s known Nate for forever, so he still likes him even when he’s being a jerk, but that doesn’t mean he has to take it. “Who was the last girlfriend you had, mate? Your left hand?”
“I don’t miss him at all.”
“I don’t miss her at all.”
09. Nirvana, “Heart-Shaped Box”
she eyes me like a Pisces
Sometimes, Zane imagines what it would have been like to swim with Rikki. He pictures blue-green water, the sway of plants, the flutter of tropical fish, and the smile of a girl with an orange tail. She told him once before he knew what it meant that she always felt free in the water, like she belonged somewhere. Missing the significance, he promised to take her swimming and then sighed when she shook her head. Contradictory, he called her.
Now, of course, the magic is gone, and he can only imagine what might have been.
“Zane!”
He pulls off his headphones, opening his eyes to see his father standing in the living room, arms crossed, an amused look on his face.
“Getting work done has been a lot easier with you doing nothing but pining on the couch, but I wish you would just talk to the girl already.”
“Her name is Rikki,” Zane says, but without venom. It’s been a month and his father hasn’t stopped making an effort to, well, be a father, so he’s started to entertain the tentative hope that this phase of their relationship is going to stick around. “And I haven’t been pining. I just bought a lot of new songs and I want to listen to them.” That’s half true, at least: he has bought a lot of new songs. Never mind that they’ve all gone a playlist titled “Rikki.”
“I might not be the world’s greatest dad, but I’m not a fool.” He sits beside Zane. “I’m also rather invested in seeing you happy. If she--if Rikki--means so much to you, you have to at least try to get her back.”
Zane begins fiddling with his headphones, staring at a spot on the carpet. “Did you try to get Mum back?” There: the real test. He waits for his father to storm off to his office, shouting that no son of his would speak that way to him.
There is a long pause, filled only with the sound of breathing.
“I didn’t,” his father says, like every word is being dragged from his lungs. “I failed, Zane, and for that, I’m sorry.”
“She was the one who left us,” Zane whispers, his voice rough, and he doesn’t resist when his dad pulls him in for a hug.
10. Delta Goodrem, “Lost Without You”
thought I had all the answers
The whole dirt bike scene is full of boys looking even more stupid than usual, but somehow, Rikki finds herself squinting through the sun and the dust for one rider in particular. “Least I’ve got an idiot to call my own,” she muses, raising an arm to wave.
Zane all but swaggers his way over to her, his hair sticking up in all directions from his helmet. “I take it you liked your present?”
“Pink’s not my color, but the songs are very--us.” Rikki knows she’s supposed to be the cynical one, the one with the heart of stone, but she listened to Zane’s playlist so many times last night that she actually fell asleep with her earbuds in.
“I can get you a red one if you like,” Zane says, like a puppy desperate to learn a new trick.
“Don’t be silly. I love my present, pink and all. It matches my secret girly music obsession. How did you know about it?” Rikki grins. “Got one yourself, have you?”
Zane presses a hand over his heart. “Delta speaks to my very soul.” The effect is somewhat ruined by the ridiculous neon colors of his dirt biking outfit.
“I’m surprised you didn’t put on some Celine Dion. That would have made me give it back.”
“I like that one song she has! It’s sort of, you know, pretty.”
By this point, Rikki is laughing almost too hard to speak. “If only I’d known this when you were tormenting us! I’d never have let you hear the end of it.”
“I’m secure enough to admit my love for bad Canadian pop in the middle of a dirt bike course. Must be because my girl is at my side.” Zane’s nervousness shows in his face, which is only half-smiling. “I mean, if you want to be my girl that is.”
“I’ll think about it,” Rikki says airily. “You are kind of cute, questionable taste in music and all.”
“Well, I’m glad I’ve got something going for me.”
“You’ve got me, stupid, and that’s as good as it gets.”
11. Silverchair, “Miss You Love”
I love the way you love, but I hate the way I’m supposed to love you back
Of course he would screw everything up while trying to make things better. That’s the way things go for him. Zane wonders what his father would have said about that just a few months ago. He could always ask his father’s advice now, but there’s only so much awkward father-son bonding he can take in the span of a few days.
“I mean, I made a resolution to be less of an ass,” he says, stirring his lukewarm smoothie with his straw. Either word has got round or Emma has developed psychic powers in addition to her ability to grow a tail.
“From my experience, girls like it when you screw ‘em over, but not too much,” Nate offers. His smoothie looks perfectly edible. There is no justice.
“You’re an idiot.”
“Look, I don’t even know why you’re talking to me about this in the first place.”
“You have a point,” Zane admits. “Maybe it’s just that you make me feel virtuous in comparison, what with the petty theft and all.”
“I am good for that.” In a way, Zane wishes he could be more like Nate: completely selfish, and completely unrepentant about it. Then again, that was pretty much his own defining character trait for years, and it didn’t get him very far.
Zane pushes his unfinished smoothie to the side, resting his chin on his hand in primary vertical moping position. “Tell me what you would do in this situation, and then I’ll go and do the opposite.”
Nate’s brow creases as if he’s giving actual thought to the situation. “I’d give up on the freaky girl and get back together with Miriam. She has bigger boobs.”
That earns him an eye roll. “So I guess I’ll just glue what you stole back on the motorbike, then beg Rikki for forgiveness.”
Nate raises his smoothie to him in mock salute. “Sounds like something I’d never do, mate.”
12. Missy Higgins, “The Special Two”
these hands will not be taught to hold another's
“The flowers really aren’t necessary.”
“You have got to work on how to graciously accept a gift.”
“I’m holding the bouquet, aren’t I?” Rikki sighs and begins opening her kitchen cupboards, looking for something that will do as a vase. On the very top shelf is a faded blue jug with cheerful yellow daisies painted on the side. When she gets on tiptoe, she can just reach it.
Without being asked, Zane reaches over her head to get the vase down for her. When he sets it on the counter, their arms brush together. Rikki can’t help smiling at the big lug, tipping her face back for a kiss. Between this and the roses, it’s all pretty romantic, one big scene she knows no one else would ever picture them in. She loves the way their hidden sides fit together, like puzzle pieces that flip over to reveal a different picture underneath.
“Seriously,” she says, a little breathless because he’s gotten better and better at kissing her, “I don’t need gifts to feel like I’m important to you. I mean, I never get you anything, and you seem pretty happy.”
He turns the tap on, filling the jug with water. “You make me happy,” he says simply, then ducks his head and grins, like a little boy. They’re getting a little less awful about talking about their feelings, but every so often, the utter embarrassment of it catches up with them.
Cheeks red, Rikki shoves the roses into the jug with such violence that the water splashes on her hand. She yelps, colliding with Zane on a mad dash to the kitchen towels, and it’s a miracle that she doesn’t transform into a mermaid in the middle of her own kitchen. Her father’s not home yet, but knowing her luck, he’d arrive just then.
Rikki whips Zane with the kitchen towel, then catches him up in another kiss, determined to take his breath away this time. If he’s going to shower her with affection, she’s going to give as good as she gets.
13. Sum 41, “With Me”
these words are my heart and soul
Sometimes Zane feels like one person’s body can’t possibly contain the sheer emotion that a heart can hold. Then he feels like a complete girl. Nate makes fun of him enough already; no need to add fuel to the fire.
Speaking of adding fuel to the fire, he gathers up one last piece of driftwood and then totes his haul back down the beach. “Look at me, doing manual labor for you,” he announces, depositing the pile next to Rikki.
She eyes him, unimpressed. “You need to stack it in order to have a proper fire.”
“Your magic won’t make up for it?” Zane inclines his head in the direction of her mermaid tail. It’s dangerous for her to sit out on the shore, even on Mako Island, but it’s dark and the fire will dry her off soon. Besides, he wanted to see if he could beat a mermaid in a race to the island. (He couldn’t.)
Rikki laughs, which makes him smile without thinking. It’s like that experiment with the dogs--Pavlovian response, though thankfully without the drooling. “We want the fire to last for more than twenty minutes, right?”
Zane’s heart begins to pound. They haven’t really discussed plans after the race to the island. “Won’t your dad miss you? It’s getting late.”
She arches her eyebrows, grinning. “I told him I’m sleeping over at Cleo’s.”
“And you were planning on telling me this when?” He is very proud that this question comes out in a normal tone of voice.
“When we get the fire going.”
As Zane stacks the driftwood, trying to conceal the occasional tremor in his hands, Rikki hums a song. She has a nice voice. It’s very distracting. He almost knocks the entire structure over before she can light it, but he manages to catch himself just as Rikki is clenching her fist. The wood begins to steam, then ignites in an impressive display of pyrotechnics.
“That’s better,” Rikki says, tucking herself under his arm. Zane automatically squeezes her shoulder, then is treated to the odd tingling sensation of Rikki transforming back into a human.
“That was weird.”
“I’m a weird one,” she agrees. “Sure you want to be all alone with me on a deserted island?”
He kisses her by way of response. Nervous as he is about the implications of her last remark, Zane can’t think of anywhere he’d rather be. She’s somehow still wearing lip gloss after racing through the water like a super-powered dolphin, and she tastes like strawberries. Zane shifts, pulling her onto his lap, and then he kisses her everywhere, like in the movies: on her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks, and then her mouth again, her soft red mouth.
“Rikki,” he says, and his body is cursing his brain for opening his mouth.
“Hmm?”
“I just, um. Wanted to talk. About things.” Her expression has gone from dreamy to confused, and Zane presses while simultaneously wanting to beat his head against the nearest tree. “There are things you should know, well, there’s one important thing you should know, and I want you to know it before--anything happens.”
“Go ahead,” Rikki says, but now she looks almost as nervous as he feels.
“You’re, um, you’re pretty cool, more than pretty cool, actually, and obviously very special to me, and I like hanging out with you a lot, better than with anyone else. Actually, I like it more than a lot.” Zane gives himself a sudden, vicious pinch to stop himself from babbling. “I love you, Rikki Chadwick.”
Oh God, oh God.
Rikki moves back far enough that she’s no longer sitting on his lap, though she’s still pressed against him. She’s smiling, though, a soft smile that he’s never seen before. “You love me, and you wanted to tell me before--anything happens.”
“More or less.”
“Right then.” Rikki stands up, brushing the sand off her shorts. “Put out the fire and then we can race back to the mainland.”
“But--” Zane’s brain is short-circuiting. “If you want.”
He has absolutely no idea what’s going on, and all signs point to a disastrous evening save for one: Rikki’s still got that soft look on her face, and every time Zane sees it, his heart is upside down and over the moon.
14. Counting Crows, “Accidentally In Love”
these lines of lightning mean we’re never alone
It takes Rikki a few days to say she loves Zane back, but there’s no tension to the time, just a peaceful stretch of anticipation. In fact, they’re so peaceful, so dizzy wrapped up in just looking at each other, that Lewis starts making gagging motions whenever they’re in the same room. Then, of course, Cleo promptly elbows him in the side and Emma starts giggling. No one knows what Nate and the rest of that crew thinks, and no one cares, either.
“Maybe we should go take a walk on the beach or something,” Zane suggests.
“Or something,” Rikki says, and they leave JuiceNet hand in hand.
“We could go see 30 Days of Love again.”
“Just because you have the taste of a 12-year-old girl does not mean I will suffer through that again.”
“You totally liked it, Miss Tough Girl.”
The rest of the walk to the beach passes in amicable silence. It’s a blazing December day, and it seems as though sky and sea are having a contest to see which is the bluest. This sort of day is Rikki’s favorite, and perhaps the sun beating down on her head as the waves beat against the shore is what gives her the courage to speak up at last.
“So I’ve been thinking about you said on the island,” Rikki begins, and pauses at the momentary flash of panic on Zane’s face. “Hah! See how you like it. Anyway, Zane Bennet, being as you’re pretty all right yourself, and I want to see your face from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to sleep, I’d like to state for the record that I love you, too.”
She stops, heart knocking in her throat, but she has to wait for all of two seconds before Zane has outright picked her up and twirled her around, whooping all the while. He sets her back down on the warm sand, and she’s grinning at his grin, and they’re in serious danger of cracking their faces, and then they’re kissing, and they’re in serious danger of getting kicked off the beach if any lifeguard should happen along.
“Let’s go for a swim,” she says.
Rikki and Zane run into the waves, fingers intertwined.
Author: littledust
Fandom: H2O: Just Add Water
Pairing: Rikki/Zane
Rating: PG
Word Count: 5209
Summary: What exactly was on that playlist Zane made for Rikki? 14 scenes from the life and times of Zane Bennet and Rikki Chadwick, each matched to one of the songs.
Author's Notes: Originally written for Yuletide 2010.
01. The Cat Empire, “Sly”
if frizzy hair was a metaphor for festival time
It takes Zane weeks to notice that the new girl in town is sort of pretty. Something about the sun in her shock of hair makes his heart skip a beat, right there at a table in JuiceNet, waiting for a smoothie. Then he remembers that she’s Rikki Chadwick, resident freak from Planet Weird, who will probably grow up to be a serial killer or something. Wearing all that red and black must mean something, right?
“What are you looking at, Princess?” Rikki asks, and it’s not clear whether she’s talking to him or to Miriam, who was sitting next to him still texting on the phone he bought her, last time he checked. What’s the point of having a girlfriend if she never does anything interesting? There are days when he hates being Miriam’s accessory, even if she’s got great boobs (but doesn’t let him touch them).
He’s halfway to thinking of a semi-intelligent comeback when Miriam shuts her phone and rolls her eyes. “Don’t you have someplace to be?” she asks. “By yourself, I mean?”
Rikki rolls her eyes right back at Miriam, because freaks like her don’t understand that Miriam and her friends are honestly scary. “I wouldn’t call you company,” she snaps. Most girls would flounce off, but Rikki struts out of JuiceNet, back straight and shoulders squared. Her hair is pretty from the back, too, all twisted into some kind of complicated girl structure.
“Loser,” Zane says, partly because Miriam sees him looking and partly because she is a loser. She doesn’t dress right or talk right or do anything right. She stands out.
Miriam seems placated, but after they finish their smoothies, she all but insists they find a private beach and make out for hours. It takes him a few months to make the connection.
02. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Phenomena”
she’ll make you sweat in the water
“You should be in class, new girl.”
Rikki smirks and snaps a photo. “I’m on assignment.” The nice thing about switching to a ritzy school is that she gets to take cool classes, even if it means putting up with funny-looking spoiled brats like Zane Bennet. “Oops, did I just catch you skipping out early?”
He has the camera out of her hands before she can even blink. That’s what boys like him do: take, take, take. They’re good at it. Rikki lunges for the camera, but contrary to popular rumor, she’s never been in a fight before. Zane twists to evade her, popping out the memory card as he does so, laughing. Laughing.
“That’s the school’s, you moron!” she shouts, and punches him in the stomach as hard as she can. Apparently it’s not hard enough, because he takes to his heels, still laughing. She sprints after him, but classes have just got out, and she loses him in the parking lot. He’s probably left in a limo, so he can jet around in the family yacht or--or in that dumb boat she’s heard him bragging about.
That’s the moment when she comes up with a payback plan, one she nurses all the way home.
Rikki opens up the garage and retrieves her dad’s tool set, her anger a hot metal taste in her mouth, melted copper sliding down her throat. As much as she wants to take a wrench to Zane’s face, she’s going to have to settle for dismantling that stupid boat of his. Like the Zodiac even really counts as a boat, honestly.
She heads off to the marina, nerves humming. It’s broad daylight, and she doesn’t have much time before her dad gets home and inevitably starts working on his bike. This is a recipe for disaster, but every time she pictures Zane’s smug face, her blood boils. Maybe she’ll pry out his spark plugs and make him eat them. The thought cheers her enough that she actually starts whistling, and no one gives her a second glance when she steps onto the Zodiac like she owns it.
Popping out the spark plugs doesn’t take much work for the daughter of a self-proclaimed mechanical genius. Rikki slips them into her pocket. She’s still contemplating what to do with them when she hears a familiar laugh. She dives for cover, heart hammering. Zane and his idiot friend pass by without seeing her, so she settles down in the shadows to gloat.
Take that.
03. Savage Garden, “To the Moon and Back”
if love was red, then she was colorblind
Rikki knows what boys like, but she’s contrary enough to always do the opposite. It’s like she’s too cool to care, except she knows in the back of her mind that putting on the act requires a little bit of caring. It’s all about the face you make, the figure you cut. If attitude is a weapon, then she’s the goddamn Batgirl.
(Okay, so, maybe paraphrasing geek quotes isn’t exactly cool. Whatever. She went on a few dates with a guy she met in a comic store and ended up liking him so much she had to drop him. That’s pretty badass, right?)
Sometimes Rikki wants to pick a fight with Cleo and Emma before they go back to ignoring her. You can tell if a girl is nice by how much attention she pays you. With boys, it’s the opposite, unless you’re flirting, in which case all bets are off. When she shares this wisdom during a casual afternoon in the Moon Pool, Cleo looks confused and Emma looks upset.
“You’ve never...?” Emma asks, trying to be delicate, and Rikki snorts.
“Yes, I’m still a virgin. Would you have some kind of problem if I weren’t?”
As Cleo squeaks out an embarrassed, “No!” Emma reaches out and touches her hand. “You talk like someone who’s been hurt,” she says in her serious, granola girl way, and suddenly it’s hard for Rikki to swallow past the lump in her throat. Maybe it’s just all the salt water.
“Not hurt, just disappointed,” she manages, turning her hand over so she can lace her fingers through Emma’s. Because Cleo is Cleo, she takes Rikki’s other hand, and there they are in the Moon Pool, holding hands like they’re in some film on the Disney channel. It’s all very touchy-feely and girly and yet so sincere that Rikki stops fighting the tears.
“I’m really glad I stole Zane’s stupid spark plugs,” she says, with an undignified sniff.
“I’m really glad you didn’t get arrested,” Emma replies, and Cleo sums it up by saying, “Yeah, I’m glad we’re friends.”
Sometimes Rikki wonders if Cleo isn’t the smartest one of the three.
04. Paramore, “Crushcrushcrush”
don't you know, baby, we're all alone now
Kissing Miriam was like standing in a ray of sunshine; kissing Rikki is like getting struck by lightning. Zane wakes up on Mako Island, head swimming like all of his neurons have been firing at once. He feels scorched from the inside out, and he’s not sure how he got sunburned while sleeping under the trees. Maybe it’s got something to do with the ring of charred grass surrounding him, and maybe that’s got something to do with Rikki.
Getting home is awful with the glare on the water screaming directly into his brain. Stumbling into the house is a godsend. Only after downing a few glasses of water does he snap out of his daze long enough to register that his father has no idea he never came home last night. His father mutters something about a meeting in his general direction, so Zane makes a noncommittal noise and then wanders off to find the aloe vera.
Mako Island always makes him a little unsettled, but this is the first time the feeling has lingered beyond the beaches. He closes his eyes and there is a dance of colors: blue and orange, red and black. Blue for her eyes, orange for the flames; red for her lips, black for the night. In the blur of color, he remembers how sad she looked, the thrill of her mouth pressed against his, and then nothing.
Did Rikki light those fires last night?
Zane shivers, the aloe drying on his face. The answer seems obvious, but it doesn’t quite add up. Her only friends here are dull goody-goodies, and Rikki is more spark than flame, more sky than storm. Zane touches his lips and wonders when he started having opinions about Rikki’s character.
When he walks into JuiceNet, he tells himself he only wants a drink, but his little white lies to himself dissolve when he catches a glimpse of her face. He fumbles his way through a brief conversation, and walks away counting himself ten thousand kinds of fool. Of course it was some sort of strange whim, done just because she could. He’s never treated her well, never given her any reason to want to kiss him. That he’s a Bennet should be enough, but Rikki has made it quite clear that she doesn’t care about his money.
Miriam catches hold of his arm just outside JuiceNet. “I haven’t seen you for a while,” she says, batting her eyelashes like it somehow makes her appealing. “Still looking for your mermaid?”
“Something like that,” he mutters, and shrugs her off. She looks hurt, but whatever--it’s not like he’s good at reading girls, anyway.
05. Green Day, “She”
all her doubts were someone else's point of view
Rikki knows that she loves Emma and Emma loves her. It’s just that sometimes, she wants to punch her in the face. She hasn’t even defined this weird thing that she and Zane have between them, and here Emma is fretting about how her boyfriend will stop at nothing to uncover their secret and sell them off to science.
“I wasn’t the one who decided to play Little Mermaid,” she mutters, glowering at the smoothie in front of her. She should have known something was up when Emma gave it to her on the house. “Anyway, I thought we sorted this all out. Shook on it, happy friends, the whole deal.”
“The bit where he stood up to his dad in front of everyone was romantic,” Emma admits, then follows it up with: “But there’s no way he can be trusted with our secret.”
Rikki thinks about the patter of rain on pavement, the swish of a jacket round her shoulders, the goodbye kiss between elevator doors. “I’ve already trusted him with mine,” she muses, half to herself. Of course, she hasn’t let anyone seen where she lives, so maybe it’s just that she trusts everyone less, including her best friends. Suddenly noticing the expression on Emma’s face, Rikki adds, “Oh, shut up, I know the fishy one isn’t all mine to give up.”
Emma scrunches up her face, which has the intended effect: Rikki laughs. “Before you start calling me Mum, just remember that it’s my job to be the cautious one. Remember the last time I tried to stop being dependable?”
“Speaking of dependable, I think there are people in line,” Rikki says. Emma squeaks in horror and runs back behind the counter. Rikki tips the last of the smoothie back straight out of the glass. At least the “friendly advice” came with a free drink.
06. Pink, “Leave Me Alone (I’m Lonely)”
go away, give me a chance to miss you
Why is it that whenever she wants Zane, her stupid mermaid problem means pushing him away? Then there are the days when she just wants to be alone, and the entire world is trying to force its way in.
Which is why Rikki is walking up down her least favorite stretch of the local coastline, kicking up sand as she goes. The Moon Pool steadies her, but Cleo and Emma like to find her there, like just because they can find her means they should. Same with Zane when it comes to her favorite place on the beach, where the waves always look so blue they melt into the sky. He’s memorized the steps to get there, so of course it means she must want to talk to him.
“The problem is that I do want to,” she informs a nearby seagull, who tilts his head at her, indifferent to her very human suffering. “I wanted to kiss him after the stupid trick with the locket, but oh, mustn’t get wet, Rikki. I know I’ll never be normal, but why can’t I have normal problems?”
The seagull takes flight, streaking across the water, and Rikki sighs. “Should’ve known better than to expect answers from anybody, least of all a bird.”
Her phone begins trilling in her pocket. Should’ve known better than to expect she could get away even out here, too.
07. The Clash, “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?”
one day it’s fine and next it’s black
Without a doubt, Rikki Chadwick is the most confusing, frustrating, irritating girl Zane has ever met. Contrary to what the magazines say, it doesn’t make him want her more, but being annoyed is better than being miserable. Or, well, it’s at least a different kind of miserable.
Speaking of different kinds of miserable, there’s the unique misery of finding out that your sort of girlfriend and her two best friends are the sea monster you’ve been tracking for months. Most of the time, Zane is certain that no one in the world understands how he feels (except for Rikki, always Rikki), but this time he knows no one does.
“Like it’s surprising she never told me,” Zane says aloud. The house is empty: empty of servants, of his father, of the drowning rift between them. Now he’s trapped inside another rift, sinking slowly this time.
When Zane pulls out his phone, his hands are shaking, actually shaking. I’m not breaking anything that wasn’t already broken, he thinks, scrolling through his contacts. If anything, I’m fixing things the best I can.
It only takes Rikki a few rings to pick up. “I was wondering when you’d call.” It’s hard to tell over the phone, but she doesn’t sound flirtatious, only resigned.
“I think we should talk,” Zane says, and tries to ignore the painful way his heart thuds at her voice. “Meet me on the beach.”
08. Bowling for Soup, “Almost”
and I wish I would have had the nerve to ask you to stay
They never really say goodbye, even when their mouths are shaping the words. They meet on the beach, waves crashing softly in the background, and what they say gets pulled out with the tide, leaving what they mean bared until the next wave comes rushing in.
“We just went our separate ways,” Rikki says to Cleo, who, in the glow of her new romance, is over-invested in everybody else’s. Cleo and Lewis are so happy together that even Rikki can’t bring herself to be annoyed, though.
“Just because I’m not seeing Rikki anymore doesn’t mean that I want to see you,” Zane snaps at Miriam. He can’t bring himself to care about the way she flinches from his words, not after the whole business with the necklace.
“I’ve got a lot more than boys on my mind, Dad,” Rikki says, though for taking an interest, she presses a fond kiss to his cheek. “Don’t pretend to be disappointed.”
“For the record, she didn’t dump me, it was a mutual splitting up,” Zane says. He’s known Nate for forever, so he still likes him even when he’s being a jerk, but that doesn’t mean he has to take it. “Who was the last girlfriend you had, mate? Your left hand?”
“I don’t miss him at all.”
“I don’t miss her at all.”
09. Nirvana, “Heart-Shaped Box”
she eyes me like a Pisces
Sometimes, Zane imagines what it would have been like to swim with Rikki. He pictures blue-green water, the sway of plants, the flutter of tropical fish, and the smile of a girl with an orange tail. She told him once before he knew what it meant that she always felt free in the water, like she belonged somewhere. Missing the significance, he promised to take her swimming and then sighed when she shook her head. Contradictory, he called her.
Now, of course, the magic is gone, and he can only imagine what might have been.
“Zane!”
He pulls off his headphones, opening his eyes to see his father standing in the living room, arms crossed, an amused look on his face.
“Getting work done has been a lot easier with you doing nothing but pining on the couch, but I wish you would just talk to the girl already.”
“Her name is Rikki,” Zane says, but without venom. It’s been a month and his father hasn’t stopped making an effort to, well, be a father, so he’s started to entertain the tentative hope that this phase of their relationship is going to stick around. “And I haven’t been pining. I just bought a lot of new songs and I want to listen to them.” That’s half true, at least: he has bought a lot of new songs. Never mind that they’ve all gone a playlist titled “Rikki.”
“I might not be the world’s greatest dad, but I’m not a fool.” He sits beside Zane. “I’m also rather invested in seeing you happy. If she--if Rikki--means so much to you, you have to at least try to get her back.”
Zane begins fiddling with his headphones, staring at a spot on the carpet. “Did you try to get Mum back?” There: the real test. He waits for his father to storm off to his office, shouting that no son of his would speak that way to him.
There is a long pause, filled only with the sound of breathing.
“I didn’t,” his father says, like every word is being dragged from his lungs. “I failed, Zane, and for that, I’m sorry.”
“She was the one who left us,” Zane whispers, his voice rough, and he doesn’t resist when his dad pulls him in for a hug.
10. Delta Goodrem, “Lost Without You”
thought I had all the answers
The whole dirt bike scene is full of boys looking even more stupid than usual, but somehow, Rikki finds herself squinting through the sun and the dust for one rider in particular. “Least I’ve got an idiot to call my own,” she muses, raising an arm to wave.
Zane all but swaggers his way over to her, his hair sticking up in all directions from his helmet. “I take it you liked your present?”
“Pink’s not my color, but the songs are very--us.” Rikki knows she’s supposed to be the cynical one, the one with the heart of stone, but she listened to Zane’s playlist so many times last night that she actually fell asleep with her earbuds in.
“I can get you a red one if you like,” Zane says, like a puppy desperate to learn a new trick.
“Don’t be silly. I love my present, pink and all. It matches my secret girly music obsession. How did you know about it?” Rikki grins. “Got one yourself, have you?”
Zane presses a hand over his heart. “Delta speaks to my very soul.” The effect is somewhat ruined by the ridiculous neon colors of his dirt biking outfit.
“I’m surprised you didn’t put on some Celine Dion. That would have made me give it back.”
“I like that one song she has! It’s sort of, you know, pretty.”
By this point, Rikki is laughing almost too hard to speak. “If only I’d known this when you were tormenting us! I’d never have let you hear the end of it.”
“I’m secure enough to admit my love for bad Canadian pop in the middle of a dirt bike course. Must be because my girl is at my side.” Zane’s nervousness shows in his face, which is only half-smiling. “I mean, if you want to be my girl that is.”
“I’ll think about it,” Rikki says airily. “You are kind of cute, questionable taste in music and all.”
“Well, I’m glad I’ve got something going for me.”
“You’ve got me, stupid, and that’s as good as it gets.”
11. Silverchair, “Miss You Love”
I love the way you love, but I hate the way I’m supposed to love you back
Of course he would screw everything up while trying to make things better. That’s the way things go for him. Zane wonders what his father would have said about that just a few months ago. He could always ask his father’s advice now, but there’s only so much awkward father-son bonding he can take in the span of a few days.
“I mean, I made a resolution to be less of an ass,” he says, stirring his lukewarm smoothie with his straw. Either word has got round or Emma has developed psychic powers in addition to her ability to grow a tail.
“From my experience, girls like it when you screw ‘em over, but not too much,” Nate offers. His smoothie looks perfectly edible. There is no justice.
“You’re an idiot.”
“Look, I don’t even know why you’re talking to me about this in the first place.”
“You have a point,” Zane admits. “Maybe it’s just that you make me feel virtuous in comparison, what with the petty theft and all.”
“I am good for that.” In a way, Zane wishes he could be more like Nate: completely selfish, and completely unrepentant about it. Then again, that was pretty much his own defining character trait for years, and it didn’t get him very far.
Zane pushes his unfinished smoothie to the side, resting his chin on his hand in primary vertical moping position. “Tell me what you would do in this situation, and then I’ll go and do the opposite.”
Nate’s brow creases as if he’s giving actual thought to the situation. “I’d give up on the freaky girl and get back together with Miriam. She has bigger boobs.”
That earns him an eye roll. “So I guess I’ll just glue what you stole back on the motorbike, then beg Rikki for forgiveness.”
Nate raises his smoothie to him in mock salute. “Sounds like something I’d never do, mate.”
12. Missy Higgins, “The Special Two”
these hands will not be taught to hold another's
“The flowers really aren’t necessary.”
“You have got to work on how to graciously accept a gift.”
“I’m holding the bouquet, aren’t I?” Rikki sighs and begins opening her kitchen cupboards, looking for something that will do as a vase. On the very top shelf is a faded blue jug with cheerful yellow daisies painted on the side. When she gets on tiptoe, she can just reach it.
Without being asked, Zane reaches over her head to get the vase down for her. When he sets it on the counter, their arms brush together. Rikki can’t help smiling at the big lug, tipping her face back for a kiss. Between this and the roses, it’s all pretty romantic, one big scene she knows no one else would ever picture them in. She loves the way their hidden sides fit together, like puzzle pieces that flip over to reveal a different picture underneath.
“Seriously,” she says, a little breathless because he’s gotten better and better at kissing her, “I don’t need gifts to feel like I’m important to you. I mean, I never get you anything, and you seem pretty happy.”
He turns the tap on, filling the jug with water. “You make me happy,” he says simply, then ducks his head and grins, like a little boy. They’re getting a little less awful about talking about their feelings, but every so often, the utter embarrassment of it catches up with them.
Cheeks red, Rikki shoves the roses into the jug with such violence that the water splashes on her hand. She yelps, colliding with Zane on a mad dash to the kitchen towels, and it’s a miracle that she doesn’t transform into a mermaid in the middle of her own kitchen. Her father’s not home yet, but knowing her luck, he’d arrive just then.
Rikki whips Zane with the kitchen towel, then catches him up in another kiss, determined to take his breath away this time. If he’s going to shower her with affection, she’s going to give as good as she gets.
13. Sum 41, “With Me”
these words are my heart and soul
Sometimes Zane feels like one person’s body can’t possibly contain the sheer emotion that a heart can hold. Then he feels like a complete girl. Nate makes fun of him enough already; no need to add fuel to the fire.
Speaking of adding fuel to the fire, he gathers up one last piece of driftwood and then totes his haul back down the beach. “Look at me, doing manual labor for you,” he announces, depositing the pile next to Rikki.
She eyes him, unimpressed. “You need to stack it in order to have a proper fire.”
“Your magic won’t make up for it?” Zane inclines his head in the direction of her mermaid tail. It’s dangerous for her to sit out on the shore, even on Mako Island, but it’s dark and the fire will dry her off soon. Besides, he wanted to see if he could beat a mermaid in a race to the island. (He couldn’t.)
Rikki laughs, which makes him smile without thinking. It’s like that experiment with the dogs--Pavlovian response, though thankfully without the drooling. “We want the fire to last for more than twenty minutes, right?”
Zane’s heart begins to pound. They haven’t really discussed plans after the race to the island. “Won’t your dad miss you? It’s getting late.”
She arches her eyebrows, grinning. “I told him I’m sleeping over at Cleo’s.”
“And you were planning on telling me this when?” He is very proud that this question comes out in a normal tone of voice.
“When we get the fire going.”
As Zane stacks the driftwood, trying to conceal the occasional tremor in his hands, Rikki hums a song. She has a nice voice. It’s very distracting. He almost knocks the entire structure over before she can light it, but he manages to catch himself just as Rikki is clenching her fist. The wood begins to steam, then ignites in an impressive display of pyrotechnics.
“That’s better,” Rikki says, tucking herself under his arm. Zane automatically squeezes her shoulder, then is treated to the odd tingling sensation of Rikki transforming back into a human.
“That was weird.”
“I’m a weird one,” she agrees. “Sure you want to be all alone with me on a deserted island?”
He kisses her by way of response. Nervous as he is about the implications of her last remark, Zane can’t think of anywhere he’d rather be. She’s somehow still wearing lip gloss after racing through the water like a super-powered dolphin, and she tastes like strawberries. Zane shifts, pulling her onto his lap, and then he kisses her everywhere, like in the movies: on her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks, and then her mouth again, her soft red mouth.
“Rikki,” he says, and his body is cursing his brain for opening his mouth.
“Hmm?”
“I just, um. Wanted to talk. About things.” Her expression has gone from dreamy to confused, and Zane presses while simultaneously wanting to beat his head against the nearest tree. “There are things you should know, well, there’s one important thing you should know, and I want you to know it before--anything happens.”
“Go ahead,” Rikki says, but now she looks almost as nervous as he feels.
“You’re, um, you’re pretty cool, more than pretty cool, actually, and obviously very special to me, and I like hanging out with you a lot, better than with anyone else. Actually, I like it more than a lot.” Zane gives himself a sudden, vicious pinch to stop himself from babbling. “I love you, Rikki Chadwick.”
Oh God, oh God.
Rikki moves back far enough that she’s no longer sitting on his lap, though she’s still pressed against him. She’s smiling, though, a soft smile that he’s never seen before. “You love me, and you wanted to tell me before--anything happens.”
“More or less.”
“Right then.” Rikki stands up, brushing the sand off her shorts. “Put out the fire and then we can race back to the mainland.”
“But--” Zane’s brain is short-circuiting. “If you want.”
He has absolutely no idea what’s going on, and all signs point to a disastrous evening save for one: Rikki’s still got that soft look on her face, and every time Zane sees it, his heart is upside down and over the moon.
14. Counting Crows, “Accidentally In Love”
these lines of lightning mean we’re never alone
It takes Rikki a few days to say she loves Zane back, but there’s no tension to the time, just a peaceful stretch of anticipation. In fact, they’re so peaceful, so dizzy wrapped up in just looking at each other, that Lewis starts making gagging motions whenever they’re in the same room. Then, of course, Cleo promptly elbows him in the side and Emma starts giggling. No one knows what Nate and the rest of that crew thinks, and no one cares, either.
“Maybe we should go take a walk on the beach or something,” Zane suggests.
“Or something,” Rikki says, and they leave JuiceNet hand in hand.
“We could go see 30 Days of Love again.”
“Just because you have the taste of a 12-year-old girl does not mean I will suffer through that again.”
“You totally liked it, Miss Tough Girl.”
The rest of the walk to the beach passes in amicable silence. It’s a blazing December day, and it seems as though sky and sea are having a contest to see which is the bluest. This sort of day is Rikki’s favorite, and perhaps the sun beating down on her head as the waves beat against the shore is what gives her the courage to speak up at last.
“So I’ve been thinking about you said on the island,” Rikki begins, and pauses at the momentary flash of panic on Zane’s face. “Hah! See how you like it. Anyway, Zane Bennet, being as you’re pretty all right yourself, and I want to see your face from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to sleep, I’d like to state for the record that I love you, too.”
She stops, heart knocking in her throat, but she has to wait for all of two seconds before Zane has outright picked her up and twirled her around, whooping all the while. He sets her back down on the warm sand, and she’s grinning at his grin, and they’re in serious danger of cracking their faces, and then they’re kissing, and they’re in serious danger of getting kicked off the beach if any lifeguard should happen along.
“Let’s go for a swim,” she says.
Rikki and Zane run into the waves, fingers intertwined.