A/N: So I've never thought I'll actually post this one, but here I am, 1:32 am Monday night (or Sunday? How am I supposed to call it?). I actually wrote it just to prove to myself that I can write in the present tense. Feel free to tell me otherwise.
I don't own anything except for my own feelings.
She wouldn't admit it, but she hung up a calendar to be aware of how much time they had left together.
Abby is the first to go, only a year after they said their final goodbyes to Numbuh 1. She walks up on to the stage and pulls off her cap, throwing it to Numbuh 2, the new leader of Sector V. Kuki knows that decommissioning is her worst fear, but the thirteen year old swallows down her tears and smiles at them, blowing her candles. Kuki turns away when Abby's taken to the chamber, not wanting her last memory of her best friend to be her being escorted by Numbuh 86, the normal spark in her eyes dulled, as if she already couldn't recognize any of them. But try as she might, she still hears her screams.
She knows that they are supposed to get a new recruit by then, but Abby had a long, private talk with the Supreme Leader. She never mentioned it again.
When they get back from the Moon Base, Numbuh 2 puts Abby's hat next to Nigel's sunglasses and immediately goes to his room, tears in his eyes. Wally clenches his fists and runs to his room, probably to punch something.
Kuki stands in the middle of the room, staring at the two possessions the former members of Sector V left behind, before slowly walking to her room.
She walks up to the calendar on her wall, the day marked with a little birthday cake and a small stick figure drawing of Abby. She tears off the page and puts in on her nightstand, next to one with Nigel and a spaceship.
They have two years before Hoagie's birthday come. He gives the leadership to Wally.
That's the first time she sees Wally cry at a decommissioning since Numbuh 9.
"I'll miss ye, mate" He extends his hand, sniffing. Hoagie takes it and pulls him into a short hug, smiling.
"Take care of Sector V, Numbuh 4" He pats his shoulder, turning to her. She throws her arms around his neck.
"Bye, Numbuh 2."
"Goodbye, Kuki."
Hoagie blows out his candles and lets Numbuh 83 escort him to the chamber. He looks over his shoulder one more time and salutes, winking.
She starts to sob when Sonia turns on the machine.
When they get back to the tree house, she clutches onto Wally's old, orange hoodie and cries into his neck. After all these years, they were finally the same height.
He bits his lip and hugs her back. She spends the night in his room, both of them crying.
They never talk about it.
The next few months are spent mostly in silence. They avoid the empty rooms once occupied by their friends like plague. Being the ones born in fall and early winter, they watch all of their peers disappear. With every month, they become older, when finally it's only a couple of weeks till Wally's birthday.
They finally start to talk to each other. The silent months long forgotten, they sit and talk about the times when there was still five of them in the tree house. About Mushi still running around with Sandy, about Joey becoming one of the youngest KND agents. They laugh and they cry, trying so hard to pretend it wasn't the end.
When they fly to the moonbase none of them dares to say anything. They just look at each other every once in awhile, before quickly staring back at the monitors, hiding tears.
When they walk to the stage, she breaks down and refuses to let go of his hand, begging for a day more. He hugs her, saying he's sorry. She tells him she's sorry too.
They pry her off him, holding her back next to Joey, whose bottom lip is quivering. Wally ruffles his hair and tells him to kick his butt whenever he'll get overly teenager-y, for Numbuh 4's sake. She cries harder.
Wally doesn't even glance at the crowd when he walks to the chamber. He looks over his shoulder just before walking in and smiles at her.
"Bye, Kuki."
She starts to wail when Sonia turns on the machine, struggling in the hold of kids so much younger than her.
Two months, Kuki, a small voice in the back of her head says, two months and you won't even remember the pain.
She shuts off. Doesn't talk to anyone. Spends the last two months of her childhood curled up in her room, crying and holding onto Wally's hoodie as if it was her lifeline. During school she pretends she doesn't see any of her friends – should she say ex-friends?
When there's only a week left till her birthday, she does something so bad, so against the rules she knows Wally would be more than a little proud of her.
She takes home the calendar pages and hangs them up on her wall.
When she's finally taken to the moonbase, she's smiling. She knows she won't remember all the good times in the tree house, but it can't stop her from remembering them now. The two agents look at her as if she's crazy when she starts to laugh, remembering a prank war between Hoagie and Wally that Abby put a stop to by pranking them both. She tries to remember how exactly Nigel's accent sounded like, but it's been four years and although she never forgot the things he said, the way they sounded got lost. She thinks about Hoagie's bad puns and dry humor, about Abby's smile and the warm, lazy way she said some things, about Wally's beautiful green eyes, his hot-headiness and this smile he had only for her, as if he couldn't believe she was even real, let alone standing next to him and talking his ear off.
She tries so hard to remember everything when she blows out the candles, knowing that she's the last Sector V member standing on Earth and that after she's gone, probably no one will, not the times when there was still a five of them. Maybe a couple of the eldest kids but no one else.
Numbuh 3 holds her head high when they escort her to the chamber, not a single tear falling down. She has no one to say goodbye to, so she doesn't say a thing.