OPERATION: N.U.R.S.E.S.
N - Nasty
U - Unbelievable injuries
R - Rehabilitated by
S - Sanban's
E - Excellent
S - Skills
Wallabee Beatles squinted, fists tightly clenched on the handle of his gumball blaster. His focus was fading, mainly because he was knocked on the noggin a couple of times. Everyone was shouting. Numbuh 1 was spouting out commands, Numbuh 2 trying to produce witty comments, Numbuh 3 trying her best to fight, and Numbuh 5 coolly fending off the mini robot enamels that Knightbrace kept giving them.
For one last time, Numbuh 4 cocked his gumball blaster (loaded with gumballs that can make cavities appear in a minute) at Knightbrace's pearly whites. With his last ounce of energy, the Australian-bred pulled the trigger and launched a good number of cavity-inducing candies at the teeth cleaning-obsessed dentist. The target was hit, with Knightbrace's exposed teeth catching each and every piece of the candy. Wally still saw the horrified expression on Knightbrace's face before his sight went all wonky and he blacked out.
I'm gonna get you, Knightbrace. You and your cruddy teeth-cleaning weapons and your minions and all of them. I... I...
"WAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
Numbuh 4 screamed in pain, feeling a sharp sting on his right arm. Vision still blurry, he tried to focus at the source of the pain, but can't see anything properly. He groaned in slight pain. He felt like a thousand teeth were launched at him relentlessly, biting down his flesh and leaving marks.
"Ow..." he squirmed and made a move to pull away his painful arm from whoever was touching it. He couldn't. One, because it was too painful. Two, because it was pinned down gently by someone's hand.
"Stop moving, silly!"
"Whuu--?"
Wally blinked.
And blinked again.
Before he knew it, his eyesight was back to normal and he was looking at the person that he never thought would be able to play as nurse or doctor or whatever. Kuki Sanban. Wally's eyes widened in horror as he scanned for the bandages and a nearby mirror. For all he knew, he could be sporting Rainbow Monkey bandages and wearing badly applied make-up on his face.
"I said stop moving!" Kuki said, teeth clenched. She seemed to be concentrating. Wally's eyebrows furrowed and almost met. What is she doing?
"What are you doing to me?"
"I'm trying to nurse your wounds, silly!"
"Nurse my WHAT?! How can I be wounded?!"
"Knightbrace did it."
"Where are the others?"
"Oh, they ran off, chasing Knightbrace."
Wally can't believe his ears. The others? Off to chase the villain? Without the one and only Numbuh 4?! He struggled to get up and chase after them, but Kuki had a surprisingly strong grip that he couldn't move. Besides, his body was in pain already.
"I said don't move, or you'll get hurt some more!"
"Oh, alright. But I still can't believe they left without me." He frowned. No mission could be complete without Numbuh 4. Whether he's messing it up or making them win, he was ALWAYS there. And not being there was SO un-Wally-ish. Cruddy injuries, he thought to himself as he watched the Japanese girl put on bandages.
"There!" she exclaimed proudly, looking at her handiwork. It was all messed up, crudely applied and looked as if some sharp-toothed animal tried to pull it off. Numbuh 4 frowned. No mission, and now his arm looked ugly. What else? Thick lipstick?
"I don't feel any better." he told the girl flatly.
"Weeell, that's how you're supposed to feel at the start!"
"How do you know?"
"I don't." She smirked, as Wally's mouth hung open in shock. Kuki turned around and hopped to the kitchen. She returned, holding what seemed to be bowl of hot soup. She sat down beside the irritated Australian and got a spoonful of the steaming soup. "Open up, Wally!"
"I'm not hungry."
"Open up!"
"I'm not hungry."
"Come on!"
"I said, I'M NOT HUNGRY!"
Kuki looked surprised at Numbuh 4's sudden display of anger. Part of her was saying, "why would I be surprised? He's always like that!" while another side told her, "I'm trying to take care of him. Why is he mad?" Kuki pouted, blinking repeatedly and fighting back the tears that were already forming. She set the spoon and the bowl down beside the hotheaded boy and turned around. "O-okay... B-but I'll leave the soup here, just in case you wanna eat..." Quietly, the Japanese girl left, entering her room. Wally watched, somehow dumbfounded even if he expected this to happen. He stared at the soup bowl.
Numbuh 3's face was buried in her pillows. She tightly hugged a huge, soft, yellowish-purple Rainbow Monkey. Still crying, she looked sadly at the stuffed animal. "Oh, Always-There-To-Comfort-You-Colorful Rainbow Monkey, I just don't understand him!" she said, striking a conversation with the toy as if it was living and breathing. She squeezed it. Somehow, there was something comforting squeezing stuffed animals. No, stuffed monkeys. No, Rainbow Monkeys. She wiped her eyes.
"I mean, I'm doing my best to take care of him, even if I'm not a great nurse..." she paused a while, remembering one annoyed operative she applied make-up on. "But he should appreciate my effort! I mean, it's not everyday he gets treated like this!" She pushed the monkey's stomach and it began to speak in a high-pitched, kiddie voice. "It's alright." it said. I sure hope so, she thought to herself. "I just hope he starts to appreciate everything I do for him. I mean, I saved his life once."
Wallabee Beatles was getting frustrated. He tried drinking the soup the best that he could, but all that he could do was spill some of the soup. He mentally slapped himself. What was I thinking, getting Kuki upset? Now I'm starving and I can't even eat! He had thought of alternatives - using his feet, licking the soup on the ground, even crawling all the way to the kitchen to get something other than spilled soup to eat, even if that meant feeling undying pain. But he just couldn't bring himself to do so. He was so hungry he didn't even have the energy to lift the spoon. A million alternative solutions later (kneeling down and drinking the soup like a dog would drink water), he finally found a potentially effective solution - call Kuki.
Would she come back? Would she consider feeding me and stuff even if I told her off or something? He looked longingly at the warm soup and heard his stomach grumble. It's worth a try...
He breathed in deeply, gathering all the energy that was left inside him and prepared...
"KUKI!!!!!!!!"
No response.
"KUKI!!!!!!!"
Footsteps. Kuki Sanban appeared, eyes somewhat red and swollen from all the crying. She hugged her Always-There-To-Comfort-Me-Rainbow Monkey tightly and looked at the boy. "What?" She smiled, seemingly happy and cheery and generally the way she always is, but Numbuh 4 thought that she felt otherwise.
"Umm... could you...." He looked at the bowl, with all the soup spilled and messy and soaking his clothes. She nodded, took the bowl, set the Rainbow Monkey down carefully and retreated to the kitchen. Numbuh 4 stared irritably at the stuffed animal. "What're you looking at?" He frowned as the inanimate object smiled blankly at him, plastic eyes twinkling. A few moments later, Numbuh 3 returned, a bowl of hot soup in her hands. She sat beside him and blew the soup gently. "Open up, Wally."
He drank the soup that Kuki gave to him. It was warm and it coursed through his body, instantly making him feel better, energized. Suddenly, there wasn't any sort of body pain to make him miserable. He continued drinking the soup on his own, as he regained energy. Kuki watched him, eyes fixed. She squeezed the Rainbow Monkey.
As soon as he gulped the last drop, Wally set down the bowl and looked at Kuki, who seemed perfectly happy with the Rainbow Monkey and yet sad because he shouted at him at the time that she seemed worried about him the most. He looked down at the floor and tried to hide his embarassment. "Kuki, I'm so so so so sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to shout at you like that. I was just kind of jumpy not being able to go with the team and all..."
She smiled weakly. For the first time in his life, Wally saw a different side of Kuki Sanban - a sad, sorry one. Most of the time, she cried and got mad and happy because of Rainbow Monkeys and only because of Rainbow Monkeys. But this was different. The sadness, the emotion that she hid well. It was real. It wasn't some shallow, superficial wailing or crying or melancholy that she usually displays when one of her beloved stuffed toys is lost. This was genuine.
"Oh, that's alright, Wally."
"But I'm really so sorry. I didn't mean to say it that way."
"I told you, it's alright." her sad smile turned into a big, happy grin. It looked like she was her usual, cheerful self again. "Besides! We're here ALL day, with all these Rainbow Monkeys!"
"Ugh..." Wally groaned. Sure, he liked this girl, and sure, he could tolerate her to a certain extent, but being trapped in the treehouse for a whole day with no one else to talk to but a bunch of dumb stuffed monkeys was a whole lot to bear. "Not those cruddy monkeys again!"
Numbuh 3 giggled. "I wasn't planning making you spend the day with those Rainbow Monkeys, silly!" For a moment, Wally thought he felt his eyeballs pop out. "Since you're feeling really bad today, I figured out I should let you spend the day as you like it! Besides, you made me happy on my miserable days." Her face turned slightly red. So did Numbuh 4's.
Ear-piercing silence followed. Both of them were quite unsure what to do, even if they've already encountered awkward moments like these. Wally gamely blamed it on growing up and almost turning twelve years old. Both of them knew that this awkwardly awkward silence should stop. "So, Wally, what do you want to do?" Kuki's voice broke the silence.
THROW AWAY ALL THE RAINBOW MONKEYS was what first came to his mind, but he was sensible enough to know that it was a stupid thing to say. So he thought like a Numbuh 4 - videogames. "I say let's go play some videogames! Like Racing Master 9000, and not some cruddy Rainbow Monkey game!"
In frustration, the blonde Aussie threw his game controller across the room and to the TV after being beaten by a girl for the 50th time. He tried every strategy imaginable, from trying to send Kuki's racer off course to cutting corners and using the shortcuts, but he just can't. Finally, he lost it.
"GAH! I HATE THIS CRUDDY GAME! You're just lucky you're winning!"
Kuki frowned. "Well if you weren't such a cheater, you would've had a shot at first place!"
"WHATEVER! Let's just play another game." he walked away, flicked through his game collection and picked a videogame he was certain Numbuh 3 would lose. "Shooter Championship 3..." he grinned evilly, caressing the shiny box and reading and rereading the statement that made him confident and sure that he'd beat her... "Not for newcomers or the faint of heart."
But like what happened to their previous one-on-one session, Numbuh 4 was becoming a lot more furious, losing every round faster than you can say "crikey". Numbuh 3's wins were a lot more than Wally's. And by a lot more, I mean a 450-point difference. Wally gave up, finally realizing that he couldn't best her. If he couldn't beat her against a round of Shooter Championship 3, what more for the other, easier games? I hope this isn't some sort of trick so she could lure me into playing one of her silly, cruddy Rainbow Monkey games...
By the time she got her 600th win, Kuki was yawning. "Aw, c'mon Wally! Be more spirited! Competitive!"
"How can I when you've kicked my butt loads of times already? And how did you get to be this good anyways?!"
Numbuh 3 lowered her face. "Well, I do sneak out at night to play..."
Wally's mouth hung wide open. For the first time, he realized that Kuki wasn't an innocent girl that had nothing to do with videogames. In fact, he had a hunch that all the awesome videogames he got for Christmas were hand-me-downs from Kuki. The thought made him feel fluffy inside, but it also made his brain cells die. A girl just beat him. Loads of times. A lot more than he realized.
"Well, so are we still going to play or not?" she asked him impatiently. He raised his hands up in the air, as if being arrested. "No way, I give up." he said, predicting that he'll get another beating when they play again. "I'll just go to sleep in my room. Play all you want." Wally told her, yawning as he got up and headed to his sleeping quarters. He limped slightly, for his injuries weren't completely healed by the soup Numbuh 3 made (he suspected that the soup had some weird Japanese healing ingredients). Kuki just shrugged and loaded up Rainbow Monkeys: The Quest for the Missing Friendship Diamond on the console.
Numbuh 4 made sure that he locked the door and did all he could to drown out the sound of giggling and girly songs coming from the game room's surround sound system. Between frustrated grunts and never-ending complaints of having Rainbow Monkeys around, Wally slept.
A messy nest of bed hair crowned the boy's head. He wiped traces of drool from the side of his mouth and held his stomach. I'm hungry, he thought to himself as he removed all the sound-preventive barricades blocking the door and opened it. Wally absentmindedly scratched his head as he made his way to the kitchen, his stomach leading him there.
Eyes half closed, he traveled unconsciously to the kitchen. It didn't take long, and before he knew it, he was eating a bowl of Rainbow Munchies. He didn't mind the slight pain that was coursing through his injured legs, nor did he mind his other injuries. All he was concerned right about now was his stomach and giving sacrifices to the mighty digestive tract.
He chowed down on another spoon of the cereal, thinking about all of the events that transpired that day. From a morning breakfast with Knightbrace, to waking up being nursed by the girliest girl he ever knew, and then being beaten bruised by Numbuh 3 in different multiplayer games. He gulped the last spoonful of cereal before actually remembering to see what happened to Kuki and her game ("cruddy Rainbow Monkeys", Wally mouthed for the nth time).
The game credits were rolling for an hour already, as the credits timer positioned at the top right corner of the screen said (the game does have a whole ton of contributors), and Numbuh 3 was sleeping on the couch, controller on the floor. Accompanying the credits was the music Numbuh 4 despised - the Rainbow Monkey theme music. He cringed, making his way towards the couch. He frowned at the girl sleeping there for being such a girly girl, and for dragging him to Rainbow Monkey conventions and events and changing the channels when he was watching wrestling.
Wally turned off the console, handling the CD as if it was some kind of toxic substance and plugged off the television. He sat beside the sleeping Kuki, who mumbled stuff about Rainbow Monkeys and the color pink. He smiled lightly, but slapped himself immediately when he realized what he was just doing - staring mindlessly at her. "Cut it out, Wallabee!" he told himself, sighing. An idea struck him. This is your chance, Numbuh 4! You can tell her how you feel about her, without any sort of reaction! He hung around, waiting, planning what to say even if it didn't matter how he'd say it because he was going to talk to a sleeping girl. The sudden idea surprised him, but there was no other way he could tell this to her unless it was absolutely necessary, like when he was going to be decommisioned or something. He breathed in heavily, and braced himself. "Okay, Kuki, you're an absolute girly girl and I hate that, but you're just really kind to me and all and oh crud I like you so much."
He said it in so fast a manner that he was sure no one could understand what he just said. Satisfied, he leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes. "Whew, I never thought I'd be able to say that..." his voice trailed off as he got drawn into a dreamless sleep (as if trudging towards the kitchen and getting himself cereal was as hard, tough and tiring as trekking across the neighborhood chasing away the Delightful Children).
Kuki grinned. She felt extremely overjoyed. She tried going to sleep by using the Rainbow Monkey game's ending credits. And though she did to sleep for a while, the sudden stopping of the music made her wake up, though she didn't really have Numbuh 4 know it just in case he'll get startled or what. But she heard him. She heard him confess.
Kuki opened her eyes, hearing Wally snore. She smiled. "I like you too, Walliekins!" She planted a light kiss on his forehead, then returned to sleep.
"SLEEPING ON THE JOB?! KNIGHTBRACE COULD'VE RETURNED AND BOMBED OUR TREEHOUSE TO ASHES!!!" Nigel Uno screamed at a startled Wally.
"Give him a break, Numbuh 1. He was just sleeping." Abby said coolly.
"A BREAK?! A BREAK?! WILL I GIVE HIM A BREAK IF AN ADULT RUINED OUR TREEHOUSE?!"
Numbuh 2 just shook his head and headed to the kitchen.
A/N: Well, that's it. My second KND 3/4 fic. I think I wasn't consistent with the characters, but anyway, I tried. Comments?