Her Left Hand
By Cybra
A/N: Set post IT and post ZERO (which was supposed to come after "IT" as you can tell by the Moon Base). IT actually got me liking 1/362 probably because, to me, it's the only straight couple with One that seems to work.
Disclaimer: Codename: Kids Next Door is Tom Warburton's.
Maybe she should just promote him to Moon Base like she'd originally intended.
If Numbuh 362 needed someone on the ground to give her an assessment of a particular situation, she didn't think twice about calling Numbuh 1. If Moon Base needed assistance with defense, his sector was the one she summoned. If a pair of sectors was bickering over this or that and she didn't have time to deal with it, she didn't send Eighty-Six. (The last thing she wanted was to make the situation worse with the girl's short temper!) She sent the obliging One instead.
Perhaps it was fitting that the bald Brit had stayed loyal to her despite the fact that she'd abdicated her position as Supreme Commander during the Tag Incident. He'd even respected her wishes, not tagging her when he was It though he'd had the perfect opportunity. However, she wondered if he would've done so if she'd expressed regrets to giving the job up.
And he had a rather convenient (though borderline creepy) talent of appearing just when she needed him whether it was for Kids Next Door business, someone to talk to, someone to spar with (the Tag Incident had shown just how much her combat skills had gone downhill), or just someone to shout at in order to vent her frustrations. He would oblige her even if it was just standing there with his hands neatly folded behind his back and a blank look on his face as she hurled abuse his way. She always apologized afterwards, but he never seemed to mind. How he managed to do it between missions and his own work, she never knew. Maybe he should've been Supreme Commander.
After her recent bout of screaming herself out of breath, she flopped down in one of the couches on the shiny new observation deck. It was sinfully cushy, swallowing her in its fluffiness. Idly, she wondered where the decorating crews had dug it up.
The British boy continued to stand for a moment, hands still behind his back and face a neutral mask before he asked, "Feel better?"
"Yeah. Sorry about that."
He walked calmly towards her before taking a seat at her left. He waved a hand as if swatting at a fly rather than blowing off her apology. "It's all right."
Numbuh 362 raised an eyebrow at him. "You sure you don't want this job?"
He blinked and pointed at himself. "Me?"
"Yeah. You covered for me that whole week I was out. Did a pretty good job at it, too. So why not?"
"A week's one thing. All the time's another. No, I'm perfectly happy where I am." The bald Brit gazed up at the Earth. "It'd be great to stay up here, but my place is down there with my friends, getting my hands dirty by fighting adult tyranny face-to-face. I'm not smart and organized enough to do all of that paperwork and keep eleventy million kids in line day in and day out."
She couldn't help a flush of pride at the compliment. "Still, I could use you up here. A Supreme Commander can always use an assistant."
It was her right as the leader of the Kids Next Door to make positions to help her make the organization more efficient. One was cunning, efficient, and well-liked and respected. He was an ideal candidate for such a nebulous position as Supreme Commander's Personal Assistant or some other such title.
To her surprise, he stood and stepped in front of her, bowing at the waist. "Then allow me to assist you by doing the best I can from my sector."
His watch beeped, signaling that Sector V needed its leader once more. Bidding her goodbye, he turned and left for the shuttle bay.
Numbuh 362 watched him go, remaining in her seat for some time even after he was gone despite the paperwork that was sure to be piling up. She leaned her head back to stare at the orb of blue, green, and swirling white floating in the deep blackness.
On Moon Base, Numbuh 86 may have been her right hand, but the SCAMPER flying back towards Earth had her left.