I managed to post something on a Friday. Hurray for me! Anyway, here's a new Nix one shot. Read on.
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I look (NOT STARE) at Nine as he does pushups on the ceiling.
Okay, so maybe I was staring, but it was impressive. How long has he been doing this? Damn. Antigravity is a wicked legacy. My form flickers into visibility. Hastily, I change back to invisible. Nine stops for a moment. He looks around. "Um," he says loudly. "Am I hallucinating?" I pause, focusing on my invisibility intently. He can't find me. No.
If Nine had two more brain cells, he would've figured it out. What other Garde can turn invisible? Idiot.
I turn on my heels and leave the Lecture Hall, walking towards the living room, towards the others. I remember my state, so I turn visible halfway there. "So it was you." I spin around, a warm feeling creeping up to my cheeks. Shit. I'm blushing. "I thought I saw something back there," Nine says. "Were you, um, stalking me?"
My cheeks get even hotter. "W-What? N-No," I stammer. "I was planning on training, so I found you there."
"Why were you invisible?"
"I was trying to sneak up on you and then have a good duel," I explain. "I don't agree with everyone else's lazing around. You seemed like the only person who would fight," I say, but not without adding, "And the only one who would prove to be a tough opponent. No offense to the others."
"Eight is powerful."
"Eight is busy being lazy and "resting". No thanks, dude. I'd win in a heartbeat."
"In a heartbeat?" Nine asks, raising an eyebrow. The warmth in my cheeks has died down. I think.
"Well, yeah," I say. "You're… stronger. I'd take you down in maybe… three or four heartbeats."
Nine laughs. "I'd say I'd beat the others in a heartbeat and beat you in, um…" he pauses, looking me up and down. My face heats up again. I'm wearing shorts, I suddenly feel conscious of my skinny but toned legs, and everything else about me suddenly seems flawed. This is totally a non-Six thing to feel. "Two heartbeats to take you down, Six. Definitely two."
I cross my arms. "So I sugar-coat you and say three or four and you say two? Fine, I'll be brutally honest. One and a half," I say.
"Still rating me higher than the rest," Nine says, shrugging.
"You're different. You're strong and fast. Really," I say. We just stand there in silence afterwards. Then I add, "But you're a total douche sometimes, so I'd never really go out with you."
He stares at me, unblinking. "Who ever said anything about –
I'm flustered. "No, I meant that I'm way better than you, you know?" I say. There's something… something other than embarrassment. Is it… a bit of rejection perhaps? I shake the thought out of my head.
Nine steps forward. He leans into my ear and whispers, "What if I told you it's all a façade? Wouldn't you say the same about yourself?" I'm taken aback. "You don't think I don't understand a tough shell when I see one? I've got one here myself. They're not even shells. They're walls."
"How do you know?" I ask.
"Because it doesn't get any tougher than us. I can see right through yours."
"I never knew how easily anyone can penetrate my wall."
"That's the thing, Six," Nine says. "I'm not just 'anyone'."
And he kisses me.
He honestly does it right there and my head is going at three hundred miles per hour. I want to slap him, yell at him and ask him who the hell does he think he is, kissing me like that. Who the hell does he think he is, seeing right through my wall? Who the hell does he think he is, adjusting his eyes so that he can cope through the illusions?
He thinks he's Nine.
He thinks he's bloody Nine.
And I find myself not-slapping him. And then I find myself not-yelling at him. And I find myself enjoying his lips on mine.
So I shut myself up.
Because I do not enjoy it.
Six does not enjoy it.
Six has a war to worry about.
Six isn't sappy.
But Six, I tell myself. If you're not enjoying this, why the hell are you kissing him back.
So I shut myself up.
Because it's not possible.
It's not humanly possible that someone can break down my walls.
He's not human I tell myself again.
Myself has a huge problem shutting up, doesn't she?
He broke down my walls because he knows how they work, I decide and I can break down his if I want to. So I pull him in deeper, and we kiss, and we kiss, and we kiss, and I don't even remember what the hell I was arguing with Six #2 about in my head. To hell with Six #2, to hell with Six #1 even. I'm just Six. I agree with myself. I agree with whatever fragments of myself exist. All those parts of me, they know my walls have been crumbled. All because of Nine. All those Sixes agree that yes maybe I was freaking staring at him as he did those pushups on the ceiling because I freaking found my male self.
And all those Sixes are in awe at their own dumbness –our own dumbness because all of us (I'm lost I don't even know how many Sixes are there) agree that we freaking love Nine.
Yes.
Yes.
I love Nine.
N I N E.
9
The annoying as hell Garde who, for some reason, is exactly like me. And we're dumb, all us Sixes, for not seeing it sooner.
So all the Sixes in my head just shut up for a moment, and then they (we?) speak in unison. "I freaking love you, Nine."
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A/N: Okay, so I guess I sort of improvised. BUT I NEEDED TO WRITE NIX. Get what I'm saying? This ship… I swear… ugh!