A/N: Hey guys! I really suck, I know. I just can't keep up with my schoolwork anymore, I'm really sorry. Hopefully this will make up? This is my first attempt at Nix, but this kind of seemed like something they would do. In my mind, the Garde spent way more than a couple days at the penthouse. Hope you like it!
The song for this story is I Hate You So Much by Anarbor... I would not recommend listening to it with the story, it doesn't really work, but it's where I got this idea from... if you have time check it out, it's actually quite funny :D
Breakfast is tense that morning. Aside from the sounds of scraping plates, the chatter is to a minimum and eye contact is rarely established. It was that kind of wet-blanket tension, where it wraps you up and covers your face and you don't really feel like you can do much without getting strangled. If you talk, it'll slip down your throat and choke you to death. And god forbid you make any quick movements, pulling that blanket taught and setting off the live wire.
Ella had forgotten to put the top on the blender before turning it on that morning. And albeit his attitude towards helping in the kitchen, John had a bit of trouble controlling his pressure on cracking eggs and allowed half the shells in the bowl which had Sarah and Marina spooning the little pieces out for close to twenty minutes. Not to mention Eight's growing frustration with the microwave, which in recent weeks had him talking to it like it was a Mogadorian.
But all that stuff was normal, everyday junk that they put up with casually. What was a near-family dynamic without a few quirks? It was all in the fun, and they could laugh about it later.
At least, most of them could. That had been the problem that had been haunting the penthouse inhabitants for almost a week now.
"Marina, would you pass the water?" Nine asked grumpily, nodding his head towards the pitcher without looking up from his plate.
At the mention of her name Marina's head snaps up, before a sheepish grin spreads across her face. "Uh, yea." She laughs nervously grabbing at the pitcher and holding it out to the person to her left. "Six, would you…?"
Six gives her friend a begrudging side glance before taking the pitcher from her and holding it across the table with a look of total disdain. "Here." She says to Nine as he takes it from her.
"Why don't you just throw it at my head next time?" Nine mutters as he pours himself a glass of water, looking away from the table.
"Why don't you just get it yourself next time?" Six says under her breathe in a mocking tone.
"I heard that."
Six looks up at him coolly. "I know you did."
"Well then next time," Nine growls. "Why don't you be man enough to say it to my face?"
"I'm a girl, you idiot."
"So then that—"
Eight flicks Nine on the side of the head, quickly silencing him. "Seriously, guys, here? You couldn't hold out for a few hours?"
John looks up from his breakfast, frowning. "Eight…" he warns quietly. "They need to work their problems out on their own."
Eight crosses his arms and looks over at the leader. "This isn't just about them anymore. This is affecting all of us. When was the last time we had any peace?"
"He's right, John." Sarah pipes in. "This is a bad atmosphere, we should do something about all this tension."
John opens his mouth to speak when Nine hits a hand against the table, shaking the silverware and making Marina jump in her seat with a yelp. "Hey, stop talking about us like we're not even here!"
"You're just making it worse, like you always do." Six groans, rolling her eyes. "You can't solve every problem with loud noises and aggression!"
"I don't see you doing anything different!" Nine scoffs, rolling his eyes at her. His lips curl in and he scrunches his eyebrows together as he glowers at her.
"What are you talking about?"
"You just yelled, right now!"
"That's different!"
"No, it's—"
"Hey!" John stands up, smacking the palms of his hands against the table loudly similar to the way Nine had. This time, the pair grow quiet. "What the hell? Why does this have to be our problem?"
Six raises her nose in the air. "I'm not trying to make this a problem."
"So you're saying I am?"
"Guys, please calm down!" Marina says, a twinge of annoyance in her voice.
"You're always the instigator! You want to fight with me!"
"Do not! Why would I want to fight with you if I already know I'm going to win?"
"This isn't helping anyone!" Sarah tries to yell over the commotion.
"—I don't think—"
"—Stop arguing!"
"—I'm going to—"
"I've had just about—"
"That's because you don't think!"
"—I don't want to have to—"
"Enough!" John yells again over the melee of voices that had taken over the dining room, and the table goes silent. "This is ridiculous." He breathes, giving equal disapproving looks to both Six and Nine. "If you guys can't work this out, then we're going to have to get involved. You don't even know what you're arguing about anymore."
Nine looks like he wants to say something, but just looks down instead, locking his jaw. Six glances from John to her fork and back again, before settling a look over at Eight.
"I guess…" Nine groans begrudgingly.
Six says nothing.
Despite their best efforts, the tension didn't seem to get any lighter. Six and Nine are quiet again, John sits back down. He shares a glance with Marina, who only shakes her head discreetly. No, this wouldn't be the end. Ella excuses herself to go to the washroom.
After a moment, Six looks back up and grins at John. "I guess his problem is that he's intimidated that I'm a girl who can kick his butt."
"That's it!"
Everything happens in a blur. Nine throws his fork across the table at Six, who quickly dodges it. She's not as lucky as he follows, lunging across the table at her and grabbing her shoulders in a burst of super speed. Marina starts screaming and wraps her arms around Six's torso, pulling her away while Eight grabs Nine. Some plates fall and shatter, Ella comes sprinting back into the room with her arms raised like she's preparing for a Mog attack.
John jumps around from the head of the table to help Marina with Six, who's squirming as she tries to swing at him. Some more things fall, Sarah yells, and suddenly there's an elephant barely squeezing into the room that's ripping Nine away with his trunk. He struggles, yelling profanities in Six's direction as his face turns the bright red that often accompanies screaming.
"You guys couldn't last ten minutes?!" John tries to yell over everyone, but he's barely heard.
Suddenly the gravity around John, Six and Marina disappears and the trio start to float towards the ceiling. Sarah grabs on to John's ankle but is only pulled upwards with a still fighting Six as she hopelessly claws towards Nine.
Nine's hanging from one ankle, and with a quick flick of Six's wrist his hand comes up to slap his own face.
"Hey!" Nine yells, reaching out a hand to assuredly try and get her back.
"Eight, do something!" Ella yells, and as a response to her command Eight quite abruptly throws Nine against the wall with his trunk. Ella screeches and dives out of the way as the four half-way to the ceiling drop to the ground in a pile of arms and legs.
"Uh," Nine sits up, rubbing his head. "What the hell, Eight? I didn't do nothing to you."
His comment goes completely ignored as Eight morphs back into a human and teleports to the other side of the table to help the victims of Nine's anti-gravity attack. Everyone seems okay, apart from a few bumps and bruises. And if you didn't count the increasingly alarming shade of red John's face was turning.
"You guys are giving me no choice." He declares after making sure everyone was okay. "You and you," He points at Six and Nine, motioning with his finger for them to get up. "Follow me."
Apart from the slightly aggressive shoulder bump Six gives Nine as they come side by side in the hallway, the fight seems to have left them and they only give each other lengthy glowers. The rest of the group follows closely behind, very interested to see exactly what John's plan for action is.
"What do you think you're gonna do, exactly? Put us in detention?" Nine snorts, and to that Six snickers.
John rolls his eyes. "Just keep moving." He says, walking the pair down the hall towards the gauntlet. He marched them right inside the control room, and then opened the door to the gym-sized gauntlet. He waited, one hand holding the door open, looking at them expectantly.
"What?" Six asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Both of you are going to work out you're very obvious anger issues here."
Nine crosses his arms. "I don't get it."
John hangs his head. "We're going to use the gauntlet, blow off some steam."
"Whatever." Six sighs, throwing her hands in the air and marching past Nine. "I'd think I work out enough to know that it doesn't help me blow off steam."
"How would you even know?" Nine snorts, walking in past her. "Every time I say we should work out you decide to laze on the couch and eat chips."
"I do not! John, tell him—" But she freezes as she sees John peeking into the gauntlet through little more than a crack in the door.
"Sorry, guys." He says sheepishly. "Just don't kill each other, I'll be back in a few hours." And with that, he slams the door shut.
Nine bounds forward using his super speed, but gets to the door a second too late. "JOHN!" He yells, banging on the door with closed fists. "So help me, I will break your neck in your sleep if you don't open this door RIGHT NOW!"
After about a minute of continuous banging and yelling he groans, turning over and leaning back on the door. There's a brief moment of silence before he looks up at Six. "How many days was that?"
"Five plus today." She sighs, walking over to him. "They held out a lot longer than we thought."
"You were still closer than my guess, though." He says, grinning. "I guess I owe you a sundae."
She returns his smile, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You sure as hell do," she says, leaning forward and kissing him smoothly.
After about a minute he hums and pulls away. "You know, I gotta say, you're really hot when you're angry. I kinda like fighting with you."
"Can't say I wasn't tempted to give us away a few times," She says, bringing one hand up to grasp the back of his neck. "As much as I like the privacy, we should probably just tell them. I can't imagine this'll be good for John's health."
"Mm," He grins again. "But we've got a couple hours to figure out how to break it to them. For now," He gently touches her jaw and traces his hand up to cup her face. "I've got some long-awaited business to take care of with you." And with that, he pulls her in for another kiss.