Mable: My newest 9 fic of three chapters. This one is a request from 27's Fury who has taken the time the review, read, and enjoy all my 9 fics! A very good writer and I highly reccomend checking out the fics that 27 has written. Again, thanks to xXBroken-Wings-ForeverXx who introduced me to 9. Finally, a special thanks to Five for being so cute all the time. :) Come on, everyone knew it was coming! He's cute! Ah, enough of that. Again I don't own 9, Enjoy!
So Sudden
Chapter One
"I cannot understand why you must disobey me every second of every day! Do you want to be caught by a beast just to spite me?" One's voice was rising in volume and Nine tried to defend himself, "I was only out for a few-." A roar of anger, "Silence! Don't you dare interrupt me! Why must you be so uncaring? So foolish! You must be doing this on purpose!" Nine tried to raise his own volume, "But it wasn't even that dark yet!" This was retorted quickly, "You were out there at night! It doesn't matter how dark it was!"
A cry broke Nine's thought and as soon as he heard it he recognized that it was Six, and found himself growling in anger. It had already been a bad day and that noise set him off because he knew what it signaled. This meant that again Eight was taking pleasure in going at the artist who had let out the noise. He was tired of this, tired of this long hard day in which he received quite a scolding from One. Said leader was upstairs in the sanctuary and once he was done scolding the male, let him go with the others. A few of the other Stitchpunks were out searching through the Emptiness except for Nine himself, lingering in the house below the new sanctuary with Five who had been trying to make him feel better, and perhaps Two who was possibly still upstairs.
In fact, as Nine started out of the house, he was stopped by Five, "Nine… I think you should calm down a little." He feared what could happen if Nine got involved while he was so irritated. Still it didn't calm the other male at all who immediately stormed out into the Emptiness. He followed the sounds of a distressed Six who had previously simply been searching for ink, and found the scene that was occurring. Six had found more ink only to have it now being held over his head, out of his reach, and that smirk on Eight's face made Nine growl a bit. The way Eight could smirk while Six just stood there, reaching up, looking incredibly helpless and sending pleading looks to the larger.
"Leave him alone." Nine spoke up and Eight glanced over with the same smirk. The shorter didn't faze him at all and Nine was close to snapping. After what happened, what One yelled at him, he was not taking this from Eight. He stepped forward and got between Six and Eight, "Just leave him alone, Eight. You've had your fun, you're tortured him enough for the day." He watched as Eight's smirk dropped and was replaced with a glare, "What does that mean?" The younger saw the ink well being put down and snatched it up, handing it to Six quickly so he could face the bully. The artist took it and almost dropped it as he tripped on a sharp pole jutting from the ground, receiving a glance from Eight.
"Freak." That mutter was just begging to set Nine off and his voice raised as it had with One, "Take that back!" he demanded, "Take that back now!" This actually startled Eight before he regained his glare, looking down at Nine, "I didn't call you a freak. Not much a difference though." Nine scoffed in a One-like way, "You think we're the freaks? After you look in a mirror remember that you are the one who enjoys only pain! That's not normal Eight, you're not normal! And you know what? You're a failure too! A failure at everything!" The taller's fists clenched up, "Don't start lecturing me on being a failure, Nine! Remember what you did to us! You're the failure; you just think you're some sort of hero because of it!"
"Your only defense is to blame me or hit me! Typical, poor, stupid Eight can't come up with his own words! Can't use his intelligence because he has none!" Nine was on shaky ground, Six was becoming afraid, and Eight was growing increasingly infuriated. Nine didn't mean half the things he said, he was just so upset after what One did and then having Six again being bullied, and he continued. "A pathetic oaf!" He viciously called out and Eight lost it and lashed out, shoving the shorter who fell back and crashed to the ground. At this Eight was still frustrated, but smirked in triumph as he heard Six gasp. Then he looked at Nine and his optics widened in shock, the terror, and he stumbled back.
Nine noticed a pain and thought he landed a bit oddly and simply hurt his back, by his shoulder a bit. A little above mid-back to the right started to hurt more and he couldn't sit up. Looking down he noticed something coming through his fabric in the same spot as the hurting in his back. Then it all came to him. It was the sharp pole from before that he fell on and it went straight through him. It went through him, he was impaled, and suddenly he felt very cold. His breathing began to quicken and Six suddenly turned and ran, going to obviously fetch the others for help. Once he got inside the house he was crying out, Nine could hear his desperate cries for help and realized he himself was starting to shake.
It hurt so much and it Nine was starting to become frantic as he knew he couldn't move. Eight looked shocked, standing there, still, and was unable to do anything except stare. He hadn't wanted this; Nine knew that and didn't really blame him for anything other than not noticing how he was pushing him onto the pole. Though he couldn't voice it as he found his voice wasn't working. Nothing was working, his optics were flickering, and he was so afraid. Then he heard One's voice, "What's going on? Six, you must be clearer!" Nine didn't know when One got downstairs as he was losing grasp on time at the moment. Though Six was a mess of words that barely made any sense, One released him so he could go get Two, knowing something was wrong. Then the leader headed to where he could see Eight standing and Nine on the ground.
Upon seeing Nine his slanted optics widened to the point that they were no longer slanted. Nine tried to speak to One, to say anything, but no words came out. Finally One came forward, "Nine, just stay calm." He insisted before turning back to Eight, "Help me get him off of this. We need to get him upstairs immediately." Eight didn't respond and One yelled, "Eight!" The bully snapped out of his stun and came over to help, still somewhat dazed. They both lifted Nine gently to coax the pole out. The sudden pain was unbearable and Nine let out a groan as the pole slid out, leaving a large gaping hole through his metal and fabric. It hurt so much as One now lifted him alone.
The leader seemed to insist on carrying Nine as he headed into the house, swearing as he realized the bucket lift was up. He ended up just standing there, holding Nine close, "It will be okay… It will be okay…" He repeated this and Nine tried to stay conscious as the pain was overwhelming. Then he murmured, softly, the only words he could get out, "I'm sorry…" One looked at him, actually looking a bit sad, and actually reassured him, "You can apologize later when you're healed." The bucket lift managed to make it down carrying Five, Two, and Six. The medic and his apprentice rushed to Nine's aid, but ended up simply helping One manage his way into the bucket lift without dropping him or hitting him against anything.
As they rose Two took a better look at the wound, gasping in shock at where the pole had impaled the younger, "How did this happen?" He asked and looked at Six and Eight, both standing there as Five turned the bucket lift crank. Eight couldn't speak, he felt an overwhelming guilt take over, and he couldn't deny that it was his entire fault. Then the artist spoke up, "Fell on it." He didn't say Eight pushed him, he left it completely out. Somewhat the bully was grateful and glanced at Six who had been looking at him after the comment. He looked down as soon as Eight looked at him. Then a silence overtook as the bucket lift continued to rise to the safety of the sanctuary.
One refused any help carrying Nine as a possessive nature was beginning to take over. When he made it to the workshop he set Nine gently on the cot and Two immediately unzipped the Stitchpunk to view his inner metals. Five and he began to work, trying to fix the metal and adjust it in a way to cover the gap as quick as possible. Meanwhile One retreated to the throne room, sitting on his throne, and he felt his own guilt. This wouldn't have happened if he wouldn't have yelled at the younger Stitchpunk. The things he said blared through his inner thoughts and were a stark reminder that if Nine died, it would be One who would be the true murderer, not the pole that stabbed him.
A few minutes passed and One began to pace. A few more and he looked down from beside the bucket lift at the house below. Then he moved back to his throne. A while later he repeated the process, not noticing that he was becoming quite frantic in his steps. After an hour, Seven and the twins returned from the Emptiness. She noticed his behavior, "What happened?" She could feel that something was off and One continued pacing as he explained, "Nine was injured outside." The twins looked at each other in shock and worry while Seven took in the information, "How bad is he?" The leader stopped pacing, but didn't look at her, "Two is working on him now…"
"You didn't answer my question." The Warrior pressed and One fell onto his throne wearily, "From what Six said, he was out there with Eight and Nine, but Eight is somewhat in shock and won't respond correctly, Nine fell and landed on some sort of metal piece jutting from the ground. It impaled him through his back and came out his chest about right here." He showed where it went through on his own frame and Seven's optics widened. She could tell that this was serious, even the twins were looking fearful of the situation. "No word on how he is?" Seven asked cautiously and One shook his head in response. She decided to go get the twins situated in their room before going to see if Two was done working.
Said Inventor was finishing up, but seemed to still be quite concerned. When he heard the female's knocking he spoke up, "Come in, we're done." Seven stepped in and he sadly smiled at her, "Hello Seven, I see you finally came back. How was your adventure?" Seven knew he was trying to be pleasant, but was more concerned about Nine, "How is he?" She asked and both of the medics glanced at each other before Two explained, "I did all I could to repair him… I only fear how his body will react to the trauma and sudden surgery. Sometimes this can trigger overheating and that is certainly not something that we want to put Nine through." He explained as he covered Nine with a thin blanket.
Then the three left Nine to rest and were immediately confronted by One, "Is he awake?" Two shook his head, "No. He is stable, the surgery went fine, and as I told Seven, we just need to watch for overheating." He then whispered under his breath, "I'm sure you remember when Five ran that horrible fever after his… Accident." This caused the leader to have a flash of terror. After Five lost his eye he had overheated, ran a decent fever that caused him to be confused and delirious for the night. By next morning he was fine, as fine as he could be recovering from that, and thankfully the fever hadn't been too bad. That didn't mean it couldn't be worse this time and One was growing increasingly concerned for Nine's safety.
Eight couldn't stand the guilt as he sat on his bed and stared at the wall. Pushing Nine, him falling, that look, the blurring moments of helping him upstairs, it was repeating itself over and over. Like a torture treatment, Eight found himself becoming more unstable. He didn't hate Nine and never wanted this to happen. Sure, he bullied the other male, but he didn't even really dislike him. He had just gotten so frustrated at Nine's words even though the smaller was only upset because of something the larger had done. Technically Nine had a right to try and hurt Eight like he had been hurting Six, even if it was more of an agitation than an actually hurt of any kind. Nine's words couldn't pierce into Eight.
Unfortunately, the sight of Nine falling on that pole could. That was when Eight heard a noise and looked up to see a familiar Stitchpunk at the door. Six just stood there, clutching his key, and looked down, "Eight…" The bully also looked away, "What do you want?" A small pause before the artist spoke up, "Wanted to say… It's not your fault." The bully clenched his hands as he tried to reject the comfort, "I don't want to talk, Six." Still Six seemed bent on helping as he could. He came a bit closer and touched the other's arm, "He'll be okay." Eight yanked his arm away, "I don't care what happens to Nine! He had it coming!" Denial laced his voice so strong that even Six could hear it and continued to speak.
"Eight… It is okay though… To be upset. I'm upset too, but it's not your fault. It was an accident." Now Eight stood and towered over Six who immediately grew afraid of the glare in his optics, "I never said I was upset or that it was my fault! You were standing there, you could've done something! All you did was watch! Then you come in here to bother me about this?" The smaller looked down again and Eight could see the hurt. This wasn't normal bullying hurt though, this was much stronger, and he turned around to start out of the room. At this second Eight realized that this was just vicious, Nine was right about him. So he spoke up, "Six wait…" he couldn't believe himself, but he had to do this.
Six stopped a few inches from the door, looking back at the other in confusion with the flash of hope. Secretly the artist always hoped for Eight to be nicer, to say sorry just one time, to prove that perhaps the other didn't hate him like he thought. Eight needed relief from this guilt, but didn't realize what he was doing under he could feel Six in his grasp. The striped one went stiff as soon as the arms slipped around his frame, at first cautious to the act, but them pressed against the other's chest. He was surprised that he wasn't pushed away and decided to try as best as he could to enjoy the moment. Of course, he felt guilty as well about what happened, Nine had been defending him after all.
"'M Scared…" The beginning word was muffled into Eight's front as Six began to tremble a bit. He could feel Eight stroke his back and let out a quiet sigh of comfort, "He'll be fine, Six. Nine has made it through much worse than this." Honestly this helped them both at least a little and they continued to stay like that, Eight holding Six, trying to stay hopeful.
For a few hours, everything went fine. One paced, Nine slept, and eventually Two let out this noise that was identified as a sort of yawn. "Well Nine seems to still be resting so I say we go to sleep and let him be. Waking him up won't help him." He insisted before turning to Five, "Do you mind if I rest with you?" In the new sanctuary, Two had a bed in the workshop, but didn't want to risk disturbing Nine. Five stuttered out an answer, "I-I… Of course I don't." Two smiled at his shyness and lead his apprentice back to the room they were to share. Soon Seven followed suit, stopping at the entrance to the hall to turn back to the leader, "Are you going to be alright, One?"
One put up his normal front, "Why wouldn't I be?" He questioned in a bit of offense and Seven shook her head, before crossing to him and touching his shoulder, "Make sure to get some sleep. Nine wouldn't want you to become weak from worry." Before the male could protest, she left the throne room, leaving him alone. After a good few minutes One decided to do a quick check of Six, Eight, and Nine before he would head to bed. Looking in at Eight he was quite confused to see Six curled in bed with him and backed out of the situation without another thought about it. Now he entered the workshop and took a quick look over Nine, standing beside him, before also starting to leave.
"One…?" When One heard Nine's voice he spun around, "Nine?" The younger male lay on the cot looking a bit strange. He shivered a bit before speaking, "One… I'm sorry…" The leader came closer and grasped his outreaching hand, "Don't be, don't be." He muttered out, "This was a terrible accident and I shouldn't have yelled at you earlier over nothing." The weak one shook his head, "It wasn't nothing, One, I snuck out last night and I shouldn't have." One squeezed his hand tighter, "Well it's all over now. How are you feeling?" Nine trembled, "Cold." He shivered harder, "Very cold." Then he suddenly looked around oddly, "I feel wrong… Something is wrong with me."
"Nine you just had surgery. Obviously you are going to feel a bit different." Nine shook his head, "No, One. Something is wrong, I… I was talking to Five earlier and we knew that we shouldn't have gone out. Then we had this plan about going into the basement. I told Two that I thought we should make another watchtower." The leader was highly confused, "Nine, you are not making sense." He reached forward and touched the other's forehead, only to realize, in horror, that he was burning up. "You're running a fever." He explained and Nine tried to curl up as best as he could, "I'm so cold… Why am I in the workshop?" By now One knew he had to get Two as soon as possible.
"Wait here, do not move. I must get Two." As One left the room he could hear Nine's voice begging him to come back. He wanted to run back, but realized he had to go to Two. He barged into Five's room and tried to ignore the very compromising position that the two were in. They were cramped in the small bed, Five sprawled over his mentor with his head pressed securely into his neck, and Two with his arms tightly around the younger's midsection. One decided to announce his presence, "Two!" Two jumped a bit as he woke up and Five ended up completely falling off the bed, landing on the ground with a distinct thud. The Inventor looked at the leader, "One, what-?"
"Nine is overheating and is growing very confused. Come now." With that One spun around and began to hurry back to Nine. Two only gave enough time to help Five up from the ground before following in to the workshop. One couldn't believe how Nine had changed, shivering heavily, making these odd groaning noises, and all around looking awful. As soon as he grasped the other hand he felt it clamp down tightly on his own, Nine looked up at him, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gone with Seven or you could've come using the bucket lift." It didn't make any sense and One simply reached forward to stroke Nine's head. When Two came in and touched his head, he was shocked.
"This is not good at all." Two murmured, "We must cool him down." In desperation One looked at him, "We need water. Where is there water?" Two looked confused, "We don't have water. I don't even think there is any downstairs." At this time Five came in and a few of the others were waking up, they could hear One as he became worked up, "There has to be water somewhere! There is no possible way that every drop of water has evaporated!" That was when Seven spoke up from behind Five, "There's that pool at the library, but that's a thirty minute walk, twenty if running." One huffed, "Well we need it. If it can cool Nine then we need it as soon as possible."
"Trust me; it will do miracles for his inner metals." Two insisted, "I'll set out right now." There was a muffled voice from the hall and One looked over, "What was that?" Five leaned back to see out, "Eight says he'll go." The leader nodded, "Yes, yes, fine, tell him to hurry out." As he stroked Nine's head, Two addressed Eight in the hall. The bully had heard what was occurring from his room and, seeing as though he caused this, wanted to be the one to retrieve the water from the library. "Check if Six has an empty ink well and when you get there quickly rinse it out before filling it." The Warrior also gave directions to where the pool was, as she wasn't sure if he knew or not.
Only a little later Eight left with one of Six's almost empty inkwells to collect the water. Afterwards Seven headed downstairs to search around the lower floor to see if there was any source of water there. Either or, it left One with the task of keeping Nine calm and safe. By now the blanket was removed and he was toying with the idea of unzipping Nine so that his insides could get a little cooling relief. As he reached down and grasped the zipper, Nine started talking, "I always wondered why you had that staff, but you don't have it now." He pointed out and the leader pretended that he understood him, slowly beginning to unzip him, "That is quite nice, Nine."
"Yeah, it's strange that it is with you."
"I know Nine, I know."
"I love you."
Finally One actually listened and blinked in confusion, not believing that Nine said something like that. He had though; Nine had said he loved One. "Nine… You are not thinking clearly." Still the injured one smiled, "But I do. I love you, One. So much. I think about you all the time, about how I love you." He had to be so delusional that he had no idea what he was saying, One deduced. Then he suddenly felt the need to speak with Two. "I will be right back. You stay here and rest." He kept him open a little bit still and exited the room, trying not to seem as disturbed as he was about this. He headed to the throne room where Five and Two were waiting for the others to come back.
"Two, we must talk in private." One said quickly and the Inventor smiled, "Alright." He followed One to his room, knowing from One's voice that something was wrong. "Did Nine get worse?" He asked, and the leader sat down on the bed, "No… This is about Nine though. He said something unbelievable to me." The inventor could only guess what a fevered Stitchpunk could say. Then the words were blurted out, "He said he loved me, Two. Nine said he loved me." Two's optics widened for a second and One gripped his bed coverings tighter. Then Two looked away, head in his hand, and simply stayed like that for a second. It almost appeared to be like he was upset until One heard a familiar noise.
"Are you laughing?" He demanded and Two turned towards him, "You are saying you had no idea?" he laughed like it was the funniest thing ever and One was quite flustered, "I do not understand." The other decided to explain, "It's quite obvious, One. I saw it since the first time I saw you both in the same room together. I don't know how you didn't notice how Nine felt about you!" The leader scoffed, "Nine doesn't really feel that way. It is certainly surprising that he said it, but I know it is just the fever talking." This received an exasperated look, still amused though, "He idolizes you. He always has." Again One scoffed, "Now you are as delusional as Nine is. We have disagreements, he constantly tries to take my place as leader, and he-."
"Does it for your attention." Two chimed in at the last second, "He does whatever he can to get your attention. Let's be honest, every single time he tries to make a leader decision, it catches your optics and he becomes the center of your universe. Even if only for a few seconds." Finally One looked alarmed, as though he realized that Two was right, and exhaled slowly. He felt Two's hand on his shoulder and the Inventor comforted him, "One, I don't think Nine's feelings are unrequited, if you don't mind me being blunt." As he started to look over to the Inventor, One heard a thudding noise from the other room, ignored it, and responded, "Two…" he trailed off as he heard a cry.
"One!" It was Nine, and something sounded wrong. He cried out again and the Stitchpunks ran out of the room towards the workshop.
Mable: Chapter Two up in... Err... A few minutes. ^v^ I hope you enjoyed!