Title: breathe sunshine
Author: Kameko-Lullaby
Summary: and with a kiss, he knew what to write.
Pairings: subtle nigel/kuki
Words: 1,003
Time: Twenty minutes.


"I thought I would be alone – you caught my eye and I was home,"
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Staring at the shards of yellowed wood, he scowled. He had broken another pencil and his story was no where near the area of completion. Blowing away bits of eraser dust from the dilapidated looking piece of parchment, he tossed the fragments of his writing utensil into the trash-bin nearest his desk.

Letting out a harsh exhale of air, he fingered the spots on the page where he'd pressed the sharp lead of the former pencil through the paper. The unfinished document was crushed and balled in his hands before he let his head drop to the desktop with a dull thud, sunglasses maneuvering themselves to the top of his bald-head beforehand.

"At this rate I'll never finish it in time," he murmured to himself, the statement coming out muffled from the large amounts of wood his face was pressed against. Who in the world gave a ten year-old child a three page fairytale as a homework assignment?

He was down-to-earth, studious and calculating leader. He had no business in things make-believe. With that thought, another sigh passed his lips, him never quite hearing the door of his bedroom opening as petite hands turned the knob.

"Numbuh One?" a high but, not-unpleasantly-so voice asked quietly.

The boy in question, Numbuh One, shot up quickly at the sing-song voice, turning in his chair to face the source of the melody. Kuki Sanban, Numbuh Three, was standing in his doorway, head peering around the tall maple-wood door. In one green sleeve-covered hand, an orange ice-pop was clutched between her slender fingers.

Nigel eyed the sugary treat for a moment, a rather odd feeling bubbling in his belly before he turned back to his desk and grabbed another sheet of paper and pencil. "What do you want, Numbuh Three?" he asked, his accent lacing each syllable of the question.

"To see what you were up too! Dinner is almost ready," she replied.

Another odd feeling had inserted itself into his stomach, an almost pleasant one. He barked out a reply to her before beginning to attempt another piece of fiction. It wasn't long before he felt heated breath against the back of his neck and blue-back hair spilled across his view.

"Do you mind?" he hissed out, blowing a piece of her long tresses out of his face.

"Nee… I'm just trying to see what you are writing, big-butt!" Kuki squeaked, leaning over more to make a swipe for the paper in his grasp.

"Three, don't – ah!" the Japanese girl had pulled back his head. Kuki may have been tiny, the smallest in the group next to Wallabee but, also, like him - she was rather strong. He lost his grip on the sheet and Kuki grabbed it, delight ringing in the laugh that tumbled out of her mouth.

He straightened his shades with a half-hearted snort of disgust as he watched her bounce around his room, giggling to herself. Cute, he thought, before silencing it as she called to him in one of her baby voices, sugary sweetness laced in each word.

"You're writing a fairytale! That is so ador-ah-ble!" Kuki cooed, eyes scanning the words, popsicle sprinkling his floor with sticky, orange pools.

Nigel really wasn't that fond of orange at moments.

Really, he wasn't.

He was more a red person – Kuki twirled one of her sleeves, a teasing grin plastered on her lips as he came closer and she bounded of his reach with a graceful dance step – and green.

Numbuh One snatched the paper back. It crinkled a little between is fingers. The leader of Sector V marched back to his desk and ran his hands over the sheet of paper, trying to flatten it.

Kuki giggled again before licking her dripping ice-pop that was beginning to melt in the heat of summer. Juice was sliding slowly down the stick and soaking into the soft cloth of her sweater.

Her lips were stained, Nigel noticed, when he glanced up to find her eyes, a rather odd shade of blue that he found lovely, still on him. "What is it?"

"Nothing," she smiled, oriental eyes crinkling with a laugh, "you just don't seem like the kind to write fairy-tales, silly, is all," she smiled again, softly, almost tenderly. "I'd like to hear them when you're done."

She took another lick of her dessert as Nigel made a small huffing sound. "Kuki," the girl almost grinned at the sound of her civilian name coming out his mouth, quilted with his British accent, "I really can't write fairy-tales."

And once again, her nearly addicting laugh came to tease his ears. "Sure, you can!" she twirled herself, high-tops making a squeaking sound against the wood, "just write about love, or rainbows, or princesses!"

Kuki was hovering in his face now, so close her swore he could feel a breeze everytime she blinked caused by her thick, long eye-lashes highlighting the pools of violet. "Or prince charming," she added quietly. She was looking at him oddly now, so oddly that he forgot to breathe.

Before he could swallow down his heart, a sticky, sloppy kiss of a ten year-old girl with hair that smelt like sunshine, innocence and all things good and artificial citrus-fruits, was pressed against his cheek.

"But," Kuki began, pulling away and popping the damned orange popsicle in her mouth, "you'll figure it out."

The Japanese girl smiled at him once more and Nigel couldn't help but, smile back, fingers rising to press against the spot her lips had just touched. He was blushing, a pink-hue sprinkled across the bridge of his nose.

"See you later, Numbuh One!" the girl called as she disappeared out his room. The room instantly lost its warmth, its light.

The British leader let out an unknown held breath, the thudding of his heart fading into a normal pace as he listened to the Asian female alert the rest of the team that he would shortly be there.

"I think I know what to write about now, Numbuh Three."


A/N: I had a bit of a long discussion with TheFlyingRedPanda over the dynamics of Nigel and Kuki the other day through PM and I guess this spawned from that. I'm prepared for flames because I've seen the narrow-mindedness of some people on this site. Anyway, Panda, I guess this is partially dedicated to you and partially to me for finally being brave enough to post something about my favorite pairing. Yeah, Wally/Kuki rocks my world but, something about Nigel/Kuki caught my attention forever ago.

I'm really sorry that Nigel brushes out-of-characterness. I have quite a time writing him.

- Lullaby :)


Nigel and Kuki © Mr. Warburton

Plot © Kameko-Lullaby

Lyrics © "Real Life Fairytale" by Plumb