Mable: Whoa, what happened?! The time disappeared and the next thing I know it's passed Midnight! Ergo, missed the technical yesterday update… Let's just pretend that it still counts as the same night. That works, right?... Ah, well, anyway, I don't own 9, Enjoy!

Fabric Runs Shallow

Chapter Four: The Failing Closure

The silence between Nine and Child was strong and the tension was thick. The two walked alongside each other as Child led the other through the Emptiness to an unknown location. The sun was still not up, but by now Nine wasn't hiding anymore so he turned his Lightstaff on to light their way. It wasn't too much further when Child stopped to check the map once again. When Nine tried to look over to read said map Child moved it out of view. The zippered male leaned in once again and watched as the albino practically turned around from him.

"What are you doing?" Nine asked with a raised brow and Child didn't respond. When he leaned in again the pale male difficultly moved it yet again and now Nine was becoming frustrated a bit, "You know, I've already seen the maps in your room, I don't think me taking a look is going to change anything." Child retorted with, "You are correct. I doubt you looking will change anything, you'll grasp the same amount as if you hadn't looked at all." The younger one slumped in realization, "You're still angry." Child scoffed lightly, "Why Nine, I don't think I've ever seen you grasp something so quickly."

It was a flat comment and Nine protested, "Fine, you're mad at me, it won't be the first time I've done something that annoyed everyone, but you can at least be reasonable." Child turned towards him, "Well, if you really insist-." He was planning another retort but caught. His unimpressed look at Nine's comment dissolved as his optics passed by Nine and to something behind him. Nine blinked a bit before Child spoke, "Don't move." The younger's face melted into a serious look that was mixed with dread. "What's behind me?" He asked under his breath.

"It's not right behind you." Child whispered back, barely moving his mouth, "It's a little ways away, but it is looking right at us." The zippered male was perplexed and slowly started to turn a bit, very subtly. Upon looking back he could see it nearby. It was hard to tell what it was as it was nearly flat with the ground and looked more like a lump on the ground with three red optics at the center. The two Stitchpunks stared back at it with hesitance. "Think it's aggressive?" He asked the other male who hesitated before answering with, "I'm not sure."

A few seconds passed before Nine started to edge to the side and noticed it didn't move in the slightest. "It's not really doing anything. Maybe we should just keep moving, there's no point in purposely provoking it." Child agreed somewhat and they fell back into silence as they continued along. Soon the Beast was out of view, but that wasn't the end of the strangeness. Only a little way further on and a weird noise started to filter through the air. It was a chopping and vibrating noise that cut through the air like a knife.

Nine's optics went to the sky, but he saw nothing and Child's solution was to simply start moving quicker. The bickering dissipated for the time being, but Nine had a feeling that something wasn't right. These were confirmed while passing beside a low wall. The vibrating noise abruptly had stopped and Nine decided to climb onto said wall to take a better look at the surroundings. He alerted Child to such, who was once again addressing the map, and then climbed up the wall made of large stones.

Once at the top was when he saw what laid beyond and was taken by sudden alarm. "Child…" He called down to the other male who let his optics stray from the map, "Yes?" Nine's voice slowly explained the situation, "That Beast is back." Child blinked a bit before looking upwards, "That Beast- I'm sorry?" Nine glanced back, "Thank you, but back to this," He was personally proud of the joking comment while Child seemed to not even register it past the message of the Beast. "It's over in the grass. Come look."

Child tucked the map under his arm and undid the closures on his back before quickly scaling the wall, using the extra limbs that he had been keeping inside for the trip. At the top of the wall he was able to look and see exactly what Nine was. A good ten or twenty human feet away was the Beast once again. Laying on the ground like a lump covered with some sort of fabric and staring at them with three red optics. "What are the chances that it's the same one?" He asked his companion who stared at the beast as though to catch it in the act of moving.

"Definite." He responded before exhaling, "Come along. We don't have much farther to go and there's not much we can do about it anyway." Nine was unsure about this solution and watched as Child climbed down the wall before looking back to the Beast. It didn't move an inch and yet Nine wasn't feeling safe about this at all. Yet he followed Child anyway and just hoped that this fear was unfounded.

It didn't help that the dull vibrations began once again and this time Nine had a feeling what it was.

It was impossible not to wake from the way that One was barging through the Sanctuary, which was why Seven found herself awake. She got out of bed like she would on a typical morning, if it was even morning yet. She pulled the blankets down, wrestled with Cat's clinginess, put on her helmet, and exited her bedroom just to catch One exiting the workshop with a couple of blankets. Obsessively packing them under his arms like a frightened rat trying to find food in the post apocalypse world they resided in.

"One, what are you doing?" She asked tiredly and One glanced to her before continuing down the hall, "Two is in labor." She blinked in surprise, "I beg your pardon?" He repeated bluntly, "My child is seconds from coming into the world and we forgot to put out enough blankets." She glanced downwards, "How many blankets could you possibly need?" She asked herself as he continued down the hall towards the bedroom with Two and Five. A short while had passed by then and Five was now sitting behind Two and rubbing his back in comforting motions.

Twenty-One was now awake as well and sat up in his crib to stare at the surroundings. "Papa?" He asked then changed when One strode in, "Daddy? Daddy?" He continued to ask and Two spoke, his voice much more hoarse than it was a short while ago, "It's alright, Twone. We're just getting ready for the baby." Twenty-One seemed absolutely in awe, "Where's the baby?" At this time Seven opened the curtain and peered in after One, looking immediately to Two, "Are you okay?" The Inventor smiled at her to faux being perfectly natural.

"Of course. Just a little pain, but it won't last long and it isn't anything I haven't gone through before." Yet it was slightly different. He could feel the child shifting a lot more than Twenty-One had before birth. It rolled around, turned over, and kicked in apparent frustration. "I'm starting to remember why we started calling it 'Rabbit'." Two pointed out to One who was now obsessively shuffling pillows. Seven, sympathetic to the plight of bot Stitchpunks, made an offer, "Well, I'm awake already, I could take Twenty-One into the other room."

"That would be appreciated." One spoke and Seven was somewhat surprised that he had said it. He finished with, "The process may frighten him and it would be best if he was kept calm and relaxed until his sibling's arrival." She nodded in agreement and leaned over the crib to lift the little one who immediately put his hands up to be carried. She took him in her arms, "Here, we're going to go play for a while, alright?" Twenty-One was confused, "But the baby. Where's Baby?" He was now referring to it exclusively as 'Baby'.

"The baby will be here soon. Don't worry." She insisted as she started to carry him out of the room, allowing her motherly instincts to take over as his head fell onto her shoulder. Of course once she made it out into the throne room she realized that some of the others had also awoken. Six was standing there clutching his key while None stood beside him looking groggy. The Warrior quickly explained with little introduction, "Two's about to have the baby." None looked surprised, Six actually looked excited, "Really? Now?"

"In a short while." Seven explained before Six came forward and petted on Twenty-One. Six had a bit of a fascination with infant Stitchpunks. As though he wanted to be parental towards them, and yet was afraid to be. Though Seven decided to give Six a small push by putting Twenty-One in his grasp, to which the baby moved to lean on him instead, clearly still distressed about not being able to see the baby yet, softly murmuring Six's name in a slightly disjointed way. He was able to remember most names, that being the names that he gave them himself.

Honestly both Seven and Six were likely to agree that Twenty-One's past choices in titles were triggered by other parties. Such as calling both Three and Four 'Twins' even when there was only one of them or the time that he called Eight 'Oaf'. Oddly enough he said it right after trying to invite Eight to play which him, which confused the Guard, but then he decided to find it funny instead of insulting. Six held the little one close who buried into his shoulder tiredly, the Artist rocking him while carefully holding him.

"What are you two doing up?" Seven asked in confusion and None explained his side, "My bed's against the wall so I heard One in the workshop." He released a soft second of tired laughter as he stretched a little. Seven looked over to Six with a sympathetic smile, "Eight keep you up again?" This actually did bring an embarrassed bit of laughter out of Six, "No, it was me. I slept a lot yesterday." Seven was at least glad to hear that he wasn't having nightmares at the present, but didn't know if he really wasn't or was keeping it from her.

Suddenly One appeared once again and scanned the room before looking directly at Six, "Wake Eight." The Artist blinked a bit in confusion and Seven was the one to question, "Why wake Eight? All of us are already awake." The Leader huffed in annoyance at being questioned, "Because someone needs to go down and check for those foolish enough to randomly leave at night." He looked directly at None, "Your brother as usual. I am half surprised you had the courtesy to stay among us." None apparently didn't realize Nine was gone, but had assumed he was sharing a bed with Child.

"Okay. I will." Six caved and as One turned to obsessively head back to his room, most likely pacing while he was waiting for the infant to be ready to be removed, and Six admitted to the other two, "I don't really want to wake him… He's not been getting sleep because of me." His voice held guilt but at the same time questioning, "But what else can I do?" Seven answered, "Don't. There's no reason Eight needs to stand downstairs and wait for Nine to get back. I'll go." That's when None chimed in, "No, I'll go. One's right; he's my brother, I can handle it."

He gave a friendly smile and reached out to pet Twenty-One's little head before heading over to the lift to raise it and descend into the Library. They were both thankful for None's suggestion as Seven didn't really want to start running errands and Six was glad to keep Eight sleeping. It seemed that someone needed to sleep considering that nearly all of them were awake, "Except for Cat." Seven thought to herself, "He could sleep through a hurricane." She shook the thought away, deciding to instead shift to help Six entertain Twenty-One.

Maybe the three Stitchpunks were as different as could be, but for all of them the night was just a waiting game for the new baby.

Feuding or not, Nine and Child had gotten weary in the journey and nearly forgot about the entire event. Light was starting to appear in the sky and while the morning was still cool the two were growing weary at their traversing and on the verge of actually feeling hot. By now Child and Nine were both holding on the Lightstaff and relying on it like a walking stick to take some of their own weight off their weary legs. Along this same route, Child had became tired enough that he stopped caring about whether or not Nine saw the map.

He lazily held it in one hand and addressed it occasionally with a patience that was starting to become strained. Nine glanced at it as well and while he not had a better idea of where they were he knew there was no marker to say exactly where they were. It soon changed when Child's optics shot upwards and he focused on something. Looking ahead Nine noticed the little building and by now recognized what it was as he had been at one of these buildings before. It was the entrance to an underground bunker that most likely had been installed during the war.

Now thinking back Nine wondered if all of the construction they had past were for making these bunkers. What Child could want with a bunker though was beyond Nine, yet Child directed them in that direction with the Lightstaff, and Nine loyally followed. He knew he needed to be patient and the answers would come soon enough. Once at the bunker they were hit with a new issue. The bunker's door was shut tightly, save a few bullet hole in the front. "We need to get inside." Child instructed and Nine stared at the door.

Child spoke again, "The hinges may be weak from lack of maintenance. We could try taking their bolts apart." He offered before Nine spoke, "I have an idea." He gestured to a lower bullet hole that actually managed to break through the metal exterior. "Maybe if we work at the thinner metal we can climb through that. It may be easier than climbing the door." Child paused before getting a small smile, "I must admit that it is clever. Perhaps I am fortunate you decided to follow me out here." Nine smiled back and the two went ahead to work. It was easier said than done.

The bullets had left the indentions thin, but not thin enough to be bent and shifted easily. The Lightstaff was first used but he quickly realized that the pressure on the staff itself could break it in two. Then they tried Child's weapon that upon sawing bent it a little bit more. They started to work together and the hole opened a bit more. Finally a tired and stubborn Nine stopped, "Alright, I'll try to climb through." Child crossed his arms and nonchalantly replied with, "It's not going to work." Nine was sort of taken aback by his answer, "Of course it will."

"Of course it won't. We should make the hole bigger." Nine glanced at said hole before looking back, "Maybe, but I think I can fit through it at this size." Child insisted, "Well I think your hips won't agree with you." A small smirk passed his lips and the zippered male was only more determined to get through the hole. He turned to the entrance and kneeled down before reaching his arms forward through said hole and beginning to move inside. Halfway through he started to have trouble, but to be realistic it was his zipper that was catching, not his hips.

A soft noise against the metal door as Child rested a hand upon it alerted Nine, "Remember to keep a watch out, that Beast might be around." He pointed out as he continued to keep sliding in. "I'm watching." Child muttered in response, but naturally he was watching the display instead of what was going on outside, suddenly feeling even more glad that Nine had tried climbing into this hole. Honestly he couldn't say it was Nine's legs that was interesting him at the moment. Eventually Nine managed to get himself the rest of the way through and relief overtook as his frame was released.

Right afterwards Child used his machine arms to pry the hole slightly more open and practically looked smug when Nine felt that he himself had deserved that right. However, Child's smugness fell once he realized where he was, and he suddenly went solemn. He started into the depths of the bunkers and Nine followed behind him until they got into the main room. There Child began to circle around after a quick, "Wait here." Nine didn't understand, but did, leaning against the wall and waiting. The pale male walked back and forth across the room.

He checked in some boxes, but was clearly looking for something in particular, and soon started to have a meltdown when it wasn't there. "Creator, this can't be right, they wouldn't have mismarked something this important would they? Typical humans, typical to do something wrong, to fail at a simple task." His words were starting to crackle with frustration and were becoming more and more caustic. As they did, Nine could only watch as the other fell apart. Finally he spoke, "So it's not here?" Child huffed as he slammed the cardboard side closed again.

"No, Nine, it's not here." He was clearly annoyed and Nine spoke once again, "Then we'll go look somewhere else." The pale male continued the tart tone, "It can't be anywhere else. It has to be here. You should know that what with you sorting through my items and following me. Why did you even come, Nine? Really, did you have a reason?" His annoyance caused him to turn on the zippered male who was ready to quip back. "Why I came here? You're asking me why I came here?" He stepped forward towards the male.

"I came because I'm worried about you! You haven't hidden things in the past, Child. You always just talk your way around them or tell me outright, but now you're hiding this!" Child retorted with his own height in volume, "You act as though you have never lied! What do you suppose following me through the Emptiness without telling me is?! An act of goodwill?!" Nine clutched his staff firmer, but kept his grounding as he added in, "Because of how obvious you were acting! I guess this is why you don't lie, because when you do it's completely transparent!"

"Then I am lying, so why are you not asking me again why I am out here?!" Child hissed back in clear annoyance and Nine lowered his own voice to talk firm. Still upset, but not willing to yell anymore. "Because that would be redundant and all that would happen is it would make you more determined to seclude yourself. That's what you do when you have to face problems, you pull back, you uninvolved yourself with it, so why this time is it so important? I don't know, but I'm not willing to risk our relationship to ask when I know I won't get answers."

There was a few minutes of silence that passed by, "You know, you're right. I need to stay out of this. I need to just go home and go back to sleep because all of this was a waste of time." He turned away towards the exit of the bunker before pausing, "By the way, you're doing that with your eyes again." It felt poignant to add in the red that had appeared yet again. He was seeing it way too much recently and as he strode towards the stairs he stood strong, even if he didn't feel it. He felt like a fool.

"Nine, wait." Child suddenly spoke, his voice deteriorating, and Nine paused mid-stride. He didn't turn to face him as he honestly didn't plan to continue a fight if it was willing to swell once again. "I…. I thought he was down here." He admitted and Nine blinked in confusion before asking, "The Machine?" Child paused before answering, "The Chancellor." Now Nine turned to face him, "The Chancellor? The Chancellor is no more. You know all of the humans are gone now." The pale male now turned away, crossing his arms only to rub them uncomfortably.

"Last week I was rummaging around and found a list of the bunkers. After looking further into it I realized one was labelled with the Chancellor's name and title. I just assumed that the bunker was made for him to seal himself in, to protect himself, and that he would be down here." He finally looked back to Nine as his face contorted into desperation, "I just couldn't stand the thought of not being able to say my share to him, even if it has come to this. I'm willing to take responsibility for my actions but I will not stand by while he doesn't take responsibility for his."

"So what were you going to do?" Nine asked in complete curiosity, no worry in his voice, no distrust. Child looked towards the ground is perhaps shame, "Honestly? Most likely gloat, then rant, rave a bit; give him a severe vocal attack and leave feeling unsatisfied. It would feel wonderful during it and that is worth the bitter taste afterwards." Nine nearly agreed, then nearly spoke against it because of the 'bitter taste', and finally decided on a simple, "I think I understand." Child just stared at him with a blank expression.

"I'm not just saying that, either." Nine admitted, looking over at the boxes past Child and at the supplies inside of them. "When I first found out what happened to Father I felt bad for him, but then I had to hurry to find the others, so I never got a chance to actually feel angry at those who hurt him." Child seemed to ease and admitted, "There is nothing wrong with feeling anger, Poppet. Just as long as you don't let it fester." Nine's brows furrowed a bit, "I am angry." He muttered before letting out a quick exhale, as though releasing it with that simple comment.

"But… I'm not that angry. If it wasn't for the humans we wouldn't exist at all and in the end they were the ones who paid a terrible price. They lost everything and we gained everything, so I can't stay mad at that." Child didn't answer as he began contemplating Nine's words. Before he could finish Nine reached out and put a hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner. His mate looked to him and Nine forced a small smile, to which Child sighed and did so as well.

He clearly wasn't completely ready to accept the failure, but still did, and the zippered male started leading him back to the front of the bunker. Not a word was exchanged between them and both knew it was time to head home yet again. Though the albino reluctantly did admit one fact; if it hadn't had been for the humans then he wouldn't have had someone like Nine.

If he was honest with himself then that was more than worth it.

Mable: Yeah, the baby is still stalling, but it's bound to be out by the next chapter, right? Well, we'll have to see. Don't worry, tomorrow's chapter will be on time no matter what, this was a complete accident on my part. I guess sometimes I just lose track of time