AN: On to Numbah Four! XD Heh. I amuse myself. Sorry for the long wait. I had a chapter ready to go up on Tuesday(lie), but I realized at the last moment that...well, it sucked more than I could deal with. If I manage to revise it well enough, it will make an appearance later. Anyway! For some very nom-worthy reviews, I'd like to thank Numbah1999 (I would feed him :3), numbah435spiritsong (thanks, that means a lot!), and KNDnumbuh007 (I'm definitely not in third grade XD), who commented on all three chapters at once! This attempt was inspired by the adorable and accidentally six-fingered 'No Rainbow Monkeys' by DoodleBuggy on Deviantart. :D Check it out.

Disclaimer: I can think of nothing clever, witty, or mildly humorous to say, so we can definitely assume I don't own KND.

29 Tries

Attempt #4: The XOXO

"...Come one, come all, to the superpipe extravaganza at-"

"But I love him, daddy! You can't keep us-"

"...at Wacky Wayne's Inflatable Arm-Waving Tube Man Emporium-"

"...odd parents, fairly odd parents-"

"...fallen and I can't get up! H-"

"...priced only at ninety-nine ninety-five! That's right, ninety-nine ninety-"

"Rainbow Monkeys, Rainbow Monkeys-"

Wally clicked off the TV. Everything sucked.

"Stupid rock."

Numbuh Four sat crossly on the couch – at his own home, not the treehouse – with his leg propped up on a cushion on the coffee table. The leg itself was wrapped in itchy, thick white bandages and plaster – a cast trying to set his bone back into place.

It wasn't the pebble's fault that it was in the way of his skateboard's wheel, or that its appearance caused the duct tape-enforced joints to finally give out and send Wally smashing headlong into a parked car, but he was eager enough to blame his broken tibia on something. At least it wasn't a piano this time.

"There you are, my little marsupial!" His mom walked in, all smiles with Joey on her hip.

Wally scowled. "Of course I'm here. I haven't cruddy moved all day." An itch crawled up his calf, and he jiggled the unreachable spot angrily before Mrs. Beetles slapped his hands away.

"Don't screw your leg up any more than it already is!" she snapped, fire cracking to life in her eyes. Then as soon as the anger had come, it was gone, replaced by freckles and a sweet mommy smile.

"Joey and I are going to the grocery store," she sang. "So don't break anything else while we're gone, okay?" She leaned down to plant a very loud, very wet kiss on her oldest son's cheek.

Wally wiped it off with a revolted face. "Ugghh, gross! Just go already!"

She was already walking toward the door, Joey waving and babbling nonsense words over her shoulder. "I'll be back in an hour, Wallabee! Be good!"

As soon as the door shut, Numbuh Four lunged for his leg again, trying to get a finger inside it to scratch.

Just as he was seriously considering tearing the cast completely off, the front door reopened. Wally threw himself back against the couch cushions, hoping his mom hadn't seen. "You forget something, Mum?" he piped up nervously.

"Hiii, Numbah Four!"

All the heat in his body seemed to rush toward his face in one fluid progression, turning his blood cold.

She's here? In my house?

A girl of about eleven skipped into view, wearing a long green sweater whose sleeves dipped and lumped around some objects clutched in her hands. She was smiling, as she always was, with her raven hair swooping around with her movement like thousands of happy hummingbird wings.

"N-Numbuh Three? What're you doing in my house?" he choked out.

With a little hop, she stole the spot next to him on the threadbare cushions, bouncing excitedly. "I'm here to keep you company, silly! Your mom let me in. She's so nice! And look, look!" She held out her sleeves and opened them up, revealing two handfuls of thick, colorful markers.

He stared at them blankly; red, green, purple, pink, blue, orange, yellow... "What's those for?"

She giggled. "I'm gonna sign your cast!" She popped the cap off the pink – cruddy pink! – marker and leaned toward his foot.

He jerked forward, waving his arms between Kuki and the cast. "Oh, no. No cruddy way!"

"But that's what you do, Wally!" she replied with a pout, trying to lunge the marker past his hands. "Now hold still!"

"No!"

"Numbuh Four!"

"I said no!"

He had her wrists and all but the pink marker had fallen from her grasp and clattered to the plastic linoleum floor. Her face had dropped the smile and was cross with stubborn determination, red with the effort it took to rival Numbuh Four's strength.

"Just...let...me...!" she was growling through her teeth; then it happened. It was sudden, like the snap of a rubber band. It would later be attributed to either Wally's butt slipping off the couch or Kuki's foot catching against one of the markers on the floor, but neither child was worried about the reason when the pair gave a sudden topple off the edge.

A huff of air was forced through Wally's lips as his back hit the floor, his arms flying wide and feet swinging up, then down. The heel of his broken leg cracked against the floor, and that was painful, but it was the wayward elbow that drove into his calf that made him fly up and cry out.

"Ow! Ow, Kuki, get off!"

She reeled back with impossible speed, gasping in horror, and he grabbed the cast as if he had to hold it together.

"Oh, oh, Wally, I'm so sorry-" she reached for him, like she could help somehow.

"Stupid, cruddy girl! I said no, didn't I?" he barked, rubbing his hand over the wrapping even though it didn't help. She jerked back, stung, and fell silent. Wally was grateful for the quiet as he gritted his teeth against the pain, waiting as it faded to a dull throb.

Relieved, he let out a breath and looked up. Kuki was still sitting next to him on the floor, between the askew coffee table and the lumpy couch. Her eyes wobbled and glittered with tears.

"What?" he yelped, and Numbuh Three gave a start, blinking in surprise. Twin trails snaked down her cheeks. "Why are you crying?" Why do I always gotta make her cry?

She sniffed, scrubbing frantically at her eyes with her droopy sleeves. "I'm not crying!"

"Well, you're doing a pretty good impression!"

"I just...I'm sorry, Wally...I didn't mean to hurt your leg," she blubbered, her voice cracking and just this side of a sob. "I don't have to sign your cast, it's okay..." She sniffed again, her eyes turning red from rubbing.

"Wha...Numbuh Three..." he chastised. "Don't...why you gotta..." he sighed, deflating against the side of the couch. There was no getting his way with this girl. "Look, you can...sign my cast or whatever, okay?"

She looked up, eyes bright.

"Just..." He looked away from her, embarrassed. "Don't use the cruddy pink." She didn't reply, and he glanced back uneasily.

Kuki was smiling – not a big, hyper, happy smile, but one that was soft and slightly blurry at the edges so he couldn't quite see what it meant. Her eyes still slightly wet, she picked up one of her markers from the floor. "Purple?"

"No."

She held up another. "Green?"

He glanced at her sweater. "Green's okay. But no Rainbow Monkeys, either."

Her smile widened, and she leaned over his leg with the marker uncapped, her left arm covering the top so he couldn't see what she was writing.

"Jeez...you're such a crybaby," he muttered stubbornly. She didn't reply other than a slight curl of her lips, and they sat in companionable silence amidst the squeak of a green marker.

Wally watched her work, little pink tongue sticking out the side of her mouth or teeth gnawing thoughtfully on her lips, dark hair spilling every which way with one rebellious strand falling into her face now and again before she forced it back with a huff.

She was so...animated. There wasn't a dull moment when she was with him. She was movement and life and smiles and grass growing around a rock. She was fire and ice and warmth and water and so different from him in every way. Different enough that if the scale was a circle, they would be standing side by side. Wally wondered if he was the only one who saw all that in her. He hoped so, because if anyone else knew what he knew, he wouldn't stand a chance.

There was a click. "All done!" Numbuh Three sat up, beaming, the green marker near-invisible in her grasp. Wally pulled his leg toward him and shook his thoughts away, tensing as she scooted closer to peer over his shoulder.

"What's the XOXO for?" he asked, frowning at the signature.

Kuki giggled, leaning toward him on one arm to point at the letters in turn. "X's are for kisses and O's are for hugs!"

Wally frowned. Girls were weird. "Why would you want to hug and kiss a cast?"

She giggled again, turning to face him as he did her, their faces so close that their noses almost touched. "They're hugs and kisses for you, silly."

His face turned violently red, all the way to the roots of his hair. His palms were sweating and his heart was hammering like helicopter blades and she was so close that he could kiss her if he wanted to. Which he totally didn't, because she had cooties.

But the way she was smiling at him right now and how she called him 'silly' and the X's and O's that were from her to him, he had a sneaking suspicion that maybe if he tried, she would let him.

"Uh, um...say, Kuki?" he stammered.

She batted her eyelashes like she knew exactly what she was doing to him. "Yeees?"

He swallowed hard. "Uh, well, I was...I've been wanting to, you know. Tell you something."

"Go ahead," she said, smiling and still too close to let his mind clear for even a moment to work out what he was going to say.

His face burned, and he cleared his throat several times and scratched his neck. "I've been wanting to tell you for...a while, and..."

Heart thudding irregularly, Numbuh Four found looking at her too daunting of a task and glanced around the room before deciding to stare at the X's and O's on his cast. "Well..." He took a deep breath to steady his nerves, shifting his leg to a more comfortable position and he could see her drawing –

"What the crud is that?" he exploded. Kuki reared back, surprise mixed with hurt on her face. Wally didn't notice. He grabbed his leg and strained his neck to see what she had done to the underside. Smiling up at him was a green, chubby-faced Rainbow Monkey.

"Numbuh Three! I said no Rainbow Monkeys!" he yelled.

She crossed her arms, pouting. "What were you going to tell me?"

"Nothing!" he snapped, balancing up on one foot. He couldn't tell her now; the moment had passed. "I'm gonna go wash this crud off."

"You can't!" she sang gleefully, shoving the marker in his face. "It's permanent marker!"

He glared at her, mouth open in affront, but sure enough, that's what it said, in little text under the logo. Wow, she was good.

"Why the crud would you use permanent marker?" he shouted.

Kuki laughed, her mood already back to cheerful, and grabbed him around the shoulders, bringing him crashing back on the couch wrapped up in a tight, wooly O. "So it'll last forever!"

And it did.

AN: Why does Kuki always end up crying in these...? Next one she'll be dry-eyed, I promise. The next one might even have a plot. (lie?)

It's hard to write prepubescent romance. :T I doubt it really exists as I've done it. I'll have to do a 'hitting puberty' chapter near the end. :D Some kids can hit puberty late in their twelfth year, right? That being said! People! Lend me your right-wing brains! Anything you've got – lines of dialogue, a single piece of imagery or thought, a theme, a setting, a song – prompts! I'd love to hear from you because, frankly, I'm not good at thinking (unfortunate truth). I've already spent my good ideas on the last two chapters of 29 Tries (which are already written ;)). Everyone will get credit for their ideas! :D I would be most pleased!

Now that I've begged you for ideas, I won't beg you for reviews. (please?)

Thanks for reading!

Tickle that toast.