Left foot, breathe in. Right foot, breathe out. Duck under this branch, slash the next one out of the way. Don't trip over that rock. It wasn't often Rex ran, he usually preferred the Rex Ride or Boogie Pack, but there was a relaxing rhythm to running. It was steady as a heartbeat, and took all his concentration not to fall flat on his face (Something he had learned the hard way ten minutes before.)
A sticky sheen covered his forehead as he skidded to a halt, panting slightly. Looking around the empty forest, he frowned. That had been his third lap around the Petting Zoo, he was calm, collected, and ready to start training. Only, the ninja nanny was nowhere to be seen.
Curiosity drove Rex to Holiday's lab where he knew Six had been heading. He had a pretty good idea what he had to 'talk' to her about, though wondered what was taking him so long.
Telling Six about his conversation with Sophie had been a bad move, no matter how much better it made him feel.
Six was right, of course, Sophie was lying. If there was one thing he took from his run, it was that she may be his sister, but she was hiding something. "And if you want to figure out what it is before Six, you better learn to keep your mouth shut," he muttered to himself.
Finally, Rex reached the lab door. He sighed, forced a less gloomy face and walked in. Holiday was pacing the length of her desk, a coffee mug clutched tightly in her hand, she was obviously upset about something.
It took a moment for her to notice him. She jumped when she caught a glance at him out of the corner of her eye, "Rex! When did you get so quiet?"
"Hey Doc, have you seen Six?" he asked innocently.
Holiday's face had gone from worried/annoyed to a soft smile as real as Rex's. "He was in here a little while ago. I don't know where he went." She paused for a moment and looked at Rex curiously, "Is everything okay, Rex? You know I'm always here if you need to talk."
So Six had told her about his parents, no surprise really. "I'm fine," was his automatic response, "No, actually, I'm not. I don't know how I am." he admitted, plopping down on an office chair, "I mean, I'm happy, well, not happy, but…It's nice to know about them. But at the same time, I mean, yeah…I guess I've just got to deal with it."
The Doctor seemed to understand his vague statement, or at least empathize with his tone, and sat herself beside him, "It's okay, Rex, you're a child, no one is expecting you to 'Deal' with the death of your parents."
"That's what Six told me to do,"
"That sounds like a very Six-like response," she muttered, her smile hardening.
Rex laughed half-heartily, "Yeah, I guess it is." he faded into silence, thinking again. Where was Six anyways? Was he back at the Zoo wondering where Rex was? What if he had run into Sophie? Ice shot through Rex's veins at the thought of the two of them alone. He would tear into her.
"Doc, what do you think of Sophie?" Rex asked almost the moment the question popped into his head.
She faltered for a moment, "Well, I haven't really spoken to her much. I don't have enough information to make a decision." Rex stifled a snort. A very diplomatic answer.
"Do you trust her?" he asked, but he already knew the answer.
"I…I don't distrust her."
That would be a big no, he decided. Six didn't trust her, Holiday didn't trust her, and honestly, neither did Rex, no matter how much he wanted to.
"I'm going to go look for Six," he said, getting to his feet, and walked away without another word.
He wandered the halls for a little bit, before finding his way to Six's some-time office, and the place he wasn't allowed to touch anything.
The lock was hacked with a touch of his hand, and he stepped inside. Six would be there eventually, maybe. And if he wasn't, at least he had a super comfy rolly-chair.
Kicking his feet out, Rex started to spin around in the chair as quickly as he could. A part, a very small part, of him wished that Six had let her go. This was too much drama in less than twenty-four hours. But he was in too deep now.
Then it hit him. His life was the office chair and Sophie was the force spinning it. Now he couldn't get off, let alone try and walk away. Maybe not the most poetic analogy, but he liked it. He was going to have to use it someday.
"Hey kid,"
The chair groaned as Rex slammed his feet down to stop it. Room still blurring together, he waved at the monkey, "Yo, Bobo,"
"Hey ,I was just wondering. Are you…Okay?" Bobo asked with a softness in his usually gruff voice.
Rex stood up suddenly, sending the chair flying into a wall, and threw up his hands, "Why does everyone keep asking me that?" he shouted.
"Geez, touch much?" Bobo grumbled, "Well, you find out you're 'rents have already kicked the bucket, and than your sister randomly passes out, I just fig-"
There was an odd shuddering in Rex's chest, "What did you just say?"
"Well, if you let me finish-"
"I mean about Sophie, what about her?"
"Oh, yeah. From what I heard, Six was interrogating her and she just hit the floor…"
And like a bullet from a gun, Rex was gone.
This is my revenge for people reading, favorite-ing, but not commenting!
You'll get the next one when I get three or so comments, kay? Oh, and question:
Would you rather have short cliffy chapters every couple days, or long ones
Once a week or so? Lemme know!
