**I know this is a short chapter, but it's a warm-up. I'll upload more chapters for Patience is a Virtue and Straggler tomorrow. {:}=

The stitchpunk didn't understand how the Others could be so interested in him. Even now, as he let 9 fix the shattered joints in his legs—the second time he'd been repaired since meeting them—he couldn't grasp their interest in him. Oh sure, he'd wondered if there were other nobodies, but he would never be so excited if he met one—no, he'd just quietly acknowledge them and continue to watch over his city…not drop everything and run after him. So odd—

A tsunami of pain came as 9 wrenched the offending joints, grimacing at the sound of rusty metal. To distract himself from the wave of discomfort the stitchpunk rotated his wrists, then quickly stopped when he remembered the results of the last time he'd done that. 9 caught the motion and, after a quick glance at the stitchpunk's face, he laughed weakly. "Wow…you're worse than 1. So rusty…" His expression changed: sorrow? Why sadness? The stitchpunk didn't get it.

"What is 'one'?" The stitchpunk blinked at 9. "Why are you sad about it?"

9 frowned. "Not 'what', 'who'. 1 was another stitchpunk, like you and me. 7 is one too, and so are 3 and 4."

Stitchpunks. He thought about it, slowly saying the new word inside his head. That an odd term. What did it mean? Was it the Somebodies' name for themselves? But that wouldn't make sense…he wouldn't be a 'stitchpunk' if they were, because they were all different. Did the Others even know that?

"We're alike?" Was what he decided to say. "How are we alike?"

9 hesitated; when he spoke he did so slowly and bewilderedly. "Well…we look the same…we're made the same…and we were all made by the Scientist, weren't we? That makes us alike."

"It does? But…" The stitchpunk tried to explain it all—how they couldn't be alike, how they had names and wandered and were Somebodies, while he was a Nobody from Nowhere, with nothing—but the words did not come. They wouldn't come; they refused to be said. The stitchpunk sighed and smiled, masking the bewilderment and raw understanding that soaked through him. "…I guess you're right. We are alike."