Whatever's Out There
Chapter Nine
After a night of successful night of talking to Five, getting little information on Nine and Seven's relationship, and just having some honest fun through socialization I had crawled into bed on the far side of the twins and went to sleep. I awoke a little later than I intended from Three shaking me gently. Maybe because I slept so long she decided I needed to awaken. As I sat up she gave me a wave and walked over to a book she and her sister had opened on the floor. They must have brought it upstairs to read while they waited; though it may have been from somewhere in the room.
After fixing myself for the day, retying my ribbon and straightening myself, I headed out with the twins tailing me. They were probably getting bored of waiting for me because halfway across the hall I swear they were trying to drag me along. At the foot of the stairs I looked over to notice Five and Nine at the wood cutting pieces away to use to block the hole with. I addressed the twins, "Why don't you two look at the book for a second and I'll be right back, okay?" They nodded in agreement and wandered over to the book while I walked over to Nine and Five.
"Good morning!" I greeted them both while trying to look more awake than I was. After all, they had been awake working for who knew how long while I had been fast asleep. "Morning!" Nine called in greeting and Five followed up with his own, "Morning, how did you sleep?" I answered honestly, "Great! You two? Where's Two?" Nine was the one to answer, "Slept fine. Two's upstairs, but he should be back in a bit. We're just taking care of this wood." While Nine said this, Five was working away while the former passively spoke to me.
Though we were all interrupted when Two could be heard on the stairs. "That was quick." I pointed out before my mind whispered to itself, "I wonder what he was doing up there alone.- Good morning, Two!" The cheerful greeting successfully smother my own paranoia that seemed to appear out of nowhere and worm into existence once again. Two waved to me, "I heard you and the twins passing by. Glad to see you all awake; you see, I have been considering the fact that we've be out all night and am thinking we should head back to the Sanctuary."
Even Nine and Five looked surprised at his comment and Five spoke, "Go back now? But what about the hole? We still haven't finished it." Two seemed adamant, "The cardboard will work for the present, but we really should check back in with One." Now I knew something was up. Two was circling around upstairs and now he suddenly wanted to go home. Was there something he found? I wasn't sure, but he seemed restless, and it bothered me even when Nine and Five reluctantly agreed to go.
"Velvet, are you coming with us?" Two asked with an inviting tone and I forced a smile. "Sure!" That seemed good enough and I decided to go get my mallet from beside the front door. Three and Four followed me before the former tapped on my shoulder and the latter showed me the dress I had been sewing. She gestured it towards herself, "You want it?" She continued gesturing and Three pointed at the door, "You want to take it with us?" Now Four nodded and I smiled, "That's fine with me. Maybe we can even work on it more."
They seemed to agree and I lugged my mallet into my hands before we set out once again. Just as usual, there was something that kept me from leaving, something that tugged and tried to make me turn back. This time it was a little firmer, but I ignored it and I continued with the others back to the Sanctuary. Maybe it was just the wonder of why Two was acting so strange. But I perked at this; I knew someone who could give me answers. Right after that I approached Five immediately and asked him, "Did Two tell you why we had to rush home?"
"He didn't mention in." Five admitted, but then added, "But I guess he wants to get back to One. He gets anxious when Two is gone for longer than intended." I smiled at this, "One and Two seem to be close. When they were talking the other day-," my voice choked and I corrected myself, "Not that I was listening in on them or anything. I just sort of…" I caved, my voice lowering quite a bit, "Okay, I was listening in to them a little." He didn't seem to mind and he quietly asked, "We sort of all know about what's going on. We're fine with it, but they haven't felt ready to tell us yet."
I was confused, "What do you mean?" He realized that I didn't know and seemed to take back his words, "I… Ah… I thought you were trying to say you knew about them." I blinked, "I don't. What is it?" Five didn't seem comfortable with talking about either behind their backs, but I assume was telling me as to keep me from making a fool of myself in front of the two. "It's a little… One and Two were close for a while and decided that they… That they were lonely and that they wanted to be mates, because they were so close anyway, even though they were both- you know."
I realized quickly that he was hesitant to tell me because he was afraid of how I was going to take it. That was why Five was having such a hard time telling me about what was going on; his words were even catching each other. Maybe that was why he repeated about how close they were and only mentioned that they were mates quickly. Then again I could see why, I don't remember reading anything in books about same gender relations. Wasn't it supposed to be male and female? But, at the same time, it was sort of heartwarming.
Maybe it was the hopeless romantic part talking, but something about two Stitchpunks actually being in love with each other, being mates, it was definitely nice! It didn't matter that they were males. Two was a kindly older male and One was… Well…One was a bit strict, but from what I had seen of him it seemed like maybe that kind behavior would help him. Perhaps they were different behind closed doors, perhaps they were warmer, perhaps they expressed something softer. It would make a good fairy tale if it was changed slightly… Like maybe edit some of One's dialogue.
"I didn't have a clue. I noticed something was going on, but not that. It makes a lot more sense now that I think about it. That might be why Two wants to go home so bad. Five smiled a little, "Probably. One doesn't really like when we keep him out all night." Then I slipped, "Maybe I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic. What do you think about it?" Why was I asking Five this? Well, mostly because I was closer to him than I was anyone else except maybe Six or Two, but Five seemed the more proper to ask about such a subject.
"About One and Two? I think they're good for each other. They make each other happy and anything that makes you that happy can't be wrong. Well, usually." Five seemed to be adamant of his words and I smiled to him, "That makes sense. I agree." Before I continue he suddenly made a random offer, "I could carry that for you." My brows raised and I looked down to the mallet that I had begun to merely drag again, "I think I've got it. You're already carrying all of the supplies." I reminded to reassure him that it was okay.
"Alright, but if you get too tired I always am here." That's when Nine suddenly appeared and cleared his throat, "I'll take you up on that offer, he playfully insisted before trying to put his Lightstaff into Five's hands. It was a joke, clearly, and Five chuckled a little. The twins also passed us to go by Two who was walking ahead. We continued along on our way back to the Library. The sky was starting to clear, but still had a few thick clouds. The thick mud made the walk a bit more uncomfortable, but we made good enough time when we got there finally.
We boarded into the lift and I let the mallet drop to the bottom, making a dull 'thunk' that caused the twins to jump a bit. "I need to switch back to the sword." I murmured to myself before collapsing back against the edge; I needed to get a little more in shape as well. Five turned the crank and Nine was speaking to Two. The twins were looking at the dress again and trying to figure out what they wanted to with it. Then the lift raised to the Sanctuary and we were struck by One's presence. Here he was, standing as close to the lift as possible, staring us down.
Two actually did a double take before greeting him. "Good day." He pleasantly greeted, pretty confused at why the Leader was standing there. One immediately retorted with, "And where were you last night?" He asked simply, eyeing down at Two with narrowing optics, and yet Two seemed to look more ashamed then fearful or unnerved. Though now that I know of their secret everything seemed to look a lot different. Especially with how close One and Two seemed to be standing after the Inventor opened the lift's hatch.
"We got stuck in the storm and had to stay at Velvet's." He explained and One added in, "It began raining only shortly before dark. As much as I would enjoy believing this it fails to make sense. Especially when I asked you to be home before the clouds came in." Two then spoke with, "Well, we could get home, but you are blocking are way." He teased before adding in, with a reassuring smile, "I didn't want to risk the twins out in that weather. Trust me, I only did what I thought was best." One wasn't exactly happy, but was content with the words.
"Very well." He droned out and stepped to the side, "But only because I know how like you it is to lose track of the time, and weather." The shorter seemed thankful and the rest of us left the lift, me dragging my mallet out. My arms were starting to ache in protest and I struggled dropped it against the wall outside of the lift before rubbing my arms. The twins headed into the hall and soon after Child appeared from the opposite hall. He crossed the throne room and wandered up to Nine. "I am glad to see you alright. When you didn't come home I expected the worst."
Nine smiled a little goofily, "Worrying about me? I didn't know you cared." He tossed an arm around Child's shoulders while the pale one answered with, "Your clumsiness added with a height of ten to twenty feet is a recipe for disaster. I fear for us all." Nine gave a look of mock annoyance before smiling again and leaning against the other tiredly, "Interesting, the both of us are feared, maybe we should paint ourselves and scare each other." Then he paused before adding, "And, no, that's not a hint that I want to wake up painted."
Maybe I was overly suspicious because of what I learned about One and Two, but I immediately suspected Nine and Child's hands on behavior. Especially when Child's arm circled Nine's lower back in a much more intimate position. I shook these thoughts away, "I'm going to think that about everyone now because of One and Two." It was a pretty amusing thought though, but my mind turned as I noticed Seven also entering in the room from the hall with the twins. They must have gotten her and I waved, "Hey there!" I greeted and gave a friendly smile before coming over.
I didn't exactly want to walk anymore, so I was fortunate that Seven wasn't waiting for me to approach her. At least I straightened myself. "Glad to see you all are alright. We were worried when nobody made it home last night." This made sense considering what Nine said, "Nine mentioned that you were looking for a Machine?" She gave a nod and tightened her grip on her spear, "I was. It's an awful Beast; the signs suggest it is the size of a Cat Beast, but it moves about undetected, and I am certain that it has been entering the Library."
It triggered me to wince a bit, "Why would it want in here?" Seven decided to spare my worries and smiled a little, "Maybe shelter from last night. Let's hope it moves on now." She then glanced to my mallet, "How have you been doing handling that?" I looked down at it and, honestly, I wanted to lie and say that it was getting easier, but honestly it wasn't. So instead I went halfway, "Maybe a little progress in carrying it around, but not nearly as much as I was hoping." Seven lightly laughed at the comment before offering, "I doubt I'll be able to show you much with mallets, but we could try the training."
"Oh, yes!" I insisted, "Yes, that would be great!" I glanced to the twins, "Maybe after you and twins do whatever you might be doing we could?" She smiled at the comment, "I'm just going into the Library with them to watch them and to check up on Eight." I blinked a bit, "Eight? He's down there?" She seemed taken aback and her smile dropped, "You didn't see him coming in?" I shook my head and she was a bit concerned as she exhaled, "He probably just somewhere using that magnet again. That would explain why he jumped to go down and guard alone."
She then seemed to discard any worry, "Eight's hard to take down. He's probably just wandering around avoiding One. He's been going stark raving since last night when everyone was still out. I'm sure you've already learned about his way of doing things." I leaned to the side to glance at him, watching him watch Two, "I have. Might have learned more than I bargained for." I added playfully and then my optics locked on something else. There was Six peering out of his area. He was looking to me with a focused look and soon one of his hands appeared to quietly beckon me.
"…Actually, Seven, take your time with the twins. I probably should say hello to Six." I spoke courtly and Seven understood, "It could give me some time to look for Eight. When you're ready just come down and find me." She then looked to the twins and called them, as they were distracted on the other side of the room, and they rushed over before boarding into the lift. Five and Two passed by and wandered towards the other side of the throne room as I crossed over to Six's secluded area and stepped inside. "Good day, Six." I mimicked Two's greeting.
"Hello." Six greeted before turning to pace. He gave off an anxious vibe as he circled the room and I immediately was suspicious. Seven had said that Eight took off downstairs awfully out of the blue. Or, at least, she made it sound out of the blue for him. "Is something wrong?" Six was skittish and uncomfortable when talking about Eight's treatment of him so I planned to start slow. "I…I'm strange." Six admitted and I defended, "No, Six, you're not strange." He repeated, "No, I feel strange. Something changed and I feel like I'm…"
He trailed off and I wandered over, putting a hand to catch his arm and stop him, "Six, was it Eight again?" He stared at the wall as though in a trance before answering, "Eight was here, but it wasn't- It was different." This time I pried further; I wanted to know how Eight treated him different from what I had seen before. I hoped that Six was honest about it being uniquely different and he crossed over to his drawing of the Beast from before. It looked a little crinkled and yet I said nothing. That's when Six looked back and started to explain.
"This morning Eight came in and wanted it." He said, running a hand over the drawing as though it was precious, "He's been waiting for time to do it since everyone noticed it I think. He didn't say. He got ahold of it and I tried to take it back from him… And I made a mistake, I tripped, and I ran into One." I'm surprised I didn't cringe at such a notion, especially considering how One was acting. "Did he know what was going on?" The Artist shook his head, "I fell through the curtain when he was coming to look and he was upset. I got ink on him."
Now I cringed, "What happened then? He wasn't that upset, was he?" Six grabbed his keep with the free hand as he continued to pet the drawing, "He told me to be more careful and… He just told me to be careful, but when One started to correct me Eight left really quickly. I think he was afraid that One would turn on him." It was an unfortunate story and I felt to blame; I was never here to watch out for him. "So Eight took your drawing?" He nodded and then I caught a fact in story that didn't make sense, "But you have the drawing with you."
"He brought it back." Six's voice was so quiet that it could barely be heard. His mismatched optics stared into nothingness on the paper and he was clearly lost in his thoughts. "He brought it back…?" One second Eight was acting intimidating, then he was social, then he was bullying, and now he was bringing drawings back; it was insanely difficult to judge him. Either way, I noticed Six was actually smiling a little, and then ignored anything about Eight. Six was actually happy and that was all that mattered. "Maybe you're right. Maybe Eight is getting better. It sounded like he was being nice."
"It was." Six admitted and smiled at me, "One didn't even tell him to do it." Then I added in, "And I wouldn't take what One said to heart. I found out today about his… About how worried he was about Two. Do you know?" He nodded, but started to suddenly look distressed. I continued to try and ease his mind, "He just lashed out. I'm sure he wasn't intending on hurting you." The Artist's mismatched optics darted towards me and stared at me for a few seconds before he admitted, "I… I missed you earlier. I wanted to talk to you, but you were gone, and so were the others."
He pulled back from his drawing and headed into his sleeping quarters, still speaking to me, "I feel like I can talk to you. It's hard to talk to the others because they're always busy. But you're new, you're not busy yet, you can spend time with me." He was rambling as he approached the bed and sat down, quietly adding, "It's like I can tell you anything…" It was a curious comment and something about his tone revealed that there was something he wanted to say. I crossed to beside him, "Something on your mind, Six?"
He nodded to me and watched me the entire time, "It's…It's about One, and Two, and I've been thinking about it since you said it." Wasn't a very long period. "Or maybe that's when I thought about it. I don't know. What is it? What keeps makes them want to be with each other?" I paused at the question, "You mean their attraction? Like love?" He stared at me for a few seconds, "Yeah… Love… I want to know more about it. Can you tell me?" I smiled and perked, "Course I can! You wouldn't believe how many fairy tales and stories, books and such were based on romance."
Maybe I was becoming a little over excited, "It's an amazing thing! What do you need to know?" Six looked down with a small smile, "Can you suddenly start loving someone? Maybe… maybe you didn't notice it at first?" I nodded vigorously, "I think so. Sometimes they talk about love at first sight, but it's probably not mandatory. I read a book on it once and there were a few couples, but the one that spoke the most and based their relationship on their compatibility instead of looks or something like that." He seemed to suddenly revert a bit, clutching his key tightly.
"But what if they aren't like each other? What if they're too different? Can they be too different?" I shuffled the barrage of questions into an answer to a simple answer. "That's okay. One and Two are different, but they love each other. They may stay quiet about it, but that doesn't mean they aren't happy." Now he perked once again and straightened himself before looking to me, "Velvet… I've been having these feelings and I never thought… But today I think I realized maybe they were there. Maybe there was something there. I can't pretend it's not there."
Then I suddenly realized exactly what was going on and I suddenly went cold. Six telling me how much he trusted me, talking about love, love between two different Stitchpunks, and my suspicions only grew. I could only hope that he wasn't talking about the two of us. Don't get me wrong, I had already began to feel close to Six, but not in a romantic way in the slightest. If he was about to tell me that he had feelings for me then it was about to get very awkward. I had no idea what I was going to say. "Maybe I'm exaggerating."
"I want to tell you because you know about these things and I think you'll understand." Six murmured to me and he admitted, "But I'm afraid that you'll think that I'm a freak, or a fool, or just strange." He stared at me and I didn't answer, not wanting to provoke it. "This can't be happening. Why would Six-? We only just-!" But Six continued on, reaching out as though he wanted one of my hands, and I was hesitant to give it. I did, sluggishly, and a sharp hand gripped my own. "Velvet, I think I have those feelings. I think I like someone like that. I think I like-,"
"Oh geeze."
"-Eight."
Maybe my face gave away how absolutely taken aback I was. I mean, I was relieved that Six wasn't fawning over me, though perhaps my self-confidence had a humbling lapse. He seemed to suddenly pull back again and clutched his key, watching me for a reaction. "Ah…" I began slowly, "I… You're sure?" He nodded for a second and I suddenly realized that this was why Six was so forgiving of Eight's behavior. It made sense, somewhat, and I exhaled before reaching out and taking his hand, feeling a lot more comfortable doing so. "If it makes you happy, Six, then I'm fine with it."
He perked, "You are?" I nodded, "I'm not going to lie; I don't know how you're so forgiving, but that's only a tribute to how patient you are." Then I patted his shoulder with my free hand until he asked, "Do you think that…That someday he'll like me back?" I decided to be optimistic, "Sure! He'd be crazy not to. You're nice, you're a great Artist, and you're cute." He then pointed out, "I'm an awkward cute." While I was impressed by his self-evaluation, I insisted. "Eight would be lucky to have you."
He then asked in slight disturbance, "By having, do you mean…?" It confused me a bit, "I mean you two being mates. Isn't that what we're talking about?" He nodded vigorously and I remembered Seven, "Seven offered to train me. Want to come watch?" He now smiled wide again and agreed to come with. We exited his room and passed through the throne room. Thankfully the last Stitchpunk down raised the lift again afterwards so we just boarded in. Everyone else was absent from the room and this even counted One.
I lugged my mallet along again, still feeling the familiar ache, and we lowered down into the Library. It was quiet and I scanned the area before making an educated guess, "Maybe she's out front so we can spar like she and Eight does." Six suddenly was acting quiet and I looked to him in confusion, "Six?" He didn't respond at first before answering, "My head hurts." That was odd. He hadn't mentioned a headache before now. "Are you okay?" He nodded, looking around almost skittishly, and I glanced around. "Why don't you sit down for a second? Here, maybe on this book."
He stopped me when I tried to lead him to sit down, "It's okay. Maybe we should just go back upstairs." While it wasn't the answer I wanted he looked clearly disturbed and I knew what it was like to feel uncomfortable and just want to go home. "Let me go find Seven and ask her if we can postpone. We can go upstairs and I'll read to you." Six smiled, but something was wrong, and I noticed that he looked awfully scared. Still, I hurried out front, still dragging the mallet as I climbed out of the entrance. To my surprise, though, I didn't find anyone out front.
It occurred to me only then that maybe Seven was at the twins' book with them, but then it occurred that Eight was gone as well. If he was guarding then it seemed that he would naturally be out here as this was the entrance. "There could be something out here…" I mentally reminded myself and spun around before heading back inside, "I should just get Six upstairs." I started heading towards the lift when I actually heard Six release a soft gasping noise nearby and some heavy shuffling. "Eight…" I muttered to myself as I continued into the pen area.
However, the second they were in sight I realized my mistake. Six stood nearby staring up at something that was definitely not Eight, something that heard me drop my mallet to the marble floor and turned towards me. Most of its body was a heavy metal frame with a dozen sharp legs that ended in blades, clanking on the floor as it turned towards me. They were bent and yet still stood quite high around its body. On its back was some sort of cage that looked like an old, rusty birdcage. When it face me I saw dozens of red optics and I was filled with dread.
It looked like the thing Six had drawn in his picture. Except now it was an actual threat, and I was going to die.
