AN: And onwards! Here comes the aftermath of last chapter's events, with a surprise POV! Sorry this one is so late. Classes started and things have been ugh. As for the story, I kept writing a bunch of scenes later in the story then what's supposed to happen now, so this chapter kept being put off!

Wild Birds

Chapter 14: The Old Grind

Numbuh 94 has been part of the Kids Next Door T.R.E.K. department for exactly eleven months, ten days, and five hours when a gray area on the rig lights up.

She frowns, slides her feet off the console, and pokes at it. It continues to pulse gently in red.

Treehouse Recovery, Ejection, and Kommunications is usually one of the most boring jobs on the moonbase. Transferring calls, passing on complaints, notifying her superiors of raids or breaches, and monitoring dead houses doesn't hold an eleven-year-old's attention for every long, and Numbuh 94 usually spends her shifts reading comic books and painting her nails.

Gray areas are dead. The treehouses are either abandoned, broken beyond repair, or shut down to be replaced by an upgraded one later. They don't light up—ever—that's exactly the reason they're called dead.

But this house, which has never shown any sign of life since Numbuh 94 has been here, is lit up like a Christmas tree as if it hasn't been growing cobwebs for who knows how long.

"Computer, zoom in on anomaly."

The screen grows and shows a silhouette of an outdated '04 model, stats and history scrolling down the other side.

"TL;DR. Condense"

"Kids Next Door Treehouse Model 53724-9, Sector V," the computer pipes up. "Status: Active."

Numbuh 94 blinks. "I'm sorry, what's its status?"

"Status: Active."

"Explain," Numbuh 94 asks a bit desperately.

"DNA match at 2200 hours, Numbuh 4 Beatles, Wallabee. Immediate reactivation per protocol i-362-5."

"Override, authorization i-94."

"Denied."

"Crud." Numbuh 94 squeaks, then again for good measure. "Crud." She scrambles up and rushes out of her comfortable broom closet, down the long, winding hallway to the 4-way elevator.

"Captain's Bridge, please," she gasps out to the computer when the doors slide shut behind her.

"Supreme Leader is currently in a meeting, redirecting to mess hall—"

"Override, code T, authorization i-94."

"Accepted." The elevator dings and lurches to the left.

Numbuh 94 is let into Numbuh 209's private meeting room within moments, the Supreme Leader looking surprised but not angry.

"Emergency with the toilets in 433-J again?" she jokes.

"Um, no. Sir? We-we have a problem with Sector V." Numbuh 94 stammers out.

Numbuh 209 sighs good-naturedly, leaning on one hand. "What has Numbuh 798 done now?"

Numbuh 94 swallows. "Not…not that Sector V, sir."

The Supreme Leader's smile disappears. "Crud."

Kuki wakes up with her face on the floor.

She'd dreamed, but not about the treehouse. As she pulls herself up, head pounding and eyes gritty with sleep, Kuki finds the details of the dream slipping away. All that's left is the hollow feeling of anger and hurt like scabbed-over wounds being constantly picked.

It reminds her suddenly of last night and she groans, grateful it's Saturday so she can crawl back into bed and pull the covers over her face. Right now she just wants to hide from the world.

Kuki is sure that she almost kissed Wally last night. Or, he almost kissed her. She's a bit fuzzy on that part. But he did pull away, that she knows.

…Did he not want to kiss her?

No, she's sure he did. Kuki isn't stupid, she knows when someone's crushing on her. And it's not like she's made any secret of her feelings.

He pulled away because…—there's a familiar pounding in Kuki's head as she crawls back under her duvet—…that's what he always did.

"Now gimme that quarter you owe me"

"…What are my parents doing here?"

Kuki rubs her temples, snuggling further into her bed.

He never wants to change things, he never wants to complicate things, he never wants to be vulnerable—well, that's fine. Totally fine. They can be friends for now; she can wait.

Kuki groans again. That's what she always told herself, isn't it?

They just keep running in an endless cycle of not-quite-connections. They're never going to break it unless one of them puts their foot down.

Kuki's train of thought is interrupted by a fist pounding at her bedroom door.

"Kuki! Mom says to tell you sleeping past ten is for babies and interns!"

Groaning, Kuki pulls the duvet over her head. "Shut up, Mushi!"

Saturday passes.

Abby texts her on Sunday, asking if she's free after school on Thursday. She is.

Monday is irritatingly sunny, and Kuki has a headache all morning. Pre-Cal comes too quick, and when she walks into class her eyes meet Wally's for a split second. He isn't usually here before her. His eyes skitter away, hands gripping each other tightly on his desk. Kuki still isn't sure how she wants today to go, but she sits down and doesn't look at him again.

A beat.

"Uh, hey, Kuki? Can I see your notes from chapter eleven real quick?"

Kuki feels herself bristle. If he thinks he can just waltz back in here and act like nothing happened…well, that's what they always did, right? Maybe next time…no. No. Life's too short. She knows that now.

Kuki makes herself glare at him. "No."

Her head turns away just slow enough to see his expression drop, lips part to, maybe, speak.

He doesn't.

Monday passes.

"Kuki Sanban!"

It's Tuesday, it's lunchtime, and Abby had given Kuki a smile and a wink during Econ that Kuki had been too late to return.

Now it's Virginia's turn to wield a grin in her direction.

…When was the last time they'd even spoken?

"Hell-o, when was the last time we all hung out?" Virginia asks, clearing her backpack from the seat beside her so Kuki can sit down in her usual spot at the lunch table.

She'd sat here all week…hadn't she? She must have participated in some kind of conversation…

"Um. I don't remember," Kuki answers truthfully, twirling her spork into sad-looking green beans.

"Ugh, it's been forever!" Fanny complains loudly.

Eve quietly drinks her milk, subtly avoiding Kuki's eyes. It suddenly strikes Kuki that the last time she spoke to Eve they were at each other's throats. Over Wally. It seems stupid now, and Kuki flushes with shame.

"Exactly," Virginia says, snapping her fingers. "Friday, after school. Slumber party. Fanny's place. The four of us, just like old times!"

"Why don't you just invite your own friends?"

"I'm a new operative, Numbah Fouurr uh, buh…thirty…teen…seven?"

"Nooo, do you like-like Numbuh Four?"

"Hey, you're just inviting yourself over, now?" Fanny shouts good-naturedly.

"Yup!"

Eve meets Kuki's eyes briefly. "I'm in."

"Well, I'm almost thirteen, so…"

Kuki rubs at her temple and tries to smile. "You don't think we're too old for slumber parties?"

Virginia snorts. "My sister's in college and she has slumber parties with her roommate all the time!"

"I thought she was dating her roommate?" Fanny interjects.

"Point taken. Still! We're seniors in high school. This is our last chance to act like kids! Whaddaya say, Kuki?"

They all look at her, expectant.

"C'mon, Kuki! Just think like a kid!"

Kuki smiles. These are her friends, too. That was real. "I'll be there."

Tuesday passes.

They get the results of their Pre-Cal test; Kuki doesn't look at her solid, disappointing 86%, and definitely doesn't watch Wally as he crumples his up and stuffs it down into the bottom of his backpack.

Wednesday passes.

It's hard, Thursday, to avoid Wally after class when they're both going to the same place, but Kuki manages.

She's out of breath when she reaches the treehouse, and Hoagie is the only one there.

"Hey Kuki!" he calls, waving at her happily with one hand. The other is holding a deck of colorful cards.

"Hey Hoagie," Kuki responds, trying to act like she's not out of breath after running three blocks. "What are those?"

Hoagie grins and fans out the cards. "Yipper cards! Collectable, gameable, tradeable, you name it! I've almost got the entire Uncool Zombie Wars pack!"

Kuki thinks she's seen kids at school play this before. They—mostly boys—all group up at the round tables in the lunchroom during free periods and yell about MP.

"How do you play?"

Hoagie's eyes light up.

A few minutes later, as Hoagie is excitedly explaining about speed quotients and turn-based combat, familiar sneakers come trotting up.

Kuki can see a blur of orange out of the corner of her eye, watches as it falters before coming closer at a faster pace. Kuki leans closer to Hoagie just a bit more, feeling petty.

"Hey Wally! You wanna learn about Yipper: Dobermans of the Sky?"

Wally scoffs. "Of course you'd be into that stupid geek stuff."

Kuki sees Hoagie's grin falter, just slightly, before he covers it with a self-depreciating laugh. Rage licks at the edges of her vision, and she spins around with a glare.

"Quit being a bully, Wally! Just because you're not smart enough to play doesn't mean it's stupid!"

"What?! Now who's the bully?" Wally screeches back.

Kuki ignores him, turning back around and smiling beatifically at a bewildered Hoagie. "Don't listen to him, Hoagie. Wally's just mad because he's short!"

"Hey, shut up, you…girl!"

Kuki spins again, a manic laugh leaving her lips, "Ooh, I've never heard such a good comeback!"

"That's a surprise; I figured your giant ears would pick up satellite!" Wally snarls.

"Your mom cuts your hair with a bowl!"

"I told you that in confidence!"

Kuki's grilling up for another blow when red cotton blocks her path. "Would both of you just shut up for one moment?"

It's Nigel, and something about the stern clench of his jaw and the heaviness of his brow makes Kuki automatically snap her jaw shut.

"I realize you two are having some kind of lovers' spat,"—Nigel keeps talking over Wally's strangled noise—"but we are here to…um, for…something." Authority withering slowly, Nigel looks back at Abby, who showed up about as suddenly as he did. "Right?"

A twitching grin is visible under the shadow of Abby's hat, and she tips the brim down further to cover it. "You got it."

Nigel briefly inclines his head back toward Wally and Kuki with an 'I-told-you-so' expression.

Abby jerks her head back toward the treehouse. "C'mon, we'll talk inside."

AN: I literally randomly generated numbers until I got one that didn't have results on KND Wiki to make Numbuhs 94 and 209. All the existing peeps are too old in this universe! But, 94 happens to be my birth year, so yay! I cut this one earlier than I wanted to so I could get it out earlier.

Also: Return of the Operation: SLUMBER crew! (I'm realizing now that maybe it wasn't clear that Virginia and Eve are the two other girls from that episode lol) Kuki is discovering that she's getting lost in her newly expanded world! Can she find a balance? Tune in next…uh…whenever-the-next-update-is to find out!