AN: Quick (short) crappy (short) crap (short) fluff, yay! Totally just skipped straight from Halloween to Christmas. And could it be...*gasp!* implied Abby/Hoagie!? :0 No, not really. Sorry about these recent almost-but-not-quite-there chapters. I'm just a bit rung out from all the other crap I have to do. Also I tend to submit chapters right when I finish them instead of letting them sit and be revised a bit. Right now I'm pretty much just squeezing out whatever comes to mind until I can get to better chapters. XD
TEH BROS: leafysummers (FRESH lol. Thanks for reviewing!) tater06 (Thank you SO much! This was exactly the review I needed. :'D I'm glad you got what I was trying to convey; a lot of people didn't seem to understand the last chapter and I was worried that I hadn't done enough to make it clear. Thanks so, so much!) numbah435spiritsong (I did want him to be super-smart/adorably naïve, so yay! I did it. Sorry about the suckishness, see above explanation. :3 Thanks for reviewing!) QuantumofShoelace (Only the bush knows the truth...XD Curse the thistle! Good luck with the whole 'sleeping' thing. 300 YAY.) SareBear96 (Hooray! *throws up graduation cap* I love Joey, I want to do more with his POV eventually. Not in 29T, though. XD Thanks for reviewing!) I'm Crazy But Who Cares (Of course he is, he's Joey! X3 Thanks for your review!) Ajir (I'm so glad everyone enjoyed Joey POV! :D Here it is, dear stalkerette!) writer-person2 (You're funny. :) Thanks for reviewing!) Averon the Awesome (Oh, Numbuh Two...*shakes head* They were a bit NA, weren't they? I'm Cherokee, so perhaps my ancestors guided me last chapter lol. They would be really weird for doing that.) i88 (Who knows...? XD You have to read between the lines and try filling in the blanks for yourself, mate! Thanks for reviewing!) Ed Nigma (I agree, she's going to explode eventually...XD...and that totally wasn't foreshadowing at all, of course. Thanks very much!) MoreThanMeetsTheEye96 (Thanks so much! I get that feel, bro. XD I'm glad you liked the fresh perspective! Thanks ever so much for your lovely reviews!) GirlyGirl9898 (Oh, a new face! :D Hello! Glad you're enjoying the ride, sorry you didn't understand the last chapter. :/ I'll answer any questions you have, if you want. Thanks for reviewing!) Fearofchicken13 (Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it!)
You guys are so nice and cool and honest and merciful and amazing and PATIENT, EVER SO PATIENT.
P.S. This chapter contains references to chapter fifteen, 'The Dare'.
Disclaimer: KND is not mine. Do not argue with an idiot. I will drag you down to my level and beat you with experience. ;)
29 Tries
Attempt #25: The Present
Kuki was really the only person who got presents for the rest of the team. Whether it was due to preoccupation (Numbuh One), forgetfulness (Numbuh Two), better use of allowance (Numbuh Five), or laziness (Numbuh Four), Kuki was the only one who slid presents into her friends' rooms just after dawn on Christmas Day.
So you can imagine her confusion when she spotted a lumpy package propped up against the outside of her door.
She glanced down the hall, left to right, but there was no one there.
Kuki squatted down to set her armful of gifts aside – she had just been going to pass them out – to get a closer look. It was poorly wrapped in what looked like newspaper, but it had been inefficiently colored with a green marker that lost its ink halfway through. It was soft and pliable, but unassumingly light.
Kuki specifically avoided thinking that this was a Christmas present for her, or that it was from a boy whose number came right after hers and wore orange hoodies even in the height of summer, but the lingering hope remained.
Suddenly giddy, Kuki retreated back in her room and clicked the door shut with her foot.
What could it be? Kuki hugged it to her chest and rolled around on the floor, trying to stifle her giggles. The newspaper crinkled happily along with her. Flipping onto her back one more time, Kuki held the package at arm's length with a breathless smile.
Lumpy, sloppy, scribbly, last-minute, and utterly endearing. It was almost definitely from Wally.
Okay, deep breath now. Time to open it. Kuki flopped onto her stomach, kicking her legs. Treating it as if it was tissue paper, she plucked delicately at the tape holding it together. Green marker smeared onto her fingertips.
What would Wally get her? A new Rainbow Monkey? She glanced over at the Rainbow Monkey Panda occupying a place of honor on her bedside table. No. Maybe another box of half eaten fries, but the package was all the wrong shape.
So what was it? What was it, what was it, what was it?
Several ways to find out, but only one with immediate gratification.
Kuki tore open the newspaper with all the patience a twelve-year-old girl on Christmas morning could muster, abandoning her hesitancy for voracious curiosity. The paper ripped apart under her hands, revealing patches of green and green and...oh.
One of Kuki's sweaters unfurled from the shattered shell of newspaper. Literally, it was one of hers. She remembered its distinctive cable-knit pattern down the front and how soft it felt against her skin. She didn't remember losing it. In fact, she'd worn it last week. Did Wally take it? Kuki wasn't sure how to feel about that.
She was pulling the sweater fully from its packaging, the long sleeves rolling down to the floor, when several somethings fell out of the center. There were about a dozen of them, all small and white and somewhat square. Kuki picked one up. There was a sticker on the other side, in the shape of a pie. Kuki scratched at the picture experimentally, and the scent of apples flooded upwards.
Oh...!
It was one of those scratch and sniff stickers from a set you get out of the Sugar Snacks cereal box. There was also cherry and root beer and lemon meringue. But why would Wally cut them out individually?
Kuki grabbed for more of them, flipping them over one by one.
Apple pie.
Apple pie.
Apple pie.
Apple pie.
A pile of them grew in her lap, until there were no more to check. There were at least a dozen of them. Kuki pictured Wally digging through boxes of cereal, cutting out the apple pie sticker carefully with safety scissors over and over again, remembering that it was a scent Kuki loved. How long had he been doing this? How long had Wally been saving them? For her?
A flood of warmth burst in Kuki's chest, and she felt like she wanted to cry. Wally, Wally...
"All in all, quite a good Christmas, wouldn't you agree?" Numbuh One remarked later, as the team lounged lethargically around the Christmas tree. Unwrapped presents from Santa littered the floor around them in varying shades of green and red.
"Yup! Lots of good presents this year!" Kuki remarked cheerfully, rocking her new 'Oopsie, Poopsie!' Rainbow Monkey gently. She felt Wally's eyes on her.
He'd said it with his eyes, she was sure, but Numbuh Two had grabbed Numbuh Five's hand and was ushering everyone into the main room to open presents and no words – irrefutable evidence – had been spoken.
She was wearing the sweater her had returned. She didn't mention it because she knew he wouldn't want her to, but the sweater whispered for them, in a language no one else understood.
For Wally, it said 'You're different to me.'
For Kuki, it said 'Thank you.'
Now his eyes were talking again, carving words into her heart that she didn't trust herself to read yet. It was okay. She could wait. She could. It was fine, because right now she had a drawer full of scratch-and-sniff stickers that said he cared, that he noticed.
Wally's hand inched underneath a sheet of crumpled wrapping paper – covert – to find her own.
With his fingers curling determinedly over hers, it didn't matter yet that the words were still stuck behind his teeth. She wanted to be closer, to rest her head on his shoulder and rip back the paper so everyone could see that Wallabee Beatles was hers, but that wasn't going to be them. Not yet.
With a final squeeze, Wally's hand retreated. They kept their heads turned away like nothing was of interest, but they stayed close, electricity ripping the hopeful inches between them into pieces.
"Numbuh Five is diggin' this massage pillow," Abby spoke up, continuing a conversation she didn't realize two of the people in the room had forgotten.
"Actually, do you know what the greatest gift of all is?" Hoagie piped up, thumbs a blur as he navigated a series of complicated loops with his new model plane. Abby hummed a sleepy, inquisitive sound, too relaxed with her pillow propped against Hoagie's leg to be wary of the coming joke.
"The present," he finished with a grin.
Nobody laughed, but nobody hit him for it, either.
AN: Hmm. Maybe I just can't do real fluff. Next chapter will be up very, very, soon. Like maybe even tomorrow if I feel properly motivated. Also! Keep sending me prompts, guys! FOUR MORE TO GO. D:
I'll probably be back to fix typos that I find later again, so I save this spot here for that:_ :D
Tickle that toast.