Mable: The update was supposed to be last night and I'm sorry. I got to feeling ill and before I could post I had to get to bed. It was already past Midnight anyways, so I apologize.
Anyway, here's a recap: Last time with the Stitchpunks Cat overheard Seven disagreeing with them being good mates. As such, he went hunting, and brought back an offering to Seven. Seven explained that he didn't have to do so and voices her concerns about their relationship. With his assurance they decided to begin a relationship together.
I don't own 9, Enjoy!

Fabric Runs Shallow

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Next Event

It was almost bluntly obvious what was going on between Seven and Cat. For the last three days of their time at the shore the two had been wrapped around each other. Sometimes they would lay together on the sand and bask in the sun's warmth. Other times they would go out in the water which Seven somehow coaxed Cat to go out into. It the long run the two were obviously getting closer in the short amount of time and they were quite pleased with it. It wasn't until the last day in the morning that they decided to announce it.

They waited until the others were awake and hadn't yet gone down to the shore before Seven spoke. She decided to explain it as they both agreed that she was better with words. Cat was bound to be too bold and say something that would shock or offend the others. So instead Seven spoke clearly after getting the others' attention, "Cat and I have decided to start a relationship." There were a few congratulatory words and smiles from the others, such a Nine, Child, Five, and the twins, but nobody really seemed surprised.

Eight actually leaned over and pointed out to Six that he thought they were already together, to which Six shrugged a bit dismissively. The twins were becoming ecstatic and nearly leapt onto the two out of joy. After the moment had slipped by they headed down to the shore to spend the last hours they had there. It was around this time that Nine and One decided to make another attempt with Twenty-One. While he was making a sandcastle, or more like a sand lump actually, Nine subtly sidled up beside him and crouched down.

Twenty-One looked up to him and smiled before pointing at the sandcastle, "Look!" He proudly pointed out, pleased with his creation. "It looks great, Twone. Is it your castle?" The little Stitchpup murmured a quick, "Yes." Now the zippered male looked to the tiny Beast in his hand. The Training Beast was barely bigger than he was at birth, but he was beginning to move more and was already eager to get out of Nine's hands to run around and explore. He reached forward and set it beside the sand lump, then coaxed it forward.

It started to climb to the top of it curiously and Twenty-One blinked and stared at it, then looked to Nine, "It's on it." He pointed out, not sure why it was climbing his castle. Nine smiled and insisted, "He likes the castle too." It made Twenty-One a little happier, but the Beast continued to confuse and astound him somewhat. He reached forward and touched it over its back with his small hand. "Can play?" He asked Nine and the zippered male perked, looking over to One who was watching from some ways away with an interested look. Nine gave him a smile as a signal that Twenty-One was starting to catch on.

"He can play. You just have to teach him how." Nine explained, taking the little Beast in his hand and laying it down in the sand before Twenty-One, guiding him to approach the Stitchpup. Thankfully the small creature wasn't afraid and climbed onto Twenty-One's leg. He giggled from the tickling and fidgeted a little, but the baby Beast responded by continuing to wander around until it toppled over and fell onto its back. It sat there for a few seconds, flexing its legs and squeaking, before Twenty-One grabbed it softly and put it back on his leg.

"There! All better!" He praised as the little Training Beast began to climb around him again. Nine watched with pure joy; he knew this was the beginning of a fulfilling relationship. Maybe he would have to watch him for a while until he got used to the Training Beast, but it was worth it. After a short while One came over to watch Twenty-One and Nine decided to go get back in the water. However as he hurried over into the sand he noticed that most of the others were out as well. This made it more comfortable since he was still a little hesitant after the shark attack earlier.

He stepped into the clear water and stared around through it as he scanned for any sign of the swimming nescience. Thankfully it was absent and he now decided to cross over to Five who wasn't doing anything in particular. Nine started over to him, pulling his way into the deeper water, only to suddenly freeze as he noticed something dark nearby. Finally he had seen it and to Nine's horror the worst had happened; the shark had returned. "Five…" He whispered direly, not wanting to talk loud as though it would alert the creature.

The one eyed male turned to look back at him, "Oh hey! How'd it go with Twenty-One?" Nine just shook his head, "Five, don't move." The one eyed blinked and the zippered male insisted, "Five. Don't. Move." He spaced out perhaps a bit too dramatically as Five suddenly panicked, "What is it?!" He started twisting around, looking around fearfully and causing him to disturb the water. Nine could see that the swimming creature noticed and was coming. "Five, look out!" He called out and pointed the creature out.

Five turned around and looked towards the creature before abruptly relaxing, "Oh… The fish?" The zippered male insisted, "It's a shark! It's dangerous!" Five looked a little amused, "No, I'm pretty sure it's just a fish." Nine looked at the fish for a few seconds before realizing how unthreatening it was. In fact, now that he thought about it, it had only nipped him during that night. He simply exhaled tiredly, "Remind me to never trust Child's judgment."

The afternoon went on normally until later on when One finally called out to the others, reminding them that they were to leave. "If we don't begin heading home now then we will need to walk at dark if we want to make appropriate timing." This didn't seem to make much sense to the others, but they were ready to head home as well and soon climbed out of the water and such.

It was at this time that a new problem emerged. While looking through her tent, Four realized that she was missing her knife. It surprised her and she drew attention to her twin. Three had taken her own knife with her when she awoke in the morning. Since Seven hadn't sparred with them today Four hadn't jumped to bring hers while Three only brought hers out of whim. Now though she was shuffling through the blankets and, to her confusion, couldn't find it at all. Three assisted her and they folded the blankets before taking the tent down.

Still, there was no sign of the knife, and now the twins looked around to see if it had fallen somewhere. That was when Three saw it, shaking Four's shoulder and pointing over. It was in the last spot that either expected. Or, it was being held by the last creature that they expected. Yet in the loop of Shoestring's body they could see the blade poking out, glistening. Four hurried over to the Beast and crouched beside him before grasping the knife and tugging. Surprisingly Shoestring tugged it back and suddenly unraveled himself before moving away.

She was taken aback and perhaps a little uneasy by the situation, so instead of approaching Shoestring again she sought out Six and Eight. Pointing at Three's knife then the Tailor Beast got their point across. "He stole your knife?" Six asked in confusion before looking towards the Guard in amusement, "He takes after you!" Apparently he was trying to joke over the awkwardness of the situations. Eight, however, didn't seem too concerned, "Guess he does. Here, I'll go get it." He strode over to the Beast, Six following, and kneeled beside him.

"Come on, Shoestring, hand it over." The Guard insisted, taking the knife in his grasp and going to tug back only to realize something. "What the…" He murmured to himself. Now he realized that the Tailor was not holding the knife. The knife was somehow fused to the tip of one of its arms. "How… Why would he do that?" Six asked in alarm over the Guard's shoulder as he stared at their adopted pet. The Tailor Beast innocently sat there staring at Eight with an interested expression. The Guard turned back towards the twins. "I'll make you another one."

Four looked a little downtrodden, but nodded and made thanking flickers and a quick bow. It did dampen her mood and Four noticed it even as they started to travel home to the Sanctuary and Library. For the net few days she stayed in this mood and at one point None even asked Three. "She's saying she's alright," He pointed out, "But she doesn't seem very alright." Three tried to explain through hand gestures that Four's confidence was shaken now that she was missing her weapon, but doubted that as much got through as she would have liked.

Finally when they got back to their Library home Three took the first opportunity to drag Four down to their study so that they could find something to cheer her until Eight finished her new knife. Though it wouldn't usually take long he was part of the unpacking crew, so they were not able to estimate how long until completion. However, Three did know what would cheer her sister, and suggested that they look through books on holidays. The other female passively agreed, but wasn't very excited about it, and merely dragged her feet as she followed along.

It was then that they had stumbled upon a single photo that Three pointed out to her sister. It was a picture of four children, cut out of a newspaper article, dressed in odd garb. It was labelled as a 'Halloween celebration' so immediately the twins grew curious. Even Four who had been so disinterested was confused at why they were clothed like it. Then they went through the books and discovered the truth. Based off of some sort of holiday to scare away spirits from what they read, children and adult alike would dress in costumes and exchange sweets.

While they weren't sure how to make sweets, something about costumes and mischief seemed interesting. Unlike the other holidays it was more mysterious and frisky, and Three turned to her sister and insisted that they were involved with this. Four now finally perked and nodded in agreement. They got a bit more information on the subject. They weren't sure when October would be or whether or not that was the months. The Stitchpunks hadn't yet started to really follow a human calendar and most of the year was decided on the weather and season more than names of months.

Though it was growing colder quickly and was feeling especially fall like so they deduced that it had to be close enough to October to be near Halloween time. Their first task was to put on costumes, they assumed, and their faces alit in playful smiled as they rushed off to look for something adequate. While neither Three or Four were especially good at sewing, they were good at making use at what they had, and soon made a makeshift costume. Three sat her sister down on a book and wrapped her in a piece of black fabric like a crone before using a bobby pin to keep it closed.

She then got the bottle of ink and dipped her fingers into it before drawing over her twin's face. She put black ink on and around her optics so that they looked dark. It was around this time that None had wandered into the study, curious to check in on the two. "What are you up to?" He asked curiously, smiling playfully as he leaned in to see Four's new face coverings. The female looked a bit shy and her twin teasingly pulled him back and gave hand gestures for him not to smudge any of the ink. "You look great." None praised to his mate who waved her hand dismissively.

He then added in, "What is it for? A special occasion?" Four eagerly nodded and jumped upwards in the middle of Three's touch up, sending a smear of ink down her cheek as she rushed over to the propped open book that depicted a small scene of Halloween. Three retorted by putting her hands on her hips in mock disappointment. Still though, she was glad Four was out of her mood, and watched as she excitedly showed None everything. Unsurprisingly, the male also became intrigued by the prospect of 'Halloween'.

"So they just make themselves look like Beasts, their kinds of Beasts, and then scare each other?" He asked and the twins both nodded as Three again approached to start working on her sister's costume." That sounds great!... Well, I mean…" It had come out a little wrong perhaps, but he assured them. "I'll go mention it to the others, okay?" The twins agreed, especially since they were in the middle of their work. It didn't take too long for Three to soon take on the same appearance as her sister and now they had identical costumes.

However, they were not done, not in the slightest. They went to seek out their newest victim. Unfortunately Six was drawing nearby and the second they saw him their innocent optics widened in interest. He didn't even get a warning before they circled him from both sides. Now in their dark crone garb the Artist jumped back in surprised and stared in confusion quietly. Though once he noticed that they were smiling he realized that it was obviously a game or something. As such, Four pointed towards her clothing and then to him, as though signaling something.

"You want me to put that on?" He asked, reaching down to pet his key. The two shook their heads before Four did the action again, slightly different. "You want me to put something on?" he offered and now they nodded before both helping him up, eager to begin crafting his costume, looking at his unique appearance with creative optics. They drug him back into their study and sat him down where they had taken turns getting dressed. Three scurried off to grab something and Four went to drag the inkwell over, but waited for her twin before she did anything.

When Three returned with a familiar, makeshift strait jacket Six was becoming a little uneasy. "Where…. Did you get that?" Three and Four went into a quick explanation which Six struggled keeping up with. All that he could focus on though was that he knew he was going to get stuck in it once again. Naturally he felt uncomfortable as he hadn't wore it since his breakdown some time ago. Three opened it behind Six and offered him to put his arms inside. The Artist exhaled tiredly and slowly did so, feeling it fit onto his body snuggly and watching as they began to cross his arms over.

It took him a few seconds before he realized they were tying him like a real strait jacket. "No!" He abruptly cried out, pulling his arms apart. The twins looked confused and Six's optics flickered back and forth in embarrassment before murmuring, "Umm… Claustrophobia." He explained and the twins nodded in understanding. Now instead they decided to simply tie the leather straps without tying the arms down. Then they began to work on Six further, trying to wipe off certain ink stains and adding some to other places, like under his optics in an odd, darkening way.

It gave a slightly sinister look and after the first time he was flashed a glance with a piece of mirror he decided he liked what they were doing. Maybe he looked stranger, but since they were dressed like this too it would be fine. Yet the twins weren't done. Even after Six felt confident with his costume they wanted to keep going and went to seek out another victim. Their optics locked on poor Seven so quickly that she could almost feel their gaze. They hurried over to her, nearly running straight into Eight who stared at them in alarm at their new clothing choice.

He still simply head over to Six who was now reading into the Halloween book a little. Most of the information didn't interest him, but he noticed the sections that applied directly to wearing costumes. "What's with them?" Eight asked before abruptly, and bluntly staring at the return of the strait jacket. Six didn't blame him, but smiled in quick explanation of some sort, attempting to show that this was a stable choice. "How do I look? The twins went at me." He explained and Eight responded positively, "Good. Any reason you got caught under them?"

The striped one shrugged before pointing out the book, "It's Halloween. We're supposed to put on costumes and give each other things or we scare them." Eight's brows raised in relative interest at the situation, "So… You have to give me something or I get to scare you?" Six got a bit of a playful smile and raised himself on his feet as high as he could, "Not exactly. I'm the one who's dressed; you have to give me something or I'll scare you." Eight raised a brow again, but he was intrigued by the challenge, he wanted to see what Six was going to do.

He leaned in a bit, a playful smirk on his marked lips, "Yeah? How are you going to manage that?" Yet right as Six was going to do something, anything from the way his small mouth was tugged into a mischievous smile, but was interrupted when Seven was suddenly dragged into the area by the twins. She greeted the two males who jumped apart from each other, both seeming like they were plotting something.

It certainly was going to be interesting.

Mable: The next chapter should be posted tomorrow. I hope everyone enjoyed!