I've been asked what age they are. Well, there's a reason I never said so—nothing seems right. Sometimes it seems like they're the same age as in the show, others they seem too mature to be part of the Kids Next Door. I say they're thirteen. As to why they have their memories, you use your imagination.
It was so unusual.(One of)the fantasies she'd been having for years, since she was ten, had finally become reality. And it was on an unstable bridge over a simmering sea of lava. This was something she hadn't considered even in her wildest imaginations.
When Nigel forced himself to pull away (three more seconds and he would have never been able to) they were both flushed and breathing heavily, and Abigail was staring at him wide-eyed.
"D–Di–Did you just...?" she gasped out, not able to finish her sentence.
Nigel turned away, bowing his head. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, feeling the prickle of tears and desperately holding them back. You stupid brainless idiot! His mind yelled. What did you just do? I wouldn't be surprised if she never speaks to you again!
"Wait, Numbuh One." Abigail grabbing his wrist and turned them so they were facing each other. "Are you crying?"
"No!" he cried defensively, wiping his eyes quickly with his free hand. "I–I just have something in my eye!" That is the lamest excuse ever! The baby used that! No one would buy it!
"Uh-huh," Abigail replied skeptically. She stared at him, her honey-golden eyes earnest and penetrating. "And what do you mean, you don't love Lizzie? You've been going out with her for years!"
"I can't stand her," Nigel replied, so vehement Abigail stepped backwards in surprise. "I love you. I've just been using Lizzie as an excuse not to tell you because I know you don't feel the same."
Abigail seemed surprised, then amused. She lifted a hand and he flinched, expecting her to hit him, but instead she laid a gentle hand his cheek. Her skin was supple and very soft, and smelled slightly of something crisp and herbal that he couldn't name. Her eyes and voice were warm and amused as she said, "If Numbuh Five's told you once she's told you a hundred times, you don't know everything. This is just the biggest piece of evidence so far."
"Huh?" he replied stupidly, then suddenly she moved forward and pressed her lips against his. When she pulled back his expression must have been even more dumbfounded then hers.
Abigail smiled. "Numbuh Five's wanted to do that for a long time, Numbuh One," she told him softly. "You should have said something sooner. Now come on. We have to get past this bridge to find the others."
"Nigie!!" shouted Lizzie, pounding at the ground with a sledge hammer. "Nigel Uno, you come out right now!" The audience had backed so far away they were pressed against the wall. The Kids Next Door (and Beth) had vanished hours ago, and Lizzie had drunk three gallons of vodka (by the way, fourteen is underage, that wasn't a mistake.)
The ground started shuddering, and the audience gasped. Lizzie didn't even notice as Beth and the Kids Next Door reappeared, looking very tired.
"Nigie get out here I know you're in there where the heck are you?"
"Uh...Lizzie?" said Nigel, wearing the same stunned O.O expression as everybody else—except a very drunk and frenzied Lizzie, who immediately sprinted over and threw her arms around him without even bothering to drop the sledge hammer.
"Oh, Nigie!" she wailed. "I was so worried about you! Are you all right? Did those baddy bad Delightful Children hurt you?"
Abigail clenched her fists, itching to strangle her. She refrained due to exhaustion and the sledgehammer, but it was a struggle. Get your filthy hands off him, she thought fiercely.
"Lizzie...can't...breathe...need...air..." groaned Nigel.
"Oops! Sorry Nigel," she apologized sweetly, pulling away. Nigel gasped painfully as he got to his knees, having already been breathless before having been half-strangled by hugs. Abigail crossed her arms and glared down at him.
"What?" he cried. She just glared harder, reminding him without use of words the promise he had made.
Nigel checked to make sure Lizzie wasn't paying attention, then muttered in a hushed voice, "I'm planning to break up with her when she isn't holding a giant sledge hammer!"
Abigail paused her glare, arms still crossed, seeming to consider his words. "Aw, come on!" he gave her the evil puppy-eyes-of-devastating-cuteness. She lowered her arms and sighed in acquiescence.
"That is a completely unfair, deceitful, underhanded trick!" she complained, even as she helped him to his feet. "It should be against the law to be so adorable!"
His only reply was to smile happily. She tried to scowl, but ended up smiling as well.
"Um, Abigail?"
Abigail turned in surprise, the hand gripping her brush pausing in mid-stroke. "Beth, didn't Numbuh Five ask you to call her Numbuh Five? And why didn't you change?"
Beth smiled sheepishly, a bit self-conscious. "I just have a few things to wear. This"—she motioned to her blue silk halter and denim miniskirt, with a denim vest and blue belt and high heels—"is my best outfit. I don't have anything to wear at night. Um...do you have anything I can borrow?"
Abigail smiled, also sheepish. "Sorry. The other thing Numbuh Five wears when she's sleeping is at her house. You can ask Numbuh Three. She has maybe thirty different night things. Just ask her not to give you the flannel dress with the teddy bear pattern. You can buy stuff to wear tomorrow."
"Um...all right."
"Oh, Numbuh One?"
Nigel turned in surprise and jumped about, say, four feet. "Um...what are you guys doing here?" he asked, staring in puzzlement at Wallabee and Hoagie.
Wallabee and Hoagie smirked slyly, making Nigel even more nervous. When Wallabee spoke, it was in a drawn-out drawl that seemed to intensify his smirk.
"Is Numbuh Five your girlfriend yet?"
"What?!" Nigel cried, dropping his toothbrush. His cheeks turned as red as Wallabee's often did around Kuki. "W–What in the world gave you that idea?"
"Aw, come on, I've seen the way you stare at her!" Wallabee cried, shaking his head. "And Numbuh Five was positively steaming with jealousy when Lizzie hugged you! The entire dance, you were just paying attention to her!"
"Now, listen here, this is none of your business!" stuttered Nigel, turning—if possible—even redder. "But if it means anything, no, she is not my girlfriend!" He turned back to the mirror over the sink and muttered, "Officially."
Wallabee and Hoagie burst out laughing, and Nigel whirled around furiously. Pointing at Wallabee, he cried, "What about your crush on Numbuh Three?"
Wallabee immediately ceased laughing and turned the hue of an overripe tomato, stuttering protests but not tricking anybody. Hoagie just laughed harder.
"Tell me again why we're having a sleepover in our living room?!" Nigel said, rolling out his sleeping bag. He would be lying head-to-head with Abigail, Wallabee with Kuki, and Hoagie with Beth. All the guys were convinced it was rigged.
It was.
"Just because," Abigail replied, lying on her own sleeping bag. Her hair fell in his face and he tried unsuccessfully to brush it away, coughing as it tickled his nose.
"Numbuh Five, your hair is in my face!" he whined. She smiled, shaking her head so her hair danced around and tickled his nose. "Hey!" he cried indignantly.
Abigail propped herself up so she was suspended over Nigel, her hair rippling around them, and smiled down at him. "Show-off," he muttered, in all probability referring to the fact that he himself happened to be bald.
Her smile grew into a devious smirk and she shook her head fervently, her hair tickling him unmercifully. "Numbuh–he-he–Five, cut–heh-heh–it–ha-ha–out!"
He clenched his teeth and pounced, tickling her underarms (with his fingers, since he had no hair) while she laughed helplessly. The others watched, amused but bemused.
Then Abigail smiled again and shook her head even harder than before, her hair flying in his face. "That isn't fair!" he whined as she pushed him back onto the bed.
"Good," she replied, kissing him lightly on the nose. She then settled back into the sleeping bag, but not without giving the attentive audience of four a threatening glare which dared them to speak.
Kuki giggled. Beth and Hoagie exchanged meaningful smiles. Wallabee didn't say a word, being afraid that Nigel would spill the beans about Kuki (he didn't realize Abigail knew as well.)
"So, anything else I might want to know?" Beth asked, having already been told about the Kids Next Door but not much about their personal lives (though Hoagie did tell her about the crush thing.)
"Numbuh Four wears—" Kuki began, but Wallabee immediately leapt up and slapped a hand over her mouth with a huge and fallaciously innocent smile.
Nigel rolled his eyes. "Would you do the world a favor and just tell her already?"
Wallabee's face turned rubyand he glared vengefully at Nigel. "I'll tell her when you break up with Lizzie!" he shouted without thinking, and Nigel smiled.
"I'm breaking up with her the next time I see her. I decided to at the dance and would have broken up with her there if she wasn't holding a giant sledge hammer."
Abigail laughed. "Looks like you'll be telling her pretty soon, Numbuh Four," she said with a satisfied smile, her heart singing at Nigel's outright affirmation.
"Um...doesn't anybody here have something to talk about besides dating?" asked Wallabee, his eyes shifting frantically as he tried desperately to change the subject.
"Nope," replied Abigail. "But I would just like to point out that my sister started dating Chad a week after they met and they still haven't broken up. If they can date happily, who can't?"
"What?" "No way!" "Are you kidding?" "You never said that Cree was dating Numbuh 274!"
Abigail laughed at everybody's expression (including Beth's bewildered one—she had just heard a little bit about Chad and Cree) and said, "Cree was the one who broke his containment pod when he was going to be decommissioned, and that's when they met. Turns out that the garbage can was a flying thingy. I swear that girl is psychic—every twist that's ever occurred in her plans she's already seen coming."
Everybody (except a still befuddled Beth) had to agree.
"Numbuh Five is hungry," Abigail complained, running a hand through her hair and flipping her head back. Her silky raven hair swished before settling around her.
Nigel watched with something between fascination and yearning. Doesn't she usually braid her hair? He thought. She was even more beautiful this way, and if he kept his gaze on her he was never going to be able to pull away.
"Numbuh Five's just going to go in the kitchen and see if there's anything. Maybe there's some cake or something."
Nigel unthinkingly watched her get up and leave, and suddenly (though eight minutes passed) realized what she had said. Oh, no! What if she finds...he jumped to his feet and sprinted after her.
Abigail opened a (hidden) door and gasped as she laid eyes upon the second biggest cake she had ever seen (the first being the Delightful Children's 'Pound Cake' in C.A.K.E.D–T.W.O). "What in the—?"
"No!" shouted Nigel, sprinting in front of the door and flinging out his arms defensively. "Um–Uh–What I mean to say is...um..." he shrank under her suspicious gaze. "It's my mother's!"
Abigail lifted an eyebrow, crossing her arms. "Your mother has a giant cake?"
"Uh...yeah! She...um..." He racked his mind for a sensible excuse and came up with a blank. Probably due to Abigail's fierce glare. "Um...tell you what, Numbuh Five. How about you go back to the living room, and I'll find a snack."
"No thanks," Abigail replied icily. "Numbuh Five isn't that hungry anymore."
As soon as she left, Nigel sighed with relief and slumped against the wall. He glanced at where the door was hidden and sighed again. He hated lying to Abigail, but what else could he do?
Abigail didn't move a muscle when Nigel returned from the kitchen, not doubting that he had hidden the cake and not doubting that it wasn't really a cake.
Numbuh One's hiding something, she thought, feeling hurt. And Numbuh Five's gunnu find out what it is.