Cowritten by PuniPuni

Story is also published on AO3.

On the couch in the living room, Lizzie was chatting away with Bonnie. Their mother was in the kitchen, hearing the conversation right next to the living room.

"You should have seen him, Bonnie! He's a ridiculous looking boy. He's bald. Bald! I've never seen a kid like that!" Lizzie laughed.

"Well, he seems charming enough. A brave boy rescuing you is every girl's dream!" Bonnie replied.

"He seems like a serious operative. I just don't get his silly behavior, though! He stutters when he talks… I don't know what that's about! And his face turned this red-color. Is that normal for humans to do? And he calls my name pretty, which, well, of course it is! He's right on that! He called me Lizzie, too. And he gives me his number. That's probably for the better, though."

Bonnie and Mrs. DeVine looked at each other briefly with shocked expressions on their faces. Then, they burst into laughter.

"Wha—?! What's so funny?" Lizzie inquired.

"Oh, Lizzie, Deary, I think Nigel likes you!" Bonnie replied, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Likes me? I bet he does! If he didn't like me, he wouldn't save me!"

Bonnie and Mrs. DeVine continued to giggle. Lizzie's mother went up to her to kneel to her height.

"No, Elizabeth. He has feelings for you. That just means, well, he has a crush on you," the mother explained.

Lizzie's brows furrowed. "I still don't get it."

"He's in love with you," Bonnie addressed.

A few seconds passed, then Lizzie's eyebrows raised. "…OH!" she gasped. "Nigel… likes me? Like-likes me?!"

"Sounds like it!" Mrs.

DeVine agreed. "This makes your job really easy, no?"

Lizzie paused. Her mother was right. If Nigel took great interest in her, then she could receive a lot of vulnerable information from him. This was working out well.

Nigel clenched his pillow. He took a deep breath, his fingers digging into the sheets. He glanced at the clock by his bed. 10:38 PM. Nigel could not sleep.

Thump. Thump.

The boy could hear his heart beat through his ears when he rested his head down. He felt this weird feeling in his stomach that made his body restless.

Thump. Thump.

All he had to do was save a girl. That was it, nothing more. However, he kept thinking about her. It felt physically impossible to think about anything else but her. He could not get her out of his mind, as he felt his face become numb.

Thump. Thump.

Nigel lifted his head while groaning, rubbing his eyes. He stepped out of bed to grab an orange juice box from his mini-fridge. He was extremely frustrated at his newfound crush. He was supposed to get some sleep— especially since he had more missions to get to in the morning!

Not one of his friends knew that Nigel had these crush problems. He simply dismissed his behavior as being stressed from overworking, getting away with lying. Although Nigel was clever with masking his problems with his seriousness, he still felt suspicious of the fact that he acted a little too outlandish with his friends. No, nothing was bothering him, he insisted. He just had a rough day, and he was tired. If he was going to ignore that beautiful girl, he was going to have to insist that he was fine.

He sat down on the chair in his room to lean back into it. Nigel shook the box of orange juice in his hands through a tight grip. He used his other hand to rub his eyes. Dang it, why was he so in love? He barely knew anything about that girl, and yet he felt his heart aching at the thought of when they held hands. Thinking about that, Nigel downed his orange juice, thinking the cool flavor of it all would satisfy his dry mouth. However, the beverage failed to satisfy him. He was still grumpy trying to deal with his feelings.

The British boy put the juice box down on the shelf by his chair. He then put on his socks to walk out of his room. He grumbled to himself, walking into the Help-Me Hotline room. He stared at the big black screen in front of him. He sighed. He kneeled down. He slapped his own face gently.

"Numbuh 1, we are not doing this right now," he whispered to himself. What else could he do? The poor kid was conquered by love through a heart ache. All he could do was close his eyes and face the ground.

"Hopefully, Lizzie's doing OK…" he whispered to himself again.

In the morning of the new day, Lizzie awoke to the smell of baking coming from the kitchen into her room. She felt refreshed from lying on such comfortable cushions in a position she preferred. Sleeping in a non-antsy body felt like a luxury. She even argued to herself that human beds were more comfortable than lattice beds.

Lizzie stepped out of bed onto her pink animal print carpet, putting on her slippers. She opened the door to her room to see a welcoming family.

"Good morning, Lizzie! How did you sleep?" Bonnie asked cheerfully.

"Better than yesterday. I thought I was going to hate it, but I just needed to do it right."

It was a normal breakfast after that. Lizzie used her utensils correctly on the waffles.

"All right, I'm off to work, then!" Mr. DeVine announced to his family.

"So soon?" Lizzie questioned.

"Yes. A man's day starts early!" Mr. DeVine then walked out of the door.

"Well, that reminds me, I must go too. I have some spy work to do," Bonnie remembered.

"What?!" Lizzie sat up from her seat to grab her sister's hand. "You can't go now!" she protested.

"I'm sorry, but this is what I was built for."

"What! Why can't Mom do it?!"

"I'm sorry, Lizzie. If I refuse, I'll be destroyed."

Lizzie released Bonnie's hand, her brows raising in surprise. "Oh. Well, go on then…" she suggested nervously.

"Bye-bye, now!"

Lizzie watched her older sister leave. She fiddled with her fingers nervously. Then, she turned to face Mike, who was quietly holding his blankie close to him.

"Mike! Come here for a moment," Lizzie demanded.

Mike reluctantly came forward to her.

"How am I supposed to talk to Dave? Do I ask for him or something? I need to talk to him!"

"Just tell him you want to talk, and someone might pick up for you. They're not available all the time. I should know," Lizzie's grandmother interjected.

"Well, just get me to Dave!" Lizzie insisted.

Mike poked his right tragus. He stared at Lizzie for a moment, then back at the floor.

"All right, what is it?" Mike asked.

"Dave, is that you?" Lizzie sternly asked.

"Yes, it's me. I'm assuming Numbuh 274 let you meet Numbuh 1, per chance."

"Yes?! What on Saturn was he thinking letting two animal people attack me out of the blue?!"

"It's, 'What on Earth,' Elizabeth. You're on it."

"I go by Lizzie, now. Nigel called me that."

"Sure, whatever," Mike motioned by waving his hands away from her. "Just tell me how it went. We need you to stay focused on Numbuh 1."

"Well, he seems easy to get a hold of. He gave me his number. Mom thinks he likes me."

"You mean… he like-likes you?"

"Yeah."

Mike gasped, bringing his blanket up to his mouth. His toddler voice started to speak frantically. "You mean he's in love with you?"

Lizzie raised an eyebrow at Mike. The little brother pointed at Lizzie and laughed. "He's in love with you! Numbuh 1 caught feelings for such an… erm, interesting girl! Haha! Numbuh 71.562, you got to check this out!"

Lizzie rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"What? What's that?" Mike spoke in a different tone, but still kept his toddler voice.

"Numbuh 1 is infatuated with Numbuh Vine! And he calls her 'Lizzie,'" Mike continued to speak to himself. There were two different laughs coming from his mouth, as Lizzie could easily see the speaker inside. "Oh! The serious leader, Numbuh 1! Bring him Element L and he'll break!" Mike maniacally laughed, getting on the floor to manically bang his fists on the ground.

"SHUT UP!" Lizzie screamed back at Mike, making him jump back up. "I thought you would be happy for me that my mission is going so well!"

"Well, yes, actually," Dave spoke as he tried to keep his composure through Mike's expression. "Now that you mention it, that's the best possible outcome for you, is it not? You're going to have to continue to woo Numbuh 1 to get information out of him."

"Woo? Like cheer?"

Mike snickered. "No. Make him love you more. That's what I mean," he explained with a cheeky smile.

Lizzie put her finger to her chin, thinking about it more. She realized this was going to be fun for her, accepting the fact that a funny looking boy had a crush on her.

"Nigel and Lizzie, sitting in a tree," Mike sang as he skipped away from the girl.

"HEY!" Lizzie shouted. Mike trembled, turning around while sucking his thumb. She guessed that was queue for then they stopped communicating.

"Ask that Nigel to hang out sometime, Lizzie."

Lizzie looked back into the kitchen to see her grandmother washing the dishes. She was the one speaking. "You have his number, right? Call him. I bet he's thinking about you."

"Why do you insist I do it now?" Lizzie stepped closer to her grandmother.

"What else do you have to do today, Deary?"

Her grandma made a valid point. Lizzie had nothing to do today.

"Well, go on and call him."

"I'll think about it," Lizzie hesitated.

Walking into her bedroom, Lizzie was thinking to herself nervously. She had to spend time with a human who did not know her true identity. She felt nervous of being suspicious, but then remembered the third rule. "No one is suspicious of you." The girl tried to wrap her head around what that could mean.

Bonnie parked her car outside the large mall. She stepped outside and took a deep breath, despite not feeling anything from it.

"Well, this is it! My first social environment!"

The adult would be enamored by the size and capacity of the mall. Kids, teens, and adults would scurry about the place, leaving the artificial intelligent machine of a woman staring at people she walked by. She eventually bumped shoulders with someone, almost falling down.

"Jeez! Watch where you're going," a teen with half her face covered in dreadlocks shouted at Bonnie.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry."

Bonnie had a list of items to shop for at the mall, as well as clothing she wanted to get her little sister. She sneakily put it against her side, reading what she had to do. It was not just a shopping list, but a list of places to listen in on for suspicious activity. She checked her purse to see if her 2x4 communication device was still inside. Bonnie then curiously stopped by the fountain.

"Drop a penny and make a wish? Now that's absurd," she ignored.

Bonnie stopped inside a kid's clothing store. It was her task to make sure nothing was awry. Though, nothing was off after a while, so Bonnie made her purchases for Lizzie and Mike without interruption. The food court was open, so Bonnie went to eat there. She listened out for any suspicious activity. Lots of teenagers were wearing football gear. It did not matter, as many teens would go to the mall after a game. Bonnie then checked the jewelry store to see if she wanted to wear anything new. She made sure to be careful with money, because her father only made so much.

There was a boom. Bonnie jolted at the noise, leaving where she was immediately to investigate. She felt nervous.

The teenagers had made their way to the Build-A-Monkey section at the mall, tearing apart the toys from limb to limb. Bonnie pressed the button on her 2x4 device to call the Kids Next Door anonymously, but she knew it would be too late. She was supposed to report suspicious activity before any incident. She sighed.

Sector N had arrived through the anonymous report, and while it brought them together to go after the teenagers who did it, Bonnie knew that the damage was already done. Those poor rainbow monkeys were torn apart, leaving sad children to cry in their presence.

Bonnie felt defeated. Her first undercover mission was a failure. She hopelessly walked toward the fountain to sit on its edge, listening to the water rush. She did not want to let all those kids' toys get destroyed.

"Hey… are you doing OK?"

The strange voice made Bonnie lift her head to see who was talking to her. A young man with long blond hair was standing beside her.

"May I sit down?"

"Oh… yes, sure."

The young man stared at her longingly. There was a feeling of empathy in his eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh…" Bonnie started to talk. "I just feel bad about what happened to that Build-A-Monkey place. Those poor kids' toys… it's such a shame."

"Aww. You know, I feel bad about it too. I love kids. I hate to see them so sad too. What those teens did was cruel."

This sentence intrigued Bonnie. She was sure that no living adult was actually interested in caring about children. She was built to spy upon their habits. This would have to be studied.

Bonnie noticed that the man threw a shiny coin into the fountain.

"What did you just do?" she asked politely.

"What does it look like I did?" he laughed subtly.

"I see that you tossed a coin in the fountain. Why would you do that?"

"To make a wish."

Bonnie scanned at the man curiously. She still did not understand.

"What? You've never made a wish in a fountain before?"

Bonnie shook her head. "Does it actually come true?"

The man grabbed a shiny penny from his jacket pocket to hold it out for Bonnie. The woman took the penny and stood up from where she sat. She dropped it gently in the fountain.

"You're not from around here, are you?" the man asked.

"No, I'm not," Bonnie replied truthfully.

"That's all right, then," he laughed playfully while nervously scratching the back of his head.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I'm Clyde. And you are…?"

"Bonnie."

"Nice to meet you, Bonnie."

Clyde reached out his hand for the woman to shake. She reluctantly did so. His friendly and open nature made her suspicious, but strangely welcoming.

"Do you… uh, wanna get a drink or something sometime?"

Wanting to study the peculiarities of this man, Bonnie agreed.

"Sure."

The man ended up giving Bonnie a location, date, and time. To her, this was quite efficient to get to study a man who claimed he appreciated children.

Bonnie was prepared to look into this.

Lizzie's mind raced. She was thinking about what she could do with Nigel to get to know him better. There were a lot of places to be social on Earth besides the school. Maybe she could meet him at where he lives, but she realized that she could only make him come where she is now, in her home. She figured it would not hurt if her family and Nigel met.

"OK! I'm gonna call Nigel now! He's going to meet you all!"

Lizzie rushed to her room. She grabbed the number Nigel gave her to call him on her pink rotary phone. It took two seconds for him to answer.

"Lizzie! It's you! I've been thinking about you all— I mean! What's the emergency? Are you in danger?!"

"Hi Nigel," Lizzie flirted. "I just wanted to see you again."

"Aw. I mean— aah! Yes. I'll be over instantly. I mean— I'll be there!"

Lizzie giggled as she put the phone down. She lied on her bed and kicked her legs up in the air. This was going to be fun.

Arriving at the front door was Nigel. He came with a welcoming smile to see his crush answering the door.

"Hi, Lizzie."

"Hi Nigel! I just want my family to meet the brave boy who saved me. Is that a problem?"

"N-no! Not at all!" The British boy stammered. His smile was somewhat crooked from his nervousness.

Upon seeing this Nigel Uno kid, Lizzie's mother brought her hospitality to welcome him.

"Well, you must be Nigel! I've heard a lot about you!"

Mrs. DeVine reached out her hand to shake Nigel's. He was suspicious of such a welcoming adult, so he reached slowly to shake hers.

"Yes… that is me."

"My dad and sister are out. But I can show you my little brother, Mike!"

The boy came closer to whisper in Lizzie's ear.

"I don't trust adults. You'll never know when they are going to turn on you!"

Nigel was serious. Lizzie took his character into account quickly. She noticed how cautious he was around her mother. She decided to test this.

"But it's just my mother, Nigel! She wouldn't do anything wrong!"

"That's exactly what they want you to think! Their admiration is a scapegoat so they can get to you! And before you know it, they'll pinch your cheeks!"

Nigel held onto Lizzie's hand. He walked her toward the living room while whispering more information to her. Eventually, he lightly bumped into Mike.

"Ah, who's this?" He asked.

"I mentioned him. It's my little brother, Mike. Why don't you say 'Hi' to him?"

Nigel awkwardly stared at the little boy in front of him.

"What? Don't you have any siblings?"

"No, actually."

Lizzie thought that was interesting. Maybe she could keep asking him questions.

"Why won't he talk? He's looking at me all... weird and stuff," Nigel asked.

Lizzie remembered that Mike could not speak. "Oh, haha. He's actually really shy. I don't think he'll talk to a stranger."

"Well, I guess that makes sense. Mike, if you ever need any kid to save you from adult tyranny, you know who to call!" Nigel asserted with high confidence.

Mike smiled nervously, then moved away from Nigel.

"No matter. Well, Lizzie, is there anything else you wanted to do?" Nigel asked with a happy change in his voice. "Tell me about yourself. I mean, if you'd like," Nigel suggested while blushing.

Lizzie felt nervous. There was little information about her human persona, so it was going to be suspicious to try to answer them quickly.

"You're not from here, are you? Where are you from?" he asked nicely.

Lizzie hesitated. She was going to have to come up with something.

"East California," was called from the kitchen. "Other side of the country."

Nigel turned quickly to face Lizzie. "You live with your grandma?"

Lizzie nodded slowly.

"Three adults in your house?! That's absurd!"

"I—"

"I'm talking to Lizzie here! Not you!" Nigel shouted to her grandma.

She rolled her eyes in return while staring at him from the kitchen. Lizzie was glad her grandmother came up with a quick response.

"Whatever. Why don't we go somewhere else to talk about you?"

The two of them went outside to Lizzie's backyard. She was surprised to see the ring shape where she landed yesterday was still imprinted on the grass.

"What's this?!" Nigel inquired.

"Um… I don't know," she responded nervously.

"Hmm… I know exactly what this could be!"

Lizzie became nervous. She had the instinctive assumption that he was onto her.

"This is a ring formed by the time machine that zapped your parents here from the future! By the look in your mother's eyes, I could tell she was a cyborg the instant I saw her!"

"Nigel! How could you say such a thing?!"

"Your nervous reaction tells me everything I need to know! You know that your parents are against you, don't you?"

Lizzie hesitated. He was partially right. He was a heavily observant boy indeed, but he barely knew the surface of what was going on. Lizzie's mom and dad were not from the future, but the robot part was correct. She had to be resourceful to respond to this, but no, she felt herself tear up from pressure. She blew it.

"Lizzie…?"

Nigel reached out his hand to her. Lizzie's eyes were getting wet. It felt weird to her when she blinked.

"You just met me, Nigel. Why are you so insistent to psychoanalyze everything around you here? I just wanted to hang out with you…"

The response Lizzie gave Nigel held little explanation. She felt guilty, like she was caught, but she used her quick thinking to give a realistic response.

"Oh… I'm sorry, Lizzie. You're right. I need to be grounded in reality sometimes. I just wanted to look after you," he apologized.

Lizzie tilted her head down and looked up with a cute smile. It made Nigel blush.

The rest of the day was spent bonding with the boy, just by themselves. Lizzie was incredibly distracted by the plants they saw in their backyard. She would info-dump about flowers she recognized and express how cute they appeared to her. She never had the chance to look at them so closely like yesterday, but now she had the chance to charm Nigel with her quirks.

Nigel was indeed charmed by her. The little actions she did made him adore her even more. She was quirky in her own special way, as her cuteness made him blind to her flaws. This was all going perfect for Lizzie.

"Please call me again," Nigel would say as he would leave her house for a different mission. Lizzie waved to him goodbye, which lead to him unable to contain his wobbly smile as he waved back. Shortly after, Bonnie arrived home.

"Hi Lizzie, I'm home."

"Bonnie! How did it go?"

Bonnie put her shopping bags on the kitchen table. "I got you something."

Lizzie's eyes lit up when she heard that sentence come out of Bonnie's mouth. "What is it? What is it?"

"Bonnie," Mike interrupted. The young adult turned her shoulders to see a stern toddler.

"I… got to go. But you can look at what I got you, OK?"

Lizzie reluctantly nodded.

"Your first mission failed, Bonnie," Mike stated.

"I know! I'm so sorry." The woman lowered her head.

"You were supposed to look out after suspicious teenagers. The one you bumped into at the mall was Cree Lincoln, one of the top teen ninjas!"

"I know, but— wait, how did you know about that?"

"The Kids Next Door have eyes everywhere, Bonnie. We can see what you're doing at almost any time," Mike explained with an accent. A spider came crawling up the blanket he was holding.

"OK, well, I just want to explain to you that you should give me another chance."

"Relax, Bonnie. You were asked to meet up from a mysterious man, were you not?"

Mike was right. There was a man who went out of his way to talk to a nobody like Bonnie. It was suspicious, so she predicted that the galactic order was to continue an investigation about this peculiar man.

"You are still obligated to undergo spy missions investigating the grown-up world. I want you to start by meeting this man, and then we can tell you where to take it from there."

"I understand."

Bonnie bowed her head slightly to the toddler, then reached for the door handle. He spoke again.

"Remember, Bonnie. All adults are evil. They are disease ridden creatures."

"Yes, Phil." Bonnie stood firm to try to accept that belief, which she did easily. She was going to get to the bottom of Clyde's behavior.

"Go ahead, Mike. She's all yours," Bonnie gestured to Lizzie.

Lizzie put down the glamorous dress Bonnie brought her that she was analyzing. Mike gestured his hand to allow Lizzie to come closer to her.

"I want to talk to you about some information."

Lizzie followed the toddler as he dragged his blanket into his bedroom. She noticed that a spider was clinging onto the blanket, not moving at all. She then closed the door behind her.

"Numbuh Flower has informed me that you never received any clarification about what happens to your C.H.I.P. when you are in your human form. Although it is locked, I've been informed to tell you about this device. You won't stay a human forever."

"I figured," Lizzie sarcastically remarked.

"The C.H.I.P. is located under your skin."

Lizzie's eyes widened. "EW! Why would you tell me that?!" she covered her ears and winced.

"Because it's impor—"

"EW! No, don't finish that sentence!"

Mike rolled his eyes. He held his hand to his chin, wondering how to go about this. When Lizzie uncovered her ears, he blurted as quickly as he could.

"It's underneath your left pinky—"

"EW!" Lizzie screamed. "Ew ew ew—"

"ELIZABETH!" Mike shouted. The girl covered her mouth. "You need to know this in case you are called out of Earth for any reason."

Lizzie squeamishly used her right hand to feel the circle shape under her skin. She winced once more.

"It's under there so it doesn't get lost. It's not going to hurt you, Elizabeth. We all have it."

"I know, but it's so… GROSS!"

"Calm yourself, Elizabeth. When your C.H.I.P. is unlocked, you can press it to request access to turn back into an uvinea."

"How will I know when it's unlocked?"

"We'll let you know, Elizabeth."

Lizzie curiously pressed the button on her pinky. She felt chills run up and down her spine.

"Don't bother. Only Numbuh Flower can control your disguise."

"Whatever," Lizzie brushed off as she reached for the door.

"Wait, I'm not finished yet."

"Oh, please don't make my skin crawl more than it already has. Ew! I just said skin!"

"Elizabeth, this is important. Pay attention."

Lizzie turned to face Mike once again. She glanced around the room nervously with her eyes.

"We suggest you limit your information sharing with Numbuh 274."

Lizzie frowned upon hearing that name. When she saw that boy again, she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

"Why not?" She asked genuinely.

"Because," Mike started to whisper. "He's getting older. Your job is to look after Nigel Uno. This is competition to Chad."

Lizzie expressed confusion. "What does that mean?"

"Chad was disappointed to find out that you were sent to observe a different operative. He insisted he was 'the best there was' and that we were to be proven wrong about Nigel's loyalty and skill within the KND. We only select one Galactic Operative, Elizabeth."

Lizzie understood Mike's words with slight curiosity. She slowly nodded her head along to the information that was given to her.

"OK, I understand," Lizzie assured. However, there was apart of Lizzie that was not so sure that everything Mike had informed her was all of the truth. Something was awry, but she did not have the energy to dig any further.

"Keep it up, Elizabeth. The observation of Nigel rests in your hands."

Lizzie took a deep breath, furrowing her brows. She nodded as she left Mike's bedroom.