Whatever's Out There

Chapter Fourteen

Okay, maybe I jumped the gun a bit with that last comment. I actually did have regrets after leaving the house. The regrets were mostly based off of the fact that I had been so clumsy on the stairs and that walking right afterwards made for a slightly painful experience. My leg was throbbing by time we actually got there and, I won't deny it, the panic set in again. But when I saw the others as we made our way up the bucket lift I knew that I made the right choice.

The twins and Six were the first to greet me, with Six clinging to me like a child. I guess he was afraid that I wasn't planning on coming back and I understand why. I hugged him back. Then Two appeared and told me he was proud of me, which was great to hear. Nothing like having someone as great as Two complimenting you. Nothing beats it. Five was the initial announcer that I was staying for good and after he broke any tenseness I was able to finish by giving my own details. Needless to say they all seemed relieved.

Sometime after that my limp was noticed and Two suggested that I rested from my long walk and short tumble. Thankfully Six was willing to let me use some of his ink and I borrowed one of Two's quills, it's actually made of metal instead of an actual feather, so I started to write to pass the time. Sort of like storytelling in a way. Though I doubt anyone else will read this, except maybe me in the distant future, perhaps looking back at when I was younger and at my first day of being officially living here.

But I'm prattling on. It's getting late and my story is basically done for now. If anything else interesting happens I can write another book about my life, but for now it's time to probably get some rest. Two's letting me use his bed until he and Five can make me my own room. I'm honored to have them putting so much effort for me when some of them share rooms! Well, I guess that's just Five and Nine, and I think they may do it on choice now that I think about it. But, anyway, it's getting late, and I think Five's getting tired. He's been working in here most of the day.

We talked a bit earlier since we returned, but I'm thinking there's something going on. We've been… There's something left unsaid from earlier, but I'm going to wait to talk to him until after I tell the others goodnight. I'll do that now. I just don't exactly know how to end this book. Perhaps with 'to be continued'.

With that the page was complete and the quill was set to rest on the lid of the inkwell. I looked away from my current writings and now looked over towards Five who was standing at the Workbench trying to stitch something closed. It looked like a bag of some kind and was probably for one of the others to carry stuff in. I stood and sent him a smile, "I'm going to go say goodnight to the others." I announced and he looked over to me with his own smile, "Are you heading to bed?"

"Maybe," I answered indecisively, "I just know that the others might not be awake much longer if I wait." Actually I needed a few minutes to myself to think and I was afraid I'd start talking to myself again. It was easier to pass that off as nothing when I was walking around on my own in the hall. My body seemed to react well to getting a little exercise and I headed out into the hall before heading down toward Six's room in the throne room which was empty at this time of night. Unfortunately I passed through the curtain to find Six in an odd position.

He was laying there like he was asleep. Instead of being on his bed through he was stretched out on the floor, laying on top of his drawing, and I actually considered the possibility that he had fainted. I kneeled down beside him and ended up nearly falling over myself in slight unsteadiness. Oddly enough my body seemed to give out more than it hurt. "Six?" I softly spoke and began to shake him awake. It didn't take long for his mismatched optics to shoot open, "Come on, Six. You need to get in bed."

After a few seconds of staring he dragged himself upwards onto his knees. Apparently his face had been laying on a wet portion of the painting because there was a black streak across his cheek that didn't align with the stripes at all. "Six, come on, let's get you in bed." I insisted, "Maybe after we clean you off. You got ink on you." Six looked down at his hands tiredly, "It's okay." He excused and followed the comment by wiping his hands off on his sides. I winced at the gesture; those were probably going to become stains awfully quick.

Either way, at least I managed to coax him to his bed, him stumbling as though he was exhausted. Six sort of had an uneven sleeping schedule and when he hit the bed he was out like a light. I pulled the blankets up and petted his head a bit before leaving him to get some much needed sleep. After the days we've had recently he probably needed it. Next I headed past One's room and knocked on the doorframe. The leader known as One appeared before me, but was acting more than a little strange. Immediately he hugged the curtain to himself to block me from seeing into his room.

"Yes?" He asked, perhaps a little bit quickly, and I was to the point. "I was just coming to say goodnight." I gave him a friendly smiled and he eased a little bit, "I see. Yes, good night." He answered and I noticed he was acting a little strange. "Is something wrong?" I asked curiously and he cleared his voice box a bit, "Of course not. It's just very late and I am very tired. In the morning we will discuss the finer details of you staying here; such as the curfew which I insist that you abide by. After all, the Beasts have a tendency to be nocturnal."

He continued explaining and as he did I noticed that there was movement inside the room behind him and could hear it clearly. That's when I realized that Two was in there with him. "How sweet…" I decided to let One off quick and waited for him to pause before speaking, "We'll talk about this tomorrow. It is late and I don't want you staying awake on my account." He seemed appeased enough by my comment and didn't notice that Two had been discovered. "Of course. We will continue in the morning. Pleasant dreams."

I turned to head toward the opposite door and One closed the curtain. The next door was Eight's and the curtain was open. I peered in to see, again, he was working on one of his weapons, wrapping wire around the handle. "Hey. Heading to bed." He acknowledged me by looking up before looking back to his weapon, "Right." Then I added in, "I got Six to sleep." He didn't show any curiosity, but he did ask "How'd you manage that?" Seeing his interest I continued, "He was asleep on the floor so I woke him up and got him in bed."

"Good." He murmured. The tone was remarkably quiet and I felt the need to ask, "You know, I'm glad you've been treating him better." He gave me a weird look and I added in, "It's not my place to say, but I know Six was appreciative of you saving his life." I decided not to add in the mention of saving the picture and Eight shrugged a little bit, "Yeah… Yeah, he's not too bad." I had a feeling that Eight was hesitant to say anything else and, like with One, I backed down.

"Anyway, just stopping in to say good night. Good night!" Then I headed back out and he said a, "Night." After me. Now I headed toward Seven's room and knocked. I heard a, "Come in." and did so. The Warrior was making her bed, probably to head to sleep, and it was the first time I saw her without armor. I must add again that she is very lovely. I'm almost jealous, but I like her too much to be too much. "Oh, hey there." She greeted me and I smiled, "Hey Seven, just saying good night…" Then I dared to ask, "Maybe we could try practice tomorrow?"

"It would be my pleasure as long as you're up to it." Apparently she knew about my fall and I gave a confident smile, "I will be." She now turned to me with a friendly look, "Then we'll start. We should probably start simple and grow into more complex maneuvers later on, but I'm sure you'll be able to learn quickly." A nice compliment and I was glad to hear it from someone like her. "I hope so. I'll need all the help I can get against whatever's out there." I pointed out and she chuckled a bit, "Spoken like a true Stitchpunk. I'll see you in the morning."

With that I left and started to continue to the twins' room. I hadn't been inside the twins' room before and it was nice to see the twin beds. The room was dark and both of the little ones were curled together in one of the beds. They had decided to climb into the same bed to sleep and they were holding each other tightly. "Look at them! They are little babies, aren't they?" I couldn't help it. I crossed over to the bed and fussed with them; pulled their blankets up and pet their heads under their hoods.

When they nearly woke I left the room quickly and headed to Nine and Five's room. Nine wasn't there and I guessed he was with Child, so I headed to Child's room next. That's when I slipped and walked right in without knocking as I heard the two talking. What I came in on was the last thing I expected. Child was sitting on a bench reclined against the wall. Nine was with him, stretched across the bench and laying against Child's chest with his back on said chest. Child's arms were around Nine's waist and they were sitting there talking.

They looked at me when I entered and unlike One's blunt hiding of Two, Nine was unfazed. "Hey Velvet!" He greeted, "Where's Five?" An odd question, but I was still getting over the obvious surprise of seeing these two in the current position. Not even Child was alarmed; he was now leaning over and sketching something on a piece of paper that rested on the nearby desk. "Back at the Workshop." I explained, "I was planning on going to bed so I was coming to say goodnight." Nine smiled pleasantly and sat upwards, "Okay, good night. Mind telling Five too?"

"Sure." I smiled, "Good night." Then disappeared out of the room once again, hurrying back towards the Workshop. I don't know, maybe I was just finally realizing that I had been completely blind to something that wasn't even being hidden. "And I thought Nine and Seven were together… Ironically enough this is the second time I've confused Seven and Child, isn't it?" I sort of did an inward laugh and headed back into the Workshop where Five had move to the cabinets where he was putting something away.

"I'm back." I greeted and crossed over to the barren workbench and looked towards him as he spoke, "Well, I guess I'll be heading off too. Good night." He seemed to try and hurry out of the room, but I stopped him, "Oh, wait!" I didn't know why but I didn't want him to leave yet. We needed to get over this sudden awkwardness that took over. "I… Uh… I hope this isn't too intrusive…" I began, playing with a lock of my hair, "But it's my first night and, well, maybe we could just stay up a little longer? I'm not tired yet and I sort of don't want to be alone."

Five was immediately compassionate and whether or not he truly wanted to he let the curtain shut and came back over. "That's alright! I just, I didn't want to keep you awake, I thought you'd might be tired or something…" He trailed off and I wandered over to the bench, the one you sit on not the workbench, and sat down. Five moved a stool beside the bench and sat down. He could've just sat down on the other side of the bench if he moved some of the stuff stacked on it, but didn't. Maybe he just thought this would be easier.

"I saw Nine… And Child." I pointed out, "He said to tell you good night. I wasn't- I didn't know they were…" I tapped my two pointer fingers together, "You know." He looked a little amused at this and I added in, "And then it was very obvious after I figured it out. I guess a lot of the others have someone." He agreed, "I guess so. With Two and Nine both happy it makes me happy." Then he decided to voice something else, "I'm really glad you decided to stay with us. I know it was a hard decision and you were brave to decide one."

I looked down at my hands, "It wasn't really a hard decision, I just made it one, what with my irrational fears and all." Then I smiled at him, "So I guess I'll be staying around here a bit more. Seven and I are going to start training tomorrow if you want to watch me make a fool of myself." I joked and he stood and crossed over to start taking the objects off of the other side of the bench before sitting beside me. Odd, but I was fine about it, and I smiled at him as he spoke, "I'm sure you'll do great. Eight brought your… mallet?" I nodded. "Mallet up earlier."

He glanced around the room before adding in, "And then confiscated it." He playfully added and the joking dialogue was nice. "He's been eyeing it for a while now. We might have to go get it; I'll distract him with a magnet and you can sneak in." He laughed a little and I released something that sounded like an embarrassing giggle. Maybe I was a bit too giddy. However, I was afraid that I was about to ruin it, because I was suddenly becoming a bit curious about something again.

"Five?" I asked and he responded with, "Yes, Velvet?" I paused before asking, "I want to ask you something, but I'm afraid it's going to make you uncomfortable." He now looked a bit curious, "Uncomfortable? I don't think that's a problem. Is it about the Incident, or my eye, or something?" When he walked right over the subject I sort of tensed, but since he didn't seem bothered I decided to continue, pushing my hair back a bit. "Actually, it is about your eye- patch, eye patch?" I tried not to sound awkward and gave him a little smile to cover it.

He was remarkably calm. "It's not a problem. I lost it a long time ago and I'm just fine without it." He was a bit optimistic and I didn't know if it was just on my account. He continued to talk about it though and explained more, "It wasn't too long after I was created and we were heading through a warzone. I fell behind and, well, I don't remember much of what happened." He touched over the leather a bit subconsciously and continued explaining, "Two saved my life. He was there when I woke up and he was the one who patched me up."

"It sounds like it was awful." I spoke sympathetically, "Having to go through that, the war itself, and then getting injured like that. Yet you still pulled through and you still are so… So comfortable. So content." I just couldn't believe after all of this and he looked a little shy, "Now, maybe, but when I first lost my eye I had trouble adjusting. I was having trouble with my depth perception and other things." He trailed off during 'other things' and I insisted, "Of course, but still you've managed to pull through so well. You're even able to talk about it!"

Then something weird happened. He looked at me and he smiled, but something was strange about the look. It didn't feel friendly anymore; it felt almost a little bit… I couldn't even look at him I was suddenly feeling so shy. I turned my head hoping that I could casually block my face from view. "Did- Were you- Did you have the harpoon beforehand or did you get it after?" He began to speak again in a casual fashion. Once again I was focusing more on his voice than the actual words, but this was understandable; Five has such a nice voice.

He's so soft-spoken and yet there's this smoky tone that lingers in it. My goodness, would you believe that my heart was already beginning to quicken again, that my hands were starting to feel clammy and I swore that I was about to have some sort of attack. "Two made the harpoon for me after I got the patch so that I could defend myself even with the loss of some of my vision. The depth perception change actually helps with aiming and after some practice I began to be able to aim right. It was probably the first time I didn't feel defenseless in a long time."

"And you're very good at that. It's harder than it looks by far, but you're able to do it on the run. Maybe we could, tomorrow, try together again? I don't think I'd be as good as you by far, but it was pretty fun." I got the courage to look at him again and by now he started to stare somewhere else. His hands were rubbing each other in nervousness and he finished, "I would like that." For a second I just sat there, not knowing what to say next, and finally came with something.

"I don't think I or any of the others would have been able to come out of something like that and be someone like you." I couldn't suppress the small smile, "I wasn't exaggerating when I talked about you sharing your heart. Even Two mentioned that you were sweet, which you are. It's like… Like in those fairy tales when you hear about the main character whose mentioned to be a really nice, attractive, and all-around great guy who has to go through a challenge to get a reward. Except with you, you weren't offered a reward, you just went along with it."

He pulled up in alert at some point and just stared at me. That returning look of surprise and him just looking at me. Because of that I just continued to speak in case I was offending him. "I mean, ah, well, you're very patient. Even with me. I don't think you realize how much you've done for me. I don't think that any of the others would have stayed the night. I don't think that any of them would have managed to convince me to come back without actually asking me to come back."

I waited, he didn't say anything, and now I stared back. We just sat there staring at each other for a few minutes and now I was the one tightening my hands in my lap, clutching the fabric of my thighs as I tried to figure out what we were doing. Then Five finally moved and reached towards me before touching my hair. Now I wasn't exactly sure what he was doing and assumed that maybe he acted a bit strange when he was nervous. His fingers went from touching to moving into, wrapping into my locks and brushing my cheek in a tender motion.

Then he slowly moved in a bit and for a second I suspected what was coming. Yet I didn't pull away and just waited for what I expected. No amount of bracing could prepare me.

The second his lips brushed mine it was as though time stopped. I didn't know what to do as his lips brushed mine. They were a bit rough, but not uncomfortable, and the burlap was significantly soft for burlap. Creator, though when dared to press in a bit more, from ghosting to an actual kiss I was swept away. Out of all those stories and books I read nothing was like this. It actually felt like the pinnacle of actual romance. He was hesitant and waiting for me to do something, so I pressed back just a bit, trying to return the gesture when I wasn't sure how.

But it came naturally. Our lips moved together in gentle massaging that made soft tingles shock through our bodies. So amorous, so wonderful, I never expected that I would ever be able to feel something like this. It felt like it lasted forever and yet I was sure it hadn't. One of my hands rested on his shoulder while the other disobeyed and moved to his patch, beginning to pet it and explore the leather that I knew I shouldn't touch. Other than the hand on my cheek one wrapped around my frame and holding me secure.

I felt so fragile in his grasp. Like a mere porcelain doll who had sat on a lonely shelf only to be recognized by a strong ragdoll with a center made of softness. He made me feel like velvet; soft and fuzzy inside my belly. Though it became apparent that I couldn't hold my breath forever and I knew we would have to break apart soon. Though I held out as long as possible, pressing my lips in deeper at the end, wanting just a little more. We separated around this time and I couldn't help but release a soft sigh, his hand caressed my cheek because of it.

He managed to get some words out through light panting, "That was… That was just…" He didn't know how to finish so I did, "Wonderful. Really wonderful!" I insisted and while I felt a little unsure on what to say that seemed to be a proper answer. He came forward once again and I eagerly moved forward thinking he was going to kiss me again. Instead he just hugged me and I was still content with that. Content with cuddling in his secure grasp and in no rush to run off to bed. That could wait, life could wait, it was just Five and I for the moment.

"Creator, I think I love him." I realized mentally as I pressed into his burlap and luxuriated in the feeling of being held by someone I cared so much for. I was almost absolutely certain that this had to be the budding of love, but I was unsure whether it was time to say it out loud. Five was holding me like he felt it too; burying into my hair as his hand stroked down the curve of my back. Maybe we needed to just leave it like this, though. There was no need to have the words right now. Just to be here together.

Now I was positive that I could pull through this. There was no reason to even want to go back now that I had something so pure with someone who I was completely smitten with. Maybe I was jumping the gun, but I think he was taken with me as well, and I could handle giving up my old life for this new one. Maybe I hadn't jumped to conclusions when I said I had no regrets. I'm sure Two would agree; I caught a glimpse of him open the curtain and stand there before shutting it. That smile was there, that weird, knowing Two-smile, and perhaps he already had a feeling before we had.

At least Five didn't notice or he probably would have pulled back and that was the last thing I wanted. Perhaps I could even get him to stay the night with me once again; I'd be terribly lonely without him. As for everything else it could wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow was another day and another story.

For now, 'to be continued'.

Mable: You're probably wondering why I waited until the very end for an Author Note. Why this is was because I was writing all of the chapters on a single file, like one large chapter, and then breaking them up afterwards. That and I wasn't really sure what I was going to say otherwise. As stated above, Velvet's story will be continued at a future date and as of now Velvet can be requested in request fics if anyone asks. Though Velvet will not be appearing in 'Fabric Runs Shallow', do expect her in the future. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed 'Whatever's Out There'!