Chapter Text
A few months later
With the algrebraliens' help, Yoyle City was nearly restored to its former glory. Skyscrapers touched the clear sky again, and the streets were bustling with people. For some reason, the days seemed brighter and more hopeful. Perhaps it was because of the lack of a looming threat, or, say, the lack of an unnatural natural disaster.
With hope on the horizon, Tennis Ball really hoped this lunch date would go well.
Tennis Ball sat across from Golf Ball, who was wearing a modest light blue dress that, he thought, suited her perfectly.
"Are you just going to sit there and twiddle your thumbs all day, or are you going to order something?" Golf Ball said as she looked up from her menu.
Tennis Ball quickly averted his gaze down to his own menu. "I am-"
"Then what are you getting?" She tilted her head with a small smirk on her face, already knowing she'd caught him.
"Um..."
She chuckled. "Don't sweat it, TB. Just pay attention to ordering for now, yeah?"
"Yeah.." Tennis Ball replied.
A few minutes later, the waitress took their orders and went off to get it started.
"So..." Tennis Ball said once the waitress left. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Well, I think I talked enough at our first meeting, so tell me about yourself."
He thought for a moment. "I'm a meteorologist."
"I knew that already. Come on, tell me something new."
"Fine. I have a cat."
"Damn."
"What?"
"I don't like cats."
"What?"
"I'm messing with you, again. I love them. What's its name?"
Tennis Ball looked relieved. "Pipe Bomb."
"Pipe Bomb?"
"My roommate named her."
"Why did you let your roommate name your cat Pipe Bomb?"
"He was very adamant on the name, so I had to pick my battles and decided that this wasn't one I wanted to fight."
"Fair." Golf Ball nodded. "Who's your roommate anyway? Maybe I know them."
"Pen?"
"Ohh, him. Yeah, I kinda know him. He's the new intern."
"Oh, really? Cool. I know he got a new job, I just never really bothered to remember where."
"Wow, I really thought you'd be more attentive than that."
"His business is NOT my business."
"Fair." Golf Ball nodded. "I've given up on trying to figure out what my roommate is up to these days."
"Nice to know we've got that in common." Tennis Ball
And from there, the rest of the date went off without a hitch.
At the end, as they walked out of the restaurant, they lingered at the front, as if waiting for the other to do something.
Tennis Ball wringed his hands together and rocked back and forth on his heels.
"I will see you later, I guess." Golf Ball slowly took a step back, not wanting to leave just yet.
"See ya." He replied.
She lingered for a little while more, waiting for him to make a move. When she realized that Tennis Ball was, in fact, not going to grow any sort of balls in the next two seconds and just do it, she decided that maybe she was the one with the balls here. Golf Ball sighed, which made Tennis Ball's eyes flicker with confusion, then surprise as she stepped closer and grabbed his collar with both hands.
"It's painfully obvious, TB." she smiled slyly.
"What-?" He choked out.
She pulled him down to meet her height and smiled genuinely. "I enjoyed our date very much, and I was hoping you'd work up the nerve to do this--I could tell you were trying to--but it seemed like that just wasn't going to happen."
"Hey- I-"
"Just shut up and kiss me, Tennis Ball."
Without giving him time to respond, she kissed him. And no ones surprise, he kissed back.
Of course, they'd already kissed before, months ago when they spent a night together under the influence of alcohol, but this time was different. Obviously.
They pulled away from each other a long moment later. Golf Ball snickered slightly at Tennis Ball's stunned face.
She patted his cheek teasingly. "Next Friday, here at, say... Six thirty? See you then, yeah?
"Y-yeah... Sounds great..."
"Great." Golf Ball stepped away from him. "Bye, TB."
"Bye..." He waved at her as she walked away, still in shock about the kiss.
-
Pencil sat on a bench in the park on her phone, scrolling through videos she wasn't really paying attention to. She'd avoided her friends since everything that'd happened, especially Match. She was convinced she hated her and that Match had convinced their other friends that Pencil was guilty of kidnapping and hurting Two. Pencil just wanted to avoid that whole confrontation.
She looked up, bored with her phone, and watched the park visitors. She saw couples and friends meandering.
Pencil almost felt jealous. She was alone now, wasn't she?
She shut off her phone, a bit too aggressively, and stood up. Then there was a yell.
"Pence-Pence!" Pencil's head snapped over to the familiar voice.
Match.
Her best friend basically tackle-hugged Pencil. "I'm, like, so sorry!"
"What?" She croaked.
"I'm sorry for thinking you would, like, ever do something like that! I was scared, and I didn't know what to, like, think!" Match hugged her friend tighter.
"I-it's ok, Match," she replied softly as she hugged her friend back.
"Are you, like, sure?" Match pulled back and cupped Pencil's face.
"I, like, am." Pencil placed her hand on top of Match's.
Match went back in for an even tighter hug, which Pencil returned equally as tight.
Maybe things would be ok, after all.
-
X still deeply cared for Four; nothing he could do could erase two decades of friendship.
But, Four is a murderer by definition.
Four lied to him for fourteen years.
And Four blamed and punished an innocent number.
Despite what Four so clearly wants him to do, X can't forgive this.
Maybe with space and time, he could figure out his conflicted feelings.
For now, however, he had to tell Four to stop trying.
"Four?" X found him raising a building on the west side of the city.
Four perked up at the sound of X's voice. He immediately stopped what he was doing, leaving a half-built office building sticking out of the ground, and turned quickly to X.
"X?"
"I need to talk to you," he explained seriously.
"Of course, anything."
"...You know I still care about you, right? No matter what I say, I do still care, but... I need some space."
Four's heart dropped. X didn't say it directly, but he knew what he really meant. Four was bothering him too much, and X wanted him to stop.
"Space?" He whispered.
"Please, Four. You know I don't ask for a lot."
"I know-"
"-and is space really that much to ask?"
"No..."
"Then.." X took a step back. "Space, please."
Four was about to push back and say no. He didn't want to have space from X; he wanted things to go back to how they were before.
But it didn't matter what he wanted. He was at fault here.
"Fine."
"Thank you." X turned away, hugging himself and walking off as if he couldn't get away from Four quickly enough.
Four's hands shook. X was going to come back to him, right? He hadn't completely lost X, right?
No, no. Everything was fine, everything would be fine. X wanted to get away from him for some time. Understandable.
Some time. How long would 'some time' be?
Maybe X didn't want to come back, and saying that he wanted space away from Four was his way of trying to cut ties with him softly.
Maybe X already found a better friend.
Maybe One.
Maybe he'd lost X the moment he lied.
-
One and Three were hanging out on a rooftop, purposely ignoring their duties of fixing the city, well, at least Three was.
One wanted to go back to work, since she was the reason the city was in this state in the first place, but Three insisted on taking a break. A break that they've been on for over an hour now.
"Three, we really should get back down there..." One said.
"They're doing just fine without us."
"But we have to help. Well, at least I have to help. I'm the reason that we have to do this anyway."
"You destroyed a city for me, so as the one you destroyed a city for, I excuse you from working."
"I don't think that's how it works, Three."
"Who cares? Just lie down with me."
When One hesitated for a moment too long, Three got fed up and just pulled her down next to her.
"Oof-" One winced as her back hit the concrete.
"Just relax, dude."
"I can't just relax." One rolled her head to the side to look at Three. Her eyes were closed, and she had her arms crossed behind her head.
"Sure, you can." Three cracked an eye open.
"Fine, then I'm not good at relaxing."
"Hm. You always were like that, weren't you?"
"... Yeah. I guess so."
They sat in silence for a moment, staring at the sky as they reminisced about their life before Three was murdered.
"Well, don't relax then. Just lie with me for a while."
"...I don't know.." One said as she started to sit up.
Three shot up and grabbed One's hand in a desperate attempt to keep her there.
"Three?" One's heart sped up.
"Stay, please." She squeezed One's hand.
"Ok-" She folded instantly for her. How could she say no when Three looked at her like that?
"Thanks."
"No problem..."
They lay back down, closer than they were previously, and Three intertwined her fingers with One's.
"Did I ever thank you?" Three blurted out as they looked up at the clouds.
"Thank me for what?" One rolled onto her side to look at her friend.
Three did the same, meeting One's eyes. "For everything you did to get me back."
"Of course. Someone had to do it."
"My knight in shining armor." Three teased.
"Does that make you my princess?" One teased back.
"Perhaps. Though I'm no damsel in distress."
"Oh, I know you aren't." She tucked a strand of Three's hair behind her ear.
Three smiled. "If you're the knight... And I'm the princess.. don't they usually kiss at the end of the story?"
One froze. Was Three suggesting what she thought she was suggesting??
"Ooor... I could be wrong- It's not like I've read many fairytales and whatnot." Three sat up.
"No, Three-" One quickly sat up with Three.
"Hm?" She hummed.
One's hand hung in the air for a moment, then she reached out and pulled Three into a kiss.
Three relaxed into it quickly, having wanted this for a while.
"Ack! I'm sorry! This is a bad time!" A new voice cried out, interrupting their moment.
The couple flinched away from each other, both of their faces immediately flushing red.
"X! Hi!" Three said, trying to distract from the fact that he'd seen them kissing.
"I'm sorry! I can come back later!! I just wanted to talk to One!" He continued to keep his eyes covered.
"No, it's ok, X. What did you want to talk about?" One assured.
"Um... Well, I just.. I told Four I wanted space..."
"Ok.." She patted the spot next to her, signaling for X to sit with them
X hesitantly sat with them, continuing, "But besides him, I don't think I really have any friends, so.. I was just wondering if I could hang out with you..."
"Of course! I'd love to hang out with you. And I'm sure Three wouldn't mind either." One turned to Three and asked, "Do you?"
"No, no, of course not. He can hang whenever."
"Thank you." X said.
"No problem, dude."
X tapped his fingers on his legs. "Sooo... what now?"
"We relax and ignore everything but each other." Three responded as she laid back down.
"That's as good a plan as any." One shrugged as she laid down next to Three.
"I don't have anything better to do." X did the same.
-
"I'm home!" Two called out as they entered their house.
They waited in the foyer for a moment, expecting their wife to greet them with a hug and a kiss or even just a hello would be nice.
But there was no sign of Gaty.
Two wandered farther into the house, eyes darting back and forth.
The couple shared a small, but nice house. It had one floor plus a basement, two bathrooms and two bedrooms. One room was occupied by Two and Gaty, and the second, they hoped to fill with at least one child.
As Two searched the house for their wife, they started to worry. They couldn't help but worry, it was all they did whenever she left their sight. If she got kidnapped or went missing again, they didn't know what they'd do.
The day she was kidnapped, they'd had a massive fight. To this day, Two doesn't remember what it was about, but they remember the horrible words each of them said.
When all was said and done, Two left the house and didn't return until the morning. But by then, she was already long gone.
Without Gaty at the house, it felt empty, lonely. Two didn't like empty or being lonely.
So, they just stayed at the office. Which was almost never empty, nor lonely.
Still, being surrounded by their employees day in, day out never made them feel any better about the situation. None of them were Gaty.
One day, their assistant, Pencil, entered their office. It wasn't unusual for her to be there, or even walk in unannounced, but what was unusual was her voice. Because it wasn't Pencil's voice, it was One's.
One-Pencil shot at them, but missed, the blast instead hitting the wall behind them. Two tried to flee or fight, but found themselves on weak legs. Their limbs had extended much too long to be useful, so Two collapsed to the ground.
However, they still tried to fight, but in the end, One took them, then their powers.
Anything that happened after that was lost on Two. If they tried to remember, it would only draw a blank.
However, the next thing they remember was opening their eyes, obviously a long period of time later, and seeing X, Three, and One first. Then they saw all the missing people, including Gaty.
They hesitated to approach her because they didn't know if it would be welcome, considering the note they'd left off on. But Gaty didn't care, she just hugged them and didn't let go.
Now, months later, the couple was doing pretty good.
If only Two could find Gaty.
They suppressed their worry the best they could. There was a million different explanations on why she wasn't home.
Obviously, if she wasn't responding to their calls for her, she wasn't-
"BOO!!" Gaty jumped out of a closet and landed in front of Two.
Two stumbled back and let out an embarrassing scream. "GOOD GOD, GATY!"
Gaty laughed her ass off, proud of herself for being able to scare her partner so badly. "You should've seen your face!"
"You suck, you know that, right?" Two breathed out as they tried to slow their heart rate.
"I love you too, babe." Gaty grinned as she skipped off into another part of the house.
"Yeah.. Love you..."
Well, at least she was ok.