Work Text:
“You know Mono’s kinda cute.” Six jumped, whipping around to face the boy behind her on the couch. His eyes were focused on the tv, but she could see the ghost of a smirk on his face
“You.” She stressed, narrowing her eyes at him “are Mono.” He turned to face her, lip out. Eyes wide as he sat up. Hand pulled to his heart, in mock offense
“I’ll have you know, Mono is so much cooler than little old me.” Six sighed, looking back at the movie. The boy behind her popping up on the screen to swing a realistic looking foam axe, the size of him.
“The movie we spent the past several years working on and perfecting, has just been released. We get an exclusive copy, ahead of the crowd. We get to see the finished product of so much frustration… and you're talking about how cute you look.” The boy heaved another over dramatic sigh, wiggling closer to the edge of the couch.
Throwing his arms around her neck, he chuckled
“You misunderstand me Sasha. My dear naive Six, I’m saying Mono looks adorable.~” She could feel him teeter a bit, and scooted away. Just in time to hear a fwump and the boys yelp, arms pinwheeling as he landed in soft shag carpeting.
“-I just want him to whisk me off into the sunset with his strong arms, Six.” He continued, after rolling over to face the ceiling. Cheeks puffed out, “I wonder if-”
“Monty, if you say another word, I’m ripping out your tongue.” She growled, the heavy scent of popcorn the only thing keeping her from thinking that this was some weird fever dream. Even then, she quickly put a palm to her forehead.
“Six! You can’t do that, acting is my only talent!” He whined, voice peaking a bit. He threw an arm around her waist “My life, my career. Ruined, all those years down the drain!” He wailed like an alley cat who just fell into a garbage bin.
She wanted to throw him in a garbage bin.
“Mono… I will make you walk the plank.” She could hear his mouth clack shut audibly. Even he knew that she’d do it in a heartbeat and the Lady would cheer them on the whole time.
“Fine, I yield.” Six swore he whispered something right after, but decided that she could wait till the movie ended to chew him out.
---
“H… hey~ Six.” She just glared, eyeing the squirming animal in the boy's arms. Mono gulped nervously “Look, you know animals just love me…” He trailed off as the girls glare just hardened
“Mono… Monty.” She took in a deep inhale through her nose “You damn well know that’s not the problem here…” She once again looked around.
This was the first time Mono had invited her over to his house. Saying that his dad was usually really busy with paperwork and the walls were far too thin to have people over. They usually hung out at her house.
The Lady, her mom, and technically ‘captain’ of the ship. Was pretty lenient as long as she didn’t get herself hurt, stayed out of the women's room, and stayed away from the stove/oven. Pretty simple rules and the boat itself was pretty spacious. Plus that close to the water they had tons of stuff to do.
But, Mono insisted that he wanted to show her his… in his words “adorable, little bastards”, a dog that he had actually taken to the boat before, while walking them. Then a fluffy little furball of a cat, that she’d seen pictures of.
At first glance the boys' room was normal. Nicely furnished with a greyscale colour scheme, with brown accents. A massive tv that was well stocked with game consoles and a myriad of games. That wasn’t the problem.
The problem was all the posters. All, but a few, looked fully custom and professionally made. All of Mono. Not of the real life boy, but of his television counterpart. He even had plushies, statues, pins, stickers, all sorts of merch. Even standing right infront of her, he was wearing a tee-shirt of the movie's poster.
Despite the boiling rage singing underneath her skin, she took in another careful breath.
“I’m just gonna ignore… all of that, for now.” He smiled sheepishly.
“That’s probably for the best.” Eyes widening, he carefully dropped down to the floor, the cat in his arms slitting it's eyes as it yawned. She thought it was gonna jump away, or scratch Mono, but instead it just curled up into the boy's lap. A deep ratcheting purr filling the quiet room.
Mono patted the space next to him, smiling up at her. Tentatively she sat down, preparing for the cat to immediately hiss at her then run away, or even just any reaction. But, all it did was open one of it's closed eyes slightly, lazily following her.
“Come on, dudes just a lazy fluff ball. Couldn’t even hurt a fly with his lack of claws!” The boy's enthusiasm seemed to leak into her, so she raised her hand up. Tenderly, hovering her palm in front of the cat's nose.
Watching as the pink heart shape flexed, almost jumping out of her body when the cat headbutted the appendage gently.
Melting, she scratched at the cat's chin gently, eyes wide as she tried to work around the nice baby blue collar. The clink of a metal bell against his tags as he lazily stood up, both legs stretching far back as he gently put his paws into her lap. Curling up in the small dip.
Smiling wide, she scratched down the cat's spine, ending at a short frazzled tail. With a lopsided frown, she turned over to Mono. The boy giving a soft smile to the cat in her lap
“What happened to his tail?” She questioned, making the boy jump up, eyes flicking up to her then the cat's tail
“Ah! He was born that way.” He gave the cat's hip a little scratch “He’s a Kurilian bobtail, dad got him overseas from a client. Thought It’d be a cool gift as the little guy was just such a liddle cutey.” His voice babied
“Aren't you little guy, you're a big cutie aren't you, adorable little bastard man aren't you.” He whispered, wiggling his finger at the cat, despite the little guy not being able to see it.
She giggled at the display, finger catching on the collar. Humming, she tried to recall if Mono had ever said his name.
“What's his name?” The boy jumped, eyes wide as he stuttered, face bright red
“His name! Why, wh-why would that be important!” He gulped arms flailing “I mean, I’m sure I told you it! His names-” Bouncing, his hands shook out.
Six watching his panic with narrowing eyes, fingers feeling at the cat's metal tag, the shape of a box “his names! Frank, his name is Frank!” He stopped all movement, smiling at her trying to look all innocent, like he hadn’t just been having a melt down. But, his eyes were still wide looking at the hand on his cat's collar, his face still a worrying shade of red.
Six leaned back, turning the tag to face her. Expression immediately falling as she read the name once… then twice… then several more times. Barely even believing what it read.
“ Mono, ” in bright bolded letters, even the tag itself looked like a paper bag. Letting the tag go, she continued petting the cat. Face blank.
“Six…” Mono tentatively spoke, poking at her shirt “Sasha, are you alright?” He fumbled nervously. Had he actually broken the girl, his shoulders tensed as he leaned down to look up at her face.
Ice blue eyes immediately snapped to him. Eyebrows slowly pulling together as her lip pulled up into a sneer. Gently she coaxed the cat off, Mono reluctantly parrading off with a huff to jump into the bed.
Mono backed off as Six stood up, almost robotically. Turning to face him. Her hand raised up, making a small circle with her fingers
“I am this close.” He gulped, looking around his room, anywhere but the girl “this close to destroying whatever higher being that made you like this.” Glancing down at the girl's fingers, he gulped.
Her fingers were touching.
Luckily, or perhaps not. Six pulled out a phone from her pocket, spending barely a minute fiddling with it, before holding it up to her ear. All the while staring into him.
“Mom, I’m gonna fight god.” He heard a faint staticky chuckle, not able to make out anything else of the Lady’s words “Yeah, we can save that for after dinner, can you pick me up?” A pause, the girl nods.
“The next time Monty makes a trip to the boat, he’s walking the plank. That's all I can say.” Another burst of boisterous laughing and even Six was smiling wickedly at him “Sounds good Mom, I’m gonna get lunch at that burger place. You know the one.” A pause then,
“Love you, see you soon.” Mono gulped as Six gave another scratch to his cat, opened the door. Sending a sharp glare at him, before walking out.
He was so dead.
Dazed, he stumbled over to his bed. Being careful to flip over his cat to lay down. Hand feelings at the soft, actually super comfy pillowcase. Of course emblazoned with his own image.
It took him a minute to calm down, before smirking.
“He’s just so amazing.~” He gave a lovestruck sigh. Staring up at a poster on his wall… okay, maybe this was going a bit too far.
----
It was their first interview and Mono was so excited he couldn’t even sit still while they were waiting to go live. Six had already eaten all the snacks, descending upon them like a hungry wolf the second the host left to talk to someone. He had fumbled most of the water they gave him onto the floor, knocking the mug over twice, which was just humiliating.
He was so lucky they weren’t on air yet, even more lucky that he hadn’t spilled it on himself. A wet stain on his jeans would not be a good look.
Running a hand through his hair, he excitedly ranted to Six. He could tell that she was only half listening, still kinda mad at him for the… last time they had seen each other. But, he just needed something to keep his vocal chords warm.
Finally the interview sat down, taking a moment to straighten his papers, then to compose himself. Counting down for them as the lights dimmed and all the cameras got manned.
Mono had gotten used to the feeling of lenses on him, so he just puffed up his chest. Focusing intently on the man, before them. Watching as his dad gave a thumbs up from the sidelines, talking hushedly with Six’s mom.
“Good evening, I’m Otto P. See, keeping you updated and informed everyday at three! Today, we’ve had the pleasure of interviewing both of the main stars from the recently released Little Nightmares, Monty and Sasha!” The man flourished with a bright grin.
“Thank you for having us!” Mono piped in, trying to keep his energy up. Six glance at him, eyes furrowed. But, have the interviewer a lopsided smile
“We’re honored to be here.” Mr. See tapped his papers, looking far too nervous for someone who’s done this so many times before.
“Well, let's start with an easy one. How’d you get your roles?” Mono took a moment to think, glancing at Six just to see her staring at him. He was going first.
“Our producers went through a lot of people as we had to have knowledge on how to work these little puppets.” Mono gestured with his hands, trying to show the size
“I was probably like the twentieth person they interviewed for the Mono part, I was further back in line, but by that time they had people going up and down the line asking if anyone had experiences with any kind of puppet.” Mimicking the strings Mono smiled at the memory
“I had some experience as I used to put on little plays with them, but I later found out that I caught one of the assistants' eyes thanks to my unique condition.” He ran a hand through his hair, picking out the obvious white strands amongst dark brown.
“I have poliosis, which means some of my hair can just lose its pigmentation. The assistant thought it fit with Mono’s personality and his connection to the Pale City.
“I knew how to work puppets and had the uniqueness to play as Mono!” He smiled, hoping that he wasn’t oversharing, but the interviewer gave him a grin while whipping at his own face with a handkerchief.
“How about you Sasha?” He turned over to his companion, who was giving a raised eyebrow stare to the man.
“It's not as entertaining as Mono’s, I was put down as an extra in case the person they picked first had any reservation about the part. She was a new actor and they wanted to make sure she wasn’t pressured to stay.” She spoke blankly, her deadpan stare causing the interviewer to sweat even more.
It was understandable, Six didn’t even really want to go for an interview. She said she never really felt the need to talk about herself, even if she was forced to she was always extremely awkward about it. Just throwing out the bare details and only expanding on them if asked.
He would hate to be the man across from them, with icy blue eyes coldly staring at him. Words lacking any finesse you’d expect from an actor.
“Ah,” picking at his collar, he looked over the girl's head to keep from her eyes “what happened to the first girl, did she get too nervous to stay on?” Six gave a shrug, sitting back
“She was cast into a different movie, they had plans for Six’s character that the girl just wasn’t comfortable with. I can’t disclose anything more.” Taking a sip from her water, Six gave another raised eyebrow waiting for the man to continue.
“Well we have many questions to get through today, so.” He once again tapped his papers, this time actually looking at them.
They continued on through maybe ten more questions, even going through a quick round of fan submitted ones.
Mono had gotten much more comfortable and confident as the interview drawled on. Throwing out a lot more jokes and gestures. Even Six seemed to be getting better as they continued, even seeming to take in some of his energy.
“Well, as this interview is drawing to a close I save one of our most asked questions for last.” He seemed kinda tentative to read it out, even clearing his throat several times, taking multiple sips from his water.
“It's clear that filming the movie had Mono and Six very close most of the time, even through the screen you can sense their love.” Oh no this was not happening, eyes wide Mono clasped his hands together to keep them from shaking.
“Many people have asked this but, What's your relationship with Six or the actor who played her, are you dating?” Mono gulped at the prying question, jumping up and blurting
“Actually!” His voice pitched and his face turned bright “I think Mono’s super cute! I’d date him!” Everything in the studio seemed to stop, even the lights overhead seemed to stop buzzing at his declaration.
“Monty, what the heck.” Six snapped, trying to pull him down. Well he was in too deep now
“Six, you’ve tried to deny this part of me for far too long, but I love him!” The pounding of his chest dulled as he got into the part "I bet he’s the kinda guy who’ll show up at your window late at night and ask for cuddles.” He swooned, “I wanna play bored games with him at three am and sneak kisses to his cheek.” Okay, maybe that was laying it on a bit thick.
Cracking open his eyes, he looked at the interviewer, who looked like he was either gonna laugh out loud or cry. Six was just giving him another blank star. He could see his dad with head in his hands (though his shoulders were obviously shaking from laughter), the Lady full on guffawing beside him hands on her knees as she struggled to breathe.
He could even see the crew in varying stages of laughter, grief, or just shock.
“That,” Mr See choked “is very interesting, thank you Sasha…. And thank you Monty for your appearance on today’s show.” He stood up looking dazed, to offer a hand.
Mono shook it, eager to just get home and bury his head in a pillow then just never leave his house again. Six did the same, shoulders hunched as she gave him a horrified look.
--------------------------------------------------------
Maybe confessing his love for his alter-ego on live television probably wasn’t the best idea. He glanced back down at the message Six just sent him.
‘Look you dumb dog, you're trending now.’ Under the actually quite deserved message was a page from some fanfiction site… Mono/Monty was printed in bold at the top and right to the side it stated boldly that people had already posted 147 works about it…
From an interview that was just the other day.
He was definitely in way over his head.