Work Text:
1: kissing on the stairs to give an artificial height
“Six, what are you doing?” Mono chuckled as the girl, his girlfriend. He still couldn’t believe he had actually asked, and that she had even said yes.
“Shh, just follow me.” She gripped his hand tighter, leading him through the house. Strangely devoid of all the life and noises that normally filled the decaying wood. All the kids and even the nomes had started spending more and more time outside as the world around them warmed into summer.
Stopping at the stars, Six told him to stay. Giving her a confused grin, he planted his feet. Watching as she moved up two more stairs, now barely taller than the top of his head.
“Now!” She leaned over slightly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He grinned, finally getting what she was trying to do.
Scooting forward till his toes brushed against the stairs, he leaned up slightly to press his lips to hers. They parted a moment later, Six grinning wide and dopily
“You could've just asked.” He laughed, leaning up slightly to nuzzle her nose
‘Was funner this way.’ She signed cheekily. Leaning back she gave him a little boop to the nose, giggling.
Mono liked how much more carefree she had gotten with their time spent in the cabin, no monsters chasing them. Loved how much more freely she started to smile.
Bounding up a few steps, he tentatively wrapped his arms around her. Waiting for any sort of sign that she didn’t want a hug, but she just brought her arms around his back.
“I love you, Six.” He mumbled into her sweater, the rough knitted fabric rubbing at his nose.
“Love you too, Mono.” He felt her smile into his coat, her hand rubbing small patterns into his back.
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- “is that my sweater?”
Mono was confused.
He always knew where his coat was, never misplaced it once. It was too important for him to lose.
Okay, so maybe Mono was confused and panicking. He had already looked around the whole cabin, even under all the bed, in the cabinets for goodness sake. Even asked all the kids, the nomes, he would go talk to Six but she had been out all day.
Which probably wasn’t helping his anxiety any. He was just about to start crying, when he heard the door open.
Scrambling, he almost toppled down the stairs as he rushed to see who had just entered.
Six, well he thought it was Six, the sun glaring on the bright white snow behind her was making it hard to tell. She shook off the falling snow, stomping her feet. The hardy winter boots they had thankfully found making loud noises on the wood.
“Mono.” She spoke brightly, barely above a whisper. Before walking in and giving him a quick peck on the cheek “Are you alright, you look all pale?” She questions, hands reaching up to cup his face.
Worries forgotten for a moment, he melted in her hold. The cold from her hands not even bothering him as he just took comfort in her being there, with him. But, finally what she was wearing caught up to him.
Snapping his eyes open, seeing the confused look his girlfriend offered him. He looked down, at the long dinge brown overcoat with little rips in the tail that he had been looking for all morning.
Sighing in relief, he tucked his hands in the pockets. Liking the coarse fabric against his fingertips
“Is that my coat?” He asked rhetorically, giving Six a raised eyebrow. The girl blushed, digging her face into his shoulder
“Sorry, I should’ve asked.” He could hear the regret in her voice, “I just didn’ wanna leave you.” She mumbled, shoulders rising up
“Don’t worry Six, you can borrow my coat anytime!” He chirped, scratching again at the fabric. He loves his coat, but he loves Six more “Just please tell me next time.” He felt her nod.
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- Life starts to return to the LN universe, everyone meets their animal ‘counterparts’
(This one needs a bit of context. The Pale City is still recovering. The influence of the Signal Tower has left wildlife in shambles. It just doesn’t know how to recover. So it gets a mishmash of all kinds of animals and wildlife, thrown all together. -I was gonna write one about all the kids, but I just didn’t have any ideas for some of them)
-Fox-
Fox had seen them wander around, a flash of bright red or orange, the colour of their hair flashing amongst dark trees and dull grass.
The first time they had actually seen them in full, was when they were having breakfast. They had just been talking with Citrus when the colour flashed by. Jumping up and almost tripping over their own chair, they fumbled over to the window. Excitedly standing on their tiptoes to look over the frame.
Sniffing around in the grass outside it stood. Fur majestically ruffling in the wind. It's coat was snow white up to the knees, burnt orange flowing up covering most of its body. But a faded black back, with a large fluffy tail flowing out. Swaying slightly as it walked around.
“Fox, what happened?” Citrus asked from the table, voice getting closer. They gave the boy the universal gesture of silence, before waving him over excitedly
“Look!” They chimed, hushed, even though they doubted the fox could even hear them through thick glass panes, “It's a fox, we saw them in that library, remember.” Citrus popping in beside them, looking at the fox.
His eyes widened at the animal, a quiet inhale of elation at the bright animal. Soon, everyone clambered over, quick gasps of awe cueing at the sight.
Mono bounded out of the room, reappearing seconds later tugging along Six. Carefully making sure his body blocked out the table, even though only scraps of the meat they had for breakfast was left.
Fox could swear that Six seemed even more entranced with the fox than she was with Mono, if they didn’t know that Mono was her entire world.
They would probably say it was more of a shocked entrancement, as she hushidly whispered with Mono. Hands reflexively moving with the conversation.
-Lynx-
Citrus sighed, working at his fingers. He wished he could just talk with Fox, wished that this guilt would just go away.
The dream, no the nightmare, still weighed heavily on his mind as he looked out into the woods. The cool wood of the poarch, chilled from the night air, soaking into his shorts and stinging at his legs.
Sighing, he rubbed at his arms. Standing up about ready to just go inside. But, that's when something flashed in the dark.
Yellowish-green pupils peered at him from the dark, front barely illuminated by moonlight. Sharp ears pulled back, tufts of hair poking out at the tips. Tough legs with big meaty paws laying against the dirt.
It didn’t seem at all interested in him, only looking over to check out the movement. But, it's body was relaxed and it hadn’t even lifted it's head from off the ground.
So, despite the panic in his chest at the thought that this animal; A lynx he believed, those hair tufts were pretty distinctive, might attack him. He gave a slight wave, backpedalling into the cabin's door, hurriedly opening it to disappear inside.
-Pine Marten-
Marten gave a small smile, giving a quick glance over to Six and Mono. They had sat down leaning against both each other and a wide trunked tree, watching over them just to make sure they didn’t get into any trouble.
Citrus and Fox had already challenged each other to a race around the small clearing they were in. Echo had sat down a few trees from Mono, mimicking the same pose as the boy, best he could without a partner.
Ray had convinced Newt into some kinda game that Marten couldn’t even begin to make heads or tails of.
She kinda wanted to see if she could play with Ray and Newt, but just the thought made her heart jump in anxiety. So, she just went over to a tree on the opposite side of the clearing. This one was thin and short, a wide knot right in the middle.
Curious, she put her foot on the tallet root, hands grabbing onto the side of the knot and pulling herself up as best as she could. Two squashed heads with big black eyes, looked at her.
Eyes blinking open as if they had just been sleeping. Starting, Marten almost fell back, her foot slipping slightly from it's perch on a narrow root.
She kept her grip on the sides though and quickly re-positioned herself, ignoring the stinging of her ankle where it scraped against rough bark and the ache in her wrists at the jerking of all her bodyweight getting forced onto them.
The two animals didn’t seem bothered by her presence so she just smiled at them, almost full out aweing when one gave a wide yawn.
“Marten!” She heard Mono yell, almost losing her footing again, she turned to look over at him. She could barely see scary, non-human, eyes from across the field. He was looking over at her worried, head popped up from its earlier position “Are you alright, did you hurt yourself?” She shook her head, before realizing that he probably couldn’t see that.
“I’m good! Just slipped.” She gave the two animals another glance, before walking over to the group.
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- We need a renewable food source, so why not take up beekeeping. (I’m not a beekeeper and you shouldn’t follow any of the directions in this fic, if you are interested in beekeeping do researched and don’t hesitate to ask other beekeepers for help, bee’s are very important and they are normally very happy to help other people take care of them)
“Come on Six, I read about it!” The girl just sighed at the excitable boy, flipping through one of the smaller books he had set down next to her. It was a small pamphlet detailing the usefulness of bees and how they’re a renewable food source if you take care of them properly.
“Mono, this is a good idea.” She could admit that something sweet or even just any change in their diet is welcomed, “But, I don’t think we have the stuff for it.” He just lifted up the box he took all the books out, placing it onto the bed
“I thought about that, look.” He took out two big bulky helmets, then matching pristine white suits only a bit dirty at the bottom “They had a weird beekeeping kit in one of the shops I passed, I went back to get it when I saw those books!” Closing the books, she gave the suits a scanning glance
“Well, it’s worth a shot.” He gave her a hearty hug, then with a quick kiss, he tugged her out of the room. Fumbling with the box in his arms as he rambled along.
-
We’ll it was hard to start, they had to wait most of summer to gather enough bees. Mono even had to go out in his way to big bee suit to coax another hive into the bee box with a smoker and a weird box like clip, which he used to steal the queen bee.
They had already begun to form honeycombs and you could see their effects on the very miserable flowers of the surrounding area. They did have to tell the kids to be careful and that they had to be careful around that side of the house. Echo even offered to help with taking care of them.
They did have to decline, at least until Mono could find a smaller suit as the ones he found barely fit them.
-
Barely three weeks later and Mono said they could start to collect honey from the hive. He broke up the honeycomb into one big bucket, making sure not to waste any honey, before sealing it up.
“We can have the kids try it tonight! Then when it gets to be winter again we can make little honey candy!” Six smiled, watching as the boy lugged the bucket into the house “If only we could make bread!” The boy hummed, face falling as he thought about it
“I wonder if we can grow any fruits or vegetables.” The he gave out an even louded her hum as he patted at the bucket in excitement “I wonder if there's any fruit trees around!” He continued to hum and mummer about food as Six watched on with a goofy smile.