Work Text:
"What's up Six bro?"
Six didn't even look up from her canvas, too focused on layering different shades of blue to even acknowledge Nine. Not that their reaction to his greeting would have differed much had she not been actively trying to focus.
"Uhh…Sixer?" The pale algebralien walked around Six to see what she was so focused on; a landscape of the equation playground, depicted in vibrant shades of blue and green. Six's tongue was sticking out slightly in concentration.
Nine frowned. Clearly it was going to take a little bit more effort than that if he wanted Six to address them at all. They reached out tentatively and tapped her on the head a few times. There, now Six will have to-
"NINE WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT???? YOU RUINED MY PAINTING!!!!"
Under their shades, Nine blinked in confusion. "Huh?"
Six finally looked up at Nine, pointing angrily at their canvas. Nine's eyes followed her hand. It looked the same as it had before…except for a small streak of blue among green paint. Nine must've accidentally made Six's hand stray from its original path. "What? It still looks radical dude!"
"No, Nine. It's ruined."
"Oh." They hung their head, disappointed in themself. "That's not so radical. Sorry, Six."
Nine walked away, figuring that it was not the time to skate away cooly like she usually did, leaving Six to try to fix the small mistake caused by Nine's attempt at getting her attention.
As she strolled through the Equation Playground, she realized how she could fix this. He could make a painting for them. That would surely make up for the work Nine had messed up.
So Nine got to work.
"AAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAH"
Six was currently rolling on the ground laughing, her paintbrush and palette long discarded. Nine stood there, holding their drawing sheepishly. And as for Six's own painting, apparently it wasn't so "ruined" after all because it was an absolute masterpiece, the mistake being transformed into a blue flower. It was honestly making Nine's shaky painting of Six look elementary in comparison, as if it didn't look elementary in general already.
"Oh. Sorry Sixer." Dejected, Nine was ready to skate away somberly and find some way to destroy the canvas forever and ever so that no one, especially Six, ever had to see it again.
"Wait no don't leave." Six abruptly stopped laughing, sitting up to look at Nine, deadly serious.
He was confused. What's going on? Clearly Six didn't think their drawing was all that great…because to be quite frank it wasn't. Nine didn't think she would want to spend another second looking at it, but instead Six reached out, taking the canvas from Nine and holding it close.
"It's sooo bad I have to…dispose of it myself!"
Nine blinked, unconvinced. "Uh…okay bro."
They just stared at each other for a long minute before Nine decided it was the right time to hop on her skateboard and leave Six to their own devices.
Six never got rid of the painting.
It was aroung midnight, stars glittered in the night sky. All of the algebraliens were sleeping peacefully.
Well, almost all.
Six was wide awake. She usually leaned against a tree when they slept, but tonight the rough bark tore at their back, making rest feel impossible.
He tried laying in the grass instead, then face down, then on the swings, but her body absolutely refused to give in to sleep.
This is annoying.
No, not just that, this is the worst.
NOBODY else was awake. So therefore, Six didn't want to be awake. She liked hanging out with people. Being alone? Not so much.
Six looked up again. There were two specks of light on the mountain, standing out among the darkness. If Six strained their hearing, she could almost hear laughter. He tore their eyes away from the mountain to sweep her gaze around the Equation Playground.
The only person missing was Three. But if that truly was Three up there, who was with her?
Another glance towards the strange sparkles in the sky.
Oh! It's One. Why would Three be hanging out with One? Let alone at this ungodly hour of the night. She would've questioned it more, or maybe even gone up there to see what was going on, if she actually cared.
Six's gaze drifted over to Nine's sleeping body. Ha. They look so stupid when they sleep. All draped over their stupid racecar bed gripping their stupid sunnys tightly in one hand and smiling that stupid smile and being stupid and all that.
Hm. At least they're not awake. That would make the fact that Six is awake even worse-
"Hey. Nine. Wake up." Ugh! You've got to understand the pure annoyance Six must have been feeling right now! After all, I think we can all relate to not being able to sleep, lamenting on how much we dislike someone, and then going out of your way to wake up the aforementioned disliked person.
Nine stirred. "Arghhhhh…sick moves Three…" They turned over in their sleep, now facing away from Six. She just rolled her eyes.
Gripping Nine's shoulders tightly, Six shook him violently awake. Nine's eyes shot open.
"AH! What the heck bro?"
Six abruptly let go of Nine and they flopped back down onto their bed.
"Can't sleep."
"So you woke me up too?" Nine narrowed her eyes in confusion, and Six noticed something.
"Are your eyes different colors?"
Even in the dark, Six could see Nine's pale complexion gain a sightly pinker hue. He looked away, trying to hide their eyes.
"Uh…yeah…" Nine's voice was quiet, clearly embarrassed.
Without even realizing she was doing it, Six leaned in to get a closer look. One eye yellow, one eye blue. Just like Nine's glasses.
Nine fidgeted under Six's gaze, clearly assuming that she was about to make a comment about how he had no style again. But instead:
"That's…cool." Six's voice was genuine, (which was not a common occurence).
They just stared at each other for a minute, and it almost reminded Six of weeks ago when Nine had given her that painting.
Then, Nine started crying.
Their sobs were quiet. Six remembered how they had cried earlier that day over their broken skateboard. Nothing like that had happened. What is going on.
"Why are you crying."
"No one's ever said that about them before."
Nine pulled Six closer and cried harder. Normally, Six would have made an impolite comment. Most likely "oh okay. guess we're doing this now then.", but hearing Nine's reasoning just about made her heart liquify.
And Six would be a dirty liar if she said they didn't enjoy it.
She leaned into Nine, and he tugged them closer. Soon enough, Nine's sobs ceased, and Six found himself wrapping her arms around Nine.
Six finally fell asleep.
Alone.
Six was alone.
The very thing she didn't like to be.
She couldn't remember the last time she'd been completely alone. Someone had always been there, even if they weren't actively talking to her. But now Six was alone.
Alone.
Only the night before she'd been clinging onto Nine, falling asleep in their arms.
Now she had to find a way to rest tonight without his warm body next to theirs.
Alright. This is cool. She'd slept alone their entire life. This should be easy.
Right?
But Six just stood in the doorway of the house Two had made, fidgeting.
They didn't want to be alone right now. Not after all that had happened that day.
"You shouldn't use that in this way, One you barely even know what you're doing!"
Six stared directly ahead.
"I barely know what I'm doing? YOU wouldn't even KNOW ABOUT THIS if it wasn't for ME."
Her hands squeezed into fists.
"This was meant to be OUR THING…no. MY THING. You're lucky I even showed you!"
Their breathing picked up speed and they felt her legs began to shake.
"Stay the same. Like, excluding me. Banishing me to the side, until you can find some COOL thing you can steal from me?"
Six wanted it to stop. Not again not again not again not again not again not-
"Who's to say I don't find another cool thing, and you ruin that too, huh?"
She slid down the door, squeezing her eyes shut tightly. It only made the image of Three's shattered form clearer.
"OH!" Three's sob seemed to destroy any sense of innocence left in the algebraliens present. "ONE!
"NO! PLEASE!"
Six could only watch in horror. Three cried. She screamed. They knew this was it. You could hear it in her voice. Every word was a plea for One to stop before it was too late. But she just…kept going.
"Three are you okay!?"
"One! You gotta stop!"
"She might get hurt!"
"Three! No…"
Six barely recognized any of the voices. Just Three. Three on the ground, thrashing and screaming for her life. She almost didn't recognize their own voice when she finally spoke. It was serious. Deadly serious.
Six didn't do serious.
"CUT IT OUT. What are you DOING?"
She could only watch in terror as Three let out her final scream, shattering into pieces.
It was a horrifying sight. Almost horrifying enough that she wished she'd looked away. They should've looked away. They should've preserved the part of them that was innocent. That could trust.
From there it's a blur.
Six watched Three be brought back, value jumbled up and lost to time. She helped put One in the moon and then let it happen as she was left to stay behind in case One came back.
She hadn't realized she had started crying.
Six tucked their knees into their chest and let the tears fall. When Nine had cried the night before, Six had been there for her to cling on to.
Where's that damn perfect square when you need them?
They cried for who knows how long. Long enough that her throat hurt and his eyes felt raw and swollen.
Shakily, Six stood and walked over to the bed. They tucked themself in and stared at the wall, Three's screams of pain echoing through their mind.
Before they knew it she was trembling again. Six stumbled out of bed and walked outside, going to the tree she used to spend most of her time at.
The Equation Playground was eery without anyone else hanging around. For so long it had been full of life, and fun, and memories. But now it just felt…wrong.
Yeah. It felt wrong to be here.
She didn't want to stay out here for longer than she had to. It held too many ghosts.
Quickly, Six went behind their favorite tree and picked up the canvas that he'd kept all that time. She looked around to see if anyone was around to see her sentimental actions, before remembering that everyone was gone.
Six didn't sleep that night. She just laid in bed, gripping the painting Nine had made for them so long ago as if it was the most important thing in the universe.
The next sixteen years passed Six by.
The sound of Three's cries and the sight of her shattered form never strayed too far. In truth, even over a decade after it happened they still laid awake at night sometimes, disturbed.
But at one point, she became numb to it. It never became less terrible, but the noise became slightly muffled at one point, staticky in nature.
What didn't fade, however, was how Nine had held them that night. He'd never admit this, but when Six couldn't sleep, they formed her blanket into the shape of a rope, wrapping it around themself just like Nine had.
But it got interesting when those objects came through a door that had spawned in the Equation Playground. Bomby, Bell, Purple Face, Barf Bag, and Needle. They had certainly spiced up what had been a miserable era for Six, but it appeared that this was about to get messy.
One was involved.
"Just…GET OUT OF HERE!"
Six felt panic rise in their chest, but after all this time, she'd learned to control attacks like these.
Breathe, Sixer. One's not here right now. It's cool!
Maybe they'd been thinking about Nine too much. Sixer? Seriously?
But anyway, at least Six would have some time to steel herself before she'd see One again!
Famous last words.
One had a crazed look in her eye. A gleam that told Six that she couldn't be reasoned with.
But there was something worse.
"Nine's…"
"Gone! You're still alone, Six bro. Ugh. I always thought they were so stupid with that little nickname for you." One rolled her eyes.
Six wanted to acknowledge how she'd once thought the same thing about Nine, but no words came to her mind.
"I'll get you for this! Every. Waking. Minute. I will think about this!"
Nine's gone.
Nine's gone.
Nine's gone.
Nine's gone.
Tears threatened to fall, but Six held them back in front of One.
"Ugh! So dramatic. Time to go now!"
And then the world faded to black.