Game of Survival - Nine x Reader

Chapter 4 - Fixing Whats Broken

Your tail flicked, tapping against the metal bench you sat on. Your legs were crossed, hand in your lap, not wanting to touch something and potentially die. You had been sitting in the same spot for what felt like hours when it was actually minutes. It was getting boring just sitting.

Leaning forward, your ears flicked as the sound of beeping echoes from outside. The door to the hidden room opened with a chuff, Nine wandering through. A smile crept on your face as he didn't notice you yet.

"Howdy," you greet. Nine jumped, his metal tails rearing up like a spider. His eyes Sharpened, searching for the intruder. The second his eyes met yours, he growled with barred teeth.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He spat, two of hit metal tails planting themselves into the ground to appear intimidating. You shook you head with a smile.

"I came her to see you, obviously," you shrugged. Sliding of the table you previously sat on, you slowly approached him. He remained where he stood, eyes darting to the left where the stolen energy crystal sat in its case.

Unharmed.

Untampered.

His tails retracted, surrounding his two small tails. Nine crossed his arms as you began investigating his little laboratory space. He constantly told you not to touch stuff, which made your eyes roll.

"How did you get in here?" he asked as you wandered around aimlessly. Pausing in your investigations, you turned to face him. Your ears slightly flattened as your looked to the side.

"Uhh-"

Cracking your fingered you starred at the keypad that sat in front of your fingers.

"Code. Code, code, code. If I was Nine, what would I make my code."

Fingers itching to move, your brain ran through as many possibilities as it could.

"Okay, okay. Lets start with one-" Your index finger hit the first digit. You stood deathly still, waiting for an alarm to go off, for guns to appear, for something.

Nothing.

Taking that as a good sign you pressed the first digit again. Instantly, a gun appeared from above you, second from firing. Leaping to the side, you yelped as it shot bullets. Tucking your ears in, you hid behind a wall, waiting for the firing to stop.

After a few minutes of loud gunshots, it finally ceased. Sighing a breath of relief, you poked your head from around the corner. When nothing shot at you, you walked back to the console.

Starring at the numbers again, your began pressing.

"Fine then. One, two- OH SHI-"

Nine watched you, fingers tapping against his arm as he waited for an answer. Gazing at him, you cleared your throat with a cough.

Facing him, you smiled awkwardly, "I'm... Just that good." Your words were humorously unconvincing. Nine evidently didn't believe you, his one eye brow raising at your words. He hummed, unamused. Timidly, you returned to venturing around his lab.

You hear is agitated sigh, "Why are you here?" He remained standing, watching you intensely. His voice wasn't threating, but it was stern catching your attention.

"Relax, I ain't here to steal the crystal. Honest," you turned to face him with a grin, "I'll pinky promise on it." You leaned forward, pinky sticking out, waiting for him to hook his against yours. His sky eyes glared at your hand, before locking eyes with you, then softening at your other arm.

Your missing arm.

Following his gaze, your ears flattened. Pulling your hand back, you held hugged your side as if your arm was there.

"Don't worry about it. Its fine," You shook your head, throwing on a forced smile "Didn't even hurt." You tail lay limp on the floor as you averted his analyzing gaze. Looking to the side, he appeared to be thinking, hand on his chin as he thought. Walking over to his bench, he cleared a spot, not saying anything. You watched him curiously. As he turned back around to look at you, he motioned to the cleared spot on his desk.

"Sit," he ordered wandering off to the other side of his lab, passing you. Confused, you remained where you stood, ears perked. You opened your mouth to question why but he spoke first, "Unless you don't want me to fix your arm. And I advise you let me fix it, it'll be better than whatever the resistance whips up." He leaned on another desk, hands holding him up. He tried to appear unbothered, unemotional, but you could see through it with ease.

After all, you used to be just like that.

Hiding emotions to keep yourself safe.

Hoping on the desk, you crossed you legs. You wrapped your tail on your other side as to not get in the way of Nine. Standing next to you, tools and machinery in hand he began working on your arm, tails assisting his reconstruction of your arm.

It was awkwardly quite- well, awkward for you, maybe not Nine, he seemed to like the silence. But you didn't. It made you feel uncomfortable. The silence was something you had always hated. You could never say why but you guessed it was the idea that anything could happen when everything was quite. Just like how anything can happen in the dark.

Clearing your throat, you saw Nine's ear twitch as you asked, "Sooo... Why did u save me?"

"What?" He glanced up at you before continued his work, "What are you talking about?"

"When I had that-when I froze. You didn't have to come back and help me. So why did you?" Your eyes closing watched him as he worked, wondering how he almost built half your arm in a few minutes. He starred at your arm, focusing intensely as he welded two metal pieces together.

After a few seconds, he answered, "Reasons you don't need to know. And it wasn't a big deal... This may pinch."

The moment he said that you felt a harsh pinch, making you yelp in surprise and pain. He glanced up at you in a hidden apology before continuing. Shaking your head, you whispered, "It was a big deal to me. If you didn't come back they would have... yeah."

"Done!" He loudly chirped, pretending not to have heard you. Ears flattening, you felt sad as he turned his focus on other things, acting busy. With a sigh, you gazed down at your newly constructed arm. Your eyes shone in amazement.

"You work fast," you complimented, "Those tails of yours a pretty handy."

Lifting up the metal arm, it felt more secure, and stronger and-

ZAP

Your body jumped at the pain, you closed your eyes as an electric current rushed through you. Letting out a heavy breath, you opened one eye. Nine hadn't seemed to have noticed the pain that struck you. Making you question if it as your fault that happened. Holding your metal arm in your other hand, you balled your claws into a fist, flexing the metal.

Its just me.

I just need to get used to it.

Its fine

"Um, thanks?" He kept his gaze away from you, "You can... leave now I guess." Your attention switched the second you heard his voice. He sounded upset at his own words, regretting them. A small smile fell on your lips as you slid of the bench top.

"You really can't take a compliment can you?" Taking your leave, you snuck a glance back, watching Nine's ears fall in disappointment as he saw you leave. "You coming?"

"Huh? Me... with you?" His eyes shimmered, revealing his hope at your words, a grin forming on his face. His tails wagging in unison.

"Well, yeah. You fixed my entire arm man, I think its safe to say I wanna hang out with you. So come on. Its almost dark out, and for where we're going, the dark is perfect," your tail swayed behind you as you swaggered to the door that almost killed you like 50 times.

"Its always dark out," he retorted, chucking his tools un-neatly on his table before following behind you with a mini jog. His eyebrow raised at your comment.

"Exactly," you gave a toothy grin, leaving through the door with Nine, closing it behind you as you began your first adventure.