Mono + Six Afterstory || Little Nightmares II

Twelve

Six slowly lifted her head from her knees and blinked away the blurriness in her vision, focusing on the two girls Mono had mentioned. When she finally came to, she realized that Mono was right. She knew both of them! Why were they together when they literally almost killed each other? They trusted each other? "I thought they were dead... They didn't come up from the water, so I left the island." After explaining herself, she gave Mono his coat back and then stood up, her body trembling and legs shaking.
She could barely keep her balance, but she took her yellow raincoat off and trudged over to the two girls, putting the coat on the brunette girl. It belonged to her, and it was the right thing to do. "She helped me escape... I'm glad she found a way to survive somehow." She spoke with a weak voice, wiping her forehead underneath her bangs since she had cold sweats. When she stood back up, she was thankful Mono was there, because she almost fell.

     Before they could walk away from the girls together, the Pretender, or so she was called back at The Nest, woke up in a coughing fit, spitting up water and nearly choking in the process. She shook from the cold, and the shock, and when she got the strength to lift herself up, she immediately exploited the fire in the room.
     Six glared at her and clenched his fist angrily, prepared to punch her in the face until she backed away in fear and looked up at her with dejected eyes. "D-Don't hit me, please! I know, okay? You're the girl that my servants imprisoned...but honest, you must believe that I had no control over that!" She was frantic in her de-escalation, which was ironic, but her words seemed to satiate Six for the time being. "M-Me and Veronica, we—we've been traveling together since that day. We're friends now. Don't you get it?" She partially hid behind the other girl, whose name was apparently Veronica.
     After a moment of silence, she started to calm down since Six had lowered her fist, and she took a moment to look around the room at the other faces. One in particular caught her eye. "Mono? Is that you?" She asked curiously, causing the boy to walk closer to her with Six and sit down. "It really is, isn't it? How is the city? Is my mother—"

     "Ms. Anne is going through a hard time, but she's alive. The city...could be a lot better." After answering her rapid questions, he watched her sigh in relief and smiled gingerly, wanting her to feel welcome. "Don't worry. I'm sure Six will give you a second chance. Right, Six?" He turned his head suspiciously, anxious of the girl acting up again.

     "Ugh, fine. But only because Mono wants me to. You're dead meat if you try anything sketchy." Six threatened the girl and played with her lighter, flicking her thumb over the fuel so she could get her message across.

     The silver-haired girl frowned and looked at the fire, trying to warm herself. She looked to be on the verge of tears, or maybe she was just nervous about Six's attitude. "I know I've hurt people, but she's made me see things differently. I've changed over the past few months, I promise." She spoke sorrowfully, mostly to herself but seemingly in hopes of making herself more trustworthy.
     Although she was upset, she was completely reassured when the girl next to her woke up and sneezed, clinging to her arm lovingly. "Veronica, are you okay?" She asked urgently, flushing from how touchy the girl was being.

     "Pretty... I thought you were dead." She sniffled, tears streaming down her face. "When you went overboard...I didn't know what to do. I'm so happy you're okay." She was bawling her eyes out, the poor kid, and everyone in the room watched her with sympathetic eyes, even Six.

The girl, known as the Pretender, was holding Veronica tight in her arms, feeling secondhand stress from hearing her worries. The brunette had been calling her 'Pretty' for as long as they'd been working together, and quite frankly, it was so cute that she didn't stop her or ever tell her what her real name was; Her real name, that pretty much only Mono knew, which was Pericia, but her friends in school used to call her Perry since it was a different language. Mono was confused at the nickname 'Pretty' since he knew her real name, but he decided to keep quiet about it.
Perry waited for Veronica to stop crying and then pulled away from her a bit, wiping the tears from her face and fixing her hair. "You tried to save me, and you could've gotten yourself killed..." Before scolding Veronica, she decided to take another approach since they were still in shock. "An old...um...friend of mine found us, so we'll be okay. Don't be scared." She reassured the girl with the long braid, scratching her head comfortingly since she loved affection.

     Veronica sniffled and nodded at Perry's reassurance, but she became easily distracted as she saw Six out of the corner of her eye. "Hey, it's you! From the Nest! What the heck are you doing here?" She stood up and stumbled as she made her way over to Six, eventually attacking the girl in a very relaxing hug. "I missed you! You were so freakin cool when we met, but you wouldn't even talk to me!" She smiled brightly, pulling away to look at Six's touched expression.

     "Y-Yeah...sorry about that. I'm not really a people person. But you're really sweet." The short-haired girl replied, reaching out with shaky hands to comfort Veronica with pats on her shoulders. "My name is Six, by the way...and this is my friend, Mono." She motioned over to the pale boy, making eye contact with him in the process and averting her gaze abruptly because of it. She would never tell him, but...she'd overheard everything he said about her earlier, and was pretending it never happened. It was increasingly difficult the longer they were in the same room, however.

     "Is it okay if I call you Sasha? It's such a fitting name for you!" Veronica boasted with a faint giggle, holding Six's hands to help her warm up to her presence.

     Six blinked in astonishment at the girl's question and anxiously retracted, her face burning up because of the bluntness. "Um...but that's not my name..." She responded sheepishly, feeling pressured because of their closeness. She didn't know how she could ever refuse Veronica when she was so adorable...and extremely overbearing. "Fine, I guess..." After agreeing, the brunette clung to her once again, and she didn't know what to do with her hands. This whole situation was just so awkward, but she forced herself to hug back, and soon enough, she learned to appreciate the feeling. Nobody had ever acted this way towards her in her life... Mono was much different, so this was just new for her altogether. Her heart was aching from how happy she was, and she had completely forgotten about how hungry she was only moments ago.

((A/N: hello u guys ❤️ I hope you enjoyed the chapter as always. Let me know how you guys are doing! Sometimes it's nice to have an outlet like this when you're going through a hard time!
Xoxo, Cass))