[CLOSED] Be It Ever So Humble...

[sixthdeadliest]

Who: Dr. Rebecca Holiday threephds and Six sixthdeadliest
What: Six brings Holiday back to Little Love, Kansas, and the house the Alliance gave him.
When: Backdated to after Holiday arrives and meets up with Six.
Where: Little Love, Kansas
Content Warnings: Potential talk about their nightmare world but otherwise should be fine.


Six hadn't been kidding when he'd said that Little Love was remote. The rural town was quite spread out with the common meeting places being the stores in the town proper. They'd stopped into several of them upon arrival. Holiday needed things after all: spare clothing and other personal items. Not to mention more groceries now that it was more than just Six at the house.

Of course, it took a while to get through even the quaint local shops. In a small town like Little Love, everybody knew everybody and was in everybody's business. Six walking around with a strange woman had immediately gotten people's attention. They knew the ninja reasonably well by this point given how long he'd lived in town and had helped out. He'd even been assisting in "reinforcing" the various buildings, not asking any questions on why so many renovations were going on and not asking about any strangers who'd suddenly come to live in those places that had been renovated. (Getting around some of the standing orders of Fantastic.)

By the time they finally rolled up to the house in Six's new (to him) truck, it was late afternoon.

He pulled into the garage in the spot closest to the connecting walkway. "I'll make sure you get a key and a code for the alarm."

Comments

[threephds]

Holiday stared while he casually talked about his experience with what was technically homelessness. Six had a habit of saying things that probably sounded normal to him, but really made her want to hug him.

She opted not to comment and silently followed him, in awe of how cute and charming the Family Room was.

"Sounds good," she muttered, looking around the kitchen. She didn't grow up poor, but she'd also never lived in a house like this - with a kitchen like this. It was very nice.

She started pulling groceries out of the bags and organizing them into fridge, freezer, and pantry sections. Clothing and toiletries stayed in the bags to carry upstairs later.

Holiday really wanted to just explore this place. She wondered if Six had any art or personal effects around.

[sixthdeadliest]

Art? Personal effects? Six? Holiday, have you ever peeked into his quarters?

It didn't take long for Six to come back with the last of the bags as promised. He didn't comment on her obviously not having taken advantage of his offer to let her look around while he put the groceries away. Instead, he focused on organizing the rest of it while taking note of where Holiday had put things for when he inevitably had to look for them later.

"Any preferences for dinner tonight?"

He typically put together something filling that could be eaten over a couple of days.

[threephds]

(She's definitely seen his room at Providence, but she couldn't remember if he'd know that or not. When was the first time she walked in there to help him with something? So hard to remember.)

Holiday would look around after groceries were put away. She didn't want to seem like an unhelpful guest.

"Oh, um..." Dinner? Was Six planning to cook her dinner?? She was going to have a heart attack. "How about something with these chicken thighs?" she asked, holding them up.

This situation was going to take some getting used to. She'd need to help him cook and clean or something, right? Gotta help out around the house.

[sixthdeadliest]

"Sure. You can help me clean the dishes when we're done."

It only made sense to divvy up the chores. And the last time he'd seen an example of Holiday's cooking was...well...

Bless her, she tried.

[threephds]

Yes - cleaning the dishes. That was an appropriate response to him making her dinner. That was a good start to feeling like she wasn't going to bother him.

Six making her dinner was still playing in her head over and over. It wasn't even that strange anymore, but their dinners usually consisted of microwave meals these days. Something homecooked was absolutely new.

"I can definitely do that," she answered with a smile, helping him put groceries away. It was a little tough when she didn't know where everything went, but she could help with the obvious things.

[sixthdeadliest]

Given the limited resources they had at the dam, homecooked food was probably low on the priorities list...though this version of Six would be disgusted by the idea of nothing but microwave garbage. (No real nutritional value to speak of. It was a wonder their group hadn't starved to death.)

Six was patient, correcting her when necessary to get their food put away.

In an attempt to dispel the awkward, Six explained, "Master taught me how to cook. Easiest way to prevent someone trying to slip you something is to make it yourself."

Chicken thighs...hmm...

"How does chicken and rice curry strike you?"

[threephds]

"Sounds amazing," she said with a big smile.

Holiday loved when he talked about his Master and his life before Providence - it didn't happen often, but it always made her feel like someone he really trusted. Since he lost his memories, he flip-flopped between telling her absolutely nothing and saying things he figured she already knew, which was a very different experience for her.

Holiday grabbed two of the bags - the ones with her clothes and other necessities. "I'll head upstairs and look around a bit."

(She kind of wanted to ask if she could help with dinner, but she didn't need to embarrass herself at the moment.)

[sixthdeadliest]

Perhaps one reason for the flip-flopping was because there wasn't much he could say about his past...and most of it that wasn't classified in some way, shape, or form were memories he wanted to forget.

He nodded his head. "It'll be good to have someone else around. It's unnerving how quiet this place can be sometimes."

At least when training under One, there'd been the chaos of the Numbers training to deal with. None of them had gone EVO and they certainly weren't superpowered, but they were more than skilled enough to give the illusion of having supernatural powers.

[threephds]

She gave him a little smirk as she left the room. "Happy to make your home a little more comfortable."

Upstairs she went - and immediately saw the bathroom door. She peeked inside - decent sized, very clean. Nice. Then she wandered around and checked out each bedroom (even the master bedroom, but only for a moment) and then decided on the bedroom next to the laundry room with the walk-in closet.

It was a good size, bigger than her dorm at Providence HQ and much bigger than the room she had at the plant. Holiday liked the view of the backyard and being near the laundry room, since she was carrying all the clothes she owned.

Quickly, she put the clothes away and took a seat on the bed. It was nice. This was weird. But it was nice.

[sixthdeadliest]

After getting everything ready and setting it all to simmer, he went looking for Holiday. Not that it took long to find her. As large a space as the house was, there really weren't that many places to check.

He knocked on the doorframe, waiting for permission to enter. Hopefully Holiday wouldn't be too unnerved by how quietly he moved around.

Then again, she'd been working with him for a while now. She was probably used to it.

[threephds]

She was very, very used to it. Holiday smiled and stood up to open the door for him.

"Hey," she said with a small smile. This was very weird and very nice. "Smells good."

[sixthdeadliest]

"Can't take credit for that," Six said with a shrug. "Lots of fresh air out here."

He walked in and took a look out the window.

"You picked a good room. Even if there really isn't much to look at right now."

There were the beginnings of an obstacle course and training grounds but otherwise there really wasn't a lot to look at. There was just too much land. A strange concept for Six.

[threephds]

She smirked at him and watched as he walked over to the window.

"Thanks. It'll probably take me a while to fill up the room, but it'll be nice to have so much space again," she said thoughtfully. Her room at Providence had plenty of her things, but when they moved to the plant, there wasn't a lot of time to grab personal items.

Holiday joined him at the window, smiling at the obstacle course. "It'll be like watching you train in the Petting Zoo."

[sixthdeadliest]

"With less potential mauling," Six said dryly.

He wasn't allowed to use his magna blades on the Zoo residents, after all. If he got turned into a chew toy, that was on him.

[threephds]

Holiday smiled at the memory. Their makeshift zoo at the plant was...not ideal. Not that studying them was her priority anymore, but the Petting Zoo was something she missed most about Providence.

She was struck, once again, by the fact that the Six she was currently standing next to still technically worked for Providence. He still trained in that very zoo. Once again: weird.

"Unless some weird plant monsters decide to invade Little Love, right?" she said cheekily.

[sixthdeadliest]

"You joke about it, but you weren't here the last time the potatoes turned sapient and tried dragging people underground to 'plant' them."

Absolutely dead serious.

[threephds]

Holiday stared at him with an incredulous expression. The contrast of the silliness of his words paired with the very serious look on his face was just too much, and she suddenly let out a short laugh.

She covered up her mouth with her hand and turned back to the window. "I'm sorry. I'm sure it was terrifying at the time."

[sixthdeadliest]

"I wouldn't call it 'terrifying' either. It was just odd."

Which wasn't bad for Little Love.

"Reminded me of some of the smaller EVO issues back home."

[threephds]

"We've certainly had our share of strange EVOs."

Six probably wouldn't even know about the EVO that caused a sleeping plague. Or the giant frog that almost destroyed New York City.

She glanced over at him again. "Thank you again. For letting me stay with you."

[sixthdeadliest]

Six raised an eyebrow at her. "There's no need to keep thanking me for it."

True, technically she wasn't his Holiday but she was still Holiday.

[threephds]

She smiled softly and pushed some hair behind her ear. "I know."

It felt like she was interrupting his life in this new world - which was a strange thought, considering he lived alone in a gigantic house. It was pretty clear that she wasn't interrupting anything.

Standing there next to him, staring out a window at the yard below - it felt very nostalgic. She let out a quiet sigh, exhaling the memory. That was a long time ago.