#One being his Evo skin which is really obvious and two others I don’t think anyone has made the connection that’s what they are

[aestheticallynotdeerlightful]

Grians affinity for Zelda skins,,

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(Please do not use or repost my works anywhere without explicit permission from me first thank you <3)

(Ramblies in tags)

[neopuff]

title: sleep ship: six/holiday word count: ~1600 summary: Six finds Holiday after the events of Plague. ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29835984

As soon as the virus was contained, Six opened his eyes wide and sat up with a start. He looked around himself to see Bobo asleep and several other officers slowly waking up. Memories flooded back as he thought back to the events from when he was last conscious - he’d been suddenly tired, more tired than ever, and fell asleep against Holiday’s lab desk - but somehow he’d been moved to the medical ward and there didn’t seem to be any doctors on duty. Where was Holiday? And where was Rex?

He hopped off the bed and quickly rushed towards the command center, hoping to find someone awake and useful enough to explain what the situation was. He forced himself to stop thinking about the worst possible situation and chose to focus on the facts: he fell asleep and then woke up in a different place surrounded by a ton of confused people who were also waking up. Not much to gauge from that.

The command center doors opened and Six was greeted by the sight of Providence employees grumbling and looking aimless and lost - clearly having just woken up at their desks and not knowing what was going on.

Even stranger than that - the camera for White Knight’s office was on, and it showed that he...wasn’t home. Six didn’t know what that meant, but he knew it wasn’t good. He quickly reached towards his ear to reach someone, but his comm wasn’t in. He huffed and glanced around the room to see if there was someone else’s he could grab, but suddenly his eyes landed on an all too familiar face.

And she was still fast asleep while everyone else seemed to be waking up.

Six rushed over to Holiday and reached out two fingers to her neck to feel her pulse as he assessed her situation. Her pulse seemed completely normal, she was snoring slightly, she had heavy bags under her eyes and strange bruises forming at her temples. What the hell happened while he was out?

He reached towards her ear and grabbed her comm, popping it in his own and pressing down. “Rex? Knight? Is anyone there?”

A short buzz. “Oh, hey Six! How’s it going?”

“How’s it-?! What happened? Where are you? Where’s Knight?”

Rex grunted and Six swore he heard the sound of metal scraping against metal. “Ahh, you know. Sleeping plague that didn’t affect EVOs so White the Nanite-less Wonder and I had to work together and save everyone. Go figure, huh?”

Six raised an eyebrow and glanced down at Holiday. She was twitching a bit and he felt an unshakable urge to lay his hand on her cheek and try to calm her down. He fought that urge valiantly. “So he’s with you?”

“Yeah. Hey Knight, wakey-wakey! Say good morning to Six!”

Six listened to a few grunting noises before the familiar baritone filled his ears. “Six. Is everyone waking up?”

“Everyone but Holiday,” he answered with an edge of worry. “Why isn’t she waking up? Is something wrong with her? Should I-?”

“Whoa, whoa, Six! Calm down!” Rex interrupted, and Six could practically see the kid waving his hands around to exaggerate. “She only fell asleep a few hours ago, just let her rest.”

“How did she-”

“Holiday kept herself awake so she could do her job, unlike some agents.”

Six grunted and held back a comment on how Knight sounded like he was barely awake himself.

“Why don’t you take her to her room, Six? She shocked her brain so many times she’ll probably be out for a week!”

The ninja didn’t respond - he just pressed the comm and kept it tucked in his ear in case they needed to contact him again. He looked down and finally noticed the two suction cups dangling on wires from the top of her lab coat. He followed the wire to her pocket and pulled out a small box.

He wasn’t an engineer by any means, but this device combined with what Rex said earlier painted an obvious picture. Six laid the device down on the desk Holiday had been sleeping against and realized he was finally losing the fight against himself - he reached out his hand and laid it against the side of her head, his thumb tingling against the circular bruise on her temple.

“Holiday…” he mumbled, wanting to scold her but knowing she did what she needed to do.

“Agent Six?” a voice behind him spoke, and Six quickly removed his hand from the doctor before turning around.

“What?”

“What’s...what’s going on?”

Six scanned the area and noticed that pretty much everyone in the room was staring at him. He wondered if they were watching the entire time, but shook it off - it didn’t matter. “All non-EVOs have been asleep for over 50 hours. They’ll be people everywhere that need our help to fix this, so start reaching out!”

The soldiers and scientists saluted and went to work, while Six glanced down at Holiday who was still looking absolutely miserable. He knew what he had to do and hated the publicity of it, but...this was Holiday and she needed him. If she slept like that any longer she’d wake up without being able to move her neck.

So without any further hesitation, Six reached his arms down and hoisted her up, bridal style, letting her head fall against his chest. Her snoring got a little louder as he adjusted her and he had to stop himself from thinking back to the last time he caught her asleep at a desk.

He shuffled out of the room without so much as a second glance at the other agents, taking his time walking towards the dorms so as to not accidentally wake Holiday up. He stole a glance at her face and felt temporarily captivated - her hair was sticking out every which way and her eyes kept twitching and he wondered how she was able to get those shockers on her head before succumbing to the sleeping plague like everyone else. She really was amazing.

Without realizing it, he’d reached her door, and Six lifted his hand up as best as he could to punch in her four-digit passcode that she’d trusted him with several years earlier. He used his elbow to turn on a low light to make his way towards Holiday’s bed and gently laid her down before getting ready to take his leave.

He paused, however, and got distracted by the bruises on her temple again. He admired her dedication and was grateful that it was probably thanks to her that everyone was safe, but there was this stupid tick at the back of his mind that said she shouldn’t have had to do that.

Six’s thumb brushed against her temple again and he sat on the edge of her bed, feeling oddly calmed by the sound of her snoring.

Holiday rotated in her sleep and suddenly his hand was cradling her cheek, his thumb hovering just under her eye. She looked so tired.

Tired, but beautiful, he heard in the back of his mind, and huffed out a loud breath of exasperation. He wasn’t trying to deny it, he just didn’t need to think about that at the moment.

Somehow, that exhale must’ve reached Holiday in ways that all the noises of Providence hadn’t, because she rapidly blinked up at him and Six tore his hand away like it was burning.

“Holiday, I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

“Six!” she shouted suddenly, leaning forward and wrapping her arms around his neck. “Thank God you’re alright!”

Six stiffened on instinct, though a little part of him desperately wanted to wrap his arm around her waist and hold her tight against him. He was worried sick after seeing her asleep for ten minutes - he couldn’t imagine how she must’ve felt seeing everyone she cared about knocked out for two days straight.

Holiday backed away and moved her hands up to the sides of his face. “How do you feel?” She broke a few unspoken boundary rules of theirs and grabbed his sunglasses with one hand - pushing them up and revealing his eyes - then stretching the skin under his eyes with her other hand in her typical check-up routine. “Sick? Anxious? Well-rested? Anything?”

He shook his head and grabbed the sunglasses to pop them back into place. “I’m fine, Doctor. Rex, too. It seems like we’re all okay for the time being.”

She moved her hands down his face, holding them against his jaw with a surprising level of confidence. “Good,” she mumbled, staring up at him like he was the most important person in the world. “Good.”

Six, ignoring the warm feeling in his chest, reached up and wrapped his hands around her wrists, gently pulling them down to her lap. “You should go back to sleep, Holiday.”

“No, no,” she said against a quiet yawn. “I’ve had a few hours, that’ll be enough to keep me going while I-”

“Holiday,” he interrupted sternly, one of his hands cupped against her temple again. “Trust me when I say this: you’ve done enough. Too much, even.”

She lifted up one of her hands to brush his away from her head. “You don’t know what it was like, Six. It was terrifying enough when you suddenly fell asleep, but then...it was so quiet. I had to do something.”

He kept his hands to himself, but his eyes still focused on those little spots. “I know. But now it’s done and you need to go back to sleep.”

“But-”

Six leaned over and shoved against her arms, receiving almost no pushback as he laid her down on her bed.

“If you were anyone else…” she mumbled as her eyelids closed. “...I’d be mad about this…”

Six huffed and smiled the tiniest little smile. “Then it’s a good thing I’m me.”

“...yeah,” Holiday responded quietly, sounding like she was pretty much completely back to sleep. “...it is.”