I really need these two to get along before a certain chapter, so more bonding cause cause why the hecc not? Plus they're faster to make?

Also, art by me, blueberry addition by Citrine!

Reminder, rat squeaking, human speaking

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"Okay, let's try this again. Roll over."

Six stared at Blueberry with a not so amused look, watching his paw as he kept making the small circular motion. He had been acting weird ever since last night, kept trying to get her to engage with him, which confused her greatly.

Didn't he want her to leave him alone? Why was he suddenly so interested in her?

"By the stars-- do I need to show you?" he growled. He dropped down, rolling over onto his back. Six watched with confusion. Was this some weird kinda courtship thing? Well it kinda explained everything, but ewwww-

"Bleh!" She stuck her tongue out, shaking her head, love and mates were overrated! She pushed him away with her sore paws, flinching at the sudden rush of pain. She shouldn't have swam with the cuts...

She looked at one, seeing the red coloring around the scabbed over wounds, flinching at the slight whiff of infection. Blueberry groaned loudly, sitting up and got to his feet.

"Mouse, do it already!" he whined. Six gave him a glare, cradling her paw close to her as she showed her teeth.

"I'm not a mouse," she hissed. Blueberry seemed even more upset. He ran a paw through his dark brown fur, sighing loudly.

"Okay, maybe something else... what about... Play Dead? No, that's a bit to hard with a language barrier this big..."

She watched the other strange rat began to talk to himself, seemingly having a full blown conversation, which began to make her worry for him. She laid back down in her nest, turning on to her back as she watch him do his routine pacing back and forth.

"Maybe I should just teach you how to walk on two legs," Seven muttered finally, "at least then I can have some sort of help to fall back on if needed."

Squeaks looked up at him from her spot on the ground, a tired look in her eyes as she snuggled into her nest more.

Yeah, that seemed like a good plan.

"Okay. Squeaks, come here," he said, patting his legs to get her attention. She perked up at her name, rolling onto all fours, a sudden shocked expression in her eyes.

"Excuse me, you're going to jump where?"

"C'mere, let's try something new," he said, trying to keep his voice light friendly sounding. It hurt, mostly due to the fact of how out of character if felt to him when he did it.

Squeaks looked hesitate, slightly rearing her head back when he reached a hand out. Seven quickly snatched his hand back as he heard the other let out a growl.

Okay, new plan...

Squeaks finally lowered her guard for a second, looking over to the large glowing pit that was the heart of the Maw. It gave off waves of heat, which was seemingly the only thing that kept their thin forms warm at night rather then their force snuggling in the Depths.

He took a breath and hoped and prayed to whatever higher deity there was she didn't fight to badly.

Six gazed down at the fiery pit, the small haunting memory of Blueberry dangling her over a pit of leeches making her flinch. She didn't know what was happening, just that he was shouting, screaming, crying, holding her just whisker lengths away from death.

It was like it flipped a switch in her brain, a forever memory telling her that even Blueberry, her own species, wouldn't hesitate to kill her. Just like him...

Out of nowhere, Blueberry grabbed her by her slick fur, and pulled her upwards. It was like she was reliving the dreaded, adrenaline pumping event all over again.

She thrashed in his grasp, claws reaching out to cut at him. He narrowly escaped a slash to the cheek, before his grip loosened.

"It's okay, I got you!" he said. Six hissed loudly at him, trying to get out of his grasp. He let go, the unfamiliar feeling of being on her hind legs making her nearly topple over.

He caught her by her shoulders before she fell face first, holding her up. In a fearful state of mind, her paws wrapped around his wrists, looking at the ground with wide eyes.

"See? I got you," he said. Six growled, looking up at him, teeth bared slightly.

"What are you planning?" She asked. His forced friendly smile faltered, dropping as he continued to hold her up.

"Sunrise, if this is about before, I didn't mean to, I swear. If it had been up to me, we would be out of here by now... I'm sure you're hungry, and it's my fault. You're getting sick, we both haven't had anything to drink in a day, I didn't save you hardly any scraps from the Nome..."

"Sunrise?" She muttered. What was that? He had called her that before, but it still puzzled her.

Blueberry helped her stand up fully on her hind legs, making her even more wobbly and unstable on them. Her claws dug into his blue fur, keeping her balance as much as possible.

"Got it? I'm gonna let go now," he muttered gently. His grip on her lessened a bit, which made her feel uneasy. Her claws gripped into the fabric, nearly falling over as she followed him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on!" he leaned back up and straightened her up, having her shoulder against his to give her a sense of stability.

"I want down," she said quickly, staring below at how far down the ground was. If he let go now, she'd definitely have a bruise on her chin from the fall. Her grip tightened even more at the unsettling thought.

Blueberry took a small step back again and again, keeping her within grabbing distance so she couldn't fall over. She had no choice but to follow, wobbly walking after him with a bit of fear in her mind.

"Just like that," he softly cheered, trying to encourage her, seeing the nervousness on her face.

Step after step, the two slowly came over to the far side of the room. She had nearly fell over more then once, her grip tightening more and more until the point she was sure she left marks on Blueberry's wrists.

Once his back was flush against the wall, he smiled brightly at her. "There we go! Not so bad, right?" he asked.

"Can I get down now?" He let go, and she quickly dropped down. His grip made her paws ache slightly from the inflammation in them, making her whine as she held one up at a time.

She looked over her shoulder to where she had made her nest, which was a small walk away. Great, now she had to get to halfway across the room on sore paws because of the blue rat.

A rat hole wasn't that far away, she could just leave him and try to get home to the colony if she wanted to. Actually, didn't seem like that bad of an idea after how many times he tried to leave her.

But... that would make her just as bad as him, huh?

Squeaks looked down at the floor, before getting up on all fours again. She reached up and grabbed Seven's sleeve with her teeth, once again leading him to a wall.

He didn't fight her this time like he normally did, rather just let her do whatever she wanted. It wouldn't hurt to show her a little trust, hell, he might receive a bit of his own in return.

She pulled him over another coal pile, before reaching down and digging underneath it. Soon, she stopped, holding her hand to her chest like a dog would do.

Seven got down to look at it, but soon pulled away as she went to bite at him, growling as she glared at him.

"Hey, just let me look, it's okay," he whispered, slowly going to grab her hand. Squeaks gave another growl, her shoulders and jaws clinging as she watched him.

'Even the friendly animal can turn unpredictable when they are hurting,' he reminded himself. Careful to not trigger any survival instincts in the other's animalistic mind, he gently took her hand from her chest.

He was only able to pull it away slightly before she went to bite at him, pulling away as his finger brushed her palm. The rough texture of scabs reminded him of her minor injury while trying to out swim whatever had been chasing them in the Depths.

Maybe a splinter or bacterial infection? Whatever it was, she wasn't going to let him do anything if she had any saying (perhaps any squeaking?) in it.

She began to dig again, rolling coal out of the way as she went down farther and farther against the wall. A small cloud of dust and charcoal bits flew in his face, making him begin to cough as his eyes watered at the intruding particles.

"Watch it, would you?" he asked, letting out another cough as he fanned away the small black clouds that would be flung up.

She finally stopped, half of her on the ground as she looked at the exit in front of them. Seven was finally able to see the once hidden rat hole.

"Hey, not bad," he said, sliding down to join her. She looked up, before going into the hole. The other followed after her, before letting out a small gasp of awe.

Small ledges were jotting out, leading upwards and upwards, light coming in from the top.

Squeaks looked over, and for a moment, Seven swore he saw her give him a smirk. She jumped up to to the first ledge, before turn on the small platform and came to the next one.

"You knew about this the whole time?" he asked. Her head poked down from the third ledge, raincoat hood hiding her face.

"Squeak," she said, before making a bounce to the fourth ledge.

Seven give a small impressed chuckle. Maybe it won't kill him to not judge her so much. For an animal, she seemed a lot more intelligent then he originally thought she was.

He was tall enough to just climb the ledges, but even then the other was far ahead do him, near the tenth one or so. The narrowed, strange shaped vent was tall, and what felt like half an hour of nothing but climbing, did it seem like they were getting anywhere.

"How long is this thing?" Seven mumbled, gripping into whatever number ledge this was. Squeaks was still far away, before she seemed to wait long enough for him to catch up.

Seven's arms and shoulders started to burn as the light started to finally get brighter. Squeaks finally came to the top, revealing a vent cover that could be pushed to be open.

The sound of the ground thumping and thundering overheard suddenly made her jump, spotting large shadows cover the vent and flood the two in darkness.

Seven finally came to her side at last, looking out to see what was all the noise.

His eyes widen as he bit his tongue, seeing the large, hideous, wrinkly, fat bodies of monstrous adults walk by. They seemed to be chanting something as they slowly passed, each step they took shaking the ground like claps of thunder.

"The Guests are here."

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Finished - Nov. 2nd & 3rd

Done with another chapter! Woooo!

I had a lot of fun, but I feel like I should also announce something since I know people are going to complain or something.

Six is Aromantic in this, mates don't interest her and love is overrated. Sevix elements still exists, but it's platonic. I want to show you can still have a ship, without it being romantic and rather just two good friends having a good time.

I will still write cute scenes though, don't worry.

Hope you all enjoyed!

Take care!

* Updated Jan. 15th, 2021 *

Nothing big, but I hope everyone enjoyed.

I mostly just reworded a few things, and overall, nothing was really touched, so have another quick chapter!

Also, here's a picture of Six with an Aro flag

Take care!

* Edited May 14th, 2021 *

* Edited Jan. 11th, 2024 *