A/N: Okay, this is some 9 slash. I think it won't be really long, but it'll have some chapters ahead. Please, R&R, cause I was writing it after watching the horribly dubbed film, so I'm not sure if 5&company are IC. Thank u!)

- I am scared, - murmurs 6. He was sitting on the ground, knees tucked to his chest, and rocking slightly - instinctive wish to lull the fears away, - We are scared. We all scared. We all scared...

- It's okay, 6, - murmurs 5 in turn, kneeing besides. His cold metallic fingers lay on 6 trembling shoulders, and 6 nearly jumps away, - it's all right. We're save here.

- We are not safe. Nothing's save! Nothing's... No-nothing's okay... We must save, but we are never safe... - 6's voice dies to hisses and whispers. 5 extends his hands to 6, and 6 stretches out to him like a wave, limp under the torning wind. 5 wraps his arms around stripped, weakly trembling shoulders, and 6 attracts himself to the other ragdoll desperately, as if obsessed and afraid and jealous at the same time. 5 sighs. He is facing the wall covered up with horrors of 6's imagination. Black ink, yellowish sandpaper. Black fear, yellowish faded life.

He can't help but shudder when 6 pets his chest gently.

- I can hear you ticking. Tick-tock. Tick-tock, - 6 taps on 5's upper button rhythmically, a second heartbeat - you're still ticking. Good. He'll hear you ticking so loud out here and come.

- Are you talking about the monster? - even knowing that 6 is just crazy and paranoid, 5 can almost feel fear bulging inside of him like a bubble full of poison. Too sincere in his feelings, too caring about himself, 5 doesn't even try to hold it back, and is ready to drown in his fears.

- About e-e-everybody, - hisses 6. 5's hands weaken on his shoulders and nearly fell from them, but 6 catches them up and places back on his body.

- We are all scared, - he says in 5's face. 5 shooks his head, as if waking from a daydream, or dismissing undesirable thoughts out of his mind. He holds 6 tighter, and 6 gratefully leans to him, petting his back with number 5 painted on it and murmuring gently, mouth brushing against 5's sackcloth cheek:

- Tick-tock, tick-tock, 5 equals tick-tock...

---

- Of course he's scared, - says 2, wisely and kindly, like he says everything; 5 wishes to give himself fully to 2's wisdom, and so he does - we are all scared of something - it's a part of our humanity, of our soul. Only machines and monsters are fearless, because they have nothing in here.

2 covers 5's chest with his rusty hand. 5's shoulders twitch.

- You can't be scared, - he says, as if defending.

- Of course I am scared. But I've conquered that fear, with my mind, - 2 knocks on his lamp hat. 5 looks at him interrogatively. 2 laughs - a cracking, hoarse laughter of a wise, experienced man, and places his hand on 5's shoulder.

- You'll understand. You'll conquer it.

And 5 believes him just because 2 said so.

---

Rustling, murmuring, like a sea waves upon the sand, 6 draws. Today it won't be the artifact - today it will be something special. He finishes, brushes his face with hands painted black, and smiles satisfactorily. Then takes his paper and rushes towards the tower.

5 is alone now, sitting near the telescope and watching the town. In the evening light he seems painted in yellow and purple. 6 cocks his head, watching - he doesn't have many colors to draw, only black exactly. But he wishes he had some colorful ink or something. To draw colorful things.

- Things are colorful today, - he says, and 5 turns to him.

- Well, they are, why not? - 5 gives 6 a smile and leaves his telescope, - you got another picture of that round thing?

- No. This one's for you, - 6 holds a paper towards him, smiling almost justifyingly.

As 5 looks at it, he sees some blurry black figures that look more like scruffy blobs of ink. Under the picture is written: 2 + 5 - 6 = 1.

- Does this mean anything? - 5 questions, clueless.

- This is you. Both of you. Someone has to be alone. Sorry, I have no colors accept black.

Starring carefully, 5 at last notices that blobs are forming two figures that are staying impossibly close to each other. Their hands are joined in embrace, and beneath the chests their bodies are united. One figure has a long, clumsy slash crossing one side of its head. Somehow picture looks terrifying and intimate at the same time.

- And this numbers? Do they mean us? You, me and 2?

6 rubs his hands, looking a little puzzled and scared.

- And this one. Does it mean our leader, 1? - 5 taps number 1 in the end of the writing.

- No. No, no. It means alone. Someone has to be alone. No leader.

5 shrugs, bends the picture in half and puts it with his other papers.

- Okay, mmm. Thanks then, 6. I'd better be going - 2 said I can go in the town with him today. We better hurry, or 1 will be mad.

Suddenly changed, 6 pulls long face in a rush of fear, his mouth shudders.

- No, no, no! - 6 jumps towards 5, grabs hold of his hands and shakes him, - you must stay here today! Only today! Don't go anywhere!

5's surprised, his eyebrow jumps up.

- Why?

- It's... It's dangerous! Something terrible awaits you there! Don't go, please! I know! - 6's so intense in his sudden fear, his eyes widened into two artificial dark pieces of emptiness, his hands shaking, metallic fingers clicking against each other, - if you go there I'll never see you again!

Too surprised, too helpless under the uncontrollable wave of 6's despair, 5 nods. He can nearly hear his neck metallic plates cracking in the tense air, sliding along each other.

- Okay, 6. Calm down, I won't go, - as he vocalizes his "yes" to whatever 6 wanted from him, he feels a little relieved. He'd always hated breaking the rules.

6's black and white face brightens with a smile of relief.

- Uh-huh, yes! Yes, thank you! Another one to go and disappear will be just too much, - 6 clenches 5's hands in a tight grip. 5 returns the smile, and 6 leans to him to place his mouth to the corner of 5's mouth slot. Complicated heart mechanism inside of 5's chest doesn't even tick a single time before the kiss is over, and 6 withdraws. Like a shadow, he escapes the tower, silent and unnoticed, leaving puzzled and embarrassed 5 rubbing his cheek. There's drops of black ink left in the corner of his mouth, were the two had just touched.