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neopuff · 10 months

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title: pollen word count: ~4200 characters/ships: six, rex, holiday, white, six/holiday summary: Six is reminded, once again, that he should listen to Dr. Holiday. ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49208005

He was still getting used to training Rex. It wasn’t easy. Rex didn’t like to listen - he played around, took nothing seriously, was easily distracted, and seemed to enjoy putting himself into unnecessarily dangerous situations. Six could feel his headaches grow stronger every day.

It’d only been a few weeks of training and Rex had managed to break several bones (which healed in less than a day’s time), get blood all over his clothes (Holiday eventually forced them all to the mall to get Rex more to wear), and almost kill the monkey half a dozen times. Bobo stopped joining them in the Petting Zoo after that, and Six hoped Rex would be less distracted because of his absence.

That turned out not to be the case. Bobo stayed present - observing Rex from the Tower and banging on the windows to get his attention. Rex thought it was funny and Six thought he might die before they managed to get the kid to figure out how to steer his little motorcycle.

Training was even worse when there were new additions to the Zoo. Every week or so, Holiday would bring in a new specimen to study - especially if it displayed particularly unique abilities compared to other EVOs. She’d let the two of them know the level of danger and then Six would teach Rex different ways to fight or contain or avoid it.

The newest EVO addition was one that supposedly used to be a pine tree, but was now stomping and growling and had to have several of its branches cut down or restrained to ensure it would get along with the other EVOs in the Zoo. Holiday didn’t note it as particularly dangerous nor particularly important, so Six thought it’d be a perfect EVO for Rex to practice using his sword on.

His…Big Fat Sword, as the kid liked to call it. Six had to hold back any insults towards Rex's creative names for his builds, knowing anything negative would reach the doctor's ears by the end of the day.

"Be careful, Rex," Six said cautiously. "There's always a chance it'll grow bigger after you cut it up."

"Really?" Rex gave his mentor a big smile. "That sounds so cool, though! What if cutting it up turns it into a bunch of smaller EVOs? Oooh, or what if it grows a bunch of tree-tentacles out of its trunk? Or what if-"

"Stop distracting yourself and focus." Six had his katana in-hand and kept his eyes peeled for dangerous behavior from the EVOs around them. He'd spent hours and hours in the Zoo with Rex, but still wasn't used to or comfortable with surrounding himself with so many potential threats. "Build the sword and see if you can use it properly."

Rex pouted, but relented and glared down at his hand. He formed a fist and his arm started shaking and glowing as he attempted to create his BFS. "I-I think I'm getting it…"

After another few moments, the sword appeared - big and orange as ever. Rex smiled a toothy smile and pumped his other fist, but in doing so he lost his balance and quickly fell over from the weight of the sword.

"Rex!" Six called, annoyed and unmoving.

"I'm okay, I'm okay!!" Rex stood back up and shrugged. "Let's try this. Okay, Tree Guy��I'd say this won't hurt, but I think we both know that's not true…"

The EVO growled and shook, but ultimately stayed put. It continued to stay put even as Rex's sword sliced through its trunk and the EVO split completely in half.

Neither Rex nor Six had a moment to celebrate the proper sword usage, however, because out of the sliced EVO trunk came a rainstorm of a pollen-like substance that quickly coated everything within a two-hundred foot radius of the EVO's corpse. Assuming it was dead, of course. Maybe it’d grow back to normal in a day or two.

Rex started spitting and sputtering and rubbing his eyes instantly, whining about a disgusting taste in his mouth and how he couldn't see. Six simply wiped the substance off of his mouth as soon as it landed on him and glared down at his hand to see hundreds of little specks of yellow pollen.

"What the heck is this stuff?! Tree blood??" Rex shouted, still spitting wildly.

"Some kind of pollen. We should consult Dr. Holiday immediately." Six didn't really want to do that, especially since he and Holiday had gotten into a bit of a fight earlier in the day. That was happening to them more often lately and he didn't know what to do about it, but he certainly wasn't going to apologize for training Rex as he saw fit.

As Six brushed some of the pollen off of his jacket, he suddenly felt a tingling along his skin. It was a strange, foreign, light burning sensation that was coating everywhere that the pollen had touched. All along his face, neck, and hands.

Suddenly, Rex had wrapped his arms around Six's middle and was squeezing him tightly. Six frowned and glared down at the kid, though he couldn't help but notice that the burning sensation had decreased significantly.

"Six, I feel weird," Rex said awkwardly. "It feels like. I don't know. Like I really, really need a hug?"

Six's arms were slightly lifted up to avoid hugging his ward back, but…Rex was right. That was a perfect way to describe the burning, tingling sensation he was feeling. It was some kind of extreme touch-starvation. Like he needed physical contact with another living being or he'd start scratching his skin raw.

Slowly, Six let one of his hands fall to lay on top of Rex's head. The tingling almost completely went away, and he sighed. This was a nightmare for him.

"We need to get to Holiday so she can fix this."

Rex grumbled into Six's side, clearly embarrassed that he was hugging his mentor, but unable to pull away. "Yeah, I'd much rather be hugging her," he said uncomfortably. "No offense, Six."

"None taken," he responded in awkward kind, one hand still flush against the top of Rex's head. He wasn't sure how they'd get to Holiday without dozens of grunts seeing them like this, but Six wasn't sure what else to do. A little embarrassment was worth fixing the very serious predicament they were stuck in.

Holiday had been having an off day. She woke up late, then there was no half n half by the coffee machine so she had to drink her morning coffee straight, then she and Six got into a stupid argument about his treatment of Rex (not unusual, but frustrating nonetheless) and then she found out he was planning to have Rex kill her newest addition to the Petting Zoo.

She understood that Rex needed to train and he needed to be ready for the possibility of killing an EVO that couldn't be contained or cured, but she also thought it was too soon. Rex was only thirteen or fourteen and taking a life was a big step, even if it was just a tree. Plus she wasn’t done studying it - it’d only been in the Zoo for four days.

Sighing, Holiday chose to focus on writing up her report on said EVO - analyzing the data she'd collected on it earlier in the week. Every EVO was so different and so interesting - she hoped that if Rex and Six successfully sliced it open, they'd collect samples from inside for her to study. She'd mentioned it to Six earlier, but that was towards the end of their argument and he tended to be a bad listener when they had those tense little moments.

It was only fifteen or twenty minutes after she'd last heard from Six that her lab door opened up again. Holiday turned around to find Six and Rex standing there, covered in something yellowish, and holding onto one another uncomfortably. Noticeably uncomfortably.

She raised a curious eyebrow at the sight. "What happened?"

Six took a few more steps into the lab and Rex followed suit. "The EVO spit out a ton of pollen after being cut in half."

"Oh, did it?" Holiday asked, trying not to sound as smug as she felt. "I guess that could've been anticipated if you'd given me more time to study it."

The ninja frowned and rolled his eyes, one hand still on Rex's head. That was, until Rex let go of him and rushed to Holiday's side - hugging her more tightly and comfortably than he'd hugged Six.

She was taken slightly aback and stared down at him. "W-what's wrong, Rex? Are you okay?"

"No! I feel weird!" Rex mumbled into her lab coat, squeezing her tighter. "My skin is all tingly and it hurts if I'm not hugging someone!"

"Huh?" Holiday stared at him. "And this started after you got hit with the pollen?"

Rex nodded.

Holiday now understood why the two of them were hugging when they came in, and turned around to look at Six. "You, too?"

The man in green was visibly twitching, hands in his pockets like he was trying to stop himself from moving or feeling or having any weaknesses at all. "I'm fine."

She raised an eyebrow at him and looked back down at Rex as the kid said, "Just get over here, Six! She is so soft!"

Holiday blushed at that and couldn't decide if she wanted Six to listen or not. She was still a little mad at him for their morning conversation, but she also didn't want him to feel like his skin was burning. Or whatever was happening to them.

He was glaring harshly at Rex and had a light pink blush on his cheeks - a blush that made Holiday's heart skip a beat.

"Six…it's fine. Don't torture yourself," she said quietly, unable to look at his face. "I won't be uncomfortable, I promise." As she spoke, she laid one hand on Rex's head just as Six had done before, and let her other hand rest on Rex's arm. "But I do need to keep working, so grab my scanner and bring it over here."

It took another ten seconds before Holiday heard his familiar footsteps, and before she could say anything, her scanner was placed gently on the desk in front of her. She gave Six a sideways glance and noticed that he wasn't making any movement towards her.

"I'm serious, Six. You can…hug me if you need to." She hoped her face wasn't as red as it felt. "I won't tell anyone."

He sighed - sounding very annoyed - with her or himself, she wasn't sure - and suddenly Holiday felt his presence behind her. Six wrapped both of his arms around her shoulders and leaned his forehead against her head.

His breath tickled the back of her neck and Holiday wondered what she could've done in a past life to deserve having Six's arms around her, but being too professional to say or do anything about it.

"I told you," Rex mumbled, and got a quiet grunt from Six in return.

Holiday reached her free hand up towards one of Six's hands in an attempt to give him more skin contact - which is what she assumed he and Rex were craving. Six grabbed her hand with his and held it against her clavicle, taking another deep breath.

Rebecca focused on the feelings of Six holding her hand and Rex squeezing her tight and her own hand gently patting down Rex's hair and she realized in that moment…how much she liked it. In the past few months, she'd grown to completely love the boys she worked with. Even with the inappropriate flirting and the insubordination and the repetitive arguments - she really, really loved them. Being held by them made her heart soar. She felt like a part of a family and she hadn't felt anything like that in a long time. Even before her sister mutated.

She closed her eyes and just enjoyed the feeling for a few moments, neither of the boys saying anything. They probably both felt too awkward, but she was happy and she was smiling. Blush on her cheeks, heart beating fast, sure. But still happy.

“Hey Doc?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you, um…” Rex mumbled, glancing up at her face. “Are you gonna use the scanner and fix us anytime soon?”

Holiday pouted. “In a second. You two may hate this, but it’s nice to feel appreciated once in a while,” she said playfully, hoping the joke would land.

Six grunted against her hair and squeezed her tighter while Rex chuckled and placed one of his hands on top of the one she had on his head.

Alright, alright. Holiday relented and pulled her hand out of Six’s grasp - which was surprisingly difficult to do and made her heart flutter again - grabbing the scanner and quickly holding it over Rex to get some preliminary results. She also realized belatedly that she shouldn’t have let them touch her when they still had the pollen all over them; chances are she’d also be affected. Though it was hard to know since they hadn’t let go of her since entering the lab.

She glanced at the information on her scanner and let out a brief hum. “I should be able to synthesize an antidote for this.”

“How long?” Six mumbled into her hair.

Holiday hoped he didn’t notice the shiver down her spine when he did that. “Um…ten or fifteen minutes, if you guys can let go of me long enough to let me work.”

The two of them made noises of acknowledgement, but didn’t move. Holiday rolled her eyes and patted Rex’s head and Six’s hand. “Now?”

They both pulled away pretty reluctantly - Six’s hand slid down her arm and brushed against hers for a moment before stepping away completely, and Rex quickly reached out and grabbed Six’s hand instead.

Holiday smiled at them and turned around to grab some things off of another desk. “Chemical shower is right over there, you both need to get the pollen off of you.”

As they did that, she glanced down at the smattering of pollen that was transferred to her hands and shoulders. She wasn’t feeling any burning or itching or desperate need to touch another person. That was very interesting. Either she was somehow immune, or the effects were only potent on immediate dispersion from the EVO.

She heard the shower running behind her and Rex shouting that the water was freezing.

“Stop complaining and make sure to get all the pollen off,” Six said with a very grumpy expression.

“Don’t act like this is my fault, Six!” Rex said, sputtering on occasion as water got into his mouth. “You told me to slice it open!”

The ninja grunted in response and shoved Rex to the side so he could get himself under the water. Rex shook himself off - almost like a dog - and quickly rushed back to Holiday’s side.

“Do you have any towels?” he asked quietly, interrupting her attempts to very quickly pull together an antidote.

Holiday pointed to a shelf next to the shower and continued working. She needed to get this done before she or Six had a heart attack from all the affection. He definitely wasn’t used to it and as much as she was enjoying it, she wasn’t used to it, either.

Rex was drying off his hair while Six shut the water off and grabbed another towel from the shelf. He looked irritated, like he was fighting the burning, tingling sensations that still crawled all over his skin. Rex, on the other hand, looked fine, and Holiday noticed that he wasn’t reaching for Six’s hand anymore.

“Rex? How are you feeling?” she asked, lightly shaking the test tube in her hand.

“Huh? Oh…” Rex flexed his fingers and wiggled his arms. “I feel fine! Totally normal. I guess we just needed to get the stuff off, huh, Six?”

Six glared down at Rex, his hand twitching slightly. “Right.”

Holiday noticed the strained look on his face and continued what she was doing, pretty confident that Six was lying to make Rex more comfortable. She wasn’t surprised to see that Rex’s nanites had likely broken down the, for lack of a better word, poison, while Six was stuck with the same feelings as before.

“Why don’t you go change? You’ll catch a cold like this,” Six said curtly.

Rex stretched. “I wish I could build some kind of fan! Then I could’ve just blown off the pollen from the beginning.” He put a hand to his chin in thought. “Maybe like…some kind of jet pack or something.”

“Or something,” Six said. “Go work on that. But change your clothes first.”

The ninja received a sarcastic salute as a response, and Holiday turned around just in time to see Rex blow her a kiss as he headed out the door. She rolled her eyes and looked back at Six, who was staring at her so intensely that she felt a strong urge to cool herself off in that chemical shower.

“Six. It’s okay. Just come here,” she said softly, holding out one hand. So she’d get a little wet, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

He huffed and quickly walked over, grabbing her outstretched hand and wrapping his free arm around her shoulder again. Like before, Six laid his head on the back of hers and tried not to think about how foolish he felt or how he was getting water all over her hair and coat.

Holiday did her very best to not think about the intimate position they were in now that Rex was gone and focused entirely on the antidote - it needed to steep for a few minutes before she could test it on the pollen sample she’d pulled off herself, but if that worked out then she could get Six back to normal before anything else went wrong.

Just as those thoughts were running through her head, Rex barged back into the lab complaining that all of his clothes were dirty or covered in monkey fur. In that instant, Six squeezed Holiday's shoulder and hand tighter, and she looked up at Rex - who paused in his step and stared at the two of them with big, confused eyes.

Rex slowly grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket and took a picture of the two of them - entertained by the embarrassed glare on Holiday’s face.

“Rex,” she said sternly, hoping he’d delete that picture but also kind of hoping he’d keep it.

“What’s up, Doc?” he responded with a little smirk.

Holiday glared at the kid and felt Six’s grip on her shoulder loosen. She sighed. “Six can come help you with your laundry when we’re done.”

“Done snuggling?” Rex stuck his tongue out playfully. “Or did Six lie and pretend that he was better when he wasn’t?”

“He just didn’t want you to worry,” she said quickly, not waiting for Six to say something unnecessarily aggressive in response. She knew that he got especially annoyed with Rex when it came to questioning his authority, but she wasn’t in the mood to listen to him yell at the kid when it wasn’t that serious.

Rex pouted and put his phone away. “Yeah, I kno-”

Holiday raised a curious eyebrow at him as Rex suddenly stopped talking and had a look of genuine fear on his face. He was staring bug-eyed above Six and Holiday, shaking his head back and forth, and mouthing the word no.

It didn’t take a genius to realize that White Knight was on the screen and was now a witness to their situation. She stared at Rex for a few more seconds, trying to decide what to do or say, when the kid’s expression calmed down and she realized that Knight had probably just left without saying anything. She wondered if Six noticed. He probably did. She was going to pretend that she didn’t.

“Um…right. So…is Six gonna be okay…?” Rex asked, trying to ignore the minute of silence that just fell over them.

“I’m fine,” Six grunted.

“I’m testing the antidote now,” Holiday said softly, ignoring Six’s voice behind her. “If it works, Six’ll be back to normal in few minutes.”

“Cool.” Rex rocked back and forth on his heels. “And then laundry?”

“You should learn to do your own laundry,” Six muttered. “It’s not difficult.”

Rex pouted. “But it looks so boring!”

As Six was about to say something again, Holiday cut him off by aggressively squeezing his hand. “Rex, maybe Bobo can show you how to do it? I’m sure it won’t be boring with him.”

“Yeah, okay, okay.” Rex shuffled out the door again, but not before taking another quick photo with his phone. He had a feeling Bobo would find it hilarious.

“He’s just teasing you, you know.”

“I’m aware.” Six huffed again, continually attempting to pull his hand away from Holiday and each time feeling a burn that pushed him back. “Are you almost done?”

Holiday stared down at the test pollen, happy to see that it seemed to be reacting as she’d hoped. “Yup. Just need to make a big enough dose for you.”

They fell silent for a minute until Six spoke again. “Injection?”

“Yes. Make sure not to squirm around.” She was already placing the antidote liquid inside an empty syringe, stretching the plunger to make sure there were no air bubbles. She grabbed an alcohol pad and gently rubbed it against a spot on Six’s hand. “Ready?”

“Just get it done.”

A few seconds later and Six was pricked and injected. He refused a bandaid, as he often did, and Holiday stood there awkwardly while she waited for him to pull away. His first attempt at doing so was met with immediate failure and he held onto her even tighter than before.

“Doctor…”

“Just give it a minute, Six,” she muttered, annoyed at his impatience.

They stood there for a few more moments and Six started to pull away from her again when his comm beeped. He reached up and pressed a finger to it, immediately noticing the lack of burning or tingling on his skin. “Six here,” he said, taking two large steps away from the doctor.

“If you’re done with Dr. Holiday, I need you two in the Petting Zoo asap,” White Knight said with a not-so-subtle hint of judgment in his voice.

Six blinked slowly and turned away from Holiday’s inquiring eyes. “What’s going on?”

“The EVOs are acting erratically. Find out what’s wrong with them and fix it.”

The ninja glanced over at Holiday, then back at the lab door. “I’ll get it done.” He headed towards the door without saying anything, hands back in his sopping wet pockets. He needed to hurry to his room, change, and get to the Zoo before anything else went wrong.

“Do you need my help?”

“No. I can handle this,” Six answered sternly, halfway to the door.

“Six,” Holiday said, exasperated. “You’re still all wet. Don’t go back to work without changing.”

He almost rolled his eyes. “Of course, Doctor. Wouldn’t dream of it.”

She watched him leave and clasped her hands together in front of her. She couldn’t deny that she was already feeling kind of cold - twenty minutes of being held and she’d almost gotten used to it. That was…embarrassing. Holiday was glad no one else was around to see the definitely visible blush on her cheeks and she stepped to her computer. She needed to get back to the work she was doing before they’d interrupted her.

A random shiver crawled down her spine and Holiday was struck with the memory of how Six’s breath felt on the back of her neck. She felt her face get even hotter and pinched the bridge of her nose.

If only he’d listened to her from the beginning, her concentration wouldn’t have been shot for the rest of the day.

Six made it to the Petting Zoo with clean, dry clothes in record time, and immediately noticed the ‘erratic behavior’ that White had mentioned. The Zoo EVOs were definitely acting differently than usual. Many of them were rubbing up against each other, some were fighting (almost like wrestling), and others were…well. Doing what animals often did, he supposed.

He pressed a finger to his comm. “You could’ve been more specific.”

“I didn’t quite know how to describe it,” Knight responded. “Where’s Holiday?”

“She’s busy. Just have someone turn on the rain for ten minutes, the EVOs should be back to normal by the end of it,” Six said, his back straightening awkwardly at the mention of the doctor. He didn’t want to think about her right now. He wanted to think about anything other than how nice she smelled or how soft she was or how pleasant it felt to hold her. Anything else.

Knight made a small noise of affirmation and hung up, leaving Six standing there uncomfortably while two EVOs were going at it a hundred feet away from him. He could see that they were covered in the pollen, and pinched the bridge of his nose

Maybe he would consider listening to Dr. Holiday next time she told him to wait.

#generator rex #holix #agent six #rex salazar #rebecca holiday #dr. holiday #white knight #bobo haha #carrofics #bobos not rly in it but hes in this more than usual for my fics #sorry bobo i promise to include you more

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