Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Clock was just sitting down, thinking. What would happen once he left the challenge? Where would he go? 

And as Four and X burst into the room, all he could think to himself was guess I found out, huh?

He would do everything with Four and X, and while it was concerning that they gave him a shrine in the side of the kitchen, he was okay. Nothing directly bad happened to him. Well, not since Winner anyway. 

He could only think and wonder to himself, would he be missed by these two contrasting Algebraliens? It’s as if he’s insignificant to them. Their lives are sort of forever, and his is just the smallest fraction of theirs.

But maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to live like this just a little longer.

“Clock! Clock! Check out this cake we made!” X yelled, holding up a very fancy cheesecake. He smiled and lowered it down so Clock could see every detail.

“Good job, X.” Clock said, sort of monotone.

“You don’t like it?” X asked, looking up at him with those eyes you couldn’t say no to.

“No, no, I do! I’m just a bit tired today.” Clock responds. He’s telling the truth, considering he’s been using just his legs to pack sandwich after sandwich.

“Well, maybe Four could give you some of his power? Just to make it easier.” X looked at Four, who grumbled slightly. “Please, Four?” 

“Fine.” Four begrudgingly held out his hand to Clock, and in it had a small blue ball, levitating just a bit.

Clock gazed at it in almost a trance. He grabbed it with his leg and it phased into him, with a small tingly feeling following after. X smiled happily and while Four was not as happy, he still was okay with Clock being the one taking it.

Clock tried lifting a sandwich into the bag, and to his surprise, it did without him using his legs.

“Good job, Clock!” X exclaimed. Four sighed, muttering “Amateur…” under his breath.

“We should go somewhere today. What do you think?” X asked suddenly. Clock hesitated before responding.

“Well, we could go fishing again?” Clock suggested. Four shook their head.

“We were there last time, so we should go somewhere new.” Four announced. “Like the forest. As a good suggestion.” 

Clock looked at Four, wondering what forest he was talking about.

“The Fourest or Evil Leafy’s forest?“ Clock asks as he continues to pack sandwiches for the contestants. Four and X continue the conversation as Clock just does what he does. He didn’t know what to do.

He could go to Evil Leafy’s forest. But he’s never even been there. He only knew it from a story Tennis Ball told him randomly.

“We should go to Yoyleland!!” X said.

“But it’s so far! It’s 2763 miles away from here right now!” Clock exclaims in turn.

“We could just use our powers to get there.” Four chimed in, a bit tired sounding.

“I don’t have any powers!”
“What about the ones I just gave you?”

~~~

Clock, Four, and X were all chatting nicely and floating along the way to Yoyleland. It took a long time, but they still had fun. Four ranted about how Two was a horrible Algebralien, but Clock countered it saying that Two did also let him stay after elimination to meet them. Four grumbled but reluctantly agreed.

X in the meantime started teaching Clock to play Patty Cake with his new powers. Clock was able to shape them into hands, sort of like Winner’s hand. He learned Patty Cake, which X approved of. Then they played Sticks the rest of the way, the three of them all along.

"Yay!" X yelled as they arrived at their destination. Yoyleland was right up ahead and perfectly placed in their view/

"Wow..." Clock muttered under their breath. It was a beautiful sight, being all the way above Yoyleland and able to see everything from their view. 

"It's great, right?" Four asked as they floated over to Clock, who shot up in the spot they hovered in. He nods, watching as Four sat up and floated to X. Clock floated with them.

The warm lights filled the cityscape, and made Clock glad to be there. Even if he was almost nothing in their immortal lives, he was glad to be there.

X floated down, with Clock and Four following close. They all walked into a not-so run down building. It wasn’t scary at all, but cozy. It was only abandoned. They would be able to fix this place someday. Maybe.

X walked in and sat down on the floor. Clock floated in, trying to get used to it all and onto a small sofa. It was like Two’s sofa, but red. There was a red armchair and carpet as well, with a small fireplace. A few shelves on the side with some succulent living off some rainwater that dripped through some cracks. 

Four, on the other hand, appeared out of nowhere and next to Clock. X gravitated toward him and they all sat together next to the crackling fire. Clock swore that the fire dimmed as they sat there, but no change was visible to the other numbers that sat with him. 

He leaned on one of them, and they were almost squishy. Like a pillow. Smiling, he squished them with his powers acting like a hand. Four and X looked up to see a smiling Clock the cause of it. Four couldn’t be mad. Just like with X, who was patting Clock in return.

“You’re so cute, Clock! How nice of you.” X giggled out as he patted Clock. Clock made a motion with his circular body that was a shrug. Even if nobody could see that.

They all floated onto the roof and sat at the edge. Clock sat in Four’s lap as he put an arm around X. 

“This is… nice.” Clock muttered.

“It is, isn’t it?” X asked. The sun started to do something funny before Four raised a hand and it stilled into sunset. A pretty one too.

“Beautiful.” Four said, the sun slowly going behind the other buildings of Yoyleland.

As they sat there, Clock could only think to himself, once all these challenges ended, and he solved everything with Winner, it would be all okay. Hopefully. But 2 very nice Algebraliens would probably save him from it all.

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If only Clock could’ve stayed, just a bit longer.

Chapter Text

Clock sat on the roof, with the two numbers. However invigorating and complicated they were, they were nice.

“Well, we can go somewhere now, I think.” Clock muttered to them. Four nodded along with X. 

They got up, and floated down to the road.

“This place looks so abandoned. Yoyleland is kinda depressing. Should we go somewhere else?” X asked. 

“Sure, if you’d like.” Clock responded. Four nodded in agreement. “It was a nice rest stop I suppose, even if we originally planned to come here.”

“Yeah, but that building gives me the creeps. X points to a run down building with some vines on it. Clock shuddered.

“Yeah, let’s go. Four?”

“I’m coming.”

 X took the lead once more as Four and Clock followed. But eventually, Clock got tired.

“Hey… is anyone else feeling a bit… sluggish?” Clock asked in an almost raspy voice. 

“Can’t say I am.” Four hummed. “Maybe it’s because this is your first time with these new powers. You didn’t even start with them. So it will take a lot out of you.” 

“Yeah. It overexerts you since your body is still getting used to it.” X added on. “Maybe Four could carry you?”

X looked at Four expectantly. Four scoffed. The splash-like color of blue that was the same as the rim on Clock slowly started to fade. Four pulled Clock in quickly right as it gave out.

“Whatever. I’m doing this because I want to. Not because X told me to.” Four scoffed. Clock smiled, since Four was so busy trying to defy X that he hadn’t realized he admitted to wanting to do this.

“Well, alright. Where to?” Clock asked.

“Maybe we could just fly around and go sightseeing. That would be fun!” X said as he flew straight through a large cloud.

Clock looked down. And immediately almost vomited.

“Whoa! Are you okay?” X asked.

“Well… it can make anyone scared of heights in the slightest feel sick to their stomach from up here…” Clock muttered out. 

Four sighed. “You’ll get used to it, probably.” 

Clock looked down once more. And again. And again. Eventually, he was able to look down without feeling like puking all over the patch of land they were currently flying over.

“It looks… quite interesting from up here.” Clock muttered to himself.

“Yeah. The tops of trees are a bit weird for me though.” X said, putting a hand on his face.

“Can we go down and touch it?” Clock asked. Four nodded, and brought them down. 

“This should be good. You can graze it with your foot. Don’t fall.” Four said.

Clock reached out a foot and felt as the trees flew past. He smiled. It was… peaceful.

Of course, until his foot get caught on a branch. He tries to pull it out, but it doesn’t work. Since they were flying forward, he fell right out of Four’s lap and into the abyss of treetops below.

“HELP!” Clock yelled out. 

Up ahead, Four and X immediately realized and turned back around. They were able to tell where Clock was, and flew over. The only thing was that Clock was nowhere to be seen.

Nestled in the branches of course, Clock was sitting. If he moved, everything would break. So he was stuck.

“Clock?!” X yelled out, quite urgently. “Clock!” 

“Where are you?” Four frantically asked. No response.

X heard a slight shuffling in the branches, but only found a bird.

After a while, they heard an off-beat ticking noise coming from a few feet away. ‘Tick, Tick, Tick.’

“Clock? Clock!?” Four yelled urgently. He may have not shown it before, but he definitely cared for Clock.

X finally found him, pulling his leg up from in between two tree branches and revealing a battered, and paint-chipped Clock. He was dizzy, looking dazed like he was high.

“What… huh..?” Clock muttered. X hugged him immediately and gave him a kiss on the forehead. 

“You’re alive! I would’ve thought you died from all that.” X said as they hugged Clock tightly. “Sure, Four could revive you, but it still wouldn’t be very nice for you to have died.”

Four ran over as well, and hugged Clock tightly, before going back to floating. “You don’t get to touch the treetops anymore. It’s too dangerous.”

X smiled, and hovered behind Four. “Yeah. It’s not the best idea, I don’t think.”

They continued to float back, X now sticking a lot closer to Four and Clock. Clock was nestled in Four’s arms, due to a tight grip and a ‘not’ protective Four.

Once landed though, X snapped, and was able to teleport into the kitchen. Four sighed, since X teleported them to the roof instead, but they eventually got there.

“M’kay… maybe no more traveling.” Clock muttered once they landed.

“Agreed.” Said X. “But the view is nice from up here. Not like Yoyleland’s, but nice in its own way.”

“Yeah. I can see the other contestants from up here. They’re doing a new challenge.” Clock responded. “I hope Winner is well. I have new friends though.”

“Oh! And who might that be?” Four asked. Clock gave him a deadpan stare and sighed.

“It’s you guys, obviously.” Clock muttered. Four perked up, and X gasped. 

“Really?” 

“Yeah.”

“More than Winner?”

“They weren't all that great.”

X was smiling a lot, now. So was Four, as Clock sat in front of them.

“Well…” Four said. “We could bake something together now?”

“Sure.” Clock replied. “But we are on the roof.”

“Let’s go downstairs then.”

“Alright!”

They all ran down, and X got out every ingredient possible. Four smiled. He grabbed the bowl and started dumping in all the ingredients. Clock mixed it, and surprisingly fast for not having any arms.

“Almost done!” X yelled, throwing flour everywhere. Clock snickered as Four got a faceful of flour.

“Ack!” Four sputtered as he tried to rub his eyes, only to get more flour in his eyes. Clock laughed until he was on the floor.

It was a good day.

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If only it could’ve lasted.