Chapter Text
Jabber has a headache. It's been bothering him for a while now, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it before, and he'd be damned if he told any of his coworkers (as lose as that term is). So, now here he is, walking down a dark ally in hopes his favorite doctor is in.
Alice couldn't care less about her clientele. In fact, it's a miracle that she even has standards to begin with. Normally, people like Jabber wouldn't be welcome in her clinic, but he is, believe it or not, respectful when it comes to people he likes. And he likes Alice, so she lets him in. He's honestly not here too often, but he ran out of pain killers, and his neurotoxin isn't doing it for him right now, only making the headache worse.
Now, don't misunderstand, Jabber does like pain. Just not the kind that isn't inflicted by a strong fighter. Especially when it's his own body betraying him. Should he stop taking so many drugs? Yes. Is he going to? No. Well, maybe it is time to cut back a little bit. This particular headache has been kicking his ass for a while now. The left side of his head is basically on fire, and he's been walking around with his eye shut in a part of town you really don't want to do that in. Is this what Zeus felt like birthing Athena?
Anyway, he just needs to get to Alice, maybe she'll even let him have a nap, a chance to let the drugs kick in before Zodyl calls him for another mission. God forbid he has to do a food run again. The Raiders need to learn that Jabber Wonger isn't cut out for the whole 'making it back in a timely fashion' thing. he either gets distracted and forgets what he's doing or gets lost and has to call cthoni to pick him up.
Alice's shop is just around the corner. Jabber wonders if later he can call his Mr. Bad Attitude for a quick fight after his head stops threatening to crack open. Ehh, it might be too late for that, but he could call just to chat or annoy him to hell and back.
Jabber opens the door only to be met with six people already in the room. Alice, of course, that one's a given, but also the little shit Sphereite, bang bang braids, umbrella man, and the dude he thought he killed! And is that Zanka? Jabber just kind of stood in the doorway, one eye still closed his hands in his pockets he wasn't in his raider uniform either.
"Hey."
"DUDE, WHAT THE FUCK" was the response he got as soon as he opened his mouth. Great, now little red riding hood was grabbing for her jinki, and the little shit monster's digging in his waist bag.
The next thing Jabber heard was Alice Stilza's Booming voice "HEY, NO FIGHTING IN MY CLINIC."
Yep, that's just what he needs right now. A bigger headache. "Yo, listen granny, I can come back later, yeah?" she told his ass to sit the fuck down while she got him some ibuprofen. So, he sat all the while four out of the five cleaners stared daggers at him. All but Zanka.
"So, what happened, Mr. Bad Attitude? you got hurt or sumth'-" Jabber looked down at Zanka's ankle and saw a sight he didn't like. A torn Achilles.
Jabber whistled low "Damn Zee, who got you?" trying to play off his heart breaking. How could Zanka do this to him? Fighting other people? That's basically cheating! "Not who, what." the Sphereite responded. "It was my fault. I couldn't get out of the way and Zanka took the main impact for me."
"Huh?" Jabber's head was still pounding, the words were being heard, but nothing was being processed. "Zanka's foot got crushed fighting a trash beast saving Rudo from being smashed." little red told him. A smile tugging on her lips as Rudo pouted "Oh, my bad. Guess you wouldn't be catchn' strays like that." Jabber laughed a little, mostly at himself for the mental break down he just had.
"What about you dreads? what brings you to these parts?" Bang Bang braids asks the million-dollar question. "Huh? it ain't obvious? My head is poundin' man." He shuts both his eyes attempting to block the bright fluorescent lights from stabbing their way into his head. Was this a stupid move? Yes. Will he be doing it again? Absolutely.
"Wasn't expecting you to be in here for something so trivial." The umbrella man sounds skeptical, as one so cautious should be. Alice comes back and hands Jabber three large ibuprofen and a small paper cup of water. Jabber knocks back all three at the same time and downs the water, closing his eyes again. Not before seeing a tiny syringe of morphine in the doc's other hand. "Damn Zanka, you getting the good stuff."
Zanka in response to the needle being brought closer to him goes completely ridged. And despite himself and the severity and pain level of his injury, attempts to get off the bed.
"Wow, Zee, calm down. What's that matter?" Jabber stands up sticking his arms out trying to catch the terrified teenager. "Dude stop you're going to hurt yourself." Enjin tries to calm down his cleaner, but Zanka is not having it. "I'd rather have Mankira stick me than have you take one more step."
...What?
Did they hear that right? Did Zanka really just say that? No... He couldn't have. There's no way. "Do I need to repeat myself?" Holy shit he did.
Jabber's in heaven and the rest of the cleaners are dumbfounded. Wordlessly, Jabber makes his way to the sink, activates Mankira's left claw in its smallest form, and washes out all of the poison that once took residence in it. After he sure none of the toxin is left, he turns to Alice and holds his hand out "Can I see that needle for a sec?" he injects it into his jinki and turns fully to Zanka.
To be honest Enjin thought that Zanka would be in a bit more pain, but he looks mildly inconvenienced at best, a little annoyed at worst. Jabber knew better. Zanka was the guy when it comes to hiding pain. They had fought eight more times after the trash beast after all. Some of the fights he won others he lost, but he always came out of them at least a little banged up. And no, he had never told Jabber just how much a stick from Mankira's largest form hurt. But Jabber knew. He knew everything about his most treasured possession, and he knew everything about Zanka. So, of course, Jabber knew that Zanka was in some of the worst pain of his life. And it wasn't even him who inflicted it!
"Back the fuck up kiddo." said the ghost man. Jabber really needed to know how this dude survived that attack. "What the hell did you just do at the sink?" Huh, maybe he gave this guy a little too much credit.
Jabber closed his eye again "I washed her out duh." Riyo snorted at the remark, Jabber started to giggle to. "What the hell do you think I was doing?" Damn when are these pain killers going to kick in? "Yo, Zanka my man, are we gonna do this or what?" Zanka wordlessly takes his left arm out of the sleave and points to his shoulder. Jabber walks over and slowly lifts Mankria up and pushes the tip of her middle claw into his arm. The Drugs kick in almost immediately, and Zanka exhaled a shaky breath from the instant relief in pain.
Alice then went to work patching Zanka up while Jabber sat back down and closed his eyes, sleep coming and going as Alice continued to yell. His headache had still not gone away. In fact, it was getting worse by the second. Eventually he did fall asleep.
-----------------------------------------
Jabber woke up with his head on someone's shoulder. He sat up and rubbed his eyes "What time is it?" his voice was deep and his headache was still pounding behind the left side of his head. "1:30 am" a slightly less deep voice replied. It was Zanka, and they were in a car. "What the shit!" Jabber violently jerked up causing Enjin to swerve the car and yell a couple colorful words. Gris grabbed him by the wrist and steadied him, so he didn't crash the car. How the hell was Jabber even asleep in the first place? Enjin's driving is shit.
"Ight' Zee, give me the low down. What the hell?"
Zanka sighed heavily before flashing Enjin a dirty look in the mirror. "Someone decided that we weren't going to leave you there with Stilza, so they picked your ass up and tossed you in the car."
"Oh"
"Yeah"
Jabber had the audacity to pout and lay his head back on Zanka's Shoulder all to Enjin's chagrin. The little shit and little red were in the very back looking over the seats at the display of.... Affection? No that couldn't be right. No one could imagine the Jabber Wonger ever being able to display affection like that. Jabber only knocked his head onto Zanka's arm in a failed attempt to get his headache to go away.
"What happened?" Zanka placed his hand gently on Jabbers arm a look of concern plastered on his face. Over the last month or so Zanka and Jabber had grown quite close. And while they down right refused to label what they had going on, it would soon become clear that they were in love (yes, they would continue to deny it). "Just a shitty headache. It started about noon."
"What did Alice give ya?"
"Three ibuprofen." Jabber was quickly starting to fall asleep again. "That's not enough." Zanka murmured to himself clearly worried about the length and severity of Jabber's pain.
"Zanka."
"What the hell do you want, Enjin?" Alright so Zanka's in a bad mood. That's fair, pain wise his foot still hurts like a bitch and its way past his bedtime.
"Why are you letting him do that?"
"Do what?"
"Ya know.... Cling to your arm and not pitching a fit about it." Enjin's words were chosen carefully, "And what was that back at Alice's place.?" Great, now we had to do this. Zanka really did appreciate Enjin and all that he has done for him over the years, but the man could be oh so very nosey when he wanted to be. This was one of the few times Zanka would not open up. Enjin could respect the kids unwillingness to talk, but it was getting concerning to say the least. Jabber was a man of vast intelligence and strength. But, then again, if Jabber wanted to hurt them, he would have done so already. Right?
They pulled up to Cleaner HQ with Eishia and the boss waiting for them outside. Zanka got out of the car, practically dragging Jabber out behind him. The guy could barely stand, and Zanka's foot wasn't making this situation any better. Corvus helped by grabing Jabber while Zanka leaned almost all of his weight on Assistaff. Jabber still being completely out of it attempts to stand on his own only to face plant on the concrete which caused Rudo and Riyo to burst out laughing. Corvus helped Jabber to his feet and, with the rest of team Akuta walked to the med bay.
Eishia fixed Zanka's foot with ease, finally no more pain! Jabber was a different story. His headache wasn't caused by any wound or injury so Type: Heal wasn't exactly helpful in this situation. All they could do was wait.
"Can't you give him something for the pain?" Zanka knew three ibuprofen wasn't enough to help any kind of pain for Jabber. His tolerance was through the roof, and so was his pain threshold. "I-I'm sorry, I don't think that's a good idea. He only took the ibuprofen three hours ago." Zanka sighed looking at the boy in the medical bed burring his face in the pillows. "Give it another hour, Zanka." Corvus placed his hand on Zanka's shoulder, right where Jabber had pricked him. There was no pain, but he could still feel it there. Burning for another reason, a reason Zanka did not want to name.
"Can y'all shut off the lights?" Jabber's Voice was muffled but Corvus complied walking across the room to switch off the overhead lights, leaving the soft yellow lamp in the corner on. "Can you explain your pain to Eishia, Jabber?" Corvus's voice was low, not wanting to disturb the young man's already aching head.
"S' like a burning behind m' left eye. It comes and goes. Started at noon went till' one, stopped for a little while, then picked back up."
Eishia thought for a moment before speaking again, "Sounds like a Cluster Headache. Their normally pretty rare but we have two cleaners who suffer from them."
Jabber only nodded. Not that he could really understand what she was talking about, but he tired. The Cleaners were being nice to him for some reason, and he wasn't about to get kicked out. Zanka could tell Jabber wasn't listing though. "Well, if you'd like, Jabber I can give you some Midol?"
"Midol? isn't that what you give the ladies for cramps?" Enjin's question prompted giggles out of Riyo and Jabber who still had his face suck in the pillows. Zanka and Rudo were less amused. "W-well yes, it is, but Midol isn't just for cramps. It works good for headaches too." Jabber nodded and sat up accepting three Midol and a large glass of water of which he was told to drink the whole thing.
The moon light coming through the window bounced beautifully off of Mankira and Jabber. His fuchsia eye seemed to glow despite his Vital Instrument not being activated. Zanka was enthralled. He couldn't take his eye off of him, only looking away when Corvus tried to catch his eye. "So, Jabber, why'd you come so easily?" Corvus was right to ask that, after all he was sure he would be getting a call from Enjin or Gris saying Jabber had flipped out or some other shit. But he didn't, and Jabber came relatively quietly after his initial scare.
"Huh? Oh, I knew I couldn't of taken y'all in my state. 'Sides, Mr. Bad Attitude was there. He wasn't going to let anything bad happen."
Zanka Flushed at the indirect direct compliment from the man he admired so very deeply. Jabber truly had little to no filter, saying anything that came to mind. You could be sure that most of what he said was true and directly from his soul. This little declaration and Zanka's reactions to it caused a hum of amusement to ring from Corvus. "Is that so? I wonder Just how long you two have been meeting for?"
With that remark Jabber realizes his mistake and turns a deep shade of red. Zanka isn't fairing much better. Riyo Looks between the two boys and with a heavy sigh says "Damn, I owe Semiu A shit ton of money." Corvus gives a polite chuckle his calm and easy expression never wavering, Rudo looks extremely confused, and Enjin..... Enjin's about to pop a fuse.
Jabber catches Zanka's eye and moutheds 'I'm sorry' to which Zanka just nods his head. This was bound to happen sooner or later. Though he could tell that he was going to have to have a talk with Enjin later.
"Really, Zanka? Him?"
"What's that supposed ta mean?"
"You really had to go after the craziest guy we know?"
"we're not- He's not-"
"Oh please, I saw how you were looking at him."
Zanka sank down to the floor, back to the wall Riyo and Rudo were trying not to laugh, Eishia was doing a very good job pretending she wasn't there, and Corvus continued to look at Jabber with that serene expression. "Boss?" Enjin tried to snap Corvus out of the thoughts he was having. "Jabber, tell me, how do the Raiders treat you?" Jabber thought for a moment before sitting up so his feet were on the ground. He grabbed Zanka so he was sitting between his knees, and that Lovely Assistaff was leaning on his arm. He then took off his left middle ring and gave it to Zanka to fiddle with. Bewilderment flashed across almost every face in the room.
"Not great but I left their asses awhile ago."
"Mhm, I figured."
"Yeah, Zodyl wasn't really fun anymore, and I was getting bored. Zanka's not boring though!"
"Anything else?" Corvus asked a small simile forming.
Jabber looked Corvus in his eyes sitting up a little straighter. The expression on his face completely unreadable
"Listen, I'm not only good for poison, I used to be an Apothecary in a brothel. I can do a whole bunch of shit; it's a passion and way of life I've perfected over countless years of hard work and practice. That bitch mocks it. He has the audacity to mock me for something that has made my life the way it is. For something I forged from nothing and loved and cherished enough that it became a core part of my Vital Instrument. And he mocks it."
Every word that comes out of his mouth is spit with more venom than the last. Getting angrier and angrier until he practically yelling. Rudo and Riyo flinch back, Enjin and Gris instinctively go Infront Enjin reaching for Unbreaker. Corvus stands there looking at the clearly misguided kid who reminds him of his own childhood. And Zanka? He grabs Jabbers left hand and puts the ring back on it and brings it infrount him. Not to do anything, just to hold it. To offer some sort of comfort for what he knows is a very sore spot for the guy.
Corvus Called Semiu in, who, once she saw the state of Zanka's pride, stuck her hand out to Riyo, who forked over $50. "Sorry for waking you up so early Semiu." Corvus attempted to smooth things over before she got too mad. All she gave back was an annoyed hum. She looked at Jabber, like really looked, but not with her Jinki and smiled. "Zanka, move for me, would you." he got up leaving Lovely with Jabber, the truest form of trust a giver could show to someone. "Alright sweetheart, this won't hurt, though I'm sure you wouldn't care if it did."
She was right, it didn't hurt. It was so much worse. Jabber felt as though she had taken his soul and rung it out like a rag. "He's legit. No ulterior motives or anything of the sort." Jabber clutched Lovely hard, his headache still not completely gone. "Sorry, hun." she turned back towards Corvus, "He had my stamp of approval." Corvus then turned to Zanka who nodded then Stuck his hand out to Jabber. "Welcome to the cleaners, Jabber Wonger." Jabber took his hand and smiled a big toothy grin.
-----------------------------------------
The cleaners didn't have an extra room ready so, to Enjin's dismay, they put Jabber in Zanka's room for the night. It's not like they haven't shred a bed before, though they weren't about to tell Enjin that, but it's different this time. This time they don't have to creep around, or be secretive, or hide from those they trust. It's all out in the open. Honestly Zanka was pleasantly suspired that his team, his Family were so supportive. Sure, Enjin was probably not too happy about the recent development, but he'll get over it.
They were both so, so happy. Nothing could take away from this moment of Jabber's head laying on Zanka's chest, both breathing in tandem, the coolness of Jabber's Mankira on Zanka's skin, everything was perfect.
"Is your headache gone?"
"Mhm, yeah. 'S all good now."
"If it happens again, tell me, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. Promise."
"Good." Zanka and Jabber relapsed back into comfortable silence. Still holding tightly onto each other, as if someone were coming to take this away from them. Whatever this was.
"Hey Zee?"
"Yeah?"
"Why were you so scared to that needle?"
Zanka stopped breathing for a moment. Jabber noticed. He always does.
"It's nothing."
"Can you tell me? Please?"
Zanka, after a few seconds, started slowly, "Have ya ever had needles shoved under your fingernails?"
Jabber blinked a few times as if forcing the words to register.
"No, no I haven't."
"They used to do it when I was in the Hell Guard. If ya messed up, or did bad on a test, or literally anything they deemed pathetic, the teachers used to stick needles under our nails. It hurt like hell."
"I'm sure it did."
Jabber took one of Zanka's hands into his and brought it up to look at it. He didn't expect to find anything but to his shock, underneath the younger's short fingernails were small round dots. "Who does that to a kid, man?" Jabber didn't expect an answer in asking that question but received one anyway. "A bunch of self-righteous, power tripping assholes who think they're the law."
"I'm sorry, Zanka. You didn't deserve that."
"Nah... It's not your fault."
Zanka and Jabber held on to one another extra tight before finally slipping off into sweet unconsciousness. Jabber politely did not bring up that night's conversation again but always kept Zanka's fear in the back of his mind. And in turn Zanka, never forgot about that awful headache Jabber got and continues to look for signs that the poison man is in pain. No one could have guessed how or why their relationship bloomed the way it did, but Jabber and Zanka were happy. And that's literally all that matters.