Chapter Text
Zanka+Jabber
”m’ boss thinks yer reallll strong…why c’nt you j’st join”
They had been sitting like that for a while, Zanka tried to pull away multiple times but Jabber was holding on so tight.
Jabbers breathing was really slow not unlike if someone was trying to stay quiet or calm down maybe even test their breathing?
Jabber didn’t like gentle affection so this was quite normal for Zanka but it was starting to hurt a bit to breathe.
“Jabs c’mon let go-“, Zanka was trying to stay calm and steady but Jabber was pissing him off.
He was having such a nice day today and Jabber decided to be dumbass and ruin that.
Yesterday was going to well too then Jabber decided to be confusing and hide stuff.
Zanka could feel the anger creeping in like it always did.
”Boss reallyyyyy likes ya…c’mon boss’ll get m’d…”, Jabbers speech was slurred and slightly delayed but he was getting the same point across.
Zanka tried to push Jabber away again actually mad this time but Jabber just dug his nails in and held tighter.
Zanka could feel his ribs bending inwards, the more he struggled the more Jabber held.
He truly didn’t know how to answer.
“So…ya j’st want me to join…”, Zanka had to stop to breathe, “cause yer boss likes me?”
Zanka finally stopped moving around deciding Jabber wasn’t going to let go anytime soon.
Zanka could feel Jabber smile against him and loosen his hold, at least Zanka could breathe now.
An outsider would think this looked weirdly affectionate but Zanka was trapped and he wouldn’t put it past Jabber to paralyze him if he struggled too much.
”mhhh”, Jabber nuzzled into Zanka more, “More than th’t”
Zanka turned his head to the side trying to see Jabbers face but he was also confused.
‘More than that’? What was that supposed to mean! It just sounded like Jabber wanted him to join because his boss liked Zanka but apparently there was more to the story.
”Well…what else then?”, Zanka grabbed a handful of Jabbers wicks and pulled making Jabbers head fall back slightly.
Jabber was high as hell and that was obvious enough just by his eyes but he was awfully sluggish, talked slowly, was slurring his words, and more.
Zanka wouldn't be surprised if he was drunk too, but Jabber never actually went that far at least not without Zanka already there.
”A l’t more…” Jabbers head fell to the side as he stared at Zanka, he was mimicking Zankas head tilt.
Zanka usually stayed with him if he wanted to do hard stuff to make sure he didn’t do anything too bad and he didn’t die.
Zanka let out a sigh and pulled a little bit harder, he was still mad as hell.
”Well then j’st tell me.”, Zanka roughly let go of Jabbers hair letting his head fall back onto Zanka.
”hmm…” Jabber was taking a second to process everything, “I d’nt want th’m to kill ya before I do…”
Zanka took a second to process what Jabber said or even meant by that.
The second Zanka understood a huge flood of terror was forced into his brain, the raiders boss was stronger than Jabber and if he said he would kill Zanka if he didn’t join the Raiders Zanka had no reason to not believe that.
And it seems that Jabber believed it too since Jabber said himself that he didn’t care about sides and Zanka didnt believe Jabber had enough loyalty do this if he wasnt convinced by something.
”Why don’t we run?”, it was the most obvious thing he could think of.
If Zanka stayed under the protection of the cleaners the raiders wouldn’t be able to get them and if Jabber just disappeared they would likely assume he was dead and wouldn’t have anyone to manipulate Zanka with.
Jabber raised his head just staring, “they’d find ya…nd’ ya cleaners would turn me ‘n.”
That made Zanka a little mad but Jabber did have a point.
Though he knew the cleaners wouldn’t call the hellguard there was still a chance because unlike Fu, Jabber had almost killed some of the cleaners.
This was really pissing him off, not only had the raiders taken notice of him but now they wanted him to join trying to get Jabber to manipulate him into it.
He also didn’t really want to be killed either, he hasn’t proved himself yet.
He tried to calm down and just decided to take Jabber somewhere where he can calm down.
”Yer not thinkin’ clearly c’mon.”, Zanka tried to move causing Jabber to lock up again and begin slowly crushing Zanka.
The cleaner glared down at him and smacked his head a few times, “LeT GO YA SCuZZBALL!!”, Jabber only giggled a few times likely at Zankas voice cracking and tightened his grip.
Zanka decided to go with another approach, “lets j’st fight okay?”
With that the Raider perked up let Zanka go, he was delighted already activating mankira.
Zanka was very close to Jabbers level so now that he was high out of his mind and probably under some other substances Zanka was pretty confident that he would win.
Jabbers was already ready within seconds jumping around, though it was slower than usual.
Zanka activated Lovely Assistaff and the both of them ran at eachother meeting in the middle.
Jabber was giggling loudly, not controlling his breathing, and moving slowly therefore Zanka was confident he was going to win quickly.
Jabber wouldn’t mind if Zanka roughed him up a little more, Zanka was mad anyway.
By the end of the fight Jabber was on the ground and pinned by the neck with Lovely Assistaffs prongs.
He looked stunning all bloody and panting like this, Zanka would never understand how some people could be so perfect at everything like Jabber and always look so magnificent.
He wasn’t dumb enough to leave Jabber here drugged up, beaten, and panting without treatment, he wasn’t that cruel.
He deactivated Lovely Assistaff and attached her to his back wondering what to do with the beaten raider in front of him since Jabber didn’t seem like he was going to process anything.
Zanka leaned over him and grabbed his arm to pull him up, Jabber just giggled a bit with his head falling back as Zanka made him sit up.
”You okay Jabs?”, Zanka was feeling a tiny bit guilty.
From how Jabbers head was he was looking at the ceiling, he snapped his head to Zanka after a few seconds to respond with a giant grin on his face, ”Sooooooo good!”
”…okay we are going somewhere”, Zanka put Jabbers arm around his shoulder but since he doubted that Jabber would actually walk if he only partially held him Zanka swept him up by his legs using his arm as leverage.
It was pretty easy to pick Jabber up, he was quite skinny like most on the ground.
Jabber rested his head on Zankas shoulder seeming to not care, or he was too out of it, to care about being in a bridal carry.
They were pretty close to Doctor Alice’s little hole in the wall clinic and maybe she could get some sense into Jabbers head.
He carried Jabber all the way down making sure to make sure he had the money to pay her on the way, Jabber was rambling on about something Zanka couldn’t even understand.
His speech was too slurred and delayed for Zanka to make any sense of whatever he was talking about.
It took him about 15 minutes to get to the clinic and when he came in he was greeted with Doctor Alice yelling at some random guy to not do something dumb which resulted in some sort of leg injury.
”A COUPLE MORE STEPS AND I WOULDA HAD TO AMPUTATE IT!”
Zanka stood to the side to wait, Jabber had shut up and was just watching the old woman yelling at the now retreating man.
”Wowww…energetic old man.”
”Thats Doctor Alice Stilza, shes a woman, Jabs”, As much as Zanka wanted Jabber to get yelled he already had a migraine coming in.
Before Jabber could respond Doctor Stilza caught sight of them and motioned for Zanka to put Jabber on the bed, in which Zanka quickly complied not wanting to face the terrifying wrath of her.
”TSK WHY ARE YOU BRINGING ME A BEATEN DRUGGY? DO I HAVE TO TELL ENJIN?”
Zanka winced slightly and lowered his head replying, “There was no where nearby and the cleaners don't really like him…and please don't tell Enjin!”
She made a loud tsking sound again, and then she turned to a giggling Jabber.
”Hehe I th’nk you top Mr.B’d Attitude in Attitude!”, Jabber was just giggling and moving around more.
”STOP YER MOVIN’ AND SHUT YER MOUTH, BUMNUGGET!”
They kept going back and forth with Zanka having to leave for a minute since they were yelling so much, Jabber was just provoking her at this point.
He came back in to Jabber basically covered in bandages, though they were pretty neat and Doctor Alice looking at Jabbers eyes.
”WHAT’D YA TAKE!”, Jabber just shrugged he wasn’t really reacting much and was likely pretty tired.
”He smoked something, likely weed mixed with something.”, Zanka chimed in making Jabber perk up again earning him a smack on the head by Doctor Stilza.
”YOU SHOULD THANK THAT NICE YOUNG MAN FOR BRINGING YOU IN AND HELPIN’ YOU!”, Jabber tried to turn his head away since she was now trying to flash a bit of light in his eyes to test something.
Jabber just turned his head away more till Zanka came over and sat behind him to force his head foreword for Doctor Stilza.
”YEAH HE IS HIGH AS A KITE IMMA KEEP HIM HERE TILL HE COMES DOWN!”, She wasnt even talking to Jabber since it seemed like words went in one ear and out the other.
Zanka nodded, “Thank you Ma’am”
Zanka heard stomping approaching the medical office and August kicked the door open, “GRANDMAMA WE ARE OUT OF THOSE NASTY ASS COOKIES, EISHIA WANTS MORE!”
Eishia followed soon after, “August please I can ask for myself…”, she poked her head in, “Oh hey Zanka.”
August looked at Zanka and Jabber, who was now leaning back on Zanka dozing off like there wasn’t a not a fuck ton of yelling all around them.
”YO HOMIE WHATCHU DOIN’ AT GRANDMAS…WOAH WHOSE THAT.”, August pointed right at Jabber.
Eishia reached up trying to tug his arm down, “August it’s rude to point at people-“, she looked where August was pointing anyway.
Though she wasn’t ever on the front lines she knew the raiders had some uniform which was really just a purple outfit with a hip-lamp that also shone purple.
Which Jabber had both on at the moment even if the purple looked a bit darker with blood.
”Uh…Zanka why do you have a raider laying on you?”, Zankas face heated up.
”Well uhm…he is my…uhm”, It felt so weird trying to say that Jabber was his boyfriend to one of his favorite co-workers.
She knew he was dating someone but she just didn’t know it was a raider.
Jabber turned slightly to lay his cheek on Zankas chest and cuddle up like that which was all the explanation Eishia and August needed.
”WOAH YOU'RE DATING A RAIDER!! IS THAT ALLOWED?”, August of course was fine with it but didn’t know it was allowed.
”LEAVE MY PATIENTS ALONE!!”, Doctor Alice was yelling back at August and Zanka just felt his headache get worse.
Jabber didn’t stir at all, he was quite the heavy sleeper which was weird since he always woke up at foot steps just not yelling.
Eishia was staring at the two with her face steadily turning red, “A-august thats rude let’s leave them alone!”
She stopped for a second and looked at the two and stammered out, “I-I can heal him if you’d like just to make things quicker.”
“Oh it’s okay Eishia no need to push yourself, he is sleeping it off so don't worry.”, He didn’t want Eishia to push herself because he decided to beat Jabber a bit too badly.
Eishia nodded then began pulling August away again, “BYE HOMIES WE WILL BE BACK LATERRRR!!”
And with that the door slammed shut.
Doctor Stilza began preparing some medicine for Jabber, of course for when he woke up.
Zanka was starting to feel sleeping since Jabber felt like a weighted blanket on top of him.
He finally laid down trying to convince himself it was for Jabber to wake up laying down but really it was so that Zanka could sleep too.
When Jabber woke up he had a horrible headache, in his books it felt great, and he was in this weird place with buzzing lights.
He was on top of Zanka who looked mildly beaten up, they must’ve spared since Jabbers body ached delightfully.
No broken bones but clearly plenty of bruises maybe he even had something dislocated popped back into place.
He started sitting up to check where he was he didn’t recognize anything around him, maybe they were in some sort of clinic.
He did recognize some of the labels and tools, he knew those well since he had learned about some of them while researching about his poisons.
It was more of that he had to research through medical textbooks and such to find out about what some rarer poisons caused since it wasn’t common information.
Some medical things were interesting and sometimes he would get side tracked learning about some tools or procedures while trying to figure things out about a poison or two.
He got off of Zanka slowly since Zanka usually woke up easily and began looking at things around the room.
There was a locked Cabinet where he assumed the doctor kept their medicine, some tools were around and in packaging.
He didn’t remember Jack Shit he was high out of his mind and he rolled some new drug in there too so he didn’t even know the effects since once again, he couldn't remember anything.
That was annoying he will have to try it on Zanka to see its effects some other time.
He kept snooping till an old bald guy came in and yelled at him, “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING YOUNG MAN!”
That made Zanka jolt awake and the second he saw Jabber going through drawers and cabinets he stood up pulling Jabber away from them.
”Ah I was j’st lookin’ around old man.”, Since this person wasn’t a giver and clearly not a fighter Jabber had no interest in them.
Zanka quickly put him back on the bed whispering, “She’s a wom-“, he was quickly cut off.
”IM A WOMAN GOD DAMN IT!”, Jabber was a little bit surprised but didn’t actually care.
”C’mon she’s just going to check you over again j’st stay still.”, Zanka already took his spot behind Jabber again in case he struggled again.
At least Zanka’s headache was gone but he didn’t want Doctor Alice yelling to kickstart it again.
She came over and began checking over an insanely bored Jabbers injuries then moved to his eyes.
Jabber tried to turn his head away again only for Zanka to grab it and hold it still to let Doctor Alice check Jabbers eyes with light.
Jabber didn’t like bright lights, more of he wasn’t used to them.
They didn’t hurt enough to feel good they were just annoying. The Raiders usually went out when the sun began setting and the Raiders HQ was also pretty dark so the Cthoni could portal around.
He did like how Zanka was holding his head still so tightly, such a shame he let go right when the light went off.
”NOW HOW DID HE END UP LIKE THIS!”, Jabber had thought doctors were supposed to talk to the patients not the other people in the room.
”Uhm…so he smoked something and we got into an altercation.”, Zanka tried his best to explain shortly and simply and not say ‘well he was drugged up and I was mad at him so I challenged him to a fight knowing I would win so I could beat him up.’
Doctor Alice finally looked at Jabber, “WHAT DID YOU TAKE!”
Jabber thought for a second, “Well I mixed some normal weed with some prescription thing I got from the club for sleep called Temazepam.”, Jabber glanced back to Zanka to see his reaction.
Zanka looked confused so Jabber took that as an opportunity to ramble on, “When smoked it has a very high risk of overdose but its really just supposed to put people to sleep and keep them asleep, so I wanted to see what would happen if I mixed a little bit into my usual stuff. Such a bummer I don’t remember anything though.”
Doctor Alice seemed mildly impressed but still wouldn’t let Jabber off the hook for doing something so reckless.
“WELL THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING YER LUCKY TO BE ALIVE!”
Jabber perked up, maybe he could talk poisons with someone.
Zanka knew that look and he felt like he was going to be there awhile.
”Oh? So tell me what it does I forgot to research it.”, He brought a hand up making a small motion with his hands.
”IT CAUSES MEMORY LOSS AS YOU COULD TELL, MAKES YOU TIRED, CONFUSION, MESSES WITH YER COORDINATION AND MORE YA TURD BISCUIT!!”
Jabbers eyes light up and he quickly sits up to keep talking.
Now Zanka knows he will be there for awhile.
It took less than an hour for Doctor Alice and Jabber to bond to the point where she was showing him some materials.
Zanka was stuck there watching but didn’t want to interrupt since Jabber was having the time of his life asking about some medication that not many people are usually able to get their hands on since its hard to get prescriptions.
Alice Stilza seemed to be having at least a little bit of fun, she was treating him like a bonus grandchild.
Now that Zanka thought about it a bit more he was pretty similar to August just focused on poisons instead of fashion.
As Zanka was thinking about that August broke the door down again, “GRANDMA!! EISHIA WANTS-“
Zanka flinched for a second before August continued, “OH THE RAIDER IS AWAKE, YO HOMIE!”
Zanka felt his headache coming back on as Jabber glanced at August, “AYEEE MAN!! NAMES JABBER, JABBER WONGER!”
”IM AUGUST STILZA NICE TO MEET YA MAN!”, August approached Alice and Jabber as Eishia ran in.
”August please he may still be injured-“, Zanka was just glad another person with common sense was here.
”It’s okay Eishia, he can deal with it.”, Zanka got up and went to stand with Eishia since that was farther than the bed to the three screaming people.
Eishia was trying to apologize to Zanka for disturbing them but Zanka excused it every time.
”He does need a new job since apparently the Raiders want me to join or die.”, Zanka shrugged and Jabber turned his attention to Zanka.
”I told you that?”, Zanka just nodded and explained.
”Yeah you clung to me till we fought and now I think it would be logical for you to leave the raiders with no notice and they could j’st assume I killed you or somethin’”
Jabber just nodded along before grinning and turning to Alice, “You want an assistant?”
”YEAH IF YOU WOULD STOP BEING A DUMBASS I’LL THINK ABOUT IT!”
Zanka was honestly pretty surprised but when he thought about it more it did make sense.
Jabber was about the same age as both August and Eishia, passionate about medicine like Eishia but had the same level of passion as August.
Seemed like there was another Stilza now.
”AH LET’S GO, YA WANNA MODEL SOME CLOTHING FOR ME?”, and it seemed like August got a new dress up doll.
Eishia went over to August pulling at his arm, “August…you can’t just ask people that!”
Jabber looked down at Eishia, “Nah it’s fine”, he turned back to August, “HELL YEAH MAN LETS GO!”
Zanka just watched the both of them scurry off leaving Eishia, Alice, and Zanka behind in the room.
Zanka began feeling a bit awkward, “uhm so how much do I owe you?”
He paid basically all the money he was carrying and went to go find August and Jabber with Eishia.
As they walked around they heard loud music playing which led them to where Jabber was trying on different styles of clothing, seems like Augusts old clothing since it did fit pretty well.
”ah…at least they’re getting along?”, Eishia was standing right next to Zanka.
”Yeah it seems like ya have another August on your hands.”, Zanka felt a little bad about leaving Eishia to look after both August and Jabber.
”It’s fine they both seem happy.”, She had a small smile on her face while watching the two.
“I just hope he doesn’t cause too much trouble for you guys.”, Zanka couldn’t deny that Jabber and August clicked instantly.
They seemed like they would make for amazing friends.
Eishia and Zanka watched them for a few minutes till August decided to start sketching outfit ideas and they heard Alices voice boom from the clinic.
”ASSISTANT, COME HERE!!”, Jabber perked up and skipped over where the man from yesterday was and groaning in pain.
Seems like he stuck something in his bandages because it itched and Alice wasn’t able to patch him up again if he kept squirming.
Jabber activated Mankira, “Annndddd…”, Jabber poked him with her left claw making him calm down, “there we go!”.
Alice nodded and turned to him, “YER HIRED!!”
That was easier than all of them thought.
Seems like Jabber was an assistant now, had a new job, and was away from the raiders.
Zanka made sure to leave behind some blood where they fought anyway to make it seem like Jabber died.
Jabber was safe and doing something he enjoyed, he made a note to take Jabber out sometime to fight trash beasts and spar.