Chapter Text
Zanka was standing there feeling the most mortified he’d felt in all his life. What the actual fuck even was this situation, why was he even born?
The Cleaners were staring at him with both puzzlement and mortification although for completely separate reasons than him. “Ok what the fuck is going on and why did Jabber freaking Wonger out of all people just call you darling?” Enjin said once the situation sunk in a bit more and everyone’s brain started slowly rebooting.
Zanka looked up at the Cleaners and cringed, how the hell was he supposed to explain this to them without making himself seem bat-shit insane? The panic that was momentarily overshadowed by the ridiculousness of the situation began creeping in on him, he gripped Lovely in an attempt to center himself and took a deep breath, he looked over to the raiders where his dumbass husband stood seemingly in the same predicament except clearly way less worried about it than him.
It made sense to him that Jabber would be less worried than him, he had told him multiple times that his co-workers didn’t give a shit about what he did with his life outside of work as long as it didn’t interfere with his performance at work.
I should’ve specified what counts as acceptable to do outside of work Zodyl thought to himself while rubbing his temple in an attempt to soothe the headache already forming from the ordeal. Should I just fire Jabber and be done with this? No dammit he’s too valuable in regards to manpower,curse this he groaned.
While the Cleaners were firing questions at Zanka in an attempt to get answers out of him Jabber creeped steadily closer to the group and in the blink of an eye he was standing next to Zanka.
He threw his arms around Zanka’s shoulders and pecked him on his temple in a tender way neither the Cleaners nor Raiders knew him possible of, while the cleaners looked horrified.
“GET OFF HIM YOU BASTARD!” Enjin yelled while feeling panicked about the safety of Zanka being in the vicinity of the raider, Enjin knew Zanka was fully capable of taking care of himself but also knew first-hand how difficult it was to deal with Jabber.
“The names actually Jabber Nijiku-Wonger now, I took my husbands name as well” Jabber grinned to the increasingly horrified and slightly disgusted on Rudo’s part look on the Cleaners faces.
“Hah ha, so you, what, married Zanka’s brother or something now right?” Enjin said in a tone that clearly signalled total denial over the situation at hand.
Both Zanka and Jabber pulled a face of disgust before Zanka sighed “no” he said and looked at Jabber and back at the group “guys..meet my husband Jabber, I assume yall have met before prior to today” he grimaced.
“YOU GUYS ARE MARRIED??” Rudo finally burst out, he looked conflicted on what he was supposed to feel at that, he respected and looked up to Zanka in his own way but he has also fought with Jabber on multiple occasions and held strong feelings of disgust for him.
“How the hell did you end up with him of all people?” Rudo said his voice laced with subtle disgust and looked at Zanka befuddled.
Zanka startled from that reply and looked at Rudo “it’s a..long story” he mumbled.
Enjin then spoke up “why did you not tell us?” hurt clearly present in his voice, “I was planning to I swear!” Zanka exclaimed at that “I really was its just.. it never ended up being a good moment to bring up and I didn’t know what to say to ya guys and it just never felt that important to tell..”
“Yeah well seems kinda important to tell us you're married to a raider, don't you think?” Riyo said with a look Zanka couldn't read in her eyes.
“Yeah well I didnt even know he was one till a few minutes earlier either!” Zanka defended himself while also turning to look at Jabber “I’m gonna be honest I knew that he didn’t do anything legal fer work, but I didn’t know he was a goddamned raider!” he said to the cleaners as well as Jabber simultaneously.
“Ya didn’t really tell me you're a cleaner either mr bad-additude.” Jabber looked calm on the outside but Zanka knew he was starting to regress to how he acted when they first started interacting with each other based on the nickname he hadn’t called him for in a long time and felt his anger at him subside.
“I know I..” he sighed “look I’m sorry alright?” he looked at the cleaners “can yall give us a moment to talk, please?” Riyo looked at Enjin who looked resigned and after a moment nodded at her while Rudo just looked affronted between them “thanks” Zanka mumbled and grabbed Jabber's hand while pulling him away from the Raiders and Cleaners.
“Hey” Zanka said while cupping Jabber right side of his face with his hand and making him turn his head to look at him and away from the groups standing in the distance. Jabber had a steely look in his eyes that Zanka hadn’t seen in them for a while and he felt a pang of guilt strike through him, he knew it was neither his nor Jabber's fault for not telling each other what they did for work.
They had talked about the basics of their work which were unavoidable to not talk about due to the circumstances of both of their work as it brought up questions for both of them eventually when either of them left or wasn’t able to communicate with the other for a few days on end.
Jabber knew Zanka had to fight from time to time for work, he knew Zanka was Giver and a strong one at that, otherwise Jabber wouldn’t have married or even given him the time of day when they first met, and that he had to leave for a few days sometimes to handle business for his job other than that he didn’t know nor care what he did for work and never questioned him further about it when they had talked about it before.
Zanka knew Jabber loved fighting and his chemicals and knew that therefore his job had to allow him to do/use both, he knew Jabber wasn’t innocent and killed people in cold blood occasionally for his job, they had a lot of fights about this when they first started talking but he got over it eventually knowing he wasn’t particularly innocent either and well, he had married Jabber so that had to say something about him.
He also knew that Jabber also had to leave from time to time to take care of missions his boss gave him but he was also guilty for not inquiring further on what Jabber did exactly for work.
For that reason they were both at fault for their current predicament and Zanka couldn’t get mad at Jabber for something they both had fault in, they both just never found what they did important to each other, they loved each other for their imperfections and for their personality and anything else quite frankly didn’t matter to them.
“You know I’m not mad at ya right?” Zanka said softly to Jabber while looking him in the eyes, god he loved those magenta eyes. He gave Lovely to Jabber to hold as a sign that he was being honest, Jabber knew the only other person Zanka trusted to handle her beside himself was Jabber and relaxed as he realised what Zanka was saying was true.
His gaze warmed as Zanka cupped the other half of his face now that his other hand was free, he held Lovely gingerly so as not to damage her fresh coat of polish that Zanka had applied to her the night before.
“I-” Zanka groaned while looking done at his shoes face warm and looked back up into Jabber’s eyes “I love you, you know that” Jabber never got tired of the way Zanka gets flustered every time either of them profess their love out right to each other instead of showing it with no matter how long it’d been from the first time they said it.
“I’m sorry too I guess” Jabber said in a slightly guilty tone “I know this isn’t how ya wanted your friends, well I guess more like ya family, don’t look at me like that I know how ya think about them, finding out about us”, "I'm not sorry about earlier tho that shit was funny as fuck ya can’t lie.”
Zanka sighed knowing that was the best he was going to get out of Jabber right now “I guess it kinda was” he chuckled “just a bit tho.”
“I think we should get back to the rest they’re staring to look over here with real threatening looks in their eyes” Jabber giggled manically which showed he didn’t find it threatening at all even tho he said otherwise and Zanka rolled his eyes as they walked back to where the Cleaners and Raiders seemingly were finishing the deal they originally came to make in the first place by the way Enjin and Zodly were signing under some paper Zanka hadn’t noticed them bringing on the way here so the Raiders must've brought along.
While they arrived at where the two groups were standing Jabber handed Lovely Assistaf back to Zanka and intertwined their hands instead.
The Cleaners noticed the pair finished talking and Enjin turned to them “Look I know we might’ve reacted not the best and I would honest to fuck love to know whats going on here but it’s hot as hell here and really not the best place to talk so I don’t know if you guys wanna talk in the town over or not?” Enjin said “Zanka I just- I don't want to make you feel forced or uncomfortable talking to me about this and I’m sorry if you felt like you couldn’t talk to me before this.”
“No it’s really not anything like that Enjin, it genuinely just didn’t end up coming up, it's honestly more so my fault for not telling yall” Zanka sighed “I just really didn’t think something like this was important to ya guys.”
Zanka looked at Jabber and raised an eyebrow in a silent question while Jabber looked at him in reply making the Cleaners uneasy seeing their coworker so clearly comfortable with a raider to the point of having silent conversations with him.
“Yo boss man Imma go with my man and his friends I’ll see ya at HQ alright?” Jabber waved as Zodyl simply gave a look as Chthoni opened one of her manholes and they stepped through it a curt “don’t take more than a day to report back” echoed following said hole closing.
“Yall heard him better get to movin” Jabber grinned at the squirming Cleaners clearly uncomfortable with his presence.
When they arrived at the town that Zanka had seen in the distance they got seated in a random diner they stumbled on while walking into the town and ordered some drinks Riyo finally asked the long awaited question “Sooo..how the hell did ‘this’ happen” while pointing at Jabber and Zanka’s still intertwined hands now rested on the table of the booth they were sitting in.
“Glad ya finally asked bang-bang braids!” Jabber said “that’s not my damn name freak” Riyo glared at Jabber.
“J don’t bother them while we're trying to explain..well us” Zanka glanced at Jabber while his husband pouted at him.
“If you say so darling, ok it all started when me and Zanka met the first time and I knew he was the one for m- FUCK” Jabber yelled clutching his side painfully while a perverted grin spread across his face “why’d you do that baby, tryna get me all worked up infront of ya family?” he whined in a tone the Cleaners had already associated with lust with Jabber lacing his voice.
“Don’t lie ‘bout some bullshit Jabber” Zanka scolded, unfazed by his husband's antics while the Cleaners looked at Jabber disgusted.
“What the fuck, I don’t need to hear about what you guys get busy with” Enjin said “it’s like hearing my son talk about his sex life” a disturbed look in his eyes as he looked at Zanka pleadingly to control his raider.
“Oh please not like none of the Cleaners haven’t heard you and Gris get it on at HQ” Riyo said giving Enjin a knowing look while his face flushed red and he looked at Riyo affronted “please tell me you haven’t actually” he said putting his face in his hands.
“We have” Rudo deadpanned while Riyo cackled at the dead haunted look on Zanka’s face as he recalled the time he had made the mistake walking past Enjin room while he was ‘taking care of business’ he had said he had with Gris after a mission where Gris had almost died.
At first Zanka had thought the groans he heard were from pain that Gris still had but after he was standing there trying to decipher why said groans sounded off he realised that they weren’t groans of pain at all, matter a fact it wasn’t even Gris who was groaning.
Safe to say Zanka hadn’t looked at them the same for a few months straight and never made the mistake of walking even close to Enjin's room while he was ‘taking care of business’ with Gris ever again, and he had solved the mystery of why no one else was in the vicinity when Gris and Enjin were in any room alone together.
“I am so sorry guys” Enjin groaned embarrassedly into his hands.
“I guess that's one thing that I can approve of you guys' relationship for, never having to hear you guys” Rudo said with the same deadpan expression still on his face. Enjin made a noise that sounded like a mix of choking and a dying rat next to him while Riyo laughed even louder.
Zanka smiled at the subtle show of support from Rudo while also slightly blushing in second hand embarrassment from Enjin.
“Alright, enough of making fun of Enjin, tell us the actual story” Riyo said after finishing laughing at Enjin misery sipping on her drink she had gotten “it sounds like a long one so I assume we're going to be here for a while.”
“Ok so how it ACTUALLY started was..” and so Zanka told them the bizarre story of how he managed to fall in love with the seemingly least lovable Raider (in Enjin’s very humble opinion) of all, excluding some parts where they had almost managed to kill each other on multiple occasions and a very very censored version regarding…other activities lest he live in eternal humiliation every time he looked at the group, with Jabber cutting him off at some parts to add his own version of the story.
Suddenly Rudo froze “Wait, does this mean that the boss already knew about you guys?”