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“Coooooooooooongratulations! You have beat today’s mission!”
Caine floats above the others, arms outstretched. He then pauses, looking over the rest of the cast.
“And as a reward, today you will get-... Wait…”
Caine looks around, noticing the lack of someone. He mutters to himself: “Wait, wait, wait… 1…2…3…4…5…”
Pomni speaks up. “Uhm… is something wrong, Caine?”
Caine blinks, looking confused. “Someone’s missing… Let’s see… Jax, Pomni, Ragatha, Zooble, Gangle…”
….wait.
“Gasp! It seems Kinger is not gathered with the rest of us!”
“Oh yeah!” Jax yells out, resting his arms behind his back. “He ran off after we finished, muttering something about ‘too loud’ or… something like that. Think he ran off to his room…”
Gangle meekly spoke up, her ribbon hands fidgeting slightly. “I uhm… tried to check on him but he said to… leave him alone… I hope I didn’t make him upset…”
Caine squints his eyes slightly. “I… see. Hm. Well… I will… go check on Kinger! Yes yes yes! No resident of mine will be left unrewarded! For now… Bubble!”
Bubble floats up quickly next to Caine, smiling with a wide, spiky grin. “Yeeeeeeeees?”
Caine: “Will you hand out our reward while I go check on Kinger?”
Bubble looks around. Then smiles. “Oooooooooh I see. You wanna go check on your boyfri-”
“okaythankyouBYYYYYYYYE!” Caine snaps his fingers, disappearing in a puff of smoke.
—
Caine floats down the hall of the living quarters, before stopping in front of a door. The door with Kinger’s picture on it.
…he’s fine, right? There’s no reason for concern, it's Kinger. Kinger’s fiiiiiiiiiine. He’d tell Caine if something was wrong, right?
…just in case he’s still gonna check.
Caine hesitates before reaching out and knocking on the door.
There was silence for a few moments
“W-who is it?” Kinger’s voice rang out. Oh thank digital god, he’s okay.
Caine clears his throat (despite not… having a throat to clear) before speaking. “It’s Caine, your caretaker and ringmaster! And…” His voice lowers. “Well, your partner.”
Caine and Kinger had been dating in “secret” for a few months now, after a lot of confused pining and figuring out romance and all that mess. And by “secret” I mean Caine and Kinger think it’s a secret but everyone knows. Literally everybody in the circus knows. They’re not subtle. But no one has the heart to tell them. (and Jax thinks it’s funny that they are so bad at keeping it a secret so he ain’t gonna tell.)
There was more silence… before the door opened slightly, two eyes peering out from the darkness. “...hello?”
Caine: “Hello there! I couldn’t help but notice your absence from the rest of the crowd, and I just wanted to check in!”
“...oh. Right. It just- uh- got too loud. Sorry…” Those eyes shift away.
Caine: “Too loud?” Caine blinks. It can get too loud? …huh. “I… see. Is there anything I can do to help-” Caine is interrupted when a hand grabs his arm, pulling him inside. “WH-”
Two hands move to cling onto Caine’s back as a face is buried into his chest. He looks down to see Kinger, who was looking away. Despite Kinger only really having eyes to emote with, Caine could see him looking away…
He looked tired. And kinda sad.
At least, Caine thinks that’s the right emotions right now.
Caine hesitates, unsure on what to do. How to- comfort partner properly? He then slowly… moves his arms around Kinger. Is this right? He’s seen Ragatha use this as comfort so he thinks-
Kinger nuzzles his face into Caine’s chest slightly, letting out a shaky sigh. “...thank you…”
Oh good, he’s doing something right. “No worries!-”
wait. Kinger said it was too loud. Probably shouldn’t use your announcer voice. “I mean- no worries, Kinger. Anything to help you out.” Caine’s voice lowers as he hugs Kinger a little tighter.
“...uhm… if it’s not too much trouble…” Kinger looks up at Caine. “Would you mind… staying a bit? I don’t like being alone when I’m like… this.”
Caine ponders for a moment. Well, I mean. I asked Bubble to hand out the prize and I’m not just gonna throw them into another adventure so… yeah. I got time.
“Of course, Kinger.”
Kinger seems to let off a soft smile, with his eyelids moving to show happiness but still with a bit of exhaustion behind them. Kinger moves his hands to take Caine’s in his own, and he pulls Caine along in the room, where a pillow fort resided in the middle. Makes sense. Kinger felt bad and hid away in the safety of a fort.
Kinger leans down, moving one of the pillows aside to make an opening before gesturing towards it, bowing slightly. “After you.”
Caine nods and takes off his tophat, tossing it up and making it disappear in the air. He then stops floating, landing on the ground and dusting his suit jacket off before leaning down and crawling into the fort, moving to plant himself in the mound of pillows residing inside. …comfortable…
Kinger lets out a hesitant chuckle as he crawls inside, moving to sit next to Caine. “You look like you need to rest more than me…”
Caine sits up. “Oh, nonsense. I just… it feels nice here, heheh…” Caine looks around. On the inside of the fort, it honestly looked bigger in size. Looks like it takes up almost the entire room even though on the outside it was small. Caine never knows how Kinger manages to do it… seriously. He looked through the code like 5 times and he still doesn’t get how.
Kinger moves his hands to pull Caine into his chest. “Mmmm…”
Caine blushes slightly before moving his arms around Kinger.
…this is nice.
They weren’t sure how long they just sat there in comfortable silence, with Caine’s eyes closed while Kinger’s moved into opposite directions as he spaced out. This was common for the two. Kinger was always high strung and on edge, so having a moment of silence was… nice.
On the other hand, Caine is always bombastic in attitude with the whole ringmaster thing. It’s what he’s programmed to do. And yet… It was nice to be quiet for once.
…yeah. Quiet…
“So uhm… forgive me for asking, Kinger… why did you get upset over it being loud?” Caine tilts his head slightly.
“GAH-” Kinger jolts, blinking as his eyes return to normal as he looks around. “Oh. Caine. I uh… forgot you were here.” Kinger then blinks again, the question finally hitting his brain. “Ah… right… uhm. I… don’t really have an answer? I’ve kinda just always been like this? …the best way I can explain it is… sometimes things get too loud and it… kinda makes my brain shut down? I can’t think, I get all shaky and panicky, and it’ll take me a bit to come back down. I usually just… hide away when those happen and I uh… just realized this is the first time I’ve done this since we… got together.”
Caine pauses for a moment, intaking the info. “I see… well I… do apologize. That may have been my fault. I forgot to give the NPCs voice lines and when they don’t have any, all that comes out is weird, glitchy noises.”
“It’s fine, Caine… I probably shouldn’ve warned you but I… well, forgot.” Kinger looks away.
“Hmmm… well, seems both our memories failed us!” Caine lets off a soft smile, sticking his tongue out slightly in a joking manner.
Kinger lets off a soft chuckle. “Seems so.”
Caine: “...so would you want to… stay here a bit longer?”
Kinger nods, looking slightly embarrassed. “Sorry that you uh… have to deal with this.”
Caine sits up. “Oh, nonsense! My purpose is to help all of the residents of the circus, whatever the task may be!” Caine pauses, blushing slightly. “And plus… you being my partner is also important. Last thing I want is for my love to be upset.”
Kinger blushes a soft pink, eyes moving to signal a smile. “Ah… why, thank you, Caine.”
“My pleasure.” Caine moves to lay back on Kinger.
Kinger blinks for a moment. “...hey, Caine?”
“Hm?” Caine looks up at Kinger, tilting his head.
Kinger looks away bashfully. “Can I try something?”
“...sure!” Caine smiles.
“Okay, sit up.”
Caine nods and sits up, still curious.
Kinger moves his hands, opening his cape slightly and then pulling Caine to lay on him. He then closes the cape, moving his hands inside to rest on Caine’s back. “...how’s this?”
Caine blinks for a moment, stunned; blushing as red as his suit. He then blinks again, moving his arms to slowly wrap around Kinger again. “...feels nice…”
Kinger: “Oh… good…”
Caine: “...can we stay like this?”
Kinger: “...of course.”
And there the two laid, peacefully enjoying each other’s company.
A loud ringmaster and a usually yelling king… being silent.
Kinger: “....I’m glad it’s just me and you right now…”
Caine: “...me too.”
…maybe once… just this once… Just for Caine and Kinger…
Silence is all the two need.