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“Zanka! Wake up, breakfast time!”
Riyo's voice rings through the room as she knocks on the door aggressively, sounds of footsteps lead away shortly after the barrage, assuring them that she had left.
Zanka jolts awake, the man on her chest blinking his eyes slowly and sleepily.
“Fuck, Jabbs, wake up- how are we going to do this, oh god, they are going to kill us!”
She whispers screams to him, shifting them so she is slightly sitting up.
Jabber yawns, much too adorably for the situation at hand. He shakes his head and looks up at her with a slight smile.
“They aren't gonna kill us, worst thing they kill me.”
Her face twists with displeasure.
“Can you see why I wouldn't want that?!"
She grabs the sides of his face and shakes his head.
“Fucking marble up there.”
He laughs and gets off of her, and sits up on the side of the bed. For just a moment, she has to fight herself not to whine from the loss of heat and weight on her.
She sighs and sits up alongside him-
“Zanka, hurry it up!”
Ryio bangs on the door impatiently, making Zanka startle and frantically stand to fix her clothes, her vision momentarily going black.
“Come on, make yourself presentable, we've gotta place to go.”
Jabber groans and stands up, dusting the nonexistent grime off his clothes and walking up to her.
“Ready?”
Jabber smirks.
"Not yet!"
Before she can groan and ask him what, Jabber pecks her on the lips and looks entirely too pleased with himself about it, grinning down at her.
“Hell yeah, let's do this!”
Zanka uses one of her hands to push his head back, ignoring the blush on her face. She then opens the door. She looks down the hallways, and upon seeing Ryio is no longer there, she walks down, Jabber following closely behind her as they enter the room.
She sees a table in the corner, not where she normally sits; however, the anxiety of being with Jabber in a room full of people who may or may not want to kill him, overrules the desire for assigned seats.
“Imma uh get us some food, stay here, try not to curse someone out or somethin.”
He narrows his eyes at her in mock displeasure, then giggles to himself and sits down as she walks away.
She picks up two plates and puts servings of rice and eggs onto both of them.
She brings the plates back and sits next to Jabber, passing him one of them. As they eat, more people begin to walk into the room, which makes her heart pound in her chest.
Jabber puts a hand on her thigh as he eats with the other, and that calms her a little. They could do this, she could do this. Was it going to be terrifying to look at some of the people she looks up to most and have to spill her rule-breaking?
Absolutely.
Did having Jabber by her side make her much more confident that even if they reacted horribly, or appropriately by some standards, she would be ok?
Yes. She doesn't know why, but he makes her feel stronger, larger than she feels when she's alone.
After a few moments of them eating peacefully together, exchanging little looks throughout, Enjin walks into the room, and when he sees Jabber, he rubs his eyes, then audibly groans.
"Can't have a single day with these damn kids that's normal. One break is all I ask for!"
He entirely skips getting food and walks over to the corner where the teens are eating. He then plants himself in the chair directly in front of Jabber.
"Zanka, care to tell me why there is a raider in our base?"
"He doesn't want to hurt us, I promise.”
She raises her hands, displaying Mankira, who sits below her knuckles on her ring fingers, an attempt at proving Jabber’s innocence.
“I was uh talking to him, and I thought I would ask if he could..”
Enjin's expression somehow falls harder, perhaps into the depths of hell. He then reaches a hand up to the red necklace hanging around his neck.
“Gris, come here immediately.”
Zanka takes a breath in, oh god, she knew this wasn't going to be easy, but she should have prepared herself much more than she did. Jabber is here, it will all be ok, she glances over at him, then back at Enjin.
“I-”
“Appapapappapa, shut up. We are waiting until Gris gets here, and eat quickly because we are moving this conversation elsewhere.”
Zanka feels Jabbers warmth as he leans into her side, whispering into her ear.
“Chat am I cooked.”
"We are boiled, I fear."
That makes Jabber laugh, and makes Zanka have to fight a giggle, much to Enjin's displeasure.
Gris comes into the room, standing behind Enjin, and he sees the situation. Seems today was not going to be a calm day.
"We are all going to talk outside."
Enjin stands, Zanka following behind with Jabber following close after, and Gris bringing in the back, a small thing he learned to make sure he didn't lose any of the cleaners.
As Enjin walks, he motions for Zanka and Jabber to stay close to the HQ walls and for Gris to follow him farther out.
Once they are a good distance from the teens, Gris takes a breath as he glances over at them and then looks back to Enjin.
"Alright, I need a rundown of what is happening."
"Apparently, Zanka fell in love with the raider who tried to kill her twice."
That makes Gris take an intake of breath, thinking for a moment.
"If he had any negative intentions or was going to do anything wrong, wouldn't security have known and told us?"
“What?”
He looks over to the building for a moment, then back at Enjin.
“Shikage. Don't you think that if Jabber was going to do any, let alone substantial harm, that he would have alerted us?”
“He is also letting her wear his Jinki.”
Gris’s eyes widen at him.
“Alright, so they are holding steady apparently, he doesn't have her assistaft- given how close they are, they have probably been going out for a while. Recently, the only times she has really been injured were on missions we sent her on.”
“Yeah?”
Enjin nods, and Gris starts talking again.
“I did notice sometimes on missions she will have injuries that weren't from the mission, not horrible ones, but enough to stain her clothing. In those days, she was always more tired than the others.”
“Ok? What are you telling me that- god teenagers, so she has been sneaking out, obviously, but oh, I get it.”
Enjin groans and rubs his face with his hand.
“So, what you are telling me is that we need to talk with them?”
“It would be a good idea, I don't think we need to get into the 5th-grade stuff. I think more of a, if you stab each other, you need to fix it, and here is how to do that, conversation is in order.”
Jabber leans against the wall as Zanka looks at the ground.
“Soooo, what is the chance that they kill me?”
“Eh, I don't think they'd kill ya; however, they are going to be really weird.”
Gris and Enjin walk roughly 40 feet apart.
Enjin motions for Zanka to come with him, and then motions for Jabber to go with Gris.
“Sit.”
Gris orders as he sits down on the ground, Jabber considers not listening, but unfortunately values his girlfriend more than being a particularly bratty bitch this morning. He sits down, the dust staining his pants a little, and sits criss-cross.
“As you may see, I have white gloves. I tend to handle situations accordingly. I assure you that if anything unconsensual happens to Zanka, there will be no hesitation.”
“I’d deserve it, iont wanna hurt her in a- I wanna be good for her.”
Jabber looks over to where she is standing with Enjin.
“She’s fukin great man, think she changed my life. I want her to be happy, know it sounds stupid coming from me, but, she's good. Damn good fighter too. Love hasn't been something that was ever a big deal to the raiders, so I js focused on the boss man, but, sometimes your priorities change. That's what I wanna do, change for her.”
Gris studies him for a moment, raising an eyebrow, and is rudely interrupted by Ejin's voice.
“Gris, come back to me, Jabber, go back over to the wall!”
Jabber and Zanka walk together to the wall, and Gris and Enjin meet again.
“So, she's definitely my kid.”
Enjin's tone is a mix of annoyance and amusement. Gris laughs softly at that.
“Oh?”
“A certain someone has been sneaking out of the house for the past year to fight, and for about the past what, 7 months, to go hang out and fight with her boyfriend.”
Enjin runs his hand through his hair and smiles tiredly.
“Yeah, that seems about right.”
They sigh in unison, which makes them laugh.
“I don't think Jabber is a bad kid.”
Enjin groans and glances over at the wall that the teens are standing next to when Gris says that.
“I would hope you're aware of just how amazing I am with emotions and shit, but.. He’s a stray. Look at the kid, the only reason he knows how to fight is that he was taught young. I doubt it was friendly or non-lethal sparring, like how we like to teach the young cleaners.”
Enjin makes a disgusted noise.
“According to Zanka, he has been receptive to her- haha, when she was talking to me about Jabber, my response to one of the things she said was Damn girl, you're training him like a dog? And oh my gosh, I think that his leash is tight. Anyway, I already knew Zanka was great, was a little worried that she would have a hard time with boundaries, but so far she seems ok? I still want you to talk to her about it. I'm talking to jabber about safety. Zanka got a little scared, and I think she like dumped everything that happened with them in the past year to me, and fuck! I need to teach that boy how not to kill her by accident!”
Gris smiles softly at Enjin.
“I know how you are with strays. There is an extra room that wouldn't take too long to get set up?”
He sighs but nods, already anticipating the jokes that Semiu will make later.
“Alright, swap time! This conversation is going to be uncomfortable as hell, let's go!”
“Jabber with me, Zanka, go with him!”
The teens' conversation stops, and they sigh and separate yet again.
“Has my execution date been planned yet?”
Jabber says after he walks back up to him, smiling and winking at him.
He should be given a fucking award for not killing this brat.
“God, I wish, but it seems that a certain someone has taken a liking to you and may not be too pleased if I decapitate their boyfriend.”
Jabber has to fight the urge to tell him that that's Zanka's job.
Enjin sits, and Jabber follows suit.
“Uhuh”
“Regardless! We have an awfully lovely conversation to have!”
Jabber's eyebrows raise slightly.
“You are a freak, as we know. However, you need to know how to be a freak safely. I know you love pain, and I know you love fighting Zanka. I think she has lost count of the number of times you have almost killed her. Which, in all honesty, I have no idea how on earth she survived; however, we are going to ensure that you know how to fix it. One, I need you to carry some sort of bag. I don't know if she carries purses- no, get a backpack. I'm sure that they will have some extra in the building. Make sure you have things that you can hydrate, so water. Get some snacks, things with sugar are important, blood sugar, making sure that you both aren't passing out. Later, I'm going to get you both a medical kit, teaching both of you how to do stitches. You have a blade weapon; try not to stab in the torso. Look at me, I know it is appealing, do not do it. Internal injuries, signs like coughing up blood, mean you come home immediately.”
When Enjin finishes, he takes a breath and looks at Jabber, who most definitely is so normal about the concept of having an actual home and family.
“Fucking hell, uh, I mean, thank you, sir? Yeah, I can do that stuff, I don't wanna kill her.”
“I would hope so, but knowing your background, I couldn't be too sure of that.”
Jabber bites the inside of his mouth to keep from saying something he would most definitely regret later.
“Are we all done here?”
Enjin stands.
“Better start getting used to me if you're wanting to live here.”
“Alright! Everyone, it’s time for breakfast!”
The group gathers and walks through the front door. They pass by Semiu, who is very poorly hiding a smile.
Deciding that he does not want to open that can of worms today, he leads the group over to the cafeteria, the halls of the HQ being filled with friendly chatter.
“Alright, I know both of you already ate; however, we are still sitting down for breakfast. Because I said so.”
Zanka sits herself down, and Jabber sits next to her, Enjin and Gris heading off to pick up some food.
“We survived.”
“Honestly, a little shocked they didn't kill me there.”
Zanka sighs and rubs her head for a second, trying to alleviate the sudden headache that was her boyfriend being stupid.
“I'm glad they didn't.”
“Ha, I am too.”
They sit in silence for a while, Zanka feeling oddly exhausted for morning time.
Enjin sits down dramatically, and Gris follows shortly after him, setting their plates down.
“So, how are you kids doing?”
Jabber pulls two biscuits out of his pocket and hands one to Zanka.
“Yeah, we're doing alright!”
Ejin takes a bite of his eggs and gestures with his fork.
“You both are going to have a good amount of work today.”
Zanka tilts her head as she takes a bite of the cool bread, humming inquisitively.
“After this, you both are working on cleaning an extra room out- before you even try it, no, Jabber, you both aren't going to sleep in the same room.”
He dramatically throws his head to the side.
“Awwwwwwwwwwwww.”
Semiu and Corvus stand across the room, looking over at the little group.
“How long until I can take that day off, boss?”
“Probably about a month, remind me to never make a bet with you again.”
She laughs.
“No, you're much too easy. It was obvious she wouldn't make it to the year without spilling, if you didn't know that that is a you problem.”
He grins and sighs, nodding his head at her, offering her to sit down.
Casual conversation fills the room, although the conversation with the newcomer starts tense, the home-like energy seems to bring them together in a way that he didn't really know before this. Change is scary, but working through it and embracing it with Zanka feels like the only thing Jabber wants to do now that he has gotten a taste for it. Seeing how the cleaners care for each other, in a genuine way instead of how the raiders were just tools, seems odd to him. An odd he thinks he could get used to with her.