Work Text:
Zanka takes a final look through the assignment files; the paper’s cool under her fingers.
It was just a simple mission, a remarkably small trash beast that looked like a rodent had been startling and harassing the people of a neighboring town, relatively normal, they preferred to send her out on less dangerous missions, saving the big guns for more worrying incidents, however, under the personnel section, rather then just having her, Amo’s name was also listed there. She didn't have anything against the girl; she seemed like a sweet person, if not a bit of a loose cannon temper-wise.
She hums as she looks back up at Semiu of whom she had just taken the paper from, who just raises an eyebrow at her.
Taking a breath, she begins to talk, but is cut off.
“Would it kill you to interact with a new person? It is a small job, will hardly take you five minutes, just take her and go out for dinner after.”
She closes her mouth and smiles, gripping Assistaff and standing up fully.
“She's in the medical ward, yeah?”
Semiu nods and waves her off, and Zanka begins her walk over.
It wasn't that she didn't or couldn't talk to new people; it was just so much more to have to learn and study a new person. She had enough files in her brain already; she already has a little family system, although it made her chest feel weird when she calls the cleaners family. She sighs. Maybe Semiu has a big picture she's going for here; most of the time, she's right on that sort of thing.
Eishia smiles when she walks into the medical center.
She stands and walks up to Zanka, who ever so slightly tightens her hold on Assistaff.
“Is Amo up here today?”
Eishia lifts a hand to her collar, calling Amo over.
Zanka wonders when they exchanged blood for a moment before Amo walks out, her expression going from excited to a little disappointed, before coming up to them.
“Sorry, Amo thought Rudo was calling her. What do you need?”
Her tone is that sweet high pitch it always is, which makes Zanka’s stoic expression falter for a moment.
“Semiu sent me on a mission and wants you to come with. Would you care to join?”
Zanka is a little surprised when Amo’s face turns into something gleeful.
“Amo would love to come with Ms. Zanka!”
That makes her raise an eyebrow, especially as she watches the girls exchange thumbs up.
“Walk with me, Amo.”
Zanka begins to walk out of the room, Amo’s small footsteps following close behind her, making tiny noises that she can't help but admit are.. Shockingly adorable. She brushes it off, and they begin their trip over to the place of assignment.
“Amo thinks your stick is very pretty.”
Amo speaks as they walk, breaking the silence that had grown between them. She looks down at Assistaff, then up at the smiling teen, her little face filled with wonder at the wooden stick.
“Thank you.”
“Did you carve it yourself?”
Zanka hums as she lifts the stick off of the ground for a moment, observing for herself the smooth ridges, made from years of daily use and love.
“She was a gift.”
That makes Amo grin wider as she begins to talk again.
“Amo’s was a gift too!”
Zanka remembers what had happened with Amo. She supposes they both have very odd definitions of gifts. While Amo’s is much worse than hers, it makes her grin. The girl had been having a rough time processing what had happened to her, and while Zanka didn't have a hand in that game, she was still glad that Amo seemed to be feeling better.
“Yeah. Gifts don't always come from the best places or people.”
“Amo knows.”
They walk in silence until they reach the town, where Amo begins to admire the surrounding environment with much enjoyment. They were always hesitant to let her get out of the facility. Zanka starts to feel a swelling in her chest, both at Amo’s excitement as well as the other cleaners trusting her enough to watch over the teen. She should really stop questioning Semiu as much.
“Alright, I know that it is a rodent of some sort-”
She is interrupted from her explination from a squeal coming from Amo. In a mere second, Zanka activates Assistaff, moving to stand in front of Amo, only to be met with a rat.
Amo pushes past her and picks up the small creature, cooing at it carefully. All while Zanka looks at the gears and scrap mechanical bits that make up its body.
“Looks like that's the little buggar we're here for.”
“Aw, but he's so tiny!”
Zanka holds gentle hands out for the rat, which makes Amo drop it into the awaiting grasp.
“It may be small now, but these things get bigger fast. Just imagine if this goes into a trash heap. It's much earlier and safer for us to get rid of them when they're small, like this, rather than them becoming massive and hurting people. Now we make sure we get rid of it quickly.”
She places it onto the ground and, with a swift motion of spinning Assistaff, she cuts it clean in half, the garbage that made it up falling apart around it. Picking up the pieces, she shows it to Amo.
“They don't feel like how animals do; all they want us to get more garbage, regardless of what they do to get it, including breaking people's homes.”
“That is not nice.”
Zanka nods and looks around the town, now that the trash beasts were dealt with, Semiu had told her to get dinner.
“Doya like uh ramen?”
Amo nods, and they begin their walk over to the store. She had thought this would have gone a lot worse than it did; she mentally gives herself a high-five; no one has started crying yet, and that's a win in her books.
“Zanki! Didn't know you were a mom!”
Jabber, of whom has not been watching them the entire time they’ve been here, walks up to them and smiles. She walks up to him and smacks him over the shoulder.
“M not, and if ya had anythin larger than a pea in that head of yours, you'd know that already.”
Jabber blows her a kiss, then pretends to be mock-hurt, clutching his chest dramatically.
“Aw Zanki- ooh yall planning on getting some food?”
Remembering she still has Amo with her, she decides to skip out on bullying Jabber more.
“Yeah, me and Amo here just got done dealing with a trash beast.”
Jabber grins and follows along after Zanka rolls her eyes and leads Amo in. He sits at the table with them and bounces his leg.
“So.. Amo, how was your first mission with Zanki here? I know she is quite the handful.”
Amo does not catch the sarcastic tone he puts on the end of his sentence and narrows her eyes at him.
“Ms. Zanka is really nice, and not a handful of anything!”
Jabber watches as Zanka talks to a waiter and orders for the group, and sighs when he realizes he can't make his joke. It was gonna be really good, but if Zanka can't scoff and pretend to be mad at him for it, what's it worth?
“Mm, I suppse your right.”
Zanka gets finished ordering and looks over at Amo.
“I remember ya sayn earlier that you hadn't tried many foods, got ya the same thing I got.”
Amo nods appreciatively and starts to hum something to herself as she fidgets with a straw wrapper she found on the table.
“So Zanki.. where’d ya find this one?”
“Yer actin like she's a stray I picked up randomly. While back, me and some of the cleaners and I saw a tower off in a more polluted area, Penta, had a.. Memorable first meeting. Tomme has been taking care of her.”
Jabber nods along, taking a moment to glance down at Amo’s shoes and back up at them. He gives Zanka a ‘do you know?’ look before Zanka nods.
“Yeah, we aren't talking about anything like that today.”
Their food shows up, and they all eat in a comfortable silence, Jabber internally, giggling and kicking his feet because Zanka remembered and ordered him his favorite food here.
Once they all finish, Jabber, the gentleman he isn't, has Zanka pay for their meal.
“Es about time we head back, we don't want them to start worrying.”
“They shouldn't worry, girl like you is at least somewhat competent.”
Zanka simply glares and stands, Amo following close behind her again.
Jabber tries to walk up to her for a goodbye kiss, but is denied with a look over to Amo that signals ‘not in front of the kids.’ Which is, of course, amusing to him, but he frowns slightly and backs off, fighting the urge to make some shitty joke.
“Bye, Zanki!”
He waves dramatically as the pair walks away from him, smiling to himself softly.
“Why does that guy call you Zanki?”
“He likes to be mean to me.”
She says as if the nicknames didn't keep her awake at night before they had started dating, from simply how much she liked them.
“He seems really mean.”
She hums, unsure of exactly how to respond to that without giving them away.
The rest of the walk goes by pretty calm, they stumbled across a stray cat at some point, and Zanka totally did not feel overemotional at having to tell Amo no, we cannot get that kitty, it has fleas, put it down.
“How did it go?” Semiu asks as they walk into the lobby of the building.
She makes a so- so motion before picking up the report files and handing one over to Amo.
“Was just a rat,”
She nods and excuses the pair, and they walk to the main lounge room.
Zanka grabs a pen and gives one to Amo.
“Are you sure you should be letting her fill out paperwork? Know how picky the hell guard is, plus she'd probably talk in the third person in that too.”
Zanka was going to give a normal response, a, if there is something she needs help with, I can help, but was interrupted by Amo’s very angry voice.
“Just because Amo talks diffrent then you doesn't mean she's stupid, and if you didn't have a pea instead of a brain you'd know that!”
It takes Zanka a moment to process what had just left Amo’s mouth, and even longer to realize, oh shit, she took that from her and Jabber.
Enjin's eyes widen at that, and Zanka stands up quickly and motions for her to come along.
“Amo why-”
Zanka tries to begin once they enter her room, but Amo interrupts.
“When Mr was mean to you, you said that, and Enjin was mean to Amo.”
Oh god, how exactly does one explain to someone like Amo that no, he isn't really mean to me, sometimes we just fight because he likes it when I'm mean to him, along with when Amo calls Jabber Mr, it makes her feel something discussing.
“Oh. Uh, well, his name is Jabber and.. he doesn't want to hurt my feelings, nor do I his.”
“But Amo thought you said he was mean?”
She feels her face burn.
“Amo, you know how sometimes when people love each other, they tease one another?”
Amo’s eyes brighten, and she nods.
“Ms. Zanka loves Mr. Jabber?”
That was always the key for Amo; she loved love. For a while, they had to work to get her to stop prying anytime she met a new cleaner.
“-but this is something we can't tell anyone- except for Riyo, she already knows, but you need to be secretive, Amo, can ya do that?”
Amo nods, clearly excited.
“You have to tell Amo cute things when they happen.”
“I will tell you cute love things with Jabber and me if you say sorry to Enjin and keep my secret.”
Amo, the adorable small girl, growls at the mention of saying sorry to Enjin. That makes Zanka smile slightly, but she wipes it off before she adds it to her algorithm.
“Fine,” she huffs rather dramatically and moves to walk out the door.
“After Amo is going to bed, though.”
Zanka gives a soft expression and nods.
“Think I'm gonna do the same, sleep well.”
Amo leaves, and a few minutes later, she gets a message from Enjin talking about how Amo told him to tell her that she apologized and to remind her to trade blood at some point, so they didn't have to play telephone.
She sighs as she looks out her window into the dark night and lies down, setting Assistaff by her against the wall.
“Jabber,” she presses onto the red choker carefully with an amused, tired expression on her face. “Guess what I just had to explain to a little someone?”
Their night is filled with giggles and telling little stories back and forth until eventually Zanka falls asleep, leaving Jabber telling about how he avoided her watchful gaze that morning, to an empty audience.