Chapter Text
Zodyl
Zodyl had been keeping an eye on Jabber and his relationship with the cleaner boy by using Cthoni and her manhole cover.
This cleaner and Jabber are an extremely entertaining experiment.
With how much Jabber had been talking about this Zanka already so the more intel he had gotten by Cthoni told him that Zanka had gotten all the more strong.
Jabber was never wrong about peoples potential so of course he wasn't wrong about this ones.
This was an effective investment and he had heard from Cthoni how dependent the two boys had gotten on each other.
Now that Jabber was sneaking out or having Cthoni portal him every other day sometimes day after day they just kept getting closer.
It had become normal for the boys to see Cthonis portal whenever she needed to tell Jabber something or even just take him home.
It seemed as if the cleaner trusted her too so she could spy on them and inform Zodyl on what he needed.
Therefore Zodyl was going to strike when the iron was hot but he had to check in on the two teens first.
Zodyl called Cthoni in and she responded by sending a manhole to him and poking her outer body outside of it as she usually did.
”Yes boss?”, She was right next to his face so he could ask anything easily.
She climbed fully out of the manhole portal and sat on the rim comfortably, it was a dark room so she had no trouble making a portal large enough to do so.
”What are Jabber and the cleaner boy doing currently?”, Zodyl glanced at her as she summoned another portal to watch the two.
It seems like they both had just gotten done with fighting since both of them looked pretty beat up.
The cleaner boy was twitching under Jabber who was looming over him while kneeled next to him whispering stuff in the younger teens ear.
Jabbers head snapped up to the portal with a small, “Mh?”, how observant of Jabber but that was his usual anyway, “Yo Cthoni whatchu need!”
“The Boss wants you back at HQ tonight, you have a new…”, She paused glancing at Zodyl who nodded.
“…mission.”, then she closed the portal before Jabber could fully respond.
”Hm…yes it seems like the right time, you are dismissed.”, He turned away and began thinking about how to convince Jabber to get Zanka onto the Raiders side.
Right before Cthoni left out of her portal Zodyl remembered something.
He glanced in the direction she was and made one last order, “Gain his trust” before Cthoni’s portal closed.
Jabber+Zanka
Jabber looked away from where the portal was now closed back to monitoring Zankas reaction to his darling poisons.
Mankira was humming happily at her latest poisons taking effect on their darling Zanka.
Jabber reached over to Assistaff picking her up and laying her on his lap running his fingers up and down Lovely Assistaff feeling her buzz against Mankira.
Zanka was already beginning to gain control of his body after just being poisoned even mangling a scowl at Jabber touching Lovely Assistaff.
Jabber had always wondered why Zanka was able to recover so quickly.
He went through many possibilities before landing on one of the most possible ones, Zanka's family.
Jabber perked up as Zanka began sitting up and shakily wiping off his bloody face.
It had only been a few minutes since he hit the ground, it was close to Jabbers own recovery time.
”Hey Zan-Zan! Did your Hellguard trainin’ thingy train ya ‘gainst poisons?”, this was to cross off one of two possibilities that Jabber thought were most likely.
Zanka glanced over while moving his head around with a scowl on his face.
”Nah, well, I mean I was trained against the most mild natural things but nothin’ like yer poisons…”, Zanka ran a hand down his face.
He was trying to get that weird fuzzy feeling out of his brain that always clouded it when Jabber used his paralytic poisons.
He slowly opened and closed his mouth, he couldn’t feel his tongue or even smell anything. It was probably just a weird side effect.
”Hmm…well ya did tell me about your crazy ass family… so did your food ever taste weird?” Jabber had a giant grin on his face knowing he was likely correct.
Zankas face twisted into a scowl, how beautiful, “What’r you implyin’ Jabs.”
Though Zanka didn’t quite like his family he couldn’t bring himself to think of them doing such a thing to him though it was on the table.
”Did ya ever feel sick after eatin’ somethin’? Tastin’ blood in yer mouth while eatin’…?”, Zanka’s face fell drastically.
Zanka knew it was a possibility, one that he really wanted to ignore with all his heart since that was his family.
”I-…Shut yer mouth!” The cleaner tried to stand up but quickly fell into Jabbers waiting arms.
Zanka glared at Jabber but he began to think about it, it was defiantly a possibility knowing his family.
He remembered Kyouka glaring at him when he tried to stop eating since he was feeling sick scaring him into eating more.
His father had often lectured him for attempting to not eat and then never being surprised when he got sick after eating.
Goka calling him pathetic whenever he got extremely sick after eating though he didn’t look much better himself.
The family doctor getting a tight smile and saying his immune system was just not the best and he just needed some extra rest.
Or his consistent ‘food poisoning’.
Or even how Kyouka and Goka commonly snuck him food from food carts that were all over the village and he always felt better even if it was junk.
His family had been poisoning him.
He had been being poisoned since he was a young helpless child.
He didn’t want to think about that at all but when he got into a dark place it was a bit hard for him to break out of it.
However the cleaner was broken out of his memories by Jabber settling Zanka against a wall and placing Assistaff on Zankas lap.
”What a twisted version of love your family has, Zan-Zan.” Jabber seemed far too delighted for this situation, he propped his head up with his hand.
He said it in such a soft adoring voice that the younger boy was caught off guard.
Zanka turned his head away from Jabber and shakily gripped his darling Lovely Assistaff.
”It’s n’t funny, Scuzzball.” Zanka still felt a bit hurt about how his family was literally poisoning him and didn’t even tell him.
That also explained why he felt a little less shitty physically after a day of starving in that well too.
More of he felt okay rather than the normal effects he got from starving himself, always felt like a good reset or punishment for him.
He kind of wanted to go back to his family home and yell at them for literally poisoning him but he also wanted to yell at Jabber for finding this funny.
He bit into his lower lip, how had he not realized this how had Jabber realized something from Zankas life before he even knew!
He looked down at Assistaff who was now trying to get his attention to stop him from possibly spiraling.
She had formed to protect him from himself so it was only natural for her to distract him.
A small smile crossed his face as he looked down at her blue tinted wood and how beautiful she was.
He felt a little spark of pride start in his chest, he had done pretty well today if he disregarded the entire thing about him being poisoned since he was a child.
Jabber was doing his usual and staring at Zanka with those big dark pink eyes wide open just observing him like a zoo animal.
Zanka was used to this by now it was just something Jabber did when he wasn’t talking.
He looked right at Jabber meeting his gaze making Jabbers face split back into a grin as he hopped right next to Zanka.
”Sooo Zan-Zan how was that poison! Ya Boy tried somethin’ new mixed in!”, Jabber began going on and on about this new drug he bought, or more likely stole, and how it had basically no effect when he tried it.
”Yeah its s’possed to like make ya feel like yer weightless nd’ not here type shit!” Jabber finally finished his ramblings.
Zanka did notice how his senses were dulled a bit which was the effect that was supposed to happen but it was barely noticeable when used with the paralytic.
“Hmm…Well I did notice I couldn’t really feel much same with taste, smell, and allat.”, Jabbers eyes lit up and he basically jumped on Zanka.
”Tell me everything in detail! I’ll need to test it on someone without any immunity soon though!”
Zanka felt a little twinge of discomfort at the ‘someone without any immunity’, it hit him like if someone pinched a bruise but he pushed those feelings aside.
He began describing how it wasn’t too unlike the paralytic and he only realized it was there after Jabber had described it.
They went back and forth for what seemed like 30 minutes but when Zanka was finally able to take his eyes off of Jabber, which was surprisingly hard when Jabber was passionate like this he realized, it was already dark out.
”Oh damn it, Jabs”, Zanka looked back at Jabber who was now right in his face with a shit eating grin, “AH- Don’t do that ya dick!”
Who wouldn’t get scared if someone like Jabber was randomly right in their face so Zanka instinctively pushed him away with a shaky hand.
Jabber began laughing and fell from the tips of his toes to his ass landing pretty hard only making him laugh louder.
”God damn it Jabber, yer such a phyco!” though the cleaner boy was trying to seem angry he couldn't help but let some of the affection he felt leak through his tone.
Jabber sat up to look at Zanka only to begin laughing hysterically half a second later which ended up with him laying his head on Zankas shoulder.
Zanka felt how hot his face was, he felt it creep up his neck like fire turning his skin red.
It was a familiar feeling by now, it used to only happen when he was embarrassed but now it happened nearly every day because of his masochistic scorpion personified.
The thing he didn't expect was Jabber leaning in and licking his cheek and causing him to jump back with an embarrassing half yell and half squeal.
“WHaT WAS THaT!!” His voice cracking only made it worse and he was sure he looked like a tomato.
Which Jabber only confirmed by clutching his stomach and laughing even more hysterically, Zanka didn’t think that such a thing was possible.
Leave it to Jabber to prove him wrong about anything and everything.
Zanka didn’t have to follow the curfew for the cleaners anymore since he was 18 now but he still didn’t want to get back late.
But he didn’t want this moment to end.
Jabber was awfully beautiful when he was enjoying himself like this.
It was almost painful how perfect Jabber was.
Zanka forgot about everything else in the moment just to watch Jabber.
He was a little envious Jabber could look so beautiful while literally drooling from the amount he was laughing.
Jabber looked back up at him for a second before breaking into more giggles and choking out, “Y-ya l-look so damn s-sappy!”
Zanka tried to fix his face but a stupid smile split across his face and before he knew it he began giggling.
The two teens grabbed onto each other while giggling so hard that their heads were getting light.
For some reason they just couldn’t stop.
Jabber was the first to start gasping for breath then Zanka followed soon after.
They calmed down a few minutes into having basically no breath left and Jabber was laying on top of Zanka.
Jabber was panting slightly still gripping onto Zanka with his face buried into Zankas chest.
He was still smiling loving the light feeling in his head and the pain in his lungs.
He could hear how fast Zankas heart was going and his head was being lifted with every rough breath Zanka took trying to get air into his lungs.
He felt oddly peaceful even if he was in a bit of pain it all felt like the best day of his life, the pain really just made it all better.
Zanka put a hand on the back of Jabbers head and they just laid there for a bit.
Of course before Jabber decided that they had been soft for too long, opened his mouth, raised his head, and chomped down on Zankas collarbone.
Zanka let out a small yelp before glaring down at Jabber.
He lifted his hand off Jabbers head about to smack him before a light appeared to their right.
It was Cthoni.
Jabber unlatched and licked the slightly bleeding wound a few times before Zanka forced his face away with a red face.
Cthoni crawled out of the manhole portal and sat on the rim of it.
”Jabber, it’s time to go home.” Of course her voice was soft but flat at the same time.
Zanka had no issues with her as she was never rude to him or even commented on him, at most telling Jabber to get off of him so Jabber could get home.
Today it seemed different as she looked past the pouting Jabber right at Zanka, “Do you want a portal back to the cleaners HQ?”
Even Jabber seemed a bit shocked and snapped his head to look at Zanka for a moment.
He had no reason not to trust the woman other than the fact that she was a raider.
Jabber had told him about how Cthoni was like a sister to him so Zanka had even less of a reason to be untrusting.
He nodded stiffly and got up to follow Jabber.
Cthoni only made one portal stating something about raiders HQ having less light than the building they were in, though it was pretty dark out.
Zanka simply believed her since Jabber didn’t give him any look to signal that Cthoni was doing anything wrong.
Jabber hopped into the portal first and it seemed that Zanka was taking too long since Cthoni looked at him simply stating, “it’s at most a little disorientating, it’ll be okay.”
Her voice was quite nice when she was actually talking and it was oddly calming.
He walked into the portal and Jabber was across the room reaching up to some kind of jar on a tall shelf. It was a freakishly tall shelf about 8 or 9 feet.
Jabber couldn’t get whatever was in the jar and it might’ve been put there to keep Jabber out.
He got on the tips of his toes trying to reach up and began trying to climb the wall, which Zanka knew damn well Jabber could do.
Jabber was like a feral cat being kept away from a piece of ham, at least that’s what Zanka thought.
Zanka began giggling softly at the thought of Jabber being kept away from things like a child.
Cthoni came through the portal just a moment later staring blankly at Jabber who was already reaching over to the jar of what seemed like plants.
She also made a smaller one to whack Jabber on the head and knocked him back to the ground.
Jabber let out a small whine and began pouting again.
”Cthoniiii!! C’mon just one!!”, Jabber whined looking right at Cthoni.
Cthoni didn’t seem amused and she wasn’t even looking at him only Zanka.
It felt weird to have her attention he almost wanted to make himself smaller than her, it was more of because of the aura she gave off rather than actually wanting to.
”Okay let’s get you back to the cleaners HQ…”, Cthoni walked right past Zanka to set up another portal.
Jabber scurried over and hung off of Zanka's shoulders and began complaining in a whiny voice, “C’nt he stay for a bit I’ll keep him in my room!”
Cthoni glanced at Zanka who was pushing Jabber away by his face and grumbling out insults.
Zanka jumped away when Jabber licked the cleaners hand with all the enjoyment of a child licking a lollipop.
She didn’t know how he wasn’t used to it, Jabber had been doing that since he was like 10 always biting or licking people he liked.
She remembered having to portal mini-Jabber many feet away so she didn’t get too many mini bite marks.
She let out a sigh trying to make sure Zanka was comfortable so he got used to the Raiders HQ.
The boss would get Zanka one way or another anyway so it was just her job to make sure Zanka was comfortable with the HQ first.
”Jabs, I have ta get back to the cleaners c’mon now…”, Cthoni was waiting with the open portal for Zanka to step through.
Zanka realized he was making Cthoni wait and quickly went over to the portal after prying Jabber off of himself.
He thanked Cthoni, said bye to Jabber, and stepped through the portal.
He was back at HQ right before the normal curfew for minor cleaners that he was still adjusted to.
The Raiders
Zodyl sent Cthoni to get Jabber so he could put his plan into action.
The two boys were clearly close enough now for Zodyls plan to take place and Zanka also seemed okay with Cthoni which was another good sign.
Jabber and Cthoni had come to his ‘evil lair’, as Jabber often called it even though it was just the room Zodyl stayed in.
Jabber was standing with Cthoni more of looming behind her with a manic grin on his face.
He was hoping Zodyl would play with him again.
Zodyl was sitting in his normal circle of trash where most of his plotting happened.
Cthoni knocked slightly to signal they were there and Jabber giggled a bit in anticipation.
Zodyl turned his head to Jabber and Cthoni.
Cthoni moved to block the door just in case Jabber disagreed or if he tried to run.
Though it was out of character for Jabber he was too unpredictable for anyone to really know what he will do for sure.
”Jabber, I know about your relation with that cleaner boy.” Zodyl deadpanned.
Jabbers face fell as he went pale for a second before his manic grin appeared, “yeah? So? You gonna kick me out?”
Jabber was shaking slightly not too much though, he just knew Zodyl was stronger than him and Cthoni would just portal him back if he tried to run.
”Im okay with it…”, Zodyl started which got Jabber to let his guard down, “However, I would like you to bring him into the fold.”
Jabber was shocked, more like flabbergasted, at such a proposal he didn’t know if he could possibly ask such a thing from Zanka.
He knew the Cleaners were like Zanka's family and how much he adored the Cleaners.
Zanka’s emotions were hard to understand so there was no telling for Jabber to know how Zanka would react.
”Aaannnndddd~ if I don’t?” Of course Jabber didn’t want to, though he wanted Zanka to be a raider he didn’t think Zanka would like that.
”Then we will kill him.” It was an instant chilling reply which meant Jabber wasn’t to play anymore.
”Eh-“, He just stared for a second before his face dropped, “Fine…I’ll do it”
Zodyl turned his back on Jabber, “Don't fail me, you are dismissed.”
Jabber left quickly basically pushing past Cthoni to get to his room.
His room was a little messy, more of an organized mess he knew where everything was and it smelt strongly of nasty chemicals.
There was some small undertones of pleasant sweet smells from a few poisonous plants.
He didn’t know how he would do this and he didn’t want to do this.
He wanted to call Zanka, he had realized he couldn’t go too long without Zanka without getting stressed.
Zanka
Zanka went inside of cleaners HQ a little bit giddy.
It had been a good day, he had already eaten, and he could just go lay down with Assistaff and think about what had happened throughout the day.
The second he got to his room the collar on his wrist began vibrating…chirp…chirp…
Zanka picked up already knowing who it was, but with who it was it made Zanka shut his door quickly.
”Heyy Zan-Zan!”, Jabbers tone sounded off as if he was hiding something but trying to stay cheerful.
Zanka brushed it off as just difference in tone over call.
”Hey Jabs, whatchu need?”, Zanka went to his bed and sat down on it crossing his legs so he could put Lovely Assistaff on his lap while he talked.
He enjoyed running his fingers over Assistaffs wooden surface and feeling her hum under the pads of his finger tips.
”Soooooo~ do ya ever get tired of sneakin’ ‘round?”, it was so random even for Jabber to ask such a thing.
”What do you mean?”, Zanka replied almost instantaneously.
“Hehe nothin’ much Zannie! Let’s meet up tomorrow ‘nd talk more!”, and with that the line went dead.
Zanka just stared at his wrist dumbfounded then started feeling a bit mad.
Jabber wasn’t explaining anything!
Everything was going so well today and Jabber just HAD to do something like this.
He let out a huff and hugged Assistaff to his chest nuzzling into the arch of her wood.
She smelt so woody and clean, she felt amazing against his skin too.
Such a beautiful and stunning weapon.
She always took his mind off of such negativity like this.
He was concerned about Jabber of course and he was confused about the question.
Not just that but it was too confusing as to why Jabber just wouldn’t tell him what was going on Jabber always told him everything randomly.
Zanka laid down and hugged Assistaff to his chest and nuzzled into her till he was comfortable.
Zanka didn’t know how long he laid there drifting in and out of peaceful sleep before he heard knocking on his door.
”Zankaaa…”, He ignored them, “Zankaaa!!”, once again attempted to ignore them, KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK “Zankaa!!”
He finally rolled out of his bed and opened his door to find an awfully pouting Rudo at his door with a fist raised to knock some more.
”What. Do. Ya. Want.”, Zanka was glaring down at the smaller boy who was just looking all the way up at him.
”I- uhm…Enjin said you need to train me!”, Zanka just looked at him blankly for a second as Rudo was basically vibrating with nervousness, he was a horrible liar.
”It’s dark out fat ass try again.” Zanka wasn’t stupid it was dark out and Rudo had a half-attempted horrifying smile on his face and was sweating.
Rudos face turned almost as red as the cherry candies he ate very often.
”Ahm…Well Riyo said you have to-“, Rudo tried again only to be cut off, “If Riyo wanted somethin’ she would come ‘ere herself, jump on my bed, and then ask me, try again.”
Rudo began pouting again and let out a huff of air out of his nose and was clearly thinking hard, his brows were furrowed and he had an almost never ending scowl on his face.
”Ya know ya could ask me what you actually want.”, Zanka rolled his eyes as Rudos eyes widened and began shining slightly.
”Well uhm…Enjin said you were the best we had with wooden stuff and I found this wooden toy in my latest trash search and I thought I could fix it up to give it to team child!”, The baby faced boy blurted out in one breath and as quickly as he could.
Zanka just stared at him for a few moments, Enjin had complimented him.
Enjin complimenting him made the warm fuzzy feeling in his chest feel a bit too much making him smile too much that was also because Rudo came to him!
Zanka was an extremely weak man to praise so he tried to keep his tough guy act up so he rubbed his face to hide his goofy smile.
“Well I guess I could help ya…bring it ‘ere.”
He watched as Rudo ran off to go grab it leaving Zanka to giggle and get all giddy.
He calmed down right when Rudo came back lifting up the wooden toy.
They fixed it up together with Zanka guiding him as to how to care for wood and polish it, fix anything wrong with the wood too.
It ended up with Rudo dozing off on Zankas shoulder at about midnight.
He knew Rudo had problem sleeping so Zanka didn’t want to kick Rudo out and cause Rudo to stay up for another night so he laid both of them down and fell asleep himself.
They got woken up by pressure ontop of both of them.
Rudo woke up slowly but Zanka was trying to push the other one who had jumped onto the pile off.
Red hair, giggly, soft skin, and playful.
It was their sister teammate Riyo!
Rudo crawled off the second Zanka pushed Riyo off.
”Come on Zanka!! Let me join in!”
“No!!! Both of you are too heavy get off!”
Riyo and Zanka were wrestling with Riyo trying to latch on to lay on top of Zanka with Zanka pouting and trying his best to push her off.
She didn’t weigh much and neither did Rudo but both of them on Zanka was a bit too heavy for Zanka to breath freely.
Zanka got up and picked Riyo up to stop her, Rudo was watching them.
Riyo was giggling but when she caught sight of Rudo watching she mouthed ‘join in’.
Rudo stood on the bed and flung himself onto Zanka who also caught him with his other arm.
”Ack- YA SCUZZBALLS G’T OFFA ME!”
Zanka kept throwing them on the bed only for the two to jump back on him.
This kept going till Enjin leaned on the open door frame.
”Okay okay kids leave your big bro alone!”, Enjin was trying his best not to laugh as all three teens turned to him with wide eyes.
Rudo and Riyos faces went pink but Zanka's face went red, though the two younger teens were embarrassed too they wanted to make Zanka feel more embarrassed than they were.
The two younger ones looked at each other and said in unison, ”Okay Dad!!” “Okay Mom!!”, Riyo called Enjin mom and it rolled off her tongue so easily it wasn’t caught for a solid second.
Enjins face went a little pink, “who’re you calling mom?!”, he was trying to grab at Riyo to give her a noogie.
Riyo grabbed onto Zankas back to protect herself from Enjin then ran past him.
Enjin followed after leaving Rudo and Zanka alone in the room staring at them leaving while giggling.
”Come on ya little shit let’s follow them!”, Zanka began walking and Rudo ran after him to catch up with everybody else.
It was such a nice day, his team had the day off so they spent it together goofing off.
It took his mind off of Jabbers call and every confusing thing going on, he liked focusing on his family…team, no his family at this point.
Before he knew it Rudo had ran off to give team Child the wooden toy, Riyo had ran off being followed by Enjin to go prank someone.
Now Zanka was alone and it was about time to go out and meet with Jabber.
He stopped by Semius desk to tell her he was going out before hurrying out the door before she could respond.
He brought Lovely Assistaff with him as he rushed to their usual spot.
It was a dingy abandoned building that was close enough to a no mans land that no one without a jinki went there but far enough that the air wasn’t polluted too much.
Jabber was already there and was smoking something that smelt absolutely rancid.
Zanka entered and began coughing the second he did, the smell was horrible.
Jabber dropped whatever he was smoking out the window which made the smell a bit better before he went close to Zanka and blew smoke into his face.
Zanka pushed Jabber away and began coughing violently.
It wasn’t the first time Jabber this kind of stuff, he often blew smoke into Zankas face to piss Zanka off.
Jabber began giggling a bit on the floor since he was pushed pretty hard.
Zanka had finally calmed down and was able to breathe again.
He immediately got on top of Jabber punching him in the face, Zanka was having such a good day but Jabber just had to ruin it.
The day before was supposed to be good too but Jabber ruined that too so Zanka was a little bit more than pissed off.
Jabber had his hands above his head letting Zanka go at him till Jabber was giggling with blood dripping down his face.
Zanka was panting when he finally began to calm down, he was hit by the guilt instantly.
”Ah Jabs…shit m’ sorry-“, Jabber was giggling more and he sat up keeping Zanka on top of him.
The raider got blood all over Zanka’s clothing as he wiped his face all over Zankas chest and neck.
“So strong Zan-Zan…So perfect for me ya c’n do it again.”, Jabbers voice was so low in Zanka's right ear making Zanka shiver.
”Jabba stop, yer gettin’ blood on me-“, Zanka wasn’t actually trying to push Jabber away he could always get new clothing.
”C’mon Zannie why c’nt we be on the same side…” Zanka went stiff.
”Wh’t do ya mean Jabs…?”, Jabber raised his head every so slightly to look into Zanka’s eyes.
Beautiful like a poisonous flower petal, Zanka always thought of Jabber as a true beauty and genius.
The whites of his eyes were now pink but still beautiful, if anything it made his eyes pop even more.
”Ya know wh’t I mean Zan-Zan…”, He nuzzled his head back into Zankas collar bone, “m’ boss thinks yer realllll strong…why c’nt you j’st join.”
Zanka felt his heart drop completely, his face drained of blood in half a second.
Jabber was NOT asking this of him.
He couldn’t be asking this of him.
He loved Jabber, he couldn’t live without Jabber but…the cleaners were like his family.
Jabber looked back up at Zanka’s eyes.
Zanka was frozen just looking into the eyes he adored so much and was now asking so much from him.
He didn’t know how to answer but he didn't have time so he answered…