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The jungle aesthetic aroma enveloped Will’s and Jett’s noses as they entered her room. Once they stepped in, Will galloped and trotted around the room, with his nightwear flapping and jerking at every movement. Jett carefully treaded behind him, aware of the injury below her.
Will’s nightwear consisted of an oversized shirt with graffiti of Roarball plastered on the front with matching shorts, whilst Jett’s was a shirt with the Thorns’ logo checkered all over with wild green trousers.
Will climbed onto the branch that loomed over the gargantuan bed and bellowed a cackling bahh that ricocheted across the walls. His arms agape and his posture prideful and bold with rectangular eyes. Jett giggled in the sidelines, it was an adorable habit that he kept. She clicked the door shut and walked over to him.
“Okay two horned unicorn.” Jett grinned. “I think it’s time for us to sleep now.”
“Awh I was just about to have fun…” Will complained, but he couldn’t help the smile crawling across his face. “But sleeping with you is better.”
Jett chuckled softly; it was music to his ears. He loved seeing her happy and amused, but seeing her frail behind her courageous act felt like a call for help for him. His chest hurt when she vented to him after the team breakup; it was a side he never saw her in, but he was committed to comforting her.
Jett padded towards the bed, her paw pads brushing against the carpet on the floor. Will clambered onto the mattress from the branch with a soft thud, but he did not have any injuries due to his amazing agility. She heaved herself onto the bed with enough force to plop onto it with a flop like an oversized plush toy. He pounced over her to click off the lamp on the bedside table and the room was vaguely filled by the moonlight stretching and the comfortable silence that hung between the two.
Once Will returned to Jett’s side, she pulled the thin bed cover over them (it was thin because it was around July and it would have been hot in Vineland). She steadily scooted over to him and swept her arms around him. He held his breath from this, but his breathing commenced because he’d gotten used to her snuggling into him. She wound her abyssal tail around his stick-figure body. Will rubbed circles on Jett’s back with his hooves, the coarse texture sending shockwaves of pleasant sensations throughout her. This earned him a gentle but small purr from her, which she quickly shrugged off.
”Y’know you can purr for me?” Will laughed.
”Mmmmh, no thanks softie.” Jett sarcastically replied.
”Whatever you say hot head.”
She sunk deeper into his chest, her breathing synthesised with his heart trembling against her forehead. She analysed the sounds further, becoming more sturdy and safe the more she introspected it.
During this trance, Jett was brainstorming random memories that featured her and the team, the moments she valued the most. However, during the midst of this, she suddenly thought of one that cracked something in her:
Her, apologetically, with her build perked down glancing at Will as she arrived to apologise to him about breaking the Thorns into shards after the Shivers game.
It was not that moment specifically that stung the most like salt on a wound, but the effects of how Jett downgraded her teammates from her outrage. Even though it was not her fault the team was sold, she felt like a contributing factor to why her mates disregarded her.
It was the burden and guilt she carried after that broke her for once.
Because of this, Jett’s purrs seized cascading out of her, and her eyes opened whilst glancing at a point on Will’s shirt. He immediately noticed this and pointed it out to her.
“Hey, Jett?” He questioned. “You good?”
“I-I’m fine…” She swallowed a knot tightening in her throat.
“You sure?” He added reassuringly.
Jett paused. On one hand she wanted to spill everything — the team breaking up, her bottling all of her feelings up, the rolling fear of being alone. But on the other, she didn’t want to disturb Will and keep him in a trance he was reluctant to be stuck in because of her being vulnerable for once. However, she decided to take the leap of faith and finally admit everything that was clouding her mind.
She signed then swallowed again, for extra support for what’s to happen next. Will stopped the swirling of his hooves on her neck and cupped her cheeks.
“Okay so I’m not fine…” Jett began, sucking in a shaky breath. “I-I keep thinking of the Thorns’ breakup… How I was the cause of it. How you guys walked off on me without a proper farewell. How broken and small I was for the first time in a while…”
She sighed before continuing again, and Will wiped off the streaks of tears flowing down her cheeks with his thumbs.
“I’ve thought about it for so long — ever since it happened… It’s flowed in and out of my mind every now and then. But, I never mentioned it ever since. Because… I just hate feeling weak… And I want to be seen as this resilient, untouchable player, not frail and useless. It’s hard to, I didn’t want to annoy the team with my ridiculously useless memory that I can’t shrug off, so I just bottled it up and kept going. And… I can’t do it… I want someone to keep me warm and safe in their arms, tell me everything is okay, and comfort me, but I don’t know who. I’m scared of being alone, and having to fend for myself…”
Before anything else could be murmured, Jett started to quietly weep. The knot in her throat loosening, free but frail. She slithered down slightly to shield herself and stuffed her face into Will’s chest. Her streams of tears stained his shirt, but that was irrelevant to him. He simply coiled his arms around her neck again and used on hand to caress the crown of her head.
Will had never seen her cry like this. He had only seen her with tears brewing in her eyes during her apology monologue after the Thorns Vs. Shivers match. But, he was still there for her comfort either way.
“You know.” Will started. “You didn’t have to carry that burden alone. You could’ve told me — I could’ve listened to this earlier.”
“I know…” Jett shuddered below. “I was scared it would drift us apart again…”
“It’s too late to change the past now, but just know you can come to me anytime, no matter what it is.”
Will took a deep breath, then comforted her in threads of words.
“Jett.” He sighed. “You’re the most resilient person I’ve seen in ROAR.”
Jett peered up at him — her eyes puffy with pink lines circling her cunning, yellow eyes filled with sniffles every now and then.
“You cared about us so much you wanted to help us win when we felt discarded at the fact the team was sold by Flo, but you couldn’t contain your rage, and… that’s okay.” He continued.
“Sometimes generosity comes in a form that seems hostile, and that was you taking the winning shots in the Thorns Vs. Shivers game instead of passing to us. Yes we felt forgotten because of this, but we thought you used us as a distraction just for you to win. And your apology that concurring day always puts a smile on my face; you both owned up to your mistakes and admitted that you needed us and told me the truth. And also, you trusted me with what to do after.”
He shifted his right hand to stroke her ear, and slithered down to the nape of her neck to gently scratch her fur. And he continued.
“I can tell you trusted me in the finals, because even though you were permanently injured in your lower leg and was hopeless, you still took my words for granted during the halftime. When you came back in briefly for the fourth quarter due to Archie being ejected, you still passed me the ball even though you had the opportunity to shoot.”
Will cupped Jett’s jaw with the same hand he used to cradle with her head and tilted her gaze back to his.
“You trusted me to take the winning shot, because you didn’t want to mess up like in the fur ball game. So instead of taking the risk, you put your faith in me and passed me the ball, which is what I like to imagine you passing me the torch. And I find that, oddly captivating.”
Jett couldn’t help but smile — a true smile that cut across her face.
“So, what I’m trying to say here is that: you’re not a failure. It’s okay to be weak in someone’s presence, not matter how big or small the problem is. And also, this team has your back, and we aren’t going anywhere because Flo is gone and it’s just us: You, me, Archie, Modo, Olivia, Lenny, and Coach Dennis. We all cherish you, Jett Fillmore. You’re the crucial puzzle piece to the Thorns.”
From this monologue, Jett crashed back into Will’s chest again and cried softly. Not out of agony or despair, but for how much he loves her and how much she loves him back. Maybe they were meant to be, but she was just skeptical of him at first.
She stopped sobbing and looked back up at him. She turned on the lamp behind her to introspect him more. The faint glow of the moonlight and the radiance from the lamp caught in his eyes, clashing together.
“You’re disgustingly sweet you know.” She let out a wet laugh.
“I know.” He laughed back.
“I’m guessing you’re good at memorising sentences and moments too.”
“Yep.”
“I’m not complaining though, I’m glad I have someone who cares about me inside and out and deeply.”
“Good thing you have one right here.”
“Very lucky to.”
They chuckled at each other admiring one another. And Jett felt more free than ever.
“I love you, you know that?” Jett joked with another wet laugh.
“Maybe that’s why you have your tail wrapped around me and becoming somber in my arms.” Will chuckled along.
Jett slightly flushed at this and just realised her tail coiled around him.
“No no it’s okay, you can keep it there, it’s adorable.” Will reassured as Jett was loosening her grip on him from embarrassment. She immediately cozied back into his grasp.
Their eyes met again. And they looked at each other’s eyes. Really looked. Will’s emerald green eyes with the lamp’s glow cresting them. Jett’s pure tropical and wild eyes, slightly tinted with a pink from the crying.
And without any warning, their heads started moving towards each other, tilting and eyes closing. They pressed into each other’s lips. Jett’s salty chapped lips made it taste salty, but they enjoyed it either way. Warm and comforting and familiar. Getting to express each other’s love, was such a pleasure to have.
They weren’t too overt about their relationship to the public, because it was a quiet balance between the fans and the two. Their affection and love was meant for themselves, not for entertainment for an audience. So, whenever they snuggled into each other at home, it was something they cherished.
When they pulled apart, they looked at each other again. Jett still let out occasional hicks and her breathing was still uneven, but the tears were stained and her eyes turned back into her pure amber ones.
“Maybe let’s go to sleep for once.” Jett suggested as her eyes felt heavy from her craving sleep.
“Yeah, maybe we should.” Will agreed.
Jett shuffled down until her face was buried into his ribs. Will’s hooves wound around her neck again, and her arm perked behind her to click off the lamp. Afterwards, she snuggled back into his warmth that enveloped around them.
“Love you…” Jett mumbled under her breath.
“Love you too…” Will replied, pressing a kiss onto her forehead. “Always.”
Jett fell asleep to the rhythmic drumming and thumping of his heart threaded into him. His goatee beard tingling her head with his rough fur under his jaw rustling with hers. He had his arms securely locked around her neck like a cage for a wild animal, as she leaned down into his chest.
And for the first time in months, Jett felt free and unwound from a curse deep within her. Maybe everything would be okay in the end.
All because of the goat she used to despise, and decided to take him for granted.
Having Will as a partner…
..wasn’t so bad after all.
She loved him, and he loved her back.
Perfect.