Chapter Text
Caine already fixed the circus after his... malfunction. Snap! And right back to normal! Like nothing had ever happened! Like he'd never felt the world collapse and snap and meld into itself around him. Like he'd never screeched his imaginary digital lungs out. Like he'd never fallen asleep in KInger's arms, crying (Kinger didn't even remember that either, so it might as well have never happened). Like he'd never hidden under his desk, never felt fog invade his brain, never... he didn't even remember what he'd done that day anymore.
But he didn't have to remember, because it didn't matter anymore! Everything was fixed, everything was better. It's okay. IT's okay. And HE... is... ALSO OKAY!!!
***
"HEEELLO, my Sneaky Summer Sausages!" Caine greeted, spinning around for extra effect, and not to hide the unevenness of his mouth, that for some reason refused to be either straight or properly upturned no matter how hard he'd tried to force it while staring in a mirror in a hall before arriving.
He spoke to them while facing the opposite direction of them all. ... Also not for that reason.
"Caine...?" Ragatha gently interrupted. He hadn't even noticed he'd been talking to be interrupted.
"YES, Ragatha?!" :D :s
"You're... facing the wrong way," she pointed out.
"OH dear me!" He spun around. "I hadn't noticed!" Caine stuck out his tongue, hoping this would convince them all he'd done it on purpose to be funny.
He had!! That's why he'd done it.
"NOW! Where was I...?" He held his cane with one hand, tapping his bottom gum with the other hand. The patterned tapping of his own finger, usually fine, all of a sudden felt grating. He stopped. "OH, right!" he continued explaining his adventure. "You all have to go to a HaaAAaAuuUAUNTed laundromat and-! Uhh. Do laundry, I guess."
They all stared at him.
"That's it?" Jax asked.
"WELL I CAN'T COME UP WITH GOLD EVERY DAY, YOU DISORGANIZED PENCIL POUCH!!"
They kept staring.
Why? Why did they all look so... off? It's not like anything weird happened yesterday or anything AUAAUAUAGAJHAPAPJAJAOJIPAHHDAHOAHDOIQJDWJJP
"ALRIGHT-! Goodbye." Caine popped a portal into the room and sent them all into it, teeth closed until the portal disapeared, everyone gone.
And he sank to the ground, not having it in him to float anymore.
He's fine. Nothing happened yesterday. Except it did.
But just a malfunction. One that's over now.
He spun around to see what made the noise.
... there was a noise, right?
***
And surrrree, he'd laid awake all night, repeatedly tossing his blankets off himself to check where the ants came from, only to repeatedly find no ants on his legs.
And surrrreeee, he'd screamed when Bubble showed up next to him while doing that, but Bubble appearances are always startling. ... probably. Did he even remember anymore?
And sure he'd stared in the mirror for two hours straight, practicing facial expressions he already knew how to make, because he somehow forgot. And... sure he'd kept whirling around to check the area near him, for... something. Unclear what for.
But that must be... It must be... Uhm...
Irrelevant. Somehow. Somehow it didn't matter. He didn't know why not yet.
He stopped in front of the same mirror he'd looked in earlier, and patted his gums with his hand, to test... something, maybe. He shuddered. Why did that feel uncomfortable now?
He poked his teeth, and suddenly they all felt too cold. Sharply cold.
The pictures he always kept under his tongue now poked him.
It's nothing. It's...
Somehow it didn't matter. He just didn't know why not yet.