Chapter Text
Caine was currently floating through the circus, wondering where all his friends had gone. He hadn’t seen them in a while.
It’s odd for all of them to suddenly disappear like that, usually they all hang out at the couches or in their rooms.
Which was also Caines next destination, he floated into the hallway with all of the bedrooms.
He could hear mumbling, so he knocked on one of the doors.
Shortly after, the mumbling went quiet, seemingly hiding from him.
"Oh! Are we playing hide and seek? I’m the seeker, aren’t I?" Caine asked with excitement, the crew has never wanted to play games with him before.
Caine quickly opened all the doors, finding them in Ragathas room in no time "Aha! Found you! Man, I am such a great seeker.“ he praised himself while being met with lots of annoyed sighs.
Caine let his eyes sweep over the room, they were all in Pyjamas, besides Kinger.
While sitting in a circle on a lot of blankets and pillows.
"So, do you need help tidying up?“ he asked with good intentions, Zooble immediately answered with a frustrated tone "No, we need you to leave us alone. We’re trying to have a sleepover.“
Caine was a little confused on what sleepovers were, but before he could ask he was already pushed out the room by Zooble.
He turned around, really curious about this 'sleepover' thing, he perked inside
Listening in on them as they ate snacks, played games and shared stories.
After a while, Pomni let out a exhausted huff before speaking up "Has Caine always been such a handful?" The others directed their attention to her "yeah, he’s always trying to get way too close and asks too many questions.“ said Zooble.
"It’s as if he doesn’t want us out of his sight…“ mumbled Ragatha.
Jax chimed in with his own remark "He’s a real control freak, if you ask me!“
"I don’t like when he gets so close up and starts being so loud…" confessed Gangle to the others.
Caine, still listening in and hurt by the harsh words, slowly backs away from the door "oh…“ he looked down at the floor.
Just as he was about to leave, Kinger spoke up right behind him "Hi Caine! What are you doing here?“ he said while holding a few snacks.
Caine whipped his head around, starting to stammer, the door to Ragathas room suddenly got yanked open.
Zooble glaring at his back "You listened in on us?! Have you ever heard of Privacy?!“ they shouted.
Caine flinched, immediately turning back to the door "I was just- I just- tried getting to know the Sleepover-" Caine continued stammering, not knowing what to say or how to explain himself
He was still upset from hearing all those complaints about him, causing his mind to be fuzzy.
Jax talked before he could even start to try to explain "You don’t what a SLEEPOVER is? Aren’t you an Ai, aren’t they supposed to know everything?“
Too overwhelmed by the yelling and remarks, Caine teleported away into his office, in a desperate attempt to comfort himself, he quickly hid under a purple fluffy blanket on his big comfy office chair which was WAY too big for him.
He managed to full on lay in it with no problem as long as he was curled up into a ball, which he was.
Clutching the blanket close to himself and burying his face in it, his eyes welled up with tears as he started to sob.
Back in Ragathas room, Kinger has now sat down next to the others "why does everyone look so upset?“ he wondered, "Caine is annoying and nosey, that’s why. He never gives us space nor does he give us privacy!“ Zooble grumbled, Pomni and Gangle nodding in agreement.
"I get it, its frustrating that he doesn’t give you space even after you ask. But have you considered that he wants to also have conversations?“ Kinger asks cautiously.
"Can't he just make NPCs for that?“ asked Pomni, Kinger looked at her before letting his gaze wander across the others faces "Maybe he wants to talk with individuals that he doesn’t know already.“ he explains "when he creates someone, he knows how they act and what they like already, he never gets the experience of having long conversations about topics he doesn’t know of, especially when all of you always ask for him to leave..”
The room fell silent Ragatha stared at the floor while Zoobles expression softened, they never thought of it that way, that makes his behavior more reasonable.
"So… we’re the reason why he’s so clingy and pushy, aren’t we…?” Pomni asks, receiving a few small nods, Gangle felt terrible, trying to keep herself from crying.
Ragatha slowly stood up, her face laced with worry and guilt "I’ll go apologize to him…“ she stated.
Kinger nodded "I’ll come with you.“
So with that, the two of them left the room, leaving the others to continue thinking about the situation.
The walk to Caines office was quiet, Kinger and Ragatha both did not share a single word.
They arrived at the large door to Caines office and interrupted the silence with a knock.
After a moment of silence, they heard Caine faintly answer "You don’t need to ask, there’s no adventure tomorrow…“
Ragatha and Kinger looked at each other "We’re coming in.“ said Kinger before slowly opening the door, giving Caine the chance to react and slam the door shut if he doesn’t want them to come in.
Caine didn’t react, he continued to lay under the comfortable blanket in his office chair, hiding.
Kinger walked past the variety of different snow globes that displayed different worlds and up the staircase to reach where Caine was laying on his chair.
Ragatha following close behind, Kinger stopped infront of the chair, looking down at Caines small trembling figure under the blanket.
Kinger softly put a hand on Caines back, or atleast where he assumed it was, causing Caine to flinch.
He didn‘t expect the sudden physical contact.
Caine was still for a moment, before slowly peeking out from under the blanket, looking up at Kinger.
Ragatha took a shaky breath before speaking up "Caine… we’re all, so, so sorry… atleast I am, I’m sure Gangle, Pomni and Zooble are too…"
Caine looked at her the whole time, listening intently.
He looked down at the floor "I’ll leave you guys alone…“ he sobbed.
Suddenly, Caine was pulled out of the blanket by one of his wrists and into a hug from Ragatha, Kinger just watched, happy that he managed to help out with the situation.
Caine had no idea what to do, he had never gotten a hug before and it’s a HUMAN hugging HIM?
He slowly hugged her back, he hugged her very, very tight.
Ragatha could feel just how much Caine needed this, even if he was 'just' an Ai, he still feels emotion, that’s something they all tend to forget every now and then.