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Zooble sighs as their arm grips Ragatha's waist tightly as the ragdoll squirms around in their grasp, laughing and kicking her legs as if it wasn't late at night and she had just finished a nine hour shift. Well, work was a bit of an understatement.
Ragatha had spent the entire nine hours high off her mind on Stupid Sauce causing absolute chaos for everyone; she had made comments about Gangle's new authority status, sent out incorrect orders to customers, made burgers that were either way too large or too small and harassed everyone while they worked.
Even though the shift had been a complete mess, Zooble had to admit something about seeing Ragatha become so confident and honest made them smile slightly. But now wasn't the time or place to dwell on how everything and everyone felt so strange on this adventure, Zooble needed to get Ragatha back home in one piece.
They near the car, opening the passenger door and gently lowering Ragatha into the seat next to the drivers seat so they could keep a close eye on what she was doing while they drove home. Everything just felt so quiet in the parking lot, the only sound being produced were from cars driving in and out of the restaurant car park and drive through and the soft sounds of Ragatha laughing as she rests her head against the dashboard of the car, giving up on putting her seatbelt on.
"Are you going to put your belt on or are you just waiting for me to help you out?" Zooble sighs and watches as she attempts to pull the seatbelt over her, but fails a second time.
"I...It's just so difficult Zooble" She hiccups and looks at them "I don't need it anyway..It's stupid...It's not like any of us can die here".
"Ragatha...I'm not having you in my car without a seatbelt on, plus I don't trust that you won't try and throw yourself out the window or something as I drive" Zooble reaches around her and click the belt into place, ignoring how Ragatha leans into their touch, her breath on their neck "There you go, you ready to go now?".
"Mhm" She nods and looks at Zooble again "Thanks for..for looking after me" She watches as Zooble puts the key into the ignition, the car firing up as they start driving away leaving only Gangle and Pomni to close up for the night.
The drive to wherever they were both heading was silent, almost too quiet. Zooble concentrates on the road ahead, a low hum coming from the engine (why did caine have to give them the worst car?) not noticing what Ragatha was up to.
Ragatha undoes her seatbelt, reaching slowly over for the steering wheel "Let me drive, I know how to drive quicker than you do...Y..You are so slow, you slowcoach" She slurs her words as she speaks.
"No way am I allowing you to drive anywhere, just sit down...your not being helpful right now Ragatha" Zooble adds "I don't even know where I'm going anyway, of course Caine didn't give me any directions or anything".
Zooble pulls into another empty parking lot, turning off the engine. They put their head back, sighing loudly as Ragatha sits still, getting the message that they were being annoying with their antics.
"Zooble...I'm sorry for being so...unhelpful today... I was mean to everyone wasn't I? I did something really bad.." She runs her hands through her yarn curls "I'm so sorry...".
"Well...You were a bit mean...You called me a grouch multiple times and you did make a few comments about Gangle's new authority" Zooble replies " But, you weren't terrible.."
"I feel terrible..I hope that Gangle doesn't hate me now...I don't really remember what was said" She explained.
"I'm pretty sure that Gangle will understand Ragatha..You were high off that sauce, but I do feel like you should apologise to them..Maybe later or tomorrow once you sober up a little..." They look up at the roof of the car and then back down "I say we just sit here and wait until Caine gets bored and decides to snap us back to reality" Zooble turns their body to look out the window, watching as cars drove in and out.
Ragatha turns the rearview mirror towards her, staring at herself for a few seconds before saying "I look so horrible...No wonder nobody flirted with me today..Or anyday, it's still the same here as outside of the Circus..Nobody will ever flirt with someone like me".
"What are you talking about? You think you look horrible?" Zooble looks at her and raises an eyebrow "Where has this come from? I think you look fine Ragatha..You look how you always look".
"That's the problem, don't lie to my face and tell me I look normal to you...I'm a flimsy old ragdoll..I'd kill to be as intricate and cool as you Zooble" She leans on the armrest, staring up at them.
"Well I think you look nice...pretty even...Look at me, I'm just a jumble of random parts and pieces at least your put together" They laugh.
"I just think it's a cool thing, you being able to remove parts of yourself..It's not even how you look, you just have this aura to you..People always trust you and like you" She smiles softly and sighs again "And I'm just me...Little old Ragatha..I'm so plain and boring".
"Maybe I'm not even worth flirting with after all" She begins to tear up, rubbing her eye.
"Hey...Come here" Zooble taps their lap, signalling for Ragatha to move closer to them. Ragatha moves to the middle of the car, putting her head on their shoulder as she sits on their lap. Zooble pulls her close to their chest.
"Shhh..It's okay...It's okay you can cry" They gently rub the small of her back, allowing her space to cry as much as she needed.
"I get how your feeling...Maybe not so much the whole flirting thing, but not feeling right...Or put together fully or desireable to people..I feel like that too sometimes here, I think everyone does at some point in their lives..I mean look at us all, we're all a little weird looking...But it still doesn't make things right" They say, leaning with one empty hand to wipe the stray tears on her cheek.
"But if it's any consolation..I think you're very beautiful..I think everything about you is very desireable" They continue, listening as Ragatha's breathing becomes more shallow "I've always thought about what you guys all look like outside of here, funnily enough I've always thought that you'd be super pretty, I imagine you'd have the cutest outfits and the nicest curly hair...I'd probably have a huge crush on someone like you".
"I can't remember anything about myself but I doubt I was any of those things...There's nothing pretty about me" She pouts slightly, her bottom lip sticking out slightly.
"You know that's not true, I wish you would just stop saying stuff about yourself like this..You spend so much time looking after everyone but yourself" Zooble sighs, Ragatha loosening her grip on their shoulders.
She goes silent but adds "Can you turn the mirror around? I don't want to see my face".
Zooble flips the mirror round, looking at Ragatha for any form of comfort on her face. She just looked so tense and scared, almost as if she was nervous about her own appearance.
"I wish you could see yourself from my perspective..I think you are so beautiful" They bring their hands to sit on her waist, bringing her closer again as she starts to sob for a second time.
"Nobody ever calls me beautiful..." She looks down at Zooble's arms and just melts into their touch, putting her head on their shoulder again.
"Well they should..It's such a shame people don't say it more often" They run a hand through her hair, trying not to get their claw hand too tangled in her curls.
"You know..I feel so lucky to have someone as attractive as you say that I'm a beautiful person...If this is what being flirted with feels like, I can get used to this" She chuckles lightly.
Zooble bursts out laughing, wiping away a stray tear with their empty hand. Ragatha laughs louder, the two laughing together.
"But seriously..Don't ever think your not beautiful or worth any sort of affection, and if you ever feel like this again...Well, I highly doubt you'll remember much of this tomorrow..please talk to me, I'll remind you every single day if I have to just for you to understand how beautiful you are" They grip her waist slightly tighter keeping her upright as she was slipping slightly.
"I'd like that a lot...Thanks Zooble" Her voice slightly swaying as she speaks, obviously still under the influence of the Stupid Sauce "I love you" Zooble knew she was probably just high, but the tone of her voice made them believe that she was being even slightly honest.
"Sure you do Ragatha" They go back to rubbing the small of their back "Let's talk about this tomorrow...How does that sound?"
Zooble didn't get a reply, instead they were greeted by the soft sound of snoring. They sighed and watched as the cars passed outside again.
"Goodnight" They whisper in her ear, pulling a stray curl away from her face. All they could do now was sit around and wait for Caine to click them out of the adventure.
Zooble puts their head on Ragatha's shoulder and pulls her into a hug, they think to themselves; all this time they had despised most of the adventures Caine created and made them participate in, but maybe some of them weren't so bad after all.. Maybe they could begin to enjoy them if it meant spending more time with Ragatha. Maybe they'd even thank Caine when they got back.