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“Haha, good one Jack!”
Nullble’s head swam with a miasma of searing pain and dissociation. Their vision was disjointed, one eye remaining firmly stuck to their face like always, while the other lay a few feet away on the floor, aimed to look into some dark corner with only a sliver of light hitting it. With their remaining eye, they look at the duo in front of them: The Jester and Jack. The Jester cackled at their misery, hovering in the air as she held her stomach. Jack, on the other hand, had a painted-on smile slapped across his face, forced taut by pure survival instinct. His eyes were drooping, heavy with the burden that was placed on his shoulders. He looked down at Nullble with an expression of pure pity and regret, chuckling softly along with The Jester like this sick display was really funny. In one of his long hands, he gripped one of Nullble’s arms. Through the pain, they could feel him gently rubbing a thumb on it, trying his best to comfort them from afar.
“Oh, man, that was funny…” The cruel god sighs, wiping an artificial tear from her eyes. She glances down at the mess of broken plastic with disinterest. “Well, I have more important things to handle. Jack, I trust you to clean up this mess while I’m gone?”
Whatever he said was too quiet for Nullble to hear with the buzzing in their ears. In any case, it satisfied Jester enough to get her to disappear, teleporting away with a snap of her fingers, much like a certain ringmaster they dearly missed. The second her form poofed away into the nothingness, Jack was on Nullble in a flash.
“God, Nullby, I’m so fucking sorry.” He instantly babbles, pressing the torn arm back into its slot gently. They couldn’t help but hiss at the pain as the nerves knit themselves together. Jester had made the pieces swapping gimmick a painful endeavor, forcing them to stick with the same pieces instead of being able to change them out, another way to remove what little freedom they had remaining.
“It’s okay Jack, I know she makes you do this.”
“Still!” He cries out, an extended hand reaching for their loose eye. He brings it to his front, studying it as Nullble regards him through it. “It’s not fair, I should try to argue, or let her torture me instead of you or Annie or anyone else, I-”
“Stop it.” They mumble, taking the eye from his hand. “It’s like you said. It’s not fair. And from what you’ve told me, it’s not like you’re off the hook anyways.” Another hiss emanates from where their mouth should be as they reattach the bulbous eye to their face, regaining their correct depth perception.
Jack winces as he remembers the last time he had displeased Jester, forced to dive into a field of corn for what must’ve been days, all the while being hunted like the prey animal he was. In any case, he heaves a heavy sigh as he snakes his arms under Nullble, lifting them up into the air in a bridal style.
“You know I can walk, right? You didn’t tear off my legs this time.” They chuckle, an attempt at dark humor.
Jack clenches onto Nullble, fingers digging into their plastic parts. Clearly, it didn’t land with the intended effect.
“It’s the least I can do for you, okay?”
Nullble decided not to argue against that. They get as comfortable as they can in his arms as they make their way down the hallway.
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack gently slides Nullble onto their bed before turning back to shut the door. Nullble does their best to get comfortable, shifting under their thin blanket that felt far too weak to properly keep them warm. It stuck on their odd corners and bends, making it difficult to keep them covered at night if they tossed and turned. As they shuffle underneath the sheet, Jack makes his way back over to their side, kneeling down and crossing their lanky arms over the bed before resting their head on them. His ears droop over his eyes, covering them with an expression of shame and sadness. Nullble rolls over slightly, running their hand across his cheek, enticing a soft whimper from the lagomorph.
“You know I’m not mad at you, right?”
“You should be…” Mumbles the reply.
“But I’m not. Like I said, she forces you to do this. The fact you feel so bad proves you’re a good person.”
“Ugh- I know, I just…I should at least try to defy her, argue more, fight back, something…”
“Jack, if it’s not you, she’d do it herself, and it’d probably be a million times worse.” They lean over with both hands now, gently pulling the bunny up with their touch alone. “At least you try to make it as painless as possible. Hell, she’d probably actually have killed Jangle a lot more often if you weren’t the one doing it.”
“I know, I know, just…” His words trail off. He stares down at the bed past their hands, his own gloved digits knotting into the sheet as a sob builds up in his throat. Tears well up in his yellow eyes, rough polygonal blobs of blueish matter collecting up and making streams down his face.
“Oh, come here, baby…”
Nullble says, wrapping an arm around his back and guiding him up onto the bed proper. They lift the blanket and he slides under easily, much easier than Nullble themself. His arms worm around their body, wrapping around them like a snake as he squeezes, desperate to extract even a drop of comfort as he buries his head against their chest. Nullble strokes their ears softly, rubbing the base between their fingers as he sobs against them.
“I know…I’m sorry, Jack.”
They glance around their room, taking in the monochrome greys and blacks that dyed their living quarters. At first, they thought it was kinda depressing, but grew to appreciate it after being subjected to the melting colors of the circus for so long. Even now, it was a somewhat-welcome respite from anything outside these walls, but it also felt oppressive, unsafe. They tried to die here, and they were saved in the worst way possible. That tainted whatever place you called your home, no matter how much you used to love it. Jack’s arms squeeze slightly harder against Nullble, forcing them from their thoughts to look down at the rabbit.
“Do you…ever think if we can get out?” He asks.
“...Sometimes. But I doubt it. And even if we did…then what? Would we really ever be the same again? This…isn’t normal PTSD.”
They can feel his claws stiffen, the points slightly grating against their plastic. Not painful, not threatening, but showed that the very idea of this being forever made him tense. They sigh, stroking their head with their hand.
“But, even if we are stuck here…that means we can figure it out, together. Clearly, she got the power from Caine somehow. If it happened once, it can happen again.”
A huff, hot breathy air blasting against their chest as Jack sighs. “Yeah, I guess so…”
“Mm.” They simply grunt.
Silence dominates the room for a few precious seconds, not quite comfortable, but not upsetting. Jack begins to run his fingers up and down their back, forcing some precious comfort to rush her system.
“...Can’t believe you ever fell for me.”
A wisecrack, muffled and weak from Jack’s safe space, but it still grants a soft chuckle from his partner.
“Yeah, me either. You were a real piece of work before all this.”
“Yeah. I always thought you and Ribbons would get it on.”
Another chuckle, this one shared between the two. “Yeah, it was on the table. But now, well…you know.”
“Mm.”
Another few seconds of silence pass.
“Are you ever gonna leave me?”
“Nah.” They answer almost instantly.
“What if you abstract?”
“I won’t.”
“But what if you do?”
“Then you better join me quick. I’d hate for you to be stuck here all alone.”
“Do you think she’d really let me?” His voice started to tremble again, fear creeping in as he clenched their back tighter, slight shakes taking over their body.
“I don’t think she can undo it any more than Caine can. At least we’d be free if we did.”
“We?”
“Look, if you abstract, I’m gonna abstract. Nobody else is gonna keep me sane here like you do, and I doubt you’d be in a better position if I left first.”
“Yeah…”
Finally, Jax extracts himself from their chest, unspooling his arms slightly as he scoots up to their face. Once he gets there, he gently presses his teeth against where their mouth would be, simulating what would be a kiss with a soft clack!
“I love you, Nullby.”
“Love you too, Jacky-Boy.”
“Thank you for being here for me.”
“Of course, hun.”
Like usual, Jack and Nullble slept just a bit better that night than they ever did alone.
It wasn’t perfect. It never was. But at least they were together. That made Hell just a drop more bearable.