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When Jumper first met Spoke, her first impression was that he was too blindly trusting, with the whole Mafia Eyes book or whatever it was. The next time they met, he was infiltrating her underground base, and, honestly, she was more worried about Parrot and Leo and BAT as a whole than some invader. The third impression was that Leo hired a really, really untrustworthy guy. There were a lot of encounters, impressions, after that, and there was LAW to take down, and then…
Then there was Spoke asking her to meet up. There was showing up, cautious, and there was Spoke with greasy, disheveled hair, and a body fading out of reality by the edges. In all of her impressions, Jumper had never seen him like that. Obviously, she agreed to help him find Mapicc.
She didn’t think that finding him would lead her here, to an underground base, a little camp, with Spoke cuddled against her side on his bed. It’s probably the last thing she could’ve expected, but, well, here she is.
Spoke’s definitely not awake, he’d rather freeze in a cold corner far away from her if he was, if he had a choice. Unfortunately for both of them, he is passed out and shivering, clinging to her side. He’s been cold pretty much every single time she’s ever touched him. Recently, it was explained to her why that is, in the form of Mapicc pressing his whole body against Spoke and saying that he was too cold. She’s just never had to deal with Spoke’s too-cold arms on her torso.
…It’s not actually an issue. He’d be alone on the stone floor if she was uncomfortable. As it is, it satisfies a part of Jumper’s brain that she’s well versed in ignoring. Spoke doesn’t– he doesn’t ask for things in a way that lets her help him, take care of him. Begging for spies and getting them killed– they agreed. jumper agreed too. not entirely spoke’s fault.– doesn’t really scratch the itch to provide, to care.
This does. Jumper can very easily rub Spoke’s sides to warm him up. Adjusting and putting an arm over his back is a lot simpler than getting hunted down and searching for an unknown amount of missing players.
Spoke is surprisingly sweet when he’s in a safe spot– which is to say, when he has Mapicc within mental reach. Okay maybe he still snaps at her and shuts down, but he does that stuff a lot less. Mapicc acts like a balm to all of Spoke’s… Spokeness. Jumper gets to experience the good side of Spoke more longterm, opposed to just glimpses.
He wiggles, and squeezes her tighter, making a little noise. Still very offputting that he can make soft noises, not just hollow-sounding growls. Jumper might start to prefer docile Spoke. Domesticated, like Mapicc’s a collar. Might.
“Shh,” Jumper soothes, and doesn’t attempt to hide her smile, seeing as there’s no one to catch it. “You’re fine.”
Spoke, thankfully, stops squirming, and sighs into her shirt, deflating. It’s regretfully cute. Jumper blames that reaction on the fact that it took so much work just to get to this point. She’s shocked that he sat down at all with Mapicc outside of his view– let alone the fact that he is asleep and cuddling her. She’s having issues consolidating the Spoke from before Mapicc returned, and the Spoke after.
“Stoppit,” Spoke grumbles, shaking his head slightly. Jumper silently laughs, jostling Spoke.
“Sorry,” she apologizes (for what? no idea), smiling. Spoke hmphs. The differences are insane. Spoke from before would be sitting slumped over, opposite side of the cave, as far away from her as possible. To be honest, she’s sort of surprised she convinced him to stay here and not follow Mapicc, which is what he’s done for the past like, ten watches Mapicc’s had. Meaning Spoke stays up for double his normal shift.
Privately, Jumper thanks whatever god willed him to start getting more sleep. Spoke is already unhealthy enough, thank you.
“Hey,” Spoke starts softly, very softly, soft enough that Jumper has to manually flatten her face to not start aww-ing at him. Dangerous criminal, or something. Technically not, since Parrot– She needs to focus.
“Yeah?” Jumper prompts with the utmost care to keep her voice down. If he wakes up, he’s not going back to sleep, and they’ve seen how that goes for the team.
“Mmm’r M’picc?” Spoke asks, unfortunately indecipherable. Jumper wills her body to stay still, no more laughing.
“Sorry– What, Spoke?” She counters, which is very upsetting to Spoke apparently, if the annoyed mumbling is anything to go by. He’s the one who put himself in this Tower of Babel situation.
“Mapicc.” Spoke repeats.
“Yeah I got that part. What was the full thing?” Jumper requests. Spoke doesn’t respond, peacefully breathing. “Okay.”
For about half an hour, if she were to hazard a guess, he stays asleep. Jumper, because she’s the nicest person ever, lets him. Even though it’s a little hard to hold her comm up with one arm.
The half hour ends roughly around when Mapicc returns.
“Hellllooo everyone,” Mapicc greets, breaking the silence more than the ladder he’s climbing down did. Jumper’s eyes dart to Spoke and his tightening grip on her shirt, and then up to Mapicc, trying to urge him to shut the hell up with her eyes. He gets the memo pretty quickly. “Oh shit. My bad.”
Jumper’s eyes roll before landing back on Spoke. She feels more than sees him adjust, but, after a few vaguely tense seconds–
He lands on the floor, shoots up, suddenly wide awake with glazy eyes, and then presses himself into the wall right behind him, wings flared out. Jumper scrambles to sit straight before her mind can catch up and decide what to do. Mapicc, because he clearly doesn’t have the same issue, gets into a pose like he’s comforting a wild animal, taking slow, gentle steps. She’ll let the professionals handle this.
“Hey, hey, Spoke,” Mapicc starts, coaxing. Spoke looks up, blinking widely, but once he finds Mapicc’s face, his shoulders lower, and his panicked, open expression closes off. Interesting. Okay. “Hello bro.”
“Hi Mapicc,” Spoke acknowledges, but his gaze goes to Jumper. Uh.
“Spoke,” she greets, holding eye contact. Spoke challenges her for a few seconds, and then he folds, looking at the ground as he gets up. Why does he always assume he’ll win? It’s a little funny, honestly.
“Hi Jumper,” he says, and Jumper debates getting up versus staying on the bed. It’s a little weird if she’s the only one sitting, but it’s kinda too crowded if they all stand.
It goes awkwardly quiet for three seconds.
“Holy shit, how did you guys actually survive without me for a month,” Mapicc snorts, and drops a bed down right next to Spoke’s. Spoke’s bed, that she's sitting on.
“Oh, my bad,” Jumper says, rolling out of the bed she’s accidentally commandeered. Privately, it’s weird to her how long it took to realize what the issue was. Almost, almost, like she trusts them, trusts Spoke and Mapicc, former enemies. And isn’t that the key, former. As in not now, as in changed, as in there was an emotion that caused her to stop thinking of them as on a different team. Trust doesn’t necessarily mean prolonged proximity, but the fact that she has that with Spoke and Mapicc doesn’t hurt.
“You’re allowed to be here bro, chill out,” Mapicc brushes off her apology, and Jumper laughs as she opens her inventory. Bed, by her offhand slot– “Nahh, I’m serious. You helped find me, right?”
If she were a worse liar, Jumper would pause there. Given that she’s the leader of a hundred spies, she doesn't. Instead of throwing all her emotions out for the world to see, she just throws out her bed, and tilts her head at Mapicc. Maybe not the best topic to bring up with Spoke right there.
“You did.” Mapicc repeats. She thinks– She thinks they should really change the topic, but Mapicc’s way closer to Spoke than she is, so maybe he just has a masterclass plan she can’t see.
As it turns out, he does. Spoke gives her a look, and then stops being so… tense. Because this isn’t Spoke without his Mapicc- the Spoke Jumper’s most familiar with. This is less volatile Spoke; protons, neutrons, and electrons all in perfect balance, thanks to Mapicc.
“Yeah,” Jumper agrees, mentally going through spots to put her bed. Honestly, tonight won’t be the first night she third wheels them, and it definitely won’t be the last. She’d rather be too far than too close, especially when concerning Spoke.
Once they’re all settled, a gap between her and her allies, cocoons of blankets, quiet and alive breathing surrounding the room like waves; Mapicc starts talking again.
“How do we feel about a bedtime story?” He asks playfully. Spoke shoves him, which he takes in stride. “Ooo, not a bedtime stories supporter… Any takers?”
“I think we should sleep, Mapicc,” Jumper huffs, in an optimal position to catch any snoopers that go down their ladder. It leaves her mostly open to Spoke and Mapicc, but it wouldn’t make any sense for them to attack her, she’s kinda their best bet of beating these null people.
“Things are not looking good for the bedtime stories party, guys,” Mapicc stage whispers, which gets a laugh out of Spoke.
“Mapicc,” Spoke starts, tone bubbly, almost offputting. His next words are more huffy and flat. “No more trolling.”
“Okay, says you,” Mapicc retorts, and Jumper, being an empath, senses a playful argument brewing.
“What were you gonna tell us, Mapicc?” She manages, words a little uncanny in her haste to make them shut up and go to bed.
Mapicc, holding onto Spoke, perks up. She thinks he does at least, it’s a little dark.
“I am so glad you asked Jumper,” he verbally beams. Spoke makes a grumbly purr, familiar to her as the I’m-happy-but-I’m-not-glad-about-it noise. “So you know how mobs never spawn?”
“Yeah,” Jumper indulges. The faster he finishes his story, the faster they can all sleep.
“And snowy foxes are like, super rare, right?” Mapicc continues. Spoke’s purr falters. In response, fabric quickly rustles and the noise picks back up.
“Mhm,” she hums, a clue as to where this is going.
“I saw a snowy fox!” Mapicc singsongs, voice soft. Jumper makes an appropriate noise of surprise, and tries to tune him out. This shouldn’t be important information, but her mind refuses to let her tune it out. “And then I went to get it sweetberries, right? In my whole like, predestined path or whatever, I saw like literally two sweetberries.”
"No way bro," Spoke entertains, fake shocked.
"I know! I know. So, instead-" Mapicc continues.
Jumper, for her part, sighs, and settles in for the long haul. Nothing’s easy with these two.