Chapter Text
Pretty please, come on over and ruin my life
Take my hand
While we dance on the edge of a knife
PRETTY PLEASE - Dutch Melrose
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Zanka had a craving deep in his soul. It would go away at certain times of day, but late at night in the darkness of his room, it would come back stronger than ever. It felt like his chest was ripping apart at the thought of feeling fulfilled. He didn't know what it was, but he was determined to figure it out.
He went to parties, drank, and tried weed. It never gave him what he was looking for. He’d had one in his life, but they never satiated that need he felt. They only offered a shallow connection for one night. He never cared to wake up next to them in the morning. If anything, he'd prefer it if he didn't.
Zanka felt the hunger swirling deep in the pit of his stomach every day, he wanted to know how to get rid of it fucking immediately.
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Semiu let team Akuta know what they were to clean trash beasts in the no man's land closest to HQ. Zanka thought it was going to be a normal day for the cleaners.
He noticed that something was wrong before it actually happened. He had finished cleaning the trash beasts, and it was unnerving how peaceful it was. He felt like he was being watched but he couldn't pinpoint where it might have come from.
Jabber caught him far away from the other cleaners. It seemed as though everyone else had their hands full with a hoard and weren't paying very much attention to their surroundings. It also seemed that Jabber was alone.
Jabber was running at him at full speed, claws outstretched with a creepy smile on his face. Zanka tried to dodge but he barely miscalculated and Jabber managed to nick him with the tip of mankira.
He paused. He felt the poison seep into his bloodstream, a warmth blanketing his entire body.
“What did you inject me with?” Zanka croaked as his body gave way and he was paralyzed against the floor. Jabber quietly walked toward him and crouched down, hovering close to his face. He glided the sharp edge of mankira across Zanka’s cheek, just light enough that it wouldn’t slice him.
The other cleaners couldn't see what was going on because of the giant mounds of trash surrounding them. He could hear the clashing of their vital instruments against the metal formations of the trash beasts. He felt alone. But in a way, he was comfortable. He noticed that a certain tension in his body had gone away when he felt the poison seep in.
Jabber kept staring at him. Zanka was breathing heavily.
Jabber finally spoke up. “Careful Mr. Bad Attitude. With them googly eyes you're givin’, I'd think you're in love with me,” he said with his signature—frankly creepy—grin.
Zanka could barely muster a shove before Jabber pulled him back. Zanka was immobilized enough that he deactivated mankira and began running his fingers across Zanka's face and neck, as if admiring. He roamed across his cheekbone, his jaw, his nose bridge. All Zanka could do was lay there.
With what little energy he had left to spare, Zanka managed to mumble out a “Wh…What do you… want?”
Jabber cupped Zanka's cheek, which he had no choice but to lean into. His hand was warm, loving, almost.
“Just giving my Zan-Zan his dose of my poisons. I know he secretly likes them, even if he pretends he doesn’t.”
Zanka’s eyes widened. The poison had completely taken effect and his mouth went slack. He heard his team screaming his name in the background, but the high Jabbers poisons gave him were out of this damn world and he was not about to care one bit. He was starting to get sleepy though. The poisons relaxed him significantly and it sort of felt like he was flying.
“Ya fuckin’ psycho…” Zanka said as his eyes began to grow heavy and his strength was leaving him.
Jabber looked at him with a fondness in his eyes. Zanka's eyes closed but his breathing was intense, the poisons slowly taking over his body and his nerves going completely numb. His face still in Jabber's hands.
Zanka went limp in his hands. Jabber checked to make sure he still had a pulse. It was there, he was just knocked out cold. Jabber ran his hands over Zanka’s face.
“See ya later, Mr. Bad Attitude.”
Jabber hopped over the piles of trash in record time, hiding from a very concerned team Akuta.
Zanka woke up to the morning light shining through the infirmary. There was an IV attached to his left arm and a sleeping Riyo to his right. She was sitting in a chair while slumped against his bed, near his hand. He remembered bits and pieces of what he was assuming the day prior. He went to clean up trash beasts in the no man's land with team Akuta, and then he—holy shit. He ran into Jabber. Jabber injected him with poison. And Zanka liked it.
He was so fucked.
Zanka was shuffling in his bed trying to sit up, which woke up Riyo. Her eyes slowly blinked open and Zanka froze.
“Zanka?” She yawned.
“Hey.” Hey? Really?
“I'll be right back.” She stood up and walked out, quickly coming back with an Eishia in tow.
Eishia pulled out a flashlight from her pocket, flashing it in his eyes. She looked over his face and took out his IV. It was a quiet procedure that he had been through many times after fights. Riyo sat silent, watching, as if he was going to up and run the second the needle was taken out of his arm.
He, frankly, didn't have the energy to move. He was tired. But the feeling that the poisons gave him. It was a rush, he wanted to feel it again—Needed to.
When Eishia finished her routine check, she gave him a rundown of all of the things he needed to do to stay healthy. Drink water, eat plenty of food, and get some rest. It was all so repetitive. He hated repetition. He needed something different. Something so absolutely crazy that it would shake his world. He wasn't sure what it was yet, but he was going to find it.
“Zanka?”
Zanka's gaze shot up to the direction the sound was coming from. Riyo had never left his side. It was Enjin, with Rudo peeking from behind him.
“Enjin.”
Enjin started toward him, Rudo following.
Before Enjin could get a word out, Rudo went on a tangent.
“How are you? Are you okay? Do you feel alright?”
Zanka knew that Rudo’s stoic and rough personality was all a facade, and that he really cared. Though he did need to work on his smile though. Shit’s creepy.
Zanka’s lips tugged upward. “I'm fine, Rudo. Thank you.”
Enjin finally spoke up after an awkward beat of silence.
“What happened, Zanka? One minute you were fighting a trash beast, and the next you're on the ground passed out,” he took a breath, “injected with a poison we assume is from Jabber.”
Zanka took a deep breath. Deny, deny, deny. They couldn’t know.
“Jabber? I didn't even see him.” Zanka said. Why was he defending him?
Enjin didn't look convinced. “You didn't see him?”
Zanka shook his head. “All I remember is cleaning the trash beast, and then someone came up behind me. Before I could turn around, I went numb and fell over. They didn't show their face.” He attempted to stay composed and keep up his clueless poker face. It seemed to work, because Enjin sighed.
“Alright, if you're sure.”
Zanka was screaming to any and every higher power above, thank you, in his head.
“I am, when can I go to my room?” Zanka asked, directed at Eishia.
She responded with a quiet, “Whenever.”
“Awesome. I'm tired and I want to sleep in my bed.”
“Wait, Zanka. You don't want to find who did this?” A question that came from Riyo.
Zanka was seriously going to implode right there. Instead, he replied with, “what is there to find out? You guys already had your suspicions that it was Jabber.” He didn't stay to hear the response.
When he got back to his room, he didn't bother changing out of worn clothes or take out his earrings. He flopped into his bed and quickly fell into a deep sleep.
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Once he got away from the cleaners, Jabber took his sweet time getting back to the raiders base. He was lost in thought. Zanka didn't even try to fight him. Why? He didn't know.
Zanka was a very angry person, always wanting to fight. But this time… he didn't? Boring. Well, Jabber also didn't give him time to react, which was the goal. But still. And not to mention the fact that he even told him to leave when he heard the other cleaners coming. He didn't know why he cared, but he wanted to regardless.
He was knocked out of his train of thought by the sound of a car engine. Engine… Enjin? Enjin. Shit. Thankfully, he was still in the no man’s land— “without the mask, stupid. You could get killed,” he heard Cthoni say in the back of his mind—so he jumped over a giant pile of trash and hid behind it. He saw in the distance a Jeep, very obviously a cleaner's car, due to their logo being a bumper sticker. Not very practical, but okay. It was clear that Enjin was the one driving because he drove like a fucking maniac. Poor Zanka, he was probably being jostled around in there like a ragdoll.
When the car was a comfortable distance from Jabber, he continued his trek home.
The second he walked in the back door (he wasn't about to raise suspicion by walking through the front), there was a pissed Cthoni waiting for him.
“Where have you been?” She asked.
“You know,” he sing-songed. “Just taking a stroll through the nice fields, twiddling my thumbs and being a sitting duck until that fucking boy that i've been chasing after takes the hint.” His voice slowly got more angry as his rant progressed.
Cthoni just stood there with a bored expression. He was about to continue, but she cut him off first.
“Why are you still on about that cleaner? It's clear he's an asshole, and not good for you. Not to mention, he's a cleaner. We're raiders. That would literally never work.”
Jabber groaned and ran his hands down his face. “Let me live!”
“No.”
“Fuck you.”
“Ew.”
Jabber gave her a confused and disgusted look.
Cthoni walked away, before she turned the corner, she said, “make sure Zodyl doesn't find out about this. If he does, he’ll either force you to cut ties, or get info out of him.”
Jabber sighed. “I know,” he said in a tired voice.
Cthoni disappeared into the windy hallways of the raider base. He quickly walked to his room and flopped onto his bed, willing sleep to come.
Eventually it came, and he was whisked away to Dreamland.