Chapter Text
The C&A workshop was shrouded in a deep, sorrowful silence, where the lights flickered dimly, and on the floor, next to the workbench where he had seen Kinger bending over blueprints and circuits, lay a body.
Caine saw him, his blond hair stained with something dark, his glasses crooked and drooping to one side, his hand outstretched as if he had tried to reach something– or someone in his last moments.
“Kinger…” Caine's voice sounded strange and distorted, as if he didn't feel it coming from him.
He wanted to move, but his legs wouldn't respond, and his voice had died somewhere between his chest and throat, preventing him from screaming. All he could do was watch and feel something inside him cracking.
And then, Scratch's voice appeared behind him.
“What have you done-?”
Caine turned immediately, observing the C&A co-founder standing in the doorway of the workshop, his orange hair gleaming in the flickering light, his expression filled with horror and disbelief.
"No- it wasn't-..I... I didn't..." he tried to speak, but the words wouldn't, couldn't come out.
"Y-you..you killed him.." Scratch said, his voice no longer one of disbelief, but of accusation. "You killed Kinger."
"No-!" Caine's voice broke the silence. "I didn't do anything! I-i swear-! When I arrived he was already...!"
But Scratch wasn't listening anymore. He was already busy calling security, pointing an accusing finger at the android, turning Caine into a monster in the eyes of the one who had just entered.
"He's a Divergent!" he said to someone, Caine couldn't see clearly. "I always knew he was dangerous! Look at him, look at what he's done!!"
Caine looked at his own white-gloved hands, now stained with red. Where had they come from? He hadn't touched anything, he'd just walked in. He just wanted to show Kinger his new design for Bubble─
"It wasn't me-.." he whispered shakily. "It wasn't me."
But everyone was looking at him— looks of fear, hatred, of incomprehension. And Caine, for the first time in his short life, felt what it was like to be a prey.
So without any options left to do,
He ran.
He ran through corridors he knew by heart, dodging hands trying to grab him, voices shouting orders, and alarms that were starting to blare loudly. His top hat flew off around a bend, and he didn't even consider going back to pick it up. Raindrops stung him when he finally found an exit, a back door that led to a dark alley, and he kept running.
He ran until the city turned into a highway, ran until his legs, designed to be perfect, began to tire,ran until the rain washed away the red stains on his hands.
No.. It wasn't me..
It wasn't me,
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He stopped in the middle of nowhere, the wet concrete of the road beneath his feet and the gray sky closing in above him.
Because for the first time in his life, Caine didn't know what to do, he had no one to turn to, he had no orders, no master and no purpose.
The sound of an engine jolted him out of his trance, then he noticed lights approaching on the road. His mind processed the speed, distance, and trajectory, he knew he could get out of the way, he had to. But he didn't, and the car screeched to a halt, shattering the silence as the lights momentarily blinded him.
When the door opened, a woman came running down towards him with messy brown hair and glasses askew from the rush.
“Oh my God! Are you okay? I almost ran you over!! What are you doing in the middle of the road-?!”
Caine studied her, she was a female human, middle-aged, with a face full of concern that seemed so genuine. She didn't look at him with fear or hatred, but.. as if she really cared.
"I..." His voice faltered. "My owner... He.. Had abandoned me. I'm not sure where to go."
It was a lie, but at the same time, it was also true. Kinger had abandoned him, had left him alone in a world that didn't understand him and that he understood even less.
The woman looked at him for a moment, saddened, understanding what that meant, and then gently placed a hand on Caine's arm.
"Poor thing," She consoled. "Come on, get in the car, you're going with me."
And Caine, who thought he didn't deserve that kindness, that he didn't deserve anything at that moment, followed her.
“I'M GOING TO BE LATE!!”
The scream pierced the apartment walls without warning, and Caine's eyes snapped open, his systems jolting out of sleep with an electric shock. For a moment he didn't know where he was, he didn't recognize the ceiling above his head, the mattress beneath his body, or the boxes stacked around him.
“STUPID ALARM!”
Ah, the apartment, Miss Lin, the guest room, and Jax.
The android sat up slowly and allowed its sensors to calibrate. The dream— or the memory─ still lingered in his mind like a sticky residue, the echo of rain on its face and fear in its chest, but it was no longer there. It was here, safe from the world, where on the other side of the door Jax was having a breakdown.
He stood up, straightening his red suit with an automatic gesture, since it had gotten slightly wrinkled from sleeping in it, something his perfectionist programming registered with disapproval, and opened the bedroom door just in time to see Jax bolt out of his room.
The human was still in pajamas, with dark purple hair sticking out in all directions in a mess, eyes half-closed, and mouth uttering a series of unintelligible complaints as he ran towards the bathroom.
"Good morning!" Caine greeted.
Jax stopped dead in his tracks, turning his gaze in surprise to the android, as if he had just remembered that he no longer lived alone.
“Ah.” he barely managed, blinking. “You.”
"Me!" Caine confirmed, with a small smile.
“Don't talk to me, I just woke up. I'm late for the sixth time, my boss is going to kill me.”
“Literally or figuratively?”
"Figuratively, Caine! figuratively!!" Jax disappeared into the bathroom and slammed the door.
Caine stared at the door through which he had disappeared with a certain excitement.
‘He said my name’ he thought. ‘Without calling me ‘android’ or ‘tin.’’
He concluded that as a good way to start the morning
Then the next fifteen minutes were spent viewing a fascinating display of human behavior under stress.
Jax emerged from the bathroom with his hair barely dry and his work clothes half-on, a short-sleeved black t-shirt he was still pulling over his head as he hopped on one foot trying to get his pants on. His apron and black visor with the yellow "S" outlined in red were in his backpack.
"I'm late, I'mlateimlateimlate I'm late!" he repeated without noticing.
"It seems so," Caine confirmed, who had been standing by the kitchen counter watching the spectacle with genuine interest.
“That's not a helpful comment you know.”
“I wasn't trying to be helpful, I was trying to make a statement.
“Well, just watch in silence!”
Caine obeyed, for three seconds.
“Do you want me to make you breakfast?”
Jax stopped halfway to the door with one shoe in his hand and the other on his foot.
“What?”
“Breakfast! the most important meal of the day. According to my data, humans need—”
“I don't have time for your stupid breakfast!”
“But-”
"No!" Jax ended, finishing putting on his sneakers and slinging his backpack over his shoulder. "Look, I have to go to work- right NOW. like─ this very minute!"
He hurried for the door, but stopped, his hand already on the doorknob, and turned to face Caine. His expression shifted from haste to something closer to uncertainty.
The android still stood by the bar, his red suit immaculate and his hands clasped behind his back, so out of place inside the messy apartment.
‘What do I do with him?’ Jax thought. ‘I can't just kick him like that─ well, I can but-.. Morals and stuff! but I also can't bring him to work. And I can't just leave him here alone.’
Or could he?
"You're going to be late," Caine reminded him, as if he could read his mind.
“I know. I basically already am.”
“Then you should leave.”
“I know!”
“I can stay here.”
Jax narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
“Alone?”
"Alone." Caine confirmed. "I won't touch your things, I won't make a sound, and I won't open the door for anyone. Especially not the Zooble."
“You don't even know what Zooble looks like.”
“From your description, I gather that it's someone who would yell at you angrily.”
“Yeppers..”
Silence fell as Jax stared at the door, then looked at Caine, then looked back at the door with the expression of someone who knows he's about to regret what he's about to say.
"Fine," he finally agreed, sighing resignedly. "You can stay until I figure out what to do with you. Just you! Because my mom would be furious if I left you Abandoned in the street."
Caine's eyes lit up.
"But." Jax followed up almost immediately, pointing a finger at him, "If I get back and I find something broken, something burned, something out of place, or Zooble at the door asking why there's a circus in my apartment..."
"There's no circus in your apartment" Caine clarified, confident. "Technically, a circus requires at least three performers, a tent, and an exotic animal. I'm just one."
"You're..." He began, but shook his head and gave up. "Forget it, I'm leaving."
He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, and just when Caine thought he was gone for good, Jax's head reappeared around the doorway.
“And don't set anything on fire.”
“I wasn't planning on it.”
“Not even a little.”
“I'm not an arsonist, Jax.”
“I don't know you well enough to know yet.”
And with that, the door slammed shut, finally leaving Caine alone in the apartment. Silence settled around him like a blanket, and for a moment, he allowed himself to simply be there, standing in the middle of the room, feeling the quiet weight of Jax's absence.
Then, a small digital voice echoed inside her.
“Boss, did he leave already?”
Bubble appeared as a small floating hologram over his shoulder, a bubble with glowing black eyes and a smile full of sharp teeth that floated from side to side without staying still for a second.
"Yes, he left," Caine confirmed, heading towards the kitchen.
“ bawowzers!! That's great! He was very noisy, and his hair is weird!”
“His hair is extraordinary. And you have no right to judge how humans look!”
"Of course I do!" Bubble did a somersault in the air. "What are we going to do today, boss? Are we going to explore? Are we going to touch the things you were told not to touch? Because I want to touch the vase on that shelf and see if it breaks when it falls!"
"We're not going to touch anything." Caine opened the refrigerator and began examining its contents. "We are going to make breakfast"
“For whom? For you? You don't need to eat!”
“For Jax, when he gets back.”
“But if the thing comes back in several hours, it'll get cold, give it to me!”
“No, I'll make something that can be reheated. And don't call him a thing─!”
Bubble floated until it was right in front of Caine's face.
“You're so cheesy boss”
“I don't know what that means.”
“It means you're too kind and sweet. It's disgusting!”
“That doesn't make sense bubble. kindness doesn't produce gastric secretions in those who observe it.”
“You're a lost cause, boss.”
"And you, bubble,are a distraction." Caine raised a finger and with a swift motion, touched- or looks like he touched the visual image of bubble, Popping it out of existence with a small ‘pop' sound.
Meanwhile, at Spudsy's, the smell of burnt oil and lemon disinfectant filled the air. The burger chain was small, with only three locations in the entire city, and the one Jax had been assigned was the most disastrous of them all.
The entrance sign flickered at night, the ice cream machine broke down at least twice a week, and there was a stain on the ceiling of the employee bathroom that no one knew where it came from and that was already considered part of the tradition of the place.
But they paid well, or rather, they paid at all. And his friends were there, and Jax was already burning burgers.
“Kaufmo, number three is on fire!”
“That's not mine, that's Ribbit's!”
“It's not mine, I'm in the box!”
“Well, someone put out the fire!”
Jax grabbed a dirty rag from somewhere and smothered the flames with more force than necessary.
"I hate Saturdays," he muttered, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his forearm.
"Saturdays are our busiest day" Kaufmo nodded, assembling a hamburger with the reflex of someone who's done it a thousand times. "And they pay well, and they give us tips."
“I haven't received any tips.”
“That's because you're an ass.”
Jax was about to reply, but Ribbit appeared beside him with an empty tray and a smile that didn't indicate well.
“Jax, do you remember what we talked about on Tuesday? About the meeting?”
Jax frowned, trying to remember, the days at Spudsy's all blended together.
“What meeting?”
"The meeting's at your apartment, for drinks!" Ribbit tapped him on the shoulder with the tray. "We don't work tomorrow, so today's the perfect day."
Jax froze at the memory, and the burger he was cooking began to sizzle dangerously.
“Ah— that, yes.”
“You don't.. sound very enthusiastic about it..”
“It's just that... I won't be able to.”
Ribbit raised an eyebrow and Kaufmo stopped assembling his burger, looking at Jax curiously.
"Why not?" Ribbit asked. "We always do this on Saturdays, get drunk and play Smash Bros until Kaufmo throws up."
"Once." Kaufmo protested. "I threw up, once."
“And it was glorious. So why can't you, Jax?”
Jax focused on the hamburger as if it was the most important thing in the world, turned it over, and checked that it was slightly burnt on one side.
“Things, I have things.”
“What things?”
“Apartment stuff. Cleaning and that.”
Ribbit burst out laughing.
“Cleaning? You? Jax, the last time you cleaned your apartment was back in college. You don't clean, you don't know how to clean. Your idea of cleaning is spraying air freshener and hoping the dust magically disappears.”
"I've changed!" Jax lied, with all the audacity in the world.
“Of course, and I hate having fun.”
Meanwhile, Kaufmo watched him with narrowed eyes. He was the most observant of the three, the one who always noticed when something was amiss.
"Does this have anything to do with your mom's surprise visit?" he asked.
Jax almost choked on his own saliva.
“What? No. Why would that have anything to do with it?”
"Because yesterday, you texted us that your mom visited you. and today you're acting weird." Kaufmo shrugged. "It's a logical deduction, or a coincidence. But I don't believe in coincidences."
"Well, you should." Jax said, grabbing the burger and slamming it onto a plate with more force than necessary. "It's a coincidence, I just can't have the meeting today. We'll do it another day."
Ribbit and Kaufmo exchanged a look that indicated they knew their friend was hiding something, but they also knew that pressuring him wouldn't do any good.
"Okay," Ribbit finally agreed. "But you owe me one, and when we do it, you're bringing the drinks."
“Deal.”
“And the popcorn.”
“Fine.”
“And the pizza.”
“Don't overplay it.”
"It's the last-minute cancellation fee." Ribbit grinned mischievously. "Pizzas, drinks, popcorn, and you also let me win at Smash Bros."
“That last part isn't going to happen.”
“Then I want to see your frustrated face when I beat you.”
“That's not going to happen either!”
"Guys," Kaufmo interjected, pointing to the griddle. "The hamburger."
Jax turned around to look at his mess; he was burning again.
“Shit!”
As he extinguished the flames for the second time that day, a small part of his mind returned to the apartment. To Caine, specifically.
"He better not have touched anything" he thought.
In the apartment, Caine was finishing preparing breakfast.
He had made rabbit-shaped pancakes because it seemed appropriate, and arranged them on a plate in a small family of golden masses, covering them with a cloth so they wouldn't get too cold. They weren't perfect, but it was acceptable.
And then the doorbell rang, and Caine stood very still, remembering Jax's words.
"Don't open the door to anyone, especially Zooble."
The doorbell rang again, and then a muffled voice came from the other end.
“Jax, your trash bags are in the hallway again!”
Caine didn't move, he couldn't disobey Jax now that he was allowing him to stay. Otherwise, he'd be kicked out on the second day of his stay.
“You know Gangle comes on Saturdays! This hallway is a mess!”
His fingers tensed on the countertop; perhaps he could peek through the peephole, just to see, and thus know what the owner of the screams looked like.
He crept closer and peered through the peephole. What he saw was a person with pink hair and black roots, arms covered in tattoos, and an expression of pure annoyance.
So this is Zooble , he thought. They're someone... imposing.
“JAX!” Zooble's fist slammed into the door once more.
Caine recoiled slightly at the blow.
"Fine, never mind," murmured the voice on the other end. "I'll just throw the bag at his stupid head later."
And they left, finally releasing the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.
A small digital voice reappeared beside him.
“ yo boss, were you looking like a gossipy old woman?”
“Bubble, I haven't reactivated you.”
“I reactivate myself! It's my best quality.”
“That's your worst quality.”
And with a swift gesture, he popped it again.
It was eight o'clock at night and Caine had run out of things to clean—an unexpected problem. After finishing the pancakes, he'd washed the dishes by the sink, then wiped down the counter, then swept the living room floor. And then he'd been standing in the middle of the apartment, not knowing what to do, which wasn't a pleasant feeling.
"I'm going to explore.” he suddenly declared.
"What are you going to explore? The hallway again? Because I'm telling you, it hasn't changed~" Bubble mocked, appearing in existence.
“No, not the hallway. Jax's room.”
Bubble let out a giggle.
“Oh wow, oh wow! You're going into the ugly human's room! That's dangerous! He told you not to touch his things~!”
“I'm not going to touch anything! I'm just─ I'm just going to look. And looking isn't forbidden!”
Caine walked silently into the hallway, where Jax's bedroom door stood ajar, a ray of natural light filtering in. The android paused in the doorway, hesitant to even step in.
The walls were painted dark purple with some black details, giving it a nocturnal feel even in broad daylight. The bed was unmade, with rumpled sheets and several stuffed animals strewn among the pillows. On the bookshelf, anime figures were mixed with video games and books in no apparent order, and on the desk, there was a poster of a rock band next to smiley face stickers affixed to the monitor frame.
But what caught Caine's attention the most was the collage on the wall above the headboard of the bed, made up of dozens of Polaroid photos stuck on with adhesive tape.
Photos of Jax with Ribbit and Kaufmo, photos of cityscapes with graffiti, photos of a sunset from the balcony, photos of Zooble showing the middle finger, photos of his mother smiling with her hair tousled by the wind.
Some photos were upside down, obscuring their contents, which only increased Caine's curiosity.
Suddenly, the sound of keys against the lock of the front door alerted him, to which he gave a small jump and quickly returned to his position in the kitchen, looking calm to welcome Jax.
“Should we tell him we were spying on his room?”
"Bubble, be quiet!" Caine ordered, popping bubble who wasn't helping at all. "Welcome home!" he greeted once Jax managed to enter the apartment.
“Wow, you haven't blown anything up” he commented in surprise, observing how the place had remained intact, except for the extravagant cleaning which he would ask about later.
“I obeyed the rules without exception and even prepared breakfast!”
“Caine, it's eight o'clock at night—”
"It's never too late for breakfast if you haven't had it yet," Caine replied, determined. "Besides, I made pancakes."
He removed the cloth with a theatrical gesture, revealing the plate on which a small tower of seven pancakes was formed, each with two elongated ears and a circle in the center.
"Are they….rabbits?" Jax asked, slowly approaching.
“Yes, like your hoodie! I thought it would be appropriate.”
Jax stared at the pancakes, there was clearly effort there, a lot of effort.
“I designed them myself,” Caine continued, his tone slightly nervous, as if he cared what Jax thought about it.
“They’re not perfect, I know. The third rabbit’s ear isn’t symmetrical. And the fifth one got a little burnt because I got distracted by Bubb—a parasite… But they’re edible! I’ve checked that all the ingredients are fit for human consumption. They shouldn’t cause food poisoning or make your stomach upset!”
“Wow. That's... reassuring.”
"I wanted them to be perfect." Caine admitted, lowering his voice slightly.
And there it was again, that tone with that little break in the synthetic voice, something in Jax's chest stirred.
"They're fine," he said, without thinking too much.
Caine immediately looked up
“Yeah?”
“Yes. I mean, it looks like one of them had an accident, another is more cat than rabbit, and one has a tumor, but... they're okay.”
The smile that appeared on Caine's face was so bright that Jax might've needed sunglasses and had to look away.
"You're welcome," the android replied. "If you'd like, I can reheat them, or make more, or, or—"
“Or shut up for a moment, okay?”
Caine fell silent at the order. Biting into the first pancake, Jax realized they were tasty, too tasty in fact, even the slightly burnt one.
"They're not bad," he admitted, with his mouth full. "I guess you did a good job."
Good job .
Those words sent a shiver through his circuits; it was the first time his effort had been praised, and he was definitely going to want to hear those words again.
Especially if they came from Jax.
The rest of the night unfolded in some sort of improvised routine now that Jax didn't have his get-together with his friends.
He showered, hoping to get rid of the lingering smell of fried food from the restaurant, and emerged from the bathroom in comfortable clothes, his hair still damp. Finally, he sank down onto the sofa with a sigh of relief and turned on the game console.
Caine sat at the other end, at a safe distance, and watched the screen.
“What is that game?”
“Call of Duty is a shooting game.”
“Who are you shooting at?”
“Against other online players.”
“And why are you shooting at them?”
“Because it's fun.”
“I don't understand, what's the real objective? And the plot? Where's the dramatic story and the point of it?”
Jax paused the game, dizzy from the questions, and looked at Caine, who was looking at him with genuine curiosity, without a trace of judgment.
"The goal is to relieve stress," he explained with frustration. "And to win."
Caine didn't respond immediately, he seemed to still be trying to process the information, to which Jax sighed in defeat.
“Do you want to play?”
“Play? This?” he asked, trying to sound bewildered, but his gaze betrayed the emotion he was processing in his system at such a suggestion.
“Yeah, I have another controller. Here, hold on, let me show you the controls”
“But your rules…?”
"My rules change when I want them to," he fired back, without much patience.
"Then I accept!" Caine said with a smile. "But I warn you, I have excellent reflexes."
“Sure, absolutely. Although you're talking to the best player in this area.”
He handed him the second controller, chose a quick game, and for the first few minutes Caine just stared at the screen with the concentration of a student before an exam, his thumbs motionless on the buttons.
"That button," Jax pointed without taking his eyes off the screen, "is for shooting. The joystick is for moving. That one down there is for jumping, the X."
Caine pressed the fire button, and his character clearly fired into the air.
“There's nobody up there.”
“I know. I'm calibrating the trigger's haptic feedback.”
“You're what now?”
“Learning how it works.”
Jax wrinkled his nose, and before he could say anything, Caine's character took off running across the map in a completely random direction. As soon as he saw him through his camera, he fired without hesitation, eliminating Caine from the game almost immediately.
"Whoopsie!" Jax mocked with a grin, trying to provoke and ragebait Caine.
However, the android processed this with apparent seriousness and then reappeared on the map, this time with exaggerated caution, moving inch by inch. Jax watched it advance and had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.
“You're not going to kill me like that.”
“I'm going to manage to survive, which is more than I was doing thirty seconds ago.”
“For sure, yeah.”
During the next few minutes, Caine improved with such unsettling speed that Jax found unnerving. First he learned to dodge his shots, then to move with some purpose, and suddenly he learned to shoot with pinpoint accuracy.
And Caine started winning. The first time, Jax excused himself by saying he wanted to let him win, but then he had no way out. Even playing with relentless focus was useless, because CCain adapted and won anyway.
"This is humiliating" Jax declared, dropping the remote control, and practically melting onto the sofa.
"It's instructive!" Caine corrected him. "You've improved sixteen percent since the first game."
“You've beaten me six times.”
“Even with an ever-shrinking margin, it's remarkable progress!”
“Are you trying to comfort me?”
“I'm being precise!”
Jax looked at him for a long second, then grabbed the controller again.
“New game.”
Caine's smile widened.
“Whenever you want.”
Sunday arrived with the brutality of a hammer against Jax's temples, courtesy of insistent knocking on the front door that echoed throughout the apartment.
Jax tossed and turned in the sheets, pressing the pillow against his head in a futile attempt to block out the noise, but the thumps continued with irritating regularity, so he swore under his breath and dragged himself out of bed with the grace of a newly awakened zombie. His eyes barely managed to stay open as he shuffled down the hall.
"Alright, Alright! I'm coming, I'm coming." he grumbled unconvincingly, rubbing his face with one hand while searching for the doorknob with the other.
When he finally opened the door, he found Zooble standing there. His neighbor was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and an expression that wavered between annoyance and exhaustion, and his posture conveyed the silent message of someone who wasn't going to leave without saying what he had come to say.
"Gooood morning, Zoobie~" Jax greeted with a mocking smile, leaning against the doorframe. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your early morning visit? Did you come to admire my newly awakened beauty?"
"Did you really have to play your damn games until three in the morning?" Zooble snapped, ignoring the comment. "The walls of this building are paper-thin, Jax! and I'm tired, really tired. The kind of tiredness that turns people into murderers."
“Pfft- You're exaggerating.”
"It's not an exaggeration. I heard every gunshot and every explosion as if they were happening in my own room. Do you know what it's like to try to sleep with a war raging in the background?"
“That sounds like something fantastic.”
Zooble narrowed his eyes and pointed an accusing finger at Jax, pointing directly at the chest of his bunny-eared hoodie that he wore to sleep.
“Next time you play in the early hours, turn down the volume or I'll disconnect your internet myself.”
“And how do you plan to do that? You don't even know where the router is.”
“I'll find out, don't underestimate me.”
The conversation devolved into one of those exchanges only the two of them could have, a mix of harmless insults and empty threats that made up the secret language of their strange friendship. Jax was in the middle of his retort, enjoying the morning ritual of annoying his neighbor, when a warm presence suddenly appeared behind him.
“..Is everything alright, Jax?”
Jax jumped so violently that he almost hit his head on the door frame, because at some point between sleep and argument he had completely forgotten that he no longer lived alone, and he turned his head to find Caine just inches away.
“Shit, I forgot!”
“Jax” Caine frowned slightly disapprovingly, “I suggest you avoid using bad words if possible.”
The android was immaculate despite the early hour, his red suit perfectly pressed and his white gloves in place, though his hair still bore a slight disarray that suggested he had just woken up. His eyes shifted from Jax to Zooble, assessing the situation, and a spark of recognition flickered in them. It was the same person in the peephole, the one who had threatened to throw something at Jax's head yesterday.
Zooble, meanwhile, had frozen in the doorway, their accusing finger still suspended in the air as they processed the visual information in front of them.
An android dressed as a circus ringmaster stood in Jax's apartment, scolding him for swearing. The silence stretched for three eternal VERY PREGNANT seconds.
"And..Who is that?" Zooble finally asked, crossing their arms.
"Nobody-!" Jax replied too quickly.
"Hi I'm Caine!" Caine announced simultaneously, giving a small bow over Jax's shoulder. "Model CA100, currently residing in this apartment. Nice to meet you!"
Zooble blinked, then their eyes shifted towards Jax with a puzzled, confused expression.
"Excuse me?" They said with dangerous calm. "Since when do you have an android?"
"Since..." Jax scratched the back of his neck, searching for an answer that didn't sound completely absurd. "Friday, technically. It's complicated."
"Oh, this is going to be interesting," Zooble murmured, and for the first time in the entire conversation, a smile appeared on their lips. "And may I ask why there's an android dressed in a circus costume in your apartment?"
"I'm not dressed like a circus performer!" Caine opposed, visibly offended. "It's a formal, elegant outfit, perfectly appropriate for my duties."
“Dude, you're the definition of a circus.”
“That's a textile stereotype! Not all red outfits with black accessories belong to the circus world! some belong to the world of haute couture and formal presentations.”
Zooble raised an eyebrow and turned to Jax in disbelief.
“Where did you get it?”
"From the trash" he said, shrugging dismissively, but Caine ended up getting even more offended.
But Zooble's gaze remained fixed on him, waiting for the truth, because that answer didn't convince anyone.
"My mom," he finally admitted, there was no point in lying anymore. "She found him on the road and decided he needed company."
"Your mom found an android on the road," Zooble repeated slowly, as if making sure they understood correctly. "An abandoned android? And she just picked it up and brought it to you?"
“Basically,yeah.”
Zooble remained silent for a few moments, processing the information, then let out a long, tired sigh.
“Your family is so weird, Jax, did you know that?”
“Believe me, I know.”
"Well," their appraising gaze was now on Caine, "at least now I understand why you canceled the meeting with your friends."
Jax opened his mouth to protest, but Caine beat him to it with a curious nod.
"You had a meeting with your friends and you canceled it because of me?" He asked, his voice holding a subtle emotion Jax couldn't quite place. "It wasn't necessary, you could have introduced me."
"I didn't cancel it because of you," He quickly retorted. "It just wasn't a good time... And why did Ribbit tell you about that?!"
“I needed to complain to someone and we got along well when we talked badly about you.”
“Wow. great. Amazing. thank you.”
Zooble let out a short, dry laugh that conveyed exactly zero empathy, and took a step back, ready to retreat.
"Well, I'm glad I came to complain about the noise, because this has been much more entertaining than I expected." Their gaze shifted to Caine, and they added in a slightly softer tone, "Take good care of him, okay? He's a walking disaster."
"Hey!" Jax protested.
"I will!" Caine replied, somewhat surprised by the request, but he was prepared to comply.
Zooble nodded and turned to go back to their apartment, but before disappearing behind their own door, they threw out one last sentence over their shoulder.
“I won't tell the gang about this, don't worry.”
“I'm not worried-!”
The door slammed shut before he could finish his sentence, leaving Jax and Caine standing in the doorway in a sudden silence. Jax stared down the empty hallway as if still processing what had just happened, then turned to Caine, frowning.
“Did you have to show up right now?”
"I heard voices and I got worried," Caine replied innocently. "Besides, Zooble seems like a reasonable person."
“Zooble hates me.”
"I don't think so" Caine said, shaking his head. "People who hate others don't care about how loud you are, they just ignore it. They came to complain because they care, in their own way, and they even asked me to look after you. That's the opposite of hate!"
Jax opened his mouth to reply, but the words got stuck in his throat, so he snorted and turned around to go back inside the apartment.
“Don't you ever try to say that Zooble cares about me again or I'll throw up.”
“I don't think you'll vomit because of that.”
"Stop it. I'm going to make coffee, I need caffeine to process this morning," he said, rubbing his nose, which was wrinkling with annoyance.
"I can make it!" Caine offered, following him enthusiastically. "Do you prefer it black or with something added?"
The human hesitated for a moment, if the pancakes were tasty, maybe the coffee would be too.”
“With milk.”
"Understood!" Caine paused, then added in a slightly lower tone, "I'm sorry I ruined your get-together with your friends."
Jax stopped halfway to the kitchen and turned to look at him, finding Caine's expression slightly distressed and his hands clasped behind his back in a gesture he was beginning to recognize as his apologetic posture.
"You didn't ruin it," Jax sighed, and this time it wasn't a lie. "We just postponed it. we'll do it next Saturday."
“And will I be able to be present?”
"That..." Jax ran a hand through his messy hair, considering the question. "That…I dunno.. Ribbit and Kaufmo are more difficult to handle than Zooble, and if you suddenly show up dressed as a circus ringmaster, they're going to ask too many questions."
"I could change my clothes" Caine suggested, and his tone was so hopeful that Jax felt a pang of something akin to guilt.
"We'll see," he replied, glancing at the coffee maker. "One step at a time, mkay?"
"One step at a time," Caine repeated, and although his voice was neutral, Jax could perceive a note of satisfaction in it.
The rest of the morning passed in a calm neither of them had anticipated. Caine prepared the coffee with precise concentration, and when he handed the cup to Jax, who had that intensely expectant expression, he felt compelled to taste it immediately.
It was good, too good to be the first coffee he'd ever made, though Jax didn't admit it.