Work Text:
Jack couldn't believe how completely stupid he was.
How could he have done this? He didn't mean to, but still.
Ray had finally been getting comfortable around him, the rabbit in him making him very timid and nervous around predators.
And he, being the idiot he was, had gone and messed it up.
Though, the events that lead them to this situation hadn't been entirely his fault.
---
Jack walked into the office late.
Geoff smirked, turning in his chair to face him. "You're late Jack. Thirty minutes and you didn't even bring Starbucks." He chuckled.
Jack grunted in return, falling into his seat and punching the button that turned his monitor on.
"What's got you so moody?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Ugh, a shorter answer would be what doesn't." Jack sighed, running a hand through his hair. "It's just been one bad thing after another. Starting with my dog keeping me up all night. Where are the lads?"
"Who knows. As long as they aren't bugging me." Geoff shrugged. "Though, we do need to make a Let's Play.."
"In what?"
"Well, I wanted to make another family game night, we could maybe do a Minecraft one, or GTA.." Geoff said, trailing off.
Jack sighed, just turning back to his monitor. He really didn't feel like doing anything that day besides maybe a quiet day of editing.
His dog got into the trash the night prior, and had kept both him and Caiti up the entire night through vomit and more. On his way to the car he had jammed his tail in the door. Then, on his way to work already ten minutes late he had gotten pulled over for speeding when he was only barely. Then just to top it all off, he had forgotten his lunch. Not to mention the headache that was already coming on from just hearing the Lad's outside the door.
They burst in happily chatting and laughing, apparently someone, Monty?, had fallen asleep at their desk last night and had only just woken up.
He felt three consecutive pats on their back as they all gave him a short greeting before heading back into their conversation, Gavin going on about how unbelievable it was and how comfy the desks were not.
Jack looked down at his desk and after minimal sleep, as he sure Monty had, how completely 100% comfortable his desk looked.
They chatted loudly for a while before Geoff returned and ordered them to work.
Jack sighed happily at the peace and quiet.
Twenty minutes later he was nearly ripping his ears out at the screaming and yelling that was going on.
"Jack, hey Jack!" Gavin shouted. "Jack!"
"Gavin, I am right here." He growled, but tried to mind his temper.
"Guess what?" He asked.
"What?" Gavin obviously didn't notice the mood Jack was in. He wasn't called bird-brain for nothing.
"Boop." He said as he killed him with the diamond sword Geoff had mistakenly trusted him with.
"Gavin! I didn't set my spawn!" Jack yelled.
"Well that was your first mistake." Ray told him in a smart-ass tone.
"Obviously not, since I'm here." He muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Ryan asked.
"Nothing." He sighed.
--
"Why are we still playing this!? Someone win!" Ryan yelled.
"Give me a moment!" Jack yelled back.
He heard Michael and Gavin giggling and then, of course, the ringing explosions of a creeper as one dropped on him; just as Ray won the game for himself.
Even being only 2 seconds from winning Jack will admit that it was a heavy over reaction, but at the time his bad mood had told him it was appropriate.
He jumped up, slamming his controller down and let a loud roar out. His chair had rolled back to the halfway across the room, and everyone stared at him with wide eyes.
Ryan and Geoff exchanged looked, then looked at Michael and Gavin for a moment, both of them wide eyed at Jack, knowing the anger was directed at them. They looked terrified; Michael's ears flat back, his tail puffed and stood up straight, and it looked as if each one of Gavin's feathers had puffed to twice the normal size, his hair standing on end with the help.
Of course, this was hilarious to Ryan and Geoff and they immediately burst out laughing.
"God damn it you too! I almost won!" Jack yelled, and nearly began laughing himself.
The roar had felt good, like it was all he needed all day, and the boys were still puffed to twice their regular size.
“It was just a bit of fun!” Gavin told him, trying to smooth his feathers back down, he tried to sound angry but there was a bit of a smile on his lips. Even he had to admit that they probably looked pretty ridiculous.
“Look at my fucking tail! Warn a guy next time.”
Geoff, his laughter dying down some, had turned back to his mic, explaining to the audience what had gone down exactly, and after hearing it again, Jack finally let out a laugh at the sight of the boys trying to unruffled themselves, until he heard behind him, "Ray..?"
Ryan had finally taken in the fact that Ray was frozen in place. His ears were stood up straight, his foot halfway down like he had almost thumped it on the floor, and his eyes were wide, terrified and staring straight at Jack. He didn't even look like he was breathing.
"Oh no," Jack said. Not again, Ray couldn't be afraid of him again.
"Ray, calm down." Geoff was up in a moment, moving closer to help him. "Ray, breath!" But he stayed frozen in place.
Michael moved in front of him slowly. "Ray..?" He asked, and Ray's eyes shot over to the cat, staring at him now.
Michael moved his hand towards him slightly and it was apparently all the rabbit needed to convince himself he was in a hostile situation, because before anyone could stop him his foot had finally fell to the ground in a loud stomp and he had bolted from the room.
--
"What have I done?" Jack asked out loud, though it was only supposed to be directed at himself.
"You fucked up, that's what!" Michael yelled. "Now, not only is Ray afraid of you again, he's afraid of me again! You fucked up!"
"Shut up Michael!" Geoff said, and then looked towards Gavin. "Go see if you can find him, Gav.”
Gavin left the room and walked down the hall, hearing Michael screaming well on his way.
--
Ray never blamed them for it, but sometimes they just forgot.
Forgot that he could hear their screaming much louder than they did, forgot he was naturally nervous and anxious, forgot that even though he knew that Jack and Michael would never hurt him his instincts still told him to run whenever they got too close too quickly.
He tried to be fine about it, but sometimes his animal instincts got the better of him, especially when they did forget. Which lead him to his current position of being locked in the bathroom, curled in on himself and quietly shaking, the previous situation replaying in his head.
He had nearly jumped out of the skin at the sound of the very loud, very dangerous predator, and his internal wiring had taken over.
'Don't move.' Ray told himself. 'Move and die. If not moving isn't an option: run. Run fast.'
He heard the words they said. They were fogged and unclear behind the fear, but he heard yelling, booming laughter, it hurt his ears.
'Big animals, small animals, I'm small, he's big, he'll hurt me, I'm going to die.' His thoughts rang out, and he ignored Geoff.
A small voice in the back of his head rang out, 'That's Jack, he's you friend.' but he was afraid, he was terrified, he wanted to run.
'I think they saw me-’ His thoughts rang out, this one much louder, and then he saw Michael.
'Two cats, one big, one small, both bigger than me, looking at me, going to kill me. I'm going to die. If not moving isn't an option: run.’
He saw Michael’s hand move slightly towards him and it was all the convincing he needed. ‘Run!’
His foot had hit the ground, and he shot in between everyone and out the door.
Some where’s inside he knew he shouldn’t have run, he knew he should go back and tell Jack it wasn’t his fault, he knew he should do a lot of things, but he just continued to lie there as he heard Gavin calling his name outside the door.
“Ray? Are you in there?” He asked, and when there was no response he wiggled the door handle. “Ray, I know it’s you. And I know you’re frightened, but Jack’s says he’s sorry. Feels like a right ol’mug about it.”
He kept quiet while Gavin spoke softly.
“Please come out. We don’t have to go back to the office. We can go to the roof or something, find a nice sunny patch. We don’t have to go back until you’re ready.”
Gavin knew how to coax Ray out of hiding, he had done it plenty times before, though he thought it was finally ending since he was beginning to warm up to the predators of the office. Gavin was afraid Jack had just gone and reset all that progress.
He heard movement from the other side of the door and stepped back as Ray came out, shaking slightly with his eyes downcast but his ears tall and twitching, listening for any danger.
Gavin slowly moved besides him, wrapping a comforting arm around his shoulder before his wing followed to shield him from the other employees.
“There you go, Ray.” He smiled as they began walking towards the entrance to the roof. “Nice and easy.”
Ray remained quiet, just following along with Gavin, ignoring the feeling of people watching as they passed through the halls.
Once they were up on the roof, stretching out in the warmest patch of sunlight he finally began to calm down. They had been up there for twenty minutes before Gavin finally had enough of the quiet, turning on his side to face Ray.
“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked hesitantly.
Ray sighed. “I’m tired, Gavin.”
“Did you sleep well enough last night?”
“That’s not what I meant.” He voice seemed strained, like it was taking everything just to get these words out.
“Then what do you mean?”
“I’m tired of everything. Of being afraid, of being nervous, of being anxious and jumpy and just scared all the time but I can’t help it!” His voice grew louder as he talked, but not loud enough for anyone but Gavin to hear. “No matter how hard I try I can’t stop being afraid. Ever since the change whenever I’m in a room alone with a hybrid, even Michael for fuck sakes, all I can picture is something happening that makes their instincts take over and suddenly they’re the predator and I’m the prey and then I’m dead.”
“Ray, I don’t think that would happen…”
“Wouldn’t it?” He asked. “My instincts take over all the time! I’m constantly running from my own shadow because of them! I don’t think like a human, I think like a rabbit and the rabbit says they’re the predator! Why couldn’t it happen to them? Who says one day they don’t just hit their head and then suddenly there’s a flashing sign above my head that says ‘food’?” Ray buried his head in his hands. “I hate this!”
Gavin was quiet for a moment, before saying, “Well, I think you just need to trust them, really. Trust that they won’t let that happen. Neither of them have ever had an incident even close to that, why would they have one now?”
Ray sighed, looking up at Gavin. “I don’t know.”
“Well, for now, I think you’re safe. If it worries you that much, just don’t be in a room alone. If something like that were to happen it wouldn’t be impossible to hold them back, especially Michael or Lindsay, and I’m sure someone could stop Jack.”
Ray didn’t look too reassured but let Gavin pull him to his feet and lead him back inside.
When they got into the office the other four had settled into their seats, editing their various projects. Michael seemed to look up at Ray before returning to work.
Ray took a quivering breath as he took his seat in between the two predators, noticing that they both had their chairs pulled as far away from Ray’s as possible.
He knew Jack wanted to apologize, but was keeping his space, afraid of spooking the rabbit again, and it only caused him to sigh.
‘I shouldn’t be afraid of Jack.’ He told himself, opening his work. ‘Sure, he’s a predator, Michael too, but they’ve also been my friends for years. Way before this hybrid nonsense. That hasn’t changed. I’m overreacting.’
Finally he seemed to be as relaxed as he could in this situation, one ear even managing to flop down in a resting position, though the other stayed alert. His foot remained still, and his hands stopped shaking as he did his work.
He looked around for his the USB for his Xbox and seen it next to Geoff’s mouse.
“Hey Jack,” Ray asked and the lion hybrid turned hesitantly towards him. “Can you hand me that USB?”
“Yeah, no problem.” He replied, grabbing it and giving it to the rabbit.
He looked up at Jack for a moment and gave a slight nod. That was the sign, the one that meant that Ray was okay.
He heard sounds behind him, apparently Geoff had noticed.
“Well, time to get some actual work done now. GTA time, guys.”