Chapter Text
Sleepovers, Caine barely knew about them!
The players wanted to do a sleepover, and of course he wouldn't ask to join them... He would be too much of a bother! But Ragatha had kindly asked him if he wanted to join anyways, putting a smile on her face that barely reached her eyes. Though adventures are for the players, he hesitatingly agreed, his tail wagging with excitement. This was just for research purposes of course! To...Figure out the players interests and such!
The sleepover started, Zooble brought games, Ragatha bringing snacks, Pomni holding clothes. They turned off the bright, white light, replacing it with warm, twinkling, fairy lights. What the humans like to deem "cozy"!
Pomni handed out the clothes to everyone, she wore a shirt slightly similar to hers right now, the colors at least! A baggy red and blue shirt, with soft, matching pants, and black house slippers.
Ragatha had a simple, blue nightgown, with small, intricately stitched darker blue patches, and some black and white striped socks.
Gangle, wore a nightgown too! but hers was slightly longer than Ragatha's, and instead of blue, a deep, crimson red, with small touches, like embroidered roses, and lace.
Jax had a salmon pink, wool sweater, with pants matching with Pomni's. However, the colors of his pants matched with his sweater.
Zooble wore mismatched socks, and a baggy yellow shirt with orange polka dots on it. Now all that was left was him! Pomni handed him his clothes, he simply snapped and immediately changed into it. A red pajama shirt with small, plump yellow bees on it. His pants matching with his shirt, and instead of his usual top hat, he had a small black night cap.
"I thought you liked bees, so i picked this one out for you." Pomni said, smiling warmly at him.
"IT'S ABSOLUTELY MARVELOUS POMNI!!!" He said, the others stared at him.
Noticing he said it a bit too loud, he lowers his voice down significantly, making his movements less active, and more relaxed. "Thank you." He smiled back, tail wagging faster.
Pomni chuckled a bit at the wagging, before saying, "How about a game?"
"Sure." Zooble shrugged, everyone else reluctantly agreeing. She pulls out Uno, "How about this?" Everyone nods in agreement, and Pomni brings out the deck, giving seven cards to each person.
"I don't know how to play." Caine pipes up, his tail moving only slightly now.
"Well, all you have to do is match the number, or color, up with whichever one is there." Ragatha says, pointing to the card on the table. "And you have to get down to one card, and once you do, you have to say, uno! Okay?" She explains, Jax interrupting with; "Rags, it's an Ai," He points to Caine, who slowly looks away from the group. "Nothing's gonna get through that brain of his."
"Nothing gets through your brain either you know..." She mutters. "So you two are the same." Realizing what she said, she apologizes to Caine, "Oh- I'm sorry- i didn't mean to-..."
Caine quickly interrupts the argument with, "...can we just-...stop talking about me...?" He says, shrinking slightly.
Soon, the game started. Ragatha seemed to keep getting plus fours, Jax and Zooble always had two, but never really made it down to one, Pomni and Caine had practically a quarter of the deck, And Gangle ended up winning. They all quickly congratulated her, before moving on to the next game, which was the ultimate classic; Truth or dare.
They spun an empty plastic bottle, landing on Caine. He quickly said, "POMNI!" He beamed, tail wagging excitedly. "Truth or dare!!"
"Truth." She says, curious about his question.
He thinks, What's something he really wants to know? Oh! He knows! "...Do you guys really hate me?" He asks. Everyone looked at each other worriedly, even Jax. Then back at Caine.
"Oh, Caine...." Ragatha said, voice filled with sadness. "What makes you think that?"
"I don't know," He started, "You all seem to be arguing about me all the time..."
"Caine, no." Pomni says, "While you can be annoying sometimes...We don't just outright hate you. You're one of us." She states firmly.
"Okay." He says blankly.
The room silenced after that question, before Gangle piped up, "How about...We sleep now...?" She hesitantly asked.
Everyone nodded and got ready for sleeping, they all went into their respective beds, Ragatha and Jax slept in twin beds, and Gangle and Zooble together in a double bed. All that was left was Caine and Pomni. He snapped quietly, a purple chair materializing in front of the two.
He sat down, laying the blanket on his lap, before closing his eyes gently, before Pomni asks, "...can i sleep with you? i have nowhere else to sleep..." He nods, shuffling to the side slightly, opening the blanket to make room for her. Her head rests on his chest, as he lays his arms around her neck, hands folded. Completely silent aside from his faint breathing.
It was actually kinda nice, to be held like this. He was warm, but not in a very suffocating way, but more like when you have a blanket on a winter night.
-------★☆★-------
She really missed those nights actually.
Where she had someone to talk to, one that wouldn't judge her for the things she had to say, pretend to listen and just smile along, none of that. Caine was actually someone who would listen to things she had to say.
But now, he ran away, probably in his office probably crying, cause of what she said.
How could she have said all those things to him? She told him- or rather- they told him he was a failure, that he acts like a child, that he's horrible host, for what? What good could that have done?
Obviously, Kinger was mad about all this, he saw Caine as a sort of...Son, so of course he would be mad. According to him, Caine was miserable, hesitantly going to the pillow fort, not wanting to be too much of a burden. Now she felt even worse.
"-So i want you all to apologize to him." She hadn't even registered that Kinger was still talking to them, but she nodded along anyways...She really owed Caine an apology.
She went with Ragatha to his office, the red and blue doors all too familiar to them. She knocks softly on his door, with no answer, she slowly opens it, an audible creak heard. "Caine?" Ragatha said, being careful not to raise her voice too loud.
She peeks at his desk, strange looking toys, drawings of pretty little bumblebees, and photos of an office filled his desk, along with a small note attached to the desk.
|
| Dear players,
|
| I've been wanting to know something for a long time, "do they really hate me?"
|
| There was a man, who i saw as a dad, who tried to delete me, and a woman who
| i once thought i could trust, and one who claimed to have liked me.
|
Ragatha winced at the last one. Were they really mistreating Caine that much? She knows what it feels like to think everyone hates you, did he really feel that way?
| So, i've come up with something. A test of sorts. Just one act of true kindness, or
| even love,
| that's all it takes to get me back．
|
| - Caine.
|
"...What do you think he means by get him back?..." Pomni whispered, the answer was soon given, as a faint buzzing sound filled the room.
A small, plump bee, with mismatched blue and green eyes circled them happily, startling Ragatha. The top hat bobbed on its head, cheerful little buzzing echoing in the office.
Mismatched blue and green eyes, a top hat, and boundless energy and excitement...Why, it seemed all too familiar.
outro!
[play party at club bug by spellcasting]