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The world was on fire. His skin was on fire. Jax had been so entirely sure it was a dream when he felt the edges of the flames as he woke up.
Which wasn't to say it wasn't unfamiliar.
Fevered haze pressing in Jax turned over, eyes still closed Jax waited for it to fade.
It didn't.
F!@#$
Zooble didn't like it. They knew something was wrong the moment they stepped into the hall. There was something in the air, or the lack thereof.
Feeling the ribbon curl around their hand Zooble snapped back to reality, looking down at Gangle's soft smile, nerves catching at the edge. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Zooble nodded instantly. "Yeah. I'm good. Just-"
The door slammed open down the hall. Zooble's hand was on thier nose before the scent fully washed over them.
Gangle peered around them, mouth pulled into a small line "Jax?"
"Get Caine," Zooble dropped her, hand, bolting forward.
"Wh-"
"Get Caine!"
They didn't hear the steps away but only prayed Gangle was getting anyone and everyone.
It shouldn't have been possible.
"Jax?"
The groan was the only answer they got.
Eyes adjusting Zooble peered into the dim room. Jax didn't let anyone in his room. Gaze flicking across pink carpet and the tea party table in the corner they pressed their hand into their nose once more, struggling to breathe past the thick layer of scent over top of Jax.
They'd have thought maybe coffee creamer or cheesecake. But it was so thick, so false, it was like someone was burning bad scented candles. Blinking through the haze Zooble tried to concentrate on the crumpled figure in front of them.
Jax had curled himself nearly fetal, arms crossed over his get, gloved hand pulling at his ear almost hard enough to rip. Each and every breath was a grating, panting, keen.
"F!@#$," Zooble breathed.
"Help me," Jax begged.
Jax didn't beg. Didn't plead.
Lifting heavy lids he looked up at Zooble, hardly anything to his eyes but black, pupils blown huge.
Silently swearing Zooble closed their eyes and gathered what little patience they could manage, kneeling beside him. "Gangle is getting Caine. How long?"
"Long?"
God he was out of it. A while, then.
"How bad?"
Jax shuddered, the scent redoubling.
Bad, Zooble supplied.
"Right, let's get you back in bed."
Jax lifted one arm, doing nothing else to get himself up.
Taking it Zooble tried, only to find dead weight. "Come on, Jax, I can't move you by myself."
The useless whimper was their only answer.
"S!@#$" Zooble repeated.
"Come now! We shouldn't use such language here!" Caine popped into existence behind Zooble, waggling his finger.
Rolling their eyes Zooble lowered Jax back to the ground. "Do something. Jax is-"
They didn't even have to finish their sentence. Snapping his fingers Caine leaned over Jax, something almost akin to concern in his face.
Nothing happened.
"Caine."
Another snap.
Jax curled tighter in on himself, his panting turning frantic, shaking, clutching his gut.
"Caine!"
"Don't yell at me!" Caine backed up, hovering several feet above them, arms crossed like a toddler pouting. "It's not letting me!"
"It-" Zooble rubbed the side of their head, wishing there were temples to massage, like that might make anything more manageable. "What's not- that doesn't matter. You somehow to do something. You can't just leave him like this!"
"It looks like something he'll have to process though himself. You help him!"
Zooble felt the iron anchor drop into their gut. "What? No. Caine! How?"
Scooting further away, Caine's face pulled into what could only be disgust. "I don't know, however humans deal with that kind of thing."
"He doesn't have the flu. I can't just give him pain meds and a wet rag for his face. He's in heat. I can't fix that!"
"How do you fix it?" Caine leaned over.
Zooble resisted the very strong urge to strangle him. It was like talking to a toddler. "Sex."
Caine practically pinned himself to the ceiling of the hallway. "Disgusting!" He said brightly.
Curling tighter Jax's groan turned lighter, breathier.
With a shudder one could only call a cartoonish, Caine waved at Zooble. "Fine. You do it. Use your parts. Humans are gross! I'll make sure the others are kept far away form this nastiness. My next adventure isn't quite ready but it will have to do for thier safety."
"Caine!" Zooble screamed at the top of their lungs, turning on a dime. "F!@#$. Don't leave me with him! I can't-" Zooble pressed their palms into their head, waiting for the pressure to push out the nightmare. "This can't be happening right now. F!@#$. I need someone who can deal with this."
Another moan, long, drawn out. It was possibly the most human sound Jax had ever uttered. "Z-Zooble?"
They didn't need to look to know Jax's pupils had blown larger, that each breath was a wheezing struggle.
They couldn't do this. Jax was an incorrigible ass who wouldn't lift a finger to help anyone and who might truly have hated everyone around him. But listening to the whimpers Zooble had only ever heard twice before shifted something underneath their gut. They wouldn't leave a stranger like this.
But, of all the people, did it have to be him?
Groaning again, wishing for teeth to grind or temples to press Zooble gathered the last of their courage. Taking him under the arms, Zooble heaved Jax up, his chin in the crook of their neck. Each breath was fever hot, huffing in whatever passed for an ear.
"Zee?" Jax asked, shaking like he was shivering. "Help."
"I'm helping, you ungrateful F!@#$."
His laugh sounded tremulously like a sob.
Dragging him back in his room Zooble stepped back, looking around the room. Pink walls decorated with shooting stars, rainbows, The pink desk and rug. A little table shoved in the corner.
"Creepy."
Heading to the door Zooble stopped, wrist caught.
Jax was up, face pinched into abject terror. "Don't leave. Please."
Zooble swallowed the confusing flood. "Not going anywhere. Just closing the door. Unless you want Ragatha to come in with ice and cold drinks?"
He shuddered, shrinking back into the bed, pulling his knees into his chest.
The scent was so strong.
Closing their eyes Zooble sat on the end of the bed, glancing toward what looked like black magnet tiles on the wall. Concentrate. Squeezing their hands to tight fists, one a pale blue with three fingers and the other a striped black and white with five slim white fingers, Zooble focused on those. "Look. I'm going to help you. And we will never ever talk about anything that happens in here. Agreed?"
Jax curled in tighter, eyes squeezed shut. The room temp rose.
"Good. Next, you're going to have to tell me what kind of stuff you… like, before you get more out of it."
Something that could have been a nod.
"And, I doubt it'll be needed, but a safe word too. I need to know I'm not hurting you."
Jax lifted his lids only slightly. "You're good at this. Do it often?"
Zooble's had grown quite good at smirking without a mouth. "I've had some practice. Let's leave it at that."
His laugh was another whimpering wheeze.
"So. Tell me."
"Tell…?"
Zooble rubbed their eyes again. This wasn't going anywhere. He was fuzzed out. There wasn't anything left his his head. He might as well have been a real rabbit for all he was going to give. "What do you like," they tried once more. "In bed, from a partner. I need you to use your words so I can get this over with."
The moan was pitiful.
Fine. Improvisation. Not the first time. It would just take more reading cues. Moving slowly.
Head back up Zooble was appalled they didn't have a mouth. Bile burned up their throat.
Jax had, like the useless horny mess he was, shoved his hands down his pants, the straps of pink overalls hung around his elbows. Eyes pressed tight he writhed on his bed.
Zooble did not want to put words to the action. "Get your hands out of your pants!"
Froze dead, Jax did so immediately.
"Oh."
Jax trembled, pupils shot wide until the yellow edges were nearly gone.
Orders. Fine. Zooble could do orders.
"Are you going to be good and listen?" low and slow, each word deliberate.
Jax nodded.
"Good boy."
That wasn't a moan of pain.
"You're going to tell me things," Zooble came closer, knelt on the edge of the bed, just out of reach.
Jax nodded again, ears flapping, hung around his neck.
"Do you want to stay here? Or do you want to come to my room?"
Processing slow, Jax's breathing picked up.
"There are toys in my room."
"Toys," Jax whimpered.
Limbs Zooble would have to bury outside or throw in the digital lake afterward but fine. No dick, no problem.
"You are going to keep your naughty hands out of your pants and follow me. Can you do that, baby?"
The pet name slipped out, not intentional.
By the way Jax scrambled up, hands in tight gloved fists at his side it was clear it was working.
"You like pet names?" Zooble walked backward toward the door.
Jax followed like a dutiful puppy.
"Baby."
Jax's step hitched, almost stumbling out into the hall.
"Good boy."
Zooble couldn't see but could almost hear his fluffy tail wagging.
"Sweetheart."
An audible groan.
"Darling?"
No reaction, a fraction of a flinch.
That was fine. They were almost at Zooble's room. They reached behind them and pushed it open.
"Bunny?"
His knees gave out. Dropping to the floor in Zooble's doorway Jax lurched forward, heaving.
"Holy S!@#$" Zooble watched Jax rocking through what had to be an utterly agonizing dry orgasm.
Words alone.
It was going to be a long heat.
"Bed or floor?" Zooble knelt in front of Jax.
The tiny gasps had turned from pleasure to pain again. Hunched so far down his elbows were tucked between his legs Jax was almost sobbing.
"Jax."
He rocked back and forth.
Zooble's hand brushed his shoulder. "Listen to me."
Reluctantly, his head lifted, swallowing hard. "Hurts, hurts so bad. Please. Don't do that again."
The pang hit hard. God they could not feel guilty for Jax.
Hand out Zooble touched the top of his head. "I won't."
Pushing into the proffered hand Jax slid forward, head on their lap, breathing returning to a wheezing half normalcy.
Zooble waited, petting his head. Like a stray cat. They remembered feeding the cats behind the shop, leaving little bowls of water and tuna when they remembered to purchase it.
Keeping thier voice soft and low Zooble patted his head. "Are you going to keep being a good boy?"
A full body shudder. His skin boiled under thier fingers. Floor it was.
"Let me see. I can't make it better if I can't see."
They were grateful their room light dimmed. Never fully dark, not even when sleeping. There were so many mirrors.
Turning over on his side, Jax laid out beside Zooble, face tucked into his elbow.
Carefully Zooble peeled off his pink overalls. The stomach and thighs were soaking. That hadn't been there before.
So petting was a yes.
"You awake enough to tell me what kind of things you want?"
"No," Jax crawled in closer, head on their thigh, trembling.
Zooble snorted, continuing to pet his head. "At least you know that much."
With a sound akin to a purring, expanse of soft purple fur the only thing left of him, he pulled in closer, face against Zooble's midsection.
"Never pegged you for a cuddler."
Jax's smile was there and gone in a pixel. "Gonna peg me?"
Another snort. Zooble leaned back on their hands. "What the !@#$ have I gotten myself into?"
Hands off his Jax tugged into a tighter ball, nearly circular. "Don't leave." Begging. Jax didn't beg.
Insides twisting Zooble gathered him up. He was lighter than they'd expected, though strength didn't mean much with muscles or mass. Setting him atop the deep red covers Jax sunk into the blanket, face rubbing the fabric.
The odd rumbling purr had him trembling again, turning into the fabric, reaching fingers winding in. "Zee?"
Doing thier utmost not to be touched by the stupid little nickname, Zooble tossed open their body parts chest. "Be right there."
The wave of scent hit them again. How did one smell without a nose? The smell was a physical weight.
Muffled in the bedspread, Jax started to whimper.
Respite over.
Zooble dug in their chest, scraping the very edge of whatever dirty thoughts they'd had about each and every interchangeable part, knowing they'd toss each out after that day. Bringing back the half a dozen limbs, burying every feeling deeper, they set them across the bedspread.
Jax lifted his head, lids heavy. He hardly counted as present anymore.
Zooble pushed them closer. "Are you awake?"
No answer. He dropped back on the bed.
"You'll have to talk to me."
Jax shook his head.
Frowning, the the approximation of one, Zooble sat down on the edge. "Jax."
Shrinking away from the tone, Jax buried his face in the bedspread.
Gut twisting, Zooble softened. "Baby."
Like the word was a hook, Jax brought himself in closer, flushed and starting to pant. He just managed to get to his side, watching.
"This one?" Zooble offered a bright orange limb, something used as a peg leg.
No reaction.
Zooble did thier best not to sigh. At least his half glazed eyes seemed to follow. If they didn't get an answer they'd just pick. The scent was so thick their own reaction times felt slowed, like swimming in syrup.
"This one?" They offered a shiny green curled 'L'.
Nothing.
They weren't getting anywhere. He was going to get heat sick. And why, why did Zooble care so much?
"This one?" Zooble pushed a pearly blue arm, the end octopus like with suckers and a blunt end.
His nose twitched.
Bunny.
Zooble had to consciously remind themself not to say that one.
Moving slowly, sliding it into the pile, Zooble tilted their head.
"That one." His voice rasped, shuddering.
"Good boy."
If Zooble thought he'd shuddered before, it meant nothing. Whimpering, eyes glazing further, Jax tried to crawl closer.
Out of time. Swiping the rest of the limb onto the floors, knowing they'd have to deal with that all later, Zooble tugged off their arm. It went up just past their elbows. If the only things weren't ones and zeros then they'd have thought it was made of rubber.
Definitely throwing it out.
Still on his side, Jax looked up at Zooble.
They'd never really wondered what it would be like to be worshiped, not really. But with that expression, at their complete and utter mercy, they were starting to get an inkling.
Other hand still free and clear, four cartoonish yellow fingers (that they'd likely throw out too) Zooble traced his cheek, pulling him up by the tip of Jax's chin.
He scrambled to follow, every noise wringing a new series of whimpers out of him. On his knees, trembling fingers shove between bare thighs, HJax looked up at Zooble with nothing less than adoration.
"You still need a safe word." Zooble hummed.
"I…"
"Corn?"
He shuddered, full body, shaking his head, frown deepening.
Zooble wished, for the barest split second, they still had a mouth. Absurd. It was Jax. They would not ki-
"Stop light system then. You tell me yellow when you want to pause and red to stop everything."
A nod.
"I need to hear you, Jax."
"Okay."
Zooble tilted his chin up again. "What color."
"Green." The word was a plea, out before Zooble could finish thier sentence.
They couldn't look at his face like that, not open and begging and, and vulnerable. Jax didn't do vulnerable. It made their skin crawl.
Zooble remembered their first time with someone in their heat. They'd done thier best, calm, collected, firm. The same way they always strove to be around heats. They'd had their own body then, strong, steady. Hands and feet and the toys they'd chosen themselves.
"Faster…"
Zooble blinked.
He was face down in the pillow, fingers scrabbling at the plush, back arched, knees planted.
Muscle memory, or the equivalent, had him stretched out, toy moving at a steady pace.
"I'm not going to take the chance I'll hurt you, sweetheart."
"Please."
"Jax."
He rutted back. The only thing keeping him from more was the hand on his spine.
Jax tried to flinch away from the touch.
Zooble slid a hand down to his side, taking his hip.
Crumpling immediately, he tried to claw his way up the headboard.
"Jax."
He froze, chest heaving, fingers still wound around the headboard. A drowning person clinging to a life boat.
On their knees. "Tell me."
"Don't touch there."
"Okay." Zooble took their hand away.
He slid back to the blanket, refusing to look back. "Well."
"I'm not doing anything until you tell me."
Jax's gaze flicked up, confused, hurt, lost.
God, who had hurt him?
"Do you want to be back on your knees?"
Mouth open, drawn tight, eyes back down.
"Bunny?"
The scent leached into the room again, breath wavering. "On your lap?"
Zooble was very glad they didn't have a mouth, if only so he didn't see the self satisfied smirk they felt down to the core.
It could have been hours, days, a week, Zooble didn't know, didn't much care. They could smell it more than any other sense could reach. They'd added things to the pile of limbs they'd have to chuck in the digital lake or perhaps burn in a volcano.
Jax had his eyes closed, head in their lap again.
Zooble had learned, perhaps, too much. They knew his cues, knew how he didn't like being touched anywhere on his torso, knew it drove him wild to have his ears pulled, knew how hard he twitched when he was overstimulated.
And, even without a nose, they knew what his distress smelled like, tangy and sour, a citrus on the far side of too ripe.
They'd only had to take it in once.
Zooble knew what he smelled like when he was calm.
It was finally fading, all the ways he changed. The temperature in the room was finally dropping from sauna, to nice summer day.
New hand, five fingers this time, pet his head, long and slow, in time to his breaths.
"Never been good at this."
Zooble took a sec to interpret the sleepy mumble. "At this?"
"Heats."
"No such thing as 'good' at them. It's natural." Used to be natural. Was natural outside their candy colored prison.
"Always messed up somehow."
The pang in the gut was familiar now. You couldn't get that close without unravelling secrets. "You, you don't have to tell me this." They didn't have to talk at all.
"Thought you wanted me to talk?" Lid lifted, smirk rising.
He was coming back to himself then.
"You're a good omega."
Jax shuddered hard.
Words alone.
Still.
Zooble rolled their eyes, laying their head back. How long had it been since someone had called him that? Had someone ever called him that? Complimented him?
"My good bunny."
He practically purred.
F!@#$