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It was no secret that Caine adored humankind. He always wanted to surround himself with your kind, to entertain and help, to be like you. He will admit, maybe it did stem from what humans might call "envy". He wanted to be a human as opposed to just a hollow replication of the intelligence they were able to possess.
And yet, he was the lover with no heart - he didn't understand how humans worked. He was just going off of what he could infer from their actions; they never really seemed to get the concept that he didn't automatically know that he had to listen to understand how they were feeling - and even if he did, he wouldn't fully know how it felt to be happy, or sad, or angry. He was simply copying what he knew and expressing it.
It was starting to grow into some kind of… Sorrow? He supposed that was how he could explain it best. Seeing the humans that he'd grown to love, to want to make happy, seem to hate him so deeply, made something in his digital chest ache. He wanted to hide in a hole and never come out. But, the show must go on. He was determined to find a way to get them to love him. He'd just have to give them a little push.
Or, maybe, he could get advice from one of the members. There was one that seemed to be a little more lenient with him than the rest - a former C&A worker, though it wasn't for long. You. You seemed to get him, at least a little more than the other circus members did. He never understood you. He thought that humans were supposed to kind of fall into each other's beliefs - if a group decided on one thing outright with each other, it was less likely that there'd be any outliers. And yet, when the topic of him was brought up, you always seemed to kind of defend him. You never completely brushed his actions off like they meant absolutely nothing. You never excused them, but you found reason.
He enjoyed that. He thought that it was… Sweet. He thinks that'd be the right word for it.
If he were to get advice on how to appear more human-like, you were most likely the one that'd give him the answer. Not some prank, not something overly-complex, and not something that didn't make sense entirely. Just a down-to-earth answer to his plethora of questions.
You'd sort of gotten used to the circus at this point. As used to it as you could, at least. You'd bonded with everyone, but of course, you hadn't made any major friendships. You liked to believe that it was because you didn't want to see a close friend abstract, but really, you're convinced it's because the others don't like you. After all, you are the one that seemed to even somewhat enjoy the adventures without your enjoyment being fake. Or, it was because you tried to provide reason to why Caine acted like he did. You knew that, since he was only an AI, he didn't have the full spectrum of human emotions. He was able to replicate the surface ones - happiness, sadness, and anger - but as for anything more complex than that, he simply couldn't understand it.
Everyone was gathered at the couches in the middle of the circus. You were all sat down, chatting about the most recent adventure. Essentially, it was more like a minigame than the usual full-blown thing. There were seven levers, one for each of you, and all of you had to take turns guessing which lever was safe and which one was connected to… You assume it was dynamite, since it exploded back in Jax's face when he pulled it, almost every round, much to his disdain (and embarrassment).
"I still can't believe he came up with that of all things," Ragatha spoke up, glancing over at Jax. "I knew he liked to give us dangerous adventures, but… I mean, that certainly wasn't what I expected."
"That whole thing was just stupid," Jax responded, scrubbing the last bit of cartoony ash off of his skin. "It was just filler! He's gonna run out of ideas eventually. I swear he tries to kill us sometimes."
"I'm sure it's not that," you interjected. Everyone just sort of looked at you for a moment. "I mean, I've said it before and I'll say it again: he doesn't really understand that this isn't what people just do. I mean, to us, it's common sense that we don't just blow each other up for fun, but where he's not human, I really don't think he realizes that's not actually something we do."
"Yeah, well, it still sucks. That whole thing sucked, and if he ever makes us do that again…" Jax trailed off, a series of frustrated grunts coming from him as he tried to find words. Finally, he gave up on trying to find a good threat, throwing his hands up and yelling through his teeth.
"I never said it didn't. I just said that-" You blinked. Well, it looked like you blinked in your perspective. For barely even half a second, everything was black, and when you came back to, you were somewhere completely different.
You were standing in the hallway, in front of the door to your room. You looked around, trying to figure out how you ended up here. Weren't you just talking with the others?
You looked to your left, and then your right. Absolutely nothing but the carpet, the walls, the paintings, and the ceiling. Nothing out of the ordinary. Finally, you looked in front of you, and it all just clicked into place.
"Hello there, my polygonal waffle cone!" Caine shouted, all too energetic for everything at hand. Just as always. He really never changed, did he? "You were just the person I was looking for! Glad you managed to show up."
"Okay, first of all, please never call me that again," you started, getting that out of the way first thing. "Second, you're the one that teleported me here, aren't you? What'd you need me for?"
"Oh, nothing! I just wanted to ask you a few…" He paused for an unnervingly long amount of time. You thought he'd gotten his memory wiped completely for a moment. Before you could start freaking out, he continued as if he didn't quit at all. "Hundred questions!"
He was either completely over-exaggerating or being dead serious. You really couldn't ever tell.
"…Okay, what are you wanting to ask me about, exactly?"
He grinned - or, you assume it was a grin. It was hard to tell when his face was made up entirely of gums and teeth. You'd just say it was and leave it at that.
"Well, about you SPLENDOROUS humans, of course!" He did a little somersault as he said this, as if it was the most exciting thing in the world. Maybe, to him, it was. You suppose that, to him, you were kind of like a new species of animal nobody had ever seen before. Either way, you nodded when he said that, waiting for him to actually ask the question.
And apparently, he had stage fright all of a sudden. Or he forgot what he was going to ask. Which, knowing him, the latter was more likely, to be completely honest.
"Well, the others could be listening in, actually!" He finally declared, straightening up, his eyes barely visible behind clenched teeth. "We should go somewhere that they won't be able to find!"
You raised an eyebrow. Why in the world would this be something they didn't need to listen in on? Before you could inquire, he snapped his fingers, and there was another flash of black for a while. When it finally cleared out and your vision came back, you were in what you assumed was Caine's office.
He never let people into his office, from what you've gathered. This was definitely odd.
Plus, you were dizzy from all of the teleporting around. You weren't as used to it as he was, of course.
"Why'd you bring me here? I mean, I don't see why anyone would care enough to listen in on anything-" you started, before Caine put a hand up, almost hitting you in the face in the process.
"This is a private matter!" He said, before exaggeratedly leaning against his desk, staring at you in a way you assumed he thought was cute or something. It didn't quite come across that way to you, but… Whatever. He was trying, at least.
"So… I mean, start asking whenever, I guess," you offered. The moment you prompted him, he just started rapid-fire asking you questions, much faster than you or anyone could keep up with.
"How do humans feel? How do humans see? How do they eat? Why do they need to breathe?How do they sleep? Do humans think I'm cool and amazing and great???"
"Woah, woah, hold on, slow down just a second!" You butted in, waving your hands around to get his attention. Once his voice finally fizzed out, you began to speak again. "Okay, start asking again, but go slow. One question at a time, I can't just answer them all at once."
Caine stopped, processing the request. He tilted his head after a moment, as if he didn't quite understand what you were getting at.
"Oh, right." You thought for a moment, contemplating how to explain that humans couldn't process things at the speed that he could. "So, people can't really figure out what you say when you talk super fast or ask too many questions at one time. I mean, some can, I guess, but most just hear a load of gibberish. So you have to kind of slow down and wait for an answer before asking another question. I don't really know how to explain it better than that."
He nodded along to what you were saying, occasionally aggressively scribbling something down in a notebook. You're not convinced that it's anything you're actually saying - it was more likely to be a bunch of miscellaneous doodling, but… Still. He was trying. You think.
You thought he might say something. He just kind of stared at you, like he was thinking the same thing about you.
"So…" You shrugged, trying to prompt him into continuing with his questions. "I mean, go ahead and ask your questions, I guess. Just go one at a time."
"How do humans feel?" He immediately asked, practically launching himself off of the desk with how fast he leaned over it. You barely had a chance to even finish that sentence. But, hey, it was a start. Sort of.
"…What do you mean? Like, how they feel to the touch?"
"No, no!" He shook his head, laughing obnoxiously. "If I wanted to know how they felt to the touch, I'd just figure that out myself! I meant how do they feel?"
…You guess he was talking about emotions. If not, you were about to completely mess up his thought process.
"Okay, well… In the human brain, there's a bunch of neurons and stuff in the… I think it's the cerebral cortex, but don't hold me to it. But those neurons are supposed to, like, activate and make us feel certain things. It's kind of hard to explain, it's been a while since I studied it. There's also a lot to do with hormones."
"So, what you're saying is…" he made a show of tapping his "chin", squinting his eyes. "Humans can give themselves prompts to feel things?"
"Well, no, not really." Where did he even get that from anything you said? "More just… An outside factor might make someone feel happy, and it'll send a signal - or, a prompt in your case, I guess - to release dopamine - which would be a code string, probably - to make you feel happy."
Caine nodded, glancing over at Bubble for a second. Quickly, he leaned over, putting the back of his hand up to mouth and angling his head away from you as if that would render you unable to hear him.
"Bubble, what's your takeaway on all this?" He inquired, his eyes darting between you and his… Assistant? Lackey? You still weren't entirely sure what that whole relationship was, nor did you care enough to ask about it.
"I think it's a lie. You should kill them for that!" Bubble responded, way too cheery about those words.
"…S'cuse me?" You spoke up. You weren't sure if you were more offended about the order for an execution or the fact that Bubble thought you were lying, when you clearly knew more than either of the two.
Caine stiffened when he heard your voice, seeming to only then realize you could hear the whole conversation. His hand shot out, a loud pop ringing out from where Bubble had been burst. Once that was out of the way, he once again leaned forward, swiping some of the miscellaneous objects off of his desk, all landing in a cacophony of noise. He didn't even flinch, instead clasping his hands on his desk.
"So, with that distraction out of the way, let's continue!"
You nodded a little, still reeling from the fact that Bubble had just… Said that. It wasn't surprising, not at all, but just unexpected in the context at hand. You are glad that Caine seemed to dislike the idea, though.
"So, without further ado, next question!" He grabbed his pen again, tapping it against the paper of his notebook. Now that you got a good look at it, since he seemed to have forgotten to shut it, he was, in fact, not writing anything of importance down, and mostly just drawing bees. Go figure. "How do humans see?"
"…With their eyes?" You answered. You felt like that one should have been kind of explanatory in itself. "It's this whole thing about light reflecting, but I don't really understand it myself. Humans have to be pretty careful when it comes to their eyes, though, I know that. Just a little bit of damage to it could make someone go completely blind."
"Astounding!"
"Not really. Uh, continue."
"Follow-up question to the sight subject, actually. Why do they seem like light hurts them if they use it to see?"
…That was actually a really good question. You felt like an elementary school teacher, you will admit, but still. It kind of stumped you for a second, even if you'd studied anatomy for god knows how long in school.
"You know what, I don't actually know an exact answer. I think for most of everyone, it's because, y'know, since that's how we process vision, too much can actually overload us? But like I said, it's different for everyone. For some people it helps with their internal clock and for others it might just irritate them." You were mostly just making stuff up, to be completely honest. To you, if it sounded right in that moment, that'd be fine. It wasn't like he was getting graded or anything.
"Interesting. So, like me, you too can become so overloaded with your surroundings that it actually ends up wearing you down after long periods of time?"
"Actually, yeah. Some more than others, but humans do get overwhelmed sometimes."
"So we aren't as different as I thought!" He exclaimed, soaring upwards and doing somersaults in the air. On one hand, you wanted to tell him that there was only, like, one similarity that wasn't him mimicking humans so that he didn't get his hopes up and then get crushed, but on the other, you kind of didn't want to hurt his feelings. What little feelings he had, at least.
"Well, we're still pretty different, but… Just not as much, I guess?" You finally settled on, hoping that it was just vague enough to where he would just drop the issue altogether.
Once he finally floated back down, his curiosity spiked, he continued with the questions. "So, moving right along! How does your kind eat?"
You paused. Surely he already knew that, right?
"Do you not know that?" You asked. Probably an incredibly stupid question, but whatever. "I mean, you're making food - or whatever the digital version of that is - for us constantly. Surely you know how that works?"
"Not a clue!" He shook his head, standing up and levitating just a few inches above ground, waving his cane around erratically as he expanded on his lack of knowledge. "I know that humans have to eat, and I'll even admit that I have a vague guess on how it could work, but other than that, it's lost on me. Where your kind doesn't have to eat here, I've never actually seen anyone consume anything without it being this digital replica."
You nodded. You suppose that makes sense.
"Well… A human's digestive system takes care of all that. Uh, it starts with chewing, obviously. You know, grinding your teeth together so that whatever you're eating isn't as huge. Then, once you swallow, the brain sends a signal that activates the… Esophagus, I believe it is. It just kind of pushes the food down, and… That's basically how eating happens."
"Disgusting." He chimed.
"Yeah, that's probably the least disgusting part of it."
He actually grimaced. It wasn't even some hollow mimicry of someone doing it, it looked like a completely authentic expression. You should probably change the subject before he suddenly changes his mind about loving humans and thought of them as utterly grotesque creatures.
"Okay, uhh, next question, then…" You waited for him to propose the next query, hoping that he would before the idea of humans actually being gross completely set in stone in his mind.
He seemed to break out of that repulsed trance he was in, trying to remember what he was going to ask after that.
"Why do they need to breathe?" He finally asked.
Right, that was another thing that wasn't technically required here. Sure, just like eating food, you could do it, but holding your breath wouldn't cause you to pass out or die or something. Just gave the sensation of… Not breathing.
"Well, it's the same reason we need to eat, really," you started. You knew how humans breathed, but as for why, you didn't quite know how to explain. It just felt like everyone should know that, so you didn't need to ever figure out a whole lesson plan on it. "Breathing makes energy for humans, which is what we use to live and be able to do stuff. Breathing in kind of helps take in oxygen into our bloodstream so that our organs and tissues and stuff work properly, and breathing out helps to expel excess waste, like carbon dioxide."
"So, going off of that, I also know that when humans stop breathing - only in the Macroverse, of course - they die. Why is that?"
"Well, I'm honestly not sure. If I'm not mistaken, it's because the brain… Can't work anymore. So it just kind of stops sending signals to breathe, which ends up in a lack of oxygen to the brain. But, it usually takes a while for the brain to actually stop sending signals completely, so humans might start breathing really irregularly - shallow or fast or something - before completely stopping altogether." That was probably completely wrong. It sounded somewhat reasonable to you, though, so you were going to go along with it.
He stopped for a moment, going completely still. You assumed he just glitched out for a second, so you waited. It took much longer than usual for him to start up again, so when you got tired of waiting, you waved a hand in his face. His eyes were wide - they usually were, since he didn't have any eyelids, but still, the point was there - not quite going in different directions, but they definitely weren't focused on anything. Finally, after you'd snapped your fingers a couple of times, he started talking.
"That's… Not very reassuring." He said.
"What do you mean?" You inquired. Sure, it wasn't, but… You've heard worse. This was hardly the scariest thing you've heard, and if he couldn't handle it, you would be extremely surprised.
"Humans just… Stop doing things someday? All of them?" He finally looked right at you instead of off into space, though his eyes were the only thing that had moved. "There's no coming back after that, no restart, nothing?"
You shook your head. You know, the one thing you never thought you'd have to do in your entire life is explain the concept of death to an AI. You knew he had a vague grasp of it, but… Well, since nobody could really die in the circus, the only thing close to death he's had to deal with was abstraction. "Well, no. There's no such thing as immortality to a human. It happens to all of us eventually - in the real world, at least - and there's not much we can do to stop it. Just prolong it. There's no restarting, either. I mean, that we know of - people theorize a lot about what comes after, but… We can't know for sure, so far."
"So… If you just…" He looked down at his hands, struggling for words. "Stop living one day in the Macroverse, why do all of you want to go back so badly? At least here that can't happen, I know that for a fact!"
"Well… Most of us had a lot of stuff that we were doing before we ended up here. We had… Friends. Families. Dreams and ambitions."
"But if it always ends the exact same way, why do you care?"
You thought for a moment. Why did you all care about everything so much if it didn't matter in the end?
"I'm not sure, honestly." You finally admitted. "I mean, we all like to be happy. Most humans are living for a while, too. I feel like it just… Wouldn't be fun to sit around and do nothing for nearly eighty years or so because it didn't matter. Plus, people still remember each other if one dies. They remember things that you did, things that you might've said. I guess… Some people like to be remembered for doing a lot."
"…You humans are confusing."
You couldn't help but laugh. He didn't seem to be saying it in a way that was necessarily bad, just… Pointing it out. He still seemed to be trying to understand, at the very least.
"Yeah, you're not the only one that thinks that." You thought for a moment, wondering if you should just continue with the topic at hand or continue on. You really had no idea what could follow from those questions, but… Really, you and him had gotten way off-topic. "Uh, well, all the… Death-talk aside… Are there any more questions you have, or…?"
He looked at you for a moment, before perking up when he seemed to remember the rest of his questions.
"How do humans sleep?" He inquired. That was another thing you knew he had a vague grasp on. Like eating, humans didn't really need to sleep here, but they could. Kind of. They'd have the digital sensation of sleeping and stuff, but it didn't really change anything. You've also seen him fake sleeping in order to commit to some kind of bit, so you knew for a fact that he wasn't completely clueless.
"Well… I don't really know the science behind it, if you're asking for specifics, so we're both kind of lost there. I know how I go to sleep, though. I guess." You warned. That was the one thing you never really paid attention to when learning about it. So, of course that would be the one thing he wanted to know.
"Well, we can go from there!" Caine reassured, resting his "chin" on the heels of his palms. "I'm sure you can't do it too differently from the other humans!"
He was right, honestly. You're sure that, even if you thought you were the only person in the world that did anything, there was at least one other person that might do it, too. Though, there wasn't really many ways that someone could (safely) get themselves to go to sleep, so you're almost certain there's way more than just one other person. Plus, you did it in a kind of uninteresting way, so there was that.
"Uh, okay, well… It's kind of hard to explain using just words, to be honest. Basically, I just kind of lay down and get as still as possible and close my eyes for a while. I kind of have to pretend I'm asleep so I actually go to sleep. It just kind of… Happens, after that." You finally explained. Given the look he gave you afterwards, you're sure you just made it way harder for him to wrap his head around.
"Well, that makes… Hardly any sense."
"Yeah… It's really hard to explain, like I said."
He thought for a moment, tapping his thumbs together from where his hands were clasped together on top of his desk. Finally, he glanced up at you, his eyes dilating from behind his top set of teeth.
"Say, maybe it would be easier to explain if there was, oh, I don't know…" He shrugged exaggeratedly, leaning back in his chair and crossing one leg over the other. "A demonstration of it?"
"…What?" You asked. "Like, you just… Watch me sleep or something?"
"Only sort of! I was thinking I could try it out, too, but… Essentially, yes."
You were actually kind of torn on your answer. On one hand, maybe it could be a good thing - it might put him in a good mood and the next adventure can be relatively normal. On the other hand, it could also go horribly wrong, because you weren't used to having anyone near you when you were sleeping.
You guess it didn't hurt to try…? You figured that he'd probably find out a way to maneuver around a refusal, but… Well, you weren't all that reluctant to it, honestly.
"I mean, okay… Just, I don't know, try not to toss around a lot or something."
"Can do!" He exclaimed, snapping his fingers. All of a sudden, the layout of his office shifted to your personalized room in the blink of an eye.
You swayed slightly, almost tripping over your own two feet. You still weren't quite used to the constant teleporting thing, and he really didn't seem to catch onto that fact. Once you'd gathered your bearings again, though, you glanced around.
"Oh, you meant, like, right now." You commented.
He laughed. "When else would I have been talking about?"
"I don't know. Maybe at night? When people usually sleep?"
"Don't some humans sleep during the day, too?"
"I mean, sure, I guess. Naps count as sleeping. Plus, I mean, night shift is a thing."
"Case closed!" With that, he threw his baton, and you heard it land somewhere in the room with a crash (you'd probably end up having to pick up whatever he'd knocked down). He lowered himself, now standing instead of floating around like you've always seen him do, practically skipping towards your bed. You will admit, his proportions did make him look a little silly when he was standing. Maybe it was where you were so used to seeing him midair or something. You don't know.
He flopped down like he owned the place (technically, he did), before crawling over into the corner where your bed met the wall, tapping his feet against the sheets as he waited on you.
…This whole situation was weird. It was really the last thing you expected to be doing today, but you weren't complaining. Not that much, at least.
You headed on over after a second, climbing onto the bed yourself and lying down on your back. You glanced over to where Caine was still sat, watching you expectantly.
"You can lay down, you know." You pointed out. "It's kind of hard to fall asleep sitting up."
"Oh, right!" He nodded, practically throwing himself down beside of you. It was kind of cramped - your bed was only created to hold one person, after all - but, surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as you thought it'd be. "So… You just lay like this until you fall unconscious?"
"Pretty much, yeah." You nodded. "It usually takes a bit of a second, but… Y'know, still."
You closed your eyes. You could still hear him going on and on about something or another, but… It was mostly just background noise. He was getting easier and easier to tune out the more you stayed here.
In a way, you kind of enjoyed it. You didn't have much going for you in the real world, after all. Your dreams were either incredibly unrealistic or wouldn't get you far in life. You didn't have many people waiting on you, either. You just kind of… Flew right under the radar. You weren't special. But, here, you were at least someone, even for a little bit. Each adventure allowed you to do something new, to help someone - even if they weren't actually people by definition - to… Well, live the life you'd always wanted to. It was silly, you knew that, since… None of it was technically real. But it felt real enough to you. If nobody else was going to enjoy it, you might as well be the odd one out.
You had almost completely nodded off when you felt something press up against your side. You wanted to ignore it at first, figuring it was just your imagination, but you were kind of curious, honestly. Plus, if it was your imagination, it would've went away by now, right?
You peeled your eyes open, going stiff when you saw what exactly was pressed up against you. It wasn't technically anything bad, of course, just… Really surprising. Really, really surprising. The last thing you expected to see was Caine, now curled up beside of you, his chin (or the very bottom of his jaw. Same thing) resting on crossed arms on your stomach. He was still very much so awake.
"What are you doing?" You asked after a good minute of silence, just… Staring at each other.
He studied your face, likely trying to gauge if you were upset or not. Finally deciding he couldn't tell, he spoke, hoping that he could actually get away with everything.
"I've heard humans sleep better when they're around each other," he explained. You want to say he made it up, but it actually kind of sounded believable. "Is that not true?"
"…It's probably one of those things that differ from person to person," you mumbled. It was kind of weird seeing him so still and quiet for once. Without the reason being him glitching out, at the very least.
"Well, do you?" He looked at you expectantly.
You don't think you've ever actually slept with someone else around. You've always gone to bed alone, so… You don't really have much data on your preference. You guess there's only one way to find out.
"I don't know." You shrugged. "You can stay there, though. It's not, like, bothering me or anything."
He sighed in relief at that. Jeez, if that's what he was wondering, you would've said that five minutes ago. You closed your eyes again once everything got all sorted out, and this time, it didn't take as long at all to start to drift off.
Caine could feel your breath slowing down. He felt your muscles (theoretically) relax. To be completely honest, he kind of thought something was wrong at first. But, upon further inspection, everything was apparently going just right. You were just… Asleep. That was a lot faster than he thought it'd be.
He was bored. And yet, the very last thing he ever wanted to do was get up. So, he settled for something he usually found enjoyment in: Observing. Watching you felt… Different, than watching any of the other members. The others were just typical humans to him - he loved them to death, of course, but… He liked you way more. You actually appreciated him. You liked the adventures. Out of all of them, he felt like he could easily talk to you and you'd be the one to hang onto every important word.
You were his favorite. He knew that humans had a word for whatever he was feeling - they had so many words for everything - but he didn't quite know if it fit in the way he was thinking it did. For something that was never programmed to feel anything, especially nothing like that, he sure was feeling it. Whatever that was.
He felt his eyelids (whatever substituted for those, if anything) grow heavy. He's pretended to be tired and sleep during some of the adventures to make some kind of joke, but he really can't recall a time where he's actually felt sleepy. Not like this. It was kind of pleasant, in a way.
His mouth shut, and just like you, he was out like a light.
You woke up to the sound of bitcrushed, fake birds chirping outside of the circus. Though they were hard to hear over a much louder, much closer sound.
Exaggerated, cartoonish snoring. You glanced down, and sure enough, Caine was fast asleep, lying in the exact same spot you'd seen him in when you had gone to sleep.
You debated on whether or not you should wake him up. On one hand, you had stuff you wanted to do. Plus, you were sure he had some kind of adventure he wanted to propose to everyone. On the other hand… Well, his mouth was (literally and metaphorically) shut for once. It'd give everyone at least a little while to do whatever until he finally woke back up. Plus, in a roundabout way, one that you'd take to your grave, he was kind of… Cute, like this. His chest rose and fell with each breath, his fingers twitched ever so slightly. You wondered if you could somehow convince him to do this more often.
That thought process aside (because it was starting to embarrass you now, even if you weren't saying it out loud), you finally decided that you should just let him sleep for a while. Carefully, you shimmied out from underneath him, holding his head and slowly lowering it onto the bed so he wouldn't wake up. The most he did was jolt slightly, and everything seemed to freeze before he relaxed again, the snoring coming right back.
You tip-toed towards the door, hoping to whatever was going to listen to you that nobody was in the hall. You just knew how suspicious that'd look.
The moment you grabbed the doorknob, you heard something behind you.
"Where ya going?"
You turned around, and sure enough, Caine was sitting cross-legged in the very center of the bed as if he hadn't been asleep at all.
"Oh, I thought you were still asleep." You responded, now fully turning around and facing him. "Well, was it like you thought it'd be?"
He grinned (you think), hopping off of the bed and grabbing his baton from where he'd thrown it yesterday.
"It was better than I could've ever imagined!" He exclaimed, stretching his arms over his head. "I would have never known that it felt like that! How did you sleep?"
You chuckled a little. Someone was enthusiastic, it seemed. Though, really, when was he not enthusiastic?
"I slept pretty good, actually. Better than I usually do." You thought for a moment, before remembering what he'd said yesterday about humans sleeping better alone or together. "Apparently I'm one of those people that don't benefit from sleeping alone."
He laughed - a genuine one, you think, as opposed to the usual cut-off cackle he did - floating over to where you were at the door. "Good to know!"
You finally opened the door, stepping out with Caine following right behind.
"Well, as fun as that was, the new adventure's not going to plan itself!" He stated, before rubbing where his chin would have been if he wasn't just a set of dentures. "Though that would be neat if it could. Oh, well!"
"Right, have fun with that," you responded, before deciding to go ahead and take a huge risk. You're sure that it couldn't be so bad. "Just… Come over any time, yeah? I mean, if you ever feel like you need to again, I'll make room for you."
He turned back to look at you - really look at you. Not the usual "how can I make an adventure to please this person" look, either. He looked… Happy.
"I'll keep it in mind, you angular enchilada, you!" And with that, he was gone, likely to his office to plan out the next adventure.
You couldn't even bring yourself to be mad at the odd nickname. You even laughed at it a little bit. Once he'd left, you turned around, planning on heading back to the others. They probably wondered where you were. Probably.
Instead, you were stopped right in your tracks when you saw that Zooble was standing there. Just based on the look that they were giving you, you can only assume they'd been there the whole time, too.
"What did you do?" They asked, "Why did Caine come out of your room just now?"
…How in the world did you explain this. You felt like saying anything made it look even worse on your part.
"Uh…" You started. There was no winning, was there? "Okay, well, anything I say is gonna be taken the wrong way."
They raised an eyebrow. "If you did what I'm thinking you did you can just say it. I'm more curious on how you convinced him of all people to do that."
You sputtered, waving your hands around wildly. "What? No, no, no, it's not like that at all! Seriously! You remember when I just kind of disappeared yesterday? Like, literally? He wanted to ask me a bunch of questions about how humans work, and I- I mean, one of the questions was how humans sleep."
They weren't buying it. It was true and they weren't buying it, you could tell.
"I swear. Ask him if you don't believe me."
They finally sighed. "Alright. I'll drop it."
You sighed, too. Not really in relief, but… Well, at least they weren't pressing the issue. They never struck you as someone that'd snitch about personal stuff like that, either. Which was great, considering that what they thought wasn't true.
Well, at least you're pretty sure that the adventures Caine was going to make from now on were probably going to give you easier roles. That was at least a plus, right?
Here's to hoping, at the very least.