#ler!jack

“Jack,” you started, also standing with your hands on your hips, “you have to let the other residents carve these too, you know. We can always grow more.” Jack’s eye sockets wandered to his pile, then to the cart.  And with the time closing in on the most important day of the year, he conceded.

“Oh, I suppose you’re right.  It wouldn’t be in good spirit to have all the fun. But how will I ever choose which ones to give up?” you snickered, not realizing this would be such a dilemma.  Jack noticed you were amused by his situation and narrowed his hollow gaze.

“This is no laughing matter, it's an important decision! We said this would be the best Halloween the Valley has had yet!”

“I’m sorry, Jack, I’m not laughing because of that,” your grin grew a bit, “you’re just the absolute icon of Halloween and all things terrifying, but you care so much about the Valley and its residents having a good time.  I think it’s endearing.”

“Endearing?”

“Adorable, even.”

“Adorable?!”

Jack considered himself to be many things. The Pumpkin King, most obviously.  The Czar of Halloween.  Experimenter extraordinaire.  He even briefly held the title of “Sandy Claws”... albeit that one was a little chaotic. But, endearing? Or adorable?? Absurd.

“What’s wrong with that?” you asked, looking at your friend as he contemplated your words.

“That can’t be! I’m the very antithesis of adorable! I am the bump in the night, the chill down your spine, the whisper in the wind!” You smiled, hiding yet another chuckle.

“And I don’t scare you?”

“I mean, you can. But most of the time? Not really, no. You’re my friend, and it’s hard to be afraid of you when you have such a good heart, Jack.  I hope that makes sense.” Jack processed this briefly.  He did suppose he would rather not scare you all the time if it meant his frightening features were all still light-hearted.  That was a value of his, and one that even Halloween Town lived by: scaring for thrill and fun, never to be malicious.

“It does, my friend, I’m glad you feel that way,” he started. His features changed ever-so-slightly from touched to intimidating.  “However…” 

Suddenly, as if proving his point, you did feel a chill run down your spine as he stood to his full height and loomed over you. His arms were outstretched, and he shaped his boney fingers into claws, fingers twitching as if waiting for their owner’s command.

“Maybe I should remind you how scary I can actually be!”

He stepped forward, and you instinctively took a step back, and as luck would have it, you tripped on a pumpkin vine, falling on your backside.  Your already towering skeletal friend seemed impossibly tall from your viewpoint, and he was closing in. You attempted to scramble away.

“Not… so… fast!” Jack bellowed, latching onto your ankle and dragging you closer. You shrieked, realizing you weren’t escaping.

“J-Jack, wait, what are you- JAHAHACK!” Without warning, his lanky skeletal fingers danced up and down your sides, not too unlike how a spider would crawl.  You toppled over onto your back and continued to cackle wildly.  You weren’t sure what his plan was, but if you had the capacity for hindsight at this moment it should have been clear. Jack would never hurt a fly, let alone his friends, and seemingly everyone in this Valley knew you were ticklish and even enjoyed it by the way you and certain other villagers played.

“Do I scare you noooow?” Jack drew out the question, focusing more now on playful skittering over your belly.  Your cackles continued in a bubbly stream as you futilely tried to push his hands away. 

“Nohohohot hahahardly!” you spat defiantly. He seemed amused, and laughed rather evilly as he dexterously avoided your attempt at stopping him.

“Eeehehehe! That’s fine, I’m only just beginning! But if you don’t think I’m scary now…” he swiftly took both your wrists in one hand and pulled them up over your head. His tone darkened but his wicked grin remained.

“... you will.” Instinct forced you to try to pull your arms down, but logically, you knew you were trapped with some of your most vulnerable places at his mercy.

“Silly human, thinking you could escape my clutches!” he teased, wiggling his boney fingers just above your ribs, very purposefully in plain view. You shuddered in anticipation, the phantom feeling of what was to come causing your breath to hitch.

“Jahahack, wahait!”

“Yeeeesss?” he asked, his grin widening as you struggled for composure.

“W-we can talk about this, right? You are the scariest person in the Valley, there’s no question!” You bardered.

“Hmmm… That is true,” Jack replied, using the same hand previously threatening to descend on your ribs to stroke his chin.  You sighed, relishing in the reprieve of his teasing.  Too early.

“That’s not the question, though! The question is if you think I’m scary.”

“I do!” You blurted, a little too eagerly.  The Pumpkin King chuckled.

“You wouldn’t happen to be lying to get yourself out of this, would you, friend?” Ah, those wiggling, lanky fingers came twitching back, hovering over your underarm.  You lost any sense of coherence you had gained in your short break.

“I-well, uhm, no, I do think you’re scary right now!”

“I’m sure you do.  Let’s make sure you don’t forget anytime soon!” You babbled in protest, but it fell on deaf ears as those menacing fingers finally found the hollow of your underarm. They teetered and teased all around the tender area, eliciting at first an explosive shriek, then unhindered giggles.

“Jahahahack! Dohohon’t doho thahahat!” You squealed, trying again to free yourself from the skeletal monster’s grasp.  He cackled evilly again at your futile attempts.

“Try all you might, little human, you can’t escape the Pumpkin King’s wrath!” He raked the tips of his fingers from your elbow to the bottom of your underarm, almost where your ribs started,  and back up, repeating this process over and over again. It was such a light gesture, yet you had no control over the relentless giggling that continued to pour from you as your legs kicked out in vain. Jack melted a bit at the sight and sound of your unhindered self, knowing what he was witnessing was genuine, even if it took some persuasion on his part to draw this out.

“And you had the nerve to call me adorable.  You could easily be one of my cutest victims, my dear friend,” Jack commented, deepening your already brilliant blush.

“Knohohhock it oohohohff, Jack! JAHAHACK!” Your bubbling cackles adopted a certain panic as Jack’s spider-like fingers crawled onto your ribs. Jack seemed pleased by the reaction, recognizing he’d stumbled upon an especially sensitive area.

“My, my, what have we here?” he asked, his more sinister expression and tone returning. “Such a different sound, yet I only ventured slightly downward. How curious. It would be a shame if a monster, one that could be regarded as truly frightening, would come across this.  Wouldn’t that be dreadful?”

“Cohohohomplehehetly drehehadful!” It was getting harder for you to form words as Jack incessantly poked at your ribs.  He was playing with you, keeping you guessing.

“Good thing you aren’t afraid of such a monster,” he grinned, releasing your wrists only for the sake of having both his hands free to pinch each rib bone and flutter over the spaces in between them. You threw your head back against the grass beneath you in a belly laugh, kicking your legs out and holding onto Jack’s wrists for dear life.

“JAHAHAHACK!” you shrieked in ticklish agony.

“Eeehehehe, goodness! That squeal doesn’t sound like a fearless ruler to meee~”

“IHAHAHA’M NOHOHOT!” You and Jack both felt your resolve breaking. You still weren’t afraid of Jack, but you were afraid of how long he would be willing to keep this up.

“You know, there are some legends of monsters that eat people. Now usually that just wouldn’t do, then I would have no one to scare!” Jack pondered, continuing to spider his fingers on and in between ribs, with random pinches to your sides.

“JAHAHAHACK, I CAHAHAN’T!”

“Well no, you aren’t a monster.  And I certainly wouldn’t be eating you, the Valley and I would miss you greatly! Hmmm…though I do wonder…maybe just a nibble…” He hummed, putting on a show of contemplation. But he wasn’t so lost in thought as to relent, his spidering fingers finding your hip bones now.  You yelped at the sudden change and tried to curl in on yourself.

“DOHOHON’T THINK ABHOHOHOUT IT!”

“Well, how can I not, now that you’ve practically made yourself bite-sized?” Jack asked. The question started as a coo of admiration toward your reactions, but ended impishly, telling of his intentions.  Jack continued to squeeze and scurry on and around your hips as he slowly and ominously bent forward, baring his teeth.  You immediately shrugged your shoulders in defense; your giggling, scrunched up face was almost enough to break the Pumpkin King’s facade. 

Almost, but not quite.

Jack managed to worm his way into the space you were trying so hard to protect, peppering your neck with playful bites and nibbles, not sparing you of the dramatic noises included when a monster devours its prey.

“JA-EEHEHEHCK!”

“Om nom nom! Eehehehe, your giggles are quite delicious, my friend.” He continued tracing haphazard lines onto your hip bones while nibbling up and down your neck, occasionally nuzzling around your ear.  Both sensations at once were driving you mad, a boisterous belly laugh still erupting from you.  It might be getting a little hoarse right now.

“Om nom nom! I see why tickle monsters enjoy this so much.  Maybe that makes me one, too! But that wouldn’t be scary at all…”

“YEHEHES IT IHEHEEHES! YESITIS! BWAHAHAHA!” shortly after your plea your laugher fell silent. Jack chuckled to himself before finally showing mercy on his poor pumpkin harvesting companion.

“My, my! I think that’s enough for the time being.  We do have a task at hand, don’t we, friend?” you didn’t respond immediately, allowing yourself to catch your breath and wipe away mirthful tears. Jack tittered as he stood, offering a hand to help you stand as well. You looked at him skeptically.

As mentioned before, a lot of the tickles generally tend to stay amongst the kids. That’s mainly just bc a lot of the times the bots are busy, and also they’re very afraid of hurting their tiny friends. That being said, as they get more comfortable around the kids, Bulkhead and Bee especially will sometimes just scoop them up and tickle them.

Miko has tried to sneak attack multiple bots. Like, swan diving off the platforms to get at their neck (if they’re short like Arcee) or stomach (if they’re tall like Optimus). Scares them every time, but they always catch her! And it gives her time to attack while their guard is down.

Ratchet has nearly dropped Miko and Raf before. He has ticklish palms (very good at hiding it), and his first instinct is to drop and or throw off anything ticklish. He had to unlearn that with squirmy and sometimes intentionally mischievous humans.

Miko has discussed wanting to try tickling a Decepticon. Jack and Raf both think she’s crazy for it, but she and Bulkhead joke about it sometimes. Theorize about who would be the ideal victim, etc. She eyeballs the Apex Armor with evil intent

Speaking of, she has actually managed to win a tickle fight against Bulkhead and Wheeljack in the Apex Armor. She had to figure out how to be gentle with it, but neither of them could tickle her back. It was mostly chasing them around once they figured out she was immune to them.

Ratchet is the one who sees most of their shenanigans since he’s at base the most. He used to find it obstructive to his work and therefore annoying, but now he watches them fondly.

The Autobots as a whole are not really used to tickling. It’s just not common in warfare. But being around the kids makes them feel less like soldiers and more like people, so it becomes a little more frequent around base.

Raf pranked Miko and Jack by convincing several Autobots that humans needed physical touch like tickling to live. He then did it AGAIN when Smokescreen, Wheeljack, and Magnus joined the crew.

Jack got soft tickles from his mom ONCE in front of Optimus, and now Optimus tickles him in a very similar way. Jack can’t tell if it’s super embarrassing or comforting.

While the kids are closest with their guardians, that doesn’t mean they only go after those bots or only have those bots go after them. Sometimes they’ll team up with other bots against their guardians, and sometimes their guardians will team up with other bots against them.

Or something like if one of them is in the medbay, they may ask another bot to watch over and cheer up their charge.

It was a calm Friday afternoon at chubbies, the restaurant had a decent amount of customers seeing as all the combo meals were 15% off.

So with this interesting and enticing discount, Shawn thought it’d be a great idea to grab a bite to eat there with Jack.

He thought it would be their chance to get to know each other more.

So there they were, sitting at a booth, laughing about a funny thing that happened the day before.

“Yknow Jack, this is nice… I mean, when do we ever get to just hang out the two of us?” Shawn questioned. Jack snickered at the thought.

“Not enough. Even though we live together I feel like Eric or Cory always seem to have something important going on every day…” He trailed off, slightly breaking the fourth wall.

“Well they’re gone for the weekend, so why don’t we go back to the apartment and relax. Yknow, enjoy the freedom!” Jack smiled at his brother.

“Sure, why not.” They both got up after finishing their burgers and headed back to the apartment.

“So… you wanna watch a movie?” Jack asked, taking off his coat and closing the door behind him.

“Nah, let’s play a game. Betcha 10 bucks I’ll beat ya no matter what it is!” Shawn challenged his brother.

“Oh you’re on!” So they broke out an old box of twister that Cory left there one game night. Jack moved the coffee table to make room for the mat in the middle of the room.

“I’ll go first!” Shawn picked up the board and flicked the spinner, making it spin for a few seconds before… “Left foot on green!”

Jack moved his foot to a green circle and took the board from Shawn, he then spun. “Right hand on blue!” Shawn then bent down and placed his hand on a blue circle.

After a few minutes Jack had one foot on green and the other on red and one hand on yellow, Shawn had one hand on blue the other on green and both feet on red circles.

It was jacks turn and he was gloating. “You look pretty stuck there bro. Looks like you might lose, depending on what this lands on.” Jack teased, jokingly poking Shawn’s side with his free hand.

“Shuhut up! Ihim not guhunna lose…” He protested, slightly giggling between words. “What? You nervous?” Jack teased again, going to poke at Shawn’s ribs this time.

“Ihim nohot nehervous!” He giggled more. “Then why’re you laughing?” Jack feeling curious now gave Shawn’s side an experimental squeeze.

The two boys were both surprised by how Shawn reacted; he squeakily giggled and slammed his arm down on the assaulted side, making him fall over and lose.

Jack got up not even realizing he won, he was too busy trying not to laugh. “What wahas that…?” And ultimately failing.

Shawn’s face got a little pink and he immediately jumped up and started dusting himself off, like nothing happened.

“I dunno what you’re talking about…” he lied and refused to make eye contact with Jack, he started to gather up the game and put it back, pretending like nothing just happened.

“You know damn well what I’m talking about. Why’d you make that noise?” Jack asked, trying to stifle his smirk.

Shawn’s face kept getting pinker at every question that Jack asked. He was embarrassed, not just from the sound but that he had such a stupid weakness like this.

“Shawn, are you ticklish?” His stomach flip flopped at the word. Why did Jack have to say the word…

“Huh? Oh, me? Nah… I grew outa that a while ago… that’s a little kid thing, yknow? It’d be stupid for me to be… that.”

Jack looked at him with suspicion and slowly walked towards him with a growing smirk. “Yknow, with us trying to build trust and be brothers again, it’d be stupid to lie to me about something to trivial as being ticklish…”

The closer Jack got, the more nervous Shawn was. “Heh, yeah… right… which is why I didn’t lie to you! I’d never lie about being… what you said.”

Jack got more suspicious at Shawn dancing around saying the word tickle. “What? That you’re… ticklish?? That you laugh when someone… tickles you?” Jack gave up on the serious facade and started smirking evilly at his brother.

Shawn was also trying to stifle his nervous giggles and stop his smile from getting wobbly, but he couldn’t ignore the nervous butterflies he got from hearing that dreaded word.

Jack noticed how nervous Shawn would get each time he’d say tickle and decided to remember that for later. Right now he just wanted to prove that his brother was lying.

“So, if you really aren’t ticklish then there’d be no reason for you to have giggled when I poked you earlier… where was it again?? Right here maybe…” Jack then reaches for Shawn’s side and pokes him.

The blue eyed boy in question slams his arms down and tries to twist away from the finger, but nervousness gets the better of him and he giggles.

“I didn’t even poke you… you moved before I could, why’re you giggling?” Jack smiles at Shawn, but this time it’s out of affection at the adorable sight of his younger brother.

“Ihi don’t knohow… just dohont poke me…” Shawn was smiling too, because he couldn’t help but stare at jacks finger. It could move back to his side or his ribs at any second.

Jack noticed and wiggled his finger in front of Shawn, to which he groaned and covered his face with his hands.

“Why do you have to be so mean…” you could hear the pout in his voice. “Well because you’re my younger brother, so if I wanna be a good older brother I have to mess with you. Like this!”

Jack squeezed Shawns side and he made that same squeaky giggle sound and curled in, taking his hands off his face. Jack kept squeezing both of his sides and wiggling his fingers into Shawn’s stomach every couple seconds.

He was smiling, Shawn Hunter was smiling wide. Without a care in the world. Just giggling and smiling to his hearts content and it’s all thanks to his brother.

It was then that Jack and Shawn both had a thought pop into their heads. “Everything’s gunna be alright.”

BONUS!!!

The three best friends Cory, Shawn and Topanga were hanging out at chubbies like always. When Jack comes over to their booth and sits next to Shawn.

“Hey guys! Whatcha up to?” Jack puts his arm on the back of the seat behind Shawn’s head.

“Oh nothing.” Shawn responds. “We were just talking about what we were gunna do.” Topanga adds.

“Oh! Hey, how about you all come over to my place and we can play twist-“ “No! …I mean, why stay inside and play a stupid board game when we could go see a movie!” Shawn cuts Jack off.

Jack smirks at Shawn, wondering if this is about last week. “Well wouldn’t we be inside for the movie too?” Topanga questions.

“Umm… we’ll go see a drive in!” Shawn suggests. “That’s still inside…” Cory counters. “Hey Shawn, you seem nervous. What’s wrong?” Jack asks and squeezes the back of his brothers neck.

Shawn tenses and tries not to smile. “N-nothings wrong… Ihim fine…” Cory looks at Shawn and realizes. “Look, Shawn, if this is about your embarrassment of people finding out you’re ticklish it’s fi-“ “Cory…!”

Shawn slumps over and hides his face in his arms on the table. “Aww that’s cute that your friends know! I mean you aren’t very good at hiding it…” Jack pokes Shawn’s ribs.

He jolts up and squeaks. Shawn looks at the adoring smiles on his brother and his friends faces and covers his own again. Sliding down in his booth.

“Yknow what! Twister sounds fun.” Cory says, obviously planning to tickle Shawn when they play. Shawn knows this and groans, as Jack sees his ears getting red.

They all leave and head back to the apartment for Shawn’s inevitable death.

——

it was weird how affectionate jack could be, epel thought, when jack laid against him, his ears twitching every so often. epel had always wanted to scratch behind him ever since he had met the other, but didn’t, afraid that that was weird, but when he finally gave in to his urges, it turned out a lot better than he had thought.

apparently jack really liked getting his ears scratched, and epel had to admit, it was kinda cute.

now, they sat underneath a tree, epel was sitting with his legs straight out and jack was laying down, his head resting on epel’s lap. epel wasn’t totally sure if this was just platonic friend behavior, but he found himself not minding either. either way, epel was reading a book, one hand offhandedly scratching behind jack’s ear comfortingly. at a certain interesting part, he got distracted, not realizing he had stopped.

that was, until jack tiredly nuzzled against his hands.

“gah, sorry, jack.” he said, resuming.

jack continued nuzzling him, though, even scooting in closer. his ears and hair nuzzled against his sides and his arms, and epel let out a giggle.

“hehehey! t-thahahat tihihickles, stop that!”

jack looked up, a cheeky smile on his face, and epel couldn’t will alway his blush upon seeing it.

“you’re ticklish?” jack asked, almost incredulously and very curious. epel felt a bit embarrassed under his gazed.

“j-just a little… ain’t everyone?!” epel muttered, feeling increasingly nervous at the childlike wonder in jack’s eyes.

“maybe, but that’s not the focus of the matter right now.” a moment of silence.

“..wh—“

“can i tickle you?” jack asked, interrupting epel.

“WHAT?!”

“i’m curious. i want to.” jack stared. with anyone else, epel definitely would have said no and ran away, but for some reason, he couldn’t find himself to say no.

he couldn’t really say yes either, so he mumbled out some word that even he didn’t know was supposed to sound like, but apparently it was good for jack because he leaned down, immediately squeezing epel’s sides.

epel jolted, a smile automatically appearing on his face. “eek!” he cried, embarrassed at how fast he had reacted. jack leaned down further, moving so that he was in front of epel and nuzzled the top of his head on epel’s tummy. it was not really a way he had ever been tickled before, but it was apparently very effective.

“g-gahahaha! jajahahahack!”

“hmm?” jack paused, looking up at epel.

“thahat tihihickles!”

“…well, yeah.” jack replied and epel wanted to groan, wondering what in the world had possessed him to make him say yes to such a request in the first place.

apparently be had been silent for too long because jack repositioned himself to tickle him again, pinching his thighs and scratching at his knees.

“AHAHAHACK!” he cried, squirming and trying desperately not to kick jack in the face. jack was looking like he was having the time of his life, studying epel’s reactions.

“oh, you’re pretty ticklish here,” jack noted and epel tried to shut his mouth, but he was feeling too sensitive.

“nanahahahaaha!” even if epel wanted to reply, he couldn’t. he cursed himself for being born so damn ticklish.

seconds later, he felt he was slowly losing his insanity. jack was a thorough tickler, that’s for sure, he realized, as jack had tested nearly every spot a person could be ticklish. epel even found out some spots he didn’t know he was ticklish.

“O-OHOHOKAY! EHEHEHENOUGH! T-thahahat’s eheheHENOUGH!” he cried at least, and jack nodded, stopping his attack, allowing for epel a chance to breathe.

“you okay?” jack asked, trying to not look concerned. he seemed worried he had gone too far, so epel was quick to reassure him.

“i’m good. just, uh, when did ya.. get so good at that?”

“at tickling?” jack tilted his head.

“y-yeah.”

“well, i didn’t really know i was “good at tickling”. i guess i just have younger siblings so…” jack shrugged, and epel nodded, getting what he meant. “that was fun.”

“it was?” epel asked.

“yeah, your reactions were cute. you’re.. cute.”

“huh?!” epel shouted, feeling flustered suddenly. jack jumped, almost shocked at himself for even saying it.

“sorry, i meant— uh— i know you don’t like being called cute.. i don’t know, forget about it.”

“no, it’s okay. i don’t usually like it,” epel admitted, and jack’s ears drooped just slightly. “but i guess it’s okay time to time. i mean, cuteness has it’s own charms and i’m starting to learn that now.” epel smiled, hopefully in a way that jack considered reassuring.

Jack furrowed his brows in thought before perking his head up with a smile.

“Well then let’s make it not weird! What do brothers and sisters typically do?”

Claire looked a little taken aback, a pensive expression on her face.

“Well, I don’t know… pillow fights or tickle wars or something like that.”

This caused Jack to tilt his head like a confused puppy, something clearly having thrown him off.

“Tickle? What is that?”

Claire’s eyes widened, surprised by what she was hearing.

“You don’t know what tickling is?!” She asked in disbelief, leaning forward to look at him more intensely.

The nephilim shook his head.

“Nope. But I guess it’s better that we don’t do that; I don’t like fighting.”

The girl laughed, amused by the misunderstanding.

“It’s not actually fighting; it’s like, pretend fighting. And instead of hitting people, you tickle them.” She explained, noting how the confusion still didn’t leave Jack’s face.

Thinking for a moment, she scooted over to make room for the boy, patting the spot beside her.

“Come here, I’ll show you.”

It took a second for Jack to process the instructions before he hesitantly stood up and made his way over, taking a seat beside his new sister.

“Alright, now lay back and put your arms up, like this.” She demonstrated, raising her own arms over her head.

She saw the reluctance in Jack’s body language, noting how he froze all of a sudden.

“Is it… painful?” He asked, watching as she wiggled her fingers in the air as if preparing for something.

“No, you goof, it just feels kinda funny. Trust me, you’ll like it!”

At least she hoped he would. She’d rather not get flung across the room on the off chance that he didn’t like it.

The younger looked into her eyes, looking for any hint of dishonesty, before he smiled.

“Okay. I trust you.”

Claire felt a warmth in her heart that she usually kept guarded at all costs. The way Jack blindly trusted her made her feel something that she couldn’t quite place.

Jack trusted her.

Something that she couldn’t even do herself.

“Claire?”

She was snapped out of her thoughts.

“Are you alright?” Asked the nephilim, a trace of concern in his eyes.

The girl cleared her throat, trying to regroup her mind and refocus on the task at hand.

“Yeah, I’m good… just spaced out for a second, that’s all.”

Jack seemed to accept that, not asking any further questions.

“Anyway… you ready?” She reclaimed her confident demeanor, waiting for the boy to approve the action.

Taking the nod as a ‘yes’, Claire let her fingers dance over the younger’s ribs, testing the waters to avoid a make out session with the wall.

Jack’s eyes widened with surprise and he started to squirm and laugh, making no effort to escape.

“This feels ohohodd… a-am I doing it right?” He giggled, though he wasn’t sure why.

Claire snickered, watching Jack’s face take on a look of confusion, enjoyment, and awkwardness, all at the same time.

“It’s not something you do, it’s something other people do to you. I didn’t think you’d be this ticklish!” She mused and continued her ministrations, adding a little more pressure and focusing specifically on that top rib, her efforts earning a jump and a yelp from the young nephilim.

“AH- I thihink it t-tickles thehehere!!” The boy started to put up a little more effort in his squirming, seemingly only by instinct.

To Jack, the feeling was certainly bizarre, but not unpleasant. It felt almost soothing in a way, or maybe comforting? Whatever it was, he liked it!

“Everyone has spots where they’re more or less ticklish; this must be one of your bad spots, haha!”

Jack shook his head and looked at Claire with mirthful eyes.

“Not bahahahad, I-It’s good. I like ihihit!”

Claire felt that warmth again.

Jack was so… sincere; another thing that she couldn’t bring herself to be.

Every word he said was pure and genuine, authentic and truthful.

Claire couldn’t be vulnerable like that. She always had to lie and hide to keep herself safe.

Noticing she was losing herself in her thoughts again, she quickly forced herself back to reality, not wanting Jack to notice for a second time.

“Lets see where else you’re ticklish… how about here? Cas is really ticklish here.”

Her nimble fingers wandered up towards the boy’s neck, gently fluttering against the soft skin.

“EEK! I-Ihihit tickles even more thehehere!!!” Squealed Jack, instinctively scrunching up his shoulder’s to try and protect himself.

Claire’s eyes sparkled with excitement, thrilled by the stronger reaction.

Taking a gamble, she leaned in and blew a soft raspberry in the crook of Jack’s neck, his laughter raising an octave as he tossed his head back with mirth, cheeks turning rosy from laughing so much.

“CLAHAHAIRE, W-WHAT IS THAHAHAT?!”

The boy shrieked, kicking his legs out and shaking his head back and forth, his eyes starting to tear up from the hilarity.

Claire smirked and brought her head back up, looking at the giddy expression on her brother’s face.

“What? You can smite monsters and stuff but you can’t handle a raspberry?” She teased before going in for another one, delighting in the bubbly reactions it drew.

Jack tried not to dwell on the confusing fact that there was no pink fruit in sight, preferring to focus on how tingly his skin felt at the moment.

“SOMEWHERE ELSE, PLEHEHEASE!”

Claire immediately pulled back and let the nephilim calm down, not wanting to overwhelm him.

“Somewhere else, huh? What about here?” She poked Jack in the side, getting a soft giggle in response.

That soft giggle started to heighten into bright youthful guffaws when the girl snuck her hands beneath the fabric of his shirt, letting her nails skitter and scratch at the warm flesh.

Claire started to laugh along with her brother, enamored with his gleeful reactions.

Never in a million years would Claire have guessed that she’d be sitting on her couch, tickling her adopted celestial brother who could turn her to dust with the snap of his fingers.

It was a welcome surprise though.

“CLAHAHAIRE, NEED A BREHEHEAK!” Cried Jack, bright red in the face.

Claire pulled back and watched the boy catch his breath, a rare fondness in her eyes.

“So, how’d you like your first tickle experience?”

Jack let out the leftover giggles and sat up, rubbing at his sides which were still tingling from the attack.

“I enjoyed it a lot. It was fun!” He smiled brightly.

“Claire, can I try tickling you? I would like to make you laugh like you did to me!” He asked earnestly, tilting his head.

Claire was caught off guard, not expecting Jack to turn the tables so suddenly.

“I- Uh…” She hesitated, but when she saw the hopeful expression on Jack’s face, she just didn’t have the heart to say no.

“Okay, fine… but you gotta stop when I tell you to!”

The nephilim’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning and he nodded excitedly.

“I promise!”

Carefully raising his hands, he tried to mimic the wriggling movement that he saw Claire do earlier. He carefully wiggled his fingers against her sides, watching for a reaction.

The girl began to giggle, squirming away from the touch and gently grabbing the nephilim’s hands.

“Oh Gohohod!”

Jack started to giggle as well, ecstatic with his success.

“Am I doing it right, Claire?!” He asked excitedly, looking for validation.

“You’re doing fine, Jahahack.” She affirmed.

After a moment, Claire began to get overwhelmed.

“O-Okay, stop stop stop!”

Jack pulled away, respecting his sister’s boundaries as she had done for him.

Suddenly, Claire felt tears starting to form in her eyes and she desperately tried to blink them away, trying to save face.

The younger’s face was now covered with concern, noticing the older’s abrupt mood change.

“Claire, what’s wrong? D-Did I go too far?” He asked, worried that he’d done something wrong.

Claire sniffed, shaking her head.

“No, i-it’s not that, it’s just…” She took a breath and tried to ground herself.

This was all so new to her; love, trust, vulnerability… she wasn’t used to this.

“I’ve never really been the touchy feely type… I’m just not used to this, that’s all.” She wiped away her tears, looking at Jack’s earnest face.

They sat in silence for a moment, the younger searching for the right words.

“Well, if it means anything… I’m honored that you felt like you could be vulnerable with me.” The nephilim finally said, offering a reassuring smile.

Claire laughed at the sincere statement, her heart warming with affection.

“Thanks, Jack…”

For the first time in forever, Claire let herself be vulnerable, and she didn’t hate it.