caine x reader (tadc) p6: betrayal
i’ve been procrastinating on my entire tumblr page i’m sorry yall
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH BIG SHAWTYS🌈🏳️🌈👩❤️💋👩👨❤️💋👨❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
italicized = flashback !!!
<- previous chapter
It was like nothing had happened at all. At least that was how he acted… but my body was still thrumming with sensations from the night before. While he remained all goofy and dandy, my brain couldn’t stop running. Did he truly not feel the same right now?
Throughout the day, he’d always put his hands on my shoulder or pat my head very shyly and casually. After last night, his touches became stronger. And those same little glitches kept appearing in his large eyes over the day.
“What’s up with Caine?” Jax eventually asked the group. I was fearing the time when they’d notice the slight difference in his performance.
“Who knows at this point,” Ragatha sighed in response. “I’m feeling a little different today as well. I can’t exactly explain it.”
Zooble nodded their triangular head. “Yeah, I get what you mean… I feel like I’ve… reset.” The rest of the group nodded in agreement. This could possibly be the work of the filter being turned off and on once again. It was like that method most people would do if their device wasn’t working properly. Turn it off, and back on again. Like it reset. Of course Zooble noticed it the most.
I could sense Ragatha staring directly at me. Due to my hesitation and lack of involvement, I could tell she figured it had something to do with me. My wandering eyes, my state of nervousness, it was all a big giveaway to the one who found my marks not too long ago.
“What do you mean, ‘Caine happened?’” Ragatha placed her hands firmly on my shoulders, gritting her teeth while keeping her voice down so no one else would hear us. I couldn’t bear to look her in the eye.
“I mean… Caine and I were— he was kissing me, and then he bit on my neck…”
“How does he even know how to do any of these things?!” She gripped the thick, red ropes of hair that hung from her doll head to channel her anxiety. I just couldn’t think of any answer other than—
“The internet? I don’t know!” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Listen, I really don’t want you to tell anyone else about this! I know how you guys feel about him.” Ragatha loosened her strong grip on her licorice-like hair and sighed all her air out. “I truly believe he isn’t evil or trying to torture us.”
Burying her face in her plushy doll palms, she shook her head with remaining doubt. “I just… care about your safety, as well as the rest of us. I don’t want you falling into the hands of someone like him.”
“You don’t know him like I do,”
“Y/N, I’ve heard multiple people who have told me that exact same thing about people they trusted. They were presented with danger and exploitation that many people had warned them about,” Ragatha placed a firm hand on my upper arm, as if she were trying to pull me back to reality. “Just… tell me you’ll be cautious, okay?”
I took a minute to take a breath, then finally nodded. “Okay… just, please, don’t tell a soul about this. Especially not Jax.”
Caine sat at his desk, blushing to himself and drawing a round little bee in his sketchbook full of millions of other bees. He felt like a schoolboy sitting and dreaming about that pretty girl who waved at him bashfully in the hall, or a prince who could barely wait for his princess to come and take him with her. Too many scenarios just like that popped into his head… just the two of us forever.
The sweetness remained for a tad bit of time until it faded to absolute lust. My reactions, the noises that escaped my lips, it flooded his brain. He couldn’t stop the glitching in front of the others.
“I just wish I could draw her, I only know how to draw bees,” He told Bubble, his head wilting in sadness. “The only two things I love are her and bees!”
“You talk about her a lot, y’know…” Bubble’s eyes glided into weird positions, feigning an expression of boredom. His sharp, toothy smile remained. “Probably even more than your adventures!”
Caine leaned his gums on his hand and examined the happy little bee. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I… truly value her more than my adventures as well.”
He jumped when he heard his door to his office suddenly open. When he saw me there, gingerly peeking at him from behind the slightly open door, he immediately straightened out and closed his sketchbook. He quickly picked up his cane and poked Bubble with the end of it to let us be alone together. “Well, hello, my dear! Is everything alright?”
“I just wanted to see if… anything was wrong,” Fully stepping in, I quietly shut the tall door behind me, almost like it would break if I weren’t gentle enough. “You’ve kind of been glitching all day.”
He chuckled loudly, an unsuccessful way to try and subtly brush off my concern. “Oh, Y/N! You must be seeing things. I’ve mentioned those digital hallucinations to you before, right?” He waved his hand to dismiss the situation. I refused to let him stay in this condition in silence.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” My teeth shined in a grin that disarmed him just a little.
“What?! No, not at all, my dear! You’re not stupid at all! I’m telling the complete truth,” After a moment of crossing my arms, standing my ground and pushing him with just a look, he finally gave up and floated over to me out of his seat. “Alright… I’m just thinking about last night, you know?”
“Oh! Well… uh…” My eyes widened, then shifted to the side. My cheeks flared up and my heart began to race. “What about it?” He sighed and gripped my hands, leading me to caress the back of them with softly with my thumbs.
“I just keep thinking about it. I’ve never done that before… I’ve only perused the internet about things like that.” I nodded with understanding, trying my best to show him that I knew how he felt. “Have you ever done something like that before?”
“Uh… once or twice, maybe a little more, I believe…” I pinched the ends of my hair with slight embarrassment. “But that was in the past. I don’t think about those people anymore.” I move my hand back down to his and squeeze his soft hands a little tighter.
“That’s good, my darling. You mustn’t think about anyone else but me,” With the end of his cane, he tilted my chin up to hold complete eye contact. His tone was sweeter than the taste of his tongue, he held a cheeful expression, and he jumped with giddiness. However, I could practically taste the dangerous possessiveness that his words were binded in. His pearly white teeth pressed to my cheek in a sweet kiss. “I love you, my darling.”
“Why?” I blurted out, finally wanting to ask him after all this time. “Why do you love me?”
Caine tilted his head, releasing my chin. “Well, if you don’t know already, you’re quite literally the most beautiful creature I have ever laid my eyes upon. Heck, maybe even more than bees!” He raised his arms in the air. “You’re beautiful, you’re sweet, and…” Caine’s voice shifted from loud and enthusiastic to more of a profound, true intonation. “…you actually appreciate me and show me that you enjoy my adventures. You tell me that my purpose is fulfilling. Whether it be with words or even just an expression on your adorable face, I know that someone values my work. That’s really when I fell for you the most… and I didn’t even know I had the ability to feel such a thing.”
Those mismatched eyes glistened with pure adoration, and my heart melted into a puddle. “Caine, I love you too.” My arms wrapped around him and I gave him a kiss on the canine. “I absolutely love your adventures. I wish the rest of them would see how much care you put into it.”
He returned my embrace and his eyes watered adorably. “Please never leave me. I’ll beg on my knees if I have to.”
“I’ll never leave you, Caine.” My arms wrapped around his adorable body. His embrace back was triple times tighter than mine, and he pressed his teeth to my neck to give me a kiss. His hands gently ran through the strands of my hair.
I let out a surprised yelp as he nipped my skin, then soothed the pain with his tongue. He sucked on the spot and proceeded to comment on how dark the trace was.
An hour later, I put on my scarf and walked back out into the circus grounds. My hair was a bit messy after kind of a rough makeout session. Last time I checked, I had left Caine with spiraled pupils twirling around in those eyes of his.
I tried my very best to correct my hair once more before walking back over to the group. I only found Ragatha speaking with Pomni before they suddenly stopped and instantaneously looked my way with a suspicious agility.
“Oh, hi, Y/N! Uh… where’d you go?” Ragatha stood up and reached her arms out to greet me. In response, I raised an eyebrow. From behind her, Pomni couldn’t really give me eye contact. Her eyes shifted away from my face, her lips pressed together in a thin line.
“I was just taking a walk, I suppose,” That was the first idea that rolled off my tongue. “What’s going on here?” I lifted my scarf a tiny bit to cover the darker, fresher love bites from earlier.
Ragatha twirled a lock of red around her stuffed finger before sputtering out a cheap response. “Just talking to Pomni about the last adventure!”
I narrowed my eyes immediately. Since when did she care about the adventures at all? The only times she had positively spoken regarding the adventures is when she aimed to comfort newcomers to the circus.
“What were you talking about?” My voice became lower and much more confrontational as I stared deeply into her eyes. She fidgeted with her hands and looked down at the floor in shame, hoping then it would swallow her whole, anything to escape the situation. “I’m not going to ask again.”
“I told her about you and Caine!” She blurted out in a panicked whisper. “I-I’m sorry! I just couldn’t keep the secret anymore, and—”
“What?! Why the hell would you do that?” I looked back over to Pomni, who still wasn’t looking at me. I could see that she felt betrayed, even more than I felt with Ragatha at the moment. “Pomni, I’m sorry…”
“Y/N, I had to tell her! She knew I was keeping something from her… from all of you!”
"You didn't have to tell her s%$!#," I turned to her, my teeth gritted. She couldn't say any more, as all she did was hold her upper arm in shame. I sighed, facing the other way. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you."
Away from her, I stepped out into the distance of the circus. Now Pomni is probably upset with me... what if she tells the rest of the circus members? I'd never live it down. They'd never speak to me again. I can't relive another lonely life. My previous one was rid of people I could truly speak to, and I can't lose it again... not in this hellscape, not after I finally found people I could truly lean onto. Real people.
Now I can't even trust Ragatha.
—————
I stepped out of the circus at night time, hoping not to run into anybody at all. No one came out here anyways, they were either asleep or just too afraid for god knows why.
Sitting myself on the blades of grass, I looked up at the Moon, the one who repeatedly flirted with Caine... directly in front of me.
"Ah, it's you," She grumbled. I rolled my eyes, hoping she would pretend I didn't exist like always.
"Yeah, it's me," I scoffed back.
I gazed up at the twinkling stars, admiring its decoration in the large night sky. I miss this adventure... the time when I had a really deep conversation with Ragatha. The time I really believed she could keep a damn secret. I should've known better after what happened with Jax that same night.
I laid with my back flat on the grass, my hair landing every which way. That's when I heard a rustling sound a couple feet away... someone was here with me. Great.
Propping myself back up, I turned my head to a nearby bush, where two heterochromatic eyes spied on me. They suddenly retracted upon my attention, thinking I could be fooled. My lips turned up in a small, loving smile. "Caine, come over here."
"What? Who's this Caine person you speak of?" A fake voice replied. "He sounds real dazzling, that's for sure."
I jumped to my feet and went over to the bush, seeing Caine look up at me like a kid caught sneaking around the kitchen at midnight. "Oh, hi, darling! I didn't even know you were—" I interrupted his little white lie with a firm, loving embrace that set off his computerized heart. My lips pressed to the top of his gum as he returned the embrace with the same adoration. My sad smile turned to a frown.
"Ragatha told Pomni," As Caine heard the crack in my trembling voice, he backed out to look at my glistening eyes. "I can't believe her. I don't know who else she told... Jax will make my life even more of a living hell, and none of them will speak with me ever again. Pomni definitely won't either."
Caine shook his head. "I'm sorry, my darling... but you know you always have me."
im so sorry if this is totally shit guys ive been so fucking busy but i really hope yall liked it🙏
@dxllie-angel
@pepbotnik
@ohlookitsme613
@sillyingaroundd
@dudeiswearingcolors
@afkjade
@kittenlover614
@strawberry-gothic
@2blooky
@magi-the-writer
@tallyhallslays
if you wanna be in the taglist, lmk! i keep it in my drafts :)))
