amicably_absent | (no subject)

(no subject)

They arrived the day before Wyatt and Jeb left.

Glitch happened to be in the entryway when they came, getting tackled full on by DG before he was quite prepared. He hugged her, listening to her bubble about how well he was looking and her mother had told her he might not even be up.

Then he was being cuddled by Raw as well and pushed forwards a bit and there was the tank, nicely decorated and with a smiley face on the side. He was touching it before he stopped to think, looking at the much smaller portion encased in the much smaller and more portable tank they had moved it in to.

"Mother said we should bring it down with us." DG at least never seemed disgusted by it. Not DG, not Raw, not Cain. Never Cain.

He nodded, taking the tank in his arms and trying to adjust to it.

"Glitch glad to have it back?"

He looked up to Raw and nodded. "Can you-?"

Raw nodded and touched Glitch's face, his other hand coming to rest on the glass.

Glitch jerked, inhaling sharply, head tipping back and then straightening, look out with calm, collected clarity.

"Gli-" DG stopped herself. "Ambrose?"

"Yes, Princess," he asked mildly.

"Do you remember your time as Glitch," she asked.

Ambrose smiled ever so slightly and bitterly. "Enough. But not more than I do at any other point. The memories are misformed in the brain." He shakes his head. "Enough, Raw, please."

"Ambrose? Glitch?" DG was catching his arm even as Raw withdrew. "Are you okay?"

He gave her a tremulous smile. "Yeah, doll face. I'm okay. Just thinkin' a little too clearly for a moment. I think... I need to go and lie down for a bit, 'fore Rennie gets on at me."

"Okay," she murmured, kissing his cheek. "We'll get ourselves settled, say hello to Mister Cain. You go and rest, all right?" She patted his shoulder.

He nodded and headed upstairs to his room with the brief, lasting lucidity of being whole.

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Once word finds the Cains that the princesses have arrived with the Queen's most treasured Viewer and a glass box, it doesn't take long for the two families to find each other. Again, there are hugs exchanged, one of them expected, and the other two not quite. DG pounce-hugging him was a given, but the much more timid approach by the older princess comes as a surprise. "Thank you, Mister Cain," she whispers, her arms around his neck. "For everything you did for us. For your continued work."

She means Glitch, of course, more than his place in the Royal Guard. He can tell by the dark circles around her eyes that Azkadellia, too, could use some rest and relaxation.

Raw is next, stepping in to steal a careful but heartfelt hug once the princesses are done, and Cain has no qualms about returning it. It's good to see them all, even the big hairball. Even when the Viewer pulls back, nose wrinkled quizzically.

"Where's Glitch? He'll be wanting to see you right away," Jeb asks, and DG blinks owlishly at them both.

"We already did. He...said he wasn't feeling well, after--"

"--after being connected with Ambrose again, after so long," Azkadellia fills in.

"Cain should see that Glitch okay," Raw interjects. "We ask for food and rooms, Jeb will help."

Cain nods, squeezing DG's hand a final time, and reaching out to pat his son's arm. "I'll see you when you've settled in!"

~

He knocks on Glitch's door the second he arrives. "Glitch, are you okay? Can I come in?"

Glitch has been lying on his bed, feeling slightly queasy and possessively hugging the jar to his chest, staring at it with a forlorn, vaguely empty gaze.

He doesn't want to deal with the others. He isn't sure he really wants to deal with himself either. But he sighs and drags the blanket over the tank. "You can come in, Wyatt."

He opens the door, steps in and closes it quietly. Walks up to the bed and sits down on its edge. His hand finds Glich's calf. "Hey."

Glitch makes a small huff, hugging the jar to his chest tighter, the blanket over it and not concealing it at all really. "Hi."

"Whatcha have there?" Said softly, gently.

He knows what it is. What he wants to know is why Glitch is trying to hide it from him.

"Marbles." He hugs them tighter. "My marbles. The left over bits."

"I saw DG and the others outside... Told me you weren't feeling well."

"I'm not." He presses his forehead against the jar. "Sometimes all I wanna do is be old me again. And then I remember why I didn't always like it."

He scoots up behind Glitch and lies down, hugging him from behind. He watches the covered tank with solemn blue eyes and rests his head against Glitch's, his hand on Glitch's hand.

"I understand things too well with him." He hugged it to his chest more, burrowing back against Cain. "I just... I don't want to be messed up and broken but I don't think I want to be him again. I just to be really clever like I was."

He presses his lips to Glitch's cheek, following it up with a nuzzle. "Talk to me, Sweetheart. What happened?"

With the tank and Raw, or way back, he could mean either of the two.

"I don't know... I just saw everything too clearly for a moment. And it made me feel terrible. And then my head hurt. There's too much running around that I can't quite reach and it all came out and was there."

He huffs again.

"It's okay to feel frustrated. It's okay to be angry, and to curl up in bed and not want to talk to anyone for a good long while."

He doesn't know what else to say. He doesn't know how to make it better. He wants to understand, but it's either a matter of asking too difficult questions, or making Glitch more frustrated. He isn't too keen on either.

"I feel sick as well. My head hurts and I don't remember thinking being so hard and I know I'm going to forget and it'll all slip away but right now I remember how much it hurts and how hard thinking is."

"It's hurting because you're not done healing yet. Maybe it'll hurt even when you're well again, but it won't be like this."

He'd hate saying 'You'll get used to it', but that's what it boils down to, in his mind. "Thinking won't be as hard."

"You think it's just the rebrainment making it hurt?" He tips his head back against Cain's shoulder, small pinches of tension showing on his face.

"I think it's being forcibly separated for so long that's making it hurt." He isn't trained in medicine, he has no way of knowing why it was physically painful, but he's willing to theorize.

"I don't know. But you've learned to deal with having half your marbles left intact and the other half hundreds of miles away... Of course it's a shock to your system to suddenly have all parts of your brain communicating again."

Softer, less righteously dead-certain. "Look. I don't know what you're going through, but I'm here, Glitch. DG and Raw is here, and Azkadellia, and Jeb. You're surrounded by people who care about you. ...more than I think you know."

"I probably just forget they do," he says with a touch of sharp hysteria behind his voice. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm being snappier than a starving rock digger." He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "I think it's just having them all together after trying to get used to the bit being back."

"Shh," he pulls Glitch closer, holding him tight. "You don't need a reason to be upset. It's all right, whatever it is. I'm still here."

"You're more'n I deserve sometimes..." He keeps cuddling the jar, head back against his shoulder. "Wyatt, can I ask a terrible favour?"

He smiles, despite the weight settling around his heart to know Glitch is feeling so low.

"Sure you can. But I reserve the right not to do it if it's much too terrible."

"Could you fetch Raw, please? I don't feel well. My head hurts." He looks back at Cain. "Your hands are nice, but you just don't have the magic touch of make it all go away like a Viewer."

"How could that possibly be a terrible thing to ask?" He kisses Glitch firmly on the lips, and hurries on out of there in search of Raw.

Within ten minutes there's another knock on Glitch's door, but this time he doesn't wait before showing Raw inside. Right on his tail is DG, wide eyed and worried. But it doesn't take much to convince her that the two of them had better wait outside for a little while. Give Raw some space to work.

"Glitch hurting," Raw nods solemnly as he pulls a chair up to the side of the bed. "Raw can feel it."

Glitch makes himself more comfortable, trying to ignore the pain until Cain gets back...

With the entire entourage. Of course. But he smiles fondly, catching Raw's hand and laying it against the side of his face. "Yeah, well Glitch can feel it too." He keeps his hand over Raw's as he lets him soothe the pain away.

Raw blinks and looks at Glitch, fingers shifting slightly and then eyes going wide with understanding. "Glitch and Cain..."

"Want Glitch's headache gone."

"Raw understand." He nods sagely and works a bit longer before opening the door to the other two. "Glitch feeling better, but is still keeping jar under blankets."

DG slips in, running to the bed and taking Glitch's hand. Cain and Raw follows shortly after exchanging looks.

"Why are you hiding your marbles, Glitch?" She asks him quietly.