Chapter Text
Regect, Ze, and Moe were doing a bit of 'spring cleaning' since they had realized just how badly they had been taking care of their new home. Shortly after Regect had told the other two about Micha, they decided it would be best if they could have their own space to share. If they ever needed to tell each other about any other personal stories, it would certainly be better if they didn't have to constantly worry about whether they were being watched or not.
And so here they were, rearranging boxes and sweeping up dirt.
Ze was getting particularly irritated with his job. He was the one tasked with sweeping despite his protests. He never really enjoyed cleaning at all, but he'd much rather look through boxes than break his back sweeping the floors. And of course, Regect teased him about it since the beginning.
"Oh Ze~ don't forget to sweep under the carpets too!" It taunted, earning nothing more than a death glare from Ze. Along with the words, Regect always made sure to pass by him whenever he could, showing off the boxes or furniture it was holding. With every attempt to get on his nerves, Ze became more and more aggressive with his sweeping. He told himself he would try to get less angry. Regect was just testing him!
"Don't forget the ceiling!~"
Alright, that was enough tests for the day. Ze turned to Regect before the entity could react, smacking it with the broom and sending clouds of dust into the air. After the first hit, Regect ran off, laughing to himself as Ze followed behind. Ze continued swinging his broom in an attempt to knock the entity down, yet he kept missing and knocking over everything in his path. His anger reached it's limit as Regect taunted him yet again from across the room.
"Damn dude, your aim with the broom is almost as bad as your aim with your guns!"
Ze had endured enough for the day. He threw the broom aside and lunged toward Regect, toppling them both to the ground. He did more shouting than actual physical fighting, but Regect couldn't focus on anything he was saying. There was something else happening that he couldn't fully explain.
The man on top of him was holding him down via his hands on his chest. One of those hands were directly on his exposed ribs. They had always been a bit more sensitive than the rest of his body, but it was usually something he didn't exactly fixate on. This was different. Way different. It didn't hurt. It felt good. Great, even.
Fucking amazing.
As Ze continued to berate him, Regect tensed his body to try and make the feeling go away. Unfortunately for him, Ze must have subconsciously taken that as him trying to escape because his grip tightened. It took all the entity's will to not make any noise that would give away his current situation.
"-and just because we're living together again, doesn't mean you can keep ANNOYING THE SHIT OUT OF ME-"
Loud and annoyed honking from across the room broke Ze out of his anger. The two others looked over to see Moe standing in the doorway, hands on her hips, furious. She had gone out to collect some water for the three of them only a few minutes ago, returning to find all the cleaning progress they had made throughout the day to be not just reverted, but way worse than when they started. Ze climbed off of Regect, walking over to Moe to begin apologizing. Regect however, couldn't find the strength to do the same. His body was still on fire. What the actual hell had he just found out about himself? Eventually Moe walked over to him too, honking a few disapproving noises before dropping off the buckets and going upstairs.
Ze glanced over at Regect again before sighing. He began to clean up the mess they had made, dusting off the boxes with his hand before carrying them to the corner of the room. After a few minutes of contemplation, Regect stood up and started walking upstairs.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Ze asked, a hint of anger still lingering in his tone. Regect turned back to him.
"Huh?"
"I said where the hell do you think you're going! You're half the reason for this mess so help me clean it up!" Ze shot back, gritting his teeth to keep himself from lashing out again. Regect got tense once more, his mind racing as he tried to figure out what to do. There was no way he could ignore the questions chewing at him long enough to fix everything they had done, but it also didn't want both Moe AND Ze to be mad at him. Thus, it decided to compromise.
"Y- yeah I'll help. I just... gotta go to the bathroom first."
Ze's expression went from that of anger to blank confusion.
"Wait I thought you didn't have to-"
"Be back soon!" Regect yelled back as he raced upstairs into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. It's heart was pounding as the questions came back to it's mind. What WAS that? Maybe he was misdiagnosing the pain it had felt? Or worse, what if he actually LIKED that? Well, Regect had already decided there was only one way to find out. And so, it shakily brought a hand up to it's ribs, his breath shaking as his claws neared the exposed golden bones.
Nothing. As Regect carefully stroked his ribs, he felt nothing. Well, nothing out of the ordinary anyways. His fear subsided, allowing him to be less gentle. It pushed more, poked at them, even tried pinching one but to no avail. Maybe it had imagined it. Maybe it was just in shock! But the feelings had been engraved in his mind already and there was nothing he could do about it.
Once Regect had returned to the downstairs area, he found Ze finishing up with fixing the furniture. Now all that was left was the dust.
"Oh hey, glad you could finally make it. And I hope don't think I don't know what you were up to!' Ze remarked, sending a wave of panic through Regect. How could be possibly know!? Had it not been able to hide it's reactions well enough? Did Ze follow him to the bathroom?!
"O- oh, yeah? We'll what did I do then, huh?" Regect shot back defensively, doing everything in its power to keep its composure.
Ze groaned, once again annoyed. Regect held his breath.
"You obviously just went to the bathroom to get out of helping! I'm surprised you even came back!"
Ze's annoyance once again mixed with utter confusion as Regect seemed to sigh with relief. It 'confirmed' his suspicions, saying it shouldn't have to clean up as much since Ze was the one who decided to chase him around with a broom.
"I'll help now though, I guess." It finished, grabbing said broom off the floor. Ze sighed, stretching his back before continuing where the other two left off with organizing the boxes.
They worked for another hour before Ze decided it was time for him to rest. The sun had almost finished setting over the horizon and he was incredibly exhausted.
"Welp, I'm heading to bed now."
"Huh? But Moe said-"
"Moe told us BOTH to fix this mess and YOU decided you skip out on some of the work!" Ze interrupted, stretching once again. He winced as though in pain, quickly correcting his expression before walking up the stairs. "Finish sweeping before you go to bed, I am NOT dealing with this in the morning!"
Regect listened to the footsteps upstairs until he heard the sound of Ze's door closing. It always wondered why Ze always seemed to be in pain near the end of the day, but brushed it off as a result of him being human. Well, mostly human. Most humans weren't paper white.
The entity sighed as it continued it's work, sweeping up the new spots of dirt. Luckily for him, the lack of other people around him meant he could safely let his mind wander.
What WAS that... and why did it only feel that way when Ze touched me? Is it because he was being harsh about it? Do I have a fucking beratement kink or something?
Regect continued to let his thoughts spin in it's head until the moon was high in the sky. He put away the broom and looked on at his work, pleased.
"Hell yeah, now THAT'S clean. Hopefully Moe forgives me tomorrow." He said to himself as he walked up the stairs. Just as he was about to go into his own room, he noticed one of Ze's hoodies lying on the floor. The instructions Moe had given them said something about the house being 'spotless', so it picked up the hoodie and went over to Ze's room.
Eh, I shouldn't wake him. I'll just toss it into his laundry and be done with it.
Regect gently opened the door, keeping quiet as not to wake Ze. However, instead of seeing a sleeping, comfortable version of his friend that it had assumed it would find, it saw a shirtless, winged, terrified one.