Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

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“I'm worried… about Jax..” Pomni wrung her hands, pinching the ends of her gloves.

“Jax? Did he..? Did he threaten you?” Ragatha felt her heart drop, despite her talk with kinger she still couldn't help but blame herself for leaving Pomni with Jax, her hand wrapped the wooden arm of her rocking chair.

“What.? No! No no.. I'm worried for him, I mean..” she shuffled on ragatha's bed, “I've never met someone before they abstracted but…” she could only make herself make eye contact for a second at a time before looking back at her hands, or the bed or anything else. “it was… well it kinda started after we got Zooble out, we were celebrating and… well he started saying all this stuff… and … I'm sorry I don't know how to explain it.” she'd started tearing up part way through, remembering the argument made her so angry and confused and all these other things all over again.

“Take your time.” Ragatha leant back, picking her knitting back up, “it's ok, just… just take all the time you need.”

She took a breath and blinked away the tears, “I mean… it was utter bullsh@#£.. I think.. the whole adventure we were getting along fine, talking and stuff, but he just suddenly… went off about how we were never friends and that he didn't care, insisting that I shoot him.. we fought.. or, no. I fought him, but I… he… IT’S BULLSH%@#.” Her voice cracked, she wanted to throw something or hit something but there was nothing nearby that was throwable or hittable so she threw herself off the bed and hit the floor face first, “I don't understaaaaaand… and now he's avoiding me and acting super weird..” her voice muffled into the carpet at ragatha's feet

Ragatha was startled by Pomni, but slid out of the chair and sat with crossed legs by her side, “And.. you think he's in danger of abstraction?” she continued her knitting.

“Yes..? I don't know..” she tilted her head towards Ragatha, but soon turned back into the carpet, screaming and bashing the floor with her fists, which just ended up making little ‘bmp bmp bmp’ noises. Eventually, she just lay defeated in a starfish position. “… what do I do, Ragatha?”

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Jax was throwing and hitting things. In his room, just about anything and everything was being thrown or hit, at some point he just started methodically going along his shelf and tossing everything behind him into a pile, which he then kicked in all directions.

In all the kicking, he stubbed his toe on the leg of his bed, “AAUgHHHhhhnnnnnⁿⁿⁿ” he grabbed his foot and hopped, slipping over one of the many things on the floor and landing on his back. Laying spread out over his stuff, lots of it probably irreversibly broken… 

He stared at his stupid ceiling but his anger refused to quell. He reached into his big stupid pocket and pulled out the stupid picture he took with Pomni in the stupid hallway at the start of the stupid adventure… they look so close.

He put his hands on either side of it, intending to tear it in two, maybe in 4 even. But his hands wouldn't. He growled to himself and crawled to a stand, marching to his trash can and throwing it inside, it gently fluttered down unsatisfyingly and sat perfectly atop all his other garbage. He kicked it for good measure then leapt onto his bed.

He mumbled to himself, “she thinks I care, I don't care, never did, it was funny, the whole thing was soooo funny she just didn't get the joke… and I won't explain the joke because then it's not funny anymore…” he grabbed his bed side lamp and threw it against the wall, it smashed, leaving the room in darkness. He rolled over onto his face, completely tensed from head to toe, which, surely, would be conducive to a good night's sleep.

…

It's not.

Jax's ears stood up and pivoted at the sound of Pomni's door opening and closing.

Why couldn't she just pull the stupid trigger, it would've been that easy, make clear that the not caring about eachother was mutual and then things could go back to normal… but now everything is weird and it's all her fault… yes, all her fault… if I.. if…

“GHRRAAHH” Jax threw his pillow, which, by some luck hit the light switch. He stomped over to the trash can, pulled the photo back out and took it to his desk, which had been wiped clear of all his stationary, “ughhh f#£=k my lifeeeee.” He went over to the spread of stuff on the floor and picked up a pen.

He somewhat angrily scribbled two words on the back, then somehow also angrily sneaked out of his room, careful to make no sound, slipped the photo under Pomni's door then retreated to his bed, now sans pillow.

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She was still awake, Ragatha had helped but she just kept replaying the argument over and over in her head, it was such bulls%÷$…

She could've sworn she heard Jax open his door, she huffed. How dare he occupy a space within 50 feet of her while she was this mad at him…

There was the smallest sound of thick paper scaping against the floor at her door, then nothing more. She was frozen slightly, she clicked on her lamp and approached her door apprehensively. It was the photo… he'd refused to let her see it after he took it, tucking it away in his pocket, jerk… why was he giving it to her? Surely if he didn't care so much he'd rip it in two… maybe even 4..

Holding it in both her hands, like if she dropped it, it'd glitch out of existence, she took it to her bed where she could see it better. They look so close in this..

She huffed and went to put it face down on her bedside table… but there was something written on the back.

The handwriting was reminiscent of an angry toddler, it looked like it was scrawled with the pen held in a clenched fist. But it definitely said…

“I’M SORRY”

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Chapter Text

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Jax had only just managed to knock himself out and suddenly he was awake again. He always woke up at the exact same time every morning, he'd just assumed everyone else did too but never asked. It was probably a Caine thing or a circus thing, something about day and night cycles blah blah blah. It'd never stopped him from going back to sleep before but after hours of tossing and turning, he was just about sick of his bed.

Upon opening his door and seeing Pomni standing oh-so politely at the wall opposite, he felt his face react before he could and stretch into an panicked grimace before he quickly reset to neutral. If he had a stomach, it probably would've flipped hard enough to qualify for Nationals. What the hell is she waiting for?

He put up a confidence front as he desperately ignored her and strolled toward the main tent.

“..Jax?” Pomni lifted herself off the wall and attempted to catch up with her comparatively much shorter legs, “Jax, please don't ignore me..” 

He kept his pace to assure he stayed just ahead of her, “Ignore you? How was I meant to know we were in a conversation, you didn't even say good morning.”

She huffed, “Fine, good morning, now can we talk please?”

“About what? I think enough was said yesterday, you should get it by now.” He feigned ignorance.

“About the photo.”

He slowed to a stop, he knew she was going to do this, he should've just pretended he head headphones in or something. If he had anything genuine to say to her, it was definitely not going to be where anyone else could hear him. He turned to her with the most uncaring voice he could muster, “I don't know what you're talking about… photo? What photo? You sound crazy, just leave me alone if you're going to be weird.” 

He turned after a second and strolled away, Pomni so desperately wished she had something hard to chuck at his stupid head, but even if she did she knew that would solve nothing. God, he's so full of bulls&#@.

She clenched her fists and kept walking. Ragatha did say she should leave him be till he'd cooled off, but how was she meant to know when that'd be when he's so fu£♤€ng fake all the time. Why'd he even apologise…

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At breakfast, Jax and Pomni could do no more than prod at their low poly waffles before Caine appeared, blowing up the breakfast table with a snap of his finger.

“Right.” He said with a severe lack of his regular gusto, “it's time for an adventure, let's see…” the cast still sat bewildered at their chairs, kinger still held his fork with ravenous intent.

Caine tapped his bottom-left-second-premolar in thought, “hmm, well you're all at chairs so… musical chairs?”

Zooble scoffed, “what, like the kids party game?”

Caine furrowed his incisors, “YES, EXACTLY LIKE A KIDS PARTY GAME. Today's adventure is 7 minutes in truth or musical twister!” Caine snapped his fingers and trap doors opened beneath all the cast members.

“But wHaT DOES THAT MEANNNNNNNNnnnnn" Zoobles voice echoed and faded.

They landed soon after with various painful thuds and groans, the map layed out before them seemed to resemble a twister mat, but they could only just see the end of it as it streched toward the horizon under a cloudless blue sky. The colours seemed to mostly consist of red, blue, yellow and green, but unlike a familiar twister mat the colours were all in a random order. Looking at all the spots, Jax felt a bit uneasy.

“So my digital kittens, this is how this game is going to work, this here is my amazing digital twister mat, and when my 7 minute timer begins, you must cross it, starting from wherever you want, however, you may only touch the specified colour, red, yellow, green and blue, with the specified limb, right hand, left hand, right foot left foot. every 3.25 seconds you will be given a new colour and limb to use, if the next colour and limb has been called out before you move, you may no longer make the previous move, however you may stay still for as long as you like. If you touch the incorrect colour with the incorrect limb, even if it's an accident, you must tell the truth for the rest of the game and will be moved backwards directly to the most previous legal spot. You may at any point touch any colour that is not red, yellow, green or blue with any limb, but be warned! Each colour comes with its own consequence!”

Most of the cast had started to zone out.

“Touching a purple circle will move everyone else back to the most previous legal spot, touching a magenta spot will switch everyone's places randomly, touching a pink spot will make you slippery! Touching a [#2D4B6A] spot will give you bad luck, touching touching a forest green spot will make you think of the beauty of mother nature, touching a sunset orange spot will remove one of your limbs, touching a periwinkle spot will make the next 10 moves right hand moves, touching the burnt sienna spot will move you forward to the next pink spot, touching a slightly different shade of red spot will make bubble-" Caine continued to list all the different spots and their underwhelming uses, by now everyone was paying no attention, even me, the author.

Looking out, they could pick out afew of the colours apart from the crowd, there did seems to be a good number of them but they were definitely less common.

“-and if you fail to cross within 7 minutes, you go to heaven! Unless your name contains the 26th letter of the alphabet, then you go to hell. ANY QUESTIONS?” Caine looked at the cast expectantly, Bubble spun around in the air behind him.

“Wait WHAT.” Zooble reeled after processing the last part.

“Yes! I do!” Kinger raised his hand, “I don't have feet.”

“That's a statement not a question.” Caine responded bluntly.

“Oh! May I please have feet?” Kinger asked very politely.

“Why, of course!” Caine snapped his fingers and two wooden pegs appeared beneath kinger, both having 3 little toes.

“Ohhh wowwww, they're wonderful!” Kinger admired his feet, going into his own little world as he walked about aimlessly.

“Any more questions?” Caine looked out at the cast, who all looked equally bewildered.

“Uh, the adventure name says this is musical Twister, how is this musical exactly?” Gangle adjusted her happy mask.

“AND WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE GOING TO HELL???”

“Great question Gangle! Thats because Bubble will be singing the whole time!” he motioned towards bubble, who seems to be warming up his singing voice, “So no more questions? OK GREAT! We can start,” Caine waved his arms wildly, “find where you'd like to start, your 7 minutes begins in 10, 9,8..” everyone scrambled to the starting line there was no way of telling if any particular way was the best way, it seemed like it was 99% luck 1% trying not to fall on their a#$es.

“..2,1 go!”

A voice echoed from the sky “Right Foot, Red.” And everyone hurried to make their first move. Bubble began to sing the most annoying, grating song ever heard.

The only thing Jax remembered about the special colours is he can touch them whenever he wants, so he just started skipping across with his long legs, quickly getting ahead of everyone else as they followed the called moves.

Pomni thought she understood the basics of the game, though she only remembered one or two of the special colours rules, so she just carefully moved across the board, she honestly began to enjoy herself.

Jax nonchalantly stepped on a purple spot, which of course as everyone remembers, teleports all other players back to the most previous legal spot, this was most jarring since the last called out move was left hand yellow, so most the cast found themselves suddenly in a perfect one hand stand. The exception to this was Gangle, who had just passed a Pink square before this, she was placed on it and immediately slipped over, shattering her comedy mask and landing on the floor.

“Uh oh! Looks like Gangle chose the truth! That means she has to answer everything truthfully for the rest of the adventure!” Caine announced.

Jax laughed and yelled over at her, “HEY GANGLE, TELL US ABOUT THE ANIME FIG-" he cut himself off after stepping on a burnt sienna spot, which as we all know, took him forward to the next pink spot. He slipped backwards, catching himself on a sunset orange space with his left arm, which as everyone definitely remembers, removes one of your limbs. ‘Pop' was the only sound as his whole right arm vanished.

“OH COME ON!!” he yelled at no one in particular as he stood up with his left foot on green.

“Ah, that darned [#2D4B6A] spot. Never underestimate bad luck Jax!” Caine floated by. Jax didn't know what colour that was but assumed he must've stepped on it at some point.

“Right Foot, Blue.” 

Ahead of him, the only special spots jax could see were pink, which he was now vehemently against, and grey, which he hadn't seen yet. He carelessly continued onto it, “GAH AO!” is the only noise he could make as he felt something zap him.

“Jax! What'd you think would happen? Did you not remember that the grey ones shock you?!” Caine berated him. 

Jax landed onto a blue square. Guess he had to follow the rules for now, what a pain..

Caine zoomed over to Zagatha, “Uh oh! Looks like you stepped on a Royal blue spot!”

“Wait what? But it looks exactly the same?!?? What does it do???” She panicked, still streched back with her right hand still on a yellow spot.

“Well, Zagatha, if you were paying any attention to the rules, you'd know that it makes your name start with the letter Z. Which as I'm sure you know means that if you run out of time, you go to hell.” he spoke matter-of-factly, crossing his arms.

“WHAT?!” she panicked, but continued moving as the moves were called.

A sort of puzzle was coming together in pomni's head, she saw just ahead of her a periwinkle spot, this one she remembered would make the next 10 moves called all right hand moves… was she this evil? Jax didn't have a right hand anymore so unless he wanted to get shocked and/or slip he'd be stuck… then again, it would also have everyone else including herself jumping on their hands… ah what the hell, it was all for fun anyways. She leapt onto the periwinkle spot, surprisingly, Caine said nothing, but true to his word,

“Right Hand, Red.”

She looked over at Jax briefly, watching him huff about the chosen move. She sprung into a hand stand.

“Right Hand, Green.”

She began to regret her decision, hopping with an arm was a lot harder than she thought.

“Right Hand, Green.”

Kinger made a “Ngyehhh.” Sound as his non existent arm failed to hold him up. He thudded onto the mat.

“Kinger speaks the truth!”

“Right hand, Blue.”

Pomni had started looking for a special spot to stand on, she started to feel dizzy from being upside down and watching Jax stand there like a lost puppy waiting to be able to move wasn't as funny as she thought.

“Right Hand, Blue.”

Gangle hopped to a blue spot, but somehow failed to see that it was Royal blue. Caine let her know of her name change, “Zangle, do you not know your colours?” Zangle sighed and stood up right on the spot.

By the next right hand, everyone had given up on moving anywhere.

Zooble yelled, “Hey, Caine, is your randomiser broken?! What the hell is with this??”

“Oh yes! That, don't worry, there's only 5 more left.” Everyone sighed, even Pomni who definitely regretted this.

Finally, “Left Leg, Yellow.” Everyone was moving again, but time was getting short and they were only half way through.

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Through a stroke of luck, or maybe genius, Kinger had made it to the end first, while everyone else was 20 or so spots away. Bubble was on his 3rd time through his song, it didn't get any better.

“30 seconds left!” Caine waved his arms, “No more hanging around!”

Jax went for it, with his method he leapt across special spots with no regard for what they did, he attempted to use a pink spot, for his final, jump, he figured that if he had enough momentum then he could use it to fly over the finish line.

That was not the case.

As soon as his foot put the tiniest amount of weight onto it, he fell flat on his back.

“Jax has sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!” 

“HEY JAX,” Zooble yelled over the mat.

“WHAT?!” he yelled back

They had been waiting for this, “ARE YOU A VIRGIN?”

“YES- WHAT-" his shock was extremely present on his face ,”YOU- YOU.. YOU CAN'T..”

Pomni had no idea what kind of face to make, Zagatha covered her mouth, “ZOOBLE?! That wasnt nice!!”

“What? It's deserved. You can't say that he did nothing wrong.” They crossed their arms.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” Time was up, everyone on the board had no time to react before the mat folded up and everyone fell into nothing.

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“Jax and Pomni, since you did not make it to the other side but you names don't contain the 26th letter of the alphabet, you are in heaven!” Caine explained.

They looked around, it was certainly nice, sure. Green grass, trees, babbling brookes, all that jazz, but there was something off.

“Uhh, so when do we go back to the Circus?” Pomni wrung her hands.

“Whenever I'm bored with Zangle, Zooble and Zagatha I guess, bye!” He popped out of existence.

The adventure isn't over yet then… meaning Jax still has to tell the truth… Pomni watched as he face planted into the grass and rolled into an embarrassed ball.

Okay…

Chapter Text

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This adventure sucked. Not only was he still missing an arm, this was the most devastatingly embarrassed Jax had ever been. And on top of it all, he was stuck with Pomni in this weird ‘heaven’ map.

Pomni was having a crisis. While she just wanted Jax to tell her the truth about how he felt, it would be wrong to take advantage of his circumstance… he would probably never forgive her if she just went over to him and forced it out of him…

She watched him for a moment, he lay on his side, tearing out the grass with his knees tucked to his chest. She steadied herself and carefully approached.

“…Jax?” Pomni knelt down on the grass a few feet away from his head.

“Go away.” his ears pinned back at the sound of her voice, he tore at the grass more aggressively.

“Are you okay?”

“I'm fine, just peachy.” “I am so unbelievably embarrassed.” He scoffed, then froze, “…That's not what I wanted to say‐ IS THE STUPID TRUTH THING STILL ACTIVE?!” he jolted upward, sitting with his legs out. His pupils were the tiniest little squares.

“Don't worry, I’m… I'm not gonna force anything out of you… I don't think that would be fair..” she crossed her legs, smoothing her hand across the lush grass. Neither of them could shake the weird feeling about this place, but with that aside, it was pretty nice.

His face softened, when he looked at her. She threw her gaze back to the grass.

“It's.. not that odd, by the way.” 

His face contorted into confusion, “huh? What's not odd?”

She fidgeted with a blade of grass, “Well, I mean, some people are just late bloomers, it's perfectly OK to not have ha-”

“NO NO SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT THAT.” he cut her off, his face clearly blazing red.

Pomni put her hands up in surrender, “OK OK sorry, I won't…” she wanted to at least pretend that he looked threatening to her, since his ego was kinda dying a horrible death, but a tiny smile slipped out still.

He went to cross his arms, but with only one it didn't have the same effect.

“For the record, it's voluntary, I'm not some incel desperate for sex.” He mumbled, “Nobody I met ever interested me.” “I was too scared to be vulnerable with anyone like that- WHAT” he growled and yanked more grass and dirt out of the floor and threw it, “what I was TRYING TO SAY was that I didn't have any interest in anyone.” He paused, is that a loophole?

“Hm, sure, I'll take your word for it…” she wanted to talk to him so badly right now, she tugged at the pompom on her chest and looked out at the treeline, racking her brain for a conversation starter that wouldn't make him say something he didn't want to.

“So uhhh, what's your… favourite colour?” Pomni streched her legs out, unconsciously mirroring his pose.

He giggled deviously, “I'm gonna say hot pink.” He had absolutely found a loop hole.

“Hot pink? Really?” She eyed him, “Uh not that it's a bad choice but… I mean it's just not what I expected.”

The idea that Pomni had any thoughts about him besides what he'd presented to her caught him off guard, “Why, what did you expect?”

“Pfft, I don't know, maybe red, or green? But you also seem like the type to pick an extremely specific shade and know it by it's proper name and its RGB values..” she giggled.

“That's silly… who would do that…” he would.

She rocked back and forth, looking up at the sky with its perfectly fluffy clouds.

“Hmmm, are you a cat person or a dog person?” She tapped her chin.

“Rabbit.” He said smugly, grinning at her.

She giggled, “No, no, I mean which do you prefer.” He knew that of course.

“I'm going to say.. dog.” He loopholed, she was confused at the way he laughed, like there was a joke she wasn't in on.

“Okayyy… favourite movie?” She squinted at him, beginning to get suspicious, she wasn't sure of what she should be suspicious of but she was anyways.

“I'm going to say.. The Emoji Movie.” He couldn't hold himself together and broke down laughing, rolling onto his side.

“NO IT IS NOT?? THERE IS ACCTUALLY NO WAY.” she stood up just to kick him in the shins, violence felt like the correct answer to his response. Through the kicks he continued laughing.

“I CAN’T LIE, REMEMBER???” he attempted to kick back but mostly missed, so it just looked like more flailing about.

“NO, That literally CANNOT be your full, genuine, honest answer. I know you've done something, you keep starting your answers the same way.” She lightly batted at him while he attempted to sit back up, still laughing.

He grabbed one of her offending arms, then quickly let go and brushed her away, “fine.. saying something like ‘I'm going to say I love putting milk in my Pepsi’ is a paradox, it must break the filter or something, since I don't acctually love putting milk in my Pepsi, it would be a lie on its own. But saying I'm going to say that is the truth, and if I didn't say what I intended to, then it would be a lie. Right?” Jax gestured throughout his explanation, but it was clear that he'd intended there to be one more hand involved.

“Ohhhh yeah that's smart!” Pomni grinned, she'd just now realised that they were getting along again… but that didn't mean there was nothing to resolve.

“Yeah, I'm a genius.” “I'm pretty insecure about my intelligence… oh what the hell…” he frowned.

Pomni giggled, she only found it funny because she could tell exactly what he intended to say, and hearing something like that while he had his confident posture and smug tone of voice was… definitely amusing, “sorry, sorry I shouldn't laugh..”

He just rolled his eyes and huffed at her in response.

“So… what's your actual favourite colour then?” She leaned towards him, tilting her head in his direction.

“Ah well… I'm partial to a sacremento green… 0,86,63.” He turned his head away.

“I KNEW IT!” She fist pumped furiously, “so are you also not a dog person?”

“They're alright, I do prefer cats though.” He almost went to lean back on his arms for a moment before remembering.

“I see, I see…. And Guywhoputthephotoundermydoorat2aminthemorningsayswhat.” She blurted as fast as she could.

“Huh?”

“D@£MIT” she slammed her fists into the dirt.

“Ohhh, hehe. Yeah… I only did it because…” he thought about his next words very carefully, and sighed, “I'm going to say that I only did it because you looked all stupid and sad, and I thought it would fool you into thinking I was acctually sorry.”

“That trick doesn't work on me anymore, bucko, besides, that explanation doesn't even make sense.” She shoved him lightly.

He looked away “… I'm going to say I don't care about you…”

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Chapter Text

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“… I'm going to say I don't care about you…”

She scoffed, despite knowing it was a lie, it still kinda stung to hear it from him again. Pomni gave him an unimpressed glare, “…Lying A#@…” she grumbled.

“Hey, you don't know, it could be the truth…” he shut his eyes and tilted his head up, a move he knew made him look nonchalant.

“No, come on now, if it's the truth I want to hear you say it with your full chest.” Oops, yeah, there it was. That kinda came out of her before she had a chance to even think, she was not over their fight, and she knew no amount of playful banter would help.

“I…” if he said he didn't care about her, he had no idea what would come out of his mouth. Well… he had some ideas and one of them was not ready to grace his tounge. So the truth it was. 

“I care about you… okay? I care… an unspecified amount.” Jax caught himself about to say he cared ‘a little’ and didn't want to know what that might turn into. He let himself fall back onto the grass, his arm stretching outward.

She took a deep, grounding breath and copied, lying next to him, “Jax… I'm going to talk, and you don't have to say anything.”

“Okay…”

“I'm… still upset over what you said to me, it hurt. A lot. Even if it was all bullsh@#%. I want to know why you did that… I want you to tell me, but I don't want it to be now, I want to hear you say it when your words aren't being twisted into something you didn't mean to say. I want you to tell me whatever the f#^% is wrong with you and mean it.” Her words held no venom, her tone was even and she spoke clearly. She shut her eyes and breathed easy.

There was a silence that clung to the air as he thought.

“Yeah… alright… I will try.” Truthfully, he didn't entirely know the answer, but now he had to figure it out… or Pomni would be sad…

“Pomni?”

She sighed, “Yeah, Jax?”

“…I’m sorry.”

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Caine snapped his finger and everyone was back in the main tent.

“ALRIGHT ITS OVER NOW. I hope you all had fun or whatever, I'm going to eat a fruit salad…” Caine's arms were crossed as he furiously zoomed away from the group, likely going to sulk.

“Woah,” Pomni readjusted to her surroundings, “so what happened in hell?”

Ragatha (formerly Zagatha) sighed and waved a hand loosely in a gesture that probably meant something, “ah.. well Caine was dressed up as some sort of imp, or maybe he was meant to be Satan..? Either way, he got upset when we weren't screaming enough… anddd well he got into a bit of a tizzy… it wasn't a fun time for anyone…” she rubbed her arm awkwardly.

“Yeah, I'd give hell a bad review.” Zooble (still Zooble) rolled his eyes.

“Anyways… how was heaven? Was it nice?” Gangle (formerly Zangle) had gotten her happy mask fixed, she bumped her little ribbon hands together.

“I'm gonna say it was stupid and I didn't like it or have fun…” Jax crossed his arms and put on a fake a&@ frown.

Pomni almost laughed that Jax was still using his loophole, did he not realise he could lie again? “Uhh I mean it was pretty nice, grass and trees and a stream… but it had a bit of an uncanny valley vibe going on. Maybe because there were no animals? I'm not sure..”

Ragatha paused, looking thoughtful, “you know… that does sound familiar… I think I remember a map like that before, maybe it was reused? Wow… that would've been a long time ago, before either you or Jax… Do you… remember that kinger? I remember you complained there were no bugs..” 

Kinger was gazing longingly at where his legs were just a minute ago, “… huh?” His head snapped up, “Oh yes! Wait… maybe… no. Sorry Ragatha, I thought you said breakfast.” He smiled with his eyes, remembering his waffles… or were they pancakes? Or was it fries, or was he just thinking about fries because they look like his legs… he missed his legs… oh how they used to walk…

“I see…” Ragatha should've expected that.

Everyone started splitting up to do their own nonsense, this adventure ended up being significantly shorter than usual so they had a bit of time on their hands before bed.

While he wished he could talk to Pomni, he had some thinking to do. He spared her a glance and a small wave before sauntering off back to his room.

Yeah, she didn't think he'd wanna have that conversation he promised that soon… he'd better not try and worm out of it though…

“Heyyy Pomni.” Ragatha swayed a little from side to side as she approached, “so… do you need to… I don't know… talk again? It's fine if not! I was just thinking you know… about Jax and stuff…” She was clearly trying her best to not come off as pushy or forceful.

“Acctually… yeah that would be nice.” She didn't exactly know what she'd be saying. Hopefully a lot less ranting and dumping her feelings than last time, but talking with Ragatha again sounded good, “Your room?”

“Sure.” she beamed.

♤◇♤●●●♤◇♤

Ragatha was knitting a scarf, or maybe a slimmer than average blanket? She'd never really knitted before the circus but since her room was filled with yarn and needles she ended up picking up the pass time. Learning knitting from almost scratch with no instructions took a while, some of her work was more similar to crochet, but in the 15 odd years here she'd gotten quite good. Usually she'd just think or sometimes sing to herself when she knitted, but it was acctually way better talking to someone, letting her hands fall into the repetitive motions as she chatted.

“So, how was the time in ‘heaven'?” She leaned back in her rocking chair, making it tilt back and forth the smallest bit, “I know you said it was OK, but was Jax… you know?”

“Hm? Oh yeah,” Pomni was getting comfortable in her spot on the end of Ragatha's bed, this time surrounded by pillows and blankets like a little nest, “It was acctually pretty good, we did talk.. I didn't want to force him to answer any big questions though… that truth filter is weird, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT,” Her eyes went bright, her expression in a strange place between anger and amusement, “THAT BULLS¥/##ING B@#£%RD FOUND A WAY TO LIE ANYWAYS.. it was kinda funny though…” she tucked her face into the blanked and smiled to herself.

Ragatha huffed and shook her head, “Only Jax… But he wasn't mean to you? You didn't fight?”

“Uh no… wait yes, we did kinda fight, but it was like a play fight… kinda… I kicked him a lot… I think I won.” She rested her chin on a pillow that she hugged tightly.

Ragatha had a strange look, “… Play fighting? I mean I guess as long as it was all in good fun…” she gave a bit of a pained smile, “I'm… glad you're getting along with him. If I'm to be honest, I thought he was too far gone for friendships.. I should never have just given up on him…” she went quiet, watching her needles.

“You know what… I think he's gonna be ok… not soon but at some point..”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Jax held his palms flat to the wall, staring at the paint. So far, this was not working but it was his only plan.

“C'mon… what's wrong with me?” He asked like the wall had an answer and would be willing to tell him even if it did.

He growled and spun around to look at his room, still a mess from last night. He couldn't live like this.

He shuffled out a space on the floor for him to sit and started reorganising his semi-broken stuff into piles, which was fun, but the idea of putting it all back wasn't as appealing.

He remembered when he was a child, he often frequented the school counsellor for his various strange behaviours. Once, they tried to make him play with stupid puppets to express his feelings, things did not end well for that poor puppet…

Maybe he did need a counsellor to talk to… but there were no counsellors here. He supposed he should just start making puppets.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

“Hi Jax, it's me, Pomni.” Jax put on a high pitch voice that sounded nothing like Pomni, moving the hand inside the Pomni puppet so that her mouth opens and closes.

It wasn't amazing. However, despite the fact there were messy and obvious seams, and a little bit of hot glue residue, it was very obviously meant to be Pomni. It was pretty cute. He had only bothered making her one and figured it would be enough.

Jax had ‘borrowed’ supplies from Ragatha's room as soon as she and Pomni went to girl talk elsewhere. But as payment, he didn't leave any Centipedes! so was it really stealing?

“Hi Pomni, how are you?” He reverted back to his regular voice.

“I'm okay I guess, Ragatha is sooooo annoying, I'd much rather talk to youuuu~.”

“Oh, you flatter me too much, PomPom” He faked a coy look and put his free hand to his cheek.

“No it's true! You're soooo cool and handsome and funny. I wish I could talk to you all the time~.”

“Well you can't, because I'm too busy counselling myself to be normal, sorry.”

“Oh wow! Jax, you're getting therapy? That's so sexy of you haha, we should kiss~.”

He feigned a shocked look and flung the Pompuppet across the room, it hit the wall and sunk to the floor, lifeless, “PERVERT!” He crossed his arms, “… This isn't helping at all, what was I thinking. Stupid puppets…” 

“Are you talking about me?” He put the high voice back on.

“What? Noooo, of course not, I would never… am I going insane? I gotta get out of my room.” 

“Without me?”

“SHUSH.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

What a waste of time that was, he always knew his counsellor knew nothing. Playing with stupid dolls doesn't reveal any pushed down feelings.. none at all. He would keep Pompuppet though..

He wondered aimlessly across the grounds, kicking randomly generated stones that had the misfortune of spawning in his path. The simulated breeze made his ears sway in a way that annoyed him, so he pinned his ears back to his head.

He took his stop by the lake, dropping to a sit.

The water moved and rippled across the edges, it was pretty realistic. He remembered when Caine updated it to be like this, before then it was just a still png of water copied over the surface, you could walk right in and to the bottom since there was no water physics, you could breathe even. When it got updated, Caine started insising that they drown themselves in the digital lake. Not with any malice, he was just proud that you could do that now.

Jax had never drowned himself in the digital lake, none of the cast had, to Caines dismay. He had no idea if there was anything down there, maybe it was still just sand, maybe there was some hidden Easter egg. Or maybe if you went down too far you'd slip past the water and into The Void.

Maybe he'd be brave enough to find out if Pomni went with him. Not that he was scared or anything…

On some levels, he knew the surface of what was wrong with him, things that might be the cause, but the idea of having to face the whole thing felt overwhelming. 

He threw a rock, it sunk with a satisfying ‘plunk’ and rippled the surface.

♤◇♤●●●♤◇♤

The night cycle had begun once again, and Jax had made no progress in his self help scheme. He was instead now procrastinating by reorganising his stuff back onto their various shelves and spaces, Pompuppet got her own special place on his bedside table where the lamp used to be. Everyone else was probably asleep by now, he should be too but… he didn't want to.

He heard hurried shuffling outside his door, Caine and bubble didn't shuffle so it was either a cast member or something absolutely horrifying that Caine decided to let run around at night.

Just incase it was the second option, Jax slowly peeked out of his room, looking both ways. It was dark, but he saw a bulbous swaying silhouette exiting the dorms. What the f£%@kkkkkk…

Well, a giant horrifying night creature experience was better than thinking about his feelings, so he grabbed a torch off of his shelf and swiftly snuck after it. Keeping his light off for now as to not alert it to him.

Looking over the balcony, he spotted it again, it must be over double or maybe triple his own height, it didn't seem to have legs but it's body was giant, round, lumpy and though it was nearly entirely engulfed in shadow, the little variations in shade made it seem like its patterning was multicoloured rectangles. Mostly pastels, judging from the way the smallest amount of moonlight still caught on it.

Jax chased down the stairs, keeping a close eye on its body language (which it didn't seem to be fluent in) to see if it had any idea he was there. It continued shuffling at speed across the tent floor, it's balance sometimes lost and it veered to one side, bouncing off walls but making no sound.

Getting closer, he saw that the whatever it was did acctually have a leg, just one stumpy leg under the giant mass of a body that glided across the floor.

If this was Caine’s doing, Jax didn't get it. What was the point of it? He continued following covertly, maybe there would be answers wherever it was going.

It all came to a stop when the creature fell, there was something in its way that tripped it up as it fell forward and spattered across the floor with a big ‘poffff’, it's round form reducing to small piles that slid outward from the crash, now was a better time than any to turn on his flashlight.

Illuminated by the flickering yellow beam of his semi-smashed-up light, he saw… pillows? Guiding his light to the centre of the crash sight there was a bigger figure, that spun to face the direction of the light.

“Oh! Hi Jax!”

“KINGER?! What the heck are you doing? And with all these pillows, I thought you were some monster, man..” Jax redirected his light to the floor, as to not blind Kinger.

“I found all these pillows so I'm making expansions to the fort! do you want to help?” Kinger turned and started gathering pillows back up, Jax could see the fort from here, it would only be a little bit longer to carry them.

“No… but okay.” He tucked his flashlight into his pocket and started helping regather the pillows.

Once they'd all been relocated to the construction site, Jax set up his light to illuminate the area.

“So.. do you have any plans?” Jax held his hands on his hips.

“…Maybe a bathroom?” Kinger did previously know what he wanted, but it seemed to have slipped his mind.

“Eww," Jax chuckled, “how about we just make a second room and you can decide what it's for later?”

Kinger nodded and grabbed a pillow.

Jax watched as he placed the pillows, he did it in a very certain way that seemed to solidify them together, “Hey, how do you do that?” He attempted to copy.

“Oh.. I don't know…” 

The flashlight flickered and died, “D@#mit, hold on.” He grabbed it, clicked the button a few times, took the batteries out and put them back in, clicked it again, flicked the bulb, smacked it and hit it on the side of a cube. And clicked it a few more times. It didn't turn on.

“D@#m s$☆+ty flashlight…” Jax growled, neglecting to wonder if it was his fault for using it as a weapon against his other various items last night.

“It's ok, Jax, once your eyes adjust to the dark it'll be like you never needed it at all.” Kinger just continued lodging pillows together.

He was right, soon enough, Jax could see just fine. 

Shoving the pillows together didn't seem to work for Jax, he couldn't tell exactly what Kinger was doing no matter how closely he watched. He got more and more aggressive with his attempts until he snapped and threw the pillow away.

“Hey now, don't get angry, it's ok. Let me show you,” He shuffled over to Jax's far less developed side of the fort, grabbing the discarded pillow from the floor.

“It takes some practice, but what you have to do is this. You find the angle where the polygons can intersect,” he rotated and smoothed the pillow against the foundation, “and once you feel it give way you- ha! Snap it into place.” He let go and the pillow stood up right seemingly on its own.

“OK OK let me try,” Jax hastily snatched a new pillow from the pile, attempting to follow Kingers instructions, amazed to find that it acctually worked, “woah.. cool..”

Kinger smiled with his eyes, “It is, isn't it?” He hummed happily and shuffled back over to his side, “So what's got you up at night, Jax?”

“Nothing, just this… Nothing..” He successfully added another pillow to his wall.

Kinger tiled his head past his own wall to get a good look at Jax, “OK…” his expression showed some worry.

“I had a fight with Pomni the other day… after the gun adventure… I said some stuff.. I didn't mean. I really hurt her.” He avoided eye contact, electing to focus on the pillows.

“I see.. and you want to make up with her?” Kinger asked, gently as to not make him feel threatened. He knew Jax could be fragile like that.

“I kinda already did, I think.. but she wants to know why I did it, why I freaked out on her for no reason… and I kinda know… but also kinda don't know.”

“Well, what do you know?”

“I know I was…” He caught himself almost admitting to being scared, “She said we were friends, and I don't want friends.” He lied.

“You don't want friends? Why not?”

“Because if she goes and abstracts on me it'll be just like…” He choked on the name.

“…I understand… But I would think being her friend is the best way to assure that doesn't happen, right?”

“Maybe for you and Ragatha and the others but not me.”

“You're not some kind of curse, Jax. And you aren't cursed. Feelings like that end up as a vicious cycle if you don't make the moves to break them. She wants to be your friend. And I think you want to be her friend too. The worst thing you can do is make her think she's not wanted or cared about.”

He took a bit to chew on what he said “… Wait, when did you get like… un-crazy??”

“Hm? Oh! Well… the dark always makes me feel a bit.. sharper.” He smiled the way he does.

Jax looked around, all the bright and saturated eye burn of the circus now dimmed and calm, “… yeah, I get that.”

Through all their talking they had finished the fort extension, just about having enough pillows.

“So,” Jax looked proudly over their work, “ what are you going to do with it? Home gym? Office? Indoor swimming pool?”

Kinger laughed, “I'll think on it, you should get to bed though.. maybe me too.”

“Yeah, sleep sounds good…” he turned to walk away but turned back to him, “Thanks, Kinger.”

“It's no problem, Jax.”

♤◇♤●●●♤◇♤

Chapter Text

♤◇♧♡♡♡♧◇♤

“GOOD MORNING MY LITTLE SUGAR HONEY ICED TEAS!” Caine popped into existence above the breakfast table, everyone picked their plates up, just incase.

Zooble was the first to process this, “Wait what the f@#! did you just call us?!”

Caine's fragile good mood was shattered, “OH WHAT NOW?! You're the one who said I shouldn't say Ladies and Gentlemen, but nothing else I say is ever any good!!” he crossed his arms and scowled at them.

“Yeah but.. you know what nevermind, that one is perfect, say it every day.” Zooble tried to sound earnest and not laugh, Jax couldn't help a little evil giggle slipping out.

There were sparkles in Caine’s eyes as his expression lit up, “Really? Y-You mean it? It's good??”

“Oh yeahh,” Jax spoke up, initially sounding sarcastic but then reeling it back for the bit, “Make it the standard, don't change a thing.” He and Zooble glanced at eachother with uncharacteristical comradery.

Ragatha leaned towards Pomni and whispered, “…I don't get it…”

“I'll explain it later…” She whispered back.

“SO MY LITTLE SUGAR HONEY ICED TEAS,” He giggled with glee, “What would you all say to another TEAM adventure today?” His voice echoed ethereally at ‘team'.

“Uh, sure,” Gangle smiled weakly, “The last one was pretty fun acctually.”

Ragatha grumbled something about something or other but didn't want to speak up against it.

“OK GREAT BECAUSE I WOULD'VE DONE IT ANYWAYS!” Caine waved his arms around with jolly gusto.

He went to snap his finger but Zooble stopped him, “HEY- can we uh, finish our food this time?” Everyone gave approval to this request.

“UGH! FINE, you get 15 minutes.” He rolled his eyes and zoomed over to the stage.

♤◇♧♡♡♡♧◇♤

The Cast stood upon a high platform looking out on the Adventure, it was some sort of stadium. The seats went up well above their eye level and so steep it gave them a bit of vertigo. NPC's filled every seat, cheering and waving, but from where they were it was just a constant humm and the colours moved like grass in the wind.

Looking down, or rather forward, there was a grid of walls that streched probably at least a mile in a 3×… Pomni quickly tried to count but she only got to 23 before it was too far to tell.

Across any surface you could think of, there were banners that cheered 1 of 3 teams, coloured blue, green and red, so presumably it would be 2 per team again.

“ALRIGHT! Today's adventure is called: Team Challenge Grid!” Caine stood by what looked like a giant gumball machine containing the team colours.

“Wow, very imaginative.” Zooble quipped.

Caine growled, “YOU'RE VERY IMAGINATIVE! Anyways, in this game, you will be on a team with one other person, and you will have to work together to solve puzzles and complete challenges, moving from one room to the next! And the first team to make it to the finish line wins!”

Having 3 competition adventures in a row was making the whole thing get a bit old, Ragatha missed role-playing adventures. And seeing how long the course was made them already sick of puzzles.

“And what's with the big balls?” Jax pointed.

“Well spotted, Jax!” Not really, it's huge, “THIS is how we will be deciding teams! Why don't you go first?”

He shrugged and approached the machine, turning the knob that clicked a few times before- ‘BAM' a red ball the size of like a really, really, really big small ball shot out at break neck speed. It hit Jax directly in the face and left him lying on the floor with a halo of cartoon birds spinning above his head as it rolled off the platform, probably going to give the same treatment to an unsuspecting NPC in the crowd.

“Whoopsie, I should've tested that.. JAX IS ON TEAM RED! Who wants to go next?”

“Ughnnhhhhh…” Jax groaned and rolled over. With a ‘pop' his outfit was changed to a red polo shirt with one white horizontal stripe, along with matching shorts, sports sneakers that were suitably big for his massive feet and a baseball cap that was red on the front and white on the back, his ears sticking out the top. He lay there in a familiar looking death pose and continued making various pained noises.

“Oh! I will!” Kinger was unbothered, shuffling his way up to the machine and twisting the knob, then also getting nailed in the face with a Blue ball. Falling next to Jax in a shockingly similar position, his own outfit was changed to something alike Jax's but in blue, it seemed he'd also been given his legs back, but now they were in sneakers.

“KINGER IS ON THE BLUE TEAM!” 

Ragatha approached tactically, standing at one side as she twisted the knob, what looked like a green ball as it blurred past them came out and she was then put in her uniform as well.

“RAGATHA IS ON GREEN!”

Gangle watched to see if anyone else was stepping forward and sighed, knowing she now couldn't be on a team with Zooble again was a bit disheartening, but at least the chance to not have a nightmare today was a solid 66.666%. Following Ragathas lead, she twisted it and took a deep breath before the last click, a green ball flew out to her relief so she went to stand with Ragatha.

“GANGLE IS FOR THE GREENS!”

“You can go first, Pomni,” Zooble urged, please let her get red, please please please please-, “I don't mind.”

“Oh, thank you.” She stepped forward, to her dismay, she didn't even need to step to the side as the dispenser was quite a ways above her head. The knob clicked once, twice, thrice, quice and whatever the version of that for five is. A Blue ball shot out.

“F%#@KKKKK NOOOOO WHYYYYYYY.” Zooble fell to their knees.

“POMNI IS ON THE BLUE TEAM!”

“Ughnnn what's going on..?” Jax lifted his head at the yelling.

“CAINE PLEASE LET ME SWAP WITH POMNI. I PROMISE I'LL COMPLAIN LIKE WAY LESS IF YOU DO.” They bargained.

“Yeah, I don't mind swapping with Zooble.” Pomni holds her hands together hopefully.

“Sorry Zooble, but if I let you do that then I may as well let everyone pick their own teams, besides, we don't even know what team you're going to be on yet! Give the knob a spin and we'll find out!” Caine shut him down, resigning them to the gumball machine which very clearly just had one red ball in it.

“Well now I'm going to complain extra.” They scowled, stomping up to the machine, turning the knob and allowing it to knock her head clean off with a red ball, landing on the floor behind them.

“ZOOBLE IS ON THE RED TEAM!” Caine announced, seeming somewhat shocked.

Pomni carefully approached the concussed Jax, crouching by his head, “You okay? Lost any memories?” She smiled, trying to make light.

“Ughnnn, none of the important ones,” he slowly sat up, the birdies began to dissipate but his head still spun, “Gh.. why are you blue?” He pointed at her clothes.

“Blue team, why are you red?” She asked in turn for no reason.

He squinted at her, confused, “… I'm purple…” which got a laugh out of her.

She stood up and offered him a hand, he instead grabbed her by the head, getting up that way instead and pushing her down in the process.

“Heyyy!” She batted at his legs in complaint, but he didn’t react, just swayed there and blinked one eye at a time.

“Hey Caine, wait wait wait.” Zooble prepared to bargain once again, “I kinda have… like other stuff to do today? Could you make the course a bit shorter?”

“SHORTER?!?! WHAT, IS 50 CHALLENGES AND PUZZLES TOO MANY FOR YOU??” Caine seethed with rage, his arms shaking.

Everyone kinda nods and there's a little chorus of “yes..” “yup.” “Uh huh.” “FIFTY?!”

He growled and muttered to himself, “Urghhh, players never want to do 8 hour adventures nowadays…” he crossed his arms and thought for a second, “Fine,” he snapped his fingers and the course dragged itself closer together, Pomni was able to easily count 10 rooms. It looked less impressive now but they all sighed in relief.

Caine snapped his fingers and moved each team to their own starting points. Separate rooms with thick glass walls split them up while they were to wait for the game to start.

♤♧♤●●●♤♧♤

Pomni heard the smallest little tapping sounds and turned to see Jax frantically bashing on the glass. His eyes lit up when she looked at him and he waved.

She shuffled over to him, “Hey, what's up?”

His face twisted and he said, “———” yeah she couldn't tell what he said, the glass was too thick and the fact his teeth don’t part doesn’t make lip reading easy. 

She breathed on the glass, fogging it, and wrote with her finger, ‘IH'.

He grinned, then did the same, but instead, he drew what looked like a very simplified version of her, with an arrow pointed at it saying ‘RESOL' since he clearly didn't realise he had to write backwards.

Once she figured it out she frowned and pouted, then made a new patch of condensation. She drew a little Jax and labelled it ‘YKNITS' and drew 3 stink lines above him, then stuck her tounge out at him. He pretended to look absolutely furious at this, slamming his fists against the wall.

“Oh my God can you stop flirting with her? It's annoying and weird.” Zooble shouted over at him. 

He jolted and turned back to look at them, the smallest bit of red creeping to his face, “I'M NOT FLIRTING- I'm.. I'm antagonising her! Getting in her head, y’know?” He slipped back into a calm demeanor.

Zooble looked at the writing on the wall, “…Sure…”

When he looked back, Pomni had smushed her face against the glass and was staring at him with giant eyes, he absolutely lost his mind laughing.

♤♧♤●●●♤♧♤

Chapter Text

♤◇♧♡♡♡♧◇♤

“3! 2! 1! GO GO GO!”

The shutters shot open with a ‘kshUK’ and the three teams entered the first room. It was the exact same room for each of them, copied down to the smallest detail, the walls were solid and had wallpapers of a desert in sunset.

They found themselves in a scene made to look like a miniature wild west town with NPCs wandering around, a saloon to the right, an arms shop to the left and at the end was a bank. A paper on a string dangled from the sky.

—

Jax rushed ahead of Zooble and plucked it into his hands, reading it aloud, “Rob the Bank…? Okay!” He threw the paper to the floor and sprinted into the Arms store, followed by Zooble who picked the paper back up and read it again just in case.

—

“So the first challenge is just western themed crime?” Pomni turned to Kinger, who had already wandered off.

—

“How are we meant to do that?” Gangle bunched up her team hat in her hands.

“Well… we have a Saloon… an Arms shop and the bank… hmm, well I'd imagine the first thing we'd need to do is get a gun but we have no money… so maybe we can get money at the Saloon? We should start there.” She led the charge.

Entering the Saloon, they saw it was trashed, tables turned over, glass shattered on the floor various puddles of who knows what. There were no customers but still an unbothered bartender NPC wiped the same spot on the counter repeatedly and another NPC with a spittoon on it's head played ragtime on the piano with extreme enthusiasm.

Ragatha approached the counter, sitting on the stool prepared to role-play the hell out of this challenge, “Howdy, my dear bartender, say, what would it take for you to spare us enough money to buy weapons for... self defence?”

“Well well,” it began, “I reckon I'd be happy to lend some cash if you'd clean up my here establishment?”

“Of course!” She turned to Gangle, “C’mon, we can do this in good time I think. I bet the others haven't even figured this out yet.” She grinned.

—

Jax’s face dropped, entering the arms store, he saw there was nothing but NPC arms hanging on every wall, a red NPC with a cowboy hat sat behind the counter, “What the hell is this??”

“This is literally exactly what I was expecting, nothing surprises me anymore.” Zooble deadpanned, looking around the store.

Jax marched up to the counter, “Hey, dude, you sell any Guns?”

“No-” Dissapearing Guy disappeared, dropping something behind the counter that make a ‘CLK’ noise.

“Oh,” Jax peered over the counter, spotting the revolver, “Oh! Well that was easy.” He reached over and grabbed it, showing it to Zooble.

“I'm surprised I didn't recognise him… maybe it's because the hat fits in?” Zooble turned to leave again as Jax ran back out the door.

“Speak for yourself, I totally knew it was him.” He lied.

“Oh shut up no you didn't.” They scowled.

“Yeah? well you look like a Target Employee.” Jax pointed at their red shirt.

“SO THE F@#% DO YOU!” They pointed back.

“Nuh uh.” He skipped ahead up the steps of the bank.

“F@$! YOU MEAN ‘NUH UH’?? YES YOU DO.” 

“Alright, HANDS IN THE AIR, WE’RE ROBBING THIS PLACE.” He stuck up the bank teller NPC, who flailed it's arms in the air and then threw money at them, to which the shutter door behind the counter shot open and a little success jingle played.

Jax valued the counter, knocking the NPC to the floor, and rushed through the door. He frowned when the gun in his hand disappeared with a ‘pop’.

—

“Ohhhh I've always wanted one of those!” Kinger peeked into the arms store, looking at all the arms.

Pomni caught up behind to see what he was looking at, “Arms? Oh, I get it, very funny Caine..” she sighed, “well if there's no guns… we can just pretend?” She tentatively made finger guns with her hands.

“Yes! Great idea Pomni!” Kinger put his hands together in a formation that was definitely not a gun, “Let's go!” He rushed ahead toward the bank before Pomni could even attempt to correct him.

“WE HAVE GUNS!” She crashed through the swinging door of the bank, holding her finger guns up in a threatening manner, “GIVE US ALL YOUR MONEY!”

“YEAH!” Kinger stood by the window, wiggling his hands in the beam of light that shone through it, which is when Pomni realised he had made a shadow puppet of a rabbit.

“O-OH UH, YEAH!” She repeated, caught off guard.

The teller did the same panic emote, and threw money at them, opening the shutter and playing the tune.

“It worked! Great job Pomni!” Kinger gleamed.

—

“Ha, okay!” Ragatha's breath was laboured but the place looked spotless, “Good job Gangle! We did great!”

“I'll say!” The bartender took off his hat in awe, “Well, you young misses take this and stay safe, okay?” He slapped a fat wad of cash onto the counter.

“We will, thank you sir!” Gangle took the money and they rushed out and toward the Arms store.

“There's no way the others did that any faster than we did,” She beamed at Gangle, “We’re doing so well!”

…

“WHAT?! ARMS???” Ragatha was in utter disbelief, “WHY ARE YOU SELLING ARMS?? SELL GUNS!!!” She shook the shopkeeper by the shoulders.

“…I think it's a joke about the shop being called the ARMS store…” Gangle explained sheepishly.

The shopkeeper attempted to calm Ragatha down, “He-” But he disappeared.

She heard the clatter of the revolver and leaned over the counter, “Oh you are KIDDING me!” She grabbed it and showed to to Gangle, “So.. so we didn't have to do ANY of that?!”

Ragatha marched into the bank with a revolver and the purest rage she's felt in a while, “GIVE US ALL YOUR MONEY!” she yelled, waving the gun around haphazardly.

Gangle threw the brick of cash at the teller and it began the panic emote, throwing the money which then of course opened the shutter door at the back.

—

The next room was a puzzle. From what Pomni could tell, they needed to connect an electric circuit from the start to the door at the end to presumably open it. However, it's route was incredibly convoluted, with several paths and dead ends, going to different layers, across the walls, through the air.

She then noticed the next slip of paper dangling right above her head, she had to jump but she could just about snatch it. 

“Connect the circut… okay… how though?” She gave the slip to Kinger, who started folding it.

She could see at some points, the wire would break and have an empty spot, braced by metal. On the wall by the entrance, she spotted once such instance, but it instead contained small metal cylinder with directional arrows on it

“Hey, Kinger, could you get that for me?” She pointed, as it was too high for her to reach.

“It's a butterfly!” He gave her the piece of paper, which, to his credit, did seem to be well folded into an origami butterfly.

“Oh, thanks!” She put it away carefully, “But could you get that for me?” She repeated and pointed again.

“Oh! Oh yeah.” He easily plucked it out and the lights went dim, which didn't even make any sense, since the room had no lights and it was open to the sky.

“Well, I suppose that sort of helps… Kinger, I think we should find all of these in the room and then when we know how many we get, we can find which route to make the current go?”

“Sounds good to me!” He began to dart around randomly, meanwhile, Pomni slowly scanned the room from left to right and top to bottom.

“Say, Pomni?” Kinger started, grabbing a cylinder he'd just found.

“Hm?”

“How are things with Jax?” He shuffled back to the rooms entrance, placing it back with the first one.

Her heart did a little jump, she clearly wasn't anticipating the question by the look on her face, “The- It's good? It's okay, I think? W-why..?” She sputtered.

“Not sure, just felt like the thing to ask. But that's good. I think he likes you a lot.” It was clear that though kinger was less erratic, he still wasn't entirely there.

Pomni chose to disregard that last part, “H-hey Kinger, do you think that if we got you some sunglasses, they'd work the same as a dark room?” She redirected the conversation as she plucked another cylinder.

“Hmm, maybe! I might look a little silly though.”

Pomni chuckled at the idea of Kinger with shades, sitting lopsided to reach his eyes.

After looking all over, it seemed they had six cylinders to work with. Before placing any of them, Pomni wanted to find the best route. So she followed the wires, counting how many they'd need to make it to the end, starting again if it was too many or if it met a dead end and she quickly found the solution.

After placing the cylinders, the shutter to the next room shot open and played the little serotonin-inducing victory tune once more.

—

Onto the fifth room, Zooble had realised that despite the odd sarcastic comment or childish retort, Jax had done nothing wrong today. Which was mildly concerning. They had gone into this prepared for Jax to make this a living nightmare for them but every possible opportunity for some mean spirited prank or bit was missed entirely. Thinking about it, she thought it's been like this ever since the weird party game adventure when they…

Had they seriously broken Jax by outing him as a virgin?

Despite everything, despite how he totally deserved it not even being a fraction of the karma he was owed… they felt kinda bad.

“Hey, Jax?” They were currently digging holes on a ‘beach' since they needed to find a treasure to complete the room.

“What, did you find it?” He craned his neck to see where Zooble was digging.

“No, I was just thinking…”

“Wow, that's a first, congratulations!” He cut in to the pause in their sentence to quip.

“Oh my God, shut up. I was thinking about the last adventure and I wanted to say that I'm sorry. It was childish of me to ask that. Besides, there's nothing wrong with-”

“NOO NANANANANA NUH UH DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT THAT SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!” He dropped his shovel to the floor to cover his ears.

Zooble couldn't help but laugh, “Oh my God you're such a baby, it's really not a big deal.”

“Ughhh why are you being like this,” He grabbed the shovel again and started digging aggressively, “you're meant to be the grumpy one.”

“The huh? The f@#% is that meant to mean?” They slowed their pace.

“Y'know, like Gangle is the sad one, Kingers the crazy one, Ragathas the cheerful one and Pomni is… y'know?” He didn't look up.

“What? Are we a f@%$ing boy band? That's so dumb. Were you gonna say Pomni is the cute one?” They teased.

The tease worked, his face flushed a little, “NO?! It's our Archetypes!”

“Archetypes? Dude, we are full real human people with full real human emotions. F#@! that.” They scoffed, “That's so stupid. You didn’t even say which one you are.”

“I'm…” he paused, “I don't know…”

“Exactly.”

“I'm the hot one.” He flexed, to no avail, his arms were still noodles.

“Ew.”

—

In room 9, Ragatha and Gangle were split into 2 rooms separated by sound proof glass.

On Ragatha's side was a needlessly large keyboard and screen. She'd been given a slip of paper that just said ‘enter the code’.

On Gangle's side, to her delight, was a hoard of art supplies and a big paper pad. The slip she'd been given read ‘convey the message’. Written on the wall, out of sight from Ragatha, was the word ‘Caine'.

It had been 10 minutes now of Ragatha desperately trying to charade to Gangle. Trying to get her to just show the picture even if it wasn't done yet. She had resorted to firmly pressing her face against the glass, trying to get a peek at the page. Every now and then she would gently sob.

A while later, Gangle finally proudly presented the work. It was beautiful, but she could've just written the word.

Ragatha tried to smile but just grimaced, spun around to the keyboard and smashed the code in, to which the door opened.

Room 10 was a final dash to the end, no puzzle, no challenge . They bounded along, closing in on the finish line. Ragatha was crying.

“AND GREEN TEAM HAVE FINISHED!”

…

“IN LAST PLACE!” The crowd roared anyways.

The red and blue teams sat up off the floor, where they'd resigned themselves to wait.

“Finally.” Jax groaned, “Let's go home now please.”

Caine snapped his finger, holding Gangle's drawing in his other hand.

The teams stood on podiums, where Caine awarded them all medals. Bronze for Ragatha and Gangle, Silver for Jax and Zooble and Gold for Pomni and Kinger.

“Well,” Caine began, “I think today we learned that Brains beats Brawns, and Creativity is certainly also there!” He swung his arm across his chest. “Let's go home!”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

The adventure was surprisingly fun, but it was nice to be back with free time. And they got to keep their medals too.

“Hey, Pomni,” Jax caught up with a stride as she wandered back to the hallway, “UH… good job winning and stuff?” He grinned, shoving his silver medal in his pocket, seeing that she'd already put hers away.

“Thanks… is that all?” She eyed him with a smile.

“You wanna hang out?” He leaned down to her level.

“That's what I thought…” she paused, as if considering the proposal carefully, “Yes.” 

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

As soon as Pomni opened the door to her room, Jax invited himself in and took a seat on the floor, not bothering to look around.

“… You could at least pretend you haven't been in my room before…” She looked thoroughly unimpressed at him, but followed him inside.

“Whaattttt? I was curious..” He folded his arms behind his head as he layed back, though he did now throw some glances around. It had changed since he'd last snooped, all the toys that were scattered around before, that made the room seem more like that of a child than an adult woman, were now piled in one corner. Figures that she would've done that eventually, in fact he's just surprised she hadn't thrown them all out entirely… he had a thought and laughed to himself, the idea of her needing to stand on the letter blocks to reach shelves.

“What's so funny?” She lobbed a pillow at his face with a grin. Also bringing her other blankets and pillows onto the floor where he was, setting up some sort of low budget pillow fort for them.

Jax squinted at her and his grin widened, “Nuffin’.” He went to put the pillow under his head before remembering, “OH! You wanna see something cool?” He sat upright.

“Uh, okay? Sure.” She looked a little confused, filtering through possibilities in her head of what he could possibly be about to do with a pillow that was cool. It would be a lie to say the image of him smothering her to ‘death’ with it didn't come up, among many other things of course.

He took one of the other pillows strewn about and placed it in between them, now turned to face her, “It's this thing Kinger taught me, check it out.” He did as he remembered, lining up the polygons then clipping them together, letting go to show them now attached.

“So that's how he makes his fortress so… impenetrable…” She poked at the upright pillow, fascinated, before pausing, “Wait you've been hanging out with Kinger? Like.. on purpose? By your own free will?”

His chest tightened, for some reason he felt like he was in trouble, or got caught doing something, “Uh, on accident but yeah, I helped him build the extension on the fort.”

“That's… really nice…” She looked at him in a way that made him feel funny.

“Uh… nuh uh… it was for entirely selfish reasons, because I was, uh, bored and couldn't sleep. That's why.” He avoided looking her in the eyes again.

“This was at night, as in like… in the dark?” The realisation brewed slowly.

“Uh, duh? Night is dark, keep up Pomni, Jeez.” He feigned a nonchalant persona, crossing his arms.

“Did you, uhm, talk about anything?” She was desperately curious but tried to not let it show. Even still, she leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand.

“None of your business, frankly, it's not like it was about you..” He lied.

“Okay okay, keep your secrets…” She smiled, “But you know… you did promise me a talk? Is uh, now that time?”

Jax breathed in, drawing it out as long as he could, so that maybe it would give him a little more time before he had to do this. And he had to do it, he wanted to even, it's why he asked to hang out with her to begin with… mostly.

“Jax, stop it. Breathe out.” She deadpanned, swatting his knee.

And he did so, but still desperately looked around for some sort of magic distraction spell, “Th-the pillows,” he said quietly, almost weakly, “…It's cool…” he pointed out.

“Jax.”

“Fineeeeeeeeeeeee!!” He unfused the pillow amalgam, taking one behind his head as he fell to the floor, spreading his long legs out either side of Pomni.

He looked right up at the ceiling, this wasn't something he thought he could manage looking at her while saying, “I was freaked out. When I realised we were friends I got scared and… tried to self destruct. Because… I can't handle loosing someone again. I needed you to kill me, and show you didn't care so that I wouldn't have to either..” He was quite honestly terrified at the things coming out of his mouth, even though he knew they must be said. He shook, feeling a wash of exposure over his whole being.

Pomni stayed quiet, but placed a re-affirming hand to his leg, to which he visibly jolted but made no attempt to move from it.

“And also… I'm starting to think…” he chuckled, first time for everything, “I'm starting to think the whole Archetypes thing I told you about is bulls#%& I made up to avoid my feelings.”

“Yeah…”

“Well God, could you put it bluntly??” He slipped back into sarcasm, leaning upward to look at her again for the first time and frowning.

“Oh!” She covered her mouth with both hands, “Sorry…”

He hated the loss of contact, but didn't know what to do about it. Throw a fit maybe? No.

“Well, whatever, it's true.” He huffed, “well?” Well what? What did he want? A treat? A pat on the head?

“Thank you…” She looked at him earnestly and he had to avoid eye contact again, “And for the record, I care, and I'm not gonna stop caring.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

The conversation had soon recovered from the horrid amount of honesty and they were back to dumb sh#%.

They were both lying flat on the floor, tossing a pillow to the other with less than ideal accuracy.

“So,” Jax's thoughts were forming as he was speaking, just to have something to talk about, “Who do you think would win in a fight between Zooble and Ragatha?”

“Wait, in what context? Why are they fighting?” The pillow hit her in the face, but it's not like that hadn't happened 20 times already.

“Does it matter?” He squinted, catching the pillow again once it came his way.

“I mean, yeah, if Caine put them in a ring and told them to fight, I think Ragatha would give in so neither of them had to throw a punch, but like if it was super personal… like if they like, seriously wanted the other gone… hmmmm, I don't know…” She missed the catch again and got a face full of pillow.

“I think Zooble would win.” He settled his judgement, taking a second and then nodding to himself.

“Well… what if Ragatha like, ripped his arms off?” Pomni threw the pillow.

“Oh yeah… OK but, what if Zooble ripped Ragatha's arms off though?” He caught it and tossed it back.

“… do we need to go and ask them to fight?” She smiled at him, though he couldn't see.

He laughed, “maybe.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

It had been hours, it was probably closing in on midnight by now and they'd done nothing but talk, not about anything substantial but it was nice anyways.

Pomni was caught off guard when Jax stood up and streched.

“Oh, are you leaving?” She couldn't hide the tint of sadness in her voice.

“Uh, yeah, it's late…” Truthfully, he'd realised how long he'd been there and had the feeling that he was overstaying his welcome nagging at him for a while now.

“Oh… Yeah, okay…” from where Jax was standing, she looked like a kicked puppy, a puppy that he kicked. His heart twisted.

“I mean, what, did you want to have a sleepover?” He laughed, but God, did he want to have a sleepover.

She fidgeted, “I mean, it's possible…”

Jax could not have sat back down faster if he fell, “Okay.” His pupils dilated and he had a tiny smile as he stared at her expectantly.

She almost laughed, but she stood up and walked to her closet, digging out spare pillows and blankets and throwing them all into a pile behind her.

“Whaaatttt? You had those the whole time? I thought we were sharing that pillow out of necessity?” He joked, still following her every movement with his eyes.

She chuckled, but once she closed the closet door, she started arranging all the blankets and pillows into a big comfy pit on the floor. As soon as Jax saw her vision, he jumped into helping her.

…

It was glorious, it had more than enough space for them both to sleep and not have to have challenging thoughts about their proximity, they couldn't help but steal a crisp high five from eachother.

Jax was first to flop down, face first. Pomni found herself a spot outside of his gravitational field, surrounding herself with an inner circle of pillows and securing them with a blanket. She was thoroughly comfortable.

“Do you want a blanket? I don't know if you noticed but there's quite a few..” she smiled into the pillow she hugged to her chest.

Grabbing two of them with a needlessly determined fist, Jax rolled himself up until he realised he couldn't move anymore, “oh no..” he wriggled. Pomni couldn't help but laugh.

“Hey, stop that,” he laughed too, “this is serious.” It wasn't. He continued writhing around before he gave up, lying defeated on his side in his cocoon. “Whatever, jokes on you, this means you have be the one to turn the light off.”

“What, are you ready to sleep now?” She was kind of looking forward to talking more...

“Well, I can't do much else anymore… not since the accident…” he looked at the blankets that entombed him, “besides, I need my beauty rest, being this hot doesn't come easy.” He grinned.

She sighed with a smile, gently leaving her arrangements as to not disturb them, “yeah, okay.” And turned the light off.

With some shuffling sounds, he presumed she had made her way back to the nest successfully, “Goodnight, PomPom.”

“Night, Jax.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

It must've been that time in the morning again, since both Jax and Pomni had their eyes shoot open against their will. The unusual arrangement disoriented them before they could remember the sleepover.

It seemed, at some point in the night, they had both gravitated towards the middle of the nest. They thought they were back to back, but the sheer amount of blankets made it difficult to tell where anything was. Jax was still tightly wrapped in the blanket that held him prisoner, but now his arms were in a weird position too. He made an attempt to right himself to no avail.

Well, whatever, it was comfy. If one of them wasn't going to get up then neither was the other, so they went back to sleep with remarkable ease.

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

“Hey, where's Pomni?” Zooble was the first to address one of the two empty seats at the breakfast table.

Ragatha had noticed first but hadn't mentioned anything, was she worried? Always, and it had been ramping up the longer it took for her to show up. Now that someone else had said something, she figured she should take actions.

“Gosh, you're right Zooble!” She pretended she had just noticed, badly, “I’ll go and see if she's in her room!” She shot up from her seat and speed walked to the hall.

“Right about what..?” Zoobles voice was quiet to Ragatha, who was already basically gone.

Of course, Ragatha had also noticed that Jax wasn't there. But that was never usually something that got brought up, before recently it would be a relief even for him to decide to sleep in. Which, as she did about a lot of things, Ragatha felt bad.

She gently knocked on Pomni's door, quelling her panic to seem layed-back.

“What.” Responded a voice that was definitely not Pomni and was absolutely Jax.

Ragatha did a double take, she checked the portrait on the door, thinking she must've went to the wrong one by mistake. But no, clear as day this was Pomni's door.

Inside the room, Pomni and Jax were holding their breath and staring at eachother wide-eyed. It was a reflex response.

“Jax..?” Ragatha called through the door, “What are you doing in Pomni's room?”

It was just a sleepover, nothing weird or anything…

“…None of your business.” He yelled back before realising he made it worse.

Pomni scowled at him with a ‘wtf was that for?’ gesture and went to open the door. Meanwhile, Jax struggled to not look like he was trapped, which he definitely still was.

It was a strange sight, what Ragatha saw when the door opened, the small Jester trying her best to obscure the view of a giant fuzzy caterpillar-like beast, with purple antennae, aggresively writhing and rolling around on top of a mess of pillows.

“Uh…” Ragatha leaned down to talk to her quietly, “Pomni… what's… what's going on.?”

“…Sleepover…” She answered awkwardly.

“…Uh-huh…” She tilted herself to look past Pomni's head again.

With a few kicks and one more roll, Jax was free. He layed spread out face down back in the nest, not wanting to acknowledge the situation.

“Good morning, Raggy.” He muffled venomously into the plush floor.

“Good morning..? Uh… are you two going to come for breakfast.?”

♤◇♧♡♡♡♧◇♤

Today's adventure was… Something.

“Why is Caine so adverse to the suggestion box…” Zooble looked over the thing before them, alongside the rest of the confused cast, “If he didn't have any ideas he could've at least said so.”

“Wait, did he even say what the goal was?” Gangle's was already forseeing the fate of her happy mask today.

“Nope.” Jax sighed, “Guess he'll just take us back when he remembers we exist.”

Today's adventure was ‘The Pit.’, Caine had hyped it up as a ‘free form’ adventure, which was code for some random map that they were to wonder around until the end of the day.

They stood at the edge of the forest line that encircled the aforementioned pit, a giant, deep, muddy quarry. It was clear that Caine just took a copy of some other map and stuck a hole in it, they could even see ⅛ of a cabin left on the other side.

“Well this sucks.” Pomni had nothing else to say, everyone nodded and murmured in agreement.

“Well..” Jax spotted a route to the bottom that was less steep, “I'm going in The Pit.” He took his first step with a visceral squelch, and by his fourth, the cuffs of his overalls were ruined already.

Pomni shrugged and attempted to follow his footprints, though they were a little too far apart for her. At this, everyone else besides Ragatha had resigned themselves to The Pit.

“Are you coming?” Gangle asked Ragatha, waiting for her at the edge of The Pit, everyone else turned back too, besides Jax, who just stopped.

“Ah, it's a bit uh.. muddy.” Sure, growing up on a farm made her no stranger to mud, but spending the whole day in it didn't sound awesome.

“So what? You're going to sit there alone for 8 hours? C'mon Raggy, come into The Pit.” Jax urged, grinning.

“… fine.” She took a cautious step to follow, holding her dress up slightly, “But if you push me over I swear…”

“That doesn't sound like something I would do.” He feigned ignorance, continuing to walk.

It's not that he particularly was leading the group, but that no body dared to overtake him. Jax confidently strode at the front of the cast, following a path that circled The Pit in a spiral. Everyone now focused less on not getting their legs muddy, since there really was no point, and more on keeping good footing. Though, Kingers shuffling did carve quite the path.

There was idle chatter between them as they decended. Despite the whole load of nothing going on, or maybe because of it, Pomni found herself really liking this one so far.

She used to go on hikes with her family when she was younger, and there would always inevitably be a bit like this, a muddy slope. While it was difficult trying not to slip, she found it strangely thrilling. Listening to the conversation and the tweeting birds almost felt like she was back there.

“By the way, Zooble.” Jax started and they tensed, ready to hear some bulls$#%, “I like your configuration today.” He gestured vaguely at the parts she'd chosen.

“Oh, f#%@ off.” They scowled at him, taking it as an insult.

“What!?” He looked at the others, “I haven't even done anything wrong!!… today… yet…”

“Don't try and act like you were seriously complementing me, a#!hole.” Zooble huffed and crossed his arms.

“Jeez, Well now I'm not anymore, you look stupid.” His expression went sour and he turned back to the path.

The vibe got very awkward, usually an insult from Jax was easy to recover from but this was weird.

Pomni reached up and placed her palm on his back, “Jax…” her tone was indiscernible but Jax's face softened.

“Sorry, Zooble. You don't look stupid.”

Sans Kinger, who was keeping an eye out for worms, the rest of the group exchanged looks, no one really understood what just happened. Not even Jax and Pomni.

♤◇♧♡♡♡♧◇♤

Finally at the bottom, they found nothing but more mud, what a surprise. Still, they felt strangely triumphant. While there were more than enough slips, they were at a collective zero falls and Gangle was just pleased that her happy mask had made it this far.

“Well… what now? Do we go back up?” Ragatha looked for anything she could sit on, unsurprisingly, there was not.

Jax stared her down, then picked up a fat handful from the floor and held it with ill intent and a grin.

“Okay wait we can talk about this..” She held her arms up defensively.

“What? Oh I see, you thought… oh that's funny.” He shook his head, “No, Ragatha, this is my mud. You can't have it.” It was a truly awful sight to watch him put the wet glob of mud in his front pocket. He deemed the other's reactions to be worth the awful decision, probably.

Everyone just kept standing around after that, until Pomni gave up with a shrug and sat on the floor, awful.

♤◇♧♡♡♡♧◇♤

Once everyone had truly abandoned the idea of going back to the circus in any form of clean, it was acctually really chill. Kinger crawled around digging for bugs and worms. Zooble and Gangle were making… well, what was originally planned to be a castle but was now an ever growing mountain that they continued to feed while Ragatha supervised by telling them where to put the mud.

Jax and Pomni had found a place to sit together just a small ways up, where they watched from.

Pomni sighed, “This is nice.”

Jax looked at her, perplexed, “Really? This one? The mud one? This is the nice one for you?” He laughed.

“It's not about the mud.” She flicked his knee, “I mean, despite that, it's just like a day out. Reminds me of stuff I did with family…”

He softened, pupils blowing wider and his mouth shrunk to a small smile, “Yeah. I guess I get it…” Something had changed but he didn't know what, like everyone was acting differently except for him… but he didn't hate it.

“So, your family sent you into The Pit as a child too, huh?” He attempted a joke.

“Jax, stop,” She rolled her eyes, “it's nothing to do with any pits.”

He didn’t relent, “I was born in The Pit.”

She found herself smiling, so as a retort she reeled her hand back and slapped him hard on his front pocket, causing his personal pocket mud shoot out, splatting him in the face.

He froze, looking down at the mess that was his entire chest now, “… My mud…” He squinted at her with his resolve set, grabbing fist fulls from the floor, “You're gonna pay for that, you know.” 

She knew, and grinned as he lunged at her.

The next thing everyone else saw was a muddy pile of Pomni and Jax rolling down the hill, laughing. Once they hit the bottom, they proceeded to continue the fight, throwing all they could hold at eachother while they slipped around trying to stand up. As soon as Jax got his footing, he was tackled back to the floor.

No one knew what to do, if it were a real fight they would break it up, but there was no protocol for a play fight.

“This is weird…” Zooble commented, as he patted another lot of mud into what they now called ‘The Mud King: Muddias' which was definitely not weird.

“Should we be watching this?” Gangle wanted to look away, but couldn't.

“Uh… No? Maybe?” Ragatha had heard from Pomni they they'd play fought before, but this seemed extreme.

“She's feral..” Zooble couldn't look away either. Ragatha and Gangle nodded slowly.

♤◇♧♡♡♡♧◇♤

It had been a while since they could acctually see the sun from the bottom of The Pit, but the way the sky was orange now let them all know they probably didn't have much more time to kill before going back to the circus. The Mud King: Muddias was now an extreme size and Ragatha sat happily atop it while Gangle and Zooble drew on it's massive face and Pomni and Jax secretly gave it butt cheeks.

Soon enough, the portal back to the circus opened and they all scurried back through as if Caine would change his mind.

“WOW! Look at the state of you little Sugar Honey Ice Teas! Let's get you cleaned up.” Caine looked at the now mostly brown and goopy circus members, he snapped his fingers, and rather than it doing something normal like resetting them, it spawned a tidal wave that enveloped them all. But it did the job anyhow.

Jax approached Pomni, but took a step back when she shook the water off like a dog, “Hey, Poms.”

“Hm?” She rung out her hat.

“Is that nest thing still… there?”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

If a bit battered from the night, and Jax’s war against his soft captor, the ‘nest’ they'd made the previous day still brought a tear of joy to the eye.

Jax jumped to it's side and began to re-adjust it all as soon as he entered the room, but Pomni had another plan forming in her head.

“Wait,” She stopped him and he looked back at her, perplexed, “what if… we moved it to your room?”

Jax raised an eyebrow, “… Is this your way of trying to see inside my room?” A smile streched out across his face.

“Uh… yeah.” She gave up all means of subtlety, “So, can we?”

Jax thought, pursing his lips, trying to remember if it was clean enough for her, “… Yeah, okay, sure.” 

Pomni did a giddy little fist pump, adorable.

“So,” he stepped back, a limp hand on his waist, “how do you propose we do that, then?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,” She assessed the problem, they could take it apart… or…, “what if we uh, pushed it? Like as one unit?”

He smiled, not because he had any faith in the plan, but because it would be funny to try, “You're the boss!” Jax lent down right the way to the floor, such that his body made the shape of an arch. He enveloped as much of it's width as he could in his arms and began to push.

When it acctually began to move, despite it's shape deforming ever so slightly, Pomni rushed to hold the door open and then realised the fatal flaw in her plan.

“Jax, it's not gonna fit.” She warned, watching the mass approach.

“That's what she said.” He managed to grunt out.

Pomni scoffed, she wanted to bring up that she knew for a fact that nobody had ever said that to him, but thought better of it, “Gross. I mean it though, it's too big.”

“That's what she-.” the nest hit the frames of the door and began to split apart, the middle section continued to slide into the hallway and Jax fell on his face.

“Well… it was worth a shot,” she grabbed a few pillows and a blanket off the floor and took them into the hallway, “even if we got it through the door, we'd have to start over anyways.”

“What the f#%£ are you doing?” Zooble poked her head out of his room, “oh, sorry Pomni, I thought I heard Jax.”

“That's because you did.” He emerged, smugly, with a large amount of pillows in his arms, “and! It's none of your business.”

They looked the situation over, “F#¥!ing good, I don't wanna know.” then retreated and slammed the door shut.

Pomni bounced with anticipation, waiting for Jax to open his door. He could barely see anything past what he was carrying, but just about managed to fumble the door open, chucking the load inside and going back to get more.

Pomni looked like she was a kid at Disney land in Jax's mostly very bland room. The walls were purple and everything was accented in yellow, but it seemed like any gimmick items that were originally there had been hidden or disposed of, besides a divan made to look like a carrot. He had shelves full of items that she guessed were from previous adventures, some of them looked a little broken..

“Stop being nosey and help.” He flung a pillow at her, hitting her square in the back of the head and making her drop the pillows.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

It was even better than last time, since Jax had also found where his spare bed stuff was kept it was twice as big and cozy. The pair were thoroughly proud of themselves.

“It's so beautiful.” Pomni mimed wiping a tear from her eye. The way that the blankets covered the surface and the walls were a layer or two made it reminiscent of a hot tub.

“Yup. I'm not doing that again, it stays in here now.” He took a seat near the edge.

“Whattttt, who said you got full custody?” She crawled on top, careful to not disturb their work.

“Any sane judge would agree I'm the superior choice.” He spoke matter-of-factly, a cocky grin gracing his face.

She huffed, “… but all my pillows and sheets are in here…” 

“Darn, guess you'll just have to sleep here every night then.” He tried not to break character when he realised the depth of what he'd just said, but there was a clear shift in his expression.

“Maybe I will.” She smiled.

He managed a chuckle, but then he saw something behind Pomni, and what he saw made his blood run cold and his heart feel like it popped.

There, still on the nightstand where he left it, sat Pompuppet. His breath hitched.

Fu##%%@%%#kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

He looked away as fast as he could and attempted to look normal, “So uh, WAIT-" he tried to start a conversation but she'd already noticed his diverted attention and turned around.

It was a moment before her eyes locked on to it, “Jax…” she plucked it off the bedside table, looking it over with an unreadable expression.

“Ok- can explain…” he gestured defensively.

She raised an eyebrow at him expectantly.

Jax thought about the truth, and cringed, “But… I don't wanna.”

“Jaxxxx…?” She teased, tilting her head toward him, “What, did you miss me or something?” she giggled.

He flushed red, or maybe he was already red, he had no idea when his face got hot.

“NO! It's! Well! Uh…” fine, the truth it was, “It was this stupid thing my councillor tried to do once, where you like… talk with puppets..? It didn't work back then and it didn't work now so…” he wanted to curl up and perish right there.

“I'm familiar with the idea… so what, you make a cute little puppet of me and get attached?” she giggled.

“Pff, no? Not attached… just…” his whole head and ears were red now and Pomni absolutely noticed.

Pomni held it out to him, “Show me.” She urged

“Huh?? Show what??” He recoiled away from Pompuppet but she only reached out further.

She laughed, “Show me how you talk with it, come on, please? I wanna hear your impression of me.” 

“No. Stop it.” He attempted to shuffle away but couldn't get far, so he turned around and crawled to the opposite side.

When he turned back, he was met face to face with Pompuppet, mounted on Pomni's hand. Embarrassingly, as if it could get worse, he yelped from shock.

“Jaxxxxxx~” the puppet teased, “Don't ignore meeee~” Pomni giggled. For some reason, she put on a different voice, a cuter high pitch one.

He yanked Pompuppet off of her hand and threw it hard against the wall.

“Hey!” She got up and chased after it, “Don't be mean to her!”

“Mean to her? You should've heard the things she's said to me.” He crossed his arms and willed the heat in his face to die down.

Pomni turned to him with genuine shock, “Why? What'd she say??” She looked back at the puppet in her hands and back at him.

“God, Pomni, you wouldn't believe it,” he tutted, “awful, nasty things.” He'd regained enough of his composure to joke.

“Awww, well…” she placed the puppet back on her hand, “She would like to formally apologise…” Pompuppet was pushed against Jax's cheek, “mwah!” She giggled.

Jax froze, like completely. His head got very very warm, was he going to faint? God, please don't faint that's so embarrassing.

“Don't.. don't do that… that's weird.” He waved Pomni and Pompuppet away, but she just giggled.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Pomni had noticed, even though the conversation had long since moved on, and she'd tucked Pompuppet into bed, Jax kept looking over at it like it was going to do something. Maybe it was strange that he kept a puppet version of her by his bed, but she just found it endearing, especially his reaction.

It wasn't long till she found herself yawning, the longer adventures always wore her out much more than the high intensity ones. Her eyes half lidded and she honestly felt like she might sleep right then, sat up.

Seeing her yawn, Jax yawned too, “ugh, you little- those are contagious you know.” He stood up and streched, going to turn the light off. At this signal, she happily tucked herself in with a content sigh.

“Goodnight, Jax.” She smiled though it was too dark for him to see.

He slid under the blankets, “Night, Poms.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

The morning cycle came once again to tear the members of the circus from their sleep. In the centre of the nest, [controversially] named ‘Fort Jax’, the two awoke just the same as always… except…

Jax took a moment to readjust his mind, reminding himself why he was on the floor. The layers of blankets were so vast that if it weren't so comfortable, it would be almost like drowning. Something very prevalent stood out to him, however. There was a pressure on his chest that wrapped around his sides and sort of squeezed him in a way he honestly didn't mind at all. Wait what?

Pomni had no idea where the f#%@ she was, lost under the blankets. Her face was pressed up against something that felt like no pillow she knew of, but whatever it was, she was holding onto it as if her very life depended on it… and it held her back..?

Oh.

In an instant, Pomni and Jax flew apart from eachother. Jax let out an unmanly shriek with an unreasonable terror in his eyes as he speed shuffled away.

He pointed and spluttered, “YOU! P-PERVERT!” his face blazed.

“ME? PERVERT? YOU WERE HUGGING BACK!” She seemed more shocked at the accusation that she'd done it on purpose than the event itself.

“HUG??? THAT-THAT WASN'T A HUG! THAT WAS A VIOLATION!” his ears were pinned far back.

“I don't think this could more CLEARLY be an accident, calm the f#%! down.” She scowled.

“Acci- no nononono! Okay we were top n tail, TOP N TAIL! On OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE- THE STUPID- thing!” He couldn't bring himself to call it any of the endearing names it had been given, as it was now alike a curse to him, “So HOW did we end up the same way around? Huh?!”

Pomni squinted, pausing for a second to think on a memory that itched her brain, “ohhhhhhhh s#@%…”

“SO YOU ADMIT IT? That you- that you…” he left his words unfinished.

“No… I know what happened… it might acctually be my fault… sorry.” She grimaced.

“YEAH- YOU-!… what do you mean? What happened.?” He cocked his head.

“Ah so! Funny story… you fell asleep first and… well, I thought it would be funny… to put the puppet on your hand… so when you woke up…” she trailed off.

He picked up his other hand to his face. And though it exactly what he expected to see, Pompuppet’s little face still jumpscared him and he flung her again to the other side of the room with a yelp. And yeah, she was right, it was funny.

“And I guess… I must've fallen asleep before I could move back to where I was… I'm so sorry Jax…” She had a look of genuine remorse for the fact that it had upset him this much. Though she was usually not a fan of hugs, that was…

“I see you're leaving out the part where you ATTACHED yourself to me like some kind of… of… ATTACHING CREATURE.” Jax crossed his arms tight. His ears flopped to either side of his head, rather than the defensive position they were before.

“I did not do that while conscious, that was-" Pomni was cut off by a loud bashing on the door.

“CAN YOU SHUT THE F#@% UP AND STOP YELLING, IT'S LIKE… AN O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!” Zoobles voice angrily penetrated the door.

“Sorry, Zooble.” Pomni called back.

“…Pomni? What- You know what never-f%#$ing-mind, I'm not touching that s#£÷.” And Zooble was gone again.

Pomni huffed in defeat, weakly stood to her feet and took a pillow and a blanket from Fort Jax for her own bed. Wrapping them up in her arms, she wordlessly went for the door.

“Wait-" He called, face softened, “Are you.. not coming back tonight?”

She slowly pivoted to look at him, big sad eyes like he hadn't just been squealing over their accidental snuggle. His hands folded politely in his lap, she wanted to laugh at the sight and the whole situation, but could only muster a deep sigh.

“You're impossible.” She shook her head and a fond smile slipped out, she lobbed the pile back into the nest. And then she left.

♤◇♤●●●♤◇♤

Ragatha watched Pomni stride down the hall, a fire in every step.

“H-hey, Pomni!” She caught up, looking back to Jax's door to make sure he wasn't following.

“’Morning, Ragatha.” She mumbled, her brow furrowed and her gaze focused forward.

“I heard yelling…” So did everyone, it wasn't quiet, “are you two okay? Do you wanna talk about it?” Ragatha ultimately found herself invested in Jax and Pomni's friendship or… whatever they were. 

Last night, after they all had scattered to their own devices, there had been a brief conversation between herself, Gangle, Zooble and Kinger (though he didn't contribute much) about Jax's change in behaviour. Pomni only seemed to be doing good for him, but there was the worry about if he would be doing good for Pomni.

“No, it's okay, he's just being stupid. He'll get over it.” She sighed, but laughed, checking to make sure Jax wasn't there, “We may have woken up too close for his comfort this morning.” It wasn't the kind of thing he'd want to be spread around, but it was just Ragatha. besides, it's not like Pomni didn't have the right to talk about whatever she wanted to, or that she cared what Jax thought… which is why she checked back a second time to make sure he wasn't near…

Ragatha also checked back after seeing Pomni do it, “Hold on, just to make sure I'm not reading into this wrong, you're saying you were like… what, cuddling with him?” She had an odd expression on her face, not knowing what to think about the idea of Jax like that.

Going out to the balcony, Gangle was stood frozen, staring at them wide eyed and open mouth. She didn't hear that, did she?

“…Classic Fanfiction Cliché…” she whispered to herself.

Pomni raised an eyebrow, not having heard her, “Huh?”

“NOTHING! I have to go talk to Zooble about something!” She sped off down the stairs.

“Uh… okay…” Pomni shook it off, going back to the conversation, “Anyways, basically, yeah… well not basically, that exactly.”

Ragatha sighed, “And he freaked out and yelled at you? I'm sorry, Pomni.” She frowned, thinking up solutions, “Are you gonna, uh, try make up with him? Not that I'm saying you need to that is!” She clarified, gesturing defensively.

“Oh, nah, it's fine, he basically invited me to come back tonight.” She gave Ragatha a reassuring smile.

“He huh?”

♤◇♧♡♡♡♧◇♤

It seemed today, Caine was at least able to make an adventure with some kind of direction and theme. They were to work as mechanics in an auto repair shop, and Zooble managed to negotiate for it to not be another 8 hour adventure. Instead, they had a long list of tasks that once they were completed, the adventure would end.

Caine had dressed them up in grey jumpsuits, tied at the waist with a white t-shirt or vest underneath for that sexy, non-OSHA-compliant flare.

After realising all the cars’ parts were completely nonsensical and putting wiper fluid in the gas tank of a car, who's NPC thanked him and drove away happily, Jax had resolved to grabbing the biggest monkey wrench he could find and bashing in the windscreens of any cars that dared to pass by the shop. When Ragatha yelled at him to come and help, he said that he was, by getting them more customers in the long run.

Pomni kind of wanted to join him, she had spotted a good potential weapon, but he hadn't spoken to her yet since the morning so she assumed he still wasn't over it, what a big baby.

Zooble and Gangle sat at the front desk, claiming to be the receptionists despite no task on the list requiring it. Really, they were just chatting.

Ragatha and Pomni were the only ones trying, and somehow, Kinger was getting through tasks faster than both of them combined with his absurd methods. It was dizzying to watch him shove a screw-driver in the exhaust and it somehow fix the problem with the car's radio.

Ragatha ran her finger down the list, checking off some more boxes, “Woo! One more task and we are done, everyone!” She called out to a response of half hearted cheers, Jax got run over, which had happened a few times and it'd almost stopped being funny.

“Hey, Pomni, I got this one covered if you wanna go… do that.” She pointed out the big garage door at Jax, chasing after the car that hit him and swinging wildly for it's tail lights.

“Ah, I don't know… might be awkward…” She really wanted to, it showed.

“Pomni. Go hit the cars.” She held a firm stance.

“Okay, okay!” She grinned, rushing to pick up the fishbolt spanner she saw earlier, she didn't know that was what it was called, it just looked perfect for smashing windows and cracking headlights.

Jax was so shocked to see her that he neglected to notice the pickup truck speeding at him before it was too late. The truck stopped abruptly after throwing him 10 feet forward, which gave the perfect opportunity for Pomni to jump onto it's hood and get to work.

As the windscreen collapsed inward, the low function NPC just beeped and yelled a loop of, “Hey! Stop that! Hey! I'm reporting this! My car! Hey! Stop that!” With every hit.

Watching this, Jax felt like he'd been hit by a truck in more ways than one. His chest fluttered, seeing Pomni laugh maniacally as she smashed this car to bits. He'd like to think it was to avenge him. Wow…

The Truck occasionally jolted forward, moving slowly but hitting the break again suddenly when it sensed Pomni.

He rushed over, beginning to really hammer in the grill on the front. He had started to get bored, but her being here with him and hanging out with him, despite how he'd acted toward her that morning, made it fun all over again.

Usually by now he would've let the poor car go, but Pomni wasn't done. She crawled into the car through the now conveniently open windscreen and went apesh#t on the radio, the cup holder, the speedometer and also the NPC, who didn't react any more than, “Hey! Stop that! I’m reporting this! Hey!”

The absolute look of enamourment in Jax's eyes, his hits had become more like pretend as his gaze was 100% fixed on her. Pomni’s eyes were lit with a mad fury, continuing to laugh and looking for anything else breakable.

They only stopped once the portal back the circus opened again, both giving the body one last hearty smack before retuning to the circus, taking their weapons with.

He looked down at her as they left, “Hey… Pomni. So, are we like, OK?”

She gave a squinty smile, “About what?”

“Yes, right. Nothing happened, gotcha.” he decompressed with relief.

“I'll see you later,” She winked at him, instantly regretting it but what could she do now, “I got something I need to do.”

“…without me?” He looked a little dejected.

“Yup! Bye!” She waved with her spanner and ran off towards Ragatha with a purpose that made him believe she was about to attack her for a second.

“Hey, Ragatha.” She grinned.

“Hey, Pomni, is everything OK?” She was glad to see her back with Jax, even though it was scary to watch and she felt bad for that poor NPC.

“Oh! yeah! But I had an idea I need your help with, are you free?” She buzzed with anticipation at her answer.

She was initially surprised that Pomni was choosing to hang out with her, “Ooh! Of course, what's the idea?”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

It had been hours. Jax had followed behind Pomni and Ragatha to see what it was that he wasn't allowed to be in on, not that he was jealous, of course. They'd gone into Ragatha's room, so he'd assumed just some typical girl talk… would he be mentioned? Not that he cared, of course. He'd figured they'd be, what, 10, 20 minutes tops, and then he could hang out with Pomni again, not that he was desperate, of course.

Hours. He'd been sitting in the hallway for hours, he didn't even want to go and put his monkey wrench in his room, in case they left the second he wasn't looking. Maybe they were waiting for that chance. Was Pomni avoiding him? Was Ragatha more fun than he was? Were they not friends anymore? Did he ever deserve her as a friend? He'd had hours to ponder these things. Hours.

Finally, Pomni emerged from the room, saying her thank yous and goodbyes. He shot to his feet, his tail might have been wagging but she would never know.

She held something in her hands, too obscured for him to see it. Whatever it was, she quickly put it away, into whatever cartoon logic place their stuff goes to, when she saw him waiting… like it was a secret.

His eyes narrowed, “What was that?” He craned his neck to look, despite knowing it was already gone.

She changed the subject with some more important questions, “Jax, were you waiting for me? And why are you holding the wrench still… do I need to run?”

He looked at the nearly ridiculously large monkey wrench in his hand, wielded like a weapon, “Depends, what were you doing?” He grinned with light hearted threat.

Pomni gave a cheeky smile in return and giggled, “You'll find out.”

“Whaaaattttt? Nooooooo… don't say it like that. C'mon Poms, show me!” He approached, urging her.

“Nope!” She held firm.

“Show me or I will use this.” He gestured with the wrench.

“You'll see it later, Jax, no more threats.” Seeing his posture, big pleading eyes and… was his tail wagging..? She felt reminded of a dog begging for food. Good boys don't hit people with wrenches. She scoffed a laugh at the thought.

“But I love threats!”

“Jax.” With a stern tone she gave him the most serious look she could muster.

“UGH, fine. Keep your secrets.” His eyes rolled and his ears drooped just a little, but he backed off of it. He put the wrench away, to her relief.

“Good boy.” Pomni nearly choked, it kinda just slipped out before she could give it a second thought.

He froze and stared at her, “…what, don't- no. Don't do- Don't say that. That's weird.”

Maybe it was just some glitch in the lighting… but she could swear she saw the smallest hint of red creep onto his face.

“Yeah, sorry, I don't know why I said that..” she awkwardly attempted to recover from that social blunder, “You wanna hang out?”

“Yeah okay, but I'm not playing fetch, alright?” He grinned, starting out a wide stepped stroll toward the main tent.

She hurried to keep up, “I said I'm sorry, don't hold it over me.” She frowned, punching his knee, which made him briefly lose balance.

“So, what are we doing?” He asked, casually glancing down at her.

“Wha?? I thought you had an idea with the whole being oh so quick to wonder off thing! I was following you!” She still had her work cut out for her to keep up.

He continued to speed up quite gradually, watching the swinging of her arms get more frantic, “How about we go find stuff to hit with our fancy new weapons?” though, in his head, the idea was more about her hitting stuff and he watches.

“Uh,” Pomni thought for a moment, Jax turned the corner and began down the stairs, skipping 3 at a time, “Yeah sure that sounds- CAN YOU SLOW DOWN??” She snapped, he just laughed.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

“OK now hit that.” Jax pointed at another innocent object. They'd found themselves in one of the more purposeless hallways in the circus on their mission.

Pomni paused before proceeding on his request, “Don't you wanna hit something? I feel like I'm getting all the good ones.” Where they'd walked, a trail of destruction followed, smashed vases and pots, beaten paintings and models, and a lot of things that had generally been shown what for.

“Yeah, because I'm being thoughtful and kind!” Maybe it could've sounded genuine if it wasn't coming out of Jax’s mouth.

Her face scrunched and she lowered her spanner, “OK, what's the real reason?”

‘I like watching you hit stuff’ didn't feel appropriate to say, “That's the reason! The whole truth! mark my words! cross my die and hope to heart!” He grinned.

“Are you like… trying to get me in trouble?” She clearly wasn't buying any of it, but some kind of betrayal like that still felt too far out of left field to be true.

He gave a huff, what's the least weird way to phrase this? “No, it's just you look like you're having fun. Besides, I've hit plenty of stuff today already. This thing is pretty heavy, you know.” He swung the wrench around, making it look weightless.

Does that mean he's not..? “Oh… I mean if you're not having fun we can do something else?” Her proposal make his chest tighten.

He was having fun, but how was he meant to say he liked watching her wreck things without sounding like he had some kind of crush on her, which he didn't!

Surely, the answer was rage, “NO! HIT THE THING, POMNI! NOW!” He gestured urgently, a wild frenzy in his eyes.

She jumped at the sudden yelling, a fright on her face that made him instantly feel terrible. She did, though hesitant, whack the poor whatever it was and it shattered.

“Sorry..” He'd totally forgotten that she hated scares, and even if he'd remembered, he didn't mean for it to be that sudden, “I- didn't mean to scare you..” his gut twisted at the way she looked at him with caution.

She took a slow breath, “I think I'm ready to stop now, you wanna go back to your room.?” She stashed her spanner away.

“.. Yeah okay.” He just wondered how badly he'd ruined this for them.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Though the walk back was quiet, the small rift between them was no match for the glory of Fort Jax. With no words exchanged, simply because none were needed, they dove under the blankets. It was a seemingly random sequence of rolling, kicking, crawling and trying to figure out which way was up, until they found themselves comfy. Jax lay in a prone position, with just his head poking out one end and the tips of his toes sticking out the other. Pomni found herself as an island in the sea of blankets, her head stuck out from a gap near the middle and she twisted the sheets around herself to make a sort of cocoon. They gave a content sigh.

They lay in their thoughts, or in Pomni’s case, lack thereof. Seeing no need to jump into a conversation quite yet.

Jax had a realisation peck at his brain, that he hadn't been as happy as he had in the past few days in a long, long time. It was all because of Pomni. He just wanted to make her happy in return, he wanted to see her smile and laugh, and he wanted to be the reason she smiled. He wanted her to smile at him. Wait. Was that weird? It's just like as friends. Right? He stole a glance in her direction.

Ohhhhhh noooooooooooooooooooooooo…

“SO!” He needed to start an unrelated conversation as fast as he could, making her startle slightly in the process, “How did- uh- what… what did… you…? How?”

“…huh?” Her face contorted, trying to follow his nonsense speak.

“Yeah? Haha.” Jax’s expression was completely incomprehensible.

“Uhhh, you okay there, Jax?”

“Jax. Uh..” He repeated, he spread a strained grin across his face.

“… Do I need to get Caine?” She looked just about ready to run and get help, assuming he was glitching out somehow.

“NO! I… JUST- THE the the uhhh- the thing!” He rested his hand under his head, trying to look normal, he didn't.

“Hm? Oh the thing earlier?” Though she wasn't convinced he wasn't broken, that was somewhat nearly a sentence that he just said.

“YUP! yeah, that. What is it? The thing?” Great job Jax, you seem so normal right now!

She got a bashful look about her, just as a spot on the wall became very interesting to Jax.

Pomni released her arms from the hold of The Fort, then pulling something from behind her back. She held it close to her for a moment, obscuring Jax’s view of it.

“OK so I was thinking- I mean you know how… uh- Nevermind, look at this!” She held it out to him, grinning ear to ear.

It took him a moment to process what he was seeing.

“HUH?!?”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

◇♧◇●●●♧◇♧

Ragatha's eyes were only torn from the swirling of her tea when the lights of the Circus dimmed, signaling the beginning of the night cycle.

Just as discussed, Zooble, Gangle and Kinger arrived for their meeting.

Ragatha adressed them as they all took seats in the lounge area, “Hey, guys,” she cleared her throat, placing her tea back onto the table, “Thank you for coming.”

“What is this for, again?” The harder Kinger tried to grasp at that specific memory, the more it evaded him.

“Jax and Pomni, though I think the conversation I want to have about them is different from Ragatha's.” Zooble was already unleashing the salt, “She doesn't think Pomni is able to decide what's good for herself.”

“That's not what I-! BESIDES I think I've changed my mind.. regarding them.” Ragatha did her best to keep her practiced composure.

“So, what, intervention cancelled? Shame.” They crossed their arms, leaning back into the couch.

“I never said anything about- anyways!” Ragatha took a breath to reset herself, and began the speech she had rehearsed in her head, “So, we've all noticed how Jax has been acting differently since he and Pomni got closer, as in, not being a nightmare and sort of ignoring everyone else. The main worry that we had discussed was that if he would have a negative impact on her well-being and happiness-”

Zooble interrupted, “To which I said that she's perfectly capable of telling him to f@#! off if he's being a prick to her.”

Ragatha sighed, “-.. yes, thank you Zooble, for the recap. But uhh, since then I've spoken to Pomni herself about Jax, and… well, she acctually seems very fond of him and… very happy to hang around him.. she even made a-” her sentence was again cut short by Zooble.

“Even though he screams at her because they got cozy at a sleepover?” They scoffed.

Ragatha looked confused, “Wait how do-"

“I think that was just because he was embarrassed, though.” Gangle looked up from the doodle that she was busying herself with while she listened.

“Hold on, how do you both know about that?” She looked between the two.

“Gangle told me.” Zooble answered matter-of-factly with a shrug.

“Gangle??”

Gangle avoided eye contact, moving her focus back down to her sketchbook, “Uhhh, I may have… overheard… on accident…”

Ragatha sighed, “Well,.. sure…”

Zooble leaned back in, “OK now onto the real questions, are they a thing or what?”

“Zooble, I don't think that's important-” Ragatha frowned.

Gangle lit up, “And what's their ship name? JaxPom? PomJax? You know, the order that names are in ship names are usually based on-”

“Funnybunny?” Kinger chimed in with his suggestion.

“Guys, I really don't think this is any of our business-" Ragatha looked panicked at everyone finding this part way more engaging than what the meeting was acctually meant to be for.

Zooble glared at her, “What, did Pomni tell you something and swear you into secrecy? If they don't want people to ask questions they should stop giving eachother googly eyes infront of everyone.”

“Pomni hasn't told me anything! Well not in that area, I don't know what their deal is.” Ragatha found herself accidentally give in to the gossip, “but they really like sleepovers…”

Zooble chuckled, “If they're trying to be together in secret, then they're doing a sh#%%y job at it.”

“We shouldn't assume stuff like that.” Though she couldn't deny she was a bit curious, Ragatha didn't want to feed into it.

“That's right, Ragatha. We should really wait and see what they have to say about it, if they are willing to divulge.” The popular blue mannequin spoke his piece.

“That's what I'm- MING??” Ragatha did a double take, Nobody knew how long he'd been there for.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

“Well, do you like it?” Pomni grinned proudly, trying to get a read on his face for something other than shock.

In her hands, held like a hamster, was a forever grinning Jax puppet. It was obviously better quality than Pompuppet, though there were a few small mistakes, none of them were noticeable. Despite that, it matched it like the second half of a pair, yellow felt eyes with square black button pupils, yellow wooden beads hung from purple strings as his arms.

Jax was trying not to hyperventilate, forcing himself to put on his default expression he crossed his arms, “Uh, whys it the same size as Pompuppet? I'm way taller than you.”

Pomni gasped, “Wait, you named her? Awweeeee..” she cooed.

Jax's cool and composed mask shattered immediately into more of a disturbed grimace and a blush, “um, NO?! I just made that up right now.” He lied.

She gave him a sly, knowing smile, “Sure… but do you like it?” She shuffled closer to hold it right in his face, he had to lean back.

“It's.. really good.” He plucked it out of her hand in hopes she might give him a little bit of room to breathe, “And Ragatha helped you?” He cringed, did that mean she knew about Pompuppet too?

“Kinda but not much, I wanted to do it by myself. She helped me find materials and showed me some techniques and stuff, but she only acctually touched it when…” she suddenly got bashful, “I uh.. sowed my glove to it on accident. BUT THAT WAS ONLY ONCE! Okay, twice.”

Jax let out a soft chortle, looking the puppet over.

 “But yeah, other than that 100% made by me with love!” She grinned, he froze.

With love?

“I like it, almost as handsome as the real thing!” He mounted it on his hand, holding it next to himself facing Pomni and gave a cocky grin.

She laughed, “Sure..” Pomni looked around the room to find where Pompuppet had ended up, spotting it back on the nightstand, where it'd seemed he'd moved it back to when she was gone. She grabbed it and stuck it on her hand, sitting opposite Jax again.

“Oh no, no no no.” He saw where it was going and protested. The idea of doing puppet roleplay infront of her was so embarrassing that he already wanted dive into a wood chipper just at the thought.

She huffed, rolling her eyes, but then she smiled, “Yeah, you're right... No point in playing ourselves.” She quickly swapped their puppets before he had a chance to stop it from happening.

“No, worse, worse, worse.” He even less wanted to have to do his stupid awful Pomni impression.

Still, she ploughed right through, “Hey, Pomni, fancy seeing you here. I was just on my way to the… B-bargain hotdog store..?” Her impression of him was shockingly good, her improv, however, was subpar.

Jax laughed, “Bargain hotdogs?”

“Say, Poms, do you hear that? There's some strange disembodied voice…” Pomni urged him to play along.

He got the message and growled as his only response, realising that at some point it was going to get more embarrassing to not play puppets.

Finally, he huffed, submitting to the bit, “Bargain hotdogs?” The voice was shrill and nothing at all like Pomni, but she grinned like an idiot anyways, “You know, I heard they acctually use exclusively hamster meat for those.”

Pomni cringed at the imagery he created, “Uh yeah, why do you think I shop there?”

“God, Jax, you're such a freak. This is why everyone hates you.” Pompuppet spat with venom.

Pomni looked hurt, lowering Jaxpuppet, “Whattt? Do you really think I'd say that to you?”

“You-” Jax coughed, accidentally starting his sentence in his Pomni voice, “You would if I ate hamsters. Besides, I’m taking a creative liberty.” He said, with his other hand on his chest.

“Nuh uh, I wouldn't.” Sure, she'd be be quite disturbed, but why was he making her puppet self so mean?

Jax continued as Pompuppet, “Well, whatever, I'm going to hang out with Ragatha and you can't come.”

She laughed, speaking again as Jaxpuppet, “Noooooooooo, I can't spend more than 5 minutes away from you at any given timeeeee!”

“WHAT?? I wouldn't-! I'm not-!” A heat roared in his face.

“Creative liberty.” She shrugged.

“I'm- I'm not playing anymore…” He went to remove Pompuppet from his hand.

“Whatttt, but they haven't even hugged yet.” She teased, thinking that would cause him to rage quit harder.

“… Okay fine.” He left the puppet on his hand.

She was mildly surprised, but smiled and streched her arm out toward the middle, expecting Jax to meet her so their puppet selves could hug like she said. And he did.. and… It didn't look like a hug.

They both sat there for a second, frozen, staring at the puppets that definitely seemed to be kissing.

“Okay, hug over, I'm done now.” He retracted his arm, tossing Pompuppet to the floor.

“Yup! Uh.. Okay!” She gathered the two puppets and sat them close by eachother on the nightstand, trying not to pay attention to how their little bead hands were touching.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

“Okay now you stay over there this time, no funny business!” Jax pointed at Pomni, who lay on the opposite side of Fort Jax.

She scoffed, “I thought that was a banned topic.”

“It is, shut up!” He shuffled in place, trying to get comfortable.

“Fine… you wanna play I spy?” She grinned.

“Uh,” he raised one brow, “okay..??”

She feigned looking around the room for what to do, she already knew, “I spy, with my uh.. big eye, something beginning with P.”

He sighed, “Is it Pompuppet?”

“Yes.”

“OK, shut up. Go to sleep.” He rolled over so that he couldn't see her silly grinning face.

She giggled, “Okayyyyyyy. Night, Jax.”

“Goodnight Poms.”

The whole time they'd been hanging out, Jax had been feeling his feelings far too much for his liking. And, he'd had no time at all to think about it before she overwhelmed him with another wave of awful stupid feelings. The whole time he felt like he was drowning in his mind.

But now it was quiet, he couldn't see her, he could even pretend she wasn't there.. but he didn't like doing that. The water stilled for now, as if that would help. He was still neck deep and standing on the tips of his toes.

Yeah, that was it. Pomni was the awful storm that wrecked the boat he'd spent so long building… how dare she… make him feel.. feelings…

So now what? He was obsessed with her like a weirdo and wanted to spend every moment of every day of the rest of his pitiful existence with her? God, that's so embarrassing. It would only be a matter of time until she got bored of him or until he does something stupid and she doesn't want to hang out with him anymore, and then what? He'd die alone, he supposed.

Stupid feelings.

And even all that was still ignoring the romantic aspect. To which the thought made his stomach flip. He figured he'd just never do anything about it, that was the easiest way. So he could just enjoy her company as a friend until she inevitably stopped hanging around him. It would all just pass eventually, he thought.

Okay… well now he was sad. He went to look at Pomni, to make himself feel better. Even in the dark, Jax could've swore he saw her eyes open and looking at him for a millisecond, even in the near total darkness.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Pomni’s eyes opened and she was forced from her dreams, signaling the start of another day. The first thing she did was make sure she was nowhere near Jax. The soft lighting of the morning helped her confirm that he was right where she left him, on the other side of Fort Jax. He lifted his head and looked back at her with half lidded eyes, seeming to be making the same confirmation as she did. He flopped back down with a sleepy grunt.

“Morning!” She chirped.

“Why so chipper?” He grumbled into the blanket.

“Why so grumpy?” She retorted, “What, do you wanna sleep in?”

“…Maybe.” his eyes were already closed again, the morning was no match for him.

“Awe, sleepy bunny.” She teased, she didn't feel like she could go back to sleep, maybe she'd leave him to it and go get breakfast.

“Shut up.” He spat back, shuffling under the blanket and further toward the center to kick at her weakly.

“Hey!” She kicked back, of course, “You're gonna regret that.”

It was a war, Jax was losing. How come he always lost when they fought?

“Okay okay, stop.” He conceded, dragging himself back to his original spot, “I still wanna go back to sleep, no more kicking.”

“Oh so you can start it but you can't finish it, I see how it is.” She was far too hyper for him right now, and she knew it, “Alright, you sleep tight, Imma go... run around... or something.” She got up, remaking the spot where she slept.

“What? You're leaving?” He sounded more alert now.

“Yeah. I don't think I could sleep again if I tried and I don't wanna annoy you.” there was a conviction in her voice that made it clear there was no convincing her to stay, to Jax’s dismay.

He had a difficult choice to make. He could get an hours more sleep, or, spend time with Pomni, “W-well then I wanna come with.” He started to get up.

“No, lie back down.” She commanded with a stern tone, “You said you wanted to sleep, so sleep. You won't even notice I'm gone.” She opened the door.

Reluctant, he did as he was told. She was wrong, however, he would definitely notice she was gone.

“Good boy~” She giggled, now out in the hallway.

“Oh shut up.” He buried his face in a pillow.

Shutting the door behind her, Pomni was met with Ragatha, wide eyed.

“Uhm! You know what, I won't ask.. Good morning Pomni.” She strained a smile.

“Ah! Oh! Um, Good morning Ragatha..” It was one kind of embarrassing to say that to him, but a whole second kind to be caught doing it.

“You coming for breakfast?” Ragatha folded her hands together.

“Maybe, I don't know.. I've like..” she jogged on the spot, “I'm weirdly energetic right now. Like I just wanna see how fast I can run for no reason.”

“Oh I'd save it, Caine was talking about today's adventure being a very active one.” Why did she always seem to get scoops on the adventures before Pomni did? When was she hearing this?

“Ah, beans.” She slumped, “I can't wait that long… oh my God am I looking forward to having an adventure?” She laughed, smoothing her hair back and leaving her hand resting on her head, “That's a first.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

‘You won't even notice I'm gone’ what utter bull. Even when he closed his eyes, It was too quiet, he rationalised, he was just used to hearing her soft breathing was all… he threw a pillow over his ears to stop hearing all the silence. But even then he could feel in his chest there was a black hole void where she was before, it pulled at his heart and it hurt.

Maybe if he could just imagine she was there, he could sleep. He breathed deep and concentrated, trying to hear her voice in his head. Picturing in his minds eye, her sat next to him, talking to him.

‘Good boy~’

F#%@ why did that have to be the last thing she said to him, now it was stuck in his head.

‘You're such a good boy, Jax.’

Ok now, she'd never said that to him before, where did that come from?? Still, it was working anyhow, he could relax again.

He practically melted into his pillow, he couldn't even protest the thought of her holding his face as it floated through. And just like that he was asleep.

A similar scenario followed him into his dream, though fuzzy as dreams were. But it was a dream he thought could never last long enough.

♤♣︎♤●●●♤♣︎♤

Pomni was so ready for today, maybe too ready, more determined and excited than she'd been in a good long while. She didn't even know if the adventure would be any good. It was getting to midday and Caine still hadn't shown up, neither had Jax, for that matter. 

She was getting very antsy, pacing back and forth in the main tent. This had caught the attention of a wild Zooble.

“Hey Pomni,” they approached, “Is uh, everything alright?”

“Hm, I'm fine, why?” There was still a tenseness in her voice that said otherwise, she had no concept of how pent up she looked to everyone else.

They squinted, “You do know, if Jax isn't treating you right, you can tell him where to shove it.” There was a sincerity in their voice that Pomni didn't think she'd heard from him before, “Besides, you deserve way better than him… well… I know the dating pool in the circus is more like a damp spot on the floor. But you know what I mean.”

Her face flushed slightly and her face contorted, “H-Huh??” they were insinuating what she thought they were, right? She wasn't just jumping to conclusions? “Hold on-" she waved her arms out, “I'm not- Jax isn't- wait wait wait. What are you saying right now?” Her voice had a little squeal to it.

Zooble was starting to consider if they'd made an a$$ out of themselves and Ming, “Sorry, I thought you and Jax were like… a thing..? You know, because you're practically connected at the hip most the time and.. have sleepovers every night?”

“NO?!? well… No! No…” She looked to be considering something for a second, “No.. I think..”

“.. You think? What the f#%@ do you mean ‘you think’??” He gestured, the most violently confused expression on her face.

“No I'm just saying, you make a good point..” Pomni put her loose fist to her mouth, chewing on the tip of the gloved finger introspectively.

“Sure, whatever the f#%% that means?? Are you together or not?”

“Uh, I guess not?” She shrugged, still a dusting of pink on her face.

“Well?? Do you want to be??”

She thought for a moment, squinting, “…No comment.”

“Wha- Whatever.. f@%# this, I don't even care. See you later.” They shook their head, leaving her back to her pacing, “Bye, Pomni.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

‘Jax…. Jax…’

He thought he could hear his heart thumping super loud in his head.

“JAX!”

He stirred suddenly, shooting upright immediately, trying to figure out what was going on. How long had he been asleep?

There was a continuous thumping on the door, that in his dream he mistook for his own heart beat.

“JAXXXXXXX, WAKE UP AND LET ME INNN!” Pomni had been knocking for a good while now, she was even starting to wonder if he was in there at all, her face pressed to the cold surface of the door as she continued to pound on it with both fists, “I DON'T HAVE A KEYYYYY!”

He scrambled to open the door, and when he did, she fell right through and into him. Maybe if he was more alert or saw it coming he would've stayed standing, but he wasn't, and he didn't so they both fell to the floor.

She recovered and pushed herself up, “Jax! What took you so long?” Though the tone which she spoke with was frustrated, she still grinned, happy to see him.

The position they were in did not escape Jax's realisation, far from it. Infact, it was the only thing he could focus on. Her on top of him, arms pinned to either side of him, oh so very close to him. In the most metaphorical way, he felt like prey looking at his captor, not just that, but like a deer in headlights too. He didn't dare move, or even speak.

“Jax?” She still smiled down at him.

He held a weird shocked expression on his face, his pupils expanded rapidly when she crawled closer to his face. Now barely a foot away.

“Hey, Jax. What, are you sleep walking or something? Talk to me.” She seemed completely oblivious to his feelings, and if she wasn't? Well holy f#%@ was this mean.

He continued to silently stare at her, until she finally stood up, picked him up from under his arms and dragged him out of the room, closing the door behind her.

It was only half way down the hallway that Jax became fully conscious of what was happening to him, “Wait, what's going on right now?” He tilted his head far back to make eye contact with Pomni.

“Adventure time! Come on, grab your friends!” She quoted, “do you feel grabbed?”

He looked back down at the vice grip she had on him, arms wrapped firm around his chest, “Well, yeah.”

“Caine said to meet at the stage, I didn't want you to miss out.” Her pace was shockingly fast, considering not only that she was dragging him along the corridor, but that she was walking backwards too.

He was probably awake enough to walk on his own… but he didn't want to, “What, are we excited for this one? What's his pitch?”

“I dunno, I just have a good feeling!”

“First mistake.” He grinned up at her.

They turned the corner towards the stairs, she slowed, wondering if she should make him walk… but she didn't want to, “Hold on,” she briefly let go, spinning herself around and now holding him so they were back to back.

He scoffed a laugh at her severe perseverance, but his stomach dropped a little bit when they started decending, “C-careful.”

“Oh don't worryyy, I got you.” She waved around her hand until it found his face, slapping him in what was surely meant to be a reassuring pat.

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

At the bottom of the steps, she'd flipped again, and was once more approaching her goal with alarming speed. At the stage, everyone saw them coming and shared a collective side eye with one another.

Once there, she plopped him on the floor with a thud, he grunted when the rest of him finally met the floor again.

“No comment, huh?” Zooble nudged Pomni, who went a slight shade of red and waved them away.

“HELLO MY LITTLE SUGAR HONEY ICED TEAS!” Caine adressed his top 6 favourite non-abstracted humans that he knew, “I'm so glad you're all here! Willingly! I know you've just been QUIVERING with anticipation for today's adventure, so let's get on with it!”

He snapped his finger, spawning a conveyor belt that pulled all the circus members slowly into a portal. It was a little awkward. He slowly turned his head to follow them as they moved.

They stood in some sort of lobby, clean white marbled floors, a very modern chic look about it. A big glass wall behind them that clearly displayed the map from the high floor they were on. Outdoors seemed to be a cityscape, it perhaps would've been strangely realistic if it wasn't so clean, but it looked impressively well made anyhow. In the distance there was even a sliver of countryside, shadowed by a highway overpass out of the city.

“Today's adventure is: Team Orienteering!” He excitedly spawned the title card in and jazzed his hands.

“Oh great…” Zooble mumbled under their breath.

“In this game, you will split into 6 teams, using a map and compass to find your way! You will be given a stamp book like this one here!” He pulled a little bound notebook from thin air, showing it to everyone, “where each page needs a different stamp, which you will find at the points marked on your map! Once your book is full, return here to secure your time!”

“Hold on, Caine,” Ragatha took a step forward, “You said 6 teams? But … how? There's only 6 of us… so we'd just be alone?”

“WELL SPOTTED! You see! I've created this wonderful machine!” He drew back a giant curtain behind him that nobody had noticed before then. It revealed the smallest little…

“Is that a gachapon machine??” Gangle lit up with radiating joy.

“No! I'm sure it's completely different! To whatever that is..!” It very much looked exactly like one, “You see, I'm going to give each of you 2 coins, which you can use to claim capsules from this… Cainepon Machine! And whichever ones you get will be your team!”

Nearly everyone caught the coins that were spawned in the air infront of them, Jax fumbled both of them, sending them clattering to the floor in opposite directions. Everyone else approached the ‘Cainepon' machine, which seemed to have a sticker on the front depicting all the possible draws. However, there were so many options that they were too small to tell what they were.

“And… what, exactly, do we get.?” Pomni turned back to Caine.

“GOOD QUESTION! As you can see, from the list of prizes, your teams will consist of yourself as the team captain! And! Two past NPC's to help you!”

Everyone exchanged concerned looks, being on a team with one another again didn't sound so bad anymore.

“So! Who wants to go first?”

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

Chapter Text

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

The Cainepon Machine stood there, menacingly. Nobody really wanted to go first… well, besides…

“I-I will!” Gangle was just excited to use the machine, though the prospect of getting a bad pull was a bit intimidating… The Gloink Queen was probably in there…

She shook ever so slightly as she inserted her first coin, spinning the handle. It made all the expected noises, mechanical clicks and the sound of one of the capsules dropping down into the little collection box. She held it in her hands, the ball was dark blue and black, presumably to represent whatever NPC she'd gotten.

Everyone watched her as she cracked it open, revealing a small figure. Gangle held it, inspecting it before gasping, “Oh! It's The Night Knight! Wow, that was a while ago huh? Ragatha look,” she held it out to her, “Remember them?”

Ragatha chuckled, “Oh yeah, you had a crush on them for weeks after that adventure-”

“H-HEY!” She blushed furiously.

“Oh?” Zooble was now very interested, they leaned in to get a good look at this ‘Night Knight’.

Ragatha's hands shot to her mouth, “OH, I'm sorry.”

“OK OK, take turns, who's next?” Caine moved them along.

“Uh, I’ll go?” Pomni crossed her fingers, brandishing one of her coins to feed the Cainepon.

The capsule she got was green and yellow, she recognised the shades but tried not to get her hopes up. It would probably end up being some random she wasn't even there for.

She winced, cracking it open. She peeked in the gap, not wanting to open it fully.

Jax was watching her very closely, but he didn't need to watch closely at all to see her face light up at what she recognised. Pomni threw the plastic aside, holding the figure up to the light like she was a certain green-glad video game hero.

“I GOT GUMMYGOO!!!!” She bounced giddily, holding the miniature candy gator close to her.

“Ohhh yay!” Ragatha didn't really understand, was it just because Pomni had a bond with him once, or was there… another reason?

Something bubbled inside Jax, “What, the Australian bandit guy? What's so special about him?”

“I mean- well.. it's Gummygoo!” She held it out for him to see, as if it explained everything.

He growled, “So?? Ugh.. whatever. I'm going next.” He pushed his way to the machine.

What he got was a blue and white capsule, he cracked it open as fast as he could.

“Oh God, you're freaking kidding me..” he looked at the bubbly figurine, “I got Orbsman?? Caine, can I redraw?”

“No can do! You have to keep what you get, no tradesies either!”

“Damn..” well, maybe he could just join up with Pomni and it wouldn't be so bad.

Zooble didn't recognise the character they'd gotten, which they should've expected, with the amount of adventures she'd skipped.

“Oh,” Pomni leaned in, “That's the Mildenhall guy, from the horror adventure… I don't like him…” she retracted again.

Ragatha's first capsule was very pink, “Ahhh! It's the Princess from the Candy Canyon Kingdom place… what was her name..?” Everyone else shrugged, if they were told, they'd forgotten.

Kinger struggled to open his yellow and red capsule, it eventually broke open, sending all the parts flying apart. They all watched as an Evil Pomni figurine slid across the floor.

Jax groaned, “Aughhhhh, why does he get to have her?? This is dumb.” He kicked one of the stray capsule parts that layed discarded.

“Whaat? You seriously wanted her? Really?” Pomni asked him, with big sad eyes.

Zooble scoffed, “No comment.” They reminded her, and as they expected, she went a bit pink and glared at them. 

Jax seemed confused at the interaction, “No comment on what?”

“I'M GOING AGAIN!” She held out her second coin, marching to the Cainepon Machine.

The capsule that dispensed was a very familiar purple and pink. She opened it up to find…

“…huh.” She plucked out the Evil Jax figurine.

“Oh, not that guy.” He cringed, “Unlucky, Pomni.”

“Nah it's OK, it's just like you but… a little less of a loser.” She grinned at him and stuck her tounge out.

Zooble laughed, “Nice.” before they were beckoned by Gangle back over to the machine.

“Whu- NUH UH???” Jax looked devastated at the comparison.

“I'm joking, I'm joking, I'm sorry.” She giggled, reaching out and petting the back of his hand to reassure him.

In the mean time, Gangle and Zooble had pulled the two other Gummy Gator bandits. Gangle explained that they were friends, so for that reason and no other they should stay together the whole game. Zooble thought it seemed like a reasonable decision.

Ragatha was pleased to pull Martha Mildenhall, and relieved that what she believed to be the most stressful part to be over.

Somehow, Kinger had the absolutely incredible luck to pull the ultra-rare and practically priceless Ming.

And that just left Jax to make his second and final pull. He frowned and shook the machine, in hopes of changing whatever was lined up to come out next. Once he was happy with the amount of shakage he'd inflicted, he inserted his coin and twisted. The capsule was a rosey pink and white.

He cracked it open, “OH WHAT THE- NO! NO! THIS IS A JOKE!” it was Evil Orbsman.

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

“ALLLLRIGHT MY LITTLE SUGAR HONEY ICED TEAS!” Still in the lobby, Caine prepared them to start the game, “You and your teams will be timed, so to avoid any unnecessary clogging, roughhousing or other non-sportsthemly behaviour, you will be let out one at a time. First up, Zooble! Please head to the elevator, it will take you to the ground floor, and once there, take a map, a compass and a stamp book!”

“OK but what do I do with the figures-?” Caine was already pushing them into the open elevator.

“OK bye bye now, have fun!”

“Oh- what- uh- GANGLE I'LL WAIT FOR-" Was the last they all heard as the elevator door closed and cut them off.

5 minutes later, Caine called for Pomni, she waved a goodbye to Jax and he wished her good luck, while he prayed to be next so he could catch up with her more easily.

Then Gangle, then Ragatha, then Kinger and then- then Jax was all alone, pressing his face to the window to see if he could spot Pomni anywhere. He could definitely see Gangle and zooble with their big colourful joint team casually meandering around, he'd seen Kinger leaving but had lost track of him, but still no sign of Pomni anywhere.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Pomni was doing her warm-ups in the elevator, ready to absolutely crush this adventure beneath her heel. She had high spirits and a good team, she couldn't believe her luck at getting Gummygoo on her team… but… she did prefer normal Jax. The ‘evil’ version of him was strange to see the first time, but maybe it wouldn't be too bad..?

The elevator dinged, the doors slid to the sides to release her into the reception on the ground floor. It was similar to the lobby from before, a big glass wall that gave a good view out, it seemed the city was centred around this building since she could see most the main avenues from right there. There were 3 vending dispensers lined up towards the exit, one each for compasses, maps and stamp books, so she guessed each team could only get one of each. The exit door was labeled with a big sign that she was happy to see, reading ‘your time will begin once you leave the reception’

Zooble sat on a couch, studying the map, sat next to a man with the complexion of someone long dead, who tapped the arm of the chair awkwardly. On their other side of them, the shorter more rounded Gummy Gator swayed and hummed happily, occasionally checking the compass and pointing at a spot on the map. Zooble gave an idle wave when he spotted Pomni.

Pomni jumped at a sudden shy tap on her shoulder from behind her. She spun to see Evil Jax and Gummygoo, who definitely weren't there before.

“G’day Miss..?” He clearly wasn't any version of him that knew her, which would never stop being a little bit of a heartbreak for her, it seemed.

“Pomni.” She smiled, “So, we should get some sort of strategy sorted before we leave.. right?” 

“Yes!” Though he was quiet, Evil Jax seemed genuinely thrilled to just be here, “That's so smart, Team Captain Pomni!”

“Sounds good to me.” Gummygoo agreed, Australianly.

“Also, I don't want to call you Evil Jax.” She pointed, figuring that he'd probably be enough of a pushover to just give him a new name, “Your name is… Franklin now.”

“O-oh! Um, okay, whatever you think is best, Team Captain Pomni!” The newly renamed Franklin was indeed enough of a pushover to just give a new name to.

“Do… uh… Do I need a new name too..?” He seemed quite confused at the interaction he'd just witnessed.

“Nope, you're perfect.” She smiled, going to fetch the items.

“… Thank you..?” Gummygoo stumbled a bit as she ushered them over to another couch.

They'd decided that Franklin would hold on to the compass, keeping track of which way they were going. Gummygoo would hold the map and remember where they were to go next. And, of course, Pomni would hold the all important stamp book. After stealing a pencil from behind the reception desk, They'd drawn their route. 

Pomni had devised a strategy that had them follow a sort of circle, where at marked points she would leave to find the nearest stamp if it wasn't along the line, then meet them back. The circuit started and ended at the building they were in, which she'd found from the map, sat in the centre nearly as far south as the border. She was sure it was the most optimum route.

By now, Gangle had also arrived, but she and her team stuck around with Zooble.

“Alright, Gummygoo, Franklin, you two ready?” She looked just about ready to rush out the door.

“Y-yes ma’am!”

“Never been readier!”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Jax tried to walk far ahead of the orbsmen, who were arguing in that awful grating voice that made his head feel like he was drinking a cocktail of bleach and glass marbles.

His strategy was just to find Pomni, so the only planning he'd done was trying to guess what Pomni would've planned then do it in reverse. He'd noticed that they kind of formed a circle, in the same way that trends follow a straight line in study graphs. He figured she might be more likely to follow it clockwise, so he started it anticlockwise.

He held the map, the compass and kept the stamp book tucked in his front pocket. It was quite the handful but if he asked the Orbsmen for help, that would mean talking to them. He had not at all adressed them yet, they just followed behind anyways.

The ‘team’ walked along a sidewalk by a smaller road on their left, a row of trees on their right that continuously dropped leaves which never seemed to touch the ground. The highway overpass loomed high up ahead of them. 

Juggling the items, following the map, listening to the Orbsmen's horrid nonsensical argument and on top of all of it he had no idea where Pomni was with her Gator-Hunk and the version of him that was nice without having to try. It all got far too much and he snapped.

He span to yell at the Orbsmen, “CAN YOU SHUT UP???”

They went silent immediately, looking at him now.

“THANK YOU… Now never say anything ever again.” He stalked back down the path toward them, shoving the compass at them to take, “Hold this, and when I ask you where North is, you POINT towards North, don't say ANYTHING.”

They gripped the compass between them, as if they both needed to be holding it. Orbsman nodded, Evil Orbsman copied a second after.

“Good. Thank you, now, which way is North?” Jax tested them, crunching the map in his closed fist.

The Orbsmen checked the compass together, then both pointed in opposite directions. Evil Orbsman checked the compass again and pointed forwards too.

Jax gritted his teeth, heaving a big, regretful sigh, “Okay, good. Let's go.”

Though the rhythmic thumping of their footsteps still felt like getting tennis balls pelted at the back of his head, it was easily far more manageable than before.

The next stamp was at the far side of the overpass, meaning he needed to find a way up there. He crossed the road, no need to look both ways since there were no cars… but the Orbsmen checked thoroughly anyways.

Rounding a corner, he nearly ran right into his Evil clone.

“Oh God, not you.” He cringed, but looked around quickly, it was just Evil Jax and the Gummy guy… so where was she?

“Oh! Hello.. do I know you?” Franklin held his arm sheepishly, Gummygoo looked back and forth between the two, perplexed.

“Cut the crap, where is she? Where's Pomni?” He took a stance that he hoped looked intimidating to them both, or at very least to the pink loser.

Franklin shriveled under Jax's stare, “O-oh, are you friends with her too?”

“Uh, No! First off, I'm not her friend..! I'm her best friend, and SECONDLY she would never be friends with you.. because..” He paused, trying to think of a reason, “…you suck.” He shoved Franklin back, and he stumbled.

“Ay! Ay! There's no need for this attitude, mate. What's your problem?” Gummygoo inserted himself between the two, holding his arms out to either side.

“Oh and you,” He snarled, “Mr Rugged and Handsome, eugh. I don't know why Pomni likes you so much, with your… your little accent… I could have an accent… you're not special.” Jax crossed his arms tight.

Gummygoo just looked confused and a little awkward, “Uh, you alright? I think you've got some issues there…”

“ISSUES?? ME? ME HAVING ISSUES??? … I don't have issues… YOU'VE GOT ISSUES!” He poked his index finger hard into Gummygoo's chest.

He squinted, “Well, I'm no expert but you sound kinda… well, I don't wanna say jealous… but yea, jealous.”

“JEALOUS??? WH- What?! Jealous that she was FORCED to hang out with you for an hour? HA! She hangs out with me like all the time! Willingly!” Jax gestured manically.

“Well then, if there's no problem, why are you being so.. hostile with us?” He kept a dominant stance throughout his attempt at de-escalating the argument.

Jax got right in his face, “Oh, I can get more hostile, I will EAT you, Gummy guts! Now where is she?!”

“You know, I don't think I wanna tell you that until you have calmed down a bit, mate, there is no need for any of this.” He reluctantly backed up a step.

“What? You think I'm a danger to her? Wow, yeah like nobody else thinks that! Like- I can't even talk to her without everyone looking at me like I'm on some-.. some long-con plan to rip her heart out and set it on fire! They think I haven't noticed it but I have!” He was just venting now.

 “Yeah- alright, okay…” Gummygoo just felt a little awkward now.

“And the LAST thing I need is some- dream guy NPC who's just oh-so much better for her than me..” Jax had wound himself up so tight that he was just about ready to throw down for any reason at all, he'd take offence to anything if it meant hitting this guy.

“…What's an NP- WOAH-" He couldn't even finish his question before Jax lunged at him, bringing them both to floor.

And then it was a fight, Jax was throwing any punches that he could, anything he could do to hurt him, while Gummygoo was just trying to find any kind of opening to subdue him and end the fight. The Orbsmen huddled together in fear, still holding the compass.

And that was when Pomni rounded the corner, skidding to a stop at the scene.

“JAX?? STOP!” She looked horrified, “WHAT THE F%@! ARE YOU DOING??”

Jax turned to her, wide eyed, his fist frozen in Gummygoo's face.

“Jax??” Pomni gestured out at them in confusion, “Why..? Are you fighting my team..? Get off of him, now.” She commanded, and he quickly did as he was told but didn't answer, so she persisted, “Well??”

Franklin spoke for him, “Because you like Gummygoo.. I-I think…?” Jax span around to glare at him.

“Oh my God, are you serious…? This is.. Jax, I'm talking to you about this later, but right now we're on a timer. Go and get your stamps and stop assaulting NPCs!” She picked Gummygoo off the floor by his arm, also grabbing Franklin and rushing them both back onto task. Jax watched them leave, still stood there in the middle of the road.

Orbsman put an orb on Jax’s shoulder, maybe it was meant to be comforting, or maybe he was just trying to say to get moving again. He made an awful wobbly speaking noise that Jax couldn't make out.

He moved away from the contact, a blank expression on his face, “I told you not to talk.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

With the pop of a confetti cannon, the sh#%&y adventure was finally over. Jax had traipsed into the reception, stopping his timer at 1:30:45. He was pretty sure he'd lost, if not just the adventure, then something else. 

The Orbsmen celebrated by hugging and… kissing? But Jax payed them no mind, handing in his full stamp book and leaving the adventure through the elevator.

Everything faded to black, and when he came to, everyone was infront of the stage again.

“ALLLLLRIGHT!” Caine called, holding a very official bit of paper, presumably with everyone's times on it, “Congratulations to you all for successfully Orienting your teers! I have here your scores!”

As Caine attempted unsuccessfully to build hype for the reveal, Jax chanced a glance over at Pomni. She was already busy trying to burn him with the most terrifying death glare he'd ever seen, so much so that as he turned back away, he made a tiny squeak noise.

“In joint last place, Teams Gangle and Zooble, with a time of 3:57:57!” In retrospect that makes sense, they spent the whole time chatting and casually strolling to each point. They didn't seem to care about the placement, they probably had more fun than anyone else. Caine put up a graphic of the map in the air, and displayed the route they took on it. The route looked to be a little all over the place, also seemingly they walked through the meadow in the countryside area a needless amount of time.

“In 4th place, Team Ragatha, with a time of 2:01:18!” Ragatha looked a little bummed, but brushed it off. Caine overlayed her route too, it didn't look planned at all and it looked like she got lost at one point.

“In 3rd place, Team Jax, with a time of 1:30:45!” Well, it was better than he thought, not that he cared at all what his placement was. His route overlayed on top of the others, it wasn't half bad, maybe there were a few roads he could've taken to be faster but it was clean.

“And in 2nd place, Team Pomni! With a Time of 00:54:40!” the route overlayed, it was flawless, nothing she could've done to cut down… so… “Which leaves us with our 1st place winner! Team Kinger with a time of 00:15:01!” Caine clapped excitedly, a big golden compass appeared for Kinger to take as his prize.

“Woah,” Ragatha turned to him, “How did you do that??”

He held his prize, mildly confused, “…do what?”

“And as a participation prize for everyone else,” Caine paused, hoping to gain intrigue, “Check under your seats!” Nobody was sitting, but there were 6 chairs behind them, which hadn't been there before, labeled with their names. Underneath, stood the figurines of their respective teammates.

As much as he hated Orbsman, Jax loved trinkets, so he took them anyways.

“Alright! I'm gonna go check my mail! See you all later!” Caine disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

As soon as everyone began dispersing, Pomni marched over to Jax, grabbing him tight by his hand and dragging him away with an expression that surely meant death.

The others watched, bemused, as he desperately looked back at any of them to rescue him. But there was no saving him now.

He nearly tripped over himself keeping up with her, “P-pomni, what…” there were no questions he could acctually ask, he knew what he'd done, as for what she was going to do to him? He didn't want to know.

She still didn't adress him, and didn't until she opened the door of her room, pushed him in and told him, “Sit.” With a fury, pointing at her bed.

He didn't hesitate to do as he was told. Now sat, he was closer to eye level with Pomni, which made her blazing glare even more frightening. He looked anywhere but at her face.

“So? Wanna tell me what that was about?” Her arms were crossed.

“…I don't know…” He clasped his hands, ears pinned back.

“You don't know why you attacked Gummygoo?” The venom in her voice was the worst part.

He managed to look up at her, with his big eyes, “…Are you mad at me?”

Pomni felt herself faulter, but willed herself to not give in, no matter how cute he looked, “D-dont say it like that…”

“Like what?” he bowed his head forward slightly, somewhat doing it on purpose but not completely.

“With the big doe eyes, you look like a guilty puppy.” She started to chuckle but caught herself, “Now…” she sighed, the rage subsiding, “Just.. tell me what happened.”

He got a bitter look on his face, thinking about it again, “Well.. I don't know, I ran into them and… they wouldn't tell me where you were.”

“And did they give you a reason why not?” She gave him a knowing look, she was sure that he wasn't going to give up the whole story that easy.

“Yeah, Gummy-jerk said I was too angry and thought I was gonna- like- hurt you.. or something..” He growled, but not at her, instead it was aimed at a candy alligator who wasn't even there.

“Mhm…” She tilted her head slightly, “And.. why were you angry?”

“Because… Because you ask too many questions.” He deflected.

“Jax.” She bore holes through Jax and into his soul with her eyes.

He huffed, “Because you were hanging out with them and not me..” his face burned.

Pomni felt a spot in her chest go soft at his sincerity, she sighed, rubbing her eyes, “Jax… you can't go and get mad just because I'm not with you… it's… adorable, but not healthy.”

Jax's cheeks reddened further, “I know… I'm sorry, Pomni.”

She considered pulling out the Gummygoo figure and having him apologise to him too, but saw that now was not the time to joke with him like that. She knew what she had to do.

“That's why… I want you to do something you probably won't like.” And if she was being honest with herself, she didn't like it either.

“W-what?? Are you gonna like… punish me??” He regretted his phrasing as soon as the words left his mouth.

“I don't want you to think of it as punishment, and I need you to remember I'm not mad at you… but here's the deal.” She attempted to pad out the blow of what she said next, “Once we're done talking, you may not talk to me for the next 24 hours. And, don't try be a smarta$$ and make a loophole, I won't be having any of that.”

His whole expression and demeanor dropped, he looked completely devastated, “Thats- Y-you know, really makes it seem like you're mad at me… Pomni…”

“I'm not, I promise I'm not, I just- I need you to show me you can do that, Okay, Jax?” She gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, God, please don't cry that would be so pathetic. It's just one day, He'd done that for his whole life before now. He could do it, for her, “Y-yeah, OK…”

She smiled weakly, “Thank you…” Pomni paused, then pulled him in for a hug.

Jax had no idea what to do, could he hug back? Was that allowed? Screw it, he hugged back, tight.

Eventually, she pulled away. She lay her palm on his head, between his ears, “… See ya this time tomorrow.” She smiled as best she could, he nodded solemly, and left without another word.

Ah, Crap, she didn't have any blankets or pillows… and if she said it was OK to go and ask him for them, then who knows what else she'd crumble over? If she let her integrity crack she knew she'd be back in Fort Jax before the start of the night cycle.

Well, she couldn't stay barricaded in her room for the whole thing. Hoping he wasn't in the hallway, she slipped out of her room. Thankfully he'd already made himself scarce, it would've been very awkward otherwise.

She caught herself walking sadly, forcing herself into a regular stroll, like nothing was wrong. Truthfully though, she wished that she could be weak, that she could run to his door and take it all back.

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

Ragatha paused mid sentence, “Pomni? Uh, you okay? You seem like… super distant..”

Gangle and Zooble had noticed too, she'd come by and said her hellos happily enough, but had just been sat there silently, hugging her knees to her chest the whole time.

“O-oh! Yeah… I'm… well, it's okay.. nothing to worry about..” and it was kind of the truth, it was technically okay, it was all sorted. 

“Is it about that weird… thing, earlier?” Zooble had their legs crossed on the other couch to Ragatha and Pomni, sat with Gangle, “You know, when you dragged Jax off. I've… never seen him that scared before…”

Gangle gasped lightly, “Oh, did you guys… fight?.. is he still alive..?”

“Wasn't really a fight… it's okay, I don't really wanna talk about it.” And that was the truth, this wasn't something she wanted everyone to know about.

Everyone besides her kind of looked between eachother, thinking the same thing. Did they break up or something?

“Well…” Ragatha held a hand out, but retracted it before she could place it on Pomni's shoulder, “As long as you're sure… if you ever do need to talk, I'm- We're here… you know that, right?”

Pomni nodded slowly, “Yeah… yeah, thanks guys.” She managed a small smile, which seemed to quell everyone's worries a bit.

♤◇♤●●●♤◇♤

Talking with the others did help, they'd chatted until the lights of the Circus dimmed. And then, Zooble and Gangle wanted to stay back for a bit longer, but Ragatha walked with Pomni back to their rooms.

There was something outside Pomni's door, Ragatha noticed first, eyeing it quietly. Pomni noticed it then second. A very neat little structure, compiled of two or three folded blankets, quite a few pillows, and sat on top of it all, a polite little Jaxpuppet.

She nearly scoffed at it, but… well for one it meant she didn't need to borrow stuff from Ragatha's room, and… she'd appreciate the company. She'd have to overlook this transgression just this once.

Ragatha had half a mind to think they'd broken up… despite not being together..? She still wasn't fully sure. But seeing Pomni's smile at it made her even more unsure. Those two were so confusing from the outside looking in, but if it worked for them…

“Goodnight, Ragatha.” She smiled, picking up the load and slipping into her room.

“Night, Pomni…”

She lay out the very generous amount of bedding he'd left for her. Considering putting them on the floor for familiarity sake, but it would never be a Fort Jax.

Still, she tried to make herself comfortable, holding Jaxpuppet close as she drifted off.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Jax was a mess, he was full on sobbing, face down in Fort Jax. He gripped Pompuppet in his outstretched fist. He felt pathetic, and he probably was… no yeah he definitely was.

But yeah, overall he was coping very well!

He rolled to his side, taking in a shaky breath and pulling Pomni's puppet effigy close to his chest. God, come on man. It's one godd@€n day.

One day.

He could do that.

For Pomni.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Waking up alone once again after three mornings of immediate company. It was strange, for both of them it felt like an arrangement that went on for far longer than just three nights.

Jax resisted the urge to start crying again, crawling to his feet, he looked in his mirror, “You can do it… it's what, 12 more hours? Maybe less? And then Pomni will…” he sniffed, and screamed into his hands.

He hadn't realised until now, but besides Pomni, nobody had been nice to him for years. He deserved that of course, and he knew it. He knew he didn't deserve Pomni's kindness either.

He took a deep breath to reset himself, “OK. I'm normal. I'm so normal. I don't need to talk to Pomni… God- You stupid codependent piece of…” He growled, “Be normal.”

What did he even do with his days before Pomni? He'd been there for years and besides the stupid adventures he couldn't think of a single activity he did. Torture the others? Wait, is that it? That's all he did in his free time? Well if that's all there was for him then… he wasn't feeling very inspired, but he'd do his best to cause some misery, and maybe it’d cheer him up.

No matter how hard he tried to keep his neutral smile up, it just kept falling back down again. It was a cycle, he'd strech his face into a big classic smile, then it would slowly droop and not 10 seconds later he'd reset it again. He looked like a bit of a maniac. All the while he still had to stop himself from breaking back into a hysterical fit of sobbing.

♤♧♤●●●♤♧♤

Jax had found his target, Zooble sat in the lounge area, reading a magazine and drinking what smelled like a coffee.

They squinted at him as he approached, “Uh, hi?” Setting their drink down on the table between them.

Jax's eyes fell to the mug, he reached out and slowly pushed it onto the floor, smashing it into a pool of ceramic shards and hot coffee.

“Wha-! DUDE? What was that for!?” They held a hand out to gesture at the mess. It wasn't a prank, just a nuisance, and it didn't even come with some Jaxxy quip.

Jax swallowed hard on a lump in his throat, choking back a sniffle. Zooble still watched him, waiting for an answer, or like, anything at all.

S#%£ F$!£ F@%!ing S!£%. He coughed out a tiny, meek sob and then he had no chance of stopping it. He covered his face as the tears broke the flood gate and he cried out.

Well. This was it, the strangest thing Zooble had ever experienced, she sat there with no clue what they were meant to do. Just watching him stand there and sob into his hands

“Oh… Buddy..” they started, awkwardly, “It's ok… what- what's the matter?” Zooble figured it had to be something to do with Pomni… or maybe the crushing guilt of his actions had finally hit him…

“S÷%!… F!%@, don't-" he hiccuped, “Don't look at me.” he lowered his hands, and he appeared just as messy as he sounded.

“OK, OK, I won't. Sit down.” They placed the magazine to one side and patted the space on the couch next to them.

He did so, crashing down hard and doubling over with his hands on his head as the sobbing continued.

Zooble cursed whatever f@%!ed up fate made her the one to have to deal with this. It's not like they were bad at comforting people who were upset, but an upset Jax was a whole other thing entirely.

They hesitantly reached out a hand, placing it on his back gently. He waited to see how Jax would react, but he just kept up the same shaking and soft wailing, so they kept it here.

“What's wrong, man…” For a long time before recently, the subject of Jax was something they’d had a very clear stance on, the stance being ‘f@%# that piece of s@%# a$$hole’. But with his recent turnaround, it'd gotten kinda confusing, they didn't forgive him for sure, he hadn't even apologised for anything yet. And now, it'd gone from small changes like simply leaving everyone alone, to complimenting them, to now suddenly openly breaking down infront of them.

Jax explained in thorough detail exactly what had happened. Unfortunately, all Zooble could make out through the unintelligible blubbering and hiccuping was the words, ‘Pomni’ ‘talk’ and ‘stupid alligator', though the last one couldn't be right…

“Ah… I mean… I didn't catch, like, any of that but I'm sure… I'm sure it'll be OK…?” They patted his back.

He sat up, not all the way but enough to rest his elbows on his knees. He took in a deep breath that stuttered and shook, “Pomni… told me not to talk to her for a day because I beat up her stupid alligator…”

“Oh… wait, what?” Zooble's face contorted.

Jax grunted, “She thinks it'll make me not be ‘clingy’ or whatever..” he sarcasticly air quoted something Pomni never said, because he was acctually just quoting his own thoughts.

Oh my God, he's such a loser… he's full break down sobbing over not being allowed to talk to her for one day? Seriously?

“Okayyy? So, just talk to her tomorrow then?” they shrugged, folding their arms.

He wiped his eye, looking at them confused, “It's not tomorrow..? It's this evening.”

“… Are you seriously… oh my God..” They heaved the most ‘done with your bulls#@%’ sigh they'd ever done in their life, “Just get on with your day, dude.”

“Well, what am I meant to do..” He rubbed away the last of the tears the stained his face.

“Don't you have like, a single hobby?”

He pointed weakly at the smashed mug on the floor, “…prank.”

They wanted so badly to laugh, “That's.. not a prank..?”

He knew that, he sighed, leaning back into the chair, “Well, I could just sit here until Caine starts today's adventure?”

“Oh. You don't know?” He watched Jax’s face, definitely not a knowing face, “Yeah, he came by a bit ago… I thought you were sitting it out on purpose…”

Jax threw his head back in a groan, “So I have literally nothing to do… What do you do all day when you don't join the adventures?” He flopped his head in her direction.

They sighed, “If you're gonna make me babysit you, you're not allowed to cry over stupid shit, or I'll give you something to cry about.” The vague threat wasn't needed, Jax wanted nothing less than to cry in front of anyone again.

He scoffed, not a fan of their choice of word substitute for ‘hang out’, “Sure, so what do you do?”

“Well, I sit here and I read.” They held up the magazine, “I would also be drinking coffee but… my coffee seems to have met a terrible fate.” Their eyes led back to the mess on the floor.

“Read? Seriously?” He quirked an eyebrow.

“Yeah, amazing what you can be capable of when you aren't 2 years old, you'll get there one day.” Zooble quipped, sarcastically.

“Oh har dee har..” He growled, “I'm 22, F.Y.I. But like, surely you do other stuff?”

Zooble paused, they were the same age? Huh. Also, was this the first time he'd acctually told them something real about himself?

“Fine, let's go.” They threw the magazine back down, standing up with purpose.

He was quick to follow suit as they led the way.

♤♧♤●●●♤♧♤

She let him into her room, “If you touch anything, I'll kill you.”

He rolled his eyes at them, stepping in and looking around smugly. It was very busy to look at, nearly too much for his eyes, “Very… alternative…”

“Oh shut up, I had as little choice in this as everyone else did. But c'mere.” They opened a drawer, pulling out a sketchpad and some pencils. Zooble sat on the floor and beckoned Jax to join, “Sit down.”

“Oh God, this really is babysitting… What, are you gonna make me do colouring to keep me quiet?” He folded his arms with a scowl.

“Sit before I change my mind.” They gave him an evil eye until he sat down opposite them, “so, yeah. I also draw, not usually people like Gangle does, more like designs for tattoos and things like that.” She flipped through the pages, there was a large range in the pieces, some were animals like fish and birds, some more abstract, quite a few based on ribbons and masks.

Jax watched quietly, trying to absorb the content on each page before they moved on to the next.

She laughed, “You know, if we ever do get out of here, I'd give you a tattoo. It'd be fun to watch I think.”

He scoffed, but smiled.

“But yeah,” He found the next blank page, pushing it towards Jax with a pencil, “Draw something.” They nodded.

He grimaced, “Seriously?”

“Yeah, dude, you wanted to do whatever I do, draw something.” They insisted, picking up the pad and shoving it into his hands.

Jax sighed, finding a comfy position to hold it so that they also couldn't see what he was doing, he started to sketch.

From what Zooble could tell, it took no deliberation for him to decide what to draw. They crossed their mismatched arms, leaning back into the drawer behind them.

And just a few minutes later Jax was done. Though he was clearly pretending he wasn't, hesitant to hand it back over. He kept acting like he had more to do but it wasn't fooling Zooble.

“If it's done, lemme see.” They did a little grabby hand gesture but didn't force it out of his hands.

He looked up at them, then back down at the page, then back up. He hummed in regret but gave it over anyways.

Originally, Zooble was expecting to see some crude, immature image, maybe of themselves with stink lines or some worse, other horrid idea from his gross mind. But it was nothing like that, on the page was the cutest little drawing of Pomni. Surprisingly well done, it had her in a crossed legs position with a small puppet that looked like Jax on her hand and she was smiling sweetly.

Ignoring the fact that he was a loser for drawing her as his first thought, they reviewed it, “Jax… this is acctually pretty good. You have steady hands, have you drawn before?” Zooble looked back up at him earnestly.

“Pff, everyone has drawn before.” He shook his head, like it was a stupid question. Though he knew they meant it in a ‘was art a hobby for you at some point?’ way, which he didn't want to answer.

His answer was pretty revealing to them, despite being a non-answer. Nobody who just drew stick people in kindergarten draws that well. It meant he must have some creativity to him, maybe that shouldn't have surprised them, but it did.

They didn't bother pushing further, “I guess so.” Zooble looked back at the drawing, “So… is being Pomni's puppet some kind of a fantasy for you..?”

“W-whuh? Huh??! No! Thats- that's not-" He scrambled, “That's Jaxpuppet, not me!!” 

“And what does that mean..?” They tapped the end of the pencil on the paper, tilting their head at him, “Wait, don't tell me there's an actual puppet of you around the circus somewhere? … Can I see it?”

“Yes, and no you cannot… it's in Pomni's room and… I'm not allowed in there.” The manner he spoke was as if he was some obedient dog following commands.

They scoffed, “As if not being allowed in people's rooms has stopped you before. But whatever, man. I'll belive it's not a cover-up story when I see it with my own eyes.” Secretly, they thought it would be funny if he was making it up, and then he'd go and make a puppet of himself to keep up the charade, “But, aside art, did you ever have any actual hobbies before the circus?” Surely. surely there was something, anything he'd enjoyed before tormenting people in the circus.?

“OK first off, who said art was a hobby of mine? Secondly, you are not privy to that information.” He could think of a few things that he'd enjoyed back in real life, but playing the Piano with only 4 big stupid fingers didn't sound appealing, so he'd never tried.

“OK, sure, man.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Today's adventure was aggresively mediocre, they were made to roleplay as a struggling theater troupe in some big New York style city. It really wasn't all that fun, especially for Pomni since she spent the whole day worrying.

Jax hadn't shown up for the adventure, was he okay, was she too harsh? A horrid thought tugged at her mind all day that he'd gone and abstracted and it was because of her.

Being finally kicked back out into the circus she really had no idea what to do now. She couldn't go and knock on his door, because if he answered then what would she do? Just ding-dong-ditch him?

She resorted to look for him while pretending she wasn't, running around, scanning all corners of the Circus. God, she wished she could have him on a leash… wait, rephrase that… she wished she could have some telepathic connection to him to know where he was at all times.

Pomni sprinted down the hall to his door, she snuck up and pressed he head against it, trying to listen if he was in there. She heard nothing.

“Aughhhh, S#£@%ttttttt" She grumbled.

She spotted, just down the hall, Zoobles door was open. Maybe they'd seen him today and could just confirm that he was still alive.

She skidded as she stopped, “Hey-" she killed her sentence immediately when she saw Jax there. Just sat on the floor with Zooble. Surrounded by sketchbooks and pencils.

Both their gazed shot in her direction, Zooble scoffed at seeing his pupil size over triple and his stupid little tail wag. What a loser.

Her mouth hung open for a second, then closed with an accompanying confused furrowed brow. But she silently backed away, once out of sight, she ran back to her room.

Well, he wasn't abstracted… whatever else was going on there didn't matter, he was safe and looked happy enough. She could relax… Nearly.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

The seconds counted down far too slowly in Pomni's opinion. It would be another 3 or so hours until she could break the vow of silence between them, which was 6 hours too many. 

It had been wonderful to see him hanging around Zooble, as strange as it was simultaneously. They seemed like they were getting along, but whatever they were doing, Pomni desperately wished she was there too.

She felt utterly pathetic, opting to sneak just a bit down the hall and sit quietly nearby out of sight just to hear his voice through Zooble's open door. She couldn't really make out the words from the safe distance she kept, and her intention wasn't to snoop on their conversation, but whenever she could just about make out him saying her name, her heart fluttered. Was she a weirdo? Maybe. Yeah…

They do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and she was already pretty darn fond of Jax to begin with… So what did that make her now?

Without warning, or maybe there was warning but she was too dreamy to notice, Jax left the room, holding a pile of pages and a pencil. Thankfully, he didn't see her immediately, turning back to say some sort of goodbye and thank you to Zooble before they closed the door. This gave her time to shuffle behind a convenient pile of colourful cubes, obscuring her from his line of sight.

Unfortunately, this still left Pomni exposed from every other side. Her best idea was to make herself as small as possible and stay very still in hopes he'd walk right by and not notice. As she was shoving herself as far into the corner as she could go, she managed to knock over an extremely inconvenient rubber duck that previously had happily atop the boxes. It squealed on her, or rather, squeaked, as it hit the floor.

Jax had noticed, of course he did. In his mind, it could've been some weird collision that made it bump but he glanced over as he passed anyways.

He stopped dead mid step. There she was, a little awkward ball of Pomni, scrunched up in the corner. Her eyes flicked from him to the floor, her strategy was that if she didn't move maybe he'd…? She didn’t know, but stayed still anyhow.

Jax had a sort of deep fear in his face, she had no idea why that would be the case when he seemed very happy to see her just a bit earlier… slowly turning his head back infront of him, he urged his legs to move, and they did. Stiffly and robotically, one foot in front of the other, he continued onward down the hall, sweating bullets. Although he looked like he'd seen an eldritch being, Pomni did notice his tail furiously wagged behind him.

Nice, she'd totally gotten away with it.

As soon as he'd shut his door, she scurried back to her room, nearly going to try and open his door in her mania but pivoted at the last second. Jax definitely heard her slam her door.

Jax leaned against his door, heaving a breath of relief and willing his panic away. That was the right choice..? Right? Surely.

There was no doubt in his mind that it was a test, she was testing him to see if he'd break the rules and talk to her. The reason it looked so strange was to be bait, if she just walked by then she knew he'd have passed easily… mostly. It all made sense. She was so smart… He missed her.

He'd assumed the punishment for failing would be more time added to the clock… Thinking about the count down made him look for the time, it was 3:57, so just over 2 hours until he was free of this horrid Pomni-less free-roam prison.

Maybe he'd just hang around his room? There was probably something he could do. He remembered the figurines he'd gotten yesterday, which he'd forgotten to display. They were carefully placed on his shelf, side by side… no that wasn't right. Jax tried a few other configurations until he realised what was wrong. He slid them together so their faces touched. Nice.

Well… he could just re-organise all his stuff until 6:16 came around?

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Pomni was going feral. Just a little bit.

If Jax didn't spontaneously appear in her arms soon she might just pop. Was that weird? No… right? Would Zooble sarcasticly say ‘No Comment’ if they heard her say that? Ugh, yes.

Did she like him? Yes. Did she think he was cute? Definitely. Did she want to spend every second of the rest of her existence with him? Sure. But, did she want him as a boyfriend? … Still no comment…

The idea of dating at all in the circus seemed… bittersweet. If there truly was no escaping, it'd just be her and him trying not to go insane together, doing the same stuff every day, until one of them abstracts and the other wouldn't take long to follow suit… She had to make herself stop thinking about that, it made her feel a bit ill.

Giving up on the idea of escape was much easier said than done. She thought she had, but then whenever she thought about her future she couldn't help but picture herself in an… after. After all this was over. Not an if, but a when. It hurt her heart, but maybe that was a good thing.

Maybe having hope so vehement and unyielding that it burned her on the inside was what she needed to keep going. Not an if, a when.

When they get out of here… Would Jax have a place to stay? … maybe they could live… together…?

In all her thinking, she somehow didn't realise that she'd gotten out a set of paints, from..? Somewhere, and taken her Evil Jax (now known as Franklin) figurine and had been already mixing colours to paint it over to look like Jax. Well, now that she was conscious of it, she may as well finish the job.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

6:16

Jax knew it was time as soon as the minute changed… Because he had been watching the clock for the past ten minutes without blinking.

Pomni knew as well… because she'd been doing the exact same thing in her room.

Her door swung open, she stood watching his door like it was a standoff, bouncing on her toes. Should she knock? Maybe wait? Oh no what if he wasn't in there anymore and she had to go and find him? S@%*, she wished she had him on a leash- no wait.

Her eyes flicked over his door, from the handle to his happy little portrait, waiting for any movement.

At the very moment his door opened, she was across the hallway like a bullet, climbing him like a tree and firmly attaching her arms and legs around his torso, sinking her head into the crook of his neck.

“Hello.” She said, far too casually for what she'd just pulled off.

All he saw was a blur of blue and red before he was enveloped in the tightest hug he'd probably ever had in his life. There was no second thought in wrapping his arms back around her in return.

“…Hi.” Was he crying? Maybe a little bit.

“I missed you.” She adjusted her arms positioning, placing her hands on his upper back.

Okay, now he was crying a lot, “I missed you too…” he sobbed out.

Pomni leaned back to look at him, “Oh Jax…” she spared a hand to wipe his tears, “It's ok.”

Jax leaned his face into her hand, and they gazed into eachothers eyes…

A small wave of embarrassment hit her hard and she froze, making an awkward expression on her now quite pink face.

“Uh, let's… rebuild Fort Jax?” She stroked her hand around his head till it sat on the back of his neck, then attempted to casually squirrel out of his glue like grip.

Despite letting go being the last thing he wanted to do, he heeded her signal that she was done and lowered her to the floor. The loss of warmth might’ve killed him right then if she hadn't smiled at him.

Pomni saw something in the corner of her eye and twisted her head to see.

There, Zooble stood with crossed arms, looking like they were going to say ‘No Comment’ and… Gangle, who stood still, covering her mouth in awe.

“That- WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!” She cried out, clapping her little ribbon hands together.

Jax hurriedly wiped his face to possibly make it seem like he wasn't crying, “W-what the hell, Zooble? You told her??”

“No, I just happened to bring her by at this time. On accident.” Their tone was completely insincere, “Also, Pomni. No Comment?” Pomni flushed red, so that was that mission successful, “Anyways, you two have fun, or whatever. I don't wanna see any more of that.” They pointed accusingly, then gently pulling Gangle by the hand, back towards their bedroom.

“Zooble, how did you know that would happen?” She looked at them, dumbfounded.

“… Intuition.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Fort Jax was lovingly restored. Pomni had brought her bedding back from her room, refusing Jax’s help, in fear he'd spot her newly redecorated figurine.

It was far too early to sleep, but nobody could tell them it was the wrong time to chat endlessly to eachother in their big, comfy pillow nest.

“So,” she shuffled further into her blanket cocoon, “You know, you never told me your actual favourite movie.”

“… would it be funny if it was acctually The Emoji Movie?”

“Absolutely not, I don't think I'd ever be able to look at you again.” She chuckled, it was a joke… if it was his favourite, then… she'd probably be able to overlook it… or force him to get a new favourite movie.

“Yeah, thats fair… My favourite movie is, uh…” He considered the question again, he knew full well what his favourite movie of all time was, but still he considered lying and saying something cool and manly like Die Hard or Die Hard 2. Which were the only 2 manly movies he could think of.

“Yeah?? Is what? Come onnn, tell meeeeeee!” Pomni grinned, anticipating.

He couldn't lie to that face, so the truth it was, “It's, uh… Fantastic Mr Fox…” he mumbled, bashfully.

“Ohhhhhh! I love that movie!” She didn't seem to think it was an embarrassing choice at all.

“Yeah… so, what's yours?” He keenly flipped it back to her.

“Ohhh, well… I mean I don't think movies ever really grabbed me as much as an adult, but the Barbie movies had me enthralled as a kid.”

“What, but- there's like- a billion of those, which one??”

“If I had to say…” she tapped her chin.

“You do, so say it.”

“Princess and the Pauper.” She paused, then nodded at her own choice.

“Nice.” He nodded.

She quirked an eyebrow, “You've watched it?”

“Uh, No??” He lied.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

It happened again.

When the morning cycle came back around, Jax and Pomni knew exactly what had gone on in the night. In fact, they even had some fuzzy memory of shuffling closer to the other purposefully in a half-asleep daze. And sure enough, they'd woken up attached like velcro once again.

Jax didn't want to move, or breathe even. Incase anything he did might startle her and then she'd be the one to move move away this time.

Pomni shifted her head against him, so she could look up at his face. His eyes flicked around wildly, only landing back on her for a second at a time before moving on again. His mouth pressed into a long thin line.

The breath he held was pushed out in a gasp, when she pulled him in a little tighter, pushing her face back into his chest.

Wait a minute… is this like, as friends cuddling? Or…

Jax suddenly began to spiral about the nature of their relationship, not helped by Pomni gently running a thumb up and down the middle of his back. Is she like… coming onto him?? What's going on???

There was a strange, deep vibration in his chest. It started oh so quietly, so much so that it went unnoticed for a moment. But it quickly grew to a tremor that shook him just slightly at a high frequency.

Once he really felt it, he squirmed away from her, pupils shrunk, “Pomni- what's… I'm broken..? I'm dying I think..‐ help.” The constant low thrumming seemed to be in his throat now too, making it hard to talk. His breath stuttered, holding a palm to his chest to confirm he wasn't imagining it.

She sat up slowly, watching him carefully with an open-mouth concern on her face.

“P-Pomni- I don't know whats-" but just as it came, the thrum slowly faded again. He sat there, waiting to make sure it was acctually gone for good, he breathed, “OK.. that was weird..”

“Jax..?” She had a theory, a Jax theory, “hold on, lemme see something.” She shuffled over to him on her knees. He had no idea what to do when she wrapped herself around him again, so he just held his arms out awkwardly.

After a moment, she started grazing her thumb on the middle of his back again, it didn't take long for the quaking to start back up. So what? He had some magic button that made him…? What even was happening?

Leaning back, Pomni looked at him, amused, “Jax… are you… purring?”

“I-I don't KNOW??? Am I????” His voice shook like he had a massage gun at his neck.

“Hold on, hold on, you can PURR? Like- Like a cat?? And you DIDN'T KNOW???” She kept up the repetitive motion, essentially petting him on the back.

He tried to speak but it just came out as garbled, jittery nonsense. Laughing softly, Pomni pushed her head back onto his chest.

With the thoughts that wrecked him like a train, he was glad he couldn't talk, he might say something stupid like ask her if she was trying to seduce him. It sure felt like she was to him.

To Pomni, the rythmic thrum in his chest was incredibly relaxing. She fully hadn't registered anything about this situation further than that, using him like an attention-powered massage chair. This shattered with sudden realisation when he weakly hugged her back in return, making her process the whole position they were in and what she was doing to him.

“OH- I'm, I'm sorry!” She pulled back, red in the face, “I-I shouldn't have- I'm sorry..-”

“P-rr-p-mni w-a-rr-it -i-rr-rr o-rr-" whatever he was trying to say, it didn't come through right. They both mourned the loss of contact.

“No, I'm sorry Jax, I didn't think-… let's just go to breakfast?” She stood up, stumbling from the numbness he'd unintentionally inflicted.

The purring didn't fade fast enough for him to be able to argue with her on that. His ears drooped as he nodded, shaking his way to a stand and following her out of the room. She found she had the urge to reach for his hand but stomped it down before she could do it unconsciously on accident.

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

“So, Jax, Pomni,” Zooble adressed, poking at their breakfast, “How did you two sleep?” They probed, eyebrow raised.

Jax and Pomni sat with their chairs shuffled as close together as they could get before they touched. Everyone else thought that they looked like at any moment they might start feeding eachother their food. The two of them looked up from their hushed conversation in unison.

“Great.”

“Fine.”

“What, just fine?” Pomni turned and squinted at Jax, as if she was personally responsible for every aspect of his sleep quality. Though, it is true that she's large factor.

“Oh I'm so sorry,” He started, sarcastically, “Perfect, 10/10, never slept better ever in my life before, nor will I ever sleep as good again going forward.” He clearly enjoyed the banter, waiting for her response.

“Thank you, that's much better.” She smiled and went back to her eggs.

“..uh-huh…” Zooble continued, “So you two are sleeping together again?”

Pomni's head shot back up, “WOA- We have SLEEPOVERS! Don't say it like that..”

“Don't say sleepovers either, that's cringe. It makes it sound like we're kids.” He crossed his arms. Everyone else was just kind of watching this happen.

“Oh yes, my bad, then what do we call it then when we, very maturely and like the adults we are, make a giant pillow nest and talk about- about Barbie in it??” She threw her fork back down to match his energy, you can't act mad when you have egg on fork.

Zooble snorted, “Barbie??”

“H-hey, we didn't talk about Barbie, it was BRIEFLY brought up, by you, I might add.”

“Yeah, and then you said you'd watch all the Barbie movies with me!”

“ACCTUALLY I'LL THINK YOU'LL FIND You asked me if I'd do that and all I said was yes.”

“THAT’S BASICALLY THE SAME THING!”

Zooble was so glad to have caused this chaos.

“NUH-UH, DIFFERENCE IS THAT IT WASN'T MY IDEA!”

“Sure, but you totally wagged your tail when I suggested it.” She grinned.

Jax looked around at everyone, their eyes on him and Pomni, “sh-SHUT UP!” 

Pomni just wanted to get the last word, “Okie dokie.” She went back to her food, very pleased with herself.

“Well…” Ragatha attempted to move the conversation onward, “So other than that-”

“ADVENTURE!” Caine emerged from the giant glass of orange juice that sat suspiciously in view of everyone, but nobody had previously acknowledged.

“In a bit.” Zooble brushed him off, sipping their coffee.

“wh- What?? You can't decide when adventure calls!! Besides, I've just had an excellent idea!” He clambered out of the glass, dripping juice everywhere. 

“Excellent?” Zooble looked doubtful.

“YES! I was inspired by yesterday's adventure into the lives of a struggling theater troupe!” Everyone besides Jax and Zooble groaned, “I know you weren't amazingly fond of it, but this one will be much better!”

Pomni sighed regretfully at the memories of yesterday, “You mean there'll be less people booing us for our bad improv? And.. less having drinks thrown at us… for our bad Shakespeare.?”

“Yes! I've devised the perfect environment for you to be musically and theatrically creative, with no fear of backlash! I call it: DO YOU HAVE POSITIVE OPINIONS ON THE MUSICAL GENRE CALLED ‘JAZZ'?” he displayed it in the air, the sheer amount of letters made it hard to see the whole thing at once.

He paused, waiting for a reaction. There was none.

“Well, please enter the fractal noise when you're ready..” he spawned a portal.

Everyone just went back to eating, Caine fidgeted impatiently. Since nobody was making any moves towards it, Caine snapped his finger and all the chairs slowly began to skid towards the portal with them on.

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

They were stood in an empty Jazz club, dim lighting, a bar in the corner, chairs put up on tables like the place was closed. It seemed Caine had dressed them in the most pretentious looking outfits he could, turtlenecks, beret caps, small circular sunglasses and pinstripe slacks.

There was a stage, pretty small and low to the ground, it held a large selection of instruments for them to pick from. Notably to Jax, there stood a piano. It was the only instrument he knew how to play, but he could always just violate a cello if he lost his nerve to try.

Caine stood at the centre of the stage, “WELCOME to Club Caine! This is where you will be performing your set of freeform Jazz this evening! You have until we open at 4pm to prepare! That includes, picking an instrument, practicing with said instrument and opening the club for customers! Because did I mention, this is also YOUR club!” He pointed. Jax removed his beret as soon as he realised he had one on and plopped it on Pomni's head so she was wearing two.

“Oh? Cool, I'll work the bar then.” Zooble didn't hesitate to head behind the counter.

“Oh, okay! But but but- you have to play an instrument, it's the rules!” He held an authoritative pose, “So… maybe just take the triangle, you can play it from back there?” Truthfully, Caine had added the bar for them specifically, but couldn't let them get away with not playing an instrument, lest everyone else decide they didn't want to participate.

“…Fine.”

Caine clapped giddily, “Yay! Now, everyone go and find your instrument!” He directed everyone else to the stage, but floated the triangle to Zooble at the bar.

“But…” Gangle looked at the selection, “I… don't know how to play any instruments…”

“That's OK! It's Jazz!” Caine span like a cartwheel in the air, “Just pick what sticks out to you and figure it out!”

Jax chose to hang back, if someone else took the piano first then he'd have an excuse not to try.

Pomni searched through the field of instruments until she found it, the one thing she had any experience with. She pulled out a cute little brass trumpet, then ran back over to show it to Jax.

“Why a trumpet?” His attention was slightly torn, still watching to see if anyone got close to the piano, but he tilted his head down at her.

That's what she wanted him to ask, she held it proudly, “I was in my highschool's marching band.” She played a little scale for him. 

He chuckled, he could totally see that. 

She turned the conversation onto him, “So, do you know what you're gonna go for? Do you play anything?”

Frowning, he sighed. If he told her she wouldn't let him get away with not playing piano, “I mean… ah, I don't know…” He bounced on his leg, looking over again at the stage, where Ragatha seemed semi-confident with the double bass as her pick.

And that left Kinger and Gangle. Kinger seemed to be gravitating towards the drum set, having him incharge of their tempo would certainly be interesting. He sat at the stool, playing what, surprisingly, sounded like a pretty decent Jazz rythm.

Gangle spun around, looking for anything that looked easy, but not seeing anything, “Uh, maybe I could sing?” She turned to Caine.

“Sounds great!” He gave a comically large thumbs up.

Hearing this, Jax groaned, loud, throwing his head back with a dramatic flare. Gangle's look of shock turned to one of hurt and insecurity.

“Jax?? The hell is that for??” Zooble scolded from behind the bar, “Don't be such an a$$, dude.”

His eyes widened, realising how that looked to everyone. The look Pomni gave him felt like a knife, not because she looked mad, but because she looked disappointed.

“Wait- that's not- I’m sorry, Gangle I didn't mean it directed at you- I was just- UGH.” He pulled at his ears.

There was genuine disbelief on Gangles face, hearing an apology from Jax to her, she didn't even know what to say.

F@%# it, Jax figured, if he did badly he could just say he didn't know how to play the piano. Marching up to the stage, he took a seat at the piano stool. Lifting the cover, he tried to play something, just the first thing that came to his hands.

And stopped immediately after the first two bars, jumping out of the seat like it gave him and electric shock.

Stupid muscle memory.

“Nevermind, not doing that.” Jax stepped away quickly. Gangle knew the song he played, she looked at him with dumbstruck awe and he glared at her with a threatening silence. 

“W-wait, why? That started out really good though!” Ragatha pleaded, “You should play the piano!”

“Jax…” Gangle started, “was that…”

“No, it wasn't.” He glared harder, hoping she'd get the message to shut up.

She didn't get it, “I mean, it really sounded like Blue Bird… that one Naruto intro?”

That's it, she's dead.

Zooble cackled, “Oh my God, Jax, are you..-” she stopped herself from saying ‘a nerd’ realising it was a double edged sword, “.. an anime fan?”

In this situation, he didn't know what to do besides give everyone an evil eye. Besides Pomni, who tried to look nonchalant as she approached.

“Uh, Jax.” She held her hands behind her back, swaying a little, “I… really think you should play the Piano, I mean… I'd like to see it.” She batted her eyelashes unconsciously, twirling a strand of hair on her finger.

He folded immediately, “Yeah OK.”

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

Now stuck with the Piano, Jax had done a little practice every now and again when he thought nobody would be paying attention, incase he slipped up. He found it came back to him quite easily, some of the songs he learned back in his… phases… made an appearance too. He didn't have any idea how he was going to improvise when it came to the freeform part of the jazz, and he was too scared to practice that part.

To the dismay of some people, who will remain unnamed, Pomni had been practicing her trumpet almost non stop for hours now. Well, at that point it wasn't even practice, more like a 4 hour one woman concert. Jax enjoyed it, though, he seemed enthralled in her playing. Sat on one of the wooden chairs and watching intently as she showed him snippets of drills she could remember.

Certain people took advantage of the bar.

At some point, some hours later, they remembered they were also in charge of opening the club. Ragatha took charge, ordering everyone around to do whatever she could think they might need to do before opening. Putting out the chairs, organising the stage, laying the tables.

Pomni was unceremoniously assigned as a host, to stand at the entrance to the basement club. Jax decided the host probably needed an assistant.

The door at the top of the stairs swung open, a regular NPC strode down, wearing what looked to be the exact same outfit that they were all given.

“Excuse me,” To Pomni, the mannequin sounded familiar, “Yeah, little Jazz woman, I need a seat, at a table, last time I came here I didn't get a table, don't forget the table.” They spoke down to her, ignoring the scowling rabbit.

“Hey.” Jax growled, “That's literally not our problem, shut up and sit down or get out.”

“You can't talk to me like that,” They gasped, “Get me your manager, or-” they stopped dead when he stepped forward, getting right in their face.

Now with a more threatening demeanor, he repeated, “Shut up. And sit down. Or   g e t   o u t.”

The NPC scurried past him and found a seat.

Well, that was an NPC she'd wouldn't mind seeing him beat up, “Thank youuuu~” she patted his arm, speaking in a little sing song tone.

With that one move, he went from tough to bashful, “It's okayyyyy~” he mirrored her tone.

A steady stream of mannequin NPCs followed, filling up the seats, and not 10 minutes later it was time for the show.

And what a show it was... A s#%@ show, that's what it was.

Kinger kept changing the tempo, sometimes slipping into a different rythm entirely that was more like rock. Ragatha couldn't quite manage pluck the bass strings most of the time, and it was completely off beat when she did. Pomni stole the show with a very elaborate trumpet set that didn't really mesh with what everyone else was doing. Gangle was very drunk and kept randomly scatting in the middle of her lyrics, which made Jax laugh so hard he couldn't play, falling off his stool on multiple occasions. Zooble was excellent on the triangle.

But in the end, well, when everyone but Kinger gave up, the whole crowd snapped their ‘fingers’ like they'd just heard the greatest set of freeform Jazz of their lives.

“WOW!” Caine stood from the his chair at the front, “Incredible! Beautiful! Moving! So much meaning!” He clapped aggresively, “OK, back home now!” He opened a portal, which everyone shambled towards. Zooble had to support Gangle as she walked.

Well, they had fun, and that's all that counts.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

Re-entering the circus was like alike a flashbang to the circus members, who had just spent most of the day in a dim club with a sepia filter. The bright lights and all the colours made them all squint, especially Gangle, who was going through the most intense hangover condensed into mere seconds before she was back to normal.

Everyone dispersed aimlessly, slowly re-acclimatising to their regular surroundings.

Pomni skipped over to Jax, smiling dreamily, “Heyy.” She elbowed him in his side, causing him to jump slightly, “Sooooo,” pretending she didn't know what she wanted to talk about, she paused, “Piano, huh?”

Sighing lightly, he rolled his eyes, “What of it?”

She swayed, a dusting of pink on her cheeks, “I dunno, I just think it's cool… You’re pretty good at it.”

“Huh?” His face twisted, “But I hardly played anything in our… performance…” it was true, he'd laughed so hard that hands seized up and he just plinked a few keys before rolling off of the bench and onto the floor in a crying fit.

“I mean… not then, obviously,” truthfully, she didn't really pay attention to anything past her own playing then, “I mean like, when your were practicing.”

Crap, he'd thought she wasn't paying attention to that, in fact, he went out of his way to only practice when she was busy or talking with someone else. Despite how self conscious he'd been, he wouldn't have noticed that she zoned in on only that whenever she heard the piano play.

He tried to not seem embarrassed, which he absolutely was, “Well, OK, thanks, whatever.” Huffing, he turned around just to see Gangle, awkwardly standing nearby, eyes locked on to him like she was just waiting for an opening to enter the conversation.

“Hi- Jax..” she scuttled over once he'd seen her, still not sure how best to start the conversation, “So… Naruto, huh?” That wasn't it.

Letting out a long, weak groan, he grimaced, “So, your singing, huh?” Flipping the conversation, he crossed his arms.

“H-huh? Oh-! Oh… oh no…” Her little face contorted, “oh, I totally ruined it didn't I? I'm so sorry…”

He scoffed, “It was ruined as soon as Caine had the idea, if anything, you improved it. I haven't laughed that hard in… well…” he shrugged, “I didn't know you could be so… funny. Don't apologise for being funny.”

Pomni squinted at him. He had a long history of not apologising for being ‘funny'.

“Oh… thank you??” She fidgeted, wanting to get back to talking about anime but not knowing how.

Luckily, Pomni caught her brainwaves, somehow. She nudged him, wiggling her eyebrows, “So, Naruto?” She'd never seen it, but she knew what it was enough to name at least one character, “Is that the one with Naruto in it?”

They both looked at her with disdain.

She continued, “And they fight the giants? And there's the wall…?”

“That's attack on titan.” They managed to say in absolute unison. Gangle looked over at him so fast her mask almost flew off and gave a big open mouth smile, he grimaced.

Zooble appeared from nearby, where he'd been watching the interaction, “Hey, Pomni, could you come talk to me about something?” 

Their eyes glanced in Jax's direction for just a moment. But that moment was all he needed to gain paranoia, “Wait, why? About what??” There were a few things he could think of that Zooble held over him, most notably, when he cried like a baby infront of them and all the cute drawings he'd done of Pomni. The latter of which were stashed away in his room, well hidden from even the nosiest of Pomnis.

“None of your business, you dolt. Gangle, make sure he doesn't follow us.” They left, motioning for Pomni to join, which she did.

“It'd better not be any of my business..” He scowled with threat in his eyes.

Pomni waved to him as she caught up with Zooble, “See ya later, Jax.” She smiled. He waved weakly in return, standing watching her walk away, leaning to the side to keep her in his line of sight for as long as possible before she was gone.

Checking around for eavesdroppers, Pomni turned to Zooble, “So, what's up?”

“Huh?” They seemed to have no idea what she wanted from them, “Nothing much?”

“..wha… but you said you wanted to talk to me?” She locked her hands, tilting her head confusedly.

“Ohhhhhh, oh yeah, no. Well, Gangle said she wanted to try and make friends with Jax… since he's like, docile now? I guess? And likes anime, apparently..? I.. wasn't sure, but she'd already made up her mind so I couldn't tell her no…” Zooble sighed, rubbing the back of their neck. Pomni nodded thoughtfully, “But hey, if it goes well then that's good… and if it doesn't… I'll kill him I guess?”

Pomni whined with a small smile, “Nooooooo, don't kill him.. I-…” she cut herself off.

“Whattt?” He teased, “because you like himmmm??”

She blushed, “Maybeeeeeeeeeeee?”

“Oh, so we've gone from no comment to maybe? That's a step, I guess.” They chuckled.

She scoffed, “I mean, did you see him play the piano?” She gushed, in a way that meant she liked fact he was a musician… Zooble did not understand it in this way.

Their eyebrow raised, “Oh. Uh, get it I guess?” Well, that was an image of Jax they didn't want in their head…

♤♧♤●●●♤♧♤

Somehow, Jax had gotten roped into hearing about Gangle's original characters. She excitedly flipped through her sketchbook, explaining the plot to him, but she kept jumping back and forth to different parts of the story as she remembered the important bits so it made it a little hard to follow.

They'd moved to the lounge area, Gangle sat on the floor with a table between them. Jax sat on the couch, leaning right forward to get a better view of the art.

His eyes flicked over the pages, she moved on way too quick for him to comprehend the content on them while her mouth was running at 100mph. Jax was getting to be very overwhelmed and confused, and when she once again went back 5 years in the timeline to explain something that she realised was too relevant to leave out, he cracked a little.

“Wait.” Jax held his hand onto the sketchbook, stopping her from trying to find what she was looking for. At this sudden movement, she trailed off, looking at him with some slight worry that he was going to do something Jax-like. He looked at the page, moving his hand to get a good look of the drawing, “Who's this guy, he looks cool. Tell me about him.” Hoping that getting her to focus on one character at a time would make it easier for himself.

Gangle beamed at his interest, but when she saw the character her expression dropped, “Oh, well.. it's funny you say that… wait nevermind no it's not- it's uh…” Of course, out of all of them, he'd ask her to explain that one, just her luck, “Ah, well… he's kinda an antagonist. He's like a total jerk to m- my main characters.. Butttt he falls into a pit of acid and dies so that's that… sorry.”

While stupid, Jax wasn't totally inept, he picked up what she was putting down, “Oh.. that's a shame.. so there's no chance he could come back and be… better?”

“No? It's acid. He's like, dead dead.” She for some reason didn't seem to get that he understood, or maybe she did.

“What?? B-but that Star-less girl exploded yet you let her come back? Unfair.” He crossed his arms, leaning back.

She pulled the book back across the table, “Uh, it's Starlass, and I said that was one of her clones that exploded, were you not paying attention? Besides... maybe I'd bring him back if he apologised to ...them…” 

“How is he meant to apologise? He's dead…” He gave a puzzled frown, but dropped it when she deadpan stared at him and crossed her arms, “Oh.”

Jax sucked in a breath, this was so awkward.

“Well?” She tilted her mask, smiling hopefully.

Sighing, he leant back over to rest his arms on his knees, “Yeah… I'm... sorry, Gangle. For, like… everything.”

“Anything specific?” Maybe she should accept it, it was an apology after all… But she just wanted to see. To know what, if anything, he cared enough about to remember.

A heavy breath puffed his cheeks, “God.. you want a list..? Uh, well for a start, all the times I broke your happy mask... And, all the pranks. Like when I put a bucket of custard on top of a door I knew you'd walk though, and then the second time I did that because I forgot I did it already- oh wait did I do that three times? Wow, I'm so unoriginal-”

She cut him off, “Uh, you know what, that's enough… thank you, Jax. It means a lot to me… to hear you say it. But, acctually to be completely honest I don't think I forgive you… yet..”

“Well..” He exhaled, “Yeah, that makes sense. Do you… wanna pour custard on my head?”

She giggled, “Maybe.. but it has to be when you least expect it.”

He grinned, “You fool, I always expect custard.”

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

Pomni had been brought to Zooble's room soon after they left the other two behind. They said that's where she should wait if she wants to know how it went, since Gangle would go and talk to Zooble about it after either way.

Sat on the floor, they'd chatted for a while, Pomni manged to ignore a majority of the teasing he inflicted. But, soon enough, Gangle rushed up to the open door with Jax in tow.

“ZOOBLE- oh, hi Pomni. ZOOBLE!” She bounced.

“I'm assuming it's good news, nice.” They smiled, “Tell me more later, ‘kay?”

“Oh God...” Jax rolled his eyes, finally reaching the door, but his attitude was shot dead and dumped in a ditch the moment he saw her, “Oh! Hi Pomni!” His eyes lit up, intruding into the room without permission to sit next to her.

Zooble scoffed, shaking their head, “OK, guess we're all in my room now. Come on, Gangle.” She patted the spot next to herself.

Gangle padded over, taking the seat on the floor, “Zooble, I have evil plans I need to tell you about later.” She grinned, and looked over at Jax, unnerving him.

“Cool.” They nodded, tapping their knee in thought of what they could do now that they were all hanging out, “Uh, do you guys wanna draw?”

“YES!” Gangle threw her arms up, crawling over to find Zoobles art supplies where she remembered they were kept.

“Uh, sure, okay!” Pomni’s high spirits had her feeling down for whatever, she would've had the same response if they'd suggested going to the hallways to find the doors that sucker punched her.

“And you, Jax?” Zooble started handing out blank sketchbooks.

He wasn't expecting to be asked, “H-huh? Oh… I guess…” Jax took the book he was given, not opening it yet.

They watched him carefully, “So, did you show Pomni those drawings you did yesterday?” 

Jax sat up 100% straight at the mention of it, glaring at Zooble for daring to bring that up, “You- I- No?!!”

“Wait, what drawings?” Pomni turned to him.

Gangle gasped, “Ooooh, can I see them? Please?”

“No. No you may not. Because… I burned them..!” He lied, badly.

“No you f@%£ing didn't, I know that for a fact. Go and get them.” They commanded, folding their arms.

Before he could respond, Ragatha peeked her head around the corner, looking surprised to see all of them, “Oh!… So this is where you all are? Uh… what are you doing..? And… can I join?” She shuffled into full view.

“Hey, sure, why not. Can't get much worse than Jax being here.” They quipped, glancing at him as he rolled his eyes.

Ragatha happily found a spot between Gangle and Pomni, connecting the group into a semi circle. Still, there was an empty spot.

“Wait, should we be all hanging out without him..?” Pomni paused and looked up from the cat she was drawing.

Jax nodded with a grin, “Yeah, you're right, we can't do this without… Bubble.”

Zooble scoffed, “Shut up, Jax... Uh, I don't know if Kinger would want to leave his fort, but we can always ask?”

Pomni smiled, “I have an idea.”

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

“Oh! Hello!” Kinger answered his pillow door, surprised to see everyone else together, holding pillows and blankets of their own, “Come in! I'm making tea.” He wasn't making tea.

They all filed in, one by one. The first room would've been too small for all of them, but Kinger ushered them into the expansion he and Jax built together, which was much larger.

It was very dim inside, they bumbled around in the dark before finding their place on the plush flooring.

Jax's eyes adjusted, looking around he saw nothing had changed since they'd made it, “Have you still not decided what this room is for?”

“Well, I suppose it's going to be for whatever you all seem to have planned.” He smiled with his eyes, not that anyone could really tell.

“Uh,” Pomni squeaked as she accidentally put her hand on Jax, she didn't know where, “Well, there wasn't much of a plan, really… just, hanging out? Like, all together..?”

“That seems like a pretty good purpose for a room to me!”

They talked. Like, a lot. The non-stop chatter went on for hours, they talked about that days adventure. Gangle, with the help of Jax and Zooble to keep it in order, explained the story of her original characters. Pomni told an anecdote from band camp, and then another, and another, name-dropping a bunch of people but not elaborating on who they were. Jax told a ‘scary’ campfire story about taxes. Until eventually, the little light that still crept through the cracks of the walls faded.

Nobody really wanted to leave. This was the most time they'd willingly hung out with eachother in… well, of all time. Ending it felt wrong.

So nobody left.

The jovial conversation continued well into the night, when they couldn't even see the outlines of eachother anymore. Ragatha had gone quiet a while ago, so they'd all assumed she fell asleep.

Jax was feeling brave. Somewhat. He took a breath and snaked his arm out to find Pomni, she jumped with a little squeak when it touched her, but when it found it's way around her back, she shuffled closer, leaning into him. Panicking internally, Jax was glad nobody could see how stupidly stressed his expression was. 

He just about died when she returned the favour. Wrapping her arm around him, Pomni sunk her head into his side.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

The golden morning sunlight streamed through the cracks between the pillows of Kinger's impenetrable fortress, and like clockwork, the circus was awake again.

Sitting up, disoriented, Ragatha, Zooble and Gangle pieced together the events that led to this. They hadn't intended to fall asleep in the fort, and they couldn't remember when it happened.

Besides Kinger, who had woken up here many a time before, there were two others who were quite familiar in waking up somewhere quite a lot like this and made no move to stay awake, figuring they were where they assumed to be. But you know what they say about assuming.

One by one, the rest of the circus member's eyes locked on to what was probably the most emotionally confusing thing they'd beholded in at least a day.

There was Jax… and Pomni, though it was hard to see her at first with the way she was nearly completely hidden underneath him. Jax's head lay just under her chin, tucked far in to the crook of her neck as one of her hands rested peacefully on his cheek, the other wrapped his side. She was completely engulfed in his arms, a hug so firm that it looked as if he thought she'd float away if not anchored by him. Both their eyes were still shut tight, willing the morning away.

Gangle whispered so quietly that it barely came out as a breath, “Oh. My. God.”

Apparently that wasn't quiet enough for Zooble, who held up an index finger to where their mouth would be in an inaudible ‘shh'. As a first instinct they wanted to take a picture, to poke fun at them later. Silently as possible, she rummaged through her weird cartoon logic inventory, pulling out their silver medal from the grid challenge, the leftover bottle of stupid sauce, a screw driver and a roll of tape, among other stuff that weren't cameras.

The other two looked at him, puzzled, until they turned to them and made a little mime of taking a photo then shrugging. Luckily Ragatha understood immediately, finding one of the Polaroid cameras that she'd pinched in a past adventure and stored in her inventory. She handed it over, but regretted it immediately, somehow only just realising what it was for. 

Raising into a high kneel, for the better angle, Zooble took the photo of the two. The shutter created a ‘CHK-CHK' noise, that was deafening comparatively, causing the pair's eyes to shoot open and slowly turn to look at everyone else. The Polaroid slowly printed out from the bottom of the camera, fluttering towards the floor before Gangle scrambled to catch it, hiding it away in her inventory lest Jax tried to go for it.

The first thing that Pomni and Jax processed, is that they weren't in the nest like they'd thought… The second was the very intimate position they were in. And finally, the third was how that looked to everyone else.

In an instant, they scrambled to separate, Pomni accidentally hitting Jax in the face as he attempted to pull his arms out from underneath her and failed, it was sort of similar to a Chinese finger trap the way the harder they tried, the more difficult it became. 

Watching this unfold, Zooble laughed, hard, “You- Oh my God." He couldn't hardly form a sentence.

Eventually, Pomni realised she needed to roll closer to him so he could free himself and soon after they were separated, both beet red and continually shuffling further away from eachother in increments.

“… Well, Good morning, everyone!” Ragatha elected to shift to a chipper tone and not acknowledge the happenings of the fort.

“Mmmmm whatever..” Jax shambled into a fast paced crawl, leaving the fort and everyone in it.

Pomni willed the heat in her face to die down, “Uh, you got… a picture of that..?” She tilted her head, “C-can I see it?”

She just about jumped out of her skin when the whole top half of the fort was lifted away, showering the full light of the circus onto them.

“AH! So this is where you sneaky little Sugar Honey Ice Teas have been hiding away!” Caine floated above it, casting a shadow down into the centre of their circle, “When none of you were in your rooms I was worried you'd-" Caine cleared his throat, “NEVERMIND! You're all here, and I have an AMAZING idea for today's adventure! So, who's ready for some DANGER, MYSTERY, STUNTS and don't forget, FUN! All at 120 miles an hour!”

Zooble, as always, was first to complain, “So what, now we can't even start breakfast full stop?”

Caine crossed his arms and slumped into a scowl, letting the roof of the fort extension fall to the floor and break apart into a regular pile of pillows, “NO! Because… breakfast will be included! So just… GET IN THE PORTAL!” One by one, he flung each member into the oval of fractal noise he'd summoned in the air like they were toys. He caught Jax last, as he'd walked a little ways away and he was thrown through too with a little yelp.

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

Just as promised, they were spawned onto the benches of a canteen table. It wasn't a huge place, 6 tables overall including theirs, which was a pretty standard size. There were 5 or 6 NPCs scattered around, eating and drinking in an animation that looped so that nothing was acctually consumed. The layout was basically exactly a square, the front door led into the empty queue, where they could seemingly just pick out what they wanted like an all you could eat. Besides the wall behind the counter, which had a door, presumably leading to a kitchen, and the wall at the back that was covered in posters nearly top to bottom, the other two walls were full length glass panes, split up into segments.

There was a far-off buzzing outside, from the table, all they could see was a large observation tower and grassy hills dotted with NPCs lounging around, all facing inward.

Tripping over his own feet, Jax rushed to the front window to confirm what he was sure he was hearing in that direction. Sure enough, in the center of it all was a great winding motorsports track that looped around the tower in the middle. 

Pressing his face to the glass, Jax hopped a little in glee, “No freaking way…”

Soon, the rest of the cast followed to see what he was seeing.

“Ohhh, wow" Ragatha watched the cars buzz around, turning the corners with too perfect precision, “It's been a little while since Caine has done a racing game like this, I wonder what the twist is…”

“Racin’ huh?” An unfamiliar southern female voice spoke up from behind them, “This ain't just racin’, sweetie, this is life or death.”

They all spun to put a face to the voice. She was tall, volumous blonde hair bouncing in big loose curls. Most notably, she had the face of a horse, since God forbid- no, Caine forbid they see a normal human face once in a while. She wore a light wash blue button shirt that hung just off her shoulders and tied at her waist, a white tank top underneath.

“Woah… uh hay- I mean hi…” Pomni shuffled, “What… do you mean? Life or death?”

She tutted, “I assume yall are the racers for today's big event… well all I can say is good luck to ya, if you ain't turnin’ tail that is.” The horse woman looked around to make sure nobody was paying any mind, “What the owners of this track don't want‘cha to know… is this place is haunted. No racer who's gone onto that track for an event like this has lived to tell the tale…” She paused, holding out a hand for anyone to shake, not looking at anyone in particular which made it awkward for them to decide who took it, Gangle did in the end, being closest to it. Her handshake was unfortunately unimpressive to the horse woman, “The names Nayomi, Nayomi Horsegal.” She smiled, but frowned again soon after, “Why don't'cha get your food and come sit with me, I'll explain the deal… since I know no-one else will.” She nodded solemly, then trotted back to an empty bench in the corner furthest from the door.

The food was underwhelming, but at least not school canteen quality. They plopped their trays down and awaited Nayomi's story.

Nayomi once again looked around to assure they had no eyes on them, “So, you see… back in the 70s, there was a guy, Crash Enburn… greatest racer to ever grace a car they say, never lost a race… but that didn't go without making some enemies. There was an accident, or ‘accident’ I should say” she repeated, air quoting, “Rumor was, his car got tampered with before the big race… in the final lap he lost a tire, spun out over the finish line… then…” She made a small explosion sound effect, “… He won the race, but lost his life… ever since then, whenever they do any big races on this course… well… you'll see. If you go through with it, that is.”

Jax's mouth was full of fries, “All the cars explode?” He muffled, nearly incomprehensibly.

“Have they tried like… exorcisms?” Zooble sipped their soda.

“Oh they sure have, they've tried everything, nothing has worked… The Phantom Racer never loses.” Nayomi tapped the table.

Pomni chewed thoughtfully, “OK but like, what if we won? What would happen then?”

“You see, that's what I reckon… I don't wanna recommend it, seeing how dangerous it'd be, but if one of yall passed that line before… well… I think that breaking his winning streak could do it… could set him free.” She smiled weakly at the end, as if in a memory.

Jax made sure to stuff more food in his face before he spoke, “Well, let's just do that then.”

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

“It's a beautiful morning here as we get ready to start the race!” The announcer's voice carried all across the map from speakers that distorted it ever so slightly. It sounded like Caine, which meant it probably was Caine.

“The drivers are at the line and it looks like we're almost set!”

This was true, the 6 of them sat in their idling racing cars, the models were identical but the colours and decals made it clear who was in each one, Jax revved aggresively to get Pomni's attention. She revved back harder.

The gun went off and each of them, at varying degrees of success, shot past the start line to begin the course. Jax recklessly making his way ahead of the pack, despite the goal being for just any one of them to win, he wanted it to be him.

Pomni thought nothing seemed off or wrong so far… which was a thought she regretted having as a black and red car materialised far behind in her rear view mirror. She took that as a sign to hit the gas.

“W-whats this?” The announcers voice quivered, but he attempted to sound like he hadn't seen this happen so many times before, “A mystery car has just entered the race, and he's coming from behind, like a bullet!”

And indeed it was. But the strange thing was, the Phantom car made no move to overtake Ragatha at the back, instead, tailgating her. Getting so close she could swear their bumpers might be touching. She made a move to speed up, since before she thought going slow and steady would assure nothing bad would happen to her.

At this, The Phantom car swerved up to her side, now she could look out her window at the driver… but it was just a black helmet and jumpsuit. When he turned to look at her, she felt an oncoming dread, like she could feel a smile from him she couldn't see. But her fate was delivered swift as a kick from a horse, as the Phantom rammed her hard, causing her to spin out and off the track.

He seemed to be completely unbothered, keeping straight on the track, like he was an unstoppable force that could never meet an object immovable enough for him.

A similar fate followed Kinger, and Gangle. Both being forcibly removed from the race with the punch from the steel machine of death.

“I can't believe what I'm seeing!” Though, he clearly could, “In a shocking turn of events, the mystery car seems to be picking off each racer one by one! I wouldn't wanna be out on that track today, folks, this driver is out for blood!”

Zooble was next on the hit list, that was clear. They tried to just keep going on, now onto the second lap, but the Phantom loomed close behind, and got closer every second.

Just as he came right up behind, in a move that was seemingly just to taunt, Zooble had enough, “Ah, f@%$ it.” Their car screeched, tires smoked as she pulled off the tightest U turn and started retracing the course.

He mimicked the movement, beginning to follow with deadly intent, but skidded to a stop. Like he'd thought it was a trap or something. Zooble could somehow tell what he was thinking, like as if it was between killing them all or making sure neither Jax nor Pomni could win. The driver span back around soon and continued speeding after the ones ahead. Zooble drove back to where Gangle crashed, finding her car now empty with her nowhere in sight. He sighed, parking next to the wreck.

Onto the third and final lap, Zooble's distraction had definitely bought them time but soon enough the Phantom was right behind Pomni. She slammed on the gas harder if it was possible even, if she could just go fast enough then maybe she could make it to the end. But alas, the Phantom was millimeters from her bumper all too quickly.

There was just a nonstop censor over Pomni's mouth.

Jax wasn't too far ahead, he could see exactly what was going to happen in his rear view and couldn't bare to watch. He can't do that to Pomni… that's gotta be like, a rule or something?? He could also see the finish line, he'd make it before the Phantom was done with her but his heart ached, it wasn't real, she'd be OK in the end but… he couldn't watch that happen.

Growling, he spun the car around, burning rubber on the road. The other two caught up almost too fast but he just about managed to line up the shot and rammed the Phantom off of the track, with the most satisfying T-bone crash. Even as the Phantom's car was crumpled up against the wall, Jax still crushed the gas pedal, pinning it there with no chance of escape. From here, he could see the driver. 

His head turned to face Jax directly, before the engine turned off.

The announcers endless chattering finally went silent.

“HOLY F@%@ING S#!%” Pomni screamed, barely processing what had happened, but she knew it was like, chivalrous as hell.

The cheered flags waved as she passed the finish line, drifting to a stop.

Like it was never there to begin with, the Phantom along with his car disappeared again. Leaving Jax to crash right into the wall at high speed.

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

Caine allowed Pomni and Zooble back through to the circus, respawning the others back from whatever loser room they were in with a snap of his finger.

At the sight of him, Pomni bounded over to Jax, “JAX!” She leapt at him, holding tight around his shoulders so she could look directly in his eyes, “THAT WAS SO COOL!?” She grinned, “How did you even-??-" their faces were very close, she leaned back as far as she could go, “it was like… well… you know…” she hopped back to the floor and took some steps back, he just seemed shell-shocked.

“Well, congratulations POMNI! You won the race and set the Phantom free from this mortal plane! And… congratulations Zooble I guess for not dying… or whatever…” Caine rolled his eyes.

“Gee thanks.” They scoffed, turning to leave the group behind, followed by a Gangle.

“Well.. Pomni, for your incredible win against the Phantom Racer, here is your Phantom cup!” He spawned in an admittedly awesome looking trophy, it had a golden skeletal horse on it, accented with black and red jewels, “Okie dokie! I'll see you………… LATER!” He vanished.

“That's sick as hell.” Jax admired it, grinning.

“Ah, well… I mean I don't deserve it… you would've won if you didn't… save me.” She smiled, “You should have it.” She pushed it towards him.

“What, so I get an award just for crashing my car? Man they really do give these things out for anything nowadays, huh?” He joked, it was a tempting offer but it was hers, he wanted her to have it, “Keep it, Poms.”

“Hmmm…” how could she trick him into keeping this trophy? “Joint custody?”

He thought, “Yeah, that works.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Though Pomni had just dropped off the trophy in Jax's room, insisting that since she spends most her time there anyways it may as well just live there, she had to escape to the privacy of her own room for a moment to think. She lay on her empty bed, staring up at the canopy.

It had become glaringly obvious… she and Jax were basically a couple.

But in the context of the circus, what did that even mean? Aside from a few thoughts that'd popped up, what were they doing as just friends that would change if she asked him to be her boyfriend… and if he said yes. Acctually, maybe a lot… or maybe nothing. Or maybe he didn't like her like that..? For some reason she had to remind herself of that possibility.

But really, what did a romantic relationship acctually mean? Where would it lead them besides a bitter end? Where would anything lead them besides a bitter end… They could hardly go on cute dates with the way Caine ignored the suggestion box. They couldn't get married… well, unless Bubble is ordained. And if they could, what would that mean? They couldn't even- nevermind.

Despite it, despite all of it, she wanted nothing more of him, than for him to be hers.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

As repetitive as it was, the new routine for Jax and Pomni gave life in the circus a strange sense of normalcy.

They'd wake up in Fort Jax, spend the whole day stuck together like glue in whatever adventure Caine had come up with that day, whether it be completely nonsensical or borderline torture, then go back to sleep in Fort Jax once night fell.

For Jax, this was all he could ever ask for, he was completely and unabashedly obsessed with her. If he got to live the rest of his existence with every day exactly like this, that would be just fine with him. Sure, he didn't really understand how exactly she felt about the whole thing, but as long as she was happy, which she did seem to be, it didn't matter to him if it was platonic or romantic. Not that he didn't care about their status, but, rather that being the one to ask what exactly they were wasn't something he had the guts for. So he'd resigned to just accepting everything as it was and it hadn't gone wrong so far.

Pomni, however, was getting to her limit. She knew he was a virgin but surely he could tell that they were more than friends? Right? The problem was, she didn't want to be the one to have to ask either. The thought had loomed, she was previously sure they were on the same page and at some point she thought he’d make it official. But… the longer this went on and he didn't outwardly question anything about it or make any kind of moves… Was it seriously just friendship to him? Was that just how Jax worked? Or maybe he was just stupid. The only time he'd done anything that could be perceived as a ‘move' was when he put his arm around her in Kingers Fort about a week ago, and even that was pretty ambiguous.

As for the others? Well, they couldn't say for absolute sure it was romantic, but they'd have to be dumb to think it seemed platonic… So they'd given up labelling it anything other than just Pomni and Jax doing Jax and Pomni stuff.

Said Jax and Pomni stuff included waking up every morning in a hug so tight that they may as well have been surgically attached to one another. That morning, it was the same as usual.

“Mornin, Jax.” Pomni was able to remove herself from his hold with relative ease, he didn't really want to let go but as soon as she made the smallest signal of resistance he'd comply.

Fort Jax seemed like it'd seen better nights, it had been a while since they'd given it a tidy up. In Pomni's mind, she’d thought of moving it all onto his bed to see if that sent any signals to him at all.

“Mornin, Poms.” Jax never really knew what to do with himself in the morning, they hadn't adressed the whole waking up attached to eachother thing since the first time it happened and he’d freaked out. It was just another one of those things he just took lying down… literally. 

Like usual, Pomni was already standing and out of the nest, leaving Jax to sit there awkwardly and wait until she left and he would follow after her lead. And that's just how they worked. Sometimes, in his minds eye, Jax could see himself being the assertive one like he'd always thought of himself, going right up to her and asking to be her boyfriend… but then he'd acctually just look at her and fold before taking one step. That's her job.

Jax almost tripped right over Pomni in the hallway, not having noticed that she'd stopped till the last second.

As it stood, it was a stalemate, both refusing to be the one to bring up the topic. So, Pomni figured some pushing was in order.

Surely, she could force him to say something, anything at all that would get a dialogue going… using nuclear tactics…

Pomni, almost nonchalantly, turned back to him, looking him right in his eyes. The connection lingered for a moment, letting him know that her next move was purposeful. Then she grabbed his hand, holding it firmly in hers.

Pausing, he tilted his gaze down to the point of contact, just looking at it for a second. Jax pursed his lips, like he was about to make a comment.

This was it, and Pomni was so ready for it. Come on, say something. Even just some quip she could use, come on, bunny boy.

He clicked his tounge, “Okay..? are we going to breakfast or what?”

Well, guess holding hands is just something they do now…

D@!% it, “Euhhhhh… yeahhh…”

And just like that, they walked hand in hand down the hall. The rest of the cast were there and saw it happen, of course, but this wasn't anything surprising. Zooble just scoffed and rolled their eyes.

Though this was definitely new, Jax didn't mind it at all, if she wanted to hold his hand then he was far from opposing it.

At first, Pomni started to think it was like one step forward and two steps back. But really, it was more like one step onto the wrong escalator and getting nowhere. The proper solution to this was to just bite the bullet and get onto the correct escalator, but Pomni was far too stubborn for that. So, her solution was to just go up faster.

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

At the breakfast table, Pomni was already formulating her next evil plan, well, it felt evil. Her idea was… not something she particularly wanted to do, mostly due to the sheer embarrassment for both of them but it's not like he'd go along with it… well, she hoped he wouldn't. 

What Jax saw whenever he looked over at her, which was pretty often once she'd let go of his hand, was Pomni timidly glancing at him, looking down at her untouched pancakes, grabbing the fork and then putting it back down and repeating the cycle over.

“HELLO MY DEAR LITTLE SUGAR HONEY ICED TEAS!” Caine slid across the floor, past the table then looped back around in nonstop movement like a remote control car, making it hard to follow him with their eyes.

Everyone sighed, figuring it'd be another bright n' early morning adventure.

He span in place for about 20 rotations infront of them all, then stopped still, “So, I'm here to let you know that today's adventure is a very special one!” Which was usually code for pretty basic, “However, unfortunately it's not going to be ready until later this evening! So I hope you can somehow find some way to busy yourselves until then!” He didn't wait for a response before he tugged on his glove so hard that it swallowed his whole self, leaving just a single glove lying on the floor in front of the table.

“Well… that's a new one…” Ragatha commented, staring at the glove that then deflated like a balloon until it was too small to see.

The Caine antics were brushed off pretty quickly, not that Pomni was paying attention to begin with, and the idle conversation restarted.

“Hey, uh, Poms? You okay?” Jax leaned over to close in some of the distance between them.

As a first reaction, she squeaked, but soon steeled her resolve. This was going to be weird. Definitely so. But he'd say something, she was sure, he'd say something in reguard to their relationship and then she'd drag him off by his ear to talk about it.

His question went unanswered as Pomni grabbed her fork with a vice grip. Stabbing off a bitesize piece of her food, she held it to his face. The gesture in of itself might’ve been cute if she wasn't wide-eyed glaring at him like it was a test, which it was.

It was at least obvious that he was meant to eat it, from the way the fork was millimeters from his mouth, “Huh..? What, you want me to eat it?” His eyes flicked from the offering back to her, a brow quirked.

“Yeah, something wrong with that?” She prodded, hoping for him to say anything remotely like ‘that's a couple thing'.

“Uh, yeah…?” Jax shrugged, “I'm… literally eating the exact same thing.” He pointed at his food, already half gone.

F@%#, that was a good point… “So? Eat it.” She growled.

“Okay, okay, jeez.” He conceded separating his serrated teeth and gently biting the cake right off of the fork she held, still looking her in the eyes, “Happy?” it was obvious in the way he spoke that he hadn't swallowed yet.

Somehow, Pomni had inflicted more confusion on herself than onto him, she'd never done that with anyone before and it felt way more intimate than she expected. She paused, shell-shocked and what she said next was something she felt coming out of her mouth before she even gave it a first thought, nevermind a second one, “Good boy.”

The fallout was immediate, Jax was so taken aback that he choked on the pancake, he fell out of his chair coughing.

Gangle's head shot in her direction, “HUH???” Unfortunately, their interaction wasn't going unnoticed by the others when it happened.

“Oh my GOD,” Zooble slammed the table with their fists, “Do you HAVE to do this while other people are eating??” They glared at Pomni.

Jax scrambled off of the floor, ready to argue with Zooble simply out of habit. But he just coughed continuously, holding his throat and doubling over.

Ragatha just gave a thousand mile stare off into the distance. Kinger wasn't phased.

Pomni covered her mouth, her face flushed almost entirely red, “I'm sorry, Zooble! I didn't mean- to..” Despite it being the truth, the way she said it made it sound utterly unconvincing. 

“HOW??? Y'know what, I don't wanna know. Keep that to yourselves.” Zooble waved her off.

Zooble didn't need to tell her twice, she'd now sworn off speaking for the rest of the morning. Once Jax had calmed down and clambered back into his chair, he shot her a look between embarrassment and betrayal. Her only response was to shove the now empty fork into her mouth with a sneer, his face slowly morphing into complete stun when he realised seemed like progress to her.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

At some time past noon, Pomni had finally recovered enough to try again, but now ensured nobody else was nearby. The issue was, she was fresh out of ideas, short of kissing him and calling him sweet cheeks. All this effort just to make him ask her out, she was beginning to lose the plot.

“Hey, Pom, can I ask you something?” Jax trailed behind as they walked across the grounds, the high sun glaring bright across the shifting surface of the lake.

“Yes!” Her expression lit up, she had clearly definitely not jumped to any conclusions about what the question would be.

“Are we… going anywhere?” His head tilted slightly.

She smiled, “You tell me.”

“What?? Pomni you've been dragging me around by the hand for like 30 minutes now, what are you talking about? Are you taking me somewhere or is this just, like, for fun??” In reality it was more like 10 minutes, but it was true. She'd wanted to go on a walk to brainstorm ideas of what to do next, but, of course, also wanted to keep him close in the mean time. She hadn't even said anything, just grabbed his hand and started going… and he didn't question it.

“Oh…” The disappointment was present in her tone, “Uh, No, why? Did you wanna go somewhere?”

She was seriously confusing him today, she was doing all this nice stuff, but all while giving him a scary look that said ‘comply or else’ and while sure, he'd realised he was kinda into that, it was all a bit sudden. And, when she wasn't spoon feeding him or holding his hand, she was quiet with a far-away expression, “Are you, like, okay? Did I do something wrong?”

She huffed, “Wouldn't you like to know, bunny boy.”

“What… does that even mean? I mean, yes? I'd like to know? Please?” He tacked his manners onto the end, as if it would be the secret key that'd make her explain what was going on.

Tapping her foot, she puffed her cheeks. What would it take to get him to be just snarky enough to say something like ‘are you coming onto me?’ again so she could just scream ‘YES' right in his stupid face… No… that wasn't right, she didn't want to yell at him… and she didn't want to make him worried over something so… this was too much.

“I'm sorry… you didn't do anything wrong, Jax.” Her feelings bubbled up a little bit, leaving a sting in her eye, she sniffled, “It's just…” Maybe… she should just follow his lead. Maybe just being close could be good enough for now, “Can… Can I have a hug?”

“Oh… I mean, yeah, sure thing Poms.” He kneeled at her level, opening his arms.

She stood firm, “No. Be sarcastic about it.” She crossed her arms, leaving him hanging until her demands were met.

Jax chuckled, “UGH, a hug? Thats the last thing I want right now.” He gave a bright eyed grin, hoping he'd done well enough for her.

Rolling her eyes, a small smile appeared on her face. Almost fast enough to knock him to the ground, she crashed into him, tucking her face into the crook of his neck. And he didn't hesitate to close the embrace.

Nope, she was wrong, this wasn't enough. Her longing for him was all consuming, it seemed, and she had to do something about it.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

The png background sky was getting quite pink by this point in the day. For hours now, Jax and Pomni stayed sat by the digital lake exchanging simple silence, hand in hand. It felt ridiculous to her that she still hadn't gotten up the courage to have that conversation with him after so long. Every other 10 minutes she told herself she was going to start talking but only got as far as opening her mouth and closing it again, he didn't seem to notice.

But this was it for real this time, “Ja-”

“COME ONE, COME ALL!” Caines booming voice reverberated across the whole circus, anywhere they were, the cast could hear him as if he was just a few feet away, Pomni just about jumped 10 feet in the air, releasing her grip on Jax's hand. “THE DIGITAL CARNIVAL IS NOW OPEN FOR THE WHOLE EVENING, SO STEP ON UP FOR GAMES, RIDES AND, OF COURSE, FUN!”

Sure enough, just behind them, the digital carnival sprung to life. Where, before, it was dull and quiet with just the constant regular squeaking of the ever spinning ferris wheel, there was now flashing lights on all the rides and stalls and blaring music of many different songs playing all at once.

Catching her panicked breath and willing away her heart attack symptoms, Pomni squeaked out a small vocal noise, “Uh, is it not always.. open?” she wouldn't know, she'd never been there.

Jax looked at his now empty hand for a moment, “Technically, yeah, but it's not really worth going to then. It's all… 'boring'.” He dusted himself off as he stood, facing the noise, “When Caine ‘opens’ it, he gets NPCs running all the games and stands, and you can get scammed, just like real life!… Uh, do you wanna like… go in?”

Just like real life? She had to admit, just from afar it seemed just like every carnival or state fair she'd ever been to. Just seeing and hearing it sort of filled in the other relevant senses in her head, like the smell of candyfloss and egregious amounts of food that had no business being deep fried.

“Would you want to… go in?” She shifted on her feet, beginning to offer a shy hand out to him.

For some reason, he couldn't remember if he acctually enjoyed the carnival last time it opened. He thought for a second about if he did want to go in… but then he realised that Pomni was asking for him to come with her and there was no other answer to that but yes. He snatched her hand into his, as if she’d change her mind if he was too slow.

“Sure.” He said, definitely so nonchalantly while definitely not wagging his tail so fast that it was but a small purple blur behind him.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Like a simultaneous triple punch to the head, heart and gut. Jax remembered exactly why he didn't remember much about the carnival. Because last time, he'd gone in for five minutes and had to leave immediately.

A fair like this, from a safe distance, was like a blazing flame for a regular moth like him with it's colours and sounds. It was all fun to look at from the outside, but once he got close enough it'd be all too quick to remind him that heat is hot and fire burns.

It was so loud with so much going on at once that he already wanted to leave and they hadn't even crossed the threshold.

Pomni saw the look of deep regret on his face, “Hey, you okay?” She gave his hand a small squeeze.

“What? Oh, no, yeah I'm fine, why? What could be wrong with this?” He looked utterly unconvincing, and that didn't escape her. A pause hung between them as she looked his face over. In that moment, he imagined that she'd seen right into his mind and knew how he felt, and she'd tell him to not come in, going in there with Pomni was better still than being anywhere else without her. So, he didn't allow her to speak, “Come on, let's go!” He feigned excitement and dragged her in by the hand.

Truly, the experience got no better inside. The maze of constant oddly spaced dings of bells, arcade beeping, sound effects and all the voices, all the while 10 different pop songs of Caine's creation played at once from different speakers, completely surrounding and suffocating Jax like a boa constrictor. And as if just the noises weren't enough, the place was busy with random mannequin NPCs bumbling around with no purpose but to tick him off it seemed.

It was something that definitely didn't escape Pomni's notice. The way his expression streched into a stressed grimace and his ears pinned back flat against his head.

“Jax?” Her voice was drowned out to him, she squeezed his hand again to get his attention, as it seemed that he was far away, or was at least trying to be.

It didn't work, he stood there still with that off-putting, too wide grin, pupils sort of pulsating in size. The short breaths he took making his head sway back and forth.

This wasn't something she'd seen from him before, was it a panic attack? Something else? Either way he should not be here right now.

She attempted to raise her voice above everything else to reach him, “Jax. Let's go and find someplace quieter??” she tugged his arm but he tore away from her in response, clasping his hands around his ears, his expression fell as he continued to puff quick paced breaths through his teeth.

Forcing a smile again, he pretended that fixed it, “Huh?” but the pressure of it all was like a constant rythmic punch to the nose.

Pivoting in circles, she scanned for anywhere they could go, a waypoint they could head towards. And she saw something that could just work.

Holding his hand wouldn't work out, he kind of needed them both, so she tucked her hand into his front pocket and pulled him along by it. Jax was, of course, confused by this, but just like everything else, he went along with it.

The sounds of the carnival were muffled by the shifting, static-like noise in the movement of his hands, it helped somewhat, but every time he'd bump some NPC it felt like another crack on an aquarium tank that was moments from bursting. Where was Pomni taking him? Was she going to make him leave? If so, this definitely wasn't the direction of the exit. But, he trusted her anyhow.

There. The ferris wheel.

It was the best thing Pomni could think of, it wasn't perfect but hopefully it would be enough. She brought him up the steps, leading him into the cabin and slamming the door shut behind them, ignoring the NPC running the ride who had begun some pre-programmed speech about ride safety that didn't matter in the slightest.

The cabin swung slightly from the shifting weight, Pomni sat opposite him, quietly listening to gauge the noise level. Thankfully, it was far quieter in there, the thick glass windows and walls of the cabin dampened the unnecessary volume of the fare.

Jax carefully let go of his head, slowly lowering his hands to rest on his knees. His eyes stuck to the floor.

“…Sorry.” He leveled his breath.

“Don't.. don't apologise, it's ok, are you alright?” Pomni watched him carefully, he did seem to be calming down.

“I.. think so? I mean, I'm better… Thanks..” his gaze raised up to her hands that she wrung in her lap.

“Why.. did you go in? If you didn't wan…-” The wheel started turning all of a sudden, she jolted forward and held the seat for stability.

Jax sighed, “Because you wanted to go… and I didn't want to get left behind…”

“Oh, Jax…” Her face softened, “I wouldn't leave you behind, we could've done something else together, I'm sure…” 

She placed a hand to his knee, reassuringly, which he placed one of his own hands on top of. She furrowed her brow at it, laying her other hand onto his, which, of course, he put his other hand on, “I win.” He stated, smiling.

“Shoot…” She grinned.

Their cabin raised above all the people and stalls, allowing them both to see the red sky darkening and fading to blue, the last of the days sun kissing the mountains in the background of the grounds.

She organised their pile of hands, using both of hers to hold each of his between them. Turning back from the view, their eyes locked.

“Y'know..” He chuckled, awkwardly, “The ferris wheel and the sunset, it's kinda…”

“Kinda what?” She knew what it was kinda, but wanted him to say it.

“It's- well.. you know.” 

“Hmmmm, no, I don't. Do tell.” She smiled sweetly.

His gaze drifted towards nothing in particular, “Uhhh… no, I don't think I will tell.”

Scoffing, she rolled her eyes, “Romantic. Jax. It's romantic.”

He froze, shrinking his head down, “Whaaatttttttttt? That's not at all what I was thinking…” It totally was, “… but, you know, you may go on.”

“Really? I may??” She shook her head, smiling, “Wow, what a gentleman…”

“I know, right?!” He grinned.

She gave his hands a squeeze, “Jax, I know we've- I've kinda been avoiding this bit… so I'm going to be blunt.”

He was scared, no, terrified, but his pupils still took up most of his eyes either way, “O-okay?” His breath caught.

Their cabin stopped with a click at the very top, swaying ever so slightly.

“Will you be my boyfriend?”

The answer was obviously yes, but he had to Jax it up, “Hmmm… let me think about it…” he grinned, looking up as if in thought.

“Jax.” She deadpanned.

He frowned, clicking his tounge, “Gosh, there's just so many variables…”

She couldn't help but grin, “Jax!” She pulled him back and forth by his hands, shaking him.

“Okay, fine, if you insist…” He feigned a defeated sigh, “Yeah, I'd really like that.” Their fingers locked together, but soon separated when she lunged forward and wrapped him in a hug which he greedily returned.

‘BANG' And there were fireworks… literally. Big explosions of colour above the carnival.

“AH-” Pomni shrieked, jumping back and falling into her seat, just as the wheel started up again to take them back down.

“HA- I mean- are you okay..?” Jax quickly killed off his point and laugh reaction.

“Yeah.. A$$hole..” She glared at him, not acctually mad. 

“I'm sorryyy, please don't break up with meeeeee..” He made a cute pleading face, successfully getting her to laugh it off.

“Fine, I guess I won't..” she smiled.

“So uh… what does this change, you know, the dating thing?” It was genuinely a pretty good question.

“Hm… it means that I might kiss you..” She paused and held up one finger, “If! You're well behaved.”

His ears definitely perked up at that, “I'm so well behaved! Trust me!” his tail might’ve been wagging.

She looked Jax over, “I'll take that into consideration..”

“Okay, let me know when you've decided.”

“Oh, you'll know.” Her brow bounced.

When the cabin stopped once again at the bottom, they had a decision to make.

“So, Jax, you wanna get out of here now? Or… we could go around a few more times?” Truthfully, she didn't mind whichever one he picked.

Going through the crowds again and finding the exit would be a chore, one that he'd happily push aside for now, “A couple more spins couldn't hurt.” He grinned.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

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“How many f@%#ing times are they going to ride the ferris wheel??” Zooble squinted, watching the cabin set off from the bottom for the 5th time since they'd arrived at the carnival, with no way of telling how many times they'd gone before then.

Ragatha casually picked at her candyfloss, “I dunno, I think it's pretty sweet, though…”

“Uh, yeah,” Gangle struggled to hold tight onto the giant saggy stuffed bear that Zooble had won for her, “it's like… well.. I mean…- ah crap-” it slid out of her grip and she scrambled to pick it back up

Through the window, they could only really see the top of Pomni's hat on one side of the box and Jax giving her a stupid lovestruck grin from the other. 

“The view CANNOT possibly be that good… Is it bad that I wanna throw something at them..?” Despite what he said, the only conundrum in Zoobles head was not one of morality, but one of ammo. They scanned the area for a good projectile.

Ragatha entertained the idea for a moment longer than she thought she should've, “No, don't, come on… they're having fun… I assume…”

“Though I'm usually against making assumptions, I have to agree with you on this one, Ragatha.” Ming was stood in their group with a giant lollypop in his hand, seemingly having placed himself there while they were all distracted watching the ferris wheel, “Evidence does point to that conclusion.”

Ragatha jumped a little, “Uh… thanks, Ming.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

“And you're definitely ready this time?” Pomni smiled, tilting her head, “You're not gonna chicken- uh- change your mind at the last second?”

For the last few rotations, they'd been making attempts to leave the safe haven of their cabin and run back to the circus. Obviously, none had been successful so far.

He looked out over the carnival, routing his escape plan, “Yes, absolutely no doubt in my mind this is the one, definitely… so… the plan is we do just like before, right? I'll cover my ears and you drag me along?”

She snickered, “No, wait, I have a better idea..”

“Oh?” He leaned down to hear, as if it were a secret.

…

Bursting out of the cabin the very second it stopped, giving no chance to loose his nerve, Jax sported a genuine grin with Pomni on his shoulders, somehow looking both ecstatic and terrified as he held her legs. She cupped her hands firm over his ears as if her life depended on not a single decibel of noise reaching him.

Hilariously, she found herself tilting his head like a joystick in an attempt to direct him as he sprinted through the crowds, knocking over countless NPCs in the process who just yelled ‘hey!’ ‘Watch it!’ and various other sounds.

“GOGOGOGOGOGO” She squealed, needlessly, as he was definitely already gogogo-ing as gogo as he could go.

They weaved though the web of trampled grass paths between the many stalls and rides, with no idea where they where the exit acctually was. Truly, they'd tried to plan it out, but, now they were down here it was irrelevant to know how it looked from above.

If the horrid stimulations of the carnival were still trying to get to him, Jax had no idea, defended and deafened by his Pomni. 

Zooble, Ragatha and Gangle just barely managed to step to the side before the battering ram that was Jax cut past. He payed them no mind, but Pomni spared them a quick awkward glance.

After a moment of processing for them all, Gangle spoke her mind, “… is she ratatouille-ing him..?”

“What's wrong with them…” Zooble couldn't verbalise it normally, but they thought it was kind of sweet.

At a normal pace, the amount of spur of the moment guessing and trial and error navigation they performed might’ve taken a while. But that wasn't the case, they found themselves back out of the carnival before they realised they'd found the exit way.

Pomni had thought he would slow down, so they could unfuse their ultimate form and walk the rest of the way, but it seemed the final stretch to home only urged him to run faster. The extra jostling made it much harder for Pomni to hold on right, nearly falling right backward, she wrapped around his head, eyes shut tight.

“JaaAaaaXxxXxxxxx slowWw doWnNnnn!” Chin laying on his head, her voice wobbled from the movement.

Somehow, even through the dark that was now the late evening, he'd managed to not trip up on anything as he rushed the path back up to the circus.

He finally heeded her plea once he passed the finish line of the giant curtain which separated the grounds from the big top tent. He skidded slightly, nearly losing his balance. The light in the circus was dim, but not dark, as the evening wasn't going to be over for a little while yet.

They just caught Kinger giving them a little wave in time to wave back before he retreated to his fortress. It seemed the fuss of the carnival wasn't his idea of fun today either.

Pomni abseiled down his back, making her way back to the floor she missed so dearly, legs wobbling until she sat down, “Yeah, we didn't need to do all that I don't think…”

Jax caught his breath, “Whaat? No, that was definitely one hundred percent necessary, and more fun too, right?”

“Well..” She exhaled sharply, “You're definitely the scariest ride I've been on today.”

Was being scarier than a ferris wheel a good thing? “… I'll take that as a compliment!.. so what do you want to do now?”

She flopped onto her back, throwing her hands over her eyes,“…I wanna lie down…”

“What, not right here though, right?” He snickered, “Want me to carry you back upstairs?”

That got her up, “Oh God no, I can walk, thank you.” She crawled to her feet, making a beeline for the stairs across the checkered floor.

“You sureeeee??” Jax caught up fast, grinning widely down at her.

Avoiding looking directly at him, she forced a disciplined expression over her slight smile, “Hey, C'mon, I thought you said you were going to behave..”

Bringing up that to him was equivalent to activating a shock collar, Jax stood right up straight, “Yes! Of course.. I always behave..” there was still an air of cheekiness in his tone.

Her eyes rolled, “I'll believe it when I see it, buddy.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

It seemed that, to Pomni, every time they tided Fort Jax, it got more and more tiring. Or, as blasphemous as it was to even think, maybe she was just getting bored of the whole nest thing.

“…Hey, Jax..” Her tone was careful, calculated. She didn't look at him as she waited for a response, trying to make it feel as casual of a conversation as she could.

“Mhm?” He was happily lining up the pillows, tucking blankets around them as he sorted the perimeter.

“What if we just… slept in the bed? You know, the one that's already comfy without having to maintain 2 layers of pillows ..?” Opting to take it from the angle of ease rather than… the other angle, she gave it a moment to sink in before she checked for his expression.

Jax’s little virgin soul had left his body, it seemed. He'd frozen solid where he was kneeling, both hands tightly gripping a pillow. His pupils slowly inched up to her without moving his head, “…Hm?”

She pointed a thumb behind her, towards his perfectly good bed, “Y'know, that thing? It's been a while, you might’ve forgotten, but that's for sleeping on.” She was pulling teeth trying to make it seem like not a big deal.

“…The bed?” He swallowed hard, arms shaking slightly under him. He's so dramatic…

Okay, abort mission, he's not ready, “Nevermind! Fort Jax is… fine… Maybe some other time..” probably for the best, he looked about ready to spontaneously combust.

And just like that, Jax was normal again, mostly, “Yeah, I mean… I just didn't want to take apart the fort is all…” he chuckled nervously.

Pomni shook her head, rolling her eyes and mumbled under her breath, “pussy.”

“What'd you say?” Luckily, he genuinely hadn't heard her.

“Nothing!” She grinned, feigning innocence.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Truly, Pomni didn't understand what the difference was between Fort Jax and the bed. What about being a few feet less elevated made lying shoulder to shoulder under a blanket suddenly less terrifying to Jax?

Pomni leaned her head into him, and just like with everything else she did, he involuntarily and sharply inhaled and jumped ever so slightly, like she was some dangerous wild animal. She sighed, “Jax..?” She let a silence linger, but wasn't waiting for a response, “So, I know you're like… y'know, but have you, like, never dated anyone before..?”

Groaning quietly, he grimaced, “Uhhh, not in any meaningful way, no.”

“What's that mean?” Her eyes searched his face for contact with his, but they were locked onto the ceiling.

“Well, I mean, in highschool there was nothing that lasted more than a week, and I didn't date at all after then, not for any particular reason..” He clicked his tounge, “Butttt I'll have you know I was very popular in grade school, I recived many a daisy chain on the playground in my day. Because, I could run the fastest.” He turned to her, grinning. Pretending as if that would still be impressive.

“Wowww, what a stud.” She snorted, rolling her eyes.

“Ah, you're just jealous.” He grinned smugly.

She sighed, content, “Yeah, you're so right, I want you all to myself..” Closing her eyes, she cuddled up closer to him, holding onto his arm.

No sooner had she said that was the smug grin wiped clean off his face, “Oh..cool..”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

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It was the kind of morning Jax was fully prepared to sleep away. The low light of the room not nearly powerful enough to have him keep his eyes open and distrupt the extreme comfort in the way the pillows enclosed around him perfectly. There was a small shifting weight he could feel, shuffling her way up from where she previously rested on the left side of his torso to what felt like right beside his head. When the movement came to an end, with just a few little extra motions, which he presumed was Pomni getting herself comfy again, he could feel eyes on him, big eyes.

He dared not peek at her, as she was just another temptation of the daytime trying to steal him away from his sleep… and truly, she was the best thing about being awake… and asleep.

Then came another small movement, one he didn't think much of until a hand came to his forehead and paused his breathing momentarily. The hand rested there for a little bit, like she was waiting for a response, or, a lack of one, really. Determined to ignore the call of the morning siren, Jax steadied his breathing back into a deep rythm.

The hand continued on its mission, beginning small at first, drawing lines from its place down to between his ears and back again at the perfect pace.

This was… really nice? He could so sleep though this.

Although, it seemed it was too nice, as for the first time since the first time it'd happened, the thrumming returned from his chest with a vengeance. Stupid character quirks, why purring??

There was a gentle sound, a small, sweet giggle from his side, he felt the little puff of air on his cheek. How could she do this to him and then laugh… The nerve …The disgrace…

Jax finally gave in, prying his eyes open into a glaring squint and shooting her a disapproving side-eye. Pomni's slight, fond smile dropped into a little, guilty frown, before curling back up into a mischievous grin and she quietly laughed again.

She'd regret that… though the movement was slow, she wasn't prepared for it and had no counter, he rolled right over and on top of her, squishing her into the plush floor. Laying completely flat on his front now, he rested his chin on the pillow above Pomni's head, a pleased smile on his face.

Pomni's face was pushed right into the epicentre of the purring, like he was making her face the consequences of her actions. There was nothing she could do to get out of it… well, that was an utter lie, she could easily toss him aside if she wanted to and she knew it. But a girl can pretend.

“Jaxxxxxx.” A muffled giggle made its way out from under him, as did Pomni's two arms, lazily batting at his sides and shoulders, not acctually wanting or expecting anything to come from it.

Jax's only respone was an intentionally loud yawn with an unintentional wobble from the vibration in his throat, eyes already closed again and ready to sleep, now that he'd dealt with the little troublemaker.

Soon enough, though, her evil little hands made their way to his back, beginning to stroke patterns to ensure the purring didn't stop. And really, that was just fine with Jax.

♤◇♧♥︎♥︎♥︎♧◇♤

Jax and Pomni got in another hour or so of sleep before Caine had rounded the cast up to the middle of the main tent. Presumably, to introduce whatever adventure he had planned for today.

“Look around, my little Sugar Honey Iced Teas! Tell me what's wrong with The Circus!” He gestured widely, clearly having something in mind already.

As always, Zooble was quick with a jab, “Uh, you mean besides everything?” Caine scowled but didn't respond.

“It's too bright..” Jax thought Caine was genuinely asking for their complaints.

“Not enough bugs!” Kinger nodded, as if he'd cracked the code.

“Oh, I change my answer, more bugs please.” Jax grinned.

“No!” Ragatha squealed, “Less bugs! Please!”

Zooble scoffed and rolled their eyes, “More corn.”

If everyone else was throwing random complaints, Pomni figured she could too, “Could do with more places to sit…”

Caine's expression lit up, hearing the answer he was looking for, “THAT’S RIGHT, POMNI! We need more furniture around here, I've noticed that you gravity bound beings are very taken with those things, and since I always seem to get things... wrong… uh, I figured I'd leave the customisation up to you!” he snapped his finger, summoning a ginormous box made up of many smaller boxes all of varying sizes. 

The box-box slammed down to the floor behind him, it's extreme weight sent a shock wave so powerful across the checkered floor that the whole cast got an impressive amount of air time. At the height of the jump, Gangles happy mask was flung off of her face and into the stratosphere of the tent, she fell back down to the floor with a thud, along with everyone else.

She patted her face, feeling the tears form at her eyes, “My happy mask..” she sniffled, sitting on her knees and looking around for it, though if it had landed it was surely shattered, “Can anyone see where my mask went?”

Everyone scanned the area for it, besides Kinger who seemed to be convinced he was standing on it and kept moving aside to check, but it was nowhere to be seen.

No one spotted it, the little white mask plummeting back to earth, no one besides Jax. Without a second thought, he dove to the ground to intercept it's crash course to the floor.

Standing up, he checked it over for cracks, thankfully, it was pristine.

The cast watched silently as he handed it back to her, “Found it.” He grinned casually, as if he didn't perform an athletic feat just to assure it’s safety.

Gangle could barely speak until she donned her happy mask again, “…Thank you-”

Caine hadn't been paying any mind to their antics, just waiting for them to recover before he spoke again, cutting Gangle off, “THIS IS THE UH-” He clearly thought up a name of the spot, “CUBE OF FLATPACK! And you will have all of today to un-flat your packs to make all the furniture your little hearts desire!”

“What… so we're just building ikea furniture..?” Honestly, Zooble didn't completely hate the idea, it was very normal, and, presumably, as a bonus they'd be getting to customise the circus? “OK, cool… I'll be right back, I'm gonna go put on some better arms for this.” Her current arms were not ideal for any kind of hands on work, so they span around and started back towards the stairs with a purpose.

Caine just seemed happy that they were even slightly enthusiastic about his idea.

Raising her hand after a moment to think, Ragatha brought up a very good point, “With all that packaging, it's going to get kinda messy around here…”

“I suppose that's true! Here!” Caine snapped his fingers, creating a large pit in the floor just out of the way, “Just throw all your garbage in there and it won't be a problem! Just… don't fall in… OKIE DOKIE BYE BYE NOW, HAVE FUN!” He poofed into thin air.

The remaining cast members approached the box², with varying degrees of enthusiasm. It was bigger than would be reasonable, even if they all stacked on eachothers shoulders they'd barely be over half its height. Some of the boxes they could see were labeled, completely unhelpfully with names like ‘Candy Kidneys' and ‘big rat?’.

Where to start? Jax knew, the corner stone was just begging him to be assembled first, a relatively large box labelled ‘bad ideas'. Tugging didn't work, but he was eventually able to shift it out of it's place.

What followed was nothing less than exactly what he'd expected, the box-box collapsed in a tidal wave of cardboard. Though, what he did fail to calculate for, was that he and the others happened to occupy the space that the boxes spilled into.

“Jax!” Pomni scolded, scrambling to leave the splash zone with everyone else as The Box² crumbled like a building being demolished.

As the now far less satisfying mountain of boxes seemed to be settling into its new form, Jax started to laugh. But, his hubris was soon punished by a faulty collision sending a large box labelled ‘consequences’ shooting out, slamming into Jax.

In a series of improbable, but not impossible, events, Jax was thrown backwards, into Ragatha at the perfect angle to have them both soon plummeting into the trash pit… which they were specifically told not to fall into.

The disposal pit was deep. Very deep. As they fell, they got a sense for how all their abstracted friends must've felt, the circle of light getting smaller above them. They hit the bottom, a smooth, dark, glossy floor that sloped upwards at the edges into the walls. The Pit was empty besides them... and Jax's ‘bad ideas’ and ‘consequences’ boxes.

Scrambling to her feet, Ragatha flew into a rage, “JAX! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??”

“What?? How was I meant to know this would happen??” He stayed sat, gesturing defensively.

She scoffed, “What, you SERIOUSLY want me to believe you thought absolutely nothing would happen when you took that box??? Do you think I'm stupid??”

He wanted to say yes, he rolled his eyes, “You know, if it weren't for your big mouth, this pit wouldn't even be here so you're equally to blame!”

This further infuriated her but as she opened her mouth to retort she was cut off.

“HEY- uhh,” Pomni's voice echoed from above, breaking up their argument, they looked up to see her face peeking over the edge, along with Gangle and Kinger, “Are you guys OK??”

“We're fine..!” Jax yelled through cupped hands back up.

“We're gonna get you out of there! Somehow!” They couldn't see what expression Gangle was making from where they were, but she sounded sure of herself.

Kinger chimed in, “Just hang in there!”

“Not much else to to..” Ragatha grumbled, falling back to the floor, holding her knees to her chest.

The little heads from far above vanished, to formulate a rescue plan.

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

While Pomni was still incredibly relieved to find that Caine's disposal pit didn't automatically delete them or something, this still wasn't great. Jax and Ragatha were stuck in a pit for less than 10 seconds had already started fighting..

“So… I mean the obvious solution is to see what we can sorta… mash together from these boxes to make a ladder… of some sorts..?” Pomni looked from the pit back over to the mound, “But uhhh… the issue is we won't know what's in those boxes until we open them..”

“Oh! Wait, Pomni, some of these have the same names on them I think!” Gangle carefully climbed up on one of the flatpacks, looking back and forth to compare. Sure enough, there were two boxes both labelled ‘Mozzarella Toothpaste’.

Opening them up, sure enough they contained the exact same collection of parts, but it looked to be for a foot stool or something similar, not anything helpful.

“Well spotted Gangle..” Pomni stood over the two dissected packages, thinking for a moment, “So, I wonder… if we could find something with lots of some useful part we can use, then search for it's name matches among the others..?”

♤◇♤●●●♤◇♤

“What… are you doing?” Ragatha was pulled from her brooding by the sound of Jax splitting open the larger of the two boxes down there with them.

Tearing off one end, he lifted up the other and poured the plastic wrapped contents onto the floor, “What's it look like? I'm building a… ‘Consequences’.. Duh..”

“Why..? You won't be able to bring it back up with you..” Her eyes drifted across the parts that were strewn about the floor.

“So I'm just meant to sit and sulk like you..? No thanks.” He snatched the instruction manual from the floor, the picture on the front showed some strange couch with 3 seating tiers like a staircase.

Though infuriating, he had a good point, “…Can I help?”

“No. This one mine, you can make the other one.” He didn't look at her, just flipped to the first page of the booklet.

“…fine.” She rolled her eyes, shuffling herself over to the smaller box, that apparently contained bad ideas.

They worked separate from eachother for a little while, in silence. The only other noise aside from the occasional echoed smack of a part hitting the floor was the far off voices from the surface, too quiet to tell what was being said but just loud enough to not feel completely alone with eachother. Ragatha noticed that every time they could hear Pomni, Jax's ears perked, seemingly without him intending them to.

Pomni… How'd she do it? Jax had been awful to everyone for years, especially since… But as soon as Pomni started hanging around him, his attitude completely flips in a matter of less than a week. Well, his attitude toward everyone but her, it seemed.

“So, Jax… When did you start… going out of your way to be nice to people?”

Jax looked perplexed at this, “..Huh?”

“I mean, like just earlier, you caught Gangle's mask… a month ago you would've… I dunno, caught it just to … smash it infront of her…” She grimaced slightly at the thought.

“That's… not…” That idea didn't seem funny to him at all.. so either Ragatha was dead wrong and he would've never done anything like that… or.. she was right, he'd changed.

“And now, well, you're being nice to Gangle, Hanging out with Zooble and you and Pomni are… whatever you two are…” She almost wanted to say ‘so what about me?’

“Together. I'm her boyfriend.” He clarified, squinting at her.

Ragatha sat up straight at that news, “Oh..! When did that happen?”

“Uhhh, right after that one adventure, the one with Nunya..” Jax returned his eyes to the assembly.

“Nunya? I don't remember that…?”

“Nunya business.” He cackled.

“O-Oh.. OH SCREW YOU!!”

“HEY!” An angry little Jester poked her head over the hole, “NO FIGHTING!”

“I WASN'T!! SHE'S BEING AGGRESSIVE WITH ME FOR NO REASON!!” Jax played victim, pushing Ragatha under the bus.

“YOU COULD'VE JUST NOT TOLD ME??”

“And YOU could've not been NOSEY! But that's an impossible task for you, right?!” He jeered.

“HEY! STOP IT! NOW! DON'T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE!” Pomni pointed accusingly in their general direction.

“Yes Pomni! Sorry Pomni!” He grinned innocently up at her before she dissappeared again, “You heard her, Raggy, stop being mean to me.”

Taking a deep breath, she consciously decided not to fall for his bait, “Fine, whatever…”

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

After digging through the mound and picking out all sorts of furniture, they'd found a few helpful ones that they collected as they went, such as ‘velvet thumb’ which was a twin bed frame, ‘ramen charger', a book case and ‘mango mistletoe’ which was something completely incomprehensible, but used a lot of good sized wooden planks.

By now, Zooble had returned and made sure to gloat at Jax in the hole plenty enough. But, they'd caught on to the plan quickly and helped to create what was turning out to be an abomination of a ladder. Said ladder probably wouldn't be of much good use after Jax and Ragatha had evacuated the hole.

♤◇♤●●●♤◇♤

Now all Jax and Ragatha could do was wait, he'd finished building his ‘consequences’, and insisted on trying to lie across it on his front, no matter how uncomfortable it was, just so that Ragatha had to sit on her own shoddy little chair she'd made.

The conversation had stayed dead since Pomni told them not to fight, maybe that's all they were capable after all… But, Ragatha didn't want to have it that way, she couldn't be the only one on bad terms with Jax… She and Pomni hadn't had a proper conversation for weeks, because she was always with him and he didn't want anything to do with her. But if Jax was friends with everyone else she'd end up excluded.. Just like the time she'd found him and Pomni hanging out with Zooble and Gangle.

So what does he want??

She'd try anything, “Jax..?” Her chair wobbled, as she'd somehow ended up with 2 legs shorter than the others, “I’m sorry..”

He scoffed, “For what?”

“For… For giving up on you, for thinking you were beyond help and treating you like a problem…”

“Pft, whatever. I deserved it, and you were right to do it.” He grimaced as he tried to adjust his lying position, bending his back in ways it shouldn't go.

Looking down at her hands in her lap, she paused to think, “No, I wasn't right, because… Because if Pomni hadn't come along and… did whatever she did… You could've abstracted..”

He flipped around onto his back to look at her, “OK, first off, I'm not your responsibility, never was.. and also, what do you mean I could've abstracted.?”

She shifted her weight, making the chair rock dangerously, “That's just- that's what Pomni said… to me… After that awards show she came to me… she was.. worried… and pissed…”

“Oh great, she told you about that..?” He cringed. 

“Well, no, not really. I don't know what happened besides ‘bulls#!%’,” she air quoted.

“Yeah, that's accurate..” His head rolled back, Pomni was acctually scared that he'd… maybe she was right, the way he was acting was just like…

The moment of quiet between the two was shattered, as Ragatha's poorly assembled chair cracked and folded in on itself and she fell back with a cry.

Jax laughed, of course, but began to feel a little bad seeing her just sat on the remains of her ‘bad ideas’.

Pulling himself up, he perched on the top shelf of his creation, and nodded his head for Ragatha to take a seat, to which she happily obliged.

“Y’know.. I’m sorry too, Rags. For being such a pain in the a$$..” Jax chuckled, tilting his head up.

“So, you're not gonna be one anymore?” She looked doubtful.

“Oh, no, I totally am. But now you know I'm sorry.” He grinned down at her.

Rolling her eyes, she sighed, “Good enough, I suppose.”

“HEADS UP!” Zooble yelled down, but the warning gave not nearly enough time before the end of a horrid ladder created from an amalgam of many flatpacks speared itself into the floor, mere feet away from where the two sat.

Jax cheered, “Rescue! C’mon Raggy, help me carry the couch up.” He partly joked.

“Jax, I think that thing will barely hold us both at once… we're leaving it here.” 

“Okay fine… ladies first then, I need time to say goodbye, after all.” Whistfully sighing, he patted it like it was an old dog.

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

Grabbing Jax by the hand as soon as she could reach, Pomni yanked him up and out of the disposal pit, refusing to let go even when she'd dragged him far away from it.

“OKAY so. The ladder survived, but even so, don't go down there, okay?” Pomni directed her stern command at everyone, but at Jax especially. Receiving a little chorus of agreement in return.

“So..” Gangle looked around, “I guess now we just do what we were meant to be doing for the past… hour..?”

Going from no instructions, pure ladder chaos to acctually doing what they were meant to was a bit jarring, but eventually they got into it, sifting through the mound, picking things at random and just making them. The thing was, that just like flat pack furniture in the real world, each kit contained the tools they needed as well. Which, meant they'd all ended up with a dizzying amount of Allen keys and mini screwdrivers that Jax insisted they couldn't just throw away, promising to keep them all in his room.

After hundreds of random things made between them, the cast had started making their own fun.

Pomni sighed, throwing random boxes into the hole wasnt as fun as it was 20 boxes ago, “Hey, uh, I have an idea.. What if we like… built a house? Or just like, something cool since Caine's gonna let us keep it?”

Throwing aside his half of a futon into the disposal, Jax was on board immediately, “Yes, absolutely. We will build a castle and call it… ‘Fort Jax 2’” he grinned.

“Wait, where's the first fort Jax..?” Ragatha frowned, confusedly. To no answer.

Pomni purposefully ignored Ragatha's question, “We're not calling it that… I let you get away with it the first time, I'm not having it this time…” She glared.

But, soon enough they were tearing open more boxes, setting out a perimeter and getting to work, with the same method they used for the ladder, except now, they just sort of screwed anything together that would fit to make the walls. 

By late evening, it was a mess and an insult to engineering. But a glorious one. The mismatched walls stood surprisingly tall, they'd at some point found hinges in some packet and fashioned an awful door, but a door nonetheless. The inside was carpeted by cardboard and bubble wrap, furnished with some of the actual furniture they'd built that fit right in. It was lovingly decorated with items from some of the smaller packages. Despite Pomni, Jax and Zooble’s attempts to dissuade, Ragatha had found a sign that said ‘live, laugh, love’ that she was quite taken with and insisted should be put on the wall, not understanding why the others had a problem with it. 

In the corner, Jax and Kinger had managed to create some semblance of a second floor using bedframes to hold it up, though it was more like a large shelf in the end. 

With a roof made up of cardboard layed over their shoddy attempt at rafters, it would've been quite dark aside from the little light that filtered through the cracks in the walls, if not for the few lamps they'd found which lit it all up with a cozy yellow glow.

Caine poofed into existence above the remains of the mound, “OKAY! So, time got away from me a little there but- WOAH!” His jaw literally dropped, seeing the culmination of their teamwork, “That's!… Not a couch!” He awkwardly tapped at his side, “Did you… do this on accident..? I'm pretty sure none of the instructions said to do that…”

In Pomni's gut, she could feel a moment coming up where Caine would destroy it, poof it out of existence simply because it didn't follow the set rules, so she had to do something now.

“Uh, yeah! We're calling it… Castle Caine..!” Everyone else had been arguing over it's name for a while now, so this was at least impartial…

“We're calling it what.” Zooble deapanned, peeking out of the door.

“Castle… ME?? Oh! Wow! You really named it after…. Me???” He looked as if he was about to cry, fanning his hands at his eyes and kicking his feet, “IT'S BEAUTIFUL I LOVE IT!!!!!!”

“So… can we keep it?” She assumed the answer would be to the positive, but didn't want to make an ass out of herself and a second innocent bystander.

“YES OF COURSE!!! OH WOW!!!” He performed a little giddy dance in the air.

“Why… did you do that..?” Whispering, Jax nudged her.

“I… thought he might get rid of it… but besides that, look how happy he is..” She nodded to Caine, who had not stopped jigging up a storm yet.

Jax sighed, “Guess I'll have to find something else to name Fort Jax 2…”

Pomni grinned, “I… have something in mind…”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

“Come onnnnnn Poms… just tell me what it is??” Jax whined, continuously attempting to connect eyes with Pomni as they walked, but she refused, as if he'd be able to peek into her mind if she did, “If you don't tell me, I can't help.”

Jax had somehow gotten tricked into bringing a chair up to Zooble's room from their flatpack workshop. He'd been so busy trying to squeeze information out of Pomni that he still hadn't noticed yet that they'd just shoved it into his hands and told him where to take it, and he'd obliged without a single word against it.

“I don't want your help…” She turned her head just so, in a way that he couldn't see her scheming smile.

Completely blindsided by this, his stride buffered, “W-what? Seriously? So I'm just meant to sit and watch?”

“No, of course not, Jax…” sighing, she put on a fake comforting expression for him, finally looking at him with confidence that it looked genuine, “you're not allowed to see at all!” a little evil slipped through as she giggled and skipped ahead.

His stride quickened to keep in line with her, still towing the chair behind him, “Woah woah, wait what? So I'm just meant to let you into my room with no supervision to build some.. some mysterious Fort?”

“I knew you'd understand! Thanks, Jax.” Pomni winked up at him, resulting in a mini bluescreen moment for Jax.

Bouncing up the steps, she left Jax standing at the bottom, dumbfounded.

“Wh- ugh, fine. But don't go poking around, alright?” His teeth gritted, he followed close behind her.

“…Why not? Is there something to find..?” She squinted back at him.

Ah sh%#-

“NO?! Uh… no… So don't look.” He lied, images appearing in his mind of the small stack of drawings he'd done back in Zooble's room, Pomni as his only subject. 

Her mind span through of all the things he could possibly be keeping hidden from her… More Pompuppets? His diary? Evidence of his secret double life? She chuckled at her thoughts, “Hm, okay then sweet cheeks.”

“Right- WHAT??” He reeled, not believing his ears, face flushed red.

Cackling cruelly at his reaction, she feigned ignorance, “What? What's wrong, Honey Bun? Sweetie Pie?” Pomni's mask of indifference slipped into a small sly smile.

“What- are even- what are the words coming out of your mouth right now…” He spluttered, his whole head now blazing with a heat that also crept down from the tips of his ears. 

Jax honestly prayed that pet names wouldn't be a new thing for them, he simply could not handle it one bit. In fact, he was nearly shutting down right there. Dissasoiating, in a way, as his knees buckled under him.

By the time he fell back to reality, Pomni was nearly out of sight, giggling so hard she nearly tripped over herself as she ran.

“Wh- HEY!” Still carrying the chair that swung behind him, coming near to knocking the backs of his legs as he attempted to close the gap between them. By the time he caught up, she was stood politely at his door, smiling at him with faux innocence with her hands behind her.

Begrudgingly, he opened the door, gaze following her suspiciously as Pomni practically skipped inside, “See ya later, Pookie.”

He had to laugh, “OK, that ones just bad..” though, his cheeks still held a small red tinge.

Snickering, she slowly closed the door behind her in a way that meant they could still see eachother just about until the latch clicked closed.

Now he just had to drop the chair outside Zoobles room and- wait… why'd he agree to do that..?

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

Castle Caine.. though he couldn't agree with the name choice, seeing it appear again in the distance instilled some great pride in Jax. It was shoddy, sure, full of holes, yes, more mismatched than Zooble, absolutely… but it was beautiful, it stood up on its own and was remarkably cozy on the inside.

A far away Ragatha jumped when she saw him on his way, as if she'd been caught doing something wrong… but she'd just been standing there idly, outside the ‘castle' that was more like a large shack. 

“Ohhh, hi JAX.. you're back!” In a way that was definitely not suspicious at all, she yelled his name while tilting her head to slightly face Castle Caine more.

Jax frowned and shrugged slightly at her, “Yeah..?”

“I think uh… Gangle wanted to talk to you about something… In the Castle…” She pointed toward Castle Caine, as if he'd get confused to what Castle she meant. It's door was kept just slightly ajar, but this wasn't unusual, as the door didn't really properly close to begin with.

“Uh okay..? If you see Zooble, tell em I broke their chair.” Which was a lie, he'd left it neatly outside their door.

Ragatha followed at a careful distance as Jax pushed through the entrance.

It all happened at once, a bucket that'd been carefully attached to the rafter by a rope and previously sat on the doorframe tipped over, completely drenching Jax in an excessive amount of a yellowish white, viscous pudding that slowly oozed down him as he stood there in total shock.

There was a bright flash and a ‘CHK-K' as Zooble took a picture of the scene, standing next to a delighted Gangle, grinning and clapping her little ribbon paws together.

Ohhhh, he'd totally forgotten about this…

“So?” She giggled, “Did you expect it?”

Jax held his arms out at his side as the substance continued dripping in big splotches to the floor, “Oh yeah, of course I did. This is how I look when I expect something..” He couldn't even be mad, she totally got him, “I always expect custard, I told you.” He slowly swiped a hand down his face, then shook it off.

Zooble took another picture, if they had a mouth it'd surely be in a big stupid grin. Ragatha snorted back her laughter from the doorway.

“Oh yeah, I totally believe you…” Gangle scoffed, “But.. that's it, you're forgiven, Jax.” She beamed.

For just a moment, Jax's face lit up, but smoothed out to a condescending grin, “Aw, how about a hug? To celebrate.” slowly and menacingly, he approached her, his gooey arms streched wide.

Gangle yelped weaving narrowly out of his sodden path, but he persisted, following her around the room with an evil grin.

Zooble took another picture of the two running around after eachother like little kids around the living room of Castle Caine. While Ragatha wasn't sure if she should step in and put a stop to it.

Gangle giggled through it all, dodging once again and circling the table, “NO! That’s so gross!”

Gasping, he faked a hurt expression, “Aw, come on Ribbons! To commemorate our friendship!” Jax stuck out his bottom lip into a pout, standing still once more and beckoning her over.

Steeling herself, she sighed, “Fine…” she stepped around the sticky rabbit footprints. Grimacing as she held her stringy little arms out wide and stepped into him.

This was… definitely the gooey-est hug she'd ever had. Jax quickly enclosed his arms around her before she could change her mind, shoving her mask fully into the goo of his torso. Of course, this was the perfect picture moment for Zooble, who was entirely dedicated to capturing the whole interaction.

She tore away, wiping her face and spitting, “Ew ew ew ewwwwwwwwww… why did I agree to that…”

“Who's next, Zooble?”

That made him look up from the viewfinder of the camera with a snap, “Hey, no. Back off.” They considered threatening all the dirt she had on him, but that wasn't fair.

“Alright, suit yourself.. Raggy? You look like you want a hug, am I right?” With a mask imprint on his front, Jax spun to the Rag doll, who gasped in fear.

“Uhhh, CAINE??? CAINE!!! WE NEED SOME CLEAN UP HERE!” Ragatha backed away at a quickening pace as Jax began to chase her down, slipping around slightly as his feet hit the checkered floor, which held far less friction than the cardboard.

Turning off the flash and taking so many pictures that the camera struggled to keep up in spitting the Polaroids out of the bottom, Zooble followed behind, standing in the doorway as Ragatha evaded Jax's gloopy capture, yelling for Caine's help before it was too late.

“YYYYYYEES? What's wrong, my dear?” Caine appeared suddenly, directly in Ragatha's path, causing her to jump backwards with a yelp, right into Jax's custard dripping arms that caught her.

Jax hummed contently, making sure to rub his gross hand over her hair for good measure as Ragatha cried out, “Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" Her face scrunched into a sad frown.

“Caineeeeee.” Gangle howled softly, still trying to clean herself off, “Can you please clean this up…?”

Though he didn't originally spot anything off about the scene, Caine now checked to see what was wrong, “uh… oh… What.. what- Nevermind! BUBBLE!” He called.

Gangle, Jax and Ragatha froze in fear.

♤◇♧●●●♧◇♤

Getting cleaned off by Bubble wasn't the best thing, in fact, it was the worst thing. But, thanks to Zooble, the horror experience was very well documented. As soon as he'd finished lapping up the footprints on the floor, Bubble was thankfully made scarce.

Lining up all the pictures on the table under the light of a lamp, Zooble picked between the best of the pictures taken to be immortalised in a frame on the wall. speaking of frames on the wall, there was already one framed picture up there…

The picture itself was very dark, Jax had to lean right up close to tell what it was.

Face flushing, Jax yanked it off of it's hook, “WHEN- DID… HOW- WHY…? WHAT???” The picture was of him and Pomni, looking very cozy sleeping together in some pillow fort.

Zooble frowned, before realising what he’d seen, “That was in Kingers Fort, don't you remember? Or do you guys cuddle too often for it to stand out.” They teased, scoffing a laugh.

“You- took a picture of that???” He nearly looked up at them for a whole second before his eyes shot back to the picture, assessing every little part of it he could make out.

Ragatha plopped herself down on one of the couches, “Uh… we thought you knew that… hah, no wonder you weren't coming after us for it…”

“… I'm keeping this…” He scowled at the other 3.

Zooble turned and snatched it from his hand before he could stash it away, “Uh, No you aren't. It stays on the wall.” She handed it to Gangle, trusting her to replace it properly.

Jax growled, face still red, and marched to the door, “Whatever! I'm leaving…”

“You running back to your Pomni? Huh?” Zooble jeered.

“No?!” He lied.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

It was the oddest thing, knocking on his own door. She didn't say exactly when he could come back and it'd been about 20 minutes at most.

“..Hello?” The little voice he knew so well called from behind it.

“Can I come in yet?”

“NO! Well… give me a minute, hold on…”

All of a sudden, Pomni felt like she'd done the wrong thing… would he hate it? Would he freak out on her?

She finalised her finishing touches, fluffing up the edges and smoothing out the blankets, before creaking the door open just a crack to look at him, he looked back with a small smile, that turned to a suspicious squint seeing her guilty looking expression.

“What's with that face? What'd you do?” Jax wrapped his hand around the door, gently urging it open.

Truly, Pomni had no idea what to say to prepare him, so she creaked the door fully open for him to see what she'd done, “Uh… this is… The new Fort.. kinda?”

At first he scanned the floor where Fort Jax sat so proudly just earlier, but there was nothing to be seen there. And that was when his attention was brought to the construction on the bed…

Since it used all the same materials as Fort Jax and covered a far smaller area with no need for a floor layer, the walls were built up fairly high into a secret cove. It was thick with blankets in the middle, all lain on top of eachother. Pomni had very purposefully built it with a close proximity with him in mind as her goal.

Jax's thoughts were… Mixed… Before, the idea of sleeping in a bed with her seemed, admittedly, a little frightening. But… with the way it was set up… it just seemed a far more efficient use of pillows than they'd been doing before. Why'd this innovation take them so long? It seemed obvious now, using a mattress as the base would save them so many pillows!

“So..?” Pomni nudged, Jax hadn't said anything yet, just stood looking at it.

He found, he acctually couldn't verbalise a response to her, really, what could he say… All he could do was a small nod with an accompanying anxious smile.

Relived by his semi-positive response, she reached out for his hand, “You wanna try it out?”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Chapter Text

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Don't freak out.

The space in the new ‘fort’ was really not a lot at all. It was deceptively un-roomy, the way the pillows piled high up against the wall and the foot and head of the bed made it seem grand… before they were both inside it, snugly fit against eachother. Jax was almost suspicious that Pomni was purposefully pushing him to the plush wall to hog more space for herself, but with how she leaned on his shoulder it was made impossible to see that side of the bed.

Though Jax’s bed was nearly twice the size of Pomni's, to accommodate for their different sizes, with the two of them and the needless number of pillows they may as well be buried in the same coffin. And, it did feel like that, being buried. There were possibly 5 blankets over both of them, making them both feel glad that realistic body temperature wasn't an actual feature in the Circus… though, Jax felt almost impossibly warm anyhow.

Besides asking if he was ok, Pomni hadn't yet spoken to him since climbing into the bed on the outer side. Though, she clearly wasn't trying to sleep, just watching him carefully, seemingly waiting for him to acclimatise.

Jax, however, couldn't handle the silence anymore, he felt an overwhelming urge to say something stupid, “So… Since you're in the habit of naming things after other guys now… what's this one called? Fort Gummygoo?” Ah, perfect. No better way to ruin the mood! There was a slight resentment in his voice, though he hadn't intended it.

Pomni picked her head off of his shoulder and just frowned at him in silence for a few moments, to see if he'd get the point just from that, but then she thought over what he'd said, “Wait… Jax, are you seriously jealous of… Caine? Caine??”

No, jealous wasn't the word, he didn't know what the word was but it wasn't that, “Uh, No?? It's just, you knew I wanted to call it Fort Jax 2… I thought you were on my side.” He pouted, he knew the name was stupid, super self absorbed, would piss everyone off and was also the worst of all the suggestions but… 

She sighed, “Everyone wanted to call it something different, Jax… no matter what we picked.. someone wouldn't be happy, naming it Castle Caine made it impartial.”

She was so mature, it made him feel like a big bumbling baby… and he supposed he wasn't helping his case by trying to start a fight on purpose just because he was uncomfortable.

Heaving a great sigh, he rolled over and shoved his face deep into a pillow and mumbled something. 3 words. 3 words that Pomni couldn't hear.

“Jax..? If you're saying something, I can't hear you.” Chuckling, her face softened once more, holding a hand to his back.

As he lifted his head back up, he made an attempt to glare at her, but the black of his eyes were far too big for it to look at all genuine, “Good, it was private.”

“What, just between you and the pillow? Can we call that… Pillow talk?” She laughed at her own joke, somebody had to, Jax didn't get it.

Rolling his eyes, he shifted back to the original conversation topic, “I'm wanna call it Fort Pomni, this, I mean.” He gestured in a nod to his bed.

That certainly caught her attention, she looked at him, wide eyed, “But… you wanted to call it Fort Jax 2..?” the idea of him naming, what was essentially just his bed, after her… definitely brought up some… interesting thoughts in Pomni's head.

Jax flipped himself onto his left side to face her, resting his head on the arm he tucked behind himself, “Get real, Pom, it's the dumbest name ever… it was cool when it was just Fort Jax, but sequels are never better than the original.” He stated, matter-of-factly with a grin.

Taking a deep breath, she tried so hard not to laugh at him calling Fort Jax a cool name, failing slightly with some little exhales that came out just a little too hard, “Well, I appreciate the sentiment but… Fort Pomni is just not a good name… why don't we call it uhhhh..” Pomni’s attempts to create a new name were sabotaged by her mind, that was actively working against her, only choosing to cycle through a collection inappropriate jokes, “I don't know… We can figure it out later.” Her cheeks flushed a slight pink.

“Yeah, I guess… So… uh.” He racked his brain for any new topic of conversation, to distract him from just realising how close their faces lay.

Completely unhelpfully, she softly placed her hand to his cheek, feeling the radiating heat through her glove. After a short moment, to let the touch linger, she bushed her thumb back and forth just slightly, “How was your day?” It was a simple question, very basic, but that didn't mean she wasn't interested.

Squinting playfully, his mouth morphed to a slight smile, “You were there for most of it…”

“Yeah, most, not all… what did you and Ragatha talk about… besides the fighting..? I mean, if anything at all.?”

It took a will of steel to ignore how her hand shifted to hold the back of his neck… a will that he decidedly didn't have, “..Uh.. ah… you know, stuff… Oh, she does know we're a thing now.”

She smiled teasingly, “A ‘thing' huh? As that all I am to you? Wow, OK, I see how it is…” Feigning a hurt sigh, she took his moment of distraction as an opportunity to slip her other hand around his neck to rest on his back.

He panicked, believing for a moment that he'd genuinely offended her, “What?? No- I meant… You- you know what I meant… You’re just being mean…” Pomni's move went for the most part successfully unnoticed, though he did suddenly feel the tightness of the situation get just so tighter.

Giggling, she continued getting closer under the sheets however she could, like a stealth mission, “Oh, by the way, I've been meaning to bring this up, but.. that was quite the move you pulled for Gangle earlier… You know, when you caught her mask?”

This was the second time that'd been brought up, at the time it was completely second nature for him but to everyone else it was apparently some huge deal, “Yeah, guess I must be like a hero or something, huh?” He deflected, using faux cocky confidence.

“Maybe… but you're definitely a very good boy…” She whispered, inches from his face, part lidded eyes gazing lovingly into his. He had half a mind to think she might just be flirting with him… Couldn't say for sure though.

Jax's house of cards came crashing down, realising he'd been trapped, tricked and utterly bamboozled, “O-oh?”

“I seem to remember making some sort of statement about what you'd get if you were well behaved, but gosh.. it's just slipping my mind…” She leaned closer, mere millimeters at a time.

F£%@ Sh!# oh this is happening, play it cool, Jax, “Y-yeah, haha… funny how… memories work…”

Eyes rolling, she sighed, Jax could feel the little puff of air on his face as she did. She should've expected she'd have to be direct with him, “C'mere, Bunny, lemme kiss you.”

Well, it seemed he liked those words, especially in that order. His pupils blew wide, nearly consuming all the yellow of his eyes and a little low purr began to eminate from deep in his chest. Pomni managed a small giggle at his demeanour shift before the gap was closed, there was no way to tell who's move it was, since the smallest little waver would've sent their faces crashing together anyways with how close they were to one another.

Starting with a few gentle pecks to his mouth, she felt the heat radiating off of Jax's face and onto hers. Gliding their way through the blankets, his arms found their way to wrap around her back, one hand tracing up to hold the back of her head almost subconsciously trying to keep the two of them together.

Just as Jax, eyes shut tight, eased into the kiss, Pomni's lips parted just so, her grip around his back tightening and pushing their torsos together as close as they possibly could, the pompoms on her chest squishing flat against his. Her tounge, try as it might, found no entry to his mouth, being stopped just past his lips by an unrelenting barrier.

This was… definitely the strangest kiss Pomni had ever experienced, though, she'd never dated anyone who's teeth were actually fused together before, in fairness to Jax.

She knew he could open his mouth, she'd seen it plenty of times before. But, what exactly she could do to trigger it was a mystery… well, besides strangulation but this was not the time to be trying that out…

Jax had no thoughts, his mind was completely empty of anything helpful and all of his actions were practically involuntary. thank God for that, though, he had no idea of what he was meant to do anyways. A shock ran through his whole whole body, awakening him from his placid state when Pomni softly bit down on bottom lip. His eyes shot open just as she leaned back from him. Though she smiled and giggled, there was a very slight dissatisfaction in her expression.

She was sure that would do it, that would get him to part his teeth… But she supposed she could always try again another time, “Sorry, sorry,” Her words were dotted with a little breathless laugh and her hands ran up the back of his neck to cup his head, she sighed, “You're so cute..”

Insecurity hit him in a tidal wave, his face contorted as his pupils shrunk to half their previous size, “What's that meant to mean… is that bad?”

Her thumbs slowly smoothed his cheeks, smushing his face slightly in their motions, “No, silly, it's just… Ah, this'll be so much better when we're out of the circus…”

When we're out of the circus…

When.

Not if.

It was a nice thought… too nice.

He'd stopped hoping like that a long time ago, believing that there would ever be a way out… he couldn't do that to himself, it'd drive him to abstraction.

His face fell to a soft frown, “When?”

The way he looked at her, she felt as though she'd just told him she believed in magic, like she was foolish to even begin the notion of such a thing in the first place, “Y-yeah… When this is all over…”

As softly as he could, Jax took her hands off of his face and held them, now having just less than a foot of space between them, “Pomni… I can't… we're not… there is no ‘when’, if you wanna be optimistic, that's an ‘if’ statement at most.” He could've kicked himself for his accidental pun.

She stayed quiet, for a long moment, allowing the static in the air to buzz, “I have to.. I can't live without seeing an end to this..” Her voice was almost too quiet to hear.

“Well, you're going to have to try… You'll drive yourself mad like that, Pomni… And if you go mad, I'll end up going mad with you..” Jax tried to sound comforting, but he knew no matter what tone he spoke in, this hurt. It hurt him too, but in his mind it was necessary, temporary pain. Just as he was about to give her hands a squeeze, she tore them apart.

Tears brimmed in her eyes, as she grasped at the pompom on her chest, “How can you say that… How can you just… give up hope??” The way she looked at him, her eyes shiny and wet as her bottom lip quivered, it could've killed him right then.

“Pomni…” Jax reached out, but didn't connect with her.

“I… I don't want to talk about this anymore… let's just go to sleep, please?” She turned to look away from him, shuffling under the blankets.

“Yeah… okay, I'm sorry.”

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

There was a part of Jax that wished the Circus didn't wake him up that morning, that he wouldn't have to watch as Pomni slipped out of bed, refusing eye contact with a blank expression as she took a pillow and a blanket and shuffled out of the room without a word.

If he'd just woken up an hour later with an empty space next to him, then at least he'd have an excuse as to why he didn't even ask her to stay.

But that wasn't the case. His door clicked closed again and he had done nothing about it.

She'd come around, he was sure, she'd give up on the idea of having any life outside of the Circus and then they'd be ok again…

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Chapter Text

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Ragatha always liked to be the first one out of her room in the mornings. She couldn't explain exactly why, even to herself, but she always felt better knowing where everyone was, and with the way the morning cycle worked, keeping track of that started the moment she and everyone else opened their eyes. She'd always forgo even the idea of sleeping again for even just a minute, favoring to march right out of her room, lest she miss absolutely anything.

Usually, she'd stand at her door and wait for a little bit before the others gradually began to meander to the tent, smiling and chirping her hellos and good mornings. 

This morning, something was different.

If she was just a moment later, she might’ve missed Pomni leaving Jax’s room with a small pile of bedding, making a beeline across the hall to her own room, seemingly with not even a goodbye to him.

Pomni's door closed again, the soft click of the latch rang out in the silence of the early morning.

This morning, something was wrong.

Ragatha didn't know what, but in her gut, she felt a twist. Though Pomni's movement gave no hint of her feelings and Ragatha didn’t see her face, still she felt a wave of unease wash down the whole corridor. Unsure, she hung in her open doorway.

Jax didn't seem to notice her as he stumbled out to the middle of the hallway, his steps slow and unsteady, if he did notice her, he payed her no mind. Swaying just so, he looked weak as he held his own arms close to himself. His ears lay flat on his head.

“…Jax?” She whispered out to him, shuffling out into the hall just enough to close her door behind her.

Jax turned his head only enough to see her in the corner of his eye for a second before he focused back on the door.

“Jax.” Ragatha repeated, lifting her arm as she closed the space to place a hand on his back, but refrained from making the connection, “… What's going on?” Her tone stayed hushed.

He said nothing, not that he wanted to just ignore her, what could he even say? That he'd f@%#ed it up? Just like he knew she thought he would eventually. 

“I don't-…" The sentence felt gross in his mouth, so he stopped himself. He couldn't say he didn't know, he did know. He knew exactly what he'd done.

Jax's mind was torn, he still believed he was right in what he’d said… but should he have said it? Maybe he should've just smiled and nodded until she realised it on her own. They were never leaving this place.

“Do I need to ask her instead?” There was the thought that she shouldn't shove her nose in the middle of whatever lovers spat they were going through, but a strange feeling waved the notion away. Although she had actively tried to avoid it, her voice held an air of condescension as if he was a difficult child and she mentally kicked herself for it.

Maybe it was best that Ragatha step in, she probably didn't want to see his stupid face anymore. Jax nodded reluctantly.

Jax was agreeing with her without putting up a fight? What the hell happened??

Whatever it was, she found herself feeling somewhat sorry for him, her hand met his shoulder without thinking and held it briefly, in an attempt to reassure before she moved toward the center of both their attention. She gently rapped on the door right under the sad mural, they both waited for a response with baited breath.

But none came.

After a moment, Ragatha called out “P-Pomni? It's me, are you okay?” She leaned her face closer, trying to hear for any sign of movement.

But again, no response.

She met Jax back in the middle of the hall, speaking quietly once again, “Jax… Seriously, what did you-.. what happened?” She caught herself, too late for him to not notice what she was about to say, not that he didn't think it was a fair and true assumption.

Jax just winced, still looking straight ahead at the little face on her door. He could only hum a whimper in response.

“…Are you going to… try and fix it?”

Jax didn't hesitate to nod.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

After all the others had passed by, leaving to wherever they were going to and Ragatha had gone with, deciding that if Pomni wouldn't answer to her, she wasn't the right person to be knocking. And still long after then, Jax stood there.

It's not like he'd forgotten he had the key to her room… he just didn't want to use it. Even so, he still hadn't knocked even once. Jax stood there, right up to the door, keenly listening, but he only heard the sound of his own breathing. 

He slid his hand up the smooth surface, the gliding sound filling the near-utter silence, and he pressed his face onto it, head turned just so, in a way that he could keep staring at her portrait wistfully.

“JAX!” Caine appeared out of nowhere, though, even if he had approached normally, it wasn't likely Jax would've noticed anyways.

Jax screamed, not quietly, stumbling back from the door and falling onto the floor. Even through the shock, he still brought his attention back to Pomni's door, incase of any sign she was reacting at all. There was none.

“What- What the hell, Caine??” He propped himself up on his elbows.

“I thought I'd find you here! I thought it because Ragatha said you'd be here!” He span, “Today's adventure is starting soon!”

“Yeah, sorry, I'll pass.” Jax grimaced, still making no effort to stand back up.

Caine's expression fell, “Oh.. I see… well, that's.. okay it's only something super cool I've been planning ever since… an hour ago…” crossing his arms, he clearly was trying to change Jax's mind, a near impossible feat… Unless Pomni was going then he'd fold and go with, “Is uh… Is Pomni in there?” He pointed at the still very closed door.

Jax thought, wearing a crestfallen expression on his face as he tucked his knees to his chest, “I think so, hard to tell…”

There was no hesitation in Caine’s response to phase through her wall, like a ghost. Jax scrambled to put an ear against the door, desperate to hear her voice… but he only heard Caine.

There was a beat of silence between each of his muffled sentences, waiting for a response from her as well, it seemed, but none came.

He emerged from the wall once again, “Well! I suppose it's just an adventure for four today!…”

“Caine! Wait- Is she… okay?” Jax called, body still shoved up to the door where he knelt.

“Hmmm… probably?” He shrugged, “Okay! I'll see you later bye byeeeee!” and he was gone again before Jax could get another word in. Probably? What does that mean in Caine context?

Well, if Pomni didn't know he was waiting outside her room like a creep before, she definitely did now. Standing up straight, he dusted himself off and knocked.

“Pom- uh… Pomni? Can we talk? Please?” The desperation in his voice was clear, even through the muffling effect of the door.

His call was left unanswered.

“Pomni? I'm sorry… Please talk to me.”

Nothing.

“Just- let me know you're okay? Please?” ears drooped, he sounded about ready to cry.

The silence hung like death on the door between them.

“Shut up, Jax.” a small, annoyed voice finally called back.

His face lit up, tail wagging uncontrollably, “O-OKAY!” A response definitely too excited to being told to shut up.

She talked to him! Kinda! She was okay! Probably!

Jax happily planted himself onto the floor infront of the door, ready to wait as long as it took.

♤♤♤●●●♤♤♤

Pomni lay flat on her bed, staring blankly at the canopy of her bed above her. The meager bedding sprawled in the general area, pillow under her head.

There was some kind of block in her brain. She felt stupid for even bringing it up, like she should've known the idea of escape was ridiculous… but it was still there.

Her unrelenting hope held firm, though knocked. Pomni wished she could just have it removed, vanquished, exorcised from her. Whatever it took so she could be okay with her life being just this forever and not feel this awful screaming pain in her heart when she thought about it…

She'd had a feeling Jax was waiting for her outside, she felt awful… and mad at him… He was right, or at least right to feel the way he did. Being there for years compared to her, what, probably nearly a month now?… she couldn't begin comprehend how he felt.

She'd completely ignored Caine when he intruded in her room, not even looking at him.. And it was nice to hear Jax's voice, she barely comprehended his words, just letting the familiar frequency embrace her.

It wasn't fair on Jax to give him the silent treatment, especially when something like abstraction was a very real threat… But she didn't want to see him yet. Mustering a pretty convincing annoyed tone, she returned his call, “Shut up, Jax.”

S#%$, why'd she say that, now he would stop talking…

She huffed, pulling the blanket from her side up to her face, trying to smell it for a feeling of him, but there was no trace of any scent at all. D@##%t, stupid circus… of course she should've guessed that, none of them smelled like anything so why would that work… What does he smell like in real life?

F@%#, no, stupid… they're never leaving here.. he'll never smell like anything again.

And since when was she fixated on smell? The circus was truly driving her to some new, strange types of madness.

Disgustingly hopeful thoughts kept popping into her head far faster than she could shoot them down, all because of him. Pomni wanted nothing more than to live a mundane, domestic life with him. But she had to concede that it would never happen.

For the next few hours, she wrestled internally with her thoughts, doing all she could to smother that little flame that refused to die out. But it refused.

Finally, she gave up, growling to herself before she called a command, “JAX!… Come here.” She wasn't going to open the door, what did she look like? A door opener? He could do that himself. And he did. Just seconds later there was the sound of him on the other side, furiously fumbling the key into the lock and bursting in.

“…Hi.” Jax stood awkwardly at the door, closing it behind himself.

“I said come here.” She patted the bed, sitting up for the first time in hours making her head spin just slightly. Her voice and face giving no indication to him what his fate would be if he complied. But he did as he was told anyways, striding over, Jax did hesitate slightly before he sat right next to her on the smaller bed.

Pomni's feelings brewed silently, but having him there was what she needed.

“Pomni, I'm so sorr-OUF-” The breath was knocked right from his mouth as she turned to him and hugged him tight around his middle.

“No..” she mumbled into his stomach, then shifted her head upward to look in his eyes, “You're right… and it sucks so much… but I love you, Jax.”

“No, I'm not, I shouldn't have said- wait- h-uh?” His reaction time on the double take was quite late, but he processed it eventually, looking down at her wide-eyed, “What was that last bit?”

“I love you.” She was more than happy to repeat it for him.

“O-h! I-… I love you too!” Overwhelmed, tears welled in his eyes but he refused to start crying before he'd finished saying what he needed to. Pomni just shoved her face back into him, “But I- I wasn't right, just because I… can't think the way you do… it doesn't mean you can't still have hope, and I want you to… Just as long as you don't go crazy… please.” He gently returned the hug.

At the slightest word of encouragement, the little flame in her grew once more, She met his eyes again, “So… do you think… Between us… it could be an 'if'?”

There was a pang in his heart, he could never make himself believe in a 'when'… but looking at her… 'If' would work just fine.

Jax smiled, “Yeah… yeah, I think so.”

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Chapter Text

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“Come onn, Jaxxx.” Pomni batted her lashes, attempting to weaponise her charm on him, “Why won't you tell me?”

The two of them were still squeezed onto Pomni's small bed. With only one pillow and blanket, it wasn't definitely wasn't making any records for comfort but they persisted. Jax lounged on his side, cheek rested on his propped arm, facing Pomni, who sat upright against the wall with her legs crossed.

“Because!… It's embarrassing…” Jax avoided looking directly at her, fearing the effectiveness of her ploy.

Pomni hadn't realised how little she actually knew about Jax until now. She'd been so caught up with just the idea of him being in her life if they ever got out, that it didn't fully click that she'd also be in his life.

Her pursuit to learn more about him had ultimately fallen flat at the first hurdle when she asked what job he'd had.

“I seriously don't believe that, either, you've gotta be making stuff up or you're being dramatic, ‘cuz I can't think of a single job I'd call ‘embarrassing’…” She air quoted, glaring as if she was trying to stare directly through his eyes and into his mind.

“Well then you're obviously not thinking hard enough.” He scoffed.

This was tough, Pomni was generally the kind of person that believed nearly every profession was respectable, while Jax was far more pessimistic and, frankly, insecure too. An embarrassing job meant very different things to the both of them.

Spinning through options in her head, she finally hit a job that she'd actually be ashamed to have, her face scrunched, “Oh God, you weren't like, a call centre scammer, right??”

“What? No?? I said embarrassing, not scummy...” He seemed offended that it was even a possibility to her.

Relaxing her posture again, she sighed with some relief. A little thought came to her, too good to pass up, she grinned, “Y’know… I would never fall for a scam, but, uh, if you called, I'd definitely be.. falling.” Somewhat awkwardly fumbling the phrasing, she topped her line off with a flirty expression and an eyebrow wiggle.

He paused, letting the little hamster wheel in his head spin, “…Was that a pickup line..?” Maybe it was just because it was her, but it totally worked, “What, you got a crush on me or something~?” He spoke with a teasingly sarcastic tone and a giant grin, rolling onto his stomach so that he could idly kick his feet in the air behind him.

“Maybe just a little one…” She giggled, “So, did it work? Were you… rizzed?…” she regretted the word before she even said it, but said it anyways and regretted it more.

His face contorted into confusion, “Was I what?”

“Nevermind, I'm too old to be saying stuff like that…” Pomni's head fell into her hands, clutching her forehead.

“Okay… but what does it mean, though..?” the movement in his legs slowed to a halt as he frowned at her suspiciously.

“Oh, oh yeah, I guess you weren't around then… thank goodness..” Pomni was keen to change the subject, “So, can I get a hint?”

Thankfully for Pomni, Jax was able to shake off his curiosity, “Poms, I'm not playing a guessing game with you right now… ask something else.”

Rolling her eyes dramatically, she scoffed, “UGH, fine… What did you look like?”

Jax thought, puffing out a sharp breath. Seemingly having to dig deep for this one, his eyes found the canopy of the bed as he mulled over the dull memories of his reflection, “Jeez, uh, brown hair… I wanna say blue eyes..? But they might’ve been green… my skin was… attached to me.?”

“Wow, you really paint quite the picture..” She sarcasticly spat through her gritted teeth. Well, it was something, “What about your family?”

Griamcing slightly, he shifted back to laying on his side, “Pass. Can I ask a question to you now?” Jax moved the conversation swiftly onward.

“Are you serious? You've barely answered half a question…” She eyed him, judgingly, but conceded with a sigh, “Fine… Shoot.”

“Y’know, I’ve always been curious… What was your credit card number? And don't forget the three numbers on the back too.” He grinned playfully.

“Jax…” She scowled at him.

Going for the classic sexy side lounge pose, he bent one leg into an arch and let his other arm lay lazily over him, “Whattttt? I thought you'd said you'd fall for me if I tried to scam you? I figured you'd totally swoon for that..” The tone he played with cool, confident and surely too smug for his own good.

But… much to her anguish, his act left Pomni with a little dusting of pink across her cheeks, “Oh my God, shut up… ask an actual one.”

It was a long minute of Jax only making thoughtful humming noises, so long that Pomni was beginning to suspect he was only pretending to try and come up with a real question before he finally spoke, “…Hm, well, what about your family? You've vaguely mentioned them before but.. Tell me more?”

For some reason, she was surprised by the question, “Uh, sure, well … I have my Mom and Dad and two little brothers… though they're both taller than me which totally isn't fair…- but, that's neither here nor there I hardly think about it…” She huffed a little breath of frustration that poked a hole through her poorly crafted faćade. Really, she thought about it whenever she stood by them, “Uh… we grew up in a different city a few hours drive away from here… well I say here but you know what I mean.. it was a bit more rural so we kinda ended up being quite outdoorsy as a family... I think I did mention to you that we did hikes? Right?” Her big eyes turned to him as she paused, awaiting his input.

Jax was rudely awoken from his extreme focus on her words to answer her, “You said you went into pits together.”

“I can guarantee you I did not say that.” She deadpanned, to which Jax shrugged, as if it was up to interpretation, “There was some good trails nearby our house, most Sundays we'd go on long walks with our extended family there too..” Pomni smiled fondly at the memory, running a finger across a crease in the single pillow sat between them.

Jax stayed quiet for a moment, taking in the ideas with a still expression, until he unintentionally smiled at the image he'd created of a bunch of little jesters in the woods and had to stop himself from laughing, which he did manage, resetting himself for his response, “It sounds nice, having your whole family be so close like that… why'd you move away?”

“Well, thats- hey! I already answered your question, now it's your turn… And you don't get any more passes, alright?” At this point, all she knew of him was the kind of stuff an average student might say about themselves in a spoken Spanish test, like his favourite colour, the fact he prefers cats over dogs and that he supposedly has brown hair. Which, really wasn't the limit of knowledge she should be having with her own boyfriend.

There was a slight twinge of fear within him, though he knew he had no cause for it, so he put on a brave face, “Ask away!… Within reason..”

Pomni thought, skimming through a few of the options in her head, she decided to try the one he was most likely to reject outright first, “Hmm.. What was your highschool experience like?”

If he was drinking something, he would've done a spit-take, but, thankfully, he was not, “Jeez, Poms, you're really coming for my life here, huh?” Jax grimaced hard, “Not great.”

Pomni just stared at him for a moment, expectantly, “What, that's it? That's your whole answer? Seriously? I mean come on, were you in any clubs? Did you have a friend group? Did anything like… super crazy ever happen?”

He scoffed, like it was a silly question, “It was Florida, Pomni, of course crazy stuff happened. It was part of our schedule.”

“Wait, you're from Florida? See, now we're getting somewhere, Florida Man.” Amused by the concept, she giggled to herself, “That's a little while away from Wisconsin, why'd you move?”

Still seeming unable to get comfortable, Jax rolled onto his back, nearly falling off of the bed. Steadying himself, he puffed out a nonchalant breath, “Honestly, I kinda just threw a dart at a map… except I didn't have any darts so I closed my eyes and pointed.” He'd assumed she meant why he was moving away, and purposefully ignored that part.

Still, Pomni did as Pomni does and gathered all the subtext she could to compile in her head, “So you moved alone? How old were you?”

At those two questions, Jax felt the creeping, horrid feeling that he'd said too much… but that was surely ridiculous… She was allowed to know about him, and he welcomed the idea… But, she was scraping the surface of something he hadn't touched in years, even before the Circus. And it ran deep.

Pausing, he considered his options, “… I wasn't in any clubs in highschool, but I did have one friend I remember…” For a moment, it seemed to Pomni as if he was actually going to answer a question straight up, and he did, but not the one she thought he would, “…I… Can't remember her name..” At this revelation, there was a deep unsettling sadness that sunk Jax's heart in his chest. Circus weirdness or not, how could he just forget??

For a moment, she considered pointing out the fact that this friend was supposedly a girl. But, Pomni didn't see what relevance it would have besides possibly making Jax assume she was jealous, which she decidedly was not, and giving him a distraction he could use to get out of talking, “What'd you guys do?”

Switching his position yet again, in his still fruitless quest to find a comfortable way to lay, Jax lounged on his front and managed what semblance of a shrug he could, “I dunno, normal geeky teen stuff I guess.”

“Geeky teen stuff?” Pursing her lips in thought, Pomni tapped her knee until something came to her, “So like… cosplaying?”

The shocked and disturbed glare Jax shot at her was all the answer she needed to her question. Said answer being yes.

“No, other stuff… ANYWAYS-" Jax swiftly threw himself onto the floor with a thud. Standing up, he scanned the room for some distraction spell he could use on her. That was when he saw something.

Something small, a familiar shape and colour sitting on her dressing table under the mirror. The mirror that, from Jax's point of view, reflected a life sized version of the small thing.

Jax's eyes were locked to it, body frozen as if he were in a standoff with it. Though she could tell he'd spotted something, Pomni couldn't quite tell what.

“Pomni…” He crept toward it, craning his neck, “What is… This?” Plucking it from its proud position, it was very obvious what it was, but that didn't make him any less confused.

“What's… Oh-! Uh! That's uhhhhhhh..” She chuckled awkwardly, seeing the little Jax figurine in his hand.

“Where the hell did you get this from??” Twisting his wrist, he examined it closely, there was a slight hand-made feeling but there was no way she'd made vinyl figure of him in her free time without him noticing?? Right?

Pomni shifted to the edge of the bed, throwing her feet over the ledge, “Don't you remember the uh, Orienteering Adventure that little while back? When we got those figures?”

He did remember, vaguely, but most of his memory of that particular adventure was when he beat the s#%@ out of Gummygoo and consequently ended up with Pomni being very very mad at him.

“…Kinda? Go on?” His left brow made a severe arch, holding the little Jax, that he had now noticed had an awkward demeanor in its stance.

“Well, we got the figures of our team and… Well I didn't really… particularly want a figure of Franklin so I repainted it to look like… you?” She rambled, gesturing her hands around in ways that meant nothing at all.

While everything else completely checked out, there was one bit he was hung up on, “…Franklin?”

Oh shoot, yeah, she was the only one that knew about that, oops, “Oh! Oh yeah, I uh… didn't want to call him by your name so I gave him a new one… And he didn't even fight it..” She gave a little smile of slightly twisted amusement.

“Yeah? What a loser, couldn't be me.” Jax grinned confidently, the ego boost not going without notice.

Pomni clicked her tounge, “Are you sure?”

Placing the Jax figure down, now onto Pomni's nightstand, he squinted at her, “Uh, yeah?” He huffed a breath of a laugh, as if it was a ridiculous question, but now felt unsure of himself.

She looked him over with a suspicious squint, “Mhm? So if I called you… Sweet cheeks, or… Good boy? You wouldn't stand for it? That's so interesting…” Grinning teasingly, she crossed her arms.

Jax's face went through at least 5 different expressions at this, before landing back on a forced nonchalant look that was just slightly less believable than before, “Okay, first, that's not the same thing! And second, I don't stand for it!… S-so you'd better cut it out…” he pointed accusingly at her on the bed.

Though she nodded thoughtfully and went along with it, she really didn't believe him one bit, “Oh, okay I see… I will absolutely stop then, you'll hear no more of that from me, I promise.” The tone she spoke in held the slightest hint of sarcasm, though this was not something Jax picked up on.

He sputtered, eyebrows twitching, “I mean- if you really want to then I guess I can put up with it…?”

“Oh no, it's ok, don't worry! I'll be just fine. I just want you to feel comfortable.” Unless he was willing to admit that he liked it, Pomni was putting her foot down and keeping it there.

He huffed, a quiet sadness in his eyes, one foot beginning to thump the floor with a loud patting noise, “Okay… good… I'm uh- gonna go see if the others are back yet…” Sulking out of the room for reasons he could only blame himself for, he crossed his arms and slightly hunched his shoulders. It was funny to watch for Pomni, though she also still felt a little bad…

“Alright, I'll catch you later then -" She caught herself somehow already faltering in her promise, about to shout out some pet name at him, “Jax..”

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Chapter Text

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Stepping out of her bedroom for the first time that day, the bright lights of the hallway had Pomni squinting as she walked down and toward the exit of the living quarters. 

It'd been over half an hour since Jax had left her to ‘go see if the others are back yet’ and he hadn't since returned… not that she was expecting him to rush right back to her side or whatever.. Anyhow, it'd allowed her just that little bit more time to wallow in her feelings of despair, that still floated round like silt in a disturbed pond and clouded her mood, all she could do is wait for it to settle down at the bottom again.

Her feelings, at times, gave her some physical pain in the way her heart twisted relentlessly in her chest. If this feeling were ever to stop, there wouldn't be a way to know whether it had gone away for good, or that she was just too used to it to notice.

It had only started feeling like this again once Jax had made himself scarce to her. She assured herself it wasn't his absence that hurt, it was more that he was her remedy. Though, maybe the former used to be the case, she had also found that ever since they had become an official couple, being separated from him never felt like true distance, like there was always a little string that kept them connected no matter what. And it was just that little feeling of union that lifted away the heavy weight his absence left on her shoulders.

Plodding tiredly out to the landing by the steps, Pomni did somewhat expect to see some sign of the others when she peaked over the top of the colourful railing, but there was nothing. Just the little corner of Castle Caine she could see peeking out from behind one of the larger structures. Their fort, though ugly and mismatched and in some places poorly built, had become somewhat of a haven for the members of the circus. Pomni figured it must be something about how much dimmer and desaturated it was in there than anywhere else that made it immediately the new place to be in the circus. If Jax and the others were anywhere, it was most likely in there.

On her way, Pomni passed by many instances of the excess furniture they'd made yesterday having just been placed at random in little groups, like a set. Such as, a couch paired with an armchair and an ‘artistically’ shaped coffee table, arranged ergonomically in a way that made the circus feel strangely even more liminal than it did before. These occurances got more and more common as she closed in on the epicentre, where all the furniture was built, just at the front door of Castle Caine.

Pomni made an attempt to listen for voices within the fort as she approached the door, that was left ajar to a degree such that she would not be able to see anyone through it. There were no sounds of idle conversation that she might’ve expected, though, she did hear the sound of cardboard scraping, shuffling feet and a consistent… grunting noise?

Peeking inside, the second thing she noticed was that the inside had been completely rearranged, from having two couches up against the walls into now more of a circle in the middle of the room. The first thing she noticed was Jax, bent over facing the opposite way from her. He was in the middle of adding a fifth (and probably final, looking at the absense of space for a sixth one) couch to the ring. Arranging it perfectly so that there was still an easy path to the back of the fort.

“Oh, hey, Jax.” She slipped though the doorway, taking a casual look around again before her eyes landed back on him.

His head snapped around in her direction mid shove. The thing about his bent-over position was that it was clear as day for both of them to see his tail start up a rythmic wagging motion once he'd spotted her. Jax's face flushed at the involuntary reaction he had to her mere presence and he stood with a spin to hide his rear from her line of sight, as if it wasn't too late already.

Raising an eyebrow, she hummed in amusement, “What'cha up to?”

The blaze slowly subsided from his face, “Oh, just some redecorating… Before, we didn't have enough seats for everyone, but now, we all have our own couch, if Zooble sits on the floor!” He grinned, covering up his genuinely thoughtful act with a jab at his favourite frenemy.

Pomni rolled her eyes, “Yeah, sure, we could do that… orrrrr… Maybe, me and you could share one? I think I like that idea better.” She swayed bashfully, a small smile on her face.

Jax stared at her for a moment, until the thought of it made him so giddy that he physically shook and caught himself unintentionally holding his breath. He covertly caught up with the few inhales and exhales he had missed, “Yeah, that sounds good too..” Their own designated couch… for the both of them together… That was like getting married, right??

Looking at the selection, she pondered, “So, you wanna claim one before everyone gets back? Which one is best, do you think?”

“Wowwww, Poms, getting the good couch before anyone else even has a chance? There's a dark streak in you…” Thought he crossed his arms and shook his head at her, he immediately also began trying to decide which was the best couch.

They began to independently appraise each couch, silently stepping around one another, going through all the variables they could think of, and taking it all very seriously, until Pomni stopped infront of the one basically opposite the doorway.

“Hmm, how about this one?” Pomni pressed down on the springy fabric of the couch with her fingertips.

Jax tilted his head with a hand on his chin, assessing her choice, “.. Explain your reasoning?”

Standing back, she pointed at the plaque above it, “Sitting here means we can't see the ‘Live Laugh Love’ sign that Ragatha put up.” 

“You have a good point, but then we'd be sitting right under it… what if everyone Live, Love, Laughs at us? How could we Love, Laugh, Live in those conditions??” Though he made his voice sound like he was genuinely concerned, the grin he held throughout the bit discredited any believability it held.

“Well… as long as we Live, Laugh, Love eachother, it'll all be okay.” Pomni smiled sweetly at him, before hopping up onto the right side of the couch and taking a seat, “C'mon, let's test it out?” She patted the spot beside her.

Jax gave in to her call, he knew they couldn't not pick that one after that. And, frankly, no matter what she said, he would've gone along with her choice anyways. He fell to his seat beside her, the weight of him bouncing Pomni slightly.

Before they could get too comfortable, Pomni spotted something, unfortunately for Jax. She jumped back to the floor and wondered over to the wall on their left, where a collection of framed pictures hung. Jax could only sigh in defeat, realising what she was about to see as she stood up on the couch below the display.

The first picture was a bit of a shock to see, it was the polaroid of herself and Jax asleep in Kingers Fortress, she knew the picture existed, but had honestly forgotten about it. She smiled at the memory, glad that it was being kept so safe.

The next photo looked to be part of a collection, Pomni had no idea how to react to it's contents for a good 10 seconds. She started with a confused look back at their couch, to the subject of the picture. The image before her seemed to definitely be of Jax, but he was completely covered in some… goopy pudding? With a halo of light surrounding him from the circus outside, as the picture looked to have been taken right there in Castle Caine. She spat out an incredibly confused laugh, looking back at Jax, who just smiled and shrugged. All things considered though, it was a masterfully taken photo.

The next in the row looked to have been taken not long after the first, the same goopy Jax, same camera positioning, but now Jax had Gangle wrapped in what had to be the worst hug ever experienced, with a pleased grin on his face. Pomni couldn't help but smile, though.

Moving along, the next in the franchise had Pomni immediately take back what she thought of the hug in the last one, this was now, absolutely the worst hug ever. Framed immortally, was Ragatha after being caught by Jax, just the look of horror on her face was enough to know what that sensory experience was like. The fact that this one was taken outside the Fort was a good clue that she didn't go down without a chase first. Despite it all, though, it was absolutely adorable. It was so nice to see him… getting along? With the others.

The little grin on her face vanished like a magic trick at the sight of the next 3 in the collection. Sat beneath their correlating first images, were photos of Jax, Gangle and Ragatha being ‘cleaned off’ by Bubble. Awful.

Pomni scoffed a laugh, “When the hell were these taken?? And how’d I not know about it?” She jumped back down and scuttled back over to her seat.

“It was uhhh… Right when you went to go build the bed nest, Gangle pranked me, so I made it everyone's problem!” He grinned, leaning back into the plush seat.

“Well, I'm assuming by the fact that you seem happy, and that the pictures made it up onto the wall, that it was all taken in good fun…? Right? Like, they aren't mad at you?” That would be so typical of a thing to happen, if she left him for half an hour and he'd managed to isolate himself from everyone all over again…

“Well… they were definitely mad when Caine called on Bubble..” He giggled evilly, “But hell if I was going to go through that alone… But… no, at least I don't think so..? W-why.. Do you think they are?” None of them had cursed him out over it or explicitly said anything, so he thought he was in the clear… until right now and he was second guessing everything. Had he seriously gone and f@%#ed it all up in under 5 minutes?? There was a fast growing expression of panic on his face.

Noticing the way his face contorted and his heavier breaths, Pomni slid closer to Jax, patting his thigh in comfort, “Hey- hey it'll be OK, you didn't mean it maliciously.. right? If they are mad, I'll talk to them and we'll sort it out, don't worry.”

Closing his eyes, he evened out his breathing with a long sigh, “Yeah… OK, thank you Pomni… love you.” The last bit being nearly a whisper, but she heard him just fine.

She hummed happily, sliding herself right into the spot under his arm, fitting snug, like it was made just for her, “Love you, too.”

And just like that, everything was okay. She tended to have that effect on him, like she could just tell any storm brewing within him to f#$% off and the sky would obey her word and clear in an instant. He had half a mind to propose right then and there, but… maybe it was a little soon for that…

As Jax was hesitantly closing his arm around her, Pomni spoke up with a genius and groundbreaking proposition, “Do you wanna kiss?”

There was no hesitation in Jax's nod to the positive, causing a little laugh to escape her lips. The fact that his long legs were no longer a factor did make their faces that much closer in distance while sitting, but they weren't quite on the same level. Pomni carefully placed a palm to the back of his neck and tugged him downward toward her face.

She landed a gentle peck to his lips, before leaning back, “Uh, hey, maybe a weird question, but… could you like.. open your teeth?”

Jax had to think for a moment, he never usually did that on purpose unless he was making stupid faces in the mirror, but he was able to figure it out. His teeth parted into their sharp, serrated rows, “Like this?” He spoke like a normal person for once, witch was a very odd feeling for the both of them.

“Just like that, now keep ‘em separate..” Pomni figured maybe there was something she had to realise about herself, that the sharp teeth were definitely a… thing for her.

She dragged his face into hers once again, this was a much more familiar way for her to kiss, though still so foreign at the same time. While gently petting at the back of his head, she ran her tongue across his teeth, feeling out the pointed tips.

Jax found himself pushing into her, until she was nearly leaning back from his force but their lips stayed locked. As the kiss continued and deepened, his hands roamed up her back, holding her side and the base of her neck and gently smoothing his thumb back and forth.

And, just as her tongue met his, inside of his mouth… the front door swung open with force, slamming against the wall.

The two, still attached at the face, spun their eyes to see Zooble standing at the front of the group, frozen, with Ragatha, Gangle and Kinger in tow, all seeing exactly what was happening.

“Wh- OH MY GOD, CAN YOU GUYS KEEP THIS S#%@ IN YOUR ROOMS?” Zooble was honestly not shocked that it was happening, more just disturbed be having to see it with his own eyes.

At this, The struggle for Jax in keeping his teeth open finally fell apart and they snapped shut… unfortunately, it was not only his tongue behind them at the time, but Pomni's as well.

The pain shot through her like she'd shoved a fork in an electrical outlet and she tried to pull back with a shriek, but alas, her tongue was still firmly stuck in the now solid block of teeth with no escape. It streched out between them cartoonishly as she desperately tried to wrench herself away, before she flew back towards him.

The onlooking cast gasped and recoiled in an instinctual empathy for her pain, covering their mouths in almost unison, or, where their mouths would be, for some. Even Kinger found the capacity to know what was going on.

Pomni slapped hysterically at Jax's shoulders, trying to say something like ow, but it couldn't come out right, “A! A! A! A! A! DAKTH! DAKTH! A! A! A! A!”

In his panic, he couldn't for the life of him figure out how to open his teeth again. The stress was incredibly evident on his face and in his body language, with the way he held his arms up and away from her.

Finally, just for a fleeting moment, Jax was able to un-clamp his jaw and flew far apart from her. So far, in fact, that he went over the arm of the couch and landed on the floor with a thud.

Pomni placed her now throbbing tongue back where it had nearly always been safe before. Squealing slightly as she pressed her hands against her lower face, which was also blazing red from the embarrassment of it all.

Zooble was the first the recover, groaning in pain at just the idea of it, “Well, I uh- I think a lesson has been learned… holy f@%$… uh… yeah, now we all know where not to put our appendages… Jesus Christ…”

From the floor, where the view of him was mostly obstructed, but one leg still stuck over the side of the couch, Jax called out weakly, “…Hey guys, welcome back…”

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