Chapter Text
Christine was flat out exhausted.
Shopping is seriously a pain in the ass. It was bad enough waking up and having to run on an empty stomach.
She had somehow gotten into the checkout with an employee who happened to be in the shittest mood of all.
With her arms full of groceries, she fumbled through her pockets to find her keys.
“Far out…” she scowled at the mozzarella stick that fell mockingly on the floor.
The door suddenly opened with a small creak.
Chrissy sighed. That only meant one thing.
“Chrissy! Hey, baby! How’s my favourite sister going?” Sarah greeted enthusiastically.
Her lips pursed in a straight line in irritation before mumbling a diss incoherently. “What did I specifically tell you about showing up randomly, dude!?”
Sarah folded her arms while rolling her eyes exaggeratedly, “You’re lucky I’m not a serial killer. And not even a hi or hello? Wow.”
“Yeah, okay, hey Sarah, what’s up?” Chrissy supplied, staggering to the counter with the bags in hand.
Her sister picked up the depressing mozzarella stick from the ground then locked the front door carefully. “Eh, not a lot. Manu’s on his business trip again, you know how husbands are… so I came to hang with you!” She hops on the marble counter, admiring how clean it all was. Sarah always appreciated Chrissy’s determination to keep places tidy growing up.
“Lucky me,” Chrissy muttered, the sarcasm heavy on her tongue.
She slowly removed each product of the bag not realising Sara was eying her. “Baby, what’s up?”
Well, that was straightforward.
She opened her mouth, ready with a witty retort on the tip of her tongue about Sarah being an overprotective sister, but suddenly she couldn’t speak. She didn’t even know why she was so upset. Maybe seeing that guy reminded her of Jax and that might’ve caused her brain to go haywire?
What was she thinking? The guy was purely just a dick. And that so happened to be like… Jax.
Shocker.
“I’m not a child, you know…”
Sarah didn’t want to push, but she knew if Chrissy didn’t talk now, it would impact the rest of her visit. “Then stop pouting like one. Chris, in all honesty, you look like your pet goldfish just died. Speaking of which, where’s Miku?”
She blinked, “Oh, uh, she’s probably chilling in my wardrobe.”
Sarah nods.
There it was again. That silence.
Christine always hated silence. Silence during a conversation was awkward, silence during a meeting meant she’d fucked up, silence from her sisters meant she was in trouble. And the silence she found with Sarah was… the awkward kind.
“You thinking of it?” she paused before continuing, “the… the circus? You know, we all believe you, Christine.”
The sound of her full name made her flinch.
Another load of silence followed. Sarah tolerated it, but Chrissy barely could.
Reluctantly, she answered. “Y-yeah, I know...I…I can’t stop thinking about it, Sarah. They’re on my mind 24/7.” Especially Jax, she wanted to say but she couldn’t bring herself to.
What was she thinking? Jax treated her like a ragdoll. He even threw her out of a moving truck, for crying out loud!
“Who in particular?”
She snapped her head to Sarah with her jaw agape. “What?!”
Her sister scoffed, “C’mon, Baby, it’s easy to see when you have a crush. You’re terrible at hiding it.” She could barely contain her laughter.
“W-woah! I don’t like anyone, dude! And stop calling me baby! I’m 25 years old now!” she hissed in retaliation.
Sarah did nothing but shrug. “You’re still the baby of all of us. But look, finding him… or her… is your best shot of getting…well, getting better.”
Finding him.
Finding. Him.
Christine doesn’t know how or why, her mind drifts off to Jax again. That idiotic, dumb, handsome, tall–
Woah.
Jesus, Christine, get a grip, she scolded herself in thought.
“It’s obvious you don’t want to hang– I’m not stupid– but I don’t want to leave you here when something is bugging you.” Sarah’s voice was small but was sincere. She wrung her hands sheepishly before continuing. “Look, I don’t mind heading to Karolina’s right now, just please don't drown yourself in ice cream while doing a Scream marathon tonight, okay?”
Christine let a small chuckle leave her lips, grateful to laugh off some nerves. “Can’t make any promises. But uh… say hi to Karo for me. Work has been awfully busy but maybe I might see her at the next family meet up, yeah?”
Sarah grinned smugly, “Yeah, unless you’re too busy getting laid by this mystery guy.”
Her eyes grew as big as saucers and her jaw went agape. She always forgot that Sarah loved making innuendos and loved seeing her other sisters squirm. Chrissy wouldn’t like anything more than to choke her to death. She would never admit it, but she was grateful for the sudden subject change. “DUDE! Just get out of my apartment, you’re disgusting.”
“HAH! You love me. Aight, see you later, Baby.” Sarah settled with just ruffling her little sister’s hair before blowing her kiss. Sarah wasn’t stupid– she knew well enough that hugging Chrissy would earn her a punch in the rib.
“Sigh, yeah, you’re right. Bye, Sarah, don’t hit your head on the way out.”
Sisters, Chrissy sighed as she continued taking out her groceries.
In all honesty, she doesn’t know what or why she was here.
Sitting at her desk, she glared at the instagram search bar as if it had personally offended her.
“Ugh, what am I doing?” she complained while dragging a hand down her face.
Without giving her mind time to overthink, she typed in Felix in the search bar.
Her baby lamp she had bought last week, shone a soft warm light that reflected on her phone.
Kinger was the main reason she searched relentlessly for it. She’d do anything to have a slice of advice from him right now.
Something About You played in the background as she continued her digging on instagram.
Scrolling through the recommended profiles, she found nothing but a mukbang account dedicated to cooked octopus and accounts of random middle-aged men.
Don’t give up yet, she hyped herself.
She didn’t really know why Jax, of all people, was her top priority. Maybe, because of the prick she bumped into made her this desperate?
Life after the circus was difficult. But finding the other’s was even worse.
She woke up soaked in sweat, with a rundown VR headset in her hand that day.
Her memory was hazy, and it didn’t take long before she let the panic sink in.
The silence gave everything permission to come rushing back.
She tried.
So. Hard.
But once a breath cracked, it didn’t mend again.
It started small. A tremor in her shoulders, her hands, and breath. Then came the quiet kind of crying– jaw clenched and her tears stinging against her cheeks.
Christine frowned at the thought, softly shaking her head.
Her thumbs typed Beca.
That was her name, right? Christine’s brows furrowed and then–
Rebecca.
Her fingers flew on her phone’s keyboard with a small rush of dopamine. She couldn’t help but feel slightly giddy at her smart thinking.
The results were instant.
The screen showed a profile with the user: RebeccaCliff_05. And unsurprisingly, her profile picture was her and Felix.
They looked awfully happy– she was tucked under his chin as he cradled her like a teddy bear.
She also looked awfully gorgeous.
Her belly-long hair was in soft mermaid waves, the green enhancing the magical-whimsy look. Her scarf was a soft blue and wore a white puffer jacket that complimented her porcelain skin and blushed cheeks perfectly.
They both smiled– obviously enamored with each other.
Of course, Chrissy was jealous.
Of the woman’s beauty, obviously...
She hesitantly clicked her profile with a wavering confidence she refused to acknowledge.
Her shoulders slumped instantaneously.
Rebecca was fucking insta-famous.
Her account had 204 posts, 668K followers and only followed 182 people.
Of course she was insta-famous! She’s…stunning.
Scrolling absentmindedly, she saw most of her life through every post.
Her latest was a photo of her posing on a bar stool in a slick black dress with a deep boob cut. On her sternum, an emerald and amethyst necklace laid there and her left shoulder had her hair covering her strap.
But her hair was… different.
It wasn’t bright neon green. It was more of a soft plum red, which surprised Chrissy more than she expected.
Her eyes drifted the date it was posted.
7th of November 2025.
That was a month and a half ago, why on earth did she stop posting?
Confused and intrigued, Chrissy checked her other posts' timestamps.
2nd of November, 2025.
26th of October, 2025.
15th of October, 2025.
Her posts before her latest one, were all consistent. So, why does one stop posting on a random Friday?
Brows furrowing again, she thought through the circus’ timeline.
She ‘returned’ to herself exactly a month and 23 days ago but was only gone for a day and a half.
Knowing the time distortion by Zooble’s mini informative lessons taught Chrissy that the two months she spent in the circus barely scratched two days here.
She gave up reluctantly, not long before shifting onto Felix’s profile, who was fortunately tagged in Beca’s bio.
His account wasn’t private–thankfully–but only had one post.
The account had a whopping 204 followers and glancing at his username made Christine snort.
FeFuzzbun06.
Her laughter was cut off as she took a double take at the username.
FeFuzz…bun?
Christine swore her heart fell to her ass.
She doubted it instantly. But it would make sense… wouldn’t it?
And how could she explain the suspicious timestamps of his girlfriends instagram posts?
Exactly! She couldn't.
But who could that even be–?
Shit.
“Shit.shit.shit.shit. Oh, God, I'm going to throw up. I’m SO going to throw up.”
Was that…
Ribbit?