Chapter Text
Everybody was up and ready for the day, wondering what adventure would be decided for today. Since Caine gave everybody their own special administration permissions they all collectively decided that they would all use the suggestion box or at least have a discussion.
Everybody was in the main area of the circus waiting for both Pomni and Ragatha to meet them there. “How long are they going to be?” Zooble sighed.
Gangle was next to them drawing in her little anime sketchbook, “They might still be sleeping.”
“Yeah they could..” Caine replied, joining into the conversation, but they don’t usually sleep in like this.” Caine looked at his watch, "It's almost noon.”
“Well.. I walked past Ragatha’s room last night and..” Kinger started but then stopped immediately when he noticed everybody was looking at him.
“And?” Caine asked with a puzzle expression on his face.
Kinger cleared his throat and looked away from Caine who was floating strangely close to him. Zooble and Gangle looked at each other, silently communicating about the question. After a minute their eyes slightly widened in realization. Both of them let out a small, “Ohhhh.”
Caine was still confused, “Wha- What did that ‘oh’ mean?!”
Before any of them answered they heard Ragatha yell, “We’re here!” They looked and saw Ragatha walking with Pomni towards them.
“Oh hello Pomni! Hello Ragatha!” Kinger welcomed them with a warm expression.
“What took you guys so long?” Caine asked, still oblivious to the situation.
Pomni looked away a bit embarrassed. Ragatha's expressions changed to something much more nervous, “W-Well I accidentally fell on something sharp last night a-and I needed some stitching up to do!”
“Oh, are you okay?” Gangle asked, playing along with the lie.
Ragatha nodded, “Yes! Pomni helped stitch me up! R-Right Pomni?” She gave her a slight nudge with her shoulder.
Pomni looked back at them and nodded, “Yeah. I’m still learning how to sew so that’s why it took me a long time. Sorry.”
“Oh I guess that’s a good enough reason.” Caine said, rubbing his chin. The others knew that both Ragatha and Pomni were lying through their teeth but decided that the best thing to do was to keep their mouths shut.
“Anyway.. Have you all decided on an adventure yet?” Pomni asked, changing the topic.
“Well, we were discussing a few adventure ideas before we started wondering why it was taking you guys so long to get here.” Zooble replied.
“Oh! What were some of the ideas?” Ragatha asked.
Gangle flipped to a previous page in her sketchbook. “I wrote some of them down so if we forgot we could always look back at it.” She cleared her throat, “First on the list is, we could become pirates and have to hunt down treasure.”
Ragatha thought for a moment then shook her head. “Don’t you guys remember the last time we had a pirate adventure..?” Ragatha sighed.
Pomni raised an eyebrow, “What happened last time?”
“This was a couple of days before you came along but Jax threw both Gangle and Ragatha into the sea filled with sharks and sea crabs. The next day I had to spend the whole day stitching Ragatha up.” Zooble groaned.
“Yeah.. that was not pleasant..” She said, rubbing the back of her neck.
“Okay so that’s a no to that one!” Gangle replied. She crossed that out and went to the next idea, “What about swimming at the beach again?”
“We went swimming a week ago.” Pomni said.
Kinger agreed with Pomni, “Yeah we did. Plus… I still have sand in my robe.”
Everybody looked at Kinger with a puzzle expression on their faces. “What do you mean- you know nevermind. Is there anything else on the list, Gangle?” Zooble asked.
“Well the last one is ice skating.” Gangle replied with a small nervous smile. Pomni responded, "But it’s summer.”
“People can still ice skate regardless of weather and season my dear!” Caine stated.
“Caine does have a point.” Kinger agreed.
“Ice skating seems fun! But Pomni once told me she isn’t much of a sports type of person..” Ragatha informed.
Which is true, Pomni wasn’t a huge fan of sports. Before she..part of her mind.. joined the circus she did a little bit of skateboarding, though she wouldn’t really call it sport more like an outdoor activity. Besides that she tried skating before, roller skating that is. On normal roller skates she didn’t do too bad, it was when she was on roller blades she had issues. One time she fell flat on her behind on the cold hard ground. Her friends wouldn’t stop laughing at her for that. At one point she hit her head on a wall while attempting again. So to say she has bad balance on roller blades is an understatement, which is odd considering she could skate on both skateboards and roller skates decently.
Despite all of that, everybody needed an adventure today to pass time and to have fun. So to make everybody happy she agreed. “I never ice skated before, but I’m willing to give it a try.”
Ragatha gave her a joyous smile then looked back at the crew, “I guess we have a winner?” She asked. Everybody nodded.
“Alrighty then!” Caine snapped his fingers and a white portal appeared. “Let’s go!” He instructed. One by one everybody went through the portal. Once they all went in there the portal closed.
When Pomni opened her eyes she saw a large beautiful ice rink glistening in the light. ‘Woah..’ She thought to herself. She hasn’t seen an ice rink in a very long time, probably ever since she was a small child. The only time she saw one was in movies or when her mother would watch ice skating competitions. This beautiful sight was nothing compared to the ones she saw on a screen.
“Pomni? Honey?” Ragatha called out to Pomni. She looked at Ragatha.
Ragatha was wearing a light indigo skating dress. The sleeves were long, sheer puffed sleeves gathered at the wrist; her wrist and hands were covered by snowy white gloves. The bodice fitted her slightly chubby form perfectly. The skirt was short but flowy; she was wearing white shorts underneath. Her legs showed off her small faded stitch patches and marks where her plushy skin was obviously stitched up due to previous wounds. Her locs was put in a high messy bun, her bangs hanging off from her forehead. Her skates were plain white the blades being a cool shiny silver.
Pomni felt her face slightly burn up. She was beautiful. She saw Ragatha’s mouth move but she didn’t listen to a word she was saying, not because she didn’t want to, it was because she couldn’t. She looked like a true ice skater, a stunning one in fact.
“Pomni? Are you even listening to me?” Ragatha sighed.
Pomni snapped out of her thoughts and looked Ragatha in the eye, “Y-yeah sorry. I got distracted by how pretty you look in that skating uniform.”
Ragatha couldn’t help but blush and give her a warm smile. “Thank you.. You look pretty dashing yourself.” She said tucking a non-existent loc behind her out of habit. Pomni looked at her arms and down at herself.
She wasn’t in her normal jester costume anymore. Her top was a half-in-half mixture of red and blue with golden sequins heavily decorated on her shoulders, collar, and chest. Pomni sleeves were slightly puffy but you could still see some of her pale skin. The gloves were different colors on each hand. On the left hand it was red and on the right hand it was blue. Her pants were high-waisted black trousers with dark grey skates.
She wondered if she was still wearing her jester hat so she patted her head. Yep. Still on.“I guess everything changed except for this stupid hat.” She sighed.
No matter how much she tried she could never manage to get that stupid jester hat off. It was like it’s part of her physical body. “Don’t worry you still look handsome with it on.” Ragatha whispered, giving her a quick kiss.
Pomni smiled at the reassurance, “Should we get on the ice?”
“Ahh yes! Now do you know how to skate?” Ragatha asked.
Pomni looked away, “Well I know how to skate, just not ice skating.”
“That’s okay!” Ragatha reassured, “I can show you!”
Ragatha offered her hand. Pomni took her hand and held it tight. They started to slowly walk to the ice, Ragatha helping Pomni keep her balance. She was already almost falling and they haven’t even reached the ice yet. After a minute or two they finally reached the ice. Ragatha went on the ice first without troubles. Then it reached Pomni’s turn.
“One step at a time, sweetheart.” Ragatha said, talking her through the process. Pomni took one step onto the ice and immediately almost fell.
“Keep going, you’re doing great.” Ragatha encouraged.
Pomni held onto Ragatha’s arms, her grip tightening every little move she made. Eventually after a little bit more motivating words from Ragatha, Pomni finally managed to put her other foot on the ice. “Good job!” Ragatha praised, causing Pomni to slightly blush.
“Now, the key to balancing on skates is to maintain your upper body posture.” Ragatha explained. Pomni tried doing what Ragatha instructed her to do but slipped and fell. Ragatha couldn’t help but to let out a small giggle.
She offered her hand once again to the small woman. Pomni grabbed Ragatha hand tightly and with Ragatha help she slowly got back up on her two feet. Her upper body was slouching onto Ragatha for support, her hands slowly moved to Ragatha’s wrists. With the tight strong grip she had on Ragatha’s wrists, if she had nails then she could dig real deep into her skin. Although no blood would ever come out, only white soft stuffing.
“Now remember to keep your posture.” Ragatha reminded.
“That’s easier said than done..” Pomni muttered under her breath.
She tried to do what Ragatha told her to do. She eventually contained somewhat of a good balance, but was still holding onto her girlfriend for dear life. “That’s it! Good job darling!” Ragatha praised, causing Pomni’s heart to skip a beat. “Now, the next thing you want to do is to keep your head and eyes up and look straight ahead.”
Pomni slowly lifted her head up and looked directly at Ragatha. The expression on Ragatha’s face was warm, positive, and encouraging. One of the many reasons why she fell in love with her. Regardless of what the situation was she was always positive in some way, finding the best possible outcome in a situation.
“Do you have your balance down? Or do you want to wait a little bit?” Ragatha asked, her tone being all gentle and dulcet.
“I think I have it down.” Pomni replied nervously.
Ragatha gave her a small nod, “Now next what you want to do is..” As Ragatha was explaining, she saw in the background what the rest of the gang was doing. They were all wearing ice skating costumes. Gangle and Zooble were skating together around the rink while Caine was doing all kinds of flips and tricks. As she kept looking she noticed something.
‘Where’s Kinger?’ she thought. She then felt a slight shiver go down her spine, a weird sense of deja vu in that line.
“So do you think you can do that?” Ragatha said. Pomni listened to the instructions so she knew what she had to do.
“I mean I can try.” Pomni replied, unsure.
“You got this, I believe in you!” Ragatha said in an attempt to motivate her. Pomni slowly let go of Ragatha. She kept her balance on her own. She started to slowly glide her feet moving on the ice. She was a bit wobbly at first but as she slowly continued she got less wobbly. Ragatha cheered her on, “You’re doing it Pomni!”
Ragatha started to glide beside her. She held out her hand, hinting that she wanted to skate with her. Pomni took her hand and the two of them started skating together. “You know, this gives me memories for when I was younger.” Ragatha said.
Pomni raised an eyebrow, “Really?”
Ragatha nodded her head, “When it was really cold in the winter time, the lake we had on our land freezed over and me and my siblings would skate on it for hours.” She explained.
Pomni is aware about Ragatha’s family history, she knows that Ragatha isn’t very fond of her mother to say the least. Despite knowing all of that, it still warms her heart when she listens to Ragatha reminiscing about the happy parts of her childhood.
Ragatha let out a chuckle, “One time my brother..” Ragatha started rambling onto memory lane. They continued to skate while Ragatha talked. The more Ragatha talked the more Pomni got lost in thought. Ragatha is amazing and so kind. She helps everybody. Before everything major went down Pomni would see Ragatha fixing Gangle’s happy mask the best she could, watching her stitch up Kinger’s robe, finding spare parts for Zooble. Till this day Pomni still doesn’t know if this was a dream or not but, when she first joined the circus she saw her comforting Caine and getting him to sleep. She was like a mother to an extent. She was so welcoming and patient with Pomni when she first arrived, at first she didn’t appreciate it; she still feels guilty about that till this very day, but as life went on she started to appreciate her heavily. She was selfless, putting others before her own. There were times that Pomni would have to force her to relax or else she would work herself to death.
Pomni randomly snapped back to reality. Ragatha continued talking about her siblings and ice skating. The lighting made Ragatha seem like an angel. ‘Has she always so pretty?’ Pomni thought to herself. Blinded by her beauty, she started to glide relatively slow and immediately tripped and fell onto the ice.
“Pomni! Are you okay?!” Ragatha beseeched as she held out her hand. Pomni gave her a weak thumbs up. “Yeah.. It’s my fault I got distracted..”
Pomni took her hand and slowly got up, “Do you need to sit down?” Ragatha offered.
Pomni wanted to sit down but she felt like Ragatha would’ve been upset if she did. “I should be good.” Pomni replied, trying to hide the pain in her voice.
Ragatha knew she was lying, “You don’t sound fine. Come on, I'll lead you to the bleachers.”
Both Pomni and Ragatha went to the bleachers. Pomni sat down and took off her skates. “You stay here and rest, I’m going to go skate with Zooble and Gangle.” She said with a small reassuring smile.
Pomni nodded. Ragatha gave her a kiss on the forehead and went into the rink. Pomni looked around and saw Kinger not too far from her. He was watching everybody skate.
Pomni grabbed her skates and walked to Kinger. He noticed her from the corner of his eye, “Oh hello Pomni! Are you finished skating?” He asked.
“Yeah. I think I am.” She replied. Pomni’s face expression changed to a puzzled one, “Why didn’t you get in the rink?”
“Well I can’t really skate..” He said as he pointed down to where his feet are supposed to be.
“Oh.. right..” Pomni muttered.
Both of them looked at the rink in silence for a while. The atmosphere wasn’t thick and tense, it was serene and harmonious. Everybody was having fun. Even though it has been years later since Caine was fully in charge, it still feels weird to Pomni having chilling adventures. It’s probably still weird to everyone.
Ragatha was chatting with Zooble and Gangle was with Caine doing elegant tricks and flips. Ragatha noticed Pomni staring and gave her a small wave before talking to Zooble again. Pomni waved back.
“You and Ragatha seemed to be doing great huh?” Kinger said, breaking the tranquil silence between them.
Pomni was taken aback by that unexpected sentence, “Yeah. We’re doing fine..” Pomni looked at Kinger and took a small deep breath, “You said you had a wife right?”
Kinger expressions first widen then quickly soften, still not looking at Pomni, “Yes, and according to what we saw a couple of years ago we’re still married. With kids.” He replied, his voice being soft and tender.
“Did you propose to her?” She asked.
Kinger started to grasp where this conversation was going, “Yes I did.”
Pomni was hesitant to ask this next question. She looked at her hands. All she could feel was Ragatha's soft touch. Holding and touching her hand in so many intimate and vulnerable ways.
“Are you planning on proposing to Ragatha?” Kinger asked.
Pomni looked at him and saw that he was looking at her. Pomni didn’t know what to say. “I..”
She really did want to marry her, but she was afraid. “Are you afraid of abstraction?” Kinger asked. It was like he was reading her mind. Pomni nodded in response.
Kinger put his hand on her shoulder, “We both know Ragatha. She won’t abstract.”
That wasn’t as reassuring as she thought it would be. Luckily for her Kinger wasn’t finished, “But.. If she did. She wouldn’t be dead. I’m sure the two of you out there will meet each other again. Life works in strange ways, Pomni.”
Pomni knew what Kinger was trying to say. It made some of the fears she had fade away. “I’m sure Ragatha would be happy to have you as her significant other.”
“But how will I know it’s the right time?” She asked.
“You’ll just know…”
Pomni looked back at the rink. She felt her face warm up as she looked at Ragatha.
She felt Kinger’s hand pulling her hand towards him. She looked down at her hands and saw Kinger giving her a golden ring. She let out a gasp, “This is the ring I managed to get before..before Queenie abstracted.” He said endearingly.
“Kinger..I.. I can’t..” Pomni protested. Kinger put his other hand on Pomni’s, “When the time is right you will kneel on one knee and ask her the ultimate question.” His voice was comforting and genuine. “Please accept this ring and do not ever lose it.”
Pomni looked at him directly in her eyes. She felt like crying but no tears would leave her eyes. This was such a precious thing to do. She knew no matter how much she tried to protest against this, Kinger would refuse to take no for an answer.
Pomni took a deep breath, “I accept your ring.. Thank you Kinger..” She took the ring and gave him a hug. Kinger patted her back and hugged her back.
After a minute they stopped hugging and looked back at the skating rink. Pomni looked at Ragatha again. She was just regulating skating on the ice doing small tricks and dances. She looked like a graceful swan on the ice. The words echoed in her mind.
You’ll just know.