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Ragatha took a deep breath and collapsed into bed. The past day had taken its toll. Between meeting one new character, losing another, and almost getting abstracted, she had almost no energy left.
She hugged her pillow, wishing she was one of those people that could fall asleep in two seconds flat. She wasn’t, unfortunately, and she lay there in the dark for almost thirty minutes before realizing that sleep was an unachievable goal.
She sat up quickly as she heard a knock on her door. “Who?” She asked, too disoriented and tired to ask a proper question.
The person didn’t answer. Ragatha heard another knock.
Heaving a sigh, she got out of bed and cracked open the door. “Jax?” She said incredulously.
Jax hummed. “That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”
“What are you doing here?” Ragatha asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
“I’ve got a present for you.” Jax said with a smirk.
Ragatha frowned. “If you dare prank me right now I swear I will stab you.”
Jax held up his hands innocently. “Why would I do that?”
Ragatha glared.
Jax reached into his pocket, pulling out a small box. He pushed it onto her hands. “Here dollface.” He said, quickly turning tail and rushing back to his room.
Ragatha squeaked and dropped the box. She knew exactly what was in there. That darn bunny! She took a step to chase after him but stopped when she heard paper crumble under her foot. She reached down, snagging the note in her hand.
‘Hey dollface,
Figured you’d be tired after having to deal with Miss Short Stack. I need you to have your wits about you. It makes you funner to tease. Here’s some melatonin ig, sort of. They don’t have melatonin here. But this should help.
-Tumblr Sexy Man’
Ragatha hummed and picked up the box again, shaking it. It didn’t sound like centipedes. She went back to her bed tearing open the tape. There was a small bottle of little blue gummies inside. They didn’t have any label so the only reason she even knew what they were was because of Jax’s note.
She carefully opened the bottle and popped a gummy into her mouth, lying down. She hoped this wasn’t poison or something. Not that poison would do anything other than make her sick maybe. She yawned, already sleepy. This was some strong stuff. She grabbed her pillow burying her face into it and falling asleep.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
She woke up to something cold, sitting up quickly and pushing Jax away. (Because who else would it be.) She heard snickering and she opened her eyes to find Jax holding a now empty cup.
“Ugh, Jax why are you like this?” She whined, wringing water out of her hair.
Jax grinned. “Learn to take a joke dollface. Besides, you’ve been sleeping all day.”
Ragatha glared. “And I’d like to continue sleeping for the next month, thank you very much.” She turned away. Jax didn’t leave. And now that she thought about it she wasn’t going to get back to sleep. She was soaked, and cold, and she kinda wanted something to cuddle…
She sat back up, pushing Jax out of the way. She paused. He was kinda soft. She shook her head. What was she thinking? Jax was an asshole. She wandered over to her bathroom, grabbing a towel and drying her hair as well as she could. She avoided looking at the mirror. Goodness knows she looked like a mess right now.
She slowly peeked out the door, sighing when she saw Jax was still there, though he was sitting on her bed now.
“Hey rags. You gonna hide in there forever?” He teased.
Ragatha sighed, pushing the door all the way open. She sat on the bed next to Jax, debating pushing him off for a second before deciding that’d take too much energy. “What do you want?”
Jax shrugged. “Who said I wanted anything dolly?” He leaned back, messing with Ragatha’s hair.
Ragatha batted at his hand. Although it did feel kind of nice. But the premise of the thing was still there. He had probably put a centipede in her hair when he did that. She shuddered at the thought, running her own hand through her hair and finding nothing.
Jax huffed. “Don’t you trust me dollface?” He put his hand back on her head.
Ragatha shrugged, not bothering to get his hand off this time. “Course I don’t Carrots. When have you ever done anything to make me trust you?”
Jax grinned. “I’ve done plenty. I just- can’t think of anything right now… I’ll get back to you on that.”
Ragatha scooted out of his reach. “What do you want Jax?”
Jax stopped. He looked nervous. “I don’t want anything Dollface.”
Ragatha just looked at him. “What are you doing in my room then? Is my bed softer than yours?”
Jax crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “Maybe it is. What are you gonna do about it?”
“Kick you out of my room, that’s what.” Ragatha threatened.
“You wouldn’t.” Jax said confidently, mussing up her hair.
Ragatha froze. That actually felt, really nice. She leaned into the touch despite herself, startling Jax.
He recovered quickly. “You like that, doll?” He said with a smirk.
Ragatha pulled away. “Don’t- don’t tell anyone.” She paused.
Jax raised his brows. “Why shouldn’t I, what do I get out of this?”
Ragatha took a deep breath. What would he get out of keeping her secrets? “Blackmail?” She tried.
Jax laughed. “Oh, I have tons of that.”
“What! What do you mean!?”
Jax grinned. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Ragatha grumbled. “Fine then. Keep your secrets.”
Jax grinned. “You know. I think I’ll tell pomni first.”
“Tell her what?”
“That you’re touch starved.” Jax said.
Ragatha buried her face in her hands. “I’m not.”
Jax leaned toward her. “Oh really?” He put a hand on her head, trailing his fingers through her hair. Almost like he was petting her.
Ragatha went still, almost melting into the touch despite how badly she was trying to pull herself together. “Stop that.” She mumbled.
“Stop what?” Jax teased, moving his hands to her shoulders.
Ragatha tensed in an effort to keep herself from melting in pleasure. “Jax stop it.” She whined, squirming away from him.
He caught her around the waist, pulling her into his lap. “Why would I do that? You look so cute like this.”
Ragatha squeaked, pushing against his hands to no avail. “Jax!” She could feel his fur on her back along with his hands gently holding her sides. He buried his face into the top of her head.
Ragatha didn’t know what to do at this point. She couldn’t get away, Jax was much stronger than she was. But she was absolutely not going to give up and lean back and succumb to these stupid fluffy feelings.
Unfortunately, she found herself doing that exact thing. Melting into the small touches she was getting. Though she wondered why Jax was doing it. He was usually so mean to her. She’d never seen him act this soft before.
Begrudgingly she pulled away, and surprisingly, Jax let her. She turned halfway to face him. “Why are you being so nice to me?” She asked.
Jax looked away. “I’m not. I’m just teasing, like I always do.” He poked her in the arm.
Ragatha looked at him, unimpressed. “I think you’re touch starved too.”
Jax gulped. “What- what makes you think that?”
Ragatha climbed out of his lap, sitting behind him, he tensed. “So you wouldn’t mind if I messed with your ears then? Since you’re not touch starved at all.”
Jax tensed, but only slightly. “Not at all dollface. In fact, you should give up while you’re ahead because you’re not getting any reaction out of me.”
Ragatha smirked. “We’ll see about that.” She gently touched the tips of his ears, getting no reaction so far.
“See? I told you.” Jax moved to get up but Ragatha grabbed the back of his shirt.
“That doesn’t count.” She pouted.
Jax slumped, giving in. “I dunno what you think you’re gonna get outta me.” He groused.
“That’s what I wanna find out.” Ragatha said, running her finger along his ears and petting the top of his head.
Jax shivered, squirming under her touch. “Rags, com’on.” He whined.
Ragatha giggled. “You are touch starved.” She pulled him closer and he absolutely melted, going quiet other than a slight rumbling noise. It almost sounded like purring. “Are you purring?” She asked him. Not one to waste such a perfect opportunity to tease.
Jax shut up immediately. “You didn’t hear anything button.”
Ragatha tilted her head. “Button? I’ve never heard that one.”
Jax shrugged. “You know, cuz of the button eye.” He was leaning into her touches now.
Ragatha hummed. “Is that so? It sounded like a pet name to me bunny boy.”
“Not what I meant.” Jax grumbled.
Ragatha laughed. “Ok ok.” She took her hands off his head. “You can leave now. I’m going back to sleep.”
Jax whined, covering the noise with a cough. “Yeah of course, whatever.” He quickly got off the bed, slinking over to the door. “You better not tell anybody.” He threatened.
Ragatha smiled. “I wouldn’t want anyone else to know anyway.”
Jax peered at her, as if trying to figure out if she was telling the truth. She was. “You might not want to go back to sleep.” He said finally. “Pomni and gangle are worried about you. Even Zooble was asking where you went.”
Ragatha hummed. “Thanks Jax. I didn’t know you could be so nice.”
Jax crossed his arms. “I’m not being nice. It’s just, not as fun to prank people when they’re always down in the dumps.”
Ragatha rolled her eyes. “Sure. Whatever you say Carrots.”
Jax huffed, leaving the room without bothering to close the door.
Jax was back multiple times in the next week. After the first time, they didn’t even need to talk. Jax just crawled into Ragatha’s bed and she pet his head until he was done.
She went to his room sometimes as well, when she was feeling extra sad. It helped more than she thought it would. And it came with the added bonus of being the butt of Jax’s jokes less often.
Jax was nicer overall in fact. He even fixed Gangle's comedy mask. Without her knowing of course, and with a little prodding from Ragatha.
An amazing development. Ragatha thought as she lay in Jax’s bed with her head in his lap as he ran his fingers through her hair. An amazing development indeed.