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It was the middle of the night, and in came through a jester through the halls of the Digital Circus, clad in comical pajamas. She absolutely hated the design but how do you disobey Caine? Seriously, how can you, that’s what Pomni wanted to find out, he’s like an omnipotent god. When she made it in front of the door with Ragatha’s picture on it, she took a deep breath.
Pomni knocked on the door. The door opened a crack. “Jax, I said-” As soon as the doll noticed who actually was at the door, she opened it fully, revealing she was also in pajamas. Hi, Pomni, sorry, Jax has just been messing with me all day and that doesn’t seem to matter even in the slightest right now, please come in.” Pomni slowly stepped in.
“Ragatha, I’m so sorry to bother you at this time of night, I…I just don’t wanna be alone right now. I uh…”
“Had a nightmare?” Throwing her arm on her hip, Ragatha knowingly nodded.
“Can I stay here for a little bit to calm down?”
“Pomni, you can stay the night if you need to. I don’t care.”
“T-Thanks.” Pomni was taking a few deep breaths before she began to talk again. “It’s just been rough. It’s been a while since I…joined the Circus. I can’t remember anything of who I am but thankfully I remember my ol’ deep breath trick. I…just wish I could remember who taught it to me. I wish I could remember who I am. I wish any of us could! Why are we stuck here, Ragatha?”
“Pomni, you know that’s the kind of thoughts that can abstract someone.”
Lying down on the bed, she looked up at the yarn balls that made up Ragatha’s ceiling. Another deep breath. “Ragatha, can I ask you a question?”
“All ears.”
Pomni looked down for a moment. “Is it wrong to want to escape…but also want to keep everything I have here? Except Jax and Caine, but Gangle, Zooble, Kinger…you. You’re my friends. You mean so much to me. You are what’s keeping me sane. Keeping me from abstracting. If we escape, I want you all with me. I don’t care what I had in the past, I want you in my future, Ragatha.”
Ragatha tilted her head. “You want…me?”
Pomni’s eyes widened. She slipped. She let loose the secret buried deep within her soul. What was she going to do now? She couldn’t keep these feelings about Ragatha buried forever...but she should. She wouldn’t want to ruin things between them. “I mean I…”
“Cause, if I’ll be honest, I felt the same way about you too.”
For a moment, Pomni choked on thin air. “You mean about when we-”
“I mean past that. I mean…Oh stars, where am I going to go with this…Pomni…I…”
Pomni’s heart squeezed. “What?”
“That’s the thing, I don’t know how to say it besides outright saying it, I can’t dance around issues-”
“I guess say it outright?”
“Do you want that? Do you really want me to actually be honest because that can go bad in so so many ways-”
“I mean that’s true, but it kinda feels worthless to dance around it?” Pomni chuckled. She could not believe what was about to happen. She could feel it in her soul that it was about to happen, but could it actually be real? Like actually?
Could Ragatha-
“I can’t say it outright!” Ragatha was frustrated at herself.
“What do you mean, you can’t say it outright? That doesn’t make any sense, can’t you just speak the words? Is speaking words that hard?”
“Yes, they are, in this specific case!
“What are the words then?”
Ragatha pinched the bridge of her nose. “How are you this oblivious?”
“Oblivious, I’m just trying to-”
I love you, Pomni.”
And then everything came crashing back. Now, having thought about this moment, dreaming about the idea that she and Ragatha could be together for at least…a while, there was no calendars in the Circus, hearing those four words in that combination, at this moment, after all the confusion they just went through felt like her body just got soaked with gallons of water and then rung out. Needless to say, Pomni felt faint. Her eyes were wide. She was laughing in that way you only laugh when something massive just happened. It was honestly quite ridiculous, the idea that Ragatha loved her. Like actually loved her. That was a confession of love wasn’t it? She just got confessed to, right? Like this was reality as Pomni knew it?
The gods must be playing tricks on her.
“Pomni, you ok?” Ragatha asked. “I know that’s a lot to take in and if you don’t actually reciprocate-”
Pomni does not usually like touch, this is something she knew. But at that second, the jester moved at a speed that the speed of light would call “pretty alright.” The speed of sound would call it “decent all things considered.” This was known as Pomnian Motion, the speed at which jesters will attach to their lovers in a situation such as this.
“RagathaIloveyoutoopleasedon’tthinkIdon’tIwassostupidbackthereandohmystars,you’reactually-”
The doll only needed to put her hand on Pomni’s arguably massive head. “You don’t need to say anything else. I got my answer.”
Pomni started crying and clinging to Ragatha like a lost puppy. “You’re ok. You’re ok, Pomni. You’re safe…with your girlfriend.” Ragatha picked her up as she clung and got in bed. “You’re like a cat, you know that, Pom?”
“Mfhm.” was all she responded with.