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“Why’d you pick the name Jax?” Ribbit asked. She picked herself up and sat up on the floor. “Is it like Jack rabbit or like those little spiky toy jacks that go with marbles?”
“No, it's Jax with a X” He responded in smug confidence at blatantly misinterpreting her question.
“I know that! Just why’d you choose it?” She said, a touch of annoyance in her voice. Clearly being the reaction that Jax had been looking for.
“I just thought it was cool.” He shrugged. “Even though I don’t remember my name from before the circus, I always wanted to change it”. It caught Ribbit a little off guard to hear him talk about his life before the circus. Even just this small amount. Of course, she wanted to know more but they agreed to keep things lighthearted and funny between them most of the time.
Jax noticed her silence and finally realized he said something about his life before coming here. Shit. He shook it off and before letting her think about it too much and ‘figure him out’ he said, “I think Jax suits me well” and puffed out his chest with cartoonish confidence.
This made Ribbit laugh. “Ok jax-[BOING], whatever”. Her favorite nickname for him. When she stopped laughing, she shifted slightly and said, “I kinda wish I could change my name. I just went with Ribbit because I couldn’t think of anything better. And arriving at the circus is… A lot” she chuckled slightly and cringed thinking about her first day.
“What would you change it to?” Jax asked. He seemed genuinely curious for once.
“I never said I ever thought of anything better” she smiled with a trickle of annoyance in her voice. “I don’t know what I’d rename myself. Or even if Caine would let me.”
Jax noticed her shift slightly into a bit of sadness and regret. “What's wrong with Ribbit?”
“Nothing” she said a bit defensively before continuing, “It's just… Kinda on the nose? I mean- A frog named Ribbit. Sounds like a group of children naming a class pet.” She straightened her posture a bit before saying “I’d like to think I could be a bit more creative than that!”
“Considering how you don’t even know what you’d rename yourself, you might not be as creative as you make yourself out to be!” He shot back, moving closer to her and smiling while making direct eye contact.
Ribbit stared at him before throwing a stray pillow on the floor at his smug grin.
“AGH!”
“T’whats you get!” she said playfully while he rubbed his face where the pillow had smacked him
He was still smiling; she definitely didn’t hit him hard enough. Too bad there wasn’t another pillow within arm's reach she could grab to lob at him.
He tossed the pillow back at her, intending to gently hit her back but she unfortunately caught it.
To his surprise, she didn’t throw it right back and instead wrapped her green arms around it and sat with it against her chest.
“What would you rename me?” She asked, ignoring the fact they had just been throwing the pillow she now innocently held in her lap.
Jax thought for a moment. He doesn’t have a better name than Ribbit. All he could see her as is a Ribbit. “I don’t know” He finally said after a long pause of dramatically tapping his chin in pondering
“Helpful” She sighed
“Or” he started again, “What's the name of that wicked witch? The green ugly one?”
“Elphaba” she groaned. What a perfect suggestion, he knows how much she likes and misses theater and getting the name wrong of one of Broadway's most iconic characters would tick her off in the way he loved to watch.
“Yea that's the one” he said while chuckling at her reaction. “Maybe in the next adventure we let a house land on you!”
“That's not what happened! It was her sister that got crushed by the house” she said, sneering at him. Jax looked smug but Ribbit doubts he even got that wrong on purpose. “We should make you the sister, you’d look so pretty in ruby slippers” She fired back at him.
“I’m not a girl!” He said defensively, Ribbit had successfully got him back.
“You can be anything in theater!” Ribbit said while laughing. “And maybe some shoes would complete your little outfit you got going on here”.
“Yea okay you freaking nerd” Jax said bitterly. It didn’t work and Ribbit was still laughing. Eventually Ribbit stopped and realized that she touched a bit of a nerve.
“Ok, ok. I’m sor-” but before she could finish Jax had thrown a pillow right at her and hit her square in the face. He hit her much harder than she hit him but maybe she deserved it a bit.
She rubbed her face while saying, “Wow. Okay ow... Touche”.
Jax smiled and laughed. At least now they were even.