Chapter Text
The very first thing Pomni registered when her code worked to wake her from her slumber was how dark her room was. Her eyes were heavy with digital sleep, and her clothes were twisted as she heaved herself up into a sitting position.
The second thing she noticed was how eerily quiet the halls outside her room were. The bright, never-ending light of the circus leaked in through the gap beneath her door alongside the silence. Pomni yawned, stretching her arms far above her head, her baggy shirt revealing just a slip of her white stomach before she dropped them back down, smacking her lips tiredly.
She had half the mind to tuck herself back under her soft, colorful covers when a loud, whiny grumble interrupted the silence, bringing her to her third thing.
Pomni was hungry.
She hummed, fighting the promise of warmth and sleep as she tossed her legs over her bed and hopped down. She tugged a pair of socks on, tightening her loose, sleeping shorts, and cracked open her door.
As she suspected, the hall was empty.
If she was right, everyone should still be asleep. Their day-night cycle usually dictated what time they all went to bed, despite not truly needing sleep. But it was still nice to stick to a schedule and a small comfort of home in this digital world. And right now, it should still be late into the night, just barely nearing morning.
Pomni padded down the hall, the stairs, and the first floor before finally making it to the kitchen. The bright lights made her eyes achy and dry, and she was tempted to try to negotiate with Caine to match the circus’s atmosphere to fit their sleep cycle. Having to fend off the blinding lights and overstimulating bright colors of the circus this early in the cycle was simply asking too much.
Pushing past the table, she found the glass cabinets. The assortment of dishes winked at her as she opened the cabinet door and reached for a bowl.
She frowned when she came just shy of reaching it, before her hand stopped getting closer. Pomni blinked, grunting as she balanced on her tiptoes, her tongue peeking out in determination as she tried to reach the bowl again. “This damn avatar,” She huffed, straining and straining and oh, she almost had it—!
“What are you doing?”
Pomni screamed, nearly tripping over herself as she whipped around, allowing herself to calm down when she realized who it was.
“Oh my God, Jax,” Pomni wheezed, comical sweat dripping down her neck and the side of her face. Her back was hunched over as she caught her breath. “You cannot sneak up on people like that.”
Jax simply stared with narrowed eyes, his arms crossed against his chest. He wore a simple pastel pink t-shirt and basketball shorts. “You still haven’t answered my question,” was all he responded with as he leaned against the counter and quirked a brow in question. He let his gaze wander over her as he waited, his eyes landing decidedly on her mussed-up hair and exhausted eyes.
Pomni stood there for a moment, trying to decide if Jax was messing with her or not, before coming to the conclusion that maybe he was too tired to use context clues for once. “Well, if you couldn’t tell, I want a bowl for my cereal.” She rolled her eyes in annoyance, gesturing to her body as she continued. “But my short avatar-body has other plans.”
Jax blinked at her with half-lidded eyes, his ears folded slightly at the top as he peered up at the open cabinet Pomni had been reaching into. There, on the middle shelf, just barely out of reach, sat a bowl.
Jax sighed, shoving himself off the counter as he reached for it. “You mean this bowl—?” And damn, he blamed what followed on his stupid gloves that he couldn’t take off, no matter the new function Caine added so that everyone could change their clothes freely.
The bowl slipped out of his fingers like he was holding water, falling to the floor in a loud crash of shattering porcelain.
Pomni and Jax jumped at the ear-shattering sound, far too loud for the average, dramatic bowl falling to the floor to be making. Pomni covered her ears, her eyes wide and mouth cringing at the sound. Jax lifted a leg on instinct, squeezing one eye shut as his ears flattened against his head.
And yet, for all its dramatics, the bowl was perfectly intact when it deigned its performance of rolling on the ground finished.
Pomni slowly let her arms fall to her sides, her too-big, light blue shirt slipping off one of her shoulders as she peered at the bowl suspiciously.
“What the…”
Jax stood slightly behind her, his hand gripping his chest and wrinkling his shirt tightly. Sweat streaked down his smooth, purple fur as he winked nervously at Pomni, clasping his hands together in front of him. “I didn’t mean to do that.”
(Do not throw up. Do not throw up. Do. Not. Throw up.)
Damn, he [BLOINK] hated loud noises.
Without looking, the two idiots sank to the ground and reached for the bowl.
Pomni squinted. “How’d it shatter if it didn’t—”
“Man,” Jax chuckled. “I really hope that woke up Zoobie–”
They both grunted harshly as their heads clashed together. Sparks flew from the collision, green glitches temporarily fusing their heads together as they jolted and squeezed their eyes shut in pain.
They both launched away from the other, almost as if their collision was forced apart by their code design, but not before leaving them with a painful pounding in each of their heads.
“Ow!”
“[BLOINK]!”
Pomni groaned as she clutched her head, moving her gloved hand down to her cheek as if to hold her head steady. Her eyes turned into blue, dizzy swirls, her head wobbling in turn with them. “Owww,” She whined. “Now I have a headache.”
Jax hissed, cradling his own head. “Nice going, Pomni. Your giant heads’ hitbox ruins everything.”
Pomni momentarily forgot her own blossoming headache as a muscle in her head tensed, her eyes narrowing in irritation and minor disbelief. That was, until she realized who exactly she was talking to.
She sighed, letting her frustration leave her in one fell swoop before she jumped on Jax and started pummeling him. She helped herself up, holding her head and rumbling stomach as she left the kitchen.
“Forget it, I’m going back to bed.” Jax watched with wide eyes as she walked away, grumbling as her stomach echoed her in protest. “Cereal should never be this much trouble.”
It was… unusual, to say the least. Unusual for Pomni of all people to be so dismissive of anyone, even Jax.
Huh.
Jax sat there for a moment, stewing in the silence left in Pomni’s wake. He sighed, furrowing his brows. Guilt began to ebb its way into his gut as he reached a hand out, his mouth opening without his permission. “Wait—”
Immediately, he clamped it back shut with a jolt. Looking at his hand like it had personally betrayed him, he tramped down the odd feeling of guilt so far into his mental box until all he felt was frustration and anger. “Haah, what am I doing?” He muttered, smiling nervously scowling as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Who even eats cereal this late?”
On his way back to his room— a separate way from the path Pomni took, anytime he thought too hard about what he’d been about to do, he reassured himself that he must’ve hit his head too hard on that big hitbox of hers.
Their doors stared at each other almost accusingly as their inhabitants lay in their beds, pondering and trying to go back to sleep.
(Pomni shuffled to lie on her side, worry etched on her face as she clutched her pillow. She closed her eyes, muttering…
(Jax eyed the corner of his room with a tired gaze, his back flat against the bed as he sighed…)
“Whatever.”