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A cosmopolitan isn’t Ragatha’s drink of choice, but it’s one she’s familiar with. The first drink her mother ever allowed her to have as soon as she turned twenty-one. Because ‘It’s a classy drink that classy ladies have. Nothing else will do.’ And that quote plays repeatedly in her head every time she goes to a bar to order a drink. Even here- in the Digital Circus where her mother’s existence meant nothing- it still runs through her mind. Which is why she’s staring into the orange and red hues of a drink she barely touches. Swirling it around until she stops to watch it slowly stop moving, she sighs.
It’s not a usual adventure that they’re on. In fact, compared to the downright insane ideas Caine comes up with, this feels the most normal. A quiet bar where Zooble bartends while the rest of them sit at the bar and just talk. Something that they never get to do. Either from distracting adventures or trying to recover from them, it left little time to get to know each other. Sure, she likes to think that she’s well acquainted with everyone here. Yet there’s some things that she’s never known before.
Gangle went to art school to become a manga artist.
Pomni worked in accounting that she seems to hate.
Zooble was a tattoo artist.
Jax…
Absent-mindedly, she finds him through the corner of her eye. Pomni and Gangle between them, but the moment she sees a yellow gloved hand bring his drink up to his lips, the rest of the members might as well not exist. She takes the lime on the edge of her glass, squeezes until the juice mixes with her drink, then she downs the rest of the drink. Bitterness and something close to a warm buzz hit her. Not from the drink, not from the warm lights, but from the sensation of Jax and Jax alone.
She hates him.
She doesn’t.
It’s complicated.
What’s even more complicated is the underlying feeling behind it- Absolute adoration. It’s a heavy feeling that leaves her feeling light weight. She has an odd relationship with the purple bunny pretending that none of them exist at that moment as they all continue chattering, only tuning in to mock or insult one of them. Though, it seems his attention to her has lessened today and she knows why.
‘Do you have any real friends?’
‘Not anymore.’
Bitterness turns to regret. She knew better than to say something like that and even though it had nothing to do with a green frog from their past, she should’ve known that he would have taken it to mean just that. It was a heat of the moment comment aimed to make him realize that his actions had consequences. They weren’t friends. She wanted them to be. Did he? Not by the way his behavior toward her goes. And that’s what she was trying to show him. Jax has always been a jokester. However, his jokes weren’t aimed as small jabs at friends lately. They were aimed to hurt, which worked.
But when she remembers the face he made right after her comment- Pupils shrunk in size, hands gripping the grass, face contorted in pure anger. She had gone too far.
She sighs. She doesn’t notice the shift at the end of the bar until there’s a nudge at her back. She turns enough to nearly knock her glass off the bar from the sight of Jax glaring down at her, “Sh-Shit. U-Uh…” Gangle and Pomni next to them share a look, but she only notices momentarily and she solely focuses her attention on the hand held out for her.
“You, uh…” Clears his throat, “Wanna dance?”
“Dance?”
“Yeah. You know, that thing people do when music’s playing?” Only when he mentions it does she hear the soft jazz playing in the room. Where it’s coming from, she doesn’t know. Does it matter? No. It takes all of her strength to slip her hand in his. When she does, he drags her out of the chair and away from her comfort zone to the farthest corner of the bar. His eyes are never taken off of her even when they’re out of ear shot from everyone else. She’s sure, though, that they’re all watching. He looks their way over her head with a glare that has her meeting his line of sight. When she does, it’s when they notice their attention on them and they quickly turn anywhere else. Zooble cleans invisible dirt off of the bar while Pomni and Gangle discuss a blank page in her sketch book. Kinger was too fascinated with the corn cob in his drink to notice anything different.
“Freaks,” Jax scoffs under his breath. A comment she would scold him for if she wasn’t instead focused on the pair of hands gripping her sides. She sees the way his eyes look away from her. She’s known him long enough to know that it’s a sign of nerves. It makes only a tad bit easier to slip her arms across his shoulders. The height difference made it difficult to fully do so, but she made it work. On her tippy toes, it earns her a smirk. One that shoots straight through her chest to her metaphorical heart and a heavy sensation makes her look down at the ground, “Thank Caine you don’t have feet. I don’t need you stepping on mine.”
“I know how to dance, Jax.”
“Same way you know how to play the piano?” He jokes in reference to an adventure months prior. She rolls her eyes as she remembers the broken piano Caine gave her to work with.
She glares up to him and that shit eating grin he always seems to have, “I do know how to dance and I do know how to play the piano. Caine just… gave me a faulty instrument.”
Out of nowhere white smoke with Caine behind it appeared. She startles so much that she bumps her head into his chest, “Don’t blame me if you can’t keep up with your own lies, Ragatha. Just admit you can’t play.”
“Hey, I didn’t lie.You just-” Not letting her finish her sentence, Caine pops out, a second cloud of smoke following him. She blinks, then realizes the movement just below her ear and pulls back at a safe distance from Jax. Heat surges through her. An urge to close the space off again as well. She fights back that urge.
“Don’t worry. Caine kinda screwed that one up. Along with several others that he won’t admit to. This one, though,” He eyes her up and down. He doesn’t need to finish what he was going to say for the guilt to set back in.
“Is that why you dragged me over here? To call me out in private?”
“That’s an added perk. I genuinely just wanted to dance. You were the only suitable option that didn’t make me want to vomit.”
“Good to know that I don’t make you vomit.”
“Annoy me? Yes. Make me angry? Sometimes. Make me sick?” He shakes his head, “Only when you wreaked of fish.”
“You put a fish in my room!”
“Details, Dollface,” He chuckles. It makes it easy to let him pull her closer. Silence falls between them where she looks anywhere else while he can’t look away from her. Gloved hands move from her waist to her lower back. She swallows down the gasp that wants to come out.
“So.”
“So…”
“So, uh… About what you said earlier.”
“Yeah, okay. Yeah. I-I’m… I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me. I mean, I do. But I shouldn’t have said what I said. A-And I want you to know that… That it wasn’t about… You know. It was about,” She sighs, trying to rid herself of the nerves. He doesn’t make it easy by edging her on with short taps of his fingers against her back, “Me.”
“You?”
“Yeah. Me. Wh-When I said that you didn’t have friends anymore, I meant that I wasn’t your friend anymore. I was- I don’t know. I guess I was trying to get back at you for hurting me as often as you do.”
“So. You didn’t mean it?” He asks. It comes off as more of a question than anything. She isn’t sure what to say. She can’t answer either way because while she’d like to be friends with Jax, she doesn’t know if they are. Thankfully, he speaks again, “I already that you meant you. Figured that out right as you were walking away. I know that you wouldn’t be dumb enough to bring up something like that about anyone else.”
“Wait, what? You knew?”
“I’m not stupid, Ragatha. I know you.”
Another sigh, this one more relieving. She stares down at the ground between them, “I wouldn’t do that. No matter how many pranks or jokes downright cruel things you do to me.”
“I know.”
“A-And I would never bring up something like that.”
“I know.”
“And I hate Cosmopolitans. And playing the piano. But I don’t hate you,” The last few words come out as a whisper. The soft look in his eyes when she looks back at him tells her that he heard it. Something changes between them. Something close to a past friendship flickers and she feels lightness in her chest. Maybe for the first time in a long time.
“And I don’t hate you no matter how many pranks or jokes or downright cruel things I do to you. It’s just…” He has trouble finding the right words to say. He can’t, so he shrugs. It’s the only answer she’s getting and she’ll take it.
“I was starting to think that you did actually.”
“No, you annoy me. Often. But I don’t hate you.”
“Wow, okay,” She says and it earns her a grin from him. One that pulls out her own smile that she hides to the ground.
“Hey, I won’t lie to you.”
“I’ll hold you to that then. Why’d you want to dance with me?”
It takes him by surprise. Not in the usual way where his eyes widen or he starts sputtering out an answer. But his grip loosens just slightly enough to notice and the way he sways to the music changes. He loses a little confidence with the question. She wants to take back the question, but he doesn’t allow her to.
“That’s a good question. I guess… I just wanted to.”
“Hm,” She raises herself up enough to let her arms fully drape over his neck. Haze fills his eyes.
“Ragatha?”
“Yeah?”
“I… I think that I-”
“This is boring,” The voice comes from Caine who pops up close to them once again, “Let’s go to the next adventure.”
“Wait, what? Why can’t we just-”
He snaps his fingers, changing their environment once again. A ball field from the looks of it. She was no longer wrapped up in Jax’s arms waiting for him to speak. Now, she’s back in her usual outfit with a ballcap. She looks around to everyone else back to normal and either confused or frustrated. Save for Jax who’s searching the room until he spots her. He perks up, then goes back to his usual facade. Though, she knows. Later on, the conversation will continue.