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The day dawned slowly, brightening in small increments, the sun clawing its way into the sky as the moon slunk away. It was one of the most real parts of the world, Christine thought to herself. Especially contrasted to the digital world of the Circus, where day and night were controlled by Caine, at his choice. ‘A cosmic buffet’, he’d told her on her first day. As Christine stretched and pulled on her clothes for the day, she admired the rosy colouring of the sky, and decided this was a much better view than the glaring yellow Sun Caine had conjured up countless times.
“Good morning, Chrissy,” Felix greeted, as Christine yawned her way into their kitchen. Christine smiled at him, not yet awake enough for words. She accepted a mug of coffee, reaching to add some more creamer. She didn't take nearly so much as Felix, but she wasn't wanting straight black coffee that morning. Felix sat across from her, passing her a plate of breakfast; today it was eggs on toast.
“Morning, Fe,” Christine said, after she’d taken a long sip and a bite of her eggs.
“Were you thinking about the Circus again?” He asked cautiously. Christine paused, resting her mug against her top lip, and watched the former rabbit over the rim of her mug. She wasn't sure how, but Jax had always had some sixth sense as to when she had a lot on her mind. He'd used it on Pomni, and now in the real world Felix was adamant about using it on Christine. The woman sighed, returning her mug to the table.
“I was thinking about the sky,” she said, after a comfortable beat of silence. “The sky in the Circus was always so fake. But here, it's like every morning, I’m stil’...rediscovering new colours.”
Christine met Felixs’ eyes, hoping she didn't find scorn or judgement there. She didn't; Felix wasn't even looking at her. His eyes were cast over her shoulder, looking out their window.
“I felt that way a lot, the first few months I got out,” Felix said. “Before I’d gotten my car back, and I was sleeping on the street, I used to wake up super early just to see the sunrise.”
“And to dodge beat cops?” Christine said, raising an eyebrow playfully. Felix snorted and winked at her.
“Hey, the post Circus like wasn’t easy. You know that.”
Christine nodded, and finished her breakfast.
“Alright, I’m headed into work. Let me know if you need me to pick up anything on the way home.”
“Will do!” Felix agreed, far too chipper for so early in the day. “Talk to you later, Pompom.”
Christine chuckled as she went back towards her room. “I thought you hated using our Circus names?”
“Yeah, well, you looked super cute this morning,” Felix said unashamedly, talking around a bite of eggs. “Had to make a callback to your super cute jester outfit.”
“You're so stupid,” Christine called back, hiding the way her cheeks had warmed despite being turned away from him. “I’ll let you know when I’m headed to work.”
“You're the boss, Chrissy.”
*
Christine was sitting in her office break room, enjoying the sandwich that Felix had packed her for work, when her phone buzzed.
Incoming Message from Fefe 💜🐰
Chuckling to herself and pausing her music, Christine flipped over her phone and read the message.
Fefe 💜🐰: heyy chrissy, i wanted to ask you on a date for tonight
chrissy (MY GFFF) ❤️💙: but it’s the middle of the week?
Fefe 💜🐰: so? don’t you want to do something better than coming home and just complaining about your job
chrissy (MY GFFF) ❤️💙: but i love complaining about excel spreadsheets
Fefe 💜🐰: ik u do, that’s why you can’t do it on the date night
chrissy (MY GFFF) ❤️💙: ur so stupid
chrissy (MY GFFF) ❤️💙: okay fine where are we going
Fefe 💜🐰: you’ll have to see when u get home :)
chrissy (MY GFFF) ❤️💙: ughh you’re lucky i like you
Fefe 💜🐰: i know i am 😁 so see u later?
chrissy (MY GFFF) ❤️💙: see you later fe 😘
Fefe 💜🐰: 😁😁😁😁
"Who's got you smiling at your phone?” Mame Abby teased, sitting down across from Christine. “Is it another message from Felix?”
Christine chuckled, taking another bite of her sandwich and clicking her phone off before replying. “Yeah, it is. He’s sweet like that.”
Mame Abby smiled conspiratorially. “Gerald says every time you check a notification and it’s from Felix, you start grinning just like that.” Christine gave a gasp of mock hurt, placing her hand on her chest to complete the effect.
“I do not grin like this—I wasn’t even grinning!” Mame Abby laughed, and after a moment Chrisitne joined in. As far as coworkers went, Christine had to admit that Mame Abby was one of the nicest ones she’d ever had. A bit too positive at times, sure, but sometimes the drudgery of their office called for some can-do attitude.
”I hope you know we’re not trying to poke fun, Christine,” Mame Abby said after a beat of silence, finishing off her salad. “Gerald and I are just happy to see that your, and everyones’ mood, has improved since you-know-who got kicked out.”
Christine snorted into her water bottle and nodded. It had been about two weeks since their creepy supervisor Jack Mundy had been fired—ahem, transferred to an exterior division.
”You can say that again,” Christine smiled, raising her water bottle towards Mame Abby as if to toast her. Mame Abby smiled and returned the gesture with her iced coffee. The pair finished their meal with idle chatter, laughing as if they’d been friends for years and hadn’t just started hanging out outside of work at a party two weeks ago that Felix and Mame Abby had organized. When Christine went to clear her table, she stood and slung her purse over her shoulder. When she reached over to grab Mame Abbys’ trash, too, the older womans’ eyes caught on her purse and her jaw tightened.
”Mame Abby?” Christine asked, “Can I get your trash for you?” As quickly as the strange look had come across her features, Mame Abby smoothed it away and it was gone.
”Oh! Um, sure, Christine. Thank you.” Chrisinte nodded and dumped their trash, and the pair walked back into the accounting office, chattering like old friends all the while.
*
Felix was just about to press ‘Start’ on the microwave when he heard the door click open. He turned and grinned as Christine opened the door, quickly kicking off her shoes and dropping her purse on the coat tree.
”Hey, Fe,” She grinned. “How was your day?”
”Oh, you know,” Felix said, leaning agaisnt the countertop. “I fixed an old ladies’ oven. She baked me a pie to say thank you.”
”She also pay you?” Felix shrugged.
”Yep. But she was ten bucks short, hence the pie.” Felix only took cash most times, Christine recalled.
”Wow. Was it good?”
”Um, yes? You know, I think pie is one of the foods I missed most in the Circus.” Chrisitne snorted.
“Well, Bubble definitely wasn’t that great of a baker.”
”We know this,” Felix agreed, stepping forward and giving Christine a quick hug. He rested his chin on top of her head for a moment, reveling in the fact that her hair still smelled so good even after she’d been at work all day. “So, are you excited to hear about this date I asked you on?”
Chrisitne pulled away, her face lighting up with excitement. “Yes! Where are we going?”
Felix made a face, gesturing with his chin over his shoulder to where the bag of popcorn had already been thrown in the microwave. “Well…I was actually thinking we could just, you know, stay in. And have a movie night.”
”A movie night, that’s a great idea! You know, I just saw that this new—wait, stay in? Fe, you don’t wanna go to the movie theatre?” Felix scoffed, turning away.
”No, yeah, I just…no, not really.”
“Oh. Okay,” said Chrisitne, trailing off. “Is there a reason, or…?”
”Actually?” Felix said suddenly, turning around. Christine glanced up at him and felt a feather of worry alight in her stomach—the smile he’d just pasted on seemed eerily familiar. It took her a moment to place it—it was Jaxs’ vacant grin from the Circus. She felt that familiar sinking in her gut, the Pomni-esque urge to go along with Jaxs’ ridiculous ideas just to he might stay open a little bit more. Her shoulders slumped, before she quickly snapped them back up in a half shrug.
“No, we can stay home if you—”
”No, let’s go!” Felix suddenly cut her off, his vacant formerly yellow grin replaced with a genuine twinkle in his eye. “The popcorn there smells better anyways,” Felix clapped his hands together. “Why don’t you go and change out of your Corporate Christine outfit, then we can drive to the theatre. I’ll call them and reserve us tickets ahead of time—do movie theatres still do that?”
Chrisitne chuckled, the brief reminder of how much longer Jax had been in the Circus than Pomni catching her off guard. “Yes, Felix, movie theatres still do reservations. But I don't think you can call them, you have to download an app, maybe? I’ll go get changed, then we can—“ Christine paused, before a huge grin appeared on her face. Felix chuckled to himself, his own face heating as he saw the look of glee that Pomni had had during the gun adventure reflected on her human counterpart. He quickly smothered the memory, as visions of how he’d violated their friendship followed the recollection. “Actually, I’ll get some clothes for both of us,” Christine said. She giggled, and before Felix could ask what she meant, she was gone.
Just a few minutes later, Christine bounded back into the living room. Felix glanced up from the couch, where he’d sat with his computer to play some R.E.B.O. He frowned, coming to the horrible realization that his girlfriend intended for them to wear…those.
“Christine. You can’t be serious.”
“What’s the problem, bunny boy?” Christine teased, glee evident in her eyes and her tone alike. Chrisitne had dressed in plaid pajama pants—her left leg was blue and her right leg was red. In her hands she held a much larger size of the same pattern of pants, only these ones were purple and salmon pink, and she was holding them out towards Felix with a downright self—satisfied expression. Her top was just a plain blue tank top (she was offering Felix a shirt of the same colour) and Felix cursed himself as his cheeks heated at the sight of her bra strap. Seriously, what was his problem? It’s like his girlfriend had him regressing to the role of some horny teenager.
And, wait. Upon closer inspection, her tank top wasn’t plain blue. It was pale blue…with a white bunny rabbit on it. The t-shirt bore the same design. Absolutely not.
”Absolutely not!” Felix nearly shouted, embarrassment creeping up his neck despite their being alone in the apartment. Christine was undeterred, however, and just gave him the same childish grin, thrusting the articles at him again.
“It’ll be great! I used to do this all the time with my friends back in high school. The movies in our town let us all in with PJs on when the movie was playing past eight pm. I’m sure they won’t complain if we do it here, too. And this way, we can be matching!”
”I thought you didn’t care about stupid couple things like that,” Felix grumbled, eying the pants with a distrustful expression. Christine giggled, then tossed the pants and t-shirt at him.
”C’mon, Fe, please? It’ll be fun.” Felix caught the pants with one hand, the shirt in his other, glancing up to meet Christines’ eyes. He sighed through his nose. His girlfriend would be the death of him, he was sure of it. Even though she’d been the one to save him in the Circus, she'd kill him of embarrassment now that they'd finally escaped.
“Fine, but only because I can tell you’re one step away from giving me those awful Pomni pinwheel puppy dog eyes. Ya happy now?” Christine squealed and surprised Felix by surging forward and throwing her arms around his waist, her knees landing in between his own as she hugged him. He blinked before hugging her back, never one to waste a bit of physical affection from Christine.
”Yes! Okay, now quick, get changed and in the car and we can go. I haven’t been to the movies in forever!”
*
“Two tickets to see ‘The Last Act’, please,” said Felix, showing his phone to the guy behind the counter. He’d fiddled on his phone for twenty minutes to get two digital tickets, and the guy pulled out a barcode scanner. Beside him, Christine furrowed her eyebrows.
“‘The Last Act’? I haven’t heard of that movie,” she said. “Wasn’t there anything else playing?”
”The only other movies were a bunch of lame superhero remakes and horror flicks,” Felix informed her, as he grabbed their tickets. “And I know you don’t do well with horror or jumpscares, Pom Pom. Um, Christine. Sorry.” Felixs’ grip tightened on his phone. Christine noticed and wordlessly threaded her hand into his other, squeezing gently, a silent forgiveness for his slip up. While she didn't completely mind, she knew how much he usually tried to keep their Circus personas separate from their real world bodies in his head. He’d told her it was a coping mechanism he’d picked up from his therapist. Felix squeezed her hand back and allowed her to lead him to the concessions counter.
“Felix, thanks for getting the tickets, that was really sweet of you. I’m gonna pay for the popcorn, alright?"
“’Course, Chrissy, I was the one who–wait, what? No, I can get the–”
“Evening, y’all!” Said the friendly guy behind the counter. “What can I get you two for tonight?”
Christine smiled at the man, stepped in front of Felix and while she squeezed the life out of his hand (so that he couldn't reach for his wallet) set a twenty down on the counter.
“Good evening, may we please have two medium buckets of popcorn, and two large fountain sodas?”
“Sure thing! Was that caramel or salted popcorn?” Christine hummed, half turned around, and Felix bent down slightly to whisper in her ear. She nodded, and ordered, “One caramel and one salted, please. Oh, and could we get a packet of Trolli as well?”
“Yup! Here you all are, that's gonna be $18.25…cash, that's cool, and there's your change! Have a good movie!”
“Thank you,” Christine said, smiling warmly. Felix gave the cashier a two finger salute, which he gleefully returned.
“What a nerd,” Felix scoffed, as he abd Christine went to fill up their sodas.
“Who, the concessions guy? Felix, you didn't even talk to him.”
“Yeah, but I can just tell, you know?” Christine raised an eyebrow.
“Well, I suppose I’d trust the judgement of someone who knows which Star Trek movie is the best…”
“Chrissy! I told you that under confidence while you were ill, how could you–”
“You two here to see The Last Act?” A chipper voice interrupted them. The couple stopped arguing to see another theatre worker holding out a hand to scan their tickets. Felix nodded and handed his phone over, and the girl scanned both of them then printed something out and doodled a number on it Sharpie.
“Okay, you two are set to go on in! Just remember, don't spoil the movie after you've seen it.” Her voice sounded surprisingly serious as she delivered this last instruction, and Christine and Felix both nodded their assent as they went in and found their seats.
“Why'd you want to get the Trolli, anyways?” Christine asked, as the couple started munching on their popcorn. Felix got a wicked grin on his face, then opened the bag and found a green and yellow gummyworm. When his fingers pulled it out of the bag, Christines’ face lit up.
“Hey! That one's the same colours as–”
Felix swallowed him in one bite. Christine released a strangled sound, and Felix just laughed, stuffing another handfull of popcorn in his mouth.
“It was so I could do that,” He supplied superfluously.
“You're evil,” Christine hissed, swatting him on the shoulder.
“Yeah, but you like it,” Felix teased. In response, Christine threw popcorn at him.
A preview started playing for some upcoming ghost movie. Christine turned her eyes away from the screen and ended up staring at Felix, who was already looking at her.
“So you'll go explore abandoned buildings and put on haunted headsets, but a real ghost movie is what gets you?” He teased. Christine scrunched up her nose but said nothing, just took a long sip of her cherry soda. Felix blushed to imagine how pink her lips would be when they left the theatre.
“You've got me all figured out, bunny boy,” Christine finally said, reaching over and taking a bite from Felixs’ bucket of popcorn. Felix snorted and turned back to face the screen.
As the opening credits rolled, he stole another glance at his girl beside him and decided that despite the jabs he’d made at her that evening, he was whipped enough to shamelessly attempt the cheesiest move in the book. Stretching his arms over his head, he arched his back a bit as he leaned forward from the seat, before bringing his arms back down. He rested his right on his armrest, while the other fell across the back of Christines’ chair. He heard Chrissy give a grunt of surprise, then the swish of her ponytail as she turned to look at him.
“The stretch move? What are you, in junior high?” She whispered. But Felix heard the smile in her tone. To an embarrassing degree, his heart began to beat faster as rather than pull away, she snuggled into his shoulder, drawing her knees up into her chair and continuing to eat her popcorn. She leaned on his shoulder and Felix rested his cheek against Christines’ hair, and the pair watched the movie in contented silence, smiles on both their faces.
*
“That was amazing!” Christine cheered, as the couple walked out of the theatre and threw out their soda cups and other trash. Felix nodded, holding the door for her as they went out to the parking lot.
“I’ll say. I’m driving home, alright?” The sunset was in its’ final stages, small tendrils of pink and maroon just visible on the edges of the horizon. The lighter colours bled into a dazzling blend of periwinkle, deep blue, and velvety indigo. The first few stars of the evening were visible, beyond the haze of stoplights and the city. As they were almost to the car, Christine suddenly stopped walking, fishing in her purse for her phone. Felix stopped, giving her a curious expression. She popped her head up and held up her phone, grinning.
“C’mon, let's take a picture,” she announced. “This is our first real date in a while.”
Felix gave her a lopsided grin and complied, coming to stand closer to her. Just as he had in the theater, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and Christine surprised him by leaning into him, even reaching up and pinching his face with her free hand. The pair grinned, the flash momentarily causing spots in their vision in the dim, dusk-filled lot. Once they'd blinked them away, the pair looked at the photo. Christine added it to her ‘Favourites’ folder.
“It's super cute,” she said, squeezing Felixs’ face one more time before following him to the car. Once they were on their way back to their apartment, Felix met Christines’ eyes in the rearview mirror before guiltily looking away.
“Hey…Chrissy. Do you remember that other selfie we took? In the Circus?" Christine swallowed, remembering the Polaroid that Bubble had snapped of the two during the gun adventure. Before he’d said…all those things.
Felix felt Christine looking at him, but he didn't move to return the glance until Christine gently took his hand on the center console and rubbed her thumb over his knuckles.
“Jax,” she whispered. “Look at me.” Felix did, his eyes blown wide at the use of his Circus epithet, usually only something he’d do. Felix found his lips trembling, his nostrils flaring, his feet tapping the floorboards as he anxiously waited for Christine to elaborate.
“I do. ‘Team Bad Guys’. But can I tell you something?”
Felix, still struck dumb, just nodded. Christine wet her lips, then returned her attention to the windshield for a moment.
At the next red light, Christine leaned forward and pressed her lips to Felix's. As she pulled away, she gave him a grin, one that, had she still been Pomni, would have been showing cartoonishly sharp teeth.
“I like this one better.”