Chapter Text
It was quiet in a way that didn’t sit right.
Not peaceful. Just… missing something. Like the Circus had forgotten to keep pretending for a minute.
Jax was sitting on the floor with his back against a wall that looked slightly too soft to be real. One knee up, one arm hanging over it. He wasn’t doing anything. Which was the first strange thing.
The second strange thing was his face.
No grin.
Not even the usual half-version he wore when he was bored and pretending not to be.
Pomni stopped a few steps away without meaning to.
“…Jax?”
He blinked like he hadn’t fully decided she was real yet.
Then: “Oh. Hey.”
Flat. No edge to it.
That alone made her stomach tighten a little.
She shifted her weight. “Are you okay?”
He gave a short breath out his nose, like the question was heavier than it should’ve been.
“Yeah,” he said. Then, after a beat, like honesty annoyed him, “just tired.”
Pomni didn’t move closer yet. She didn’t know if she should.
“I can leave,” she said, immediately regretting how small it sounded.
Jax glanced at her.
“No,” he said too fast, then slowed down, like he noticed. “I mean—don’t. It’s fine.”
That made her pause.
He wasn’t looking at her the way he usually did. Not scanning, not teasing, not poking at whatever reaction he could get.
Just… there. Like he didn’t have energy to perform anything else.
Pomni sat down anyway.
The floor felt wrong under her hands. It always did, but today it was louder.
Jax didn’t move away when she got closer. That was also strange. Usually he’d shift, say something, make space feel like a joke again.
He didn’t.
They sat like that for a while.
Too long to be comfortable. Not long enough to be anything else.
Pomni broke first.
“I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do when you’re like this,” she said.
Jax let out a small huff. Almost a laugh, but not really.
“That’s fair,” he muttered.
Then quieter, like it slipped out without him meaning it to:
“I don’t really either.”
That landed weirdly.
Pomni looked at him.
He still wasn’t smiling.
That should’ve made her nervous. It did, a little. But mostly it just made him feel… further away than usual. Not in a mean way. Just like something in him had gone somewhere else and hadn’t come back yet.
She hesitated.
Then, before she could think too hard about it, she moved.
No warning. No plan.
She just leaned in and wrapped her arms around him.
It wasn’t careful. It was slightly awkward, one arm higher than the other, her face half turned into his shoulder like she wasn’t even sure this was allowed.
Jax went completely still.
Like the system paused.
Pomni froze too immediately. “Sorry— I shouldn’t have—”
His arms lifted.
Slow. Not automatic. Like he had to check each movement.
Then he hugged her back.
Not tight. Not dramatic.
Just… there.
Real.
Pomni stopped talking.
That part felt more important than anything she could’ve said anyway.
Jax exhaled, a little shaky, like he’d been holding his breath without noticing.
“…you’re warm,” he said.
Pomni blinked against his shoulder. “That’s a weird thing to say.”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “I know.”
But he didn’t let go.
Not even slightly.
If anything, his hands settled more properly after a second. Like he’d decided staying was easier than thinking about leaving.
Pomni shifted a little, unsure what to do with her hands now that they were already here.
“You don’t usually… do this,” she said quietly.
Jax made a sound that might’ve been agreement.
“Yeah,” he said. Then after a pause, honest in a way that felt almost accidental, “don’t tell anyone.”
That got a small laugh out of her.
It came out a little shaky.
“Wasn’t planning to.”
A beat.
He leaned back just slightly, not enough to break the contact, just enough to breathe better.
“…You’re kinda annoying,” he added.
Pomni didn’t move. “You already said that before.”
“I know.”
Another pause. Longer this time.
Then softer, almost buried under everything else:
“Don’t stop though.”
That was it. No explanation. No follow-up. Like he didn’t trust himself to add anything more without turning it into a joke again.
Pomni didn’t ask what he meant.
She just stayed.
Because he was still holding on.
And that felt like enough information.
After a while, Jax shifted again. Not pulling away, just adjusting like his body remembered how to exist separately.
He sighed.
“Okay,” he muttered, like he was trying to reset himself. “This is getting weirdly functional. We should probably fix that.”
Pomni let out a small breath against him. “You’re the one who started it.”
“I did not.”
“You did.”
A pause.
“…Fine. Maybe a little.”
That almost sounded like him again.
But not fully.
He loosened his arms first, slow, like he was checking if it was actually over or if something would go wrong if he let go too fast.
Pomni let go after him.
There was a gap between them now that felt louder than the silence before it.
Jax scratched the back of his neck like nothing had happened.
“I’m fine,” he said automatically.
Pomni looked at him.
He didn’t meet her eyes right away.
Then, quieter, like it annoyed him to say it:
“…Better, actually.”
And then, like it was safer to ruin it before it meant anything, he added:
“Don’t get used to it.”
Pomni didn’t answer that.
She just nodded a little.
And Jax stood up first, shaking it off like he could physically reset whatever just happened.
But as he walked away, he didn’t make it a performance.
No jokes. No speed. No distance-building.
Just walking.
And Pomni followed after a second.
Because she always did.
And this time, he didn’t try to make her stop.