Chapter Text
“Ugh, you sound like Ragatha right now. No wonder we’re not a team.”
Ragatha wanted to say it surprised her.
She wanted to say that anything involving Jax these days surprised her.
For someone who wanted to come off as full of surprises, he was always so predictable.
Just like how she knew what kind of impression he’d try to make on Pomni, how he would react when she got too close, and what time at night he would find himself at Ragatha’s door.
Which was the worst part.
Despite everything—the friendship, the whatever-they-were, and the fallout—Jax still found a way to keep coming back.
Old habits die hard, she presumed.
Ragatha knew she should’ve been happy for Jax. For Pomni, even. They were making a friend, both of them being more outward with their emotions, and just being more outgoing in general.
She’d have been lying if she said she wasn’t happy for them.
But… she’d also have been lying if she said she wasn’t annoyed.
Jax used to be her friend. She used to be the one he came to when he got into an argument with Ribbit. She was the one whose room he snuck into at night.
And the thought of him doing the same thing to Pomni killed her inside.
It was rarer these days, but still there. After the fallout that happened between them, interactions with Jax felt like finding pieces of glitter buried deep into the corners of furniture or a carpet after a party—small, surprising sometimes, but always distracting and hard to shake off.
She always wondered—did she ever linger in his mind when he chose Pomni over her? Did the smell of her stay woven into the fabric of his overalls? Did the taste of her stay on his lips?
Ragatha found herself turning in bed over and over thinking about it.
She knew she needed to stop, that thinking like that would only lead her down bad paths.
Paths that were all dark with glowing, colorful eyes.
She knew all she could do was deal with it, just watch it happen.
So, she watched—despite how much it made her want to pull her hair out—as Jax began to hang around Pomni more, as he lingered in the common area even after Ragatha left.
At some point during the night, she came to the conclusion that she wouldn’t get any sleep, instead rolling the same thoughts around in her brain for hours.
The next day, Caine had teleported them all out of their rooms rather early.
Ragatha, still reeling and—in all honestly—kind of spiraling, was not in an adventuring mood. And she definitely was not in the mood to watch Jax obsessively stick to Pomni all day.
“Good morning my little eggs in a basket!” Caine’s booming voice didn’t help. At all. “Today, you’ll be playing something I have recently learned about! And I am thrilled!”
“Let me guess—we won’t be thrilled.” Zooble rolled their eyes.
Ragatha silently agreed with them.
“Ah-ah! Not so fast, Zooble! Don’t knock it before you taste it!”
“Isn’t it before you try it?”
“I don’t particularly care! Anywho! You’ll be doing Caine’s Wondrous, Fantabulous, Incredibly Demanding Escape Room! Trademark pending!”
Ragatha, and everyone else, did not have the reaction Caine probably wanted. There were a couple of groans, muttered complaints, and one “how lovely!” from Kinger.
“Turn those frowns upside down! You will be paired up—”
Ragatha was torn between feeling relieved and worried. On one hand, she wouldn’t be forced into an awkward situation, but on the other, she had to deal with Jax picking anyone else—Pomni—over her.
“—By me!”
Oh. Well. That was lovely.
Hopefully, Caine would automatically put them in their designated duos. That was fine with her. At least it was someone else forcing Jax and Pomni together.
“Have fun, and don’t break anything.”
With a snap, she was transported into a Victorian-style living room. Shelves of dusty books lined two of the walls, a fireplace sat in the middle of the back wall, and there were cluttered items upon every surface. Paintings covered any blank spaces. A grandfather clock ticked away from beside her.
In the middle of the room, there sat two comfortable-looking chairs with a table between them. She was about to head for them when—
“Great.” She heard from behind her.
She turned, finding Jax standing there, arms crossed.
“Just who I wanted to be paired up with—little miss perfect.”
“Oh, come on. Like you’re any better?”
“Feeling feisty today, aren’t we?”
Ragatha just rolled her eyes, not wanting to respond.
Instead, she focused on her surroundings. Caine said it was some kind of escape room. So, surely, there would be clues somewhere around the room?
She began to move about the room, searching for anything that could get her closer to getting out.
“Aw, not the cold shoulder. Come on, Raggy.”
She continued to ignore him.
She found a small jewelry box on the mantle of the fireplace. It was red with intricate gold designs on it. It was also locked.
Ragatha turned, gazing about the room once more.
Jax was being just as helpful as he normally was—he sat on one of the chairs, long legs resting on the table in front of him.
“Are you actually going to help get us out of here, or am I gonna have to do all the work as usual?”
He yawned, stretching out further. “Eh, I thought it’d be more fun to watch you do everything.”
“Of course you would.” She deadpanned.
Moving away from him, she began to study the wall of books.
Surely there would be something there?
When she first arrived in the room, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to how they were stacked upon the shelf. But now that she got to look closer…
“Ugh, I’m bored.”
Ragatha closed her eyes and sighed. “You said you’d rather watch. It’s not my fault you chose to do the boring thing.”
“Woah. What is up with you today?”
“Maybe I just don’t feel like dealing with your antics today, Jax.”
“Hurtful.” He said, putting a hand to where his heart would’ve been. “My antics are who I am.”
She rolled her eyes before looking back at the shelf.
There was a pattern. One red, two blue, two red, one blue. It repeated itself over and over, until—
“Are you done yet?”
She took a deep breath. “If I were done, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
“Well, hurry it up.”
“I’m trying, but you keep interrupting me every five seconds! You’re like a child on a road trip asking if we’re there yet.”
He snickered. “I like it when you’re all fired up. You get meaner.”
“Well, lucky for you, that just seems to be a side effect of your presence.”
She turned away, again, and grabbed the book that disrupted the pattern. She opened it, and all the pages were hollowed in. Inside, there sat a piece of paper with a code on it.
2157.
Okay, she was looking for something with a lock? A safe?
Her eyes explored the other walls.
If she wanted to hide a safe where would she put it? Well, where would Caine put it?
“God, that ticking is driving me up the wall.”
“What did I tell you about disrupting me?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Miss Ragatha! I’ll stay quiet forever and ever so all you can hear are your thoughts echoing about in that cotton-filled brain of yours.”
“Why do you always feel the need to be so aggravating?”
“Why are you always aggravated so easily—I swear if that clock doesn’t shut up, I’m going to break it.”
“Caine specifically told us not to break anything.”
“Which only makes me want to do it more.” He stood, walking over to the antique clock.
“Jax—”
“Whoops!” He said, before accidentally bumping it with his hip.
The clock fell on its side, the ticking going silent.
“Finally. I thought I was going to go insane.”
“You are so—” Before she could finish, she noticed the wall behind the clock. Moreso, the lack of a wall. There was a square-shaped hole in it, and inside sat a safe. “Oh.”
Jax followed her line of sight and noticed it. “Well. It seems my awful thinking and destructive nature actually helped you. I expect a thank you and an apology.”
She ignored him, and squatted down to type in the code.
A hand on her arm dragged her back upward. “Hello?”
“What, Jax?”
He moved, placing himself between her and the safe. “I deserve my flowers.”
“You want me to thank you? After being absolutely no help whatsoever?” Her tone was incredulous.
“Uh, last I checked, I’m the one who found the safe.” He crossed his arms.
“Please. All you did was knock over a clock. I noticed it first.”
He took a few steps toward her, and for every step he took, she went back one.
Soon, he’d backed her up against the table in a corner of the room, the side hitting the backs of her thighs.
“Why are you acting like this? I’ve done worse—thrown you into the open mouth of a hungry tiger, pushed you down a mountain, pulled at your seams until they snapped. So what could I have done to get this reaction out of you?”
“Maybe you should do some internalization. Find out for yourself.”
“Or you could be honest with me, for once.”
“Please, I’m always honest.”
“If you’re always honest, I’m always loving and kind.”
“God, you’re so annoying.”
“Yet you still find your way back to me.”
What? What did that have to do with anything? “Me? You’re the one who crawls into my room in the dark of the night.”
She noticed a brief shift in his eyes, like he didn’t expect her to push back. “Don’t act like you don’t like it.”
“I could say the same to you.”
“Who said I liked it?”
“Well, if you hate it so much, maybe you should crawl into Pomni’s bed instead.” The words came out before she could stop them. She gasped immediately after saying it, covering her mouth with one hand.
He looked at her incredulously. “So that’s what this is about, then?”
“What?”
“You’re jealous I’m hanging out with Pomni.”
“I wouldn’t call it jealousy.”
“Oh, then what would you call it, oh wise one?”
“I… I don’t know! Confusion? Suspicion? It’s weird.”
“Suspicion?”
“It’s just weird, okay? I don’t understand why you’re suddenly all about her. I wouldn’t care if you had developed some sort of… I don't know—attraction, or whatever, but if you did, leave me out of it. Stop coming to me.” She looked up at him, and her stomach dropped.
His eyes were blank and his brows were furrowed.
“I—I’m just going to…” She sidestepped him, avoiding both his touch and his gaze. She punched in the safe’s code, and it opened.
Inside, sat a tiny key.
For the music box.
She ignored Jax as best as she could, and made her way across the room to the tiny object. She unlocked it, and it held only a white button.
She pressed it, and both her and Jax were teleported back to the circus.
Kinger and Gangle were already there.
“Oh, hi, Ragatha, Jax!” Kinger said, waving at something that was neither of them.
Jax still stood emotionless next to her.
She needed an escape from whatever it was she and him had going on.
“Kinger! How was your escape room?”
She listened attentively to Kinger’s rambling, forcing every bit of Jax out of her mind. She didn’t think she could handle thinking about what she said any more than she already had.
Jax made a mistake.
During today’s adventure, he got too close to Ragatha, he said too much, he let her say too much.
He needed an outlet. One that wasn’t Ragatha. He couldn’t handle that. Not tonight.
Which was why he found himself staying sprawled out on one of the couches, pretending like it wasn’t hard to ignore Ragatha as she walked away.
But—didn’t she deserve some payback? She’d said a lot.
“Maybe you should crawl into Pomni’s bed instead.”
Hell, maybe he should.
So, instead of lingering until everyone left him alone, he quickly followed behind Pomni. Ragatha just so happened to be just a couple feet ahead.
“So, Poms…”
Pomni tensed a bit before turning to him. “Um… yeah?”
“I have something to tell you. Privately. In your room.” It was said quiet enough for Ragatha to notice he was saying something, but not what he was saying.
“Okay…?”
She led him into her room.
Jax, who made himself out to be always cruel and relentless, glanced at Ragatha right before he walked in.
The sight he was left with filled him with satisfaction.
Her eyebrows furrowed, her non-button eye went all wide and doe-like, her arms wrapped themselves around her waist.
But when he shut Pomni’s door behind him, his stomach curled uncomfortably.
“What did you want to talk about?”
Instead of answering her, he pushed past her and laid out on her bed.
“Jax?”
He felt the mattress dip slightly near him. He glanced over at her, and her worried expression made him roll his eyes.
“Are you—”
“Don’t ask me if I’m okay.” It was too sweet, too caring. Too Ragatha.
“Alright…”
God, what was her goal? Did she think acting like Ragatha would get her anywhere with him?
He felt her lie down next to him.
He looked over at her, and she was staring at the ceiling.
Noticing his stare, she turns her head to him.
Just do it.
It would’ve been so easy.
Leaning in, pulling her closer, tangling one of his gloved hands into her bright curls—
No.
That—that wasn’t what he actually wanted.
He forced his gaze down to her mouth.
“Jax?”
He stands quickly. “I can’t do this.”
“Do what? I thought you just wanted to talk.” Pomni followed after him, sitting up.
“God, shut up—stop trying to be her.”
“Who am I trying to be?” Pomni’s eyebrows furrowed.
“Ragatha! You’re just so—” he groaned.
“What’s up with you and her? Whenever I try to be a decent friend, you always push me away and say I’m trying to be her. It’s really confusing.”
“I don’t know what is so confusing. You’re acting like her.”
“And why does that make you so mad?”
“You’re—It’s—God, you’d never understand.”
“Then explain it to me!”
“I don’t have to explain anything to you.” He walked away from her, but she still kept trying.
“Jax, don’t just leave.”
“I can do whatever I want. Leave me alone.”
He left the room, slamming the door behind him.
His breathing was shallow and heavy, his fists clenched at his sides.
Unwillingly, his gaze moved to the door just down the hall.
A knock on her door.
Sure, sure. This is exactly what she needed. Another conversation where she had to pretend she was alright, and like everything she said today wasn’t eating her alive.
Another series of knocks, slightly more aggressive than the first.
“Coming!” She said, trying to come off as cheery.
She had to hold back a groan as she pulled herself from her bed.
With a sigh, she opened the door, only to find—
“Jax?”
He all but loomed over her. Once he made eye contact with her, it was like nothing else existed and he couldn’t look anywhere else.
“Can we talk?”
“Talk.” Most of the times he opened with this, they ended up doing things that were not talking.
Instead of explaining himself further, he pushed himself inside her room, slamming the door behind him.
“Jax—”
She was pushed against her door, hard enough to get his message across, but gentle enough so it didn’t hurt.
He stepped closer to her until he was almost pressed against her.
“You make it so difficult.”
“To do what?”
“Anything! Think, breathe, sleep! Why are you always there?”
“Where?”
He scoffed and rolled his eyes. Annoyed, he nearly yelled, “Everywhere!”
She stayed quiet, opting to just look up at him all confused.
“You’re everywhere. Your awful smell is tangled in my sheets, your ugly voice in my head, your disgusting taste in my mouth.”
“You say it’s awful, ugly, and disgusting, but you still seek me out. After having the perfect opportunity to get rid of me.”
“I tried to. Trust me, I tried everything to get you out of my system.” His breathing was heavy. “But you just won’t leave. You linger in the air like a bad perfume.”
“Why are you here?”
He said nothing. His gaze weighed heavy on her—she could feel the pressure of it spread over her entire body.
Then, his eyes slipped down to her mouth, and she knew.
She was right.
Every passing thought she had about him was true.
She did remain entwined with him the way he did for her.
He tried having Pomni instead, but she was all he really wanted.
Suddenly, they were nothing but lips and hands.
It was feverish, a little aggressive, but neither of them cared. All they knew were lips on lips and hands on bodies.
“God, Rag—” His words were all clumsy, breath all shaky and unstable. He spoke right against her lips.
He never finished the sentence, so she pulled him back into a kiss by his overall straps.
His arms found their way to her waist, holding her to him as he carried her over to her bed. He placed her on it, only separating for a moment to look her in the eye before kissing her again.
Jax’s lips moved from her mouth to her cheek, her jaw, and down to her neck.
She grasped at his overalls again. “Did you ever think of me? When you were with her?”
She felt him smirk against her. “God, all the time.”