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Jax was gone. As he called himself, the funny one. He’d bring down Gangle’s spirits for as long as Gangle could remember. Along with that, for as long as anybody who had seen the two of them together, could remember. He ended with a bad reputation, that was for sure. Let’s be honest, the only real tears shed were from Pomni. Poor girl. Besides that, Jax may have had some good moments that nobody in the circus had seen or heard about. His good moments were all a myth now with his past friends Ribbit and Kaufmo gone. The circus was one-hundred percent going to be different without Jax.
Gangle headed back to her room after hanging out with the others in the circus. Why would she be going back to her room immediately after the interaction, you might ask? Well, she wasn’t necessarily sad about Jax abstracting. Even though she wasn’t exactly happy about it either. It was a bit of both feelings. She’d never seen Jax as a friend. He’d berated her so many times she’d lost track of how much he’d put her down as a person. But… He’d also given Gangle her name when she was sent to this damned place called “The Amazing Digital Circus”. She’d hated that part about her name. It was given to her by the one person who tortured her endlessly before. But everyone called her that. She couldn’t change her name now. As Gangle was about to shut her door, the familiar voice she loved hearing so much yelled for her.
“Gangle!” Zooble would call out. “Wait up!” Although in this digital realm you didn’t need to eat, sleep, or drink anything, Zooble was somehow out of breath. You’d most likely figure that wouldn’t happen in a place like this; a place where you didn’t need the bare necessities.
Zooble, oh Zooble. Where would you have to begin on the way Gangle felt about them? Gangle couldn’t explain the way she felt about them without blushing. Rather that blushing comes from embarrassment or from her crushing on them.
“Whenever I see them… I get this feeling in my chest. You.. you.. You know how when you look at something you think is cute… Or when you see something you really-really like! Zooble’s my best friend of course… I wouldn’t change that for the world. That’s why.. why I like them so much, you love your best friend.”
“Uh, Gangle?” Zooble was waving their hand in front of Gangle’s face.
“Hi Zooble.” Gangle's tone was a bit uneasy. She was just spaced out moments before.
“Can we both go to my room, please?” Zooble’s eyes gazed over to Gangle through the halfway shut door.
“Oh- of course, Zooble.” Gangle whole-heartedly smiles as Zooble takes Gangle’s hand(or so ribbon) and leads her to their room. It wasn’t like Gangle didn’t know where Zooble’s room was though. On the very short way there, she wondered why Zooble took her hand. She didn’t object to the touch. Not one bit.
Zooble guided Gangle to sit down on their bed, their eyes being their only way to show their emotion since they didn’t have a mouth. From what Gangle could see, they were either happy or neutral. Gangle had noticed a pattern over time from spending lots of her time with Zooble. They never had one gloomy look on their face except for when Gangle was in a bad mood. That bad mood usually came from Jax. Now Jax is gone. Maybe Gangle’s sad days wouldn’t be as frequent now. Enough of Jax. He was gone, there wasn’t a reason to think about someone that brought her so much pain.
Zooble sits near Gangle, although putting their legs over the side of the bed instead of taking a seat fully on the bed. Gangle does the opposite. Gangle flops down on the bed. She still lays down quite close to Zooble. Shortly after settling in her laying down position, she sat up.
“How are you feeling, Gangle?” Zooble asks.
“Feeling in general… or feeling about…?” Gangle didn’t finish her sentence. She had a feeling Zooble knew what she would have said.
“I’m more concerned about how you’re feeling, not about how you feel about Jax gone, Gangle. You can answer both though. I’m okay with hearing both answers.” Gangle could have sworn Zooble knew her like the back of their own hand.
“Well right now I don’t really know how I feel. I’m not overjoyed or anything though…” Zooble listens.
“I’ll have to assume that means decent then?”
“You could say that.” Zooble takes a good look at Gangle after her response.
“I’m not going to attempt to force any answers out of you, and I want you to know you have every right to not answer this question… Are you happy that Jax is gone, or how do you feel about it? It’s not too important to me. I thought he was a total dick. I couldn’t stand seeing him treat you so poorly.” Gangle doesn’t answer for a moment, she was truly thinking on the question Zooble just asked her. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to–”
“Sorry Zooble, I’m trying to come up with how I really feel about it.”
“I see.” The two of them sat on Zooble’s bed in silence for moments that felt stretched in a way time couldn’t tell or explain.
“I’m not exactly happy about it.” Gangle pauses between sentences. “It’s not like I’m frustrated about it either.”
“I understand what you mean. Neutral?”
“Yeah…” The two of them sit in silence again. This time it’s more awkward. Zooble is the first one to ask another question.
“Can you tell me more about how you are feeling? Just in general?”
“More detail than what I previously said?” Zooble moves their body to fully face Gangle on the bed. Sitting down fully on the bed instead of having their legs over the side. They would attempt to gesture for Gangle to turn and face them. She got the memo and adjusted their position.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to elaborate. I’d just like to know.” Gangle looks away from Zooble for a couple of seconds before glimpsing back.
“I can’t say I’m feeling the greatest but not the most frustrated or sad either. Although if I had to say I’m more okay or upset I’d say upset.”
“Do you have any idea why you might be feeling this way?” Gangle finds herself unable to look into Zooble’s eyes.
“I’ve been wanting to just say something to a specific someone for a while. With Jax gone it may be easier. Less harassment from him, y’know.?”
“I get that.” Lots of moments of silence had been happening between Zooble and Gangle throughout this whole conversation. This exchange had been full of thoughts between them. “Were you going to tell this… something to Pomni or Ragatha, Kinger, or maybe even Caine–”
“I was going to tell you that ‘something’, Zooble.” They felt their heart drop. The heart that shouldn’t even be racing in a place like this. They also felt a hint of something they didn’t think they’d ever truly, truly felt in the circus. Hope. They’d felt hope before, they were sure. But something about this was different.
“You can tell me. I’m all… Would you call these ears?” Their eyes moved to look at the antennas on their head. The ones they’d pick to have on today were a Y-shaped black and white striped head piece and the other a long pink seashell shaped head piece. Gangle giggles at that remark.
“No, I wouldn’t call them ears…” Gangle began to shuffle her hands around a tiny bit. She was sure Zooble wouldn’t notice(Zooble did in fact notice, but Gangle either pretended not to know that or that she didn’t know Zooble noticed). “Anyways… I wanted to maybe ask you a question before I say what I’ve been wanting to say to you. I probably should have said it a while ago and I don’t know why I didn’t.”
“Hey, it’s not a problem for me. I didn’t even know you wanted to tell me something that’s clearly important to you. Take your time. You’ve been taking it already.” Gangle’s nerves relaxed a tad at Zooble’s reassuring words.
“I wanted to ask you how you feel about me.” That question may have been a ‘What are we?’ Without saying it.
“Can I have a second to think? I want to be the most honest person I can possibly be with you.”
“Go ahead..”
“If I had to describe how I feel about you, I wouldn’t know where to begin. Not because I don’t know how I feel, far from it. It’s because I can’t explain it without being all… Cheesy. To put this simply, you're one of, if not, the most important person in my life. And I wouldn’t trade that for anything else there may be in this digital world.” Gangle felt a flush of light pink creep up upon her face.
“That’s… Sweet of you to say, Zooble.” Gangle tries to cover up her face with her ribbon hands. It didn’t cover much.
“Look at me,” Zooble insists. Gangle uncovers her face under no pressure.
“I appreciate what you say.” Zooble smiles with their eyes. An expression of pure affection.
“Of course.” Zooble doesn’t have a hint of dishonesty in their voice. “What did you need to tell me?” Gangle was reminded.
“Right…” Gangle’s blush hadn’t calmed down. It seemed to only get stronger. “I..I..” Gangle’s words seemed to not come out. Leaving Gangle’s mouth open.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Zooble was extremely patient.
“No-no I’m going to tell you. I’m.. I’m just.. just nervous.”
“Take your time.”
“I am…” Gangle takes a deep breath that she most likely couldn’t feel herself inhale. “I want you to know that I hope this doesn’t change too much between us.”
“It depends on what it is, Gangle.” Gangle knew they were right.
“I love you.”
Zooble’s eyes widened a tiny bit with surprise before softening. Zooble couldn’t deny that they were both practically saying it to each other many times before without even saying it out loud. What the two had was not causal. It could continue being that way from here on out. Zooble hoped for that.
“I love you too, Gangle.” Zooble scoots closer to Gangle on the bed. The two of them were now facing each other. Gangle felt like she was on cloud nine.
Without any thought whatsoever, Gangle quickly leaned in to close the distance and kissed Zooble where their mouth would have been. The kiss was gentle and slow. It ended rather quickly but for the duration of it, was absolute heaven to the both of them. To Gangle’s surprise, during the kiss she actually felt a mouth. Their mouth just must not be visible, but it was there. Must have been how they got censored with the censors for cursing… Gangle pulls away. Not out of breath. She was smiling, although Gangle’s expression showed a hint of guilt.
“I.. I.. I should have asked–” Zooble’s voice interrupted before Gangle could finish that sentence.
“You never had to ask.” Zooble sighed, but not out of any sort of annoyment. “I’d let you do that anyday.”
Gangle’s lips curled up into an even wider smile. She giggles. Then she would go in for another kiss in which Zooble would ever so gently bring Gangle up to get even closer to them. To kiss them more precisely and for more physical contact with Gangle. Gangle would get onto their lap to straddle them.
The kiss started out extremely gentle. The two of them were taking it slow again. This time, the kiss would one hundred percent last longer. Gangle was surprisingly the one that initiated the going rougher. She got more impatient. Sure, having a soft and gentle kiss was enjoyable. But Gangle wanted more, so much more. She wouldn’t take too much upon these urges for now; but she could make an attempt to make the duration of this even more pleasurable than it already was.
Zooble would understand what Gangle was trying to initiate and put it the same amount of effort. Gangle took her lips off of Zooble’s for a moment that was supposed to be short.
“I’d never… I’d never imagined being on.. on your lap like this…” Gangle’s breath was hitched. She was nervous.
“Have you… Ever done something like this before? With an actual person?” Zooble watched Gangle’s blush visibly become a dark shade of red. “I’m going to take that as a no.” Zooble puts her hand where Gangle’s cheek would have been. Speaking as to if she had a human face. That cheek was just a mask now. “I can talk you through it if you’d like. You’re precious to me.” Gangle’s blush somehow managed to become an even deeper shade of red.
“You’re doing too much…”
“Sure I am.” Zooble would go back in for another mouth to mouth kiss. Gangle gave into it immediately.
Zooble was a tad bit rougher this time with their side of the kiss. They felt Gangle's hand and some of her arm move to their lower back. They suppressed the urge to let out a sound of pleasure. That felt amazing. Zooble had never realized just how much they wanted this to happen until it was really happening.
For Gangle, she was letting out almost inaudible noises Zooble didn’t hear. She didn’t want to embarrass herself by accidentally moaning extremely loud, or anything similar to that. She lets out short whimpers under her breath. She felt like she was genuinely in heaven. It might as well have been the best time she’d ever had in the circus. On accident, she slipped up and a louder mix of a moan and whimper sound came out of her mouth. Ganglle instantly felt embarrassed. Goddamnit…
Zooble broke the contact between their lips to mutter, “Louder,” They crashed their lips together once again. Gangle suddenly didn’t feel embarrassment, they felt arousal. The rough kissing didn’t last much longer. Gangle felt a tad bit tired. Gangle was the one to fully end the kiss.
“Zooble.. Zooble-.. I.. Can I catch my.. My breath..” Zooble’s look in their eyes immediately softened at Gangle’s request.
“You don’t even have to ask me.” They leaned in but not to kiss her lips. They would say in a murmur, “I will love to continue having intimate moments with you, Gangle. I love you.”
“I.. I love you too.” Gangle beams with excitement and satisfaction.
Gangle let her hand go down Zooble’s back to rest on her own side, and Zooble would take her hand in their own.
“I love you.”