Work Text:
“Gangle… I’ve got a crush on you.”
It was a simple phrase, and really, once he got it out Jax felt a weight lift itself from his shoulders.
Really, he’d tried a lot of things to have time with just himself and Gangle. Sometimes he’d get all the others killed on an adventure and make sure she didn’t get caught in the crossfire. Sometimes he’d write little notes in her sketchbook on sticky notes (or sometimes on the page if he didn’t have the sticky notes). Sometimes he struck up a conversation about something Gangle was interested in. The issue there was that she always seemed to shy away about that stuff.
He thought that that was just how she was. Shy, keeping to herself, not talking about her life outside.
Then she started hanging out with Zooble.
She opened up around them.
When Zooble reached out she leaned into the touch. It made a fire in his chest ignite and extinguish a thousand times a second whenever they were together.
And to make things worse, Zooble was actually actively trying to keep them apart now. They clearly didn’t like the pranks Jax pulled on the rest of them and was trying to white knight Gangle by “protecting” her. But they just didn’t get it! That’s just how they were! He messed with her a bit and they all moved on! And she liked that! She liked when Jax was a little mean!
But Gangle was so open around Zooble… they didn’t even need to steal a sketchbook to learn about her.
Whatever the case, it’d been a nightmare trying to get a moment with just the two of them together, but here it was! He waited until the others had gone back to their rooms for the night and luckily, Gangle declined Zooble walking them back to theirs, saying she was going to get something from the circus’s kitchen before she went to bed. So Jax waited in the kitchen, cooking something simple to pass the time, ramen.
And not that crummy instant noodles garbage, actual ramen. If she wanted not-mean she’d get it. This time just plain, unseasoned truth.
He had a crush on her. For a fair bit actually, the fast food adventure served to both test and strengthen that when she messed with him back.
Because as it turned out he liked when she was mean to him, too.
She’d stepped into the kitchen somewhat groggily but her head practically jerked up when she smelled the air. Perfect. So, of course, Jax offered her a portion of what he was making, making a quick comment about anime when she said she liked the stuff. She didn’t reply from there.
They both sat down and started eating.
That’s when he told her.
—
Gangle stared at Jax for a long moment.
That explained some things.
He’d stopped trying to just insert himself around her for the last adventure, something she was both very thankful for and wary of.
He kept on leaving her alone when they got back from said adventure. Again, thankful and wary.
When she heard sounds coming from the kitchen she thought Ragatha or Kinger were just up late either practicing cooking or in the case of Kinger, being confused. But she stepped in to find Jax, making something he knew she’d like. She’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop all day so when he offered some to her she figured she’d just play along and get it over with.
The two of them sat down and at first Gangle was pretty sure she was about to be poisoned… but then Jax took the first bite. Not that then. She took a bite and glanced around, no obvious traps, no bucket hung over her seat, no thumbtack on her seat, the caps to the salt and pepper shakers stayed on when she used them. Though Jax did make a face when she did. Maybe the fridge would be the punchline? She was about to get up and open it, probably get socked by a mechanical arm with a boxing glove on the end and then leave, when he spoke.
“Gangle… I’ve got a crush on you.”
Of course, that was all setup for this. That explained why he was being respectful of her boundaries today. That’s why he made something she’d like. That’s why he looked so strained as he spoke. It was to set this up so that he could turn around and play some lovestruck-fool gag for maybe a day before going back to normal.
Kind of funny, honestly, and Gangle was almost tempted to play along, she used to have a bit of a crush on him too. But no, this bit would just open old wounds and then she’d end up feeling used again.
She raised an eyebrow at him, swallowing a bite of ramen before speaking, “this is the lamest prank you’ve done so far.”
His pupils shrunk and narrowed on her. Clearly he hadn’t been expecting her to call him out. They scanned her face a few times before staring down into his own bowl of ramen. She just watched and took another bite of hers.
He took a deep breath and opened his eyes again, his pupils were now huge black voids that eclipsed his eyes. His grin was wide and uncanny, as usual. “Ah you got me! What chance would we even have if we were together,” he chuckled, “and y’know what? You’re right, this prank is pretty lame, I’ll cook you up something better tomorrow!”
He sat up from the table suddenly and stepped towards the door. Gangle just watched him go from her seat, genuinely surprised that he didn’t just throw his bowl at her when he didn’t get his way. It kind of made sense though? He didn’t usually do anything violent unannounced.
Jax stopped in the door frame and turned around to face her again. His pupils had become small and searching again. His ears drooped slightly. He inhaled like he was going to say something but after a beat he just… turned and left.
Suddenly Gangle dreaded the kind of torture he’d pull on her tomorrow for not playing along.
Whatever, Jax couldn’t mess with her all day tomorrow. She'd get some time to herself again and she’d get over whatever he threw at her.
She finished her meal, which was surprisingly good, lacking some of the normal Circus Food Static that anything edible had here. She wondered how he’d done that as she walked back to her room.
She passed Jax’s room and lingered there ever so briefly. She didn’t hear anything from inside and the light was off (as it always was) so she just kept going.
She laid down in her bed after checking the bed, the pillows, the underside of the bed and the wardrobe in her room for any signs of Jax or his tampering.
At first it seemed like the coast was clear but looking over from the wardrobe she noticed that one of her sketchbooks was out of place, flipped so the spine was set on the inside of the shelf. It was his way of reminding her that he could get in.
She rolled her eyes, pulled the sketchbook off of the shelf and quickly flipped through it, skipping past pages of old art and purple sticky notes that mostly just called her a dork.
Her most recent page had a drawing of Zooble, Pomni and herself at the Spudsy’s adventure. There was a purple sticky note covering her face, which had been redrawn as her comedy mask, smiling widely as usual. No wait, there were tears in her eyes in the picture. This was still her tragedy mask.
And in the corner of the page was another sticky note with a doodle of Jax smiling wide and hitting the plastic mask with a hammer.
Her brows furrowed, unsure if this was part of the old prank or part of a new one. It almost seemed nice? And he actually had the decency to not draw on the page for this one? So probably the crush prank.
Yeah, that must be it.