Chapter Text
"Congratulations, my humbugging hamburgers! You two are in the kitchen together!" Caine declared at a volume that was over 20 decibels higher than it needed to be.
This was the third adventure of the day. Jax wasn't sure if they were even halfway finished with their daily dose of torture yet.
It wasn't that Jax necessarily disliked the adventures Caine created for them, per se, but it felt a little overboard.
Ever since Jax barely survived abstraction and Caine came back, the ringmaster chose to change the circus to a sort of 'open world' experience for the members to live more comfortably.
Although they could go anywhere at any time, everybody agreed to allow a few days of required adventures built by Caine to keep their sanity in check and to dedicate time for the members to bond. Along with his own adventures, he was still open to taking suggestions from the members.
Which is exactly how Jax found himself in Spudsy's.
Again.
There had to be a way to ban Gangle from suggesting this lame adventure, or at least limit it to once a month.
The upside to this particular adventure was that he could kind of do anything he wanted to as long as it looked like he was working, which made it much easier to avoid Pomni.
Jax didn't like to describe it as avoidance, though. It was more like… Preventing complications through distance.
Yeah. He would never avoid Pomni.
Things just got a tad more complicated after she literally entered his mind to save him from abstraction. The reason she did that was lost on him, but he was still grateful.
Not that he'd told her that directly.
Again, it was necessary to avoid complications between them. She knew a little more about him than he was comfortable with and he wasn't sure what a long boring conversation would do for either of him.
He never asked to be saved, nor did he see any reason for her to do what she did. He sort of even wished…
Jax looked down at his sudden change of wardrobe. Black button up. Black pants. Incredibly stupid black visor.
How boring.
"Well, looks like it's just you and me." Jax looked up suddenly at the sound of Pomni's voice.
Jax decided at that moment that the universe was, in fact, against him.
When had she ever spawned next to him? She was always the cashier.
He ignored Pomni, who stood awkwardly in an outfit that matched his and instead glared at Caine who floated wordlessly in the air.
"That's not-! You aren't the manager! You can't choose where the employees are stationed!" He pointed accusingly at Caine.
"Nuh-uh! Gangle claimed that I had the special role of 'CEO', meaning I can do whatever I want with zero repercussions! And with the teamwork that you two have displayed in the past, I have no doubt that you'll be productive with your time here! Toodaloo!" He waved excitedly before vanishing from the air.
Of course he was the CEO. Go figure.
All of the sudden, his attention was caught by the sound of a fryer turning on. When he looked up, he saw Pomni wordlessly setting up the kitchen. She turned and walked over to a cabinet to his left to grab a pair of gloves and head back to the fryers. She stopped to glance over at him.
"Could you…do something?" She asked awkwardly.
Jax realized that he had been standing in the corner for far too long. He choked on his tongue as he opened his mouth to make a snarky retort, which threw him into a brief coughing fit. He rolled his eyes as he walked over to the sink and began to fill a tub with hot water. "Sorry, boss." He rolled his eyes. "I was just thinking of the most efficient way to lock you inside the freezer."
"Could you turn on the hotdog roller?" She asked, refusing to acknowledge his remark.
Jax furrowed his brows as he walked over to the machine and turned it on.
Fine. She wanted to play that game? She wanted to boss him around?
"Say, Pomni," He crossed his arms and turned to face her. She didn't reciprocate. "Could you take out the trash?"
"The…" Pomni trailed off as she looked at the only trashcan in the kitchen, which sat right behind Jax. "Shouldn't it already be empty? We just opened. Plus, it's closer to you." She pointed out.
Jax's head whipped around to look at the trashcan behind himself that was, upon a mere inspection, empty. He grumbled unintelligibly at that.
"Holy shit, Jax! The water!" Pomni exclaimed as she pointed at the sink. "Your tub is overfilled!"
His eyes widened slightly at her sudden change in volume. The tub of water he had begun to fill up a moment ago was, in fact, overfilling. He smiled at the sight without moving to turn the faucet off. "Nah."
"What do you-? Do I have to do everything for you? Just- Ugh." She groaned as she began to walk over to the sink, but Jax was just a bit faster than her.
"I've gotcha, Pomni." He said as he grabbed the faucet handle and shut the water off. As he did, though, a few drops of the hot water splashed onto his arm. He flinched back as he yelped. He took a few more steps back than necessary and stumbled into the cabinet that Pomni had left open to grab her gloves earlier.
Upon impact, he knocked a few cleaning spray bottles. Most of them held a transparent liquid, more than likely to be bleach, but one of the bottles contained a bright pink substance. The cap came loose and the contents of the bottle spilled over the top of his head as he fell over.
He blamed Pomni. If she hadn't been so bossy…
"Christ, are you alright?" She knelt down in front of him. He opened his eyes to look at her and smiled.
Wait. Smiled? What the hell was he smiling for?
He tried to frown, but his face couldn't seem to listen. He only smiled wider as he laughed. Pomni had a look of confusion on her face. "Uh. Do you need a minute? I can grab Caine if-" She offered as she began to stand up, but Jax grabbed at her by the wrist.
"Wait." He laughed harder. "Wait do you think… Pomni, Caine is like- He's all- Holy shit." He crossed his arms over his stomach as he doubled over in laughter. Pomni's eyes widened slightly as she looked down at where he grabbed her arm. She sat back down in front of him.
"Jax, I don't understand. What's going on?"
"Pomni, wait. Do you think that you, like- Or does- Are you mad?"
"I… Would you still lock me in the freezer if I said yes?" She offered as she chuckled at the sight of Jax doubled over in laughter.
"Aw…" He sounded sad for a moment as he looked up at her. "I don't think I can do that to you, Pom." He shook his head. Pomni smiled at his words.
That was… weirdly considerate of him to say.
He held his arms up for a moment and his hands fell limp. "I'm a noodle, Pomni." He laughed again. His ears twitched to shake off the excess sauce that fell onto his fur.
Pomni brought her own arms up to cover her face from the pink substance that flung from his ears. "Watch, it! I don't want that stuff on me!" As she watched the sauce fall onto the floor around her, it hit her. "Oh my God. Jax."
Across from her, Jax blinked tiredly as he struggled to wipe the smile from his face. Why was he still smiling? "Yeah?" He questioned as he looked up at her again. Her eyes were wide in fear as she eyed him up and down. He laughed. "Eyes are up here, Pom. I know my beauty can be a lot to take in, but don't you know that it's rude to stare?" He slurred.
Pomni, on the other hand, rolled her eyes and flicked him square in the forehead. "You wish. It's stupid sauce, Jax."
"I'm stupid? You're stupid! Hah… Got 'em." He laughed again as he slumped back against the cabinet.
"No. The bright pink sauce that you dumped on yourself? It's stupid sauce. It makes you stupid."
Jax gasped. "Liar! You- This is your fault! You told me to turn on the hot dog machine!"
"Because you were just standing there!"
"Yeah! Because you were there!"
"What does that even mean?" She squinted at him.
He looked down at himself, surrounded by the mess of spray bottles and that terrible pink substance that had made his vision go fuzzy and made his face numb. What did that even mean?
Christ. So much for preventing complications.
Five weeks and two days of not speaking. Of course Caine was the one to ruin it.
"I think the… Where's the money going? Pomni you have to take the… What're you doin' here with me?" Jax asked.
Pomni rose a brow. "Money? Are you asking about the registers?" Pomni giggled. "I think Ragatha is the cashier today. Gangle found out I accepted a fake hundred dollar bill so I'm sort of banished from the front of the store now." She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly as she recalled the situation.
Jax snorted.
"Aren't you an accountant? How'd you fuck that up?"
Pomni opened her mouth to respond but she sat silently for a moment.
This felt so… normal. Jax noticed a slight shift in her expression, but with his vision swirling, he was unable to register if that meant something good or bad. What the hell was he doing? "Pomni?" He tried to get out, but the words fell into a slur of noise that fell from his lips.
She shook her head. "I… The currency is different here, so it's harder to tell the difference between real bills and fake ones." She reasoned. Jax nodded his head.
"Ah, so you aren't stupid. Just unfamiliar. I knew you were… I knew you were smart, Pomni. You do dumb things, though." He blinked slowly as he pointed at the girl who sat in front of him.
"Huh? I do dumb things? Aren't you the one who knocked into stupid sauce a second ago? I feel like that is the definition of dumb."
"You- Hey!" Jax furrowed his brows at the insult before continuing, "No, you just- I don't understand why you- You just do dumb shit."
Dumb shit like saving my life.
Pomni just laughed. "Okay. I think the sauce is really getting to your head, Jax. C'mon, I don't want Gangle to fire us." She said as she stood up and offered a hand to Jax. He stared at it with half-lidded eyes.
"I do." He remarked dryly. He hated this stupid adventure with every fiber of his being. Or, brain scan of such.
Of course the one time he was forced next to Pomni he had to be an idiot and get fucked up on stupid sauce.
He stood up on his own instead of accepting Pomni's hand. He didn't want her help. At least, that's what he told himself.
As he stood, his vision began to swim intensely, causing him to flail his arms around as his legs tried to give out until his hand landed on Pomni's shoulder.
What?
His eyes snapped open as his mind processed what he was doing. Pomni held onto his arm as a means to steady him and his breath caught in his throat.
Fuck. If I'm not the most pathetic person ever…
Jax made a lazy attempt to pull away from her, but Pomni took it as him stumbling again and held on tighter.
She had a knack for holding onto things that weren't doing her any good.
"Pom, 'm good. Promise. Lemme go." He whispered, his voice hoarse.
Pomni looked down at the mess of bottles on the floor before glancing back up at Jax sadly.
"I'm sorry, I just- We haven't spoken in so long and I just wanna make sure you're alright." She mumbled as she squeezed his arm. The sensation sent an unfamiliar sensation down his spine and he wasn't sure how to feel about that.
What the hell?
In a hurry, he ripped his arm from her grasp and stumbled back into a countertop. He pointed at her accusingly, having sobered up enough to realize just what he was doing.
"You… Stay away from me, idiot! What, you think were just all fine and dandy now? Well, You… You just-!" His words began brazen but quickly descended into unintelligible mumbling as he averted his eyes as if he forgot who he was speaking too and what he was even trying to say.
What is going on?
He looked around the room, but it was difficult to focus with everything in the room moving around and with the sounds of timers going off and the hotdog roller squeaking and the sound of someone speaking and-
Oh, Right. Pomni.
He tried to focus on her, but there were an endless amount of bright colors dancing and clouding his vision. He heard a noise that sounded similar to her voice, but he couldn't confirm that with the way his ears were ringing and the way that they were pinned to the back of his head. He couldn't feel anything. He could feel everything. He felt terrible.
It was amazing.
"Jax?" He heard his name being called, but he didn't care. He didn't care about this job or Gangle firing him or Caine giving him a lecture on participation.
He didn't care about anything. Especially the way Pomni was yelling his name and grabbing onto him like she did when he abstracted. The way she clung on as if there was any point in him staying here. The way she tried to make sure he was okay even after preventing complications for five weeks.
God, he was stupid.
When he woke up a couple of hours later, Jax was not met with the industrial lighting of Spudsy's. Instead, he found himself in absolute darkness, enveloped by a large blanket with his head propped up on a pillow.
He was back in his bedroom. Alone.
That must have been a terrible dream.
As he sat up and stretched his arms above his head in a yawn, he felt dizzy.
He glanced down at his bedside table and that was when he saw it. A glass of water with a note.
"Drink this"
He grabbed the glass with more urgency than necessary and chugged its contents in one gulp before slamming it back onto the table.
Terrible mistake.
After a few moments in the bathroom, his stomach recovered from its queasiness and he slouched against the wall. He tried to recall the days events. Something about Spudsy's… Hotdogs… Sauce… Pomni… Falling… Wait.
Pomni?
He squinted as he thought about her for a moment. His stomach twisted uncomfortably as the memories began to pop into his mind. He banged the back of his head against the wall as he cursed himself.
Why did they have to be paired together? Caine was a total liar, him and Pomni were a terrible team. He was used to slacking in the kitchen while Ragatha completed all of Gangle's stupid tasks. Was that not a sufficient enough system?
Of course he caved and spoke to her. He wished he had just done what he always did. Only around Pomni did he find himself doing shit he would never do otherwise.
Sure, not talking to the woman who saved your life for over a month because you don't think she should have risked her life for you was a little difficult. Maybe he spent every waking moment wishing he could spend time with her and simultaneously curse her for being inexplicably rash.
But Jax could handle it. He was a man.
He winced at the lies he told himself.
Before he could dwell on it, he thought back to Pomni. He wasn't sure what the next plan of action was. Were they just… talking now? Could he pretend nothing ever happened?
He shook his head. Fat chance. Neither of them would let that go.
Plus, she knew everything about him.
His past. His mom. Ribbit.
Jax shuddered. He hated the power that she had over him. He hated even more that he knew she would never abuse the knowledge that she had. Why couldn't she have just let him die after seeing what a disgusting person he was?
He felt a tugging sensation in his chest. He was angry and confused. He knew the right thing to do was to thank her and move on, but he had spent so long detaching himself from this false reality and all of its inhabitants so that nobody would feel the way that he felt losing the people he caused to abstract when he did so himself.
He wanted to believe it was because he didn't do a good enough job, but he knew deep down that it was just who Pomni was. She saw through everything. It terrified him.
He yearned for her approval and attention, so he knew he had to starve himself of it.
But it was so addictive, and it technically wasn't of his own volition. He was under the influence for the majority of the adventure. He could definitely just chalk their interaction up to being accidental, right?
He thought back to the way she squeezed his arm when he tried to stand on his own. The fur on the back of his neck stood up at the memory. He ached for that sensation again.
He was humiliated to admit that he missed her more than he'd liked to admit.
The thought of trying to hash things out after all of this time, though, felt even more humiliating.
A thought hit him.
If he could blame their interaction earlier on the stupid sauce and get away with it, what were the chances he could do the same with alcohol?
He knew a decent bartender in the circus who would be more than willing to be a part of another repeat adventure.
It was perfect: Get insanely hammered and allow to give in to his yearning, then blame it on the alcohol in the morning.
Jax was a genius.