Chapter Text
Pomni winked one eye, then the other, watching her reflection do the same thing.
She tilted her head, looking at the way her wet hair clung to her cheek and dripped.
The dissonance between her self-image and her current avatar was far less strong than it used to be, but it still lingered. The shower and nudity adjustments helped somewhat. Try as she might, she could never perceive the clothing she wore as part of her skin. The idea just made her shiver.
Finally succumbing to the programmed chill, she reached for the towel hanging on the wall and started to pat her hair dry. The adventure she'd just endured was one of those "realistic" ones that made her sweat profusely. It always seemed to be on the ones where she'd be out in the sun for hours with no refuge from the emulated sun.
If Caine ever learned what "sunburn" was, she was absolutely screwed. She'd take her sweat-soaked suit over that any day.
Although Jax wanted to show her another oddity in the circus afterwards, she'd made a beeline to be the first in the shower. Of course, since the ability to even get dirty enough to warrant a shower was new, there was only one shared stall for them all. If it weren't for the heist she'd just helped take part in, she could almost forget that they weren't trapped in hell and confuse the situation with some college dorm-esque life.
Almost.
She discarded the towel on the floor-no need to worry about it now, it'd be cleaned and reset at 1 AM at the daily refresh-and picked up her sweatshirt and shorts. She took in a humid breath, enjoying the feeling of clean clothes on clean skin, and peeled her jester uniform off the floor, scowling at the dampness. Not that it would have dried any faster when she'd cranked the temperature up so hot it was almost scalding, but it, too, would not be fixed until later. She had spares, but little drive to don any of them when she didn't have to.
With a final look-over in the mirror, she pushed the door open and walked into the hall to return her nasty clothing and finally see what Jax wanted to show off.
She didn't have to wait too long, because she caught him lounging upside down on one of the couches watching "TV" in the common area. She could take the detour now, she supposed.
She draped herself over the back of the couch, looking down at him. "Hey," she said. "What're you up to?"
He smirked, not looking up at her. "Ah, you know." Amusement lilted his voice, but when he glanced over at her, his smirk dropped and his eyes narrowed.
She caught onto the switch in tone instantly. "What?"
He crossed his arms, still upside down. "Nothin'."
She resisted the want to roll her eyes. He denied it, but she swore he was the most sensitive person in the circus, he just didn't show it in the same way Gangle did. Maybe someone had said something to make him upset earlier and he just remembered it, or he felt like she was pulling away from him by, heaven forbid, taking a shower first.
She tried to push the concern back; no better way to show him that she wasn't pulling away than asking for his attention.
"Yeah, well, are we going to go see that thing now?"
He didn't perk up at that as expected. Instead, he scoffed and uprighted himself. "What thing? We're not doing any things."
She raised her eyebrow. "Huh? But I thought-"
"Welp, I'm exhausted. Absolute-ly tired. I'm gonna snooze." He tried to push his voice up, but Pomni still heard the traces of annoyance under his casual tone. She watched him stretch and exit. "Later, Pommers."
She didn't retort to that, and just blinked at the hallway she watched him disappear down and chewed her lip. Try as she might, she had no clue what had happened that would get him this upset.
It was a shame, really. She didn't want to upset him. At least if she knew what it was she could say something that might have smoothed down his fears or dissuaded them entirely, then they could have hung out all night like she'd hoped…
A bit dejected, she started to walk to her own room, stopping a few steps in when she realized she wasn't carrying her uniform anymore.
She furrowed her brow as she patted at her pockets, the pocket in front of her sweater, and looked around herself and the couch. It was nowhere to be found… okay? Maybe it de-spawned? She had plenty of spares…
She gave a shrug and went to pass the rest of the night with her nose in a book, trying to not think about how she'd much rather be listening to his annoying voice or his stupid laugh. Stupid Jax.
Jax felt a growl in his throat as he inhaled deeply. He humped against his pillow, feeling his cock pulse against the fabric of his boxers.
It wasn't fair. She spent half the adventure absolutely dripping with sweat, emanating the scent that had kicked on his latest spell of hormones, and then she goes and rinses it all off without a care?
Sure, he'd swiped her uniform, and it did still smell of her, but it wasn't the same. The scent would only fade from here, and it wasn't warm, and it wouldn't give him release as burying himself inside of her might.
His tail twitched as he moved down the stomach of the suit and nuzzled up into where the red and blue legs met.
Right where her pussy was earlier.
Compared to his animalistic senses, everyone else in the circus seemed noseblind. They could smell coffee when it was brewing, or the stench of Pomni's latest baking failure, but the "wash your ass" update seemed to only give him the ability to smell everyone. Ragatha's dusty fabric. The wood that made up Kinger.
He salivated as the strong, heady smell of Pomni's sex hit him.
If the salty sweetness of her skin was ambrosia, her slick was a sinful indulgence. He wasn't able to parse it over the overwhelming Pomni his brain was registering earlier, but now that he knew what exactly she smelled like down there, he knew it'd chase and haunt him until he was able to source some of it himself.
He grunted and humped his pillow again, wishing so strongly that she was under him, her ass pressed right up against his crotch, taking his knot and babbling about how good she feels, how she wanted to feel his cum inside of her.
How she wanted to stay in the nest, carry his kits, that she wanted him to pound her and breed her-
"F-fuck," he gasped out into the air, the uniform pressed against his face, as he ground against the pillow and climaxed. He humped through his orgasm, feeling his cum seep through his boxers and onto the pillow.
But it was no Pomni. He whined, feeling his cock throb again, like it knew it was not buried inside of her and that he was wasting valuable seed that he could be pumping into her womb.
It could offer reprieve for a bit, though. Maybe. He stuck out his tongue at the way his pillow and underwear stuck to each other and rolled onto his back. Clutching the uniform to his chest, he looked at his bed, the way that the blankets seemed to form the starts of a nest.
Stupid Pomni. Stupid rabbit body. Stupid hormones. It was going to take him hours to build a nest he thought suitable, and then another hour or so to cum himself to sleep. And then what about tomorrow? What would he do when she started to sweat again?
He gave her outfit a sniff. It was already losing its scent.
Pomni was happy to see Jax looked in better spirits the next day, although he seemed a bit more self conscious than usual. Which, for Jax, was really saying something.
She swore every time she glanced over at him, she'd see his eyes darting to something across the room. The idea that he might be looking at her made her heart skip a beat, but he was clearly skittish about something. Something about her? What had she said to him?
She pouted as she continued to turn the crank of the well. She liked farming games and simulators, but she liked the physical labor this harvest adventure was demanding much less than managing timers. She took a final deep breath and exerted her energy into one last crank.
"Got it!" Ragatha cheered and fetched the bucket. "Thanks, Pomni! That should be enough water!"
Pomni leaned against the well and panted, giving a thumbs up and wiping sweat from her brow. She could feel the dust and dirt around her sticking to her skin, her muscles aching from all the work she'd done.
All she could think about when she got back was how nice it'd be to run the water against her body again, to get out of her stupid clothes and into something comfortable and clean…
Finally having caught her breath, she pushed herself off of the stone bricks and stretched her arms. "Ugh, I can feel it dripping down my side…"
Although she had said it to no one in particular, she noticed Jax's wide eyes looking her way from where he kneeled in the garden.
As he looked quickly back down at the dirt, she started to feel a bit bashful herself. She put her arms down and wiped at her forehead again. Why did he have to look over at her when she was all sweaty?
Man. Jax must think she's so weird.
He wanted to taste her so fucking bad.
After he'd worked himself to exhaustion the night before, he had to fight stupid instincts all day to just appear anywhere close to normal. But every time he got a whiff of her, he started salivating, his mind racing with thoughts of feeling up her tummy and tucking her under his chin and-
So he kneeled in the garden and pretended to work while he hid his raging erection.
No one else had noticed that he'd only been taking a carrot out of the ground and sticking it back in.
This was probably not helping matters.
When he heard her make a sound and stretch, he looked over at her, his senses immediately tuning in to the musk wafting off of her.
"I can feel it dripping down my side…"
His cock twitched, hard.
He saw the starts of her looking over and quickly looked back down at the ground. His hand shook as he gripped the carrot.
It wasn't fair. He just wanted to grab her and rub his face on her and make her smell like him and smell her and and and-
"Jax, the adventure's over, get your ass over here."
Zooble's harsh tone cut through his horny monologue. He hadn't noticed so much time had elapsed.
He shoved the carrot in the ground with more force necessary and stood up. At least he was at the back of the group. No one should notice that-
"DID YOU ENJOY THE GARDEN ADVENTURE, MY LATITUDINAL LAPINE?"
Jax turned his back to the group instantly, praying that no one else could see his bulge as he started to retreat back to the nest for another day of frantic pillow humping.
"Yeah, sure, I love planting seeds." Fuck, that's kind of horny. Try something else. "And animal husbandry." COME ON. THINK!!!! "…And. Carrots." THAT'S PHALLIC.
Caine chuckled. "I knew you'd like it!"
Jax tried to keep his pace as steady as he could but once he heard the voices of everyone's feedback fading out, he started to sprint to his door.
Once he was in relative safety, he felt his instincts kick into overdrive. He started to gather every other pillow, blanket, and sweater he had around his room and added it to the pile on his bed. Her uniform from the day prior was seated right in the middle of everything.
Would it be cringe.
He tapped his foot and looked down at it.
He pulled on his ears in frustration, then shoved his pillow into the uniform. Now it would feel like he was holding something.
He was so hard it hurt.
He retreated inside the makeshift burrow, pillow Pomni held to his chest.
"Seriously?!" Pomni stomped her foot in front of the door to the bathroom, taped off with caution tape and a handwritten sign claiming it was "out of ordor" stuck onto it.
The "r"s were backwards.
She huffed and started to shuffle back to her room with her pajamas in hand. Now she was sweaty, dirty, and pissed the fuck off. What else was she supposed to do? Use a paper towel from the kitchen? Try to roll around a sandbox like a chinchilla? Drown herself in the digital lake?
…That idea had legs.
She'd never been to the lake, though, so she'd want a chaperone. Maybe someone who would want to look at her for extended amounts of time in a bathing suit.
She tittered to herself, grinning mischievously. She'd get to look at him in a bathing suit, maybe, too.
He probably looked like a noodle under that thing of overalls. Perfect. She felt blush dust her cheeks, moreso than the exhaustion from earlier had. She practically skipped back to his room and knocked on his door.
And no one responded.
She knocked again, calling at the door and pressing the side of her head against it in hopes that she could discern any sound from inside.
Nothin'.
That caused a twinge in her brain. What if he was in danger? What if he needed help? What if he was abstracting?!
Maybe it would be okay to just take a little peek to see if he was okay. She slowly turned the doorknob and poked her head in. "Jax?"
She did not expect to see a blanket fort erected on his bed. Much less one of this size. Much less one with a patchwork of blankets.
Much less one with his eyes glowing in the dark interior.
She closed the door behind her. "Jax, what are you foin' in there?"
He continued to stare at her.
"Are you… okay? Or did you need me to leave, because I can-"
"You didn't shower."
She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to squeeze out any sort of meaning or emotion from his statement. "I'm… sorry?"
"Don't-" his eyes disappeared as he turned his head, his voice lowering in volume to barely above a whisper. "I smell it."
"The shower isn't working, it's…" she shook her head. "Sorry, I was going to ask you if you wanted to go in the lake…"
He looked back up at her. She stepped forward to the edge of the bed, tilting her head and watching him for any sign of acceptance or refusal.
"Why do you want to go to the lake?"
She shrugged. "I wanted to wash off. I probably reek of sweat."
His pupils widened.
"I can go ask one of the others though if you've got all…" she pointed at the nest, "…of that happening."
She pulled back and the light caught one of the shiny panels of fabric that made up her costume. The one that was inside of Jax's nest.
"Why do you have my uniform?"
His pupils shrunk and his voice wavered, "What uniform."
"The one that's right there." She pointed at it. "It has a pillow in it."
"That's-that's mine." He pulled the pillow closer to himself as if to hide it, but she still could see it. "It's not weird to sniff it if it's mine."
She shook her head. "I'm sorry, what?"
He shrunk back into the nest. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath.
"Jax, look, it's-" she rubbed her head. "Weird rabbit stuff, that's fine. But just ask me, okay?"
She didn't quite understand why he was holding onto it, but he'd glossed over details about some of his weird habits before, so surely this wasn't any different.
He seemed to relax at that, his expression relaxing. Then he looked away from her.
"Can we. Uh."
She leaned back in lest his voice drop down again.
"…Trade?"
"For…"
"The dirty one."
She looked down at her outfit and pinched the side of it, pulling it away from her body. It wasn't an awful deal. She would get a clean piece of clothing to change into and he would get…
"This is like, rabbit stuff, right?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Right, uh…" walking back to her room felt so unnecessary, and it wasn't like he could see through seventeen blankets, anyway. "I'll just-give me the new one and I'll change real quick?"
Jax tried very hard to block out the sounds of her pulling her outfit off. He could hear her, though. The rustling of fabric. The slight creak in the floor as she shifted her weight. The little sounds she made when the collar got stuck against her chin.
She's right over there. She's naked right now. You could turn around and see her and she'd beg you to breed her.
It was bad enough she saw him like this, she didn't need to actually see him like this. The whole conversation, he'd been pushing his bulge against the mattress, trying to will it down. It did not listen.
She walked back into view, adjusting the way the fabric sat against her chest. "Thanks, I'm gonna, uh, go to the lake with Gangle or someone." She plopped the uniform in front of the nest.
His focus immediately snapped to it. He dug his fingers into the sheets so he didn't snatch it immediately. She didn't need to see that.
"Have fun with the rabbit stuff, I hope you feel better?"
He glanced over to her now that she was near the door.
"Thanks."
She gave a small wave and ducked out, latching the door behind her once again.
He made himself wait two seconds.
One.
Two.
He scrambled to grab the uniform, the scent practically calling for him. He needed to smell it, he had to.
Pressing the crotch up to his face, he noted it smelled so much more intense than yesterday, more fresh, the fabric was still warm.
Imagine how the real thing must feel.
As he pushed the pillow down to his crotch to give himself something to rub against, he noticed the darkening of fabric right where her slit was, her slick dripping down, she was wet.
Had she been wet for him? Wet over the idea of bearing his litter?
He groaned into the bunched up fabric and prepared for another sleepless night.