Chapter Text
Ragatha grabbed a final piece of bacon before following Zooble over to the couch to wait for their “adventure” to begin for the day. She’d grown used to the strange cycle years ago, so she patiently waited while talking with Kinger.
After a few minutes Caine descended from wherever he spent his free time, loudly declaring “HELLO MY HOPPY HOTDOGS! TIME FOR TODAYS ADVENTURE! I HAVE CREATED A WESTERN BASED STORY WHERE YOU WILL PROTECT A- WHY ARE THERE ONLY FOUR OF YOU PRESENT?!”
Ragatha glanced around, realizing that only herself, Kinger, Zooble, and Gangle were present. Before she could even question where Jax and Pomni were, Caine shouted “ILL JUST TELEPORT THEM OVER” and with a snap of his fingers, they appeared on the empty couch.
They were completely cuddled up next to each other, fast asleep. Pomni had both arms wrapped around Jax, while he leaned his back into her.
The entire cast went silent at the sight, beyond confused as to why the sociopathic Jax was cuddling up with someone.
Zooble looked up at Caine, asking “did you do this?”
Caine frantically responds “I DIDNT TELEPORT POMNI YET, ONLY JAX. THE ONLY REASON THEY’D TELEPORT TOGETHER WOULD BE IF THEY WERE ALREADY ON TOP OF EACH OTHER.”
Ragatha gently nudged Jax’s foot, which caused him to sleepily grumble
“F-five more minutes Pomni. I don’t wanna let go yet.”
This raises even more confusion. Zooble let out a small snicker, while Gangle begins to doodle the sight before them. Kinger suddenly shoots up, having just realized that Pomni and Jax were missing, before also realizing that they were in front of him.
Pomni slowly opened one eye, lazily looking around, where she quickly realized the situation they were in.
“Uh, Jax?”
Jax grumbled in annoyance.
“We’re in the living room.”
Jax’s eyes shot open, where he physically yelled, and launched himself away from Pomni.
He quickly got back up, looking around, before angrily pointing a finger at Caine. “YOU! You set us up or something! You did this!” Caine denied this, which caused Jax to switch denial tactics.
“Ok guys, listen, so basically… me and pomni were actually fighting earlier because she was being stupid. During our scuffle we must have knocked each other out. I was winning easily, but she must had gotten some luckily hit in.”
His smug smile returned, before Zooble mockingly repeated,
“oh please, five more minutes Pomni, I just can’t BARE to let you go.”
Jax gave her a death glare, unable to come up with a comeback, so he turned to Caine and begged him to start the adventure.
“OK, IF YOU INSIST” and a portal opened, sucking in the cast.
-
They landed in a dusty western ghost town, directly in front of a bank. A bank teller NPC came out, thanking them for coming to protect the vault.
Jax got right to work, kicking sand into Ragatha’s eyes, before wandering off to who knows where.
The rest of them head into the bank, where the NPC tells them that robbers will come at sunset, so they have time to prepare.
Ragatha decided to spend the free time questioning Pomni. “So, Pomni! I noticed you and Jax were… very close! How did that happen?” Pomni looked over to her, before sheepishly beginning to recap the previous nights events…
-
The day’s adventure had been brutal and long, so afterwards Pomni immediately went to her room to take a nap.
A few hours later she groggily woke up, realizing that she might have missed dinner. She ran to the dining room, only to find zero food. She sighed disappointedly, and turned around directly into Jax.
“Hey shortstack, why the sour face?” He asked with his usual smug grin.
“I missed dinner. I mean, we don’t even like, need to eat, but it’s still nice too.”
Jax surprisingly didn’t make some rude comment, he looked conflicted, before he quietly told her to follow him.
She decided to, curious as to what he was doing. He led the pair to his door, and he told her to wait here as he entered his room.
She waited outside the door for around a minute, before he burst out with a large bundle, containing a bunch of random food.
“Let’s eat, but I’m not letting you in my room, and I’m not eating anywhere others can see me.”
Pomni reluctantly decided to let Jax come into her room to eat. It was right across the hall from Jax’s, so they didn’t have to travel far.
Pomni’s room is a colorful mess, each wall yellow with red and blue stripes running down them. She has a bed (also red and blue) and one nightstand. Littered around her room are random letter blocks. Jax quickly grabs a few blocks to spell out obscenities, before laying the bundle down on her bed, and they begin to share the small feast together.
Pomni notices among the food is a bottle of alcohol.
“Where did you even get that?”
Jax smirks. “Well, if you must know nosy, I snuck it out of that bar where our budding friendship began.”
Pomni still had no idea how Jax snuck out so much stuff from their adventures. The best she’d been able to get was a piece of seaweed. She wondered how long this food had been sitting in his room.
“So, um, I’m grateful for all this f-food, but is it, like still good?”
Jax laughed. “It’s complete and utterly ROTTED!”
“Nah just kidding. Caine doesn’t know that food does that, and nobody is keen on telling him.”
Relief flooded through her as she realized she hadn’t devoured spoiled food, so she continued to eat. She found a delicious looking cupcake, but Caine tended to struggle with any food that needed to be cooked or baked, as he didn’t quite understand how to summon that. She was surprised when she took a bite into it, and it was actually really good.
“T-This is a really good cupcake!”
Jax looked at her with suspicious eyes, before taking the cupcake out of her hand and throwing it into the wall.
“Don’t lie to… Caine.. like that, it probably tastes like s[BEEP].”
Pomni was confused by Jax’s defensiveness over some random cupcake, but he was always kinda weird so she didn’t think twice.
“Whatever, you’re cleaning that off my wall.”
Jax laughed, before retorting “yeah sure, I’ll clean it the day your hair doesn’t look like a birds nest.”
This jab hit particularly close to home for her, as she had been struggling to keep her hair tidy with the stupid jester hat that was superglued to it. She felt herself blush out of embarrassment, praying that he wouldn’t notice.
They continued to talk and eat, and pretty soon about half the bottle was gone. Pomni felt fine for the most part, but Jax seemed absolutely wasted. His ears lazily drooped, his smile was giggly, and his square pupils were extra large.
“You feeling alright Jax?”
“Alright? I’m feeling GREATTTT. Better than great!! I’m feeling, uh, spectac-ular! Yeah, I’m feeling spectacular” Jax shouted.
Pomni noticed how quickly the drink affected him back during the “lightning round” but didn’t quite realize how much of a lightweight he was.
She wondered how honest he’d actually be right now, because usually he refused to answer any real questions.
“So Jax, why do you hate Gangle?”
Jax looked at her with confusion. “Hate Gangle? I don’t hate gangle, I think she’s just fine! She just, really, really, really easy to pick on, not my fault she lacks a backbone. Or any bones.”
he continued on his tangent. “I don’t really hate anything or anyone, except corn and kinda Ragatha. I really don’t like her. Or corn. I HATE corn. I also don’t hate, your hair. I think it looks prettttty.”
The comment made Pomni slightly blush, and although she would never admit it, it made her feel a lot happier.
Realizing that Jax was actually being truthful for once, Pomni decided that this would be as good a chance as any to ask about what ragatha meant when she said Jax didn’t have any friend “anymore”. She had already asked Ragatha multiple times, but she always blew it off.
“So Jax, um, do you wanna talk about that thing that ragatha mentioned? The thing about friends?”
Jax’s silly demeanor quickly changed, his smile disappearing. “You meannn, Ribbit?”
Tears began welling in his eyes, before he simply fell back onto the bed, curling into a ball.
She didn’t know what to do, she didn’t wanna leave him, but he also wasn’t the kind of person to ever ask for help. Before she could decide, he looked up at her with glossy eyes and asked,
“Can.. I stay with you tonight? I don’t wnanna be alone.”
Pomni looked at the once psychopathic and narcissistic Jax, now teary eyed and begging for comfort.
“O-Of course you can.”
Pomni decided to let him have the bed, and was planning on simply sleeping on the floor before Jax quietly whispered-
“Can you, hold me?”
Pomni genuinely had no clue how to react to this. She didn’t particularly like to be touched, but the pain and sadness in Jax’s plea was enough to make her begrudgingly agree to.
She climbed back into the bed, and wrapped her arms around his torso, with his back facing her. She pulled him in close, tucking her chin over his head. Pomni never realized how soft his thin layer of fur was, and gently pet it, trying to provide any comfort.
She felt him snuggle into her awkward embrace, quickly falling asleep.
At some point, she also fell asleep, before waking up hours later in the middle of the living room.
-
“So Jax, THE Jax, not only went OUT of his way to be KIND, but used his OWN stuff to help you with ZERO alternative motives?”
Pomni nodded, saying how she was just as confused. But she was also interested in this other side of Jax.
“I saw a glimpse behind Jax’s mask, seeing the person he really is. And I think that’s a person I wanna meet.”
Ragatha looked uneasy, but decided to be supportive for her friend.
Their Wild West adventure ended early when Jax (who had somehow made/found dynamite) blew a hole in the wall, destroying the vault. This caused the Bank teller NPC to completely collapse, before Caine just decided to call off the story early.
As they returned the to circus, Jax pulled Pomni aside.
“Just so we’re both on the same page, last night meant NOTHING. I was just drunk and tired and not feeling right. So don’t go getting any funny ideas about it. You don’t matter to me. And you’re short”
Pomni was hurt by his words, but could tell from the way his grin looked unnaturally stretched that he wasn’t being completely honest, so she decided to not press him any further today.
She wasn’t giving up though, she was determined to figure out why Jax is the way he is.
She couldn’t help herself from getting in one last comment though. “If you ever wanna cuddle again, just let me know!”
He didn’t turn around, but she saw his ears twitch.