Chapter Text
“What’s your opinion on Zooble?”
“Gangle, please,” Zooble grabbed Gangle’s ribbon, pulling her back. Gangle shoved Zooble off of her, she didn’t want anything to do with them anymore. They were willing to kill an innocent child for selfish reasons. Gangle wasn’t a big kid person, but she definitely didn’t think Daisy deserved to die just because Jax was an *#$-hole.
“Zooble, I don’t want to talk about it–” Gangle started to object but Zooble didn’t want to let her speak.
“Please, understand this from my point of view,” Zooble begged, “I need you to understand why–”
“Zooble,” Gangle sighed, avoiding eye contact, “There’s nothing you can say that can convince me. You need to reflect on your decisions.”
“Gangle, I love you,” Zooble snapped quickly, and Gangle stared at them. Were they seriously doing this? Right now? They could’ve done this a year ago. Months ago. They didn’t love her. They just didn’t want her to leave. They didn’t want her to hate them. Which is exactly how she felt. She wanted them to leave her alone, she didn’t like them.
“No you don’t,” Gangle replied, walking away.
“Gangle, Gangle please,” Zooble begged, chasing after her as she shut the door to her room behind her. Zooble started to knock on the door, “Gangle, let me in. Please, I’m sorry. I just… I need a friend.”
Gangle blinked, staring at the door. She turned away, crossing her arms as she walked away. She could hear voices from outside, Zooble and what sounded like Caine. They were loud before they got softer. Gangle couldn’t make out the words, she didn’t want to. She sighed heavily, walking over to her bed before flopping on it aggressively. She looked at the wall of sketches she had. They were mainly Zooble… Gangle blinked, her gaze hardening.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*
Moon watched Gangle tack up a sketch of Ragatha she’d drawn. The two had managed to untangle themselves by the time she’d got back, spending time in their own respective rooms. Moon’s eyes followed Gangle as she picked up her sketch pad, sitting down beside Moon.
“Did you ever love them?” Moon asked as Gangle averted her eyes, avoiding eye contact. She shrugged.
“I dunno,” Gangle whispered, “Maybe? I don’t really know if I’ve felt love before. Especially in the Circus…”
“Do you know what Zooble went through?” Moon asked, “With a child? They–”
“Sort of,” Gangle interrupted, “But it’s not my place to tell you, really. Even if it were, I don’t think it’s really relevant to the question at hand. You’re here about Caine, right?”
Moon nodded and Gangle was right. Most people would just share what they knew anyways. Moon found that admirable. Gangle respected boundaries, she recognized when she was to keep things under wraps. Moon leaned forward, catching a glimpse of what Gangle was drawing. It looked to be Ragatha. That made enough sense, the two seemed to be a thing now. Moon wasn’t too invested in human connections in the Circus, that was Caine’s job, not hers.
“You’re not a big coding person, are you?” Moon asked, tilting her head.
“I don’t really know much,” Gangle admitted, “Moon, what’s actually going on with Caine?”
Moon stared off. She didn’t know if she should be honest, tell Gangle all she knew or if she should… lie. Moon wasn’t averse to the concept of lying. However, she wasn’t really sure how much Gangle should really know. Gangle had sort of given her the information that Caine had been looking for a few weeks prior, however she didn’t know how useful that would be to aid her efforts.
“Nothing for you to worry about, I’ve got it under control,” Moon muttered, beginning to leave. Gangle tilted her mask gently.
“If you say so,” Gangle whispered, “I just don’t want to see anyone hurt.”
Moon approached the sketches, her eyes catching on one of them. It was buried under the others, but it was still visible enough for her to see it. She pulled it down gently, turning around as she walked back up towards Gangle. The drawing turned out to be a panel, a comic drawing set between Jax and Pomni. However, Moon was more interested in the depiction of Jax throwing up the slew of flowers.
Gangle seemed to perk up slightly, blushing a bit, “That’s from right before Pomni and Jax got together, before any of us knew he was pregnant and he was just throwing up a lot.”
“The flowers?” Moon asked, looking at Gangle, then the drawing, “I don’t recall him throwing up flowers.”
“Oh, no!” Gangle squeaked, embarrassed, “It’s from some forms of Japanese media, it’s called Hanahaki Disease.”
“I don’t follow,” Moon said, looking up at Gangle.
“Oh, it’s basically, like,” Gangle stood up, walking up to Moon so she could better explain, “Jax, in the comic, has the disease. So he has flowers growing in him. They start to over take his body and that’s why he’s throwing them up, his body’s trying to reject them.”
“What causes this disease?” Moon asked gently, looking Gangle up and down.
“Love,” Gangle shrugged, “Well, not entirely, sometimes it’s a person suppressing their love, sometimes it’s a person who doesn’t know they’re in love, sometimes it’s from love not being shared.”
Moon stared at it. Caine. Zooble. &$^#.