Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The atmosphere was tense in the living room—that’s what they’d taken to calling the group of couches and tables often hung around in—they had spent almost ten minutes just looking for an exit to Caine’s “office,” and now they were all sitting in silence. They all wore expressions that betrayed varying degrees of anger and/or hopelessness.

Except for Kinger, anyway. He had already scurried his way back into his little fortress. Maybe someone should’ve asked him about whoever that “Scratch” guy was, but it seemed none of them were in the mood to have another bombshell land on them all after what had happened.

When it came to Jax himself, his anger had long since worn off. He was simply… tired, too tired to even really think straight. He didn’t care if he technically didn’t need to sleep, he absolutely needed it after all that nonsense. His head had started aching from the moment they entered the office.

He would just… wait until everyone else went to bed, first.

Ugh, and when were they planning on doing that, anyway? They all looked like they were waiting for something, or were they all just gonna sit here all night? Were they thinking they were all gonna talk about what happened? He really couldn’t imagine any of them wanting to do that, he sure didn’t.

As if on cue, Zooble suddenly got up out of their seat and walked right in front of Jax’s line of sight with a glare on their face, “Jax,” Crap. He jinxed it.

“Yeah?” He replied mirthlessly, trying his best to avoid eye contact.

Zooble leaned down so that they were right up in his face, Jax would probably be able to feel their breath if they had a mouth. “What the f$!& was that about!? Why the hell did you press the red button!?”

Jax instinctively recoiled from Zooble’s yelling, “What, you wanted to go to shrimp town that badly?” Jax responded with a grimace. He really didn’t want to be thinking about that right now. He didn't want to think about how everyone had looked at him when he did it.

Predictably, that comment seemed to only piss them off more. They continued to stare daggers at him in silence for a moment, before sighing and pinching the hypothetical bridge of their nose, “Whatever, I’m too f@#%ing tired for this. I’m going to bed.”

With that, they finally averted their gaze and walked off, presumably to their room. Gangle stood up shortly after, she briefly left her mouth agape, seemingly thinking of what to say, before turning to join Zooble, and letting out just a quick ‘goodnight.’

That just left him, Ragatha, and Pomni.

Pomni was staring down at the floor, her expression almost completely blank. Jax wasn’t even sure she was currently aware of her surroundings, but as Ragatha stood up as well, she seemed to come back to reality just a bit, “Uh, Ragatha?”

The ragdoll in question forced a smile, just like always, “O-Oh! Um, What is it, Pomni?”

“Are you… alright?” Pomni sounded like a scared puppy. Frankly, it was hard to tell if she was asking for Ragatha’s sake, or her own. And it was a stupid question, honestly. There was no way she didn’t already know the answer, of course she wasn’t, none of them were. But of course, Ragatha would never admit it. Old habits die hard.

“I…” A strained laugh escaped Ragatha’s lips, “No… But this isn’t the first time I’ve been let down like this. I’ll… be alright… eventually.”

Pomni seemed to calm down, just a bit, “I’m always here if you need me.”

For just a moment, Ragatha’s smile looked…

“…Thank you, I think I really just need some sleep right now, though. See you tomorrow, you two.”

…

Well, whatever.

Jax let out a long sigh as he reclined back on the couch, staring at the ceiling of the tent. The circus was still so bright, even at night. Caine never really bothered with turning out the lights once it was dark out, it really wasn’t helping sooth his headache, if he was being honest.

“That… goes for you too, Jax.”

Great, what was the little jester going on about, now? Jax turned away from her, hoping she’d get the hint.

“I’m always here if you need me, I promise,” Pomni reassured, either not getting it, or purposefully ignoring it.

Jax clicked his tongue, “Good to know. I don’t.”

Pomni took a deep, shaky breath, “I’ll see you tomorrow… right?”

…Why’d she have to say it like that?

Jax turned back towards Pomni just enough to see her out the corner of his eye. Her expression made his stomach churn, “…Yeah.”

She didn’t look very convinced. God, she was such a pain.

But, in spite of that, she stood up, and shambled off to her room.

Now it was just him and the bright, empty tent. It felt like the aching was spreading to his eyes. The awful feeling in his stomach refused to go away, too. If anything, as the seconds passed, it only grew.

After enough time had passed that Jax was sure everyone had made it to their rooms, he pushed himself up to his feet and began storming off, his traitorous gut swirling with dread. What was he getting so worked up about? It’s not like anything was any different now. He always knew it was impossible to leave, why would a character be able to escape their own story? Nothing had changed, so why did he feel so nauseous?

The lights around him seemed to grow brighter, and the pain in his head grew sharper along with it. It felt like his brain was getting ripped apart from the inside. Whatever. It didn’t matter. None of this mattered, he’d been through so much worse, he was fine.

But, with every second that passed, the lights grew brighter, and the pain got worse and worse. He began seeing things, seeing people he recognized, hidden among the patches of light. Soon enough, he couldn’t hold his eyes open any longer, and he began to run with his eyes shut. Was he even going in the right direction? He wasn’t sure, his body just moved, turning corners he didn’t even realize were there.

It was awful. What was happening to him? What was going to happen to him? It was so hard to think. He just wanted it to stop, he wanted the pain to go away, was that so much to ask? The world swirled around him, he wasn’t sure which way was up, but he still felt his legs pushing him forward, nonetheless.

God, what was wrong with him? Everything was gonna be fine, why did he have to go and make Pomni look at him like that? Nothing was going to change, he was going to wake up tomorrow, and he would go right back to being the same guy he always was. He’d go right back to making Gangle miserable, Ragatha would go right back to blaming herself for everything he’s done, and Pomni would go right back to not caring whether he lived or died.

It didn’t matter what he wanted, a character can never escape their own story. He was Jax, he was the one that makes everything worse for everyone, and he would stay that way for as long as he lived. Nothing was ever going to change.

…And he just couldn’t stand it. He just wanted out. He didn’t want to be himself anymore, He didn’t want to keep hurting everyone around him. He didn’t want to be alone anymore. But there wasn’t anything he could ever do about it. He couldn’t be anything but the horrible person that he was.

Then, suddenly, without even realizing it, he had stopped. Once his eyes had opened, he found himself standing right in front of his room. The lights had gotten so bright that he could barely recognize his own face on the door. His hand reached out and turned the doorknob as if it had a mind of its own, revealing the room inside. It was just as dark as he had left it, and yet, his migraine refused to subside.

It was all exactly as he had left it earlier that day, not a single thing had changed. Not the chairs, not the photos, not him, and not what would happen to him if he entered. But his body wasn’t truly his own anymore, he knew he couldn’t stop himself from doing what he was going to do, and this time around, no one would be there to save him.

It didn’t matter what he did, it didn’t matter what he wanted, it didn’t matter how he felt about it.

Pomni stared blankly at the canopy of her bed. She hadn’t been lying down for very long, but it was still obvious that she wouldn’t be falling asleep anytime soon. So much had happened in a single day, and her brain was still scrambling to make sense of it all.

It really was impossible to escape the circus, wasn’t it? She had already lost most of her will to escape a while ago, but feeling the last bit hope that remained get so completely crushed like that just felt…

Before she could finish that thought, a loud slam from outside her room demanded her attention. It took only a moment for panic to begin settling into her, and only a second later, she was sprinting across the room, and throwing the door open. After she had recovered from the sudden change in lighting, she was immediately met with the sight of Jax’s door across from her own. It was closed, maybe he just slammed it as he entered? She glanced around the hallway just to be safe, and sure enough, she briefly saw what looked like Jax turning a corner at the end of the hall.

Without a second thought, she began running after him. Maybe she was just being paranoid, but after everything that happened… she needed him to be safe. Once she had made it out of the hallway into the bulk of the tent, she looked all around her, hoping to catch a glimpse of him, to no avail. Cursing under her breath, she decided to simply run in the direction it looked like he was going in when he turned the corner, hoping that would lead to her running into him, or at least catching another sign of him.

Sadly, as she kept running, nothing immediately jumped out to her, but she kept searching around the tent for several minutes, making sure to check behind every giant block she passed by in case he was hiding there, to no avail. She felt herself breaking out into a cold sweat. God, she should’ve been more stubborn, he clearly wasn’t okay, she should’ve made him talk, or… or something! Now it might’ve already been too late…

No, no! There wasn’t any point in beating herself up over this, she couldn’t force him to talk. She just needed to be there for him as soon as possible. She lightly slapped her cheeks a couple times, hoping to jolt herself out of her own catastrophizing. Thankfully, that did seem to help a bit, enough that she noticed she could hear someone calling her name nearby. She quickly turned towards the origin of the sound, hoping to see Jax, but instead, her eyes met with Kinger’s pillow fort.

She quickly ran over to the fort’s entrance, opening it just enough to see inside, but not enough to let too much light in. Kinger seemed to be staring through a gap in the pillows, which was probably how he noticed her in the first place.

“Ah, there you are, Pomni!” Kinger smiled as he took his eyes away from the gap. Or rather, he did the closest equivalent to a smile that he could do without a mouth, “I take it you’re looking for Jax, right?”

“O-Oh! Yeah, have you seen him?” Pomni smiled back, leaning into the fort just a little more.

“That I did!” Kinger nodded confidently, before placing a finger onto his would-be chin, “Well, I mean, I heard him first, he came running by here a second ago. It… sounded like he was really upset, given that he was hyperventilating pretty bad…”

Pomni shivered, that pretty much confirmed she wasn’t just being paranoid. “Um, so… did you see where he went?” she asked, maybe a little impatiently.

“Oh! Right, right.” Kinger shifted over to where Pomni was sitting and pointed out the fort, towards the exit of the circus tent. “I was able to catch a peak of him running out the tent. I would’ve gone to check up on him myself, but…”

Kinger looked down at the floor with a guilty expression, “I, uh, would’ve just gotten sidetracked… you mind doing it for me?”

Pomni gave him a determined look as she shook her head in response, “Not at all, that’s what was gonna do anyway. I’ll make sure he’s alright, I promise.”

Kinger looked back at her with a warm smile, “Thank you, Pomni.”

Pomni gave him a thumbs up as she closed the pillow door and began running towards the entrance. This was really only going to be her second time going through it, the other being earlier that day when they had gone to the lake. She never really felt the need to go outside all that often, especially since most of their adventures took place outside anyway. Despite the fact that they were all trapped there, it was hard to call the circus claustrophobic.

The entrance was made up of a pair of curtains that were held open by two large ropes. It was just as grand as pretty much everything else in the tent, even a whale would probably fit comfortably through it. It was thankfully much darker outside than in, and as Pomni began walking out into the night, she could see the digital sky. It looked just like it had when they had all gone stargazing, each of the stars looking like they had been drawn onto the skybox with a glow-in-the-dark pen. It was really nice, maybe she should go outside more often.

At first, she was planning to continue running down the path that lead to lake and the carnival, but only a moment after she had left the tent, she heard a faint sound she couldn’t quite pin the origin of. As she looked around, hoping to find it, she noticed the moon looking down at her. Once the two of them made eye contact, the moon silently motioned towards one of the trees that sat along the tent. Pomni nodded in understanding and quickly began running over to it.

As she got closer, the sound grew louder, enough that she was able to recognize it as something she never expected to hear, Jax crying. Once she had reached the tree, she saw Jax sitting with his legs curled up against him at its base. His face was hidden behind his hands, and it looked like he was almost gripping his head hard enough to crush it.

“Hey,” Pomni whispered as she sat down in much the same way next him, trying her best not to startle him, “What’s wrong?”

However despite her efforts, the moment he noticed her presence, Jax gasped and pulled his hands away from his face, looking at her like she had just caught him doing something wrong. His pupils looked like small scribbles, and his face was dripping with tears. Only a moment later he turned away, trying to hide his face, “I’m- I’m s-sorry, I-”

“H-Hey, hey, it’s alright,” Pomni tried to reassure him, “Whatever’s going on, I’m here for you, okay? Just… take a deep breath.”

“I- can’t! I-” Jax’s breathing only quickened as he hid his face behind his legs and wrapped his arms around his shins, “I d-don’t know…”

Jax didn’t finish that sentence, and two of them just sat there, with the only noise being Jax’s sobs and the occasional chirping of a cricket. Anxiety bubbled in Pomni’s stomach, she wasn’t sure how to calm him down, she barely knew how calm people down in general, let alone someone as resistant to help as Jax… But she wouldn’t leave, not until she knew he would be okay.

In a strange way, it was kinda nice. It felt a little like the last time the two out had been out here at night. It was nice to see him be… genuine, for once, but at the same time, it was terrifying to imagine what must’ve happened to make him so scared, so… vulnerable. She wanted to just reach out and hug him, but… he’d definitely just push her away if she did that. She wasn’t even sure why she wanted to do it in the first place. She hated hugs, normally.

…

It couldn’t hurt to try, though, right?

Pomni hesitantly reached out and placed a gloved hand onto Jax’s shoulder. The moment she made contact, Jax immediately tensed up, and his sobbing stopped, being replaced by rapid, shallow breaths. Pomni was just about to pull her hand back, when she felt Jax’s shoulder start to relax, and heard his breathing begin to slow down.

“Ah, Sorry,” Pomni apologized as she began to gingerly massage his shoulder, “For startling you, that is. Is it- um, okay if I give you a hug?”

Jax didn’t respond immediately—not that she expected him to—but she did see him grip his overalls just a bit more tightly than he already was. He seemed to mull it over in silence for a minute, before taking a deep breath through his teeth. Shifting his feet in place, he gave a slow, subtle nod.

Surprised, but not willing to turn down the opportunity, Pomni shifted closer to him and wrapped her unoccupied arm around his torso, with Jax pushing out his legs just enough to make room for her. As she rested her head atop Jax’s shoulder, she couldn’t help but appreciate how warm he felt. They weren’t given many bodily functions in the circus, but she was very glad body heat was one of them.

At first, Jax didn’t return the hug, just sitting there with the small jester pressed against him. But, after only a minute, Pomni heard the sobs returning to him as he slowly wrapped his arms around her. His sobs were sparse and restrained, initially, but soon, they grew louder and more abundant, and his grip on Pomni grew tighter and tighter. Eventually, he was crying just as feverishly as when she found him.

“It’s not fair, it’s not fair!” Jax yelped between sobs, “I d-don’t wanna die!”

Pomni’s blood ran cold, she felt the terror set in as her worst fear was just confirmed. She held onto him as tightly as she could manage as she felt his tears falling onto her shoulder. It wasn’t long until tears began rolling down her own face, as well, “You’re not gonna die! I-I won’t let you die, okay?”

Pomni took a deep breath, now more than ever, she needed to stay calm. “I… I know you think you can’t change… That- That things are just… doomed to stay the way they are now forever, but… but things are changing, whether you like or not.”

Pomni slowly pulled away just enough to be able to look Jax in the face. He looked scared, confused, conflicted, and lost beyond measure, but in spite of all that, she could tell he was listening. “Even if we’re stuck here for the rest of our lives, even if we’re stuck in these stupid cartoon bodies, we’re still people. You are still a person, and you deserve to be happy.”

Jax stared off to the side, his expression growing more and more conflicted by the moment, vacillating between anger, apprehension and fear in a whirlwind of emotion. But, when all was said and done, the only thing left on his face was defeat, with perhaps just the faintest hint of hope.

“…You promise?” He asked, his voice nothing more than a tiny whisper.

Sighing in relief, Pomni pulled him back into a hug. “I promise.”

When Jax woke up, he immediately found himself somewhere he didn’t recognize. But, as he wiped the sleep from his eyes, he slowly began to recall the events of the previous night. Right, Pomni had insisted that he sleep in her room, though, it wasn’t like it took much convincing. He pulled himself up from the mattress, blinking a few times once he had fully sat up. He had never been in Pomni’s room until now, he could never come up with a good prank to leave in here.

He was about to slide himself off the bed when he noticed something was in his way. Looking down, he saw the troublesome clown herself, still resting right beside him. She looked peaceful, a lot more than last night, she was barely holding herself together, then. But, in spite of that, in spite of how much he had scared her, in spite of how much he made her cry, she still sat right beside him, and made him feel better, made him feel like a person when he needed it the most.

Yeesh, what an idiot! Ragatha must’ve really been rubbing off on her, huh? That must be why he was acting so weird last night! Some of their sappy cooties spread over to him, and it was turning him into an idiot, too! He really needed to get away from them before it ends up becoming terminal. Maybe then things could go back to normal, and he would stop wanting to reach down and hold her like his life depended on it. He’s already deluded himself into thinking that would happen a million freaking times now, what’s one more for good measure?

…

It wasn’t working, it just wasn’t working. No matter how much he kept telling himself things would go back to normal, he just couldn’t believe it anymore. Hell, he didn't want to believe it anymore, not when this stupid idiot kept forcing him to actually feel for once, not when he felt like his life was on the line. He sighed, laying back down next to the object of his frustration. The bed wasn’t made for two people, so he was laying close enough to her to feel her breath against his face. At this distance, she really didn’t look half bad, even if she was just a cartoon character.

Maybe… If Pomni wasn’t lying to him last night, then just maybe… He could become someone who deserves to be this close to her.

Chapter Text

Ragatha had been feeling nervous all morning, she was the first one wake up, and the anticipation of waiting for everyone else to wake up, and for Caine to announce their next adventure had really been getting to her. It definitely didn’t help that it was almost 10:00 AM, and she still hadn’t heard from Pomni, Jax, or even Caine. Zooble and Gangle were up and about, at least, she noticed the two of them talking to each other off by some of the giant blocks. They were too far away for her to hear what they were saying, but it looked like Gangle was showing Zooble something she was drawing. At least they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Ragatha hung her head down and sighed. It would probably be a good idea to check up on Pomni, right? Like, it wouldn’t be weird if she just showed up at her door to see if she was alright, right? I mean, last time she did that Pomni definitely looked at least a little weirded out… No! That was because they barely knew each other back then, surely she wouldn’t mind now that they were a lot closer! Or maybe that was just her deluding herself? Honestly, if she had to sum up why she was feeling so nervous that morning, a third of it would be because of Caine, another third would be because she was worried about Pomni and Jax, and the last third would be because she’s been arguing with herself for almost an hour now!

Has she learned nothing!? Pomni was her friend, she wasn’t going to hate her over something as small as this! Ragatha hopped to her feet and took a deep breath to psyche herself up. She was going to walk up to Pomni’s door, and ask her if everything was alright! Holding her chin up high, she began to stomp off in the direction of their rooms, trying very hard to not imagine how silly she must’ve looked.

It was a short walk to the second floor, looking around the hallway, she didn’t notice any new red Xs over anyone’s doors, which was a good sign, at least. She really didn’t like that she had learned to always look out for that. As she finally approached Pomni’s door, a horrible thought crossed her mind, and anxiety began bubbling up in her stomach again. Sure, Pomni’s door looked completely normal, but… so did Kaufmo’s. What if, when she opened that door, she only found what was left of her? It had been hours since the time Pomni usually got up, after all. Suddenly, she wasn’t sure she had the courage to open that door, the possibility kept racing through her mind. Her legs trembling, she was just about to turn and run, when she heard the door open, and out came something she didn’t recognize as Pomni.

…It was Jax, for some reason. He immediately froze like a deer in headlights the moment he saw her seeing him leave the room, his pupils dilating to cover most of his eyes. While Ragatha was certainly concerned about what he might’ve been doing in there, she was mostly just glad she wasn’t looking an abstracted Pomni right now.

“So… um, was Pomni doing alright in there?” Ragatha asked.

It seemed to take a second for Jax to process what Ragatha had asked him, but once he did, his body loosened up significantly, and his usual sardonic smile returned to his face, “Oh, her? Yeah, yeah, she’s all hunky-dory, just taking a nap is all.”

A chill went down Ragatha’s spine as he said that, “You… don’t mean that the same way you meant it with Kaufmo, right?”

“What-” Jax’s smile faltered for only the briefest of moments, but before she even had time to blink, it had returned, “Yeesh! Of course not! Honestly, someone like her is probably too stubborn to ever abstract, anyway. I was just leaving a little present for my good friend Pomni,” that last comment was accompanied by a particularly devilish grin.

Ragatha placed her hands on her hips indignantly, “Ah- Seriously!? You’re really just gonna pull some stupid prank on her after everything that happened yesterday? If this is how you treat your ‘friends’, then-”

Ragatha stopped herself before she said something she knew she would regret. Jax scoffed and began walking down the hall with his hands clasped behind his head, “Take a chill pill, Raggy, a little fun never hurt anyone who isn’t you. Heck, maybe it’ll even get her to lighten her mood, you never know!”

Ragatha groaned as she watched him disappear down the hall. Would it really kill him to have even a shred of respect for others just this once? Knowing him, it would be impossible to get through to him, she should probably just warn Pomni about the prank before it’s too late. Ragatha knocked at the door, and, thankfully, she could hear the sounds of someone getting out of bed from inside. Soon enough, she saw Pomni looking up at her as she opened the door.

“Hey, morning, Ragatha,” Pomni yawned, still wiping the sleep from her eyes.

“Hey! Good morning!” Ragatha waved with a smile, she was so glad to see that Pomni was alright, “Uh, by the way, I just saw Jax leaving your room.”

“Wha- Huh- You did?” Pomni replied wide-eyed, that seemed to wake her up a bit, at least.

“Yeah,” Ragatha nodded, “He said he left some kind of prank in your room, so I thought I’d just warn you about that. He, uh, didn’t specify what kind of prank, though.”

Pomni appeared to blank out for a moment, continuing to to stare into Ragatha much like Jax had only a minute before. Soon enough, though, her eyes darted off to the side as she leaned against her door frame, “U-Um, H’oh, yeah! That prank, right. The one he put in my room. Boy, he really got me good… with that one. The prank.”

…What?

Jax’s whole body was freezing. He was just making his way down the stairs from the second floor of the circus, when out of nowhere, he slipped on nothing. He had expected to start tumbling down to the bottom, but instead, he immediately face-planted into something cold and wet. He quickly pulled himself up to his feet to find he had somehow been transported to a dark forest. It seemed it was in the middle of a blizzard, it was snowing so much he could hardly see anything around him, just the ice and snow at his feet, and the tall evergreens that surrounded him.

Seems he accidentally managed to clip himself into some weird place again. Maybe he would’ve been excited to explore it if he wasn’t freezing his tail off. Still, there was nothing else to do, so he decided to just pick a random direction and start walking. It was hard to tell exactly what time it was supposed to be, given the weather, but based on how dark it was, he assumed it was supposed to be night. Honestly, it was so dark it was already starting to get to him, he was almost expecting to stumble onto a crude drawing nailed to one of the trees.

After several minutes, he did actually find something. It was a clearing, but judging from the way it stretched off in two directions, it seemed like it was probably a road, though there was too much snow to tell if it was paved or not. After a bit of inspection, he noticed footprints going off in one direction. Great, now he knew for sure that something was out there with him in these stupid woods. He considered going in the opposite direction of the footprints, just to avoid whatever was making these tracks, but this was some pretty obvious railroading, so there probably wasn’t gonna be anything all too interesting over there. Ultimately, he decided to do what any good horror protagonist would do, follow the tracks right to the monster.

As he continued to trudge through the snow barefoot, he started to really wish there was one of Caine’s magical changing booths here, so he could change into something more appropriate for this weather. He’d actually prefer sitting around bored out of his mind back at the circus tent to dealing with this in nothing but his overalls. After another minute or two of this icy torment, from behind the unrelenting snowfall, Jax noticed a silhouette not to far in front of him. It looked like he managed to catch up to whatever was making the footprints. He stopped in his tracks and listened, paying close attention to the faint sound of the snow crunching beneath the figure’s feet. After a moment, the sound got a bit louder, and louder, and louder still, until it stopped entirely. It knew he was there. A drop of cold sweat ran down his face, and then a voice rang out from behind the frozen veil, “W-Who’s there? I have a uh- a stick! And I will hit you with it! If you’re out to get me, that is,”

Jax stifled a laugh, “Wow! Y’know, I was almost intimidated until you opened your mouth. I’ll give it a C plus, since I’m generous.”

“Jax?” A small, shivering jester holding a rather sturdy looking tree branch emerged from the snow, “Oh, thank God. I really thought you were like, Slenderman or something,”

“Well, I suppose I am the right shape,” Jax commented, glancing down at his noodley body, “So, how’d you get here, anyway?”

“Oh, well,” Pomni planted the stick into the snow and rocked it back and forth as she spoke, “I was talking to Ragatha in the hallway when I just appeared on this road. Ah, and, I got this stick when it fell out of a tree! It actually scared me pretty bad… But I have a weapon now, at least!”

Jax scoffed, “Yeah, I’m sure Slenderman will bow before the might of your scary twig,”

“Maybe!” Pomni pulled her stick back up from the ground and brandished it like a sword, “You never know on these adventures,”

“Ohhh, that’s what this is,” Jax felt his ears straighten out a bit as it clicked in his head.

“Well, I’m just assuming,” Pomni shrugged, “But I’m not sure there’s a better explanation. Although, Ragatha did say that nobody’s seen Caine today.”

“Huh,” Jax said, entirely uninterested. He couldn’t say he really cared at all about how Caine was doing, especially not after yesterday. He instead turned his attention to where Pomni came from, “You know if there’s anything over there?”

“Yeah! I think there is,” She nodded, turning back in that direction, “I was just about to check out some lights I saw over there before I noticed you,”

Pomni began to retrace her steps, using her branch as a walking stick, with Jax following close behind her. They were quickly met with a small incline that, once they had crested it, revealed a pair of orange lights hiding behind it, their warm glow piercing through the storm. While it was hard to tell exactly how far away they were, the fact that the lights were small and pressed closely together suggested it was a good ways away. “What do you think it is, Mothman?” Jax mused.

“I thought it was a car at first, but it doesn’t seem to be moving. Wanna check it out?”

“It’s not like there’s much else to do,” Jax shrugged, before picking up the pace by jogging down the road, “Let’s get there before we die of hypothermia, yeah?”

“But we can’t!” Pomni called back at him before moving to catch up.

The lights were a bit farther away than either of them had expected, but thankfully, at the pace they were going, it still didn’t take too long for them the approach the source. As they got closer, the dots revealed themselves to actually be rectangular windows, one placed on either side of the front door to a small log cabin, sitting right at the very end of the road. The cabin had a front porch with an awning over it, which the two of them gladly took shelter underneath. As Pomni began dusting off the snow that had built up on her head and shoulders, she faintly noticed two more roads that branched off the one they had just arrived from.

“Do you think the others might be down those roads there?” Pomni asked.

Grimacing, Jax shook the snow off his body like a wet dog, “Well, If they are, they can handle themselves. I don’t wanna be out here any longer than I already have,”

Selfish though it seemed, Pomni couldn’t help but agree. She trusted her friends were capable enough to find their way here on their own. After gently propping her trusty whacking stick against the cabin wall, Pomni reached out and knocked on the front door, and waited for an answer. Jax, meanwhile, rolled his eyes at this gesture and opened the door himself. Unfortunately for both of them, despite how warm the light looked, the air inside was almost as frigid as it was outside, minus the windchill. The entire cabin consisted of just a single room, with a sofa facing an old CRT television atop a small bookshelf off to the left, and an open kitchen off to the right.

There was also a coat rack right beside the door, with six different winter coats hanging from it, as well as several pairs of boots. If only they spawned in with these things on, but oh well. The two of them both decided to put on coats anyway.

“I’ll see if I can get this place warmed up,” Pomni said as she approached the leftmost wall. There was a decently sized wood stove there, with a tube coming out of it that reached up to the ceiling. Opening its cast iron door confirmed that there wasn’t any fire inside it, just ashes and soot.

“You do that,” Jax sighed as he threw himself onto the sofa before stretching his legs out in front of him.

There was a small pile of already chopped firewood and some newspapers on either side of the stove, and a barbecue lighter sitting on top. While Pomni wasn’t very familiar with this kind of thing, she was pretty sure she didn’t need to be an expert to figure this out. She was able to fill the stove up about halfway with the firewood, and after placing some crumbled newspapers in as kindling, she lit it up and closed the door.

Shivering, Pomni walked over to the sofa and sat down beside Jax, “Alright, It should start warming up soon, I think. Not sure how long the fire will last, though,”

The rabbit hummed in response, his mind elsewhere as he stared forward. Maybe it was nothing, but Pomni felt a wave of concern wash over her. “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you, how have you been feeling? You had already left when I woke up, and uh, I was a little worried.”

Jax shook his head facetiously, “Heh, you really…” Jax winced slightly before letting out a deep groan, “Well, this adventure sure hasn’t been helping anything,”

Pomni smiled. That told her all she needed to know, “Yeah, I guess not,”

Their conversation was then interrupted by a knock at the door. Pomni quickly got up out of her seat and opened it to reveal Ragatha waiting in front of the doorway, and Zooble off to the side. “Oh, hey there, Pomni! Didn’t expect to see you here!”

“Hi, you two! Me and Jax just got here a minute ago. I got a fire going, but it hasn’t really warmed up in here yet,” Pomni explained as she stepped aside to let Ragatha in.

“Hey, didn’t see you there, Jax,” Ragatha said, noticeably less enthusiastically as she walked inside.

Jax raised up a hand without turning to her, “’Sup.”

“Comin’ through,” Zooble announced as they squeezed past Ragatha, grabbed a coat from the rack, and dashed over to the fireplace, sitting down right beside it as they put the coat on, “God, It’s so f^&@ing cold out there! Can’t believe Caine just teleported us here without even warning us!”

“You haven’t seen him either, Zooble?” Pomni asked as she shut the door.

“Nah, nobody has,” Zooble sighed, “It’s got me worried, actually. He might be up to something.”

“Or he’s just a coward,” Jax suggested.

Zooble glared at him, “Sounds familiar.”

“H-Hey, let’s not start a fight right now, alright?” Pomni interrupted as gently as she could manage, she knew they’d have to address the elephant in the room eventually, but this really wasn’t the time, “I think we should really be focusing on figuring out what we’re even supposed to be doing out here. Not to mention, we still don’t know where Gangle and Kinger are,”

Zooble paused, looking right at Pomni with a conflicted expression, before sighing, “Yeah, no, you’re right,” They turned back to Jax, their grimace briefly returning, “But you’ll have to explain yourself sooner or later, got it?”

Jax continued to stare off into space, the only indication that he was even listening was the fact that his brow furrowed ever so slightly at Zooble’s comment, “Fine. Whatever.”

“So, how are we gonna find the others anyway?” Zooble asked, “That isn’t easy to do out in a storm like this,”

Suddenly, Ragatha’s face lit up, “Oh! I actually have an idea! Let me just see…” She walked over to the kitchen and began rummaging through the drawers and cupboards. Eventually, she noticed and grabbed something from inside one of them, and walked back other to the others to show it off.

In Ragatha’s right hand was a flare gun, and in her left was three flares, “My family’s property was really large, and most of it was woods, so my parents always taught me to carry one of these if I ever went far from home.”

Loading a flare into the breach, Ragatha began walking over to the door, “I’ll be right back!” As soon as she opened the door, Ragatha stared in surprise, “Oh, it seems the snow has actually cleared up a lot!”

Pomni stood beside Ragatha and looked out, and indeed, it was still snowing, but it was nowhere near as intense, and nowhere near as windy. It almost looked pleasant to be in. After donning a winter coat, Ragatha walked out and shot a flare up into the sky, momentarily flooding everything around them in red light.

Once she came back in and they had closed the door, Pomni’s thoughts turned to the other question on their minds, “Maybe we should scrounge around in here to… find some kind of clue to what we’re supposed to be doing, or something?”

“Seems like as good of an idea as any,” Zooble commented as they got up. The four of them began to turn the cabin upside down, looking for anything that might be of significance. And frankly, it wasn’t looking good.

“Did anyone find anything interesting?” Ragatha asked once they had all ran out of ideas for places to look.

“Uh, I found plenty of food in the fridge and cupboards, but not much else…” Pomni admitted.

“I found the remote to the TV between the couch cushions, at least” Zooble sighed as they held the remote up in front of them.

Jax gestured at the small shelf the TV rested on top of, “I found a bunch of old movies I’ve never heard of before,”

Suddenly, something clicked in Pomni’s head, “Wait… is this… supposed to be a slumber party?”

“Oh god, wait. That actually sounds like something Caine would do,” Zooble pointed out while planting their palm against their forehead, “Something like, ‘Sorry I tricked you into thinking you could ever leave! here’s a slumber party to make up for it.’”

“Well, if that’s the case, we might as well make the most of it, right?” Pomni was getting a little excited, if this was all there was to the adventure, she could actually get behind it. Running over to the fridge, she pulled out a carrot from inside it before making her way to the door, “I’m gonna build a snowman, anyone wanna join?”

“Oh! That sounds like fun!” Ragatha cooed, “I haven’t done that since- well, a while!”

“How about you two?” Pomni asked, looking over at Zooble and Jax, both of whom had taken to sitting by the fireplace.

“Hmm,” Zooble mulled it over for a second before getting up, “Alright, but if it’s too cold out, I’m coming back in,”

Pomni nodded, “Jax?” He was staring down at the floor with his head propped up by his arms, “You wanna come too?”

Hearing his name seemed to wake him from whatever funk he was just in, “Huh- Oh, yeah, sure, why not.”

It was still pretty cold outside, all things considered, but it was a lot more bearable. The wind was pretty much gone, and with the winter clothes in the cabin, the temperature wasn’t too bad either. Not to mention, with the snow clearing up, and the light shining out from the cabin, it wasn’t too difficult to see. Only real problem now was that the snow had built up quite a bit, it was almost up to his knees. But despite the fact that that translated into almost waist-height for her, Pomni was diligently rolling up a snowball into the first portion of a snowman. At the same time, Ragatha and Zooble were rolling up what he assumed to be the second and third portion. Jax himself was standing just in front of the porch, lost in thought. It was… all too familiar.

He really should’ve noticed it sooner. It was all too familiar. It wasn’t the same map, sure, the log cabin was different, there wasn’t any frozen lake, and it was all a lot more realistic, but… It had to be related, right? Why was Caine doing this? Was this some kind of sick joke? Some horrible way to get back at Jax for yelling at him? Why did it have to be now? He had only just started to make up with Pomni and now he was being reminded of that? It had to be intentional! It-

Suddenly, Jax was pelted with a snowball directly to the face. After shaking all the snow off, he saw a surprised Ragatha and Zooble standing next to a completed snowman, and Pomni with a devilish grin on her face, forming another snowball in her gloves. “Oh, you little-”

Another snowball to the face. That was the last straw, he was gonna humiliate this clown. Jax quickly began to circle her, scooping up snow as he ran. As soon as he finished packing one into a ball, he threw it up into the air and began scooping up snow for another. After repeating this process twice more, he was juggling three snowballs as he ran, Ragatha noticed what was happening, and hid behind the snowman, but Pomni and Zooble just stared at him in awe, making them perfect targets. He quickly came to a stop and threw all three in rapid succession as the snowballs fell back into his hands, hitting Zooble once and Pomni twice, once in the torso and once in the face, since Ragatha had the foresight to actually hide.

Zooble stared at him incredulously, “F*@% kinda hand-eye-coordination do you have!?”

“Did you forget where we are or something, Zoobie? This is a circus!” Jax laughed, already preparing more ammunition.

Zooble scrambled to form a snowball, but by the time they finished one, Jax had already completed a few, and began to lob them again in a barrage. Zooble and Pomni both tried their best to dodge, with Zooble running off to the side, and Pomni swan diving directly into the snow at her feet like it was a pool. She then began tunneling through it, leaving a trail of displaced snow in her wake. While she initially began burrowing around in random directions, she eventually sped up and took a sharp turn directly towards Jax.

He tried his best to pelt snowballs at her with enough speed to break through the snow, but Pomni was simply too deft, zigging or zagging right when he threw one. Once she had gotten close enough, she burst out into the air, holding a giant snowball in both hands, which she slammed directly on top of Jax’s head. Instead of falling to pieces, The snowball completely enclosed his head, his eyes are ears conveniently popping out to let him see.

“Hey, over here!” Zooble called out, Pomni and Jax both turned to see them kick a soccer ball sized snowball at them, which, rolling in the snow, quickly grew much larger. Jax skedaddled away just in time, but Pomni wasn’t so lucky, by the time it hit her, it was more than large enough to completely Katamari Damacy her. Jax kept running until he made his way back to the snowman, which he grabbed from the very bottom, and lifted into the air. Ragatha, who was apparently still hiding behind it, could do nothing but stammer.

Jax ignored her, and threw the snowman directly at Zooble. Once it had reached its destination, Zooble’s head, neck and torso were all completely ejected from the rest of their body, being replaced by the snowman. “I- Oh, come on!” Zooble yelled the moment they looked down at themself.

But their attention was almost immediately pulled away from their new body, as they stared behind Jax in horror. He turned around to find that the katamari had never stopped rolling, Pomni had taken control of it, and it had grown as large as the cabin while he wasn’t looking. He just barely managed to dive out of the way once again as it came barreling towards him, but Ragatha and Zooble had both gotten absorbed into it. It continued to roll around the clearing, scooping up every last bit of snow there was. By the time it was done, the clearing was covered in grass, and the ball had grown to be as tall as the evergreens around them. As this veritable force of nature began to roll towards him, Jax knew he was out of luck, and that Pomni had won.

After Jax was fully subsumed by The Mass, Pomni sent it flying directly into the trees, causing it to violently explode, and for everyone trapped inside to fall back to the ground. The snow did thankfully cushion their fall, and once they had landed, both Jax and Pomni burst out into hysterical laughter. Unlike Ragatha, who simply wobbled where she was sitting, dazed. Zooble, who had miraculously been put back together inside of The Torment Sphere, didn’t seem all too upset, surprisingly, “Okay, I’ll admit, that was… more fun than I expected. But I’m really f@?&ing cold now, so I think I’m gonna head back inside,” They said as they stood up.

“Ah, yeah, I think I’ll join you,” Ragatha sighed, clearly exhausted despite not really participating at all. Zooble reached out a hand and helped her up to her feet. As fun as that snowball fight was, Jax himself was feeling about ready to head inside too, he was getting pretty hungry.

Wait, hungry?

A familiar voice then rung out through the clearing, “Wow! Looks like something exciting just went down here!” Kinger exclaimed as he approached the others. A lot of snow had built up on him, and he was carrying Gangle on his back, who seemed to be completely unconscious.

“Kinger!” Ragatha smiled, walking over to greet him, “Uh, is something wrong with Gangle?”

“Oh, she’s, uh… ‘dead’, so to speak,” Kinger explained hesitantly.

“What!?” Zooble yelled in terror as they ran over to the two of them, “B-But, we I thought we can’t-”

“H-Hey, Hey,” Kinger spoke strangely softly, placing a hand on Zooble’s shoulder, “That was a poor choice of words on my part, I’m sorry. She’s not actually dead.”

“I- What?” Zooble stammered, still a bit frazzled.

“Um, well, sometimes Caine will make it possible for us to ‘die’ in an adventure, to increase the stakes,” Ragatha explained, “You’ve… uh, thankfully never had to deal with that until now, since you skip most of them.”

“The important part is that once the adventure is over, we’re revived,” Kinger patted the top of Gangle’s mask, “So Gangle here will be just fine, I promise. She’s effectively just asleep,”

“Christ,” Zooble shook their head, “What kind of s!$%show of a slumber party requires us to be able to die?”

“Hm? Oh, I see,” Kinger laughed, “This isn’t a slumber party adventure, this is actually a sort of re-run of one of Caine’s earliest adventures, before even Ragatha joined. It was an attempt to perfectly recreate the real world, even including things like simulated hunger, thirst, and well…” Kinger sighed as he turned to Gangle, “Hypothermia. Oh! Speaking of which, lets get inside before I ‘die’ too.”

Pomni quickly got up to her feet, “I’ll turn the lights off in the cabin before you enter!” Pomni exclaimed before running inside.

“Wait, what?” Jax stammered as she entered the cabin. Sure enough, a moment later, the lights were turned off, leaving the clearing in complete darkness. Jax turned back to the others, while it was much darker, he could still see everyone well enough, “Does… anyone know why she did that?”

Kinger was the first to speak up, “Well, long story short, it’s a lot easier for keep my memories in order in the dark, that’s why I’m acting a lot less, uh, loopy, right now.”

“Y-You’re serious?” Jax felt his blood run cold, “You’ve been- this entire time…”

Kinger leaned towards Jax with a sympathetic expression on his face once he noticed him trembling, “Jax? Are you feeling alright? Is something wrong?”

That face! That face was wrong! Kinger wasn’t supposed to look like that. He’s never looked like that before! Kinger wasn’t supposed to look at Jax like he- like he cared. It wasn’t natural!

“What’s up with you right now?” Zooble eyed him suspiciously, “Are you still scared of that corn drink he had drank the other day?”

Oh, you little- “I’m fine, It’s nothing!” Jax scoffed as he pulled himself up to his feet, “Uh, we need more firewood right? I’ll stay out here and get some.”

Zooble rolled their eyes, “Uh-huh. You want us to just leave you completely alone out here?”

Ugh.

“Oh! I can help! Zooble and I found a woodshed on our way to the cabin,” Ragatha chimed in, placing her hands on her hips in a display of (probably faux) confidence, “Not to mention, I lived on a farm for most of my life, so I’m plenty qualified to teach you how to properly chop wood!”

Jax sighed and began walking away from the cabin, “Yeah, sure, whatever, let’s go.”

“A-Ah! Wait up!” Ragatha called from behind him.

She lead the way for most of the walk there, knowing which ways the path twisted and turned. It was a surprising long walk, for something that really should’ve been right outside the cabin, Caine would probably say it was for ‘extra challenge’ or whatever.

Eventually, the two of them found themselves standing in front of a surprisingly large sheet metal shack. the open front of it separated by a beam in the middle almost made it look like it was supposed to have a pair of garage doors for an entrance, but no such thing could be found. As the two walked inside, the lights came on with a noticeable ‘clack’. Probably tripped by some kind of motion sensor. The shack didn’t have a floor, it was all just dirt with small patches of grass, at least there wasn’t any snow. A large pile of logs lined the rightmost wall completely, so they wouldn’t have to chop down any trees, at least.

There were two logs that were noticeably larger than the others that sat upright on the ground, a large axe placed on one, and a smaller hatchet on the other. A large leather tote bag laid next to the log with the hatchet, as well.

“This is perfect!” Ragatha cheered, walking over to the axe and picking it up, “We should be able to get this done pretty quickly! Do you mind grabbing the hatchet, Jax?”

Wordlessly, Jax picked it up and examined it. It wasn’t his first time holding an axe, but all the others he had held before were more… medieval fantasy looking, but this one had a fairly narrow blade, a painted steel handle and a plastic grip. It was almost surprising how normal it was.

Ragatha grabbed a log from the pile and placed it onto the larger log in front of her, “I’ll split these logs into halves, then you split the halves into quarters and place them in the bag, alright?” She then lined up the blade of the axe with the center of the log, before raising it up above her head and swinging it back down on the log. Despite how much force Ragatha seemed to put into it, it didn’t split it completely completely, the fissure only seemed to make it a little more than halfway down the log. “Yeah, it usually takes more than one chop, when you have to do multiple chops, always make sure that you hit exactly where you did the first time!” Ragatha explained as she lined up her axe with the split. Once she brought her axe down again, the log finally split completely, with one half falling to the ground, while the other stayed upright on the log.

“There we go!” Ragatha smiled as grabbed them one by one and placed them by Jax’s log. “It might take a few more chops than that with your hatchet, but it should also be easier to swing!”

Jax tried to copy Ragatha’s movements, placing the half log on the chopping log, lining up the blade with the center of the log, raising the hatchet, and swinging it back down. It made a pretty small cut, much smaller than from the axe. Well, that was to be expected. He repeated the process, over and over, getting a little deeper each time, after about three or four swings, the log finally split, and he threw the two quarters in the tote bag. As he reached for a new log, he noticed Ragatha had already placed another two beside him.

And they continued like that, it wasn’t particularly difficult work, but it was boring, and kind of exhausting. They were capable of getting exhausted normally, but he really couldn’t help but get the feeling that he had a lot less stamina than usual. By the time he got through three logs, he was already sweating, and the unchopped logs at his feet just kept piling up. He wasn’t sure if it was the fact that her axe was larger, the fact that she was more experienced with this, or both, but Ragatha was working really quickly. She was clearly in a kind of flow state with it, like she was moving completely on autopilot. Jax didn’t have as much luck, he kept missing where he was supposed to hit, and getting the hatchet stuck in the log even when he did hit it right. It was getting pretty frustrating.

Soon enough, enough wood had piled up at Jax’s feet that Ragatha decided to put down the axe and take a seat on her chopping log, “That should be enough, once you’re down with that, we can head back,” She said through panted breaths.

“Oh, sure! I’ll just finish up what I’m doing really quickly and we can be done with this!” Jax said sarcastically.

“I-I can help if you-”

Jax nearly flinched, “Oh come on! I can handle something as simple as chopping wood, Raggy.”

That was the end of that conversation. Jax had hoped that he wouldn’t have to say anything past that, but after only a minute or two of chopping, Ragatha broke the silence again, “Um, Jax? There’s been… something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”

The rabbit in question sighed, trying his best to ignore the rising sense of dread he was feeling, “Fine then. Spit it out.”

“I think… you really need to leave Pomni alone.”

Jax paused for a moment, Ragatha’s words didn’t surprise him, but he could feel them piercing into him, “Really now? What a shocker.”

“Jax, I really mean it,” Ragatha pleaded, “I… don’t know if you really think the way you treat her is acceptable or not, but it isn’t. You treat her like- like a plaything! Maybe even more than you do Gangle.”

A wave a nausea washed over Jax, but he tried his hardest to not let it show on his face, “Are you still hung up on that ‘prank’ from this morning?”

“I wish it was just that!” Ragatha shot up to her feet, staring at him with her lips pressed together, “I know you and Pomni got into a fight a few days ago, I won’t pretend I know what happened, but whatever you did or said to her hurt her. And now she’s pretending it’s all water under the bridge, because she cares about you, and you even don’t have the decency to care about her back! Did you ever even apologize to her? Or was trying to trap her along with the rest of us in the circus your way of saying ‘sorry’? How much more of this do you think she’ll be able to take!?”

Jax’s eyes burned. His head ached. He let go of the log he was chopping and let the hatchet dangle from his hand. All the warmth in his body had dissipated, and all he was left with was the feeling of Ragatha’s words piercing his flesh like the cold air around him. He knew she was right. He knew there was a reason this adventure was so familiar. He knew he was only hurting her. It felt like at any moment, his whole body would freeze over. But, surprising even him, he could suddenly feel his blood boiling over.

“It’s not fair!” Jax screamed, throwing his arms out wide, “Why do I always have to be the villain of your stupid f!#$ing savior fantasies!?”

Ragatha’s entire body tensed as she took a step away from Jax, frightened.

“God forbid I have even a single friend!” Jax laughed manically, “God forbid I decide I don’t want rot, all alone, forever, anymore!”

Jax turned to object of his ire with a wild grin, “After all, how can you keep telling yourself you’re Pomni’s hero if I’m not the bad guy!? I have to be evil, forever, and there’s nothing I can ever, ever do about it!”

Jax began to shamble towards her, hatchet still in hand. With every step forward he took, Ragatha took a step back, until her back was pressed up against the wall, and Jax towered above her, hatchet in hand, “What’s wrong, dollface? Isn’t this what you want from me? a villain? Don’t you want to see what else you taught me to do?”

Jax carefully lined the blade of the hatchet up with Ragatha’s forehead as she stood there, tears streaming down her face. Frozen in terror, she watched as the hatchet was raised over Jax’s shoulder, before plummeting down into her skull.

As he let the hatchet come to a rest by his side, Jax heard Ragatha fall to the ground with a thud, her stuffing floating gently down like snow. He stood there, motionless, staring straight ahead, with a single thought on his mind, “Why isn’t she saying anything?” He turned his attention down to her, only to find her body still and lifeless. The fire that had been raging inside Jax was extinguished the instant he understood what had happened.

Though Ragatha may not have been able to speak any longer, with the fire gone, Jax could feel the haunting chill of her words against his skin, and this time, he had no energy left to fight it.

Jax suddenly awoke on the circus floor. His body was no longer cold, and yet, he couldn’t bring himself to move an inch. Instead, he chose to simply stare up at the ceiling, waiting for a reason to get up. In his peripheral vision, he saw Gangle get up, glance between him and and someone else, and then walk away. After that, there was a long silence, he supposed everyone else had already made it to their rooms, but eventually, he heard the sound of Ragatha crying next to him. Her cries grew louder as the minutes ticked by, and the whole time, Jax knew what he needed to say in that moment, and yet, the words didn’t come out.

“Oh, God…” Ragatha choked out between sobs, “You were right…”

Since when?

A bitter laugh escaped her lips, “This is the first time you’ve gotten close to anyone since Ribbit abstracted. Why was I so scared of that?”

…

“Pomni never told me she was pretending to forgive you. It doesn’t even really make sense! It’s not like she’s ever had trouble telling you off before. I just- wanted to believe that she didn’t… That she couldn’t.”

No, don’t say it.

“Because I wanted to be the answer to a problem she didn’t have. To be the hero to a villain that didn’t exist.”

Please, I know I can’t say it back.

“So…” Ragatha took a deep breath, her sobs finally halting, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I told you to stop being friends with her. Honestly, it really looked like she had a lot of fun with you today. Ha… maybe I was jealous of that, too.”

Ah, that was why, wasn’t it? Jealousy. That was why, even now, he couldn’t pull his head out of his ass and apologize. Because even now, this stupid ragdoll was proving just how much better than him she was.

And he hated her for it.