Chapter Text
Jax walked through the bustling city streets, listening to the sounds of people chatting and traffic droning by. He double checked his phone again, just to make sure he was heading the right way. Yup, it was the cafe just up and across the street that he was supposed to meet Christine at.
Christine. That was also her name, wasn't it? Not that he liked to think back on the circus, in fact he actively avoided thinking about it, but he did remember that name. Not that it mattered if this girl had the same name as… Pomni. It was a pretty common name after all. Jax was looking for a place to stay and this Christine was looking for a roommate. And the rent was perfectly within his range and the apartment was close to his job. Jax had messaged this Christine and after briefly talking they decided to meet up today to decide if they would go forward with becoming roommates.
A stoplight paused Jax's progress down the street. He shielded his eyes as he looked skyward. Between the buildings he could see the brilliance of blue that stretched across the sky, only broken up by small cotton candy clouds. He really hoped this worked out, he was really getting desperate for a place to stay.
The light changed and Jax crossed the street. The cafe was just up ahead. Jax took out his phone again, thinking about texting Christine to let her know he was here, since he had no idea what she even looked like.
Jax passed by the front window of the cafe, catching a glimpse of his reflection. It still caught him off guard to see a human being mirrored back at him, instead of what he used to be. There was his tanned skin, his dyed blond hair that had grown out dark at his roots, his amateurish tattoos on his lanky arms, and of course, that tired look in his dark eyes.
Not wanting to look at himself, Jax looked past his reflection and into the cafe. His eyes almost immediately narrowed in on one patron of the cafe. A young woman sitting at a table by herself, fidgeting with her phone. She was short, her skin very pale, short brown hair hanging around her round face. Jax knew that woman. He would recognize her anywhere.
It was her. It was Pomni. Jax took a deep breath and walked almost comically fast past the window, before slipping down the nearby alleyway. He leaned against the brick wall, holding a hand to his chest as his heart leapt like a rabbit, unconsciously holding his breath.
There was no way. What was she doing here?
Jax had only seen her once, right after he first woke up in the hospital after escaping the circus. He couldn't forget what she looked like though, it was burned into his memory, and that was definitely her.
Guess it was time to leave then. Jax had been avoiding everyone since he left the hospital and he wasn't about to start meeting up with them now. Especially not Pomni. He felt bad, but he'd have to ghost Christine on that apartment. He'd find something else eventually.
Jax realized he had been holding his breath and let it out with an embarrassed sigh. Before he left though, he better double check that that girl really was Pomni. He peeked out from the corner and looked into the cafe again. The woman who was definitely Pomni was typing something into her phone. She hit enter and at almost the same moment, Jax felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He pulled his phone out, looking at his most recent message.
Christine: Are you still coming?
Right. Maybe Jax should've realized this sooner, but the Christine he had been messaging and Pomni were in fact the same person, weren't they? What kind of coincidence was that? Well that just made it more imperative that Jax leave right away before Pomni found him out.
Except there was something bothering him. Pomni was way too careless! She put out an ad for a roommate and decided to meet up with some random man? She didn't know he was Jax, he could be anyone! Even like a murderer or something! A creeping feeling of dread filled his lungs as he realized that Pomni would keep looking for a roommate if he left now. And that roommate could be someone dangerous! So clearly Jax had to go and be her roommate. It was for her safety. Obviously. No other reason.
Before he could think better, Jax opened the door to the cafe and walked in. Pomni was distracted typing on her phone again. This situation gave Jax a funny idea. He walked up behind her and placed his hands over her eyes. Pomni gave a loud gasp.
“Guess who, Pom Pom!” Jax laughed behind her.
“Jax?” Pomni whirled around, looking at him with utter disbelief. Or maybe it was like she had seen a ghost? Her mouth flapped open and closed but she didn't seem to be making much progress in speaking.
“That's not my name, Christine.” Jax smirked at her. He noticed that she was in fact messaging him on her phone. He slung his body into the seat across from her and sent her a message from his phone while she was still floundering with what to say.
Felix: It's Felix!
Pomni looked down at her phone, her eyes growing wider. She dropped her phone onto the table, hiding her face in her hands. “Wh-what?” She took a deep breath, separating her fingers to look at Jax. “I seriously thought you were dead, Jax.”
“It's Felix, remember?” Jax winked at her. “I'm not dead, but I do need a roommate, what do you say?”
“No, hold on.” Pomni put her hands down on the table rather harshly, making it shake and nearly spilling the coffee she had been drinking. “Where have you been? You took so long to wake up after we escaped the circus and then you disappeared from the hospital! Do you have any idea how worried we all were? And then you just show up out of the blue like nothing happened! How did you even find me?”
“Don't worry about that.” Jax grinned at her. It was funnier if it wasn't a coincidence so he'd never admit that this happened on chance. “But I've been in this city the whole time! Did you even look for me?”
“Yes I looked for you!” Pomni picked up a nearby napkins and started tearing it into shreds. “Don't play games with me, what's going on Jax?”
“It's Felix, and you know I love to play games.” Jax leaned back in his chair. “And what's going on is that I need a place to stay. Which is kinda the whole reason we met up. So what do you say? Roomies?”
Pomni groaned loudly, tears coming to her eyes, “You're so infuriating! Do you have any idea how worried I've been?”
For some reason, seeing Pomni like this reminded Jax a little too much of the circus. Which was strange, because he was certain he never saw her cry while they were in there. But for a moment the Jester Pomni and the Human Christine seemed to superimpose in front of his vision into one.
“You know what, I don't think this is going to work out.” Jax clicked his tongue. He was trying to restart his life and put the circus behind him. There was no way he could do that if he was with Pomni. His justifications for wanting to stay with her had been flimsy at best anyway. He better leave before he got too involved with her again. “I'm leaving.”
The chair scraped along the floor as Jax stood up. This was just a minor setback. Jax could continue living in his car, it wasn't a big deal. He'd find some place to live eventually. Or maybe he could-
As he was walking past Pomni, she tightly grabbed onto his arm. “Wait.”
“Can you let me go?” Jax stopped, looking down at the small woman.
“No. Just hold on.” Pomni took a deep breath, still clutching his arm. Her hand seemed to burn into his skin with how tightly she was grasping him. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes but a defiant look on her face. “Do you seriously need a place to stay?”
“Yeah, Christine. Do you think I'm doing this for shits and giggles?” Jax sighed.
“How did you even find me?” She narrowed her eyes on him.
“Christine, you literally put an ad out for a roommate. How do you think I found you?”
Pomni let out a long breath. “Yeah I guess that makes sense,” she said, mostly to herself. “Jax, if you really need a place to stay-”
“It's Felix. Stop calling me that name.” Jax hissed at her.
“Felix,” Pomni continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. “If you need a place to stay and you aren't just fucking with me, then its fine with me. You can be my roommate.”
Pomni finally let him go. Jax made a show of rubbing his arm where she had been grasping him. “Great. That's all I wanted. I'm starving so I'm going to go order something, we can talk more when I get back.”
“Fine. Er, do you mind if I tell the others that I found you?” Pomni looked weary as she pointed at her phone.
Jax shrugged. “Whatever, just don't give them my contact info.”
Did that mean that everyone who woke up from the circus was still in contact with each other? Ugh. Jax would just avoid the others, he supposed. He turned away from Pomni, who was already tapping away on her phone.
It took a few minutes to get his coffee and a nice double chocolate donut, but once his order was up, Jax rejoined Pomni at her table. She looked a bit calmer now as she appraised his order, “Huh, I would've thought you took your coffee black.”
“Bleh.” Jax stuck out his tongue. “Coffee is way too bitter. You gotta load up on the sugar. Anyway, when can I move in?”
“I mean any time is fine.” Pomni put her phone back down on the table. “When are you free?”
“Tomorrow. No wait, tomorrow is Monday, I'm busy in the morning.” Jax rubbed his chin, feeling the bit of scruff that was growing in.
“Well I work tomorrow morning anyway. If you are free in the evening I'll be home after four.” Pomni squinted her eyes at him. “But is that enough time for you to pack up all your stuff?”
“Not a problem! I don't have any stuff!” Jax took a bite of his donut, it was delicious and just the perfect amount of sweet.
“I honestly can't tell when you're being sarcastic, but whatever. You can move in tomorrow night.” Pomni sighed very loudly. “I guess we should discuss how we'll split the bills. Er, you do have a job, right?”
“God Pom- Christine. I have a job.” Jax rolled his eyes as he washed down his donut with his overly sweet coffee. “I'm not planning on being a freeloader.”
After that they had the most boring conversation known to man about the bills. And as if Jax wasn't bored to the point of tears, Pomni also wanted to talk about how they would split the chores! After that incredibly tedious conversation was all worked out, Jax had one last thing to say to Pomni.
“Listen, I know our shared past was super traumatic and everything, but I don't want to talk about the circus. Get it?”
Pomni looked slightly hesitant, but she nodded her head. “Suuuure. We don't have to talk about that today.”
“No, I mean I never want to talk about it.” Jax grit his teeth. “I'm trying to move forward with my life. I don't want to think about that hell hole ever again.”
“Okay. But I mean,” Pomni looked off to the side, out the window where the sky was still shining blue. “Won't I remind you of the circus?”
Jax looked at her for a brief moment and said the most truthful thing that had come out of his mouth the entire conversation. “I don't have anyone else or anywhere to go. So it's fine. If it's you.”
“Okay then.” Pomni gave him a meek smile. “Is there anything else you want to talk about?”
“Nope.” Jax took a final swig of his lukewarm coffee. “I should get going, I'm so very busy.”
“Alright.” Pomni stood up, grabbing her bag. “I'll see you tomorrow?”
“Yup.” Jax got up as well.
“Cool. But uh, Felix.” Pomni tilted her head as she regarded him. “You won't disappear on me again, will you?”
“You got my number now.” Jax winked at her. “Can't really do a disappearing act if you can message me, right?”
“Yeah that doesn't mean anything.” Pomni replied. “See you tomorrow.”
“Yup, see you then, roomie!” Jax left the cafe with a smile on his face, but his chest was tight with conflicting emotions.
🎪Big Top Group Chat🎪
🃏Pomni: I found Jax
🎭 Gangle: What?
🔺️Zooble: Are you serious?
🔺️Zooble: Where did you find him?
🃏Pomni: Well he found me?
🃏Pomni: Remember how I was meeting up with a potential roommate today? It was Jax.
🔺️Zooble: You can't be serious
🎭Gangle: How did he find you though?
🃏Pomni: He recognized my name I guess
🔺️Zooble: I didn't think he knew any of our names.
🃏Pomni: I told him my name when he first woke up. He never told me his last name though so I didn't recognize it was him when he messaged me.
🔺️Zooble: Well that does sound like something he would do…
🔺️Zooble: I can't believe he just showed up after all this time.
🎭Gangle: Me either! I've been so worried. Is he doing okay for himself?
🃏Pomni: We haven't talked much yet, but he doesn't look great. He looks really worn down.
🃏Pomni: Wait, where are Ragatha and Kinger?
🃏Pomni: I'm sure they want to hear about this too.
🎭Gangle: Ragatha is fighting with her mom again and Kinger is at the hospital.
🎭Gangle: He goes there everyday now to talk to his wife, he's hoping she'll wake up from her coma if he keeps talking to her.
🔺️Zooble: Yeah, after you talked to Jax and he woke up from his coma it gave Kinger a lot of hope that everyone else who abstracted would wake up too.
🃏Pomni: We can only hope
🃏Pomni: Although Jax was kinda a special case.
🎭Gangle: But at least it's possible to wake up! Gosh, I hope Kaufmo wakes up soon, I really want to talk to him again.
🔺️Zooble: I'm sure they'll all wake up eventually. The doctor said they all still have brain activity or whatever, so it's not impossible.
🃏Pomni: Yeah
🎭Gangle: Did Jax say where he's been all this time?
🃏Pomni: No. He refused to tell me anything.
🔺️Zooble: Typical
🃏Pomni: But, uh, we are going to be roommates
🔺️Zooble: 💀
🔺️Zooble: Are you deadass rn?
🃏Pomni: Yes.
🔺️Zooble: Are you sure that's wise? I wouldn't call Jax exactly trustworthy
🃏Pomni: Okay listen
🃏Pomni: I don't know how to explain it, but he had a really sad look in his eyes.
🃏Pomni: Like he was desperately trying to ask for help without saying anything.
🃏Pomni: I don't think he has anywhere to go
🃏Pomni: I want to help him
🔺️Zooble: There goes your bleeding heart.
🔺️Zooble: Just be careful
🃏Pomni: I will. I gotta go, I'll keep you guys updated!
🎭Gangle: Okay, good luck Pomni!
🔺️Zooble: She'll need it