#circuswriting

Caine had been planning an adventure, ignoring the cast. Something about an adventure that would, in his words, ‘make the other adventures look like it was made by a faulty NPC’. Or something.

You hadn’t really been listening. Head in the clouds, you were too busy daydreaming about everything and anything. 

Day three of no adventures rolled around. Zooble and Gangle were resting on the couches, looking at magazines, when Ragatha and Jax walked over, the former looking concerned, her hands fidgeting with her hair. 

“You guys haven’t seen Y/N, have you?” she asked, her eye looking away, looking for you, before returning to meet the gazes of Zooble and Gangle. “I’ve been trying to find her all day, but…”

“You worry too much, dollface!” Jax told her. “I bet Y/N’s doing that aimless wandering thing she’s so good at!”

Zooble sighed. “Well, I saw her outside near the carnival. Check there, maybe?” The toy turned away, back to reading with Gangle. Jax grabbed Ragatha’s fabric arm, not too gently, and pulled her along, his longer legs eating up the distance faster.

Meanwhile, you were laying right outside of the carnival, the warm, sun blanketed grass under your head. The clouds were lazy, drifting north, without a care in the world. You reached up with one hand, like you could grab at those puffs. 

The carnival noises faded as you daydreamed the day away. The shadows reached up, and then down, as the sun rose and fell. The clouds became spotlights in the sky, bright against the pinks and the purples and the oranges, splattered like watercolor. Your mind wandered, off to far off adventures that claimed your imagination.

“There you are, darling!” Ragatha called, and you sat up, brushing grass and petals out of your hair. The ragdoll ran over, kicking up dandelion puffs, kneeling beside you. Her scent of berries engulfed you as she threw her arms around you. “We’ve been all around the carnival and the circus and the lake and everywhere looking for you!”

“I told you she was fine!” Jax said, dropping down onto your other side, pushing Ragatha off, gently now, before laying his head on your shoulder. “You’re exhausting, Y/N. You think I have the energy to go around this place?”

You gently flick him in the head, as Ragatha pulls her knees under her. “I thought the view of the clouds was nice here.”

Both of them look up. “Huh,” Ragatha said. “It is.”

“Boring,” Jax laughed, stretching out. “If this is all you’re gonna do, I’m gonna start calling you Dreamy, Y/N.”

“Jax,” Ragatha warned. The rabbit laughed again, tugging on both you and her. “I’m warning you-”

He pulls you both down onto the grass. Dandelions burst underneath your bodies, sending the small white puffs around. Jax sneezed, and Ragatha took her turn to laugh. You smacked Jax lightly, and he clutched a hand to his heart. “I just spent all day looking for you, and you’re gonna hit me? Genuinely hurtful.”

But you all knew it was a joke. The laughing ceased, and eventually, you moved your head onto Ragatha’s chest, and Jax moved over to rest his head on your shoulder. One of his hands found yours, and your other hand took Ragatha’s. Completing the triangle, Jax and Ragatha took each other’s free hand.

Overhead, the sun was giving one last burst of beautiful light.

“Can I be honest?” Ragatha asked. 

“As long as you don’t admit you snore,” Jax replied, earning another flick from you. “Kidding, kidding. What happens at the carnival, stays at the carnival.”

“Y/N?”

You turn your head to smile at the ragdoll. “I never want you to not be honest.” The hand holding hers moved up to rest on her face. “Whatever you wanna say, Ragatha.”

“I love you guys.”

Jax laughed, but it was quiet. “Sentimental much? Don’t expect me to say it back.”

You closed your eyes. The carnival lit up as the sun finally surrendered its rays, dying for the night, the eternal star of life and death. 

“I love you guys, too,” you told them both. “I can’t imagine being anywhere else.” The world was a daydream come to reality. The watercolored sky, the grass, still warm, from the sun and your bodies. The fireflies that danced over the distant grass, chasing, playing, loving.

Jax sighed quietly. “Yeah, well. I love you both, too. There, I said it.”