★ LABYRINTH ★ JAX X GN! READER || TADC

⭑ hide-and-seek ⭑

(I want everyone here to know that in this chapter I'm not shipping ragatha and pomni, not that I have anything against it! it's just I want to focus on y/n and jax. thanks!)

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~second-person pov~

To almost everyone's distaste, Caine had planned a new adventure for you all. This new game basically a glorified version of hide-and-seek. Caine had separated you into pairs: kinger and ragatha, zooble and gangle, and (surprise) you and jax. pomni had joined Kinger and ragatha, seeing as ragatha had become pomni's self-appointed guide.

When Caine was done sorting you. Jax cracked his knuckles dramatically and out his hands behind his head. "Good luck, suckers. You'll need it if any of you want to beat me." He said cockily, his smug smile unwavering as you rolled your eyes.

"What are you talking about? Gangle is the one who always wins, you're the one who kicks people out of their spots and get them caught." Zooble corrected him, annoyed. Gangle smiled at zooble's acknowledgement. It was still odd to see gangle with her comedy mask, but it did lighten the mood a bit.

"Right...whatever will make ya feel better about yourself." He hummed, Zooble huffed, they're antenna slightly shaking from suppressed anger.

Caine broke the tension before it could escalate by announcing that bubble would be the seeker. You cringed inwardly. You had never really liked bubble. I suppose all the more reason to hide...

After he explained the rules, Caine spawned a whistle out of thin air and grasped it between his teeth, sounding a sharp sound that made you cover your ears out of instinct. The game began.

Jax drew your attention to him, a playful light dancing in his eyes that made you feel something odd... "c'mon, I know a spot where that sharp-toothed freak will never find us." Without waiting for a response, he began running off deeper into the circus tent. Drawing your breath in, you followed at his heels. Glancing behind you, you saw that everyone else was also running in opposite direction from each other.

It was hard to keep up with jax, not necessarily because he was fast (which he was), but all the sharp turns and corners he rounded past without a second of hesitation. By the time you had caught up with him and you two had stopped, beads of sweat were rolling down your face and neck as you took in labored breaths.

Blinking the sweat out of your eyes, you looked around your new surroundings. You hadn't noticed that the light had faded drastically, as well as the air had gotten just a degree colder. It reminded you of the gloink cave, which slightly calmed you. In front of you was a large playstructure with mesh climbing walls and tube slides. Everything was dimly illuminated dreamily with a faint yellow light from above. When you looked up, you saw glowing paper-mache stars hanging from different lengths from thin strings (which were also glowing) on the ceiling. Your neck craned to the ceiling, awed by the sight. The colors here were also faint, muted from the darkness. As you were starstruck from your new surroundings, you didn't notice Jax glance his half-lidded over at you, a satisfied smile painted on his face.

~jax pov~

I glanced over to y/n in satisfaction. Of course I knew that this would be a good place to hide, but that they would enjoy it. I knew from my observations that the frequent loud noises and bright colors disturbed them. Here it was quiet and dark. I had discovered this location in the circus tent a while back, while I was still on my kick of investigating every nook and cranny of the circus for an exit.

I mentally patted myself on the back for the good idea. Here, while bubble was off tracking the others, me and y/n could talk and bond- and on top of that- they would be thankful for me finally leading them to a quiet place. 

Though as I looked over at y/n's glassy eyes, shining from the faux starlight above with a wondrous expression on their face, my smug smile faltered. My stomach fluttered just a bit, what was this feeling?...

"This is a nice place to hide." Y/n's voice snapped me out of my dreamscape. I put on the smug smile again, determined for them not to see my vulnerable moment, and scratched the back of my neck. "Well-yeah. What can I say?" I chuckled.

My ears perked as I heard a sound off in the distance. I clenched my teeth as I heard the sounds of bubble, who was approaching at rapid speed.

"C'mon!"  I whisper-shouted, grabbing y/n's hand and leading them under the playstructure between the tube slide and climbing wall. The shadow casted behind them bathed the both of us in darkness, I was positive bubble wouldn't find us. I sat and scrunched my knees up to my chest. I looked over and froze when I realized that me and y/n we're sitting right next to each other, their (skin, fur, scales, etc) brushing against my fur. I looked away and forced myself to relax my posture, determined to not make y/n uncomfortable.

~y/n pov~

My body tensed at the closeness between me and Jax. But upon seeing him unbothered, I just assumed I was overreacting. I heard bubble's strange warbling and licking sounds (please guys I'm sorry I don't know how to describe what bubble sounds like) as it neared the playstructure. I held my breath, knowing I would be ashamed if me and Jax got caught on my account.

To our luck, bubble was defeated as we heard it's strange sounds retreat back into the main areas of the circus tent. I let out a long breath, relaxing. Jax looked over at me, his eyes gleaming in the starlight. "Not bad, sweetheart. I would say that we make a pretty good team." He praised.

I smiled back, feeling oddly adored by his words. "Thanks, you weren't so bad yourself." He chuckled at my words. 

We stared at each other for a while longer, Jax's smile faltering as he looked into my eyes. I grew worried. Jax closed his mouth and looked down, when he looked back up, he opened his mouth to say something- but an ear-pericing whistle sounded throughout the circus- again making me cover my ears.

"ALRIGHT, MY NOT-SO-LEVEL-HEADED CHUMS! THE GAME HAS ENDED!" Caine's voice was muffled, but loud from where we were. I looked up at jax as he sighed, his smile back again, confusing me. He slid out of our hiding space and stood, cracking his back before reaching his gloved hand down to me. "C'mon, we don't wanna keep the losers waiting." He grinned.

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

what are some good pet names that jax could use guys I'm running out of non cringe ideas