The Amazing Digital Circus

Episode 4: Crash out

The giant hand pushed you and Jax back out of the room, leaving yall with a pat on the head and traumatized faces.

Jax blinked, walking up to check the clock once more.

"-Oh, are you KIDDING ME?!" By that reaction you can guess that he was not happy with the time.

"Hey, Gangle!" He turned towards Gangle, who was slumped against the fridge. You walked up beside him, ready to hold him back if he decided violence. "I think the clock's broken." He pointed out.

"-is it broken? Or are we the broken ones?" She lifted herself up a bit.

"-Ah, great." Jax sighed.

"What did we miss?" You quietly whispered to Jax. He just looked at you and shrugged.

"How long has this shift really gone on for?" Gangle slowly turned towards look at the both of you with wide eyes. "Six hours? 8? 24? A week? A year? Does time even move in here? Will we ever go home? Will we ever achieve our dreams?" (No joke, this is me at work.)

Suddenly Gangle's watch beeped, interrupting her manic episode. She looked down at it then back up at Jax. "oh, wait." She looked at her watch again then at the clock on the wall then back to her watch. "Yeah, that clock's broken."

"...it's not the only one." You mumbled, slightly peeking over Jax's shoulder while shaking at whatever you had just witnessed.

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DINNER

Pomni waves the Gloink Queen and all her little ones goodbye as they finally leave the restaurant.
"-Well, that was more info on Gloink reproduction than I ever needed to know."

Jax slowly walks in the kitchen but stops, causing you to bump into him.
"Why'd you stop- oh." You started to say before noticing Ragatha stretched out across the floor.

Jax looks down at her boredly.
"Can you move?"

"-Yo, Jax. I, like...hate you. But I don't want you to hate me. Y/n...you scare me." Ragatha said still clearly high.

"Why?" You raise an eyebrow at her.

"You ask Jax to do a lot of weird things like...stepping on you? But why would-"

Jax cut her off by stepping over her. "You're drunk or something."

Ragatha watches him leave and laughs dreamily. "-Oh, yeah."
You clear your throat awkwardly and follow after him, careful not to step on her.

Jax steps up to the counter, sighing as he flops on top of it. You wave at Pomni, leaving to go to the bathroom.

She gives you a small wave back before giving Jax a glance.

"How you doin'?" He sighed.

She rubbed the side of her head. "-Everything's been—" She stopped mid-sentence and gave him a suspicious look, probably wondering why he would even care.

"...I'm doing fine."

Jax sighed again and pushed himself off the counter. "Wish I could say the same. If y/n weren't here I'd-"

"-Jax! There's dishes back here!" Gangle called out from the kitchen. "You got time to lean, you got time to clean!" She laughed.

"-Ugh, God. I'm on it!" He shouted back. He looked over towards the bathroom doors then back at Pomni. "Later, Pomni."

A few minutes later you came back out, looking a bit sick. "Uh...Can someone grab me a mop? The gloinks showed no mercy to these stalls."

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Jax glared at the clock on the wall with his eye twitching.

"Baby, you're gonna pop a blood vessel if you keep doing that." You warned him.
He didn't say anything, instead he just looked over towards the time stamp cards then back at the clock.

He sighed, grabbing your arm and pulling you along with him. "All right, we're clocking out. This wasn't fun at all. See y'all later."

Gangle watched the two of y'all leave with a sad and tired look on her face. You looked back at her and waved before walking through the door. She didn't even get a chance to wave back before y'all were gone.

Outside the restaurant, Jax's smile immediately dropped and so did his ears. You looked up as he stared ahead, walking you to the car.

He looked down towards the car, noticing his name on the tag. You saw that the car beside his had your name on it as well.

"You're riding with me." Jax mumbled without looking at you.

"I know."

He pulled open the driver side door and before you had a chance to move to the other side, he dragged you in with him. You landed on his lap as he pulled the door shut behind you.

"Jax-"

"Quiet." His arms slowly wrapped around your waist, holding you close to his chest.

"But you can't-"

"I said quiet." He glared at you before roughly burying his face in the nape your neck.

Jax continued to hold onto you tightly, letting out a deep sigh as he felt your body heat radiating against him. He could feel your heart beating fast against his chest, matching the rhythm of his own.

The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. After what seemed like hours of silence, Jax finally broke it.

"I don't need this [boink!] today." He muttered under his breath, his voice barely audible.

"Sorry..." you whispered softly, squirming a bit in his grasp. But with how tight he held onto you, it was nearly impossible.

"Just sit still." He said gruffly, leaning back slightly so that he could look at you better.

You sat quietly for a moment until you couldn't stand the silence anymore.

"Jax?"

Jax looked down at you, his eyes meeting yours. For a moment, there was a certain vulnerability in his gaze that was rare to see.

"Hm?" His voice was rough, but not unkindly so. It was clear he was trying to maintain his usual bravado, but the events of the day had left him feeling raw.

Your hands came up to cup his cheeks gently, so he wouldn't be able to turn away.
"It's just me here...you don't have to act."

Jax scowled, his brows furrowing as he looked at you. He didn't want to admit it, but he was exhausted -emotionally, physically. He leaned into your touch, closing his eyes as he let out a slow breath.

"You're annoying." He mumbled, his lips brushing against your fingers. But even then, he made no move to push you away.

"You're impossible to hide from, Sweetheart."

OMGGGGGG THAT TOOK WAYYY LONGER THAN IT NEEDED TOO! I'm so sorry for delaying y'all like this! I swear on the next one, it won't take me as long to get it out to y'all. It has been a crazy few weeks for me and I'm so glad I'm finally done with it. Thank you yall for being so so so patient! I hope you guys like it!