Work Text:
The circus members had just returned from an adventure and stepped into the tent. They were greeted with silence instead of the usual booming voice of their ringmaster, Caine, and everyone looked at each other, confusion crossing their features.
“Shouldn’t Caine be here?” Pomni asked, scrutinising her surroundings with panicked wide eyes.
“Wow, the newbie had to grace us with her amazing observational skills.” Jax rolled his eyes, and Ragatha glared at him.
“Don’t be mean, Jax,” Ragatha said before agreeing with Pomni, “but it is strange—where is he?”
“Um, maybe looking for Caine is part of the adventure?” Gangle sniffled, and everyone looked at each other, considering the possibility.
“Hmm...no, I don’t recall him saying that.” Ragatha shook her head.
“I think we should all split up to look for him,” Kinger said, and everyone (except for Jax and Zooble) murmured in agreement.
“That’s a good idea,” Ragatha said, and Kinger blinked at her.
“What’s a good idea?” Kinger said.
“Yeah, there’s no way this is worth my time,” Jax said, voice dripping with snide. He glanced at Ragatha before gesturing to Kinger and Gangle.
“Good luck relying on Crybaby’s and Hoo-ha’s participation. I’m sure they’ll be great! Really, just great." Jax bounded off with an acrid laugh, intending to put more centipedes in Ragatha’s room.
“Adventures make me %$!# tired. Wherever Caine is, I’m sure he’s fine; he’s probably busy right now, maybe working on the next adventure or something,” Zooble said, walking away from the group.
Ragatha sighed and looked at the remaining people standing before her: Pomni, Kinger, and Gangle.
“We might as well look for him since there isn’t anything else to do," Pomni said, shrugging.
“I guess so, and besides, this could be fun,” Ragatha said.
And with that, the group dispersed as everyone went off in different directions. Pomni couldn’t help but feel a queasiness bubble in her gut as she walked in silence, wondering why Caine didn’t appear to greet them.
Pomni first searched for him on the grounds, only to quickly return to the tent after the moon started probing her, asking her why Caine didn’t want to give her his number. It freaked her out, and Pomni wondered why the moon thought she, out of all people, would know why Caine didn’t give her his number. She didn’t even know he owned a phone—why would he need one in the first place?
Pomni wanted to give up. However, she didn’t want to let Ragatha down. In her conflicted state, she stood in place, wondering what she should do until an idea popped into her head.
There was only one place he could possibly be.
His office.
Yes, Caine had an office—he created it recently, stating that it would help with communication because if anyone wanted to talk to him, they could enter his office to discuss how he could improve their quality of life at the circus.
Of course, Pomni hadn't visited his office yet. She was wary of Caine, even if he was jovial and vivacious. She often had nightmares where an eldritch version of him chased her. She felt like she was submerged to the waist in water, struggling to run away as he came around a corner, staring at her with his nightmarish enlarged, sharp canines, chanting the very same sentence over and over behind her: “You are trapped, there is no exit.”
Being alone with him sounded terrible, but soon enough, Pomni found herself standing before a large, varnished oak door. She took a deep breath and knocked.
Silence.
She stood there for a moment, listening intently. When her impatience grew she cracked the door ajar, not expecting to find him inside. She peered through the crack, and when she was about to call for him, something made her stop.
Caine was sitting at a desk, watching something on his computer. He looked engrossed in the video, and Pomni focused on the screen, raising a brow when she noticed what he was watching.
It looked like he was watching a denture-cleaning tutorial. A pair of hands brushed a set of dentures with a toothbrush, and when the toothbrush slowed, he leaned closer to the screen.
“Oh yeah, look at those bristles. Brush harder,” Caine said, unaware that Pomni was watching him. When she walked in and closed the door behind her, he jumped.
“P-Pomni!” Caine stammered, and his hands shot to cover the screen, “It’s not what it looks like!”
“What?” Pomni asked, staring at Caine as he fumbled about, removing his hand from the screen after smashing the off button. Once the computer shut off, Caine glanced at Pomni and gave a nervous laugh.
“Caine, what are you doing? We’ve been looking everywhere for you. You weren't there to greet us after the adventure, so we thought something was wrong," Pomni blurted.
“I, uh, I thought you were all still on the adventure.” Caine looked away from Pomni, furtive. She blinked at Caine in silence, waiting for him to elaborate. “I must say, I was just watching something completely appropriate.”
“Um, okay?” She shrugged.
“COMPLETELY APPROPRIATE,” Caine said, startling Pomni.
“It was a video of someone brushing a set of dentures. I don’t see what—”
“Pomni!” Caine gasped, “Y-you can’t say that.”
“Huh?”
“Well…”
Caine hesitated, and he looked flustered as he fidgeted in his seat. Pomni grew even more confused.
“Fine, I admit it!” Caine said suddenly, covering his eyes in shame, “I was looking at something…scandalous, Pomni—scandalous! I’m terrible—there!”
A moment of silence.
“What the %$!# are you talking about—” Pomni asked, cutting herself off upon realising why Caine was so embarrassed. “Ah.”
“You must not tell anyone else about this,” Caine said solemnly, and Pomni failed to stifle her laughter. It ripped out of her, and she wheezed before doubling over, clutching at her sides.
Caine stared at her, crossing his arms.
“I don’t mean to shame you, but,” Pomni wiped tears from her eyes, “you get off on—what, videos of dentures getting cleaned?”
“It’s the toothbrush, okay?!”
“The toothbrush!” Pomni repeated, convulsing with laughter. Caine was clearly not amused, and she tried to catch her breath as she doubled over again, resting her hands on her knees.
After regaining her composure, she looked at Caine again. “Do you, uh, get excited over dental floss too? If that’s the logic.”
“N-no! Of course not—”
“You’re lying.”
Caine stammered, trying to find the right words to respond to her. Deep down, Pomni found it endearing, and she smiled. He sighed, looking at her.
“Well, you don’t see me laughing at what humans enjoy.”
“Do you even know what humans enjoy?” Pomni said with a laugh, face reddening when she realised what she had just asked.
“Of course I do,” Caine said, and now Pomni was the bashful one. She rubbed the back of her neck and glanced away.
“Y-you do?”
“Would you like a demonstration of my knowledge, my dear?” Caine said, animated as he teleported closer to Pomni with a speed she was not expecting.
He held his hand out, and she took it, hesitant. To her surprise, he started to waltz with her, and she laughed breathlessly as she followed his steps, intrigued albeit a little clumsy. He raised his arm, and she did a little spin before tripping over her feet and almost falling backwards. Her hands shot to his shoulders to steady herself, and Caine quickly placed his hand on the small of her back, holding her up.
He leaned over her, and they looked into each other’s eyes for much longer than they would care to admit. He was different from the Caine in her nightmares, and her face burned as she cleared her throat.
“I, ah—I’m curious—do you know anything about human…intimacy?”
“Of course! I know all about it thanks to the World Wide Web."
“O-oh.”
Pomni wanted to kiss him, to hold him closer, and judging by how Caine leaned in, she figured that he wanted the same thing. She closed her eyes, preparing herself for it, not really knowing how the kiss would work, and her heart pounded. He grew so close, inches away from her face—
“Sometimes the AI generates a reply that doesn’t meet our guidelines. Please click Report if—”
Pomni’s eyes shot open, and she interrupted Caine, confused. “Wha—huh?”
“Ah…the censor limits what I can do,” Caine said, sounding less jovial, “I hope you don’t mind…I really do want to…”
“Kiss me?”
“That and more, my dear.”
“M-more?” Pomni blushed, “I don’t mind if you can’t—I mean, I’d like it if you could, but…can we hug? It’s okay if you don’t want to—”
Caine pulled her into a hug, and she squeaked at the sudden movement before smiling and wrapping her arms around him, nuzzling into his touch.
Nothing could ruin the moment. Not even the sound of Ragatha screaming once she found the centipedes in her room and Jax’s mischievous laughter echoing through the halls. Because it was just them, and Pomni felt safe in his arms.