Chapter Text
Ribbit woke up to violent knocking against her door...immediately knowing who it was. This became routine. It was fun in a...weird way.
"I'm coming! %$!#..." she opened the door and was immediately faced with Jax. "Goodness, can't give a girl time? How rude of you."
"Oh come on, you slept in more than usual. Caine's already blabbering about the adventure. Come on, SweetFrog, I think this one'll actually be fun." He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her room before they could even reply. They stumbled over their own feet as they turned and used their tongue to quickly pull their door closed. When it realed back into theor mouth they spat out the taste of metal.
"Why? Is he finally using the suggestion box?"
He didn't answer them, didn't get the chance to.
"Ah, Ribbit, Jax! I thought you'd never show!" Caine was in front of them with a goofy expression, making Jax stop suddenly and Ribbit crash into the back of him. They fell to the ground from the impact in a rather cartoonish manner.
Ribbit didn't get up and just looked up at Caine. "Everyone's gone and started already, so I'll just catch you up and send you on your way! Sadly this one's gonna be a bit short, no wonderful plot line. I have something I need to focus on preparing for afterwards, so for now you all get to enjoy a nice beach day!" The amount of pizazz in all of that was unnecessary, but then again it was Caine.
He snapped his fingers and a portal colored a swirled blue and yellow appeared next to him, "have fun!" And he was gone.
"God, you made it sound like it'd be the best thing ev—" she finally looked down at him when she felt something soft slapping against her thigh. Jax's tail was wagging like crazy, when she giggled he quickly moved to push her off of him.
Their giggles turned to laughter as she sat there on the floor. When he stood up he looked back at them and brushed himself off, "shut up," he said through an embarrassed chuckle.
"Someone got excited."
"For your information, I felt threatened," he didn't even sound like he took himself seriously.
He paused, then offered a hand to help her up.
"Now go on, it's like your natural habitat, right? You should go first."
"Yeah, then you can go first when we go on an Easter egg hunt."
"Psh, nevermind then!" He rolled his eyes and put his palm to their face, pushing them away so he could go in first.
The beach was...well...a beach. It wasn't the lake out in the grounds, he had prepared a proper one. Mannequins mocking families had different areas set up for themselves, he could see Ragatha in the distance with Kinger, talking about something and eating from separate ice cream cups. Gangle was off on her own, underneath an umbrella. He couldn't spot Kaufmo.
He heard the portal close behind him and turned around to see Ribbit now dressed in a frilly pink bikini that was held up by laces tied in bows with a daisy on the side of her head.
They stared at each other...his eyes looked like they had turned entirely black with how much his pupils dilated.
"You look ridiculous."
Jax looked down at himself and was wearing a one piece with a light salmon and white chasing each other in a horizontal pattern down it.
"You look..." his voice dragged out. Their avatar never wore anything besides a bow bowtie and the shape to them was basically what you'd expect of a cartoon frog. But they had a more defined figure now, not extremely so, but enough to notice.
Who knew Caine indulged in fanservice?
"Hot..." they whined. Jax's ears perked up for a second, then he laughed it off when he realized she was talking about the heat and not trying to finish his sentence.
"I saw Raggy and ol' king cuckoo with ice cream."
"Really?" Their expression perked up immediately, "oh I feel like I haven't had ice cream in years."
"Then you go find Kaufy and I'll get us some," the rabbit put his hand to his heart and spoke confidently.
"I'm not letting you handle my food. You're crazy," their words came out with a chuckle.
"Come onnn, what's the worst I could do?"
"I could make a list...but we'd be here all day."
"Such little faith in me. I'm offended."
"Good," she rolled her eyes and walked past him, putting her hands up to shield her eyes from the sun as she looked around.
In the distance she saw a poorly made ice cream stand. Kaufmo was there with about ten scoops on one cone already.
Ribbit nudged Jax and pointed in Kaufmo's direction before running as fast as she could across the sand to him.
"Going for a record or something, Kaufy?" She said through heavied breaths.
He jumped at her sudden voice and the majority of the tower he was balancing fell down and hit the sand.
"I was."
She laughed, "my bad! You're not usually this jumpy."
"You look super bald." Jax said through a snicker. Kaufmo only had on swim trunks. It was a sight for sure.
"Like a bowling pin more so."
"Thank you, I pride myself on my looks y'know." He grinned wide for a moment before it faded and he looked off in the distance, "I'll go find a spot for us."
As he walked off, Ribbit glanced down at the stack of cups on the counter... "oh my god."
That got Jax's attention and he glanced at them to, his smile got wider than she's possibly ever seen it, "oh my GOD!" He started laughing as she grabbed her shoulder and shook her playfully, "it's you!"
SweetFrog.
The logo.
Was SweetFrog.
"It's not me!"
"One of them is literally wearing a pink b—" he stopped talking after he looked at her, taking his hand off of her shoulder. Looking embarrassed. She had jiggle physics. Slight, but present.
"Oh what? Got a frog in your throat?"
He rolled his eyes, his ears drooping. "How many times have you said that stupid joke now?"
"Doesn't matter, it's still has its charm."
"It never had its charm."
"You never had your charm."
"I'm wounded." He feigned hurt in his tone and body language.
"I'm gonna wound you, Easter bunny."
"That one's not even clever."
"Doooooonnnnn't caaaare!" Her words were louder with slight annoyance as she moved past him to order a vanilla cone. Just vanilla.
"Y'know the brand sells frozen yogurt, why was this even here?" Jax laughed at it like it was the most insane thing he's ever heard of.
"I don't know. Sounds like a copyright nightmare though."
Jax looked over at them as they were handed their cone his face turned to an amused kind of judgemental, "really? Vanilla?"
Ribbit put their hand on their hip, "what's wrong with vanilla?"
"Nothing. Just didn't think you had such terrible taste."
"Okay then, what's your favorite? Carrot?"
He let out an offended scoff, "Moose Tracks, actually. Or chocolate with that weird red waxy coating over it."
"What are you talking about?"
"Have you never had any of that?" His surprise got more pronounced when they shook their head, "really? I never knew I was friends with such a loser."
Ribbit moved her hand up to flick Jax in the face where his nose would be as she walked past him to go find and sit with Kaufmo.
After Jax got Moose Track ice cream in one of the SweetFrog cups, he walked over to them. Two umbrellas were set up to give them both shade. Ribbit sitting on a towel on the left, and Kaufmo sitting on the right in the sand, in the middle was another towel that was halfway in the sun through the gap in the umbrellas.
He sighed and sat down at the place left for him.
"Caine's really been into adventures with extreme weather recently, huh?" She sighed a labored breath out, clearly more affected by the heat than the other two.
Ribbit then leaned her head back, her skin having a slight glisten to it from sweat. Then the scoop from her cone slipped and fell onto her chest.
"...Come on man.." she groaned. Then turned to Jax, batting her eyelashes with an innocent look.
When he finally felt their eyes on him, he turned and saw the mess. He looked nervous and tried not to stare at her chest.
It didn't help that it was vanilla.
He watched as their long tongue came out of their mouth and wrapped around the blob of ice cream slowly melting against their body. Pulling it into their mouth and stifling a laugh as to not spit it out.
"Y-You're gross.."
"You're blushing."
His expression turned to a flustered kind of panic as he turned his head in the opposite direction.
They forgot Kaufmo was right there.
He was staring at them with a judgemental face.
They stared back at him blankly.
"I'll abstract right in front of you guys if you ever do something like that near me again."
Ribbit laughed for a moment before she hissed, "%$!#!" She cried out as she moved her hand up to press against the side of her head to try to ease the stinging pain of brain freeze.
"And that's karma."
"Shut up." After a moment, they grabbed one of the folded towels that sat next to the one they were laying on and looked down. Intending on actually wiping off the residue from the ice cream and gasped, "oh my god, guys! Why didn't you tell me I had boobs all of a sudden!?"
"Didn't think we had to..?"
"I'd tell you both if you suddenly had them."
"Yeah I don't think we ever will, Ribs."
"You never know."
"I actually wouldn't mind that," Kaufmo spoke up.
"You wouldn't?" Jax looked at him like he was crazy, though amused at the idea of seeing him like that. Funny thing to imagine.
"Not really. I mean, clowns always like to have HONKers," he made a gesture of honking a nose that he didn't have.
"You're an idiot," Ribbit laughed as she took a handful of sand and threw it at him. Majority of it hit Jax and went all in his ice cream. He spit out the some that got in his mouth.
"Hey!"
"What," she picked up the ice cream out of the cup in a fist, "want your Moose Tracks?" Then got on top of him and shoved it into his face.
Jax struggled for a moment before he kicked her off of him, she landed on her back and kept laughing.
She stopped laughing when she was hit in the face with a violet stream of water from a water squirter by Kaufmo, "ACK! W-Where did you—" Ribbit scrambled to get up, trying to block the stream with her hands, "where did you even get that!?" She yelled as she started running.
"One of the NPCs had it," Kaufmo chased her.
Once he was out of water, she turned around and quickly shot her tongue at the squirter at an extreme speed, taking it from his hands. She held it up in victory while her tongue was still stuck to the side of it.
The clown looked disgusted in reaction.
When Ribbit turned and ran for the ocean to fill up the squirter, this time Kaufmo was the one who turned and ran away.
When the sun began to set, the portal opened in the middle of the beach. Ribbit glanced over at it but made no moves to go to it.
"Hey, Ribs," they felt Jax's hand on her shoulder. "We're going to take as much ice cream with us as we can carry, wanna come help?"
"You two can handle that alone."
"Suit yourself," he shrugged as he turned and ran to Kaufmo at the ice cream stand, kicking up sand that hit the side of her body.
They brushed the sand off of them as they brought their knees close to their chest, hugging them.
It felt like it's been ages since she's gotten to sit and enjoy a sunset. One that looks real.
The cooling air pricked at her skin as the purple and orange hued sky dipped into a deep blueish black.
Ribbit sighed as they stood up and stared at the water for a while.
They were the last one to leave.
When she walked back into the circus, her body was back to its default now that the swimsuit was gone. That part upset her a lot. She just liked feeling normal again for once. Having a realistic shape to her instead of that of a rubber toy frog.
She looked around and saw nobody, so they started walking back to their room.
They got halfway down the hall before Caine appeared in front of them, "there you are, Ribbit!"
"AH!" They jumped back, then crossed their arms, "you've gotta stop doing that!"
"Oh you have to forgive my enthusiasm! I was so worried you got lost! And, like I said, I have something I think you'll love planned, so we can't have you disappearing on us!" The ringmaster put his arm around the frog, speaking with overwhelming passion.
"What—"
"Rest up and I'll come get you when it's time!"
The way he vanished caused him to pull her, leaving her spinning like a top. She stumbled back and leaned against the wall for support. "I just want to sleep..." Ribbit whined as they walked the rest of the ways down the hall.
The second they got into their room they collapsed onto the bed akin to a lilypad.
They were barely in there for a minute before they heard a knock at the door. They pulled themselves and walked to the door, leading with their hips.
"You have a key, y'know."
"I know. But this is soooo much more fun." Jax stood in her doorway with a cup of ice cream. Moose Tracks again. He scooped a bit of it up with the small spoon and offered it to Ribbit, "here, just try it and then you can do whatever it is you do in here."
They eyed it suspiciously, giving a soft chuckle, "why?"
"Because I want you to see that it's good. Maybe you could have something better than vanilla."
"You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?"
"No. Now try it, SweetFrog."
They grabbed his wrist to hold it steady as they put the spoon into their mouth.
Jax's tail wagged aggressively, "it's good, huh?"
"It's...fine. I still prefer vanilla." He looked at them in disbelief, his foot tapping against the floor with a quick patting sound. "But still..." Ribbit grabbed Jax's suspenders in one of her hands and pulled him in to kiss him, stealing the cup of ice cream with their free hand. "Thanks. Today was fun."
Jax stood motionless outside of her, now closed, door, eyes wide and pupils dilated.
Ribbit flopped back onto her bed and ate the rest of the dessert from the cup.