Chapter Text
Jax snaps back to reality as the scent of coffee invades her senses. She sees herself opening the glass door of Café Cirque. What was she doing? Oh right. She works here.
She’s definitely been out of it as of late. One thing’s for certain is that she’s seen better days.
“Hey,” Zooble greets her.
She only nods in response, going back to autopilot as she heads behind the counter to do her normal rounds before the cafe opens. Taking her apron from her bag and going to the restroom to make sure she looks presentable enough.
All she sees in the mirror are her tired eyes. They’ve been lacking a little bit of light, but it’s nothing new. Her eyeliner is still looking sharp, so there’s no need to touch up with that. She plays a little with the bow on her ear. Ribbit, her roommate, had let her borrow it when she was experimenting, and eventually she just let her have it. Kaufmo, her other roommate, had offered her his hat as a joke. Of course, she turned his offer down, but she recalls the memory fondly anyway, putting a smile back on her face.
Her eyes still lacked that light, but she looked more presentable than she did a second ago, and that’s probably the most the customers are going to get. Jax sighs as she exits the restroom.
The great thing about Zooble is that they can always tell when Jax is not in the mood for small talk. Like today. And so, they both quietly and mentally prepare themselves for the day to start.
It doesn’t take long for the cafe to open. When it finally does, Jax heads over to flip the open sign, already seeing the weird manager from Spudsy’s approaching from the stairs with bouncing steps.
Not wanting to deal with it, and knowing Zooble is already at the counter preparing her order anyway since she’s a regular (and also because Zooble is gay), Jax opens the door for Gangle. As Gangle gives out a small thanks and heads to the counter, Jax stays by the door already dissociating again, hoping to block out the two’s pathetic attempts at flirting.
“Morning, Gangle,” Zooble says in a tone only reserved for the ribbon avatar.
“Good morning, Zooble!” Gangle smiles brightly.
Despite not wanting to, it’s admittedly a little amusing to listen in. Fine. At first glance, one would assume that Gangle’s intense attitude wouldn’t blend well with Zooble’s laid-back one. And that assumption would be correct. But one day, something happened. Zooble never told her, but it’s obvious something changed. Jax can see that Zooble’s eyes have turned softer. That Gangle’s voice had been a little more gentle. (She had to witness Gangle screaming early in the morning way too many times, so she can say for certain that Gangle’s tone of voice had changed.)
“Here.”
Jax sees their hands touch and linger as Gangle takes the paper cup containing her usual order. Jax can’t remember what her usual is, all she can recall is that it has vanilla. Jax watches as they stare at each other for a second as Gangle speaks again.
“Thanks, Zooble.”
“No problem. See you tomorrow?”
“Yep! Have a great day!”
“Bye.”
Jax holds out the door for her again, and Gangle gives her a smile. Jax’s lips twitch a little, which she hopes is being perceived as a smile. Once Gangle leaves, Jax closes the door, releases a breath she doesn’t realize she was holding, pauses, and then faces Zooble with a smirk.
“So, are you guys dating yet, or what?”
“Fuck off.”
“Not yet? Wow. You guys really are taking slowburn to heart, huh?”
“If you don’t shut up right now I’m going to throw you off this building.”
It’s funny to see Zooble look so annoyed when Jax teases them about Gangle. When they first met at work, joking around with Zooble is like talking to a brick wall. They never let themself get affected by anything Jax says, so when she noticed something different between them and Gangle, it felt like she struck gold.
She always takes the opportunity to tease their weird relationship with Gangle. It’s just too fun not to do.
Hopefully her actions will not bite her back in the ass.
Jax is sitting by the register, mindlessly scrolling at her phone, while Zooble sweeps the place. There’s around an hour left before they have to close the cafe, and there’s two other customers around, minding their own business. The location of their café doesn’t have a lot of foot traffic, especially since a customer has to willingly walk through three flights of stairs before reaching it. It’s one of the disadvantages of getting to this place, but it’s also an advantage because it never gets too crowded most of the time.
The glass door suddenly opens, making Jax look up from her phone to see who came in. It’s Pomni. She’s still in her work attire, with a simple white button-up and trousers. Seems like she has a co-worker with her, as she is also in her work attire, with a blue button-up and a pencil skirt. They’re both wearing a lanyard with the label of Caine & Abel.
“Hi, Jax! Zooble!” Pomni says with a cheery tone, but it’s clear she looks tired. And probably not just because of the three flights of stairs they had to go through, seeing as her co-worker also has tired bags under her eyes. Something work related, probably.
“Hey,” Zooble responds.
“‘Sup. What brings you around here?” Jax gets off the stool, placing her elbows on the counter.
It’s not the first time Pomni visited here. Thanks to Ribbit always bringing up Jax to other people, Pomni got curious and went to the café after work. That’s the first time Jax properly met her, and that was before Ribbit ever told her about Pomni.
At the time, Jax thought she was just a random customer, not her best friend’s talking stage. But whatever. Ribbit eventually fessed up and told her when she finally made it official, and Pomni is actually really chill.
But still, Café Cirque is not somewhere you can just walk to from the C&A office like Spudsy’s is. Especially to bring a co-worker to.
“Just wanted to show Ragatha around,” Pomni responds, leading to Jax turning to the new girl. Her avatar looks like a ragdoll. Her yarn hair is pulled up into a bun, and one of her eyes is a button. She’s kinda cute. “Oh, yeah! Let me introduce you. She’s Jax, and they’re Zooble. Jax is my girlfriend's roommate, which is how I found out about this place.”
“It’s nice to meet you! I’m Ragatha!” She smiles at the two, turning to Jax by the end of it.
“Nice to meet you too,” Jax grins as she rests her cheek on her hand, winking at Ragatha.
Her grin widens as when she sees the ragdoll blush from that.
Pomni coughs, “We’re here to order, by the way.” She sounds deadpan, but also slightly amused.
“Go ahead,” Jax hands out the menu card to the two.
Pomni skims at the menu, as she’s already seen it before. Ragatha looks at the options carefully, with a finger on her cheek. Yeah. She’s really cute.
“So, what are you thinking of ordering?” Pomni asks.
“Um… hm. I haven’t had a frappe in a while.”
“Oh! I kinda want a frappe too.”
Jax raises her eyebrows. Pomni has never ordered a frappe here before. In fact, it’s the opposite. She’s the type to order a black coffee. In response to Jax, Pomni glares at her. Jax shrugs. Suit yourself. As the two of them conclude on their frappe orders, Jax goes on to make it.
Eventually, it’s done. Since it’s Pomni, and there’s no other new customers to tend to, Jax delivers the drinks herself instead of calling them over.
“Here you two go.”
“Thanks!”
Instead of going back behind the counter to scroll mindlessly at her phone, she pulls one of the seats and sits with the two.
“You guys came from work, right? Why’d you drop by here instead of some other coffee shop closer to C&A?”
“What, am I not allowed to visit you anymore?” Pomni jabs jokingly, then sighs. “We were both tired after our shift, and I asked if Ragatha wanted to hang out to relax a bit. When she agreed, I drove us here.”
She turns to Ragatha, looking apologetic. “Sorry if this is too far from your place, though. I can drive you home if you want.”
“No, no- It’s fine! Just drop me off at the bus stop and I’ll make it home! It’s been a while since I’ve gone somewhere new, so I don’t really mind! I never really go out, so this is good for me!” Ragatha stammers out all those words quickly. Jax is intrigued.
“Really?” Jax tilts her head, smiling. “So you’re single?”
Pomni glares at Jax again. “How did you even end up with that conclusion?”
“I’m not concluding anything. I’m just asking a pretty girl an innocent question, jeez. Anyway,” she looks back at Ragatha, batting her eyelashes in a comical way.
Pomni rolls her eyes lightheartedly, “Ragatha, you don’t have to answer her.”
“Um,” Ragatha laughs awkwardly, blushing even harder, “I- I’m single, yeah.”
“Oh my God.” Pomni mutters in disbelief.
“S-sorry! I mean, I.. Um! I-”
Pomni raises her hands quickly. “No, no! Ragatha you don’t have to apologize to me. Jax should be the one apologizing.”
“What? You think she’s out of my league?”
“Yes,” Zooble suddenly joins the conversation.
A random customer inadvertently gasps, revealing that they’ve been eavesdropping. Ragatha only laughs awkwardly. Pomni nods in agreement. Jax dramatically clutches onto where her heart should be, wiping her fake tears.
“You guys wound me.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Pomni dismisses, waving her away jokingly.
Ragatha gives her a weak smile. Jax doesn’t know if she’s reading it completely wrong, but she interprets her expression to mean that she doesn’t entirely agree with Pomni and Zooble. That or she’s being too hopeful and Ragatha is actually trying to be polite while turning her down.
Not in the mood to dissect that! Jax quickly turns her exaggerated sad expression back to a cheeky smile, hiding any doubt on her face. Seems like a good time to disengage with the conversation. “I’m gonna tell Ribbit you’ve been mean to me, Poms. Just you wait.”
Jax points an accusatory finger at her as she returns to the counter. Pomni only rolls her eyes. She eventually sits back at the stool, pulling out her phone again.
Pomni and Ragatha seem to be at the early stages of their friendship. There’s this awkwardness between them, but it’s obvious they both want to be friends. Maybe that’s why Ragatha agreed to hang out with Pomni. Maybe that’s why Pomni ordered a frappe, too.
Jax can’t help but feel proud for Pomni, somewhat. Her best friend's girlfriend is a newbie at C&A, and she’s making a new friend! A new friend that Jax thinks looks really, really cute.
She hopes that Pomni brings her along more often, even if she’s protective of her.
The café is as clean as the two workers can possibly make it. Jax is putting on her bag as Zooble turns off the lights. Once they exit the café and Zooble locks the door, they face Jax.
“Hey, I hope you didn’t take what I said earlier personally.”
Jax hums in an amused tone, “What, saying that Ragatha was out of my league?”
“Yeah. Even if she is, you should do you. From how I saw it, it doesn’t seem out of the table, honestly.”
“What’s this? Are you rooting for me now?”
“I’m just stating what I observed. Maybe she can be good for you.”
It’s weird when Zooble suddenly becomes soft. They’ve been doing that recently. Jax is a little annoyed to think that they’re doing it because they can tell that she hasn’t been acting like herself recently. Even Ribbit has been doing that. It makes her feel like some sort of fragile flower, the way they look at her. She doesn’t like it.
Can’t a girl be a little depressed without everyone else being worried? Damn.
“Sheesh, Zoobs. I hope this isn’t your way of revenge for whenever I tease you about Gangle.”
Zooble rolls their eyes, not responding anymore. Jax’s eye twitches a little. They always know when to disengage, when to stop showing concern in their own way before Jax blows up. It’s annoying how easily they can read her.
Well, whatever. Once she reaches the parking lot entrance, she waves Zooble goodbye. Once she enters the car, she sits there for a good minute before turning on the engine. She then sits there for another minute as she feels the AC turn up.
It’s been getting progressively harder to be in her car, since that’s when she received the phone call.
Don’t think about it. It doesn’t matter. Nothing would have changed.
It takes a while before she finally snaps back to reality. She starts her loud playlist to hopefully drown out the thoughts and finally drives off.