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1.
Ragatha plopped herself down on the couch after an adventure, absolutely exhausted. Her back ached, and her seams were close to splitting with tension, and she finally allowed her guard to fall.
The blue sofa was plush and cozy, and she let her eyes drop closed for a moment.
Just one.
~~
When she woke up, the sun was high in the sky, just as it always was. She honestly couldn’t tell what time it was—it could have been the middle of the night, for all Ragatha knew. She heard two pairs of footsteps approaching from one of the labyrinth-like hallways around the circus, so it was likely not night. She twisted to see who it was, straining to make out their characters against the mess of other colors that the walls were.
A blur of purple and red.
That could be a couple of people—Jax and Pomni, Jax and Gangle, Kinger and—
Hold on, was that Caine?
Sure enough, as they approached, the blur turned into their ringmaster, who was trailing behind Kinger like a lost puppy of some sort. His tongue hung out of his mouth, and his mismatched eyes were sparkling as he stared at his companion, loyally following him around.
Kinger didn’t seem upset at this; in fact, he was turning back to converse with Caine every couple of moments. Once, Caine hit one of the many obstacles scattered around the circus map, narrowly avoiding missing it when he took notice of it at the very last second.
He crashed to the ground—well, he should have crashed to the ground. Instead, Kinger caught him and helped him back up with a smile.
Ragatha could see Caine’s heavy blush from here.
Aww…they were precious.
~~
2.
Pomni’s eyes widened as she saw Jax pitch one of Zooble’s colorful limbs directly into Kinger’s pillow fort.
“Oops,” he said, with a grin on his face, no remorse in sight. Zooble stomped up to the purple rabbit, and bleeped-out profanities spewed out of his mouth. They picked up the missing arm and waved it around at Jax menacingly as she threatened him, but their words had no effect. Zooble finally stomped to his room, shouting a half-assed apology at Kinger over xyr shoulder.
The chess piece was standing over the ruins of his fortress, staring down at them like he had no idea how that happened.
To be honest, he had probably already forgotten the cause.
Pomni was already moving forward to help him rebuild it when Caine suddenly popped into sight in front of him. Kinger’s eyes widened, and he gestured at the mound of pillows in confusion. Caine looked back at it in surprise and rested a hand on the man’s shoulder softly, saying something that Pomni couldn’t quite hear.
With a nod, Kinger crouched down and began gathering the pillows into his arms, with Caine doing the same beside him.
Why didn’t Caine just reset the fort? Surely he could?
Was he…bonding? With Kinger?
The jester watched, halfway hiding behind a couch, as she observed them work together to put the pillow fort back up. They worked quickly, talking to each other throughout it about Kinger’s fascination with insects. She even thought that she heard Caine promise to model one of the bugs Kinger described.
Was he getting soft for Kinger?
~~
3.
Zooble was arguing with Caine. They wanted to skip out on an adventure, and the AI was not having it. She nearly had to sit through another stupid, useless therapy lesson.
Xe rolled his eyes as Caine sat upon the sofa, legs crossed and hands rested in his lap primly.
Caine’s jaw opened wide, examining them quietly.
“Well, what seems to be the issue now, my dear Zooble? I catered this adventure to suit your needs exactly! Skipping out on adventures this often simply cannot become a habit!”
“Okay, first of all—“ Zooble started before she was interrupted by someone tapping on his shoulder.
Twisting their torso to see who it was, xe was met with the sight of Kinger staring over them at Caine. The AI’s gaze looked up at the chess piece, readily waiting for him to speak.
“Caine, can I skip this one? I’m not feeling too great.”
Immediately Caine was all over him, Zooble completely forgotten.
“Of course, darling!” he responded as he checked Kinger for the cause of this, hands running down the front of his purple robe.
When had he gotten there?
Jesus, darling? That was just weird. And Kinger smiled at it! At the sentient robot!
Well, it was his digital life, Zooble supposed.
~~
4.
Splash!
Jax watched, head peeking cartoonishly around a corner as Caine walked directly under his trap. The water bucket fell as he triggered a tripwire, and his entire figure was doused in water.
Sopping wet, Caine looked around for the culprit, and Jax ducked behind his hiding spot. Once he deemed it safe to look back again, he found that Kinger had mysteriously appeared beside Caine holding a spare robe. He wrapped it around his shoulders, and Jax nearly puked from the sickeningly sweet taste left in his mouth. Just watching them was going to trigger his gag reflex!
Good for them, I guess…
~~
5.
Gangle trudged out of the adventure portal, ribbons drooping with exhaustion. Every inch of her model was covered in dirt and dust, and even when Caine snapped it away, she felt dirty. Her skin itched with the feeling, but it wouldn’t go away.
She cradled the shattered remains of her happy mask in her hands, waiting for it to reset. Typically it took a few minutes after Caine had done everything else. She had asked him about it hesitantly at one point, and he had babbled on about something like “game mechanics” and “overheating.”
Gangle relaxed into Zooble, quietly taking in the scene around her. Everyone else was tired too—even Kinger. In fact, he might have looked the worst out of all of them. He was slumped on the ground, eyes closed as Caine patted his back.
Wait, Caine was comforting him?!
She squealed internally, feeling the tears on her tragedy mask shrink away to nearly nothing. She had the perfect view of the two, with no one else obstructing her vision, so she got to see exactly how Caine whispered an apology into Kinger’s ear.
She watched as he leaned back into Caine, opening his eyes to stare up at him and grinned.
She was so drawn that later.
~~
+1.
The adventure of the day was a racetrack that wound around the circus, looping and twisting and turning all sorts of impossible ways. The track went upside down, under the lake, through the carnival, and ended right back at the entrance to the circus.
Caine came into the players’ sight with a small flag at the finish line, cheering for them all. Everyone was being uncharacteristically excited about this activity, and he would take whatever he could get.
Just a bit away from the finish line, Jax was in first, everyone else not far behind.
A couple more feet—
Kinger overtook Jax, his purple, checkered race car barely making it to the finish line before the rabbit. He whooped as the fanfare sounded loudly for him and launched himself at Caine when the AI got close enough. A vibrant blush lit up over Caine’s face, and he tucked his head into Kinger’s shoulder as he congratulated him but felt his chin being raised up by the other man.
“Thank you, Caine,” he whispered, and pressed a soft kiss to his face. He raised his hand to Kinger’s face and returned the kiss eagerly as a response.
And with that, the rest of the circus finally got an answer as to what the hell was happening between those two.