I love how they make him pose so much he's so dynamic and fun 😭😭😭 I hope I get to the point where I can draw him as expressive as I want him to look because GAAAH
Note: This is actually just slop bro I can’t. Anyways, I saw the tadc movie a couple of days ago and the rot is eroding my brain. This is short af but I needed to write something about this movie or else I’d explode. Might post my other fics from my ao3 on here but idk. ALSO I can’t remember exact dialogue from the movie so I winged it in some places. Okay I hope the 3 people who read this slop enjoy.
Summary: this basically follows the plot of the last 20 minutes of the movie. If you’ve seen it you’ll know what scenes I’m talking about lol.
Word count: 1.6k
Tags: light angst, canon deaths, fluff, guilt (if you squint), reunions, could be read as romantic or platonic (kinda leaning towards romantic icl), second person pov (I’m so bad at knowing the differences between povs it’s bad).
Things were looking up. Well, as up as things could look, recent events considered. After Jax's abstraction you, Gangle, and Zooble grouped to stay safe while trying to think of ways to safely deal with Jax. Sure, Jax was an asshole, and you always kinda resented him for how he treated Gangle, but you couldn't help how your heart felt heavy seeing his jagged form ram into objects.
You had tried your best to justify Gangle mumbling on about how she couldn't bring herself to cry for Jax. Said that she didn't need to do anything for him, not after how he treated her for who knows how long. She left you with a sad smile.
Before Jax had left everyone looking over their shoulders, you had spent more time with Kinger, especially after Jax called him out at the beginning of all of this. This wasn't his fault, not close to it. It was a mistake. Sure, a huge one on his part, but a mistake nonetheless. Anyone could have messed up in his situation, you know he tried his best. Most of the time you spent with him was learning to conjure things like shapes and flat surfaces. Once you had managed to conjure up a good-sized square, only for it to pathetically glide down to the floor like a piece of paper. The genuine chuckle that you heard from Kinger was worth it.
You thought about Caine. His last moments with everyone were always in the back of your mind, really. His frustrated pleas towards everyone stuck with you. You should've been beyond angry at him for how he tortured your friends, yourself included, but when he had you pinned to the wall alongside everyone else, you felt your heart break. Caine had to have seen your sympathetic expression aimed towards him because he refused to look your way a second time while he gushed to the unwilling circus members.
You wanted to talk about him with Kinger, but you didn't want to rub salt in the wound. You would feel like the scum of the earth if you confessed your sympathies towards the AI and were only to be met with betrayed looks.
When Ragatha pulled you with her to a hallway, alongside with everyone else, you asked what was wrong. She had said something about Pomni going to confront Jax before you were forced to squint your eyes from the sheer blinding white light that made everyone stop in their tracks. You barely had time to recognize Pomnis' figure before you were helping reel her back in with everyone else. She skidded to a halt in front of everyone, her entire body glitching in different places. You offered a hand to her and hoisted her up to her feet. You smiled at Ragatha as she promised Pomni that everyone was in this together.
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Sometimes you'd get distracted by the softer memories you had with the ringmaster. Once you had found two differently colored pieces of small paper in a drawer in one of the halls. It was corny in retrospect, but you thought it would be a nice gesture. You had folded the papers to form a small flower. You had hesitated to call out for Caine at first, but did it before you could talk yourself out of it. He poofed into the air in front of you, lying on his side, cane in hand.
"Yes, my frabjous crab cake!" He had batted his eyes at you. You looked down at the small flower in your hand and offered it to him between two fingers. "Thought you'd like this. I learned to make these when I was younger and didn't see why not." You smiled at him. He had straightened his body from his lying position and stared down at the gift with small pupils. You didn't miss the uncertainty in his body language as he held his hands. As if he were unsure if you were actually giving him something. "You… You made that for me?" The hopeful shimmer in his eyes had cemented the idea in your mind to give him more handmade gifts in the future.
You nodded and ushered the craft towards him once more. He looked at the combined pieces of paper and carefully reached his hand out. His hand wrapped around your own for a moment as he grabbed the flower. When he brought the flower closer to him, he remained silent for a moment, only to take in the gift fully. He slowly looked back up to your eyes in a way that made you fidget in place. For a moment, you had thought that he might not have appreciated the quick gift, though that was shot down as he swung an arm around your shoulder and brought you into a side hug.
"Why, you shouldn't have! I'm simply so excited I could POP! It's not every day a human gifts me something!" You shrug your shoulders humbly at his thanks. "It's no problem, I'm glad you like it."
Oh, what you'd do to see his softened eyes again.
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After a few more days, everyone had pitched in to help make Jax get more comfortable in the towering peaks of the blankets and pillows that made up the purple tent. You were glad Jax was as comfortable as he could be, no matter how much of a jerk he was.
After that, things had fallen into a strange calm. You and the others sat on the couches that made up the common area. Pomni lay on the purple coach, her jester body glitching near constantly. That was until the sounds of the glitches coming from her suddenly cut off with a small 'pop!'. Rightly confused, she looked down at her body and patted her seemingly healed self. You jumped to your feet, feeling your heart clench, and whipped your eyes to search the area.
There was only one person everyone knew who had done that many times before.
From a distance ahead of everyone, you saw him, Caine. He was holding his cane to his chest in a sheepish way, and his eyes were barely visible from behind his teeth. The others also rose to their feet, justifiably just as confused as you were. Because there he was, as if he had been here the whole time. You hadn't realized you had taken a step closer to him. "Caine?" If this were any other meeting with him, you're sure you would have been looked at weirdly by the others for how tenderly you regarded him. Caine's upper set of teeth lifted at the sound of your voice, and when he looked to you, his shoulders relaxed.
Though he quickly shut his teeth and shook his head as though to regain his thoughts. He looked back towards everyone. "Wait, I just need to say this." He spared a glance at you as an apology for changing the subject. "I… I'm sorry. For not listening to all of you, for keeping you under my thumb, for everything. I've had time to think about all my wrongdoings, and I know now that I should never have done that. To any of you. I won't ask you to forgive me." He took time to look at each of you as he spoke. His voice was so uncharacteristically quiet and soft, it took you way off guard.
You glanced at everyone around you and weren't surprised to see everyone in tense postures. Most of their faces were set in hesitant expressions. You heard the unexpected, but familiar sigh of Zooble, and everyone turned their attention to them. "Look, Caine, what you did to me, to everyone, is not something that we'll be able to just forgive." Caine's expression fell, and he closed his teeth. "But that doesn’t mean we can't work our way there eventually." Caine's teeth rose back up, and he looked at Zooble, awed.
Zoobles' words thankfully seemed to take off a good amount of the edge from everyone, physically at least. Caine straightened his posture, trying to resemble the confidence of his old self. "Well, I have a surprise for everyone! When you all are ready, you can meet me at the stage." With that, he floated off towards the stage, his eyes downcast. While the others cast unsure glances at each other, you wasted no time in following him.
You didn't call for his attention immediately, wanting to have a little privacy from the distance from the common area and the stage. When you thought the two of you were far enough, you broke the silence. "Caine?" He could sense you had closely followed him, so the sight of you hadn't surprised him. He glanced at you from over his shoulder before turning his body to face you. The two of you didn't break eye contact as he slowly lowered himself from the air until he was eye level with you. He uttered your name with the same sureness he spoke with a few moments ago.
Your expression softened, and a smile formed on your lips. "I'm glad you're back, Caine. Really." He released the nervous grip he had on his cane. His teeth lifted once more, and his eyes were blown wide.
This might have been too soon for him, but you'd regret not trying. You spread your arms open and look at him with a quirked brow. His gaze lowers to your open arms for a moment, then back to your warm gaze. You playfully tilted your head. "Gonna leave me han- oof!" Caine, wrapping his arms around you and burying his teeth as much as he could into your shoulder, cut your words short. You were taken aback by his quick movements for a moment. Though you quickly wrapped your arms around him in return and pressed your face against the side of his teeth.
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