Chapter Text
Room Mates
A BunnyDoll fanfic by Jonah Sanville
Chapter One: Couch Surfer
“AH-” Ragatha yells as she suddenly jolts herself awake. “Another nightmare” she says, trying her best to take deep breaths. She shakes her head, frustrated with herself. This is her third nightmare this week. Her third nightmare since…that adventure. It was tough on everyone, and she’s tried to stay sunny and positive. But it hurt her too
“Maybe I need to just clear my head. Maybe a walk around will help!” Ragatha says as she gets off her bed. She gently opens her door, trying her best to be quiet. She knew she’d feel so guilty if she woke anyone up. After shutting her door, she tiptoes past everyone's rooms and makes it to the common room. She takes a peek at Kingers pillowfort, it seems like he’s asleep in there. “Maybe I should just-” she whispers to herself, until she looks at the couches and sees Jax laying on the purple one
After staring for a few seconds, Ragatha slowly makes her way towards Jax. He looks very uncomfortable. No blanket or pillows, his body all scrunched up and his arms against his chest. She worries about what he would say or do if she wakes him up, but her curiosity is too strong. Why was he sleeping out here? When did he come out here? Was he planning on going back to his room? With all these questions floating in her head, she walks up faster than she realizes. Now she was standing over him, trying to think of what to do now. Before she could even begin to make a decision, Jax’s eyes slowly opened
“What the…” Jax rubs his eyes. “Ragatha?...what time is it?” Ragatha takes a step back “it’s the middle of the night”
“Well then” Jax says as he sits up “what are you doing out here?”
“I was just about to ask you that. Why aren’t you in your room? Is everything alright? Do you-”
“Easy there Rags” Jax lets out a light chuckle. “You watching me sleep for fun? You that bored?”
“I wasn’t watching you sleep!” she says in a harsh whisper. “I was just…well I was taking a walk and I saw you there and was concerned! Why are you sleeping out here?”
Jax shrugs. “Eh, I just dozed off out here. Sorry I didn’t clear it with you first”
“That’s not…!” Ragatha stops herself from getting huffy and calmly states “I’m going back to bed” while walking away. After a few steps, she turns back around. “Are you…going to stay out here? You don’t look very comfortable.” Jax scoffs “of course not. You think I’m gonna have a sleepover out here with Kinger? No thanks” Ragatha thinks about asking Jax if he’d like to walk back to their rooms, but decides she’s too tired to keep this conversation going. “Okay well, goodnight” Ragatha makes it back to her room and flops on her bed. After a few minutes of wondering when Jax would go into his room, she falls back asleep.
Morning rolls around, and Ragatha gets herself up and ready. She’s usually the first one up, with Gangle about half an hour behind. She walks out to the common area and looks over to see Jax still sleeping on the couch. Perplexed, she gently shook him awake. “I thought you weren’t going to sleep out here?” Jax, caught off guard, bounces off the couch. “I guess you bored me so much I fell back asleep”
“Well” Ragatha sighs “I hope you get better sleep in your room tonight” “Pft, you just take care of yourself. I’m-” before Jax can finish, Kinger comes out of his pillowfort. “Oh!” Kinger says “what’s going on?” Jax and Ragatha look at each other. “Are you guys eating charcoal? Could you save some for me?” Jax and Ragatha let out a soft sigh, good old Kinger.
Night time has rolled back again. Time for bed! Everyone makes their way to their rooms, Ragatha smiling and chatting with Zooble. She looks around and realizes Jax isn’t with them. She briefly wonders where he was, but tells herself she must’ve just missed him and he was already in his room. Nothing to worry about, not a big deal
But after an hour of laying in bed wondering, Ragatha decides to go check the couches again. As she heads over, she keeps telling herself things like “this is silly” and “it doesn’t even matter that much”. When she makes it to the couches, she sees Jax there again. At the distance she’s at, she can’t tell if Jax is awake or asleep. She doesn’t want to wake him again, so she just lets out a soft sigh and turns around. Laying back in bed, Ragatha tells herself that it’s probably nothing, and vows she won’t go check again tomorrow night
But she did. And she did it the night after that, and the night after that. Every night for two weeks, Ragatha sneaks out to see if Jax is on the couches. And every night, he is. When Ragatha comes out in the mornings, Jax always had some excuse to explain why he was up before her. Weird dreams or wanting some space before everyone else was around him. It was driving her up the wall! Why was he sleeping on the couches and not in his room? She was nervous about approaching him about it again. She doesn’t want to get snapped at, especially not in the middle of the night. She keeps trying to tell herself it wasn’t her problem and it wasn’t a big deal.
After another two weeks, Ragatha had to know. Her curiosity was eating her up. At this point, it was less and less about concern for Jax, and more and more about sheer confusion. She went out to the couches and woke him up. “Jax, why aren’t you in your room? What’s going on with you?”
“Guhhh….” Jax moans as he sits up. “Jesus, Rags, what is your deal? I’m just-” Ragatha cuts him off. “Just…just tell me! You don’t have to give me any details, I just want to know! Why are you out here?!” Jax gives her a perplexed look, before taking a deep breath. “I’m not..I mean it’s just-” his words all mixed together. He locks eyes with Ragatha, and lets out a quiet “I don’t like being in my room. I don’t want to go in my room”
“Why not?”
“Hey, you said I didn’t have to give answers, Doll!”
“...that’s true, I’m sorry. But do you really plan on just sleeping out here forever?”
Jax looks back down at the floor “You got any bright ideas?”
“Hm…” Ragatha wrecks her brain. After a few minutes, she has an idea, but…she knows he’ll mock her for it. Was it better to be mocked for that, though, or for having no plan at all? “Well…you could maybe sleep in my room?”
“What?!” Jax shot his eyesight back at Ragatha
“N-not like…nothing weird or anything!” her face goes red “I bet I could ask Caine for a spare bed! My room has enough room for it! Or I could move my-” Jax begins to cackle. “Oh my GOD, Ragatha! You need a new hobby, stalking really doesn’t suit you! I don’t wanna be bed buddies with you! Just how d-”
“Oh just FORGET IT Jax!” Ragatha nearly shouts, making Jax fall silent. After two months of confusion and ruining her sleep schedule, she had reached her breaking point. “I was just trying to be nice! Sleep out here, sleep in your room, sleep in the lake, I don’t CARE ANYMORE” as she storms off to her room, Jax lays back down and turns away from her. “Whatever…”
Jax laid on the couch, wondering if Ragatha would come back and check on him again. “She thought she was so sneaky” he thinks to himself. As he lays there, Ragatha never comes out to see him. Jax tells himself that he doesn’t care, and it’ll actually be nice. After all, she was waking him up every night, thinking her tiptoeing was actually quiet and not like a horse. He’d finally get a full night of sleep. What a relief! But, she didn’t check the next night either. She didn’t check up on him for a whole week. She really stopped
That was a good thing, right? It was so annoying! He just wanted to sleep! She was a pain in the neck! He didn’t need a bed, he didn’t need a babysitter! He didn’t need her. He didn’t! But…there was one tiny voice in his head, telling him that, maybe, he didn’t need her, but maybe, he should try sleeping in her room. He was getting horrible sleep and his whole body ached.
After ten more nights of nothing, Jax groans and decides to bite the bullet