Jax x Reader ~Enemies to Lovers~

Chapter Ten: Tired and drained. Very drained.

My eyes glanced over at the woods, realizing exactly where Kinger's scream came from. "In the middle of the forest."

"Great. I knew Caine wouldn't make this a normal adventure. Should we just start heading in the woods like an idiot?"

"Yup. Basically. Let's go."

With a begrudging Jax and my unsettling mind, we both went inside the trees for the first time, deciding to finally break the endless loop we ended up walking into. The tree branches were a bit poky, and I definitely felt some minor pricks from thorns and sharp branches. While walking my eyes darted over to Jax, who seemed even more annoyed than he was before he walked into the trees. Probably because of how many damn branches there are.

"Oh my God," Jax growled, his ears flopped over his head. "I hate these branches."

"Same," I groaned as I tried to swipe away the branches the best I could, only to get my arms cut by the thorns. "F*beep*ck."

He raised an eyebrow. "What happened this time? Or did you just decide to--" A thorn poked his ear, making him wince a bit before continuing his sentence. "--to swear for no reason?"

"Oh. A damn thorn cut open my arm. Nothing big, it just hurts like hell." My eyes looked over at my arm, which had a black glitchy cut down my arm. "Wait...can we even get openly hurt in this digital world?"

His eyes widened a bit as he hastened to my side to look at my cut. "Nope. Not usually. These thorns are either extra extra extra sharp, or Caine did this for a reason."

A sigh escaped my lips. "I already hate this guy."

"I've always hated him. We'll bring this cut up to Caine when we see him so he can heal your digital body again," He explained before a branch poking him extremely close to his eye. "Ow! What the--? Was that branch trying to poke my eye out!?"

"Maybe coming into these trees was a mistake. What if the Kinger scream was a red herring and we screwed ourselves over?"

He stopped walking to look at me, which made my feet stop walking as well. "I swear to God, if that was a red herring, I'm going to scream."

"I already want to scream. First, I'm actually getting along with you for once, which is shocking. Two, we've been going into countless circles for over 10 minutes without realizing it until now. Three, we're actually getting cut and bruised by tiny little branches and thorns. What the f*beep*ck is going on!?"

A tired sigh escaped his lips as he slumped against the nearest tree. "I have no clue, dollface. But after this, I'm getting the much needed rest I deserve. I'm just too tired to even care right now."

This was probably the most tired and out-of-it I've seen him, to the point he's actually speaking about his feelings, albeit a bit lazily. From how his ears flopped over his head instead of standing straight up, his body laying limply against a tree, how uncannily normal his voice sounded instead of teasing and sarcastic, it almost sounded...defeated?

Instead of kicking him while he's down, I decide to try giving him motivation...even though I suck at motivation speeches, I guess it doesn't hurt to try. "Well...we shouldn't give up so soon. Sure, things seem kinda bad in our favor right now, but maybe if we make it to the middle of this forest, there's a possibility the others are there. This is an adventure from Caine, so what I can tell is that it won't be anything normal. We can't just give up, though. We just have to keep our heads held high and try our best, even if it's a pain."

He looked at me while I spoke, his expression was a mix of surprised yet confused. "Bravo, you're able to do a dumb hope speech. But is it really going to be that simple? I would rather just sit here and wait for Caine to get bored and possibly cut this adventure early and teleport us back to the circus or whatever."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed onto his wrist (for the second or third time today) to pull him off of the tree. "Wha-- hey! You don't just pull somebody like that."

"Then stop slumping like a child. You shouldn't just give up so easily because of some inconvenience. Now come on, let's start heading deeper in the forest. Then, once this adventure is over, I'll yell at Caine for us. Besides, I need to get him to 'heal my digital body again,' as you put it."

"Fine! Whatever. Let's just--" Another branch swings over to poke him in the arm. "...Where did that branch come from??"

"I think the trees have a vendetta against you, or these trees are alive somehow. I wouldn't be surprised if Caine gave these trees 'character' in the worst way possible. Maybe it's because you were complaining like a baby."

"Oh, shut up. This whole adventure is stupid."

"Agreed, but we still have to get going."

"I know, I know. Stop repeating yourself. Geez."

Without further ado, we both started walking deeper within the forest, hoping that we'll finally meet the others...and that's a big 'finally.' Seriously, I'm tired of just talking to Jax the entire time.

~~~

So...I know I said that in Chapter Ten we will finally be with the main group again, but...I got sidetracked with writing until I was like 'uh oh. I think I deviated from the original plan...' and it was starting to get a bit long-ish, so I decided to end it. Now for Chapter Eleven I hope that we'll finally meet with the others, but no promises-- I get side tracked while writing a lot when I'm absorbed into my own story. Oops. Anyway...I hope you enjoyed this story nonetheless and have a wonderful rest of your day/night! <3

-Sincerely, CB