3nanashi | (no subject)

Entry tags:

circus

(no subject)

When you do the same routine for every show, barring emergency rearrangements, you don't need much practice for it outside of that. Anything ready to be put in a show should have been practiced until everyone can nail the timing to the split second, every single time. But any ideas for variations on a routine, or for new ones . . . Well, those need practice, and before that they need testing out.

Accordingly, this afternoon Trowa is standing next to the (relatively) low practice wire some yards from the big top, watching Cathy frown in thought.

Her BRILLIANT IDEA for a new trick needs some of the details rearranged in practice, it seems.

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"Well--" Cathy starts, raising her hand, then lowers it again, biting her lip. "Well, maybe if you didn't do a double the timing would work out."

She doesn't sound best-pleased with this concession.

Trowa ponders this. And Cathy.

"It would fit better."

"We could do a double flip later to make up for it. After the catch."

"Yeees," Cathy murmurs, before brightening. "If we introverted the pattern--"

She waves her hands. "Starting with a single, then catch, then double--then going back to two more singles. Would the cartwheel still fit, do you think?"

Inverted, Trowa doesn't say, because Cathy just flaps a disinterested hand at corrections when she's caught up in ARTISTIC GENIUS.

(When she's not caught up in ARTISTIC GENIUS, she does it on purpose to make Pierre Thoreau twitch.)

"If we shorten the double here. In the big top it'll be fine."

Trowa is the best brother for mental math.

:D, her face says. "Ha! Okay, so single flip, you catch over here," she points to where he usually lands after a flip, "I'll have walked to here," she bops to where that is and taps the highwire above her head. "And flip--there--without hitting you in the head."

Thoughtful pause. "That shouldn't be hard, I'll just keep my right arm held in, which'll throw off my balance a bit but I can probably correspond it with my left."

Cathy's latest BRILLIANT PLAN involves her brandishing large and colorful fans.

They're very pretty. And so far, hitting him in the head has happened several times.

"You could throw them before you flip."

"I could," Cathy beams at him, bouncing on her feet a bit. "You're smart, Trowa."

Now the question is: will she catch them again before they hit him in the head that way instead?

Cathy, because she's Cathy, gets a Trowa version of a smile.

(That means it's barely perceptible, and mostly in the eyes. But it counts!)

Oh, come on! Cathy can throw things.

And catch them. Um. Theoretically. She doesn't do that part so often.

But that's what practice is for! Right?

And so, she hops up onto the platform at the end of the rope, grabbing the fan lying there. "Want to try this again?"

"Sure."

He crosses to the other end, and waits facing Cathy.

One, two, three -- she jerks her chin in a quick signal, and they move.

. . . Well, the fan doesn't hit Trowa.

"Ow," Cathy says, staying very still as she holds her nose, making her voice a little odd. "Ow, ow, ow, ow. Ow. Okay, let's try that again!"

If Cathy were actually hurt at all, he'd be reacting differently. But the only times Cathy makes a fuss over an injury is when she's not actually injured in the slightest.

(This is very weird to Trowa. But so are many things about his sister.)

So he just puts her down (when she's stopped holding her nose) and flips down to toss the fan back up to her.

It takes a few more tries.

Maybe more than a few.

But they do get it consistently. Eventually.

"Hey! Who are the awesomest?" Cathy declares, cheerfully, hopping off onto the ground.

In case Trowa doesn't know, and because she doesn't trust him to supply it: "We are! We totally deserve smoothies."

Trowa's expression of affectionate doubt looks just like all his others.

THERE IS NO RESISTING THE SMOOTHIE EXCURSIONS, TROWA.

Cathy drags Trowa back off to the trailer so she can grab her purse before they head out (she figures Trowa has other Important Stuff he needs, anyways).

If they run into a bar instead, well. She's not heartbroken at all.

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