3nanashi | (no subject)

Entry tags:

circus

(no subject)

It's late afternoon. The first show is at 6:00 -- 1800, Trowa still thinks of it really, but the translation is easy -- and most of the circus is making early dinners or otherwise enjoying the downtime before they have to get ready.

Trowa opens the door from Milliways into the trailer he shares with Cathy, and lets X follow him through.

It's a narrow room, combining kitchen and common room in a compact and tidy package, with doors to Trowa's room, Cathy's, and the bathroom. (And, behind them, to the outside.) It's all lived-in, in an impeccably tidy way.

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"Today I did not have to," X says.

Someone who knows her less well might almost think she sounds proud.

Meanwhile, on the stage, people are swallowing swords and spitting fire. As you do!

Up top, there's a woman on a unicycle balancing her way across the lower wire. She's in her 40s, which (in combination with a few past injuries) is why she mostly sticks to the unicycle rather than bounding acrobatics these days, but both her costume and the act disguise that well.

"I wouldn't mind learning to eat fire, though. That could be fun." Okay, so you risk burning your face off instead of losing fingers. But Duo is far more comfortable around things like energy weapons and welding torches than large animals.

"You could ask Trowa."

Beat.

"For the name of a teacher."

That would be X's strategy, at any rate.

Duo could! However, he hasn't in seven years, so perhaps he'll continue to not bother.

At any rate, several more acts pass before Trowa and Cathy emerge again. (Trowa's wearing another ridiculous outfit. There are stripes. And also polka dots. Cathy's got a fluttery short skirt and bodice and quite a few rhinestones, and feathers perched jauntily in her hair.)

This time: knife-throwing!

This involves a lot of skill and showmanship on Cathy's part. She plays the part well, posing with the lights glinting off her costume and blades. Trowa gets to mostly demonstrate his skill at standing very still and not flinching when sharp things are thrown at him.

Unsurprisingly, he's good at that.

X is likely to spend most of the knife-throwing studying Cathy's technique -- the parts aside from the showmanship, that is.

Surprise!

Duo is pretty familiar with this one, being both a frequent visitor and a knife guy himself.

So he amuses himself by trying to catch Trowa making an expression.

(No dice.)

Cathy's technique is, unsurprisingly, excellent.

(It would be lethal, that competence, but -- she's Cathy, and that's not how she thinks. Cathy is the kind of person who will always aim around a person-shaped target, and never at.)

One last dramatic pose from Cathy, and they're off. Several more acts pass before either of them reemerges.

This time, it's the trapeze. And where highwire was Cathy's element, this one is Trowa's -- even if some of the time you'd have to know how to look to see which of them has the harder part.

X has some idea, though the specifics of the trade elude her. Motion, after all, is motion -- and she's got her own grasp of aerial acrobatics.

Minus the trapeze.

Still.

Duo just likes watching them do this one. No comments from the peanut gallery, here. They're flying. Deserves a little respect, despite the spandex.

There might be a reason why this is the act Trowa likes best.

He was a pilot too. You don't lose that, not if you're a good one. You just find other ways to channel it, if you're lucky.)

The trapeze act ends, and then it's the brief but showy finale. The ringmaster takes the stage last to bow on behalf of the troupe, thanking the audience with an effusive flourish, and then the house lights are brightening again, and the stage lights dim to a softer background glow.

(Duo and X are welcome to come backstage if they want, but either way they may wish to wait out the first rush of the exiting crowd.)

X is not always good at waiting, plus, she excels at slipping through a crowd.

Hopefully Duo has similar skills?

Here is one thing where she isn't likely to leave him in the dust. Duo's always been a city boy, he can move through a crowd of people with no problems.

"What'd you think?"

"Trowa is very good," X says.

Duh.

"And Cathy."

Beat.

"The others were okay, too."

He grins at her brightly and elbows by a group of chattering twenty-somethings. "It's good we're not bias or anything, huh?"

X blinks.

"I am not."

Was there the slightest hint of weight on the 'I'?

Was it merely a trick of circus tent acoustics?

The world may never know.

Oh, the world knows, all right, wiseacre.

"If we hurry, maybe Trowa will let you help put the lions back."

If X's pace picks up at that, only Duo can tell.

And he is good at keeping secrets.

Right?

The boy guarding the backstage entrance starts to challenge X, but he knows Duo's face; a short exchange establishes that X is an allowed guest too, and he lets them by.

Trowa, backstage, has wiped off most of the discreet greasepaint and neo-mag -- in the future, some merciful person has invented a kind that's easier to get off -- and switched his spandex for jeans and a tank top. (The turtleneck will wait until he's had more of a cooldown, and also a shower.)

He was, in fact, starting to head for the lions' tent, but he pauses when Duo and X enter.

"Hey man! Good show." It usually is. Trowa's troupe have been at this game for quite a while. They've got it down to a science, which is part of the reason Duo enjoys coming to see them. The spectacle, sure. But also to watch them set up and break down camp like a very strange army.

"Look who I found."

"I was not lost," X says, very seriously.

And --

"Cathy was very good. With the knives."

X can appreciate that!

"The lions were good, too."

"She is," Trowa agrees.

Normal people would say 'thank you.' Normal people are not Trowa. (And he sees no reason to; he is neither Cathy nor a lion.)

Normal people would also say 'hello,' but they can take it as read, right? He's being amiable!

"You busy?" Duo asks, gesturing to lions and clowns and staging. "Or can we steal you? And Cathy?"

He glances around, but doesn't catch sight of her straight away.

"I have to move the lions."

They do not need to spend the night in their small moving cages. And, while there are other people around the circus who can take care of them, Trowa is generally elected. For obvious reasons.

"Cathy'll be coming by soon."

X gives Trowa a slightly more searching look than she was giving him a second ago.

"It is difficult to do?"

Beat.

"Moving the lions."