On a Beach in the Moonlight

Now this, this was far better than sittin about back in the tents and makeshift vans n trailers that all of the circus folk lived in on these tours or tending to chores because there was just nothing else to be doing while there wasn’t a show going on for the evening. Well, another show, they already done the last for the night and there be another tomorrow near noon after folk play in the little carney rides that seem to follow the circus when it comes to Japan. But sitting out on a quiet beach away from well....

People lets say.

Yeah that sounded better then saying she didn’t like the ringing in her head to little boy Malus. She gotten use to the one that came from him, but townsfolk that the same sound be coming from. Na, she didn’t much for it. Rubbed her nerves the wrong way telling her to go.

And Yvette learned long ago to listen to what her nerves said. Kept her from trouble, and kept her alive as long as it had.

And snaging little Malus before he went ‘a rooftop dancing’ seem better then following behind him to make sure he didn’t get himself caught.

Ya sitting on this beach, in the midnight or was it early morning half light was better. The slow waves eating up the sand as they sat on the rocky side closest to shore. Maybe.


Malus wasn’t see any good in sitting here. His mind turning tables of dancing tigers faster behind those eyes of his then he was wanting to talk. Maybe chasing the boy out the circus had not been her better moments. But the way his a ringing was making Malus sound. So many times stronger.

Rubbed her nerves bad.

Real bad.


“Jou gonnna kept pouting at moi?” She sighed after some time moving a bit to pull on his cat ears. Cute little things, she use to have him sitting in her lap when he was smaller, Yvette loved to nibble on them, they were so cute. He always claimed she was trying to eat him. “Come nov, Moi mizzez jour zmile, jou been pouting at me all veek, Mal.”

He was annoyed. He had been like this all week. Ever since Vette had forced him to stay at the circus after the stranger had come and asked Mal to go with him. Most of his annoyance was directed at her. As he thought this he heard her voice, scowled, poked his tongue out and jerking his head away. "Dun fuckin tuch meh." He growled in a low voice. No he wasn't annoyed with her. He was pissed off.

After the show had been over that night he had gotten in front of the others a very massive talking to by the Ring Master. But later that night when Mal had been locked in his own caravan, the Ring master came and punished him more thoroughly. His back still stung every time he moved from the whip marks.

"Ahm noh poutn. Ahm fuckin pissed ohf. Ah fel liek ahv miss'd summat 'portant. Liek veres ah 'ole ihn meh an 'e fill'd iht. AN YA STIPPD THA YA BITCH." He yelled getting up and walking off down to the water and walk off.

He was fuming now. Mal had been wanting to say some thing like that all week but didn't want to involve every one else. So he had kept his distance when possible and barely spoken a word. He felt a little better after screaming. But he had meant it. After the stranger had left it had been like a little part of him had been taken away with the stranger. And now more than ever he wanted to know what the man had wanted to say to him. What had been so important that the man had run right straight into the path of a horse. And then almost had a stand off with a knife thrower.

He needed to know. And now that the circus was staying in Japan for a little while longer due to popularity. He maybe had his chance to find this man. Recalling the memory of the night. He smiled at how he had felt. The little pull that felt so natural, that had drawn him to the other. It had made his whole body felt better than he had ever felt before.

But there was one thing that had been bugging him. The comment meant for Yvette, but it had stayed with the teen. Seven Moons. What was that. But he felt some how it might be a vital key to help him find his stranger.

translations:

Grey eyes followed the young man as he took to his feet after pushing her hand away from him. The sharp tone off his tongue hurt, it some ways harder then he would know. Not because the feeling that perhaps Malus should look it on the side what others would look to the situation as; that the boy [who was responsible for the failing out several sequenced acts when he ran out into the ring] was a stranger, an outsider.

If that was one thing Yvette had learn while being alienated her first few years. Circus folk keep to their own and look out for their own, outsiders bring trouble and trouble is bad for the show.

But not, it hurt, because some how she knew in a way he was right. Something did take place, the evident how that half empty ring that seemed to follow Malus around [and made him easy for her to find] seemed to sound.. whole...

And for some reason at that moment it scared her. Like it was right, but so wrong at the same time.  Wrapping her arms around her bare shoulders Yvette stared at the water splashing up against the waves washing out the sand.  Like it was dangerous, though he seemed like a harmless common-town folk...

Sort of...

Sighing, the young knife thrower took to her feet following the path of feet in the sand. It wasn't hard to know were the other went, he was throwing rocks in the water as he walked. Grumbling about how she had messed something up.

If only Mal could understand...Though he didn't, just thought she was odd like the others. Odd because she was to scared to go into any of the towns here in Japan but perfectly find back in China. That the sound of 'rings' in this city reminded her of something she could no longer remember, but it made her blood run cold. Like it had when the two boys 'rings' became so loud together, so harmonized.

" Moi didn't make the citj boj go, told him he could talk to jou in our homez. Vere jou can be zafe if he not right." Yvette crossed her arms over her chest a bit look out at the water as she trotted several feet behind him. " He didn't vant to ztaj vant jou to go vith him. Vhat jou think Moi do hum? Little Zofie girl already got her zelf beat bad going out lazt tovn. Itz the rule Mal jou knov it better then Moi. No travel alone, no mezz vith trouble makerz. Boj cauze trouble in ring already. Vhat jou think 'Ring plaj Boj Mazter' be doing if Moi juzt let jou vander off and get jourzelf hurt... Moi told him he could ztay."  

translations:

Hearing her feet crunch the sand behind him, then her voice, he stopped and turned around. Anger on his features. "Ya fink ah cannae look afta mysel?" Throwing his hands up in frustration he squatted down fast, hands clasped behind his neck. Rocking on his heals he put his mouth into the crook of his arm, biting back all his frustrations. Grunting loudly he got up, gave Yvette a dirty look and kept walking.

He knew that she had been and probably still was worried about him. But he could look after himself. It's not like he hadn't been mostly. He knew some of the time she was there behind the scenes there watching on. But he was nearly an adult according to the outsiders law. And was treated as one in the circus. So why couldn't she treat him like one?

Kicking the sand with his boots he stomped off. He knew she was probably following. Once again treating him like a child who needed to be watched and have his hand held. Clenching his right hand he suppressed the urge to run off, to try and loose her. But his back hurt too much for that.

He had tried cleaning his back up as much as he could, and he knew there were scabs forming over the cuts. But if he twisted his back too much they would open right back up again and freshly bleed. With a quick glance at the ocean he grimaced. Salt was good for wounds. But it would sting like a bitch.

Without so much as a glance back to Yvette, he kicked his boots off and stripped of his top. Running into waist deep water he dropped down to his neck in the mostly calm water. Closing his eyes he got his footing and tried not to move too much. His back, felt like it was on fire. After five minutes or so the stinging started to become too much to bare and he waded out, back to shore.

He sighed, picked up his things and finally turned to Yvette. "Ahm noh littl Sofie." He said cracking his neck and walking off again.

translation:

After the dirty look her threw her Yvette stopped following him. Looking down at the ground in front of her, naked toes digging into the same since she had taken her shoes off and left them in the sand dune somewhere. Not that it mattered, the white haired knife thrower liked the feel of the bare ground beneath touching the naked skin. The young acrobat was going to be mad no matter what was said, no wisdom of words from their elders did the young much good when things could only be learned by the hard cold truth.

Yvette had learned a lot of things most didn't, most never would. Nice little homes in big concrete buildings, wooden shacks, mud huts, and cold steel cages. Happy faces, sweet words, candied lies, lots of things that Malus knew better for. He was always a smart one in a sense, how else had he gotten so good at his little 'roof top dancing' over the towns they went through and never get caught.


O right.... Because she be hanging around far enough behind to make sure no one noticed he was missing.  Grey eyes looked up at the young man as he walked out of the cold ocean waves. As if to show he was sulking or mad...

"Non, vous n'êtes pas Sofie," Yvette sighed, in her native tongue though she barely spoke it to anyone else but herself these days. No one in the troupe understood french. It had taken her some time to learn the mix of Chinese and Japanese. But that was something she was good at, learning tongues quick so others could understand the 'strange french girl' who had come wondering in so long off. Still they were not loud enough for him to hear unless Malus was bothering to listen to her anyways. "mais vous êtes loin de connaître mieux que marcher avec un inconnu all star regarda comme si vous étiez là. Je sais. Je sais ce qui se passe dans les pensées vigoureux aveugle d'un jeune esprit. Petites oreilles douces disent que tous les Malus. Mais peut-être ... Il est plus de moi d'avoir peur de la ... les anneaux qui nous tiendra deux de retour ..."

Putting her hands behind her head, Yvette would roll her eyes at herself. Talking again when he couldn't understand her. Like that would help the fact young acrobat was mad at her, cause she kept away from 'puppy' infatuation with the blue haired trouble maker.

" Jou vant to talk to him ve? Becauze jou think the.... the zound meanz zomething ve?" It had to be the underline cause of this little mess she had made with the young man, who for the most part never stayed anger with her this long. No point in pretending she didn't hear them, perhaps for certain he heard them to. " Ve go into tovn tomorrov then..."


Her voice waved at the tale end. Yvette had yet in the last few years to actually go into a town here in Japan. Going to the outskirt to places like this, at night or early morning before the world woke, yes.. But no into town.

translation:

[sorry this took so long]

Yvette's last words stopped Mal dead in his angry walk. Toes curled up in the sand as the soaked boy rolled back his head and looked up at the dark night sky, as if he was looking to the stars for an answer. Clenching his teeth a little as he got nothing, he turned to her. "Why doh ya tret meh lik a child? Ya dun fink ah cannae doh anyfing on ma owhn?"

Closing his eyes, Mal breathed in long and deep. He was still mad. At Yvette, every one, the world. Mal felt as if every one was against him, pushing him under, suffocating him. Flicking his eyes open, his low gaze wandered over to the ocean he had been in. The corner of his mouth twitched, he felt like every one was the ocean. Pulling him under.

Coughing, he brought his hand up and wiped his mouth, Mal's blue eyes finally looking up to meet Yvettes. "Ya noh comin. Ah need ta do vis fa mysel. Ihl noh fagiv ya eva if ah catch ya follwin meh lik ya do evry ova time." Staring at Yvette he stood there tensed. He hoped she would understand that he was growing up and didn't need her trying to shield him and hold his hand at every corner. He knew why she did it, but he felt it was time for her iron grip to loosen a bit.

Waiting for her answer, he felt his wet skin prick and turn to goose bumps against the breeze coming over the ocean. Slipping his top over his head he sighed. If she still said that she would be going with him despite his warning, he didn't know what he would do. He loved Yvette. She was like a sister to him, but this was some thing he wanted to do himself.

The waves washed over the breath as she stood there for some time looking a the as he turned the words around against. Telling her the truth of the matter that he always knew in some way or another she had been in the shadows behind him watching. And in that, his resentment for being treated as a child, being protected, sheltered is what the other called it.

Sheltering him from the darkness she knew existed outside the walls one knew, from a stable society one could live in to the rules of another. It was in that, his cute little cat ears, the idea in ever young man [or perhaps woman as well] that they were unstoppable, or perhaps thought they knew what the risks were enough to avoid them. When he turned to face her, grey eyes had turned away from his back as she herself now walked a few steps out to the water. The salty waves washing over her feet as she listen to him.

Listen to the words that said he didn't need her.

Words that said he had to do this.

Without her.

And that terrible, horrible feeling that raced her skin, turned her stomach inside out and over top burn though her to the very soul that screamed as it always did. As it had in on the boat she found herself so long ago in Cairo, chased her in the shadows down the Red Sea across India and into China. But it was the same that drove her on to here. The place the words scratched in her only possession called in on to, nightmare's at her heels and a promise so far from her finger tips.

The cold water brushing up around her ankles seemed to snap Yvette back, as if she had lost herself far from where the two of them were standing. Grey eyes staring down at the open pocket watch looking down at those same little symbols without any recollection of pulling the watch out of her pocket.

There is no such thing as coincidence in this world. There is only Hitsuzen…

Trembling fingers grasp around the little watch as her eyes turn unfocused back at the night sky, the stars, and washing waves. Coincidence had been how she had survived so far, so much truth to those words. Walk when her feet found the change, go don't hesitate, had these not been the words she lived by for so long.

Had she bitten her tongue when those words might burn truth to someone else.


" Only if you promise to come back....Even if its just so I know you are alright..." Unfocused eyes turned up to the sky as she tucked the watch into her pocket, her words not altered by her heavy accent.

He listened, watching her wordlessly. The cool wind not only pricked his skin but seemed to blow away some of his heated anger.

He was thankful to Yvette, for being there. For helping him, when he didn't even know he needed help or for always being some one to talk to in the hard lonely times. As he had thought before, she was like a sister to him. As she pulled out the little pocket watch she took with her every where, he gazed at it too. He didn't know much about it other than she had it with her almost always, but he knew the feeling. Having that one thing beyond all others that was most precious. For him, it was an old coin. Given to him once by the old master.

Finally Yvette broke the silence and his eyes flickered up to her face. It took a moment to register that she had no accent. "Ihl try......." Biting his lip he thought about how Yvette had just sounded. Without her accent. He could do it too, imitate others and speak properly. But it was harder for him. Was Yvette... All this time putting on her accent? He thought. "Ya voice... Iht changed...." He was curious now, still mad but curious.

translation:

It seemed like several moments had passed before Yvette's mind snapped back to were she was, loosing what little it had been grasping at in the darkness. Blinking she turned her head to look at the younger man standing a ways from her. " Vhat do jou mean?"

Had she just said something out loud in french again? Shaking her head, Yvette turned back on her tracks to walk along they way they had came. Her shoes were still sitting in the sand by the tall grass and brush they had come through to get here. The little moped she had 'borrowed' to drive the two of them was sitting out in a empty unlit parking lot that was a bit from where they had come to sit.

" Come, Moi drive jou back into tovn. ve? That iz vhere jou vant to be nov. Can find him better if Moi take jou place he might of zpoken of. He zay a place name to jou? She waved her hand dishearteningly to the other as she left the cold want to walk on the drier sand. Thinking up a story already to tell the 'little mr -wanna-be-ring master' about where she and Malus had gone [or where he was] if asked. Telling the Moped owner why she too the his little bet up piece of crap would be much easier. And off white haired knife thrower like coming to places like this without anyone else around. Night or Day, she liked it.

translation:

Narrowing his eyes a little he huffed audibly, but grabbed his boots and followed. "Nah, ah wanna go bach to mah vahn." All this anger, frustration and pain was starting to take its toll on his body and he just wanted to sleep in the little comfort of his own van, away from absolutely every one and just curl up under the warmth of his blankets and forget about everything, if only for a few hours.

Catching up to Yvette, he brushed his feet a bit to loosen the sand and pulled his boots on. "Yah ready?" He asked waving his hand to their transport.

Sitting on the back of the moped, he impatiently gestured to Yvette to hurry up and get on the bike. He wanted to go back to his little van and get changed out of his wet clothes and hopefully not talk to any one for the rest of the night.

But he knew that would never be the case. Some one would always come in, asking for this, wanting that. Staring at the ocean, the thought of being suffocated by every one took hold of his thoughts again. He couldn't help but think that he was being pulled under a swarm of people that were always wanting some thing from him. Gritting his teeth and turning away, in his mind he made his decision. He would get away from every one.. As soon as he had a nice bathe, food and sleep.

translation:

She watched him take the lead from her, dusting the sand off his feet to put back on his boots again. In a way, an era had passed in her life again, when the one person she had grown to care for as a sibling had in a way...

Out grown her .

And so for the moment, Yvette stood in the sand watching his back as he took to the parking area and to the mop. Time passed faster, or perhaps so much slower that you forget things, forget with age does not come with wisdom, and hard lessons are learned on one's own.  And in a way, all she could do was let the ones she loved go. Her hand fell again for a second, as she dropped her eyes from Malus back to the water again, into her pocket playing with the watch inside.

Perhaps then it was time she herself stopped acting the crowd.

She had come so far on her own, and now was running in a rut. Perhaps, it was time to let her feet just walk again.

And See where they lead her.

" Ve" A sad smile linger on her lips as she slipped on her shoes again and state on the moped. Turn on the little bike, she fashioned the idea in her head that after she got them back to the circus tents and they makeshift homes. She would do just so tonight and see where it led her.

For there was no doubt in her mind that little Malus had any plans to stay in his own once her eyes were off of him.


[Malus and Yvette are leaving the Beach and Are Heading to the [err undecided atm? will tag when its up]]