give 'em the old razzle dazzle
…welcome to Le Cirque Inexistant…
razzle dazzle 'em
…where your whole experience here will be like a dream…
give 'em an act with lots of flash in it
…where, when you leave…
and the reaction will be passionate
…you won't be sure we even existed.
-----
"…Roxas! Roxas~ Roxas, wake up, you blond excuse for an emo boy!"
An annoyed sigh. "…Sora. What day is today?"
"…Saturday?"
"And what is the rule about Saturdays?"
"…don't wake you up until it's past noon?"
"Now, tell me what time it is."
The brownie cast a nervous glance to the clock. "…10:27. B-but, Roxas, we have to-!" However, poor Sora was interrupted with a sharp sound of protest from Roxas that one would typically only use during the training of a dog.
…hey, he wasn't a dog…!
"It's Saturday. We don't HAVE to do anything," the blond drawled following another muffled groan from under the fluffy pillow that frequently acted as Roxas' hairstylist. Honestly, Sora wondered if Roxas EVER took a brush to that head of steel wool; then again, if he didn't, what the heck took him so long every morning in the bathroom? Maybe he only used gel and never touched a brush…but then how come his pillow wasn't coated in gel every day? His hair always looked the same, so-- No! Focus, Sora, focus!
"But, Kairi's parents are on a business trip and we're the ones who have to pick her up from ballet practice!" Sora explained in a rushed flurry of words, throwing his hands up in the air before burying his fingers in his own mess of hair. "And we're already late and she's going to be so mad at me so you have to get up Roxas pleeeeeease or she'll kill us both with the ribbons on her ballet slippers!"
…honestly that didn't sound like the kind of death Roxas wanted to have -- especially not at the hands of Kairi, fiery redheaded terror that she was capable of being on a bad day -- because really, "Seventeen-year-old male strangled to death with ballet slippers" didn't sound like a dignified headline at all. If he was going to die, he wanted to do it in his sleep or instantaneously in a really cool "out-with-a-bang" manner. Death via asphyxiation with pink ribbons fell into neither of the above categories.
…by that logic, he probably should get up.
"Fine, fine…go warm up the car or something while I get ready…" Roxas groaned, heaving an irritated sigh as Sora darted out of the room. After a few moments of reluctant returning to consciousness, the teenager nudged the pillow to the side of his bed and practically shoved the mass of sheets and quilt onto the floor in the process of getting up.
Making the bed was for people who didn't intend to go back to sleep.
Running a fine-toothed comb through his unruly spikes, Roxas managed to get them all pointing in the same general direction (…kinda) -- not so much a feat in itself, as that usually happened whenever he didn't toss too much in his sleep -- but there were always the finicky ones on the opposite side of his head that didn't want to go in the direction he wanted them to. Which, frankly, was too freaking bad for them, because they were on his head, so they were going to follow his rules.
A fresh white shirt and a pair of loose-fitting jeans later, and Roxas was pulling on his jacket and heading out the door.
…Until he felt a sudden cutting pain in his foot, anyways.
"…" Maybe he wasn't with the world of the conscious, as conscious people are usually aware enough of their surroundings and actions to not forget to put on shoes before they leave the safety of their home. Maybe (hell, hopefully) he was just dreaming and he would be waking up in a few hours to cereal topped with fresh strawberries courtesy of his too-thoughtful family.
He quite liked the idea of this.
…but, dreams are boring if you don't progress them, so he should probably at least clean that scrape received from the rough stone porch and then put on some socks and sneakers, so he had some source of entertainment while he slept. Though to be honest this was quite a drastic change in scenery…before waking up (in the dream), he'd been dreaming of…
…what had he been dreaming of again?
There were colors…and unhealthy but delicious food…and then there were juggling and performers and oh, that's it! The circus!
Roxas didn't want to know what psychological problems he had that led to him waking up (in-dream) from an in-dream dream. Sigmund Freud would probably connect it to an Oedipal Complex or something, and that was something he preferred not to have weigh on his mind.
Anyways, soon he had on proper protective footwear as well as a band-aid (decorated with cute multicolored dinosaurs - he was never letting his mother buy band-aids ever again) over the washed-out scrape. He was not getting an infection on his good foot. Though good luck getting him to take off his socks in public while he had that cute little band-aid on.
Sure enough, Sora was out of the garage with the car running, impatiently drumming his fingers on the dashboard and frankly fidgeting so much that Roxas felt it reasonable to liken him to a spiky-furred squirrel. He had his fingers wrapped around the door handle and was pulling so as to alleviate some of his twin's stress…only to find that, surprise! It was locked.
An exasperated knock on the window and Sora jumped, whipping his whole upper body to the side to look at Roxas like a deer in the headlights. There was much muffled shouting from both sides of the window as well as wild and vague hand gestures before the brunet got the picture and unlocked the driver's side door. Finally with access to the steering wheel, the irate teenager slid into the car and slammed the door behind him -- pardoning the expression since the door was technically at his side and not to his rear -- his foot connecting with the gas pedal and flattening it to the bottom of the car.
They sped out of the driveway like a bullet, the poster child for teenage road rage. Naturally, it was at this point, Sora began to fear for his life, and vocalized these concerns to his dear brother.
"Roxaaaaaas! Slow down! What if the police see you speeding or you run a red light and get a ticket or run a stop sign and not really get a ticket but you hit someone and then it'll be our fault and we'll have to pay damages and compensation and holy crap no just go with the red light ticket, it's way less expensive, just don't hit anyone because then we'll both have to work second jobs and Mom and Dad will be so mad, a-and they'll take our licenses away and we'll go to jail if we hurt someone! I can't go to jail, Roxas, I'm a stick and a half and all those guys are huge and Roxaaaaaas you'll have to tell them I'm your boyfriend so they'll stay away and--"
"We're here."
"…what?"
"We. Are. Here. Now please get off the topic of faking incest and go get your girlfriend before I kill you."
A pout later and the excitable adolescent was exiting the car and darting into the dance studio. Roxas was pretty much bracing his eardrums for the assault that was to come in the form of the voice of an agitated Kairi. Those years in choir really improved her pitch, so she could now scream at them while hitting high Cs every other word.
Sometimes he really did fear for his hearing when she was angry.
…but, the amazingly on-key screaming never came, and in fact, Kairi looked quite pleased when she came out with Sora, clad in her usual practice leotard with a spring in her step. Roxas managed to make eye contact with Sora for about half a second, and they shared a moment of twin telepathy in their dual moment of "what the hell?" facial expressions.
Once the serene redhead took shotgun from a thoroughly submissive Sora, Roxas ran a hand through his hair and gave a short sigh. "When are the two of you going to get your licenses? I can't drive you around forever…" Well, obviously. Though the point he wanted to get across more so was that he also could not drive them around for the rest of his life, nor Sora's, nor Kairi's, hyperbole aside.
"Hey!" the brownie in the back seat interjected indignantly, a frown pulling at the corners of his lips. "I resent that remark! I tried getting my permit so I could get my license, remember? But Miss Lockheart wouldn't even let me get in the car…"
Oh this was a fun memory. "Sora, last time you took the test, you somehow made contact with every obstacle on the course and pretty much drove double the speed limit as you did donuts around the fallen traffic cones. Miss Lockheart was probably terrified." Crazy teen drivers, indeed.
Sora shrank a little. "…I just mixed up the brake and the gas, it wasn't that bad…"
Kairi was recalling this incident with what looked like a vestige of terror in her face; obviously she had watched him tear up the course with the rest of their driver's ed class. Though when silence befell the car and the young ballerina realized that it was her turn to explain her lack of a license, she hurriedly spit out, "My parents don't want me to drive until I'm eighteen, remember? Still two years." A face followed this that resembled that of someone who had just consumed a whole ripe lemon, and wasn't terribly fond of the taste of it. "Even if it would make our lives a lot easier if I could get to and from practice on my own…"
Oh, yeah, speaking of that… "Why are you so happy, anyways? We're late picking you up, you know, and usually you're, uh…a lot more vocal in the way you present your displeasure," the blond started conversationally as he exited the parking lot, seeming to drive a little more cautiously now that the morning rage had temporarily subsided.
Kairi then grinned from ear to ear, lacing her fingers together and nestling them under her chin in imitation of a pretty little doll. "I~ got the lead role~ for the recital~" she cooed, indigo eyes drifting dreamily off to one side as she glanced airily out the window.
…so wait, why was she happy again?
No, seriously. Kairi had been guaranteed that part since the first time it was mentioned. The try-outs were just a formality; no one who had been in class with Kairi for more than a week dared try out for the lead when she was still alive and well. And as of yet, the psychos in the class had not succeeded in murdering their competitor and she also did not have any particularly sociopathic stalkers bent on her emotional destruction, so Roxas didn't know why she was so surprised.
"Great job and all, but I was pretty sure from the beginning that you were going to land the role…" the blond answered unenthusiastically as he navigated the way down the street to their neighborhood.
He had sincerely been hoping her awe was only in jest and that she would begin berating him and his brother any time now, but alas, his hopes were dashed the moment those carefully-trimmed crimson eyebrows flew up her forehead and her pretty blue eyes widened as if she were dawning on some brilliant realization. "Really? But everyone else did so well…" Gosh, was this girl a saint? She did well at everything, she had a reason to be all-up-in-your-face, but she was so freaking modest. She could be some sort of princess or something.
"Well, yeah, but you did better!" Sora insisted from the back, leaning up (he wasn't wearing his seatbelt, the idiot) to rest his chin on the back of Kairi's seat and grin widely in her ear. "You know, we should celebrate! Even if it was totally obvious from the beginning that you were going to get the part, Kairi, but good news is good news and good news should be celebrated!"
…Roxas didn't like the sound of this. Whenever Sora suggested "celebrating", the one thing that was never joining in the joyous festivities was Roxas' wallet, because it was always being emptied by whatever crazy jubilations had been suggested in that instance of celebrating.
God, he felt like a mom.
"…and how do you suppose we're going to do that?" questioned the blond in a deadpan as they pulled into the driveway at a crawl, Roxas seeming to take an eternity and a quarter to get to the garage at the end of the strip of tar on purpose. Perhaps he was just trying to postpone his inevitable having to deal with Sora and Kairi's antics upon entering the house; he loved dear Kairi, he really did, and thought she and his brother were a great match, but she could never just go home after practice. She always had to spend the following x amount of hours at their house, Sora attached at her hip and Riku occasionally at the other hip. And since Axel, his resident pyromaniacal best friend, had college and a bunch of other business he refused to specify to deal with (Riku had put off his college ed for another year, the bum), Roxas was always left as the proverbial fourth wheel on this happy little tricycle.
It got quite annoying after the fourth time in a week.
"I heard there's a circus in town!" the redhead in shotgun chimed with a smile.
"Huh?" Well, that was…ironic. Hadn't he been dreaming about a circus…? Oh god, he was either still living in the vestige of his subconscious' fantasy, or he was in a cheesy B-list movie where the main character found himself to have amazing psychic powers that no one would understand.
Or maybe Kairi was just the mind-reader and she was doing it to psyche him out.
Definitely.
"A circus, Roxas. I know you know what a circus is!" she giggled, bapping him playfully on the shoulder -- which actually kind of hurt, ow, didn't she realize her own strength? I mean, not that she was particularly strong, but she was strong enough to wrestle him and Sora and win half the time, which constituted as strength in Roxas' book.
Then Roxas had a realization as his hand closed around the handle of the door. If he was dreaming right now (which he was starting to doubt more and more as his consciousness cleared), and this wasn't a cheesy B-list movie, then it would make some kind of dream-logical sense for his dream to know about…well, his (dream) dream.
…he just wanted to go back to (dream) sleep.
"I don't know…aren't tickets to the circus really expensive?" questioned the blond as he opened the door and got out of the beaten automobile, waiting for his two friends to get out before locking the doors and pocketing his keys. "Plus, maybe we should save the celebration for after the run of the recital…" By then he would've had the chance to pick up some overtime and actually be able to afford things.
"Aww, Roxas!" whined Sora with a fake pout. "Don't be bitter just because the tiger swatted at you once…it was in a cage!"
"Twice," Roxas corrected in a perfect deadpan. "And the bars of that thing were spaced enough for me to fit through, thanks." He'd totally forgotten about that until that moment, thanks a lot. He wasn't holding it against the WHOLE circus, anyways; just that tiger and the corndog that the mean ol' thing probably smelled on him. "It's not that I don't like the circus," he continued as he made the way to the front door of the house (Sora and, not surprisingly, Kairi following). "And no, it's not that I'm scared either," added Roxas quickly when he saw Sora opening his mouth to reply. "Just, uh…" Shoot, he hesitated. "…Celebrating kind of loses its meaning if you do it all the time, right?" the teenager finished lamely, trying to sound convincing.
Kairi and Sora exchanged what seemed to be awed glances, and they held one anothers' gazes for a while before bursting out into ridiculous spurts of laughter. "Lighten up, Roxas!" Kairi encouraged, straightening up and wiping underneath her eyes for any tears that might have escaped in her fit of giggles. "I heard that they have a bunch of new acts this year; come on, please?" Augh, damn Kairi and her smiles and prettiness and that face you couldn't say no to. Roxas thought that those kinds of faces went away after you turned six or so.
"Pleeeeeease~? Please please please please pleeeeeeeease~~?" Sora encouraged, clasping his hands together and falling to his knees in front of Roxas as if in prayer.
Oh, come on, now.
It took the sandy-haired male a moment of pondering, but finally he sighed, putting his forehead in his hand and his elbow in his other hand. "…fine," he relented, to the glee of his two giddy companions. "But Sora, you have to finish your essay for chemistry, and Kairi, you have to rehearse at home," Roxas decided, a stern expression on his countenance as he stared down his buddies. "Or I'm not driving either of you."
"No problem, Roxas!" the auburn-headed girl agreed easily, leaning forward to give the boy a friendly peck on the cheek before lacing her fingers together with Sora's. "Come on, Sora, help me pick out an outfit for tomorrow!" And then she dragged him off with little physical resistance but a lot of verbal complaining down the driveway, presumably to her house down the street.
…so he supposed they were going tomorrow, then.
Roxas gave another tired sigh before returning to the house to go back to sleep and hopefully wake up from this hellish dream later.
He was going to need the extra rest for tomorrow if he didn't want to end up a delusional zombie by the end of the day.
Being the voice of reason was exhausting.
-----
razzle dazzle 'em
…welcome to Le Cirque Inexistant…
and they'll make you a star
…come on in.