Well, it was pretty damn hot out. Down east where they weren't supposed to be, three clergymen had shed their fancy Exorcist coats and were wandering around… almost aimlessly, probably. One stood tall over the others, sharp red hair contrasting greatly with his attire. Another paced a few feet ahead of the other two, looking for a puppy to kick. The third boy had probably bleached his hair.
"Yuu~, I said sorry! Can't we just kiss and make up?" The redhead direly attempted to get the girly-boy's attention, possibly at the risk of his bal—, "AH NO! I said woops! DAMN!" The girly-boy put his sword back.
"You really fucked up this time, Lavi," Allen droned quietly. The killjoy with a sword snorted his agreement, hefting his coat higher on his shoulder. The trio was rapidly gaining the attention of the villagers they walked past, who sent more than just glances in their direction.
Lavi puffed out his chest a little, almost like a humiliated pigeon. "'S'not my fault I haven't been over here before, usually we just head straight to Algeria and go wherever from there." Their orders had requested they go to Istanbul to fight off a rumoured beast that had been terrorizing the people. Coffee-man had said they should check to see if Innocence was involved. All three were going because they were bored. It's apparently not easy being awesome.
The cursed boy ruffled up at the excuse. "Lavi Bookman Junior, it really should not be entirely difficult to— oh I dunno- pull out a freakin' map!" The redhead almost guffawed at how great Allen looked trying to act mean (at 3" 9'), but he didn't want to seem too rude…
"Short stuff," he muttered instead.
"WHAT WAS THAT, FUCKTARD?"
"NUHHHHTHING!"
"STFU."
"Okay, Yuu!" And so for the most part they just ignored each other for the next 5 minutes or something, until someone came up with a bright idea. "Wait, shouldn't we go back to Istanbul?"
"Are you sure we won't just pass over it this time?" Allen grumbled.
"I said oopsie! Godamn, you guys hold pretty nasty grudges," Lavi itched his neck absently. "And anyway, I know where we are now, so I can count how many miles from here to where we need to head to."
Kanda looked back at him dubiously, "Then where are we, pricket?" Bookman Junior mauled over the new nickname (The deer? Or is it like prick and then cricket? That's just confusing :S) and then answered. "Jordan, o'course!" Now people really were looking at them weirdly.
Other than the three exorcists, everyone's gazes either turned back to their work or back down the road where they had passed. Allen and Kanda failed to notice the redhead fall flat on his face until he spat out dirt and yelled, "Gotta loose tooth now, kid!" Both males looked up in time to see a short-ish girl with dusty white capris run past them, almost not sparing a glance at the befuddled Lavi.
When she did, she yelled back, "Sorry Mister Mister!" Bucktooth was positive he saw a cat tailing her before they both took a turn around the corner. He groaned dejectedly as he momentarily felt the blood pooling in his mouth before he stood. He spat to the side of the road, hoping no one minded stepping in that… aw hell, they probably would.
Girly-boy looked pretty damn pleased with himself for some reason. "Wanna follow her, bunny-boy?"
Said bunny-boy scrubbed his chin thoughtfully before giving the negative. "I don't want her chipping off the other block, yeah." Allen leaned forward curiously.
"I dunno, I thought I heard music from wherever she's going. We could check it out…," he trailed off when he saw Kanda's minute glare. "What! I was just saying."
Lavi got in on it too. "Yeah Yuu, it won't take THAT long, probably…," he hesitated. The swordsman almost had his fingertips at the hilt. "Oh stop that, you're just PMSing 'cuz it's so hot out and you're wearing black!"
Cue dying rabbit sequence.
….
Okay it's over now, you can look.
"Five minutes, booger-brains. I'll be leaning inconspicuously against that… barrel over there," and with that the fema—TEENAGER went to lean up against the aforementioned barrel. The remaining exorcists shrugged, skipping off to where the music was coming from. They stopped skipping when they came to the intersection where the girl had turned, but they were still pretty proud of their accomplishment of getting away from Yuu. (pfft, some accomplishment)
They turned the corner and continued down the dusty path, which ran along a field for as far as they could see. On the other side of the path to their left were more huts. The white haired boy got impatient and started jogging up the road, and soon both of them were running to see the source of a peculiar bonging sound.
Over a small hill in the field, they finally found where the girl had undoubtedly run off to. Any kid in the vicinity probably would have run here, too. Contrasting extremely to the greenery of the field was a circus site. They still looked to be preparing for the performances, but many natives were gathering around a huge wooden platform to catch the beginning.
Bookman Junior felt more than saw the sparks igniting in the other boy's eyes. "C-Can we, Lavi?" Ah, that was weird.
He shrugged tauntingly, "It's what we came for, right?" He was so sure, SO SURE Allen would squeal right then, but alas, that would be a little out of character. However, the passion for circus artistry burned in his eyes as he took one step, then launched towards the field without considering the dust that consequently flew into Lavi's eyes. Not that it mattered, he totally deserved it. Stupid Rabbit, flying them RIGHT OVER Istanbul and failing to notice. (I said SOOOOORRY, DAMMIT!) Dumbass.
So yeah, Allen trotted towards the platform, only half-trying not to draw attention to himself. When he was a little more than half way there, the bonging sound stopped on one strong note, and both hurried to not miss anything.
When they got there, they tried not to interrupt the man speaking, probably introducing the performance. He was saying a lot more than Allen thought he should be, so he caught Lavi's attention with a tug on his shirt.
"Hey Lav, what's he saying?" He whispered respectfully, hoping people didn't mind the small noise. Everyone else was ignoring them, but there were still some who eyed the pale boys like the tick on a whale.
The redhead turned his head a little to hear better before answering. "Aw hell, that's Arabic. Uhhh, blah blah 'giving out refreshments'," Allen's stomach grumbled acknowledgement, "'then we will show the swingers and animal acts. Please take pleasure.' I guess he means 'enjoy'," Bookman Junior interpreted as someone started on a different drum. Allen was slightly disappointed that they missed the start of the announcement, but his tummy was happy they would be getting food. Screw Kanda, he'd stay until the food!
First up was an odd sort of marching transition, with instruments from different regions tunnelling out from the tent behind the platform. Lavi sat through it semi-interested, surprised that he had heard most of the sounds before. Allen was near completely captivated, although he became more so with the clowns. Most of them were pale enough to pull off the white make-up, but some he could tell were more tanned, where it showed at their necks and knuckles.
The clown act ended rather disappointingly when children up front started pinching the floppy shoes on one of the taller actors. They were ushered off-stage before anyone else could trip over the lasting domino effect the kids had caused. Everyone started peeling off for refreshments before the swingers, so the two exorcists went to grab something, too. What they didn't expect was to run chin first into Kanda. Or in Allen's case, face first ^-^
"YO HOMEDAW—uh, booger-brains, I SAID 5 MINUTES, RIGHT?" O damn, you know when he greets you gangsta you gotsta run. While Lavi's chin cowered desperately, the shorter boy (I HEARD that, you TERD!) stepped up to the swordsman.
"C'mon, Queen Kan, can't we just see the cute animals first?" His lower lip trembled as he attempted to pull off a successful puppy-dog look. Which crash-landed fantastically!
"Che, with is with your face? You having a stroke, short-stack?" The Bookman apprentice laughed into Allen's back as his expression dulled into its normal features. He scowled unpleasantly while smacking Lavi's face off of his shirt. "And no, we need to get this damn mission over with so I can killadude, or whatever that trend is with you children these days." Yuu stalked away arrogantly, hoping they were following him. And just so he could keep up his macho-man look, he planned on stomping all the way to the barrel without looking back.
"Well that was way easy," Lavi concluded as they made their way back to their spots after getting a few armfuls of snacks. The white haired boy nodded vigorously, munching urgently on a loaf of bread. As the intermission ended, the redhead unnecessarily translated the introductions before the tent opened again.
The swinger act was pretty long and uh… pretty goddamn dreadful. They fucked up so much, even the kids were leaving. Then they scrammed, and the gagging stopped altogether. "Ah, that was dumb," the redhead sighed. A sort of silence befell them as they realized which act was coming up. All at once, the viewers near the front were muttering to each other and pushing back towards the exorcists to give space between them and the platform.
A dark growl exited the flaps of the tent, effectively shutting up any stray talkers. Out of the tent stalked a massive male lion, its muscles rippling under the golden pelt. Some of the kids started asking what it was, having been too young to know. The adults and exorcists, however, were more aware of the lion's levelling stare. A brief moment of silence passed before the king growled an affirmative. At that point, a pair of pure Siberian tigers trotted lazily through the flaps of the tent, with the girl from earlier between them.
The exorcists' eyes unfortunately betrayed their astonishment. Allen found his mouth no longer closed, but not completely gaping like he would have expected it to. Lavi, however, looked ridiculously mystified. Like, fishy-fishy mystified. Where-did-my-jaw-go mystified.
On the girl's shoulders hung her silver tabby that they had seen following her, looking completely unperturbed with the entire performance. A swarm of exotic looking birds flew out a few moments later, a particularly colorful one coming in to land on the lion's great head. The cat shook its mane half-heartedly, drawing out a near-silent laugh from the Bookman apprentice. To his horror, the cat switched his challenging gaze to him. Everything told him to look away, but when he didn't, the king's eyes gained an amused hue to them.
Allen hadn't expected any elephants to come out, but an ox couple was even less anticipated. They meandered out of the tent after the tigers had chosen opposing spots on the platform, all facing the audience, which had remained increasingly quiet throughout. The ox paused behind the leader girl, and everyone appeared to be in formation. She was still wearing the same clothing as before, not even bothering to impress. The capris hung loosely around her legs, almost like curtains, while her dusty yellow tank top was equally slack on her shoulders and neck. The silver cat—slightly oversized, they noticed—acted almost as a neck warmer as it flicked its tail in interest.
Everyone but the performers started in surprise as the birds began calling in each of their unique tongues. Feathers flew every which way when they took to the air, hovering in an eccentric configuration a few feet above the platform. The ox made a low droning sound that lasted a few seconds before the girl's cat mewed, which ended the drone, but only signaled the next move.
On the cat's cue, the lion and tigers launched into the air. Unsuspecting viewers toppled backwards into each other, but never looked away from the creatures. As they watched, the birds dived down and looped under the cats, some staying above to act as 'prey'. The big cats never actually hit a bird, but they were making swiping gestures, pretending to hunt them. As soon as they landed on the ground, their legs sprung them up once again. And once again, the 'prey' dived down and under them, some teasingly flapping out of reach of the cats' paws.
After awhile of this, Allen was amazed to discover that the tigers and king were no longer touching back down with their forepaws. They looked for all the world to see like they were humans frantically attempting to catch evading stars.
All too soon, the cat managed to ring one of the ox bells with its tail, indicating the end of the hunt. The ox acted as heralds, proclaiming their departure. The leader girl mounted one of the ox—the male—and they led the way back into the tent. At the last minute, they saw her cat clamber from her shoulders and scramble onto the second ox, as did the birds. The tigers sauntered through the flap side by side, followed by the king, who exited with a last warning growl, the one bird still atop his head.
