Hi! It's been so long since I've written fanfiction, whoops! I recently caught up with Gotham and am desperately in need of Eccomiah content, so... here it is!

In this chapter, Ecco is 11, Jeremiah and Jerome are 12, and Ecco's sister is about 4.

Ecco's pigtails whipped her face. She turned to the gust of wind that had used her hair to smack her, glaring at the faceless villain. A flash of red caught her eye, and her head snapped towards a pair of twin redheads chasing each other. Well, on further inspection, she found that only one was chasing the other. The chaser's hair was a bright red, and stuck out in all different directions like a fiery mess. He had on a giant grin that stretched to his ears. It made the blonde girl immediately feel uneasy. The chase-ee, on the other hand, wore a terrified expression, as if he were running for his life rather than just his brother. His hair was more of a dark auburn, and was neatly combed down to his head. Every so often he would have to push his too-large glasses up his nose. Both of the twin boys' faces were identical, but it was easy to tell which was which, just by their demeanor and energies.

A maniacal laughter cut sharply through the wind as the fiery-headed twin finally tackled the other. A chill raced up her spine as the two boys tumbled to the ground, but she couldn't discern whether the goosebumps were from the biting wind or the boy's cold laugh.

"Jerome! Get off me!" yelled the boy with the glasses, his arms flailing and slapping the ground. His brother, Jerome, just grinned and continued to hold him down.

"Jerome! Please!" the pinned boy tried again. Jerome paused for a moment, before rolling his eyes and getting up, pulling his brother forcefully with him. Ecco noticed the brother wincing and rubbing his shoulder as Jerome stormed off. The brother sighed and patted down his already flat hair. As he pushed his glasses up his nose, his eyes caught Ecco's. She felt herself blush in embarrassment at being caught watching, and, without thinking, her hand lifted and waved a little. He smiled and waved back, his face seeming to be twisted in thought. He came to his conclusion as he started making his way over to her. Ecco's mouth felt dry and she didn't know what to do. She settled for rubbing her clammy hands together, desperately trying to rid her palms of sweat that had accumulated there.

"Hey," the red-headed boy greeted

"Hi." Her voice was soft and raspy, but rang loud and clear inside her head, causing her to inwardly cringe. There was a long pause of painfully awkward silence, before the boy robotically stuck out his hand.

"I'm, um, my name is Jeremiah." Ecco, quickly and discreetly, wiped her hand on the back of her jeans before shaking his hand.

"Ecco." He smiled.

"Nice name."

"Thanks. I like it." Ecco mentally slapped herself, but Jeremiah gave her a meek smile.

"Welcome to the circus," he said, gesturing his arms out. He seemed unsure of this action, and quickly placed his lanky arms back down at his side. He quickly shook his head to himself, murmuring something that she couldn't hear. Ecco chose to ignore this.

"Oh, you work at the circus?"

"No, my mom does. She's the snake dancer." He pointed at a ratty old trailer. He sounded defensive, and Ecco wanted to apologise for whatever it was she said that offended him, but he cut her off before she could.

"Where are your parents?" As if on cue, Ecco heard her mother call her name. Jeremiah's eyes flickered over her shoulder, and she turned to see her mother and sister making their way over. Her sister was holding a giant stuffed bear that was almost as big as she was.

"Ecco! Ecco! Look what Momma won for me!" Harley ran up to her big sister, proudly holding the bear in front of her.

"That's cute!" Ecco exclaimed, patting Harley's soft hair. The little girl beamed up at her, but her smile was laced with the smallest hint of sadness that only Ecco could spot.

"I wanted the biggest one, but Momma isn't the best shot," Harley said softly. Ecco looked back at her mother, who had stopped walking and was staring at Jeremiah with an indescribable look on her face. She hadn't heard what her youngest daughter had said.

"Is that from Suri's Shooting Range?" Jeremiah asked. He had backed up a little bit when Ecco's family came, but he was still close enough to hear what was said. Harley seemed to notice him for the first time, and nodded violently.

"Suri used to let me and my brother, Jerome, play on that. We got pretty good. I can win it for you," he offered, his voice shaky and unsure. Harley's eyes brightened considerably, and she looked as though she was about to thank him, but then the two girl's mother had cut in.

"That's quite all right, thank you," Ecco's mother sharply said. She put her arm around her daughters' backs protectively. She seemed to glare daggers at Jeremiah, who noticeably shrunk back into himself. "Ecco, is this a friend of yours? Or is he from the carnival?"

"My mom works here," Jeremiah timidly said.

"Ah, I see. Well, boy, my daughter is fine with the prize I got for her, aren't you, darling?" Harley nodded vigorously.

"I'm sorry, m'am, it's just that I–"

"Run along, carnie, back to whatever your job was." Jeremiah, shocked, stood stock-still. Ecco's mother turned the two girls around and guided them away.

"Ecco, please don't associate with the carnies. Especially the younger ones. They're here to do their job, which is to entertain; they're not here to socialise. They're not nice children." Ecco numbly nodded at her mother's scathing words. Jeremiah had seemed nice. His brother, maybe not, but even that was probably just boyish sibling rivalry. But Jeremiah had even offered to help Harley win the bigger toy she wanted. She couldn't understand why her mother was so adamant about her not talking to him.

She turned back to the red-headed boy, who was pushing his glasses up. She smiled sadly at him, but he didn't seem to notice. Instead, he turned and scurried back to the trailer he had pointed out to her earlier. Dejectedly, Ecco turned back to her mother.

"Momma?"

"Yes, darling?"

"Can we go see the snake dancer later?"

Her mother furrowed her eyebrows. "Of course not. Harley is too young for snakes. She'll be terrified."

"She'll be fine!" Ecco proclaimed. She nudged her younger sister. "Won't you?"

"Won't I what?" Harley ripped her attention away from her toy.

"You'll be fine watching the snake dancer, won't you?" Ecco tried to plead with Harley with her eyes, but the younger girl wasn't getting it.

"No! Ew! Snakes are bad," Harley said, pulling a face. Their mother threw a pointed look at her older daughter. Ecco turned back to where Jeremiah had been, then to the trailer. She only saw Jerome, sitting outside on a stone slab, using a pocket knife to carve into a block of wood. She sighed and turned back around. She could only hope she would accidentally run into Jeremiah during the rest of the day.

She didn't, but she vowed to always remember him, and keep a lookout for the circus to come back around to her city.

After one week, she couldn't place what he had looked like.

After one month, the name 'Jeremiah' had been completely wiped from her memory.

After one month and one day, her house burned down.