Souh Tamaki remembered his first time at the circus. He'd been fourteen, attending the show as a going away present with his mother and beloved dog, Antoinette. Upon first learning that the wondrous and splendid traveling show case of Le Circe De Host was putting up shop close to his own home, the blond boy had begged and pleaded with his mother to take him; it hadn't taken much, for the woman loved her son so very much, and he never asked for much; why deny him the fun every child should experience that is the circus? Thus, the two of them purchased tickets for the next Saturday and put aside all plans.
However, when an overly excited and already dressed Tamaki had bounded into his mother's room at five-thirty that evening, it was only to find her sick and still in bed, a ghostly pale quality to her skin and dark circles under her eyes. Apologetically, his mother had told him that she'd be unable to attend the show with him tonight and the blond boy insisted that he would not go without her; but after careful persuasion and a few subtle hints that it was what she truly desired, the boy caved and slunk—dejectedly—out of the house and into the taxi he hailed.
Sure, Tamaki thought, The circus would be fun either way, but why did his mother have to be so sickly? She always looked so frail and weak at times like this, and I can't help but worry about her, even if she insists I don't. Perhaps there will be a mage or magical wizard who could sell me something to make her all better; something that will make all of this better.
Yet, there weren't. None of the many miscellaneous booths along the circus strip bore any magical treatments for the sick. There were fortune tellers, those people who were deemed 'butchers' who sold cotton candy and popcorn before and during the show, as well as 'dry butchers' with their little carts of toys and balloons and scalpers, eager to sell their pre-purchased tickets. Cautiously, Tamaki avoided these people only to run into a massive crowd that swept him towards the big tent that seemed to be emitting most of the light that illuminated the booths. He couldn't complain; he was getting to see the circus, but was all this touching necessarily? He didn't even know these people.
The first act was a typ-rope walker, who balanced several old fashion milk bottles on her shoulders, hands and even one foot, which she carefully lifted into the air. While doing so, the rope swayed ominously, causing the audience to 'ohhhh' while she continued performing her act, not even seeming to care that if she fell, no net would catch her.
"The Magnificent Renge!!' The announcer, a short man with a stock of light blond hair announced, gesturing up at her with one hand. "Watch her, folks!! The woman has no fear!! See how she doesn't even miss a beat while the music plays!! She's truly talented, isn't she folks??"
At this, the entire tent exploded into a humongous round of applause, over which Tamaki could hear the woman laugh as she reached the other perch. "Ohohohohohohoho!!"
Axt two called for a tell, quiet man with scares on his throat as if he'd experienced a non-professional surgery on his larynx. He gave off an ominous presence of power and knowledge as he cracked a whip in one hand and took hold of a straight backed chair in the other. The short man announced that this was 'Mori the Magnificent, in his quest to tame lions' and, sure enough, not three seconds after he announced it, the Mori-man was surrounded by a steel cage and seven, hungry-looking lions.
Tamaki drew in a collective breath with the rest of the crowd, leaning over the side of his front row seat to try and get a better look at the goings on in the lion pit. He could see little to nothing, seeing as his vision was obscured by the rather large bars, but the blond could see enough to know that these animals looked dangerous.
He was about to shout out a warning to the Magnificent Mori, when a lion leapt for the man's throat, paws extended and claws unsheathed. A few women screamed as the tall man fell over and commenced wrestling with the gigantic feline as if it were an every day occurrence. The thought that it was, and that this was just an act, never seemed to cross anyone's mind.
No one saw exactly how it happened but, before anyone saw exactly what had happened, the lion was pinned down and being slowly directed into the caged pathway the animals had used to enter the arena. Mori stood straight, arms extended into the air and face upturned towards the audience, a new and red looking scratch running down his cheek. Everyone applauded.
The third act was another kid; one that looked Tamaki's own age, with fixed glasses and dark hair, who simply stood on the podium while the announcer introduced him. "And here we have the wonderful Kyouya!! He's a wiz, ladies and gents!! Give him any number, and he can tell you the square root, the rounded tens place and the linear equation to reach that number on the x-axis of a grid!!"
And indeed he could! Tamaki watched, entranced by the genius in front of him, taking as simple of numbers and 5 and 10 and turning them into complex algorithms that the blond was sure the scientist Albert Einstein would be proud of. He watched as Kyouya fired back the answers as quick as the questions; never missing a beat and never making direct eye contact with the questionnaire, the next inquiry coming on to fast for him to be allowed such trivial things and 'contact'.
"You sir," The short man with the high voice asked, waltzing right up to Tamaki and extending a hand towards the young man as the Wonderful Kyouya bowed himself off the stage.
"Me?" Tamaki asked, flustered at being drawn out in front of all these people. "What could I possibly do?"
"Would you be so kind as to participate in our next act? It requires a human volunteer." The blond was too caught up and marvelous that—out of all the people in the tent—he had been chosen, to notice the announcer wink at the other members of the audience, earning a few chuckles and a few 'ooohhhh's.
The fourth act; the one Tamaki participated in, called for all the lights to be dimmed and two spot lights to flood two opposite corners of tent. Here, two figures emerged from the folds of the curtains and bobbed animatedly towards him. A large, identical hat over each's face and a long black overcoat covering their bodies. If it wasn't for the spotlight, the black material would have made the two invisible.
Slowly, they slinked towards him, bodies moving like cats and alert amber eyes trained on his face, the rest of their features obscured by the shadows. Tamaki felt himself stiffen as the body on his left gave him a large grin, realizing for the first time, that this might not be safe. He backed away stumbling slightly and earning a laugh from the audience. He figured that this must look very comical from their points of views…they didn't have to see the identical pairs of eyes, plotting something ghastly.
As the two bodies came within one foot of him on either side, Tamaki tried to move away again, but the two moved with him. Suddenly, they both raised their arms and cast off the coats and hats at once, revealing themselves to the audience and Tamaki as…
"The Infamous Hitachiin Clowns," the announcer yelled into the microphone. Both boys—they looked so young; too young to be in the circus—bowed deeply, sweeping their hands together and grinning into the sea of faces, Tamaki seemingly forgotten. Key being 'seemingly'.
The twin who had approached on his right reached for the microphone and held it in front of himself as he and his brother moved to be on either side of the blond boy; the one not holding the microphone looped his arm around Tamaki's elbow and ensuring the blond was stuck with them.
"Welcome!!" The micro-phone twin announced, earning a aloud chorus of yells and applause. He smiled. "It's a pleasure to be here tonight and we hope you're enjoying yourselves here!! I'm Hitachiin Hikaru and that's my brother, Kaoru!! We'll be the last act tonight and we just want to thank you for being such a great crowd!!"
Both boys were wearing copious amounts of stage makeup, leaving their faces colorless and white except for the liberal amount of red paint on their cheeks and lips, and the dramatic eyeliner around their amber eyes. Tamaki shivered; he was getting a mischievous vib off of these two…he wanted his mother.
The twin's exchanged the microphone and the one with his arm still looped into Tamaki's smiled, extending the microphone towards the blond's mouth. "And thank you for volunteering to be our toy! What's your name?"
"Souh Tamaki."
"Well, Tamaki, just relax and enjoy the magic of this performance!!"
"It's not dangerous—"
"—but if something does happen to go wrong—"
"—you won't feel a thing!!"
Tamaki wasn't sure if the crowd was laughing from the actual comment, or the fact that the two boys were finishing each other's sentences. Either way, the cheers were deafening. This seemed to fuel the Hitachiin Twins on more.
The one with the microphone—Kaoru, Tamaki mentally noted—directed the blond to stand in a large glass box, with curtains on either side that would sweep down and obscure the contents of the see through box from the audience's view. Meanwhile, the lion tamer—the Magnificent Mori—reappeared on stage, a large basket of assorted knifes and swords in his arms and The Wonderful Kyouya walked back into the performance area, too, simply to assist Kaoru in locking the box, with Tamaki inside it. The blond hadn't a chance to protest.
Just before the curtains were closed, Tamaki glanced over at the other redheaded clown and saw him select three long swords, the kind used in bull rings, and gesturing wildly at the box; at Tamaki himself. He wasn't sure if it was a good thing that the box blocked out all sound, but perhaps the fact that he couldn't hear what the clown had in store for him was a good thing.
The curtains dropped and Tamaki found himself emerged in darkness; the only light being that of the dimmed lights through the top of the box, which was—mercifully—left uncovered. There was a rumble through the floor, as if an earthquake was underway; Tamaki correctly interpreted this as the audience laughing or stomping on the ground, eager for the performance to commence.
And it did.
With a sudden, pained gasp, a blossoming pain erupted in the blond's right side, and he doubled over, clutching at his rib cage. He tried to open his mouth the scream, but there was no sound; instead, all he could do was attempt to regain his breath.
"Ah, no! Are you okay, mousier?" came a broken French accented voice next to him. It sounded distinctly female, but when Tamaki rolled over to glance at the person who had come to his assistance after the fall from the glass box, his gaze was meet with that of what appeared to be a boy.
"I…I…ouch…" he tried, pressing a little too hard on the wounded ribs and gazing back up towards where he came. A trap door hung loosely on it's hinges and the small bit of light that streamed in through the open top of the box was now directed upon the male/female that was inquiring about the blond's health. In spite of the fact that he could barely move without a grimace of pain, Tamaki sat up, wincing and biting his lip. He hoped nothing was broken.
"I'd say that the trapdoor opened too fast," the brunette in front of him explained, more of to herself than to the boy. "I was going to place a mat under the drop, but I guess Hikaru and Kaoru stepped on the control pad too soon. Listen, if you can walk, we need to get you out of here."
Tamaki was baffled. "What? Out of here? Where do I go? I don't even know you; why should I trust you company? And what's you name for that matter?"
Even if the other's back was now facing away from him as the male/female attempted to pull him towards the exit of the under-stage, from the tone his companion answered in, the blond was sure that a roll of the eyes were a major part of the brunette's reactions to his questions.
"My name's Haruhi, Le Circe De Host's dog. We need to get you out of here before anyone notices anything wrong with the act; you're supposed to reappear at the tent entrance in about forty-five seconds, so if you don't mind, we have to move it. Now!!"
To taken aback by the other's response, Tamaki allowed himself to be dragged along, up a flight of stairs and into the cooler air that was the outside of the tent. They made it with thirty second to spare. Haruhi's hands clapped together, rubbing them to create friction and blowing small steam clouds into the chilly winter.
Twenty-eight seconds.
"Are you a boy or a girl?"
"That's rude; I'm a boy, of course."
Twenty-seven seconds.
Tamaki felt his ribs throb. Maybe they weren't broken, but they were sure going to bruise.
"You'll heel," Haruhi said off-handedly, answering his unasked question. "No one's ever died from this act; at least not yet."
A sharp intake of breath from the audience inside as the swing and 'chink' of metal making smooth contact with a glass sheath sounded through the air.
Twenty-five seconds.
"Listen, I know what you're thinking, but you can't sue us."
"What?" Tamaki asked. Haruhi's comment had come out of no-where.
"You can't sure us; you volunteered for this act, and the general rule of conduct state that you—the volunteer—can not sue us. No court would take the case, and even if one did, we would win."
The boy sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Tamaki scratched his head with the hand not preoccupied with cradling his wounded side. He watched as Haruhi peeked though the curtains and nod at some unseen signal.
"Listen, we have to wrap this up early. You're going in now, and you say nothing about what you've seen here. Okay? No news interviews and no autobiographies. And NO courts systems, okay?"
He nodded numbly. "Okay, yeah—but why are you—"
Tamaki was cut off as pressure was applied to his lower back and he was shoved back into the tent, just ask everyone directed their attention from the un-curtained, empty glass box, to onto him. Tamaki was shocked and flustered when everyone started applauding and the clowns, lion tamer, brain-bender and announcer left the performing area, unnoticed.
One year later, Tamaki left his mother and moved to Japan, where he was enrolled in Ouran High School by his father and grandmother. Needless to say, in all the commotion of the transition, the experience at the circus was pushed into the darker recesses of his mind and memory.
Needless to say that when the blond meet Ootori Kyouya, Hunny-senpai, Mori-senpai and the Hitachiin twins, he experienced a strong sense of déjà vu. Again, needless to say, when the cross-dressing commoner student admitted that she wanted to be a lawyer and would only stay in the host club until she paid off the debt to Kyouya, Tamaki unconsciously held his side, as if the long since healed bruise was still fresh and throbbing.
I guess, it's also important to mention that when the eccentric blond Host Club king proclaimed that they should do a circus themed evening, that the idea was immediately shot down.
-Fin-