They'd struggled through things together, but this was the first time Raul could say he was openly concerned for his sister.
After their stint in the world championships, they gained... Notoriety. Not exactly fame, but, they weren't ignorable anymore by any means. After the post-tournament publicity and the interviews, they caught up with their traveling family on the road and settled back into life. It was the most comforting thing they'd done since qualifying for the world tournament... There was nothing like safe, and familiar. At least not to Raul.
Away from the cities of grey and back into the tents of bright colors; familiar faces around every corner painted to mask pleased expressions, the roar of lions and the stomp of an elephant or two. The lingering smell of popcorn: the good kind.
And the applause.
Gosh, the applause. Every audience was different in every town, but they all seemed the same to Raul. The same ecstatic clapping that made energy in the center ring almost palpable. It excited the performers; it inspired you to get on with the show and climb higher, reach farther, make them louder. The circus was truly home to Raul. And, compared to the various cities around the globe they'd traveled and the competitors they faced, the circus really didn't seem like the place where he would be forced to discover that maybe, finally, one of them had reached too far for the applause they so loved.
He was still scuffing his feet; kicking up small clouds of sawdust, hay and dirt as he sifted through friends and family clearing away booths and closing down the carnival games. He let his eyes run over one of the tall horses that had been brought out of the show ring as he went along. Big mistake. The fingers hanging at his side clenched into a tight knot and for a second he felt an almost very real, very illogical hate toward the animal that landed him in his current predicament.
Keyword: Illogical.
He ducked inside and under the faded red canopy of the trailer he and Julia shared with their parents, bowl of hot water clutched in his other hand. Raul let the bowl settle on the side table as he watched his sister open her eyes, look him up and down for a moment from her bunk.
"You need to calm down Raul. I'm fine."
"You're lucky to be alive." The clipped tone of his voice made Julia do a momentary double-take. Her brother was right; it's not that he wasn't. But she was still unused to her normally quiet sibling speaking out so rudely. Lest of all to her. Raul had grown up a lot over the last couple of months traveling the world to beyblade, and while Julia was proud of him...
At times like this she wanted to box his damn ears.
"I fell, Raul, it happens. It's a new routine, I haven't had much time to practice-"
"You won't be practicing it again either if I have any say in the matter." He plopped himself down on Julia's bedside and dipped a cloth into the steaming water, wringing the fabric with his hands and neverminding the throbbing burn of the temperature. "Let me see."
"No, you're being unreasonable!" When her younger brother tried to pull at the collar of her shirt on her affected side she cringed and jerked herself away from him in bed; a move that would be undeniably regretted right after when it sent another spike of pain radiating up Julia's left arm.
"Julia, stop being so foolish!" The younger Fernandez bit his tongue and took a deep, sobering breath. 'Anger is not the answer... She doesn't need this right now. And neither do I.' "Look, just let me see..."
That eye-roll. So like his big sister.
Julia wanted to protest. But during their time as semi-finalists, she came to learn that maybe she didn't always have to rule over her poor brother with an iron fist. Romero tried to be as diplomatic about it as he could, he really did; but at the end of the day in their dressing room he just told her: 'Julia my darling, you can be quite a bitch. A great talent; just oftentimes overshadowing.' So, with a renewed determination to not be such a bitch (at least not all the time), she allowed her younger brother to tug down the fabric of her loose cotton overshirt.
It was still swollen.
"I don't understand why you couldn't just listen to Mom and Dad and-"
"You don't get it!"
His fists tightened into balls once more and hot water escaped the rag, running over his fingers.
"Then, help. me. Help me 'get it.'" Raul took care to fold the washcloth he'd been intent on strangling before his words and carefully laid it over the exposed, reddened flesh of Julia's left shoulder.
"Are you going to try and understand instead of being melodramatic and bitchy about it?"
Raul leaned backward and took another deep breath, trying to level out the playing field inside his own head. His sister was hurt; he'd rationalized this before. He shouldn't go at her angry and make things worse. It wasn't how fights were solved. He knew that very well actually: because this situation wasn't new to them. Not at all.
It's just that usually, the shoe was on the other foot.
It was Raul who made a mistake. "You need to work harder Raul, this is unacceptable!"
It was Raul who did something wrong. "Do it again Raul! God, I can't carry this team on my own!"
It was Raul, who was internally crying out 'you don't get it... You never, get it.'
That was their story. Julia was the bright hopeful full of talent, and Raul was the young drag-along who had to work extra hard to meet even the minimum of Julia's standards. From ribbons to ripcords, they'd fought and quarreled and Raul had let himself be practically bullied to achieve the perfection that his sister wanted. Because if Julia was anything, she was a perfectionist. Every dance move with perfect pointy feet. Her attacks were so calculated that it was like choreography, crafted to the core. She never slowed down her pace for anyone.
She always expected Raul to keep up.
"No. Just tell me why you thought it was a good idea, sis."
It was the last show of the last evening. The carnival had finally worn out its welcome in this town and the crowds had diminished.
"I think I'm going to try it." She looked at her twin, barricaded away from the rest of the performances by the big-top tent flaps; two faces covered by a veneer mask, ready to perform what was old and reliable and popular.
"Try what? ...What? Julia, you've barely practiced that! Romero told us the horses need more work!"
"I think they're ready... After all, once the crowd starts cheering I don't think it'll really be different from commanding Thunder Pegasus. And I know the steps. I know I do."
"No, Julia I don't think-"
"Hey, Claudio!" She'd already turned her head up to the steel ladder that lead upward and into the red and blue tent. The circus' light and sound guy used that entrance to arrange his equipment. Soon a face popped out of the tent and he raised an eyebrow.
"What's up?"
"I'm doing the horse routine I've been practicing. Get my spot and light up the entire ring when I go out."
"Alright."
"No! Julia, it's the middle of a show you can't make a change like this-"
"Oh be quiet Raul! Your nerves aggravate me. Just go tell Horace that the horses are staying in the ring for the three-quarter break but that he can take the harnesses."
"Sis, please, just not until you've practiced a little more... Please?"
"Fine, if you won't, I will." She walked away from him in the dusky sunlight to go find their animal director. Raul was instantly worried. He'd seen her practice, all of five times he might add, and Julia was still shaky on her feet on those horses. The tall black and whites of the circus were trained well and friendly creatures, but they weren't used to having a person stand up on their backs. Once or twice during Julia's rehearsals, she'd nearly fallen. Romero had told her she needed more work.
...Romero.
Raul's eyes immediately searched the filled courtyard for a clock: someone with a watch so he could see what time it was. When he found none, he peeled back the red curtain of the big house once more to see what act was in the showring. He probably didn't have much time to put a stopper in the plan before his sister did something foolish.
'The mini-bikes... That's not good, she'll be the next act when they pack up the bike loops..!' Raul turned and ran. He made his way frantically through leaving people, families with excited children and crying babies and more of his own kind looking for his blonde coach.
'Romero will talk some sense into Julia, or even go tell our parents what she's up to. I gotta stop this fast.'
By the time he found his coach and he and Romero were running back toward the tent, they passed three empty stalls that had been set up for the horses.
"Oh no."
They made it back just in time to see the action.
Typical daring circus music was playing over the loudspeakers; the new act and something out of the ordinary had drawn every employee eye that could be spared and most of Raul's circus family were standing somewhere slightly out of sight in the darkness, wondering how Julia's new act would go over with the crowds.
'Is she ready to perform that?'
'I didn't think so.'
'I guess we'll find out.'
It happened faster than anyone expected. Julia lost her footing from the back of the black stallion, parading down the middle.
She went down quick and she went down hard and the crowd was a roar of shock and shame. Raul was almost certain that the whites were going to trample her to death.
He and Romero got in there as swiftly as they could and with a few other pairs of hands, managed to get out of harm's way with their injured teammate in tow.
He was pretty sure he was crying.
"It's different..." Julia rolled her eyes, looked up at the sunlight filtering through the gaps in her trailer's canopy. "We've been doing the same old routines for awhile now Raul. I just wanted to shake things up a little."
"'Shaking things up a little' isn't worth your life Julia! I can't believe you were so foolish-"
"Hey little brother, you've been foolish before too!"
"Not in a way that nearly dislocated my shoulder. Or could've broken my neck." He grumbled. Gently lifted the cloth off his sister's arm and resoaked it in the hot water and replaced it again. "Ending up at the hospital with you last night was not how anyone wanted that show to go Julia. You need to realize that."
"I do Raul, do you think I'm stupid?"
Her tone, her words, all of it was just getting to be a little too much.
Raul knew his place. He wasn't the gutsy sibling, or the strong one... But he knew when his emotions were causing problems. He stood up and waved his sister's comment off before disappearing out through the flaps of the tent.
"Raul-!"
"Very much ouch."
Julia rolled her eyes with a groan, closing them to the condescending face she heard step into her tent.
"You were eavesdropping?"
"It's what I do." Her blonde captain sat himself down on a small wooden stool and pulled it closer to her bedside. "You do look like crap, if I say so myself."
Her cheeks reddened and Romero could practically sense the coming argument. The flambuoyant man sighed.
"Haven't you learned anything at all Julia?"
"About what?! What is it that you all want me to say?!" She raised her uninjured arm to wipe some sweat from the warm summer weather off of her brow and made a bit of a face as even that movement caused her shoulder to pull uncomfortably. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry I fell, I don't know what else to say to him!"
"You could start with that." Romero chuckled and crossed one leg over the other. "You scared the poor boy out of his wits girl, I think he truly thought he'd lost you."
She hated being lectured... She hating being lectured the way she hated being coddled. It didn't suit her. It wasn't necessary. Not for her. Her cheeks got hotter and Julia hated that too.
Hated it just as much as watching her brother's disappearing back and his tears the night before.
"Yeah, well... Tell him to come back in Romero. I didn't mean to mess up the show, I really didn't." She put her well arm over her eyes, as if that could hide the embarrassment of admitting she was actually wrong about something. "I just..."
"Just what?"
She wanted to roll her eyes again.
"Sometimes it's nice to do something for myself... When I go on with Raul, it seems like everybody is looking at him."
Now that brought one of Romero's blonde eyebrows shooting into his hair. He'd wondered often if being painted a bit of a nuisance on television during the championships had gotten to his younger female teammate. It was no shock that the crowds thought she was unduely harsh to her little brother, and she received a bit of criticism in the media. But for every critique, there was a supportive comment to make up for that. What Raul hadn't been expecting was that Julia: the eldest of the twins, show-off grand supreme and one of the best dancers he'd ever laid eyes on, was actually feeling jealous.
"And now... Just, how the hell do I say that to him without feeling and looking so useless?"
Romero looked over his shoulder, and Julia followed his gaze to the open tent flaps carried with a 'whap' by the summer breeze. Her younger twin was on his way back toward her trailer with a plate of foil-wrapped supper. Julia let the arm drop from her forehead with a groan.
Romero just looked at her, and touched a single finger to his nose before rising up from his seat and ducking out past Raul as he walked in.
The younger Fernandez watched Romero go and raised an eyebrow. "He was checking on you?"
"Of course." She cleared her throat a bit awkwardly. "What else is he good for anyways...?"
Raul shrugged and took the now-vacant stool. She watched him as he set about carefully un-wrapping the plate he'd gotten from the meal prep cabin, pulling a couple utensils out of his pocket. The silence of it all unnerved her; just the tinkling of the aluminum foil and the busy whirring background noise of their family, closing up shops and releasing tethers to haul down tents.
What she wouldn't have given to be in his head.
"Raul...?"
The tone of his sister's voice made the ginger-haired man raise his head, and an eyebrow.
"I just wanted to do something new... Something that I could do alone. It's hard always being in a dual act you know... Since, since the tournament, you get most of the attention." She watched Raul's eyes widen a little, those greens going to an almost comical diameter before she continued. "Call me jealous, call me immature. I'm not perfect... I make mistakes."
The rest of her words found themselves lucky not to have fallen on deaf ears. The younger brother was running over the notion of it in his mind. His sister, not the star of the show...? Unheard of. Raul had spent his entire life in her shadow. Hell, most of the tournament too.
What did she really think had changed?
"You're... Delusional." He reached his hand out and placed the back of it against her sweating forehead. "And you're sweating. Maybe you have an infection, I should tell our parents."
"What?" She shoved off his hand with a grimace. "Grow up. Don't make fun."
"I'm not. Julia, I don't even understand how you could possibly think they pay more attention to me. I spend every minute I'm in the ring focusing on not making a mistake."
"Liar."
It was so dang funny to Raul that at this point he actually laughed. "No, really, sis... I need you out there. If I didn't have you, I don't think I could be as confident... It's nice knowing they have you to watch just in case I fall on my ass and make a fool of myself."
Julia took a deep breath in, and then she let it out. "You're full of shit little brother, but whatever you say." That smile though, replacing the blush with a grin told Raul everything he needed to know. "I guess today I learned the same thing."
"What's that?"
"That without you I'm less confident." Her smile had faded some, and it didn't make her look sad. In the strangest way the older Spanish sibling held a look of relief on her face, as if knowing her twin shared her thoughts made it all easier to admit to. The anger between them had long faded away, and she had the distinct feeling that the worry had decreased a lot too. "I learned a little in the championships... But I learned a lot last night."
"Well... That's why we're a team."
Raul beamed at her so big and so genuine, the way only her brother could. "Now eat your dinner, it's getting cold."
Romero watched his prodigies from his little hide-out, pleased and surprised all at the same time that the twins had not yet figured out that the eyes of circus folk miss nothing. They see the weakness in a boyfriend's eyes to goad him into a game of hoops to win a teddybear for his girl. They see the riders that you need to watch out for: they're going too gray and soon they'll have to call a janitor.
Romero shook his head. Right now he could see the future, and he knew it definitely looked a lot brighter.
MS: I'll start off by saying that the support I received to write this fic and actually get it going was amazing. I have no one but the Tumblr Beyblade fandom to thank for this! I'm in the midst of studying for my NCLEX, graduating from nursing and starting a new position so basically I have T -100 time and somehow I wanted to pull this together for you guys: you're all so amazing!
In saying that, I chose F-Dynasty to start off with because I find them a very difficult team to comprehend. Honestly all the G-Rev teams are a bit hard to comprehend to me... I'm not sure why; maybe it's the age I was when I watched G-Rev? It's my least favorite season of the 3 so that could be why. I need to rewatch the series of episodes that corresponds to each of their teams. Each chapter will feature a different team, and if when all the teams are done people would like the story to be continued we'll do that and if not I'll wrap it up.
I've got about 5 paragraphs written into the next chapter of this, so that's a good start! Especially for me lol. But I'm really counting on you guys to keep at me about it: like send me a bunch of rude anons like 'wtf why don't you update' or something please hahaha. I'm also open to requests! If you guys have an idea that you'd really like my take on, something for me to try, I'd love to hear it. :) Thank you again for the fuckton of support. You're all the best. Seriously.
