"Yuuri! Did you see that!?" Phichit squealed excitedly as his best friend and fellow performer dragged him off the trapeze platform and hurriedly pulled him down the stairs. "That was Victor Nikiforov, the Victor Nikiforov! And he was looking straight at you!"

"I know Phichit!" Yuuri hissed back, his face aflame with embarrassment that only got worse as his friend continued to smirk at him. "I know it was him, I could hardly fail to recognise him!"

"Yeah, since you have his picture taped to your dressing room mirror." Phichit grinned slyly as Yuuri angrily pouted at him before once again tugging at his sleeve. The problem was that the silky material was incredibly slippery and every time he tried to grab at it, his fingers slid off and Phichit was able to wriggle free and torment him. "And I know you used to kiss it every night."

"Shut up!" Yuuri hissed angrily before he shoved them both behind a large pile of props. "That is not important right now! The important question is, why the hell is he here? Nobody of his status ever buys a ticket to our show let alone comes backstage and watches our rehearsal!"

"Maybe he heard about a certain person who's had a crush on him ever since he saw his picture in a news sheet?" Phichit teased him as he tried to peer around the corner. Yuuri however, was pushing back against him and, even though Phichit was strong, he still couldn't match his friend.

"C'mon, be serious."

"I am!" Phichit insisted. "He must have heard of us! You've seen some of the reviews people have given us!"

"Only when you force me to read them." Yuuri said. "You know how I feel about reading things about me, most of it is usually so horrible…"

"Poppycock!" Phichit close to shouted as Yuuri quickly hushed him. "Most of it is praising you to the stars for your talents and you know it! The only ones that ever say anything bad are those racist pieces of shit who can't see past your race and their opinion is worth nothing!"

"Phichit, please…" Yuuri close to begged him when he had finished his tirade. He kept glancing back over his shoulder and every time he heard a voice approach, he looked like he was on the verge of panicking. "Somebody will hear you!"

"I want them to hear!" Phichit said just as loudly. "Everyone should know that you're amazing Yuuri, it's just a fact! Victor Nikiforov should be proud that someone like you should have a giant crush on him!"

"For the last time Phichit, it wasn't a crush," Yuuri said. "I admired him for his work. His plays are amazing Phichit, I don't see how anyone could not admire him. What I would give just for the chance to go see one of his plays…"

"I don't see why you can't." Phichit said, placing his hands on his hips. "You've got the money for it, haven't you?"

"I have but… I can't, you know I can't." Yuuri said, his face looking defeated. "I'll get laughed out of the theatre and even if I did get in, I couldn't bear to sit there with all those people staring and whispering about me behind their hands…"

"They won't do that Yuuri!" Phichit cried out, his voice frustrated from a conversation the two of them had had over a thousand times. "And if they do, you just have to rise above it! You're worth a million of all those people, why don't you see that?"

"Phichit, can we please have this conversation in our dressing room? Please?" Yuuri pleaded with him, clasping his hands in front of his face. When Phichit fell into a grumpy silence, he shot him a quick relieved smile and darted his head around the corner.

"OK, I think the coast is-"

"Yuuri! Phichit! Just the men I was looking for!" The loud voice of their ringmaster suddenly boomed from directly behind them, making Yuuri jump with a loud squeak and causing Phichit to wickedly grin. "That was a splendid rehearsal, boys! Do that in the show later and you'll have them eating out of your hands!"

"Yes Sir, Ciao Ciao!" Phichit responded enthusiastically, giving him a cheeky little salute and making the large man roll his eyes. Yuuri, who would have usually scolded him by that point, wasn't even focused on his friend's antics. Instead, he was staring at the tall thin man by Ciao Ciao's side, his face flushed a delicate pink as he found himself unable to look away.

Victor Nikiforov was every bit as handsome in person as Yuuri thought he would be. He didn't want to think of how many countless hours he had spent gazing at various different pictures of the handsome Russian playwright, daydreaming about what it would be like to meet him, but he had never imagined it would actually happen or that the real man would outstrip every picture he had ever seen so easily. His short silver hair was perfectly placed under his silken top hat and his lean body was dressed immaculately in a suit that fitted him to perfection. His pale skin was like smooth china and his wide eyes put all the sapphires the society ladies wore around their necks to shame. Those eyes were at that moment looking into his own and like the strongest magnets, he was drawn to them in a way he couldn't explain. They seemed almost tinged with sadness and they put an ache in Yuuri's heart; in that moment, all he wanted to do was take that sadness away.

The two of them were so absorbed staring at each other that they didn't notice when Ciao Ciao and Phichit shared a sly glance. When Ciao Ciao finally spoke again and broke the moment, he took a little joy watching as the two jumped and then looked away guiltily.

"Yuuri, Phichit, I'd like you to meet the newest member of our little circus family," he announced loudly as he addressed the two acrobats. "This is Victor Nikiforov, you may already know of him. Victor, this is Phichit Chulanot and Yuuri Katsuki, our two finest acrobats as you just witnessed."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Phichit said cheerily, reaching out for Victor's hand and shaking it enthusiastically. Victor returned the excited gesture but almost winced when the small dark hand gripped his own; although it was small, his hand was as strong as a gorilla and he was glad when the acrobat finally freed him from his grasp.

"The pleasure is all mine, Mr Chulanot." he replied smoothly, refusing to show any discomfort before he turned back to Yuuri and his words crumbled in his throat. The man that was standing in front of him was so beautiful, he wasn't sure how he had kept his composure; it felt like one word could slip from his mouth and he would be a gibbering mess on the floor. Those big brown eyes he had seen earlier on the trapeze were staring at him again, out from the face of this amazing creature who had flown through the sky like a bird and for a moment, he felt like checking the back of the purple silk for wings. Surely no man this stunning could be earthly…

He almost jumped when a hand suddenly took his and its warmth felt like electricity sparking up his arm. He was surprised at how Yuuri's hand felt in his own; although it was small and dainty against his own long thin hands, the skin of his palm was rough and calloused from years of gripping ropes and swinging from trapezes. It was unlike any hand Victor had come across before and he only reluctantly let go. "And Mr Katsuki." He said, finally finding his voice. "You looked wonderful up there on the trapeze. I was simply lost for words."

"Really?" Yuuri's checks suddenly bloomed like red flowers and Victor again felt like melting to the floor. "Thank you, I'm glad you liked it."

"Yuuri is very talented Mr Nikiforov," Phichit suddenly butted in from Yuuri's side, smiling proudly like a devoted mother. "I couldn't have a better partner on the trapeze, he's so good up there and I trust him with my life. And he doesn't just do that either, I can only do the ropes and trapeze like you saw there but Yuuri does the hoop and aerial silks as well, his body can do anything!"

"Phichit!" Yuuri hissed quietly from the corner of his mouth, glaring at him angrily from the corners of his eyes. Victor however, just gave a light chuckle.

"After seeing that, I have no doubt that you are exceptional at all of those things," he said, trying desperately not to think of exactly what Yuuri's body could do least he embarrass himself. "I know nothing of acrobatics but you were sublime Yuuri. You both were."

Yuuri gave a little smile at the quick last sentence Victor had added on and Victor blinked at the sudden devilish twinkle in his eyes. It was as if he had gone through a complete personality change and his eyes flashed at Victor like he was challenging him.

"I would guess that your speciality isn't in acrobatics then, Mr Nikiforov," Yuuri asked him with a small smile. "What exactly is your act?"

"I…erm…" Victor found himself stuttering, his brain suddenly not working under the intense focus of Yuuri's garnet eyes. "I… don't have an act."

Yuuri cheekily smiled again and raised his eyebrows. "Everyone's got an act. In show business, you learn that very quickly."

"Oh… right." Victor once again was lost for words. How does this keep happening? He internally berated himself. I'm an award-winning playwright for crying out loud, I should have a great command of the English language! And yet, here he was, completely stumped by a witty remark and a pretty smile… God, if only my fans could see me now.

Thankfully, it was at that moment when Ciao Ciao swooped in to save him from making an even bigger fool of himself. "Victor here is going to be our new director," he explained. "He should hopefully help us with our creative flair and with a little luck, he'll make us more appealing to the higher ups."

Phichit snorted. "Really Ciao Ciao? It's going to take a miracle for the toffs to take us seriously. They only see us as clowns!"

"And that is exactly what Victor here is going to change." Ciao Ciao replied enthusiastically. "Believe me, if Victor can do to us what he does with words, we'll be rubbing elbows with dukes and duchesses before we know it. I would have thought you would have guessed that Yuuri, being as you are the one with the most knowledge of his plays."

Now it was Yuuri's turn to look dumbfounded as he once again went bright red and his tongue went numb. For a second, he stared at Ciao Ciao with a look of both horror and deep betrayal before he glanced over at Victor with the face of a man readying for the scaffold. He was terrified but Victor in contrast, looked delighted.

"Oh, you've heard of my plays?" He asked excitedly.

"I've read them." Yuuri bashfully admitted, his flash of confidence gone as he tried to look anywhere but at Victor. However, unfortunately for him, the pull of Victor's magnetic eyes was still too strong and he found himself unable to linger on anywhere else for too long; no matter what he did, they dragged him back. "I've owned a manuscript of some of your earlier works for a long time. I still enjoy reading them when I can."

"That's amazing!" Victor blurted out grinning like a child that had just been praised but he quickly reigned himself back in before continuing. "I mean, that's very flattering Yuuri. As a writer, the highest honour you can have is hearing that someone has not only read your work but that they read it over and over again. It's a very high compliment. Tell me, have you seen any of my plays in the theatre? I'm not sure quite where you've been but there must have been a theatre there, surely?"

The moment Victor spoke those words, a dark cloud seemed to pass over Yuuri's face as his expression of bashful shyness flipped to one of barely concealed anger. His full lips tightened like a thread had been pulled and his eyebrows knotted together as he fixed Victor with eyes that would have felled a lesser man on the spot. For a moment, they burned with something that looked like hurt but Victor had no time to think about the strange emotion he had seen there as before he could say another word, Yuuri was addressing him with a voice like icy cold water.

"Yes, Mr Nikiforov, I'm sure you don't know where I've been or exactly where I come from but are you presumptuous enough to believe your influence carries through to everyone? I thought you people from the other side were clueless already but that is a new low, especially for someone who considers themselves educated. I'm actually quite glad you don't know where I've been or what I've seen; there certainly wasn't a theatre there and I don't think you have the capacity to appreciate a culture other than your own blind one anyway. You must excuse me now Sir, I need to visit my dressing room. Good day to you."

With his cold tone still ringing in everyone's ears, Yuuri dragged his eyes firmly away from Victor's and strode off, his graceful body moving in short tense jerks in his efforts to get away from the situation as quickly as possible. A few seconds later, after glancing at Victor in panic, Phichit ran after him calling his name, leaving Ciao Ciao and Victor standing there awkwardly like statues.

"Oh dear." Ciao Ciao said after what seemed like an eternity. The statement sounded to Victor like the biggest understatement in the world but Yuuri's sharp words had once again rendered him speechless and he was only able to nod. "I best go after them, I can't have Yuuri agitated and upset before a show. He needs the upmost concentration in his act; if he gets too emotional, he makes mistakes and you can't afford to make mistakes when you're performing high above the ground with no net… You can show yourself around the rest of the place, can't you?"

Victor barely had time to give another dazed nod before Ciao Ciao ran off in the same direction as Yuuri and Phichit, his red coat tails flying out behind him like two small sails. That left Victor standing alone and confused in the middle of the busy circus and he suddenly realised the extend of his predicament. I have no idea where the hell I am, where I need to go or what the hell I need to do the fix this, he thought in panic. What the hell am I going to do?

"My, my, mon ami," A heavily-accented voice suddenly spoke from directly behind him, making Victor whirl around and nearly lose his top hat. "You really messed up there, didn't you?"

Victor stared as a man stepped out of the shadows behind him and for a moment, he didn't know where to look; the man was dressed in only a skimpy black leotard which showed off every inch of his muscular arms and legs and was so tight it left no detail of his body to the imagination. Even more skin was bared on either side of his torso as the whole garment was held together by crosses of black cord and large pads dripping with glittery red tassels sat on his shoulders like those on a general's uniform. More red glittery material accented his chest in a feathery design, matching the crown of red roses that was perched on top of his blond bird's nest of hair. Victor blinked again, wondering if the shock of his situation was making him imagine things but the stranger still remained there, smiling at him like he was looking at a lost pet.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Christophe Giacometti." The man said with a flourish as he outstretched his hand. "I'm the head dancer here at Ciao Ciao's Circus. You must be Victor Nikiforov."

"How did you know that?" Victor said puzzled.

The dancer laughed. "News travels fast around here Mr Nikiforov; everyone's been talking about the tall well-dressed stranger that Ciao Ciao has been showing around. He doesn't do that for just anyone, you see, so we figured you must be something special. Besides, I recognised you from the papers, I hear your most recent play is doing very well. I had someone take me to see a performance not long ago, it really was very good."

"I see. Thank you." Victor said, his voice a little dejected. Talking about his plays just reminded him of how angry he had made Yuuri and dwelling on how his eyes had glared at him just made his heart sink. "Mr Giacometti-"

"Please call me Chris." He swiftly interrupted, giving Victor another charming wide smile as his jade-coloured eyes gleamed. "Nothing is very formal here in the circus. Take my outfit here." He swept his arms down his sides as he rose up elegantly onto his toes and gave a slow twirl. "Does this look formal to you?"

"Not really." Victor replied. "Though if you paired it with a top hat, I can think of several places that would let you in, no questions asked."

Chris let out a loud peal of laughter at that and Victor managed to give a smile at his own joke. "Oh, you are funny! Thank goodness for that, I was hoping you weren't going to be all uptight and boring, so many posh men act like they have sticks up their arses…" He gave a dramatic sigh before his face broke into an even wider devious smile and he put his arm around Victor's shoulder. "I can tell we're going to get on, Mr New Creative Director. I'm a very creative man myself." He wriggled his eyebrows at the words but before Victor could pause to think of what he meant, Chris was turning him around and leading him firmly in a new direction. "How about we go and get a drink and then you can tell me exactly what went wrong between you and our darling Yuuri just now."

"How did you…" Victor started to ask before realising he didn't know what he wanted to ask him first. How did he know about what had happened with Yuuri already? How did he know he was the new director? And how did he know so much about what posh men were like?

Chris looked at him like he could hear the questions buzzing through his head like bees and he gave a laugh. "The others call me the eyes and ears of the circus," he explained as he kicked open a door with one long, surprisingly hairless leg and pushed Victor through. "I see everything and I hear everything. I would remember that if I were you."

OOO

"And then he stormed off? Just like that?"

Victor nodded miserably, slugging back another bitter shot as Chris gave a low whistle and shook his head.

"My, my. I knew Yuuri was a little firecracker but I've never heard of him doing that. You really struck a nerve there."

"I know. I don't know what to do to redeem myself." Victor close to wailed, his head slipping from the cradle of his palm and miserably hitting the table where he gave a small groan. The two of them were sitting back in the bar behind the circus but it was even more deserted than before due to the fact that a show was on; not even the grumpy bartender was there to throw scowls at them for making him serve too many drinks. Chris had been the one to retrieve their alcohol; after throwing a few notes behind the bar, he had helped himself to the largest bottle of bourbon he could find and it was now resting between the two of them on their table, the light glistening on its dramatically decreased contents. Two large crystal-cut glasses, still with droplets of dark liquid swilling at the bottom, stood next to it like soldiers standing with their failed general. It was clear to see from the bottle that the two of them had consumed a lot of alcohol but both men mostly appeared unaffected. Chris was sitting delicately on the edge of his seat with his legs crossed, a finger tapping at his cheek as he leant a sympathetic ear to Victor, the only sign that he was not fully sober being the bright redness of his cheeks under the light brown fuzz of his beard. Victor meanwhile was slowly losing the composure he had cultivated with every sip he drank; it was slipping from him like a mask as his shoulders slumped forwards, losing all posture, and his voice went from smooth and controlled to highly emotional. Chris watched all this with barely a raised eyebrow. He could sense that this was the real Victor Nikiforov underneath all the layers of manners and polish and he was determined to get him out.

"I'm surprised at how much you've drunk." He admitted, eyeing Victor as he poured another glass and carelessly spilled a few drops on the table. "I would have put money on you being unconscious at this level."

"I'm Russian." Victor explained with a shrug as he tipped the glass back and drank the whole measure in one swallow. "I've drunk a lot more than this back in Moscow, believe me."

"I thought your name sounded Russian," Chris said, pouring a glass for himself with a lot more caution. "Just like our dear Yuri, he's from that part of the globe too."

"Yes, I've met him, I thought that accent was very familiar." Victor nodded. "I can't believe that boy tames tigers. He looks like one bat from their paws would snap him in two."

Chris chuckled. "I honestly don't think they would dare. You should see him in the ring, he acts just like one of them; it's almost like he goes feral." He paused in his speech for a moment to take a long sip before continuing. "That's one of the reasons why Ciao Ciao makes out he came from the deepest depths of Siberia, no one in the crowd after seeing his act would doubt him. I think it would actually be a harder sell convincing them that he actually came from the pleasant suburbs of St Petersburg." Seeing Victor's confused expression, he quickly explained. "Ciao Ciao sometimes embellishes the facts to either make an act sound more impressive or make it simpler for the audience to understand. Take me, for example. Ciao Ciao makes out to everyone that I'm French because not only do I sound French but it sounds more cultured and dare I say, a bit more racy. There are a lot of French stereotypes that are easy to play into. However, I'm not actually French, I'm Swiss but that isn't half as sexy to put on the posters."

"I see what you mean." Victor said before once again looking crushed. "But Chris, you still haven't answered me. How am I going to redeem myself with Yuuri? I couldn't bear it if he hated me forever."

"True, I don't think I could bear it either if such an angel walking the Earth hated me that much." Chris replied, causing Victor to loudly groan like he had just been wounded.

"That isn't helping Chris."

"Who said I was helping?" Chris shot him a cocky smile but when Victor's head slammed back on the surface of the table, his tone went serious. "Honestly though, I'm not entirely sure how you're going to win him back."

"What?" Victor cried out, his head jerking back up so fast, Chris heard his chair wobble. "Are you serious? I thought you knew everything about everyone in the circus!"

"I said I knew everything about what goes on in the circus," Chris corrected him with a pointed finger. "As for what went on in people's lives before they entered the circus, I have no idea unless they tell me. Most people are pretty free with their stories, they don't mind people knowing about what they did before but Yuuri Katsuki is a different kettle of fish altogether. He's a little bit of an enigma among our group as he refuses to say anything about his background. The only thing I really know is that he is Japanese and I only know that because one of our old stagehands once called him a Chinaman and Phichit flipped out at him. I can see why he doesn't want to go into it though, he already gets enough stick for it."

"What do you mean?" Victor said bemused. "All the stuff I've heard about Yuuri has been incredibly complimentary. Everyone says he's amazing at the trapeze and I've seen it with my own eyes how good he is at it."

"Yes but that's not what some people see when they look at him Victor." Chris sighed. "Not everyone here in America is like you. People here in America hate immigrants, maybe not the upper crust ones you've met who are impressed by your old going-back-a-hundred-years title but the ordinary people really don't. They see anyone who comes into this country as a threat to them, especially if they look different- that's why this circus causes so much controversy, because everyone here is different and doesn't quite fit into the norm. Us two, we can get away with it because we're white and European so we're just about acceptable but if you're Asian... you really don't have much hope of fitting in. We have a lot of Asian people in this circus like Seung-gil and Guang-Hong but they work behind the scenes and the crowd doesn't see them but Yuuri and Phichit are right in the spotlight. I can remember one of the first shows we did, people were screaming and throwing things, trying to knock them off the trapezes… it was horrible. Both of them have a really hard time, Phichit especially for having darker skin but Yuuri gets a lot too. I've seen some of the reviews people have given calling him yellow and all sorts of things… I don't blame him for clamming up about his past when he gets that kind of abuse for it."

"Oh no." Victor groaned as his head collapsed into his hands. He had had no idea that all this was going on and now he felt like a fool. No wonder Yuuri had been so angry, he thought. I should have realised that would be a sensitive point. He sighed. I guess I am just the idiot king up in his ivory tower, not realising all the problems of his subjects below. "I guess I got an education today. I really messed up." He looked back over at Chris, his eyes wide and pleading. "Are you sure there is nothing else you can tell me about him, anything I can do to fix this?"

Chris shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry Victor but that's really all I know."

"But… how can that be it?" Victor asked completely dumbfounded. He came from a world where practically everyone knew everything about another person just from the cut of their coat or the way they spoke. How was it possible to keep so much about yourself secret from the people you practically lived with? "Do you know how he got involved with the circus?"

Chris shook his head. "Not a clue. I remember when we all first came to this building for the auditions and he and Phichit were already here, standing by Ciao Ciao's side like his two henchmen. From what I've got from Phichit, Ciao Ciao had coached him for a few years previously but he's never said anything about Yuuri. He's very protective of his friend, the two of them are incredibly close. This is why Yuuri is such a mystery to most of us in the circus; apart from Phichit and Ciao Ciao, he's not really very close to anyone else. I'm not saying that he's cold or snooty or anything, he's one of the friendliest people you could possibly meet but he's so shy with new people, he tends to just avoid them. I do wonder sometimes if something in his past makes him wary of people but I really couldn't say."

"Then this is hopeless." Victor said mournfully, staring down into the depths of his glass like the few remaining drops of bourbon could provide a better answer. "He's never going to look at me now. I might as well quit and go back to writing plays."

"I wouldn't lose hope quite yet, mon ami," Chris told him, a sly smile once again playing at his lips as he quickly grabbed the bottle and poured the last of it out before Victor could drown his sorrows. "There is one thing I do know about him that I believe will play massively in your favour."

Victor leaned across the table like a staved man. "What is that Chris? Please don't torture me like this."

"Yuuri has a positively enormous crush on you."

"What?!" There was suddenly a great crash as both Victor's glass and the empty bottle fell from the table and smashed into the ground, sending a firework of broken glass everywhere. Chris glanced away from Victor's shocked face to peer down at the glittering mess with a sigh.

"I'll have you know, I'm not cleaning that up. You could have wasted good bourbon there."

"How could Yuuri have a crush on me?" Victor repeated, his voice both disbelieving and hopeful like he didn't quite trust the information but desperately wanted it to be true. "That can't be right! He acted like he barely knew me!"

"That's the crucial word there, 'acted.'" Chris said with a smirk as he downed the last of his glass and gently placed it on the table. "The truth is that Yuuri has known about you for a while and he has had a massive crush on you for a while now. I know because though I don't hear them all the time, I do occasionally have the pleasure of overhearing Yuuri's conversations with Phichit." He said this in such an innocent tone that Victor was sharply reminded to never get on the wrong side of him. "And every single time, Phichit is always teasing him about you. Yuuri mentioned that he knew some of your earlier works, yes?"

"Yes, rather reluctantly I might add."

"That's because he doesn't want to admit that he pours through that book on an almost daily basis, devouring your lines. He thinks your work is amazing, he practically thinks you're a modern Shakespeare. And of course, the fact that he finds you unbelievably attractive doesn't hurt as well. He collects pictures of you from the papers and has them pinned around his mirror in his dressing room, I've seen them. It's quite sweet actually, in a bit of a weird way."

"He has pictures…" Victor muttered, his eyes staring blankly at the wall like he had just seen into another dimension. "He actually has pictures… he actually likes me!" A smile slowly spread across his face like treacle and he gripped Chris's arm and shook it excitedly. "Oh my god, Chris you are a life saver!"

"I know I am my dear," Chris said without a hint of modesty. "Now, do you mind releasing my arm? You are stopping the blood flow…"

"Sorry." Victor said, quickly letting go. "But this is perfect! I just have to make him see that I'm not like all those other horrible people, get closer to him and then I can confess my love and we can be together! Doesn't that sound great?"

"Wonderful." Chris agreed. "But tell me, how are you going to do that?"

All of the wind seemed to go out of Victor's sails for a moment but then his eyes drifted over to the bar and then suddenly lit up again. "I don't know yet," he said, making his way over to the counter before vaulting over it and rifling through the bottles. "But I bet some of these will help!"

Chris picked up his glass and, swinging back in his chair, held it aloft over his head. "I knew there was a reason we would get along!" He crowed triumphantly. "Let's get to work winning you your man!"

I don't know about you but I can very easily imagine Victor and Chris getting very drunk together...

Reviews are very much appreciated!