2. Boast

Summary: The Knife-Thrower decides to boast to the others of his newest achievements and almost-achievements. Unfortunately for him, Miss Fortune doesn't seem too pleased with one of those certain achievements...

Characters: Knife-Thrower, Miss Fortune, the Acrobat Mizuno, Ringmaster, Strongman, Doll, Magician, unnamed female visitor (mentioned)

Pairings: implied DollxMagicianxMiss Fortune, mentioned RingmasterxStrongman, a little Knife-ThrowerxDoll

"You should have been there."

"Been where?" The youngest of the three Acrobats asked the Knife-Thrower, who gave a pearly-white grin at the red-headed girl.

"At my tent, of course! Some visitor came along and wanted to see my act. But, being the most awesome knife-thrower and charmer that I am, I was able to convince her to be the part of my act that gets tied to the wooden board and possibly dies on it." The pony-tailed responded, crossing his arms. "The Magician, Strongman and the Ringmaster were there to see it, too!"

The raven-haired Magician paused, thinking back to a few hours earlier, and cringed. Thank goodness that the Doll wasn't there to see it...The poor carnie would have puked at the sight of the aftermath.

"I did my act blindfolded, making things even better!" The Knife-Thrower continued, taking a knife out of its sheath and twirling it about in his left hand, before switching to the right. "I threw one, two, three, four knives at the same time, and she was still alive and screaming! And then I decided I might as well end the act with five knives at the same time, and there was lots of blood! You should have seen it, folks!" He let out a whoop before finishing, "And you should have seen it! It was so funny! One of the knives was up her-"

"Please, Knife-Thrower, don't start with the crude language already...Your boasting gives me a headache, and I don't wish for it to get any worse." The Magician interrupted, shaking his head and letting out a sigh. "At this rate, you're going to scare the poor Doll." He ended, gesturing to the Doll, who was now trying to hide himself behind Miss Fortune, scared of becoming the Knife-Thrower's next target.

The Knife Thrower ignored the Magician, continuing. "Speaking of the Doll, I tried to charm him, too, because-"

"What?" Everyone turned to see Miss Fortune, who looked more than just a little ticked off at the statement. "Is this true?" He demanded, turning to the Doll. "Please say he didn't succeed..." He trailed off, grabbing the Doll by the shoulders and pulling him close so that they were nose-to-nose.

The Doll seemed to go pale at first, then blushed of embarrassment, and then finally leaned close to the Fortuneteller and frantically whispered a few things into his ear. As soon as Miss Fortune pulled back (after giving a remark of "Good job," and kissing the Doll on the forehead briefly), he turned towards the Knife-Thrower, glaring at him.

"Apparently the Doll hit you in the face with the closest object-a teddy bear from the ring-toss stand to be exact, kicked you between the legs and he ran away screaming 'Bloody murder!' while you were groaning in the most terrible pain." Miss Fortune responded, pausing in his glare to smirk a bit. The young Acrobat and the Magician couldn't help but burst out laughing at this. "Your attempt to charm my doll was a failure, Knife-Thrower."

The Knife-Thrower blushed of embarrassment, before glaring back at Miss Fortune. "Your doll!? Geez, Fortune, no need to spazz out." He muttered, letting his arms drop to his sides.

Everyone stared in horror as Miss Fortune brought his fist down on the Knife-Thrower's head.

"OOOWWW!" The Knife-Thrower held his head in pain, glaring at the Fortuneteller. "What was that for, you idiot!?" He shouted.

Miss Fortune wiped her hands, before responding. "Don't you dare try to put your filthy, blood-covered hands on my Doll!" He snapped, glaring at him before turning to go back to his seat. The Knife-Thrower, now pissed off, grabbed a fist full of the older man's long hair and pulled it. "EEEEKK! Alright, that does it, you vermin! DIE!"

Immediately the two started grappling and wrestling with each other, and the Acrobat, Magician and Doll immediately took a few steps back. The Doll knew, that if a fight between the Knife-Thrower and Miss Fortune starts, all heck will break loose unless the Ringmaster comes along to fix it.

"What's going on here-" The Ringmaster and the Strongman walked into the room to see the Knife-Thrower and the Fortuneteller, with their legs and arms tangled in an attempt to harm the other. The orange-haired Ringmaster let out a sigh as the Strongman face-palmed himself at the sight. "You two have been fighting way more often since our newest carnie came along. Is it due to, ahem, possession problems or what?" She asked, crossing her arms.

Both carnies got up, before starting to speak.

"He tried to seduce my Doll!" The Fortuneteller muttered, pointing at Shachihoko when he said 'He.' "And he pulled my hair!"

"Hey, Miss Fortune punched me on the head! All because I was trying to charm his Doll! So what!? I was just practicing for future female visitors!" The Knife-Thrower protested, putting his hands on his hips and glaring at Miss Fortune.

The Strongman let out a loose chuckle, and when the two glared at him he spoke up. "Really, you two act like some kid-couple or something. Should I start assuming that you two will never get interested in each other due to cooties?" He smirked at the end, and both carnies blushed of embarrassment as almost everyone else burst into laughter after hearing the statement.

"I'm sure there must be some way to figure out a solution to this...But not now..." The Magician muttered, dragging the Doll out of the room with him. "C'mon, let's get out of here before we have to suffer a long speech from the Ringmaster about sharing things..."

The Doll glanced at the Fortuneteller, who gave an approving nod. He then turned to the Magician, nodding, before the two left. Possessive of the Doll as he may be, at least Miss Fortune wasn't possessive to the point that he wouldn't let the raven-haired Magician take care of the Doll for a while.