Hey everyone and welcome back to "Cirque Du Alice"! It's taken me long enough to work on this third chapter- but now here it is! Hope you all enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gakuen Alice, yo. I wish I did. ;3;
Chapter 3: Heated Determination
"Everything. I heard it all." My stupid mouth moved faster than my thoughts and I had blurted out that I heard the whole exchanged between Ruka and Natsume. Curse my inability to lie.
"Ms. Sakura…" Ruka continued to examine my facial features as if checking to see if I were intimidated. Even though he looks pretty harmless, I definitely was intimidated. Students here worked out often, and I might as well not take my chances finding out if he followed a code of chivalry or not. "This upcoming role is very important to Natsume… Please, don't tell anyone."
I thought for a second before nodding my head vehemently. It seemed like it was something dire to Natsume. "I promise I won't tell a soul, okay Ruka?"
Ruka smiled softly. "Thank you , Ms. Sakura. I'll take your word for it." Finally, he put his arms at his sides and I was no longer caged in. "I'm off to get some lunch, so I'll see you later. Tell Tsubasa we're sorry for me, okay?"
"Alright. See you later." I waved and with that, I walked back to the practice room. I might as well continue practicing to make up for the lack of Natsume being able to. When I walked back into the room, there was someone sitting up top where you jump off for the trapeze. I squinted my eyes and realized it was Tsubasa. "Hey, you're still here?"
Tsubasa brought his arm up to his face and it seemed as if he wiped his face. Could he have been… crying? "Hey, Mikan! You came back?"
"Yes! Ruka and Natsume apologize about not being to stay for practice, by the way." I said as I walked deeper into the room.
"That's a shame…" Tsubasa muttered as he hopped down from the trapeze set up onto the net. After bouncing a few times, he sprung off and began walking towards me. "Will Natsume be okay?"
The conversation between Ruka and Natsume flashed backed into my head. Dislocated shoulder… "He'll be fine… if… well… Tsubasa. Can I ask you for a favor?"
Tsubasa's sapphire eyes now rested on my own chocolate colored eyes. "What is it Mikan?"
I looked around the room nervously, barely sure of what to say. "Well… Um… Tsubasa… you see… um… I think it'd be bad for Natsume to participate in practice for a while… so.. Um… can we practice together? You know… only the both of us?"
Tsubasa's head perked up. "That's an odd request... Is there something wrong with Natsume?"
I shook my head quickly. "N-no.. he's.. alright."
Tsubasa's lips tugged into a frown. "Mikan… he's part of my group as well- don't be afraid to tell me what's really going down."
"…Promise to not tell anyone?" I played with my fingers to try and busy myself so I wouldn't have to look into his eyes. Ruka'd kill me if I found out I was telling barely even 15 minutes later.
"I promise Mikan. If this is important, I have to know at least." Tsubasa explained, putting an arm around my shoulder.
"Well… you see… Natsume has a dislocated shoulder… and he's been taking painkillers to keep on practicing. He needs this role for a reason I don't know… but it's really important to him." I explained. I took in a deep breath and looked up to see Tsubasa seeming as if he were deep in thought. "And essentially, it's me who'd be dragging him down. I just need to get the practice… and I know if I get help from you Tsubasa, I could do it…"
Tsubasa shot me a grin and removed his arm from around my shoulder, looking at me face to face now. "I'm glad you feel you could count on me. I'll teach you all there is that you need to know for this production. We'll need to practice on your flexibility, grace and as for equipment, we'll need to train you on the trampoline, trapeze and lyra mostly."
I gave Tsubasa the brightest smile I could muster and shot myself at him, giving him the biggest hug I could possibly manage. "Thank you Tsubasa! I couldn't possibly thank you enough!"
"No problem, Mikan!" Tsubasa chuckled while he grabbed me and lifted me as high as he could.
I just giggled uncontrollably…
…
Some Time Later….
The past three and a half weeks were insanely packed with training. Tsubasa taught me an array of things that had to do with the trapeze alone- from walking on multiple trapeze bars, static trapeze acts, flying trapeze acts, swinging trapeze, double trapeze and dance trapeze. He also helped my diet by cutting off and adding certain things (which means much less of my favorite treat- howalon, but I have to make sacrifices). When it came to the Lyra- it was much harder. I learned how to use it static, swinging AND spinning. Spinning of course was the most difficult, but that's the one that's going to be used in this act. Of course, we worked on my grace as well, as I started off pretty awkward, but now I can hold graceful positions while standing the back of a pick up truck.
Training was indeed insane, as I pleaded Hotaru for a little help. She's learned quite a bit about managing performers and keeping them in tip top shape- I'll just say this- training for this part was much more painful. But I had to bring my best to the table.
Currently, I'm in the end of my audition for the main role- Juliet. The act we'd be putting on is Romeo and Juliet. I jumped onto the trampoline once, twice, thrice and I was up in the air, and caught on to the trapeze bar flying my way. I spun around it a few times before letting go and back-flipped towards the lyra. I reached forward and as I thought, the lyra was there and I caught it, spinning around once and grabbing onto the sides. The lyra started spinning and that's when I grabbed onto one side, spinning around it, then held onto the top, splitting my legs and continuing to turn. Putting my legs back together , I went inside of it and leaned against once side, holding onto the apparatus with one hand, and my other hand extended outward. The lights dimmed and the lyra was lowered. I ran back into the changing room and got into some casual clothing and met up in the room where Narumi was to make decisions.
"Alright… Mikan, Sumire and Anna… you all tried out for the role of Juliet. You all had your own feel to it… and a decision has been reached…" Narumi looked down for a moment then back up, smiling. "Mikan Sakura has earned lead role."
My eyes went wide and a squealed, hopping into the air with glee. The two other girls gave me a quick hug and a pat on the head. "Thank you Narumi, you won't regret it!"
Narumi gave a smile. "And for Romeo…I was thinking that Tsubasa Andou would fit the role rather well."
I bit my lip. "N…No…"
"What? Why's that?" Narumi questioned, eyeing me.
"I…I want Natsume Hyuuga to play the role of Romeo." I demanded.
"Now why on Earth is that Mikan?" Narumi asked me as he stood from his chair and stepped forward. "You practiced with Tsubasa and work the best with him. Why would you pick Natsume?"
"I… Well…" I looked around nervously. Many eyes were laying on me, awaiting my response. "I just think that… he'd… do well with this role. I think he should be seen."
Narumi cocked a brow, but then shook his head. "If you insist Mikan. Then for Tsubasa… I really liked how he's been executing moves as of late… so I'll cast him as the lead supporting--"
"No thanks." Tsubasa waved an arm as he made his way out of the room. Everyone started whispering amongst each other, saying he was probably angry because he was one upped. I bit my lip and decided to chase after him. After a short while of running, I caught up to him in the hallway and grabbed onto his wrist. He turned around and looked at me- his face seeming actually neutral. "What's wrong Mikan?"
I fought back against the sting of tears and kept myself from crying. "You… are you angry because I chose Natsume for this…? I'm sorry… I'd have loved to work with you but…"
Before I could finish, Tsubasa laid a finger on my lips to shush me. "It's okay Mikan… I know you're doing this for Natsume. I agreed to help you, remember? Now you better do your best as Juliet!" Tsubasa gave me a warm smile, and I managed to muster one myself. He then picked me up and twirled me around before setting me down. He started walking away, probably towards our room. I watched his retreating figure go away. "Besides…" He called out. I perked up from hearing his voice once more. "I would have declined anyway…"
I remained frozen in my spot. He would have still declined… is it because he didn't trust my skills? He did train me so he would know if I were good enough or not…
Or is it something else…
The Day of The Performance-The Finale
I looked towards Natsume- he was breathing erratically. "Curtains are about to raise… Natsume, are you sure you can finish this? You look tired… we can get Ruka to-"
"NO!" Natsume yelled rather loudly and I flinched. It seemed he was straining to get this absolutely perfect, despite being doped up on painkillers and his shoulder not being so cooperative. "I have to finish this… I have to…"
I shook my head, wondering why this performance was so important and opted to just go on without knowing. "Curtain in 5." Narumi started our countdown. "4...3...2..."
With that, the both of us ran to our respective trampolines and took to the sky. Our trapeze was there waiting for us. We swung around and stood on it, jumping from trapeze bar to trapeze bar, on the last one, grabbing it and swinging around it. We currently were at opposite ends of the stage. We spun around it thrice before letting go and flying backwards, hands out to catch our lyra. Once we stood on our lyra, it started spinning, moving around the stage. They drew closer, and now it was Natsume's time to jump from his lyra to mine- a difficult move already while not injured. He back-flipped and grabbed onto the bottom of his lyra and swung on it, flipping high up and reaching out to grab the bottom of my lyra. When his hands clapped with it, I could see the pained expression on his face and he let go.
There was no net on the bottom. It could lead to certain injury… or even worse…
Death.
Thinking quickly, I went to a knee hang and reached out for him, grabbing onto both hands. He let out a holler as that happened- I felt his arm tug- must have dislocated again… I realized the lights were dimmed out. Looks like staff had given up on him before I could even maneuver to save him. "Natsume… pull up…"
"I can't… just… Drop me." I heard Natsume utter.
"The hell? Why are you telling me that?! Drop you?! Are you crazy?!" I yelled at him. This wasn't easy, the lyra was still spinning and I was still upside down.
"She's sick… and probably won't make it anyway! She's the only one I have left, so you might as well let me go!" Natsume yelled.
I bit my lips. This infuriated me. "So you're just giving up? You put on your first show so it could be your Swan song? Give me a break Hyuuga! Has she given up?!"
"She stopped fighting! She feels she can't win! It's too difficult to over come, alright?!" Natsume continued yelling at me from where he was hanging. He's telling me to let go, but his grip tightened.
"If she sees you're hopeless, of course she'll want to give up." I whispered, loud enough for Hyuuga to hear.
Saying that seemed to spark something in Natsume- he managed to lift himself up, bounding high enough to reach the lyra and grabbed onto it- because of his arm, he nearly slipped and I grabbed onto him with one hand and kept a tight hold of the lyra with the other. Suddenly- the lyra caught flames- the outside of it was entirely engulfed in fire, but it didn't hurt. The lights were cut back on and crowd was up on their feet, giving us a standing ovation. It felt amazing.
The lyra was lowered and we made our way back stage. Before I could even reach the dressing room, Natsume grabbed onto my arm. "…Come with me for a moment."
We weaved through crowds of people, both performers and audience members until finally reaching the outside area. People murmured about the both of us and our spectacular fire trick. I had no idea how that even happened though. Finally, we stopped when the figure of a little girl with black hair came into view. She turned around slowly- she had the same crimson eyes as Natsume. She was on the pale side, and seemed rather frail. "Natsume Nii!!" The girl ran up to Natsume and hugged him tightly.
"Don't over do it, Aoi…" Natsume looked down at the little girl tenderly. Who knew he had such expressions?
"Brother, I saw your performance and it was amazing! What you did with the fire, it was like a phoenix!" Aoi excitedly yelled while hopping up and down. It was adorable and I felt a smile tug on my face. "I'm going to be strong like Nii-Chan! I'm not going to give up. I'm going to be reborn like the phoenix!"
"Aoi…" Natsume muttered. "That's right… be strong sister…Hope you're better when I come to see you." He wrapped his little sister in a tight hug and promptly after he let go, Aoi's nurse started walking her back to the car.
"NEE CHAAAN!! PLEASE TAKE GOOD CARE OF NATSU-NII!" Aoi called out to me, waving to me frantically.
I nodded and waved. "…" When Aoi was out of site I turned back to Natsume. "Now that you showed her your amazing skills- I think you should come clean about your shoulder-"
"I was intending to." Natsume was smirking. "Don't worry about me, I'm not giving up. That show wasn't my greatest- and I want to be opposite you when I'm at my best… because that performance… it wasn't bad."
I nodded. "Looking forward to it, Hyuuga…"
End Chapter 3!
I realize that I have too darn many stories at the same time all together from different sites… SOOO… I'm going to try and make this one short. We have one boy's main story taken care of. Next is Ruka. Expect there to be more interactions between the characters in the following chapters. It was hard to find out how to take this chapter, so if it's a bit iffy, my bad! ;3; The fire will be explained in the next chapter, by the way~
Do feel free to leave reviews- let me know what you think so far and such! I really appreciate constructive crit. And sorry if I can't get to respond to them all the time- I type and post on the computer, but I'm always using the internet and responding to email by phone- and it doesn't let me respond to reviews. ;o; I'll try to do so on the rest of the chapters. Thanks to all of you who reviewed chapter 2 by the way! See you all in chapter 4!
-Sama (The Painted Skies)
