" Welcome to Ferro's bizarre and disturbing Circus Esoterica" Grinned the alarming little man at the entrance to the fairgrounds "Ah mr. dresden you've brought your lady to see the sights, and what a pretty little thing too" Todd's leering wink stretched his face into a smile that showed off all his yellowing teeth, he doffed his dirty newsboy cap and dropped into an oddly formal and solemn bow. A bow which probably would have been easier to take seriously if his eyes werent glued to Mal's admittedly perfect rack.

My eyes narrowed in distaste, out of all the people at Mr. Ferro's I liked Todd the least, the filthy mans ratty clothes and and matted dirty blonde hair always felt like too much of a contrivance to me. Todd was a dangerous thing, whatever he really was and the cockney accent and the ratty patched coat only served to make me more aware of his wrongness. Like he was wearing tight clothes with stripes on them to cover up an enormous bulk, there was something unnatural underneath his Todd-suit.

I stepped forward into the way of Todds leer, interrupting his line of sight. " Its her first time at the circus Todd, why don't we do our best to make sure she feels welcomed" I left a cold edge in my voice as I said the last and Todds eyes turned dark and cold, his smile sharpening into something vicious before I stepped up to him and looked him dead in the eye "welcome and safe, I'd hate to think of what might happen if she were to be harmed" I matched his cold smilt with my own glacial grin "I would be so distraught I cant imagine what I'd do."

His lip curled leaving his grin looking like more of a sneer " No boy, youre right about that, if you tried to make a scene here you cant possibly imagine the consequences." A smooth lazy voice drifted over us from behind the man "Now Todd I know I told you that Mr. Dresden was my guest and was to be treated with respect but for the sake of clarity I feel compelled to include his lovely young companion in my esteem."

A tall dark man stepped from the shadows, a tophat on his head and a red velvet coat snugly fastened around his waist and hanging down to his knees. Mr. Ferro's eyes burned with a lazy condescending intelligence above an equally blazing ruby pin in the black silk cravat that took up the majority of the chest visible through the black lapels of his crimson coat. A chain hung slung from one pocket to another,clearly attached to a pocket watch.

The mans clothes were even more contrived than Todds, but they didn't seem wrong on Ferro, Todd came across like a monster in a bum-suit but Ferro looked, comfortable, like the clothes became sophisticated and dark by virtue of being worn by him and not the other way around. He didn't seem like a monster in a human suit, he just seemed like someone tried to make a person and wound up making something new and better.

I had the feeling that Ferro didn't have a problem with accessorizing, no clothes would look silly on Ferro, they wouldn't dare. Todd ducked his head in submission and despite the fact that I was sure he was annoyed he didn't show a hint of it on his face. Clearly Ferro was at the apex of this little food chain, Todd didn't dare even voice his displeasure. Ferro turned to us and offered a laconic smile "Apologies Harry, Todd has been on the road with me a long time, and your new friend is just his…type"

The way he said that made it pretty clear that Todd had been thinking of eating Mal, and not in any way that she would enjoy even were she so inclined. Speaking of Mal she cleared her throat from behind me "Well he isnt mine, I like my men a little taller, she winked at me as she stepped around my bulk and into Ferro's line of sight. God the things that girl could do to me. She stuck her hand out toward Ferro "Hello I'm Mal, Harry says you let him eat here sometimes for work around the circus, I've never been to one of these but i'm a quick study and would be happy to help out too"

Ferro took her hand and ghosted his lips over the back of her knuckles. "No need for that miss, Harry is a wonderful young man who has been of some help to me, I'd hardly be so cold as to ruin his evening out with a beautiful young lady, enjoy yourselves and take in the sights, my gift to the young couple." Mal actually blushed a bit, "Well we arent exactly…I mean, I don't know if Id say…" She finally smiled demurely back and simply replied "thank you".

It was sort of bracing, realizing despite all we had shared I didn't know her that well at all, I had never seen her look demure before and couldn't help the fleeting thought that my Mal wasn't demure much. But I smashed it down. That was presumptuos of me, she wasn't mine, we hadnt even known each other that long and im sure she has no interest in being mine.

Mal POV

For the love of darkness what did I have to do to show that idiot I was interested in him? I could sense his hesitation and it was driving me insane. Even after this short time I knew Harry was the sweetest strongest guy I had ever met, we had shared so much and I was sure he found me just as distracting as I did him. I couldve handled the creepy cockney come-on but the way he stepped up to defend me was just so sweet. And maybe this is the villain in me talking but seeing him basically threaten to murder that guy for me had me soaking through the thong I had squeezed into under these absolutely gorgeous pants.

Don't get me wrong, hes not gonna get to see them or anything, wearing thongs always made me feel like a bad girl which I was pretty much raised to revel in, but I was still a virgin and I'd never even had a boyfriend. But I still wished I knew wether Harry liked me too, I'd never been one for boys but something about what Harry and I had shared made me wish he would hold me again like he had last night. I felt so safe with him, I'd never been able to be vulnerable like that before, my mother wouldve had me tortured for weakness like that.

But Harry hadnt just allowed it, he had cried with me, he had met my show of weakness with his own, and somehow that had made it all ok. He had taken care of me since I got here, made sure I had clothes and food, protected me when he thought I needed it. I could actually trust him, id seen that much when we had that moment of connection in the circle.

I mustered up a bit of courage and took his hand as we walked and I felt him stiffen and then relax and smile at me before releasing my hand and instead putting his arm around me. I blushed and returned his smile with a shy one of my own. After we left Ferro and Todd we had wandered into the park proper, despite the oddness of the meeting and the strange sense of familiarity that I got from Ferro it slipped my mind pretty quickly, I had seen a lot of dark and disturbing things growing up on the isle of the lost but it hadnt been so…surreal. Since the island had no magic all the bad things that happened were of the crime and punishment variety.

But this place was…well even to me it was chilling, through an open tent flap I saw a man breathe fire onto another, with the second bursting into flames and turning to ash without a scream. Another man in a second tent was driving nails into the skull of a manically smiling man in black and white makeup, and a third tent contained what appeared to be a man climbing out of the mouth of a large cat, much to the animals apparent surprise. After walking down the central area (which Harry said was called a "Midway") taking in the sites I decided to get us talking.

I leaned my head against Harrys shoulder and said "So how did you find this place?" Harry seemed pensive for a bit before responding "I'm not sure I did actually, Ferro's showed up one day when I needed somewhere to get some food, one day this lot was empty then it wasn't. I think Ferro found me. Normally working at a place like this would bother me but everyone here is a pro and knows what theyre doing. No one gets hurt and I get to eat, ive been coming here for a week or two and I actually like it."

I frowned at something he'd said. "Found you? In what way?" He shook his head slowly "I cant exactly explain it, I'm sure you noticed Ferro and his site manager arent human?" I nodded "It was easy to tell, though for different reasons, Todd does a really bad job at playing human, but I think Ferro might be doing too good a job with his disguise. Hes just…too much." Harry nodded "That's actually a great way to describe it. But anyway my point is that Ferro showed up when it was really convenient for me and he's not exactly Joe Normal. The timing is a huge coincidence and I believe in those about as much as I believe in a free lunch, which by the way is part of what he offered me."

I chuckled at that "Youre a pretty suspicious person huh?" I felt him shrug against me. "You know the story, or at least a bunch of it, I'd imagine you arent overly trusting normally either." He went quiet for a moment "You know you can trust me right?" I smiled softly up at him "I do. Im not sure exactly why but I do trust you." We walked in silence for a minute or two after that before Harry finally said what he needed to " I don't know how to send you home."

My content smile turned sad "I know, I figured you didn't. Im going to miss my friends but im the one in a strange land not them so I don't have to worry about them, and things are interesting here. That's not to say I wont keep looking for a way back but I think I want to enjoy my time here while I wait." I summoned up as much courage as I could muster and looked up at him before slowly leaning in for a kiss. I turned into him as he pulled me against him, deepening this kiss and, to my immense satisfaction grabbing a handful of my leather clad ass.

I pulled away from him after a minute and he let me, I rested my forehead against his. He stared at my eyes, which I was sure were glowing green with arousal "This is crazy, I just met you, how am I already so attached." I giggled "Silly, that's how love works, it sneaks up on you out of nowhere and then its got you" He shook his head "The whole love at first sight thing isnt really a thing here, not normally, though now that I think about it your world is made up of fairy tale characters so im betting love at first sight happens all the time there. Here its usually slow, honestly by this worlds standards the fact that im even talking about being in love with you is crazy."

I smiled at him "well do you feel crazy?" He cracked a grin "Only about you. Which is kind of my point. This is super fast. Though I looked into what happened when you got here a bit, and it looks like we may have shared our souls." My eyes widened at that. Soul magic was a mysterious and powerful branch of the arts, and one I didn't know much about since it was primarily good magic and my mother didn't practice any. Even without magic on the island I had a firm grounding in theory from mother in all the most powerful disciplines, but soul magic was something of a mystery to her.

I took a moment to phrase the question "So…we're soul mates?" He grinned down at me "That's what I said and apparently. You got some of my soul to give yourself a tether to this world and I got some of yours though im not sure what it did to me yet, I cant really bring myself to be upset." I was elated at the idea that we were soul mates but that last part worried me.

Harry seemed to pickup the mood and tightened his grip on my ass, pulling me back against him for a kiss, and the idea of losing myself in him again was so enticing I didn't even break away to tell him when his eyes started to glow like blue lanterns in the dark. Just like my own glowed green. Im sure he wouldn't fault me for waiting a bit to bring it up, no sense ruining the moment.

Hi guys king here, longest chapter yet. Hope you guys like this one. To clarify the point from this chapter that I wanted to make plain in Mal's world love is a BAM kind of thing. Hits you out of nowhere and youre in it. Mal is from her own world even if she has a bit of Harrys souls and Harry has some of hers so their relationship is developing more like it would in that realm. Hope to hear what you guys think I really like the direction im going here. Read and review folks all feedback is appreciated.