Outside Tokyo, Japan
Eventually the four arrived at the location where the circus was set up. Heero pulled into the area designated for parking with Syaoran following closely behind. The two couples got out of the cars and started walking towards the giant red and white tent that was placed in the center of the clearing. As they got closer they could see that it was extremely crowded and when they reached the ticket booth they saw a sign saying all of the day's shows were sold out. Sakura had been so excited to see the circus that her heart dropped when she was the sold out sign.
"Don't worry," said Heero as he placed a hand on Sakura' shoulder. "Just come with me." Heero led the group to a smaller side tent that had a sign that read 'Employees Only' above the entrance. He then led the group through the door into the tent. At first nobody seemed to notice them while Heero glanced around the tent, seemingly looking for someone or something.
"Excuse me, but you aren't supposed to be in here," said a female voice from behind them. The four turned around to see who had walked into the tent behind them and found that it was an attractive young woman with red hair and beautiful pale purple eyes. "Oh, Heero. What are you doing here?"
"Hi Catherine," answered Heero. Catherine was a little surprised at Heero. She had remembered him as being the most emotionless of the Gundam pilots; however at the moment he seemed less harsh and more caring. Of all the Gundam pilots, Heero was the last one Catherine had expected to show up at the circus. "We came to watch the show, but it is sold out. I was looking for you or Trowa to see if you could help us out."
Just then another person with long light brown hair that fell in front of his deep green eyes walked through the tent door. "Hey Heero. Good to see you again."
"Likewise, Trowa." Trowa was wearing a pair of light blue jeans and a dark blue long sleeve shirt. He was built well, similar to Heero and Syaoran, although he was a little taller and perhaps a little bit more muscular as well. He also carried himself with the same mysterious demeanor that Syaoran and Heero held.
"So what brings you here?" Trowa asked.
"They wanted to watch the show, but it is all sold out," answered Catherine. As she answered she pulled four tickets out of her bag. "I have been keeping four tickets aside for each show in case Trowa's friends ever came to a show," she said as she handed the tickets to Heero.
"We appreciate it," said Sakura, who was standing right next to Heero.
"By the way, this is Kinomoto Sakura, Mizuno Ami, and Li Syaoran," introduced Heero.
"It's nice to meet you," said Catherine as she gave a handshake to each. "I'm Catherine Bloom and this is Trowa Barton. So how do you all know Heero?"
"We all go to college together," answered Ami. As Sakura, Ami, and Syaoran talked with Catherine, Heero walked over and stood next to Trowa at the side of the tent.
"So I hear you are roommates with Duo in school," mentioned Trowa. "Have you guys been getting along?"
"He has been no more annoying than usual. Anyway, I have been distracted from Duo's usual activities. Somehow I've ended up on another mission."
"With your Gundam?" asked Trowa in a surprised voice, since he thought he would have heard if a new Gundam mission had come up.
"No," answered Heero. "It is a little different." When Heero saw nobody except Sakura and the others were around he took out his pendant. "Watch." Heero took hold of his pendant and concentrated his magic energy. Suddenly his magic circle appeared beneath him making Trowa take a step back and attracting the attention of Catherine, Sakura, Ami and Syaoran. "Key That Holds the Power of Space. Show Your True Self to Me. I, Heero Command You Under Contract. Release!" In a flash of magical energy, Heero's sword appeared in his hand. "As you can see, things are a little different."
"What was that?" asked a shocked Catherine.
"It's magic," responded Syaoran. His voice made it clear he was completely serious. Catherine still had about a hundred more questions she wanted to ask, but before she got a chance, the circus manager came running in.
"Catherine, Trowa. We have a problem," he said as he stopped in front of the group. "The lighting and special effects systems have all shorted out."
"How bad is it?" asked Trowa as he followed the manager to where the electrical grid was located.
"It looks pretty bad. But you are our expert at this stuff so I wanted to get your opinion on if it will be necessary to cancel the next show."
When everyone arrived at the electrical equipment, Trowa and Heero bent down to get a closer look to obtain the status of the equipment. "When is the next show scheduled to start?" asked Heero.
"There is a show in one hour and another at five," answered Trowa.
"There is no way this can be fixed and tested in an hour," stated Heero. "However, it should be doable by the five o'clock show."
"I guess we will have to cancel the show," said a dejected Catherine.
"Maybe we can help," spoke up Sakura. "What kind of effects does all this equipment do?"
"It controls all the fire, water, and lighting effects," said Trowa. "We have fire loops for the animals and water explosions during our acrobatic routine. We also have a glow effect when the lights go out and it looks like the spotlight systems are gone."
"Sakura should be able to handle the lighting effects and I can do all the fire," said Syaoran. "Ami-san, can you do the water?" Ami nodded indicating she could handle the water effects.
"Excuse me," interrupted the manager. "How do you intend to do all this?"
"Don't worry manager," said Catherine. "I trust them. But are you sure you can control your power well enough to do this?" Catherine was looking directly at Syaoran when she voiced her concern since he was doing the fire, and fire was by far the most dangerous of the effects.
"Anything you can get a machine to do, I'm positive I can handle it."
"I'll take care of the electrical equipment," said Heero as he bent down again and began fiddling with the mess of wires and destroyed circuit boards.
"Follow me," said Trowa. "I'll explain what types of effects we need. Catherine, can you help the manager set everything up for the show while I explain what we need to Kinomoto-san, Mizuno-san, and Li?" Catherine nodded and she and the manager walked towards another small tent to start getting the animals and other props ready for the show.
"You will need to do something if you want the tent lights to go off," said Heero. "It looks like the main overhead lights control systems are fried so unless you plan to take out every bulb, they are pretty much stuck on."
"Understood," said Trowa as he led Ami, Sakura, and Syaoran to the center stage to show them what effects were needed and where.
One hour later, the interior of the tent slowly faded into darkness. As the crowd hushed in anticipation for the beginning of the show, a spotlight appeared to come out of nowhere and illuminated a small area around a lone figure standing in the center of the circular stage. "Ladies and gentlemen!" announced the manager. "Welcome to our show! I hope you have a wonderful time." As the manager finished the introductions he dropped his right hand and placed it on his hip. This was the agreed upon signal for Sakura to begin the effects.
At seeing the manager's hand go to his hip, Sakura recalled the Light Card she had been using to create the spotlight. She then pulled out another card and struck it with her wand. "Glow!" Suddenly the Glow Card emerged and created a sparkling glow effect inside the tent, causing the crowd to gasp at the beautiful sight. Their amazement quickly jumped to an even higher level when the entire outer edge of the circular center stage seemed to explode into an upward waterfall. As the water disappeared the center of the stage erupted in a frenzy of fire effects. Some flames flew upwards in a spiraling tornado of fire and others created dazzling rings and semi-circles of dancing flames. When the tornadoes of fire dissipated, a number of spotlights appeared, centering on the members of the animal team of the circus along with their lions, bears, and tigers. The dangerous animals all performed a number of tricks at the command of the trainers, including jumping through the rings of fire intermittently placed around the circular stage.
One of the last performances of the circus was the acrobatic routine of Catherine and Trowa. It was right before Trowa and Catherine's routine that Heero finished with the electrical systems. He believed everything was in order, but without testing it would be impossible to tell. Heero stood up and stretched a bit before walking off in the direction of Sakura's aura. As Catherine and Trowa began their performance, Heero picked up speed. He didn't know why, but he was sure that Sakura needed help. When he finally arrived to where Sakura was situated, he was shocked to see her leaning against the wall, obviously using a great deal of effort to just stay on her feet. He quickly ran over to her and gently placed his arm around her waist and her arm around his neck to allow Sakura to lean against him for support.
"What's wrong, Sakura-san?" whispered Heero in an exceptionally caring voice.
"H-Heero-kun," said Sakura weakly. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. The Glow Card doesn't use much magic energy, but using both Light and Dark at the same time for so long is hard to do."
"I can understand that," said Heero sincerely. "Will you let me share some of my magic energy with you to help you out?"
Sakura didn't know what to say. She was so touched that Heero seemed to care so deeply for her and she felt so drained that she couldn't get a word out of her mouth. In the end she just nodded her head and smiled at Heero. Heero took Sakura into his arms in a genuine hug, allowing Sakura to happily melt in his caring embrace. Had anyone been looking towards the niche at the outer edge of the tent, they would have seen a beautiful silver glow coming from the opening as Heero shared his power with Sakura and once again their auras allowed themselves to combine together.
After the show, Syaoran, Ami, Catherine and Trowa found Heero and Sakura both sleeping peacefully in the small area Sakura had been throughout the show. Heero was sleeping in a sitting position with his back against the wall and had Sakura sitting between his legs with her back against his chest. They could see that Heero had his arms wrapped around Sakura's waist and her hands were placed on top of Heero's making sure he wouldn't let go of the comfortable embrace. Both Ami and Syaoran had felt Sakura's and Heero's auras combine and assumed they must be drained from using both the Light and Dark Cards simultaneously for such an extended period of time. Nobody wanted to disturb the peaceful looking couple, but Ami did pull out her disposable camera she had bought to take pictures at the circus and took a snapshot of Heero and Sakura. Ami figured that Tomoyo would probably like the picture of the cute couple for her collection. Instead of waking Heero to find out if the systems were ready for testing, Trowa decided to go do a thorough check himself.
After Trowa left, Catherine turned to Ami and Syaoran. "You two are pretty good friends with Heero, right?" she asked. Both Ami and Syaoran looked at each other and then back to Catherine and gave an 'I guess so' type of shrug. "Between the time you first met him and now, have either of you noticed him change at all?"
"Definitely," answered Ami. "When I first met Heero-kun at freshman orientation he was ice cold. But now, even though he still keeps up his serious exterior, it is obvious he is a lot warmer towards most people. He is still ruthless towards anyone who seems to be some type of enemy, but to his friends he has become quite a nice guy."
"That's what I thought. When I first met him, Heero seemed like the only person who was less emotional than Trowa. But now, he acts just like a normal nice guy." Catherine paused to think for a brief moment, before continuing. "Do either of you know what made him change so suddenly?"
Again, Ami and Syaoran looked at each other before looking back at Catherine. When they were sure they had the redhead's full attention they motioned towards the soundly sleeping couple.
"She did?" Catherine asked in disbelief. Catherine looked more closely at the sleeping Sakura. "She is certainly beautiful," Catherine thought to herself. "But she must also be an exceptional person if she could break through that emotional wall Heero had constructed around himself."
"Sakura-chan is an amazing person," said Ami. "I'm not at all surprised it took someone like her to get through to Heero's human side."
"I also believe these two share a link that none of us will ever really be able to comprehend." Syaoran's last comment made everyone look once again at the sleeping couple, each wondering exactly what special bond the two possessed.
Shortly before the beginning of the five o'clock circus show, Heero slowly returned to consciousness. Blinking his eyes a few times to clear his head, Heero attempted to determine his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was Sakura shifting slightly against his chest. Heero gave a small smile to the sleeping girl and was enjoying the peace and quiet until he noticed the lights dim and saw the manager standing center stage announcing the beginning of the next show.
"Sakura-san. Sakura-san," whispered Heero as he gently nudged Sakura awake. Sakura's eyes fluttered open and she tilted her head upward to determine who had woken her. Innocent emerald eyes met intense cobalt ones as Heero and Sakura stared at one another. "Hi."
"Hi," answered Sakura in a sweet voice.
"The show is about to start. I thought you might want to go down and watch it without worrying about doing the effects."
"Thank you, Heero-kun. But is it okay if we just watch from here?" asked Sakura with her most cute and innocent expression on her face. Heero just smiled and nodded as he watched Sakura situate herself into a comfortable position in Heero's arms.
During intermission, Ami glanced over at the two empty front row seats next to her. "Should we go check on Sakura-chan and Heero-kun?" asked Ami as she turned to Syaoran who was seated next to her.
"Don't worry about them Ami-san," answered Syaoran. "Look," he said as he pointed to a small alcove at the back of the tent. Ami turned to where Syaoran was pointing and saw Sakura sitting in Heero's lap, laughing and clapping happily. "They have been awake since the beginning of the show."
"They look very happy together," commented Ami as she watched the two smiling and laughing together.
"They aren't the only ones," said Syaoran sweetly as he gently took Ami's hand into his own and gave her a gentle smile. Ami responded by smiling back before resting her head on Syaoran's shoulder.
"Heero-kun," said Sakura. "Look over there. Don't they look cute?" Heero looked to where Sakura was pointing at Syaoran and Ami sitting together holding hands.
"I think they were probably saying the same about us a minute ago." Sakura looked up at him with a confused look on her face. "I saw the two pointing up at us and talking just a moment ago." Sakura looked back down at Ami and Syaoran and saw that Ami was looking back up at Heero and herself. After making eye contact with the beautiful Senshi, Sakura gave a cheerful smile to Ami who returned Sakura's smile with one of her own and the two shared a giggle before cuddling a little closer to each of their respective boyfriends to watch the rest of the show.
Author's Notes:
This is the first time I introduced a character from one of the series' that wasn't one of my main ten. This will happen periodically throughout the entire story, but none of the characters besides my main ten will play any type of significant role.