Again with some excuses! I am so sorry that I haven't posted any new chapters but here is some more updates. (: Please don't kill me with your spoons of evil!
Cirque du La Terre
Chapter XXI
There was complete and utter silence. A pale hand ran its long fingers down an ocean blue silk hanging from the ceiling of the big top, letting its owner's senses remember the feel of the soft fabric, how it felt wrapped around her arms and legs, how it flowed like water one minute and stretched taunt like a rope the next. The big top was empty, illuminated by a lone spotlight that Bee had turned on when she sneaked inside. Everyone else was asleep in their tents, dreaming their troubles away and rejuvenating their energy. Bee could only see what the spotlight chose to show. Everything else was bathed in an inky black that set Bee on edge as her eyes looked around, making sure she was alone.
Excited eyes gazed up the length of the fabric. A driving urge wriggled under Bee's skin to climb up that silk, even though her arm was not in the best condition to hold her weight just yet. She had had to suffer for weeks on the ground, unable to hoist herself high above the crowd where she belonged. Without thinking, Bee kicked off her shoes and socks, bare feet touching the thick mat. A shiver ran down her spine as she gripped the silk tight with her right hand, skin tingling with anticipation. She'd climbed up a silk one-handed before when she first began her training was just testing to see what she could do, she could do it again. Bee split the silk and wound her right foot around the blue fabric so that it held on like a harness to her foot. She used the toes of her left foot like fingers and, very monkey like, she slowly ascended the silk.
A small grunt escaped her lips as she climbed, left hand reflexively flying to grip the other side of the silk. Bees sighed and continued up the silk, only really using her left arm to grip and not pull herself up. She managed to make it halfway up before feeling the strain in her shoulders, muscles quivering from not being used in weeks. Bee slowly lowered herself down, wincing once her feet touched the ground.
"Ow," she said, rotating her shoulders. "I'll not be doing that again soon." Suddenly she heard a noise like the sound of footsteps softly to her left. Bee turned her head and squinted into the darkness, trying to make out the figure hiding in the shadows.
"Longshot?" she asked, wondering if her boyfriend had followed her into the tent. A lithe figure stepped out of the shadows, far too feminine to be Longshot.
"Not hardly," Cinnamon said, stepping into the spotlight. "You know you're not supposed to be doing that." Bee frowned and placed her hands on her hips.
"Why are you spying on me?" she asked, eyebrow arched. Cinnamon laughed and shook her head.
"Not spying," she said. "Just wondering why our newly recovered aerialist is sneaking off to the big top when everyone is supposed to be sleeping." Bee sighed and removed her hands from her hips, bringing one up to brush her bangs backwards.
"I just wanted to feel it again," she said. "These weeks have been absolute torture." Cinnamon smiled a mysterious smile and sauntered forward.
"Just make sure you stay safe for Longshot's sake," she said, walking behind Bee to run her long fingers down the silk. Bee turned around and crossed her arms.
"Thanks for the concern," she said, albeit sarcastically. Cinnamon laughed again and walked around the dangling silk, hand stroking it as she made her circle. Bee felt uncomfortable. She didn't know Cinnamon well, except that Longshot spoke to her often and that she and Katara hated each other for at least three days a week. Cinnamon looked over at Bee with her piercing eyes and walked away, returning to the direction she had come from. Bee just looked after her with confusion, wondering what just happened.
Just when she thought she was finally alone, she felt a hand lightly touch the small of her back. With a squeal she jumped and whirled around to take on a very ninja-like stance, only to face a defensive Longshot holding his hands up in surrender.
"Woah there Jackie Chan," Longshot said, taking in Bee's form with amused eyes. Bee laughed nervously and reverted to a more casual stance.
"Don't do that," she said. "I just had a creepy encounter with Cinnamon. I don't need anyone else freaking me out." Longshot gave Bee a questioning look and then shook his head, as if deciding against asking about it. Instead he wound his arms around Bee waist and rested his forehead against Bee's, looking into her eyes.
"Why are you in here?" he asked. Bee placed her arms around Longshot's neck and stared into his black orbs.
"I could ask you the same thing."
"You know you're not supposed to be doing this again just yet," Longshot said seriously. Bee sighed and stepped back a little, creating space between them. Longshot watched Bee, trying to read the emotions going through her eyes. Bee seemed to give up and pull away all together, slipping away from Longshot's hands.
"My arm is fine," Bee fibbed. "I'm just tired of waiting around. Why should I wait any longer to do what I'm here for if I'm perfectly fine?" Longshot caressed Bee's cheek.
"We just want to make sure you won't hurt yourself again," he said. "For now, you just need to stay in the shadows with me." Bee frowned, noting the small note of selfishness in Longshot's tone.
"I don't want to be in the shadows. I want to be out there again and do what I'm meant to do!" Bee threw her arms up and Longshot stared at her like he'd just been shot, slightly caught off guard by the sudden outburst.
"So helping out around here is just waiting?" Longshot asked, venom lacing its way through his words. "You don't want to be in the shadows like me? You don't want to be an outcast like me?"
"Longshot, that's not what I-"
"I know what you meant Bee," Longshot said, crossing his arms. "Now you know exactly how I feel." Bee looked stricken and her head swirled to find a proper emotion. She could feel the tension seize up her jaw and her head pound from increasing irritation.
"Fine then," she said, stepping closer to Longshot. "Yeah, I do feel like an outcast. It feels terrible to see all of your friends out there, having the time of their lives when you have to sit behind a light board or stand beneath a pulley. But how can you possibly know how I feel? You've never even been out there in the first place!"
"Of course I haven't!" Longshot exclaimed. "I don't know how it feels to have every eye on you, gazing in awe as you perform amazing feats. I don't know how it feels to be admired and looked at like something more than human!" They stared at each other in anger, sparks flying between them like metal against a blade.
"I know exactly how it feels to be human, Longshot," Bee said viciously. "I certainly didn't feel invincible when I broke my arm."
"Well now it's healed, so you can go back to your tricks and your adoring fans," Longshot said, scathing. "Don't even worry about me. I'll just stay in the shadows where I belong."
"What is with this attitude Longshot?" Bee yelled, face contorting in rage. "I'm sick and tired of it! Get over yourself and stop putting on this pathetic persona every time anyone talks about performing!" Longshot clenched his fists and growled, unable to say anything. Instead he turned, not looking back at the furious Bee as he exited the tent, boiling with rage.
Bee yelled into the air and kicked at the ground, only slightly feeling the pain as toe hit the hard surface. After a few moments though, Bee's rage was replaced with confusion, followed by sympathy and then fear. What had she done?
The next few days were dark ones. Everyone in the Cirque could feel the tension in the air. Nobody spoke to Bee and Longshot. To even go near them seemed like suicide. They stayed as far away from each other as possible. When the time came for the big top performances at night, Bee stayed cooped up in her tent alone, clutching The Duke in her hands as she tried to think up ways to fix this terrible problem. Longshot however immersed himself in his anger and performed all of his tasks with a vengeance, each one reminding him of their arguments with a painful gut wrench.
Suki was the first to talk to Longshot, only mildly afraid of his current emotions.
"She basically told me that I was an outcast!" Longshot exclaimed, pacing in his tent as he vented to Suki, who sat uncomfortably on his cot. "She knows how I feel about that! How dare she complain when she'll be back to the silks within the week?" Longshot stomped to his cot and plopped down, the cot bouncing violently with the force. Suki furrowed her brow.
"Have you talked to her since you guys fought?" she asked. Longshot looked at her as though she were insane; as if that were the stupidest question she could ask.
"Of course not!" he said, leaping back to his feet to continue his pacing. He clutched a pillow to his chest, the only thing keeping him from throwing things across the tent. "I know what her feelings are. Why should she be with me, the mere help."
"Now you know that's not how she feels," Suki said sternly. "Nobody feels that way about you, Longshot. I don't know where you get this idea that you're beneath us. If anything you're superior to us all. Without you this circus would fall apart." Longshot stopped in his tracks and looked ahead, as if having a great debate with himself.
"I know," he said dejectedly. "I just want to be like you guys so badly."
"Then do it," Suki said, standing up. "There's nothing that has stopped you all these years but yourself. If you'd push your damn pride out of the way for once, you could just do what you want to do. Take Bee up on her offer, learn what she can do." Longshot turned and looked at Suki. She gave him a small smile and shrugged. "What's the worse than can happen?"
Meanwhile, Cinnamon tried to talk some sense into Bee, which was proving to be very difficult indeed.
"I don't want to hear it, Cinnamon," she said, glaring at her. She tapped her foot impatiently from her position at the entrance of Bee's tent, blocking it so that Bee couldn't get in.
"But you've got to," she said. "Longshot's an absolute brute right now and you have to fix it." Bee 'hmphed' and lightly shoved Cinnamon out the way with her shoulder, stalking into her tent. Cinnamon followed her with her hands on her hips, lips pursed. Bee stood in the middle of the tent for an awkward moment before apparently deciding to make her cot. Cinnamon just watched in silence as the flustered girl neatly folded her blanket and smoothed her pillows.
"Are you finished?" she asked, eyebrow arching sharply. Bee admired her work with a scowl and whirled around to face Cinnamon.
"I'm not talking to him," she said, heart racing. "He's the one with the attitude problem. He can come apologize to me." Cinnamon rolled her eyes.
"Fine. But if you two don't get your act together, Iroh will be all over this, and that's never a good thing." She turned on her heel and exited the tent, leaving Bee to brood. If she were a cartoon, steam would be gushing from her ears.
"Longshot has to apologize to me," Bee muttered to herself, flopping onto the neatly made cot, causing it to wrinkle and be messy once more. "I'm not the wrong one here."
Suki left Longshot's tent with a sigh, not entirely sure she had helped in the slightest. She spied Cinnamon exiting Bee's from across the way. She lengthened her stride to catch up to her.
"Any luck?" she asked once she had caught up with the girl. Cinnamon let out a sigh and shrugged.
"They're both very stubborn," she said. "I don't know how this is going to turn out." Suki frowned.
"Well, they better kiss and make up soon. They're both acting like complete idiots." Cinnamon chuckled. They both went their separate ways, praying that Bee and Longshot could work this mess out, and soon.