Helloooo this is a small fic about my comfort movie, please enjoy.

Chapter 1

"Ok, what letter is this? Come on you can do it, dear"

It was one warm summer evening, half an hour before the performance, so everyone just minded their business doing whatever they wanted. In that case, Rosie the Black Widow was more than determined to teach her "ferocious beast", Dim the Rhino Beetle, how to read. Unfortunately, he had no fingers to write with, but at least reading, that would've been useful . She had got a soft spot for the beetle and didn't want him to be treated as an animal.

Dim narrowed his eyes, trying to remember the symbols other bugs used to write words, Rosie had been kind to him since they met, when she joined the Circus and he was still in a sort of semi wild state, in a cage and everyone was scared of him.

"Uhm… B?" he smiled hopefully, but Rosie shook her head "No, that's a D" Dim immediately dropped his smile, mumbling about being sorry, the spider dismissed the apology

"Nothing to be sorry about, you're doing great! You learned five letters this week and it's ok to get one wrong" she gave him a motherly look. Dim still felt a little sad for not being good at learning fast like other bugs, he tried his best because Rosie was so kind and he wanted to make her happy.

"Do you know what starts with D?"

"What?"

Rosie smiled and wrote her beetle's name on the leaf "You already know these two letters, try reading it"

D… I… M, he processed a little then beamed up "Name?" he used his right foreleg to point at himself, Rosie clapped "Yes, your name! Good job, you learned your first full word!"

Hearing this, the blue beetle grinned wide, bumping his horn on Rosie's whole body while chuckling happily and then enjoying a full minute of cuddling and headpats from his tamer's light hands. They soon returned to the tent where the rest of the troupe was also going back to.

"You missed the new bar's dewdrops, they were great" Francis said, sipping the drop in his little hand, while Heimlich had all his six arms filled with grain and berries Ja he chimed "Look all zis gud stuff zhey got? Vat jou've been up to?"

"Oh, you know, the usual, teaching this big boy how to read since no one ever did so"

"Dim learn letters of own name" his deep voice followed, he was proud of his accomplishment, also he let out a happy animalistic chirp when Heimlich handed over a piece of berry for him

"Gud boy" the caterpillar could spare one for the gentle giant he was once frightened of, much to his happiness.

"Well, I'm sorry to interrupt your chit chatting here"

Everyone turned to see the Ringmaster, PT Flea, standing on the entrance, impatient as always "But may i remind you that we begin in FIVE MINUTES. So you'd all better go prepare yourself for tonight's act. NOW"

That evening they had the clowns first, which only pulled away a couple laughs from the younger flies and Francis almost threw a fit with one of them calling him a lady, Slim had to hold him back from doing so. Then Manny and Gypsy had their magic number, the Moth had to resist the urge to throw someone a pebble because of unwanted whistling and "compliments", but she was a Lady with dignity, so she just ignored and smiled through everything.

Last act consisted of the Pill Bugs Twins, Tuck and Roll, Dim and Rosie. First, Dim had to pretend he was still ferocious, Rosie would tame him, then the acrobats would do their tricks landing on the tip of his horn.

"Back! Go back now!" Rosie smacked the whip on the ground while the beetle roared and snarled, charging a couple times only for the spider to spin a web and pull herself on the opposite side.

Just like they did when playing catch the first days Rosie befriended him, he wanted to grin and be the playful soul he was but didn't want the act to blow.

"That's it, now down! Stay down!" Rosie ordered while the Hungarian pill bugs appeared on the trapeze doing some tricks.

Everything was going smoothly… Except for the trapeze rope which snapped while the twins were still in mid air, PT never cared about replacing the now old ropes. With a yelp, they lost grip and fell down.

"Little friends!" Dim yelped, buzzing high enough for them to land on his back and not face on the ground. They both checked each other to see if they were alive and then happily spoke their gibberish language while giving headpats and back rubs to their giant savior who started to chuckle due to their hyperactive and thankful affection.

"HEY!" A fly stood up from the seat "That beetle ain't feral! Scammers!" The crowd started booing them, which made Dim's smile drop and replaced with utter disbelief.

What did he do wrong? He saved his friends from getting cracks in their small shells or worse, he looked for Rosie's eyes to ask what went wrong, he had to catch them, right?

Then something stung his eye as a piece of raspberry hit him in the eye, the acid in the fruit burned his eye resulting in a loud cry and wailing for the pain.

The twins, despite not understanding most of what their friends said, didn't want them to feel bad, so they both curled up in balls and bounced to the fly who had threw the raspberry piece, slapping him with all their hands and yelling stuff.

…

"YOU HAD ONE JOB! ONE. JOB" PT's voice roared from the backstage at the end of the act, Rosie ended up in trouble for the whole fiasco.

"What was i supposed to do? Let Tuck and Roll splat on the ground?!"

"Tame that beetle! I get it why you named him Dim, because he's dim-witted and a pathetic excuse for a beast"

While PT was yelling at Rosie, Dim's eye was taken care by Gypsy who used a wet flower petal to clean it up "Look at what those pesky flies did to you. How could someone want to hurt such a pure bug like you" She whispered, wiping away the stingy juice.

"Bunch of rude, illiterate and born with no respect bugs, that's who!" Manny hissed, furious that they had catcalled his beloved wife.

"Dim caught friends from falling. What did wrong?" his deep voice grumbled between sobs.

"Nothing! You did what a good friend would do" The moth shushed him, then Slim gave him a headpat "This isn't the first time we get booed on stage. Probably won't be the last…" He rolled his eyes "But we stick together no matter what… Got it? Stick!"

Dim thought about it for a minute and then made an "Ohhhh…" getting the pun, giggling right after.

Once the pain had faded, he stood up and approached PT's office to support Rosie after the scolding.

"Yeah, I KNOW. It's difficult, and sometimes i think i'm never going to make it because, despite being adult, his mind is still childlike" Rosie's angry voice made Dim's antennae rise a little.

"It's quite the heavy burden on my shoulders"

Burden…

Burden…

Burden…

Dim was smart enough to know what that word meant, his mouth hung open as he felt tears surging to his eyes again, but that was no physical pain.

He turned around from the tent and galloped away crying out loud, while the two pill bug's little heads poked from behind the wagon.

They had stole Heimlich's berries to give to their savior, but he was running away now? Where? They both spoke to each other, curled up and bounced behind him. They may not understand words, but feelings? They'd try.