Yay, an update!
Miku scratched gloomily around the flower on her cheek. It was the first one to bloom on her face.
Over the past few days, they had sprouted rapidly. Yellow flowers speckled her arms, shoulders, and legs. She could feel a few sprouting across her torso, itching beneath the thin material of her dress. She thought that if the peephole were uncovered, people would have no trouble believing that she belonged in the brown tent.
Adding to her distress were the dreams. She had them almost every night – and they always featured the beautiful pink-haired woman, the one who had the same eyes as the diva. There had been no nightmarish visions since the first one. Now the dreams were sweet, gentle things where the woman would caress her cheek or hold her hand. They were a welcome escape from the horrors of her waking hours.
But, last night, she dreamed of Meiko. In the dream, the ringmaster had warm brown eyes instead of the hard, reddish ones she had now. And those eyes had gazed upon the pink haired woman with such love, it broke Miku's heart to see the woman return that gaze. They two kissed as Miku watched, and she had woken up feeling even lonelier in the steel cage than ever before.
The tent flap opened. Miku looked up, hoping for a familiar face like Haku or Neru. Perhaps even Miki, although Miku hadn't seen her since that first night. Food and water were always left for her, but whoever brought it always came too late. A few times, Miku had even tried to stay awake to see, but the dreams had always called out to her.
But now it wasn't Neru, Haku, or Miki. Instead, all four clowns made their way into the tent.
"Alright, let's go, go, go!" Teto was chipper as ever. "Tei, you and I are going to grab the twins! Ruko and Ritsu, grab the beast! We'll come back for the diva."
"What's going on?" Miku looked around, but no one paid her any mind. Although she should have been used to it, Miku let out an annoyed sigh.
The clowns hefted the heavy cages on either side of her and lifted them onto wheeled carts. Kaito gave a little growl as his cage was disturbed. "Yeah, yeah," Ritsu huffed. "You know the rules. Snap at our fingers and we snap off yours."
Kaito bared his teeth at the clown, but made no move to attack as he was wheeled out of the tent flap.
Miku sat alone in her tent. Outside, she could hear the clowns chattering, and beyond them, there were even more voices.
Within a few minutes, Teto and Tei were wheeling their cart, empty again, back into the tent. "Alright! Up we go!"
The two clowns were fairly small, but they lifted Miku's cage with ease. She had to grab the bars to keep from falling over.
Things happened too quickly for her to register. When she was wheeled out of the tent, she had to throw up her arms to shield her eyes from the sun. The tattered brown tent was dim even during the day, and she had been there for what felt like a lifetime.
She adjusted quickly, though, and was able to lower her arms as the cart stopped rolling. "There we go." Teto and Tei lifted Miku's cage, setting it down on the dirt. Teto favored Miku with a wink. "Sorry we can't stay and chat, Miss Diva! We're a busy bunch today, yes, we are!"
Tei sighed and looked towards the twin's cage before following Teto off to the tattered brown tent, which Ruko and Ritsu were already dismantling.
Miku looked around. Her cage had been deposited next to the other two, near a large moving truck. Circus performers walked around, dressed in plain clothes and helping pack up the truck with props and collapsed tents. No one seemed to pay the three cages any mind, until a certain redhead approached.
"Hey, if it isn't the new diva! Settling in okay?" It was the fire breather, Cul. Her smile was decidedly cruel, and Miku was immediately on edge. Her mood was not the best, and Cul didn't look like she intended on fixing that.
Miku moved to the center of her cage, out of arm's reach in case Cul tried to grab at her. "Don't ask questions you already know the answer to," she huffed. Her own vitriol surprised her, and she had time to be grateful that the other didn't have her flames on her – unless those were magic, too.
But Cul didn't try burning her to a crisp. She just scowled. "So grumpy! You'd think you'd be a bit cheerier – aren't flowers supposed to get sunlight? If they leave you out long enough, you'll probably be ready to perform by the time we hit the next town." Pleased at having gotten in the last word, Cul cackled as she walked off.
Miku drew her knees to her chest, trying to ignore the feeling of petals beneath her fingertips when she did so. She couldn't tell if the flower on her leg was new or not; they were growing so fast now.
She looked around, trying to find a more friendly face. Haku and Neru were far away, helping to dismantle the large main tent. Miki was nowhere to be found. But, as she looked towards the fortune-telling tent, she saw Mew exit with her table and crystal ball.
"Mew!" The fortune teller looked up with vague surprise, as if she was not used to her name being called. Miku tried again. "Excuse me! Can you come here?"
Mew shuffled her feet for a moment, then started forward. Just the fact that the woman seemed to be listening to her was a bit of a relief.
"Thank you," she said as the fortune teller approached. "I need to talk to you."
Mew shook her head. "No, you don't." She seemed to look right through Miku, at something far away. "The gears of fate have already been set in motion. Talking to me cannot change their course."
After the strangeness that was a conversation with Haku and Neru, Miku found that the fortune teller actually made sense. "Fine, then. I want to talk to you."
Mew sighed. "Very well."
"You said – in the fortune telling tent – that I was getting closer to my soulmate. Have I met her – them, whatever – yet?" Miku sat up straight in her cage, trying to catch Mew's eyes and hold them. It was like trying to catch sand from outside of an hourglass.
"… It's difficult to say," Mew replied. "There has been … a transference." She looked down to her feet, beginning to mumble. "It is the way the tale must be told. It happens again and again and again, but … Somehow, a new chapter …"
"Please." Miku was relieved when the fortune teller looked up at the sound of her voice. "The … You talked about fate, before. Is this part of mine?"
"Oh, yes." Mew nodded. "This has been fated since before your birth … Little flower."
"Don't call me that!" She felt her hand going up to her cheek, where the fresh flower had bloomed, and stopped herself. "My name is Miku! I am not a flower, I am a girl!"
Mew looked at her for a long moment. "… Hold your name close to your heart," she said gently. "It is your name that holds your power."
Miku slumped a bit, hands wrapped loosely around the bars of her cage. "Meiko said that, too … But she holds all the power in this circus."
"That has always been true, but I wonder …" Finally, Mew seemed to look Miku directly in the eye, as though truly seeing her for the first time.
Miku perked up. "What do you mean?"
"Miku …" The sound of her name, coming from someone else's lips, made her feel oddly like crying. "You are not the first owner of your name. That owner had power … Power that could be transferred to you. Transferred to write a new story …"
"Tell me how!" Miku clung desperately to the bars of her cage, but she could see Mew's eyes going far away again. Her hands caressed her crystal ball absently.
"Transferred … Like the red thread. It is still shortening, still … Your intended grows closer with each passing day. I can see it, the meeting …" Her mind was far away again. She picked up her table and began to walk away.
"Wait!" Miku called after her, but Mew didn't turn around. She packed her things into the moving van and then wandered away, still muttering to herself.
Miku looked around. To her left, Kaito was hunched over in his cage, hiding his face from the light. To her right, Rin was whispering in Len's ear. When she saw Miku looking, she twiddled her fingers with a sly grin.
Eventually, the clowns came back, accompanied by Haku and Neru. "Alright, alright! All aboard!" Teto watched as the two tall women clambered into the moving van. "You guys are gonna have to squeeze real close, okay?"
That was about all the warning Miku got to being shoved in the back of a moving truck with the other two cages.
"That does it!" Teto brushed off her hands, squinting into the interior of the truck. "Let's close her up!" Together with the other clowns, she shut the door, plunging the cab into darkness. Miku felt her stomach lurch – trapped in the dark with such dangerous companions was much more terrifying than the brown tent.
Luckily, it wasn't dark for long. Haku lit a lantern, setting it carefully among the props and securing it with rope left over from one of the tents. Neru looked up at it, then turned to Miku.
"You were blessed by the word of the fortune teller," she said.
Miku shuffled, curling her legs under her as she looked up at the woman. "Yes."
Haku wrapped her long arms around her legs, leaning against the wall of the truck. "Were the workings of her mind clear to you?"
"… I haven't decided yet." The truck began to hum. Miku looked around at her new surroundings. "We're moving on to the next town – aren't we?"
It was Rin who answered. "Mhm! Ready for your grand debut?"
Miku remembered Cul's teasing. Somehow, though, she didn't have it in her to give Rin the same snark that had come out before. Instead, she quietly curled up on the floor of her cage, ignoring the aching in her joints. Sleeping on hard metal wasn't comfortable, especially for her strangely changing body.
"Rest now, little flower," Haku said.
Miku looked up. "I will if you'll agree to call me Miku," she said. "Little flower is her nickname for me – isn't it?"
Neru looked at her with an unreadable expression. "The name always changes," she said.
"Most hold the same name at the end," Haku said, her voice distant. "But you hold it from the beginning."
Miku contemplated this, as much as she could contemplate what seemed like nonsense. "That's right … And my name holds power. I don't know how yet, but it's true … Isn't it?"
Rin snorted. "Psh, you sound just as crazy as them." She gestured to the two tall women. Miku thought that Rin was hardly in a position to judge, but abstained from saying so. Rin was, after all, her neighbor, and she didn't want to think about what the girl could do to her if she got too close to the bars of her cage.
"Sleep now, Miku," Haku said, speaking gently.
"Power comes from sleep, too," Neru agreed.
Miku didn't know if that was true, but she was tired after trying to make sense of everything. Careful to lay on the side that had less flowers, she pillowed her cheek on her arm and closed her eyes.
When she opened them, the pink-haired woman was looking down fondly at a picture. Miku knew that it was of Meiko.
"You love her, don't you?" The words, coming from a script that she did not know, tasted bitter in her mouth. The woman looked up and smiled.
"Oh, yes." She set the picture down, caressing it. "Truly, it must be fate. We are connected by the red string."
Miku looked down at her feet. "If that is true," she whispered, "All of fate must be against me."
The woman's gaze turned questioning, worried. "Miku?"
"Please understand," Miku replied hurriedly. "I don't want you to feel badly. I cannot blame you for not returning my feelings – not when you have someone as beautiful as Meiko –"
"Miku, you're beautiful, too –"
"—but I can't pretend that my feelings do not exist," she continued, as if the other woman had not spoken. "Red string or not … I will always love you. Even if the sun was to vanish, and every star was to fall from the sky."
Tears threatened, then. But before they could overflow, the woman was holding her, and Miku was holding her back. And, despite everything, it was impossible to believe that there wasn't some longing in that embrace, especially with her ear pressed against the other woman's heart.
The dream began to fade, then, but before it did, she felt the other woman's name on her lips. She whispered it softly, longingly, as the feel of her embrace and the sound of her heartbeat faded away.
"Luka …"
The sound of her name echoed, following Miku into a deeper, dreamless sleep.
So, we have our latest chapter! This one has a lot of information, I think. It took me quite awhile until I was happy with that dream sequence, though! I look forward to hearing what you guys have to say about it :) Thanks for reading!
- Jillian Maria