Disclaimer: As of….forever, I do not, nor ever will * pouts * own Gundam Wing
The manager did not look pleased at what he saw. This girl had come to join the circus, an interesting character but one that didn't look like would be of any use in a circus.
"So," he began frowning at the paper she had handed him, (which didn't tell him a bloody thing) "Now do have any USEFULL talents?"
Dorothy wanted to snort but she was trying to get a job
here, being rude would only be a hindrance. She coughed, "Well, sir, I don't
have any performing skills that would be needed in a circus, but I work quite
well with any miscellaneous tasks that would need to be done. Like paperwork,
making arrangements, things like that I suppose."
The manager considered this for moment. The paperwork involved for moving from
colony to colony and all around the globe was extremely great. Taxes and all
kinds of agreements had to be signed before they could sell tickets and a plot
of land had to be rented. Which created a massive pile of boring paper work for
the manager. He scratched his head and stared at the young lady sitting across
from him. If she was WILLING to do all that paperwork as her job, that meant he
could do other important things. Besides, there were a few jobs that were needed
backstage. "How well can you do make up?"
Dorothy raised an eyebrow, "I can manage," she answered.
The manager was still not convinced, but still, "I suppose you've got the job. Miss Bennit,"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Trowa entered the circus tent just in time to see the manager reach across the makeshift desk to shake hands with an UFP (unidentified female person). The manager looked to Trowa and smiled, "Miss Bennit, I would like you to meet Trowa Barton. Trowa this is Miss Dorothy Bennit."
The instant the two of them locked eyes Trowa felt like a ton of bricks had dropped on his head. He had seen those eyes before. Those intense eyes that looked like the sea before a storm. Her face was pale, and her features were very regal, like someone royal. She had on a simple outfit. One that might be worn when going to an important barbeque. Looked nice but was serviceable. A light blue skirt and a simple short-sleeved blouse, that complimented her quite well. After a moment of staring Trowa got himself together and extended his hand. She in turn place her own, slender hand in his, giving it a firm squeeze before pulling back. "Pleasure to meet you," she practically whispered.
Trowa nodded; there was something so familiar, yet so different. The manager looked at them like they were something out of the Twilight Zone. The two of them had both shown up, out of nowhere and asked for a job. Now it appeared that they knew each other! What next, a secret love affair, and an insanely jealous lover showing up?! Even for a circus, this was weird. Before he could say anything the phone rang and he rushed to pick it up, thankful for an excuse to get out of the awkward moment.
Dorothy smiled up at him quickly, and rushed past him. She knew that face. He was Quatre's friend. The one from Libra. Him. Dorothy bit her lip to keep from crying out from the images his face brought up. This damned man had haunted her dreams for years, and now it would be her waking moments too! Now she would be forced to live with memories she had tried hard to forget, now he would be the constant reminder of her pain. Without a word she walked quickly. No idea where she was going, she was just going….somewhere. Away from him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Trowa stood where he was for a moment, too stunned to do anything. Reality came back to him, though, as he heard his lion purr slightly. Someone had to be petting HIS lions. For anyone working in this particular circus, it was a fact of nature that you never EVER touched the lions without Trowa's permission. They were his pride and joy, his babies. More often than healthy one could find Trowa, reading a book of some sort to the lions. It really was a problem, but hey, it was circus. Freaks were welcome.
Trowa jogged briskly toward the cages not far from his current location. Upon arriving he nearly fell over at the sight that greeted him. The new girl, was just sitting there, stroking his lions, like they were little kittens. Before he could open his mouth to tell he to get lost and leave his babies alone he took a second to analyze the scene before him. Although many other people have petted his lions before never, had ever heard them purr for anyone else. She also looked like she belonged with them. Instead of saying something rude or cruel, he plopped down beside her and began to stroke the beast along side her.
"Not as ferocious as most people think, are they?" he asked quietly, like he wasn't even acknowledging her.
She nodded, "No they're not, at least not now anyway. They have no reason to be. I'm simply just giving them a little attention, he nor I have any reason to be unpleasant toward each other."
Trowa recognized this manner, this way of speaking. Fire hidden in ice. Everything hit him at once. The face, the hair, the demeanor, but most of all, the eyes. Dead and alive all at once, the pure contradiction that made her façade perfect for her true self. He couldn't help but remember the single time he had met her face to face. Where the façade broke and fell away and she was there exposed like a newborn child. And he had attacked her like the predator he was.
"Is that how you live your life these days? Duchess Catalonia?"
Dorothy's head snapped up from staring at the lion and she stared at him like a deer caught in headlights. Her breathing became labored like she just finished a marathon. Her lungs felt like her ribs were tightening around them. "How do know who I am?"
Trowa didn't bother to answer, as he doubted she wanted one.
She went back to the lion, talking more to it than to Trowa, "Why is it the few words you ever say always have to inflict some kind of pain?"
Trowa's hand stopped. She could be just as cruel as he was. He had been tired of causing pain during the war and now she had to remind him of the suffering he had created. His hand resumed its motions. He started it.
"Please, keep this to yourself. I'm not the Duchess anymore. I have discarded my title and name and life. Don't make me start over. Again."
"You solve your problems by running from them? That fixes nothing. I would have thought you'd know that."
Dorothy scowled. "I do not run from my problems. I have faced them. And they destroyed what was left of the, 'Duchess'. My problems died and she along with them. It was a battle with no survivors. But like most things in nature," she paused to smile cynically, "the dead pave a new and better way for a new and better being." Dorothy turned to him, "Can you realize that?"
"Why the circus?"
Dorothy chuckled, "I've never been to a circus. Grandfather wouldn't allow it. He said, it was below me to be entertained like the general public."
Trowa didn't say anything, he couldn't, the manager had appeared. He looked at the two of them, just sitting, petting two lions like it was no big thing. "Well," he began. "Miss Bennit, it seems that we will be able to get you your own trailer in a few days, you start working tomorrow, and for now do mind sharing with Trowa since the two of you seem to have gotten to know each other fairly quickly?"
Dorothy shook, "If that is alright with Mr. Barton, it will be fine with me."
Trowa nodded his consent. And the manager continued on about some of the details of her new job, not caring that Trowa was there. "And Miss Bennit."
"Just Dorothy, please."
"Dorothy, in addition, to doing the paperwork, would you
mind helping make-up? We're short a few members for that."
She shrugged. "That's fine with me."
"Great. Trowa will introduce you to the rest of the family."
"Family?" Dorothy asked, a little taken aback.
Trowa nodded, "We consider ourselves one large family. Everyone works, everyone helps, and everyone cares. Like a family," he declared. Dorothy smiled to herself. This would be paradise. ~A family! One that cares! ~
After a minute, the manager left and Trowa stood up taking Dorothy's hand. "Let's get going, Miss Bennit, we have a VERY large family for you to meet."
~*~*~*~*~
They're first stop was no doubt to meet Trowa's biological sister, Catherine. The pair found her by her trailer hanging up laundry.
"Sis, I'd like you meet Dorothy Bennit."
Catherine squealed and pulled Dorothy into an embrace. "It's so nice to meet you! It's nice to see my baby brother finally getting a girlfriend," Catherine continued chattering about such things related to relationships with Trowa, what she would be allowed to do with him and where and not to be oversensitive to his lack communication… While Trowa's visible eye seemed to start to twitch. Dorothy was to dumbfounded to say anything. Finally, Catherine took a breath and turned to her brother. "Do you want to say something, Trowa?"
He nodded affirmative. "She's not my girlfriend. She's the newest member of our family," he stated like he was listing of weaponry.
"Oh," Catherine blushed and laughed nervously, "Well I've just made an ass of myself, then haven't I? Well it's great to meet you anyway!" she corrected just as enthusiastically. "So what is it that you'll be doing with us?"
Dorothy looked down, ashamed simply because, well, how did one say they worked in the circus as the secretary? "I, well I will be working as sort of the secretary, to put it in lame men's terms."
Catherine and Trowa shared a look before Catherine hugged
her again. "That's great!"
"What?" Dorothy asked a little confused
by both, the comment and the sudden hug.
"You see, with someone who would actually understand what they were doing with the paperwork it wouldn't have to be double-checked, and then there wouldn't have to be schedule. That has to be the most noble job around!"
Dorothy looked at Trowa who almost seemed to be chuckling. "Well, then, if it eases the work of everyone else of my new family, then it would be my pleasure to do it," she replied smiling.
Catherine squealed again, this time taking her to meet all the females of the troupe. Each hugging her welcoming her, giving advice, and coming along to help introduce her to everyone else. By the time Dorothy had met everybody, she was ready to fall into bed. With a half hearted smile plastered onto her face, (Simply because it wouldn't go away since she met Cathy) she stumbled back to Trowa's trailer. He was inside watching TV.
"So what'd ya think of everyone?" he asked nonchalantly.
She practically fell onto the couch next to him. "They are all wonderful. I wonder though, how someone as quiet as you could possible be related to Cathy. I have never heard one person talk that much!"
This time he did chuckle. "Welcome to my world."
Dorothy looked at him quizzically for a moment, as if studying his every feature. "You speak a lot more than people give you credit for."
Trowa tried to pay more attention to the pathetic commercial, but he lost a battle of wills and spoke up. "I speak when I feel the need." A pause. "How would you know what I'm like anyway?"
Dorothy would have loved to mock him, say something sarcastic like she used to with Relena. But she couldn't. "You are not a fake person. You only smile when you are truly happy. You smiled a lot today."
The two of them looked at each other. They almost came closer together when something happened. It must have been something else starting on the TV or a change in the wind, because suddenly both of them snapped apart. Trowa got up, "I'll go change the sheets on the bed."
"No way, this is your home, you sleep in your bed, I will
sleep on the couch," she stated firmly. "And I can make it up myself."
Trowa frowned but deep down somewhere he smiled. She had called his trailer his
home. True the circus was his home and everyone knew that. But only the actual
performers referred to their trailers as homes. Still what would Cathy think
when she came in the next morning to see his 'guest' sleeping on the couch. She
defiantly be upset and he wouldn't hear the end of it. "No. You are a guest,
YOU sleep in the bed, I will fix it up for you. Understood?" he said using his
firmest voice, the one he used when reprimanding the younger children of the group.
"Most certainly not. I would not dream of you being forced from your bed so I can sleep a little more comfortably. I refuse."
"This is not a debate."
"I agree, you will sleep on your bed, I will sleep on your couch."
"No. You will sleep in my bed, I will sleep on my couch."
She didn't say anything for a moment. "Well, Mr. Barton, I see that we are debating. Also, that you are extremely talkative and out of character."
Trowa bit his lip to keep from muttering obscenities of various meanings and origins. ~ How is it that a moment ago we were almost kissing now… Wait, kissing!!! No that's not right… ~ He shook his head. "Fine, but I will make up the couch for you."
"Fine," she answered smugly. "I'm glad we could agree."
Trowa walked off mumbling after telling her where the bathroom was so she could freshen up.
~*~*~*~*~
Dorothy watched him for a moment. What had happened when she first entered the trailer? She saw him and thought about how hot he looked. That wasn't even the scary part. When she sat down, very close to him, she almost completely forgot that she wasn't supposed to like him, and that he represented the war she trying so hard to forget. But then she suddenly remembered, remembered that he was no one to get close to. He probably did the same.
Heading toward the bathroom, she sighed. This was going to be a long few days. If she was lucky, though, she would win the many more arguments they would probably have.
~*~*~*~*~
AN: Okay, so um what'd think? Review, PLEASE!!!
