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Big Top Blues
cap'n coree
Fuu woke up feeling warmer then usual. An oddly familiar scent washed over her as she buried her face into an extremely hard, but warm pillow. Fuu wrapped her arms around it and squeezed it to try and fluff it out- and suddenly the pillow grunted.
"Wha?" Suddenly an arm sprouted from the pillow and wrapped itself around Fuu. She suddenly found herself trapped. "Who- mmfff?" She opened her eyes to see violent red fabric, familiar violent red fabric, but before she could do anything, Mugen was rolling on top of her, and a puddle of drool was drooping out of his mouth, and onto her head.
"OH- Mugen! GROSS! MUGEN!" She screamed, flailing her arms to beat against his back. This resulted in Mugen only opening his mouth more, till her whole cheek was sucked into it, while he mumbled in his sleep.
"Fuuzzz setttle down."
"SETTLE DOWN! MUGEN YOU'RE EATING MY FACE!"
"Theerrs no need-"
"NO NEED! MUGEN! YOU'RE SLOBBERING LIKE A DOG-"
"no need tooo gets to Nagi- Nagasaki.."
"Mugen..." Fuu growled, now pulling his hair to trying and get his mouth off of her face, "I swear if you don't get off of me right now I'll feed you to the lions.. MUGGGEN!"
Mugen opened his eyes to find that he wasn't sitting around the campfire with Jin and Fuu, and the tasty fish he had been eating was in reality, Fuu's cheek.
"Jeez Fuu." Mugen said, leaning upward, "I didn't know you were desperate enough to take advantage of me in my sleep."
"MUGEN, I- You- Wha- WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY TENT MUGEN!"
"Where else was I going to sleep?"
"Not here! You shouldn't even be here! These tents are for Circus employees only."
"Well, I am."
"What do you mean?" Fuu snapped, shoving Mugen off of her while whipping away the saliva smeared across most of her face.
"I work here."
"Oh really, since when?"
"Since last night. The man with the moustache told me this is my bunk too, ya know? Since there's nowhere else- and you and I are rather use to it-"
"I am not use to waking up to find my pillow slobbering on me."
"Feh, don't act like you didn't like it."
"Like being a chew toy for a dirty mutt like you?" Fuu shouted, jumping up, "Oh no. This is not going to happen. I'm not going to let it." Fuu pushed the tent flap open and marched out, skimpy white robe and all, treating Mugen to a rather intimate look at Fuu's bottom.
"Well, one things for sure," Mugen muttered, "those stage costumes sure killed Fuu's modesty.." Mugen stood, stretching slightly, when he noticed a small black book protruding from under Fuu's mat. Mugen squatted down, and pulled it out, grinning lecherously. He might not be able to read so well but he could sure try..
He flipped it open, browsing the pages for familiar words- nothing interesting catching his eye- when suddenly it fell open to a sketch Fuu had done.
It was poorly drawn perhaps, but Mugen could tell right away who it was suppose to be.
He stood under a doodled starry sky, and Fuu's interpretation of sunflowers sprang up here and there. His hair was messy. Messier then in real life, Mugen would like to say, and the sword strapped across his back was gone, but Mugen could tell who it was meant to be. It was him, gazing at the cartoon sky, and scribbled beneath it was a tiny note about a dream Fuu had. Mugen could only make out some of the words.
'Dreamt'
'Mugen'
It was all rather endearing to think that Fuu still thought about him. No matter how eager she was to get him out of her tent, Mugen was still nestled deeply in Fuu's subconscious. Mugen closed the journal and shoved it gently back under the mattress, before exiting the tent.
It wasn't hard to locate Fuu. You could hear her howling from quite a ways off.
"HOW COULD YOU-"
"AND LOOK WHAT I'M DRESSED IN-"
"YOU COULD HAVE ATLEAST WARNED ME-"
"NO ABSOLUTLEY NOT-"
"I WON'T!"
Mugen found her clutching the velvet vest of the short fat man with the top hat. She was nearly lifting him of the ground, and the poor man was standing on his tip-toes to keep his hold on the ground.
"Ko- Fuu. You know there are no spare tents. And you know this man, do you not? Please- it will only be a little while, before other arrangements can be made-"
"IT'S MY TENT-"
"Fuu, be reasonable!"
"HE SLOBBERED ON ME!"
"What's a little spit between friends?" Indeed, in Fuu's enraged state, she was spitting quite a bit on the poor ringmasters face. "We can get a spare mat- we do have a few of those.."
"I-"
"Fuu," Mugen interrupted, "Honestly, all the times we slept together and you're freaking out now." Fuu dropped the tiny round man and he shot Mugen a look of adoration as he backed up, away from Fuu, as if she were a rabid wolf.
"Mugen, you had no right to come into my tent! It's mine! A girl needs her privacy." Fuu said, smoothing out the robe so it didn't bunch to reveal anything. Mugen shrugged.
"Like there's anything I'd be interested in in that tent."
"Well then, you can just keep out of it."
"And where exactly am I suppose to sleep?"
"He can sleep in my tent." A voice piped up from the gathering crowd. Suddenly a woman dressed in a billowing red skirts and a brassier made of coins that jingled with every step made her way through the crowd. Ripples of silver ran down the bra as they bounced off one another, drawing attention to her already eye-catching figure. "Honestly, you can't blame Fuu, it's not like she knows how to deal with men."
Fuu shot the woman a scathing look, usually reserved for Mugen, and snorted.
"I'm sure you know all about men, Isabella."
"It takes a real women to know how, doesn't it Madame Ko." the woman shot back, her rouge painted lips lacing every word with venom.
"You take that back! Fuu is more of a lady then you'll ever be!" Valjean yelled, stepping forward and taking Fuu's arm. "Just because she doesn't-"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" the ringmaster hollered, "I won't have my circus torn apart like this. Isabella, I suspect you have volunteered just to agitate Fuu, and I won't allow that. Fuu, you're the one who knows him. Why should you force him to sleep in a strangers tent?" The ringmaster asked, giving Fuu a pleading look.
"Fine, whatever." Fuu huffed, looking away from the crowd and towards Valjean who was fuming.
"Al-"
"Valjean that's enough. If you believe Fuu to be the lady you said, then you will trust her."
"It's not her I doubt."
Mugen sneered in his direction and the crowd began to disperse, pretending as if they were never there to begin with.
"Are you alright, Fuu?" Valjean whispered, his hand still resting on her arm.
"I'm fine." she pouted, glaring at the ground. Isabella sashayed over to Mugen, wrapping an arm around his waist as she leaned upward.
"If she throws you out come find me, eh?" she whispered loud enough for Fuu to hear, then began to walk away.
"Sure, no problem."
"Oh and Fuu," she called over her shoulder, "that's a real nice outfit, but I don't think you quite pull it off. Better keep your girlfriend on a leash Valjean, she's running around the whole settlement showing everyone her privates-"
Valjean looked ready to scream when Fuu poked him in the side and shook her head.
"We've called enough attention to ourselves, me in particular. I'd like to go get dressed now if that's alright."
"She's just jealous you know-"
"Valjean-"
"Lady Elizabeth would never teach her-"
"Valjean…"
"She was always difficult, and bad tempered.."
"VALJEAN!"
"What, Fuu? It's rude to interrupt."
"I really want to be alone right now.."
"Oh, I see." Valjean said, looking as if she'd just stomped on his heart. Fuu excused herself stiffly, and began to speed-walk back to her tent.
"Hey you," Mugen called to the retreating mousy haired boy tried to weasel away. He froze, the bravely turned to face Mugen. "What are you to Fuu, exactly?"
"Anyzing she wants me to be," he replied before taking off in the opposite direction, leaving Mugen to puzzle over his words, their meaning, and exactly what fucking accent that was he spoke.
"He's a Frenchmen." the ringmaster said, approaching Mugen from behind. He had slipped off for a moment, evidently to fetch a large broom and a bucket. "Here you'll be needing these." He shoved them into Mugen's arms. "I, myself, am Italian born, as is that viper Isabella. There are a few cultures mixed in our melting pot of a circus. Fuu is the first Oriental, however- and you are?"
"Mhn." Mugen replied, not wanting to unload his life story at the moment.
"Alright, alright, I get the point. Not everyone wants to talk about where they came from I suppose. What's more important is where you're heading, and you, my friend are heading to the animal tent over yonder." He motioned to a large tent next to the show tent, "By the way, my name is Alfredo, Al for short. Welcome to Big Al's Circus."
"And what exactly am I suppose to do with these?"
"Why, pick up after the animals of course. There's a man named Jet, he'll help you out." With that the squat man scurried off, looking like a rolling tomato in his red vest and slacks. Mugen was left staring at the broom and bucket in his hands.
"Clean up what exactly.." he asked aloud, but he knew.
He just didn't want to think about that- there were some pretty large animals, and he knew what that meant…
"What a load of shit!" he cursed, "They stuck me with the worse job!"
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Well there you go. Hope you liked it. Valjean's name is pronounced Valjohn. Like in les miserable, the hero John Valjean. Or Jean Valjean? I've always loved the name. It just sounds nice rolling of the tounge, and the only other distinctive French name I could come up with was Pierre. And he just didn't seem like a Pierre to me.