Kiss: One Character Kisses the Other
At the end of the performance, Doll's mind was all adrenaline and cotton candy. She hopped-skipped-and-jumped along the path, where yellow lantern glow and strung faerie lights illuminated exotic beasts in cages, games of luck and skill, and vendors selling sweets and savories. Doll had seen it all a billion times, but she would never get sick of it. Just as she was passing the dark, box-like construction where "oddities" like two-headed lizards, wolfman footprints, fossilized monsters, and dragon scales were kept, a familiar voice stopped Doll in her tracks.
"Come look at this."
Doll grinned ruefully and shook her head, stepping into the attraction. "Smile, I know 'zactly what's in there, an' none of it's—"
A mouth covering Doll's, soft and wet in the musty dimness. Their lips molded against each other like clay. Doll's eyes closed and she felt every point of contact between her and the boy she was currently kissing:
Smile's hand spread like a fan on the small of her back.
His arm resting beside her own.
The touch of his knee against her bare thigh.
The slight curve of his hipbone under her left palm.
The whole kiss lasted fifteen seconds and consisted solely of their lips, rubbing together slow and soft. They eased apart, shivering, and sunk down against the dark clapboard wall behind them, unable to trust their legs to hold.
"Why?" Doll asked quietly; she was never speechless, but this was close.
"I've never kissed a girl before," The boy replied, and Doll imagined that he was looking at her through the gloom, smiling that little secret smile, "and I didn't think that I could do any better for my first time than a Princess."
Doll laughed, and Smile's hand found hers in the darkness, covering it with his slender fingers.
From the cobwebbed shadows of the attraction, one lizard watched them with four unblinking eyes.
.
.
.
Date: The Characters Go On a Date
The twist and curl of Smile's fingers through her own felt strange but pleasant. She gave him her brightest beam as they traipsed across the broad expanse of field at the edge of the circus.
"Don'tcha worry 'bout a thing, Smile," Doll reassured her friend, "They're slow an' gentle, like giant tortoises.
Smile wrinkled his nose, and Doll giggled. She hopped up the yellow-and-red painted steps, then looked down at her companion expectantly. "I'll...catch the next one," The boy said, one eyebrow raised in skepticism.
Doll shrugged, letting her disappointment roll off. "Suit yourself," she said, just before jumping atop the back of a passing elephant. Rather than sitting down on the plodding gray beast, Doll spread her legs out wide and straight as though she were on her accustomed tightrope, then slowly sank down to a split. Unlike most uneventful evenings, Doll was dressed in her circus finery: a spangled white leotard with a snowy fluff of tulle extending from the bottom, just barely brushing her thighs. It was the outfit she'd worn for practices, until she insisted upon doing them in tunics and trousers. Her off white thigh high stockings and leotard bottom took the bend and strain of the split with ease, unlike the resistance her trousers always gave.
From her sunken position, Doll looked over her bare shoulder to scold Smile for being such a wuss, but instead was taken aback. Smile was perched quite regally on the back of the elephant behind her, smirking in a way that clearly said, "I told you so."
"Thought you were scared of heights," Doll teased, glad to see her friend going along with this idea that he'd originally called ridiculous.
"No, I said I didn't like them," Smile replied archly, "I'm not scared of anything."
"Not anything?" Doll tilted her head. She pulled her legs to the front of her, curling up in a cannonball position.
"What's there to be scared of?" Smile returned, curiously solemn.
Doll's lips turned up as she melted back into a standing position on her elephant. "Nothin' I guess," She said, crossing the gray expanse of back in two long, graceful steps. Then, she took a flying leap across the gap, dodging distended ivory tusks and landing before Smile with a grand "Ta-da!"
"You're mad," Smile said as Doll sat back down, straightening her tulle. His arms wound around the freckled girl's midsection, as though to keep her pinned in place; as though to keep her from leaving him.