*Note: This is a "filler" chapter because I didn't want to post one-shots rooting from this story and add to the 17? story count I have going so far so I decided to add it here. Its just a little snippet not at all related to the main plot of this fic so you can read it if you like but you won't really miss anything if you don't. Anyhow thanks for reading.

Happy reading! And reviewing if you like ;)

Whenever Dr. Hino passed, both Heero and Trowa couldn't help but follow her with their eyes until she disappeared behind a door or a wall. It had become an annoying habit but soldiers so accustomed to unveiling truth could not simply wait for secrets to come forth, they always just had the urge to act. Duo had been gone for some time now, investigating a link between Haruka and Rei if there was one, which they were certain there was. Still, Dr. Hino hid it well never again acknowledging the presence of the felines or their so called blonde owner. She must have been tipped off.

"She's quite attractive," Trowa commented out of nowhere.

Immediately Heero looked at him as if he was an alien only to see Trowa was still casually skimming through historical documents. He half expected Duo's face to pop up and replace Trowa's, but it was not so. With an inward frown, Heero grunted.

"I guess."

Of course he had noticed Dr. Hino's alluring sex appeal but his years of training would not leave him so easily. As other less disciplined males and even females gawked at the archaeologist's beauty, he would only see a mission. Slightly perturbed by Trowa's casual statement that Heero found to be quite out of his character, he started to wonder if in these past few years Trowa had managed to change. After all, Wufei did.

"What?" Trowa asked; face as emotionless as Heero's but not so cold.

"Nothing," Heero replied, eyes turning back to the papers on his desk.

Could he have changed? Heero was growing annoyed by his sudden intrigue of the subject but could not properly alleviate his musings without asking Trowa, which he did not want to do. He was never good at sparking meaningless conversation and this would certainly become a meaningless conversation since it had absolutely nothing to do with their current mission. Still, his urgings to ask would not stop so with a grudging growl he gave in.

"It's been a long time since the pilots have been in one place," he lamely remarked. He was wincing on the inside by how much of an amateur he sounded like but hoped Trowa would not notice.

Trowa gave him a blank look and nodded.

"Almost nine years," he said.

Heero too bobbed his head, shuffling through his papers trying not to look too interested in what he was about to ask.

"So, what have you been doing in those nine years?"

Trowa was reading through various articles and shrugged, looking as uninterested in the conversation as Heero.

"Traveling in the circus."

"Still?" Heero asked.

"Still," Trowa replied.

A silence ensued, awkward to those around them but natural for the two brunettes as they avoided looking up from their stacks of paper.

"Anything interesting ever happen?" Heero awkwardly asked.

He had forgotten already that Trowa was never one to give more details than what was asked for. He didn't go on tangents when asked questions and certainly never flew into rapid recapitulations of past events to an audience so Heero would have to keep asking.

"It's a circus," Trowa stated. "Plenty of interesting things happen."

Heero grunted.

"Anything out of the ordinary?"

For a moment Trowa was silent, mulling over his thoughts as one particular event seemed to stick out in his memory. He was of course curious as to why Heero had suddenly seemed so rapt about what he had been up to in these past years but he thought nothing of it and instead decided to admit the single incident.

"There was one…" he started.

"Trowa are you feeling alright?"

The sinewy figure of a red-head female looked worriedly over the silent clown as she touched her hand gently to his forehead.

"Yes," he replied feebly. "I'm fine."

A flu bug had been flying around and it seemed that his immune system was finally penetrated by its germs. Catherine Bloom, knife-thrower, stood unconvinced with a frown.

"Maybe you should sit out tonight and get some rest. I'm sure Riley will be willing to fill in for you. He is after all the original lion tamer before you came and he trusts me with the knives."

"No," Trowa persisted, standing up from his seat. "I can do the show."

It wasn't that he had some pressing reason why he absolutely had to do this particular show, it was more that he hated to miss things and could never rest knowing that he had. So for the sake of his sanity, he insisted on performing to avoid any annoying regrets later.

The night ran smoothly, his act with Catherine going without fault and his fellow circus members performing expertly at their tasks. He had been drinking water profusely in between acts with Catherine checking on him every now and again. He could hardly discern the progressions of the acts as his attention seemed to meander so easily in no particular direction. With hazy thoughts and frustration that he could not better control his body or mind, he found time to be moving at a slowing pace as his condition steadily started to decline.

"Trowa, you're up next."

The brunette's head snapped up immediately, his feet mindlessly moving him to the curtain where he would make his entrance. His head ached so badly, the audience starting to blur from his position and his body feeling as though an elephant might have stepped on him when he wasn't paying attention. A prolonged drum roll sounded as the announcer introduced him, eliciting a chorus of applause that menacingly rang throughout the tent. Trowa took a deep breath, quite uncustomary to his usual routine, and pushed his ailment aside.

In his usual clown get-up he stepped out to immediately be met by a blinding spotlight. He bowed as he usually had done when entering and commenced to his pedestal. His feet were inexplicably shaky, hands trembling as he assumed it was due to his sickness since he never got nervous, but he ignored it to the best of his ability focusing only on the pedestal.

He scrunched his brow skeptically as he suddenly spotted three pedestals instead of one and shook his head. So his eyes were playing tricks on him, how cruel he silently murmured to himself. Just step onto the middle one. Adhering to this logic, he raised one foot slowly, crowd still cheering as they awaited the start of his performance.

For a split second his eyes for some reason strayed from the pedestal to land on a single audience member who was not cheering. People jumped excitedly around him but still he remained stoic, unchanged possibly even of royal descent. As Trowa's curiosity swelled, it was quickly shot down by the face of his boss who stepped into his line of sight. He was taking too long to start.

Obediently, Trowa returned focus to the task at hand. The pedestal. Foot still raised in the air, he finally met with the platform, using his well-trained quads to help lift him onto the top. Mid-way into his ascent he suddenly felt off balance, his mind shutting off in shock as his body wobbled on the edge. It was a foreign feeling, one he had never before experienced and he was quite unsure of whether or not he liked it. His arms suddenly started to flail around him in attempts to catch himself but it did not help. As his foot slipped from its firm placing, he felt his body suspend in air before meeting with an unlucky crash to the floor.

Heero could not refuse the urge to raise an eyebrow at Trowa's sudden end of his tale. For a moment he waited thinking that the green-eyed brunette still had more to expend but was only met with disappointment.

"That's it?" Heero asked incredibly.

Trowa nodded.

"How was that night any different from the other nights in the circus?"

Trowa shrugged patiently, still skimming through papers in his same stoic fashion.

"I fell and people laughed. It was quite embarrassing."

By the finality in his voice, it could be seen that he did not want to expound more upon the event since it harbored such ill feelings. Heero wanted to acknowledge the fact that Trowa was after all a clown in the circus and clowns were often known for their silly mishaps rather than their mysterious personas but he decided against it. Shaking his head in disbelief mingled with amusement he noted that Trowa had not changed much at all.