Chapter Three:
Vivio was feeling lost. She certainly couldn't go to rehearsal; Nanoha-mama would be there, since the clowns had half an hour of kickboxing practice after they finished rehearsing their act. Nanoha had never adequately explained why clowns needed combat practice, but then she'd never adequately explained why most of the performers needed combat practice. The practice happened regardless. And she couldn't leave the circus again; Aunt Hayate was only so forgiving, and would not be as kind in the event of a second offense.
So she wandered. Eventually, she found her way to Long Arch (by which she meant, of course, the arch on the side of the main arena that the elephants entered through. It had to be pretty long to fit elephants under it) and sat down in the darkened tent. When the weather was nice, most of the performers preferred to practice out in the open fields surrounding the tents, so nobody would be in there. She really needed some time alone to come to terms with her situation.
Aunt Hayate was right, frankly. There wasn't much arguing with that. The rumors about Jail Scaglietti were numerous, and the vast majority of them were not good, even beyond the persistent talk that there was something not entirely normal about the women in his performing group. For starters, it was well known that one of his clowns, Zest, had once been part of an act with the mother of Vivio's own partners, Subaru and Ginga Nakajima. And it had not gone unnoticed that Zest had joined Scaglietti Bros. at around the same time that both of his partners had passed away under 'mysterious circumstances' shortly after refusing to join Scaglietti's circus as a full troupe. There was no proof that Jail Scaglietti had two women killed and then began exerting some sort of mysterious influence over their partner to blackmail him into service and acquire a master clown, but people still talked...
And while she was on the subject of mysterious disappearances, 'Scaglietti Bros.' was not just a name, was it? The show had been founded by more than just Jail, after all. He had always been the ringmaster, the front man, but in the background had been his three siblings; Prison, Penetentiary, and Herbert Scaglietti (Herbert may have been adopted). While Jail had run the show from the front, the other three had handled the background work; hiring, financing, advertising. They were affectionately nicknamed 'the Brains in Jars' by fans, due to the fact that they almost never showed their faces in public, contributing to the circus in a purely intellectual manner... at least until they all 'passed away under mysterious circumstances', leaving Jail the sole owner. Nobody had ever quite understood how they'd all managed to be accidentally struck by a bus. While inside their offices. On the twentieth floor of the high-rise building they were renting.
But several people had noticed that it had occurred within a few days of Due being hired into the circus. Ugh. Due. She, by herself, was more suspicious than every other single thing about Scaglietti's entire operation, and frankly that took some work. If anyone was up to the challenge, though, it was Due. She worked at the circus, just like all of Scaglietti's other oddly-named subordinates, but unlike them she seemed to have no job. She didn't perform in any acts, she didn't help set things up, she didn't sell tickets or make food or anything. Her only apparent duty at the circus was to stand around polishing a rather large knife.
It was not, it must be noted, one of the knives that Cinque used in her act.
And somehow, no matter how often she polished it, it always seemed to be dirty.
Vivio shuddered. Yes, being caught under Scaglietti's big top was probably not wise.
And to make things worse, Aunt Hayate wasn't wrong about the fact that her crush would probably not come to her aid if she actually did get in trouble. Vivio was forced to base this belief on the fact that she had never, in point of fact, actually spoken to Lutecia. At all. Ever.
She'd tried, of course... it was just that the closer she got to the older girl, the harder it got to think. The blood rushed to her head, she got dizzy, she became less and less coherent. She'd attempted many times to approach her, before or after shows, and strike up a conversation, but most of these attempts had ended with her running away at the last second or zoning out into her fantasies and missing the opportunity. The worst had been the time when she'd spent an entire day working up her courage; she'd bought flowers, prepared an entirely new (and, if she did say so herself, really cute) outfit, new perfume, reservations at her favorite restaurant... she'd prepared every detail for the coming night. She would approach Lutecia in her trailer after that night's performance. She would give her the bouquet and say something incredibly suave, like, "Milady, you truly lit up the arena this night. I have long admired you, and would consider it an honor if you would join me for dinner tomorrow evening." Yeah, something awesome like that.
Unfortunately, when she'd actually gotten so far as actually being in Lutecia's presence, what had actually happened hadn't gone quite that well. She had spoken, yes, but the words had not been anything so smooth. Or coherent. Vivio's memory of the night was rather fuzzy, but from what she could recall she believed she'd something along the lines of "Flibble flobble, murgle gloog". She'd then passed out.
Yeah.
So essentially, Vivio was completely obsessed with a woman who, if she remembered her at all, recalled her as 'that girl who fainted outside my trailer and spooked the elephants' and who worked for a man who would quite likely shove Vivio down an elevator shaft if he found out she was 'spying' on his circus. Intellectually, she knew all of this.
"So why can't I just get over her?!" Vivio shouted furiously to nobody in particular.
"I dunno." Said a painfully familiar voice from directly behind her.
"V-V-Vita! How nice to see you!" Vivio said nervously, whirling on the new and obnoxiously quiet arrival.
"You got a crush? Who on?" Vita said, ignoring her greeting completely. Vita was, frankly, the circus equivalent of a bouncer. She didn't help with any of the acts, but if one of the customers started something, Vita would be the one to show them the door. Usually, she would show them the door moving very quickly towards them as they were tossed through it.
Several people scoffed at this when they first learned it. These people then recieved an education on the fact that there were certain logistical problems with a grown adult fighting someone whose fists were perfectly level with their groins. And then, when they were writhing in agony, Vita would proceed to take advantage of their newly lowered position to educate them firmly in the head and neck until they required a stay in the hospital.
Vita was very big on education.
"Who you got a crush on? If I gotta listen to you whine, I might as well know who you're whining about." Vita said again.
"I-I-I-I-I-I haven't got a..."
Vita made a fist.
"Lutecia! Clown! Scaglietti Bros.!" Vivio babbled.
"... all right. Before we go one step further, I have to ask: is this a legitimate crush, or is this one of those weird clown things? Because if it's the second, I'm leaving." Vita grumbled.
"Well... a little. I mean she's an incredible clown, she can do things with a tiny car that I can only dream of... but it's more than that." Vivio said.
"That's good. What more is it?" Vita said, diplomatically choosing not to point out that, in her opinion, anyone who was choosing to base an attraction on clown ability should be in a looney bin, not a relationship.
There were cucumbers that had more circus in their soul than Vita. Most of the performers considered it a condition to be pitied more than anything else. Vita considered that it made her the only halfway-sane person in the circus.
"Well... it's just... she's a clown. But she never, ever smiles." Vivio said. "I can't help but notice, you know? Even when everyone around her is laughing, she looks so empty. Have you ever heard the story of how Nanoha-mama and Fate-mama first met?" Vivio asked.
"I know it involved something about Testarossa's mom being way, way too intense about her highwire act." Vita said.
"That's... as good a way as any to put it." Vivio said. "Fate-mama doesn't really like to talk about it, but it involved her mother ordering her to walk the tightrope without a net. Or anything to help her balance. ... Or a tightrope."
"I can see how that might be a problem." Vita admitted.
"Well, it was Nanoha-mama who found her, and said that she just looked so sad that she couldn't ignore it." Vivio continued. "Now, granted, most people would have looked pretty sad if they were being asked to walk across empty air while two-hundred feet above the ground, but Nanoha-mama claims that Fate-mama looked sadder than most. So she intervened... saved her. Got her mother arrested for criminal negligence, child abuse, and blatant ignorance of proper circus traditions, and got Fate-mama brought to a more stable and nurturing circus environment. And I can't help but think: what if this is like that? What if Lutecia needs to be saved like Fate-mama did? She might need me, and if she does I can't just abandon her!"
"Heh. I guess you really are your mother's daughter, adopted or no." Vita said in amusement.
"Also... I don't know if you've ever seen Lutecia, but she is totally hot. I mean, wow." Vivio admitted with a slight blush.
"Aaaand, I guess your aunt Hayate's rubbed off on you a bit too..." Vita said wryly. "All right, I'm gonna tell it like it is, kid. You..."
"Should just forget about her." Vivio said glumly. "I know... mamas and Aunt Hayate have already told me about it, and I know they're probably right. I just... no matter how hard I try, I can't! I..."
"Eh? What? Give up? Who said give up? What are you, some kind of pansy?" Vita asked.
"... huh?"
"Look, kid, if you like her, you gotta fight! You go over to that Spaghetti dork's creepy circus, you go up to your creepy clown-crush girl, and you make her like you!" Vita said. "Never give up, never surrender! Hit the problem hard enough and often enough, and eventually you'll pound your way through to something like success!"
"And, um, how do I do all of that?" Vivio asked a bit nervously.
"I'm partial to hammers myself." Vita said sagely.
"... you're saying that I should win Lutecia's heart by hitting her with a hammer?"
"No, no. You can't aim for the heart with a hammer, dummy, go for the head so she goes down quicker. And keep in mind that once she's unconscious you still have to drag her back here." Vita said. "That ain't easy, you know? Even a little bit of dead weight can be tough to move. You might need a wheelbarrow."
"I... I'll consider it." Vivio said, quite a bit more nervously. "Thanks... I think."
"No prob, kid. See you around." Vita said cheerfully, waving goodbye as she wandered off to do whatever she did when she wasn't roughing people up.
Vivio chuckled somewhat unsteadily. Well... in a way, I guess that was good advice. Not the hammer thing, of course, but the more general message. Love is never easy, right? I have to be willing to fight for what I want! Even if everyone else thinks I don't have a shot, that's no reason not to try! If the feelings are real, they'll find a way! All right, I'm definitely going to fight and make Lutecia mine! Vivio thought, new vigor filling her mind. She stood up, enthusiasm obvious in her steps, and began to make her way to facing her problem head-on.
She made it about five steps before other thoughts began moving in. Of course, I'll still get so nervous that I can't talk to her. And her employer will still probably try to kill me. And there's no guarantee that she'll return my feelings, even if we do successfully get to know each other. And mamas and Aunt Hayate will still be trying to stop me.
"... ... I haven't actually solved any problems at all!" Vivio screamed in ultimate frustration.
"Try a bigger hammer!" Vita called back over her shoulder.