|In the Morning|

"Dagger, 'ave ye seen Star an' George? Or even Doll? We're about to leave and I still haven't seen any of 'em." Joker said, tired from looking around the camp for the trio. Somebody had to ride the cart with Devil, and Star was the only one comfortable enough around the animal to make the ride pleasant.

Dagger frowned when he heard that, scratching underneath his hat when he heard that question. "Now that ye mention it, haven't seem 'em yet. Did ye check their tents?" he asked, knowing that those would be among the latest things to be broken up that day.

Joker nodded, knowing he had forgotten to check somewhere. It was nothing like Doll to sleep for so long. The girl knew better than to laze about, especially since he had told her they would be moving on again the next day. He made his way towards said tent, keeping a watchful eye out for any trouble. When he arrived at the tent, he didn't bother knocking, instead opting to walk in right away.

"Oy, slackers, get movin'!" he yelled, banging his cane on the top bunk. Instead of Doll's face popping up from there, instead there was movement in the lower bed. George, Doll and Star all popped up, the latter seemingly very annoyed at being woken up.

"Joker…' she mumbled, looking at him from beneath her messed up bed hair, … what time is it?" she asked, suppressing a yawn.

Joker let out a sigh when he heard that. "It's time to get a move on, that's 'ow late it is. And why are the three of ye in the same bunk?" he asked, quite curious to know the reason for that. Star hadn't struck him as someone who enjoyed sharing a bed with anyone else, seeing as how she tried to avoid getting hugged all too often.

"Not my fault…" Star mumbled, swinging her legs out of the bed as she started to look where she had put her clothes. "Them were both scared last night, and I didn't have a choice but to let them sleep in my bed if I wanted to sleep at all."

"Sis… 'Them' is not a proper ladies' word, okay?" George complained, wiping the sleepies out of his eyes. Doll said nothing, instead gliding out of the bed as well in search of her shirt.

Joker leant on his cane when he heard that, slightly amused by such incentives. "Well then, get ready. Ain't got much time left, and ye guys aren't even dressed."

Star shook her head, not happy at being woken up like that. Just as she pulled out one of her stockings from underneath the bed she realized something. Resolutely she stood up and turned to Joker. "Get out." She said, starting to shove him to the door.

"What?" the man asked, not sure what was going on now.

"I said get out. I'm not letting some perv look at me and Doll while we're changing, don't care if he's my boss or not." Star said, giving the man an extra push.

Joker laughed when he heard that, getting out of the tent by himself. When Star went back in, he couldn't resist but stick his head inside for a second. "Hey Star?" he said, feeling that teasing her was indeed the best way to handle her for the time being. Until he could work up the courage to actually tell her how he was feeling.

"Yes?"

"I think yer night robe is cute though."

"GET OUT!"

|On The Road|

"There's a good boy, yes you are!" Star coed to Devil, the pitch-black steed that snorted violently when Doll approached too close for his liking. He allowed Star to pat him on the nose, and feed him little snacks. He even allowed her on his back, which had earned her an incomparable status amongst the stable hands, who were all deadly afraid to even near the horse. She left the horse with a final pat on his nose, before walking off in search of food. She was quite hungry, and hoped that Doll in her guise as Freckles had secured something for her. She was stopped soon enough by Snake, who was carrying a bowl filled with stew and some biscuits.

"Snake, great timing, did you happen to see D-… Freckles?" she asked the snakeman, who tried to appear as inconspicuous as possible, which was quite hard when one was covered in snakes. Snake also seemed to be painfully aware of this, which only added to his attempts to somehow become invisible.

"Freckles said this is for you… says Wilde." The man said, avoiding her eyes as he stuck out the food. Star accepted, but when her fingers touched that of the man, he pulled his hand away as if he had burned himself. The biscuits fell to the ground, even though Star managed to save her bowl of stew. Snake's face flushed when he realized his error, but he was too embarrassed to utter a single word in apology. Star let out a sigh, looking around in search of one of the food carts.

"Well, maybe I'll be able to get some biscuits if I ask nicely…" she said out loud, trying not to pay any attention to the man's obvious discomfort.

"I'll go search… says Goethe." Snake muttered rushing off in search of replacement biscuits. Star tried to stop him, but the man was already gone.

"I can never get a normal lunch around here, can I?" she sighed, trying to think back to a time when she had been able to eat peacefully, without snakes or tigers or dagger throwing crazies around.

Snake rushed back, holding two biscuits in front of him as he slowly walked towards her. The man was doing his utter best to avoid her look, or that of anyone, as he approached. She accepted the biscuits, this time not touching his hands. "Snake… it's okay to actually relax when you're talking to me, you know? Haven't eaten anyone up to this day, and it's very unlikely for me to start now." She said, trying to break the ice by making a joke.

The man didn't reply, casting her a rather wary glance. She waved a hand around, before gesturing he should follow her. He did as she asked, which was already quite to her surprise.
"So, how have you been enjoying the ride so far?" she asked him, dipping one of the biscuits in the stew. Snake didn't answer, staring straight ahead. Not allowing herself to be beaten by this behavior, she continued talking. "Personally I've been thinking that maybe we should stick a bit closer to small towns like this, so we might earn some money. I get that the real money is in the big cities, but it would be nice if we could earn a little bit on the side, wouldn't you agree?"

One of the snakes – she was guessing Emily – looked in her direction, before wrapping itself around Snake's arm. Snake was leaning on his hand, staring out amongst the crowd, not paying any attention to her. She let out a sigh, scooping in the warm stew and wondered where George was. 'Probably pestering Joker again for juggling lessons…' she thought, putting her bowl to the side.

"You're strange… I think." Snake mumbled.

Star opened her eyes, shocked. It was the first time the man had said something that wasn't being transmitted by his pets. "S-s-snake? You can talk?" she asked, flailing her arms around.

"Of course he can… says Wilde." Snake replied, sending Star right back in a dejected mood.

"I meant that you actually voice your own opinions too, instead of only your snake's. That's quite surprising, actually… and what do you mean by 'you are strange', huh?" she yelled, finally realizing the insult. For the one time he did voice an opinion, it just had to be a comment on her, didn't it?

Snake jerked away, not comfortable at her sudden outburst. Star didn't notice, waving around a piece of biscuit as she kept talking. "If it's about me constantly falling down when I have to juggle, I can't help it if I'm not used to that kind of thing! And last time was Dagger's fault for having me trip over some of his daggers too!"

Star stuffed the biscuit in her mouth, chomping it and pouting at the same time. Getting insulted by Snake, the most timid member of the entire troupe, was of course something that was right up her alley. Snake was quiet, not sure if he ought to explain himself or not. The girl was frightening to him, though not for the reasons that she probably suspected. It was not that she was loud, or unexpectedly friendly that were the reasons for him shutting close when she came near.
No, it was that she was a member of that hated nobility… the nobility that had laughed at him when they came to view him when he was still just an object owned by a coarse and brutish man. She was part of that caste, that perceived themselves as better, not just better than him but also better than anyone in this circus. Cruel and hardhearted people, who had paid good money to see him perform, or even get hurt before he was saved. And this girl had….
"You accepted Doll as your sister… why, we are wondering?" he said, not looking at her. For anybody of noble birth to just accept one of their ranks as a sibling was weird, at least in his eyes it was. He wondered what her motivations had been for doing so.

"Hah? What's so strange about that?" Star asked, forgetting about the remainder of the stew. It had grown cool anyway, so it was of little more interest to her either way. The pale winter sun stroked her skin as she sat there, together with Snake.

"You have no blood relation with her, so why would you care?" Snake pressed on, forgetting to add his usual aftermath to his sentence. It had been puzzling him, and he would like to have an answer now.

"No blood relation, huh?" Star asked, her tone suddenly dejected as she thought some things over. She straightened her head, looking straight to the man asking such a question. "Blood relationship or not, I have decided to accept her as my family because it is my own choice. To be siblings not by blood but by choice is a wonderful thing, and perhaps even better because I have no true obligation to love Doll, but have chosen to do so."

"Well said indeed." A voice rang out behind them. As the duo looked back, Joker was standing behind them, looking down on them with his cane in one hand. "I would've thought ye thought like that, Star. Ye're becoming a greater part of our family with each day passin', after all."

Star blushed, embarrassed with the knowledge that Joker had heard her say that. "Gah, why do you have to turn up at a moment that I say something like that, huh?" she said, jumping up so she wouldn't be so much lower than him.

Joker chuckled, rubbing her head with his good hand, messing up her hair. "No need to be bashful 'bout it. Ye've been accepted by us, so ye should be happy."The ginger said smiling at her, bending over towards her, as if he were about to say something. Star blushed even more now, leaning back.

"I'm going to see where Doll and George are…" she mumbled, not looking in Joker's green eyes. Even though she had said that she had accepted Doll as family, it didn't mean that she accepted the others as brothers and sisters too. Moreover, Joker didn't exude that brotherly feeling that Dagger seemed to shine out.

Joker was not brother material, at least not for her.

She turned around, walking away as she pondered that thought. If Joker was not a brother to her, what exactly would he be to her? A boss, for one thing. A valuable friend also, even if she wasn't planning on telling him that. But those two things somehow didn't quite capture the whole picture. She kicked a stone away, frustrated about the way how she was unable to formulate a word that exactly said what Joker was to her.

"Let go of me!"

Star looked up. In her thinking, she had wandered towards the edges of the camp, where there was nowhere near as much activity. She was the only person who was here, at least she would've thought so if there hadn't been someone calling for help. Furthermore, the voice had sounded a lot like…

"I said, let go of me!"

It was Beast. And she sounded to be in trouble. Star didn't like the idea of having to go to that woman's help, seeing as how she would probably skin Star as fast as she would any attacker. But then again, Beast was also a member of the entire circus family. Star rolled her eyes at her own actions, already knowing that she would somehow regret her current action, before she ran towards where Beast's voice had come from.
She ran up the road, towards the rickety bridge they had passed that day. Beast was standing there, along two more muscular built men who didn't seem to have any friendly intentions with the woman. Star took a deep breath, deciding to use the element of surprise to her advantage. She forced a big smile on her face, before walking in their sight, waving at Beast in a best friends sort of manner.

"There you are! Do you know how long I've been looking for you?" she yelled out, walking next to the woman. Every thieves sense in her body screamed that she should have taken a more covert route, perhaps have tried to take the men out from a distance. Still, she would have had to come out in the open eventually, so she might as well have some advantage in the form of a surprise.

"Come on then, I need your help packing up, so let's get a move on." She said, grabbing Beast by the arm and dragging her along. 'So far so good…' she thought to herself, taking a step. Before they had gotten any further, one of the men grabbed her collar.
"Crap!" she almost said, and would have if it hadn't been for her own clothes almost choking her.

"What's this then, eh? Trying to take away our lass then?" the man that had grabbed her by the collar asked.

Star coughed, clearly smelling the sausage the man had eaten for his lunch. Being timid wouldn't be of a lot of help to her, so she might as well try to bluff her way out of this. "Phiewww, ever hear of a tooth brush? Trust me, it's a miracle, and perhaps then I won't be on the verge of fainting due to your bad breath. I mean, I'm almost getting cavities from your breath!"

The man blinked, taken aback by the girl's comment. His mate started chuckling, which earned him a rather vicious look from his buddy. "Second of all, you might want to put me down and wander a good long way away from here. My friends back in the camp won't take kindly to you two trying to hurt their friends. So unless you were thinking of having a singing career as a soprano, you might want to consider letting me go."

The man blinked. Apparently half of her threat hadn't been quite clear to him. She rolled her eyes, trying not to appear afraid. "I meant they'll castrate you." She said, putting as much contempt as she could in that one sentence. The man shook her back and forth, his mate keeping Beast in check. The woman, however strong and skilled she might be with Betty, was no match for the men without her whip. Bad Breath grinned at her, sending another walm of stink her way as he spoke.

"I seriously doubt that, eh? You probably came prancing around her without anybody, now did you?"

"I wouldn't quite be countin' on that." Joker's voice sounded from behind them. Star turned her head, seeing the ginger man accompanied by Snake. His snakes fell to the ground, approaching the two tugs menacingly. Joker scratched his cheek, looking at the snakes moving towards the people that had dared to attack two of the troupe members. "I would get out of there if I were ye. These are all pretty venomous snakes, and it wouldn't be pretty seein' what 'appens if ye get bitten."

The man holding Beast pushed her away against the rotting railing of the bridge. The wood creaked treacherously, but held firm. Star could feel the man still holding her collar shake as he watched the coiling snakes approach him. With a curse he pushed her to the sides. Star braced herself, expecting to be launched against the wood and be rewarded with another pair of bruises.
Instead of that, she felt the wood give in beneath her. Splinters sprang away as she fell forward, and she blinked as she felt herself falling. Beneath her she could see the roaring river, getting ready to swallow her as she fell.
She closed her eyes, preparing herself as she felt her feet leaving the contact with the wooden bridge.

"STAR!" Joker yelled, moving without thinking as he saw her fall forwards towards the river. He ran, hoping he would be able to catch her. When he saw she had already fallen too far, he didn't pause a step. He could hear Beast screaming at him to stop running, but he didn't listen. Only one thought filled his mind now, and that was that he couldn't allow Star to die. "STAR!"
He jumped, after her, hoping that somehow he would be able to do something. Beast sat on her knees, tears streaming down her face as she saw Joker jump like that.

"JOKER!"