|The Circus|

"Ye want me to do what now?" Joker asked, blinking at Star in a way that suggested he was only seeing her for the first time in all his life. Star sighed, sitting with the man on the bed in his room.

"My grandmother doesn't believe that you are quite capable to take care of me and George. And because George spoke up at a rather… unfortunate moment, I ended up engaging in a bet with her that you are as much a gentleman as any of those overgrown mustaches that she knows." She explained, not quite that happy with the situation herself.

Joker ran a hand across his face, slightly moaning in disbelief. "Ye didn't." he mumbled.

"It's not like I had a choice…" she retorted, looking slightly insecure. "I'm sorry for putting you through all the trouble, I didn't mean to-"

He shut her up by placing a finger to her lips. Green eyes looked at her in the mischievous way that she had learned to know so well.
"No need to go apologizing. Ye believin' in me is a pretty great thing. I'll do me best to prove you right."

"Joker…" she smiled at him, and he smiled right back at her. Running a hand across his red locks she moved closer to him. Joker smiled, doing the same thing. When their lips met, Star could almost swear there was a small spark emitted between the two of them. He ran his hands through her hair, trying to be as close as he could be. She slowly opened her mouth to him, allowing him to taste her.

He did so teasingly, in short little movements, before finally getting serious. A soft moan escaped her lips, as she returned him the favor. He wanted to ask her to stay with him for the night, but that would mean that she would have to leave George and Doll alone for the night. He didn't want to put the youngsters through that, even if it meant that he had to… control certain urges for the time being. And Star wasn't making things any easier, with the way she was kissing him. Finally he let her go, smiling at her in an affectionate way.
"Maybe ye'd better go fer now, Star. Don't want the kids worryin', do we?"

Star bit her lip in frustration. Joker wondered if she got as worked up about it as he did when they had to break things off before he was getting too much into it. She pressed a kiss on his cheek, and he could feel the smile in there as she did so.
"Okay then. Goodnight, Joker. Tomorrow, it's my turn to give you some training, isn't it?"

He chuckled. "That's true. But hey, how hard can it be?" he replied.

|The Next Day|

Joker ended up learning exactly how hard it could be, at least that was Dagger's conclusion when he walked into the tent his elder Brother inhabited.
"Joker, how are ye doin' in yer new training?" the blonde man casually inquired, scratching the side of his head with a dagger hilt.

Joker turned his head to the side as much as he could. Star had bound a scarf around his elbows and neck in order to keep him sitting 'properly', as she had termed it. His lover was now sitting on a chair next to him, keeping a scrupulous eye on his dealings.
"I'm a bit tied up right now." he made the obvious joke. Dagger chuckled nonetheless, and decided to sit on the bed to watch the proceedings. The two of them had been locked up in the tent for the past two hours, and Dagger just wanted to check if nothing was going on that might land the two into parenthood. The scene he had now discovered was far more amusing.

"No slouching." Star commented, keeping her eyes on Joker without relent.

He let out a sigh, straightening his back again. Then he reached for the spoon, without letting his elbows touch the table. Star nodded approvingly, glad to see some amount of progress as she rubbed her temples. Properly eating was just one step on the way though. There would be walking, and dancing, and the thing she was now fearing the most of all : speaking. How on earth would she get Joker to say 'you' properly, when it had become such an automatism to him? On top of that, she also had to see to it that George would be able to withstand any scrutiny that their grandmother might be throwing at them, which meant she spent a lot of time tutoring him as well. George complained about it, but went quiet quickly when she reminded him of what the old woman might say when she found out he couldn't answer her questions correctly.
With a start she unleashed Joker from the scarf that was on its way to choking the man, mumbling sweet words to him as she did so.

|The Day After That, Joker's Tent|

"And one, two, three, and one, two, ouch." Star let go of Joker's hands, rubbing her stepped on foot, giving her boyfriend an admonishing glance. It had been the third time since they had started practicing, and things weren't exactly looking to be improving. At least she had the confidence that he wouldn't poke anyone's eye out during dinner.

"I'm sorry, Star." He said, trying to bend over to look at her foot. He was stopped by the broomstick she had tied to his back to make sure he would be standing up nice and straight. He had the feeling that being noble involved someone spending a lot of time either tied up, or tying other people up.
"Is this what they did to ye when ye were becomin' a Lady?" he asked her. Star shot him a loving glance, before standing up and grabbing his hands again. They took it slower this time, and even if he stumbled, at least he didn't step on her feet again.

"Well, they sent me to a ladies school most of the time. I only ever got to see my parents during the summer until I graduated from there. At least you don't have a surly old matron rapping your knuckles every time you put your tea down too fast. And I'm not stuffing your mouth with pebbles either so you'll be able to pronounce certain words a wee bit fancier." Though, truth be told, she had been quite tempted to do so.

Joker chuckled, trying to imagine a younger Star in a fancy dress, being scolded for not drinking her tea in exactly the right way. He was going through the crash course right now, while she had lived the life. He tried to lead her a bit better, and she went along with his movements.
"There will be music at the party." She commented, as his fingers twitched nervously. "It'll be a bit easier then, since there will be a help as to keeping the pace." Joker nodded, taking another turn. The broomstick protested however, and he ended up tripping forward. Star couldn't react fast enough, and the two of them ended up crashing on the floor. Star was quite literally seeing stars as her head knocked into that of Joker.

"Dancin' is a real hazard, innit?" he asked her, getting up on his elbows a bit, looking down at her with a pained smile. He reached backwards with one hand, finally getting rid of the broomstick he had learned to loathe in the past hour. Star looked up at him with the kind of look that suggested she needed a break. Or perhaps, an army of people better suited than her to teach Joker how to behave in the higher circles.

"This is pathetic." She announced. "I mean, what does it matter what that old wrinkled berry thinks about you and what you can do? I know what you can do, and that should be enough for her and for me. For anybody. Because if there is one thing I'm a hundred percent certain about, it's that you will never disappoint me."

Joker gave her a small bump with his head, pulling up one side of his mouth. "We're in this mess together, my star. And once ye are in a fix, ye should be able to get out of it as well, as ye an' me have proven on a number of occasions. Less mopin', more dancin'." He concluded, giving her an encouraging look.

She rolled her head on the ground, moaning in despair. "How can you not be annoyed by this? Do you know how much work we still have to do? I mean, after this there's-"

He shut her up with a kiss, nestling his body a bit closer to hers. His upper legs were pressing her legs together, as he hunched over her, deepening the kiss. She answered, before giving him a small bite on his lip to make his stop it.

"That is not helping the situation, you know?" she told him, sounding slightly abated.

Joker let out a throaty laugh, pressing some light kisses on her neck, working his way up to her ear.
"It is a good way to get ye motivated again, innit?" he replied to her, running his tongue past her earlobe.

She pressed herself upward, trying to escape his soft, sweet prison. He held her wrists pinned to the ground, pressing another kiss on her lips, quick, soft and light. She wriggled, but didn't really struggle against him.
"Only to get me motivated?" she asked him slowly. His eyes rested on hers, in a way so intimate it almost scared her. She did love it when he took control, and right now she too was in the mood for a little bit of playing. "Or do you need some motivating too?" she asked him, placing her lips on the hollow of his throat.

He pressed his body even closer to hers in response, taken in surprise. "Seriously, Star. Do ye really think I need any more motivating?" Just the thought of her lying underneath him was almost too much for him to bear. And the thought that she didn't give any hint towards not wanting him to take things to the next step was almost worse for his self-control. He buried his face in her neck, trying to keep his head straight.

"Star… I wouldn't be doin' that if I were ye. Star!" he said reproachfully as she gave him a quick love bite. She nibbled softly on his lower lip, the ground being rather uncomfortably against her back. Still, right now it was the best place to be in the world for her. And Joker's flushed face was almost too adorable to bear. His blush almost creeped to his ears, as he now became the one being seduced.

"We're not doing anything wrong…" she told him, wriggling beneath him. He kissed her back, becoming increasingly more unaware of his surroundings. That was, until someone coughed near the doorway.

Breaking apart from each other, the two looked at the person interrupting their moment. A man dressed in a butler's suit looked at them as if they had personally offended them. His blond hair and blue eyes would have made him irresistible, at least if it hadn't been for the look on his face that never changed, as Star would learn later on.
"Miss Valentine, my name is Edward. Miss, your grandmother sent me with a set of clothes for you and the young Master. There is also a suit included for your… acquaintance." The man said in a sour tone. Star almost started laughing out loud. Leave it to the upper crust to describe Joker as a mere acquaintance when they were in this position.

Joker got up, offering Star his hand as he did so. She accepted, and dusted off her clothes. The butler remained silent, watching her and trying to ignore Joker as well as he could. Once she had finished that, having taken her sweet time for it, she finally paid attention to the man. He kept looking at her like he had smelled something foul.

"Well, that's incredibly nice of her, isn't it?" she said, giving the man the kind of smile that anybody could tell was fake. She didn't like him on instinct, and he had ruined her time with Joker. She couldn't see him half as often as she wanted to, and these days helping him prepare managed to get them some private time. Being in the circus meant that there was an alarmingly small amount of true private space. And precious little time for her to get to the true depths of her relationship with Joker. "If you don't mind, you can leave them on the bed, right there." She said, waving her hand in the general direction of the bed. If possibly, Joker became even redder when that certain piece of equipment was mentioned. Edward bowed slightly, walked towards the bed and then retreated out of the tent, giving the couple a reverent bow as he did so.
Star put a hand to her face, and let out a deep sigh. "Honestly, we can't even have an hour to ourselves without someone bursting in." She looked at Joker, who seemed to have been mortified by someone walking in on him and Star. He looked at her, and wondered what he had done to preserve her. She gave him a small nudge, and a smile that indicated she knew the mood was ruined.

"I'll go and get George to review some of his lessons, okay?" she asked him.

Joker nodded, looking at her lopsided. "Next time, we'll remember there's a bed in the room, eh?" he said, in a joking manner. It was Star's turn to blush, and she made a small, non-committing sound before she walked out of the tent.

While she was walking to George, she tried to figure out how she actually should deal with everything. Apart from trying to get Joker in a shape where he could pass for a gentleman for one night, there was also a very real tension between the two. Whenever they had something that resembled privacy, they'd be kissing like there was no tomorrow. And though she went with it at the moment itself, afterward she found herself to be almost mortally horrified when she thought about her conduct. No doubt that butler, Edward, would be reporting back to her grandmother with what he had seen. And he didn't even have to embellish it to make it look bad, because she already know what her grandmother would say when she heard.

She chewed her lip nervously when she thought about exactly what she wanted to do with Joker. A lot of it were thought that her old teachers would term to be 'unfitting for a lady of any age or standing'. Then again, she doubted her teachers had ever met anyone who was even a close match to Joker. She would have liked seeing her old teachers keeping their chastity in the situation she was in.

She kicked a rock, and wandered to the stables. There was a chance George would be there, and if he wasn't, she could complain to Devil as to how much she was conflicted. She wanted to be with Joker, almost painfully so. But it also scared her to no end, even though he was the one showing the most restraint. Sooner or later, they would be taking that step, and she didn't quite know how she would handle that. The entirety of the business – like the hookers in Bath had explained to her once – seemed to be at once degrading and simply preposterous. How would she be able to keep herself from laughing if it happened? She almost tripped when she realized she'd have to take her clothes off. When she reached Devil, the stallion let out a soft neigh when he saw her.
"Devil… I don't suppose you can give me any lessons on that subject, right?" she mumbled in the horses manes. Devil made no reply to her, but simply stood there, letting her brood in silence.

|Back with Joker|

He paced around his tent, agitated. He hated that butler for coming in like that, for seeing his Star in such a position, but at the same time he was grateful. At times he didn't know how much longer he'd be able to restrain himself. And he didn't want to scare her. It had to be a perfect experience for her, if it came to that.
Even so, there was the odds of her becoming pregnant. He started to chew on the knuckles of his prosthetic when he thought about that option. Beast had planted a seed in his mind that was slowly taking root, and filled him to the core with a feeling of dread. Father would find out about him having a sweetheart, he always found out about really big things in the Circus. He really couldn't gauge as to what the Baron might do. Would he ask Joker to give up the child if it came to that? He didn't think he would be able to look Star in the eye if his Father asked that. He didn't know if he would be able to go through with it or not. Star was precious to him, so precious that he even agreed to put up with this charade on turning him into a gentleman. Star should know that it wouldn't be possible. There was no way he would be able to pass an entire evening as a man who had not spent most of his life surviving at all costs.

He stopped chewing on his knuckles when he realized what he was doing, instead looking at himself in the mirror. On the other hand, he thought, a kid of him and Star… wouldn't that just be the cutest thing that anybody would have ever seen?