I own nothing other than Ms. Muffet (the character not the English rhyme wow disclaimers abound) so please enjoy!

Come Away Let's Join the Circus

~O~

We have to distrust each other. It's our only defense against betrayal.

-Tennessee Williams-

~O~

They saw neither a hair nor ruffle of the contortionist after her show, and while Ciel was reluctant to deviate from their original plan, he did trust Sebastian's instincts, even if he didn't quite trust the demon itself.

He did wish the demon in question wasn't so distracted by anything remotely feline, but there wasn't much he could do about that particular flaw. Having his manservant get bitten on the face by a tiger named Betty wasn't quite how he pictured the evening going, but at the very least it gained him access into the backstage of The Noah's Ark Circus.

Backstage was as Sebastian had expected for a travelling circus: damp, dark, dirty, and crowded, as though all the lights and magic had been concentrated into the Big Top and the dregs left behind. He followed the orange-haired stage conductor, Joker, through the maze of boxes and patchwork tents – glancing away briefly to catch the suspicious glares of a few circus members – until they reached one that seemed cleaner and brighter than the others.

The inside of the tent was lit by several candle-lamps, and inside was the circus performer Dagger being patched up by another man – Sebastian noted that his leg was also a prosthetic. The man had messy black hair and a close cropped goatee; he had wide, kind eyes behind a pair of small circular glasses perched on sharp nose, and was seated in a simple but well-oiled wheelchair.

At the sound of new people, he'd turned around, though his surprise quickly morphed into a pleased smile when he spotted Joker. "Hello Joker! Is there something wrong with your arm again?"

Joker waved off the concern with a smile, and then gestured to Sebastian. "No, today's nothing t' do with me. I've come about him."

Dagger perked up and hopped down from the examination table. "It's you! You're the guy who got bitten by Betty!"

"By Betty?!" The doctor yelped in horror, and unexpectedly grabbed his wrist. "That's awful! We need to get you medical assistance immediately!" He didn't feel bothered enough to tell them that everything was fine, that he wasn't hurt in the slightest.

Sebastian sat quietly as the doctor poked and prodded at his head and face, before pulling back with a befuddled expression. "Were you really bitten?" He wondered, lowering his stethoscope. " I don't see any markings."

"As I said, nothing to worry about," he smiled benignly. "It was just a play-bite."

Joker and Dagger echoed the words in confusion, but the doctor just smiled. "I'm just glad you weren't hurt."

"Too true," Joker heaved a sigh of relief as he came closer. "If I'd let a customer get hurt, the ringleader'd have my skin."

Sebastian turned to look at him. "You're not the ringleader?" He asked.

"I'm a bit like a hired shop manager," Joker laughed, resting his prosthetic hand on Dagger's shoulder. "The ringleader's a different scary guy!"

"If you say that now you'll be in trouble later, boss!" Dagger teased. As Sebastian considered this tidbit of the information, the entrance to the tent was pushed aside and a woman walked in.

"Doc, I need some help with – you!" Ah yes, the beast-tamer, the one Sebastian may have offended by ruining her performance. Her eyes widened in anger, and she stormed towards him, blazing past Dagger who'd dropped to his knees the second she'd entered the tent. "You're that dapper freak from earlier! What the hell are you doing here?! Thanks to you, my show was-!"

"That's enough Beast!" The doctor snapped, cutting her off. "You can't speak like that to a guest!"

"But he-!"

"If anything, this is your fault for not being able to control Betty! You're supposed to be a pro, aren't you?" Beast scowled but swallowed the rest of her angry words while Joker and Dagger hurried to appease the doctor. He took a calming breath, and let it out. "You'll be restraining Betty after this, am I clear? Now, what did you want me to look at?"

Sebastian watched in interest as the beast-tamer rolled down her tights to reveal a prosthetic limb much like the knife-thrower's. He learned that all the first-tier performers were missing a limb or some other body part, and that the doctor was the one who crafted the prosthetics and maintained them.

"They're made of ceramic, but I use special materials so they're light and sturdy," the doctor looked pleased with the interest being shown in his work, and invited Sebastian to have a closer look. "I use spherical joins for a smooth and easy movement."

"They're quite well made," Sebastian noted, going higher and higher up until, "Oh? What's this seal here?"

That is more or less when the general tone of the evening dropped exceedingly, but the demon was able to leave with the promise to return the very next day to try out for the circus.

As he was exiting the medical tent however, his foot collided with something on the ground. It was the contortionist, lying in the mud right outside the tent where she certainly hadn't been before.

He stared down at her for a moment. Her eyes were wide and unfocused, like glass, and her joints were bent in completely wrong directions. She didn't smell dead, she didn't smell alive, she just...was. Like a doll, or a puppet whose strings had gone slack. She certainly wasn't moving like she had been before.

As much as he wanted to pick her – or was she an it now? – up, he was still visible to the occupants of the tent. The contortionist was nowhere close to the age of any of the missing children, and the performance was most likely some elaborate circus trick, ergo this likely had nothing to do with the mission and he elected to put it out of his mind. At least, for now.

Using the simple but effective excuse of being lost, he began exploring more the backstage area of the circus, ignoring the wary eyes on him. They wanted him gone, but they certainly weren't going to come up and talk to him. The damp and dusty tents were unimportant, and neither were the wooden crates that had been left all over the place, piled one atop the other. He kept walking until he came to what looked like a small clearing, separated from the rest of the filth by a ribbon.

On the other side of the ribbon were five tents. Unlike the drab dirt-brown patchwork tents behind him, these were a pale lilac colour, and significantly larger and cleaner than the others. They probably belonged to the first-tier members of the circus, he decided, and he considered the merits of entering one that night, before something caught his eye.

It was the contortionist, again, sitting, propped up against a small wooden crate beside one of the tents just inside the border. Her eyes were still wide open and glassy, and her neck lolled eerily to the side. Something large and black coiled around her shoulders. He hopped over the divide and took a step forward, only to be stopped by a snake hissing violently just inches from his face.

On the other side of the dark and hissing creature was Snake staring at him blankly. "This area is off-limits, says Wilde." An orange and white snake on his shoulder hissed and pointed with its tail back where he'd come. "The exit's that way," he spoke in a totally different voice. "Says Goethe."

Sebastian considered his options for a second, and then smiled beatifically. "You're too kind."

Snake watched the man in the black coat and strange eyes as he walked away. "Goodbye! Says Goethe." He waited until the man was out of sight, until the snakes stopped hissing, and then turned back to Muffet. "Are you okay? Says Wilde."

Her eyes fluttered briefly, losing their glassy expression. Her head tilted one way, then the other, and then she climbed to her feet, grimacing as her joints whirled and bent back to a more natural position. "I'm fine, Snake," she replied, reaching up to pet the snake coiled around her shoulders. "I don't think he suspects anything, but I did hear a rather interesting conversation..."

oOo

Ms. Muffet had lived at The Noah's Ark Circus for several months. She was well-liked by some, and largely ignored by others. Likewise, she enjoyed the company of some circus-fellows, her favourites being Snake and Beast, despised the attention of others, such as the doctor.

This was unfortunate, because he more than most requested to see her often, and spoke to her in a strange almost paternal manner, as though she was his little child project. He disgusted her on an almost visceral level that she couldn't quite explain and she didn't care quite enough to find out.

Violent hatred aside, Muffet couldn't quite place their newest to-be circus mates. There was the tall and handsome man dressed all in black with the strange eyes, and then the delicate-looking, vaguely androgynous little boy he'd brought with him. They were odd, and both spoke and carried themselves like nobility. As much as they claimed to be servants from a noble house, one didn't take on so many traits simply by hanging around the rich. The manservant she could understand, she'd had maids and servants before, but not the boy – what did he say his name was? Ah yes, Finnian.

She'd watched their trial from behind the crowd, a pink feather hat tipped over her face to hide her identity, and later from the dark inner corner of the tent. The boy was adorable, but it was clear he had no idea what he was doing, and would obviously rather be anywhere else, and the manservant just looked smug. Annoyingly smug. The kind of smug that would make a person irrationally angry just by looking at him for too long.

Muffet decided that she didn't like the manservant, but she did enjoy watching Finnian's tremulous but victorious march across the tightrope. It was always interesting to see how newbies fared on it.

As it was obvious to her what Joker's decision would be, she didn't stay 'til the end, and slipped out of the tent to find Snake. The charmer was sitting beside a cage that she knew was filled with live rats. He must have just fed the other snakes as the only one with him at the moment was Emily. "What happened? Says Emily."

"He's going to recruit them," she replied, her hands going to her hips.

"Really? You don't sound happy about that. Says Emily."

"I'm not," Muffet replied, pressing her lips together in consternation. "I don't trust either of them. There's something they're not being honest about, and while it's fine for them to not want to tell us certain things, there's still something wholly off about the two of them," she folded her arms across her chest. "I don't like this."

Emily tilted her dark copper head in concern, and hissed. "Do you want us to keep an eye on them? Says Emily."

Muffet smiled and held out her gloved fingers for the snake to affectionately scent and bump her head against. "Yes please, just until we know what they're up to." A bell began to ring from the big top, and she lowered her hand. "That'll be Joker."

Snake rose and she hopped on his back, letting her body go lax and loose and wrapping her arms limply around his shoulders. Like always, she rubbed her forehead against the shimmery skin of his neck. "Thanks."

"No problem, says Emily."

Joker was standing on a small white stand in the middle of the ring with the two newcomers, both now dressed in typical circus fashion, though the manservant's clothes were very similar to his usual outfit. "From today onwards, we have some new friends with us!" He waved to them. "This is Black, and the wee one is Smile!"

Muffet watched the proceedings curiously from behind seemingly unfocused eyes, and caught the moment the manservant noticed her. Had she a heart, it would surely have leaped with nerves, especially when he narrowed his eyes and stared at her. She did not like the manservant.