Circus (Klance AU)

Through The Fire

Hey Lovelyz! Once again I am apologizing for not putting a chapter out yesterday ON TOP OF writing a shitty chapter the day before...Hopefully, this will be my redemption chapter! <3 <3

P.s. Guide is at the bottom, but there shouldn't be too much in it this time.

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"Holy Quiznak!"

Lance groaned as he sat down on a random crate behind the big top, a bottle of water in hand. He was sweaty, smelly, grimy and currently eating his own words. Allura was not kidding when she had said that he was going through the fire. This place was a freaking animal house in the short hour before showtime! 

Trainers ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, creating endless cross traffic, and trying to get their animals from cage to show spots. Clowns parading around with half painted faces yelling about the props they couldn't find. Riggers frantically configuring the last of the rigging needed for the high wire acts. 

It was none other than organized chaos if even that, and Lance had suddenly found himself thrown right into the middle of it. 

"Lance!" Allura commanded. "No time to gawk! Go help those performers move their Cyr Wheels*. Lance didn't know what that was but he soon found out when he saw the performers she had mentioned struggling to roll giant five-foot tall metal rings in through the back door of the tent.  Lance jogged over, eager to show Allura what he was capable of. Considering his height and well-muscled physic the job hadn't troubled him much. He returned to where Allura had just been only minutes ago to find a mere child waiting for him. 

"Um, do you know where Allura went?" He asked quizzically. 

"Not really..." They said, pushing the rim of their circular glasses up the bridge of their nose. "But I believe you belong to me now, so that doesn't really matter."

"How old are you even?" He asked skeptically. "Like twelve?"

They sighed. "I love how people are telling me I'm like two, twelve years old; I'm fifteen so shut the fuck up." 

"Oh, my, god." Lance was blindsided. "Did you just meme me?" He was in disbelief.

A smirk crawled its way onto their lips. "Maybe..." They reached out one hand. "Maybe you aren't that bad after all being that you got my reference. The name's Pidge, I'm Castle Altea's shanty, but you can call me the meme queen." Their smirk grew into a vicious smile.

"What?!" Lance gasped, throwing one hand onto his chest and puffing it out dramatically. "There is no way! Nobody knows more memes than my sorry ass, ok? I'm like...like a meme connoisseur!" 

Pidge scoffed. "Wanna bet? I dream in memes, pretty boy! I could out meme you in minutes!"

"Oh! Oh....it is so on! Just one question..."

"What?"

"What the freak is a shanty?"

Pidge let out a sigh of exasperation. It was going to be a long day. 

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Thus here Lance was, drinking his water waiting for the show to resume. It was the intermission and his one and only break. He had learned that a shanty was someone who ran the lighting for the show. This circus lingo was still kicking his butt and he had almost missed a few cues when Pidge had suddenly shouted "ballyhoo!"* and he was left like a deer in the headlights. Thankfully, Shay, who was also on the lighting crew, was able to save him. 

He hadn't seen Keith since last night and wondered where he could have been. He figured he would have seen him helping out with props or getting into costume, but nothing so far. He couldn't help but wonder what he was doing or how he was doing, or whether he was loving himself a little more now that he had reinforced the idea of his beauty. Because he was. Beautiful, that is.