The States

The Totally Unnecessary NY/PA Circus AU

1.

Will feels alive for the first time in his life beside Alfred.

Alfred's a madman with a circus, but he's brilliant and burning and his vigor is contagious.

Will's laughing as he's pushed through the curtain and to the balcony of the second floor, and then he stops.

The world moves in slow motion, and there's a girl.

She flies through the air, only held up by her knees hooked over a trapeze, and the high point of her swing puts her only a few feet in front of him.

Will takes his hat off from some reflexive memory of half-remembered etiquette lesson on how to behave in the presence of a lady.

She has the brightest blue eyes he's ever seen, lined in silver to match her hair.

He can't even breathe.

She falls back down and the audience cheers.

Will feels like he's been sucker-punched.

"Who is that?" He breathes out, and Alfred grins.

"Come on, I'll introduce you."

------------------------

Alfred presents them with a flourish. "Nicky and Brooke, our trapeze artists, meet William Buchanan, our newest recruit."

Nicky rolls his eyes at the dramatics, but he's smiling.

Brooke looks up from where she was unwrapping her wrists. "What's your act?"

"I- I don't- I don't have an act." God, one look and a question and she's reduced him to stuttering. Will's never stuttered in his life.

"Everyone's got an act." She gives him a faint smile and walks away towards the performer's dressing rooms.

Will stares after her helplessly, and misses the look Nicky gives him.

2.

The next day, Will sits up in the stands and watches a practice.

It isn't a dress rehearsal, so they're all in plain clothes, but even without the eye-catching costumes and hair, his attention is drawn to the two trapeze artists flying through the air.

They dance and weave through the sky, and Will smiles when the other three aerialists join them and are greeted enthusiastically as they all divide the open air amongst them.

The circus is vibrant and colorful and alive, and this is just a plainclothes rehearsal.

"So what do you think?" Alfred asks.

Will smiles. "It's amazing."

3.

Working for the circus is astronomically different from working in the theater.

For one, he wasn't terrified that something would go wrong and someone would die during a show at the theater.

Will hadn't realized it at first- that every time the circus performed, they risked their lives. Mindy looked like grace personified as she did her flips up on the raised balance beam, but he'd seen the day her foot slipped and she fell ten feet to the ground- she tucked and rolled and came out of it with only a sprained ankle, but it was scary. Kendall's horse would throw him if it was panicked. Jules and Flora were working with wild animals that could turn on them at any moment. Sam and Marisol were literally playing with fire.

But he's never seen either of the trapeze artists stumble or slip.

So stupidly, he'd assumed they never did.