Chapter Text
Chongyun stood near the edge of the ring, rope in hand. He felt the many excited eyes of the audience, even though most of them had their attention on the person in the middle of the makeshift stage. He still felt nervous, and the bright lights and loud music weren’t helping, so he started going over the routine in his head that he practiced a few times beforehand. The “creative director”, or boss(?) had shown Chongyun how the pulley system worked, as well as introduced him to the other performers that would help him once the acrobat was up (his name was Venni… Venti? Something like that). Breathe in. Breathe out. Calm down. You’re not the one who’s gonna be hanging up 20 feet in the air.
The one who was going to be hanging on a metal lyra ring right under the ceiling of the tent was Xingqiu. Chongyun hadn’t spoken to him before, or even really seen him very well face-to-face. From what he’d heard from the other performers he had talked to, though, Xingqiu seemed like an all around brat. Yet they praised him for his “flexibility” and “unmatched talent” all the same. The audience had started to clap to the rhythm of the music. Chongyun snapped out of his thoughts and started slowly lowering the hoop down towards Xingqiu, as the other assistants emerged from behind the back curtain. A short blonde guy with bright eyes and scars all over, a grey-haired boy who looked unusually built for his age, and a timid-looking scrawny fellow. Congyun knew none of their names, being the newbie among the circus performers, yet had a fairly good grasp of each of their personalities based on which part they played in the performance. Xingqiu now settled himself on the ring, and the rope got significantly heavier. “it’s tug-of-war time,” the blonde performer muttered, as the assistants took hold of the rope, one by one. Chongyun was the one in the front, so he got a good look at the performance.
And man, Xingqiu was pretty. The way he moved around the ring, the way his blue hair reflected the bright light. His movements were slow, methodical, and somewhat restrained, as he was lifted higher and higher into the air. The audience clapped in anticipation as Xingqiu started to swing, slowly, back and forth. Once he got a good rhythm, he released his grip on the ring, very slightly, flipping upside down. He spun in slow circles around the perimeter of the rink, earning “ooh”s and “ahh”s from the audience. Xingqiu’s costume jacket suit tails flapped in the wind, and Chongyun could almost make out the glint in his amber eyes. The royal blue suit jacket complements them nicely, he noted, as Xingqiu spun past him. Chongyun forgot how to breathe for a split second, before realizing that the music had slowed into a suspenseful tone. This was his cue to start raising the hoop, as Xingqiu flipped right side up again, immediately going into a sideways split parallel to the ring. Venti, who played the part of the bard, as well as the supervisor for the aerial acrobats, started signaling to the audience to get them to clap louder, as if in order to hype Xingqiu up for whatever he was about to do. And clap they did, Chongyun felt his head pounding from the loud noise. He tried his best to focus on the rope, struggling to tear his eyes away from the blue acrobat. As soon as the hoop reached the very top of the tent, Xingqiu lowered down to hang by one hand off of the bottom of the ring, twisting his back into an arch. This move looked the most precarious, at least to Chongyun, because the acrobat was hanging on by just one palm, and without the safety strap attached to his wrist. One sudden wrong movement, and Xingqiu falls 20-something feet down onto a stage that’s only barely covered by something that looked like sand mixed with sawdust. Venti was there to attempt to break his fall, sure, but there’s only so much a person can do when an acrobat is plummeting down towards them. Chongyun would rather not think about that.
Despite the risk, Xingqiu still looked as graceful as before, albeit a little red in the face from hanging upside down a moment prior. He went into another split position, returning his other hand to the ring. Congyun breathed a quiet sigh of relief. He took that sigh back quite quickly as Xingqiu arched his back over the hoop, and took both his hands off the ring, relying solely on his own center of gravity to keep him from falling.The audience kept applauding as Xingqiu was lowered down a few feet above ground, still in this precarious position. Even while lowering the rope, Chongyun held his breath. He had been told some of the things the acrobat would be doing, as well as all of the sound cues in the music to raise or lower the rope during the practice sessions, yet he still felt on edge.
Finally, Xingqiu put his hands back on the ring and settled upright on it. At this moment, a young girl, maybe 12 or so, ran out from behind the back curtains, right towards him. Xingqiu dropped upside down, once again, and extended his arms towards the girl. Congyun couldn’t even get a good look at her costume before she was lifted up into the air by Xingqiu, as Chongyun pulled the rope at the sound cue. He wasn’t told this part of the act, he’d have to ask Venti later. He had seen the girl before however, and even had the chance to talk to her. He was pretty sure her name was Sayu, and she was from somewhere overseas in inazuma. He’d like to visit inazuma someday, it seemed like a very pretty nation. Maybe he’d even take Xingqiu with him; a pretty boy in a pretty nation. He mentally scoffed at his own joke.
Xingqiu had put Sayu back down at this point, and resumed his spinning around the perimeter of the stage, upright this time, and…faster? He had the safety strap on this time, thankfully, and he started picking up speed. He bent backwards towards the audience, who had resumed their cheering. The second time Xingqiu spun past Chongyun, Chongyun could almost swear that Xingqiu glanced in his direction, looking away almost immediately. It was hard to tell because of how fast Xingqiu was spinning, but Chongyun still felt his palms get strangely sweaty. He could make out every detail in the acrobat’s outfit, from the gold trim to the delicate koi fish designs on the back. And damn, Xingqiu looked gorgeous. It was way better than any of the other performances beforehand, no shame to them of course. Xingqiu took it to another level, and was completely worthy of the praise from the other performers in Chongyun’s eyes.
Xingqiu was slowing down his spinning, and was finally lowered to the ground. After the final note of the music, he climbed out of the hoop, and took a deep bow. The audience applauded and cheered, louder than Chongyun had ever heard a group of people clap before.
Then, Xingqiu turned around and swung the hoop right at Chongyn, as hard as he seemingly could. Yep, there’s the brat everyone’s been talking about, Chongyun sighed, and caught the hoop inches before it hit his face. Once he lowered it completely, he saw Xingqiu sticking his tongue out at him, in the most un-graceful and mocking way possible, right at his face. Scrunched up nose and everything. Chongyun struggled not to laugh, but figured this was part of the act, and he must play the part, after all. So, he crossed his arms, and pouted angrily in return. For a split second, Xingqiu’s expression faltered, to one of… shock? Amusement? Embarrassment? Chongyun couldn’t tell, because Xingqiu turned to the audience, took one last triumphant bow, and ran offstage to a chorus of laughter. And just like that, the pretty boy was gone. Chongyun followed him with his eyes, until he was completely hidden behind the curtain.
“Ey, you’ve never seen a ring acrobat?” The blonde guy behind him said, right into Chongyun’s ear, startling him slightly. “Uh... Not… Not really?” Chongyun half-lied. He had seen photos and paintings of ring acrobats, and he’d seen Xingqiu stretching backstage, yet he had never gotten that close to a performance before. The blonde scoffed and turned to the grey-haired boy, wiggling his eyebrows. The boy just blinked in confusion. Chongyun didn’t get it either, but there wasn’t much time between acts, so he had to hurry to take his place back near the emergency exit, which he was told to guard in case anyone tried to use it. The next act was just to work up to the intermission, so it was only the bard and the one who played the circus director. Chongyun knew her name was Mona, yet she was barely recognizable without one of her many wide-brimmed hats she wore out of costume. Chongyun zoned out; he had no part in this section of this performance. When he zoned back in, the lights had already started to dim, as the intermission was announced over the speakers. It invited the audience to visit the snack tent outside, which was being manned by Xiangling, an energetic girl who was well known for her…questionable concoctions. The loud sounds and bright lights started getting to him, so he slinked backstage; the timid boy from before taking his place.
As soon as he stepped back behind the flap of the tent, he was greeted by a tall, long-haired man in what looked like a very… minimalistic costume. “Oi, how was your first time out there durin’ a performance, little buddy? I heard you’re new.” He put his hands on his hips, and puffed his chest out slightly. “Well, it was…okay, but my act is in the second half, after the intermission” Chongyun replied, nodding politely and making his way to the costume changing area. On his way there, he spotted Xingqiu talking to a mildly irritated Venti, but decided to pay him no mind. The costume Chongyn was currently wearing was fairly simple to change in and out of. It consisted of a Fontaine-style button up, tight black leggings and shoes, and a loose red belt-like cloth wrapped around his waist. All he had to do was remove his button up to reveal a tight dark blue tank top, and switch his red belt for a blue one. The creative director had ordered different colored outfits for all of the jugglers, to match with either their hair or eyes. Yet he somehow messed up the order for one of them, so instead of getting a red belt, he ordered a purple. The grey-haired boy didn’t seem to mind either way.
The circus was an old tradition, and the costume styles hadn’t changed “since Venti became the creative director.” Although, Venti looked about 19 or so, so it wouldn’t really make sense that the circus was over 70 years old. Yet, no-one questioned it. Chongyun felt someone’s eyes on him as he was unbuttoning his shirt, so he looked up. Everyone seemed to be minding their business, so he just dismissed it as his nervousness for the performance messing with him. He grabbed his 3 starting juggling pins, and went to join the others to maybe get a chance to catch their names for once.