just a touch.

It had been quite a while since they had last visited the island. It was a few months after he had joined here. “The island is…” he started, giving it another short pause to proper think about what to tell. It was hard explaining the island. There were quite a few things strange about it, but he hadn’t really went out there to explore.

“Well, it’s not Hawaii, and definitely not as luxury as the name island might make you think, but… it’s still better than the tents and cots we have here?” he tried again, huffing out a short laugh under his breath.

“I never really went out to explore there on my own, I only kept visiting the same spots that I had found and were to my liking. And there’s a few places you probably should stay away from as well, brave soldier” he joked, shrugging his shoulders with a small grin, “though there’s enough room and time to relax. And a beach.” Which sort of made him wonder when they’d head back there, and he gave Himchan a questioning look, trying to find some assurance that the information he had provided was enough.

“Daegu and Gwangju” Yongguk then continued, mentally already back to the cities they had been to, “were nothing particularly special besides the fact that it was a new way of living, still… I had been there before, I wasn’t really the happiest during that time. There were times I just wanted to pack my stuff and go back home. But I couldn’t.”

Yongguk didn’t give reason why he couldn’t, and he only shrugged it off. He didn’t want to talk about it, and he continued without a break. “Next we moved to the island. I mean honestly, I was a bit afraid to go there at first. Because I knew that now I was leaving my home for real. And that was a rather terrifying thought. Compared to that, it suddenly felt easy to have stayed in Daegu, and it felt easy to have stayed in Gwangju.”

The man ran a hand through his hair, taking in a short breath. “I missed you a lot during that time, and I swear time never went so damn slow than it did over there.” He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh at himself or not, went for the eyesmile instead, making it seem less tragic.

“Then we went to Shanghai and for the while we stayed there, I dated this Chinese girl I–” Yongguk paused, pinching the bridge of his nose and shook his head subtly. One of the things he hadn’t wanted to mention, at least not as directly as he just had.

“I met her in town, she wasn’t a member of the circus and I didn’t tell her where I was coming from either. I left without notice when the circus left, there was no time.” Could as well finish now, and he dropped his hand back onto the table. “Kawaguchi. Asahikawa. You, me, here. The end.”

He quite obviously wasn’t proud of what he had done, rather embarrassed actually, which is why he hadn’t wanted to mention it like that – or at all, or yet. But what was said was said, and he somehow had to save himself from judgment, so he quickly added in a joke with a forced smile on his lips. “She’s probably going to murder me if we ever go back to Shanghai though.”

He didn't want to ask.  There was a beach and places to rest and unwind, and surely that was all that mattered.  It was probably difficult for Yongguk to really explain the entirety of it, considering... he was Yongguk.  That wasn't something he was very good at.

He did a much better job with the rest of his trip, however.  He leaned in closer, mouth twitching with the revelation that Yongguk had missed him bitterly when he'd finally left Korea.  He'd probably never get over feeling pleased that Yongguk had felt even a semblance of what he'd felt... 

A frown blossomed on his face at the mention of a girl, however.  Yongguk had just... left her without notice?  Without a word.  Himchan's fingertips curled in a bit, and he reached across the table to smack his friend lightly upside the head.

"You need to not do that to people."  Sure, she hadn't known Yongguk nearly as long as Himchan had, but it still sucked to be left behind like that.  "Especially if they're possibly murderous."

Really, he was thinking of both Yongguk's well-being, and the well-being of those he met.  Smacking his friend around was his way of helping. He was being a true humanitarian here.

He considered all the places that Yongguk had listed.  They'd started in Korea... then moved to Shanghai, then Japan, where they were now.  Did they have a specific list of places that they visited?  Did they often visit the same places over again?  He hadn't asked.  Hadn't considered asking.  What if they went back to Korea again, and what if they went to Seoul, or Busan...

A thrill of excitement passed through Wonshik’s frame, the man wishing the weather was cooler than this summer heat, even at this time of night, so he could have a jacket to clutch in excitement, rather than just his bared arms. The time was ripe for visiting a bar, so of course he had to visit, hearing what he heard about the man that could tattoo people without a needle. He had never been squeamish about those kinds of things, nor was he a stranger to pain, but the paranoia that loved to chew him up from the inside wouldn’t let him near needles, for fear of ink poisoning or worse.

Needless tattoos, on the other hand, didn’t even raise his hackles, the inner anxiety that usually only watched slipping away in their own boredom. Even they had trouble figuring out how someone that could make shapes on skin with energy, or whatever, could harm them, so they went mercifully quiet, only speaking up to warn him about the shady roads he walked down by himself, this time of night.

Those, Wonshik were used to ignoring, considering how he came from a town like this one, and was used to the people that would hide in the shadows to jump innocent passersby. This had happened to him before, but rather than increase his fear, this only reassured him that he knew how to use his powers in this situation, and could easily fix it for himself, should it really come to that.

Thus, he found his way to the old bar, slipping in effortlessly, since they would only check his ID if he wanted to buy a drink, in this kind of place.

Approaching the bar, he asked in soft, simple Korean, “Where is the tattoo man, please?”

Blinking slowly at the guy, he bit his lip, worried he hadn’t conveyed his purpose well enough, until the man jerked with his chin to a door in the wall to the left.

That looked…promising?

Two of them were empty, pushed away from the table as if left there by occupants that had not cared to push them back in, while a desklight with a halogen bulb sat on another.  It was bent to lean over the tabletop, but as it was off, it added no brightness to the otherwise dim room.  A sweatshirt was draped across the back of that chair as well.

Himchan sat in the last of the chairs, left hand curled into his short brown hair as the right idly tapped the piece of paper he was leaning over on the table's surface.  His sleeveless shirt made the fox that stretched up from his hand and around his arm to his bicep easily visible, even in the low light.  He frowned as he heard the door open.  Eyes not leaving what he was focused on, he called quietly.

"Takemoto-san, no more for tonight pl-" his Japanese was interrupted by quiet Korean, and he looked up in surprise.  It wasn't the bartender bringing him another drink this time.  Nor was it a drunk Japanese person, who made up the overwhelming majority of his clientele so far.  It was a Korean kid?  "Oh..."

He looked pretty damn sober, with skin too clear and clean for him to be here for Himchan's particular skill set.  Himchan felt his stomach knot, and he straightened up in his seat.  The paper, with the large colourful shape on it, was immediately turned over.  He didn't recognise this boy, especially in the low light, but then again, Himchan didn't recognise most of the Cirque's membership yet...  he drew a deep breath and switched easily to Korean as he spoke.

"Looking for what?"

His voice pulled her out of the darkness just enough for her to open her eyes, blinking through the blur as she looked where she was. Her cot came into view and she groaned, pushing herself down and flopping onto her side on it. The thing normally wasn’t comfortable yet at the moment it felt as if she was lying on a cloud. Her hand kept its grip on Himchan’s arm, and instead of letting him go, She grabbed him and pulled him down next to her.

Before he could protest or pull away, she was dragging him down, and he crashed onto the cot with a quiet yelp.  There was an immediate wave of panic, and his arms shifted to keep his hands away from her; before he could get up, before he could escape, she was all around him.

"Fuck," he whispered.  "Oh fuck."

He couldn't make himself move.  He was trapped, her fingers curled tight in his clothes, her face in his neck, one of his feet awkwardly still on the floor while the other was on the cot and tucked under one of hers.  His skin tingled where her face touched, the warmth of her breath on his skin more unsettling than anything.  What was he supposed to do?!  He couldn't just... lay here all night.  He couldn't stay in this bed with this strange woman, especially seeing as how she would probably kill him when she woke in the morning and realised what he'd done.

But he couldn't disentangle himself without waking her again and possibly making the situation worse.  He swallowed back on a groan and let his head rest on the cot, doing his best to get control of his breathing despite his worry.  How long would she sleep?  Maybe if he waited a while... he could see if she would let go of him, move around in her sleep, and he could slip away...

"I’m not sure." He said simply. "From what he’s told me though, he’s immune to his own toxins and other poisons with a low degree of toxins. He isn’t sure how a stronger poison would affect him though." It was weird, talking about a person he had only ever really talked to once or twice, but if it helped to put his roommate at ease, he would gladly continue the conversation. 

He was distracted by Chanyeol's sudden question though.  The subject change was abrupt and brought the conversation back to him, which... was a bit uncomfortable.  He didn't like having conversations about himself with people he barely knew.  It gave them more reasons to dislike him.

"I read.  Practice drawing a bit, since... you know, I can't really get away from the fact that I can do it now."  He paused, tilting his head a little.  "There's really not all that much to me.  I'm not a very interesting person.  Before I came here it was just work, eat, sleep, drink occasionally, repeat."

In all reality, he was interesting.  Very interesting.  His trip to get to this place had been interesting.  He just... had difficulty with people.  Chanyeol seemed nice enough, but Himchan had only just met him.  Opening up too much to people before you knew them well enough was a good way to get fucked over somehow later on.

He could deal with that, though, he thought. He had dealt with much worse of a change than a new person being added to their small crew of weird individuals, after all.

The following words managed to pull a chuckle from him, Chen not having a bad sense of humor in the least. He pondered over the answer, trying to remember exactly when him and Sehun had flown over to join the circus, but having trouble to. About two months, two months and a half, was it? He didn’t keep a calendar around and without any kind of electronics, it was hard to keep track of the days passing by, sometimes. It felt much like permanent vacations, quite like when he was a kid and had the luxury to be able to forget what day it was during the long summer breaks.

"I guess it’s been about two months and a half," he mumbled, voice sounding thoughtful, obviously unsure about his reply. "I’m terrible with dates." He laughed shortly at that, feeling some tension seep out of his body as he did, laughter seemingly acting as a natural relief. "You said you were new, right? Then what do you do in the cirque exactly?"

Before he could really comment on that, however, the question of what he did at the circus came, and he blinked in surprise.  He hadn't really explained it to anyone yet, not even Yongguk.  His friend knew what he could do, yes... but he didn't know what Himchan's act really was, how Himchan had incorporated one of his previous loves and hobbies into the new curse that filled the skin of his palms.

"Oh, you know... general property damage, and a side show act..."  He felt heat creeping into his ears, and he wasn't sure if it was a response to the cold water or his being embarrassed about talking about his power.  He looked down at his hands, then picked up a bottle of bodywash.  It was white, and there was a black handprint on the side of it that had not been there when he'd bought it.  "I haven't really... started doing it yet... but I will be soon.  If I don't, they'll probably throw me out."

He was joking, but he really wasn't sure if should have been or not.  There were probably consequences to not doing what you were supposed to, and he wouldn't be at all surprised if one of those consequences were "we will leave your ass".  He lathered up the body wash and rubbed it hurriedly over his cold skin.

"Well." He finally spoke after a moment of silence. "From what I’ve heard, it’s only his blood, saliva, and sweat that are toxic." He said simply, thinking back to the conversation he had with him long ago. "Yeah, that’s it." He nodded his head.

He sighed, watching the way the other man’s body moved ever so slightly. He couldn’t blame him for being uncomfortable, however, he thought it unfair considering he didn’t know Dongwoo like he did. 

"That is not as bad as I had initially thought."  He looked back to his pillow, pulling it close and drawing on it with his fingertip again.  "I can't imagine living with something like that myself though.  I accidentally touch people all the time with my power..."

The more the other boy shared, the less Himchan felt worried.  His power was confined to his bodily fluids, and it wasn't immediately toxic.  It would probably take more than an accidental brush of the hand to kill someone then.

Being young, Junhong always found himself torn between finding everyone as nice people, and being scared that they would somehow betray him in the end. After all, that’s what his father had taught him—though he wasn’t quite ready to believe it yet. The boy ended up showing the stranger a rather sheepish smile as he plucked the string from his mop of silver hair, ducking his head down in a small bow of polite thanks. 

He continued to watch the man momentarily before slowly tilting the top end of the bow towards him, thankfully taking the string from between the other’s fingers in the process. “Could you hold this end for me?” Junhong shifted his weight with a sudden curiousness as to what the other’s power could possibly be, but it was probably very rude to ask out loud—at least for now. 

"Bows aren’t like babies, they aren’t dropped off into homes by a stork—" the boy laughed at his light tease before his back straightened and lips pursed almost instantly to cut off the sound. Would the man be mad at him for joking around? He cleared his throat and lifted the string. "I make my own bows," his voice was lowered again, quiet. It had been too long since he had a casual conversation with anyone.

For him it wasn’t strange to see people around during the day despite this being a nighttime circus, and it definitely wasn’t weird during actual night hours. Everything just seemed rather…natural. But that didn’t stop Junhong from being curious about the man sitting with him, nonetheless. 

"Of course not from a stork.  One would expect they'd come from mockingjays."  He glanced at the boy, a little thrown off by the sudden change from laughter to seriousness, but really who knew what to expect of anyone here?  Certainly Himchan didn't.  He leaned in just a hair closer to hear what the boy was saying.  "That sounds rather time consuming."

How would one even... he supposed the boy had to buy some wood, a tree branch or a plank or something?  The bow Himchan was gripping wasn't very wide, but the sweeping way it bent in... and did he whittle it?  Like an old person in those American movies, the ones who just sat on their porches in rocking chairs with a knife and a piece of tree?  Or did he use power tools of some sort to make the process go faster?

He seemed too young to have the patience required for this.  Himchan knew he wouldn't have had it at his age.

"I've not really adjusted to the circus's schedule yet."  The exhaustion he felt in his bones sometimes should have meant he'd adjust, but it just hadn't happened.  His eyes moved along the string as the boy's did, and he let the slightest smile tip his lips.  "Hopefully soon, though... Are you having troubles sleeping as well?  I've only ever seen Yongguk wandering at this time of day."

“Stop panicking,” he sighed, nose wrinkling with irritation, “I didn’t take enough to kill you. And I’m not going to kill you.” Sehun paused, then reluctantly added a threat to cover his own ass, “Unless you tell anyone about this. If you do, then I’ll kill you.” The words tasted old, but familiar, on his tongue, and he felt a rush of shame color his cheeks. Even after everything he’d done in his past, time had hit the reset button. He couldn’t kill this guy.

Shaking his head, he spoke impatiently, “Come on now, can’t leave you lying there.”

Stooping down beside him, he moved one hand to the stranger’s lower back, trying to help him sit up. “No screaming.” Sehun warned, eyes flashing seriously, “Where should I take you?”

If he wouldn’t –or couldn’t- answer his questions about the marks, he would surely stick around until this guy got his dizzy head out of his ass. Especially since he still didn’t know who this man was, and if he would go anywhere to get him in trouble. Jongdae hyung would kill him if they had to leave the circus now, with not nearly enough money saved up between them to get them far.

"'Stop panicking' he says," Himchan grumbled to himself, closing his eyes and swaying a little, his fingers gripping at the ground around him.  "Wait, wait."

At least 'no screaming' would be easier to follow.  He leaned against the kid, not really having any other course of action, and used him and the ground as fixed points to try and stop his swaying.  He hated that he was sitting and still felt this uncoordinated... hated even more that he was leaning into his attacker, who had made no secure promises to leave him alive.  But the boy seemed to be in a helpful mood, and Himchan's fear was being slowly diluted by a sluggish heaviness in his limbs and body.

"I work for the circus..." he mumbled.  "Leave me here, close enough."

"Well…" He started, staring at Himchan. "The one guy, who lives over in forest green." He said simply, as though it wasn’t a big deal. Which it wasn’t, Dongwoo was a relatively nice guy who really, really, didn’t want to hurt people. In fact, no one hated Dongwoo’s ability more than Dongwoo himself. "His ability is poison generation." It wasn’t a secret, so Chanyeol figured there was no harm in telling him this. 

Chanyeol didn’t remember when the two of them had met, but he did remember sharing the other boy’s pain. Both boys had incredibly dangerous abilities, so it was only natural that people feared what they were capable of. 

It was quite distracting, and he almost didn't catch Chanyeol's question.

"Hmm?" His attention flicked back to Chanyeol as the boy moved, and he frowned a little.  Did it scare him?  "A little, just out of it being unknown.  I'm rather not fond of the idea that standing next to someone might kill me."

His own curse felt slightly less curse-like now.  Yes, it had rendered him unable to touch people for fear of leaving irreversible marks on them... but it couldn't kill them.  He could live in a tent with other people and not risk the possibility of waking up to discover they'd all died in the night.