#cirquefei

Kai stared at the fighter, willing the flame to grow bigger. It did not. His brows furrowed in concentration as he willed the flame to go out. It did not. He looked to his free hand, the tip of his index finger aflame. Immediately after willing the flame is quadrupled in height before going out. Dropping his hand into his lap, he looked back to the lighter with a slightly annoyed expression. 

He sat between the equipment tents for quite some time, trying to force the lighter's flame to do something, anything, he wanted. After an hour of nothingness the flame flickered and went out, causing Kai to stand up and whoop victoriously before he realized he'd simply used up whatever fueled the small canister. "Stupid piece of shit," he growled, throwing it towards ground. 

Why couldn't he control fire that didn't originate from his body? It was inconvenient, stupid, didn't make sense. He looked at his watch, heaving a great sigh after calculating how much time he'd wasted trying to get the fire to do something. About to walk off, he blinked in surprise as the smell of fire reached him. Looking down at himself, he was relieved to see he hadn't set his shirt on fire - again. The relief was gone shortly as now the question was, what's on fire?

Kai turned, his efforts rewarded with a perfect view of an aflame equipment tent. "You've got to be fucking kidding me," he groaned, running his hand through his hair with an annoyed expression. Fantastic. Absolutely bloody fantastic. Dara - or rather, Sohee now, was going to kick his ass if she found out who set the fire.

For a guy, he sure had spent far too much time worrying about his hair. More specifically, the shade and length –when he could change it at will, and wanted to actually look like he gave enough of a damn to look nice, it suddenly turned from a fun whim to a heavy choice. Chunji let the pigments slide to a mint green to match the symbol on his black polo, but he grimaced at himself in the mirror, his overactive imagination seeing his hair blending into the foliage and him looking bald. Okay no. He was not this shallow –he’d settle for a neutral blonde that just seemed to suit the hot weather. Part of him worried that his outfit would wind up too hot for him, especially with the jeans, but he liked how he looked, and figured it couldn’t be so bad in the shade.

Departing, he smoothed his hair one last time, as he finally allowed his mind to drift to Fei, his eyes turning feline themselves for a second as his thoughts ghosted reverently over her. After their last meeting, she had been on his mind off and on, especially after he forbade himself to dwell on the bad. The Chinese girl certainly didn’t fall there, and Seungri’s mention of her had his cheeks flaming a bit as well, Chunji stumbling in the dirt a bit as he forced himself to think more rationally. As much as he’d love their visit to be mutually pleasant, he knew awkwardness would likely arise, because they had to bring up the kiss. She had run away after all, and leaving it like it was…it was just another thing to tangle his thoughts, though he’d certainly take more things like that over-

Okay no. Focus, he had to focus on the good things. Even if nerves almost seemed to lead him to bad things. Feeling his palms start to sweat, he shook his head and forced himself to calm down as her house came into view. As he swallowed down his nerves, the shapeshifter reminding himself that he hadn’t done anything wrong, his hair started to fade back to his natural brown at the roots, that giving him a more dyed look even though he would technically never need to do something like that.

Daegu’s weather was exactly what Chunji had been craving; something warm enough that he could lie out and sun himself in. It made him feel like a cat honestly, but he didn’t mind that –nor did he mind the strange looks it garnered him. A nice side effect of being a shapeshifter was that he could adjust the pignitation of his skin to keep himself from burning while he soaked in the delicious warmth. He laid out on a hill, right in a beam of light, breathing in the light until it felt like every part of him was glowing like a becon. It very well might have been, but he could care less: This was the kind of laziness that he loved. Laziness of someone trapped in a cage had him feeling edgy, but being free to drift away on the breeze had him laying around happily. And that was how he saw winter; as a cage, containing him to what he could wear when and how easy it was for them to get along. Whereas summer set him free.

It was in this mindset that he started to notice a girl; one that he had seen around a lot, actually, though he had never talked to her, a rather strange feat. His position on the hillside gave him the perfect view of the brunette girl he had never seen close up, and he wondered for the first time why he hardly saw anyone else keeping her company…besides her collection of animals. Intriguing, to say the least, and it got his mind spinning with possibilities. Chunji had a bit of a reputation as a sweet heart…with a rather strange tolerance and sense of humor. In memory of those things –though he wasn’t quite sure which one specifically- he decided that he would do something for her.

Her name was Fei, he knew, and she roomed in the deep red tent. Chunji purely knew this from circumstance, but he thanked himself for his mindless observations. That would make finding her so much easier than if he had only known her appearance –not to mention that asking about people was always the quickest way to spread rumors. Even with that knowledge, though, he nearly asked around to see what she liked. The shapeshifter already knew what he planned to do, but if she was allergic to something, it would certainly be a step in the wrong direction to give it to her. However, at the risk of seeming creepy, he asked no one and went into town for supplies, not worried about going alone since he could always help himself out if something were to happen, then immediately went to the dining tent afterward.

Chunji spent the better part of an hour baking cookies –chocolate chip ones made from scratch- and didn’t finish until midafternoon. Thank god he had gotten an early start, or she might have eaten dinner first… Or worse, walked in on him baking them. He had already decided that it would be too weird for him to have the cookies come from him…so he fabricated the perfect story as he waited for his balls of dough to rise. By the time they were cool, he had already decided on a hairstyle and color that he was pretty confident in. Gathering the cookies onto a plate, he morphed his hair to a calming dark brown, wondering if she would have heard of him, as he left to go and find her.

 He wasn't sure what was more difficult to deal with, the constantly shifting weight on his shoulders or the pulling and tugging on his hair with every movement. Yoogeun was intent on ripping out all of his roots as they trekked through the thick snow. Eunsol kept her mittened hand firmly wrapped around his, her grip tightened every time she misjudged the depth her boot would sink and wavered in her step. Both of the children held a steady banter over what was going to be the most wonderous sight there. Yoogeun argued that the food would be the best while Eunsol kept her heart set on seeing a ballerina. The two toddlers debating the the fervor of the most experienced politician. 

 At the sound of uproared voices, Eunsol let go of his hand and took off, ignoring every time she fell and got snow all over her dress. Yoogeun started whacking his boots against Gongchan's collarbone, egging the elder to go faster as if he was a race horse. With a shake of his head, Gongchan grabbed onto the little boy's legs and ran, his long stride allowing him to catch up to Eunsol with relative ease. The three children froze and took in the sight of the Midnight Circus, each pair of eyes wide with awe. 

 Eunsol was the first to recover from her amazement and took off once more, spraying snow at the two boys and giggling at their faces. Yoogeun's nails moved from his hair down to his eyebrows and tugged Gongchan's head, using toddler logic to figure that would make them go faster. Eventually the trio were thrown into the thrall of the Cirque, using the collective energy of the place to ignore their fatigue from the trip there. 

 As promised, Yoogeun was treated to his food and Eunsol dragged them from tent to tent, searching for her ballerina. They saw acts both terrifying and amusing. From a man who turned into a ferocious tiger to a man who made gardens bloom with a mere wave to a woman who could conjure fire. The toddlers were enthralled and babbled a commentary of the act as they traveled to a different performance. Gongchan grew more homesick with each act, every gifted being reminding him of the family he lost, but he kept up a smile for the little ones' sake. 

 A sign caught his attention and Gongchan found himself staring intently at the words "Master of Shadows", knowing something was wrong. He had known someone who could control shadows, and they were dead. Still, his fingers reached out and brushed against the words, wishing they were right. He missed his Appa. A shriek of a laugh snapped him out of it and Gongchan reached to his side for the children but grabbed at air.