Snippet #2360181

"Probably?" Julius quirked an eyebrow skeptically, arms crossed across his chest. "You definitely should. We were all worried about you. Just... try to be more careful, all right?" He sighed a little shakily, uncrossing his arms and running a hand through his curly locks. He didn't have it in him to scold her right now, to tell her that she was lucky there were people around, lucky Ash came to help, lucky the worst hadn't come to pass. No, all of that could wait until after tonight's show when, hopefully, his nerves had calmed down enough. He might put his life in danger every day, might watch his friends do the same thing, but that just made moments like this- when it was out of everyone's control- all the more terrifying.

But this wasn't about him and his feelings. Things hardly were. No, this was about Alynna's life being in danger and, now that that particular scene had played out, there were other things to be concerned about. For instance, Brink, who had retreated from the tent with an expression that had betrayed the fact that tears would soon follow, once he was out of sight. As ringmaster of the Cirque du Soir, especially a young ringmaster with plenty to prove, there was enough stress and worries on Brink's plate without the addition of someone almost dying in a very preventable accident. He was always so busy checking on everyone else, a fact often hidden by his calm and reserved exterior, well, why shouldn't Julius return the favor?

"Look, I'm going to check on Brink. You just..." He trailed off, grasping for something to say. "Don't practice anymore? Take a break or something. And, Ash. Thank you. You really saved the day." The thanks was filled with honest and clear emotion, a warm smile twitching on his lips. With that, he turned around and exited the tent.

The question now was where had their young ring master gotten to? Well, yes, he could have run off to find Nixie- it's what Julius would have done in his shoes, run off to someone closest to him. Then again, maybe he was all right after all and had gone back to Derrick where they were presumably working on tonight's act, only a short while away. It was a bit of a stretch, even in Julius' mind, but the snake tamer's tent was on the way to the food tent where Nixie presumably was, so he might as well stop in there, just to be sure.

The circus was coming to life, more and more people awake and inside their own tents, preparing for the nightly entertainment. The moon had risen even further, lighting the sky with aid from the bright stars above that had just begun to sparkle to life. The walk to Derrick's tent was short, Julius' pace brisk in an unusual deviation from his normal slow, almost lazy way of walking.

"Hey, Derrick, have you seen Brink-?" It hadn't crossed his mind to just peek in, to give some warning before throwing open the tent flap. Now, he really wish that he had because apparently Brink was here, sobbing desperately into Derrick's shoulder, the younger boy held in a tight hug in their ring master's lap. Julius' face colored brightly, eyes darting to the ground. All right, not what he'd expected to find but that was fine. Well, maybe it wasn't fine. That feeling for earlier, the horrible nausea and knot in his stomach feeling, had returned ten-fold, almost cripplingly so, and he really couldn't bring himself to tamp it down. Ohh, God, he was a horrible person, wasn't he? An absolute horrible, awful, terrible person because it was just comfort, and here he was feeling jealous. He was jealous wasn't he? But he didn't need to be at all, and, really, even if he was jealous, it wasn't intimate, but, then again, it did look awfully intimate and-

"Sorry, sorry. I'll just," He blurted out, spinning on his heel before he looked even more like an idiot and exiting quickly, almost tripping over the tent flap as he fled, embarrassment and just the slightest bit of distress on his face. Okay, time to go now. Exit stage left, go find lions and get them ready, pretend this never happened.