Where were you when Napoleon died? (1/1)
Title: Where were you when Napoleon died?
Author: pr_scatterbrain/Professional Scatterbrain.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything not even the title which is taken from the album booklet of Beirut’s Flying Club Cup.
Pairing: Spencer/Zach.
Rating: pg
Summary: Zach runs away but he always does. Only this time he doesn't come home. A 1900s circus au based on this photograph. Half fic, half not!fic.
***
Zach runs away and joins the circus a few years after he comes of age. He's run away before - from school, people, family, and to Europe, drunken nights of debauchery with singers and mystics and loud music that never stops. He’s always come back. Always. But this time when he leaves his life of privilege, society events and pressed linen suits, he runs as far and as fast as he can until the past, his past, seems like a distant memory. A dream he's slowly forgetting with every day that comes and goes.
The circus travels around the US and he repaints rides and sweeps and sells tickets and sleeps next to the lion cages and warily watches Spencer the lion tamer, who is unstable and unapproachable since Ryan, the zebra rider, and Jon, the clown, left the circus to start their own, leaving everyone in the lurch.
At some point the circus finds themselve in need of a new act and Zach is there and maybe he's always lived in his head, but he puts his hand up. Either as a tightrope walker, or as a new horse/zebra act. He doesn’t mind which. Both things involve not looking down and he can do that. He doesn't look back. That isn't so different.
Brendon the ringmaster turns to Spencer, and Zach knows he was right to watch him out of the corner of his eye because it is Spencer who makes the final decision, Spencer who nods and says okay, Zach can have a shot. Like Spencer, Brendon is out of sorts without Ryan and Jon by his side. Only it shows more. It’s painful sometimes to look at him. He smiles so brightly and laughs at every joke but he isn’t okay. Isn’t nearly close to that. Sure, they’ve picked up other acts since Ryan and Jon left (Florence who tells fortunes, who smiles at Zach like she knows the final punch line, Ben Lee who is arrogant but who makes Frank tumble and flip and cartwheel properly, and Ray who, like everyone, dislikes Ben but approves of how Frank no longer dislocates his shoulder every second day). But that doesn’t mean Brendon has stopped missing his best friends.
So it is decided, Zach will be the new act. Ryan left two horses, a mare and her foal. Everyone knows Ryan would have taken them too, if the mare hadn’t been so heavily pregnant when he departed.
Zach is told to start with them. His family had horses. A ranch. They had a ranch. Cows. Cattle drives. That sort of thing. But Zach never did anything. Not anything useful. In the stables he tacks up the mare. The gold and silver trimmed saddle gleams in the soft light and Zach feels a little how he always wishes he could, but once in the ring he doesn’t know what to do. For a little while Alicia, Jamia, Diane Kruger and Joan Wasser, the four trapeze artists watch from the sidelines.
“She knows what to do,” Diane says when it becomes apparent that Zach isn’t going to do anything and Joan nods.
Together the two of them come into the ring and hold the reins. They tell him not to be afraid, and when he cannot, they mount the horse and canter around the ring, fearless and beautiful. They are right of course; the horse does know what to do. It’s well trained and well breed. For all his faults, Ryan knew good horse flesh and this mare is one of the best. Even Zach can see that. It doesn’t react at all when they stand on its back. Its hooves pound an even rhyme into the sawdust, like a heartbeat outside of his chest, he listens to the sound and watches Diane and Joan do all kinds of feats; their hands clasped together tightly, and their feet curling into the mare’s sides.
When they finish their demonstration they dismount and Zach tries to follow in their lead. He fails more than he succeeds. It frustrates him more than he likes. In contrast, Spencer is bold and steady with his lions. Away from them he moves as if he is something tightly coiled. Something to steer clear of, or rather, someone to steer clear of. Zach knows fury. Can sense it just like the animals can. But when Spencer's with his lions, he is different.
“I come from a show business family,” he tells Zach.
“It's all about entertainment,” he adds and Zach knows. Zach's seen Spencer in the ring.
In his vivid blue jacket and inky black jodhpurs, he stands so tall and strong. The lions and lionesses sit to attention at the crack of his whip and roar at command.
Zach’s act isn’t nearly so practiced. His leather boot always seem to be dusty when it comes time to enter the ring and the two new horses - shadowy grey Arabian’s that Spencer helped Zach pick out at a local equine auction - are still unused to the roar of the crowd. Occasionally one or both of them startle, once one even rears.
Zach become used to wincing as he undresses in the evening and waking to find new and interesting bruises on his body. Ray sometimes gives him something to help, but most of the time Zach goes without. His hurts aren’t so bad. They make him feel more real, more solid and there. He doesn’t tell anyone though. That wouldn’t do.
Once, at night after all the audience has gone and all the performers are drinking, Spencer takes Zach into the cages. He says a command and the lion opens his mouth. When Spencer reaches for Zach's hand, Zach lets him take it and put it inside the great animals jaw.
"He won't bite you," Spencer tells Zach. "Trust me."
And Zach does.
Zach can't help himself.
Spencer and his lions. Zach thinks he should know better. But he never has. Not back home on his families holdings or in the city or in any of the fashionable pallor’s he found himself frequenting before he ran for his life.
In the morning he wakes in Spencer's caravan, pressed against him and Zach feels as if he has never known anything but this. It should frighten him, he thinks. Spencer is glittering gold and there is a saying about that. Zach's mother used to say it all the time. But Spencer rolls Zach under him before Zach can remember it, distracting him with his hands and mouth and sharp teeth.
Later the other performers titter and smirk. But that is later and Zach does not think about that.
***
.
Author: pr_scatterbrain/Professional Scatterbrain.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything not even the title which is taken from the album booklet of Beirut’s Flying Club Cup.
Pairing: Spencer/Zach.
Rating: pg
Summary: Zach runs away but he always does. Only this time he doesn't come home. A 1900s circus au based on this photograph. Half fic, half not!fic.
***
Zach runs away and joins the circus a few years after he comes of age. He's run away before - from school, people, family, and to Europe, drunken nights of debauchery with singers and mystics and loud music that never stops. He’s always come back. Always. But this time when he leaves his life of privilege, society events and pressed linen suits, he runs as far and as fast as he can until the past, his past, seems like a distant memory. A dream he's slowly forgetting with every day that comes and goes.
The circus travels around the US and he repaints rides and sweeps and sells tickets and sleeps next to the lion cages and warily watches Spencer the lion tamer, who is unstable and unapproachable since Ryan, the zebra rider, and Jon, the clown, left the circus to start their own, leaving everyone in the lurch.
At some point the circus finds themselve in need of a new act and Zach is there and maybe he's always lived in his head, but he puts his hand up. Either as a tightrope walker, or as a new horse/zebra act. He doesn’t mind which. Both things involve not looking down and he can do that. He doesn't look back. That isn't so different.
Brendon the ringmaster turns to Spencer, and Zach knows he was right to watch him out of the corner of his eye because it is Spencer who makes the final decision, Spencer who nods and says okay, Zach can have a shot. Like Spencer, Brendon is out of sorts without Ryan and Jon by his side. Only it shows more. It’s painful sometimes to look at him. He smiles so brightly and laughs at every joke but he isn’t okay. Isn’t nearly close to that. Sure, they’ve picked up other acts since Ryan and Jon left (Florence who tells fortunes, who smiles at Zach like she knows the final punch line, Ben Lee who is arrogant but who makes Frank tumble and flip and cartwheel properly, and Ray who, like everyone, dislikes Ben but approves of how Frank no longer dislocates his shoulder every second day). But that doesn’t mean Brendon has stopped missing his best friends.
So it is decided, Zach will be the new act. Ryan left two horses, a mare and her foal. Everyone knows Ryan would have taken them too, if the mare hadn’t been so heavily pregnant when he departed.
Zach is told to start with them. His family had horses. A ranch. They had a ranch. Cows. Cattle drives. That sort of thing. But Zach never did anything. Not anything useful. In the stables he tacks up the mare. The gold and silver trimmed saddle gleams in the soft light and Zach feels a little how he always wishes he could, but once in the ring he doesn’t know what to do. For a little while Alicia, Jamia, Diane Kruger and Joan Wasser, the four trapeze artists watch from the sidelines.
“She knows what to do,” Diane says when it becomes apparent that Zach isn’t going to do anything and Joan nods.
Together the two of them come into the ring and hold the reins. They tell him not to be afraid, and when he cannot, they mount the horse and canter around the ring, fearless and beautiful. They are right of course; the horse does know what to do. It’s well trained and well breed. For all his faults, Ryan knew good horse flesh and this mare is one of the best. Even Zach can see that. It doesn’t react at all when they stand on its back. Its hooves pound an even rhyme into the sawdust, like a heartbeat outside of his chest, he listens to the sound and watches Diane and Joan do all kinds of feats; their hands clasped together tightly, and their feet curling into the mare’s sides.
When they finish their demonstration they dismount and Zach tries to follow in their lead. He fails more than he succeeds. It frustrates him more than he likes. In contrast, Spencer is bold and steady with his lions. Away from them he moves as if he is something tightly coiled. Something to steer clear of, or rather, someone to steer clear of. Zach knows fury. Can sense it just like the animals can. But when Spencer's with his lions, he is different.
“I come from a show business family,” he tells Zach.
“It's all about entertainment,” he adds and Zach knows. Zach's seen Spencer in the ring.
In his vivid blue jacket and inky black jodhpurs, he stands so tall and strong. The lions and lionesses sit to attention at the crack of his whip and roar at command.
Zach’s act isn’t nearly so practiced. His leather boot always seem to be dusty when it comes time to enter the ring and the two new horses - shadowy grey Arabian’s that Spencer helped Zach pick out at a local equine auction - are still unused to the roar of the crowd. Occasionally one or both of them startle, once one even rears.
Zach become used to wincing as he undresses in the evening and waking to find new and interesting bruises on his body. Ray sometimes gives him something to help, but most of the time Zach goes without. His hurts aren’t so bad. They make him feel more real, more solid and there. He doesn’t tell anyone though. That wouldn’t do.
Once, at night after all the audience has gone and all the performers are drinking, Spencer takes Zach into the cages. He says a command and the lion opens his mouth. When Spencer reaches for Zach's hand, Zach lets him take it and put it inside the great animals jaw.
"He won't bite you," Spencer tells Zach. "Trust me."
And Zach does.
Zach can't help himself.
Spencer and his lions. Zach thinks he should know better. But he never has. Not back home on his families holdings or in the city or in any of the fashionable pallor’s he found himself frequenting before he ran for his life.
In the morning he wakes in Spencer's caravan, pressed against him and Zach feels as if he has never known anything but this. It should frighten him, he thinks. Spencer is glittering gold and there is a saying about that. Zach's mother used to say it all the time. But Spencer rolls Zach under him before Zach can remember it, distracting him with his hands and mouth and sharp teeth.
Later the other performers titter and smirk. But that is later and Zach does not think about that.
***
.