okay this is another au of me just stirring up how donatella and augustus met (wowww we are so surprised)
they meet much the same as i usually have them meet. fall in love. make plans for donatella to run off and join the circus when the circus leaves town. She packs up and is ready to go, but she lets her plan slip to her sister because she wants someone to know where she's going and thinks her sister (who is well aware of how miserable she is) will support her. Big mistake. Her sister thinks her plan of running off to join the circus is stupid and dangerous and lets their mother know. When Donatella attempts to leave, her mother stops her and locks her in her room so she can't leave. Augustus waits all night, even after the circus leaves, but eventually the sun is coming up and he accepts that she probably got cold feet and changed her mind. And he has to leave to catch up with the rest of the circus. By the time Donatella is able to get out of her house he's long gone
Donatella stays at home for another year or two, just going through the motions. The family bonds are about as destroyed as they can get, she's just defeated atp. Another circus rolls into town and even though it's not the same one Augustus is a part of, she joins up. Worried that her family might try to drag her back if they ever find out, she wears a mask for all her performances and goes by a different name (raffaela). The mask ends up being her signature as audiences love the mystique of it, so she keeps it even when she's far from Italy. She doesn't know acrobatics, so her performances are more like her own twist on ballet, and it does really really well. So much so that she's offered contracts by other circuses who will pay her more if she'll join up with them. She accepts one of the higher bidders, and is now a part of a different circus. Incidentally, the circus that Augustus was a part of.
She had not sought him out this whole time because she's convinced that he probably hates her for never showing up, and she can't stomach the thought of him hating her. He immediately becomes suspicious because despite the mask, everything about her is so Dontella. But she gives him the fake name and he takes it at face value because he doesn't think Donatella would ever lie to him, least of all about her identity. She tries to avoid him but she's been pining after him for years at this point and he's just as wonderful as she remembered so they start spending more time together.
Augustus falls in love with her a second time, thinking she's a different person, but he feels guilty because he feels like the only reason he has feelings for her is because she's so much like Donatella. Meanwhile Dona feels guilty because she's lying to him and she's digging this hole deeper and deeper because if he already hates her then he's going to hate her so much more if he ever finds out. So she never takes the mask off, even outside of performances, which Augustus thinks is odd (and he's still a little suspicious but keeps writing it off as wishful thinking) but this is the circus and he's met bigger weirdos.
Eventually Augustus brings up the fact that she reminds him of a girl he once knew, and he talks about her so kindly despite the fact that she didn't leave with him and says he thinks of her often and hopes she's doing okay. He even says he went back to Venice once to see if they could have a second chance but he couldn't find her (because it was after she actually ran away!!!). Donatella is like aren't you mad she stood you up? And he's like no she just changed her mind, I can't blame her for that. Of course she changed her mind, I'm cursed. And Dona is sitting there feeling so dumb now because she kept up this whole charade because she was convinced that he could only hate her because he would think it was her choice to not show up that night, but Augustus is not the type of person to think like that.
So now she's got a horrible choice to either keep this up forever or drop the act right now and trust that if he could forgive her for that, he can forgive this too. So she chooses the latter and finally removes the mask. Augustus is maybe a little mad about her lying to him, but he's more shocked that it actually IS her and so happy she's okay and she's here and they're together. Any anger he feels is dropped when she explains why she lied and that she never stood him up and she would have gone with him if she hadn't been caught. Many tears are shed, and they can finally be together instead of this weird half relationship they had been carrying on this entire time.
