Me: man I’d love to write some chase kink with Pierrot or Harlequin, perhaps them together with the reader
My brain: No, write polycircus action
So anyway in addition to being the resident biggest Pierrot/MC/Harlequin shipper I am now going to drag you all into shipping the MC with the whole Freak Circus with me
The logic I’m running with is that the reader knows that the boys aren’t human, but doesn’t *know* what they actually are and had been taken in after a mixup with a pink ticket before Pierrot could switch it out properly. At first they were something of a stray, but now the reader is the beloved little circus pet :3c so uhhhhh have this WIP
You didn’t… expect them to entertain your request. Not really. While there had been plenty of jokes about them hunting you down for sport, never once had that line of humor pressed into genuine curiosity— it would have remained as such in your own mind if it wasn’t for Harlequin’s verbal barbs one particular evening, teasing you into complete honesty.
“With how frightfully skittish you act around us, dear one,” he had said in a tone so low and dangerous it left your stomach flipping, “one of these nights we might accidentally mistake you for prey.”
“Well, maybe I wouldn’t mind that.”
The words are instant, unfiltered and out of your mouth before you can think to stop them. It wouldn’t be the first time you’d discussed… personal proclivities with them, but each previous time had been gently shrouded in euphemism and humor so that you could easily jump away from the topic at the earliest sign of judgement or embarrassment. It’s a dance of words and desires that each of the performers seem to be terrifyingly adept in— it was a matter of time before something like this would slip out.
And at first you’re not sure how they take it. The air is thick and still in the wake of your admission, as if time itself had frozen solid and left each of the boys to their own silent reaction.
Harlequin and Pierrot sit nearest you and are the most obvious in their sudden and heavy attention, but you can’t shake the feeling of Jester’s gaze from somewhere else unseen nor the stillness of Doctor and Ticket Taker from where they’d been discussing finances and scheduling for the next several months of the season.
All of them have gone eerily quiet.
You know they all heard you clearly— though the details of their biology and true shapes are still a mystery to you (a mystery you never want to force an answer for), they’re still not human. You are acutely aware that their senses are far, far sharper than what should be possible; hearing a whisper across a crowded room or the softest change of your scent when using a different perfume or body spray.