During the first few weeks in the circus, Geno had grown really used to tending smaller and bigger injuries caused by the unexperienced performers practicing their new acts. He had a full medical training under his belt, plus the younger Ringmaster, Dream, was also a great help.

Geno spent most of his days in the medical tent, but when he went outside, he avoided the Big Top like a plague. Error, his younger brother – the one he had followed there without his permission or knowledge – was the DJ there, and Geno wasn't really fond of the idea of revealing his existence in the circus to him.

It was a cold spring morning when Geno came to meet Dust for the first time. The unstable magician stumbled into the medical tent, bleeding. Geno was quick nurse his wounds with no questions asked.

"You should be more careful," Geno warned the young man before him while wrapping a bandage around his harshly cut arm.

"Trying my best," he shrugged, watching Geno curiously before coming up with a question of his own: "So, you're our medic?"

"That's me," Geno hummed. "The name's Geno. And no need to worry, I know what I'm doing. I didn't spent years in medical school for nothing," he continued, introducing himself to the performer.

"Dust," the other offered his dusting hand – the one Geno was already treating – towards the medic.

"I can see that," Geno pointed out. His comment had Dust blinking for a few seconds before the said magician bursted into laughter, grinning in realisation when he looked down at his arm.

"You're not wrong about that," he cackled to himself, finding it clearly more funny than the medic, who rolled his eye lights. "But I meant my name. It's Dust. I'm Dust," he corrected with a wide grin.

"Eh, seems suitable," the medic hummed, glancing down at the performer's arm. "Does this mean you'll be here often?" he joked, yet raising a browbone out of curiosity.

"Perhaps," Dust winked. Geno seemed slightly surprised by this, but that didn't stop his cheekbones from turning red. "Maybe I'll make this a habit," Dust considered out loud, "Just for the pretty good looking medic we have here," he continued with a huge grin on his face.

Geno stopped. He slowly turned to look at Dust, face burning, unable to form any words. This just made Dust's grin widen.

After a few more seconds of silence, Geno finally managed to find the words to say. "If you start coming here too often, the pretty good looking medic will turn to a pretty tired, barely awake, medic. You wouldn't want to overwork him, now would you?"

"Well, I can also provide some stress relief," Dust suggested with a wink, now a sly grin on his teeth.

Despite his skull burning red, Geno tried to keep his responses clear and professional, trying his best to keep his voice from stuttering. "Are you already trying to make your way into my pants?" he asked in disbelief, yet kinda amused, trying to ignore the fact that his thoughts were going absolutely mad inside his head.

"Is it working?" Dust tipped his skull, now actually curious. "Haven't done that in like a year, my tactics are a bit rusty," he admitted carelessly.

"..." Geno hesitated, glancing the performer up and down before carefully forming a question: "How old are you..?" He squinted his eye lights, a bit unsure.

"18, so not a child. I'm a perfectly legal adult," the magician informed proudly. "I can legally drink and drive," he added.

"Drinking and driving is not legal," Geno provided a response, slightly concerned, furrowing his browbones.

"I didn't mean at the same time," the younger confirmed, leaving Geno a bit more relieved. "But tell me, are my attempts actually working?" he asked, looking at the medic curiously.

The older sighed, "You'll have to try harder than that," he answered, but yet he couldn't meet his mismatched eye lights anymore. The magicians boldness and sudden flirting had made Geno's SOUL skip a few beats, but he would never come to admit that.

"Then I'll just have to keep trying harder," Dust smirked, and in that moment Geno just knew that he wouldn't be able to shake him away.

-----

     And trying harder was exactly what Dust did. During the following weeks he would sneak into the medical tent to come see Geno, sometimes with and other times without injuries. The tsundere medic disappointed himself by falling for the magician faster than he should have.

And the first weeks of them talking went well. Weeks turned to months and soon the two of them had formed a relationship hidden from everyone else. But of course things were never destined to be that simple.

Geno was a fragile skeleton, suffering from pixlexia, and Dust on the other hand was a strong and powerful skeleton with very limited self control and his dead brother's voice ringing in his head, crying for blood. And that was what led to their downfall, to something no amount of love could fix.

-----

     Blood trickled down Geno's jaw. The sound of each drop hitting the floor was audibly loud in the dead silent tent. He was frozen on his steps, slowly coming to realise what had happened.

Slowly he looked down. The white floor was slowly staining red as his blood splattered down. His shirt was soaking in crimson blood and dust. The world was swinging, edges of his vision darkening. A wave of nausea hit him.

Dust stood frozen in front of him, eye sockets like a void: cold and empty. His hands were stained in blood, Geno's blood. He showed no signs of sympathy, or no other emotions either.

Geno wasn't sure what had happened. Dust had acted in a blink of an eye. Geno didn't know where the blood was coming from, or why he was in pain.

And suddenly the floor came a lot closer, taking all the colour from the world as it all went dark.

-----

     Dust wasn't sure what had happened. He remembered hurting himself on something, then going to Geno, and now the said medic was staring at him with wide eye lights while blood bubbled down from the wound across his chest. Unlike his own wound, this one was deep and leaking a lot of crimson on the white floor. Had Dust caused this?

Geno tried to reach out for him, but collapsed onto the ground. Dust almost lunged forwards towards his fallen lover, but instead he turned around and rushed out.

In that moment Dust came to realise that he would have to stay away from Geno. The two of them should never again be left alone. It hurt, but Dust would rather keep his loved one alive, even if it meant giving him away.

-----

     Dream was the one who found Geno and healed him up from Death's doorstep. When Geno asked what had happened, Dream didn't know the answer and only later was able to tell Geno that the blame was on Dust losing control.

Geno tried to seek for Dust. He wanted to speak to him, beg him to stay, but Dust refused to look at him. Slowly Geno had to grow to accept the fact that Dust was not coming back to him. They didn't have a future together, no matter how much Geno wished for it. Fate was cruel and they learned it the hard way.

The incident of Geno almost dying had caught the attention of the God of Death himself, who had then appeared in the circus. He seemed really interested in Geno. It was a – SOUL breaking – relief for Dust because he thought that now Geno would be able to fall in love again and forget about his broken soulmate.

But that wasn't the full case. Geno fell in love, got married even, and seemed happy. But despite his mask, Dust saw through him. He realised that Geno still wasn't over him, and neither was Dust.

The magician had tried to fix his own silent ache by letting himself fall in love with Killer and Horror, but Geno never left his mind.

They both grew up. They changed, moulded by time. Yet, no matter what happened, their love didn't die. They had no way of telling it to each other, no way of proving it. But it remained, and like poison it was eating them away.

-----

     Geno stared quietly at Dust's sleeping body on the medical tents bed. The magician had been injured by Nightmare and brought to the medical tent by Colour.

Reaper was currently sleeping in their bedroom. It was just Geno and Dust in the medical side of the tent.

Geno wanted to make his way over to the bed and sit by Dust's side until the morning light would shine on through the windows on the side of the tent. But his feet didn't move when he wanted them to. He couldn't cross the room, he couldn't sit by Dust's bed and kiss his skull.

No, Geno wasn't afraid of Dust. He would never be afraid of the one he loved the most in the entire world. Instead he was afraid of himself, of his own feelings. He knew that letting himself too close would be a mistake. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to pry himself away from the other, again. He didn't want to hurt anyone. He knew Reaper loved him and that Dust had his own lovers as well. And falling for each other again would just hurt them both when it meant having to let go of each other again.

The medic took a deep breath in and turned on his heels, taking one last look towards the unstable magician before leaving them room. He made a promised to himself to stay away from Dust, yet he didn't know if he could keep it.

Words: 1655

[24.6.2023]

It's 3.30 am and I've arrived back to Finland. It's midsummer, so the sun is literally about to rise and the night has been as bright as day the whole time.

This chapter was again mostly written on a plane and now in a car on the way home from the airport. As I said: It's 3.30 am, I started writing this at like 11 pm, I haven't been that awake for the most part– I have no idea what I've even written.