Moving to a new location was always hectic, never more so than now. Freckles had dragged me out of bed unfairly early in the morning, sun not yet up, and ordered me to get my stuff together. I complied sleepily, trying to avoid waking Rachel. It wasn't like I had much to pack, anyways. My two sets of clothing, performance and ordinary shoes, and several books all fit in a single canvas bag. The sparse furnishings in my tent would all be moved separately, along with everyone else's.

It took a moment for me to notice that Rachel was awake and watching me. "Good morning." She sounded far more alert than I felt.

I nodded, unwilling to make the effort to speak. She swung one leg out of bed, grimaced, and muttered, "If you can't be civil, would you at least pass me those?" I looked around, trying to find what she was indicating. My gaze fell on the false arm and leg left neatly at the foot of her bed. I handed them to her, surprised at how light they were. She rolled her eyes. "Thank you."

Irritable and lethargic, I left the tent, only half listening to the commotion around me. Freckles was darting gleefully around, trying to keep things in order and generally causing chaos, Beast was shouting at a silent Jumbo, and Joker and Dagger were nowhere to be seen. Beast was silent for a moment, and Jumbo took the opportunity to say something quiet, drawing an irritable glare from her. Peter stuck his head out of his tent, sighed, and vanished back inside.

Eventually, as ever, we managed to get well enough organized to move. After the loud start to the day, the dull silence of the trip was a blessing. Hours rolled by, measured only in the slow progress of the clouds in the pale sky. By the time we reached our destination, a small town called Folkestone, located very near the ocean, it was past noon and the sky was a nearly cloudless shade of sapphire, almost matching our first glimpse of the sea.

"Okay, I'm going to be pretty loose about rules today," Joker declared, gathering the circus together. "So if you don't want to sleep out in the open, have your tent set up by tonight. Along those lines, if you want to be able to eat, help set up the mess hall, want to practice, help with the tent, you get the point. Besides that, just try not to get too badly injured; we have performances already set up for the next few nights. There's a path to the beach over that way," he gestured, "and apparently the walk is well worth it."

Predictably few people stayed behind. The narrow trail, winding through a field of kneehigh grass, was packed with chattering crowds, our colorful clothes a vivid contrast to the subdued green. Rachel and I walked together in companionable silence, each lost in our own world.

My thoughts, compared with the turmoil of the previous day, were almost empty, as though the fresh air and saltwater were washing them straight out of my head. Heat from the sunlight poured down, casting small, crisp shadows to one side of the path. They wavered slightly in the rippling leaves, like the shimmering waves rising from the hot ground. For the first in a long while, Emily was silent, though I could feel her moving restlessly. Wilde, Goethe, and Keats had refused to be carried and were gliding contentedly along beside me, while Dan and Bronte wrapped around my wrists like bracelets. Webster, Wordsworth, and Oscar had stayed behind.

The beach turned out to be about half a mile from our designated camp. It was wide, with gritty pale sand, sloping gently down to smooth pebbles rounded by waves, and then further down to calm ocean. Two long stone jetties framed the rolling blue, creating an endless wash of noise as the water sloshed against them. Farther out, the tip of an enormous rock was barely visible above the receding high tide, surrounded by masses of dark, swirling seaweed.

With shrieks of laughter, Freckles and some of the other younger members plunged into the water, almost immediately catapulting themselves back out at the sudden cold. I planted myself far above the line of tangled black seaweed marking the highest water level, enjoying the feel of warm sand running through my fingers as I traced spiraling patterns in it. Rachel sat beside me, a few feet away, and so, to my surprise, did Beast.

I ignored the older woman, instead sketching a rough portrait of the younger in the sand. The subject of my artwork looked over my shoulder. "What is that? A sheep?"

"Your artistic talent appears somewhat lacking," Emily commented wryly, giggling. I ran my hand through the failed drawing, obliterating it completely.

"I'd like to see you do better," I hissed back at her.

Of course, she took that as a challenge. Minutes later, another sketch had appeared in the sand, of somewhat better quality than mine, I had to admit. I glared at Dan and Goethe, who had joined Emily's portrayal. "You just had to take her side, didn't you?"

"Is that supposed to be me?" Rachel asked. In response, Emily added a mustache to the portrait with her tail. "Hey!" Rachel swatted a handful of sand at the grinning snake, who flicked an equal amount back. Beast and I surreptitiously moved away as it became a fullblown sand fight.

"Snake, could I speak with you for a minute?" Beast said sweetly. The friendly tone in her voice was more than slightly frightening. She pulled me off to the side.

"What do you want?" I demanded, much more harshly than I intended.

"A word." Her grip loosened once we were out of anyone else's earshot, and I jerked my wrist away from her. She looked straight at me. "I don't care what you think of Joker and Dagger now," she whispered fiercely, "but you do anything to hurt either of them because of it and I will personally make your life a living hell."

"I don't…" I stumbled. "I wouldn't…" Finally, I managed to arrange my thoughts into some sort of coherent sentence. "It isn't anything anyone else should be concerned with. If no one's being hurt by it," – an important distinction, something cold and taut and cruel inside of me whispered – "it's no one's business what they…like."

"Good," she said, backing away. "Just thought I would make that clear." She sank down onto the sand again, and, awkwardly, I joined her.

After a moment, she murmured, "Sometimes I envy them."

I wasn't quite sure how to respond.

"Not the secrecy," she continued. "I'd give anything to let them be open about it without being hurt. But…I've never found anyone I could love so deeply." She looked up, suddenly seeming unexpectedly young. "You probably don't want to hear about it, hm?" I took the opportunity to leave, unsettled by the sudden pity I felt for her.

Rachel and the snakes had stopped fighting when I rejoined them, and were instead sprawled happily across the sand. Emily was naming pictures in the clouds. "Cat," I heard her say, then, "flower, heart, skull…um…amorphous blob…"

"A bit of incongruity there?" I said teasingly.

"Shut up."

There was a shout from the water. I whipped around, momentarily panicked, before listening to what was actually being said. "Come on, everybody, let's do something!" Freckles cried.

"Must we?" Rachel said. There was a moment's chatter amidst Freckles and her companions.

"We're playing hide and seek," she announced at last. "Everyone is." The tone in her voice left no room for discussion. Reluctantly, I got to my feet, brushing sand off my legs with one hand.

Rachel jumped up beside me, then stumbled. "Whoa." Instinctively, I caught her around the waist before she could fall, and then jerked away as I realized what I'd done.

"Excuse me." I stayed back a careful distance as she straightened. The imprint of a raised line on her hip seemed to tingle along my palm. A scar?

"It's fine." She blinked and ran a hand over her eyes. "Sorry. I stood up too fast."

"Are you alright?"

She laughed ruefully. "Just got dizzy for a minute. Really. I'll be fine."

"Come on, you guys!" Freckles called. I looked around, and realized we were the only ones not gathered around her. When we came closer, closing the circle, she giggled and started chanting. "Snake and Rachel, sittin' in a tree…"

"Shut it." Rachel glared, then began to laugh herself.

"Alright, are we playing or not?" Freckles said finally. "You all know how, right? You hide, Emma and I seek."

If I had to play, I might as well have fun with it. I began to scan the landscape for a hiding spot. Behind where one of the jetties extended onto the sand? Under the enormous mat of seaweed at the water's edge? In the water? I discarded those as too obvious, too hot, and too wet. What about inside the jetties? The spaces between boulders were surely large enough to hide in. I decided to look for a spot on the opposite side of the rocks.

"We'll count to a hundred," Freckles declared. She and Emma began to count. "One, two…" We scattered, feet sticking and staggering in the deep sand. I turned around the stone wall and began to inspect the gaps. "…twenty five, twenty six…" The first that caught my eye was too small to fit into, the second too open. A second tier member I didn't recognize was crowded into the third. "…thirty two, thirty three…" I continued along the line, finally reaching the end with no better hiding place. "…fifty four, fifty five…" Seeing no other option, I sprinted back across the beach to the other jetty, hot sunlight feeling altogether too much like a spotlight on my back. "…seventy nine, eighty, eighty one…" The next few were too enclosed, after that too obvious. Gasping for breath – running in sand is difficult – I squeezed my way headfirst into the first suitable opening I found. "…ninety four, ninety five…"

The spot I had found was tight to fit into, scarcely wider than my shoulders, but opened out into a small cave easily large enough to curl up in. I turned, hoping the black fabric of my jacket would help to disguise me, and then swallowed back a yelp as something's breath brushed my cheek. "Who's there?" I said, voice small in the cold shadows.

"It's just me," Rachel answered. I scanned the tiny space, and located her pressed against one wall in a thin shaft of dull sunlight.

"One hundred!" I tried my hardest to be invisible. Footsteps swished through the sand far behind me. I resisted the temptation to turn around and look, instead wrapping my arms tighter around my knees. There was a laugh and a "Gotcha!" from Freckles and her companion, and a disappointed mutter from an unfamiliar voice. Seaweed rasped, and there was another yell. I assumed someone had taken my idea and hidden under the kelp washed up on the beach. Emma splashed into the water as I risked a glance over my shoulder, and caught Jumbo as he came up for breath.

Then there was silence for a while, apart from whispered speculations among the five now unhidden. I let myself relax slightly, just in time to be startled into motion by a shriek from outside. "Peter! You buried yourself?" Rachel rammed a hand over her mouth, stifling a choked giggle. I waited, but no one seemed to have noticed. Grinning now, I listened to the steps pattering up and over the other breakwater. Three more people were caught just there.

The padding feet crossed the sand to scramble up onto the rocks on our side.

"Rachel," I whispered. The footsteps came closer. "Crouch over so they can't see your head from on top of the jetty. There's a space they'll look down through right above you." Her bathing costume, borrowed off of Wendy, had probably once been green, but was now a remarkably stonelike shade of mossy gray. I hoped it would hide her well enough.

I held my breath as an eye appeared in the hole above us. Jumbo peered around, but in the dark seemed unable to distinguish our shapes. Horribly conscious of my pale skin and hair, I remained as still as I could. After a minute, his face pulled back, although I could have sworn he winked at me. "No one there," he called out.

The game ran on for half an hour before Freckles finally called all in free. Legs stiff, I uncurled and wormed my way out of the gap. Rachel followed, stretching and wincing in the sunlight. A silhouette appeared on top of the half submerged rock, now appreciably closer to the water's edge than it had been, and plunged in, swimming back to shore with quick, efficient strokes.

Dripping wet, Dagger splashed out of the water, laughing hysterically.

"How the bloody hell did you do that, lo…little brother?" Joker was trying to contain a grin.

"Language," Beast warned. He ignored her.

Dagger shrugged. "I held my breath."

"You got all the way out there without breathing?"

"Hey, I like swimming."

"You're unbelievable." Dagger winked and slid closer to him.

"In more ways than one," he breathed. Beast shot them a reproachful glare and mouthed something about the children. Said children had, of course, long since ceased to be interested and were playing a rather sluggish game of tag. Even the older members had joined in, aside from the five of us.

"I won't disagree," Joker murmured, earning himself another scolding look from Beast.

Dagger suddenly acquired an evil smile and wrapped his arms around Joker's waist. I looked pointedly off towards the horizon, where the sun was beginning to dip closer to the sea, and then back at the ensuing commotion.

"What're you…hey! You're all wet!" Joker shoved him away. "Get off!" His attacker thudded to the ground and shot back up undaunted. I couldn't help but smile at the nonsensical fight. Beside me, Rachel and Beast smothered grins.

"You're such children," Beast commented, rolling her eyes. Dagger looked up at her innocently.

"What makes you say that?"

Later that evening, limned in glittering sand and patches of damp, we made our way back to the camp. I spent several hours fighting with the tent, which adamantly refused to be put up properly. Sometimes I had thought that mess of fabric and wood had a mind of its own. Three poles would go up, and as I set the fourth one in the others fell. I got the supports up, and a gust of wind tore the cover out of my hands. I retrieved the heavy cloth, and came back to find the posts had collapsed again.

Of course, I eventually got the canvas mostly in the right place. Who cared if I'd lost the pegs to secure the fabric to the ground? Large rocks would work just as well. I glared at the slipshod structure before me.

"Looking for these?" Rachel emerged from the ruin of a tent with the bag of pegs in one hand.

"Yes, we were. Says Wilde," I relayed.

She stood back and looked speculatively at the dwelling. "Do you want some help with this?" I didn't reply. With a sigh, she started removing the stones I'd used to weight the edge of the cloth. After a moment, she glanced up. "You know, it might work better if the poles weren't leaning to the side so much."

I groaned and tugged the canvas back off, revealing a lopsided frame barely holding together. "Let me fix that. I don't want it falling in on our heads tonight," she sighed. "If you shift the leftmost pole so it's straight, it should pull the rest into the right shape." I did so, irritated at how easily it was fixed, and tossed the cover back over it. It fell neatly into place.

I swear it has a personal grudge against me.

We dragged our belongings into the tent, arranging them exactly as they had been before. I would say it was identical to our previous location, but, as I set the small table lamp alight and fell into bed, I realized it wasn't. The air was cooler, tasting more of the ocean than of city smoke. The soft, ambient noise of nighttime was different, too. Instead of the gentle birdsong and occasional noise of a passing carriage I had so quickly become used to, a soothing white noise filled the air, the sound of wind washing over long grass. Crickets added their musical thrum to the static, creating a steady purr interrupted periodically by a gull's wavering screech or an ebb of stronger wind.

Or by voices. I lay back, listening as the camp settled into near silence. Sitting in the mess hall, Beast and Jumbo talked quietly, sometimes startling into laughter, before departing to their own tents. There was an unceasing hum of conversation from the second tier members, which eventually died down to intermittent bursts of gossip. A few feet away, Rachel shifted in her sleep and muttered something I didn't understand.

Footsteps approached the tent, stealthily, and paused. Light breathing interrupted the soft noise of the darkness. I turned to face the sound, a bolt of anxiety snapping through me as the door opened, just a crack, admitting a tiny sliver of dim starlight. Unmoving, I stared at the gap. A black silhouette blocked out the stars, eyes faintly reflecting the lamp in two glinting gilded orbs. Below the eyes, another shape mirrored the glow with a softer intensity, warmer.

The gaze shifted. The eyes narrowed. The pulse of nervousness running through me sharpened into real fear at the baleful glare, but the figure didn't move. After what seemed an eternity, the door closed, plunging me back into a quiet dark only slightly lessened by lamplight. I shivered, pulling the covers further up over my neck. There was a momentary pause, and the delicate steps retreated, then stopped.

A pair of heavier treads replaced them, accompanied by two secretive voices.

Voice one laughed breathily, and I identified Dagger. "This is absurd, love, sneaking away from chaperones like this. I feel like a schoolboy."

"Not to me you don't," voice two – clearly Joker – answered amiably. "Now hush, or someone'll hear us. You can be as loud as you want once we get to the beach." I didn't miss the evident suggestion in his voice.

Neither did his lover. There was a gentle murmur of agreement, and a long silence filled with the whisper of cloth on cloth. I sighed and yanked the sheets over my head, which utterly failed to block the contented hum from Dagger. "Damn," he said breathlessly.

"Enough for now?" Laughter tinged Joker's voice. A pause. "Hey, did you see that? Look behind you." Sudden surprise laced the laughter.

"See what? There's nothing there…I think." Traces of concern lingered in his voice.

"Something moved. Right in back of you." He didn't sound sure any longer.

"Idiot." The insult sounded affectionate. There was a sound of motion and a sharp gasp. "Don't scare me like that."

"No biting, love," Joker murmured, and I buried my head under the pillow and tried to avoid hearing anything.

After several minutes, I dared to remove the soundblock and was relieved to find the almost silence of a sleeping world had resumed. Despite thoughts of the dark figure and the three pinpoints of light, I fell asleep easily.

Author's Note: Sorry if you're reading this story because it's a Kuroshitsuji fanfiction that isn't yaoi, because I honestly can't resist putting scenes like that with Joker and Dagger in. So be warned. Yaoi. This was a fun chapter to write. Let us all cheer for random useless fluff because I felt like filling what ought to be an insanely depressing murder mystery with pointless happy stuff. It will get depressing soon. Like, really, really depressing. Because it's a murder mystery. And therefore people die. Oh well. Celebrate the fluff while it lasts.