Rating: M

Summary: Sebastian and Nick are the youngest members of Alegria's touring troupe - they are also the only gay members. Despite being from opposing acts, they find themselves swiftly falling in love. But their friends don't approve and they soon find themselves learning the hard way what Alegria really means. Cirque du Soleil AU. Nickbastian. Brief Sebadam. Warnings inside.

Characters: Sebastian, Nick, Adam

Warnings: Self-harm, attempted suicide, injury, past abuse, swearing, depiction of smoking, sex, sexual references, violence, homophobia, discrimination, cheating (As usual, this is a list for the whole story. Chapters will have warnings tailored to their content).

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters and am in no way affiliated with Cirque du Soleil. Title taken from Cirque du Soleil song, "Alegria".

A/N: A couple of things before we get started: Power track = "x" shaped trampoline. Russian bars… I'm not sure how to explain that one. There are videos on YouTube, just search "Alegria Russian Bars" for the act from the show. And because I like challenging myself (read: making things difficult for myself), this fic will also feature a bit of French. I'll footnote the French with translations at the end of each chapter in my A/Ns. Enjoy :)

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A JOYOUS MAGICAL FEELING – CHAPTER 1:

If you have no voice: Scream.
If you have no legs: Run.
If you have no hope: Invent. –from Alegria

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Sebastian Smythe felt like a creep as he stood outside the tour bus, cigarette hanging from his lip as he tried to decide who his new target was. Of course there was only one target and narrowing it down from nearly a hundred people was difficult. Especially considering that they were split between two buses. But he was determined.

One of the contortionists, Ana, approached him with an amused expression. "Scouting the town, Smythe?" she asked, her Russian accent still thick despite her many years travelling the States.

"Always Ana," Sebastian replied as he dropped his cigarette and stamped it out. "But it seems the two of us are the last to board so I suppose my luck has run out."

Ana laughed as she climbed onto the bus, Sebastian following. "You make me laugh, Sebby."

"I'm here to entertain," he said with a laugh of his own before he realised there was only one seat left. Next to the one boy Sebastian had never really got to know.

"Hard luck, Smythe," one of his teammates said as he walked past. Alex had always been a pain in the ass.

Sebastian clenched his jaw and took his seat next to the boy, keeping his gaze forward. He was going to kill his teammates for doing this. The door to the bus closed and they pulled away from the curb and the Cirque du Soleil was off to a new city once again.

Slowly, the rest of the bus fell away into sleep until Sebastian felt like he and the boy beside him were the only ones left awake. And when he slowly turned to his left, he realised that they were. Aside from the driver of course.

"I hadn't thought you'd be the scared one," the boy murmured. His brown eyes were wide and alert and Sebastian felt his heart quicken.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he managed, albeit without his usual sting.

"You're meant to be the scary predatory gay, aren't you?" He blushed, closed his eyes and shook his head. "Sorry, that was rude. I'm Nick, Nick Duval."

"Sebastian Smythe," Sebastian answered. "It's nice to finally have another American around."

"I thought you were Canadian."

"Nah, moved to Montreal when I was sixteen."

"You're a Cirque baby aren't you?"

Sebastian laughed at the idea. "Yeah, kinda. I didn't grow up touring or anything but they keep me around."

"They keep you around?" Nick asked, puzzled.

"Yeah," Sebastian shrugged. "I don't have anywhere to go. They've promised to keep me around as long as I'm useful."

"That's kind of ominous."

"Not really. I'll perform as long as I can and then when I can't physically do it anymore, I'll coach."

"Seems like you've got it all planned out then," Nick said with a soft laugh. "You're in the Russian bars act, yeah?"

Sebastian nodded surely. "Yep. Only fluent English speaker on the team."

"Oh yeah, the others are all-"

"Russian." The boys finished the sentence in unison. The awkwardness spiked before falling away as Sebastian chuckled.

"Yep, just another language to add to the list."

"You speak Russian?" Nick asked, surprised.

"Just enough to work with them. I couldn't hold a normal conversation with most of them. Alex and Oskar speak a bit of English though."

"What other languages do you speak?"

"French and a bit of Spanish."

Nick laughed. "And here I was thinking you were some kind of multilingual master."

"Oh yeah, and how many languages do you speak?"

"Does pig latin count?" Nick replied with a wicked grin.

"Ah well – what act is it you do again?" Sebastian asked as he pulled his legs up and leaned back against the seat.

"Power track," Nick answered. He frowned in confusion when Sebastian paled. "What's wrong?"

"You're one of the Bronx?"

"And you're a White Angel, so what? They're just characters."

"But our teams hate each other," Sebastian shook his head. "We could never be…"

"What? Friends? Sebastian, we just met…"

"So you don't want a relationship?" Sebastian asked slowly.

"Not now," Nick replied. "I mean, a relationship would be nice but… I don't want everyone to just see us as a necessity."

"A necessity?"

"Y'know, when gay people only go out with each other because they're the only ones."

"Well then," Sebastian leaned his head against the seat, watching Nick. "Tell me about yourself. Let's be friends."

Nick smiled before he launched Sebastian into the most intriguing conversation of his life.

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Getting off the bus that night, Sebastian found himself feeling sad. He was immediately swept away by his teammates and Nick by his. Now that Sebastian was thinking about it, the rivalry was obvious. But talking with Nick had been incredible and he couldn't believe how much they had in common. They had both grown up in Ohio and both loved to sing but hadn't been good enough to pursue it. They had the same taste in music and old television sitcoms – and an inability to name more than three current television shows. But what Sebastian had liked most was that he could finally talk to someone.

As Sebastian helped set up the tents and the equipment, he found himself replaying snippets of the conversations and smiling to himself. Alex and Oskar had laughed at him and made fun but soon, Sebastian found himself sitting on a flight of concrete steps. The wind was cold and small drops of rain were falling from the dark sky but he liked it.

Everyone else had gone back to the hotel so Sebastian was surprised when someone brushed their hand against his shoulder.

"Sitting out in the cold can't be good for you," Nick murmured as he sat down beside Sebastian.

"Eh, I'll be fine," Sebastian replied as he exhaled. The smoke swirled through the air before disappearing as the wind blew across the lot.

"I'm going to get in some practice. Care to join me?"

"Sure," Sebastian said with a smile.

They headed into the tent then. They hauled up one of the mats, positioning it at the end of the track that remained uncovered when they arrived in a new city. Nick jumped onto the trampoline as soon as he'd pulled off his shoes, slowly jumping along as Sebastian stretched. Nick span around to face him, laughing softly.

"Come on, just jump on. Like kids do."

Sebastian took a deep breath before he kicked off his shoes and tugged off his jacket and carefully stepped onto the trampoline. It was springier than he was used to and as he tentatively jumped towards Nick, he felt himself jumping too high and he freaked out as he locked his knees and tried to stop himself.

"You okay?" Nick asked with a slight laugh.

"Yeah… Not used to it."

Nick laughed. "Dude, you're a flyer. How the hell does trampolining scare you?"

"It doesn't scare me… I just like the fact that when I land on a Russian bar, it doesn't throw me into the air again."

Nick laughed again before he showed Sebastian some basic flips and tricks. It was funny watching someone who was so used to flying through the air struggle. Nick found it endearing, actually. At least, until Sebastian fell down.

"Sebastian?!" Nick jumped up and ran along the stage before climbing back down beside Sebastian. He carefully turned him onto his back, swearing as he saw Sebastian's eyes were closed. He hadn't hit his head, had he? "Sebastian, wake up!"

He didn't stir and Nick felt himself begin to panic as he held Sebastian's face in his hands. He was still breathing; he wasn't bleeding – what the hell was wrong?!

Nick watched him fearfully for a few more seconds before he moved to call for help when Sebastian caught hold of his arm. Nick turned back around just in time for Sebastian to lean up and kiss him. It was sweet and gentle and Sebastian's lips were soft. Nick wanted more, he couldn't deny that.

Sebastian pulled away, smiling softly before whispering, "Je vous aime."(1)

"I'm gonna presume that's a good thing," Nick replied before he kissed Sebastian again.

There was no going back now.

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Translations:
1 – "I like you"

A/N: Just note that I'm using google translate for the French so if some of it becomes more complex in future chapters, it's probably going to be wrong.

But yay, circus fic :D I've always liked circus stories and I really hope that one day I can write an original one (I have ideas but they're only so-so). But for now, have this one :) I hope you like it so far, it's different to anything I've written before – in my opinion at least. But we'll see how we go. Thank you very much for reading, I hope you're having a wonderful day! –Em xoxo