Cirque de la Cocinelle

Matchmaker

Song: Tightrope - Kelly Clarkson

    The small café was near empty, save for the four performers sitting by the window.  The group laughed and chatted over their food, taking a break and rewarding themselves for a show well done.  Alya carried the conversation, leaning on her husband's arm.  The muscles in his arms and hers were toned from supporting their weight in the air all these years.

    "So tell me," Nino leaned in, questioning Marinette.  "Are the rumors true?"

    Marinette didn't answer.  Adrien and Alya looked perplexed as well.

    "About the 'matchmaker' thing?" he clarified.

    Adrien and Alya burst into laughter as Marinette grinned, hiding her face in embarrassment.  "To an extent, yes," she admitted.  The crew had nicknamed her Matchmaker-Marinette.  Her pension for setting people up together rarely ever failed.  When she picked out a couple in her mind, she always set them into motion.  "I don't push them together," she joked.  "I just help them get moving in the right direction... towards each other."  She sipped her coffee awkwardly, the other three laughing at her explanation.

    "So how many couples have you set up?" Nino prodded.

    A silence fell across the table.  Marinette raised her eyebrows in disbelief at his question.  Adrien chuckled before realizing that Nino was serious.  "Well," Alya said.  "In case you haven't noticed, Nino-"

    "Wait- US?!" he gasped.  "Alya and I got together because of you?!"

~

    When Marinette recruited Nino into the circus, there was already an acrobat in the show: Alya.  She wasn't keen on sharing her spotlight with another person, but it was her job to show him the ropes.  Literally.

    "I think the tightrope may be moving too fast for me," Nino gulped.  "Maybe you could show me something else?"

    "Kid, you're an acrobat," Alya groaned.  "The tightrope is half of what we do.  You did say you were an acrobat, didn't you?"

    Nino shifted awkwardly, too shy to answer the question.  Seeing his discomfort, Marinette offered her suggestion.  "Nino, didn't you say you had experience with aerial hoops?"  Alya raised an eyebrow at Marinette's words.

    "Th-that and silks," Nino explained further.  "Have you done those before, Alya?"

    "I haven't," she turned to face him.  "How do the hoops work?  Because I've always thought those would be a cool addition to my performance."

    Marinette walked away, content that her suggestion gave them some common ground.  Within the hour, Nino was showing Alya his performance, walking her through by giving a commentary on his techniques.  "You're going to pull yourself up with your knees," Nino showed Alya as he slid forward into the hoop, his legs propelling him upright.  "And this is called the Queen's sit."

    "Fitting name for me," Alya commented.  Nino chuckled to himself.  She was confident, it was cute.  Well, now that she wasn't berating him at the same time.

    "Then you turn into side-saddle," Nino pulled one leg up, resting his knee on the hoop.  "You want to make sure you have one cheek on either side."  Alya snickered.  "Grow up."

    Thirty minutes passed as Nino showed her the basics of aerial hoops.  "You able to support yourself on that thing with just one leg?" Alya asked as Nino readied himself to step back on the ground.

    "What, like my whole body hanging off of the hoop by just a leg?"

    "Yeah!"

    Nino jumped down from the hoop.  "I don't know. S'pose I could."  He was about to step away for Alya to show him her act when he remembered.  "Oh - actually!"

    Nino stepped back up to the hoop, he set both hands on it before stopping.  "Er, were you ready to move on?"

    "No no," Alya shook her head.  "Show me what you were about to do!"

    Nino grinned, Alya was actually interested in his routine.  "Well," he rubbed his neck.  "There's a way to do what you said, but you have to kind of hold onto your ankle as you do it."

    Nino stepped back, thinking Alya was getting bored.  She was supposed to be teaching him, anyway.  He didn't want to waste her time any more than he already had.

    "Like this?"

    Stepping up to the hoop, Alya put both hands on the bottom of the ring.  She pulled herself up, tucking her knees to her chest and flipping backwards.  She extended her legs out, hanging her knees over the hoop.  As she reached behind herself, grabbing her ankle with one hand, she stretched her other leg out, putting it behind the ring.  Just for show, she reached out her free arm, as though offering her hand to the (imaginary) audience, her free leg still straight in the air.

    Nino's jaw dropped.  He hadn't even demonstrated it for her, she had picked it up just from hearing the description.  But had he described it? he wondered.  All he said was that she would have to hold her ankle, and she filled in the rest of the blanks on her own.  "Like this, Nino?" Alya's words broke his thoughts.

    "Y-yes!  You're a natural!" 

    Alya quickly sat herself up in the Queen's Sit.  "Of course I am," she held her head high.  "But, I'm sure you still have plenty to teach me."

~

    "Was that really all it took?" Nino asked in disbelief.

    "We used to spend hours trying to perfect the aerial hoops," Alya laughed.  "Remember, it kept smacking me in the nose instead of going over my head?"  The two laughed over their drinks.

    "The first night you did the Mermaid position was during the show," Nino continued.  "You reached out to me on the ground and kissed me."

    "And it was me who told you both to stick to the script!" Adrien interrupted. 

    "I thought it was sweet," Marinette giggled.  "The audience thought so, too."  The friends chatted and reminisced over their drinks, the summer rain tapping on the window.