Chapter 1
"20 minutes until showtime!"
Leonard burst into the trailer, startling his little brother, Harry, and their parents, who were dressing each other up. Harry, in his typical fashion, had already been in his costume for an hour and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, we know, Leo," he retorted, emphasizing his big brother's name. "Get in costume," he picked up the plastic bag beside him and threw it into his brother's chest. His long black hair, tied artfully into a braid, swung around like a whip as he turned back to the small television in the corner. "If you need any help, Leo, we're right here," Hanson reminded. He tied off his husband's bowtie with a small flourish, scattering bits of glitter on the already messy floor. The older boy only grunted in answer, wrestling with his shiny tank top before eventually forcing it, shrugging on a leather jacket overtop of it and grabbing his motorcycle helmet. His keys jangled from his fingers as he jerked his head to the door. "C'mon, squirt," he shouted, jogging to his motorcycle. Harry sighed, and ran after him. "Bye dad, bye papa!" he yelled over his shoulder.
Harry, at 10 years old, was too young at the moment by the Circus's standards to have his own act. Until he reached 12 years of age, he would bounce around as a sort of 'jack of all trades', helping anyone who needed, which was almost always.
Since he'd been able to stand on his own, however, he had always had a place in his brother's Globe of Death act, wherein he stood in the middle and let his hair be whipped about as his brother drove around him. It required a certain level of trust that had been carefully built up by the brothers, especially given Harry's abusive childhood up until he was 5, and Leonard's tumultus past with abusive foster siblings. Now though, the two of them trusted each other above all others, including their adoptive fathers. They were brothers through and through, despite the snide remarks they often heard about their vastly different hair colors (Harry's being a long and curly raven black and Leonard's being a short, spiky, musty blonde), and even their vastly different races (Harry's biological parents had evidently been East Asian, while Leonard still had faint traces of his native German accent).