The girl in the gilded cage *Completed*

Fait sealed

4 days later

*Josh*

"Is there anything I can do?" We have just arrived in a new town last night, and everyone seems busy. But no one really wants me to help, so now I ask Joe, hoping he has something for me to do.

He looks around. "Well, not saying you aren't strong, but putting up the tent and the animal enclosures is really hard work and we don't want you getting hurt."

"Yeah, Joshy, this is work for real men, not soft actors," Ioan says, grinning as he walks by, carrying something heavy that makes his arms and chest bulge.

Joe rolls his eyes. "You know what, Josh, Malina is in the storage wagon looking for something. Maybe she could use a hand."

"Okay, I will go ask her." Actually, I would like a chance to talk to her. The last couple of days she has been ignoring me, pretending I was air and not responding when I spoke to her. But I have had no chance to ask her, as she hasn't been alone.

So I make my way down to the storage wagon. The door is ajar, so I am guessing she is still in there. I go inside. "Malina? Are you in here?" As I walk inside, my foot hits something and I look down; something has been lodged in the door.

"No... get the door!" Malina yells and comes sprinting. She groans loudly when the door slams shut. "Fuck." Then she looks at me. "Oh, you. You just locked us in, you bloody idiot."

"s**t, sorry. I didn't know. Maybe use something a little heavier as a doorstop next time." I didn't mean to bite back, but I felt a little attacked.

She shakes her head and sits down on a box. The wagon is crammed full of stuff, leaving only a narrow path free in the middle. "I didn't expect a big clumsy fool to walk in and kick it away."

"Okay, I have to ask, what on earth have I done to you? You suddenly avoid me like I have got the plague and now you are downright mean to me." I look at her, not understanding what I have done to her to deserve this.

She shakes her head again, refusing to look me in the eyes. "Oh, you did nothing to me luckily. It was what you did to someone else that made me change my mind about you."

"What I did to someone else? I haven't... oh, let me guess, you saw me and Katja, right? How long did you care to stick around and watch?" I ask, rubbing my face. So this is where the dog is buried.

She huffs and looks at me like I am something disgusting she just stepped in. "Actually, that was a show I would rather miss. I saw you two kissing and you pulling at her like you wanted to rip her clothes off."

"Yeah, except I pulled at her to pull her off me. If you had come a bit earlier, you would have seen her literally jump me. That girl is freakishly strong for her age and I didn't want to hurt her. I had a hard time pulling her off me. But if you had stayed a little longer, you would have seen me do that and explain to her a couple of things about self-worth and behavior."

*Malina*

I stare at him, and he looks me in the eyes, not wavering in the least. "You are really telling the truth, aren't you?" I ask him, and he nods.

"Yes, I wouldn't lie to you." He says softly.

"Sorry. I saw you and I might have jumped to conclusions. I should have known you wouldn't," I say, biting my lip. Is he mad at me now?

He sighs. "Well, we don't know each other that well, but maybe just ask me next time before judging me, okay? So what are you looking for?"

"I will. And I am looking for an old tightrope walker’s umbrella. I want to use it in a new idea I got. It should be somewhere in here. It is pink and white," I say, smiling at him. Happy he isn’t angry with me.

We start looking around, and suddenly I see something pink sticking out of a box on the top shelf. I step up on a box on the floor, getting a hold of the umbrella, pulling it from the shelf, regretting it when I feel how heavy it is.

Just before I drop it, the weight disappears from my arms as Josh steps up, taking it. "Next time you need something on the top shelf, call me to get it for you, darling."

I look at him, suddenly realizing that we are standing very close, too close. He puts the box on the floor next to us. And I realize he got a stripe of dust across his chest from the box, so I lift my hand to brush it away. But somehow, after a few feeble attempts, it just rests there as our eyes lock into each other.

We just stand there. I can't look away from his eyes. My breathing catches in my throat, and I have only one thought in my head. Kiss me, Josh, oh please kiss me. He suddenly blinks and takes a step back, and I literally feel like crying.

I am pretty sure he had thought about kissing me. The way his tongue wetted his lips, the way his eyes ran over my lips. Even with no experience at all in the area, I knew that. But why hadn't he then? Didn't he want to? I look down and pull slightly away too.

"Malina?" he almost whispers my name, and I look up, my voice suddenly almost inaudible.

"Yes, Josh." And then his arms are around me, and he pulls me into him.

I gasp slightly. "Josh?"

"Yes?"

"Kiss me." And he does. His lips seal themselves to mine, and it feels like an electric current runs through me, but in a good way. Making me gasp slightly, and his tongue slides into my mouth, gently stroking mine.

My hands rest on his chest, and I can feel his heart pounding. My head feels dizzy as our tongues get acquainted, and he moans deep in his chest. I whimper and rest my head against his chest as he breaks the kiss.

*Josh*

Oh God, that kiss had felt like nothing I have ever felt before, and I kiss her softly again. When she looks up at me, I know that no matter where I am, no matter how far I travel, this is home. I feel like I have crossed time and space to get here, but there is no doubt in my mind, this is where I belong.

"I have been waiting for you. It took you a long time to get here," she whispers softly, looking into my eyes.

"I had things I needed to do first," I say, my arms still around her. "We are going to have a problem with that high line, Malina," I warn her.

"We will see," she says with a small smile.

"I haven't come to see you die." I have no wish to become a widower anytime soon, and I don't want to fall in love with a woman who risks her life every evening. "I need you here, with me."

"I need you too... maybe I won't need the high line with time," she says.

"Is that why you do it? For the thrill?" I look at her with surprise. She doesn’t strike me as that type of person. She is so serious and strong and wise beyond her age.

"No. I do it because it is expected. This is what my family does and they need me to do it. My sister is too tall and she is scared. My brother is too heavy," she says.

"But members of your family have been hurt and killed. I don't want you to be next," I say, pressing my face into her hair, kissing the top of her head.

I am overwhelmed. I feel like we are destined for each other. Like our roads were meant to cross, that it had been predicted in another lifetime. I can't get enough of her, just kissing her makes my head spin, as well as the feel of her skin when I gently touch her face or when she touches my hands. She feels like velvet.

"We’ll talk about this later." I can't think about it any longer, I just want to be with her, feel her in my arms. She is so tiny, so fragile that I am afraid that I am going to squeeze the life out of her.

"I can never be yours," she says sadly, her words surprising me. “Not really.”

"Why do you say that?" I ask her, probably sounding as hurt as I feel. She lowers her gaze, but she doesn’t look away. She seems happy enough to be in my arms.

"Because of who you are. I am just a girl from a circus and you are famous and important in your real life. I can see that. Soon you'll be leaving, going back to your real life. I don't know what brought you here, but I know you will be leaving again. You don't belong here. I do," she says.

"I could take you with me. You are not just a girl in a circus, Malina. You are very special." I just know. She has this calm dignity about her, a grandeur and graceful way, that made it irrelevant where we met and where she came from. I would be proud to be with her anywhere, and I tell her with no hesitation.

"I would always be beneath you in everyone's eyes, because of my heritage," she says sadly. She might think so, but that isn't how I feel. She is the most exciting woman I have ever met. I don't care what anyone else will think. In no time at all, she has made me feel like this is it, there is no way back. "Someday you'll regret it," she says, but I know it isn't true.

"Never," I promise her. "You have nothing to be ashamed of. Neither have I. I am the luckiest man in the world if I have you by my side."

"You are a famous actor, Josh. I am just a poor tightrope walker."

"Be quiet," I tell her. "Shhh..." And I silence her with another kiss. All I can do is prove to her that I mean it. The bond between us was made, irrevocably, from the first moment we met. And now, in this dusty trailer, it has been sealed.