La did come back. She never stayed very long but she would bring him a little food when she could, though it was the company he looked forward to more than anything. He wouldn't admit that, of course, but it offered him relief from the lonely hours he would lie there on his bedroll, too stiff and in pain to move much at all. And she could make him laugh. Laughing hurt but it was worth it and as the days went on the aching began to alleviate and he started to be able to move a little more freely, though there were a few places that had been more badly injured that didn't heal so quickly.

"They'll scar, I 'spect," said La cheerfully. She widened her eyes and jumped towards him, pulling a grotesque face. "You'll get all covered in scars. From head to toe, all over, until you get to join the circus as a freak, too. Just like your little brother."

"He isn't a freak!" Crow was quick to defend his brother but looked a little worried. Would he really join the circus as Scarman? Hastily he checked to see if the bruises on his arm had healed but they looked just the same as they had the last time -- and yet he had had bruises before, though not from beatings like that. Those ones had healed just fine. Slightly relieved, he turned his attention once again to the thing that was most important: His brother. He repeated himself. "He isn't a freak."

La shrugged. "Everyone says he is."

"Well, they're wrong."

"Everyone is wrong? You're the only one who's right?"

"This time I am." His green eyes met her dark ones in a steady glare. She looked amused. He looked angry.

"Prove it." She said only two words but it was enough to make him stop short. Prove it? He had a hard enough time getting in there to see his brother on his own; trying to take someone else in there with him wouldn't be easy. But she did bring him food. No one else did that.

At last, he nodded. "Okay. I'll let you know when. I'll bring you to him and I'll prove to you he isn't a freak."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Crow didn't have a chance to prove it for another few weeks after that. He was kept busy and when he wasn't busy, he was so tired and sore that he just went right to sleep, collapsing on his bedroll every night and wishing the aching would go away completely. But La was around now and she helped out with the chores and made his days a lot more interesting with her free spirit and her sarcasm. Sometimes he couldn't tell when she was joking or when she was serious and he would get angry at something she said but then she would laugh and nudge him in the arm.

"Calm down," she would say. "It's just a joke." And he would do as she said. Her carefree attitude was a mystery to him who, though only a boy, had been made so serious by the world around him. But somehow she still remembered to dance. Even in the rain.

At long last, the time came that he finished work early and, feeling much better and having little else to do, Crow went to help her finish her own work. It was late afternoon by the time they were both free and he took her hand and led her straight to the main tent. They were lucky this time. Normally the circus left early in the morning, very early, but due to weather conditions and a few broken wagon wheels, they were leaving much later than anticipated and that gave them time to go and visit his brother.

"Everyone's busy and preparing to leave in the morning so they're not paying as much attention to him as usual since he doesn't do any of the work or packing up."

"Lucky," she said enviously.

"You know he don't get to go outside, right? He's never even seen it out here."

To that, she didn't answer. It seemed that Crow had, for once, rendered her without an answer. However, when he glanced back to see if she was still following, he saw her face was filled with a sort of pity that he had never seen on her before. Not even when he felt half-dead from receiving a beating he didn't even deserve. Strange. But he'd thought she was strange since the moment he met her so he didn't dwell on the thought for too long, not when he had more important things to be thinking about.

Once they reached the main tent, Crow slipped in with La through the flap that served as a door and then through the second one, which was also a door only this one served more to keep Snow from seeing outside than it did for anything else. It was an extreme measure, really, but Crow never asked why it was the way it was -- he knew better than to ask too many questions around here. There were a lot of people inside but no one paid the two small kids a lot of attention so they were able to slip through the throngs of workers with no real issue. So long as the Master didn't notice they were there it wouldn't be a problem and Crow had learned long ago how to get around unnoticed by him -- most of the time, at least.

"Where is he?" La whispered behind him. They didn't really need to whisper if no one was watching them but Crow found himself whispering back anyway, something about the secretiveness of their quest driving him to be quieter than usual.

"Not sure yet..." Crow frowned and then glanced up to see Holmes, the Phoenix. If he was about to be reborn than Snowflake would be right there watching him and sure enough, the bird looked like he was about to burst into flames any second. He grinned. "Look," he said, his voice a little louder now, "ever seen a Phoenix reborn?"

La shook her head and stared at the bird, open-mouthed. But Crow had already stopped looking at Holmes. His attention had been diverted to the figure of a small pale boy crouching behind a bale of straw and staring so intently at the Phoenix it was no wonder he hadn't noticed the two of them approaching. Ignoring her sounds of protest, Crow pulled La over to the hay bale and he sat down next to Snowflake who finally noticed them.

"Crow! I--"

"Shh! Watch the bird, talk after." Truth be told, Crow wanted to watch him be reborn just as much as the other two did and they weren't going to get very far with introductions if none of them were paying attention. La hadn't even looked in Snowflake's direction as she was too busy gaping at the droopy looking bird.

They sat in silence for a minute and the girl finally broke the almost reverent silence with a huff. "He isn't going to change, is he? You just brought me here to trick me." She started to get up but Crow pulled her back down.

"Watch." His tone was insistent and she sat back down with another huff. It was then that the bird started to change. Well... change might not be the correct term for what happened as it quite literally burst into flames and disappeared into a pile of ash and smoke -- a magnificent sight to anyone who understood the Phoenix but a disturbing sight to anyone who didn't.

"It's dead," La wailed, forgetting all about being quiet. "You told me it would be reborn, not die!"

"No, but it is! Look!" Snowflake pointed upwards to the cage where a small bird was pushing its head out from underneath all the ash. A baby. It looked down on them and chirped merrily, newly born and unaware yet again of its miserable caged existence. It nestled down, tucked its head under its wing, and promptly fell asleep from the exhaustion of its efforts.

"Wow..." La had been speechless for a few moments after it all happened -- marking only the second time that had happened since Crow came to know her, though she clearly had found her voice again now. "That was amazing. He does it a lot?"

'Every few months, give or take," Crow said with a shrug. It was always cool to watch and he counted himself lucky when he got to see it but now it was over and his mind turned elsewhere. Shifting around, Crow settled himself to where his back was against the hay bale and the other two moved over as well so they were sitting in a sort of triangle. "Snowflake, meet La. La, my brother."

“Isn’t Snowflake kind of a mouthful?” She interrupted before Snowflake had a chance to speak. “Why don’t you just go by Snow?”

Crow paused. That… made sense, actually. “All right, Snow is fine if you like it, more to the point anyway.”

He would have added more but Snowflake looked like he was about to cry and Crow forgot whatever it was he almost said. In fact, he wasn't given a chance to say anything at all before his little brother hurled himself at him and squeezed him so hard around the waist that Crow was forced to untangle him and gently push him back into a sitting position. "I'm sorry," he said, inhaling quickly and wiping at his nose. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble, really. I'll never do it again."

"What did you do, anyway?" La asked, curiosity shining in her dark brown eyes.

"I tried to look outside. There was a hole in the tent and I could see light. I just wanted to look, that was all -- I never meant to get anyone in trouble."

Crow patted his brother's shoulder. "Come on," he said, as gruffly as a boy his age could force himself to sound. "I wasn't really hurt." He ignored the raised eyebrow that La sent his way. Truth was, it didn't matter how much it hurt so long as Snowflake never understood the full extent of it.

"He was just great," she mumbled, shaking her head, and then she stood. "Show me around the circus a little, will you? I've never seen inside before."

"I don't think I'm supposed to..." Snowflake sounded hesitant, though he still stood up when she did.

"If someone notices us then you pretend you don't know me and I'll pretend I'm cleaning. Come on! It'll be fun."

Crow was the last to stand but when he did and nodded, Snowflake finally relaxed and nodded too. He didn't honestly know for sure if this was as good of an idea as La insisted it was but he understood her curiosity and, more than anything, he wanted to get his little brother's mind off of what had happened. As soon as Snowflake got into showing them around, Crow knew he would get excited and forget all about the incident, at least for the time being. There was no use dwelling on what had happened now anyway, since neither of them could go back and change it.

"Let me show you what I'm learning, then!" Snowflake grinned at the two of them and took off, dodging the workers bustling around them with an easy grace. La managed too, except for running into one boy who grumbled under his breath at her, and Crow didn't even try to keep up all the way. As long as he could see where they were going he figured he'd catch up eventually. And so he did, right at the small tightrope and trapeze set up that they were training him on. Snowflake was telling La about it with enthusiasm, even demonstrating for her, but Crow hung back and didn't listen. He already knew what his brother was doing and it made him nervous. Snow seemed to love it so he didn't say anything about it -- and even if he did say something it would be completely ignored -- but even so, he would look up at the top of the tent and the thought of swinging up there made him shudder. Someday Snowflake would be up there. No matter how much Crow tried to protect his little brother, he couldn't protect him from a fall.

"Look!" A delighted shout finally forced him to pay attention to what was going on. Snow was balancing on the little tightrope, wobbling a bit, and La was howling with glee. So much for being quiet! Yet their laughter was infectious and before long, Crow found himself joining in as all three of them took turns trying to balance on the rope without the help of the balancing stick.

After about thirty minutes, though, the two of them were finally shooed out of the tent and they were forced to say their hasty farewells. Crow hated to watch the joy fade from his brother's features so he made promises that they would both come and see him just as soon as they could. It helped a little.

La was mostly silent on their way back to the children's tent to pick up and pack what few things they owned. At last, she spoke. "You were right, he isn't a freak. Just a kid like the rest of us."

Crow grunted. 'I ain't a kid."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"Uh-uh."

"Uh-huh!"

The two of them bickered on, all the way back to the tent.