Don't you dare drop me (private)

Falko was doing her general warm-up: jogging on the spot, hip rotations, knee rotations, back and forth windmills... She was dressed in her normal training clothes, a skin tight tank top and shiny black leggings. Her hair was shoulder long and choppily cut; she had dropped shaving the side of her head, instead streaking the bottom of her black strands with vivid red.
Finally she was back in Vegas! Honestly, she had missed the city. Since she had spent her early childhood here, she always associated it with good memories, happy events and general carefreeness.
Switching over to more intense exercises, she bent over backwards and wrapped her hands around her ankles then stood up on one hand and opened her legs into a split.
She was here with two other offsprings of Cirque du Soleil artists, who had also been selected to attend this seminar. They were in a group with nine other kids and had one week and a half to prepare the best acrobatic choreography they could come up with. The prize? Become an underage performer in one of the most prestigious circuses in the world. This was the moment Falko had been training for. This was it.

"Alright, gather up," one of the instructors said, clapping his hands twice. "Now this may be a competition, but it doesn't make you rivals." Hah, as if, Falko thought as she eyed her fellow contestants. "Team work is crucial in our job. Which is why the choreographies shall be performed by groups of two." What?! People turned around to look at her and she realized she had said that out loud. The instructor raised an eyebrow, then started reading out names.

"Eva, with Volodya. Nicolas, with Serenity. Tao,..." Falko looked away. Teamwork? Not her thing. "Dae Seung..." That was her name, she looked up. "... with Malik." Her eyes glanced around immediately, trying to spot her partner.

As per freaking usual Malik was way early compared to everyone else, something he often prided himself on. Turnign on his stereo and blasting BTS, his new favorite KPop group, he began warming up to Danger and even went as far as dancing slightly when he got to the second chorus. It was nice to have the gym to himself but as usual, all good thigns had to come to an end. With a few others finding their way inside he sighed and turned off the stereo and switched to his earbuds to take a few tricks on the trapeze so his muscles would be nice and taught by the time everyone got to the rehersal. It was his second time attending this seminar of sorts and he had often performed solo acts but there were rumors of pairings, which he hoped wasn't true considering the teen could probably out-trick everyone here on the trapeze. With his compression shorts on and a shirt his sister had given him in the mail for his birthday Malik smirked to himself as he performed a flawless set of flips and spins in the air before landing on the platform and making his way back down to earth to wait for the seminar to start.

As everyone gathered near the far side of the area he stuck to the back and leaned against a beam, there was no way this was going to work in his favor. One of the instructors explained how it was a type of competition but he wanted people to not make rivals, earning a chuckle from the demigod as he went on to state that there were going to be partners this year and Malik internally groaned, while one girl practically shouted at the comment. What an idiot. The white haired teen thought to himself, wishing he could be with James at camp now to get lost from the world. A butterfly flew by and said Malik was being silly but the son of death didn't think anything of it, they didn't live long so they tended to retain some child-like behaviors. The instructor began reading off names and when he finally said the teens name he pushed himself off the beam and walked to the girl who was clearly looking for him. The six foot teen practically towered over her and looked down at her with his white eyes. So. what do you do? He asked smoothly. If there was one thing he had picked up from his mother it was that Latin helped one's speech very well. He almost always sounded like he was saying a pickup line flawlessly and it always amused him. He had to admit though, the girl in front of him did have cute features like her dark hair. The dark hair of any of the Duchannes family, with the exception of him of course. Crossing his arms in front of him he was well aware that the tank top showed off about half of his large tattoo, mostly the arm part and a little of the shoulder. It actually extended over his entire left torso and left arm but he was only going to go shirtless if a few of the other guys did or he started sweating hard.

Falko looked up at the guy -- literally looked up. He was freakishly tall with long limbs, which made her think of an athletic Slenderman... if Slenderman had decoloured eyes and hair. He really looked like a freak. The only thing cool about him was his tattoo, which spread out from underneath his tank top and across his torso to his shoulders.
"Acrobatics and contortion," the Asian girl replied. His voice was also surprising: charming and buttery, it almost melted into her ear. Wow. Weird. "Though I can do some wheel and fire breathing too if necessary. You?"

Acrobatics, mostly trapeze, and a bit of dance as well to help with routines on the ground. He explained as his phone went off, playing the song Dope by BTS and he answered it speaking in Latin perfectly. It was his father asking him if he was planning on coming home anytime soon so he could start planning on a routine from the young acrobat for their own circus. After talking in the romance language he hung up and shook his head. Sorry about that. Dad was asking if I was going to go home for a weekend. He explained, a hint of the dead language on his tongue. Anyway, how willing are you to get up there with me? He asked gesturing to the tallest set of trapeze bars there were. There was something about the massive amount of space between him and the ground that just gave him full feelings of weightlessness and freedom.

Falko wrinkled her nose. "What's that language?" she asked. She recognized a few words because she spoke Italian, but the rest was lost to her. It was also somehow more guttural and less chanting than her native tongue, but still Mediterranean-sounding. More formal. It was quite sexy, actually.

Malik chuckled and had to remind himself that he was speaking a dead language. It's Latin actually. And you didn't answer my question. He said gesturing to the trapeze above where they were standing. He really wanted to a trapeze act but knew it wasn't for everyone, he just sort of hoped that Tao was more willing than people in the past had been. Before I forget to ask, your name is Tao right? He asked hoping he was right.

Latin? Who the fck still speaks Latin in the mortal world? Falko knew some Greek demigods could speak Latin, and it had happened twice to her that she just blurted out an Ancient Roman cuss word in the middle of a class test, but she didn't know others actually, fluently, spoke the language.

When he asked about her name, she frowned a little. "It's Daeseon," she said with the Korean accent, "but please call me Falko. And yes I would love to go up there on the trapeze."

Sorry, I don't know many people with unique names like yours. And sweet let's go. He said motioning for her to follow him as he stretched his muscular limbs on the walk to the ladder and pulled it off to leave it at the base as he climbed shirtless to the platform of the trapeze bars. so have you done this before? He asked curiously. It wasn't uncommon for circus people to know more than one skill to help with performances but still, it wasn't common enough to be a given.

She smiled as he complimented her name, then watched as teenage Slenderman climbed his way up shirtless. Showoff. She followed him and crouched down on the platform above his. "Mate, I do acrobatics. Of course I've done trapeze. Wanna see?"

Standing on the platform and holding onto his own bar and looking out over the abyss that was the rest of the gym. Before the last words left her mouth, Malik was leaping from the platform and managed a solid flip before catching the other bar and swinging to safety on the opposite platform.Don't ask, just do it. He shouted to her with a slight laugh in his voice. Pulling off another bar, letting the one he used previously dangle into the middle of the area, he sat on it and let himself swing out and look almost like a white ghost on a swing like from a book or movie.

Yep, definitely a showoff.

Falko took the invitation though and stood up. Without checking the distance to the ground, she jumped off the platform with her arms stretched out either side of her body. Falling, she caught the lowest bar at the last minute and swung herself up to a higher one, catching it with her legs. From there she started a series of flips and split jumps, sailing through the air back and forth, going higher or petting herself drop to lower levels before landing on a platform opposite Malik.

Watching as she moved in the air Malik began planning a routine in his head but decided to talk it over before actually setting it in stone. Standing on his bar the teen let himself fall off it and grabbed onto another before moving to land next to Falko. Very impressive. Any ideas as to what you want to do for a routine?He asked sitting with one leg dangling off the edge and the other bent so he could use it as an arm rest.

Falko mused about it, but it would've been a lie to say she hadn't already thought about choreographies beforehand. Of course, now that she knew they had to be two people performing, she had to adapt a little bit. Nonetheless she started explaining her ideas to Malik, which contained a lot of specific terms, circus jargon and acrobatics terminology. "What do you think?" she panted when she was finally done.

Thinking for a moment and really visualizing the performance Malik came up with an idea. Have you ever been here and won before? He had been to this group type thing twice now and he won his second year so there was no real reason for him to even have a main role in the performance. I won last year but went back to my old circus after a few months with the new one. If you really want this you should be more of a focal point rather than keep it balanced. I'm simply ok with sort of being there almost like a prop who can help with pair things on the trapeze. The white haired boy explained casually as he watched a kid below breath fire as an idea, nearly burning off his partners eyebrows.

"I do want this," Falko fervently replied. She needed to impress her mother. And, Olympus be damned, she needed to impress her godly parent too, whoever it was. "It's generous of you to suggest doing that. Why should I trust you though?"

In all honesty, the center of attention for something on that scale isn't for me. I like my family run circus much more than performing for someone to try and get famous from it. The demigod said casually as he remembered James and his parents back home working on more acts no doubt. That and I'm usually at a camp for a majority of the summer and year. Something my mom requested I do. He added without thinking. Sh!t. If this girl was a demon or monster in disguise he was screwed a hundred times over for letting that slip out.

"Camp?" Falko frowned. She hadn't been to camp in a while, actually, so that should be why he didn't look familiar. Or maybe he was talking about a different camp? "Excuse me, when you say camp...(she lowered her voice) do you mean Camp Half-Blood?"

Chuckling the demigod nodded. Son of Thanatos. Second of the Duchannes line, you may know by brother Synyster or my sister Lena. The white haired teen said giving a cute, and rather flirty, half smile. What about you?

"Unclaimed," Falko gloomily replied. She knew Lena and Syn from the Hermes cabin but she had never seen Malik there. "Though I do have a set of powers: I can cause people to be scared. I can know their fears when I concentrate. When I shout during a fight, people often draw back. So I Googled a lot and I think it should be either Phobos, Deimos, Alala, Phrike, Kydoimos, or maybe one of the Machai."

He had to admit, he was sort of shocked that she was still unclaimed. Then again he didn't know how old she was. How old are you if you don't mind my asking? Typically people who have been to camp before have been claimed already depending on how often you went. I only just recently went and was claimed upon arriving, mostly because my sister and brother had been there a while and were in the Hermes cabin for a while and mother told them about me. He rambled on a little. Sorry, I sometimes ramble with people i find cute. Wait, i mean. Oh for the love of Hades. Malik said stumbling over his words. Sorry, I'm not usually this flustered.

"Lucky you. I'm fifteen and still no sign of--"

She stopped, having heard what he said. "Oh uh..." What do I say? What do I say? Seeing he was just as flustered as she was, she couldn't help but crack a little cat-like smile. "You're not that bad-looking yourself," she wriggled her eyebrows to ease the tension.

Chuckling the son of Thanatos smiled and went on to ask if Falko was trying to find out who her god parents as hard as others were. It wasn't uncommon for the unclaimed to spend hours and hours in the library or online to try and find out who their god parent was before they were claimed. It wasn't uncommon but for some it seemed like a weird thing to look into considering it was going to happen eventually, and more often than not before they were fifteen or sixteen.