Something…was itching?

Celeste woke up with a completely dazed and confused look on her face. Her bright purple eyes opened only to be greeted by that evil burning ball of gases in the sky. Quickly her amethyst orbs shut in hopes of not burning a hole into them. Slowly things started to fall into place in her mind as she sat up and opened her eyes again. She fell asleep again. She fell asleep while sitting outside reading something. And her right forearm was itching. Her eyes slowly moved forward at her arm and took notice of the bug crawling on it. How…quaint. Her left hand moved over and flicked the little critter off her body and sighed. This is why it was a bad idea to fall sleep outside her tent. There was no telling what happened to this mask if she wasn’t paying attention. Her right index finger started poking her puffy cheeks, moving it in a circular motion. Her cute little mask was going to end up all broken and mangled and then she’d have to get a new one. But she didn’t want a new one. She liked this body. It was everything she wanted in a vessel!

The sleepy demon yawned softly as she stretched her arms. So what exactly was she reading before she fell asleep? Her eyes scanned the area for a book but found nothing. Well wasn’t that just lovely, she lost her book. Carefully, she hopped back to her feet and looked around. So where the heck did she lose it? She didn’t fall asleep on it since it wasn’t under her when she woke up. And it wasn’t really anywhere in the immediate vicinity. ”Hmm,” she moaned curiously. Did someone actually come around and take her book? Honestly, who would do such a thing? Surely no one from the circus would do such a thing; they were all supposed to be like family after all. So would a guest take her stuff?

Probably not.

Most people didn’t come till later. Hell, she didn’t have to perform until much later when the sun wasn’t such a bothersome thing. The dark haired girl sighed as she closed her eyes. Honestly, was she really even reading a book before falling asleep outside on the grass? She remembered reading something about chocolate and shirtless men, but then again it might have been remnants of a dream. However, if it wasn’t a dream, then she wanted that book back because chocolate plus men equaled amazing. The only thing more amazing would be men made out of ice cream…except she’d eat them and killing her perfect lover probably ruined the fantasy. And he’d also melt in the sun… Okay, so her perfect man had to be revised. He would either need to be carrying ice cream or covered in the stuff and searching her out so she could clean him with her tongue. Oh that worked lovely. She needed to do that one day.

”Lick chocolate ice cream off a male is now my second priority,” she announced to herself happily. Her lips curled into a bright smile at the thought then returned back to pouting. The number one priority was still to look for her missing book. Celeste sighed as her right hand ran through her hair. Just where was she supposed to start looking for the thing? Going back to her room was either going to lead to distractions or utter cluelessness since she didn’t know the title of the book she lost. There was questioning others. Her glossy lips poked out for a moment. Questioning fellow members about a runaway book was probably…weird, but oh well. She wanted this book that might have something to do with chocolate and or men. The girl yawned one more time, fully waking up. Slowly she headed back towards the tents.

Celeste happily trekked down back to the circus grounds, yawning. Her purple eyes looked dull for a moment as she looked around for any likely suspects. Her twin pigtails decorated with colorful bows fluttering about in the soft wind. Like usual, she looked like a child or teen instead of an adult. It wasn’t like it was possible for her to grow up unless she wanted to replace this mask. But having Celeste in blue jean shorts and stripped blue and black socks plus a black tube top didn’t do much to make her look mature. But it wasn’t like she cared how strangers perceived her. Other workers knew she was quite older than she looked. At times, Celeste was curious how young of a human could she pose as. If she carried a teddie bear and sucked on her thumb all day, would they think she was a large preteen or something?

”Excuse me, do you think you can tell me when the show will start? And maybe a name as well?”

Her lavender eyes glanced to the right before her whole body followed. Oh, it was a customer! Celeste puckered her lips as she bent closer, inspecting the pretty woman. There was no book in hand, sadly so she wasn’t the thief; she was just another lost customer. Her expression changed almost immediately as she looked up at the dark haired woman with a huge smile. Even if she wasn’t the person who took her book, there was nothing against any rule about having fun with her. ”Well, ‘ello ma’am,” she cheerily spoke in her most uneducated of tones. Children were uneducated creatures after all. ”Da name’s Cece. And I done reckon that show will be a’startin’ soon, I hope. I wanna see ‘em there clowns…” She stood up straight and extended her hand off towards the older looking woman with a huge smile. Celeste paused as she looked at her hand then rubbed it on her shorts like there was something on it before extending it again.

”Ya ‘ave such long and purdy hair, ma’am. And such fancy clothes. Ya wouldn’t be ‘em there royal folks, now would ya, ma’am?”

She continued smiling, laughing to herself. The woman did have this aura of sophistication to her so she might be someone in upper society. There were so many politicians and wives of politicians that occasionally came around to look more humanized that she couldn’t help but wonder who this woman was. The act would have to stop if this stranger felt some odd inclination to drag her back home and educate Celeste. She was already pretty well-rounded in the daemon girl’s eyes. There were centuries of living experience under her belt as well as human written books. Though, going off with some stranger might be fun. Humans always acted odd when they found out she was a demon; but that only worked if this woman was a human. If she were an angel, it’d be such a fun headache!

Angels were fun because she couldn’t understand them at all. They usually hated her and wanted to destroy her, but Celeste had fun studying them while she had the opportunity. The angels roaming about in the circus were slightly easier to understand, but that was because she was accustomed to them. They were coworkers and family, if someone could actually consider this ragtag bunch of different races and beings a family. Still, everyone got along fair enough under Marcel’s reign. Race, ranks, past affiliations…none of that mattered now. They were all just circus freaks. The girl stared at the woman for a moment. Fellow daemons were a bit easier to spot, so was she human, angel, or other?

”T...Thank you.”

Celeste tilted her head and lifted a brow at those words. She was thanking the daemon girl? That didn’t seem right, even if the woman had no clue she was a daemon. Was she daydreaming about something? ”Ma’am?” she said softly, peeking up at the taller woman from underneath her long purple bangs. Was that a slight blush on her face? The daemon girl just wasn’t sure to take the elegant woman’s suddenly actions. There were a bit…cute. A smile crept on Celeste’s face until the woman suddenly seemed aware of what she was doing. She seemed shameful, meaning she was an Angel. Angels were always so odd in that sense. It seemed like they were never allowed to enjoy anything in this world because ‘it was a sin.’ Such a restrictive life seemed so boring to the daemon. Was this freedom she had why she sided with Lucifer all those years ago? It was hard to think otherwise. The voice of the Lord fell mute to her ears because it was the voice of oppression in her eyes. It was almost impossible to remember of a time before such thoughts.

”I’m not here for a confrontation; if that is what you were wondering, daemon.”

”Oh,” her tone instantly changed back to her normal voice instead of some hick like person ”So you noticed already? I guess I wouldn’t be a good actress…” The Angel woman noticed what exactly she was despite the stupid act. Celeste straightened up as she smiled softly, folding her arms. There was no use in playing the role of a child considering the Angel knew this was a faux vessel. The age of the mask didn’t reflect the age of the host. While the woman looked older, it wasn’t necessarily true. Bodies were just preferences, after all.

”I’m just here to observe, I guess would be the best answer or maybe look for some myself. Our Father always encourages us to seek our own answers instead of relying on Him.”

”Is it considered cheating it I help you find an answer, or is that considered something He provided? I honestly can’t remember what’s attributed to Him anymore.”

The act had to end since the woman noticed. There was no reason to pretend she was some stupid child, and she wasn’t going to patronize the woman by pretending she understood the Word of God or how to follow it. Those days were long gone after all. Daemons didn’t hear His word; and even if they did, the Fallen wouldn’t follow His word. But even if they were different, Celeste didn’t really mind since there were already Angels roaming about on the circus grounds. They believed in things completely different than her; things she couldn’t comprehend no matter how much she analyzed a situation. And because they were puzzles to Celeste, she was interested in Angels. Scarlett was an Angel, and she was interesting. The blonde girl was extremely interesting and fun to be around! There was just something so likeable about that Angel girl. So it might be the same with this one, or there might be something else interesting about her.

”Maybe you can help me? Though, do you happen to have some candy on you? As a side note, I am Sitara.”

”Candy,” she giggled happily. Celeste moaned then nodded. ”I was actually looking for chocolate, Sitara. Hmm,” she moaned again, pressing her right index finger against her lips. She was looking for the book, then she was going to look for a male and some chocolate to create some type of new fun type of dessert, but she could forgo her beloved book for a moment. Sitara was a customer after all, so she was supposed to be striving for customer satisfaction… ”Let me start over. Hello there. I’m Celeste. I’m actually a performer here,” she introduced herself. The purple haired girl smiled before rolling her hand as she bowed in front of the dark haired woman. After the introduction she stood up straight and smirked for a moment.

Was Scarlett completely different than other Angels, or did all of non-Fallen give into temptation every so often. Her amethyst eyes twinkled with delight for a moment. She felt temptation pulling at her being; if she offered the type of dessert Celeste craved, would the Angel feel it was blasphemy and run off or would she be slightly intrigued? There was no clue to why she was blushing before, so she couldn’t automatically start thinking the Angel girl was having naughty thoughts. It was so frustrating at times dealing with Angels! She couldn’t unravel this woman’s mind easily. Still, temptation wouldn’t stop nagging at her, but she needed further information before trying to corrupt some angelic stranger.

Today was really shaping into a fun day!

”Well, Sitara, I know where we can get sweets. Hehe… You’ll just have to trust me for a moment and follow my lead. I’m sure everything is telling you not to listen, but…” she moaned, rolling her head. Her eyes looked at the woman then at the other customers happily walking around. ”If you haven’t been able to tell, things are different here. This place is neutral ground. All those usual feelings should be left behind as long as you’re at Cirque du Deux. I mean, I’m not trying to harm any of the humans or Angels roaming about…workers or customers.” She looked back at the woman and smiled happily. All those urges to kill and torture died a long time ago; she had given up on such typical daemon behavior even before she encountered Marcel. The small girl giggled before skipping off towards one of the supply tent. There had to be chocolate somewhere in there, probably liquid or blocks made for melting. There were chocolate covered treats sold about at the circus.

Candy was confusing to angels? That couldn’t have been the case since she had seen Scarlett indulge in eating candy. The concession stand that sold cotton candy had an angel working behind the counter and she saw that strawberry blonde girl indulging in the airy sweet delight. So it wasn’t angels that were confused on the subject of candy but Sitara. It made the dark haired woman interesting simply because she was odder than most angels; at least on the subject of sugary treats. ”Candy’s confusing,” the daemon asked with her interest obviously peaked. Her amethyst eyes glittered in delight as she looked at the sighing woman. Candy frustrated her quite a bit with reactions like that; but it couldn’t just be as simple as candy. Angels were always the most complex of creatures; everything had some mythical coded meaning behind it. Candy could very well mean the innocence of a soul for all Celeste knew. Still, she was curious as to why candy got such a reaction from the woman.

”It just seems to lead right back to him.”

”So candy is really a he,” the girl said in a sagely tone, nodding with her arms folded. She understood a bit more. It wasn’t the fact that males were confusing; they were usually easier to understand than females. It was the feelings towards a certain male that seemed to confuse the poor angel girl. Angels really weren’t equipped to be trapped in a mask since these faux bodies provided a whole new set of ideas and temptations. Masks weren’t perfect beings of lights; in fact, masks were imperfect. They required all sorts of things that neither angel nor daemon naturally needed. It surely gave Celeste all types of sensations the moment she bounded herself to this particular mask. No once before hiding in this vessel did she feel the urge for chocolate or to lick the delicious substance off the body of a male or female. All these things were simply because she was tied to a body that needed to eat and sleep; and odd urges seemed to come from this body that were sins that humans faced daily.

”So what’s your favorite lollipop called?”

Celeste was already digging inside of a box when she asked the question. Her tiny body toppled over into the box and she gave a light yelp. There were several disadvantages to having a small body, especially with it being so unbalanced. Not reaching and falling into places seemed to be her biggest problems. But the box did have the bars of chocolate she was looking for, so falling into the thing wasn’t a completely loss. She pulled herself out of the box and handed one the bars of chocolate to the angel before leaning against a pile of stacked boxes. The tiny girl peeled off the tin foil on the chocolate and bit into her sweet treat and almost cringed from the taste. It was so good!

”And how we find our answers is all within His grace, regardless of the source. At least, that is how I look at things. It doesn’t seem so far off from the truth.”

”Oh? Then our meeting is through His will. And maybe our meeting was destiny for me to help you understand it’s not a bad thing to like how to enjoy candy. I can already see you’re a bit troubled by it,” she said looking up at the woman. She had the same lovesick expression she saw customers wandering about had. It was cute and sickening all at once, but Celeste did her best not to let her own feelings show on the matter. ”Lollipops are for sucking and enjoying, after all…”

Peter?

It figured her favorite piece of candy had a saint’s name. Actually, there were quite a bit of Saint Peters if she remembered, but the Saint Peter was also an Apostle and the son of God’s first disciple. There were just so many things associated with the whole Saint Peter thing that it could make her head spin. An angel in love or lust with a Saint… Well, Peter was just a name and not necessarily associated with the thoughts she had; but it also wasn’t impossible. To know the truth she simply needed to find out more about this Peter Candy the dark haired angel girl wanted to suck upon. The question was how to go about this inquisition. If she tried anything too sly or too pressing, the angel would clam up and likely run away. It was like trying to pet a butterfly; the smallest unannounced account could scare it away.

And almost like magic, the angel started to explain how she preferred from such suggestive phrases because it made the mind of her body wonder. Almost by instinct, she looked her mask and wondered if it did the same thing. Were there memories locked deep within it waiting to jump out if certain words were to trigger it? Considering how long she had been in her beloved little mask, she didn’t really need to fear such a thing. It would be interested it remember, however, to remember someone else’s memories. How lifelike were these false memories? Would she heard and feel the things this body previously encountered? Such out of body experiences did seem like it’d be worrisome at first, but new experiences were always welcomed. And Celeste did find herself curious about her cute little mask. But it wasn’t something she wished upon herself because how distressed the angel woman seemed. Besides, in the end, they’d be human memories and humans usually weren’t terribly interesting.

”Thank you. But candy is just candy…it only reminds me of him. Though I think many people in this city could say that as well.”

”Peter’s a candyholic?”

Wasn’t overindulging considered a sin of some sort? Did that mean she was in love with a human instead of some angel or saint? Such things happened. When a being of God fell in love with a moral and reproduced, Nephilims were born. Her feeling towards those halfings were always complex since they were creatures capable of anything. There was no way to deem them as interesting or boring because there was no way of knowing which side they’d take after more. They weren’t abominations and she didn’t feel any angst towards them. Demons were capable of producing nephils after all. There were probably quite a few considering how demons didn’t need things like love or attachments to mate. But this was a bit off topic, or was it. The angel woman could have just as easily been in love with a nephil rather than a human. They had the ability to overindulge in things without too much inner turmoil. Little sins were ignorable until someone pointed such things out.

The angel woman seemed way too cautious. Did she think candy was poison? Honestly, if she wanted to kill the angel woman, there was easier and quicker ways than poison. A quick stab in the heart worked, or burning the mask until it was a pile of ashes worked as well. But after the hesitation, the woman bit into the chocolate and even mentioned how good it was. She even went on to say she thought she understood this Peter fellow a bit more. It was a funny thought. Just because she enjoyed candy didn’t mean it was easier to understand someone who did. She enjoyed and overindulged in tons of different sweet treats, but it didn’t mean she understood the angel or vice versa. But Celeste had no urge to ruin the angel’s epiphany. If anything, she was happier to promote the confused woman to embrace chocolates and then maybe the Peter flavored kinds.

”You’re fond of him and you haven’t done things to understand him more? Is that an angel trait, or you just being timid?” she asked innocent sucking on the corner of the chocolate bar. ”What better way to get to know a man than to share chocolates? In some countries, a girl giving a man chocolates is a sign of love. In fact the human world has a holiday dedicated to the whole ordeal of love confessions. I definitely suggest you spend tons of time around your dear Peter in February.”