Ok this is very important for all those who read this story. While this is going to be the exact same plot like the other one, the style is going to be different from original one. I am still trying to find my style for writing and comments will help me decided which root to take in my future stories.

It was a dark and cold night, especially in the mostly barren rim of the city limits. It would be expected that people would stay in this cold autumn night, where their homes were nice and toasty warm. A few, due to temporary unofficial curfew which was brought on by the victorious army marching past the city to the capital, were in the taverns drinking to celebrate the victory of their men in uniform.

Even the soldiers not posted on the base on the far end of the city limits would be expected to be at the taverns. There was some anger from their fellow solders that were posted inside the city and saw their fellow solider walking around. This intensified patrol was due to the General's presence and abnormally large amount of 'personal' guards. In fact, they were the men that he lead throughout the latest war and were very protective of their young leader, in some cases acting as surrogate father for him. It had increased in the latter years, due to how their General unfortunately officially gained his title.

However, despite what the higher ups army wished for, most of the citizens were out of their homes and attending the circus that was near the military base. It was one of the travelling circus that had many standard performers with the jugglers, the tightrope walkers, the loin tamers, the strong man, the ring master, the clowns and the rest. Of course, there was those that did not get any real acknowledgement despite their necessary roles in making the circus a success.

The circus was enjoying the extra influx of people attending, especially all the military officials that were there off duty, and enjoying themselves for the first time since the war. They stood out easily as they were the only ones that celebrated with guns attached to their uniform heavy coats.

The crowd, citizens and soldiers, clapped and cheered when the jugglers juggled their juggling balls and pin, knifes and swords, dangerous and dangerouser. Some laughed when the clowns came out, and they all cheered when 'bodily harm' came to them. They roared with approval with the lion tamers did their lion taming, held their breath when the fire eaters ate the fire. The crowd let out sigh of relief and awe when the fire eaters blew out the fire and sent it flying in the air.

Then came the famous part of this particular circus. The tightrope-walker, or tightrope walktress as she was so often called, was very famous for doing very amazing stunts on the high rope without the aid of a net. A common act of hers was walking on her feet before she walked across the rope with her hands midway. She then usually pushed herself off the rope only to land on her feet. It always causes the crowd to gasp and lean inwards for someone odd reaction to the chance of her falling. She has never fallen since her early days of mastering it and her constant practicing of her tightrope walking.

This time, however, was different. Instead of landing smoothly on the rope, this time she shuffled a small bit as she got up,  a red flag to her friends in the circus. It was due to something she saw in the audience, a certain someone that had a lot of nerve to be here. Glaring, she moved to the end of tightrope and instead of finishing her routine, she went done the ladder.

This caused a large amount of confusion in both the crowd and the stage. It caused some of the audience to get up and leave as most thought it was over now and they had duties to attend to. This led some of the circus workers to try and corral them back to their seats.

The ring master tried to talk to the Tightrope-Walktress, but she told him that something came up and she needed to go to her wagon. It was done in a tone of voice that give him had no choice, but to agree and try to keep the show moving in an inventive way. It would turn out to be a very interesting event involving a drunken elephant, a scared larger woman and a bottle of fuzzy water that would be forever know as the single most interesting event that if you missed, you really lucked out.

The more interesting story, however hard it is to top that as many would aruge, went on somewhere else. This somewhere else would start at a wagon. The Tightrope-Walktress's wagon.

She was very angry, something that her friends and family never saw in her. She was considered usually a very happy woman, and was therefore a dangerous woman for anyone to get in her way and so they decided to get away.

Apparently one man, a solider by the looks of it, was not caring of this danger. No, it seemed that he was waiting for her and this was very likely as he was waiting inside her wagon.

Of course, she saw a glint of metal in her window as he hid himself very poorly, so she went backwards to the tent to get someone to get him out of there. As she turned around, she walked into the one person, with the his usual cheerful personality, that she did not want to see at all. He was grinning that damnable grin of his, and his right hand went to scratch his damnable beautiful blond hair in his damnable cute way with damnable beautiful blue eyes. How she hated this damnable handsome bastard!

"YOU!" The Tightrope-Walktress shouted, slapping the damnable perfect face hard as she could with her dark skin hand. "How dare you come here!" She pressed her accusing finger in his damn perfect chest that was covered by a citizen jacket. "After what yo-"

"Please, keep your voice down." He asked, in his damn soft, caring voice that he only used for those he cared about. "I can see that someone is hiding in your wagon and is armed." She glared at his strong, but gentle hand that covered her mouth. "I do have my gun, but I don't want to start something tonight."

She glared at him, and nodded to make him let go. "Why are you here?" It was a demand that any would find funny, as the General would never have a  common soldier, let alone a civilian, demand a question from him.

"To see the lights, see the hubbub of the circus and all the wonders it has!" He said it in his damnable adoring sarcastic tone that made her roll her eyes at this. "I came here tonight to see you." He grabbed her again, holding her hands in his strong hands that were covered in proper military grade gloves. "Look, I know we never had a good relationship in our youths,-" Before he could finish this sentence with "hell, we never had the chance to get a good relationship with us moving around so much," he was interrupted by the Tightrope-Walktress.

"Never had a chance?!" She shouted, stabbing the same finger into his perfect chest. "What about when we were younger! Did that mean nothing to you!?" She shouted, clenching her hand into a fist. She did not care that striking the General could result in her death, as her anger overtook her.

"No, it did!" He was backing up now, looking away in mixture of joy and shame. "It was the best time of my life!"

"Then why did you leave!" That was the one question that haunted the Tightrope-Walktress throughout her life, made her unable to find companionship, unable to settle down. Unable find a person to love, unable to give her heart to someone.

"That was something I never wanted to do." The General damn blue eyes shifted downwards in a sign of regret. "But I had no choice in the matter."

"No choice?!" She shouted, softer this time. "Of course you had a choice, everyone has a choice in life!"  

"Oh?" His damnable normal soft voice rose in slight anger. "What was I suppose to do, abandon my squad and my men? Abandon what the army taught me and get labeled as a deserter?  Abandon all that my father had taught me?" He sighed and shook his damnable perfect head. "I always regretted having to leave you behind."

This caused her to release her fist and turn her head away. She refused to show any tears to him. She needed answers. "Then why are you here now?" She barked it out, her hurt slowly melting away.

"Heh, I deserve that." He gave her one of his damnable adorable little laughs and sighed. "I was called out to fight in the extensive battles and do some patrol duties in foreign lands with my squad. I was only meant to do short term of duty, but my squad got pulled into bigger and bigger battles that prevented us from returning home." He sighed again in his damnable tried manner that made her feel sorry for him. "Had to focus on winning the battles and leading my growing squad of men towards victory. Had to accept heavy losses on the way. Lost some good men there. They were like brothers I never had. I wept for every brother that was lost in the damn war. Near broke down when I found out my fa-" He stopped, and tears began to fall down his damn perfect cheeks.

"I'm sorry-" She raised a hand to his perfect face, but she was stopped by his strong, but soft caring hand.

"Don't." He looked at her. "I have managed to move past it now. Although, sometimes the hurts comes back." He sighed in his tried manner again and scratched his beautiful blond hair once again. It seemed that he had let it grow slightly in the back, but hasn't taken to brushing it after all these years.

She liked his hair this way.

"You still haven't told me why you came back, only why you had to leave me." She glared at him, watching the start of the snowfall fall on his head. The hurt from a broken heart was fading, yes, but it was still there. All the pain from not knowing what had happened.

"If I could, I drop to my knee and propose to you right here and now. If I could, I would give you my heart on a ring, and spend all my days with you." This caught her off guard, made her look at him in a new way. "But, we can't. Our lives are too damn similar: we are always moving and we love what we do too much for either of us to ask the other to give it up." The General was very sad now, and was looking at the ground hard, with clenched fists and eyes. The ground was getting wetter now, and it was not only due to the increasing snowfall. "I came to give you this."

He reached into his coat and pulled out a stack off papers, holding it out to her. It was not in his normally smooth and steady manner that was brought on by years of training, but it was shaky now.  

"These are envelopes, all with my official seal, that will bring it to my desk without question."

"Wait, you want me to write to you?" She raised an eyebrow to him, not sure what to make of this strange request.

"It is the only way possible for us to be together." He spat angrily, shaking his head. "I'm so sorry that I cannot do more for you." He sighed again and began to pant. "You deserve more than, than-A-a –a pathetic man that can only talk in letters like children." There were more tears in the General's face and was turning to walk away.

"Wait." The Tightrope-Walktress called out, raising a hand to caress his cheek to turn his head around. "I can see that we will never be able to be more then letter friends. We will never be able to have a true relationship, I see that." She brought his head downwards to hers and looked up in his deep blue eyes. "But, for you, you, I can accept this." She took the envelopes in her other hand.

The Tightrope-Walktress and the General face were very close now. Their eyes were steady looking into the others eye. And then for the first time, the two very opposite people, the two old and distant friends who only meet so few times, the two halves of the same soul became one. Locked in deep kiss, the broken hearts of the past and the very uncertain relationship of the future was forgotten. There was only this moment for the two, standing in the falling snow, leaning onto one another as they kissed their soul mate.

For them, this moment had no beginning and no end. They knew that they will never have another chance to be like this and knew that their lives would soon take them away from one another again, but they were happy enough to live in this endless moment of time.


The End