July 28th, 1927

Billie sighed as he sat up on the practice beam. The circus train had decided to break down half way between Fergus Falls and Pipestone, Minnesota.

Everyone had chosen to use the time to either practise their acts or get in on the various card games that were being set up alongside the tracks. The only downside was that it was baking hot and Billie had done barely a few flips before he could feel the sweat pouring off of him.

"Hey Clara you got anymore of that nice cold water?" He called out to the brunette as she passed underneath them. Clara shook her head mournfully as she looked up at him.

"You're gonna roast! Go in the shade and stop being so goofy!" she called, gesturing to Billie and Juan before sauntering over to a particularly raucous sounding poker game.

Juan shrugged as he walked down the suspended plank towards Billie.

"She's got a point, it's way too hot to practise, it's just us and the clowns that are bothering," Juan nodded to where Frank was yelling at a focussed looking Melvin,

"Feel the sadness! Be the sadness!"

Billie chuckled as he looked back round to Juan, "Raymond give any indication how long he thinks we'll be stuck here?"

"An hour or so I think - he's overseeing the repairs now," Juan replied.

"And Salvatore?" Billie cocked his head hopefully.

"I think he's still in his compartment with one of the coochie girls," Juan pulled a face.

"Fantastic," Billie replied drily before noticing Viv and Lola running up to them.

"Hey boys!" Viv called out. "Arnold and Elmer say they've found a small lake just across from the tracks - want to come? We're going to go swimming!"

Viv let out a screeching peal of laugher as Lola grabbed her hand and began tugging her along.

"I haven't got a bathing costume," Juan murmured, looking put out.

"Are you kidding Juan? You're wearing a leotard - besides I'm pretty sure this is the kind of swimming that doesn't require a bathing costume."

Juan looked shocked before his face rearranged into a wide grin. "I'll go get Anita," he announced, swinging his legs over the bar and somersaulting to the grass below.

Juan, Billie and Anita arrived at the lake to find quite a large portion of the circus were already there and enjoying themselves.

"The water's actually cold!" Viv called out gleefully. "It's the cat's whiskers!"

Clara turned up a moment later with her python Dahlia.

"She likes the water," Clara shrugged with a smile.

Billie stripped down to his underwear before charging into the water with an almighty shout. The sharp contrast of the baking sun against the freezing lake made him feel slightly dizzy. A minute later and Juan was leaping towards him before diving down and resurfacing to dunk Billie underneath.

Billie retaliated by body slamming himself against the water's surface, causing a massive spray to hit Juan and Anita right in the face.

Eventually it turned into an all out war with Clara sat on top of Juan's shoulders, attempting to wrestle Marie who had come to sit up on Billie's.

"Sucks that Walter has to help with the engine work," Marie sighed as she ran her fingers through Billie's wet hair. "He'd love this, he's a really strong swimmer - he taught me how a year ago."

"Maybe when we get the train working again we can just forget to tell Salvatore for a while and Walter can come down here for some fun?" Billie grinned as Marie nodded enthusiastically.

"We should bring the animals down here as well, poor things must be boiling in their cages," Lola announced. "Dean are you going to get the wolves?"

Billie jerked his head up, he hadn't noticed that Dean was there. The other boy was bare chested, stood in the shallower part of the lake and he was looking straight at Billie.

Billie was momentarily distracted as Marie slid back down off of him, winding Billie in the process. He doubled over laughing and trying to catch his breath before standing back up and coming face to face with Dean who had moved right in front of him.

"Would you like to help me bring the wolves down Billie?"

Billie's mouth dropped open in surprise, "Um -yeah definitely! It's safe right?"

Dean's eyebrow quirked as he gave a small smile, "Yes Billie, I promise it's safe. I'll take them over to that rocky area over there, away from all the people."

"Okay - great!" Billie beamed as he followed Dean out of the water, trying to simultaneously ignore both the way the trails of moisture glistened down Dean's tanned back and the infuriatingly knowing looks that both Juan and Anita were giving him.

"You're practising the high beam routine again?" Dean asked as they made their way back up the grassy slope towards the train.

"Yeah! I mean, I know I screwed up last time but it's a good routine, we didn't want to just scrap it you know?" Billie scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

Dean nodded as they curved round the back of the train and began to stroll through the milling crowds of people as if they weren't only wearing sopping wet underwear. Billie thanked the nature of the circus that no one even gave them a second glance.

The clowns had obviously also decided to give up on practising and had instead turned their hand to poker. From the sounds of it they were rather dominating the competition.

Henry swore loudly as Frank cheered, "Finally! A use for that ridiculous unchanging expression of yours Melvin!"

Billie giggled and shook his head as Dean shot him an amused look.

The wolves were lying down in their compartment on the train, Dolores was panting as she rose up to see Dean.

"Hey girl," Dean murmured, reaching through the bars to stroke down her muzzle, "I know you're too hot in here huh? How would you like a dip in the lake?"

Dolores's ears seemed to prick up as Dean chuckled and drew back to open the cage door.

"Come on then,” Dean smiled fondly as the wolves filtered out one by one, all staring up expectantly up at him.

"How do you do that?" Billie asked frowning. "It took Lola years to get the lions to obey her and she raised them from cubs!"

Dean shrugged but looked pleased, "I did some reading at one of the town's libraries we stopped at a month ago - wolves just need to know who the alpha is, then they'll happily fall into place and be obedient."

Billie bit his lip as he smiled. Dean had done research - that was just too adorable.

"Seems like you really are the Wolf Man," Billie grinned as Dean huffed and rolled his eyes.