Alec had no idea how Marcell managed to persuade him to socialise with his friends. But here he was, sat on a bench being mercilessly interrogated by a bunch of women.

"So Alec, we hear you're a magician, and you're going to join us?" the one who sat opposite him, raised a polished brow. She spoke with a slight Spanish accent, and her complexion seemed to match her origins. Striking long dark hair, dark eyes and olive skin adorned her pretty face. She also bore an extraordinary outfit, a skin-tight suit covered entirely by black and white diamond shapes.

"No, I am not going to join you," Alec replied a little gruffly, feeling very much out of his depth.

"Oh, but he will," Marcell interrupted.

Alec shot him an icy look. He did not like how Marcell was treating him like he was some little puppet that he could command to do whatever he wanted as long as he pulled the right puppet strings.

"That's Bella by the way, the name suits her, doesn't it?"

"Uh-" Alec didn't quite know how to respond to that.

"Oh, stop bullying him, Marcell," Bella chastised, "You'll scare him off,"

Another woman, who had very gorgeous ebony coloured skin, chose that moment to introduce themselves, she seemed real bad-ass wearing a leather-clad suit, "Hi I'm Jordan, is that an Irish accent you have?"

"What do you think?" he crossed his arms angrily, honestly, why was everyone so obssessed with his Irishness? Yes, he was Irish. Lots of people were. It wasn't exactly a new thing.

"That makes another foreigner in our group, besides you Bella," she nudged the Spaniard playfully.

Bella laughed and muttered "idiota," beneath her breath before she smacked Jordan's hand in response.

"Hey! I eat marmite! So, if that doesn't make you Brits accept me, I don't know what will," Alec retorted.

"Uuugh, that's disgusting," Jordan grimaced, "Marcell, can't you change your mind about him?"

"No can do I'm afraid, I don't allow any such prejudices to influence decisions in the workplace,"

"Oh come onnn, what about you Elsie?"

The small, pale-faced blondie laughed along shyly, she was sitting on the very edge of the opposite bench, "I'm sorry but I'm also a marmite eater,"

"No way! How could you betray me like that Elsie!?" she replied in mock distress, then turned to Alec, "By the way, that Elsie there, she may be a bit quiet, but she is super sweet, the sweetest of us all actually,"

Elsie blushed the same delicate shade of her pink tutu and stuttered, "A-a-actually I…"

After seeing all their unusual but fabulous outfits up close, Alec couldn't help but wonder what they all did, so he asked, "So are all you guys party entertainers or dancers or something?"

"Pffft, did Marcell not tell you?" Jordan laughed.

"No, he just said, 'me and my friends need a magician' and wouldn't say anything else,"

"You really are too cruel," Bella scolded Marcell again.

"Like you said Bella, I didn't want to scare him off," he merely smiled, "Plus he's not wrong, we are entertainers, just uhh... specialised entertainers"

"Are you going to tell me or what? I should at least know what job you're trying to make me consider,"

"We're circus performers!" Jordan exclaimed.

"Circus performers!?"

"That's right! I'm a fire-eater, Bella is an acrobat, Elsie's a hoop dancer and that bastard Marcell over there, is our ringleader, which makes him our boss,"

"Wow, okay…"

Alec grudgingly mulled over this new information, "Marcell?"

"Yes?"

"Being part of this circus or whatever would require me to drastically change my life, sell up everything and become a hobo. Why on earth did you leave out this rather important detail when you suggested this job to me? I mean I wouldn't have accepted this job anyway, because like Jordan says, you are a bastard. But I must seriously ask you, besides all that, are you a complete psychopath?"

"AHAAHAHAHAH! Marcell, I like him!" Jordan howled with laughter.

"How rude! I am most certainly not a psychopath… or a hobo for that matter," Marcell pouted.

"That's what a psychopath would say," Alec narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"You hurt my feelings,"

"You have none,"

"Don't be so cruel to me Alec," he whined.

Bella smiled. "Alec is just giving you what you deserve,"

"Not you too Bella!"

"Oi Alec! Show us a magic trick!" Jordan piped up.

"Huh?"

"Come on, you're supposed to be a magician, aren't you? Consider this your job interview!"

"Like I've already told you, I'm not even interested in this job!"

"Oh, come onnnn, don't be such a party pooper!"

"You know Alec, since you got fired and everything, I think this really is a pretty good opportunity for you and you shouldn't be so quick to deny it" Marcell chimed in sweetly.

Alec glared at him.

"What? No way!" Jordan exclaimed, "You got fired!? You poor sod! No wonder you looked so gloomy."

"He made a kid cry so he deserved it," Marcell stated matter of factly.

"Hey, don't talk about my life as if I'm not here!"

"You made a kid cry?" Bella asked.

"I yelled at him, what can I say? I'm bad with children,"

"Oh dear, we've all been there, we have a few children at the circus, so you'd gain plenty of experience with them,"

"I've already had more than enough experience with them for a lifetime," Alec frowned slightly.

"Did you hear that Marcell? What are you going to do about your daughter?"

Alec gawked in shock. Daughter!? He couldn't possibly comprehend that this bastard could own a kid.

"Oh, he'd love her, everyone does, it's unavoidable, she's my darling angel," Marcell smiled genuinely, for the first time this entire evening. He almost looked like a completely different person.

Alec was weirdly transfixed by the spectacle. So, it took a while before he could muster the ability to speak.

"You...!? You have a kid! I can't believe it!"

"Oh, this man is full of surprises, isn't that right, Marcell?" Jordan grinned.

"Oh yes, absolutely," he winked back.

* * *

As the night wore on and on, the bunch of them had done several rounds of shots, mainly because of Marcell's egging on of course. Alec was not used to drinking nearly this much alcohol before, and he had felt himself getting drunker and drunker by the second until he was suddenly completely wasted, almost at the stage of passing out.

"Oh poor Alec, what have you done to him!?" Bella gushed, although she wasn't doing much better, she couldn't walk in a straight line as the group staggered out of the pub.

"It's alright, I'll take him home and look after him. To make sure he doesn't choke on any vomit or anything, of course," Marcell had somehow somewhat remained miraculously sober despite all the drink that he'd also had.

Elsie was cackling to herself, hugging a telephone pole, then chose a moment to screech at the top of her lungs, "I'm a telephonnneee!"

"Come on Elsie, get away from the telephone pole" Jordan grabbed her, she also had somehow remained quite sensible, "Should we call a cab, Marcell?"

"I'm a teleeepppphooonee!! Ring Ring!!" Elsie suddenly yelled into Jordan's face, "Would you pick me up?" she started cackling again.

Poor Jordan hoisted her up and gave her a piggyback.

Marcell then replied, "No Jordan, I think I'll call one of the twins to give us a lift,"

"It's already way past midnight!"

"They'll still be awake, if not, they'll definitely be awake soon," he grinned devilishly.