#(ANOTHER AU DRABBLE FOR A B DAY THIS TIME ITS ASAKA FOR NOBLES

[universestreasures]

The Pale Moon Circus was filled with individuals who loved celebrations, parties, and the sort. They were a lively bunch who would use any excuse to go and have a good time, both on and off the stage. Birthdays were no exception to this, and in fact, they were the type of occasion the circus went all out for. The performers had become like a family at this point, after all.

Today's celebration was to be a very special one indeed, for it was the birthday of the Ringmistress of their circus, the one who worked tirelessly to make sure the show and all its moving parts harmonized. They had decided to put on a little private performance for her, not too dissimilar to what Asaka had put together for the directors birthday all those months ago. Getting this together without her knowledge was quite a feat, and she applauded them for their efforts. However...her mind was elsewhere, even as she sit and watch her comrades perform a show like no other.

'What do you want for your birthday?'

It was a common question she had been asked multiple times by various people, and her response to them was always the same, saying she have no need of a gift from them. That was the truth, for they couldn't give her what she really wanted. Only one person could do it, grant her birthday wish, but...she knows now even that person would grant it. It went against their own wishes, something she is sure the other wouldn't compromise for the sake of her own happiness despite the fact Asaka has done the reverse time and time again.

Yes, what Asaka desired more than anything, more than anything at all, wasn't fame, fortune, expensive gifts, or even revenge on those who wronged her in the past. It was for Ren to give up Kai in every sense of the word. She wanted him to stop this quest to find him and bring him back. She wanted him to stop his obsessiveness over fulfilling that image he had of her and the dragon performing together from all those years ago. She wanted him to stop thinking about him when they were alone together. She wanted him to care.

And yet...

"It's foolish...to even wish for such a thing at this point, even on a day like today."

She speaks to herself as she continues to appear as if she as watching the show her co-stars were putting on in her honor. Asaka knew that Ren's eyes would never turn towards her truly until Kai was back here. He was beyond obsessed with the fire dragon for reasons she, to this day, still doesn't get. Tetsu told her a lot happened after she left to go on her own, and it was something Ren didn't like to talk about, but...

What possibly could have happened to have her most special person go this far for someone when she was only gone for a few months? What could have drove Ren to this obsessive madness? Asaka didn't know and, most likely, never will. Without that vital information, she had only one real option at this point to turn the tide of things in her favor, to get even close to her true wish to be granted. She would just have to capture Kai and make Ren see, with his own eyes, that the dragon was not what he thought, that she was the one who could give him what he needed.

Asaka's focus returns to pay attention to the last bit of the show after her own mind was made up. Her birthday had seemed just like any other day, even though so desperately would wish for it to be more but...that just meant she would have to work even harder to make her dreams a reality. That's how this world of theirs worked, after all. It rewarded the powerful and the influential, and the only way one got to that point other than being born into it was to make those waves and climb that latter, just like she and the rest of the circus had been doing for years now.

And at the top of Asaka's own ladder would be the peak reward, Ren's love and admiration. It was a goal worth fighting for, a destination worth reaching, for Ren meant everything to the Ringmistress of the Pale Moon Circus. Without him, she was nothing. It was only after they met that she had become someone, and she wasn't about to let a ghost of the past stand in her way of reaching that peak.

No matter who stood in her way, be it friend or foe, she was going to come out on top. There were no options left for Asaka but to succeed, because failing would mean losing her beloved director forever, a fate she considered to be worse than death...