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"Meeeeet The Dog!!"
ricky had known constance for years. six years, to be exact. they knew her inside and out- maybe better than she knew herself.
but no matter how close they were, ricky always got butterflies watching her perform.
it was like she was the only person alive while she was on that stage. it was incredible. seeing her with the horses, or working with penny or tammy with the birds or other animals was mesmerizing. she always had this soft little smile, and then when she turned to speak to the audience it turned into this huge, ear-to-ear grin with such a fire in her eyes that ricky couldn't bring themself to look anywhere but those eyes.
they might have a bit of a crush, but nobody needs to know about that but the two of them. not yet.
even now, watching her riding around on stage with tammy and one of the newer girls' many birds, ricky could feel themself falling head-over-heels in love all over again.
she was.. she was everything to them. they could almost hear the eye roll from noel at the cheesiness of it.
ricky adored her. the moment she told them she was ready to tell the rest of the circus they were going to make a banner and hang in from the highest roof they could find. they would take their time and force their stupid, dysfunctional jaw to work so they could scream it into the sky.
but she wasn't ready, and ricky could wait. they could spend their time watching her work, or watching her help ocean with some of her acts. they could listen to her singing to herself as she tended to the horses, and listen to her ranting about something she learned that day while she undoes her hair and they both take off their makeup.
ricky could bide their time, sitting quietly on a plane with her on the way to yet another country, and giggling at noel as he shouts about another card game lost to karnak. they could wait years if it meant they could be with her.
and they had told her as much. they held her as she sobbed, signing promises to her with shaky hands, and pressing kisses to her forehead. they kissed tears from her cheeks, scoffing at the mere idea of ever leaving her because of something so trivial.
constance knew how much ricky loved her. she had seen the numerous drawings of her and diary entries about her, and she could feel how deep their love ran.
she loved them just as much, if not more.
she watched as they worked with ezra playing practical jokes, or working with ocean to give her an extra boost before a hard act. she watched them play with kids, and move to an emergency so quickly she could barely see it.
she got to watch them learn to bake- she got to teach them to bake. she got to see them working out every morning, laughing with ezra and hank about something she never really understood, and she got to bring them icepacks when they overdid it and caused a flareup.
she got to take them to doctors appointments, flying around to find specialists to make sure they were okay to keep working.
she couldn't understand what they saw in her, but she couldn't quite explain what she saw in them, so she supposed it was fair.
she could barely function around them anymore. seeing hank and astrid so publicly in love felt like a stab to the heart, and she quite valued her heart, thank you. ricky was a very important part of her life, and its not easy to survive without your heart like that.