Maxine took the offered hand. Steadying... yes. She could use a little steadying. Her feet touched pavement again, but it was like getting out of the ocean after a long swim: you could still feel the waves in your body, for hours afterward. In this case, the waves were causing the world to spin. Just a little.

>> "Are you ok my dear? Was it everything you expected?"

If there was one thing Maxine was sure of, it was that Juka liked an audience. They certainly had one: some of the admirers of their aerial acrobatics had gathered around, with that same whispering, approving silence that ringed jazz men as they played their heart out in front of an open case on the street. Juka knew that ride had been everything she expected. And a lot more. Juka was a performer. Juka wanted the crack that performers lived on: public recognition of just how fabulously and wonderfully talented they were.

The red head grinned, and addressed herself to their crowd. “Ladies and gentleman,” she said, “that was exactly as fun as it looked.” She laughed, then snuggled herself against the great Juka Miami’s arm. “We’ve got to do that again, some time.” Idly, she picked at a paperclip tentacle by her ear. It was a little tight for comfort.

(Rex’s opinion begged to differ. Rex was wrapped, very still and very tight, around Maxine’s head. It looked very much liked a paperclip mesh hat. It did not twitch a single clip.

Octoclips were not an airborne species.)

Juka was well aware of the crowd they had gathered to them and bowed, more than once, in their direction. He was a performer, after all, and couldn't help but play to his audience. He was amazing and he knew it and he knew that they knew it. Oh how he missed the spotlight, oh how he needed to return to the world of performing.

“Ladies and gentleman, that was exactly as fun as it looked. We’ve got to do that again, some time.”

"Sweetest Maxine, I am so very happy to provide you what small enjoyment I could." Understatement, he could tell, but oh how delicious. "And you can be certain as soon as your heart desires it, I will gift you with the skies and the clouds once again." He curtsied very deeply to her, skirts folding perfectly around him.

"Though perhaps your Octoclip might prefer to sit the next trip out?" The poor thing looked terrified, or at least as terrified as it was possible for an animated paperclip creature to look.

>> "Sweetest Maxine, I am so very happy to provide you what small enjoyment I could. And you can be certain as soon as your heart desires it, I will gift you with the skies and the clouds once again. ...Though perhaps your Octoclip might prefer to sit the next trip out?"

“I would like that very much, my lovely Juka,” the red head grinned, her freckles dark across her nose after that distinct dose of excitement. Rex, for its own part, rose its mesh head from her hair. Its sides slowly boiled and quivered, flexing in and out, like an old man sucking his teeth. Tentacles slid slowly across her forehead. Seven years living with it, and Maxine still wasn’t sure whether the octoclip understood speech. One thing was quite clear, however: the octoclip was Not Pleased. She let that be the answer to Juka’s second question.

Alas, but all lovely days must come to an end.

“I fear, my dear, that the demons of homework call me away,” Maxine mimed a forlorn swoon, hand to her forehead. “Goodbye, my lovely Juka; until next we meet, be well.”

And that was that.

As she walked away, one question still remained: how many balloons did it take to make an octoclip fly?