Bonding
Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.
Prompt from indecisive-ays: Micro-Ice's idea of welcoming Sinedd back to the team? Boys-night-out! Hope you like indecisive!
Also, may be slightly AU given my lack of S3 knowledge.
"You want to do what with Sinedd?" D'jok exclaimed, gesturing wildly to announce how preposterous this turn of events seemed. "Are you out of your mind?"
"What's so crazy about it? What better way to welcome him back to our team than to have a boy's night out with Sinedd? We need to all bond again," Micro-ice replied, blinking innocently- a sure sign that he had ulterior motives.
"Bond again? You never bonded in the first place- he bullied you for years!" D'jok said, throwing his hands up in the air as if to question whether Micro-ice's experiences, with the Pirates, had left him with some permanent memory damage. "Not to mention what he's done to me."
"We have to let bygones be bygones," Micro-ice replied, shrugging, sounding unusually magnanimous.
"Micro-ice, I'm not stupid, what's the real reason behind this?"
He only had to stare Micro-ice down for a matter of seconds before Micro-ice cracked.
"Okay, okay," Micro-ice said. "Truth is, Aarch isn't all that keen on us going out with a match so close- he'll only let us do it if it's disguised as being in the interest of 'team bonding'- you see why we have to invite him!"
D'jok considered it- was going out really worth having to hang around with Sinedd?
"Any other reason?" he asked, suspiciously.
"Wellll…" Micro-ice started, blushing. "Yuki did mention that she felt sorry for Sinedd and asked that I try to include him in the group."
D'jok rolled his eyes. "Well that explains everything." Micro-ice could be beyond pathetic, sometimes, when it came to girls he liked; he knew that there was no point explaining to him that just doing this one thing wouldn't make Yuki fall hopelessly in love with him, he knew far too well the depths of Micro-ice's romantic delusions.
"So come on, I need you on board man, how bad could it really be?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?" D'jok replied, darkly, thinking back to all the run-ins that he and Sinedd had had in the past- just because they were on the same team, it didn't mean they were friends.
"Come on, Rocket's already cool with it," Micro-ice whined- asserting peer-pressure.
"Of course he is, they're old Netherball buddies, they're probably sitting around laughing about the good old days of beating people up in the name of football!"
"Oh come on, Netherball was ages ago, can't you just drop it? Please, for me?" Micro-ice said, giving D'jok his best puppy-dog eyes.
"That doesn't work on Yuki, so it's definitely not going to work on me," D'jok said, turning his head away.
"I'll give you something," Micro-ice said, desperately.
"Like what? It's not like I'm short of cash," D'jok pointed out.
"It's your destiny to be a better man than he is, kill him with kindness!" Micro-ice said, reeling off all the clichés he could think of.
"Fine! I'll do it, but don't expect me to like it!" D'jok exclaimed.
They went round and gathered all the other guys before knocking on Sinedd's door.
"You want to do what?"
"Have a boy's night out, I don't see why everyone finds this such a difficult concept to grasp," Micro-ice said, getting irritated by how reluctant people were to participate in his secret plan to win Yuki over.
"Okay," Sinedd said, internally adding 'but don't expect me to like it' unaware that D'jok had said the exact same thing a matter of minutes ago. Just because he'd had a slight change of heart regarding his team, didn't mean he and the others were going to be best pals all of a sudden.
They all started walking down the corridor towards the exit when they bumped into Tia and Mei, walking the opposite direction; carrying large bags (presumably full of yet more new clothes that Mei had purchased).
"Where are you lot all going?" she asked, suspiciously, not used to seeing her boyfriend integrated in the group in such an easy manner- she wondered whether they were going to make him perform some sort of horrible initiation, and pretend that it was just a normal part of joining the Snow Kids.
Micro-ice looked like he was going to explode, so D'jok stepped in to explain.
"We're going on a boy's night out."
"Why didn't you invite us," Mei asked, indignantly, putting her hands on her hips.
"Because you aren't boys," D'jok stated the obvious.
"That's not fair, I don't see why we can't come," Mei said, getting slightly irritated- Tia on the other hand, was taking off her shoes to rest her aching feet, hoping she wouldn't be forced on a night out after a day of exhausting shopping, all she wanted to do was go back to her room and edit some video footage in peace.
"We don't come on your girl's nights out," Rocket added, evenly.
"That's because there aren't any! There aren't exactly enough girls on this team to even go out in a large crowd!"
"I'll see you later, okay," Sinedd said, brushing past her, all the boys hastily following him to avoid further conflict.
"Hmph!" Mei said, as she watched them leave.
"So where are we going?" Thran asked.
They all turned to look at Micro-ice, who in turn gave an emphatic shrug of the shoulders.
"Why are you asking me?"
"Because this was your idea," Ahito replied, between yawns.
"Well don't expect me to know everything!"
Sinedd was tempted, at this point, to say 'well I don't expect you to know anything' but he restrained himself, remembering that these people were meant to be his friends now, as foolish as they were.
"Let's just go to the pub, they have comfy chairs to nap on there," Ahito suggested.
No-one had any better ideas (or if they did, they didn't raise them) and so they trudged, some more reluctantly than others, to the local pub.
It was by strange misfortune that Sinedd ended up wedged between Micro-ice and D'jok, the two Snow Kid's he had the worst past with (even taking into consideration the whole ankle incident that happened with Rocket).
"So…" Micro-ice started, searching for a topic of conversation. "I bet your room at Aarch academy is a lot nicer than the one back in the Shadow's Archipelago."
"I suppose." It was true that it was nicer in terms of size and décor, but there was the new problem of having teammates always knocking on the door to bother him- back with the Shadows, no-one ever disturbed you or made sure that everyone had to eat lunch together. Truth was, he missed the privacy.
Micro-ice nodded in the awkward way that you do when you have no idea what to say next.
"I think that girl is giving you the eye," D'jok said, pointing at her with no subtlety whatsoever. "You should go over and talk to her."
Sinedd looked in the direction that he was pointing- there was indeed a very attractive young lady looking at him with unabashed interest.
"Are you trying to get rid of me?" he asked, trying to keep the tone more jokey and less hostile than in his usual interactions with D'jok.
"Of course not, I'm just thinking of you," D'jok said, falsely.
"You do remember I have a girlfriend? I think you know her…she used to be your girlfriend," Sinedd replied, bluntly.
"Well I won't tell her if you won't, what happens on boy's nights stays on boy's nights" D'jok shot back.
Sinedd shook his head- if he were going to cheat on Mei, which he wasn't, he wasn't going to do it with her ex-boyfriend there to go running to tell her. Especially when it was an obvious plot from him to cause trouble.
Sensing hostility in the air, Micro-ice broke in. "Come on you two, we're here to have fun, not argue!"
Sinedd didn't know what half-pint was on that was making him so amicable, but he definitely wanted some. Still, he begrudgingly restrained himself from strangling D'jok.
In turn, D'jok decided that he'd lay off Sinedd, at least for the moment.
Rocket got up since it was his turn to get the drinks in, and Sinedd hastily decided to go with him (supposedly in the name of being of assistance, but actually just to get away from all the awkwardness).
"How do you stand it?" he asked Rocket (who he was on reasonably good terms with, compared to the rest of the team).
Rocket grinned. "Trust me, you just get used to it."
Not the most useful of responses but he hoped what Rocket said was true- or else he was seriously going to regret coming back to this team.
He helped carry the drinks back and the awkward quiet resumed. The trouble with pubs was that you had to talk to the people around you; Sinedd would have picked a club for the boy's night out, at least there you could bob up and down to the beat and the loudness of the music was a perfect excuse not to have to speak to anyone.
He spaced out for a second and by the time that his attention had returned; D'jok had managed to get himself into an argument with someone other than him.
"You take that back!" D'jok yelled.
"I won't- you cheated, I don't know how you did it, but you did! There's no way a puny team like yours could have won the cup even once, you must have been cheating! Warren is the greatest player in the Galaxy, the Lightnings are the best" a drunken, Lightning's fan shouted, slurring his words slightly.
"Right that's it!" D'jok said, standing up, as if to start something.
"D'jok," said Micro-ice, his weak protest having little to no impact.
Sinedd rolled his eyes and despite his distaste for D'jok, he decided that he would intervene.
"Sit down," he said, pulling D'jok down onto the seat. "Look, if you have a problem you should take it up with the League."
"Come on, man," the guy's friend escorted him away from the scene of the crime.
"Besides, everyone knows that the Shadow's is the greatest team," said Sinedd, automatically, before remembering that he was part of the Snow Kids now.
D'jok burst out laughing. "I can't believe you just said that."
Sinedd shrugged sheepishly. "Force of habit," he said, by way of explanation.
D'jok laughed for a bit longer, before getting seriously. "Seriously though, thank you for stepping in."
"It's okay," Sinedd replied, smiling slightly.
He stopped abruptly as a thought occurred to him…surely this wasn't what he thought it was? Surely, he and D'jok weren't bonding?
The cold, hard truth was that in that moment they had.
Boy's night hadn't been a total failure, then, after all.
That's it for this fic; I hope it's okay for you, indecisive! Review please!