Life Serial
Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.
Also, I don't own the title either- it's the title of a Buffy Episode but it seemed to fit.
"Adium, wait," said Aarch. He reached for Adium's arm, just to make her stay. His body was tense.
"Why should I?" Adium shouted, her voice full of emotion, her mascara smudged by tears.
"Please," Aarch pleaded, softly.
She turned around, to look at him, her eyes wide and vulnerable. "What?"
The corridor suddenly seemed cramped, intimate, rather than a just being an ordinary public space.
"I-I-I," he stuttered, suddenly losing his legendary confidence.
"What?" Adium asked again, her voice barely even a whisper. Her lips were trembling.
Aarch leant in and passionately kissed Adium, his arms around her, protectively. She melted into his embrace, allowing herself to release all her pent up feelings that she had been having for him.
"I love you," he said, forcefully, when they broke away from each other.
"Oh, Aarch!" Adium exclaimed.
Micro-ice slurped loudly on his drink breaking the moment. The rest of the Snow Kids groaned and Mark chucked popcorn at his head as punishment
"Shhh…this is the best part," Mei said, clasping her hands. "Aarch and Adium are such a cute couple."
"I think he'd be better with-" Tia started to say before being cut of by Rocket coughing, loudly; he had to put up with her addiction to reading fanfictions pairing him and Sinedd, he wasn't going to let her start pairing up his Uncle- that was just wrong. Besides, the man on screen before him wasn't much like Aarch anyways, not the Aarch he knew- he wasn't sure Aarch would have just declared his feelings like that; he remembered well that time when Aarch had told him not to hide his feelings, because he'd done so and it'd been a mistake. He wondered how much had been just plain made up.
They had all been watching it all week- a special drama series composed of seven episodes (one airing each day) depicting the lives of the old Akillian team. Normally they would argue about what to watch (other than football matches of course) but this was perfect for all of them; Mei and Micro-ice were already big fans of drama, and for the others it had enough football to keep them interested. Plus it was always interesting to see their role models as teenagers like them. They were currently on episode 4- a real turning point in terms of the storyline. They had of course, invited Aarch to watch it with them, but understandably he'd declined- it would have been awkward.
The players dribbled the ball up and down the field, determination alight in their eyes. It wasn't long before their next important match.
"Come on!" the Coach shouted. "Put some muscle into it!"
"Some things never change!" remarked Micro-ice.
"Do you think they'll even make a film of our lives?" Mei asked.
"It might even be my destiny," D'jok said, self-importantly, puffing up his chest. "It'd be called D'jok: Star Striker."
"Give it a rest, eh, D'jok?" Ahito mumbled, waking up momentarily, only to fall promptly back to sleep.
"Fine," D'jok replied, a little sulkily, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
Thran made a 'shhhh-ing', eyes glued the screen, whilst clutching a pillow. He'd always been more of a sci-fi fan but he'd gotten hooked to 'Akillian: lies and goodbyes' (to give the programme its full and dreadful title) despite himself. It was what could be called a guilty pleasure.
The episode continued ending on a cliff-hanger- it was half-time during a match with the Cyclops' Team, were they going to win?
Rocket pointed out that it was hardly a mystery- after all that game had actually happened and they had won. Far from reassuring the other Snow Kids, they moaned at him for spoiling the next day's episode. He tried to protest that it was common knowledge but they weren't having any of it.
Regardless of this, the next day they all gathered to watch the next episode which started (as Rocket had told them it would) with the Akillian Team winning a tight victory. Still, the meat of the episode was dedicated to the newly established Aarch/Adium relationship and effect it had on the team…
Adium took Aarch's hand as they walked into the team common room. She strutted in confidently; she was just so happy that they had finally gotten together.
"Well finally," Norata commented, being the first to notice this new togetherness, making everyone else look up from their own various activities.
Adium smiled, widely. "Guess who finally asked me out?"
It was obvious that this question was rhetorical.
The rest of the team gave the happy couple their congratulations- the boys punching Aarch playfully on the arm, the girls signalling to Adium that they'd get all the details later. The scene was one of merriment.
But not for Artegor. He was shaking with silent fury, an expression like thunder on his face. Silently, amongst all the chatter, he slipped out of the room like a shadow. No-one even noticed him go back to his own room, the one he shared with Aarch.
Locking the door, he lay down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling in a vaguely creepy manner.
"Adium, you will be mine," he said, in a low voice. "No matter what the cost."
Mei gasped at the sudden plot development.
"I didn't know Artegor liked Adium!" she exclaimed. It was the break for the adverts so they had a chance to discuss this plot point further.
"Well, Artegor did have that massive fall-out with Aarch; I suppose that's what it was about," D'jok reasoned, although personally he had never seen any evidence of Artegor, the romantic.
"I think they argued over Aarch leaving the Shadows, not Adium," Rocket added, sceptical as ever about the programme's accuracy.
"I dunno, I think it could be true," Micro-ice said, through a mouthful of popcorn.
"God, Micro-ice, how many boxes of popcorn are you going to finish?" Mark asked.
"Just because I don't like Akillian Sauerkraut, unlike that one strange guy- I forget his name now."
"Stop bickering," Yuki said, reaching over to nab a small handful of popcorn from Micro-ice's jealously guarded bowl.
"Anything for you, Yuki," Micro-ice smiled, in an attempt at chivalry.
"Yeah, anything for you, Yuki," Mark mimicked, giving Micro-ice a smug look.
"Did I miss anything?" Ahito asked, yawning.
Thran shook his head. "Go back to sleep, little brother."
"Guys, adverts are over now," Mei pointed out, with the intention that it would silence the chatter and it worked, the group giving their rapt attention to television, once again.
The continued to watch the series to it's conclusion on Sunday, it was sad because they didn't want to be over, not to mention the fact that there was a major downer ending.
"I'm so sorry; I can't miss this opportunity," Aarch told Adium, the landscape newly snowy.
"Please don't leave."
"I'm sorry…" he replied, dramatically walking away.
"No!" Adium cried, kneeling in her grief in the snow.
Aarch looked back once, pain written all over his face, before leaving for the Shadows Archipelago.
"How depressing, I was so hoping it would work out between those two," Mei commented, to murmurs of agreement.
Rocket sighed in exasperation. He knew that his point, that they already knew how it was going to end, would just be ignored again. Honestly, he wouldn't have even continued past the first episode if it hadn't afforded him a little snuggle time with Tia on the sofa.
After a few moments more of discussion, the Snow Kids turned the TV off and all returned to their separate rooms.
"Did you see it?"
"Just finished watching it," Aarch replied. He'd been keeping up, secretly, on his own.
"They took certain liberties with the truth," Artegor stated, finding the whole thing a fairly frustrating experience.
"Yeah, well, I suppose they had to really; no one would watch it if it were just the truth. Besides, not everything from the past is common knowledge; the general public are missing certain…details."
"But Adium, Aarch! How could they even think that?" Artegor sounded almost distressed.
"I don't know but at least the guy playing me was good looking!"
Artegor had to admit that it was true, although, in his opinion, he was not as handsome as Aarch, himself.
But Aarch knew that, so there was really no need for him to say so. He just kissed him instead.
That's it for this fic! As some of you may have guessed, Tia, the Sinedd/Rocket fan is a reference to indecisive-ay's fic 'Hot'. Please review!