Winds of Change
A Sequel to: All His Life
Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.
This continuation was indecisive-ays' idea, that sprung up because of the 12 Character's meme on lj, so yeah, hope you like it!
Warnings: adult content/ideas, voyeurism, Rocket's very controlling in this fic (I dunno whether you'd count it as dub-con, but I'm throwing it out there just in case), OOC-ness (I tried to keep them in character, I really tried). It's also slightly farfetched.
He'd resigned himself to the fact that nothing was ever going to change, that he was surprised whenever the slightest thing did. Ahito was trying out a new drug and whilst not having any sort of miracle effe. ct, it was helping: his general health was improving and he could stay awake for 30 minutes at a time without falling asleep. Although Thran would hadn't stopped worrying about him and never would, he still felt like relieved that at least Ahito didn't seem to be getting worse or be in any immediate danger.
As for the other…situation…that hadn't really progressed any, at least not until that one day on the flight to Unadar….
It was a journey like any other, a long and boring length of time travelling through space at what felt like the pace of a particularly slow breed of snail that was native to the Cyclop's Planet. Several of his teammates were playing cards but Thran had had his fill of cards over the years. Mei was reading one of her inexhaustible supply of fashion magazines, whereas Thran was only pretending to read his copy of 'Science Weekly.' No, in fact what he was actually doing was using the journal as a cover to look upon Tia across the ship without being detected.
She wasn't playing cards with the other; instead she was secreted away in a corner, clearly completely engrossed in a quiet conversation with Rocket. The two of them looked like they had their own little world and that nothing around them really mattered or even registered with them. It was never a pleasant sight for him but he'd grown used to it, the pain he felt now was dull and almost comfortingly familiar. Tia had been looking radiant lately, more so than she had in a while, it seemed that hers and Rocket's relationship had completely healed; the whole thing made Thran feel conflicted, he wanted her to be happy but he wasn't sure how long it was all going to last, and he couldn't help but feel pained for himself too.
So, in many ways it was just like any other day, he was watching Tia from a distance, feeling miserable about it as ever- normal. What wasn't normal was what happened next. Rocket turned his face slightly away from Tia, meeting Thran's eyes squarely and calmly from across the room, holding eye contact in a way that clearly said 'I see you.' Panicked, Thran immediately withdrew his eyes from the corner in which Tia and Rocket were sitting and started to scan the page of 'Science Weekly', not taking anything in but hoping it looked like he was actually reading.
When he found the courage to look up again, hoping that it might all have been just his imagination, he found Rocket looking directly at him again, a smirk tugging at the corner of his face. Thran knew that look well, Rocket knew and they both knew it. Tia, however, seemed completely oblivious to the silent communication that was happening between her boyfriend and her teammate who had loved her for so long.
After that, he didn't dare look again, not on purpose anyways- his glance seemed to be automatically drawn to Tia when he wasn't even paying attention. He played a poor match the next day, too anxious about the situation he was in to play well. The irritation of his teammates and Aarch only served to make him feel worse.
And Rocket still hadn't said anything to him about it. Nothing. There were times when Thran begun to hope that he had been mistaken, paranoid, but then something else inside of him was sure that he had been caught. Part of what was killing him was not knowing for sure, but he knew that he couldn't just go up to Rocket and talk about it, it went against all his instincts and if Rocket really didn't know then it be humiliating for him.
"Are you okay, big brother?" Ahito asked him, it feeling like a role reversal for the both of them. "It seems like something is bothering you."
"I'm fine; I just played a bad game. Go back to sleep, little brother," he sighed, not wanting to unload his problems on Ahito, knowing that his issues would just burden him when he already had to deal with enough by himself with his illness.
"If you say so…" Ahito replied, hardly convinced but not knowing whether or not to press the issue, he figured Thran would tell him what was up when he was ready.
From there, things just got worse. Rocket kept making snide comments meant only for Thran, all of which seemed perfectly innocent or just plain incomprehensible to everyone else around them. Still, he felt exposed, on show, not a position he was used to.
On one such occasion Rocket had said. "You know, Tia, I love that skirt on you. Don't you agree, Thran?"
With Tia's innocent eyes on him, waiting expectantly for an answer, he was forced to tell the truth that he did agree; feeling sure that his face was as red as a strawberry.
"Thanks," Tia had replied, smiling, taking it as a simple compliment from a friend.
On another occasion, the whole team had been sitting watching holo-tv and Tia had gotten up and announced that she couldn't take any more of the soap-opera's drama (it had been Micro-ice's night to choose the channel) and that she was going for a walk.
"I'll come with you," Rocket had immediately said, springing up from his seat.
"I don't need a bodyguard," Tia joked.
"I need to make sure that your adoring fanboys don't come and snatch you away from me," Rocket had joked back.
"I don't think I have many of those," she retorted.
"Really? I think there might be one in this very room," Rocket said, raising his eyebrows subtly in Thran's direction.
"What is he a ninja? But fine, come along," she said, laughing, having no real objection to Rocket coming on her walk and giving no serious thought to what he had said.
The two of them were all smiles when they left, leaving Thran feeling breathless and uncomfortable where he sat, praying that he didn't look as bad as he felt.
The final straw came a few days later. He received a text, on his holo-phone from Rocket, requesting that he come to Rocket's hotel room the next day at 8 PM. With trepidation, he replied that he would be there, the only thing worse than going would be not going and wondering what it was he had missed. Plus, as he had possession of Thran's most precious secret, he couldn't afford to make Rocket angry; he just worried that one day Rocket would 'accidently' let it slip to Tia how Thran felt about her and completely destroy their friendship, the only thing Thran had to cling onto. Still, he was so anxious about the meeting that he could barely think about anything else for speculating so hard about what Rocket might have to say.
The next day at 8, on time rather than early, he knocked on Rocket's door, nervously twiddling his thumbs whilst he waited for what felt like an eternity.
"Ah Thran! Come on in," Rocket said, putting on a strange air of surprise despite the whole thing being his idea.
As Thran stepped into the room he noticed Tia sitting on the bed, her faced flushed, looking as if she had just been in some sort of major make-out session- which she had been.
"Hi Thran," she said, looking a little perplexed, probably wondering what it was he was doing there.
Rocket was not forthcoming with information either, instead he walked over to where Tia was sitting and continued where they had left off, before Thran had entered the room, as if he wasn't even there.
Thran watched in awe as they kissed, paralysed where he stood, acutely aware of his own intrusion, his presence in the room.
Feeling the awkwardness herself, Tia pushed Rocket off her, looking at back and forth at both boys, questioningly. If she had been in the dark before, she was definitely aware that something was going on now.
"Rocket?" was all she finally said, but it was enough.
Rocket just smirked. "I thought we could shake things up."
"What do you mean? What does Thran have to do with any of this?" she demanded, it was clear that she wasn't going to put up with any of Rocket's evasions.
Thran shifted about awkwardly, waiting for Rocket's answer, feeling powerless- an observer in his own life again.
"He loves you," Rocket said, something of a bitter tone slipping into his voice, almost envious of that purity of feeling that he had lost.
Thran puts his hands over his face, as if it would offer him some form of protection, as if they would shield him from the truth of the situation. He doesn't even hear Tia getting up off the bed, padding softly towards him. He jumps when she reaches for his hands, gently moving them away from his face.
"Is that true?" she asked, softly, sounding surprised but not shocked.
He couldn't even look her in the eye, it took all he had to just nod, because he couldn't not acknowledge the truth now; he could hide his feelings as much as he wanted but he couldn't lie, not to her.
If he had been able to look he would have seen a look of understanding on Tia's face, after all, he hadn't done anything wrong. She swiftly turned to Rocket, pivoting on her heel.
"Why are you doing this? Can't you see this is torturing him?" she asked, an edge of anger in her voice, she had never been tolerant of cruelty, especially not from him.
Rocket shrugged as if he didn't know. But he did know. Netherball had changed him, no, that was a lie; Netherball had revealed him, put a crack in whatever shell it was that had restrained him for all those years. He'd put up with so much, put up with not having a mother, with having no friends, with having a father who was flawed to say the least. He'd just sat there quietly and been 'a nice young man.' The negativity had pooled somewhere deep inside, where even he didn't know it existed, a reservoir that Netherball had tapped into once his shell had broken.
He'd tried to fix it; he'd acted even more pathetically and passively than he had before the whole thing. But it was no use, what was broken could never be repaired again. This was who he really was and he couldn't stand to see Thran be such a pale reflection of what he had been. This felt like revenge against his former self, his pathetic self. And as much as he had tried to deny it at one time, it always felt better to hurt than heal.
Finally he found his voice, remembering that it was he who was supposed to be in control here.
"Like I said, I want to shake things up and Thran likes to watch, don't you Thran?"
Thran merely spluttered in response; what was he supposed to say to that?
Rocket ignored his pathetic attempts at protests and went straight back to kissing Tia again. Even though he couldn't see Thran he knew he was watching, he was always watching, it felt like Netherball all over again; being the star with all eyes on you. Tia went to move away again, but Rocket was gripping her far too hard for her to move, especially as she didn't really want to; it was always too hard to resist him. It always upsets her when he's like this, but there's something else too, she can't help but feel attracted to his overly confident self, all her resistance to him was melting away like bubbles crashing into a hard surface.
She could just be so weak when he was around. She glanced over at Thran, noting the fact that he was making no move to exit from the situation, the strange thought coming to her that perhaps this was what was best for everyone.
Rocket slowly starts to undo the buttons on Tia's shirt, one by one, with a deliberate slowness, making a performance of it all. Thran could only stare, bug-eyed, as Rocket carefully revealed her perfect skin, inch by inch. Mentally, he was aware of the utter wrongness of this situation, how bizarre it was but physically he couldn't help but react to the scene that was playing out in front of him; he felt feverish, shivering waves of heat running up and down his body in the strangest sensation he'd ever felt in his life. It was almost as if lightening had struck and fused him to the spot.
After what seemed like an eternity, he finally removed the garment entirely, exposing her breasts. Thran felt perverted for staring but he couldn't tear his eyes away from Tia's perfect form, it was like everything else had been put on a dim light and she was the only light, the brightest star and they were just part of her solar system.
It was much later by the time Thran barrelled back to his own room, finding Ahito thankfully asleep; there was no way he'd ever be able to explain what had occurred, he didn't even understand it himself. It was the sort of thing that happened when one was very drunk but they weren't drunk; Tia was slightly tipsy but he and Rocket had been stone-cold sober. It just made it all worse.
He spent the whole night awake, worrying about what might happen next, unwanted images from the evening drifting through his mind over and over again; he knew he'd forget the sounds that Tia had made when Rocket had touched her, nor the sight of her flushed and satisfied. He found himself analysing everything in such minute detail that it all just seemed more unreal to him, he couldn't find the fact (his default mode) because it appeared that there were none; he just kept waiting to wake up and realise it was all some warped dream.
Although he hadn't really been in control, that had been Rocket, he was still gripped with a crippling sense of guilt- he couldn't help but feel that he had taken advantage of Tia in some sense. The fact that he had gotten off on it filled him with an unprecedented sense of shame. He knew, rationally, that he has just been an observer, that he hadn't actually done anything. He didn't know how he'd be able to face going to practice, in the morning, like nothing had happened but he knew that not going would be even worse, it would just look suspicious and he'd never been one for running away or moving in any direction really.
As predicted, the practice was awful- he'd gotten so little sleep he was like a zombie out there, completely useless and under scrutiny from Aarch. He and Tia had briefly exchanged glances before looking away, there was a common feeling between them and it was embarrassment. She wasn't exactly up to her usual standards of play either. To rub salt in the wound, Rocket seemed completely normal; there was no change in him save the smug glint in his eyes.
"Watch my back, won't you Thran?" he said, the comment sounding to all the others like his usual advice as Captain of the team. It was only in the context of last night that the words seemed to gain an insidious connotation.
Later that day, he'd ran into Tia in the halls, the both of them awkwardly moving from side to side to let the other through whilst ending up on the same side. Eventually, he'd stopped and she'd been able to exit, practically fleeing the scene.
It was around 7 when he got a text from Tia asking him to come to her room. It felt suspiciously like déjà-vu, after all it was the exact same way that Rocket had lured him into a trap. But he was in no position to refuse, especially given that it was she who was asking.
Nervously he knocked on the door and Tia quickly grabbed him by the jacket and pulled him in before he had chance to say or do anything.
"Sorry, I didn't want anyone to see any get suspicious."
She was being paranoid but in this instance paranoia was contagious.
"So…" she started, looking at the wall rather than his face.
"So?" Thran repeated, not knowing what to say either. A few moments of silence passed before she said anything else.
"This is awkward," she said, seriously, before bursting into a fit of giggles, Thran joining her.
It took a while for them to stop laughing, somehow it just seemed funny to them both now, it was impossible not to laugh at the utter ridiculousness of everything that had happened.
After they had ceased to laugh, Tia straightened up, coming over to give Thran a soft kiss on the cheek.
"It didn't happen," she said, her tone lighter than when they had started the extremely short conversation.
He nodded, smiling weakly.
Leaving, he felt a sense of hope that things might return to normal, back into the old pattern, it reassured him no end.
Still, he knew that he'd remember that night for all his life.
Yeah, that's it for this fic. I'm really not happy with it at all but it's not going to get any better so…here it is…Also, it was supposed to be a threesome but that never happened, sorry! This is as close as it gets. Het is hard *whines*.